From good to bad in eight to one
"I've been awake for awhile now,
you've got me feeling like a child now
'Cause every time I see your bubbly face,
I get the tinglees in a silly place.
It starts in my toes
and I crinkle my nose
where ever it goes, I always know
that you make me smile
please stay for a while now
just take your time
wherever you go."
-Bubbly, Colbie Caillat
Thanks to my song mistress Mauveine!!
Monday morning dawned bright and early. Despite the gorgeous sunshine and electric blue skies and thick white clouds and the breeze that kept the temperature in the delightful low eighties, a pallor had fallen upon the residents of New York City, and most significantly, the members of both the NYPD and FDNY. Two short days away from the sombre seventh anniversary of September 11th. Every one within the two departments had lost someone that day. Whether it be a close friend or relative or a co-worker and in some cases, such as Mac's, a dearly loved spouse. Every year when the anniversary rolled around, tempers and nerves seemed to be frayed and emotions at an extreme low. In two days family and friends would gather at Ground Zero. No longer a desolate hole in the ground, the construction was finally beginning to take shape on what would be known as the Freedom Tower. Although it was unspoken, many disagreed with anything being done with the sight, feeling it was a mass grave yard and breaking the soil would be nothing short of desecration. Many would have rather seen a memorial park, such as the one that graced the grounds of the former Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that Timothy McVeigh had blown to hell and gone thirteen years ago.
Sam was thinking about September 11th and her own personal views on rebuilding on the Ground zero site (she found it disgusting and that building another tower just as high, if not more, was just asking for someone to come along the knock the damn thing down all over again. Why give someone the chance? She kept said views to herself, as September 11th was still a raw, open wound for some, including Flack who'd lost friends that day, and she didn't want to offend or hurt anyone) as she and Carmen ate breakfast at one of the tables in the lab break room. They'd both gotten there well ahead of their scheduled nine o'clock start. Carmen had come in with Speed who'd had to be in autopsy for eight, and Sam had arrived just before seven thirty because Flack had a eight o'clock task force meeting with ATF and DHS regarding an upcoming bust he was taking part in.
"What are you thinking about?" Carmen asked her friend around a mouthful of banana muffin, steaming coffee in a travel mug to her left. Watching as her friend stared thoughtfully out the window while munching on a breakfast burrito from McDonalds. Two, actually. Along with a hash brown and a tea and container of apple juice.
"Hmmm?" Sam replied, snapping out of her daze.
"You're never this quiet." Carmen told her. "Ever. You're usually so cheerful in the morning. Which, may I add, makes me want to punch you out some times."
"I was just thinking about the disaster that took place at Don's parents last night."; Sam said, telling a half truth.
"Oh God. What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that when he got home he was upset and refused to talk about it. I've never seen him that upset so you just know that whatever happened, was not good. And now I have to worry about when my mom and Sarge are going to show up." Sam shook her head. "And the doctor said to avoid stress. Yeah, right."
She was also not impressed that when she arrived that morning and checked the duty roster, she found herself stuck in the lab spending her time between AV, trace and lay out. It was the beginning of the end and she knew it. There'd be no more field work. The doctor at Women's and Children's had faxed Mac a very strict limited duties form in order to keep her as stress free and healthy as possible. And she'd found out when she tried to convince Mac to let her out in the field a little while longer, that Mac was planning on sticking to the doctor's suggestions. To a tee. Nothing to do with radiation or x-rays. Nothing that expose her to corrosive or toxic substances. No heavy lifting. No running. No climbing. No potentially harmful experiments. And no ballistics.
No ballistics made her feel as if her best friend had moved away and was never coming back. She was not impressed. On top of that, all of her pants were getting tighter and tighter every day. As she slowly approached her fourth month, it was already time to buy some maternity clothes.
Both girls glanced up as Stella came breezing into the room, her curls bouncing against her shoulders and face. She had a serious, almost pissed off look on her face that told Sam and Carmen her issue was work related. And she carried a brown paper bag in her hand.
