Thought I would give ya'll something to keep you occupied over the holiday. Hope everyone is having a happy one of whatever they celebrate and if you are lucky enough to be at a certain concert...

We all froze as the phone rang. I finally reached down and grabbed it, answering it quickly before whoever it was hung up thinking that no one was around. I gave a strangled , "Helloo?" before realizing it was daughter calling to make sure I had the right gate numbers and arrival time for her as well as ensuring that I had picked up her school schedule and supplies so she would be prepared to go back with no complications. Once my heart started beating again, I told her that it was all taken care of and that I had even picked her up a new backpack and a few other things so that she wouldn't have to stress anything,(anything excepting the pending arrival of a new sibling before then end of her Jr year)and that I was planning on taking her shopping for clothes the weekend after school started or if that wasn't satisfactory, she could go with her friend and my debit card, something that never failed to make her deliriously happy and me more than a little broke for a few weeks following. Once I got off the phone with her, the guys and I made sure we had our stories straight and we planned to form a united front and tell her after giving the young Rock Star a full week to respond to the text I had sent.

Picking up daughter at PDX was an adventure. Truthfully I hated going there and dealing with the crowds and all the rent a cop security drones that tried to play the stereotype hard core badass, and while most of the security people were just doing their jobs the best they could, it never failed that there was always some chode that had to take things too far and I had to educate them. I parked and got my bag and headed in, wearing a little baggier clothes than normal because lately my boobs had taken on a life of their own and had actually gone up a full cup size. I wasn't showing anywhere else, and the worst of the morning sickness had seemed to pass, but I still got queasy at strong smells and prone to hormonal fits of temper that made my usual temperament seem pleasant and mild, so as I walked into the waiting area I planned to just find an out of the way spot and hang out until daughter came out through baggage claim. I luckily didn't have to wait long, but I almost didn't recognize my daughter. She was not only tanned with lighter hair, she had gotten taller and filled out the rest of the way and she looked a lot older than a nearly 17 year old. I felt my heart twinge watching her walk up as I realized she was going to be leaving for college in just two short years, about the time her new sibling was hopefully potty training.

She hugged me tightly and then looked at me funny and stepped back, "Mom, you have gained some weight! Have the Captain and J.D. been over-feeding you junk food all summer long?" I laughed as I thought about what my diet had been lately, and junk food would not even remotely come close to its universe. My guys were taking the whole, " Birth coach" thing very seriously and they had been bringing me healthy food on a daily basis and on weekends we just gave up and ate meals together for company unless they had plans to go somewhere or we had work related commitments. They had become my family, I hoped daughter would be accepting of it, even if she was initially freaked out by the whole situation, because there had not been a peep back from the young Rock Star, and I really didn't expect one.

We arrived back to the apartment and she headed into her room to unpack and call all her friends to let them know she was back home. Her best friend wasn't due to return from Hawaii until a week after school started due to some family thing that was going on, but daughter was already arranging her social calendar and planning to hit the mall with several of her other cronies as soon as I gave the okay and my debit card. I debated just letting her go, but she had just gotten home and I wanted to spend some time with her, so I told her that I would let her go next weekend, and I would even let her take the car,(a rare occurrence since she had managed to get a speeding ticket on her permit and earned my ire) that was some successful negotiating, and we worked together in companionable silence for a bit, preparing a light dinner and chatting about how much she enjoyed her vacation over the summer. I hoped she would still talk to me once she realized that a few things had changed around her life. She reached over and plugged in her Ipod and some familiar but different sounding music came rolling out. She sold me that the young rock star and his band had just released their new album and for the first time it had actually been featured on music television! "See mom, I TOLD you those guys were headed for the big time, and as she did her , " Told you so" dance on the way to the table with the salad, I thought to myself that I was glad he was doing well, and I wondered if I was even a blip on his radar.

