Written for the het_bigbang on on Livejournal. Thanks to Karlamartinova for beta-reading.
"She knows that she can't will a phone to ring, right?"
Chris and Percy rolled their eyes at Brody's statement; strangely enough, it was the former ATF agent who took immediately the Los Angeles detective's side, cutting Chris off even before he could open his mouth as to speak.
"Let her be. She has to call home and give them the news."
"You know that I'm actually right here and I can hear you, right?" Sitting at her desk, Georgie groaned, and turned to look at her co-workers; soon enough the trio joined her, Chris standing at her side, Percy jumping on her desk, and Meredith taking a chair and sitting there -all in all, they were looming over her like ghosts or some bird of prey.
"You have told us before them?!" Meredith sounded surprised. "You know that sooner or later you'll have to tell your family, right? I mean, you are four months along already!"
Georgie rolled her eyes. "Ok, first, you are the ones who are supposed to watch my back, were I to go in the field again for whatever reason. Second, I am not taking family advice from someone who moved over 900 miles and forgot to mention it to her parents."
"Ok, someone is already moody. You know what? I'm not getting involved in this." Brody left them, went into the kitchen, but from her eyes they all they all knew that, despite the pout, she wasn't too mad. Georgie could actually understand why Brody was a bit annoyed with her: after all, she still had what the other woman had lost, her sister, and Meredith probably felt like Georgie was dismissing her completely.
"You all right?" Percy asked her the moment Chris fled the scene, trying to talk some sense into Brody, or maybe just see whether she was really mad or not. "I know a couple of things about strained family relationships. So, whatever you need, I'm here."
Georgie sighed. She thought she needed, maybe, someone to talk to. Not Loretta or Pride- too paternal, too wise- not Chris, who was always going soft on her. Definitely not Sebastian or Patton, with whom she wasn't as close as with the rest of the team. And not Meredith, who couldn't get why she was having issues with her sister, when she was supposed to be amazed by the mere fact of having her to begin with.
Well, she liked Sonja; she was a "no-bullshit" kind of person and they've immediately clicked, thanks, also, to a mutual former acquaintance of them. And Sonja seemed to be, for some unknown reason, fond of Georgie as well. Yep- Sonja not only would have done, but would have probably been the best choice.
"It's not like I don't want to tell them, it's my sister I'm having troubles with. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to reach out to someone who dragged me to court." Georgie paused. "Even if she took the right choice. But…"
Sonja put an hand on her shoulder. "But there was a right way and a wrong way to do it and she took the wrong way."
She nodded. "Yeah. And I want to tell them. All I dream at night is being able to put my head in Chloe's lap and have her telling me to just be calm because everything will be all right." She paused when she saw Sonja looking at her quizzically. "She is my step-mum. Foster mum actually. It's a long story"
Sonja chuckled, and looked at the smartphone on the desk. "You know what the good thing about modern technology is? You don't actually have to talk with someone when you need to let them know something."
"And e-mail? I'm not sure…" She turned up her nose.
"Not really. I bet you've got your ultrasound in this thing, right?" Georgie nodded, picked up her phone and retrieved on her Dropbox the jpg file; then, she handled the phone to Sonja, who started to push imaginary buttons. "Your sister's name is Ellie, right? Then Mum… Gibbs too? Yeah, let's put Gibbs in as well… and… Send! Done. You just sent them an MMS. You can thank me later, Big City Mouse." Sonja chuckled, and decided it was time to give Georgie some space. But when she was a few steps from the former LA detective, she turned, smiling. "You know what? I think we'll stick with either Georgie or Newman."
As she said so, in the next room, Chris' phone was beeping, alerting him of the arrival of a message; when he went to check it, he smiled seeing the received picture, and when Sonja put a gentle hand on his shoulder, he knew who to thank for the unexpected and welcomed gift.
He mouthed Thank you to his work-wife, and saved the ultrasound picture on his device.
Georgie was in bed when she heard noises coming from her kitchen; on autopilot, she grabbed the gun she kept in her bedside drawer, and, as stealthy as possible, she left her room, ready to face the intruder; strangely enough, many lights had been turned on, not that she really expected thieves to make any sense at all, though.
"Federal Agent, Freeze!" She screamed, pointing her gun at the figure kneeling between the fridge and her kitchen table; a pair of hands went up, and slowly, a male figure stood up and faced her. "Uhm- don't shoot me?"
"Chris." She hissed his name as she left the gun on the counter; a look at the clock in the room, revealed her the awful truth, and suddenly she felt the desire to grab again her weapon and use it against that idiot. "Chris, it's barely six. What the hell are you doing here?"
He looked at her like she had grown another head. "I just brought you some food. It's not like I've never done it before!"
She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yes, but normally I'm the one who opens you the door. This is called breaking and entering. Which, last time I checked, it was a crime."
