Like A Virgin - Chapter 36 (Jayma Mays/Matthew Morrison)
Title: Like A Virgin
Author: emmaschuester
Pairing/Characters: Jayma Mays/Matthew Morrison
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Harmless fun, no offence intended. Pure work of fiction.
Spoilers: None.
Summary/Author's Notes: New chapter! hope you enjoy.
"Hmmmm..." A ray of sunshine filtering through the blinds stirred her from her slumber and she squinted a little, rolling over to look blindly for him. Her hands roamed over an empty, cold space, and she lifted her head in surprise. She noticed a little yellow post-it on his pillow. "Band rehearsals. Didn't wanna wake the Sleeping Beauty. Call you later. xxx"
She stared at the note for a little while, twisting it in her fingers, and sighing, she got out of bed. Opening the bedroom door, she was greeted with the sight of Daisy, who had obviously dragged her blanket in front of their room throughout the night, snuggled up to her two cats, all three of them sound asleep. Crouching down, she scratched the puppy's ears before paying attention to her feline friends, and was rewarded with cuddles and purrs that managed to turn her slightly grumpy mood around. Grinning, she descended the stairs to the kitchen escorted by her little troop.
She had hardly opened the cupboard to retrieve the coffee bag when a powerful wave of nausea hit her, and she was forced to make a run to the downstairs bathroom before emptying her stomach in the toilet, her hands trembling on the off-white ceramic.
She remained slumped for a couple of minutes, making sure the nausea had gone for good, then she got up, slightly unstable, and reached the sink to wash her face and mouth, stopping to stare at her face in the mirror, pale and sweaty.
Her stomach bug couldn't come at a less convenient time: she had a full Saturday of interviews and meetings ahead, and couldn't really call in sick.
Skipping breakfast, but filling her pets' bowls, she got upstairs and into the shower.
-----
"4 pm, next Thursday. Okay." She wrote a note down in her daily planner. "Okay, I'll see you there. Thank you."
Ending her phone call, she smiled at her PR. "Sorry. There's been another change in the photoshoot schedule, I swear this has been more complicated than planning the Moon landing."
She looked around the desk in her PR's office, trying to make sense of the dozens of notes and post-its scattered on every inch. Sighing, she rested her head on her hands. "Just when I think I can't possibly be busier than I already am new stuff piles up."
Her fingers skimmed through her planner. "Seriously. I'm hardly gonna have time to sleep, let alone have a life."
Her publicist laid a hand on her forearm and shared a sympathetic smile. "Hey. You're gonna be ok. And in your job it's always better to be busy than to be sitting around, waiting."
She sighed again. "You're right. Speaking of which..." She glanced at her watch and got up. "Have to go, gym in half an hour."
"You sure you're feeling good enough for that? You're still a little green."
She chuckled. "Jeez, thanks for the encouraging words." Getting up, she shot her friend a smile. "I'm gonna be okay. Just something I ate last night, I guess. Matt and I had take-out."
"How's Matt, by the way? Haven't seen him in a while, the girls at the office were starting to feel spoiled."
She sighed. "He's fine, just... super busy. Every time it seems like he's adding the final touches to the album they call him to do some more. He's so excited, which makes me even more excited, but we haven't really had time to spend alone in two weeks. And the one free night we had, of course the Steelers were playing... and you know how it works with guys and football." They giggled.
"Aw, hopefully he'll be done soon and ready to pay you back for all your patience..." Her PR winked. "Okay. Have a good workout. Call me if you don't feel good, or need anything, okay? I don't wanna be covering up a story on how you passed out at the gym."
Jayma snorted with laughter. "Definitely not looking forward to that myself either. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
----
Her hard workout session had turned into a far more relaxing pilates one, followed by a massage, when her personal trainer had seen her pale face. She had feebly tried to protest, but couldn't quite convince herself that she was actually as fine as she claimed, and had gladly exchanged her gym tools with a yoga mat.
Her phone buzzed with a new text message just as she was getting out of the shower.
How's your day going? I miss you.
I'm ok. Gym now. How's rehearsals? I miss you too.
Really cool. Dinner later? Home? Out?
Home please...
