(for disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 14

So much for a quiet Sunday spent together, Dick realised that idea was completely shot to hell when he had to answer knocking at the door again and found a familiar biker on the other side.

"Huh. Never thought I'd see the day when you'd come knocking on my door, ese," he said, hardly able to keep the smirk off his lips.

"Come on, dude, now is not the time," Weevil retorted. "You gonna let me in or what?"

Dick sighed and moved aside to let the guy come in. After all, Mac had called on him for help and he had come over to do whatever he could. Dick could respect that. The guy looked out for his friends and though Ronnie didn't have too many of those, the ones she did have were tighter than family. They cared, even Dick himself, and he never saw that happening.

He and Navarro went through to the living room where Mac and Wallace had set up the equivalent of a missing person's centre focused entirely on Veronica.

"Weevil, hey." Mac smiled up at him from the couch, fingers still typing even when her eyes were away from the screen. "Any luck?"

"I got the guys out searching all over town, but the places I checked myself, the usual spots, they were all a bust," he admitted, shaking his head as he moved his helmet from one hand to the other. "Are we sure she left under her own steam? V always did have a lot o' enemies..." he reminded them, taking a seat in the armchair without being asked.

Dick chose not to make a big deal out of it. Other things were more important right now, though it was messing with his mind to have Eli Navarro in his house as an invited guess. Never thought he'd see the day that happened. Of course, ten years ago or more, he never could have imagined being with Mac and expecting a kid with her either. Life was funny that way.

"Dick?" Mac poked him in the ribs and brought him back to reality with a start. "You okay?"

"Sure," he promised her, finding a smile and nodding his head. "What do you need?"

"Coffee, please?" she suggested, vaguely gesturing at Weevil and Wallace.

"Decaff for you, right?" he double-checked.

"Maybe just one real one in the circumstances? I promise I'll go back to the soft stuff tomorrow."

"It's a deal, babe," he told her, kissing her nose before getting up and heading off to the kitchen.

Mac watched him go and found herself smiling, just for a few seconds, before the worry about Veronica crept into her mind again. She would love to say it wasn't like her best girl-friend to go wandering off by herself without a word, but they all knew that wasn't true. Veronica had a habit of getting caught up in things, most often other people's criminal behaviour, but she could also so easily tie herself in knots over the emotional, relationship-related issues in her life.

Finding out she was pregnant had clearly been a lot for her to take, and without Logan around to share the load with, Mac couldn't even imagine how much her friend's head was spinning, or maybe she could, and that was the problem.

"Since when did the hacker switch to decaf?" asked Weevil, his expression strange as Mac glanced at him.

She opened her mouth to answer, faltered a little, and realised fast that she didn't need to tell Weevil the truth. He always was that much smarter than he pretended to be.

"Wow. You got a little dude or dudette on the way," he said then, smirking terribly.

"Something like that," Mac admitted, even as she rolled her eyes. "You know, if he or she is anything like Dick, I won't mind at all. You can make your jokes, but like I've told you a hundred times before, you really don't know him, not the real him."

"I'll take your word on that, chica," said Weevil, craning his neck, presumably to make sure Dick wasn't returning to the room any time soon. "Anyway, if you're happy, I'm happy, so congratulations, okay?"

"Thanks." Mac smiled. "I'd be a whole lot happier if we knew where Veronica was."

They hadn't told Weevil that Veronica was pregnant too, it didn't seem right. It wasn't as if knowing made any difference to locating her, and it was probably better to keep it to as few people as possible, given how early in her pregnancy she had to be.

Wallace had already contacted Keith to see if he knew where Veronica had gone to, he was one of the first ports of call. He said they had agreed to take a weekend off but weren't spending it together, so she would probably be at home or maybe with Mac. Nobody was sure if he knew about the baby and didn't like to ask.

"I'm starting to get desperate here," Mac admitted with a sigh. "I actually find myself wanting to track down Lianne."

"V's mom?" Weevil checked.

"They reconnected a while ago, so it's a possibility," Wallace considered, rubbing his chin. "You know she got remarried, right?"

"Veronica mentioned," said Mac, nodding her head. "I remember her half-brother's name, but not a last name."

"It was Scott, but since the new guy went to jail, I don't know if she went back to Mars or Reynolds."

"I'll check all possibilities."

Mac put her hacking skills into action fast, doing her best to track down her friend's mother and, hopefully, by extension, Veronica herself. She was watching the screen scroll with code when Weevil's cell phone rang in his pocket and he fumbled in rushing to get to it before it stopped. Checking the screen, he made a face, then put the phone up to his ear.

