Title: So Much For the Afterglow
Author: Courtney
Email: courtneystovall@yahoo.com
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Mine . . . all mine!!! evil grin Oh, but I stole the title from a kickass song by Everclear.
Category: Jake/Hamilton
Summary: It's just before fall semester begins and Jake discovers she has bigger problems than hiding her gender.
Distribution: Required Reading, of course; and anywhere else, as long as you email me to let me know and keep these headers with the story.
Author's Notes: This was originally the start of an X-Files fic but I changed it around a bit to conform it to Jake and Hamilton because, frankly, I suck at writing Mulder and Scully. Oh well . . . sigh.
Thanks: To Jean, for beta reading this. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to everyone else who keeps writing YA fic; you're going to end up saving my sanity if we never see the show again so thanks!
----------------------------------
Part 7
"Munchie? Are you up here?" Kate Fleming called as she mounted the stairs looking for her son. She'd heard Hamilton come in earlier but she'd been in the office grading papers and he hadn't knocked so she had figured he was in his room. But now he'd been home for four hours, it was past dinner time, and she still had yet to even see him that entire day. She just had an instinct that something was wrong.
"Munchie?" she called again as she knocked on Hamilton's locked bedroom door.
"Great," he mumbled to himself from his position on the bed. He had been lying there staring at the ceiling for at least two hours as he went over and over in his head the inevitable conversation he was going to have with his mother. 'Mom, I'm dating a girl who you think is a guy but she's not really and we've been having sex and now she's pregnant. Can you pass the butter, please?' Not exactly polite dinner conversation, he decided.
"Sweetheart, can I please come in?" Kate asked from the other side of the door. Hamilton sighed, knowing his mother and knowing that she wouldn't give up. There was only one thing he could really do, so he got up and let her in. "You missed dinner," she said as she walked in holding a plate of leftovers.
"I'm not really hungry," he said as he sank back onto his bed.
She nodded and sat the plate on his dresser. "It's turkey; it'll be okay even if it's a little cold. I'll leave in case you're hungry later." He nodded absently, not really paying attention as he struggled with whether or not to make his confession yet. "Something's bothering you," she said in a tone of voice that could only be attributed to a mother. It wasn't an accusation and there was no demand in her voice for him to tell her; there was just a gentle prodding, a reminder that if he ever needed to talk she would be there.
"It's . . . complicated," he told her.
She sat beside her son on the bed and laid a caring hand on his slumped shoulder. "I'd like to help . . . if you'll let me."
"I'm just not sure that you can," he admitted woefully. He'd have liked nothing more than to be able to reveal the truth to his mom and have her come up with a neat and easy solution as she seemed to be capable of with all of his problems. But this time he couldn't even make himself believe that that could happen. Whatever mindset had allowed that to be true at one time in his life, he would never be that innocent of anything again.
"I'd like to try," Kate replied. "I hate to see you like this, Munchie," she offered as she put her arm around him in a gentle hug. For the first time in years, his childhood nickname sounded soothing rather than annoying.
"I don't know where to start," he said.
"Start at the beginning," she suggested.
Hamilton's mind was whirling in a thousand directions. Should he tell her? Should he lie? Should he just refuse to talk about it? One way or another she was going to find out the truth. Maybe sooner would be better than later.
"I have a girlfriend," he said flatly.
Kate was taken a bit by surprise. This was not at all what she had been expecting her son to say. She wasn't sure what she *had* been expecting, but it wasn't this. "Really?" she replied. "For how long?"
"Since a few weeks after summer semester started," he told her.
"Do I know her?"
He hesitated on this answer, then replied, "Yes and no." She just gave him a questioning look and he continued. "You've met her . . . but she's not who you think she is."
"Then who . . . is she?" Kate asked.
"Her name is Jacqueline. She's from New York. She's beautiful and smart and funny and a great friend and the best kisser and . . . and I love her. And she loves me." He stopped talking, looking at his hands as if they'd tell him what to say next.
