Although it was freezing cold inside the store, Kate felt like she was on fire. Her body temperature must have hit one-hundred degrees because she was burning up, so hot she couldn't see straight. There were tons of boxes in front of her, each one slightly different from the next. There were pink ones, blue ones, green ones, all colors. Then, they each said something different: EPT, Equate, you name it, it was there. She just wasn't sure which one was for her. Then she saw one, "detect pregnancy five days before your missed period." That sounded like the one she needed.

Quickly grabbing the box before she could change her mind, Kate took it up to the counter where a beautiful woman with greying hair was waiting to check her out. She was almost afraid to let the woman ring it up, knowing that once the woman did, her only choice would be to actually use it.

"Ya nervous hunny?" the woman asked her. She had a down south, country accent, the southern drawl... Georgia, Kentucky maybe. Kate looked at her name tag, Litty-Mae, definitely Kentucky. "You look a mite pale there sweet heart." The way Litty-Mae said sweet heart actually sounded more like sweet-art. It made Kate want to laugh, so she did.

"Yeah, I'm just fine," Kate told her through quiet laughs.

"Well, alrite then. That'll be six dollars and eighty-three cent."

Kate dug through her wallet pulling out the money, slowly realizing what she was paying for. Once again, she grew hot and felt like the walls were closing in around her. Shaking it off quickly, she handed Litty-Mae the money.

"Seventeen cents ya change," she told her after she'd counted the money up. Everytime she talked, Kate heard the accent.

"Thanks," Kate said, taking the bag.

"Ya know... you'll make one pretty momma," the woman told her as she was leaving. Turning her head around, Kate wasn't sure whether to say thanks or to cry, so she just smiled and nodded her head slightly... letting a single tear flow down her cheek.

The walk to her car seemed to take forever and once she finally made it there, she felt exhausted, like every breath was gone from her body. Once again she got that hot feeling, followed by a wave of sickness. Dropping the bag beside her car door, she leaned over in the grass and threw up.

"Have you had morning sickness yet?" she remembered Abby asking her the day before, right after she had gotten over the shock of Tony possibly being the possible babies father.

"Thanks for jinxing it Abbs," Kate said aloud as she straightened herself up and unlocked her car door. She threw the bag with the pregnancy test in it, into the passenger seat and opened up the glove compartment to grab a tissue. She wiped her mouth off and grabbed the water bottle she had in her cup holder and quickly took a sip. She didn't want to swallow it, so she swished it around in her mouth for a moment and spit it out into the parking lot. "God Kate, you look like hell," she said to herself as she looked into the mirror just above her head. She had what looked like raccoon eyes. Throwing up had made her eyes water and her eyes watering had made her mascara and eyeliner run. "Just beautiful." She grabbed another tissue, poured some water on it and wiped the makeup from underneath her eyes. It wasn't perfect, but she figured it was good as she was gonna get, at least until she borrowed some make-up supplies from Abby.

As she went to start her car, she realized what time it was. 8:15, fifteen minutes late for work and by the time she got there, it would be thirty. Gibbs wouldn't be happy about this.

"Where are you Kate?" Gibbs barked into his phone.

"Walking towards you right now."

Gibbs turned to see Kate wasn't lying. She had entered the bullpen thirty minutes late and he was pretty pissed. "What took you so long to get here?" he yelled as he closed his cell phone.

"I'm sorry Gibbs. I just... had a few things to do before I came to work," Kate defended. She had put the pregnancy test in her purseso that she wouldn't look suspicious carrying a CVS Pharmacy bag into work. Plus, Tony would ask less questions this way. She wouldn't have to worry and tell him what was in the bag.

Gibbs could tell by the look on Kate's face that she truly was sorry. It also seemed that something else was on her mind, but he didn't ask. He and Kate had never really talked about things that were bothering her because she wasn't really a tell-all kind of girl. "Just don't let it happen again," he sighed.

"I won't," she promised as she sat down at her desk. Her eyelids felt heavy and her stomach was still a little shaky. "Come on Todd. You can't fall asleep at work, especially after coming in late," she told herself. She noticed that Tony was looking at her strangely, almost as if he knew something she didn't. It made her nervous. What if Abby had told? No, she wouldn't do that. What if Tony just knew? It made her hot again and it made her sick to her stomach. Standing up, she rushed to the bathroom so once again, she could throw up.

"At this rate, I'm not sure I need that test to tell me I'm pregnant Abbs," Kate confided to her best friend while down her lab. "I keep getting really hot, followed by a feeling of suffocation then finally..."

"The throwing up stage," Abby interrupted. "Maybe you're just sick."

"I doubt it."

"Well can I ask you something... again? Since you never exactly answered me before."

"What?"

"What do you want that test to say?"

"God, I don't know."

Abby looked at Kate with narrowed eyes. "Yes you do know."

"I'm not sure. I mean, I've always wanted to have kids someday, but is now that someday? And is Tony that somebody? Lately, I've felt less and less close to him. It's almost as if we're moving apart," Kate explained.

"But who's fault is that? Ever since you found out you 'might' be pregnant you've like been... the ice queen to Tony. I'm surprised he hasn't just said 'screw you' and then went and found himself some hot blonde," Abby said, giving Kate this 'duh' look.

"Yeah me too," Kate whispered.

"God Kate! Can you be that naive? The reason I even said that was so you would realize Tony doesn't want some hot blonde! He wants you... you, Caitlin Todd. How can you not see that? He looks at you all the time with this senseless gaze that makes Gibbs slap him in the back of the head. Plus, you said he told me he loved you. Doesn't that mean anything?"

"It means everything," Kate said, beginning to get weepy. "I guess my only choice now is to confirm what I already know... that I'm pregnant."

"You go do it girl!" Abby yelled, throwing her fist into the air. Then she laughed slightly. "Huh... sorry, I got swept up in the moment. I guess it's just the cheerleader in me."

Thanks Cheezmunky!

Chapter Title- I titled this chapter "Sub Rosa" because everything about the pregnancy is kinda being kept under wraps and hidden from everyone, including Tony, excluding Abby.