Work Text:
*
“Thomas, I'm…” she paused, seeming to think about how to announce the news to him,“... late”.
*
12 hours earlier…
Juliet had woken up next to Thomas, her head nested in his neck, her legs entangled with his, his arm underneath her upper back, keeping her snuggled close to him. He had been watching her, how the sun reflected through her golden locks, how a lonely curl above her eyes moved according to the morning breeze coming from the open windows, making her frown from time to time, when its movement made her forehead itch. The itchiness had finally woken her up, and they had taken an optimal amount of leisure time to explore each other before breakfast and starting the usual tasks of the day.
This pleasurable start of the morning came to an abrupt ending as soon as Juliet consulted her digital personal planner and noticed a discrepancy. She was supposed to have started her period three days prior. She double checked the calendar, focused on her belly for any signs of tension, went to the bathrooms to check for any signs of bleeding, all of it to no avail.
Her brain did double flips. This couldn’t be. She had never been this late before, but she had taken all the precautions. She has had a birth control implant in the last 2.5 years. Those things were supposed to be good for three years, and she had taken an appointment in four weeks with her OBGYN to get it changed. It couldn’t be that the device was already obsolete, right? She would be the first woman to fall pregnant while having a birth control implant.
Well, to be honest, it’s not as if she was a complete stranger at being the first in anything… First of her class in Junior High, High School, and Cambridge, the first woman to get an “excellence” rating in all the MI-6 entry tests, and the first woman to infiltrate the Russian secret services. She also probably was the first ever MI-6 operative to have her lover killed by her own handler, she thought bitterly, but sure as hell, she could not be pregnant right now. They haven’t even said their “I love you” to each other yet…
She had gone straight to the drug store and bought a pregnancy test. It turned out negative, but she knew that in the early stages, a test could still appear negative because the hormones weren’t strong enough yet.
She needed to tell Thomas. She walked to her office, to find him in a deep discussion with Katsumoto. Gordie looked stressed and on edge.
“Gordie! Good morning” she said, announcing her presence to the two men.
“Good morning, Juliet”, he answered.
“For once, Gordie here has a favor to ask of us”, said Thomas.
“I do indeed. Did you hear about the missing case of several young girls attending Makalapa Elementary School?”
“Yes, I saw it on the news last night. They disappeared two days ago, right?”
“Yes, and we caught the guy earlier this morning. The girls were to be sold to sex traffickers. He told us he scattered them across different islands around O’ahu. He also told us that they hadn’t received food or drinks in the last 48 hours, so we are on the clock here.”
Juliet looked at him, horrified.
“I just offered our help to HPD” said Magnum.
“We are asking everyone on the island with a link to HPD to help today, PIs, bounty hunters... Five-O is also on it. We need to find those girls.”
Juliet nodded, speechless for now. That’s how they ended up island hopping for most of the day, interconnected on the radio to all the other teams, hearing the success or mishap of the other rescuers. Rick and TC had joined in the effort. They all had been caught in the adrenaline of the day, trying to find all the girls that had been kidnapped. After visiting two islands with no luck, Thomas and Juliet visited a third one and located a shed where they found one of the girls. They got TC to bring her back on O’ahu safely. Finally, after a jarring afternoon, just before 4pm, Katsumoto radioed everyone that all of the girls had been found safe and alive.
*
The relief to hear that everyone was ok had been welcomed. Juliet and Thomas had finally been able to have a break before heading back to O’ahu. They were on their boat, finishing sandwiches that had been graciously given by HPD earlier that day.
“What a day!” he said, patting Juliet’s lower back, “Rick just texted me that he wanted us all to celebrate this successful rescue mission at La Mariana tonight.”
“I… yes, yes, that would be great…” she said.
She knew she had to tell Thomas she might be pregnant, but really didn’t know how to bring it up. She took a few gulps of water, avoiding his gaze. Thomas seemed to sense her unease.
“Something is bothering you, I can tell”.
She looked at him, surprise crossing her features for a few seconds, before she shook her head with a small smile. He really was good at observation, or maybe it was her, losing the ability to put on a poker face at any time…
“Yes… I… I wanted to talk about something…”
She took a big inspiration and looked him straight in the eyes. “Thomas, I’m… late”, emphasizing the last word with a raise of her eyebrows.
She watched him straighten.
