Chapter Fourteen

Baby Think It Over

More than a hundred reviews? You guys rock! Brownies for everyone!

So sorry if this chapter gets confusing...I don't think it's one of my better ones. And for those of you who haven't seen At World's End (gasp...there is people like that, I know! Haha) don't read this chapter.

At 11:00 on Tuesday morning, Kate left the muggy July weather outside and welcomed the cool, familiar air conditioning of EITC Couples Counseling Center. She walked up the narrow flights of stairs to the second story. She never did ask what was on the first floor. Maybe it was a different type of counseling owned by the same company.

Kate opened the door to the counseling center and saw that the same blonde reception was working there. She went up to the counter.

"Oh, I've seen you before!" the receptionist, who's name she remembered was Christina said. "It's, um..."

Kate wondered what a woman like this was doing working for a man like Beckett.

"Katalina?" Christina guessed.

"Kate," she said. "Beckett may have told you I was coming in without an appointment."

"No, he never said anything...he's almost done with one of his appointments, if you'd like a seat."

Kate sat down in one of the green-colored chairs and crossed her legs at the knees. She had so many memories just the one time that she visited this room. She remembered the shame she felt the first day while Will sat next to her, and even the uncertainty of the last day, when she still wasn't completely sure if he would take her back. She never wanted to revisit those memories – especially the ones that dealt with why they were here in the first place.

It was all caused by one stupid night with Jack! She couldn't ever really look at him the same way. And now with his bone-headed moves while at the party with Melissa, she was starting to dislike him even less. No, he wasn't a bad person, but Melissa probably thought that she could be the person to tame him.

She wondered if maybe they could talk this weekend, a real conversation, one that wasn't about the lust each had felt for each other at one point, or him making the wrong decisions that she would chide him about. Maybe they could just, well, talk?

She saw a blonde couple walk out and go to the receptionist. Mercer was right behind them. Kate stood up and walked towards him, slinging her brown purse over her shoulder. Mercer gave her a quizzical glance.

"It's okay, I talked to him," she said, breezing past Mercer and walked down a hallway to the door that read Dr. Cutler Beckett. She opened the door and saw the light yellow walls, paired with several paintings of flowers on the walls. Beckett was walking over to his desk, but turned his head when he heard the door open.

His blue-green eyes looked her over. "That's annoying. You actually showed up."

"And it's wonderful to see you, too," she said, stepping into the room. She closed the door behind her.

"You have me for a whole half hour," Beckett said. "Are you here to tell me there is trouble in paradise with you and Mr. Turner?"

"Quite the contrary."

Beckett gave a sideways glance while tidying some papers at his desk. "Elaborate, Miss Sims?"

She held her left hand up. "I'm getting married."

Beckett's eyes grew as big as the diamond on her finger and walked quickly towards her. She could feel his ego taking up all possible air in the room as he held her hand and examined the ring. She couldn't help but notice he was about three inches shorter than her.

"My program does work," he said in awe.

"And you had reason to doubt that it didn't?"

He wasn't lying to us about his credibility, was he? she wondered silently.

"I'm just impressed to see that a program that I created works," he said. "Mine fixed yet another relationship."

Kate sat down on the couch where she and Will had once sat together with so much friction between them. She sat down on the middle cushion and set her purse down to her left. "Yes, well, it always is good to build your ego."

"Did you and Turner decide if you're going to have children?"

"Actually, we were just talking about that–"

"What wonderful timing, then." Beckett went to the storage closet and pulled out what appeared to be a baby carrier and a doll. "This here is Baby Think It Over."

Kate wasn't quite sure what he meant to do by pulling out what appeared to be a doll. She was about to ask when Beckett started explaining and walking towards her.

"Baby Think It Over is perfect for an engaged couple. I purchased one several years ago when my first engaged couple came back. It tells whether you and your soon-to-be husband, Miss Sims, are supposed to have children at the time."

"Oh, and how exactly does Baby Think It Over help? It's a doll."

He picked it up the doll and opened the back of the sea-green velcro-ed one piece to reveal a flat back. On second glance, the flat back looked to be a mechanical box area, with a space for a round key with a small hooked area. Why would a doll have that on it's back? Beckett picked one of the two black keys accompanying it.

"When it cries, insert the key into a clockwise direction. You'll know you've turned it far enough when it stops crying. Leave the key in until it coos. Take it out, then set the child back in the carrier."

"Wait, it cries? It's a doll."

"No, it's Baby Think It Over. It's more of a robotic doll that measures your parenting skills. You must learn to pay attention, Miss Sims."

"But how long do I keep the key in there?"

"Anywhere from five minutes to thirty-five minutes. It will cry again thirty minutes to three hours after the last crying session."

Was he crazy? She was not going to take care of a robot! But it would give Will a chance to show how good of a parent he really would be, and it would give Kate a chance to show how selfish she could get.

"It's one week of a child. The registry is in the back. It will tell me how many times you've ignored it, how much it cried during the week, how many times you abused it–"

"How do you abuse a robot?"

Beckett simply velcro-ed the one piece up again, took the baby by the ankle, then hung it upside down. As a reaction, the baby started crying. Kate could not believe that she would be taking care of something like that for a week. He then sat it upright. Thankfully, it stopped crying.

"As I was saying, it's one week of a child...unless you're too scared of taking care of one."

She eyed the robot baby and began planning how she would tell Will that Beckett handed her a baby to take care of for a week to test their parenting skills. But his program worked, so she knew that this had to be on the right track, result-wise.

"Fine," she said, getting up to take the child from him, as well as dragging the carrier away. She saw that the baby had big brown eyes and a bit of brown painted-on hair. She wondered that, down the line, if this was what their child would look like.

