Chapter Text
The second Ed had the certificate in his hands he felt immensely powerful. As he saw the black car roll up, and Oswald step out, he immediately walked up and hugged him, taking in the scent of his cologne, or more accurately his shampoo given the height difference.
Once they were in the back of the car, Ed finally broached the question. "So why exactly did you get me out of Arkham?" He asked, nervous that he would now owe his friend, well, more than friend, a debt. "All will be revealed tonight. Don't worry, nothing bad."
It did little to calm Ed's fears.
Despite the very public announcement he very much wished he would've been briefed on before hand- he wasn't exactly good at speaking on the spot- he still had to appreciate Oswald's flair for the dramatic and he didn't mind his employment as campaign manager.
That night, as the camera men left the mansion, it was just Ed and Oswald, and they took the opportunity to... indulge.
Oswald gently grabbed his hand, giving him a sincere happy smile, a rare occasion. Ed smiled back, and after a moment shared listening for passerby's, they quickly closed the gap between them, hands in each other's hair, trying to close the gap between their bodies as well.
"Goodgod..." Ed muttered under his breathe, feeling his hair get tangled from where it was sliding against the pillow. He felt the wet lips of the man on top of him, barely able to manage a sloppy kiss as the orgasm shot up his veins. Oswald was there a minute or so later. As he rolled off, they shared a chaste kiss, both managing to catch their breath. "God I've missed you..." Ed heard himself admitting, quickly blushing and pretending to look for his glasses.
"I missed you too Ed." Came the light voice, making him stop what he was doing and look at him with a small smile.
It had hardly been their first time doing this- As Oswald had spent weeks hiding in his apartment and recuperating, it definitely gave the men the opportunity to get closer, and it gave Ed an excuse to no longer sleep on his couch.
Ed had figured that Oswald had forgotten about him after he had his stint in Arkham, but they were a perfect match, which is hard to forget, and Oswald’s letters and gifts made the last few months of his “therapy” all worth it.
Once the election had been won, their time spent together outside of work dwindled. Ed wanted to maintain a purely professional work relationship, with a separate home relationship, the last thing they needed was gossip columnists at their door. As a result, their relationship, affair, whatever it was called, was entirely behind closed doors.
Unfortunately, not for long.
It started with excessive exhaustion throughout the day, Ed waking up one day to a gentle push of a cane on his shoulder, startling awake from his bent over position on his desk. His glasses were smudged but it was clearly Oswald, frowning in concern. "Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Ed rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up quickly. "I thought I did... though we were up all night." He muttered under his breath. "I'm sorry, I can get someone to grab you a coffee." The younger man curled his nose at the thought, shaking his head. "Then I'll be up all night." He excused, not wanting Oswald to grow concerned over the real reason: the thought of coffee made him want to puke.
Oswald sighed and relented, "you're going straight to bed tonight. Right after dinner." He ordered, though it didn't exactly have much of a threat behind it. Ed nodded, yawning a bit, "if I can even stay up until dinner."
It was supposed to be a joke, but after two more meetings, he almost fell asleep in the car ride home and then immediately crashed in the bed, suit completely on, still not waking up until an hour or so before his morning alarm. He should've been starving, given the fact that he hadn't eaten dinner, but all his stomach wanted to do was reject the food he had already eaten.
It thankfully wasn't a mad dash, Ed closing the door quietly and turning on the shower to drown out the noise before sticking his head into the toilet, quickly gagging and throwing up a horrible mix of bile and a bit of his sandwich from yesterday. After another gag he felt the nausea pass out of his system, getting out whatever he needed to get out apparently. He flushed the toilet and brushed his teeth before actually getting in the shower. By the time he was done, Oswald was up, looking through the large closet.
"Love the View." He teased as Ed walked out with the towel around his waist. "Good Morning to you too." He responded, eyelids still a little heavy as he still hadn't had any coffee.
The coffee Olga made still made him sick, rejecting it in favor of a small pastry on the table as he read the newspaper, always doing his best to stay informed. Oswald came into the dining room and sat next to his partner in crime, giving him a kiss on the hand. Ed blushed and smiled, grabbing his notes. "You have a visit to the new school library, a meeting with an architect and then with the city council, and then lunch and then Margaret is leaving for maternity leave so there will be some sort of cake, and then the afternoon is mostly citizen meetings and paperwork."
Oswald took a deep breath and nodded, somehow already feeling tired just from listening to it, Ed looked worse though. "Are you okay? You still look a bit tired." Oswald asked, grabbing his hand gently. Ed smiled, though it was a tad forced, "I slept for nearly 12 hours. I can't be tired." He said with a light scoff, sighing. "I probably just have a small cold. Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm invincible." Oswald nodded and grabbed a pastry. "Well don't overwork yourself today okay?"
