A/N: After the big revelation, here comes one uneasy part... :(
15. Asking
Emie didn't stay off for long that time. She was more aware than ever that she had put herself in the worst of situations.
First, she was stuck in a time and space far far away from her own.
Second, she was pregnant with a man who could have been her great-grand-father.
Third, she wanted to keep it. Because it was James' child. Hopefully, it would have his blue eyes.
She smiled at the thought.
"Henry, I would really like to go out now."
Henry rolled his eyes and kept gripping the doorknob. Emie had tried to sneak out of her room numerous times now, but as their quarters were still awfully close to the morgue, he was trying most hardly to prevent her from being sick.
To be honest, Henry didn't really care that Emie had slept with Nicholls. He had known from the very beginning that gaining her heart wouldn't have been easy. There had been that slight hope of course, when they both let their mutual attraction give in, but now that she was having his baby and that he was dead, Henry knew he had left to no chance to win over Emie's heart.
"Emie, I told you, you can't get out now, it's too...bloody out here!"
"Then blindfold me! I need to get out, Henry, please, this place is driving me mad!"
Out of everything, what infuriated him even more was that he was unable to say no to that woman.
"Alright, move out of the way, I'm coming in."
Emie breathed in the sunlit air in the hospital's garden.
"I've never felt so peaceful in a long long time."
Henry looked at her, that special glint in his grey eyes on again, and she stared at him for a long moment.
He himself was staring at her growing belly.
Four months she had been pregnant now, and it started to show, especially since Emie was so naturally slight.
She glanced at her stomach and smiled, pushing a hand to it.
When she looked back up at Henry, his eyes had hardened.
"Henry?"
"I need to talk with you."
And she knew it wouldn't be an easy talk.
"What is it Henry?"
He sighed and put his face in his hands while, next to him on the bench, Emie stared at him, concerned.
"Henry, you said you wanted to talk, then talk!"
He snorted. "Damn, you really are a pain in the ass, Emie, d'you know that?"
She chuckled darkly. "Yes, you've said it quite enough times for me to know that, actually."
He sighed again. "It's about...this."
"This?"
"Yeah, this!" He gestured at her belly and Emie put a protective hand on it.
"What do you-?"
"Look, I know you want to keep it, and I understand you, somehow, after all, it's a part of Nicholls and everything, but you have to be reasonable."
"Reasonable? How?" She really didn't get any of this.
"Emie, have you got any idea of how this must look to other people?" She shook her head. "They all think it's mine."
Her blue eyes widened. "Oh. Damn."
"Yeah, damn, indeed. Especially since I...you know...haven't...married you yet."
Emie kept blocked onto the words. "Yet? You intend to?"
Henry's eyes locked on hers and she knew he was becoming more serious than ever. "Emie, if I don't marry you, it would be as if I publicly announced to the world it isn't my baby, and, therefore, that you're a whore."
Emie let out a squeak. "I don't want anyone to say that of me!"
"I know, neither do I. So..." he let himself fall onto his knees and took the hand to was resting on her belly "Emie Tate, would you marry me? For...decoy?"
She chuckled. "Henry, I can't marry you, it would mean that I would have to-"
"You don't have to do anything. Emie, for heaven's sake, d'you really think I would sink so low as to make love to you while you're attending Nicholls' child?"
She blushed at the thought. "I hope not."
"I won't. Now tell me, will you or won't you?"
She sighed. "I will, if I must."
And she got up and took a walk on her own. She needed it like air.
Henry sat back on the bench and took his head in his hands, cursing himself.
If everything, he really hadn't intended to marry the woman he loved out of generosity.
And he hated that he liked she had said yes nonetheless.
I hate that situation, don't you?
Will get better, of course, don't worry. ^^
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