It was Sunday, December 18th. It was hard to believe that Christmas would be here in a week. Nevertheless, everyone at the Brandenham Hotel was hard at work getting ready for the holidays… well, almost everyone. Bitsy was out on her penthouse balcony, too busy looking through her telescope and obsessing over Central Park to really give a damn about Christmas right now (or ever, for that matter). She also didn't seem to mind feeling the brunt of the cold weather. Even after everything that had happened over the last six months, she still hadn't given up on her redevelopment plans. It was astonishing, actually. It seemed nothing could deter her from her goals.

Suddenly, a loud bang could be heard coming from inside the penthouse bathroom. Startled and distracted by the noise, Bitsy dashed away from the telescope and quickly opened the door, only to find Helen lying on the tile floor and bleeding from a small gash on her right eyebrow. There was also blood dripping down from a corner of the granite vanity top where Helen had busted open her eyebrow.

"Helen, what the hell?!" Bitsy yelled. "Since when are you such a klutz?"

Helen grabbed onto the counter and slowly rose to her feet. "Bitsy, it's nothing to worry about. I'm okay."

"The hell are you talking about? You left blood on the vanity top!"

"No, really. I'm fine. I've just been… tired, that's all."

"Helen, you almost fell asleep walking Shampagne yesterday. Besides, you've been like this for weeks."

"Bitsy, I'm okay."

"No, you're not!"

"I am. Trust me."

"Helen, for God's sake! Go to a doctor! Something's wrong with you!"

Helen sighed and shook her head. She knew Bitsy was right. She needed to talk to a doctor. After all, this could've been something serious.

"Alright, I'll go," Helen said. "But you'll have to walk Shampagne yourself."

"Dammit. Just as long as I'm not doing it in Central Park."

Helen nodded. "Deal."

In her office, Bitsy was absentmindedly doodling a few things into a notepad. Ever since Quincy Leeds had become the new mayor of New York City, she'd been struggling to figure out how to keep him on her side, especially after the strike several months back. She'd decided for the time being that doodling would help distract her from the setbacks. Suddenly, while she doodled, the phone started ringing.

"Helen!" Bitsy called out. "The phone's ringing!"

However, no one responded. It was at that moment that Bitsy realized that Helen was at a doctor's appointment. No matter. She'd just get the phone herself.

Bitsy picked up. "Hello?"

"Bitsy, is that you?" a familiar voice asked her.

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's me, Mayor Leeds."

"Oh, Mayor Leeds!" Bitsy's voice shot up by an octave. "It's good to hear from you! How are things going?"

"Pretty good. Hey, remember when you said you were going to put on a Christmas party at the Brandenham next week?"

Bitsy took a few seconds to answer. "...Yes. Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you were going to invite me and my wife to the party. We can never resist going to a Christmas party."

"I'll… I'll think about it."

Suddenly, Bitsy noticed Helen standing across from her. Back already? She wondered what it was that Helen wanted from her.

"Bitsy?" Helen called out to her.

Bitsy lowered the phone and covered the mouthpiece with one hand. "What?"

"There's something important I need to tell you."

"Well, whatever it is, just get it over with. I'm trying to have a conversation with Mayor Leeds here."

"I can see that. This is really important, though."

"Well, what is it? Spit it out!"

"I'm pregnant."

Bitsy just gave her an annoyed stare. "What?"

"I'm pregnant."

It took a moment for it to sink in for Bitsy that this was not a joke. Once she'd had enough time to process it, her annoyed stare immediately changed into a look of shock.

"Hello?" Mayor Leeds loudly called out from the phone. "Are you still there?"

Bitsy brought the phone receiver back up. "I'll call you back later."

Without saying another word, Bitsy just hung up and started to focus her attention squarely on Helen.

"What did you just say?" Bitsy asked

Helen took a deep breath before answering. "I'm pregnant. I wanted you to be the first to know."

"I heard you the second time. What the hell? How could you do this?"

Helen tilted her head. "I'm sorry?"

