At the Park
"Casey, did you hear me? Casey. Look I am sorry. I don't know what to say. Please say something." Derek pleaded.
"Derek.. please just say it's all a sick, sick joke. " Casey finally was breathing. She was barely able to get the words out. She needed it all to be a joke.
"I am sorry Casey. Its not. Jane showed up at my apartment yesterday. She is very much pregnant. Nine months to be exact. She is due next week. Its mine. She didn't know when we had broke up."
"Why did she wait to tell you?"
"She said it was because she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Up until recently her parents had convinced her to put it up for adoption. But apparently the bonding she was experiencing was too much and the more she thought about it, or felt it she said, the more she wanted to keep it." Derek didn't know it, but Casey understood. "When she finally told her parents, they freaked and kicked her out. She decided she needed help so she came to the father. Me."
Casey replied so quietly that Derek could barely hear her, "I see. Well I guess you need to be there for her."
"Case... it doesn't mean we can't still..."
Casey cut him off, "Derek, this is your child. You need to be there for her. Not thinking about the long distant relationship you and I have. You are going to want to spend time with you and your.." Casey stopped, trying to control her emotions and fight the tears. "So is it a girl or boy?"
"Girl." Derek was the one barely audible this time. Casey sharply breathed in. She wouldn't know the sex of her baby till November. A event she had been hoping to share with Derek. A hope that was going to be unfilled. Now she knew why she had put off telling him. The universe was telling her to it wasn't meant to be. Her and Derek weren't meant to be. Casey stopped breathing again.
"Case.. breathe. This doesn't change how I feel about you and me. I love you."
"But it will, Derek. It will, babies bring people together. You admitted to me yourself. Jane was your first love. You broke up because you two wanted to make sure there wasn't other people out there. You told me that if you two didn't find anyone else that you two had made a pact to get married after college." Casey was still having trouble breathing.
"Case. I know what I said and told you, but I found you. Don't you get it. I FOUND YOU! I came here so you would find out from me and not someone else. You are who I want to be with." Derek grabbed Casey and kissed her. "Please don't be irrational."
"Derek. I love you, but you need to be with Jane. She has no one. Your little girl has no one. Don't make this harder. After a few months of playing house, cause I assume you are going to live with her?" Casey saw the look on his face and knew it to be true. "Well?"
Derek looked beaten, " Sam and Ralph talked with Emily. As you know she wasn't happy at the dorms. Jane is taking Sam's room and baby Martina is going to be in Ralph's."
"Martina. Let me guess, after Marti and Jane's Grandma Tina." Derek just nodded. "Look Derek, I admit I am upset, but not at you or Jane, but you have to give them a chance. You love Jane. Maybe not like we love each other, but you love her. And you are going to love Martina. I understand. Maybe if things don't work and you decide you still love me and neither of us have moved on, then we can try again."
Derek looked shocked, "Case, are you willing to really chance it? If things don't work out. If you don't move on. Do you hear what you are saying? Are going to just wait around for me? I don't want you doing that."
"Who said I would? I love you, but we have to have lives. We have to live them. With or without each other." It took everything for Casey to hold it together. It took everything for her to keep breathing. Yes, she could tell Derek that she was pregnant too, but that seemed petty. She didn't want to make Derek choose. She didn't want Derek to leave his first child for her and her baby. That was petty and selfish. She leaned in and gave Derek a kiss. Probably the most passionate one they had ever experienced. "Good bye Derek. And good luck. I do love you and I don't blame you. Just be a good father and support Jane. Its not her fault. It just wasn't meant to be." With that Casey walked away, leaving Derek stunned. As she walked back to Micah's, while hoping they were still awake, she let the tears flow and run down her face. She didn't bother to wipe them because she had already decided that after tonight she wouldn't cry again. She would be strong for her baby. Little did she know, Derek was crying as well. Making the same promise, only for a different baby.