meadow567: I hate having writer's block and stuff, but it happens. I hope you enjoy the chapter and thanks for the review!

NellieBly413672: Yeah, Mac was weird this chapter. And I had to throw that in there about the chocolate shake and Mac wondering if Laura was pregnant, cuz it was perfect. Thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked the chapter.

neonnbible: Thanks. I would take Rizzo as a roommate too! Enjoy the chapter!

bluehaven4220: Peanut butter and pickles?! Not together right? Cuz that's gross, lol. Thanks for reviewing!

Burntorange: Lol, yes I am in college. Some of Laura's experiences are mine, and some were inspired by friends. The really funny part is that I did hit my head on a bathroom stall door before, but I wasn't drunk when it happened, lol. Explaining that was interesting :) Thanks for reading and reviewing though. I'm glad you like the story.

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews! Enjoy the chapter. This one has a little drama, and there's a lot more to come!

Chapter 20

Early on Thanksgiving morning, Laura went over to her sister's apartment to put the turkey in the oven. For the dinner with the team that night, they were having three turkeys, and Laura was in charge of making one of them. Robbie went to visit his family in the mean time.

"Sorry I'm not coming to dinner, Mom," Robbie said a little while after getting to his parent's house.

"I guess I can forgive you, but only if you give me details on your love life. Who's this Laura girl?" his mother prodded.

Robbie looked over at his mother with a curious expression. He wondered how she even knew Laura's name. Robbie didn't think he mentioned her that much. It wasn't because he didn't want to tell people about Laura, but he didn't want to make a big deal about their relationship. Lately, there were a lot of things Robbie was hesitant about. Laura was one of them. He knew they loved each other, but since they had so many problems in the past, he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize what they had.

"Don't look so surprised, Robbie. I have my ways of finding out what's going on with my children," his mother said, pulling him from his thoughts. It was true. One thing about Robbie's mother was that she always knew what was going on with everyone. And she always found things out when she wanted to. It was like she had ESP.

"She's just my girlfriend, Mom," Robbie said with an exasperated sigh.

"I've heard she's pretty," his dad commented upon walking in the room. Robbie rolled his eyes.

"When do we get to meet her?" his mother asked, in a tone that suggested Robbie and Laura were way deeper than a simple relationship.

"Beth, honey, don't sound the wedding bells yet," Robbie's father warned his wife.

"Oh, I know that! But I can pray for him to find someone soon, can't I?" Robbie just sighed and rolled his eyes again.

Before Robbie left to pick up Laura later that afternoon, his mother asked four more times when she was going to meet Laura. Finally Robbie decided to get his mother off his back, he would agree to a date.

"How about Christmas?" Robbie asked.

"That's a month away. Can't you both come over for dinner next week?"

"I don't know mom. I have games, she has work, we're both busy."

"It would make me really happy," she said, obviously trying to make Robbie give in.

"Fine. I'll try to have her over next week. But I'm not making any promises."

"Good enough. As long as you try, I guess I can live with that."

"You're gonna have to."

Robbie wasn't sure why he was trying to put it off until Christmas, but he just didn't know how Laura would respond to having to meet his parents. She never mentioned bringing Robbie to meet her parents, and Robbie wasn't sure if she even felt they were at that stage yet.

He could always explain that his mother is crazy though. After meeting her, Laura would be bound to believe it. If he told her how adamant his mother was, and pretended not to care either way, whether she met his parents or not, maybe she wouldn't mind meeting them.

Robbie got to Laura's sister's apartment a little before two in the afternoon and greeted Laura with a kiss.

"Hey," she said. "I'm just about ready. The turkey's done, and I just have to change my clothes and I'll be ready to go."

"Okay, I'll take the turkey out to the car." Ten minutes later, Robbie and Laura were heading over to Buzz and Gail's.

Thanksgiving dinner went pretty well, and for the most part, everything tasted good. It was really nice sitting down for dinner with the team, instead of having their usual night out at a bar. Laura also realized that hanging out with the team was just as much fun sober as it was drunk. The guys didn't treat her any different when she was sober either. Instead, they treated her completely normally, still teasing and joking around with her, and Silky still playfully flirting with her.

During dinner, the guys were discussing ways to make Maddie forgive them for giving her the cold shoulder the past few days. Laura and Gail both heard all about how they had avoided Maddie at all costs the past few days, both from Maddie and Jack. The guys decided to throw a surprise baby shower for her, and Laura and Gail were both shocked. After setting the plans, Laura still couldn't believe that they would really be able to pull it off, but just prayed that it wouldn't turn out to be a disaster.

After dinner and dessert, the guys decided to play football. Laura and Gail became designated cheerleaders, but it didn't last long.

