Shopping For The Baby {Bailey & Dakota}

[Deleted]

Dakota was six months due she had about three months left before her baby was born.  She had yet to start preparing for her baby girl so as she got up that morning she made plans to go out and go shopping to get a crib and a few other supplies. Thankfully SHIELD was helping her with this and paying for everything. First she headed for the shower and washed up up got dressed. She needed to get some more clothes she was starting to get a little to big for her clothes that she had bought when she was about two months pregnant. 

Once she had everything ready she grabbed her keys and headed out the door, and got in her beat up old nineteen ninety nine Chevy Silverado. It was covered in rust's and had a few dents in it but it ran and that was good enough for her. On her way to the store she did a quick stop and McDonald's and picked up a sausage biscuit meal with a large orange juice. Which she ate as she drove to the baby shop. She had been there once to look around but hadn't bought anything at the time. But now she was hear to get a few things. Time was flying by and before she knew it her baby would be here. So she wanted to make sure she had everything set up before her baby girl arrived. Dakota parked and put enough money in the parking meter for about an hour than headed into the store.

[Bailey Daniels]

Bailey woke up, feeling especially cozy in a queen sized bed, bunched up in bundles of blankets.  It was a great feeling.  She opened her eyes and rolled around.  "Hey, sleepy," she heard Bear say from across the room.  He was sitting at a desk, on a computer, still in his underwear.  Bailey moaned.  

"I don't wanna get up, I love your bed," she said, grabbing his fluffy comforter and pulling it to her chest, wrapping her legs around it.  Bear may have been 21 and he still lived with his parents... His very moral parents who would not approve of Bear having his girlfriend (that they didn't know existed, and much less knew was pregnant) sleeping over.  Bear had been hanging out at the club while Bailey worked, and she went home with him since his parents were in Phoenix for the weekend.  She may have gotten off work a little early at midnight, but the two of them still didn't get to sleep until about three.  

However, Bailey felt very rested.  The soft mattress felt wonderful compared to the sunken couch she normally slept on, and even though she was only eighteen weeks along, her back was already starting to have a chronic ache.  "Well you hang out as long as you want, I gotta go to class," Bear told her.  He slipped on a pair of jeans and a shirt.  Bailey threw the covers off of herself and stretched out on the bed. Bear approached her, putting his hands on her tummy.  "Aren't you cute?" he said with a smile.  Bailey scowled and smacked his hand away.  

"Don't you dare," she warned, glaring at him.  He put his hands up, obviously annoyed with her, picked up his keys and stormed off, slamming his bedroom door behind him.  Bailey laid in the bed for a little while longer before getting up and using his shower.  Of course Bear only had shampoo and soap that gave her man-smell, but it was better than trying to take a shower in a public bathroom sink.  

She walked down the streets of New York like she usually did, staring at her feet.  She and Bear had been arguing recently about where they would live when the baby was born and what they would buy for it.  He didn't like it when Bailey told him she didn't want to move in with him.  She hadn't really wanted to keep the baby  until recently anyway.  She dreamed of having a good life and nice things, but she knew it wasn't going to happen.  Bailey noticed a baby store and stepped inside.  She walked through the aisles and looked at all of the things she would never be able to have.  She glanced at the baby clothes, wondering if she would have a boy or a girl.  She walked about in a haze when she accidentally bumped into somebody. 

"Sorry," she said out of reflex, but not really missing it.  She flipped her hair back as she looked at the other person.  It was a girl, about her own age, a bit more pregnant than herself.  She couldn't help but be curious as to if she was in the same position that Bailey was in, or if she had money to buy nice things and wasn't afraid to get medical care.  

[Deleted]

Dakota was by the strollers looking at all the different ones. She couldn't help but suck in her breath at the prices. Yea someone was paying for it but still she didn't feel right using someone else's money for this stuff. But she had to remember to look at it another way. She would be working for SHIELD for the rest of her life and would be getting paid from them. When she remembered that she felt a little better.

