Disclaimer: I don't own anything here (except for Al) and am just doing this for fun and to pass the long months until Season 4.

A few days later, Tim was having a meeting with Billy in his office. At least that's what it would have looked like to anyone who glanced in the window. Billy was talking a lot and Tim was nodding gravely while taking notes. Only Billy was complaining about how emotional and hormonal the pregnancy was making Mindy and Tim was drawing pictures of stick figures jumping off a cliff.

Al knocked on the door and came in, wearing her dark blue business suit. She stood behind Tim and put her head on his shoulder.

"Nice – I like the one who looks like he's going to belly flop," she said as she looked down at the notebook.

"You got that meeting with Buddy now?"

"Yeah, lunch at Seven Sisters. I'll try not to be gone too long. I'd hoped to get to working on that jeep today."

She leaned around Tim and kissed him, causing Billy to roll his eyes and mutter good-natured complaints about appropriate workplace conduct.

Al flipped him off, broke off the kiss, and then winked at Tim before walking out and closing the door behind her.

"At least the wedding planning isn't making her crazy. I swear, there were days when Mindy was planning ours that I wanted to find an exorcist to banish the devil from her," said Billy.

"Al seems normal to you?"

Billy nodded. "Yeah. Why? Is something wrong?"

Tim sighed and tossed his pen on Billy's desk. "She's late."

"Late? For lunch with Buddy?"

"No Billy, late Late-late. Like possibly pregnant late."

"Oh.... How late?"

"I don't know because she hasn't talked to me about this at all." Tim's voice was strained and he raked his fingers through his hair while he stared up at the ceiling.

"Then how do you know she's late?"

"I've lived with her for almost two and a half years. I know her. I notice things. And I'm guessing she's at least a month late. Maybe more."

"And she hasn't said a word to you?"

Tim shook his head.

"Damn. Mindy'll tell me if she thinks she's even half a day late. Why do you think she hasn't said anything?"

"Don't know."

"Let me ask you this, Timmy," said Billy, pausing until his brother looked at him. "Would it be happy news if you found out she was pregnant?"

Tim took a deep breath and let it out through puffed-out cheeks as he considered the question. "I'm not going to lie to you. I'd be terrified, of not being ready or of messing up or not being a good dad, but I would be pretty....I don't know.....amazed and sort of, excited."

Billy nodded. He'd gotten that particular news three times already and that was pretty much how he'd felt about it every time. "And what kind of news would it be for Al?"

Tim shook his head. "I don't know. I think she still has mixed feelings about the idea and still feels guilty about Avery. There was no rush on it, so I figured we'd just get through the wedding and talk about it later."

"You don't think she's, you know....doing something about it?"

"Doing something about what? What are you talking about?"

Billy spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "Well, what if she's pregnant and she knows for sure and she decides she doesn't want to have a baby now? What if she's, you know, taking care of it."

Tim's face burned as he considered his brother's question. "No, no way."

"You sure?"

"She might be scared and she might feel guilty, but there's no way she would ever make that kind of decision without talking to me first."

"You remember Mary Beth?"

"That gal you were going with right after Dad left?"

Billy nodded.

"Yeah, vaguely. Why?"

"She did that....didn't tell me until a couple months after the fact, when I didn't understand why she wouldn't let me touch her anymore. She burst into tears and the whole story came out."

"Damn, Billy. What did you do?"

"I broke up with her. I'm not proud of it now, but at the time I was so confused. Angry and relieved and just plain mixed-up, I guess."

Tim shook his head. "No, there's no way I can believe she'd do that."

But in the back of his mind, Tim was thinking about how Al had been acting strange recently. The long bathroom break at Smitty's. The doctor's appointment. The question avoidance after the appointment. It all added up to suspicion in his mind, but suspicion of what, he wasn't sure.