Chapter 10

"Caroline!" Teresa exclaimed as she pushed past Johnny. "You're - "

"Pregnant," Carly said and offered a small smile. This definitely wasn't how they planned on having Johnny's parents find out about the baby. Regardless of when they did it, it was going to be a bombshell but telling them like this hadn't been the plan.

Johnny said a silent prayer and walked over to Carly and helped her up, "Mom - Dad, we have some news," Johnny said. He'd been planning to invite his parents up at the end of the week, so he could tell them in person. But they were here now and he had no choice but to tell them now. Johnny kissed Carly's cheek and stood behind her, resting his hands on her stomach. "Caroline and I, we're married and about to have a baby."

Jason poured himself another glass of wine, "Dinner was really nice," Jason said. He'd been surprised at how good dinner actually was. He'd expected Brenda to order some fancy dinner and he wouldn't be able to identify half the food, but she'd done just the opposite. She still ordered a gourmet dinner but everything was identifiable. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Brenda said and took a sip of wine. She knew that Jason didn't have a problem with good food, but that he hated excess so she a ordered straightforward meal instead of a bunch of food that he would hate. It was the least she could do, she'd literally come crashing into his life and had practically forced him to spend the holiday with her. Her life had been a roller coaster over the past few months and strangely the past few weeks that she'd spent here had offered her a calmness she hadn't felt in a long time. Brenda pushed the rest of her food around on her plate, she wasn't really hungry anymore. She had just enough room in her stomach to enjoy dessert. "Dessert! I left the mousse in my car. It's probably frozen."

"I'll send someone to go get it," Jason said.

"I'll go," Brenda said. "On the off chance it's not completely frozen, I don't want your guys to jostle it around."

"It's a dessert," Jason said.

Brenda rolled her eyes, "It's not just a dessert. It's a raspberry chocolate mousse and it's molded and garnished and - "

"Okay," Jason said.

Brenda tossed her napkin on the table, "I'll be right back," Brenda said and stood up. She grabbed her coat and keys and left.

Jason watched Brenda leave and started clearing the table. The food at dinner was excellent, and if there was one thing he'd learned about Brenda over the past few weeks was that while she may not know her way around the kitchen she definitely knew how to order take-out. He was surprised that she had such a healthy appetite for a model, she watched what she ate but he'd seen her eat enough fried foods to know she wasn't on a carrots only diet. But by the way she ate tonight, he wasn't sure how she kept her figure because from what he could tell, there wasn't any extra fat on her body - and it wasn't like she was skin and bones either. Brenda definitely had curves in all the right places. Jason shook his head, he'd definitely had too much wine tonight. He normally didn't drink wine, maybe a glass or two, but tonight the two of them had polished of nearly two bottles. Jason finished loading the dishes in the dishwasher and grabbed the open bottle of wine from the table. He debated pouring another glass, but decided he'd had enough wine for the evening and set the bottle on the kitchen counter. Brenda could have another glass if she wanted one but he'd had enough wine.

"Jason," Rey called as he entered the penthouse.

Jason sprinted to the living room, not sure what to expect but he definitely didn't expect to see Rey carrying Brenda.

"Will you please put me down?" Brenda asked.

"What happened?" Jason asked and motioned for Rey to set Brenda on the couch.

"There was some ice in the parking structure - I slipped," Brenda explained.

"She took a pretty bad spill," Rey said. "You might want to run her by the hospital, something could be broken."

"Rey - thanks for bringing me up here, I don't think I could've walked up here on this ankle, but I'm fine," Brenda insisted. She definitely didn't want to spend Christmas in the emergency room. With her luck, she'd run into Jax and he'd try to convince some unsuspecting nurse to commit her to the psych ward while Jason went for coffee.

"Yeah, thanks," Jason said and knelt on the floor next to the sofa. Rey nodded and left the two of them alone. Jason carefully took off Brenda's stiletto heel, "Sure these were made for winter?"

"As long as you're inside, you're fine," Brenda said and slipped off her coat.

"Does this hurt?" Jason asked as he gently ran his thumbs over her ankle.

