"Stella!" Beck scolds as he grabs the dog's collar "Be careful!"
It took a few months after they first initially decided to get a dog to actually find one. Bianca insisted on a Rottweiler, knowing how badly her husband had always wanted one. They ended up with a puppy, who they decided to name Stella, who turned out to be about as much work as Beck expects a newborn baby would be. She wasn't housebroken, she chewed on everything, and would whine at night if she couldn't find either one of them. In the end, the couple decided it would be best if they sent her to a board-and-train program for a few weeks because between both of their work schedules, they just didn't have the time to commit to training her themselves.
To Beck, the board-and-train felt like a bit of a cop-out. They wouldn't send their baby off somewhere to be cared for until it could sleep through the night and go to the bathroom on its own, so why should they do the same with a dog? While he felt guilty, he saw Bianca's point. It wasn't fair to them and it wasn't fair to the puppy. After three weeks, Stella came back housebroken and knowing how to sit, stay, roll over, and walk on a leash without pulling. At close to a year old, however, she still very much has the energy of a puppy, and gets very excited whenever someone walks through their front door, regardless of who it is.
"It's alright, she's good." Andre laughs as he holds the infant carseat high enough that the puppy can't get to it "We have a dog at home too, we're used to it."
"She needs to learn not to jump on everyone who walks through the door though." Beck remarks as he pulls the dog back "We don't jump on our friends, Stella!"
"Hey, if getting licked to death by a puppy is how I go out...then that's how I go out!" Tori grins, kneeling to the floor to pet the puppy "Hi Stella Bella! Who's a good girl? You are! You are!"
"It's a shame Tori doesn't like dogs." Bianca teases, appearing at her husband's side
"Every time she sees a dog...it's like she's never seen a dog before in her life." Andre grins, watching his wife play with Stella "Pretty sure she would clear out every shelter in the city if I would let her."
"Oh stop it, Andre." Tori smirks "You love them just as much as I do."
"It's hard not to." Andre shrugs "Can I put this down somewhere?"
"Oh shit, sorry." Bianca apologizes "Yeah, come put it in the kitchen."
"Come on, Stella." Beck calls to the dog "Let's go this way."
He leads the dog out to the backyard and throws a ball for her to play with, which she chases after gleefully. Eventually, Tori and Bianca emerge from the house as well, followed shortly by Andre and his and Tori's son.
"Hendrix!" Beck smiles as he takes the three month-old out of Andre's arms "What's up, Little Dude?"
"He missed his Uncle Beck." Andre tells him
"I missed him too."
Hendrix David Harris is a spitting image of his father, and the current light of his parents' lives. He was named for Andre's favorite musician and Tori's father, who had become like a father to Andre at this point as well.
Beck had been a bit jealous when Andre and Tori announced that they were pregnant, especially since their announcement came only a few months after Jade's did. He still wanted a child, but knew that Bianca really wasn't ready. If he couldn't be a father himself, he decided he would settle for being Hendrix's favorite uncle, and so he thinks he's been doing a decent job of it.
"I know you just got him, but I'm stealing him." Bianca laughs, running over to her husband and taking the baby
"Bee, come on!"
"Stella wants to play." Bianca shrugs "You can have him back in a little bit!"
"Hey..." Andre nudges his friend as soon as his wife is out of earshot "The more time she spends with him...the more likely is to want to make one."
"I know." Beck sighs "I'm trying to be understanding because I know it's different for them than it is for us...but it's hard not to become impatient."
"She'll come around."
"I hope so." Beck shrugs, watching Bianca and Tori play with Hendrix and Stella in the grass "I mean...look at how good she is with him."
"Being good with kids and wanting to be a parent are two completely different things, dude." Andre reminds him "I mean, I loved hanging out with my cousin's kids when they were his age...but that didn't mean I was ready for my own. You can't force someone to want kids, they have to come to that decision on their own."
"I know." Beck nods "She'll be ready when she's ready. Until then I'll live vicariously through you."
"Hey, that's the way to do it man." Andre chuckles "You get to spoil 'em and then give 'em back. No late night feeding, no diaper blowouts, no constantly checking the crib to make sure he's still breathing."
"You make parenthood sound so appealing."
"I try my best." Andre teases "Hey, did your agent ever get back to you?"
Since returning to Los Angeles, Beck has been mostly working on movies. No blockbusters, but no flops either. He's done a few guest spots on television as well, and asked his agent if she could find him anything permanent. Huge blockbuster movies are his ultimate goal, but in order to get there he needs to make a bigger name for himself first.
"She got me an arc on one of the network shows." Beck nods "And I have an audition for a movie next week, we'll see how that goes."
"You don't sound very enthusiastic." Andre points out
"I think I need another TV show." Beck admits "But like...not one where I'm a supporting character, you know? I want my own thing. Maybe then I can bump myself up a tier and start making bigger movies."
"That would be pretty sweet." Andre admits "Just give it time, man. You're not even thirty yet, you've got plenty of time."
"Did you ever read the Cloverfield Isle books?" Beck asks
It seems like a total change of subject, but he has a point.
"The sci-fi series about the time travelers?" Andre clarifies, and Beck nods "No. Tori did, but I never got around to it. Why?"
"There's a rumor floating around that they're working on developing them into a series." Beck informs him "That could be my ticket. It's a popular series, which means streaming services will be after it. If it blows up into a super popular thing on a streaming service, then whoever is involved becomes a household name. That could be me, if there's any truth to the rumor."
"If is a very important detail there, yeah..." Andre chuckles "Just...put your best effort into everything that you have lined up, anything that is meant to be will fall into place."
"Yeah." Beck agrees "That's the hope."