A/N: Thank you for the reviews! It has renewed my inspiration for this story, to have you all reading and cheering me on.

The next day, Sunday, was Roderick's actual birthday. Once a year, in May, Karen Zizes had to put her differences with her ex-husband (#2) aside in order to meet up as a family for Roderick's birthday. She had to do the same thing again in November, for Lauren's birthday, with ex-husband #1, her dad. Having Todd for a boyfriend seemed to make all of this considerably easier for the middle aged double-divorcee.

Lauren was looking forward to it, because she really liked her ex-stepfather, David, and normally, she wouldn't have been around to make it to this dinner. She hadn't seen Roderick's dad for two years, as he lived in Chicago.

Another first for this year's birthday dinner was that both Lauren and Roderick had dates, Matt and Madison, respectively. It was a rare occasion where Matt also didn't have to bring Mariah along. He'd gotten his mom to watch the little girl, for what amounted to their first outing without her in quite some time.

Lauren had mixed feelings about Roderick's choice of Texas Roadhouse for dinner that night. She could sort of make the menu work for her, but she had to pass on those huge baskets of soft rolls with the cinnamon and sugar butter. Restaurants were hard when no one around you was choosing to limit themselves, too. And ever since the previous night, with the pizza, she'd been afraid of what might happen tonight.

"I wouldn't have recognized you, sweetheart, you look amazing," David gushed, kissing her on the cheek, as he greeted Lauren first. She'd always liked him. And had her ex-stepfather not remarried his realtor Natasha last year, Lauren would have continued operating under the theory that he was secretly gay. He was so flamboyant and loud. So much the opposite of Lauren's father, Gary, the epitome of masculinity.

"She does, doesn't she?" Karen cupped Lauren's shoulder proudly, giving it a squeeze. Karen had lost a little weight lately, too, and cut and colored her hair. She appeared to be waiting for her ex-husband to notice, and he didn't disappoint, fawning over her next. Lauren noticed her mother even flirted with her dad when they were around each other too, and she hoped there never came an opportunity where her current boyfriend, Todd, had to be subjected to this. (Lauren wasn't ever going to pull an Artie Abrams and subject her mother to dinner with all three men.)

David turned his attention to his son next, as Roderick proudly introduced him to Madison. Then Lauren, in turn, introduced Matt. When the introductions had been made, they all took a seat on the long benches in the front of the restaurant to wait on their table. Lauren passed on munching on peanuts while they waited. A few wouldn't hurt, but if she started now, she probably wouldn't be able to stop.

"How are Natasha and the kids?" Karen asked, bringing them up with much more ease now than before she'd started her own new relationship with Todd.

Natasha and her two brats, as Roderick secretly referred to them, were the reason he fled Chicago for Lima not long after they moved in. Lauren watched Roderick not-so-subtly check out of the conversation as David filled them in on the latest lacrosse news for Vance and on Farrah's gymnastic meets.

As Karen and her ex-husband caught up, Matt nudged her on the opposite side. "Okay, now I'm confused," he said, with a sheepish grin. "You said before that your mom was married twice. So, if she married Roderick's dad after your dad, why is her last name Zizes, like yours?"

Lauren shifted slightly to close herself off to the others so that she could explain it all very quietly to Matt. "Because my parents weren't married when I was born,"she divulged. "Zizes is her maiden name. Mom put Zizes on my birth certificate. I was an oops-baby. 'Oh, shit,' may have been my dad's exact words, when he found out. My mom was still in college when my dad knocked her up. They hurried up and got married not long after I was born, then they divorced when I was two. It was right in the middle of my baby pageant days. She never took dad's last name, and thank God, or else I'd be Lauren Fails."

Matt stifled a laugh, obviously not sure if he ought to laugh at any part of this story. If you took into account the age difference between Lauren and Roderick, the reason for her parents' hasty divorce was pretty obviously the next oops-baby, with his oops-daddy.

