Christine couldn't sleep that night, knowing Erik was still thinking he ruined her relationship with Raoul. She did, really, he was just a willing accomplice. She never in a million years would've thought to blame him. So naturally at one am, she got out of bed, got dressed and headed out to find somewhere to get Erik some food that wouldn't give him listeria.

Thankfully she found a pizza place still open, and she headed to the office. She couldn't imagine walking that everyday, she definitely was going to have to get up and go with him everyday. Or take the subway, but that was something she avoided at all costs. She would rather walk than take that germsicle.

She flashed her ID when she got to the building, and she was amazed at how fast the elevator was at one am… But then again not really since normal people were at home sleeping. She got up to their floor, and when Erik's door was open she walked in while lightly knocking. That got Erik to look up from his papers, and he seemed surprised that it was her. "Hi."

"Hey. What brings you here at…" Erik looked for a time, and he seemed relieved when it wasn't two thirty yet. "One forty three?"

"I couldn't sleep. I don't like how we left off earlier." She walked up to his desk and set the pizza down for him. "You didn't ruin my relationship, Erik. I did. I decided to sleep with you, and I decided to tell Meg I was pregnant. I partially told her because I knew she would push me in the right direction… I realized that earlier. She just did it in a bigger way than I expected. I never would have ever blamed you for what happened between Raoul and I, and I don't regret a single thing you and I did. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, because I love you so fucking much, but I need to make sure I still know who I am before the baby comes."

"We both did. I could've said no, but I didn't. I could've ignored Meg, but I didn't and I could've used a condom, but honestly I feel like it's against the law to use them if no one wants to use them, there's birth control in the mix and we know we don't have any STD's."

"I know. So we're both to blame here, but please don't feel bad. Even I don't feel bad."

"What does that say about your relationship with him?"

"That I shouldn't have been marrying him." Christine picked up a pen off Erik's desk and started to doodle on her hand. "But I know that now so it's all whatever at this point."

"Okay then. You should get home and get some rest. Take my car, I'll get a cab."

"No I'll get a cab." Erik looked up at her, and she suddenly felt like she was being scolded by her dad. "Don't look at me like that. I feel like you're my dad right now and that's gross since I just had your penis in my mouth a day ago."

"Sorry, but you're five two and pregnant, and it's late at night. I'll get the cab." Erik held his keys out for her, and she slowly took them from him as she worked on her fear of parking garages. But then she gave up, because who was she kidding? It was a ten plus year old fear. That shit wasn't going anywhere.

"Can you walk me to the car? I hate parking garages."

"Yeah. C'mon." Erik stood up and grabbed a slice of the pizza that was staring him in the face. "Want a bite?" He pressed the down button as Christine shook her head. Greasy food wasn't her friend at the moment. "What'd you end up having for dinner?"

"Salad. Spaghetti, by the time it got time for it, didn't sound all that great."

"I could see that being a possibility." They stepped inside the elevator once the doors squeaked open, and Erik remembered that he kept forgetting to have someone come and lube the wheels up. The squeak was getting annoying.

"Greasy food doesn't sound that good as of late. I almost threw up getting your pizza. Worth it though."

"If it helps at all, it tastes amazing."

"That does help. I'd hate knowing I nearly vomited for shit pizza." Christine smiled as he took another bite. It was just so good.

"There's no such thing in New York. If you go to Chicago though… Then yeah you'll find some shitty pizza."

"I never expected you to be in the Chicago versus New York City war." Christine quickly remembered he was a native, and she just opened up a giant can of worms.

"Who boils hot dogs? And that accent is just awful. It's like they want everything to be bland. Boiled hot dogs, enough crust to drown out the flavor of the toppings… Chicago is one place I have never been and will never go."

"You're gonna be on this one for a while aren't you?"

"Yes I am. Thank you for asking." The elevator reached the parking garage, and she was thankful since she didn't know if she could handle much more anger towards Chicago. She agreed with everything, she just was too tired to join in.

"No problem." They walked over to his car since it was the only car left besides two twenty year old cars, but Christine knew those weren't his. "So I'll see you in a few hours? Well not really. I'll be asleep hopefully."

"Yeah I'll be home once this meeting is over with. It shouldn't take long." Christine leaned up against his car, and she shook her head when Erik took a larger than normal bite of the pizza.

"You are… Something else." She patted his chest, and he smiled with his cheeks full of pizza.

"I know. You wanna know a secret about this car?"

"Hm?" She pushed her bangs out of her face, and Erik was still chewing the large bite somehow.

"My favorite memory in it was after we went and got lunch, and we fooled around in the back seat. Remember that?" Christine giggled as she nodded, and she realized what he was trying to do.

"I'm too tired, you're not going to get a hormone flare this late. Try again tomorrow."

"I'm not aiming for a flare. I'm reminiscing." He bit into the crust, and she shut her eyes and put her head back against the car.

