AN:
This popped into my head while reading some posts on a message board, it doesn't actually have anything to do with those posts, but here it is.
It has been difficult to find out if it is possible to do this trip, but as this isn't Real Life and it's a show, I get to have some creative freedom I think! Adam Gregory is my Thomas!
This was originally meant to be a part of my What if... stories, but when I got to 4 pages written, I decided that this would not be a What if...-story, this is going to be a complete more then one chapter story...
DISCLAIMER:
As always I do not own anything that has to do with the show or the characters!
Things happens
Chapter one
She's standing just inside the french doors leading out to the balcony admiring the view laid out before her where she's been living since she left LA after witnessing her supposed to be boyfriend making out with his ex on their bed in the house they were going to spend the rest of their life together.
She was aware that she was hiding, both her self and her little secret, but also aware that there was no reason why Liam couldn't have come to Paris during the last seven months. She lays a hand on her ever expanding belly and whispers gentle words to the little life growing inside of her.
She had decided to stay in Paris for the duration of her pregnancy because the stress of LA probably wouldn't have had a positive influence on the growth of her baby. She was now in week thirty five and getting closer to her due date.
Which is why there were people walking all over her apartment packing it up for the move back to LA, because of the fact that she was thirty five weeks along, she was going back home by boat and train instead of taking the Forrester jet, although she had been offered it by her grandfather, he however didn't know about the pregnancy so coming up with a reason not to take the jet had been a hassle, but she had somehow convinced him that a boat crossing the Atlantic was a good choice.
She had been following the news from her home town while she was away and apparently her former husband had gained a brother while she was away as well as a new wife. He hadn't even bothered telling his girlfriend that he was marrying another woman. She entered week thirty two on the day they got married. Sure she hadn't told him she was pregnant, but she had a good reason for it, what good reason did he have not to end their relationship and tell her he was getting married?
"Excuse me Ms Forrester!" She whips her head around.
"Yes?" She sends off a smile towards the gentleman who spoke to her.
"I think we're done here, when are you leaving?"
"I'm leaving in a few hours. Thank you for your services! You've been very helpful!" She sends off a bigger smile while she slowly caresses her belly. He holds his hand out and she shakes it.
"We're only happy to help, you are paying us remember!" He sends her a smile back.
"Thank you anyway! You've been very pleasant to work with!" She tilts her head a little and then accepts the paper he hands over. "I'll pay this as soon as I know it's on the boat."
She was leaving all the big furniture because she had all her stuff in the apartment still, the things she was sending back was things she had sent for the second week she was in Paris. There was some stuff she would not live without and the moment she had decided to spend the next 28 weeks in Paris, she had called her brother and told him what to pack and what to leave behind. He had become suspicious when she didn't want more clothes then her underwear, bras and nightwear as well as some sweats packed, but she'd explained that she was living in the fashion capital of Europe, what else would she do but shop her days away?
She knew she was going to cause some trouble for a few people when she returns to LA, but she could care less about them, what she cared about was making sure that her child was born in the country she had been born in herself and in order to provide that, she had to leave now.
She gives a sigh and turns back around to the streets of Paris and walks out on the balcony one last time until her next visit, hopefully she'd have her baby with her then. She closes her eyes and breaths in the scent of Paris for a minute or so
"I'll miss you so much! Thank you for letting me stay here for a while!" She smiles and then she turns around, walks back into the apartment, closes the french doors and as she walks towards the door, she caresses every surface she can find on her way there and catching her purse on her way.
She hesitates for a little bit as she's standing outside the place she's called home for the last few months, but then her resolve takes over and she hears the click of the key turning in the lock and pulls it out while pulling on the handle to make sure the door is in fact locked.
She walks to the elevator and presses the button. As she's waiting, she's trying to figure out what she's going to tell Liam about the baby and what her former stepmother, stepsister and step was going to say about her pregnancy now that her former stepsister was married to her former husband.
She comes to the conclusion that it was best just to say that he was going to be a father and that she wasn't really interested in anymore then her baby knowing it's father, she could support the baby herself and she had a network of people behind her that she knew would be there for her and the baby.
The elevator rings and alerts her that the elevator is there and she steps into it. The ride down to the entrance floor is a calm one, even though the baby usually starts moving like crazy when she's in an elevator, it seems to sense Steffy´s mood at the moment and so it stays calm and in the same position it's been for the last few hours.