"Her next guy's last name was Meeks," Lauren pointed out, saying this quietly so as not to be overheard by Roderick, making fun of his name. "Not much better than Fails. She was much better off sticking with Zizes. And that is the long-winded explanation you neither needed nor asked for. But now you have it. That is why my mom is Karen Zizes. Although, if she ever marries Todd, she'll be Karen Strong, and I've encouraged her to go with that one."

"Wow." Matt was speechless, but then, that wasn't hard to do.

"Makes your story about knocking up the girl you just met from Vocal Adrenaline seem pretty tame." Lauren had decided on her own that they were at a point in their relationship where it was safe to joke about that.

"I... yeah." Maybe Matt hadn't quite reached the same conclusion, as he tried to smile about that but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

They were saved by the hostess, who led them to their booth in the back of the restaurant, but not before picking up a bread basket on her way. Lauren heaved an enormous sigh and tried to remind herself that giving up the bread was worth it, when she didn't have to worry about fitting comfortably in the booth once they were seated.

Thankfully, no one paid too much attention tonight to what she was and wasn't eating. She tried not to pay attention to it herself. What she really wanted was a smothered steak with a side order of one of those loaded sweet potatoes. What she got was double veggies to go with her grilled chicken, and of course, no bread.

"I'm really looking forward to this competition you've got coming up," David was saying, grinning at Roderick. "Thanks for letting me know about it when you found out it was in Chicago. Do you need a place to stay while you're in the city?"

Roderick shook his head. "No thanks," he told him."We'll all be in hotel rooms together, the whole team. It's the only way to make sure we're all together."

Lauren saw an opportunity then, and she took it. Seeing as David had been in her life since she was a toddler and had helped raise her, he was like a second dad to her. "Oh, but I do," she piped up. "Need a place to stay, that is. I'll be going to watch."

"Of course!" David said, jovially. He looked at Matt, adding, "And you're welcome too, of course, plus anyone else you guys bring along. Karen, what about you, need a place to stay after the show?"

This seemed to be where Karen drew the line, at staying with her ex-husband, his new wife, and her kids in his huge, nice house. "Thanks, but no thank you," she said, politely. "Todd and I are staying with a friend of his from college."

"I'll have to bring my four-year-old daughter with me." It was then that Matt spoke up, looking nervous, as he always did anytime he had to break the news to people that he had a child.

"Of course!" David wasn't the least bit phased, even though Lauren hadn't mentioned that her boyfriend was a dad. "She's welcome, too. My step-kids will love meeting her. Rod, I do hope you'll stop by."

"If I have time," Roderick said, a bit coolly, but David just nodded, in full understanding. Even if it hurt him a bit, he had witnessed firsthand how Vance and Farrah hadn't hit it off at all with their step-brother and how difficult it had been for the blended family to coexist under one roof.

Lauren saw her mother give Roderick a little nudge, though, and he seemed to recognize that he was being a little rude to his dad, who'd just made the five-hour drive for his birthday dinner. "We'll try to," he amended.

"You'll love Matt's daughter," Karen interjected, smiling at him. "I know we all do." Her mom had met little Mariah by now and was naturally charmed by the little girl. The first thing she'd done was bring up Lauren's pageant days and gush that she thought Mariah would be a natural onstage.

"Thank you." It was clear that Matt hadn't always expected full acceptance of his single-dad status and that this development was very much appreciated. Lauren scooted closer to him on their side of the booth and tucked her head against his shoulder.

After they'd eaten (and thankfully, nobody left a straggler in the basket of rolls to taunt her all night), it was time for yet another birthday song and dessert. This time, however, it was the complimentary brownie sundae that the restaurant brought out, complete with a song. Roderick promptly gave most of it to Madison, eating only a few bites himself, and Lauren marveled at the fact that his girlfriend's good genetics allowed her to eat this treat without a second thought.

So unfair, she thought.

...

"How're you doing this?" Roderick came and found her on the couch in the living room later. Matt couldn't come over after dinner, due to needing to get home to Mariah by bedtime, so she ended up spending the last part of the weekend on her own. Not that she minded all that much. Lauren was good at rolling solo.