"Aren't you a little old to play doctor?" Brenda asked. She winced as Jason applied pressure. "Jason - that hurts." Jason looked up at her and Brenda quickly averted her eyes, uncomfortable by the intimacy of the situation. Jason hadn't touched her like this since before the accident.

"Ow, Jase - that hurts," Brenda said as Jason set her down on the bench.

"Just had to try to show off," Jason teased as he knelt in front of Brenda. "Let's see what we have here." Jason gently unlaced Brenda's ice skate and smiled up at her apologetically when she cringed from the pain. "Sorry Sweetheart."

"It's not your fault," Brenda said. "You're right, I was trying to show off."

Jason tenderly held Brenda's ankle and applied gentle pressure, "Does this hurt?" Jason asked.

"Yes," Brenda said. "It's not broken is it?"

"No," Jason said. "Just a sprain. A few days of bed rest and you'll be good as new."

"Bed rest?" Brenda asked. "What if I promise to stay in bed? Do we - I mean, I have to rest?"

"Bren," Jason said as he took off Brenda's other skate and tossed both over his shoulder before picking her up.

Brenda smiled at Jason and kissed him, "If it's doctor's orders for me to stay in bed, I think you should work on your bedside manner and at least join me."

"Do you want to go to the hospital?" Jason asked and took off Brenda's other shoe. He looked at the heel for a few seconds then shook his head. He'd never understand the appeal of shoes like that.

"No," Brenda said.

"Nothing's broken," Jason said. "It's just a sprain. I'll get a bandage and wrap it for you and get you an ice pack to help with the swelling. It should be fine in about a week. You'll have a pretty nasty bruise - "

"Don't say that," Brenda said. "I have an audition next week for a swimsuit campaign. I can't have a bruise."

Jason wondered if Brenda should be thinking about modeling so soon considering what happened last time, but it wasn't his place to say anything. "Do you want something for the pain?" Jason asked. "I can get you some aspirin or if you need something stronger - "

"Aspirin's fine," Brenda hurriedly said. It had taken her awhile to overcome her addiction to painkillers and she wasn't about to throw that all away for something as insignificant as an ankle sprain.

Jason nodded, "Okay," Jason said. "Aspirin it is." Jason stood up and headed to the kitchen.

"She hates me," Carly cried as she sat down on the bed. "Your mother hates me." She loved Johnny's mother like she was her own and before tonight she'd never seen her look at her like that before. Both of his parents placed such a strong emphasis on family and they really weren't looking at their situation too favorably. "Johnny - "

"Hey," Johnny said and brushed the tears from Carly's face. "She doesn't hate you. My mom loves you, both my parents love you. They're just a little shocked and they feel left out." He knew his parents would come around, they loved Carly. It's just that all of this came as such a shock to them. They had a lot of questions, they had no idea he was back together with Carly, much less married and about to have a baby.

"They're disappointed," Carly said. "They're disappointed that I got pregnant before we got married. Johnny, you have to promise me that you won't tell them the truth." She'd already seen the disappointed look in their eyes and she didn't want to disappoint them further by telling them that this wasn't really Johnny's baby. "I know it's selfish, but you have to promise me - "

"You're my wife," Johnny said. "And your best interests are my best interests, it's not selfish, Carly. It's what we need to do." He trusted his family, he knew they wouldn't say anything to anybody and that they'd love the baby regardless of biology, that wasn't the issue. There was always the chance that someone would say something they shouldn't and he couldn't take that risk. No one could know he wasn't the biological father, he promised Carly that no one would take her baby away and it was a promise he was going to keep even if it meant lying to his parents. He loved them, but he couldn't gamble with their baby like that - he wouldn't. "They just need some time."

"Time?" Carly asked. "Johnny we don't have any time. I'm almost due and I wanted - I wanted - " Carly started crying again and Johnny pulled her closer in a hug. "I just wanted us to have the perfect Christmas. This is our first Christmas together, our first real Christmas and I just wanted to have a nice quiet dinner and exchange gifts."

