Chapter 29

It was in the early hours of the morning that Rose felt the soft touch of nimble fingers stroking through her messy, un-brushed curls. The soft gentle whisper of "Rose." Coaxing her from her slumber.

The fingers moved to her cheek; their cool touch clashing against the warmness of her skin. "Rose," whispered the voice again; this time, the owner, mildly registering to Rose. The sudden dream like image appearing in her mind of her six year old self, standing barefoot at dawn with dew covered grass tickling between her toes. "Wake up love." the voice continued, alluring Rose away from her image.

Rose stirred and focused heavily on the image of her standing, as if she might forget it if her mind drifted for a single second. The touch of her mother's fingers and peaceful voice, made her feel six. Rose liked feeling six. The thought of waking up and her biggest concern being what sort mischief Albus and her could get up to at the burrow, while their parents were at work.

"It's time to wake up."

A faceless woman walked into the field. The six year old Rose didn't feel scared or nervous by the woman's presence. If anything she felt excited and happy. The woman stood beside her and bent down. It was then that Rose saw the woman's face, only it was her face; she was the woman.

"Rose," her mother whispered leaning into her ear. "We have news."

Her older self, extended her arms out and wrapped them around the child. It was then that Rose saw that the child wasn't a younger image of her at all, but someone else. She wasn't even sure if the child was a boy or a girl, but she was sure that it was hers. Carefully, Rose picked the child up and felt it nuzzle its face into her neck- its mother's neck- and tightly cling on to Rose.

That image jolted Rose back to her reality, her eyes opening and her body instinctively flinching from the shock of the hospital room. Looking around the room, her eyes landed on her father's still body; the events of yesterday rushing back to her. "How long was I asleep?" yawned Rose, taking in her mother's kneeling position in front of her.

"A couple of hours." Answered Hermione sweetly. "It's just now six."

Rose nodded and pushed herself up so that she was sitting; her body stiff from the crumpled position she had been laying in. Still getting her bearings, Rose noted the lack of another person. "Where's Hugo?"

Hermione bit her lip. "I told him to go write Scorpius for you. Tell him where you were, and explain the situation with your father." Hermione gazed at Rose's curious. "I didn't want him to worry about you," she explained. "I hope you don't mind."

Rose froze at her mother's concerned nature for Scorpius to know where she was. "No, not at all. I didn't think to leave a note." She looked down to her hands and then focused on the heart monitor. "How's dad?" she finally asked.

Hermione patted Rose's hand. "His body seems to be withstanding the poison and Healer Marshall says that we have every right to hope that he will wake up soon."

Relief flooded through Rose. "That's good."

"Yeah." Hermione's lips pressed together in a soft line. Rose watched as her mother slowly pushed herself up from her position.

Hermione closed her eyes for a brief thinking second. Dragging her fingers through the top part of her hair she sighed and opened her eyes to Rose. "I'm going to go update your grandparents and Harry."

"Alright," Rose said looking back to her father, and wondering if she should leave as well, while no one else was in the room with him. "Should I-"

Her mother shook her head, already knowing what Rose was going to ask. "Stay with him," Hermione mouthed softly.

Straitening her posture, Rose stared to Ron and furrowed her brow. It wasn't that she didn't want to be alone with him, it was that she didn't know how to be. "Okay," her speechless self, managed to say.

Her mother's eyes bore into the back of her head. "You know, it might help to talk to him." Hermione said from the doorway.

Rose whipped her head around. "About what?" she choked.

Hermione gave an all knowing eye to Rose and then turned to walk towards the waiting room.

Rose continued to stare at the door, listing to her mother's footsteps until they were no longer in ear shot. Sighing, her insides quivered which gave her chill bumps along her arms. "Talk," she said out loud, with a sideways glance to Ron. "I know what you'd say. You'd say that this was ridiculous because you're asleep and wouldn't be listening."

She felt awkward for speaking to him as though the situation was joke. What was even worse, was not receiving a response; only the sound of the heart monitor's steady beeps filling the room.

Rose leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, sitting in the silence for several more seconds before saying, "I'm not going to say I'm sorry." There was a disgruntled tone to her voice. "Because I'm really really not." she scooted her chair towards his bed and stared at her lap.

Tapping her thumb in tune with the beeping, Rose whirled an eye up to him, and found herself unable to bring it back down. Slowly, a small smile formed on her lips; although Ron was sick he looked peaceful and understanding. "Do you want to know a secret?" her voice cracked, Rose shocked that she had actually spoken, but continued to go along with the thought she was having. "I'm pregnant." She closed her eyes and, feeling lightheaded and nauseous. "No one knows yet, not even Scorpius." She paused and blinked her eyes; giving her father a serious look. "But I know I am, too much adds up."

Biting her lip, she laughed to herself. "I know me with a kid," she answered as if he had said something to her. "That sounds like a bad joke, I know, but it's true."

