Hello again guys. I apologize for the long delay on this story. Hopefully you all are still with me, or if you're new to the story you are enjoying it. This chapter has only been edited once, so if there are some errors I apologize.

It was a Tuesday night at Charlotte and Henry's apartment. Charlotte had been sitting in her room, watching a marathon of one of her favorite shows on tv. It was currently storming outside, and she could feel the building shake a bit as each clap of thunder came about. She was home alone, as Henry had been at the library studying for one of his classes as exams were drawing closer.

Charlotte had been finding it more difficult to study lately. She figured perhaps it was the silence of it all, with her nose in the book and the tv off, she found it easier to slip into her own thoughts. After finding out she was pregnant, she wasn't short on thoughts these days. It had been all she could think about. The two weeks was almost up, and she and Henry were supposed to talk about what they wanted to do with the baby.

Even though she knew that it wasn't ideal, she would keep the baby. Even if her parents weren't happy, and even if it wasn't what Henry wanted to do. She would keep her child. Charlotte knew that if she placed this child for adoption, she would spend her whole life wondering what could have been. She would do this, with or without support from others.

After a few hours of her tv marathon, she got up to make some popcorn. She wondered if maybe Henry would stay late at the library on a count of the rain, but in the few minutes that it took the popcorn to pop she saw the front door open.

"Oh hey! Popcorn? You must be having a tv marathon. What's the show?" Henry asked as he took off his rain coat.

"Um, just a season of Friends." Charlotte answered him. She had seen that show a thousand times. She owned all 10 seasons. It wasn't lost on her that her favorite season was number 8, the season where Ross and Rachel sleep together and she ends up pregnant. Did the universe love to pick on her?

"Oh awesome, count me in." Henry grabbed a handful of popcorn. "Wait, it's not season 1 is it?"

"No, it's season 7. And what do you have against season 1?"

"It's just not my favorite, that's all." He grabbed a few more kernels.

"Are you going to eat all of my popcorn? Do I need to pop another bag?"

"If we need another bag, I'll pop it. Don't worry."

Charlotte watched him shake out his hair. It was raining pretty hard outside and even with his rain jacket his hair had been thoroughly soaked. It was actually really cute, and Charlotte hated that no matter what he did, he had some sort of effect on her. It made her stomach flip and her body temperature rise and she needed that to end one way or another.

These past few weeks, after finding out she was pregnant, everything had been in a tailspin. She needed it to stop. She couldn't wait any longer. Even though the two weeks weren't up, she wanted to tell Henry her thoughts about their child.

"I need to tell you something…"

Henry had just grabbed the bowl of popcorn and was in the process of walking to her bedroom to watch the show, when she spoke. It stopped him and he turned back to face her. "Okay. Is everything alright?" The way she had spoken so softly had him concerned.

"Yeah. It's fine. I just wanted to talk to you about, you know, what I wanted to do…"

"Okay. Well are you sure you've thought about it long enough. The two weeks aren't up. If you need more time…"

"No, I don't need any more time. I know what I want to do."

"Alright. Um, shoot then, I suppose." Henry placed the bowl of popcorn back on the counter and took a seat on the barstool. He watched as Charlotte wrung her hands and fingers together. He noticed that she did that out of nervousness. He was tempted to reach out to her, but didn't want to spook her. He would just let her take her time.

Charlotte thought she might throw up. She was about to tell Henry that she wanted to keep this baby. What if he didn't want that? She knew that she would raise this child with or without Henry, but if she were being honest, she wanted to do it WITH him. But she couldn't put that pressure or burden on him. She would give him the out, and let him go if that was what he wanted. He wouldn't be asked to do anything if that was what he chose. After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, she spoke.

"I've decided to keep the baby. And I don't know if that was what you wanted too, Henry, but I don't care. I'm going to raise this child. But I want you to know that you don't have to do anything if you don't want to. I'm letting you off of the hook."

"Letting me off of the hook? I don't really understand."

"Yeah, you know. You don't have to spend money, or change diapers, or stay up all night when it cries."

