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WILL BE DELETED MAY 22.

REGINA TIPTOED around the room while Robin lay sleeping. She dressed and applied her makeup carefully ensuring she covered the fatigue. Nausea settled in her stomach. All morning, she took sips of water to try and ease it without luck.

As she slipped on her heels, Robin stirred. "What time is it?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up.

"It's 7:30. Go back to sleep."

She put her blazer on and reached to grab her purse. He took her hand and pulled her down to sit. "Why didn't you wake me up? We're gonna be late."

"I think you should stay home. You didn't sleep much last night." She touched his cheek.

"I'm fine." He avoided her eyes and frowned.

Taking his face in her hands, she kissed his cheek. "No, you're not. Your father died. You haven't had time to process it. It took me…"

"I'm not you," he said cutting her off. When he registered the hurt on her face, he sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm not gonna sit around and wallow."

"Okay. Well, I told Vickey I'd meet her this morning. I'll see you there?" She tried to withdraw but he held her in place.

He reached up and tapped under her eyes, "You look tired and a little green."

She rested a hand on her belly, "I'm nauseous but once I eat something it'll go away, I'm sure. I've gotta go."

"Alright. I'll meet you there. Apologize for my tardiness." He touched his lips to hers and she picked up her purse, smiled at him, and walked out.

When he was alone, he sat in silence for a couple of minutes. He let the sorrow and grief engulf him. He slumped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. He was worried about his mother.

Funeral arrangements had to be made. They'd have to go back to London. That put dread in his gut. Regina had an OB appointment the next day. He put in a call with the realtor to set up a showing of the house.

There was so much on his plate but all he could focus on was his father's death. He was gone. His mother was alone. It saddened him that he'd never meet his children. Never be by his side to walk down the aisle and marry the love of his life. It was overwhelming.

He gave into despair for a few minutes. Let himself wallow and quickly became annoyed with himself before getting up and heading to the shower.

THE CONFERENCE ROOM was set up with laptops, notepads, pens, a recording device, and pastries in the center of the table. As Regina sat down, Belle set two pitchers of coffee on the table.

"There's tea, milk, or water. What would you like?"

Regina smiled, "Coffee. Don't tell Robin."

They grinned at each other. "I'll bring the tea and water anyway. David has a few boxes of donuts in there too."

"Too much sugar," Regina frowned.

"There are a few breakfast bars. There's oatmeal, chocolate chip, or crip biscuits."

"The oatmeal sounds good. Thank you."

Belle smiled, "Sure. I'm so happy for you."

David came in with boxes in one arm, a briefcase in the other. "Took this from your office. Robin said you'd need it."

"Thanks, is he here?"

"On the way, said he had a stop to make first." David glanced down at the mug of coffee in her hand. "If I were you, I'd finish that before he gets here."

She rolled her eyes. "He's not the boss of me. One cup of coffee is perfectly fine. I need it." Belle came in and handed her a breakfast bar while setting a pitcher of water on the table.

"Thank you, Belle."

David shook his head, "This is going to be entertaining seeing the two of you bicker over what you can and can't eat." He paused, "How's he doing?"

"I don't think it's hit him yet. He's quiet and withdrawn. I think he's hiding his grief from me." Taking a bite of her bar, she felt her stomach protest.

"You both have a lot going on." He rubbed her shoulder in comfort.

"I know." Her stomach rolled and she drank more coffee to try and settle it. It didn't work. "I just…"

"You okay? You look sick." He looked concerned.

Setting her cup aside, she stood and rushed to the ladies room. Just in time, she stepped into the stall and emptied her stomach.

After cleaning up, she walked out of the bathroom to see Maggie standing waiting for her. "You okay? David said you got sick."

Pouting, she rubbed her belly. "I don't feel so great."

"You're pregnant. You'll have to get used to it." Smirking, she held her waist and guided her.

Groaning, they walked down the hall. "Wonderful."

Inside the conference room, she spotted Robin sitting to the right of her chair. Her coffee cup was gone. They met eyes and he scanned her face. Glanced at where her cup had been and gestured to the other side of him. This is going to get old quick, she thought.

Sitting, she turned to Vicky who was already announcing their daily agenda. Robin reached over, squeezed her thigh, and returned to write. He pushed a bottle of water to her.

Grateful for the gesture, she took a deep gulp as Gold ushered Sean Mueller into the room.

Belfrey stood and shook his hand, "Mr. Mueller thank you for coming. I'm Victoria Belfrey, we have Regina Mills and Robin Locksley. They are civil attorneys working closely with our firm."

