A/N: I quite enjoyed writing this chapter! I hope you like the changes I made to the episode as much as I do.

Turning Tables

Knock Knock, Who's Bare?

Ricky stood at his locker, trading the mathematics and English texts in his backpack for the history text and drumsticks in his locker. Every so often he would look to the corner of his eye, where he could see a shoulder-length redhead in a paisley t-shirt staring at him. Finally he swung his locker closed and turned and asked point blank, "Can I help you?"

The girl looked him over repeatedly as she approached him. "Hi."

Ricky folded his arms. "Hi."

"I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out this weekend."

Ricky looked her up and down skeptically. "I'm busy."

"Doing what?"

"What concern is it of yours?"

"You sure are hostile, aren't you?"

Ricky glared. "Have we met before?"

The girl smiled. "It's not your baby, if that's what you're wondering," she said, consciously touching her pregnant belly.

"No, I'm sure it's not. I'd remember you."

"Would you?" she smiled. "Word in hall is that you've been with a lot. Can't remember every pretty – or not so pretty – face, can you?"

"I'd remember yours."

The redhead's smile faded. "Yeah, I know, I'm not that pretty…"

Ricky's glare faltered. "I didn't mean it like that-"

"No matter," she interrupted. She shook her head. "I just thought that you, you know, being into pregnant girls, and really girls in general, and I, could have some fun."

"I don't bang pregnant chicks."

"Try telling that to Adrian Lee."

"That's none of your business!"

The redhead tossed up her hands in defense. "Sorry; didn't mean to strike a chord. I'm just saying, you don't seem to have a problem with single mothers. At least, not after last year. Everyone knows both you and Ben were clamoring to be the father of Adrian's baby, his sperm just happened to be faster I guess."

"That's a myth," Ricky corrected. "Sperm isn't fast. In fact, the egg pulls it in."

"Well then I guess Adrian's anatomy chose Ben long before her brain did."

"She didn't choose Ben. She didn't choose anyone."

"She will. He's the father of her baby."

"That doesn't mean anything. What do you think people divorce, remarry, and have more children for?"

She shrugged. "Whatever. All I came over here for was to find out if you wanted to hang out. I could show you a good time."

"What's your name?" Ricky finally relented.

"Heather," she said, offering her hand.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Heather," Ricky said sarcastically, "but I already know how to have a good time and I'm sorry, but you're not part of the plan."

"Pregnancy never is." Heather reached into her purse and pulled out napkin and a pen. She scribbled something onto it and then leaned over and tucked it into Ricky's jeans pocket. "Look, my parents already kicked me out of the house, so I have my own place. There's my number – and my address – you should give me a call. Or better yet, just show up. I've got nothing but time." She patted her stomach. "Four months, to be exact."

Ricky narrowed his eyes as he watched Heather saunter away, then he began to reach for the folded napkin in his pocket.

"I'm seeing a pattern here."

The drummer quickly lifted his head at the sound of Ashley's voice and half glared. "It's not what it looks like."

"And what does it look like?"

"She's not having my baby."

"That's a relief." Ashley zeroed in on his pocket. "So what was she talking to you for?"

Ricky frowned and looked in the direction of the hallway where Heather had disappeared into the crowd. "That's an excellent question."

Just then Grace swept by, giving Ricky and Ashley a good natured wave as she passed, all the while with her cell phone pressed to her ear. "Grant, come on! Please? For me?"

"I don't think this is a good idea," Grant's voice answered back, saturated in skepticism.

"I really want to! I think it would be a good thing for both of us!"

"Respecting your wishes is one thing, but airing what goes on between us in public is something else."

"But that's the whole point!" Grace argued as she got to her locker. "The abstinence group is so that we can have a supportive community while we choose to not have sex and equally so that we may support others who have the same goals."

"But it's different for you. You're a virgin, but I've had sex before."

"Abstinence is not synonymous with virginity: you can still abstain from sex and not be a virgin. C'mon, pleeeease? I'm sure there will be other people there who aren't virgins."

"Yeah, right."

"Grant!" Grace whined. "Do this one little thing for more, please?"

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. "I'll think about it."

"Yay!" Grace peeped. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"I didn't say I would!" he corrected. "That's the equivalent of a 'maybe,' all right?"

"All right," she agreed. "I gotta go now. I'll talk to you later!" She shut her phone and simultaneously shut her locker and turned to see Adrian standing beside her, looking amused.

