It was the twentieth of December when Nora crumpled the letter she'd discovered on her desk that morning in a tight fist, trying to remember the breathing exercises she'd been taught as a teenager to control her driving-induced anxiety attacks.
This wasn't just an anxiety attack though… well, it was. But it was primarily sheer, unadulterated rage.
It was less than a week until Christmas, a measly two days until she was due to officially go on vacation until the new year.
After all she'd done for the District Attorney's Office this was how they fired her?!
She dropped the piece of paper back onto the desk and smoothed it out, reading through it again in the vague hope that she'd misread whole damned thing…
Dear Nora Fitzsimons,
It is with deep regret that I write to inform you that effective immediately your term of employment at the Boston District Attorney's Office has been terminated. This decision was reached upon receiving the results of your most recent random urine drug test. (Sample Collection Date: 12/15/2076)
While no evidence of elicit substances presented in the sample provided, high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) outlined in the included results confirm the presence of a fetus (Margin Of Error: 0.03%).
In accordance with recent amendments to company policy; the Boston District Attorney's Office reserves the right to terminate the contract of any female employee who becomes pregnant, as the company can no longer afford to absorb the corresponding heightened costs of health insurance premiums or maternity leave due to the current economic crisis.
You have until the end of the day upon receiving this letter to clean out your desk and/or office and vacate the premises. If you choose not to comply your belongings will be packed up for you and you will be escorted off the premises by our security team.
While the Boston District Attorney's Office is saddened by your departure, we happily wish to congratulate you on your-
Nora scrunched up the offending piece of paper once again, she didn't think she could stomach reading the rest of it. She thought briefly of going down the hall and shoving it down Carol's smug fucking throat. That bitch-faced whore was the one to request the damned drug test, she just knew it… she'd been in the bathroom two weeks ago when Nora had barged in and thrown up her lunch... God damn it, she'd been putting those bouts of nausea and vomiting down to stress this whole time. She'd been desperate to get everything squared away at work before she left for Chicago with Nick.
Fuck… she had to tell Nick.
Nora had to clasp a hand to her mouth to muffle the sudden sob that shot up her throat, furiously blinking back the accompanying tears. They'd been so blissfully happy lately… they were practically living together now… she was about to visit his childhood home and meet his mother… she should've known that something would come along to royally fuck it all up.
Nick was running himself ragged trying to bring down one of the biggest crime lords Boston had ever seen, and he was being paid a pauper's pittance to do it. How the fuck was she going to tell him that not only was he going to be father, but the mother of his child was now unemployed?
Yes, she had savings. The fund she'd been nurturing in the event that a sudden exodus to Bikini Atoll was required. But with the exorbitant out-of-pocket costs that came with doctor's visits and hospital trips, astronomical now that she had no employer-provided health cover, she'd be lucky if that money lasted until she went into labor.
Her brain then provided her with a memory from boarding school … the ultimate piece of evidence that she could never be a fit mother. The tears she'd been holding back finally spilled down her cheeks… she wiped at them uselessly with one hand and unconsciously clutched her still flat belly with the other.
After a few minutes of crying and carefully choreographed breathing exercises Nora's despair subsided and gave way to anger once again.
She was suddenly far less enraged over the disgusting injustice of being fired for getting pregnant… and more so over what they'd stolen from her. They'd suddenly told her she was having a baby via a stilted and impersonal notice of termination, before she'd even suspected that her symptoms were related to impending motherhood. If she'd found out from a doctor, or from one of those home tests sold at the drug store, she would have had time to brace herself for the results… to ponder the future… to muster up a tiny bit of fucking happiness overthe concept…
But they'd blind-sided her. They'd wrapped it up in the ugly and abrupt end of her career. They'd stolen away the joy of discovering her own pregnancy… she could never get that moment back.
On auto-pilot now she surged up from her chair, stuffing the crumpled letter and included test results into her ever-present leather satchel. She stormed straight down the hall, right past Carol's shit-eating grin, and into her supervisor's office, demanding a complete and unabridged copy of the current company policy in a tone that invited no argument… even if her supervisor hadn't been born a spineless wimp. He nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to locate and hand over the thick volume bound in metal rings.
