Section 1 from Gdoc while ij was down.
“Vic…” Teddy sighed softly, not knowing what it was he should say. It was nothing that Victoire had done, nothing she could do. Life in the town was weird, and felt both longer and shorter and well, it was crazy. It was hard to explain to her, without her living it herself. He just wanted to make her feel better. He chewed his lip, and moved to brush her hair out of her face. “Victoire, I never stopped loving me. I do love you, and I always will, because you’re so important to me. Months of… nothing, no communication, no guarantee that you’ll be back, and it felt like everyone was just gone. It’s not excuse, but I can’t change any of it now, and …” He was going to say that he wouldn’t change anything, because he was so incredibly happy, but he realized that was the last thing he should probably say to her. At the end of the day though, Victoire was his best friend, and the person he would spend his life with. He didn’t like seeing her so hurt, more importantly; he didn’t like being the one to have caused her all of the pain. He ran a hand quickly through his hair before leaning over and moving to pull her into a hug. It was then, very suddenly, when he realized that the large pile of blankets that covered her was hiding a very solid, round stomach. He jerked back almost immediately, staring at her, blinking a couple of times. “Vic, are you…?” His voice was breathy, on the verge of panic and excitement.
Victoire could barely breathe. He may have been trying to let her down easily, and if she hadn’t been completely unprepared for this, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad - but she’d had no idea it was coming. She was every bit in love with Teddy as she ever had been, and it felt as if the world had been turned upside down. This wasn’t right. None of it was.
“How - how can you say you love me and then - with someone else just because I wasn’t there?” she whispered, heartbroken. “I would’ve waited for you. I would’ve waited forever for you. I thought - I thought you felt the same.”
It had to be a dream. Some sort of nightmare she hadn’t woken up from, maybe made all the more vivid because of the late stages of pregnancy. Whatever it was, this couldn’t be real. Teddy would have never done this, not her Teddy.
When he touched her, she shrank back, her expression crumbling. With a fresh wave of tears, she nodded.
“Victoire, you’ll always have a place in my heart, because you’re my best friend. I don’t have all the answers for you, and I wish I could. It’s just… very different here, and I don’t think you could really understand unless you were there. I’m sorry, Vic, I’m so sorry.” He chewed his lip again, wishing that he could make this better. Once again he wished he could disappear, to save both women for the drama that seemed to be his life here.
Teddy blinked again when she nodded, torn suddenly between two very incredible emotions. He was going to be a father. Yes, he’d met their youngest son, and knew all about their life together, and even cared for the boisterous five year old, but it was different when being presented with a pregnant wife, a newborn baby to worry over and to spoil. He was absolutely thrilled with the idea, grinning rather brightly despite the unfortunate news that he’d given Victoire. In the back of his head, there was a panic, he didn’t know how to be a father to a baby so small, but he was thrilled.
“When are we due? Is it our first? Is the baby healthy?” His eyes lit up as he asked her, and he was almost out of place in the sad setting around him.
“I’m supposed to be your wife, not just your best friend,” she said in a choked voice. “What - what did I do? I must’ve done something.” She simply couldn’t comprehend that there was any other way this had happened. How could there be? Back home, they’d been happy. Blissfully happy. And never, not for a moment, had she ever thought he could fall out of love with her, or her him. It just wasn’t possible.
His grin only made her sob. He really didn’t understand, did he? He was breaking her heart. And as humiliated as she was, crying out in the open like this, he’d been humiliating her for however long he’d been with his girlfriend. If not even Teddy could still love her even when she wasn’t there, then how could anyone else?