Chapter 7

When they woke up the next morning, things were not seeming to go better. Fallon, of course, was woken up at 4:30am with extreme nausea, and then spent the next two hours off and on throwing up. By the end, she was seriously considering calling Liam and going home. Luckily for her, though, the nausea started to subside around 7.

For Beck, the morning had not gone well, either. He'd woken up at 5 when he heard horrible retching noises from Fallon's room. At first, he thought it might be Paisley getting sick, but then he realized it was just Fallon with morning sickness. He debated on whether or not he should go help her, but decided against. I'm not her husband, he told himself. When he finally got out of bed, he slipped on a wet spot in the bathroom and slammed his face into the towel bar. He was probably going to have a black eye. Once he finished getting ready at 7:30, he left the room to see Paisley sitting on the couch, crying.

"Why are you crying, baby?" Beck asked, sitting down next to her.

"Mom yelled at me. I woke up at 6, and I heard her getting sick, so I went in her room to try and help her. She yelled at me to get out and then went back to throwing up." Paisley squeaked out, pitifully.

"I'm sure she didn't mean to yell, Pais. When you're pregnant, you can get very sick, especially in the first few months. Your mom was probably really tired and cranky, and that's why she yelled at you. I'm sure she wasn't actually mad at you, baby. Later, when she comes out of her room, we can have a talk. Ok?" Beck hated seeing his daughter cry, and as mad as he was at Fallon, he didn't want his daughter to hate her mother.

"Ok."

"I'm actually gonna go check on her right now. When I'm done, do you want breakfast?"

"Yeah, I want French toast."

"Ok, I'll make you French toast."

Beck quickly made his way to Fallon's room, the master suite of course, and lightly knocked on it. When he heard a small grunt come from Fallon, he assumed that was an invitation.

"Paisley told me you yelled at her. Is there a reason, or did you just wake up feeling like you wanted to be a bitch today?"

"Don't call me, bitch, Beck, because maybe I am, but I'm not in the mood to fight with you. I didn't mean to yell at Paisley. I just didn't want her seeing me like that, and I don't know what made her think she could just come into my room."

"She was worried about you, Fallon, or were you too lost in your rich little world to see that? Maybe it's a good thing you weren't around when she was younger, because she probably would've gotten your bratty attitude."

"If you're really gonna act like this, then just get out. You can have your daughter back, and your stupid reunion, and I'll go back to Atlanta, where I belong, and you can go back to New York and act like none of this ever happened. I'm not fighting with you over this, so either listen to me, or get out."

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just take Paisley and go back to New York."

"That's fine by me. She's never gonna see me as her mom, at least not really. I'm always gonna be that random lady she met when she was 9, who happened to call herself her mother. Maybe it would just be better for everyone if you go back to New York."

"Fine, after this weekend, Paisley and I are going back to New York."

"Fine. Make sure she never tries to find me again. She's just gonna hurt herself, and be sorely disappointed."

"After I tell her all the shit you did, and how bad of a person you truly are, I don't think there's anyway she'll still want to find you."

"Great."

Without another word, Beck left Fallon's room to go start breakfast for his daughter. Maybe Fallon was right in doubting her abilities as a mother. What Beck had done was test her. He was testing whether or not she really cared about Paisley and really wanted to be Paisley's mother. Fallon had failed miserably.

"Is mom ok?" Paisley asked, as Beck came out of Fallon's room.

"Um, yeah, she's ok. I don't think she'll be joining us for breakfast, though. She's not really hungry."

"Ok. Are we still going to see Aunty Cat and Uncle Andre today?"

"Yeah, and you're to meet some new people, too. It'll be fun."

"Ok."

Before anyone knew it, 4 o'clock rolled around, and they started getting ready for the reunion. Just like Beck had predicted, his eye started to swell and bruise about an hour after breakfast. Icing it did help, but he still didn't look great. Fallon, of course, didn't even notice his eye, and therefore didn't ask. In fact, she didn't say much of anything the whole day. She mostly just stayed in her room and kept to herself. She only came out twice for some food, and to briefly apologize to Paisley, but then went right back in. She waited until the last possible minute to start getting ready, and then almost made them late, because she got in the car five minutes after Beck and Paisley.

