Disclaimer: For the last time on this one, not mine.

39. Closing Remarks –Month Thirty-One

Ignoring McNorris she folded the newspaper crisply and continued to read as she sat stretched out on the couch. "Are you listening to me?" He asked annoyingly. Saying nothing she lifted the paper higher so he couldn't see her face. Even unable to see him she could sense him rolling his eyes. "You know the silent treatment has no effect on me whatsoever." That was a falsehood. It always worked when she wanted to punish him, and right now she was miffed beyond reason. "Darcy, this is ridiculous."

"I disagree." She said, breaking her three hour-long silence, not that he'd noticed she was purposefully ignoring him for the first two. "You've betrayed my trust in the most hideous manner I can imagine."

"Because I talked to your mother?" He asked in disbelief.

"You did not talk to my mother." She said as she turned the paper over with a snap of her wrist. "You talked to her. Do you have any idea the conversation I had with her this morning to diffuse the situation? Do you? What is wrong with you? You are my husband. You're job is to protect me from dangerous and perilous things, and look what you've done. You've set my mother loose on me. She didn't even know how to contact me for nearly three years and in less than three months you've found a way to help her sabotage my life. I don't love you anymore."

He let out an exasperated sigh at her dramatic flair, but could see there was really no way to get out of this with her. She'd shoved him into a no win scenario, on purpose. "I've already told you I was sorry-"

She refused to be pacified by petty apologies. "You are a highly educated and seasoned defense attorney, and you couldn't avoid a simple question from an industrial chemist?"

"Your mother is a smart woman. I think it might be good for your relationship if you listened to her on occasio-"

She lowered the paper and eyed him dangerously. "Do you really want to finish that sentence? Think hard." He huffed and sat down on the couch, grabbing her feet as he settled himself and stretching them over his lap. He started to massage them and some of her annoyance faded away, not that she would let him know that, so she grumbled at him. "I can't believe you told her we were trying to get pregnant."

"It slipped out." He said, trying to defend himself. "She's even sneakier than you are. I don't now how she got it out of me." He was genuinely confused. "I don't even know how it came up."

She muttered unhappily as she decided there was nothing at all interesting in the paper left for her to read, although the crossword looked fun this week. "You're not allowed to answer the phone when I'm not here anymore. I see what I get for being a good person and running errands, even though it was your weekend to pick up our dry cleaning. Stabbed in the back by my true love."

He went after that at once. "I thought you didn't love me anymore?"

"I thought you were trying to get out of trouble?" She retorted as he tried to weasel a victory with word play.

His lip twitched. "I'm never out of trouble with you."

"Truer words were never spoken." She agreed as she started to look around for a pencil. "Anything else the two of you discussed that I should be aware of? I have to prepare myself for future attacks, and at what point did you two become girl friends?"

"Do you have to exaggerate everything?" He asked.

"You two are chatting like fifteen year old school girls on the phone and you feel I'm exaggerating?" She asked as she gave up on the pencil and tossed the paper on the coffee table. She supposed her lack of writing material was his fault too. Every time she left a pen on the table he would pick it up and put it away. It was like a constant battle that she could never seem to win. It didn't even bother him that he had to keep moving things. There was no way to succeed against such oblivious disinterest.

"Yes."

"Do you know she was trying to give me tips? She was talking positions, David. My mother was discussing intimate sexual postures with me, and giving me personal and detailed accounts from her own experience, and not all of those involved my father. I'll have to start seeing my therapist twice a week again. Is that what you want? An even more traumatized wife?"

She could tell he was pleased that she was now relaxed enough to joke about her own issues even as they bickered. It had been rough for her, them really, for a while there. The first session after she met Dr. Liebert she had come back home shaken, exposed, and in need of something stronger than caffeine. She had refrained from drinking, but David had come back from a late meeting to find her curled up on the corner of the couch staring blankly at the wall. He'd called to her several times without a response before crouching down and touching her hand. He had scared her so badly she had nearly punched him in the face. He had managed to avoid the hit, just barely, and calm her down. She could tell he wasn't overly pleased with her mindset and looked ready to tell her to find a new therapist, but she saw the value of what was happening even if she was having a bad reaction. She was going to be reacting badly regardless of whom she talked to and Brian knew what he was doing, she could tell. The following sessions had been just as unsettling, but she knew the man was helping her, she could see it in the way she was relaxing again, and she and David had slowly gotten back to their normal existence.

