Hello and enjoy…

BTW Emmyallheart153, I had already said that Mara was pregnant when you had reviewed :D

Mara entered the master bedroom and rummaged around for a pen. Finally managing to find one, she sat on the bed and got writing.

Dear Jerome,

I am so glad that you're okay! Your friends don't sound too bad. I'm sure you'll like them once you get to know them.

Anyway, Poppy called and she says to tell you that she misses you very much and that she hopes you'll be back soon. She's also mad at you for missing her 22nd birthday.

Things at work are fine; Amber is all excited about a party that we got invited to. The party is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the fashion companies. The invitation was quite short notice- the party is in two days! I'm just glad she isn't dragging me along with her to shop for a new dress, because I've been posted a one-of-a-kind dress from a designer. To be honest, Amber is more excited about the dress than me.

Alfie says he really misses you too and that he hopes you come back really soon. You know, Alfie and Amber's son, Lois, is now one year old!

And, speaking of children… I'm pregnant!

And… before you freak out, I have everyone here to help me, and I'm pretty sure that it's going to be okay! I know we said that we should stop trying when you got called up but, we have waited so long, and we will be parents!

This is probably shocking, but I only found out a few minutes ago myself, but I just wanted you to be the first person I told. Sorry if this was quite sudden, but I don't really know how else to tell you.

Please reply soon,

I love you,

Lot of love from Mara xxx

Mara read through her letter again, and feeling satisfied, she folded it up and neatly placed it inside an envelope.

She wanted to send this to him as soon as she could, but she couldn't help thinking, would he freak out? The letter is kind of blunt. Blunt or not, the news is the same. You're pregnant. No matter how you say it, it means the same thing, she thought.

That was enough to convince Mara. He had to find out sometime, anyhow. Or you could keep it a secret and wait till Jerome comes back to see how he reacts. Think about it- if he doesn't find out till then, he has nowhere to run, she wondered.

No, she thought. She was being silly. Jerome wouldn't leave her just because she is pregnant.

And there was no way she would be able to keep it a secret.

After arguing with herself for several more minutes, she finally decided to sleep on it.

She'd pop into the post office on her way to work, tomorrow.

As she lay in bed, she remembered when she and Jerome would play 'baby' when they were young. Well, she remembered how she had forced him to play 'baby'

FLASHBACK

Mara sighed and sat down on the steps outside her house. She kept a firm grip on the baby doll in her hands that her Dad had gotten her as an apology for missing her 5th birthday. Her Mum and Dad had to go to America for some sporting event or the other and they had hired a nanny to look after her.

Her nanny had said he could go out and play since Mara said she didn't want a party. What was the point of celebrating if she's alone? Her parents always did this- miss her birthdays and then get her a present to apologise.

She had gone outside to play, but she needed someone to play with. No one in the neighbourhood really liked to play with Mara; she didn't know why. She looked up when she heard footsteps, and saw Jerome ambling along the street.

"JEROME!" she screeched, getting up hurriedly and running over to him.

"Hmm." Jerome mumbled, and then continued on his walk.

"Wait! Play with me, Jerome." She pleaded. Jerome looked at her for a second, kind of feeling sorry for her. He knew it was her birthday and her parents had left her alone, but he didn't want to seem soft.

"No." he sneered then walked away. She, of course, ran after him and grabbed at his sleeve.

"Please!" she practically begged. And he couldn't say no to her big, watering puppy dog eyes.

"Ugh, fine," He sighed, "What are we going to play?"

"Let's play baby!"

"Baby?"

"yeah," she said, looking down at the doll wrapped up in her arms. "Baby!"

Mara tried to get Jerome to hold the baby. Jerome had had enough of babies. With his new sister Poppy, no one paid attention to him anymore, not that they paid much attention before. Jerome reluctantly took the baby into his arms and Mara smiled.

"Is it real?" Jerome asked as his eyes widened- the baby did look quite realistic and a five year old wouldn't know any better than to assume it was real.

"Mummy said so." Mara answered smugly, "And it's a 'she' not an 'it'."

"Oh, sorry." He breathed. He didn't know much about babies. He wasn't even allowed to touch Poppy. "What's her name?"

"You can choose. You're the Dad."

Jerome was taken aback. "I'm not the Dad! We're not married." He hissed.

