Chapter Text
It was Saturday morning and Sarah woke up to see that Charlie wasn’t in bed, in fact she wasn’t even sure if he had come to bed at all. She rolled over onto her back as best she could with a seven-month baby bump and put his pillow over her face, remembering the argument they’d had the night before.
It was the first time that they’d had had a full-blown argument since getting married; sure, they bickered like all couples do but this was an all-out row. The last time they had disagreed was five months ago when Sarah had suffered a knock to the head when she had slipped at a crime scene and needed hospital attention. Charlie told her he was going to request that someone else gathered evidence from crime scenes in the future so she could spend her time in the lab as they’d only just found out she was pregnant. Sarah had argued that she needed to be there and that women had been having babies for centuries to which Charlie responded “yeah, maybe, but not my babies…” As it was, it was morning sickness that stopped her from going. She missed being there amongst all the action, but she knew that she had to do it to keep her and ‘Squirmer’ as Charlie had affectionately called her bump safe.
This argument was different though and she tried to figure out what he wasn’t telling her and why it became an argument.
Their parents were due for a two-week long visit, so they’d planned a date night for Friday evening. Sarah was going to cook Charlie’s favourite dish complete with dessert. She’d managed to leave work on time and pick up what she needed. Charlie had told her that he would be home by 7.00pm, which gave her time to change into a new dress and serve dinner ready for him coming home. By 8.30pm he still wasn’t home and there was no message from him. Upset at going to the effort she had and with the baby telling her she was hungry she ate her dinner alone and decided that she would be comfier in her PJ’s.
Charlie came home just after 9.30pm to find his wife was fast asleep on the sofa and was awoken only when Rex nuzzled his nose into her face to say they were home. When she registered who it was, she looked at Charlie whose only words were “well that was a tough day.”
“A tough day? Is that all you’re going to say?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Charlie, you’re two and half hours late.”
“It’s not like I haven’t worked late before Sarah.”
“Yeah, but usually you call when things come up and we had plans.”
“The dinner. I’m sorry, but something came up.”
“What was so important that you couldn’t call?”
“I was…errrr… with Summer Saunders.”
“Again, that’s the second time this week. Why is she taking up so much of your time?” Sarah said feeling hurt
“You know why?” Charlie said feeling frustrated.
“All I know is that my husband made plans with me and then doesn’t honour them.” Sarah could feel her temper rising “What was so important that you had to cancel our plans and spend your time with another woman?”
“She lost her husband, Sarah.”
“I’m well aware of that, and I feel for her I do but we closed that case a month ago. And she can’t replace him with you”
“Hey! That’s not fair.”
“No what’s not fair is that I went to all this trouble for nothing. Are you going to forget plans when the baby gets here, because let me tell you, this (she gestured to her bump) is for life.”
“I know that, and you know I know that. She wanted to talk and what she said made me think of something.”
“Of what?”
“I can’t say.”
“Can’t say or won’t say?”
Charlie was quiet for a minute and Sarah stood waiting for a response before saying
“Whatever, I’m going to bed.”
“Sarah, we need to talk.”
“Yeah, I just asked and you refused…” she said with tears in her eyes before walking away from her husband.
Removing the pillow from her face, she carefully got out of bed and decided to get dressed before going to look for her husband. She felt terrible about what she said and hoped Charlie would forgive her. She dressed in her latest favourite ‘off duty’ outfit denim dungarees and a long-sleeved white t-shirt before heading into the living room to see no sign of her husband. She pottered into the kitchen and on the worktop saw a vase holding the biggest bouquet of flowers that she had ever seen. Next to it was a note with her name on in, she unfolded it and all it said was simply ‘I’m sorry’. This brought tears to her eyes as she thought that he didn’t really need to apologise, Charlie was a good man so of course he would want to help someone when they needed it, it was just one of the many reasons she fell in love with him and why she was still deeply in love with him now.
She put the kettle on and got two mugs from the cupboard before making coffee for them both. Another reason she loved her man was because when they had found out she was having a baby he had made the switch to de-caff with her, at least at home. She made the coffees and was just about to look for Charlie when she saw Rex come up the stairs from the bedrooms. He walked up to her and rubbed himself around her legs, so she had no choice but to bend down and rub his head.
“Morning handsome. Have you been with Charlie, where is he?”
