"Then you see the beautiful, radiant young mother."
"My mother takes Easter really seriously," Peggy warned, as she sat on Ted's bed while he dug through his closet to find the appropriate tie to wear when they attended the Easter Sunday service with her family the next morning.
Peggy hadn't really been in Ted's bedroom yet, since the most they'd done in the past few weeks was steal kisses in the kitchen after meals and on the couch during commercial breaks. It had been the first time since Peggy had accepted her job as a secretary that someone from work had courted her rather than brought her to bed right away. Tonight, he'd made her baked chicken for dinner and then insisted she help him pick out his tie to impress her mother, who he'd made a so-so impression with during their first meeting.
Truth be told, she liked the simplicity of their relationship, but it was getting harder to keep her hands to herself. So sitting on his bed with a view of his ass in blue jeans as he bent over to dig through a bin made her heart flutter.
Ted stood up to show her another tie and suddenly Peggy gasped, a tight feeling in her stomach making her reflexively put a hand on it. She felt pressure under her hand.
Ted dropped the tie and immediately was on his knees in front of her, a hand perched gently on her arm. He watched her carefully.
"The baby - I think it's kicking," she told him with a smile, grasping one of his hands with the one that wasn't busy feeling the movement underneath her skin. She placed it with hers and grinned when his face lit up.
"I can't believe we made a life together," she mused.
"Isn't it perfect?" he asked with a sentimental smile. Ted stared at her stomach and then directly at her when the movement died down.
"I'm so in love with you," he told her, before pressing both of his hands down on the mattress so he could rise up to kiss her passionately.
Peggy smiled against his lips and then brought her hands up to his cheeks. She guided his face away from hers only far enough that she could speak without his mouth getting in the way.
"Say it again," she begged, opening her eyes to look at his.
"I'm in love with you Peggy," he whispered before kissing her again.
Peggy's hands wandered to his shirt, a simple long-sleeved tee that he'd worn around the apartment all day. She grabbed fistfuls of the fabric, the first time she'd done so since the fateful night in her living room.
Ted's fingers rested on her hips, gingerly at first, but as Peggy began to lean back against his mattress, they grabbed on tighter. When she was fully reclined on his bed, one of his hands rested next to her shoulders. He was contorted a bit because of her stomach, but neither seemed to notice as their months' worth of built up passion was finally being released.
Simply making out wasn't cutting it for Peggy after a few minutes, so she snaked her hand down the front of Ted's shirt until she hit his belt. She wrapped her fingers around it, and Ted broke the kiss to look her in the eye.
"You're sure?" he asked her carefully, though his eyes were eager and his skin was flushed.
Peggy only nodded. He didn't need any other affirmation.
~•~•~•~
She was floating in a pool next to him, though he was a full arm's length away. The sun was setting behind the trees, but a humidity worse than any she'd felt in the city had settled in its place. Her bikini and the water did little to cool her off and she felt herself sweating, the moisture collecting between her breasts.
"The fireworks are going to start soon," she could hear him say, though it was muffled a bit by the water that rested in her ears as she floated.
"But tomorrow is Easter," she said, confused.
"Peggy, it's Labor Day. You're not pregnant anymore."
Suddenly, the floating was disorienting. She could taste his baked chicken in the back of her mouth and she tried to put her feet on the bottom of the pool, but a dizziness set in when she lifted her head.
His grip was suddenly tight on her shoulder, and she could feel one of his hands resting on her back. The water started to seep away until she could feel the sheets of Ted's bed, damp against her skin.
"Peggy? Sweetheart?"
She kept her eyes clamped shut as another wave of dizziness jolted her. His lips pressed against her temple, and the hand on her back lifted away to brush her hair from her face.
She tried to put a hand out in front of her to stabilize herself because she felt like she was swaying, but Ted's hand grasped it.
"Watch where you put your hands. You just finished throwing up on the blankets."
"What?" She willed her eyes open to see the mess she'd made all over his bed and his t-shirt that she'd put on before they'd fallen asleep.
