missingthekeep | Homeplot: I Loved Her First

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Homeplot: I Loved Her First

The second time that Sean sets out at the crack of dawn, it's with considerably more determination and with a far different attitude. The days since his breakdown certainly haven't been easy, but every day the pain grows a little duller, seems a little further away. He'll always miss Maeve fiercely, always regret so much about what happened to her, but he's got other things to live for now, and that's not anything he should feel guilty about. She took a piece of him with her when she died, but he's always been able to stand as his own man, and he's kept a piece of her with him, as well. He'll get by.

More important than his pain abating with the days, perhaps, is the fact that the days continue to pass with a stunning regularity. They rapidly turn into weeks, with Sean and Meredith still solidly back in the real world, not a beach or palm tree in sight. It's too good to be true, but even a healthy dose of skepticism can only go so far when a man's every sense other than his gut is telling him something's real. So when the day finally comes that he can no longer treat this as a mere temporary reprieve, he becomes a man on a mission. If this is real (even now, even as he commits himself to the idea, the almighty if remains important), the time to continue shirking his responsibilities has passed.

He doesn't like the idea of leaving Meredith alone while he runs off (all in the name of duty, as always, boyo), but taking her along with him as he tracks down his errant cousin just isn't an option. He needs to be smart about this, efficient and safe, and these aren't traits that he tends to possess when Meredith's involved. Besides, he's pretty sure that she likes it even less, so he can't complain. Instead, he just promises to return within the week and prays that she'll be safe on her own in the meantime. Anything can happen, and it usually does, but treating her like a china doll to be coddled and fussed over is no way to begin their life together. He has to trust that she can take care of herself, no matter how much the act of leaving hits way too close to issues he's still working his way through.

He finds Tom on his very first night out, tucked snugly away in one of his nicer hidey holes, a drab but spacious apartment in Galway, no doubt funded through all manner of dark dealings. There's a fight, of course, but it's mostly just a formality. Tom never questions how Sean found out about Terry, and he never bothers to pretend that he has any real claim to be raising her. Hell, maybe it's for her safety that the other man never goes all out in taking Sean to task for coming to take her away. Maybe he really does care for her. It doesn't matter. He's come to take his daughter home, to wipe all the crime and the alcohol and the hurt clean from her life before she even has to go through it all. There are complexities and tricky questions about the child in his arms and the woman he once knew who'll never exist now that he'll have to address eventually, but for the first time in either of their lives, he knows that he's doing what's right with regards to Theresa. Tom doesn't enter into it. Their mutual hatred was well-earned on both sides, and it's far too late to do anything about that.

He's back before even three days elapse, most of it due to his taking the roads a lot slower once he's no longer traveling alone. That's one promise kept. A good start, he thinks as he arrives home and heads inside with a small, squalling bundle in his arms. Now comes the hard part: everything else.

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"I know," Meredith says, taking in a deep breath, though she's smiling still. "It's so weird to finally get to think of it as something real. We have so many options. I don't know where to go. Somewhere I can work, of course. Both of us." They'll have to figure out something with their schedules, since she doesn't want to subject Theresa to what she went through as a child, however much she enjoyed aspects of it.

"O' course," Sean says, nodding and smiling over at her. "We've got the whole wide world ta play in, now." Slipping his good arm around her shoulders, he lets his other rest on the edge of the crib, more content than he can remember being in a very long while.

"Course, we'll have plenty o' time ta figger it out. It's gonna be a right bitch fixin' things with Interpol now, an' I dinnae e'en want ta start worryin' 'bout that until ye an' I're good an' wed."

"I guess they won't take 'we thought we were imagining all of it' as an answer, will they?" laughs Meredith, though it's not really funny now that the repercussions will stick. With the pair of them home and the future looking otherwise bright, though, she's in high spirits. "You'll manage it. With some creative explanations, I'm sure."

"That's puttin' it mildly, aye," Sean laughs, glancing briefly upwards as if the solution to this particular dilemma will suddenly come to him from on high. "I'll be lyin' through me teeth is more like it."

"But it's doable, right?" Meredith asks. "You'll think of something? Because I don't think on the run is any way to raise a baby." And she sure as hell can't do this on her own, least of all when she's not meant to exist in this world.

"Ah, c'mon," Sean says, rubbing his hand along her arm reassuringly. "With where we are, after all we've been through, d'ye really think I'd let a silly li'l thing like bein' wanted internationally get in our way?" He nudges he gently with his hip. "I'll figger somethin' out."

"You'd better," Meredith says. They got this far, it's true, and it helps to think of it that way, but they aren't going to beat everything just because they survived the last thing to come their way. "I'm not doing the whole thing with the wedding and the dress and the baby just to have Interpol mess it all up."

"Perish the thought," Sean teases, though the breezy, laughing confidence in their prospects is overcome slightly by nerves a moment later, and he awkwardly shifts his weight around on his feet for a moment before going on. "So... that mean ye been thinkin' 'bout it, then? Ye know... settin' a date?"

