Chapter 30 - Damage Control

            Alyssa knew that she was in for one of those days from the moment she arrived at school on Monday morning after the wedding. Already waiting in her mailbox was a telephone message from one of the more difficult parents to deal with. She knew that she should be thankful that there was at least one child in her class that had a parent who cared about their academic performance, but Mrs. Martinez had a habit of questioning every decision Alyssa made which of course frustrated her. "Great," she muttered under her breath as she stuck the note between her attendance folder and lunch cards.

            Her next clue that today was going to be rough was when she arrived at the cafeteria to pick up her students. All the special education students were dropped off by mini bus directly to the cafeteria where they got breakfast and then their teacher walked them back to the classroom together. This year Alyssa had an entirely different group of students than she did last year. This year she definitely had a rough bunch and behavior was always a big issue. One student in particular, Carlos, had constantly been a thorn in her side this year. He had frequent meltdowns where he'd throw tantrums and tear the room apart. Of course there were a lot of underlying emotional issues going on outside of school. Still, Alyssa was in the process of trying to get his parents to agree to transfer him into a more structured classroom dealing specifically with emotional and behavior issues. So far, the parents were fighting Alyssa accusing her of trying to get rid of their son because she couldn't handle him, where in reality her learning disabled classroom just simply did not provide Carlos with the tightly run structure and intense behavior management he needed. As it was he was taking time away from Alyssa's other students and a few of them began to act out as well for the attention. All in all it had been a very interesting year so far and school had barely been in session for two months. Sadly Alyssa found herself almost glad that once March rolled around she'd be out on maternity leave until at least the end of May  or beginning of June.

            Most of her students had arrived and were already eating breakfast as Alyssa took care of her morning business such as attendance and lunch count. "What would you like for lunch today Carlos? Chicken nuggets or turkey sandwich?" Her eyes looked up at Carlos who hadn't answered her. He hadn't even bothered to touch his cereal and appeared to be ignoring her. "Carlos? Wake up, sweetie. Do you want help opening your cereal?"

            Again no response and Alyssa sighed. Usually when Carlos was quiet it was never a good sign. It meant that something had probably happened at home before and he was just looking for an opportunity to start trouble. She walked around to his side of the table and pulled off the tab covering his cereal. "Now are you going to tell me what you want to eat?" Again nothing. "Fine. I guess I'll put you down for chicken nuggets. You better hurry up with your breakfast though. We have gym early today."

            Still Carlos made no move to eat his cereal, so Alyssa knew that she'd have to be firmer. "Carlos, you need to eat that cereal right now or else I'll tell Mr. Armstrong that you have to sit out of gym today." Usually that threat was enough to work because Carlos loved gym. He stared at her defiantly and Alyssa just stared back with her hands on her hips. "What's it going to be Carlos? Make the right choice." She gave him the evil eye for a moment or two more before he dejectedly grabbed his spoon and dug into his Apple Jacks.

            Mrs. Robinson one, Carlos zero, she thought triumphantly to herself as she gathered up the student's homework folders. Her good mood didn't last for long though. As usual, every child had their homework folder, but Carlos. "Carlos, where's your homework folder?"

            Carlos just shrugged his shoulders which irritated the hell out of Alyssa. Sometimes she couldn't believe the attitude these kids came in with. If she'd ever shrugged her shoulders at one of her teachers... Getting disgusted now she knelt down over Carlos. "Answer me. Where is your homework?"

            Again Carlos shrugged, but this time actually responded in words. "I don't know... I don't care. Home I guess."

            "Well, then you shouldn't care that your recess today is mine," she toughly replied back.

            "Can I earn I back?" he immediately asked.

            "You know my rule about recess. If you lose it because of behavior and you turn it around, then yes. But if you choose not to complete your homework then it's a no."

            Carlos angrily kicked the chair next to him in frustration and before he could go on a full on tantrum, Alyssa moved the chair away from him. "Hey! You know that's not going to help the situation any. Now turn around, push your chair in and keep your legs under the table before we make it two days."

