Another Real World AU! Because why not? I did a tiny teaser fic for this story called This Could Be The Start Of Something, which contains a little back story and sets the scene. It's not absolutely necessary to have read it first but you might like to? Well anyway, it's in my story list if you want to check it out.
I figured there were a million bubbline fics where they're just getting together so it'd be fun to do one where the main relationship is already well established. The real world names of my characters here are the same as in La Vie En Rose but it is a completely separate universe, mostly because I wanted Marceline to have a decent relationship with her not as evil father in this fic, Hunson is just a regular guy who struggled to raise his daughter after his wife died. And Lydia is the name I gave to LSP for real world stuff, and Jake's family name is Madigan (it's an Irish surname that literally means 'little dog').
In case you're not sure what this fic is actually about, forty weeks is the length of a human pregnancy. And if you don't already know why they've gone to Denmark at the start it'll all get explained later in the story. So yeah, pregnancy fic. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Content Warning: mentions of historical character death due to cancer, medical language.
"Scandinavia, though. We should actually see it when we're here next. Don't you think?"
"Mm, maybe. But we might not be here again any time soon. If it works first time we'll not have any reason to come back, or any spare time to come back in. Not for ages."
"Gothenburg's nice. I played there for like, a week when I did that summer tour with the Philharmonic. Didn't get to really explore it properly but it was pretty enough to look at. And our bus went past this huge theme park right in the middle of the city centre, like, the roller coasters came right out over the roads. And we could go out into the countryside too, I hear the west coast is really beautiful. Maybe rent a boat and go island hopping or-"
"Marcy, please just shut up. In the nicest possible way, I'm trying not to freak out here. Just shut up and hold my hand until the plane's off the ground, please?"
Marceline shut up and laced her fingers through Bonnie's instead. She might have sulked about being told to be quiet in years past but she knew her girlfriend was a nervous flier and she'd only been talking to try to distract her anyway. The jet engines thundered harder and the airplane accelerated, a few seconds more and they were tilted backwards and thrown back into their seats as the plane rose sharply into the air and the runway fell away beneath them. After a few long minutes of climbing Bonnie exhaled and squeezed Marcy's hand.
"Right, now you can talk again." she said with a relieved sigh. "What were you trying to tell me?"
"Dunno, something about Scandinavia being a nice place to travel in? I forgot now. But I guess we're not gonna have a lot of free time to go anyway. You know. If it works."
Marcy gestured vaguely downwards at herself and looked away, out of the window. Bonnie squeezed her hand again. After eight years together she didn't need Marceline to tell her when she was brooding about something, Bonnie could read her moods at a glance. Best to let her be quiet for now, if that's what she wanted. Pushing Marceline to talk before she was ready would only ever cause her to clam up completely so Bonnie just held her hand quietly and ran her thumb comfortingly across the back. They spent the next half hour or so in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Hey, Bon?" Marcy asked her quietly after a while.
"Hm?"
"Do you think Cinnamon'll be jealous?"
"Are you kidding? Someone his own size who's warm and soft and smells like milk? He's gonna be the happiest cat in the world. No idea how Peppermint will take it but I'm sure he'll get over it eventually." Bonnie shrugged in reply.
They lapsed back into silence again for several long minutes. Bonnie closed her eyes and leaned back into her seat; once she was over the fear of actual take off air travel often made her a little sleepy. She was only just on the right side of awake when Marcy next spoke, quietly and hesitantly.
"Babe, I know there's literally nothing I can do about it right now and it's pointless worrying about it. But what if it didn't work though? What if it won't work, if there's something wrong with me?"
Bonnie opened her eyes and wriggled around in her seat so she was looking her partner in the face. She squeezed Marcy's hands again until the dark haired woman looked up and reluctantly met her eyes.
