We haven't got some big Frary moments in this chapter but Mary is surprised by two guests. This is the third chapter of the three chapters being uploaded at the same time. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 have been uploaded.
Mary hurries down the stairs and stops in front of the front door, fixing her hair up and smoothing out her knitted jumper down and opening the door. She smiles when her eyes land on Francis and before she can even say anything, a mop of red, curly hair pushes past him and her into the house.
"Wow, your place is gorgeous!"
"Claude," Mary says, turning back to Francis. "Hey."
"Hey," Francis breathes out, stepping inside with their suitcases. She notes that he's got two along with a...
"Josie!" Mary cries out, taking the cat out of the cage before eyeing Francis hopefully. He's never brought his cat to England, so if he's brought her, that means he's here for good.
Francis tuts. "So, she gets a hug and I don't?" He asks lightly before scratching the cat's fur. "Had to give her something for the flight over. She hates flying."
"Don't we all," Mary mumbles into Josie's clean fur as she leads the other two people into her living room. "Not that I'm not happy about it but Claude, why are you here?"
Claude turns away from Mary's impressive fireplace towards the raven-haired woman with a coy smile. "When Francis told everyone he was moving to England, I decided to do the same. For two weeks, I'm going to be looking at job opportunities and places to rent. And don't worry, I know you guys need some privacy to have sex or do whatever you want so I'll be staying over at Bash and Kenna's place."
"We're not having sex, Claude," Francis says, glaring at his sister before turning to Mary. "On the flight over, I told her about..." He gestures to her stomach. "And she took that to say that we were together."
"He said you guys were trying for a baby and I almost chucked my wine at him because he never told me you guys were together in the first place! I have been rooting for you since you decided to go to Prom together!" Claude cries out.
"But you didn't even let me finish before you were trying to claw my eyes out and the flight attendant had to tell you to put your seatbelt on because we were landing," Francis replies. "If you had been sane enough to listen on, you'd find out that we're doing this through IUI. We're not together, we are just going to have a baby together."
Claude rolls her eyes. "You know better than to tell me certain news when I'm drinking," she tells him. "But I'm happy for you both, I guess."
Mary laughs at their antics and takes a seat. "Thank you. Have you told everyone else?"
"I was hoping Kenna would break the news to Bash and well, that would start a chain reaction because he'd tell Leeza and Leeza would tell Margot and it's a whole process," Francis replies. "But knowing Claude, she's probably texted our mother by now and I'm nice and safe in England, away from her urge to strangle me for not telling her and Dad sooner."
Claude meekly bows her head. "I told Dad first. He's been blowing up my phone since we landed," she confesses. "Aren't you glad your phone's always on silent anyway?"
Mary snorts and places the cat down to explore. "I told my family already. They're happy for us. I'm sure yours would be if you're honest about your intentions."
Francis nods. "Hmm," he hums. "But I should probably get some rest after I drop Claude off-"
"I can do that," Mary quickly says, getting up. "Why don't you find something to eat and drink? I'll take Claude."
"Are you sure?"
"Francis, sometimes you need to take a hint," Claude tells him as she goes to grab her suitcase. "She wants a 'girl chat', stupid."
Francis's eyes go back to Mary and she smiles meekly back before he scoffs lightly. "Yeah, sure. I'll see you later?"
"Yep," Mary says, going to grab her coat and shoes. "Let's go, Claude."
...
"What did you and my sister talk about yesterday?"
Mary doesn't dare take her eyes off the road as she says, "Not much."
She smiles to herself, thinking about Christmas plans and the sort. She will surprise him with tickets to France to spend Christmas with his family as her brother will go to his wife's parents' and her mother and stepfather are travelling to Hawaii since it's near to their wedding anniversary so that leaves her making secret plans to be with Francis.
She needs to plan this at a time between her next cycle if this one fails and between the fortnight break for the pregnancy blood test so they will mostly spend a week there straight after her cycle and have the remaining week of holidays at home.
His family knows her as his best friend, but if their relationship status changes between now and then, what would they know her as? They already adore her, the evidence in her being invited to almost every event they throw or are at so it's not a matter of making herself look favourable to them, it's a matter of how to make sure she stays in favour with them, now she will be a potential mother to a golden Valois child.