"I am so glad I found you two." Stella said as she took a seat at the table. "I have something to show you guys."
Sam frowned as she bit into her hash brown. "Can it at least wait until after I eat. If I see anything gross while I'm eating, I'm liable to throw up all over the place."
"Says the girl who eats the grossest food on the planet." Carmen teased her best friend. "How do you eat that stuff? Nothing but grease and crap."
"Hey, it's what the baby wants, okay? He's already in complete control. Last night, at two in the morning, I woke Don up out of a dead sleep and asked him to make me grilled cheese."
"Did he do it?" Stella asked.
"Uh, yeah." Sam replied. "Does he have a choice? He got me in this predicament, he can pay the price."
"I have never seen you eat this much." Stella commented.
"It's constant." Sam said, sipping her juice. "I am always hungry. And I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible, but it is damn hard."
"You can tell it's Flack's kid." Stella laughed. "The baby has his appetite. Won't stop eating."
"Exactly." Sam agreed. "Must be a boy."
"Another Flack." Carmen shook her head. "Two in one house? Poor you. Which one is the baby?"
Sam laughed. &"The grown man is harder work. Trust me. So what's up, Stel?"
Stella opened the paper bag and pulled out a glossy magazine. "I bought this last night and I wanted to share some things with you two." she said. "See your reactions to it."
It was the newest copy of Cosmopolitan with Carmen Electra on the cover.
"Good choice!" Sam enthused. "She's my girl crush."
"You are seriously disturbed." Stella said.
"I thought I was your girl crush." Carmen pouted dramatically.
"I still love you best." Sam assured her. "What does the main headline say? His G-spot. I like this magazine all ready. Except I already know what it's going to say. And there's no way in hell I am ever getting anywhere near it. It's the prostrate, right? It has to be."
"How do you know these things?" Stella asked, flipping to a dog eared page.
"How do you not know?" Sam retorted. "Everyone knows that. See!" she pointed to a spot on the page. "It is! Shit it's tough being smarter than everyone else."
Carmen laughed. "I think you mean being more perverted than everyone else. And for the record, I gently suggested the prostrate thing the other night and Tim none to gently refused."
"I don't even bother to ask." Sam said. "I just tried and got the 'what the fuck are you doing?' reaction. Don is dead set against anything remotely near his ass. And if I was to just go ahead and do it without his permission, he'd probably slap me out. He said there's experimenting and then there's crossing the line and that is crossing the line.'
"Yeah, but if he's anything like Tim, I bet you he wouldn't think twice about asking if he could do it to you." Carmen said.
"Oh he's asked. And usually he's very persuasive, but it is never going to happen. Ever."
"Flack and Speed are wimps." Stella declared. "Mac lets me do it to him."
Carmen spit a mouthful of coffee across the table and Sam gagged on some of her breakfast and had to take some juice to control her coughing and sputtering.
"So you tell them that if a Marine will do it, to suck it up." Stella finished.
"Not even that will convince him." Sam said. "He has the 'anything up my butt makes me gay' thought in his head. So what else does this thing say?" she stood up and leaned over the table to check out the magazine. "We've done this," she pointed to a certain suggestion. "This...I would love to try this...and we've done this...so everything but the first one and we are good to go."
"You and Flack have one active, kinky sex life." Stella informed her.
Sam smiled. "Oh yes, we do."
"Which is why she's knocked up." Carmen said. "Lots of kink, no common sense."
"And check this out." Stella said and referred to the magazine. "Sex tricks for every day of the weeks. Monday: after dinner, ask him to take you on the kitchen counter."
Sam finished her juice and moved on to her tea. "Done it. More than once."
"Tim and I make it a common practice." Carmen said.
Stella continued. "Tuesday: put on a racy DVD to surprise him."
"Done it." Sam said. "More than once.'
"You are a dirty girl!" Carmen exclaimed.
"Wednesday, drip candle wax down his back and his butt."
