AN: Here's the final piece of this one.

I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!

111

"Hmmm?" Jessica hummed, realizing that Seth had said something, but she'd failed entirely to hear any of it.

"I said—what do you think? Mexican or—they have that Japanese place, here. When we leave, Jess. You must be starving."

Despite the fact that, a week prior to the appointment, her doctor had ordered labs from Seth's office, which he'd had completed and sent to Augusta, they'd called to let Jessica know that they'd be drawing additional labs this morning, so she'd refrained from eating anything.

Since arriving, she had been weighed and measured in every possible way, sometimes more than once. She'd been poked, prodded, and she'd given over enough blood that she'd begun to wonder if she was going to have any left. She'd been subjected to multiple types of scans and, now, they were waiting in an office for what would hopefully be the final visit of the day—the one where her actual doctor would discuss with her what it had seemed that everyone else was reluctant to say at all.

The practice, here, was for nearly everyone to be very quiet about things. It was supposed to create an environment of comfortable relaxation—or something of the sort. Nobody truly confirmed or denied anything, until the team had scrutinized all the results from every possible test. It had been explained to them all in the beginning, and it had sounded wonderful to Jessica back then. In this way, there was supposed to be less stress throughout the run of appointments, since there was no conviction that anyone would provide you with information before the proverbial end of the line, but the fact of the matter was that Jessica felt positively ill at this point.

"Earth to Jessica," Seth said, after a moment.

"What?" Jessica asked, the question coming out before she allowed her brain to register everything. "Oh—Seth—I'm sorry," she said.

"It's quite alright," he said. "We'll just—handle things without you." He reached his hand over and patted Jessica's stomach. "What about you? I know you always have strong opinions. What were you thinking? Mexican or Japanese? There's also a decent burger place your mother doesn't hate, sometimes."

He leaned over as if he were sharing some kind of secret, but he spoke loudly enough for Jessica to easily hear him.

"You just tell your daddy what you want, and I'll make sure you get it," he teased.

Jessica laughed. She couldn't help it, even if she'd wanted to. She laughed, and she laughed hard enough that she accepted the tissues that Seth reached and plucked from a little shelf in the office—tissues that, she was sure, were often not there for laughter.

Seth had brought a chair over right next to the table where she was sitting, still wearing the gown she'd been wearing while being shuffled around the suite of offices. She still had one more exam to undergo.

Seth patted her leg.

"I'm glad to hear you laugh, Jess," he said. "It's been a couple days. I was starting to think you'd broken your funny bone."

She frowned at him. He frowned back at her. He took her hand and squeezed it.

"You want to tell me what's on your mind, Jess?" He asked, sincerely enough that it made Jessica's throat and chest ache. "If it's just the appointment, that's fine, but…if it's more than that, I'd like to hear it."

Jessica hesitated a moment, not sure how to tell him that he was being so loving and gentle with her that she half-feared that, upon opening her mouth to try to tell him what she was feeling, the proverbial dam might burst and she might be in tears until the doctor arrived.

Maybe Seth could see that on her face. Perhaps he could read it in her eyes. He hummed and nodded, squeezing her hand.

"I'm not an expert, of course—we all have our specialties and whatnot. But—I've been pretty heavily involved in the safe arrival of a good number of babies throughout the years. All your vitals looked good, Jess, except that blood pressure. And, like I told them, I've kept a very close check on your blood pressure. I know that it tends to get a little high when you're feeling stressed, but it's been good otherwise. They'll give you about thirty minutes, when you're done here, and then they'll take it again—after I've had a little time to help calm you down. The scans looked good, from where I was." He smiled at her. "They'll give us some personal copies, in addition to what they'll send home with me for your medical files, and we'll stop on the way home and pick out a frame. Don't you think? We'll put this one on my bedside table. That way, no matter where you are in the bed, you'll see the baby. That heartbeat sounded good. That was a good, strong heartbeat, Jess."

Jessica focused on his words. She focused on the sincerity behind them, and the fact that she could still hear the heartbeat when she closed her eyes. She did close her eyes, for a moment, and she smiled when Seth squeezed her hand.