A few months into her treatment he suggested she bring David with her to a session. Needless to say, she had hesitated. It was one thing to share things with a psychologist that specialized in torture victims and was confidentially bound to keep her secrets private; it was another to let her husband in on the gory details, something she'd been avoiding their entire relationship. When he pointed out that the lack of communication was what caused the majority of her marital problems to begin with she had reluctantly agreed. She knew how badly she had damaged what she and David had, she did want to make it right, and if this would help she would do it. When she had broached the subject with ghost boy one morning over a granola bar and coffee he had seemed shocked that he was invited, but had taken time off to go with her.

The hour they'd spent in the office had been unsettling, uncomfortable, and all around horrible. She had told David, in excruciating detail and with her eyes on the ceiling, what had been done to her and the psychological games she had been forced to play with Dana to stay alive. He had been quiet throughout the story and only spoke when Brian asked him a question. However, midway through her tale he had reached out and taken her hand gently in his as she spoke.

When their time was up they stood to go before Brian told David he was welcome to come back if she felt comfortable enough to ask, and if he ever had any questions he was a phone call away. The DDA had nodded in understanding, thanked him, and they had left. As they drove home she supposed she should be grateful that at least this time she didn't vomit from the stress. About halfway home she managed to pull herself together enough to talk again. "Thank you for coming. I know you don't like talking about things like that with strangers, or therapy in general."

He found her hand with his. "Thank you for inviting me. I know that was hard for you. I couldn't have done that."

"Yes, you could have." She whispered. "You told me what happened to you a long time ago."

"Not like that." His thumb ran circles over her hand. "Do you need anything right now?" He asked, unsure of what the appropriate thing to do was at the moment. She thought it was sweet that he asked since she knew full well he wasn't good with things like this, hence the therapist.

"The hand holding is good." He squeezed her hand again and she managed a small smile. He tugged her gently and she ended up leaning against him as he drove. Since that session they had been a lot better. Any tension that had still been between them had dissipated and ghost boy had been nothing but sweet and gentle with her for several days after. She had responded to that so positively that he had carefully prodded her forward to the more normal things he wanted them to do together. So they had started planning trips and had gone to see his sister and her family, as well as her parents.

The trip to Salt Lake had been a real blast. Mary was as crazy as ghost boy in her own soccer mom way, and had her reeling with the stories she told her about the DDA in his younger years. David had come back from what he termed, 'an uncle outing', which she interpreted as spoiling the children rotten, with his two nieces to find both of them in hysterics. He refused to leave her alone with Mary again. Well, actually he refused to leave her alone with Mary after she asked him about his misadventure with his older brother, a water hose, and the sewer grate. He had glared daggers at his sister and opened his mouth, no doubt to say something vulgar, when his tiny niece Kate tackled him with a hug and innocently asked him to tell her the story. He had sent them one last glower before picking the four-year old up and carrying her to the living room and the pile of toys that were there. He watched them suspiciously from where he sat on the floor next to Kate and Lila's dollhouse for the rest of the evening while Mary told her more tales in a low whisper so the children, and David, couldn't overhear.

Really, they had a wonderful time and McNorris even got along with Mary's husband. Considering he was really the lone wolf type that surprised her, but it was hardly an unpleasant discovery that when he wasn't in contact with his father the DDA was heavily family oriented. Watching David with his two nieces had her heart melting more than a little too. He was good with Lila, adapting to her needs with ease, and her younger sister Kate pretty much fell in love with him and all the attention he was showering on her. The little girl was constantly following him around or crawling into his lap, and ghost boy ate it up. Mary had caught her watching them interact more than once and a knowing look had taken over her expression, although she kept her opinions on that to herself. They left with a great deal of hugging and a promise to come visit them in L.A. soon.

Two months after that trip David had managed to bully her into calling her parents. She had dug in her heels for nearly two weeks before she gave in, and even then it had been a rather violent struggle to get her to relent. Finally, she had picked up the phone and dialed home for the first time in years. Her mother had answered and then promptly started crying hysterically when she heard her voice. She had never felt so guilty in her life. David must have seen the look of near panic on her face at him being here for that because he had kissed her forehead before leaving the room quietly to let her sort this out on her own. Two hours later and she had hung up after promising to visit in a few weeks, telling her mother where she was, informing her father she had remarried, and assuring both of them she was safe and healthy.

