Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my own characters.
Author's Note: This little post-epilogue has been floating around in my mind for some months and, now finally wrestled under control, I present to you the final chapter of Twelve Months.
Gillian Lightman stood in the middle of the thoroughfare talking on the phone. It was a Saturday morning, and people were all around in the busy shopping mall.
Maddi was with her, the four year old leaning into the front of her body, her arms wrapped around her waist. Gillian aimlessly ran her fingers through her daughter's brown hair as she spoke into the phone. "Cal, honey, you're on your own. I'm going shopping."
Finishing her call soon after, Gillian grinned as she hung up the phone before looking down at her daughter. "Let's get to Decker's hey?" she said, brushing Maddi's bangs from her eyes. The little girl grinned and nodded her head.
Switching her handbag to another shoulder, Gillian grasped Maddi's hand and moved into the flow of people.
Alec Foster stepped out of the jewellery shop, a small bag in hand.
Pausing, he tried to remember in which direction he had parked the car. Looking from the left to the right, his head flew around again to the left as alarm bells began ringing in his mind.
Was that Gillian?
Unless he was very much mistaken, that was the sight of his ex-wife's hair. She was standing in the middle of the shopping strip, talking on the phone. When she hung up the call, but didn't move yet, he wondered what on earth was keeping her.
A sudden gap in the people moving in his line of sight gave him a side-view of Gillian and answered that question crystal clear: she was pregnant, and there was a young child hugging her.
Seeing the way that Gillian ran her fingers through the little girl's hair, there was really no doubt about it. This was clearly her child – the same child that she'd dared to be pregnant with over four years ago.
As Gillian began to move, there was only one question burning: her child with whom.
Her mind mentally repeating what she needed to do – pregnancy brain having kicked in big time – it took Gillian a very long moment to realise that a man standing stock still in the middle of her path was her ex-husband.
She startled to a stop.
When the person behind her swore under his breath and bypassed them, she barely managed the barest of civilities to apologise as she tugged Maddi closer to her and eyed the man before her.
"Gillian," began Alec coolly.
"Alec."
Both were distinctly uncomfortable. It was only when Maddi – the little girl very much like her father, seeing all and not missing much – shifted closer to grip her mother's leg in a protective stance that Alec broke their gaze and looked down at the child.
"Yours?" he questioned bluntly.
Her nod of confirmation wasn't all he noticed. The left hand that came to rest on the little girl's shoulder glinted, a ring tellingly on her ring finger.
Married too?
He snapped back to the present as Gillian spoke. "Yes, she is mine," was the firm reply. "Her name is Madeleine."
"Ah," he replied, now at a loss for words. "And when are you due with your next one?"
"Five weeks – give or take," the expectant woman said. "I've been early with the ot-Maddi, so we'll see." Gillian laughed nervously.
The silence stretched before he saw his ex-wife swallow and speak. "So how have you been?"
"Good," he offered smugly. "Work's been going well. I've remarried again. No kids though."
Now what? asked Gillian to herself. Time for a timely exit.
She wished she'd ran then and there, for the next question Alec asked was the one she'd hoped to never have to answer in his presence. "Who's the lucky guy?"
She bit her bottom lip. This wasn't going to be pretty. "Cal Lightman."
"Wow," he scoffed. She hear the incredulity in his declaration and fought down the righteous anger that she should have to feel this way. He'd been the one to cheat on her, not the other way round.
Gillian wasn't making the same mistake twice and made a hasty goodbye soon after, moving past her ex-husband, Alec heading in the other direction.
He didn't know why he'd bothered asking. The colour of Madeleine's eyes had been a dead giveaway, plus he knew that there was really only one other man that Gillian would love.
He hadn't been able to help himself though.
He'd been expecting the answer, but the knowledge that Cal Lightman had managed to do the one thing he couldn't – give Gillian a child (two, his mind added nastily) – frankly pissed him off like only that bastard could.
The last view Alec had of his ex-wife was of her bending down and tying up her daughter's shoelaces, tapping the end of her nose when she was done, before mother and daughter walked a little further and then entered a shop.
He turned away and gripped the small plastic bag carrying the requisite jewellery in his hand, striding toward the carpark exit.
Damn the past and Cal Lightman, but he had enough to worry about at home.
Finito.