Champagne Problems (Ransom Drysdale)

Chapter 20 - Parent Trapped

Despite the chaotic Christmas Day event, Ransom found that he'd rather enjoyed getting away for the holidays this year, even right down to making another snowman just to keep his wife happy.

On their return home they could hear a lot of banging and crashing from upstairs, Ransom chucking his keys onto the table and shrugging his coat off. "Paola's definitely here then." Which was then followed by another almighty crash. "What the hell is she doing?"

"Oh, I asked her to put together the IKEA dresser that was delivered before Christmas."

"You what?" he blinked and went upstairs, seeing Paola surrounded by various bits of wood as well as the Swedish instructions. "You ok there?" he smirked as the housekeeper was studying the booklet upside down.

She looked up and began her rant in Portuguese, which Ransom could only guess had a fair few curse words in there. "Mr Huge, it is all in different language!"

Ransom took the instructions, "Did you look at the pictures?"

"Pictures misleading! I keep house clean! Not build dressers!"

He sighed. "How about you go make me a coffee and I'll have a go." He seriously had no idea how the hell to build the thing, but with the amount of clothes that his wife was accumulating, it was needed. Now where the hell did he start with all this?

Ransom sat there for a good half hour trying to figure out how to assemble page one, he didn't blame the housekeeper for giving up, he hadn't even managed to build anything yet. How did people even understand this stuff?

Finally he deciphered what he needed to and built one of the drawers. Effie eventually came in around an hour later and frowned. "Paola said you're building the dresser?"

"No Eff I'm destroying it."

"Well you've got one drawer done...I suppose I should applaud you for that." She grinned and gave a little clap.

He really needed Paola to teach him some swear words in her language. "This is gonna take a while."

"It's keeping you busy."

"I'd rather be doing something else than trying to build a stupid dresser."

"Would that something be me?" she smirked.

He looked up and shot her a cunning smile. "You read my mind..."

Effie chuckled. "Tell you what, you build that dresser and you'll be rewarded with whatever you want later tonight."

"It's gonna be a loooooong list – you got all night?"

"Darling I have all the time in the world." She mused and disappeared from the doorway, leaving him to jump right back into build mode. Ok, he couldn't cook a turkey, but he was going to make damn well sure that he could build a dresser.

Effie shut herself in the bathroom and looked at her complexion in the mirror as she steadied herself against the sink. Splashing some water on her face, she looked at reflection again. It had taken all her strength to put on the same kind of attitude she'd had over the last couple of weeks, thankfully Ransom hadn't noticed.

It could be wrong though. She'd only taken one test and there were always stories about false positives. The offending item in question was hidden in her bag. She had to be sure before breaking the news to Ransom, and Effie knew what his reaction would be like.

She opened the cupboard under the sink and got out another test, taking it before chucking it onto the counter and waiting.

Please be negative...please be negative.

They couldn't do this, could they? Ransom didn't want children from past conversations and Effie? Well...she'd always had mixed feelings on the subject. She had been in shock when the test she'd taken the day before had told her what she'd not wanted to hear, but having the time to contemplate the possibility, she had actually wondered whether they could make it as a family. Whether she could change Ransom's mind on the matter.

The time was now up, and she paused, putting off looking at the test for a few moments until she finally plucked up courage and picked it up.

It had taken him another good hour, but Ransom had finally got the dresser all done and in place. Effie appeared back in the doorway again. "All done." He said, standing and admiring his work.

Then he saw her face...

"Eff? You alright?"

Then he saw what was in her hand and took it from her as she held it out.

Oh no. Oh good god no. His worst nightmare was coming true. His very worst. At one point he could've called his wife that but this? This was above all of that.

"Shit..."

He now looked at Effie, she was as white as a sheet. "It's wrong." He told her. "It can be wrong right?"

Effie swallowed and produced the test she'd taken the day before. "It's not wrong..."

He looked at the other one and loudly exhaled in frustration. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" she became annoyed now. "You got me pregnant!"

"Hey! It's not just my fault! It takes two to pull off this sort of thing!"

"Oh something got 'pulled off' alright!" she argued.

He shook his head. "We can't have a kid! We can barely look after ourselves!"

This couldn't be happening to him, no way. He couldn't be a father. He'd be just as terrible as his own. Bringing a baby into a family like his? It wouldn't be fair to it. He needed to do the kid a favour and spare it from that horror. Plus babies cried...a lot. 

The look on Effie's face said it all. "Oh geez, you actually want this don't you?"

"I don't know what I want Ransom! But all I know is right now I need you to stop freaking out so we can deal with this!"

"How can I when you've just told me we're having a baby!" Nope. He'd already decided that he couldn't go through with this. "Eff, I can't do it! I can't be a father – can you imagine just how miserable the kid would be! I can't have it turn out like me or anyone in my family. You've seen how messed up they are!"

She looked at him. "I know but that doesn't mean that this baby would be even remotely like them..." The more he was against the idea, the more she was for it. "You're worried that it will be like you or your dad or whoever, but at the same time they probably won't be."

"I can't believe you're even considering this."

"And I can't believe that you're not. This is our future we're talking about."

"It's your future - not mine!" 

Ransom couldn't talk about this anymore. At least not now. He stormed out and down the stairs, grabbing his coat and car keys. "Ransom! Where the hell are you going!"

"Out! I need to clear my head!"

The door slammed before she could even stop him. It was better to leave him though, perhaps some time to think about things could be beneficial for them both. 

Paola emerged from another room and looked concerned. "Miss Effie? Are you ok?" Sure the Drysdale's argued but not as explosive as this. 

Effie nodded. "I will be..."

At least, she hoped that she would. Ransom's words kept playing over and over in her mind. "It's your future - not mine!" 

That should have told her all that she needed to know. Effie had always told herself that Ransom would never make her cry, regardless of what he said or did. But now as the tears betrayed her, she realised that he was in fact the only man who had ever made her cry, and she didn't know whether to love him or hate him for it.