Happy Little Accidents

car crash

The ten minute drive back to the apartment was silent. Bob's knuckles white around the steering wheel. Mouth set in a tight line.

Bradley took a step forward. Then another. Mav tried to grab him saying, "Think about what you're doing, son." But Bradley shrugged him off and kept walking until he was within touching distance of Zak. Bob still holding her wrist. A stricken expression on her face.

Zak flexed and curled her fingers. Right palm still stinging from the slap she laid across Bradley's - Rooster's - cheek.

Rooster was a fitting callsign. He'd always had a cocky personality.

He didn't say anything. Just studied her face for a moment. Then the obvious bump under her dress. He glanced at Bob.

Settling her hands in her lap, she cradled her bump, tracing idle patterns with her thumbs while she tried to sort through the rush of thoughts and emotions.

She didn't know why she slapped him. Her hand just flew out before she could stop herself.

Not that he didn't deserve it.

The night after he asked for the ring back, she got home from the physical therapy and found that he'd packed up all his things and left.

Asshole.

"H-how do you know Zak?" Bob choked out, still looking flabbergasted.

"I don't." Rooster spat. "Not anymore."

It wasn't a lie to say they didn't know each other anymore. Five years was a long time.

Zak slapped him. Hard. The sound echoing in the quiet hangar. Then she turned on her heel and stalked towards the exit.

When his brain finally caught up with his body, Bob ran after her.

Bob parked in his usual spot next to her crossover and cut the engine. He folded his hands in his lap and sucked his bottom lip between his teeth.

Maybe he was in shock.

But he just couldn't tell what was real and what was fake or if anything he knew about Zak was true.

They sat in an uncomfortable silence until Zak couldn't take it anymore.

"Remember how I said my last relationship ended because I thought I couldn't have kids?"

Bob nodded. He wasn't confident enough in his own voice to speak. And he didn't really know what to say.

"It was with Bradley. He was stationed in Virginia and I was there working at a design firm. I... He... we were engaged."

"Oh." He said it so softly she almost didn't catch it.

Zak swallowed. Hot tears stung her eyes. Emotion constricting her throat.

After a beat, she continued, "A few months after the accident, um," This was much harder to admit than she ever thought it could be, "I did get pregnant. But I lost it pretty early on." There was so much blood. Sometimes she could still see the stained towels in the garbage. She took a deep breath. Then another. "We made it about six months after that before he said he was being transferred to Oklahoma to become a pilot and asked for the ring back. We'd been fighting all the time. I threw myself into work and he went out most nights. I guess seeing us... seeing me," she gestured to her growing belly, "Had to be a shock."

She was trying to laugh it off. But even after all this time it was painful to think about.

She could feel the baby fluttering around. Reminding her that so far, everything was okay. Buddy was healthy.