brandi. (zombiephile) wrote in daiquiri, @ 2011-04-03 00:49:00 |
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Entry tags: | char: sally-anne perks, game: six degrees |
General Fic: What If (Sally-Anne Perks)
Title: What If ...
Characters: Sally-Anne Perks, with apperances by Hannah Abbott, Nathan NoLastName, Alexander Perks, and Oliver Wood, as well as mentions of Wayne Hopkins and Bailey Wood.
Setting: Early 2004 through December 2005
Word Count: 1570
Summary: What if Sally hadn't lost the baby? From the time she found out she was late until December 2005, her history has been rewritten to reflect how much her life is different. (Though the first four paragraphs are pretty much the same regardless.)
Rating: Um. No real language or naughty bits, so probably a G? I mean, heck, Disney gets a G rating with killing their main characters' parents, right? And it's not like anyone even dies here.
Author's Note: While thinking through some fics I still owe at sixdegreesrpg, I was inspired to write a "What if" fic for Sally, changing one major piece of her history, to see what might have happened instead.
Sally was late. And not just a few days, as sometimes happened, but really late. Three weeks, to be exact. So she went to the store and bought one of those little tests. After chickening out on taking it five times, she finally did it. The two minutes it took were the longest two minutes of her life. And when it showed the little positive sign, she went back to the store and bought five more, convinced that the first one was wrong. But the other five showed the same thing: positive. Congratulations, Sally-Anne Perks, you have been knocked up. This was not how she wanted it to happen. For one thing, she wanted to be married first. For another, she didn't want it to just be as a result of drunken celebrations after a particularly hot story was broken. And although she and Nathan had been flirting practically since she'd been hired, she didn't particularly want it to be with him. She had no idea what he would think about it, or do, or say. Would he do the "honourable thing" and propose? Was that even what she wanted? She didn't know. The first thing she did, though, was call Hannah. Her best friend, who also happened to be a Healer. She'd tell Sally if all six tests happened to be wrong. And even if they weren't, Sally just needed her best friend right now. They weren't wrong. Hannah referred Sally to Maude Spinnet, and it was once again confirmed. Come October, she was going to be a mother. She had to tell Nathan. He needed to know. It had taken until a couple weeks into April before Sally could work up the nerve to stop by Nathan's flat after work one evening. She still didn't know what to say or what to expect, but she fumbled through it. Told him that she was pregnant, that the condom they'd used must have been defective, because it couldn't have been anyone else. He refused to accept that the baby was his, and said he never wanted to speak to Sally again. Sally went straight to Hannah, who helped her work her way through an entire carton of chocolate ice cream that night. All this, of course, made going in to work every day awkward. As her belly started to swell, the looks she got showed her exactly what her coworkers thought of her: whatever they might have heard from Nathan, they clearly thought she was just … trash, just some stupid girl (being a pureblood witch working for a muggle newspaper, she didn't always understand muggle references, so everyone just assumed she was some stupid, sheltered girl) who was trying to entrap Nathan with her sob story. Seven months pregnant and with no other jobs lined up, Sally put in her resignation at the paper in August, and began a frantic job hunt, looking for any job in either the magical or the muggle world, just something that would pay her enough to keep her flat, to keep her fed, to keep her unborn baby healthy. She ended up waitressing, spending hours carrying around a heavy tray when her back and legs already ached from carrying the baby. Her camera sat on a shelf in her flat, gathering dust. She was simply too exhausted after work to go out and take pictures of anything. Finally, Mrs Spinnet told her that she had to quit the waitressing job, it wasn't healthy for her or the baby. That was the first time that Sally truly broke down and cried, because this was absolutely not how she had imagined it would be, and she was miserable and had barely been scraping by as a waitress. And for the first (and only) time, she briefly hated the baby, though she immediately felt horrible for hating the poor innocent life that depended so completely on her. She got a job at the Prophet, in filing. Getting coffee for people. Taking and delivering