A/N: Cutting in with a little awkward LoVe interaction... but still plenty of awkward MaDi as well ;-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 6
Mac was sure that High School ought to have furnished her with the most embarrassing and/or awkward moments of her entire life. Apparently she was wrong.
Ever since she and Dick had 'done the deed' that fateful drunken night, she had been experiencing whole new levels of both embarrassment and awkwardness, and none so horrifying as this particular moment. Here she was, sat in the waiting room of a fancy doctor that probably charged more per hour than her Dad made in a week, sat beside Dick who was in fact the father of the baby she carried. They were here to confirm her pregnancy, how far along she was, and such. Of course, Mac was ninety-nine point nine percent certain she already knew the answers to both those questions, but Dick had been right when he said that they did need a doctor's opinion.
Dick Casablancas wasn't entirely stupid, just mostly, Mac had surmised, though she did feel a little bad for assuming that somebody (probably Logan or maybe Veronica) had told Dick she needed to see a doctor to confirm a pregnancy. Either way, here they were waiting together, just two days after he had promised to make her an appointment, all thanks to a cancellation.
"So…" she said for lack of anything else to say, having counted her own teeth four times and the ceiling tiles twice, and feeling stupid just sitting in silence doing nothing.
"Big day" replied Dick, the fourth time so far since he picked her up and brought her here just a few minutes ago.
"Yep" Mac nodded her agreement, moving to push her hair back off her face.
"Woah, you're shaking" he noticed, reaching for the hand nearest to him and presenting it to her, as if she needed to be shown she was having a nervous reaction to being here.
"This is kind of new for me Dick" she reminded him, "The whole doctor's appointment about a pregnancy thing, and the whole expensive doctor thing" she pointed out, pulling her hand from his grasp as quick as possible, even though it had almost felt nice to have it held for even that brief moment.
"It's cool" he assured her, "Dr Devlin is cool. I've been coming here since, like, forever" he explained, his lack of any proper grammar making Mac smile if nothing else.
She had kind of hoped she might be able to bring Veronica along to her doctor's appointment instead of Dick, but as the blonde had quite rightly pointed out, he was the father and deserved to know what was going on. Besides this Dr Devlin was his physician in the first place, and if Dick was willing to be a man, they had to let him try.
Mac was at least grateful her best friend had been able to hang around long enough to hear the results from this meeting with the doctor. She really should have headed back to her FBI internship yesterday, but had cited a family emergency and hung on for one more day. As it was she was pretty much going to have to leave just as soon as she'd seen Mac and Dick and heard whatever news came out of this appointment.
"I don't want you to get into trouble with the FBI" she had told Veronica in earnest, despite how grateful she was to have her around.
"Hey, it's not a problem, besides, I told them the truth" the blonde protested, "I said family emergency, and you are family" she smiled, prompting Mac to burst into tears all over her friend.
She blamed her 'pregnant lady hormones' after all, she really wasn't much for the crying in the natural order of things.
"Miss Mackenzie?" said the young woman behind the reception desk suddenly, startling Mac out of her thoughtful reverie, "The doctor will see you now" she smiled warmly, though Mac still swallowed hard and took a deep breath, looking more like she was headed for the gallows than a doctor's office when she stood up.
"Right behind you, babe" Dick assured her, and as dumb as it sounded even in her own head, Mac was pretty sure that was one of the sweetest things she'd ever heard in her whole life!
When the suite door opened to reveal Logan, Veronica started to wonder if the universe was playing some sort of cruel trick on her. It wasn't as if she had to be awkward and embarrassed around him, they'd been friends for so long and had been broken up from their more serious relationship status for months now. He had a new girlfriend, for a while, and she still had her new boyfriend. Both she and Logan ought to be grown up enough to get along without any problems, but somehow coming face to face continued to leave them both reeling and dumbstruck.
"Hi" she said awkwardly, and he responded in kind, "I came to see Mac, she said she'd be coming back here after the doctors appointment and..."
"They're still there" he explained, "but you can come in and wait" he offered, opening the door wider and moving aside so she could get in.
Taking a deep breath as if she needed all the strength she could muster, Veronica walked in through the door and headed straight for the couch.
"Sit down" said Logan after the event, sarcasm evident as he pushed the door to a close and missed Veronica rolling her eyes at his humour attempt, "I thought you'd be back to your kick-ass FBI place by now" he said, coming to join her, albeit at the opposite end of the couch.
"My flight leaves in... a little over five hours" she said as she checked her watch, "I can hang on just long enough to hear about Mac's appointment, and then I'm gone" she explained.
