A/N: BECK IS BACK! I threw you guys a bit of a curveball at the end of the last chapter and I know so many of you wished that the kissing was real (as did I, honestly), but Beck and Jade have a bit to work out before they get back to that. This chapter was actually really cool for me to write because I took a Child Developmental Psychology class this semester, so all of Shiloh's behavior is pretty true to how kids actually react to stuff like this. Anyhow, enjoy! XoXo


Jade is speechless as she steps back into the apartment to open the door a little wider.

"Hey," Andre says, approaching the entrance, "who's—Oh. Beck… You're…back?" He doesn't hide his shock or anxiety very well as he looks back and forth between the couple.

"What are you…uh…doing here?" Beck asks, moving his bags inside to close the door behind him.

"I was just…you know," Andre mumbles, "…hanging out."

Beck's eyebrows furrow in confusion as he senses the awkwardness in the air. "Cool," he lies, smoothly concealing his annoyance.

Jade's head is down to avoid looking at either one of them as she pulls out her phone to check a text message. It's from Cat, who says she won't make it to come by and get her backpack after all.

"Well I'm gonna get going," Andre announces, breaking the silence. "I'll talk to you guys later," he says, opening the door to leave.

"Thanks again for watching her," Jade replies.

"No problem. Good to see you, Beck."

Once he's out the door, Jade turns towards her husband. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

"I'm sorry… I…wanted to surprise you and Shi," he claims, and then perks up a little upon remembering about their baby. "Where is she?" He asks gently, proving to her through his eager eyes how excited he is to be reunited with his daughter.

"The playroom," Jade answers, walking into the room. Shiloh's busy playing with her music box when both of her parents arrive back in front of her.

Beck's eyes widen at the sight of the almost one-and-a-half year old. "She's gotten so big."

"A lot of things change over four months," Jade responds as she keeps her eyes on her daughter.

"Shiloh," Beck coos, squatting down to be at her level. "Come see Daddy?"

At the sound of her name being called, the toddler looks up to see the voice's owner. When she makes eye contact with Beck, she holds it for a few brief seconds before looking back down at her toy and continuing to play.

Beck is obviously hurt by his daughter's apathy towards him, but it doesn't stop him from making another effort.

"Hey, Shi," Beck says softly as he picks her up. Once she's sitting in his arms, he kisses her cheek for longer than he usually does and cradles her close to his chest. "I missed you, Baby Girl." Shiloh remains quiet as she keeps an eye on Jade, who's picking up toys and putting them back in her daughter's bins.

"She has to get to bed, so she needs a bath," Jade says, standing back up to face him. "I'm gonna go run the water; I'll be right back."

After turning her head just a few times, Shiloh realizes that Jade has left the room. It only takes a few seconds before she bursts into tears and begins sobbing uncontrollably.

"Shhh, Shi," Beck tries to coo, bouncing her up and down. "It's okay, Baby."

Upon hearing her daughter's screams, Jade quickly makes her way back to the play area. "Maaaamaaaaa!" She wails, twisting her entire body out of Beck's arms to reach for her mom.

"Hey, hey," Jade soothes, taking the baby from him, "I'm right here… Momma's right here." As she holds the little girl tightly to her chest, she feels her heavy breaths indicating how scared she had been. While Shiloh clings to Jade to calm down, Beck rubs his face in an act of stress. He knew getting re-associated with his daughter after over nearly four months would be difficult, but this is worse than he'd expected.

"Mama?" Shiloh asks, lifting her head up. "Mill?"

"Yes, I'll get you your milk. Momma has to go fix your bath, though, so I have to put you down."

Shiloh furrows her eyebrows and makes an audibly upset noise as she stubbornly re-lays her head on her mom's shoulder. When Jade pulls her gently off of her body and sets her down, the toddler kicks her feet in protest and begins to whine.

Beck's eyebrows raise at how much his daughter has grown. She's coming into her own little personality, and he wants to kick himself for having missed out on all of her new developments.

"Shiloh," Jade warns, "I'm putting you down. Come on, you can walk with me to the bathroom." The toddler resists, but complies once her feet are once again on the floor. Jade takes her unusually clingy daughter's hand and leads her into the bathroom as Beck follows behind them.

When he flops the toilet seat down to use it as a seat, he keeps his eyes locked on Shiloh, who's hugging Jade's leg relentlessly. "Shi," he coos again, holding out his arms, "come to Daddy?" She looks at him for a few seconds, but quickly turns her head back towards Jade.

Once she's finished running the water and undressing Shiloh, Jade picks her daughter back up and sets her in the bathtub. While the content baby splashes around in the water, her mom begins to wash her hair for her. After looking on for about a minute, Beck's the first one to speak.

"The movie's finished… We shot the last scene this morning." Jade doesn't reply, prompting him to continue after a long pause. "She's grown a lot… How's she been?"

Jade pauses to look over at him. "You want the truth, or what you want to hear?"

He gulps quietly, afraid of what her next words will be. "I want to really know how she's been."

Jade sighs and hands Shiloh one of her bath toys to play with so that she'll stay entertained for a bit. "She doesn't sleep, really, unless she's in my bed or on my lap. If she's in her crib, she wakes up crying constantly; I think she's testing me to see if I'll come and get her… Cat babysits her a couple days a week for a few hours so that I can go to class, and she's usually good for her. She knows her animal noises, and she runs everywhere all the time. She loves the park and playing with her toys, and we read a lot of books that she likes a lot."

Beck is quiet again as he watches his daughter chew on the rubber duck. "You don't know how sorry I am that I had to miss out on all of that."

