A/N: Welcome back all. I'm sure you're used to inconsistent updates from me by now but I'm still very sorry it has taken so long!
Kaleigh
I always hated the way people assumed my name is pronounced. I mean, looking at it, yeah, it looks the same as "Callie". But it's actually said the same as "Kaylee". I'll never know why it was spelled that way but it's the only thing I ever got from my biological parents so I decided to hold onto it.
People at school still called me "Callie". I was constantly correcting people on it. It never seemed to stick though.
Just another reminder that I wasn't at home anymore.
When I parked my car in the senior lot, I felt like I might pass out. "Hi, Callie," someone waved to me. I waved back. I wasn't unpopular or anything, in fact, I think I could be popular here if I cared. But I don't.
I went up to Nick's locker. Nick wasn't anything special, as much as I hate to admit it, but he was nice and kind and if I wasn't so out of sorts from everything that's happened I think I could probably have a good relationship with him. He acts like he won the lottery, though, and for me it's mostly sex and a tiny bit of affection.
I had the sinking feeling that he would want to step up and raise the kid if I told him, but how could I not? "Can I talk to you?" I said without any hesitation or introduction. He was nodding as he pulled two textbooks from the bottom of his locker.
"Yeah, what's up?" he asked, smiling at me.
Well, this was it. Now or never. "I'm… I'm pregnant, Nick."
He laughed at first because he thought I was joking.
Considering my life is a joke now, it seemed fitting.
Owen
I was surprised to get a call from Kaleigh in the middle of her school day, but I had the morning off so I was able to answer.
"Everything okay?" I answered. "Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Can you come pick me up?"
"Isn't your car at the school?" I said, stunned.
"I can't… I don't want to drive right now. Please, Owen."
"Okay, okay, I'm on my way."
The drive to the school wasn't that long but it felt like ages trying to get to Kaleigh. She so far hadn't shown any vulnerability to me or Amelia so I knew that it had to be something decently big for her to be calling about.
I didn't know the school that well so I just pulled up to the front curb, but luckily she came out one of the side doors right away and saw me. She slid into the passenger seat silently.
I could tell she had been crying but her arms were crossed and she was looking out the window like she was angry.
"So, are we going to talk about this? What's wrong?" I asked.
"I'm just mulling over all the ways I can break this to you. And I'm pissed that this happened to me."
"Saying it to me in any other way than the honest truth isn't going to change anything," I pointed out.
"I know."
"So what happened to you?"
"I got pregnant."
The words hung in the air for a moment. Pregnant. Kaleigh was pregnant.
"Say something, please. I mean, I know this is a monumental fuck up and you guys took me and you barely know me so that makes it worse but I promise I was doing everything the right way and I-"
"Kaleigh," I said finally. "I am not mad or upset with you. I understand it has not been easy for you to move across the country and be raised by people you hardly know." I sighed.
"But?"
"But what? I am just saying I know it has been difficult on you. But Amelia and I, and Alexa of course, are all here to support you. That includes during this. I'm glad you told me."
"You mean instead of her?"
I did, but I didn't confirm that.
Alexa
It was Friday afternoon so I was on the bus to the Walmart plaza where Amelia usually picked me up for the weekend. Sometimes I had friends with me, but this weekend I just wanted to hang out and get some homework done. The semester was finally starting to kick up and I was about to get behind if I didn't take a weekend off.
Kaleigh was texting me like crazy, which was weird. Usually it was the other way around. She was saying she wanted to talk to me and asking me what time I was going to be home (as if it wasn't the same every single weekend). I could only imagine. She probably wanted to ask me what outfit she should wear to a party she got invited to or whether I thought it would be bad if she went to dinner with a group of people but Nick wasn't invited.
Amelia pulled into the parking lot just as the bus did. I was out of my seat before it stopped moving, desperate to get into the fresh, if not brisk air. I got motion sickness so easily that even the twenty five minute bus ride was starting to take its toll.
I was the only one getting off at this stop so I waited for the bus to pull away before crossing to the car. It was raining hard and I just wanted to get home.
"Hey, how was your week?" Amelia asked as we pulled off.
"Alright. Boring. It's school. I mean, it's fun sometimes but I just want to get to the part where I have a cool scientific job already."
She chuckled. "Well, you have to learn the science behind the job first."
"I know, I just wish it wasn't so repetitive! I have learned about the structure of an amino acid in like four different classes now."
"Well, good, then you'll know it extra well for when you need it."
I rolled my eyes. "I bet you still have the twenty common amino acids memorized. As a surgeon, you probably encounter that every day."
I should have known better. "Actually, I do. Alanine is A, with a methyl R-group, Arginine is R, with a 4 carbon, three nitrogen side chain, actually, if you let me draw it for you when we get back I can show you-"
"Alright!" I declared. "You were seriously prepared to list them in alphabetical order too. Jesus."
