Meadow567: Thanks for reviewing. And Jamie definitely deserved that right? Haha. Hope you like this one :)

Justlikewedo: Thanks for the review. I'm glad you were surprised! Sorry I made you wait longer than I said but it's a really long chapter!

Bluehaven4220: Thanks for reviewing. That chapter was really crazy lol! Jamie did deserve it though. Trust me that's the last of her!

Vaughnloveralwaysandforev: Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad you were surprised about the ending haha. That was definitely a crazy chapter!

Anna: Thanks for the review! I'm happy you liked it and from the review I can tell you were shocked lol.

AN: Thanks everyone who reviewed and read it. I'm so so sorry I didn't put it up last weekend. I was so busy with school stuff. I just get back and they already pile stuff on me like crazy! Since it's now school time I'm gonna try my hardest to get one chapter up a week. I won't make any promises though, I broken too many already and all I can say is that I am very sorry. It's gonna take me some time to get used to school, but I'm still gonna try as hard as I can to get the next chapter up. Since I didn't make my promise this chapter is extra, extra long! Enjoy!

AN 2: You might be confused by the name of this chapter but that's my fault. By mistake, I named my last chapter what I was planning on naming this one. So I just changed my last chapter to what it was originally going to be called. Sorry for the confusion.

Chapter 26

"I'm pregnant"

The color in Robbie's face drained. He couldn't speak. Even if he could he wouldn't know what to say. Those two words are a worst nightmare for just about every guy his age. He was only in his early twenties, how can he support a kid?

"Robbie? Did you hear me? I said I was pregnant!" Annie tried to get her boyfriend's attention.

He tried to find the words but nothing could come out. His jaw was a bit dropped. He nodded at her instead.

"Oh God!" she cried out in frustration as she hit her hand on the dash.

"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?!" Robbie finally screamed at the top of his lungs. Annie was even taken aback by his volume and tone. It was scary.

"You were there, Mac!" she cried.

"But how could this happen?...You're on the pill," he sighed.

"No I'm not!" she corrected, "You had a condom on, right?"

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE ON THE PILL!"

"WELL I'M NOT!"

"WELL I DIDN'T WEAR A CONDOM!"

"OH FUCK!" she screamed. She let her head collapse into the dash as she cried. Mac just sat in his seat in utter shock. He couldn't even take it all in.

They sat in the car parked on the side of the road for a few minutes before one of them finally spoke up. It was Mac. Not looking her in the eye he asked, "When did you find out?"

"I find out tomorrow. I took the test when you were in Fargo," she got up and sniffled as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"Well if you don't know you might not be pregnant at all!" he hoped to God.

"Mac, you don't get it. I skipped my period. My period has come every twenty eight days ever since I was fourteen years old. It didn't come at all!"

"You can't assume the worse. There might be some weird flub going on or something," Mac tried to think the positive.

"Robbie, we didn't use protection and now I skipped my period. I'm sorry if you can't seem to grasp this but I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant!"

"How do you know?" he yelled. He tried to make everything ok and she was so pessimistic about it, and it was really ticking him off.

"I just know!" she spat back.

"You're really stupid," he told her.

"I wouldn't be talking, Mr. I-don't-own-a-condom!"

"No wonder why you got fired you probably talked that way to your boss. You shouldn't talk back Annie," he said cruelly.

"Actually I got fired because I knocked out your ex-girlfriend with a tray. I felt bad that you were with her but now I think you deserved it!"

"You saw Jamie!?!"

"Yeah I did!"

"What did she say?"

"She was being a bitch! Now take me home!"

"What did she-"

"TAKE ME HOME," Annie cut him off.

Robbie not wanting to get into an even bigger fight than they already were right now obliged. The whole car ride was in complete silence. No radio, no talking, only the sounds of the road and their extremely heavy breathing. It was now setting in right at that very moment and they were so scared they couldn't even think about anything else.

When they finally pulled up to Annie's house she hesitated to get out of the car. She didn't want to be alone but she didn't want to be with him and she couldn't talk to anyone else about it.

"I'll tell you the results when they come in..." she said softly.

She opened the car door but Robbie lightly grabbed her arm to prevent her from leaving. She looked back at him with a single tear drop in her eye. He looked at her with the same fearful expression on his face.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" he asked.

"No," she told him as she quickly took her arm out of his hand, "You've done enough."

