Jade's anonymity in South Carolina only lasts for so long. Eventually the major news outlets, the ones who had hounded her so terribly in the beginning to share her story, are able to track her down. It's less invasive now, they're no longer swarming outside of her home, but she does receive an endless amount of phone calls and emails asking her if she would be willing to do interviews to talk about what happened to her in the four years that Ron had held her captive.

At first it's more annoying than anything but the longer the news outlets solicit her, the larger toll the whole thing starts to take on Jade. Beck notices that she even starts to regress a bit, suddenly becoming paranoid again about things that hadn't bothered her in months or even years. When he brings it up, he's expecting it to turn into an argument. He expects her to deny any such thing happening, but she doesn't. She actually agrees with him, and they then have the conversation together as a couple about where to go from there.

At this point, Aiden is about to start kindergarten. Jade doesn't want to do anything that would thrust him into the spotlight suddenly and take away any chance he might have at a normal childhood, because she worked so hard to make sure that he would have one. It's inevitable though that one day she will have to open up to someone about everything. If she doesn't, people will just start making things up and that would make the whole situation even worse for everyone involved. Rumors spread like wildfire, and not even the truth can extinguish the flames once they've grown large enough. After endless conversations with Beck and her mother and her therapist, Jade was able to develop a plan that she hopes will be able to satisfy both sides.

She's going to write a book.

Anyone who cares enough to read it would be able to, and Jade would hopefully be able to do some healing of her own in the process. Getting to tell her story on her own terms in her own words actually ends up being quite freeing. Between having so much to say and having the writing skills to successfully complete the project, she has a manuscript finished within six months of starting. Cat is able use her connections in Hollywood to put her in touch with the right people to help her then get in touch with an editor and a publisher, and before Jade knows it her book is the highest-anticipated release of that year.

The anticipation is both exciting and terrifying. Jade is of course excited about the fact that something she had created has the attention of so many people, she did want to write movies and TV shows that would move people emotionally when she was in college after all. On the other hand, the fact that so many people will now get to see such a vulnerable side of her frightens her. Up until this point, the only people she allowed to have that knowledge where the people she loved and cared about the most. Now it's going to be in the hands of complete strangers; her co-workers, Beck's co-workers, the parent's of the other children at Aiden's school, random people who didn't know her at all...

And then there's the matter of the press. Jade's publisher wants her to do a book tour once it's released, but she refuses. She isn't in it for the celebrity of the matter, that's not the life that she wants to live. She's only here to share her experiences to educate the public on the true evil that lives among them, and to hopefully help and inspire a few people along the way. In the end, she agrees to do one television appearance, so long as the publishing company donates a set amount of revenue from the book sales to a charity that is dedicated to helping victims of rape and domestic abuse.

The interview is thirty minutes long and pre-recorded to air during primetime. Despite it being almost three years since her initial rescue, it still creates a substantial amount of buzz. Beck and Jade watch it together, making sure that Aiden is in bed that night well before it's set to air. Jade cringes through the entire thing, she's never liked watching herself on film. That's why she had chosen the writing path instead of the acting one, seeing herself on the screen is almost unbearable. Not to mention that the subject matter isn't exactly the happiest. The one thing that Jade is happy about however, is the way that the host went about conducting the interview. The questions weren't overly invasive, and they didn't completely spoil the content of the book. She found a way to make Jade feel comfortable talking about very uncomfortable things, and didn't press her on things she didn't want to comment on. Beck watches the whole interview with an immense feeling of pride bubbling up inside of him; his girlfriend was so strong, and she had survived so much. She continues to live her life and grow stronger each day despite everything she's been through, and she's such a great mother to her son. He doesn't know how many people could endure something like that. She's truly remarkable.

When the interview first airs, the reactions seem to be mostly positive. Everyone seems to be very supportive and respectful of not only Jade, but everything that she went through. She even has a moment with a complete stranger in a cafe on her lunch break who recognizes her and thanks her for being brave enough to tell her story, and that hopefully it will bring enough attention to the issue to make sure that no one else ever endures anything like it. Everything seems to be going well, until one day it's not.

"Hey..." Jade says quietly as she leans against the doorframe in Aiden's bedroom "How's it going bud?"

"Not good." Aiden sniffs

"Yeah, that's what I heard." Jade nods, setting her laptop back down on the floor and moving to sit next to her son on his bed "You wanna talk about it?"

With Jade still working at the news station in the city, she doesn't usually get home until around dinner time each night. While she's around in the morning to get Aiden ready and drop him off at school, Beck is usually the one to pick him up. Apparently that day when he got into the car, Beck didn't even have a chance to ask Aiden how his day was before the little boy burst into tears. He had texted Jade, of course, but hadn't gone into too much detail once he was able to coax Aiden into talking about it, not wanting her to rush home from work for something that wasn't technically an emergency. Of course the one thing Aiden wanted more than anything in that moment was his mom, and Beck felt horrible that he couldn't be of more comfort to the little boy he had come to basically see as his own son.

