A/N: It's been a while... I have no excuses. Scene 2 was prompted by SukiStory! Check out her stories! On with the show.

PERMANENT

Chapter 9: Showers

"How are things at home?"

Mariana laid out across Lexi's bed. "It's okay. It's baby this, baby that these days."

"I get it. Do you feel left out?"

"Not really. I'm happy for them. I just wish I had something to do or somebody to be with. You have Jesus and Callie has Brandon. I'm kinda just there you know?"

Lexi shrugged. "You can always hang out with me and Jesus."

"Like I want to see you two slob all over each other. Gross." Mariana pulled a face. She didn't necessarily have a problem with them dating anymore, but she had no desire to hang around them together as the dreaded third wheel.

"We are not all over each other!", Lexi protested. Afterwards, she thought about it for a moment and reconsidered. "Okay maybe we are."

"Exactly." Mariana said rolling her eyes.

Lexi bit her lip and turned facing Mariana. "I have something to tell you. Promise you won't tell Jesus. Not yet anyway."

This sounded serious. "I promise."

"My abuela is really sick. My parents want us to go visit her in Honduras in case something happens."

"But how? I thought you were undocumented?"

Lexi shrugged. "It's really important to my dad that we go. He says he has a way to get us back home."

"I'll be crossing my fingers for you.", Mariana said sadly. She resisted the urge to hug her best friend and never let go.

"Anyway on to better news. I heard that Chase Peterson has a crush on you."

Mariana sat straight up and gasped. "You're lying!"

Lexi held up both hands. "I swear I'm not lying. Jessica told me yesterday."

"You have to tell me everything! NOW!" She flew off the bed and locked the door to prevent eavesdroppers.


Callie rushed into their room and closed the door behind her. Brandon's face lit up when he saw her. They hadn't really seen each other all day except for breakfast. He had been taking care of some things. "Hey beautiful." He noticed she looked kind of frazzled. "Are you okay?", he drawled out slowly.

"Hide me. Lena is trying to force feed me organic keifer. Whatever that is." Of course. Lena was a health nut and it was only amped up by Ian's imminent arrival. He beckoned her over with a free hand.

"Come here." She climbed onto the bed sitting next to him. Albeit, a bit clumsily. The baby was throwing her balance way off. He grabbed his keyboard off the stand and put it over their laps. She looked at him questioningly.

"Play with me. Call it baby's first piano lesson. Now press this one and then move two down. He demonstrated on his side of the board. She mimicked his pattern of movement.

"Good. Now play these four at a faster pace." He continued teaching her more key strokes until she had it down pat. Soon they were playing a song together. Her part was a little shaky, but not bad. Something inside her stomach shifted suddenly at the melody.

She frowned. "What was that?"

Brandon wasn't paying attention. "Huh?", he said absentmindedly while experimenting with a few simple notes.

"I think the baby kicked."

She grabbed Brandon's hand and placed it over her bump. "I don't feel anything." Callie frowned. "I swear he just moved. Come on buddy. Move for me.", she said softly to her stomach.

"Stop pressuring him. He'll move again when he's ready. Here, listen to this." Brandon began playing a song and it was beautiful. Callie closed her eyes, laying her head against his shoulder.

"I love it. Did you just start on it?"

"Yeah, I dunno. I was writing it for the ba..." Callie suddenly snatched his hand again. Brandon jumped back a little when his hand was tapped lightly and his eyes grew impossibly wide.

Callie lit up in pure excitement and he couldn't help but smile along with her and press his lips against hers. "Come on. We have to tell the moms." She was tugging him out of the door before he had time to properly move his keyboard and it almost toppled to the floor.


Lena came through the door carrying a ton of bags. Stef could see a teddy bear, a blue fur blanket and what looked like sleepers covered in cars and stripes hanging out of one bag.

Stef raised an eyebrow. "Been shopping?"

"A little.", Lena replied pushing her wild hair out of her eyes.

Stef gestured at the bags laughing. "A little? It looks like you bought the whole store. The baby's not even here yet."

Lena immediately went into defense mode. Stef had a dry humor that sometimes made her feel like she always had to be on guard. In the same turn, that was one of the things that made them great. They balanced each other. "Alright maybe I got a little carried away. I'm just excited. I've never had a little baby in the house before. When we met Brandon was already five and the twins were seven."

Stef studied Lena carefully. They hadn't ever really talked about it before, but she knew Lena wanted kids of her own when they first got together. Then the twins came and they sort of fell into a routine. A baby was the last thing on either of their minds. Or so she'd thought.

"Do you...do you still want that?" Stef asked after clearing her throat.

"Want what?", Lena said sitting down the bags on the counter and shuffled through them.

Stef put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. "A baby. Me and you raising one together."

Lena was taken aback. She had been so sure Stef was against having another child for all these years and now she was pulling this on her. "Wait, are you saying that you want one?"

