Another long one for you lovely readers.
Chapter 89
That evening at dinner, talk shifted to the team's patient, but Cameron could tell when House tuned everyone out. It wasn't a particularly fascinating case. She watched him staring at Jessica with a contemplative expression. Wouldn't be long before he knew for certain about the pregnancy, probably before the lab completed their test. Not much she could do about it.
Then she noticed Wilson glaring at House. What would this do to their relationship, as unhealthy as it sometimes got?
Jessica seemed unaware of the men's looks. Instead, she was involved in the discussion of why the team's patient had a widely fluctuating white blood cell count when she obviously had an infection.
"Heather wants to do a bone marrow or spinal fluid test," Simpson said.
Jessica nodded. "Not a bad idea."
Hadley pressed her lips together. "The patient is already stressed from being ill and not able to work. A lumbar puncture would only make that worse."
Heather crossed her arms and sat back. "How else can we find out what's causing the infection and the swinging white count?"
House, Cameron and Hadley said simultaneously, "Check the different white blood cells."
"The stress can cause a high count and an infection a low one. They may be warring with each other."
House obviously had been paying attention to the conversation.
In the car on the way home, House asked Cameron point blank. "Is she?"
"Is who what?" This was the discussion she'd been dreading.
"You know what I mean. Jessica visited the clinic this morning, didn't she?"
"Just because we came to lunch together…" Cameron began.
"Oh, cut the bull. She's got all the signs. Spill."
"The jury's still out." Two can play the cliché game, Cameron thought.
"When will you know for sure? Shoulda sent the samples to my lab."
Cameron sighed. "I'll have confirmation tomorrow. She doesn't want to say anything until she's certain. Please let her break the news to the others. Anything else?" She grimaced.
"Does Wilson know?"
"From what she said, he does. He even sent her to me for confirmation."
In their car on the way home, Wilson looked at Jessica then back at the road. "What did Cameron say?"
Jess played with a tassel on her coat. "She agreed it's likely, but can't be definite until she gets the test results. Tomorrow, she thinks."
"Jess, do you know what this means?"
She chuckled. "Of course, I do."
"This is huge." His grin couldn't be wider. "Huge. We'll definitely need a larger place."
"When do you want to look at the models out by the harbor? I guess some are condos and others are houses."
"Will they be ready in time? The team wants to move in a month."
"That's one of the questions we should ask," she said. "Maybe we shouldn't wait for the weekend. How about tomorrow after work?"
Hadley drove home while Anita, sitting next to her, called Les. "Who has him now and where?"
"He's being held in the FBI building here in D.C."
"Good. I'll drive up there in the morning." Anita beamed. "I have to be in on the questioning. Who's in charge of the case?"
"Benson." Les paused. "You remember her from the Harrison case?"
"Yeah. Okay. I can work with Benson. I was kinda hoping it would be you, but no matter."
"Anita, just remember you're no longer with the bureau."
"Who do I ask for permission to at least sit in on the interrogation?" She hated protocol, but knew she had to put up with it.
Les laughed. "That would be me. You're proof that you can leave the bureau but it never leaves you."
"So I have your agreement?"
Les laughed. "Yeah, just don't get in the way, hear?"
"Sure. Thanks, Les. You won't regret it."
Hadley glanced at her. "You're going to Washington tomorrow?"
"They're questioning Steve in the Hoover building."
"What about your job here?"
"Anderson wants me to question Steve as much as I do. We need to know what happened to Lorelei's grandparents and to Harve."
The next morning at breakfast, House never shifted his gaze from Jessica. She squirmed in her seat.
Unaware of what was happening, Anita told the others she was leaving for D.C. after breakfast to listen in on Steve's interrogation.
"Will they let you talk to him?" Simpson asked.
"Maybe not directly, but I'll be able to hear the interrogation." She'd dressed more conservatively that morning in a gray suit and light blue blouse. "Les gave me permission, and I've cleared it with Anderson to be gone for the day."
Hadley smirked. "Steve's a slippery one, but I guess the FBI has means to make sure he doesn't escape."
Anita nodded. "Hope he finally spills the beans on why he was watching Lorelei's apartment and who conked him over the head."
The team members chuckled, and Cameron said, "It'll be nice if you finally learn what happened to Harve and why Steve won't talk." She wanted to distract House, so she added, "He's taken us on a merry chase. Even when he was convalescing at our place, right House?"
He finally looked at her but was noncommital. "I guess."
"Don't you want Anita to get to the bottom of everything?" Cameron shook her head. "It's time we're rid of all the spy business, and Anita can focus on her job with the Shelby PD."
Anita smiled. "Remember, since Harve was killed here, technically it's part of my job to get any information I can from Steve."
As he made his rounds that morning, Wilson couldn't stop grinning. He kept telling himself that it wasn't official, not yet, but he felt in his bones that Cameron's test would come back positive, that he and Jessica would be parents in about eight months. After so many failed marriages, he'd lost hope he'd ever be a father, but now it was a definite possibility.
He kept his phone on and with him, expecting a call from Jess at any moment. But the call hadn't come by lunchtime, making him doubt.
Lunch in the cafeteria was out of the question. Reception there was poor. So, he asked the office assistant he shared with two other doctors, to bring him a chicken sandwich, fries and a coke.
What was taking so long? Would Jess call if the test turned out to be negative? He should have asked her to. Should he call her? No, he'd just have to wait.
"You look deep in thought." Jacobs set a tray on his desk.
He looked up to see it held his sandwich and a salad for her plus two drinks.