"Jack McCallen says I'm a mole..." Aiden tells her as he curls up in her lap "He won't stop calling me Mole Boy..."

"A mole?" Jade looks at Beck before an explanation, but it clicks in her mind before he can give her one "Oh..."

Basements are underground, and that's where moles live. Aiden's classmate must have heard about her interview somehow and made the connection.

"I'm not a mole, am I?"

"Oh Aiden, of course you're not." Jade hugs her son tightly "You're a human boy, don't be silly."

"I already called the principal." Beck tells his girlfriend "She's having a meeting with Jack and his parents in the morning. He's not in Aiden's class, but the teachers are going to make sure they stay apart at recess tomorrow."

While Beck isn't technically Aiden's biological parent, he's listed as his second emergency contact at school behind Jade.

"Thank you for doing that." Jade sighs "I just can't believe first graders can come up with stuff like this..."

"Me either." Beck shakes his head "I-"

"Why do people have to be mean to each other?" Aiden asks to neither one of them in particular "Why can't everyone just be nice?"

"I wish I knew, baby..." Jade kisses the top of his head before repositioning him so he's sitting up straight "Usually people are mean because they feel bad about themselves, so they want other people to feel bad too. But you can't let mean people get to you, okay? Always remember that you are important, and smart, and so so loved. Nothing that anyone ever says to you, not even Jack McCallen, will ever change that."

"Okay..."

"Hey, look at me." Jade tilts his chin up so they make eye contact "If Jack, or anyone else, tries to say anything mean to you, just ignore them and then tell an adult the first chance you get. Believe me, I know it can be hard, especially if they're saying something hurtful. But if you show them that what they're saying doesn't bother you...then they'll stop trying to bother you. You are not a mole. You are Aiden Joshua West, and you are the greatest little boy I know. I love you. Lots of people love you-"

"I love you." Beck chimes in

"See?" Jade smiles at her son "People love you, and care about you. Me and Beck especially. Never let anyone tell you that isn't true."

"Okay." Aiden says again, more confidently this time, as Jade hugs him "I love you too, Mom. And you...Dad..."

"What did you call him?" Jade gasps, breaking their hug apart

Beck doesn't know what to say, so for the moment he doesn't say anything. But there's a warm feeling spreading throughout his chest.

Dad.

He likes the way that sounds.

"Dad...?" Aiden repeats, a little less sure of his choice "Is that...okay?"

"Is that okay?" Jade looks to her boyfriend for an answer

She figured that if she and Beck stayed together, and at this point it's hard to imagine that they won't, that Aiden would come to view her boyfriend as a father figure. She hadn't expected something like this to happen so soon, Beck has only been in her son's life for three years at this point and she's not entirely sure he's old enough to really understand how significant of a choice choosing to call him 'Dad' really is.

"Of course it is." Beck grins, laughing a little "Aiden, if you want me to be your dad...I would be honored."

"I want you to be my Dad." Aiden affirms with a nod "You pick me up from school and you take care of me in the summer when we don't have to go but Mom still has to go to work. And you play with me, and take me to work with you, and sometimes we go to baseball games and...you kind of already are my dad."

"I guess you're right." Beck smiles, opening his arms to hug Aiden "C'mere, buddy."

With a smile, Aiden crawls across the bed and into Beck's arms and the two share a warm hug. Beck kisses the top of the little boy's head, holding him tightly as he looks over at Jade who seems to be fighting tears.

Aiden is still too young to understand his true paternity. One day, she'll have the extremely difficult conversation with him about where he came from. While she knows that Aiden will never really see Ron has his father, and she doesn't want him to, it means the world to her that he'll still have a Dad.

"I love you, Aiden." Beck tells him

"I love you too, Dad."

"Mom?" Beck smiles, opening an arm to make room for Jade "Wanna join?"

"Of course." Jade grins as she moves across the bed to join the embrace "I love you both so much."

A majority of the sales from Jade's book are donated as she requested, but some of it still goes to the publisher and some...well some of it goes to her. She hadn't written the book for the money, she didn't give two shits about the money. But with the small bit of extra cash that was coming in every month since the book's release, Beck and Jade decide that it's time to upgrade from Beck's townhouse to a real house.

