Two months later Alexa sat in the bathroom in her apartment, staring at the stick in her hand. Things between her and Ted were going wonderful, Jaysen loved him and he loved Jaysen right back. The two of them had adjusted to having a relationship while Ted traveled and they spent every free moment they had together. But Alexa was now afraid that the information she had just received was now going to ruin all that.
She had spent the last four days barely being able to move from her bed. After the fifth time throwing up for the third morning in a row Alexa had a feeling she knew what was causing all of her sickness; she wasn't too pleased to know her suspicions were correct.
"Babe," she heard Ted say as he tapped gently on the door. "Are you okay in there?"
Alexa quickly rolled the stick in toilet paper and tossed it in the trash can before opening the bathroom door, "Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better," she lied, her body was hurting at the moment and she had a pounding headache tonight.
"Well, it's five o' clock and Logan will be here any minute to get Jaysen. He's all ready to go," Ted smiled as he looked at Alexa, she look so sick and weak – he silently promised himself that he was going to have to talk her into seeing a doctor if her symptoms didn't clear up over the weekend.
Just as Alexa opened her mouth to thank Ted there was a knock on the door followed by Jaysen yelling, "Daddy's here mom!"
Alexa made her way to the front door and opened it hearing, "Wow, you look like shit."
"Thanks Logan," Alexa said sarcastically. "He's all ready to go, he's just saying bye to Ted."
"He living here now?" Logan asked as he tried to look past Alexa and into the house.
"No, Logan," Alexa said. "Now that it's any of your business, he just comes by on his day offs and…wait I don't have to explain this to you."
Logan shook his head, "If it concerns my son, I have the right to know if another man is living in the house he lives in."
Alexa sighed, "I already told you he doesn't live here."
"Hey daddy," Jaysen said before Logan could respond to Alexa.
"Hey," he said. "Say bye to mommy and then we're gonna head to grandma's for a bit."
"Bye baby," Alexa said as she leaned down and placed a kiss on Jaysen's forehead. "Have fun with daddy and I'll see you next weekend," Alexa stood back up and watched as Logan and Jaysen walked away.
Alexa closed her front door and walked to the couch, plopping down next to Ted and resting her head on his shoulder.
"Can we talk about something?" Alexa asked, she knew if she didn't tell Ted the news now she would chicken out and then he'd be back on the road and she would be left stressing out about it until the next time he came home.
"Yeah," Ted said as she turned the television off. "What's wrong?"
Alexa took a deep breath, "So I've been sick for the past few days and all the symptoms I have been having are the same I had when I was pregnant with Jaysen. So I took a pregnancy test this morning and it came back positive," Alexa said in one breath.
Ted slowly stood from the couch and looked down at Alexa, trying to process what she just told them. When he found no words to say to her he turned around and grabbed his keys off the key hook before walking out of the door.
Two weeks later Alexa walked into her house from work, she hadn't heard from Ted since the day she told him she was pregnant and he walked out. Since that day Alexa had found out she was six weeks pregnant and her due date was May 17th, she would find out the sex of the baby in about 12-14 weeks.
"Put your book bag in your room and you can play for a bit while I start dinner," Alexa told Jaysen as she skimmed through the mail before dropping it on the dining room table.
As Alexa and Jaysen sat down for dinner they heard a knock at the front door, "You start eating," Alexa said as she got up and opened the front door, frowning when she saw the person on the other side. "Why are you here?"
"We need to talk," Ted said as he looked at Alexa.
"No, we needed to talk when I first told you I was pregnant but you decided to walk out," Alexa said. "I don't need or want to discuss this situation now," Alexa tried to shut the door on Ted but he stuck his foot in the way.
"Please don't shut me out now," Ted pleaded.
"You walked out on me two weeks ago, you said you would never hurt me and you broke the promise and now you're asking me not to shut you out? Ted, you shut yourself out."
"I got scared Alexa, we've only been seeing each other for a few months and now we're having a baby together. I didn't know what to say, I didn't know how to react," Ted said.
