How We Got Here Today
Hello everyone. I said until at least one of my other stories were done I wouldn't be posting others but I thought of this one a couple nights ago and couldn't let it go. It will be roughly around a three-parter. Maybe more depending on the REVIEWS! Please do and pray for this week's episode, it looks fantastic.
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"Yeah, I thought maybe you'd wanna be here."
"You did? I mean, I didn't know if you wanted me to be there or not, we never really talked about it."
"I think you should be here. He's your son."
Ricky tried to swallow as he was on the phone, trying to process all the information Amy had just told him. They were going to have a baby! A son!
And he was coming, now.
"I'll be right there." He answered calmly, trying to bundle his nerves up in the back of his mind. His child was coming into the world at any moment. He couldn't be nervous. "Okay then, I'll…uh see you in a bit." She said quietly hanging up.
Ricky raced to get his shoes on, dropping all the stuff he had been working on before Amy had called. He ran up the stairs two-by-two and almost bumped into Margaret.
"Ricky! Where the hell are you going all out of breathe like that?" His foster mother asked as he scrambled his mind to get some sort of answer out.
"Amy…baby…she called and uh coming…labor." He sputtered out sounding like an idiot. Margaret widened her eyes as her mouth curled into a smile. "Go on boy we'll catch up with you in a while." Ricky hugged her goodbye and grabbed his keys. He had a son to meet.
Amy felt the cramps intensify as she wobbled down the empty hallway with Ben. She rubbed her stomach hoping to soothe her baby boy's kicks but so far, nothing helped. "I hate seeing you in all this pain Amy." Ben stated as they turned to make it back to where her family and his dad were waiting for them.
"Ben it's okay, this is what labor is really about." She said quietly, holding his hand and the railing. "No it's not, as much as I want to meet this little one I can't help to think if he had just…well this is his entire fault. Don't worry about a thing."
Amy turned to face him for the first time he had arrived. "Ben, I…uh appreciate your concern but this is not all his fault. It's really not. As much as I've wanted to blame him all these past months I've realized that I can't. I can't put my child's father out in the cold just like that. We both made this error in judgment. Were both responsible."
Ben gulped slightly, not thinking that Amy, his Amy was going to jump to that drummer's defense so easily. It didn't sit with him well.
They made their way back to the others just as the nurse came out with some sort of sentence. "Amy Juergens, were ready for you." She smiled as Amy and Anne got up to go follow them into the delivery room. The room where her son would be born. Ben hugged her goodbye along with Ashley and George who wished the best of luck. Word had gotten out after the almost-shower. Adrian was arriving later along with Grace and Jack and Henry and Alice were thinking about stopping by for Ben's support. The waiting room would be packed.
"All right Amy, Dr. Hightower will be in a little to check your progress. For right now just try to relax and be comfortable." Amy smiled as Anne leaned back in a cushy chair. They would be there for awhile.
"Now is the father coming? We will need to alert him when the time comes."
Amy scanned over to Anne who gave her an emotionless smile. The decision was hers. Not Ben's, or George's or even Anne's. It was Amy's.
Amy sat up a little, putting a hand over her stomach trying to savor the feeling while it last. In a few hours her stomach would be empty, motionless. And she was going to miss it.
"He should be on his way. Notify him when he gets here. He'll need to know. It's his baby too." She said quietly, shocking herself and even her mother as the words spilled out of her mouth. The nurse smiled and left the room, giving them some alone time.
"I'm proud of you Amy, I'm proud of you including Ricky in this final process. This baby boy will need both of you." Amy nodded slowly, looking out the window waiting for his car. She knew she shouldn't have been, especially with Ben just down the hall but couldn't help it. As much as she had tried to not include Ricky over the past nine months, she had just done now. She did at this moment when everything really counted. When their child was coming to them.
He still had some of his charm over her. It's what had made their little boy in the first place. She may be in "love" with Ben at the moment. But, he wasn't the first to hold her heart. And now it was all coming back. The feeling, the rush, the emotion. She bit back her tears and swallowed.
It was like she was falling for Ricky all over again.
And she didn't know how to stop it.