Good to me. Gotta go. Love you. x
She clutched the phone to her chest for a minute, as if to feel the words he had just written on her skin, then stowed it in her purse with a sigh, retrieving her body lotion from her locker.
-----
Two meetings, one long phone interview and a brief chat with a friend at a coffee place later, she had finally parked the car in the garage, and dragged herself to the front door. She was exhausted. And though the nausea had completely subsided, she still wasn't feeling at her best.
Dropping her belongings just inside the hall, she slouched to the living room, greeted her pets, and lowered herself on the sofa. Her arms reached down to pull Daisy in her lap when she heard the puppy's quiet whinings, and, comforted by her warmth, she fell asleep in a few minutes.
------
She was stirred into consciousness by something warm and wet pressing on her leg, and something even warmer on her forehead. Opening lazily an eye, she slowly made out his outline, crouched down to her level, his lips on her temple; beside him, Daisy was pressing wet kisses on her right calf.
"Hey."
"Hey." Her voice was groggy from sleep, and she cleared her throat a couple of times. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine...
She shot up in surprise. "What? You serious?"
He chuckled. "Yeah, what's the big deal?"
"Well." She looked at him, uneasy. "I kind of slept almost four hours..."
He kissed her forehead. "Well, you were tired. Long naps are good."
Yawning, she got up. "Guess so. I'm just so... tired, lately, you know? I mean, much more than the average 'get-up-at-6-go-to-bed-at-2' tired."
"I'm sorry, baby." He circled her waist. "How's the stomach?"
"How do you know?"
"I called the gym to know if you were still there, you weren't answering your phone, and your trainer told me."
"Oh." She stared at her feet. "I'm okay now. I just... I don't know what happened, one minute I was making coffee, the next one I was crouched over the toilet." She smirked. "I'm sorry. Not really a sexy picture of me."
He laughed. "I've got enough sexy pictures of you in my head to last for a decade... and a couple on my phone too."
She blushed deeply, and giggled a little, before leaning in for a kiss, winding her arms around his neck and holding tight. "I missed you today.", she whispered.
He kissed her again. "I missed you too, pretty girl."
She pulled away, noticing her gym bag and purse scattered beside the front door. "Oh, God, what a mess..." She retrieved her stuff and shot him a warning look. "And if you call me Emma you'll have to resort to the pics on your phone tonight..."
He chuckled and held his hands up in mock-surrender, and watched her climb the stairs up to the second floor.
-----
After emptying her gym bag in the laundry room, she sat down on the bed, and retrieved her daily planner- she hadn't quite gotten around to using her phone as planner too, and still wrote everything down.
Trying to understand the source of her exhaustion, she went through her last few days. Sure, the rhythms had been crazy. But then again, when weren't they? The stress of finding dresses and looks for the upcoming Golden Globes- in two days- and SAGs had been a tiring, though not unwelcomed, addition to her list. So what was different?
Her eyes skimmed through the days quickly. Nothing, no big changes... even though... she kept looking. Something was missing there... she went back a bit more, and saw a red dot beside a day, in December. A dot that was supposed to be beside a January day too, but was missing. Her eyes widened, her breath becoming fast-paced, matching her heart rate.
She went down the stairs, her heartbeat a solid buzzing in her ears, as she looked for him blindly.
"There you are! I was thinking I could cook us something, what's your stomach up for?" He looked at her face and launched forward, his hands on her shoulders. "Jayma." She lifted her head a little. "Jayma. What's wrong?"
"I'm..." She couldn't quite bring herself to say it out loud. She was terrified of his reaction, and possibly even more of her own.
"Are you sick again? Do you want me to call your doctor?"
She shook her head, trembling a little.
"What's wrong baby? You're scaring me." He guided her to the couch and sat down beside her, holding her hands in his, rubbing circles on her palms with his thumbs, trying to soothe her breathing and pulse.
She swallowed a lump, took a deep breath and opened her mouth, but didn't quite manage to form words. She tried again. "Matt..." She felt tears surfacing and tried to swallow them down. "I'm..." Another breath. "I'm late."
