A/N: This chapter reveals a secret, but to which character?
I don't own My So Called Life... so sad. Other characters are MINE. No stealing!
Jordan sat in Red's driver's seat, trying to wrap his head around what had just happened. When he checked the glove box and sat back up, he found Kaelan sitting in the front seat.
He jumped and tilted his head back. Closing his eyes, he brought a hand up to cover them.
"How did it go?" she asked, smiling slightly.
"How did what go?" he asked.
"You know…" she leaned in closer. "With Angela…"
"She doesn't believe me," he answered, closing his eyes and resting his head. "She doesn't think you're like… real."
"What did you expect?" Kaelan asked. "Did you really think she'd believe you?"
"I'd hoped she would…" he confessed. He really had. He thought she'd be able to talk to him now, why was she pushing him away?
"Tell you what…" Kaelan sat up just a little straighter. "I'll talk to her tonight."
"I don't think she'll listen…" Jordan gripped her arm.
"Just trust me," Kaelan broke loose from his grip and got out of the car.
Angela finished putting the baby into her crib and got into bed herself. She was so tired… Rayanne had planted herself on to Angela's bedroom floor and with Jordan coming by so late… it had just exhausted her. It didn't help that Kelly had entered the stage where babies just don't like anything no matter what she did.
It almost seemed that as soon as she closed her eyes, she was jolted awake again. Something was sitting at the end of her bed. Letting her eyes adjust, she sat up and got a closer look.
Not something, but someone.
Someone was sitting on the end of Angela's bed.
"Who are you?" Angela whispered, careful not to wake the baby or Rayanne. This girl looked familiar, but Angela couldn't remember her name. The brown hair and hazel eyes certainly seemed like…
"You're Jordan's friend, aren't you?" Angela whispered, sitting up in bed.
The figure nodded.
"The one he was telling me about…"
Kaelan nodded again.
Angela rubbed her eyes. "I almost didn't believe him…"
"And I can see why you'd be, like… put off." Kaelan answered. "It's weird for anybody to actually like, think that they can see ghosts."
Angela tilted her head to the side and crawled across the mattress to sit face to face with Kaelan. Reaching out, she took a lock of Kaelan's chestnut hair into her hand.
It was weightless.
So it was true. Jordan had been telling her the truth. There weren't very many opportunities for him to actually talk to her. Why hadn't she listened?
Because Jordan wasn't very trustworthy.
"Why are you here?" Angela asked as she let Kaelan's hair slip from her grasp.
"Because Jordan asked me to be," Kaelan looked over to the floor to see Rayanne shift in her sleep. "He wants to be with you again, he misses you."
Angela scoffed. "No he doesn't."
"Do you realize that he hasn't been home since Sunday?"
"How would I know that, and why would I care?"
"Because he's the father of your child!" Kaelan nearly shouted. "Don't you think he has a right to know her?"
"He won't care," Angela insisted.
"How do you know? You haven't told him."
"I don't know how…" Kelly shifted in her sleep. Angela got out of bed and checked the crib. All Kelly had done was shift and gurgle. She wasn't up for food yet.
Kaelan put a finger to her own lip in concentration. Maybe there was some way Angela and Jordan could 'accidentally' run into each other the next day. Maybe there was some way she could set it up so that neither knew what the other had planned. Maybe she could convince Angela to take Kelly for a walk the next morning, and have Jordan be surprised. After all, he had to work the next morning. If Kaelan could accomplish at least that much, the rest would play itself out.
"Hey, uh, Angela…" Kaelan turned to face the new mom who was ready to climb back into bed. "Do you take Kelly for walks in the stroller in the mornings?"
"Sure, all the time, why?"
"I've got something to ask you."
"Okay…"
"Go to Jordan's uncle's garage tomorrow, but put Kelly in a snuggly while you're walking, that way it won't look so, like, suspicious." Yes, that would work. That would work really well.
"What are you getting at?" Angela raised her eyebrow.
"Tell him…" Kaelan insisted. "Don't wait anymore, don't torture him. But more importantly, don't torture yourself." Kaelan reached over and gave Angela a quiet hug. "He needs to know, and you need that closure."
For a few minutes Angela didn't know what to think. She hadn't spoken to Jordan in over a year, except for that one minute exchange earlier that night.
She didn't know if she could do it.
First of all, what would she say, and how would Jordan react to learning that he had a daughter?
Kaelan disappeared and reappeared next to Jordan in his car.
"What did she say?" he asked.
"Just be walking up her driveway at 8AM tomorrow." With that, Kaelan vanished as Jordan pulled a blanket around himself and curled up in Red's backseat. He wasn't going home tonight; his old man was drunk again.
And Kaelan was acting weird.
8AM rolled around, and sure enough, Jordan was walking up the driveway about the same time that Angela was walking out the front door with Kelly in a snuggly, attached to her front.
He stopped, and she walked toward him.
She was so beautiful, he was afraid to reach out to her, to touch her.
"Hi…" she spoke first.
"Hi…" he looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. "I… uh…" he stammered, looking up at her. He couldn't quite see what Angela was carrying.
Angela stepped just a little closer and put a finger to his lips. Leaning forward, she unbuckled the snuggly and passed the bundle to Jordan.
Now Jordan was no expert at this, but as soon as he held this little… thing and got a look at the little girl's face, he was speechless.
She looked just like him.
Angela hadn't said anything and neither had Kaelan, but as soon as he looked at baby, the name rolling off his tongue just felt right.
"Hi Kelly…" he whispered.