Plot: Jack and Karen just got back from their quickie wedding in Vegas. They decided to save their big ceremony for after their baby is born.
Disclaimer: "Will & Grace", the show, and the characters belong to NBC and the cast and crew. I'm not sure who "The Next Best Thing" belongs to, but it sure isn't me. Please don't sue!

Part 5
by By Shannon

The next Monday at work, Grace noticed Karen actually doing something other than reading Vogues and re-applying makeup and nail polish. She was writing. This was something very new! Grace wondered what she was doing. So, when Karen left at 10:30 to meet Jack for lunch, Grace walked over to Karen's desk and found out what she'd been so busy writing.

"How cute!" Grace thought.

Karen had practiced signing her name "Karen McFarland" over and over. She continued to do cute things like this at work. Signing her new name, doodling the two possible names of her baby-to-be, writing Jack love notes - all in a day's work!

Grace noticed a lot of changes in Karen during her pregnancy. For one, she was no longer a raging, pill-popping, alcoholic (due to lots of help from Jack), she ate actual food (due to cravings!) and she now had a liable excuse to be late to work (morning sickness). When she was about four months along, Karen started to show. One day Jack surprised her at work by showing up with a bouquet of pink carnations and baby's breath.

"Honey! What are you doing here?" Karen asked.

"These-," Jack said, handing Karen the flowers, "are for the most beautiful woman on earth, whom I get to take out to eat and shopping for maternity clothes!"

With that, Karen gave Jack a long hug, laid her head on his shoulder and said, "Could I have found a more perfect man?"

"Nope," Jack replied. Karen giggled, planted a big kiss on his cheek and the two walked out of the office hand in hand.

That night, back at the penthouse, Jack cooked Karen dinner and they ate at a gorgeous candle-lit table.

At dinner Karen said, "Jack, I made an appointment today with my obstetrician for my ultrasound. Do we want to know what we're having?"

"Hmm, tough call. Whatever you want to do is fine with me."

"Okay, good! Because I really want to know so that I know whether to buy little girl or little boy clothes!"

"Good idea! When do we go in?"

"Thursday at 11:00."

After they were done eating, Jack walked over to Karen's seat, took her hand and walked her into the living room where he turned on slow music and they slow danced closely and intimately. Then he picked her up and carried her to their bedroom where they made love the rest of the night.

When Thursday rolled around, Karen actually showed up on time to work.

"Hi Kare! No morning sickness today?" Grace said when Karen walked in.

"Grace, I'm too nervous to be sick."

"Why?" Grace asked blankly.

"Hellooo?? My ultrasound today! I've told you a million times!"

"Oh! Right! Oh Karen, be excited! Do you want a boy or a girl? Tell me the truth."

"Well, I know you're supposed to say 'I don't care as long as it's healthy', but the truth is I'm dying for a girl!"

"Oh yeah! They're so much more fun to shop for! What does Jack want?"

"I think he honestly doesn't care. He is so perfect."

"Kare, do you mind if Will and I come with you and Jack today?" Grace asked politely.

"Of course not! I think the god-parents of our baby should be there, don't you?!" Karen replied.

"Oh! Of cour- wait, Will and I are the god-parents??"

"Yeah, Jack and I talked about it last night and we want our baby to go to the two of you if anything ever happened to us," Karen said matter-of-factly.

"Oh, Karen, that is so sweet! I'm calling Will right now."

"Ok, tell him we'll pick him up at his office at 10:30," Karen ordered.

Jack got to Grace and Karen's office at 10:00 and he seemed almost as nervous as Karen. They walked down to the limo, Jack with one hand holding Karen's and the other low on her back. He helped her into the limo after Grace and they were on their way to Will's office. When Will climbed in the car, he looked a little nervous himself.

"Karen, how have you been feeling lately?" he asked her.

"Pregnant," was her simple reply.

"But nothing unusual, right? Healthy and everything?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah Wilma, why?"

"I'm just a worrier. I want everything to be perfect for you two."

"Thanks, Will. That's really nice of you," said Jack.

The fab four arrived at the doctor's office at 10:45. Will and Grace got out of the car and Jack helped Karen out. They sat down in the waiting room and Jack went up to tell the receptionist they were there. Karen kept taking deep breaths and Will reached over and took her trembling hand and told her he was positive that there was nothing to be nervous about.

"Oh, look who's talking!" Grace said playfully.

Finally the doctor stuck his head out of the door and said, "Mr. and Mrs. McFarland? I'm ready for you now."

Will and Grace said they'd wait in the waiting room and gave them both hugs and "good lucks".

Karen and Jack went into the small room and Karen laid down on the doctor's table, extremely nervous.

"Okay guys are you ready?" asked the doctor.

Jack and Karen exchanged smiles and Jack leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek.

"I'm ready," said Karen.

Jack held her hand through the whole thing and when the doctor said that everything looked perfectly normal, Karen and Jack both relaxed tremendously. Now was the fun part, finding out the sex of the baby.

"Well, you two," said the doctor. "It looks like you're going to have a baby girl!"

Karen squeezed Jack's hand and squealed. She couldn't remember ever being happier. Except maybe when she and Jack got married.

The two love birds walked out of the room holding hands tightly and beaming.

