Best Man

The morning fog had rolled in during the early morning hours and had submerged the entire city and surrounding bay area in its grayish white cloud. It seemed the only people that could see the shining, morning sun were those people on the top floors of San Francisco's skyscrapers.

It was one of the last days of August and they were each falling away like leaves on an autumn tree, and Caroline was hobbling around like a beached whale on this particular morning when she found Giselle sitting slouched forward at the kitchen table; nursing a bottle of flavored water and a box of Ritz crackers.

"You okay?" Caroline asked as she sank into the chair across the table from her sister as warily as she could. Doing simple things with the size her belly was these days was no small feat anymore. "You look like you just line-danced with death and he threw you across the floor, into a wall."

"I feel like it too," Giselle grumbled.

"Yeah, well, you've been moping around for the last two weeks and it's driving me insane. And if you don't start cheering up and telling me what the fuck you're going through, I will force myself to go into labor right here, right now, and then strangle you with the umbilical cord."

"Graphic much?" the younger sister remarked, scrunching her nose in disgust as she met Caroline's gaze.

"You're a doctor. You're supposed to have a strong stomach," the pregnant sister replied with a smirk. "Now what the fuck is going on?"

"You shouldn't talk like that. Your child can pick up hostility in your voice from within the womb."

"Good. Then he or she will come out very much like its mother and father. Stop avoiding the question."

Giselle Woods turned her face away and shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it right now. I just want to be left alone to deal with this on my own without anyone else barging into my problems, is that okay with you, Caroline?" she snipped.

"No," the singer replied calmly. "And watch how you speak to me. You do not wanna piss off a severely hormonal pregnant woman. And let's not forget who's letting you stay here without an explanation as to why you're back here until you find your own place."

"Don't hold it over my head like I owe you insight into my personal affairs just because I asked to stay here for a little while. You could've turned me away."

"Bullshit. As if I'd actually turn you away, Zelle. You're my fucking sister."

"Language, Care!" Giselle hissed, pointing to her sister's stomach.

"Don't fucking chastise me about what I say! I don't care if I'm pregnant or not! It's my fucking baby and if I wanna swear like a fucking sailor while it's still in its goddamn womb, then I'll fucking swear like a motherfucking sailor!" the older sister shouted defiantly across the table. "When you're pregnant one day with your own kid, you can take a vow of no profanity in your vocabulary if you want, but I---"

"I am pregnant!"

The statement blurted out by the curly haired sister had stunned the straight-haired sister into silence, as Giselle stood up abruptly and walked over to the kitchen counter.

Her lips parting with the desire to say something, Caroline tried standing up as well. "You're pregnant?"

"That's what I said."

"How? I mean, well, I know how, but...how far along are you?"

"Almost two months." Caroline was stunned into silence once again as Giselle turned around to look at her big sister and frowned; tears welling in her eyes. "I don't know what to do, Care. I'm not prepared for this yet. I just started my career and my relationship with Tre is still so new, too. I'm not ready for this commitment."

Frowning empathetically, Caroline somehow managed to pick herself up out of her chair and waddle over to Giselle and place her hands on her sister's arms. "Do you wanna have an abortion?"

"I don't know," Giselle shrugged with a sniffle.

"Well, whatever choice you make you have to tell Tre. He deserves to know." Then as an afterthought, Caroline added, "Is this why you broke up with him and moved out? Did you think somehow this would go away on its own and Tre wouldn't have to know?"

Giselle didn't respond.

"Zellie...ignoring the problem won't make it go away. The only way to deal with this is to face it head on. And you can't do it alone."

Giselle smirked through her tears. "Gee, who's the psychiatrist now?"

"Well, considering I know a thing or two about avoiding problems and wanting them to work themselves out while I wither away from not letting anyone in, I'd say I'm an expert in this field of study." The smile Caroline cast her sister was a reassuring one as she hugged the 28-year-old woman.

"I'm so scared, though."

"Of course you are. It's a scary feeling, but you have so many people around you to help take care of you, and having this baby won't be a bad thing. You'll be financially set no matter what because you're in a den of millionaires, sis. Don't forget that. And if you're worried about your career, it isn't going to plummet. You can have help taking care of your child. No one said you have to jump into marriage with Tre just because you're pregnant with his baby either. There's such a thing as living in sin."

Giselle laughed a little as she nodded at what Caroline said. "Here I always tried to act like the older sister; forgetting you're older and I should be going to you for advice sometimes."