"Girls, why aren't you cheering?" asked Pav, teasing them. "My team just got a touchdown."

"I'm bored. I want to play," said Laura.

"Well, you can't," said Bah.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Cause you're a girl," he said.

"I cannot believe you just said that!" said Laura. "Now I have to play." Bah laughed. "I'll teach you a lesson," she added threateningly. Then she announced, "Robbie, I'm playing on your team." Laura walked on their field and got ready to play.

The guys finally agreed to let Laura and Gail play for a little while and they ended up being on separate teams. Laura tried to get the guys to include her in the play, but what they were explaining was too confusing for Laura to understand.

"Why can't we make this simple?"

"It is simple. For guys at least," said Jimmy.

Laura's team had the ball and each time, Laura was the only person open. Still, no one passed to her. After the third down she asked Jimmy, who happened to be the quarterback, why. He made an excuse about not seeing her, but promised to look for her next time. Sure enough, the next time, Laura was wide open again. This time, Jimmy threw her the ball, and it looked like she was going to catch it, but the ball slipped out of her hands and fell. The guys on her team groaned.

"Come on, Laura! You're supposed to catch those," yelled Pav.

"Where's the glue when you need it?" asked Rammer.

"Sorry guys. Next time I promise I'll catch it."

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep," said Robbie, giving her a quick kiss on the head to show he was teasing her.

The other team had the ball now, and like Laura was wide open, Gail happened to be wide open in the end zone on the fourth down. Bah was quarterback and passed her the ball, which she easily caught, so their team scored.

"So you trust her, but you don't trust me?" Laura asked Bah after he was done celebrating their touchdown.

"Uh, yeah. One, she just scored, so it's proven that she's good. And two, she just looks more athletic than you. Way more athletic. No offense," Bah explained.

A little while later, Laura had another opportunity near the end zone. Jimmy had to throw the ball and was running out of time, so he threw it to Laura. This time, Laura just barely caught it, but she caught it and held onto it.

"Laura, step in the end zone!" shouted Jimmy. Bah was coming at Laura, and Jimmy knew it would be close. The rest of the team began yelling too. Laura didn't realize what was going on until Bah touched her. After that, Laura stepped into the end zone and her team began rejoicing.

"Touchdown!" screamed Robbie, and then picked Laura up and spun her around. The other team began yelling too then.

"That was not a touchdown!" yelled Bah in opposition.

"Was too," said Rammer.

"Bah touched her!" said Verchota.

"It's tackle, not two hand touch," said Robbie.

"But she's a girl!" said Bah. "We only have to touch them," he said referring to Laura and Gail.

"That was never agreed upon," said Pav.

"But if I tackled Laura, Robbie would have killed me."

"Rules are rules. We never agreed on not tackling the girls, so it was still tackle," said Jimmy. "We scored fair and square."

The guys continued arguing for the next five minutes or so, and in the mean time, Laura and Gail went inside. The guys didn't even notice.

"Where'd they go?" Buzz finally asked.

"I think they got bored," said Mark, who was the only one to notice them leave.

"Well, this arguing is making me bored too. I'm done," said Verchota. Most of the other guys agreed and they all went inside. Only a few guys were left, so the game pretty much ended.

Once everyone left the apartment, Laura went back to Robbie's room. Although she was practically living there, she still wouldn't refer to it as her room.

"I think we had a pretty nice Thanksgiving," Robbie commented after they were ready for bed.

"We did. And I sure had a lot to be thankful for," Laura said, crawling into bed next to Robbie. She gave him a kiss. "Things like my friends," she said, meaning the team and Maddie and Gail. "And things like you." Robbie smiled.

"I'm thankful for you too," he replied.

A few minutes later, Robbie decided to ask Laura what he wanted to. He figured now was as good a time as any. "Laura?" he asked, almost hoping she was already asleep and he could put it off a little longer.

"Yeah," she answered.

"I have a little favor to ask you. Well, it's actually more for my mom."

"What is it?"

"She really wants to meet you," he said. Then before Laura could respond he continued quickly. "I don't even know how she knows about you, but today she asked like ten times when she could meet you. If you don't want to though, I'll tell her. I've already tried to say no, but it's like she won't take no for an answer." Robbie said all of this quickly, and exaggerated a bit, but he didn't want to make it seem like meeting his parents was his idea. When Laura didn't respond, Robbie looked over at her, noticing she appeared to be in deep thought. She finally began talking.

"I don't mind meeting your parents," she said.

"You don't?" Robbie asked surprised.

"No." Laura hesitated before continuing. "But I can tell you mind."

"What? I don't mind."

