The Pregnancy Ship

Chapter: 4 Rules Are Made To Be Broken

Louie Provenza walked into his house. He placed his keys his badge and his gun on the table under the mirror and then locked the door. He had gone out with Patrice recently to an antique mall and they had fallen in love with the little marble topped table for the foyer. Patrice had bought it for him so he'd have something to put his stuff on when he came home. It was a birthday present. He walked into the living room and saw Patrice sitting on the sofa, hands folded in her lap, her head bent, a suitcase sitting next to her. A tissue in her fingers that she had been using to wipe tears from her face. "Patrice what's going on? Are you...are you leaving me? I thought we were doing rather well together."

"We were Louie, I don't want to, but after I tell you what I've gone and done, you probably will want me to." She sniffed. Two big tears ran down her face.

"Aw Patrice, don't go crying, I can't stand it when you cry." He handed her another tissue and patted her on the back.

"I'm...sorry," she hiccupped.

"How about you tell me why you think I'll want you to leave?"

"Well, you know a couple of weeks ago, when I had bronchitis and I was on antibiotics?"

"Yeah. You were pretty sick. I was worried about you."

"Well then I got better, and we um...celebrated."

"I'll never say no to a reason to celebrate with you Honey Bunch, but what does that have to do with..."

"Louie, I was still on antibiotics when we celebrated."

"So?" Louie shook his head and shrugged his shoulders slightly to indicate enlighten me, I'm lost.

"Antibiotics cancel out birth control! At least the pills and I take the pills."

"So, what you're telling me is you're pregnant?" Patrice shook her head yes. All the while holding the tissue to her nose, her eyes were squeezed shut, and tears ran down her face.

"Well, did you get pregnant by yourself?" he asked kindly.

"No."

"You're right, we did it together. It takes two to make a baby, well at least the way we did it."

"But you didn't know about antibiotics canceling out birth control pill."

"Well, neither did you."

"That's not exactly true."

"What does that mean? Not exactly true?"

"We were, basking in the after glow after making love, when I remembered about antibiotics canceling out birth control pills and I thought maybe I should get the morning after pill. Then I thought nah I don't have to worry, I'm fifty not thirty. That ship has sailed a long time ago!"

Provenza chuckled, "I'm sure that's what Flynn and the Captain thought too, but apparently it's still in the harbor."

Patrice looked at him confused. "What do they have to do with this?"

"Well, the Captain and Flynn are going to have twins."

"Oh my goodness you're kidding me. Twins? Oh I have to call Sharon!"

"I'd wait on that, she was looking like she needed to rest. She was dizzy in the murder room almost fell on her face. Luckily Amy was close enough to catch her. Also, we have a murder to solve. It was them telling the team about the babies. Get this they call them Egbert and Egberta, that got me thinking about how you've been trying to tell me something for two days and I was letting things get in the way of you actually saying the words."

"Are you saying you knew?"

"I don't think I...consciously knew. You've been hugging the toilet for at least the last several days so I probably recognized the symptoms without realizing it. Look Patrice, is this the ideal situation to bring a baby into the world, with me being 70 and you being 50? No, but heh, name any situation that is perfect or ideal."

"So, you're telling me...you...want this baby?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I was scared to death when I got in the car to come home. I was sweating bullets, but on the way over here I thought about what I heard Flynn say as I drove away. He said Louie, it is what it is and if it's meant to be it'll happen, if it isn't it won't. He was right. I thought about how much I love you, and how much it would hurt you if I acted like a jerk and said no I don't want the baby. It would hurt me too because, hell I'm getting used to the idea, and I'm thinking I like the idea of raising a baby together. If you hadn't said you were pregnant, I would have been disappointed!"

"Oh, Louie you're just the sweetest man! I love you!"

"I love you too. Tell you what; put that suitcase away, will you. You should probably take a nap this afternoon, cause we're going to celebrate! So don't bother making dinner, come over to the station about six, and we'll try to go out to dinner. We'll ask Flynn and Sharon to go with us and we'll all celebrate!"

"Okay. Do you have to go back to work?" she pouted.

"I'm sorry, honey but I'm afraid so. We have a real weird murder to solve, and I left my team short handed."

"Okay, we can celebrate on our own later tonight...too hmmmm, Sweetiums."

"Sounds like a plan, Honey Bunch." He looked at his watch, "gotta go, Patrice. See you at six!" He gave her a passionate kiss goodbye, gathered his stuff and went back to work with a beatific smile graced his face.

Back at the station, Andy was sitting at Sharon's desk working on the financials of the Borden family he had brought his computer in, so he could keep an eye on Sharon as she slept. Sharon had fallen asleep on the sofa as soon as her head touched the pillow, and had been asleep for a little less than an hour. He heard a knock on the door, and looked up, it was Julio.

