Chapter 4

"Are you sure you're alright with taking over my dad duty this weekend? Because if you're busy I can always cancel."

Hugo chuckled and stood up from the lime green hospital chair that he was sitting in. "It sounds like you want to get out of going."

Rose sneered at her detailed oriented brother. "Nothing gets past you Hugo," She said, yanking the mushed pillow out from her father head and punching it into a better shape.

"Not much," He responded in a snarky tone that Rose didn't appreciate.

"All I am saying is that I know you have other priorities." She continued to punch the pillow even though it was fully plumped.

"Rose it's half a day," Hugo reasoned, watching Rose lift her father's head. "I thought things were getting better with you two?" he asked while she awkwardly shoved the pillow underneath's Ron's head, causing his neck lay in at an odd angle.

"What gave you that impression?" She asked, glancing up to her brother before she started fussing over her father's blankets.

"Well, you've seemed to be in a better mood since you saw him the other day," Hugo said gradually.

Rose stopped and straightened her posture. "That doesn't mean that I am ready to spend a weekend with him, pretending that everything is perfect, and sleeping in the same bed as him." She heaved a loud breath. "He really fucked up Hugo."

Hugo didn't push for information on the topic, instead he said, "Well you can always force him to sleep on the floor."

Rose went back to tugging on her father's blankets. "Trust me the thought has crossed my mind," She mumbled, pulling the blankets up to her father's neck.

Hugo laughed. "Rose will you relax, this weekend might be a good thing."

"Or it could be a disaster." She said, moving her hands down the sides of her father's body and tucking the sides of the blanket. She straightening her posture and observed the mummified version on her father. Finally raising her eyes to her brother she added, "I'm just not ready for this at the moment."

Hugo looked down to his watch. "Well if you procrastinate any longer you're going to be late."

An annoyed expression crossed Rose's face. "Oh Merlin forbid," she muttered, walking around the bed and picking up the bag she had packed earlier that morning. "Tell mum if she needs anything to owl me."

"Will do," said Hugo, placing his hands on Rose's shoulders and giving them a squeeze. "And will you try to make the best out of this weekend?"

Rose lowered her gaze and sighed. "I make no promises," she said, raising her free arm and hugging Hugo.

As she made her way to the floo fireplaces in St. Mungos she was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Stacy look, look, look," Bryan's excited voice came. Rose looked ahead at the healer's station that Bryan was standing in front of. Perched on the edge of the desk was a chubby baby, with dark brown hair and hands reached out grabbing the quill cup to bang. Bryan waved his hand dramatically. "Look what I taught him."

"Oh Merlin," Stacy said, popping up from behind the station and pulling on the cup that the baby was now banging on the counter—quills flying everywhere.

"Trust me you'll love it," Bryan assured, bending down to his son's eye level. "Toby." The baby jerked his head to his father. "Thursday,"

"Yuck," Toby replied with a giggle.

Stacy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?" She asked with a blank expression, grabbing the cup from Toby's hand.

Bryan stared to laugh, as though it were the greatest thing he had ever seen. "Isn't it awesome?" he said, tickling his son's stomach.

Stacy collected the quills that had been thrown across the floor. "Many words come to mind Bryan, but awesome isn't one of them." She put the quills back in the cup, then patted Toby's head.

Bryan bent his head back and chuckled louder. "I think it's perfect."

"I bet you do," Stacy shot back, but said it with a smile.

Grinning Bryan leaned forward and kissed his wife. "What time do you get off?"

Stacy's hand was cautiously on Toby's stomach, keep him from falling of the counter. "I'm just waiting for Ben to stop by with his flying clearance form."

"Which he probably hasn't even picked up yet," Bryan stated.

"That's not true," Came Ben's voice from the entrance door—Albus following in behind Ben. "I picked up the form ten minutes ago," he said dangling a piece of parchment in front of Stacy's face.

Stacy snatched the paper from his hands. "You know the rest of the Falcons were cleared two weeks ago."

