The Light of One Night

When the two couples got outside the hospital doors, they stood and stared at each other in the cold night air, letting what they'd heard inside sink in. It was Jesse who spoke first. "Do you guys want to share a taxi back with us?" he asked.

Reggie and Ian looked at one another. "My place isn't that far," Reggie said. "I think I'd like to walk."

Ian nodded. "I'll walk you."

"OK. See you tomorrow." Jesse and Maxie walked off arm in arm and successfully managed to hail a cab quickly. They were silent for a while, then Maxie spoke.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. It's just a lot to take in, that's all."

Maxie nodded. "I suppose. I mean...it could just as easily have been your baby."

"No it couldn't." The words were out of Jesse's mouth before he could stop them.

Maxie frowned. "Why not?" Realisation dawned. "You mean you and Nicole....?"

"Never. She wasn't ready." Jesse paused, before tacking on bitterly, "At least not when we were together."

"So whose baby is it?" Maxie asked.

Jesse shook his head. "I don't know. This whole thing doesn't make any sense." He pulled Maxie into a hug, as they both tried to work it out.

"I wonder why she wouldn't let us see her?"

"You heard Nicole. The kid's not good with strangers."

"And you don't find it the least bit strange that she told us that right after she was going on about what a happy, good baby she is? Plus, right after that, she told us it was family only."

"You don't believe her?"

Maxie shook her head. "I know what you're thinking. You think I'm jealous. Again." Jesse shrugged his shoulders in a "you said it" fashion. "Jesse, one excuse is plausible. Reasonable. Two excuses, and you're making excuses."

Jesse shook his head, wondering what to believe. He had hoped that going to the hospital would answer all his questions. Now he found that it had brought up even more new ones.

As Maxie and Jesse walked arm in arm down the street, Reggie shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She smiled as she felt Ian stand close behind her, and wrap his arms around her. She closed her eyes as she just let herself be held. "You ok Reg?" Ian asked quietly.

Reggie nodded. "It's just a lot to take in," she told him, mirroring Jesse's feelings - and Ian's as well for that matter. "I can't believe she never told us. Why couldn't she trust us? We're her friends!"

Ian kept his arm around her as they began to walk towards Reggie's house. "I guess that's just something we'll never know."

Reggie shook her head. "This just doesn't seem real. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and be in the middle of science class or something."

"Well, it explains how distant Nicole's been...how we all thought she was keeping something from us. Who'd have expected this?"

"Yeah. If it can happen to Nicole...." Reggie's voice trailed off, and they walked in silence for a minute. "Ian?" Reggie stopped walking.

"Yeah?"

"If it happened to me....what would you do?"

Ian's eyebrows shot up. "That came out of nowhere!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah, well so did Nicole." Reggie looked up at the stars. "I'm just being silly Ian, but I just feel like I need to know all of a sudden....if I told you I was pregnant tomorrow, what would you do?"

Ian stepped closer to her and put her hands on his shoulders. "You mean, would I be on the first plane back to England?"

"Something like that." Reggie smiled weakly.

"If you got pregnant tomorrow..." Ian considered his words carefully. "I would do whatever you wanted me to do."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I'd help you whatever way I could, whatever you decided to do. If you didn't want to have it, if you did, if you wanted me on the first plane back to England..." They both smiled at that one. "I wouldn't run out on you, if that's what you're asking," he told her. "I'd stick around." Reggie smiled at the answer she'd been waiting to hear without knowing it. Ian suddenly got a funny look on his face. "You're not trying to tell me something are you Reg?"

That made Reggie laugh out loud, and she swatted his shoulder. "No, you dope!" She hugged him. "Just wondering."

As Nicole had known it would, the news went right around the school, seemingly in a matter of minutes. Most people heard the story, with varying degrees of belief, before first period. Nicole, wisely, as most people thought, phoned the school to say she was going to be absent for a couple of days, although she did say that she would try to attend rehearsals for the play. Miss Grant, who she talked with, told her she didn't have to, but Nicole insisted that she wanted to.

"If you're sure." The doubt was evident in Miss Grant's voice.

"I'm sure Miss Grant." Nicole's voice was strong and steady. "I've worked hard to get my life back...and now, after this...I'm not going to let anything stop me."

"She seems so determined," Miss Grant noted in the teacher's lounge the next day. The past forty-eight hours had, if anything, exacerbated the discussion of Nicole's life, especially when she had attended rehearsals as usual.

"I have to hand it to her," Mr Shorofsky concurred. "She's handling it well."

"Hmmm...that's what's worrying me," Miss Grant murmured.

Paul Seeger shook his head. "I think Nicole's gonna be fine. She's had six months to come to terms with being a mother, and she must have considered what would happen when people found out."

