pippa_flynn | Akeem

Akeem

Straight away after Christmas Pippa had taken Fin's recommendation and gone to see Hex. He told her it was much too early to tell if she was preggers but he ran an STI panel, just to see. He told her it was a bit early to tell that, either.

Ever since, she had been peeing on sticks every few days, just waiting for her period to come. But it didn't. And it didn't. And now she was officially late. By two weeks. But every stick said negative. And so she had made arrangements with Hex once more, not wanting to go to her regular doctor because of her 'condition' as well as Akeem's. No, the NHS wasn't equipped to deal with Fae or werewolves.

And so she set a time to meet with Hex and then went to Akeem's shop to see if he'd come with her. No call, no text, she simply dropped in.

"Akeem?" she called into the book shop. "Are you in here somewhere?"

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Akeem took her into his arms, first, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "It's your body. I'll be there, whatever you decide."

He did not want to be a father, but he would not abandon his child, if that was what she wanted.

"I don't know what to decide. I think on it and think, and some days I want to keep it and some days not, and sometimes it's hour to hour," she admitted.

"It's not real yet," he told her, arms warm around her, chin tucked on her hair. "It might not be a decision at all."

"I know. I know. But I can't quit thinking what if. What if? I'm not ready for this," she sighed, holding onto him in return.

"I don't think anyone's ever ready for an unexpected pregnancy," Akeem told her quietly. "But whatever happens, you're not going to go through it alone, Pippa."

"You keep assuring me of that, Akeem...but how do you know? You barely know me. I'm not nice. I'm really horrid. I'm selfish, and I can be ugly...How long until you decide enough is enough and be done of me?" she said, not even thinking of a child, only her past affairs that had lasted long enough for just that exact thing to happen.

"You might want to be done of me, first," Akeem pointed out, cupping her face in her hand. "But if you want to keep this child -" if there was a child, "then we'll do the adult thing, and still be his parents, no matter what."

He was so calm and so strong. She didn't feel strong, she felt sick. Pippa allowed herself a moment of weakness here in the privacy of the lab room and she clung to him, fingers grabbing his shirt and balling into fists.

"I'm here," Akeem told her quietly, moving a hand to her hair, cradling her head and holding her to him.

She stayed there, soaking up his strength. She didn't want to think about this anymore. It consumed her thoughts, day in and day out. She was getting to where she could barely function.

And then there was a knock and the door opened. Hex peeked in.

"Results are in," he said.

Akeem dropped his hand from her head to her waist, so that she could stay in his arms to hear the results if she preferred that, but he would also let her go if she moved away.

She stayed in his hold but turned to look at Hex.

"You're negative across the board," he said. "And it was a blood test so...it's one hundred percent, Pip."

"Not pregnant?" she said softly. "Then why am I late?"

Hex shrugged. "Probably stress and worry. I bet if you had a xanax or two you'd start up."

It was rather crude but it got his point across.

Pippa paused, then closed her eyes and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Hex," she said.

"Thank you," Akeem added with a nod, and a small smile for the nurse. He felt rather weak with relief, he had to admit.

Hex gave a nod and then backed out and shut the door, figuring they might need a minute.

And she did, at least. Pippa pulled back and looked at him. Of all the things she could think to say, only one thing seemed important.

"I'm so sorry to put you through all of this," she said.

"Pippa, I rather think we share the blame in this," Akeem pointed out, stroking her jawline with a thumb, a tender gesture. "And you've had it far worse than I. If anyone ought to apologise, it should be me."

"So we'll share the blame," she decided. Then the took the deepest possible breath and let it out. "Dodged a bullet, didn't we?"

"Quite," Akeem told her with a small smile, and pushed her hair back behind her ear. "Let's not be this careless ever again, shall we?"

"Never again," she agreed. She laughed softly, a nervous little sound, then reached for his hand. "Let's get out of here. I don't care where we go, just not here."

"Anywhere you'd like," Akeem told her. As usual, all of him was in agreement: he wanted nothing but to make her happy. "Shall we find your friend to thank him again, first?"

"I'll send him a gift basket," she replied. Then she had her phone in her hand to order up another Uber to take them away from here.

"It'll be about five minutes. Let's go outside. I want to smoke."

Akeem held her coat out for her and helped her into it, not gentlemanly so much as caring. On their way back out, he looked around in case he spotted Hex, but the young man was nowhere to be seen. They found themselves outside, and he pulled out a cigarette of his own, glad to be able to ignore the hospital smells a little more easily now. "Have I ever mentioned I loathe hospitals?" he asked around the cigarette as he located his lighter in his coat pocket.

"No, that hasn't come up in conversation," she said, laughing more easily out here as the realization washed over her. Not pregnant. Not. Negative. It made her smile as she fished out a smoke.

"The smells are atrocious," he explained, leaning over to light her cigarette before his own.

"I'd agree with that," she said as she took a pull and her cigarette burst to life with a crackle and a wisp of smoke. "Though I reckon it's worse for you than me."

"Quite," Akeem agreed. "Unless your magic enhances your senses?"

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