[u]Baby Drama[/u]

Loyal Heart landed back in the Forest of Feelings, he had gone to Earth on a mission a short time ago but on the way back, stopped to buy something he had wanted to for a long time. Now he had it and he was happy to be bringing it home, as a surprise for his lady Proud Heart.

Upon landing, Loyal Heart headed straight for Proud Heart's home, smiling broadly, and thankfully not encountering any unexpected surprises along the way. He reached her house to find her sitting on her front deck wearing her yellow sundress, which was actually a couple sizes too big for her, and looking quite sad, sitting with her arms in her lap and an expression on her face that made the blue dog feel her sorrow. Loyal Heart did his best to smile and walked up on the deck.

"Milady, are you well?" he asked.

Proud Heart looked up, managing a weak smile, "Hi, Loyal Heart, I'm as well as I can be."

"Perhaps I can cheer you up then, Proud Heart," he moved in front of her and procured a small box from his pocket, "I know this won't be for some time, but despite how old we are, I felt I should ask you this now," he got down on one knee in front of her and held the box up, opening it to reveal a silver ring with a topaz gem set in it, "Proud Heart, milady, will you marry me."

Proud Heart suddenly started crying openly. Taken aback by this reaction, Loyal Heart stood up and asked, with concern in his voice, "Proud Heart, what's wrong?"

"Oh Loyal Heart!" she stood up crying and hugged him, crying into his chest, "I think I'm pregnant!" Loyal Heart stood stunned for a moment then hugged her back, not sure what to say.

******

Jolly was bouncing excitedly in the cloud mobile beside Cozy Heart. This was going to be the first official mission he was going on. While he should be nervous he may do or say the wrong thing, he was treating this new stage of his life as he did everything, jollily.

Friend and Secret were searching the ground for a spot to land from the front seat. Seeing a vacant lot at the end of the street their charge lived on, they put the cloud mobile down.

"So the teens name is Vicky and she has been very upset the past week and is taking it out on her mom and dad."

"No worries love, OI can make 'er smoile again."

"I don't doubt that Jolly. But first we have to figure out why she's upset so we can help her fix the problem."

Secret pulled on Friend Bears arm, fervently whispering in her ear. "I know Secret," To the others she repeated what he said, "Secret reminded us that we shouldn't be too pushy with her. Teenagers shut up the more you push."

"Sssecret we know, we are teenagerssss." Cozy told him with a smile. As they walked down the street to Vicky's house, they cracked jokes at each other and had a laughing fit when Secret stepped in a wad of gum.

Arriving at the house they saw Vicky sitting on her porch, eyes red and puffy and wringing a piece of paper in her hands.

"Oy love, what's with the water works?"

Looking up Vicky yelped as she saw two orange bears, a purple penguin, and a violet platypus standing on her walkway.

"Who are you?"

"We're the Care Bears. I'm Friend Bear and this is Secret Bear, Cozy Heart Penguin, and Jolly Heart Platypus. We saw you were upset so we thought we'd come and cheer you up."

Vicky frowned, "Have you been spying on me?"

"No sheila. A lil' birdy tol' us you were 'avin a rough go of it an we wan't ta help."

Jolly grinned widely at her before offering her a tissue from his khaki shorts pocket. Accepting it and blowing her nose, her eyes once more focused on the pavement.

"I don't think you guys can really help with this one. I screwed up majorly."

Friend patted her knee comfortingly, "Well why don't you tell us and we'll see. If you're worried we might tell someone else, don't. No one keeps a secret like Secret Bear."

Wringing her hands nervously on around the paper in her hand she took a shaky breath. "I…I think I might be pregnant."

There was a moment of silence before Secrets eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.

******

"Proud Heart are you certain?" Loyal Heart asked.

Proud Heart had calmed down a bit and had stopped crying vocally, but tears were still forming as she spoke, "Not completely, but I've had most of the symptoms, and they started after that one night…" she trailed off. Loyal Heart nodded and rubbed her back comfortingly, he knew what she referring to.

"Proud Heart, if you are not sure perhaps you should go to Take Care and ask him for some tests," Loyal Heart suggested.

"I have, considered it," Proud Heart admitted, "but, I was too ashamed to tell anyone before now."

"If you are willing to go, I will be there to support you," Loyal Heart told her reassuringly.

"Thank you, Loyal Heart," she kissed him, "I think I can do this," she stood up and Loyal Heart stood up with her as they headed to Take Care's office.

At Take Care's office Loyal Heart was sitting in the waiting room as Proud Heart was getting her tests from the doctor bear. He was thinking about things, mostly about how the two of them had allowed themselves to get to this situation, they were still young. He'd heard that people on earth sometimes went through this, but he was prepared to do the right thing.

In the office, Proud Heart sat on an examination table as Take Care finished the tests.

"There, now we just need to wait a moment," Take Care turned to Proud Heart, "You do know that if the test comes back positive, you will have to tell everyone about this, especially Noble Heart and True Heart."

"I know," Proud Heart said. She felt both remorseful and somewhere inside her, maybe happy, but she had to wait to find out the facts first.

******

They had carried Secret inside to the couch and waited for him to recover. In the mean time, Vicky told them how she and her boyfriend had been dating since they were 14 and that they felt they were ready to take the next step. They had only done "it" the one time about a month ago, and they had used protection.