"There's a difference," Miss Grant pointed out, "Between considering and living."

Mr Dyrenforth had been quiet, listening to the conversation. Now he spoke up. "I tend to agree with Mr Seeger," he said quietly. "Nicole's a strong girl. She knows what she's doing."

Miss Grant might have come up with something else to say, but a knock came at the door to distract them. Before anyone could respond, the door opened and Leroy poked his head in. "Room for one more?" he asked.

"I think we can make room for you Mr Johnson," Mr Dyrenforth told him jovially. He had been surprised how much the younger man had been missed around the school, and had been looking forward to hearing how the big, bad world had treated him.

"How are rehearsals for the show Leroy?" Miss Grant asked, grateful for the chance to change ths subject.

"Fine. Hard." Leroy smiled. "The last couple of days, all I'm doing is dancing, eating and sleeping. I haven't seen anyone!" He looked around the table, noticing how quiet everyone was in the face of that announcement. "What's happenin' here?"

Mr Seeger sighed, knowing there was no way around telling the story. "Well, there's only one topic of conversation around here, as I'm sure you know."

"Know what? I told you, I haven't seen anyone."

Mr Seeger got a look from each of the other staff members which fairly screamed you start, you finish. "Well, it's about Nicole Chapman. And what's been wrong with her."

Leroy looked at him, knowing the concerns that had been shared by staff and pupils alike. "Yeah? What is it?"

"It's not what. It's who."

Leroy looked at Paul suspiciously, wondering what exactly he knew. "I don't understand."

Miss Grant took pity on them both and took up the tale. "Leroy...Nicole had a baby when she left the school."

Leroy stared at her as if snakes had begun to sprout from her head. "Excuse me?" he finally managed. "You're kidding right?"

Miss Grant shook her head, mirrored by the rest of the staff. "A little girl, called Sarah. She's almost six months old." She shook her head, still barely able to believe what Nicole had done. "She didn't want anyone to know - that's why she left when she did, so suddenly."

"How do you know this?"

"The baby got sick, nothing serious, she'll be fine. But the message came to the school, some of the kids went to the hospital, and she told them the truth. There was no way around it."

Mr Dyrenforth slid a cup of coffee across the table to Leroy. "You look like you could use this," he observed. "I know I needed one when I heard."

Paul smiled slightly. "I needed something stronger."

His joke raised a smile from all - they had had similar feelings. All except Leroy. He was staring into the mug, deep in thought. "It's hard to believe that this could happen to Nicole," Miss Grant observed. She laid a hand on Leroy's arm in sympathy.

"Yeah," he sighed, then added on what was the defining sentiment of the moment. "It's just a lot to take in."

"Reggie, go!" Nicole looked at the two remaining people gathered outside Sarah's hospital room. Nobody except Nicole had been into the room all day, and even her parents had gone home, but a steady stream of Nicole's friends had come by to make sure that she was alright, and had waited outside the room in packs, wondering what they could do to help. The same thing had happened the day before, once everyone found out the truth. While Nicole was grateful for the support of her friends, and relieved that, for the moment at least, they weren't asking any awkward questions, all she really wanted to do right now was be on her own with her daughter.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Reggie had been there more than anyone else.

"You heard her Reg, she's fine. Besides, she's in a hospital - what can happen to her here?" Ian stated the obvious as he tried to pry his girlfriend away. "C'mon, leave the girl alone. I'm sure she wants to spend some time with her kid before they chuck her out for the night." Ian gave Nicole a sympathetic look, and she smiled gratefully, knowing he had read her thoughts almost exactly.

"If you're sure."

"I'm sure." Nicole grinned as Reggie was half-dragged, half-walked backwards down the hall. The last thing she heard as Reggie disappeared from sight was an exhortation to call if she needed anything. Turning to go back into the room, she rubbed her hands over her tired eyes. "Alone at last," she muttered to herself.

"Not quite."

She didn't have to turn around to know who was standing behind her, or why he was there. But she did nonetheless, and just stared at him. All this time, all those lies, for it to end like this.

"I think we need to talk. Don't you?"

You are here like a mystery
I'm from a world that's so different
From all that you are
How in the light of one night
Did we come so far?

They ended up in the cafteria, neither buying anything, neither saying anything, just sitting across the table from each other, trying to figure out how they'd gotten here.

"It's true then?" It was Leroy who spoke first.

"It's true." Nicole echoed his statement.

Leroy sighed and shook his head. He'd been doing that most of the day, ever since the conversation in the teacher's lounge. In a way, it explained everything - why Nicole had been so distant, why she had left the school, why she hadn't kept in touch with him. He'd thought it had been about New Year's Eve, and in a way, he had been right. But there was much more to it than that. That day, for the first time, it all made perfect sense to him. There was just one thing bothering him. "Nicole, why didn't you tell me?"

