Hi, everyone!

It's taken a bit of time, but here's another chapter. I have to catch up on writing soon. :) I have three story to update. :D I am trying to figure out which episodes to cover in the Peculiar Parenting story (feel free to suggest favourites!). On this story, I have two in-canon ideas for this story, and I'm trying to figure out if I should just do those two chapters or another few. If anyone has an idea of trouble for Beck and Jade, drop it in the comments. :D

Thanks to Boris Yeltsin and Lucifer143 for their reviews - very appreciated!

Enjoy!

...

The first time anyone else heard about her getting a time out, they were at school with their friends.

They had always been careful when around others. Beck had truly meant that he would never use it as a way to humiliate her, and he had stood by his word even in a few irritating situations when Jade had fully tested him. Still, even as she provoked and teased and taunted, he had not let a word slip about how the moment he got her to a safe, quiet location (most often his RV after school) she would be in time out. He had wanted to once or twice, but had satisfied his aggravation with glaring warningly at Jade who would eventually have to acquiesce as she loved spending time with him too much to want to risk him leaving her alone for the rest of the day.

About half a year had gone by, and both of them had become fairly comfortable with the use of time outs. Beck no longer internally flinched thinking that this might push her into wanting to break up, and Jade's secret fears of him abandoning her due to her temper were allayed a little by the fact that he chose to correct her rather than leave. Although Jade still pouted and/or glared at him whenever he insisted that she needed to take a few minutes to forcibly calm down, it somehow worked.

It was a day when Jade was more intent than normal on making fun on Robbie. He had gotten a bad haircut (apparently Rex was involved somehow) and had tried to remedy the damage by taking focus off of the cut by dying his hair. Or more, bleaching it. With peroxide. It did not go well. Even the kinder hearted members of the group had struggled to hold back their laughter, which meant that Jade was in her glory. She laughed excessively. She questioned if Robbie had taste, then if he even had vision. She prodded him to admit that now Rex had better hair than he did. The others started to see Robbie was reaching the limit of what he could handle and began tapering off, but Jade decided to jeer about what an idiot Robbie was to ever listen to Rex.

"Jade," Beck said quietly next to her. "That's..."

"No, no, no! This is hilarious!" Jade continued, not wanting him to interrupt her fun.

"Enough, Jade," Beck said firmly. He could tell that this was going to be difficult to end - there was pretty much a guarantee on her not going to control herself with that expression on her face. The rest of the group seemed to fade away as he focused solely on Jade.

"Hey, Robbie, next time just shave it off. That'd look better than your current look - which is pretty much like you set out to win the world's ugliest hair competition."

"Annnnd time out," Beck said with a sigh. Jade turned and glared at him, upset about her fun being interrupted.

"But it's hilarious!" she protested.

"No, it's not, and that's why you're in time out now," Beck said firmly. He did not notice the confused looks of everyone else in the group. All he saw was Jade's frustrated eye roll.

"Ugh!" she growled at him. She did not notice the others either.

"Come on," Beck said, taking her arm and starting to pull her toward Sikowitz's classroom. Their teacher was used to them fighting and never thought anything of Beck pulling Jade in their for very occasional time outs between classes. It had happened before and was going to happen again.

"No! I'll go by myself!" Jade snapped, pulling away from him and stalking down the hall, slamming the room door behind her. Beck could hear the clatter of a couple chairs that she must have kicked. He sighed. This was going to take a while.

Beck was about to start after her when he heard Andre's slightly strangled voice, "You told Jade to have a time out?!"

Beck turned to them and stared, stunned. Only now did he realize who they had been around. Robbie looked grateful that the verbal abuse was finished, but Andre, Tori, and Cat were looking at Beck with surprise. Shock and anger at himself mingled as Beck as he realized what he had just done to Jade. He turned to his friends and pointed at them all seriously.

"Not. A word. To Jade. About this EVER," he asked with a forceful, protective anger that none of them had known he possessed. "If you tease her about this, or tell anyone else, then you won't have to worry about her reaction because it'll be minor compared to mine. I am warning you - this is between us, and that's where it stays. It's not a source of amusement for you. Got it?"

"Yes!" Robbie and Tori squeaked simultaneously, while Andre just nodded mutely and wide-eyed. Cat was distracted with her sequined butterfly keychain, and Beck knew that she would not be an issue, so he nodded curtly and left the group abruptly, heading after Jade. When he finally got to Sikowitz's room, Jade was the only occupant, something Beck was grateful for. She was seated with arms folded, glaring at the door.

"Jade, I ..." Beck started.

"You finally came," she murmured softly.

"What?" Beck asked in surprise, moving across from her to take a seat.

"You're always supposed to be here and you took so long," she grumbled, looking at her boots as she scuffed them roughly on the floor. She was trying to sound mad but coming off as much more insecure. It was then that Beck realized her folded arms were her hugging herself for comfort, not because she was angry. He sighed in relief.

"Good," he said under his breath.

"What?" It was Jade's turn to demand.

