“I’m going to need you to do this,” he said, holding the pregnancy test out to Rebecca, who cut him some slack and took the test from him without an argument.
“I’m not pregnant,” she said with a helpless shrug.
“Then you won’t mind taking this test,” he said, opening the bathroom door and stepping out into the hallway when all he wanted to do was stay with her, but he knew that she would just kick his ass if he tried that shit.
“I’m not pregnant!” she yelled through the door.
“Take the test, woman!” he yelled back, rubbing his hands down his face as he stood there, trying to figure out how he was going to handle this if that test came back positive.
“Fine!”
“She’s on the pill,” Melanie said as she walked past him, carrying a bag of candy bars with her.
He already knew that, but he needed to make sure that everything was fine. Seeing that pregnancy test in her hand had fucking terrified him, because he wasn’t ready for this. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to be with Rebecca and that he would do the right thing if the test came back positive, but a baby?
“It’s going to be negative,” Rebecca said in a singsong voice as she opened the door and strolled towards her bedroom.
He hoped like hell that she was right, because he wasn’t sure that they were ready for a baby. They’d only been together for a few months and he knew that it probably made him an asshole, but he’d been hoping to have more time with her before he had to share her.
Rubbing his hands down his face, he pushed away from the door and walked into the bathroom, deciding that there was no point in putting this off. The closer he got to that white stick on the counter, the heavier his legs felt.
She was on birth control, he reminded himself as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They were going to have to start using condoms, he decided as he took another deep breath. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the eight letters flashing on the small screen telling him that he didn’t need to worry about buying condoms anymore.
Chapter 44
“So, what exactly were you trying to achieve by tearing my room apart?” she asked as she looked around at the mess that was her room and really wished that she could blame him for it, but sadly, it seemed as though he’d cleaned up whatever mess he’d caused as he’d torn through her room.
They really needed to discuss the possibility of OCD one day, she thought even as she wondered if she could talk him into organizing the rest of her room. Maybe if she was really nice to him he would-
“It’s positive.”
“What?” she asked absently as she glanced at her messy bed.
“The test,” he said weakly, “It’s positive.”
“That’s not funny,” she said, praying that he was joking, but the problem was that he would never joke about something like this.
“I’m not laughing,” he said softly, standing there, looking completely lost and making her sigh, because he’d obviously read the test wrong.
“You probably just read it wrong,” she pointed out, giving him a reassuring smile as she headed back towards the bathroom, “It’s no big deal.”
She should have waited for the test results, she realized as she carefully stepped over Mojo, who had apparently given up trying to make it to the kitchen and had flopped down on the hallway floor to conserve his energy. She walked into the bathroom and grabbed the test. As soon as she had it in her hand she walked back to her room, sighing when Mojo forced her to wait so that he could slowly flop over onto his other side.
As she stood there, waiting for Mojo to finish the impossible, she couldn’t help but wonder how they’d ended up here. Her best friend was pregnant and she’d had absolutely no idea that she was even seeing someone, which made her realize just how selfish she’d been lately. She was so damn wrapped up in Lucifer and everything else going on in her life that she’d forgotten to make sure that her best friend was okay.
Melanie was pregnant, she thought, slowly exhaling and shaking her head in wonder, because it didn’t feel real. Shouldn’t one of them be panicking? Because this felt like a panic kind of moment, but she just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. Maybe once Melanie started puking day and night or became a crabby bitch who had to waddle everywhere it would finally sink in.
That’s probably around the time that they would both panic, because they weren’t ready for this and yes, they were in this together. Melanie was her best friend and pretty much the only family that she had. She was going to need help and even though Rebecca had absolutely no idea how to work a diaper, she was going to be right there by her side.
The small, disgruntled grunt let her know that Mojo had given up and was ready to allow her passage. After leaning over to scratch behind Mojo’s ears, she carefully stepped over him and headed back to her bedroom where she’d left Lucifer on the verge of another nervous breakdown.
Walking into the room, she gave him a reassuring smile as she raised the pregnancy test and-
“Oh, what the hell,” she said, shaking her head in disgust as she turned around and walked back out of the room. “How old are these pregnancy tests?”
“What?” Melanie asked with a frown as she came into view, holding a spoon and a tub of raw chocolate chip cookie dough.
“The pregnancy tests. How old are they?” she asked, holding up the faulty pregnancy test.
“I just bought them yesterday. Why?” Melanie asked as she took a bite of cookie dough.
“Because they’re faulty,” she said, shaking her head as she dropped her hand to her side.
“No, they’re not,” Melanie said, frowning in confusion.
“Yes, they are,” she said, because clearly the one in her hand was broken.
Reminding herself that there was still a good possibility that she wasn’t allowed to beat Melanie for the next nine months, she forced herself to take a deep, calming breath, because obviously Melanie wasn’t seeing the big picture here. “They don’t work,” she said evenly.
“Yes, they do!”