Henry couldn't believe his ears. She really was telling him that if he wanted nothing to change, nothing had to. He could just go on with his life, without the responsibility of a child. But is that what he wanted? Absolutely not. Sure, it wasn't something he was planning on, but the idea of having a kid was starting to grow on him. And there was absolutely no way that he could have a child out there, being raised by Charlotte, and have nothing to do with it. He had to make her see that he would be there for both of them.

"But, I want to do that stuff."

She looked up from where she had turned her head toward the floor. "Huh?"

"My vote was to keep the baby. I know we didn't plan this but I feel we can do it." Henry reassured her.

"…You're sure?"

"Yes. I am. Think about it, this could work. I'm getting a bigger salary from Ray now that I'm finishing school. So I'll have more money."

"Okay. That's good I guess." Charlotte agreed.

"And we already have our own place, so we don't have to worry about moving anywhere."

"But Henry, our apartment doesn't have a third bedroom."

Henry took a few seconds before he responded. "We don't need one of those right away. Babies sleep in a crib. We can put it in the living room for now, or one of our rooms."

"I suppose." Charlotte grabbed a few pieces of popcorn from the bowl. "What about when you bring home a girl that you like? There is going to be baby stuff all over the living room."

"Hey! If she can't handle me having a kid, then she isn't for me. Besides, I doubt I'll be dating for awhile anyways."

Charlotte sighed. Henry had so much going for him and as much as he said he wanted to raise this child, she wasn't sure he really understood how much raising this baby would change his life. "See, this is why I wanted to let you off of the hook. You have a life Henry. A life that didn't involve having a child with your best friend. This is going to change everything about your life."

"And I'm okay with that. I promise."

"You aren't just saying that you want to keep the baby because I want to right?"

"You can ask Ray if you don't believe me, I've always wanted to keep it."

"Really?"

"Yes Char. You really think I could just abandon you and this responsibility?"

"No. You wouldn't. I know you wouldn't."

Henry placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to meet her eyes. "So trust me. Trust that I will be there."

After a few moments she nodded. "Okay. I trust you."

"So, if we are doing this, I guess we should tell people. Like our parents, and Jasper and Piper."

"I don't want to tell them yet. You shouldn't tell people until you are out of your first trimester. That's when the risk of miscarriage lowers."

"Oh. Okay then, I suppose you're right. I should make sure to tell Ray to keep it on the DL."

"Yeah, probably for the best."

"When we do tell our parents, I want to be there with you to tell yours. It's partly my fault and my responsibility. I can face your parents when we tell them. I know you're sort of worried about that."

"I just know they will be so disappointed. This isn't what they had in mind for my life, I'm sure."

"I know…I'm really sorry, again."

"Me too. But it will be okay. We, will be okay."

Eventually in the next few weeks, Charlotte and Henry had both graduated from college. Jasper had also graduated from his college a week later. Henry's parents had invited them all over to their house to celebrate with a small get together. It was mostly family and a few close family friends. No more than 20 people.

Charlotte had been doing well and she and Henry had even gone to the doctor, in secret, to have an ultrasound done. There was no denying it, she was definitely pregnant. Unless there was an alien playing the drums in her uterus. But that was highly unlikely.

Having that ultrasound done was really a turning point for Henry and Charlotte. Of course they knew she was pregnant, but actually hearing a heartbeat and seeing an image of their child made it real. They hadn't told their parents yet, as graduation was upon them, but once that excitement died down they would start to go about it.

"Hey Charlotte. Did Henry tell you that I found a new place down on sixth ave above the deli that I'm going to move to next month?"

Charlotte turned to see Jasper walking over to the couch to sit down next to her.

"Oh yeah. He mentioned it." She spooned some more pudding into her mouth. "How did you hear about that place? I thought that old man who always went to Yotally Togurt 5 minutes before they closed lived there."

"Yeah he did. But apparently he died last month."

Charlotte nodded slowly. "Tough break…"

"Yeah, and his daughter wanted to be rid of the place so she put it up for cheap. It's really in great shape, and that deli has a mean tuna melt, so I'm excited to be so close to that!"

