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Chapter 6
Branch is pretty sure the earth is moving. Either that or the jackhammer pounding in his head is actually causing his skull to reverberate. Whatever it is, his head feels like it might really fall off his shoulders and his stomach is vehemently protesting his drinking binge the night before.
He has to close his eyes twice before they adjust to the sunlight pouring through his bedroom window and he's able to actually look around. One plus, he's definitely in his own house. It takes a couple of minutes for the pounding to level off a bit and his memory of the night before to clear up.
He'd seen Cady and went to drown his sorrows. He'd talked to Vic and she had brought him home.
He swings his legs off the bed and sits up slowly, hoping the nausea won't actually manifest, and thankfully, it doesn't. He finds a note on his bedside table from Vic that makes him want to roll his eyes, but he doesn't for fear that any perceived movement will make his pounding head worse.
Call me when you wake up so I know you didn't give yourself alcohol poisoning. –Vic
Branch manages to get to the kitchen to make coffee, downing aspirin along the way, and then stumbles through a shower. He feels human enough afterward that he thinks he'd better give Vic that call.
"What?" She answers sharply.
"Good morning to you, too." He replies, the aspirin having dulled his headache and the bite in her tone improving his mood.
"Ugh, Branch. Why are you in such a good mood?" She huffs.
"I didn't drink enough to throw up this morning. What's your excuse?" He asks, thinking that's a pretty good reason considering how he felt when he first woke up.
"Yeah, well, I did throw up this morning. Twice." Vic informs him and he can hear water running briefly in the background and what he assumes is her rinsing her mouth out. It makes him wince.
"Sorry." He mutters, trying to sympathize. He sips more coffee and contemplates how good of an idea food is at the moment.
"Yeah, me too." She scoffs. "But regardless, I think morning sickness is here to stay, so…" Vic continues.
"Yeah. So, I saw your note, figured I'd call and thank you for carting me home." He says, getting around to the main reason he called. He's really glad he didn't wake up on the floor of Henry's bar.
"I owed you one." She tells him, beginning to look through her own kitchen for breakfast and hoping she'll be able to keep it down since the nausea has passed for the moment.
"Well, as long as we're working on this whole friends thing, you want to tell me what you were doing at the Red Pony last night instead of at home with your husband?" He questions again; less susceptible to distraction than he was the night before and still just as curious.
"I guess in all fairness, since you did spill your guts about Cady last night…" She responds, having resigned herself to the fact that there would be no more hiding her separation than there would be her pregnancy.
"He wants a divorce." She says, biting her lip, though she knows he can't see her.
"What?" The surprise is clear in his voice.
"You heard me." She sighs. "I told Sean about the baby and he kindly informed me that he's leaving, baby or no baby."
Branch can't believe what he's hearing, but he can read between the lines well enough. He hadn't paid much attention to Vic's husband in the past, but he hadn't thought the man would walk away from his child. Maybe that was the thing though, a man, in Branch's opinion, didn't treat his wife the way Sean did either. At least from the little bit Branch had picked up on.
"I see." He doesn't know quite how to respond to her admission, but knows she probably doesn't want to hear an apology. She'll likely get enough of those to drive her crazy once word gets out.
"Yep." She agrees somberly, feeling the weight of the last 24 hours pressing down on her. "And you know, I can't say I didn't see it coming, because a part of me knew things had been bad for a while, but what really gets me is his reaction to the baby. Like it's merely an inconvenience, or that it doesn't matter. That I did not see coming; I don't know why, but I didn't." She admits, shaking her head.
"I'd offer to kick his ass, but we both know if that's what you wanted, you'd do it yourself." He knows the latter is the truth, but wonders if she can tell he's serious about the first part, too.
Either way, he gets a snort of laughter in response.
"I can't decide. I keep going back and forth between wanting to strangle him and just telling him to stay the hell away from me." She's angrier than she could've imagined at Sean, but beneath the anger is disappointment in the person she'd married. She doesn't know which is worse.
"Yeah. Look, I know you don't want my opinion, but take it from me, as someone with plenty of dysfunctional family issues, if he doesn't want the baby then you're gonna be better off without him." He tells her, hoping she doesn't get defensive about his unsolicited advice. He's almost surprised when she actually agrees with him.
"I know; I spent a lot of time thinking about things last night and I think the only thing worse than him leaving the way he did would've been if he'd stayed, knowing it was just for the baby."
"It's his loss if he doesn't want to be involved." Branch comments and thinks of his own family. Thinks of the rocky road he's had with his father over the years and how he's always thought that he'd be a better husband, a better father, than Barlow.
It's something he'd thought of a time or two when he was seeing Cady and now she wanted nothing to do with him. And here was Sean Keegan, with a wife and a baby on the way, and he was just throwing it away.
"Thanks. So, I know you were pretty drunk last night, but did you mean what you said? About being… happy," she substitutes, "if you found out you were going to be a dad?" She asks.
It's something that had stuck with her when she had gotten home and was playing the conversation back in her head. He hadn't seemed at all unsure that Sean should've been happy about her news. He hadn't hesitated to tell her that his reaction would've been quite different, in so many words. She couldn't help but wonder if it was the alcohol talking or the truth.
