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“Why are you so jumpy today Aj?” Kevin asked.

He had been acting strangely for awhile now. The guys were worried about him; they knew something was going to happen, and soon.

Alex had talked to Howie and told him what he was going to do.

Howie said, “Kev, leave him alone. He’s got a lot on is mind right now.”

“That’s all well and good, but he needs to sit still!” their photographer Andre said.

Alex’s mother had recently begun working for the Boys again and had just accepted a package that had been delivered to the warehouse where the photo shoot was located today.

“Alex, your package was just delivered.” She said as she walked onto the set.

He immediately jumped down from the mini-stage and took the package from his mother.

Frustrated, Andre told the rest of the guys, “It’s time for a break.” and walked off in a huff.

The guys jumped down and made their way to Alex who was sitting down on a couch.

“What is that?” Brian asked.

“Hold on and I’ll show you.” Alex had opened the box to reveal an even smaller black box.

As he pulled out the black box everyone was so quiet, and his mother was near tears. Brian said. “Is that a….” but he didn’t finish what he was saying.

Alex had opened the box to reveal what it held. He said, “It’s finished.” To Kevin he said, “This is why I’ve been so weird lately.”

“You’re gonna….?” Kevin asked rather quietly.

“Yeah I am and you guys had better keep your mouths shut about it.”

He had his mother hold onto the little black box while he and the guys finished the photo shoot.

Two hours later he was on his way home to Morgan and their kids.

He kept quiet the entire day. He also kept the black box with him at all times. He and Morgan were going out that night and when they came back she would be in possession of the little black box and its contents.


“Are you ready to go sweetheart?” Morgan asked. The kids were already with his mother and stepfather at the restaurant waiting for them.

“Two minutes.” was his shouted answer. Morgan wondered what was wrong with him. He had been acting strangely for the last two weeks, and she wondered when she would know why. She hoped that nothing was seriously wrong with him.

They left fifteen minutes later. As he drove, she realized that he was taking a very familiar route. One he had taken exactly two years earlier on their very first date.

He pulled into the parking lot of the Sea Scape. They had been here a few ties over the last two years but for some reason Morgan had a funny feeling about tonight. Maybe it was because she was going to spill a secret she had been keeping for a few days.

She knew something was up when they entered the restaurant and saw her father, grandparents, his mother and Tony (Alex’s stepfather) with their kids, Nick and his kids, Kevin and Kristin and their kids, Howie, Leigh and their kids, and Brian, Leighanne and their kids.

She turned to Alex and asked, “What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you after we eat.”

They had the exact same thing for dinner that night that they had had two years ago, in fact it was their two year anniversary. She hoped that they wouldn’t have the unfortunate bad luck to have her mother show up again.

They had made it through dinner and to dessert when she noticed that Alex had become so jumpy that he couldn’t sit still.

“Honey, just tell me what’s wrong. You’re being so jumpy is kinda scaring me.


He smiled and breathed deeply a few times before quietly beginning, “It was two years ago tonight that we came here on our first date. You came into my life at the right time, when I needed you to. You are my angel. I love you so much,” he paused, and she had tears in her eyes as she watched him get down on his knee, “Will you marry me Morgan?”

She didn’t trust her voice because she was crying too much. All she could do was nod her head. She wiped the tears from her eyes as he slid the ring on her finger.

She smiled and said, “Well as long as we’re doing life-changing things tonight, I have something to tell you.”

“What would that be?” Alex asked his new fiancée.

She was scared and took a few deep breaths like he had before going on, “I’m pregnant.” She finished quietly.

The room had gone so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“Pregnant?”

“Yeah.” She said looking down at her plate. “I am.”

“Then why do you sound so sad?”

“Because I was afraid that you’d be mad.”

“Why would I be mad?”

“Because I….” she was cut off by the music that came out of the banquet hall doors as they opened and two people exited.

Morgan turned and Alex saw the same scared look on her face that he’d seen two years earlier when she learned her mother was out of prison. Again he heard her whisper, Please god no,” as tears fell down her face for an entirely different reason now.

The guy whispered something to the woman and walked over to their table and said, “Hello Morgan.”

“Derick, I would say that I’m happy to see you but I’d rather eat my own toes.”

Alex couldn’t help himself and started laughing at the vision of Morgan eating her toes that popped into his head.

Derick looked like he wanted to hit something, but instead said to Morgan, “I just wanted to tell you that my girlfriend and I just had a baby. It was only her first pregnancy too; tell me how yours went again.”

Morgan tried to keep herself calm from the moment she saw Derick come out of the banquet hall but at the mention of her first pregnancy shoe couldn’t help herself. She stood up, drew her arm back, punched Derick in the face, and knocked him flat on his back before he knew what hit him. Then she turned and ran.

When everyone (her grandma, Denise, Leighanne, Kristin, and Leigh) caught up to her she was in the bathroom sitting on the couch with her legs drawn up and crying into her knees.

Her grandmother came through the crowd of girls who had come to comfort her, and put her arms around her, “Morgan, what’s wrong? Why did you punch Derick?”

“Because he deserved it. He shouldn’t have…. The first baby. No I can’t say it, I can’t.”

“What can’t you say? Honey just tell us.”

Leighanne spoke quietly as she sat down next to her on the couch, “Hon you said, ‘the first baby’ wasn’t Devaigh your first?”

She shook her head and said quietly, “No, she wasn’t.” She couldn’t say anymore and dissolved into tears once more.

Her grandmother began rubbing her back like she had when Morgan had been younger and woken up from a nightmare. “Hon, just tell us.”

Through her tears she said, “Eight months before I got pregnant with Devaigh I had a miscarriage. It was horrible because I was by myself when it happened. Grandma you and dad and grandpa were at Uncle Dan’s wedding in Europe and I don’t know where Derick was. When I told him, he blamed me, that’s why I had Devaigh. I didn’t want to get pregnant again so soon after it happened but he didn’t really give me a choice. Then he went and cheated on me and gave up the rights to his own daughter when I caught his and wouldn’t take it.”

“Honey I’m sorry.” Her grandmother said.


Gracie, who unlike her younger brother and sister had never called Morgan anything close to mother, walked in. When she saw Morgan crying she ran over to her and said, “Mommy, why are you crying?” as she hugged her. “Please don’t cry. Please.”

Morgan hugged her back and stood up, “I’m fine. Wiping her eyes she continued, “Really I am. We’d better get back out there before they send in a search party.”

Everyone walked back into the restaurant and all of the guys had troubled looks on their faces.

Morgan went to Devaigh and wrapped her arms around her little girl, “I love you, Vaigh.”

With a perplexed look on her face the two and a half year old replied, “I wuv you too mommy.”

As she walked by Howie he stopped her and said, “Nice punch. I didn’t think you had it in you. I don’t think I’m ever gonna make you mad.” And it made her laugh.

As she passed Nick he whispered, “That was Devaigh’s….?”

“Yeah.” She whispered back.

She sat back down and was perfectly calm. Alex asked, “Are you okay?”

To which she replied, “I’m perfect.”

“Are you sure?”

In the short time that he had been quiet since her answer and before his second question she had gone back in time in her memories to the point when the doctor from the hospital had told her, “I’m sorry to tell you this but you lost your baby.”

The memories of how awful it had been to tell Derick, how much it hurt when he blamed her, told her that she must have done something to cause it to happen, all came flooding back at the worst time. She whispered through her tears, “No, can we just go home? Please?