"Never going to happen." Sam declared. "Don is way too alpha-male for stuff like that."
"I feel like I should be writing all of this down." Carmen said.
"Don't worry." Stella told her. "I'll make copies. Thursday, pull the car over to a secluded spot and recline his seat all the way back and go to town."
"Done it." Sam said. "Enjoyed it. Backseat mind you. I think that's when the baby was conceived."
"That kid is going to have such a complex." Carmen sighed.
"Friday," Stella went on. "E-mail him a list of five naughty things you want him to do to you."
Sam giggled. "I like that one. What day is it today? Do we have to go in order or can we mix up the days?"
"I think you can just do whatever order you want." Stella said. "Saturday, and this is a good one for Flack 'cause he's a sports freak, bet on whatever game is on. The winner gets do to whatever they want in the bedroom afterwards."
"He already does whatever he wants." Sam said. "No challenge there."
"And Sunday, lounge around in nothing but your sexiest underwear and see how long he's able to resist you."
"Less then ten seconds." Carmen said.
Sam laughed. "I was going to say less than thirty and that he'd have the underwear off in less than eight."
Stella sighed. "Oh to be young and perverted and sex crazed. And check this out." she flipped to another page. "Now Speed is how old, Carmen?"
"Thirty three." she replied.
"And Flack's still a baby. Just turned thirty, right?"
Sam nodded. "Going on thirteen but that's another story."
"This is about guys' sex drives at certain ages." Stella told them. "Okay, early thirties. The guy is still really libidinous. He may start getting serious about his health. Going to the gym, quitting smoking, cutting back on drinking...'
"He's always gone to the gym." Sam said. "So that part is right. And yes to the libidinous part, too. So in order, yes, yes, yes and yes."
"Also says that a stressful job can cause problems in the bedroom and prevent him from getting aroused quickly." Stella added.
Sam laughed. "What? Yeah...right. There is no problem there. Maybe he's more in the mid to late twenties category. What does that say?"
"It says that he's still young enough to go all night but old enough to have learned a thing or two. By the close of the twenties, he has probably had, on average, five partners."
"Please." Sam scoffed. "It's like twice that."
"And it says if you're lucky, your predecessors have taught him the ins and outs of oral sex."
Carmen just giggled.
"Oh yes, they have." Sam said with a sigh. "I should get all their names and send out thank you cards."
Carmen burst out laughing. "Sam, you are so honest sometimes."
"And it says that the best sex lasts between seven and thirteen minutes." Stella finished.
"What!" Sam and Carmen exclaimed together.
"That doesn't even seem worth the effort of getting undressed." Carmen complained.
"Even when he's drop down drunk he lasts longer than that." Sam said. "Don would be majorly insulted to be part of that group. And I'd be insulted if it only lasted that long. Foreplay lasts a hell of a lot longer than that!"
"You lucky, lucky girl." Stella sighed.
"Sam is just brutal on the poor guy." Carmen declared.
"He's never had it so good or so much." Sam said confidently. "Trust me."
"The question is, have you ever had it so good or so much?" Stella inquired.
"Are you kidding? I had zero sex life or interest in one before Don. If you knew what Zack was like, you'd understand."
"I am so going to try that text message thing." Carmen decided.
"Me, too." Sam giggled. "I'm gonna send it right in the middle of his meeting while he's surrounded by the ATF and DHS people."
"He'll either kill you or run over here to get laid." Carmen declared.
"Need a good place, I recommend the janitor's closet on the seventh floor." Stella said.
"Stella!" Carmen exclaimed. "Are you trying to tell us that you and Mac engage in a little work place sex?"
"From time to time." she admitted. "I say take it when and where you can get it."
The three women burst out laughing. Just as Adam and Speed walked in. The girls shut up quickly when they saw the two men, and Stella quickly stashed the magazine in the bag.
"Do I even want to know?" Speed asked.
"No. You don't." Sam replied as she got out her cell phone and began typing a message. "Trust me."
"They're planning something." Adam said nervously. "I can tell. Conspiring."