Her eyes moved guilty to her flat stomach. "I'm not sure how I feel about it yet." Rose admitted as she began to chew on her fingernails. "I mean what if I'm horrible at being a mum? I don't like kids, and I certainly never thought about having one." Her eyes swiveled around the room. "I guess I better start thinking about it now," She chuckled and sighed with a snuffle. "I think I feel not happy about this? Does that make me a horrible person?"

She paused unsure what to say next that didn't sound as awful as her previous statement. "But then again a part of me feels okay with it. When I think about the fact that it is part Scorpius, it calms me." Rose stared at her father's closed eyelids. "He really is one of the most loving people I know, and he loves me unconditionally."

Rose reached out and grabbed a hold of her father's hand; squeezing it. "Why can't you see that?" she said hoarsely. "Why can't you see that I need him? I tried being without him, and I was miserable."

Tears started to flow from her eyes. "When I used to wake up in the morning, for a brief second my mind would go to him, and I would wish that he was asleep next to me. Then I would remind myself that I chose not to have him, and I'd blame myself for not being happy." Rose squeezed her eyes shut to hold back from sobbing. "Is that really how you wanted me to feel for the rest of my life?" Rose sniffled, the wetness from her face dripped on to her jeans.

Her knuckles were white from the strength of her grip around her father's hand, as if she had been trying to force him to see reason. Raising her hand she wiped her arm across her eyes. Her breathing unsteady, she blinked only to jerk away instantly, because a pair of blue eyes were staring back at her.

Rose stood up with trembling knees and rushed to the door. "Someone," she called down the hall, but gave a hesitant glance over her shoulder to her father and said nothing else.

There was something hallow in his eyes that made Rose stop trying to get someone, and turn around to face him. Her heart was heavy and pounding against her chest. She didn't know what to say to him, or how much of her speech he had heard, but she supposed none of that mattered in the moment, because all she could think about was the blank look in his eyes that were staring at her.

Rose took a hesitant step forward. "Daddy," she said in a voice barely audible.

Ron closed his eyes and turned his head away from her, and Rose stopped walking a hurt expression appearing on her face. "I'm your daughter," she said a bit louder. "So will you please look at me?" she asked firmly.

It took Ron a moment, but finally he turned his head back to Rose and opened his eyes. His look pierced through her, his eyes searching for an answer to a question she didn't know. He seemed confused, and hurt, and- his mouth opened.

His dry, chapped lips, widened and shaped into a slanted oval; his bottom lip drooping from his lack of control. Ron was trying to say something, but he was too weak, and when he finally did make a sound it was a loud strained moan. A moan of someone writhing in pain but who was still determined. A moan that echoed through Rose's ears and chilled her to the core.

The beeping of her father's heart monitor began to quicken and Rose rushed forward. "Please calm down," she said urgently, looking around her for an attending button and then pressing it.

"You need to calm down." She grabbed for his hand and felt it shake profusely in hers, as if it was trying to pull away. The sound of his moans flowing into a continuous song, and the beeping playing at an even faster pace.

Rose started to hyperventilate and pulled back. Her eyes unable to break from his as her feet steep backward toward the direction of the door. She knew that this was a bad idea, that he wouldn't have wanted her there, and yet she let herself be stupid enough to believe that maybe things could change.

Rose panicked as one of her father's legs flailed and he tried to sit up, only to find that he was connected to ivs. A group of healers rushed past Rose- one of them almost knocking her over- as they went to push Ron back down into the bed. He fought against them but it was useless, all he could do was moan.

Rose's chest continued to rise and fall and her sight was glued to his. She watched as his eyes widened, and he flopped a hand around. All Rose could think was that he was telling her to leave, and to never come back.

Rose gritted her teeth together and squeezed her eyes shut; her hand shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't be in the room any longer, so she ran. The moaning grew louder in her head as she bolted down the hall- past her mother and Hugo- and turned the corner to the floo network fireplaces. She had to get that horrible sound out of her head. Grabbing a handful of floo powder, she jumped inside of the fireplace and said "Malfoy apartment, New York." And she dropped the powder as fast as possible.

Rose was shocked to see that her apartment was coated in black, the dead of night casting shadows around the living room. She looked to her watch and read one. It was still the middle of the night. The quiet took her by surprise and as she stepped into her living room she fell back against the wall.

A new wave of emotion coursing through her. She couldn't describe it. Rose reached up and gripped her fingers around the first thing she could feel. It was a photograph of her and Scorpius just standing together, with their pinky's intertwined. The frame was trimmed in silver and it felt heavy and cool in her hands. Rose paused as she traced the outline of the two of them- a lump in her throat was working its way up and through her mouth- and before she could even recall what she had done, Rose flung the picture across the room and into a wall, all while releasing a thunderous scream.

