Past, Present, and Future.

Chapter 16

Two weeks after meeting Dallas's mother for the first time, the woman still didn't like her. Victoria had tried everything to make that lady show some sort of emotion besides hatred. She thought it might have something to do with the fact that Victoria was at his house every night for those two weeks. That and the fact that she is starting to show with her baby bump. Although his mother hasn't said a word, Victoria knew that the scary woman knew she was pregnant. She also knew that Dallas's mother knew that it wasn't his baby, which causes fights between the two.

Chad had also been acting weird. Almost any time Dallas wasn't by her side, Chad would attach himself till Dallas came back. Neither of them said anything about why they avoided each other, even though she had tried to squeeze it out of both of them. Dallas had simply shrugged off the subject, while Chad had told her to ask her new boyfriend. After a few days she learned to give up and stop asking.

She knew that Chad still followed her around from time to time, but nothing too severe, not like it was. He still claimed, everyday, to want to be apart of the baby's life, but never went to anything past words. He would also tell her as much as he got the chance that she needed to break up with Dallas because "Nothing good can come from him." After about the hundredth time she learned to stop listening, telling herself that Dallas has not done anything wrong in the almost two months that they had known each other. The worst that boy had done was get a detention everyday for a week. And lied about the car situation.

"Babe." Dallas's voice rang out across the quiet car. "We are here..."

There in front of them stood the doctor's office. Today was the day that she was getting her first ultrasound on the baby done. Dallas knew she was nervous, but as she looked at the quiet brick building, she reached over and grabbed his hand squeezing harder than necessary. She heard him chuckle but continued to stare the building down. Inside those sliding glass doors stood the judgemental looks, the whispers, the truth behind the baby's gender, and the unasked answers to the questions of the baby's health.

Dallas leaned over and kissed her cheek, knowing that would calm her down slightly. He opened his door and gave a quick tug on her hand telling her that she needed to get out too. As they walked in, her face lit up a bright red as the other mothers in the room turned towards the incomer. The looks and whispers began just as she had predicted, but Dallas just squeezed her hand again. They walked up hand and hand to the front desk where a nurse sat behind a desk typing away on her computer. Somewhere in the waiting room came the sound of a child crying, and a mother telling them, with anger, to be quiet or no ice cream.

Finally the lady behind the desk looked up and noticed them. She asked the name and then typed away on her black keyboard. After a few moments she informed them that they would have to fill out some paper work and to bring it up to the desk once it was finished. With the end of her sentence she handed Victoria a clipboard with a stack of papers four or more thick.

Sighing the couple took a seat in the corner, as far away from the other mothers as they could get. Victoria went right to work on the papers, writing with the cheap black pen the nurse had given her. A few times she would ask Dallas's opinion on what she should put down, to which he would promptly answer her and turn back to his hunter's magazine. In no time at all she was finished and quickly got up to return the papers to the nurse, with out Dallas even looking up. What is with him today?

Once the papers were safely back in the nurse's hands, Victoria returned to her seat. Dallas didn't even blink as she sat down beside him. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but didn't want to start a fight in such a public place. Instead she pulled out her phone and decided to text Chad, telling him that they would soon know the sex of the baby.

His reply came almost immediately. When? Are you there now?

Yes. Dallas is here so I'm not alone.

Which doctor's office? I want to be there. Why didn't you tell me?

Before she could reply a nurse called out her name. Standing up she waited for Dallas to put his magazine down and come with her. He made no move to hold her hand like before, and even made a point to walk an awkward distance beside her. She shot him a confused look, one that he decided to pretend he didn't notice.

The two walked into a small room with a computer to one side, a chair in the corner and one beside a small bed lined with the paper stuff. The nurse told her to sit on the bed while she asked questions about the pregnancy. After about a hundred questions, awkward belly touching, and tons of writing on papers, the nurse left and told her that the doctor should be in soon.

They sat in silence. She felt her phone vibrate, then ring, but made no movement to answer it. Her attention was on the boy beside her in the uncomfortable plastic chair. He still wouldn't look at her, so she sat there mentally battling herself to ask him what the heck was wrong or to just leave it be. Finally she decided to speak up after about five minutes in total silence.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?" Her voice sounded strained and full of concern. She didn't like it.

Dallas continued to look at his feet and play with his hands in his lap. After about thirty seconds, he muttered a soft "Nothing."

"Bullshit Dallas. Tell me please? Is it because your here with me?" She voiced her fears, hearing her voice quiver with the thought of the answer.

He looked at her then, and she could tell in his face that she had asked the right question. The paper and hard blue plastic of the bed-table thing crunched under her, as she shifted her weight uncomfortably, as Dallas continued to look at her without saying anything.

Finally he spoke. "I guess I'm just upset that this baby isn't mine, yet I have to raise them as my own."

Before she could respond the doctor came in. The lady with dark hair pulled back into a pony tail and glasses introduced herself as Dr. Cooper. The doctor then went over all the same things the nurse had just done, making Victoria feel uncomfortable. The whole time the new lady tried to keep conversation, but with Dallas on his phone, texting, and Victoria not in the talking mood, they all settled into an awkward silence.

After about twenty minutes the doctor pulled out the gel and put a big glob on Victoria's stomach. Then came the weird sonogram tool, the doctor used that to smear the blue shiny stuff all over the area she needed.

At once the computer beside them lit up with black and white. Dr. Cooper pointed out various parts of the baby's body, even though Victoria only saw black and white. The Dr. went on to tell them both, Dallas's full attention was now on the screen, that the baby was healthy and growing fine.

"Do you want to know the gender?" Her brown eyes flicked from Dallas to Victoria.

Victoria shrugged and glanced at Dallas. He had the same "I don't care" expression, so Victoria turned to the doctor and said that she would like to know.

This caused the doctor to rearrange the tool, and angle it so she could see the gender identity.

"Your baby's gender is..." her voice broke out as she continued to move the tool around in the gel till she found what she was looking for. "....a boy! Congratulations!!"

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A few days later It happened. Victoria was walking and turned to walk down the hallway with a bag of baby clothes in her hands. She missed the top stair to go down to the basement of Dallas's house, where the baby's room would be.

She lost her balance, and fell all the way down the fourteen stairs to the bottom.