"That's . . . that's great, Munchie. I'm glad that you've found someone who makes you happy. But . . . what do you mean about me knowing her?"
He sighed. "Remember my friend Jake? From New York?" Kate nodded. "Jake is smart . . . and funny . . . and a great friend . . . and . . ."
"A great kisser," Kate finished as she finally caught on. "Jake and Jacqueline are . . ."
"The same person," he finished with a nod.
"Hamilton, you know that your father is going to have to know about this," she said.
"Well, it's a little late for me to be worried with that," he told his mother wearily.
"Excuse me?"
"I . . . we, Jake and I, have bigger problems. I don't know how much longer she'll be at Rawley either way," he admitted.
"What exactly is going on?" Kate asked.
Hamilton took another deep breath and looked back down at his hands before replying, "Mom, she's pregnant."
Kate was speechless for a moment, just looking down at her son, her little boy . . . it didn't seem possible. "Are . . . are you sure? Has she seen a doctor?"
"Today," Hamilton nodded. "We skipped class and drove to Ludwig."
"Oh my . . ." Kate breathed. She was shocked, to say the least. She'd always known that the day would come when she'd have to face the fact that her son was growing up. She could already see it happening before her eyes; but she refused to believe it. Or, she had refused . . . until now. It looked as though she would finally have to stop denying what she'd known for a while and start to face up to what was really happening. Hamilton wasn't a little boy anymore; and he now had very adult issues to deal with.
"Mom, say something," he pleaded. She'd been sitting beside him on the bed just staring off into space for the few minutes that elapsed since he'd dropped his bombshell and the silence was starting to make him crazy.
She shook herself out of her dazed state and turned back to Hamilton. She turned his shoulders so that he was facing her and raised his chin with her fingers until his eyes met hers. She could already see the tears forming in those familiar baby blues. "Oh honey . . ." she said softly.
Her voice seemed to propel his breakdown. The tears fell down his cheeks as he began to speak. "I'm sorry, Mom, I'm so sorry. We never meant for this . . . I mean, I just never thought that . . . We were really careful, I swear. And I know that we never should have let this happen, but I love Jake and we're not just horny teenagers and it's not just about sex. It's more than that. And I just--"
"Hamilton, sweetheart, it's okay," she broke in. Kate leaned forward to wrap her arms around her now sobbing son as she continued. "Shh, I know all of that; I know what kind of person you are and I know that you wouldn't take this lightly. And I know it was a mistake you didn't mean to let happen. But it has happened and that's what's important right now; that's what we have to deal with. We'll deal with it . . . and we'll figure something out, I promise." His crying had stopped as she spoke and now Hamilton was just returning her hug, trying to feel safe for the first time since he'd found out about Jake's condition.
"I really am sorry," he said in a whisper against his mother's shoulder.
"I know, baby, it's okay," she assured him as she tried to calm him down. Although she knew that this was a big deal and that her son had screwed up, she also knew that he had already beat himself up over it more than could ever be necessary. Hamilton had always been the kind of kid to internalize all of his mistakes and replay them in his head until they nearly drove him crazy. She supposed that was partly due to his father. The dean never had been one to accept any sort of failure lightly. Therefore, Kate had always been the more lenient parent to try and balance out the equation. And, right now, she knew that what Hamilton needed more than anything was reassurance. He'd get enough scolding from his father and from himself.
"I've ruined her life," Hamilton said sadly. "I've ruined her life and my life and . . . God, Mom, I don't know what to do. What can I do?"
Kate pulled back then, making Hamilton look her in the eyes once more. "Sweetheart, listen to me," she instructed. "You made a mistake. You *both* made a mistake. And I'm not going to lie to you; things will never be the same after this. However, your life, and Jake's life, are not ruined. You'll get past this. One way or another, after a lot of tough times and hard choices, the two of you are going to come through this and get on with your lives. If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that."
He looked at his mother for a moment, then finally nodded. He wanted her words to be true. It was hard to think at that point that they ever could be, but he definitely wanted that more than anything.