Her OB had sent all the test-results and medical information to the hospital that Steffy had chosen as the hospital where she would give birth and it had been in touch with Steffy to tell her that they had gotten the information. Two days before she had been to be cleared to take the trip she was going on and was given a clean bill of health and the okay to take it.
There's another ring and the doors opens so she gets out and walks through the foyer of the building she's been living in. She waves to the gentleman who's manning the doorman counter and flashes him a smile as she waddles out of the building waiting for her taxi to take her on the first part of the journey back to the states.
She had a suite booked on the boat and a whole room on the train, it even had a real bed instead of those bunks that you'd normally see in coupes on a train.
There's a taxi waiting for her as she walks out the building and she looks back towards the doorman and waves him her good bye and throws him a kiss.
She had been extremely lucky that Queen Ann II was going to be making a trip to New York the exact week she needed it to and that the cross country train was leaving three days after the ship would enter New York´s harbor. The luggage she meant to use during the crossing was already on it's way to England and probably already on the boat by the time she got there. She had sent it to the Forrester International office in London and had one of the assistants there take it to the boat and said assistant was meeting Steffy there and coming with her on the trip due to the fact that she was where she was in the pregnancy.
As she arrived at the train station in Paris to get on the train to Calais, she took a few moments to admire the architecture of the building as well as take a last look at the metropolitan she had called home for the last 28 weeks.
At the moment she had a 6½ hour train ride in front of her and she planned on making the most of it. She had her laptop with her and would be working a little bit and then take a few naps along the way. She had her own coupe for herself with the option of locking the door so she knew she wouldn't have to share it or risk having any of her belongings stolen. She was pretty sure it would be a calm ride.
~Things happen~
She woke up about 20 minutes before she needed to get off the train to change trains in Lille near the Belgium border and the rest of the way to Calais she had a couple of more train changes so for the rest of the way she would focus on doing the work.
When she finally reached Calais, the scent of the ocean flushed her senses and she almost felt like she was home in the house she and Liam had shared before she left for Paris.
She was changing to a boat crossing to Dover and then she'd take a train to South Hampton and meet up with the assistant. Every step had gone the way it had been planned to go. No hold ups anywhere and they were actually a little a head of time when she got to the train station.
She gets off the train and looks around to find Michala, the assistant that was crossing the Atlantic with her on the QAII.
She and Michala had actually been talking a lot and knew about the pregnancy and that that's the reason she was following along, but it would also give her a chance to visit with family in New York before following her boss to LA for a position in the PR-department of the main office. Michala had actually worked with Steffy in LA when Bill Spencer owned the company and had followed Steffy to Paris when she left before the whole triangle from Hell started and then she had been placed in London and now she was on her way back to LA because Steffy was going back.
"Ms Forrester! Steffy!" Michala comes running out of the main building. "I'm sorry I'm late, but the cab wouldn't get to the hotel on time, but we need to hurry now because I told him to wait for me and that I was bringing a heavily pregnant woman with me."
"Hi Ms James, it's okay, we're early actually, I'm not supposed to be here for another 5 minutes. But I'm so tired so I'm going to have to ask you to hurry up as well. I need to lay down for a while and then we'll go out to dinner, okay?" Steffy smiles at Michala.
"Yeah, that's fine by me. Do you want me to get you in a couple of hours? I have booked us rooms next to each other with adjoining doors, if you just leave that door unlocked I could come wake you up and not have to bang your door." Michala reaches for the computer case and then they start walking to the cab.
~Things happen~
They get to the hotel in one piece and Steffy lays down on the bed for a nap, her luggage is actually still at the hotel, but they were leaving the day after tomorrow, but it really shouldn't be a problem. Steffy knew she needed to take it easy for a day or two due to the stress of traveling and sleeping in unknown beds. As soon as she laid her head down, she was fast asleep.
At one point in time, Michala walked through the door between their rooms took off Steffy´s shoes and pulled a blanket over her as she had fallen asleep in just her maxi dress.
So when she woke up two hours later, she was still warm but a little bewildered, she starts moving about which causes Michala to walk through the door once again.
"Good morning, have a good nap?" She leans against the door frame. "I was about to come wake you up in 20 minutes but I heard you start moving about, so do you want me to book a table?"
Steffy is a little bit surprised.
"Oh, hi Michala! I forgot where I was there a little bit. No, actually, I think I'm craving fast food. French fries and burgers or fish or something like that. Could you maybe find some fish and chips shops? Otherwise McDonald´s would work just fine."