"Sometimes," Caroline agreed. "I'm not exactly advice material. I may be older but I'd wager you're a bit more mature than I am." As the younger sister calmed down a bit, Caroline ushered her out of the kitchen and into the living room. "You know, we never celebrated your birthday last week because you were in your funk, but I'm going to take you out to lunch and shopping to make up for it."

"Okay," Giselle muttered meekly.

"And maybe we can stop at Pottery Barn Baby." Giselle looked at Caroline, and grimaced. "Oh, come on. It'll be fun. That place makes child haters want at least fifty or more kids."



A few days later, Caroline had flown down to Los Angeles with Dave and Nef on a chartered jet out of Oakland International Airport for the start of their promotion for their new album, Gone Are The Days. And having stayed out of the media after her marriage and up until this point, the world finally got to see just how pregnant she had become in the short couple of months.

The band was being whisked all over the City of Angels for press conferences and radio interviews while, back in the City by the Bay, Giselle was walking the sterile corridors of the hospital psychiatric ward where she worked; clad in a white doctor's coat and a clipboard in her hands.

Clicking her pen as she walked past the nurses station, she felt a strange pang in her stomach and grimaced as she stopped in mid step, looked down and contemplated the weird feeling.

When it seemed to subside, she continued down another corridor to the elevators. She was heading to radiology to get the MRI results back on an elderly patient of hers.

Stepping into the vacant elevator, Giselle started to hum to herself as she pressed the button for the proper floor, but was suddenly overcome with the same strange pang once again.

"What the...hell." Doubling over from the sharp pain, Giselle's eyes began to water as she fell to her knees and cried out; biting her tongue, then whimpering slightly. "Oh, shit...no...no..."

She knew what must be wrong and reached out to press the emergency button but, unfortunately, blacked out before she could.



When Giselle awoke, she found herself lying in a hospital bed and feeling a little groggy. Her blue eyes scanned the room and was very much surprised to find Mike sitting in a chair a few feet away.

"What're you doing here?" she asked softly.

Mike looked up from the magazine he was lamely flipping through and offered her a smile. "Well, according to the hospital, Care and I are your emergency contacts," he replied. "I got here as soon as I could. Tre's on his way, just so you know."

Giselle frowned. "Super," she spoke sarcastically.

"Did he know?"

"What?"

"Did he know you were pregnant?" Mike inquired, scooting his chair closer to his sister-in-law.

"What do you mean 'were?' Did--oh damnit. Fuck..."

"I'm so sorry, Giselle. The doctor might've wanted to be the one to tell you what happened when you woke up but you probably'd rather hear it no matter what, right?"

"I lost it, didn't I? The baby, that is."

Mike nodded. "Yeah. I'm so sorry," he repeated.

"Why? You didn't do anything."

"I know. It's just...you know...sympathetic figure of speech..."

"What exactly happened, Mike? Please tell me."

"Well..." he trailed. "You miscarried. I don't know what else to say. The doctor got all technical and I kinda drowned him out when he said you lost the baby, because I didn't even know you were pregnant. Caroline didn't say anything to me."

"I was waiting to tell Tre first, but I was putting it off. Now I guess I don't have to say anything anyway."

Mike stared at her as if she were hideous.

"Are you serious? Tre should know now, more than ever. He'd want to know, Zelle. You can't keep something of this magnitude from him. He deserves to know he lost a child too."

At the words from the bassist's mouth, Giselle suddenly began to cry; turning her face away from him. It was hearing someone say those words to her -- someone who wasn't her sister -- that hit home the most.

She'd been pregnant with the man she loved's child and she lost it.

It died.

Her and Tre's unborn child was dead.

And a part of her inner self had just died with it.

It took losing the child she was unsure of having to know for sure that she wanted it. She wanted it more than anything she'd ever wanted before.

"I called Caroline. She's leaving LA early. Flying back tonight instead of Tuesday," Mike informed gently. "She said being here with you now was more important than stupid ass press conferences. And those were her exact words, too, by the way."

Giselle could hear the slight smile in her brother-in-law's voice but it brought no smile to her own lips, nor her eyes. She just let her tears pour down her face as she kept looking away.

"When's Tre getting here?"

"Anytime now."

She gave a slight nod of her head and Mike took it as she just wanted the silence until Tre arrived, so she could stew through her thoughts. But he remained sitting there, keeping her company, so she knew she wasn't alone.