This one goes out to Janine, Em and Kim – for hounding me to update. Even though I'm in Australia, I was starting to feel scared you guys were going to come over and hassle me in person!! ;-) I promise I'll read your latest updates once I get this one out!! Sorry for the long delay.
Robert led them in to the lounge room, and indicated she should sit down. The atmosphere was strained – both of them knowing they needed to talk, but neither of them willing to make the first move.
"Would you like something to drink?" he asked casually. "I've got some iced tea".
Glad of the distraction, she made a face at this. "Tea should be hot" she insisted. "I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to serve it the way you Americans drink it" her tone teasing, but her distaste coming through nonetheless.
"I'm sorry your adopted country doesn't live up to your tastes" Robert retorted – basically reminding her she had chosen to live here, so stop complaining about the customs!
"How about some mineral water – or does adding fizz to the water upset you too?" he asked sarcastically.
She smirked at his jabbing. "That will be just fine, Robert"
As soon as he was out of the room, Elizabeth again was forced to think about why she was there. She couldn't bear the tension anymore, so as Robert walked back in with her drink she blurted out "I'm keeping the baby".
He stopped at the door, but didn't look at her, so she couldn't gauge his reaction. The silence hung in the air for a moment before Elizabeth gently prompted "Robert, did you hear what I said?"
Finally, Robert dared to meet her gaze. "Are you sure?" he asked softly. Elizabeth nodded in return. "Do you want me to be involved?" was his next question.
"I do, if you want to be." She said simply.
He looked at her for a moment, then spoke, more confident that before "Well Lizzie, I never thought I'd hear myself say these words to you of all people, but it looks like we're having a baby!"
They both laughed nervously at this.
For Robert, the moment was bitter-sweet. On the one hand, this was his dream situation – he and Elizabeth were having a baby. But in his dreams, they would be starting out life together as a family. Instead, he was facing the prospect of shared custody. It was difficult for him to know how he should feel about that.
For Elizabeth, she was already attached to this baby, and was glad she was having it. She was glad Robert was willing to be supportive, but was nervous about his view on the situation. Would he think this meant they were together? What would it be like to have Robert in her life long term? How on earth would this work in reality?
They sat there for a moment, before Robert remembered dinner and excused himself to run to the kitchen. Judging by the muffled cursing Elizabeth could hear, things weren't going so well in there. She got up to follow him in, only to find him running his hand under the cold tap, with a nasty looking burn forming on his hand.
"Burned it on the oven rack" he explained ruefully.
"Do you have a first aid kit?" Elizabeth asked – her doctor's instincts kicking in.
"Top shelf" he indicated with his head and she retrieved the kit and found the burn cream.
Taking his hand from the water, she gently patted it dry with a towel, and then carefully rubbed some of the cream on his hand. Elizabeth tried to concentrate on his injury, and not get distracted by his closeness, or by the feel of his skin under hers. Being back in the kitchen, it was difficult not to be reminded of the night they had shared. The last time she was in here was when they had gotten up for a midnight snack. They had shared some left over lasagne, fed each other ice cream and then ended up making love on the kitchen table.
She stole a glance at Robert, and judging by the way he was staring straight ahead and concentrating on his breathing, she guessed his thoughts weren't far from hers. After a moment, he snatched his hand away, and moved back to retrieving the food from the oven. This time he was careful to put on an oven glove.
Elizabeth sighed – this was going to be harder than she thought. Somehow, she had naively set aside her feelings for Robert. They had reached a professional distance the last number of weeks, and she had expected this was going to continue. What she hadn't expected was that spending even the smallest amount of time together would rekindle the feelings she had so easily managed to ignore up to now. If this was going to work out, she needed to get those feelings under control.
She didn't want to fall in to a relationship with Robert just because they were having a child together. She almost laughed at how ludicrous this sounded, but it was how she felt. She could only deal with so much at once. Breaking up with Mark and the unexpected pregnancy was as much as she could cope with right now. She couldn't possibly worry about anything else until she had come to grips with that.
Robert seemed to have recovered his composure and she realised he was asking her where she wanted to eat.
She chose the dining room, since that room didn't have any memories that would be her undoing, and the meal passed in relative ease. Elizabeth realised she hadn't eaten this well in a long time. Robert really was a good cook – she could get used to this pampering.
"You're looking better" Robert commented, seeing the contented look on her face. He tried to hide his pleasure at having her there, and being responsible for her looking like she was feeling better about things.
"Yes, thanks Robert." She acknowledged. "I haven't eaten so well in ages".
After another pause, Robert decided to get in there and say his piece.
"Lizzie, I don't just want to be involved with the baby" he said, "our baby" he corrected, unable to stifle a smile at the idea. "I want to be there through the pregnancy too." He noticed her slight flinch at his words, so quickly continued. "After all – this is the next generation of Romano genes we're talking about here. I don't want just any of those incompetents at County looking after her."
"Don't worry, I'm not seeing anyone at County. And what makes you think it's a girl?" she asked, grinning now that she realised he wasn't trying to get heavy and suggest a relationship.
Robert blushed, recognising that subconsciously he had been picturing their baby as a mini Elizabeth. He tried to cover this up with a lame excuse about not wanting her to think he was a chauvinist by saying "him" and she accepted his excuse, albeit sceptically.
They continued on with this banter for a while – feeling quite relaxed in each others company despite the circumstance. Perhaps it was easier to revert to the behaviour they were used to than deal with this strange new reality. After some time, however, Elizabeth was again suddenly struck with how tired she was, and made a move to say goodnight.
"Are you ok to drive home" Robert asked, noticing too that she looked tired.
"I'll manage" she said as she got up to leave, but immediately felt her knees give way and sat back down.
"Why don't you stay here tonight, Lizzie" he offered. At her horrified look, he quickly added "In the guest room - I promise I won't take advantage of you!" He winked, trying to keep things light.
Elizabeth thought about it – she certainly didn't feel like driving home. The offer was very tempting, but then again being in this house brought back so many memories of the last time she was here and she was finding it difficult to dismiss them. Oddly enough, she knew she could trust Robert to behave – it was herself and her hormones she was worried about! She was feeling exhausted though, so they was probably safe.
"Yes, all right. I will stay, thank you Robert". She smiled up at him to show how grateful she was.
They were both aware of the awkwardness of the situation, so Robert quickly got her set up in the guest room, and let her to get some sleep. As he was leaving the room, she called his name.
He turned around to see her smile wearily – "Thanks"
As Robert left the room, he found himself wondering at the turn of events that had Lizzie sleeping in his guest room, pregnant with his baby given that a few days earlier; they had barely been on speaking terms. He had to admit it wasn't a bad turn of events, but that didn't make it any less surprising.
A/N - Next chapter, some more Marsan action, the Cordanos have been hounding me more!! Also some flashbacks to "that night"!