Chapter 2

Rose awoke in her childhood bedroom to the sound of her mother's voice calling her name from downstairs. "Rose," Hermione's voice said again, and Rose rolled over in bed and pulled a pillow over her face. "Breakfast is ready." Rose groaned. Breakfast, no matter how important, was the absolute last thing she wanted. She wanted sleep; deep, endless, blissful sleep.

"Rose, are you alright?" Hermione hollered.

Rose pulled the pillow down her face. "I'll be down in a minute mum," she responded, pushing the pillow aside and sitting up. Looking around, Rose saw two weeks' worth of clothes sprawled across the floor and reached for the closest jumper and socks; pulling both articles of clothing on before heading down to the kitchen.

To say that the scene down stairs was chaotic would have been an understatement. Bacon was burning on the stove, and the coffee pot was overflowing. At the same time Hermione was listening to an elderly man, whose head was sticking out of the fire place, while trying to balance a stack of papers that were slipping through the bottom of her arms.

"And how exactly did the file room get blown up?" Hermione said, raising her knee to balance the papers even more and reaching her spare hand behind her to turn off the stove.

"Mum give me those," Hugo's said, his body emerging out from behind another large stack of papers that were on the table.

Hermione nodded and handed off the papers to Hugo. "Well Irving said-"

"Irving!" She shrieked, looking around Hugo's shoulder to stare at the man. "No wonder," she said dramatically. "I'll be there when I can."

"Thank you," the man responded; his head disappearing from the fireplace.

"I'm am going to hex Irving," Hermione stated irritably as she rushed towards the direction of her office and slamming the door.

"Good morning?" Rose asked sarcastically.

"Hey," Hugo grumbled with his back to her as he scoured the kitchen table for a place to put his mother's file. Gingerly, he tried to balance them on an already wavering pile; waiting to see if they fell over. Turning around he gave a grimace of a smile. "They have been bothering her all morning," he announced, returning back to his seat.

Rose moved to the stove and grabbed a piece of bacon. "Yeah, I feel sorry for Irving," she said walking over to the table and taking a seat beside Hugo.

Hugo snorted. "I don't, he's an idiot."

She smirked. "Why are you here so early?" she asked finishing up her bacon and wiping her sleeve over her mouth.

"Mum owled me at the crack of dawn saying to come here the second I got a chance. She wants to have a family meeting." There was a sarcastic tone to his voice as he gave a mocking grin.

Rose shook her head at the news. "About what?" Rose droned, knowing that whenever her mother wanted to have a family meeting it usually meant something horrible was about to happen.

Hugo shrugged. "No idea."

"Great," Rose mumbled.

The door to their mother's office squeaked open. They could here the sound of footstep and slow breaths coming towards to them. Hugo and Rose both popped their heads over the folders and saw their mother standing in the middle of the kitchen with her head bent and a hand over her eyes.

"You didn't kill Irving did you?" Rose asked.

Hermione lifted her head up slowly—her hand moving in front of her lips. "No," she said softly, staring blankly into space for a moment before looking back down to her children. She pushed a professional smile onto her face. "I had an idea last night," she said walking towards the table a plucking a specific folder out from a pile.

Hugo and Rose leaned back into their seats. "An idea," the said in unison.

Hermione grinned broadly as she opened the folder and pulled out two sheets of paper—passing out a sheet to each of them. "Yes, and idea."

Rose looked down to the paper and saw very detailed time table that was carefully labeled in tiny cramped handwriting with their schedule for the day. Rose began to read:

7:10-7:15 Breakfast, and family meeting.

7:15-7:30 Shower and get dressed.

7:30-8:00 Go to St. Mungos.

8:00-10:00 Visit Dad.

10:00-10:15 Bathroom break and schedule appointment with Maternity ward at St. Mungos.

"You scheduled bathroom breaks for us?" Hugo was the first to say, lifting his head up and staring at Hermione.

Rose raised her own head. "Seriously you gave me an appointment to make an appointment." She lowered her time table.