messages. But it was still something, and she got to spend more time sitting than standing. By the time baby Alexander was born in mid-October, Sally had grown up a lot. Only 24 years old, but she felt so much older. Her son was beautiful and perfect, and she truly did love him with all her heart. But she still felt like her life was lacking. She had an uninspiring job, and although she had Alex, and of course Hannah and Wayne, she was lonely. Especially since Hannah and Wayne were going to be getting married. Oh, she knew they'd always be her best friends, but she didn't want to always be the third wheel to them. What she really wanted was somebody to come home to. Someone else to take turns with on getting out of bed and checking on Alex when he was crying in the middle of the night. She wanted what Hannah and Wayne had: not just love, but friendship and companionship. But most men shied away from a single mother with an infant child, not wanting to take on that baggage. It was shortly after Alex's first birthday that her big break came at work. Her camera had seen a lot of use in the past year, as she'd chronicled everything about Alex, and started taking pictures again of other people, animals, scenery, anything that would stay still long enough for a picture. And in October, when one of the Prophet's photographers quit, Sally seized the opportunity. She took some of her favourite pictures, put them together into a portfolio, and applied for the open photography position. After drifting about a bit as a Prophet photographer, she was finally assigned to sports in early December. And then, as luck would have it, she was tapped just two short weeks later to do the spread for the All Stars quidditch team for the Prophet. It was at the photoshoot that she met him. The Keeper for the Montrose Magpies, a very fit bloke with an amazing smile. Oliver Wood. She couldn't help but flirt with him at the shoot. And after the shoot. And then something truly amazing happened: suddenly they were making plans for a date. She just … innocently neglected to mention the son she had at home. But when the time came for Oliver to come pick her up, she was nervous. She'd already put Alexander down to bed, and the babysitter was in his room, so she was out of sight until after Sally had left with Oliver. She'd cleaned up the flat, putting all the toys away in Alex's room. And, well, she'd just have to avoid letting him see the pictures of Alex scattered around the flat, because those she simply couldn't bear to hide. She certainly hadn't counted on Alex waking up as she and Oliver were about to leave. A wailing cry emanated from the second bedroom, and Sally's cheeks flared up red. "Um, just a minute," she apologised to Oliver, dropping her purse and hurrying to the bedroom. The babysitter was trying to calm him down, but he was having none of it. As soon as Sally stepped into the room, he saw her and twisted in the babysitter's hold, reaching for her and calling out, "Mama! Mama!" Sally took Alex into her arms, shushing him softly and rubbing his back. "It's okay, baby. Mommy's here. Shhh, it's okay." The babysitter, standing there with Alex's blanket in her hands, cleared her throat and gestured behind Sally. Sally turned and blanched when she saw Oliver standing in the doorway. Well, he would have had to find out eventually, might as well get it out of the way. Clearing her throat, Sally settled Alex on her hip, stepping a little closer to him. "Oliver … this is my son, Alexander." She met his eyes, as if daring him to say something. If he turned and walked out right now, well … she'd had worse. Oliver didn't say anything right away. Instead, he reached into his sporran and pulled out a picture, holding it out to Sally. The picture was of an adorable little girl, maybe a year, at the most, older than Alex. Sally looked at the picture, then back up at Oliver, her gaze far less accusational now. "Yours?" she asked softly. "Aye, my daughter. Bailey." Alexander had fallen back asleep, his thumb stuffed in his mouth. Sally carefully transferred him back to the crib, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead softly, before ushering Oliver out of the room and closing the door behind her. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything before. About Alex. Most men don't take well to a woman with a baby." Her lips twitched, pulling into a tiny smile. "I imagine you know what that's like?" Oliver nodded. "Aye, I do." As he paused, Sally wondered if he was going to leave anyway. But instead, he asked, "Will he be okay? Or did you want to reschedule?" The tiny smile on Sally's lips blossomed into a full one. "He should be okay, and the babysitter knows how to reach me if something happens." |