"Robbie, if you tried to say no before even asking me, it's obvious you don't want me meeting them. But please don't make me out to be the one that doesn't want to when you tell your mother no again."

"Laura, I never said-"

Laura cut him off, knowing what he was about to say. "You didn't have to. And that's fine. If you're not ready for me to meet them, that's fine," Laura said, pretending not to be bothered by it. In reality, Laura was bothered by it. She was actually hoping that Robbie would want to meet her parents at Christmas, but now she wasn't so sure she would ask. What bothered Laura the most though, wasn't that Robbie sounded like he didn't want her to meet his parents yet, but it was the other things he had said. Laura was really bothered by that fact that Robbie admitted to not even telling his parents about her. She mentioned Robbie to her parents, and if he loved her as much as he made it seem, why wouldn't his mother know about her.

"Well, if you want to meet them, we can," Robbie said. He was actually thankful that Laura wanted to meet his parents. Laura was the first person he really loved, and he wanted his parents to know her. And obviously, Laura was at the same point in the relationship if she wanted to meet his parents.

"Don't do it because I want to. I only want to meet them if you want me to."

"I do," Robbie said, trying to assure her.

"It didn't seem that way," Laura said, unsuccessfully trying to hide her irritation. Now Robbie was confused. He began thinking that Laura only said she wanted to meet his mother because she thought it would make him happy.

"I do want you to meet them, but obviously you don't really want to or we wouldn't be arguing about it right now," Robbie said in an angry tone.

"You the one who started it and won't drop it," said Laura, annoyed at Robbie's anger over something so simple.

"But you're the one who's keeping it up," Robbie said, needing to have the last word. Before Laura continued and said something she knew she'd regret, she got out of bed.

"I'm going for a walk," she said calmly.

"You can't just leave. We're talking. And it's dark out."

"One, you can't stop me from leaving. Two, we're arguing, not talking. And I don't want to argue anymore tonight, because it's just going to get out of control, and I'll say something I regret." Laura let the words sink in with Robbie for a minute and then continued. "And three, I'm not afraid of the dark."

"Come on, Laura," Robbie said, more calmly now, trying to get her to stay.

"I'm going for a walk. I promise I'll be back. I just need to be alone and think for ten minutes."

"You're coming back to sleep here though?"

"Yeah. I promise, okay?"

"All right. Do I at least get a kiss?" Robbie asked as she was walking out of the room.

"No, because I might forget that I'm a little irritated right now. And I might forget what I need to think about," Laura said, shutting the door on her way out.

Laura walked outside and liked the feeling of the crisp November air on her face. First, she thought about what a weird relationship she and Robbie had at times. They fought a lot, but half of the time, they were little spats that would be forgotten about with a kiss. Their argument that night would have too, but Laura knew she needed to think about what he had said and why it bothered her so much. She came to the conclusion that she wasn't really mad at him, but just curious as to where he stood with things. The best thing would be to talk to him about it, but she wanted to wait. Maybe it was a guy thing, and Laura knew exactly how she would determine that.

Robbie decided to stay up until Laura came back, but as the minutes passed slowly, it became harder to keep his eyes open. He finally drifted into a peaceful sleep, and had a dream about Laura.

When Robbie woke up the next morning, he immediately noticed Laura's spot next to him was empty. He remembered her trying to wake him up earlier, saying something about shopping, but he was too tired to get up. Then he remembered their fight the night before, and falling asleep before Laura came back. Robbie had no idea whether she was still mad or not, but he figured he'd find out when he saw her later on.

After he was dressed and ready to go shopping for the baby shower, Rammer, Mark, and Jimmy came over. They waited a while, and with each passing minute, Robbie became more worried about her. Since he couldn't remember her even coming back in last night, he thought that maybe she didn't. He tried reasoning with himself. But if she didn't come back, why would she have been here this morning, waking me up to go shopping? He wondered. Unless I was dreaming, and she wasn't even here trying to wake me up. Robbie thought about this and went over possible scenarios in his head, all ending with Laura dead in a ditch somewhere. Trying to shake the images out of his head, he tried to concentrate on what Jimmy had been saying. It didn't help, because he was talking about Laura.

"Are you sure she was even coming with us?" he asked.

"That's what she said at dinner last night," said Rammer, not waiting for Robbie's response. As if on cue, Robbie's door opened and Laura entered the room, her hands full of shopping bags. Robbie breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey guys," she said, dropping the bags the second she got into the room. "Those were heavy."

"Where the hell were you?" Robbie asked, angry about her casualness about her disappearance. Laura didn't seem to notice his edge though.

"Shopping. I told you I wanted to get to the stores early. Since you didn't want to go, I did some shopping by myself." Robbie then realized that she did tell him, and that he wasn't dreaming it, and his anger disappeared.