He stared at her, dumbfounded, his hands still, his mouth agape. He gulped audibly, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "Late?" His voice was barely a whisper. She just nodded.
"How... late? I mean, a day, two..."
"Eight."
"But... we're always careful, I mean isn't the pill like the safest thing? And... and..." At loss for words, he just opened and closed his mouth a few times.
"It is. But I was sick with a cold during the holidays, and... well I was healed by the time I got back to LA... but... I don't know!" Her voice got high-pitched, and she hardly suffocated a sob. "Oh God, I don't know!!"
He pulled her to him, and circled her shoulders tightly, a hand combing through her hair, the other running back and forth on her back. "Hey. Hey. Shhhhh." He kissed her temple, and held her for a long time, until her breathing evened out, and then pulled away a little, to stare at her eyes. "Well... I guess we have just one option here." He moved a lock of hair. "You don't have a... test here, by any chance?"
She buried her head in his neck and shook it, no.
"Okay." He kissed her head and got up, taking his car keys from the coffee table. "I'll be right back."
She looked at her own stomach, and then at him with huge, scared eyes.
He got close once more, and cupped her cheek. "Jay. It's gonna be okay. I promise. But now I really have to go get one of those tests, okay?" He pecked her lips. "I'll be right back."
She nodded, once, and watched him exit the house and get into his car.
Not knowing quite what to do with herself, she curled up on the couch, her head still pounding heavily. Lost in thoughts, her right hand shifted down, to graze her flat stomach.
----
He got back after 42 excruciating minutes, in which she tried to shut off her mind, but the thoughts just flowed freely, no matter how hard she tried to close her mind to any kind of activity. What was he thinking? Why was he taking so long? What did he want? And what did she want? Were they ready for... of course they weren't. Or were they?
The sound of keys in the front door startled her back to reality.
He was hiding under a hoodie and his baseball cap. "Sorry it took me so long. First pharmacy I walked into I got recognized in two seconds and I had to look for another one." He poured the contents of a shopping bag on the coffee table. "And then I didn't know which one to get, there were so many and I got confused." He dug through the items on the table. "And then I was like, I can't buy five pregnancy tests and nothing else, so I got all this stuff to mix them..." He chuckled. "I'm an idiot, I'm sorry."
She laid a hand on his forearm. "No, you're not. You're thoughtful. And sweet. Thank you." Her fingers trembled a little as she took one of the boxes in her hand. "This one?"
He shook his head. "I have no idea. Guess they're all good..." He took one. "This one? Says '99% accuracy'..."
She stared at the pale pink box, her eyes as huge as saucers, and then at him.
Seeing her look, he dropped the test and took her by the arms, pulling her to him. "Hey. Talk to me. Please."
She sighed. "I..." Deep breath. "I..." She gulped, and took another breath, trying to focus only on the feeling of his fingers in her hair and on her neck, drawing soothing circles. "I don't know what to say." Her face shot up to look at him. "What do you feel?"
He tightened his grip. "Honestly?" He chuckled a little. "I'm scared, baby. So fucking scared." He took a lock of red hair between his thumb and forefinger. "But with you, I've gone to lenghts that... I didn't think I knew how, or could." His head hinted towards the coffee table. "Test?"
She just nodded, and took the box he had chosen, freeing from his arms and walking to the stairs. She was halfway up when she turned around, and got back to him again, placing a hand on his chest. "I'm not... I'm not against this, if it were the case." Her hand moved to his jaw. "We're just... we haven't even celebrated a year together." His eyes lowered to the floor, and she wondered if he was fighting back tears. "But I love you. And the thought of this with you... well. It's not so scary." He closed his eyes and nudged to her touch. "Test time. You coming?"
He nodded, eyes still closed. "Just give me a minute."
------
She laid the stick beside the tap, washed her hands, and slid down on the wall, sitting down on the cold bathroom tiles, her head in her hands. 'But I love you. And the thought of this with you... well. It's not so scary.' It was true, right? They were perfect for each other. So what if the timing was a bit off?
Sighing, she eyed her watch, waiting for three minutes to pass, and wondering why he hadn't come up yet.
