Meet Me Halfway

Chapter 32

Thoughts of the conversation Hermione had unwillingly heard between Gladys and Hal days prior had been plaguing her like crazy. From keeping her awake to affecting her ability to focus on the simplest of task, you name it. She just couldn't put the shocking revelation of the two of them sleeping together and Gladys cheating on FP to bed, pun intended.

It was honestly a miracle nobody had noticed how jittery she had become the past few days. She was never good with secrets and wasn't one to gossip either but weirdly enough the bombshell had been eating her up inside, and the funny part was that it didn't even involve her, it did however involve people she cared about, and that along with her moral compass and not wanting to put Gladys on blast, all played a major factor whether she was going to reveal all or keep it to herself.

However, pacing around Alice's calm and quiet bedroom as she took over from the exhausted teen Mom trying to settle the whimpering tot off to sleep and listening to her practically sing praises about how great of a father FP was and how much he had stepped up and impressed her in coming weeks certainly didn't help with the part of her that wanted to keep quiet for Gladys' sake.

Alice's tone alone was telling Hermione that she clearly wanted FP to be much more than the father of her child, and  she never quite felt the electric and passion and lust filled pining between FP and Gladys the way she always did with him and Alice, and the 6 week old infant that laid in her arms only served as a reminder of the twos deep seeded and long buried feelings that she knew in her gut just had to be released sooner or later, no matter who got hurt in the process.

"Hermione?" Alice called, wanting her attention once more. "You okay?"

Hermione whipped her head around at the sound of Alice's voice, her silky newly conditioned raven locks falling to the side of her shoulder as her startled and newly alert face looked back at the blonde. "Yeah." She quickly nods, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear before clearing her throat, her gaze fixed on the drained and red eyed teen. "Sorry, you were saying."

"Just how great FP has been with Charlie." Alice tiredly beamed before releasing a little yawn. "He's kinda surprised me really." She added with a little stretch.

"Do you, still have feelings for him?" Hermione reluctantly dropped all of a sudden, offering Alice a sympathetic look as she awaited an answer.

Alice's exhausted eyes suddenly appeared more alert as a stunned but bewildered expression flashed across her heart shaped face. That very prompt was the last thing she expected to come out of Hermione's mouth, and she had recently done well to suppress her feelings on the matter, but they were eventually going to be dug up, and unconciously singing praises about him while going all googly eyed wasn't going to help matters.

"I didn't wanna admit it-" Alice began before deeply sighing. "But yeah, I do, but he's with Gladys and I don't wanna complicate anything." She concludes in defeat, yawning once more before her head falls against her pillow.

"Oh, right." Hermione nods sympathetically, her voice remaining soft and low as she processed Alice's little revelation. This was making her battle between problematic morality and keeping the peace just that much harder, with morality currently winning.

Gladys cheating on FP was straight up inexcusable in her mind and she feels she has a moral obligation to tell FP the truth, she also feels it's right for two people who love each other to fight for it, especially with child in the middle, but on the other hand there was no telling what emotional fallout could result from exposing Gladys' infidelity, and that was where she remained stuck.

"Al? If you knew something about someone, something they had done wrong and other people involved could get hurt if it got out, would you still tell them?" Hermione nervously prompted, knowing she was treading thin ice here.