This is a shorter update, but I'm setting up for some later plot so just laying some foundation here, and giving both readers and characters a slight breather from the angsty stuff. And I'm throwing in subtle Scorpion, The Westing Game, and Sister Act references because that's what I do I guess.


Vega told Wylie she was going "for a drive."

"A drive?" Wylie said. "That's a bit of a wild way to spend the evening, isn't it?"

"I'm not keeping pace with a plane," she said. "I'm just going to meander a bit."

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with that," he said jokingly. "I know how many cars you've crashed."

"Always to catch a bad guy!"

"Still," Wylie said. "It's a rather large and expensive weapon of choice."

She swatted him. "I'll be back."


When she got in the car, Vega honestly had no destination in mind. But then, forty five minutes later, she found herself pulling into her regular spot at work. She sat there for a long time, looking up at their floor, suddenly very badly wanting to talk to her boss. Fortunately, her investigation found him still there.

"Can I talk to you, sir?"

"Sure, Vega," Cho said, closing the file he was looking at and folding his hands. "Is something the matter?"

"Yeah. Not...not with work, I mean, I haven't been here, it's just..." she fidgeted. "This isn't appropriate, sir, what I'm about to say, but...I kinda have to?"

Cho nodded. "Go ahead."

"I've been really scared," she said, folding her own hands, surprising herself at how sweaty they were. "Every little thing has me convinced something is wrong with the baby, and I get myself so worked up, and I'm supposed to be stronger than this, everyone tells me how tough I am but inside I'm just a shaking, fragile mess, and it's so embarrassing to admit this to you, because you...I've looked up to you since the day I first got here and you're always so stoic and..."

"I cried."

"What?"

"The day you died. I cried. I don't know if you knew that. I'd been tough on you earlier, because I was angry with you, but also because I knew you'd come out a better agent. And you were blossoming, and then you were gone, and it was my fault, and I hated myself. I told Wylie the only way to honor you was to stay here and keep fighting the fight, and that's the only reason I stayed. I felt that that was the only way to make up for not being able to protect you."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"It isn't like me." Cho was matter of fact. "It's not. But extreme situations can and do change us, they can make us break. And it's safe to say that what you've been through is extreme. But you know..." he trailed off. "I was dating a woman named Summer. It was years ago, years before we met even. And she told me about how a friend of hers had a baby, and she was born premature, and so for the first four years of her life, she had to have appointments every couple weeks to do tests, how is her brain developing, how are her motor skills, how is her speech, etcetera. And that frustrated her mother because other kids who were born full term, some of them took longer to walk or talk or pick things up, but their parents weren't constantly informed about it because their kids weren't under a microscope."

Vega cocked her head. "So..."

"So with you being in the hospital, they gave you lists of warning signs, more extensive ones, and they're keeping an eye on you. Even if something happens again, you'll catch it early. It's going to be okay. Don't let this fear hijack your pregnancy. Enjoy this with Wylie. As best as you can."

Vega smiled. "Thanks, Cho."

He smiled back. "Anything you need, Michelle. You know that."


Wylie slid the book he was reading under the seat cushion next to him when his wife returned. "Hey Michelle!" he said casually.

"Oh please," she said, "I know you're re-reading The Westing Game and I've told you a million times it's a brilliant book and I don't care if I read it in seventh grade you can read it as many times as you want."

"I just really like Turtle, okay?"

"Turtle is the best one," Vega agreed.

"Are you feeling better?"

"You know?" she hung up her jacket and smiled at him, one hand still on the rack. "I do. We're going to be okay. The three of us. It's all going to be okay."

Wylie grinned. "I'm glad to hear you say that."

Vega walked across the living room to him, biting her lower lip slightly, and despite her body language as she walked, which should have been familiar, he was startled when she lowered herself onto his lap and put her mouth on his, her hands firmly holding onto his jaw. Wylie kissed her back, relieved at seeing her so relaxed, but froze, grabbing her wrists as her hands started to unbutton his shirt. "Michelle," he said. "No!"

"Why not?"

"The doctors said..."

"The doctors said until the bleeding had for sure stopped. It's been days, Wylie, almost a week. You're right, we can't walk on eggshells. We're in love, we're having a baby, we have to enjoy this time in our lives." She slid her hands up to his face again. "I love you, Jay. This isn't going to hurt anything."

There was a light in her eyes that Wylie was beginning to fear would be absent a long time. "Well," he said, a hand at her belt buckle, "as long as you love me."