1.8 - Confrontations

Danisha was very pregnant when she finally worked up the courage to go talk to Romeo.  She didn't want to call him or invite him to her house so she decided to head to the station and wait for him to talk to him after work.  She hung out by the exit to the building, trying not to feel awkward as people kept shooting her weird looks.

Finally, people started leaving as it reached five o'clock.  The first group of people who left she didn't recognize.  They may have been from other departments or higher up in the ranks, or even lower or new recruits.  She kept looking for Romeo but instead it was a different familiar face that appeared first.

"Look at you!  You look about ready to pop!" Bianca exclaimed as she approached Danisha.  And Danisha couldn't help smiling back, happy to see her friend.

"I couldn't believe it when you told me you were pregnant!  And every time I call you keep being all secretive about who the lucky father is.  Well, now I've got you and you're not getting away without telling me," Bianca announced, looking excited at the new juicy gossip.

Danisha paused and bit her lip.  She hadn't really wanted to tell her friend that she'd done exactly what she'd warned her not to.  Bianca noticed Danisha's hesitation and her smile faded.

"What's the matter...?" she asked with concern.

"Well... I may or may not have ended up in exactly the situation you warned me about," she confessed, unable to look Bianca in the eye.

"What?  Tell me exactly what happened," Bianca demanded.  After relating the story to her friend, she was surprised at how angry Bianca seemed.  "I'm gonna punch him," she announced with a scowl.

"Don't do that!  He's our boss!  You'll get fired!" Danisha exclaimed, shocked by her friend's passionate response.  "Besides, it was my fault too.  I'm the one who invited him.  I'm sure he was drunk too," she assured.  Bianca continued grumbling, though, and didn't seem all that thrilled.

Finally she was able to calm Bianca down enough that her friend felt comfortable leaving her.  She was probably just so upset because she was exhausted from a long day of work so it didn't take too much for Danisha to convince her not to keep the carpool waiting any longer and get some rest.  Although Bianca didn't seem to want to leave her to talk to Romeo on her own.  Still, Danisha was pretty sure that things would turn sour fast if Bianca hung around.

It seemed like forever before Romeo finally came out.  He must have had a pretty big mission that day as he came out looking quite dapper in a fancy tux.  It made Bianca feel even more nervous about this.  "Um... hi, Romeo," she mumbled, wondering exactly how she was going to bring this topic up.

"I was wondering when you were going to come see me," Romeo commented mildly as he watched Danisha without much expression on his face.

"How did you...?" Danisha began, but Romeo cut her off.

"As soon as I heard you were taking maternity leave I figured as much.  The timing was perfect, and I hadn't heard any rumors of you seeing anyone else.  It's rather obvious that the father has to be me," he replied with a shrug.

"Oh... I suppose so," Danisha replied, feeling silly now for waiting so long to come and talk to him.  She supposed it really was rather obvious, now that she thought about it.

"So...?  What do you want?" Romeo demanded, looking at her expectantly and catching her completely off guard.

"What do I want...?" she repeated.

"That's right, you must have something you want.  Otherwise why would you come looking for me?" he asked.

"No... that's not... I don't want something... it's just that..." Danisha began, fumbling as she tried to figure out how to put her thoughts to words.

"You must want something.  Is it money?  Don't worry, I'll provide appropriate child support payments for the baby.  I have enough money that that isn't a problem," Romeo assured with a shrug.

Realizing what Romeo thought she came here for, Danisha felt stung.  "No!  That's not why I...!" she began, but was once again interrupted.

"What?  You want us to get together now that you're pregnant?" he asked, looking annoyed.  "Sorry, but I have my own life.  Besides, I'm already getting married.  I'm afraid that you're a few days too late.  Ms. Smart came and told me she got pregnant too.  And unlike you she's rich and famous.  Besides, I'm not getting any younger.  The status that would come from a family like that.  Well, you understand," he comments.

No, no she didn't understand.  And now she was just feeling miserable for coming here.

"Like I said.  I'll make sure the child is financially taken care of.  And you can take as much maternity leave as you'd like.  I'll approve all of it.  Just don't expect me to be involved in either yours or the child's life.  I think we should keep our relationship strictly professional from now on," he stated, not giving Danisha any room to argue or protest.