"It's just memorization. It's not that impressive."
"I would kill to be half as smart as you." I meant it.
"You're smarter than me in ways you don't even realize yet," she said.
"Cryptic," I noted.
"Oh come on! Give me a break I was paying you a compliment."
We laughed for a second before I abruptly changed the subject. "Is Kaleigh okay?"
"I mean I haven't talked to her much today, or do you mean in general?"
Amelia
I was driving Alexa home from the bus stop when she asked about Kaleigh. But I didn't know if what she was worried about is the same thing as what I was worried about. I mean, I was all for normalizing sex and everything but was this too soon for a maladjusted teenager who just got here a couple months ago?
Whatever I thought, it didn't have much to do with Alexa. I can't imagine my mother talking to Nancy or Kathleen or Liz about my sex life when I was younger. Or now. I guess it was different.
"Why do you ask?" I wondered out loud.
"Nothing, nothing… she's just been texting me all day and I didn't know if there was some particular thing that she's been stressing about that you knew about. Like if she was going out or something," Alexa explained.
"Um, nope. I haven't been home yet today though, I came straight from the hospital."
"How was it?" she asked.
"Good. I mostly did consults today but I have a surgery with Derek tomorrow, actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah… as long as he doesn't completely take over it should be fine," I admitted.
"So, take it back from him."
"What?"
"If he starts taking over, just take it back. He doesn't see how arrogant he gets."
I laughed. "You know, just because you're my kid doesn't mean you have to say that."
"Please! I'm not just saying that for your benefit. Besides, you have your own arrogant streak too, just not when it comes to him. I'm sure I've inherited that awful gene as well."
"Yeah, from Mark maybe," I said.
"Whatever. I can't wait to take a nap in my bed. I'll arise again at approximately dinner time."
"Who said I was making dinner?"
Alexa smiled at me as she got out of the car, collecting her backpack and the ever present laundry.
The house was empty when we got back, which was weird because Owen wasn't supposed to be due into work until 2 pm.
Something about this week just felt off.
Kaleigh
"Where do you want to go?" Owen asked me. "Those two will be back by now. She left to get Alexa before you called me."
"You're not making me go back to school?"
His eyes turned sad and sympathetic. "Unless you're in danger of failing out from one afternoon of missed classes, you don't have to go back to school."
"Um, could we, do you think we could get lunch before going back home? I just… I'm not ready to tell anyone else yet." The implication that I was talking about Alexa and Amelia was there.
"Sure. Up for a burger?"
"Yeah."
He picked a place that was a little extra out of the way. I would have liked to believe that was for me, but he probably wouldn't admit to that.
When we pulled into the parking lot. HE shut off the car but made no start to the door so we sat there silently for a minute. My hand trailed to my stomach, even though I knew I wasn't showing. I had checked this morning in the mirror from a bunch of angles.
"Kaleigh can I just ask… how long have you known?"
"A couple of days, maybe. It's not… it can't be that old. Maybe like a week or two. Is that too soon for the test to come back positive?"
"We should… you should come to the hospital. Get everything checked out. Make sure it isn't a false positive."
"Does that happen often?" I bit my lip.
"No."
"Do we have to go today? I kind of want to just stay home today."
"No, we don't have to go today. But I don't want to harbor this secret… I… It could hurt them, feeling like we knew this huge thing and didn't tell either of them," Owen said quietly.
"It could hurt them to find out, too," I pointed out.
"I know," he nodded.
Owen
It's going to hurt a lot more than you realize, I was thinking. Because Kaleigh was pregnant. Kaleigh had a baby growing inside of her, and Amelia had that once too, only she had to give it up and then once again but the next time she was pregnant, her child was anencephalic.
I wondered how Amelia would react to this. I was scared to tell her. But I knew Kaleigh wasn't going to be able to do it herself. They had barely had a conversation of any sustenance since the girls moved in with us.
And Alexa. Wow, after things have finally settled down for her. Surely, she'd step up for Kaleigh but I couldn't imagine she wouldn't be upset at first. Maybe mad at Kaleigh, maybe at herself.
I thought of those two the whole way back to the school to get their car. The only blood relatives in the house. The two with the "A" names.
"Promise me one thing," I said as we pulled into the lot, bracing ourselves for what we would eventually have to face once we started home.
"What's that?"
"Promise me you won't make any… rash decisions before talking to Amelia. Or a doctor. Both. Please just wait. You have time if you… you have time."
"Owen-"
"Kaleigh, damn it, I just need you to promise me that. Okay?" My hands were gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"Okay, okay, I promise. Now you promise me. You won't tell her before I do. I want some time to think about what to say and… and I want to have just one more night where everything isn't shit before I start really thinking about this."