"Then we'll find another way. This is something you want, let's be honest we've both known for ages that you wanted it more than you let on. And I do, too. I don't want you to think I'm just going along with it for your sake because that's simply not true. We both really want this. And we've been planning it for so long; if this doesn't work we'll find another way. I promise." Bonnie murmured softly, holding Marcy's gaze with earnest eyes.
Marceline sighed gently and leaned forwards in her seat, resting their foreheads together.
"Why are you so damn perfect all the time? Seriously though. I don't know what I did to deserve someone so wonderful. Thank you for being there for me, I couldn't do this alone." she said quietly.
"Anything for my girl." Bonnie replied just as softly, resting one hand lovingly against Marcy's cheek and tilting her forwards for a brief kiss.
She closed her eyes again and leaned her head on Marceline's shoulder, letting the hum of the engines lull her back into her nap. Tomorrow they had a rare weekday off together before she was back at work and Marcy was back to lounging around the house for most of the summer pretending that she was planning lectures but mostly messing around with her various instruments. And after the stress and hassle of their 'holiday' they were both looking forward to having a day to relax at home together.
Maybe Bonnie dreamed it, she was almost certain she did. Because it had been less than a week, only four days really, and they both knew it was far too early to know and that the balance of likelihood was that it hadn't worked first time. But she thought she heard Marcy murmur; "You are so loved and wanted already, you know that? And you're so lucky. Your Mama is literally the best person I have ever met. We've wanted you for so long, little one. Dunno if I can wait a whole nine months more to meet you. Please let it have worked."
Bonnie smiled in her sleep, sliding her hand carefully on top of Marceline's where it rested protectively on her stomach.
...
Of course even though they'd been away all week Peppermint just looked at them with impassive yellow eyes and rubbed himself against Hunson's leg, flicking his tail in annoyance when Cinnamon barrelled past him and leaped straight into Bonnie's arms with a happy mewl.
"Dumb little guy's missed you, he kept looking in the garden in case I'd hidden you both behind the shed." the severe faced older man told them with a nod.
"Oh did you miss us, silly kitty? I missed you too." Bonnie crooned, rubbing Cinnamon's ears and making him purr harder. "Let's get you home and get some lovely tuna, hm? Who's my silly little kitty cat?"
"You girls won't say for a cup of tea?" Hunson asked with a small frown. Marcy shook her head, it was getting late and she'd missed her own bed far more than she'd missed her father.
"I thought you'd like to drop by for dinner tomorrow night instead, Daddy? I was going to make a casserole, with a side of the souls of tax evaders for you too, lightly steamed." Marcy smiled in reply.
They both laughed at the long standing joke and Bonnie spared a distracted smile over Cinnamon's hairy ginger head too. Hunson had retired the year previous but he still reserved a special place in his heart to loathe people who didn't do their taxes properly. Marcy had explained it as basically the same thing as being a king or queen of Narnia; once a senior tax inspector, always a senior tax inspector. He'd never quite managed to just relax into his retirement. She was hoping that if everything worked out he'd have enough of a distraction to stop brooding over not being at work. He even volunteered with local businesses to do their tax returns free of charge on a weekend, said he found it relaxing. Bonnie supposed everyone needed a hobby but she could imagine nothing worse than spending her Saturdays going over the books with various shop owners for no actual pay.
"That does sound tempting, Pumpkin. Around sixish? I'll bring a bottle of something. Red or white?"
Marceline shot a not entirely subtle look at Bonnie, who shook her head minutely. No alcohol until they knew either way, just to be on the safe side.
"Actually Daddy, I'm off wine for right now. Managed to pick up an ear infection and I'm on a course of antibiotics. But you can bring something for yourself if you like." Marceline mumbled in reply, avoiding his eyes. Hunson frowned but nodded.
"Well then, I'll bring dessert instead. There's a new bakery in town, I'll drop by and pick up something light." he replied.
They said their goodbyes and loaded the cats along with their luggage into the back of the car as twilight began to fall around them. Hunson waved them off from the front driveway, golf club held aloft too because he was going to spend the last few minutes of daylight practising his putt on the lawn.
