(A/N: One of the very first (and admittedly, IMO, very worst) That '80s Show fanfics in existance. I have no idea there were anymore. This fanfic has been edited as of July 8th, 2005 to make me feel a little less embarrassed to show it off on my author's page.)
Tuesday's P.O.V.
He never knew. He hadn't had the slightest clue about it at all. No one knew. Except me, and the people in the room at the time (which consisted of a few nurses and a DCorey should've known, but he just didn't.
Everything is so messed up right now, I don't know what to do. There's a telephone on the little table to my left, but I don't know if I can get up the courage to tell. I just couldn't tell anyone, even my closest friends -- Not that I, that tough girl who has no kind bone in her body has any at all, that is.
Corey would understand, wouldn't he? He was nice. I thought of calling Margaret, she'd understand. But then again, she'd probably blab (knowing Margaret). So I just sit here, thinking. It's been ten hours since the hardest time of my life, and I don't think I have that kind of courage in my right now. Maybe if I just rest, lay my head on this comfortable, blue pillow tucket gently behind my head, I'd feel better tomorrow. It was 11:00 PM.
I can't.
I just know, Katie, Corey's sister wouldn't be able to hold the secret. But I had to tell someone. She'd probably blab it out on accident. I can picture it now.
Corey would walk into the kitchen, where Katie would be chattering on the phone with me.
"What are you doing?" Corey would most likely say, staring at the watch he didn't have.
"I'm just talking to Tuesday about----" She would say...
Then she'd blurt it out. Tell the whole thing. I hadn't talked to them for over six months, maybe even seven. Was it that long? I can't remember. Anyways, it wouldn't be poor old Katie's fault, she's just that kind of girl who accidently does things like that. She's really kind though, of course. Why am I being so nice and goopy?
I should call him. He does have a right to know. It's such an important thing. I mean, isn't it? Sure, it happens quite often to people. I know that.
Stop beating yourself up, Tuesday.
I took a deep breath and laid my head on the pillow, which's hair isn't in its usual position, half-way touching the ceiling, like usual. I put it down almost immediantly after I had found out about the little secret. Maybe if I just think back, remember the old times, I'll feel better. Yes. Better, better...
The young man walked into the store, taking off a late-Winter jacket, and walked to the back of the store, throwing it on top of an old box. "You're late," came a cranky old voice of Margaret, who stomped out of her office, glaring at Corey, her eyes full of anger. "Uh, Margaret..."
"Yeah?" She asked, that way she always asked it.
"I'm always late." He defended.
"Oh yeah... Well, don't let me catch me seeing you do it again." Margaret pressured.
"Sure, fine. Whatever."
Corey walked over to the counter he usually stood behind, a smile on his face. "Good morning, Tuesday. How was your day yesterday?" I coughed, "Uhm, you were with me last night." Corey blinked, "So you had a good time then.. Uhh.." He walked behind the counter. "Why're you wearing your hair down?"
I smiled. "... Ooooh, my gods tells me it is not a day where I should have my hair pointing to the sky." Corey blinked. I took a seat in a stool, my jacket making slight creasing noises, stretching out some.
"Really, Tuesday, are you alright?"
I looked into those eyes. Those eyes. "I'm fine. Fine.." He didn't believe it, and walked up, wrapping his arms around my sides.
"You don't need to lie, Tues."
I felt like telling him then.
"Really, Corey, nothing is wrong, okay? Nothing at all." We weren't up to biting our heads off much that time as we had in the past, ever since we had started dating. Tell him, Tuesday, tell him. He'll understand. Tell him! My mind kept on yelling at me as though another person. It was really odd, I thought. I should've told him then, yes, it would've been better.
"Do you ever think of.. Getting married? Having kids? All that other stuff." I asked, looking at him with a look that may or may've not told him my secret.
"Well, not right now. I mean.. I'm a struggling musician. I mean, REALLY struggling. I'd rather wait for later, but if you'd like to get married----..."
"No, no. Just asking. What about kids?"
"Well, Katie is a handful in herself. Maybe if she wouldn't of dropped out of the school she would've had some manners. Someday, I guess... Heh, think of ours, Spikey haired little boys and girls. Freakshows like their mother."
I frowned. "Corey, remember, we said we weren't going to make fun of each other anymore?"
"Aww, I'm sorry sweetie-pie. Wanna hug-and make-up?" Corey pooched out his lips, and then gave a slight laugh.
Suddenly, a dazzling, young, beautiful girl entered. She glared at the two. "Why hello, Sophia," I giggled.