"I love you, Munchie, you know that," she said as she pushed back a wisp of hair from his face. He just nodded and tried to smile. Kate returned the attempt at a smile, then pulled him into another hug. Whatever happened, she'd make this okay.
* * * * *
Rrrriinnnggg. Rrrriinnnggg.
Bella looked towards the back door, then at the kitchen clock. It was nearly ten o'clock. The garage was about to close but she was still in charge until it did. She'd have to go and see who was ringing the bell. With a sigh, she got up from the table and walked out into the already dark garage.
"Who's there?" she called as she fumbled for the switch. Just as the lights came on, a familiar face appeared in front of the glass doors. Will.
"Krudski, what are you doing here so late?" she asked with a quirk of her eyebrow as she opened the door to allow him inside.
Will shrugged and said, "I was just finishing up at the diner and I saw you over here earlier so I knew you'd be home. Shawn had mentioned that you weren't in school today when I saw him this afternoon so . . ."
"You wanted to check up on me," she finished with a smirk.
Will smiled in reply and said, "Actually, I just wanted to check on you; make sure everything was okay . . . is okay . . . so, is it? Okay?"
It was Bella's turn to shrug. "It could be better," she admitted.
"What's wrong?" he wanted to know.
"I can't really talk about it," she told him.
"Does this have something to do with where Jake and Hamilton have been all week?" he asked.
"I can't talk about that either," she said.
"Hmm, well I guess I have my answer on that one," Will said.
"I'd tell you, Will, you know that I would but . . . it's just not my place. It's not my secret to tell," Bella said.
"It's okay, I understand," Will replied. "Just . . . is everything okay with you?"
"Personally, yes, everything is fine. You have no reason to worry about me."
"But you can't say the same for my other friends, right?" Will inferred. "Well, I hope whatever it is that it all works out soon."
"One way or another I'm sure that it will," Bella replied.
Will just nodded. "Okay, well I guess I should go. You look tired anyway. You should lock up and try to get some sleep," he said.
"Yeah, I was just about to do that," Bella told him.
"Okay, well goodnight," he said, then turned to leave.
Bella followed him to the door to lock it. "Night," she said. She watched him through the glass for a second as he headed towards the road to go back to school. He was at the edge of the station parking lot when she opened the door back up. "Will, wait," she called. He turned back towards her. "Check in on her for me? Just make sure that she's okay, please."
He knew without her having to tell him that she meant Jake. He nodded. She watched as he turned again and headed away. This time she turned as well and headed back inside.
* * * * *
It was only a few minutes until lights out by the time that Will arrived back at the dorms. Scout had stopped him in the lounge to ask if he'd talked to Bella or if he'd seen Hamilton. Will told him that he hadn't seen Ham all day but that what he'd gotten out of Bella did not make the situation look good. He then asked if Scout had seen Jake and Scout said that he had but only for a minute when she'd returned back to school. She'd gone quickly into her room and he hadn't seen her since. But what he had seen had looked pretty bad.
"Something is really wrong," Scout said quietly so that no one else would hear him.
Will nodded in agreement. "I need to go and check on her. I promised Bella that I would."
"Okay, I'll cover if you don't make it back to the room by lights out," Scout said.
"Thanks," he replied, then turned to head down the hall to Jake's room. When he arrived the door was locked, of course. He knocked. "Jake? You in there? It's Will." Nothing. "Hey Jake, please open up. I need to talk to you," he said as quietly as possible through the door. He was rather surprised a moment later when the door opened.
Jake appeared from behind the door in sweatpants and a T-shirt. He could tell that she wasn't wearing her chest wrap and he could also tell that she'd been crying. Both things concerned him because she didn't seem to even care if anyone saw her and she was obviously upset.
"Can I please come in?" Will asked.
She stepped aside and allowed him to enter. Will closed the door behind him and watched as Jake went back to sit down on her bed. She immediately pulled her knees up to her chin and looked like she was about to burst into a wave of fresh tears.
"I'd ask if you were okay, but I don't think that's necessary," he told her.
She replied, "No I don't think it is."
