"I really thought that we made it through the worst of it." Beck admits "I didn't think there could be anything more painful than not knowing what happened to her, but now that I know where she's going and that she doesn't want to be with me anymore...somehow it all feels worse."
It hadn't been just him and Jade when he went to say goodbye to her and Aiden that morning, Tori, Andre, Cat and Robbie had all been there too. Beck isn't sure if that was for the best or not. It definitely made saying goodbye less awkward and probably less suspicious from Aiden's perspective, but it hadn't allowed him for the one last chance he hoped he could use to convince Jade not to give up on their relationship.
Tyler and Chris had left a few days prior, driving Jade's car and most of her and Aiden's belongings across the country. The trip would take about thirty-seven hours total by car and Jade knew it wasn't fair to put a three year-old though that, especially when she was flipping his world upside down for the second time in less than six months. So she and her mother decided to fly to Charleston instead, and would meet up with Chris and Tyler at her grandparents' house. Aiden had seemed so excited about the airplane that morning when he saw him, and Beck hopes that the experience is everything the little boy wished it to be and more.
Once they left, Beck decided that he needed a drink, and Andre and Robbie decided that they couldn't let their friend be alone and accompanied him to a bar. Day-drinking at eleven in the morning on a Thursday isn't Beck's proudest moment, but stranger and sadder things have probably happened in Los Angeles. His only hope, at least at this point, is that he doesn't encounter any of his students once he leaves. Or that a pap doesn't recognize Robbie or Andre and post pictures of the three of them day-drinking all over the internet for his students to see. Thankfully, Robbie had thought to direct them to a more exclusive bar, one where he and Cat were friends with the owner and could almost guarantee no one with a camera would be let in.
"You know, it might make you feel a bit better to look at things from a different perspective." Andre offers as the bartender hands them each a beer "Thank you."
"What do you mean?" Beck sighs
"I mean..." Andre hesitates, choosing his words carefully "When she disappeared, no one had any idea what happened. We didn't know where she was, or if she was even alive, or who was to blame. That hurt me as her friend, and I can't even imagine how it would hurt you as her boyfriend. At least now, you know. She's going to Charleston to be with her grandparents and raise her son. Things are going to be better for her there, and we know that she's safe."
"That doesn't make being broken up with any easier." Beck says before taking a sip of his beer "At least then the fact that we were separated was out of our control. She chose to break up with me this time."
"Alright, your turn, Rob." Andre shakes his head "I tried."
"At least you know how she feels this time." Robbie shrugs, unsure if he can offer any better advice than Andre could "You'll be able to find some kind of closure this time. There's nothing left to question. You know she still loves you, don't you? She always will, dude. She just needed to get out of LA, and I agree with her that's for the best. But she knows you have a life here, and she doesn't want you to give that up just for her."
"She tell you that herself?" Beck asks him
"She told Cat, I happened to be in the next room."
"My life here doesn't mean shit without her." Beck admits, signaling to the bartender that he'll be ready for another drink soon "Of course I knew that already, I learned it the hard way the first time. But this time it hurts so much worse."
"Give it time, man." Andre grips Beck's shoulder firmly "You never know what the universe has in store."
"MOMMY!" Aiden's scream echoes through the house
Jade's eyes snap open and for a moment she's unable to separate her imagination from reality. She had allowed herself to fall asleep, and doing so had caused another nightmare to plague her unconsciousness. This time, Ron had bee dragging Aiden away from her down a long hallway, and no matter how fast she ran she couldn't catch up to them. Her son had been crying and looked so scared, and as she hears him calling out to her for real now, terrible thoughts start to cross her mind.
"MOMMY!" He cries out again
She immediately throws the blankets off of her body and springs out of bed, grabbing a sweatshirt off of the floor and pulling it over her head as she runs out of the room. Lightning illuminates the hallway as she rushes towards Aiden's room, and a clap of thunder follows almost immediately after. Aiden's bedroom door flies open and the little boy runs out, almost colliding with his mother as she tries to reach him.
"Hey!" She catches him in her arms and immediately holds him close to her chest "Shh...I've got you. What's the matter?"
"That noise!" Aiden sobs into his mother's shoulder "What is it? It's shaking the house!"
"Oh..." Jade allows a sigh of relief to escape her as she sinks to the ground and positions Aiden on her lap "It's alright, baby. It's just thunder."
"What?"
"Thunder." Jade repeats "Sometimes when it rains really hard like it is now, there's thunder and lightning. The lightning splits the clouds apart, and the thunder is the sound of them banging back together."
