Who: The Doges!
What: News!
Where: Amelia's office!
When: Monday at Lunch!
It had been a long weekend.
It being a weekend didn't mean much of anything in the Doge household when there were important little girls missing and little brothers pulling themselves away from death. Between worrying about Berk and his being assigned to this case and trying to be with Elphias as much as possible, there really hadn't been too much time for actual relaxation, but you knew it was bad when you were actually happy to be back at work. Amelia still felt like she was running herself a bit ragged, but at least she was doing it in an organized environment. At home there was no office, no paperwork to file, and those were the things she needed to feel like she was in control of the chaos. Being back here meant she could sit down, work things out in quill and ink, concentrate on something tangible.
And it meant lunch, of course. Lunch was always good.
Berk had gotten in late the night before and she'd gone in early that morning, meaning that she basically hadn't spoken to (and had barely seen) her husband in over 24 hours. As good as that was for avoiding him, all she wanted to do was hug him and see that he was alright and--tell him. She had decided it while laying in bed last night, wringing her hands in the sheets and waiting up, unable to sleep until she heard the front door open and his footsteps come up the stairs, that she had no idea how she was going to live with herself if she didn't tell him. He went on dangerous missions all the time, she
knew that, but she had never
seen it until now, and that begged the question--what if he had died and she had never said anything? She'd had so much time now to tell him, and what if he had died and she had to live with the fact that she had just sat on her arse and bided her time until it was too late?
No, that wouldn't do. She was done dancing around the subject, she was done being childish--whatever happened happened. It didn't matter what happened with them, because it mattered more that he know what was going on.
Jesus. Amelia ran her hands back through her hair and breathed out deeply through her nose, bringing her head up to look at the clock, which ticked just minutes to noon. Well, here went nothing.
It was more than a relief to say that Iris Conway was back home. Berk hadn't been on a case so
mentally exhausting for quite some time. He'd know the girl for a long time, or, well, had at least heard about her for nearly eleven years as an auror on the force. So it was kind of as if one of his own was missing, most likely dead---what a horrible way to look at things. Berkeley knew that Corner had never given up hope, but after a few days it was in an auror's nature to see these kind of missions as a search and recover. But, in a brilliant stroke of luck, clues were strung together and Iris was found---and not before the squad witnessed Auror Conway in a way they'd never seen him before. The normally calm and collected head showed a streak of merciless anger at the unlucky death eater left to guard his daughter, and suffice it to say, the other aurors on scene didn't have much to do once Corner was done.
He was definitely glad to be off the case and on a regular schedule once again. Merlin, did he miss Amelia---though lately it was almost as if they'd been purposely avoiding each other. Berk, not one to
truly get paranoid, had begun to wonder if this was the case, but only found himself coming up with excuses for his wife---only to revert back to the slight paranoia that was growing. He knew they'd never gone through one of his intense missions yet, so maybe this was how it would be---a big part of him wished he'd applied for Dawlish's position, where he'd been more hands-on
in the office rather than out in the middle of the war, but Berk knew he'd go mad if most of his time was spent with the snot nosed trainees.
Slipping into Amelia's office without a knock, he shut the door quickly and waved the bag of lunch he'd scored from the cafeteria a few minutes early. Mostly because he waited at the register with the tray until it struck noon (the silly woman had a strict rule about not serving lunch until then) so he had been out of there before the regular crowd had started to gather their fruit cups and sandwiches.
"I bring you...lunch. I need to learn how to say that in other languages, 'lunch' doesn't have any sort of pizazz."
Amelia's lips curled up into a relieved smile at seeing him and she was out of the chair the second he walked through that door, her arms latching tightly around his middle with little regard to the food or anything he was saying about it. She pushed her face into his neck and breathed in the scent of him deeply, reveling in the feeling of him being there and feeling his breathing and him being
alive. She knew that she had been the one that married an auror in the first place and she had to buck up and learn to deal with these kind of assignments because they happened much more often than anyone liked, but for now nothing was stopping her from showing him just how relieved she was that he was alright. She could work on being the strong, unaffected, hard-as-stone auror wife later (well, if there was a later after today). Now she just wanted to hug him and not let go.
"Forget about the bloody lunch," she murmured. Her hands tightened on the fabric of his robes. "I'm just glad you're here."
She'd known he had been okay since late last night, but still, to be here and hold him made it all real in her mind. She could feel better now, at least until she was forced to let him go again... and until she brought up the Dreaded Subject.
