Childhood Sweethearts - One Shot, written by Katiefayeb.

Cover by xReillyCatx.

Thank you so much for writing this! I loved it. :)

I could see the sun beginning to shine through the curtains of our bedroom, which could mean only one thing, Carter was up.

I pulled the pillow over top of my head doing my best to block it out, I needed a few more hours of sleep. Groaning I rolled over trying to get comfortable again, and failing miserably.

"What are you doing?''

I heard him laugh from the other side of the room.

"You and your curtains woke me up." I complained.

He looked heavenly, flannel pajama pants slung low on his hips and the sun caught the shine in his hair. I lifted up the blanket patting the space beside me for him to get in. He grinned at me before doing so, I snuggled myself into his side.

"You're awfully affectionate this morning." He said running his fingers along my arm.

"Mmm." I mumbled, he was warm and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. We lay there for a few minutes until the alarm went off.

"I've got to get up and take a shower." Carter said trying to untangle me.

I whined, "Don't go to work today."

He kissed the top of my head and went into the bathroom turning on the water. He came to stand in the door way, "Wanna join me?"

That boyish smirk I loved so much, on his face. I couldn't help but to laugh, "Just take a shower you dork."

I grabbed my phone off of the charger beside my bed texting Mom to let her know that I was awake, I was watching Allie today while she and some old friends went shopping.

A few minutes later she called, "Hello?' I answered. "Good morning to you too. You feeling okay?" Mom asked.

I sat up in bed, "Yeah I'm just tired, you can bring Allie by any time Carter is about to leave for work."

We only lived about 10 miles from our parent's houses.

"Okay she's just finishing up breakfast and we'll be over. See you later."

I hung up and scrolled through all my emails from work, one about a new couple caught my eye. I was working as an intern for an adoption agency I had a few more courses until I would be able to be an agent all on my own. I was just finishing up my reply when Carter came out of the bathroom dressed in his scrubs, he was in the works of getting his medical degree to be a paramedic, but he was still a pre-med student.

"Who was that?" He asked running the towel over his head.

"Just Mom, I'm going to watch Allie for her today." He sat on the bed and put on his shoes, then grabbed his phone.

"Alright, well I've got to go. I left you a surprise down stairs. I love you." Carter said laying his hand on my hip, moving it to my stomach rubbing it. "And Daddy loves you too baby."

A soft smile fell on my face as he kissed my stomach. I put my hand on top of his head running my fingers through his still wet hair as he talked to the baby.

"Go before I make you stay." I told him smiling.

"Okay okay, I'll be back tonight. Be good." He said before kissing me softly. I watched him leave wishing nothing more than for him to be able to stay.

***

Fussing around for a little while unable to go back to sleep I got out of bed I walked over to my dresser pulling on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt, which at 8 months pregnant was about the only comfortable thing to wear.

I walked into the bathroom another joy of pregnancy, I had to pee like all the time. Finishing up I got my phone and walked downstairs to see a box of doughnuts from my favorite bakery in town and a note beside it. "I know they're your favorite, have a good day. I love you."

I grinned opening the box to find a dozen maple bacon doughnuts. I quickly bit into one of them, still warm he must have gone and got them while I was still asleep. Sending him a text saying thanks I poured myself a glass of milk sitting down to eat them. Hearing the doorbell ring I went and answered it to see Mom holding a crying Allie.

"Look Al its sissy." Mom said looking like she was ready to pull her hair out. I had a little grin on my face at the sight. "You were never this bad at 2."

I laughed taking Allie from her as her tears slowed. "Hey baby, you going to spend the day with sissy?" I asked her wiping her face.

She nodded. "Okay dry those tears and I might share my doughnuts with you."

Her face lit up, she loved them almost as much as I did. "Be good for Lacey okay? Mommy will be back later." Mom said handing me her diaper bag and her sippy cup.

"We'll be fine go on." I told her seeing her skeptical face.

"Call me if she gets to be too much or if you get too tired."