-----
'I'm scared, baby. So fucking scared.' Well, he was. Their lives were... crazy, to say the least. And she was right, they hadn't been together for a year yet. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, roughly. His mind wandered to a million different places at once, until it settled on the image of himself, bouncing a cute toddler girl on his knees, her red hair flailing on her shoulders.
Before he could realize it, he had thrown himself upstairs and into the bathroom, sitting down next to her, her head resting on his shoulder. "It's gonna be ok." he whispered, kissing her temple. "I just know it. Whatever it is. I love you."
She nodded, closing her eyes to his touch. He noticed her hand sliding down to her stomach, and entwined his fingers with hers.
After a few silent moments, she looked at her watch. "Time's up."
He got to his feet and helped her up, without looking at the stick. She drew a deep breath, took his hand, and leaned on the basin.
A tiny blue minus sign. Nothing else, no "congrats!" or "sorry, guys..." Just a little line, that for some unknown reason made her eyes well up with tears. He hugged her from behind, hiding his face in her hair, and she could have sworn a tiny sob had just escaped his lips.
She turned around in his arms, smiling a tear-streaked smile. "Well. The Fates agreed on the bad timing, I guess."
He smiled back, softly, searching for something in her eyes. "Guess so..." He caught a tear on her cheek with his thumb, and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Not now, but some day... some day we'll see a tiny plus right there... won't we?"
She pulled him down for a deep kiss, trying to convey with actions what she had no words to explain. "Yes. Some day."
------
They had a quiet dinner, Matt cooked for the both of them, and then they snuggled on the couch first, playing with Daisy, who seemed to have caught on the need for cheering up, and then moved to their bed, his fingers tracing down her spine, and she fell asleep on his chest, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
And when he was sure she was sound asleep, he reached blindly for his iPad on his bedside table, and got on Google, and typed the words "tiffany - engagement ring", kissing her hair, and gently running a hand on her left ring finger.
________________________
...yes I know. I said I'd update soon and I... didn't. I'm sorry! I had to rewrite some parts of this chapter. Plus there's always that little annoying thing called real life, calling at the most unconvenient times. ;)
Hope you enjoyed! I would really love to read reviews, on this chapter even more than usual. :)
Author: emmaschuester
Pairing/Characters: Jayma Mays/Matthew Morrison
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Harmless fun, no offence intended. Pure work of fiction.
Spoilers: None.
Summary/Author's Notes: New chapter! hope you enjoy.
"Hmmmm..." A ray of sunshine filtering through the blinds stirred her from her slumber and she squinted a little, rolling over to look blindly for him. Her hands roamed over an empty, cold space, and she lifted her head in surprise. She noticed a little yellow post-it on his pillow. "Band rehearsals. Didn't wanna wake the Sleeping Beauty. Call you later. xxx"
She stared at the note for a little while, twisting it in her fingers, and sighing, she got out of bed. Opening the bedroom door, she was greeted with the sight of Daisy, who had obviously dragged her blanket in front of their room throughout the night, snuggled up to her two cats, all three of them sound asleep. Crouching down, she scratched the puppy's ears before paying attention to her feline friends, and was rewarded with cuddles and purrs that managed to turn her slightly grumpy mood around. Grinning, she descended the stairs to the kitchen escorted by her little troop.
She had hardly opened the cupboard to retrieve the coffee bag when a powerful wave of nausea hit her, and she was forced to make a run to the downstairs bathroom before emptying her stomach in the toilet, her hands trembling on the off-white ceramic.
She remained slumped for a couple of minutes, making sure the nausea had gone for good, then she got up, slightly unstable, and reached the sink to wash her face and mouth, stopping to stare at her face in the mirror, pale and sweaty.
Her stomach bug couldn't come at a less convenient time: she had a full Saturday of interviews and meetings ahead, and couldn't really call in sick.
Skipping breakfast, but filling her pets' bowls, she got upstairs and into the shower.
-----
"4 pm, next Thursday. Okay." She wrote a note down in her daily planner. "Okay, I'll see you there. Thank you."
Ending her phone call, she smiled at her PR. "Sorry. There's been another change in the photoshoot schedule, I swear this has been more complicated than planning the Moon landing."