"What was that all about?"

"I'm trying to get Grant to go to a teen abstinence meeting at my church with me tonight." Suddenly her eyes lit up and Adrian backed away.

"Oh no. No, no, no!" Adrian said, shaking her finger at her friend. "Don't even think about it!"

"Oh come on!" Grace beamed. "Won't you come?"

"Nope. I am not an abstinence kind of girl. I have a baby, remember? And I had sex with Ben over the summer."

"So that doesn't mean you couldn't start implementing abstinence now! Please, Adrian? Come for me? I told Grant that there would probably be others there who have had sex before. It'd be great if you came too!"

"You're trying to get me to go for the guy who keeps hogging all of my best friend's attention?" Adrian asked skeptically. "You're going to have to do better than that."

"You could bring Ben!"

"Oh what?" Adrian blurted out sarcastically. "Like a date to an abstinence meeting? That's romantic!"

"So you're dating then?"

"Not yet, but I was planning on talking to him about things tonight."

"Why didn't you do so over the weekend?"

"Between him studying with Amy and the essay I had to write over the weekend, we really didn't have time."

"Well this is perfect then! You can bring him to the abstinence meeting and then talk things over with him afterwards!"

"Oh yes! Because talking about not having sex is the perfect segue into a relationship." Adrian patted Grace on the top of the head condescendingly. "Thanks, but no thanks."

Grace screwed up her face. "Well it starts at six at the church, if you're interested. And just so you know: it would really mean a lot to me if you came."

"I could make a very dirty joke right now, but since you're my best friend, I won't."

Grace stared at Adrian for a moment, then her face began to flush. "Adrian!"

Adrian shrugged. "I've got to get to class," she winked. "I'll see you later!"

"Yeah," Grace grumbled as her friend started to walk off. "Six o' clock, don't forget!"

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Ricky faced an old wooden door with peeling brown paint and some graffiti plastered across the front. He looked down at the napkin in his hand which stated Heather's apartment number to be 102-B, the same as the one he was standing in front of, though the number two had fallen off and the B was rusted. He lifted his arm and knocked uncertainly.

A moment later there was a shuffling, followed by the clanking sound of a chain, then the grinding sound of two locks, and finally the door peeled back to reveal Heather poking her eye out. As soon as she saw Ricky, her face lit up and she whipped the door open. "I didn't think you were coming."

"Neither did I."

Heather stepped aside and motioned her arm. "Do you want to come in?"

Ricky stuffed the napkin with her address back into his pocket and crept inside. The first thing he noticed was an odor: a mixture of mold and old cat urine. He discreetly turned his head and noticed that the apartment was not furnished, save for a few dirty throw pillows on the gray floor, which was spotted with some very obvious stains that had probably been there for years. He cringed internally.

"Sorry there's not really a place to sit," she apologized as she closed and locked the door. "I don't have money for furniture. What I do have – those pillows over there and a mattress in my bedroom – are things I pilfered from out by the dumpster when some other tenants were moving out."

"It's fine," Ricky said as she sat down Indian style on the floor.

"Not it's not. This is no way for anyone to live," Heather said as she struggled to bend over and sit down beside him. "But it's either this or the streets."

"What about the father?"

"Please!" Heather scoffed. "You think every pregnant girl has a Ricky and a Ben? I haven't talked to the father since I told him he was a father."

"Why didn't you get an abortion?"

"I couldn't do that. It wasn't the baby's fault I fucked up and let myself get seduced by a guy who only saw me as an object for his pleasure."

"But you're not keeping it?"

"Her. And no, does it look like I can keep her? I can't even take keep myself up. I tried to hide the pregnancy for as long as I could, until none of my clothes fit anymore, and then when I told my parents, they kicked me out: if I'm old enough to have sex, I'm old enough to live on my own. So I spent sixteen years worth of birthday money on first and last month's rent."

"Couldn't you find anything better?"

"Believe it or not, this was the best. And yet I've still got cockroaches in my cupboards, so I have to keep my cereal in the fridge, which leaks all over the floor every few days."

"Do you work?"

"At a Dollar Tree for minimum wage." She shook her head. "That's not me asking for money. I-" She held her breath, unable to finish the sentence.

"So what made you come to me?"

"I just wanted to try and capture a little of that hope that Adrian had last year. I thought that maybe if I could talk to you – maybe hear some of the words that gave Adrian the courage to keep going by someone who wasn't the father of her baby – that maybe I could make it too."