“No, they don’t!” she yelled back, getting more pissed with every passing second.
“How the hell would you know?” Melanie finally asked, realizing that they weren’t getting anywhere like this.
“Because according to this test, I’m pregnant,” she said in exasperation as she held up the white test that she was barely resisting the urge to throw against the wall.
Melanie eyes widened at that announcement while her mouth worked soundlessly for a few seconds before she finally managed a gasped, “You whore!”
*-*-*-*
“Then you carefully roll the condom down the banana,” Melanie said brightly as she finished rolling the condom that she’d apparently forgotten to use, down a large banana while he stood there alongside Rebecca, glaring at her.
“Not. Fucking. Funny,” he bit out, wondering how Rebecca had managed to resist the urge to wring her neck.
“Bitch,” Rebecca added with a glare of her own.
“Did you want me to go over this again?” Melanie offered, smiling as she pulled out another condom.
Instead of answering her, he reached over and snatched the banana out of her hand. Pulling the condom off, he tossed it aside, peeled the banana and took a big bite out of it, all while glaring at the woman that was taking too damn much pleasure in their downfall.
“So,” Melanie said brightly as she clapped her hands together, “what shall we talk about?”
They simply glared at her until she took the hint, tossed the condom back on the kitchen counter with a sigh and muttered, “Kill joys,” before she walked back to her precious couch. As he stood there beside Rebecca, staring at the kitchen cabinets, he realized that he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to say to her.
He didn’t know if she was happy about this, scared, or pissed since she’d decided to shut down once Melanie had explained that she’d gone to the doctor yesterday morning to con
firm the test results. He glanced at the clock on the stove and realized that it had been forty minutes since she’d realized that the positive reading might be correct.
“Any chance that Aidan would be willing to see me today?” Rebecca asked, sounding pissed.
So, he had his answer.
She was definitely pissed.
Great, the one response that he had absolutely no idea how to deal with, but at least she’d given him something to do besides standing around, trying not to panic.
“He’ll fit us in,” he assured her, tossing the banana peel in the trash.
“Good,” she said woodenly with a nod as she headed for the door. She opened the door and paused. “You coming with us?” she asked Melanie, who was now lost in the world of computer code.
“To see that annoying asshole that was obviously dropped on his head as a child?” she asked, not bothering to look up from her computer.
“That would be the one,” Rebecca said, sounding distracted while he stood there feeling like he’d been hit by a mac truck.
“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.”
Nodding, Rebecca turned around without another word and headed out the door. Taking another deep breath, he walked after her.
“I’d better see a ring on that finger by the end of the week!” Melanie called after him.
He didn’t answer her as he closed the door behind him, because there was nothing left to say. If that test came back positive, he’d be putting the birth certificate that he’d found in her room to good use and making a trip up to New Hampshire in just a matter of hours.
Chapter 45
“It’s okay,” Lucifer said, placing her back on the chair and helped her bend forward, “just breathe.”
Shaking her head, she tried to calm down, tried to take a deep breath, but every time she tried she kept seeing that pregnancy test telling her that she was pregnant. That had been close, too close, she realized, making the panic that had settled in on the way here worse.
She was an unmarried, unemployed waitress with no insurance, no job prospects and absolutely no idea how to change a diaper! She wasn’t ready to have a baby yet. Not even close. She was still trying to get her act together and…and…
“It’s going to be fine. It was a false positive, sweetheart,” Lucifer promised as he knelt by her side and put his arms around her. She opened her mouth to tell him that she knew that everything was going to be okay, but nothing came out so she settled for shaking her head urgently, praying that he would understand.
“These things happen, Rebecca,” Aidan assured her, taking a knee by her other side. “Sometimes the home tests give a false positive. It’s rare, but it does happen.”
Still unable to talk, she settled for nodding.
“Are you okay?” Lucifer asked as he kissed the top of her head, probably hoping that she wouldn’t start hyperventilating and screaming about baby wipes and Huggies diapers, again.
She shook her head, not sure that she would ever be okay again.
That had been close, too close, she told herself, deciding that from this moment on that she would refrain from pre-marital sex. Then again, since having a ring on her finger wouldn’t save her from the unbearable pain of shoving a nine-pound bundle of joy out of her body or from having to learn how to work a diaper, she decided that perhaps it was time to look into joining a convent.
The only thing stopping her from doing just that was the knowledge that the rest of the nuns would probably turn on her within a day or two after it became painfully obvious that the whole vow of silence thing wasn’t going to work for her. Since death by angry, bitter nuns wasn’t exactly enticing, she was just going to have to swear off sex altogether, she decided.
Sex just wasn’t worth the pain of finding out how why she’d seen so many parents over the years gag when they’d attempted to change a diaper. It was definitely something that she could live her entire life without experiencing first hand.
Of course with Melanie due to have a baby there was probably a good chance that she was going to be forced to face her fear, she mused, only to decide that she would hold off on babysitting until after the kid was potty trained. It was definitely for the best, she decided even as she tried to figure out how she was going to break the news to Lucifer that she was now going to lead a life of celibacy.
