Fandom: One Life to Live
Title: Do-Over
Characters: Rex Balsom and Adriana Cramer
Pairing: Rex/Adriana
Rating/Warnings: PG. AU, Het.
Summary: Takes place three months after the wedding, when Rex and Adriana are getting divorced. Gigi did tell everyone at the wedding that Shane is Rex's son. With everything that's going on, how's Rex going to react when he finds out the secret Adriana has been keeping from him?
A/N: Thanks to Judy for betaing and to anyone who reads and reviews.
Disclaimer: I don't own OLTL, Adriana and Rex, or anything you recognize. I don't claim to own them and I make no profit for writing this.
Words: 1,233 words without title and ending.
*Do-Over* One-Shot
Adriana had been avoiding Rex ever since their disastrous attempt at a wedding. She constantly had nightmares of Gigi standing up at their wedding and proclaiming her love for Rex. It also didn't help that she had been holding something back from her husband. Adriana knew that she was going to have to tell Rex eventually. He had a right to know that he was going to be a father, again. The only problem was the thought of telling Rex made her want to vomit, because of everything that was going on.
They were in the middle of getting a divorce and this was the worst time to discover her dream of being a mother. It was why she had been avoiding Rex and all their friends since the wedding. Adriana couldn't stand the thought of telling Rex that she was pregnant, only to find out that he had decided to pick up his relationship with Gigi and become a family with her and their son.
The thought of not being able to share her pregnancy with her baby's father, hurt her in ways she could never have imagined. She had always pictured herself and Rex with a family a few years down the road, after they had gotten married. Sure, they had talked about having a family. Now that it was happening though, Adriana couldn't do anything but panic. As all of these thoughts ran through her mind, she froze when a knock sounded on her apartment door.
She had been refusing to show up for any modeling jobs, had put her career on the backburner and had returned from Paris, only to drop out sight and remain that way. Now, though, the thought of facing anyone made her want to hide. She squared her shoulders and got ready to answer the door. Adriana pulled a sweater on over the blouse she wore, and having decided not to bother hiding the small swell of her pregnancy anymore, she forced herself to leave her bedroom and face the person who awaited her.
As she entered the kitchen, she took a moment to calm herself and then walked over to the door to open it. It took her a few moments, but then Adriana removed the chain and undid the deadbolt before she opened the door. She was surprised to find Rex standing there and as she moved to close the door in his face, she was surprised again, when Rex gently but insistently pushed past her and walked into the apartment. Unable to stop herself she asked, "What are you doing here?"
When Rex didn't immediately respond, Adriana closed the door once more and turned to face him. As she tried to get him to answer her, she spoke again. "Rex, what the hell is going on?" She fell silent when Rex looked up and met her eyes, and the pain and sadness she saw in them made her wonder if something had happened. After several more minutes without Rex bothering to speak, Adriana sighed and headed for the couch to take a seat on. She felt more than heard Rex following her, and figured that he needed a minute to get a grip on himself before he could speak.
As the two of them sat in the living room, Adriana on the couch and Rex in the recliner, Adriana remained silent as she waited for Rex to speak. It wasn't long before he straightened up and said, "I know that things have gotten out of hand, that we haven't talked to each other or spent time together in the months since the wedding, but I want to change that. Before you ask, Gigi and I aren't together. The two of us are in the process of working things out where Shane's concerned, but that's the extent of things between us."
Rex took a deep breath and then paused when his gaze landed on the slight swell of Adriana's stomach. He froze for a moment and then looked up and met his wife's eyes. Yes, they were in the process of getting a divorce, but that was only because Rex had thought he was in love with Gigi, though he now knew he wasn't. After a moment, Rex started to speak again anyway. "I want us to try again, Adriana. We can go as slow as you want and I'll back off when you ask. I just want us to have a second chance, a chance for us to be a family."
As he spoke, Rex gestured to Adriana's slightly rounded stomach. "I don't know when you were going to tell me about the baby, but now that I know, a few things that were bugging me for the last couple of months are starting to make sense. I understand that you aren't ready yet to tell everyone that you're pregnant, but you should have at least told me. When Layla told me that you quit taking modeling jobs and had stopped going out in public, I had thought you were hurt."
Rex paused for a moment and then continued, letting his wife know how much he still cared. "I still care about you, Adriana. I'm still in love you. It's the reason why I came here, to see if you're alright. I don't want to continue filing for divorce. I want to see if we can try and stick things out, make our marriage work." When Rex finished speaking, he sat back in the recliner and got comfortable as he waited to see how his wife was going to reply to everything he had said.
It wasn't long before Adriana pushed her dark hair out of her face and then started to speak. "I don't know about you, but with everything that's happened, I don't think we can go back to what we once were. I think we should call a do-over and get to know each other again. The days up to our wedding and the days following our wedding, were some of the worst of my life. The things I said and the way I acted has shown me that I still need to do a little growing up."
Rex nodded at his wife's words and after a moment, when he was sure she had finished, he got up and joined her on the couch. "I think that we should take some time to get to know each other again. You can come to my apartment or I can come here to yours, but we should spend some time together, getting to know each other again. If we want to try and make our marriage work, for our sake and the baby's, then we need to be able to be around each other again."
Adriana nodded at his words, and then she stiffened for a moment when Rex put his arms around her. After a few moments though, she let her guard down and relaxed into his touch. Things weren't perfect between the two of them, not by a long shot, but at least they were trying. What mattered was that they were talking again and that Rex knew about the baby. Everything else would work itself out in time, though whether that meant they would be together or not, only time would tell. That didn't stop Adriana from loving her husband and hoping they would be together, whatever happened.
The end.