"How could you get pregnant? You're supposed to be doing everything for me!"

"It's not like I planned for this to happen, Bitsy."

"Well, you may not have planned for it to happen, but it still happened."

"Do you have any idea how unpredictable my menstrual cycles are these days? Very."

"Who would even do that to you anyway? I mean, the only person I know who'd go for personal servants like you would be…" Bitsy suddenly trailed off, her pupils shrinking as she realized that she'd answered her own question. "That asshole!"

Instantly, Helen knew who Bitsy was referring to: Ambrose. For the last several months, whenever Bitsy had to force herself and Helen to attend a family gathering, Helen and Ambrose would be spending almost all of their free time in each other's presence. His birthday party in Dubai three months ago was no exception. Now it had all come down to this. This wasn't supposed to have happened. How was she supposed to get her inheritance now?

"You've been sleeping with my brother, haven't you?" Bitsy asked, accusatory in tone.

"So what if I have?" Helen asked back. "That doesn't change anything, does it?"

"No, it changes everything!" Bitsy proceeded to jump out of her chair and walk right up to Helen. "You need to get rid of it."

"Get rid of it?" Helen glared at her. "Why don't you just say it? I want to hear you say it."

"Abortion! Abortion! I want you to get a big fat abortion right now!"

"You can't even say it."

"Oh God, I feel sick just thinking about it."

"Look, I know it's bad timing, but—"

Bitsy cut her off. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one."

Helen just continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "But I just don't want to get an abortion. I'm keeping the baby whether you like it or not."

Suddenly, without warning, Bitsy punched Helen in the stomach. "Is it dead yet?"

"You… hit me!" Helen yelled at her. "What kind of monster hits a pregnant woman?"

"Well, I just did, so…"

"I didn't think you could get any worse, but here we are."

"Not sorry, Helen. I don't know how else you wanted me to react."

"Ugh, forget it." Helen started to turn around and walk away. "I've got better things to do right now than to talk to you."

Soon, Bitsy was left alone to struggle with her new reality.

Bitsy decided to go down to the bar and try to talk with Lionel about everything. It hadn't been easy discussing her feelings with anyone about this situation that had turned her world upside down. Even so, she figured that it wouldn't hurt to at least try to talk to someone about it. She was desperate for something, anything that could fix this. Maybe Lionel would give her the answer she was looking for. But first, she decided to order a Screwdriver and a Grasshopper.

"Bitsy, what's wrong?" Lionel asked as he handed Bitsy the Screwdriver. "You look upset."

"Oh, nothing," Bitsy replied while gulping down the cocktail. "I just found out that Helen's been sleeping with my brother…"

Lionel raised his eyebrows. "Helen sleeping with Ambrose… huh. Well, that's the last thing I expected to hear."

"What?!" another bartender piped up from behind Lionel. "That's insane!"

"Tell me about it." Bitsy then started guzzling down the Grasshopper. "And to make matters worse, she's pregnant with his child!"

Lionel wasn't really sure how to respond. "Oh, um… okay."

"That's it? Just 'okay'?" Bitsy quickly stood up in her stool. "What the hell kind of response is that?! Why aren't you assuring me that everything will work out? Can't you do something about it?"

"I mean, it's not really my place to tell her what she can or can't do with her body. And it's not your place, either."

"Well, whose place is it, then?"

"I guess it's God's place, I don't know. I doubt He would have any say in what she does, though."

Bitsy rolled her eyes and stormed off, leaving Lionel with a confused look on his face. He then shrugged and went back to tending to the bar.

As if in the blink of an eye, it was time for the Christmas party. It seemed that Mayor Leeds had been telling the truth because there he and his wife were, sitting at a table and conversing with that park person and his wife and kids. Bitsy knew by now that the park person had a name, but she just simply couldn't be bothered to learn it. All she knew about his wife was that her name was Paige and that she was working on some kind of novel. She knew that Molly was dating her great-nephew Brendan and had even based a character in her comics off her; and she knew that Cole had a weird fascination with Shampagne (she had no idea the exact extent of his fascination with the dog).

