Chapter Text
These past six weeks with Penelope have been an absolute dream. Since the day he acquired that scuff on his brown BOSS loafer, after having tripped over her books, he’s been on cloud nine. Colin now wears that scuff with pride as a sweet little reminder of that fateful day.
They’ve been going strong – despite some minor hiccups – and Colin cannot believe how lucky he is to have found her. Everything with her is easy and fun. She understands him, she trusts him, he trusts her, and she doesn’t mind that he's a ‘soft nerd’, as Eloise put it. Hell, he’s even glad that his sister knows and that, for the past week, she has respected their request to keep things quiet for just a little while longer.
Not too much longer, though. Colin thinks he’s finally ready to introduce her to his family, officially – to show them how absolutely head over heels he is for this girl and to watch them fall in love with her just as he has.
Fuck. Yeah…he really has.
He’s thoroughly convinced that his family won’t find fault with her like they did with Marina. Admittedly, as awful as it was to not have their full support at the time, they had been right all along. Colin couldn’t see the signs for himself until he slammed head-on into them when Marina was forced to expose them.
Only time will tell if he’s been blinded by love again or if this is the real deal. It sure as fuck feels real and that has him tingling all over.
Penelope’s appointment must be running longer than expected, because it’s fifteen minutes past the ‘at the latest’ time she gave him. Impatient and simply eager to just get up and do something, Colin whistles a happy tune as he commandeers Penelope’s tiny kitchen, preparing a chicken stir fry dinner for the two of them. It’s one of the dishes he learned to make during his wallowing period, and it’s one of his best. While he loves taking Pen out for meals, both casual and fancy, he insisted on cooking for her tonight. She’s been busy sorting through several huge book hauls that Charlie had managed to collect for her, and on top of that, she’s seemed a little off-kilter all week. So, the thought of having a cozy night-in where he can dote on her in any way he wishes has him buzzing with anticipation.
When the apartment door finally swings open, Colin’s heart leaps in response. Penelope tosses her purse on the sofa and slowly makes her way to the kitchen.
“Hi!” Colin greets cheerfully, still focused on cutting vegetables while carefully avoiding his fingers.
When he eventually looks up and catches a glimpse of Penelope’s face as she cautiously lowers herself into a dining chair, he’s flooded with overwhelming concern.
She’s not the typical carefree, bubbly Penelope he expects. Her brow is knit with worry, her lips pressed into a thin line, and her posture is rigid.
It terrifies him, honestly. Panic is quickly threatening to take over, so he asks. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah…” she puffs. “Yeah, I–I think so?” Her inflection makes him uneasy and that knot of panic twists in his stomach. He immediately puts down the knife, washes his hands, and drops to his knees in front of her, taking her hands in his own.
“What is it, then?” Colin brings her knuckles to his mouth, kissing them as a means to soothe her, all while intently focusing on those crystal-blue eyes which have gone glassy.
Penelope gulps, takes a deep breath and blurts out, “Colin, I’m pregnant.”
He blinks. Then blinks again.
His brain explodes into a million pieces. Each fragment contains a question, some pertinent information, or some emotional response that he now has to scrape off the inside of his skull and try to make sense of.
Unfortunately, the first few pieces that come back together create a trauma response. He involuntarily braces for the impact of what might come next – his vision goes blurry, his whole body stiffens, and his pounding heart drops into his bowels.
The first time he heard those three words they were followed by three more – “It’s not yours.”
Those words never leave Penelope's lips and for that he is exceedingly grateful. His heart starts climbing back up into his chest, but there are plenty of other thoughts he’s grappling with at the moment – we’ve always used protection, being at the forefront.
This appointment was meant to discuss additional options for birth control with her doctor. Though Penelope always felt rotten no matter which method she’s used in the past, she was willing to try it again – for him. He didn’t ask her to. He didn’t need her to, but they agreed that it would be worth it to try.
Apparently, it’s already too late.
“Colin?” Her voice finally breaks through the haze of disbelief and when he comes to, his heart – now back in its proper position – nearly breaks.
Her eyes are filled with tears and she’s pale as a ghost. She’s scared.
“Pen, I—” he mutters, but no other words materialize. The pure shock of it all steals his breath.
“I’m sorry,” Penelope sobs.
That snaps him out of it. “Oh Jesus, Pen.” Quickly, he gathers her in his arms as she weeps into his shoulder. “Pen, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
She sniffles into his shirt.
“It takes two to tango, you know.” Maybe it’s not the right time for humor, but it spills out of him anyway.
It turns out to be the right decision as Penelope laughs weakly. He loves making her laugh.
