"Am I interrupting?"
"Oh um... no. No." They sprang apart guiltily, Norma pushing Alex away from her like they were horny teenagers caught making out on the couch, not grown adults sharing a tentative, chaste kiss.
"We were just..." She started, trailing off, glancing at where Alex was kneeling between her legs, his hands resting on her belly, her hands draped around his neck, and then looking guiltily back to where Norma was standing awkwardly in the doorway. He cast his eyes down at the floor and shoved his hands in his pockets, clearing his throat, as Alex rose to his feet, stumbling awkwardly around her leg to sit next to her.
"I need to talk to you about something." Norman said quietly, and Norma was distracted by smoothing her skirt back down over her thighs so she didn't notice the way Alex tensed next to her, narrowing his eyes at Norman.
"Ok honey. Come sit down." She said casually, lifting her head to smile at him as he crossed the room, sitting down in front of them and rubbing his hands over his knees nervously. The smile faded and dropped from her face as she watching him twist his hands together, his eyes darting wildly around the room.
"What's wrong?" She asked, scared of the answer, glancing uneasily to Alex. She desperately wanted him to look calm and non-plussed by Norman's nervous behaviour, so her face fell when she noticed him staring at Norman suspiciously, his whole body tense.
"I... need to tell you something."
Norma sucked in a worried, fearful breath at his words. Her hand slid off her leg, silently seeking Alex's, an unconscious action that he mimicked, clutching her clammy hand in his own, both of them sharing an unspoken moment of horror.
"I mean, you were going to find out eventually, but... I didn't want to tell you, what with the baby and all-"
He gestured broadly at her stomach and her free hand came up to cup it gently without thinking, the other squeezing Alex's hand hard.
She tried to keep her fears off her face, desperately trying to tell herself that she was overreacting, that she was being over-dramatic. He was better now. He hadn't killed someone. He couldn't have. He'd been doing so well. Despite this, she started doing a mental inventory of all the young women of White Pine Bay, trying to remember the last time she'd seen them all. God, she hoped Emma was ok.
She bit her lip, trying to keep her face neutral, as Norman cast around helplessly for his next words.
"I didn't want to upset you but..."
"Spit it out, Norman." Alex said gently, leaning forward slightly in his seat. Norman nodded, taking a deep breath.
"I'm going away to college."
Alex puffed out a surprised breath, raising his eyebrows and nodding incredulously at Norman.
"Oh wow..." He started, the relief flooding through him, patting Norma's hand gently and turning to her. She hadn't moved, her mouth frozen open in horror, glaring at Norman.
"You're what?" She queried.
"I'm going away to college. I start in the fall." He repeated, the smile dropping from his face as he took in her expression.
There was a long silence, where Alex glanced helplessly from Norma to Norman.
"That's... that's great, son. Where are you going?"
"Thank you." Norman said quietly, politely, giving Alex a formal little nod of his head, before glancing with concern at his mother's displeased face. "Erm, well I applied to Berkeley and Stanford-"
He was cut off as Norma snorted angrily at his choices.
"But," He carried on, his tone pointed. "I decided to go to Washington State. I knew Mother would want me to stay nearby."
"Nearby? Nearby?" She scoffed at him, finally speaking up. "Are you kidding me? It's literally in a different state Norman!"
"Honey-" Alex started quietly, before she held up a hand to cut him off.
"Stay out of this." She muttered and he raised his eyebrows at her as she shuffled forwards awkwardy in her seat to fix Norman with a steely glare.
"Norman..." She started, her voice softer now, taking on a pleading, patronising quality. "You haven't thought this through. Going away, moving all that way, all alone? It's such an upheaval. It's too much."
"I've thought it through, mother." He protested defiantly. "I'm going. It's all arranged."
"And what does Doctor Edwards have to say about all this? What does this mean for your treatment? Have you even considered that?"
"It was Doctor Edwards' idea." Norma pressed her lips together in a hard line, sucking in an irritated breath through her nose, and Alex could tell that she had changed her opinion on Doctor Edwards in a heartbeat.
"Oh really?"
"Yes. He thought it would be good for me - Good to go away to college like a normal eighteen year old. That's the goal here, right? Normal?"
Norma didn't reply, just crossed her arms over her stomach. Norman carried on.
"He's already made some calls to a friend of his up there - He's going to transfer my treatment to Doctor Gibson - I've already spoken with her. She seems nice. And I already double checked, and Alex's insurance will still cover it. I got a partial scholarship and I've applied for financial aid for the rest of it, so you don't have to worry about that-"
"Well, great." She said, standing up as suddenly as she could, throwing her hands in the air in defeat. "Sounds like you have everything covered. Be sure to send me your new address."
"Norma. Stop. Don't get upset. Think about what the doctor said-" Alex started, grasping her hand gently as she swept past him.
