AUTHORS NOTE: I was away from my computer all summer but I did a ton of
thinking and have some great stories planned after I finish this one.
Sorry to make everyone wait for an update for so long. I should have
another chapter ready in about a week.
That was the way she had intended it to go. She had intended to stay only a short time with John and find a place of her own for Jack and herself but three months later she was still there. She would never admit it to anybody but she really enjoyed living there. They formed a makeshift family with everybody playing a role. Carter was the father, the breadwinner. He supported the family while Lucy continued going to school. They tried to arrange their schedules so that somebody could always be home to watch baby Jack, and if they couldn't then Dave would baby-sit and in a real pinch Robert would spend the day with the baby.
Dave would refer to their lives as the "twisted world of Ozzie and Harriet." Each was desperate for some type of family as neither had one at the moment. Lucy was an only child who never knew her father and had lost her mother a year ago in a car accident. Carter's family pretended like he didn't exist. They were still angry at him for going into medicine rather than business and hadn't spoken to him since Chase overdosed. So they desperately hung onto the present situation of playing mom and dad having Dave and Robert as the supporting actors in their lives.
Lucy's hostility towards Carter had diminished over the months but was still present. She had decided that she had forgiven him for what he did but she couldn't bring herself to let it go. She was civil to him but not much more than that.
The first sign that eventually everything would change happened unexpectedly on a Friday afternoon. Lucy was sitting at home reading to Jack when the there was a knock on the door. She answered it to see an older man and woman standing in the hall. The man was handsome with salt and pepper hair and blue eyes. The woman was beautiful with a graceful and reserved look. Lucy instantly knew who they were. Everything about them reeked of money and easy living. John's parents.
"Hi. Can I help you?" she asked.
"Is John here?" the woman asked as she walked in and sat on the couch. In the process of sitting down she knocked all of John's toys and books off the couch. The man followed her and sat next to her. Lucy was startled. She couldn't believe the nerve of this woman! She shut the door.
"He should be here any minute now." She answered, desperately trying to remain calm.
"Fine. We'll wait here."
Lucy took a deep breath and went into the kitchen trying to not let the woman upset her. She was fixing Jack a peanut butter sandwich when she heard Carter come in. He must not have seen them right away because she heard the woman say, "Hi John" and heard him swear.
"Shit. Mom. Dad. What are you doing here?"
"We came to see you. And I really must comment on your hired help, she is horrible. Didn't even offer us a drink or anything. Look at this, she has all of her kids stuff all over the place."
Lucy came out of the kitchen still holding the jar of peanut butter and a bag of bread.
"Hired help!" she yelled, "You better set her straight John because I am not the hired help. I live here."
The Mrs. Carter's expression didn't change as she looked Lucy up and down. Taking in the peanut butter, bread, flannel pajama pants, white tee shirt, and fuzzy pink bunny slippers. She looked back at John as she asked, "When did you start taking in wayward teens John?"
The jar of peanut butter smacked Mrs. Carter in the forehead. "Wayward teenager! Fuck you." Lucy turned and stormed out of the living room scooping up her son on the way and slamming the bedroom door.
"Who does that girl think that she is?" she demanded.
"Mom. Calm down a minute. Shit. I'll be right back and I'll explain." He ran over to try and retrieve Lucy from her room. He walked in to find her changing into a dress.
"Lucy, I'm sorry about my mother. I can't explain it and I won't try but I can apologize."
She looks at him. "Don't worry about it."
"If you have a minute I'd like you to come out so I can introduce you to my parents."
"Fine. I'm not going to say I'm sorry for throwing the peanut butter at her though."
She picks the baby up and they walk into the living room. Lucy finds herself in a staring contest with Mrs. Carter.
"Mom. Dad. I'd like you to meet Lucy and my son, Jack."
The woman blinked and Lucy smiled slightly as she realized that she won the staring contest. His dad was the first one to speak.
"When did you get married?"
"We aren't married. We are just friends."
"My god John, you should at least marry the girl if you got her pregnant."
"He offered but I refused." Lucy jumped in as she suddenly started feeling very protective of him.
"How could you let this happen?" his mother asked.
"Accidents happen," his father tried to explain.
His mothers glare was piercing, "Just another humiliation that you've caused the family. A bastard son."
Lucy couldn't believe how mean his mother was to him. From what she had heard these were the first family members that he had seen or heard from in three years and they were treating him like shit. They disgusted her.
"Excuse me but I will not allow you to speak to him like that in our house."
"And what say do you have in how I speak to my children. You won't even marry him."
"That's not the issue."
"It certainly would be an interesting one though. It totally supports my stance that he is nothing but a failure. Really, the kid that he knocked up won't even marry him."
