Act II Part II
Let's Make Plans
As it turned out, John's thoughts about never giving Casey a little sibling were wrongly placed, because no sooner than the front door closed and latched did Jade turn to him and sweetly smile. "It's nice having a baby in here with us," she said, playing with Snow a bit. "Kind of a bit of preparation, maybe."
"Preparation? For what?" He looked at her, noticing the shine in her eyes and how genuinely happy she seemed to be. "This babysitting thing isn't going to be a full time job, is it?"
"It might be, but that's not what I'm meaning. You remember how I was gone yesterday when you got home? Where did you think I was?" He shrugged, because he didn't really know how to answer that. "John, you're so difficult! Go get my purse. It's in there."
Not understanding what she was implying, he got up, Casey coming with, and walked over to the shelf where Jade's purse was. "Why can't you just tell me what I'm getting?"
"If I tell you, you won't believe it!" She actually ended up being correct about that, because when John's fingers brushed against the glossy cover of a picture, he let out a surprised yelp, and when he actually grabbed it and pulled it from the purse, getting to look at it, he nearly burst into tears to join his excited babbling.
"Daddy, what's wrong?" Casey asked, tugging at John's leg. He scooped her up and showed her the picture—but she didn't quite understand. "Peanut. That's a peanut."
"Casey, sweetie, it's not a peanut. It's a baby."
The little girl looked from the picture to Snow, who was gurgling and kicking away as Jade played with her. "No, that's a peanut. Snow baby. Silly daddy."
"How do you even know what a peanut looks like? Casey, I'm telling you, that's a baby. It's mommy and daddy's baby." The picture went back into the purse and John and Casey returned to the floor to be with Jade. "And we want that baby."
"Was Casey peanut baby?" the girl asked, giving her dad a wide-eyed look where he could see every bit of glimmer in her green eyes. "Where peanut baby at? I no see peanut baby."
"I won't answer that until you speaking in correct sentences, Casey. Just because Snow's here doesn't mean you get to act like you're not smart." Jade glanced at John, her stare scolding him for letting Casey speak incorrectly for as long as she had been.
After whining for a few seconds, the little girl complied with her mother's word. "Was Casey a peanut baby? Where is the peanut baby? I don't see it."
"Thank you, sweetie. Yes, you were a peanut baby once, and you were a perfect little peanut. And this one is somewhere safe and will be for a long time. You'll know where it is when it's ready."
"Is it at the store? I wanna see the peanut baby, mommy." Casey batted her eyelashes and tried to get her way through being cute. "Please and thank you!"
Even though her behavior really was adorable, Jade had to shoot her down. "You can't see the baby, not yet. It's not at the store, and we can't go somewhere to buy it. It's living inside of me right now, growing bigger and bigger every day."
"You ate the baby?" The little girl's eyes widened even more and she looked worriedly between her mom and Snow, who was still kicking her legs. "Don't eat Snow too! Snow has a nice mommy and daddy. You can't eat her."
"I didn't eat the baby, Casey! That's where babies come from!" Jade sighed, not wanting to have to explain the entire thing to someone who would never remember it. "Besides, the peanut baby will probably stay a peanut baby for all of its life..."
Casey tilted her head. "I don't get it."
"You'll get it someday, okay?" John wrapped his arms tight around Casey and snuggled with her, making her squeal with excitement. "For now, let's just worry about watching Snow for her parents, and let's not talk more about the peanut baby."
"Okay, daddy. We can play." She squirmed out of his arms and flopped on the floor next to Snow, flailing her arms and legs around like the baby was. "I'm being baby Snow! Love me, love me!" Her antics made her parents both laugh, and that was the way the next few hours went, with Casey trying to be just like Snow but failing, causing her parents to laugh at her behavior.
This changed when they were all sitting on the couch, Snow cradled in Jade's arms, Casey watching over her and trying to play peek-a-boo, but hitting John every time she moved her hands. "You girls play together so well," he remarked, looking at them with a smile on his face. "It's like she's family, and you know what family does?"
"Live together?" the little girl replied, squealing a bit at the idea.
"No, they kiss. Why don't you go ahead and kiss Snow's cheek? We won't tell her mommy and daddy you did it." It sounded like a great idea, and very innocent at that, but there was always a catch, and this one would destroy the peaceful afternoon they'd been having.
Everything happened at once: right as Casey leaned in to kiss Snow, the baby started coughing and spit up in Casey's face, causing her to scream, which made Snow cry. And it was then that the front door opened and Vriska and Tavros came in, greeted by two children making altogether way too much noise. "What happened while we were gone?" Tavros asked, taking Snow from Jade's arms. "Did they fight? Damn it, Vriska, we should have just brought her with us. They wouldn't have judged us for it."
"No, no, they didn't fight. Casey loved playing with Snow, but then your daughter there just spit up, and Casey's face was her target." As Jade explained that, John took the crying Casey out of the room to clean her up. "Other than that incident, everything was fine. How did things go with you two?"
They looked between each other, Vriska grumbling and Tavros biting his lip to avoid giving an answer. It took Jade asking again for Vriska to pull a folded-up picture from her pocket. "Went about as well as we thought it would. There's, for sure, a fucking monster in there. Again."
