Chapter 24: When Did She Outgrow Me?

Derek's Point-of-View

I finally took a gasping breath, apparently, I'd stopped breathing.

I picked myself up off the bathroom floor and turned around before I was too tempted to reach out and wrap my hands around my daughter's throat and shake the living daylights out of her. No, I wasn't the guy who wanted to kill his kids, but I was so fucking angry at the thought of her doing…

I stormed down the stairs and threw the front door open, it slammed behind me and I think something broke but I was too pissed off to care, I stormed across the lawn and down to the edge of the water, I went onto the deck and stopped at a foot from the edge of it before dropping to my knees and grabbing fistfuls of my hair.

"WHY!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I screamed and shouted until my lungs were raw and probably bleeding. I fell on my face against the wood of the deck and started to sob. Not just little sobs, they were big, loud, desperate sobs.

She was just a baby, there was no way she could have a baby, no fucking way.

This had to be a nightmare, just a really bad dream and I was going to wake up at any moment and Meredith would be ok, and Delilah would still be a kid, and Winston and Ian and Dani would all be sleeping safely and peacefully in their beds. This had to be some really fucked up dream, right?

I wasn't aware of how much time had passed, but the wood under my cheek was getting wet from the tears rolling from my eyes. Finally, I felt a soft tap on my shoulder and I looked up to see Meredith standing over me, her shirt was covered in a coffee stain.

"Oh God." I gasped as I sat up "I'm sorry I forgot… Did you spill your coffee?"

"The little girl..umm.." she stuttered.

"Dani."

"Dani." She nodded "She wanted to sit in my lap, so I let her. When you screamed she jumped and I spilled. She is all clean now, but they're worried about you."

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh, I didn't even think about the kids. I just needed to get it out before I lost it on them.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head and sniffled "My little girl…she might be pregnant, she's only 13."

"Has she taken a test?" she asked

"I don't know, I don't think so. She's just getting sick."

"Well then you can't lose it yet." She said, I looked at her with confusion "Until you have a reason to lose it…you can't lose it."

I let out a soft breath of hope and nodded, she always had the perfect thing to say to me. I got up and helped her back into the house and changed into clean clothes. I took Dani, Ian and Winston to school and then headed to the pharmacy.

I stood in the all too familiar aisle, in front of the myriad of white, pink and blue boxes as I debated on which one to choose. It was eerie, I'd stood in front of these items so many times when Meredith and I were wanting to know if we were expecting or not. In fact I still remember the time we chose a test that told us we were expecting Delilah.

Never in my life did I think I'd be standing here looking for a test for Delilah to take.

I reached out and grabbed a reliable brand that Meredith always used, it was a three pack so if she messed up on the first test there'd be more. I paid for the item and got the hell out of there and straight home where I found Delilah and Meredith sitting on the couch watching television.

"You." I pointed at her as I tossed her the bag "Upstairs now."

"Dad." She whimpered a little.

"No," I shook my head "not now…we'll talk after you do this." She nodded as she tried to bat away her tears "Hold the test under a steady stream of urine for five seconds and then wait three minutes for it to develop."

She gave me a nod of understanding before turning and going upstairs to the bathroom. I sat down on the couch next to Meredith and let out a hard sigh as I tried not to feel like the room was spinning.

"She's a sweet girl." Meredith finally said, "She smells like roses."

A smile graced my lips as I turned to look at her "Yeah. Her middle name is Rose, you gave it to her because the first time you kissed her, she smelled like a fresh rose. She's always had a natural rose smell."

"You're scared."

"I'm terrified." I shook my head as I ran my hand through my hair "And frustrated, and so angry I could seriously kill something, or someone… particularly the little shit that decided to stick his…I could kill something."

"You're not the only one that's scared Derek." She mumbled, I looked up at her wondering if possibly she was having a lucid moment "She is scared too."

I dropped my head and nodded "Yeah I know…it's just…."

"Just what?"

"When I became a father, I always knew that my kids would have moments of trouble. But I knew that I'd always be there to help them out of it. But this….I don't know how to get her out of this." I sniffled as a lone tear traveled down my cheek "I don't know how to get her out of it, not without seriously messing up her life."

"Then, just support her as she figures it out for herself."

I looked at her as I tried to make sense of what she said. I heard a door upstairs open and then close a minute later.

"I guess I should go see."

"Truth time." She nodded.

"Truth time."

I stood up and went up the stairs, Delilah wasn't in the bathroom so I went into her bedroom where I found her sitting on her bed, knees to her chest as she stared at all three tests.

"You took all three of them?" I asked.

"I really had to pee." She mumbled, her eyes finally looked up at me with tears filling them and spilling over "They all came up right away."

My heart sunk into my stomach and I felt the need to throw up myself, but I swallowed the feeling for now as I took Meredith's advice. I walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge as I tried to contain my anger.

"Delilah." I choked out "why…"

"I don't know." She lied.

"You do know." I sighed heavily "Just tell me why…why did you think that losing your virginity, having sex…why did you think it was ok at thirteen!?" I bit my lip as I started to raise my voice and took a breath "Was it because of me, were you mad at me?"

