Against the Odds

When Alex woke up on Thanksgiving morning the sun was already well into the sky and she was alone in bed. She stretched out, enjoying her moment of solitude before she had to get up and start what was sure to be a crazy day.

This would be their last day in Texas. They would leave the next day to go back to London and if Alex were absolutely honest with herself, the thought of going back to London made her a bit sad. She and Harry had made such strides forward during their week in Texas. Something about being in the place where she grew up had connected them in a strong way and really reinforced for her how much she loved him.

And she loved him so much. More than she ever considered possible. She loved him in a way that was huge and scary and wonderful. She loved him in a way that Stole her breath and at the same time gave her a reason to breathe. They had only been together ten months, but those ten months had thrown some serious hurdles at them; things that had threatened to break them and things that almost had broken them. And although most would call Alex strong for what she had been through before Harry and with Harry, there were those, those that would come to light as their relationship moved along, that would call her naïve for being so openly optimistic about her relationship with Harry. She wasn’t, not even a little bit. She knew that things would get rough and overwhelming and at some point it would have nothing to do with Harry and everything to do with her. She knew that they weren’t done dealing with problems; problems would always arise. But, if she continued on this path to a life with him and Emma, there would be times, times like this trip to Texas, that were perfect and amazing and solidified their commitment to each other. And if those moments outnumbered the rough ones even two-to-one, then every single bit of it was worth it.

And so, with those thoughts on her mind and with her smile firmly planted on her face, Alex stretched one more time and then slid from the bed and headed off towards the shower to get ready for the day.

A little under an hour later Alex made it downstairs and the sight that greeted her in the big, open kitchen immediately sent her bursting in laughter.

Emma was sitting cross legged on top of the large Island, covered in flour, while Harry stood In front of her, pink apron firmly in place, covered in a fair amount of flour himself. Alex’s mom stood nearby at the counter near the stove, preparing side dishes, laughing, and looking horrified all at the same time.

"What in the world is going on in here?” Alex laughed as she stood in the archway to the kitchen. Harry and Emma lifted their heads to her and they both grinned, happy to see her. Donna caught her daughter’s eyes and gave her a wink before turning back to the food she was preparing.

“Mummy’s awake!” Emma squealed, clapping her hands together and sending flour poofing into the air.

"Mummy’s Awake!" Harry mimicked, laughing and clapping his hands together as well, sending another poof of flour in the air.

Alex laughed and shook her head as she walked over to them, amused by their playfulness and as always, a little in awe of how they were together, so fun and completely silly, like two peas in a pod.

"I’m awake!" she smiled. She reached out and ruffled Emma’s hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead, trying to avoid the flour that seemed to be everywhere. She turned to Harry, who winked down at her and then pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. “Okay," Alex grinned. “What are you two doing here, besides getting flour all over Mom’s kitchen?”

"Mimi said we could make the pie crust," Emma said, matter-of-fact.

Alex flashed her mother a look, to which Donna simply shrugged her shoulders. Alex’s lips twisted for a moment before she turned back to Emma. “Well, that was nice of Mimi; and very, very trusting, since I am almost positive neither of you has ever made a pie crust in your entire lives."

"Hey! I resent that!" Harry cried in mock hurt.

“Me too!” Emma mocked, throwing her little fists on her hips.

"Ha!" Alex laughed, holding her hands up in front of her in surrender. “Okay, Okay. Go back to your pie crust. I’m going to see if Mom needs help with anything.”

“You can help us, Mummy,” Emma offered, pointing to the mess they were creating on the counter.

“Thank you baby, but I think you are doing just fine without me,” Alex smiled as she pressed another kiss to Emma’s forehead. “Keep up the good work and keep Harry in line.” Emma nodded seriously as Harry chuckled and Alex winked at him before she moved off towards her mother. “What do you need help with, Mom?”

Donna, happy for the help and the time spent with her family in the kitchen, put Alex quickly to work. After about fifteen minutes, when Alex was sure that Harry and Emma were both super involved in what they were doing and weren’t paying attention to them, she leaned over close to her mother.

“Mom,” she whispered, her lips twitching as she side-eyed Donna.

“What?” Donna whispered back, turning her attention to her daughter.

“I happen to know you bought frozen pie crusts.”

Donna couldn’t help the sly grin the spread across her face. “I sure did.”

Alex giggled. “So…what in the world are they making?”

Donna glanced over her shoulder, blinked at the mess, and then turned back to Alex. “Honey, I have no idea.”