"Sorry," Ben said unapologetically, then quickly turned to Toby, and picked him up. "I'm sure your mummy won't mind that her best friend is a procrastinator," he said in a baby voice, bouncing Toby in his arms.

Stacy grabbed a clipboard from behind the counter and slid the clearance form onto it. "I'm going to go get room ten set up, just come on back when you're ready." She nodded to Ben.

"I'll be waiting for you outside," Bryan called after Stacy and then turned to Ben, who was causing Toby to giggle continuously.

"Hey want me to throw him to you like a Quaffle?" Ben asked Bryan.

Bryan's eyes went wide, he took an anxious step towards Ben with his hands held out. "I'm good," he answered, reaching to take Toby from Ben's hold. "I rather not explain to Stacy how I dropped our baby… again."

"Maybe next time," Ben said letting go of Toby.

"How about never," Bryan said waving Toby's hand to say goodbye, as he walked towards the door.

Ben stared fondly at the father and son as they left. "Don't you want one?" he said to Albus.

Albus, who hadn't been paying much attention to what was going on, jerked his head to Ben and stared. "No," he said bluntly. "Besides don't you think we're busy enough trying to plan a wedding that isn't going to hound the covers of Witch Weekly?"

Ben shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see a problem with just letting them know."

"I know you don't," Albus stated sternly. "You also don't see a problem with indecent exposure in a parking lot."

"That was once, and it was four years," countered Ben innocently.

Albus nodded his head. "And you have yet to pay me back the bail money, or the port key expenses for me to travel from Greece."

"You're grumpy today." Ben raised a hand to pat Albus' cheek.

Albus looked around the sparsely crowded hall and pulled away from his fiancé. "Do you mind?"

Ben looked as though her were a child being scolded. Taking a step closer, he hovered over Albus. "All I'm saying is that if we tell them on our own then we can do it on our terms." His voice serious.

Albus pinched the bridge of his nose. "Can we not have this conversation again? I don't want everyone to know, so please accept that." He lowered his hand and stared at Ben sternly.

Ben took a step backwards—giving Albus space—and gave a sullen nod. "Fine."

Just from Albus' posture Rose could tell that something was wrong. Deciding to rescue him she walked over to the pair. "Hey Albus," she said pretending that she hadn't just been eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Hi," Albus grumbled, turning to the counter and staring at nothing in particular.

Ben's frown turned into a smile. "Hi Rose," he said in a chipper tone.

"So," Rose said trying to think of a safe topic to talk about. "You're finally settling down on a date for the wedding?" Albus went rigid has he picked up a stack of sticky notes from the desk and began to strum the edge with his thumb.

"Ha," Ben laughed. "I've been trying to convince him to pick a date for months now. I'm still hoping that we can get married by the end of summer, but he is making it impossible."

Albus whirled around. "Didn't we come here so you can be cleared to play in the World Cup play offs?"

Ben looked taken aback. "Yeah," he stated slowly. "She said I could go back any time."

"Well can you go ahead and get it done," Albus said agitatedly.

"What is the matter with you," Ben asked hitting Albus in the arm.

"Nothing," Albus exaggerated, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I just don't want to be here all day."

Ben scrunched his forehead to Albus. "Whatever," he said confused, and turned to walk down the hall. "I'll see you around Rose," he yelled over his shoulder, still giving Albus a bizarre look.

"Okay," Rose replied sweetly before turning on Albus, after Ben was out of earshot. "What was that about?" she said in an interrogating tone.

Albus propped his hand on the counter. "What was what about?" He asked as though Rose were crazy.

"You know what I'm talking about Albus. You acting like prick while Ben was talking about the wedding." She placed her hand on the front desk to mimic Albus' posture.

Albus' eyes went wide as he nervously searched the hall for anyone listening in. "Will you keep your voice down?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"Albus," Rose snapped, narrowing her eyes to him.

"Fine," he hissed. "But not here." He grabbed Rose's hand and tugged her farther down the hall. Shoving her inside an empty hospital room Albus kept his face towards the shut door before turning around and announcing, "I haven't told my parents that I'm gay yet. In fact, besides you and James I haven't told anyone."

