Charlie's Angel

42

 Every morning, I had to look into the face of my boyfriend and hide the fact that I was pregnant.

Turns out, Sam wasn't pregnant. But her little scare persuaded me to take my own test. They say you're supposed to take five just to be sure, so I did and all of them but one came out positive.

At first, a numbness came over me as I stared at my fate. I had created another child, another tiny being in my belly. My mind took hours to accept the fact that I was in fact an expecting mother, that there was a underdeveloped fetus that was resting in my uterus. It would soon grow ten fingers and ten toes, a tiny nose, soft hair and all the organs it would need to survive outside of me. And then the eyes, the most dazzling eyes would be given to my child like its father.

That is... if the child was his.

Truth be told, I didn't know who the father was. Chris and I didn't use protection after his sister died, but Aaron didn't use protection either when he did what he did. Me not knowing who the father was made me not want to tell Chris at all. It wasn't like I could tell Aaron either because he was in jail waiting for his trial. In fact, nobody knew except me. But I had a feeling that Sam would be able to get it out of of me.

Chris and I were nowhere near ready to have a baby, at least not right now. He just got shot, for God's sake. Not to mention he lost his big sister only a few weeks ago. Dropping a bomb on him like this would ruin everything for us, and I don't want him to find out about Aaron.

"Alright, girl," Sam smiled as she passed me the bowl of popcorn, her forest-green eyes flashing to me while she flipped on a movie. "Talk, and I mean now."

Since things had been so hectic around the house, Bash switched duties with me for the day. He was taking care of Chris and the kids while I hung out with my best friend–which was much needed to clear my head and get a voice of reason.

"Talk about what?" I asked innocently, picking up a few pieces of popcorn before returning the bowl to her lap. I caught myself with my palm against my flat belly and quickly retracted it before she noticed. Reaching over her, I stole the remote playfully and turned it to Law and Order: Special Victims. Besides The Walking Dead, this was what consumed most of my time. Detective Stabler and Detective Benson were my favorites.

"It feels like it's been forever since the last time we did something."

"Well," I trailed, "My boyfriend does have two bullet holes in him, Sam." I was trying my hardest to be sarcastic, state the obvious, you know? But I ended up laughing mid-sentence and she slapped my thigh lightly as her lips curled upwards into a smirk.

"Smart-ass," she laughed and shook her head. "But forreal, Charlie. What's been up? Did you talk to–"

"No." I cut her off, dismissing the conversation before it even started. There was no way I was going to tell Chris that I was raped by my ex-husband. Things were really good between us and the last thing I wanted to do is jeopardize that because of Aaron's stupidity. I didn't want to tell the cops either because then Chris would really get involved and I wasn't ready for that.

I'd tell him eventually...

I chewed my lip nervously as my anxiousness intensified ten-fold. I felt a bit uncomfortable about telling my best friend that I was pregnant for two reasons. One, she wasn't pregnant so what if she was jealous? And two, I didn't really want to tell her before I told the father–whoever that was. On the contrary, I did want some advice.

"Sam, I gotta tell you something..." I trailed off as I straightened my spine to sit all the way up. Her smile faded when her eyes caught on to my seriousness, and she set the bowl of extra-buttered popcorn on the coffee table that we propped our feet up on.