"That is for us to know," Carmen said and winked at Speed. "And you to find out."
Flack was bored. The agent heading the raid on the Department of Homeland Security's side of things had been talking for the last half an hour about nothing remotely related to the task at hand. In fact, he hadn't mentioned the raid once. The middle aged agent -was it Fleming? Fuller? Fletcher? Flack couldn't even remember anymore- with his steel grey eyes and his chiseled features and his expensive Armani suit, had done nothing but boast about the number of successful terrorism related arrests the DHS had overseen since 9-11. It was like watching a promotional video on all the reasons to choose a career with the United States government. The more the man talked, the more Flack tuned out.
Now he was staring out the window of the conference room on the 15th floor of the crime lab, thinking about everything but the long winded speech taking place at the front of the room. He was a little tired. Not the usual dragging my ass kind of exhaustion he'd experienced many times in the past, but more a I could use about another couple hours of sleep kind of tired. He wasn't entirely sure when he'd fallen asleep the night before, but the emotional melt down had wiped him out, and then Sam had the nerve to shake him awake at two and ask him to make her something to eat. Grilled cheese at that. Which she smothered in mustard and ketchup. He hadn't even bothered to change out of his street clothes and went back to bed after she had ner nasty little snack. Only to be woken up again at three thirty be a slight nightmare. Finding Sam sleeping soundly. On her stomach. He had to roll her back over onto her back without waking her up.
And the nightmare...he hadn't had nightmares since the ones about the bombing stopped a few months before. In this dream, the doctor had pulled them into her office to tell them that there was something catasthropically wrong with the baby. Something incompatible with life and they were given the option to either abort or try and carry to term. He had no idea what prompted him to dream about something so terrible, other than the fact the doctor was suppose to be calling that day with the results of Sam's triple screen test and Flack had been silently paranoid that something would be wrong with the baby. But the nightmare had caused him to wake up drenched in sweat and with his heart racing.
One of the younger detectives who often worked under Flack during cases, Brendan Doyle, was sitting to Flack's left. Doyle was a six foot four bean pole with ears. Shocking red hair and a face full of freckles and vibrant green eyes that matched his personality. He had graduated top of his class, and just narrowly missed beating Flack's record of hitting detective at such a young age by only two months. Doyle noticed Flack staring off into space and leaned over and gave him a slight slap to the shoulder to snap the older detective out of his daze.
Flack pried his eyes away from the window and sipped a cup of luke warm black coffee and tried his best to pay attention. He felt his cell phone, clipped to his pants, vibrate against him and he took it off his waist band to check the caller ID. An incoming text message from Sam. She knew he was in a meeting and would only try to get a hold of him if there was something wrong. He immediately feared bad news from the doctor. He held the phone in his lap to check the message inconspicuously. At first, he didn't believe what he was reading. Then a huge grin spread across his face.
Hope your meeting is going okay. Can't wait to see you. 'Cause when I do, I want you to lick me from head to toe and then fuck the shit out of me. Okay? Love you. Hope this cheered you up a bit. P.S.: I'm going to lick you, too. In your squad car.
He almost laughed out loud at that last part. Never should have told her about my little squad car fantasy, he thought. Thinking about doing all those things to her later, and imaging her even half naked was enough make him on edge. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Not the most opportune time to be getting turned on. He kept that phone in his lap and sent back his own message.
I'm gonna make you fucking scream my name and make you come like you've never come before. And I'll find a nice, quiet secluded place to park to do it too. Love you too. P.S. Thanks for giving me a hard on in the middle of a meeting. Now get to work.
Doyle noticed Flack squirming in his seat and intently working on his phone and leaned in close. "Everything okay, Flack?" he asked in a whisper. "You okay?"
Flack grinned and put his phone back. "I am more than okay. Trust me."
Now he just hoped that that meeting would be over and done with and he could make a nice little trip upstairs to the thirty-fifth floor.