"WHAT!" Rose shouted in surprise.

"Shhhh," he hissed, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was entering the room.

"How is that possible?" Rose continued. "I thought you told them six months ago at that dinner?"

Albus nodded then switched to shaking his head. "Yeah, no, didn't do that. I chickened out."

Rose's mouth hung open. "And Ben hasn't questioned you about it yet?" She asked trying to process Albus' declaration in her head.

"Quidditch season started, he's been a bit preoccupied to notice," he said sheepishly.

Rose thought about the way Ben was pushing Albus moments before. "But he's starting to notice now?" Rose asked, a sense of deep remorse for Ben coming over her.

Albus began to pace the room erratically. "I don't know what I'm going to do?"

"Well you're going to have to tell him the truth," Rose announced as though it was the only logical option.

Albus' stopped halted and whipped his head in Rose's direction. "Are you insane? I can't do that, he's going to hate me." He waved his hand dramatically.

Rose crossed her arms and scowled. "Not as much as he is going to hate you if he finds out from someone else?"

"Oh yes," He pivoted and took a step towards Rose. "Because my sexual orientation comes up in a lot of conversations," Albus reasoned.

"Albus that's not an excuse." Albus dragged his eyes off of Rose. Uncrossing her arms she walked over to her cousin. "As someone who has been lied to for the past six months I can tell you that what you are doing is not okay," she advocated, placing an encouraging hand on his shoulder. "Tell Ben the truth, because if you don't you could very well lose him."

Albus' shoulders sagged, and he bent his head, hiding his shame. "And if I don't?" he asked softly, peeking up to Rose through his eyelashes.

Rose readjusted the grip on her bag, and said, "Then Ben deserves better."

Albus' peering eyes shot back down to the gray floor.

It was mid Thursday morning, and Carla had managed to get absolutely no work done. More focused on the new dress that she had bought for her date with Matt that night, she rolled her eyes as Scorpius whistled blissfully across from her. "You are way too excited about visiting your parents," she commented.

"Hey," Scorpius snapped with a grin. "This is a big deal for me. Let me excited."

"Fine," Carla said, reaching out for her fifth cup of coffee that day. Gulping she stared at the clock that was on her desk and swore that the second hand was broken because time seemed to not be moving. "I hate Thursdays," she groaned loudly. "They are the worst day of the week."

Scorpius snorted. "You and my best friend would have a lot to talk about if you ever meet."

Carla glared curious about what he meant by that. "Sooo," she drawled, "What time are you due there?"

"I thought you didn't want to hear about my exciting visit to my parents," he joked.

"I need a distraction," she stated, flicking her clock to make sure that it was properly working.

Scorpius lowered his quill. "Half an hour. I cleared leaving early with Cornell yesterday, and I packed last night. So all I've got to do is finish this file and I'm gone." A chipper smile appearing on his face as his steadily beat his hands on his desk to an unrecognizable rhythm.

"Once again, I say that you are way too excited about visiting your parents," she attested.

Scorpius laughed. "Actually I'm hoping to talk Rose into moving back home, at least part time that is."

Carla gave Scorpius a wary eye. A serious expression crossing her face. "Can I offer you a bit of advice?"

"Such as?"

"Well, Rose is in a sensitive place, I don't think you should push her."

"I'm not going to push her," he said slyly. "I'm simply going to bring the topic up."

"And how convenient it is that she won't be able to escape your questions," Carla said with a grin.

"Malfoy," Cornell's voice boomed from behind him.

"Yeah," Scorpius responded.

"You have copies of Rose's old case files at home right?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said wearily.

"Great." He barked. "I need you to make copies of them and bring them to me. She's managed to put an unbreakable locking charm on her desk here, and I need Mindy to look over those."

Scorpius looked to his watch and then swiveled around in his chair. Cornell was hovering over him with an expectant look. "Can I do it on Monday? I was supposed to leave early today."

Cornell raised a bushy eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. "Matt's taking her out for recovery duty Monday, and I need her to be familiar with those files before then."

