What Could've Been

2.5

Needless to say, taking the babies with her was a bad idea because she spent all night staring at their little sleeping faces and she pouted when Ruth popped in the next morning and the babies popped out.

"But my babies." She says.

"Well go see them again later. It's time for game number two." Ruth smiles.

"What is today's game?" Stevie rolls her eyes. She didn't really like yesterday's game in the slightest.

"Today's game is that you get to choose where you want to go." Ruth smiles.

"Where I want to go?" 

"What could've been had things gone differently in 1975 or What could've been had things gone differently in 1997," Ruth explains.

Thinking about the babies she spent the night with she smiled slightly. "97." 

"Alright, I'll be back to get you later." Ruth pats her back and Stevie is yet again, brought to their hotel right before she took the pregnancy tests. 

***

November 1997

She was sitting on the bed her knees pulled up to her chest and he was just pacing the room.

"I'm sorry Steph, I didn't expect it to be that." He shakes his head

"When did it happen?" She asks knowing full well that Kristen didn't look that far along and if he had gotten her pregnant before the tour she would be way farther along.

"When we had that fight, the second week of October about ironically settling down and starting a family How you wanted to take extra measures...and start looking into adoption, and surrogacy and all of that stuff." He sighs.

"So what are you going to do?" Stevie asks.

"I don't know...hell it might not even be mine."

"Lindsey..." She warns.

"I don't know Steph." 

"Lindsey you're going to be a dad that's exciting, this is exciting." Stevie shrugs.

"No, it's not, because she's not you. It should be you." Lindsey states.

"Lindsey stop it, you and I both know that you're excited about this. I saw it on your face when she announced it. Now, what you need to do is you need to leave me and you need to go be with her. This is going to be the most challenging time of her life and she's so young, she can't raise that baby without its father. It'll be good for you. End our thirty-year on again off again. It'll be good for both of us."

"Stevie I'm not leaving you, we can make this work."

"No Lindsey, no we can't...you're going to want to be with that baby twenty-four seven and I'm not going to be the reason you aren't. This is over, we're done...I'm sorry Lindey but she needs you and that baby needs you. I'll be fine."

"I love you though Steph. I don't love her. I broke up with her." Lindsey states.

"And now you're going to crawl your ass back to her...I know you love me and I love you too, but I also know that you already love that baby so much and you're going to learn to love their mother. I can guarantee it." Stevie explains.

"But I..."

"Lindsey." She warns.

"So that's it were over."

"Yeah, i'm sorry." Stevie nods.

"I guess I should go get another room then." He plops down on the bed.

"No, worry about it in the morning. Stay with me tonight, hold me one last time."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay."

"Alright, get comfy, I'm going to go take a shower." Stevie sighs crawling off the bed and heading for the bathroom.

While she's in there she turns the water on and then she pulls the box out of her toiletry case. She looks at it for a moment and unpackages it and then she pulls her skirt down and sits on the toilet spreading her legs to get the test under her stream and then she caps it and she waits.

When her watch tells her the ten minutes is up she takes ahold of the test and she just sinks onto the edge of the tub and she cries because there were two pink lines staring up at her. She was pregnant. She had just had that inkling...she knew something was different but she didn't know what and she knew that even though she was two weeks late, somehow it wasn't menopause and that's why she took the test. She thinks about it while she's in the shower, her hand caressing her stomach for most of it, and then she goes back out and takes more of the pregnancy tests in the little black bag Karen had sitting in there. 

When she emerges from the shower, Lindsey is laying in bed with the TV on low. 

"What took you so long I was getting worried about you." He sighs.

"Lindsey Could...no never mind," She shakes her head

"Could what Steph?" He asks. 

"Could we make it work? Do you really think we could make it work?" Stevie asks.

"I do Steph...I love you with my whole heart. I don't love Kristen and I can almost assure you that we can make this work. You'll be a great step-mother to this baby." Lindsey shakes his head.

"Well, we ugh...we might have a problem." Stevie sniffles.

"What? Are you okay?" He asks.

"Well I've...I've been feeling sick for a couple of weeks and I'm...well I'm a couple of weeks late." She shakes her head.

"What do you mean a couple of weeks late?" 

"My Period Lindsey...I'm a couple of weeks late." She takes one of the ten pregnancy tests out of her bathrobe pocket and she walks over to the bed and sits on it by his hip and she hands it to him.

He looks at it and then he looks at her and then back down at the test and then over to her stomach and then he looks back up at her face and he gulps before he launches off of his spot and squashes her in a giant bear hug pushing her back onto the bed. He kisses her passionately and then he just wiggles down her body and starts untying her bathrobe. 

"Lindsey I'm naked." She scolds.

"No, you're not you have underwear on." He protests pulling the top of her panties down just a tad so he has full access to her midsection. 

She just shakes her head and giggles as he starts kissing her stomach.

"Hi, baby, what's going on in there huh...Let's see using Mom's bladder as a pillow..." Lindsey asks.

"Yes, I think I've peed more than I have in a very long time today." Stevie rolls her eyes.

"We're having a baby Steph." Lindsey smiles.

All she does is hold up two fingers.

"Well, I don't think Kristen's baby is going to be with us all the time, but yeah I guess so...how are you feeling." He asks helping her up.

"Honestly Lindsey, I'm terrified but I'm so excited." She smiles.

"Yeah?" He asks.

"Yeah." She nods and he just chuckles before he takes her in for a sweet kiss.