"I say it every time, but you father is decidedly odd." Bonnie said as she watched him swing the club in the rear view mirror. "You know he's tried to train Peppermint to retrieve golf balls for him? It's probably even worked. I've never known a bond between man and cat like it."
"Yep, he's an oddball alright. Runs in the family." Marcy replied with a tired grin. "Just you wait till Simon's back from his cruise and we can have an oddball family reunion."
"Mhm, I think I'll see if Betty wants to maybe go shopping instead or something if you're going to inflict Simon and your Dad on me at the same time." Bonnie replied around a yawn.
"No fair, I wanna go shopping with Betty too! Leave the old men to be weird together and we can have a girly day someplace instead. Maybe we can go get our nails done."
"Or get facials. Can you see Simon trying to tag along to that?"
"Yeah, he totally would though. He'd insist they use professional beard wash for him and everything. We could go see a chick flick at the cinema. Then a makeover. Then maybe even go to a musical." Marcy said with a smile. "Or, perhaps not. Simon'd definitely want to come to that; you know he's way into musical theatre."
They were still laughing about Simon's theatrical streak when Bonnie pulled the car onto their own drive ten minutes later. The front garden was a little overgrown; she made a mental note to mow the lawn tomorrow. But it was so good to be home, for now she just wanted to get into bed and relax with her girlfriend.
"Come on then my hairy little guys, let's get your dinner." Marcy sighed happily as she lifted Peppermint and Cinnamon in their carry crate through the front door, leaving Bonnie to heft their bags from the back seat. It was nearly, almost, like there was no expectant tension at all in the dark haired woman's posture. Only someone who knew her very well would be able to tell she was worried about anything at all; it was all in the tight lines of her shoulders and her uncharacteristic nervous energy to fix stuff. Bonnie watched Marceline worriedly as she fed the cats and then immediately began unpacking their luggage onto the kitchen floor.
"Come on, love. We don't need to fix all that right now, do we?" Bonnie asked, sliding an arm around Marcy's waist and pulling her into a gentle hug from behind. Marceline sighed and put down the laundry she'd been sorting, turning in Bonnie's arms and hugging her back tightly.
"Sorry. Just, I wanted something to take my mind off it. I know we have ages to wait yet but I'm struggling to think about anything else at all. Should I be able to feel something yet? What if I don't feel anything, is that normal? What if it just didn't work?"
"We've been through this already, sweetie. If it didn't work then we go back next month. And if that doesn't work that time either then we go back the month after, and the month after that if that's what you want. We're not just gonna give up right away. Besides we don't know yet, it might have worked perfectly. All we can do is wait and see, you need to try to be patient. Even if it did work there are still months and months of waiting ahead of us." Bonnie replied gently.
"I know. I just... what if, though? I might be broken. What if I just can't? I could be broken, like how my Mum was in the end."
Bonnie hugged her harder, knowing what Marceline was skirting around. Her mother had died from cervical cancer and despite all the reassurances a doctor girlfriend could give she was still scared that it meant something might be wrong with her, too. There was nothing to suggest that Marceline's mother's cancer was the kind that ran in families but Marcy insisted on getting a yearly cervical smear to check for cancerous cells and was always so terrified of being ill in any way. Bonnie understood why though, she wasn't about to be anything less than completely supportive. Marcy hadn't ever really gotten over the way her mother had just left without saying goodbye.
"Like I said, we'll find a way. I promise. You're not broken." Bonnie murmured reassuringly. "Come on, it's past ten already. We can be boring old women and just go to bed. I dunno about you but an early night sounds pretty appealing."
Marcy nodded and let herself be lead out of the kitchen, flicking the lights off as they went. She followed Bonnie up the stairs to their bedroom and accepted her favourite pyjamas with a small smile when her girlfriend handed them across to her.