Michala´s eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
"I'm sorry, but does pregnancy really change a person that much? When we worked together in Paris you wouldn't have been caught dead in a McDonald´s restaurant."
Steffy chuckles.
"Well, that's why I'm sending you! Could you get some extra french fries? Salt and pepper on them!" Steffy smirks a little.
"Of course Ms Forrester!" Michala teases. "I'll go find out where to go and find you some food!"
She walks through the door again and then comes back five minutes later.
"I found a Fish and Chip´s place, I'll be back soon! See you in a bit!" Michala waves her hand and then walks back out.
40 minutes later she walks back through the door with a bag with the most delicious smell migrating out of it.
"Oh, delicious!" Steffy almost pounces on the bag and places it on the table to take everything out, then she relaxes back in the chair and enjoys her food.
It doesn't take long until she is moaning in pleasure at getting to eat what she was craving.
"Thank you so much for bringing me this!" Steffy´s eyes sparkles as she puts her hand down the bag once again.
"Your welcome! Didn't eat much on the train?"
"Oh, I ate plenty, but I'm hungry all the time right now and I'll be hungry again in about five minutes after I finish this, which is what the extra fries were for!" Michala nods her head in a Oh, that's why-motion.
"So I should go out and do some shopping then?" Michala raise her eyebrows.
"Yeah, fruits, fruits and vegetables mostly. Tortilla chips, salsa, sour cream and guacamole, bottled water and chocolate!" The sparkle in Steffy´s eyes only intensifies.
"I'll eat up and then go see if I can find a grocery store somewhere." Michala has written a list on the memo-function on her phone listing everything Steffy said.
"Sounds good to me. Maybe a cutting board and a knife too? We can send those to FI after. Or I'll talk to the hotel and ask if I could borrow some or leave the once you buy at the hotel. I'll call down now." Steffy licks her fingers and then moves over to the phone to call the reception.
Meanwhile Michala walks into her room to find a grocery store, she comes back just as Steffy hangs up the phone.
"Room service will loan us a cutting board and a knife due to us not being her for long, so you don't need to buy those. Everything else though I do want you to buy, surprise me!"
"Sounds fun!" She finishes eating and then she's off.
Three hours later she walks back into Steffy´s room and finds Steffy sleeping once again. She fills up the little fridge in Steffy´s room and the fridge in her own room with all she bought and then she goes and wakes Steffy up once again.
"Ms Forrester, you need to wake up now because I really don't think you should sleep like that all night!" She gives a light chuckle.
Steffy stretches and yawns before getting out of bed and into the bathroom to wash off the day and then she pulls on some leggings and a tank top to sleep in.
~Things happen~
Two days later they walk onto the QAII and embark on a journey that isn't that exciting. Everything goes exactly the way it's supposed to and six days later they leave the ship and step foot on American soil once again, because Steffy is thirty six weeks pregnant when she reaches New York, she has an appointment to check on the baby and make sure she's healthy. As she leaves the OB´s office, she has found out that both she and the baby is doing just fine.
Right now she had two and half days of relaxing to do and baby furniture to shop for. She had decided to shop for the baby stuff in New York and have it delivered to the apartment in LA during the time it takes the train to arrive in Los Angeles. It was a really good plan so she calls her big brother to be there in case the delivery happens before she gets there.
Currently she's waiting for him to pick up the phone.
"Hello, Thomas Forrester here!"
"Hi Thomas, this is Steffy. How are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm fine. What's up?"
"Oh, I'm going out on a shopping spree in New York in a little bit and was going to have it delivered to the apartment within five or six days when I get there, but I wanted to know if you could possibly stay at my place and sign for the stuff if I don't get home by that time?" Steffy is playing with the phone cord of the hotel phone while talking to her brother.
"Yeah, sure, I could sign for a few bags of stuff if that's what you want. No problem!"
"Well, it won't be a few bags of stuff, but thank you for doing this for me! You still have the keys right?" Steffy chuckles a little bit.
"What do you mean not a few bags of stuff?" Thomas is confused.
"It's more like big boxes of stuff, oh, and could you clean out the room that I used as storage for me?"
"Yeah sure, it's not like I have anything else to do." Thomas sighs.
"Thank you my dear big brother!" He can hear the smile in her voice as she thanks him. "Oh, by the way, I have a surprise I want to show you and unfortunately you cannot open any of the boxes, only put them in the storage room unopened."