"When the baby's a little bigger, I have a stethoscope that'll let us hear it, whenever we want. I doubt we'd get too much of a clear heartbeat right now. It's not as strong as what they were using here, but it won't be long."

Jessica opened her eyes to him.

"Do you remember—a few days ago—when I went to the store in the morning to buy some vegetables?" Jessica asked.

He seemed to consider it carefully. It wasn't entirely unusual that she would catch a ride with him when he went to work. She would run her errands around town early in the morning, so as to avoid running into quite so many people.

"A-yuh," Seth said. "Something happen, Jess, that you didn't tell me about? Come to think of it—that's right around the time you went practically mute on me. I've been thinking it was about the appointment."

Jessica drew in a breath to try to calm herself and let it out. She was tense and exhausted, all at the same time.

"I saw Marjorie Nash," she said. Seth made a face—one that Jessica didn't fully appreciate. She made another face right back at him and he laughed. She did, too, though, and she was thankful for the distraction. "Seth…"

"My apologies, Woman," he said. "And—what did Marjorie want?"

"Well, besides to make sure that you were being cared for and all your needs were being met," Jessica said. She paused. Seth looked at her.

"What?" He asked.

"That's the point where you say that your needs are absolutely being met," Jessica said.

Seth laughed, again, and Jessica couldn't help but laugh with him. Suddenly, she wished she'd talked to him before, instead of simply holding her concerns inside. She hadn't even told him, yet, what had upset her, and already she was feeling so much lighter, just from having the intention to tell him. Knowing that, soon, they would carry every bit of the weight that was on her chest together, seemed to make it feel lighter.

"You meet needs I didn't even know I had, Jess," Seth offered, kissing her hand. "Now, come on—spit it out before Dr. Wilder gets in here and we don't have a chance to talk for a while. Straight to the point, Jess."

"I haven't been sick," Jessica said.

Seth furrowed his brow at her.

"Maybe not quite so straight," he said. "We seem to have missed a rather crucial turn somewhere along the way, Woman."

She laughed and hugged herself.

"Marjorie heard I was pregnant," Jessica said.

"All of Cabot Cove knows that," Seth said.

"But she wanted confirmation," Jessica said. "And, then, she was telling me about when she was pregnant. She had morning sickness until she was—I think she said five months pregnant."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Seth said. "Some poor women have it the whole time."

"I haven't been sick," Jessica said.

"I'm sorry," Seth said, "but—I thought we were talking about what has you…upset or…out of sorts." Jessica simply nodded in response. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, Jess—having never been pregnant myself—but, I would have imagined that not being sick would be a blessing. Some of these poor women are really suffering when it gets a hold of them."

"It's a normal part of pregnancy," Jessica said.

"I'm still not quite following," Seth said.

Jessica sighed and shook her head.

"It might be nothing," she said. "But—I can't quite shake it, Seth. I haven't been sick. I wasn't sick before, either. Not with a single pregnancy."

"And?" Seth asked.

"And what if that's the indication, Seth, that something isn't quite…normal?" Jessica asked.

"I see," Seth said.

And silence fell between them. Jessica didn't find the silence to be terribly uncomfortable. In fact, it was far more comfortable than any silence that had fallen between them in days, at least from her perspective. Seth was considering what she had said. Knowing Seth, he was considering how she was feeling, and what had led her to feel this way.

And Jessica already felt better—lighter—just to know that he knew.

She leaned back on her arm and then lowered herself to lie back on the table. Seth got to his feet and stood over her.

"Are you alright, Jess?" He asked.

"I'm fine," she said. "I was just, suddenly, overwhelming tired, Seth. I'm just going to lie here for a minute."

He looked at her and laughed quietly. He took her hand in his and worked it. She bit the inside of her mouth as imperceptibly as possible, never wanting to let him know that, sometimes, it was painful when he did that. She knew it was an accident. He would never hurt her on purpose and, if he knew that he did hurt her, he would never do it again.

The comfort of the gesture, and of Seth's intention behind it, far outweighed any discomfort that was ever unintentionally caused.

"That's what happens when you keep secrets from me, Woman," Seth said. "It's not good for you."

