Of Princes and Princesses

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So here we go, after that cute little chapter we're going to have some drama! Are you ready? I know I am. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next Saturday.

20.

Marshall rolled off of her, sweating and panting. He stayed away for all of thirty seconds while Kate caught her breath and wiped some of the sweat off of her own brow. But as always, Marshall ended up beside her, wanting to cuddle. Pulling her to his still sweaty panting form to keep her warm and close.

For a guy who didn't like commitment, for a guy who fought her on the label and didn't want to admit he loved her, he sure did love to cuddle.

Marshal pressed his nose into the crux of her neck, his lips pressing kisses to the back of her shoulder. A low murmur of appreciation rumbling through him as if the feel of her skin under his lips was all he needed to feel content.

"Babe," she whispered and that rumbling murmur got a fraction of a bit louder in response. "Babe, I said I'd meet Rose for brunch today."

The rumble got louder, this time in a sort of groan of distress, and he shook his head. His lips were still against her shoulder so though she couldn't quite hear his words she knew he was saying something to her. She could guess what it was too.

"Yes, you do have to let me go have brunch with her," she said as she figured he was going on about how he wasn't about to let her go now that he was comfortable and that rumble turned into a flat-out groan.

"Come on Marsh," she whispered. "If I'm late she's just going to barge in here and annoy you. You're shirtless, she'll be all over you and your tattoos."

"Maybe I like that," Marshall told her his lips finally leaving her shoulder, and were now just directly behind her ear. She hated it when he did that, it gave her shivers to have his husky Irish brogue that close to her ears. To get him to stop, she usually kissed him, which was probably why he continued to do it.

"Yeah, would you rather date Rose instead?" she asked playfully. She knew he had no interest in Rose, he was teasing her so she was teasing him.

"Obviously not," he whispered breathlessly into her ear.

"Then we should let me go meet her."

Groaning Marshall rolled onto his back and let her go. He let her slip out of the bed. He watched her, his eyes hooded with sleep as she changed. He murmured in appreciation for each piece of clothing she picked up. He was really no help when picking out an outfit as Marshall loved her in everything she wore.

Once she was ready, once she had her make up done, she crossed her room to their bed. She leant over to kiss him, to cover him in glossy pink lip prints, which he accepted without a single complaint.

"You gonna go job hunting today?" she asked him and he nodded.

"I have several prospects, the uh… music teacher position is the one I'm hoping for but I'm not holding my breath. You know, the arrest record and what not."

"Well it's not with a school, it's just an independent music school, so maybe they'll look that over," she offered him. "You call me when you're done and I'll come meet you okay?"

He smiled warmly to her, pulled her in for one last kiss and then Kate left their apartment and practically ran up the stairs, one floor, to her old apartment where Rose was just coming out of. The two girls hugged and squealed like they didn't just work a shift in the same hospital together last night and then they left for their favourite brunch spot.

They were three mimosas deep, and still waiting for the waffles to come, when Rose started complaining about her sex life, or the lack there-of. Kate had tried to be sympathetic but it was hard. Her sex life was phenomenal.

Rose took in her smug look and scowled at her. "Oh look at you, not a speck of sympathy from you. Just you wait, one of these days you and Marsh are gonna have a dry spell and then you'll come crying. And do you know what I'm going to say? Nothing I'm just going to laugh at you, that's what I'm going to do."

Kate shook her head at her friend as she put the mimosa in her hand down. "I'm not laughing at you," she told her. "I simply can't relate. It's not my fault Marshall and I have a wonderful sex life, I haven't missed out on sex since…."

And then she paused. They had been going at it every day for about a month and a half. That was because, now that they had their own place, they didn't have to worry about disrupting or upsetting Rose. But it couldn't have been that long because that meant that she hadn't gotten her period on time and…

Suddenly Kate felt sick and she found that Rose was just staring at her instead of asking her what was wrong. Immediately she was glaring at her as she said: "Goddamn it your period is late, isn't it?"

Kate winced and Rose rolled her eyes. "Well that's our brunch date shot to shit."

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

Well… he probably wasn't going to get that job. As per usual they got to the "any priors?" part of the interview and just like that he saw the prospects of getting that job dry up in front of him.

In the meantime, he still had his job at the Karaoke bar, too hot to fire, they had said but his heart wasn't in that anymore and he wanted something better so he could feel like he was helping Kate provide.

He got home, wondering if he could convince Kate to come back from her brunch to cuddle him so he felt better, but he thought it best not to. She deserved a nice day out with Rose before her shift, he didn't want to bring her down with his own insecurities and disappointments. So, it was a major surprise when Marshall found Rose and Kate sitting on the couch in their apartment.

There on the coffee table in front of them was a simple pregnancy test kit, and Kate was frozen with a giant glass of water in her hands.

