A bump in hiding (reserved)

[✿ngela wingrose]

She was standing in the childcare aisle, staring at different name brands. In one hand was a baby book being held open by a thumb. On her other arm was a basket filled with soft fleeces and toys. It was really hard to read her chapter on prenatal care with sunglasses though.

Why was she wearing sunglasses inside a department store? Surprisingly enough it wasn't to be fashionable. Angela was shielding herself (very poorly) from the very annoying paparazi that was outside the store window. Her shoulder was turned so they only had a good shot of her back, but she was fairly certain that they already took a full shot of her contemplating formulas.

She was back in town to visit her father, but to distract herself from the inevitable appointment, she'd gone shopping. While shopping, Angela had the sudden urge to buy everything her child would ever need. This idea proved very difficult, not knowing the gender of the child. She didn't know if she should buy the cute little pink kittens or the blue dancing bears.

Another obnoxious flash came from the single photographer outside. It was making it really hard to concentrate on what she was doing. She read the same sentence three times already! The model knew how to hold her poise in public, however... unstable hormones, paranoia over her rumoured pregnancy, and the rock on her ring finger that screamed to the press, 'Hello I'm engaged'. It was only a matter of time before her father heard about it. She wanted to tell him personally. She didn't want him opening his morning paper to find his daughter fronting the Celebrity News with a devastating headling. 'Sivart Sweetheart: Mommy-To-Be?'

She peeked over her shoulder. Dude was still there. But someone else had joined her in the aisle.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

Charlotte had been a workaholic from the time she started her first business when she was 28 years old. Whether it was with CeeCee Couture back in London or her newest investment here in the States, she was always busying herself with something work-related. In her fifteen years of being a business owner, she had hardly taken a single day off. Today, however, she decided that she was going to go out of her mind if she didn’t take at least one day off, so she put down the receipt books and order forms and made plans for a completely work-free day. Though she wasn’t going to go anywhere near the diner or her office at home, Charlotte just couldn’t sit around the house and do nothing. She had to keep herself busy somehow, so she picked her grandson up from the babysitter’s and decided to go shopping.

That was how she ended up at the same department store as Angela.

Charlotte had been pushing around a shopping cart, which held a wide-eyed baby boy holding on to a teddy bear in the child seat, somewhere around the bed and bath section when she decided that the little boy’s stuffed animal was looking a little ratty, and that it would be in his best interest for her to buy him a new one. Really she was just looking for an excuse to buy him another toy, as if the closets at both her house and her son’s house weren’t packed to the top with baby toys already. She wheeled her cart over to the baby section, and the first thing she noticed was the photographer in the window. Curious, she turned to see who it was that he was trying to photograph.

Though she could only see the back of her head, Charlotte could recognize that girl from anywhere. The pretty blonde had practically lived at her house two summers ago, and Charlotte knew her well enough to spot her from a mile away.

“That’s the devil in disguise, Landon,” she whispered to the little boy, who had taken to chewing on the teddy bear’s ear. Charlotte’s first instinct was to plow into the girl that she had spent months badmouthing right into the nearby display of strollers with her shopping cart, but she just didn’t have the heart. She was curious - why was Angela Wingrose, the girl who broke her son’s heart, looking at baby stuff?

Slowly, Charlotte pushed her cart over to the girl that she secretly missed, even though she thought she deserved to be pushed off a cliff or crushed in a stampede or something equally horrifying and painful.

“You’re not going to find any clothes that fit you over here,” she said to Angela. Surprisingly, her words weren’t harsh at all, but they still lacked that warm, comforting tone that Angela was familiar with.

[✿ngela wingrose]

Angela turned at the familiar voice, not quite pinning the face with the words. She spun just in time for another bright flash from outside, but luckily Angela couldn't see the photographer. All she saw was Charlotte, which meant that all the stalkerazzi snapped was a good shot of the older woman's head. Angela lifted her glasses up, leaning so she could casually hide behind Tristan's mother while still having a polite conversation.

"Uhm... yeah. I know that," Angela tried, although she was a bit distracted. Then she saw Landon.