"Pleasure," he said accepting the seat that he was offered.

Vickey settled, "Before we get started, you can help yourself. We'll be recording this meeting and recording it on the transcript. We'll ensure you get a copy."

"That's fine," he said reaching for the coffee.

"Are you ready?" Belfrey picked a pen poised to jot down his responses.

"Yes."

Robin began, "Mr. Mueller what was the date of your hiring and your position?"

"March 2, 2018, I was hired as an assistant coach for the men's basketball team."

"What was the date of your termination?" Robin had a calendar set beside him adding the date of events.

"February 24, 2019."

"What was the reason for your termination to the best of your knowledge?"

Sean was silent a moment and asked, "According to the documents or the truth?"

Belfrey said, "Why don't you tell us both. It's important to have as much information as possible."

He took a sip of his coffee, sat back. "I was dating Jannie Shantz for a few months. Her father is Paul Shantz, he's the head of the athletics department. He approached me after Christmas, asked me to break it off. I didn't. A month later, I was fired."

"What did your documents say was the reason?" Regina asked.

"Poor performance," he said bitterly. "I tried to counteract it but my request for a fair hearing was denied."

Robin asked, "Is there anything else you'd like to add? Any other reason you'd be let go?"

Sean shrugged, "I'm sure there could be clever reasons."

"Do you mind elaborating?"

Sean didn't speak for more than a minute. "I suppose it could be said that the athletic department isn't as clean as you'd imagine."

Regina crossed her legs and rose a brow, "Clean?"

He met her eyes, "Yea, clean. I've heard and witnessed some, shall we say, prosperous events."

"Such as?"

"Parties, dinners, fundraisers. All normal in the athletic entertainment. Add in a few lucrative investments, drugs, women, and you'll find some tainted contributions to the department."

Belfrey asked, "Did these events cross into illegal territory?"

"Is prostitution legal," he challenged?

"No. What sort of drugs?"

"That I can't attest to. I've had limited contact and have limited knowledge," he said reaching for a donut. As he chewed on the treat, everyone was writing down his answers.

"What was your involvement in these events?" Belfrey leaned forward slightly.

"I helped with catering and ensured my team members were in attendance. I usually snuck off with Jannie after they started."

Robin asked, "So, other than planning the party, you have no input in attendance?"

"No."

A few more questions were asked, they went into more detail about Paul Shantz and his agenda. When they'd passed one hour and into two, they finally ended the deposition. They made plans for further questions if needed.

Regina's stomach was still uneasy, she didn't have much in it. She'd taken a few bites of her breakfast bar. "Well, that went as good as I'd hoped."

Vicky nodded, "I guess. He's not telling the full truth, but he gave us more than I thought he would. I'll look into the legalities. I'll work with my colleagues. See what can be done."

Robin stood to gather his things, "Good. Let's reconvene next week. I'm sure we'll have more by then."

Vicky agreed, "Yea. I'm headed out. I'm grabbing some food and I'm due in court."

"Thanks, Vicky."

The sky was overcast and dark when they arrived at Regina's apartment. They'd spent the afternoon eating lunch and translating the recording to a transcript. It had taken hours, but they'd taken turns.

"The food should be here soon," he announced from the bedroom.

Regina was lounged on the couch, a hand over her belly. The nausea wasn't going away and she'd barely eaten. "It's not worth it," she said.

"Tomorrow we'll ask the doctor advice on how to help with it," he said walking in and sitting next to her. He rested his hand on her belly. "It could be because you stopped taking your meds."

"I thought of that, but I don't know." Her eyes were closed, she looked pale. "How are you?"

She turned her head to face him. "It helps to be busy. To stay busy. Speaking of…" He pulled out his phone. "I went by the realtor's office this morning."

"What? Why?"

"We talked about it. The house. We have an appointment in two weeks. They're making repairs to the roof. They said the rains damaged one of the bedrooms. They're replacing the entire roof and redoing the room."

"Robin." Tears sprang to her eyes. "Two weeks?"

He took her hand, "A walkthrough. To see the house. I want to go through our finances and see what we can swing for a down payment."

"My father's house is being sold. I was thinking of using that."

"Have you heard from the buyer? Have they decided?"

"Not yet. I should hear from them by the end of the month. If that goes well, we should see closure by the end of the year." The doorbell rang and he got up to get the food.

He held out his hand for her and led her to the kitchen. There they unpacked the food from the bags. "I have some savings that I haven't touched. If I need to dip into it, we can."

