Chapter 12
Matt and Kitty both looked at each other. Doc walked over to the basket on the examining table and laid Abby down inside it. He rubbed his hand over his mustache. He had to be careful how he answered Kitty's question. He didn't want to give her false hope. Doc knew that Kitty was upset that Matt was possibly Abby's biological father, but what really bothered her was that she couldn't give him a child from her own body.
"I'm going to give you my professional opinion, but keep in mind, this is my opinion. Matt here says that he slept with Mike once, the night before he left, and I believe him. Matt, what was the date that you and Mike were physically together?" asked Doc.
Matt felt his face turn a shade of red. He really didn't feel comfortable talking about this with Doc and Kitty, but knew it was important. So, he answered Doc's question. "It was September fifteenth. I had been there for four weeks."
"Matt, that would mean if Mike had your baby, it would have been born in June, not early May. Doc said Abby was definitely a full term baby," said Kitty. "Abby would have to have been conceived sometime in late July, not the middle of September."
Matt didn't realize Abby was a full term baby. Mrs. Pritchard said that Mike had given birth at least a month early, and Matt just figured his daughter had arrived earlier than her due date.
Matt turned to look at Doc. "Doc?" he questioned.
"Abby weighed six pounds and twelve ounces at birth. She was twenty inches long. That does seem a little big for a baby born at least a month early. However, it wasn't just her size. I told Kitty that Abby's skin was the thickness of a full term baby. Babies who are born a month or more earlier tend to have skin that is thinner. The earlier they are born, the thinner it is. With that information and the date that Matt was with Mike, I would have to lean towards that Matt is not the biological father," said Doc.
Kitty knew that Doc wasn't giving a definite answer, but she still felt relief. Kitty didn't feel that another woman had succeeded where she had failed, giving Matt a child of his own blood. She was grateful that Matt wouldn't be forever bound to Mike Yardner through their biological child.
Matt had a mixture of feelings, feelings he really couldn't explain. On one hand he was relieved that he wasn't Abby's biological father for Kitty's sake. Like Doc, he knew Kitty well enough to know that it upset her that Mike Yardner had possibly given him a child, and she couldn't. What about his own sake? Did he want to be Abby's biological father? Whether he was or not wouldn't have made him love her any more or any less. He was sure of that. But there was a small part of him that wouldn't have been disappointed if Abby was his biological daughter.
Going over to the basket, Kitty gently picked up Abby. She looked at Abby's face and tears began to well up in her eyes. She did her best to keep them from falling, but couldn't. Both Matt and Doc saw the tears.
"Oh Matt, I feel absolutely shameful. I was so upset that you and Mike could've had a child together, that I started resenting this innocent baby. What kind of mother resents her own child? Rationally I knew she was not to blame, that she didn't ask to be part of this. Irrationally the opposite was true," said Kitty as she wiped at her eyes.
"Kitty, I know how much you love Abby. I also know that whether or not I was her biological father, you would continue to love her with all your heart. The way you're feeling right now is proof of how much you love her. You are her mother and a wonderful one. Abby is so fortunate to have you as her mother," said Matt as he walked over to Kitty and their daughter, wrapping his arms around them.
"Matt's right. You are a wonderful mother. We all know that you would continue loving Abby, no matter what," said Doc.
Kitty needed to hear that. "What I don't understand is why Mike would come to Dodge claiming she was having your baby. What was her intention? Was she coming to Dodge to try to claim you as her own? Did she think she could use her baby to do that? She had to have known the timing of the birth and the time you were together were off," said Kitty. She had so many questions.
"We'll never know Mike's intention of coming to Dodge. I do believe she was coming to Dodge to let Matt know she was pregnant. I also believe she truly felt Matt was the father," said Doc.
"What makes you say that?" asked Matt.
"Sometimes when a woman gets pregnant, she experiences some spotting, a little bit of bleeding when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. More than likely she was with a man before she was with you and had gotten pregnant by him. However, after conception she probably experienced spotting which she mistook for her monthly cycle. When she was with Matt she was already pregnant, but didn't know it. After she was with Matt, she missed what she thought was her first monthly cycle. That's probably why Mike thought she was carrying Matt's child. That has to be why she thought her baby wasn't due until June," Doc answered.
Matt and Kitty simply nodded. Kitty wrapped Abby up in her blanket, and she, Matt and Abby left Doc's office. Kitty had her mare, so Matt hitched it to the back of the wagon. He had put the basket he brought to transport Abby in the back of the wagon, since Kitty would hold Abby on the ride home. Matt helped Kitty up onto the wagon's seat.
"Matt, I recall you telling me that Mike was a no nonsense woman. She called you Dan because like Daniel you entered the lion's den, and if you tried anything you'd experienced the lion's den. She built these defensive walls around herself. Maybe she did that because she met a man after her husband died and that man left her, deciding he didn't want to be with her anymore. She could have fallen in love with him. But when he left her, she felt rejected, abandoned. Mike obviously found you shortly after this other man possibly hurt her. She wasn't going to go through that again, so she made sure to keep you at a distance. Maybe it wasn't even a man she had fallen in love with," said Kitty. She didn't continue. Both she and Matt knew where Kitty was going with the other possibility.
Matt didn't want to think that Abby may have been conceived because of an assault. Mike was a kind woman and didn't deserve that. "Those are definitely plausible,"
"We know the chances of you not being Abby's father are better than the chances that you are, but in a way her paternity will always be blurred," said Kitty. One thing that wasn't blurred was the love that Matt and Kitty had for each other and the love they had for their daughter.
TBC in an epilogue
