A/N: So basically I've been updating each day all week and the tslotatlover says, "by the way need i mention that i absolutely love the fast updates! keep it coming!" And then I don't update for three days. I wasn't actually trying to be obstinate, it was just my brother's birthday this weekend, so I didn't get to finish this chapter when I wanted to.

Turning Tables

Pro Choices

The green lawn outside the church was covered in people and stuff. At first glance it looked like a garage sale, but upon closer inspection it became apparent that there was a common theme connecting the items displayed: there were plastic bins filled with receiving blankets, crib sheets, and crib bumpers; tables covered in infant, toddler, and children's clothing; a couple of assembled cribs and unassembled pieces of others; a massive cardboard box containing a menagerie of baby bottles, and several crates labeled DONATIONS that had cartons of baby formula, baby cereal, jarred baby food, and some Pedialyte products in it.

Grace stood on the church steps just outside the doors wearing a pair of white capris, pale pink ballet flats, and a carnation pink t-shirt with the word ABORTION across the front in white lettering. However, the B and the R were crossed out and the letters D and P were written above them, respectively. The blonde stood before a young Filipina woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties, who herself stood in front of a man holding a news station camera.

"Miss Bowman, I've been told you're the reason for the events taking place today. Can you tell us a little bit about what's going on?"

Grace nodded cheerfully. "Well as you probably know, my local high school, Grant High, has a very high rate of teen pregnancy, as do many high schools around the country. Over the last two years I've been able to experience the joys and pains of teen pregnancy second hand: first through my best friend, Adrian, and most recently, through my friend Heather, who just gave up her daughter to adoptive parents early last month." She indicated the wording on her t-shirt. "After seeing my friends' struggles, especially Heather's, I was inspired to try and do something more to help other girls and young women like them, so they know that there are options out there and they don't have to harm their babies."

"So what, exactly, are you doing to help these young women?"

Grace smiled dazzlingly. "That's the best part!" she beamed. "I've implored the help of my friends, family, church, and community to come together and donate anything and everything that can help young mothers who want to keep their babies but might not have the resources to do so. If you walk around the lawn you can see we've set up donation areas for toys, cribs, bassinets, maternity clothes, food…everything! Pretty much everything you see going on outside is to help struggling mothers-to-be. But if you go inside," she said, patting her hand against the doors, "we're also accepting collections to help people like Heather who are looking into adoption. We've got some booths set up that can help women look into all their adoption options, medical and healthcare options, and we're also accepting donations – such as clothing, food, and gift certificates – that can help these women successfully get through their pregnancies. I'm calling it the New Lease on Life Drive."

"So everything we're seeing here will be donated?"

"Yep! I promise we're not making a single cent. I managed to wrangle in the help of a local social worker and very respected member of our community, Mrs. Margaret Shakur, who has some connections with various non-profit organizations and she will be helping us make sure everything gets to someone who needs it. Everything we receive will be donated, so please, please come and donate! We can use all the help we can get!"

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"How many text messages is that now?" Ben asked when his girlfriend's cell phone went off again.

"I've stopped counting," Adrian said. She was standing in front of her daughter's high chair making zooming noises as she moved a spoonful of Beech-Nut Rolled Oats with Apple baby food in front of Mercy.

Mercy gurgled and reached out for the spoon but it was carefully guided into her open mouth and slipped out before she had a chance to lock her hands onto it. She smacked her lips in delight and her head bobbed up and down as she watched her mother dip the spoon back into the jar for another serving.

"Are you going to go down there today?"

"Are you?" she asked, avoiding the question.

"It seems like a pretty good cause," Ben admitted. "If it can help someone like Heather – or your mom, back when she was our age – I don't see how it can hurt."

Adrian sighed. "Yeah, I know, and I get that. I just don't want to go down to a faith based headquarters and give the wrong impression. Every woman deserves to do what she wants with her body, whether that means having a baby or not having a baby, and I don't want to seem like I'm jumping ship by showing up down there."

"She is your best friend," Ben argued. "And her heart is in the right place."

"Even if her political affiliation isn't," Adrian added sourly. "But this is why Grace and I can't talk politics for the sake of our friendship."

"I think I'm gonna go," Ben said finally. "I've got some clothes Mercy has grown out of back at my house and since we're definitely not planning on having anymore kids in the foreseeable future, all they're doing is taking up room in her closet."

Adrian sighed. "You'd better go get the boxes I packed up in my room too then." She rolled her eyes. "It's got the rest of her outgrown clothes in it that I had over here. And some toys she's no longer interested in either."