She smiled at him.

"It's not good for the baby," she said, half-teasing because he tended to turn everything they did back to being something that was either good or not good for the baby, depending on whether or not he wanted her to continue doing it.

"No," he said. "Being honest with me is what's best for the baby."

"I'm sorry," Jessica said.

"No harm done, Jess," he said. "As long as you learned your lesson." She nodded her head and slipped her other arm behind her head, leaving Seth to hold her hand. "As for your concerns…well…it's true that digestive problems and nausea…morning sickness, so they call it…are all common symptoms of pregnancy."

"I know," Jessica said.

"But so are heightened emotions, and swollen ankles and feet, and bleeding gums, and…and cravings, Jess. And a million other symptoms, for that matter. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Every woman is different. Every pregnancy is different. Just because you haven't had morning sickness, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the baby." He laughed quietly. "Our baby has her own ideas about how to take control of her mother."

Jessica laughed and squeezed his hand. Before she could ask for it, another tissue was pressed into the hand she brought from under her head.

"It sounds silly," Jessica said, "when I put it out there."

"Maybe," Seth said. "But—it didn't feel silly, did it, when it was in here." He reached and tapped his finger against Jessica's forehead. She laughed, her heart feeling like it was swelling with affection for him.

"Not at all," she admitted. She blew out a breath and moved to sit up. He helped her. He pulled her into him, and she hugged him. He kissed the side of her head, letting the kiss linger. She closed her eyes, happy to be in the safe comfort of his arms.

"That's why you've got to share everything with me, Jessica. Right away. Don't hold that in. There's more room out here, between us. Together, we can stop most of the bad stuff before it ever gets to the baby."

He pressed his lips to her face again, and Jessica sighed, relaxing into his arms as he squeezed her gently.

"I'm sorry," she breathed out, after a moment.

He pushed her away enough to look at her. He didn't look angry with her in any way. He smiled at her, actually, and she smiled back at him.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing, Woman," he said. "Just—thinking about the fact that…you've spent two days thinking…thinking you weren't a proper pregnant woman. All the while, you've cried at least fifteen times, fallen asleep in the middle of the evening while we were just spending time together, and I've seen you fall victim to at least ten cravings for the most random things—including…don't think I missed you sneaking bites of raw potatoes last night when you thought I wasn't paying attention."

Jessica laughed.

"Are you criticizing me, Seth Hazlitt?" She challenged, playfully.

"Not at all," Seth said. "Only pointing out that you and the baby might be doing it your way, but you're absolutely doing it, just as much as any other woman that ever became a mother, Jessica Hazlitt."

Jessica simply breathed a moment, letting his confidence calm her. She felt that she was calming, too, considerably.

"You don't think Dr. Wilder is taking so long because it's bad news, do you, Seth?" Jessica asked.

He rolled his eyes at her and laughed, shaking his head.

"I think he's taking so long because these big wig medical professionals don't have any respect for anyone's time but their own," Seth said. "He's going to have nothing but good news for us. I can feel it. You just worry about what you want to eat, so I can start planning the route we're going to take to avoid the most traffic on our way back to Cabot Cove."

Jessica smiled, thankful that Seth was there to listen to her concerns, and to take them seriously—and sorry, really, that she hadn't come to him before.

She couldn't say that Seth had the ability to make everything better. He was only a man, after all, as he commonly reminded her, but she could certainly say that she simply felt better knowing that he was there with her, no matter what it might be that she had to face.

111

"Not too bad, is it, Jess?" Seth asked.

Jessica hummed out her pleasure at the bite she took of the burger.

They'd decided to pull into the burger joint—a drive-in—and eat like they were teenagers on a date. Seth liked the privacy of the meal and, really, Jessica simply liked that they didn't have to go inside and perform in any way that was fit for public. She felt exhausted down to the marrow in her bones, and she was pretty certain that, once they were on the road, she'd likely steal at least a little nap while Seth drove.

She knew, too, that he wouldn't begrudge her that, at all.

