Scraps - Opportunity Knox

“So you don’t want to do it and I don’t want to do it but we still want one?” Rebecca asked, her voice dry and exhausted.

Emily nodded. “Sounds about right.”

Rebecca exhaled through her nose roughly and pulled Emily’s head into her chest. “That leaves us at a bit of a stand still, my dear.”

“It would appear so,” Emily grumbled, her brows furrowed in concentration.

Evie wasn’t exactly sure what her friends were talking about, she had only walked in on the tail end of the conversation after all, looking to see if they were ready to eat out back with everyone else. Whatever was going on though, Evie could tell that they were quite upset about it. She cocked her head and considered stepping in to ask what the problem was but decided against it after a moment. Rebecca and Emily always tended to lean toward the intense and dramatic and as such, their problems had those same levels of dramatic intensity. Evie wanted no part of that shit.

“I mean, it’s not that I’m against the idea or anything it’s just… God, work is already so… there’s no way that I could take the leave.” Emily shrugged and buried her face into Rebecca’s chest. “You know?”

“Yeah,” Rebecca sighed. “I know. Bad timing all around.”

“Fucking biological clock,” Emily said, her voice mostly muffled by Rebecca’s sweater.

Evie chewed on her lip as she watched the scene in front of her play out; she was still unsure of what was going on precisely but she knew enough to decide to step in. 

“Hey,” Evie said slowly as she walked further into her living room to make her presence known.

Rebecca looked toward her best friend and offered up a little smile. Emily’s eye dragged  up toward Evie but she stayed firmly planted against Rebecca’s chest, with no indication that she was planning on moving. Evie’s eyes shifted between the two as she continued to to gnaw on her lip with furrowed brows.

“Uh, I couldn’t help overhearing,” Evie’s eyes drifted toward the ceiling and she shrugged. “Well, I mean kind of. I’m not sure what’s wrong but I, um, I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help.”

“I appreciate the thought but…” Rebecca looked down at Emily again and grimaced. “I don’t think you can, Evie.”

“Thank you, though,” Emily added in with a pointed look up toward her significant other.

“Can I know what’s going on? Or is this some secret that I should butt out of?” Evie asked with a soft smile. It was something she had picked up from Celia after so many years. It was disarming enough to get people to open up.

“My womb has been phoning me,” Emily grumbled.

Everything clicked for Evie then. What Rebecca and Emily had been arguing about and why they were having trouble. It made her wonder.

I miss being pregnant. That belly warmth and the little kicks. Mm, magic.

“Have you thought about a surrogate?” Evie muttered, not really looking at either girl.

Rebecca leaned back while Emily sat up, so they could look at each other. Out of her peripherals, Evie watched as the two had a silent conversation about the possibility. Finally, after a lopsided shrug from Emily, Rebecca looked at Evie and gave a half-hearted shrug herself.

“I mean, it’s not like it’s a bad idea. We just don’t know what the best option is for us yet,” Rebecca explained, her face apologetic as if she had just stepped on her friend’s toes.

“No, that makes complete sense,” Evie agreed with a nod and a wave. “I just figured I could offer if you decide to do something like that.”

Rebecca caught Evie by the back slack of her jacket just as the redhead turned to leave with a frantic, “Wait! Are you trying to say that… you?” 

Evie shrugged and looked between their faces; a mixture of shock, confusion and intrigue painted across both in varying shades. “I mean, yeah. I really loved being pregnant with Bree. Ollie and I talked about doing it again but his, uh, well his little swimmers aren’t so fast.” Evie let out a light chuckle at her own joke.

“Evie… I’m so sorry,” Emily whispered.

Evie shooed off Emily’s sympathy with a wave of her hand. “It’s alright, we’ve come to terms with it. All I’m saying right now is that I’m completely down to let you borrow my uterus for the next nine months.” Evie raised a finger and sent a pointed look to the girls -- particularly Rebecca. “However, this will come with the requirements to take care of my three am ice cream cravings and such.”

Emily, who had begun to cry, small silent tears, let out a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup. “We’ll take turns.”

“We will?” Rebecca’s face was perplexed.

Rebecca and Emily shot each other completely different looks from what Evie could see. There was no confusion that they were not on the same page right now. So unheard of it’s almost amusing, really, Evie considered.

“So,” Evie drawled, not wanting to put pressure anywhere but definitely feeling out of place in the girls’ staring contest.

Emily actually laughed this time and wiped tears away from her eyes. “I think it’s a very good idea and,” she paused and looked at Rebecca’s confused face, “we should probably talk it over.”

“Well,” Evie smiled and stuck her hands in her pockets before rocking back and forth on her heels. “If you want to talk about it some more, I’m sure you can find me.”

Emily mentally counted to three in her head once Evie was out of the room. Before she could even think about four, Rebecca turned to her with that same face. Panicked Rebecca is my favorite… Emily mused with a soft smile aimed towards her wife.

“You’re actually considering this?” Rebecca asked in a frantic whisper.

“I mean, yeah. I am.” Emily cocked a brow and stared Rebecca down. “What’s wrong with the idea?”

“I don’t know it’s just… I don’t know!”

“Okay, well, let’s look at this logically,” Emily said.

She sat up straight in her seat and cleared her throat before setting Rebecca with a straight look. Rebecca smiled slightly at the site of her wife going into business mode. Watch out everyone. Here comes Emily fucking Frazier.

“You don’t want to carry,” Emily said.

“Correct,” Rebecca replied with a nod.

“I’m sort of on the fence about it but I neither have the time nor the desire to really step up to that plate.”

“Also correct.”

“So why is this a bad plan? Our only other option at this point is adoption, which I’m not against but by the time all of that shit goes through, who knows, maybe I’ll be in a better position with everything.”

“Yeah,” Rebecca muttered and frowned. She could see where all of this was leading up to.

“Look, we already know that Evie’s healthy and able to do it. Look at Bree,” Emily pointed out.

“Yeah,” Rebecca grunted again, her eyes averted to the side. 

“And honestly, isn’t that better than just finding some random person instead? At least I trust Evie to take care of herself throughout and her fucking husband is a doctor, so really, not too concerned about the medical side of things.” Emily shrugged. “Just wanna put all the facts out there.”

“It’s not that you’re wrong. It’s just, thinking about it? It’s… it’s fucking weird.”

“We don’t have to decide now, you know,” Emily said and kissed Rebecca’s nose with a smile. “But it is an option to consider.”

“No, you’re right.” Rebecca chewed on her lip for a moment, her eyes narrowed, before she looked up at Emily with an intense face. “If Evie thinks we’re using Oliver to do this though, she’s got another fucking thing coming. I’m not letting her get that attached.”

“Yeah. Hell no. No fucking way,” Emily agreed vehemently. 

“Alright. I’m glad we’re on the same page there.” Rebecca nodded. “I think I can warm up to this then.”

“Okay, good, because we have to talk about names,” Emily said enthusiastically before crawling into Rebecca’s lap and circling her arms around her wife’s neck. “No fucking way in hell that we’re having a Winnifred situation here either.”

“Never living that shit down apparently,” Rebecca muttered.

“Nope,” Emily replied, popping the P on the word, before she leaned forward to kiss Rebecca on the nose again. 

“Well,” Rebecca said with a huff. “Better do this right the first time then.”

Emily grinned at her wife before laying her head back on Rebecca’s chest. “Mm, my thoughts exactly.”