"I don't want us to regret anything. If you want a baby, I would love to have one."

"Stef. When would we have time for a baby? We don't even have the room. Especially with Ian coming."

Stef put her hand over Lena's. "We can make room."

Lena seemed to consider it. "Well, I'm not getting any younger that's for certain."

"Is that you talking or your mother?" Lena's mother was a lovely woman and Stef loved her, but she was very persuasive and stubborn. She was constantly dropping hints to Lena about wanting to see some of herself and her husband inside the face of a little one.

"Maybe a little bit of both.", Lena replied sadly. "I don't know what I want. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out and then I look around at the kids and the home we built together and I feel like I don't need anything else."

Stef thought carefully about what to say next. "You're right. We don't need anything else. But if you want this." She covered Lena's hand in her own. "If you really want this, we can do it. Don't worry about the specifics, or what anybody else has to say." Stef wanted her to understand that she would do anything to make her happy.

Lena couldn't resist kissing Stef. "I love you.", she whispered to her.

"Hmm, I love you too." Stef tightened her hold on her partner just a little bit more.

"Stef?"

"Hmmm?"

"I really don't want to have a baby."

The relief was evident in her voice. "Thank God, me either." They burst out laughing.


One pillow. That was all Brandon had left. He subconsciously hugged onto it tightly letting his eyelids close. You don't really appreciate a good pillow until it's gone. He remembered the good old days when he had four whole pillows to himself. He had sacrificed two of them to Callie and now three. One for her head, one for her stomach and one for her back.

Brandon's eyes sleepily fluttered open as an uncomfortable pressure was exerted on his spine. "Callie. Your knee is in my back."

"Sorry." Brandon felt her shifting over. This was getting ridiculous. Callie kept tossing and turning all night trying to get comfortable and it was driving him crazy. She couldn't sleep on her stomach, on her side, on her back, sitting up, nothing. Apparently their son thought it was hilarious to keep them both up all night by kicking Callie or bouncing from organ to organ. Brandon hadn't slept more than a couple of hours in days. Just as he was drifting off... a voice called to him pulling him from the dark tunnel of colors he was traveling down.

"Brandon, are you sleep?"

He gripped the edges of the pillow roughly taking a few calming breaths before sitting up. "Not anymore." He rubbed one side of his face hoping it would relieve some built up tension.

Her eyes narrowed at the sharpness of his tone and looked at him critically."Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Because...you kinda look like you're mad.", she asked skeptically.

"I'm not mad.", he said a bit tightly.

"I think you are."

"I'm not."

"You are." Yup, completely ridiculous.

He wanted to punch something, but instead settled for throwing his hands up. "Seriously Callie?"

"Just tell me why you're acting so mad."

"I'm not mad. I just can't sleep with you in here. You're like a wild animal or something.", he said in frustration.

Callie was stunned. "Okay...I'm. I'm just going to leave then."

Brandon felt bad. He knew he shouldn't have lashed out like that, he was just so tired. So very, very tired. THings had to be just as hard, if not worse on her. "Wait Cal. You don't have to leave."

"Don't worry about it. It's your bed anyway right?", she said grabbing a pillow and walking out.

"Callie!", he called after her. She didn't come back. He knew he definitely not be getting any sleep now.


Lena shook Brandon's shoulder. His teacher had informed her that he was asleep in class. "Brandon?"

"Huh?", he said blearily wiping at his eyes.

She sighed. He looked bad. "Come on. You look exhausted. You can sleep in my office. I'll talk to your teachers." She had to support most of his weight while walking him to her office.

Brandon woke up in confusion. He looked around and saw that he was on the couch in his mom's office. He stretched and cracked the bones in his back.

"What happened?" Lena looked up from her paperwork, taking off her glasses. She went to sit down next to him.

"You fell asleep in class remember?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry about that."

"I think you should start explaining why I practically had to carry you in here? Or maybe why Callie's sleeping in Mariana's room again?" She gave him a pointed look.

"It's nothing. We just had a small disagreement." Lena raised her brow. Surely there was more to the story than that.

Brandon gave in. "And I may have kinda sorta told her that I couldn't sleep with her in the room and compared her to a wild animal?", he rushed out.

Lena winced sympathetically. "Ouch."

"I didn't mean it, I'm just tired. I tried apologizing to her. She won't listen to me."

"You have to watch what you say honey. Callie's very sensitive right now. I know this is a lot to deal with."

"I know. I'll try to talk to her again tonight."

"Good. But I also need you to take care of yourself. When we get home, go straight to bed. I think I know what will help Callie. I'll go pick it up today. Now do you want to sleep more or go to your last class?"

"I think I'm gonna head to class. Thanks for being so cool about this.", he added leaning back, one hand on the door frame.

"You're welcome. Just don't tell Stef I let you sleep in school.", she said winking at him.