"You always know exactly how to make me feel better." she said, sliding in between the sheets and watching Bonnie change into her own pyjamas with tired eyes.
"Years of practice, I've studied all the very best ways of making you feel better. You wanna know a secret? It's because I'm actually in love with you, I have been since the night we met. Do you wanna be the little spoon tonight?" Bonnie asked with an answering smile as she climbed into bed besides her girlfriend. Marcy nodded.
"Is that ok? I dunno, think I'm feeling a bit fragile."
Bonnie kissed the side of her neck and flicked the lamp off then snuggled down next to her, wrapping her arms lovingly around Marcy's shoulders and waist and resting her face against her soft silky hair.
"You can be as fragile as you need, love. I'll be right here for you."
Marcy didn't reply, just curled over onto her side and let her girlfriend snuggle up against her back. She let out a contented sigh and closed her eyes.
"You know what? I love you so fucking much, Bon." she said quietly into the darkness of their bedroom.
"And I love you too, you know. Goodnight, sweetie."
Despite the darkness in the room Bonnie knew instinctively a few minutes later that it was Cinnamon who jumped onto the end of the bed and snuggled up between her feet with a hard contented purr. Peppermint would be out all night happily murdering any small squeaky creatures he could find but the big ginger cat preferred to stay in the house and cuddle up on the bed with his people, especially if they'd been away for a while. Bonnie smiled into her pillow a few minutes later when Marceline took her hand and slid it from where it rested on her hip down to cradle her stomach instead. Bonnie let her hand slip under the hem of Marcy's pyjama shirt and rest against the warm skin there. She lay awake for a few minutes more, just enjoying being so close and listening to the steady slow breathing of the person she loved best in the whole world.
...
The sound of the TV blaring to life in the lounge brought Marceline awake way too early the next morning. She rolled over with a frown, Bonnie was still asleep next to her and the clock on the wall by the door was showing that it was only quarter past six in the morning and way too early for her to be awake. There was an outside possibility that one of the cats had stepped on the TV remote but it was more likely-
Yep, when she slid out of bed and crept down the stairs to investigate there was Finn. He was slumped exhausted on their sofa with a cup of tea he'd made himself in Bonnie's special mug and his feet up on the coffee table despite the perfectly good foot stool right next to him. He nearly spilled his drink down himself when she spoke; obviously he'd not heard her come downstairs.
"Seriously dude, if you keep just turning up like this I'm either gonna have to ask for our spare key back, take you to a rescue shelter or start charging rent."
Finn hastily removed his feet from the furniture and put the mug down, hurrying upright and coming forward to claim his hug.
"You're not supposed to be home till the twelfth!" he said with a confused frown, grabbing her into a hug anyway. "Why'd you come back early?"
"It was the twelfth yesterday, doofus." Marcy replied with a grin. "So this is what you do when I ask you to water the house plants and collect the mail for us, huh? Drink our tea and watch cartoons? Didn't the bags in the kitchen and the presence of the cats give it away? And our car in the drive?"
She slid down onto the sofa and Finn sat too, offering the tea mug sheepishly. Marcy took it and drank a few mouthfuls, wrinkling her nose at how unforgivably sweet Finn always took his tea. It was a mystery to her how he had any teeth left at all, they should have rotted away years ago from the amount of sugar he added to everything
"Huh, yeah guess I should've noticed that. I just got back from night shift, I was gonna crash out on your sofa for a while before I head home. It was a rough one." he replied with a tired shrug. Finn was still waiting for his promotion from uniformed police up to real detective but he was firearms trained and often worked with the serious crimes unit. He was first on the scene to all the most disturbing homicides and assault cases, his dinner party stories were the stuff of legends.
"More murders?" Marcy asked sympathetically, grabbing the remote and turning the volume down by habit. Bonnie could have slept through the world ending but the noise was too much for Marcy to deal with when she'd just woken up. She took a moment to really look at her friend; he was obviously exhausted and she wondered when he'd last eaten a proper meal. She would make him stay for dinner, she nodded to herself.