"... Like gag me with a spoon," was the reply the girl gave.
"Hey, Sophia," Corey said. "Come to ask if you could go out with me again? Well, too bad, I'm already taken."
Sophia found that hysterically funny and began laughing hard, it was as though she might of exploded. "Your sister is better looking than you, Corey... No, that's not a compliment."
"Oh, dykey Daisy made a joke." I said, getting very annoyed.
Sophia snuffed. "Heya, Tuesday.. At least I'm not named after a day of the week."
"Ugh..." I said, tension rising.
Margaret suddenly walked in. Sophia stopped, "Why hello, ma'am. Are you the boss here?"
Margaret blinked, "What's it to you, blondie?"
Sophie put her hands on the counter, "Well, it seems your two 'workers' are insulting me."
Margaret looked to me then over to Corey, "Yep. They're the best I ever had."
Sophia growled. "I'll.. I'll.. I'll ban you all from my club! And then.. Then you can't come there anymore!"
"Well, my dad will only let Katie go there if I do, too."
"...Dang. Fine, maybe I won't.. But I'll see that everyone knows that you insult customers!" She stopped out. The door made a ring as she left.
"Corey?" I blinked.
"Yeah?"
"I--- I.." Tell him. "-- Wanna go out sometime... Uh... Again?"
--
That's the morning I began to feel it.
The jolting in my stomach. Pain. It hurt so bad. And it hurt worse to keep it a secret from Corey. I don't know why I held it back. Maybe it would've been better if I did tell. Then there'd be someone here with me. Heck, he probably doesn't even know I'm in the same town as he is.
He probably gave up worrying about me. I've been gone for about seven months. About that amount of time, anyways. The sickness was the worst part of it. Especially having anyone to go through it with.
...And all those stares. People just STARED at me like I was an animal or something. I had grown use to it with my hair always up. But they stared at me in a more worse of a look. It freaked me out.
I heard a telephone ring, and a few voices. It came from outside the room, I could tell. I stared toward the window. I could see a tree, it was pretty much bare, except for a few colorful, crunchy, dried-up old leaves.
Just pick up the phone.
I can't. No... No, I won't. Not tonight. I don't want to wake Corey. I don't want him to get upset... He probably wouldn't care much about me now anyways. Or maybe...
Maybe what, Tuesday? Maybe WHAT?
Shut up and call. Call him. Tell him all about it. He won't care. He'll still love you, help take care of you two, too. Yes... Wouldn't he? He was always so kind and caring when they were together. He would understand. Wouldn't he? I mean, you know, I didn't want people to know that I was like that or anything, so I left.
I picked up the phone, and began to dial his number. I heard each beep as I hit a button. Each one came closer to him. "Hello?" A cool voice finally said on the other line. I couldn't say anything. "Who is this? Margaret? Sophia? Is that you? I told you I won't go out with you--"
I hung up.
Stop being so cowardly!
I can't help it. Leave me alone.. I'm really messed up, arguing with myself. I could probably carry on all night. Maybe I will, and maybe if I tell myself he'll still love me, he still will. If I call him back, and he hears my voice -- knows it's my voice -- he'll ask where I am. I'll tell him, but first I'll explain why I was gone. What a phone-bill that'd run up, eh?
--
The workday was almost over. Corey had made plans that we'd chill over at his place -- Since he had let Katie go "shopping" with Sophia.. Of course after cautioning her about how Sophia wants her in a different way than when she wanted to go see Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.
So, after I finished counting all the money we had earned that afternoon (which had dropped lower than it usually had by -- Oh, five bucks,) I informed Margaret on the total. "Ten bucks." Margaret let out a low grunt in the back. "Oh yay! Now, lets go spend it on some candies!"
Margaret and her smart remarks. I think she really had a kind heard inside. Although she never showed it at all. Many people were afraid to. I think she was one of those people.
Ready?"
Oh.." I snapped back to reality, "Yeah, sure."
Right, then, I'll drive." He informed me.
What about my car then?" I asked.
You can uh.. leave it here?"
Fine..."
Don't worry, people usually don't hi-jack cars drivn by witches," Margaret yowled from the back.
"God, I don't need this---" That was the first time I had ever really broke down hearing those cruel remarks. Margaret looked up from her desk. Corey stared at her.
"Thanks." I heard all this before I walked out the door into the cool day.
I stood there, actually crying. Me, that tough-girl with the spiked-up hair. Well, not with the spiked up hair then, but.. You know...
