Sweet Child of Mine

Chapter 28

Alice felt the bile rising in her throat as the urge to release it had her snapping out of her slumber that morning and immediately racing to the bathroom. Bringing herself to the floor, she pulled the seat up as quick as possible and unleashed the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl, breathlessly through struggles chokes and coughs trying to completely clear her throat of the sickly bodily fluid.

She had been made aware of the fact that she was with child for roughly a week and she was already damning the dreaded morning sickness, along with the fact that this was only the start. She was just thankful Hal wasn't still in bed to hear her.

She had yet to tell him and struggled on how to, mainly because for the first few days of knowing, she had unconsciously dismissed it all, and the fact that it was happening. It was only the emergence of the morning sickness that forced her to deal with it head on.

Furthermore, she wasn't sure how to deal with it herself. Alice wasn't sure if it could be attributed to the imbalance of her hormones at the moment, but she had very striking mixed feelings about this pregnancy.

Of course, she was over the moon, she was finally going to have the conventional family she had always wanted, and an actual chance to raise a baby,  or that she loved Charles any less, in fact she very much looked forward to telling him he was going to be a big brother, however, something still plagued her irritably about it all, and ultimately she wasn't as happy as she always thought she'd be, but nonetheless, it was something worth celebrating.

She stood from the toilet seat, smoothing out her nightgown and taking a deep breath before gathering herslef completely and making her way downstairs to prepare Hal's breakfast.

She found him sat at the island, appearing slightly withdrawn and distant with his head deep into a copy of their own newspaper, quietly sipping on a mug of black coffee.

"How are you doing this morning?" She asked him softly as she approached the kitchen. She was much more sensitive around lately as it was clear he was still effected by his Father's passing, and it had only been a week since the burial. She was concerned about his insistence on rushing back to work so soon.

"Fine." Hal gruffed, refusing to look up at her and remaining stoic.

"Have you eaten? I can fix you some eggs, oatmeal perhaps-"

"No, I'm good." Hal answered bluntly, slowly rising from the table. He slid over a sheet of paper her way, and she carefully picked it up, observing the writing to find it was a list of errands including picking up his dry cleaning, weeding the garden, arranging for their window cleaner to arrive and many more orders and directions he expected her to handle now that she was a stay at home wife.

"You- you want me to handle all of this?" Alice timidly questioned, her eyes widening in confusion. It was a little too much, even for Hal. And with her recent condition, she wasn't sure how exactly it would all work.

"The dry cleaning is a main priority honey." He explained, taking one last sip of his coffee and rising from the table to then move towards the door and place his trench coat on, prompting Alice to follow after him. "It won't be a problem will it? I have that Gala at the town hall tomorrow so it will be needed.

"No, of course not." Alice assured him, her tone remaining uncertain and her smile staying tight as she watched him open up the door.

"Good. I'll catch you later." He ended, briefly kissing her on the cheek and stepping outside.

"-Hal?!" Alice called out once more, something inside of her urging and pushing her to tell him she was carrying his child, but another part of her was strongly restricting, telling her now wasn't the time, and it was that damning side she eventually gave into.

"What?"

"Uh- have a good day. I love you."

A small smile and mild chuckle was his only response before he turned once more and made his way to his car, leaving a conflicted and vulnerable Alice alone with her thoughts on the stoop, carefully clutching her abdomen as she was wracked with feelings of guilt and confusion over how she was going to handle this.

But one thing she knew for sure, she had to Hal as soon as possible.