Jessica—and their baby—had a clean bill of health, whether or not Jessica had ever suffered from morning sickness. Just hearing that her baby was doing well—and not just well, but exactly as they hoped the baby would be doing at this point—had lifted enough weight off of Jessica's shoulders that she'd very nearly felt like she might fall asleep before she even made it to the car.

The promise of the best burger in the area was all that was really keeping her up even now. That, of course, and the fact that Seth preferred company while he ate—and Jessica liked for Seth to have the things that made him happy, especially if all he wanted was the simple, shared joy of spending time together during a meal.

"I haven't heard you make sounds like that for a few days," Seth said in response to Jessica's practically involuntary sounds of pleasure over the burger. "Makes me hope you aren't too tired to spend some time with me when we get home, Woman."

"I'm exhausted," Jessica admitted.

"Kick back and take a nap on the way home," Seth said. "I'll get us all there—safe and sound."

"I know you will. I'll probably be too full from this burger, too," Jessica teased. She hummed her pleasure once more. "It might be worth it, Seth."

He laughed, not at all offended by her teasing.

"It'll have plenty of time to digest while you're taking your nap. Eat up, Jess," he said. "All of this. Doctor's orders."

"I don't recall Dr. Wilder saying anything about me having to eat all of this," Jessica challenged.

"No, but he did say that—as your husband and primary doctor—I was to continue to handle things just as I have so far. After all, you are the image of health, and that's certainly at least a little owing to the care and skills of your doctor."

Jessica chewed on a french fry and smiled at him.

"Dr. Wilder might know a little about my primary doctor," Jessica said, "but he has no idea the skills of my husband."

Seth's cheeks blushed red, though he would have denied it, if Jessica had drawn attention to it.

"My wife is not entirely without skills of her own," he offered.

Jessica hummed and washed down her food with the strawberry milkshake that had appealed to her immediately upon seeing shakes on the menu. She'd brought it up, and dismissed it quickly because she couldn't even begin to imagine how many calories were in this meal alone, but Seth had ordered it anyway, saying that the baby wanted it, and she deserved it. After all, she, too, had been somewhat poked and prodded for the duration of the day, and her daddy thought she deserved a milkshake for her suffering.

"Speaking of wives," Jessica said.

"I don't think I like where this is headed at all," Seth said, around a bite of his own burger.

"What was that look about, when I mentioned Marjorie Nash?" Jessica asked.

He looked surprised—or, perhaps, a bit guilty.

"Nothing at all, Jess—just…curious about what you were going to say, that's all."

"She's still interested in you," Jessica said. "You do know that, don't you?"

"Plenty of women are interested in me, Jessica," Seth said.

Her facial expression must have said everything, because Seth's expression, in response, certainly said a great deal.

"That's not what I meant," he said quickly. "Most of the women in Cabot Cove are gossiping harpies hunting for husbands to make into rugs. I only meant—well…"

"What you meant was there were a lot of widows and divorcees in Cabot Cove," Jessica said. "And, at some point or another, they all might've…brought by a casserole to the lonely doctor?"

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"I don't know what you mean by casserole, Jessica," he said, "but—do I detect a hint of…jealousy in your tone?"

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. She did feel jealous. She also knew that he knew that, and she knew that he liked it, at least a little.

"Not at all," Jessica said.

He smirked.

"Good," he said. "Because—of course—you know there's no cause for it. It does remind me, though, that I ought to let Beverly know it's time to call Marjorie. I believe she's due for a physical."

Jessica rolled her eyes, and Seth snorted, swallowing back laughter the best that he could.

"You're not amusing, Seth," she offered.

"Finish your shake, Jessica," Seth said. "Maybe it'll sweeten you up a bit."

"It's going to take more than that, if you think if you think I'm forgiving you by the time we get home," Jessica teased.

It was a false threat, and Seth knew that. Furthermore, Jessica knew that he knew that.

She couldn't help but smile when he gave her the mischievous little smirk and winked at her, so quickly it was almost imperceptible.

"Finish my shake, too, then, Woman."

"Then you won't have any," Jessica said, raising her eyebrow at him in question. She wasn't sure what was coming, but she knew that she was being set up for something. Still, she was more than happy to walk right into it.

"I'll get my sugar when I get home, Woman."