She then got out of the car and slammed the door shut. She went inside to her grandfather's house. She couldn't deal with Joy tonight or anyone else in her building for that matter. As they were partying about the end of semester and Christmas, Annie was in her house by herself staying up all night thinking about what she would do if she was pregnant.

Mac stayed in the car parked in front of her house for a couple minutes. What was he going to do? His life was just beginning, what if a baby came? How could he take care of it? He could hardly take care of himself. Instead of driving back to the bar to catch up with Mark and the rest of the guys he decided to go home. He couldn't deal with them tonight. Robbie could try to go to bed but the thoughts of the baby would keep him up all night. He was in serious trouble...

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At the same time that Annie confessed to Mac about the pregnancy, all the guys were gathering into the bar. They were all hanging out for a couple of minutes when Rizzo noticed that Mac wasn't there.

"Hey," he directed his question towards Mark, "Where's Mac?"

"He's driving Conway home," he told him.

"Why?" OC spoke up, "Shouldn't she be working until ten tonight? She should still have like ten minutes left in her shift."

"Conway got fired," Mark said quietly.

"What?!?" OC couldn't believe it, "How?"

"I don't know. But we saw her leave the bar. She wanted to walk home because her car wasn't working but Mac offered her a lift instead," Mark caught him and the guys who were listening up to what he knew so far.

"Maybe we should ask someone what happened," Buzz suggested.

"Yeah, let's ask Wendy. She's really hot," Silky spoke up.

Wendy passed by their table only a couple seconds after Silk made his comment and Phil called out to her.

"Hey Wendy!"

The waitress turned around and saw the guys. She served them a couple of times and new that Annie knew all of them. Annie and she talked occasionally and she was really nice but they didn't see each other too much because they always had different shifts. But she was there tonight.

"Hey guys. Do you need a waitress?" she offered.

"No it's ok," Mark said.

"What happened to Conway? Why did she get fired?" OC questioned.

"Oh my god, you guys don't know!?" she was shocked.

"What happened? Is it good?" Silk tried.

"Yeah," she nodded, "I'll tell you like in two minutes. I'll ask if I can go on my break because this is crazy!"

"Great," Silk smiled then winked, "You can sit right here, next to me."

The blonde waitress came back a few minutes later in a rush. She sat between Silky and Jimmy.

"Ok I only have five so I gotta make this quick," she told them.

"Sure," Jimmy nodded, "So what happened?"

"Well," Wendy started off, "Annie was working over at the counter and then this girl came in and gave her a really hard time, and was impatient and didn't even give Annie a tip, which was really bitchy. But anyways she said something and Annie got all defensive and stuff and I heard some like awful stuff said back in forth...I wasn't very close so I didn't really hear much...but then the girl was about to leave and Annie smacked her on the face with a tray!"

"Holy crap!" Bah laughed, "Don't mess with her!"

"Yeah the girl like broke her nose I think. But get this, the girl that she hit in the face was Robbie McClanahan's ex-girlfriend, Jamie Vaughn."

"What?" Mark almost choked on his own beer, "She was here?"

"Yeah. I don't even know what happened or anything because I was serving people at a different end of the bar," she said, "Now I gotta go before I get fired too. I'll see you guys later."

"You can count on that," Silk shouted to her. She laughed, shook her head, and walked away.

"Well the mystery continues," Phil stated.

"What?" OC asked. He was pretty pissed off that Annie got fired, and it might be Mac's fault.

"Conway has been acting weird lately. And now her getting fired, something must be up," Phil pointed out.

"Yeah," OC nodded, "I'll ask her about it tomorrow. She's probably too pissed off to talk to anyone tonight."

The guys hung out at the bar a little more and noticed that Mac never showed up. Since they all knew of Annie and Jamie's fight they all assumed he was with Jamie finding out what happened from her side of it. The guys all knew he hated Jamie but why would Annie hate her?

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The next day Robbie almost showed up late to practice. He only got an hour or two of sleep. The hockey player stayed up almost the whole night thinking about what he was gonna do. He couldn't have a kid right now. It would ruin his life.

The guys all wanted to ask him about the fight between Annie and Jamie but he just shrugged them off and didn't speak at all.

