The Surrogate

His Christmas Announcement

Christmas Eve, Switzerland.

"Hi beautiful," he sweeps Holly up into his arms and swings her around. He's beyond overjoyed to have her back with him, he couldn't care less if no one got him any gifts for Christmas because he's got all he wants, right here in his arms. Her laughter fills his ears as he spins them both around once more and she's a little dizzy when he sets her down on her feet and it gives him the excuse to hold her for a little longer while she regains her balance. "I've missed you so much," he says in a hushed, awestruck way.

She looks up at him, it's like food for her soul to have him right in front of her like this. She's missed him too, a lot more than she'd admit to, "I've missed you too," she smiles and can't resist kissing him, Switzerland has better privacy laws than the UK and so she's fairly confident that they won't get photographed.

He sighs happily against her lips, it's been a long four weeks without her. She's had a few weeks of feeling unwell, having come down with a bad cold and then morning sickness recently making an appearance. She's had days where she's just felt too drained and sick to do anything, let alone get on a plane and so he was excited when she'd agreed to join him for Christmas. Especially as he's yet to break to the news to his family that she's pregnant. "How are you feeling?" he asks eagerly, holding her at arms length so that he can take her all in. She looks good; healthy and sexy and there's absolutely no sign of a bump yet in her dark blue skinny jeans.

"Not as bad as I was an hour ago, I've got ginger biscuits in my bag and they've helped," she replies, letting him take her case and then take her bag from her shoulder. "I do feel tired though, can't seem to shift it."

"Oh," he immediately looks worried, slinging her bag over his shoulder and not caring what he looks like carrying a woman's bag. He takes her hand and they start walking to the exit. "You can have a rest when we get to mine, maybe when you've seen everyone, they're all dying to see you again."

"Do they know yet?"

"No," he admits, "I was hoping we could tell them this evening?"

She stares ahead as they walk, she's not keen on this 'we' that he's referring to. It's his baby she's having and she doesn't want him to go making any grand joint announcements to his family, she just wants him to tell them and not make too big a deal out of it.

He glances anxiously at her as they continue walking, "that's ok, isn't it?"

She glances back at him and nods, "Yeh." She's decided to say nothing, it's Christmas and she doesn't want anything to spoil it for him, plus she can see how much him telling his family later on means to him and it's usually one of her favourite parts of the whole surrogacy process. "Do they know about us?"

He grimaces a little before he admits it, "yeah, I've told them, is that ok?"

As they get near the exit she's aware of people staring, a few of them giving him curious looks as he carries her bag, they obviously know who he is yet no one approaches him and for that, she's grateful. She's spent a fair amount of time on social media over the last few weeks and there's still some speculation about herself and Seb and she's actually been afraid to go out in case she gets recognised and questioned by random strangers - not that she'll tell him that. "Yeah," she keeps looking straight ahead, knowing that his parents are aware that she's with their son is now making her nervous because it'll automatically throw the expectation on her to be a mother to his child. Next to her she hears him greet one or two people who they pass after they've spoken to him, probably wishing him a merry Christmas.

"I've also told Britta and Antti, I told them just before we flew to Abu Dhabi," he confesses as they head out into the cold, Christmasy air.

Great. So now she's going to have his family, his PR and trainer all expecting them to become one happy little family unit. She bites her tongue to stop herself from saying what she's thinking, she knows she can't stop him from telling the people he's closest to, it's completely normal that he'd want them to know.