He sat down in the desk chair next to the bed and asked, "Is there anything I can do? Anything you want to talk about? I'm not sure how much I can help since I don't know what's wrong, but I'd be willing to try," he offered.
"That's nice of you, Will, but I'm sure there's nothing that you can do," she replied sadly.
"I can be a friend," he said softly. "You certainly look like you could use one."
Jake was silent for a minute. Then, finally, she sighed and said, "It's just that . . . I found out today for sure that . . . well, that my life as I know it is officially over."
"You got kicked out?" Will guessed.
"Not yet, but I'm sure I will soon enough. Whether I do or not won't matter soon anyway," she replied.
"Jake, you're scaring me talking like this," he said. "What happened?"
She sighed again and shook her head in resignation. "You'll find out soon enough anyway I guess but you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone. Swear."
"I swear," he said sincerely.
"Bella drove me to the doctor today," she said. "I'm . . . I'm pregnant."
Will's eyes widened as his jaw dropped. "You're . . . oh, man. That's . . . man, I'm sorry. Does Ham know?"
She nodded. "He went with us."
"So where is he now?"
Jake sighed again and replied, "Probably telling his mother about the whole situation."
"Wow. That's, uh, serious stuff," Will said.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"So what are you going to do? Have you decided?"
"I think so," Jake said. "I mean, either way it changes everything in the whole world . . . I just, I never thought I'd have to deal with this at this point in my life."
Will nodded and said, "I wish there was more I could do to help but . . ."
"No, it's just something I have to deal with. I got myself into this mess so it's my responsibility." Jake looked so miserable as she sat before him and it broke Will's heart. He could tell how difficult this was for her and he hated that nothing he said could ever really make it better.
"Well," he said at last, "if you ever need a friend you know where to find me, okay?" Jake smiled slightly at him and Will got up from his seat and sat beside her on the bed, putting his arms around her to pull her into a hug. Jake hugged him back, grateful to have one more person on her side even if it did still feel like her world was falling apart.
* * * * *
Author: Courtney
Email: courtneystovall@yahoo.com
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Mine . . . all mine!!! evil grin Oh, but I stole the title from a kickass song by Everclear.
Category: Jake/Hamilton
Summary: It's just before fall semester begins and Jake discovers she has bigger problems than hiding her gender.
Distribution: Required Reading, of course; and anywhere else, as long as you email me to let me know and keep these headers with the story.
Author's Notes: This was originally the start of an X-Files fic but I changed it around a bit to conform it to Jake and Hamilton because, frankly, I suck at writing Mulder and Scully. Oh well . . . sigh.
Thanks: To Jean, for beta reading this. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to everyone else who keeps writing YA fic; you're going to end up saving my sanity if we never see the show again so thanks!
----------------------------------
Part 7
"Munchie? Are you up here?" Kate Fleming called as she mounted the stairs looking for her son. She'd heard Hamilton come in earlier but she'd been in the office grading papers and he hadn't knocked so she had figured he was in his room. But now he'd been home for four hours, it was past dinner time, and she still had yet to even see him that entire day. She just had an instinct that something was wrong.
"Munchie?" she called again as she knocked on Hamilton's locked bedroom door.
"Great," he mumbled to himself from his position on the bed. He had been lying there staring at the ceiling for at least two hours as he went over and over in his head the inevitable conversation he was going to have with his mother. 'Mom, I'm dating a girl who you think is a guy but she's not really and we've been having sex and now she's pregnant. Can you pass the butter, please?' Not exactly polite dinner conversation, he decided.
"Sweetheart, can I please come in?" Kate asked from the other side of the door. Hamilton sighed, knowing his mother and knowing that she wouldn't give up. There was only one thing he could really do, so he got up and let her in. "You missed dinner," she said as she walked in holding a plate of leftovers.
"I'm not really hungry," he said as he sank back onto his bed.