"So you were going to go?" Ben smirked.

"If I didn't, I was just going to give those to Grace later after the fanfare was over, but since you're going anyway, it saves me the trip and the moral dilemma." Adrian slipped another mouthful of food in between Mercy's lips. "I would've donated all my old maternity clothes too," she added as an afterthought, "but I already gave all of them to Heather, so I guess that's up to her whether or not she wants to donate them."

"Maybe I should stop over there on the way?"

"That's probably a good idea. See how she's doing and everything. Mercy and I just saw her yesterday, but she's still in a lot of pain. She mentioned she's planning on going back to school this Monday. I told her that I think she should take six weeks instead of three, since she's already going to summer school anyway, but she's pretty insistent on wanting to come back in four."

"The more work she gets done before the semester ends means the less work she has to put in over summer."

"I guess so."

Ben disappeared down the hall for a few minutes and then came back balancing two medium sized cardboard boxes in his arms. He set them on the kitchen table momentarily and paused to kiss Mercy on the forehead and Adrian on the cheek. "Are you coming over later?" he asked hopefully.

Adrian scowled. "Have you talked to your dad yet?"

"No," he muttered, looking away guiltily.

"I thought you were going to give him a week. It's been four!"

"Well you try talking to your mom about a life change this big after she catches us in the middle of 'making up' and you see how easy it is!"

"He hasn't said anything about it, right?"

"No, which probably means he's waiting for me to bring it up first."

"Well you need to talk to him, Ben. We only have about three months of school left."

"Great!" he chirped, once again collecting the boxes from the table and bolting for the door. "So I still have plenty of time then!"

"Ben!"

Mercy just giggled from her high chair seat as her father raced out the door, leaving her mother glaring after him.

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"Amy, hey!" Grace called, running up to the brunette who was standing at a booth that had been set up inside the church daycare center with pamphlets and information on options for child care and local child care facilities. "I wasn't expecting to see you here. I'm so glad you could make it!"

Amy ran her hand through a ripple of her shimmery sugar brown strands. "I came with my dad," she muttered.

Grace's smile fell. "Oh. Yeah, my mom said he was going to try and make it down here with some donations."

"Ricky's helping him unload some furniture around back." There were several pamphlets in her hand that she quickly tucked beneath the sweat jacket she was carrying.

"What're you doing back here?" Grace asked, choosing not to mention Amy's eyebrow raising behavior.

"Just wondering I s'pose." She shook her head. "I already dropped off some old stuff of mine and Ashley's out front."

"We have refreshments set up in the gym, if you want any."

"I'm fine, thanks." Amy lifted her arm to point. "I'm just gonna go…b-browse."

Grace nodded and watched her go, picking up speed as she moved away. Something fluttered out from under her jacket and she quickly bent down to pick it up. "Amy you dropped–" Her silver eyes fell to the flyer: an advertisement for the local free clinic, which listed options for abortion services. "This isn't one of ours." She looked again, but Amy was already gone.

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"Is something up between you and Ashley?" George asked. He was walking beside Ricky, both of their arms loaded down with cushions from a couch.

"Why, did she say something?"

"Nope. She just hasn't mentioned you lately and Anne says you haven't been around. Did you have a fight?"

"I guess you could say that."

"About what?"

Ricky reached the couch that the pillows belonged to just feet before George did and began to stuff the bottom cushions into place. "Nothing."

"Nothing is a lot to stop speaking to each other over."

"I'm sure we'll work things out," Ricky replied vaguely. "She just said she needed time."

"That's not good."

"Why do you say that?"

"When a Juergens woman says she needs time, that's never good! Trust me: I've known many!"

"Well Ashley's not like other people: even other Juergenses." Ricky spun around. "Hey, uh," he said, attempting to change the subject. "The only thing left in the truck is a bed, right?"

"Yeah. It's not the best," George admitted. "It's a discontinued model. Nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't a popular sale. But I thought someone could get some use out of it, so I told Kathleen I'd bring it on down."

"Well I happen to know someone who could get some use out of it," Ricky said. "Ashley's mentioned Heather, right?"

George nodded. "Oh yeah. She's the one who just had the baby, right?"

"Yeah! Well, she's only got this dirty old thing she got out of the trash. I know that you meant to bring that bed here, but she's exactly the type of person Grace is trying to help, right? So, do you think you'd be interested in donating that bed to her instead?"

George checked his watch. "Where does she live?"

"The other end of town."