She looked around the desk in her PR's office, trying to make sense of the dozens of notes and post-its scattered on every inch. Sighing, she rested her head on her hands. "Just when I think I can't possibly be busier than I already am new stuff piles up."
Her fingers skimmed through her planner. "Seriously. I'm hardly gonna have time to sleep, let alone have a life."
Her publicist laid a hand on her forearm and shared a sympathetic smile. "Hey. You're gonna be ok. And in your job it's always better to be busy than to be sitting around, waiting."
She sighed again. "You're right. Speaking of which..." She glanced at her watch and got up. "Have to go, gym in half an hour."
"You sure you're feeling good enough for that? You're still a little green."
She chuckled. "Jeez, thanks for the encouraging words." Getting up, she shot her friend a smile. "I'm gonna be okay. Just something I ate last night, I guess. Matt and I had take-out."
"How's Matt, by the way? Haven't seen him in a while, the girls at the office were starting to feel spoiled."
She sighed. "He's fine, just... super busy. Every time it seems like he's adding the final touches to the album they call him to do some more. He's so excited, which makes me even more excited, but we haven't really had time to spend alone in two weeks. And the one free night we had, of course the Steelers were playing... and you know how it works with guys and football." They giggled.
"Aw, hopefully he'll be done soon and ready to pay you back for all your patience..." Her PR winked. "Okay. Have a good workout. Call me if you don't feel good, or need anything, okay? I don't wanna be covering up a story on how you passed out at the gym."
Jayma snorted with laughter. "Definitely not looking forward to that myself either. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
----
Her hard workout session had turned into a far more relaxing pilates one, followed by a massage, when her personal trainer had seen her pale face. She had feebly tried to protest, but couldn't quite convince herself that she was actually as fine as she claimed, and had gladly exchanged her gym tools with a yoga mat.
Her phone buzzed with a new text message just as she was getting out of the shower.
How's your day going? I miss you.
I'm ok. Gym now. How's rehearsals? I miss you too.
Really cool. Dinner later? Home? Out?
Home please...
Good to me. Gotta go. Love you. x
She clutched the phone to her chest for a minute, as if to feel the words he had just written on her skin, then stowed it in her purse with a sigh, retrieving her body lotion from her locker.
-----
Two meetings, one long phone interview and a brief chat with a friend at a coffee place later, she had finally parked the car in the garage, and dragged herself to the front door. She was exhausted. And though the nausea had completely subsided, she still wasn't feeling at her best.
Dropping her belongings just inside the hall, she slouched to the living room, greeted her pets, and lowered herself on the sofa. Her arms reached down to pull Daisy in her lap when she heard the puppy's quiet whinings, and, comforted by her warmth, she fell asleep in a few minutes.
------
She was stirred into consciousness by something warm and wet pressing on her leg, and something even warmer on her forehead. Opening lazily an eye, she slowly made out his outline, crouched down to her level, his lips on her temple; beside him, Daisy was pressing wet kisses on her right calf.
"Hey."
"Hey." Her voice was groggy from sleep, and she cleared her throat a couple of times. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine...
She shot up in surprise. "What? You serious?"
He chuckled. "Yeah, what's the big deal?"
"Well." She looked at him, uneasy. "I kind of slept almost four hours..."
He kissed her forehead. "Well, you were tired. Long naps are good."
Yawning, she got up. "Guess so. I'm just so... tired, lately, you know? I mean, much more than the average 'get-up-at-6-go-to-bed-at-2' tired."
"I'm sorry, baby." He circled her waist. "How's the stomach?"
"How do you know?"
"I called the gym to know if you were still there, you weren't answering your phone, and your trainer told me."
"Oh." She stared at her feet. "I'm okay now. I just... I don't know what happened, one minute I was making coffee, the next one I was crouched over the toilet." She smirked. "I'm sorry. Not really a sexy picture of me."
He laughed. "I've got enough sexy pictures of you in my head to last for a decade... and a couple on my phone too."
She blushed deeply, and giggled a little, before leaning in for a kiss, winding her arms around his neck and holding tight. "I missed you today.", she whispered.
He kissed her again. "I missed you too, pretty girl."