"Mother, I-"
"No, no. It's fine. I'm fine. Go. Thanks for the courtesy of letting me know." She shot a dark look at Alex, snatching her hand out of his grasp and storming out of the room.
"Mother!" Norman shouted after her.
"I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed. You can let yourself out, Norman."
"She'll come around." She heard Alex say quietly.
"Don't talk about me like I can't hear you!" She hollered down the stairs, as she stomped up them, slamming into their bedroom and pulling her comfy jersey tea dress off with more force than was necessary.
The quiet murmur of conversation from downstairs carried on for a few minutes more, while she slammed drawers open and closed, searching for something to wear to bed, pretending not to care that her husband and her son were undoubtedly talking about her downstairs. She hadn't heard the door click closed, or register the fact that the murmur of conversation had died to a silence, so wasn't aware that Alex was standing in the doorway behind her.
She was standing in front of the mirror in her underwear, muttering angrily to herself as she tried to pull a tiny, baby blue satin nightdress down over her bump. It was bunched up around her chest, the unyielding fabric not budging as she tried to tug it down, growling in frustration. She glanced up at herself in the mirror, noticing him standing in the doorway, smirking at her, his eyes flicking from her eyes in the reflection to her ass, and back again.
She glared at him, whirling round, denying him the view, her hands still uselessly trying to pull the delicate fabric down.
"This is all your fault you know." She muttered angrily, and he held his hands up, not expecting that.
"Hey, hey." He protested quietly, gesturing behind him, to where Norman had just left. "I didn't know anything about that. I found out the same time you did-"
"Not that." She cast her gaze to her stomach and the scrunched up band of shiny blue satin around her bosom. "This. This. It's all your fault."
He frowned, a confused smile crossing his face. He wasn't sure how her choosing her tiniest nightgown, in the fabric with the least give possible was his fault. He remembered the last time she had wore it, months ago, not long after she found out she was pregnant. It had been snug on her then, the close-fitting satin stretching across her increasingly ample bosom in the most delightful way. He wasn't sure why she had picked such an impractically small garment now, or how it was his fault.
"I'm fat. I'm fat now and it's all your fault." She put her hands on her hips, fixing him with a challenging stare. He chuckled, immediately realising it was the wrong response.
"Okay...?" He started, shaking his head at her incredulously.
She whirled away from him, crossing over to her dresser, pulling the drawer open and frantically searching through it.
"Let's have sex on the coffee table. Great idea!" She muttered bitterly, and he laughed before he could stop himself.
"But that was your ide-" He started.
"And look where it's got us!" She flicked her hands to her bump, searching wildly through the drawer full of pastel satin, and lace, and vintage white cotton, none of which had any give to stretch over her ample bump.
"And now I'm fat, and I can't dye my hair cause the peroxide's bad for the baby, and I look a mess, and none of these stupid chemises fit me." Her voice grew shriller and more hysterical as she spoke, holding up a handful of lilac lace, shaking the garment like it personally offended her. He crossed over to her, hearing a tell-tale sniffle as she leaned against the dresser, bowing her head.
He refused to get drawn in, knowing her mood had nothing to do with her shape or her hair or her nightwear. She wiped a hand across her face, and his hands came up to hesitantly rest on her shoulders, feeling them shake slightly.
"We knew he was gonna leave eventually." He murmured quietly, and she shook her head, sniffling again.
"He's eighteen. He's an eighteen year old kid going off to college. It's normal."
"But he's not normal!" She protested breathlessly. "He's... he's special! And it's so far away." She let out a little sob. "He's never been away from me before. And there's all those sorority girls! You know what girls are like around him!"
He frowned a little at her shoulder, trailing his hands up and down her arms, wondering what exactly she meant by that, hoping she wasn't about to reveal any more about Norman's past with women. There was only so much he could cover up and ignore.
"These sex-crazed, unstable women just seem drawn to him! He only has to walk past a sorority house..." She trailed off, rubbing her hand across her forehead, leaving the rest unsaid. Alex wasn't sure whether she was more upset that Norman might get his heart broken, or that he might be walking into a trashy horror film where he was the villain. He wondered if she was more fearful for Norman, or all these sex-crazed sorority girls she imagined falling at his feet. He would have laughed, if a tiny part of him didn't worry for those girls too.
"Norman's a good kid. He's smart. He wants to go there to learn. Did you know Washington State has one of the best writing programs in the country?" He parroted the fact Norman had just proudly told him downstairs to her, as she shook her head, wiping her hand under her nose again. He stepped a little closer, closing the gap between them, feeling the warmth of her bare back against his chest.
"We'll talk to Doctor Edwards tomorrow, and then we can speak to this Doctor Gibson, if you like?" He pressed a soft kiss against her skin, and she nodded.
