Wicked

Chapter 17 (Eight Months Later)

Faith POV: 

I lie awake another night, feeling her kicking nonstop. I rest my hands over my stomach, hoping the pressure will calm her, but it doesn't. I wander downstairs, staring at the piano before touching my belly again. Maybe music will calm her down... 

I sit on the piano bench, staring at the keys as they intimidate me. I press a few keys, feeling her stir inside. I take a moment and wait for her to settle, before trying once more. 

"There's a reason why, you can look up every night and every star in heaven is in its place..." I sing lightly, shutting my eyes as I let the lyrics come to me. "There's a reason why the full moon pulls the tide and the waves roll in to a shore that always waits, and just like that... Baby you belong, oh, baby you belong..." I sing down to her, looking up for a moment as I try to find the right words. "Nothing's ever been so meant to be or ever felt so right to me. Every single part of me believes, that baby you belong, oh, baby you belong. There really is no mystery, I think anyone can see that baby you belong with me..." I rest my hand over my stomach once more, feeling her grow calm. I stand up, gently walking to the couch and lying down, careful not to stir her. I rest my eyes for a moment, hoping I can get some sleep. 

I lie across the bed, propping my head up on my hands as he strums his guitar in the arm chair. A notepad rests on his knee, which he watches like a hawk as he collects chords like coins, trying to match them in a pleasing combination. He leans his head back, strumming once more before letting his eyes drift toward me. He cracks a grin, that grows into an earth-shattering smile. He studies me as he pauses his strumming, reaching for his pen blindly. He starts to scribble on the notepad, looking up at me every few moments like he is sketching me. I watch carefully, intoxicated by his every move. 

He sets down the pen, setting the notepad on his knee once more, before grasping the neck of his guitar. He plays a few chords, looking up at me and grinning. 

"How I ever lived and breathed before you loved me, I don't recall. If I walked around at all, it was in bits and pieces of a jagged heart..." He sings, as I cock my head, fighting a smile. "You kissed me and every piece went back in place, every pain got erased. You held me up to the light, now it feels like no one ever left me out in the rain, cold words still remain unspoken. And I never got lost or spent years in the dark. You're here, now my heart's unbroken. When I see your smile fill my soul again, I'm unbroken." He smiles at me as I blush, unable to hide it. He stops playing, setting down his guitar and notepad. He jumps into bed, making me howl laughing.

I jump awake, as the sun starts to push it's way through the windows. I look at the sunlight before leaning my head back into the pillow, feeling my heart pound. The baby stirs, causing me to rest my hand over my stomach once more. 

"It's alright, baby girl... just a dream..." I whisper, although it feels like I'm really reassuring myself. I look around the room, before feeling a pain overwhelm me. Tears fill my eyes as I try to breathe through it. 

He was using you, Faith... He didn't love you... 

I repeat the words Scott said over and over again once more, trying to make them sound like my own. 

Scott has taken drastic precautions to keep me from him. He disconnected my phone number, getting a new line that forwards all of my calls and texts to his phone. He keeps my keys in a safe, in an effort to keep me from driving myself over there. He even forced Byron to start seeing me at another studio so there would be no chance encounters. It's hard not to feel like a prisoner, but these were his conditions if I wanted to keep the baby.

I sit in the studio, staring at the tracks on the screen while Byron mixes them. Scott sits behind us, watching over my shoulder, before micromanaging the mixing. 

"Can we turn up the background vocals on the intro?" Scott asks, as Byron nods. Byron glances over at me from time to time, seeming eager to say something. 

"Yes, my heart breaks for the homeless, I worry about my parents, and all my bills are late. Yeah I, I'm dealing with the changes, this complicated strangeness of seeing life this way..." I hear myself sing on the track, before picking at the bottom of my oversized sweatshirt. "I'm just like everybody else. I cry, yes, I cry, just like everybody else... I don't know what you believe, what you think or what you see, but this is a part of me. Yeah it's what I do and who I am. All about my impurities, oh are right here on my sleeve. This is me..." I belt on the track, although it sounds fake and forced. Scott picked the demo, as he did for the rest of the album, canning the songs that I wrote for it because they may signal some issues in our relationship. God, what would make them think that? 

"Shoot, I've got to take this." Scott says as his phone rings. He rushes out of the room, leaving Byron and I alone for the first time in months. Byron watches the door as I continue to watch the track, before his eyes turn toward me. 

"Faith, what the hell is going on?" He asks quietly. I look his way, before shrugging. 

"I don't know what you–" I start, before he cocks his head. 

"You're off. And Scott is just... I mean, since when did he sit in on sessions?" He begins to question as I feel my throat grow tight. If Scott heard me talk to Byron about what's going on, he'd kill me. I stare at him, before feeling her kick. 

"I'm pregnant." I say, watching him raise his eyebrows. He looks down at my stomach, which is hard to see under my baggy sweatshirt. "We wanted to keep it quiet, because we struggled to conceive so... He's just being protective." I lie, watching Byron nod slowly. 

"Wow..." He says, seeming caught off guard. "Well, congratulations!" He lets out a smile, as I force once back. 

"Thanks." I reply, turning back toward the mixing board once more.