Charlotte placed her hand on her mouth before she could even think about vomiting. She never liked tuna, but now that she was pregnant, even thinking about tuna would make her stomach turn.

"You okay?" Jasper asked.

"Um, yeah. I'm probably eating too much pudding or something. I should go put it in the fridge for later. Congrats on the new apartment Jasper. Let me know when I can come see it, okay?"

"Okay. Got cha!"

Henry replaced the spot on the couch Charlotte had vacated a few minutes before.

"Hey Jasper, if my dad asks, you aren't free next weekend. He wants you and I to come over and film his audition for America's Got Talent."

"What's his talent?"

"I have no idea, but I don't want to find out." The two boys shared a laugh. "Dude, I'm going to grab some of my mom's pudding, you want a bowl?"

"I think I'll pass. Charlotte was eating some earlier and she looked like she was going to hurl."

"Oh yeah?" Henry looked behind Jasper to see Charlotte in the kitchen putting her pudding bowl in the fridge. He was pretty sure it wasn't the quality of the pudding that was making her queasy. "She probably just ate too much of it. I'm sure it's fine."

"Dang it!" Jasper exclaimed.

"What's up?"

"I was going to show you my final project for one of my film classes, but my phone is pretty much dead."

"Hey no problem. You know you can borrow my charger, it's up in my room."

"Thanks man. I'll be right back. I can't wait for you to see it!"

As Jasper went upstairs, Henry moved around the room to talk to his family members and friends who were still in the living room. Some of Piper's friends came too, and he had spent a good deal of his time avoiding them. Piper was in high school now and her friends all thought he was cute and constantly tried to chat him up. Even if he wasn't about to have a baby, he wouldn't be chatting it up with high schoolers.

"Hey, Piper!" Henry whisper yelled. When she turned to look at him he waved her over.

"What now?"

"Can you like, tell your friends to stop staring at me? It's creepy."

"Um, you act as if I enjoy my friends being into you. I don't just in case you weren't sure." She folded her arms over her chest. "And by the way, thanks for pawning Dad off on me earlier. He's making me film him next weekend for an America's Got Talent audition."

Henry snickered. "Awesome…"

"I do kind of owe him one after he didn't tell mom that I missed curfew a few weeks ago."

"You missed curfew?"

"Only by like 15 minutes. Totally not a big deal."

"Well have a good time with Dad and his 'talent', I'm sure it will be…"

Henry was cut off by Jasper grabbing his arm roughly and twisting him around. "Jasper, dude! Where's the fire?!"

"What in the hell is this?!"

Henry looked down at what was in Jasper's hand. It was an ultrasound. The ultrasound of the baby Charlotte was currently carrying. He had forgotten that it was in his bedside table…where he was also storing his phone charger.

"Jasper, buddy. Just keep your voice down okay?"

"Henry! Why is there an ultrasound picture in your drawer? Why does it have Charlotte's name on it? What on earth is going on?"

Piper tried to look around Henry at what Jasper had in his hands. "What's going on?"

Henry turned around and grasped Piper by the shoulders. "Nothing! I think Dad wanted to talk to you about his audition video, why don't you go talk about it!" He gave her a small push toward their father and sent her on her way. Turning back towards his frantic friend he approached cautiously. "Okay look. Jasper. I can explain."

"Is Charlotte pregnant?!"

"Shh! Keep your voice down!" Running his hands through his hair, he realized that he wouldn't be able to hide it from him any longer. "Okay, yes Charlotte is pregnant."

"Oh my god!"

"Shh!" Henry looked around to see if anyone heard them. "That's why she seemed sick earlier when she was eating the pudding."

"Oh my god!"

"Okay, for real buddy, please keep your voice down. Literally no one in this room knows except for me and Charlotte."

"How long have you known?"

"Um, a while…"

"She told you way before she told me?! Technically she never even told me! Why wouldn't she tell me?!" Jasper looked down at the ultrasound. "Wait a minute, why was this in your room?..."