Unsurprisingly, Ambrose and the rest of the Brandenhams were here. Of course they were here. Why wouldn't they be? Why were they even here? Bitsy reasoned that Ambrose must've invited them along just to spite her. No matter. She'd just have to tolerate them until the party was over. Tolerating people was what she did best (that, and plotting and scheming).

"Bitsy!" Mayor Leeds called out to her.

Bitsy snapped out of her thoughts and turned to see Mayor Leeds waving at her. She walked over to him, with Helen following close behind.

"Bitsy, it's so good to see you!" Mayor Leeds exclaimed.

"You too, Mayor Leeds," Bitsy replied while putting on a cloying facade.

"Thanks. I told you the wife and I were going to be here, didn't I?"

While Bitsy and Mayor Leeds continued on with their conversation, Helen glanced over to where Ambrose was sitting with some blonde woman, two of his adult children (his oldest son Ace and younger daughter Daisy), and Brendan. The blonde woman couldn't have been any older than nineteen or twenty. It seemed he'd moved on quickly from Kendra. She couldn't really blame him, though. Kendra and Anton had tried to kill him, after all, and now they were each looking at a maximum sentence of twenty-five years in prison.

It was gnawing on Helen's mind whether or not to tell Ambrose about the baby. After all, for all she knew, he might not have wanted to pay child support. She decided to go through with it anyway and hope for the best. She decided to wander off from Bitsy and join Ambrose at the table.

The blonde woman quickly craned her neck to get a look at Helen. "Who are you?"

Helen quickly introduced herself before then asking if it was okay to sit at the table.

"Yeah…" The blonde woman awkwardly paused. "I guess. Why?"

"Just thought I'd sit here, that's all." Helen punctuated the sentence with a shrug.

"Okay," Brendan chimed in. "I think it's just that Dakota thinks it's weird you'd want to hang out here."

"Dakota?" Helen's face lit up. "Oh, is that what her name is?" She pointed to the blonde woman as she asked the question.

Dakota nodded her head. "Yep, that's me. So that's it? You just wanted to sit here?"

"Well…" Helen took a deep breath. "There is something else. I need to borrow Ambrose for a second."

"Why?" Ambrose suddenly asked.

"I just really need to tell you something, but I don't want to do it here."

It didn't take long for Brendan to read the room. "Uh, is everything okay, Grandpa?"

"Everything's fine, Brendan," Ambrose assured him. "I just need to talk to Bitsy's assistant about something."

"Uh, okay."

Ambrose proceeded to follow Helen out of the ballroom until they were absolutely certain they were out of earshot.

"So… what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Ambrose asked.

"Ambrose…" Helen had to look away for a moment. "I'm pregnant."

Ambrose raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me right. I'm pregnant. I'm three months along." Helen had to look away again as she placed her hand on her belly. "You're going to be a father."

"I see…" Ambrose proceeded to just stand there and stare at her while he tried to process this information. "But how can you be pregnant? I'm supposed to be shooting blanks."

"Well, did you consider that your vasectomy might have reversed itself when we—?"

"Of course not! I knew there was a small chance it could happen when I got the procedure done all those years ago, but I didn't think it could happen to me. What about you? Did you know this would happen?"

"No. I can barely keep track of my cycle anymore. That's why I thought I was going into menopause at first."

"Hmph, that figures. You've been so busy trying to get Bitsy's money that you don't even notice what's going on with your own body."

"I'm not that busy!"

"Well, what do you expect me to do now?"

"I don't know. The least you could do going forward is acknowledge our child's existence."

"Do you have any idea what would happen if the tabloids found out about this? We'd be scrutinized to no end."

Helen sighed. "Let's just go back to the ballroom, shall we?"

"Fine."

