Ellie's eyes flew open at the sound of her baby crying through the baby monitor next to her bed. She shot out of bed and ran to her baby's room. Her six month old daughter looked up at her.
"It's okay baby," she said picking up the small child, "Mommy's here."
Reagan was beautiful. She was the spitting image of her father. Her dark hair, her blue eyes. She looked just like him.
Ellie looked over at the bed on the other side of the room. Good, she thought, Reagan didn't wake Cameron. Ellie carried the baby down the hall to the living room. She put the baby in the playpen while she fixed her bottle.
Ellie sat down on the couch, still tired. She looked at the clock on her wall. It was 3 in the afternoon. She had put the kids down for a nap, and then went to take one for herself. She looked down at the small baby drinking from the bottle. Her eyes clouded over as she remembered how she became a mother of two.
Ellie heard a knock at the door. Sean was standing in her doorway, tears in his eyes.
"I didn't know who else to come to," he said.
"Come in," Ellie stepped aside and lead Sean up to her room. "What's going on?"
"Emma had oral sex with Jay."
Ellie nodded empathetically, "I know," she said. "It was all over school that 'Green peace got gonorrhea' ."
"Gonorrhea?" Sean asked, sinking down onto the bed.
"You didn't know?" Ellie sat down next to him and begin to explain about Jays nights at the ravine with any girl who would go down on him, about the bracelets they were awarded for it.
"I can't trust anybody," Sean said. "I'm going back to Wasaga."
"Don't," Ellie said, putting her hand on his arm. "You can trust me. I would never sleep with your best friend. I'm not like that."
Sean kissed her. One thing led to another. Sean took Ellie's virginity that night, and left town the next day. Ellie was devastated that she wasn't enough to keep him around.
8 months and three days later a baby was born. A beautiful baby boy. Cameron. Ellie called Sean to tell him, and he said that he was busy and couldn't come down yet. He said he'd send money, but he never did.
But after a year and a half of being a single mother, Ellie couldn't handle it anymore, and left Cameron with Marco one night while she went clubbing to forget herself.
She ran into Jay at the club, and when he asked how Cameron was doing, she broke down, spilling her heart out to him about how hard it was to raise him on her own. And in an alcohol and stress induced night, she made love to Jay in the backseat of his Honda.
When Ellie found out she was pregnant, Jay was there for her. They decided to raise him together, but not to be together. He found her a cute house down the street from his apartment. He paid for everything, rent, diapers, even a car, so she could stay at home with the babies. When Cameron got the flu and had to be admitted to the hospital, it was Jay who paid the bill. He worked overtime at the garage, and gave almost all of his money to her every week. But she was still alone.
Ellie was brought back to reality when somebody knocked on her door. She put the now sleeping baby down in the playpen and went to answer the door. The sunlight blinded her eyes. When she was able to focus, she was shocked to see Sean Cameron standing in front of her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him, not wanting to show how excited she was to see him.
"I came back to see you, to see Cameron," he said.
"He's sleeping," she told him.
"I have a right to see my son," he said to her.
She sighed. "Come on in. He should wake up soon."
He followed her inside and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the baby sleeping in the playpen.
"You have another baby?" he asked, dumbfounded.
The question made Ellie angry. Was she just supposed to sit and wait for him to come back?
"Yes," she said, "her name is Reagan."
"She's precious," he said, looking down at the baby in her pink jumpsuit and headband. "Who's the father?"
Ellie looked at the clock, knowing that Jay would be here soon for his nightly visit with the kids. "I don't want to talk about it," she told him. "Do you want coffee?"
"Sure," he said, following her into the kitchen.
She poured a cup of the coffee that had been sitting there since noon. She ran on coffee, all day, everyday.
She sat down at the table and opened her mouth to ask what had made Sean come visit, but then Cameron walked down the hallway rubbing his eyes.
Sean's face lit up when he saw his son, and he reached out for him. But the boy ran and hid behind Ellie. "He doesn't know you, Sean," Ellie said, setting the toddler in her lap.
"Cameron, this is your daddy," Ellie said in a baby-talk voice that Sean found irresistible. Then Reagan started crying and Ellie had to go get the baby. She held the baby close to her body, The door to the side of the kitchen opened and Jay came through.
"Jay!" Cameron screamed in delight, running to him.
"Hey, buddy," Jay said, picking the boy up. "Look what I got you." He held up a power rangers toy.
"Yay!" Cameron said, taking the toy and wriggling out of Jay's arms.
Sean sat at the table, watching the happy family routine. He didn't know that Ellie and Jay were together. Watching his son run to his once best friend while he cowered away from his own father made Sean sick to his stomach. And when he saw the way Ellie handed the baby over to Jay, and saw the look in Jay's eyes, he knew the baby was his.