Abbey sat in a chair back in the Cardiac ICU waiting room. She had been discharged after recieving fluids and rest and was allowed to return to her post waiting for Jesse to come out of surgery but had been advised to take it easy.
Patrick was on one side of her, Leah on the other and her father Liam sat across from them texting on his phone, most likely updating Abbeys stepmother (Leah's mother) as to what was going on.
Abbey sat there in between her husband's best friend and her sister leaning forward, the glossy photo in her hand. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the form in the photo.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She had seen thousands of ultrasounds in the Emergency Department, even performed her fair share of them but this was so different. This was a photo of her ultrasound. A photo of her and Jesse's baby. She remained silent as she ran her fingers over the picture of their baby. Tears suddenly came to her eyes.
Leah and Patrick looked over at each other. They were both overjoyed at the news of Abbeys pregnancy.
Leah and Abbey were both single children, but as their parents were married when Leah was a teenager, even though they were stepsister, they simply considered themselves sisters after 16 years together. So this child would be no doubt Leah's niece or nephew.
And as for Patrick, Jesse was much more than his costar and colleague, he was his best friend, his closest confidant and Jesse was very much like a brother to him. They met on set of another television pilot almost 9 years ago. It turned out the pilot wasn't picked up, but when Jesse was casted as a recurring guest star on Chicago Fire who was eventually picked up and casted for the Chicago PD spinoff, Jesse suggested to producers to look at Patrick to cast on the show. After Patrick was cast as Adam, Jesse's and Patrick's friendship even grew deeper. They had become best friends over the years and did everything together on and off set during their times together in Chicago. Even during filming hiatus, Jesse and Patrick would hang out in LA, Patrick would go back to NY with Jesse to visit his family, they even went on vacations together so even though Jesse and Patrick weren't related biologically in any way, this child that Abbey was carrying would no doubt be a niece or nephew to Patrick as well and he couldn't wait to spoil him or her.
Leah placed her hand on Abbeys back.
"Hey I know this wasn't planned, but you two are married now, this is good news right?"
Abbey smiled and nodded.
"Definitely good news, yeah. Actually though, it wasn't not planned. "
Both Leah and Patrick looked over at her, she even recieved a look in her direction from Liam as he looked up from his phone.
Liam had been through all of Abbeys breakups with her and to be honest, Jesse was the ONLY man he ever approved of. When they broke up temporarily, Liam and his wife Brooke were stunned, but Liam was confident that they would work things out. When he recieved a call from Abbey two weeks ago that she and Jesse were back together, he was surprised it had taken that long but not surprised that they had reunited, he wasn't even that surprised that she and Jesse were now engaged. When Jesse and Abbey were in SC just before the pandemic broke out for Liam's retirement party, Jesse had taken Liam aside and asked for his permission to marry his only biological daughter. Liam had told him he didn't need his permission but gave him his blessing and he truly meant it. What did surprise Liam and his wife Brooke however, was the fact that Abbey revealed Jesse was currently having a cardiac catherization and the possibility that he may need cardiac surgery after he was brought into the ED with chest pain and shortness of breath. It took the Coopers by surprise, Jesse was always the perfect picture of health. So when his daughter called him again after she had brought Jesse home from the hospital and moved back into their penthouse apartment in Lincoln Park, and told him she didn't want to wait to marry Jesse, he wasn't surprised then either. He always had a vision of what his only daughters wedding would be, even though a hometown SC wedding had probably changed, it would most likely happen in Chicago, but he still had that vision, that no matter who Abbey was marrying, he and his wife Brooke would take care of the wedding, he would give his daughter away. But he understand her reasoning for not wanting to wait, and as a Dr Abbey knew this pandemic was not going to end anytime soon and as a retired first responder Liam understood that as well. There was no way the vision he had had for his daughter or even the vision she had had for her own wedding would not be happening anytime soon. He had never seen Abbey love any man the way she loved Jesse and he knew neither of them wanted to wait. He hated not being there but it made Abbey happy and that's all that mattered. And he hoped in the near future grandchildren would be included but he also knew it wouldn't be as easy for Abbey as it would be for most women. She had had issues in the past and she would most likely need fertility treatments to conceive. So the news of Jesse and Abbey trying to have a child although not exactly unexpected was news to him as well. But he didn't say anything. Lt Liam Cooper was a trained police officer and detective. He had spent much of his career as a listener and that's why he was always so good at what he did. Why he was the only detective at his department that had 0 cold cases, why he was the best negotiator on the force as well. He was more of a listener than a talker. And he had applied those tactics to raising his daughter as well, especially during her teenage years. He learned that if he just stayed quiet that when she was ready she would come to him, and she always did. So he just sat back and listened to the conversation between his daughter, stepdaughter and his son in laws best friend.