It's not the most scientific explanation, and Jade knows that. However, going into the more in depth answer would probably only confused Aiden more, especially doing it at close to two in the morning.
"It's loud!"
"I know, I know." Jade rubs his back gently "But that's all it is, just loud. it can't hurt you, I promise."
"It's still scary..."
Aiden had barely encountered rain when they lived in California, let alone thunder. Jade realizes as she rocks him back and forth that this is probably the first experience he's ever had with a storm of any kind, and she quickly understands that this will not be the last time she gets up with him in the middle of the night because of it.
"I'll tell you what..." She brushes some of Aiden's hair off of his forehead "You can come sleep with me until the storm is over, alright?"
"Alright..."
Jade stands up again and hoists Aiden into her arms, carrying him back to bed with her as the storm continues to rage outside. When they lay down, he quickly cuddles up next to her as close as he can. With every crack of thunder that ripples through the air, she feels her son's body flinch. Eventually the thunder quiets down, and she can hear his soft even breathing as he drifts off to sleep. Originally she had promised him he could stay until the storm was over, but now that he's asleep she just doesn't have the heart to move him.
It's nearing the end of July now, and they've been in Charleston for a little over a month. Well, it's a suburb of Charleston really. A small beach town just south of the city near the coast, but it's only about a twenty minute commute. Aiden seems to be adjusting well. Although he's quite vocal about missing his grandparents and his Uncle Tyler, he has also come to adore his great-grandparents and taking trips to the beach. He loves going places in general, especially with his mom, which wasn't something he got to do all that often in Los Angeles.
Jade is having a much easier time. Although there were some people who knew of their situation, mostly friends of her grandparents, the story of her disappearance and then eventual rescue hadn't been as major of news in South Carolina mostly because it wasn't local. Her name didn't ring a bell to anyone, no one stared at her because they thought they might recognize her face, she just blended in with everyone else. That was never something she thought she would enjoy, from as early as she could remember she had always wanted to be famous, but being normal has never felt as good to anyone as it feels to her right now.
Within two weeks of moving, she was able to secure a job at the local news station. She graduated college as an English major with an emphasis in screenwriting, intending on writing scripts for movies and TV shows. One day she might still do that, but for right now she writes teleprompter scripts for the news anchors to read during their broadcasts. It's by no means her dream job, but she doesn't dislike doing it. The work is interesting and keeps her up-to-date with both local and national news, and the pay isn't bad either.
After some encouragement from both her mother and her grandmother, as well as the new therapist she had started seeing since moving to the area, Jade had also decided to enroll Aiden in preschool for the upcoming school year. He hasn't interacted much with other kids, let alone kids his own age, and he needs the socialization. Not to mention that more exposure to learning can only help him, never hurt him.
"Have you spoken to your father at all?" Judy asks Jade later that night
She and her grandmother are both sitting in beach chairs, watching as Steve and Aiden play at the edge of the waves. Jade hadn't allowed Aiden to wear his swimsuit, it's dusk now and the lifeguards are off duty so she doesn't want him going all the way into the water even if his grandfather is with him, but she knows his shorts are still going to get wet regardless of what she tells him.
"No." Jade shakes her head "I texted him when I first decided that we were moving out here, and all he responded with was 'okay'. He didn't make any effort to meet up before we left either. I'm not going to waste my energy on him if he's not willing to try."
"It's Aiden that he has the problem with, correct?" Judy clarifies "The way that he came to exist?"
Kaitlyn had filled her in some, but hadn't gone into much depth.
"Yeah. He refuses to accept him as his grandson." Jade nods "And he has absolutely no faith in me when it comes to raising him. He doesn't think I have what it takes."
"He's one to talk." Judy scoffs "He was twenty when you were born."
"Yeah, I know."
"I hope that he comes around." Judy says, reaching over and squeezing Jade's arm reassuringly "He doesn't know what he's missing, not getting to see that little boy grow up. You certainly have what it takes to be a great mother, and you're doing a fantastic job of it."
"Thanks, Grandma." Jade smiles "And thank you, again. For letting us stay here..."
"Don't you dare mention it again." Judy wags a finger at her "You two will always be welcome for as long as you need...so long as you do go back and visit your mother every once and a while. With your brother going off to school soon, she's going to be missing you both so terribly."
"Yeah, I miss her too." Jade admits "And I know Aiden does as well."
