Nick and Charlie One-Shots

keep on trying

"Charlie, I'm here for our lunch date, wh- are you okay, Charlie?" I half look up as Elle bursts into my office, freezing when she sees me kneeling over the tiny rubbish bin.

"Yeah, just give me a second." I take a deep breath and stand up but immediately have to drop back to my knees, the quick change in altitude and the movements made my stomach lurch and I dry heave over the rubbish bin.

"Oh, Charlie, do you have the flu or something? Maybe food poisoning?"

It takes me a moment to feel okay and I shift to sit on the floor against the side of my desk. Elle comes to sit beside me, concern written across her face.

"No, it's not that, um, I think I might be pregnant." I say quietly, not trusting my voice yet when my stomach was still feeling off.

"Really? Oh, that's amazing news!"

"Y-yeah. We haven't really been telling people but Nick and I have been trying for a baby for a while now."

"It's not confirmed that you're pregnant now? Do you want to take a test? I can run down to Boots and get one if you like."

"No thanks. I'm going to test tonight, when Nick is home. I promised I would wait until we were together so we can see the results at the same time." She nods but also looks a little sad.

"You don't want to surprise him with the news? You know, like give him a little baby romper with some cute thing about being a dad on it?" I shake my head.

"There are so many parts of pregnancy that Nick doesn't get to be involved in and with this being our first, I don't want to take this moment away from him when it's what he wants."

"You two are disgustingly cute sometimes, you know that, right?" She says playfully but I've been her best friend long enough to hear the underlying tone of jealousy.

"What's wrong, Elle?"

"Nothing. I'm just jealous that you and Nick can do all this. I'm not like you, I can't have babies. And neither can Tao. So we can't ever have this."

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..."

"No, no, don't be sorry. We've come to terms with it. We've decided that when the time is right, we'll adopt a baby."

We sit in silence together for a while, leaning against my desk until I feel like my stomach has settled down.

"I'm sorry about our lunch date, Elle." I say quietly. "I'll make it up to you when I can keep food down."

"It's okay. I think the best way you can make it up to me is by letting me babysit your little one when they arrive."

I let out a laugh and rest my head on her shoulder, "Okay, if that makes you happy."

Elle stays for a while longer and we chat about what my baby might look like. I want them to have strawberry blonde hair like Nick, while Elle thinks my dark curls will look adorable on a chubby faced toddler. She leaves eventually, making me promise to keep her updated on the test results later on today.

On my way home, I stop at Boots to pick up a pregnancy test and then I wait anxiously for Nick to get home.

"Baby, I'm home." Nick calls out when he opens the door. I get up from the sofa and move to the hallway. Silently, I hold out the pregnancy test box and watch as his eyes widen. "Yeah?"

"I've been feeling sick for a few days. I have a really strong feeling I might be." Nick grins and wraps me in a hug, pulling me up off my feet.

"I love you, Charlie. Let's go find out."

**

5 minutes later...

"Well, what does it say?" I can't bring myself to look. I'm sitting on the closed toilet while Nick is kneeling in front of me, holding my hands.

"Um..." He reaches over to the counter where the pregnancy test is sitting, the timer on my phone having gone off a minute ago. "Negative."

"What?" I grab the stick from him and look at the little window. One pink line.

"Oh, baby, I'm sorry." Nick pushes up to look in my eyes, hands cupping my face.

"I was so sure." Tears spill over as Nick kisses me.

"It's okay." Nick pulls me to sit in his lap on the floor, holding me close and stroking my hair. "We'll just keep trying. It will happen, okay?"

"Okay." I sniffle and nuzzle into his neck, "I want a family with you, so bad."

"I know. But for now, you and me are all the family we need."