            Carlos did what he was told, but Alyssa could tell inside that he was seething. She normally wasn't a very strict teacher, but with Carlos she'd quickly learned that she had to be on him every second of the day. If she gave him one inch, he'd cause complete chaos.

            She looked back up again to find Carlos tilting back on his chair so that the front two legs were now off the floor. They hadn't even made it through breakfast and he was already pushing it. "Carlos! Please sit the right way or I'll take the chair away from you and you can eat standing up."

            "Why can't I sit this way?" he challenged.

            "Because you're going to tilt back too far and hit your head on the table behind you and probably crack it open and I really don't want to have to visit you in the hospital for something like that," she calmly explained as she looked at the clock on the cafeteria wall. "Anyway we need to head back to the classroom and unpack before gym."

            She quickly instructed her students to throw their trays away and line up. Naturally Carlos purposely dragged his feet and moved at a snails pace just to be a nudge. Alyssa sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose already feeling a headache coming on. She had to admit that as of lately with her hormones going up and down she was definitely a lot less patient with her students.

            Finally they reached the classroom door where her TA, Donna was already waiting for them. As the students got right down to unpacking their backpacks Alyssa walked over to Donna muffling her voice with her attendance cards. "Keep an eye out on Carlos. He's got that look in his eyes like he's going to go off at some point today and he was really pushing it at breakfast."

            Donna just laughed. "I noticed the look on his face the moment he walked in. He's definitely stewing. The question isn't if. It's where and when."

            "Exactly," Alyssa agreed. Her eyes traveled back in his direction. Carlos still had his backpack and jacket on and was playing with a wrestling figure that he'd pulled out of his desk. "Carlos! Put the wrestler away and unpack! If I see it again it becomes mine. Got it?" She sighed again turning her attention back to Donna. "Is it bad to say that, that boy is going to be the death of me?"

            Again Donna just laughed and patted her arm. "It's okay. You're pregnant. I think we can forgive you."

*********

            Alyssa's question of when and where was answered later on that morning during reading groups. Alyssa was working with one group at the back table while Donna worked with another group on the carpet. Carlos was in Alyssa's group and he'd continued to do everything to make himself more and more distracting to her. He was constantly talking while others were reading, fooling around with another student to his right, and doing very little work. Finally when he purposely flicked his pencil across the table Alyssa lost her patience.

            "Carlos! I've warned you about three times already to calm down. You know that one of our rules is no throwing things in the classroom, so you just lost a privilege. When we have free time later you're not allowed to use the computer." The computer was one of Carlos' favorite activities, so she knew it was definitely an appropriate punishment.

            "What? That's not fair! Why can't I use the computer?"

            "It's very fair Carlos. All day today you haven't been doing your best job and I've had to speak to you several times. I've had it! You need to learn to make better choices."

            Carlos stood up from the table knocking his chair to the ground. "That's messed up Mrs. Robinson! Please let me have my computer time back? I promise I'll be good!"

            Alyssa knew from experience that by giving into him he was only going to continue to act up. He couldn't be trusted enough to be granted a second chance. "I'm sorry Carlos. You had your chances. Tomorrow is a new day."

            She instantly recognized the familiar way that Carlos' nostrils flared in anger. Oh no... Here it comes, she thought, already bracing herself. Sure enough with an angry yell he swept his arm across the table, spilling all the students reading books to fall to the floor. "No it's not! I want to use the computer today!"

            Ignoring his temper tantrum Alyssa spoke to him as calmly as she could. "Pick up everything that you threw on the floor right now and apologize to your classmates."

            "No!" Carlos stamped his feet. "I'm not picking up the books!"

            Donna stood up from her spot on the carpet to jump in to help, but Alyssa held up her hand signaling that she had it. "Pick up the books now or you'll lose computer privileges for the whole week. It's your choice. Make the right decision."

            "I said I'm not doing it!" Carlos picked a book off the floor and threw it at Alyssa, missing her head by mere inches. Alyssa stood up from the table obviously reaching her breaking point. "Miss Donna can you please buzz Mr. Kirkland. I think Carlos is going to need to spend some time in his office today."