Truth be told, Jade misses everyone she left behind in Los Angeles. Her mother, her step-father, her brother, and all her friends. She FaceTimes them all regularly, and Cat has already started making plans to visit them in between her shows in Atlanta and Raleigh on her next tour. The only person she seems to have lost regular contact with is Beck, and that breaks her heart. She hadn't meant for things to go so south so quickly between them, but she didn't want to make him feel like he had to uproot his entire life for her. He texted her a few times during the first week they were in Charleston, just to make sure that they made it safely and were settling in, but she hadn't heard anything since.
"We should start heading back in a bit, don't you think?" Judy suggests "It's going to be dark soon."
"Yeah, probably." Jade agrees as she stands up, but reconsiders as she looks behind her for the first time in a while "On second thought, maybe we should wait a few minutes."
"Hm?" Judy turns around to see what has made her granddaughter change her mind so quickly "Oh goodness."
"Keep Aiden busy for me, will you?"
"Of course."
Jade slips her phone into the back pocket of her denim shorts and picks up her flip-flops, carrying them with her as she makes her way towards the wooden sidewalk in the sand a few yards behind the beach chairs, and to the man standing on it.
"Beck?" She can't help but gasp "What are you doing here?"
"I never should have let you break up with me." He tells her "I should have fought harder to save our relationship."
"Beck, don't do this..." She sighs "You know that-"
"I quit my job." He cuts her off before she can finish her thought
"You what?"
"I quit." He repeats "Jade, I appreciate you not wanting me to give up my life in LA just to be with you, but my life is nothing without you in it. I've known that for a while, but losing you for a second time really solidified it. I don't care where I live, or where I work, or how much money I make, as long as you're there at the end of the day. You and Aiden."
"I-"
"I know what you're going to say." He holds up a hand to stop her from talking as he takes a few steps towards her "I know the Jade standing in front of me is not the Jade that I dated in college. But that's okay, because the Jade I dated in college wasn't the same Jade I dated in high school, and she wasn't the same Jade that I met when I first moved from Canada. I'm not the same Beck you dated in college either, babe. People grow, people change, that's how the world works. I love you...all of you, baggage or no bag-"
Before he can finish his thought, Jade has taken his face in her hands and is kissing him. A smile forms on his lips as he kisses her back, wrapping his arms around her waist.
"I love you too." She whispers, tears stinging her eyes, as he rests her forehead against her's "I'm so sorry, I never wanted to break up, I just didn't want you to be miserable."
"I'm only miserable without you." He assures her "I'm all in, babe. Forever and always."
"Okay." She smiles, laughing a bit as she pecks him quickly on the lips "Okay. But..."
"But what?"
"You quit your job, Beck. You followed me to the other side of the country. What are you going to do?"
"Already taken care of." Beck smirks "There's a high school in the next town over that was in need of a drama teacher and well...I signed the paperwork this morning. It's not like Hollywood Arts either where there's like a million teachers sharing the responsibilities, it's just me. It's my department, and I have the freedom to do what I want with it."
"Oh my god." Jade smiles "Beck, that's great."
"I know it is." He grins, spinning her around "And you see those townhouses out there?"
"The blue ones?"
"Those are the ones." He smiles "That one on the end, all the way to the right? That's mine."
"You bought a house?"
"A townhouse, it's a little different." He chuckles "But yeah, I'm renting it. The cost of living isn't as high out here, so I figured since I have the money...why not? I'm all in on this, Jade. I love you."
Jade says nothing in response, but happily kisses him again. This has to be a dream, right? Her life is finally the most positive that it's looked in years and now the man that she loves is here with her too? Suddenly she hears her mother's voice in her head...
"Well, you know how that saying goes...if you love someone, set them free. And if they come back..."
"It's meant to be." Jade smiles up at Beck
"Huh?"
"Nothing." She shakes her head, still smiling "Nothing. Just...I'm really happy that you're here."
"Me too."
"Beck?" Aiden exclaims from behind them
Beck barely has enough time to turn around before Aiden launches himself into his arms, almost knocking him over.
"Aiden!" Beck hugs the little boy tightly "Hey wow, look at how much you've grown already! I missed you so much, little dude!"
"I missed you too!" Aiden tells him "What are you doing here?"
"Well..." Beck laughs "I just missed you and your mom so much, I thought it might be time to get out of California for a little while. I live here now too."
"You do?" Aiden's eyes grow wide "Mom! Did you hear that?"
"I did." Jade smiles "That was pretty nice of him to do, huh?"
"So nice!" Aiden agrees "I'm so happy you're here, Beck!"
"I'm happy too, Aiden." Beck admits, hugging him to his chest as he stands up as he smiles at Jade
"Me three." She adds, looping her arm around Beck's to begin walking back to the house