"No!" she gasped "Dad no…it wasn't because of you."

"Then, tell me why."

"It was because of mom." She sniffled, ok that had my full attention, she bit her lip nervously and lowered her eyes in shame "I didn't…I didn't want her to die before knowing one of her grandkids."

My head reared back in shock as I felt as if a wrecking ball just swung through the bedroom window and clocked me upside the head. She hadn't just had sex and forgot about the use of condoms…she'd had sex on purpose to get herself pregnant.

"Oh Delilah." I breathed "Your mom isn't dying."

"I know that now." She whimpered "but it's too late."

She started to break down into heaping sobs. As angry and beside myself as I was, my heart broke for her, I did what any good father would do, I reached out and pulled her into my lap and held her tight against my chest as I rubbed her back, she latched her arms around my neck and pressed her cheek against my shoulder as she cried.

"I'm scared Daddy…I'm so scared."

I needed to talk to the "other" party involved in Delilah's…predicament.

I needed witnesses so that I wasn't tempted to squeeze the life out of that little shit, or stab a scalpel into his brain or…many of the many scenario's where I end up digging a hole in my backyard for him.

So, I got his parent's involved. They didn't sound very happy about things either but at least they were making an attempt in wanting to address the issue, the doorbell rang right on time 7pm on the dot. I stood up from the table where I sat across from Delilah, she twisted her fingers nervously as I passed her to go answer the door.

I opened it and saw a very normal, yet irritated and angry, couple staring back at me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Evans, thanks for coming." I greeted.

They nodded as I stepped aside for them to walk in. Mr. Evans came dragging his fifteen-year-old son by the arm. I was grateful, if he hadn't had hold of him, I probably would've done something stupid. However, I was trying to be the adult here..

They all took seats around the table, I sat between Delilah and Meredith, who seemed to be having a decent day, but she was still confused as to who we were or what was happening, she kept staring at Delilah.

"I appreciate you two for coming." I said after sitting down "I think we need to figure out where to go from here."

"Agreed." Mrs. Evans muttered.

"I think it's best if we just fix this little problem." Mr. Evans suggested as he made an eye gesture at Delilah.

"Excuse me?" I frowned.

"Well it's still early on right." he said, "She can just have an abortion and it'll be all over."

"Maybe for your son." I scoffed "But it'll be a long recovery for Delilah, not to mention she could possibly die during the procedure."

"Well then maybe she shouldn't have opened her legs." Mrs. Evans snubbed. I felt my anger starting to rise, this wasn't going to go as well as I hoped.

"Last I checked, it took two to have sex." I muttered "Let's not place any blame here, it happened…now we need to just find out how we're going to deal with it."

"We want Delilah to have an abortion." Mr. Evans said point blank "That's the only way we're going to deal with it."

"I don't think that is your choice." I hissed "It's Delilah's body and if she doesn't want to put herself through a torturing medical procedure then she shouldn't have to."

"You're her father!" he muttered and pounded his fist on my table "Make her do it!"

"I don't know about you Mr. Evans." I growled "I raised my daughter to think for herself."

"Yeah." Mrs. Evans scoffed "A lot of good that did."

Oh, hell no she didn't…

"You have no fucking right!" I shot out of my chair in anger.

"Don't you dare talk to my wife like that!" Mr. Evans growled as he came out of his chair.

Next thing I knew we were in a shouting match; he was defending his son and I was defending my little girl. Our faces were red and our fists were itching to be thrown at each other.

"Stop it!" I heard screamed from the head of the table, we both stopped and turned to see Meredith standing in her chair staring at us like a mother reprimanding her children. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves…grown men acting like little boys in the school yard…who are the adults here!"

We both shrugged down as she stepped off the chair.

"Now." She muttered "We're all in the same situation here whether we like it or not. Your son got a girl pregnant…that girl so happens to be our daughter. If you don't want to deal with it, if you think that he is too young to have a kid…FINE. There is a paper that you three can sign releasing any parental rights he has to the child. We'd be happy to have our lawyer prepare that for you to sign by the end of the week. But as for Delilah, if she doesn't want to go through a medical procedure that kills a baby that she so obviously wants…then she won't have to. You might think you can come in here and force children to do what you want them to, but that's not how life works…trust me, life really sucks sometimes but you just have to suck it up and deal with it…it's called surviving."

"Ok." Mrs. Evans said after a moment of silence "We'll be waiting for those papers."

"I promise you will get them to you by the end of the week." I sighed. "I'm sure you know the way out."

They nodded and got up and left. When I turned to Delilah finally, she was leaning against Meredith crying.

"He didn't even look at me." She squeaked "I thought he loved me."

"I know honey." Meredith soothed her.

I reached out and squeezed Delilah's arm, "Delilah, are you sure you want to do this?"

She sniffled and thought for a moment before nodding "It's done Dad. I can't take it back…I'm not going to end a kid's life just because I made a stupid sexual mistake."

All I could think was, when did my daughter outgrow me…