"Ok." She murmured, some of the tension seeping out of her rigid shoulders.
"He's better now. You said so yourself." He reminded her gently.
"But... but the sorority girls..." She started helplessly.
"-Will be fine." He assured her, pressing kisses along her shoulder, up to her neck, pleased when she tipped her head to the side to give him better access.
There was a silence, filled only by her gentle sniffles, quieting to soft sighs as he tenderly kissed up her neck, stopping at her ear.
"You know you're not fat, right?" He questioned, wanting to make sure she had just been randomly looking for an argument earlier. He couldn't bear if she really thought she "looked a mess."
She dropped one hip, and she could tell she was pouting at the drawer of nightgowns like an unhappy child.
"None of my slips fit me." She grumbled, and he reached around her to grab the silk gown and toss it back into the drawer.
"And you don't want to touch me anymore." She whispered quietly, her tone petulant and he rolled his eyes at her.
"It's not that I don't want to." He said quietly, his yearning evident in his voice. "Trust me. I want to." She shivered, as his lips brushed against her ear, his hands sliding down over her hips, grasping at her ass lightly. "But you know what the doctor said."
She sighed heavily, nodding. Their last check up had thrown them both into a panic, after learning that Norma was in the "high-risk" category and that sex was pretty much off the cards from now on.
"Okay... So, we cut back... to like...?"
"Nothing." Their doctor had announced, devoid of any emotion, not even looking up from her chart, not noticing the horrified expression on Norma's face.
"Never? Zero? Nothing?"
"I know, I know..." She muttered out darkly, cursing her incorrectly positioned placenta. Her sexual frustrations weren't helping her already fragile moods.
"But..." She puffed out an irritated, exasperated breath, gesturing at her ever growing stomach vaguely, like a grumpy toddler who couldn't express herself.
"Come here." He hooked his hands into the crooks of her elbows, guiding her over to the mirror. She rolled her eyes, sighing as she looked herself up and down, unimpressed at her appearance.
"You're beautiful." He murmured, and she looked to the side disbelievingly, snorting at him. He stared at her till she looked back, catching her eye in the mirror. His hands slid up her sides, hooking into the rucked up fabric still around her chest, pulling it up. She raised her arms automatically, letting him pull it over her head, and then dropping her arms, wrapping them self consciously around her bare chest.
"You're beautiful." He repeated, and she started to believe he meant it, as he dropped his lips to her shoulder again, repeating his earlier actions, his hands sliding to her wrists, tugging them away from her body, and placing her arms back down by her sides. He glanced up, hungrily taking in her all in, his gaze dropping to her chest as his fingers trailed lightly along her arms, before brushing her hair back.
"And I like your hair." He chuckled at her, raising his eyebrows at the dark roots that were coming through, pleased when she smiled back at him. "It's very... Courtney Love."
"Well, that's great. That's exactly the look I was going for." She deadpanned, fixing him with an unimpressed stare in the mirror, and he laughed again, watching as she shivered a little, goosebumps springing up along her arms. He reluctantly stepped away from her for a second, grabbing something from the one drawer she had graciously allowed him to put his stuff in, and spinning back to her, gesturing for her to raise her arms over her head. She complied, letting him pull a huge, navy t shirt onto her, with an embroidered White Pine Bay police department patch on one shoulder. He tugged the fabric over her stomach, smoothing it down her sides, smiling as she turned slightly to look at the insignia on her shoulder.
"You're legally part of the White Pine Bay police department right now." He joked.
"Fantastic. Gimme your gun. I got a score to settle with a real estate guy."
He chuckled, as he let his hands drift down her sides, sliding to stop on her stomach. He pulled gently, tugging her back against him, and she rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and sliding her hands over his.
"You think Norman will be ok?" She said, pressing his hands more firmly against her stomach.
He opened his mouth to reassure her, when she gasped suddenly and he followed suit a split second later, his mouth dropping open.
"She's wriggling." She announced happily, her eyes flying open to gaze at his wondrous, awestruck expression in the reflection.
"Wow..." He breathed out, finally getting to feel his daughter moving and kicking. She grabbed at his hands, shifting them a little, wincing slightly at the gentle pressure of the baby's foot connecting with Alex's hand through her stomach. "She's really in there, huh?"
"You didn't believe me before?" She laughed, as they both jolted with another little movement.
"No, I just- She's really in there." He said seriously, and she smiled broadly, watching as the Big Bad Sheriff of White Pine Bay, who had once threatened to "burn her down to the ground", gazed happily down at her stomach like the sappiest, gentlest man alive.
"Not for much longer." She reminded him, and he kissed her cheek gently, wrapping his arms around her more fully, feeling her lean back, relaxing back into his body.
2 chapters to go... *sob*