Nora dropped it into her bag and made a bee-line for the exit, slowing only to punch Carol right in her weaselly face, a slight crunch reverberating throughout her fist hinting at what was bound to be a fantastic fracture… pity she wouldn't be able to hang around and watch the bruises form… it was scary sometimes how easily Nora could summon-up her violent and sometimes cruel teenage self.
She left the building unimpeded by a security team and headed straight for the nearest train station. The District Attorney's Office could "absorb the cost" of packing up her belongings and posting them to her.
Just one more day… just one more day… just one more day.
That was Nick Valentine's inner mantra as he side-stepped his partner and the ridiculous Santa hat he was trying to force onto the detective's head. The red-headed man's ungainly stumble indicating that he'd been dipping into the Christmas party refreshments several hours too early… Nick wished he could say that Donny was the only one doing this, but the fact that he seemed to be picking up the slack for half the damned precinct told a different story.
Just one more day and he'd finally be on vacation until the new year.
He hoisted the heavy stack of bulging manila folders a little higher up in his arms and scanned the room for a semi-sober officer to take them down to their proper places in the filing room. After giving up and dropping them on a nearby desk he caught sight of the large wall-mounted clock with the corner of his eye… the meeting for the detectives on the Winter task-force was beginning in three minutes.
By some miracle Nick managed to find the room Captain Widmark had commandeered earlier without running into anyone else who urgently needed his help. It seemed he was the first one to arrive, so he took the opportunity to fish out the battered pack of smokes he kept in his coat pocket, his fingers brushing against a black velvet box as he withdrew them.
He shook a cigarette out of the pack and lit it with a practiced ease that stemmed from years of repetition, drawing in and breathing out a long, thin plume of smoke as he pondered the ring he'd been carrying around since October.
After all this time Nick still didn't have a clear idea of how he was going to present it to Nora… not to mention pop the all-important question that came with it. He figured if he carried it around with him he'd either be inspired by it's presence or the perfect opportunity would automatically present itself. The universe had yet to offer him any clear signs however, so for the past week he'd been wracking his brain trying to come up with a romantic scenario he could pull off without too much hassle…
He'd toyed with the idea of waiting until they got to his childhood home in Chicago … it would give Nora and his mother a chance to get to know each other … then once they were getting along he could give her the ring and ask her during the exchange of Christmas gifts.
The drawback to this plan however was if she said no. Not that Nick thought she would, things had only been getting better between them since they'd poured their hearts out to each other in that moonlit park. But on the remote chance that Nora did reject his proposal she'd be stuck in Chicago, with no way to get home until public transport started running again after Boxing Day. He could always drive her back… but he figured if she said no to his offer of marriage then she wouldn't be too keen on the prospect of a fourteen hour road-trip with him.
He fancied the idea of asking her when they arrived back in Boston for her father's New Years Eve party. Waiting until the midnight countdown, then while everyone else kissed their chosen partners, he'd instead drop to one knee and present her the ring.
The drawback to that plan however was that it was a New Years Eve party, meaning copious amounts of booze, and Nora definitely wasn't the kind of woman who passed up an opportunity to get absolutely shit-faced when the occasion encouraged it. He'd either have to run interference the whole night or propose to a slurring drunk… it certainly wasn't the romantic declaration of eternal love he wanted to remember when he was old and gray.
Nick stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray someone had left on the long conference table as Captain Jonathan Widmark finally appeared, depositing a tipsy, giggling Donny in one of the available chairs and taking his seat at the head of the room as the rest of the task-force slowly filed in. All of them displaying varying degrees of drunkenness, none as far gone as Donny though. He shared an exasperated look with the captain, the only other completely sober person in the room. Once everyone had collapsed into a chair, and propped themselves up on the table, Widmark cast a withering gaze around the room.