This was the first time she had seen the little boy in person. He'd changed so much from the photograph she secretly had stashed in a hidden page of her school photoalbum. He was hiding somewhere behind a picture of Kellan, Kennedy, and Angela. But she would recognize those big blue eyes anywhere.

The child was adorable. She wanted her own baby, right here, right now. This kid wasn't coming fast enough!

"Omigosh, is this Landon? Hiii," She cooed, her language deteriorating to babyspeech automatically. She bent down just in time to avoid another flash of the camera outside. While she was down there smiling at Landon, she looked up at Charlotte and offered a smile that showed how hesitant she was. She didn't know how the rest of Tristan's family felt about her. She could only imagine... but Tristan had seemed... civil...?enough. To be honest, everything was a little blurry.

"How have you been?" She asked, hoping this would be a non-provocative and safe question to start with. Her eyes turned back to Landon, as though his big eyes were magnets.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

The baby boy absolutely lit up when Angela bent down to his level. The child loved the sound of his own name, that was for sure. Mostly, though, he loved new faces. Charlotte could already tell that he was going to be a social butterfly just like his Uncle Garrett. Landon babbled some intelligible phrases at Angela before he threw his slobbery teddy bear down at the girl’s feet.

“I’m fine, Angela, but why are there cameras following you?” Charlotte asked her, leaning down to pick the toy up from the ground. She dusted the bear off on her shirt before handing it back to the child, who immediately started gnawing on it again – this time on the poor thing’s arm.

Charlotte couldn’t help but wonder if Angela was genuely curious as to how she was or if she was just trying to be polite. She herself didn’t know if she was supposed to be civil with the girl because they were in public or because she actually wanted to be. She’d like to say that it was just to be cordial, but she knew that she really did care about Angela Wingrose, even if she had wanted to run her over with a forklift for a little while.

Once again, Landon stopped chewing on the teddy bear, looked up at Angela with those adorable blue eyes, and threw the toy at her again. He laughed as if it was the most exciting thing he had ever done in his short few months of life.

[✿ngela wingrose]

Angela's face became one big grin. Landon must have that effect on everyone, but the mommy-to-be immediately hoped her child had a smile that was just as fabulous. She jumped when the stuffed animal was tossed to the ground and automatically she bent to pick it up. But Charlotte got there faster, and Angela awkwardly straightened.

Her civil reply and her equally curt question made her blush. This felt so awkward. The two used to talk like girlfriends, and now it was like they'd only ever been distant acquaintances. It was depressing, really, and if Landon weren't so adorable Angela would have to dub this run-in a disaster.

"This doesn't happen often," Angela assured her, peeking over Charlotte's shoulder. The photographer was gone, and Angela hoped he had given up, "I was uhm... I sort of..." It felt... weird to tell her that she'd been noted as one of the top ten International models. Since then she'd found cameras outside of the studio in her face. She hadn't thought she'd encounter one here, but by pure chance and bad luck, she had. It still seemed pretty cool to be recognized by the general public rather than the world she grew up in. They didn't associate the name Wingrose to the prestigious history, but rather to her own hard work.

She was going to change the subject when Landon flung the toy at her for the second time. This time she swooped down to pick it up. She was able to examine it for a couple seconds before she gave it back, and she gave Charlotte a hapless smile.

"It looks like Teddy has seen better days." Angela shifted her basket of baby goodies to her other arm. She looked back to Landon and giggled, "Sometimes too much loving gets messy!"

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

The realization hit Charlotte quickly. She figured it out the moment she watched Angela give her grandson back his stuffed animal. Angela looked at Landon the way only a mother could look at a child. Obviously Landon wasn’t her child, but that feeling of maternity was more than present in the girl. Angela being in the baby aisle of the store suddenly made all the sense in the world to Charlotte. Whether you called it a mothers’ intuition or something else, Charlotte Cooper was sure of one thing.

“You’re pregnant,” she said to the girl she had once adored so much. There was no question in her statement – she wasn’t asking Angela if this was true because she simply knew it was.

