IT WAS AMAZING, how someone's path in life could be headed in one direction before it made a sharp turn, throwing itself off the beaten path and conforming to something entirely different than they would have ordinarily expected.
This was how Lindy felt as she entered her apartment after leaving the hospital with Jack.
"Do you need me to stay with you?" Jack asked kindly, watching as Lindy climbed gingerly out of the car and put both feet on the pavement, waiting with bated breath for nausea or dizziness — neither came to her.
"I'll be okay. Thanks for everything Jack."
Jack smiled, the ghost of his love for Lindy still lingering somewhere behind his deep blue eyes. Lindy watched for a moment as he drove away, his headlights growing thinner in the night. When a misty drizzle began to rain down from the sky, she climbed her apartment building stairs and took shelter in her home.
Everything looked the same. Nothing had been set out of place between the time that Lindy had been carried out of her apartment until now as she returned. The television was still on, quietly playing MTV in the background. On the couch was Lindy's gift from Jack -- her stethoscope.
It was no different than any time before that Lindy had walked back into her apartment after having been momentarily gone.
But at the same time, it was different.
Instinctively, Lindy looked down at her stomach and touched a hand there, vaguely wondering what it would feel like to have her stomach swell outwards and move with the tiny life budding inside of it. Something about this made her tear up, imagining that in only a few months time, she would see with her own eyes the human that she and Kurt had created.
And that was just it -- it wasn't the mere fact that she was pregnant that had seemingly moved the earth beneath her feet.
It was the fact that this baby was not only hers, but it was Kurt's.
Every kiss, touch, word, laugh and tear had culminated into this very moment. The moment where Lindy was filled with more than just love for Kurt himself, but for their child, a perfect blend of them both, brought to life because they had sheerly loved one another hard enough to will it.
Lindy cupped both hands around her abdomen and felt her lips tremble. There was so much to be upset about it, between Lee's slowly approaching death and the shattering news that Kurt had slipped into a coma. But somehow, in a strangely miraculous way, her baby with Kurt had swooped in to assume a position as a silver lining in the midst of her gray rain clouds.
There was fear of course, fear that rattled Lindy's insides and warned her that not everything would be grand in lieu of her pregnancy. Kurt was still married, for one thing. Not only had he been unfaithful, but he had conceived a child behind Courtney's back as well. There was no doubt in Lindy's mind that if Courtney were to discover this, and eventually she would, all hell would break loose.
Courtney would have every right to feel that way. She had been wronged and once again, the pitfalls of being a human had ravaged someone else as a victim. The world was brutal. It was a place where drugs were more delicious than simply living, family members died suddenly and relationships could be broken even when mended messily with remnants of old love.
But there was still hope.
Lindy could feel it, warming her hands on her stomach and bringing wetness to her eyes. Only the barrier of flesh and organs separated her from the most blatant piece of evidence in the world that she and Kurt's love was real, capable of creating something bigger and more beautiful than they could both imagine.