Hermione gave a stern eye. "Rose just because there is a lot going on at the moment doesn't mean that that baby is going to stop growing. You need to get a healer lined up, you need to get into preparation classes, and you need to get blood work and an ultrasound done to make sure that everything is alright."

Rose bowed her head unable to argue. "Mum I don't even know if I'm giving birth in London or in New York yet."

Hermione's grin widened. "I know, that's something you can talk about with Scorpius when you call him."

Rose's mouth dropped as she lowered her eyes farther down the paper and saw the block, 3:00-3:30 call Scorpius. When it came to Scorpius, Rose hadn't exactly told her family—Albus excluded—about her father's letters yet, or that she and Scorpius weren't on the best of terms at the moment. As far as she was concerned they thought her and her husband were as close as ever, and Rose planned on keeping it that way for as long as she could.

Hugo looked at her paper. "You think that's bad, she scheduled time for me to play with Belinda."

"No way," Rose said dubiously only to be proven wrong when she looked at her brother chart. "Mum you know this is crazy right? We've been fine for the past two weeks just going to see dad in shifts."

"And we're still going in shifts…" Hermione bit her bottom lip. "Just more organized ones."

"Mum," Hugo and Rose protested.

"No complaining." Hermione shook her head. "Healer Marshal has told me that your father's condition is improving and that it shouldn't be long until he is able to wake up on his own and stay conscious." She narrowed her eyes at her children. "I know that we are all under a lot of stress right now, and I just thought that a detailed schedule might help us. Because when your father wakes up I don't want him to not have anyone there."

Rose stared at her mother, with purple circles under her eyes—she spent most nights at the hospital—and disheveled curls springing out in a hundred directions. She looked sad and stressed and tired, and Rose felt horrible. She and Hugo both silently nodded.

"Good." Hermione nodded as though she were mentally checking something off a list. "Now I've got to go back into my office and talk to Irving about the proper way to store file folders." And she turned and left.

Rose stared at her mother as she walked back into her office; mentally wishing that she could do more to help. Since she had been home she had taken over most of the cooking and chores, and during the days when her mother and Hugo were at work she would usually be sitting in a hospital room with her father asleep.

Hugo tugged her schedule from her hands. "I'll trade you my bathroom breaks during our conjoined afternoon visits for your work hours in the evening," he proposed softly.

Rose turned to look at him. "Why do you need so many extra work hours?" she asked curiously.

"The Quidditch World cup is coming up, there's just a lot of preparation," he answered distantly.

"Sure," Rose answered, thinking at the moment that extra bathroom breaks would come in handy. "I can work on my files while I'm sitting with dad."

Tilting her head, Rose watched as Hugo studied his schedule—his face scrunching up as though he were trying to piece together puzzle. She stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "I guess we better get going if we are going to stick to this ridiculous schedule."

Hugo looked up to her, his face falling back into its usual chipper expression. "Before you go I brought you something," he said reaching behind his chair and pulling out a large brown paper bag and handing it to her.

"What's this?" Rose said reaching down and pulling out a stack of books with titles like Pregnancy for the Average Witch and What to Expect When You're Expecting a Wizard.

"I thought you could use them," he said sheepishly.

Rose lowered the books back into the bag. "Thanks," she mumbled politely, making Hugo snort.

He stood up and stepped towards Rose. "Whatever Scorpius did to piss you off don't push him away from this."

Rose nearly fell into her seat from his words. "How did you know—don't answer that," she said shaking her head as though the answer was obvious.

"Don't worry Rose I won't say a word." Hugo said reaching out and pulling his sister into a reluctant hug. "See you later," he said after letting her go, and he left for work.

Once alone Rose eyed the paper bag speculatively. Her hands placed firmly on her hips as she paced in front of it; her eyes never moving. Finally she reluctantly grabbed it and went upstairs.

Back in her room, Rose did as the schedule said: took a shower and started to get dressed. When she pulled her jeans on they were snug in the hips. It seemed bizarre to Rose that her jeans would already be feeling tight—she had only found out she was pregnant two weeks ago—but as she did the math in her head she realized that she would be reaching the end of her first trimester sometime the following week.

