Chapter Text
She doesn't believe him. Penelope would never just randomly break up with him. Francesca and Violet are both checking in on Penelope in the study, her brothers are getting Colin drunk, Gen has gone to Penelope's which is odd, because normally Penelope would have called her and everyone else is just being normal. Eloise knows there is more to the story.
Penelope won't respond to her many messages.
To Pen
Penelope???
Pen?
Why did you break up?
What are you hiding?
Pen?
PENELOPE
Pen I'm worried now
From Genevieve
Hey Eloise, Pen has asked you to stop texting.
That had been it. But Eloise knows. She knows there is more to the story. So she decides to use her secret weapon Hyacinth, to eavesdrop on her brothers. Hyacinth is always eavesdropping anyway so at least now it's eavesdropping for a good cause. Hyacinth comes back with nothing other than the fact Colin is drunk, and sad. So Eloise takes matters into her own hands. She waits until Anthony and Benedict have settled Colin into his old bedroom for the night and then walks in. "Colin?" He is still very wide awake.
"Eloise, Pen dumbed me... dugned me... dumped me." He is slurring and as bad as she feels using her brother's drunken state to get some answers, she does it anyway.
"Why?" She asks. "She won't tell me." She adds.
"She's having a barbie." Colin states.
Eloise frowns. "She's what?" She demands.
"She's pregnant." Colin states. "And she broke up with me." And then he bursts into tears, and Eloise is too shocked to really respond so she texts Benedict to come and fix her brother and then heads to Penelope and Colin's flat. Gen is back as her car is parked outside so she knows she'll have Penelope to herself.
She has a spare key so she let's herself in, Penelope is sat on the sofa in their living area, sobbing. Eloise says nothing, she just grabs her and pulls her into a hug allowing her her emotions.
Penelope eventually tells her what has happened and Eloise can barely contain her anger. How dare Colin imply Penelope has cheated? Penelope has to beg her not to and confront him. Reluctantly she agrees not too, but she sends Benedict a message.
To Art Bro
Tell Colin that if he doesn't fix this in twenty four hours, then I'm taking Pen somewhere he'll never get to see her again.
From Art Bro
Okay, but I've sent Francesca over to make sure you don't kidnap Penelope. Hope Penelope doesn't mind, but Gen and I are long over due some us time
To Art Bro
I'm going to be sick.
Sure enough Francesca arrives ten minutes later and joins them on the sofa. They stick some comedy rerun on and end up falling asleep on the sofa.
She doesn't know whether she's more annoyed that she is been woken up to Colin shouting or that he appears unaffected by the amount of alcohol he has consumed the previous night. "Penelope, I messed up, but you don't get to push me out of your lives."
Eloise goes to stand up, but a wide eyed Francesca shakes her head. So she remains seated on the sofa, listening to the shouting from the bedroom.
"You implied I cheated." Penelope shouts back. "And I never once said you couldn't be in their lives." She adds.
"You told Benedict..." Colin stops shouting and the voices are lower now. They can't hear what they're saying and they don't want too. Then they hear noises that imply the pair are about to have sex. Eloise winces, had Penelope really forgiven her brother just like that? He certainly didn't deserve it, as her and Francesca stand up ready to head home the door bursts open and Penelope, dressed in only her knickers bolts towards the bathroom, a very naked Colin follows her slamming the bathroom door after them. They hear retching and Eloise and Francesca both slip out, before anything else can happen.
"Penelope is pregnant isn't she?" Francesca asks. Eloise just nods.
Suddenly things are back to normal as though nothing had ever happened, but Eloise hasn't yet forgiven her brother for his stupidity.
She is doing last minute, and in her opinion totally pointless) wedding admin when she gets the call from Penelope. She has her brother's radio show on so she knows he isn't there and she answers immediately. "I think I'm having a miscarriage." Penelope sobs. Eloise establishes she can bring her mother before going to Violet and letting Francesca and Gen know what was happening. Penelope is wreck. Hysterically sobbing, convinced she has lost the baby and worse convinced it's her fault. Eloise is shocked and barely able to react herself as Violet takes command. As soon as Penelope has been met by a doctor her mother going with her Eloise collapses into a seat in the waiting room, suddenly remembering to call Colin.
He has just finished his radio show when he answers. "Hey EL, I hope you..." He doesn't get to finish.
"We think Pen's having a miscarriage." She states and then tells him where they are.
In the time it takes Colin to arrive they have established both Penelope and the baby are okay, but watching her brother burst through the doors and grab Penelope the way he does allows her to forgive him just a bit.
The next time she forgives him is when she comes to visit Penelope in hospital, her friend has hit a patch of such bad sickness that she can't keep any fluids down and Colin has messaged the family to say they have admitted Penelope to the hospital after he had found her passed out in their apartment. Her mother has visited first and then Eloise has insisted she be next to visit. She walks in to find Penelope hunched over one of those cardboard hospital sick basins, retching and bringing up bits of white liquid vomit. Colin is behind her, hand on her back, other hand on her hair. She can't hear what he's saying but she watches Penelope visibly relax a little as he speaks to her. She forgives him a little more then.
Her wedding comes quickly, and while everyone panics around her she enjoys an article in a magazine Daphne has brought for hair inspiration. Penelope enters and somehow decreases the tension immediately and then Eloise is walking up the aisle, with her mother and Anthony either side of her to give her away, beaming as she sees Philip waiting for her. They have adjusted things a little so that instead of standing with the bridal party Penelope is seated, but her friend gives her the biggest smile as she sees her, tears in her eyes.
"Did I just see Colin carry Penelope to the bathroom?" Asks Benedict, the whole family knows of her pregnancy now, so Eloise knows Benedict is planning to mock Colin's attentiveness.
"I think you did." Gen agrees, swatting her boyfriend. "And if I was ill like Pen then I hope you'd do the same for me." She adds, moving Penelope's plate away from her seat. Benedict whispers something in his girlfriend's ear that earns him another playful swat.
"If you two have a baby nine months from now, just know I will hate you for fucking on my wedding night." Eloise threatens.
Benedict is about to respond when Colin and Penelope return hand in hand and slip back into their seats.
Later she watches him fuss around Penelope's dancing, worrying it might hurt her and she fully forgives him for the stupid comment that had nearly cost him Penelope, because while he has made a stupid mistake he clearly could not love Penelope more.