It had taken Ben a few days to emotionally recover from his foray into the Fisk house, after meeting Elliott. It had been exhilarating, but — well, confusing, to say the least. Elliott was an amazing child, honestly — and Ben thought that was genuinely true, not just something that he thought because he was being sentimental about it, but who was really to say. The fact that he seemed so incredible made it all the harder to realize how much he was going to miss, only being able to see him occasionally — and probably only for a little while, until it was no longer feasible to keep things a secret. He was taking some solace in the fact that Elliott didn't need him — he had two parents, both of whom apparently loved him very much and would be there to do all of the things that Ben wouldn't be able to.

He felt... good about that, or he was trying to. He was feeling conflicted, honestly, but generally positive. One thing he was not conflicted on was his desire to patch things up with Melody; seeing Elliott had made that so much clearer than it had been before. Sitting on the floor with Elliott and his mother, Ben kept having flashes of feeling — that this was what it would be like, to have a family.

He wasn't going to lose Melody. She was his family. She was carrying his child. They were going to make it through this, and someday, on the other side of it, the three of them would be sitting on the living room floor just like he'd been the other day, but without that shadow of things he'd never get to do lingering over him — they would be a real family, with everything that entailed.

She hadn't come down for dinner, but that wasn't news; she didn't, usually, these days. Rather than eating alone again, Ben had dished up two plates and carried them carefully up to her room, where he tentatively knocked on the door.

"Hey," he called, waiting for her to open it — only because he couldn't manage the handle with both plates, otherwise he would have just tried to come in. "Feeling okay?"

Melody Crouch