Part 4
The door opened slightly. Cassy put down her book.
"Okay, I always appreciate visitors more when they actually come inside."
The door opened. Standing there was a huge balloon arrangement with human
legs underneath.
She smiled. "Now that is what I call a present. Come in, come in."
The visitor came in and set the arrangement down.
Cassy gasped. "Dalton."
Dalton smiled. "Hello Cassy. It's been a long time."
Still in shock, Cassy struggled for the words. "Yes...it has. What...are
you...doing here?"
"I heard about what happened and I came to see how you were doing."
She swallowed hard. "I'm fine."
He sat down. "I've been thinking about you. I've been thinking about
us."
The shock began to wear off and Cassy could think again. "Would that
'us' be you and me or you and your wife?"
"All right, I deserved that. Not telling you that I was married was a
mistake."
"You think?"
"Things have changed for me in the last three months. The marriage is over.
I realized that I loved you, not Alexandra."
Cassy half expected a string quartet to appear. "And the hooker your wife
found you with, what was she, a diversion?"
Dalton was stunned. "You know about that?"
Cassy sat up in her bed. "Here is a little free advice. The next time you
decide to barge into your wife's office during the day, you might want to
see who she's meeting with. If you had bothered to look around before the
fireworks began, you might have seen my boss, Harry Lipschitz, standing
there."
"All right, so maybe I had a momentary lapse in judgment."
"Momentary lapse in judgment? You slept with hookers. That is not a
momentary lapse in judgment, that is just plain stupid. One question, were
you sleeping with hookers while we were together?"
"There were only two ladies and no, they came after."
"That's a small comfort."
There was a knock at the door and Dr. Buchanan entered the room.
"How are we feeling Cassandra?"
"Like I could walk out of here today."
He laughed. "That's what they all say." He picked up the chart and looked
it over. "Everything looks good. You both are doing just fine."
"Great. When can I leave?"
"Patience. You suffered quite an injury. We want to make sure you are fully
recovered. Tomorrow we'll run a few tests and another ultra sound and then
we'll see. Deal?"
"Deal."
Dr. Buchanan placed the chart back. "Great. I will see you tomorrow."
"I'll be here."
Dalton waited until Dr. Buchanan was out of ear shot. "What did he mean by
'you both are doing just fine'?"
Cassy knew this was coming. "He meant me..and my baby."
Dalton leapt out of the chair. "You mean you're...."
"Pregnant. The word is pregnant. And yes I am."
His face turned white. "How..how..could this have happened?"
"How? The usual way."
"No, I mean...This cannot be happening. They took care of this. At least
they said they did. " He began to pace around the room.
Cassy sighed. "Dalton, would you relax. This isn't your baby."
He stopped. "Not my baby? Then whose baby is it?"
"Although it's none of your business, I'm going to tell you. It's Tom's
baby."
"Tom? Your partner Tom? You slept with him?"
"Don't sound so shocked. He was also my ex-husband and we, believe it or
not, have done it before. Lots of times." Cassy grinned. She was enjoying
this.
Dalton was angry. "Were you seeing him behind my back?"
Cassy frowned. "Isn't that something you ask the wife and not the
mistress?"
"Answer me." Dalton was very angry.
"No. I was completely faithful to you during our involvement. I was not
sleeping with my ex. Can you say the same?"
Dalton sat down and put his head in his hands. "This is not at all the way
I wanted this to go."
"Oh and how did you plan this?"
He sat up. "Never mind that. The point here hasn't changed. I still love
you and I want you and me and the baby to be a family."
Cassy stared at him in disbelief. "I just told you this was not your baby."
"It makes no difference about the way I feel about you. We will have to
keep this low key for a while, especially about the baby. If Alex and her
lawyers find out, we have to make it perfectly clear that the baby is not mine."
"Dalton..."
"And then after the divorce is final, we'll be married. That should be
before the baby is born. Tom will have little ground to fight on since
you'll be married and able to give the baby a stable family. You,
as the mother, control the shots."
"That's right, I do control the shots. I'm not going to marry you in order
to keep Tom away from his baby. That is insane. He's the father."
"But Cassy, you're not listening. A baby needs a mother and father who love
him and each other. And you and I, once we're married, can be that. What do
you say?"
A smile formed on Cassy lips. "You know, Dalton, you are absolutely right.
A baby does need a mother and father who love him and each other. And that
is exactly what my baby is going to have."
Dalton's face beamed. "Excellent."
"Why didn't I see it before? Too blind? Too scared? He sat right here and
poured out his heart to me. He still loves me. And god help me, I still
love him."
Dalton was confused. "Huh?"
Cassy smiled a huge smile. "Congratulate me, Dalton, I'm getting married."
All right, enough stalling, Tom thought to himself. He had been sitting
in the hospital lobby for the past fifteen minutes trying to work up the
courage to face Cassy. 'What is wrong with me? I have had life and death
struggles with psychos, outsmarted serial killers, come face to face with
murderers, jumped out of an airplane, and had ten 300 pound men tackle
me at once. All that was nothing compared to what I am feeling right now.'
Tom ran his hands through his hair. 'What if she is up there right now
trying to find a nice way to tell me that she only wants to be my friend. What
have I done? It was probably wrong of me to throw this at her so soon. What was
I thinking? If she says no I don't know what I'll do. I can't go back to just
being her friend, watching her date all the wrong men while the right one
is sitting in front of her. Not to mention becoming a weekend father with
only visitation rights.'
He pulled out the wedding picture from his pocket. ' Was I wrong to take
this as a sign? Maybe not, maybe she's up there planning an elaborate wedding
for us.' Tom looked over and saw Dalton leave the hospital.
'Dalton Alexander, what the hell was he doing here? I bet he was here to
see Cassy. That slimy weasel gets caught with his pants down by his wife and
now he wants Cassy to make him feel all better. Well, he had better think
again. Cassy belongs to me.' Tom looked at the picture again. 'I hope.'
To Part 5