Colin gently lifts his shoulder, encouraging her to look at him. His heart aches even more as he cradles her face and wipes the tears from her plump, rosy cheeks. He’s never seen her cry and he’ll do anything in his power to make it better.
“We’re in this together, okay?” He leans in to press a light kiss to her forehead.
Penelope simply nods, her lip still quivering.
“I’ll be by your side through all of this…I promise,” Colin says.
A calm silence falls between them as Penelope takes a steadying breath. She grips the front of his shirt and lets her forehead fall against his.
Colin’s stomach burns. The words are sitting on the tip of his tongue. They’ve been there for a while, just waiting for the right moment. He had already decided that he would tell her tonight if he got the chance and here it is. She needs to know.
“Because I love you, Pen.” He says it with his whole chest because he means it.
Her breath hitches and her eyes catch his, stunned and blinking.
After the initial shock wears off, she smiles and lets out a breathy little laugh before bashfully dropping her gaze to her lap.
“What?” Colin quirks a nervous smile, unable to stop his mind from spiraling. She doesn’t have to say it back, but Lord does he want her to.
“Do you?” she asks quietly, meeting his eyes once more.
Completely flabbergasted, Colin scrunches his face because that’s the most ridiculous thing she could have ever asked. But as her smile grows, the tension in his body starts to vanish.
“Or are you just saying that because you’re stuck with me now?” she finishes with a watery smirk.
“Penelope Anne Featherington…I think I’m the luckiest man in the world to be stuck with you.”
Colin kisses her then, hard, and they lose themselves for a good long while. His knees are screaming from resting on the cold tile floor, but any discomfort is insignificant because he has Penelope in his arms, her body pressed against his as she slides off the chair and onto the floor to join him.
When they eventually part, Colin swipes a few more tears from her cheeks and she does the same for him.
“I’ll finish making dinner and we can talk, yeah?” he says softly, relieved to see that the worried wrinkles in her brow have disappeared.
“Later,” she whispers, brushing her nose against his as her fingers weave through his hair. “Right now, I just need you.”
Her sweet, syrupy, pleading voice is one he knows well by now. She wants him – no, needs him.
Even with this startling news and the flurry of thoughts still swirling around in his brain – what comes next, what the future looks like, and how they’re going to navigate this together – a searing heat quickly builds in his belly.
“Yeah?” He needs to make sure he’s reading the situation correctly – that she’s thinking straight.
“Yeah,” she breathes, capturing his mouth and moaning into it.
It’s intense and feral and while he’s absolutely felt this kind of fire with Penelope before, this is on an entirely new level. She’s all over him, pawing at his shirt – which is already half off – and tearing into his pants like her life depends on it.
He would take her here and now on this cold, hard floor any other day of the week, but this feels like a special occasion. It is special. They’re going to be parents. The mother of his child deserves comfort and luxury – especially today. They can fuck on the kitchen floor another day if she’s so inclined.
“Pen.” Colin snatches her wrist just as she’s about to close her tiny, capable hands around his stiff cock.
That wrinkle of concern appears again and that simply will not do, but while he is absolutely ready, willing, and able, he needs to make sure it’s safe.
“Can we?” he asks.
Penelope softly smiles and nods. “No restrictions in that department,” she answers.
He kisses her slowly, tenderly, feeling her relax beneath his palm as he cups her cheek.
“Bedroom,” he mutters against her lips.
Colin stands and pulls Penelope up, swiftly lifting her into a bridal carry before she even realizes what’s happening. The resulting squeal leaves Colin grinning like a fool as they make the short trek to her bedroom. While impulse tells him to throw her on the bed, which would be right on par with how rapidly this sexcapade is unfolding, he instead lowers her gently onto the mattress like she’s something fragile and rare.
He knows Penelope is tough as nails, but this thing they have together could easily crack under the pressure of what lies ahead. In spite of that, Colin knows it won’t because what they have is exceptional. He can feel it in his bones. He is so deeply smitten and she is so deeply embedded in his soul already.
He strips her bare and rids himself of his last remaining clothes. Pulling her to the edge of the bed as he stands beside it, he draws her knees up and relishes the feel of her delicate, supple skin beneath his fingertips. She shivers and he can’t help the low, menacing chuckle he lets out. He’s obsessed with making her body respond to him in all sorts of ways. This is about the time where he’d be reaching for a condom – absolutely pointless now, but he has to check.
“Pen?”
She grants permission with a breathless nod but a split second later, her hand is on his chest, effectively halting him from making his next move.
He watches curiously as she slowly turns herself over. A beguiled grin slowly creeps across his face as Penelope rises up on all fours and stays there.
Colin gulps when she slyly glances over her shoulder, waiting.
