Three weeks later, the morning sickness wasn't so bad anymore and Randall had gained a little more appetite.
As skinny as he was, Randall knew it was a matter of time before a baby bump would be beginning to show. But then, maybe he was showing.
Even at eleven weeks, he still hadn't told much of anyone what was going on with him. Not even Fungus.
But there were a lot of murmurs going on around Randall now. He felt all eyes were on him, and it was making him nervous. He looked down at himself. He might have seen a little bulge there.
He looked at himself in the mirror in the bathroom. Indeed, there was a bulge showing. He couldn't hide this much longer.
One day, Sullivan came up to him after lunch.
"What do you want, Sullivan?"
"Randall, how are you feeling nowadays?"
"Fine."
"I notice your, uh, stomach." Sulley mumbled to find the right words.
"I know. It's embarrassing. Not that I have a choice."
"Well, that's not why I came to see you. I wanted to know if you had come up with a decision about the day care yet?"
"I was just waiting for my morning sickness to go away first. It's doing better, but is still annoying as ever."
"I also had plans for you to meet another child." Sulley said.
"What child?"
"After work, meet me in my office."
"Is it one of the day care kids?"
"No. It's a surprise."
Randall didn't really like all of Sullivan's surprises. But he would come. He went back to work until then.
…
That evening, as all the other monsters were leaving work, Randall went to Sulley's office instead of leaving. Sulley wasn't in his office at the moment.
Randall went around to the back of the desk and sat down. He wondered what it would be like to be CEO.
A few minutes later, Sulley stepped in. "I see you are here."
Randall looked up and got up. "Not doing anything."
"It's fine, Randall. As long as your weren't going through anything."
"No."
"Okay. The coast is clear. Come with me." Sulley said.
Randall wondered what was up and what child?
He followed the big blue and purple monster to a private room where there was a white door with flowers on it. Randall's eyes widened.
"Sullivan? Is that-?"
"Yes. I've been seeing the little girl you almost harmed for over these three years and she's older, but still young."
"But why did you bring me here?"
"With the way I have seen so much change in you over these years, I figured it's time you made amends with her."
Randall knew it was a wrong of his that needed to be corrected. "Alright. I think I can do it. But what if she won't do it?"
"I'll be right there with you. You show her how nice you can be, and she should be willing to forgive you. It's what you need. It'll be like a fresh start for you and her. You might even be able to be friends."
"I still don't know Sullivan."
"Just try it, Randall. She's not that bad. She's enriched my life so much since I met her. And she's not toxic as everyone thought."
"I know that. I just hope she doesn't run up and kick me right in the stomach either."
"I'll get things smoothed out for both of you." Sulley said. "You ready?"
"No, but go on." Randall said. Sulley then activated the door.
The door opened to the little girl's room. She was sitting on her bed, waiting for her "Kitty."
"Hey, Boo." Sulley greeted her.
"Hey, Kitty." The little girl greeted back and got out of bed to go give a hug.
"Boo, I brought someone else to see you tonight."
"Mike?"
"No. Come on in." Sulley gestured to the one behind him and to Mary, the child's, eyes, in stepped her old ex-monster lizard, Randall.
Mary got a little startled.
"It's alright, Boo. Randall is here to make amends." Sulley said.
Randall stepped a little closer, slowly and nervously. "Hey Kid. I'm sorry for what I did to you those few years ago. I'm not the same monster I was then." He had a serene smile on his face, trying to show her that he meant what he said. "Can you forgive me?"
Sulley put Mary down. Randall watched and stuck out one of his lower hands.
Mary was still a bit wary. But she seemed to sense in him that he was different. She went up to him and shook his hand.
Randall smiled.
"I don't remember much, but there was something about you that I remembered." Mary said.
Randall's smile dropped and his hand let go of hers. "What?"
"You used to scare me. But you are willing to be friends now?"
"Yes. I can be friends. I've learned a lot in the last few years from your big blue friend here." Randall said. "Like I said, I'm not that monster I was before."
"Can you pick me up?"
