Slowly, Nick turned his back and left for the kitchen. He buried his head in his hands once again finally knowing the truth about everything that happened between AJ and Rachel. He closed his eyes and promised himself not to be bothered by anything for now although sometimes he thought that he couldn't control himself when it came to conflict. He wanted things to go back to normal and that's what he planned on doing by helping Rachel remember her past.
Meanwhile, back in the living room...
"AJ, what exactly did we do?" Rachel inquired, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"It's not that we had sex or anything... we kissed a few times"
Rachel lowered her head. How could she even look at Nick's eyes again after what she apparently had done?
"I'm really sorry about everything that happened between us" Rachel said.
"Rach, you were one of my best friends and I didn't mean for it to happen... really... I hope you believe me" AJ said truthfully. "I'm known to be one of the wildest ones of the group"
Rachel looked at him strangely. "What group?"
"BSB" AJ answered.
"What?"
AJ proceeded to tell Rachel the story about the group. Suddenly their conversation extended to two hours. They talked about everything until Nick came to join them.
"Did you talk about the relationship you had?" Nick asked, his eyes narrowing at AJ.
AJ rose up from the couch where he was sitting. "Nick, it's not something that it was meant to be secret. I was planning on telling you that we kissed a few times but you never gave me the chance to"
"How could you, man? Seriously"
"It wasn't meant to happen" AJ answered seriously.
Nick shook his head and stormed upstairs. Rachel looked at AJ. "I think you better go now... I'll probably talk to him and make him understand"
"Okay" was all AJ could answer. He kissed Rachel on the cheek and headed out the door.
After AJ left, Rachel took a deep breath and headed upstairs towards Nick's room. Nick had agreed to stay in the guest room so that Rachel could stay in what was, their room. She softly tapped on the door.
"Nick?"
"Go away... I don't want to talk to anybody" she heard from inside.
"Nick, open up... I want to clear things out"
"How can you clear things out? You don't remember anything" he answered bitterly.
Rachel closed her eyes and didn't say a word. Her back was to the door now as she slid down and sat on the floor. "God, help me" she whispered.
Flashback...
"J, we can't tell anyone about this... not even Nick" Rachel whispered to AJ, who was sitting next to her.
They were in his house, in his room, when they accidentally kissed.
"I know... we'll keep it a secret" he smiled and rubbed her back.
"I'm going to go buy some things at the supermarket. Want to come?"
"Nah, I'll stay here and clean a little bit... this place is a mess" he chuckled.
"AJ McLean? Are you okay? Did you actually said you were going to clean???" she teased.
"Yeah, something wrong with that?"
"It just amuses me" she grinned as she rose from the bed.
"Oh, go on woman... when you come back you're going to help me"
"Okay" she agreed. "Only if you make dinner tonight... well, actually you're bad at cooking so you can invite me to dinner tonight" she said, emphasizing in the word "invite".
"We'll talk about that later" he teased, getting close to her. They were almost about to kiss when Rachel pulled away. "I... I better go now"
"Okay"
"See ya" she grinned as she left the house.
It was a perfect day outside. The sun was shining and there were not a lot of cars in the highway. Weird. She shrugged that thought out of her head and turned the radio on. She started thinking about Nick and how bad she wanted him in her life again. She made the commitment of calling him whenever she got back to AJ's house. She was so caught up with the music and her thoughts that she didn't see the red light and continued driving. There was a loud thud and then everything turned black.
Flashback ends...
"Oh my God" Rachel whispered. She was sitting in the same place she was before, with her legs brought up to her chest. She couldn't believe she was the one who caused that accident. She got up, her legs still shaking and went to check up on Alyssa who was crying.
"Shh baby... everything is going to be okay" she said softly. Then it hit her. She couldn't remember who was Alyssa's father. Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she started praying silently for a miracle. As she looked down at her, she could see that she was sleeping again. Then, she felt two strong arms encircle her waist.
"You look so beautiful as a mom" she heard the familiar voice whisper in her ear.
"Nick, I'm so sorry I did this to you with AJ... I'm so sorry" she said in between sobs.
"It's okay... that's the past... it can stay there..." he reassured.
"But... I don't remember the past"
"We can make up our own present" he replied smiling and kissing her neck.
"Nick... I'm not sure if we need to do this" she answered uneasily. She was giving in to what she promised herself days before entering the house. She would not fall in love, again. Nick stood silent and took Alyssa away from her arms.
"She's beautiful" he said with a smile.
"Nick, I think she's yours" she finally said. Good. She had to get that out of her system.
Slowly but surely, Nick's eyes went from Alyssa to Rachel, in a state of disbelief.
"How do you know?" Nick uttered.