"Wonderful." Beckett got up from the desk and took out two orange wristbands. Each one had a black key that would fit into the back of the baby. He fastened the wristband around her. She thought it felt a bit like those jelly shoes that she had when she was younger.

"The spare key is for your fiancé. Bring the child back on July 31."

Kate sat back down on the sofa, now with her and Will's temporary child in front of them. She wondered when it would start crying.

Beckett walked back to his desk and dug into his drawers, then pulled out a bottle and two smaller glasses. He set them on the coffee table in front of her.

"Brandy?" he asked. Beckett poured the liquid into a glass, then sat down in the white chair across from her.

"I make it a point of avoiding DUIs."

"Yes, a wedding in prison wouldn't be what you thought of, I'm sure."

"You do have an odd habit of doing that, though. Interrupting a marriage, that is."

"Fate intervening, Miss Sims." He drank some brandy. "By the way, how do you plan on marrying William Turner if you have no birth certificate?"

A week ago she had called the hospital for Will's birth certificate. She remembered how she thought that he was behind it.

"That was rather generous of you to do that, I must admit," she said. "You finally used your government experience to your advantage."

"As much as I would love to take the credit for that, I'm afraid I can't."

If he wasn't behind this, who could? He had to have been lying! There was no other possible way!

"Do you remember, your second couple's session, that I said Calypso could explain how she brought me here?"

"Yes, but that's a given. I mean, you died at sea."

"But it's a wonder that Calypso is a goddess and she would have planned when I would be brought to present day, yet she had no thought about vital documents."

Kate thought about taking a glass of brandy, herself. So Calypso – Tia Dalma – had provided these documents?

"But how?" escaped from her mouth.

"That, my dear, is why she's a goddess. The unearthly kind have no reason to explain themselves."

"So you have a birth certificate, then?" she asked. "Social security? Everything?"

"Yes. I'm assuming you retrieved your fiancé's?"

She nodded. She was starting to get a headache. So it wasn't Beckett who supplied the birth certificate? And what did Calypso have to do with Beckett? She had never met him before! Will and Jack, she understood.

"And, Miss Sims?"

Kate tore her eyes off of the brandy and looked at him.

"You have no worries about a rival."

A rival? What was he talking about? Why did Beckett have to talk to cryptic-like? Kate frowned.

"One Miss Elizabeth Swann," he said, a smirk on his face.

"What exactly do you mean by that?" she inquired.

"It means," he leaned forward, his eyes locked on her's, "you have no need to worry about fate intervening."

Fate intervening – a marriage being interrupted. That would mean that Elizabeth wouldn't come to modern-day, at least not until after the wedding.

"And their son – what was his name?" Beckett continued. "William?"

He was talking about Will's – what was it? Wife? Ex? She couldn't be too sure.

"How do you know about this?" she asked. "How would you know that they had a child?"

"It appears that there was no documents of their son ever being born," Beckett said. "And without documents, there can be no proof. And there was no marriage license issued for when Miss Swann and Mr. Turner did get married, so..."

"It's not official," she finished. "But that doesn't give an explanation as to why Elizabeth won't come back."

Beckett sighed as if this was the easiest thing in the world to explain, but she wasn't grasping it. And maybe it really was easy.

"What is a document that proves death?" he asked slowly.

"A death certificate," Kate said.

"And if it's never proven she was dead, how can she possibly start a life again?"

Kate folded her hands in her lap. She was trying to figure out how exactly they got onto this topic, anyways.

"What about Will, though?" she said. "Did he have a death certificate?"

Beckett just looked at her like she was a complete idiot, which she may certainly be if she couldn't grasp this.

"Are you feeble-minded?" he asked.

"Alright, so he did. I get it. Bottom line is that he won't ever see the Elizabeth that he left things off with terribly and the son he never knew of."

Beckett took a drink of brandy. At least Kate knew that she wouldn't have to worry about a wedding crasher and family drama. But still, she felt like, in a way, Will should at least know the truth of what really happened. She was nervous to tell him, though!

"You are given a sign each time one of us come into your life. What sign were you given by Mr. Turner?"

Great. Now the man wanted riddles? And she just came here to say "thanks for the birth certificate!" and dash out!

"Well, I'm a model, and Will wants to be a photographer. That started out as his eye for detail and precision as a blacksmith."

"Good. Now, tell me about Sparrow. You know I'd love to."

"Captain Jack Sparrow?" she asked. "How do you know about him? That he's here, I mean?"

Beckett sighed. "Yes, my dear, Captain." He said "Captain" rather sarcastically.

"He – I mean, Jack's staying with a friend of mine."

"Then tell me the sign for her. I never said that it was strictly meant for you."

How could Melissa have been given a sign that Jack was coming? Well, she was studying to be a vet, and his last name ended in Sparrow...

"She's going to be a veterinarian after she's done with college," she said. "And his last name is Sparrow. It's an animal...she likes animals..."

"Yes, I understood that one, thank you. I'm not as feeble-minded as some people. Was there a sign that you were to meet me?"

Beckett...pirate brand, no, that would be too obvious. Navy?

Wait! Jack ripping up the Cap'n Crunch boxes!

"Well, you see, Jack makes his dislikes of the navy quite vocal..."

"And what other signs?" he interrupted her. "Are there any more you can think of for anyone?"

"Unless you're trying to imply something, then no."

Beckett looked like he was about to say something more, but then saw that Mercer was escorting a couple in the room. She picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder, as well as carrying the baby carrier.

"Have a wonderful time," he smiled to her. "And please visit me again, my dear!" Beckett said, before closing the door on her.

Now there was nothing but a drive home with her and Baby Think It Over – which she prayed wouldn't cry during the drive.