            Donna hurried over to the wall intercom to buzz the front office. Meanwhile Carlos appeared even more enraged. "I don't want to see Mr. Kirkland! I hate him! I hate you! And I hate this entire school!" Angrily he headed over to the desks and proceeded to throw over chairs and knock over desks. The other students stood there open mouthed as they watched Carlos destroy the classroom.

            Alyssa took a deep breath trying her best to remain calm. As much as she wanted to scream at Carlos she knew it would only make him angrier. She turned to her other students. "Take your reading books and head across the hall to Mrs. Ackerman's class." The students knew the drill by now. Whenever Carlos had one of his meltdowns the first step was always to get the other students out before one of them got hurt.

            The other students obliged and as they headed out the door Donna lingered at the door. "Do you want me to help you?"

            "No, I got it," she insisted as she carefully approached Carlos from behind and put a hand on his shoulder. "Carlos you need to stop and calm down. Getting angry and making a mess is not going to help anything." Once she saw the perfect opportunity she wrapped her arms around his body to restrain him from doing anymore damage.

            "Let me go!" he struggled to get out of her grasp, but Alyssa only pulled him tighter.

            "Mr. Kirkland is already on his way down with Mrs. Sutton," she warned, speaking of the principal and the school psychologist. "You need to get yourself together."

            "No, I don't! Now let me go you stupid bitch!" Before Alyssa could react he jabbed her hard with his elbow right into her stomach. The force of the blow was enough to not only make her loosen her grasp, but to knock her straight on her ass. Alyssa saw stars as she painfully gripped her stomach in complete shock of what happened.

            Seeing what he had just done, Carlos bolted towards the door as Donna rushed to help Alyssa.  Luckily he didn't get very far. He'd only reached the doorway just in time to come face to face with Mr. Kirkland and Mrs. Sutton.

            "What just happened?" Mr. Kirkland asked as his eyes surveyed the room and Alyssa on the ground holding her stomach.

            "Alyssa went to wrap him and he elbowed her in the stomach," Donna reported.

            "Okay, young man," Mr. Kirkland grabbed Carlos by the arm. "You and I need to take a walk down to my office and call your parents. You are never to hit a teacher, especially a female teacher who is pregnant. Do you realize that you could've done harm to Mrs. Robinson's baby?"

            Carlos face paled at the thought. "No... I'm sorry... Did I hurt her?" He immediately burst into tears. "Am I going to go to jail now? I didn't mean to do it! I swear!"

            Mrs. Sutton put a comforting hand on his arm. "No, you're not going to jail, but I'm afraid that you will be in some pretty serious trouble for this. Let's get you down to the office."

            As Mrs. Sutton led Carlos out of the classroom, Mr. Kirkland pulled out a walkie talkie from his belt. "We're going to need the nurse to report to Alyssa Robinson's room with a wheelchair. A student had a meltdown and accidentally hit her in the stomach."

            Alyssa just looked around panic stricken as she clutched her stomach. Honestly in the moment where she was trying to restrain Carlos she hadn't stopped to remember that she was pregnant. Could he really have harmed the baby? She thought she was pretty much out of the woods for a miscarriage, but what if she was wrong? What if something happened to the baby? It would be all her fault. She could already feel worried tears welling up in her eyes.

            As if reading her mind Donna knelt down beside her. "What were you thinking trying to go after him like that in your condition? You should've left it up to me to take care of," she chastised.

            "I know," she tearfully replied. "I just wasn't thinking. I reacted on impulse and made a really stupid decision. Do you think the baby is going to be okay?"

            Donna looked at her helplessly. "Most probably, but you'll probably want to go right down to your doctor for an emergency checkup just in case."

            Before Alyssa could say anything else, Sheila, the nurse rushed in the room with a wheelchair to take her down to the nurse's office. Rushing to Alyssa's side, both she and Donna helped her into the wheelchair and started to wheel her out into the hall. Please let the baby be okay, she silently prayed the whole way.