I laughed, "Mom I'm pregnant not terminally ill. Just go."

She smiled before kissing Allie and left. I shut the door and went back into the kitchen and got a doughnut for Allie.

"Alright kiddo what are we going to do today?" I asked her as I cut it up.

She jabbered some nonsense at me, and all I caught was toons, which meant hours of watching Disney channel.

"You want to watch princess?" she seemed to love all of the Disney movies, which was really okay with me I just couldn't handle the new cartoons like what happened to Barney and Blues Clues? The good stuff.

She nodded stuffing a piece of the doughnut that I had placed in front of her into her mouth, I went and filled her cup before I sat down at the table next to her. She ate quietly at first and then she began talking, she normally would never shut up Carter would sit and talk to her all day. I couldn't wait until we had our own baby and though she wasn't expected I couldn't be happier.

I remember the day I found out, Carter and I had gotten into a fight, Aiden had tried to get in contact with me and though I wanted nothing to do with him neither he or Carter could understand that. You would think that being married to him would give him some reassurance, but considering our past I couldn't say that I blamed him.

He had just left for his parents' house he said he just needed some space, I not only had been getting sick for the past few days but I realized that I had missed my period. So naturally I called Anna telling her about Aiden and the fight, then telling her I thought that I was pregnant she made me go to the pharmacy and stayed with me while I took the test.

Twenty minutes later I found out that I was indeed pregnant. Giving Carter the space he needed I called him the next day and begged him to come home. It took a little convincing but he did, and I had made his favorite food while we talked everything out. And then it came time to tell him.

"So I have something to tell you." I started out.

"Lace baby, I don't want to fight with you anymore. You know I hate it." He sighed. "I don't want to fight either, so you need to know that regardless of what you think I'm happy about this and I promise we can make things work okay?'

Money had been tight, we'd just bought our house, and we had two car payments plus both of our student loans, now wasn't really the time for a baby but I was excited. Carter looked at me sort of confused.

"Is everything okay?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm pregnant." I whispered.

His eyes widened, "Like pregnant, pregnant?"

I couldn't help but to laugh, "Is there any other kind?"

He got up from his seat and came over to me grabbing my face and kissing me.

"We're going to have a baby." Carter whispered sounding astonished. I grinned, so happy that he was taking this well, I was so worried that he would freak out on me.

"Did you call the doctor? You need to have an appointment so that we can find out how far along you are." And then the panic doctor mode came in play, even if he wasn't a real doctor yet. "When was the last time you drank? What have you been eating?"

I laughed. "Carter it's fine, I haven't drunk any alcohol in a few weeks and if I have it was a few sips of some wine. And yes I called the doctors, I have an appointment for Friday." I told him, trying to calm his mind.

Pulling up my shirt he rubbed my belly, "We're going to have a baby."

Things since then had gone smoothly, both of our parents were overjoyed at the fact and Allie talked nonstop about the ball in my belly. She had now finished her doughnut and wanted to watch t.v.,

"Sissy. Princess." She demanded pulling on my shirt after she had gotten down from the chair. I drank the rest of my milk and picked her up going into the living room to find her a movie.

"Which princess do you want to watch Al?" I asked flipping through the DVD cases.

"Purple one." I groaned, the fact that she was only two and a half she could barely pronounce words and full sentences were out of the question so I made a guess and thought she was probably talking about Tangled which the girl on the cover wore a purple dress.

I popped it into the player and sat on the couch next to her pulling out my phone. Carter had texted a smiley emoji and I had a text from Anna who wanted to go baby shopping today. I dialed her number to call her, it was always easier to talk on the phone with her, her texts normally confused the hell out of me.

"Hey Baby Mama." She answered.

I laughed, "Hey what's up?"

"Just wondering if you wanted to go do some more baby shopping, I haven't gotten my beautiful niece anything in like a week." Anna said like it was the end of the world.

She was so excited about the baby as well; she had bought something almost every week since I found out I was pregnant along with throwing me the world's largest baby shower.