Scorpius glanced down to his watch again. The more time he spent arguing against Cornell meant the longer he was going to have to stay. "Alright," he sighed.

Rose stepped out of the Malfoys fireplace and was immediately met with a group of three wizards dressed in dark blue jumpsuits. Each had a wand in their hand that they were stiffly moving up and down, and as far as Rose could tell they looked to be painting the walls of the parlor a pale yellow color.

"Rose," Astoria called in a surprised tone. Clasping her hands together she walked over to Rose. Her dark raven hair pulled back into a tight bun, and her pearly white dress glowing in the suns rays. "Don't mind the work, I'm doing a little redecorating." She waved her hand around the room, and Rose noticed another group of wizards circled around a work table in the corner arguing about a line on the blue print.

"I noticed," Rose replied, browsing the room again before looking back to her mother in law.

"So," Astoria said, "Let me look at you." Before Rose even had a chance to object Astoria had grabbed her wrist and spread her arms out to the side to examine her. "You look tired," she said sweetly, "Is there a reason for that?"

Rose gulped as she caught Astoria glimpse down to her stomach and then look back to Rose with a suspiciously large grin. "Things have been a bit hectic lately." She pulled her arms away and wrapped them around her midsection. "You know with my father and…other things."

"Oh," Astoria frowned for a moment before a pleasant smile appeared. "Well, I hope he is getting better."

"He seems to be," responded Rose, avoiding Astoria's gaze and looking around the room for one man in particular. "Scorpius not here yet?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure he will be soon."

Nodding, Rose pressed her lips together, unsure what else there was to say. The two stood in silence. The sound of paint brushing swishing and saws cutting beams making the silence that much more uncomfortable.

"Why don't you go upstairs and wait for Scorpius to arrive. You might want some extra time to get ready for dinner," suggested Astoria.

Looking down to the jeans and shirt she was wearing—covered in soot—Rose sighed. "Sure."

Entering Scorpius bedroom she dropped her bag to the ground and conveniently forgot about the idea of getting dressed for dinner two hours early. Making a bee-line for the bed she sprung onto it face first and buried herself into the plushy pillows and lavish blankets; falling asleep almost instantly.

An several hours Scorpius walked into a practically empty auror department carrying an overly large box of unorganized file folders.

"Are you Malfoy," a bored voice said.

Scorpius turned around to see a young woman lounging at Rose's desk. She had her chair pushed far enough back so that she had room to prop her heels up and her head was laying back with her eyes closed.

Opening one eye she stared at Scorpius with a raised eyebrow. "You're the only person to walk in here in an hour," she explained, swiftly uncrossing her ankles and fanning her legs off the desk. Scorpius noticed the tip of her wand poking out from the top of her right inner boot.

"I'm assuming you're Mindy," Scorpius said dropping the box onto the desk.

"Yup," she droned, bending down to gather her bag—her long brown hair falling like a curtain around her face. "You know I've been waiting like an hour and a half," she commented.

"Well Cornell didn't tell me to get these until like an hour ago."

"Well if the woman who was here before didn't use such a ridiculous charm then we wouldn't have had a problem." Mindy stood up, barely reaching Scorpius' chest.

"I'll make sure to tell her that you think her charm is ridiculous," he stated bluntly, making Mindy snort.

"Please don't. I don't need some hormonal pregnant women hexing me." She tossed her bag over her shoulder then lowered her to stare dully at the box of files. "I don't know why he made you work late to get these. It's not like I'm going to read them this weekend."

"You're not?" Scorpius asked.

"Umm no, I have a life." She smirked up to him. "But I'm not willing to argue with my uncle about my weekend activities so…" Picking the box up, she tucked it awkwardly under her arm. "Thanks anyways though, I'm sure you and your last partner's adventures were fascinating." Turning she began to head towards the door.

Scorpius crossed his arms slightly annoyed. "They were."

Mindy turned around and flashed him a humorous smile. "I bet," she announced, continuing to walk away.

