Author's notes:
Sorry again about the delay, but my school keeps insisting that I work on my dissertation. I'd much rather write OC fanfic instead, but sadly, I want to graduate. Thanks famous99, melanie39, pink-angel-dreams, kursk, ally, for you to notice, SVU chicky, Jen, Steph36, Brenda Osler, Trinity is God, Conaleigh Leonhart, and JD fan for your reviews and words of encouragement.
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Morning sickness and midterms coincided for Kirsten two weeks later. She had four tests to study for, and a paper to write for her English class, and the morning sickness had an annoying habit of striking not just in the mornings, but at the most inopportune moments throughout the day and evening. Even assuming that she could catch up in all her classes (she was really regretting having blown off as much school as she did after she and Jimmy broke up), Kirsten had a horror of getting sick halfway through an exam and in front of three hundred of her classmates.
It really wasn't fair. Hadn't she had enough bad luck recently?
She continued on in spite of her growing sense of exhaustion. She took her French and psychology midterms and thought she did okay on them. She finished her English paper two hours before it was done, something she never would have dreamt of doing back at Harbor. The paper wasn't her best work by far, but it was complete and would hopefully get a decent enough grade to carry her until the end of the semester. Calculus and chemistry were both nightmares, and she had no idea how she'd done on those tests. She desperately hoped that Berkeley didn't send home mid-term report cards, and that she could pull her grades up by the end of the term.
Her English paper came back the following week, marked with a big red D plus. "Not up to university standards," the teacher had scribbled at the bottom of the page. "Please see me to discuss your grade."
Kirsten had no intention of doing any such thing. She was having a hard enough time keeping from crying as it was. What was happening to her? She never got D'sshe had been a straight A student at Harbor, and while this paper hadn't been her best, she hadn't thought that it was D material. How was she going to explain this to her parents?
She called Sandy right after class, hoping that he would be in. He only had one class on Wednesdays, and it should have gotten out about an hour ago, by her calculations. Of course, he might have gone out somewhere, in which case she had no idea what she was going to do. Right now, she needed a friend, and Sandy was by far the best friend she had at Berkeley.
He picked up the phone on the second ring. She wanted to cry with relief when she heard his voice. "Kirsten? Is that you?"
"Are you busy?" she asked. "Can I come over?"
"Of course you can," Sandy rapidly assured her. "Are you all right?"
She swallowed. "I'll be okay. I just need a friendly face right about now."
"Come over," Sandy urged her. "We'll eat junk food and watch something on one of the two TV stations that come in at my place. It's just CBS and CSPAN today, unfortunately, but we could make fun of the bad toupees that all the politicians seem to have."
She smiled at Sandy's rambling. She had gotten used to it in the month that they had really gotten to know each other. In fact, she found it endearing, although she would never admit it to Sandy. He would never let her live it down. "I'll be right there."
She was at Sandy's apartment five minutes later, and he opened the door right away when she knocked. "Just in time!" he exclaimed. "This representative with a horrible comb over is giving a speech on Hollywood indecency!"
Kirsten couldn't help laughing. "Only you could make that sound appealing."
Sandy grinned. "Guess I'll be a successful lawyer, then. Good to know."
She smiled. "I can't tell you how good it is to see you."
Sandy escorted her inside, closing the door and taking her coat. "Bad day?"
"The worst," Kirsten agreed, sinking down onto the sofa. "I got my first D today."
"Ouch," Sandy winced. "The first one always hurts the most."
"I don't know how I'm going to keep everything together," Kirsten confessed. "It was a lousy paper and I deserved the D, but it's so hard to focus on school. And it's not going to get any easier, either."
"You mean, after the baby comes?" Sandy asked.
Kirsten sighed. "To be honest, I haven't thought that far into the future yet. Right now I'm stuck on how I'm going to tell my parents. My father's going to throw a fit."
Sandy shuddered. "That's bad, if it's remotely near how my mother's going to react."
"There's no way your mother can be as scary as my father," Kirsten protested.
Sandy shook his head. "You only say that because you haven't met her. Sophie Cohen is one scary lady."
"You don't have to do this," Kirsten offered. "It doesn't have to be your problem as well."
She hadn't meant for it to sound resentful, or for Sandy to suddenly look hurt. "Is that what you really think of me, Kirsten?"
"Of course not," she hastened to assure him. "I'm sorry, Sandy. I've been stressed out and you've been the only thing keeping me sane. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Sandy took her hand between both of his. "We're in this together, Kirsten, and I'm not going anywhere."
"You're such a great guy, Sandy," she told him. "I don't see why some lucky girl hasn't married you already."
She felt an odd pang of jealousy at the thought of Sandy with another girl. It didn't make any senseafter all, she was still in love with Jimmy. She just didn't want to lose him as a friend, that was all.
"Well, I can't marry a girl who doesn't appreciate my unusual sense of humor," Sandy answered lightly. "It's not anywhere near as fun mocking toupees and combovers by myself."
Kirsten laughed. "You're by far the most unusual guy I know."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Sandy grinned.
Impulsively, she kissed his cheek. "Good. That's how I meant it."
"What do you say I make us some sandwiches and we see how the Hollywood decency debate is going?" Sandy proposed.
"As long as our child lets me keep it down, I'd say it sounds wonderful," Kirsten answered.
Sandy placed his hands gently on Kirsten's flat stomach. "Hey, kid! This is your dad. You'd better let your mom eat the wonderful sandwich I'm about to make for her, or you're grounded as soon as you're born."
Kirsten burst into laughter. "That should put the fear of God into him. Or her."
"I hope so," Sandy confessed. "Because if the kid finds out that I'm a pushover, we're both done for."
"Oh, Sandy," Kirsten sighed, resting her head against his shoulder. "You're really one in a million."
Sandy put his arm around her shoulders. "You're pretty great yourself."