She nodded and sat the plate on his dresser. "It's turkey; it'll be okay even if it's a little cold. I'll leave in case you're hungry later." He nodded absently, not really paying attention as he struggled with whether or not to make his confession yet. "Something's bothering you," she said in a tone of voice that could only be attributed to a mother. It wasn't an accusation and there was no demand in her voice for him to tell her; there was just a gentle prodding, a reminder that if he ever needed to talk she would be there.
"It's . . . complicated," he told her.
She sat beside her son on the bed and laid a caring hand on his slumped shoulder. "I'd like to help . . . if you'll let me."
"I'm just not sure that you can," he admitted woefully. He'd have liked nothing more than to be able to reveal the truth to his mom and have her come up with a neat and easy solution as she seemed to be capable of with all of his problems. But this time he couldn't even make himself believe that that could happen. Whatever mindset had allowed that to be true at one time in his life, he would never be that innocent of anything again.
"I'd like to try," Kate replied. "I hate to see you like this, Munchie," she offered as she put her arm around him in a gentle hug. For the first time in years, his childhood nickname sounded soothing rather than annoying.
"I don't know where to start," he said.
"Start at the beginning," she suggested.
Hamilton's mind was whirling in a thousand directions. Should he tell her? Should he lie? Should he just refuse to talk about it? One way or another she was going to find out the truth. Maybe sooner would be better than later.
"I have a girlfriend," he said flatly.
Kate was taken a bit by surprise. This was not at all what she had been expecting her son to say. She wasn't sure what she *had* been expecting, but it wasn't this. "Really?" she replied. "For how long?"
"Since a few weeks after summer semester started," he told her.
"Do I know her?"
He hesitated on this answer, then replied, "Yes and no." She just gave him a questioning look and he continued. "You've met her . . . but she's not who you think she is."
"Then who . . . is she?" Kate asked.
"Her name is Jacqueline. She's from New York. She's beautiful and smart and funny and a great friend and the best kisser and . . . and I love her. And she loves me." He stopped talking, looking at his hands as if they'd tell him what to say next.
"That's . . . that's great, Munchie. I'm glad that you've found someone who makes you happy. But . . . what do you mean about me knowing her?"
He sighed. "Remember my friend Jake? From New York?" Kate nodded. "Jake is smart . . . and funny . . . and a great friend . . . and . . ."
"A great kisser," Kate finished as she finally caught on. "Jake and Jacqueline are . . ."
"The same person," he finished with a nod.
"Hamilton, you know that your father is going to have to know about this," she said.
"Well, it's a little late for me to be worried with that," he told his mother wearily.
"Excuse me?"
"I . . . we, Jake and I, have bigger problems. I don't know how much longer she'll be at Rawley either way," he admitted.
"What exactly is going on?" Kate asked.
Hamilton took another deep breath and looked back down at his hands before replying, "Mom, she's pregnant."
Kate was speechless for a moment, just looking down at her son, her little boy . . . it didn't seem possible. "Are . . . are you sure? Has she seen a doctor?"
"Today," Hamilton nodded. "We skipped class and drove to Ludwig."
"Oh my . . ." Kate breathed. She was shocked, to say the least. She'd always known that the day would come when she'd have to face the fact that her son was growing up. She could already see it happening before her eyes; but she refused to believe it. Or, she had refused . . . until now. It looked as though she would finally have to stop denying what she'd known for a while and start to face up to what was really happening. Hamilton wasn't a little boy anymore; and he now had very adult issues to deal with.
"Mom, say something," he pleaded. She'd been sitting beside him on the bed just staring off into space for the few minutes that elapsed since he'd dropped his bombshell and the silence was starting to make him crazy.
She shook herself out of her dazed state and turned back to Hamilton. She turned his shoulders so that he was facing her and raised his chin with her fingers until his eyes met hers. She could already see the tears forming in those familiar baby blues. "Oh honey . . ." she said softly.
