Kaycee was sat at their dining room table, her jaw dropped.
"I-I am so sorry." She stammered, turning to her cousin, who was sitting across from where Sean was sitting. "I don't know what's gotten into him." She mumbled as she threw her napkin down and bolted down the hallway Sean went down.
Kaycee pushed open the door to Sean's study. She knew that's where he'd be, that's where he always was nowadays.
They were hosting Christmas that year, and to be candid, Sean and Kaycee hadn't had the most stable year, marriage wise.
They had to force themselves together, present their marriage shiny and buttoned up as they were hosting both Sean and Kaycee's family that were in the Manhattan area.
But now, here Sean was, unnecessarily snapping at Kaycee's cousin, who he knew was still delicate from the loss of her baby, only a few months before Christmas.
"Sean! It is Christmas! You cannot be acting like this!" Kaycee started, bounding into the room. The door slammed behind her, but she didn't care.
"I don't care." Sean mumbled, focusing on scribbling something in a binder.
Kaycee knew exactly why he snapped at her cousin. She knew he wasn't like that, but she did know that his work had really been piling up and up and up for the past year. And with work pile up came a lack of Sean's presence in their marriage.
"You're angry. You're burnt out. You know the fights we've been getting into, and I don't wanna get into one now." Kaycee's eyes started to fill with tears, but she pushed them back. "I was scared for a while, Sean! You were...no, you are addicted to your work. You bit off more than you could chew. It is Christmas, please."
Sean sat up from where he was looking down.
Addicted. It sounded different when he heard his own wife say it.
He'd pondered the idea that he'd started becoming addicted to his career. The first year of their marriage was amazing and perfect, but then he got a promotion and his work picked up.
Many people had told him that he needed a break, and he needed a vacation away to spend time with his wife, but it never clicked.
It never clicked until now.
Now, he was yelling at relatives, in his study, and his wife was near tears in front of him, all on Christmas evening.
It had really come all down on him, hadn't it?
"Kaycee--"
"Sean," Kaycee stopped him. "I thought we were going to get divorced for a while there. I was so scared." Kaycee sat in another chair in his study. "Sean, I want to start a family with you, but I can't do that if you're yelling at family and always tucked up in here."
Sean blinked slowly as he processed this whole thing. Was this really how he would spend Christmas? Making people that he knew were fragile snap, and making his wife cry.
Everyone was so concerned with him, and he just didn't see it until now.
"I'm going back to dinner. You need to come back, whenever you're ready, I guess." Kaycee stood up, dried her eyes, and left the study.
Sean screamed out loud, muffling his yelling against his desk. He pulled at his hair in anger for a moment, and stood up.
"What were you thinking?!" He shouted to himself, ramming his knee into the shelf in his study out of anger.
This sudden hit against the shelf made something fall from the top.
"What the..." Sean mumbled, looking down at what fell.
He ignored the pain in his knee when he saw what had been hiding on top of the shelf.
A positive pregnancy test, in a clear topped box, with a note that said "Merry Christmas, Baby".