On the ice he was like a completely different person too. He played a lot harder and more aggressive than ever before. Herb really liked it and told him to keep it up, but Mark as well as the team knew something was wrong. While most of the guys assumed it was the Jamie thing, Mark thought it was something between he and Annie. He knew for a fact that the fight between Jamie and Annie wasn't over some stupid bill or something, it was about something much bigger and only he would know that.

The guys continued joking around with Mac, trying to get him to speak up about the fight between Annie and Jamie. By this point they all assumed he saw Jamie last night instead of going to the bar to hang out with them.

"So did she have a broken nose?" Silk laughed.

"C'mon man you can tell us," Verchota pushed it.

Mac shrugged and shook his head. The last thing he needed to hear was his friends needling him. He just needed space and for them to back off.

"Was her face big and purple?" Pav joined in.

"JUST FUCK OFF!" Mac yelled at his teammates. They were all pretty taken aback by it. First Annie was in a bad mood, and now him. She must be passing on a bad attitude to everyone she spends time with these days.

Before anybody could say anything else Annie walked into the locker room. She didn't look very good either. She had very heavy bags under her eyes showing that she had very little sleep. The red head also looked pretty sloppy too, wearing her hair in a very messy bun and she had on lose wrinkly old clothes. Annie pretty much looked like what she did before she had her 'make over'.

The guys already knew about her bad mood and after Mac's little scene they decided the best thing to do was not to talk to either of them. The guys said they were ok and didn't need her help and instead of just helping them anyways or hanging out in the locker room with them, she looked a little thankful and relieved.

OC watched her closely. His best friend looked like a mess. He knew that he had to talk to her later. They told each other everything, that's why they were best friends. If she had a problem or needed someone to vent to he'd be there.

Right before leaving the locker room Annie looked over at Mac, OC turned his head and saw him looking at her. Their exchange left OC very confused. Her bitchy attitude, yelling at Mac in the locker room, skipping Fargo, getting fired because she fought with Mac's ex-girlfriend, and ever since Mac gave her a ride home he's been in the same bad mood as Conway. He needed to know what was going on. After the team meeting he would go to Annie's dorm and ask, or better yet he'll ask Mac first. He knew exactly what was going on and maybe is involved in it.

The team meeting didn't take very long. They only reviewed some footage from the Soviet team and talked about a play they'd be trying out the next day. OC left the arena purposely at the same time with Mac to talk to him.

"Hey man, you alright? You were acting weird all day today," OC tried.

"I'm alright," Mac lied.

"Did you talk to Conway last night? I head you drove her home," OC said.

"Yeah I did. We didn't really talk though. She just told me she got fired because she got into a fight with Jamie, that's all," Mac answered quickly. He was really tired of everyone asking about last night. It wasn't their business.

"Did she tell you why that fight happened?" OC got to the point.

"No!" Mac answered without hesitation, "Why would she tell me? I'm not her best friend, you are, remember?"

Mac then just walked away. He didn't want to be interrogated by OC. It was practically his fault they got into that stupid mess. If their relationship wasn't a secret than they would've never went ice skating, which means they would've never gone back to Annie's grandfather's house. That was the way that Mac thought about it and he knew they should've told him. It's a little too late to let it off easy now.

The hockey player arrived back to his apartment to see that Mark was already there. Not even wanting to speak to his best friend he walked quickly through the living room trying to get to his room but Mark stopped him.

"Man, we need to talk," Mark told him.

"We don't need to talk about anything, man," Mac coolly replied.

"What's wrong with you?" Mark almost yelled. He finally spoke up for himself, "First Conway, now you! There is something weird going on between you and since I'm the only one that knows anything about this I need to know...or else I'll tell the whole team you guys are going together."

"Don't talk to me man. This is a lot bigger than you would ever think about!"

"TRY ME!"

"Annie's pregnant!"

Mark had almost the same reaction that Mac did. His jaw dropped slightly and the color faded a bit from his face. He just thought they got into a fight, he didn't think it was this serious.

"What? How could you let this happen man? You're life is just beginning. You can't have a kid!"

"Don't you think I know that!" Mac shouted at him.

Mac sat down at the couch a couple feet away from Mark. He put his head in his hands and pulled the hair out of his face. The two best friends sat silently on the couch. Mark just let in the idea that Mac and Annie were going out and now they would be having a kid.

"What does Annie think about all of this?" Mark asked.

"What?" Mac lifted his head up.

"How does Annie feel about this?"

