Don't Let Us Go

Planting Roots

Olivia's L.A. trip was whining down with little time left. Between job interviews and accompanying Spencer to open houses, she to think, let alone relax. So when she was out shopping with Simone, Kia, and Davita  at the mall, she hadn't been too surprised by her headrush that sparked the other three women, demanding she sit down for a minute.

Resting at a table within the food court, she girls catered to their overstretched friend. "Drink some of this," Simone instructed, returning with a cup of ice water from a chick-fil-a mini restaurant that was set up at the food court.

"Thanks," Olivia mumbled, gentle taking the cup and pulling the straw to her lips. Kia fanned a napkin in front of Olivia's fast, concerned washing over her.

"Do you usually get hot flashes like this?" Kia inquired, wiping at Olivia's forehead.

"It's this L.A heat," Olivia muttered tiresomely, "Portland doesn't have weather like this regularly. I am probably just overheated."

"Have you put anything on your stomach since leaving the house earlier? Have some of my waffle fries," Simone suggested, reaching over the table with the load of fries for Olivia to take.

Her head head turned watching as the fries reached her end, and her nostrils filled with the smell of greasy cropped potatoes, and she gagged. Quickly covering her mouth, Olivia felt a small amount of bile raising, and she took off out of her seat in a hurry of the nearest trash can.

"I got you. I got you!" Davita followed quickly behind Olivia as she hurled into the trash bin. Holding Liv's curls out of the way, Davita rubbed Olivia's back, looking over her shoulder to Kia and Simone, all of them sharing a common thought.

Patting her chest, Olivia to stand, trying to catch her breath. Shifting her vision in her friends, Olivia was met with similar glances from the other woman. Rubbing a napkin against her lip, Olivia questioned their worrisome gaze,"What? It's probably just a 24-hour flu."

"Liv, the last time you and Spencer...you know..did you guys use protection?" Kia inquired, handing Olivia a cup of water to rinse the taste out of her mouth.

"What! Why are you asking me that?" Olivia retorted like it was a far-fetched insinuation as she  drank the water down.

"Liv, the random, dizzy spells and random heat flashes. Now you're sensitive to the smell of fries?" Davita pointed out all the signs.

"It's possible that you're pregnant again," Simone summed up all the clues, causing Olivia to nod in the denial.

"Impossible. I can't be. There's no way," Olivia laughed off nervously, her hand finding its way to her stomach as the seriousness of the moment drenched her thoughts.

"We will stop by the nearest drugstore and to some tests," Kia decided on her behalf, sensing that Olivia might be in too much shock to make a rational choice.

Silently nodding along with the plan Olivia along, Simone and Davita to guide her through the mall back to Kia's car so they could head to the closest pharmacy.
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Later on that afternoon, back at the Air B&B, Olivia sat on the floor of the master bathroom, starring at four positive tests lined  out in front of her.

Kia and Davita already headed out, giving Olivia some privacy. Of course, seeing Olivia as more of a sister, Simone refused to leave her side. Sitting on the toilet with the cover seat down, Simone sighed heavily. "It's gonna be alright, Liv."

Slowly glancing up at her former sister-in-law, Olivia questioned if that were true, "Is it?" She snorted, remembering herself in a very similar circumstance during her first pregnancy with Simone at her side coaxing her through tears of anxiety.

"It's not going to be like last time. You won't have to do it alone now. You have Spencer again," Simone tried to reassure Olivia.

"We are living in two different states, barely managing our coparenting over FaceTime. He is still adjusting to being a father to Gigi," Olivia raved, pulling at her hair. "He is starting a new business, and I'm about to start a new job. How are we going to handle a newborn, Sisi!" Olivia panicked through tears, resulting in Simone hopping off the toilet seat and squatting down to the floor to engulf a tearstricken Olivia.

"Don't talk like that, Liv." Simone insisted, holding an overly emotional Olivia.

"Can I even handle another kid as a mom?" Olivia stressed aloud, confusing Simone.

"What you do, you mean, Liv. You are an amazing mom. This kid will be lucky to have a mother like you." Simone argued, unable to let Olivia doubt herself as a parent.

"Am I, Simone? Really?" Olivia broke down harden. "I let my kid live without her father for years. I flew around the world for work all the time, leaving my little girl yearning for her dad. I didn't even know she was gone until days after the fact! Gracianna could have been killed because of my carelessness! How could I think of having a second baby when I've been so careless with my first one?!"

It was like a neverending damn, flooding the bathroom with Olivia's hormonal emotions, and Simone was finding it impossible to rationalize against it.

They'd been so tangled up in one another, neither of them heard the front open and close downstairs. Neither had they heard the bustling of Father and daughter coming upstairs. No, Simone and Olivia didn't notice Spencer and Gracianna's presence until the bathroom door swung open, revealing their vulnerable state.

"Mommy?" Gigi voiced, cracked, her smile immediately dropping, seeing her mom crying in the arms of her godmother. "Mommy, what's wrong?" The naive little girl inquired, rushing to her mother's side to bombard Olivia with hugs and kisses.

"What happened, Liv! Simone, what's going on!" Spencer urged one of them to explain, his eyes too locked on a weeping Olivia to notice the stick on the ground.

As he walked forward, his shoes crushed something beneath them, causing Spencer to instinctivly jerk her leg upwards, revealing the four pregnancy test on the floor of the bathroom. His lips formed into a baffling 'O' shape as he scanned the positive results from afar.

He centered his focus on Olivia, meeting her tear filled chocolate eyes in search of answers. "You're pregnant?"