Heal together

[Clayton POV]

The next morning Kaleah woke up earlier than me, to make me a cup of coffee, it made my heart dance a little with happiness.

Though it was hard for her to go back to the usual Kaleah, it was good to see her try a little to do so.

"I will come pick you up for the appointment with the gynecologist, okay?" I tell her, she smiles before nodding.

"This will be okay, we will go through this okay," "I hope so," I hugged her goodbye before stopping to say goodbye to Zoey.

I need to vent this out to someone; I can't talk to Conan about this he would never understand anything. Maybe Evelyn would know how to get through this.

I had called her inviting her for breakfast, and she came with her husband of course.

"So, what is it?" she finally asked after I had procrastinated for almost half an hour.

I take a deep breath before telling her the current situation, she is shocked the more I explain.

"Poor Leah, she must be going through a lot," she sympathizes, this clearly floors Joshua.

"What about you? What do you want to do?" Joshua asked making Evelyn glare at him, "wait if you were going through this, I would support this, but Clayton is clearly different person."

"I want to support her, she doesn't want to get rid of the child and I will support her," I say firmly.

I know why he is saying this, there is a version of me that would have run the moment she told me she was pregnant, but not this version of me.

"Are you sure? Kaleah has been through a lot and if you think this would be hard on you, I think her decision for divorce is the right one," Evelyn says.

"I am serious, I want this, yes I feel hateful towards the child, but I will learn to love it okay, I will learn to love the child as much as I love its mother," this comes out sounding disingenuous.

"Clayton, this is going to be hard on both of you two and you both need to be sure of what you want," Joshua says, "are you sure you want to continue with this marriage."

"Of course, I do, this is not like she went out and cheated on me and got pregnant, she was r*ped Joshua," I angrily said, I hated how he made it seem like she chose to get pregnant with that monster's child.

How dare he blame my wife for the pain and suffering she is going through, I feel so angry, I want to punch him for even making it seem like that.

"Relax Clayton, that is not what I meant, I know she didn't choose this it is as hard on her as it is on you, but I want you to be sure that you yourself doesn't blame her in the long run," he explained.

"I will never blame Leah for this," I say, "I just want you guys to tell me how to support her."

I take a deep breath, Evelyn smiles at me, "don't worry just continue to support her like you are, go to therapy to get over the hate for the child before it comes and go with the flow."

"Yes, you are serious about supporting her and it will reflect on how you support her and that would make you two get through this," Joshua says, "with your guidance and love even the child will turn to be great."

I went to the office feeling surer of myself, maybe it is because they told me what I wanted to hear, but still it feels good that they believed we will get through this.

Evelyn had chosen to go visit Kaleah after that to offer her support, and it seems to have worked since when I picked Kaleah up for our scheduled appointment, she looked brighter.

The doctor did her tests and asked if we wanted to see the baby, I looked at Kaleah to see what she wanted. She was hesitant, but she nodded yes.

The whole experience was magical, watching a whole lot of nothing move around, knowing one day it will walk this earth proudly makes me a bit emotional.

I want to be able to tell it I love it, "this is not how I picture our first child," Kaleah says.

Me too, I want to say that, but it feels hateful, to the child, "well I am happy I am experiencing this with you either way, this is our baby, and we will have to love it."

Me who hates the child more having to remind my wife that we have to put its DNA aside is diabolical, but she is the one who went through all the pain.

"I will, I will love it," she says softly, she mutters I hope with only just a whisper.

We are given the picture of the ultrasound alone with all the food to avoid, and most importantly how she is supposed to take care of herself.

I decided to take her out on a date for dinner, the family must be curious about what is happening in our relationship, but I feel it is too soon for us to even open that chapter to them.

"Any crazy cravings?" I ask her while we were ordering, she shakes her head.

"I haven't had any morning sickness either, Melisa would have suspected if I did, she seems to be in the dark."

"Or maybe you have been hiding it very well," my grandmother was some sort of pregnant detector which made me surprised how she hadn't detected Kaleah's pregnancy yet.

We catch up on what we have been missing out on in our lives, how she has been a bit of artistic block over the weeks.

"Well, that seems to be a bit of a blessing in disguise since you will not endanger the child with your unhealthy habits when you start your paintings," I teased, I halted for a moment, maybe I should not talk about the baby this much.

But to my surprise she laughs at my joke, "I am not that bad," she defended.

I like having my wife back, talking to her about our lives and having her enthusiastically talk about her life with me.

"I love you," I mutter watching her smile, there is nothing in this world I like than watching my wife happy.

"Oh…... I love you too," she says flustered.

After our date we will drive around the town, I want to reach home when everyone is asleep, and they will not have to ask us questions.

But on the other hand, this is turning out to be a refreshment our relationship needs, just us two, making sense of the mess our lives have been in recently.

Watching my wife giggle for the first time since the whole kidnapping thing makes me hopeful, I know we will get through this together.

We reach home just after midnight, but to my surprise everyone Zoey included is still up.

"So, you finally decided to come home?" grandmother says condescendingly, it seems we cannot run away from this forever.

"Sorry, we didn't see time," I lie, Cyan rolls her eyes before asking a pressing question.

"The two of you have been hiding something from us," she says, "what is going on? Are you getting divorced."

They all look at us sadly, pleading for the answer to Cyan's question. Divorce are they insane, they know very well how much I love this woman.

"What? No? why would you think that?" of course they would think the worst.

"Then what is going on," Conan asks, Kaleah is clearly not comfortable about this, the very reason I didn't want them to be awake when we get home.

"We don't want to talk about it yet, can you…..." "it is fine, we can tell them" Kaleah says.

"You don't have to," I reassure her, they might be family, but they don't have to know every single thing about our relationship.

"It is fine they are going to know at the end of the day," she says.

"What is going on? You are scaring me," Cyan says, I sigh, we just got a bit closer today and this might stop our progress altogether.

"Sit down, this might be a bit heavy," I say, we all walk to the living room, and they all sit down, I sit next to Kaleah, ready to protect her from any profanity they might utter.