Ben slumped down in a hard seat next to Ashley after he said goodbye to Amy. He sat there thinking on how he wished it could be his baby she was having or how he was the one to take her virginity. He wished a lot of things actually. But so far, none of them had come true, and those two most importantly would never change. They belonged to Ricky Underwood. Amy's first for almost everything.
"How are you holding up?" Ashley asked as Ben sighed and put the magazine down. George and Leo had gone down to the cafeteria, hoping to get everybody some food before the big showdown as George liked to call it.
"I'm okay I guess. I mean I wish I was back there with her and that it was my baby but some things you just can't change." He answered as Ashley shook her head. "You know you were never going to go back there." Ben glanced up at her curious. "What are you talking about?"
Ashley leaned back and mumbled. "Amy wouldn't want you back there while she was all exposed like that, there's only one person who's ever seen her like that and he looked a lot different then you." Ben glared at her, cracking his knuckles which made her jump.
"But Amy didn't love Ricky; she just…made a mistake. Besides, I was the one that made her call Ricky today for the sake of the baby. She didn't even want to. And look he's not even here." Ben added. Ashley rolled her eyes and got up to get water.
"Keep telling yourself that." She said with a smirk while pointing to the nearest elevator. There was Ricky all ghost-like and nervous looking. For the first time ever Ben saw him scared. He gulped and realized that maybe Ashley was rooting for a different guy for her sister. The father.
George and Leo had come back to see Ben sulking in the chair and Ashley talking to a scared-looking Ricky. "What's he doing here?" George whispered as they sat down with some burgers.
"I guess he came for the baby." Leo said glancing at his own son who looked nervous and alone. "Well some timing." George muttered.
"She just went in." Ashley said as Ricky looked around like a deer in the headlights. "Okay well I'll just wait out here with you guys I guess. My foster parents are coming a little later. They got held up at home." Ricky answered quietly as he took a seat next to Ashley, on the farthest side away from Ben. He didn't need to deal with him right now.
"Do you know how she is?" He asked a couple minutes later. Ashley shook her head slightly. They haven't told us anything yet but I'm sure it hurts. I mean she's pretty tiny and well, the baby's a big one." Ashley answered. "Really?" Ricky asked. "Yeah she didn't tell you? It's at least a big one for a fifteen-year-old. Almost eight pounds."
Ricky looked at his feet, basically in shame. If it wasn't for him Amy wouldn't have to push their son out into the world, hurting herself along the way. Ashley seemed to notice that her nephew's father had gone paler since they had sat down and grabbed his hand.
"She'll be okay, they both will, you too. You're all stronger than I thought." Ricky managed a grateful smile as he saw Ben start to glare at them across the hall. He suddenly felt a surge of bravery and turned to Ashley whispering, "I'm going to take care of him, both of them actually. I won't let her down again."
Ashley finally seemed grateful of him and smiled.
"I knew you were the better one."
Anne reached for a cup of ice as Amy's contractions came off and on. They had been pretty brutal the last half hour and poor Amy almost couldn't take it. Anne pushed her daughter's bangs out of her eyes and smiled.
"Amy your doing great. We're halfway there." Amy nodded back and chewed some ice as the last cramp finally passed. Anne sat back down in the chair and tried to distract her daughter from the pain. "Have you thought of any names yet honey?" Amy gasped realizing it was the thing she had forgotten. "No I mean…I guess I'll have to wait till' he's here to see what he looks like. And Ricky might have some so…"
Anne nodded and reassured her daughter that letting Ricky come into the final step was a good thing. "I'm so proud of you." Amy let a tear slip down her cheek as her mom got up to go get a drink.
Ben had been wrong. She had been wrong. Her dad had been wrong. Her friends, Adrian, everyone had been wrong. Ricky was capable of doing this, raising their son with her. She just hadn't given him the chance. All these months and nothing she did had involved him up to this. All the classes, appointments, books, everything she had done without him. The other half of this child inside her.
She had left him out. Forgotten him and his involvement. The nurse came in at that moment to check on her IV's and Amy gave her a weak smile. "It's almost over dear, your strong." The nurse turned to leave when Amy croaked out.
"You okay honey?" She asked. Amy nodded only to let out the tight humble in her chest.
"I need you to go get the dad. I want him here, we both do."
