I'm just the
guy with the girl
everybody wants to know

❧

Beckett knew that he hadn’t been the best husband as of late. It was never something that he wanted to have happen. It was never how he had wanted to feel, but it had been difficult. That was all there was to it. It had been hard, and at some points he had felt like he’d just been witnessing him act like an ass without being able to stop it. But that just wasn’t the case. He had made these choices--it was his fault, and he should have done more to try to get past it and get to a point where he could be happy about what was happening too. To get to a point where he could be happy that Liv was pregnant again and that they were having another baby. Another daughter. He had known that he had needed to get to that point, but it hadn’t been an easy thing to do. It just… hadn’t been. It was something that she had been pushing about for a year--and something that he’d been saying no to for a year. It wasn’t a fight that he’d wanted to give in on.

And when he had, a part of him had thought there was a chance that they were too old. That Liv wouldn’t be able to get pregnant, or something. Saying that they could try wasn’t the same thing as being successful at it. It didn’t mean it was possible. He thought that it would take time, at least, but it hadn’t. It hadn’t taken long at all, and there was just something about that that had made it even harder to accept. There had been no time at all for him to adjust to saying yes after a year of saying no. It had happened too fast for that, and he knew that he’d been an ass for the past couple of months. He hadn’t gone to healer appointments, he hadn’t asked anything about it, he hadn’t really wanted to know. He hadn’t accepted it yet, but it was going to happen regardless of whether or not he was okay with it.

So, he had been trying to do better. That was all that he could really do, after all. He could just try to be better at this and eventually hope that he would just get there. That they would be able to do this again, because he didn’t want to be a bad husband. He didn’t want to be a horrible father. No one could know that he hadn’t wanted this to begin with. That wasn’t fair to Cordelia, it wasn’t fair to Liv. He wasn’t going to be that guy. He would accept it by the time that she got here. He had to. And until then, he would be doing everything he could to be there for Liv and make sure that she didn’t feel like she was doing this alone--because she wasn’t. He was there. Now, at least. He thought that the best way of showing her that was to take her to her favorite place, obviously. A trip to the Maldives was always a good idea.

It wasn’t the best time of year for a trip, of course. They’d had their villa here for long enough to know when monsoon season was, but he also knew that the season peaked in June, and it was very nearly August. He thought that they would be fine for a couple of days. And if they happened to need to ride out a monsoon, that was fine too. They had done it before. It was not the end of the world to be stuck in their villa for a while. Monsoons were actually… pretty interesting to watch. He knew that it was dangerous, but it really the people that lived and worked here knew what they were doing. The resort that their villa was located on was always more than prepared for when monsoons were heading their way. And there wasn’t one. Not yet anyway.

That could change, he supposed, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky today and the weather was perfect. There was no reason to think any monsoons would be coming their way on this trip. It wasn’t uncommon for them to do some traveling a little way’s away from the resort when they were here. Today, they’d decided on Noo Lagoon. It was a place that they’d been before but somehow, that never took away that sort of speechlessness that he got when he saw it for a first time in a while. It was probably the most beautiful place that he’d ever been, which was why they tried to come here at least once every trip. It was quiet today--not everyone knew about this place, after all, and Merlin knew how long they had been swimming around in the lagoon. He had brought food too, obviously, and he definitely felt like it might be past time to eat. “You hungry?” He asked, loud enough for his voice to carry to where Liv was.

@olivia | Outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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A Guy With
A Girl

The Maldives was one of her favorite places in the world, and Olivia knew that Beckett knew that. It was monsoon season, and normally they didn’t come in July for that very reason, but this year they had. His birthday was next week, and she had decided that they were semi here to celebrate that, and they were here just because. Sometimes it was the just because that she liked the best out of everything. She knew that sometimes they just needed to get away for a while, and it had been a long time since they had gone anywhere. Months, actually. They hadn’t been anywhere since they had gone to Belgium in December. That was a long time ago now, and she was glad that they had gotten to get away now. It was harder in the summer anyway. With quidditch the way that it was, she knew that it was tricky for them to get away. And she understood that. He had a job to do, and so did she. Hers wasn’t really weather dependent or anything, but Beckett was in charge of all of the sports for the entire nation. There didn’t really seem to be a good time in the summer to get away from that.

