"He doesn't do drugs, Tanner. And if he ever did, you best believe that I'd leave him because I won't let anyone do that sort of thing around me or my baby-"
"Waitwaitwait...baby?" Coda cut in and then everything froze for a moment.
Elise stood, her mouth hanging open as she suddenly realized her slip. Her gaze went to Coda, who wore a very similar expression on his face, though, his expression was perhaps more...taken aback.
Tanner stared, eyes wide before they flickered to Oliver, with renewed hatred. He started to march past his sister, hands coming out his pockets then. "You fucking bastard!"
Oliver flinched but didn't move, hands out in front of him. "Waitwaitwait-"
"HANEUL!" Elise barked as she spun to try and grab her brother, only to have her arm be caught by Coda so he could pull her away from the unavoidable conflict. "Kang Dae, let me go! Haneul, I swear to God if you touch him I'll-I'll-I'll beat your ass!" She sputtered, reeling to pull herself from Coda's grip.
"Ye Rim, you can't get in the middle of this! You'll get hurt or-or-Jesus, Elise, a baby? You let this guy put a baby in you?" Coda said, breaking into exasperated English halfway through.
Tanner grabbed Oliver by the front of his jacket and shook him. "You are so fucking lucky I am still a cop." He said through his teeth. "How DARE you do this to my sister! Shes still in school, she still has so much ahead of her! What, you got bored so you decided to try and make issues for her, huh?!"
"I-no!" Oliver sputtered. He knew they'd be mad but he didn't think it'd go to this. "Please- Elise, Eli, I'm okay. Don't stress."
"Let him go, Haneul! Let him go or I swear to god...I...I'll never talk to you again! I mean it! I won't ever talk to you or anyone else in the family again if you hurt him!" Elise warned.
Coda stiffened.
"Ye Rim...Elise, don't say that. You don't mean that. You don-"
"I do mean it!" Elise shouted, shaking her arm in Coda's grasp. "Whether you like it or not, Oliver is my family now! We're having a baby together and if you hurt him, you will never hear from me again."
Tanner grit his teeth and pulled Oliver closer, saying something lowly to just him before pushing him away. Oliver stepped back a few steps hastily before smoothing his clothes again. "S-see? I'm fine, Elise. I'm okay. Please calm down." Oliver tried to sooth as Tanner walked away from the crowd, obviously trying to think and calm himself.
Elise gave one more firm shake of her arm, Coda finally releasing her, and she let out an agitated huff before she rushed over to Oliver. Of course she knew he was fine, she knew all her brother did was grab him and jostle him a bit, but she still reached up to cup at his face and fuss at him a bit. Her brows pinched fretfully as she looked him over, her hands dipping to his shirt collar to move it this way and that to check for any bruising that might've been left from Tanner's harsh grasp. When she didn't see anything immediately, she let out a little breath of relief before turning to look back at Coda.
"I meant it, Coda. You and Tanner better figure out how to be amicable or I will cut you right out of my life. I don't want it to come to that, but whether you like it or not, we are having this baby together." She warned.
Coda let out a defeated little sound and proceeded to reach up to rub at his face.
"Elise, you need to...can't you see it from our perspective?" He turned his attention to Oliver then, his gaze angry but also frustrated. "You cannot deny you have a criminal record. You were found guilty by the court of law, so there had to have been something there. Also, I've seen how you treat people firsthand, you...you have a shitty attitude. You don't exactly scream 'good guy'. So understand why we're wary of you. Understand why we wouldn't want that for our sister." He sighed. "And, more than that, understand why we're mad that this is how it shook out. I mean...a baby? She came here for school, she's got so much talent and she's smart and...what is she going to do now? Any prospects for a professional career are out the window."
Elise bit her lip and felt herself shrink a little. She knew what her brother was saying was true, it wasn't something she hadn't worried about herself, but to say it aloud...it was hard to hear.
"It's not all his fault, Coda." She said, though, she lacked all her previous bite.
Oliver looked between them, stressed before taking a deep breath. "Elise can continue her career when she's ready. I plan on quitting the entertainment business and moving onto something that keeps me home, so I can full time help with the baby and support us financially. I have qualifications in culinary-"
Coda stared, brows still pinched bitterly but his eyes softening just a bit as he listened to Oliver. He could tell that the younger man was being earnest, however, he didn't know if the plan was realistic.