Rose had to hand it to Astoria, she knew how to put together a lovely dinner setting. The table cloth was a silky white material with delicately embroidered lilies on the trim. The china was hand painted in gold, and a century old but had the appearance of being new. And the centerpiece was adorned with half Silver candle sticks and a garland of freshly cut flowers. The only thing that was missing from this lavish event was Scorpius and food.

Rose, Astoria, Draco, and Narcissa had been sitting at the dinner table for nearly an hour for Scorpius to arrive. "Did he say he was going to be late?" Astoria asked Rose, breaking the long silence that was between them.

Rose pushed a pleasant smile on her face. "No. I haven't talked to him today. I've been staying at my parents' house to help my mother."

"I'm sure it won't be long," said Astoria, taking what could only be considered as an agitated breath, and returning to the silence.

Rose took a sip from her glistening crystal glass, which kept refilling itself with water, Rose looked at her watch. At the moment there were two thoughts going through her mind. The first was that she was starving. Her mouth watered from the smell of herbed potatoes and basted turkey that was permeating from behind the kitchen door. The second was that she was going to murder Scorpius for leaving her in this situation. The only reason she came to this was because he'd asked her too. He wanted to make a big deal about the baby to his parents. Rose knew that he wanted this moment to just be proud and happy, and Rose was willing to give that to him. But for Scorpius to be missing it, surprisingly left Rose feeling disappointed and lonely.

Glancing back up to the Malfoys, Rose caught the judgmental eye of Narcissa Malfoy. "Is that the same dress that you wore on your last visit?" Narcissa asked superiorly.

"It is," Rose answered. Lowering her eyes to her lap and smoothing out the fabric of her inexpensive black work dress. "I don't see a point in wearing clothes only once," spoke Rose softly, seeing the corner of Astoria's smile twitch as though she wanted to laugh.

Narcissa gave Rose a cold unimpressed stare as she reached for her brandy. "How lucky Scorpius is to have such an…" Narcissa glimpsed Rose up and down, "opinionated wife."

Sighing, Rose heard the relieving cackle of the fire place from the other room. "I think Scorpius it here," she stated, standing up—without being dismissed—and walking into the parlor room.

A cloud of ash surrounded Scorpius as he walked out of the fireplace. The parlor room was dark, but immediately he could see the remains of paint materials and plastic covering the floor.

"You are five hours late," Rose said, coming into the room and closing the door behind her.

Tiredly squeezing his eyes shut, Scorpius hoped that this wasn't going to start an argument. "I planned on leaving early, but I got caught up at work."

Rose walked towards him. Her brown eyes examined him. His tie was stretched, his shirt untucked, and his collar was baggy. Taking in the look of a long day, Rose's jaw muscle relaxed. "It happens," she said pushing back the urge to be mad at him.

Scorpius' eyelids bolted open. "You're not going to yell at me for leaving you alone with my parents."

"It's not fair for me to be angry with you if it was nothing that you could control." Rose gave him a pointed look. "It was nothing that you could control right?"

"I had no control over this," Scorpius said relieved. "I promise that there is nothing more important to me than you and the baby. This was a one-time thing."

Rose nodded, lowering her eyes to look at the tops of her shoes. "Alright," she whispered.

Scorpius glanced over his wife. "This is very understanding of you," he commented, Rose usually being the type to not care what the circumstances were for a fault if she was in a stressed out situation.

Rose crossed her arms and glared up to him. "Oh, don't get me wrong I've spent that last hour envisioning fifteen different ways to murder you, but I don't want to argue in front of your family." Rose took a step towards him. "I don't want to argue with you in general. So I'm choosing to let it go."

Scorpius snorted. "And how is that working out for you?"

"It'll work out a lot better after I've eaten," she grumbled.

Unfortunately for Rose, Astoria wouldn't let Scorpius even enter the dining room until he went upstairs and changed. "The rules have been the same your entire life. You will come to dinner dressed appropriately," she said, shooing him away.

When Scorpius finally did come down and food was served, it took everything that Rose had not to scarf it down in one bite.

It wasn't until Narcissa took exactly four bites of her food and decided to go to bed that Astoria said, "So, what kept you so long dear?"