The very first thing that came to Charlotte’s mind when she made the connection was, ‘Well at least we know it’s not my son’s kid,’ which was immediately followed by ‘Thank God it’s not my son’s kid.’ She loved Landon dearly, but that didn’t mean that she wanted another grandchild any time soon if it meant it was Tristan, her nineteen-year-old son’s child. That boy, whether he realized it or not, had so much potential to do such wonderful things.

She didn’t know what else to say to Angela. She didn’t even know how she felt about it at all. Was she supposed to reprimand the girl? Congratulate her? Charlotte didn’t know. All she did know was that Angela Wingrose, a girl who she had thought of as a daughter in the past, who had been such a huge part in Tristan’s life for almost two years, was pregnant.

[✿ngela wingrose]

"What?!" Angela's shock was genuine, although it wasn't because she wasn't pregnant. She hadn't thought she was that obvious. What should she do? She could lie. Say she was shopping for a friend's baby shower, or she was entertaining the idea of having her own children... and she couldn't decipher Charlotte's tone. It sounded almost like an accusation, but the older woman seemed at a loss to express herself any further. It was like she was waiting for Angela to admit it, and Angela had never been able to lie to her.

So, cheeks flushed, she just nodded. She didn't look ashamed as one might expect, in fact she had a small smile on her lips.

"How did you know?" She looked down to her clothes, and her shirt was cut with the popular baby doll style so it was impossible to detect the small bulge. She was almost five months into her pregnancy, but the freakishly thin girl was hardly showing. It might look like she had a big lunch, but nothing more.

She knew she was supposed to tell her father. In fact, that was what Angela was in town to do. But somehow it felt right that the woman who she'd adopted as her mother-figure knew first. She was apprehensive of how the news would be received, and of course she was terrified Charlotte wouldn't approve. But Angela was an adult now and could make her own decisions, and she had chosen to have a family. It was her dream. Why delay?

"I'm excited," She admitted, gazing at Landon. He was staring at her forehead, and she lifted a hand to pat it. Here she found her sunglasses, and she giggled. Taking them off her head, she looked at the large plastic item and wondered if it was okay for Landon to molest them. He was clearly going through his stage of oral fixation, and her designer glasses might never be the same, but Angela began to worry about her friends and their limited knowledge of children. She should teach them all about babies and toddlers so that they'd know what to do when Angela's child was brought into the world. She eyed the shelf containing baby books, and added a couple more to the basket on her arm.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

Ah. So it was true. Not that Charlotte had any doubts, but it was nice to hear it right from the horse’s mouth. She never would have imagined in all the time that she knew Angela that she would be pregnant at nineteen. She also thought that Angela would one day be her daughter-in-law, but both knew how that one turned out.

“Angela, I had three kids in five years. I’m a mother – I can tell these things,” she answered.

Angela was excited? As true as it might have been, that was something Charlotte just couldn’t identify with. She was thrilled when she found out that her second and third children were on the way, but when she found out that she was pregnant for the first time she was absolutely terrified.

Charlotte sighed and leaned against her shopping cart. She looked at Angela for a moment or two before she shook her head at the young woman.

“The parent in me wants to tell you that you’re out of your mind and that you’re way too young to be having a child,” she told her, her voice softening. “I can’t, though, because that would be too hypocritical. I met Marcus when I was eighteen, had Lucas when I was nineteen, and got married when I was twenty. I was scared out of my mind, Angela. It’s alright if you are too.”

It didn’t matter how much Charlotte disliked Angela for a period of time. It didn’t matter if she refused to let anyone speak her name in her house for months. It didn’t matter what kind of names she had called the girl after Tristan told her what had happened. Charlotte had grown to love Angela over the years and couldn’t be bitter toward her any more.

[✿ngela wingrose]

Many people knew Angela wasn't a very strong girl. Hell, she broke down and cried over the smallest things. Anyone could say they'd seen her cry. From witnessing this, no one would think she had the strength she did to keep her fear to herself. Maybe she was weak, but to fool yourself into only seeing the good took a lot of effort, and even more energy to believe it.