"I couldn't." Nicole's voice a little above a whisper, and she could hardly look at Leroy.

"Don't give me that. This is our daughter we're talking about here!" Leroy kept his voice down, knowing that shouting wasn't going to do any good.

"Don't you think I know that?" Nicole's voice was just as angry now. "Don't you think I wanted to tell you? Wanted you there? But I couldn't Leroy."

"Why not?"

"Because...we had one night together. One night."

"That felt more right to me than anything ever has."

Nicole shook her head. "What would you have done if I'd told you? Married me? Moved in with me?"

"What of it?"

"I was afraid Leroy. That anything you did - we did - we'd do for the wrong reasons. We're so different, you and I..."

Leroy reached across and took hold of her hands. "It wouldn't have been like that."

"It would have been exactly like that. I didn't want us to make another mistake."

"That's how you feel about it?"

Nicole closed her eyes as she realised how her remarks had sounded. "Leroy, I don't regret what happened between us. And I don't regret having the baby. But I was afraid of messing up your life, as well as my own. That's why I didn't tell you. Besides...."

"Besides what?"

"My parents...." Nicole faltered as she remembered that horrible night when she'd told them she was pregnant. "My mother cried when I told them. And my father...he was furious. He kept demanding to know who the father was - I was only sixteen Leroy. He was talking about sex with a minor, and statutory rape, and pressing charges...he would have done it too. And you were a teacher - my teacher. You would have lost your job, it would have destroyed you. I couldn't do that."

"So you left."

"I knew that if I stayed, you'd find out. And you'd admit what had happened. And I knew there was no way I could let that happen. So I left."

"And never kept in touch..."

"Because I thought if I did, I might tell you."

"Why did you come back?"

"Because I love the school...the people. I missed it so much. And when I heard that you were touring the country, that you weren't teaching there anymore, I thought that I could come back for the last few months, and graduate with everyone. I didn't know it would be so hard...that I'd be reminded of you so much, or how difficult it would be hiding a baby...."

"You should have told me Nicole. The second you knew, you should have told me."

There were tears in Nicole's eyes as she looked at him. "I wanted to. More than anything. But there was too much at stake..."

Leroy shook his head. There was so much he wanted to tell her, so much he wanted to ask, but this was neither the time nor the place. He settled for squeezing her hands tightly, giving her time to regain control of herself. "It's done now," he told her gently. "Over and done with." She nodded quietly. For the moment, here was just one more thing Leroy wanted to ask. "Can I see her?"

Nicole looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

Leroy smiled. "I'd like to see her. Just for a minute." Seeing Nicole hesitate, he added, "Please?"

Nicole gave him an answering half-smile. "OK."

They walked along the corridor in silence once again, this time, a more comfortable silence for each of them. Nicole was a little more hesistant than Leroy was, her head wondering if she was doing the right thing, her heart sure that letting Leroy see his daughter - their daughter - couldn't possibly be wrong. When they got to the door, Nicole turned, and her heart leapt at the mixture of hope and anticipation in his eyes. "She might be asleep," she warned.

"It's ok. I just want to see her."

Nicole lead the way, and her face lit up when she looked into the wide-awake eyes of her daughter. "Well, what are we doing awake at this hour?" she asked the baby, who promptly raised her arms to her mother, looking to be lifted up. "There's someone here who wants to see you Sarah." She turned and smiled at Leroy, who was standing beside the closed door. "Come on," she prompted him.

For the first time in his life, Leroy found it hard to get his legs to move. He knew that for as long as he lived, he was never going to forget the sight before him - Nicole, looking as beautiful as she ever had, holding a baby who was a perfect blend of the two of them. He was never quite sure how he came to be standing facing them, still staring at Sarah in wonder. "She's perfect." He reached out a hand to touch the side of Sarah's face, as she stared at the stranger in wonder.

"Sarah," Nicole couldn't take her eyes off Leroy's face, at the love in his eyes. "This is your daddy."

Leroy's heart swelled with pride, and a feeling of love he'd never known. "Hello Sarah. Hello." Then to Nicole, "Can I hold her?"

There were tears in both their eyes as Nicole handed her to him, and she went without a word. Leroy stared at his daughter, his daughter in amazement, then back at Nicole, equally amazed. How did I get to be this lucky? he asked himself.

The longer Nicole looked at the two of them, the more she was certain that everything was going to be alright. There was no anger, no hatred as she had feared. Just unconditional love and acceptance. How did I get to be this lucky? she asked herself.

To the new family, the universe seemed to have shrunk, until nothing more than what was inside those four walls was important. So nobody noticed as Nicole's mother stared in the window of the hospital room, taking in all that was going on before she walked out of the hospital and drove home.

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