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"How do you think Spin's going to react?" Terri asked, pouring Paige a cup of tea. She was much calmer now than she had been when Terri found her. But four hours of non stop crying would do that to a person.

Paige ran a hand through her hair distractedly. "I have no idea."

Terri sat the cup down in front of her, settling herself in the chair across the table. "You don't think he'll be upset, do you?"

"I don't know," Paige answered honestly, "I'm freaked, but Spinner … he's never handled bad news well."

Terri's eyebrows rose at Paige's words. "Bad news?"

"What would you call it?" she asked.

"A surprise, an accident, maybe. But not bad news. Paige, it's a baby."

"Yeah. A baby I didn't plan and don't want," she told her.

"You're not thinking of getting an …" Terri began, but Paige cut her off.

"Maybe," she replied with a shrug. "I have no clue what I'm going to do. This … it just wasn't what I wanted."

"I think you need to discuss this with Spinner before you make a decision," Terri suggested calmly.

"It's not like he's going to be happy about this. Can you see Spin with a baby?"

Terri shrugged. "Maybe. I think Spin would make a great dad. He's a big kid himself."

"My point exactly," Paige said.

She got up and walked into the living room, clasping the tea tightly in her hands but not drinking it. She came to a stop in front of her mantle, staring at an picture of her, Spin, and Marco taken at her parent's party the month before. Dylan had sent it to her and she framed it right away. Paige studied the image closely, she had been doing that most of the day; gazing at old photos to determine what she could have done to change things. Spinner's face smiled back at her and her stomach knotted painfully. She had been honest when she said she had no idea what he was going to do when he found out. But she had to tell him, she cared too much about him not to be honest with him. He deserved it. Even if she decided not to have the baby.

"I have to talk to him," she announced and instantly headed to her room to begin packing.

Terri followed her, hoping that her common sense would win out over her spontaneity. "Paige, you're not thinking of flying to Toronto tonight, are you? Don't you have to work tomorrow?"

"I can't do this over the phone, Ter. And it can't wait," Paige told her, throwing clothes into her overnight bag. "Spin needs to know, and I can't make this decision without talking to him first. It's not fair," She glanced up at her friend's sympathetic face as she pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder. "Will you drive me to the airport?"

"Like you even have to ask," Terri responded, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they walked to the door.

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Spinner was sleeping deeply, better than he had in a long time, when he heard a pounding on his door. With a groan, he got up and shuffled half asleep to the door.

"Paige?"

Leaning up against the wall outside his door, she looked up at him pathetically. Alarm filled him instantly as he moved to let her walk through the door.

"What's wrong?"

Paige sat on his couch, her hands clasped together on her folded lap. She breathed deeply, trying to steel her courage, as she focused on the floor for strength.

The first time, there in front of his fireplace, had left a stain from their coffee on his beige carpeting that no amount of Spin's scrubbing had been able to erase. That spot symbolized so much. Much more than he realized. And now, here looking at it when she had to tell him about the baby, she felt as if it were mocking her.

"Paige, you're freaking me out here. What's going on?" he asked a panicked lilt to his voice as he sat beside her on the sofa.

"Spin, I need you to promise me that you're not going to overreact," she told him calmly.

He nodded, but in realizing her eyes were still fixed on the floor, said the words and hoped they would help her in some way.

Paige took a deep breath to try and force the words out, but nothing came out, so she tried again. "Spinner … there's something I have to tell you. And I'm not sure how you're going to feel about it."

"You can tell me anything. You know that," he said slowly.

She nodded, still unable to look at him. "When I was here …" She trailed off, not knowing how to actually say the words. It was harder than it had been with Terri. She had still been in shock, and it wasn't life changing for Terri like it was for Spinner. "When we …"

Spinner placed his hand over hers on her lap, wanting to comfort her but not quite sure what she needed. He just had to let her know that he was there.

At the touch of Spinner's hand on hers, a thousand reminiscences of their interludes assaulted Paige and she jumped off the couch. Anything to get away from him at the exact moment when all she wanted to do was sink into him and never come out; when she needed him more than ever.

Spinner was confused and slightly hurt by Paige's actions. He was only trying to help her after all. "Paige?"

"I'm pregnant, Spin. I'm … I'm pregnant." Repeating it seemed to make it more real, more true than it had been before. Almost as if telling Spin brought the whole situation crashing in around her and she broke into racking sobs.

Spin had his arms around her in seconds, holding her tightly as her tears soaked through the thin cotton of his tee shirt.

"Shh, Paige, it's okay," he whispered soothingly, "It's all going to fine."

She clutched at the back of his shirt tighter and buried her face into his chest. This was what she needed; for Spin to tell her that it wasn't the end of the world. To make it all better for her just like he used to.

She pulled back reluctantly, wiping at her eyes in embarrassment at having broken down the way she had.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

She nodded. "I think I'm getting there."

Spinner smiled at her, wiping a few stray tears away from her cheeks. "If you need anything, Paige, anything at all, you know I'm here for you."

"I know," she replied. Why had she been so nervous about this? Spinner was being so great about it all. She never should have doubted that he would be any less than completely wonderful.

"I mean it," he continued, "whether the guy wants to be involved or not, you have me."

Paige froze, her head starting to throb from the effects of the day. She stared at him, her mouth open in shock, and watched his face fall at her expression.

"Paige? What's wrong?" Spinner asked, concern erasing the sympathy his face had previously held.

"Spin," she choked out, "don't … don't you get it?"