"I won't marry him because he's a spiteful mean vindictive arrogant little bitch. I can't really blame him for that now that I've met you though because now I see that it must be genetic and he can't help it. Now get out of my house." She walked over to the door and opened it. Mr. and Mrs. Carter walked out and Lucy shut it behind them. When she turns back around she sees John on the couch with the baby on his lap. She can't read his face but she knows that he must be hurt. After a minute of watching each other he breaks the silence.
"Do you really think I'm a little bitch?" he asks.
She laughs and sits beside him on the couch. "She's the little bitch. You're great," she grins at him, "Comparatively speaking of course."
"Thanks for standing up for me like that. Every time I get around them I revert back to same person I was when I was ten and had done something to upset her. I never say anything. I just stand there and take it."
"Why do you think that they showed up here?"
"I can't even imagine. I doubt that it was anything important. They probably aren't even aware that the rest of the family isn't speaking to me."
"John, sometimes I think that you are one screwed up person but now I think that for all you must have grown up with maybe you're ok."
"Well, maybe you are ok too. Do you want to go out to dinner tonight and celebrate the fact that we're both ok?"
Lucy breaks eye contact with him and looks at the floor. He notices that her mood has changed. "What," he asks.
"Actually, I was wondering if you would be ok to watch John for the evening?"
"Sure, why?"
"I've got a date."
"A date?" he asks not sure that he heard her correctly.
"Yeah. My first one in about a year and a half."
John quickly sits up a little bit and tries to act unconcerned with the prospect of Lucy going on a date. No need to pout about it, he thinks to himself.
"So who is the lucky guy?" he asks trying to fake some enthusiasm.
Lucy responds to his change in mood and cheers slightly. "A rotating doctor at the hospital. Doug Werr. I really don't know him very well but everyone at the hospital says that he really likes me. I figure that I'll give it a chance. Don't worry, I doubt I'll be running of to Vegas tonight to get married or anything."
"Make sure he takes you someplace nice."
She laughs. "I will," she says as she walks off to finish getting ready and Carter turns on the TV to distract himself from his jealous thoughts.
At five till seven Lucy was sitting on the couch dressed in a red halter top dress and heels. Her hair was pulled up in a twist and a few stands that had fallen out were tucked behind her ears. She looked nervous and John was in too much of a funk to try and calm her down. At fifteen past seven, which was fifteen minutes after her date was supposed to arrive he started to feel bad for her. She's nervous enough without the idiot being late, he thinks to himself.
"You look nice tonight," he comments without removing his eyes from the TV set. "That is not your usual date outfit though."
She gives him an odd look. "And what would my usual date outfit be?"
"The black skirt and sweater." She continues to give him a blank look. "You know, the one you wore on our first and last date."
"I can't believe you remember what I wore that night."
"I remember everything about you from that night." He pauses. "Anyway, I figured that girls wear the same outfit on all first dates."
"Actually I burned that outfit." She pauses. "Besides I was cute and without baggage then. Now I have a son, I'm living with the baby's father, and I have childbearing hips, I figure I'm going to need all the help I can get." The silence became almost unbearable and John finally got up with the excuse that he was going to change Jack's diaper. By then it was twenty five after seven and Lucy had begun to stare at her watch wondering what could be keeping Doug. The knock at the front door startled her so much that it took her a second to calm her breathing before she could open the door.
"Hi Doug. How are you?"
"Wow. Lucy, you look fantastic."
"Thanks, let me get my purse and I'll be ready to go."
He steps in the door for a second and looks around. "This place is great. Medical students are living better than they did in my day."
"Actually, it's not my place. It's my roommates."
"Is she a cutie too?"
"He is pretty cute but I doubt he's your type."
"He?" Doug's tone turns less playful and very serious.
"Yeah. Long story. I'll tell you all about it over dinner."
Just as they get to the door to walk out Jack starts crying.
"Does 'he' have a baby?"
"Um, no. The baby is mine. Would you like to meet him?"
Doug looks at his watch. "I almost forgot. I have a meeting in the morning that I'm not prepared for I better take a rain check for tonight and we can maybe do this some other time. Goodnight." The door closes before Lucy can say anything. She is left staring at the door understanding what happened but not wanting to. A few minutes later Jack stops crying and she can hear John walking into the living room.
"Lucy, he was a creep."
"I just got dumped."
"His loss. Not yours. You can do a million times better than that bastard. A million times better."
"I'm twenty three years old with a baby and with no prospects of romance in the future. Eventually I would like to get married and all that but I'm beginning to realize that won't be in my future."
"There are so many men in this world that would cut off a limb for a chance to marry you. Don't stress about the fact that some dillweed wasn't man enough to date a woman with a son. You are a beautiful woman with so much to offer the world. Someday you will meet your prince charming. Believe me, it wasn't him."
She walks over to him and gives him a hug. He hugs her back. "Since you are all dressed up I think that we should go out to dinner. Give me ten minutes to change and dress Jack and we will be off."
