Prompt: Someone To Love (#154)

January Talk

"You didn't tell me you were thinking about giving up our baby," Luna didn't startle, despite not expecting to hear his voice. Not turning around, Luna continued to concentrate on packing to return to school as she wondered how Bill knew that her father would be out on one of his many walks and that now would be the best time to see her if he did not wish to be overheard.

Acknowledging the slight edge of anger coloring his tone, she didn't attempt to assuage his anger, nor make excuses. "I wasn't absolutely sure until recently, that it was the course I would take. But I have been thinking about it for some time now, but there hasn't been the opportunity for us to have a proper conversation about it."

Bill wasn't sure why, but her calm, soothing tone did anything but assuage the anger he felt. He ignored the the voice of perhaps his conscience that this was much more his fault than Luna's. In the face of the possibility of losing his child, after the recent loss of another, was clawing at his insides and awaking a sleeping beast inside him. The fact that he had to learn this from Fleur, instead of hearing it directly from Luna, only made it all the more worse.

"You can't just give away our child, Luna. I have a say in this too! I'm the father!" Bill stated, his voice getting louder. Luna turned slowly to face him, her expression serene and her large, protuberant eyes focused steadily on his.

"And what do you want to do?" Luna asked, her tone serious, vague but not particularly curious. Bill felt his blood boiling, as though she were mocking or taunting him, but he knew Luna would never do that. Taking a few calming breaths, Bill pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to calm himself down. He was taking his anger out on the wrong person, and his anger was hefting Luna with crimes she did not deserve.

Bill swallowed the lump in his throat and steeled his courage as he met Luna's gaze with his own determined blue stare. "I want to keep the baby."

"Okay," Luna said simply, turning away to finish her packing. For a moment, Bill blinked, unsure what she meant.

"Okay?" he asked, furrowing his brow as he watched Luna resume her previous activity. "What does that mean, Luna?"

"When I have the baby, I will give up my legal rights and give you full custody. If Fleur should choose, which I'm sure she will, I will even give her permission to adopt the baby," Luna replied, speaking matter-of-factly.

Bill frowned, wondering how Luna could speak of giving up a baby she helped create, that she'd been nourishing for eight months, with such ease. "Luna... don't you think you should consider this? You're essentially giving all your rights away... I don't think you understand that your feelings may change in the long-run."

"Bill, I'm eighteen," Luna stated, turning slowly around to face the man before her. A man she always loved and as she stared at him, she knew that this was the best. Knew that this was the reason she'd never panicked at the thought of having his child. "What I want to do with my life will involve a lot of traveling and I won't be able to provide the stable home a developing child needs, or even give my baby a proper family. But I know with you and Fleur, the baby will never want for love, a steady home or family. It's for the best."

Bill sat down, feeling his mind spinning and making him feel completely off balance. Somehow when he stormed over here, he had not expected Luna to simply give him all her rights over the baby, but as he thought about it he knew that perhaps she was right. It was not like he could divorce Fleur and decide to settle down with Luna, simply for the sake of the baby. It would be unfair to all involved.

But anything short of that, seemed far too complicated and unfair for the baby. He couldn't exactly be the father of two families, and he couldn't force Luna to be the primary caregiver if she still wanted to have a life of her own. And given what a wonderful person Luna was and all that she had already lived through, it seemed unfair for all her dreams to be dashed so that she could settle down and be a stay at home mom before she was even twenty. Luna was meant for so much more than that, and she deserved the bright future she was promised by her intelligence, courage and talents.

"What about Fleur?" Bill asked, his voice defeated, when he was able to gather what remained of his wits.

"This baby will never replace the one she lost, but I know that all that love she would have given her baby, will be given in equal amounts to ours and that she will make no distinctions," Luna replied gently, but knowingly, walking over to Bill and sitting next to him, taking his hand in hers so as to reassure him.

"And what do we tell out baby? Or everyone else?" Bill asked as he met Luna's eyes, feeling part of his heart breaking as he accepted that this was simply the way things would have to be.

"That's up for you and Fleur to decide, but I know whatever decision you make, it will be the right one," Luna replied with a gentle smile.

TBC..