#beatrice ramirez

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

It had been a long time coming, Beatrice thought.

The last time she'd been in this position, she'd been very stressed and emotionally wrought, but now, now everything was perfect. She and Benedict were getting married on their terms and nobody was bossing them around. Their acquaintances were now dear friends and the home they lived in would soon have the sounds of growing children laughing and running about.

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

Unfortunately, the second pregnancy went a bit bumpier than before. Throughout the entire first trimester, Beatrice had awful morning sickness, so bad that she was admitted to hospital for a couple of days to keep her fluids up. She was advised to take time off work sooner than when she'd been pregnant with Oliver.

Benedict, fearing for her, forced her to rest and took time off work himself to be there for both her and his son.

It wasn't enough rest though. Beatrice was impatient to be back on her feet and on the morning of the birth, it was a very stressful ordeal.

She'd been carrying twins which had explained why her symptoms had been more severe, and that once they'd been born, she'd gone weak and collapsed to the ground in their kitchen.

Aghast by the sight of his wife dying on the floor, he phoned an ambulance in desperation, trying to keep a calm head. But when he saw Death approaching he growled in pure fury.

"NO! You will not take her!" he roared, forgetting that his newborn twins were on the floor. They didn't notice the fear of their father and began to cry, confused and cold at the new world they'd been born into.

Death considered the man before him "What power do you think you hold Mortal, that could prevent me from sending her away?"

"A test" he resolved, eyes cold and composure only slightly shaken by the fear he could lose.

Death shrugged and offered him a test, just like before.

Please don't let me fail like I did with Sophie, Benedict pleaded. I would not be able to cope without my Bea, though I should for my children. They need their mother in their lives. I need her. She needs us.

To his immense relief, he passed the test, feeling that progress had been made.

The last time he had failed and a dear friend of his had died, and it'd been his fault. She had now been brought back and he was now stronger and cleverer in his faith that he could beat the trickster that Death could be.

Needless to say that when Beatrice opened her eyes, he fell into her arms, clutching at her as he sobbed fervently, holding her so tightly that he was worried he was hurting her. She didn't say anything for a good few minutes until the twins started squirming on floor drew her attention.

"What shall we call them?" she asked softly.

As Benedict withdrew from her hold, she stroked his cheek and kissed him gently, wiping his tears with her hand.

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

Beatrice's eyes began to water as she saw how defeated and hurt Benedict looked. His stance wasn't combative at all now, but totally vulnerable and his head was low. She hated seeing him so distraught and she felt even worse when she knew this was her fault.

"I should've taken you aside earlier in the day. I didn't mean what I said about our relationship being fake. I was an idiot who panicked and my mouth ran away with me" she said quietly. "I've had a whole month to sit and dwell on how badly I messed up. You did nothing wrong and I never wanted to hurt you Benedict, please believe me."

"I want to believe that" he said, even more quietly. "But you did hurt me...and it still hurts.

"One minute I'm fuming, relieving the humiliation and heartbreak and the next, I want you back despite all that hurt you caused. But I'm scared you could do it again to me and that made me keep my distance...even if you did know where I was."

Beatrice took heart from the slightest word "Do...do you not want me back?"

He gave a huff of sad laughter "What kind of question is that? Of course I want you back. But I'm not sure it's the right thing to do. I don't even know if we can be friends anymore."

"Do..." she hesitated, feeling the tears gather faster in her eyes "-do you still love me?"

"You think I could fall out of love that easily?" he asked hopelessly. "Course I still do."

Beatrice couldn't remember if she'd ever said the words to him or not. But knowing that now was the right time to do so, she said the words that seemed so obvious to them both.

"I love you too Benedict. Always have and always will."

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

"Just can't resist me, can you?"

"No" Benedict said with a grin. "I can't resist you. You're just too amazing."

"Stop it" Beatrice said with a laugh before she kissed him briefly on the cheek. "Come on, let's head over to the shop before it gets too dark."

They walked down the road to the main shop in town which wasn't large. It had enough to fund the small town where a lot of people had their main groceries delivered to their doors.

"Did you want anything?" Benedict asked her.

She shook her head "No, I have you. That's more than I deserve."

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

"Yes" Beatrice said which surprised Benedict. He'd expected her to become angry at his cruel words.

He resisted the strong urge to look at her. "I was horrible to you and that's inexcusable."

"So why did you do it?"

"You have to remember the weirdness of our situation" Beatrice pleaded, trying to ward off her tears of panic. "We'd met and got together by being locked away in a manor against our will. We complete the challenge, only to still have demands met before we could leave. It was controlling and oppressive! Marriage is a serious thing to me and I wasn't comfortable with having someone else tell me when, where, how and who I was marrying!"

He uncrossed his arms "So...what were you running away from? Me or the situation?"

Beatrice tried to smile brightly but it felt brittle. She was encouraged by his stance becoming less hostile towards her. "The situation of course. I...you were the only thing I could chose."

"I accept that it was an odd circumstance to marry" he conceded, finally allowing himself to meet her gaze. "I mean, I asked Martin to check-up on you as to how you felt about the suddenness of the wedding. I didn't want you to react badly and if you'd wanted to postpone it, I was ok with that...even when you did that during the vows."

His face fell and her heart drooped in sadness at the sight. "But then you told me you thought our relationship was staged, fake, manufactured. That...that was what has haunted me the most since it happened. I faked nothing on my part Beatrice. I loved you."

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

Death stood over him, imposing and utterly terrifying.

He was silent for a long moment before he tilted his head to the side and discarded his scythe Benedict flinched, his heart still in his throat as the immortal offered him a chance to save Sophie.

Chose which hand I put her life in, was the eerie and silent question.

Benedict prided himself on being quite a logical sim and observant. But he knew he was shaking with fear of Sophie dying, and he chose the hand...

...that didn't have her life in it.

"NOOO!" he howled in despair.

I gave you a chance and you failed, came the taunt of Death. Deciding that he'd been here long enough, he turned and sent Sophie's soul to the spirit world, leaving her urn behind.

[rurpleplaysmuttingtonac]

"I'm sorry!" Beatrice said, eyes filling with tears. "I-I ca, I refuse to marry you like this!"

"Like what?" Benedict asked, his heart in his throat. He felt like the world had frozen and his eyes filled with tears of his own. "Bea, what's wrong sweetheart?"

"This! Us!" she said, motioning between them.

"You don't want to marry right now?" he asked, trying to keep a brave face. "Ok, we'll hold off on the wedding and do it when you're ready-"

"No" she said, frantically.

She needed to escape this, she couldn't breathe and her head was a fuzz of panic. In that mindset, Beatrice knew she needed to back away, from all of this weirdness that had transpired over the past two months.

"This whole situation of us, as a couple, is being manufactured. There's nothing organic about it! We're being forced to marry like some fucking experiment!"

Benedict's heart broke clean in two with those words. "My feelings for you are true Bea" he said, mumbling and feeling numb all over. "I'm in love with you Bea, nothing told me to love you!"

"Well I can't think clearly!" she rasped, shaking her head and taking a step back. "I...I we can't do this! I don't want to do this, ever!"