A/N: So I felt bad about leaving it like that, here's the next chapter. Remember to read the previous chapter is you clicked here first :)

Chapter 22

As the others walk back to the house at a more leisurely pace, Mike dropping back with Evie, "You, okay?"
Evie nods, "I think so."
"You need to tell him."
Evie sighs and nods, "I know, but after today, we're already fried."
"Tell him E, today could've been worse than the munchies. And like it or not this isn't going away on its own."
"How do I do it without being obvious something's up?" asks Evie.
Mike thinks it over and then smiles, "You drove the car to town today, go and get it and take him with you."
"That could work, he hates my driving though."
"Then tell him you're tired and he can drive."
Evie sighs resting her hand on her stomach, "hey Jayden!" she calls.
He looks back questioningly.
"I left the car in town, and still not feeling great, could you come with and drive it back?" asks Evie.
"Of course," smiles Jayden, "we'll see you guys back at the house" he nods.

The other four head off while Jayden and Evie veer back down towards the city. Evie trying to decide the best way to tell Jayden.
"You okay?" asks Jayden seeing how nervous she looked.
"Fine," she replies as they keep walking.
"Evie, what have I said about that word, you are obviously not fine," retorts Jayden taking her hand so she stops walking.
Evie sighs unease and fear starting to churn in her gut, "You're right there is something we need to talk about."
"Evie what is going on?" asks Jayden, because not only could he see how distressed she was, but he could feel it too.
With a sigh she pulls out her samuraiser, drawing the same symbol Jayden had used at the spring a barrier goes up around them.
"Evie, what is going on?" repeats Jayden.

"I'm pregnant," answers Evie deciding to go for the blunt approach.
"You're what?" asks Jayden his eyes widening.
"Pregnant, I don't have the flu or a bug or anything. I'm pregnant," repeats Evie.
Jayden leans against the nearest tree letting it sink in, "You're sure?"
"A pregnancy test positive, not to mention my symptoms."
Jayden nods slowly, processing the information in his brain. Evie was pregnant, with his baby, he was going to be a dad.
Evie watches him, opting to let him have the time to process before she said anything else. Her arms wrapped protectively around her stomach.
"You're sure?" asks Jayden again.
"Okay I get this is a lot and you can have your allotted freak out time for this new development, I had my freak out time when I found out. Panic attack on the bathroom floor freak out, so go ahead, freak out. But I need you to process this a little faster babe, I am pregnant, I would not have told you unless, I was sure. Believe me I would love for this to not be the case but it is," repeats Evie unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice, going for her preferred defence of when she was scared to cover it with anger. And right now, she was freaking terrified.

"Do you, do you know how far along you are?" asks Jayden.
Evie shakes her head, "Not exactly, at least a month I think," she says.
Jayden nods and then something else occurs to him, "Mike knew."
"He did and he does," nods Evie.
"Why did Mike know before I did?" asks Jayden, "I mean why would you tell him before you told me?" unable to keep the hurt out of his voice.
Evie moves forwards and takes his hand, "I didn't tell him, he figured it out, even before I had, or rather before I'd accepted reality. He got me the test, he made sure he was the one who stayed back with me, he didn't need to be told because he already knew," promises Evie.
"How did he know?"
"His ex-girlfriend had the same thing, she had my symptoms, thought she was pregnant, but she wasn't. Mike recognised the same symptoms in me, figured I needed to know one way or the other."
"Is this the real reason you asked for space last night?" guesses Jayden.
Evie nods, "I just, I needed time to process to get my head around it before I told you, so that way when you freaked out, I'd already freaked out. I have not been trying to hide this from you, I only found out yesterday," promises Evie. "I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for all of it."
Jayden squeezes her hands. "It's not your fault, this is not just on you."
"You don't hate me?" she asks quietly.
Jayden sighs and pulls her into his arms hugging her tightly, "I could never hate you, and I definitely do not hate you're carrying my baby. Its screwy timing, and it's a mess and it's going to get so complicated. But I could never hate you, we'll figure this out," promises Jayden kissing the top of her head.
Evie clings him relief coursing through her, she was still terrified, but at least she knew Jayden was in it with her.

