A/N: Woah! My apologies for the long absence! Who knew teachers actually got busier after school was out? My poor beta (who is also a teacher) and I have both been running around trying to take care of all the things we put off during the school year, leading to the neglect of my writing. But no more! Here's the next section for you, and I promise to have more in the next few days :-D
"Don't you people have work to do?"
Mac stood in the doorway of one of the conference rooms in a little-used corner of the lab watching his colleagues prepare for the baby shower they were throwing for Maddie. The tone of his voice was that of an annoyed boss, but the twinkle in his eye was unmistakable.
Aiden, visiting the city during her mid-semester break, smirked back at him as she hung the "It's A Girl" banner across the front of the room. "Nope, no work to do today—I'm off the rest of the week."
His smile widened in return. "I could find something for you…"
"You just wait until we throw one of these for you and Stella," she teased back. "Then you won't be trying to distract me."
"Let's not jump the gun here, Aiden," Stella cautioned with a chuckle, hanging pink crepe paper from her place on the stepladder.
"You've been dating for almost a year now…"
"We're taking things slowly," Stella winked. "I don't want to scare poor Mac away!"
Mac grinned, wanting to kiss her right there, but managing to control himself. "If I'm not scared of you by now, I never will be." He watched her smile back at him, the soft little smile that always settled on her lips when he said something cute to her, and felt his resolve melting away. He sighed internally and managed to tear his eyes away from her when he was suddenly sideswiped by a cushiony chair. "Whoa…"
"Sorry boss," Sheldon apologized as he and Don carried the piece of furniture into the conference room. "I yelled 'heads up' but I guess you didn't hear me."
"Isn't that one of the chairs from my office?"
Don nodded. "For Maddie. She's eight months along, Mac. She can't sit in one of those hard plastic things."
They set the chair down near one of the large windows and stood, both stretching simultaneously.
"You act like that was hard work," Aiden commented from her perch.
"A lot harder than holding up a little plastic banner," Don quipped with a smirk. He walked over to her and snaked his arm around her waist, half-picking her up as he helped her down off the table she had been standing on. "Now come on, there's a bunch more of those girly little things in Mac's office."
She flashed him a silly grin, noticing the way his hand lingered on the small of her back just a bit longer than necessary. "And you're gonna have fun hangin' 'em up, too…"
Sheldon laughed at the pair as they headed down the hall, and was still smiling when his phone chirped. Pulling it from the clip on his belt, he glanced at the text on the display and his smile changed slightly.
"Must be Sarah," Mac noted.
The doctor blushed a little and nodded. "She's downstairs with the food." Still grinning, he moved quickly out the door to meet his girlfriend.
That left Mac and Stella alone together. Their eyes met across the room and they shared a look, the one that Stella called the "I love you" look. He took a step toward her and opened his mouth to say something, his blue eyes sparkling brightly, but was interrupted by his own phone ringing.
Pressing his lips together, he pulled it out and pushed the talk button. "Detective Taylor…mmhmm…okay, I'll be right there."
"Got a call?" Stella asked going back to her pink crepe paper.
Mac shook his head. "No. Dantrell's here."
"Oh good!" she exclaimed. "He's bringing the cake…"
Thirty minutes later, the conference room had been complete transformed into the place to celebrate a new life. Sarah had prepared a rather substantial banquet, topped off by the cake Dantrell's grandmother had baked and decorated so carefully. Balloons accented the crepe paper and "It's A Girl" streamers that hung along the walls, and little pink knit hats served as centerpieces on the tables. Even the chair borrowed from Mac's office had been decked out, covered in pink ribbons and a sign that marked it as the property of "The Mother".
"Incoming!" Danny's voice called from the end of the hallway.
Aiden snorted. "That was subtle, Messer," she muttered under her breath. She tied the last streamer and scrambled down off the stepladder, gathering with her former colleagues near the door.
"What's going on here?" they heard Maddie ask.
"Don't peek," Danny answered, reaching over and covering her eyes.
"Just hold my hand," Shayla instructed, leading her foster mother into the room.
The little procession halted just inside the doorway and Shayla let go of Maddie's hand, prompting Danny to pull his hands away from her eyes.
