A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.
Chapter 4: Hyacinth Bucket's Judgment Day
After spending the rest of that day and the next day on bedrest in the hospital, Hyacinth was allowed to return home. Naturally, the moment she got back, she took charge of all the redecorating and renovations needed for Baby Gloria's nursery, and by the time Elizabeth and her newborn daughter came home two days later, Hyacinth, Emmet, Richard, and several other eager volunteers had the new nursery in tip-top shape. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Hyacinth and Richard.
For some strange reason, after Richard brought Hyacinth home from the hospital, Hyacinth kept snapping at Richard and biting his head off constantly over the next few weeks. But naturally, Richard, a true-blue saint with the God-given patience of Job, never once lost his patience with Hyacinth, and even though he knew he didn't deserve it, he didn't snap back at Hyacinth, and he didn't get angry or offended at her. He knew just how terrible of a toll it had taken on Hyacinth psychologically, having to face a life-or-death situation with another newborn after losing Baby Angela all those years ago. That, coupled with everything she'd just been through physically as well, made it more than understandable, at least in Richard's very kindhearted mind, that Hyacinth was mad at the whole world and taking her frustration out on him. He was very understanding and empathetic to everything she'd just been through, and he didn't give into the temptation to take it personally and get angry. And in fact, not only did Richard not get angry at Hyacinth and lose his cool with her; he even had a surprise party for her several weeks after she returned home from hospital.
Richard took Hyacinth out for a little drive that Saturday morning while Daisy, Rose, and Violet came by the house and set things up for the party and prepared various dishes of food, including a chocolate cake. After getting Baby Gloria fed and rocking her to sleep that morning, Elizabeth went next door with Emmet to help prepare for the surprise party as well, leaving her daughter in the capable hands of Mrs. Livingston, an elderly widow from church and a grandma many times over who was a good friend of theirs. And soon after Elizabeth and Emmet went next door, the vicar and his wife arrived to help out. And Onslow arrived a little while after they did.
And finally, at eleven-thirty that morning, Richard brought Hyacinth home, and when everyone heard them outside the door, they turned off the lights and hid. And as soon as Richard came inside with Hyacinth and helped her off with her coat and took his coat off and hung them up, he went into the lounge with her and flicked the light switch, and everyone popped out of their hiding places and yelled, "Surprise!"
"What's all this?" asked Hyacinth.
"A surprise party for a wonderful woman," Richard said kindly, and then he kissed her cheek.
"A wonderful woman? You mean me?" Hyacinth asked in disbelief.
"That's right," Richard confirmed with a big smile.
"After everything you went through with delivering Baby Gloria, Richard and Elizabeth wanted to do something special for you to express their love, and they got us all together and we planned this surprise party for you," Daisy explained.
"Richard, you mean…after putting up with me biting your head off constantly for weeks, you still went to all this trouble to plan a surprise party for me?" Hyacinth asked incredulously.
"Of course I did."
"Why?"
"Well, I know that if I had been through everything you have recently, I would be biting people's heads off and be in a terrible mood myself, so I knew better than to take all your guff seriously. I never took it personally, Hyacinth. And after everything that happened a few weeks ago, after everything you went through both psychologically and physically, I know that nobody deserves an open display of love and appreciation more than you do."
"Oh, Richard," Hyacinth gasped as tears came to her eyes, and she continued to cry while Richard hugged her.
But then, Hyacinth angrily backed out of her husband's embrace, and she cried out, "When will it end?!"
"When will what end, Hyacinth?" Richard asked.
"That damned patience of yours!" Hyacinth yelled.
"What are you talking about?" Richard asked in almost a whisper.
"Oh, for the love of heaven and earth! After all these years, do you really need me to spell it out for you, Richard?!"
"Yes, Hyacinth, as a matter of fact, I do need you to spell it out for me because I cannot for the life of me understand why you're acting like this," Richard responded without raising his voice.
"Back when I was growing up with my father and my sisters in that dilapidated old house, I tried my best to be a good daughter. A good sister. A good person. I tried my best to fill Mummy's shoes. To raise Daisy, Violet, and Rose the way Mummy would want them to be raised. To love them as much as Mummy would have if she were still here. But I didn't even know what true love was until I met you.