"Well, we ought to," Meredith says. It isn't as if she's actually picked one yet, though she's always been a fan of sooner rather than later, particularly in this case. "I mean, you're home, we have Theresa, there's no reason not to settle on a date."

"Aye, that's what I was thinkin'," Sean quickly agrees, oddly relieved. The whole affair with Theresa has put him on pins and needles for just about everything, no matter how well it's all been turning out. "I figger we'd go wi' the same as what we were plannin' on before, jus' waitin' long enae ta put the thing together. An' with all the help we're sure ta get here... maybe a couple o' weeks?"

"A couple of weeks," Meredith echoes. Though they've been engaged for weeks and she's the one who wanted to hurry things along, it suddenly seems incredibly soon. That's what she wants, though, she tells herself. She does want to marry him. The more choices they make with regards to it, though, the more real it seems. "Yeah. Yeah, a couple weeks. And it doesn't need to be anything elaborate, Sean, please. I don't want the whole big fuss. Some fuss, but..."

"No, no, I- I agree," Sean says, grinning once more. "We could have it here, even, jus' a nice, small ceremony." Smaller even than it would be on the island, since he's the only one who knows anyone here, but that's just the unfortunate nature of things. "Throw in some dinner an' dancin', what more do we need?"

"Well, a honeymoon would be nice," Meredith says, smile widening some, "although I don't know how we'd manage it with a baby, so... just some privacy for a while might do." She leans closer and kisses him. "But that sounds perfect." She really isn't meant for a church wedding or anything big, but right here in the Keep, that she thinks she could enjoy, so long as it's quiet and small.

"Brilliant," Sean murmurs, keeping close for another kiss and not drawing back any. "A tidy li'l to-do, an' then we'll say I owe ye one honeymoon, ta be paid as soon as we c'n manage it. 'Til then, I'm sure we'll have no trouble findin' babysitters so we c'n get our private time in."

"I think I can agree to that," Meredith says, leaning her head against his. "We can just... disappear into the bedroom for a weekend, barely emerge." She's under no illusion they won't pop out now and then to check on Theresa, no matter how many people he has on hand to make sure she's okay, but that seems like a fair trade. "Sounds good to me."

"Mmm, better make it a week," says Sean, smirking. "We'll have earned it, 'specially wi' all the things we've got ta get done before then. Dresses an' rings an' priests an' all that dreadful stuff ye hate so much."

"I don't hate it," Meredith protests, huffing out a laugh as she looks up. "I am perfectly fine with dresses and rings and... ambivalent on priests and in favor of cake and of marrying you. It all balances out in the end. I just... don't understand all the fuss." Granted, it only happens once, so far as she's concerned, and it's a special occasion, but still, it's a little more fluffiness than she's prepared to deal with in most cases.

"It's a special day, surely e'en you cannae say otherwise," Sean says, still mostly teasing no matter how true it is. He's with her when it comes to not wanting anything too extravagant, though. He's already done the large event of a wedding once and he honestly doesn't know if he has it in him to do it again. Besides, something small and personal is just more... them. "It's worth a bit o' fuss."

Meredith sighs, as if making some big concession. "I guess a bit," she says, but she smiles again a moment later before glancing back down to Theresa. She seems to be doing alright, at least, further proof of how well, how quickly, children adapt. "Since it's special and all. I told you I'd wear a white dress, I think that's evidence enough of how freaking special it is."

"True," Sean chuckles as he bites his lip on a smile, more pleased than ever at the visual that inspires, knowing that it's actually going to come to pass shortly. "That is a massive deal, e'en if I'm still nae entirely sure why."

"It's just not how I was raised," Meredith says, shrugging. But then, she wasn't raised to be anyone's mother, either, to be anything but obsessed with her career. It's hard to regret the things that shaped her into a good surgeon, but the rest of it leaves her floundering a bit when it comes to the rest of life, even now. "So when will it be?"

"Raised ta shy away from a thing as simple as a white weddin' dress. Americans, honestly," Sean teases, mostly to stall while he deals with the task of having to come up with a concrete date. He always tends to get caught up in specifics. "Assumin' there aren't any objections an' everythin' goes smoothly... how 'bout the Saturday after next?"

The prospect of having an actual date of pinning down the day is surprisingly pleasing. It's a concrete thing now, even more so than it was a few minutes ago. "Well, I have nowhere else to be," Meredith says, grinning. "Saturday after next it is." It's less a matter of Americans in general than her mother in particular, but that's not a subject she wants to dwell on at a time like this.

Even though he was the one who put the date forward, it takes a few seconds for that to sink in, and he nods dumbly. When it hits him, though, it hits hard, and he'd suddenly grinning so wide that he feels his face might crack. "There it is, then," he says, unable to suppress a laugh that's loud enough to startle Theresa. "We're gettin' married."

Meredith reaches down to touch Theresa's arm, then turns to Sean, huffing out a laugh in turn. "We're getting married," she says. "We're really doing it." It's been the better part of a year since he mentioned it at all and now here they are. It almost doesn't make sense, except it makes perfect sense. "You ready for this?"

Homeplot: I Loved Her First

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