A/N: I had to add in some adversity for all our lovely characters
Jamie Scott's Bedroom, after the revelation:
Jamie felt like he had been kicked in the stomach, she was what?!, he knew they had generally been pretty safe and he couldn't figure out how in the world he had let this happen again. He really liked Julia, he loved Ty, but he still didn't know her all that well - not enough to have two kids with her, hell he had only found out about his first six months before. He had a million thoughts run through his mind but somehow the only word he could manage to squeak out was,
"How?"
Julia looked less than pleased with his response, but also was visibly upset at the idea of having another baby,
"Remember I switched my birth control? And I told you it was gonna be ineffective for a week?" Julia started slowly, Jamie recalled that conversation in vivid detail,
*flashback*
"I switched from my other pill to this one," Julia said as she walked into the bathroom before the couple headed to sleep for the night, her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth as she put the new pill pack down,
"That's good," Jamie wasn't sure why Julia was telling him this but he figured whatever made her feel the safest and happiest was a fine form of birth control for him, "whatever keeps you and I from doing another uh-oh"
Julia rolled her eyes, "Don't even joke about that, but I'm telling you this because it won't be effective I think for like the first week, so wrap it up or keep it out, I don't want more kids as a 22 year old." Julia had shrugged as she swallowed the new pill and Jamie chuckled at his girlfriend.
*end of flashback*
"Well when I asked the gyno apparently it was ineffective for the whole first month, which means you and I did a lot of things that generally tend to produce children," Julia watched as Jamie sat down next to her and rested his head in his hands. It wasn't that they couldn't survive financially, Jamie had signed a massive contract with Charlotte and she had gotten a job working for the North Carolina Federal Investigation Bureau; they both had salaries and Jamie had a townhouse in downtown Charlotte that was roomy and she had rented a small apartment that she didn't really ever stay at but still would have enough space, the challenge for both of them was the uncertainty another child would add to their relationship dynamic.
"Jesus," Jamie wished he could get words, any words, to come out, but nothing was coming to him, there was nothing he could say to fix this, "how long have you known?" he finally formulated a question and Julia bit her lip,
"I found out yesterday, remember I stepped outside to take that phone call about the screening I went through for work?" Julia asked and Jamie nodded, "they made me do one of those drug pee tests and instead of coming back positive for drugs they noticed the elevated hormone levels and let me know I was pregnant."
"Did you take a test to make sure?" Jamie asked and Julia deep sighed,
"Of course I did Jamie, I took 3 just to make sure," Julia stopped to smile and look over at Tyler, "which is a hell of a lot less than the number of tests I took with this one but I'm pretty sure it's conclusive."
A strange feeling came over Jamie, he suddenly felt incredibly guilty, he hadn't been there for anything with Tyler, he hadn't been there to comfort Julia when she'd found out, or to help her cope with the judgement and questions she'd faced as a pregnant 19 year old. And even though he was sitting right next to her and his son right now he felt like an outsider, his throat was dry but he managed to get out his next sentence, "you never did tell me about how you found out you were pregnant with Ty."
*flashback*
Julia Andrews was not feeling well, and by not feeling well she meant throwing up every morning for the past four weeks not feeling well. She called her best friend to cancel their morning plans, which had become almost routine as of late, Julia and Ashley would make plans to go to beach and Julia would always call to push it back to the next day. Ashley had started to make jokes about it and Julia was sure she was about to get an earful,
"Ash, hey," Julia started, "I've been throwing up all morning again, I don't think I can be ready by 11…"
"Julia this is like the nine hundredth time you've been sick when you wake up, are you okay?" Ashley asked her best friend,
"Yea, I'm find it must just be a bug or something. It always goes away by noon so I can go later if you want to do that instead," Julia offered and she was met with silence, Ashley wasn't replying, "Ash?" Julia asked wondering if her line had been cut off by service.
"Hey Jules don't kill me for asking this…" Ash started and Julia furrowed her brow, what question could she possibly ask that would bother her, "when you and Jamie Scott fucked after the rave, did you use," Ashley paused, "ya know, a condom?"