I wept until I felt I couldn't anymore. Then I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Tues. It s'kay. Margaret didn't mean it." He thought I was really crying about that. Him of all people. I guess in a way I was crying about that, but it was just what set off the water-works, I guess. Because all of these other things on my mind--..
The pregnancy.
He wrapped his left arm around my shoulders protectively. "That's not what's got you down, is it?" He wiped a tear off of my cold cheek. "Not really--.. But the other thing is... Well, I'll tell you later.. I guess.."
--
Why the hell didn't I tell him then? He would've understood!
I was a coward then. I still am now. I can't tell him about the baby. Which was back in a room where all the other crying little babies were. I wish I could've just held onto that baby forever. Part of him. I sighed, leaning back once again, closing my eyes.
"You are?" Corey asked.
"Heh.." I said.
"That's great!"
I opened my eyes. Maybe he would've said that. Maybe he wouldn't be that happy. RT (his old man) probably would've been the biggest problem. Unless he wasn't happy, then he'd be the biggest problem. But I know Corey, he probably would've been excited. He's so full of energy, and caring too.
You can tell this by how he is around Katie. He never really yelled and hollered at her. Did he? He was nice about that. Really nice. He never put a hand on her. Well, maybe he pushed her around, playfully, once- and-a-while. He didn't mind that she had dropped out of school either... Come to think of it, RT and everyone else didn't either.
I began to stare up at the ceiling. It was white. With an exception to the black little dots that were pushed in on it, and also the dark black creases that created squares. I began to think again, about those days...
--
We had had a great time at his house. We watched a little TV, he cooked some supper too. (He wasn't very good at that.. Hey! Neither am I.) I could still taste that warmed-up pizza. Okay, okay, he didn't exactly cook up a supper. He warmed up a supper.
I didn't tell him about the problem that night. I had been waiting. Forever.
It was a Tuesday when I got up my nerve to try to again (funny, eh?). It had been two weeks since I had known. I sat behind the counter where I always sit, looking through a magazine which showed different people with their hair-spiked up. Corey was talking with Margaret in the back room.
"Couldn't I just have a ten-dollar raise?"
"No!" Shouted his boss.
"Five?" He asked, hoping for atleast that.
"Seven?" Margaret asked.
"Twelve!" Corey said.
"DEAL!" Margaret shouted, slamming her fist on her desk.
Foolish. I laughed. It felt good to laugh after all that time. Sickness and all. Suddenly Corey walked out of the office, a smile on his face. A giant smile. I smiled back, not being able to help it. "Here that? Twelve-dollar raise!"
"Cool," I said, not much happiness in it.
"You want one too? Aww, I'll share."
"No thanks," I closed the magazine.
"... Are you sick or something? I mean, you've had to visit the bathroom twice today... Both times you were worshipping the throne." Corey looked over at me, and questioning quirk in his eyebrows.
"Uhmm... yeah, I guess I kinda am.. But there's more to it.. Maybe I should tell you it, too.." I looked down, catching my hands knotted together, and my thumbs rubbing together nervously. Corey smiled, walking over to the counter and leaned on it, facing the door.
"What is it, Tues?"
"Well, Corey----"
"Yeah?"
"You're--"
Suddenly the door to the front of the store swung open. I swept around in my stool, seeing Roger, one of Corey's friends whom had moved in with him a while back. "Hey, my bro."
"... Roger..." Corey glared.
"Yeah?" Roger asked, a smile on his face.
"Lose the 'bro' thing. I told you to do that A LONG time ago.."
"Hey, fine.. dude?" Roger said, pleased with the word he just now began using.
"What is it you want, Roger?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just-uh.. RT-- You know.. Your dad.. He was wondering about Sophia's --that chick who swings both ways'-- phone number. Do you know it?"
"Why'd you come all the way down here to get a phone number?"
"There's five bucks in it for me. And I don't ever have to pay rent again.." Roger smiled.
"You don't pay rent. You never payed rent."
"Oh, well, then I don't have to worry about ever having too, then, do I?"
Roger pulled out a pen and paper. "Here." Corey sighed, and walked over to Roger. His friend patted him on the back as he bended down and wrote Sophia's number on the paper. "There you are."
"Thanks bro... I mean--dude!" Roger smiled, walking backwards, and rammed into the door.
--
If Roger hadn't walked in just then..
RT just had to have that phone number, didn't he? I sighed, and pulled my slumpy figure up, so I didn't look like I was just a piece of flub. I'm going to call him tonight. I'm going to tell him. I have to. I know I do. It wouldn't be right if I didn't. If I don't, and I wait a day or so after today, I might never get up the courage to do it.
