4. A Different Man

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“This is ridiculous!” 

And bad! So fucking bad!

Joanne shook her head, swatting the cup away. “I am not peeing in front of you.” 

“Why not?” Reagan was out of it. He had the stupid bandage removed so now he stood there in front of her with his stupid Rudolf nose and demanded that he watch her take a piss.

“Coz it’s gross?” 

“I think we are way past that.” 

“I think not.” Joanne was horrified. She did not remember any such incident in the past. Did her post time-travel hysteria make him doubtful?  

“I will close my eyes. And ears.” He tried to bargain. 

“And step out of the bathroom.”

“No.” He rejected her idea outright. 

“Then I am not testing.” She resolved.

“Why is it so hard for you to do it in front of me?” 

“What do you think I am going to do if you step out? Replace my pee with mouthwash?” Joanne glared at him, even though she really wished she could do that. “I will pee in the cup and give it to you. You can do the test yourself. How about that? And while you wait outside, you can go out on the terrace and watch for anyone airdropping a bottle of pee for me to swap mine with. Coz that’s what you seem to be worried about.” She wished she could do that too. 

“Fine.” He finally gave in, realizing that the meek wife who gave in to every whim of his wasn’t here. “I will be right outside.” 

“I am so grateful for the reassurance.” Joanne rolled her eyes as she snatched the cup from his hand. He turned to leave and Joanne could have sworn that she heard a chuckle. 

She quickly sat down to collect the sample. She had just flushed the toilet when he started knocking. 

“Are you done? Let me in!” 

Joanne stared at the door. 

When the hell had he gotten so involved in her pregnancy? Did some other variable happen and he desperately wanted an heir? Was that it? Because she remembered exactly what had happened when she had broken the news of her pregnancy to him. 

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Joanne did not know how she was supposed to feel. 

On one hand, there were multiple new news articles regarding Serena and Reagan. He had not come home for the past three days after his birthday bash which she was completely excluded from and the news of Serena’s return. 

And on the other hand, Joanne had taken a pregnancy test. And it had come back with two pink lines. 

Joanne was happy. 

Yes, she was. 

To have someone to call her own and to have someone she could unhesitantly express love for and possessiveness over was something that she had wanted all her life. 

She was scared that she would turn into an over-coddling breathing-down-the-neck kind of monstrous mother. 

But she still has time to get used to the idea and worry about these things, doesn't she?

These things could wait. 

She had time. She had all the time in the world to figure it all out. 

Alone. 

She sighed. 

Joanne wanted to call Elliot. Share the good news. 

He would be over the moon at the prospect of being an Uncle. Even though he hated who the father was.  

But it was only right that the said father got the news first. 

So she waited. 

She waited the whole night. 

And Reagan finally came home around three in the morning, that day.

“Reagan.” She was immediately on her feet. 

“Ramsay, why the hell are you up?” He was drunk. 

Joanne let out an anxious breath. “I wanted to talk.” 

“Let me guess, you want to demand an explanation regarding Serena? Is that it?” He drawled, stumbling on his own feet.

Well, it was true that she wished he would explain. But after two and a half years of a mine field of a marriage, she was scared to ask anything - he would just remind her that she was nothing but a business transaction, one that was a total loss for him. And she really was in no mental state to hear that. 

“I… I have not been keeping well lately.” 

“Oh god, it must be so difficult being you, huh?” He laughed cruelly. “After all, it’s not like you have everything at your disposal without having to work a second for it.” 

His words stung, but he was right. She had never worked a day in her life. But that was not her decision. There were things that she wanted to do with her time. There were opportunities that she wanted to explore but she was the trophy wife stuck in a gilded cabinet. 

She wished she could say these things but she knew that she would just be insulted. 

Nothing she said was ever heard and she knew not to expect any better from Reagan.

So she gulped down the lump in her throat, feeling not an ounce of the joy she had felt when she first found out as she said, “I am pregnant.” 

Joanne didn’t expect a grand gesture, a confession, or even a hug. She expected something positive though. 

Not what he said next. 

“Finally, you showed you are of some use.” 

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“Joanne, what is taking you so long?” 

“Let me put on my pants!” She yelled back, pulled back into the present - or the alternate past - by his shouting. 

She placed the cup on the counter and opened the door, glaring at him before walking out. 

Well, after the morning sickness and the feeling like shit, she was almost sure that she was pregnant with her baby girl after all. 

So let him play scientist and deal with her piss, like she had dealt with his shit all these years. Pun intended. 

Joanne plopped down on the bed and got a text ready for Elliot. He was the only one who actually cared for her. So when the news was a hundred percent confirmed, this time, she was going to let the Uncle who loved the very existence of her baby girl be the first one she broke the news to. 

Reagan walked out with the test. 

“The instructions say to wait for five minutes.” 

“You have to place it on a flat surface.” She pointed out.

He did as told and then plopped down next to her. If he noticed how his wife shifted away from him as soon as he sat down, he did not mention it. 

“You know a lot about pregnancy tests. You didn’t even read the instructions.” He commented, trying to make small talk. 

“This is not the first pregnancy test I have taken. We have been married for two and a half years, Reagan. And we have been trying for a baby for the past year.” Joanne said, but it brought back all those bitter memories.

The stress, the constant pressure, not to mention - Reagan’s mother and sister’s constant speculation of her probably being infertile. Now, the tension was going to alleviate for three months, and then they would find out it was a girl and return to calling her names and cursing her. 

“Did you want to get pregnant?” 

Joanne froze at the question. And the tone. 

She looked over at Reagan. 

“Why are you acting like this?” The question slipped out of her tongue before her brain could resume control over the rest of her senses. 

“What do you mean?” The amusement in his voice told her that he knew exactly what she was talking about. And that only made her madder. The man who killed her and her baby was sitting next to her and looking smug while her brain could not take a break from thinking of various ways to escape their unfortunate fate. “I just asked if you are ready to be a mother.” 

“You should have asked the question before knocking me up.” She snapped back. 

Reagan raised a brow. “Do you not want our child?” 

“Of course, I want my baby. Stop asking me stupid questions!” 

“Then what was the dream about yesterday?” He asked, his eyes intense. 

“None of your business.” Joanne hated him. Hated that he got to live so peacefully while her heart ripped open every time he talked about her child. He called her ‘our child’. NO! She was HER child! Her child alone!

“I think you and our child should be my business more than anyone else’.” 

She opened her mouth to retort but Reagan beat her to it.  

“Alright, time’s up.”  He clapped, hopping to his feet and walking over to the cabinet he had left the test on. 

He held it up and stared at him, dead still for a long moment. 

“What does it say?” Joanne pretended to be curious, even as she pressed send on the text she had written beforehand. 

JOANNE: So… I am kinda pregnant. Yay!

She stood up but before she could take another step, Reagan was right in front of her, pushing her into the mattress as he claimed her lips. 

The kiss was like nothing before. 

It was sweet yet possessive, soft yet deep, sensual yet dominant. It was a mixture of everything. And he kissed her like she was the source of his oxygen. 

He pulled back, peppering kisses up her jaw and nipping her earlobe before whispering,

“We are having a baby.” 

Yeah, she knew that. What she needed to find out was what exactly happened yesterday differently that turned him into a completely different man!

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