Kai was silent the entire drive back to the base. Jay tried to talk to him but eventually gave up. Kai looked through some of the pamphlets while they drove. The one he was currently reading was about adoption. If he chose to put his baby up for adoption, then the clinic would help him meet couples who've been approved by the adoption agency. He would get to meet them and decide who would get to take care of his baby. Giving them away would break his heart, but maybe it would make everyone happy.
Plus, he couldn't afford to raise a baby.
Without a decent job, and unlikely to find another one in the near future due to the pregnancy, he couldn't currently provide a positive, stable, and safe home environment for the baby. They soon arrived at the base, but Kai stopped in the car for a few moments. His mind was still in shock at the news of his pregnancy. He breathed out harshly and shoved the car door open. He stormed into the base and marched down the halls, ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him.
He entered the dining room and threw the pamphlets on the table as Zane got started on dinner.
It was still early, but he knew Cole ate like a horse so if he wanted to make all the food in time for dinner he had to start now. Zane noticed Kai sitting alone at the table and tried to him, but Kai asked to be left alone as politely as he could. The brunette found himself touching his stomach a lot while he listened to Zane prepare the meal. It was weird to him, knowing that someone was growing inside of his body. The nurse said they were moving around, but he couldn't feel them moving.
Not yet, at least but he would soon.
If they were moving, then they had to have a body. Kai wondered what it looked like. If they had fingers or toes yet. He heard Zane put something in the oven to cook and then he went to set the table. Kai noticed the pamphlets were still there. He didn't want to look at them right now. When he went to grab them he saw something sticking out. A closer look told him it was what the nurse gave him, he didn't have a chance to look at it before.
He assumed it was just another pamphlet.
It wasn't. He sat back down, staring at the picture. It was his ultrasound. The little baby inside of him. He could see their little body and their little head. The nurse said they were moving. He didn't want to at the time, but now he wanted to see it. He wanted to see them move and hear their heartbeat. He lost all sense of time staring at the picture. He couldn't help it, he started to picture life with a baby. Waking them up for school, helping them get dressed, eating breakfast as a family, going to the park.
He lost himself to his fantasy.
Before he knew it, the timer went off and dinner was done and the table was set. The pamphlets were still out and he was just sitting here doing nothing. Zane turned the oven off, took the food out, and put it on the stove to cool before calling for the others. Kai grabbed the pamphlets, folded them up, and shoved them in his pocket. He also put the ultrasound picture in his back pocket. Zane was just putting the food on the table when the others burst in.
Nya sat next to her brother and wanted to ask him about the appointment, but thought it would be best if she waited until after dinner to ask.
The ninja all sat down in their chairs and made excited noises while Zane passed out the food. Cole was practically bouncing in his seat as he licked his lips. Jay let out a long stream of praise when Zane put the food on the table and grabbed the chimichanga closest to him and shoved it in his mouth and moaned. Kai shook his head and almost chuckled, grabbing one for himself. With how many people were at the table, Zane had made more food than usual.
But with Cole's metabolism and everyone's love for him, the food was gone in no time.
After there were only crumbs left, Cole leaned back in his chair, hands rubbing his stomach.
"Those were better than sex Snowflake." He grinned without thinking. When he realized what he said, he blushed and everyone froze. The team looked over at their guests. Nya and Skylor were keeping their eyes fixed on their plates, whereas Kai was blushing bright red as he tried to remember how to breathe.
"S-So... how was everyone's day?" Skylor suddenly asked with a nervous chuckle.
"I got back to the apartment and found this on the door." Nya glared and pulled out an eviction notice from her pocket.
"What?! Why?!" Kai exclaimed as he examined the notice. It explained that they missed paying the rent and for disturbing the neighbors with all the police and CIA agents coming in and out of the building. It said that they had a month to find a new place to live before the landlord kicked them out.
"I tried to explain to the landlord the situation, but he refused to reconsider his decision," Cole added with a sympathetic look in his eyes.
"You can stay here until we arrest Morro and he is sentenced to prison," Lloyd replied with a small glare. Whether it was about Kai and Nya losing the home they'd lived in their entire lives or the fact that they had to stay at the base even longer.
"And after that?" Kai asked, but no one had an answer.
"We will deal with that situation when we come to it." Zane finally said, but this did nothing to ease the siblings' worry. They all sat in silence for a few minutes, before Nya finally cleared her throat.
"So Kai, what did they say at the clinic?" She asked and everyone looked at him expectedly. Kai tried to come up with the right words to say before he pulled out the ultrasound picture. It was folded in half, so he still had time to put it away, but it would be better he told her now than later. Kai put the still folded picture and wrapped his arms around his stomach. He was so scared. What if Nya reacted badly? What if she took one look at the picture and left.
Just walked out the door and never come back?
What if the ninja's base wasn't equipped to take care of pregnancy and threw him out. The brunette whimpered. He didn't mean to, it just slipped out. His eyes were watering too and he was shaking. This was it, everyone would know. Kai sniffed as he wiped the tears away before they could have a chance to fall. He could tell Nya not to look. He could, but he knew she wouldn't drop it completely and would bring it up again. She had to know, Kai didn't know how to handle this.
He needed his sister to tell him what to do.
He needed her to tell him that everything would be okay. He took a deep breath to steady himself and nodded towards the picture. It was slightly opened now, Kai could see the black and grey part of the image.
