Love Hate Relationship

Chapter 79

Later that evening, Clarke waited patiently for Finn to get home from work. Tonight was his late night. She spent the time cooing over her favorite kitty. Oliver was sitting on her feet waiting patiently for a pat on the head, so willing to share her with Jinx. Who was still not good at sharing and whacked him on the nose every time he tried to put his head in Clarke's lap. When she heard the key in the lock, she froze, her insides knotted up. As soon as the door was open, Clarke heard him call out excitedly.

"Clarke? Clarke?" He came jogging into the living room and stopped when he saw her. His eyes were so hopeful, but instead of making her happy it somehow made her sad. "Clarke." He walked over and sat down next to her. "How did you feel today? Are you okay?"

"I felt pretty good. Only threw up once. Go me."

"Did you have a chance to think things over?"

"I did," Clarke nodded slowly. "I agree with you. We should raise our baby together."

"Really? Really Clarke? Oh my god! This is great." He grabbed her hands and got on one knee in front of her, smiling from ear to ear, "Clarke, marry me, again, I mean not again, but, you know what I mean, we're having a baby! Let's get married." he pleaded.

Clarke's eyes got big as she pulled her hands back. "Whoa! Slow down, Finn. Let's just take it one day at a time. We'll get back together for the baby. I'm not ready to think about anything more than that, okay?"

Finn couldn't hide his disappointment. "Sure, one day at a time for now. I'm okay with that." He got up and began pacing around the room. "Holy shit, we're having a baby. I gotta call my mom and dad. Did you tell your parents yet?"

"No, not yet." Not a call she was itching to make. "Can you wait until I tell my mom?"

"Yeah, absolutely. When are you gonna tell Abby?"

"I guess I'll have lunch with her tomorrow at the hospital."

"Okay, I'll wait for you to tell her first, then I'll call my mom and dad. This is great! We're having a baby!" he yelled as he went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. "We have some planning to do." He was like a kid on Christmas morning. "Maybe we can use the crib I had as a baby, I bet my mom still has it. She's got so much stuff in their attic."

Clarke collapsed back on the couch. Lexa was on her mind. She covered her face with her hands and rubbed, moved up to her temples and massaged, trying to wipe away the almost constant headache she had since this all started. This was the right thing to do she kept telling herself over and over again. Whatever was best for the baby. She squeezed her eyes shut. Tomorrow was gonna be an excruciatingly hard day.

* * *

Clarke fiddled with her phone as she sat in the surgeon's lounge in the hospital. The melancholy mood that engulfed her was getting worse by the minute as she scrolled through previous texts from Lexa. She was saved from further torture when 'Lunch with mom' popped up in the calendar alerts. This was not going to be pleasant. She got up and made her way to the cafeteria. When she got there, her mom was already seated in the corner at her favorite table. Clarke bent down to peck her mom on the cheek before taking a seat. "Hey mom."

"Clarke how are you today?"

"I'm okay."

"Just okay? What's wrong? I got you lunch. The special today was your favorite, a tuna melt."

"Thanks." Clarke stared town at the plate in front of her. Tuna melts could put a smile on anyone's face, but not today. She picked up a French fry and shoved it in her mouth. There was never enough salt on these things. She picked up the salt shaker and liberally applied more.

"My goodness, that's a lot of salt. There's already salt on them."

Clarke rolled her eyes, took another fry and rubbed more salt on it. She put it in her mouth, a defiant look in her eyes.

Abby gave her a look. "Suit yourself. You are what you eat. If you choose to be unhealthy, then so be it."

The next fry froze in mid-air, right before Clarke's lips. She put it back down on the plate. Shit. She was eating for two now. She needed to make healthier choices. She pushed the plate back.

Her mother cocked an eyebrow at her before taking a bite of salad. "Since when do you listen to me about food?"

Clarke just shrugged her shoulders in response.

Abby dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "How's Finn? Are you two talking still? Relationships take work, Clarke. It's not just fun and games all the time. Sometimes things are hard, and you have to get through them together. It's all about communication."

Clarke gritted her teeth at the relationship lecture. Which she'd been hearing non-stop since the breakup. "I know relationships take work, mom. I didn't leave because things got hard."

Abby held up a hand signaling the end to that part of the lecture. "Okay. Well, what's happening now? Has anything changed?"

Clarke took a deep breath. For a hot second, she almost thought about not saying anything, just to be spiteful over the relationship comments. But then thought better of it. Abby would find out sooner or later. Might as well be sooner. "You could say things have changed."

A look of surprise registered on her mom's face. "Really? What happened? Is the wedding back on?"

"No. Not exactly."

"Clarke, stop being coy, what's going on?"

"I'm pregnant."

Abby looked stunned, putting her fork down. "What?"

"You heard me."

"Are you sure?"

"I took a blood test this morning."

"Is it Finn's?"

"Of course, it's Finn's," Clarke said, a little taken aback. "Whose do you think it would be?"

"Well, how do I know? You broke up with him. Your father and I assumed maybe there was someone else. Maybe you found someone else."

Clarke's heart stuttered at the mention of someone else. "No. It's his."

"What are you going to do?"

"We're getting back together, and we'll have a baby I guess."

Clarke wasn't sure if she'd ever seen her mother happier. "Well, this is fantastic news then. We may be able to keep the same date for the wedding. I'll talk to the pastor."

"We're not getting married, mom."

A muscle in her mom's jaw twitched with annoyance. "What? Of course, you're getting married. You cannot have a baby out of wedlock. You can't raise a child like that, with that stigma, it's not right-"

"Mom," Clarke said forcibly.

"What?"

"It's our decision. Not yours. We'll raise the baby how we see fit." Her mom huffed but didn't put up too much of a fight. Clarke knew she hadn't heard the end of the marriage thing. But her mom was probably happy with winning a small battle in the bigger war.

"Well. I'm happy for you both. You'll make excellent parents."

Clarke listened to her mother drone on and on for another half hour. She was thankful to get a page to scrub in for an emergency. On the way to surgery, she mentally crossed one thing off her list of difficult conversations for today. Talking to her mother. However, the dread and heaviness in her heart was still there, because the worst part of the day was yet to come.

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End of Chapter 79