"And I'm not pregnant. I'm going now, nice try."

"Meh." He stepped back away from her and she stood up. "Drive safe."

"I will. I'm a real speed demon. Sometimes I go five over the speed limit."

"Holy shit you daredevil." Erik took a couple steps toward the elevator as he unbuttoned his jacket, and Christine glanced down at his butt before he turned around.

"You know me… What time is it?" She watched him check his watch while taking another bite of the crust.

"One fifty one. Why?"

"When is your meeting?"

"I need to be connecting at two thirty."

"Do… You want to uhm…" She started rocking back and forth on her feet due to her nervousness, and Erik wasn't sure what she was reaching for. "Never mind." She unlocked the car and opened the front door, and Erik's hopes died as she got in the car. He sighed and turned around, but made himself dizzy and spun back around when Christine mumbled something.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." She was embarrassed to ask. She shouldn't have been, he was the one who wanted it to happen.

"Are you sure? Because I won't be home for a few hours. Now's your time to ask me… So you don't forget I mean." Christine glared at him when she realized he knew what she was trying to ask.

"Okay asshole." She got out of the car and crossed her arms as tightly as she could. "Stop standing there, you got what you wanted."

"What?" He stuffed the last two bites in, and Christine waited for that alluring situation to come to a close.

"You got the flare." He really didn't, she just considered her options a little bit longer, and she realized she wanted to have sex with him.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." She laughed when he ran over to her, and she was taken back when he pretty much in one motion, grabbed her face and started kissing her. Christine locked the car so Erik couldn't get in, and when he didn't stop kissing, she assumed he hadn't noticed it. One of Erik's hand moved away from her face, and when she heard him try and open the door she tried to keep a straight face.

"What-" Erik pulled away, and Christine hid the keys. "What game are you playing here?"

"I'm not playing a game. The back seat is just so crowded and I'd like to stretch my legs and keep standing."

"You mean outside the car?"

"Why not? Look around. Who will see us?" Christine looked at where Erik immediately pointed, and when it was a security camera she nearly scoffed. "You think someone is actually watching the security cameras?"

"I know for a fact they do because I checked my texts after I got in your car the night Maley destroyed my car, and the security guard text me letting me know Maley had fucked my car up while he was doing his walk through."

"Well text him and tell him not to watch." Erik sighed as he considered his options, but Christine rubbing his back wasn't helping.

"Okay fine. But only if you let me get you dinner tomorrow night."

"Deal." Christine pulled his head down, and Erik hoped to god he wasn't prone to getting camera shy. Knowing it was for just them to see was vastly different than knowing someone was potentially watching.

. x .

"I still got it." Christine walked into the room she and Erik were put in at her gyno, and she set the cup they made her pee in on the paper towel waiting for her.

"Do I want to know what you still have?" Erik took her hand as she stepped up on the step, and sat down on the exam table.

"Aim! In dorms you don't want to sit to pee. I finally learned how to pee standing up when I got tired of cleaning someone else's pee and period blood off the toilet seat."

"That's disgusting. Not the standing but the pee and period blood being left on a toilet seat frequently enough for you to justify learning how to pee standing up."

"Oh yeah, women like to gloat about being clean, but we're so gross. Like our bathrooms… Awful." Christine crossed her legs as someone knocked on the door, and when it was Mel Christine smiled.

"Hey there. How are you doing, Christine?"

"I'm doing good. This is Erik. Erik this is Mel." The two shook hands, and Christine rubbed her hands together.

"It's a pleasure. Are you two friends?"

"Yeah, but I'm also the co-creator of the reason we're here." Erik pointed towards Christine's stomach, and it all became painfully clear to Mel why Christine did what she did.

"Oh, well I see why you had sex with him." Erik felt himself blush, which was nearly a miracle, since it took quite a lot to make him bashful.

"Yes he's quite the charmer." Christine patted Erik's head, and smiled when his cheeks were red. "And amazing in bed but that had no influence on why I slept with him."

"She's telling the truth on both accounts, but it was actually my belly dance. Wins the ladies over every time." Erik rubbed his stomach as Christine giggled, and he was happy to know he still had the ability to make her laugh.

"I'm sure it's quite the view… Well anyway, so have you come to a decision? Do you want to go over your options again?" Mel sat down on her rolly chair since she had a feeling Christine was going to pick the latter. "You're still in the time frame for the pills if that's what you want to do."

Christine looked at Erik for a final confirmation, and when he squeezed her hand, she knew it was the best decision. "We're keeping it. The nurse had me pee in a cup already."

"Oh! Okay, that's great news. Well, congratulations, and let's get a blood sample. Then we'll do an ultrasound so he can see the baby, and you can in a less panicked state of mind."

"That sounds good." Mel got up and opened her blood sample kit, and she grabbed the circulation band, alcohol wipe and needle, then moved over to Christine. "So you two aren't together?"

