Separated

Part 2

"Stevie, are you o-"

"I'm fine, Jack." She cut him off sharply. "Sorry, I just..."

"I get it." Jack waved it off and remained standing beside her for a moment longer, linger as if waiting for her to say something. She didn't. "I guess, I'll leave you two alone." He added, his eyes shifting from Stevie to Lindsey, his eyes slightly narrowing. "Come on, Todd, it's time for us to go." The boy whined, but followed after his father a minute later.

"How's your knee, baby?" Stevie asked, smiling at Jade. 

"It's okay, hurts a little." The girl sniffled.

"Would you like to play some more or should we just go home?"

"No." Jade shook her head, her blond hair slightly tousled. "I want to play with her." Jade pointed at Amber in very childlike manner.

"Do you?" Lindsey asked his daughter, who nodded and the two girls walked away, seemingly very intrigued by each other. "Well, I wasn't expecting this day to go like this."

"To say the least." Stevie agreed, her eyes suddenly welling up with tears. She tried to brush them away quickly, but not quickly enough, leaving a concerned look on Lindsey's face. 

Maybe slightly inappropriate, considering they had just met, but Lindsey without putting too much thought into it, pulled Stevie into his arms, his fingers tangled in her hair as he attempted to calm her down, her cries becoming more intense. When he tried to pull back, she didn't let him, grabbing onto his bicep. He didn't move.

"I'm so sorry, I just... I'm really overwhelmed right now." Stevie backed off after some time, wiping under her eyes.

"You don't have any reason to apologize. Trust me, I understand the way you're feeling right now." Lindsey said, laying a hand over his heart for emphasis. "I mean, I don't understand, what the hell is going on, but I'm just as confused as you are."

A new wave of emotions washed over Stevie. She thought about it, but it couldn't be... It- it just couldn't be true. The doctors told her, the other twin died, they had a funeral. Stevie had never forgotten nor would she ever forget the feeling, the unbearable pain of losing her baby. The baby passed away over night, in her sleep. That was what she was told. The memories were becoming too much and Stevie began crying again, clinging onto Lindsey as he didn't object and allowed her to let it all out, even if he didn't quite understand her reaction.

"I made your shirt wet." Stevie looked up at Lindsey apologetically, her eyes red.

"It will dry." He shrugged with a reassuring smile. "Maybe this is all just a dream." He wondered aloud, however, it didn't get a reaction from Stevie, who now stared ahead at the two identically looking children. "What are we supposed to tell them?"

"I don't know." Stevie said, breathing out heavily. "I don't understand, how..."

"Yeah." Lindsey nodded, biting into his lower lip. "It's a stupid question, but when is your daughter's birthday?"

"May 30th."

"Of course. I said, it was a stupid question." That caused Stevie to smile weakly. "They're identical."

"What are we going to do? We can't just ignore this has happened." Stevie said, fearing what Lindsey might be thinking. It was selfish, she knew that, but she didn't want to let Amber go. 

"No, I don't think we can." Lindsey agreed, scratching the back of his neck. "I've always thought that Michelle, my ex wife, cheated on me because Amber looks nothing like me." He confessed, when realization dawned on him that for the past sex years, he'd been raising someone else's child, just that he didn't have a clue of how things ended up that way. "Turns out she wasn't lying."

"We can't just assume things." Stevie said.

"Even when the truth is staring right into our faces?"

"No. No, I can't just tell myself to believe this, I have to know for sure." Stevie said, feeling tears returning. 

"Why don't we meet up tomorrow or some other day, I-I-" Lindsey started feeling emotional himself. He searched inside his pockets, finding them empty, before he asked Stevie for a pen and something to write on.

Rummaging through her small purse, she tore out a page of her notebook and handed it to him along with a pencil. "Here."

Lindsey scribbled down his number and gave it to her. "Our lives are never going to be the same, huh?" He asked rhetorically. 

"No." Stevie sighed heavily, answering anyway. "They won't."