Logan nodded his understanding, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he glanced around, as if looking for someone else to talk to in the empty room. He didn't want to feel awkward with Veronica, not after all this time, but things had been so up in the air since before she ever left for her internship. At this point, neither of them really knew where they stood or how best to ask. So they sat in awkward silence for a while, praying Dick and Mac got back there fast, before they both went crazy.
It had been ten long minutes that felt like hours, as Logan and Veronica sat in silence that was anything but comfortable. Both had a hundred things to say and yet none seemed right or reasonable. Things tended to be to one extreme or the other with these two, they were either lovers or enemies and the in-between hadn't come easy, not since Lilly. If she were here now, she'd bang both their heads together, that was for sure, but she wasn't and therefore it was up to Veronica and Logan alone to deal with their strange situation.
"So..." said Logan at length, "How's Piz?" he asked, and Veronica honestly couldn't tell if he was being genuine or not as she glanced back at him - he was almost as good at hiding behind masks as she was sometimes.
Veronica opened her mouth to answer but closed it again abruptly. She could lie, but there really wasn't any reason too. Point scoring never got them anywhere fast and she was so tired of trying.
"I honestly wouldn't know" she admitted with a sigh, "With his internship and mine... I mean, we talk on the phone sometimes but I haven't seen him in weeks and..." she stopped short of confessing any more, the fact that she was hardly missing her boyfriend at all and yet missed so many other people, "Do not read anything into this" she warned Logan just the moment he opened his mouth to speak.
"As if I would ever dare" he replied hands held up in mock surrender as he eyed the finger she was pointing at him as if it were actually a weapon of some kind.
There was a smile in his eyes that made Veronica want to grin just the same, though she knew she shouldn't. Sometimes she thought Logan knew her too well, maybe even better than she knew herself. That was scary and yet at the same time oddly comforting. It reminded her that she could be herself here, almost as much as she could be at home with just her Dad to worry about her.
"So, how is your Summer so far, Logan?" she asked, settling back against the couch cushions and inadventanly, or perhaps subconsciously, moving a little closer to him.
"Hmm... well..." he said, as if considering it carefully, before declaring rather suddenly and loudly, "Boring!"
Veronica laughed out loud as he moved closer to her in such a way as she really didn't pay much attention to it.
"It can't be that bad" she said, looking sideways at him, "You've got sun and sea, and a bud to go babe-watching with" she reminded him.
"Yeah" agreed Logan with a nod, looking straight ahead even as he spoke to the blonde by his side, "but everybody else is gone and y'know how they tell you, you don't miss what you've got til it's gone?" he said, turning his head to meet her gaze then, "Turns out that's true" he said too seriously.
Veronica swallowed hard, telling herself she should look away, move herself away from this situation before it got out of control, but she couldn't. No part of her body would comply to her brains demands because everything was being over-ridden by a terrible want to just kiss this guy already. In this particular moment, she could almost forget they had ever broken up or why such a thing had happened.
"Logan..." she said too softly, just as the door opened and in burst Dick with Mac right behind him.
Veronica and Logan leapt apart like scalded cats at the realisation their friends had finally returned, and she was soon checking her watch to see how long she could spare before she must head for the airport.
"You're back" she said after a long pause, rushing at Mac to hug her, "How is everything? Are you okay?"
"Well, I'm still pregnant" said her friend, a little bemused by what was happening here, or what might have been happening before she and Dick walked in, "The doctor said eight weeks, which I pretty much knew already" she rolled her eyes.
Dick slumped down into the couch beside Logan, where Veronica had been just a moment before.
"It was cool, man" he explained to his friend, "They like feel around and stuff, and you hear the heartbeat from inside her stomach!" he declared, like it was the coolest thing ever.
"That's great, Dick" Logan laughed lightly at his buddy's antics, "And everything's cool, with the baby?" he checked with Mac.
"No problems" she confirmed, "Which is the weirdest kind of relief" she admitted.
It had been a traumatic thing, finding out she was pregnant, and then realising that the child she carried had been made in drunken one night stand with Dick Casablancas. Still, today had gone pretty smooth. Dr Devlin was a really nice guy and had really helped put Mac's mind at ease about a few things. Dick had been there the whole time, trying his best to be helpful but for the most part just being dumb. It wasn't his fault, Mac figured he just slept his way through biology class much like very class he took in High School. The sex part he got, but he knew even less about the pregnancy and baby parts than Mac did.