"What about the funeral?" She hated to bring it up, but it was on her mind.

"My father left a will. It's all covered with the combination of life insurance and his savings."

"Oh. My father left me some money, but I put it all into the house. I've been saving for about three years. I was close to being able to afford the deposit without having to take out a loan."

He pushed a bowl of fruit at her, "You're not alone. I think if we pool our finances together, we can swing it."

Taking delicate bites, she ate while he talked about his plans. Plans for the money, asked her opinion on furniture, what she wanted. He told her what he wanted. It was nice to express her wants and her needs. To be understood and to share her passion with him.

When they lay in bed, Robin rested his head on her belly. "Do you want a boy or a girl?" His fingers cascaded up and down her side in soft feather-like strokes.

"Before I met Roland I never thought about it. But after spending time with him, I think it'd be fun to have a little boy. Take him camping, fishing, teaching him how to throw a baseball like my dad taught me."

He raised his head, "You can throw a ball?" The grin on his face had her smiling.

"Yes, I can."

"You're gonna have to prove that to me soon. I want a girl," he said pressing his lips to her belly. It was firm and flat and soon to grow. "I want her to look just like you."

"Well, one of us will get what we want." She closed her eyes. "I'm tired."

He stretched out next to her and held her. "I know. Sleep. We've got that appointment in the morning. Then, we'll call my mom."

She took his hand, kissed it. " 'kay."

Archie Morrison was a red-headed, broad-shouldered, handsome man. Even if he was in his late fifty's it put an uneasy feeling in Robin's gut.

"Regina? I'm Dr. Morrison." His accent was thick Scottish drawl. "We're gonna see what's going on in there. Aye?"

"Yes."

Robin held her hand, she was laying on the bed in a gown, her legs were sprawled out on metal forceps and she was exposed to the room. A thin paper cloth was all that was covering her. She shivered.

"Do we know the date of conception?"

"No, I had an IUD. This wasn't planned," she said glancing at Robin.

"Did you remove the IUD?" He typed in a few things on a computer.

"Yes, in London. Once I found out it was removed." Regina was shaking. Robin rubbed up and down the side of her arm for comfort.

"Alright. Since we're not sure how far along you are, we'll do an internal ultrasound. First, I'm gonna do an internal pelvic exam. It'll be like your routine pap smear. Alright?"

"Pap smear?" It sounded barbaric, Robin thought.

Dr. Morrison was patient and didn't look at him with disgust. Robin was nervous. Why the hell was he nervous? "We enter this into the vagina." He pointed at a device on a tray. "Then, we use this to swab the inside of the vaginal wall. It'll be tested for any abnormalities or diseases."

Robin swallowed. Regina squeezed his hand. "It's fine."

"Alright." The doctor washed his hands a small sink and put gloves on and a mask. He sat on the stood and asked her to scoot down a little. He spread her legs apart and lifted the sheet.

Robin's stomach fluttered when he watched the doctor slide the device into Regina and flinched when he heard clicking. He squeezed her hand and watched him put the long q-tip into her and pulled it out. He took the device out and covered her with the sheet.

"Alright, you can relax." He put the q-tip into a bag and sealed it. Wrote something on it and took his gloves and mask off, washed his hands, and typed on the computer.

"I'll be right back with the ultrasound machine and we'll take some measurements." He smiled and left the room.

"How often do you women have to do that?"

"Every year," she laughed. "It's not pretty."

"That didn't hurt? When the thing clicked open, I about threw up. It looked painful."

"I barely felt it."

"Then, why are you shaking?" He used his hands to try and warm her arms.

"I'm cold."

"I didn't know he got that close and personal," he grumbled.

Before she could retort, Dr. Morrison walked in with an ultrasound machine being pulled behind him. "Okay. This is Aoife. She's gonna help us today."

"Hi. We're gonna get the machine set up and I'll take some measurements. If you're far enough along, you'll get the hear the baby's heartbeat."

Dr. Morrison excused himself. Aoife washed her hands and put gloves on. "Ready?"

Regina nodded. Robin's eyes widened when he saw her put clear jelly on a probe that looked like an erect penis. He watched as the probe disappeared under the gown and saw Regina close her eyes.

"Try and relax."

He felt marginally better that Aoife seems to have her eyes on the machine. She kept pushing buttons and focusing intently on what was in front of her.

When she clicked on a few more buttons, she turned the screen. "Okay, here it is." She pointed to the screen that looked like a radar screen from a video game to him.