"It was different with me and Adrian," Ricky confessed quietly. "I loved her. I still love her. And nobody knew who the father of her baby was, but I wanted it to be me. So did Ben. And he won out."

"If only I could be so lucky."

Ricky reached his hand forward and let it settle on Heather's knee. "I'm not that good with my emotions, Heather. Adrian was a unique situation. And I'm sorry I can't be more help to you right now."

Heather shook her head. "You being here at all means more than I can say."

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Adrian watched Ben from the doorway of the nursery as he stood at the changing table, swapping out Mercy's dirty diaper for a fresh one. "What are your plans tonight?"

Ben shrugged. "I've got my homework caught up except for a couple of reading responses that are due Wednesday, but why do today what I can put off for tomorrow, right?"

Adrian smiled. "So you're free then?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well…" She rolled her eyes as she stepped into the room. "Grace invited me to this thing and I don't really want to go, but…it would mean a lot to her if I did."

Ben raised his eyebrows. "What kind of thing?"

"Erm…an abstinence only kind of thing?"

Ben fastened the adhesive on Mercy's diaper and snapped the buttons together on her onesie. "A little late for that, isn't it?"

"Not according to Grace it's not. So – do you want to go with me?"

Ben jiggled his daughter in his arms. "Are you asking me out?"

"What if I am?"

Ben kissed the top of his daughter's head. "Then I think I can go ask my dad about babysitting. I have a sneaking suspicion he just might accept."

Adrian grinned.

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"Grant! You came!" Grace bounded out from behind the podium and darted across the gymnasium to throw her arms around her boyfriend in glee. "Thank you so much!" Then she realized: "And you brought a friend." She stuck out her hand unabashedly. "Hi, I'm Grace!"

"I've heard a lot about you," the boy smiled. "And I'm not just a friend, I'm-"

"Griffin!" Grace nodded excitedly. "Yes, I know. I've seen pictures. I've heard a lot about you too. I'm so excited to finally meet you! I'm surprised – but delighted – that you came."

"Dragged along for the ride is more appropriate," Griffin joked. "But I more or less came to meet you: the girl who hath stole my cousin's heart."

Grace slapped Grant's chest playfully. "Oh come on, you don't brag about me that much, do you?"

"I hope you brag about me as much as I brag about you."

Grace pecked Grant on the lips and then turned to his cousin. "Well, I hope that even if you did come by force, you still get something useful out of this. Are you abstaining from sex too?"

Griffin looked around as a few teenagers began to trickle into the gym. "That depends on how tonight goes, I suppose. Is your church gay friendly?"

"Well the abstinence meeting is not just for Christians," Grace replied cheerfully. "It's for any and all teenagers who want to wait to have sex. But, in answer to your question, yes, our church doesn't discriminate based on sexual orientation."

"And it's perfectly okay to be here if you've had sex before?"

"Have you?"

Griffin just smiled.

Grant coughed to get Grace's attention. "Why don't you help us find some chairs?"

Griffin reached around to pat Grant's back. "Good idea."

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"You almost ready?" Ben asked as he peeked into the nursery to see Adrian leaning over Mercy's crib, tucking the sleepy infant in.

"Yeah, I'll be right down." She heard Ben walk off as she leaned in to kiss Mercy on her cheek. "Mommy and Daddy will be back later. You be good for Grandpa Leo, you hear?" As she turned away from the crib, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket and pulled it out without bothering to look at the caller I.D. "I'm coming!" she snapped playfully into the receiver.

"You don't even know the address."

Adrian stiffened. "Ricky?"

"To be honest, I didn't think you'd answer. I guess you must have been expecting someone else."

"What do you want?"

"I have a favor to ask."

"I think you ran out of those."

"It's not for me."

"Then who is it for?"

"It's for Heather."

Adrian squinted. "Who's Heather?"

"She's a sophomore. Tall, red hair…pregnant."

"Don't tell me you're the father."

"No. Actually, the father walked out on her as soon as he found out."

Adrian suddenly looked back at her sleeping daughter in the crib. A sudden heavy feeling implanted itself in her stomach, almost as though she'd eaten too much and was feeling sick in the aftermath. "What's the favor?"

