CHAPTER 34

"Man, I'm telling you. I'm going to do it this time." Eli stated determined, his brow damp with sweat as he wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt, his fingers curling around the large object in his hands.

"Are you sure, man? I mean, you've been missing clear shots all day." Miguel said, bouncing the tennis ball in his hands against the ground and looking at his friend.

"Just play the ball." Eli growled. Miguel nodded and grabbed the tennis ball in his hands, before throwing it as far and as high as he could. Eli, who was standing next to Miguel, raised the handgun he was holding in the air and he fired a bullet. The bullet connected perfectly with the tennis ball, and the ball burst apart in an explosion of neon green. Miguel laughed and clapped his hands as Eli smiled triumphantly. Miguel and Eli were some of the best marksmen in the Navy, and the reason they had gotten so good was because they always spent a lot of their vacation time practising their shooting against miniscule targets like tennis balls.

"Finally! Took you long enough!" Miguel exclaimed. He then sprinted over to the remains of the tennis ball and picked it up, examining it and chuckling. "We should really learn how to play actual tennis. You know, like adults?"

"Nah, I prefer our version." Eli shrugged, grinning. Miguel laughed and nodded.

"Me too, man. So… my turn?" Miguel asked, taking the gun from his friend. Eli shook his head.

"Nah, man. We gotta go. We have that high school reunion thing tonight."

Miguel groaned. Eli was right. That evening was their 10 year West Valley High School reunion, and all of their old friends were going to be there. That would normally be great, but the downside was that all of their old enemies and bullies from high school would be there too. Kyler, Brucks, A.J… all of them and their gang would surely be there, and Miguel and Eli would be forced to see them again and relive their childhood experiences.

"Ugh. Fuck my life." Miguel grumbled. Eli shrugged.

"Dude, if you don't want to go, don't go. No one's forcing you." Eli remarked. Miguel shook his head.

"Nah, man. I want to go. It's just I'm probably going to see Sam again, you know?" Miguel mumbled. Eli sympathetically nodded. Miguel hadn't spoken much about Sam in the week and a half since the break up. Hell, he hadn't actually said anything at all about her since the first night, but Eli could tell that Miguel was hurting. BAD. Miguel seldom smiled anymore, and getting out of bed every morning seemed to be a massive challenge for him. It was like he had lost a spark in him, and was most definitely in an awful state of mind to be going on a dangerous mission in. With every passing day, realisation crept up through the massive guilt he was feeling for ratting Miguel out to Anderson like that. Miguel going on that mission would almost certainly get him killed if he wasn't fully, fully focused. And that task was nearly impossible given his breakup.

"Oh, right. Well, you're bound to bump into her eventually. Might as well get over it from now." Eli replied bluntly. Miguel eventually nodded.

"That's true. Alright, let's do this…"

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"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I'm screwed! My life is over! What am I going to do?! Oh, my God! I can't do this!"

Sam paced around her living room, spiralling out of control. Her heart pounded like a bass drum, a combination of tears and sweat trailing down her cheeks as she uncontrollably panicked.

"Sam, calm down!" Aisha exclaimed, running over to her friend and gently pushing her towards the sofa, seating her there. After hearing a frantic phone call from Sam, Aisha had rushed over to Sam's place, but she still didn't understand what was going on as when she arrived, Sam was practically incoherent in her frenzy. Seeing how unstable Sam looked showed Aisha immediately that neither of them were probably going to the reunion that night.

When Sam was seated down on the couch, Aisha took off her coat and wrapped it tightly around her friend, whose teeth were chattering and her body trembling. Aisha was really worried about Sam too. After her breakup with Miguel, Sam had completely withdrew from her life: she had taken the past two weeks off work, hadn't left her house, and this was the first time Aisha had heard from her since.

"Okay, Sam, talk to me. What's going on?" Aisha asked, extremely nervous now. Sam put her head in her hands, and after several moments of silence, Sam eventually brought her head up and managed to look Aisha in the eye.