*********

            "Well, everything seems to be okay, but I strongly urge that you leave school for the day and head down to see you OB/GYN for a more thorough examination," Sheila reported about fifteen minutes later from the cubicle where Alyssa was laying. "You can never be too careful with these things and it's certainly better to be safe than sorry. I've already spoken to Mr. Kirkland and he's going to split your class up for the afternoon."

            Alyssa let out a sigh of a relief that everything seemed to check out okay. The pain in her stomach had subsided, but naturally she was left feeling very shook up by the eventful morning.

            "I wouldn't recommend you driving home though just in case," she continued. "Is there someone that I can call to come pick you up? I know that your husband is away, but maybe a friend or a neighbor?"

            Alyssa bit her lip as she thought through her options. She knew that Izzy would be down there as soon as she could, but she worked almost forty- five minutes from the school, and with traffic it would definitely be awhile until she arrived. The same went for Teri or Tricia, who although she loved, she wasn't sure if the two of them would be the right people to be by her side when it came to this. She knew Kim would be unable to get out of work and Callie had mentioned that Rich had been sick and Carly seemed to be coming down with the same thing. It wouldn't be fair to make her drag two sick children out to sit around in a doctor's office. For the first time since she found out she was pregnant, Alyssa was panicked to realize exactly how alone she really was.

            Sheila immediately picked up on Alyssa's hesitation. "If you don't have anyone I'm going to have to call an ambulance to take you down to the hospital."

            Alyssa definitely didn't want that. Not only would it raise a lot of concern with the students to see an ambulance parked outside their school, taking one of their teachers away, but going to a hospital would mean that she'd probably have to see an on call OB/GYN and Alyssa was uncomfortable with a stranger examining her. If she was going to receive bad news she at least wanted Dr. Spencer to be the one to give it to her. With a sigh Alyssa realized that there was only one other person she knew who had the flexibility of dropping everything in a heartbeat to come down and pick her up and of course it was the last person she wanted to see. Swallowing her pride she finally spoke up. "Can you please call Nick Carter? He's a friend of mine." She rattled off his cell phone number the best she could from memory.

            Sheila nodded her head and disappeared through the curtains. Alyssa stared up at the ceiling tiles knowing that she'd made the right choice no matter how difficult or weird it was. Nick definitely did have a right to know if anything went wrong with the baby. Things had definitely ended on a sour note between them after the wedding, but she knew that Nick was the only person she wanted by her side right now.

A few minutes later Sheila returned. "I just spoke to Mr. Carter and he's on his way. He'll be here as soon as he can."

"Thank you," Alyssa weakly responded. In the meantime she let her eyes closed and tried her hardest to relax and remain calm until he arrived.

************

"So let me get this straight... This kid threw a book at your head, knocked over a few desks, and you being pregnant thought it was a good idea to grab him? What were you thinking Alyssa?" Nick angrily asked as he pulled out of the school parking lot.

"I wasn't, okay? Please Nick, I don't need to be lectured. I already feel guilty enough. It was a stupid thing to do and I'm worried sick enough about the consequences," Alyssa answered back sounding close to tears.

Nick's face softened a bit when he saw how upset she was. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. You probably have heard enough flack already." Alyssa just nodded her head slowly. "What kind of kids are you dealing with though? I mean granted I only went to school up until seventh or eighth grade, but if you hit a teacher and cursed at them you'd probably get kicked out of school."

"It's different with special ed kids. Usually there's more going on that causes them to act out. Not to say that what he did was excusable and he'll probably be getting suspended for a few days, but we have to deal with it. Maybe this will be enough to convince his mother that he really needs to be transferred to that ED class," she tried to explain.

"ED?" Nick asked sounding confused.

Alyssa laughed a little forgetting that not everyone was familiar with educational lingo. "Emotionally Disturbed. ED classes are smaller in size and place a greater emphasis on behavior skills and socialization. Where I can have up to fifteen in my class, I think the cut off is nine in those classes. It's a lot more structured of an environment."