There it was. That was a question that elicited annoyance from the other end of the phone,
"Of course we," Julia paused, trying to think back and the gritty details running back through her mind, "oh fuck, no, no we didn't". Ashley was quiet, trying to let her friend sit with the information she had just processed,
"Look Jules I'll be over in ten with those pee stick things, just stay at your house," Ashley instructed her best friend. Thirty minutes later an out-of-breath Ashley was standing in the foyer of her bathroom, three CVS bags hanging on her arms,
"Jesus Ash did you buy the whole store? I'm probably not even pregnant, it was one time and it was like forever ago, I never get my periods on time anyways," Julia snatched one of the bags from Ash and pulled out the firstbox, "let's just do this one okay? No need to pee on 45 different sticks."
Twenty minutes after that, Julia Andrews and her best friend sat on the tile floor of her bathroom, staring at literally 45 positive pregnancy tests, "Ash what the hell am I going to do?"
If finding out she was pregnant was hard, telling her parents, devout catholics, had been a thousand times harder. Julia and Ash had gone downtown to a Planned Parenthood to discuss Julia's options, and she had been dead-set on getting an abortion and forgetting this whole thing had ever happened, but math had never been Julia's strong point, and as the doctors explained to her that she was already 14 weeks pregnant and unable to terminate the pregnancy Julia had felt like she was going to die. Now she was sitting at a dinner table with her parents, trying to figure out how to explain to them the current predicament she found herself in,
"Mom, Dad, I have something I need to talk to you about," she ventured and both of her parents looked up, confused about the tone of their youngest daughter's voice, she sounded terrified, "please don't yell at me or lecture me."
"Of course not honey, what's wrong?" Her mom asked, completely unaware of the curveball that was about to be thrown her way,
"So remember I told you guys about that really cool rave that Duke threw after we won the National Championship?" her parents nodded so she cleared her throat and continued, "so at the rave I met a boy, Jamie Scott, dad you know him right, the one with all those records?"
"Yes of course I know of Jamie Scott, he's damn close to the best point guard Duke has ever had," Julia's dad was super lost about where this conversation was headed, and was confused about how it included the famous Jamie Scott, but he let his daughter continue,
"Well we, please don't be mad," Julia paused and tried to blink the tears out of her eyes, "we had sex, and I know I shouldn't have but I was drunk and I wanted to and he's Jamie Scott and I was all excited about the game," Julia could see the shock on her parents' faces but also the curiosity from them, why was their daughter telling them about her sex life?
"I'm pregnant."
There it was. Now it made sense. Her parents' eyes got huge, as they watched their daughter lower her eyes to the floor and play with her food to avoid looking up and making eye contact.
"Does he know?" Julia's mom was surprisingly calm in such a situation, Julia shook her head no,
"And I'm not going to go after him for money. I don't want to be that girl, I can make my own money." Julia interjected and her mom nodded understandingly,
"I understand that, but I think it's most important that you finish your degree, your father and I can help support you until you graduate, we can help you set up childcare and an apartment, right Chris?" Julia's mom turned to her husband who hadn't spoken a word, but who nodded to his wife's question. Julia burst into tears, she was so lucky to have parents like them.
The first time someone had noticed she was pregnant had been four months in, when she started to show, and she was incredibly embarrassed as the older woman had started asking about her baby and her (nonexistent) husband. Perhaps her only advantage was the Julia looked about 5 years older than she was, something about the way she held herself and acted that fooled people into thinking she was a responsible adult and not some irresponsible pregnant teenager. Julia had gone home and cried, but it had gotten so much worse when she went back to school in the fall six months along. Her professors whispered, her classmates avoided her like it was contagious, and even worse when she had seen Jamie Scott around he hadn't even recognized her or realized what had happened - that he was a father. She had made up her mind, she was going to march right up to him and tell him, "this is your baby and I don't want anything from you but I want you to know." She had gathered up the courage to go up to him after their Econ class had let out, but she noticed a girl with long blonde hair jog to catch up with him and push him into the corner of a corridor to make out with, and she had lost her nerve.
