Bad Intentions

17. The Unbelivable

Jaxson

"We go trick or treating now?" My daughter asks wearing her Little Mermaid costume. I nod my head and turn the tv off. "Go get your bucket." I tell her while I put my shoes on.

I've never been trick or treating myself. My dad has always held company parties on Halloween. It was great for business but it's a tradition I want to break so I can give my daughter a normal Halloween.

Bella told me she's never been trick or treating. She was sick last Halloween and too little for all the other ones. She comes back downstairs with her pink bucket shaped like a pumpkin and smiles.

"You ready?" I ask her and she nods heading to the back door. "We're walking" I stop her and she nods. We walk around the neighborhood for almost 2 hours.

Bellas bucket was filled twice. She even made friends with some of the neighbors kids. "I eat my candy when we get home?" She asks me and I nod.

"I have to make sure it's good first then you can eat it." "Why?" she asks looking at me as we walk back home. "Cause bad people could've put things inside the candy to make you sick." I explain to her.

"That's mean!" she says looking at her bucket of candy. "It is, that's why you have to be careful. Everyone's not nice." I tell her and she nods.

When we walk into the house Bella pours her first basket of candy on the floor. "Check this one first!" She hands me a mini chocolate bar and I look around it for any small holes. "Here you go." I saying handing it back to her and she opens it.

My phone rings and I answer without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?" I ask looking over the next piece of candy Bella hands me. "Hi Mr. Ross. It's Dr. Elliot."

"Oh, Dr. Elliot! Is everything okay?" I ask with a professional tone. "She's awake!" My heart stops for a second. "I'm on the way." I tell him dropping the professional tone.

My worse fear came true. She woke up in a hospital room all by herself. "See you soon." He says and I end the call. "Come on, lets go visit mommy." I tell Bella. "Can I take my candy?" She asks me and I nod.

I practically speed to hospital. I was anxious. What if she blames me for being the reason she's here? They weren't going to kill her until Shawn and I hacked the computers.

What if she's mad it took me six months to try and find her? I never realized how much guilt I was feeling until now.

"I hope mommy wakes up tonight so she can see my costume." Bella says as we get off the elevator.

I didn't tell her because part of me still doesn't believe it. I slide the hospital door open. "Hi Dr. Elliot" Bella says. He turns around and moves out of the way and reveals Ava.

She was sitting up and didn't have most of the machines hooked up to her anymore. "MOMMY" Bella yells before running and jumping on Ava.

"Bella" I say scared she was going to hurt her. I smile when Ava wraps her arms around Bella and they both start to cry. Dr. Elliot pulls me out the room.

"She's doing great, she should be able to leave in less than a few weeks." "That's great" I tell him anxious to go talk to Ava.

"One more thing..." He says stopping me from walking back into the hospital room. "We haven't told her about the baby yet. We feel that it's something you might want to tell her and help her through it." He tells me and I nod.

I'm not sure how I'm going to tell her. When he walks away I go back into the room. "I love your costume, did you have fun?" Ava asks and Bella nods. "Daddy let me get two buckets of candy" Bella says and I walk up the side of the bed.

Ava smiles at me as I look into the green eyes that matches my daughter. "When did she start calling you that?" Ava asks and I shrug.

"Maybe a couple months ago." I say not being able to think straight. I missed just looking at her talk. "I missed you" I tell her. "I missed you too."

"Can I have more candy?" Bella asks me and I tell her yes. She jumps off the bed and runs to her bucket looking through all the candy to find the one she wants.

I sit down in the chair beside Avas bed. "What happened to them?" She asks me lowering her voice so Bella wouldn't hear. "We'll talk about it later. How are you feeling?" I ask her changing the subject.

"I feel a lot better than I look." she says. "You look beautiful. You always do." I tell her and she smiles. "Check this one." Bella runs up handing me a small pack of gummy worms.

I look over it while she talks to her mom. "When the bad guys hurt you were you scared?" She asks Ava. "A little bit, but then Jaxson came and saved me like Prince Eric." She tells our daughter.

"Really daddy?" Bella asks as I hand her candy back. "I mean not to brag, but yeah I fought the bad guys off" I joke to her. "What does brag mean?" Bella asks and I laugh.

"It mean you're showing off. It's not nice" Ava tells her and she nods. "Don't show off daddy." I nod "I won't." I tell her.

By midnight Bella had fallen asleep on Ava. She refuses to leave her moms side. I don't blame her, I don't want to leave Ava either.

"Can you tell me what happened to them now?" She asks and I nod. "I trapped Milo in that room and he got arrested." I tell her and she nods.

"Thank god, and what about Cedric?" The only way to tell her was to be straight forward about it. "You're dad killed him about three weeks ago."

Her eyes widen. "Are you serious?" She asks me trying to keep her voice down. "He was hiding out in Milos house and your dad found him. He didn't know about all the things they were doing to you and when Cedric said you were dead he just shot him."

"Wow" she says processing the information. I can see the disbelief in her eyes. "Did you see it happen?" She asks me. "Yeah I can't get the image out of my head."

"Where's my dad now?" She asks trying to verify her thoughts. "He's in jail." I tell her and she frowns a little. Ava wouldn't wish the worse on someone even if they did put her through hell.

"I regret asking." "Yeah, I know it's not the best news." I tell her. Which brings up the other situation. "I have one more thing to tell you." I say holding her hand.

"What?" she asks rubbing her thumb against my hand. I don't know how I'm supposed to explain this her. "So they ran some blood tests on you." I tell her.

"Am I sick?" She asks me and I shake my head no. "You're as healthy as before." I tell her. "Then what?" she asks me nervous. I shouldn't have started off how I did.

"It shows that you're almost eight months pregnant." I say. She freezes and stares down at the blanket. I just watch her not sure if I should say something or not.

The first tear falls from eyes. "Hey, it's okay!" I say standing up and bringing as much of her into a hug as I could. Her sobs make me cry.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." I tell her. "I'm pregnant by someone who forced me to have sex. I don't even know which one." She says and I pull away and look her in the eyes.

"You got to think about the positive things. You don't need to know which of them is the dad. This baby is yours and they have absolutely nothing to do with it. We get to bring another beautiful kid into this world." I tell her.

"We?" she asks and I nod. There is no way she will ever go through anything alone again. "You're going to play father to a kid that's not even yours?"

"I couldn't live with myself if I didn't love anything you brought into this world." I tell her and she smiles.

"I would kiss you but I don't think I can lift up." She says and I laugh before leaning down and kissing her. I missed her so much