"When I met you and we started dating, I was absolutely astounded by you. I had never in my life seen another person with as much pure kindness, goodness, gentleness, patience, and love as you. You were, and you still are to this very day, the most beautiful human being I have ever had the privilege to know. We all know that Daisy is head over heels in love with Onslow – as insane as that is – but Daisy's love for Onslow is a mere drop in the bucket compared to how much I've always loved you. You are the living, breathing definition of kindness and class. You are everything a woman could ever want in a husband. And that's why I'm so angry right now. I'm angry at myself, and I'm even angrier at you!"
"Why?" Richard asked softly.
"Because you have wasted your entire life with a woman who could never hope to deserve you! When you asked me to marry you, I simply couldn't believe it. I could not believe that such a tenderhearted, loving, beautiful, classy man like you would actually choose me. And I swore to myself that I would always be the best wife in the world; that I would always strive, every single day of our lives, to be everything that you deserved. I wanted to give you everything I could. A beautiful home. Many beautiful children. A loving marriage. And when we got pregnant for the first time, I was thrilled beyond words to be carrying your child. And I tried. God knows I tried to do everything right when I was pregnant with Angela. I ate right. I didn't touch a drop of alcohol. I didn't even take so much as an aspirin. But no matter how hard I tried to get it right, I still failed. Back when I was a midwife, I delivered dozens of babies. I got every baby I was ever responsible for into this world safely except yours. And I hate myself for that. I despise myself for that. I despise myself so much for failing our baby and I especially despise myself for failing you. You deserved more from me than that, and I knew it. I knew you deserved so much more and so much better than me.
"That's why I've been putting up this insufferable act all these years. After we lost Angela, I didn't want you to stay married to me anymore, Richard, because I knew I had failed you in the worst way possible, and I knew I wasn't capable of being the wife you deserved. You have no idea how much torment I've been in all these years, Richard. I knew I had to leave you because I knew I couldn't be a wife to you anymore. I knew I had to get you to divorce me so you could move on with your life with a better woman than me, but I couldn't bear to look you in the eye and say those terrible words out loud: 'I want a divorce.' I also couldn't bear the thought of being unfaithful to you. I couldn't bear the thought of having an affair with another man in the hopes that that would make you want to divorce me. So the only option I had left was to become the most inconsiderate, nagging, annoying, rude, obnoxious soul possible. All these years, every single day, day in and day out, I have been absolutely, utterly relentless. I order you about. I conscript you into all of my stupid, ridiculous schemes to try and impress the aristocracy. I order our neighbors about and conscript them into my stupid schemes, being a constant embarrassment to you and your name. All this time, all these years, day in and day out, I keep thinking, 'Maybe this is it. Maybe this day will finally be the day that Richard cannot take it anymore and tells me he wants a divorce.' But no matter what I do, no matter how many times, in how many ways, that I relentlessly embarrass you and disrespect you, you never break. I go through the day ordering you about like you're my butler and not my husband, day after day after day, but no matter how many times I do it, you won't break. You try to tell me about something that's important to you and I completely refuse to even try to listen, but no matter how many times I refuse to listen to you, you won't break. After helping me get to the hospital and being there for me when my heart rate went out of control, I only reward your kindness by biting your head off endlessly for weeks, and you still won't break. Well I can't take it anymore, Richard! I can't take living in this torment any longer! This endless fear of whether or not today will be the day that the worst will finally happen. The Bible makes it quite clear that people reap what they sow. Well I have been a selfish, obnoxious monster to all of you for years, and I am sick and tired of waiting and wondering when my judgment day will finally come! For heaven's sake, put me out of my torment, already! All of you! Let today finally be Hyacinth Bucket's judgment day! Tell me off! Tell me how dreadful I've been all these years! Tell me how awful I've been! Tell me what a terrible friend I've been, what a terrible Christian I've been, what a terrible person I've been, to all of you! Richard, tell me that you've had enough of me! Tell me that you've finally, finally had enough of me after all these years! Tell me what a pathetic excuse for a wife I've been! Tell me that you're finally ready to move on with your life and find a better woman than me! Give me what I deserve, Richard! Please!" Hyacinth cried out with rivers of tears streaming down her cheeks.
"You want me to give you what you deserve in front of all these people, Hyacinth?" asked Richard.
"Yes!" Hyacinth shouted.