Shortly before noon hour, Sam was hunched over a table in the lay out room, peering through a magnifying glass as she carefully, thoroughly looked over Danny and Carmen's crime scene photos spread out on the glass table top. The recently developed photos (another task she was forbidden from doing, seeing as the chemicals in the dark room could be considered toxic) were gruesome. A triple homicide in Harlem. A man armed with a sawed off shotgun had burst into a pharmacy shortly after opening and robbed them of drugs and cash. When one of the employees tripped a panic button to alert police, the perp had executed all three of the employees in the store at the time before getting away with the cash and drugs.
Danny was down the hall in the AV room pouring over surveillance tapes from both the inside and outside of the pharmacy and those that belonged to neighbouring businesses. Carmen was across the room from Sam, collecting trace off of one of the victim's clothes. The small stereo on a shelf at the back of the room playing a mixed CD Danny had brought in that day.
"Hey, Sam," Carmen said, pausing in her search from trace to sip a bottled water. "Seeing as your Miss Celebrity Gossip Queen, did you see the pics of Britney Spears' sister at her baby shower in OK?"
"No. I didn't. Don got me a People Magazine with the 50 Most Beautiful in it and other than Patrick Dempsey, I disagree with every choice. Well, other than David Beckham."
Carmen grinned. "Yes, I know of your little fascination with Becks."
"So this baby shower? Was train wreck Britney there?"
"She was."
"My guilty pleasure is watching that girl just disintegrate before our eyes. Sounds awful, I know. But it gives me great joy to think someone who has so much money and materialistic shit has such a crappy life and I have barely enough money to pay off all my student loans and credit cards, yet I am so happy with my life."
Carmen smiled. "Helps when your baby daddy and soon to be husband is as hot as he is."
"True. I am a lucky girl. And while I won't judge Jamie Lynn or whatever her name is for getting pregnant at such a young age, I do have to wonder where her mother was. Especially when the family is supposedly so southern, church going Baptist. If I got pregnant at seventeen, my mother would have kicked my ass for sure."
"Your parents want to kick your ass now and you're thirty." Carmen teased her. "But I can't imagine having a baby at thirty, never mind seventeen."
"You're time is coming." Sam said. "Trust me."
"You shut up over there."
Sam grinned. "Trust me. You know what irritates me the most about her having a kid? She won't have to do all the stressful hard work after the kid is born. She'll just hire a team of nannies and let them do all the work and her rich sister will fit the bill. And people like us, who work so hard, we'll have to struggle to take care of our kids. Don and I are already trying to figure out how we'll keep the kid in diapers and clothing. We've decided we'll probably move in a couple years time. Maybe even sooner. Somewhere cheaper where we can get a bigger place for the same amount of money here in Manhattan. Most likely Queens."
"Queens, huh? A Brooklyn girl living in Queens? Doesn't seem quite right."
Sam laughed." I know. But I won't move back to Brooklyn and he won't go to Staten Island or Far Rockaway, so we're running out of options. And then he drops a bomb on me last night in bed and tells me that when he's retired, we are moving someplace nice and quiet, far, far away."
Carmen arched an eyebrow and glanced back at her friend. "Flack said that?"
"Shocking, huh? I never thought I'd ever hear him say something like that. He'll say something different four days from now, though. I think he's just a little down after that thing with his parents last night. It didn't go very well and I don't expect to be meeting them anytime soon."
Sam set the magnifying glass on the table top and straightened her posture and stretched and yawned noisily. "I see nothing out ot the ordinary with your crime scene photos." she told Carmen. "I looked at that blood spatter by the second vic that Danny thought didn't look right a few times and there's nothing weird about it. You can have a look yourself, but I don't see it personally."
"I don't even have useable trace off of these clothes." Carmen complained. "And all the hairs have no tags at the end."
"No tags, no DNA." Sam sighed and put the photos back in the folder. "My back is killing from leaning over for that long!" she exclaimed, taking the photos over to Carmen's work station and adding them to a small stack of folders.
