Notes:
I'm a bit nervous about this one... for different reasons... I really hope you guys like it... and it makes sense...
Cause it was just you and that was just me and we were just kids back then tryna figure out what it was
Thea was a bit surprised about how not weird it was to talk to Ollie and Sara and just how natural it felt and easy the conversation flowed. They had talked a bit more about the kids before moving on to some of what had transpired in Ollie and Sara's lives during the past five years and were now sitting on the ground close to the slide Eloise seemed to prefer because she could climb up to it several different ways and she seemed to prefer the more difficult options. Her niece had only stopped by really quick to get a couple of sips from her water bottle with dinosaurs on it and grab a handful of dried fruit and nuts Sara provided her with, and given them time for a quick introduction, before speeding off again. Her nephew, on the other hand, was staying close by crawling from one of his parents to the other, then pulling himself up on their legs just to do it all over again, squealing excitedly the entire time. He was adorable. And Ollie and Sara were just keeping up the conversation with her while helping their son out without a second thought. Which was a bit weird. Not that they were in tune with their son, but watching Ollie and Sara be parents. It was a bit strange, but in a good way. She just needed to get used to it.
"I'm sorry, Speedy, I'm only now realizing that I still owe you an answer." She looked at her brother confused, not sure what he was talking about. There had been a break in their conversation because of Eloise's quick appearance and Ollie introducing the two of them, and she wasn't sure what he was talking about right now.
"Look, I can't say for sure what the reason for your friend's strange and out of character behavior might be, she could just simply be acting out but from what you told me I think it is very possible that she might have started taking drugs." Right, she'd asked him about his thoughts on Margo's strange behavior, right before he had run off to get his daughter down from the roof of the play structure. His answer wasn't at all what she had expected, and she looked from Ollie to Sara out of disbelief. But she didn't get any answer from the other woman. Obviously, Sara had no idea what they were talking about and just looked at them confused, intrigued and a bit concerned.
"Why would you… what makes you… are you sure?" Margo taking drugs? It wasn't something she could wrap her head around right now, and why would that be the first assumption Ollie would make? What did he even know about drugs to make an assumption like that? He had to be wrong. Right?
"I'm not saying she is taking drugs for sure. I'm just saying it sounds a lot to me like she is." He looked at her concerned and compassionately. She still didn't know how he'd figure thought. What had she said that made him come to this conclusion? It made little sense and again, what did Ollie know about drugs, anyway?
"How do you know?" It was the only thing she could come up with and the answer she needed to verify his words and figure out if there was even the smallest possibility that he could be right.
"Because her behavior sounds a lot like mine used to be." Those were the last words she had expected to come out of her big brother's mouth and her head turned to Sara in complete and utter shock, expecting her to deny Ollie's words, but the look on Sara's face said it all. Ollie had been taking drugs when they were younger. Ollie had experience with drugs.
"What… but…" Her mind was just blank, unable to actually process the information her brother had just provided her with. How could this be? Ollie would've never… and if what he said were true, she'd known, right?
"Look, Thea, there is a lot that I used to do that I'm not proud of. And I could go the easy route and blame my drug and alcohol problems for those choices and, to some degree, they might have been, but the choices were still mine. And I'm not… taking drugs was one of the stupidest things I've ever done, especially letting it become a regular occurrence. But this isn't about me and one day I might be willing to have this conversation with you, but not right now. If I'm right and drugs play a part in Margo's behavior, she needs help. The professional kind. It is not easy to break a drug habit." There was a shadow overtaking his eyes while sharing a part of his life she had never been aware of, he caught Sara's eyes at the end of his explanation and she turned her head back to the blonde… she wasn't sure how to interpret the look on her face but whatever she was thinking about or recalling wasn't good, that was for sure.
She was glad when Eloise came back and pretty much let herself fall onto Ollie's lap, letting them know that she needed a break and a real snack. The four-year-old stayed where she dropped down, leaning her back against the chest behind her while eating, and this led to a change in subject to something less heavy and worrying. Giving her time to put her best friend's troubles aside for the moment and to mull everything Ollie had said over at a later time.
Thea focused back on Ollie, Sara and their kids and enjoyed getting to know little Eloise a bit better. The little girl was a bit shy at first but warmed up pretty quickly and had a lot to share and tell her about. It was very cute. Even though she had trouble following her stories most of the time and Ollie and Sara regularly filled in some of the blanks their daughter's recounting of events left out.
She wasn't sure how long they'd been sitting on the ground chatting and eating, getting to know each other again in a way and just enjoying each other's company when Sara got up to go to the bathroom and deciding to take both kids with her, to hopefully avoid another sprint to the keep pants dry, as she had put it.
Once Sara and the kids had left, Ollie and her just sat there in comfortable silence for a while and it was only because of the conversations they've just had and how normal everything felt that she decided to bring something up she had initially decided not to yet.
"So, you guys are married?" It was a stupid question, and she knew that, but she didn't know how to bring it up without it sounding accusatory or whatever. She was just curious how that had happened.
"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Her brother's focus was completely on her now and he looked curious, which led to her considering how to phrase what she wanted to ask and not sound rude. But she knew the moment she started that she was seriously screwing it up and hoping her bro knew what she meant and how she meant it.
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"I'm mean, I can see you deciding to marry her because she was pregnant, because you know… mom and dad… and… you know… but I can't really see Sara going along with that. So, how exactly did you manage to get Sara to agree to marry you?" Thea's question was unexpected, but not unreasonable. Everyone who knew Sara knew her view on marriage. At least what it used to be. He knew first-hand how much it had changed during the years they have been married. At least where they were concerned. Their travels and the different cultures and believes they had encountered had also shaped their look on marriage, family and everything that went along with it. He could read on her face that she was worried that she had offended him the way she had struggled through the question. She hadn't. Yes, the way their parents had brought him up had played a part in him considering marrying Sara, once they found out she was pregnant, but it had not been the reason why he had eventually married her.