"No. I've been in a relationship since I got out of college, I want to see who I am now before I have a baby and get caught up in someone else."

"That makes sense. So you two are planning to get together down the line then?"

"I hope so, but he could get tired of me before that happens which is likely."

"It's highly unlikely. You're like pizza to me."

Christine almost couldn't believe he compared her to pizza. He loved pizza. "You have pizza at least two times a week every week."

"And I've lived in New York for how long?"

"Oh that's intense." Christine flinched which suddenly she had a needle in her arm, and Mel was stealing blood.

"You a native?"

"Yep. I've not been in New York City my entire life, but probably twenty seven years."

"How old are you?" Mel pulled the needle out, put the cap on it and set the vile down so she could clean and bandage Christine's poke site.

"Thirty one. I'm turning thirty two in June."

"Where's your accent? You don't have one." Christine rubbed the crook of her arm once it was bandaged and tied up, and Mel turned the ultrasound computer on while looking at Erik for an explanation.

"I don't like New York accents on me, so I've trained myself not to have one. Are you native?"

"Nah. I moved here from Indiana ten years ago. That's impressive though, I wish I could get the Indiana accent out of me, but it sticks."

"It took awhile. Had it been seven years ago I would have sounded like the stereotypical New Yorker."

"Yikes." Christine didn't do New York accents, so she was glad she didn't meet Erik seven years earlier.

"What? Not a fan of New Yoak accents?" Christine was frightened when he slipped his accent on, and boy was it heavy.

"Please never do that again."

"I plan not to." Erik kissed her hand, and he ignored Christine's glare. He wanted to kiss her hand, and he wasn't going to feel guilty about it.

"Okay, lay back." The lights turned off, and Christine pulled her shirt up as she laid back as she was asked. The gel was warm unlike last time, and Christine felt her stomach jump up into her throat. For the first time Erik noticed the tiny bump Christine had, it wasn't much and he obviously hadn't caught it before, but looking closely, it was there and absolutely beautiful. Suddenly a heartbeat filled the room, and Erik's attention was pulled to the screen. He was speechless when he saw the baby on the monitor.

He took Christine's hand when she reached for his, and he looked at Christine when he heard her laugh. "It's incredible. They've gotten so much bigger. It's only been two weeks."

"Well they thrive off of how much you throw up, so they're set. They'll be fully grown in a couple months."

"God no shit." Christine looked back at Erik, and he was intently watching the monitor, and she smiled to herself knowing he managed to get even more excited over the baby after the ultrasound.

"Well the good news is, the heartbeat is strong, and they're growing nicely. The bad news is, you're throwing up a lot."

"It's only in the morning, I'll be fine. It's just first trimester nausea. If it keeps going into my second I'll be worried and talk to you about it." Christine wasn't convinced it was more than just morning sickness at that point, so she felt no need to worry about it.

"Okay if that's what you want. I'm going to write you a prescription for your prenatals today, and also I want you to take Ginger, two hundred and fifty milligrams no more than four times a day. It should help with the morning sickness."

"If it doesn't?"

"B six, twenty five milligrams, no more than three times a day. If that doesn't help then try Emetrol. It's an over the counter anti-nausea. If that doesn't work then come in because we might be dealing with something deeper."

"Let's hope one of them works. I'd hate to be sick my entire pregnancy."

"Well the ideal movie pregnancy is rare, but here's to hoping." Mel pointed at the screen when the baby started squirming around, and it immediately explained the butterfly feeling she'd been dealing with for the past week or so.

"Oh my god, that's what I've been feeling."

"Butterflies?" Christine nodded making Mel smile, and they all watched as it continued to wiggle around. "Well, I wish I could let you guys watch for longer, but I have other patients that are really bitchy if I'm not in their room immediately, so I'm gonna have to cut this short." She took the paddle off of Christine's stomach, and she looked back at Erik who went to looking at her.

"Hi." She smiled when he squeezed her hand, she blushed and looked away when he kissed her forehead. Mel held her comments in as she wiped Christine's stomach off, and once she was done she turned the lights on, and grabbed the string of photos that were printing while she was productive elsewhere.

"Okay, here you guys are. I'll see you guys next month. And your prescription will be faxed over to your preferred pharmacy."

"Sounds good. Thank you." Christine shook Mel's hand before taking the photos from her.

"It was a pleasure to meet you." Mel and Erik shook hands once again, and Christine decided to look at the photos while they conversed.

"Likewise. See you next month." Christine and Erik stood up, and her shirt fell down as she did. Christine grabbed her purse before leaving the room, and she turned to make sure Erik was behind her before walking any further.

"Let's schedule my next appointment."

"Actually, if you don't mind, can we do like all of the appointments today? So I know when to schedule meetings and potentially know if I need to reschedule any?" Erik pulled his phone out, and Christine didn't see why she would mind.

"Yeah that's perfectly fine." They walked up to the appointment counter, and Christine hoped it didn't take too long. She was hungry.