Rose spun around and lifted her shirt up in the mirror. From the front nothing looked different. Her stomach gave the illusion of being flat, but when she turned to the side she could see the reason for her jeans being tight. Near the lower end of her stomach was the smallest sliver of a bump.

For a moment she forgot to breathe. To anyone else it wouldn't be noticed at all, but as she stared at it Rose began to wonder how she hadn't noticed it. The bump was right there in front of her—no, a part of her…growing—and she had never given it the slightest bit of attention. Rose swept her hand across the area. The hairs of her arms sticking up as she did so. It felt tight and like skin. Lowering her eyes to it, she breathed low quick breaths. "I guess this another one of those things you can add to the bad mother list," she said, sighing as she let go of her shirt.


"A mucus plug," Rose said in an appalled tone. "What the hell is a mucus plug?" Peering over the top of her book to look at her father's unconscious body with a disgusted expression on her face.

"Interesting," Albus mumbled beside her.

"What?" Rose asked changing her direction to her cousin.

Albus looked up to her. "Did you know your baby has elbows?" he announced grinning humorously.

Rose raised her eyebrows and stared deadpanned at Albus. "Fascinating," she said dully and looked to her own book; turning the page about the mucus plug. "Oh for crying out loud." The next page wasn't any better. There was an extremely disturbing picture of the top of a baby's red and green slime covered head crowning during labor. Rose quickly slammed the book shut and pushed it aside. "That's it, I'm not having a baby." She shook her head determined. "Nope, not happening."

Albus laughed and closed his own book. "I don't think it works like that Rose," he said leaning forward and placing the book on top of hers.

Rose scowled. "Just let me believe what I want to believe." She looked down to her watch and saw that it was just past three. Reaching for her bag, Rose pulled out her mobile phone and stared at.

"You're not going to be able to get reception in her Rose," Albus stated staring at his cousin from the corner of his eye.

"I know," Rose replied.

Albus watched her meaningfully. "I can stay a little bit longer if you want to go outside and call him."

"No," she said too quickly. "No, it's fine." She put her phone back into her bag and dropped it on the ground. "He's at work anyways, I would just be disturbing him." She reasoned with herself.

Straitening her posture Rose watched as a nurse walked in to check the IV's in her father's arm. When she had left Albus asked, "So how is he?" he nodded towards Ron's direction.

Rose shrugged and stared at her hands sitting in her lap. "He's—" She searched for a word. "Asleep. He snores, and he moans, and he wakes up for a minute and then falls back asleep." She turned to Albus. "Mum stays with him every night, and usually in the day Grandma Molly comes in with food." Rose chuckled to herself. "I swear she thinks that he's going to wake up if he smells some of her homemade soup."

"That sounds about right," Albus agreed.

She faced back to her father—whose head had moved into a different position. "What are you going to say to him when he wakes up?" she heard Albus say.

Rose shook her head. "Jury's still out." She sighed. "I know what Scorpius did was awful, but does a few letters really make up for everything that my dad has done." She looked over to Albus. "I mean he pushed me out of his life months before he even sent me those letters. He didn't want to know how I was, or if I was happy. He wanted nothing to do with me because of Scorpius."

Albus was quiet for a moment. "I think the point is that he did send the letters. It took him a while but he did it."

Rose shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder if I had gotten the letters the way I was supposed to if I would have read them. Sometimes I think that I would have ripped them open in a heartbeat and other times I think I would have just put them in a drawer like Scorpius did," she admitted solemnly.

Albus quizzically raised an eyebrow. "So why are you so mad at Scorpius?" He asked confused.

Rose leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes. "I'm not mad at Scorpius. I mean I am but I'm not. I'm more hurt." She pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "There wasn't a second in our marriage that he wasn't lying to me. Not one." She bit her lip. "I don't understand how a person can keep saying that they love you, but then constantly keep lying to you?" She opened her eyes to stare at Albus. "I gave him everything, and do you know how shitty it feels to know that it still wasn't enough. That he still doesn't trust me."