She was just reaching to grab a box for one of the cheaper strollers that was also a car seat. It was one hundred and forty five dollars but it was the cheapest one that came with a car seat. Dakota grunted as she lifted it and moved it to the cart. Just as she dropped it into the cart someone bumped into her almost making her fall over. She didn't have the greatest balance now a days. "umph" Immediately she placed her hands on her stomach protectively. Dakota looked up to see a girl around her age. She wasn't surprised to see she was pregnant as well. "It's ok, don't worry about it. It was an accident, accident's happen not a big deal." Dakota smiled at the girl and wondered how she got to be pregnant.

"I'm Dakota, how far along are you? By the looks I would say maybe four or five months?" One of Dakota's problems was she loved to talk and make new friends. And not everyone appreciated the questions or wanted another friend. "I'm six months, my baby is due July fourth how about you?"

[Bailey Daniels]

Bailey really woke up from her daze when the girl she bumped into started talking to her and asking questions.  What was more embarrassing than being pregnant in the first place, was that Bailey didn't even know a single answer to any of the questions.  She could only give the girl answers that were estimates and guesses.  "I'm Bailey," Bailey muttered.  She figured she should at least try to be polite.  She was the one that rammed into her, anyway.  

"Umm," Bailey said, thinking about her questions and doing a quick bit of math in her head.  "Somewhere between four and five, yeah... Couldn't tell you an exact date though."  Bailey tucked her hair behind her ears and glanced at the strollers.  Why were bits of plastic on wheels so expensive?  She felt around in her back pocket and fumbled with some cash.  She only had about fifty dollars- and these big boxes would be impossible to steal.  She peeked in Dakota's cart to see what she had.  It seemed like a nice enough stroller.  At least she had money.  

She thought about walking away, feeling that the situation was a bit awkward, but she was curious as to the contraption that was in her cart.  "What's that you've got there?" she asked, moving around and looking at the box.  

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Dakota took a better look at the girl she was around her age seventeen or eighteen. By the looks of things she didn't have allot of money. She felt bad for her. She was lucky she had Shield who she would be working for her whole life who was paying for her stuff. They had given her a credit card to use for her baby stuff. Maybe, just maybe she could help her out a little bit. "It's a pleasure to meet you Bailey." She was shocked that she didn't know when she was due. She wondered if she was on her own and didn't have any help. Or if she had someone helping her life Dakota did. Surely her parents would help her right?

But if that was true how come she didn't know how far along she was or when she was due? Surely she would know if it's a girl or boy by now. You could find that out as early as twelve weeks. Which was three months, so this girl should know that. If she didn't than she would start to become suspicious. "So you having a baby girl or boy?"

Dakota turned to look at the cribs on the other side of the isle when Bailey asked her what she had in her cart. "Oh I have the Evenflo stroller and car seat. You just take the one part out of the stroller and it becomes a car seat. It's cheaper this way. If you bought them separately it could cost you almost three hundred dollars."

Dakota hadn't gotten anything yet but she had been waiting for the baby room to get painted and than for the paint to dry. "So where are your parents? Surely they would want to be here to help you pick the stuff out and carry them."

[Bailey Daniels]

"Thanks you too," Bailey said when Dakota said it was a pleasure to meet her.  I guess, she thought.  Bailey wasn't quite sure what to do in the situation she was in.  She didn't really socialize that much outside of the club, and she certainly had never talked to another pregnant girl before who was asking all sorts of questions about the baby Bailey knew absolutely nothing about.  When Dakota asked if Bailey was having a boy or girl, Bailey's heart skipped.  It was the question she wondered every day.  She was dying to know.

"Yeah, I'm not sure," she admitted to the other girl.  "I haven't really seen a doctor."  She looked away.  In order to break any silence that might have followed Bailey blurted out, "How about you?"  Bailey relaxed when Dakota started to explain the stroller car seat thing to Bailey.  It made sense.  And it looked like this girl was trying to save a few bucks.  "That's cool," Bailey said.  "Very efficient."  Bailey looked away again when Dakota asked about her parents.  