They had managed it for a couple of days this week though. And Olivia was always grateful for a few nights in her favorite place in the world. It didn’t matter if they were in the water all day or not, she thought that she might love that bathtub almost as much as she loved Beckett. He had done a great job picking this place out, nine years ago now, and she thought that she would love it for the rest of their lives. It was a good place to come, and get away from the craziness of the Ministry, and to get away from the kids for a weekend. She thought that it was somewhere that was just special. It would always be special. And he had done that the first time that he had ever brought her here. Because it didn’t matter that it wasn’t the biggest villa in the place. She didn’t need the fanciest one. He had gotten them a villa with a perfect bathtub, and she could watch the sunset, and sit in the tub, and that first night here, he had frozen pizza waiting for them. He knew her better than she knew herself sometimes…

Olivia wanted that back. She wanted that confidence back. And they had lost it, for a little while. She was trying though, to not be pushy. She was trying to just give him space and let him be. That had been Issa’s advice, and Olivia supposed that so long as he didn’t hate Cordelia when she got here, she would be okay with it. She had made up her mind to be okay with it. Because she was the one that had wanted this. She was the one that had wanted a baby, and she was getting one. She was getting what she wanted, and so she wasn’t going to ask for anything else. She would love him and give him whatever he needed. This trip, she was taking it as a good sign. He was trying. This was a Beckett form of… Well not an apology, because she wasn’t sure that she needed an apology, but she thought that this was perfect. That this was something. And she would take something. She would take this, because the Maldives were never a bad idea. And if the weather continued to hold for them, they would be doing even better.

She had swum a little bit away from him, and she was sitting against an outcropping of rocks that were hanging just in the edge of the lagoon. It was pretty here, and she knew that not everyone knew that this lagoon existed. It was more for locals than it was tourists really, but they didn’t exactly fit in either category. They had a residence here. They owned the villa that they stayed in, but they didn’t live here all the time… Still, she thought that they belonged enough that they knew where this quiet lagoon was. Olivia wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t just the most beautiful place in the world, and she thought that they were some of the people that were lucky enough to enjoy it. Turning her head to look at him she raised a hand to cover her eyes and she smiled at him, “I’m always hungry.” That hadn’t been exactly what he had meant, and she knew it, but she slipped off the rock and swam back towards him before she stood up next to him. “Did you pack a lunch? Look at you being all domestic…” They both knew that Olivia was only domestic when she wanted to be, but usually food managed to fall into that category, and she thought that it was perfect that this time he had been the one that had thought to bring it with them.

@ beckett - 847 - olivia's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRPHY 2.0

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[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]I'm just the guy with the girl

[attr="class","cscriptde"]everybody wants to know

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]Wishin' you were there alone[break]
Wonderin' how I ever got your little hand in mine

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]Beckett knew that this was a difficult situation. He didn’t want it to be, but it was.
[break][break]
He had not wanted another kid. That was what it had come down to. He had thought that they were more than all right with three. Cal and Lyla were nearly all grown up, and getting ready to start their own lives, and Anderson was going to be off to Hogwarts before they even knew it. They were done. They had three great kids, and he knew that they had gotten extremely lucky. They were smart, and polite, and passionate and ready to do whatever it was they wanted with the rest of their lives. He knew that they would be able to achieve whatever it was that they set their minds to, and he was proud of them.
[break][break]
And he had not understood Liv’s desire for another kid. He had heard her logic, he had tried to understand it. None of their kids had been planned. It was true. They had all been unexpected surprises--good surprises, but surprises nonetheless. And they hadn’t been married for any of them, they had been in their perpetual engagement.
[break][break]
But he didn’t understand why that made a difference. He didn’t understand why that mattered so much to her. She was the one that had been fine with being just engaged. Beck had been the one that would have married her the day after he had proposed if she’d wanted to. But she had been fine with the engagement, and he had been too eventually, because what did a piece of paper mean? Why did it matter if them signing some document made them more official in the eyes of the country? They knew, so it didn’t matter.
[break][break]
She had always been on the same page as him as far as that was concerned, so he couldn’t figure out why it mattered to her now that she wanted to have a kid as Olivia Graves. He didn’t know what difference it made and he certainly hoped that she wasn’t going around saying that to Cal or Lyla, because then there was a good chance that they were going to think that they somehow mattered less because they hadn’t been born to married parents. It didn’t make any sense, and he hadn’t understood it.
[break][break]
He still didn’t.
[break][break]
That was why this situation was so difficult. Beckett knew that he couldn’t continue to act the way that he was. He knew that he needed to be supportive, that he needed to get over it. There was nothing that they could do now. They had a baby on the way, and it wasn’t Cordelia’s fault that he didn’t want another kid. It wasn’t Cordelia’s fault that he didn’t feel like his wife had been listening to him, on all the very serious reasons why he didn’t want another kid. He had now been signed up to another eighteen years of parenting. He was going to be in his seventies by the time all of their kids were out of the house.
[break][break]
And Merlin, knowing his luck, Cordelia would be about to graduate Hogwarts and Liv would decide she wanted another kid and would somehow manage to get pregnant in her sixties. At this point, nothing would surprise him.
[break][break]
But he knew that he needed to try to be a little better about this. Outwardly, anyway. Even if he was still dealing with some internal problems with eighteen more years of a kid in the house, he needed to be better. Liv deserved him being better, so here they were. In his mind, there was very little that a trip to the Maldives couldn’t solve. “Well, you need to eat. And this way we don’t have to go all the way back to the villa…” He said, with a grin, before pulling himself out of the lagoon. “I may have even used a picnic basket,” Beckett added, as he offered her his hand.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]663 ● @ livvy ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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a guy with a girl