"Well, she's 2 and a half years old... she has blond hair, blue eyes... she's just exactly like you" she smiled.
Nick started thinking about it, trying to figure out the timing. It's being two years and three months since she disappeared so she must have been three months pregnant when she had the accident. But one thing didn't click.
"But... why didn't she die in the accident?"
"When I woke up in the hospital, the doctors informed me that I was pregnant and that she was definitely a miracle since she was in a good condition inside of me..." she replied.
" Oh my God"
"I think that you were with her in every moment... although you didn't know it" she answered. "I wanted her father in her life from the very first moment... I never thought about abortion or adoption for that matter... I wanted to keep her... but I didn't remember anything so, I couldn't do much to find you"
"I guess, God put us together again" Nick replied putting an arm around her shoulders.
"Yeah" she answered, leaning her head against his chest. They stood like that for a while. Moments later, Nick put Alyssa on the crib again, not before giving the little girl a kiss on the forehead, and led Rachel to her room, that was actually their suite at the time they were together before the accident. Rachel sat down in the bed and he sat down next to her.
"I caused the accident" Rachel said all of a sudden.
"What?"
"I was the one who caused the accident"
"How do you know that?"
"I remembered"
"So, you're starting to put the pieces together?"
"Yup" she nodded sadly.
"When the accident happened" Nick informed "none of the people were seriously injured and you disappeared... the only person we didn't know about was you... and I found you...so you don't have to worry about anything..."
She looked down. "Kay"
"Do you want to go do something?" Nick finally said, after an uncomfortable silence between them.
"Okay" she agreed. Nick got up from the bed where he was sitting and dialed the phone. He talked to Brian for a while and asked him to take care of the two kids for them while he went with Rachel to the beach, the only place they spent a lot of time at. Brian agreed and within 20 minutes he was at the house, with Leighanne.
"Thanks, man" Nick said, honestly. "No problem... you know you can count on us anytime you want" Brian smiled.
"Thanks" he repeated. "Rach? You ready?"
"Yup" she smiled. When she came down the stairs, she looked gorgeous. Her hair was put up in a ponytail and she had Capri jeans with a pink tank top. She had her sneakers on and a minimum amount of makeup.
"You shouldn't have made yourself up" Nick gushed
"But you look beautiful anyway" he grinned.
"Thank you" she grinned back. "Bye Brian, bye Leigh"
"See ya" they both said unanimously.
They linked arms and got out through the back door, leading themselves to the beach.
"This is beautiful" Rachel gushed.
"This is one of the places we used to hang out most of the time"
"I can see why" she smiled breathing the cool air.
She leaned against Nick's shoulder and closed her eyes.
Flashback...
"I love you" Rachel said softly to Nick who was behind her.
"I love you more" he grinned back, kissing the back of her neck.
They were at the beach, overlooking the ocean and watching the sunset.
"Nick... I gotta tell you something" she said uneasily.
"Shoot" he said, oblivious to her seriousness.
"I'm pregnant" she said as fast as she could.
"What?" he answered with a shocked expression.
"I'm pregnant" she repeated. "Happy father's day" she said. It was father's day indeed. She wanted to leave the `surprise' for that fateful Sunday.
"Are you serious?" he asked with a grin. She looked back at him.
"Yup" she replied with a smile on her face.
Nick got up from the sand where they were sitting, bringing Rachel up with him. He put her hands around her waist and kissed her passionately on the lips. Then, he hugged her tight.
"You don't know how bad I wanted this moment to happen" he whispered in her ear.
"I've known for two days now...but I wanted to leave the news for today"
He grinned widely again and cupped her head in his hands bringing her close to him. Then he finally kissed her. It was a short kiss but with a lot of love and passion.
Flashback ends...
Rachel smiled to herself and thanked God for sending her this memory of her and Nick. Then she looked at her husband. She was now beginning to understand their love for one another. She didn't want to be away from him now. She wanted to stay with him although she didn't remember much about their relationship. She then took his hand and intertwined hers with his. At first, Nick seemed a little shocked but then he calmed down.
"You know, I remembered Father's day when I told you about Colin" she smiled.
"You did? We were right here when you told me" he answered, referring to the spot where they were.
"It's so nice to remember how you were with me"
He smiled. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, it's supposed to mean that you were a great husband to me... and you still are" she said, flirting a little with him.
He smiled widely. He wanted so bad to kiss her but restrained himself to it. He put his hand around her waist and they continued to walk. Out of nowhere, Rachel stood in front of him, watching his features closely. Then, she took him by the collar of his shirt and got him closer to her kissing him in the process.
"What was that for?" Nick asked.
"I just felt like it" Rachel replied smiling, still having a hold of him and kissing him again.