"Don't shoot! I come in peace." Brandon said. She wasn't amused. At all. Callie steadfastly ignored him and continued eating her colossal sandwich and reading over her class notes. He was surprised she could even eat that much, but he would never, ever mention that to her.

He sighed. "I see you're still mad at me. I brought you something."

Callie was surprised when a book was placed in her lap. "Lena bought us a baby book a while back and I've been filling it with stuff and writing down all our family information. It was supposed to be a surprise."

She couldn't remember if she and Jude even had baby books. If they had, they were probably thrown away by whoever cleaned out their house when her mom died. It already had the baby's name on the front in wacky letters. "IAN". Her fingers gently traced over the name. The book was full of pictures and writing. Of them together, of the ultrasounds, of their house. Brandon had filled out most of it already. When she finally opened the last page she saw the family tree area sketched into the back cover.

What surprised her the most was that her side was completely filled in as well as Brandon's. Her mom's name, her dad's name and their parents. There were even some pictures to go along with them on the left hand side that she had never seen before. All of her grandparents had died when she was little. Brandon watched the amazement on her face, his chin resting on one knee.

"How?", she asked quietly, her voice laced with emotion.

"It's amazing what you can find on the Internet.", he replied jokingly. "No, I um I asked Bill for help. He had a few papers, some pictures and keepsakes from your old apartment, so I asked for them. Made copies."

She was at a loss. Because nothing could describe how she felt. All she could do was shake her head. "Brandon...this is... Thank you. You didn't have to do this for me."

"Yeah... I did."


"My fingers are going to fall off.", Jude whined as he grabbed an envelope from the stack and wrote neatly on the front.

"What are you complaining about? I have stars stuck to my fingers.", Jesus said holding up his glue covered hands.

"Stop it, both of you.", Stef said bringing over more supplies.

"And why couldn't we just order the stupid invitations again?" Jesus asked.

"Because...it adds a special touch when you make it yourself. Don't you think?" Lena ruffled his hair.

"No.", he grumbled but continued gluing. They had an efficient system going on. Jesus on invitation decorating, Jude on address writing, Mariana on registry cards, Callie on the guest list, and the moms and Brandon on party favor assembly.

"Jesus, you need more stars on this one.", Mariana chided throwing an invitation back at him. "We discussed this. You need at least five in blue and silver. Get it right."

"You know what Mariana? Bite me!" Jesus stood up, chair scratching at the floor and ran upstairs slamming the door loudly behind him. Stef went to go after him, but Lena held her back. "Let him go. He's blowing off some steam. They just found out Lexi is going to Honduras and we don't know if they'll be able to come back."

Stef sighed and ran her hands over her face. "Poor kid. I'm so sorry honey.", she directed towards Mariana who just nodded. They would have to talk to the twins later.


Brandon snuck in through the kitchen door laughing with Aiden. He held a small bag in his hands and was surprised to see Callie playing with her phone in the corner instead of at the party. He laid the bag on the counter next to the piles of food. "Having fun?"

"No."

"Why not?"

She gestured to her midnight blue dress and 'mom to be' sash. She tried to take the tiara off of her head, but it got tangled in her curls. She was muttering under her breath and Brandon laughed at her. "Here. Let me do it." He swatted her hands away and tried to pry the tiara off.

"This is torture."

"You look beautiful.", he insisted. She pouted in response. "Brandon. They wrapped me in toilet tissue.", she said cryptically. "I'm not going back in there."

"Come on Cal. It's not that bad."

"Oh yeah? Really?" He nodded in agreement. "Then why did it take you and Aiden two hours to find blue napkins?"

"We had to go to three different stores!" Which was true, but they did take their time. Brandon practically fell over volunteering to go to the store after his grandpa Sal pulled him to the side for an impromptu and disturbing sex talk. Aiden scrambled after him not wanting to be left alone.

"Uh huh. Sure you did."

"Hey. What are you two doing? It's present time.", Lena said gesturing frantically for them to come into the living room.

Brandon smirked and grabbed her hand. "It's present time."

"When will this day end?", she groaned throwing her head back. They were on their way to the living room when a knock came at the window. "I think it's your dad. He called to say he would be late. He picked up an extra shift."

Brandon's face fell. He hadn't talked to his father since their confrontation and he didn't want him there if he couldn't support him and Callie. "Be nice.", she said as she walked, more like waddled to the door throwing it open. A smirking face, blue eyes and curly hair stood there.

"Wyatt!" she yelled launching herself at a leather jacket clad body.


End Note: Uh oh. Wyatt's back. I don't think Brandon is going to be too happy about that. I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. All this fluff was rotting my brain. I didn't get around to writing everything I wanted, but it's coming. This has been finished and sitting on my computer for a while, I just edited it. I didn't want to hold back updates for much longer.

ONLY TWO MORE CHAPTERS TO GO!...Maybe just one. I don't want to drag this out too much.

REVIEWS WOULD BE LOVELY. Seriously guys, review. I just want to know what you think.