Once they arrived at Hollywood Arts, Fallon's mood drastically changed, and so did her facial expression. She got noticeably angry and more stony than she was, but she put a smile on her face. Beck guessed it was because there were dozens of paparazzi outside, due to the fact there were plenty of celebrities that were produced by Hollywood Arts. When they got out of the car, Beck shielded Paisley's face from the harsh lights of the paparazzi cameras, while Fallon acted like the entrance to HA was a red carpet. She practically strutted into HA, while Beck actually had to pick up Paisley so she wasn't trampled by the mass amounts of people. Once inside, memories flooded both Beck and Fallon's minds.

"Oh, look, they still have our lockers." Beck pointed out, putting Paisley down as he walked over to his old locker. There wasn't anything in it, of course, but it was still there. The same transparent door, but now with a plaque that stated: 'this locker once belonged to Beck Oliver, class of 2013.'

"This was your locker, Papa?" Paisley asked.

"Yeah, this was my locker. Wanna see your mom's?"

"Sure."

They walked over to Fallon's (technically Jade's) locker. She was looking at it and smiling.

"Why is it covered in scissors, mom?" Paisley asked.

"When I was in high school, I really liked scissors. I decided to cover my locker in them. I'm surprised they kept it like this." Fallon's locker also had a plaque that, of course, addressed her as Jade West.

"Oh, look, there's Aunty Cat and Uncle Andre." The 9 year old pointed out, looking at Cat and Andre as they walked in. Andre was wearing a pair of dress pants and a nice blue shirt, while Cat was wearing a light pink cocktail dress and sporting a small bump.

"Let's go say hi." Beck said, as he took Paisley's hand and started walking towards Cat and Andre.

"Hey, man." Andre greeted, as he and Beck bro-hugged. "It's been so long."

"Yeah, too long. You guys should come visit before the baby comes."

"Maybe we will. I see you have little munchkin. How're you doing, Paisley?"

"I'm good." Paisley responded, shyly. She gave small hugs to both Andre and Cat, and was slightly surprised when Cat pulled into a strong embrace.

"Hi, little munchkin. I haven't seen you in forever. How are you?" Cat asked.

"I'm good. I met my mom. She's gonna have twins and I'm gonna be a big sister."

"You met Jade? Really?"

"Um, yeah." Paisley was slightly confused as to why Cat called her mom Jade, but she just went along with it.

"Is she here?"

"Yeah, I think she's over by her locker."

"Ok, I'm gonna go say hi. We can talk more later, ok?"

"Ok." Paisley agreed, going back to stand by Beck's side.

"Jadey!" Cat squealed, as she ran up to Fallon and gave her a big hug.

"Ok, please get off of me." Fallon said, bearing only five seconds of Cat's hug.

"It's been such a long time!" The former redhead exclaimed.

"Yep, it's been 10 years."

"Did you and Beck get married?" Cat gasped, seeing the huge peach diamond and smaller diamond band on her finger.

"Um, no, Beck and I are just here together for Paisley. My husband's name is Liam. He's away on a business trip right now." Fallon explained, letting Cat take a closer look at the rings on her finger.

"Oh." Cat said, slightly disappointed. "Do you and Liam have any kids together? Where do you even live? Beck says you don't live in New York, but he would never tell me where you do live. What do you do for a living? Are you rich?"

"Ok, first of all, stop rambling. I'll give all the answers to your questions, but you need to calm down. Second of all, let's go somewhere quieter and I'll answer all the questions you have. Ok?"

"Ok."

Fallon and Cat walked back over to Andre, Beck, and Paisley to tell them where they were going, and the made their way to the library. The library seemed to be the place to be for old friends catching up, but it was at least quieter than the entrance.

"So, what do you want to know?" Fallon asked, sitting down at a table near the back.

"Um, I guess we should start off with what you do for work." Cat asked.

"I own my own company. It's a media mogul, so we do a bunch of different things."

"Where do you live?"

"I live in Atlanta with Liam."

"Do you have any kids together?"

"Not yet, but I'm about 10 weeks pregnant with twins."