But when Charlotte told her it was okay to be scared, she blanched.

"I'm not scared," she insisted, although it sounded like a lie even to herself. So she tried again, this time with more certainty, "It's a good thing. This is what I want."

Charlotte's first might have been an accident - she might not have been ready. But Angela was eager to start a family, and she was sure that she found the right man to do this with.

Plus, if she admitted she was scared, she might not have the strength to go through with it.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

It certainly wasn’t the same as what Charlotte had gone through twenty-four years ago, but if Angela said that she was ready for this, that she wanted this, then Charlotte had to believe her. She had no reason not to. That was the moment that the smile first crept onto the older woman’s face and quickly took over her features. She stepped away from Landon and her shopping cart to throw her arms around Angela.

“Oh, I missed you!” she let the girl know, hugging her tight. Charlotte had never let anyone in on the secret that missed Angela hanging around the house. Before Angela came along it was football and trucks, steak and potatoes. But then came this brilliant source of femininity and Charlotte was thrilled to have someone to talk to who knew the different between Oscar de la Renta and Oscar de la Hoya. Then, in just one simple moment, it was back to the same old testosterone fest like before.

She released her grip on Angela, but she still her by the shoulders an arm’s length away. She had spent so much time hating her that she forgot how much she absolutely loved the model.

“How are you, dear? Are you healthy? You look healthy. How far along are you? Is it a boy or girl? Do you even know yet? Do you even want to know? Where are you living?” Charlotte was filled with so many questions and felt that she had so much catching up to do.

[✿ngela wingrose]

Charlotte's confession had Angela grinning with the woman's arms around her, and she hugged her back. Breaking up with Tristan had been painful enough, but being stripped of her mother-figure was just as horrible. That hug meant the world to Angela, and she held on as long as she could. When Charlotte pulled away, it was too soon, and Angela hugged her quickly once more before she was satisfied.

Her onslaught of questions made her laugh, the sound more joyous than anything she ever heard. Landon joined in with all the ruckus, making his own conversation in a language not even he understood. Angela giggled.

"I'm wonderful. This is me, five months in! I don't know what it is and I don't want to know! " Angela then paused after Charlotte asked her what her living situation was like. What could she say?

Well, my fiance just got himself exiled from the Academy and so he dragged me to Illinois where we're sharing a room at his brother's house...? It sounded ungrateful even to herself, and she so wanted to come home. She knew she'd have to visit her father's manor eventually, that was all she had on today's schedule. Even now she felt like she was putting it off. She dreaded telling Travis.

"Uhm... I'm in Illinois right now," she said, but it was obvious to everyone that she wasn't giving Charlotte the whole story. Landon sneezed, as though he too could see through her thinly-veiled distress.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

Five months? Angela was five months pregnant and still looked that great? That put the biggest of smiles on Charlotte’s face, knowing that Angela was doing well and was healthy and happy. It may not have been the vision that Charlotte saw for the young lady, but this was Angela’s life, not hers.

“Illinois? Why Illinois? You don’t have family there, do you?” she asked Angela. She couldn’t remember her ever talking about family or anyone in Illinois. Charlotte knew that Angela really didn’t have much family, nor did she have a strong relationship with her father. That was one of the reasons that Charlotte kept Angela so close when she and Tristan were together – to provide her with that feeling of maternal instinct that every girl should have growing up.

Thinking about Angela and her father sparked Charlotte’s curiosity. What did he think about all of this? About his only daughter being pregnant? She had never met Travis Sivart, but from what she understood he had liked Tristan, and, as she had heard from others, Travis Sivart didn’t like anyone. She wondered if he liked this new boy more than her son.

[✿ngela wingrose]

Angela's flush deepend when Charlotte asked for more details.

"Uhm... no, no family... yet..." She slowly held up her left hand, where the engagement ring sparkled. She didn't think she could say the words to Charlotte, which was a terrible omen. If she couldn't tell Charlotte, a woman she loved as a mother, how on earth was she going to tell Travis, a man she feared and respected as a father? She swallowed hard.

