Chapter Two: Pregnant


"You're what?" Bombay sputter out. "How?"

Casey immediately stopped crying and glared at Bombay. "What do you mean how?"

Gordon was incredulous. He couldn't believe it. Casey was pregnant. "I thought you were on birth control."

"About that." Casey went silent. "You know how I'm always forgetting my keys? It's not the only thing I forget sometimes."

Bombay raised an eyebrow. "I take it you forgot to take the pill as well?"

Casey nodded.

"Listen. I hope you're happy with whoever he is," Bombay said sincerely. "I mean that."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know. The father," Bombay said.

"You are daff sometimes." Casey was exasperated. "You are the father."

Bombay couldn't believe what he was hearing. Casey was on the pill and even if she forgot to take it sometimes, they still used condoms. If he remember to bring them which wasn't very often. 'How could this be?' he wondered to himself.

"Are you sure?" Bombay asked. "I mean, we did agree to see other people if we wanted."

Casey was speechless. She was so mad at Bombay that she could just spit. How dare he insinuate that she wouldn't know who the father of her unborn child was? "It's yours. Trust me. Right now I wish it wasn't."

Casey was immediately sorry the second she said it. She was mad. Bus as mad as she was, she was even more jealous.

Bombay was the only one she was with since this whole thing started. She wasn't ready to date after the disaster of her last marriage. And Bombay was, as her sister once said, safe. He was attractive, funny and kind but most importantly, he was safe.

At first, she only wanted someone she trusted to have a friends-with-benefits relationship with. She wasn't in her twenties anymore but she still had needs and Bombay met them. But as time passed, she felt herself wanting more. A lot more. Bombay was around more and more often. Even more, than he was when he was playing junior hockey.

"It's a good thing I know you didn't mean that." Gordon had learned over the years that like Charlie, Casey tended to lash out and say things in anger that she didn't mean. It was her self defence mechanism. Hurt others to cover up the hurt inside. He remembered Charlie doing the same thing with Orion when he first started at Eden Hall.

"I'm sorry, " Casey apologized. "I just wasn't planning on ever having kids again. Don't get me wrong. I love Charlie but that was a long time ago."

Casey swore off men after her last relationship. She was done with having relationships with men. All they ever did was either cheat, lie or steal. Any time things would get a little tough, they'd just disappear never to be seen again.

Like Charlie's father.

Casey told Charlie that they left him when he was too young to remember when the truth was the exact opposite. She didn't like lying to him but she didn't want to crush him with the knowledge that his father wanted nothing to do with him. The truth was that Charlie's father left her before Charlie was even born.

The last time she saw him was shortly after she told him she was pregnant. She still remembered the last thing he said to her. "I'm sorry Cas, but I'm just not ready to be a father," he told her before driving off.

Casey was a naive sixteen-year-old at the time. She believed her then-boyfriend when he told her that he loved her and that nothing would tear them apart. When he left her, he disappeared without a trace. She called him every day until finally, his parents told her to stop calling and if she didn't stop, they would be pressing charges.

Casey was naive enough to think that having a baby would bring him back one day. She was wrong. He never came back. Casey sent his parents baby pictures of Charlie when he was younger but they just returned them. They wanted nothing to do with Charlie either.

'I just thought I'd let you know before making a decision," Casey said.

"Decision?" Bombay asked. "What decision?"

Casey couldn't look Bombay in the eye. "Whether I decide to keep him." Casey finally looked up. "Or her."

"Oh."

Things got very quiet. Neither one of them said anything.

'It doesn't make any sense to have a baby," Casey reasoned. "I don't want to go through that again."

Bombay seized the moment and grabbed her hand. "You won't have to do it alone," Bombay promised. "I'm moving back to Minnesota in the fall."

Casey was taken aback. She had not expected Bombay to be so bold. She knew Bombay would step up and be a father. After all, he was Charlie's unofficial father and Charlie wasn't even blood. So she shouldn't have been surprised when Bombay straight up offered to be there for her and the baby. But she never expected him to quit his job and move back to Minnesota just for her.

Casey had become so accustomed to men entering and leaving her life that it always made her believe the worst about men. Especially the men who tried to be close to her. It was a self-defence mechanism to stop her from being hurt again. Besides, Bombay did mention earlier about them being able to see other people.

