A fourth "Breaking series" story for my wonderful readers! Enjoy!:)


It was well past midnight, but for the first time in a month, Tori Vega found that she couldn't go to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking… couldn't stop thinking about the memories of what that man had done to her, about what Jade and Beck had revealed earlier that afternoon, about Roxy, and about… the other thing.

She sat up, pitting her head in her hands as the blankets fell away from her body. Tori got out of bed and began to pace back and forth across her bedroom. If Jade had figured it out, did that mean that other people had? Had Jade even figured it out, or was she just being paranoid? She really didn't think she was, and that was what bothered her the most. If Jade knew, had she told Beck? Their other friends, maybe? Had her parents realized what was going on?

Tori leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes at the very thought. She slid down the wall, once again burying her head in her hands.

A shaft of light poured into her otherwise dark bedroom, and then a careful voice whispered softly, "Tori?"

Tori groaned, not lifting her head as she ordered, "Go away, Trina."

But just like every other time that Trina had found her awake at some odd hour; the elder Vega sister did nothing of the sort. Instead she pushed the bedroom door open a little further and slipped into the room and folded herself onto the floor beside her sister, despite the fact that she had obviously already been asleep at some recent point during the night.

"More nightmares again?" Trina asked softly.

Tori shook her head. "I can't sleep."

"You can't, or are you making yourself stay awake again?"

"I can't," Tori reiterated, an edge creeping into her voice despite the fact that it probably was a valid question.

"Why?"

Tori shook her head again, looking down at her hands as she picked at the shag carpet underneath her fingertips. She exchanged a question for a question, asking, "Do you know that Beck and Jade are married?"

"What?!"

Tori nodded, still keeping her dull gaze fastened on the carpet as she said in a monotone that was just as disconnected, "They even have a kid. Well, Jade has a kid; she's Beck's step-daughter."

"Jade cheated on him?"

Tori shook her head.

"Then what?" Trina asked.

Tori took a labored breath, answering vaguely, "Let's just say that there's a really good reason that Jade has been so understanding about what's going on with me."

"Oh…" Trina breathed. A thick pause and then, "How long ago did she get pregnant?"

"In eighth grade. She and Beck apparently got married on her sixteenth birthday."

Trina sat back beside of her, looking understandably startled as she whispered, "Wow."

"Yeah," Tori croaked.

It was odd; during the daytime, not much had changed between the two of them. They were the same sort of sisters as they had always been – the kind that next to never got along, that got on one another's nerves all the time, sometimes just for the fun of it. But once the door to their parents' bedroom closed behind David and Holly each night, it was like someone flipped a switch. They became the other sort of sisters. They became people who actually cared about one another, who were actually considerate of one another… people who were actually friends.

And when it hit Tori then that she needed to make sure that someone knew her secret, Trina was the nearest person to unload it on. Since they were in "nighttime mode" it didn't even seem like a bad idea.

"Hey, Trina?" Tori whispered after a pause as she finally looked over at her big sister.

"Yeah?"

"Can I tell you something?"

Trina's eyes were wide and unsuspecting as she repositioned so that she was sitting on her feet in front of her sister, their knees almost touching and murmured, "Of course you can, anything at all."

Two words. That was all that she needed to say. Only two words, three syllables, needed to be forced out of her throat and into the air, but Tori almost couldn't do it. She almost couldn't voice the fact aloud.

"Tori," Trina finally asked, reaching out to take one of her clammy hands. "What's wrong?"

Tori's voice was barely audible when she choked it out, and she could feel the familiar, dark emotions covering her like a suffocating blanket as those two words were forced into the air between the two sisters.

"I'm pregnant."

"What?" Trina breathed, yet by the look in her eyes she had obviously heard Tori. "You're having a baby?"

Tori leaned her head back against the wall, staring up at the dark ceiling as she spoke, "Maybe… yeah… I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Trina asked as gentle as she had ever been, but obviously not understanding what she was being told.

"I was just… I was so sure that I just wanted to get rid of it; I even had Lane get me in touch with an abortion clinic and I set up an appointment to have the surgery done. Now I just don't… I don't know."

"The baby… it's from the guy who…?"

Tori fought to keep from sobbing as she nodded. "That's all it could be."

"I knew that," Trina said, obviously regretting the question. "That considered I don't see how anyone could fault you for wanting to get rid of it."

"Yeah, I know; I thought so too… but then I saw Jade's daughter, how much Beck and Jade loved her, and Jade told me about when she was pregnant and I think that she might have changed my mind."

"Do Mom and Dad know?"

Tori shook her head. "I just found out a couple of weeks ago."

"What about Andre? Beck and Jade?"

Again, Tori shook her head. "You're the first person I've told. Jade just figured it out on her own."

"Well, what are you going to do?" Trina asked.

"I…" Tori's mind had been going a mile a minute, but with that question it slowed down as she realized one thing. "I'm going to cancel that appointment at the abortion clinic."

"You know that means that you'll have to tell Mom, Dad, and your friends, right?" Trina asked carefully.

Tori nodded, her resolve building as she spoke the words that she suddenly knew to be the right answer for her. "Yeah, but if I have to, then that's okay. I want to keep my baby."


Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter, and are enjoying this series as much as I am! Reviews make my day, if you feel so inclined! Thanks!:)

P.S. I've got a new poll up, if you guys want to take a look at it! Thanks!:)