It's way to fucking hot to be in the park, really.

Nonetheless, Diane is in the park. She's got her reasons, of course. She's a girl. Of course she has reasons. The park is a strategic location. She's meeting Hugh on his lunch break, and it seemed like the best place. Nice and neutral, free of any lingering associations or irritating distractions. They could have gone for Chinese but then there'd be food and waiters, or she could have swung by the museum but that's awkward. So the park it is.

Too bad it's sweltering.

She's sitting in the shade of a big oak tree, propped up against its trunk. In concession to the heat she's got a frozen water bottle pressed up against her skin. It's leaving damp marks on her camisole. She cut her hair herself this morning. In the spare bathroom, of course, because there's not a proper mirror in the master bathroom. Took a pair of kitchen shears and hacked it all off, because it was on the back of her neck while she was cleaning and it was pissing her off. It looks punky. The irony here is that Diane in summer clothes doesn't look very punk at all. She's wearing a white eyelet top and cut-off jeans, big silver hoop earrings and a little cross.

Her lips are stained bright red from the Popsicle she's eating. Popsicles are irritating. You can't eat them slowly, or they melt on you.

It is hot as all get out. Hugh's in a suit as usual but the tie was gone by ten am so he could undo his collar and breath. It's too hot for Chinese anyway. Hugh had some spinach feta and avacado in a wrap with a smoothie. On the way back to the museum from picking up office supplies. So it's freed him up completely to meet his wife. The hair is a bit of a shock, if only because he had no warning. Still he thinks his wife is hot and not just from the weather.

He walks over purposefully and sits down next to her on the bench. "Hey." He seems happy to see her.

"Hi," Diane leans over and kisses him.

"Sorry about the hair. I probably should have given you fair warning."

But honestly if he can't take the hair then no way in hell will he be able to take everything else she's going to have to say.

She's been rehearsing everything else she has to say over and over in her head for the past while, and no matter which was she puts it it still sounds bad. So now she's probably going to stall a little while she casts desperately around for a nice, calm way of putting things.

"How are you?"

"Mmm, yeah warn me babe." He kisses her cheek and plays with her hair anyway. "I'm melting, but that's a given. You?" He seems to be in a playful mood thus far.

Playful mood.

Diane's tempted to leave him playful. It'd be a pity to wreck it. On the other hand, he's probably more likely to take startling news better when he's in a good mood. And she'd really like him to take this well. But she really needs to stop dithering and get on with it. She's been dithering long enough.

"I'm all right," she says, smiling wryly. Then she arranges her face into a somewhat more serious expression.

"I need to tell you something though. And I'll give fair warning here - it'll be a bit of a shock."

A bit is perhaps understating things. But since she's not crying he should be able to tell it's not bad. Or that she found out a while ago and has since run out of tears.

He just looks, tries to be serious, and then his mouth turns into a half twist of a smile anyway. He can tell something's up, and sometimes levity helps. "You got your voter card in the mail didn't you?" He takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. "I'm joking, it's alright though, go on." He says trying to be more serious.

Diane doesn't even know what a voter card is, never mind have one. She smiles anyway, because she knows what he's doing and she appreciates it. She squeezes his hand back, teeth catching on her lip for a moment. Deep breath, Diane. It's not that many syllables to get out.

"I'm pregnant."

She watches him. Looks terrified, waits for a response.

Definitely surprising with all the precautions Hugh takes, but he'll believe her. Diane wouldn't make something like this up. "D'you....know how long?" He asks after a very heavy moment of silence where he may have held her hand a little harder than he ought.

As reactions go it definitely could be worse. Although she's still holding her breath a bit. She doesn't mind that he's squeezing all the blood out of her hand.

"Uh... less than a month, I guess."

This is what she gets for letting the man take care of the birth control. She oughtn't have gone off the pill, really.

Hugh can figure out what went wrong later. Right now she's still nervous. He relaxes his hand a bit. "This okay with you?" He asks her.

Okay is sort of a relative term, but Diane's been sulking around the house for days for a reason, and that was because she needed to sort shit out in her head before she actually had to tell anyone about it.

"Yeah."

It's not like she's got a choice, really. But she is okay with it. She wants the baby. It's just all a bit scary.

"Are you?"

He'd noticed the sulking and thought it was all Viv's crap. Still in light of this news he is going to have to take the Viv situation in hand.

Hugh nods and pulls her close. "Oh, sure, but you'll worry me to death anyway." He kisses her cheek.

Diane may worry herself to death too. Babies are... well, terrifying. There's just so many ways to go wrong, and she really doesn't want anything bad to happen to her baby.