The guy that don't know how he got her

But he ain't never gonna let her, never gonna let her go

Olivia got restless. There was no sense in denying that. She got restless when she was trapped in England for too long, and they had been trapped in England since last Christmas. She knew that getting away from everything wasn’t exactly what they all wanted to do, but she thought that there was a time and a place for those things, and she knew that they were both good enough at their jobs that it didn’t matter. They had held their positions through Ministers from multiple sides of the aisle. They had proved that they knew what they were doing, and so when they decided to take a couple of days off at the same time, no one really ever minded.

Both departments knew how to get ahold of them, and Olivia thought that there was always someone else that could look at the things that weren’t critical. That was what they had assistants for after all. She had Amy, and Beckett had Ireland, and they were well taken care of. Getting away in the summer was unusual for them, but the Quidditch season was going well enough, and Olivia was trying to stay out of it as much as she could stand this season. The stress wasn’t something that she needed, and she knew it. Cordelia didn’t need her mother stressing out about something that she couldn’t control, and right now it was their health that mattered more than quidditch. Hers, and her daughter’s. Their daughter’s.

Having another baby was something that Olivia couldn’t explain. She didn’t know why it was so important to her. But it had been. Having another baby had been so important, and she couldn’t explain it, and she didn’t know what to do about that. She wished that she could have explained it. And she wished that she would have listened to Beckett more. To understand why he didn’t want it. Because she knew that he was older than she was. She knew that that had to be part of it, but she couldn’t… She should have… But it was too late now.

Cordelia was going to be a part of their lives, for the rest of their lives. They were having this baby, and she loved her. Olivia already loved their daughter unconditionally, and she thought that so long as Beckett didn’t leave, so long as this didn’t destroy them, they would figure it out. A trip to the Maldives was helping. This place had healing powers. Olivia believed that, on some level, there was nothing that coming here couldn’t at least ease. And it wouldn’t help completely. There would still be plenty that they were going to have to contend with when they got back. But they had time. It was only July. And Cordelia wouldn’t be here until the beginning of December.

That thought was enough to stop Olivia’s thoughts in their tracks, but she shook them off again. She didn’t want to think about the possibility that she was going to end up having this little girl on Aurora’s birthday. That was not a possibility that she wanted to entertain. She would take her early, so long as it wasn’t three days early. But Olivia had been close with the other three. Cal had been a week early. Lyla had been a few days. And Anderson had been on her due date. Knowing her luck, Cordelia would follow the trend, and be late. As much as she hated that thought, she would take late if it meant that it wasn’t December the 1st.

Coming here was something that she loved, and she loved coming with him more than anything. She didn’t think that it would have the same magic if she were to come on her own. She knew that he was right, she did need to eat. And him taking care of her was sweet. He was trying, and she thought that it was more than she could have asked for. “That was good thinking.” The villa wasn’t all that far, but it felt especially far to Olivia. “You did not…” She smirked up at him as she took his hand, and let him help her out of the lagoon, and over the rocks. Slowly. Falling would have been scary, for her, and for the baby.

@ beckett • 717 • olivia's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[nospaces]

[attr="class","cbg"]

[attr="class","cbgtop"]

[attr="class","cimg"]

[attr="class","clbox"]

[attr="class","ctopline"]I'm just the guy with the girl

[attr="class","cscriptde"]everybody wants to know

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]Wishin' you were there alone[break]
Wonderin' how I ever got your little hand in mine