"What do you got for me, man?"

Dick returned to the room with the coffee but Mac barely glanced at him, her focus split between Weevil's conversation and the ongoing search on the computer screen. She was also trying to remember to take deep breaths and not allow herself to worry too much. That kind of thing could have adverse effects on the baby and she would not allow that to happen.

Honestly, Mac was just a little mad at Veronica for doing this, knowing as she did that her friend was already going through enough stress. Not that everything was about Mac, but still, she would have hoped that instead of bolting her friend might just have talked to her about all this. After all, if anyone could understand the shock of a sudden pregnancy discovery, it was her. It was then she remembered Veronica's text from the day before and started to feel guilty, but she couldn't have known, not from that alone!

"Yeah, well, keep it up and call me back if you hear anythin' else," Weevil told whoever was on the other end of the phone, hanging up a moment later. "Eduardo's on the south side, making inquiries. Seems maybe somebody who knows V saw her catching a bus down there pretty early this morning."

"A bus to where?" asked Wallace.

"No idea." Weevil shook his head. "Sorry. All I know is what he said, early bus, sometime around six thirty maybe?"

"Cameras," said Mac immediately, fingers back on the keys, minimising the search windows, opening up another from which she could access the local street cameras, something she often did for Veronica herself at Mars Investigations. "There are some at the bus station, maybe even others along the route. I didn't try before, I didn't know where to start, but now I have a time and a location..."

"Is my girlfriend the smartest or what?" Dick grinned, planting a kiss on her cheek, before handing her a cup of coffee.

"She's not bad," Mac agreed, smiling back at him, though her eyes barely left the screen.

Weevil and Wallace might have shared a look or maybe even an eyeroll, Mac was pretty sure it was likely, but she wasn't really looking at them either. She had work to do, a friend to find, a few worries to eliminate. Those were her priorities, nothing else.

"I swear, babe, I have to answer this door one more time, I'm getting a uniform with a hat."

"Ooh, sexy!" Mac quipped, making Dick smile in spite of how mad he was trying to be.

Honestly, he really was starting to feel like a doorman in his own home, letting people in and out all of the time, not being of much use for anything else. So far, he had made a lot of coffee and herbal tea and such, and between that and the door thing, was beginning to think he might as well just call himself Jeeves and have done with it. Not that he especially minded running around on Mac's behalf, especially if it kept her stress levels down while she was trying to track down Ronnie, but he could use not getting weird looks from her buddies, Wallace and Weevil.

They had both left a while ago, Wallace to go back to Veronica's place, on the off chance she was back, Weevil to get back to his wife and daughter who were expecting him before too long. Mac's search into the cameras at the bus station had been kind of a bust. They did find evidence of Veronica heading out of town early this morning, but the bus she caught didn't prove useful since it wasn't heading in the direction of her mother's home or any other person known to her friends.

Dick realised all too quickly how much that didn't matter when he opened the front door for what felt like the hundredth time that day and saw a petite blonde on the other side.

"Geez, Ronnie!" he gasped in surprise. "Where the hell have you been?"

He must have been loud enough for Mac to hear because she suddenly came rushing to see, grabbing Veronica into a hug the moment she was able to get to her. Veronica hugged back, tears sliding down from her closed eyes as Dick looked on. It so didn't seem like a scene he needed to be part of and so, with a sigh, he headed for the kitchen.

"I'll be making tea... again!" he yelled over his shoulder.

Mac pulled back from Veronica to call to her man. "We appreciate it. I promise to make it up to you later!"

"I'm holding you to that!" he replied, a second before the door swung closed behind him. "He's really being a trooper today, but Lucy, you have some 'splainin' to do," she told Veronica, trying for harsh but not really achieving it - she really was so relieved to see her home safe and well.

"Wallace told you, didn't he?" Veronica sighed, scrubbing tears from her cheeks.

"If it's any consolation, he didn't mean to," Mac explained, leading her friend through to the living room where they sat down together on the couch. "I told him I was pregnant and he just reacted. He was so worried about you. We all were, and you know, worry is so not the thing for pregnant types, right?" she said pointedly.

Veronica put her face in her hands for a moment, found some calm and faced Mac again.

