Just as I Begin to Fade

Fifty Five. Only Option

Once dinner was ready, Lindsey decided that he needed to go check on Stevie as the kids had already begun eating.

Since she had been craving the dinner in which she requested, he only thought that bringing her a plate to the bedroom would make her feel a little bit better while he also wanted to cheer her up.

Approaching the bedroom, he knocked gently before coming inside and he was a little taken aback.

Her hair was up in a clip and she was folding clothes; her clothes, the baby's new clothes and she seemed to be separating them into piles.

"What are you doing, babe?" he walked in and he set the plate on the night stand.

"I can't stay here," she explained, pushing herself up in order to stand. She then walked over to the open dresser and she grabbed some more clothes out. "It's really not safe for me here, especially if my parents are here."

"Stevie, come here, please," he took her hands and he walked her over to sit back down on the edge of the bed.

She sighed a little. "I know I sound crazy, Lindsey, but this is really the best thing and I am sorry. I really thought that things would be fine between you and I, but I never once thought about my parents and, and now they're here..." she began to panic.

"Stevie..."

"I don't even know how they could have found me. Unless Gwen actually reached out to them..." she stated aloud the thoughts in which consumed her since her child brought it up. "She knows I'm not close to them, maybe she did it on purpose."

"Stevie, stop for a minute, please."

She went mute for him only because he did seem slightly frustrated.

"Gwen wouldn't do something like that to you on purpose. Don't act like a victim in this either... Whatever happened between you and your parents, it must have soemthing to do with the both of you."

"How could you say that to me?"

"Stevie, I need you to understand me--"

"Oh, my God..." she sighed and pulled away, getting up, her tears were starting up only because her emotions had been out of line and she felt that his words were hurtful.

"I don't mean any offense to you and you know that," he got up in order to re-console her. "Stevie, we've been working on these types of things for the last weeks. You're not always the victim, no matter what story you tell. You understand this. I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful, but people don't do things to hurt you on purpose---maybe some do, but not everybody. I definitely don't and Gwen has not ever done anything to hurt you on purpose like you think she has. And now, the progress in which we have made in the last weeks, she would not do something like that now."

She was a little puffy due to her condition, but she sighed and nodded because she knew he was right, but it felt like the world was crashing down on her in the very moment that her daughter walked through the front door. Her irritability quickly turned to sadness and her eyes filled up with tears.

"Stevie..." he sighed gently and he brought her closer to himself, barricading her in his arms since she was just extremely vulnerable.

"She's already calling them grandma and grandpa..." she sobbed.

"That's who they are, what's wrong with that?"

"She doesn't even know them," she continued. "They don't know her either and my mom was so quick to claim her..." She pushed away from him and she shook her head---her tears remaining, though her headspace switching gears once again. "I can't do this, no, I can't. I have to go... I can't be here," she exhaled hard between sentences since all she wanted to do was sit and cry just as hard. "If they're here, they're gonna come here. If they know about you, they could easily find that you're a teacher and find out that you live here and I don't want them to find me..." she backed away, wiping her face.