"I'm actually watching Allie today maybe tomorrow?" I questioned.

"Sure that's fine, I'm still coming over today, I haven't seen her in like months it feels like." Always the exaggerator, she had seen her two weeks ago when we all went to the fair together.

"Okay we're here, just let yourself in, love you babe."

"Love you too Ma."

I hung up Allie looking at me in question.

"Mama?" She asked.

I put her in my lap so I was holding her, "Nope that was Nanna."

For some reason the a always got lost for her so Anna became Nanna. She loved Anna almost as much as she loved Carter, they both loved to play and talk to her, which not that I didn't it was just like she understood I was her sister before her friend.

She clapped her chubby hands. "Nanna Nanna!" She exclaimed happily.

I laughed, "She'll be here in a little while okay? Watch princess."

I pulled out my phone looking for more ideas for the nursery, I figured that was Anna's back up plan for today. I knew her too well. That was the one thing we hadn't really planned for the baby, we had all the furniture but it sat in the room across from ours that was nothing but a plain white room. I just couldn't make up my mind, I didn't want to do pink or purple I felt like that was such a sexist thing basing babies on colors.

I didn't know what I wanted to do though, Carter didn't really care what I did as far as colors he wasn't much on the decorative stuff. I groaned, I had one month left to get everything in order and I felt like there was so much to do.

It wasn't ten minutes later that Anna came rushing into the room, which had Allie squealing.

"There's my Alligator!" Anna said smiling, lifting Allie from my lap.

"Nanna!" Allie giggled burring her face into Anna's neck.

"Oh this isn't my house or anything." I said sarcastically at the fact she hadn't said hi to me.

"Tell Lacey to be quiet, this is Anna and Al time." Anna said holding her finger to her lips.

"Shh Sissy." Allie said to me, doing the same thing.

I pretended to be upset, "See if I let you have any more of my doughnuts or my princess movies."

I stood crossing my arms across my chest. Her eyes widened shaking her head no reaching for me to hold her.

"I'm kidding baby." I laughed.

"So I was thinking maybe we could paint the baby's room today?" I knew that she would want to, telling her I figured she would want to.

"I don't have any paint at all, I have no idea what colors I want." I replied.

She got a wide grin on her face, "Now is where you say thank you for being such a good best friend." Looking at her skeptically I wondered what she had up her sleeve. "Here I'll be right back." She said handing Allie to me.

"What am I going to do with her?" I asked Allie, who got a confused look on her face. Shaking my head, I walked towards the door as I saw Anna packing buckets of paint inside.

"Um what are you doing?"

"You're so indecisive so I got a bunch of sample colors so we could test them out and you can pick the one that you like best. Go ahead say it, I'm a genius."

I grinned. "What do you say Allie, want to help paint the baby's room?" She seemed sort of confused, the only word she understood was paint.

"M' fingers?" She questioned holding out her hand. I laughed, this was going to be interesting.

"This is officially the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life." I said as I stood back admiring our work, well Allies work. As Anna and I were setting everything up she had gotten into the paint and started putting handprints all along the wall which turned out to be adorable, so we just took the sample paints which were just pastel colors, and painted Allies prints along the border of the walls.

"I know! I never could have imagined it would be this cute." Anna squealed.

Allie was sitting on the floor and I happened to catch her yawning.

"I think it's nap time." I said picking her up.

"Night night?" she asked sleepily laying her head on my shoulder.

"Yup, night night. I'm going to go lay her down and I'll make us some lunch."

"Sounds good to me." Anna said starting to clean up and move all of the furniture back.

"Sissy?" Allie asked when I lay her down on my bed.

"Yeah?"

"Luh you." She said sweetly her eyes closing.

I couldn't help but to smile, and kiss her head. "Love you too sweetheart, now take a nap and Mama will be here soon."

I walked quietly out of my bedroom and turned off the lights. Meeting Anna downstairs she had already started looking through my fridge, "Sit I'll cook. What do you say, tacos?" She asked holding up a pound of ground beef.