Her stomach was suddenly hit with an intense cramping pain that worked its way up from the small of her back to her belly button. She gritted her teeth.
"You're running a fever. I tried to wake you to get you to take some aspirin, and you puked while you were half-asleep. Do you think you can walk to the bathroom so we can get you in a cold bath to help bring down your temperature?" He rubbed her back in small circles.
She nodded, though the pain in her abdomen wasn't subsiding. She didn't think the flu was going around, but maybe Ted's kids had brought a bug with them when they stayed the last weekend. It figured, too, that the first time she'd ever been in his bed, she ended up being horribly sick. She glanced at the clock to see that it was only a little before 6 in the morning.
"Oh God, church is only in a few hours," she croaked as Ted kept a grip on her and started to carefully push back the sheets in order to contain the mess as best as he could. "I have to call my mom."
"I'm sure she'll understand," he said, as he began to fold back the blankets covering her. "It's not like y - oh my god."
Peggy looked at Ted, who stared wide-eyed at her lap. Nervously, her eyes followed his until she was looking down between her legs.
Even in the minimal dawn light, it was clear that the dark liquid all over the sheets under her thighs was blood.
She completely froze as her mind raced, unable to focus on a single thought.
"Are… are you in pain?" He was gripping her tighter by the second. She felt the pressure in her arm, but she slowly started to lose feeling everywhere else.
When she nodded and doubled over from a sudden searing across her belly, she felt him start to get out of bed.
"We're taking you to the hospital, okay?"
She could hear his voice shake just like his hands did as he helped her up out of bed. He leaned down to get something, but Peggy couldn't see what it was. At first, she thought it was just her eyes adjusting to the light but then her vision started to fade. She reached her hand out for Ted's arm, but felt her entire body start to fall forward along with it.
The last thing she heard was Ted saying her name, though it sounded as if his voice was falling off a cliff.
"Peggy?"
She blinked rapidly, her eyes desperate to adjust to the bright lights. They watered impulsively until her vision came into focus.
Her eyes trailed down from the fluorescent lights to Ted's face, which was quite close to hers as he ran his fingers through her hair. His other hand held one of hers, and a quick glance at it showed an IV running out of the top of it. Peggy felt her face pale and quickly diverted her gaze to Ted.
Now that her vision was clearer, she could tell that he'd been crying. His eyes were red and watery, only getting worse by the second.
"It's September, right? Did I drown in the pool? I think I started to pass out." Her voice cracked as she spoke, and sounded so much quieter than she had intended.
Ted made a strange face and squeezed her hand. Peggy felt her stomach sink.
"Sweetheart, it's Easter. You…" He trailed off and looked at her hand, swallowing hard. When he looked back up at her, a tear started down his cheek.
"You had a miscarriage," he told her with a wavering voice. "And you have to deliver the baby. We've been waiting for you to wake up."
Peggy immediately shook her head and began to cry, prompting Ted to kiss her forehead, resting his lips there as he cried with her. They stayed like that for a few moments until a nurse appeared. Ted reluctantly pulled away when the young nurse cleared her throat.
"The drugs should be wearing off now, so it's time to push," she told Peggy, who blanched.
"Don't leave," Peggy begged, turning to Ted who gripped her hand tighter.
"He already pleaded enough to be in here while you slept," the nurse said, taking note of Peggy's vitals.
The doctor let himself into the room, putting gloves on as he looked at both Peggy and Ted with pity. Peggy choked back a sob.
"Are you ready?" the man asked, as the nurse began propping up Peggy's knees. She could feel herself start to panic, the déja vu of her first experience giving birth seizing her like a chokehold.
She turned to Ted, who squeezed her hand.
"I'm right here," he assured her, wiping at the remnants of tears still left on his face with his free hand. Peggy ran her thumb over his hand that was tightly holding hers. She inhaled, closed her eyes, and then faced the doctor, who was staring at her.
She nodded to him against her better judgement.