Hi sweeties! Thank you so much for your really WONDERFUL reviews…. Glad you liked the guy's talk!

And Andrews behaves for now... but will it stay that way????? We will see!

Here's the next chapter!

Chapter 13

4 weeks later...

Brennan's pregnancy was still a secret – mostly thanks to Angela. The artist covered up for her best friend whenever necessary... she distracted their co-workers when Temperance had to make one of her – inevitable – excursions to the restroom. She even found a good excuse for Brennan's refusal to drink alcohol and why she had cut down her caffeine consume, an excuse explaining also her sometimes weaker constitution: Gastritis.

Which sounded good... only that Brennan now had to answer her cravings for substantial food in private. It had been a pretty awkward moment, two weeks ago, when Zach had spotted her, chewing on a massive sub ... with cheese and mayonnaise. Things you usually avoided, like the devil holy water, while suffering from gastritis.

And Zach – being Zach – had started to lecture her, that her gastritis simply could not get any better, when she kept eating like that. She finally had told him it was an experiment, she was trying to determine how she reacted to different types of food. A poor excuse? Maybe. Zach had been giving her a doubtful look... and she had sighed, taken the sub, wrapped it up again and placed it in the fridge... murmuring something about "Leaving it for Booth."

She had not left it for Booth, of course... She had sneaked back to the fridge as soon as Zach was gone... and had eaten the rest of the sub in her office, hiding behind her desk, cursing Angela for inventing a gastritis of all illnesses.

Now she was sitting at said desk, typing furiously, trying to distract herself from her latest craving: Donuts. Donuts, of all things in the world. She shook her head... she never even had liked donuts. Damn hormones.

She only was happy that her morning sickness had settled down to what it was actually called: MORNING sickness. Meaning she fled the bed she shared with Booth every morning to run to the bathroom, but the rest of the day her stomach was being nice to her and remained calm. Except for hunger, that is.

She sighed and paused, considering if she could sneak out the lab to help herself to some donuts... without anybody noticing, that she – again – ate something her gastritis could not approve of. Not likely.

"Eleven days" She told herself. "Only eleven days left."

Eleven days... Which meant, ten days until the doctor's appointment in the evening...

The date represented a small mile stone: The end of her first trimester... and if everything was alright with her and the baby, she and Booth were planning on announcing her pregnancy the very next day. She briefly closed her eyes, wishing the next days to pass quickly. As if her wishes would make time pass by any faster... She shook her head. Foolish, useless thoughts.

Oh, but she was looking forward to it: No hiding anymore... no concealed chocolate boxes in her desk... no god-damn gastritis.

Of course she also was a bit anxious about people's reactions. What would they say? Would they be shocked, that she, Dr. Temperance Brennan, who had always said she did not want children, now was pregnant? Would they be happy for her and Booth?

She sighed and patted her still flat abdomen absently. It did not matter... what mattered most, was that their child hopefully was healthy and that they were planning to give all the love they had to the baby. It simply HAD to be enough, right? And at least Angela was crazy about the prospect of being able to spoil her best friend's child.

Brennan sighed again. She loved her child already... but she was also afraid, despite that Booth had told her – repeatedly – that she surely was going to be a good mother, she still had those doubts: What if she was going to make mistakes?

Booth already had a son, he knew how to be a father, he knew how to do it right.

She remembered, when she had told him that, tears in her eyes – courtesy of her hormones.

His answer, however, had made her feel better: "Temperance, there is no right or wrong. You just try to give your best. It's going to be alright, okay?"

No right, no wrong. Giving your best... she only hoped, her best was going to be good enough. When she suddenly felt her eyes sting with tears once again, she cursed.

She had no control over it anymore... sometimes she just had this urge, this undeniable urge to be emotional, to cry, to let it all out... even though she was not sure WHAT she was letting out.

But fighting the tears did not help – she had tried, oh she had... she was not used to being weak, not used to crying in general and especially not in public.