"It's all the crazy sex you're having." Carmen told her.
"For your information, we didn't have sex at all yesterday or this morning."
"Hell must have frozen over. You send that text message?"
"Right after we talked about it. And I got a very dirty one back."
"I sent mine too, but he never returned it."
"Maybe he's waiting until he sees you in person." Sam said.
"You going to see Gus today?" Carmen asked.
"My last appointment. Makes me kinda sad. I really liked talking to her. Adam's coming with me."
"That's sweet of him."
"Please. He's only coming along because he has a huge crush on her and he knows that now that I'm not her patient anymore, maybe he can make his move. Men always have an ulterior motive."
"Adam has a thing for Gus?"
"Big time. Could you just see him and Gus together? I think they make a cute couple."
"They do, actually. What is going on around this place? Everyone is hooking up around here. All we need to do is find Hawkes a nice woman and that'll be everyone."
"You know," Sam said as she changed her gloves and then opened an evidence bag and lay the contents out before her. "If Don wasn't in the picture, I would have gone for Hawkes. He's so cute and so sweet and so soft spoken. He's just a pure gentleman."
Carmen grinned. "That baby better now come out bi-racial or I am kicking your ass. I'm warning you now."
Sam laughed. "Like that episode of Nip/Tuck. Both were white and the baby came out bi-racial. Don would so not be amused one bit."
Sam's cell phone, tucked in the pocket of her lab coat began to ring and she grabbed it to check the caller. "Carmen, I'll be right back." she said. "I have to take this."
"Doctor?" Carmen asked.
Sam nodded. "Give me a few and I'll be back to help. I hope this isn't bad news."
"I'm sure everything will be okay." Carmen assured her, watching as her friend headed from the lab.
Please let everything be fine for her, Carmen prayed.
Flack met her upstairs to take her for lunch just as she was finishing up helping Carmen pull trace evidence off of all the clothing. There was no time for even a proper meal, let alone taking off for awhile like they both wanted to, considering how hot and bothered a simple text message had made them both, made only worse that for them, no sex in twenty four hours was a sign of the Apocalypse. And Flack had no idea when he was ever getting off work. Between the meeting that never seemed like it was going to end and the other work he still had to tackle when he got out of the meeting, it looked very much like a triple lingering on the horizon.
Instead of a sit down meal, they opted instead for food off of the many carts that took up residence on the sidewalk in front of and around the crime lab. Flack for the most part, had avoided food off a cart for months now since the unfortunate and tramatizing incident months ago that ruined his appetite for street fare forever, but with no time for an actual sit down meal at a restaraunt, a couple hot dogs and a pop for him and a pretzel with mustard dip and ever present chocolate milk for her, was as good at it was going to get. Forty five minute break for both of them, spent sitting on a bench across the street from the lab under the warm sun was as close to privacy as they would accomplish.
Flack talked about the meeting and Sam shared her gripes about being bored senseless stuck in the lab. He knew the transition to full time lab work wasn't going to be an easy or accepted one for her, and that she had hoped to go at least a couple more months in the field, but it was just too risky to have her out there.
"I know you don't see it the same way I do," he said. "but it's the best thing for you and the baby. There's too much that could go wrong out in the field. And it's only for a few months and then you'll be off."
"As much as I need a vacation..." Sam snorted.
"I know. The thought of being home for that long is killing you. But it doesn't make sense for us to split the leave because I make more money than you do. And honestly, I am not meant to be a stay at home dad. I'll go nuts. It's better if I work and you do the full time mother thing."
She frowned. "Should I be finding that completely sexist?"
"It's completely honest. You'll be a way better mother than I will be a father. Trust me. This kid will be better off being home with you."
"You're totally underestimating yourself, Don. You'll be a great dad. I have faith in you."
He smiled and put his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"The doctor called about half an hour ago." Sam said, picking at her pretzel and leaning into his side.
"And?" he sipped his Coke and hoped he sounded calmer than he felt.
"There was a slight problem with my test."