Her apartment was lovely, and her parents had made good on their promise to support her; she had all of the things she could possibly need in order to raise a child while going to school full time, but she was still terrified; how was she supposed to do it alone? Her doctors' appointments were awkward and uncomfortable any time the subject of a father was breached, and she knew the only two people in the delivery room with her were going to be her mom and Ashley, who had moved in downstairs so that she could be close to her friend off-campus and be there in case anything went wrong. When the time had come to have her baby, Ashley had driven her to the hospital at 5 in the morning and stayed there all day long until Tyler was born.
*End flashback*
Jamie reached over and pushed the hair out of Julia's wet eyes, cupping her chin in his hand,
"Look at me Julia, I know this thing between us is still new, but I promise I will be there for my children forever, and I will be there with you through this whole pregnancy, I will never leave you alone like you were with Ty, I won't let you go through that twice." Julia looked up at Jamie, she believed every word he said, she was so lucky to be with a man so caring and full of love, she tucked her head on his shoulder,
"I love you Jamie Scott."
Princeton University, Davis' visit:
Davis Baker was in awe as he stepped off the connecting bus he had taken from the train station to the campus, the green was rolling out in front of him and the tall stone building with their turrets were stretching into the blue sky. There were students bustling around, running to their morning classes fueled by cups of iced coffee, and Davis felt at home. His thoughts were interrupted when a tall african american kid in a Princeton basketball hoodie came over and dapped him up,
"Baker right?" the kid asked, Davis nodded, "I'm Kyle, welcome to the holy grail of Ivy League college ball. Come on, Coach said I'm supposed to show you around." Kyle clapped Davis on the back, and picked up one of his two duffel bags to toss over his shoulder. The pair of athletes walked towards one of the buildings on the far right corner, "these are the dorms, they're new inside and Coach always sets us up with a nice suite, we can drop your bags off there." Davis followed Kyle through the double doors at the front of the building, amazed at how beautiful the building itself was, the duo climbed one set of stairs and veered right towards the far right corner. When Kyle threw open the door Davis' jaw hit the ground. The dorm had a weird set up, so that there was a common living space in the middle and then four doors each leading to a room, instead of desks crowding the small common area there was a small shooting game and a ping pong table, along with two big comfy leather couches.
"This is awesome," Davis didn't have more words to describe the "bro-pad" that was before him, "so are these your bedrooms?" he gestured to the four doors,
"Yeah, here we can go in mine, we set up an air mattress in Jake's room because he had the most floor space but he's at Calculus right now so you'll meet him later," Kyle opened the door to the first bedroom, Davis was impressed by the cleanliness of the space, there were Celtics posters tacked up on the wall and there was a flat screen tv set up on the desk in the corner, but other than that and an assortment of liquor bottles in the window, it didn't look like a college kid lived there.
"This is such a good space, and clean too dude," Davis put his bags on the bed and Kyle laughed,
"It's a Friday so I might bring someone back tonight after our party, I like to pretend I'm neat for those ladies," Kyle winked at Davis who laughed and rolled his eyes,
"Of course."