"I'm so sorry, Mac" Veronica apologised, "but I literally have to go right now" she said showing her watch to her friend, "If I miss this flight..."
"No, it's okay, I understand" Mac assured her, though it pained her to know she was losing her best friend again so fast and for so many weeks, especially when she was in this condition, "I appreciate that you would stay this long" she smiled, "You think you could drop me home on your way, then we could talk some more?"
"Of course" Veronica agreed easily as she picked up her bag and swung it onto her shoulder.
Dick got up only when Logan did, and said goodbye to the girls.
"It was good to see you, Veronica" her ex told her with a genuine smile that she returned.
"You too, Logan" she assured him, "And Dick" she continued, shifting her attention to the blond, "I don't think I have to remind you that if you don't do what needs to be done for Mac, I will hunt you down, and they will never find your body" she promised him, in such a way that even Logan wasn't sure she was kidding.
Veronica left then, having to wait a second in the hall when she realised Mac hadn't immediately followed her. Instead she was hovering in the doorway looking back at Dick. After an awkward moment of thought, she came back into the room and leaned up to plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Thanks for today" she muttered before scurrying away like a mouse afraid the cat was about to... well, kiss her or something, though that didn't make any sense!
All the same, she was gone in an instant, leaving a grinning but somewhat puzzled Dick in her wake as she rushed to catch up to Veronica by the elevator.
Neither of the young women really spoke until they were in the car, both a little lost in thought about the afternoons events with the men in their lives.
"So" said Veronica eventually, "You're definitely having a baby" she stated as if perhaps just realising it was an actual fact for the first time, "I still don't know what to do with that"
"You're not the only one" Mac sighed, one hand resting on her stomach that as yet really didn't show any noticeable signs of change, "I'm sorry" she said then, causing her friend to glance at her from the road with a puzzled expression, "For leaving you alone with Logan so long. I know that must've been weird and awkward"
"Hmm" Veronica made a non-committal sound as she put her attention firmly back on the road, "I don't know" she sighed, "I mean, it is awkward, very, incredibly awkward with me and him, but... I meant what I said. It was good to see him, because the crazy thing is I've really missed him while I've been gone" she admitted, "I actually miss him more than Piz"
"Wow" Mac reacted with evident and expected surprise, that only made Veronica wish she'd never opened her big mouth, despite the fact it had felt good to get that out there, for all of ten seconds.
"I know, I know" she lamented, "I'm a horrible girlfriend and a terrible person"
"Hey, like I can have an opinion on your messed up love life" her friend huffed, "I'm carrying the spawn of Dick Casablancas!" she declared in such a candid way that Veronica couldn't help but bust up laughing.
Mac was joining in before long, and the two young women shared a terrible fit of the giggles at the absurdity of both their situations right now. It was crazy, possibly even unbelievable if you were looking in from the outside at their lives. As it was, the laughter died before too long, as the realisation hit that this was it. They were to be parted again for the next few weeks and deal with their own difficulties all alone. By the time Veronica returned from her FBI internship at the end of the Summer, Mac would be more than three months into her pregnancy. The thought of it brought them both back down to Earth with a bump.
"I'm glad everything is okay" said Veronica thoughtfully, "With the baby, I mean, that it's healthy and everything"
"Thanks. Me too" Mac smiled genuinely as the car came to a halt outside of the Mackenzies home, "I know it's weird, but if there had been anything wrong... I know it might've been easier, but I couldn't want that"
"I know" said Veronica with an understanding nod of her head, "Even Dick seems like he's trying to do the right thing"
"So far, so good" her friend agreed, "Y'know he asked the doctor if the baby was a boy or a girl" she rolled her eyes, "He seemed genuinely stunned when he told him we wouldn't know that for a good while yet"
"Clearly he only stayed awake in Biology class long enough to learn the make a baby part" said Veronica, matching her friends eye-roll.
"But he is trying" Mac defended the father of her child, still finding such a description odd even inside her own head, "I have you to thank for that, don't I?"
"What are friends for if not threatening the father of a friend's child to step up to the mark or else?" she shrugged easily, sharing a smile and then a hug with her good friend, "Take care, Mac" she told her, holding on tight, "Of yourself and of that baby"
"I promise" the brunette said through tears that were already welling in her eyes, "Damn pregnant lady hormones" she complained once again as she got out of the car, making Veronica chuckle.
"It'll be okay" she promised her friend as she leaned out of the car window and waved goodbye for now.
Mac watched her go from the front porch and smiled to herself.
"It might just be" she agreed in a soft voice, before letting herself into the house.
To Be Continued...