Serendipity: A New Generation of Knights

Part 1: Ch 3. The News

"Morning, Autumn," Marjorie chirped as she walked into the office.

"Morning, Marjorie," Autumn nodded in response before quickly looking the other woman up and down. Autumn noticed she was in a bit later today than she usually was, and she looked a bit disheveled, which was very uncharacteristic of Marjorie. But she didn't want to push for why and risk learning things she did not want to hear about.

Marjorie shuffled around behind her desk and kicked the rolling chair back to place her things underneath. As she started to remove her coat, she noticed Autumn was still wearing hers. Her brow furrowed as she was about to ask why, noting the comfortable temperature in the office, when she was interrupted by Autumn standing up from her own chair.

"I was just dropping Benjamin off and waited around to tell you I'm about to head over to my brother's nursery," Autumn explained.

"Oh," Marjorie shrugged as she draped her coat over the back of her chair. "Well, okay. Is Benny okay? I know Winter mentioned when he took him home Friday that he was extra clingy and feeling a bit warm."

Autumn grabbed her bag and a stack of  paperwork from her desk.

"Yes," she replied quickly. "I suspect it was just his teeth. We've brought in some Calpol in case he needs it, but he's with Charlotte today. He's usually quite happy with her, but if not, Winter will be in soon."

"Ah, well that's good," Marjorie replied. "Will you be back today?"

Autumn nodded, taking a quick glance at the clock before making her way towards the office door. "Shouldn't be gone too long."

Marjorie pursed her lips as she watched Autumn leave the office. She didn't remember Reece mentioning anything that morning about seeing his sister during the day. What she did remember, however, is that both she and her husband agreed not to tell anyone about their news yet.

She shook her head as she sat down on her desk chair, tapping at her mouse on the way down to wake up the computer and start her work day. With a long sigh and tuck of her stray hairs behind her ear, she logged into her computer and took to her morning emails.

After the craziness of the night before and that morning, the mundane nature of checking and replying to emails was welcome. She and Reece had stayed wrapped up with each other for a couple of hours that morning, talking through a lot of anxieties and fears. By the time they were ready to separate for the day, they only had a few minutes to get ready and dart out the door. Thus, Marjorie's hair ended up in a low bun with a few stray strands of hair framing her face and tucked around her ears. She'd also grabbed one of Reece's jumpers to wear with a pair of plain trousers. The smell of him on the jumper brought her comfort throughout the day.

Once she'd cleared her inbox of a full weekend's worth of messages, which took nearly an hour to complete, she felt an unfortunately familiar twinge of pain behind her eyes. A groan escaped her throat as she grabbed her water bottle off the corner of her desk. She was about to get into her desk drawer for some Nurofen, but she paused, remembering she couldn't just do that willy nilly now. Instead, she set the water bottle down and pulled her phone from her pocket and took to Google.

Can you take nurofen while pregnant

"You should not take Nurofen (ibuprofen) during pregnancy unless your doctor advises you to."

"Well, great," Marjorie muttered to herself, shaking her head as she tapped the search bar once again.

Can you take paracetamol while pregnant

"Paracetamol is the first choice of painkiller if you're pregnant."

"Great! Thank you Google," she cheered softly, setting her phone back down on her desk before choosing the bottle of paracetamol from her drawer instead.

As the reached for her water once again, she noticed something on her desk that wasn't usually there, and she definitely didn't put it there. She picked up the little white bottle and examined the front of the label.

PRENATAL VITAMINS

Marjorie's eyes went wide. The vitamins were certainly not hers. Why were they on her desk? Reece hadn't been in her office today. Nobody else knew she was pregnant. The only other person who had been in her office was...

"Alright, Winter?" Marjorie nodded to him, quickly dropping the bottle of vitamins after hearing his knock on the office door.

"Hello, Marjorie," Winter chimed. "I just wanted to come in a bit early and take a look at the annual leave calendar," he explained, stepping into the office and opening up the binder in front of Marjorie's desk.

Marjorie watched him for a moment as he flipped the pages toward the end of the year months before returning to her own panic. Other than Winter, the only other person who had been in the office that morning was Autumn. Unless Reece had told her, she certainly didn't know about the pregnancy either.

By the time she pulled herself from her own head several minutes later, Winter had already left the office and Autumn had returned from the sister nursery.

"Marjorie, are you okay?" Autumn asked, noting the panicked expression on the other woman's face.

"Yeah, yeah, it's just..." Marjorie didn't even look at Autumn as she spoke. Her eyes were focused on a small spot in the flooring as her mind continued to race.

Autumn turned her head to the side just slightly, peering at Marjorie.

"It's just what?"

Marjorie released an exasperated sigh. "Do you have any idea why these might be here?" she asked, holding up the bottle of vitamins for Autumn to see.

"Yes, they're mine," Autumn replied nonchalantly.

"Oooh, okay," Marjorie laughed, her body relaxing at the news that they were not placed there for her own use.

"I was just so worried because- wait, what?"

Marjorie's eyes widened as she fully processed the meaning behind Autumn's seemingly inane words.

Autumn only smirked as she continued to mess about with the things on her own desk.

"The-these are yours?" Marjorie coughed, pointing at the bottle in her own hand. She stood up from her desk chair and stumbled around her desk. "Autumn, a- are you pregnant?"

"I am," Autumn replied plainly, her brow lifting to pair with her smirk.

In true Marjorie fashion, tears welled up in her eyes while she struggled to contain her own shrieks of excitement.

"But wait, Marjorie?" Autumn stopped what she was doing and held a hand up to Marjorie. "You said you were worried. Why are you worried?"

"What?" Marjorie choked, suddenly feeling quite guilty. "What d'you mean?" she spoke, placing her hands on her hips as she tried to laugh it off.

"You said you were worried about the prenatals having been on your desk," Autumn retorted, narrowing her eyes at her friend. "Marjorie, is there something you'd like to tell me?"

Marjorie stared, blank-faced, at Autumn for several seconds. To her, it felt like they were standing there for hours. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, her knees were beginning to ache and buckle under her own weight. Still, a small smile painted its way across her lips.

Autumn raised an eyebrow, smiling in return as she watched a single tear fall down Marjorie's cheek.

"Now I know why my brother was so panicked when I told him my news."