A/N: This is the first one shot in a compilation series. It's going to be updated sporadically because I'm mainly focusing on a multi chapter fic at the minute and just writing this while I have writer's block on the other. It should mostly be in chronological order but I make no promises. Hope you like it! Remember to review!
Jade had always thought it was bullshit that people could just know. But she was staring at the white porcelain of the toilet bowl, kneeling on the cold linoleum of her trailer bathroom, and she swore to God she just knew.
Thinking back on it, that wasn't the first indication. She'd been more tired than usual lately, she was actually heading back to her trailer between for a nap before she went out for dinner. The cast had gone out for dinner a couple weeks ago to celebrate the beginning of a new season, and the food she'd ordered had tasted vile to her, but fine to Beck, but she'd figured it was just however they'd seasoned it. She was bloated, but she'd put that down to her not eating so well lately, grabbing fast food because she didn't have time to cook.
This was not what they'd planned. So far in their lives, everything had gone pretty much exactly as they'd planned. They were well-known, but not exactly household names. They had a steady and considerable income – Beck was working on indie movies in the breaks between seasons, and until last year Jade had been working on two shows a year. They had married at twenty-one, just as they'd said when they first got engaged in their senior year of high school. But kids were meant to come later. For one thing, they'd agreed that they would finish the last season of their show before they thought about it. For another, Jade had always maintained she wanted to be at least twenty-five before she had kids, she wanted time to establish herself in her career before she had to put it aside to raise a family.
They'd been extraordinarily lucky this far. They'd have to be extremely arrogant not to know that. Jade had been cast in a teen show on the CW straight out of high school, and Beck had gotten a small part in a blockbuster movie. The next year they were cast in a Netflix show, both as main characters, and were signed on for six years. Beck was already lining a project up for next year, after they wrapped the last season of the show. There were rumours Jade was being looked at to play Veronica in the movie adaptation of Heathers the Musical. A baby wasn't in their plan for the immediate future. A baby was a spanner in the works.
She hid her face when she went to the drug store, just in case. She took the test in a public bathroom on set. The last thing she needed was for this to get back to Beck before she told him. It wasn't that she didn't want to tell him, she just wanted to be sure before she did.
She felt like she was going to suffocate within the tall plastic walls of the cubicle. They were looming over her, getting closer and closer. It was one of the longest five minutes of her life. And then her phone buzzed. The time was up. The pregnancy test had been sitting face-down on top of the trash can by the toilet. She took a deep breath and picked it up.
Positive.
It was positive. She was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. Right now, there was a whole other person inside of her. The test dated the pregnancy at five weeks. In thirty-five weeks, there was going to be a human being in the world, that wouldn't have been there if not for her and Beck. Shit.
Jade's character in the show had been pregnant last season, but Jade knew that in real life pregnancy was nothing like that. It was ugly and messy. And unplanned. Her character wasn't pregnant this season. The producers wouldn't be happy when her belly got too big to hide. Her character in her other show, which was shot in Virginia, was still meant to be a teenager. Producers on that were going to be pissed. Her sister had recently gotten engaged and now she was going to look like a whale at the wedding. There was no way she'd be cast in Heathers now. They were living in England while they filmed the show, the producers had wanted to shoot on location, instead of on manufactured sets. She didn't want her baby to be born in England. Their apartment was only a one bedroom, they hadn't needed anything bigger until now. They were going to have to deal with the stress of moving on top of the stress of being pregnant with their first child.
But she was getting ahead of herself. The first thing she had to do was tell Beck. He was filming tonight, though, probably into the little hours of the morning. She was meant to be going out to dinner with one of her co-stars. They likely wouldn't see each other until the next morning. She could go to him and ask to talk to him for a minute. But if she interrupted filming people would want to know why. There would be rumours. She wanted this to be just theirs for a while. A tiny, perfect thing that only they knew about. She had wanted that with their engagement, too, but she hadn't been able to bear taking her ring off once she finally got it on her finger.
Their lives were going to change, there was no two ways about it. But underneath all her panic and doubt, Jade really was happy about it. They had always wanted children. Jade had a big family, her siblings had been her rock throughout her childhood. Beck had always been kind of jealous of that, he confessed. When he had problems with his parents there wasn't really anyone to talk to that could empathise, he was their only child. They wanted three, they'd decided. She couldn't remember now why they'd settled on that number, it was so long ago. Probably it was enough for their kids to have that kind of camaraderie, but not so many it would be hard to handle.
Beck would be thrilled. She knew that. But how to tell him? She didn't want to make a huge deal out of it, a candlelit dinner with the positive test in a little box with a bow. Beck's proposal had been casual but perfect. She wanted her announcement to be the same.