February 1999
"Damn it, Stephanie!" Lindsey shouts as he gets in the car to drive her home from their counseling session. They had only been to four so far, as they opted to wait until after the holidays to begin dealing with their issues, so they could (happily) be with their family and friends for Christmas and New Years.
"Lindsey, I swear to god if you fucking yell at me one more time...."
"What? You'll kick me out? I'm not even allowed to move back in yet!"
"Oh, well clearly that was a bad idea on my part!" Stevie shouts back at him, quickly getting tired of his attitude towards her.
"Why is it so fucking hard for you to trust me?" He glances over at her when they stop at a red light.
"Would you like a goddamn list of reasons?" She runs her hand through her hair.
"Yeah, actually! I would!" He says, raising his voice again.
"Pull the car over," she demands.
"Why? So you can get out and walk home?" He asks as he keeps driving.
"Lindsey, pull the fucking car over!"
He does as he's told, pulling into a parking lot. Stevie quickly gets out and hunches over; throwing up in the parking lot of a Burger King. Lindsey parks the car and gets out quickly, going around to make sure she's okay. He rubs her back gently but she smacks his arm away, obviously still mad at him.
Lindsey sighs, "are you alright, baby?"
She nods a little before she throws up again. He goes inside to get her some water and once she's done emptying the contents of her stomach, she gets back into the car. The rest of the ride home is silent and as soon as they walk in the door, she goes to brush her teeth.
Lindsey pays the babysitter and takes his now five month old son from her, kissing his chubby little cheeks as the baby looks around for his mother. He starts to cry, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
"Okay, monkey, mommy is right here," Stevie says to her little boy as she comes to take him from his father. She sits down on the couch to feed him.
"Are you going to tell me what that was about? Are you sick?" Lindsey asks, looking at her worriedly.
"I'm fine," she replies, clearly still upset by their earlier argument.
"Don't be like that, Steph."
"Then don't be a prick, Linds."
He rolls his eyes, "I thought we were going to therapy to talk about our issues."
"Well I sure as hell didn't expect you to bring up my affair with Mick!"
"She wanted a history of our relationship!"
Stevie takes a deep breath, "we need to stop yelling; we're scaring Max."
"Okay." Lindsey comes over to sit on the couch, giving Max a kiss on the top of his head.
They sit in silence while Max eats. Stevie props him up on her shoulder and pats his back gently. Lindsey watches them and can't even remember why he and Stevie were fighting in the first place. Max falls asleep in his mother's arms and she holds him close.
"Can you just...go back to the condo? I need a break." She asks.
Lindsey runs his hand through his curls, "we aren't going to solve anything this way."
"Yeah, well I don't really feel like getting into another screaming match with you while Max is sleeping. Maybe if we get a little space we can talk about this calmly later."
"Everything has got to be on your terms!" He says, a little louder than she would have liked.
"I am the one letting you back into my life!" She hisses.
"Jesus Christ, Stephanie! It's been over a year!"
"Oh and you think that's enough time to just get over what you did to me?"
"Um, yes actually, I do." He replies, crossing his arms like he's right, which only annoys her more.
She bounces Max gently, as their arguing has woken him up from his nap, "please go. I will call you later when we've both had a chance to calm down."
Lindsey relents, coming over to kiss Max on the forehead. He kisses Stevie on the forehead too, and even though they're fighting right now, he still says, "I love you."
She nods, "we love you too."
With that, he's gone. She takes the baby upstairs to rock him before she goes to rest herself. It seems like all they do is fight after these appointments and it is utterly exhausting. Was counseling the right thing for them? Was it helping or hurting? She sighs, unable to answer her own questions, and falls into a fitful sleep.
Stevie awoke with the sudden and intense urge to vomit again. She runs to the bathroom and sits on the floor for a while. She eyes the bathroom cabinet, wondering if maybe....no. No way. She did not get herself pregnant again.
She manages to pull herself off the bathroom floor. She takes her time brushing her teeth and combing her hair. Finally, she can't take it anymore. She pulls the box out from underneath the sink and checks the expiration date on it before she takes it.
Max was crying and that was a welcome distraction while she waited.
"Hey chunky monkey!" She says as she scoops him up and kisses his face. She takes her time changing his diaper and even changing his clothes before she finally puts the baby boy on her hip and goes back into the bathroom.
She takes a deep breath and glances at her son, "ready to find out if you're going to be a big brother or not?"
Stevie walks into the bathroom, holding Max close as she looks down at the test. She sighs and glances at her son, who was just giving her the biggest grin. She couldn't help but smile back as she says, "I'm going to kill your father."
She walks downstairs, deciding to call Lindsey and tell him it's okay to come back over. Once she's off the phone she places Max in his play pen as she paces around the living room trying to figure out how she's going to tell Lindsey they're about to have another baby.
They already had two boys under the age of one. By the time the new baby got here they would have two toddlers and an infant. This was actually insane.
Things weren't really supposed to go this way. Max was practically a miracle baby himself. Now she was pushing fifty-one and she was about to have another baby? She shook her head and went upstairs to grab the extra pregnancy test before going into the downstairs bathroom to take it. She occupies herself making some lunch for Lindsey; knowing he had been too worked up over their argument to eat. When the timer goes off, she checks the test again. Of course, it read the same as the previous one. She was definitely, without a doubt, pregnant.