"Even if you did quit, do you think that the scandal won't follow you? Elise? What happens if she goes back to dance and no one wants to hire her because you're together? Will your job, whatever job you think you'll get, really be able to support all of you?" Coda asked, his tone firm, but certainly lessening in anger. It was clear he was speaking out of pure concern now.
Still, Elise didn't appreciate either of her brothers cutting her and Oliver off at the knees.
"Then I'll get a different job, I'll do something else. I can help support us too. We'll both work and we'll both support our family." Elise defended as she looped her arm back with Oliver's. "I love Oliver and I love this baby," her free hand went to her belly, "and you and Haneul need to figure out how to be okay with that."
Oliver swallowed hard and then bent at the waist deeply. "I will do everything and anything to give Elise and our baby the best life." he said with firm confidence.
Tanner put his hands on his hips as he stared and muttered something in broken frustrated english under his breath as he reached up to rub at his face. "...I can't promise I'll immediately be okay with it, Elise. I need... time to process and work through it. But I will be civil and respectful as long as he stays that to you and our family. I just worry about you and our future nephew or niece. That's all."
Though a full resolve is what Elise ultimately wanted, she knew it was unfair to expect that right away. Just like her brothers had to meet her halfway, she knew she'd have to do the same and offer them a little grace as well.
"That's fine...do you still want us here for dinner?" She asked, looking between Coda and Tanner.
Coda opened his mouth, eager to give a quick "of course", but his jaw hung open as he recalled Tanner. His brows pinched and he looked to the middle Fitz child.
Elise smiled softly and gave a little tug on Oliver's arm to get up back upright.
"Come on, I don't want to keep Seung Wook and everyone else waiting then." She said before offering a warmer sort of smile to Oliver. "Unni's cooking is the best. She told me she'd make some daktoritang since it's my favorite."
Oliver sunk into the sofa at his apartment tiredly as he waited for Elise to come by, as per usual as it seemed they were always together most nights. They had agreed that he should keep up to finish this last album with the band at least, so they wouldn't be cut off at the knees. He'd told the guys and they'd all been surprisingly very supportive, even a little excited to all be uncles but they were keeping it very downlow to keep their manager or fans from hearing about it all.
Oliver didn't want to admit it to them... but he was a little excited at the thought of leaving the entertainment business behind. To have his own little family and he was determined to be a strong present father.
A few months had passed since Elise and Oliver told her family about her pregnancy and while they had adamantly insisted they had a plan to move forward, to do right by each other and their baby, things had been slow moving admittedly. Elise had managed to finish out the rest of her semester, but had submit her paperwork to take a leave of absence for the time being. Everyone in the department was sad to see her go, but they all seemed supportive in their farewells. Since leaving school, she had picked up more hours at the plant shop with Soo Mi and even took a part time job working for a nearby family grocer just down the street. Oliver had insisted that she didn't need to work herself so hard, but she was insistent that they needed to bolster their nest egg before the baby was born and that these jobs were ideal anyways since they were far from strenuous.
She had left her job at the grocer's earlier in the afternoon and went to one of her appointments while Oliver was at the studio working. He had offered to come with her, but since it was just an appointment for bloodwork, she assured him that she was fine going on her own. And she was fine, for the most part, but as she made her way across the lobby and to the elevator bank to head up to Oliver's apartment, she was admittedly a little winded after having been walking for so long. Over the last few weeks, it seemed her belly had finally popped and had been steadily growing. She often marveled at it, still a little mystified that she was growing her and Oliver's baby inside of her, but she was also equal parts flustered by it as her bump also managed to cause her grief. She found herself bumping into things, unaware of her growing size, and unable to bend over as easy as she once did. And then there times like these where she ran out of breath, as if the stamina she had had her whole life had abandoned her.
Once she got into the elevator, she slumped against the wall and pulled down her mask, which she often wore to conceal her identity, to gulp in several deep breaths.
"You're wearing me out, baby." She "scolded" at her belly as she smoothed a hand over it.
She pulled her mask back up just before the elevator opened up on Oliver's floor, just in case there were any nosy neighbors around, and she waddled her way over to his apartment door. She keyed in the code for the lock and once it clicked unlocked to allow her entry inside, she let out a long drawn out groan.
"Good God, they're only the size of an avocado, why do they wear me out like this?" She complained as she toed out of her shoes.
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