Alone With Ross

Epilogue

If it wasn't already apparent, it certainly would be now. But I am a damn good liar.

I'm terrible at keeping lies but this one I needed to keep because I honestly had no other idea what I could possibly give to this man who has already given me so much.

It was a typical night in the house. The kids just finished up their chores after dinner and Ross went into the study to go over expense reports and stuff, always making sure nothing was out of place to keep in good graces with the system and social services. We were approaching our fifth year since we officially started things up again. And rather than just having it be a home, we decided to foster kids who were almost out of the system. We specialized in getting them back on the right track and setting them towards success. Usually the chances of a foster kid furthering their education is less then half, but here we have been proven to have 98% of our kids graduating high school and getting accepted into their first choice college. Now of course our fist two batches have just recently graduated college.

And Ross' daughter Raven has been more than enough help with everything. She's exceedingly bright and insightful and she accepted me as a part of her family with no hesitation and even on some occasions she nonchalantly refers to me as her mother. And I truly never saw things turning out this way. I never saw things turning out this good.

The relationship with Ross, sustaining it at a slow pace only lasted about three months. Then after a year he had asked me to marry him as we were in our old shared bedroom painting the walls. Our wedding was small a courthouse wedding in which Ross and I only stood in front of his daughter Raven and a judge.

And that same year Raven had asked for me to legally become her guardian, as her own mother stopped trying to even contact her.

It has been the fastest yet longest five years of my life and I keep thinking that things couldn't possibly keep going up, that I'd peak sometime soon and have a steep incline to fall down.

But for two months I had fleeting feelings. I had irritability, I had morning sickness. And got it confirmed by a doctor and a sonogram that I was in fact pregnant. You know you'd think that the fact that I was in my thirties, had a stable income and lived the fullest life I could possibly live. You'd think I'd be ready for a baby.

But I was scared shitless.

So for another two months I kept it a secret, I say it's because I merely just wanted to surprise Ross for his birthday, but I had also wanted to give myself sometime to wrap my head around this concept of me being a mother. That I'd be bringing an actual human being into this world, that it'd depend on me, I mean me? And also a small part of me was hoping this wouldn't be the time my bad luck would strike. Like if I possibly miscarried I felt that when I told Ross he wouldn't feel the loss as much. But I know well enough for that to not be the case.

So at four months pregnant the day before Ross' birthday I stood at the office door absolutely dreading how happy I'm about to make my dorky husband.

He sat at the desk, phone in hand as he recorded more numbers. He peaked up at me smiling. "Sorry, I'll be up in a minute. I can't sleep soundly until it's done."

"And I won't sleep soundly until you come to bed, I guess we're both losers." I came in and sat on his lap and he put his phone and pen down to pull me in closer. A sigh of content coming out of him.

"Have you noticed the way Allison stares at Austin." Ross said making me snort.

"Have you noticed the way Austin stares at Allison. She's too busy to even think about relationships. She's going to be a lawyer, I'm calling it right now. I'm going to slip her an application for Harvard."

"I don't know, I think she'd much rather do music."

"You wanted to do music." I kissed his nose and he grimaced.

"I also wanted to be an artist."

"And who says you're not those things? You're a musician, an artist, entrepreneur, husband, you're an amazing father of two I mean the list goes on."

"I've never sold art." He said, lost in thought and I waited for him to catch on and finally his brows pull together in confusion. "Father of two." He said to himself quietly.

"I wanted to wait until tomorrow to tell you, but your birthday is in an hour, so.... Happy Birthday?" I pulled back and he held unto my hips tighter seeming to look at me closer to see if he could see a difference.

"Please tell me what I think you're telling me." He said quietly, holding his smile back.

"I'm pregnant." It felt good to say aloud. "Four months actually."

"Four mon-" I put my finger over his lips silencing him.

"It was a lot to wrap my head around, love." I felt my eyes began to water. "But yeah, next month I go in to find out the gender and here," I reached into my shirt to produce the sonograms. "There's our tiny baby."

He looked at it for a second before pulling me closer to him and nuzzling into my chest. "I can't believe we're going to have a baby. And that you kept your mouth shut for four months!"

"Hey, just be happy I didn't wait longer." I mused.

"Yeah well I'm rooting for a boy." He laughed placing his hand over my stomach.

"Not a chance, if my superstitious aunt was right, we're having a girl because of my failed relationship with my mother. So ha." I leaned back and stuck my tongue out at him.

"We'll see."

Five Months later.

We had a girl. And we named her Violet.