It was a strong, empowered, liberating yell that left her feeling better about herself than she had in months. Moisture began to coat her eyes and blur her vision. Her legs became weaker, to the point that Rose thought that they would fall right out from under her; but that didn't stop her from screaming. The scream gave her some sense of herself, it allowed her to feel frustrated and angry and sad. She didn't have to care about being careful to not hurt Scorpius' feelings, because he wasn't there to know. It was her time to be able to let go and she took it, and continued until she had nothing else left inside of her.

Reaching for a crystal vase beside her, Rose sent it flying into the wall as well, followed by a porcelain lamp. Rose knew that going around and destroying her apartment was crazy, and if weren't for the lingering thought that she knew exactly what spell she was going to use to restore everything, she would have said she was crazy. But she wanted control over something; even if it was the destruction of her apartment. She wanted to feel the power of being able to choose, instead of having things chosen for her.

As she threw dish after dish from the kitchen cabinets, Rose could feel her insides start to crumble. It was as if the shattered remains of plaster, clay and glass was scrapping away at every emotion Rose had ever held back. Why couldn't her father just accept it? Why couldn't he just accept her? And better yet, why couldn't this just be simple? Why did her heart still feel shattered and broken even though she was with Scorpius?

Smashing the last plate, Rose headed for the closest room; the office. There wasn't much to smash- two desks and a bookshelf- but Rose reached for her wand. She was blinded by emotion, and waved to the first thing that she saw. The bookshelf in the office collapsed leaving books in a heap on top of the wooden remains. Closing her eyes she glided her wand across the office until she heard a sickeningly loud crack that brought her to reality and made her drop her wand.

It was as if the world had suddenly gone silent and Rose could finally think clearly again. Her throat was raw, and her face was red and covered in tear stains. Breathing shaky, quivering but calm breaths, Rose propped a trembling hand against her desk. Her heart thudded in her chest, as she surveyed the room around her. She had hit Scorpius' desk. The mahogany wood was scorched with burn marks, and his front drawer seemed to have taken the brunt of it; it was dangling out, crooked and off its rollers. His files and papers had fallen into piles spread out across the floor.

Rose scratched the corner of her forehead. She needed to fix this, she needed to fix it before Scorpius got home and thought she had gone mental; which she supposed she had for a brief moment in time.

Pulling her hair back, Rose sighed and looked down to the floor for her wand. It was sticking out between a mess of papers. Bending down to retrieve it Rose noticed that they weren't just papers, but letters. Letters that were addressed to her.

Scorpius opened the door to his apartment and shoved his way in- his bag getting hooked in the doorway. He had rushed as quickly as he could to pack his bag- stuffing wrinkled shirts, and unfolded shorts, in a way that made the bag appear much large than it was- the entire time he gripped Hugo's letter in his hand.

Scorpius tugged his bag free and walked into the uncharacteristically dark apartment. He wasn't planning on staying, just long enough to drop off his bag and then use their fireplace to floo to St. Mungo's. Scorpius understood that showing up in a location where the rest of the Weasley clan was, might not be the best decision, but getting to Rose was his only concern. He had to make sure that she was alright.

Reaching for the light switch Scorpius flicked it up, but no lights appeared. Repeating the task he received the same results.

"You're home," came a dry voice from the living room.

Scorpius squinted his eyes, trying to see the figure. "Rose? What are you doing here?" He tried for the lights again.

There was no response. Slipping his bag off his shoulder he repeated "Rose?" this time in a more serious voice.

"Hmm," she hummed in a way that sounded as if she wasn't acting peculiar.

"Why aren't the lights working?" He asked, sensing that something bad was about to happen.

"Oh," Rose said distantly, and flicked something that resembled a lighter, which sent balls of light flooding through the room.

Scorpius' eyes had to adjust, but when they did he saw Rose sitting on the couch. Her feet were tucked under her and she was staring straight ahead at the wall. Furrowing his brow, Scorpius swiveled his eyes around the room, and everything seemed fine until he reached a pile of opened letters on the coffee table in front of Rose. "I'm-" he tried but was cut off.

"There are so many of them," said Rose, her voice echoing off the walls. Leaning forward she rippled her fingers over the edges of the letters, watching as her father's hand writing flickered from sheet to sheet. "How long have you been doing this?"

"Six months," he replied.

Rose's hand flattened on the letters. "Six months," she repeated in horror. "Six months." She whipped her head around and stared at Scorpius with a deadly glare.

"Will you at least let me explain?" asked Scorpius, as he began to walk towards her.

"I'm not sure what you could possibly say to me that would make this better." There was a hard edge to her chilling tone.

"Please?" He begged, chancing a look into her glowering eyes. When she didn't speak, Scorpius decided that she was willing to listen, and he continued.

