trueloveskid | (no subject)

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psl: neal

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Her days have started to look mostly the same. She's still on the morning shift at the diner (which is fine, she likes being home with Neal in the evening), but she doesn't even really need to set an alarm anymore. It never fails, 6am rolls around and she's running for the bathroom. It doesn't matter what she ate the night before; every morning, like clockwork, she's making friends with the toilet.

She's so tired all the time too, and she can't even have coffee to wake up. Her one consolation right now is that she can eat whatever she wants.

The first thing she does when she gets home after work is go to take a shower. There are so many food smells clinging to her clothes, and to her skin, and she needs to be rid of them. She puts on something more comfortable – stretchy pants and one of Neal's t-shirts – and plops on the couch to wait for him to get home. Her belly is starting to grow larger and she's going to need to go shopping for some maternity clothes soon. How are they going to afford that?

She closes her eyes while waiting for him to get home. She's not even halfway through yet. It's going to be a long six more months.

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Neal has a glass of water to his lips which he quickly chugs before placing it back on the counter. He turned in a sweeping motion, grabbing his coat and keys as he went. He pushed open the door and then stepped to the side to hold it open for Emma.

"After you." He'll then quickly lock up behind them before following her to the elevator. It's an old building but the heat works and it has a cute charm to it. Rent wasn't bad and Neal like the neighbors, all of whom have been more attentive since Emma got pregnant.

"Do you want to walk?" He didn't know how tired she was and while it was only a few blocks away, it was still a lengthy distance there and back total.

"Walking is fine. I do need to get some exercise, you know." There are a lot of things she can't do for exercise, so she'll do what she can.

"You know that things aren't as bad as they're going to get, right?"

"Yeah but I might as well start now." Neal was expecting the worst if onyl to be ready for anything that might be thrown at them. Or, so he thinks. He really had no idea what this was going to be like.

He held out a hand before guiding Emma to the store.

She doesn't know what to expect either. She's read some books from the library, but all they did was make her nervous. Luckily one of her coworkers at the diner has been through this a few times and is good at calming her down.

"It's going to be a long six more months for you."

"I got this." He probably didn't but he was going to keep trying. Besides, whatever she was going through was going to be worse.

"We got this."

"I know." She squeezes his hand as they walk. "I couldn't do this without you."

"And you won't have too." Neal lead the way, keeping an eye out for goodwill. It's where he did most of his clothes shopping but considering how infrequently he bought clothes he was used to walking passed the store and he didn't want to miss it this time.

When they arrived he held open the door and then followed Emma inside, allowing her to take the lead and find what she needed.

She heads for the section marked Maternity and then just stands for a moment, looking at the racks. Usually when she goes looking for clothes, it's more something more specific than 'clothes that will fit' and she's finding this a little overwhelming.

Neal stepped up behind her before picking up a light blue top. He thought she looked pretty in blue though he didn't remember ever telling her that before.

"What about this? Or would you rather look for pants first?" He figured pants might be easier to pick out and go through.

"What?" She's almost forgotten why they're there when he speaks and she turns to look at what he's holding. "Yeah, sure. It's nice." She reaches out for the rack in front of her to start going through the clothes.

Neal laughed and began to do his duty as the holder of clothing, starting with the shirt.

"Want to try these things on?"

"Yeah. I should do that." She takes a pair of pants off of the rack and squints at them. Does she even like clothes like this?

"Neal comes up behind her and lightly grabs her ass while whispering in her ear. Go on then."

"Neal!" she hisses over her shoulder as she grabs his wrist. "We're in public." But she smiles at him a little anyway before grabbing the clothes out of his arms and heading for the changing room.

Neal laughed and followed a yard or so behind her. He was going to wait outside of the changing rooms. He felt better knowing where Emma was. He couldn't help but feel a little over protective.

She goes into the room to try on a few things, and everything is going fine until she gets to the last pair of pants and they don't fit. Normally a pair of pants in the wrong size would be no big deal, but this time she finds herself holding back tears. The pants don't fit, and it's only going to get worse.

"Hey" Neal knocked lightly on the changing room door. "You okay in there? Emma?"

"Yes! I'm fine. It's okay. This pair just doesn't fit." She's not discussing it in the dressing room at Goodwill.

"Want me to get another?"

He can tell that she's distressed but he didn't know what else to do.

"No. I'll be fine. These other ones fit." She doesn't know that he could help her right now anyway.

"Okay." Neal went back to waiting with his back pressed against the wall. He felt the tension in his shoulders rise though he didn't want to tell Emma how worried he really was.

She changes back into her own clothes and gathers up the ones she's picked out before opening the door to find him. "These will do."

"Great." He flashed her a warm smile. "Let's go. Here I'll care them for you."

She nods and heads in the direction of the checkout. She'll be glad when they're back home.

Neal grabs the items and leads the way. He knows how stressful shopping could be so he pays, speaks to the woman at the cash register and then leads Emma out of the store and back down the street.

He holds her close while carrying the clothing bag beneath his arm. He didn't feel the need to speak until they were closer to the apartment. "Feel up for eating something? I can make some oatmeal if you want something light."