Keeping It in the Family (Linstead)

Chapter 104

Lindsay walked out of her office into the bullpen with a purse in hand. Halstead and Purrazzo were out working, as were Gonzalez and Ruzek, which left only Atwater and Burgess at their desks.

A couple of weeks had passed since Erin had first begun to suspect that she might be pregnant. During those weeks, her suspicions had only increased. She could feel changes in her body, and that was without the sickness that kept occurring, although she had done an okay job of hiding it from her family. She didn't want to say anything to Jay until she was sure of the news. The pregnancy, if that's what it was, had happened quickly. She estimated it must have been within the first two weeks of them starting to try. Some people had to try for months, she knew. Life had possibly dealt them a lucky hand. The immediate possibility of being pregnant was good of course - it was what they had been trying for. But it also scared her. She had imagined having more time to mentally prepare herself for pregnancy in terms of how it would affect her personal and professional lives.

"Kim, can you come with me?" she said on the way past Burgess' desk.

"Sure, sarge," Burgess said, getting up and following her across the room and down the stairs. "Where are we going?"

"The bathroom."

"Excuse me?" Burgess said, looking at her as if she was sure she must have somehow heard incorrectly.

"Pregnancy test. Moral support," Lindsay said through tight lips.

"Preg... oh, shoot," Burgess said excitedly as the realisation dawned on her. "Right, say no more. I've got you."

"Thank you."

They walked through the main lobby, and proceeded down a hallway to the women's bathroom. Mercifully, there was no one else in there, they discovered.

"How confident are you, Erin?" Kim asked. The 'at work' formality was dropped for now. This was a personal situation.

"Pretty confident. As you know, we've been trying. For the past couple of weeks or so I've been having sickness spells, and I can just tell my body is different somehow. Did you get that with Alex?"

Kin nodded. "I did. Sure sounds like you might be pregnant. You go in and do your test, I'll stand by out here. Fingers crossed for you."

"Thanks, Kim." Not for the first time, Erin felt bad about the way she had almost removed her from Intelligence after taking charge. That had been a real error in judgement, and it had caused damage to their friendship that still wasn't fully repaired. "I actually bought two tests. If it comes back positive, I want to be sure."

"Not a bad idea. Go do it, before someone comes in."

"Right," Erin said, hurrying into the furthest cubicle from the bathroom door.

Only about thirty seconds later, the door opened. Kim quickly turned on the water at the basin she was standing by, and started washing her hands.

Of all people, it was Trudy Platt who walked in. "Goddamn pens," she grumbled, walking over to a basin and starting to wash some black ink off her hand.

Kim offered a smile that even she realised looked awkward.

While finishing scrubbing her hand, Platt eyed Kim, then at the closed cubicle door. She looked back at Kim with a 'there's something weird going on here' look on her face, but she chose not to say anything. Instead, she dried her hands and left.

"Coast is clear, Erin," Kim said.

"Trudy. It would be, wouldn't it? How awkward was it?"

Kim chuckled. "From one to ten? Maybe an eight. She looked at me and at your cubicle and she knew something was up."