Henry could see the realization light up on his friends face. "Oh no, Jasper, buddy, please don't!"

"Oh my god!" Jasper yelled. "You got Charlotte pregnant?!"

Henry watched as Jasper placed both hands over his mouth and his eyes went wide at the realization that all eyes in the room were on them. But it was too late, he couldn't put the words back in his friend's mouth. Scanning the room, he saw the eyes of his parents, sister, etc. looking back at him with shock and confusion. He looked behind Jasper and saw Charlotte standing in the kitchen. He couldn't really distinguish the look on her face, but he did see her attempt to avoid eye contact with everyone as she calmly walked towards the door.

"Charlotte. Don't go, please." He attempted to stop her.

"It's okay, Henry. I'm just going to go outside for a little bit. Get some air. Pray that this is all a dream and that Jasper didn't just shout that to the entire room."

Henry ran his hands through his hair again as the door closed behind her. "Um. Okay. Well I suppose the cat's out of the bag now…" He sighed. "I know you all have a lot of questions or comments, so everyone just take a number, get in line, and I will get to you all in an orderly fashion. Numero uno: Jasper. Can you follow me upstairs please buddy?"

As they went upstairs and closed the bedroom door, Henry turned on his friend. "What the hell man?!"

"I'm so sorry. I was just so shocked about what was happening I didn't realize how loud that was or that other people were paying attention. Damnit I'm sorry."

Henry sighed. "It's alright. Really it's my fault. Apparently I shouldn't have left the ultrasound anywhere besides my pants pocket. Lest someone find it and freak out…"

"Dude. Where you guys going to tell me?"

"Yes okay, of course we were. We hadn't told anyone yet though. Well besides Ray. We were waiting until after graduation excitement blew over before dropping this emotional bomb on everyone."

"How did this bomb even happen?"

"Jasper, buddy, I know you went to film school with a bunch of guys, but you have to know how that works…"

"I know that! I'm saying how did it come about that you and Charlotte did that?"

So Henry spent the next 15 minutes filling Jasper in on Spring Break, and on the last few months of his life knowing about the baby. In a way, he was actually relieved to tell this to his friend. Besides Ray, he always had to walk on eggshells around everyone. Now it felt really good to spill the secret.

"Hey. Do you mind if I come sit with you for a minute?"

Charlotte looked up to see Henry's sister, Piper, standing next to the bench swing that she was seated on. "Um, sure."

Piper sat down and started to rock. "Are you really pregnant?"

Charlotte nodded. "Yep."

"Is Henry really the father?"

"Yep."

"So you guys had sex?"

"…Yep."

"Wow. And I thought this party was going to be boring."

"Piper. Look. I'm probably going to be getting a lot of lectures from your family in the next couple of hours, so could you just spare me, please?"

"I wasn't going to lecture you. I just wanted to tell you how excited I am!"

"Excited?"

"Yeah! I'm going to be an aunt! How cool is that?"

"You mean, you're cool with this?"

"Hey, out of everyone in that living room I'm probably going to be the one who is the most chill with this news today. Be prepared. I mean, they aren't going to hate you guys or anything but they might raise their voices a bit."

"Great. I can't wait for that. Thanks for the pep talk Piper."

"You may want to stay out here for just a little longer, let the news settle in. Maybe let Henry take the brunt of the storm." Piper snapped her fingers. "I know! I can drive you home if you want to get out of here. I got my license last month." Charlotte narrowed her eyes at the younger girl. "My actual license! I took a test and everything this time."

"As long as it's not still that accidental license you got a few years ago."

"Nope. I'm legal now. Well, legal to drive at least."

"I should probably stay. I can't let Henry do this alone. Give me another few minutes and I'll be back in."

"Okay. I'll let him know. Normally I would want all of the juicy gossip, like how in the world this came to occur. This time however, not so much. You know, my brother and all. Ugh, gross."

Charlotte chuckled and shook her head in disbelief at Henry's sister as she watched her walk back into the house. Not as soon as she walked inside, Jasper walked out.