Her voice seemed to propel his breakdown. The tears fell down his cheeks as he began to speak. "I'm sorry, Mom, I'm so sorry. We never meant for this . . . I mean, I just never thought that . . . We were really careful, I swear. And I know that we never should have let this happen, but I love Jake and we're not just horny teenagers and it's not just about sex. It's more than that. And I just--"
"Hamilton, sweetheart, it's okay," she broke in. Kate leaned forward to wrap her arms around her now sobbing son as she continued. "Shh, I know all of that; I know what kind of person you are and I know that you wouldn't take this lightly. And I know it was a mistake you didn't mean to let happen. But it has happened and that's what's important right now; that's what we have to deal with. We'll deal with it . . . and we'll figure something out, I promise." His crying had stopped as she spoke and now Hamilton was just returning her hug, trying to feel safe for the first time since he'd found out about Jake's condition.
"I really am sorry," he said in a whisper against his mother's shoulder.
"I know, baby, it's okay," she assured him as she tried to calm him down. Although she knew that this was a big deal and that her son had screwed up, she also knew that he had already beat himself up over it more than could ever be necessary. Hamilton had always been the kind of kid to internalize all of his mistakes and replay them in his head until they nearly drove him crazy. She supposed that was partly due to his father. The dean never had been one to accept any sort of failure lightly. Therefore, Kate had always been the more lenient parent to try and balance out the equation. And, right now, she knew that what Hamilton needed more than anything was reassurance. He'd get enough scolding from his father and from himself.
"I've ruined her life," Hamilton said sadly. "I've ruined her life and my life and . . . God, Mom, I don't know what to do. What can I do?"
Kate pulled back then, making Hamilton look her in the eyes once more. "Sweetheart, listen to me," she instructed. "You made a mistake. You *both* made a mistake. And I'm not going to lie to you; things will never be the same after this. However, your life, and Jake's life, are not ruined. You'll get past this. One way or another, after a lot of tough times and hard choices, the two of you are going to come through this and get on with your lives. If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that."
He looked at his mother for a moment, then finally nodded. He wanted her words to be true. It was hard to think at that point that they ever could be, but he definitely wanted that more than anything.
"I love you, Munchie, you know that," she said as she pushed back a wisp of hair from his face. He just nodded and tried to smile. Kate returned the attempt at a smile, then pulled him into another hug. Whatever happened, she'd make this okay.
* * * * *
Rrrriinnnggg. Rrrriinnnggg.
Bella looked towards the back door, then at the kitchen clock. It was nearly ten o'clock. The garage was about to close but she was still in charge until it did. She'd have to go and see who was ringing the bell. With a sigh, she got up from the table and walked out into the already dark garage.
"Who's there?" she called as she fumbled for the switch. Just as the lights came on, a familiar face appeared in front of the glass doors. Will.
"Krudski, what are you doing here so late?" she asked with a quirk of her eyebrow as she opened the door to allow him inside.
Will shrugged and said, "I was just finishing up at the diner and I saw you over here earlier so I knew you'd be home. Shawn had mentioned that you weren't in school today when I saw him this afternoon so . . ."
"You wanted to check up on me," she finished with a smirk.
Will smiled in reply and said, "Actually, I just wanted to check on you; make sure everything was okay . . . is okay . . . so, is it? Okay?"
It was Bella's turn to shrug. "It could be better," she admitted.
"What's wrong?" he wanted to know.
"I can't really talk about it," she told him.
"Does this have something to do with where Jake and Hamilton have been all week?" he asked.
"I can't talk about that either," she said.
"Hmm, well I guess I have my answer on that one," Will said.
"I'd tell you, Will, you know that I would but . . . it's just not my place. It's not my secret to tell," Bella said.
"It's okay, I understand," Will replied. "Just . . . is everything okay with you?"
"Personally, yes, everything is fine. You have no reason to worry about me."
"But you can't say the same for my other friends, right?" Will inferred. "Well, I hope whatever it is that it all works out soon."
"One way or another I'm sure that it will," Bella replied.
Will just nodded. "Okay, well I guess I should go. You look tired anyway. You should lock up and try to get some sleep," he said.
"Yeah, I was just about to do that," Bella told him.
"Okay, well goodnight," he said, then turned to leave.