Chis chuckled, making good show of his perfect pearl-white teeth, and showed her the small key ring adorned by a LAPD badge replica. "Not if I've got the keys!"
She inspected the badge. It was perfect- and it even featured her grade and her badge number, Lieutenant Detective 714.
"Wow. That's borderline creepy and stalkerish. Kind of sweet, but still creepy." She sighed, sat at the table and, hands under her chin, she chuckled. "I'll not bother asking you why you have my keys to begin with, and I'll just forgive you as you did bring me food. Anyway, what's for breakfast?"
Chris laughed as he offered her a veggie omelet, still warm, and a glass with what looked like a greenish smoothie. "You, Georgina Newman, are a weird, weird woman."
She took a bite, shook her head, still giggling. "Nope. I'm hormonal. Big difference. Which also means that I can get away with it."
Chris sighed, like he was exasperated, but from his eyes, she could clearly see he was simply humoring her.
"I put in the freezer some breakfast tacos and egg muffins for the next few days. I also got you some Quinoa Salad, Turkey and veggie burgers, broccoli, roasted shrimps… " Straw in mouth, she looked at him with a lifted eyebrow without saying a word. "Now what?"
"You are pampering me…" She sing-sang, laughing like she was a kid. "That's actually the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. And besides…" She stopped mid-sentence, gasping; her hand went to her belly, the meal completely forgotten. Without waiting for her to say anything, Chris went at her side, one hand on her arm, like to try to reassure her.
"Georgina?" He asked, clearly worried.
She shook her head, concentrated. "I just… have this… gentle fluttery feeling in my stomach, like, butterflies, only, not really…" She paused, looked at him a bit in panic. "Do you think I should call Loretta? Or maybe my doctor. You know what? I should definitely call my doctor."
She was almost crying, scared; she didn't want anything to happen to her baby- she wanted to have everything she had been promised, everything she had always hoped for. And now, this was happening? Was it because she had dared to be too happy?
Chris was looking at her, concentrated; then, without asking for her consent, he moved his right hand under the fabric of her silky pajama top, and, cupping her belly, felt the taunt, warm skin of her abdomen; she gasped at the contact, like electricity was running through her veins.
"Is it where you felt it? The butterfly feeling?" She nodded, and kept his hand on her body, and when she felt it again, there, in the point where he was touching her body, she gasped, and he smiled. In a way she had never seen him smile before -Chris was so happy in that moment, that his eyes were glassy with unshed tears.
"I don't think you have to call your doctor, honey." The nickname rolled out on his tongue on its own accord, and it sounded so right, so perfect, that neither of them even noticed, nor cared. "You are twenty weeks along…."
"What?" She asked, and Chris lifted the fabric of her grey shirt, uncovering her pregnant belly; there, where Chris was keeping his hand, where she felt the weird feeling, the skin was… different? She didn't know how to explain it.
"It's your baby, honey." He said, kneeling on the floor so that his eyes could be level with his hand on her belly. "Your baby just moved for the first time."
She smiled, and put her hand on his own; their fingers interlaced, they stood there until the baby didn't stop moving around in its mother's belly.
"I don't know what's more impressive: that my baby is having a baby, or that she finally learnt to cook!" Chloe chuckled as she opened her (former) foster daughter's fridge, and was engulfed by sudden pride as she saw it filled to the brim with actual food; sitting on her couch, Georgie was reading a pregnancy book, and almost chocked on her drink.
She tsk-tsked the woman she had come to consider a mother. "You kidding? Mum, I haven't done anything but reheating since I was three months along!" She joined her mother, and looked at the items in the fridge and indicated them. "Healthy food from Chris and Doc Wade, vegan goodies from Sonja, fish ingredients from Pride, junk food from Sebastian and Patton, and Ice-cream from Brody." She looked at her mother, teasingly. "Don't worry. That, I don't reheat."
Chloe shook her head, sighing a bit disappointed. She had come to see her "daughter"- because little Christina Georgina had always been that to her; when her husband- the major, as she had kept calling him until the day he had passed- had asked her if she would agree in taking in the two still minor orphan sisters of a young protégé of his, she hadn't been thrilled; married to an older man who had made of the military his life, she had barely been twenty-seven years old, which meant that suddenly she had been asked of becoming the mother figure of two girls that were already teenagers.
Ellison, back then fifteen years old, had been easy- she was perfect in each and every way- but her little sister, who was barely twelve, was always angry and missed her previous life; it was seeing her that Chloe had decided that she had to take them in: she wanted that little girl to need her, and to be there for her when the time would be thought; it had taken her a good five years, but then her "baby" had come around, and Chloe couldn't have been more proud of her: that was why it broke her heart seeing her girls fighting over custody of their late brother's children.
