She came into the house with a lot of bags, it was hard to open the door. She took the day off to prepare the christmas dinner. As she saw all the ingredients laying on the kitchen table, she already regretted inviting everyone. She had no idea

How to begin.

"You might want to defrost the turkey first" a voice from heaven came from the window. It was Eliza, the neighbor. Liz opened the backdoor for her and the woman came in with her usual tray of goods at hand.

"Here. Some "pão de queijo", or cheese bread, if you want, although I don't think it's the same.

It wasn't. Whatever that little ball of heaven was, it was delicious. But then somehow it became extremely disgusting.

Liz grunted as the bread hit her stomach and made her feel bad, and her neighbor just took a glance at her.

"Are you okay, dear?"

"Yes, yes, sure. Thank you" she left the uneaten bread on the table. It was strange, she had eaten another tray of those a few days ago and nothing happened, and it was weird to think that Eliza would have used bad ingredients.

"So, what's the plan?" She pulled her sleeves up, observing the ingredients on the table with a much more determined look than Liz was using before.

"Christmas dinner, for my friends. Or something similar, at least."

"Hum. How many people?"

Lix counted silently "9"

"Make it 10, then. More is better than less. Okay. Put the turkey inside cold water to thaw it"

"Cold? Are you sure? Shouldn't it be warm?"

"Do you want to cook it? No, my dear, I can see that you and your kitchen are not very friendly, hun? Leave it to me"

And the woman started giving orders and pointing and cutting and slicing and roasting, and Liz couldn't be more thankful for her. She observed closely and asked questions, trying to learn, and most times she wished she had a notebook or a camera to register the details.

"Leave the salt always for last. You never know how seasoned it will be only with the spices."

There were details that Liz was sure she was going to forget, but she was cherishing each moment of that afternoon. She thought that's what spending time with your mother must be like. The thought hurt a little, but it was also a happy moment. She wondered if one day she would be able to have moments like this with her own kid.

By 5pm, all was ready and stowed away and the turkey was roasting in the oven. The smell was at the same time delicious and nauseating. She tried to ignore the bad feeling.

"Ok, you're all set here, my dear. I have to go now."

"Oh please, come and have dinner with us!"

The woman thanked, but refused. "My son is picking me up for dinner with his family soon. He lives in New Jersey. My daughter in law decided to cook everything tonight. Let's see" she shrugged, and that made Liz laugh. As she was leaving, Liz felt too sick to ignore it and ended up puking in the sink."

"Oh, god, I'm sorry! I don't know what happened, I was fine before" she tried not to hint that it had been the bread Eliza brought, but the woman opened a smile and hugged her.

"Oh dear! That's amazing! How many months?"

Liz looked at her quizzically "uh, months...what?"

"Pregnant, silly!"

Liz laughed, half surprised and half scared at the thought. "No. I'm not pregnant!"

"You know, when I was pregnant with Diego I used to have nausea all the time, even the smallest thing made me run to the bathroom. I lived of crackers for weeks" she put her hand on Liz's belly "you should check this out! Don't forget, just 40 more minutes than turn it off, ok? Merry christmas, my dear"

And just like that, left, leaving Liz holding her belly, with a terrified look on her face.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

People arrived in pairs, first Samar and Aram and then Harold and Charlene Cooper, and by 8pm the house was all noisy with laughter and chatting. Liz decided not to share Eliza's suspicious with Don, as it would probably freak him out. Instead she put her dress on and tried to look as normal as possible, despite the fact that she was still feeling a bit nauseous. She was also avoiding alcohol, just in case, but he didn't seem to have noticed.

Red was the last to arrive with Dembe, and as the big man gave her a hug, Red came inside the house looking around and started making comments.

"I still don't understand why you changed that apartment for this house, Lizzie, honestly. I mean, I understand the appeal, but..." He came closer to her, his cologne making her gag a little "if this was Donald's idea we can..."

"No, Red, the house was my idea. Don even had a moment with the shower as he learned we wouldn't be able to install one here."

He shrugged and then came into the house, greeting everyone. She observed from afar as they all talked and drank together. It was surely weird to have a group of FBi agents sharing dinner with a criminal like Red, but it was also all so peaceful. She felt a growl in her stomach and noticed she was hungry, so hungry. Donald approached her slowly, huggging her from the side.

"Hey, what's on your mind?"

"I'm hungry." she said, leaning her head on his shoulder, their hands intertwined together over her belly. She opened a light smile thinking about what could possibly be inside there. But she needed food.

"Let's go! I'll set the table"

The table was beautiful, all decorated with Christmas figures, and the dinner was delicious. Everyone congratulated Liz for the cooking, and she felt bad and confessed that she had help.

"I need to meet this neighbor" said Aram, taking another slice of the turkey.

They all laughed and talked and ate and drank, while Liz just observed, eating a lot more than she was used to.

"Liz, are you okay?" Asked Samar as she took her third slice.

"U-hum" she nodded, her mouth full of rice.

