I feel a bit 'meh' about this chapter, but I needed something to move thing along ready for the next chapter, so here it is.
Rita's mind was elsewhere for the rest of the evening, she ate her dinner, one eye on Iain and Jack, Iain encouraging the sick boy to eat some chicken and potatoes, even managing to convince him that the vegetables he moaned about eating would help him get better.
Iain insisted on clearing the table once they'd finished eating and then the three of them curled up together on the sofa to watch the DVD Iain had bought for Jack. She sat, Jack between her and Iain, her eyes were fixed on the screen but she wouldn't be able to tell you what she'd just watched.
They took Jack up to bed together, reading him a story and giving him another dose of calpol before tucking him into bed and telling him he could shout them if he needed anything. "I want to do another test" Rita said as she walked downstairs.
"Okay" Iain nodded, reaching for Rita's hand and squeezing it softly, "do you want me to get you one? I didn't know what type you wanted so I just grabbed a few."
Rita nodded, "please." She stood outside the downstairs toilet until Iain came back, a small pink box in his hand, "do you think I should?" she asked, "or should I wait til morning?"
Iain shrugged, "that's your choice, you can do both if you want, we've got enough."
Rita nodded again, "okay."
"It's your choice Love" Iain said softly, "I'm going to wait in the living room, if you want to pee on the stick then that's great, if you just want to pee then that's fine too, if it's going to be positive it'll still be positive when you do do it, if it's going to be negative" he shrugged, "not doing it now just gives us more time to change that."
Rita cracked a smile, "I love you."
"I know" Iain smiled, stealing a kiss from her lips, "I love you too."
He was flicking through the channels on the TV when Rita came into the living room, putting down a pregnancy test beside her phone, the screen counting down the seconds before the test was ready. "I'm really nervous" she admitted as she sat beside him.
Iain pulled her close and kissed her head, "pregnant or not, it won't change anything Love, if you're pregnant then obviously that's amazing but it's only been a couple of months since we decided to try for a baby and we've worked a lot of opposite shifts this month so we haven't really been 'trying.'
Rita nodded, "I know." her phone beeped once and she looked up at Iain, "can you…?"
"Of course" he kissed her temple a final time before leaning forward, a smile growing on his face, "it's positive" he said as he picked it up to show Rita, "the second line's only faint but it's definitely there."
"Oh" Rita gasped as she allowed herself to look at the test, "it's positive" she whispered, "I'm pregnant."
"You are" Iain beamed, putting the test back on the table so he could pull Rita close again, "congratulations my Love."
Rita clung to Iain, nuzzling into the crook of his neck as she began to sob, "I'm sorry" she repeated over and over, "I'm sorry, I'm really happy I am."
Iain chuckled and kissed her head, "is it too soon to blame your hormones?"
Rita laughed, "probably" she whispered into Iain's neck, taking a shaky breath before looking up at him, "I'm pregnant" she whispered, "we're going to have a baby."
"We are" Iain smiled, wiping at Rita's tears with his thumbs.
"Can we keep it to ourselves for a while?" Rita asked, "at least until I've had my first scan."
"Of course" Iain nodded, "we'll tell people when you're ready, what about Jack?"
"I don't want to tell him yet" Rita dropped her gaze from Iain's, "he'll be so excited, I erm, I don't want him to let it slip and I erm, if anything goes wrong, I don't want to have to try and explain that to him."
Iain placed his hand under Rita's chin, gently lifting it until she had no choice but to look at him, "Rita" he said softly, "we don't have to tell anyone right now, when you've had your scan, when you're ready for other people to know, Jack can be the first person we tell."
Rita nodded, "I love you Iain."
"I love you too" Iain smiled, "do you want me to throw this or…?" he gestured to the pregnancy test.
"Would it be weird if I wanted to keep it? I erm, I kept Jack's."
"If you want to keep something you've peed on then by all means go ahead" he chuckled.
Rita smiled, "can we go up to bed?"
"Of course, you go up, I'll make you a mug of Jack's hot chocolate and follow you up."
"Don't let Jack hear you saying that" Rita laughed, stealing another kiss from Iain, "thank you" she said softly, hoping he realised she was thanking him for so much more than making her a drink.
"You're welcome Love, now take that upstairs" he gestured to the pregnancy test, "get changed and find something for us to watch for an hour or so, I won't be long."
"Cream and marshmallows" Rita smiled as as Iain walked into the bedroom a few minutes after she did, "you are spoiling me."
Iain passed over the mug and put his own tea down by the bed, "I've got to look after you haven't I?" he smirked, "both of you."
Rita bit her lip, her free hand moving to her flat stomach, "you don't have to go to any effort to take care of us Iain, you've looked after Jack and I since we got together, before then even, I don't for one minute think that that will change now I'm pregnant" she said, curling into Iain as he slipped into bed after changing into a pair of well worn jogging bottoms.
"I hope so" Iain said as he kissed Rita's head, "I erm, I had pretty shitty parents, I want to do better for Jack and the baby, I don't want to let them down."
"Jack adores you" Rita told him, "you were a father figure to him long before you were his Daddy, long before we even went on our first date, you took him in, accepted him, loved him when you didn't have to, you didn't have to offer to spend your days off watching your 'friend's' son whilst she worked, you didn't have to offer to watch him whilst I went out on dates, but you did. And never once have you let either of us down. Yes this is scary, yes there are going to be times when we wonder if we're doing the right thing, we might argue, disagree about things but we'll be okay" she took hold of his free hand and squeezed it softly, "we'll be okay and you will be just as good a father to our baby as you are to our son."
Iain nodded, "we'll be okay" he repeated.
"We will" Rita squeezed his hand again, "you've got me and I've got you. We're a family Iain, as long as we remember that and face everything together we'll be just fine."
He nodded again, "yeah, you're right" he said before looking up at her, "what about you?" he asked, "will you be telling your parents?"
Rita shook her head as she sipped at the hot chocolate, "I erm, I haven't spoken to them since I was 18, they didn't approve of my relationship with Mark, he got a flat, asked me to move in with him and they told me that if I went then they wanted nothing more to do with me and at the time I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him so…" she shrugged simply and took another sip from her mug.
Iain wrapped his free arm around Rita and pulled her close, dropping a gentle kiss to her hair, "well if my opinion means anything then they're the ones missing out, not you."
"Thanks" Rita smiled. "I don't regret anything" she told him, "yes things with Mark went shit, but he gave me Jack, and if things with him hadn't gone the way they did, then I'd never have met you, and Jack, he's so happy now, we both are, and that's because of you Iain. He might not be biologically yours, but, if my opinion matters to you, I think that if he turns out to be even half the man that you are, then we'll have done a bloody good job at raising him."
"We are doing a good job" Iain nodded, "he's an amazing little boy."
"He is" Rita agreed, "because he has an amazing Daddy to look up to, he's funny, he's clever, he's kind. He's five years old and he opens doors for me and lets me go through first, he didn't learn that from me. I don't know anything about your childhood, but I know a lot of things about you now, and one of those things is that you are an amazing father, and you will continue being an amazing Daddy once the baby's born too. Jack was right, he's lucky to have you, he and I both."
"And we're both lucky to have you too" Iain smiled.
"That's right" Rita smirked, "you are."
Iain laughed, "I love you."
"I love you" Rita replied instantly, "and I always will, Jack and the baby too. Don't ever forget that."