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]Every time that they came to the Maldives, Beckett remembered their first trip here. He remembered how much work he had put into it—how he had made sure that he’d planned everything out and how important it had been to him to keep Liv completely in the dark. Surprising her had been a part of the fun, because she was not an easy person to surprise. But he had pulled it off. The look on her face when they had apparated into the villa that they now owned was something that he would never forget.
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He knew how much she loved it here. He thought that was probably why he loved it so much too. Sure, the view was beautiful, and it was always relaxing. But he liked coming here as much as he did because of how happy it made her. That would always be enough for him.
[break][break]
After all, he’d made the promise to himself once before that he would spend the rest of his life making sure that Liv was happy. She deserved that, after everything that he had put her through. He had never wanted to be the one to make her that upset again. She had stayed with him when he was married, she had made the choice to walk away, and he knew how hard all of that had been on her. He wanted to make her happy.
[break][break]
He thought that he’d done a pretty all right job of that, all things considered.
[break][break]
But things had been more difficult in the past couple of months. Finding out that Liv was pregnant had changed things. He was sure that a lot of people wouldn’t understand that. Sometimes a first pregnancy could ruin a couple, when it had been unplanned. Sometimes that could tear people apart if they hadn’t wanted a baby. That hadn’t happened for them. Cal had been a surprise, but he had been happy. Every single time he had found out that Liv was pregnant, he had been happy. It had been a good thing, even if it wasn’t something that they’d planned on.
[break][break]
This was the first time in his life that he had found out that Liv was pregnant, and he hadn’t been happy about it. He hated to admit that, but it was true. It wasn’t like he wanted to feel that way. He just couldn’t change the fact that he did. That he hadn’t wanted another kid. That he had been worn down by a year of Liv continuing to bring it up, again and again. That he had finally just been tired of fighting about it, so he’d given in.
[break][break]
That wasn’t the best way for any pregnancy to start, but here they were. Cordelia would be here in December and that sounded way too close to him already. Five months still, but it felt far too close. Was he going to be over this by then? At this point, he didn’t know.
[break][break]
He just knew that he had to still be there for Liv. As frustrated as he was by all of this, he didn’t want her to feel like she was going through this on her own. He had gone from going to every healers appointment that she wanted the last three times they had done this, to being pretty absent from everything that was happening.
[break][break]
Beck hoped that this trip helped. That it helped to make her feel a little better about all of this. She didn’t need to know what he was thinking. She just needed to focus on taking care of herself and not worrying too much. “I did, actually…” He said, with a chuckle, as he pulled her out of the lagoon. “Right this way, madam.” Beck added, gesturing in the direction of a palm tree, which he’d put the basket under earlier.
[break][break]

[attr="class","cnotes"]642 ● @ livvy ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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A GUY WITH A GIRL

THE GUY THAT DON'T KNOW HOW HE GOT HER

BUT HE AIN'T NEVER GONNA LET HER, NEVER GONNA LET HER GO

The Maldives were in the middle of the wet season, but there weren’t any storms in the forecast right now, and she was glad that they were here. They had been trapped in England for too long, and she needed to get away. She didn’t know how many more chances they were going to get before Cordelia arrived, and she didn’t like being trapped. Not that having a baby had ever really trapped her before. But it would force her to stay put for a few months. At least until she was sure that she was comfortable leaving her with one of their mothers for a few days to get away. Because really that was all that it took. She just needed a few days in a different country now and then.

And they had gotten very good at it over the years. The disappearing for a couple of days here and there. There were even plenty of places that they would take the kids with them. But not here. She refused to bring the children here, unless it was like this. Right now, she didn’t have much of a choice but to bring Cordelia with them. Olivia didn’t think that that counted though. She didn’t inhibit their abilities to do anything, other than preventing Olivia from having some wine in the tub as she watched the sun rise and set. She thought that she could go without the wine though. She’d rather have a healthy little girl.

It had made her nervous, when she had found out that Cordelia was a girl, and it shouldn’t have. There was no reason to believe that it was going to make any difference. And then he had surprised her. He hadn’t seemed all that upset about a girl, and Olivia had to wonder if that at all made it easier. This way they completed the set. Two of each. It was balanced. A boy would have thrown them even more off sides, and she had to wonder if maybe Beckett thought that she would accept a girl, and really be done?

Olivia didn’t know, she had no real reason to think that he would have jumped to conclusions like that. But she knew that she was done. That Cordelia was it. She was the last one. And she was sure of that. She wouldn’t be having any more babies. She had already nearly destroyed them over this one. She wasn’t going to put either one of them through this again. But she thought that being here helped.

The Maldives had a special kind of magic, or so she believed. Olivia thought that they might just be a little more okay when they left here than they had been when they had arrived. Did she think that it was going to fix everything? No, of course not. But she thought that they would get there. That eventually Cordelia would be here, and either he would love her, or he wouldn’t. But she thought that she knew him. She thought that the fact that he was him, and that he was an amazing father, would beat this. That he would love this little girl, when she was born, and when they got to hold her, and when they were both safe. She thought that that might work itself out, in the end.

He hadn’t had to pack lunch though, and he had. He had tried. He had done something sweet, and she loved it. She let him help her, and then point her in the direction of the picnic basket that he had brought. “You’re full of surprises.” She honestly hadn’t thought about the fact that she was hungry, all of the time. She had just thought that she was going to relax and enjoy the lagoon that was more for locals than it was for tourists. But she didn’t think that they were really either one anymore. They were somewhere in the middle. “Thank you.” Standing on her tiptoes, she leaned up and kissed his jaw before she headed in the direction he pointed her in.

@ beckett • 683 • olivia's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0