Who: Bess Zeller and Fabian Prewett (and Sadie Zeller!)
What: She needs to reveal some things
Where: Bess' flat



So...she had to tell him. Nah. No. She didn't have to. Did she? Nahhhh. Well. Maybe she should. Yes, she should. Bess bit her tongue as she scrubbed the last dish in the sink, eyes flitting up to the clock hanging above to check how long she had until Fabian was supposed to show up. She'd offered him dinner, be...cause she liked to cook. And she liked Fabian. No, well. She fancied Fabian...nooooo...no, she hadn't fancied anyone since Hogwarts, but---

Sadie's shriek from the other room made Bess wince, and she frowned. But the last time she'd fancied someone, she'd let it control her life and there came Sadie. Right. Well. They'd been good for the past month, yeah? Yeah. And she'd been staring at him long before they'd started shagging, so that had to count. Not really. Oh, her mind was so bloody flustered that she couldn't think. Bess could count on her fingers how many people knew that Sadie was actually her daughter and not her niece, and, really. How did she know she could trust Fabian with the secret? Merlin, he could go and tell his brother who would tell that radio wife of his who'd say it on the air and then the whole bloody world would know and---

---right, so wasn't the issue at hand. She didn't care if Fabian spilled, she cared if he completely dropped her and whatever they were after he found out. What kind of twenty-year old guy wanted to date some floozy who had a kid and could barely support herself and didn't know where the hell the baby's father was and---and---the knock on the door made her drop the dish into the sink (it was plastic, it was okay) and she looked over into the pan that was hanging over the stove to check her hair, pat it down, and---oh. She was looking desperate again.

"Coming!" she shouted, throwing off the apron and patting down her shirt and jeans--this was---casual. Fine. They were casual and liked to shag, basically. Right. Bess froze before she dared to touch the door knob, and she looked over her shoulder back at Sadie, who was lounging calmly in her pen. Right. Be cool, like Sadie. Bess opened the door with a grin, shoulders scrunched, "Hi!"

It wasn’t the first time he had eaten dinner with Bess, and it sure as hell wasn’t the first time he had been invited over to her place. No, he had been there plenty of times, because it was more likely for them to get caught if they were at his place. But…this was the first time he had been invited over for dinner. Usually it wasn’t so specific, but more of a ‘come over tonight?’, which was enough for him because he knew exactly where things would be going. But being invited over for ‘dinner’? It was new. He wasn’t sure if he was reading too far into things, though. For all he knew, maybe this would be like every other night, and they would go back to just being friends with benefits when they got back to the bar.

To be honest, the only reason they kept whatever it was they were a secret was so she didn’t lose her job. He was well aware of his reputation when it came to women, so Sirius’ concerns were…well, justified. But when he was committed, he was committed. Not that him and Bess were anything official, and they weren’t exclusive or anything, but she had been the only one he had been with in quite some time. Had to mean something, right?

Standing outside of her door, he swept his hair away from his forehead, and shoved one of his hands into his pocket as the other was raised in a fist to collide with the door, giving a few quiet knocks. Her voice coming from the other side, obviously far away, made him smirk to himself, letting the hand that had knocked slip into his other pocket as he waited. His eyes traveled around the door frame, as though there was something interesting there. It was probably the most awkward feeling, waiting for someone to answer the door. He had no idea what he was supposed to do, so he was glad for quite a few reasons when she finally opened it.

He gave her a smile, and stepped forward. “Hi!” He imitated how she had said the word, leaning down to give her a quick kiss, very casual, before he pulled back. “Need any help with anything?”