"No we're not, but mummy says when you have a baby, you choose who the Dad is." Mara replied, hurt by Jerome's sudden outburst.

"Oh. Okay then. How about Lily?"

"Perfect."

"We're going to be the best parents ever!"

END FLASHBACK

"Hey, Mara!" Amber called, stumbling over to her in her 4 inch platform heels.

"Hi." Mara replied. She had just entered the headquarters of their building for 'Chic!' magazine.(A/N have no idea if that's real, if it is, I don't own it!).Amber had strut over, trying to look fashionable, though to Mara it looked more like she was trying to stay standing upright in what she would call 'killer heels'.

"Are you sure those shoes are a good idea Amber?" Mara asked.

Amber simply raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well… as um lovely as those are," Mara pointed to Amber's shoes, "They seem to be stopping you from being able to walk properly."

"Well… yes. Beauty hurts, Mara. Anyway, I have a pair of flats up in my office. These babies are for showing off." Amber pointed out. Mara laughed.

"Anyway, how are you doing?" Amber's bubbly voice turned into one of sympathy, and she carefully placed a hand on her back comfortingly.

"I'm guessing you mean about Jerome?" Mara mumbled, "Let's talk while we walk."

They set off in direction of the lift, and people immediately made way for them. They were highly respected- they did own the magazine after all. Amber loved all the attention. She practically fed off it.

Mara, however, didn't care all that much for the attention. She didn't hate it, but it just made her feel weird. All throughout her life, she would work so hard to impress everyone else, and now all of a sudden it's like their lives have been reversed and now people were striving to impress her. And she felt quite privileged, to have people think that she was worthy of impressing.

But it almost made her feel selfish. She felt sorry for all the journalists that had worked so hard to impress her and Amber but ended up getting rejected.

Amber of course, didn't understand Mara when she said that she felt sorry for all the journalists that she had to fire. She would always say, "Come on Mara, it's life. You have to work hard if you want the job. We are like goddesses. We run this place, boss these people around and it may sound easy, but it's all hard work."

"Hello? Earth to Mara!" Amber waved her hand in front of Mara's face after she pressed the 'up' button on the lift.

Mara was suddenly brought back into reality after thinking about her social status.

"Oh, um… well I miss him." She started off at a normal voice but by the end of the sentence her voice was barely audible. The lift doors opened and they stepped inside. Two more people were waiting to get on, but Amber just press 'close door' and muttered a small "Sorry; personal moment."

After the doors had closed completely, they were left alone and Amber went over to a silently crying Mara and hugged her tightly.

"Oh, Mara…" Amber soothed, "It's gonna be alright."

"Yeah, I know."

Amber pulled away from her but kept her hand around Mara's shoulders.

"You know though, I've got to ask… yesterday, when you called me you sounded-well… you sounded so happy, and now…" Amber pressed for an answer as to what was causing her sudden mood swings.

Suddenly, they heard a ping and the doors of the lift opened. The crowd outside waiting to get on stared at the two in the elevator. Feeling very awkward, Mara grabbed Amber's hand and pulled her out of the lift and through the crowd who immediately parted for them.

She dragged Amber into their joint office and closed the door.

"Well…?" Amber pressed, tapping her foot repeatedly on the ground impatiently.

"I'm pregnant." Mara whispered. She waited for Amber' reaction and at first she didn't do anything, but then her eyes widened. Out of nowhere, Amber screamed and Mara stumbled back in surprise.

"What? What? What's wrong?"

"YAY!" Amber screeched, "BABY!"

Mara rushed over to Amber and desperately tried to get her to shut up. "Amber, please, shush. No one knows!"

"Not even Jerome?" Amber exclaimed.

"Well, I wrote him a letter and put it in the post office this morning, so he obviously doesn't know yet. But please just keep quiet for now, yeah?"

"You don't sound very happy, Mara," Amber pointed out accusingly, "You're going to be a mother!"

"I know, yesterday I was so excited, but now… I don't know the reality of the whole thing has come crashing down and I'm not all that sure I can do it by myself anymore." Mara was looking down at her shoes and fidgeting with her fingers the whole time.

Amber's expression softened and she went over to Mara and gave her a comforting hug.

"Don't worry Mara; I'll always be there."

"Really?"

"You can count on me."

A huge thanks to:

bs13

Corrin Rosen

Emmyallheart153

SullyClarke

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