"Really? That's so exciting. I wish I was having twins. I just get one baby, though. I think she's supposed to come in, like, 4 months."

"That's great, Cat."

"So, how come you didn't end up with Beck, in high school, you two seemed like the perfect couple."

"Ha, we were far from perfect. I spent so many nights at your house crying over something Beck said, and I was at your house practically every weekend during our breakup so that I could distract myself. We were not perfect. After high school, we tried to make it work. I moved to Atlanta for school and he moved to New York. I would go up there every few weeks to visit him. I especially enjoyed visiting him when he was in Wicked. During the first semester of our sophomore, I found out I was pregnant. At first, I was really nervous because I wasn't sure the baby was his."

"How can you not be sure? Wasn't he the only guy you were with?"

"Well, no. I was seeing a guy in Atlanta. We'd only been seeing each other for a month when I went back up to New York. It was only about 4 weeks later that I found out I was pregnant. Luckily for everyone, though, it was Beck's baby. I decided to drop out of college and stay with Beck in New York. We went through the entire pregnancy together, and he even proposed to me. I said no because I thought we were too young, but we were happy. I was even excited about having a baby. It wasn't until the day after I gave birth to Paisley that I realized I wasn't ready to be a mom. I wasn't ready to put myself through motherhood. I left New York and never felt the need to look back. Beck and Paisley found me about a month ago and came to Atlanta."

"Wow. That's a complicated life story."

You have no idea, Fallon thought.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"Why didn't you pursue your dreams in the industry, like you had always wanted?"

"Life got in the way. I decided to go back to school after I went back to Atlanta. For the first time in a long time, music and acting didn't control my life anymore. I started realizing I wanted to take my life in a different direction. I still sing sometimes, and I write during the little free time I have, but I decided that side of the industry is just not for me."

"Working in the industry is hard, but it's so rewarding, especially when I see my fans. They tell me stories about how I changed their lives, or saved them, or pulled them out of a really dark time. It makes it all worth it."

"That sounds really nice, but I don't regret not following through with my original plan. If I had, I probably wouldn't have met Liam, and we wouldn't be having kids. I'm really happy with where my life is at right now. I love Liam and I love the family we're growing together. And as frustrating as my job can be at times, I like doing what I do."

"How do Beck and Paisley fit into your new life?"

"Well, I thought I knew the answer to that question, but after today, it looks like they won't fit in at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Beck said he's going to take Paisley back to New York once we get back to Atlanta. Apparently I'm not doing a good enough job at being her mom. He says he's gonna take her and tell her about how horrible of a person I am. And maybe I deserve it. I don't deserve to be her mom. I abandoned her when she was a day old. I wasn't there for the first nine years of her life. She deserves a mom who's going to be there for her, and I just don't think that's me."

"But you are her mom, Jade. You carried her for nine months, and you gave birth to her. She is your daughter. Beck doesn't have a right to take her away from you."

"Legally, he does. I never put my name on the birth certificate. As far as I know, he's the only parent on her birth certificate. I don't have any legal rights to her. She might be biologically my daughter, but that really doesn't matter."

"It might be legally right to take Paisley away from you, but it's not morally right. What would Paisley even think? She just got you back in her life. I highly doubt she wants to leave again."

"It doesn't seem like Beck cares what Paisley wants. Honestly right now, I don't know what's going to happen, and I don't think there's anything I could say or do to change Beck's mind."

"I'm really sorry, Jade."

"Yeah, me too. Anyway, enough about me. What's going on with you? How's your life going?" Fallon was going to send herself into a downward spiral if she kept thinking about her current situation. She needed to distract herself.

"Well, I was supposed to go on tour two months ago, and I would be on tour right now, but I decided to take a break from touring when I found out that I was pregnant. Andre's working on an album right now, and I think he and I are doing a couple duet songs. He's supposed to go on tour a few months after the baby's born, but he might postpone it depending on how things with the baby are going. I have a few singles come out next month and in August. Dre and I are preparing for the baby, and we're buying everything, and coming up with names. It's making me even more excited for our little girl to come. We're going on a baby-moon next month to Turks and Caicos. Other than that, my life's going pretty smoothly."