"Ahh... I see." It was just another example of how very different both of their careers were. Nick still couldn't imagine putting himself in an environment where he'd have to deal with children who had such severe behavior problems on a daily basis. He'd probably go nuts after a week. "I hope our child doesn't turn out like that."

Alyssa froze for a moment, completely thrown by the our child remark. This really was the first time that Nick had referred to her baby using our and it left her feeling very unsettled. She decided that for now she should just ignore it. "Well, usually the reason why a child turns out like that has a lot to do with their home life and the parents. A lot of these children's anger issues stems from abuse, but not always. Usually there's always something more going on underneath the surface." Alyssa pulled out her cell phone from her pocketbook. "I better call Dr. Spencer and let her know that we're on our way."

"Already done. I called her on my way over here," Nick assured her.

"You did?" Alyssa had to admit that she was surprised. "I don't think I ever gave you her number."

"Uh huh. And you didn't." Nick blushed. "I had to do a little bit of detective work. I remember you said that Melanie recommended her, so I called her up to get the number."

"Well, thank you. That saves a lot of time." Alyssa was floored by how serious Nick seemed to be taking all of this.

"Yea... They said they'd be expecting us and they'd rush you right in. How are you feeling by the way?"

"I'm feeling pretty okay now. At first it hurt like a mofo, but I guess because I wasn't expecting it. Now I'm okay though. Just shaken up and worried," she honestly replied.

"You don't have any cramping do you?" he asked. "Because cramping is supposed to be a bad sign, or at least that's what I read."

Alyssa stared at him for a moment in disbelief. Was this really Nick who had picked her up? She wasn't sure what was more shocking. The fact that he had voluntarily been reading up on pregnancy or the fact that he'd actually retained some of that knowledge. "No, no cramping thankfully." She gave him a small smile. "You've been reading up on pregnancy?"

Nick shrugged looking slightly embarrassed. "Just a little bit," he admitted. "I just thought that you know, it would be important for me to know a thing or two about it given the situation. A little knowledge never hurt."

"Wow Carter! I must admit that I'm impressed!" She really was, but then she frowned. She found it very sweet that he was taking this fatherhood thing so seriously, but she didn't want him to take it so seriously that he got attached. Whenever Sean came back from Iraq, he was going to be the one to be the proud father. Based upon everything that Nick had told her at Teri's wedding, she began to wonder if maybe he was only spouting all this pregnancy knowledge to convince Alyssa that he really could be just as good as a father as Sean. Before Alyssa could contemplate the idea any further though they'd pulled into the parking lot of Dr. Spencer's office.

**********

            "The baby seems perfectly fine," Dr. Spencer reported about half an hour later. "Its heartbeat is strong and there appears to be no spotting. I'd say that everything is great. I would like to perform an ultrasound though just as a precaution, but I see no reason as to why it should show us anything too surprising."

Nick squeezed Alyssa's hand reassuringly. "That's great news! See, I knew everything would be okay in the end."

"Yea... "Alyssa echoed. She'd been a little on edge since Nick had insisted on going into the exam room with her. As much as she appreciated having him by her side, it was just a little bit awkward. At first, Dr. Spencer had actually assumed that Nick was her husband until Alyssa explained that he was only a friend and reminded her that Sean was over in Iraq. It was an honest mistake, but still it left her feeling just a little unnerved. "I just was afraid that they'd find something wrong."

"Well, I don't think that we'll find anything wrong, but we might be able to find out the sex of the baby today," the doctor announced as she prepared Alyssa for the ultrasound. "That is if you'd like to know."

Alyssa exchanged a look with Nick. She knew a lot of couples; her parents included who thought it wasn't a good idea to find out the sex before birth because they felt that it ruined the element of surprise. But Alyssa knew that she'd never be able to wait until the end of her pregnancy especially when she could know right at that moment. It also would make things so much easier once it came to buying things for the baby and setting it up the nursery. Plus she was kind of getting sick of referring to the baby as ‘it.' "I'd like to know the sex," she announced.

Nick just nodded his head in agreement. "Yea, I think that's a good idea."

