Month 6

"Live life to the fullest, because you never know if it's your last day."

Dancing around Babies Galore, Amy tore any cute baby item she could find off of the shelves. Natara kept up the pace behind her, even though her bump was larger than ever and she had trouble pushing the shopping cart.

"…Amy, I honestly don't think we have to add everything to my registry!" Natara stopped around the corner of the pacifier aisle and took a breather. "I mean, I don't need all of this stuff…"

Amy gasped and whirled around, tossing a pack of burp cloths in the shopping cart. "Natara, you need all of these things! Are you kidding me? This is going to be the BEST. BABY. SHOWER. EVER. And then you're going to have the best baby ever!" She continued placing unneeded stuff into the basket, humming Adele songs under her breath.

"…Amy, I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl!" Natara grumbled. "Dr. Johnson recommends I get an ultrasound to know the baby's gender. I have a really strong feeling that it's going to be a girl, though."

Turning around, Amy shrugged. "So? If it's a boy, we'll paint all this stuff blue. If it's a girl, we paint it pink. Bingo!" She praised herself for the original idea and placed a bottle warmer into the overflowing shopping cart.

Natara shrugged and wandered into the boys' section and found a collection of blue onesies, diapers, and photo frames with tiny paintings of baseballs, basketballs, and footballs on the wooden part. "Oh, this is so cute," Natara whispered as she ran her fingers over the frame.

Suddenly, Nat's iPhone vibrated in her pocket. She slid it out of her jeans and saw that she got a FaceTime request from Mal. Mal, you're at work. Please tell me this is important…, Natara thought as she pressed the "Accept" button and a glimpse of Mal frantically running his fingers through his hair appeared on her screen.

"Hey." Natara greeted him.

Mal sighed. "Nat, hey. I just wanted to let you know that I love you more than life itself."

Natara frowned, and her eyes quickly drifted to the low battery warning that appeared on her phone's screen. She turned back to her worried-looking husband. "Mal, I love you too, but shouldn't you be working on the Andrew Talbot case instead of talking to your wife on FaceTime?"

His face fell. "No, Nat…you're so much more important than work. You…"

Heart thumping, Natara could feel that something was not right. "Mal, what's up? Something's wrong. You usually don't randomly say stuff like this when you're at work. Plus, your face is turning pale…are you all right?"

Swallowing hard, Mal tried to nod, but found that he couldn't. "Well, I just thought I should let you know that I love you very much because you're not going to live forever and I'll never know if this morning would be the last time I see you. Because…Nat…Captain Yeong's wife, Jennifer, died this morning. Captain never got to say her final goodbyes."

Natara felt your heart drop. "Mal…oh my…how?" She squeaked out as tears fell down her face, however, she didn't bother wiping them off.

Mal shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "Heart attack. She had heart problems for awhile now, but I guess she never told anyone except Captain and Annie, their daughter…" He looks extremely worried. "What time are you coming to work today, Nat? I want to see you…"

Finally deciding to wipe off her tears, Natara brushed her hand across her face. She didn't care if her mascara smeared, or if she looked ridiculous… "Three-thirty…I—I want to see you, too. I'm working on Pete Smithinson's murder case, but…gosh, today is going to be an off day… How's Captain Yeong?"

Rubbing his temples, Mal sighed. "She left as soon as she heard the news. Her face showed a great sense of apathy when she was leaving, but I'm sure she's very, very sad… I have no idea when she'll be back." He looked sick.

Gulping back more tears, Natara looked around at the busy baby store. "I have to go, Mal…Amy and I are shopping for the baby, but I'll inform her about Captain's loss…it's just awful how the death was so sudden…" she glanced at the painful expression on Mal's face, then tried to brighten it up by bringing a grin to her lips. "I love you so much, Mal."

Mal's pale face regained some color as he smiled. "Love you too…but I have to go now, too; Ken called me in for an urgent meeting with the rest of the precinct. I hope Amy's enjoying her day off…but the SFPD really needs you back, Nat. Three-thirty can't come soon enough."

"…neither can June 12." Natara finished his thought. Both of them knew that June 12 was her due date, so they both shared a quiet smile as thoughts of the baby came to their heads.

"'Bye, Nat." Mal gave her a small wave through the camera.

"'Bye, yourself." Natara touched the "end" button on the FaceTime screen, as the snapshot of Mal's smiling face disappeared.

She gently placed her hand on her belly, threw back her head, and let out a loud sigh.

"You know," Natara began to talk to her belly. Who knows? Maybe the child could recognize her voice. "Your daddy's a wonderful guy. He loves you very much, and so do I. I can't wait until you come into our lives, precious."

The baby responded with a gentle kick.