She slapped the top of her knee with frustration. "I'll tell you how it feels. It makes you feel absolutely worthless…and useless, and pointless, and meaningless, and a whole bunch of other lesses, and—" she calmed her breathing. "I love him. I really really love him, which is what makes this whole thing worse, because I am in love with someone who makes me feel like shit. And it's not even his fault it's mine."

"Have you told Scorpius that you feel like this?" He asked softly.

Rose had a look of outrage on her face. "Why?" she said preposterously. "So I can continue being the horrible person that I am and make him feel worse." She buried her face into her knees. "No thank you."

"Rose," Albus said comfortingly, curling an arm around her back. "You're not a horrible person, and your certainly not worthless." he affirmed, squeezing her shoulders tightly, but Rose wouldn't look up to him.

Sighing he leaned his head down closer to hers. "I'm going to tell you something that I have thought for a long time. I don't recall you murdering someone, or using an unforgivable curse. You broke up with a boyfriend. That's not a crime," he said sternly. "And I think it is stupid for you to keep beating yourself up over it. You should not have to feel guilty about that for the rest of your life. You have both made your mistakes. That was yours, and his was hiding those letters. I think you're even now."

Rose breathed deeply into her knees—the fabric of her jeans becoming warm against her skin—and turned on her cheek to watch Albus. "Merlin, I hope so."


"Seriously Scorpius you are driving me nuts," said Carla, looking up to meet Scorpius' penetrating stare. Lowering her quill she shut the file that she and been working on to indicate to Scorpius that he had her full attention.

"Have you talked to her?" he asked bluntly.

Carla groaned and began to swivel side to side in her chair, in debate about if she should answer honestly. "For like a minute last night," she said breaking her promise to Rose not to tell Scorpius that she called.

Scorpius pushed all notions of work out of his mind and leaned forward eagerly. His palms flat on his desk and hunching his head down as though this conversation was top secret. "What did she say?" he asked hopefully.

Carla shook her head. "I can't tell you that. Girl code."

Scorpius starred at Carla with deadpanned eyes. He hadn't told Carla about what he had done so that she could live by some ridiculous code of ethics. No, he told her so that she could try and help him. "Girl code," he repeated. "What the bloody hell is that?"

Carla stopped swinging her char and scooted closer into her desk—mimicking his position. "You know when you talk to your guy friends about your problems…" She trailed off and shook her head. "Never mind. The point is what we talked about was stuff that she wanted me to keep quiet about."

Scorpius frowned. "Well that's offensive," He said, straightening his posture and sagging into his chair. He had a feeling that asking for Carla's help was a long shot. She was Rose's friend longer and that was where her loyalty lied. His eyes momentarily stared down to his work before glancing back to Carla. "Please?"

Carla gave Scorpius a sincere look. "She asked about you?" she finally said after a long moment of deliberation.

Scorpius raised an eyebrow to his partner. "What did you tell her?"

"The truth," she responded. "That you're miserable."

"Well that's an understatement." He grumbled, picking up his quill and resuming to work.

With a fixed gaze Carla thoughtfully stared at him; pondering her words. "Scorpius," she said, waiting for him to look at her. Once he did she asked, "Did you trust Rose when you married her?" Her words careful.

He was silent. His mind thinking over the days before him and Rose's wedding. He nodded. "Yes, or at least I thought I did." His eyes became glassy as he thought. "When it's just me and her everything is perfect, but when her father gets involved—" Scorpius shook his head discouragingly. "He just—" His face contorted in frustration. "Ughh."

"Don't hurt yourself," Carla stated.

Scorpius rubbed his eyes. "She's pregnant, and she won't even talk to me."

Carla pressed her lips together. "She'll come around. You just have to give her time."

"She may come around and actually call me, but that still doesn't mean she'll come back to me." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't want to be a dad who sees their kid one night a week and every other weekend. I want to be there and see everything."

"You know Rose is a very…different person, but I don't think she would ever keep you away your kid." Carla smiled with an encouraging nod. "As for getting her back, she wants you to trust her so learn to trust her."

