"No, no, no, oh God please, no," I stammered, pacing back and forth waiting for the timer to go off.  I couldn't be pregnant.  Me and AJ had been so careful about this.  We're not ready for a baby. 

I jumped at the sudden sound of the timer, walking towards the bathroom as if I was being executed.  I carefully picked up the test strip, clenching my eyes shut.  All I could think about was how I was going to tell AJ.  I decided that I would have to look eventually, and I slowly opened my eyes to look down at my now shaking hand. 

"Positive," I murmured, barely able to catch my breath.  I dropped the test strip, taking a few steps backwards as if I could escape from it.  I felt my back against the wall and immediately slid down to the floor. 

"What the hell am I supposed to do with a little baby?" I cried, tears beginning to stream down my face. 

AJ's View

"Oops, I did it again… I played with your heart, got lost in the game," I sang along to the radio as I pulled up into my driveway. 

"Oops, you think I'm in love, that I'm sent from abooooooooooove," I sang, raising my voice as I strode up the steps. 

"I'm not that--,"

"Fag!"

I stopped short, whirling around to see a car drive by with a group of guys laughing their asses off. 

"Aw, fuck you!" I screamed flipping the bird.  I burst through the door, not knowing whether to punch my fist into a wall or die of embarrassment. 

I tossed my keys onto the kitchen table, picking up the mail.

"Bill… another bill… oh look, more bills," I mumbled.  "Note to self:  take credit cards away from that wife of mine."

"Baby, where are you?" I questioned, making my way up the stairs with the latest American Express bill.

I heard a quiet cry coming from the bathroom.  I worriedly dropped the now unimportant slip of paper in my hand and lightly pushed the door open.  Sophia was crouched on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees, crying hysterically.

"Baby, what's--,"

My eyes fell upon what looked like a pregnancy test, with a big plus sign. 

"We're pregnant?" I asked, collapsing down next to her on the floor.

"Yes," she nodded.  I quickly wiped the fresh tears from her eyes with my thumb. 

"This is excellent!" I exclaimed giving her a quick kiss before jumping up and waving my fist in the air.

"What are you talking about AJ?!  Are you crazy?" she shot back, standing up to meet my excited gaze.

"How could you be sitting here crying about this when you could be celebrating!  We're having a baby, Sophia.  One of our own, just like we always wanted."

"But not now.  It's too soon."

"It's not too soon.  This is the best news ever!  We get to do all the cool parent stuff.  Name the baby, change the baby, decorate a room for the baby!" I continued, oblivious to the fact that I was the only happy one. 

"I don't want it!" she shouted.

I froze.  My smile was smacked off my face.  "You what?"

"I don't want it, AJ."

"How could you say that?  We're married, we love each other, we both sure as hell love kids.  What's the problem?"

"Yes, we're married.  Yes, we love each other.  Yes, we both love kids.  But we're not ready to be parents.  We're newlyweds.  We should be enjoying ourselves… we don't need a kid to hold us back from having fun with the first year of marriage."

"You're selfish," I spat. 

"What?"

"You're selfish.  Maybe this baby was an accident, and maybe we weren't prepared for it.  But this baby was made out of love all the same.  How could you fucking stand there and tell me that we can't have this baby because we should be having fun instead?!" I yelled, my blood boiling at this point.

"I'm not having this baby," she stated firmly.

"That's not your decision to make.  And if you do anything to hurt the baby…"  I was speechless.

"You'll what, AJ?"

I shook my head in frustration, forcing myself out of the bathroom.  If I stayed in there I don't know what I would've said or done. 

She didn't even bother to chase after me.  I angrily grabbed my keys and headed for my car.  I needed to get away from her. 

Colleen's View

The conversation concerning me and Nick was dropped.  He didn't want to push it, and I was glad about that.  We clearly couldn't be together right now.  Brian was my main focus and he would continue to be until we were friends again.  Being with Nick would kill Brian and make it even harder for us to fix things.

"You paying attention to this, Col?" he asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Paying attention to what?" I replied, absent-mindedly.

"Well obviously you're not," he laughed.  "What's going on in that mind of yours?"

"Thoughts…"

"About?"

"Nothing in particular," I lied.

"Sure," he smiled.  "As I was saying, make sure you're watching this.  The Bucs are gonna win a game for once, and I want you to see it so you don't think they suck."

"But they do suck, Nick," I chuckled.

"No," he mumbled, "They just play football a bit differently than everyone else, that's all," he pouted.

"Right, that must be it."  I smiled to myself… if only he wasn't so cute.  It would be so easy to resist him if he were ugly.

"Yeah baby!  Yes!  Colleen, please tell me you saw that touchdown!" he had a huge grin plastered across his face. 

"Yes, Nick, I saw that touchdown.  Go Bucs!" I laughed, trying to show some enthusiasm. 

"Holy crap, I'm so happy!  This is their first win in like… forever," he gushed.

"I'm glad your happy Nick.  All I want is to see you happy."  I wasn't thinking about the football game when I said that, and I think he realized it.

His smile slowly faded, and his voice took on a more serious tone, "Col, if you really wanna make me happy then--"

"Don't say it," I cut him off.  If you really wanna make me happy then be with me.

"Sorry," he coughed uncomfortably before settling his eyes on the TV again. 

I didn't want to hear him say those words… I was emotionally weak.  All I would need at that point was to hear him say it, and I would have to give in.  And that was something I just couldn't do right now.