Shane awoke out of a dead sleep at Alexis' cellphone going off. Groaning, he reached for it and saw it was in fact Ryan calling; he picked it up without a second thought.'

'You dialed the wrong Weaver.'

'Did I? I need to talk to Alexis.'

'She's asleep.' Shane looked at his wife, her baby bump tenting up the sheets. 'She's not on call like a cop is, you know.'

'Normally I wouldn't ask but- No, Newman, take Watkins and Brennan, you'll need the hands!' Ryan hollered on his end of the phone. 'Sorry, I normally wouldn't ask but Javi and I have a triple homicide. Gangbangers, and the only survivor asked for her shrink, which is your wife, says she wants to talk to her first before the cops.'

'Okay.' Shane dragged his hand over his face, sighed. 'Gimme a moment.'

He set the phone aside, gently nudged Alexis' shoulder. 'Lexy, come on my little strawberry, you gotta wake up.'

'Shane?' Alexis mumbled his name sleepily. 'Whassa matter? Fire alarm? Did I wet the bed?'

'No, my love. Detective Ryan's on the phone, he needs your help on a crime scene.'

'Oh. Okay.'

Alexis shifted, realizing that all the snacking she was doing for the baby was starting to catch up to her as she had to make a concentrated effort to sit up in bed now. She held out her hand for her phone, cleared her throat. 'Ryan?'

Shane watched at she slipped into her own doctor mode, nod in the patented way all psychiatrists seemed to have. She turned to him, mimed a drink and a snack so Shane went to the kitchen to boil the kettle for her; it was still cold at night and he knew she'd like her naturally decaf red tea with lemon to take along as a warm-up. He added some of Meredeth's leftover garlic bread from dinner that night along with a few filets of their friend's chicken parmigiana.

He headed back to their bedroom, went straight for the bureau for pants and a sweater; Alexis looked at him as she brushed her hair back into a ponytail like he was arranging artifacts from a UFO.

'What are you doing?'

'I'm going with you, Lex, there's no fucking way in hell I'm letting you go to a crime scene in the middle of the night alone.'

She thought about protesting for one sincere minute then realized it would do no-one any good so Alexis shrugged, comically put her hands on the sides of her round tummy like she was covering ears. 'Don't swear around the baby, Papa. That's my job during the birth.'

'Fair enough. Where did Ryan say we're going?'

The crime scene was most definitely a blood-bath - three dead gang-bangers, the oldest no more than nineteen, all riddled with bullet wounds in an empty lot that had once been a parking space and now was disowned by the city. As the space was just steps from the doors of a popular night-club, the Lookie-Lou factor was so high Ryan and Esposito had had to resort to using detectives and uniforms for crowd control.

'Jesus, what the fuck possessed them to do this just before last call?' Esposito groused. 'I am off the roll tomorrow, I have plans with my wife and kids.'

'You got interrupted in the sack with Meredeth, don't pretend otherwise bro,' Ryan groused back, thinking about how he'd been asleep naked in bed with his own sweet bride after some late-night loving. 'But your bitching is always entertaining.'

'Thanks for that. Any sign of the Doctors Weaver yet?'

'You think they'll both show up?'

Esposito gave Ryan a look. 'Alexis is almost four months pregnant, would you let Honey-Milk go to work in the middle of the night alone in that condition?'

'She works in a hospital, that's slightly different than this, and...yeah, okay, I see you point.'

'Think that's them.'

Ryan and Esposito pointed to the cab that parked down the street, and they both breathed a small sigh of relief when Shane and Alexis both popped out of the backseat. They took a moment to watch how Alexis kept one hand on her belly while marching through the crowd. Just like Beckett, they both thought.

'Hey, Mama.'

'That's Doctor Mama tonight. Ryan said on the phone my patient got caught in the crossfire?'

'Yeah, she's with the paramedics.'

'Who's on the wagon?' Shane asked Esposito as Ryan lead Alexis where she needed to go.

'Pearlmutter, and he's as chipper as always. You gonna jump in, give a hand?'

'If by that you mean, watch my wife to make sure she and my baby aren't hurt, then yeah, on it like white on rice.'

Esposito watched him walk away and wondered if his friend, the highly-educated and very self-aware doctor, knew he was the very epitome of a nervous first-time daddy.

Shane watched Alexis standing at the back of the ambulance where a tough-but-pale mixed-race girl was sitting with a paramedic, a blanket over her shoulders.

'Nanette, I need you to tell me what happened. Why did you go with Tiolis tonight and risk violating your parole?'

'He said he would rape my sister if I didn't come with him for the buy tongith as a bargaining chip. Said he'd break her in for a few of his friends.' Nanette's eyes, glossy with shock, seemed to stare right through Alexis. 'She's eleven years old, Doctor Weaver. Given the choice between getting knocked for parole violation or my baby sister being violated, I'll do whatever I can to find.'

'Excuse me.' Watkins came up, handed Nanette her purse. 'You'll need this for the trip to the hospital.'

'Okay.'

Nanette rooted around in her purse, came up with her phone and pressed a button. 'I pretended like I was texting my sister not to worry, but I turned on the recorder so that you and the other cops can hear them and that I didn't do shit with them.'

'Okay. You'll have to give it to the officers for evidence but I'll ask them for a copy of the recording so we can talk about it in session next week.'

'Wait, you're still taking me on?' Nanette looked at Alexis with fragile hope. 'Even if I get knocked for parole violation?'

'That's not a given, and of course I'm sticking. I told you I want to help you work through your parole, however long that is.'

'Thank you.' Nanette dissolved into tears and threw her arms around Alexis, then jerked back. 'Oh, I'm sorry, I know, no hugging.'

'I think we can make an exception this one time.'

Alexis let the girl get in one more before she was loaded into the ambulance; she returned to see Shane discussing something with Pearlmutter who was in fine surly form.

'Doctor Weaver, tell Doctor Weaver to go home,' he snarked when Alexis stood beside her man.

'Right, Lex, let's go. You did you thing, now back to bed for you and the bumpy.'

'Not that Doctor Weaver, the other Doctor Weaver,' Pearlmutter groused. 'Lady Doctor Weaver, take your husband out of my ever-thinning hair. He's pissing me off, hovering around like a gnat.'

Shane's mouth worked up and down silently as Alexis tried not to laugh. 'Come on, Papa to be, let's go. You did your thing now back to bed for us and the bumpy.'

'You're lucky you're hot and having my child, Alexis,' Shane teased her, and kissed her lightly. He felt the shiver run through her and arched an eyebrow. 'You cold?'

'Nope, in fact I'm feeling quite...hot.'

'Then let's really get back to bed.'