In typical teen fashion, daughter was so busy in her own little world and the drama of getting ready to go back to school and re-bond with her friends that she didn't notice anything was different for weeks and weeks. The Captain and J.D. both managed to accompany me to the amnio and we got the results a week later that not only was everything looking perfectly normal and healthy, but that it was a boy. A boy. Wow…I had always thought a little son would be fun to raise, and I knew he would have some of the most positive and loving male role models that any little boy could ever want to have. I could no longer hide the fact something was going on in my belly, and the fact that daughter had not noticed was beginning to freak me out just a bit. Was my daughter that damn self-absorbed that she didn't notice I now had a pronounced bulge and my boobs would have made Dolly Parton say, "Daaayumm!" she hadn't even noticed we had cleaned out my office. Did she need glasses? Was she over scheduled? What the hell? I was beginning to get a little pissed off about it and then the other shoe dropped.

We were in the kitchen cooking dinner on a Saturday, before she left with her friends to go to a movie. The Captain and J.D. were trying to drag the grill under the awning so the wouldn't get soaked while cooking the chicken, when daughter looked at me and for the first time seemed to see me. ' Mom, you have put on some weight, what is going on with you? You look all kinds of different." I rapped sharply on the kitchen window, and gave them both the "The shit is going down!" look and they dropped what they were doing and came in the porch door looking like they were getting ready to face a firing squad. "Hun, you need to sit down a minute and we need to talk." 'MOM! ARE YOU OKAY!" 'Im fine, but seriously, lets sit down and I need you to listen to me a minute." J.D. came up behind her and put an arm around her and guided her to a chair as she looked like she was going to have a heart attack. "What the hell is going on, are you dying?" I shook my head and said, " No, I'm not dying, there is no easy way to say this so I am just going to be blunt, I'm pregnant."

I expected a lot of things from her; including tears , a tantrum, anger all kinds of stuff, but I did not expect her to laugh. "Im not joking. I am really pregnant." "Oh I didn't think you were joking, I am just amazed that you took so long to tell me and that you look so freaked out about it. I am not stupid, MOM! I am an honors student and a cops daughter, so I kinda figured something was a when I first got back and you had grown boobs and a belly and the office was empty. How far along are you?" I told her I was right at 5 months before I realized that she might put more than two and two together, and as soon as I said that, I saw the realization dawn on her face. I shook my head at her subtly and made eyes at the Captain and J.D. She looked like she was going to choke for a minute or two and then she asked, "Are you going to keep it?" "Him, yes, I am going to keep him, and my two coaches here are making sure that I am doing everything I am supposed to be doing to make sure he is healthy." "Well, then I guess you better add me to the roster because now you have another coach on your team and I will be on you 24/7." It was like a weight had been lifted off of me once I knew she wasn't going to hate us all and that I didn't have to lie to her. I knew me and her would be having a much more interesting talk after the Captain and J.D. went home, but with her knowing who the father really was, it made life much simpler, I hoped.

Dinner was a relaxed a jovial affair with the Captain and J.D. teasing me about thinking I was being ignored by my daughter. She gave them an appraising look and then really dropped a bomb on them by saying, " So how long have you two been together?" I thought that they were both going to fall out of their chairs as they looked at me to rescue them, and I just shook my head and said, " You were just flipping me shit about thinking she was unobservant, well it looks like her gaydar is up and working just fine now, so go ahead, answer her." The Captain reached over and caught J.D.s hand and said, "We have been together a total of around 7 years, it just took me awhile to come to my senses an realize that he was where I wanted to be." "So are you out?" she was going to cut right to the chase and both men looked a bit uncomfortable with their response, " We aren't deeply closeted, but we keep a kinda personal if they don't ask, we don't tell kinda lifestyle and we don't flaunt it in public." "But the mayor is gay, so I don't think it would be a big deal around here, after all, this is Portland, its like San Francisco North" We all laughed at that one, and I had to remind her that the law enforcement world often had very different rules than the rest of the world, and that if they wanted to be quiet about their personal life at work, then that was their decision, "Well, be yourselves around here, I mean my GOD way to send off confusing signals to a girl J.D.!" He blushed as red as a fire engine and apologized to her as she laughed and threw a napkin at him.

