It had now been a few months since Holly and Roger had had the argument. They'd figured out a way to co-exist at work (which was probably far more complicated than it needed to be and involved multiple people separating them). Holly also hadn't seen or talked to Blake since that day at the beach. She assumed that Roger had stayed in touch with her, but she didn't know for sure one way or the other and didn't care enough to try and find out.

She was more or less okay with the concept of Ross and Blake now, but not to the point that she wanted to spend any time with either of them. Holly hadn't reached a place where she wished them well, but she wasn't thinking about it on a regular basis, either. And she was more than happy that Roger had essentially gotten custody of them.

Holly had expected that things would thaw somewhat between herself and Roger but they hadn't. If anything, it had gotten worse. He took great pains to avoid her and anytime they showed up at the same place, he completely ignored her until he could make an escape. She typically ignored him back but sometimes she would become ultra-polite just for fun.

At first, his treatment of her hurt her feelings and made her angry, but it had quickly cooled into disinterest. She had to admit that her life had gotten a lot calmer since she'd stopped speaking to Roger and Blake.

It had been a relatively easy fall but they were heading into sweeps and an election, so she was getting a lot busier at work.

Holly was approving scripts and video for the final week of sweeps. It wouldn't even begin until the next week, but somehow the amount of work associated with it seemed neverending. She'd just finished her last round of suggested edits when her phone rang.

"WSPR, Holly Lindsey speaking."

"Hi, Holly! It's Dr. Sedgwick's office. Would you be able to come by to discuss your blood work?"

She'd had an appointment the day before.

"Can we do it over the phone? I'm swamped at work this week."

"Um…let me just put you on hold for a minute."

Holly tried to stay calm.

Five minutes later, finally someone came back.

"Holly, it's Margaret Sedgwick. We generally don't do this over the phone but it sounds like you're really busy."

"Yes, I am. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, it looks like you're in great shape."

Holly exhaled.

"Your assistant made it sound like something was wrong. This is such a relief."

"Well, we did find something."

Holly's mind immediately went to cancer. So much for great shape.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"You're pregnant. Almost three months along, it looks like."

"No, that's impossible," she said. "I haven't…"

She trailed off as she remembered that it was around three months ago that she caught Blake and Ross in bed.

"Couldn't it be possible you mixed up my results with someone else's?"

"No. I take it this isn't good news then?"

"It's really not. It's…no. This isn't good news."

"Okay. Well, we can discuss options. Can you come back Monday at 10?"

Holly agreed and hung up, feeling numb.

Damn it, Roger, she thought.

Holly spent that night and all of Saturday pacing around her home. She knew she'd have to tell Roger at some point, but she was going to put it off as long as she could.

On Sunday, when Holly thought she was about to go insane, Maureen called and asked Holly to spend time with Michelle so she and Ed could get time alone. Maureen sounded a little stressed, but she assured Holly everything was fine.

After Maureen left, Michelle flopped down onto the couch, a scowl on her face.

"Why are you always here?" she asked. Her tone was peak 12-year-old.

"I'm friends with your parents. And you and I are practically related."

"There's no such thing. You're either related or you're not."

"Well, your dad is practically my daughter's stepfather. They're still very close. And your mom is one of my best friends. So, to help her out, I'm over here with you."

"I don't need a babysitter," Michelle snapped.

"I agree. But I've kind of had a hard time of things recently and your mom thought it would do me some good to spend time over here instead of at my own home. Here, with you, I can do something that doesn't involve staring at the ceiling and thinking too much."

Holly had started talking as a way to make Michelle feel like she needed the company, but she realized that it was all actually true. Being around Michelle was fun, even when she was being a bit of a brat. Even if it made things harder because she thought eventually this interloper she didn't ask for would become this age and turn into a sarcastic jerk. And with her and Roger's genes, it would almost definitely be much worse than Michelle's attitude.

"Why are you having a hard time?"

Holly bristled. "That's adult business, Michelle."

"You brought it up."

"Well, now we're dropping it."

Michelle let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. I don't care anyway."

"Good. Then you won't care if we don't talk about it."

"I don't."

Several seconds of awkward silence ensued.

"How's school going?"

"Why is that all anyone wants to know? School's fine. It's probably exactly the same as when you were there. It's too boring to talk about."

Holly laughed.

"What?"

"You remind me of me sometimes. I'm sure that's not something you'd want to hear."

"It's really not."

But Holly thought she saw a little smile on Michelle's face before it went back into the scowl.