"Well walking out wasn't a good way to react either," Alexa said. "I need to finish feeding Jaysen."
"Ted's here!" Jaysen said as he appeared at his mother's side. "I missed you," he said happily as he hugged onto Ted's leg.
"I missed you too buddy," Ted said as he picked up Jaysen.
"How long til you have to go back wrestling?" he asked.
"Ted isn't staying here Jaysen," Alexa said, getting disappointed looks from both of the boys in front of her.
"But mom, I be good," Jaysen said. "I got no time outs at school."
"I know and I'm very proud of you and I am going to take you out tomorrow for something special but Ted has a lot of stuff to do. Isn't that right Ted?" Alexa said, looking in Ted's eyes, daring him to tell Jaysen otherwise.
"Yeah bud, I've been away for awhile, I gotta go home and take care of a few things there but I'm off for a whole week, maybe mommy will let us hang out for a little bit," Ted said.
Jaysen wiggled down out of Ted's arms, "Maybe you can come with us tomorrow."
"We'll talk about it later Jaysen, go finish your dinner," Alexa said before Jaysen made his way back to the kitchen table.
"So I'll call you tomorrow?" Ted said. "Maybe we could go somewhere and talk; I really need to make this right."
"Maybe I'll call you tomorrow," Alexa said before waving to Ted and shutting the door.
The rest of the night was uneventful, Alexa cleaned up after dinner, got Jaysen ready for bed, made sure he was asleep and then got herself ready for bed – finally having a few seconds to herself. Alexa grabbed her phone from its place on her night stand and saw she had a new text message.
'I really hope I get that phone call from you tomorrow. I want the family life with you; I wish I never walked out that day.'
Alexa sighed, she knew it would be easier on herself and Ted if she just took him back but she couldn't. He knew she didn't trust people easily and he made her a promise and broke it when she needed him most. She knew he was probably scared, he's young, he's hardly ever home, and they haven't been together long but he didn't have to ignore her for two whole weeks. He could have at least told her he needed some time to think before disappearing.
Just as Alexa was about to put her phone down and go to sleep it started to vibrate in her hand, as she looked down at it she saw Ted was calling her.
"Hello," she said as she cuddled into her bed.
"Did I wake you up?" Ted said from the other line.
"No," Alexa answered. "I just laid down."
"Oh, did you get my text?"
"Yeah, I just read it. And I understand that you were scared buy you could have at least told me you needed some time to think things out," Alexa took a deep breath. "I told you I was pregnant and then you walked out on me, you just left."
"I know and I wish I hadn't," he said. "This is a big step, we've started a family."
"I know it's a big step and its way earlier than either one of us would have ever imagined but its happening and May 17th will be here before we know it and we can't stop that."
"May 17th? That's when you're due?"
"Yeah," Alexa answered.
"I really wish I was with you in your bed," Ted said. "I miss having you in my arms."
Alexa remained quiet, not because she disagreed with him but because she missed being held, she missed waking up to him, she missed feeling him kiss her forehead before he got out of bed in the morning but she wasn't ready to tell him that just yet.
"I need you to know how sorry I am about this, let me take you out tomorrow," Ted asked.
"I can't find a babysitter in that short time," Alexa said.
"Cody is staying with me this week, he said he'd sit with him," Ted said. "You can bring him here or Cody can come there, just please let me take you out."
Alexa took a deep breath, "Fine, tomorrow night. What time?"
"Be ready by seven, just wear something warm."
"Okay, I'm exhausted so I'm going to go to bed," Alexa said.
"Okay, say good night to Sweet Pea for me," Ted said.
"Sweet pea?"
"Yeah," Ted answered. "I was looking online and it says that around this time of the pregnancy the baby is the size of a sweet pea."
"You've been researching this?" Alexa asked, trying not to sound surprised.
"Yeah, I want to know what we have to expect."