"That's really great. I'm really happy for you." Fallon truly was happy, but she was kind of too lost in her head to be super sincere.

"Have you and Liam started buying things for your babies?"

"Um, not yet. I'm only ten weeks along. We're gonna wait until I'm at least halfway through my second trimester to start buying things. Twin pregnancies can be really dangerous, and we just want to make sure these babies are safe before we start buying everything. So far, the only things we have are two bunny stuffed animals that Liam bought me as a sweet gift."

"Are you afraid you'll have a miscarriage?"

"Afraid? No, not really. We're just being cautious. Anything could happen, even after I get through the first trimester."

"You're right. A few weeks ago, I thought I was going to lose her. I started having some bleeding and contractions. On the drive to the hospital, I was so scared. It turns out I had just pushed myself a little too hard during my workout. Baby girl was perfectly fine, and after some fluids and a little bit of rest, the contractions and bleeding went away."

"That is really scary, but it's good to hear that you're both ok."

"Yeah, I'm really relieved she's ok. In fact, I actually think I have a sonogram." Cat rummaged through her purse and pulled out a piece of paper. "Here." Cat handed Fallon the sonogram.

"Aw, she's cute. She's sucking her thumb."

"Yeah, my mom said I was doing that in most of my sonogram pictures, too."

"It must run in the family. She kinda looks like you already, too."

"Really? You think so?"

"Yeah, she has your lips and nose."

"Yeah, you're right. I hope she looks more like Dre, though. I think a baby version of him would be so cute."

"Mhm." Fallon didn't really know how to respond.

"What do you think you're going to have? A boy and a girl? Two girls? Two boys?"

"I don't know. I think it's two boys, but Liam thinks it's a boy and a girl. We'll find out who's right in a few weeks. I think we're gonna get a blood test, instead of waiting until 20 weeks for an ultrasound."

"If I were having twins, I think I'd want a boy and a girl. It's kind of like killing two birds with one stone, you know? Andre and I are pretty sure we just want two kids. We want a boy and a girl. If our second baby is another girl, we might try again for a boy, but after three, I think we'll be done? Do you and Liam know how many kids you want?"

"Um, I think two might be our limit. It depends on how things go with these two. Maybe, once they're in school, we'll talk about having more kids."

"That's cool. Do you wanna talk some more or should we go out and find the boys?"

"Let's go find the boys."

"Ok."

The two of them got up from their seats in the back of the library and ventured back out to the entrance where they'd left Andre, Beck, and Paisley. Luckily, they were still there, but unluckily, they had company. Tori Vega had decided to pick that moment to kiss Beck. Granted, it was a kiss cheek, but Fallon didn't like it.

Wait, what? Why don't I like that? He's not mine. Fallon thought to herself. She wasn't sure why she was mad at Tori. Beck wasn't her husband, or her boyfriend, hell, he wasn't even her friend.

Fallon would've continued to spiral had Andre, Beck, Paisley, and Tori not walked up to her and Cat.

"Hey, did you two have a good talk?" Andre asked, as he took his place by Cat.

"Yeah, we did." Cat responded, flashing a small smile towards Fallon.

"Hi, Jade, it's been so long." Tori said, sounding just as sickly sweet as ever. She tried to give Fallon a hug, but not only did she not like physical contact, she also hated Tori.

"Yeah, and there's a reason for that." Fallon said, not even bothering to sugarcoat anything.

"How are you? Are you and Beck married?" Fallon was pretty sure Tori knew the answer to that question. Fallon was going to respond with some snarky response, but Beck beat her to the punch.

"Ha, hell know. Jade," of course he had to put emphasis on 'Jade', "is married to a guy named Liam. I only found her again earlier this month."

"Found her? I didn't know she was lost." Tori and all her smugness was making it extremely hard for Fallon to not want to punch her.

"When Paisley was born, Jade decided to leave. She left me with a one-day-old baby and fled to Atlanta. She told me not to find her, and I wouldn't have had Paisley not asked to meet her mother. If I had it my way, I would've stayed in New York and continued to pretend like she didn't exist. The things we do for our kids, huh?" What the hell was Beck doing? The Beck Fallon knew, or thought she knew, would not be doing this. Was he drunk? He had to be.

