Complicated

Chapter Sixty Seven: Medal Day

Your touch magnetizing
Feels like I am floating
Leaves my body glowing

Katy Perry – E.T

The NYPD Medal Day Ceremony wasn't the most prestigious event of the year but to all of the officers that paraded through the police department it was definitely the most honourable. It was the place they came to celebrate other officers supreme achievements in the face of adversity. Medals were handed out every year and the friends and family of each officer were always present in the audience. In this case the entire crime lab was attending the ceremony. They all wanted to be here to support her husband and Grace found that endearing.

The sun was shining down upon the crowd of patrons seated in the uncomfortable metal fold out chairs. Grace was sitting amongst them, fanning her face with the pamphlet she had been handed on the way in.

Jesus it was hot out here and being close to her due date wasn't helping. She felt huge, nothing like the lithe, athletic woman who had appeared here once before to support Don when he had received a commendation after the Wilder case. She had been slender then, prettier clad in a sleek, gunmetal grey trouser grey suit with long, ringlet curls.

Now she was clad in a midnight blue, v-necked chiffon dress. The material was blissful across her skin, she needed something light in this heat and for that the dress was perfect. It fell to just above her knees accenting her shapely legs clad in lace covered ballet flats. Instead of a friend, she was here as somebody's wife, standing beside the ex-police commissioner who was grinning like the proud parent he was.

Her husband was on the stage. Don was wound tight as he took confident strides towards the centre of the stage. His dress blues were taunt over his broad frame as he stood with his hands clasped together before Commissioner Reagan. The cap was perched upon his head, the visor pulled down over his startling blue eyes. There was no trace of the limp that had plagued his steps in the very beginning of his recovery. Up there in front of his peers his chin was up and his head held high. He looked invincible yet she knew he was anything but impervious.

His expression was solemn as Commissioner Reagan removed the Purple Shield from it's ornate box and pinned it with careful fingers onto the front of Don's dress uniform. His jaw was set and she could tell from her position in the front row that he was grinding his teeth through the occasion. Don turned to face the crowd as they erupted into applause. His gaze sought out hers as he rose his hand in a silent salute. Grace placed her hand upon her stomach as a smile spread across her placid features. She saw his lips twitch in response to her grin before he lowered his hand and matched off the stage.

"He deserves this." Donald Senior said as his wife snapped off pictures of her only son on the digital camera.

"I think he knows that now." Grace returned quietly, both hands rubbing across her stomach at the small pains clenching in her stomach.

"You ok? You've been doing that a lot over the past few hours." he commented, raising his thick eyebrows.

"Braxton Hicks contractions." Grace appeased him dismissively. "I'm positive God just gives them to me because he likes to see me suffer."

"Meredith was the same when she was pregnant with Don, I ended up rushing her into hospital the first time because we thought she was going into labour." Donald chuckled at the memory, shaking his head. "By the time he did decide to make an appearance we were dying to meet him."

"That's how we feel about Jenny." Grace told her father in law, pulling a face. "I'm tired of being unable to see my feet and we both want to be able to see our little girl. I just hope she doesn't decide to skate over the due date."