The bag dropped to the ground as his arms wrapped around her body. Berk shut his eyes as he tightly held Amelia back; this was a relief in so many different ways. The past week had definitely been draining, and maybe it was selfish, but he was oh-so-glad to see that she'd missed his presence. It cleared away the worries that she didn't want to see him, or be near him, that it really
was work that was keeping them apart. Oh, good. He'd been getting quite concerned. His hand moved up her back to rest at the base of her neck, fingers idly toying with her hair.
"It's all right," he said with a slight grin, "I'm glad I'm here too."
Berk pulled back and pursed his lips in a smile down at Amelia, pulling his hand up to toy with the light strands falling in front of her face. Moments like this reminded him of sappy love stories he'd read---
scanned through magazines or books or heard girls talking about, but Berk was finding he wasn't minding them as much as when he was reading them back in school. He had never thought he'd ever be
okay with being so loving and tender with someone, but Amelia definitely knew how to get a job done.
"Are you okay? Not to ruin the moment and all, because it is rather lovely..." his voice drifted, but Berk's eyebrows knitted in concern. They
had seen each other in bed last night. Something must've happened between then and now.
Ahh, that was the cue, wasn't it? Somehow she had hoped that if she stayed and clung onto him for long enough, they could postpone things just a little longer, but--but right, no, postponing it had been her problem in the first place. If she went on like this any longer, he was going to get called out on an assignment right
now and go and die and then she'd never have told him. And maybe she was sounding a bit crazy inside her head right now, but these really were the kinds of places your mind went when you were on hormone trips like she had been lately.
Sighing, Amelia pulled away just slightly, enough so that she could look at him full in the face, and brought her hands up to his shoulders. She frowned as she ran her hands down his arms, and she was pretty sure that her nervousness was creating a palpable atmosphere in the room with the intensity it was coming on. "I'm... I'm not sure," she answered. Amelia turned her eyes down to her feet. How the hell was she supposed to say this? She'd spent enough time rehearshing how the scene was going to play out in her mind, the words she was going to use, and yet now her mouth was dry and she couldn't remember a thing that she'd prepared. She was going to have to just go with it and that was terrifying, because she had no idea what was going to come out of her mouth until after it actually came out.
"There's actually something I've been meaning to tell you." Jesus, her heart had to be beating itself out of her chest right then. At the very least, it was about to implode upon itself or just beat itself to death completely. In a single moment of forced courage, she looked up into his face again--it was all or nothing now, no holding back. She could do this.
"Berkeley, I'm... pregnant."
"Excuse me, wot?"
His confused expression froze on his face for a few seconds...or a minute, Berk couldn't be sure. She had definitely said she was pregnant. Amelia had said she was pregnant----he blinked a few times, arm not moving from around her waist and hand still twisting her hair gently around his finger, but it might have been because he was thrown into a shock that forced his body to continue these monotonous motions. Yeah, that's what it seemed like. He continued to blink, trying to gather his thoughts, some thoughts,
any thoughts, but her words seemed to be the only things bouncing around in his vast expanse of an empty head. Just, big and bold and neon green 'I'm pregnant' block letters knocking into the curves of his skull as if a super bouncy ball left in a gerbil circle...thing.
Oh, oh wow, she'd literally caused him to snap and officially go insane. His friends had thought he'd passed that line a long time ago, but, no. He'd been saving his trip over to Crazy Town for Amelia and this very moment.
"Pregnant with...concern?" he let out weakly, heart thudding in his ears. Or maybe it was bouncing around with her words, because that's what happened to crazy people.
Amelia's eyes actually widened at his response. Was he--was he trying to make a joke, or was that serious? Or--oh no, the tone of his voice hadn't been pleased though, either way, and she hadn't been
expecting pleased, and she didn't even know if he was serious but her heart still dropped all the same and she narrowed her eyes again and pursed her lips and stepped back from him. She was stepping back from him as a defense mechanism, probably, an instinct to protect herself because her mind was telling her that she was treading in territory that had turned dangerous and she would rather step back than be pushed away.
"I'm... no, I mean--" She'd already
said it, so why was saying it again so much harder than the first time? Merlin's beard, she felt like some Hogwarts kid in the headmaster's office, about to say something self-incriminating. This hadn't been just her fault, but well, right now it sure felt like that didn't matter at all. "With a
baby, I mean--I'm
pregnant."