Scorpius swallowed his bite of Turkey. "I had to make some copies of Rose's files at home," he said looking to her. "Your desk might be a little unorganized."

Rose straightened her posture. "My files?" she asked with a suspiciously calm eye. "Why would you be making copies of my files?"

"No one could unlock the charm on your desk at work," he said as though it was just a humorous story that happened at the office. "Cornell had five wizards from the Maintenance of Uncharming department come down, and one from the Committee of Unreasonable Charms."

"There is nothing unreasonable about that charm. I created that charm," Rose said in a cold voice, stabbing her potatoes with her fork.

"An unbreakable locking charm," chimed in Draco. "That would come useful for a few things around here…like my parlor room."

"Now, now, Draco," Astoria said, cutting tiny corner off her piece of turkey.

Scorpius chuckled. "Regardless, it seemed as though you didn't want anyone going through your desk."

Remaining stiff, Rose took a small bite of her potato and lowered her fork and knife onto her plate. Her arm resting on the table. "I had assumed that Matt's files would have been enough to satisfy my replacement."

Scorpius tipped his head back and laughed. "Matt's files are the most confusing things to read," he said, reaching out and placing his hand over Rose's wrist. Tenderly wrapping his fingers around it so that his thumb covered her pulse.

Rose stared at his hand. Her neck and shoulders tense by the affection. The pad of his thumb started to stroke the area of soft skin, which aggravated Rose. Her sight followed his hand up the length of his arm and landed on his face. He was happy. He was taking pleasure out of this. It was one thing to pretend that nothing was going on between them, but they didn't have to touch to do that. He was doing this because he could.

"Besides," Scorpius continued to say—more to his parents than to Rose. "Cornell wanted Mindy to look over the cases that we closed while working together."

Rose shook her head coming back to attention. "I see," she said with a tight smile.

Draco reached for his glass of wine and leaned back into his seat. "How long do you plan to stay with your parents?" Rose caught the sneering curl of his upper lip, which he was unsuccessfully trying to hide. "I mean, it seems a bit much for the head of your department to hire a replacement."

Astoria nodded her head in agreement. "Surely you don't plan to be out of work for so long," she stated politely. Both of Scorpius' parents eyeing her.

Scorpius squeezed Rose's wrist nervously. Turning to her, his gray blue excited eyes asked if she was ready. "Go ahead," she mouthed, barely moving her lips.

His eyes twinkling he turned back to his parents. "Actually Rose won't be returning to field duty for a while."

"Oh," Draco's pointy eyebrow raised up.

"Not for about nine months," Scorpius said with a very large smile. "That's counting the maternity leave."

The angular edges of Draco's face flattened as his face dropped into a blank expression. Astoria on the other hand had a very giddy expression. Her hand clapped over her mouth as her eyes ecstatically scoured Rose up and down. "It's—it's—" she repeated in a muffled tone. "It's—"

"It's soon," Draco said, his face still shocked.

Rose pulled her hand from Scorpius and reached for her water. "And unexpected." She muttered, still holding her smile.

"Oh, Draco it's wonderful," Astoria exclaimed, jumping up from her chair and frolicking from the room. "I'll be right back," she called from the stairs.

Draco managed to recompose himself. His angular features returning into an expression that was neither happy nor disappointed. "Alright then," was all he said, which Scorpius took as a good sign.

Scorpius leaned into Rose's ear. "See this wasn't so horrible," he whispered.

Rose turned to stare at him. "Are you happy?" she asked more bluntly than she meant too sound.

"Very," he said, kissing the tip of her forehead.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh," Astoria's excited, unladylike voice sang from the top of the stairs. Her heels clacking against the marble as she scurried back into the dining room. "Here you go," she said dropping a large blue striped hat box in front of Scorpius and Rose.

"What is it?" Rose asked, eyeing it up and down.

Astoria ripped the lid off. "Just a few things that I used when I was pregnant with him." She glanced fondly over to Scorpius and then to Rose—her large smile growing even larger.

