▫Point of Possible Return▫ [Hannibal Lecter FF] ▫AU▫

Ch. 25

"I swear, you are the future, you are the future,
And the future looks good."
-Future Looks Good by OneRepublic

I guided Amelia to my couch, and as we sat down, I brought her into my lap. She laid her head on my shoulder, her tears soaking into my shirt.

"W-what am I-I going to tell Aunt Deli?" She sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "She-she's gonna be s-so pissed."

"Never mind her, this is between you and me. If she has anything to say," I tucked a hair behind her ear. "She can say it to me. It won't bother me any -Lord knows she probably doesn't like me anyway."

Amelia sniffled, then said, "Uncle Rob likes you. H-he says with someone as smart as you, y-you should be able to help me with anything."

"I'm sure he'd understand this-" I hesitated to say the word. I was going to say situation but she would perhaps imply that she did something wrong. She already had a lot on her mind as is, anything more would make her have a nervous breakdown. "What we're going through." I finished, and she accepted that statement.

Amelia breathed out; her sobbing had lightened at this point. She was already starting to hold her belly in that way an expected mother held hers, but in this instance, Amelia held hers like she still couldn't believe it. I put my hand over hers and murmured that everything was going to be alright. She looked at me for a long minute before kissing me for a quick second, laying her head back onto my shoulder.

A moment or two passed; Amelia picked my hand off her hip and placed it under sweatshirt, laying it on her belly. "W-what are we even going to do, when... it arrives?" She didn't use it as something someone would use to be spiteful- she used it as a neutral term. She then blushed red again. "Are-are we going to get m-married?"

My thumb ran across her skin as I answered, "I love you, you should know that. Marriage would be wonderful." I kissed her forehead and she smiled.

She fell asleep while in my arms. I moved her to my bed, and while she laid there, I saw a glow go off in her sweatshirt pocket. I glanced at Amelia's face, saw that she was still asleep, then took it upon myself to check the glow. It was her cellphone, and she had gotten a return text from her uncle.

What's wrong? :[

I slide the unlock bar -finding that she didn't have a passcode or password of any kind- and saw that she sent a message: I have something to tell you. Don't get mad- it was a mistake and it wasn't planned.

I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling that Amelia was going to tell him sometime, and with her comment that Rob trusted me, I stood up. I had laid the pregnancy test on the kitchen sink counter, finding it in the same spot. I held it over the sink carefully -making sure my fingers never entered the frame- and took the picture, adding the comment It's positive. Please don't tell Aunt Deli, she would kill me.

It didn't take Rob long to text back a Oh wow. Cross my heart, hope to die. It's better if you tell her anyway. At least you'll be the first nephew/niece to have a baby.

He never knew it was me. I had hoped he wouldn't, and he didn't. I pictured that he probably never raised his voice, to anyone, especially Amelia. He was the type of person who wanted everyone to be equal, and to smile, to laugh at everything around them. Rob was a natural comedian.

I laid the phone down, holding the test in my hand. I turned it in the light and a thought raced through my mind that I never expected to think: is it a boy or a girl?

I never expected marriage, or children. I never expected a lover who never wanted to see the bad-side in me. Yet I found her. She's sleeping peacefully in my bed with a child now on the way. It made some part of me light up, like there was this warm spot rising up through my chest.

I lied the test on the counter and went back to the bedroom door, standing there, watching Amelia sleep. Her nostrils flared up with each breath, her chest rising and falling. I looked down to the ground, seeing the tan carpet meet with the slightly darker carpet. I took a breath and looked back up to put her cellphone on the nightstand near that side. I moved around to the other side, plopping myself on the bed, and shifting up against her. I put my arm around her waist, the other under my head. I laid there not knowing when we were getting married -whether it be before or after the birth of this child- or what was going to happen after; I didn't know how Delilah would act towards Amelia know that a child was involved; I didn't know if Amelia's brothers would start on her again, pick on her and the like- if they did, oh, how I would break them.

All I knew was that I was going to wake up to this girl.