"But you don't need anymore clothes. Your closet is full," he reasoned.

"I wasn't shopping for myself. I was Christmas shopping."

"Already?" Mark said, surprised.

"Yeah. There were a lot of sales today. I got most of the gifts I needed to."

"Did you get mine?" Robbie asked curiously, about to look in the bags.

"Yes! Don't look in there," she said.

"Okay, okay. Sorry. I won't."

"Well, we better get going. It's really crowded out today."

"They can't be that crowded," said Rammer, talking about the stores.

"Yeah, how crowded could the stores possibly be?" asked Jimmy.

Robbie followed everyone out, stealing a quick glance at Laura who noticed and smiled back. By her smile, Robbie guessed that she wasn't mad at him anymore, and was slightly confused with their whole fight in the first place. Maybe I dreamt our fight, he thought, knowing that he was really tired at the time. Deep down though, Robbie knew he didn't dream the fight, and was wondering what was going on.

Robbie had a chance to talk to her alone for a few minutes when they first got to the mall. Like Laura said, it was packed. Robbie drove, and he dropped the guys off at the entrance when he went to find a parking place. Laura stayed with him, and he decided it was the perfect opportunity to talk.

"Are you mad at me?" Robbie asked right away.

"No, why would I be?"

"Well, last night we didn't exactly work things out or whatever."

"It's fine."

"Are you sure?" Robbie asked, wishing Laura would just talk to him if something was bothering her.

"Positive," Laura said, giving him a reassuring smile. "I was just having a bad moment. But if you really want to talk, we will later on."

"Okay," Robbie said, slightly reassured things were okay. He asked anyway. "So things are okay between us then?" By this time the car was parked and they were just sitting inside. Laura leaned over and looked Robbie straight in the eyes.

"Yeah, things couldn't be better. And I love you," Laura said, giving him a lingering kiss in reassurance.

"Maybe we could just ditch the shopping idea and you could prove that things are really okay." Laura rolled her eyes.

"I'm going in the mall now," she said, opening the car door and stepping out. She knew Robbie was only joking though.

"All right fine. We'll go shopping," said Robbie, following her.

After their interesting day of shopping, Laura was exhausted. When she got back to Robbie's room, she sprawled out on his bed and mentioned taking a nap. She was going over to Gail's that evening to finalize things for the party. Laura had a bunch of games in mind to play that could be fun and interesting for the guys. She did want to rest for a while first. Since she had been up since four thirty that morning, she knew a long nap would be nice.

Robbie walked over to Laura and laid down on the bed next to her. He lay on his side and wrapped his arm around her waist.

Laura could tell Robbie was watching her, but instead of trying to avoid it like she usually did, she pretended not to notice and kept her eyes closed. This change had something to do with what Robbie had accidentally said earlier that day. While they were shopping, Robbie mentioned something about spoiling their baby one day. Meaning his and Laura's baby. Laura tired not to think too much about it, but it was hard to keep the words out of her mind. She knew it was accidental, but she also knew it couldn't have been a complete accident. People didn't say things like that without ever thinking about it sometime before hand. Honestly, Laura didn't know what to think though. She really loved Robbie, and especially after hanging out with Gail, who was married, and Maddie, who was pregnant, she started picturing herself in their shoes.

The previous night, Laura began thinking that maybe Robbie didn't feel the same way, mainly because their conversation about her meeting his parents, but now she wasn't so sure. After what he let slip today, Laura started telling herself that he was just unsure and scared himself. Trying to sport out the confusing thoughts running through her mind, Laura fell asleep with Robbie watching her.

Watching Laura's chest rise and fall with her deep breaths, and looking at her face which almost appeared to be in deep thought, Robbie thought about what he told her earlier that day. At the time, he almost kicked himself. He had no idea why he said anything about them having a baby one day. They were no where near that point. Robbie tried to justify the words by telling himself it was all the talk of Maddie's baby, but he wasn't so sure it was as simple as that. Robbie loved Laura, and more than he ever imagined. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her away, but he wanted to know what she was thinking too. She didn't seem to be too scared about the baby thing that he let slip out though, so maybe it didn't really bother her. Sometimes, the relationship was far too confusing for him and he wished they could have it simple, like other couples seemed to have it. For example, other than the surprise pregnancy thing, Jack and Maddie seemed to have things pretty simple. Buzz and Gail did too, and Robbie never saw them fight. He also knew Buzz and Gail talked things through. Too tired to think anymore, Robbie dozed off.

A/N: Hope you all liked it. I didn't include the conversation where Robbie mentions having a baby someday. It's in Glory Days though, so if you want to read that part, it's in chapter 17, about 3/4 of the way down.