Chapter 18
Her eyes burned with tears she would not allow to fall. "What does he mean that you don't want this baby?" she asked, fighting the urge to yell.

Draco threw a scathing glare at his friend. "Can we not discuss this here?" he asked, returning his attention to her. Nodding, she got to her feet and left the dining room. "Was that really necessary?" he asked Blaise. "I accidentally out your wife's pregnancy so you try to ruin my relationship? Some friend you are, Blaise."

"I'm sorry, Draco," Pansy whispered, rising to hug him.

He accepted her embrace. "Come over if you need to," he replied. She nodded and let him go. He walked swiftly from the dining room to the living room, and stepped into the floo. Hermione could often be found in the nursery, and that was the first place he looked. She was organizing clothes, small dresses hung on small hangers, in the closet. "What Blaise said-"

"I don't care, Draco," she replied tiredly.

He walked over to her and took the pile of clothes from her hands. "Yes, you do," he said softly. "Otherwise you wouldn't be crying right now. And I feel awful because I'm the cause of it yet again."

She took two outfits and hung them in the closet. "What Blaise said - is it true?" she asked.

Draco shook his head. "You know I was scared and I thought maybe someone else should help you raise the baby, but I want to do this," he told her.

Her arms crossed over her chest. "Why should I believe that?" she wondered.

Sighing, he moved away from her and sat down in the rocking chair near the window. "Because I love you," he said honestly. "I have never, in my life, loved anyone as much as I love you. The last couple of months, I've been really excited about the baby. Every time we've heard her heartbeat, when we found out we were going to have a daughter, even when you and Pansy go crazy buying clothes, all I've felt is happy. I'm not scared anymore. I just want to be here with you every step of the way."

"I want to believe you," she said. He breathed a sigh of relief, but she held up a hand that let him know he was not off the hook. "But how can I when you tell me one thing and Blaise another?"

"I told Blaise that months ago, before we found out that you were pregnant," he explained. "You were so gung-ho and I was terrified, but I don't feel that way anymore. I just wish I could figure out how to make you see that what I'm saying is the truth."

She finished hanging the clothes in silence, though it was often punctuated by sniffling. When her task was completed, she left the nursery for the master bedroom. Still dressed in the clothes she had worn to dinner, she kicked off her ballet flats and climbed under the blankets. She spotted Draco in the doorway, his gray eyes wet with tears. "Will you come sleep with me?" she asked. "I just need my best friend right now."

He did as she asked; slipping into bed beside her and wrapping his arm around her waist. His hand landed on the baby's foot as she kicked. "Guess she's mad at me too," he murmured. "Can't say I blame her."

Hermione stilled his hand, but continued to hold it. "Just sleep, Draco," she whispered.

The next morning, Hermione announced that she would be staying with Pansy and the kids for awhile. "Blaise walked out last night, and she's not doing well," she told him over breakfast.

Draco cursed under his breath. "Why would he do that?" he wondered. "How do you just up and abandon your wife and children? What Pansy did doesn't seem terrible enough to warrant that."

"He had a right to know," she muttered. "I just wish it hadn't been us who let it slip."

He gathered up the dirty dishes and deposited them in the sink. "I'll go with you," he offered. "I can watch Iz and Vincent to give her a break."

Hermione shook her head. "I was hoping you might try to find Blaise," she said.

Draco wanted to agree, hoping it would repair the damage done to both couples, but he was hesitant to follow through. "I'm not sure I'm the person he wants to see right now," he replied. "And I don't think I'm ready to talk to him either."

"Fine, then I'll go," she decided. "He thinks we're on the same side here anyhow, our partners lying to us and all. I'll talk to him. Just point me in a direction."

She rose from the table, but he quickly stopped her. "I thought we were okay," he said. "I...I thought you believed me."

Turning around, she faced him with a sad smile on her lips. "I think we'll be okay, Draco," she told him. "What you said last night, I believe you. I just wish you had confided in me the way you did Blaise. We could have held off a bit longer if you really had misgivings about doing this."

He closed the short distance between them and kissed her tenderly. "Any doubts I had about being with you and raising our daughter are gone," he assured her. "They've been gone for a long time. This is where I want to be."

"I know," she murmured. "But right now we need to be with Pansy and Blaise."

Nodding, he left the kitchen to get dressed for the day. "Good luck with Blaise," he said when she entered the bedroom. "You'll probably be able to find him at the office. He used to sleep there when his mother drove him crazy about his betrothed. I think that's probably your best bet."

She offered a smile in reply and soon followed him to the floo. "Hopefully, I'll be at Pansy's in a couple of hours, and I'll have Blaise with me," she told him optimistically.

"You could always fake labor," he suggested.

Hermione grabbed a handful of floo powder. "Please don't jinx it," she replied. Stepping into the fireplace, she called out for Blaise's office. She found him asleep on the sofa with a throw pillow over his face. A half empty snifter of brandy had left a ring on the glass coffee table beside him. "This place is disgusting," she said only to herself before she shook Blaise awake.

He appeared startled, sitting up quickly before settling back against the armrest. "I figured it was only a matter of time before one of you found me," he muttered. "Malfoy tell you to look here?"

Hermione nodded and sat down in the small space he had vacated at the other end of the couch. "Why did you leave?" she asked. He eyed her, but said nothing. "Pansy's scared, Blaise. She's afraid of having another baby, she afraid that she's lost you again, she's afraid that you might not love her anymore."

Lines appeared on his forehead as he sat up. "She is?" he asked softly. Hermione nodded. "You know that's crazy, right? You know it isn't true. I was just mad that she hid it from me. I'd never stop loving her."

"Your behavior last night suggests otherwise," she replied sourly.

Blaise nodded contritely. "Are you and Draco okay?" he asked. She shrugged, but told him they would be. "I'm sorry that I said what I did. You and Draco did nothing wrong, but I still took it out on you. Think we can be okay?"

Worried about a pain in her side, Hermione had missed most of what her friend had said. "We can be," she said, holding her stomach, "if you get me to St. Mungo's. I think something's wrong."