Bella followed him to the door to lock it. "Night," she said. She watched him through the glass for a second as he headed towards the road to go back to school. He was at the edge of the station parking lot when she opened the door back up. "Will, wait," she called. He turned back towards her. "Check in on her for me? Just make sure that she's okay, please."
He knew without her having to tell him that she meant Jake. He nodded. She watched as he turned again and headed away. This time she turned as well and headed back inside.
* * * * *
It was only a few minutes until lights out by the time that Will arrived back at the dorms. Scout had stopped him in the lounge to ask if he'd talked to Bella or if he'd seen Hamilton. Will told him that he hadn't seen Ham all day but that what he'd gotten out of Bella did not make the situation look good. He then asked if Scout had seen Jake and Scout said that he had but only for a minute when she'd returned back to school. She'd gone quickly into her room and he hadn't seen her since. But what he had seen had looked pretty bad.
"Something is really wrong," Scout said quietly so that no one else would hear him.
Will nodded in agreement. "I need to go and check on her. I promised Bella that I would."
"Okay, I'll cover if you don't make it back to the room by lights out," Scout said.
"Thanks," he replied, then turned to head down the hall to Jake's room. When he arrived the door was locked, of course. He knocked. "Jake? You in there? It's Will." Nothing. "Hey Jake, please open up. I need to talk to you," he said as quietly as possible through the door. He was rather surprised a moment later when the door opened.
Jake appeared from behind the door in sweatpants and a T-shirt. He could tell that she wasn't wearing her chest wrap and he could also tell that she'd been crying. Both things concerned him because she didn't seem to even care if anyone saw her and she was obviously upset.
"Can I please come in?" Will asked.
She stepped aside and allowed him to enter. Will closed the door behind him and watched as Jake went back to sit down on her bed. She immediately pulled her knees up to her chin and looked like she was about to burst into a wave of fresh tears.
"I'd ask if you were okay, but I don't think that's necessary," he told her.
She replied, "No I don't think it is."
He sat down in the desk chair next to the bed and asked, "Is there anything I can do? Anything you want to talk about? I'm not sure how much I can help since I don't know what's wrong, but I'd be willing to try," he offered.
"That's nice of you, Will, but I'm sure there's nothing that you can do," she replied sadly.
"I can be a friend," he said softly. "You certainly look like you could use one."
Jake was silent for a minute. Then, finally, she sighed and said, "It's just that . . . I found out today for sure that . . . well, that my life as I know it is officially over."
"You got kicked out?" Will guessed.
"Not yet, but I'm sure I will soon enough. Whether I do or not won't matter soon anyway," she replied.
"Jake, you're scaring me talking like this," he said. "What happened?"
She sighed again and shook her head in resignation. "You'll find out soon enough anyway I guess but you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone. Swear."
"I swear," he said sincerely.
"Bella drove me to the doctor today," she said. "I'm . . . I'm pregnant."
Will's eyes widened as his jaw dropped. "You're . . . oh, man. That's . . . man, I'm sorry. Does Ham know?"
She nodded. "He went with us."
"So where is he now?"
Jake sighed again and replied, "Probably telling his mother about the whole situation."
"Wow. That's, uh, serious stuff," Will said.
"Yeah, tell me about it."
"So what are you going to do? Have you decided?"
"I think so," Jake said. "I mean, either way it changes everything in the whole world . . . I just, I never thought I'd have to deal with this at this point in my life."
Will nodded and said, "I wish there was more I could do to help but . . ."
"No, it's just something I have to deal with. I got myself into this mess so it's my responsibility." Jake looked so miserable as she sat before him and it broke Will's heart. He could tell how difficult this was for her and he hated that nothing he said could ever really make it better.
"Well," he said at last, "if you ever need a friend you know where to find me, okay?" Jake smiled slightly at him and Will got up from his seat and sat beside her on the bed, putting his arms around her to pull her into a hug. Jake hugged him back, grateful to have one more person on her side even if it did still feel like her world was falling apart.
* * * * *