It was hard not to overwork himself, he had to be present at all the mayors activities in addition to keeping the rest of the large staff in line. By the time lunch was around he found a dark cabinet and set an alarm on his watch for an hour, taking a small power nap in place of lunch. He was rudely awoken by Oswald's shout, the man having opened the closet after hearing the beeping from Ed's alarm.
Ed groaned and stood up, Oswald catching his breath, "oh my god I thought you were dead, why were you in the closet?!" Ed blocked out the light as his eyes adjusted, sighing, "I was trying to take a nap, I felt like I could fall asleep standing up." Oswald gave him a hug, just thankful he was okay before going to the conference room for cake. Margaret was relatively nice, and one of the few people competent at her job. Ed never understood why people had kids, she was clearly uncomfortable. He stood behind the mayor as they made their greeting rounds, saying hello to the woman in question as she offered them cake.
Ed could feel his face pale as the smell of the cake brought back the nausea from earlier that day. "No thank you." He strained out, pushing the plate gently away from his nose. "Don't like icing. Too sugary." He said, frowning as Oswald took a slice regardless. He knew the other man didn't know... but still. Ed left to get a cup, well several cups of water, chugging it down in hopes it will help with the nausea. "Here." Ed turned around and looked down at Margaret handing him an alka-seltzer tablet. "This'll help."
He tried to form a How and a Why but was just moving his mouth soundlessly. She chuckled a little bit, "you think I don't know nausea when I see it? I'm pregnant and have another little one at home. I know that face." Ed nodded a little bit and took it with a thanks, filling up the water again and dropping it in. She was right, it helped, but he still waited for Oswald to finish the cake before returning to his side.
The rest of the day dragged on, Ed eating his lunch while the mayor had his private meetings, relieved that at least his classic sandwich didn't make him feel sick.
At least at the time- every morning he would still throw up the sandwich. For about a week he was just functioning, barely awake, barely eating, and then crashing on the bed. He didn't want to tell Oswald and scare him, the man was already anxious enough. It was just the flu or something, that didn't mean he didn't have work to do. By Friday his entire body was aching, wanting to do nothing more then lay in bed.
He got up and felt like he was moving like a turtle, slowly shuffling to the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair, shuffling back into the bedroom to get dressed. Oswald gasped a bit as he looked at his partner, all pale and skinny and tired. "No! No work today!" He demanded, grabbing him by the shoulders and awkwardly pushing him onto the bed. "Oswald there's so much to do I-" "I can go do those things in my own. You're Not the only one who knows my schedule." A toxic part of Ed was devastated at being told that Oswald didn't need him to function.
He leaned down and kissed his forehead, Ed wanting to protest but also so relieved he could just spend a day in bed. "I'll have someone send a doctor over, just to make sure it's just a cold or something." Oswald assured him, relishing in the opportunity to take care of his partner, who was always so self sufficient.
With another soft kiss Ed snuggled back under the duvet, quickly falling asleep and waking up to a breakfast tray Olga left on the nightstand. He spent most of the day doing research in medical books, assuring himself that it was nothing more than a flu.
As it progressed into weeks, Ed started to get more nervous, as was Oswald. Throwing up in a plant, in the bathroom of city hall, still sleeping through dinner and sometimes lunch.
It had remained mostly private, neither of the men wanting to show weakness to their conspirators that evening over dinner, but Barbara had an annoyingly attentive eye. She had worked out that they were shacking up almost instantly, the more intimate eye contact and subtle smirks... she missed looking at someone like that.
Through out the dinner, Ed kept pushing his food around, barely talking since his lips were pinned shut, a small line of cold sweat on his forehead. In the middle of Oswald's explanation of his next scheme, Ed quietly excused himself to use the bathroom, jogging once he thought he was out of sight. Barbara frowned, Ed never missed out on planning, especially since he was such a dedicated note taker. She frowned and followed him after a minute, following the sounds of splashing and gagging to the upstairs bathroom. She opened the door and filled a glass with water, sitting on the bathroom tile.
Ed turned around and looked up, feeling somewhat relieved to see Barbara and not Oswald, and then confused. "Why are you here?" "I'm a hot young socialite who went to an Ivy League, you think I've never had to hold a girls hair back before?" Ed scoffed a bit and sipped at the water, cleaning out his mouth before spitting it into the toilet. "What's got you so sick Eddie?"