The two boys shed the bags and headed out to go get breakfast and to go to Kyle's Economics class, Davis was surveying the crowds of people, everyone looked so important and so smart, he didn't feel like an outsider finally. The number of people that Kyle stopped to talk to was astronomical, but Davis noticed that most of the people coming over to talk were also athletes, even the girls. Davis felt his stomach twist, coming towards them was a pair of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. They had on the Princeton athletic backpacks, which were noticablee because of the bright orange straps, but aside from their backpacks they looked like they probably hit the gym every single day. One girl was tall, she was light-skinned and had long naturally curly hair and bright blue eyes with a dazzling smile and lips that looked like they would be the softest kiss ever. The other girl was shorter, with long brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail, little loose curls hanging around her face. She had on a long sleeved white cropped workout top that exposed her abs, and high waisted black leggings on that clung to her strong body; her eyes were warm and inviting and Davis found himself almost stunned at her sight. He felt guilty for a second, because he knew Anna was at home, but Anna had broken up with him, just because they were going to have a baby didn't mean he had to stay with her, so he pushed away the feeling of guilt and turned to Kyle,
"Who are they?" he asked quietly and Kyle smirked at him,
"Kris, Moriah!" Kyle shouted, and the two girls smiled and waved, coming over to join the boys, "Ladies this is Davis Baker, he's coming to Princeton for basketball," Kyle gestured to the kid next to him, the girls grinned,
"I like your name, it's like a sexy grandpa name" the brunette, Kris, said with an eyebrow raise and a smile, "are you stuck with this kid all day or are they gonna let you free?"
"He's with me Kris," Kyle answered for Davis, "but don't worry, we're taking him to the party tonight, will volleyball be there?"
"We never miss a basketball party Kyle come on now," Moriah interjected and Kyle winked,
"Good we'll see you ladies there."
"Nice meeting you Davis!" the two girls said in unison as they continued on their way,
"You think Kristen is hot don't you?" Kyle asked as the girls disappeared,
"Uh yeah, I don't see any way someone could not think that, she's like stunning," Davis replied and Kyle grinned,
"She was into you too for sure, she'll be out tonight I'm sure you can make something happen," Kyle advised his recruit and Davis laughed,
"Yeah maybe," he said, and Kyle grinned,
"You can definitely get a gram or something at the least, make the girls at home a little insecure," Kyle suggested and Davis sighed with raised eyebrows, he couldn't decide whether he should tell Kyle about Anna or not,
"Yeah well my ex girlfriend just dumped me for committing here so just me being here is pissing her off probably," Davis waded into the conversation, and Kyle looked surprised,
"Why would she dump you for coming to an Ivy?" Kyle asked and Davis pushed his lips together and huffed,
"Well, she and I are having a baby so I think she wanted to be more involved in the decision but I made the smartest choice for myself and for my kid, so I'm off her attitude about it honestly," Davis said as casually as possible,
"Dude 17 and already have baby mama drama, the NBA is gonna love you," Kyle seemed pretty cool with it, "so y'all aren't together anymore?"
"Nah and I don't really want to get back with her either,I mean I'll be there for my kid but I don't think I want to be with her, just don't feel it right now," Davis replied and Kyle nodded, clearly thinking,
"Well in that case we are definitely getting you with Kris tonight, you need a good rebound fuck,' Kyle reasoned and Davis smiled and laughed,
"I'm in."
The day passed pretty quickly, and Davis met the rest of the team members at practice that afternoon, he liked most of the younger guys who would still be around when he came, and he really loved how the coach ran practice, but he was ready to take a nap after the events of the day. Kyle, Jake and the other two roommates - Mason and Mikey, headed back towards the dorm, all making jokes about their plans for the night, Davis was able to deduce that Mason had a girlfriend on the Girl's Basketball team and that Jake was still with his girlfriend from back home, where as Kyle and Mikey seemed to play the field or as Mikey put it "diversifying his investments". But all four guys seemed really chill and also really excited about the party the older guys were throwing at their townhouse that night. The pregame drinking started about 9:00, and Davis found himself tossing back shots with Kyle at a record speed, Davis hoped he looked okay, he had on a navy and white hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned almost all the way, and khakis with the silver chain his dad had given him for his birthday the year before hanging around his neck. The other guys were dressed similarly, but with varying assortments of shirts, Kyle had on a worn gray Celtics t-shirt, Jake was wearing a navy long sleeved shirt and Mason had on a Wizard's Jordan jersey, Mikey also had a hawaiian shirt on, but his was cream with light green flowers and he had on Puka shells, he encompassed the entire idea of "surfer white guy" but it seemed to work for him. The five headed out around 10:30, each comfortably drunk and ready for the night.