Today, I had an ultrasound appointment to hopefully find out the sex of the baby. I decided that it would probably be best if I had someone with me, but I was scared that my Mom would freak out too much, so I invited my Dad. He declined, so I took my Mom instead.

"It looks like the baby is healthy," the Ultrasound technician said. "Do you want to know the sex, or do you want a surprise?"

"I want to know right now," I said, "We're not having a gender reveal party, so it shouldn't matter."

"Well, it looks like it's a boy," the ultrasound technician said, pointing to the ultrasound on the screen. "If you look right here, you can see it."

"Casper, that's great news," Mom said as she jumped up from her seat.

"Mom, please sit down," I said, "You're making me anxious."

"But you looked like you were carrying a girl," Mom said, "So we don't have to worry about the in-laws making jokes." I turned to look at her face.

"Let's talk about this in the car," I said.

"I'll print out the pictures for you," the Ultrasound Technician said. "Just wait a second." Within a few minutes, I had the ultrasound pictures in my hands, and when Mom and I went to the car, I gave her a look.

"What was that all about, Mom?" I asked as soon as we got in the car. She started driving us home.

"Well, when I was pregnant with you, your Dad's family told me that I better have a boy no matter what to carry on the family name," Mom said, "So, then I had you, and we were told that I had to have my uterus removed due to some reason that I don't quite remember at the time. I felt like I had let them down, so I raised you as a boy to make up for my body being unable to have any more children. That's also one of the reasons why we don't talk to your Dad's side of the family anymore."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, "I wouldn't have been so angry with you if I had just known the reason why you did this."

"I didn't think about the repercussions that you would face when you grew older," Mom said, "I'm sorry that I didn't really think things through in the past."

"Well, I know now," I said, "But you can't really do anything about things that already happened."

"And you, are you sure that you don't want the baby's father to know about his existence?" Mom asked.

"He told me he didn't want any 'accidents'," I said, "But I didn't feel right with that, so I decided on the off chance that I do get pregnant, that I would keep it. Besides, I haven't seen him since we had that one-night stand, because he said some other awful stuff too."

"Like what?" Mom asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," I said.

"But now I want to know," Mom said.

"Mom, please," I said, "Just drop it."

"Okay, fine," Mom said, "Let's get you home."

When we got home, I went straight to my room and lay down on my bed. This pregnancy nonsense was getting tiring. I couldn't really handle this as well as I thought I could. My brain seemed to be in such a strange state that I almost wanted to scream and throw my pillow against the wall.

When it was time for me to have the baby, I went to the hospital that my doctor was affiliated with, with both of my parents. When I got situated in my room, Mom left to answer a phone call. She came back a few minutes later with a huge grin on her face, which typically meant that either one of two options was going to happen: 1, something terrible was about to happen, or 2, something was about to change.

About 30 minutes into my labor, guess who shows up? Tristan, my old best friend, with his Mom in tow. Tristan looked embarrassed, but his Mom looked angry.

"Casper Jones, I can't believe you almost had my grandbaby without my knowledge," Tristan's Mom said.

"Mom, what did you do?" I asked.

"They have a right to know," Mom said.

"Tristan, I can't believe my son would be so irresponsible," Tristan's Mom said, "You should've married her a long time ago. You two were always so cute together, but I had no idea that Casper was actually a girl this whole time. Why didn't you tell me sooner, Mrs. Jones?"

"Well, there were some family circumstances," Dad said, "But it's no longer an issue. I do hope that you'll forgive us for keeping it a secret. I don't think anyone would've expected this outcome, especially when my daughter told my wife that she and Tristan weren't on speaking terms." Tristan came over to the side of my bed and leaned down over my face, as if he was going to kiss me, which was not what I wanted at all right now.

"I'm sorry, Casper," Tristan whispered, looking into my eyes, "I was being really selfish, wasn't I? But I don't really understand why you want to keep the baby between us. By the way you acted back then, it was obvious that you didn't want to hold me back, but this is too big to be kept a secret forever."

"This was supposed to be a happy day," I whispered, "Why did you come to ruin it?"

"It wasn't my idea," Tristan whispered.

"Oh, the happy couple is about to kiss," a nurse said as she came in. She startled us, and we did end up kissing, or more like bonking our lips together. For some reason, right after that, Tristan decided that he actually wanted to kiss me, so he did. He moved away just in time for another wave of pain to go through me.

There was a complication on my end a few hours into the labor, and the doctor made the split-second decision to give me a C-section. The baby boy was born healthy, but I was a mess.

"It's a boy," the doctor said, as the sound of a baby crying filled the room. A few minutes later, my son was placed on my chest. "Have you picked out his name yet?" I locked eyes with Tristan, who had stayed in the room while they operated on me, and who looked overjoyed at the arrival of our son.

"I need to talk to his Dad about it," I said.

"You still have time," the doctor said. A little while later, they moved us into another room, and my parents, as well as Tristan's family, came in to meet our son.

"Have you chosen a name for him?" Tristan's Mom asked.

"Not yet," I said. "I can't think of a good one for my son."

"Why don't you talk it over with my son?" Tristan's Mom asked.

"I don't..." I started, but decided that telling her that I don't want to would probably hurt her, even though she was hurt enough already with not even knowing that I was pregnant with her grandson until I was giving birth to him.

"It's okay, dear," Tristan's Dad said, "Don't beat yourself up too much about it. I know that you haven't been on good terms with my son since you two broke up." We were never together, so how would we break up?

"I think we'd better leave the three of them alone," Dad said. They need some rest and time to work things out." Everyone, except Tristan, our baby, and myself, left the room.

"Tristan, I think we should talk," I said.

"I agree," Tristan said, "I think I should apologize for my words and actions. You didn't deserve any of that, and honestly, I'm glad that you kept our baby. He's very cute."

"I still can't believe that my Mom had the gall to invite you and your family today," I said, "But maybe this was for the best. I shouldn't have kept his existence a secret for all these months."

"I'm sorry that I kissed you earlier," Tristan said, "The way our lips bumped together when you jolted made me want to, but I guess I should've asked. I didn't really feel right dating anyone else after our... Encounter."

"Just say what it was, a one-night stand," I said, "I honestly didn't like the way you spoke to me the morning after, but at least you didn't leave before I woke up or something."

"I know now that I was just being immature and selfish," Tristan said. Would you want to go out with me? I don't mind if you make me wait, but I would like to be a part of our son's life." For some reason, my heart fluttered, something that hadn't happened in a while. I can't let this jerk try to win me over. He didn't even remember that we were long-time friends the last time we met.

"I don't know," I said, "But there are more pressing matters at hand."

"Like what?" Tristan asked.

"Our son doesn't have a name," I said.

"You didn't pick one out?" Tristan asked.

"I did, but since you got here, I completely forgot it," I said.

"Do you remember the first letter?" Tristan asked.

"No," I said, "It's just completely gone."

"Well, I don't think it would be appropriate for him to be a junior," Tristan said, "So what about something that combines our names?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Cassian," Tristan said, "It's much better than the other one, which would be something similar to the word trickster."

"Cassian?" I asked, "How about Cassian Lukas Jones?"

"Why would he have your last name?" Tristan asked.

"Because you're still in the process of earning my heart, Tristan," I said.

"So, what do you want me to do in order to earn it?" Tristan asked.

"It's up to you to find out," I said.