That Was When He Saw Her Chapter 27, a 7th heaven fanfic

Wilson sat at his lunch table with his plastic tray. Today's lunch was a hamburger with sides of French fries and carrot sticks. He took his spot next to Tyler and about five people down from Richie. After their fight, they had made up a little, but not entirely. In general, they were OK with each other. Wilson came in in the middle of the conversation the boys of the swim team were having. Wilson quickly surmised, however, that they were talking about going out that night. It was a Thursday, so they had no practice.

"That place sucks," Richie said to a junior. "We should all go to the drive in. There are tons of girls there."

"Yeah, we should. You're right."

Wilson saw Richie looking around the table out of the corner of his eye. Richie surveyed the people there and then decided to extend the invitation to the entire team. "You guys want to go to the drive-in tonight?"

There was a chorus of yeses coming from the table. Wilson groaned; he'd have to speak up and directly to Richie. "I can't."

"Why not West?"

"Because I have plans."

"What type of plans?"

Wilson rolled his eyes. "Just plans."

"Well, what if I make this a mandatory team event? What would you say then?"

"I'd stay I still have plans and I don't have a ride."

Richie smiled sinisterly. "Scott will be at your house at 7:00 to pick you up. Happy?"

There wasn't much Wilson was able to say in response to that. He had learned very early on that it wasn't a great idea to disobey Richie. "Fine."

Wilson was still angry about Richie making him go with the team to the drive in that night when the afternoon rolled around. He didn't want to leave Becca all alone until who knows when to go hang out with her ex-boyfriend. He wasn't only her ex-boyfriend; he was her ex-lover. Wilson hated Richie even more for that.

As soon as he got in the car that afternoon, he knew he had to come right out and tell Becca his plans for the evening. "Becca, I, uh…"

"Yes?" She sounded kind of concerned.

"I have to go to the drive-in with the team tonight for dinner. I told Richie that I couldn't go, because I didn't want to, but he specifically made me. He's making Scott come pick me up and everything. I'm sorry."

She shrugged. "That's OK. I know how he gets. I'm sure you fought to stay with me tonight."

"As hard as I could without causing a scene," he said with a sigh.

"They don't know we're married yet, do they?"

"No, of course not. That would be a disaster."

"I know," she conceded. "I dated half the team or one of their brothers." Becca watched Wilson tense at the prospect of her being with other guys, but neither of them said anything. "You just go tonight and have as good of a time as you can. Don't worry about me."

"Thanks for understanding."

Scott came to pick Wilson up a little past seven o'clock. Wilson kissed Becca goodbye in their bedroom and then walked through the house and out the front door. He hopped into Scott's convertible and they sped off to go to the drive-in a good twenty-five minutes away, maybe fifteen the way Scott was driving. When they got there, they pulled up next to the rest of the guys on the team and got out of the car to scout for girls. After all, that was the purpose of their meeting.

Wilson just followed the pack and didn't look around at any of the girls from any and every high school in the southern California region. He tried to seem as inconspicuous as possible, but he had to have known that he wasn't going to get through the whole night unnoticed. When Richie didn't immediately find any girls that interested him, he decided he'd do the next best thing- annoy Wilson.

"You see anything you like?"

"Not really, no," Wilson answered honestly. "What about you?"

"Who cares about me?" Richie quickly changed subjects. "I'll find you a girl. Don't worry. You still into redheads?" Wilson knew that was just a jab at him for stealing Becca, so he didn't answer. "Very well. I'll do what I can with what's here. It's not as good as a Friday night."

Wilson just nodded and watched Richie go off. Richie traipsed around with the rest of the boys searching for the perfect girl for Wilson. Once he found the most forward and brazen girl of the whole lot, he brought her lip-smacking self over to meet Wilson. She had brown curly hair in a ponytail. She wore way too much perfume and eye shadow, and she smacked her gum as she walked toward him.

"This is Marjorie," Richie said with a crude smile again.

"Hi," Wilson said meekly.

"She just moved here from Jersey in August."

"I see."

She smacked her gum and then spoke. "You're cute."

"Um, thanks." he didn't know if he should tell her that she looked nice herself or not; he decided not to. Maybe then she would go away.

"I'll leave you two alone," Richie said and walked away.

"What exactly did Richie tell you about me?" Wilson asked.

She smiled. "He said that you're looking for a girl and since I don't know too many people I'm looking for a guy."

"I'm…," Wilson didn't know what to say, "not looking for a girl. Sorry."

"Are you seeing someone?"

"In a way, yes."

"In a way? What, did you knock a girl up? I knew this one girl, back in New Jersey, that got pregnant by some guy on the basketball team-"

Between her brashness and her accent on the word 'ball', he just couldn't deal with it. "I'm sorry. I have to go." Wilson just walked away from her and went over to the first person he saw that he knew, Tyler. "You didn't find someone? Everyone else has someone."

"I know. All the good girls are taken."

"Well, there's some girl over there who was hitting on me."

"Yeah, I saw her. No thanks."

Wilson laughed. "Yeah, that was what I said."

Scott dropped Wilson back off at his house around 10:30, with only two girls in the back seat that were going home with him. He walked into the house, hung up his jacket and went straight into his bedroom. Becca was sitting on the bed waiting for him to come back home.

"Gee, that only took forever."

"Sorry. It's not like I was able to drive myself."

"I know," she sighed. "So how was it?"

"Uh, interesting," Wilson said as he pulled his shirt off and changed into pajamas.

"Did you meet any girls?"

"Yeah, I guess. There was some girl from New Jersey that Richie sacked on me."

"New Jersey?" Becca laughed. "Was she a mall rat?"

"A what?"

"A mall rat. Did you ever see that movie?"

"Oh," he understood now, "yeah. I did."

"My cousin's from New Jersey. East Brunswick. The mall there, that was the mall that the movie was based on- or so she said."

"Well, she had big hair and smacked her gum at me."

Becca cracked up. "No kidding?"

"Nope." Wilson crawled into bed next to Becca. "I'm sorry I left you tonight."

"I forgive you." She kissed his cheek. "Besides, you not being here gave me the opportunity to actually do all of my homework for the night."

Wilson nodded his head in amazement "I'm impressed."

"What about when the baby comes?" Becca asked. "How am I going to be able to get any homework done then? How, how are you going to stay on the swim team? How are we going to have any sort of life?"

"We will," he answered plainly.

"How?" She seemed very upset.

"Was this what you were thinking about the whole time I was gone?"

"Yeah, kind of. I mean-"

"What? You'll be all right. We'll be all right. Things have a way of working themselves out, especially when you don't know what's ahead of you."

"I guess so."

Wilson kissed Becca lightly on the lips. "It'll be OK sweetie. Trust me, it will."

A/N: I want to comment on the whole New Jersey thing. First of all, I live there, so I'm allowed to make fun of it. I modeled the girl, Marjorie, after an eighties mall rat, hence the Mall Rats reference. The thing about the Brunswick Square Mall being the basis for the movie is what I have heard, so it might not be true, but at any rate it fits in since Becca heard it as a rumor.

The "no kidding' is a Kevin/Ben reference. That "journal" thing from Season 7 was hilarious.

You know you want to be a mall rat. Review.