"I didn't. Not really. After we found out she was pregnant, and that mom and dad had been serious and cut me off, we tried to figure out what to do. We were in Singapore at the time. So we went to the US embassy there trying to figure out some stuff, hoping they could help us and answer some of our questions." It was easy to recall that time in their lives, the uncertainty, the fear, the desperation and helplessness. They had been lucky. The person appointed to them to get their visa for their next destination had been very kind and helpful.
"You two married?" They exchanged a look before looking back at the man sitting across from them in the US embassy in Singapore. Not sure why he asked. They'd been in here for a while already, working out some of their issues while requesting their visa.
"No. Does it matter?" Oliver questioned, a bit confused and unsure why he was asking that and what difference it would make.
"Well, depending on the countries you're travelling to, it does. Also, in case of an emergency, your families would be informed instead of your partner and you might not be allowed access or information at a hospital if you aren't married." He and Sara exchanged another look. That was not the type of information they wanted to hear. It was good to know, though. He felt his stomach drop as the realization set in. This meant that if there should be an issue with Sara and the baby, he wouldn't get any information as to what was wrong and he'd have to wait not knowing what was going on until Quentin and Dinah were informed and reached them wherever they were. That also meant in case of an emergency, he wouldn't be allowed to make any decisions concerning Sara and the baby's lives. Given the look on Sara's face, she came to the same conclusion as him.
"What about children? Is it an issue if we'd travel with a child unmarried?" The man across from them took a good long look at both of them, at Sara's question, and understanding seemed to dawn on him as to why she had asked him that specific question.
"It might be depending on the country. If you plan on travelling around the world and continue to do so even after your child is born, you might want to consider getting married. It would make it easier for you. And there wouldn't be an issue if something were to happen to you and Oliver were left alone with the child." They had left the embassy with a lot to think about, spending the way back to their dingy motel room in silence. The evening was spent talking about the pros and cons of getting married, researching different countries and laws and issues that could arise if they decided to not get married.
In the end their choice to get married had been a practical one because if there was one thing that was the same in almost every country in the world, it was that the spouse had all the rights, the rights to medical information, make medical decisions, the husband would automatically be assumed to be the child's father, the rights to the child and decisions concerning the child. It hadn't been a romantic scene, there hadn't even been an actual proposal, it had been the choice that had made the most sense given the decisions they had made.
They had decided that they still wanted to continue their journey around the world, that Sara's pregnancy didn't mean that they had to change those plans. They just had to slightly adjust them especially given their lack of unlimited funds. And instead of planes, they'd take buses and trains and maybe hitchhike or buy a car to travel.
They ended up getting married in Bangkok because getting married in Thailand, while still complicated, was less complicated than getting married in Singapore would've been. It had been strange, the entire ordeal, figuring out how it worked in a foreign country, what documents they'd need, getting everything translated into Thai, getting the marriage license certified, contacting the Attorney General's office to make sure their marriage would be legal and recognized in the US too.
It had been a lot and also pretty stressful, in addition to still getting used to the fact that they were going to be parents. What had also thrown a bit of a wrench in their travel plans had been the fact that they had needed to wait until after Christmas to get married because otherwise they would've needed a permission letter from Sara's parents because the age of consent in Thailand was twenty. So they'd waited and worked out some more of their plans, while also looking for odd jobs they could perform to earn some money and trying to open a bank account at a bank that they'd be able to use pretty much all around the world, another feat that hadn't been that simple. But Thailand had only been the beginning of their learning curve and of them becoming capable, independent adults and shortly after parents.
Them getting married had been a good thing, because Sara had ended up in the hospital at some point and they had refused to give him any information until he had proven to the staff that he was her husband.
"It wasn't like I got down on one knee one day and proposed to her or put on a show. It was more of an 'in case of an emergency' decision." It was the truth. That had been the key factor that had led to Sara and him getting married. It had been while being married that they began to define what that meant for them specifically but then again, it had felt right, because just as they were trying to figure out what marriage meant to them, they were trying to figure out how to be in a relationship and how to become parents and raise a child together and how they wanted to live their lives. They had grown along the way and learnt the meaning of the word and just how right that decision had been. They had sort of renewed their vows once they had started to talk about possibly having another child. But this wasn't something he needed to share with Thea right now. It wasn't what she had asked and a very different situation.
They had been way in over their heads in pretty much every aspect of their lives. It had been their marriage that had given them security, a feeling of belonging, and a sense of home. It had been the first step towards them becoming the family they now were.
"Okay, so that's kind of a let down. No actual wedding? No proposal? No nothing?" Thea looked disappointed, and he had to laugh at her. Of course she'd expected some grandiose gesture and a big party.
"We did have a little celebration for our second wedding anniversary. It was pretty romantic." And that was as much as he was going to say about that. At least for now. It was private and there was a very long story behind how it came to that and he wasn't ready to share it with his sister yet. And she wouldn't understand the significance of the parts that would make it romantic without the backstory.
Notes:
So... yeah, that is pretty much how they ended up married... I hope this is in character and makes sense given the situation they were in and who they still were back then... I did some research on the visa and hospital and marriage stuff and hope I didn't get anything wrong otherwise let me know.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this chapter... we are slowly but surely getting a little more background information on Oliver and Sara...
the chapter title is from the beautiful song "This is us" by Jimmie Allen and Noah Cyrus, I found it pretty fitting.