"So?! What did you find out??" Grace asked impatiently.

"Obviously something good!" Will said, "I mean look at them!"

Jack and Karen exchanged looks and Karen told Jack to go ahead and tell them.

"In four months, sometime in the middle of May, Karen and I will be the parents of a gorgeous little girl named Megan."

Will and Grace both jumped up and hugged the two of them. Grace started crying when she hugged Karen, which made Karen cry. They decided to go out to lunch to celebrate.

The last half of Karen's pregnancy was spent growing closer with Jack, Grace and Will. Growing closer with Jack by simply falling deeper and deeper in love with him every single day, growing closer with Grace when the two of them would go shopping nearly every day at lunch for baby clothes, and growing closer with Will because he would call weekly to make sure everything was okay and to see if she needed anything. Jack was constanly doing sweet things like bringing Karen flowers and chocolates and anything she was craving. One day he had a bouquet of white roses delivered to her with a card that read,

Kare Bear,
I love you more than words can say. I don't know what I 'd ever do without you. You make my sun rise, and you make me happier than anything else ever has or ever will. You're my soul mate and if I didn't have you, life wouldn't be worth living. You're my best friend and there could never be anyone else that makes me feel the way you do. I fall in love with you all over again every time I see you. I love you forever and nothing could ever come between us no matter what. I hope you have a wonderful day and think of me when you look at these flowers!
I love you,
Jack

And one night when Karen had been really sick, Jack gave her a massage, wrapped her in a blanket, and let her fall asleep in his arms. The next day, he showed up at lunch time with chicken soup and sandwiches in a picnic basket and took Karen to a beautiful park for lunch. They talked about their baby and their relationship and how much they loved each other. Then they went for a walk and Jack picked Karen a bouquet of tulips. When they got back to the office Karen gave Jack a long, deep, passionate kiss and then Jack had to leave.

Then, on the night of May 13th, Karen had been feeling kind of funny, but she didn't think anything of it. She just laid in Jack's arms by the fireplace and fell asleep. The next day, she got up and went to work as usual. Then she started getting sharp pains.

"Ooh!" she squeaked.

"What's wrong?" asked Grace, nonchalantly.

"I'm having these shooting pains," said Karen.

"Did you do something to Rosario again?" Grace joked, not realizing that this was serious. "Grace, I think I'm having contractions!" Karen gasped.

"Kare, are you sure?" Grace asked, now humorless.

"Yeah honey! I need to get to the hospital NOW!" Karen cried, clearly in pain.

Grace called Jack and Will. Jack got to the office faster than he'd ever gotten there in his life. He ran into the office where he found Grace comforting Karen who was almost in tears. He hurried over to her and held her close, then he picked her up and carried her down to the car. She was clinging to him and crying with her face burried in his shoulder. When they got to the car Grace sat in the back with Karen while Jack got in the driver's seat and sped to the hospital. Will met Grace there in the waiting room and she told him that Karen had gone into labor and was rushed to the delivery room.

Karen was laid down on a stretcher and rushed down a hospital hall with Jack by her side the entire time. When they got to the delivery room Karen was given an epidural to help with the pain. Then she was hooked up to all kinds of machines and before she knew it the doctor was ordering her to push. She was sqeezing Jack's hand so hard, he thought she was going to break it. But he didn't say anything about it.

"Come on baby, you're doing great," he told her.

"PUSH!" the doctor cried, "Come on, Karen, keep going!"

She was screaming and had tears streaming down her face. Jack leaned over and kissed her.

"I love you! I love you so much! You are so brave and you're doing great! Keep going honey, come on!" he encouraged her.

Twenty-five minutes later Karen was resting in her own hospital room holding the most perfect little girl on the earth. She had lots of dark hair and beatiful hazel eyes just like her mother. Jack was sitting by her side and Karen couldn't believe she was a mother. It was the happiest moment of her entire life. Then there was a light knock at the door.

"Come in!" Jack called softly.

Will and Grace came in, Will with a bunch of ballooons, and Grace with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They set them on a table in the room and huddled around Karen.

"Will, Grace, I'd like you to meet Megan McFarland," Jack said proudly.

"Oh, you guys, she is gorgeous!" Grace said.

"How are you feeling, Kare?" Will asked.

"Oh, I'm fine! Much better now that I'm drugged up!" she joked.

"Karen, may I?" Grace said softly.

"Oh, of course!" replied Karen and handed her little Megan. Grace cooed and talked baby talk and gently rocked her little god-baby. Then it was Will's turn. They were both so cute with her and Karen and Jack had never been happier.

Will and Grace left about an hour later and Jack made himself a bed on the couch next to Karen's bed. Their baby was in the nursery and before Jack and Karen called it a night, Jack gave Karen a foot massage and a neck and back massage and made sure she was perfectly comfortable. Then just before she fell asleep Jack kissed her on the forehead and said, "Now that Megan's here, you know what that means".

"No, what?" Karen asked.

"Now we get to plan our big wedding!"

"Maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm a little tired!"

Jack kissed Karen goodnight, waited until she was asleep, and then went down the hall to admire his beautiful baby girl.

"I'm the luckiest man alive," he thought to himself.

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