Her unspoken questions about her father's opinion of Kennedy were met with unspoken answers. Angela knew Travis didn't like Kennedy. He saw him as a trouble-maker, and knew him from his rebelious reputation that showed up on his transcript and also in general conversation with Eoin, Kennedy's father. Not to mention that Kennedy popped into her romantic life from nowhere, whereas Tristan had been around for two years. Which was almost enough time for Travis to get used to the idea of Angela dating. And now here Angela was, new boyfriend, new fiance, and pregnant. She had half a mind to call the ambulance ahead of time.

"F-for the record," Angela stuttered, "He asked me before I told him about..." she gestured to her belly, worried that Charlotte thought the only reason she was getting married was because she was knocked up. Angela wanted to believe it was because they loved each other (even if she was a little... okay, a lot... piddled off with Kennedy). She feared her father would jump to this conclusion too, so it was good practice to insist on it now.

[Tristan Marcus Dell]

The sight of Angela’s ring, as gorgeous as it was, made Charlotte’s smile drop just the slightest, most unrecognizable bit. It was completely selfish of her, she knew that, but she couldn’t help but still feel sad, even if it was only just the tiniest bit, that things hadn’t worked out between Angela and her son. She knew that Tristan was happy now, and she believed Angela when she said that she was happy. They might not have been happy together, but they were still happy. That was going to have to be enough for Charlotte.

“Well I don’t know how you feel about this,” Charlotte began. She hoped that Angela would realize that she hadn’t addressed her comment about the proposal coming before the pregnancy because it didn’t matter to her. She would never and could never judge Angela, even about something huge and life-changing as fiancés and children. “But if you’re ever in the area and need a place to stay… well you’re always welcome at the house. I know that you and Tristan haven’t spoken in a long time, but I think that both of you are mature enough to be under the same roof together, don’t you think?”

It was inevitable that Tristan would come up in their conversation – it was just a matter of who would hesitantly bring him up first. Charlotte knew that her invitation to Angela was probably something that she should have run by her son first, but in the end it was her house and she would let whoever she wanted to to stay there.

[✿ngela wingrose]

She was relieved at Charlotte's easy acceptance of her being engaged. She didn't know what she had been expecting; perhaps an outburst that would end their conversation, or overzealous congratulations. Then Charlotte made her offer, and Angela swallowed.

"Oh, that's really sweet," She hedged, wondering which would be worse, sleeping on the opposite side of the bed with her fiance in a strange house, or sleeping in the guest bedroom of the Dell home knowing the ex-boyfriend she never got over was sleeping in the next room. Maybe it was her unstable hormones, or her anger with Kennedy, but staying under the care of Charlotte for a couple nights sounded wonderful. So instead of closing that door completely, she decided to prop it open with a smile.

"I might take you up on that, actually..." She just hoped Charlotte wasn't offering to be polite, and that it was a genuine offer. Because after she spoke with her father, she knew she wouldn't want to be anywhere near him while he processed everything she had to tell him. "And yeah, don't worry. I think I could handle it," Angela tried to assure Charlotte, but there was a catch in her throat that surprised her, and she attempted to cover it up by coughing into her fist. The thought of seeing Tristan again actually had her heart pounding. She was anxious, now that she was considering Charlotte's offer.

A flash came from behind her and she turned just in time to be caught in the photographer's goal shot. Ring exposed, basket full of baby goods looped over one arm... Angela gasped and looked back at Charlotte quickly. Were paparazzi even allowed to do that? Follow you into a store for the sole purpose of taking a picture? Was picture-taking even permitted inside the store? She scowled dramatically at Charlotte, trying to make it seem not as intrusive as she felt it to be. But really her heart was hammering. What company did he work for? Would the photo be published tomorrow, next week, next month? It didn't give her enough time to brace her father for the shock. Angela worried her lip with her teeth, as she was prone to when she grew nervous. She saw another flash reflected in the shiny jars of baby food to her left.

"So how is everyone...?" She tried awkwardly to resume their conversation.