"Okay," Dr. Spencer agreed as she began the ultrasound. "Let's see what I can tell you." Alyssa turned her head towards the image on the screen beside her still not being able to believe that the snowy image was actually her child. "The baby looks like it's in a perfect position. You still want to know?"

"Yes, please," Alyssa answered, not being able to withstand the suspense any longer.

"Well, from the looks of things I would say that it's a beautiful baby girl. Congratulations."

Alyssa almost immediately felt overcome with emotion. "Aww... It's a girl Nick," she repeated, not caring how stupid she probably sounded. "I'm having a baby girl."

Nick looked just as amazed. He could clearly remember the day when Katie had delivered the very same news to him. Now he knew more than ever that he couldn't lose out on this baby in the same way that he lost out on Serena. He couldn't just give up his daughter this easily. His determination was almost burst though as soon as he heard Alyssa's next words.

"I can't wait to tell Sean. He's going to be so excited."

"Yea..." Nick's expression immediately changed and he dropped her hand. If Alyssa noticed his change in attitude she didn't show it. She was probably too overjoyed to notice at the moment.

Dr. Spencer's voice interrupted his thoughts. "As expected everything else seems fine. I'd advise you though to take it easy for the rest of the day though. The baby is fine, but you've been under quite a bit of stress today. I want you to sit back and relax tonight and I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to return to work tomorrow. Just be careful from now on when handling those children."

"Oh I will," Alyssa agreed. "I think I'll have my TA be in charge of restraining any out of control students. I've learned my lesson."

"Good." Dr. Spencer smiled as she stood up. "I'll see you next month for your next checkup. Congratulations again."

"Thank you." Alyssa smiled over at Nick as the doctor left the room. "You want to wait outside while I get dressed? Then you can take me home?"

"Sure," Nick agreed as he exited the exam room and closed the door behind him. He still couldn't believe that Alyssa was having their daughter. Knowing the sex of the baby made the situation entirely more real to him. Now more than ever he knew that he couldn't allow her to let the world believe it was Sean's. That baby was his and he was willing to fight for it. Of course the idea of a custody battle did not sit well with him. It probably would not only destroy both of their marriages, but their friendship as well. Alyssa trusted him and to betray her by taking her to court over this would ensure her never speaking to him again. No, there were other ways to win her over... And he was pretty sure that just by being with her today he had earned some major points with her. Yes, Sean may have been her husband, but he was halfway around the world at the moment. Nick was the one who was by her side when she needed support the most and he knew that had to count for something at least.

**********

            "Thanks for everything you've done for me today Nick," Alyssa told him after he'd dropped her off at her house and helped her inside over to the couch. "I don't know what I'd of done without you today."

            "It was no problem," he honestly replied. "As long as both you and the baby are okay I couldn't be happier to help you out. Is there anything else I can do for you? Make you dinner? What about your car?"

            Alyssa laughed at his over eagerness to help. "Thanks for offering Nick, but I think I can manage. I have a frozen pizza in the fridge that I can just throw in the oven. It won't take too much effort. And as far as my car I think it'll be okay in the school lot for the night. They have security going around and the night janitors will be there. Kim, my neighbor can just give me a ride to school tomorrow morning on her way to work."

            "Okay." Nick looked a little defeated, but he angled himself so that he was facing her and patted her on her knee. "You take care of yourself. I'm only a phone call away. If you need anything in the least bit call me. I'll be right there."

            Alyssa just raised her eyebrows, very aware of his hand on her leg. "You mean Shayla is willing to let you off that leash she has you on to come to help out little ole me?"

            "What are you talking about?" Nick asked confused. "There's no leash. I can do whatever I want."

            "Okay Nick..." Alyssa rolled her eyes.

            "Seriously! Look, I don't care what she thinks. I may not necessarily agree with how you're handling this pregnancy and truthfully speaking I hope you change your mind. But in the meantime the reality of it is that you're pregnant and living all by yourself and there are certain times when you're going to need a man's help. Since Sean isn't around to handle most of the typical father things, such as running out at three am for ice cream and painting the nursery, I'm the next best thing you've got. I'm willing to help. All you have to do is ask."