She pulled away, noticing her gym bag and purse scattered beside the front door. "Oh, God, what a mess..." She retrieved her stuff and shot him a warning look. "And if you call me Emma you'll have to resort to the pics on your phone tonight..."
He chuckled and held his hands up in mock-surrender, and watched her climb the stairs up to the second floor.
-----
After emptying her gym bag in the laundry room, she sat down on the bed, and retrieved her daily planner- she hadn't quite gotten around to using her phone as planner too, and still wrote everything down.
Trying to understand the source of her exhaustion, she went through her last few days. Sure, the rhythms had been crazy. But then again, when weren't they? The stress of finding dresses and looks for the upcoming Golden Globes- in two days- and SAGs had been a tiring, though not unwelcomed, addition to her list. So what was different?
Her eyes skimmed through the days quickly. Nothing, no big changes... even though... she kept looking. Something was missing there... she went back a bit more, and saw a red dot beside a day, in December. A dot that was supposed to be beside a January day too, but was missing. Her eyes widened, her breath becoming fast-paced, matching her heart rate.
She went down the stairs, her heartbeat a solid buzzing in her ears, as she looked for him blindly.
"There you are! I was thinking I could cook us something, what's your stomach up for?" He looked at her face and launched forward, his hands on her shoulders. "Jayma." She lifted her head a little. "Jayma. What's wrong?"
"I'm..." She couldn't quite bring herself to say it out loud. She was terrified of his reaction, and possibly even more of her own.
"Are you sick again? Do you want me to call your doctor?"
She shook her head, trembling a little.
"What's wrong baby? You're scaring me." He guided her to the couch and sat down beside her, holding her hands in his, rubbing circles on her palms with his thumbs, trying to soothe her breathing and pulse.
She swallowed a lump, took a deep breath and opened her mouth, but didn't quite manage to form words. She tried again. "Matt..." She felt tears surfacing and tried to swallow them down. "I'm..." Another breath. "I'm late."
He stared at her, dumbfounded, his hands still, his mouth agape. He gulped audibly, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. "Late?" His voice was barely a whisper. She just nodded.
"How... late? I mean, a day, two..."
"Eight."
"But... we're always careful, I mean isn't the pill like the safest thing? And... and..." At loss for words, he just opened and closed his mouth a few times.
"It is. But I was sick with a cold during the holidays, and... well I was healed by the time I got back to LA... but... I don't know!" Her voice got high-pitched, and she hardly suffocated a sob. "Oh God, I don't know!!"
He pulled her to him, and circled her shoulders tightly, a hand combing through her hair, the other running back and forth on her back. "Hey. Hey. Shhhhh." He kissed her temple, and held her for a long time, until her breathing evened out, and then pulled away a little, to stare at her eyes. "Well... I guess we have just one option here." He moved a lock of hair. "You don't have a... test here, by any chance?"
She buried her head in his neck and shook it, no.
"Okay." He kissed her head and got up, taking his car keys from the coffee table. "I'll be right back."
She looked at her own stomach, and then at him with huge, scared eyes.
He got close once more, and cupped her cheek. "Jay. It's gonna be okay. I promise. But now I really have to go get one of those tests, okay?" He pecked her lips. "I'll be right back."
She nodded, once, and watched him exit the house and get into his car.
Not knowing quite what to do with herself, she curled up on the couch, her head still pounding heavily. Lost in thoughts, her right hand shifted down, to graze her flat stomach.
----
He got back after 42 excruciating minutes, in which she tried to shut off her mind, but the thoughts just flowed freely, no matter how hard she tried to close her mind to any kind of activity. What was he thinking? Why was he taking so long? What did he want? And what did she want? Were they ready for... of course they weren't. Or were they?
The sound of keys in the front door startled her back to reality.
He was hiding under a hoodie and his baseball cap. "Sorry it took me so long. First pharmacy I walked into I got recognized in two seconds and I had to look for another one." He poured the contents of a shopping bag on the coffee table. "And then I didn't know which one to get, there were so many and I got confused." He dug through the items on the table. "And then I was like, I can't buy five pregnancy tests and nothing else, so I got all this stuff to mix them..." He chuckled. "I'm an idiot, I'm sorry."