"The alcohol might've messed with my filter Vic, but I do want kids someday and the way I see it, if someone I loved and planned to spend my life with was giving me that, then I wouldn't throw it back in their face." He explains.
It unexpectedly makes her eyes prick just a little bit, hearing him describe such a reaction, hearing him speak in a way she doesn't think she ever has before. Damn hormones, she thinks. It makes her realize there's a lot more to Branch Connally than most people see or look for; she certainly hadn't.
"I guess that's the difference." She mutters. "I don't know if Sean ever really loved me, not for the long haul. And he certainly doesn't want me or the baby now."
He really wants to kick Sean's ass. What can he say? He has a bit of a protective streak when it comes to vulnerable women and he isn't used to hearing Vic sound that way, but it certainly incites the emotion in him. Nevermind the fact that she'd likely chew him up and spit him out if he so much as hinted at the thought that she needed protection.
"Sorry, I shouldn't be dumping all this on you. I don't know why I am, it's just that you're the only one who knows so far, so…" She speaks up in his brief silence, before he has a chance to respond.
"It's fine. I get it." He assures her. He's definitely getting to see a different side of her than he has in the past.
"Well, I appreciate it. And you won't have to keep this a secret much longer; I'm going to tell Walt everything Monday, get all that worked out." She promises.
They wrap up the phone call fairly quickly after that and Vic finds that she feels better about talking to someone about what's going on than she expected to. She nods to herself as she takes out pans from the cabinet and ingredients from the fridge. Branch is right; it's Sean's loss if he's stupid enough to walk away from their baby.
"We're going to be alright, though." She says, placing a hand briefly on her stomach and thinking of the articles she'd read on talking to the baby and getting it used to the sound of her voice even though she knows it can't hear her yet.
"Moretti's are tough, so we'll take care of each other, alright kid? That's the deal. And if your dad doesn't want to be around then we'll deal with that, too. I promise." She says, taking a breath and trying to reassure them both.
When Sean calls to ask her if she's signed the divorce papers yet, Vic tells him in no uncertain terms that she isn't signing any papers that don't mention the baby. She won't pretend it doesn't exist. She ignores the two phone calls and the text message asking the same thing she receives from him throughout the rest of the weekend. And when she gets to work on Monday morning, a little late as she'd wanted to wait for the morning sickness that's becoming routine to pass, she feels steadier about what's to come. She's also grateful that everyone's already there so she won't have to wait any longer to talk to Walt.
"Hey, you got a minute?" She asks, poking her head into his office.
"Sure." Walt responds, looking up from the papers on his desk. She shuts the door behind her when she steps inside. "Everything okay?" He asks.
"Yes. I think so, or it will be." She says, trying to smile. He merely raises an eyebrow as he waits for her to continue.
"Right. Um, I need to tell you that, well, I'm pregnant." She says, feeling nerves flutter in her stomach.
It's obvious that he's surprised, that he doesn't quite know how to respond.
"That's uh, congratulations, Vic." He finally says, smiling.
"Thanks." She nods, smiling back.
"I hope you'll give my congratulations to your husband, too." Walt continues, knowing Sean hasn't always been the fondest of Vic's job or her coworkers. Especially him.
"Um, actually, that's the other thing I needed to talk to you about." She pauses briefly. "It's going to get around, so I figure I might as well go ahead and tell you that Sean and I are separating. He's asking for a divorce." She explains.
This surprises him more than her original announcement. Walt knew they had problems, off and on, but he would've assumed things were better if she was pregnant. His mind flashes quickly to Branch's helpful nature where Vic is concerned recently and please God don't let Branch have had anything to do with this, he thinks. Almost as quickly as he's thought it though, he brushes it aside, not believing Vic would get involved with anyone while she was still married.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He responds soberly. "If there's anything I can do…" He trails off.
"Yeah, thanks. So I uh, I guess you'll be putting me behind a desk for the next seven months or so…" She bites her lip, dreading it already.
"Not a lot of experience with pregnant deputies, but yeah, I think modified duty is a given." His lips quirk a little. He can guess how happy that's going to make her.
"Right." She sighs, pursing her lips.
"Alright, well, if you don't have any objections, we can go ahead and tell everyone you'll be on light duty for the foreseeable future?" He questions.
"Yeah, that'd be great." She agrees and they walk out to main area together.
They already have Branch's attention, though that doesn't surprise Vic as she'd felt his eyes follow her into Walt's office a few minutes earlier, knowing what her purpose this morning was.
"Uh, everyone, I have an announcement." Walt begins. "Vic has just informed me that she is expecting, so starting now she's going to be on modified duty." He finishes.
"Oh!" Ruby is the first to react, practically bubbling as she rises and starts over to Vic.
"Expecting what?" Ferg questions, still confused.
"A baby." Branch shoots him a crooked grin as he glances his way, jerking his head toward the women as Ruby gushes as if to say "C'mon."
The commotion has died down considerably some time later, with Walt retreating to his office and Branch leaning on the edge of Vic's side of the desk, debating leads on their current case, when the last person Vic expects to see walks into the office. She sighs.
"What are you doing here, Sean?"
Okay, so it's been a while… but hopefully the extra-long update makes up for it. Please review!