He wasn’t going to take it well, but then again, she really couldn’t blame him since she was probably the best that he’d ever had. Once he realized that he couldn’t have her again, he’d probably go into a deep depression before coming to the conclusion that a life of celibacy was the only way to live. Then they could spend their nights playing Tetris and reminiscing about just how good it used to be.
“There’s always a chance of becoming pregnant, slim as it may be, on birth control. The best way to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is to use condoms in addition to the pill,” Aidan explained, making her sigh in resignation, because there was that too.
She supposed that was the way to go since she probably wouldn’t have had the heart to deny Lucifer the pleasure of-
“What’s going on in that devious mind of yours?” Lucifer asked, cutting into her benevolent thoughts and making her realize that at some point in the last few minutes he’d stopped holding her and had begun watching her.
“Nothing. Why do you ask?” she asked, wondering if she should let him know how close he’d just come to a life of celibacy so that he could thank her.
“Because I know that look.”
She blinked. “What look?”
Instead of answering her, he got to his feet, careful to keep his eyes on her almost as though he didn’t trust her.
That hurt…it really did.
“Do either one of you have any questions?” Aidan asked as he went over her chart and signed the bottom.
“No,” she said, glaring at Lucifer as she contemplated sticking her tongue out at the paranoid bastard.
Aidan nodded as he closed the folder and tossed it on the counter before he shifted his attention to Lucifer, who was still watching her a little too closely.
“You working tonight?” Aidan asked, already moving on while she sat there struggling to get over the biggest scare of her life.
“Patrick’s scheduled to work,” Lucifer said, sounding bored.
Seriously? Did neither one of them care how close she’d come to reenacting the scene from Alien? Selfish bastards, she thought, shaking her head in disgust until the action caused her head to recommence with the spinning.
“Then come to dinner tonight,” Aidan said, really making her wonder how many patients tried to kick his ass.
“Fine,” Lucifer said, sounding a bit distracted, which would explain why he gave in so easily to something that he normally tried to avoid.
Not that she knew why.
If she had a family that wanted to see her…
Well, she had Melanie’s family, who had always treated her like one of their own, but it wasn’t the same. They loved her and always included her in family dinners, holidays and birthdays and made her feel welcome, but they’d never called her on her shit, told her when she was messing up like they did with Melanie. Not that she normally complained when it meant that she could join in the fun and torment Melanie, but it would be nice to belong, to really belong.
Then there was her family…
They avoided her at all costs and seemed to be going out of their way to let her know that she wasn’t important to them. Which was fine with her, because she’d rather not have to deal with them for any reason.
“Do you think that you can walk to the truck?” Lucifer asked, pushing her hair out of the way so that he could see her face.
She probably could, but…
“I would prefer to be manhandled,” she said with a sniff since she’d felt that she’d more than earned it after the scare that he’d given her.
“You’re going to vomit if you try to walk,” he guessed correctly.
“Without question.”<
br />
*-*-*-*
“Can you sit up?” he asked, hoping that she was going to say no, because he wasn’t sure that he was ready to go inside and deal with his family, their questions and the bullshit that they were going to put him through for bringing Rebecca with him.
“Probably,” came the muffled response while Rebecca continued to absently trace circles on the leg that she was using as a pillow.
Not that he was complaining since it gave him a reason to sit there. They were probably going to miss dinner, but maybe that was for the best. He’d rather get this talk out of the way so that he could get back to the Fire & Brimstone and get his mind off of things for a while.
“Are you okay?” she asked with a heavy sigh as she gave up on playing with his knee and rolled over onto her back.
Staring out the window, he nodded. “I’m fine.”
“You haven’t said anything about what just happened,” she pointed out, drawing her knees in to get more comfortable on the bench seat of his truck.
“Neither have you.”
“I was too busy having a nervous breakdown,” she explained.
“We should go inside,” he said, carefully pulling his hand away, but she wasn’t letting him off that easily.
Tightening her hold on his hand, she placed it right back on her soft belly. “We need to at least pretend to talk about this,” she stubbornly said, but he knew that talking about this was the last thing that she wanted to do.
While he wanted nothing more than to lose himself in the Fire & Brimstone, she was probably dying to go home, shove Melanie off the couch and distract herself with horror movies and Hershey Kisses. Maybe he should put this off for another night and take her home so that she could do just that.
“What exactly do you want to talk about?” he asked, suddenly feeling exhausted and not even the idea of digging into his mother’s cooking could get him to move.
“I’m not ready to have a baby yet, Christopher,” she said softly as though it was something to be ashamed of.
Smiling down at her, he said, “Neither am I, but,” he said, adding that “but” in there no doubt to scare her before he continued, “even if things had turned out differently, it would have been fine.”
Fire & Brimstone: A Neighbor from Hell Page 22
