She woke up minutes before her alarm to throw up nothing but bile. Now she was running late to school even though she hadn't taken time for breakfast. She knew she had to eat, but she also had to make it to her first period class in time, so she had tossed a breakfast bar into her bag on her way out the door. As it was, the bar sat untouched in her bag. Her butt had just hit the seat as the final bell rang and class began. With heavy legs and a light head, she made her way to her second period biology class. Walking down the science hall, she could smell formaldehyde and it made her sensitive stomach roll. She paused outside her classroom and pulled out her syllabus. Just as she feared, her class was scheduled for dissection that day. There was no way her stomach would last through 90 minutes in that room. How was she going to make it through the period?

"You too, huh," a voice interrupted her thoughts. Her gaze rested on the boy who had spoken to her. He was roughly her height, with blue eyes and sandy brown hair, but she couldn't remember ever seeing him before.

"Sorry, me too what?"

"It's dissection day and you don't want to go in. It's alright. Ms. Samson said to wait out here and she'd give us a hall pass in a few minutes." Kate's face must have shown some surprise, so the boy continued. "You know, to go to the library for the dissection simulation. Usually I'm the only one who does it. My name's Kevin Ryan, by the way."

"Kate Beckett," she managed to choke out. "Nice to meet you." The boy smiled at her.

"So what is it about the dissections that bothers you?"

"I can't stand the smell. It turns my stomach," she answered honestly.

"Ah, yeah. My whole family's vegetarian. I have an ethics thing about it," he commented casually. Just then their teacher came out with their hall pass and instructions to speak to the librarian about getting the right software. The pair made their way to the library from the science hall in companionable silence. After speaking with the elderly librarian, they each sat in front of ancient desktop computers and "dissected" the animal on the screen in front of them. Before long the bell rang and dismissed them to lunch. Kate noticed that Kevin was not heading for the lunch room, but pulling a brown bagged lunch out of his backpack.

"Are you not going to the lunch room?" she asked with confusion.

"Well, no," he responded. "I generally eat in here. I just started school here at the beginning of the semester and haven't really made any friends yet," he admitted shyly.

"No wonder you didn't look familiar. You should come eat lunch with my group. It's no fun eating by yourself. Come on," she led him into the cafeteria. Spotting Rick and Javier at their usual table, she walked over with Kevin following her closely.

"Thanks for eating lunch with me," he said before they reached the table. "Maybe after school I could buy you a coffee and you could tell me more about what goes on at this school." She turned to him with wide eyes.

"Oh, I uh," she rubbed a hand over her stomach. "I have a boyfriend. You're about to meet him."

"Oh! I didn't, wow, yeah," he mumbled with red cheeks.

"Hey guys," she greeted the other two as if nothing had happened, "this is Ryan Kevin. He's pretty new around here. This is Javier and my boyfriend Rick."

"Hi Ryan," they responded in unison.

"It's actually Kevin Ryan, not Ryan Kevin," he smirked as he sat down.

"I'm sorry," Kate apologized, "but that's bound to happen when you have two first names instead of a first and a last," she teased.

"Yeah, it's not the first time that's happened," he admitted, pulling his lunch out of his bag again.

"I've got to admit, man, you look more like a Ryan than a Kevin," Javier supplied around a mouthful of hamburger. "I'm calling you Ryan."

"Dude, that's not even the worst thing I've been called," he admitted.

"Kate, where's your lunch?" Rick asked, holding his own hamburger out. "Want some of mine?"

"No, I think I'll be fine without it today. I can't get the smell of formaldehyde out of my brain and it's turning my stomach."

"Kate," he said in a warning tone.

"Rick, she responded in a mocking tone. "I know," she said in a quieter voice. "But I really don't think I could keep it down."

"So what's the story between those two?" Kevin asked Javier.

"They've been dating for like 8 months or something, but recently it seems like they have some sort of secret between them. I haven't figured it out yet, but I plan to." The couple in question looked back at them. "What is the deal between you two lately?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Javier," Kate responded coolly. "There's nothing different now than there was last week."

"Which is when the weirdness started," Javier defended. Rick and Kate shared a glance.

"Really, there's nothing," Rick tried.

"Bull. I was nice enough when you guys needed to talk last week, but there's something going on and I want to know." Kevin watched the exchange with interest. He thought he might know what was going on. The smells, the refusal to eat lunch, the comment about keeping it down, the way she absently touched her stomach. Either she had the flu, or he was right and she was pregnant. He watched his sister go through the same thing less than a year before.

"Javi, leave it alone," Kate pleaded.

"No, chica. You've been weird all semester. Tell me what's up. I thought we were friends!"

"Javi, it's not like that. I'll tell you, but I'm just not ready now."

"See? That's not a helpful statement. Now I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that something is going on. I can't let that stand. I won't tell anyone else; just tell me what's up." Kate looked at Rick, who nodded.

"I need your secrecy for now," she began, "and yours too, Kevin." Both boys nodded in acceptance. "I'm pregnant," she said in a low voice, looking around to ensure nobody else had heard. The boys looked at her with wide eyes.

"Seriously?" Javier choked out. "I thought you guys knew better."

"We do," Rick defended. "And we've already gotten this lecture, so we don't need it from you."

"Wow, how did your parents take it?"

"Well my dad is pissed," Kate said. "Our mothers seem to be taking it better. We're keeping it," she said to stave off further questions. "And I really don't want to talk about it right now," she dropped her head to her hands. "I'm honestly not feeling too well." As if to relieve her, the bell sounded, ushering the students to their next class. Javier, Kate, and Rick gave their farewells to Kevin, and the trio made their way to the same third period English class. Javier took his seat at the back of the room and the pair sat together at their seats in the front row.