'Maybe he found someone he was interested in,' Casey pondered to herself. She looked back at Bombay. She couldn't do this to him. Bring him down with a new baby when he wasn't looking for a relationship never mind a new family.

"Don't make any rash decisions Gordon, " Casey told him. "I didn't mean to spring this on you like this. It just…came out."

"You don't have to apologize," Gordon explained. "I understand. I'll support whatever you decide."

"Thank you," Casey smiled through her tears.

"What's wrong?" Bombay asked concerned.

Casey felt a twinge of guilt. Bombay would make an excellent father. She believed that with all her heart. And if she was honest with herself, she missed Charlie being a young boy. Casey was proud of the young man that Charlie had become but looking back she wished he was still the little boy he once was.

Casey shrugged. "Hormones," Casey lied.

"Oh."

Casey thought for a moment. "There is one advantage to being pregnant."

"What's that?" Bombay asked.

"At least this time we don't have to worry about birth control."


….


Casey carefully got dressed in hopes of not waking Bombay. Casey decided to have sex with Bombay one last time before ending things. With her pregnant and Bombay moving back to Minnesota, things were getting too complicated. This friends-with-benefits relationship they had going had to end before one of them got hurt. There was too much at risk for just a few hours of fun.

Casey had managed to get dressed and was just about to leave when she accidentally stubbed her toe and cursed a little too loudly.

"I now know where Charlie gets it from," Bombay said with a laugh.

Casey rolled her eyes. Under normal circumstances, she would engage Bombay in a round of friendly banter but now she didn't feel up to it. If asked about it, she would just blame the hormones. It wasn't the hormones at all. Like her first pregnancy, she didn't even feel pregnant. When she was pregnant with Charlie, it was until she was well into her second trimester that she even started to show. She was lucky in that way. Her pregnancy with Charlie was easy. No morning sickness. No mood swings. Nothing.

Bombay stopped laughing when he saw Casey wasn't."Listen, about earlier…"

"Stop it, Gordon. I don't want to talk about it."

The sex was bad. Really bad. Terrible. While every other time up until now was fun, sexy and exciting, when Bombay found out Casey was pregnant, it was like he thought she would break if he even touched her. Casey knew she had to end this as much as it pained her to.

"Listen, Gordon, the last few months were great. Amazing even. But I think we should stop seeing each other like this," Casey told Gordon.

Neither one of them spoke. While Casey was able to mask her true feelings, Bombay looked crushed. He had enjoyed the sex but it was more than sex. At least to him. While he had been on a few dates, none of the women he met could hold a candle to Casey.

"If that's what you want," Gordon replied.

"It is."

Casey looked away. She couldn't look at Gordon. It hurt too much. "It really is," Casey said, almost as if she was trying to convince herself.

Bombay was unconvinced. Up until now, Casey was the happiest he had ever seen her. Even happier than when they were dating years ago. Bombay knew there was nothing he could do about it but he had to know. "Are you really going through with it? "

Without outright saying it, Casey knew what Bombay asking. "Yeah. I'll make an appointment tomorrow to go to the clinic sometime next week."

Bombay nodded. "Casey?" Bombay hesitated for a minute. "You still okay with Charlie flying down to California once school is over? He said it was okay with you but…"

Casey sighed and shook her head. She was afraid this would happen. The last thing she wanted was any separation between Charlie and Bombay. With Bombay becoming an increasingly steady presence in his life, Charlie and Bombay were closer than ever. When Bombay left to go to California at the beginning of the school year, it almost broke Charlie. If Bombay left again, it would destroy him.

"He can still go. I want him to go. You're good for him." Casey thought carefully before saying what she said next. " My decision not to have a baby has nothing to do with you. You'll make a great father one day. I'd even argue you already are one. You know how Charlie feels about you."

Bombay brightened at Casey's comment. Although he wished Casey would reconsider, he knew it was her decision. And only her's. He wanted to be a father one day and he couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else other than Casey but it simply wasn't meant to be. He had Charlie and that was enough.

"I guess this is goodbye then."

"Good-Bye Gordon."