The older man scratched his head. "Well, I wasn't planning on getting back to the store pretty soon, but if you've got the time to move it with me, I guess that would be fine. That's what this whole fundraiser is all about, right?"

Ricky nodded. "Let me go track my mom down and make sure I can go with you. I don't think she'll mind though. Can I meet you back here in about fifteen, twenty minutes?"

George's belly growled. "That'll give me time to go hunt down some of Leo's free food," he said, nodding in satisfaction.

Ricky took off in the general direction of the last place he knew his mother to be. Truth be told, he was thankful to get away from George for a bit and avoid the older man grilling him about what had happened between him and Ashley. He'd only seen her a couple times in passing at school and he figured that if they had any chance at smoothing things out, he had to just wait it out until she was ready.

"Ricky! Hey, Ricky!"

Ricky groaned and slowed his to a trot. "How can I help you, Grace?"

Grace caught up with him and took a moment to catch her breath. "Have you seen Amy?"

"No, why?"

Grace shrugged. "I knew you were working with George, so I thought you might've seen her." She twirled a blonde strand between her index and middle fingers. "What about Ashley?"

"No," he replied a little too hard and a little too fast.

The tone of his voice gave Grave pause. "Well I just –" She bit her lip. "Never mind. It's not important. Look, if you see them, just tell them that I'm looking for them, all right?"

"Sure."

"Thank you."

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Ben detoured to the kitchen before heading upstairs to collect his donations for Grace's community fundraiser and stopped short when he saw his father sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of golden liquid. From the smell of the kitchen, Ben guessed it was chicken broth. He stopped cold. "D-dad. I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately," Leo said gruffly. He lifted the spoon to his mouth and sipped off the yellow-gold liquid.

Ben twisted his body around in odd angles, not sure whether to head for the fridge or turn right around and dash out of there. But, eventually, he did neither and just walked over to the table. "Why are you here?"

"I think I'm coming down with something. Can't a man come down with something without being interrogated about it by his son?"

"I wasn't interrogating you," Ben said slowly. "I just wanted to talk."

"About what?"

"About…" He gulped and swallowed the lump in his throat so it could get acquainted with the knot in his stomach. "…what you saw last month."

"What I saw," Leo snorted. "What I saw was my sixteen-year-old son having sex with his girlfriend under my roof! That's what I saw!"

Ben gripped the seat of his chair. "Yes you did," he agreed. "And that's something that we should talk about."

"Yes we should! How could you be doing something so irresponsible, Benjamin? You already have one baby, do you really want another?"

"No! That's why Adrian and I were being careful."

"Careful? Careful? Careful would be to abstain from sex! You know, if you listened to your friend Grace, you might learn a little something!"

"We're using condoms!"

"And didn't you say you used one last time too?"

"That was different!"

"How so?" Leo demanded, dropping the spoon into his soup and splashing the contents across the table.

"Adrian wasn't on the pill then and the condom was old!"

"So what?" Leo demanded. "Even a new condom can be defective! And the pill doesn't always work even when a woman is on it!"

"We also use spermicide…sometimes."

"That's not the point, Benjamin! I'm telling you that it's wrong for you to be having sex at sixteen when you already became a father at fifteen! I don't want to become a grandfather again for many, many years!"

"I want to move out!"

The words seem to crash into Leo like a runaway crane. His body physically wavered in his seat as if he'd just been smacked. "You – absolutely not! I won't allow it!"

"It would be the best thing for us!" Ben continued, rising from his seat. "Me and Adrian and our daughter!"

"Haven't you been paying attention to anything I've just said? You're underage! You're too young to live with someone!"

"You and Mom married right out of high school!"

"And we were both eighteen! You aren't!"

"I'll be seventeen this summer!"

"Which is still not eighteen."

"Yeah, but you and mom also didn't have a baby at eighteen. Adrian and I do. I had to grow up a lot more than you ever did at my age."

Leo raised his hand angrily. "Don't you play that card with me, son. You have no idea what it's like to be an adult. You barely know what it's like being a father!"

"Which is exactly why Adrian and I want to move into together. We need to work on our relationship and learn to live with each other if we ever stand a chance at working through her first year in college and the years that will follow."

Leo glared. "And where exactly would you live? Let me remind you that you don't have any money and neither does Adrian. Certainly you wouldn't be moving in with her and Cindy."

"No. We'd be moving into the old condo: yours and Mom's. It's just sitting there, empty. Why shouldn't we use it?"

"Because I say you shouldn't!"

"Why?"

"You're underage!"

"You're being unreasonable! How can I grow up if you don't let me grow up?"

