AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I'm updating a bit much today, but I had the idea for the dialogue. In the next chapter Lea and Darren get really romantic and we meet Darren's parents. I'm gonna post that around Saturday I think. But anyways, I hope you don't get to bored with all this, since there had to be a little bit of this. I'm still trying to make Ryan completely crazy. I'm not gonna make him a killer though ;) But if you've got anything you want in the story, feel free to give me a review saying it :)

LEA'S POV:

Cory and I had gone home, together from Starbucks, since my parents had invited themselves over for dinner. Darren didn't know anything, and I just really wanted it to stay that way. He'd probably freak over me letting my parents meet Cory, and introduce him as my boyfriend.

"So what do you want for dinner?" I asked Cory, who shrugged in response. "What about homemade lasagna?"

He nodded, smiling, but then his face turned curious. "I didn't know you could cook," he said, smirking. That reminded me of the morning Darren made me eggs, and then I remembered that he still owed me a night of homemade cooking.

"My mom taught me to make all kinds of dishes," I answered as I washed my hands in the kitchen sink. "Lasagna's the one she and I made the most."

"All my mom taught me, was how to call the pizza parlor, and have them deliver," he laughed. I smiled at him, letting him wash his hands in the sink. I began to take out the different things, which was needed for lasagna. I didn't feel like making a tomato-sauce from scratch so I just grabbed some in a can, from the cabinet. I poured it into a bowl and spiced it with garlic and tomato paste.

"Cor, would you grab the meat from the fridge?" I asked him. He nodded and walked to the fridge to take out the meat. He opened the pack and laid it on a chopping board. I went to the cabinet and grabbed a pot to lightly fry the meat. After about twenty minutes we put the lasagna in the oven.

"Do you have any beers?" he asked me. I nodded and pointed to the fridge. He grabbed two beers.

"Oh no, I can't drink beer," it slipped out of me. I cursed under my breath, because he didn't know that I was pregnant. He put it back, but didn't take his eyes off me.

"Why can't you drink beer?" he asked, suspiciously. I sighed heavily and sat down. "Are you pregnant?"

I nodded slowly, with closed eyes. "Oh my God," he said. I felt him sit down next to me and put his arms around me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Darren and I have it all planned out," I answered. He lifted one eyebrow. "We're going to tell the world that it's his."

"But it is his, right?" he asked me. I nodded eagerly.

"Of course it is! But everyone thinks you and I are together. In third month, that's going to change," I explained. Cory opened his beer and took a big sip.

"What about Ryan? Does he know?"

"Nope. He actually threatened me the other day, so I don't think that right now's a good time to tell him," I said, emotionless. Cory stared at me, moping.

"Did he threaten you!" he almost screamed. His voice got so high pitched, I felt like my ears started bleeding.

"Well, I don't think it's something we should worry about. He's not that crazy," I defended. It felt wrong defending a crazy bastard like him, but I didn't want to end up in lawsuit for accusing somebody for something they didn't do.

"Sure, and you didn't think Norman Bates was that crazy, either!" Cory yelled referring to the movie Psycho. Maybe he was right. In the movie, Norman was... or seemed like a peaceful man, but he was a mentally disturbed, crazy killer. I'm sure Ryan wasn't able to kill anyone though. But I didn't want any violence performed on me, in any way. "I think you should go to somebody with this."

"I don't want to accuse him, when he hasn't done anything, but say something he probably regrets," I said. I seemed so naïve sometimes that I couldn't even stand myself.

"I don't think he regrets it," Cory mumbled. "Just promise me you'll act on it, if anything ever happens again?"

"I promise," I said. He held up his pinky in front of my face. I wrapped my pinky finger in his and we pinky promised. It was something I'd always done with all of my friends, and people just knew they could trust me, if they'd pinky promised with me. After a few minutes of silence, the doorbell rang. Cory, being the gentleman he was, went to the door to open it.

"Hi!" my mom screeched excitedly. "You must be Cory! I'm Edith."

They shook hands, and my mom went by Cory afterwards, to hug me. Meanwhile, my dad and Cory said hello to each other.

"Hi sweetie! I've missed you," my mom said and hugged me tightly.

"I've missed you too, mom," I said, as she let go of me. She went to the kitchen and looked into the oven.

"Looks delicious, honey," my mom, remarked about the lasagna. "Homemade, I assume?"

"Of course," I grinned. "Cory, honey, would you help me over here?"

Cory came rushing to me, right away. "Would you grab the lasagna and put it on the table?" I asked him. He nodded and found some ovenmits, so he could get out the lasagna. He walked quickly to the dining table, and put it down as fast as he could. I smiled at him, while getting out plates. My dad walked towards me after I'd gotten the plates on the table.

"Hi honey, you look wonderful," he said as he hugged me. "Almost glowing."

I couldn't help but laugh a bit at his remark. People always said that women had this special glow when they were pregnant. But to be honest, I would think Ryan would've beaten the entire glow out of me.

"Thank you, dad," I said and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh and guys, sit down please."

The evening went by fast, and mom and dad loved Cory. I wondered if they would've liked Darren. Then I thought that if they loved Cory, they would worship Darren. The entire night I kept seeing Darren in the seat next to me, instead of Cory. I wished for Darren to be there so badly, I almost frightened myself. My mom and dad were about to go home, so Cory gave them their coats.