"How am I doing what?" Lauren asked. He'd come to join her for her nightly marathon of 'New Girl' episodes, but he'd brought popcorn. At this, she wrinkled up her nose. "No thanks."

"This." He politely moved the popcorn, but now he was stuck eating all of it himself. Well, he should have asked first. And now she was stuck smelling it. She mentally pictured dumping it over his head for a brief moment.

"What, eating well?" Lauren asked.

"Avoiding all the food you love when you're surrounded by it at parties and stuff," Roderick elaborated.

"Well, you didn't make that easy on me just now, did you?" Lauren pointed out, making a face at him as he munched a handful of buttery, delicious popcorn without giving it a second thought. "I don't know. I just decided Matt was worth it to me."

"Puck told me what he thought you did last night," Roderick told her, bluntly, at which point she gaped at him, then shook her head, disgusted by the other guy's intrusion in her private life.

"Well, I hope he told you that I didn't do what he thought I did," Lauren said, pausing the episode because he was making her miss all the snappy dialogue. "Because I didn't."

"The fact that you even thought about it worries me," Roderick said, having enough sense to put the popcorn aside on the coffee table, now that he realized it really did bother her.

"I'm a big girl," Lauren said, shrugging. "I'll take care of myself. I think you know me well enough to know I've got more sense than that."

"I thought I did." Roderick was giving her that sad look that just made her even angrier at Puck for involving him and making him worry like that. "If this is what Matt does to you, maybe... maybe he's not worth it?"

"Matt didn't do or say anything to make me do anything," Lauren protested, tucking her feet under her and adjusting the glasses she almost never wore in public anymore. "But yes, I'll admit, just knowing his past, knowing that I don't look anything like the girls he dated before... or his daughter's mother... makes me pretty self-conscious."

"So you hate yourself," Roderick summarized.

"No, I love myself, that's why I'm doing... what I'm doing." Halfway through that sentence, she recalled where she'd heard it before. She diverted the conversation to Roderick instead. "You can't tell me you don't relate. You date a perfect, skinny little Cheerio."

Roderick's look of disappointment that followed that statement made her heart a little sick just then.

"I always thought you were comfortable in your skin at any size," he said, shaking his head. "The way you always joked about it, the way you had a snappy comeback ready for people like Kitty Wilde..." Roderick glanced at the TV. "And why do you watch this show? They always make fun of how Schmidt was fat, in like every episode, complete with those flashbacks of him in the awful fat suit."

"I don't know, it's still funny to me, I guess," Lauren said, with a shrug. She didn't have time to finish defending her show, though, because Matt called just then.

"Hey you," she said, as she answered.

"Hey," he said. "That was really cool of your step-dad... I mean, ex-step-dad, to invite you, me, and Mariah to stay with him. I'm really looking forward to it."

"He's got a huge house," Lauren said. "It'll be fun, yeah, I'm glad it worked out."

"Yeah..." Matt trailed off, and she could tell he hadn't just called her to comment on how nice the invitation was. She waited patiently for him to spit it out. "Listen, uh, Mike Chang asked if we might stay an extra night, go see him in a performance at the Joffrey, then hang out with a bunch of his friend from the dance school afterwards."

"Yeah, sounds great," she said. "And hey, if you're comfortable with it, David's daughter is old enough to babysit and I'm sure she'd be happy to watch Mariah so we can go out."

"That would be great, um..." Matt still seemed to have something more he wasn't able to just say, not without some sort of struggle, so Lauren waited again. "Uh, listen. So... I wanted to prepare you. I'm trying to prepare myself, actually. Andrea's in the show, too. So seeing Mike dance means seeing her, and before we do that, I just wanted to make sure it's okay with you."

Lauren left a long pause there, and she could imagine Matt shifting uncomfortably on the other end of the line.

"Oh, um, yeah..." Lauren said, slowly. Her eyes met Roderick's curious ones, and she knew she was going to have to hang up the phone and fill him in. "Yeah, of course. It'll be fine."