"What?"
"Pick me up."
He didn't know if it was a good idea. He looked at Sulley. He nodded.
Randall tried to gently pick her up. He managed to get her to his chest.
Mary thought it strange to be held this gently by the ex-scary monster. But then, he felt a little pain in his spine. He moaned.
"Sorry, I need to put you down, Kid." Randall put Mary down gently.
"What's wrong, Randall?" Sulley asked.
"My back." Randall was holding his back.
"Pick me up again?" Mary asked.
"I don't think it's a good idea." Randall said. "You've grown since I last saw you and you are heavier now."
Then he looked at Sulley. "Sullivan, it's not a good idea with my condition."
"I understand."
"I'm going to go back to our world, but you and Sullivan enjoy your night, Kid." Randall said and he left to back out.
"What's wrong with Randy?" Mary asked.
"I know what he meant. You see, Boo, Randall is going through a hard time right now, and in a few months time, he's going to become a daddy." Sulley said simply. "Maybe you and his baby can be friends."
"I'd like that." She said.
Sulley hung out with her for a good couple of hours before he had to leave.
…
The next day, Sulley told Randall that making friends with Boo had made her night. He also said that he had told her about the baby coming, but didn't tell her Randall was pregnant.
Randall felt like he was going to have a heart attack at first.
"She wouldn't mind being friends with your child." Sulley said.
Randall glared at him, but it did spark something else. "I don't mind being friends with her, but I'm not going to see her that much, Sullivan. She's your human friend. I'm still getting used to the idea of being around kids at all."
"Being around her and the day care kids could help you learn to understand them more, Randall."
"I know. I want to wait a little longer though before that." Randall said.
"Alright, but don't take too long, and by the way, how I can see how much you are starting to show, I'm afraid it is now time for you to get off canister duty and start filing duty tomorrow."
Randall knew that day was coming. "Alright." This was his last day doing canisters.
As Randall was heading home from work, he went to the baby store he had passed a few days ago. He went into the store and saw many cute toys, strollers, books, bottles, cups, and some clothes for babies. He also saw cribs and cradles.
He went over to the books and began looking for pregnancy ones. Then he heard a female voice.
"Hello. How may I help you today?" A bat winged seahorse type monster greeted him. She had greenish skin, two arms and two legs. She had a long tail behind her. She was just a little shorter than him.
"Um, I'm just looking for a pregnancy book. What's the best one to read?" Randall asked.
"Are you an expectant father?"
"Yes. Just wanting to know more about it."
"Let's see here." She said and she walked down the lane of books. She soon found some. "This is a real good one. It covers a whole ton of things that new to be parents need to know."
Randall took it and had a quick skim through it. It talked of brief species development and many other things that were important to know.
"I'll take it." Randall said.
"Okay. Right this way, Sir." The employee said and Randall followed her.
He paid for the big book and carried it home on the bus in a bag. He didn't want to draw attention to himself for folks to see he had bought a pregnancy book.
When he got home, he fixed himself a sandwich for supper and sat down to start reading the book.
Of course the first part had been done against Randall's will, but he read further onward. He wanted to know of any possible things going wrong or what he needed to do to take better care of himself. There was so much to think about.
He went to bed that night with his lower hands on his belly. With some of the things he had read about, like feeling the child move inside him, there was nothing like it in the world.
Randall wondered if when he started to feel the child move, would it make him really change his mind about keeping it? So far, he had still thought of adoption. But he still had time to change his mind.
He looked at the sonogram picture on his nightstand. This would be the biggest decision he would decide on his child's future. If he chose adoption, he knew he would need to find good monsters to raise it, and maybe he was willing to be active in the child's life, but the adoptive parents would have to be open to that. And then there were adoptive parents that wouldn't want him to have contact at all with the child.
He couldn't really remember his own parents and thus did want to be active in his own child's life, but did he feel he had the right qualities to be a good parent? Or could he afford it? Right now, Randall was concerned about everything he would need to do to do the right thing for his little one.
So how did Randall do with little Mary, or Boo?