*****************

“Erin!” Alex squealed excitedly as her cousin and her husband David arrived with their new baby. They were the last to arrive and although Alex had been having a blast watching her family ask Harry and Charlotte a billion questions, had adored watching Harry with her cousin’s kids, she was desperately excited to see Erin, who was without a doubt, her closest cousin.

“Alex!” Erin grinned as Alex rushed to her in the foyer. The two women embraced tightly and then pulled back, grinning at each other before Alex turned to Erin’s husband.

“David,” she smiled wide.

“Good to see you, Alex,” he smiled back and adjusted the baby carrier so he could lean down and kiss her cheek.

“And who is this?” Alex asked excitedly as she peeked into the baby carrier.

Erin giggled. “That’s little Miss Abby, and if you’ll let us get into the door here and set our stuff down you can meet her.”

Alex laughed. “Sorry! Sorry! I just got so excited. Everyone is in the kitchen. Come on.”

She lead them into the kitchen and everyone moved quickly to their feet, saying hello to Erin and David and more than ready to coo over little baby Abby, and Harry was right in the middle of them all, introducing himself to David with a handshake and then to Erin with a kiss on this cheek before leaning in and mock fighting with Alex over who was going to get to hold the baby first.

“Listen Wales,” Alex laughed. “You always hog Henry back home. I will hog Abby and you can’t say anything about it.”

“Okay…” Erin said as she pulled Abby from the carrier and shot a look at Harry and Alex. “By Henry you mean…”

“Will and Kate’s baby boy,” Alex answered with a small smile.

Erin shook her head and laughed. “Will and Kate’s baby. Okay. Yeah…that not weird at all.”

Laughter spread throughout the room and Harry grinned, appreciating their humor about it what most certainly was a situation that was seemed surreal to them. And in truth, this situation seemed almost surreal to Harry himself. All of these wonderful, down to earth people were accepting him, treating him as one of their own, not bending over backwards to please him as people tended to do. But really, he should have expected it. It’s how both Alex and Matt were. It’s how their parents were, and now he could see that her entire family was like that.

Smiling wide he watched as Erin handed over baby Abby to Alex and his girlfriend’s entire face lit up as she cuddled the baby in her arms.

“Aren’t you the most precious thing?” Alex cooed as she rocked the baby in her arms. The baby was awake but calm and stared up at Alex with big brown eyes, making Alex’s heart lurch. “Oh Erin, she’s so beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Erin grinned. “Although, I did have some help in making her.” She nudged David with her elbow and gave a sly grin.

“Okay, enough of that!” Erin’s dad, Alan, broke in with a laugh. “We all know how these things happen, no need to reiterate.”

Everyone laughed and Erin rolled her eyes, used to her Dad’s instant urge to change the subject whenever that particular topic came up. It was common knowledge in the family and they all thought it was hilarious. There were many times that they would find a way to slip small innuendo into the conversation just to rile him up.

“I’m so glad you could come up,” Alex smiled once the laughter died and everyone seemed to turn back into their own conversations.

“Well,” David grinned as he pulled a grape from an appetizer tray and popped it into his mouth. “Thank Abby for finally deciding that she could ride in a car for more than five minutes without screaming bloody murder.”

Alex’s nose wrinkled. “That’s no fun. I’m glad she got over it.”

“Yeah,” Erin nodded. “Me too. She’s quiet now but the only pair of lungs I’ve ever heard as loud as hers is Emma’s and…wait. Where is Emma?”

“Out back playing with the other cousins. Want me to go get her?” Alex asked.

“Yes,” Harry broke in with a nod and a grin. “Go get her and I’ll hold Abby for you.”

Alex laughed. “Are you going to just die soon if you don’t get to hold her?”

“I really just might, Alex.”

“Okay, fine,” she mock pouted. She turned to Erin and David and pulled a serious face. “I’m warning you now. Watch your kid. This one over here,” she nodded her head in Harry’s direction. “Serious baby obsession.”

Erin giggled and David shook his head with a chuckle. “God Alex, poor guy. You don’t have to go around telling everyone that.”

Alex snorted as she turned to Harry, preparing to hand the baby over. “David, everyone knows.”

“Yeah, because you told them.”

“No,” Alex grinned as Harry took the baby from her, his face lighting up as he cuddled her up in his arms. He was instantly transfixed and Alex knew she was being tuned out. “Everyone knows because Harry told Katie Couric last year and sent women into overdrive.”