"Hey, Charlotte. Mind if I sit?"

"By all means, go ahead." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ousted you guys with this whole thing. But hopefully you can understand how shocked I was when I realized what had happened." The swing bounced a bit when Jasper added his bodyweight to it.

"Of course. It's okay. I'm really sorry that we sort of kept it from you. We were planning to start telling people in the next week or so."

"I know. I talked to Henry for awhile upstairs. He told me about everything. I know this isn't exactly what you guys had planned for yourselves after graduation, but you have my support."

"Thanks Jasper. That means a lot."

Jasper used one foot to start rocking the swing slightly. "Just understand that it may take me a little while to get used to this. I mean, my two best friends slept together and are having a baby. It's not exactly a situation that happens every day."

"Yeah. So I gathered."

"All of those people in there." He pointed back towards the living room. "Don't worry about them. They will be supportive. But it might take them a bit to get over the shock. You guys weren't even dating to their knowledge and now they find out that you were sleeping with each other and created life. A lot to take in."

"Been there." She scoffed as she pointed to herself.

"I suppose you're right. That must have been pretty shocking." He clapped his hands together. "But think about all of the cool parts of this. There is going to be a kid that looks like you and acts like Henry!" He backtracked when she gave him a look. "Or the other way around…"

"That's better."

"And I'm going to be Uncle Jasper! I can teach the kid about all of the cool stuff this world has to offer!"

"Now Jasper, don't get your hopes up. Not everyone is interested in structures made out of toothpicks, or using their mother's fine china as percussion instruments to audition for the Baytown symphony."

"I swear, I'll never live that down. I told you guys…using something unusual as an instrument gives you an edge. It helps your audition stand out."

"Oh it stood out alright. It really stood out when you broke just about every single plate and platter that you were using. You know who especially took notice of that? Your mom."

He nodded slowly. "Yep. Grounded for a month."

"Please don't teach my kid how to get grounded."

"But then it won't be any fun."

The door to Henry's house opened again and Charlotte was concerned that it was another person who wanted to talk to her about her pregnancy. Thank goodness that it was only Henry.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt here, but we should probably go." Henry shut the door behind him.

"What do you mean?" Charlotte asked. "You don't think we should do damage control?"

"Well it seems like 30 minutes was all my family needed to get over the shock of it all, because now my dad is talking about how I'm really growing up and becoming a man and how proud he is of me taking responsibility for my actions. And he's hugging me a bunch."

"Don't take offense, but your dad is a tad bit on the strange side." Jasper told him as he stood up off of the bench, making it bounce a bit again.

Henry scoffed. "Jasper, you live on the strange side. I wouldn't judge."

"Duly noted."

"Also, my mom. Once she got over the shock that I slept with my best friend and got her pregnant, she was excited. She can't wait to hold this baby and buy it all sorts of things. But she said this kid is not calling her 'grandma', because that implies that she's old." He met Charlotte's eyes. "Also if you can, I would come up with an excuse for why she can't be in the delivery room with you, because she's going to try to be."

"Great. Can't wait for that." Charlotte stood up from the bench.

"I apologize in advance."

"Well I feel bad just leaving like this. Shouldn't I at least pop my head in and say goodbye?" She asked.

"Oh no!" Henry exclaimed. "You show your face in there and my mom and sister might just start planning your baby shower."

"They do know I'm not 'that' pregnant yet right? We've still got time."

"I wouldn't risk it."

"Okie dokie then. Let's roll."

"I'll go back inside and make something up to tell your family on why you left." Jasper headed towards the door to the house.

"What are you going to say?" She asked.

"How about, 'Charlotte and Henry had to leave because Henry had to re-gel his hair?"

Henry chuckled at the joke. "Why not just say that we had to leave because Charlotte wasn't feeling well?"

"Nah, like anyone would believe that." Jasper laughed as he walked back inside of Henry's house.

Henry and Charlotte looked at each other and shook their heads at their longtime friend. "You know how I said that Jasper lived on the strange side?" Henry asked her.

"Yeah?"

