38 Weeks: The Twentieth Week

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A/N: Burn Notice romantic fluff with a side of angst. Want to start at the beginning? Click here.

Week Twenty

It turns out there are some things pregnant ladies are really, really good at.

Watching someone. No one expects the pregnant lady to be a tail.

Smuggling things. You can fit an awful lot of goodies in a few bags from Babies 'R' Us and no one bothers to search them.

Blending into the background. Even though a beautiful pregnant woman will certainly attract a lot of attention, it's not the sort of attention that thinks, "Gosh, I need to be careful about this."

The downside of using a pregnant lady on certain ops, is that the pregnant lady's husband-to-be turns into a quivering nerve ready to leap up and destroy anything that might get too close to said lady or baby.

"Mike, if you don't calm down, you are going to blow this. She's fine, brother." Sam says from his perch on the roof of the nearest high rise, sniper rifle at the ready.

"I can't see her, Sam."

"Yes, but I can, Jesse can, and if you keep acting like you're doing anything other than reading the paper and getting a coffee Shannon will sense that something is up. So keep calm, let her do her thing, and in an hour we'll have Shannon tied up in knots."

Shannon was the end of a long and messy con-job gone awry. Fi had been trailing her through the mall, waiting to plant certain stolen goods on her, goods that had previously belonged to Shannon's boss, and if everything went well, that boss would soon be meeting Mike to learn about who was skimming profits off of his organization.

Fi got closer and closer, and then, a few steps in front of Shannon, seemed to trip and drop her bags. Shannon almost tripped over her, and in the confusion Fi was able to swap out the contents of one of her bags for Shannon's. Fifteen thousand dollars of "missing" cash changed hands.

"She's done, Mike. Jesse's got her, and Clayton is on the way."

Mike smiled, put his game face on, and sipped his coffee. Time to take care of Shannon.

*****************************

Two days later, sitting in the half-lit ultrasound room at the OB's office, Michael is a lot more calm. Excited, definitely, but there's no edge of fear here.

Today, assuming Baby Westen is in an accommodating mood, they'll find out if it's a girl or boy.

This time, because Fi's far enough along, and because they've done this before, there's no sense of weirdness because of what the Tech is doing to Fi.

No, today there's just excitement at seeing lines resolve themselves into images, feet, hands, a head, a face and...

"Is it a boy?" Fiona asks.

The tech, Judy maybe, her name is something like that, smiles. "No, that's the umbilical cord." She moves the wand around a bit, and finally says, "I don't see any testicles. That's a little girl."

Until that moment, Michael had been doing a very good job of not desiring any particular type of child. Until they had decided to keep her, he had done everything he could to not imagine what it may have been, but at that moment he decided a daughter was exactly what he wanted, what he had always wanted, and that it was likely he's never going to want something else the way he wants this.

It's a good feeling.

He kisses Fi's temple, and wonders if she's thinking the same thing, because he notices there are tears in her eyes and she's smiling beautifully as she looks at their little girl.

******************

When they got to his Mom's house, she was sitting at the kitchen table, looking at brochures for more adoption agencies.

"I think you might have some luck with this one." She holds up a tri-fold with an image of a smiling baby on the front.

Fi sits down next to Maddie, and Michael takes his mom's hands, crouching in front of her.

"We're keeping her, Ma."

For a second his mother's face is blank, like she almost can't believe she's heard Michael say that, then tears start, and she's kissing Mike, after a second she pulls back, wipes her eyes, smearing mascara and eyeliner all over the place, and says, "Thank God you two came to your senses!" She leans over, hugs Fi, kissing her as well.

Then Maddie grabs her lighter and the brochure, sets it on fire, grinning the whole time, takes the smoking, flaming paper, and sets it in the sink.

She's beaming at them as tendrils of smoke waft about her.

"Wait, did you say "her?" You had a doctor's appointment today, right?"

"Yes. It's a girl, Maddie." Fi's beaming her own high watt smile at Maddie.

 Maddie takes a deep breath, and then starts to giggle. "Oh, a little girl. I can't wait to see Michael deal with that." She breaks into full-on laughing.

"You know I'm right here, right?" Mike says.

Ignoring Mike, talking to Fi, Madeline says, "I can just imagine how terrified her poor first boyfriend is going to be." Fi breaks into a grin at that idea.

"Or Sam..." Maddie holds her hand to her mouth to stifle the giggles. "He's going to go into insane Grandpa mode and spoil that little girl rotten."

Madeline pulls both of them close and hugs them again. The manic laughter fades away, and for a long time she just holds them close. 

Finally, she kisses them both again and says, "Thank you."