Not that she really wanted to argue with him.  She wasn't really sure what she was expecting to come out of this.  She'd never intended to ask him to marry her, since she was still loyal to Nielson, so what had she wanted?  She didn't know.  And now she no longer cared...

Back at home, the young Nielson was busy doing his homework at the table.  He wished he had someone to do it with.  That would make it more interesting.  Not his mom, though.  She practically did it for him without letting him struggle through any of the harder problems.  And the harder problems were the fun ones!

Not that Nielson could really complain.  Although they didn't have a lot of money, his mother tried to make sure he had everything he could ask for.  He supposed he was considered spoiled compared to a lot of his other classmates.  He sighed and wondered just where his mother was at this hour, anyway...  At least she'd left him leftovers for dinner so he didn't have to worry about that.

Danisha had intended to head home after her failed meeting with Romeo.  But as she slowly made her way down the steps of the station, watching Romeo drive off in his fancy car, she felt pains suddenly start in her stomach.  She wondered if the stress had set it off, but these were definitely contractions.  As the citizens around her freaked out over her labor, Danisha wearily made her way to the hospital.

By some small mercy, her labor didn't last long.  She was exhausted enough as it was, mentally, emotionally, and physically that it was a small blessing.  And before long a little girl in a pink blanket was placed in her arms.  She absently told the doctor that the little girls name would be Erika.  Erika Gaul.  And when they asked for the father's name she said nothing.  Romeo didn't want this child so she simply wouldn't acknowledge him.  She didn't really want his support payments anyway.

It wasn't until she was at home and feeling a bit more recovered from her encounter with Romeo that she could really take a good look at her daughter.  She was certainly adorable, she had to admit.  And she was happy that she had a little girl in her arms.  She'd always wanted a daughter.  Not that she wasn't thrilled when she came home with Nielson, mind you.

 Still, that didn't change the fact that Danisha was bone tired.  And seeing Nielson already sound asleep in bed, she decided that was the best course of action.  She lay Erika down in her crib and headed off to bed, hoping to get a nice ten hours straight of sleep to help wash away some of this weariness that she felt, not just in body but in her soul as well.

Unfortunately, she'd forgotten that such a thing was impossible with a new baby.  She'd hoped to have a happy introduction of Erika to Nielson.  Instead, the poor boy got woken up at four in the morning by the little girl's extremely loud wails.  Needless to say, the boy did not have a good impression of his new baby sister.

"Make her stop!" Nielson whined as Danisha picked the little girl up out of her bed.  He was now 110% sure that he needed his own room.  And sooner rather than later.  Especially away from that... thing.  He could swear that she was looking at him complain and smiling, as if the fact that he was upset was enough to make the little girl happy.

It was a long night for everyone.   When Danisha got up the next morning to see Nielson off she glanced in the mirror and was shocked by what she saw.  When had these new wrinkles appeared?  Had they really happened over night or was the weight of everything that was going on finally taking its toll on her body.  She shouldn't be surprised, given everything that had been going on, but it was still a shock.  Briefly, she wondered how Nielson would look as he aged.  Not her little boy, but her husband.  But no matter how she tried she couldn't imagine him with wrinkles.

And speaking of her little boy, what did he see in her?  An old lady, most likely, considering he was still a child.  It made her sad, and she was happy that Nielson was gone so that he wouldn't see her like this.

At least she had little Erika to comfort her.  She probably wouldn't think anything of how old her mother looked.  Then again, this was the only face the little girl knew.  The only way she'd know how Danisha had looked younger was through photographs.  She supposed, though, that that was just as well.

"Nothing ever seems to go the way I want it to," she murmured to the little girl as she snuggled her.  "How did my life end up being so messed up?" she wondered aloud.  Not that she'd probably ever get an answer to that.


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Hello everyone!  I finally got this chapter up.  Sorry about the random igloos on the steps of city hall.  I didn't want to deal with getting rid of them so I left them there.  That scene was already taking me forever anyway.  I can't count how many times I had to reload that save data.  I'd manage to get a few shots of Danisha talking to Bianca or Romeo and she'd go into labor.  So I'd go back, reload, take a few more shots and then she'd go into labor.  It was not fun, but I think it turned out okay.  And we finally have our heir!  I was initially going to make Nielson heir, but one of the traits he developed disqualified him for generation 2 because it wouldn't work with the roll.  You'll see why later on.  So Erika is the heir.