Their teacher was ready with their lesson plan the second the final bell rang. Kate tried her hardest to pay attention, but her head was spinning and she couldn't concentrate. Her eyes could not focus on the words in the book in front of her. Not sure if she was going to be sick, she stood to make her way to the restroom.

Rick's attention was torn from the page in front of him as his girlfriend stood from her desk and grabbed for it to steady herself before falling to the ground, hitting her head on the way down.

"Kate!" he exclaimed as he jumped to her side. "Oh my God, Kate." By this time, the students around him were frozen in their seats. Their teacher seemed at a momentary loss for what to do. Rick was vaguely aware of their teacher instructing one of his classmates to get the nurse. What felt like an eternity later, the nurse appeared in the room just as Kate was starting to wake up.

"What happened?" the nurse asked Rick, who was still kneeling at Kate's side.

"She stood up and then she grabbed her desk before she fainted. She hit her head on the desk on her way down," he added quickly. He hesitated and looked around the room before whispering, "she's eight weeks pregnant." The nurse calmly instructed the English teacher to call for an ambulance before turning her attention to the confused and groggy Kate.

"Can you tell me your name?" Kate looked at the nurse for a moment before responding.

"Yes." If he hadn't been so worried, Rick would've found the situation funny.

"Who is the president," the nurse tried a new question.

"Kate Beckett. I'm Obama." She paused for a moment. "Wait. That's backwards. I'm Kate Beckett. The other guy's the president. Sorry. My brain's a little slow." The nurse smiled at her.

"It's alright, but we've called an ambulance just to be safe. I can't be sure you don't have a concussion."

"What happened," Kate asked, looking around.

"You fainted and hit your head," her boyfriend told her. "Scared the crap out of me, too." He helped her to her feet, knowing she wouldn't want to be on the floor. "Someone called an ambulance. They should be here soon." As if on cue, the medics entered the room. "I knew I should've made you eat lunch!"

"What? Why?" None of this was making sense to Kate. "I'll be okay. I'm just a little foggy right now."

"Kate," Rick said sternly, "you're going with them." Not ready to have this fight, she nodded and made her way unsteadily toward the medics standing outside the classroom. Not hesitating at all, Rick grabbed both of their belongings and made to follow her.

"Mister Rodgers," the nurse spoke to him outside the hall. "You know you can't leave school grounds without parental consent." He gaped at her. Her gaze softened and she seemed to take pity on him."I'll sort things out with the front office. You go with her."

Once they were in the hospital, Kate was being examined without her boyfriend present. Knowing what he had to do, he fished around the pockets of her bag and pulled out her cell phone. After entering her pass code into the phone he scrolled through her contacts and placed the device to his ear. Johanna's recorded voice mail message greeted him and he left a short message detailing where she could find her daughter. Reluctantly, he scrolled through the phone again to dial her father.

"Katie," the man greeted on the second ring, "why are you calling me during school? Is everything alright?"

"Jim, it's Rick. Kate fainted after lunch and hit her head. We're at the hospital right now."

"I'm leaving now. I should be there in a few minutes," Jim said simply, before hanging up. Rick watched as Kate's doctor left her room, waited a few moments, and headed in.

His girlfriend was sitting up in the hospital bed, looking slightly less pale than she had the last time he saw her. She was dressed in the same clothes she wore to school and had an IV attached to her left arm.

"Kate," he breathed. "What the hell happened?"

"I didn't eat breakfast," she admitted reluctantly. "Then I didn't eat lunch. Apparently my blood sugar dropped quite low and that's why I passed out. I don't have a concussion, thankfully."

"You're gonna be okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just need to eat more regularly. I know I need to be eating, but eating makes me feel so terrible," she complained.

"Didn't Dr. Green offer to give you some nausea medication? Maybe you should call and ask for that," he suggested.

"Maybe," she conceded. "I hate taking medication, but it's probably best for the baby if I can actually eat. I've lost five pounds since I started feeling the nausea," she admitted sheepishly. Just then her father entered the room followed by the doctor who had examined her.

"Katie, what the hell happened? Rick said you fainted and hit your head. Are you okay? Is she going to be okay?" Jim turned to the doctor beside him. The young physician smiled back at him.

"She's going to be fine. She's been having some trouble eating well, which led to a pretty nasty low blood sugar. That caused her to fall and hit her head. There's no evidence of a lasting cranial injury. She might have a headache for a while, but she should be fine." The doctor turned to his young patient. "I know you haven't been feeling the best, but you really need to keep eating, Kate. We'll give you some anti-nausea medication, but it's not magic and you won't feel one hundred percent better. It's up to you to keep eating well. You can try eating smaller meals throughout the day to see if that helps. You're on the small side, so we don't want you to lose any more weight; we want to see you start gaining soon."

"I should've made you eat lunch," Rick grumbled guiltily.

"Rick, no," she interrupted him. "Don't say stuff like that. I'm a big girl and I'm the only one to blame if I don't eat." The doctor excused himself and the remaining trio continued to argue about who needed to make sure Kate was eating properly. Jim phoned Johanna again, and filled her in on what had happened that afternoon. Hours later, when Kate was discharged, the three made their way back to the Beckett residence, where Johanna had gone overboard with dinner. There was enough food to feed three families! Throughout the meal everyone kept glancing at Kate to make sure she was eating, and she didn't let them down.

Author's note: I almost posted this last night and stopped after Kate hit the deck. But I'm leaving in 20 minutes for a week-long children's camp where I volunteer. Knowing the next update wouldn't be for a while, I couldn't do that to you guys. At 5 chapters, this story is officially over 10,000 words! Wow! I'd greatly appreciate it if you could spare a moment and give me a review. Maybe they'll keep me sane through the week!