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[bee-kathony]

The Oath | Ch. 7 “An Adventure”

a/n: thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy this chapter, I’ve been waiting for it for quite some time ;) and thank you @lburks226 @claryclark and @julesbeauchamp for all the screams when I told them about this...

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6

February 8th, 2019

“What does it say?” Geillis knocked lightly on the door.

“I haven’t looked yet, my timer hasn’t gone off,” Claire dared a glance at her phone — thirty seconds left.

Thirty seconds until she found out if she was pregnant or not.

How could she have been so stupid that night at the party? Of course, there was an equal chance that the baby could be Frank’s.

“Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ,” Claire cursed under her breath, stamping her foot on the tiled bathroom floor.

She hoped it wasn’t Frank’s. There was no doubt whether she would keep the baby or not — Claire had always wanted to be a mother. But her circumstances were not quite what she had expected.

What Claire expected was to be married by now or at least engaged. At twenty-seven, she imagined that her personal life would look very different to how it actually was. Here she was, pacing in her friend’s bathroom, waiting to find out if she was pregnant or not. And not only was she single but one possible father had cheated on her, while the other was a near stranger!

“Please don’t let it be Frank’s,” she whispered to the empty room and then her timer went off.

“What does it say, Claire?” Geillis asked a second later.

“Would you be patient please?” Claire took a deep breath and walked over to the small stick that had the power to change her life. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to see but tears filled her eyes as she looked at the results and a smile spread across her face.

Geillis opened the door, holding the key in one hand and looked at Claire. “What does it say, lass?”

“I’m going to be a mum!” Claire smiled and held up the test with two pink lines and then fell into Geillis’ open arms.

“That’s wonderful, Claire! I ken ye wanted a baby, it doesna matter that it was a one night stand, look at what ye got out of it,” she laughed and then Claire released her.

“Well that’s the thing…” Claire twirled a lock of hair around her finger nervously. “I’m not entirely sure it’s Jamie’s.”

“I thought ye said ye and Frank hadna—“

Shaking her head, Claire looked down at the test again, “We hadn’t for a bit, but the night before I found out he was having an affair, we slept together.”

“Ye mean the day before the party?”

“Exactly,” Claire sighed. “And I’m not on birth control because Frank and I had decided to try for children a few months back and I feel like I was half asleep anyway.”

Geillis crossed her arms and leaned back on the doorframe. “And ye didna use protection with the wee fox cub,” Claire shook her head. “So it could be Frank’s, but it could be Jamie’s.”

“I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a situation haven’t I?”

“If this is what ye call a ‘bit of a situation’ then I need a whisky,” Geillis smirked and then walked towards the kitchen, forcing Claire to follow. “None for you though, mam.”

“Oh Christ, that’s right. No alcohol,” Claire ran her fingers through her curls. “How the hell am I going to get through this without alcohol?”

“That’s what ye have me for, lassie,” Geillis smiled and winked as she poured herself a glass. Claire looked at the bottle and her heart leapt. It was one of Jamie’s and she remembered that they had given out a bottle to everyone as the night ended.

“Are ye goin’ to call him?”

“Who?”

“Well that’s up to ye,” Geillis laughed, taking a sip of her drink. “Do you want either of them to know?”

The last thing that Claire wanted was for Frank to find out. Perhaps she was being selfish, but she knew that he would come to her and demand that the child was his. He was a proud man and he was the kind of man that wanted the seemingly perfect family. A wife at home to cook him dinner while she also folded the laundry and took care of their child. Claire didn’t want that life — even less with Frank. He certainly didn’t care for her and if he found out about the baby, he would only pretend to so he could be a part of the baby’s life.

“I’m not calling Frank,” Claire decided then and there. “Ever.”

“Will ye call Jamie then?”

“I don’t have his number, we didn’t get that far,” Claire blushed.

“Ye went so far to possibly create a bairn wi’ the lad, but ye didna exchange numbers?” Geillis laughed and finished off her glass. “Ye are a feisty one Beauchamp.”

“I found his company on Instagram,” Claire blurted.

“Then ye can message them and ask for Jamie’s number, easy as that.”

“I’m just—“ Claire fidgeted with a button on her sweater. “I don’t know if I want him to know either. Geillis, it was one night. One perfect night and if I tell him I’m pregnant and he could be the father… it’ll just mess everything up.”