And she knows how much his parents adore children, already having six grandchildren between three children already. She's going to make that seven.
"Huh," Francis replies with a smirk. "So coy. What are you plotting?" He pulls a strand of her hair and twirls it around his finger as she stops at a red light. "Come on, spill."
"Make me," she replies, meeting his eyes.
His blue eyes sparkle with mirth and he smirks, about to lean in but the lights turn orange in the corner of Mary's eye and she turns her head, pressing on the pedal.
"Shame," she says with a tut. "Just going to have to wait and see."
He snorts softly, taking in their surroundings. He's going to have to remember every turn and every stop because he won't let her drive back home. She needs all the rest she can if she's going to be carrying his child and it starts today. He's now there to look after her properly.
"I'm the most impatient person you know," he tells her.
Mary laughs. "Don't I know it?" She asks.
When they get there, she parks and they head out in time for her name to be called by Dr Diaz. She checks the time and tuts when she realises that the traffic made them cut it fine for her appointment but it's okay as Dr Diaz warmly welcomes her into the treatment room to get dressed in a gown as Francis heads the other direction behind a nurse to produce a sample.
She waits a good while, perhaps even thirty or forty minutes and she wonders why. Last time wasn't this long but she's almost dozing off by the time Dr Diaz returns with the sample.
"Sorry for the wait," he tells her.
Mary nods and smiles wryly. "Did the prep take a while?"
Dr Diaz pulls a face but it's quickly gone and Mary realises that Francis must have been the delay as the doctor shifts the conversation along. "Right, do you remember what I did the first time?"
"Yeah," Mary breathes out. "Cold speculum, catheter and then sperm."
He chuckles and sits down, sorting everything out. "We've warmed the speculum for you this time, don't worry."
"Thanks," Mary says before relaxing and looking up at the ceiling, her lip caught between her teeth.
Dr Diaz clears his throat, saying, "I'll talk you through what I'm doing again if you wish? Patients find it soothing to be told what is happening to them as it's done."
Mary laughs a little. "Yes, please. The silence's weird." But having a guy insert sperm into your vagina as he talks you through it is even weirder. But she'd rather that than silence.
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
Dr Diaz nods and starts. "I am inserting the speculum now. Is it warm?"
Mary nods. "Yeah." Then she sighs heavily. "C-Can we talk about anything? I guess the medical stuff is a bit..." She pulls a face.
Chuckling, the doctor nods and continues as he asks, "Doing anything for Christmas next month?"
Mary blushes although she doesn't quite know why. The guy is a stranger, he doesn't know her relationship with Francis. "Yeah, going to France. I-I can travel, right?"
"You can travel within the early months of pregnancy but if you're going through a third cycle, I'd recommend after that cycle during the fourteen-day wait for the blood test to confirm pregnancy," Dr Diaz explains.
Mary thought as much as she replies, "Thanks. Yeah, I'm planning to go straight after, like a couple of days after and then come home after a week. What about you? Christmas plans?"
Dr Diaz snorts a little. "The wife is thinking about Spain, I'm thinking about Portugal."
"Spain is nice," Mary says. "Francis's sister lives there with her family and I've gone a few times." When I was invited to Leeza's wedding and the christenings of Leeza's daughters, Bella and Kitty, she thinks. Other than those times, she hasn't gone to Spain.
"Then, as usual, women are right," Dr Diaz jokes.
Mary tries to stifle her giggles. "Try Portugal. That's great too. Been there with my mother and stepfather a good amount of times too."
"Ah, and indecisive!"
Mary lets out a chuckle, trying not to move much. "On the real, go to Portugal for Christmas. The weather is nice in December. With Spain, you'll get rainfall."
"That is true," Dr Diaz says. "I'm Spanish, I'd know. But my wife wants to see my family, what can I do?"
"Yeah, Christmas is for family bonding..." Mary muses.
They fall into a comfortable silence and before she knows it, it's all done and she gets rested before being sent on her way, meeting a flushed Francis in the waiting room after collecting her next appointment details.
"What's up?"
"Nothing," he breathes out. "Let's get out of here."
Wanted to leave you guys in suspense as to whether the cycle worked or not. We will find the results out in the next chapter. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 have been uploaded at the same time.