She laid a hand on his forearm. "No, you're not. You're thoughtful. And sweet. Thank you." Her fingers trembled a little as she took one of the boxes in her hand. "This one?"
He shook his head. "I have no idea. Guess they're all good..." He took one. "This one? Says '99% accuracy'..."
She stared at the pale pink box, her eyes as huge as saucers, and then at him.
Seeing her look, he dropped the test and took her by the arms, pulling her to him. "Hey. Talk to me. Please."
She sighed. "I..." Deep breath. "I..." She gulped, and took another breath, trying to focus only on the feeling of his fingers in her hair and on her neck, drawing soothing circles. "I don't know what to say." Her face shot up to look at him. "What do you feel?"
He tightened his grip. "Honestly?" He chuckled a little. "I'm scared, baby. So fucking scared." He took a lock of red hair between his thumb and forefinger. "But with you, I've gone to lenghts that... I didn't think I knew how, or could." His head hinted towards the coffee table. "Test?"
She just nodded, and took the box he had chosen, freeing from his arms and walking to the stairs. She was halfway up when she turned around, and got back to him again, placing a hand on his chest. "I'm not... I'm not against this, if it were the case." Her hand moved to his jaw. "We're just... we haven't even celebrated a year together." His eyes lowered to the floor, and she wondered if he was fighting back tears. "But I love you. And the thought of this with you... well. It's not so scary." He closed his eyes and nudged to her touch. "Test time. You coming?"
He nodded, eyes still closed. "Just give me a minute."
------
She laid the stick beside the tap, washed her hands, and slid down on the wall, sitting down on the cold bathroom tiles, her head in her hands. 'But I love you. And the thought of this with you... well. It's not so scary.' It was true, right? They were perfect for each other. So what if the timing was a bit off?
Sighing, she eyed her watch, waiting for three minutes to pass, and wondering why he hadn't come up yet.
-----
'I'm scared, baby. So fucking scared.' Well, he was. Their lives were... crazy, to say the least. And she was right, they hadn't been together for a year yet. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, roughly. His mind wandered to a million different places at once, until it settled on the image of himself, bouncing a cute toddler girl on his knees, her red hair flailing on her shoulders.
Before he could realize it, he had thrown himself upstairs and into the bathroom, sitting down next to her, her head resting on his shoulder. "It's gonna be ok." he whispered, kissing her temple. "I just know it. Whatever it is. I love you."
She nodded, closing her eyes to his touch. He noticed her hand sliding down to her stomach, and entwined his fingers with hers.
After a few silent moments, she looked at her watch. "Time's up."
He got to his feet and helped her up, without looking at the stick. She drew a deep breath, took his hand, and leaned on the basin.
A tiny blue minus sign. Nothing else, no "congrats!" or "sorry, guys..." Just a little line, that for some unknown reason made her eyes well up with tears. He hugged her from behind, hiding his face in her hair, and she could have sworn a tiny sob had just escaped his lips.
She turned around in his arms, smiling a tear-streaked smile. "Well. The Fates agreed on the bad timing, I guess."
He smiled back, softly, searching for something in her eyes. "Guess so..." He caught a tear on her cheek with his thumb, and placed a kiss on her forehead. "Not now, but some day... some day we'll see a tiny plus right there... won't we?"
She pulled him down for a deep kiss, trying to convey with actions what she had no words to explain. "Yes. Some day."
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They had a quiet dinner, Matt cooked for the both of them, and then they snuggled on the couch first, playing with Daisy, who seemed to have caught on the need for cheering up, and then moved to their bed, his fingers tracing down her spine, and she fell asleep on his chest, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
And when he was sure she was sound asleep, he reached blindly for his iPad on his bedside table, and got on Google, and typed the words "tiffany - engagement ring", kissing her hair, and gently running a hand on her left ring finger.
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...yes I know. I said I'd update soon and I... didn't. I'm sorry! I had to rewrite some parts of this chapter. Plus there's always that little annoying thing called real life, calling at the most unconvenient times. ;)
Hope you enjoyed! I would really love to read reviews, on this chapter even more than usual. :)