Suddenly he pulls back looking at her sharply, "What the hell were you doing coming to fight with us today?" he demands.
"What needed to be done, you needed me. If I hadn't turned up people would've asked why and I wasn't leaving you alone," retorts Evie.
"Evie," groans Jayden running his hand through his hair, "This changes things, this changes everything."
"Depends on what we decide to do about it" replies Evie quietly.
Jayden sighs, "What do you want to do?"
"I don't know, Jayden I want this, I want our baby but how can we justify it, how can I justify being so selfish? You said it yourself this will change everything, and we're, we're going to have to make a decision," replies Evie feeling tears prick her eyes.
Jayden's head was spinning and he honestly didn't have an answer for her, so he simply pulls her into his arms.
Evie hugs him back resting her head against his chest.
"We'll figure it out," murmurs Jayden kissing the top of her head.
Evie just nods though she knows full well neither of them have a freaking clue.

Evie looks over at Jayden as they sit in the front seat of the car.
"Do you need some more time?" she asks.
"Just give me a minute," replies Jayden.
Evie nods and pulls out her samuraiser flicking it open and then closed again nervously.
Jayden sits there in silence for a few minutes as Evie continued playing with her samuraiser.
Finally he reaches over and closes around her hand, "Stop, please" he says quietly.
Evie nods and pockets it.

Jayden sits back and sighs, "What are our options?"
Evie bites her lip, "Option 1, keep the baby, handle things as they come, I get benched, the Nighloks get suspicious or someone dies because of me. Option 2, we, we abort it, it ceases to be a problem, and we continue as if this never happened. Option 3, nature decides on a different course, and the next time a Nighlok hits me with something, I lose it. And I have no idea if we have an option 4, 5 or who knows what," replies Evie rubbing her eyes.
"What, uh, what would an abortion entail?" asks Jayden instantly feeling a churning in his gut at the thought.
"Right now? Well, there are two options, I take a pill, which stops the hormones allowing the pregnancy to continue, then the next day I take another one and then four to six hours later, the womb breaks down and I'd bleed same has if I had a miscarriage and that will be that. Or there is the surgical option, since I'm probably still early on, then they do it via suction. The cervix is softened with a pill, and then a tube is inserted and they remove the pregnancy that way, following the numbing of the area and pain injection. It'd take about 5-10 minutes, then I can probably go home a few hours later. I'll need a couple days to recover and then I'd be good as new," explains Evie calmly, though every word left a bad taste in her mouth, her arm wrapping around her stomach protectively.
"How long do we have, to make up our minds?" asks Jayden hating he was even having to ask.
"An abortion can be done up to 24 weeks, but after 15 weeks the surgical option changes and would involve surgery requiring anaesthetic with a longer recovery time," answers Evie. "It's likely no matter the method I'll experience cramping, light bleeding, nausea and other side effects for a few days afterwards. Once that had passed though, I'd be back in my usual form, physically."
"And the risks to you?"
"Minimal, there are some, the worse being a massive loss of blood requiring a transfusion, that only occurs in about 1 in a 1000. Infection is possible as well. However, in theory it should not affect my ability to get pregnant and have a normal pregnancy later on in life. Physically though the effects should be minimal," replies Evie.

"And not physically?" asks Jayden looking at her.
Evie turns to him, "I have no idea, but it isn't just me or us we have to consider. The team would be down one without me, and without sounding arrogant I'm pretty high up the ranking. And if someone else on the team were to suffer, or get hurt or worse, how do we live with that? Or on the grander scale we have the fate of the entire world in our hands, and while I am not arrogant enough to think I am a make or break, we'd both be lying if we said it that it wouldn't have an effect."
"So what do we do?"
"I don't know, I know what I want to do. But we're not normal people, we have much more than me or you to consider in this," says Evie with a hopeless shrug, and she once again felt tears pricking at her eyes and she wiped them away angrily. "I don't know Jayden, this is such a mess and I'm sorry, maybe I should've just done it and not told you. Then I'd be the one who'd have to deal and you wouldn't need to add this to the list of shit going on."
Jayden turns fully taking her hands then and pulling her around to look at him, "do not ever say that, this is you and me, both of us. This is not just on you, not the fact you are pregnant nor the decision we now have to make. This is not something I would ever want you to deal with alone," assures Jayden.
"But with everything else-" starts Evie and Jayden releases her hands and cups her face so she can't look away.
"Screw everything else, screw Deker and his obsession, screw Serrator and his plans, screw Xandred and Octoroo and the whole damn Netherworld. This would've eaten you up inside, and not telling me and ending this secretly with the intent of taking it to your grave would've torn you apart. It would've ruined you and it would've ruined us, and while this is so far from ideal, I would never want you to shoulder this alone to try and spare me."
"I'm sorry," murmurs Evie tears slipping down her cheeks.
Jayden brushes them away with his thumb and leans forwards kissing her softly, "Stop saying you are sorry, this was an accident, this is not your fault," he pleads quietly, his forehead resting against hers.