"I don't know!"

"How do you not know!?!"

"BECAUSE I HAVEN'T ASKED HER!" Mac was getting frustrated, "I CAN'T HAVE A KID! I CAN'T! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO MAN?"

"Talk to ANNIE!" Mark yelled back at him, "That's your problem right there man. You've been too busy thinking about how much this kid is gonna ruin your life to think about her!"

"Look, this is all just too much for me right now! I tried talking to her but she wouldn't have it. She doesn't even know if the test is positive. She just skipped her period," Mac told him.

"Well that means you guys don't know for sure. The test could be negative..." Mark tried.

"I tried to tell her that but she didn't listen!" Mac exclaimed.

"That's because she's really scared, man. You guys are on the same boat. The test maybe positive or it could be negative, but if she is pregnant she is really gonna need you and you need to step up to the plate," Mark told him.

Mac thought about his best friend's advice and he was right. Annie was under just as much stress or maybe even worse than his. If she was pregnant he needed to do the right thing, for her, himself, and for the baby.

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After his confrontation with Mac outside the rink OC went to Annie's dorm, only to learn that she wasn't there. He then tried her grandfather's house and saw her car. He knocked on the door and it took minute for her to answer.

"Hi," she said unemotionally.

"Hey," he gave a half smile, "You look like you could use a best friend right now."

"Thanks," she sadly smiled back.

The red head let her best friend into her house full of boxes. The living room by this point was mostly empty except for the sofa, a tv, and the phone sitting in the middle of the room, with boxes surrounding all the walls. From what OC could see was that she stayed in here all night and day, either watching tv or waiting by the phone.

"Have a seat while you still can," Annie nodded towards the couch.

OC sat down and Annie went into the kitchen and came back in with two cold sodas. She sat on the couch with him and didn't say anything. OC would be the first to speak up.

"Look, I know that you've had a rough semester with your job, and school, and seeing your grandfather, and dealing with us...but I thought that since your semester was over you'd be a lot less stressed and just chill the last few weeks before Christmas. But lately you've been acting differently and I know you. Something is up. Now tell me whose ass I have to kick..."

Annie just starred at him. He was being so sweet right now during this. A lot better than Mac was, but then again OC didn't know the truth. She could've told him everything and to kick Robbie's ass immediately but she didn't. She just looked at her best friend and started to cry. All the pressure about everything was getting to her. Her secret relationship, school, gramps, and now a baby. She couldn't handle all of it.

She collapsed in OC's arms. At first he was a little confused and taken aback by her response but didn't want to disturb her. If she needed to let her feelings out this way he would let her. He hugged her and tried to find out what was going on.

"Come on Conway. You know I'll always be here for you. What's going on?"

Annie heard what he said but pretended not to. She thought for a minute of a response she would say. Should she tell the truth? She was in way too deep now to tell him in a kind way that she was sleeping with a guy he can't stand. Annie didn't want to push away the only good thing in her life, her best friend, right now.

"It's my gramps," she lied and sniffled, "He's not doing so great..."

OC sighed, he understood completely. That's what he originally thought, even before Mac was acting weird. She probably told him that that was what she was stressing about and he didn't get it and they just got into a stupid fight or something like that. That would explain his bad attitude today at practice.

"You know Conway, your gramps has lived a very long and happy life. And when it's his time, it's his time and I'll be here for you if and when it is because I'm not going anywhere," he told her.

"You promise? Even if we get into a terrible fight or you're off in a different part of the country playing hockey?"

"Yeah, I'll be here for you," he promised.

He had never seen her this scared looking or vulnerable before and that scared him. A couple days ago he got a call from Chicago. He was drafted to them a few years ago and would've played for them after college but then he got caught up in all the Olympic stuff. They called to ask if he would be playing with them after the games and OC didn't turn them down. But with him leaving for Chicago that would mean Annie would be all alone in Minnesota, except for Rachel, whom he was thinking about asking to join him in the Windy City before things got "rocky". He certainly didn't like the idea of her being alone, especially with her grandfather getting in worse and worse condition each day.

OC stayed with her a bit longer until she insisted that he should leave so she could get some sleep. He agreed that she needed some rest and thought that he should think of a kind way of telling his best friend about his departure after the games, so he left her to get some sleep.

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Knock, Knock, Knock

Annie woke up to that noise. Too out of it to know what it was, she instantly grabbed the phone.