"Aisha… I… um… I… um… I..." Sam stuttered, searching for words to describe to her friend what she had done, but she couldn't bring herself to say what had happened without trailing off. She was so ashamed.

"Sam, talk. I swear, whatever it is, I won't judge you, and I'll always have your back." Aisha said, gently placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. Sam, who had slightly turned away from her in shame, reluctantly turned back to face Aisha.

"Aisha… I did something… bad." Sam whispered, her face pale. Aisha looked at her friend, even more curious now.

"Oh, my God. What did you do?" Aisha asked. Sam closed her eyes and took a deep breath before making her confession.

"Aisha, I'm… I'm pregnant." Sam confessed. Aisha's jaw dropped in shock, but upon seeing Sam's petrified, devastated expression, Aisha forced herself to get over her astonishment and comfort her friend.

"Hey, I mean, um… it's not that bad, is it? I mean, sure with Miguel's job being as international as it is and the fact that the two of you aren't together, things are going to be a little awkward, but plenty of children are born into broken homes. You definitely won't be the first. And besides, you've always wanted to be a mom, and you are going to be a great one."

Sam didn't speak for several moments, but when she did, her voice was no louder than a faint whisper.

"Aisha, that's not the bad part." Sam murmured.

"Huh? What? Really?" Aisha asked, perplexed. Sam shook her head and took a deep, shaky breath.

"No. The bad part is that I don't know who the father is…"

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"Alright, dude. You ready?" Eli asked as him and Miguel got out of a taxi right in front of West Valley High School that evening. Miguel took a deep breath. Despite all of the terrifying ordeals he had been through in all corners of the worlds, he was more nervous for this than he had been in years. Standing at the front steps of the school, it was like all of the self-confidence and pride he had built over the past 10 years had suddenly disappeared, leaving him as the same quiet, timid teenager he was a decade ago.

"Yeah, ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Miguel murmured, quietly, as he fiddled with his jacket collar.

"So, how are we playing this?" Eli questioned. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" Miguel asked. Eli sighed.

"Well, you're tripping if you think Kyler and his guys aren't going to have something to say to us. What are you thinking… should we beat the crap out of them? I mean, we're SEALs now, it wouldn't be hard for us to do so."

Miguel sighed.

"Look man, that's not why I became a SEAL and you know it." Miguel murmured. "You can go with me on this or not, but I'm only going to beat up Kyler if he lays a hand on me first. As for whatever cheap insults he throws my way… I think, after 10 years of killing bad guys, I'm strong enough to withstand a few quips."

Eli nodded.

"Yeah. But I tell you… if he even lays a finger on me, it's bye bye Kyler, hello jail cell." Eli growled. Miguel chuckled.

"If it comes to that, I guarantee you I will personally be in the cell right beside you. But please… let's just avoid violence, okay? It'll blow things up way bigger than they need to be. After all, after this reunion, we're not going to see these guys again for another 10 years."

"Yeah, I hear you." Eli muttered. The two of them both took deep breaths, before walking into the high school that had stolen 4 years of their lives and had left them only with the scars they had gotten from their bullies…

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"Woah, woah, woah, what do you mean you don't know who the father is?!" Aisha exclaimed. "Sam… did you cheat on Miguel?"

"What, NO!" Sam cried. "I would never do that!"

"Well then how is it possible that you don't know who the father is?" Aisha asked, trying her best not to sound judgemental but failing.

"It… um… it happened the night after. I was drunk, I really fucked up." Sam mumbled.

"Look, Sam, everyone makes mistakes. It's how you deal with them that matters." Aisha reassured her. "So do you know who the father is, if it isn't Miguel? It is just one other guy if not Miguel, right?" Aisha asked reluctantly.

"Yes! Of course! God, Aisha! It's still me, you know! It's not like I went on a sex rampage through the city!" Sam exclaimed sharply. Aisha raised her hands in surrender.

