Sweet Melancholy

Gloomily Smitten

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She had told her mom she would think about it, mostly to get the woman to leave the room.

Izzy felt sick as she laid down in her hospital bed, her mind whirling. She hugged Aidyn too her even as the baby started to wake up.

She didn't know what to do. Her mom did have good points. Chris's journey back to who he used to be was going to hard and him being a father would just make that harder. On top of that, she had spent years lying to him about Aidyn paternity, even if she was forced to do so. Then there was Tristian...

Before she left, her mom had showed her the Instagram, facebook page, and YouTube channel he had made, all dedicated to finding his quote: 'love of his life, unborn child, and childhood best friend'. The Instagram was full of pictures of she and Tristian, a few of Tristian and Chris, and one with all of them together. There was even a supporter drawing of what they thought 'baby Tristian' would look like. Of course, the artist had depicted the baby as a boy and was way off in the looks category. Every photo had thousands of comments and hundred of thousands of likes. People saying that they were praying for them, people saying how she and Tristian made a beautiful couple (couple goals and black love), and people sending positive vibes and telling Tristian to keep his head up.

That had scared Izzy so badly. People were invested.

"Mama." Aidyn was awake and lightly petting her arm as if she could sense her mother's distress. Izzy looked down and smiled wetly at the big brown eyes looking up at her. "Mama sleep?"

"I'm awake, sweetie. You were sleep."

Aidyn wiggled out of her arms and looked around as she rubbed at her eyes. She babbled something before laying back down and snuggling into Izzy's chest. Izzy laughed softly as her baby yawned big, her troubles forgotten for a few seconds. There was a knock on the door, but her response was waited on before her mother entered.

Izzy's blood ran cold when she saw the man that walked in with her mother. She felt stupid as she locked eyes with Tristian Sullivan. She should have known better than to believe her mother would really let her think about anything long enough to come up with the best decision or any decision. She should have known her mother would find away to attempt to take the choice out of her hands.

She sat up slowly with a pounding heart.

Tristian had tears in his eyes, and he looked at her as if she was a ghost. She felt her own tears spring to her eyes and her bottom lip trembled. Tristian didn't cry, she knew that about him. So, when he did cry, she always did right along with him knowing that something had to be affecting him so deeply. They had been friends before they had been anything else. For all of his faults, Izzy did love Tristian. She had loved him since the day he slapped a Fairy Odd Parents band-aid on her skinned knee and told her the stupidest joke about a fish and an orange to make her stop crying.

Suddenly she felt guilty. Just so very guilty.

She sobbed and Tristian was over to her in just a couple long steps. He wrapped her up in his arms and she couldn't help but return the hug, sobbing outright now.

"Jesus, Isabella," his whispered wetly. He pressed his face into her neck as his embrace became nearly crushing. "Jesus, I missed you, girl." his voice rumbled through his chest and into hers. She felt his tears sliding down her neck, which made her cry harder.

"Mama! Mama!" Izzy finally heard the little voice trying to get her attention and felt the tiny baby teeth sinking into her arm.

Izzy winced softly and quickly pulled away from Tristian to frown down at the innocent looking Aidyn. "No biting, Aidyn. No, no." She told the child sternly as she rubbed at her stinging arm. Aidyn pressed her tiny hands to her face and smiled cutely as she tilted her head.

Izzy shook her head at her child's antics. That particular act had been taught to her by Chris as a way of getting out of trouble.

"No bite," Aidyn said when Izzy narrowed her eyes at her a little.

Izzy smiled and laughed softly from her nose. "That's right, no bite."

Tristian's hand sliding from her back and down her arm to her hand reminded her that he was there. Her mind had clearly desperately blocked him out. Heart stilling in her chest, she looked up at him. She found that he was staring at Aidyn. He didn't say anything as he studied the baby who climbed onto her feet with the help of her mommy's shoulder and began to bounce and giggle.

He looked more amazed than anything.

Izzy bit her lip and glanced at her mother, who she remembered was still in the room. The older woman eyes were narrowed as if she couldn't see and her lips were pressed together thinly, she was nervous Izzy realized.

Her mother didn't know if this would work, but Izzy could tell the woman was ready to sell her bullshit story about Aidyn inheriting her great grandmother's genetics.

"Is this...?" He started out but trailed off.

Swallowing hard, Izzy pulled Aidyn to her and placed her on her lap. "Th-This is Aidyn, Tristian." She looked away from him and pressed her face into Aidyn's soft curls. Her stomach was in knots.

"Aidyn?" He echoed sounding a bit out of it. "That's...a nice name." Izzy didn't respond. She really hated her mother in that moment. "Can I pick you up, Aidyn?" Izzy looked up when she realized Tristian was talking to Aidyn, his voice soft and warm.

Aidyn was proving to be the opposite of shy as she held her arms up and towards Tristian. "Huggy hug?"

Tristian laughed deeply as he picked her up and right out of Izzy's arms. "Whoa..." He said as he and Aidyn came face to face. "I was worried I wouldn't get a chance to meet you, pretty girl," he cooed. He sounded as if he was about to cry again.

Izzy could practically hear her mother let out a breath of relief. Tristian wasn't finding anything odd about Aidyn's coloring at all or he was just still overcome with emotion to notice. Izzy nibbled on the inside of her lip as she twisted her fingers around one another.

Izzy could feel the opportunity to be honest slipping away. Her mouth parted to speak, to say something – anything – but Tristian turned to her with the biggest smile she had ever seen on his face before.

"I guess I was wrong about the baby being a boy. My fault," he chuckled, it was a deep thing that filled the room and her with dread. It seemed to have the opposite effect on Aidyn, who threw her head back and mimicked his laugh – hers tiny and squeaky in comparison.

Izzy saw the moment Tristian became instantly smitten with Aidyn, and that was it. His eyes sparkled as he chuckled again and plopped a happy kiss to the child's head. "Thank you, God," she heard him whisper.

Izzy's mouth fell shut and she didn't dare say a thing.