"I feel so privileged to be working with a team that takes their job so seriously" the captain's sarcasm was drawn out as he fixed each inebriated detective with an icy glare, warming only when he got to Nick sitting at his left. "At least I can count on my lead investigator to stay out of trouble"
Nick would conclude at a later date that the universe both hated his guts and had a truly spectacular sense of timing. Because it was at that exact moment that the door burst open with enough force to slam into wall beside it and make everyone jump in their seats. In the doorway was a furious Nora, red-faced and trembling slightly as she yelled loud enough for the entire building to hear;
"You got me pregnant, Nick Valentine! Which just got me fired!"
God… fucking… damn it…
That wasn't how she'd planned on telling him… not that she'd had much of a plan to begin with.
After a brief pit-stop at a nearby pharmacy (and the restroom available to it's customers) Nora waltzed straight through the police station's front doors and asked Marie with forced nonchalance as to where she could find Nick. Apparently he was due at a meeting in a few minutes so she'd rushed to try and catch him before it began, only to be stopped in the hallway by an officer she could only vaguely recall meeting once, drunk as a skunk and offering her a swig from a half-empty bottle of brandy.
That had been the straw that broke the camel's fragile composure. If there was ever a time in her life where she needed a good stiff drink it was now… but she had a tiny, fragile human being nestled in her womb to think about now. It felt like the universe was mocking her.
By the time Nora succeeded in tracking down the man she loved her unfocused anger still had a firm hold over her… and the words had come flying out of her mouth before she could run them through a slightly more logical portion of her brain.
The stunned silence permeating the room was then crudely broken by a high-pitched whistle from Nick's idiot partner, Donny.
"Way t'go Nicky-Boy! Who'd a'guessed you we're such a love machine?!" he slurred loudly, while clapping his hands in front of him like a drunk, freckled seal. This earned him a hard slap across the back of his head from Captain Widmark, who then turned to a pale-faced Nick still frozen in his chair.
"Detective Valentine, I think you're needed elsewhere" he hinted heavily.
Nick then shook his head and blinked twice, as if dispelling a bad dream after waking, before wordlessly standing up and guiding Nora into the hall with a hand on her shoulder.
Nick simultaneously wanted to vomit and hyperventilate in that moment, but he got the impression that neither of those things were an option right now, not helpful ones at least… so he forced himself to his feet and led Nora to the one place in the building where they had a decent chance of a private conversation.
The smaller of the station's two interrogation chambers was occupied, but Nick recalled that the criminal waiting inside was facing a ridiculously minor charge… he gestured to the door.
"You're free to go, stay out of trouble from now on" the man just stared blankly, which only irritated him. "You deaf? I said get out! Do you really wanna spend the holidays in here?"
Once the nameless offender had scrambled out of the room Nick locked the door behind him and leaned against it heavily, pleading with his heart to slow down before he went into cardiac arrest. When he finally raised his head to look at Nora her expression had shifted from one of unbridled fury to something he'd never seen in her before; complete and utter terror.
He darted across the room and gathered her tightly in his arms just as Nora lost her grip on the tears pooling in her brown, blood-shot eyes. She sniffled against his chest, and for the first time since they'd started dating Nick was incredibly aware of just how tiny she was compared to him.
"You're pregnant?" he breathed against the crown of her head… just in case he'd imagined the scene from a few minutes earlier. She nodded into the front of his shirt, the simple affirmation causing his stomach to churn violently once again… though not unpleasantly.
A baby… their baby… It was a beautiful, radiant thought that filled the detective with a warmth he'd never experienced before, and wasn't sure how to handle… so he settled for pressing a kiss to Nora's hair as he fought back something that felt suspiciously like tears of joy. Then the rest of what she'd screamed earlier popped into his head.
"Wait, how did it get you fired?" he asked. She stepped out of his embrace and reached into the satchel she used for work, pulling out a crumpled roll of papers and handing them to him.
As Nick unfolded them he realized they were wrapped around a plastic stick with a cap on it's end… a home pregnancy test. He'd seen them at the drug store before. Sure enough, there was a tell-tale plus symbol on display in a tiny window on it's side.