"Hello"

All she heard back was a dial tone. She sighed as she sat down the phone, now remembering everything that was happening right now. She rubbed her eyes to try to wake up when she heard the noise again.

Knock, Knock, Knock

By this point she knew that it was the door. With one quick stretch she answered the door to the last person she wanted to see, but the first person she needed to see, her boyfriend, Robbie McClanahan.

"Hey," he greeted, giving a half smile very similar to her best friend's from earlier that day.

"Hi," she replied.

"Can I come in?"

"I guess," she sighed.

Annie opened the door wider so that Robbie could get inside the house. Then she shut the door. Rather than OC, who sat down, Robbie stayed standing. So did Annie.

"Did you find out yet?" he asked a bit anxiously.

"No not yet. I just woke up...I took a nap," she explained.

"Good," he nodded, "You should rest."

Robbie was acting a lot different since she last saw him. He was a lot more calm and relaxed then before. He still looked as scared as hell but he didn't take it out on Annie.

"Yeah," she agreed, "OC came by earlier today...I lied to him and told him my gramps was stressing me...I feel awful lying to him."

Mac nodded, "He talked to me too but I didn't know what to say so I just left... Then Mark asked me about it."

"And?" she questioned. He was the only person that knew about them and she didn't know whether Robbie would tell him anything or not.

"I told him..." he confessed.

"WHAT?" If Robbie told Mark then that would mean this was all really happening, that this was all very real and not some horrible dream.

"Listen!" he tried, "He got me thinking about everything and I'm sorry that I was being an ass before. We're both stressed over this and I shouldn't of taken it out on you."

"WHY IS IT THAT YOU CAN TELL YOUR BEST FRIEND BUT I CAN'T TELL MINE?" Annie yelled.

"BECUASE YOU CHOSE NOT TO!" Robbie screamed back.

"Listen to me! If this test is positive then we need to do the right thing. If it's positive then we should get married," he tried to calm her down.

"GET OUT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. She couldn't have a kid, she couldn't get married. This was all happening way too fast.

"I'm not going anywhere!" he told her.

"GET-" Robbie cut her off.

"I'm not leaving. You can scream and cry all you want but I'm not leaving you. Not tonight," he said sternly.

At first his calm attitude made her more upset and angry but now seeing him really take a stand made her feel a little better. She wasn't going to be alone in this. Even though they barely knew each other and were way to young to get married she knew that he was sincere and that he'd be there.

The couple stood in the living room for a moment silently before Annie spoke up.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"You're welcome."

"I guess we need to tell everyone now, huh?" she gave a small chuckle.

"Guess so," he sighed giving a half smile.

The two were now calm and sat on the couch waiting for the phone to ring. She was told that she'd find out that day and she's been waiting by that phone all day with the exception of going to the rink, but that didn't even count because that was the hour of the clinic's lunch break.

RING, RING, RING

Annie and Robbie both looked at each other. This was it. This phone call could change their lives forever. Annie took a deep breath and picked up the phone.

"Hello...yes, this is she...ok...ok...thank you," she spoke in the same tone the entire time so Robbie couldn't tell what the verdict was.

She hung up the phone and looked over at Robbie. She gave a big smile, "I'm not pregnant!"

Robbie sighed in relief. It was like for those twenty four hours that the weight of the world was on his shoulders and they were just taken off. He got up and gave Annie a huge hug. She hugged him tightly back and he lifted her up in the air. Neither of them had been so happy in their lives. Annie even cried tears of joy she was that happy.

"Thank you so much for being with me tonight," she gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"I'm sorry I was being an ass. You didn't deserve that."

Annie then hugged tighter than before, "I'm sorry I'm just so happy."

"It's ok," he laughed.

"Ok," she breathed, "Now that that's over no more sex..."

"Yeah no more sex without a condom..."

"No, I mean no more sex all together," she corrected him.

"I'm sorry, what?" he teased.

"Robbie," she laughed giving him a light hit. She was way too happy to get angry at that point.

This was a real lesson to them. From then on they took their relationship slower. Getting to know each other a little more before doing anything they would regret or what could affect them for the rest of their lives. As much as they wanted to forget about that awful time they knew they couldn't. These twenty four hours were as stressful and awful as hell but in the end it only made their relationship even stronger, which meant it would be harder to break...