Scorpius fell open in shock. "And how am I supposed to do that when she is in a different country? It's not exactly easy to just trust a person."

Carla snapped her glare at Scorpius. "Do you honestly believe that she won't come home?" she asked bluntly.

Scorpius didn't answer because he didn't know.

Carla clicked her tongue. "Well, there's the root to that problem." And she went back to her work.


Rose tossed around in bed for what felt like the hundredth time in the course of three hours. No matter which way she landed she was unable to find a position to make her comfortable. Sighing she sat up and turned on her bedside lamp. Her Bedroom had an odd quiet feel about it, as though the rest of the world were asleep and she shouldn't be disrupting it but the addition of light.

Sighing, she rubbed her eyes and looked up—her eyes landing on the mobile phone sitting on her nightstand. A debatable thought occurring to her.

Reaching out she grabbed it and stared at the large three that was glowing on the screen. Rose took another deep breath, pondering her decision and decided to go for it. Going to the number pad she dialed the number that she knew by heart, and waited.

"He-llo," a groggy voice answered.

Rose bit her lip. Her heart racing wildly in her chest. "Hello," he said again, this time clearer. For a moment Rose wasn't sure that she could speak but then she heard him say, "Rose?"

"Did I wake you?" Her voice jumping an octave. "I didn't mean to. I can call you ba—"

"No," Scorpius said quickly, now fully awake. "It's fine, hold on." As she waited Rose could hear the rustling of him moving and the clicking of a lamp.

"Hey," He said coming back to the phone.

"Hi," Rose said again, this time in a weaker voice.

"I was beginning to think that you'd never talk to me again." He said, his voice ringing through her thoughts.

Rose reached for the chain of her lamp and shifted back down into her bed. Her eyes closing at the sound of his voice. "No," she spoke softly.

There was a long silence between them. The sound of heavy breathing carrying over through the phone line.

"When will I see you again?" Scorpius said in a desperate tone.

Rose was absentmindedly rubbing her hand over her stomach. "I don't know."

A static silence filled the phone line—magic interfering—and Scorpius gave a steady sigh. "Have you made a healer appointment yet?" Scorpius asked expectantly.

Rose hand stopped, and she squeezed her eyes together—mentally kicking herself for forgetting again. "No," she droned guilty, sensing his disappointment. "I will tomorrow."

"Good," his voice trailed off. "How are you doing?"

Rose blew out a low grouchy sigh. "My jeans are becoming tight." She couldn't help but laugh near the end.

She heard him release a light breath and could picture him closing his eyes as he did so. "Really?" he asked after a pause.

"Yeah," she whispered, "I didn't think that happened until month five or six."

Scorpius chuckled even louder. "Afraid not," he responded.

"It's awful." Her eyes widened at another reminder. "Oh, and the baby has elbows."

"Elbows," Scorpius repeated surprised.

"Yup." Rose nodded to herself. "Very small, tiny, bendable elbows."

"Interesting," He said fascinated.

"I thought so too." Rose rolled onto her side—hugging a pillow to her and rubbing her cheek against it. "How are you?"

"Carla already told you." He laughed.

Rose's eyes went cross. That would be the last time she called Carla for information. "I was hoping that it was a lie."

Scorpius sighed. "What did you expect? That I'm going to be happy that my wife is gone."

Rose didn't have a response to the statement, except that it made her feel extremely guilty to hear it.

"Rose," Scorpius said pulling Rose's attention back to him.

"Hmm?" she hummed.

"Stay on the phone until I fall asleep?" He asked softly.

She couldn't come home yet, she wasn't ready, but she could do that. "Okay," she whispered. Rose repositioned her head against the pillow and imagining that it was Scorpius' chest; her body finally relaxing into a position to comfortable sleep in. "Scorpius," she said after several minutes.

"What love?" He murmured, with his voice trailing off at the end.

"I'm miserable too." But she had a feeling that he had already gone to sleep, and instead of hanging up, Rose closed her eyes and fell asleep to his steady breathing.

A/N: I hope that you liked it. Thank you so much for reading and please let me know what you think.