"Sweetie… can I ask you something?" Her daughter nodded, and came back to the couch, her feet lifted on the small coffee table. "Who is Chris?"
Georgie looked at her mother like she had just grown another head; she had met Chris that morning, when she had barged in New Orleans for an impromptu visit. "It's just one of my co-workers. We worked a few cases together back in my FBI days. Why?"
"And that's it? There's nothing more between you two? Because I hate to break it to you," She chuckled, her eyes filled with mirth and tease. "But the way he looks at you, that's pretty much the way the major did when we met."
"The only thing is, I'm, not sure he looks adoringly to me or the baby." Georgie took a big breath, and started to play with the hem of her shirt, covering her six months pregnant belly. "Chris is father material. Only thing is, does he want to be husband material too? I know he would be perfect, but…"
She sat at her daughter's side, and put Georgie's head on her shoulder, just like when she wasn't even a teenager yet. "Oh, honey…."
"I don't want him if he is in only for her."
"So, I'm having a grand-daughter?" Chloe asked, already enamored with the bundle of joy and troubles that was going to fill her baby's existence.
"That's what I'm telling myself, mum."
"So, I've been snooping around Derek's finances and I'm not completely comfortable with what I found. It's like a labyrinth of shell-companies after shell-companies, and in my experience, it usually means that something shady is going on. So, I was thinking…" Georgie stopped to talk and finally lifted her eyes, and met the ones of the only other person present in the "kitchenette" of the NCIS building; she didn't know the older woman, but somehow, she looked somehow familiar.
"Georgina Newman, right?" The woman, all bright smiles and one of the strongest Alabama accents she had ever heard, offered Georgie her hand, and the cop shook it.
"Mrs. LaSalle?" She asked. Of course there was the accent, but those eyes were unmistakable- they were the same as Chris and Cade. Besides, hadn't she seen a picture of her on Chris' desk, once?
Georgie cleared her voice. "Does your son really talk of me?"
Mrs. LaSalle nodded. "All the time. He is quite fond of you and your baby. You still far?"
She blushed, lowered her eyes for a reason she wasn't sure of. "I'm seven months along."
The woman looked at her in a way that she had seen too many times; it was like they were sharing, in silence, anecdotes, like they were part of some sort sisterhood and them and only them could understand their own code.
"From what I hear, Chris is around you all the time. A bit stalkerish, but it's his own way of showing that he cares. He still does that with Cade, too." She paused, looked at Georgie teasing her. "Not that my son thinks of you as a sister…"
She froze. What was with mothers and needing to know what there was between her and Chris and if she felt something deeper for him? Because she guessed that was what Mrs. LaSalle was hinting at.
She shrugged. "I'm lucky to have him in my life. He is a good friend. My best friend, I think."
Mrs. LaSalle came closer to her, and put her hands on Georgie's shoulders; she looked at the younger woman affectionately, and shook her head. "No. He is lucky to have met you. There were things my son wouldn't believe in any longer, but you, you were able to teach them to him once again."
She gave Georgie a kiss on the cheek, and then caressed the taunt skin of her belly. "Good luck to all of you. It's getting late- tell Chris I came back to my hotel, will you?"
Once in her room, Patricia LaSalle started playing with the small celeste velvet box she had brought for her second born- Chris hadn't said anything, nor had she told him she would have gotten out of the safe box their grandmother's engagement ring; but, after listening to her son talking non-stop about this new partner of his, she had asked Cade and her baby girl if either of them minded if Chris would be the one getting the family heirloom, and they had agreed, both she and Cade thinking the same thing: that sooner or later, "her" engagement ring would have made good show of itself on Georgina Newman's left hand.
"Chris? Can I ask you something weird?" Chris lifted his eyes from his screen and looked quizzically at Georgie, who was sitting at his desk, right before him. "Would you drive me to my doctor? I came here by car but I'm not sure I can drive right now…"
Georgie offered him the keys to her bright red Renegade, and as he grabbed them, he saw that her hands were shaking; he also noticed for the first time how pale and cold she was, like she was in shock.
"Georgie?" He was looking at her terrified; he gulped down a mouthful of saliva and went to her side of the desk, and she practically collapsed in his arm as he kneeled next to her.
"I haven't felt the baby move today." She said between sobs. "I've called my doctor and she is waiting for me, but I can't go alone. I think I may be in shock."
He nodded. "Yeah, I know, that's… what I thought. All right, I'm coming with you, ok? I'm not leaving you alone." She nodded, and he would have taken her in his arms, but she was out of the door before he could even just think about it.
He helped her inside the car, and as they were driving the five minutes to the clinic, they didn't talk; she kept sobbing, her hand on her belly, Chris' one on her own, holding her like for dear life.
What an ironic saying, he thought, since it's her baby's life on the line here.
