A Modern AU parenting guide by Sappho and Will
Fluffy little ficlet about Modern!Will and Modern!Sappho. Yes, surprise surprise.
The remembers the sound of the doorbell ringing, far too loud, far too shrill. He remembers shuffling to the door, his colossal hangover making each step agony. He remembers opening the door and seeing Sappho's heartbroken, tear-streaked face and he certainly remembers the odd feeling in his stomach, like a stone sinking to a riverbed.
'He's gone, Will... He left...'
Oh.
Will remembers Sappho lying in his bed for the next week, sniffling softly with one arm draped protectively over her swelling belly until he sighed and wrapped his arms around her. It was strange to have her with him so often at first, but eventually he got used to the little body pressed against his back at night and to the fact that after a few months he could barely hug her from the front anymore. He smiles now, thinking back on the quiet nights spent going back and forth between his flat and hers next door when they would watch awful gameshows on television while eating Chinese food. He likes to think about how he watched as her clothes grew smaller and smaller with every week that dragged by. It made him feel like he had made the right choice with Anne.
On a lazy Thursday night right before bedtime, it happened. Sappho waddled into the bathroom to get ready for bed and no sooner had the door closed behind her, Will heard her squeal half in surprise and half in fear. The car journey was awful. Sappho lay in the back, trying not to make too much of a fuss.
He remembers the lady at the front desk asking him a seemingly innocent question that he asked himself repeatedly for a long time afterwards. 'Are you the father?' He remembers waiting outside the maternity ward with an older man with glasses who seemed strangely less anxious than him. He remembers a young midwife with red hair telling him that 'They're ready to see you now, Mr Shakespeare.'
He remembers seeing the little mewling bundle in his exhausted friend's arms and the way that Sappho was crying quietly. He remembers the backache from sleeping slumped in the chair beside Sappho's bed because he didn't want to leave her alone. He got to carry his tiny 'niece' out to the car when Sappho was finally dismissed from hospital. After they got home and laid the baby carrier on the couch and as they gawked down at the sleeping infant within, he remembers turning to Sappho and asking in no more than a whisper, 'Tea?'