"We have a little time until we have to tell anyone else, can Mike keep quiet until we decide what to do?" asks Jayden.
Evie nods, "He will, he might be an idiot sometimes, but he wouldn't tell anyone unless we gave him the okay."
"Then we have a couple of days to decide, and even if we don't. We'll have to tell the team, and Ji," sighs Jayden.
"He's going to be so angry," says Evie.
"Yep," nods Jayden.
They stay like that for a few more minutes before pulling back, "We should head back before they start getting suspicious," says Jayden.
"They'll probably assume we stopped off to make out or something."
"Probably," snorts Jayden before sighing, "We have time."
"Like I said, have your freak out, I'm still not entirely sure I'm done processing either," admits Evie rubbing her temples.
"Another headache?" ask Jayden.
Evie nods, "Mild."
Jayden sighs and puts the car into gear before driving off. To be honest he isn't even sure how he makes it back to the house, he does it on complete autopilot. His mind spinning with everything.
Evie wasn't inclined to talk either, she'd opted to give him space to process and she'd be lying if she said she didn't want some for the same thing.

As they head inside Mike looks at them and Evie just shrugs and walks down to her room, Jayden walking into the kitchen.
Mike excuses himself and slips after Evie, shutting her bedroom door behind him. "Well, do I need to kick his ass?"
Evie shakes her head, "No, he handled it fairly well, we talked over options, but we haven't made a decision yet. Not exactly something you do with a coin toss," sighs Evie sitting down on the end of her bed.
"Nope," agrees Mike.
"I'm just giving him time to run it through in his head and process it. If you don't mind just keeping quiet for a couple more days?" asks Evie.
"Whatever you need, but the others are probably going to notice you and Jayden are a little, off," reminds Mike.
"We'll figure it out," says Evie, "Us seeming weird is the least of my concerns right now."
"Any more idea on what you want to do?"
"I know what I want, but what needs to be done, that might be an entirely different thing" answers Evie, "What I want isn't all that matters, there's the entire world to consider."
"I wish I could help," admits Mike.
"Nothing you can do, but thanks, now go continue your game. I'll be fine," assures Evie.
"Jayden's right you know."
"About what?"
"You and the word fine."
Evie just chuckles, "Guess I'll need to find a new one."
"Guess so," nods Mike with a smile before walking out.

Evie sighs and drops back onto the bed her hand resting on her stomach, she had no idea what to do, Jayden had no idea what to do. She knew what she wanted, and she was pretty sure Jayden wanted the same thing.
But how did they justify it, how could they do this, how could she let down her team, put them at risk by sending them in down and ranger. And Antonio being there might mean they technically weren't going to be down a ranger compared to the numbers previous generations had, had.
But she and Jayden knew how to work together in a way not even he and Antonio did, and as much as she was impressed with how Antonio had improved. He wasn't her, and the team was used to functioning with her.
Like Mike had said she and Jayden were the mom and dad, when Jayden wasn't there the others looked to her. And she loved them, each and every one of her weird little family. If something happened to any of them because she wasn't there, she'd never forgive herself, and neither would the others. And it'd put more stress on Jayden, not to mention the thought of sitting out would drive her completely mad. If she has this baby and her team suffered, or civilians were lost then she would resent the baby for taking away her ability to help, she would risk resenting her child the same way her mother had resented her for tying her to the samurai life. She'd suffer personally if she aborted her baby, and Jayden would too, but how bad would they both feel if the others suffered for them.
She crawls up her bed and grabs her pillow hugging it to her, her options were very limited and she hated every single one.
With a sigh she closes her eyes and tries to quiet the runaway train that was circling in her mind.

Jayden sat in the kitchen, completely zoned out as he tried to wrap his head around everything.
He misses the sound of Mike walking in and shutting the door behind him.
"So Evie says I don't have to kick your ass," notes Mike.
Jayden jumps and looks at him.
"What?" he asks.
"I said, Evie has told me I don't need to kick your ass. Usually of course I'd leave her to her own ass kicking, because as we both know she is very, very good at it. But right now, she doesn't feel she has a right to kick you in the ass. So, I said I'd do it for her. But I don't have too, which is good because as she told me, you can flatten me," replies Mike walking over and sitting down next to him.