Jade doesn't ignore his comment, but she doesn't reply because she's focused on getting Shiloh bathed and out of the tub. Fifteen minutes later, she's got the toddler dry and dressed in her pajamas. "I'm gonna put her to bed," she informs Beck. "I'll be in the living room in a little bit."

He almost offers to help, but Shiloh's snuggled up in Jade's chest and he doesn't think he's got even the slightest chance of getting her to come to him. "Okay," he answers, walking over to her so he can give his daughter a kiss. "Goodnight, angel," he whispers before pressing his lips to the top of her head.

Jade can't help but feel at least a little bad that Shiloh doesn't respond at all to his action, but she knows that it's a natural reaction for her child to have. After laying her in Beck and Jade's king-sized bed—where Shiloh and Jade have been sleeping every night together—and putting pillows on either side of her to prevent her from rolling off, Jade lies down with her to cuddle. Once she's sung two songs and rubbed her back for ten minutes or so, she returns to the living room.

"So, she sleeps with you every night?" Beck asks as Jade drops into the chair across from him.

"For the past few weeks, yeah. She doesn't—well, neither of us—like to sleep alone. We weren't getting any rest when she was in her crib, cause she'd cry and I'd end up staying up to rock her back to sleep…it was just a pain in the ass, so I fixed it."

"Does she…ask about me? I feel like she doesn't even know who I am," he admits sullenly.

"She used to," Jade sighs. "It used to be all the time… She wouldn't shut up about you any time she saw a picture or heard your name. It got hard, eventually, though… It was really hard to explain to her where you were, and I could tell she missed you. She'd get upset any time it—er, you—were brought up, so I just started doing anything I could to make sure it didn't happen."

Beck's heart sinks as she tells him of his daughter's detachment. "Fuck," he mutters, running a hand through his hair.

Jade is torn, as she has no idea how to act towards him. Half of her looks at him and sees the guy with whom she couldn't be more frustrated…the guy who left her and their daughter alone for four months, and who had broken Shiloh's heart. The other half of her, though—and the overwhelmingly powerful one—wants nothing more than for him to hold her in his arms again. She hasn't kissed him since she and Shiloh had visited him in October; now it's almost Christmas and she can't deny how in love with him she is.

His head is dropped, but as she looks at his stressed, apologetic eyes, she sees the first boy she ever loved. The boy who would have done—and did do—anything and everything under the sun just to get her to go out with him…the boy who's kept her laughing, warm, and sane since her freshman year of high school…the boy who unwaveringly stood by her side when he found out she was pregnant with his child…the boy who had been the best father she could ask for to her daughter…the boy who—ignoring the fact that he'd left—had taken a job that would bring a better lifestyle for his family.

Despite her anger with him, the feelings and memories won't leave her mind. After several long minutes of silence, she surprises him with the gentle tone of her next words.

"How was the movie?"

Beck looks up at her and takes a few seconds to process her possibly-trick question. "It…well…besides being away from you and Shiloh…I had a…good time."

"Beck," she says, melting him with the way she says his name, "if you really stayed away from us for four months for just a 'good time,' I'm gonna be pissed." Her tone isn't the slightest bit sharp; instead, he feels like she's honestly curious to know how his experience went.

"Sorry," he mumbles. "Truthfully, it was…incredible. I learned so much about the industry, I met lots of cool people, and… I did make a lot of money."

Jade is undeniably jealous of Beck, but she finds a strange sensation in simultaneously feeling happy for him.

"What's been going on here with everyone?" He asks. "Anything interesting?"

Jade scoffs. "Only if you count Cat getting the lead in this year's musical and Tori getting pregnant."

"What?! Tori's preg—"

"No," Jade cuts him off. "Not anymore."

"Did she—"

"She miscarried," Jade explains.

"Oh…God… When? What did Andre say?"

"Two weeks ago. And, well…it was a little complicated… Apparently they broke up a few months ago and she boned Ryder, so she didn't even actually know who the father was."

Beck's eyes widen at the news. "Wait…Shiloh is mine, right?" He asks, keeping a straight face amidst his joke.

Jade throws a pillow at him and rolls her eyes. "Don't worry; I think I heard her say 'eh' once."

Beck can't help but laugh at the sense of humor that he's missed so much.

"She does that thing you do," Jade points out.

"What?" He asks through the residue of his smile.

"That thing you do when you laugh… Your eyes crinkle up, and…so do hers."

Beck is beaming at the sound of her words, and he can't believe what he's been missing out on for so long. As the conversation continues, they talk for hours until it's near one o'clock in the morning, which is four o'clock to Beck's body because of the time change. When it becomes clear that they're both exhausted, Jade rises from the chair and rubs her eyes.

"I can sleep on the couch," Beck offers, only wanting her to feel comfortable. "I don't mind, really."

Jade is quiet for a few seconds before saying the words she wouldn't have ever guessed she'd be saying on his first night back home. "I think the bed could use a little more warmth."

His face lightens up as he follows her into the bedroom. When they're changed into comfortable clothes, they notice that Shiloh is lying fast asleep in the very middle of the bed. "Typical," Jade whispers, referring to the tendency she shares with her daughter to take up lots of room while she sleeps.

"It's perfect," Beck replies, lying down on his side of the bed and prompting his wife to do the same. As the two get situated on their sides with Shiloh in between them, she cuddles between their bodies and remains in her deep sleep.

An exhausted Jade closes her eyes immediately, but Beck can't help but stay awake to enjoy the moment. Although her eyes are shut, her stomach is doing loops simply from being in the same bed as him again and she's anything but asleep. After a few minutes, when he's (incorrectly) sure she's sleeping, he hesitates for a second before leaning over and kissing her forehead.

"I love you, Jade Oliver," she hears Beck whisper as she keeps her eyes shut and mouth closed. "Goodnight."