            Alyssa just smirked at him. "You're really willing to run out and buy me double stuff Oreo's in the middle of the night?"

            "If that's what you want then yea. Whatever I can do to make your life easier I'm there," he promised.

            She just laughed. "Wow... You really know how to turn a pregnant woman on." Nick's eyebrows flew up in surprise and she could already see him beginning to get flustered. "Relax, Nick. I was just kidding."

            "Yea, uhmm I knew that," he stammered.

            "Honestly though..." She paused and grabbed his hand. "I really do appreciate the offer to help and as awkward as it is, you're right. I can't do it alone no matter how hard I try. It would definitely help to have a male's help during the next few months. So, I'll definitely take you up on that. You were a huge help today just by being there."

            "Thanks," he told her as he looked up into her warm brown eyes which were filled with sincerity. Their eyes locked uncomfortably for a moment and Nick could tell that she was rethinking their conversation at the wedding. Knowing that it was a bad idea, but not being able to at least try to see how she'd react, he set his hand back on her thigh and slowly inched forward. Surprisingly, Alyssa did not immediately back away and taking this as a green light he used his other hand to guide her head down towards his until their lips were gently pressing together.

            Surprising him even further Alyssa did not pull away. In fact, she closed her eyes and seemed to almost savor the moment. Sensing this as encouragement, Nick took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue. Alyssa eagerly responded to the move, her hands moving up to cup his chin as she reciprocated. She wasn't sure why she was encouraging him, especially after their tense showdown at Teri's wedding, but his kiss just tasted so right. Besides he'd been saying all the right things today so far and being uncharacteristically sweet to her. Perhaps her joke about turning a pregnant woman on wasn't all that far off base.

            Just as Alyssa was really getting into the kiss, she felt a fluttering in her stomach that she knew wasn't just from Nick's lips. She pushed it aside and tried to ignore it, but the fluttering continued. Then it hit her what exactly that fluttering sensation was. She pulled away breathlessly and pressed her palms against her stomach. Sure enough she felt the sensation again. Her baby was kicking!

            Nick looked at her obviously confused and a bit concerned. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

            "She's kicking Nick! Here..." She reached over and grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. "Feel."

            Nick's hand stood still for a moment or two and then his face lit up as he felt it too. "Wow... That's amazing. Is that the first time she's done that?"

            "The first that I've noticed. This is so exciting! Now I definitely know she's all right." Her face broke out in a grin as she felt the baby kick again. "Maybe she'll be blessed with your height and my dancing ability and she'll grow up and be a Rockette." Alyssa froze when the words came out of her mouth. As innocent as the comment was, it was just another reminder of the fact that although this baby shared both of their DNA; Nick would not get any credit for it. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just meant-"

            "I know what you meant," Nick interrupted her not really caring to hear her awkward explanation. "It's cool. Anyway you're supposed to be resting, so I guess I'll just leave you to it. Remember... Anything you need and I'm there."

            "Thanks Nick." She leaned over to give him a hug and a light kiss on the cheek. "I'll call you soon."

            Nick waved a quick little goodbye and then disappeared out the door. Once he'd left, Alyssa stretched her legs out on the couch and sighed reviewing the last ten minutes in her head. Why had she allowed him to kiss her again and furthermore why had she kissed back? Besides the fact that she was lonely and he was a good kisser, she really thought that getting into this situation in the first place would be enough to stay far away from his advances, especially after he very clearly told her that he still had feelings for her. It was very dangerous territory to be grazing in, but honestly after everything he had done for her today, she had definitely softened up to him big time. She knew that it wasn't like Sean had a choice in not being by her side throughout the pregnancy, but having Nick by her side today she could already begin to feel a special bond growing between the two of them. She laid her head back against the arm rest and sighed. All she knew was that she was more confused than ever and for the first time she realized that maybe her feelings for Nick weren't as cut and dry as she'd first thought.