Rose stood up and looked inside. There was a few journals and scrap books, and folded baby blanket, and an old leather bound book. As Rose sifted through it Astoria said, "That was my pregnancy diary, and this—" she pulled out one of the scrap books, "—was my month by month album with all of my ultrasound pictures." She opened it up and showed to Scorpius. Both Astoria and Scorpius looked elated as they looked through the book—occasionally laughing or cooing.

Rose picked up the other album and flipped to a random page that was covered in dozens of color schemes and designs for a nursery. Becoming overwhelmed Rose put the album back and sat down. Slouching back, Rose limply hung her arms over the arm rest. Bending her head back, she rolled her neck to look at Draco—he was sitting in a similarly bored position.

"Ohhh," Astoria drawled, carefully reaching into the box and pulling out the leather bound book. "And this was probably the most important thing of all."

Rose flipped back to Astoria with an unenthusiastic deadpanned expression. "Another diary," she asked, yawning from her sudden tiredness.

"No." Astoria smiled, handing the book to Rose. "It's a book with all of the stars and constellations names in it."

"Of course," Rose said as though she'd expected a book of constellation names to come out of the box. "Because baby needs to know all the maps of the solar system."

Astoria gave a giddy laughed—taking Rose's sarcasm as joke. "To help pick out a name for the baby."

Rose's eyes darted to Scorpius. "Oh." Her voice shot up an octave. "So were doing that?"

"It's a tradition," Scorpius tried to say, to which Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'm not naming my baby after a star!" Rose shouted to Scorpius, lugging her bag onto the bed and searching for her pajamas.

Scorpius plopped down onto the mattress. "I think you're over reacting," he said closing his eyes. Rose halted her search and darted her eyes over to Scorpius. The cold stare sending a chill up his spine. Peeking at her Scorpius clarified, "All I meant was that we don't have to decide anything right now."

Yanking the white shirt she'd been searching for from the bottom of the bag, Rose awkwardly twisted her arm behind her back and attempted to reach for the zipper of her dress. "I know that," she hissed. "But I don't want your mother getting it into her head that we are for sure doing it either."

Scorpius climbed to his knees and moved over to her—circling his finger for her to turn around. "Rose, I don't think she expects anything," he said, brushing her hair off to her shoulder. "She was just excited." He pulled down on the zipper and revealed the milky white skin of her back.

Silence fell between them. Scorpius skimmed his knuckles over the skin. Her body wavering slightly as he did so.

Rose bowed her head. "I'm happy she's excited," she said.

"Yeah," Scorpius said, looping his hand through her arm and around her waist. Rose nodded, and Scorpius gave the slightest tug for her to lean into him. Tracing his fingers over the front of her stomach, he stopped at her bump. "You're showing," he whispered.

"You can't even see it."

"Yes I can." His hand pressed flat into her abdomen. "You're my wife. I know what your body looks like." Tucking his nose into her neck, he kissed the skin under his lips.

Rose went still under him. Her breath catching as he traced feathery kisses along her shoulder—pushing the sleeve of her dress down as he did. Closing her eyes, she felt the tingling of heat building inside her. All the reasons why she was mad at him left her thoughts. Scorpius' hand reached farther across her waist. The hem of her dress bunched up as he grasped a handful of the fabric.

Rose's back arched into him. Her head rolling back on to his shoulder as his kisses became fiercer. A moan escaped from her gaping mouth. Swiftly, Scorpius wrapped his arm around her ribcage, and Rose flung her fingers into his hair. She felt his teeth drag across her shoulder; his lips tantalizingly sucked. Her mind was blank—only her body was in control—and her body wanted him. She wanted to be with him. To have everything feel right again. To love him without hurting.

"Come home," Scorpius mumbled, moving his mouth up her neck. "I trust you." He lifted his head up and buried his nose into hair above her ear.

Rose's heart sunk. "Let go," she gasped, pulling away and whirling around to face him.

Scorpius dropped his arms. "What'd I do?" he asked, climbing off the bed.

"You are unbelievable," she cried out. "You truly do believe that this isn't a big deal."