"Thank you, both, for such a lovely dinner," my mom said and kissed my cheek. I pecked her lightly, and send her on to Cory.

"Lea, it was delicious," my dad commented. "We taught you something, eh?"

I laughed quietly. "Of course you did!" I said and kissed him on the cheek. Cory opened the door for them, and as we said our last goodbyes, they went out of the door.

"Well," Cory said and sighed. "I've got to be going too."

"I'll see you tomorrow at set," I said and hugged him. "And thank you for today."

"No problem, there's nothing to thank me for," he said. "Your parents were so nice."

"But it was a tough evening for me. Darren wasn't here, y'know," I said and sighed.

"I understand," he said in a low voice. "I'll see you."

He let himself out, and I was left alone in my apartment. I decided to go to sleep since we had an early day on set the next day. I woke up at six AM, sharp, and I had to be in at eight. I spent twenty minutes on doing makeup and hair, and after that I ate breakfast and watched television. Suddenly I heard the loud sound of my ringtone, signaling that it was Dianna. We'd picked a custom ringtone for her.

"Hey, Di," I said, holding the phone with my ear, leaning it on my shoulder.

"Hey Lee. Do you need a lift to set today?" she asked me.

"Sure, I could use a ride," I answered her.

"Awesome. I'll pick you up at seven thirty," she said. "Bye."

When we hung up, I realized how alone I felt in the moment. It was terribly random for the feeling to come rushing in now, but it did. And I realized how much of a pushover I was for just letting Ryan manipulate with my relationship. It wasn't okay, to do this to your employees. It had to be harder for Darren, than for me, though. He had to watch me with another man, pretending to be in love with him, when I was clearly not. I'd never experienced love like I did when I was with Darren, and that was not a feeling that was going to pass any time soon. When I looked into his eyes, I literally felt home. I felt myself falling apart when I couldn't see him. If I had to talk in metaphors, I could say that I was a piece of paper and Ryan was crumbling me, until I was a perfectly crumbled round ball... and then he would throw me in the trash. At 7:30 Dianna buzzed my doorbell and I ran down the stairs to her.

"Hey," I said, as I entered her car, and sat in the shotgun seat. She was already in her Quinn outfit. I was going to change on set. When we arrived, everyone was in the parking lot. We slowly went out of the car, and Dianna asked Kevin what was going on.

"Ryan and Darren are yelling at each other," Kevin said and pointed to a container a mile or so away from where we all stood. I ran, as fast I could, to them.

"What the Hell are you two doing?" I yelled at them. They stopped fighting and looked at me. "You want everything to not be suspicious, right? Then don't stand behind a container, and fight with Darren."

"Lea, stay out of this," Darren said, laying a hand on my shoulder. I was staring at Ryan with angry eyes.

"No, Darren! It's time someone does something about this. I've done everything you've asked me to, why don't you leave us alone?" I asked, yelling. Ryan looked stunned at me.

"Darren told me, that you're pregnant," he just replied. I was completely frozen. It felt like something had electrocuted me, on the highest volt. "Actually, I should say that I overheard him tell one of his friends."

"Who'd you tell?" I stuttered, looking at Darren. He grabbed my hand.

"Meredith," he replied. Ryan looked angrily at us both, shifting from me to Darren and from Darren to me.

"I am sorry, but I thought we had an agreement," Ryan hissed. "And I thought I made the consequences very clear."

"Don't you fucking dare threatening her!" Darren yelled. I put my hand on his shoulder, in attempt of calming him down. "Why are you doing this? Is it fun? 'Cause I sure as Hell don't see the fun in this!"

"Darren, stop," I whimpered and let go of his shoulder. I dropped my arms down my side. "If I have to quit for this to stop, then I will."

"I thought you were understanding that the consequences will happen if you don't follow my orders, and if you quit. You signed a contract a while ago. You can't quit," Ryan said, with no sign of emotions on his face. I felt sick to my stomach.

"You're a disgusting man," I said, turned my back on both of them and walked away. I walked straight past all the cast members staring me down. I heard footsteps right behind me that sounded quicker than walking.

"Lea, hold up!" Darren yelled, when I reached the choir room. I stopped and turned around. "I know this is difficult, but we need to do what he says, and then there'll come a day, soon enough, where we'll be free again."

"Do you think it's fun for me having to look at Cory and wishing you were there? Because it's not, it's really, really not," I said with tears in my eyes. Darren held my hand, but I pulled away. "I have your baby inside of me, but I'm pretty sure that soon the world is going to think that baby is Cory's. Ryan's fucking crazy. And I'm afraid what he'll do to us. Both of us."

"He. Can't. Hurt. Us," Darren said, slowly through his gritted teeth. I smiled sadly.

"But he can. In reality, everyone can hurt us," I said. "He's just number one."

"I love you... so much. I'm not going to let this get between us," Darren said. "I have an idea. Just listen... We'll tell Ryan we broke up, and you'll pretend like you're actually with Cory."

I guess my facial expression must've looked like I was thinking about his idea, because he stopped. "Don't. I know you hate it, but just hear me out. After a while, you and Cory will break up and you'll come back to me," he explained. His idea didn't seem terrible; I just didn't want to live without Darren for a long while.

"I guess I could do that," I said, slowly and quietly. "But we can still see each other, meanwhile, right?"

He just nodded and wrapped his arms around me. "I love you."