"When the first letter came, I could see how much you missed him. You were a mess and it was tearing you apart not to talk to him, which was tearing me apart." He looked down, almost unable to speak the words. "I knew that you couldn't have the both of us," He managed to say. "I didn't want to tempt you with another choice."

"The thing is that there was no choice," Rose said darkly. Soundlessly, she stood up, and reached down to grab the top letter from the pile and held it out to him- the entire time not lowering her glare.

It was as though the letter were levitating in the air. With trembling hands Scorpius reached out and took it from her. It was short, a single line that was hurriedly written, and it read:

Please, if you give me another chance, I'll give him one. -Dad

Scorpius lowered his hand, and bowed his head in shame. His heart thudded, as a dark, dreadful and terrified weight began to rise from the pit of his stomach into his chest, around his heart, and up his throat. His mouth widened and closed continuously, speechless for words.

"He has been begging for six months. Pleading for me to talk to him, to see him, to do anything but ignore him." Rose pulled her eyes off Scorpius, her nostrils flaring. "Asking to meet you."

Scorpius remained speechless. He had been so sure that the letters were against him that he never considered what it would mean if they weren't. His mind whirled with what he done, but it all came around to the exact same thought. What if.

"There never had to be a choice. He was willing." Rose stared up to him. "And you ruined any chance I had. Do you think he isn't going to know? I can't exactly tell him that all twenty-four of his letters were lost in the post now, can I?" Rose yelled.

Scorpius shook his head. "But what if it said to divorce me? What if all of those letters argued about how awful of a person I am? What would you be thinking now?" He gave Rose a serious look. She had her arms crossed, and her lips pressed into a flat line. "Can you honestly say that the thought of leaving me wouldn't have crossed your mind?"

"Of course it would have crossed my mind." She argued. "The option of leaving you to go see him crosses my mind at least once a day, but I choose to stay, because I chose you." Rose uncrossed one her arms and pointed a finger at Scorpius. "Because you're the one that I love, because you're the one that I can't live without."

Scorpius' shoulders sagged and he stared to the floor. "That's how you felt before," he said in a hollow whisper. "and you left me then too." He waited for a response but none came. After several seconds in the silence, Scorpius solemnly peered up to her through his eyelashes.

Whatever anger that had been building up in Rose had disappeared. Her chin was tipped down, tucked into her chest, and her hand was cupped over her mouth. When she finally looked at him, tears were flooding down her face. Somehow, Scorpius knew that the look on her face wasn't just full of hurt, but of a realization that he had yet to understand.

Rose flattened her palm and swiped her fingers beneath her eyes. "You're never going to get past that are you?" she choked out, her lip trembling.

"What?" asked Scorpius.

"It is always going to come back to the fact that I left you," said Rose, sucking on her lower lip in attempt to keep calm enough to talk. "You haven't forgiven me at all, have you?"

"Rose of course I have," Scorpius said quickly, taking a step towards her and gripping her by the shoulders.

Rose disagreed. "No you haven't, because if you had you would have trusted me enough to know that a stupid letter wouldn't have made me leave you." She tried to look at Scorpius but it was too hard. "I'm sorry that I was scared and ran, but you have got to stop using that against me. I was seventeen, who doesn't fuck up when their seventeen?" She pleaded with him, trying to make him see reason. "I've grown up, I've had my own life for a while now. Do you not see that?"

"I do see that," Scorpius stressed, moving one of his hands to the base of her neck. "But I also see you telling me to close my eyes in the room of requirements, and then leaving me."

Rose lowered her eyes, and kept her vision focused on Scorpius collarbone- which was peeking out from the open collar of his shirt. "What more do I have to do to prove to you that I am not leaving? I've chosen you, I've built a life with you. What more do you want." she cried, pulling away from him. "I've married you for Merlin's sake. Does that mean nothing to you?" She was sobbing now.

"It does mean something, but…" Scorpius watched as Rose closed her eyes at his words. "It doesn't mean enough, and it doesn't erase my fears."

Rose wiped her sleeve over her eyes. At the beginning of the evening, she couldn't imagine that this night could have possibly gotten any longer, and yet here she was being betrayed by the one person who she thought she could always count on. Rubbing her palm over her nose, she breathed in and out several times before she was able to open her eyes to him.

"Well, I'm glad to know your true feelings about me, because…" She bit her lip, the taste of iron seeping into her mouth. "Scorpius, I'm pregnant," she announced. His face became flat and pale, and his amazing blue-grey eyes were like glass staring through her. Rose bobbed her head, and licked the sore on her lip. "So… Yeah."

A/N: Alright so the third story is called Expecting Temptation (fun play on words). I will add ch. 1 next Friday. As for the chapter, before you all hate me, let me say that the progress between them isn't just going to disappear, but that doesn't mean that their problems are easy to solve either. So anyways I would love to hear your opinion so let me.