Alyssa.
Beth looked in the mirror with a bright smile, and she again looked at the test in her hand. The pregnancy test had two pink lines, two pink lines that were going to change her life forever- well her and Derek's.
They had been trying for a baby for months and their wish had finally come true, she heard the front door opened, and she walked out with the test in her hand. She saw Derek walking through the door of their apartment and she instantly ran over to him to hug him. When she noticed the small frown on his face she pulled away to ask him, "What's wrong?"
He looked at her with a frown on his face, "Bethany we have to talk." He pulled her to the couch, not even bothering to hold her hand in his. "Recently... I feel like there's been something... missing in our relationship, I just don't feel...the spark anymore, I've met this girl, and I have very strong feelings for her..." Bethany clutched the pregnancy test in her hand, her fingernails pressing into her back. She couldn't believe this was happening; she waited for herself to wake up, to snap herself out of her nightmare.
"Are you... breaking up with me?", Bethany clutched the test even closer against her skin. "Yeah, I hope we can still be good friends." He stood up moving closer to her to press a kiss on her cheek. Bethany yanked herself back, running to the door and opening it, holding back tears, "Get out." She ordered. He walked out, not even caring that this was once his apartment too. He would come back and get his things when this blew over.
Bethany shut the door angrily, throwing the test at the other side of the room, putting her hand to her stomach, she would do this by herself, she would build a life with her baby, with or without Derek.
One week later-
She shut herself in the bathroom while Derek and the workers were moving out all his belonging. She didn't want to see him, she wouldn't be able to resist the urge to tell him about the baby, but he didn't deserve it, he didn't deserve to get to know the baby. And when he was ready to leave, he didn't bother looking for her to ask if she was okay. He walked right out, unaware of how Bethany's heart was breaking less than 2 feet away from where he was standing. But she could do this, she reminded herself daily. She would be okay.
And she was. She had a fairly easy pregnancy; she had tons of support even if it wasn't from the person she craved it from the most. She never once went alone to an appointment she was always accompanied by Connor, Troye or Ricky. She was helped through morning sickness by her mom or sister, and she had everything she needed. She had almost no trouble hiding her pregnancy- her bump was small and she could easily hide it by layering her clothes. She was lucky it was winter. She hid it so well, she had even run into Julianne once and she never noticed. Julianne talked about how much the family missed her, but that was the problem- she said family, she never once mentioned Derek.
In her fifth month of pregnancy, Bethany discovered she was expecting a baby girl, she had been elated, but her heart too broke at the news, when she and Derek were still dating they had talked about the family they wanted to have. Derek was always mentioning a baby girl, she would be named Alyssa, Ali for short. But she shrugged it off, instead allowing herself to be excited for the arrival of her baby girl.
Though she had moments during her pregnancy where she missed Derek, wishing that he was there to see their baby grow, nothing was worse than the birth. He should've been there to meet his baby, but he was busy, he didn't care. Instead Troye and Connor had been with her, coaching her through the birth, but it should've been him.
The baby, Ali, looked like a perfect mix of them both, with her brown hair and his blue eyes. He would've loved her and her adorable little chubby cheeks, but he wasn't there.
But she dealt with it, and she watched her daughter grow. He had missed so much, he missed her first word, her first steps, and he would never get the chance to meet his daughter that is until Bethany was called by the Dancing with the Stars producers. They wanted her to come in to watch the premiere, but she knew going to watch the premiere meant seeing Derek again, and it would mean risking the world knowing about Ali's existence. But she decided it was worth it. Chances were people would think Ali was her sister's, plus she would be able to see Mark and Witney again.
That Monday night she dressed Ali up in an adorable tutu dress and herself made sure she looked perfect. If she was going to see Derek again, he would know how much he missed out on, both her and Alyssa.
She arrived at the show an hour early, instantly bombarded by hugs from Witney and Mark, with Val even exclaiming that he missed her. Witney and the rest of the female pros loved Alyssa, none of them thinking about whose she was. But Mark was the one getting suspicious. While holding Ali he kept looking at her like he was trying to figure her out, before quickly diving into conversation with the one-year old. He handed her back to Bethany; he was staring at her, a confused look on his face. "She looks like him", was all he said before walking away to get ready for the show.
During the show, she thought about what Mark said, Was it really that obvious that Ali was Derek's? Of course she looked like him, but seriously? She had been seated right behind the judges table, Julianne constantly turned around to talk to her, the first thing she had said to her was about Ali. "I didn't know you had a daughter!", but Julianne being Julianne never realized how similar the baby looked to her brother.
When Derek first saw her he did a double take not believing she was there. But when he realized Ali was sitting on her lap, he didn't take his eyes off of her while getting their feedback with his partner. He walked up to the skybox a confused look on his face, not even getting excited after scoring four eights. He couldn't draw his mind away from the baby sitting on Beth's lap. The baby looked like him and Bethany. He struggled to remember how long it had been that he had sex with Bethany before breaking up with her. The baby looked about a year old, and that was when it clicked, the baby could easily be his.
The show ended, and he ran around looking for Bethany before she left, dying to know the truth about the baby she was carrying. Mark pulled him to talk to him after the show, "Did you see Bethany?" He nodded his head in response. "And did you see the baby?" He asked a slight look of hesitation on his face. He nodded his head, letting out a sigh, "You saw it too, the baby looks like me."
Witney and Val walked up to them after listening into their conversation, "You saw it too didn't you? The baby; she's a replica of you and Bethany." Derek out his head in his hands, not believing he could've possibly missed a year of his daughter's life.
He heard a door open and whipped his body around watching Bethany walk in with Henry and Sasha- the baby girl in her arms. He walked up to Bethany and grabbed her hand pulling her into a dressing room, "We need to talk." While in the room he was able to really look at the baby girl. She had Bethany's dark brown hair, but his blue eyes. In his mind he shouted so many things, but out loud all he could muster was, "Is she mine?"
Bethany looked down at the baby, and took a deep breath before answering, "You should've thought about it before you broke up with me, the day you did, I had found out I was pregnant, but you didn't care, so I decided you didn't deserve to be around Ali."
Derek's heart broke, it was his fault, and nobody else's that he had missed a year of his daughter's life. He never got to help Bethany through morning sickness, he never got to see her baby bump, he never got to see his daughter as a baby. He couldn't even argue that he had deserved to be in the baby's life. He knew he would be lying.
"Her name is Ali?" Bethany smiled softly, "Short for Alyssa." The fact that she had still named the baby exactly what he told her he wanted to name his first daughter filled his heart with love he didn't know he still had for her. "Can I hold her?" Bethany took another deep sigh, before handing Ali off to Derek.
Derek opened his arms for his daughter, hugging her little body tight to his after having her in his arms, "I am so sorry baby girl, I love you so much, I am so so sorry." He cried into her little body, watching the baby girl giggle at him. He smiled back, not believing that he had a daughter.
He looked at Bethany. She was smiling watching the two of them togetherand that was when he decided it. He would get his daughter and the love of his life back, he was sure he would. He grabbed Bethany pulling her into a kiss, their baby between them, knowing they would be just fine.