"You know what?" Johnny asked. "So we'll have dinner tomorrow, just the two of us. We'll order in and - " Johnny closed his eyes when he heard a knock on the door.

"Johnny? Caroline?" Teresa asked. "Is it okay if we talk to you - "

Johnny kissed Carly, "Honey, it's gonna be okay," Johnny whispered. He stood up and opened the door. "Dad - Mom, I know this is a shock for the both of you, but if you're gonna argue or lecture - I'd rather wait until tomorrow."

Carly closed her eyes for a few seconds and shook her head, "Johnny," Carly said as she stood up. "Don't." Johnny had already put himself out on a limb for her but she didn't want him to push his parents away. Whatever they had to say, whether or not she wanted to hear it, she owed it to Johnny to listen to them.

"Carly, we don't have to do this tonight," Johnny said. "It's getting late, you haven't eaten yet and - "

"Son, we're not here to argue with you," Johnny's father, James said. "Your mother and I - we love you, both of you. Caroline, come here for a second." Carly glanced at Johnny for a second then walked over to James. "Teresa and I, we have four sons. We were never blessed with a daughter." He smiled at Carly and touched her chin, "We have that now, we just don't understand what all the secrecy is about."

Johnny stood behind Carly and kissed the top of her head, "Dad - Mom, we weren't deliberately trying to keep things from you," Johnny said. "We got back together and we broke up again - the reasons don't really matter. A few months later, Carly found out she was pregnant. But just because we were having a baby didn't mean that things were fixed between us. It took us a little while to find our way back to each other and we finally sorted things out. We got married a few weeks ago."

"In a church," Carly added.

Teresa sighed, "Jonathan - Caroline, we love both of you. We just don't understand why you couldn't tell us," Teresa said. "When were you going to tell us?"

"In a few days," Johnny said. "Mom, Carly and I - we needed to make our own decisions on what we were going to do about us."

"Teresa - James, I love your son," Carly sincerely said. "He's my best friend and now he's my husband. We got a little off track the past few years, but we're married and we're starting a family."

"Caroline, I know that you and Johnny love each other," Teresa said. "We've never doubted that. And I know you'll make him happy. I've never seen my son happier than when he's with you."

"Mom - "

"You know, I don't think your mother and I will ever understand why you felt the need to keep this from us," James said. "But Son, we're happy for you. We're happy for both of you. Congratulations."

"Do you need help getting upstairs?" Jason asked. Brenda hadn't moved from the couch once since she'd fallen. He'd sent Rey downstairs to have the building manager have someone get rid of the ice near Brenda's car and to bring up the mousse that Brenda insisted they had to eat.

"If you could help me stand - "

"No problem," Jason said. Brenda put all her weight on her right foot and Jason pulled her up. As soon as Brenda put some weight on her left foot, she grimaced in pain and fell back onto the sofa.

"Great, just great," Brenda muttered.

"Come on," Jason said. He grabbed Brenda's shoes from the floor and effortlessly picked her up.

"Jason, put me down," Brenda insisted. "I can walk."

"Brenda, your ankle is swollen. It hurts if you put any weight on it. You haven't tried to walk on it since you fell and you won't take anything stronger than aspirin. Don't make it worse by trying to pretend it's fine when it's not. You really need to take it easy the next few days."

"Fine," Brenda said and motioned upstairs. Jason started walking upstairs and turned when he heard the door open.

"Jason - hey, do - " Johnny paused at the scene in front of him. "You know what - I'll check in with you tomorrow and you two can get back to whatever it was you were doing."

"Nothing's going on," Brenda and Jason simultaneously said.

"You don't have to explain," Johnny said. "I'll - "

"Brenda twisted her ankle," Jason quickly said.

"I can't walk on it," Brenda hurriedly explained.

"I'll be right back," Jason said and carried Brenda upstairs.

Johnny grabbed a magazine and started thumbing through it while he waited for Jason to come back downstairs. He hadn't thought to knock just now because he never would've imagined that he'd interrupt anything more than an argument. He made a mental note to knock the next time he came over. He believed Jason that Brenda sprained her ankle, but he wasn't so sure that he hadn't interrupted something.