"What am I looking at?" He leaned forward to get a closer look.

"Here." She pointed to a small white dot within the back. "This is your baby. It looks like you're about seven and a half weeks along."

"Wait. When was that?" He looked at her and tried to think back.

"Your due date is August 19. Give or take a few days. You wanna hear the heartbeat?"

"Yes," Regina said.

The room filled with a loud thumping noise. Thump Thump Thump. Robin looked at her and they grinned. Tears were falling down her face. "That's our baby." He leaned down and kissed her gently.

After the appointment and they'd sat to eat lunch, they sat on the couch at Robin's apartment. He was packing what he needed to take to Regina's. The rest he'd put in storage.

Boxes lined the walls, the walls were bare, the cabinets were empty. "I'm excited to tell Amelia about the baby."

"Yea, but I'm not sure how she's gonna take you not being sick. She's hurt and I hate that she's alone."

"Robin, you can't feel guilty about it. You said August and Leroy were helping with the arrangements. She's not alone."

"I guess. I just want her here. I wish she didn't live so far away. Come on, let's call."

Regina dialed the number and put the call on speakerphone. "Hello."

"Hi, ma. It's me." "And me," Regina added.

"Oh, Robby. I was just leaving the funeral parlor. Pastor John was finalizing the church program."

"Are you okay?" Robin could hear the grief in her voice. The sullen and sadness.

"I'm as well as I can be given the circumstances. How's my girl?"

"Well, that's what we called to talk to you about. There have been some new developments."

"Developments? What developments?"

Robin linked his fingers with Regina's, kissed her fingers. "We went to the doctor today, mom. Heard the baby's heartbeat. I think it was the best day of my life."

Regina smiled. "I wish you could've been there to hear it."

"Me too, dear."

"Amelia, I found out that I don't have cancer."

"What are you talking about? I saw the papers. Don't you lie to me young lady."

"It seems that the medications I was taking threw the test off. I have an auto-immune disease. But I don't have cancer."

"Oh, praise God. What does that mean? Auto-immune?"

"I…" She'd yet to tell Robin about it She looked at him as she explained. "A couple of years ago, I went to the doctor for some stomach issues. It took them some time to diagnose what was going on. After a month, I found out I have IBS."

"Irritable" bowel?"

"Yea. I've been on anti-inflammatory drugs since then. I guess with the hormones of the pregnancy and the drugs, they thought the cells in my breasts were cancerous." Regina leaned back against Robin's chest.

"Thank God. So, does this mean that the baby is going to be fine? That you're not sick?"

"No, ma," Robin spoke before she could. "The doctor said that she had to stop her meds. Now that she's off them we're meeting with the gastroenterologist next week."

"Well, that puts my heart at ease, Robby. Regina you hang in there dear. I've got to meet Shannon. I'll call again. Love you."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Robin said in her ear, "You know what I figured out?"

"Hmm?"

"I know when we conceived," he said softly. She shifted to face him.

"Oh?"

He took her face in his hands and kissed her once, twice, and lingered on the third. "Aoife said we conceived on the twenty-seventh. She also said it was give or take a day or so."

"So?"

"Regina, the mixer was on the twenty-eighth. The night you told me you loved me. The night I told you I loved you." He kissed her. "We made love that night."

"I…Thanksgiving? Wow."

"Yea. To think that you were pregnant this whole time. It makes sense," he laughed.

"What does?"

He took her hand, "It sure does explain how emotional you were the entire trip. Moreso than before we left."

She shoved him playfully, "Oh, stop it. I wasn't all that emotional." He raised his brow. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Fine. I guess I have been."

"Hey." He looked into her eyes, "I love you and I'm happy. I was a bit freaked at first but the more I get used to the idea, the more I imagine our life together."

"You freaked?"

"We didn't plan it. After Greta I didn't think I'd get the chance and to think that I was irresponsible again…" He sighed, "I was pissed at myself. I should've been more careful. I should've had more respect for you."

"It's okay. I know that we didn't plan this but I want this baby. I want to marry you no matter how much that terrifies me."

He kissed her fingers. "I know that you're scared and that you had a finance. I promise to love you and to care for you and this baby. Boy or girl. We're lucky. We have what most people only dream of."

"I know." She reached up and pulled him into for a kiss. "I love you too."

"How about I carry you to bed, give you a massage, and we replicate how we made love on Thanksgiving?"

With her giggling, he pulled her to her feet, picked her up off her feet, and carried her toward the bedroom.