~@~@ I Don't Think I'm ready for this. (4/5)
I Disclaim
~~~
February 7, 2004
"I shouldn't be here, should I?" Sly asked as he stared at the Welcome to Port Charles sign. He moved the phone from his ear, sure that the groan could be heard from miles away. "Yes or No will suffice?"
"Sly I want you to first know that I love you, and that I cherish your friendship, I don't know what I would do without it." "That said drive into the city you wimpy punk ASS little coward."
"What do I say?"
"How bout I was in the area for a seminar, thought I'd drop by and say hi."
"Lye?"
"Yes lye, Geez you grew up in Port Charles you don't know how to lye." "It's simple, open your mouth, and don't tell the truth."
"This would so much easier if I had some SUPPORT?"
"I have work, exams, and a minor almost imaginary social life going on here, I can't just drop everything and fly home cause your baby's momma didn't 'sound right'?"
"Well she didn't, I think she's depressed."
"Sly, she's pregnant and living in Port Charles, of course she's depressed, if you want to help, I suggest you go see her, instead of sitting outside the city, like a moron." Emily dropped her pen, and tried to find the words that would encourage her self conscious friend into some action. "Okay here it is, you have to go and see her, because you're not Bill Eckert, and you can't allow the woman you love to feel pain, while you can stop it, and you can stop it by going to her." The silence on the other end was telling, if nothing else Sly would go to simply prove that he wasn't his father, it was low, but it was all she had.
"Thanks Em." He wasn't his father, and he wouldn't let Maxie deal with this alone." I'll call you later."
"You do that, but after you make this right." "Love you Sly."
"Love you too." Sly turned off his phone and began pulling his car onto the main road into to town, and toward Maxie.
~~~
" You need anything?" Mac asked hopefully, looking at his step daughter, he wanted her to open up and talk to him like she used to. Before Frisco showed up, and incited this rebellious nature, but she merely shook her head, and turned back to the television. He gave a sigh, and sank down onto the couch. "You know I'm here if you need anything right?"
"Mac, stop it." Maxie gave him a pitying glance. "I don't want to talk about anything, not my feelings, not this pregnancy, not even the weather."
"Maxie, I can't accept that." Mac stood up, and looked around the apartment, it was slightly cleaner then it usually was, but only because Felicia had hired someone to clean, other then that it was the epitome of a college students apartment. It wasn't the apartment of a soon to be single mother and her live-in nanny slash sister, but it should be, except that Maxie was acting as if this wasn't really happening. "You're acting like nothing has changed." "You're due next month, and you're behaving as if nothings changed."
"I'm adapting at my own rate."
"You're adapting at no rate." Calm down, the little voice in his head, had been saying that since he found out, and yet he couldn't. Frisco and Felicia were acting as composed as Maxie, calming making plans, and treating her like she dropped her ice cream cone. Why was he the only one, that was furious about this, didn't they care that some little punk had seduced his baby girl, and ruined her life. "The next eighteen years of your life is going to be dictated by another human being, and you don't seem concerned."
"Oh please that's not what this is about, you want to know who the father is, so you have someone to blame." It had been building for months, the first question he had asked had been about the father, and when she refused to answered he had stopped. She had imagined that her mother had some how persuaded him to give he space and time, but she knew he was just bidding his time, waiting for a weak moment. "Here it Mac, the moment you've been waiting for, the person you blame is…ME." She moved to stand inches form his face, and watched as the shook of the reminder that she was involved in the situation.
"MAXIE..."
"No it is, I did this."
"Maxie…"
"Why are you even upset, it's not like YOU'RE my father." She felt her heart slow, as he stepped back like he'd been slapped. It was a purely defensive move, Mac was too close, and she could feel herself confiding in him, just like she always did, but now there was more at stake.
"You listen little girl, I've known you since forever, and I haven't missed anything, not a step not a cold, not anything." "No, I'm not your father, biologically, but that doesn't mean anything to me, and it hasn't meant anything to you for the longest time, but I guess things change huh?"