"Slight? What do you mean by that?"
"We really should talk about this later. When we're not working."
"You just brought it up. You can't just back down and expect me to be able to go back to work knowing there's a problem."
"There's not a problem." she corrected him. "The test shows there could be."
"Christ woman, stop talking in riddles and just tell me what the doctor said."
"She said that the test showed I have a sixty percent chance of having a baby with a chromosonal or genetic defect."
"Okay. What kind of defects?"
"Genetic would be something like Spina Bifida. Chromosome would be say Trisomy 21. Which is Down Syndrome. There's way worse syndromes but they're very, very rare. The test isn't saying the baby has something for sure, just that we need more tests."
"What kinds of tests?" Flack asked, trying to stop the panic from hitting full force.
"They'd repeat the blood work at sixteen weeks and then if it still comes back as a problem, then they'd do an amniocentesis and a more in depth ultrasound."
"So they think there's a problem but can't find out for sure for at least two weeks or maybe more." Flack concluded.
"Exactly."
"And if there is? Something wrong? I mean, we talked about that. We said we would have the baby regardless unless it was something life threatening to either of you. That we'd deal with a disability. If we agreed on all this, why have any tests?"
"We still should know for sure." Sam said.."With Spina Bifida they can preform in utero surgery to close the hole in the spine. With a disability we could at least prepare for a special needs child. Going into it blind is not smart. I mean, don't you want to know if there is something wrong?"
"Of course. But I read in that book of yours at home that an amnio can cause worse problems. There's like a one in two hundred and fifty chance of a miscarriage. And what did the doctor say our chances of having a kid with Down syndrome was? Based on your age? One in a thousand? If we plan on keeping the baby regardless, I'll take the one in a thousand odds any day."
"I just think it would be smart to know before hand." Sam reasoned.
"At the risk of loosing the baby?"
She sighed heavily.
"It's your choice, Samantha." Flack said and removed his arm from her shoulders and stood up. He tossed his trash in the nearby can. "It's your body and you're the mother. Do what you want. I have to get back."
She stared after him, mouth open in complete shock at his behaviour as he simply walked away, stepped off the curb and waited for traffic to clear before crossing the street. Leaving her sitting there. Oh hell no, she thought and went after him.
"My choice?" she fumed, grabbing his arm on the sidewalk out front of the lab. "No. It doesn't work like that, Don. This isn't a one man show. We made this baby together. It's yours just as much as it is mine. We have to agree on something. You have a right to help me make a choice and speak your mind. That's your right as the father."
"Fine." he said. "My choice is not to have any more tests. Another blood test is okay. But nothing else."
"But another blood test will only tell us a percentage. Don't you want to know for sure?"
"Not at the expense of losing the baby. We agreed that even if something was wrong, we would keep it. So what does it matter?"
"It matters because we'd know what we were up against." she said.
"Why the hell are you being so selfish about this?" Flack asked.
"I'm being selfish!? Because I want what's best for us and our baby?"
"Is it not better to have the baby of there being something wrong than risk loosing it?"
"I just think it's better if we prepare ourselves ahead of time." she argued.
"But if it doesn't make a difference whether we keep it or not what the hell does it matter if we get the tests done?" he fired back.
"I would just like to know in case I would..."
"In case you what? Change your mind? I thought you said this was our decision together. And now you're saying you'd decided to do something if there's a problem?"
"I never said that Don! Why are you making this so difficult?"
"Why are you making it seem as if you only want a baby if it's perfect!" he countered.
"I never said that! Don't make me out to be a bad person, Don! I love this baby no matter what! You know that! I just think it would be smart to know before hand so we can prepare ourselves!"
"And I think if it doesn't make a difference, what the fuck does it matter!" he bellowed.
"Don't yell at me!"
"I am not yelling."
"Yes, you are! Don't yell at me and make me out to be an evil bitch!"
"Well to me, you are acting like one right now." he told her.