"You want me to look at it?" She asked and he nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to see Nya's reaction. He felt Nya back up and heard her grab the picture and open it. It was silent. Kai didn't know how long they stood there in silence, he still had his eyes shut. He was too scared to open them. He could hear Nya's breathing and felt everyone's eyes on him. His sister was taking very deep and long breaths. She sounded mad, or maybe that was just Kai's brain messing with him.
People couldn't breathe angrily, right?
He slowly opened his eyes. Nya was glaring at Kai's stomach. She was mad. She looked so mad. Her hands were clenched in a fist, the edges of the picture crumbling under her strength. She looked up sharply and glared at Kai. He felt himself shrink back, trying to get away from Nya and her glaring, angry, eyes. He looked down.
"I'm sorry." He whimpered, even though he didn't know what he was apologizing for, but Nya was mad so he should say sorry. because he was. He was so sorry. He didn't have to get that job and he didn't mean to get pregnant. He really didn't. Nya stalked forward and slapped the picture on his chest.
"Get rid of it." She growled.
"Nya-"
"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Nya spat at their former neighbor, who flinched at her tone. Cole, Zane, Lloyd, and Skylor glared at her but didn't want to make the bad situation even worse. Kai looked up, staring at Nya with wide eyes. She was glaring murder at her older brother. She looked so, so mad. He opened his mouth again but he choked on whatever he was about to say. He couldn't get anything out. His throat felt tight like someone was strangling him.
He tried his breathing exercise Skylor taught him, but it wasn't working.
His sister was mad at him. The only family he had left was going to leave him. When he said nothing, Nya shot him one last glare then walked towards the door. Kai started to panic, thinking she was leaving him, just like their parents had.
"Nya!" He choked out, terrified. Tears falling freely. She couldn't leave. Kai needed her. She stopped at the door but didn't turn around. She opened the front door, stopped, and looked down.
"Get rid of it." She repeated before leaving. She didn't even slam the door. She left it open as she walked away. Kai could only sit there, holding the picture, in shock as he watched his sister walk away. Just then he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Cole looking at him with pity. That was what broke him. Kai burst into tears as he clutched the picture as Cole quickly pulled him into a hug. Kai felt more arms wrap around him and saw Jay and Zane had joined in the hug.
Lloyd and Skylor watched this all happen and while Lloyd seemed lost in his own thoughts, Skylor was glaring at the door Nya and left through...
Nya growled loudly as she paced around the large bedroom she was sharing with her brother. All she felt at that moment was this deep, burning anger. Anger at Morro for raping Kai. Anger at Chen for helping that bastard rape Kai. Anger at Kai for taking that job at the strip club. Anger at Skylor for not telling her about her brother's real job. Anger at Jay and the rest of the ninja for not catching Morro. Anger at the unborn child for even existing and being a constant reminder of what her brother went through.
Anger at their parents for leaving and causing all this pain.
Anger at herself for failing to protect her brother from all that happened. All she wanted to do was track Morro down and hurt him more than he hurt Kai. She started taking her anger out on her pillow, punching and clawing at it when a shadow appeared in the doorway. She quickly turned around and scowled when she saw Skylor standing there, watching her lose her temper.
"I have nothing to say to you, get out!" She snarled, but Skylor ignored her as she entered the room, closing the door behind her.
"Kai didn't deserve to be talked to like that." She said in a cold voice.
"He deserves someone to tell it like it is and shock some sense into him!"
"What he needs is his sister comforting him, telling him everything will be alright!"
"Nothing will be alright until that parasitic bastard is out of him!"
"An abortion won't fix this! If he did have one he'd be forever wondering what his baby would have been like! He'd be tortured with guilt! It will destroy him!"
"IT MIGHT AT FIRST BUT IN TIME HE'LL REALIZE THAT THIS IS FOR THE BEST AND WILL BE RELIEVED!"
"THAT'S NOT HOW I FELT WHEN I HAD MINE!" Skylor suddenly roared, catching Nya completely off guard. The red-haired woman took several deep breaths to regain her shaky composure before she sat down on the noirette's bed. Nya hesitated for a moment before she sat next to her and waited for her friend to continue. They both sat in silence for almost twenty minutes before Skylor let out a cold, empty chuckle.
"Skylor?"
"It's funny before I got pregnant, all I wanted was to have kids and do a better job than my parents did." She said, glaring a hole into the floor. "Then, after Chen forced those men on me that first night, I noticed I missed two of my periods." She frowned as she remembered what happened. "I only knew a few things about sex, but I knew what missing a period could mean, so I stole a few pregnancy tests from a drug store and they all came back positive."
"What'd you do?"
"I stole some cash from Chen and went to the drug store and bought some pills." She said and Nya knew she didn't need Skylor to tell her what happened next. "I don't think Chen ever knew, if he did he never said anything, but I don't really care." She shrugged, but Nya saw the tears in her eyes.
"Did you regret it?"
"Yes and no." She admitted. "I knew there was no way I could keep that baby if Chen found out he'd either force to have an abortion anyway, sell to the highest bidder on the black market, or raise it as he had me." She shuddered at the memory of her childhood. "But at the same time, I've always wanted to know what would have happened if I had given birth; I could have gone to the police and told them everything, hell, an underage girl having a baby would have at least caused a visit from Social Services, or given the baby up for adoption; you always hear of babies being left at hospitals and places like that."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Don't be, it's not your fault, you're just looking out for your brother." Skylor sniffed as the tears started to fall. Nya quickly pulled her friend into a tight embrace and comforted her as she let out all the grief and guilt she had carried all these years...