“Come on, Alex,” Harry interrupted with a groan of a laugh, paying more attention than she thought. “Why don’t you just tell them how you compared me to a dog the other night too?”

Alex giggled. “I’ll let you tell them that one Wales,” she said as she patted his arm, offering him a warm, loving look. “I’m going to go get Emma.”

“A dog?” Erin asked, confused, as Alex walked away. She heard Harry sigh as she rounded the corner of the kitchen and she couldn’t help the laughter that escaped her lips.

She loved that man.

****************

“Alex, where did Harry go?” Alex’s cousin Sam called out to her across the table over Thanksgiving dinner.

“He went to get seconds…” She trailed off and scrunched her nose as she thought about it. “Probably ten minutes ago,” she laughed. “I need seconds myself. I’ll go check on him.”

“He’s probably in there eating the last of the green bean casserole,” her cousin Charlie called out. “You tell him that’s not how things work in the states.”

Alex rolled her eyes and laughed as she slid from her chair and took her plate from the table. “How does it work, Charlie? You always get the last of the green bean casserole?”

“Damn right,” he grinned right before he shoved a huge bite of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

“Well, Charlie…in the UK that definitely don’t curse at the dinner table. It’s called manners,” Alex shot back with a grin before she turned on her heel and left the room, leaving the rest of the table teasing Charlie.

She made her way into the kitchen and ran across Matt, who actually was scooping up the last of the green bean casserole, but Harry was nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen Harry?” she asked her brother. When he chuckled and his lips pulled up into a smirk she immediately knew something was up. “What?”

“Seriously Alex, how old is Harry?”

Her forehead scrunched. “Twenty-nine. Why?”

“He’s at the fucking kids table, Alex.”

Alex couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. “Oh my God. Of course he is.”

Matt shook his head and chuckled. “I know he loves kids, but he’s in there having the time of his life.”

“I have to see this,” Alex giggled. She slid her plate onto the counter and then stepped around the corner to the informal dining room where the kids table was always set up. And sure enough, there was Harry, seated in the middle of all the kids, his plate of seconds in front of him.

She stood and watched in silence for several minutes as he joked, laughed, teased, and indulged the four little kids at the table. And Emma was there next to him, clearly taking on the role of sidekick; much to Harry’s delight.

“Did you know that Harry is a real life Prince?” Emma asked, looking pointedly at four year old Taylor, who went wide-eyed in awe Harry.

“Like in Cinderella?” Taylor whispered.

“Yes,” Emma answered at the same time that Harry chuckled and tried to shake his head in the negative. And then she turned to the two little boys at the table. “He’s also a soldier. He flies helicopters.”

“Really?” five year old Jack asked while three year old Carter’s mouth dropped.

Harry grinned. “Yes, that is true. I’m much better at being a helicopter pilot than a Prince.”

“I don’t think so,” Emma said; matter-of –fact. “I think you are good at both.”

Alex slid her hand over her mouth to keep from giggling at the scene and when she felt someone slide up next to her she turned and, seeing Erin there, she immediately motioned for her to be quiet.

“He’s so good with Emma,” Erin whispered.

“He really is,” Alex nodded.

“I really did get worried that he was going to sneak off with Abby earlier.”

Alex shook her head and pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh.

“And Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I know you know this but…”

Alex turned and looked at Erin, meeting her eyes, expecting her to say something about Harry and her or Harry and the kids. “What?”

“He’s so much more gorgeous than he is in pictures.”

Alex couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out and of course, she was caught. Harry’s gaze snapped to her, giggling with her cousin and watching him.

“Found me, did you?” he grinned.

“I don’t even know why I wondered where you were,” she laughed.

“Listen,” he defended playfully. “You should know if there is a kids table that is always where I’m going to end up. It’s more fun and conversation is much more interesting conversation.”

“Shall I leave you to your interesting conversation then?” Alex asked, her lips twitching.

“Nah,” Harry shook his head. “You should join us.”

“Yeah?” Alex smiled, her eyebrows lifting.

“Well, only if Emma here says it’s okay,” Harry said with a wink. “What do you think, Em? Can your mum and Erin join us?”

Emma looked up from her plate and nodded quickly. “Yes!”

And so they did. They finished their meal at the kids table and really, it was probably the best time either of them had ever had at Thanksgiving dinner.

Harry was right; the kids table was absolutely more fun.

*****************

"Found you," Alex called softly as she made her way out onto the pool deck where Harry stretched out on a lounge chair, looking up at the sky. Her family had all departed, Emma was in bed, Charlotte and Matt were on their way back to his house for the night, and Alex was ready to spend her final hours in Texas alone with the man she loved.

