My hand reaches for the knob and turns. But the knob is Collins’s shoulder. She spins around, tired eyes like my mother’s. But then she smiles and looks concerned. She asks, “What is it? What’s wrong?” Then, I realize why I love this woman so much, and why I shouldn’t be terrified right now.
Not that this knowledge lightens my arms any. Lifting the pregnancy test feels like I’m bench-pressing Watson. My lips stay firmly shut, pinched white. The visual aid and my mortified expression will say everything that needs saying.
Collins’s eyes widen as the pregnancy test rises.
She reaches for it, but my leaden arms pulls it away.
“No one is supposed to know!” she hisses.
I’m instantly offended.
The weight lifts from my limbs like I’ve been touched by Jesus himself. A quick cure for fear is anger. “Not supposed to—how the hell do you keep something like this from me?”
“Jon, I—”
“You’re a field agent!” I’m shouting now. I’m not sure who else is in the Crow’s Nest now, but I’ve just included them in my drama. “You could have been injured on the reservation. You were injured today!” My eyes look her up and down. “You need to go to a hospital.”
I take hold of her wrist, but Collin’s yanks away. “Jon!”
“We’re not even married yet!” I shout.
“Jon!” Collins now has a hand on my wrist. Her crushing grip is made more painful by the skillful thrust of her middle finger into a pressure point. My head clears instantly. A quick cure for anger is pain. “Shut-the-fuck-up.”
I lower my voice. “Tell me why I shouldn’t be angry at you for hiding this. Give me one good reason.”
“It’s not mine.”
“It was in our bathroom.”
“Because no one was supposed to know yet.” The words come out as a low growl. My anger is in full retreat now, pursued by Collins’s. Mercifully, she releases my wrist.
“But...then who...” I glance at Cooper. She’s white as a sheet. Eyes locked across the room. I turn to follow her gaze. Endo is there, sitting with Lucy Liu and Watson. Endo and the woman are smiling. Enjoying my faux pas. Watson...poor Watson. He’s now in the position I was just ten seconds ago. I’m not sure how I missed their relationship. They did a better job hiding it than Cooper did this test. But I’ve also been in the field a lot.
“Two things,” I say, all of the childhood trauma and fresh anger gone from my system. I turn to Cooper with a grin. “First, congratulations. Second, the wetness on this test is from your pee. Gross.” I drop the test into the empty waste can besides Collins’s station.
To Watson’s credit, he handles the news far better than I did. He strolls across the room, calm as can be. Before reaching Cooper, who is still frozen in place, he bends down and takes the pregnancy test from the trash. He lifts it gently, like it’s a baby. The gentleness with which he holds the urine-covered device makes me feel like an asshole. He glances at Cooper. “This is yours?”
She nods.
“Ours?” he asks. His hand is shaking now.
Cooper nods again, and before I understand what has happened, they’re in each other’s arms, rocking back and forth.
“Thank God,” Watson says, and I’m not sure if he’s expressing happiness over the baby or the fact that Cooper wasn’t injured today. Maybe both. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that the man is joyful. Not terrified.
Dammit, I am an asshole.
“I was going to tell you at the end of the day,” Cooper tells him.
Watson shakes his head, messing up her perfect bun. “Doesn’t matter.”
Feeling like an asshole and a peeping Tom, I say, “Why don’t you two take some time. Collins and I will help our...visitors get settled.”
After the briefest of nods from Cooper, the pair head for the stairs. An odd couple, no doubt, but their affection for each other fills the room like warm taffy, gooey and sweet. I’m happy for them, really, but I’m glad when they’re gone, because gooey and sweet is not the mood I want lingering when I speak to Endo.
I turn toward my own personal nemesis, or one of them. What’s that make him? One of my nemesi? Nemesises? Or can you only have one nemesis by definition? Endo is still grinning at me. So is...fuck.
“What’s your name?”
I can’t keep thinking of her as Lucy Liu. It’s totally racist.
“Maggie Alessi,” she answers, not a trace of an accent.
So is Maggie.
I take a step toward them but am stopped when Collins takes hold of my wrist. No pressure point this time. She grins up at me. “Not married, yet?”
I try to hide my grin, but fail. “Shut-up.”
When I head for Endo again, I’m feeling far too happy. Not only are Watson and Cooper an item with a baby on the way, but Collins caught me with my guard down. Found out what was on my mind before I wanted her to. Looong before. So when I pull a chair around, sit down on it backwards and says, “Let me catch you up to speed,” it tastes bad coming out.
I clear my throat and stand. “Let me try that again.” I sit back down and point to each of them as I speak. “Fuck you. And fuck you.”