She smiles at him. "That would be great."
That was the way she had intended it to go. She had intended to stay only a short time with John and find a place of her own for Jack and herself but three months later she was still there. She would never admit it to anybody but she really enjoyed living there. They formed a makeshift family with everybody playing a role. Carter was the father, the breadwinner. He supported the family while Lucy continued going to school. They tried to arrange their schedules so that somebody could always be home to watch baby Jack, and if they couldn't then Dave would baby-sit and in a real pinch Robert would spend the day with the baby.
Dave would refer to their lives as the "twisted world of Ozzie and Harriet." Each was desperate for some type of family as neither had one at the moment. Lucy was an only child who never knew her father and had lost her mother a year ago in a car accident. Carter's family pretended like he didn't exist. They were still angry at him for going into medicine rather than business and hadn't spoken to him since Chase overdosed. So they desperately hung onto the present situation of playing mom and dad having Dave and Robert as the supporting actors in their lives.
Lucy's hostility towards Carter had diminished over the months but was still present. She had decided that she had forgiven him for what he did but she couldn't bring herself to let it go. She was civil to him but not much more than that.
The first sign that eventually everything would change happened unexpectedly on a Friday afternoon. Lucy was sitting at home reading to Jack when the there was a knock on the door. She answered it to see an older man and woman standing in the hall. The man was handsome with salt and pepper hair and blue eyes. The woman was beautiful with a graceful and reserved look. Lucy instantly knew who they were. Everything about them reeked of money and easy living. John's parents.
"Hi. Can I help you?" she asked.
"Is John here?" the woman asked as she walked in and sat on the couch. In the process of sitting down she knocked all of John's toys and books off the couch. The man followed her and sat next to her. Lucy was startled. She couldn't believe the nerve of this woman! She shut the door.
"He should be here any minute now." She answered, desperately trying to remain calm.
"Fine. We'll wait here."
Lucy took a deep breath and went into the kitchen trying to not let the woman upset her. She was fixing Jack a peanut butter sandwich when she heard Carter come in. He must not have seen them right away because she heard the woman say, "Hi John" and heard him swear.
"Shit. Mom. Dad. What are you doing here?"
"We came to see you. And I really must comment on your hired help, she is horrible. Didn't even offer us a drink or anything. Look at this, she has all of her kids stuff all over the place."
Lucy came out of the kitchen still holding the jar of peanut butter and a bag of bread.
"Hired help!" she yelled, "You better set her straight John because I am not the hired help. I live here."
The Mrs. Carter's expression didn't change as she looked Lucy up and down. Taking in the peanut butter, bread, flannel pajama pants, white tee shirt, and fuzzy pink bunny slippers. She looked back at John as she asked, "When did you start taking in wayward teens John?"
The jar of peanut butter smacked Mrs. Carter in the forehead. "Wayward teenager! Fuck you." Lucy turned and stormed out of the living room scooping up her son on the way and slamming the bedroom door.
"Who does that girl think that she is?" she demanded.
"Mom. Calm down a minute. Shit. I'll be right back and I'll explain." He ran over to try and retrieve Lucy from her room. He walked in to find her changing into a dress.
"Lucy, I'm sorry about my mother. I can't explain it and I won't try but I can apologize."
She looks at him. "Don't worry about it."
"If you have a minute I'd like you to come out so I can introduce you to my parents."
"Fine. I'm not going to say I'm sorry for throwing the peanut butter at her though."
She picks the baby up and they walk into the living room. Lucy finds herself in a staring contest with Mrs. Carter.
"Mom. Dad. I'd like you to meet Lucy and my son, Jack."
The woman blinked and Lucy smiled slightly as she realized that she won the staring contest. His dad was the first one to speak.
"When did you get married?"
"We aren't married. We are just friends."
"My god John, you should at least marry the girl if you got her pregnant."
"He offered but I refused." Lucy jumped in as she suddenly started feeling very protective of him.
"How could you let this happen?" his mother asked.
"Accidents happen," his father tried to explain.
His mothers glare was piercing, "Just another humiliation that you've caused the family. A bastard son."
Lucy couldn't believe how mean his mother was to him. From what she had heard these were the first family members that he had seen or heard from in three years and they were treating him like shit. They disgusted her.
"Excuse me but I will not allow you to speak to him like that in our house."
"And what say do you have in how I speak to my children. You won't even marry him."
"That's not the issue."
"It certainly would be an interesting one though. It totally supports my stance that he is nothing but a failure. Really, the kid that he knocked up won't even marry him."
