A/N: Hey guys! In this chapter, there's a little surprise that I didn't write about in the episode previews. I completely forgot about it, if you can believe that!
Disclaimer: ((To Annie)) Did you know that our living room is filled with children who don't belong to us?--Eric Camden
To avoid breaking into tears, Gabriella burst out what she wanted to say. "Why are you hanging out with people who tell you to cut your wrists, and why do you do it?" She leaned on the table, eyes on Jake, waiting for his answer.
He exploded. "How do you know? Why are you in my business? Why do you care?" Gabriella leaned back, shocked.
Troy looked at his wife and then back at his son. "Why do we care? Because we're your parents, and we love and care about you. Why are we in your business? Because, again, we're your parents and we care about you. How did we find out? It doesn't matter to you. Now, answer your mother's questions."
Jake stood up and glared at both his parents. "No. And get out of my business, and stay out." He stalked out of the room, leaving Gabriella nearly in tears and Troy stunned.
Gabriella stammered out, "Troy, he won't talk to us. He really won't talk to us!" Troy wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her close.
"Gabi, he's sixteen. I'll try again later, and maybe Chris can talk to him too." Gabriella forced a tiny smile through her silent tears.
"You're going to coerce your younger son to coerce your older son to talk to us?"
Troy nodded. "Yep. That's exactly what I'm going to do!"
Gabriella managed a small laugh before getting back to work on dinner. Troy watched her for a minute before going to look for Chris.
Up in Beverley's room, she and Vanessa sat on the floor, playing Go Fish. Beverley looked down at her cards, then set them face-down on the ground. "Hey, Nessa, why did you listen to Chris when he said it was cool to hate your older siblings?"
Vanessa shrugged and set down her cards also. "I don't know. But it seems silly now…I love you guys! It seems like it was made to sound better than it was…"
Beverley laughed, "You mean it was overrated?"
Vanessa cocked her head and asked, "Is that what it means? If it is, then yes."
Beverley smiled at her younger sister. "You know, you are a very smart five-year-old."
Vanessa grinned back. "Well, we're all kind of pushed into it, because Mommy's so smart." Beverley nodded and picked her cards back up, starting the game again.
Out on the driveway, Troy and Chris were throwing a basketball around and talking. Troy caught the ball and threw it towards as he asked, "Do you know what's going on with Jake?"
Chris shrugged. "Not really. I just know that Mom and you told him something, and now he's really mad at you."
Troy nodded and sighed. "That's all we'd like you to know right now. But we need your help. Jake won't talk to us, and we need to get him to talk to you."
Chris grinned. "You mean like a spy mission? Where I don't really know what I'm looking for, but I need to find it?"
Troy forced a grin. "If you want to look at it that way. But we'd better go get washed up for dinner now, it'll be ready soon." They rolled the basketball into the garage and raced to the door, Troy still thinking about what he'd just asked Chris to do.
Everyone came down the stairs in twos: Beverley and Vanessa still laughing and talking, Lilly and Jake encased in stony silence. As they sat down at the table, Lilly opened up and started laughing with her sisters, but Jake stayed painfully silent the whole meal.
Around ten-thirty, after the kids were all in bed, Troy and Gabriella were lying in bed talking. After talking about Jake for a while, Gabriella fell silent. Troy looked at her quizzically.
"Gabi, honey, what's wrong?" he asked. Gabriella shook her head.
"Nothing's wrong. It's just…I had a doctor's appointment over the weekend, and they did some tests. You know, because I haven't been feeling the past couple weeks, especially in the mornings?" Troy nodded. "Well, I went back today to get some test results back and…" she stopped for a second.
"Troy, I'm pregnant. Again." She searched his face for a reaction. For a second nothing happened, then a smile spread across his face.
"Gabi, we're going to have a little baby in the house again! It's going to be so amazing, especially for Chris and Vanessa. Another little baby!"
Gabriella laughed, happy with his reaction. "We'll tell the kids at breakfast tomorrow. It's Saturday tomorrow, so they'll have all weekend to get used to it. The older kids will probably get used to it faster, because they've all experienced it twice or more, from Beverley up." Troy nodded and wrapped his arms around her. She smiled and closed her eyes, enjoying being hugged so tightly.
The next morning, everyone filed into the kitchen, still sleepy. After everyone had inhaled a little food, Gabriella decided to make her announcement.
"Kids?" she asked. Only Beverley and Lilly, who were sitting on either side of her, looked up. "Kids?" she asked a little louder. One more head came up. "Kids?" she all but yelled. Every single head popped up at that.
"Thank you. Now, I have an announcement to make. Everyone sitting around this table is going to have a new little brother or sister!" Everyone just stared at her, still halfway asleep. "Guys, I'm pregnant," she said, exasperated.
Beverley jumped up, knocking her chair over backwards. "You're going to have another baby?" Gabriella nodded. "So cool! I'm going to have a real baby sibling!"
Looking around the table, Troy noticed that not everyone was as happy as Beverley. Jake was still acting mad at the world, but Vanessa also had a cloudy look on her face. He put his hand on top of hers.
"What's wrong, Vanessa?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I don't know. I just feel…left out. Will Mommy and you and everyone still love me if there's another little baby in the house?" Troy nodded, shocked.
"Of course we'll still love you! Even if there is another little baby, you'll still be the one and only Vanessa Bolton." She smiled, enjoying his words.
A/N: Like my surprise? As you know, it's actually going to be twins, and they'll be born around the second-to-last episode (Episode 10) of Season 3. I also want to know if you want two boys, two girls, or a boy and a girl as the twins. Write it in your review!