"No murders tonight but a really nasty assault and an unforgivable wait for the ambulance to arrive. I know they're stretched too but it was over an hour. Typical but it doesn't make my life any easier." he grumbled tiredly. "And then I had to fill out all the paperwork too. We got the bastard though, he's almost certainly waking up in the cells now with a world class hangover. Hope they put him away for good, scumbag. Then there was a four vehicle road traffic collision and a heroin overdose, one of our regulars. Then the Sergeant spilled my coffee over my paperwork and I had to start again with half of if. It really wasn't my best shift ever."
Marceline hugged him again, she wouldn't have swapped jobs with Finn for anything.
"How was Denmark?" he asked in a voice that dragged with lethargy.
"You really wanna talk about that or do you wanna crash out and get some sleep?"
"Sleep? Is that ok? Honestly I don't think I'm up to the drive all the way home yet." he mumbled with his eyes half closed.
"Nobody's waiting for you at home right now?"
"Nah. I broke up with that chick Bonnie works with. She was nice but just, too high maintenance for me. And we barely ever had time to see each other anyway and she spent the whole time we were together talking about her exes. Must've had about a million of them by the sounds of it. Anyway it was pretty amicable, she's already seeing someone else and I'd be cool with hanging out as friends."
"Bonnie set you up with Lydia?" Marcy asked, surprised. She could see it actually when she thought about it, so long as Finn wasn't looking for something serious.
Finn nodded a little but he didn't reply, just threw one arm around her shoulders in a hug and stretched his long legs back out across the foot stool, wriggling around a little to get comfortable. Now that she was awake it was hard for Marcy not to start dwelling on the reason for their week away again. It was probably lucky Finn was too tired to talk much, she might have blurted the whole thing out to him and she'd already decided she didn't want to tell anyone else about it, not yet. Because if it hadn't worked then dealing with everyone's sympathy would make it a million times worse; then managing their expectations if they went back to try again. Still, she'd been friends with Finn and Jake since they'd played together in their college orchestra years ago, long before she'd even met Bonnie, and it might have been nice to unload her worries onto her oldest friends. Finn wouldn't understand though and he probably wouldn't take it seriously. Marceline knew it was a reaction to his high stress and often very disturbing job but Finn never took anything seriously. She didn't want to have to be upset with him if he said something out of line so it was probably better to just keep her mouth shut for now.
Peppermint leaped up lightly on the sofa next to where Finn was beginning to snore leaning against Marcy. The heavy set grey cat purred hard and immediately curled up on Finn's lap, consenting to let his mistress reach out and stroke his head carefully. She tried to follow Finn's cartoon for a while, it was one of his favourites and a cult classic but despite being in bed early the night before her eyelids felt heavy. Having a sleepy kitty and a snoring best friend snuggled against her was pretty contagious. Perhaps she'd just rest her eyes for a minute, she thought drowsily.
When Marcy woke again a few hours later it was to find that someone had switched the TV off and tucked the fleece blanket from the back of the sofa across her and Finn. The delicious smell of cooking bacon was wafting through from the kitchen and someone was humming tunelessly. Finn opened his eyes blearily and looked around in confusion when he found himself snuggled up with his best friend on the sofa.
"Hey. You made bacon?" he asked her in a sleep-rough voice.
"Mm nah, not me." Marcy replied with a yawn, sitting up and rolling her shoulders to loosen the stiff muscles from where she'd been napping in a strange position.
"Your girlfriend is absolutely magic." Finn said with a huge grin when he worked out what was going on. "She must have gone to the shops while we were asleep, you didn't have bacon in the fridge this morning. I know, I already checked the whole kitchen for anything edible."
"Yeah, she is pretty magical." Marcy agreed, grinning back and pulling him up to his feet. They stumbled off to the kitchen together to see if Bonnie needed any help with fixing the late breakfast.