Few minutes later, he was leaving her outside the clinic, and was looking for a parking space; he slowly made his way to the same ward he had seen her visiting so many months before- almost a lifetime; he didn't want to get there too quickly just to hear bad news, so, when he got outside the door, eyes low on the ground and hands in the pockets of his jeans, he was surprised to see the same doctor he had already "met" that time there, seemingly waiting for him.
"Mr. LaSalle? Chris?" She asked, worried, panting, like she was in a hurry, and he nodded, dumbstruck. "Miss Newman doesn't want to start the exam until you are there. She says she doesn't want to be alone."
He didn't waited for the doctor to tell him to follow her, he practically run inside the exam room and went to her side; Georgie was leaning on the bed, her eight months pregnant belly naked, covered with light blue gel, and as soon as she saw him, she reached for his hand; Chris lowered his head, now at level with her own, and kissed her forehead as he run his free hand through her dark locks, the doctor already busy with the ultrasound.
Everything is going to be all right. Don't worry. I'm here. I'm not leaving. Whatever happens, I'll be at your side. It's going to be ok. We'll be fine. He kept repeating sweet nothings in her ear, hoping that he could believe his own words as well, and then, they heard it, strongly- despite being mollified by liquid- a bit like talking in the water. Only, they weren't hearing words.
It was… an heartbeat? Could it really be possible?
"Is that…" Chris asked. Georgie still didn't dare to say a word, she was still too scared; she feared she could somehow jinx it by just thinking about her baby still being there with them.
The doctor nodded, smiling. "That's your baby's heartbeat, guys. The only reason you aren't feeling it moving any longer it's because you are a bit too tiny, and this pest here isn't. It doesn't move because it can't move any longer. And, see?" She indicated the glossy dark image on the screen. "Nature already thought about that. You still have a month to go and it's already getting in position. Which is just our luck, otherwise I would have had to perform a C-Section."
Georgie took a breath of relief as she stood, helped by Chris, and cleaned herself up as better as she could with paper towels. "God, I'm so sorry. I feel like a stupid. I mean, I should have known, and instead I run here scared and…"
The doctor shook her head. "No. You did good. That's why you'll be a terrific mum in a month."
"Oh, I can already see myself in a few years; I'll be the kind of mum who spends her time covering her baby with sunscreen in the summer and with layer after layer of wool in winter." Georgie chuckled, and yet, as they were leaving the studio, Chris reached for her hand when he saw that the color hadn't returned to her cheeks and that her eyes weren't shining with the same joy as the day they have felt the baby moving for the first time.
Hand in hand, they walked to her car, Georgie going through the motions, too tired after the rush of adrenaline to fight him over driving or tell him where he was supposed to go; she didn't even realized they were going to her place until they stopped right there, in front of her building.
But, she didn't leave her car; she stood there, looking outside the window at the place where Chris had talked her into moving, and she understood- she accepted- that everything she had done in the last few months was relying on him. For the first time in a long time, she had wanted to do so. To allow him to get close. Because right from the start, with Chris, it had been different.
Because Chris had never lied to her before.
Everything is going to be all right. Don't worry. I'm here. I'm not leaving. Whatever happens, I'll be at your side. It's going to be ok. We'll be fine.
She remembered the sweet nothings, the promises he had made not even an hour before, and in her seat, she turned to look at him, with an intensity and an intent that took his breath away.
"Did you mean it?" Her voice was flat, like when she interrogated a suspect and meant business. "What you told me before, in the examination room." Chris nodded, and she grinned.
"Georgina, what…." He asked, but she put a finger on his lips to shut him up.
"Pride," She kept on her interrogation. "Is he expecting any of us back?" This time, Chris shook his head, his lips still caressing the rough skin of her finger.
As she sighed at closed eyes in pleasure, she titled her head to the side; as she opened her eyes, Chris took her hand in his own, and kissed her knuckles, never breaking eye-contact.
"Then, Chris, I want you to come inside with me."
He sighed. "I don't know if it's a good idea." He admitted, and yet, the determination- the happiness that he was finally reaching his goal- wouldn't leave his eyes. If I follow you inside now, I don't know if I'll be able to stop.
"I think it's actually a perfect idea."
She closed the distance between them, and their lips met- hungry, famished, thirsty for love and passion and lust- and what they started in the car, they actually finished on her couch; only later, their clothes scattered on the floor, Chris dragged her naked and spent form to bed- to actually sleep.
And that was when the problems started. Because as soon as she welcomed him into her embrace between her sheets, Chris fell asleep as a rock; but suddenly, Georgie could only remember a sentence he had told her a few months before, and once again she was left wondering if it was her that Chris wanted or fatherhood.
I got to say, I'm into having a whole basketball team full of little LaSalles, but procreating in my family is like playing the gene pool lottery. Got a few branches off the family tree with issues, so…
At the end, she too fell asleep- but her dreams were only nightmares.