Nine strong voices greeted her. "Surprise!"
"Oh wow!" she gasped, taking in the decorations, the food, and the pinkness of the room. "You guys did all this for us?"
"It isn't every day we get to welcome a new CSI to the family," Sheldon smiled.
"Or a new Messer, for that matter," Aiden joked.
Maddie made the rounds, hugging everyone who had worked so hard to put the shower together, before allowing Danny to escort her to her special chair. The little group ate and laughed and talked, cracking jokes when Maddie opened the gifts as the DNA building blocks, build-your-own-atom sets, and toy badges piled up beside the baby clothes and packages of diapers.
"This kid's gonna absolutely hate science," Don laughed, surveying the toys. "And the NYPD."
"Not with Uncle Don and Uncle Sheldon to show her all the fun things," Maddie grinned.
"…and Grandpa Taylor," Mac added with a half-smile.
"Grandpa Taylor?" Danny asked in his what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about voice. "Mac, you're gonna be the coolest uncle she has. Who else can she play dress-up with in fatigues and camouflage face paint?"
Stella laughed. "I can see it now…Mac explaining to a tiny baby girl how to disassemble a rifle and put it back together in thirty seconds or less."
"Tiny baby girl, eh?" Sarah wondered out loud. "Haven't you picked out a name yet?"
Danny and Maddie shared a smile, communicating without words as they so often did. "Yeah," Maddie replied, turning back to Sarah. "We did."
"She's going to be Caroline Ann," Danny continued.
"'Caroline' for Danny's mother…" Maddie said softly.
"And 'Ann' for Maddie's," he finished.
"Are you going to call her 'Carol' for short?" Don asked. "I had a girlfriend named Carol once…"
Aiden swatted him—only half playfully—and looked expectantly at her two friends. "You're not calling her 'Carol', right?"
Maddie laughed. "No. Shayla started calling her 'Carrie' right after we decided on 'Caroline', and it stuck."
"'Carrie', huh?" Sheldon remarked. "I pity her prom date already."
Shayla giggled. "You wanna pity someone's prom date? Pity the boy that takes me…"
"…who has to answer to your foster father, the NYPD detective," Mac finished with a wink. "That should be an interesting night."
"Just picture him interrogating the poor kid when he arrives," Stella chuckled. "I bet Danny brings him down to the nearest precinct and everything…"
Shayla glanced over at Danny, a mix of emotions playing across her face. She had come home after the night spent at Stella's, but was still uneasy around him and had avoided contact with him at every opportunity. Mac had been right when he told her that she wouldn't look at Danny the same way, but also that he had told her about his past because he loved her. A part of her still loved him, too, still remembered how wonderful he had been to her right from the day they met. But Shayla had closed that part of her heart off when she found out about his family, trying to protect herself from being hurt yet again in her young life.
She wondered, as she studied his face there in the middle of the baby shower, if he really was trying to do right by her, if he really was just trying to be honest with her. She wondered if he really had left his old life behind to start over, to make himself into a good man, a good husband and father.
And she wondered if she would ever allow herself to love him again.
Maddie walked slowly—she refused to admit she waddled—from the sign-in window to the bank of chairs where Shayla sat in the waiting room. "You've spent so much time here, you're going to be an expert on pregnancy before you have your own kids," she teased her foster daughter.
The girl only nodded absently, her attention drawn to the doorway where Danny had just entered the small doctor's office.
"Hey babe," he grinned, kissing his wife tenderly and caressing the baby. When he pulled back, he reached tentatively for Shayla and squeezed her shoulder. "Hey sweetheart."
She smiled half-heartedly at him. "Hey," she answered back quietly, suppressing the urge to jerk away from his touch.
The nurse returned to the window and called Maddie's name, breaking the moment before it stretched beyond awkwardness. "Mrs. Messer? We're ready for you now."
The family moved together back to the exam room where Danny carefully helped Maddie up onto the table. "The jury came back just before I left the courthouse today," he told her in a low voice when the nurse had left.
She knew without asking that he was referring to his father's murder trial alongside Michael Sassone. "Yeah?"
The expression on his face was a mixture of relief and shame. "Guilty on all counts."
She blew out a breath and nodded. "Good."
