"Can I use your phone?" I asked the receptionist, realizing I had no way to contact my husband. "I need to call my husband."

"Mmhm, go ahead." She smiled at me, and I smiled back, and dialed Luke's cell number.

"Hi Princess." I heard him say, "whose phone is this?"

"The hospitals." I said, tapping my foot, and bouncing Betsy lightly. "Can you come and pick me up?" I asked.

"Princess, my friends are over." He groaned, "can't you just take the subway?" He asked, and I sighed. I realized that if I had to be married to him, I should at least make the best of it. He had friends over, I shouldn't impose.

"Okay." I sighed.

"Good girl, now, when you get home, would you mind changing into something nice, and like, hanging out with us?" He asked.

"Sure." I sighed, "bye." I hung up, and handed the phone back to the receptionist. "Thanks." I flashed her a quick smile.

"Abigail?" I looked up, to see my doctor from earlier standing behind me, "uh, do you, do you need a ride? I'm on my break."

"Oh, no, no it's fine, I can take the subway." I sighed.

"But, your kids a day old." He protested. "Are you sure everything's okay?"

"Mmhm. My husband just can't pick me up, it's not a big deal. He has friends over."

"Sweetheart, he should be able to drive here and pick you up, he should also be able to leave work to be there for the birth of his daughter."

"He didn't even hold her." I said, breaking down a little, "I don't know if he even knows her name." I felt my doctors arms wrap around me. "He doesn't care. He doesn't care. No one cares."

"That's not true." He whispered.

"Yes it is. No one came, no one knows my daughter's name but me."

"Elizabeth right?" He asked.

"Mmhm." I nodded.

"See," he stepped away a bit, "I know her name."

"I have to go." I sighed.

"Alright, well, good luck with your husband." He smiled at me, and I left the hospital. I walked out into the streets of NYC, holding an infant close to me, I went underground, and found a seat on the train. I gently pulled Betsy's arms out of her blanket, and her blue eyes fluttered open.

"Hi Mijita." I smiled, using my parents nickname for me. "I'm your mommy." I handed her the stuffed elephant my doctor gave her, she hugged it, and started sucking on the ear. I gently kissed her forehead, and sighed.

"Hi, uh," I looked to my right to see a woman with her hand on my shoulder, "is she yours?" She asked.

"Mmhm." I nodded smiling.

"Oh, she's precious." The lady sighed, "can I hold her?" She asked, nervously, and I lit up.

"Oh! Sure!" I wrapped my arms around Betsy's small body, and set her in the woman's arms.

"What's her name?" She asked, lightly rocking her.

"Elizabeth." I smiled, realizing this was the first person other than the man who delivered her, and myself to hold my child.

"How old is she?" She asked.

"Uh, she's a day old."

"Oh goodness, well, she's very cute." She said, smiling at me.

"Thanks, I have to get off here." I added, picking her back up.

"Okay, have a good day." She waved a bit.

"You too." I smiled, and got off. I walked back to my apartment, I unlocked the door, and walked in. "Hi Luke." I smiled, seeing my husband drinking with his friends in our living room. "Do you wanna meet your baby now?" I asked, walking over to him.

"No, Abigail, just put it in the crib, change and come back in."

"Luke." I glared at him.

"What?" He asked, looking at me.

"Please. You're a dad, just look at your child."

"Abigail. Please. Just change, and come back."

"No. Luke, hold your kid. I'm s-"

"Go to our room. I'll be in in a second." He shoved me towards the room, I heard his friends laugh a bit, and I quickly went back into my room, and sat on the bed with my daughter in my arms.

"Abigail." I looked up towards the door, Luke was standing there, his arms crossed, "you will do what I tell you to do." He said.

"All I asked was for you to hold your own child. You weren't even there for her birth, what kind of ma-" I was cut off by him slapping me across the face. I stood up and walked over to the crib set up in the room, I gently kissed Betsy's head, and set her down.

"Change into a little dress or something." He said.

"Mkay." I whispered, looking at my feet.