But now it was Monday morning and that meant that her day started with her secretary Amelia preparing to negotiate with Janet (Roger's secretary) about who would do what. For the most part, they'd already decided that Roger would deal with all the financial aspects and Holly would deal with anything involving people, but that still left a lot of things up in the air. They'd both recused themselves from any stories involving Ross and his campaign, letting Gilly handle that as she saw fit.

"Hi," Amelia said, popping her head in. "Is this a good time to go over what we need to iron out?"

"As good a time as any." Holly rubbed her temple.

Amelia passed her headache medicine and a bottle of water. "Right on schedule."

"Thanks. I guess it's not Monday morning if I don't start the day with a headache."

"It's nice to know that some things can be counted on," Amelia said with a grin. "Anyway…" she passed over the list. Holly scanned it and made some notes, then handed it back over.

"Okay. If Roger will handle those meetings, I can take these. Or if he wants to do the opposite, that's also fine. Remind Janet that I'm on vacation in a few weeks so if he needs me to do everything for the next week or two to compensate, he's a complete child but I'm willing to accommodate him."

"I'll be back with their counteroffer."

But it was now Monday and sweeps were about to start, so she knew she was in for three weeks of absolute hell. That was why she had decided to take two weeks off work starting the day after the ratings period ended. She could deal with anything if she knew that on the other side of it, she was going to have a vacation involving sun, the ocean and umbrella drinks.

Holly checked her watch and saw that it was time to leave for the doctor's appointment.

"I have an appointment and I'm going to pick up an early lunch after. I should be back in time for the noon newscast," she told Amelia.

"When we spoke on the phone, you sounded unsure about whether you want to proceed," Dr. Sedgwick said when she entered the exam room. "Have you come to a decision?"

"I think that I'm going to have it. But the baby's father isn't part of the picture, so it's just going to be me raising it. I don't know. I feel like this might be a huge mistake and I don't know what I want to do."

Holly sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw all of that at you."

"You'd be surprised how often this happens. If it helps, this room is just as much a confessional as it is an exam room. So since you're not sure, let's just proceed like you're going to carry this to term. I'll get you some prenatal vitamins and we'll touch base again at the end of the week."

"Thank you."

She picked up the prescription for prenatal vitamins and was trying to juggle the bag from the pharmacy and her lunch as she left her car. She came in through the main entrance and almost ran into Roger, who was rounding the corner.

"Sorry," she said politely, but not stopping.

He didn't say anything.

"You're looking well," she called over her shoulder. "Great to see you as always, Rog."

He muttered something she couldn't quite catch and her smile widened. It wasn't good, probably, but she really enjoyed being petty sometimes.

When she got back to her office, Amelia caught her eye. "Ready for the second round of negotiations?"

Holly rolled her eyes. "Let's just get this over with."

Amelia followed her in.

"Roger doesn't want to attend any of these events, and he doesn't want the station to cover anything related to Cedars' anniversary."

"That's ridiculous. I can attend most of the events but there is no way we aren't covering the hospital's anniversary. It's one of the biggest employers in town!"

"He says...hold on, let me find the exact words; I wrote them down." Amelia scanned the list. "Ah, here we go. `It's a party and parties aren't news unless you're in high school."

Holly scoffed. "He's the one acting like it's high school."

She thought for a moment and then said, "We'll leave it up to Gilly, because I know there's no way she'll agree with him. But it would be embarrassing for us, as a news organization, to not cover something that's noteworthy. Anything else? Only two demands would be a real step forward for Roger."

Amelia bit her lip. "There's one more. You're not going to like it."

"Par for the course from him. Let's get it over with."

"Remember that this isn't coming from me."

"Oh, two disclaimers. This must be a new low."

"He wants you to cancel your vacation," Amelia said in a rush.

"He must have had a traumatic brain injury. I'm going to send him flowers wishing him a speedy recovery, but I am not canceling my vacation."

"He says…"

"I don't care what his reasoning is. It's not happening. Tell him no. Absolutely not."

Amelia nodded. "I'll let them know."

Holly was proofing copy for the 6pm newscast when her phone rang. As it did, Amelia burst in. Holly held up a finger and grabbed the receiver.

"Hello?"

She couldn't hear anything but static.

"Hello?"

A pause, then "Holly?"

"Michelle? I can barely hear you."

"It's my mom. She was in a car accident."

"Were you with her? Are you okay?"

Holly looked over at Amelia, who looked like she was about to start crying.

"She died. I didn't know who else to call. Dad's not okay."

"Okay. I'm on my way."