Rex started to walk back toward the stairs and Sarah picked up the drinks and followed him. Rex sat at the top waiting for her before walking down them and stopping outside the room next to their own; the one they had decided to convert into the baby’s room for when she was old enough to use it. Sarah stood in the doorway and watched her husband; dressed in a pair of old jeans and a plain black t-shirt, as he stripped wallpaper, ready to put up the pale pink they’d chosen to replace it with. Rex looked at Sarah as if to say, ‘I’ll leave you to it’ and walked back upstairs for the rest of his breakfast. Charlie didn’t notice Sarah until he called for Rex. When there was no response but the smell of coffee, he turned and saw his wife. She smiled tentatively at him before saying “I’m sorry” as tears sprang to her eyes again.
Charlie took the beverages from her hands and then wrapped her in a hug, rubbing his hands up and down her back as she cried into his shoulder. When he thought she had stopped he whispered into her ear “I’m sorry Sarah. This is all my fault.”
“No, its not. I overreacted and took it out on you.”
“You have every right to. We made plans and I forgot them.”
“Yeah, but one of the reasons that I fell in love with you is because of your big heart and wanting to help others. I used our baby girl against you, she’s lucky to have a daddy that cares so much.”
“She might not think so when she is 15 and wants a boyfriend, which FYI we are locking her in her bedroom until she is 30.” Charlie released her and sat on the floor
Sarah laughed at that and went to pick up the coffees she’d made and passed them to Charlie, before he helped her to join him, sitting in her favourite place of in between his legs and using his chest as a back rest. Charlie handed her the drink before putting his hands on her bump and let out a slight chuckle
“Huh. Squirmer is very active this morning”
“Yeah, I think she missed her kiss goodnight…” sighed Sarah “…as did her mummy.”
It had become a little bit of a ritual that before they went to sleep, Charlie would kiss ‘Squirmer’ goodnight before kissing Sarah. Charlie leant down and placed a soft kiss on Sarah’s bump before sitting up to kiss Sarah “Morning.” He breathed before kissing her again. Rex came to the door and looked in to see if it was safe for him to come in or whether his ‘silly humans’ still needed space. Charlie looked over Sarah’s head which she had tucked into his shoulder and told their fur baby that he could come in. The three of them sat in silence for a while before Charlie broke the silence
“Do you remember the promise we made to each other on our wedding night about not keeping secrets and to resolve any arguments we have quickly? I want to tell you about what I wouldn’t last night”
“No, no you don’t have to”
“I want to. She arrived at the station at a loss, and we got talking about how I’d met you and how she’d met Richard and she asked whether we had children and I said that we were expecting our first…” rubbing his hand over ‘Squirmer’ before continuing … “she said that she and Richard didn’t have children and she was glad in a way because it meant that they didn’t have to go through what she was and it made me think about what would happen if I lost you...”
Sarah sat quietly, whilst he talked, but wrapped her arms around him tighter and snuggled into him more than she already was.
“… or if something happened to me and I left you and ‘Squirmer’ and Rex behind. When it was just me and Rex, I knew that if something happened to me that Rex would be taken care of by you, but now I have more in my life, so I have more to lose and more people that I love that I would want to know were going to be taken care of. You just don’t know, I mean they were only married a year longer than we’ve been.”
“Oh Charlie, I didn’t know you felt like that. You should have said something sooner.”
“I know, but I didn’t want to burden you with my erratic fears.”
“Not erratic fears. Never that, especially in your line of work.” She said gently placing a kiss on his forehead. He tightened his hold on his wife and held her close marvelling at how understanding she was when he finally opened up to her about how he was feeling.
Their peace was broken by the sound of his phone ringing. Answering it he spoke to Joe who told him that Summer Saunders was back at the station wanting to talk to him. Charlie asked Joe to nicely tell Mrs. Saunders that he was just about to make his wife and himself breakfast. Charlie also told Joe that maybe Mrs. Saunders needed to perhaps seek professional help, help he couldn’t give her.
“You could talk to her” Sarah said as he hung up.
“Nah, I don’t think I can help, and I think you’re right, I think she just wants someone to fill the void… besides… do you really want to get rid of me when I’ve just spent a fortune on those flowers?”
“They are beautiful, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Come on let’s get breakfast. How does bacon, scrambled eggs and toast sound?”
“Heavenly”
Charlie helped Sarah get up off the floor and kissed her hand above her wedding and engagement ring before heading for the kitchen. They enjoyed their breakfast, as did Rex who was treated to bacon from both Charlie and Sarah. Just as they had finished, they heard a knock on the door and were greeted by four very excited grandparents to be. The Hudson’s and Truong’s got on very well, so had decided to all arrive together and surprise their children four hours earlier than intended.
As the party of six shared hugs and kisses, unbeknown to them, Summer Saunders watched from afar…