"Okay. Promise."
We crossed our pinkies and she left the car.
Alexa
I was in prime nap mode when Kaleigh came home and woke me up. I mean, seriously? The rain had let up a little, so it was white noise as opposed to the usual pounding. It was cold enough in my room that I needed a comforter but the fire in the fire place was warm and ambient. I was spread out diagonally across my queen sized bed (I mean, compare that to the beds at college and you'd be crazy not to take as much advantage as possible). I had pillows surrounding me and I was just a bundled up ready to become partially comatose after a long week.
I hadn't been asleep more than ten minutes when she barged into my room without even knocking.
"You're not serious right now."
Apparently she didn't hear me, because she sat right down at the end of my bed and pulled some of the covers onto herself.
"Kaleigh-"
"Just let me sit for a minute." She was rocking back and forth.
"What's wrong?" I asked, wanting to get this over with. "Just spit it out already."
"You really want to know?"
"Not really, no, you've just been bugging me all day, so." I ripped the covers back and laid back down.
She started crying then, so I sat back up. Okay, maybe things were a little worse than I had realized.
"Nick… we…"
"Did you break up?" I asked. I felt bad.
She nodded her head no. "I'm pregnant with his kid."
I felt my face get really hot, right up to the tips of my ears. "What?"
"I took a test the other day. It came back positive. I'm pregnant."
"Kaleigh! No sir. Shut up. You're not funny."
She shrugged. "That's what he said, too. Before he realized I was telling the truth."
I flopped back down on my bed. "How did you let this happen?"
"I didn't! We… I mean we were safe every time… It must have just… I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?!" I yelled. "Kaleigh, seriously?"
"Shh!" She grabbed my arm. "Amelia doesn't know yet."
"Oh, that is perfect. Classic Kaleigh, asking me to cover up her tracks for you."
"I'm not asking you for anything other than to shut your stupid mouth for once in your life."
I scoffed. "What does that mean?"
"It means if you had just shut up about Mom and Dad we could still be living there! Mom wouldn't have been so mad if you didn't come out here and do all of this. And she wouldn't have come after us like that. We would still be happy."
I flinched at her words. "Kaleigh, I'm sorry if you're not happy here, but we couldn't stay there. The thing with… Mom… it started way before any of this. And I am happy here. You will be someday too, just… not right now? I don't know, Kaleigh. But I don't regret finding Amelia. It's the best decision I think I've ever made."
She sat in the chaise lounge against the wall. I straightened out my covers while she gained her composure.
"I'm going to tell Amelia, soon, just not… not tonight. It's too much tonight."
Amelia
I was putting the recycling in the bin when I saw the box at the top. Whoever was trying to hid it was unlucky. The bin was almost full. If they had just thrown it out a couple days earlier I never would have seen it.
I knew whose it was. Alexa had been at school all week and there was no way she could have put that in there in the time we had been home. It wasn't mine, and, well, Owen didn't have a uterus so… that left Kaleigh.
Figures she was trying to the right thing by recycling the box but I still found out anyway.
I put a cup of milk in the microwave for hot chocolate, watching the plate turn around and around. Should I confront her? Or let her talk to me?
The answer was obvious but I still worried. If it was a negative, well, that just meant a talk on safer sex and being careful. A positive would have bigger implications.
I went through the motions that night, distracted. I made a pot pie for dinner. I sat on the couch with Owen while the girls went out to see a movie together. We all shared a gallon of ice cream while watching Scandal and before I knew it I was in bed lying next to Owen who was staring at the ceiling.
Did he know?
Of course he knew. He was Owen. If Kaleigh was going to tell one of us, it was going to be him.
And they did get home around the same time today. Kaleigh had claimed she was sick but now I was doubting that.
"Meel," Owen said softly.
I couldn't tell if I was mad or hurt or what. And I was so surprised that he said anything that I stayed silent.
"Meel, what do you think about having a kid?"
Kaleigh
It wasn't hard to sneak out Saturday morning. Everyone was still asleep or gone.
I know Owen had made me promise to wait but I couldn't. I needed to get answers, and I wasn't willing to do that in front of a million people who knew Owen and Amelia. I wanted some privacy. I needed to make this decision alone.
Maybe it was a false positive and I wouldn't have to make any decision at all.
I was stuck in my thoughts, so I must not have hear the doctor the first time. She came up to me and said my name again. "Kaleigh Lane?"
I stood.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Alexandra Silver. I'll be taking care of you today." She extended her hand to me to shake.
Dr. Silver had two prosthetic legs, but you wouldn't have been able to tell if she was wearing pants. She also had a lot of small white scars on her face and neck, but she was still so pretty with chin length brown hair and brown eyes that were warm and inviting. I don't know. Something told me I could trust her, so I did.