She's Mine [COMPLETE]

She's Mine: Bonus

Mine: Bonus (4/11/19)

Eliza groaned and peeled her eyes open to a dark bedroom. She checked the clock on the night table to twist her mouth at the realization of taking an unintentionally long nap. Though, as expected, the room wasn't completely dark. The door had been cracked open enough to reveal a sliver of warm light.

The joint in her wrist ached when she rubbed her tingling throat. Eliza was still sick two days after catching a cold. The family warned her about stressing late into evenings over the big move. She and Troy bought a new home during the winter; however, Eliza tested her immunity and lost.

With a tinge of pain in all movement, she rolled out of bed and scratched her belly down to her right butt cheek. Pulling back the door, she squinted, but her lips curled into a smile. Troy sat on the floor with small piles of little clothes in front of him. He stretched his hand and waited for Lulu to toddle to him with dirty clothes on the other side of the living room.

"You did it!" He quietly cheered. Lulu flashed her tiny teeth and a quick u-turn back to the pile.

Eliza failed to suppress a light cough, and Troy spotted his sick wife hiding behind the cracked door. He left the floor to touch the top of her silk bonnet before testing her forehead. "How ya feelin', Liza?"

"I'm feeling the consequences of my neuroticism and ignorance regarding your advice," she confessed frowning at wheezy voice. They paused further conversation and watched Lulu advance near them with her waddle.

Eliza hid herself by dipping into the bedroom. Troy secured the tiny pants from his step-daughter before she sped back into the living room. He folded with a smile as he resumed, "I think you should just let me handle the plans from here on out."

"Troy," Eliza returned and grumbled in protest. "Babycakes, we're one week away from moving," he said with a frown. "And ya dun wanna be sick on move day or in our first nights in the house."

She patted the top of her head to attack an itch. "I hate being sick, but I usually bounce back quicker than this."

"Well, if you let yourself get some rest then–"

Eliza abruptly lifted her finger. She turned into the bedroom to sneeze into her elbow.

Troy narrowed his eyes. "–you'll feel better."

"I know, and I'm sorry for being so stubborn," she huffed, still catching her breath. "I guess I feel like there's been so many positive leaps and bounds forward that if I relax, I'm gonna miss an important detail and create a domino effect of disasters."

"Ya got me, baby." Her husband of three months grinned. " Ya know ya don't ever have to face nothin' alone."

"I love you," she said after a hardy cough.

Troy twisted his brows but kept his smile. "I luv ya too."

"Troy, please help me disinfect every inch of surface area after she goes to bed." Eliza said backing into the bedroom again. "Lulu! Are you helping daddy with your laundry?"

Lulu held two plain white snap-bottom onesies and threw them on the floor at Troy's feet. Laughing, Lulu sped off again. Eliza coughed through her chuckle, and Troy picked up the clothes, asking, "Since I know you ain't fixin' tah sleep, ya wanna eat, darlin'?"

"Yeah," Eliza said rubbing her belly. "Just a snack though."

"Whadduya want?" He showed his teeth.

"Do we have pickles?"

At that moment, they looked at each other with alarm. Lulu was on her way back with more clothes than the last trip, but large-eyed Eliza shut the bedroom door and vaulted on the bed to grab her phone. Troy dropped the baby clothes and swept Lulu up. He listened against the door, gawking at Lulu's confused face.

He turned his mouth to the door, "Liza?!"

"Just a second!" Eliza panicked, unlocking her phone.

Her finger quickly swiped and opened an app that demanded she update it before she log in. "Dammit!"

"Liza!"

"Hold on! It's still opening!" she yelped, gripping the phone with both hands while kneeling in the middle of the bed.

Seconds of silence passed before Troy heard Eliza's small voice on the other side of the door. "Troy?"

"What's goin' on, Liza?" he calmly asked.

"So according to the app," she began in a mutter. "I should have started my period two weeks ago."

Troy looked down before glancing at his stepdaughter again. "You sayin' you're–"

"–I don't know. What I do know is that I despise pickles." She said. "But I wanted to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner when I was pregnant with Sweetpea."

"Um, uh okay! It could jus be a random craving. I mean ya about as sick as a horse." He nodded his reasoning at Lulu, who was occupied plotting her escape by way of crawling up his shoulder. "Fair, but should I pee on a stick? Yeah, I should pee. Oh god, I've been peeing a lot lately too," Eliza panicked through her recollection. "Troy, I don't think this is a drill. I'm sweating!"

*

After confirming the baby was asleep, Troy sprayed Lysol around the apartment and zipped into the bedroom. He heard Eliza open the toilet and he proceeded to pace by their open bathroom door. He poked his head in after no longer hearing a stream. Troy's brows were high up in question. Eliza frowned at him while she awkwardly wiped herself.

"Can I see?" he whispered.

She flushed and eventually handed him the pregnancy test. "Sure, but we won't know anything for another few minutes.

Troy grunted and returned the stick. Instead, he grabbed the box from which the kit was pulled. Eliza leaned against the sink and watched her anxious husband read the fine print on the back of the pregnancy test kit.

"What if I'm not, Troy," she suggested. "This could be a false alarm. Plus, I would need to make an appointment to really know."

"Well, if it is, gettin' these jittahs are fun," he smirked, continuing to read.

Eliza examined his face with pleasure. Despite knowing that Troy would love to have an army of children, it felt appropriate to admire a starkly different emotional response to her being pregnant.

"You researching more?" she asked. Troy had his phone in hand plus a pensive stare.

"Mmhmm," he grumbled. "I jus gotta see if there are forums about any inaccurate results and if they had similar symptoms. You said you pee alot... pickles... ya breasts sensitive?"

She chuckled, "Yes, but that always happens before my period."

"Right, right. Missed period," he murmured, scrolling.

"Troy."

"Hmm?" he answered, still glued to the screen.

Eliza called his name again. She began to cough into her elbow, but his expression fell seeing warmth in her eyes. She was laughing.

"Ya alright?" he asked stepping closer.

She revealed her grin and pointed down to the stick on the counter and asked him, "Are you?" His eyes lit up. He snatched the stick and the box. His eyes darted back and forth between the results.

"Liza!" he gasped. "It says--"

"Yep," she laughed, and Troy punched his fist in the air. 

Little did they know that, months later, Dr. Rhee would tell them she found two heartbeats during the ultrasound. Eliza had no time to revel in her shock when she had never seen Troy dance the way he did.

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I hope you all enjoyed this little bonus chapter. I felt I had to dust off these characters after a handful of years ;)

-Mayen