“Late as in…. late?” he said, frowning.
“Yes, Thomas… as in late…” she said a bit exasperated. “My period should have come three days ago.”
“And you are usually as punctual as a Swiss watch?" he replied, laughing.
“This is serious, and yes, I am usually very punctual,” she huffed, crossing her arms. “It’s worrying me, I might be pregnant Thomas”.
“Okay, I'm sorry for laughing", he said trying to calm her down. "Let's talk about it. Your hormonal implant is still on, right? So there’s only a tiny chance that you are pregnant, right?”.
She nodded, still frowning.
“Did you do a pregnancy test?”
“This morning, yes, it was negative, but they say that early on, the urine tests might be negative even if you are pregnant. I should get a blood test to make sure”.
“Ok, then let’s book a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow so you can get tested. In the meantime, do you see any other reasons why you could be late?” he asked, caressing her lower arms in an attempt to soothe her.
“I don’t know… No? I mean, the last three weeks have been rough, maybe I am just reacting to all the pent-up emotions of being scared for you, Rick and TC…”
“What about the drugs Tanaka injected you with? Or the one the EMTs had to use? Could that affect your body in such a way?”
She grimaced, not only at the memory of Tanaka and those syringes, but also because Thomas was making a very good point right now, and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of that first.
“This is a good point”, she said, lowering her head and bringing one hand to her forehead. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it”.
Thomas came closer to her and took her in his arms. She relaxed against him, breathing in the smell of him.
“Well, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to the doctor tomorrow to settle your mind. And I wanted to say, in case you were indeed pregnant, that I would support any decision you would want to take”.
She raised her head to look at him.
“You would? I mean, we didn’t have the baby talk before… I thought it was unnecessary, as long as I had the implant”.
“Well, maybe we should consider having that conversation, soon, but in a proper setting,” he said, before leaning in and kissing her forehead. She nodded, it wasn’t the time nor the place to have such a serious conversation.
*
They had made their way back to O’ahu and had booked an appointment with the doctor first thing the next morning. They then spent the night at La Mariana, celebrating, Juliet steering away from alcohol, just as a precaution.
Thomas woke up the next morning to an empty bed and looked around the room before hearing the toilet flushing in the adjacent bathroom. He closed his eyes and listened as Juliet made her way back to the bedroom and into bed, trying not to wake him up. She settled on her side, facing him, and watched him for a while. He could feel her breath on his upper arm.
“Your parents never told you that staring is impolite?” he said.
She laughed and went to kiss him.
“Well, I can’t help with a view like this”.
“Good morning” he said, hugging her closer to him.
“Morning. So, I was thinking, how about we do breakfast in bed?” she asked.
“Who are you and what have you done to no-crumbs-in-bed Higgy?”
She smiled. “Well, technically pancakes do not make crumbs…”. He smiled at that.
“Especially not my pancakes! They are moist and fluffy, and overall the best pancakes on earth”, he declared grabbing his watch and putting it on, getting ready to go and cook.
“Don’t flatter yourself”, she replied.
“Shouldn’t you get ready for your appointment? It’s already pretty late”,he said, seeing Juliet’s appointment was only 45 minutes away.
She looked at him with a small smile. “No need actually, I called to cancel when I was in the bathroom. My period came this morning. I am sorry I worried about it and sort of freaked out yesterday”.
He walked to her side of the bed and looked at her.
“Juliet, you don’t have to be sorry. I am glad that you talked to me about it, you shouldn’t have to face this alone. And I will reiterate what I said to you yesterday, that if the situation had been different this morning, I would have been there for you, supporting any decisions you wanted to make.”
She smiled and got up to kiss him softly on the lips.
“Although, something has been bothering me about that whole pregnancy scare and I really can’t have you pregnant without knowing the answer to a particular question” he said seriously, but with a playful glint in his eyes.
“What is it?” Juliet answered, frowning slightly, looking up at him.
“Do you think you will be the midnight strawberries type? Or the ice cream & pickles combo type? Because one of them is a deal breaker…” he grinned.
Her answer consisted in a pillow thrown at Magnum while he literally ran outside of the bedroom, laughing.
To be honest, she didn’t have the answer to that question, but she started to hope she would discover this side of herself one day, sooner rather than later.
Ok, now they really needed to have THAT conversation, she thought, making her way downstairs.