"No, no it's just me," she finally answered with a scoff.  She couldn't stop the words from flowing out of her mouth.  "My dad made it clear he didn't want me anymore when he skipped out twelve years ago, and my mom didn't ever want me so it's just me now."  She reached put her hand around her purse strap and squeezed it hard with frustration.  Thinking about her parents always made her in a bit of a foul mood.

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Dakota frowned feeling really bad for the girl. "You really should for your safety and the baby's safety. I go once a month, once I reach seven months I'll have to start going twice a month than in my last month I'll have to go once a week." Alarm bells where definitely going off in Dakota's head. She had a feeling that something wasn't right. But she kept calm and relaxed, she didn't want to scare Bailey off. Maybe she could help her some how.

Oh I'm going to have a baby girl, so far she's perfectly healthy and she sure put's up a fight. I had one heck of a time last night she was kicking like crazy. Has your little one started kicking yet?"[/b] Dakota nodded when she said she was alone, she felt sad for her. She knew what it was like to have no family to help you. She didn't even have Prof. Xavier any more now that he was dead. He had been the closest thing to a father she had ever known. She wished he would of had a chance to meet her baby someday.

Dakota flinched when Bailey said her father left her and her mother had never wanted her. "I'm sorry to hear that, but at least you got to know your parents. I don't eve know who mine are. I was abandoned at St. Theresas's Orphanage, when I was only a few days old. All I know about my mom is what was in the letter that was left in my basket." Reaching into her purse she unzipped a pocket and took out a very old sheet of paper that was brown with age and was creased. It was obvious it had been read probably hundreds of times. Opening it she glanced at it real quick and put it back in her purse.

[Bailey Daniels]

Bailey rolled her eyes when the girl started to lecture her about the need to go to a prenatal doctor.  Maybe the girl wasn't actually lecturing her, but that's how Bailey felt about it.  She heard enough ragging from Bello and Ali about needing to see a doctor, and she and Bear had been arguing about the issue too, but Bailey had made her decision and she was sticking to it.  Sometimes stubbornness was not a good trait.

Bailey couldn't help but feel extremely uncomfortable when Dakota began telling her about her baby.  The girl was obviously excited about her baby girl.  Good for her, Bailey thought.  Let her have her happiness. Bailey hadn't really talked to anybody about her baby... other than about the stress and issues it was causing in everybody's life.  She had a change in heart however, when Dakota had mentioned that she'd been feeling a lot of kicking.  Bailey smiled.  "Yeah, actually I started feeling kicking just last week," she admitted, blushing slightly.  This conversation was weird, but she was starting to like it.  She often laid on her couch at night and thought about the perfect life she would never have with her child.  With the new movement she was experiencing, she started to view the baby inside of her as an actual human instead of a little beast.  She was actually starting to love it.

When Dakota told Bailey that she had been abandoned at an orphanage, Bailey felt kind of bad.  It was true that at least Bailey knew her parents.  She wish she didn't.  She loved her father, which made it that much harder when he left- and her mother?  Well, let's just say she caused Bailey a lot more paint than it was worth.  "Sometimes it's better that you don't meet your parents," she said.  Maybe Dakota would have been raised in a poor neighborhood or starving.  Perhaps her parents would have hated her.  Maybe she was better off in an orphanage.  When Bailey noticed that she pulled out a note from her bag, she had a look of longing on her face.  Bailey remained quiet and looked around at the shelves to give her a moment.  

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Dakota felt bad about ragging on her about a doctor once she learned she was on her own. She probably couldn't afford to see the doctor. She wished she could help but only reason she could was because of Shield. If she didn't have Shield or Xavier when she was younger she may have been in the same situation as Bailey. She was just lucky, she had someone caring for her.