It's the first major purchase that they've made together as a couple. Between both of their jobs and the book money, they have the means to go over the top if they want to, but they don't. Instead, they choose an appropriately-sized home right near the water, as they had all grown so attached to the ocean view that the townhouse had provided them. Aiden is thrilled that the house is actually their's and that he'll get to choose the color they paint his bedroom walls. He's even allowed to help Beck paint when they move in, and Jade is sure to have a camera ready to capture dozens of photographs of her two boys covered in blue paint.

"You know..." Jade says to Beck one night as they're getting ready for bed "We still have to figure out what we're doing with that extra room."

They've been in the house for about a month at this point. There's four bedrooms total. Beck and Jade obviously took the master, and Aiden got the second biggest. Their basement is finished and while they intend on using it mostly as a space for Aiden and his toys, there's also a bedroom down there with its own bathroom that they'll use as a guest suite when their parents or friends come to town to visit. That still leaves the bedroom across the hallway from Aiden's, which is just slightly smaller. It's full of boxes that they've yet to unpack, or other items that they've decided to donate but haven't actually gotten around to taking anywhere yet.

"We'll figure something out." Beck shrugs as he pulls back the blankets and climbs into bed "I had thought that maybe it could be a playroom, but I guess Aiden already has the basement to himself, huh? What about an office?"

"We have an office downstairs."

"We could each have one?"

"That's stupid." Jade shakes her head as she climbs into bed next to him

"Alright..." He chuckles "What did you have in mind? Something super creative?"

"Not so much something as someone..." Jade admits "Beck, what if we had a baby?"

"Are you pregnant?" He asks her immediately

When they had been in college and had gotten really serious about their relationship, they had always talked about having kids one day. All of that went out the window though when Jade went through everything that she did. Everything surrounding her pregnancy with Aiden and his birth had been incredibly scary and traumatic for her, and she had been vocal about being unsure if she would be able to go through that again. Beck had given up the idea of having more kids, and willingly so. Jade and Aiden were all he needed, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be open to having another child one day if Jade decided that she wanted to.

"No!" She answers him quickly "No, I'm not...but I've been thinking about it, and I think I could do it. Just one, because I don't know if I can do it again more than once...but I think Aiden should have a sibling. And I wanna have a little more you in the world."

"Jade..." Beck gasps, wrapping her up in his arms and kissing her "I've never been so on-board with an idea."

"Really?"

"Really." He grins "So...should we start trying?"

"I was thinking maybe we could stop not-trying." She admits "No birth control, no condoms. If it happens, that's great. But if it doesn't...then it's not meant to be."

"I can get behind that." He smiles, kissing her again "I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"Wow..." Jade gasps, looking down at the pregnancy test in her hands

A pink plus sign is staring back at her, confirming what she thought to already to be true.

She's pregnant.

Just like with Aiden, the morning sickness was her first cue. She had been doubtful at first, because she and Beck had only been trying for a few months at that point. But this is real, she and Beck are having a baby. For a moment, she starts to get emotional. Part of her is happy, and she should be. She's having a baby with the man that she loves, they created life together. But part of her is also remembering how she had experienced this the first time, how terrified and alone she had felt.

"It's different now." Jade whispers to herself "You're not alone anymore."

"Jade?" Beck knocks on the door, pulling her from her thoughts "Are you okay? You've been in there for a while..."

She wastes no time unlocking the door and opening it, coming face-to-face with her incredibly concerned-looking boyfriend. He hadn't known she was taking the test, and she hadn't really thought about how she would tell him if it came back positive.

"Are you okay?" He asks again, then looks down when he notices that she's holding something "Is that a-"

"It's positive." Jade smiles nervously as she holds the test up "I'm pregnant."

"You...you're..." Beck stammers as a grin spreads across his face "Oh my god!"

He picks her up in his arms, lifting her off of her feet as he spins her in circles around their bedroom. They share a kiss briefly as he sets her down on her feet again and then he sinks to his knees, resting his head against her stomach.

"There's a little baby in there." Beck says quietly as he presses a kiss right above her navel "Wow...we made a baby!"

"Crazy isn't it?" Jade smiles, running a hand through his hair gently

"I can't believe it." Beck admits "I hope it's a girl."

"Really?" She chuckles "I figured you'd want a son."

"I already have a son." Beck reminds her as he stands up "I think it would be pretty cool to have one of each."

At hearing that, Jade can't stop herself from becoming emotional. She hears Aiden call Beck 'Dad' every single day, she hears Beck refer to Aiden as 'my son' or 'our son' on the regular as well. Maybe it's just the hormones already coursing though her body, but Beck's confirmation that he really sees Aiden as his own makes her want to cry happy tears.

"Are you okay?" Beck asks her as he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her closer to him, snapping Jade out of her thoughtful haze

"Totally fine." She confirms with a nod, leaning in to kiss him again "Just really happy."