So far she had managed to keep her new, more emotional side a secret. Not from Booth and Angela, of course... but they knew what caused the change, so she could live with them seeing her cry.

She straightened herself, when she heard a knock at her door... and managed to keep the tears that had been welling up at bay.

Zach entered the room, his face showing that he had found something that was not only interesting but deserved the label 'extraordinary'. Sure enough, when he told her about his latest findings on the case he was working with Booth, his eyes glowed. Scorings, unusual pattern... what he said sounded interesting enough for her to hop to her feet.

'Bad idea' her mind analysed, when her vision started to blur and she felt how a wave of nausea hit her. She would have fallen, if it had not been for Zach. With an insight nobody would have attributed to him, he understood what was happening to her and was swiftly at her side, catching her before she could fall and hurt herself.

Carefully he helped her back into her chair, a worried look on his face. She murmured a weak "Thank you"... and she was just about to collect herself enough to think of an excuse for her near-fainting, when Zach said something that made her jaw drop and her eyes widen.

"You should not stand up that quickly, Dr. Brennan. Pregnant women often suffer from hypotension." His voice was low, as if he wanted to make sure nobody could overhear them.

Brennan blinked. Zach knew? And, what was even more surprising, he had known and never said a word about it. It would have been more Zach-like behaviour to blurt his suspicion out in front of the whole team. Not that she was not thankful that never had taken place.

"You know." She stated after a moment, when the awkward silence had become unbearable.

"How?" The shock reduced her linguistic abilities to monosyllable words.

"Pregnancy changes the female body pretty fast, although not very obvious. But if you know where to look... for instance, the pelvic..." Zach started to recite, but Brennan waved it off.

"Okay, okay. I understand... I should have known you would be able to see it." Brennan sighed. "Since when do you know?"

"I... looked closer after I saw you eating that sub although you claimed to have gastritis." Zach admitted, suddenly a little embarrassed.

"Hm-hm." Brennan nodded. "There is no gastritis."

"I figured." Zach gave back, biting his bottom lip. Obviously, he was not sure how to go on from this point... Personal conversations were not exactly something he had experience with.

"That would be about two weeks... but you never said anything?" Brennan seemed to be confused.

"Ah... I... I made the mistake of asking my sister in front of the whole family how she was doing, when she was pregnant last year. I... did not know that they had not told anybody. Later she told me that she would peel my skin off if I would not learn to keep my mouth shut. She was quite scary, although she usually has no tendency towards violence.

Since YOU on the other hand are trained in martial arts I figured it was safer not to say anything." Zach quickly rattled off his story, avoiding her eyes.

Laughter bubbled up in her throat. "You were afraid of me?" She asked incredulously.

"And of Agent Booth's gun, I have to admit." Zach added, his gaze fixed on a pen on her desk.

"He wouldn't have shot you... I think" She said, still smiling.

"Well,... thank you for keeping it a secret, Zach. Angela knows already, but nobody else. So, please don't say anything. We... want to wait for the next ultrasound before telling anybody."

"Of course." Zach quickly agreed. "I would not want to... infuriate you or Agent Booth."

Brennan chuckled. "Thank you, Zach... also for catching me." She suddenly turned serious.

Zach only nodded and added a stiff. "You're welcome."

Again, uncomfortable and awkward silence took over until Brennan broke it: "You know, I feel way better now. I think I could take a look at that pattern you were talking about."

Zach's eyes lit up in relieve... patterns on bones... that was safe territory. "Good. I have never seen such a pattern before. I already compared it to many different tools, but I did not find anything that matched."

Brennan smiled to herself, while she followed Zach out of her office and towards the platform. She should have known that it had not been sheer politeness that kept Zach silent, but fear. She was looking forward to telling Booth ... he was going to have a great time.

Okay, please let me know, if you liked it!!! Reviews make me VERY happy!

Brennan found out that the woman in "the truth in the lye" was pregnant by simply looking at her, so I figured, Zach should be able to do that too.