"Get what? You're pregnant, right? What exactly am I missing?"

Paige turned around, facing his wall as she tried to wrap her head around what was going on. He didn't realize what she was saying, why she had just flown all the way there in the middle of the night.

Spinner came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. The warmth from his palms seeped into her chilly skin and she shivered. But whether it was from the temperature, the feel of Spin's hands, or the situation she wasn't sure.

"What is it?" he asked quietly. "Does he not want to be involved?"

Paige faced him slowly, knowing instinctively that this news was going to break his heart. She took in his face, so open and trusting just as it had always been, and swallowed the huge lump that had risen in her throat.

"Spin, it's yours," she said bluntly, figuring it was better to just have it all out in the open as fast as possible.

"Mine?" His brow wrinkled in confusion like he didn't understand the words. And she watched, silently, as the truth sank in and his face cleared in comprehension.

"You mean," his voice cracked and he cleared his throat before continuing, "the baby … it's …" He looked at her, his eyes pleading with her to say it wasn't so; that she was mistaken or lying or something. But she could only drop her head in confirmation.

Spinner gasped, feeling every breath leave his body. He felt like he had just been swept up into a hurricane and spit back out. Everything went silent at first and then there was a rushing noise in his ears as it sunk in.

And then, it was if the storm broke for him and everything cleared up. The calmness set in when he realized that Paige was having a baby-his baby. They were having a baby.

Once more, he pulled her to him in a tight hug. Paige misread his embrace as sadness and wrapped her own arms around him equally as tight.

"Spin, I'm so sorry," she whispered into his ear.

"For what?"

"This was an accident. We never meant for this to happen … I am so sorry," she explained.

Spinner pulled back from her, causing her arms to fall away from his neck, and looked at her in pure befuddlement. "Why are you sorry? Do you … do you not want it?"

"I don't know," she told him honestly.

"Paige, this is, this is us. You and me. You can't …" he broke off, unable to actually say the words.

"I don't want to be a mom, Spin. You knew that," she said as a tiny swell of anger began to rise up inside of her.

"Yeah, I did," he admitted, "but that was when it was all just hypothetical. There's a real baby now."

Paige shook her head. "It's not a baby yet, it's a fetus."

Spin turned abruptly and punched the wall beside his fireplace. "Damn it, Paige. That is such a cop out and you know it."

"Cop out?" she yelled. "I didn't ask for this, Spinner."

"But it's happening. You're pregnant, and it's mine, and I'm not going to let you kill it," he told her. He was fairly shaking with rage and Paige had to admit she was a little frightened in that moment.

She took a deep breath. This was getting them nowhere. "Spinner, let's be honest here. Are you really ready to be a parent?"

"I already am," he stated bluntly and his eyes fell to her stomach.

A wave of deep sadness and empathy washed over Paige and she hated herself for doing this to him. If she had just kept her mouth shut they wouldn't be in this mess.

"I just want to do the right thing," she said sadly.

"For who?"

"For everyone. I don't want this, and this baby deserves better than a mother who feels like it's a mistake," Paige told him.

"A mistake?"

Hs voice was a small and hurt and Paige couldn't remember the last time she had heard him sound like that. She knew what he was thinking; if the baby was a mistake then they were a mistake.

"I didn't mean it that way," she whispered.

Spinner nodded, his jaw clenched tightly ad his fists balled tat his sides. He was looking everywhere but at her and it cut her deeply than she could ever admit that she had done this to them.

"Would you consider getting married?" he asked after a few moments.

"What?!" Paige all but collapsed on the couch. Things were getting way out of hand here.

"It would solve the problem, wouldn't it?"

She stared at him incredulously. "How would that solve anything?"

"It's the right thing to do," he replied simply.

"Still not seeing how it would actually solve anything," she snapped.

Spinner came over and crouched down in front of the couch, taking her hands in his. "Paige," he began with sincerity etched into every inch of his face, "we could make this work. You know I still feel …"

"Spinner, don't," she said bluntly.

"I want to do the right thing," he said again.

"Marriage isn't necessarily the right thing. We haven't been together in ten years. It can't be like it was just because there's a baby," She thought reasoning with him might work. Spinner had a tendency to get overly emotional and irrational about things and sometimes logic could get through to him.

"Okay," he said and for a moment she thought that maybe she had gotten through to him. Then he started talking again. "What if, what if you let me raise it?"

"By yourself?" As hard as she tried, she couldn't keep the shock or doubt out of her voice.

Spinner's face darkened. "You don't think I can raise a baby by myself?"

"Hon, a baby is a huge responsibility. Especially for one person. I'm thinking of you here," she told him.

"Sounds like you've already made up your mind then," Spinner said bitterly. He released her hands and sat back on the floor, his eyes looking blankly at the floor in front of the couch.

"Spinner, I don't want you to hate me," she implored.

"Why did you even tell me?" he asked stoically. "If you were never even open to the idea of having it, why come here? Why would you do that to me?"

"You deserved to know," Paige answered.

Spinner gave her an accusatory look that said exactly what he thought of her comment. "I deserved to know that you're going to kill our baby?"

"Spin …"

"Don't!" He stood and began pacing around the room, his hands fisting in his hair of their own accord. "God, Paige … I wish you had never told me."

"I'm sorry," she told him again. But this time her words broke over the tears that had begun to fall down her face.

"There's nothing I can do to change your mind?"

She shook her head.

"Then I guess we have a problem," he told her.

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