"I am letting you grow up! But not before you have to. I am responsible for you until your eighteenth birthday and until then, you will do what I say, when I say. And you won't do what I don't want you to!"

"Have you met your granddaughter?" Ben hissed. "It's a little late for that!"

"You're not moving out!" Leo roared. He slammed his fist down on the table, causing more soup to jump from the bowl. Suddenly be began to cough and his face started to turn red. He stood up and labored over to the sink for a glass of water. Once he was over his cough fit he slammed the glass down. "And that's final!"

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"Adrian, you came!"

"Don't get too excited, Blondie. I only gave to drop off this box that Ben didn't take with him."

"I'm just glad you came!"

"I still don't agree with your whole message though," Adrian remarked, narrowing her eyes disapprovingly at the blonde's shirt.

Grace looked at Mercy who was dressed on a blue onesie that read: My Mom's Pro-Choice and so am I! The blonde literally bit down on her tongue to keep herself from saying anything. Instead she took the box out from behind the stroller. "I'm sure whoever the recipient of this donation is will appreciate it as much as I do." She tapped the side of the box. "It feels pretty light, what all is in here?"

"Just outgrown, gently used clothes."

"Are you staying long?"

"Nope. I'll probably just go find Ben and then we'll be off."

"I haven't seen him."

Adrian raised her brow in surprise. "He should've been here already."

Grace shook her head. "Maybe he went home to take care of his dad?"

"What's wrong with Leo?"

"You didn't know?" Grace frowned. "He wasn't feeling well earlier, so he left early. Said he thought he might be coming down with something – his eyes were kind of red and he seemed a bit snarfy – and he didn't want to spread it to anyone, so Camille came in to give Bunny backup with setting up."

"I had no idea."

"Well maybe – Amy!"

"What?"

Grace held up her finger. "I'll be right back!" She set the box down on the ground and raced across the lawn to catch up with the brunette. "Amy! I've been looking all over for you, thank goodness!"

Amy squirmed. "Yeah, I was just looking for my dad. He said he was on his way back from Heather's so he should be here any minute."

"Great, that gives us a few minutes to talk then." Grace took Amy's hand by the wrist and tugged her through the crowd over to some bushes around the church where nobody was poking around. As soon as they were alone the blonde tore the flyer out of her pocket and unfolded it. "You dropped this earlier."

Amy paled. "Oh."

"I know that this didn't come from my fundraiser," Grace said, indicating the abortion information listed on it with her fingernail. "Amy," she said slowly. "You aren't…I mean…you haven't…you aren't in a difficult position right now, are you?"

The blood poured into the brunette's face and she violently snatched the flyer out of Grace's hand. "Jimmy and I haven't done anything if that's what you're not-so-subtly asking!"

It was Grace's turn to turn red. "Have you 'done anything' with anyone else?"

"I thought you liked to see the best in people?" Amy demanded. "So why are you assuming that I lost my virginity to Jimmy? Or worse: cheated on him!"

"I'm sorry, Amy!" Grace squeaked. "It's just that flyer and the way you were going around the booths today…I thought you might be pregnant."

"Well I'm not. I've only ever kissed someone before."

Grace shamefully looked to her shoes. "I'm sorry," she said. "It was wrong of me to assume that."

"Yeah, it was."

"But…what are you doing with that flyer then? Where did you get it at?"

Amy let her shoulders slip down, mirroring Grace's deflated posture. "I got it from Ashley."

"Ashley?" Grace peeped in shock.

"I found it in her room the other night when I went to tell her to come down for dinner."

"What was she doing with it?"

"I don't know," Amy admitted softly.

"You don't think that Ashley could be…I mean, it's not possible that she…"

Amy closed her eyes. "I don't know," she said again. "That's why I took the flyer. That's why I was poking around the booths today. I haven't had the courage to ask her outright."

"But who could she have even been with? She doesn't have a boyfriend, does she?"

Amy shook her head. "No, she doesn't have a boyfriend…but she's got Ricky."

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"Ben, where are you?" Adrian asked, pressing her cell phone to one ear and her free hand to the other to block out the noise around her. She heard something that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle or gasp on the other end of the line.

"I'm at home."

"Are – are you okay? You sound…strange."

"I had a fight with my dad."

Adrian gulped. "You finally talked to him?"

"'Talked' isn't exactly the word I'd use."

"How bad is it?"

"Don't come over tonight."

Adrian closed her eyes. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Ben-" But the line clicked. Adrian stared at the disconnect message in disbelief.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Adrian whirled around at the familiarly sarcastic tone. "Ashley!"