Nora sat on the surface of the metal table dominating the room, something she always did when her feet were sore, while Nick scanned what was apparently a letter from her workplace. She started babbling nervously as he absorbed the printed words.
"I had to be sure, just in case they made a mistake… but they wouldn't sack me if they weren't completely sure, right? I've been sick a lot lately too, and I missed my period… oh Jesus, I missed my period twice… I- I thought it was just stress from work, the same thing happened during my college exams, so I didn't suspect… Oh God, Nick… what the hell are we going to do?!"
By this point Nick had finished reading and had to choke down an outraged snarl before answering her;
"Nora, you're a lawyer… a fantastic lawyer at that. The first thing you're going to do is take them to court. This can't possibly be legal" he waved the letter as if to highlight his point. This only made her sob into her hands, and Nick realized the question had been rhetorical.
He moved to stand in front of her and gently ran his hands along her upper arms, though he figured it would do little to comfort her… he'd never seen her so lost before. When she finally removed her palms she looked exhausted, speaking in a flat monotone as she addressed the floor;
"Nick… I can't have this baby"
His blood turned to ice in his veins and his stomach fell somewhere past the floor.
"It's going to be okay, sweetheart" Nick tried to console her, his voice barely above a whisper. "I know you're scared right now, but-"
"Did I ever tell you about Andrea Delaney?" Nora interrupted.
No, she hadn't… but her father had. Back in that fancy theater-district restaurant when Nick had been treated to stories of Nora's tumultuous years at boarding school. Andrea and Nora had bullied each other mercilessly from day one, starting with verbal insults and then escalating over the years into violent confrontations that sounded more like prison riots, rather than fights between schoolgirls. It was unclear who started their feud, and it had only ended because Frank finally caved and brought his daughter home.
"What about her?" Nick asked gingerly… he had a bad feeling as to where this was heading.
"When I was seventeen, Andrea and three of her friends cornered me in a stairwell… she had a switch-blade. I don't remember what I did to make them come after me like that, but I was scared… and angry" Nora paused to take a deep breath. "I tackled Andrea… she fell down the stairs, got knocked out, and I ran and hid in my dorm room"
She pinched the bridge of her nose tightly and screwed her eyes shut, but she powered through her tale with a faltering tone…
"I'd heard the rumors, that's all I thought they were… rumors! It was an all-girls school… we could've filled a library with all the bitchy gossip we spread around. But for once it turned out to be true… Andrea was sneaking out at night and hooking up with a boy that lived nearby… she was pregnant, Nick… I'd heard the rumors but I still tackled her, down a flight of stairs no less! I could've pushed down any of those girls and escaped, but I-"
Nora finally broke off into a fit of tears as Nick clutched her to his chest again… maybe if he held her tightly enough he could push that little broken piece of her heart back into place. After a minute or so of crying into his lapels she finally spoke again;
"I killed her baby, Nick"
"You defended yourself" he corrected sharply, drawing back and holding her firmly by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "There were four of them and one of you, Andrea had a knife! You can't honestly expect me to believe that in that moment you were thinking about a piece of gossip you heard in the lunch line! You disarmed her and ran away… that's more than what the vast majority of victims would do in that situation!"
"I don't deserve this… I don't deserve a child of my own" she sobbed.
"That's bullshit, Nora! You deserve this kid, and any others that you have in the future. And they'll be damn lucky to have a strong, dedicated, fierce, loving dame like you as their mom!"
She smiled a tiny smile at him in that moment, sniffing loudly and wiping at her cheeks as she did so, but it was a balm to his overwrought nerves nonetheless.
"I don't deserve you either" Nora half-joked. Nick gave her a half-smile in return.
"You deserve far more than this old cop" he said. "A lot more than an idiot who forgets to pull out"
"Yeah… way to go, Quick-Draw McGraw" she deadpanned, apparently out of tears to shed, but still soaked in them. Nick reached into his pocket for his handkerchief to give her… and he was finally blessed with a small spark of inspiration.