"Wow, Jade, I knew you were a bad person, but I didn't think you were so bad that you'd leave your one-day-old baby." Tori was such a bitch.

"Oh, you have no idea just how bad she is. I threatened to go back to New York with Paisley, and you know what she said? She said fine. She didn't care nine years ago, and she doesn't care now."

"Why are we leaving Atlanta?" Paisley asked. Kids were nothing if not good listeners.

"Because our little experiment in Atlanta isn't working. It's time to go back to our lives in New York." Beck explained to his daughter.

"But I don't want to leave mom. I don't want to go back to New York. I like Atlanta."

"We're going back to New York, end of discussion." Since when did Beck act like this? What the hell was wrong with him?

"No!" Paisley yelled out, ripping her hand from Beck's and running to Fallon. She started crying into Fallon's dress as Fallon embraced her.

"Are you happy, Beck? You made your daughter cry." Fallon asked, scowling at Beck.

"She'll be fine. She's nine years old, don't baby her." Seriously, what the hell was he on?

"Letting her cry is not babying her, Beck. Stop being an ass and act like a father."

"Don't tell me what to do and don't tell me how to parent my child."

"She's my child too, Beck, whether you like it or not."

"You'll never be a real mother."

"Oh, yeah? Tell that to Paisley."

"Stopping acting like a bitch."

"Ok, guys, maybe this isn't the best place to have this discussion." Andre jumped in, trying to prevent the argument from going any further.

"Stay out of this, Andre." Beck demanded, his eyes getting noticeably dark. Fallon saw an anger in Beck's eyes that she'd never seen before. It scared her.

"Jade, maybe you should take Paisley back to the hotel." Cat suggested, seeing the fear in Fallon's eyes.

"You're not taking my daughter anywhere." Beck said, his voice getting scarily low.

"I'm taking her back to the hotel. You can catch an Uber once you've sobered up." Fallon responded, her grip instinctually tightening around Paisley.

"You're not taking her anywhere, bitch." Beck was inching closer to Fallon. He was scaring her.

"Yes, I am."

Before anyone knew what was happening, Beck's hand flew up to Fallon's face and smacked her cheek. Fallon recoiled back and immediately put her hand up to her face. Andre acted immediately and stood in front of Fallon and Paisley, protecting them from somebody he never thought he'd have to.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Andre yelled, placing his hand on Beck's chest.

"You're a bitch, Fallon. Everyone knows just how much of a bitch you are." Beck yelled at Fallon.

"You need to leave, now. I don't know what's wrong with you, or what you're on, but you need to go." Andre demanded.

"I'm not leaving without Paisley. Paisley, let's go." Beck tried to move around Andre to grab Paisley, but Andre stopped him.

"Andre, it's fine. Paisley can go with you, but not without me. Come on, sweetie, it's time to go." Fallon responded. She looked down at Paisley and was disheartened to see she was still crying.

"Jade, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go with him." Andre said.

"Yeah, me either, but I'm not letting her go with him if I'm not there."

"Ok, if you really want to go. Just be safe." Andre knew there probably wasn't anything he could say to change her mind.

"It was good to see you, Jadey. Here," Cat handed Fallon a piece of paper with a phone number on it," call me when you get back to the hotel."

"Ok, will do."

Without anything else, Beck, Fallon, and Paisley walked out the building and towards the car. No one said anything. Beck was too angry, and Fallon and Paisley were too scared. Fallon reluctantly got in the car, in the backseat, while Paisley sat next to her and Beck sat in the driver's seat.

A few minutes into their drive, everything changed in an instant. In an intersection, Beck wasn't paying attention. He ran the red light. Out of nowhere, a truck came barreling towards them. Beck was too out of his mind to notice the headlights getting closer to their car. Before anyone could react, the truck slammed into the side of the SUV, flinging Beck, who wasn't wearing his seatbelt, and jostling Paisley so much that she hit Fallon.

Before anyone knew it, their whole world had changed.

A/N: Duh Duh Duh. I know, I know, cliffhangers suck. I'll update soon enough. And for anyone wondering, I know Beck was extremely OOC in this chapter, but it'll all be explained.