When it was time for dessert, she put the tray of gingerbread cookies on the table with one in her mouth and two on her hands, and then took a few more before people started to get it for themselves. The pudin that Eliza left was also attacked by Liz, and even the panettone with dried fruits didn't escape her, and she doesn't like raisins that much.

Everybody noticed that she was a bit off, but no one said anything, afraid they would hurt her feelings. At the end of the party, people was saying their goodbyes and then Charlene Cooper called Donald aside.

"Donald, I'm not sure, but my sister, she was feeling a bit too hungry once, just like Liz, and then she found out she was pregnant with my niece. I think maybe you should check it out, you know."

Donald widened his eyes and held his breath at the idea. He thanked Charlene for the tip but remained at the door static, taking it in.

When he went back inside, Liz was organizing things and cleaning the dishes for the dishwasher.

"Hey, babe." He said, frowning, leaning at the door.

"Yep?" She replied, not turning to look at him.

"Are you... Ok?" He tried not to sound too concerned about her.

"Yes, all good, why?"

"Nothing, it's just that back there, you were... Um... Very hungry, right?"

"Oh, yes! It was all so delicious, right? Remind me of buying Eliza a gift, please."

"Sure, sure..."

He scratched his head nervously as she went back and forth bringing the things from the table to the kitchen.

"Are you just going to stand there?" She said, and placed a few cups on his hands.

He helped her and then noticed that her wine glass had remained empty.

"Hon, didn't you drink wine tonight?"

"What? Oh, no. Wasn't feeling up for it." She said, and then ran away to the kitchen. He went after her.

"Liz. Are you pregnant?"

She stopped fiddling with the dishes in the sink and took a deep breath before turning around to face him.

"Oh, I don't know. I've felt sick all day and then I was so hungry, I..."

"Charlene said her sister was like this when she was pregnant" he came closer to her, and she covered her eyes with her hand, pensive.

"Yeah, Eliza told me the same. I don't know, Donald"

"Have you tried, you know... A test?" He didn't know what to do, inside he was a big mess of emotions.

"Well, I was cooking so I didn't have time to go to a drugstore"

"Do you want me to?"

"No! Look, it must only be stress, I was going insane with this dinner tonight I barely ate in the afternoon, ok? It's probably it. It's late now, it's christmas night, let's not worry about this, ok?"

He looked worried at her, but accepted.

"Ok. Let's go to sleep. tomorrow we stop by a drugstore and get a test." She said, nervously. He shook his head in agreement.

They both went back to bed, but stood there on their backs looking at the ceiling, thinking about the situation and how it could change their lives forever.

Liz was excited. She wanted to adopt first, but it wasn't necessarily a rule. She wanted to be a mom.

Besides, a baby made by her and Ressler would be the cutest thing in the world, and she could already picture the freckles and blue eyes.

For Ressler, it was a little bit scarier than that. He had never dreamed about babies before, but that was then, when he was a single lonely man living for the job. Now he had Liz, and she was the most precious thing in the world for him. And a baby would just certify that. But the thought of him being a father, caring for a baby, educating a child was just so scary. He felt thankful that Liz was already ready to be a mom. She would know what to do and he would just follow the lead.

"Babe," she whispered, still staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah"

"Are you sleeping?"

"No."

"You know, there's a 24 hour drugstore over..."

"Yeah, I'll go get it"

And he stood up on a jump, got dressed and went out.

He came back with the test and she got so nervous she couldn't pee. She had to drink a lot of water as he was trying to relax and distract her.

She went out of the bathroom silent, holding the stick between her fingers. She placed it on the bed side table, and then turned away from it.

"Oh God! I'm so nervous!"

He held her arms to comfort her.

"Hey! Listen to me, I just want you to know that I love you, and whatever that stick shows, I'll be there for you, you know that, right?"

"U-hum" she nodded, so nervous she was nearly hyperventilating. He helped her breathe and she bursted out laughing.

"What?"

"It's like we're already doing Lamaze" he grinned, saving the word to research later. He had no idea what happened in Lamaze.

"Ok. Is it time?"

"I guess. Do we look on three?"

"Alright. One... Two... Three." And they both stood up side by side in front of the little plastic stick that would change their lives forever. She looked at it and bit her lip, squeezing his hand. He took a deep breath, and then took her into his arms.

"Oh God!" She cried, tears coming out of her eyes almost immediately. Then, she opened a smile.

"We're gonna be parents" he said, opening a smile himself.

A/N - Oh yeah, I did it! I had written this bit with the test a few weeks ago and was dying to use it, so I decided to just go for it, what the hell! Which may mean that I'm about to close this series, I was thinking about finishing with the wedding. No, I will not write her on labor and to be honest I don't really want to write them taking care of a baby. Maybe a toddler, in a "5 years later" chapter" xD Toddlers are more my thing.

So, tell me what you think about it. I didn't focus so much on the dinner traditions as I thought they might be different depending on where you're from so, and it wasn't really that important. Thanks a lot!