"He turned around and looked at me after they read the verdict," he continued, his lips curling into a heavy frown, "and just shook his head. He said 'my own son'."
Maddie took his hand in hers in a wordless gesture of reassurance, her bright blue eyes telling him he had done the right thing despite what his father might think.
Danny pressed his lips together and shook his head
Shayla stood on the other side of the small room watching the scene unfold before her, trying to keep her head from spinning. He really did testify against the mafia…against his father…
Her thoughts were interrupted by the doctor knocking on the door. "Ready for me?" he asked lightly.
"Come on in, Doc," Danny answered.
The doctor made his way into the room and went through a quick preliminary examination of Maddie, checking her blood pressure, heart sounds, and the size and position of the baby. "So far so good," he smiled. "Shall we take a look?"
The mother-to-be grinned. "Absolutely."
Shayla moved across the room, standing across the exam table from Danny and squeezing Maddie's hand in anticipation. This was the last look they would get of little Carrie before she was born.
The doctor wheeled the ultrasound cart over and lifted Maddie's shirt, squirting the familiar cold gel onto her abdomen. He turned the machine on and planted the wand in the goo, maneuvering it around to look at the baby from various angles.
"She looks so crowded in there," Shayla commented. "Does she have enough room?"
The doctor smiled again. "Yeah, but it's getting tight. And there's still a month or so left before she's due."
"She's so small," Danny added softly.
This time the doctor shook his head. "Actually, she's a little over four pounds, which is right where she should be. At this point in the pregnancy, she can be delivered at any time and still have an excellent chance at survival."
Maddie and Danny shared a look of relief and thankfulness. They knew their baby wasn't out of the woods yet, but the doctor's words lifted some of the weight from their shoulders.
"Hmm," he continued, furrowing his brow as he flipped a switch and listened to the baby's heartbeat. "Heart rate's a little low…" He paused to listen for a minute more as he studied the monitor, then shook his head again. "Not too low, though. No worries, just something to keep an eye on."
"You're sure?" Maddie asked anxiously.
He nodded. "Yep. Just pay attention to her movements…if she starts moving less than she usually does, you'll need to come in right away. But otherwise, I'll see you in a week."
They bid the doctor good-bye, and Shayla could see the fear in her foster parents' eyes. She saw something else, too, when Danny looked over at her: love. No matter what happened with little Carrie, with his family, with anything, he loved her like his own child.
She kept silent until they left the building, then she stopped walking and cleared her throat. "Um, can we talk for a minute, just the three of us, before we split up for the rest of the day?"
"Of course, honey, what is it?" Maddie asked.
Danny's face was a mask of nervousness as he nodded along. He knew what was coming.
Shayla took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've been acting like a child lately, and I want to apologize for it." She turned toward Danny and dropped her gaze, too ashamed to look him in the eye. "You told me about a very sensitive part of your past because you love me enough to want me to know the truth. I know how hard that is—there are things I've done and seen that I haven't told anybody because I know what people will think of me when they find out. But you told me anyway."
He reached out and brushed a hand lightly over her arm. "You deserve to know," he told her softly.
"And I want to know the rest," she continued, lifting her eyes to his. "If we're going to be a real family, we can't have any secrets."
"You're sure about that?" Maddie asked, knowing what it would do to Danny if Shayla got scared and left again.
The girl nodded. "It's time I start acting like an adult. We'll sit down after dinner tonight and talk it all out. You two will tell me all your secrets, and I'll tell you all of mine. We won't judge each other, we won't run away…we'll just listen."
Maddie looked at Danny and raised her eyebrows questioningly at him. What do you think?
"I think that's a good idea," he said aloud. "I'm tired of keeping secrets."
Shayla nodded again. "Me too."
She turned and began walking again, her foster parents taking up position on either side of her. She took Maddie's hand in hers, smiling at her foster mother, then carefully slipped her other hand in Danny's. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, surprised by the action. She squeezed his fingers in response, her brown eyes full of determination, along with apprehension and fear in anticipation both of what she would hear and what she would say.
He squeezed back and smiled gently, the same smile he gave her whenever something was out of whack in her life, the one that said "everything will be alright".
And she knew it would be.