She puts her arms around Hugh, visibly relieved at his response, and hugs him close.

Compared to Diane, compared to Viv, a baby will be cake. Hugh holds on and rubs her back.

"Promise you're okay with this?"

She does recall him saying that Elsie had cured him of the desire to have children, ever. But then again, it's Hugh. He's sweet. Of course he's going to be okay with it. It's so Hugh that he didn't even question the fact his wife someone managed to get knocked up when they were using birth control. Magical birth control, but still. Lesser men might wonder.

Diane hasn't slept with another guy in a long time now, though.

It's sure as hell not Viv's. He won't even joke about it. Elsie did throw a book case at him, and a table. Hugh hopes his own offspring will be more charitable about him sleeping with their mother.

Diane pulls out of the hug to look him ever-so-seriously in the face.

He looks right back at her.

She's waiting for an answer.

Telling Vivienne is going to be a whole parcel of not fun, Diane suspects. Someone needs to talk to that girl, really. It's no good her living in the house if she's always going to be unhappy and never going to come home. Diane misses her. And worries too much. Maybe she can persuade Vivienne all this worry is unhealthy for her.

"Diane, it's fine. Just please take care of yourself, I don't want anything to go wrong for either of you." Pregnancy is risky business. The baby at the end isn't the part that scares Hugh, it's the variables in between.

That's what frightens Diane too. Terrifies her.

She puts a hand on his face.

"I will, babe," she says, quietly.

She gets why he'd be worried. She doesn't exactly have a very good track record when it comes to taking care of herself. Or other people, for that matter. But she's been better about that lately. The taking care over other people part, and this is about taking care of other people.

Hugh nods. "Let's get out of this heat." He tells her.

Diane can see the next nine months of her life as being seriously fraught with her husband trying to get her not to do things, or to do things. It'll be a riot.

But it is very hot. She picks up her bag and offers him her hand.

"Okay. You can drop me home on your way back to work."

She took the bus. But without groceries so it's fine.

"Coarse." He tells her. "D'you need anything on the way?"

"Nah, I don't think so," Diane says, giving his hand a squeeze. Because she can't fucking smoke, damn it. "Hey, have you talked to Vivienne?"

"Not yet. I'm meeting her later." His expression says there will definitely be talking. "I'll let you tell her this if you want to be the one to do it though."

"Fuck, G-d, I have no idea how she's gonna take it. Or even if she'd take it better from me or you."

They cut across the grass towards wherever Hugh left his car.

"Do as you see fit, I guess. You know her better."

"You sure?" Hugh asks. Though in this instance he's going to do as he sees fit now that Diane's said it anyway.

"Yeah, of course," Diane says. Hugh's a silly boy sometimes. She leans over to kiss his cheek. They're having a baby. A fucking baby. Although she doesn't really want to think about it. It seems like the kind of thing you might jinx by thinking about too much.

He opens the car door for her. "I'll take care of it then."

Diane has always insisted she can open the car door herself, and Hugh's pretty persistently opened it for her. In the end she stopped complaining. It's sweet, really.

"Thanks," she says, to either point. To both points. "I just hate to see her unhappy."

"Viv's always been moody, I just hate to see her driving you nuts." Hugh says walking around.

"She's not driving me nuts," Diane objects. "I don't mind if she takes time for herself, fuck's sake. It's not like I don't. But she's not what I'd call happy."

It's not that she drives Diane nuts so much as that she makes Diane unhappy. In the best way possible. She loves Vivienne and it hurts to see Vivienne do anything like suffer.

"She's never been what one would call chipper. I thought you knew that going into it." Hugh offers as he buckles up.

"Yeah, and I totally stopped and thought, hey, Vivienne's miserable so I'm not going to fuck her?" Diane clicks her tongue stud. "You're just as bad. You knew I was miserable and you married me. And if I thought she was just being generally unhappy I wouldn't mind. Well. It'd hurt, but I'd let it alone. But I think she's upset about something particular."

"Mmmm. I think you and I both know what." Hugh says. "I'm sorry for that."

"It's not your fault," Diane says. "I mean, I'm not gonna deny you were involved. But that's not the point."

"Alright, tell me how you see it then, what is the point here?" Hugh asks his wife.

"Hey, I can't claim I know everything. But I'm certainly not gonna blame you for a perfectly natural response," Diane's smile's a little teasing, although she's being perfectly serious. "And I mean... you love her, she loves you. It's not a crime."

"Viv's the one we have to persuade of that." Hugh says with a sigh.