The trip to Wisconsin had been far more stressful than the one to Utah. Other than the obvious reasons she really was worried her parents would dislike David. She had flat out prepared him for it with a long series of suggestions, stories, and things he should try to do, and he had listen to her with an unusual amount of forbearance before telling her to relax. It turned out all her worry was for nothing; by some strange miracle her mother was as smitten with her husband as Kate was.

She had watched them interacted with near paranoia, thinking she was on drugs or an alien had taken her mother's place. The only thing that reassured her was her father's ambivalence toward McNorris. She thought if they were both crazy about him something was really going on. The three-day trip was at least tolerable for her, because she had always had issues with her parents and even the circumstances of her coming home could get rid of them, and the meeting had made David more than happy, as if he equated the introduction with her total devotion to him. She figured if it made him that content she should be grateful and move on. What she wasn't grateful for was the chatting that was happening between David and her mother when she wasn't home. Okay, it didn't really make her unhappy; it was just slightly irritating that her own mother seemed to like McNorris more than her. Not that she and her mother had the best relationship in the world, but really. She would admit to a tad bit of jealousy over the whole matter, but was unwilling to confess to it even as David volleyed back dryly.

"I highly doubt that traumatized you."

"What do you know? Are you a psychologist? Do you have any idea the amount of emotional damage I just underwent? I'll have to bury the memories or hope I get low grade amnesia." She pointed to the vase on the table and bent her head forward. "Hurry, hit me with the knick knacks and make me forget."

"I wish I married someone with a decent sense of humor."

"Hey!" Scooting forward she half tackled him into the side of the couch in retribution and he laughed and grumbled at the same time, it was really an amazing feat. She started to poke at him. "Admit I'm funny!"

He grabbed at her hands as they played. "I promised not to lie to you."

"Ahh! Mean!" Her attack got more aggressive and he barked out a laugh before using his size to his advantage. Flipping her easily he tossed her over the couch cushions and laid over her. Leaning down he kissed her as he caught her hands.

She laughed at him and kissed him back and he leaned to the side so he wasn't crushing her. He waggled his eyebrows as he gazed down at her. "We could try to make a baby now and then I wouldn't have to keep secrets from your mother."

"No thanks." She replied in a chipper voice. "Don't want to waist my time."

"For heaven sakes, Darcy, just forget what she said." He leaned down and nibbled at her neck encouragingly. "This isn't supposed to be stressful."

"Oh, this from the man? You think growing a person is just an easy thing? Or perhaps you're referring to the delivery process. You know it's not like a pizza, thirty minutes or less or it's free. Do you have any idea how freaky and painful childbirth is? Have you stopped to consider that I will get fat as I incubate? All you have to do is have a good time. I'm the one that's doing all the work."

He sighed dramatically at her. "I feel like I'm working rather hard at the moment-"

She thwacked him in the ribs lightly, cutting him off. "You know what? You're lucky I'm already pregnant because at the rate you're going you'll never get another shot. You better hope you supplied the goods on this one."

His head jerked up. "What?"

His look of stupefied shock didn't deter her rambling in the slightest. "I said you better hope you supplied top of the line sperm. My egg was totally perfect, I grew it with special thought and consideration, you better not have messed it all up."

Ghost boy suddenly did a very odd sort of push up, nearly toppling off the couch as he took all his weight off her mid section. "You're pregnant?" He asked, his voice oddly strained.

She titled her head at him. "I do believe that was our intended goal. They shoot, they score." She thought about that for half a moment. "You know what? Actually no sports metaphors when referring to the tadpole, it's just weird. I don't think the baby deserves to be bombarded by gender stereotypes before it even develops into its intended gender."

Ghost boy ignored her as she set up some very serious ground rules. "We've only been trying for two months."

"Well apparently we only needed to try for that first one."

He shook his head slightly, as if he had water in his left ear or something. "You're already two months pregnant?"

"No, about five weeks." She saw his breathing change and frowned. "David? Why are you upset? I thought you wanted a baby."

"I did, I do." He corrected at once, and she realized he was having some sort of cross between sheer and total panic, joy, and excitement. It was clear to her all at once that David had never really thought this would happen, as if it was just one of those crazy dreams people have that they never got. The poor man had no idea how to react to this news. "You're pregnant?" His voice was tinged with disbelief as he asked her again.