I have to do it tonight. I know this. There's no turning back, Tues. No turning back..
No turning back.
A little under two months it had been. I had began to notice it was starting to show.. I still hadn't told him, either. Maybe I should now. Let him know about this. I have to! I will! I yelled at myself all day, and finally when I got to work, he was there. Early.
"Hey, Tues," he said, walking up to me. We kissed.
Tell him now, I told myself. Now, now now! I began to speak:
"Corey, I need to tell you something really important. Something I should've told you a long time ago, a very long time ago--.."
"Sure." He said, calmly.
I had run this through my head so many times.
"I'm---" I stopped. "Nevermind... Nevermind... Just forget it."
"Uh.. Okay.." He blinked.
I finished up my work for the day, and after Corey left, I made up my mind. I was going to leave. I went home after work, and packed my bags, a frown on my face. I cried most of the time, as I loaded my stuff into my car. The neighbors looked at me with an odd frown.
They know I didn't want to go either, thats what I thought. I put most of the bags in the trunk, and put a few things in the back seat. Then I got in the drivers seat, started up the car, and drove off. Without another thought.
The next thing I knew, I was over seven-hundred miles away from that town. The town where Corey was. The town where everyone I knew was. Besides my family, anyways. But I didn't care. Not now. Even though I did think about it a little. I brushed it off.
I found a job at a Women's Crisis Center. I helped several different people, but mostly a girl who went by the name of "Sarah." I talked to her often, yes. She had an interesting life. Except for how her boyfriend hit her. One day, she told me she had gotten pregnant, and was afraid him hitting her would kill the baby.
I suggested she should tell him...
The next day she talked on the phone in a more calm of a voice, "He won't hit me anymore.. He promised. Especially after I told him. He said he always wanted to have a baby.. I never would've guessed." But of course, I thought that was really messed up.. He only stopped hitting her because of that.
I have to tell him. Now. Right now. I know he would've wanted to know this. I know he would've wanted to know he had a child, Andrew Corey... Little Andy? She looked at the phone. Call him.
I dialed the numbers.
Ring, repeat. Ring, repeat. Finally it was picked up.
"Hello?"
"Corey?"
"Who's sp--Tuesday?" Excitement came to the voice.
"Yeah.. It's me..."
"Where are you? Huh? Where?"
"The hospital."
"Why are you there? Huh? Did something happen to you? Are you sick? What?"
"Just come.."
"Okay.. I just can't believe thi--"
I hung up. He was coming.
I waited for about fifteen minutes till the door opened, a nurse walking in first. "Someone here to visit you.." Then she saw him. Corey. He looked exactly the same as he always had.
She smiled. "Hello, Corey." He walked to me, a weird look on his face.
"I thought you left for good.. I can't believe this-- .. I missed you.." He looked her over. "Why're you in this hospital?"
I gave a weak smile. Tell him. "I had a baby."
Corey blinked, "You what?"
"I had our baby. Andrew Corey Howard."
Corey stood there, bent over, staring at me. Shock in his face. He looked as if he had found out he had AIDs or he was marrying Sophia or something. "You d-uh-duh-did?" He seemed breathless.
"Yes.."
"God, I didn't know you were even... Is that why you left?"
"Yes..."
"Jesus.. You should've told.."
"I know.. But I couldn't."
The nurse, who apparently was listening in, and thought it was like a Soap Opera, walked in. "Would you like to see your child, 'sir?" Corey looked at me and then looked back to the nurse, giving a retarded sorta' crooked grin, before finally nodding.
The nurse hurried out. I bit my lip. Hmm.. When she came back she had the baby wrapped in her arms. It was stirring some. "Here he is." She handed the bundle gently to Corey.
Corey was still in shock, he looked up at me, and down back at the baby. He gave a little smile. "Has your face," he exclaimed.
"Yeah.. Probably will have your eyes or hair."
"Yeah, probably." He bounced it gently. "I.. gosh.. I can't believe this.. I mean.. I didn't even know you were still alive. I thought the Russians kidnapped you because they thought you were a secret weapon with that hair and--" I put a finger to his lips. He paused.
.. As I stared up at Corey and the baby, I felt happy, for once in these past, horrible nine months. But I lived through each and every minute of them. I lived to see this. Even though we had had a couple fights when we first began dating, we were here, together. Plus we had a baby. I'm the luckiest person ever...
(A/N: Good or bad? R/R. Definitely an older fanfic and not my best.)