The freshman looked nice in the jeans and forest green baby doll top she was wearing, but the oversized tweed bag that looped around her neck and hung in front of her stomach was a strange touch. "I couldn't help but overhear your side of the conversation. Are things not going very well with Ben?"

"It's not that. Things between the two of us are fine, but not between us and his dad."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really."

Ashley shrugged. "Okay."

"How about you?" Adrian asked, motioning her hand.

"What about me?"

"I haven't seen you eating with Ricky and Heather at lunch the past few weeks."

"I don't want to talk about it," she returned bluntly.

"Touché." Adrian set her cell phone into the cup holder on the back of Mercy's stroller. "If Ricky's being a dick, I can kick his ass for you if you want."

Ashley cracked a tiny smile. "Thanks, but I think I can handle it." She frowned. "Speaking of…"

Adrian turned to follow Ashley's line of sight and saw Ricky and George getting out of the latter's furniture van. "Since when do they hang out?"

"Since my dad asked him to help him move some furniture for him. Again." Ashley checked the watch on her wrist. "It's about time he got back. Of course now Amy's gone." She grunted. "I just want to get home. Is that too much to ask?"

"Sometimes the universe seems to think so."

"That's deep," Ashley smirked.

"Ash! Where's your sister?" George waved to Ricky who was conveniently slipping away as George approached. He smiled and nodded pleasantly to Adrian.

Ashley shrugged. "She could be nosing around anywhere."

"Do you really have to say things like that about each other? What is with this sibling vitriol lately?"

"Why don't you ask Amy?" Ashley fired back. "She's been the one snooping around in my things."

"You've caught her?" George inquired.

"Not yet."

"Then how do you know?"

Ashley rolled her eyes. "I'm psychic. Or – more likely – Amy's just not the brightest bulb in the box."

"Hey!" George chastised. "Don't talk about your sister like that! She's a very smart girl!"

"Not enough to not steal people's things and think they won't notice."

"What are you talking about?" George demanded.

"Yeah, Ashley, what are you talking about?"

"Oh look who's finally showed up!" Ashley glared at Amy and Grace as they approached, making it hard to tell whether or not she'd been responding to Amy's voice or Grace's appearance. Or both. "You and I both know what I'm talking about," the younger girl said pointedly.

"Why don't you spell it out for me?"

"M-Y F-L-Y-E-R."

Amy dug into her pocket and pulled out the folded flyer. "This?"

"I knew you could follow if you just tried." Ashley grabbed for the flyer, ripping it in half.

"Happy now?" Amy snapped.

"Why did you take it in the first place?"

"Why did you have it in the first place?"

George, Adrian, and Grace exchanged looks at the escalating argument, not sure whether to butt in or let it come to a head.

"Because I was making them especially for our future step-sister's little shindig!" Ashley bit back. She pulled open the bag that was hanging in front of her stomach and yanked out a stack of flyers identical to the one Amy found. "I've been handing them out to people ever since I got here." She looked at Grace. "Think of it as my donation: informing women of the option you don't want them to have."

"Today was about promoting how important life is!"

"And I was promoting how important choice is!"

"And where's the baby's choice?"

"There is no baby!" Ashley shot back. "Not until it's born and until that point, a woman has the right to do whatever she wants to with her own body!"

"I absolutely agree," Grace snapped back, surprising everyone around her. "If you want to cut off your own tongue, be my guest! However, different DNA equals a different body, and since that body is not yours, you don't have the right to murder it!"

"All right!" George hollered, physically sliding in between Ashley and Grace. "Ashley, Amy, to the truck, now!"

"I'll pray for you!" Ashley called sarcastically, dropping all of the flyers from her bag onto the ground before storming off towards George's moving truck.

George bent down and tried to collect as many of the flyers as he could before Adrian laid her hand on his arm. "I got it. I think it'd be best if you just took them home."

George looked guiltily at Grace. "I'm sorry." He looked down at the flyers in his hands, hesitated, and then headed for the truck.

A few of the papers swirled off into the parking lot with the breeze. Adrian bent down to pick up the rest and when she was through she just moved to the nearest table and dropped the stack down. "Ashley's right you know."

Grace just crossed her arms and stayed silent until Adrian grabbed one of the flyers from the stack, making a point to slide it into her purse, and then took off. When the latter was out of sight, Grace grabbed the stack and carried them over to a trash can. She took one last look at the advertisement and then dropped them into the bin, listening to them hit the bottom with a resounding clunk.