Beck put his hands on her knees and gave a gentle squeeze. "I didn't mean to take so long, Jade. But ... do you realize what I just did?"

"Put me in time out," Jade huffed, rolling her eyes. "You don't need to rub it in. I get it."

Beck swallowed hard. "But ... I ... said it in front of our friends."

Jade seemed as surprised about that fact as he had been when he first realized. Clearly, both of them tuned out the rest of the world at times. Then her face darkened a little. "Did they laugh at me?" she demanded fiercely.

"NO. And I threatened them that if they ever mentioned it to anyone else or teased you about it, then your reaction would be nothing compared to mine."

Jade's eyebrows went up in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah."

She snorted with derisive laughter, clearly not feeling that his threats would keep their friends from using this against her. "What would you do?"

He leaned in and locked eye contact with her. "I would do whatever it took to take care of you and your heart."

Jade's face froze, then began to twitch a little. Beck was surprised to see that she looked ready to cry. "I ... believe you," she said softly, then bit her lip viciously to try to regain her composure. Beck knew that adding anything on top of that would probably push her to tears and would upset and embarrass her, so he did not even say "I love you" until she had replaced her frown and was acting semi-sulky again. But when he said it, she looked at him with such instant softness that he held out his arms to her.

"Come here," he coaxed. She sat on his lap and cuddled against him, hiding her face against the crook of his neck.

"You promise they won't laugh at me?" she whispered through a whimper.

"I do - or at least not without reprisal."

She sighed. "Okay. Then I promise I'll ... I won't apologize to Robbie, but I'll be nice to him for the rest of the day. Or at least not be mean," she muttered quickly, her breath tickling his neck.

Beck smiled, rocking her a little in his arms. He moved his head away from hers and she squeaked unhappily at losing her head rest. Beck waited until they were making eye contact, then said, "Jade, I'm really sorry that I told you to take a time out in front of the others. I didn't mean to humiliate you, and I'm really sorry I did. Please forgive me?"

Jade shrugged a little, then smiled the teensiest bit. "You didn't humiliate me, Beck. You would have if you hadn't stood up for me after, but you did. I'm not happy about it, but it doesn't bother me as much as I would have thought. You know that I'm not the most private person with my temper and stuff, and I guess I should probably be more embarrassed about teasing Robbie. I just wish Vega hadn't heard," she ended with a groan, rubbing her forehead in frustration that her frenemy now knew.

"Tori would be the easiest of them all to get revenge on if she ever did anything with that information," Beck said confidently. Jade's eyebrows went up in surprise.

"Really?" her voice lilted in scheming hope.

"Yeah. All I'd have to do is pretend that I knew a bad secret about her, and then not speak to her for a week. She's desperate to keep friendships and she's very curious. It'd be torture without having to actually do anything. She'd be so consumed with that idea that she wouldn't even think of you again."

Jade's mouth actually fell open a little in delighted surprise, then she dove in for a passionate kiss. When she finally backed off, she practically gasped, "I didn't know that you could equal me in revenge."

Beck just raised an eyebrow at her. "I've been dating you for this long and you think I haven't picked up on anything?"

Jade beamed. "You're forgiven," she laughed.

"Thank you," Beck said humbly.

Jade shrugged. "It worked though. I won't make the rest of Robbie's day miserable, which I guess was probably semi-wrong to do for the first half."

Beck nodded hesitantly. "Maybe it worked, but I wish I had noticed that they were there. As crazy as it sounds, it seemed like it was just you and me."

"When we get passionate about anything, that's how it always is for both of us," Jade pointed out. "And sometimes it's like that when I get angry or start teasing people too. It's the only thing I can focus on - well, that and trying to ..."

"Trying to what?"

"Maybe ... impress people," she admitted sheepishly. She shrugged defensively. "I like people to laugh, because then maybe they like me. And I especially want you to laugh with me. And when you don't and get all serious, I don't like it and it makes me upset. Even if it is just because I probably shouldn't be making jokes about certain situations or people in the first place."

Beck nodded understandingly. "Thanks for explaining it to me. That makes a lot of sense. And I promise, Jade, I like you just as much when you are being kind as when you are being truly funny, if not more."

"But kind is booooring," she complained, amping up the drama for the fun of it.

"I think you're kind when you forgive me for my mistakes and kiss me anyway," Beck replied with a grin. "I don't think that's boring!"

"Yeah, 'cause you're clearly the one who makes the most mistakes in this relationship," Jade said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"I think we make about the same amount. Mine just tend to be quieter," Beck admitted honestly.

Jade thought it over, then smiled at him, her quiet and thoughtful smile. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Loving me anyway."

Beck leaned in to kiss her. "Thanks for loving me anyway too."

And if Sikowitz had not come in a minute later to prepare for teaching their next class, there was a good chance that both of them would have passed out from oxygen deprivation.

But no one made fun of Jade, and Robbie's battered curls were left in peace until they were fixed by a skilled hair dresser over the weekend.

...

I have an idea or two for the coming chapters, but I'll wait to see if anyone suggests anything inspirational in the comments. :D