Fall and Rise

"He's always been good with names."

"I was never a big drinker so, even though I didn't drink much that night, I was pretty buzzed. I saw this guy at the party and I was pretty...well, pretty horny, and we ended up in one of the bedrooms. He's the father of my baby. I'm sorry, Sam. I never wanted to tell you about that."

"It's okay, Holly. Really. Now, I know this is going to be really personal, but this all has a point, okay?"

"Okay."

"Are you sure he's the father? I mean, there was no one else that night or around the same time?"

She gave me a funny look, obviously getting more and more curious as to why I was asking, and for a minute I thought she was either going to get angry or just tell me it was none of my business, but then she answered.

"No, Sam, no one else. I hadn't had sex with anyone since Terry had broken up with me and I didn't do it again until our wonderful first time together."

"What did this guy look like?"

"I don't really know. He was taller than me and was in good shape, but we were all in costumes and masks."

"What was his costume?"

"Sam, what..."

"Please Holly, it's important."

"It was a...Scottish thing. He had on a loose, white shirt and a...a...shit, what do you call them? The skirt thing?"

"A kilt."

"Yes, a kilt. He was wearing a beret-looking thing and he even had this ridiculous set of kid's plastic bagpipes."

As she talked I was searching the pictures on my phone. I finally found the series of shots I was looking for and held it up so Holly could see it.

"Did he look like this?"

Her eyes widened at the picture on the screen and she leapt to her feet.

"THAT'S HIM! What the hell is going on here, Sam? Why do you have a picture of him on your phone? I think I've been pretty understanding here but you need to tell me what's going on!"

"Baby, I'm sorry I upset you. I just wanted to be sure before I said anything."

"Sure about what, damn it?"

"Holly...the person in that picture is me."

She couldn't have been more stunned if I had walked over to her and slapped her across the face as hard as I could. It was fortunate there was a chair behind her because she just flopped down in shock.

"Huh?" she finally managed.

"Tim took that picture of me when I got to the party last year. Holly, baby, I...I think that's my baby you're carrying."

Holly just stared at me in disbelief. I really wondered what she was thinking. I just waited for her to process it all. Heck, I was still processing it myself. She slowly lowered her eyes and looked at her belly and then back at me.

"This...I...this is your baby?"

"Looks like it."

"My God, Sam. Wishes really do come true!"

"What?" I asked, being a little slow and not getting it.

"Ever since I met you I've been wishing this was your baby, wishing that it wasn't just some random stranger's baby. I know it didn't matter to you and that's one of the reasons I love you so much. But I really wanted it to be our baby in every way, and now it is. Oh Sam, I'm so happy!"

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Epilogue

Holly and I arranged a quick marriage at the court house, beating the arrival of Ashley Barbara Beckman by just a couple of weeks. After Holly was sufficiently recovered from giving birth, we had a big party to celebrate.

Barbara surprised us all by marrying one of the firm's outgoing partners and retiring to a lifetime of motor home travel. She left the house to Holly and confessed to me, in absolute secrecy, that she had been waiting for Holly to come to some sort of decision about her life before moving on. It turns out the number of men she had supposedly been meeting had dwindled to just one.

With nothing left to hold us in North Carolina, except for my job of course, Holly and I made plans to move back to Texas to be near my girls. With the experience I had gained working for Tim I was able to get a much better job at a decidedly higher salary, allowing Holly to be a full-time mom. Considering we soon added two more to the brood, that was more than a full-time job itself.

For all the time I was in North Carolina, which in the end was just about 3 years, Tim had never stayed with one woman very long and never gave any indication that he was going to. We had been back in Texas for another two years when the wedding invitation arrived in the mail. Neither of us recognized the bride's name.

We flew out for the wedding and met the bride. The way Tim was, I had always assumed that if he settled down with someone that she would be totally hot, like Victoria's Secret model worthy. Cassandra (call me Cassie) was anything but. She was barely taller than 5-foot and I believed her breasts owed much of their size to the extra weight she carried, and even then they were smaller than Holly's, who barely filled a b-cup. She had shoulder-length brown hair and wore glasses. But when she and Tim were together the love they felt for each other was palpable, and I had never seen him so happy.

By the time I moved back to Austin, Karen was enrolled at UT and Wendy was finishing her senior year in high school. She had been accepted at UT as well as several other schools and was still considering her options. I encouraged her to do what was right for her and I'd be there whenever she came back.

Pauline and Dave were having problems. For some reason, Dave was having some trust issues with being married to a woman that had previously cheated on her husband. I don't know if Pauline had done something to make him worry or if it was just something that sprung up in his mind. Apparently, it coincided with Karen leaving for college, so perhaps it was simply a product of having more time to themselves. I didn't really care, exactly, but part of me saw this as a little bit of karma.

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fin

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Afterword

Inspiration: Not much of a secret here. Took inspiration from all those crappy divorces that ended up with part-time dads while the women they had loved move on with someone else.

I had worked out most of the story before I thought of the twist of making the baby Sam's. Up until then I had liked the story, but after making that change I...REALLY like it.

I'm not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV. And I didn't really do any research either. So, if I got the medical stuff wrong, please don't judge too harshly.

Permission: I hereby give my permission to anyone interested in writing a follow-up or alternate version of any one of my stories. Please just remember to give credit where credit is due. I'm not always very diligent about checking my email for permission requests.