"I won't marry him because he's a spiteful mean vindictive arrogant little bitch. I can't really blame him for that now that I've met you though because now I see that it must be genetic and he can't help it. Now get out of my house." She walked over to the door and opened it. Mr. and Mrs. Carter walked out and Lucy shut it behind them. When she turns back around she sees John on the couch with the baby on his lap. She can't read his face but she knows that he must be hurt. After a minute of watching each other he breaks the silence.
"Do you really think I'm a little bitch?" he asks.
She laughs and sits beside him on the couch. "She's the little bitch. You're great," she grins at him, "Comparatively speaking of course."
"Thanks for standing up for me like that. Every time I get around them I revert back to same person I was when I was ten and had done something to upset her. I never say anything. I just stand there and take it."
"Why do you think that they showed up here?"
"I can't even imagine. I doubt that it was anything important. They probably aren't even aware that the rest of the family isn't speaking to me."
"John, sometimes I think that you are one screwed up person but now I think that for all you must have grown up with maybe you're ok."
"Well, maybe you are ok too. Do you want to go out to dinner tonight and celebrate the fact that we're both ok?"
Lucy breaks eye contact with him and looks at the floor. He notices that her mood has changed. "What," he asks.
"Actually, I was wondering if you would be ok to watch John for the evening?"
"Sure, why?"
"I've got a date."
"A date?" he asks not sure that he heard her correctly.
"Yeah. My first one in about a year and a half."
John quickly sits up a little bit and tries to act unconcerned with the prospect of Lucy going on a date. No need to pout about it, he thinks to himself.
"So who is the lucky guy?" he asks trying to fake some enthusiasm.
Lucy responds to his change in mood and cheers slightly. "A rotating doctor at the hospital. Doug Werr. I really don't know him very well but everyone at the hospital says that he really likes me. I figure that I'll give it a chance. Don't worry, I doubt I'll be running of to Vegas tonight to get married or anything."
"Make sure he takes you someplace nice."
She laughs. "I will," she says as she walks off to finish getting ready and Carter turns on the TV to distract himself from his jealous thoughts.
At five till seven Lucy was sitting on the couch dressed in a red halter top dress and heels. Her hair was pulled up in a twist and a few stands that had fallen out were tucked behind her ears. She looked nervous and John was in too much of a funk to try and calm her down. At fifteen past seven, which was fifteen minutes after her date was supposed to arrive he started to feel bad for her. She's nervous enough without the idiot being late, he thinks to himself.
"You look nice tonight," he comments without removing his eyes from the TV set. "That is not your usual date outfit though."
She gives him an odd look. "And what would my usual date outfit be?"
"The black skirt and sweater." She continues to give him a blank look. "You know, the one you wore on our first and last date."
"I can't believe you remember what I wore that night."
"I remember everything about you from that night." He pauses. "Anyway, I figured that girls wear the same outfit on all first dates."
"Actually I burned that outfit." She pauses. "Besides I was cute and without baggage then. Now I have a son, I'm living with the baby's father, and I have childbearing hips, I figure I'm going to need all the help I can get." The silence became almost unbearable and John finally got up with the excuse that he was going to change Jack's diaper. By then it was twenty five after seven and Lucy had begun to stare at her watch wondering what could be keeping Doug. The knock at the front door startled her so much that it took her a second to calm her breathing before she could open the door.
"Hi Doug. How are you?"
"Wow. Lucy, you look fantastic."
"Thanks, let me get my purse and I'll be ready to go."
He steps in the door for a second and looks around. "This place is great. Medical students are living better than they did in my day."
"Actually, it's not my place. It's my roommates."
"Is she a cutie too?"
"He is pretty cute but I doubt he's your type."
"He?" Doug's tone turns less playful and very serious.
"Yeah. Long story. I'll tell you all about it over dinner."
Just as they get to the door to walk out Jack starts crying.
"Does 'he' have a baby?"
"Um, no. The baby is mine. Would you like to meet him?"
Doug looks at his watch. "I almost forgot. I have a meeting in the morning that I'm not prepared for I better take a rain check for tonight and we can maybe do this some other time. Goodnight." The door closes before Lucy can say anything. She is left staring at the door understanding what happened but not wanting to. A few minutes later Jack stops crying and she can hear John walking into the living room.
"Lucy, he was a creep."
"I just got dumped."
"His loss. Not yours. You can do a million times better than that bastard. A million times better."
"I'm twenty three years old with a baby and with no prospects of romance in the future. Eventually I would like to get married and all that but I'm beginning to realize that won't be in my future."
"There are so many men in this world that would cut off a limb for a chance to marry you. Don't stress about the fact that some dillweed wasn't man enough to date a woman with a son. You are a beautiful woman with so much to offer the world. Someday you will meet your prince charming. Believe me, it wasn't him."
She walks over to him and gives him a hug. He hugs her back. "Since you are all dressed up I think that we should go out to dinner. Give me ten minutes to change and dress Jack and we will be off."
She smiles at him. "That would be great."
