Hugs
I walked out the Cafe with Phil and Daisy, we were running a little late because Reggie wanted to make us some of his famous cookies. That took 8 minutes.
"Let's hope Maria remembers the password to the door so she doesn't stand outside waiting for us."
"She probably does."
We walked back to the apartment and saw Maria's black car. She remembered.
We ran up the stairs and I entered the password.
"Took you long enough."
I scoffed, "We're just 2 minutes late." I handed her the coffee, "Here you go."
"Yeah.. okay."
"Hey, Daisy.. how's it going with these two?" Maria looked behind me at Daisy.
"They're good."
She looked back at me, "So what's up?"
I sighed, "We should sit down for this."
"Okay.."
Phil and I sat on the couch, Daisy sat on the ottoman and Maria sat on the old rocking chair.
"Uhm, so to start of with," Phil started.
"Daisy is Lay." I spilled out.
Maria's eyes widened as she watched the three of us. Daisy fiddled with the throw on the ottoman with her fingers while Phil fiddled with is ring.
"D-D-D-Daisy is," She took deep breaths to get a hold of herself, "Lay-Layla?"
"Yeah." I nodded, "We took the test."
'OH. OK." She took deep breaths, "Hold on. I need a few minutes."
I nodded. I had only seen Maria this distraught once, after her dad died. This is too much for her to take in less than a week.
"Let me know when you're fine."
She nodded and took a sip of her now cold, coffee.
We sat in silence for a few minutes until Maria broke the silence.
"I'm ready."
I took a deep breath and looked at Phil.
"I'm pregnant."
Maria's reaction was shocked, if it weren't for the situation we were currently in, I would've lost it.
"You're... " She looked between me and Phil and then stood up, "I'm going to be an aunt again?" Her voice cracked at the end, which made me softly smile.
I stood up and hugged her. I patted her back as I felt her body shake.
"Shhhh, it's okay. I'm safe. Lay's safe." I soothingly said while rubbing a pattern kn her back.
I felt her sobs silent and her taking deep breaths.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."
"Hey, it's all good. You don't want to know what happened when I found out. The same day."
"When you fainted?"
I nodded.
"Uhm, so you're pregnant?"
"Yeah. About 4 weeks."
She nodded.
"I don't know what to say to Daisy." She whispered in my ear.
"I know. Neither did I. I still don't."
Well, are you going to move back here?"
I looked at Phil and sighed, "I don't know."
"We were thinking to sell this place but it holds too many memories. We are going to stay on the base for the time being. Maybe after everything that's going on."
"You can stay at my old place. I barely go there anymore. Too many memories."
"Maybe. We don't know yet."
"Ok." She sat back down, "So now what?"
"We're going to tell the team about everything. And then things go back to normal."
"And I'll make sure Mel is out of the field." Phil added.
I instantly looked at him, "What, why?"
"You're pregnant."
I rolled my eyes, "And I was since that night. I've been in the field since."
"You see, I remember that 'night' was 4 weeks ago, when you couldn't sleep because we had no missions. We haven't had any missions since. So technically, you were never in the field after that."
"Fine." I grumbled.
"That's it Hon."
"Did you just call me 'Hon'?"
"Uh, maybe."
I rolled my eyes and smiled.
We looked into each others eyes and kept smiling.
"Oookay, guys... Get a room. Actually don't. You're pregnant."
"Well, research shows that 'getting a room' doesn't affect the pregnancy." I teased her.
Maria cleared her throat, "Well, it's getting late so how about we get dinner and go home?"
I thought about it and just hummed.
"I saw an Italian restaurant on our way here. We could go there."
I thought about which restaurant Daisy was talking about and realized it. I looked at Phil and knew he remembered it too. Herbs and Cheese.
"Wait, what's going on?"
Phil slightly smiled, "Well, there's only one Italian restaurant in the area. And it's Herbs and Cheese."
"Okay?" Daisy exaggerated the 'ay'.
"It's where we went on our first date." I almost whispered.
"Well, you guys chose it 28 years ago, it had to be awesome if you did."
I smiled, "Yes, it was."
________________________________
We finally reached the restaurant, which brought back alot of memories.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached out to open the door, Phil ran up to the door before I could and opened it for me.
He had his dorky smile, "M'lady."
I rolled my eyes and looked around for Maria and Daisy. Daisy had gone with Maria in her car because she thought me and Phil might need some 'privacy'.
We had needed some.
"They're not here yet. Don't worry."
"Well, if they're not here yet, we could do something else.."
He smiled and bent down to meet me in the middle for a soft kiss, which was soon deepened as we moved towards the abandoned aisle.
"Guys? Oh my,- fuck!"
We broke apart hastily as we heard Daisy.
"Are you done?" She was covering her eyes.
"Yes, Daisy. We're done."
"Clothes all on you guys?"
I rolled my eyes, "Never took them off."
She let out a sharp breath, "Next time, lock. Your. Door."
"There wasn't a door." I innocently stated.
"Whatever. Also, I looked around the nursery with Hill. She started crying. I kind of freaked out when she did. So you might want to talk to her."
I nodded, "What about you?"
"I'm good. Overwhelmed? Hell yes. But no, I don't feel like crying."
I looked at Phil and nodded, "You guys go inside, I'll check on Ria."
I walked out the aisle and headed to Maria's car. I reached for the door but stopped when I heard silent sobs. Maria.
I knocked on the door before barging into the car, seeing Maria hastily wipe her tears.
"You should lock the car."
She huffed, looked me with puffed red eyes and then looked away, "You could've waited."
We stayed silent for a few second, "Maria, talk to me."
"About what?"
"MIRA." She looked at me when she heard the name, "Look at me."
"You haven't called me that since that day." She whispered.
"I know. And I'm sorry. For pushing you away."
"It's not your fault. It was hard for you."
"No. It was my fault. I went in. Without backup. Phil warned me." I shook my head, "Talk to me, ria."
She sighed, "It's just.. going to the nursery. With Daisy. Layla. It brought back so many memories. It reminded me of what could've happened if I hadn't stayed. What would've happened if Layla was still here. I tried to hold it back. When you told me. And I did, but when Daisy wanted to see the nursery I was this close to tears. I broke down when I saw the crib. Full of dust." She blinked back tears, "I didn't want to look weak."
I nodded in understanding. Maria had always been tough. Coming from a military family and all. She pushed herself to do more than best.
"It's fine to break down your walls once in a while. Sometimes, it's too hard to be a perfectionist. It's too hard to put on a stoic face for everyone around you
just so they can stay strong. You can't do that. Especially not when you're around people who love you."
"I never thought of it like that, you know."
"I only realized a year ago."
"Oh?"
"Phil. He made me realize that I didn't need to keep things in. I could let then go sometimes. Him holding me while I panicked made me realize that's its fine. It's okay not to be okay."
"I knew you both loved each other since the Academy."
"Maybe we were too naive to see it."
"You might be. But Phil wasn't. He asked me what kind of flowers you liked."
"I know. I'm a super spy remember?"
"Got it."
"Ready to go now?"
She sighed, "Yes."