She softened toward him as she reached up and cupped his cheek. "Yes, I'm pregnant. I went to the doctor last week to be sure."

He glared at her accusingly. "You said you had a meeting."

"I did, with my OBG." She smirked in delight at his reaction. This was far more fun than she anticipated. "She agreed that my condition could no doubt be called pregnancy brought on by very good sex." She nipped at his lower lip as she said that and he puffed up as if to say, 'of course it was good'. "Now you get to say something positive and reassuring to me. I'm an expectant mother. It's now your job to cater to my every whim and desire."

His eyes twinkled. "You're going to milk this for all its worth aren't you?"

"Absolutely, can't even believe you would ask me that. Now, speaking of cows, get me some ice cream, the kind made out of soy though." She waved vaguely toward the garage. "Away with you. I don't want to see you in this house again without a frozen non-dairy treat."

He laughed and kissed her, easing back down so he wasn't squishing her in any manner. "I can't believe you're pregnant."

"I can't believe I don't have ice cream." She quipped back.

He smiled down at her and his hand settled on her stomach. "Do you really want ice cream right now?" He asked as he settled down next to her on the couch, keeping his hand flat over her abdomen.

She pressed back into him. "I can wait."

Turning her head around she found him gazing down at his hand. The man had an oddly blank look on his face and she touched his cheek again. "Hey." She whispered, and his eyes came back to hers. "This is real."

"Give me a few minutes to absorb that concept."

"Fair enough." She murmured right before she kissed him sweetly. "I'll just lay here and grow a very tiny kidney or something while you do that."

He laughed softly and tucked her closer to him. He was quiet for a little while and she occupied herself by eyeing the crossword that was lying on the table and filling in the blanks with her mind instead of a pencil. He interrupted her about midway through. "What are you thinking about?"

"What a nine letter word for superior quality is."

He frowned and then spotted the newspaper. "You're doing the crossword right now?"

"You were absorbing. I already integrated the news, what else was I supposed to be doing?"

He huffed out a laugh. "I don't know." He kissed her again and eased his hand under her shirt so he could touch her skin. A smile lit up his face. "I really don't." Suddenly he kissed her very enthusiastically and she hummed in surprised approval. "Christ, I'm so happy."

She smiled at him and caressed his cheek. "Good." She pecked his lips again. "Take this moment and memorize it. I want you to look back on it a year from now when we haven't slept for weeks and he's got colic."

"I want a girl." He complained teasingly.

"Oh, don't even try to put that antiquated notion on me. The baby gets one X-chromosome from me and you supply the other sex gene. It's not my fault if you delivered a Y and get a boy. Talk to your manly bits about that."

He chuckled again and turned her over so they were facing one another. She hooked her leg up over his hip and he tickled her neck with his thumb. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Walking into my life."

Her lip twitched like crazy. "As I recall you stormed into mine whilst having a temper tantrum."

He just kept on smiling. "I don't remember it that way."

"Really?" She asked dryly.

"As I recall I walked in and politely asked you to explain your report. Then I commented on how nice your shoes were."

"You are such a liar!" She accused as she started to poke at him. "And don't try to flatter me with my shoes! I know how awesome they are, I don't need you to tell me!"

He laughed as she hit his ribs and started to wrestle her with playful gentleness. He let her wear herself out and when she gave up trying to overpower him he tucked her back against him snuggly. "Let's go out for lunch and celebrate."

"Greek?"

"You want baklava don't you?"

"Indeed I do."

"Okay." He kissed her and sat them up. "We'll stop and get you ice cream on the way back."

"Soy ice cream." She insisted.

"Soy ice cream." He agreed. "Since when do you eat this many sweets in a day?"

"Since I stopped drinking caffeine."

"What?" He said that like she had just told him the earth was made of string cheese.

"It's bad for the baby. Why do you think I was so grumpy the last two weeks? I was in withdrawal."

"You said you didn't find out until last week."

"The doctor confirmed it last week. I was pretty sure I had a bun in the oven before I went. I don't think sugar is too bad for it the way caffeine is."

"I thought you said no gender oriented activities directed toward our baby?"

She laughed and stood up. "I'll give you that one." He got up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Holding her close he buried his face in her neck briefly. She leaned back into him and put her arms over his. They stood like that for a minute before she went disturbingly honest on him. "I'm pretty nervous about this, David."