'We,' Alexa repeated in her head, it was at that very moment that she knew that Ted wasn't going anywhere. His fears and doubts about this step in his life were gone and all he had to do to prove that was say that one word. "Well me and 'Sweet Pea' will see you tomorrow night," she smiled.
"Sleep good," Ted smiled before the two hung up.
Alexa looked at herself in the mirror, she was wearing a pair of dark blue skinny jeans with black mid length Ugg boots over them, a long sleeve black shirt, she left her hair down and let her natural curls hang loose, she had on almost no makeup.
She walked into the living room and saw Cody, Ted, and Jaysen watching something on TV. "Let me get my jacket and we can head out."
Ted stood up when he heard Alexa's voice and watched her as she pulled her black peacoat out of the closet near the front door, slipping it on and buttoning it up, pulling her hair out from under it.
"Jaysen it's Saturday so you don't have to be in bed till nine, don't try to get over on Cody like you did Randy that one time," she said as she pointed to Jaysen. "It's nine, not midnight Cody."
Cody laughed, "Figures he'd get over on Orton, he's a softie."
Alexa laughed, "We'll see what he has you get into tonight." Alexa grabbed her purse, tossed her phone inside and then looked at Ted as he stood up. He was wearing a pair of light blue jeans with a black t-shirt underneath, and a light NorthFace jacket. The two said their goodbyes to Jaysen and Cody before stepping out into the cool fall night air of Florida.
"Where are we going?" Alexa asked as the two made their way to Ted's car.
"It's a surprise," he smiled as he opened the door for Alexa.
Alexa smiled and climbed into the passenger seat, looking to the driver's side as Ted got in and started the car. The two buckled their seat belt before Ted made the silent drive to their destination.
As the car pulled into a parking lot Alexa's smiled to herself, he had brought her to the beach he took her to on their first date.
"The beach, in October?" Alexa smiled.
"Hey, we live in Florida, the beach is good anytime," he said as he parked the car and got out, rushing over to open Alexa's door and holding his hand out for her.
She took his hand and got out of the car, Ted shut the passenger door before guiding Alexa down to the beach. Alexa saw the same blanket laid out on the sand, champagne glasses; the only difference this time was that there was no champagne this time – there was apple juice instead, Alexa couldn't help but laugh to herself.
"I'm glad you're laughing," he said.
"Apple juice, really?"
"Hey, you can't have any alcohol," he smiled as they sat down on the blanket and Ted poured some juice in the champagne glasses. The two sat in a comfortable silence, Ted glanced over at Alexa before getting up and sitting behind her, pulling her back to his chest and wrapping his arms around her, placing on hand over her stomach.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Alexa asked as she placed her hand over his.
"I couldn't imagine this happening with anyone else," Ted said. "No amount of words or surprise dates can ever express how sorry I am for my behavior for the past two weeks. I know I broke a very important promise to you and I fully understand that I have a lot of work to do to get your trust back but I'll do whatever I have to. I want to be with you, I want to start this family with you, and I want this child to be the first of a few with you."
Alexa took a deep breath, "I don't want you to ever walk out on me like that again. Seeing you walk out that door just brought back bad memories, I really thought you weren't coming back."
"I could never stay away," Ted said.
Alexa sat up and turned around, looking in Ted eyes, "Please be answer the question honestly, was there anyone else?"
"No," Ted answered immediately. "There never will be anyone else."
Alexa smiled to herself before leaning in and kissing Ted gently on the lips before turning around and snuggling back into him, looking out onto the peaceful ocean.
"Your phone just went off," Ted said, hearing the text sound come from inside Alexa's purse. "You should check it to make sure it's not Cody sending an S.O.S," Ted laughed.
Alexa grabbed her phone, sliding her finger across the screen to unlock it and clicking on the text message icon—her smile fell from her face the second she read the message. Alexa handed Ted her phone and watched him as he read the text.
'Now you're pregnant by him. Now I plan on making things harder for both of you. You're the mother of MY child, no one else's.'