Marshall took this scene in for a second not quite understanding what he was seeing. Kate said something like: "You're home early," in the tone of voice she used when she was nervous about something, or when he had caught her doing something she was embarrassed of or shouldn't have been doing.

All of sudden the understanding dawns on him. One of them is doing a pregnancy test, and seeing as Kate was midway through chugging down a pint of water when he came in and Rose was reading instructions on a little piece of paper, it was clear which one of them was going to do the test.

It occurred to him to wonder how it happened. But he and Kate had been having sex every day for almost a whole two months. She was on birth control but he didn't always wear a condom… but that couldn't be why… could it?

All he could think was: good god, Kate might be pregnant.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

Once the initial panic left him, once Kate explained her suspicions, Marshall took Rose's place at her side, held her hand and waited. First for her to need to pee, and then once she had peed on the stick, he had to wait the 30 minutes to find out what the results were.

The longest 30 minutes of his life.

Kate was almost shaking, and he could tell it was because she was nervous but Marshall didn't care. They sat side by side, hands intertwined, watching that stick in front of them not talking.

Maybe they should have let Rose stay. She would have filled the silence, but she had given them the privacy they wanted. Now they were both lost in their own worlds. Marshall thinking of nothing but the possibly future where he might have a child.

They could have a boy. A boy with his eyes and hair. A boy he could teach to play guitar. Or a girl. A little carbon copy of Kate. A daddy's girl. A girl he could also teach to play guitar though he hoped she'd be a singer like Kate.

He wouldn't mind waking up at all hours, changing diapers or getting thrown up on. Well he was sure he'd hate it eventually but he wanted to experience it all. He wouldn't mind play dates, and wearing tutus or whatever else his child wanted him to wear. He couldn't wait to hear the incessant babbling of a toddler, and he definitely couldn't wait to be called Daddy.

He'd have to get a better job. God how would he get a better job with a criminal record like his? Maybe he'd be a stay-at-home-dad. Kate would work in the hospital and he'd stay home and do all the traditional mom stuff. He wouldn't even care, fuck the stereotypes, he'd do anything to have that perfect nuclear family he and his brother never had. Even if the traditional roles were reversed.

This would be the first of many kids.

He was thinking, at the very least, he'd want two. He'd love four. Ohh. Twins. One of each.

He'd have to marry her. He knew she'd fight him, she wouldn't want him to want to marry her because she was pregnant, but that was fine. He'd spend all the time he had to try to convince her that he loved her and he just wanted to marry her. He'd have to buy her a better ring, a proper engagement ring, and he figured that would help convince her of the seriousness of his intentions for her. But would that kind of expense make sense when they were expecting a baby? Would she rather have him save?

He was excited, he was nervous, but he knew all of this was hinging on what that pregnancy test said.

And despite being terrified, he knew he wanted that test to come out positive.

-AR-AR-AR-AR-

Kate was not feeling the same way as Marshall. She didn't feel like she was ready to have children, she was worried that she wouldn't be a good mom. But she didn't know how to voice that to Marshall without him taking it the wrong way, not when he seemed so excited.

So she sat beside him, staring at that test, one hand in his the other to her lips as she gnawed on her cuticles. A bad habit that she couldn't shake, especially when she was nervous.

When the agonizingly long 30 minutes went by, she carefully picked it up. Marshall's hand tightened around hers.

"No matter what it says… I'm going to be here," he whispered to her. He had been saying stuff like that since he figured out that she was doing a pregnancy test. Since he had put together what she had. That a month and half of uninterrupted daily sex should not have happened.

She was grateful for it, for his support. It helped her nervousness a bit to know that he was certain he wouldn't leave her no matter the results. Though she was sure he meant his words, she knew what he was like with commitment. Just committing to her had scared him, granted he had taken it much better than she had thought he would, she still worried that a child would change things. That the pressures of being a calm and reliable parent would have the wildness in him roving again. Something she knew she wouldn't survive, and then it wouldn't just be her suffering, but the child would suffer too.

She quickly looked at it. One bar. What did one bar mean?

Marshall took a glance and looked at the page in front of him for the legend of results.

"Not positive," he breathed out and while his shoulders slumped in disappointment Kate found herself inflating with relief.

She breathed out her happiness in a few shaky laughs. "Oh thank god," she found herself whispering and Marshall turned to her surprised.

She thought that maybe, after everything he would admit he was relieved too, but when she turned to him, she found that he was staring at her with wounded eyes. Immediately she feared that he thought that she just didn't want to have kids with him.

She opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn't true, that it was she that she felt wasn't ready yet but he quickly stood. "Shall I make us some tea? Or maybe something stronger to calm our nerves?"

Kate nodded mutely. She knew that she was going to go to get a professional test done just to be sure she was pregnant, but she also knew that she had hurt Marshall's feelings and she was going to have to figure out how to make it up to him.