Stop getting stupid, Bess scolded silently at the stupid grin that was forming on her face after Fabian pulled away from the kiss. Her lips pressed tightly together and with a quick jerk of her head she gestured for Fabian to follow her in. Sadie had gotten up at the sound and she tugged herself up from the screen of the playpen and her round brown eyes peered over the edge at the pair. Bess couldn't help but smirk a bit---the girl was very inquisitive by nature, and Bess hoped she was going to be quiet as she stared them down. Because this would be a lot easier to do with a quiet child. Oh, she really hoped Fabian understood, that she wasn't exactly sure with herself about being a mother, even if it had been over a year. Merlin, Sadie was nearly fifteen months (born on Bess' birthday in February, haaa the joys of motherhood---) it really didn't feel like that long...well. No. It felt like a bloody century, but her daughter was doing new and interesting things every day...so.

"I...have lasagna in the oven," Bess said slowly, but she was walking quickly down the short hallway and around the couch, patting Sadie on the head as she passed to turn on the wireless to one of the slow music stations. Not. Not romantic music stations, but more for background noise than anything, "And...I have garlic bread...and...well. Beer. Which doesn't fit the dinner, but that's what I get for free, so." She plopped down onto the couch and lifted her chin in a snooty sort of fashion, "You'll just have to deal."

He accepted her wordless invitation and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Turning around, he had to do a double take at Sadie, thinking that he was making things up, seeing a kid there. But, no, she was very real. He had seen Bess holding her a few times when they were at the Bar, because she had to baby sit for her brother, but she had never been here before. Well, of course she had, but not while he was there.

His attention turned away from the baby as Bess started speaking. He found it funny how she didn’t give a direct answer to his question, but instead hopped right to the reasons why she didn’t need help without saying it. “I guess I will.” His answer came with a smirk as he walked closer to the couch, looking down to see the kid staring up at him, her head tilted back to get a good look. Fabian crouched down, so that his eyes were level with hers. “Hey, cutie.” He placed his hand on the edge of playpen, watching her eyes follow it, her own little hand moving to grab at his fingers. “It’s Sadie, right?” His head turned to look at Bess, who he really should have been sitting next to already, but he was a little bit distracted by the tiny adorable person who was now making noises at him.

Once again he smirked and turned back to her before he rose to his feet, about to go and sit next to Bess when Sadie started to whine. He turned his head to look at her, before he once again looked at the blonde. “Can I…?” he pointed to Sadie as he trailed off, asking if he could pick her up. He thought it would be a little weird if he just went around picking up her niece without permission. Eh, he didn’t know, some people were strange about that sort of thing. Besides, this was supposed to be time for them to spend together, wasn’t it? It could seem like he was completely uninterested if he paid more attention to Sadie than he did to Bess. Which, wasn’t true at all. So. Yeah.

"Er--yeah! Sure!" she said with a little too much enthusiasm, twisting around to get a look at Sadie and Fabian. Oh, well. This was good. This was a very good start! He wasn't terrified of children! Which...she supposed a lot of people weren't terrified of children, it was the whole 'is he willing to date someone who has a kid' she should be concerning herself with, but...but this was good. This was a definite good start. Much better than she could ever have imagined. "She's good. She's good with new people."

Honestly, sometimes Bess believed that her daughter was more mature than she was. Sadie was a very quiet child, taking in the surroundings and overall not...not really whining for much. Maybe because Bess spent the first year of her life ignoring her...oh, hell. That made things sound dreadful. She did love Sadie, she did, and on nights when she was feeling particularly awful she'd lie on the couch with her daughter on her chest and listen to the late night wireless shows until they both dozed off. There was a comfort there, and even if she hadn't felt the bond that Veronica and all the books said she would, Bess knew that there wasn't anyone else that could make her feel like Sadie did. Which. Well. Could be the bond, but Bess needed to learn how to embrace it when she wasn't in a shitty mood.

"I've got her dummy here," she said, swirling the soothing mouth piece around her finger.

Her reaction made him quirk a brow slightly, not quite sure why she was so excited about him asking if he could hold her niece. But, maybe she was just glad that he wasn’t asking if they could call someone to take her niece so they could be alone. If he did that, he would probably seem like a major asshole. To be honest, he couldn’t even imagine anyone actually having the balls to do something, but he was sure there were people like that out there.