There were probably a million things she wanted to say to follow that up, like 'I'm sorry' or 'I know, I didn't expect this either', or 'I didn't mean this to happen', but she was keeping her mouth soundly shut. Words weren't her strong point today, and so she stood in frightened anticipation, just waiting for him to say something. Anything.
Berk let out a slight--maybe a whimpering sound as she moved away, because that took away the only solid thing he could latch onto at the moment and. Oh. Pregnant. With a baby. A baby. A baby that would...grow in her stomach and...one day come
out and...be...there. With curly blond hair maybe, you know, a mix of theirs, and...well, a girl, most likely, because he wanted a girl to grow up and be like Amelia, his family produced far too many odd boys for the fates to allow another Doge Man. If he were honest. So...she'd go to Hogwarts and...probably end up in...Slytherin, to throw them all for a loop, because that's how she did things, always surprising people, just like now and...
"Amelia---I---y-yeah?" A grin twitched up onto his lips as the ideas began to swirl in his not-so-empty-anymore head. Berk's eyes widened with the smile and he stepped toward Amelia, hands out as if wanting to take her in his arms, but she'd backed away, so---so was this what everything had been about? Her avoidance, which Berk was now
sure (once again, always sure every time new evidence showed up, this woman was going to ruin any of the training he'd ever done) she had been doing. She'd been avoiding him because of the baby? Really?
"Honest? We're having a baby?"
Amelia didn't think she'd ever felt a more overwhelming wash of pure relief in her whole life. This secret she'd been hiding for weeks, that had been building up inside of her and driving her crazy, was just...
gone now, it was out and every ounce of stress and worry that had been on her was gone with it. That smile of his was like taking a breath of fresh air after having been buried underground, and she couldn't help the short laugh--a little crazy, maybe--and wide grin that burst forth from her lips.
Fucking hell. There really
was no escaping going crazy when you had the Doge name attached to you.
She shook her head and ran a hand back through her hair, still laughing in disbelief over Berk's sudden change of mood and the outcome of this situation. Her marriage wasn't over. She wasn't going to be raising a kid alone. Fucking unbelievable, she had been doing all that worrying over nothing and
of course it had been nothing, just--just look at him! Her husband was amazing, he was Berkeley Doge and she really couldn't love him more, bloody hell.
"Yeah. Honest," she said. Amelia was pretty sure she hadn't smiled this much in a very long time. "A girl."
Berk let out an equally sort of crazy laugh and couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he stepped forward to take Amelia's face and pull her in for a kiss to end all kisses--well, hopefully not, that would be bloody unbearable, but it certainly
felt like a kiss capable of cutting off any sorts of affection for the rest of his life. A girl, they were having a girl, just like his nutty little daydream a few seconds ago had planned on. This was so bizarre but amazing at the same time, how incredibly topsy turvy meeting Amelia Bones (or, well, finally admitting to his stalker-like tendencies on the woman) has made his entire life. He was a married man, and he was going to be a
father, all in these short few months and----and later, Berk would wonder if this was some sort of divine intervention, giving him happiness just when the war was going to turn the darkest its ever been, but Berkeley couldn't care to think about that right now as he continued to snog his wife.
"Oh---hell," he groaned between kisses, hands having gone around her to pull her close, though he was being very careful not to squish her stomach, because who knew what that could do to the baby. Merlin, he was going to have to learn so much bloody stuff, because he couldn't be a father without knowing the stuff, this wasn't like some mission he was set on, this was a
baby, a baby
girl, "We can't--tell---Mycroft---"
It was probably a good mix of the 'oh my god, you're alive' and the 'oh my god, we're going to have a baby' feelings that were making this snog so good, but whatever it was, Amelia wished that it would keep on flowing through them and not stop for as long as they lived. Was this euphoria? There was no way that this was just normal
happiness, no no, this was on a whole other level, this was happiness that rivalled all happiness she'd ever felt in her life--
euphoria. It sounded right. It sounded just as good as it felt. It sounded good enough that she didn't even punch Berkeley when he brought up his brother in the middle of a kiss.
He was the father of her child, after all, no matter how frustrating. She couldn't just go on killing him now.
"We will discuss--" she mumbled distractedly in-between a couple of rather hungry kisses, "---telling---and family--and
Mycroft---
later--" Amelia held his face in her hands, pulling back for just a second to look at him in all seriousness. She meant business. "We have
better things to do."
