Needed a tiny bit of a mental break from writing Scorpion, so figured it was past time to give this story a little bit more love.
One more chapter after this one – hope to get it finished this month. This chapter is a little different – I'm not exactly opposed to writing birth scenes, but I don't want to do it every time I have a character have a baby, and the last chapter is going to be very Wega focused so I wanted to give the rest of the team a little bit of "screen time" if you will, before this story ends.
"I wonder how much longer this could possibly take," Theo said, returning with a beverage carrier off coffee. She handed one to Lisbon and one to Cho, who silently traded without drawing her attention to the fact that she had continued her streak of forgetting who took cream and sugar and who took it black.
"It does seem like we've been waiting forever," Lisbon said, "but…"
"Interesting," Jane said to Cho. "The two people in this room who have given birth are the least patient."
"I was going to add that since we are only waiting, and not participating in the birth process, it makes it seem to drag on longer," Lisbon said, taking another sip of her coffee. "Although to be honest it can feel like forever in there, too."
"Speaking of children we've had," Theo said, turning to Lisbon, "how is Mimi liking her preschool?"
"Oh, great," Lisbon said with an amused shake of her head. "I asked her yesterday how her day went and she said 'excellent, mama, I'm ready for college!' So I'm expecting her to move out any day."
"She won't move out," Jane said. "Just maybe out to the workshop, for her independence."
"She's quite the character," Cho commented.
"I still wonder if I should say she got the best of our personalities or the worst," Jane said with a smirk.
"She didn't get any of your personality," Lisbon joked, "because she doesn't annoy me."
He shrugged, then looked at Theo and winked. "Still married me." The younger woman grinned.
"Hey there, Kimball Cho!"
The team looked up. "Summer," Lisbon said. "Hello."
"Hi there!" She gave her a big smile, then cocked her head. "Do you still go by your maiden name?"
"Professionally, yes," Lisbon said. She gestured with her head toward her husband. "If he can still call me Lisbon, so can everyone else."
"Always happy to set the standard, my dear."
"So how is she?" Summer asked, settling down onto the chair across from Cho.
"Last we heard things were progressing well," said Lisbon. "But she wasn't quite ready to go yet. That was an hour ago." She shook her head. "The poor thing is terrified of a c – section, so I hope nothing goes wrong."
"Mrs. Wylie is a tough cookie," Summer said. "Wylie would always tell me at their appointments about the sorts of things she's overcome – I think she was a little embarrassed by the way he talks about her, but I think it's cute. He so clearly adores her."
"That he does," Theo said. "I remember when I first met him – everyone still thought she had passed away, and were warning me about how hard it had been on him. I had thought he was handling it pretty well, but unbeknownst to me – or any of us – he already knew that she had made it."
"It's really incredible what those two have been through together," Lisbon said. "I mean, we were all involved too, of course, we're a team and we all need the team, but they need each other more than they need any of the rest of us."
"They're two remarkable people," Jane said. "It's good that they found each other."
Cho nodded. "Agreed."
Summer smiled, stretching her foot out to bump against Cho's leg. He smiled at her.
Jane opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by four phones chiming at once.
Summer giggled. "That timing was so perfect, it was like Jane made that sound with…" she trailed off when she realized why all of them might have gotten a text simultaneously. "Oh my gosh did she have the baby?"
Lisbon was the first to open the message. A big smile spread over her face. "He's here."