Leaning over, he placed his hands underneath Sadie’s arms and lifted her up, holding her in one arm at his side, turning to Bess to take the binky from her with his free hand. “Thanks.” He gave her a wink before turning towards Sadie, who had raised a hand to his chin, staring at it as though she had never seen a chin before. He made a popping sound with his mouth, watching as Sadie flinched at first at the noise before giving him a toothless grin. “You like that?” He made the noise again, her hand moving to his lips to touch what was making that funny sound, causing Fabian to give a quiet chuckle before he carefully placed the binky into her mouth, watching her chubby cheeks move as she sucked on it, still staring at his own mouth, which wasn't making that noise anymore. “So how long do you have her?” His hand moved to brush back some of Sadie’s hair, looking to Bess who he had been talking to, still holding the baby in one arm as though she weighed nothing at all. She was a lot smaller than Fred and George, but he knew that she was about their age.

He had to word it like that, yeah? He had to say something that would make her want to lie or stretch the truth to make it seem possible that she hadn't exactly fibbed or---great. They were supposed to eat first, then Sadie was going to go to bed, and then she was going to attempt to talk to him but Bess was sure they'd end up snogging and then shagging and then she'd just forget about it and she'd have earned herself another day of this blissful ignorance.

Except he seemed to be really good with kids. Fabian really was a nice guy, even if he was a bit easy when it came to women. But that kind of came with the territory of being a pro quidditch player, yeah? A pro quidditch player that worked in a pub on his days off...which Bess could never understand fully. No, no, if she was in that kind of position, you definitely wouldn't find her wiping up bar counters or...right. This is the kind of selfish attitude you need to get rid of, Zeller!

Okay. Moment of truth. She'd probably been gawking at him for a good minute now, and Bess blinked slowly and looked down at the ground for a second to gain some nerve. Okay, so. He was either fine with it and they stopped shagging (which would suck) and just became friends, or he was like 'screw you lady!' and dumped her completely, or he loved kids so very much and would bend down and kiss her and ask him to be his girlfriend because she was such a lovely mother. None of those were going to happen. But Bess sure as hell hoped that some variation of it did. Except for the yelling and dumping bit.

"I---tonight was meant to...explain, some things, and...Sadie's---she's...she lives...here. With me. Because." Bess finally built up the courage she'd been battling with herself for so long, "Because she's mine. My daughter. Not my niece."

Fabian wasn’t really sure why Bess was looking at him like that, but it was starting to worry him a little bit…it worried him even more when she had to look down at her feet just to avoid answering such a simple question. Had something happened with her brother? Was it bad, and that was why she had Sadie? But she didn’t seem sad or anything. Maybe it was just how she handled grief, and she was trying to act like nothing was wrong and go about her everyday life to avoid the fact that something bad had happened? He wasn’t sure, but that seemed like the only logical explanation as to why she was taking so long to reply.

Except, of course, for the actual explanation.

Now it was his turn to gawk, staring at Bess as he tried to process this new information. Sadie was…her daughter. She was Sadie’s mom, not her aunt, and…well, it did made a lot more sense to him now why her brother would ever have Bess watch his kid at a bar, because it wasn’t her brother’s kid at all, and the only reason why Bess brought her was because she didn’t have any other choice. But this was still…big. Part of him wanted to ask where she had gone each time he had come there, but did that really matter? It was clear to him that because she was a Mom, this meant that things would probably be very different from now on.

And yet, he didn’t mind half as much as he thought he would. Sure, this meant that their usual plans when they were together would have to be altered for the most part, since she couldn’t keep getting a sitter for her daughter, and that also meant that they would have to become something more than what they’ve been. He wasn’t even sure what they were, though.

He blinked and turned back to Sadie who was pulling at his collar, before he looked back to Bess. “She, uh…she looks like you.” He looked between the two again before turning to the older of the two Zeller’s. “I just figured you looked a lot like your brother, so I thought she looked like her Dad. But she looks like her Mum.”

This was all so strange.