His heard turned towards her voice, his lips lifting into a smile as he took her in, standing there looking so incredibly beautiful in the moonlight as she stood above him. “You certainly did find me, Alexandra.”

She chuckled and eyed him with playful suspicion. “What’s going on Wales?”

"Nothing,” he grinned. His cheeks were flushed from the chilly night, his eyes were hazy from the wine consumed that night, and Alex found him utterly sexy in that moment. “Nothing other than I want my insanely beautiful girlfriend to join me on this lounge chair right here.” He winked as he held out a hand to her. “Will you join me, Alex?"

Her lips twitched. “I don’t have any ice cream with me this time.”

“Ha!” Harry laughed. “I think I’ll live. Come on, Morgan. Come cuddle up with me.”

And because it would be impossible to resist that she nodded slowly, holding his soft gaze with her own. She took his hand and moved in beside him, letting him pull her into the circle of his arms and up against him. She sighed as she laid her cheek against his chest. The night was chilly, he was warm, and she felt perfect wrapped up snuggly in his arms.

They laid there like that, wrapped up tightly against the chill of the fall night until finally Harry look a deep breath and broke the comfortable silence.

"Alex?”

She turned her eyes up to his with a small, happy smile. “Yeah?”

"How come we’re never talked about John?”

Alex’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “We have, Harry…”

"No, I know. We’ve had discussions and I know the basics, but you’re never given any real…particulars. How you met him, how you fell in love, how you got engaged, your wedding…I know you have memories of those things.”

“Wow…” Alex breathed. She blinked several times, trying to gather her thoughts. “I just…Harry, I just thought those were things that we didn’t need to talk about. How do those things relate to us?”

Harry took a deep breath and reached for her hand, pulling it up to his lips and pressing a warm kiss to her palm. “It relates to us because it was a huge part of your life that I never want you to forget or feel like you have to hide.”

“I don’t feel like I have to hide it. And I’ll never forget it, Harry,” she said softly as she shook her head. “I am…I don’t want you to be uncomfortable with it. I did love him very much. I married him with intention of spending my life with him. I have his child who, despite the fact that she looks just like me, is a visual reminder of him every single day. If he wouldn’t have died…”

“We wouldn’t be sitting here,” Harry finished for her, his eyes looking lovingly down to hers. “But we are, Alexandra. We are sitting here in this place you grew up in and…” he trailed off, his eyes looking towards the sky for a moment before turning back to her. “And I’ve gotten know so much more of you here and God…our relationship has deepened so much. I don’t want that to stop when we go back to London tomorrow. I want to know every part of you, and that includes John.”

Alex could help the grin that lit up her face. “I love you, do you know that?”

“I do,” he smiled as he leaned forward to kiss her softly. “But feel free to keep telling me all you’d like.”

Alex giggled as his lips pressed sweetly to hers several times before he pulled away and tucked her back into his arms. “Okay, so what would you like to know about John?”

“Well,” he started, taking a deep breath. “Let’s start with how you met.”

“How we met…” Alex repeated slowly. “It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to anything about this. It’s weird, but okay. Here we go. When I first moved to London to start school, I stayed with friends of my parents for a bit, who at the time lived in the townhouse next door to Molly’s.”

“Ahhh…” Harry said. “See, that’s interesting. I always imagined you met him through friends or something.”

“No,” Alex smiled, shaking her head. “The Parkers, the couple I lived with, were friendly with Molly and one night, after I had been there for a couple of weeks, she came over for dinner and brought John. He had just gotten home from training on base and was tired and didn’t want to come but Molly made him.”

“Ha…” Harry chuckled. “Was he as grouchy as I am when I get back from training?”

“No,” Alex giggled. “He was not. You could tell he was tired but he was sweet and polite and…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I liked him right away. He was the first friend I made in London.”

“How long were you friends before…”

“Before we got together?” Alex finished for him. When he nodded she took a deep breath. “Not long; a few weeks maybe. He was over one night, just hanging out and he just…kissed me. And that was that. We were inseparable after that.”

Harry grinned. “It’s weird how much like us that is.”

Alex nodded. “It is…but different too. With John I was almost in awe; he lead and I followed. And not in a bad way, just…we were so ridiculously in love and I was so young and if he jumped, I jumped. With you…” She turned her eyes up to Harry’s and adjusted so she could face him face to face. “With you I felt, and still feel, that we are more evenly matched. There have been a couple of exceptions, but for the most part I always feel like you and I are on the same level.”