He quickly latches on to her plush hips. They way she squirms with need under his touch as he glides his hands over her soft curves with intention and reverence drives him absolutely wild. He pulls her closer and slides his cock beneath her and through her wet seam. His hips jerk automatically, anticipating, and eager to get things started.
With the head of his cock notched against her entrance, he pauses, waiting for any sign of hesitation from her. She wiggles greedily and he finally presses in.
“Shit.” It’s beyond anything he’s ever felt before. He’s never been the type of guy to believe that condoms ruin the experience, but this? It’s leaps and bounds better with nothing between them. This is just Pen – slick, tight, perfect.
He goes slow at first, relishing this new and electrifying sensation. Penelope quickly encourages him to speed up as she rolls her hips back toward him.
“Oh, Christ Pen, this feels s-so…so fucking good.”
She merely nods in agreement. The only sounds she seems capable of making are desperate little gasps and whimpers as he pounds into her. Colin groans, watching her hands tangle in the sheets as she arches her back.
Her beautiful curls cascade across her smooth skin and Colin can’t help himself. He reaches up to twist one around his finger.
“Col,” she whines. He moves harder and faster, his balls tighten in warning – he’s so close.
His fingers dig into her hips and he grabs a fistfull of hair because he’s holding on for dear life. It doesn’t do a scrap of good because she releases these deep, throaty moans that send him soaring.
He is wholly, unequivocally gone for her.
Trembling so hard from his orgasm, Colin needs to brace himself against the bed for a moment, draping himself over her back with his fists on the mattress on either side of her still writhing body. He knows she hasn’t come yet, but he just needs a moment to recover from that mind-blowing release.
“Sorry…” he puffs into her skin. “For pulling your hair. You okay?”
“I liked it,” she admits. Colin can practically see the cheeky little smile she’s wearing through the sound of her voice. A tantalizing rush of intrigue zips down his spine.
“Me next,” she teases, giving her hips a little shimmy. Her cunt pulses with need around his half-hard cock and he’ll be damned if he makes her wait any longer.
Still inside her, he thrusts slowly, easing back into a seductive rhythm.
Penelope sighs and her back bends into a deep curve again. Colin plants softs kisses down her spine as his hand finds her breast, tweaking a nipple so that she cries out and her pussy clenches again.
His fingers move from her breast, down her stomach and land on her swollen clit. A few slow, deliberate circles around it leave her quaking, panting and begging for more.
Penelope whimpers when Colin pulls out. He quickly reaches under her still raised hips and drags his fingers over her opening, now dripping with his cum. He marvels at it and plays with it for a moment until Penelope growls at him.
He chuckles, deep and rumbling, before gathering the combination of her slick and his seed, thrusting it back inside her with two fingers.
“Fuck!” she wails, but it soon becomes apparent that this might not work for her. It’s clumsy and awkward as he tries to stimulate her clit with his other hand. He knows he can do better.
“Pen babe, I need you to turn over.”
“Yeah,” she immediately agrees and Colin gives himself a little pat on the back for knowing her so well.
Once she’s fully on her back, he expediently resumes his efforts.
With his thumb rubbing against her clit, Colin buries his fingers deep and curls them forward, pressing against the spot he discovered not too long ago. The one that makes her scream and pulse and go all molten after.
Beat for beat, after a few skilled maneuvers, Penelope calls his name and digs her nails into his wrist as he finishes her off. Her walls clamp down on his fingers while her body shakes. Then, she melts into the mattress with one long, deep, satiated sigh.
Music to his ears.
Colin crawls back up her body, offering featherlight kisses across her glowing skin, over her breasts, and finally to her lips.
With her body wrapped around him and his now soft dick nestled against her center, they relax. She kisses him slowly and purposefully, leaving Colin feeling warm and safe and loved, even though she hasn’t actually said so, yet.
And he’s okay with that, for now. It doesn’t mean he’s going to stop telling her every chance he gets.
“I love you, Pen,” he whispers across her lips.
She hums and kisses him harder and eventually, he can feel her lips stretched tight, like she’s smiling.
As he pulls back, he’s delighted to find that his instincts are once again correct. She’s radiating joy, even with a few tears streaming down her cheeks.
Colin sweeps them away and gives her a little peck on the nose.
“I love you, Colin.” It’s soft and demure, but the words set his body on fire all the same.
While he initially tries to fight the delirious grin that spreads across his face, there’s no reason to. Penelope just gets him. There’s no room for non-chalance in their relationship and he’d be the biggest fucking dope on the planet to pretend like those three little words coming out of her perfect little mouth aren’t sending him into orbit.
With a great big heavy sigh – and said delirious grin – Colin replies, “I love you, too.” And he’ll say it a million times more because it’s the truth.
