Chely99: Glad it was good enough to go back and reread. That makes me so happy.

badassbensonx: Love them, they're my OTP, in case you couldn't tell.

Guest: You're welcome; hope you like this one as well.

"What are you doing here?" Rollins snapped.

"Nice to see you, too. Is your captain in?"

Chapter 6: Nothing Changes Except What Has To

Cragen's ears must have been burning, thought Olivia, as her commanding officer appeared in the doorway."Lieutenant Tucker, to what do we owe the "'pleasure?'"

Olivia barely suppressed a snort.

"Your office free, Captain?"

"Of course," Cragen gave a curt nod.

"Benson, you too."

"Me?" Olivia mouthed, but Rollins shrugged

"Don't throw up, don't throw up!"

Olivia couldn't help but acknowledge a knot of dread in her stomach as she leaned against Cragen's desk and addressed Tucker, "Let me guess, I'm being investigated by the rat squad…"

"Not unless there's something you want to tell me."

"I know you're not used to being on this side of the situation, Lieutenant," conceded Cragen, "but I suggest you stop accusing my detectives and start explaining yourself."

"Fair enough."

"What do you know about being fair," Olivia wanted to know.

"Enough to fulfill your boyfriend's wishes, against my better judgment, and tell you that Cassidy has gone undercover in the 12th."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend, friends with benefits, whatever. Your personal life doesn't interest me, Detective Benson."

"Really?" snarked Olivia.

At the same time, Cragen said, "In exchange for what?"

It was a good question. They may not have been in a relationship anymore, but Olivia found it hard to believe Brian would put himself among people he thought were corrupt enough o stage a civil commitment out of revenge without some major incentive.

"You were going to give him his shield back, weren't you?" she said. "That's why he agreed to do this."

"If the operation goes well, yes, I agreed to consider it." The unspoken 'if not' hung in the air until Tucker broke the silence. "By the way, I hear congratulations are in order. You do realize you'll have to be on desk duty." With that, he turned on his heel and left.

Olivia's jaw hit the floor. If there were any chance, however slim it might have been, that she would change her mind and raise this baby with Brian as he had begged, it now evaporated in a puff of smoke. Who did he think he was? Where did he get off divulging her most personal secret, and to Ed Tucker of all people? Hadn't he been a Special Victims Unit detective once?

Yes, she reminded herself, he was the one who had been green enough to confuse fondling and soft cheese in open court. If she felt like being fair, she would also remind herself that incident had happened a long time ago, but she was pissed and didn't feel like being fair.

She searched Cragen's features, but years of interrogating suspects gave him a practiced blank expression even she wasn't able to read. Finally, the silence became too much for her.

"I was going to tell you. Today. Tucker being the prick he is, he beat me to it. Say something...please."

Cragen gave a loaded sigh. "I thought the test was negative."

"The first one was," Olivia whispered, looking at the floorboards. "The one I took for the rape kit...I…I thought I was in the clear. Turns out it was a false negative."

She felt a fatherly hand on her shoulder and realized she had been crying.

Stupid hormones

"How far along are you?" he asked, handing her a tissue.

"About nine weeks. Are you going to put me on desk duty?"

"I'm going to tell you to go to the cribs and get some sleep, you look like you could use it."

"Captain…"

"I mean it, Detective, I don't want to see your face again for at least two hours. That's an order. Munch, hold down the fort."

"Sure thing. Do I get to know where you're going?"

"A little place I like to call none of your beeswax."

"Got it, Cap."

Cragen knocked on her office door and waited. Heels clicked on the other side and the door opened.

Elizabeth Olivet stood there, her brunette hair falling in waves. "Yes?"

"I don't know why I'm here."

"Typically people come to see me when they have something on their mind. Come in."

Cragen complied and closed the door behind him.

"How's Detective Benson doing with the therapist I recommended? Dr. Lindstrom."

"You'd have to ask her."

"This about her, isn't it? I feel like I've struck a nerve and I know she's like a daughter to you."

"The bastard got her pregnant!" He hadn't meant to blurt it out like that, but that's what happened.

"So you support her."

"I do. Of course, I do." Normally, Cragen would be happy—ecstatic—for Olivia, a woman who, he knew, wanted a family more than anything else in the world. They had had one of their biggest disagreements when Cragen had pointed out how desperate Olivia was to keep Calvin Arliss in her care. "And I know what I have to do to keep her safe, but she's going to hate it. I just hope she understands."

"She'll understand that nothing changes except what has to…and speaking of which, I can neither confirm nor deny that I gave Sergeant Munch his pre-retirement psych evaluation the other day. I suspect he'll put his papers in. The Mehcad Carter case hit him very hard."

I have no idea if the NYPD requires a pre-retirement psych evaluation, so I may have taken a liberty there, but it seems to me the department would want to know why someone was retiring.