“I love that about us,” Harry murmured as he reached up and brushed a piece of hair from her forehead.

“Me too,” Alex smiled softly before continuing on. “When we had been dating for about six months he proposed. I accepted and three months later we were married.”

“Nine months?”

“From first kiss until marriage…yes.”

“Wow.”

“You knew it was fast,” she said softly.

“Oh hey…” he murmured, his eyes snapping to hers. “I’m not judging. I guess I just didn’t realize how fast.”

Alex nodded. “I know. It was quick. We got together in September, we were married in May, and by the first of October he was deployed to Afghanistan.”

“And then you found out about Emma…” Harry murmured, his eyes searching hers. Without asking he knew that this would be the difficult part, the part that hurt her to talk about.

She let out a breath and turned her eyes down for a moment. “And then I found out about Emma. He had been gone a month when I found out. I was six weeks pregnant and…” She turned her eyes back to him and smiled wide. “God, Harry. I was so thrilled.”

Harry gulped. “Were you guys…trying?”

Alex couldn’t help the way her lips tugged up at his question. “No,” she shook her head. “Emma was not planned. I mean, somewhere down the road, sure…we wanted children. But we didn’t plan to have Emma right then. I can’t believe I’ve never told you that.”

“I always thought she was planned,” Harry murmured, looking a bit sheepish.

“God, how have we never talked about this?” Alex laughed. “How ridiculous. With as much as we’ve gone through and we’ve never had this basic conversation?”

“I’m glad we are.”

“Me too,” she smiled. She leaned up and kissed him then, not being able to help herself in that moment. He was right. She did feel closer to him after telling him this stuff. He was accepting and wonderfully supportive about it and she felt so incredibly lucky to have him, to have his understanding.

“Mmmm…” Harry smiled against her lips as she pressed them firmly against his. “Alexandra…as much as it pains me to say this…you have to finish your story.”

She pulled back and laughed. “I know, I know. I just couldn’t help it. You’re being so wonderful about this.”

“I am a wonderful guy,” he said with a smug smile. Alex rolled her eyes and then she took a deep breath, preparing to continue.

“Okay, so…I found out I was pregnant with Emma.” Here lips turned down at the corners a bit as she remembered. “I wanted to tell John so badly, but I didn’t want to write it in a letter so I waited. I knew he would get to call at some point and I was going to tell him then. But…”

“The call never came,” Harry finished for her. His voice was low, sorrowful.

“The call never came,” she nodded slowly, her eyes filling with tears at the memory. “Instead, there was a knock on the door at our flat one day and…” She shuddered. “Damn it. Harry…that was the fucking worst moment of my life. He was dead. He had only been over there a month and a half and he was dead. I was pregnant with his child and I never…” She trailed off and wiped the tear that fallen from the corner of her eye. “I never got to tell him. Out of all of it, that’s what hurt the most. He never got to be happy about her.”

“Oh my love,” Harry breathed as he pulled her against him, circling his arms around her. He knew before this conversation just how strong she was, how brave she was. He had always known that she had overcome a huge, devastating personal loss and come out so much better than most people would have. But, even knowing all of those things before, hearing the full story, hearing how much she loved John and knowing how devastating it must have been to lose him without ever telling him about Emma, Harry’s heart ached for her.

“I’m okay, Harry,” Alex said softly as she nuzzled his chest with her cheek. “Back then I wasn’t okay, but I am now. Besides, you know…” she pulled back and tipped her head to look at him. “He knows. He’s up there somewhere and he knows and he’s happy. He’s happy she’s happy. And Harry?”

“Yes, Alex?”

“He’s got to be happy she has you.”

Harry’s heart slammed into his chest. “Alexandra…”

“I’m serious,” she said, her eyes searching his. “You mean more to her than…”

“She means everything to me, Alex,” Harry interrupted in a low, reverent voice. “You and Emma mean everything to me.”

Alex stared up at him, letting his words and this moment sink over her. And then finally, she slid her arms up around his neck and pulled him close. “Harry?”

“Yes baby?”

“I need you to take me upstairs and make love to me.” Her voice was soft, low, and filled with absolute need. There was no way Harry could resist her in that moment and there really was no reason at all that he should.

He moved, pulling her with him from the chair and then, taking her hand in his, he led her into the house, up the stairs, and into their room where he spent their final night in Texas making slow, passionate, soul-altering love making to her.

It was the perfect end to their perfect trip.