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“I need you to get me a pregnancy test.”
Eidra had hardly gotten the door shut before the words had flown out of Kate’s mouth, and she realized she probably should have phrased it a little more…eloquently. Or at least sounded about 20% less desperate.
She saw Eidra’s eyes widen slightly and knew she’d caught her usually unflappable Chief of Station off-guard. “Ma’am?” Eidra asked. “You need me to get you…a pregnancy test?”
“Yes,” Kate said, forcing herself to maintain eye contact. “As discreetly as possible. I’d get it myself, but…” she gestured to herself, and then to the detail posted outside her office door. “Not exactly discreet. Can’t exactly run down to Walgreens without attracting a ton of attention, especially these days.”
“Boots.”
Kate’s brow furrowed. “Huh?”
“Boots. British Walgreens, it’s called Boots. Don’t worry about not knowing, since like you said, it’s not like you’re picking up your own prescriptions, or…” she swore Eidra blushed. “Pregnancy tests.”
For a second Kate wished she could melt into the floor. She pushed away her embarrassment and met Eidra’s gaze. “Believe me, I hate to have to ask you. I spent a lot of time wondering if there was anyone else I could ask. Thought about one of the women on my detail, but I think it’s still too much of a risk.”
Eidra nodded. “Pensie?”
“Would be the opposite of discreet. Would probably be sending out save the dates for a gender reveal before I had time to get my pants back up. As for Stuart, I prefer to have him still comfortable making eye contact with me, which he definitely wouldn’t be, if I sent him on this errand.”
Eidra was quiet, looking at her expectantly. “Look,” Kate began. “I’m feeling…a little unwell. A lot unwell. I’ve had a lot of nausea–”
“I saw you puke into a potted plant yesterday,” Eidra said casually. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
Kate’s face warmed with embarrassment. She had been so sure no one had seen that one. “Right. It’s probably just stress or reflux. Maybe a stomach bug. Maybe even a combination. But the…possibility has been raised that it might be something else causing it, and I just want to…make sure.”
She left out that the possibility had been raised to her, first by her husband and then both Penns. Eidra didn’t need to know that part.
“So there really is a chance you’re pregnant?” Eidra asked.
“There is…” Kate thought for a second. “About a 97% chance I am not. I’m fairly certain of that.”
“And the other three percent?”
“That’s what the test is for.”
And when it came back negative she’d march right up to Todd Penn and throw the pee stick down in front of him while he was enjoying his morning coffee or his kippers or his fucking oysters, just so he could see for himself the proof that she was not pregnant.
God, his oysters. Just the thought made the nausea rise up in Kate’s throat a little bit.
Eidra was still looking at her, and Kate hoped she wasn’t doing mental math the way Kate was, trying to figure out the last time Hal had visited that might be plausible for…this to have happened. Because it could only be Hal’s, right? If she was? Which she wasn’t, she couldn’t be, but if she was…it had to be Hal’s baby. It couldn’t be Callum. They had used a condom every single time. Of course, condoms weren’t foolproof, they could fail. At least one of her past pregnancies was from a broken condom.
“I’m just…trying to cover all my bases. It’s a health issue, for me. I have a history of miscarriages. Four, to be exact.”
Eidra held out her hand. “You really don’t have to tell me—“
“Plus one ectopic.”
Eidra’s hand fell and dangled by her side. Her eyes were wide with surprise. Kate had finally managed to truly shock Edira Park. “You had an ectopic pregnancy?”
Kate nodded. “About six years ago, yes. It was pretty touch and go, for a while. It ended with the removal of one of my fallopian tubes, so I’m already working against biology here and that’s why pregnancy is…statistically very unlikely, but. Possible. Possible and concerning.”
“You lost a fallopian tube,” Eidra repeated. Kate nodded, already feeling the need to move on from this particular line of conversation. “I’m so…sorry.”
“It’s okay. I mean—“ she sighed, closed her eyes, opened them. “Thank you. It was a difficult time, and not one that Hal really enjoys thinking about, since I almost died. But I really don’t mind talking about it, and I thought it might be better if you had all the facts.”
“Of course.”
She really wasn’t giving Eidra all the facts, just the pertinent ones. She didn’t need to know just how close Kate had come to dying. She didn’t need to know that by the time she’d finally texted him that one horrible word, their word, Arden, that she was already so weak she could barely type. She didn’t need to know how wrecked Hal had looked when she finally came out of anesthesia, how he had wanted to get a vasectomy, even had one scheduled, but it had gotten pushed back and pushed back until eventually it was forgotten about. Kate had insisted they could be careful, and they had been. Until, apparently, maybe now.
God, she was an idiot.
Eidra was still looking at her, sympathy written across her face. It was the way most people reacted when she told them about her miscarriages, and especially the ectopic loss. “Eidra,” Kate said evenly. “It’s probably nothing. I’m 97% sure, like I said. I just want to be 100% sure, so if you could help me out–”
“I’ll go. I’ll go right now. I’ll get a few and you can take them in your office, If they’re inconclusive, we can see about getting you in to see a doctor. We’ll figure it out, it’s okay. We’re just covering our bases, like you said. Ruling everything out.” She tried to smile. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll get the tests.”
Kate nodded, took a deep breath, let it out. “Thank you, Eidra.”