"I saw your assistant in the cafeteria and offered to bring your lunch."
He smiled. "Thanks. I just needed some alone time."
Her brows moved close together. "Did you want me to leave?"
"No, no. Where are the other two musketeers?"
"Running tests on our patient. After this, I'll get them lunch too."
He wondered what she wanted, but waited for her to tell him.
She took a forkful of greens, chewed and swallowed and then said, "I assume Hadley and Anita are quiet neighbors?"
He chuckled. "Hardly ever hear them overhead."
She smiled. "We're really interested in the apartment. Have you looked at houses yet?"
"We'll probably start after work today or tomorrow. I called Diane. There are a couple of possibilities. But it'll take time to decide on one, and then to do the financing and all."
"Yeah. That's what I was afraid of. We're meeting with the woman who owns our house tonight, but she's a stubborn one." She shook her head. "I don't know if we can get her to budge on timing."
"Maybe you can stay somewhere else until we move," he suggested.
"Like where?" She shook her head. "One move is all we have time for. And besides, where would we store all our stuff? I gotta go, just wanted to let you know."
"Yeah, sure. We'll talk again later." Wilson watched her go and then checked his phone for a message from Jess. Nothing.
Jessica returned to the clinic just before the lunch hour. She'd been antsy all morning. What would the tests show?
Only one other woman sat in the waiting room. Jess couldn't tell whether she was a patient or waiting for one, but when Cameron emerged, the elderly man with her smiled at the woman, who took his arm and they left. Jess was glad she wouldn't have to wait any longer.
"Jess, perfect timing. The results just arrived," Cameron said.
"And?" Jess's entire body moved forward.
"C'mon in and we'll talk." Cameron held the door for her then shut it. "Jessica, you're most definitely pregnant."
Jess practically jumped in the air. But Cameron sober tone calmed her. "What's wrong?"
"Your at least three months pregnant, but the baby is very small."
"Oh. Isn't she getting enough nutrition?"
"No, she isn't and we don't know why." Cameron took Jessica's hand. "There could be any number of reasons, of course. We'll rule out the one that you're not eating properly, because I've seen you eat."
Jess laughed nervously.
"I'll monitor your condition and do a little research. Let me listen to the baby's heart."
"You can hear it already?"
Cameron nodded. "Usually by week ten." She placed her stethoscope to Jessica's stomach and smiled.
"Can I?" Jess reached for the instrument. She put the earpieces in and gasped.
"There are a couple of things you should try to eat to improve the baby's development." Cameron rattled off several foods, and Jess nodded.
"Anything I can do to help her survival rate."
"You want a girl?"
"I never really thought about it, but I'm already talking about her as if she was a girl."
Anita drove to DC after breakfast. How could she be sure the agent in charge would ask Steve the right questions? But they'd been doing that for a couple of months without success. Perhaps someone new would have questions that got Steve to open up. She could only hope so.
The FBI building is in the middle of all the government buildings in D.C. Just as in the past, anytime Anita had to go to the J. Edgar Hoover building, she parked at Union Station and walked. It was a brisk day. She pulled her coat tight and buttoned it up to where her scarf kept her neck warm.
She used to flash her credentials and was passed through the staff metal detector straight to the elevators when she entered in the past. But now she had to sign in, have her bag searched and be sent through a visitors detector. Then she had to wait for Les to come down and escort her to his office.
"Thanks for coming," Les said when they were alone. "Benson isn't getting anywhere."
"She's probably asking the approved list of questions for dealing with FBI agents. But Steve isn't just an agent. Somewhere in that brain of his is information that will help us solve Harve's murder. And just because Lorelei's grandparents are dead, we still don't know who their contacts were. Did you see my report about the inscription in the girl's locket from her grandparents? Always and forever, in Russian."
Les nodded. "I saw that, but dismissed it. Why do you ask?"
"I think it was a code phrase, but I can't be sure. The girl wasn't involved in her grandparents spying, so why would they give it to her? That's always bothered me."
Les shrugged. "It could have been an innocent gift to a beloved granddaughter."
"Maybe." Anita doubted it.
"Let's head for the observation room. Maybe Benson has had a breakthrough."
Anita doubted that too. She frowned when they arrived and found Curt watching and listening to the interrogation. In a whisper, she asked Les, "What's he doing here?"
Les shook his head. In a loud voice he asked, "Curt, shouldn't you be working on the Delaney case?"
Curt jumped at his voice. "Getting right on it." He frowned and left.
Anita and Les stepped closer to the window. They could clearly hear Benson asked, "For the last time, who clobbered and cut you?"
"For the last time," Steve cried, "I. Don't. Know. Got it? I was watching the kid's place, waiting for her to come home or someone else to come looking for her. She was the key to her grandparents' activities. I just knew it, even though Harve had poo-pooed the idea. Even if she didn't know what she knew. That much about the night is clear to me."
"What else is clear?"
"Movement at the window. Going to investigate," Steve said it as if he was thinking back to the night. "I went up to investigate. Then, nothing."
Anita broke her silence on the other side of the one way mirror. "What else did he and Harve argue about?"
"I doubt Benson will ask that."
Sure enough, Benson's next question was, "Why did you dose yourself?"
"Thought I'd be safer under a doctor's care."
"What were you afraid of?"
Steve hesitated, staring at Benson. "I don't know. It was just a feeling that I was in danger."
"Because you'd been attacked before?"
"Yeah, that and the way Curt was hovering. Kinda like a falcon after prey."