"I am so sorry," she told her, honest as she had ever been about anything. "I don't really know why I left like that. It's not like I can out-run this," she said, gesturing vaguely to her middle. "I was just so floored, and with Logan away for so long... I don't know, I think I just lost it for a while. Wallace was so great, and it's not like it never occurred to me to talk to you about it, or my dad, or anyone, I just... I panicked?" she tried, shrugging her shoulders. "All I knew was I needed to get away. Just go somewhere far away and clear my head."

"Did it work?" Mac asked curiously. "Do you feel any better?"

"Yes. No. I really wish I knew." Veronica rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I just feel so bowled over. Obviously, I know there's always a chance. You have sex, a baby can get made, no matter how careful you are, but we are. We're so careful, and we hadn't planned this, not at all. Not now, anyway."

"And you think we did?" said Mac, shaking her head. "No, you know that we didn't, and yes, I know it's different, because at least Dick is here and not a thousand miles away on a boat-"

"Ship," Veronica cut in fast. "Seriously, when you call it a boat, the Navy types get seriously pissed."

Mac sniggered, she couldn't help it. "Fine, a thousand miles away on a ship," she corrected, rolling her eyes. "My point is, unplanned pregnancy, always a shock, but come on, you're not alone. Like you just said, you have Wallace and your dad, you have me and Dick."

Then it was Veronica's turn to snigger, though she seemed to be trying her best to hide her amusement, especially when Dick came in.

"Herbal tea for the Momma Squad," he declared, placing the tray down on the table. "Seriously, do not expect to sleep tonight. You have so much making up to do," he told Mac in mock seriousness.

"I'm looking forward to it," she told him with a salacious smile, not even kidding, and they both knew it.

"Well, if the pregnancy wasn't already making me nauseous..." Veronica quipped.

"Hey, after all the worry you caused, Ronnie, you can just deal, okay?" said Dick, an edge to his voice that proved he really wasn't messing around. "You know, your buddy Weevil had all his biker buddies searching, Fennel was totally freaked out, and the last thing Mac needs in her condition is stress. You made her stress, Ronnie."

"Dick, don't," Mac urged him, but Veronica shook her head.

"No, he has a right to be mad, Mac," she said definitely. "I did a stupid, selfish thing, and I know that. I'm sorry, okay?" she said, looking from Mac to Dick. "You accept my apology, right?"

There was a horrible moment when Mac really thought he was going to say no, but then, he wouldn't be the man she loved so much if he had.

"Sure. I mean, come on, the stuff you had to accept my apology on a while back..."

"Hey, we don't talk about that anymore," Veronica assured him. "Water under the bridge, right?"

"Right," Dick nodded. "So, I'm gonna leave you two ladies to your girl-bonding or whatever. Yell if you need me, okay? I gotta go play some GTA, before I actually morph into Mrs Doubtfire or something."

Dick heard the laughter from the living room as he headed on up the stairs and felt pretty good about himself. The ladies were happy and his life didn't suck. There was really nothing to complain about.

It was late when Veronica went home and Mac was happy to take herself straight upstairs to bed. Dick hadn't come down at all since going off to hide himself away and play video games. Not that she could blame him. The middle of girl talk was no guy's favourite place to be.

Certainly, she and Veronica had a lot to talk about, including both their pregnancies, fears and concerns on all of that, plus Mac's revelations about telling both her adopted family and the biological one that she knew about the switch. Even Veronica ended up feeling bad for Madison when she heard that whole tale. Well, almost, anyway, which was still practically a miracle.

Yawning terribly, Mac's hand moved along the wall as she headed for the bedroom. She could hear Dick before she saw him, cursing at whatever game character just got in his way. Out of his view, she peeked in, saw he actually was deep into Grand Theft Auto and probably wouldn't even notice her if she walked in naked.

He had been such a hero today, just doing whatever she needed him to do. Lately, it seemed to be all that he did, supporting her in her pregnancy, in dealing with her sprawling and complicated family.

So far from the guy in high school that she just couldn't stand, he really had grown into the most amazing guy, and she loved him. Loved him so much that Mac was pretty sure she could never properly put it into words.

Leaning in the doorway, watching him work the game console, looking so naturally Dick, a strange feeling washed over Mac. This was the guy she wanted in her life forever, to be her one and only, no matter what. She was lucky to have found someone who was absolutely perfect for her, even if she didn't always understand how that worked. All she wanted, in that moment, was a future with him and their baby. That was it.

"Dick?" she said softly, almost surprised he even heard her.

"Hey, babe. You need something?" he asked, eyes never leaving the screen.

"I was just thinking... did you maybe want to marry me?"

To Be Continued...