"Mac…"
"No, I think we should take a break for a bit." Mac grabbed his jacket, from the couch, and walked to the door, before he turned back and grabbed her in a hug." I still love you, and I'm not going to let you push me away, but I am going to give you some room." He kissed forehead, before dropping a kiss on her protruding bellying, and walking through the door leaving her to her thoughts.
She couldn't be here, he had just left and she could already hear the words he said echoing off the walls. She ran to the door, grabbing her keys as she slammed out of the apartment.
~~~
"Hey Dad." Sly dropped down to he ground beside his father's grave, and looked across to his mothers." Mom." "I haven't been here in a long while, but I was doing something important and thought I should tell you guys what was going on." The only sound he heard was the wind rustling against the tree branches. "I put off coming here, because I didn't know what to say to you guys." "It's hard to talk about my childhood, without Emily or my psychiatrist near by to encourage me to keep talking. "" I feel like I should be over what happened after all it was so long ago, that it hardly seems important that I was alone for most of it. "He stood up and began pacing. " I don't mean to sound like I'm bitter or anything, If you hadn't been such wanders I had never come here, and meet my friends or gotten to be part of Aunt Jenny's family, so for that I thank you, but…"
"I don't trust people, I had this great relationship with Emily, and I could have been happy, but I couldn't trust it or her, and that's because of you two." "I'm constantly feel like I need someone to validate me, because I always felt like I wasn't worthy of either of you. " " I'm about to become a father, and I can't even tell the mother of my child that I've fallen in love with her because I think once she knows she'll run, and I have this horrific fear, that I'll be just like you to my child. Cheating on Maxie and leaving my son alone to fend for himself, until he's questioning everything just like I am." Tears began pooling in his eyes, and he wiped them away before turning back to the tombstones. "I'm not angry at you anymore; I just wanted to let you know what I had been feeling all these years and that right now I'm letting it all go." "I have to, because I need to be free of this, before I try to get my family."
He removed the small envelope form his overcoat, and removed the two small pictures, before he placed them on the respective graves. "That your grandson, next time I come back hopefully I'll have a picture of the whole family." "I have to go now….. Maxie needs me."
~~~
She turned the ignition again, and almost cried when the car didn't even mutter. Of course the car was dead, why wouldn't it wait til she was miles away from the main center of town to act up. "And of course you didn't bring your cell phone, because once again you were acting on instinct, and all your instincts lead to trouble."
She steeped out of her car, and checked where she was, Carlson Road twenty minutes from the main highway, which meant that she was as least an hour's walk away from help. "But you can't walk because you're pregnant, so you're basically stuck great job Maxie, now I need a miracle." As if hearing her wording the dark night was suddenly glowing with lights, headlights. "Thank god." The car stopped right beside hers right before the door opened and driver got out." SLY."
"Hi need some help?" Sly moved toward her car, but stopped just a few feet from her, simply amazed at how beautiful she looked. He thought that the glow they said pregnant women had was a myth; he certainly hadn't thought his Aunt Jenny had glowed; she spent the majority of time crying or yelling. Maxie however looked radiant, her cheeks were rosy, and her eyes glowed. "Car stopped working?"
"Sly what are you doing here?" She stared at him, like he was a mirage, she had wanted to see him, she just hadn't said it out loud.
"Ah… I was in the area for ah…" He put in hand in his front pocket and gave a shy smile. "Truth is I came because I thought you sounded upset and I wanted to see if you needed me."
She should have been upset, she had specially told him, not to do this, but she couldn't seem to sum up any anger, which is probably how she ended up in his arms hugging him. "Thank you for coming, I did need you." Sly didn't question her, or look at her with embarrassment or shame; he just smiled and gave her everything she needed.
" Anytime." Sly slid his hands done her back, and noticed her shiver, realizing that she hadn't taken her coat, he stepped back and offered her his overcoat placing it around her shoulders. "What are you doing out here?"
She snuggled into the coat and looked down at her feet afraid to meet his eyes. "I just needed some time, everything has just been getting so…."