"Oh, that's great!" Jade got up from her chair and snagged the picture from Vriska's hand, unfolding it to see what it was—and was greeted with an image much like the one that John had pulled from her purse hours before. "Wow, it's bigger than I was expecting...what, is it going to be born right at Snow's birthday?"
"They think it'll be around then, yeah." Vriska grumbled some more, before sighing. "I don't want it. I didn't want Snow. Fuck, I didn't even want the one we killed. I hate kids."
"Then why do you keep having them?" Jade was in the middle of asking that when Dave came strolling into the apartment, a case of beer in his hands. She finished her question before looking at him with raised eyebrows. "Um, Dave? What are you doing here?"
He lifted the case up to show everyone what it was. "I've come for the party."
"What party?" Jade's eyebrows raised a bit higher, just waiting for an answer. Meanwhile, Tavros, who had groaned the second he heard Dave mention a party, tried to leave the place without anyone noticing, but Vriska grabbed his arm and forced him to stay.
"What party," Dave repeated. "Oh, just something that's known as the 'god fucking damn are you even capable of using protection' party. It's also known as the 'wrap your willy' party, the 'put it away' party, and, my favorite, the 'if you're going to be naked in bed together can you please keep a blanket between you because you've already got one kid' party." He then dropped the case of beer on the floor and gave a slow clap. "Congrats, dude. How are you going to make a minimum wage job support two kids?"
"I'll make it work," Tavros said, looking down at Snow as he spoke. "It's my fault that Vriska's pregnant again, and I'm going to make sure that I take care of her, and Snow, and the new kid. I will do it. I swear."
Dave snorted, but didn't say anything else on the subject. "Want a drink, anyone?" he asked, squatting down to open the case and pull out a couple cans. "Come on, I spent a whole ten dollars on this stuff." He popped open a can and drank from it, smacking his lips when he was done. "Mmmm, piss flavor."
For reasons everyone knew and understood, Vriska turned down the offer, and for reasons that only she and John knew, so did Jade. "I'll take one, since you did get them because of me." Tavros handed Snow over to Vriska and took a can from Dave. "Which, in hindsight, it was a bad idea to tell you first about this. Should have known you'd pull something like this."
"You know it." Dave chuckled, taking another drink, before asking, "Where's John? He at work or something? He's normally out here being a dweeb by now."
"He's cleaning Casey up right now, but knowing him, he's probably in the middle of telling her a long story or something." Jade gave an awkward laugh, because she was thankful that John wasn't there for all of what had happened. The last thing she wanted was for him, or even Casey, to spill her news, because she remembered all the fuss about her previous pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages, and she had no idea if that was the face to befall this one. For her sake, she hoped this one would get far enough to be considered safe in her mind, and then she could share. Otherwise, it would just be a secret that only her family knew.
But, like all the previous times, John went and messed her plans up. When he and Casey came back and he saw Vriska standing there, looking displeased with the world, his face lit up. "Hey! How'd it go? Did your fears come true? Is there really another bun in your oven?" She begrudgingly nodded, and John took that as a cue to look happily at Jade. "You know what that means, sweetie? You two can go on shopping trips and compare notes and-"
"Wait wait wait," Vriska interrupted, giving Jade a confused look. "Is he implying what I think he's implying? Or is he just being strange like normal?"
There was a moment of debating whether or not she was going to lie about it, but, in the end, Jade realized that lying would get her nowhere except maybe in trouble with her friends. "He's implying what you think he's implying."
"Oh, sweet! I could use a shopping buddy this time around, since Tavros hates the idea so much. You're a great friend, Jade, and I'm glad I've got you here for me." It was strange, she thought, that Vriska didn't sound like she was talking about what was going on. "You look confused. Is something wrong?"
"No...nothing's wrong." There was the lie she was so afraid of making, but it was an innocent lie, not a big one like she was tempted to make previously.
"Hey, John, want something to drink?" Dave asked, pulling another couple beers from his case. "I brought drinks for the party, but the ladies aren't biting. You in?"
He excitedly nodded, and skillfully caught the drink when it was thrown at him. "What's the party for? Is it something good?"
"No, but I've just decided that this party is too lame for me, so how about this. I reserve us somewhere to have a real party, and we do that sometime soon. Sound good?" No one argued against it, even if Tavros seemed really displeased that there was still talk of a party that was painting him in a negative light. "Okay, sweet. I'm leaving these drinks here, and I'll catch you all later." He stood up, gave everyone a wave, and walked out the room, before coming back seconds later to snag a few more cans, and then he was gone.
"Dave's strange, but I like him. He's a good friend." John opened his drink, sat on the couch, and took a sip, only to spit it out onto the back of Casey's head. She started screaming and throwing a fit, which, naturally, made Snow start whining.
"We're gonna go home, I guess," Vriska said, trying to keep the little girl from getting any louder than she was. "Thanks for watching her for us, but now she gets to spend time with her parents again." Jade told her it was really no problem, and they left, closing the apartment door behind them and leaving the dark-haired woman in a room with a screaming Casey and a frantically trying to calm her John.
Instead of trying to help the situation at all, she walked to her bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed...just to realize that she still had the picture that belonged to Vriska in her hand. She sighed, falling backwards and hoping that everything would go right over the next little bit, not just for her and her family, but for her friends as well.
She'd like to be able to plan the future for once.
A/N: Originally posted to Tumblr on November 15th, 2012.