However Vicky was late and she was freaking out that it was because she was pregnant. Cozy Heart asked her if she had taken a pregnancy test yet.

"Not yet. I have one but I'm too scared to take it. If it's positive I don't know what I'll do."

"Have you told your boyfriend yet? Maybe we should get him over for support."

Vicky shook her head so hard they were afraid it as going to fall off her neck. "No! I can't tell him yet. He'll break up with me I know he will." She glanced at the letter in her hand. It was a note from her beau from their one year anniversary. She had re-read it over and over trying to draw some form of courage from it.

"Easy on love, let's not jump the gun. If he loves ye he isn't gonna jus jump ship cause ye may 'ave a kipper on the way."

"Jolly's right. First things first, come upstairs with Cozy and me and take the test. Then we will figure out where to go from there."

"Jolly can you keep an eye on Ssssecret until he wakes up?"

"No worries love." He watched the girls go upstairs with Vicky before grabbing a magazine. Looking to Secret he couldn't help but shake his head.

******

Proud Heart finally emerged from the office and Loyal Heart stood up to greet her.

"Milady, are you all right, what did the tests show?" he asked, concerned. Proud Heart didn't speak and merely handed the test result print out to the dog for him to read. Loyal Heart read the results and it confirmed their worries, Proud Heart was indeed pregnant. Proud Heart began to cry again and hugged Loyal Heart tightly.

"Oh Loyal Heart, what are we going to do?"

Loyal Heart hugged her back and said, "I asked you earlier before you told me what was wrong, and now I'm asking you again," he pulled out the ring box and held it up in front of Proud Heart, "Will you marry me Milady?"

Proud Heart took the ring, and for the first time that day, smiled as she slipped it on her ring finger, "Oh Loyal Heart, of course I will," she kissed him deeply.

Take Care appeared at the entrance to the waiting room and spoke up, "You two will still have to inform the founders of your decision and this situation."

******

After Vicky emerged from the bathroom she paced her room, waiting for the timer to go off.

"Vicky either way, everything will be okay. You just need to talk with your parents and-"

"Are you crazy!" she exploded at Friend cutting her off. "My parents will kill me! I'm not supposed to be having sex at my age, I just gave in because all my friends were and my boy friend really wanted to."

"Did he force you too?" Cozy inquired.

"No he would never. He really is a great guy. I just didn't want to say no, but I wasn't totally ready yet either."

"You should have told him. Honesty is always the best policy. And he would have understood and waited. If not then he wasn't the right guy for you."

She sat on her bed drawing her knees up to her chest. They sat in silence for the next couple of minutes until the ominous ding was heard from the bathroom. Vicky, Cozy Heart, and Friend all shot for the door, got stuck in it and had to wiggle their way through, causing them to collapse in a heap.

Hand scrabbling on the counter, Vicky retrieved the test and brought it down to the floor.

"Well, what doesss it sssay?" Cozy asked the wide eyed Vicky.

******

Noble Heart sighed once he'd heard the story from Loyal Heart and Proud Heart. Holding his head in his hands he said, "Were you two even thinking about the consequences of your actions when you did that?"

"Not really," Proud Heart admitted. Loyal Heart nodded in agreement with her.

"Well what can I say that will change anything, you two have to live with the consequences of your actions," Noble Heart sat down.

"What do you two plan to do?" True Heart asked.

"I've asked Proud Heart to marry me," Loyal Heart asked. Noble Heart and True Heart both exchanged looks and before they could say anything, Proud Heart spoke up to defend the decision.

"He asked me to marry him before I told him I was pregnant, and I want to because he makes me happy."

"Very well," Noble Heart said, "I'll leave you two to do what you can." Loyal Heart and Proud Heart nodded and left, hand in hand.

"It looks like we gave Loyal Heart the right name," True Heart commented.

"Yes, that is true," Noble Heart said, "But they've still made a serious mistake when it come to this situation. At least they will have our support and the support of the Care Bear Family in this matter."

"I'm sure they will," True Heart said, giving Noble Heart a kiss on the cheek.

******

Her mouth widened into a grin as her shoulders sagged in relief, "It's negative. I'm not pregnant."

Friend and Cozy sighed along with her. "That'ssss great newsss."

Vicky nodded and hugged them, "Thank you so much for helping me through this. I have to go call my boyfriend. We have a few things to talk about."

"Remember be totally honest with him. If he doesn't like what you have to say then he isn't right for you."

"I will. And thanks again. I hope Secret Bear will be okay."

Friend waved her off, "You know how men are. He'll be just fine."

Cozy and Friend returned to the guys. Secret was awake and jumped to his feet when he saw them. Friend smiled at him, "False alarm, all is well."

"Croikey that was a close one eh?"

They agreed with Jolly and headed back to their cloud mobile in the vacant lot. Little did they know what was waiting for them at home.

******

Word spread fast about Loyal Heart and Proud Heart, there were some lectures, some cautions, some congratulations, and some comforting from various members of the family. Loyal Heart began to make plans to move in with Proud Heart, as well as plans for the wedding. They were scared of course, but they were together, and with that and help from the Care Bear Family, they would be able to pull through.