Work Text:
Rebecca sits at her desk, furiously working her way through the last few things on her to-do list for the day. She’s had meetings and phone calls and emails all day and hasn’t had a moment to breathe, let alone have lunch. The last thing she ate were the biscuits Ted brought her at 9am, like he continues to do faithfully even after all these years, and she can hear her stomach rumbling.
Almost done, Rebecca, you’re almost done and then you can go home and leave this day behind.
She’s so engrossed in completing all her tasks that she can’t even bring herself to look up when Ted walks in.
“Hey, honeybunch! You about ready to head home?”
She doesn’t respond.
“Rebecca?”
No response.
“Rebecca, honey, did you hear me?”
Finally, she looks up and sees him take a step back at the rage in her eyes.
“Jesus Christ, Ted, I heard you. Stop talking and let me finish what I’m doing or it’ll never get done. FUCK.”
Ted sets his backpack in the chair to his right and sits in his designated chair.
“Woah, baby, we don’t talk to each other like that. What’s goin’ on?”
“I’m fine, Theodore. You are the one that comes in here every fucking day and interrupts me when I’m trying to finish off my to-do list.” She hears the words fall out of her mouth, and sees him flinch at her tone, spinning his wedding band around his finger as he watches her in something like disbelief.
But she can't seem to stop talking.
“I would just like it if one time, one fucking time, I could finish everything on my list so I don’t have twice as much to do the next day. I’ve been in meetings all day, this is the first chance I’ve gotten to do any of this, and now here you come with your lack of volume control and your apparent inability to read the fucking room.”
Her brain finally catches up to her mouth as she watches Ted push himself up from his chair.
“Darling, I’m sorry I didn’t mean–”
“Nope.” Ted says, piercing brown eyes locked onto her own. “We. Do not. Speak to each other. Like that.”
With that, he reaches across her desk and takes her hand in his own. Without breaking eye contact, he brings it up to his lips and presses a kiss to her palm. He sets her hand back down on her keyboard, turns around, and silently walks out of the office, shutting the door behind him.
**********
About twenty minutes later, Rebecca is seated on her couch, her things all packed and ready to head home. Ted’s backpack remains on the chair where he’d left it, and she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t glanced over to it periodically during the time he’d been gone.
He has to come back, he needs his laptop for work. She says to herself and then shakes her head, silently cursing herself for believing Ted could ever be like Rupert.
She sits in the dead silence of her office, shifting her gaze between the backpack and the door, until she hears voices outside.
“Nah, everything’s a-ok, Higgy-bottoms, just give her a few minutes to wind down before coming in.” She hears Ted, as chipper as ever, on the other side of the door.
That’s a good sign. She thinks to herself.
Ted opens the door, a bag in his hand, and takes a moment to get his bearings as he finds her sitting in a different spot than he saw her before.
“You came back.” She says weakly, at which he furrows his brow. “Ted, I’m so sor–”
Ted stops her with a shake of his head.
“Did you get all your work done?” he asks, gently.
She silently nods her head as he makes his way over to where she’s seated and sits on the coffee table in front of her.
Rather than saying anything else, he starts to slowly open the bag and set the contents on the couch next to her. He opens the plastic container and she sees what he’s brought her: shepherd’s pie with cheesy top, presumably from the batch her mother had left when she visited that weekend. He hands her a fork and then opens the water bottle he’d brought along, setting it next to him on the table.
“Ted–”
He shakes his head again and gestures to the food, which she takes to mean he won’t be accepting an apology made on an empty stomach.
They sit in silence for a while until she’s about halfway through, holding near constant eye contact, and when her stomach starts to feel the presence of sustenance, she lets out a silly little giggle that makes him smile.
"There she is," he says, gently caressing her cheek with his thumb.
We’re okay, I’m okay. She thinks.
Ted repositions them so he’s next to her on the couch with her legs draped over his lap while she finishes eating and drinks her water. He presses a kiss to her temple and gently rubs her back for a little while.
When she’s done eating, he takes the container and fork and places them on the coffee table where he’d been sitting. Then he turns to her and finally speaks.
“I accept your apology sweetheart. I want you to know that I’ll never leave you alone feeling out of sorts without intending to come back.”
She nods her head again as he presses another kiss to her temple and takes her hand in his own before continuing.
“But I also want you to know that I am a human man, and what you said did hurt my feelings.”
“I’m sorry, Ted. I shouldn’t have blamed you for my own overstimulation and inability to anticipate hunger.” she says, realizing she hasn’t spoken out loud in almost an hour. “I need you to know you are never a bother to me and I will never wish you weren’t bursting in my door. I just might need to ask for silence in order to focus, but I will do my best to communicate better about that.”
“I appreciate that, darlin’. I’ll always take care of you, and I want you to remember to take care of yourself, so if I have to set an alarm on your phone to remind you about meal times, I will.”
Rebecca just takes a moment to look at him, tears collecting in her eyes.
“I can’t believe you refused to speak to me until I’d eaten.” she says, laughing out loud at the absurdity of the situation in retrospect.
“Yeah, well, I was not gonna get caught in Hangry Rebecca’s crosshairs twice in one day, as I would like ‘til death do us part’ to be a little longer than this.” He says, scrunching his nose as she throws her head back and laughs.
“Thank you for always knowing what I need." She says once she catches her breath.
“It’s my honor, baby doll. Just promise you’ll set reminders to eat lunch on busy days, you were in serious danger of passing out if I hadn’t come in here and rescued you when I did.”
“My knight in shining armor.” she says, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.
**********
Two weeks later Rebecca walks into her office, mentally and emotionally preparing for back to back meetings, what feels like hundreds of emails, and perhaps a few meetings that should’ve been emails.
Ted and the team have left for an away match in Birmingham where she’ll be meeting them that evening.
When she sits down at her desk, she finds her box of biscuits, like clockwork. When she opens the box, the first thing she sees is a post-it note that reads:
Hey, Princess, remember to eat lunch and grab dinner before hitting the road.
She smiles and opens her computer as she takes a bite of the first biscuit. She finds another note stuck to her screen:
Hey there, pretty lady, don’t forget to eat lunch between meetings! Check your mini fridge.
She heads over to the bar cart and starts the kettle, where she finds yet another reminder to open the mini fridge.
Upon opening the fridge, she finds two glass containers with lids, one marked “Rebecca’s lunch” and the other “Rebecca’s dinner”. In between the containers, a final note reads:
Couldn’t let you go hungry when I’m not there to rescue you. I hope you enjoy these, and I’ll expect a full review upon your arrival in Birmingham this evening. I love you, Ted. (Oh, Higgins loves you too.)