Nora felt absolutely disgusting, she was covered in her own tears and snot, but she still felt far better than she had all day… all week even.
Maybe getting fired would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Now that she was out of the District Attorney's Office and looking back through the lens of hindsight Nora wasn't sure how much longer she could've kept up the pace she'd been working at … even if she hadn't gotten pregnant.
The concept finally seemed to sink all the way in; she was going to be a mom… she was going to have a tiny, little person with half her DNA and half Nick's to feed and clothe, to nurture and keep safe… where the fuck did one even start?
"Oh God…" she groaned. "This kid is doomed. My mom died when I was seven, and you never even had a dad to begin with. We have no idea what we're doing"
Nick seemed unconcerned by any of this, simply shrugging at her with his hands in his pockets.
"Humans have been doing this for thousands of years. If a neanderthal can figure it out then we probably have a chance" he handed her a wadded-up handkerchief. "Now dry your eyes and let's get out of here before the whole station starts to think we're bumping uglies in here"
Nora gave him a wry smirk… then a puzzled knit of her brows when she realized how heavy his handkerchief was. She slowly went to pull back a corner of the fabric, hoping fervently that he hadn't handed her a gruesome piece of evidence by mistake … once had been more than enough for her.
Instead her brain shut down and all the oxygen left her lungs at once as she set her eyes on the black velvet box. She glanced up at Nick, who merely gestured for her to open it.
The ring was tiny, but it was also the most intricate piece of jewelry she'd ever seen … a gold band with a tiny chain of flowers engraved around it's outside, minuscule diamonds inlaid in the center of each bloom.
"Is… is this what I think it is?" Nora asked with the small amount of breath she'd managed to reclaim.
"I've been carrying it around for a few months now" he admitted. "I wanted to wait for the perfect moment… the perfect place. But you just gave me the best gift I ever thought I could receive… I don't want to wait any longer to start showing you exactly how much I love you… how much I'll always love you. Nora… will you marry me?"
Her body acted entirely of it's own accord; she pushed herself off the table to stand in front of Nick and pulled his head down to hers, covering his lips with a searing kiss as the last drop of moisture left her body in the form of one final tear… this one of pure happiness.
When she eventually pulled back the man she loved was giving her a questioning look. For such a brilliant detective he could be so incredibly dense at times.
"Yes, you idiot! Of course I'll marry you!" she snapped… had the kiss honestly not been enough?
When they finally left the interrogation chamber the hallway was oddly empty. Nick figured he should probably seek out Captain Widmark and get a rundown of the meeting he'd missed. Nora followed her fiance, hoping to apologize to his boss for the scene she'd caused earlier.
They both rounded the corner into the main room where everyone's work-stations were clustered together… only to be nearly blown away into the hall again by a cacophony of cheers and hollering from what appeared to be the entire precinct. The couple looked up and saw a hanging banner hastily constructed from printer paper and tape, proudly proclaiming; Congrats Nick & Nora! in chunky black letters.
"The hell?!" barked Nick. "I thought those interrogation rooms were soundproof!"
Captain Widmark grinned smugly at his lead investigator.
"They are… but after Internal Affairs caught those officers assaulting suspects the chief had cameras installed… and microphones"
Well… at least they could prove they hadn't had sex in there.
Author's Note: Whew... that was a long chapter, but it was necessary, a lot of important stuff happened after all. Hope it wasn't too sappy or too ridiculous. On an unrelated note; I'd like to remind you all that I'm a born and raised Aussie, so I'm not exactly fluent in Americanisms like date format, the imperial system or that ridiculous healthcare system you Yanks have :/ Henceforth I'd like to apologize for anything I happen to get wrong and implore you all to let me know if I make a mistake or a miscalculation.
Next Chapter Preview: Nick and Nora head to Chicago for Christmas, Nora finally gets all the dirt on her future husband, and Nick gets an ass-whoopin' from his tiny elderly mother.
Your wonderful reviews continue to sustain me :)