"Not having my pregnant wife living with me is a big deal to me Rose," he stated in a firm tone.

Rose stormed past Scorpius over to her bag. "Apparently that is the only thing that is a big deal to you." She grabbed for her wand, flicked it to zip the back of her dress, and began to shove any clothes that were her inside of her bag. "Never mind the fact that—you know—don't trust me. That's not a big deal to you as long as you get me back home right?"

"I didn't say that," stressed Scorpius.

"No, but it's what you meant," she snapped, yanking the zipper of her bag closed. Whipping around unsteadily, she stared at him with hardened eyes. "You've lied to me our entire marriage. I get to be upset about that. I get to feel hurt and confused about that."

"And I'm not contradicting you," he said rationally.

"But you also aren't willing to just accept it are you? You're going to say whatever you think I want to hear if it means getting your way." Crossing her arms, she glared at him. "Do you know how insensitive that is?" she chided.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!" Scorpius shouted, towering over her. His face was red and his jaw bone was bulging. "I am trying to trust that you will come home, but you hardly talk to me and every time that you do your answer is that you don't know when you are coming him."

She stood on her tiptoes so that she was in his face. "You really don't get it do you?" she said shrilly. "I don't want to be around you right now!"

Rose turned her back to him and started to pace the room. "Do you have any idea how much you've hurt me?"

"Not particularly Rose, because you won't talk to me," he said with an edge to his voice.

Rose stopped moving and turned around. Her lips were pouted together quivering while her eyes gazed sadly at him. "Being around you makes me feel like I'm nothing."

"What?" he interjected, feeling like he'd taken a blow to the gut.

Rose blinked back invisible tears. "When I'm around you I know that there is nothing I can say or do to make you trust me. If I leave you can't trust that I'll come back. If I stay you're always terrified that I'll leave." She exhaled a sharp, heavy breath. Her stomach tightening at the thought of how small he was making her feel. "All you do is remind me that I am the one who made you distrust me so much, and I am so tired of feeling guilty for it."

Scorpius was silent. The cold, hard, shocked look in his eyes, gave Rose chills. "So basically being around me makes you feel horrible about yourself," he said in a stony tone. Sniffling, she closed her eyes unable to respond. "Well if that's the way you feel then maybe you should leave."

"Scorpius," Rose choked.

Scorpius bowed his head to ground. "Don't." He momentarily glanced up to her but scowled back to the floor. "Learning that the reason why my wife doesn't won't to come home is because she can't stand the mere sight of me is a bit much for one night. Besides it's like you said I can't trust you, which makes you feel guilty so…" He reached for the shoulder strap of her bag and held it out to her. "I'll tell my mum that something came up, and that you had to go early."

Rose stared at his somber expression—regretting every word that she had just said, but feeling relieved too. Impatiently, Scorpius shook his hand that was dangling the bag. The second that she grabbed for it, Scorpius rushed passed her to leave but paused at the door. "I'm sorry that I make you feel like nothing, because to me you are the farthest thing from it." Real tears streaming down her face now, Rose closed her eyes—shuddering as he slammed the door behind him.

A/N: Alright two things. First, so things have to get worse before they can get better, and these two really needed a moment to just hash everything out (although it was probably not the right moment to have this conversation). Still, these were things that Scorpius needed to hear, and like Rose, he needs a moment to process. I promise that things need to start to get better between them sooner rather than later. Anyways please tell me what you thought.

Now for the second thing. Over the past couple of years I have been really busy with school to respond to Reviews (something which I have felt a little bit guilty about because I am a firm believer that if you take the time to review then I should take the time to respond even if its a simple thank you because all you said was good chapter). Anyways that being said, I have a less active schedule now so from hear on out I am going to respond back to your reviews. If you have an opinion on the character or a rant about the chapter or any sort of input at all I will respond with an equally justified argument as to why I chose to do what I do. Anyways I just wanted to mention this incase you have ever wanted/had questions about the story. So yeah. Thats all and thanks for reading. And I am sorry for not responding like I should have been doing until now.