Hormones. They go both ways.

"I hate Eric," Calleigh complained.

Aimee smiled at her friend. Knowing what Calleigh were going through, though being pregnant with twins had to be worse. Horatio's wife couldn't say she envied the woman.

"One of those days, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah. And he gets all sensitive when I say it to him even when he knows I don't really mean it."

"That's them male pregnancy hormones," Aimee said. "Horatio was like that the first few months I was pregnant with Rachel. Then he got used to it and just smiled and said 'yes, dear' every time and proceed to ignore me."

Calleigh was now only working part-time now and strictly on desk duty. She was off today and going stir-crazy. That's why she had come over and visited the Caines. Rachel was over playing with the neighbors. Cheyenna was napping and Austin was happy in his swing.

Aimee didn't mind chatting with her friend, even if it were just letting Calleigh vent. She enjoyed the adult conversation as well.

"Calleigh hates me!" Eric whined to Horatio.

Horatio smiled.

Rookie sensitivity.

He remembered that. He had it himself for the first few months while Aimee were pregnant with their now four-year-old daughter. He got over it and realized his poor wife was just blowing off steam and didn't get the same feeling with their last two pregnancies. As his wife told Calleigh Horatio learned to let what she said in one ear and out the other. His wife had a human being growing and developing inside her. That had to reek havoc on her more than physically at times. Though he said there was no reason for her to and he told her that every time Aimee felt bad when she vented at Horatio, even if she always got tons of hugs and kisses afterward.

"No, Eric. She doesn't hate you. Her hormones do."

Part of Horatio wanted to tell Eric he had another four months of this and hormones tended to get worse but judging by Eric's current expression Horatio thought he might cry if he told him that.

Frank, however, decided he wanted to have a little fun.

"You know those hormones get worse the more pregnant she gets, right?" He asked Eric.

The look that crossed Eric's face was one of like he saw the scariest horror movie. Horatio had to stifle a laugh. He nodded at Eric when the Cuban looked at him.

"'Afraid he's right. In my experience, anyway," he said.

Because she were carrying twins Calleigh knew now that she probably wouldn't feel any movement from the babies for a while and because there was two instead of one baby she was prone to feel less movement. She was bummed out about that. She'd looked forward to that since Aimee Caine allowed her to touch her pregnant belly for the first time four years ago. The baby Aimee carried then, now a chatty and lovable preschooler named Rachel, still couldn't wrap her young mind around the fact Calleigh and Eric were going to have two babies at once. She asked her mother how this happened. Aimee just told her it was one of those magic things that happened. She wasn't going to give a four-year-old a biology lesson.

The expectant couple were still debating whether or not to find out the sex of the babies and if they were identical or not. They had plenty of time and were just looking forward to their future together. Heaven knew they had waited long enough. Eric's mother had backed off about when the couple were going to marry. She had stopped short of saying "so the babies would be real Delkos." She knew nobody in her family would have taken kindly to that statement.

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