"Good girl." I could hear the smirk in his voice. I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top that Luke liked, and wrapped my arms tightly around my waist, and keeping my gaze on the ground I went into the living room. "There you are." I looked up to see Luke smile at me. "You look wonderful." He whispered, as he pulled me to sit in his lap. "Beer?" He offered, and I shook my head.

"I'm underage." I whispered, as I was 20.

"C'mon, no ones gonna tell on you." He nudged me, and held his bottle to my lips.

"Luke, I just, I don't like beer." I whispered, then he flipped the bottle upwards and the liquid ran down my throat. I coughed a bit, and shook my head a little, trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

"There ya go." He said, and kissed my neck.

"Well, we should go," his friend said, standing up. "Have a nice night with your wife." He said, and winked. The rest of his friends filed out of the room, and soon I was left alone with him. I reached forward and grabbed a mini-burger from a tray, and Luke slapped it out of my hands.

"Hey!" I got off of his lap, and glared at him.

"Lose the baby weight." He snickered, and took a swig from the bottle in his hands.

"Lu-"

"No I'm serious Princess, having a kid is no excuse to be fat." He said, and I immediately flushed, becoming self conscious. I was pulled from my self pity by my child crying.

"I'll be back." I announced, and turned towards our room.

"No, I'm talking to you."

"I don't care." I said, and went over to Betsy's crib and pulled her out, I tried to rock her back to sleep, but she kept crying, and I sighed, I brought her over to my bed, and started to breastfeed her. "I love you Elizabeth." I whispered, kissing her head, "you're gonna hear that every day of your life."

"Abigail?" I looked up to see Luke standing in the doorway again.

"Yes?" I asked, cradling Betsy's head.

"What's your issue?" He spat, and Betsy detached from me, I carefully moved her to lay in my arms, and quickly pulled my shirt back to cover myself.

"You missed the birth of your child." I spat back.

"Why does it matter, it's not like he'll remember it!"

"It's not about her, she's a girl by the way, I was in labor for five hours." I yelled.

"Yeah, did you expect me to be there with a screaming girl for five hours?"

"It hurt." I whispered, "most women have their husbands there, or their boyfriends. That was the most pain I've been in years. Do you know what it's like? It was awful, I was alone, five hours of intense pain, alone." I sobbed out.

"I'm serious, no one wants to deal with a screaming girl for five hours."

"No one came." I whispered, gently rocking my daughter. "My parents didn't come, no friends, no family, no one showed up to meet my child, not even you, and she's yours. You impregnated me, against my will, and I had the kid, I didn't abort her, and you didn't care. You came in the sign the birth certificate and you didn't even look at me!" I sobbed out, "I thought, I thought you were my family, and you're the only family I have left, and I hate you!"

"Abigail. Simmons." He stood by the bed, "you will not speak that way about your husband, I'm going to go get some drinks for us, you better have a better attitude when I get back." With that I heard him stomp out of the apartment. I sat on the bed, gently rocking Betsy, when Luke's phone started to ring, he had forgotten it on the bed. I sighed, and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Lukie?" I heard a woman's voice on the phone.

"No, it's not Luke, it's his wife, who's this?" I asked.

"My Lukie's married?" I heard her, surprise in her voice.

"Mmhm, who is this?" I repeated.

"Oh! I'm his mom."

"Really?" I asked, "oh, oh can you come over here?" I asked, quickly.

"Of course, what's the address?"
She asked.

"You don't know it?" I asked.

"Nope, he never gave it to me."

"Oh." I shrugged then gave her our address

"Thank you, I'll be over soon!" She seemed ecstatic.

"Okay, see you soon." I hung up the phone and sat in bed smiling, I pulled a cardigan on over my tank top, and was re-swaddling Betsy when I heard a knock at the door. "Coming!" I called, scooping my child into my arms, I hurried to the door and swung it open, a 50 or so year old woman stood smiling.

"Hi." She smiled a bit at me.

"Hi, come in." I stepped away from the door a bit, and she came in.

"Is this, am I a grandma?" She asked, looking at Betsy.

"Mmhm. This is my daughter, Elizabeth Vanessa." I smiled, proudly.

"She's so precious." She sighed, then saw a framed picture of Luke and I on the wall. "You actually married my son."