"I think he may have actually bought real estate there. He's no longer renting…it's permanent."

A few nights later, Henry had come home to a quiet house. It was pretty late when he was returning, since he had been out with Ray catching some criminals in Swellview Park. He figured Charlotte must have been asleep since it was so late, but as he walked past her room he heard her. She was crying.

Just yesterday, he and Charlotte had gone to her parent's house for dinner. They decided that they needed to tell them about the baby. After Jasper had announced it at his party a few days before, they could no longer wait. Too many people knew and if it got back to her parent's before she herself told them, they were afraid it would only make things worse.

Needless to say, as anyone could tell based on the condition of the girl crying on the other side of the bedroom door, it didn't go well. Charlotte's parent's had only talked about how disappointed they were. That this was not what they had envisioned for their daughter. This was not why they had worked so hard in life; for their only child to get pregnant out of wedlock and to 'throw away her future'.

Henry tried to make things better by reassuring them that he wasn't going anywhere and that he was going to be supportive and be there through this child's entire life. It didn't really make them any more comfortable with the idea. They liked Henry well enough, as their daughter's best friend. However, as their daughter's 'baby daddy'…that was another story.

Henry figured he should quit standing outside of Charlotte's door like a creeper, listening to her sob. Since her door was cracked open, he pushed it further to allow himself entry to the room.

"Charlotte."

Her sobs quieted, almost as if she was embarrassed that he had overheard her. "Hey. When did you get home?"

She still wasn't facing him. Even if she had been, that room was dark and he doubted that he would have been able to see her expression. "Just now. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Yeah, I'm not going to believe that. I could hear you crying soon after I walked into the apartment."

Charlotte sniffled again. "I'm just hormonal and I'm overreacting."

Henry sighed when she started to cry again. He didn't want to overstep any boundaries but he felt like he couldn't just walk away from her like this. So he climbed into the bed with her and put his arms around her. After a few minutes her crying slowed down.

"If I ask you again, will you tell me what's wrong?" He asked.

After a few minutes she spoke. "I've just been thinking about my parents and the stuff that they said yesterday."

"I'm sorry their reactions weren't what you had hoped for." He apologized.

"I never expected them to be happy and 100% okay with this. I knew they would be disappointed and a bit sad. But I just thought they could still be supportive and still tell me that they loved me no matter what."

"You know they still love you. It's just a lot to take in."

"Henry, they kicked us out during dinner."

"Yeah, that wasn't very nice. I was looking forward to your mom's apple pie."

"Don't make jokes. I'm upset here."

Even in the dark, Henry could tell that she was trying not to smile. "I'm not joking. But either way it's making you smile so that's a win."

Charlotte sighed. "Hen, how am I supposed to raise this baby without the support of my parents? How would I explain to my child that their grandparents want nothing to do with them?"

"They will come around. I promise. Right now, it's hard for them to accept things. When this baby is here, it will be harder for them to stay away."

"I just don't know if that's the case. They seem pretty adamant about not being supportive."

Henry started to run his hand over her arm. "How about you try not to think too much into it. I know that's easier said than done, but I can tell that this is stressing you out. The books say that you should try to limit stress because it's not good for you or the baby."

Charlotte turned to face him. "You read books?"

"Yeah, I read books. Why are you so surprised? I did just graduate from college, thank you very much."

"Well yeah. Textbooks. Not baby books. I didn't even know you HAD books. I don't even have books."

"You can borrow mine if you want. I bought some a while ago, after we found out."

"You've had them that long?" She asked.

"I told you. I've always wanted to keep it." He reassured her. In the dark, Henry saw her smile. A real smile. Not for show. And he was proud of the fact it was put there because of him.

"You know." Charlotte started speaking. "This situation isn't ideal by any means. But if I had to go through this, I'm glad that you're the one going through this with me."

"Me too." Henry gave her a squeeze. "Are you going to be okay tonight?"

"Yeah. I think so." She leaned back from him a bit. "But do you think you could just lay here with me for awhile?"

He nodded. He would do anything for her. "Of course."

Thanks for reading!