"Sir, the girls lawyer is here." He inclined his head towards Sharon.

Andy got up from behind the desk, and came out of the office to talk to Julio with out waking Sharon. "Let me guess, the court appointed lawyer for the Bordens is Jack Raydor."

"Yes sir."

"Oh geez! Why doesn't he just go back to Vegas and stay there!"

"I wish he would too sir. The Captain doesn't need the stress in her condition. Um sir, Chief Taylor said the budget meeting has been postponed till Monday due to the fact that a couple of the members of the budget committee caught the flu."

"Damn. I was really counting her being at the budget meeting during the interviews. Well, this going to test her, "I'll be good" promise, when I ask her not to go against Jack in the interview room."

"Sir, if I may the Captain has been dealing with Jack for a long time. As much as we all want to protect her and wrap her up in cotton wool, we can't. She won't let us."

"I won't let you what?" asked Sharon. She had come around the corner from the hallway.

"Geez, Sharon don't sneak up on us like that!" Andy said with his hand on his heart.

Sharon pressed her lips together in an effort to stifle a giggle at his attempt to distract her from what they had been talking about. "Come on Lieutenant, give what's going on?" she said. Wiggling her fingers in front her as if to bring information towards her.

"Um..Ma'am, the girls court appointed lawyer showed up, and it's Jack Raydor, Ma'am." Said Julio giving Flynn a look that said, hey every man for himself.

"Thank you, Julio. I'll be in the electronics room in a minute."

"Also, the budget meeting has been postponed till Monday. Cause a few of the members have gotten the flu, Ma'am."

"Thank you Julio. Tell Amy the two of you will be doing the interview with Emma, and wait a minute where is Lizzie's lawyer?"

"Well, if there is another lawyer he hasn't shown up yet. Jack led us to believe he was the lawyer representing both girls."

"He can't do that, it's a conflict of interest. What if one of the girls is guilty?"

"Then the other won't need me. Hello, ShaRon," Jack said as he stood near the interview room. Looking her up and down, he realized something was different from the last time he had seen her, but couldn't put his finger on what it was. He watched her lower herself into a chair, wincing as her bottom made contact with the chair.

"Hello Jack. What if both are guilty? You can't represent both of them at the same time. It would be a conflict of interest as I said before."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now as far as I know, they are not being charged with a crime isn't that true?"

"It's true, but asking for a lawyer right off the bat kind of screams guilty doesn't it?"

"Well, you see these girls have been very sheltered, they're not real savvy about how most things work and the justice system is a complete mystery to them. They probably just panicked when they were confronted with their parents deaths and the police surrounding them and their home."

"So you should be willing to back off and let us do our jobs, after you've convinced them they don't need a lawyer yet."

"No, that wouldn't be a good idea. Can't let you railroad them into a guilty plea. They need someone to help them navigate the justice system. They're very naive you see. By the way, I work for their father's retainer firm Krueger, Lane, Drury and Kleiner. I'm not the court appointed Attorney. The retainer firm handles financial holdings, and such. I guess they think it's all one and the same."

"So, why are you working for them?"

"They wanted to branch out a bit, and I um needed the work."

Sharon shifted in the chair, off her sore side, wincing again. "You okay Sharon?" Asked both Andy and Jack at the same time.

"I'm fine, gentlemen. I assume you need time to prepare your clients, Jack?"

"Yes I do."

"Okay, well then Amy and Julio, you will be doing the Interview with Emma. Lieutenant Flynn and I will interview Lizzie..."

"Sharon, I'd rather you didn't..."

"You can't talk to Lizzie until..."

"Yes, we know Jack, but if you representing both girls becomes a real problem for us, I will solve it my way. You know how that works, don't you Jack?"

"I wouldn't advise you to try that again."

"I will do what I have to do Jack to move this investigation along. Now, go prepare the girls for their interviews." Sharon watched Jack as he went into interview room one. Her arms folded across her body, she turned to face Andy, "as for you, Lieutenant, I understand your concern, it is mine also, but Jack doesn't bother me. He's nothing more than a gnat that annoys me. He doesn't scare me."

"But your blood pressure Sharon..."

"Tell you, what if I start to have a problem, I'll reach under the table and squeeze your hand or leg."

"Okay that works. Just don't squeeze too high, we may not want to have any more babies after this, but we will want to... well you know!"

Sharon laughed, bending over at the waist. "Let's go watch the first interview in the electronics room," she said taking his arm and allowing herself to lean into him.

He put his hand over hers, "Why Captain you're breaking your own rules."

"I'm learning that rules are made to be broken, Lieutenant." She smiled at him, and he smiled back at her.