"I'm pregnant." Connie finally broke the silence.

A fork was dropped on an almost empty plate across from her. "You're.." Steven sat there, eyes wide.

Connie nodded, her fork poking and prodding at a single piece of pea amongst the hill of corn and peas on her plate. "Lars took me to the hospital to get checked out.. Turns out that all of that acid reflux and burping weren't from pizza rolls and that cheap, generic store soda after all.. Or at least not entirely." she continued to prod at the green vegetable. "..It was just the early signs of pregnancy." Then a not so comical thought came to her mind, and she let out a dry chuckle. "Who would've thought.. I actually have a fetus growing inside of me the size of an Appleseed. Heh.. I guess that's what happens when you lay down with someone, huh?"

Steven swallowed. Whether it was from the dinner she'd made for him or his own saliva, was anyone's guess. "How far along are you?" she could tell that he was trying to sound calm, but she still heard a slight shakiness in his voice.

Connie's eyes drifted up from the plate, drifting up and pass Steven to an errant crack on the wall by the dining room clock. "Oh, only about four, five weeks.." she said plainly.

Silence sat back down to join them at the table again. Steven sat back in his chair, his mouth a thin line and his eyes filled with worry. The two sat at the table quietly. Then after a few seconds of neither one of them saying anything, Steven cleared his throat, finally finding his words. "Are-" "Yes." Her eyes snapped right to him. "And I've made up my mind. You know how I feel about that." she started putting pressure on the middle of the pea, still glaring at Steven.

"It's.. a touchy subject for everyone."

The pea split in two, and the prong of the fork clinked on the plate. "I'm keeping the baby, Steven. And that's final."

"No, no, no I want to keep the baby too!" Connie didn't believe him. "I.. was just making sure if you wanted to do the same.. heheh." he scratched the back of his neck.

She still didn't believe him.

Silence again.. say for the drumming of Connie's fingers on the table. She and Steven stared at each other, one with a piercing glare and the other, with a worried look. The two stayed like that for a few seconds before Connie broke the stare to look down at her food. She'd lost her appetite since they'd sat down. She couldn't even take a couple of bites of the macaroni and cheese and that was her favorite.

"Okay, well. I'm off to bed." she said a bit too sternly.

He watched her as she pushed her chair back and walked to the foldout couch bed. "Oh, um.. Okay." he said sadly. "Did you want me to uh.. massage your feet?"

"That's what got me into this in the first place." she plopped down on her side, her back facing him.

"Oh." he gave a nervous chuckle. "..Umm.. right.. Uh... Goodnight."

She didn't answer him. She curled up on top of the covers, not caring that she was a bit cold. She was just mentally drained and didn't feel like doing even the smallest things.

She laid there for just a few moments before looking up at the window. Through the tan colored blinds, she could see the boarded up house across the street from them. Red and blue lights from a police box on the corner of their block by their apartment were reflecting off the window. And a chipped up flower pot sat alone on the windowsill. No flowers. Just dirt and bits of rock. Not much of a scenery, but she rather look at that than at him. She was just so angry at him.. And she knew that it wasn't his fault. Well, not entirely. They were both held accountable and now they have to face the consequences of their fast actions.

She breathed in and exhaled deeply through her nose. She heard a chair being pushed back on the bare, wooden floor and she heard some footsteps walking slowly up to her. She shut her eyes. The sound of the footsteps stopped in front of her and a few moments later, she felt a blanket being thrown over her. She felt the blanket being pulled up, just below her chin and he adjusted the blanket so it could cover her whole body, except for her feet, leaving only one foot out of the covers. Just the way she liked it.

Then Steven tucked the blankets underneath of her and gave her a kiss on her temple. She heard him walking back to the dining room, listening to their plates as he picked them up off the table. There was a rustle and a tear from an aluminum foil and she heard the fridge open and close. Then she heard the scraping of a plate, rushing water, clanking from some utensils and she heard the footsteps coming back. She felt a dip in the bed as he laid down on the other side.

The clock clicked steadily on the wall in the dining room.

"Connie?"

She was glad that she was turned the other way. Otherwise, he would've seen her face scrunch up just from the sound of his voice.

"It's okay. You don't have to talk to me." He rolled over, staring at the lump of blanket in front of him. "We'll get through this. I know we can.. Connie, I can change." she heard that so many times. "I can better my life. For you. For.." he forced out in a whisper. "For our child."

Connie wanted to believe him. She really did, but it was just the same thing with him again and again. She was going to tell him off and remind him of the many times that he'd already said that, but she decided against it. She didn't feel like arguing with him. They'd been going at it back and forth over small, petty things lately and she just didn't feel like being a part of another yelling match. She adjusted the arm she was laying on, so she could get more comfortable, but still opted out on saying anything to him.

He sighed. "I guess we'll talk more in the morning." It sounded more like a question than a statement. He laid his head down on the pillow. "Goodnight, Connie."

She didn't answer him.

... Connie woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. She threw the covers off of her and sat up at the edge of the bed for a few moments. In deep thought. More seconds passed and she buried her face in her hands. A long, tired sigh came from her.

Then she rubbed her face, like that would somehow ease the emotional tension she had in her head. She got up and looked over at Steven. He was curled up in a little ball, shivering. He'd covered her with the other side of the blanket she was laying on.

The heat didn't work very well in their apartment and sometimes, it didn't work at all. And this particular night, it was barely working.

"Oh, Steven.." She shook her head with a small, sad smile on her face. With that little kind gesture on top of her being so in love with him, she had to admit that that did warm her heart a bit.

She took the covers and placed them gently on him. Then she took her hand and started brushing his hair back a few times before giving him a small kiss on his forehead.

She went to the bathroom and took a quick glance at the clock on the wall. 2:47a.m. She walked back to the bed, this time, pulling up the blankets. She crawled into bed and pulled the covers up to her face. Thoughts of last night still swirled around in her mind and she shook her mind of the negative thoughts. Who knows.. Maybe things WILL be different this time..