They lay in comfortable silence for a while, taking each other in, Penelope swirling her fingers through his chest hair like she always does, Colin gliding his palm over her lower belly from time to time.
“Let’s get some food in us and we’ll talk, okay?” he says.
She nods with a small smile. Their relationship may have jumped ahead a few steps – okay, several steps – but they’re going to work through it together while filling in the gaps along the way.
“You stay here and rest…we’ll have dinner in bed,” he says with a quick kiss before rolling off the side and pulling on his boxers.
“Sounds perfect.”
Having had everything mostly prepped and ready to go before his world got flipped on its head, Colin quickly throws the meal together and brings two heaping bowls of piping hot food back into the bedroom.
“Oh my God,” he chuckles when he walks in, finding her propped against the headboard, drowning in an oversized t-shirt with an empty tray positioned in the center of the bed, waiting patiently for his return.
“What? I’m hungry,” she smirks.
“Eat up, beautiful,” he replies, placing both bowls on the tray as he kisses her forehead and climbs in next to her.
They scarf down their meals and Penelope makes him promise to cook for her at least once a week, which he steadfastly agrees to, and when the last morsels of pepper and chicken are eaten, Colin moves their empty bowls to the kitchen to deal with later before getting back into bed, pulling Penelope into his chest, and starting the conversation he so desperately wants to have.
“So, start from the beginning…” he says, twirling some strands of her hair around his fingers.
Penelope sighs and tells him, with zero hesitation or fear. “I sort of suspected things this past week.”
Colin gives her a look which she easily interprets; ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
“It’s not totally unusual for my period to be late, but I didn’t want to say anything in case I was wrong. The appointment was already scheduled, so I knew I’d have answers soon,” she explains.
Colin nods – a silent nudge to continue. “It’s normal for them to do a pregnancy test before inserting an IUD and…well…” Penelope simply shrugs and those concerned wrinkles start to reappear.
He squeezes her tighter. “I’m sorry you had to find out alone.”
“I think I went comatose, honestly,” she admits as they both chuckle. Thank God they can both find some humor in this crazy situation.
“But you’ve been feeling okay?”
She nods. “Yes, but the doctor said symptoms might start in about a week or two.”
“We’ll be ready,” he assures her. Whatever he has to do to make her comfortable, he’ll do it. “When is your next appointment? I want to be there.”
Penelope’s eyes start brimming with tears, like she can’t believe he’s offering. He promised he would be there for her – for their child – and it’s the most solemn oath he’s ever made.
“In a couple weeks. They charted all my family history today – that’s why it took so long – but they’ll need yours, too. Then maybe we can hear the heartbeat together,” she says, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder with those baby blues shining up at him.
Colin’s heart bursts in his chest – he’s almost certain that it does. His insides feel all warm and mushy and his eyes have started to prickle. God dammit he’s a big old softy – always has been – but this just sends him into the gelatinous goop category.
“Sorry,” he murmurs, swiping the heel of his palm over both eyes. Penelope instantly climbs onto his lap and surrounds him with every inch of her body. The pain of the past, the hopefulness of the future, and the overwhelming joy of becoming a father turn him into a blubbering mess. He buries his head in her chest and sobs.
And she lets him.
Jesus Christ. He would be embarrassed by this show of emotion with anybody else, but not Penelope. She allows him to be who he needs to be – to be the man that he is. Kind and feeling and yes, kind of an excitable dork sometimes.
She comforts him with a hand in his hair and her nails gently raking over his bare back. Slowly, his breathing steadies and his grip on her loosens.
“I love you,” he whispers into her tear-stained t-shirt.
“I love you, too,” she replies, cradling his cheeks and moving in for a wet, sloppy kiss.
Once she’s wiped his remaining tears away with the hem of her shirt, she snuggles into his side and keeps one leg slung over his thighs, close and cozy and secure.
“Now, not that it matters anymore, but when the fuck did this happen?” he chuckles. “We’ve always been careful.”
“Well based on everything my doctor said, and timing….it was likely our first time.”
His eyes widen in surprise as Colin thinks back. They definitely used a condom, they always have. It was the one from his wallet.
Benedict.
Colin’s throat closes up and his hands curl into fists.
“You okay?” Penelope asks, naturally suspicious of the way his body tenses.
“Hm? Yeah, fine. Sorry, this is just…surreal.” He takes a deep breath and forces himself to relax.
Colin gazes deep into her eyes and she timidly smiles up at him. She’s perfect and wonderful and he’s reminded that everything will be alright.
“I’m happy, though,” he says truthfully with a big sappy smile playing on his lips.
“Me, too,” she replies. “Scared, but happy.”
“Me, too.” Colin wraps her tightly in his arms and tells her, “But, I got you.”