Lauren Reynolds was an impatient woman, and waiting two minutes for the small test in her hand was practically unbearable as she shook it, acting like that would somehow show her the result. The small white stick had yet to tell her anything as she glanced down at it. She'd read the box enough times to memorize what sign was which and she felt her stomach turning with nervousness as she looked down. The small green screen showed her a single hortizonal line. She bit her lip, letting out the breath she didn't know she had been holding, throwing the negative test in the trash beside the sink.
She strolled out of her and Ian's bathroom, a little dissapointed but it had only been a week, right?
The white curtain of her sundress danced in the wind as she went outside. She always loved to sit outside on hot days. Normally she would garden, pull weeds and plant flowers. Ian was away for a few days and Louise had taken Declan to the store with her. It was utterly quiet as the villa was not exactly far from civilazation but it was far enough out that city noise was unnoticable.
She breathed in the fresh air, the wind gently brushed her skin while the sun rays bathed her. As perfect as it all seemed, there was still the gut feeling that something was wrong. She had no idea what but she just had this growing knot in her stomach telling her that not everything was okay.
"Hey," Ian asked, rapping on the closed bathroom door. He couldn't hear anything beyond it. After a long moment of nothing there was a small clank of something hitting glass, a small cry following after. "Hey!" He repeated, more frantically, opening the door. "Lauren!" He exclaimed, only to find his fiancé dropped to her knees on the carpet, her face in her hands. He kneeled down to try and meet her eye, but she kept her face hidden behind her fingers, although the small sounds escaping her assured him that she was crying.
"Ian, it's been two months." Slowly, she let her hands fall as she mumbled out the words. They locked eyes and he put a hand to her back, rubbing in small circles, trying to calm her down. It was true, they had decided to try for a baby two months ago, and a box of pregnancy tests later they were still unsuccessful. Ian knew it had to be hard for her, he knew how much she wanted a baby. He found himself pulling her up from the floor, her small frame making it easy to walk her to the bed, sitting her down before putting both of his hands to her tear stained face.
"Lauren, listen to me." She looked up at him. "Are you listening?" He asked, and after a brief moment she nodded, seemingly lost in his blue eyes. "I'm going to make an appointment with a doctor and we're going to make sure that everything's okay. I promise you, love, we won't stop trying." He kissed her gently, her face still in his hands before their lips disconnected so that she could hug him tightly.
"It's gonna be okay, right?" She asked into his shoulder.
"Of course, love. Now, what do you want for breakfast, Declan and I will bring it to you in bed." She was surely about to protest when he kissed her softly, cutting her off. She smiled as she crawled back under the covers, requesting pancakes as she grabbed a book from her nightstand, watching Ian Doyle leave with a smile. She wiped her eyes, she was feeling a little better but still just had a certain twist in her stomach, a twist of worry but she'd been so stressed lately that she simply blamed that. She had not been going to work as often as normal and it seemed that Ian was slowly trying to pull her out of that world, knwoing that he'd have to once she was pregnant.
With a baby on their hands it's not like she could work full time, travel and be at risk of getting arrested everyday. He'd just work harder, it didn't matter so long as they could all be a family. So long as they all had each other.
Ian woke up the sleeping Declan, instructing him to get dressed and ready as he started on Lauren's breakfast. The little boy was quick to join and help him cook. Louise too, offered to help but Ian simply told her that he wanted to do something special himself so she could take a small break this morning.
A short time later Declan came running in and Lauren quickly put her book down as the four year old crawled into bed with her and she wrapped an arm around him as he leaned into her side. She kissed his curly head of hair as Ian walked in with a tray of breakfast food for the three of them as Ian went around the other side of the bed, Declan in between them as they all smiling as they ate breakfast in bed.
After a while Declan dozed off by her side and Ian left to schelude a doctor's appointment so Lauren decided to continue her book. She pulled the blanket up around Declan, kissing his cheek lightly, wishing that keeping him out of this life was as easy as getting her out the game. If Ian could do that than maybe there was still hope. Maybe there was still a chance that her precious little boy would get to choose what he did with his life and would be able to live in some sense of normalacy.