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Twenty minutes later Adrian found herself standing outside of Heather's apartment door. She nervously pushed a wave of raven hair over her shoulder and then staunchly knocked on the door. She listened as the locks groaned and creaked and forced a nervous smile when she finally saw Heather's face as the door opened.

"Ricky sent you?" Heather let her head drop. "You didn't need to come over here."

Adrian pressed her manicured hand to the door and pushed it open enough so that she could walk in, even though she hadn't been invited. "Yeah I did." The ripe smell of the apartment was overpowering and Adrian had to keep swallowing to avoid the bile rising at the back of her throat.

"It's a shit hole," Heather said as she observed Adrian looking around.

"You're doing the best you can and believe me, I understand that."

"Yeah?" Heather said sarcastically. "That's easy for you to say: you had two boys who wanted to be the father of your baby, supportive parents for all parties involved, and then the guy who does turn out to be your baby daddy is as rich as sin."

"That may be my situation right now, but it hasn't always been. I used to live in an apartment not too different from this when I was pretty little. My mother got pregnant at seventeen and was a single mom. Her parents hated her for shaming the family and as soon as she could, she took me and got away from them. But to provide for us, she sacrificed our relationship. All things considered, she eventually got a job as a stewardess and did well financially, for a single mom. But there was a cost: a sacrifice. We'll never have the bond that we should and we both resent each other in certain ways for that."

Heather shook her head. "I didn't know."

"Well it's not like that's something I enjoy broadcasting, but you clearly needed to hear it."

Heather hugged her stomach. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"How much does it hurt?"

Adrian laughed. "You ever had menstrual cramps?"

Heather nodded.

"Well think of that: on steroids. It's pretty ugly, even if you choose to labor in the water."

"Water?"

"Yeah, I had a water birth, which means I didn't get the epidural, so I don't know how much that hurts or helps. I just know I didn't want to take the drugs."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated, actually," she looked down at her watch, "and honestly, I'm supposed to be somewhere…ten minutes ago. But look: I have a lot of information on birthing and birthing options. If you wanted to get together sometime, we can go over all of that, no problem."

"Really? It's not an inconvenience?"

"Absolutely not. I know firsthand – two times over – that you need all the support you can get right now. I'm willing to help." She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Heather. "That's my house, cell, and address. Call any time, day or not. Or come over."

"Thank you." Without warning, she reached out and hugged Adrian tightly. "Thank you," she said again, this time with her voice breaking.

Adrian reached her arm around Heather's frame and embraced her as the younger girl began to whimper against her shoulder. She closed her eyes as she felt her shirt become wet with tears. "It's okay," she soothed. "It's gonna be okay."

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"Well that was invigorating," Griffin said from the backseat. He reached out to touch Grace's shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

Grace pressed the back of her head against the headrest. "Besides my mother forgetting to pick me up?" she asked rhetorically. She slumped to the side and laid her cheek against the icy glass of the passenger window. "I just really thought that Adrian and Ben might show up, that's all."

"Maybe they had other things to do?" Grant suggested. "You did say that Adrian was thinking of starting a relationship with him, didn't you?"

"Yeah, maybe they got caught up talking," she sighed.

"I don't think that's what he meant," Griffin mumbled.

"What?"

Grant glared at the rearview mirror.

"Nothing! Just talking to myself," Griffin smiled cheekily.

"Her car's in the driveway," Grant observed as he pulled up to the curb beside Grace's house. "And the light's on in her bedroom."

"Maybe she fell asleep?"

Grace snorted. "Well whatever she did, I'm going to have a firm talking with her about this. You can't just go dropping your kids off and promising to pick them up and then abandoning them like that!" She shook her head as she unbuckled herself. "But thank you for taking me home!" She leaned across the seat to give her boyfriend a goodbye kiss and then waved to Griffin. "It was nice meeting you!"

"Likewise!" Griffin agreed.

Grace slipped out of the car and hurried up the walkway with her house key in hand. She unlocked the door in a rush and stepped inside to find it dark. A sudden flare of worry hissed through her skin. "Mom?" She moved to the stairs and ascended them in a flash. A light was streaming from beneath her mother's bedroom door and with a renewed worry she moved to it and threw it open. "Mo –" The word hitched in her throat as her eyes adjusted to the sight before her: naked arms and legs entangled in her mother's – nay, her parents' – bed.

"Grace!"

Grace's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh my God!"

Kathleen sat up in a hurry, holding the sheet against her chest. "I can explain!"