"Real."
"Yeah, I know logically that I'm pregnant and that this is happening, and I want this baby Sly, you know that but I… I'm so confused." "One minute I'll be really excited, then the next I'm terrified, and Mac doesn't think I'm prepared, Mom and Frisco seem so sure that I won't repeat their mistakes, I don't think I'm ready for this, but I can't back out now."
"Maxie I understand." He laid and a hand on her shoulder only to have it thrown off and as she turned on him anger eliminating her blue eyes.
"No you don't you had two parents, your life was normal until they died."
"Are you insane, do you remember my parents?" Sly gave a bitter laugh. " My father spent the bulk of his time traveling the globe, while the mother sleep with every guy in between, until they divorced, then they dumped on my grandparents and other relatives until they were both murdered, then I was shipped off to boarding school, while my aunt build her family." "I have no concept of normal, only what I read in my textbooks." "I'm so screwed up this that this relationship is not only my most normal, it's my most promising."
Maxie's' eye widened as the startling revelation, she had suspected that the friend he keep mentioning was some sort of ex, the information worried her. If Sly's idea of a normal relationship was a pregnant one night stand that refused to see him, then her son was in trouble. Between her parents and his, they were definitely too dysfunctional to procreate. "Oh that's just great, we both psychos." She fell back against her car, a feeling a dread was building in her heart, she could feel the failure coming on her. It almost overwhelmed her, until the second pain began, a sharper more pronounced pain, one that caused her to pale.
"Maxie...?" Sly stepped closer and offered her his hand, which she promptly squeezed hard enough to break a bone." MAXIE, STOP." He ripper his hand away and stared at her in shock, she was taking shallows breathes, and she was clutching her stomach, as she grimaces in pain. "Maxie, what is it?"
"I think we should get to a hospital." She felt the water running down her leg, and nodded her head vigorously." Yeah, cause that was my water breaking."
Sly only paused a minute trying to think clearly, they were Forty minutes from General Hospital, but Mercy was probably only ten minutes if he broke the speed laws, which telling by Maxie's expression was a very good idea. "Come on." He took her hand and led her to his rental, seconds later they were speeding toward Mercy Hospital.
~~~
Eight hours later
Sly leaned against the door of the roof, trying to catch his breath that had been to close. One minute later and he would have to explain to Frisco and Mac why he had been in Maxie's room. As the fear of discovery began to die down, he started to smile, it was official. "I'm a Dad."
The thought wasn't as terrifying as he thought; it seemed really simply, when he thought about it. Jackson was his son, all he had to do was love and care for him, he could do that. After all he loved Emily and Lucky, and the second he saw his son, he felt his heart swell. Besides it was Emily said he wasn't his father. Thinking of his best friend he pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial, giving a small smile when he heard her grumble a hello. "Hey Em."
"God Dammit Sylvester do you ever look at a clock."
"I'm a father."
"I know you dork, I was there when you found out."
"No I mean I'm really a father, Jackson William Jones was born on February 8, 2004 at 1:24 am weighing 7lbs, 8 ounces."
Emily jumped up in her bed and checked her clock. "JERK, that was three hours ago, I should have been informed immediately." Sly had a son, which meant that she was a….well she still just his friend, but now he was father, and that was what important." You must be so excited, congratulation Dad, how's Maxie?"
The smile disappeared quickly; the one black spot on the entire evening was what happened with Maxie. "I screwed up, and now she hates me."
" SLY, you've haven't even been back twenty-four hours, your son was just born, how in God's name could you have screwed up so baldy, so quickly, what could you have done, that would make someone on pain medication hate you?"
"I told her, I loved her."
"That'll do it."
~~~
Well he's here Jackson William Jones, has been born, and
that leaves one more part to 'The Wrong Blonde' Series. Once that's done I'll
finish up Complicated. By April I'll be starting some new fics, including one starring
my favorite character Emily, as while as a new Kay fic for Passions and a Shloe
fic for Days.