"Oh, now you make me curious!"
"You just have to wait. If the delivery comes before the train arrives, can you come pick me up at the train station?"
"Absolutely, that way I can badger you into telling me your surprise."
"You'll just have to wait and see." There's a knock on her door letting her know that Michala is ready to go shopping.
"Yeah, I guess so. So, I take it you're gonna go on your shopping trip now? I mean, the knock on the door."
"Yes, I am."
"I'll see you later then!"
"Yes you will!"
~Things happen~
The shopping trip was very successful and she now owns a full nursery set and it was being shipped from the store in LA to her apartment the day after she arrives in LA.
So she had called her brother and told him that the delivery had been decided to come after she had already gotten to LA but that she still needed him to come get her at the train station and so, six days later they had just crossed the state lines to California and there was about 3 hours left of the train ride she calls and alerts her brother.
They got to LA right on time, Michala pulls out all of the luggage and goes to take it all out of the train when Thomas walks up to her. Michala and Steffy look practically the same from behind and this is what gets Thomas and the fact that Michala had all of Steffy´s luggage made it all worse.
"Hi sis! What's up?"
And then Steffy walks off the train.
"Hi big brother! What's going on?" Michala rises up and struggles to contain her giggles.
"Well, Thomas seems to think I'm you!"
At this point in time, Thomas looks his sister over and his jaw drops to the ground as he sees her big belly. He picks up his phone, snaps a picture and posts it on Forrester Creations Instagram under the title Look who's back in LA!
Steffy is wearing her signature maxi dress and it reveals her belly either way you look at it and across town just the fact that Steffy is back is causing problem.
Three Logan women were sitting in Brooke´s living room when the picture was posted.
"Oh no! What on earth is that?" Hope is the first one to see the picture. "Why is she doing this to me? Liam and I are finally married and she just have to turn up to cause problems?"
"Hey, maybe she's not here for Liam, she probably knows you're married already." Brooke says and then she notices the bump.
"Why else would she be here mom?" Hope starts panicking.
The news also arrive at Spencer Publications and Liam´s phone is the phone it's being looked at. Bill storms into his sons office.
"Did you know Steffy was coming back today?" Liam just shakes his head. "Did you know that she was pregnant?" Once again Liam just shakes his head. "Do you think it could be yours?"
"Who else could it be?"
As they are talking a man walks into Liam´s office.
"Hi! Are you Liam Spencer?" Liam nods his head. "Here you go!"
He the drops a legal document on Liam´s desk, excuses himself and leaves.
"What are those?" Bill asks.
"They are custody paper as well as ultrasound pictures and a document saying when the baby was conceived and the expected due date, a bunch of information about the progress of the baby."
"So, have you broken up with Steffy yet?"
"Well, I thought me having married another woman would tip her off that we were broken up, she stayed in Paris longer then she had to." Liam is getting a little bit frustrated.
"Well, you don't think she had a valid reason for that? I mean, you have heard what Katie, Brooke and Hope said about her when she was gone, how far do you think that the pregnancy had gotten with those three breathing down her neck telling her how she's in the way of you and Hope´s destiny?" Bill is getting angry with his son. "And look what you did just cause your girlfriend didn't come home when you wanted her to. You went and married the rival."
"Well, Hope was here, Steffy wasn't!"
"Well, why weren't you there with Steffy in Paris then? Why didn't you pack your bags when you got her call telling you to get Hope out of your system, that there was something bigger at stakes and that she was staying in Paris?" Bill slams his hand on Liam´s desk. "It's time you grow up son and take good care of your baby and I'm pretty sure Steffy will not want Hope around her baby so you better talk to Steffy!"
"I don't know why, but I couldn't leave the job and all my family was here." Liam knows his reasons aren't that good.
"Yeah, like you couldn't have the numbers and all that jazz sent through e-mail and then send your editors column through mail. The rest of us would have been fine, all you had to do was stay in touch. There is absolutely nothing here that would warrant you staying here in LA when your girlfriend was in Paris for some time other then you didn't really want to be with her. So, did you not want to be with Steffy or were you punishing her for staying away by marrying Hope?"
Liam just looks at his father like had just gotten punched in the face.
"All my reasons sounded legitimate when I made the decision not to go to Paris, but now after what you've said it doesn't make sense anymore."
A gasp is heard and both men turn around to see a well known face standing in the doorway.
~Things happen~
AN:
So, what do you think?
Is it worth continuing? Please review!