"Mmhm." I nodded, "well, come in come in. Make yourself at home, can I get you something? Coffee, a muffin, they're homemade." I added.

"No no, it's fine," she said, sitting on the couch, "I just wanted to meet you."

"Yeah," I said, taking a muffin for myself, "uh, so, my name's Abigail, by the way." I smiled, sitting down next to her.

"Nice to meet you, I'm  Clarissa, Luke's mom, uh, I'm so sorry I haven't met you, Luke and I, we don't really talk, the second he turned eighteen he sort of, left the family." She frowned, "are you close with your parents?" She asked.

"Oh, uh," I bit my lip, I didn't want to talk about Lin and Vanessa, I didn't want her to know what Luke did, I didn't want her to think that I was like Luke and left my family, "I was orphaned." I said.

"Oh, I'm sorry darling, were you close?" She asked, her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah." I nodded, tearing up a little, "my dad was my best friend." I whispered.

"Oh, oh come here sweetheart." She wrapped me in a hug, "I can be your mom now, I'll be your mom."

"Thank you." I whispered, and my kid started crying. "Awe, Mija, what's wrong?" I looked at her, and gently rocked her.

"Mija?" Luke's mom asked.

"It's Spanish, it means my daughter, my dad was Puerto Rican, it's what he called me." I explained, but Betsy kept crying, louder. "Baby baby girl, c'mon." I tried to bounce her and nothing worked. "Betsy, Betsy please."

"Lemme take her." Mrs. Simmons pulled Betsy from my arms, and started to calm her down. I held my head on my hands, and cried as well. "Oh, Sweetheart? Abigail? What's wrong?" She asked.

"I can't do this. I can't. I'm 20. I can't be a mom. I'm still a kid." I sobbed out, "we got married when I was 19."

"Was it a shotgun wedding?" She asked.

"No, I wasn't pregnant."

"Okay. I just, I know my son, and I had to ask."

"Princess?" I heard Luke call from the front door.

"Luke!" His mom called, standing up excited.

"Mom?" He looked terrified and shocked, as he walked into the living room with two bottles of vodka. "Mom, what are you doing here? How do you know where I live? Abigail?" He glared at me harshly, as he put the alcohol in the cabinet.

"Your lovely wife invited me over, honestly Luke, I don't know how you got her to marry you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, offended. He walked back to me on the couch, and pressed a deep kiss to my lips, I tasted beer on his lips, and I wanted to puke, he ran his tongue over my bottom lip, and I felt him climb onto my lap.

"She's out of your league." Mrs. Simmons added. "She can bake, and she's very pretty, and keeps a clean house, and she's actually very sweet." I smiled, blushing. People didn't compliment me often, pretty much never since I got married.

"Well, it was great to see you, Mom." Luke said, climbing off of me, "now, see you at Christmas." I shot off the couch, and retrieved my daughter from her arms. Then rushed into the bedroom, setting her down.

I played with Betsy for a few minutes, watching her suck on the ear of the elephant, until my husband threw open the door to our room, and I cried.

"Please Luke, please." I whimpered, gently tickling Betsy, trying to calm down. "Don't be mad at me, please."

"You invited my mother over?" He shouted, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from the crib. "How dare you?"

"I- she- she called- and- Luke I'm sorry. I don't have parents anymore." I sobbed out, "I want parents."

"I don't care!" He shouted, and threw me onto the ground.

"Luke! Please don't do this. Our kid's in he room!" I shouted back, but regardless he kicked me.

Once he finished, I was barely conscious. I was bruised and most likely bleeding, Luke came back out of the bathroom, in sweats, and got into bed. "Come here." He said, patting my side of the bed. I sighed, and carefully picked myself up. I made my way over to the bed and sat down. "Goodnight gorgeous." He whispered, kissing me, then laying down. "Lay down sweetheart, get some rest, you had a long day." He pulled me up against him wrapping me in his arms.

•••

I'm sorry. I was like 1,800 words in and I needed to finish.

Also. This whole Luke plot line is AU!! It's not real I would never do that to you, it doesn't affect her life with Kevin...

PSAT tomorrow. I can do this! Love y'all!

Thanks for reading!

- Abi