With that, Helen and Ambrose proceeded to awkwardly make their way back inside the ballroom and go their separate ways back to their tables. That whole time, Bitsy had been talking with Mayor Leeds about… something. Helen had no idea what exactly they'd been talking about while she was gone; and she wasn't sure she'd want to find out now since otherwise, she'd get lost and confused. Helen was relieved when Bitsy finally finished her conversation. She quickly sat down and pretended to have been paying attention the whole time.

"That was quite the conversation you had, huh, Bitsy?" Helen asked, feigning intrigue.

"You can say that again," Bitsy replied. "I thought it would never end. God, I could really go for a drink right now."

Helen nervously laughed. "Yeah, I could use one too."

"No, you don't. I thought you weren't supposed to drink right now?"

Mayor Leeds raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"All I said was that Helen shouldn't be drinking right now," Bitsy just replied.

"Really? Why not?" He was silent for a few moments before he started smiling. "Oh, I get it! She's pregnant, isn't she?"

Helen quickly responded with a yes.

Mayor Leeds was taken aback. "Wait, really? I was just trying to be funny."

"Yes, it's true. I'm pregnant."

"Okay… so when is it due?"

"Around the beginning of June. The doctor told me that my exact due date is June 3rd."

Mayor Leeds beamed up. "Oh, congratulations! You must be really happy!"

"Mm-hmm. I'm very happy."

"You don't sound happy."

"She shouldn't be," Bitsy chimed in. "My brother's the one who got her pregnant!"

"Oh…" Mayor Leeds didn't know what to say. "Well, this is awkward."

"You have no idea. I recently found out that they've been getting busy behind my back. Do you have any idea how humiliating that must have been for me?"

"I mean, I guess? I've known people who have had their lives uprooted by scandals like that."

Suddenly, Helen spotted Ambrose and Dakota heading over to their table. Oh no, as if things weren't awkward enough already. Now it seemed that things were going to escalate even more. This couldn't have been happening, right? This couldn't.

"Hey, what the hell's going on here?" Dakota asked. "It sounds like there's tension building up."

"Oh, nothing," Bitsy sardonically replied. "We were just talking about how Helen's been seeing someone on the side."

"Yeah, so? Why do you care?"

"Well, that someone happens to be your boy toy." The inherent venom in Bitsy's voice as she said "boy toy" made it apparent that there was contempt behind it. "Right, Ambrose?"

"Whoa now, let's not get carried away here," Ambrose replied.

"Hey, it takes two to tango," Helen said. "Besides that, I'm the one who's carrying the newest member of the Brandenham family, not you."

"How could you do that to Bitsy, though?" Mayor Leeds' wife asked. "She's been turning to you for support for years."

Helen sighed. "Look, it was just a one-night stand, okay? We were drunk, and it didn't mean anything."

"That's a load of bull!" Bitsy screamed. "Everything about this is disgusting! You're both disgusting!"

Helen scoffed. "Oh, please. Like you're one to talk."

"I mean…" Dakota shrugged. "She does have a point."

Bitsy started panicking. "I can't believe this is happening! I thought what we had was special!"

"We do, Bitsy, we do!" Helen exclaimed. "It was just a moment of weakness, I swear!"

Ambrose smirked. "Yeah, right. Seems more like years of pent up sexual tension finally exploding in one night, if you ask me."

"I wasn't asking you," Bitsy gritted out through her teeth.

"Uh, maybe we should stop talking about their sex life," Owen timidly interjected.

"No!" Bitsy yelled. "Let's keep talking about it! Let's talk about how these two scumbags ruined my life!"

"No, Bitsy, please," Helen practically begged. "I'm sorry. I never meant for things to get this far."

Ambrose smirked again. "Oh, I think you did."

"Well, at least there's no doubt in our minds who the father is…" Mayor Leeds left in a pause for dramatic effect. "Or is there?"

"That's it!" Bitsy was practically shrieking. "I'm done with all of you! You can all go to hell for all I care!"

With that, Bitsy stormed out of the Christmas party, leaving everyone else at the table gobsmacked.

"Holy crap, what just happened?" Molly asked.