“Having unprotected sex tends to make things a wee bit messy, Claire,” Geillis leveled with her and then seeing Claire’s defeated posture, set her glass down and embraced her friend. “Och, lass. Ye dinna have to decide now, ye only just found out yerself.”

“That’s true,” Claire sniffed. “I’ll take a week to think about it and then decide.”

“A week and no more,” Geillis rubbed her back. “I saw yer wee fox and if he is the father then ye’ll have a beautiful bairn.”

“Geillis!” Claire laughed. “You’re not wrong. And well… if the baby has red hair then that’ll be quite obvious.”

“Ye can have a paternity test while they’re still in the womb though nowadays ye ken?”

“Wouldn’t it be loads more fun to wait nine months to find out?”

“Or ye just dinna want to find out yer carryin’ that bastard Frank Randall’s child before ye set yer sight on the wee bairn?”

Geillis was always right and Claire just rolled her eyes, leaned back against the counter and looked the test one more time.

“Pregnant,” she said softly. “I’m going to have a baby.”

++++++

Two weeks flew by and Claire was so caught up at work that she didn’t realize how much time had passed. She promised Geillis that she would decide whether or not to call Jamie and that was a week ago.

She wasn’t even sure how he would react. How does one react when you find out the woman you slept with at your business’s launch party is pregnant and you may or may not be the father?

When she got back to Geillis’, Claire took a slice of pepperoni pizza from last night’s dinner and ate a bite cold. There was nothing better than leftover pizza. Her stomach rumbled and she had the oddest craving for pickles all of a sudden.

“I haven’t had a pickle in years,” Claire grinned and then slid her hand over her still rather flat stomach. “What are you making me eat little one?”

With the slice consumed, she pulled out her phone and searched for Fraser & Co. again.

Pressing message, she typed out a greeting, “Hello, my name is Claire Beauchamp and I met the owner Jamie,” she backspaced on his name and instead typed, “James Fraser. I’m interested in buying some whisky and need to get in touch with him.”

Staring at her words before she pressed send, her heart started to race as doubts crept in. What if he didn’t want to see her? Or what if when she told him she was pregnant, he accused her of lying to try and get at his money?

“He’s not Frank, Beauchamp,” Claire muttered to herself but her thumbs still hovered over the keyboard. Sighing, she pressed the delete button and locked her phone. She sounded insane and she felt insane for what she’d gotten herself into.

Of course, she knew that she should tell him he might be a father just like she knew she should tell Frank as well. But there was something holding her back. Claire hadn’t had the best experiences with men and she didn’t want to bring anything in to her latest predicament that would shake things up. Her life, while not going the way she planned at the moment, was slowly turning around.

All of her belongings now had a place in Geillis’ home and she felt she could call it that too. Her job performance was doing well since she now had nothing else in her life, she poured herself into it. And she was going to be a mum.

Sitting at the kitchen table on a late February day, Claire decided that she wanted to keep things just as they were… at least for awhile.

“It’s just you and me baby,” Claire smiled and laid her hand across her stomach.

++++++

Throughout the next several days, Jamie entered her mind often. While she was at work one day, she treated a little boy with a mop of red hair. And on her way home, she could have sworn she saw him on the street walking into town.

Perhaps it was a sign that she should contact him and tell him. Or maybe it was just her mind playing tricks on her. Whatever it was, Claire was still unsure what her next step was.

She did, however, know what she was going to be doing when she got home. Yesterday after work, she had gone to the bookstore and purchased a copy of The Lord of the Rings — Jamie’s favorite.

Claire told herself that it wasn’t creepy at all. He had told her to read it and so now she was. It had been raining all day as well, so what else was better than curling up in bed with a good book?

As soon as she got home, she put on the kettle, brewing her favorite cup of tea and then climbed into bed. Claire had started the book last night, but had been so tired, she’d fallen asleep in the first chapter.

Hours later, she was still laying in bed, turning page after page. She paused at something Gandalf had said, "A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”

Her hand moved to cover her stomach, rubbing slowly. “You arrived precisely when you meant to didn’t you wee wizard,” she laughed. As she continued to read, she couldn’t help but imagine Jamie’s thick Scottish accent in her head and she saw him in her mind — that fourteen year old boy who’d just lost his mother, reading about hobbits and wizards.

She certainly didn’t regret being pregnant — at least not the short time she had been. Claire only hoped she wouldn’t regret her decision whether to call Jamie or not. Shaking her head to clear her mind, Claire focused her attention back on the book in front of her and lost herself once again in the Shire.

Chapter 8: The Bump