"How did you know?" asks Jayden.
Mike looks at him, "My ex, Ariana, she had Evie's symptoms, dizzy, headaches, aversion to things she hadn't before, throwing up when it got especially bad. She looked them up and it listed pregnancy as a possibility, so she took the test. But turned out to not be, she just had a really, really bad case of the flu coming. I figured she'd need to know either way," replies Mike, "And if it was negative, I figured she wouldn't want anyone else to know there was even a scare."
"I don't get why Evie wouldn't tell me, even if there was a chance," admits Jayden, much as he wished he wasn't he was pissed Mike had known before him.
"She was in denial I think, you know how Evie gets about proving a point, probably thought by refusing to even accept the notion of her being pregnant then she could change the fact through sheer will," snorts Mike.
"Why didn't she just tell me when we came back? Why lie and say she felt ill?" asks Jayden.
"Dude how screwed up is your head with all this right now?"
"I don't even know which train of thought to follow," sighs Jayden, "My head is a mess."
"Exactly now put yourself into Evie's shoes, and double the head mess you're feeling. Because she's the one carrying it, the one having it and the one who ultimately is going to be the most affected by this. She needed time to freak out, to process and to figure out the options," points out Mike. "Plus, she was worried about being overheard when you inevitably had your freak out, have you freaked out yet, because Evie had a panic attack and I don't fancy that again?"
"Believe me Mike, I am freaking out" retorts Jayden.
"She's also scare."
Jayden sighs, "Of course she was."
"Is," corrects Mike.
"I think that counts for both of us" mutters Jayden running his hand through his hair.

"How are you being so calm about this?" ask Jayden.
"Because firstly, not my girlfriend who is pregnant, not the ones whose life is going to undergo the most changes or consequences from this. And secondly, because if anyone in this world never mind on this team could do this, it'd be you two. You're already the mom and dad of the team, you have a stable relationship, you're financially secure, if you forget the whole ranger save the world thing. You two are in a pretty good place for this to work," answers Mike.

"I wish it was that simple," says Jayden because he knew, if the Nighlok were already dealt with, he'd have been thrilled at the prospect, hell part of him was. But given the situation he was also terrified, worried, angry and extremely confused.
"If life were simple, it'd be dull. Besides this team does not do simple" replies Mike brightly before patting Jayden's arm.
"Whatever you want to do, I'll back you, I can be fun Uncle Mike, or I can never speak of this again. It is up to you, the both of you. And you have some time to figure out what it is you want to do. I'll keep my mouth shut until you two make a decision."
"Thanks Mike" replies Jayden.
"Anytime" nods Mike, "now how about I leave you alone to continue processing?" offers Mike.
"Please," confirms Jayden.

Mike pats his shoulder before walking back out of the kitchen. He really hoped they figured this out, and that however they did it, was something they'd both be able to live with. Because he knew Evie wanted the baby and now, he knew Jayden did too. But was there a way that didn't put the fate of the world at risk, on that Mike had zero advice to give. So, for now he'd keep his mouth shut and keep an eye on mom and dad. And maybe try keep the others off the scent that something was wrong.
Which he doubted, when Mia and Emily got the idea, something was up, honestly Mia especially was like a bloodhound.
He was actually a little surprised she hadn't somehow figured out Evie was pregnant herself. Em had zero experience to go on, but Mia was the one who wanted kids and the family as an ultimate goal. He'd have figured she'd work it out before he did, and he'd be lying if he said it didn't make him a little smug. That of the entire team, it was him, Mr Insensitive and Immature who had not only figured out what was wrong with Evie, but managed to do it without inserting his foot into his mouth.

Granted he'd be thinking his words through very carefully when talking to Evie, so that probably had something to do with it. But either way, he was glad he'd been able to help, if he hadn't who knows how long things might've gone on before they twigged what was actually wrong with Evie. Or worse, she'd have taken matters into her own hands and likely tried to have spared them all, Jayden included.
With a sigh he started up a game, there was nothing he could do for them until they made a decision, so for now he'd act like nothing was wrong. Even if their entire world had just been turned on its head.

A/N: BOOM! Jayden knows, lemme know what you think :)