Warning: Childbirth
The first sign something was amiss with Jessica came after they arrived at their latest crime scene. She took one look at the body, turned green, and then bolted a few feet away to throw up in a bush. A concerned Jimmy stood up to check on his girlfriend but Tim told him to stay put and made his way over to her himself. "Everything alright, Knight?"
Still queasy, she managed a nod. "Yeah, I'm fine," she lied.
An unconvinced Tim side-eyed her but followed her back to the body. Jessica hovered at a distance, unwilling to risk it yet again. "Are you sick?" Jimmy questioned, putting a hand across her forehead.
Annoyed, she batted his hand away despite the fact that she wanted to lean into him and accept the comfort he was offering her. "No, I'm not sick. It's just probably food poisoning or something. Everything's great. I'm fine." Did anyone really buy her bullshit? Jessica doubted it.
He hugged her. "If it's more than that, you should go home. Right, Parker?"
Parker glanced up at them. "You should probably go home anyway, Knight," he encouraged.
Jessica shook her head and immediately regretted the action. "I'm fine," she insisted. "I'm not going home - I'll just take it easy back at the office."
Jimmy and Tim exchanged a concerned look. "It's no big deal if you're sick and need to take some time off." Tim didn't want her to push herself (and get them sick too, if he was being honest).
She rolled her eyes. "I'm going back to work." She turned around and stomped off, clearly upset with them all for trying to force her to go back home.
"That'd actually be pretty impressive if she wasn't so pale. Keep an eye on her for me on the way back?" Jimmy asked Tim.
"Of course." Tim clapped his back, and then the team made their way back to the Navy Yard.
Jess made a beeline towards her desk and sat down in her chair, feeling a bit listless. She caught a glimpse of Nick's snack - a sandwich - and quickly grabbed her garbage can so she could vomit again. "Fuck me," she murmured. Giving up, she decided to just lay down on the floor. "I'm not moving!" she warned the others.
"Why aren't you going home?" a confused and slightly worried Nick questioned.
"Because this will go away. I'm fine."
"You sure you don't want any ginger ale or anything?" Tim checked.
She pondered the question for only a second. "Some ginger ale would be fine," Jessica grudgingly admitted.
"I'll be right back," Tim promised.
"I could order you home, you know." Parker side-eyed her but didn't make a move. "What do we know about our dead petty officer?"
Tim bolted back into the squad room and grabbed Jessica's hand to pull her up so she was at least sitting then handed her a ginger ale. "There you go."
"Thanks, McGee."
"You're welcome."
Jessica took some sips of her ginger ale and listened with some interest as the others dove into the case. Jimmy found her slumped over her desk about an hour later when he came to check on her. He ignored her protests as he checked her forehead again. "You don't have a fever but this doesn't seem like food poisoning either. We ate the same things last night," he reminded her.
"So if it's not the flu or food poisoning that's what's the issue?"
The other possibility seemed to occur to Jimmy, Jessica, and Tim all at once. Tim's eyes widened while Jimmy and Jessica stared at each other in shock. "Anybody want to let the rest of us in on the cause or are you just going to stand there?" Parker asked.
Jessica grabbed her phone and found her period app, gasping when she realized she was late. "Jimmy," she murmured.
"Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. Do you want to do a blood test or should I run to the store to grab a pregnancy test?" Jimmy's heart pounded, shock and excitement warring within him.
"Uh, both?"
The others tried to pretend like they weren't eavesdropping but Jimmy and Jessica saw right through them. "Good plan. Go wait for me in Autopsy." He kissed her then fled the building.
Her hands shaking, Jessica ignored her team and bolted down to Autopsy. When Jimmy returned, he quickly drew her blood and handed it off to Kasie, who already knew what was going on thanks to the others. Jessica held off on the pregnancy test until after the blood test results came back. "And you are definitely pregnant," Kasie confirmed.
"I'll be right back." Jessica sped off towards the bathroom, leaving poor Jimmy outside the door, and took the test. She wasn't surprised when it returned a positive result but still handed it over to her boyfriend with shaking hands. "This is really happening."
"Do you want this?" Jimmy asked her.
"I'm fucking terrified," she admitted.
"And it's okay to be scared, Jess. This is my second go-around and I'm terrified too. But we're really doing this? We're having a baby."
She let out a nervous giggle. "We're having a baby."
Jimmy swooped in and kissed her. "I love you, Jess."
"I love you too."
Jessica returned to her desk about ten minutes later and ignored the smiles on her family's faces for the time being.
This was just the beginning of a new adventure that Jimmy and Jessica couldn't wait to go on.
The first trimester flew by, and soon enough, the two of them sat down to break the news to Victoria. The nine year old gasped with excitement when she heard the news. "A baby?"
"You're going to be a big sister. How are you feeling about that?" Jimmy asked her.
"Excited! I want a little sister!" she informed them.
Jessica laughed. "You can't put in a request but I'm right there with you, Vic." She winked at her, and Victoria giggled.