When Bailey mentioned she recently started to feel kicking she smiled, "Isn't amazing to know that something so precious, tiny and helpless is growing right inside of us? I almost had my baby aborted when I found out I was pregnant. But I just couldn't it's not the baby's fault after all. You know what I mean?"

Dakota wondered where Chris was he never went back to Xavier's. She just hope he never found out about the baby or where she and the baby where. Giving her head Dakota snapped her mind out of the past and tried to focus on what Bailey was saying. "Yea maybe but if the note was right, than my mom wanted me. But she was in trouble and she didn't want anything to happen to me so she left me where she thought I would be the safest. But maybe your right, maybe my mom and dad could of been drug addicts. For all I know the note is just a bunch of gibberish she made up so I wouldn't go looking for her."

Dakota scanned the crib's she was trying to decide between a cheap crib that would do the trick or one that cost three hundred and sixty nine dollars. It had a changing table dresser and nightstand and when the baby got big enough a toddler bed. So it would actually probably end up saving her money in the long run. she went to lift it but it was way to heavy. Spotting a worker she called him over. "Excuse me can you please put this in my cart for me?"

An older man with a bald head smiled and picked the crib up with a grunt and set it in her crib. "Anything else I can help you ladies with?"

[Bailey Daniels]

Bailey was overwhelmed with a sense of pure guilt when Dakota brought up the topic of abortion.  Bailey would have gotten an abortion if she wasn't worried her identity would be found out.  She had however, tried to miscarry on her own.  No matter what she did, nothing worked, so eventually she gave up and accepted her fate.  "Yeah," she said quietly when Dakota said it wasn't the baby's fault.  She was right.  It was her own stupid fault.  

"That sucks," Bailey said when Dakota told her about the letter.  She could understand the girl would be upset that she had to be given up from a mother that loved her, but life was life; and it sucked.  "Sounds like the letter's pretty legit... Why would they give you a fake letter?  That'd be mean if you asked me." The girl started to struggle with a large crib box and without thinking, she began to help.  Dakota did the smart thing, asking a nearby employee to help.  Bailey let go of the box and took a step back, watching even the employee struggle with the box.  The employee then asked if they needed help with anything else.

"No, not for me, thanks," Bailey said, tucking her hair behind her ears.  She then turned back to Dakota and pointed at the box.  "That's really nice," she told her, a friendly smile upon her face.

[Deleted]

"No where good thank you for your help," she said when the guy asked if they needed anything else. She watched him walk away than turned to face Bailey.

She wondered how she could help Bailey, she really wanted to. But unless the girl was a mutant she couldn't send her to Xavier's. But maybe she could go to the shield academy. Not all the students in the academy where mutants some where normal humans. So maybe that would work eventually. They had a few more months before her baby arrived.

"Yea your right I'm worrying over nothing. I just can't help but wonder sometimes you know." Her mother surely loved her, what ever trouble she was in she had said they would meet some day in the note. She hoped so.

"Thanks it should actually save me allot of money in the long run it can turn into a bed once they outgrow the crib. So I won't have to buy a bed later on once she get's older. You should get one for your baby."

{Sorry it's so short no muse }

[Bailey Daniels]

Bailey nodded, listening to Dakota talk about the crib.  It sounded really nice.  She wished she could afford something like that, because the girl had a point.  Since it could turn into a toddler bed, she wouldn't have to buy one in the future.  When Dakota told Bailey she should get one, Bailey shook her head.  "Oh, yeah, maybe eventually," she said, not wanting to sound too horribly broke.  "I'm just kind of looking today... I need to wait for my next paycheck."  She laughed nervously.  "Um, hey, so it was nice meeting you.. I gotta go," she said.  She felt bed leaving the friendly girl, but the awkwardness for her and anxiety of the situation was making her a bit uncomfortable.  She left the store and made her way quickly back to the club. 

[Human Resources]

THIS THREAD IS FINISHED AND CLOSED.