[Chapter 6]
The pregnancy news finally sank in, and Sydney accepted that she was having a baby. It was hard not to acknowledge it, when she was throwing up every morning, even after she recovered from the flu.
She still debated with telling Michael, finally making the decision that he should know. Sydney had also conveniently ‘forgot’ to tell her father that she was pregnant. She was, honestly, putting that off as long as possible.
So after school let out Friday afternoon, Sydney began digging through her ‘junk drawer’ trying to find the card that Michael had given her with his phone number.
She figured she could find his address online somewhere, but truthfully, that freaked Sydney out, so she continued to sort through the pages and pages of papers.
After nearly half an hour of digging, Sydney finally found the piece of paper she was looking for. Taking a deep breath, she sat down on the cold tile floor and leaned against the cool metal of the refrigerator. She carefully dialed the numbers, triple checking them before finally hitting send
“Hello?” Michael answered cautiously, not recognizing the number on the caller id. He had an unlisted phone number, so not just anyone could call, and he only gave the number to people he trusted.
“Um, hi, this is Sydney... Sydney Bristow.”
The name didn’t instantly click in Michael’s head, considered he had never known her last name. After a second, he realized that her voice was familiar. It had been whispering sweet nothings in his ear nearly two months earlier.
“Hi!” He exclaimed, truly surprised to be hearing from her. Michael had thought that he would never hear from her again. Truthfully, he had forgotten that he had even given her his home phone number. “So, what’s up?” he asked, unable to keep a grin from sneaking onto his face.
“Uh,” Sydney was suddenly at a lost for words. She couldn’t just tell him that their one night stand had resulted in a baby over the phone.
“Is everything alright?” Michael asked after a stagnant moment of silence.
Sydney sighed, “Not really. Could we, um, meet somewhere?” Sydney asked him cautiously, resting her head in her hand.
Michael’s brow furrowed, “Um, it might be better if we didn’t meet in public,” he told her, years in the business making him wiser.
Sydney scratched her forehead, “How about you just... stop by my apartment? Or I could come to your place? It shouldn’t take long, but...” Sydney trailed off.
“I’ll come over.” Michael volunteered, not wanting Sydney to have to come all the way across town.
“Are you sure, because I can--”
Michael shook his head, “No, I’ll be there in an hour. Is that okay?” he asked softly, yet firmly.
Sydney couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, that’s good.”
They said goodbye quickly, and Sydney hung up the phone. That wasn’t as completely awkward as she imagined it would be. It helped that Michael was down to earth, not one of the snotty, rich celebrities she had heard about.
Looking around her messy apartment, she frantically began to throw week old tissues into the trash bin and putting her papers from work into neat piles on her desk. After cleaning for twenty minutes, she hopped in the shower, freshening up before Michael stopped by.
Sydney didn’t want to overdress for Michael, but she didn’t want to look like a slob either. Finally she settled on a pair of faded, over-worn jeans that had holes in both of the knees and was beginning to develop a hole around the back pocket, and a tee shirt, covered by a Dartmouth sweatshirt, from her college days.
Exactly fifty-nine minutes after their phone call ended, Sydney’s doorbell rang, signaling that Michael had arrived.
She quickly answered the door, smiling somewhat awkwardly at Michael. He was dressed similarly to her in dark, faded jeans, Nikes, and a dark blue tee shirt.
Sydney opened the door wide enough for him and ushered him into the house.
“So?” Michael questioned, shoving his hands into his pockets as he looked up at her with a boyish grin.
Sydney sighed loudly, “Maybe you should sit.” Michael raised an eyebrow, but followed her directions and took a seat on the plush couch in the center of Sydney’s living room slash dining room slash kitchen.
Sydney took a seat opposite of him, sweeping her legs underneath her. “About three, almost four weeks ago, I got the flu.” Sydney began. Michael’s brow instantly furrowed, completely confused. What did the flu have to do with anything? “I’m getting to the point...” Sydney laughed awkwardly. “So, I, um, went to the doctor and all.”
Sydney looked down at her bare feet, then back to his face that was scrunched up in confusion. “Michael, um... I’m pregnant, and it’s your baby,” she said quietly, Michael almost didn’t hear her, but he did, and his heart stopped and his jaw dropped open.
“But... we used a, uh...”
Sydney nodded, “I know, but I guess we were that 3% that got lucky.” Sydney mumbled, closing her eyes briefly.
“Wow...” he said, “I really, uh, don’t know what to say.” Michael told her softly, pulling at the bottom of his nose nervously.
Sure, he was thirty years old and ready to settled down, but he always imagined that he’d be ‘retired’ and married before he had a baby. So having a baby with the woman he had spent one night with shook him to his very core.
He never imagined that this is what Sydney would tell him when he got her call.
Michael suddenly wished that she had needed a favor from him, like he had inferred on the car ride over.
“You don’t have to, like, be around or anything. It’s completely up to you how involved or uninvolved you want to be... ” Sydney trailed off, folding her hands and resting them in her lap.
Michael ran a hand over his face, “This is partly my baby, I mean, I do want to be there for it...” Michael began to explain. “With what I do, it’s not going to be that simple.”
“I know.”
“But I’d like to be as involved as I can, ya know.” Michael shrugged, the left side of his lips curving upwards. Sydney nodded. Michael allowed the other side of his mouth to twitch upwards, “So you’re almost two months along...” he stated, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it anyway.
“Yeah, the doctor said that the baby is healthy and everything so far.”
Michael scratched the top of his head, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” he asked, knowing nothing about pregnancy or important dates.
Sydney smiled slightly, “Um, the doctor said that we won’t know for another two or three months, if we want to know...”
“Do you want to?” Michael asked, secretly hoping she would say yes, because he was already dying to know.
Sydney smiled sheepishly, “Yeah.” Michael stayed for another half an hour, discussing the baby before he left with the promise to call about whether or not he could make the next doctor’s appointment.
^_^