He nuzzled her skin. "Why?"

"I'm not sure I'll be a very good mom. I don't want to be like mine, but I don't know how else to be. That's really all I've got to go on."

He was quiet for a second. "I don't want to be like my father either."

"You're nothing like your father." She told him firmly. "At least not the parts you're worried about."

"I'm worried about what parts you think I got."

She rubbed his arm gently. "You look like him, and you're smart like him, and you're sneaky like him, but you aren't mean like him, and you aren't a coward like him. You would never hurt a child and certainly not your own. I saw how you were with Kate and Lila. You'll be a great dad."

"And you'll be a great mother, don't worry so much. The baby isn't even here yet." He turned her around and kissed her gently. "We'll do just fine together."

"I suppose we've muddle along well enough so far."

"Now that that's settled let's go get some-"

She tapped his chest excitedly. "Baklava!"

He smiled indulgently. "Yes, baklava."

"Cool!"

Laughing he loosened his arms and urged her toward the door. "Let's take the Chevy, it's nice out and we can role the windows down."

"Okay." She agreed cheerfully as she picked up her purse and he grabbed his keys and shoved his wallet in his back pocket.

"I think we need to go get furniture for the baby's room."

"Next weekend." She said firmly. "Let's have one more weekend just for us."

"One more." He agreed as he took her hand. She smiled and his eyes twinkled, a moment later and he lifted her arm and spun her around. Laughing in delight she let him take her to the car and open the door for her. He shut it when she was settled and she relaxed back into the seat as she appreciated the situation she found herself in. As he got in he glanced over at her. "What are you thinking about?"

"That I'm happy." She told him honestly.

He turned the car on as he smiled. "Me too." He started backing out of the garage. "I'll be even happier when Joel and Fearless stop taking you out in the field."

"What?" She asked in disbelief.

"If you think you're taking our baby out to crime scenes you're sadly mistaken."

She rolled her eyes. "Look, ghost boy, it's not like I'm going out guns blazing to take out a posse, I'm looking at evidence-"

"No." He said firmly.

"Must we fight about this?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"This isn't a fight. This is me telling you no."

She huffed out a breath as she rallied herself for this. It was so wrong that she had so much fun arguing with this man. Actually, she pretty much agreed with him, but that didn't mean she had to agree with him. "Because you get to decide."

"That's my baby in there." He said jerking his thumb at her midsection. "And besides, soon you'll be fat anyway so I don't see what you could really do-"

"What?" She snapped. "Did you just call me fat?"

"I said you will be fat."

Her eyes narrowed. "I am growing a person! I can't believe you called me fat! I am not fat!"

"Fine, round-"

"I know you aren't this stupid." She growled. "Honestly, when you start loosing hair I swear I'm changing your name to bald boy and-"

"You know my name is David. I don't even like that stupid nickname. I only let you use it because-"

"It's true?"

He sent her a sideways glance. "Look, fatty-"

She smacked him. "I swear to God-"

"Don't swear in front of the baby. They pick up on everything."

"He can't hear!"

"How do you know?"

"We're connected!" She responded as she waved at her stomach.

"I bet she doesn't even have ears yet. You should try getting fat faster."

She spluttered indignantly. "I can't make the process go faster!"

He sent her a dry look. "You aren't even trying to make it go faster are you?"

She let out a frustrated noise. "That's it, I'm not talking to you, again. Twice in one day, a new record."

He pulled to a stop at a light and leaned over. He kissed her cheek gently. "I love you."

"Love you too." She grumbled grudgingly. "Even though you're mean to me."

He kissed her cheek again, sweetly, and she batted at him. He laughed and turned her head so he could press his lips against hers. "So you won't go out then?"

"No." She murmured as her lips twitched.

He caressed her cheek and turned his attention forward again. "Good." Finding his hand she twined their fingers together. "I would hate to have to drag you out of the precinct with all the extra weight." Glaring daggers at him she revved herself up for round two. Life with McNorris was never going to be boring, that was for damn sure, but it sure made things a lot more fun.

Author Note: Another one done! I had such fun with this one and I hope those of you that were reading this did too! Boomtown is a fun place to hang out in! Thanks for all the reviews on this! Loved 'em! I'll be getting back to Catalyst next so stay tuned!