"Alright, then. I will," Richard told her, and then he took her into his arms and gave her the longest, most passionate kiss they'd ever shared in over thirty years of marriage. And when the kiss finally ended, Hyacinth just dissolved into even more tears, and Richard held her close and said in her ear, "That is what you deserve, Hyacinth. That is what you deserve. That is what you've always deserved. And I don't care how much of an obnoxious act you try to put on; I don't care how many orders you give me or how many times you conscript me into your crazy schemes or how many times you annoy me; no matter what happens, no matter what rude, irritating, obnoxious, crazy things you do, you are never going to get me to stop loving you, Hyacinth. Never. Nothing you could say or do could ever make me want to leave you. Act as crazy as you want, Hyacinth. Act as obnoxious and insufferable as you want. I don't care what crazy stunts you pull. I don't care how ridiculously you behave. I don't care what you do. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could ever get me to leave your side. Absolutely nothing could ever make me stop wanting to be your husband.
"Now I want you to listen to me, Hyacinth. I want you to really, really listen to what I have to say. Will you do that for me, please?" Richard gently asked, and Hyacinth nodded. Then, with his hands on her shoulders, looking directly into her eyes, Richard said, "Hyacinth, Angela somehow got a knot tied in her umbilical cord and she died because her oxygen supply was cut off. It wasn't anybody's fault, and it most definitely wasn't your fault. There was absolutely nothing you or anyone could have done, Hyacinth. Angela did not die because of anything that you did or didn't do. There is absolutely no way whatsoever that you or I or anyone could have foreseen this. And there has never been one moment, not one single moment in all these years, that it even once dawned on me that you might be to blame for this. The very idea of me blaming you for our baby girl's death never once entered my mind, Hyacinth.
"But now, after all these years, I think I finally understand what's been happening to us, Hyacinth. You've been so caught up in putting on this crazy act of yours to try to push me into leaving you, and I've been so caught up in trying to do whatever it was you wanted me to do for whatever scheme you were concocting on any particular day, and I think we've both gotten so caught up in those things because it was our way of distracting ourselves from the pain of our daughter's death. Ever since we lost our baby, it's like we just shut ourselves down inside this unhealthy cocoon together. We haven't really been living, Hyacinth. We've just been surviving. We've just been keeping ourselves distracted inside this cocoon, this mental prison we've built for ourselves, just trying to survive from one day to the next. But I don't think we can keep doing this, Hyacinth. I think it's obvious that our cocoon isn't working for us anymore. We need to break out of it now so that we can finally begin to move on."
"Well speaking as both a vicar and a psychologist, I can assure you that you both have made excellent progress today in breaking out of your cocoon," the vicar assured them. "The most important step is admitting everything you've been going through inside; actually daring to say it out loud. Now that both of you have finally done that, you can begin to work through it and start healing."
"Oh, dear Lord. Richard, please tell me I did not just have a mental breakdown in front of all these people," said Hyacinth, who was now clearly embarrassed.
"I think we both did, Hyacinth," said Richard, who was also feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Oh, no," Hyacinth groaned as she buried her head in Richard's chest.
"We're not just any old group of people, Hyacinth. We're not a bunch of strangers. We're your family. And it's perfectly fine to cry and have mental breakdowns when you're with family," Onslow reassured Hyacinth.
"That's right," Daisy agreed.
"Onslow's right, Hyacinth," said Elizabeth.
"Maybe so, but I'm still so embarrassed," said Hyacinth.
"You don't have to feel embarrassed for being human, Hyacinth," Emmet said kindly. "Liz and the vicar and Rachel and I may not be related to you by blood, but we're your family too, and we all just want to help."
"Thank you, Emmet. Thank you, Onslow," Hyacinth said quietly.
"If I may say so, I think that the best thing we can do now is give Mr. and Mrs. B. a little privacy," the vicar's wife told them.
"Yes," the vicar concurred. "We can do the party another day. I think what's most important now is for the two of you to have some time alone."
"I agree," said Elizabeth.
"I think you're right, everyone. I think Hyacinth and I really do need some privacy now," said Richard, and everyone understood and said goodbye and quickly left.
And as soon as everyone was gone, Hyacinth and Richard just clung to each other and cried for the longest time, not needing to say any words. And when they were finally all cried out, they made love to each other for the first time in so many years.