Choices

Written by Wendy

Disclaimer: This story is in no way meant to infringe on the rights of the creator of the series The Young Riders, Ed Spielman and Ogiens/Kane. All other characters are copyrighted by the author.

Lou awoke once again in a strange room to the sound of someone knocking lightly on the door to her room at Treva's boarding house. She listened groggily to the steady tapping, but felt in no hurry to crawl out of the warm bed to answer the door. The knocking ceased after a few minutes and Lou snuggled further under the quilts and started to fall back asleep. She was almost asleep when her stomach made a gurgling sound and Lou sat up quickly in bed, certain that she was about to be sick. The gurgling sound faded away and in its wake left Lou feeling incredibly hungry.

She scooted to the edge of the bed and slid cautiously out onto the hardwood floor, half-expecting to feel the mind-reeling dizziness and stomach clenching nausea that had plagued her for the past two weeks. Lou couldn't help hoping that she had experienced the last of the morning sickness that the doc in Seneca had told her about was gone for good, but knew that her luck couldn't be that good. Nothing in her relationship with Kid had happened easily and she expected the same to be true with having his child. She decided to take what relief from morning sickness she could get as a blessing forever how long it lasted and thanked the child she carried for its cooperation.

As if in response to thanking it, the child inside of her moved and Lou felt a fluttery sensation sweep across her abdomen. The suddenness of the movement caught her off-guard and made her cry out in surprise. While the movement wasn't exactly painful, it was slightly uncomfortable and unnerving as hell. Lou sat slowly back down on the bed and placed a hand over her still-flat stomach.

"I reckon I haven't spent much time thinking about you little one, other than to wondering why you chose this time to get born. As much as I love your pa, he infuriates the hell out of me and things couldn't get any worse between us. I don't doubt that your pa loves me, but we're too different and want different things out of our relationship right now. When I found out about you, I knew that I had to leave Rock Creek. I couldn't tell your pa about you right now cause he'd of had wanted to get married so's you could be raised proper-like and I just couldn't handle that. Marrying someone should be because you want to, not cause you feel obliged to. Don't you worry none, darling. Mama's going to take real good care of you and eventually I'll tell your pa about you. I wouldn't want you to miss out on having a real pa like I did and I know Kid would be the best pa. He'll treasure you about as much as I do, little one. But for now, it's just going to be the two of us. Okay?" Lou whispered softly.

Again the fluttery sensation swept through her abdomen and this time Lou knew for certain that the baby was responding to her talking to it. Lou's eyes filled with tears as a kaleidoscope of emotions swept over her. In the space of a few heartbeats, Lou fell head-over-heels in love with the baby she carried inside of her.

Chapter 55

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