I nodded, "Sounds good to me." I replied sitting down at the table, suddenly feeling a sharp pain. I winced, "You okay?" Anna asked looking at me worriedly.

"Yeah, just a Braxton hex." At least that's all I thought it was.

"Have you decided a name yet?"

Carter and I hadn't picked one out for certain, there were a few we liked but noting we wanted to settle on just yet.

"I still like Skylar." She said browning the meat. I traced shapes onto my belly, "I don't know I mean it's not like I can change it If I decide I don't like it any more. I need something I absolutely love."

We had decided that the middle name would be Annabel, after Anna of course, I wouldn't be here today as sane as I was if it wasn't for her though she didn't know it.

"I thought you liked that name." I looked at her a dead stare on my face as she began to giggle. She and Carter liked the name, and I didn't hate it but I wasn't as convinced as they were.

"I say you just wait until you have her and decide then, that way you know for sure it's the one." She suggested.

"I just can't wait to meet her."

"I know, I mean did you think that when we came home from Hawaii you and Cater would get back together let alone be married with a baby on the way?"

"I don't know, I mean I always imagined us being here, but we've been through so much ya know? We've gone two years not speaking to each other, things happened that I could never have dreamed of. But this is where I've always wanted to be, I feel like after everything I've gone through I finally get to be happy."

My eyes started to well up with tears, part of the hormones, but it was all true Carter had always been my idea of happily ever after and there were times that I didn't know if we'd make it here.

"You deserve to be happy Lacey, and I'm glad Carter makes you that way." And she was right of course, I did deserve this, it was everything I'd ever wanted.

***

"It looks really good, I like it." Carter said that night after he'd got home, I was showing him the nursery.

I smiled, though I knew he didn't care much I was still happy he'd liked what I chose to do.

"How are you feeling? Anna said you felt kind of off today." He asked wrapping his arms around me.

"I'm fine you two have got to stop worrying so much. It was just the fake contractions." I told him leaning my weight on him.

"What do you mean fake contractions, like Braxton?"

I nodded. "Are you sure? Like positive?"

I mean I had thought so but he had me worried now, "I think so." I winced in pain again.

"Why don't you take a bath? I'll run some water for you." He suggested.

That really did sound good. He left for the bathroom and I just kind of looked around at all the stuff we had, it seemed to get more real every day. Following after Carter I started to take off my clothes, "God you are so beautiful." Carter said, I blushed not even realizing that he was now staring at me.

"Shut up." I told him sinking into the water as it filled.

He sat on the toilet, "You shut up. I don't know how I got so lucky, I've screwed up so many times with us."

"So have I Carter." I wasn't about to let him take all of the blame for our screw-ups.

"We both messed up, a lot. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to you. I love you." He said sweetly.

"I love you too, always have always will."

He laughed, "I think you're forgetting the year where you hated my guts." I felt a pain in my stomach, wincing in pain again, "Lace you know I didn't mean it like that." Cater said thinking I was reacting to what he had said.

I shook my head, clutching at my stomach. "I think somethings wrong." I managed to say.

He very quickly helped me out of the tub and began to dry me off, "What do you mean? What hurts?"

Panic had officially set in. "It feels like I'm being stabbed." I cried.

"Um Lacey... I think you're going into labor." He said as I felt water begin to trickle down my leg. "Okay definitely going into labor, your water just broke. Stay here I'm calling Anna and getting you some clothes." Carter spoke quickly helping me to sit down. I never thought it would hurt this bad.

"Carter hurry." I cried.

He came back into the bathroom pulling a shirt over top of my head, and a pair of leggings on, skipping the underwear. He had the phone up to his ear, "Anna! Okay so Lace is in labor now, come over to the house and get a bag with some of the baby clothes and some clothes for her and then meet us at the hospital."

I was officially crying; I couldn't go into labor yet I still had a month to go. "Carter, what if somethings wrong with the baby?" I asked scared.