She stood up and hugged them both. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed and tore off towards her bedroom.
"Good thing we already told everyone else because I think she's about to text everybody in her contacts list." Jimmy grinned at her.
"I still can't believe this is actually happening." Jessica couldn't wait to meet this little life nestled inside her, even though she wasn't a huge fan of pregnancy. Delilah had assured her that every pregnancy was different and any emotion was valid, which did make her feel better.
"We still have several months to get used to the fact that we're going to have a baby soon. We'll adjust, Jess."
She teared up again, hating the mood swings with a passion already. It sucked. "You're the sweetest." Damn this man. She loved him and his little girl more than she ever thought possible, even though she was still a little awkward around kids. Jessica was getting better, however.
"I try." He kissed her, and then they waited for Victoria to finish so they could watch a movie.
As Jessica's pregnancy progressed and she got bigger, she started to loathe desk duty with every fiber of her being. But she planned to work right up until she went into labor, stressing Jimmy out a little, but he was mostly glad that she was close by so he could be there in an instant if something happened. "You are nine months pregnant. How are you still coming into work every day?" Nick stared at Jessica in awe, three days past her due date.
She glared at him. "Shut up. I don't want to hear it. I just want this baby out of me already. Did you hear that, little one? Get out!"
"Yeah, I don't think yelling at them is going to work," Parker snarked in amusement.
She winced at her back twinged again, hating the aches and pains that came with the last few weeks of pregnancy. Her back had been hurting on and off since the night prior, and Jessica was tired of it. She glanced up at a panicked Parker and rolled her eyes. "Relax, I'm fine," she snarked. Missing Jimmy, she decided to head down to Autopsy with Tim a few minutes later since he needed an update.
They ran into Kasie as soon as they got there. "Still haven't had this baby yet, huh?" Kasie teased.
"Shut up, Hines." Jessica sighed and smiled at Jimmy when she spotted him. She leaned up against an Autopsy table, immediately regretting it but thankful it was free. A wave of pain hit her like a freight train and she groaned.
The others, all distracted by the case, all immediately looked up at her and that's when her water broke. "Jess?" asked Jimmy.
The resulting groan was answer enough for them and they rushed over to her. "Water broke," Jessica managed to get out.
"I"ll call an ambulance," Tim told them, whipping out his phone.
Jessica grabbed onto Jimmy in an effort to stay upright and whined in pain. "Do you need me to get you anything?" Kasie fretted.
Jessica doubled over and realized she needed to push. "Baby's coming now. Fuck!"
"As in right this second?" Jimmy checked. She nodded and bore down into a push. "Kasie, help get Jess' pants off. Can we help you onto the table?"
She shook her head. "Can't," she sobbed. Moving anywhere was out of the question, and she certainly couldn't get on the table, even with help.
Kasie managed to get Jess' pants off, her hands shaking, and then grabbed Jessica's. Tim grabbed her other hand, thankful the ambulance was on its way.
Jimmy rushed to grab some clean gloves and some equipment then ran back towards them as Jessica continued to push. "I'm right here, sweetheart. There's nothing to be scared about you, alright? We got you. The baby's almost here."
"Get it out," she sobbed.
"You're doing such a great job with that yourself," Jimmy soothed, flashing her a slightly panicked smile.
"Yeah, we're proud of you, Knight." Tim brushed the hair out of her face.
Jessica's whole body trembled and she screamed when the baby crowned but continued to push as the contractions overwhelmed her. She would have slumped over in relief about twenty seconds later when she finally delivered their daughter but Tim and Kasie wouldn't let her go. "She's here?" she asked as the baby started crying.
"She's here. I'm so proud of you, Jess - look what we made," an awed Jimmy whispered as he cut the cord. Tim and Kasie managed to help her stand, and he handed the baby over with a kiss to her forehead.
"She's so gross but also the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life," Jessica sobbed.
The ambulance arrived about five minutes later, and took the three of them to the hospital, where they confirmed that Jess and the baby were in perfect health. Nick picked up Victoria at school (Mama Palmer was otherwise occupied and regretted not being able to meet her new granddaughter right away) and the little girl was ecstatic to meet her sister. "Wow."
"You like her?" Jimmy teased.
Victoria couldn't stop staring. "I love her. And her name is Julie?" she double checked.
Jessica nodded. "Julie Eunice Knight-Palmer," she confirmed.
Victoria bobbed her head up and down eagerly. "Can I hold her?"
"Of course you can. Sit down," he urged.
He gently scooped Julie out of Jessica's arms and handed her over to Victoria after she sat down. The sight of his two daughters together for the first time made him emotional as he snapped some pictures on his phone.
"They're absolutely adorable." Jessica couldn't get over the sight of Victoria and Julie together.
Jimmy had one more surprise in store once Jessica and Julie got out of the hospital but he needed his daughters' help to propose (the team was also in on the plan). Neither of them could wait to build their life together.