After they left and she called and cancelled her movie date, we finally got to sit down and have the conversation I knew was going to be the most difficult . "Okay mom, you realize I am pretty close to a legal adult now, correct?' I said I understood and she looked at me square in the eyes and said, " You know I can do math, and that I know all about pregnancy and such things from health class and from you drilling that kinda crap into my head from day one, right?" I again agreed. " So what in the actual FUCK? That was YOU and him in the back of the car wasn't it? You boned the hottest rock star I have ever known and managed to get knocked up by him? Jeebus, MOM!" I cringed as she just looked at me like I had killed her favorite puppy. "My little brother is the son of the hottest rock star in the world, and I am going to be half sister to his child…that makes him now totally undoable!" Oh my God she was mourning her lost potential to get laid by the young rock star. I was officially going to ground her for the rest of her life and throw up all at the same time.

I broke out the ultrasound pictures of the baby and showed her the video of the 3d ultrasound and that one blew her mind and had her commenting that she thought the baby had his nose already. I laughed and let her ramble away but then I made sure that she was aware of the reality of the situation, " I sent him a message when I first found out I was pregnant. I gave him the opportunity to be involved or to walk away and I never got a response. I am not planning on naming him on the birth certificate or contacting him again. He was made aware, he knows, but he has chosen not to respond and we don't need him. The Captain and J.D. have offered to either be named as his father and to step up and raise him. They are both legally named as your and his guardians should anything ever happen to me, so I hope you can get used to those two chuckleheads." She laughed at me and said, " First off you are too mean to die, heaven doesn't want you and hell is afraid you will take over is what you have always told me, and second, I have considered them my family for as long as I have known them, they are perfect. Have you thought about names for him yet?"

We talked into the evening about possible names and even made up a list of potential names, some that even gave recognition to the young Rock Star by naming my son after a friend of his who had passed, but we decided that we would wait until the baby was actually here and we met him before we settled on a final decision. Daughter was onboard with keeping her brothers paternity quiet because she knew the kind of storm of controversy that would bring down on all of us, along with ridicule, if it was denied outright, so she agreed to just be exited and if anyone pressed for a fathers name, she would name J.D. as my sons father due to the fact that the young Rock Star and him had similar features.

Daughter was no less of a fan of the young Rock Star because of his failure to want to be involved with the baby, she was actually giving him the benefit of the doubt and asking me to consider that maybe he didn't get the message at all. I had thought about that, but I simply couldn't find the time to worry about it with my rapidly expanding body dominating every waking and sometimes sleeping moment. I had been put on light duty now that I was the size of most patrol cars, and I simply chafed at all the restrictions I found myself under. My SWAT team had been called out several times and I wasn't even allowed to respond to the scene as an advisor. The Captain threatened to have me put in restraints if I so much as even came up on the radio, so I had begrudgingly gone home to put my vastly swollen feet up and listen to the results on the scanner along with the rest of the civilians.

The baby was big and active and I felt like he was already well versed in Judo by the time the end of the 8th month rolled around and the doctor dropped a bomb on me. It was just me and J.D. at this particular appointment and he was old hat at the routine. I was a bit cranky because my back had been hurting like hell and the typical heart burn was surely leaving scorch marks in my throat as I burped burps that would have impressed truck drivers and J.D. laughed at me as they made my eyes water. I threatened to start sending them down the other direction and that shut him up for a bit, but in all actuality I was too chicken to do that, because with a giant baby pushing on things, I wasn't sure it was a safe bet.

The doctor came in and looked at me, "You aren't going to like me very much but because of your back ache, and your age, and just to settle my head because you are stubborn as shit and I know you are still working even though you should already be on maternity leave, I am going to check you." Son of a bitch! Just what I wanted, her cold assed fingers rammed up my hoohah on a day when I am gassy and uncomfortable and my back hurts. I groaned and tried to whine my way out of it, but J.D. just started helping her get me into position and he was easing me back as she pulled my pants off, and before I could even bitch too loud about things she cussed, "Fucking fuck! I knew it Swan, I hope like hell you have your calendar cleared because you aren't going home, you are going directly to the hospital."