Prompt: Regret

"There you go, mama," Derek said as he helped Penelope back into her desk chair.

"I can't believe we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was so, so…."

"Amazing," Derek finished for her, "It was amazing."

She smiled, "Did I mention how glad I am that you were there with me? Have I thanked you?"

"No need to thank me, goddess I wanted to be there. I told you I want to be there for every single moment of this pregnancy."

"Well isn't that lovely," both turned when they heard Kevin's voice.

"Kevin," Penelope said, smiling through the tension she felt bouncing off the walls and within herself, "I just got back from the doctor and the baby is doing great."

"I heard you got to hear the heartbeat that must have been nice for you and your boyfriend." He glared at Derek the entire time he spoke

Penelope's face dropped, "I'm sorry, Kevin, my appointment time got changed and I tried to call you."

"Sure," he said, looking away from Derek, "can we maybe talk about it without him here? He's not really a part of this."

Derek gritted his teeth, wanting to tell Kevin to go to hell, but knowing it wasn't his right. Instead, he leaned down to Penelope, "Want do you want me to do, Pen?"

She smiled tightly, "Could you just give us a few minutes to talk?"

He nodded and kissed her cheek, then said loudly, "I'll be right outside if you need me." He shot Kevin a meaningful look and left.

Kevin closed the door behind him and turned to her, "What the hell are you doing here Penelope? You know you can't magically make that baby Derek's."

"Of course not," Penelope said, her eyes widening, "I'd never do that, Kevin. I'm not trying to…to push you out of this baby's life. I'm sorry about the doctor's appointment today, but really, I want you to be part of our child's life if that's what you want."

"Then marry me."

"We've talked about this."

"Yes, and you gave me some crazy reason about wanting to give Derek a chance and him being there for you and wanting to be part of the baby's life that was ridiculous. Penelope sooner or later Derek is going to realize that he doesn't want to play daddy to another guy's kid and he's going to find greener pastures."

"Stop it," she said, almost yelling at this point, "That's horrible to say, Kevin and…" she stopped, "I'm not going to fight with you Kevin. We're having a baby together, but…we don't love each other and marriage without love is not something I want. I know that we can raise this baby together and give it a good life, a good family, but you're going to need to accept that Derek is a part of that life now."

Kevin turned away from her, mumbling under his breath before giving the wall a kick with his dirty sneakers. He turned back to her, "I want to be at the next doctor's appointment. I want to know what's going on with my child."

"You will, I promise. I'll do a better job of keeping in contact, and letting you know what's going on if you promise to try and deal with Derek."

Kevin shrugged, "I'll try," he said, "I promise I'll try."

Penelope nodded, but couldn't quite shake the feeling that Kevin was already regretting that promise.