He rolled his eyes at the nickname but sighed, he needed to confide in someone at least. "I honestly don't know. It's been weeks. I get nauseous so easily and I throw up daily, I'm exhausted and lightheaded..." he was so tired that getting all this off his chest made him want to cry. "Not to mention the waterworks..." he added, roughly wiping at his eyes. At this she perked up, raising an eyebrow. "Sounds like a really bad period, is there something you're not telling me Edwina?" She teased, poking his shoulder. "No Barbara I'm not secretly a woman... I'm a carrier but-" his face fell, eyes widening as he felt like he was just punched in the lungs.
The blonde smiled maniacally, giggling a little bit. "Oh did poor Eddie get knocked up?" She asked with a laugh. Ed snapped and grabbed her arm roughly, covering her mouth with his hand. "Shut up! Could you imagine what would happen if that rumor gets out?" He hissed, quickly pulling his hand away in disgust as she licked his hand in a rather childish but effective tactic.
"It's not a rumor if it's true." "It's not! It- it can't be, I haven't even-" "oh don't even try to tell me you and pengy haven't been getting it on. You're so obvious." He flushed and stuttered a bit, not liking how Barbara was suddenly privy to all of these secrets. "You clearly aren't handling this well, that's fine, but you either need to get rid of it or get some help because you look like you're about to keel over and die." She pointed out, pulling him in front of the mirror to look at himself.
He definitely looked sick, that was for sure. "Now come on, they're gonna wonder where we went." She said, giving him a mint and pushing him out of the bathroom because honestly, she did have to pee.
Ed awkwardly walked back to the table, sucking on the mint. He sat down next to Oswald and smiled, the man giving him a quick summary of the plan before conversation moved elsewhere. Ed did his best to fill his stomach, still somewhat in denial over the recent revelation, staring down Barbara as she walked back to her seat with a little smirk pointed in his direction.
After the dinner was over, Ed grabbed his wallet and keys, assuring Oswald he was just going to go for a short drive to clear his head. Upon walking into the pharmacy, he grabbed two pregnancy tests, wearing a hat, coat and no glasses to hopefully disguise his appearance enough. He bought the tests and a water bottle, quickly rushing out to the car.
He hid the tests underneath the sink behind some cleaning supplies, so hopefully Oswald wouldn't find them. They stayed back there for a few days, Ed promising himself that at the end of the week he would take them. This was just a very busy week and he didn't need a possible future child on his mind. He arrived home before Oswald, who sent him home after once again finding him asleep at his desk. Ed hung up his coat and dropped his side bag in the kitchen, smiling at Olga. "Good afternoon Olga." He said, grabbing a glass of water to settle his stomach down from the car sickness.
"Poor baby. Still sick?" She asked in her broken English, patting his shoulder. He nodded and sighed, "unfortunately. Still not sure what it is." He said with a nervous laugh. "Yes you do." She said, looking up at him, Ed looking everywhere else to avoid her gaze. "You buy test. Why not take it?" He panicked and stuttered, nervously picking at his hands. "It was just a suspicion." He squeaked out. Olga nodded and shrugged, "you will find out soon anyway." She said with a shrug, poking at his lower stomach.
Ed tensed, feeling himself get protective and covering the area with his hands, feeling his heart rate pick up as it felt a bit firmer and more pushed out. Quickly he grabbed the water and walked upstairs to the bathroom, quickly tearing open the box and shaking the stick out, reading all of the instructions. After doing the necessary step, he sat both tests on the counter, looking at his watch and his reflection, reading the box. He tried to distract himself, fixing his tie and his hair, looking back at the tests to see if they were done and doing a double take. He slid over and grabbed the two tests, staring them down. Two small plus marks.
His heart pounded, struggling to catch his breath. He slowly sat down on the floor against the bathtub, making sure he wouldn't faint. He couldn't stop staring at them, tears streaming down his face. Ed honestly didn't stop crying until he heard the front door close, signaling Oswald or one of his goons was home. Quickly he wiped his eyes and looked for a place to hide the tests and the box, quickly just shoving it into his rain boots, leaving the bedroom to try and find Oswald.
He found him in the kitchen with Olga, walking up to him and kissing him gently. "I missed you." He said, smiling as he kissed back. "Feeling better?" "A bit." He lied.
Looking down at him, the idea of telling Oswald terrified him. He knew he wouldn't be happy about it, maybe he should just get rid of it somewhere like Barbara suggested. At the same time, all he wanted was a little mix of them and the white picket fence. He knew he had changed a lot, but his fantasy was still somewhat the same.
It might even fix itself, if his math was right he was only 2 months along, it was still entirely possible he could miscarry, especially with his active life. Then what was the point of telling him really, if it wasn't even for sure yet?