"Easy, Sam, I'm not the enemy. I was just asking an innocent question." Aisha responded, cooly. "So… I've gotta ask then… who is it? Do I know them?"

"Yeah, um… actually, you do. It's Robby." Sam murmured. Aisha's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in astonishment.

"ROBBY?!" Aisha cried out in shock. "What? How? Why?"

"Well, it's like I said. I was drunk and lonely, he was there." Sam remarked, bluntly. Aisha raised an eyebrow.

"Really? That's it?" Aisha asked, unconvinced. Sam looked at her friend, confused.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that that doesn't sound much like you. You know, to go randomly fuck your ex when you were drunk and lonely. There's gotta be more to it. Like had you guys slept together before or something?"

"No. But we did meet about a week earlier at a bar and we caught up" Sam admitted. "He seems to have really cleaned up his act and put his life together. He lives here in the city, and he has a stable job as an architect. Maybe him being the father wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

"Is that what you want? For Robby to be the father of your child?" Aisha asked, straight-up. Sam sighed.

"Look, I don't know. There was a long, long time that I hoped Miguel would quit his job and we would have kids together. But it's pretty clear to me, now more than ever, than his job is going to be his top priority, and it's always going to be his top priority. That's not what I need for the father of my child. So I guess… yeah, I do hope Robby is the father."

"Right." Aisha said, thoughtfully. "So what's the next step, Sam? Which one of them are you going to tell? Are you going to tell both of them? Are you going to tell neither?"

"Well, I guess I have to tell both of them at some point. I mean Robby and Miguel don't exactly look alike. When the baby comes out, if it's not the person's baby who I told, it's going to be pretty glaringly obvious."

"True. And until then? Are you going to take a prenatal paternity test?" Aisha asked.

"Those are a thing?" Sam remarked, surprised. Aisha nodded.

"Yeah. You can take one like 2 months into the pregnancy I think." Aisha replied.

Two months, Sam thought to herself, her mind whirring with the many possibilities of what could happen next. Since she had found out she was pregnant, no answers came clear to her anymore. Everything was murky, like the water of a disgusting swamp.

Sam thought… Two months is a pretty long time. By that time, Miguel could potentially be already back from his mission. He said that the mission was indefinite, but he also said that it could be over in the matter of months. And even if he wasn't… Sam didn't necessarily NEED him for the paternity test. She had Robby in the city, and as long as she had one of the potential fathers with her, she would be able to figure out who the baby daddy was. There was no real benefit to telling Miguel now. She knew it would heavily mess with and weigh on his mind when he left for his mission, and Sam didn't want him getting injured or killed because of that distraction. As good as Miguel was at his job, one mistake in his line of mistake and he would be staring upwards at the lid of a casket for the rest of eternity.

Eventually, Sam decided.

"Okay, you know what? I know what I'm going to do." Sam stated, trying to insert any sort of confidence in her voice. "I'm going to tell Robby, not Miguel, about the baby now. But I will tell Robby that there's a chance that Miguel could also be the father, and what he does with that information is up to him, whether he dumps me or not. But I am going to ask him to do the paternity test and if, and ONLY if, it comes back to say that Miguel is the father… that's when I tell Miguel, in person if he's in the country, or over skype if he isn't."

"Skype? You're going to tell the poor man he's going to be a father over Skype? Doesn't that seem like in-person news? That seems far from ideal for him!"

"Well, duh, but do you have a better idea?" Sam snapped. Aisha remained quiet and Sam nodded. "Exactly! Every part of this situation is "far from ideal." In fact, it's more than that. It's really fucked up. But there's really no benefit as to telling Miguel that he COULD be a father. It'll just mess with his head. But anyways, I've got two months to cross that bridge when and if I have to. I need to just think about telling Robby right now."

Aisha nodded, still slightly unsure.

"Are you sure?" Aisha asked, one more time. Sam nodded, acting more confidently than she felt. She wasn't sure about any of this, but she had to act like it to create some semblance of control in her life.

"Yeah… yeah, I am."