She fumed. "You know what? Fuck you, Don. Okay? If you're going to act like this and treat me like this, than fuck you!"
She turned to leave and head into the building but Flack caught her by the upper arm and pulled her back to him.
"We're not done here." he informed her.
"Yes, we are." she said. "I have to get back to work and go see Gus. You have a meeting to get back to."
"Fuck the meeting!" he yelled. "This is more important than the meeting!"
The front doors swung open and a stone face Gerrrard stepped out and joined them. He'd heard the argument -as had at least a dozen other people coming and going out of the building and on the sidewalk- and decided to end it. It was neither the time, or place for such behaviour.
"Detective Flack." he said sternly. "Don't you have somewhere you need to be? And Detective Ross, I am sure Detective Taylor has work for you upstairs. Instead of you causing problems for my detectives."
"I have to go." Sam told Flack, pulling her arm from his grip.
"Sam, come on." Flack said. "Don't do this."
"We'll talk about this later, Don. Okay? I have to go and stop causing you problems."
He sighed heavily. "Samantha..."
She shot Gerrard a foul look as she breezed through the door he was holding open for her and motioning for her to hurry along through.
Flack fumed. Hands on his hips.
"Apparently you don't listen very well, Flack." Gerrard said. "Remember what I told you about her causing you problems?"
"You know what? Stay out of my personal business." Flack told the older man as he headed for the door. He stopped, and nose to nose with the man, added "Sir." before heading indoors.
As they sat reading old dog eared copies of magazines in the waiting room of Gus' office, Adam could tell that something wasn't right with his sister. She was quiet and withdrawn and gave little or no answer when he asked her things and didn't seem interested when he tried getting her into a conversation.
"You okay, Sammie?" he asked with concern. "You're not yourself. You were all bubbly today and now..."
"I just have some things on my mind." she replied. "Nothing major."
Adam regarded her skeptically. "How many years did you and I grow up together?" he asked.
Sam sighed. "The doctor called with the results of my triple screen today." she told him.
"Okay. And..."
"And she said that I have an increased chance of having a baby with a chromosome or genetic problem."
"But just a chance, right?"; Adam asked. "Not a sure thing? 'Cause I learned in university biology that those tests can be wrong and there could be no problem at all. And that they shouldn't be done until at least sixteen weeks to be more accurate. Why they did it to you so early is beyond me."
"I have to go back and get the test re-done." Sam said. "If it comes back again that there's a problem, they want to do some other tests."
"Like an amnio, stuff like that? I can understand you being upset, but I thought you and Flack agreed to have a baby no matter what the problem is, if there is one."
"We did. But we had a slight disagreement earlier." Sam said
"About?"
"He doesn't want to do anymore tests because he's afraid of the risk. I think it would be nice to know in order to prepare ourselves for a child with special needs. We kinda had a fight about it."
"A bad fight?" Adam asked.
"Bad enough. We didn't part under nice terms."
"Well, as much as you're gonna kill me for saying this, I have to agree with Flack on this."
"Go figure." Sam huffed. "You're a man."
"I just think if you guys agreed to have it no matter what, why take the test?" Adam reasoned. "Why risk killing it by having an amnio? What you do is you get the doctor to do the test again, see what comes up, and if it still shows a increased chance, get a in-depth three or four D sonogram and see what they find with that and the ask her to make a list of possible diagnosis."
Sam stared at him. "Why do you have to be smarter than everyone, peanut?" she asked.
"It's tough. Trust me." Adam joked and laid a hand on the back of her neck and squeezed lightly. "It''ll be okay, Sammie. No matter what, you're gonna be an amazing mother."
She smiled. "Thanks."
"And as much as I hate to admit this, Flack will be a great dad."
She nodded. "I know."
"What you need to do is call him and work things out and run my ideas by him. Doesn't hurt to try. You love the guy. He loves you. What more do you need?"
Adam Ross had never spoken wiser words.
Thanks to everyone R and R'ing. And welcome to all the newcomers! I look forward to hearing from you all! Please review!!