Keep it to Yourself
Title: Keep it to Yourself
Rating: G
Word Count: 597
Pairing/Characters: Arthur/Mal, Dom
Summary: For this prompt at the Kink Meme
Disclaimer: Don't own anything :(
It had happened two weeks before the wedding. Arthur had gotten an incomprehensible phone call well past midnight. He couldn’t make out anything Mal said through her tears, but he did manage to find out where she was. He made the thirty minute trip in fifteen and had Mal back in his apartment before the hour was up.
Wrapped in a blanket on his couch, she clutched at a mug of steaming hot chocolate as she told him what happened. There was a fight. Over nothing, it seemed, but stress had apparently been accumulating for weeks, and Mal and Dom had both said some things that they shouldn’t have.
Mal could hardly speak as she choked on her tears. Arthur had wrapped a comforting arm around her. She had cried into his shoulder. He had kissed her cheek. She had kissed his lips. It had only caught up to Arthur what he’d done when they were both under the blanket, Mal fast asleep on his chest.
Of course, Dom had come around the next morning, frantically searching for Mal, apologies pouring from his lips. They had made up before the week was out. Arthur hadn’t told Dom, nor had he spoken to Mal about it since. The only acknowledgement either had made of it was when Dom had excitedly announced that Mal was pregnant a month after the wedding. She had given Arthur a quiet look, and Arthur knew.
She didn’t want to tell Dom. It would have broken him. It would have broken their relationship. It would have broken Dom’s relationship with Arthur. She didn’t regret it, but she was in love with Dom and she wanted with all of her heart to make it work. It broke her heart to harbor such a secret, but it would have broken her heart even more if Dom were to know.
So Arthur kept quiet at the hospital as Dom nervously shook his leg in his seat, waiting to be called into the room with Mal. Arthur thought longingly of the pack of cigarettes in pocket, but his nerves were too shot to even get up for a smoke.
Finally, the doctor came out and proclaimed joyfully that Dom was the father of a beautiful baby girl and that both she and Mal were fine. Dom could hardly contain his excitement as he rushed past the doctor to see Mal and baby Phillipa. Arthur felt his stomach twist as he followed slowly.
Dom held Phillipa close to him, whispering to her, promising love, devotion, and all of the other things fathers promise their daughters. Arthur stood back, watching the scene, pointedly not looking at Mal, although he could tell she was looking at him. Dom rushed over to Arthur, showing Phillipa off, asking wasn’t she the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen?
Dom handed her over to him, and Arthur felt his chest tighten as he looked into the baby’s face. He couldn’t speak as Phillipa calmly stared back. Arthur snapped out of his reverie when he heard the nurse come back into the room. He handed Phillipa back to Dom and agreed that she was absolutely gorgeous.
It was only when Dom was back to cooing over the baby that Arthur finally looked at Mal. She looked unbelievably tired, but her eyes were awake. They were pleading, apologizing, and desperately searching his face for something, anything to calm her nerves. Arthur walked over to her bed, leaned down to kiss her cheek and whispered: “The three of you are lovely.”
Mal grabbed his hand and squeezed it.