I wrote this story a while ago. Before I wrote and "published" We Are A Family. Anyways, i was just trying out a different writing style. This one isn't my favorite and I'll probably continue to write the way the rest of my stories are written, but here's a little something. I'm hoping that this while encourage some of my favorite writers on here to feel the need to write another chapter

Mercedes is standing in the middle of the aisle in the supermarket like a deer caught in headlights. This was not suppose to happen. No this was not how he was supposed to find out. Hell, if it was up to her she would have left the earth leaving him as a thing of the past. She never told him, never hinted at the fact that she might be, but by the way he's looking at her and the little girl behind her that's clinging to her like a second skin she could tell he knows: the little girl belongs to him, to them. So who? Who told him the one secret she's kept hidden. The look on his face resembles pain and hurt and she knows he feels betrayed. Any real man would. She left him out of it all. She was so scared when she found out she was pregnant 5 years ago, scared of what he might say, that he might leave, she took the opportunity away from him. She broke his heart into a million pieces up when broke up with him. Never told him why either. He woke up one up one morning and she, along with all of her things that accumulated at his over time were gone. There was only a note in the space where she used to lay. Thinking about it now, she feels really bad. It was a shitty move but she knows she can't dwell on that right now. He's asking so many questions without saying anything at all. She turns her attention back to her daughter who has begun tugging lightly on her shirt.

"Mommy, are we done yet? I wanna go home." she whines rubbing her eyes and Mercedes knows that she's getting restless. She hasn't had her nap yet.

"Yes sweetie. We're almost finished okay, mommy just has to get a few more things and we'll leave. That sound good?" Jocelynn nods and Mercedes bends to pick her up resting her on her hip while the little girl wraps her arms and legs around her mother's neck and waist.

"Let me help you." Noah breaks out of his trance long enough to watch her interact with the little girl, abandons his cart and moves to grab ahold of the one that she was pushing and pushes it around while Mercedes picks up the last of the things on her list and they head for the register. He pays for her groceries and walks the cart out to her car and loads up the trunk while she straps Jocelynn in the booster seat in the back.

"You didn't have to." her voice is soft as she leans against the car door she doesn't look at him for a while.

"There's a lot of things either of us didn't have to do." his voice is barely audible but she hears him.

"Thank you."

He nods and there's an awkward silence before he speaks again.

"So she's mine? Like for real?" he asks looking at the little girl inside the car through the back window. The answer is obvious. She looks like him. She has his eyes, his ears and his complexion but he wants her to say it. He needs the confirmation. He looks at Mercedes long and hard and he can tell she's struggling to answer. She doesn't say anything, she just nods her head.

"Were you ever gonna tell me?" the expression on her face changes and he immediately knows that answer as well. She had no intentions on telling him everything. He snaps.

"What the hell Mercy? You get pregnant, have my kid and don't tell me anything. What kind of bullshit is that?" He's pissed. Beyond pissed, he's livid but he's starting to feel bad, even though he has every right to be because now she's crying.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he huffs and it's the first time she's spoken since she thanked him.

"Because, I just-I don't know. I guess I didn't want to be a burden. So I moved around, changed my number and cut off all contact with you. I made everyone, including Tana and Britt, promise not to tell you where I was if you ever went looking."

"You know it wasn't your decision to make right."

"She's my daughter. I make all of her decisions, okay. Every last one."

"Still, having my baby and not telling me is trifling."

"If you're just gonna yell and bad mouth me then I'm out of here." she sniffled wiping away the tears that are still falling from her eyes and moves to open the door, but he grabs her arm.

"I'm sorry okay. But what do you want me to do. You have this guy here playing daddy to my daughter. Did you not think I would be a good father or something?" His feelings are really hurt. He'd promised himself that he'd be a better man and father than his ever was and the fact that he missed out on the chance is hurting him.

"That's not it. I think you'd make a great father someday."

"Then what is it? I'm trying to understand and I just don't. Do you love him, Mercedes?"

"I care about him, a lot."

"But do you love him?"

"I don't have to answer you."

"Oh, I think you do. You owe me that much."

"He's good for me, Noah."

"And I wasn't."

"He makes me happy."

"And sleeping in till noon makes me happy, but you don't see my gushing over whoever let's me do so."

She sighed. He's making this hard on her, harder than it has to be.

"Just say that you don't love me. Say that you don't want to be with me and that you want nothing to do with me. If you can say it, I'll leave you alone for good."

"I hate you." she lies and hopes he believes her but he doesn't.

"No, you don't. Look at me and say you don't still love me. And mean it." he traps her between his body and her car door.

"I have to go, it's time for her nap." she whispers looking everywhere but back at him.

"Let me be there. Let me be a father to my daughter." he pleads forcing her to look at him. He stares into her eyes and slowly leans in pressing a kiss to the corner of her lips and is pleased when she reciprocates.

He's the first to pull away and her eyes flutter open. Brown eyes bore into hazel ones and she gently touched her fibers to her lips. She missed feeling his against her own.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"We will try this out. Don't make me regret it."

"Wouldn't dream of it."