People had told her that before, that Sadie looked like her but it had never felt like such a compliment until Fabian said it. Merlin, what a sap. She did fancy him pretty hard, ugh. Ugh. It wasn't as if she hadn't fancied Fabian in school, but now that she'd been able to find out he's actually more than just a really cute and awesome quidditch player. Because, well. Bess didn't really look past those aspects of a person in her Hogwarts days (why do you think she and Vinny dated for so long?) But now she knew that Fabian was funny and had a good heart and just...just nice, and she hadn't been around a nice person in a really, really, long time and---ugh. She fancied him.

"I'm--I'm sorry, I---no one...I mean. People know, but it's...it's like...just my family. And Dexter. And Sirius, but only because he's my boss and I had to, but---" Bess covered her face with her hands, trying to take deep breaths to calm herself down and to not make the situation any worse. Breathe in, breathe out, in---out. "My parents stopped talking to me when I told them I was pregnant, which I found out during the bloody N.E.W.T.s so you can imagine how I did on those, and I just kind of kept it a secret because I didn't know how to tell people and then I was so scared people would stop talking to me because---because I would've stopped talking to me and I'm this horrible person but I needed to tell you because---I---oy."

She dropped her hands, looking up at him and realizing Fabian probably thought she was a super crazy lady now. With a kid. Super crazy lady with a kid! That was something guys were interested in. "I had to tell you because I didn't want to fall even harder for you and then have you find out I've been lying for months and then hate me for the rest of your life."

There was once again a bit of gawking done on Fabian’s part as the words poured out of her mouth, ignoring Sadie’s small hands that were still pulling on his shirt. Eventually, while Bess still had her hands covering her face, he carefully lowered her daughter ( bloody hell, her daughter ) down into the playpen, before he straightened up and turned to Bess who had finally dropped her hands down.

No, he didn’t think she was crazy, just…overwhelmed, maybe. Not that he wasn’t overwhelmed, because he just found out she was a Mother when he had no idea about that just a few minutes ago, but he wasn’t about to run away because of it. He raised an arm to rub the back of his neck, staring down at his shoes for a moment or two, even though his attention snapped back to her as she started talking again. A few seconds passed by before Fabian let out a quiet sigh, dropping his arm back down as he took a few steps closer to her. His hands were brought up to brush back some of her hair before they were placed on either side of her face, making sure she was looking at him while he spoke. “I’m glad you told me…and in case you’re wondering, I’m not going anywhere. You’re not the only one who’s fallen hard.” He brushed his thumbs over her cheeks, his own bright blue eyes staring down into her own. “Whether you’re Sadie’s Mum, or her Aunt, or her cousin or her sister, I don’t care…you’re still you, Bess.”

Ugh. He had to be insanely sweet too, right? Bess couldn't remember the last time she'd been touched so tenderly and her heart felt like it was ready to jump up her throat and was making her head pound so hard but in that so good way. She pursed her lips into a smile and her hands went to the bottom of Fabian's shirt, so utterly relieved that her gut had been right---that he was a good guy and he'd understand her situation. Of course her mind had been throwing around all these horrible, frantic ideas about how he could react, but. Her gut had known. She should listen to that more often.

Bess peeked a look over at Sadie, who was occupying herself with a her alphabet spewing noise maker (Bess really didn't know what to call the toys Veronica bought, they just usually sang the ABCs or nursery rhymes), and pushed herself up to kiss him quickly, but--who was she kidding, she'd let it linger for as long as he let her because Fabian had basically told her he fancied her too and wanted to be with her and ugh ugh ugh. So hard, fallen so bloody hard. And he was so cute. And he was so nice. And funny. And he liked babies. He was good with babies and Bess had no idea how her luck had managed to throw Fabian into her life (she really hadn't had any idea that it was Sirius' pub she was applying to, or that Fabian worked there--), but she was definitely going to be doing some good deeds to make up for it.

"I think I'm burning something," she murmured into his mouth, the smell of burnt lasagna slowly wafting up her nose. It was probably ruined, but she really couldn't care less.