Autumn blows in and out and the winter weather begins to show its head. Beck and Jade celebrate their fist anniversary, and continue making preparations for the new baby's arrival. As Jade slowly starts to show more, Aspen and Chelsea begin to grow even more excited about the idea of their new baby sibling...specifically their new baby brother, as the family learns in November.
"Jade?" The English department secretary, Laura, knocks on the door to her classroom "Oh good! You're still here."
The last bell of the day had rang about an hour ago, but she had stayed in the room to finish up some work before she headed home for the weekend. Although the classroom isn't technically 'hers' she's the one who uses it most often, and it will most likely become hers once she earns her tenure at the end of the school year. If someone is looking for Jade, there's a good chance she's either at her desk in the English office, or in this classroom.
"Yeah, still here." Jade chuckles "I have to take a half day on Monday because of a doctor's appointment, wanted to get these sub plans done before I left for the weekend."
"Right, I remember seeing that on the calendar." Laura nods "Um, there's a parent here for you?"
"A parent?" Jade is confused "I don't have any meetings scheduled today."
Very rarely does she get requests for in-person parent meetings outside of the regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences in the fall and spring. Teaching at the high school level she's found that parents tend to care a little less than they do at the elementary and middle levels, but that doesn't mean it never happens. She definitely wouldn't have scheduled it for a Friday afternoon outside of her contract hours though.
"He asked for Miss West." Laura tells her
"Not Mrs. Oliver?"
"I thought it was weird too." Laura shrugs "Maybe it's one of the kids you've had two years in a row who knows you by your maiden name? I can tell him to come back next week or schedule something with you-"
"No, it's fine." Jade sighs, picking up her phone to send a text to Beck "You can send him down here."
If she's meeting with a parent, she'll be there for at least another half an hour. At that point, it would make more sense and involve a lot less backtracking if Beck picked Chelsea and Aspen up from their after school programs instead of her. He responds back quickly, telling her that it's not a problem and that he'll take care of dinner too.
"S'good to see you." A voice says from the doorway
Jade is thinking that this meeting is already off to a weird start, who greets their child's teacher like that? But as she locks her phone and places it down on her desk, an even weirder feeling crosses over her, and when she looks up...she's shocked.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you." Her father admits, taking a few slow steps into her classroom "Clearly calling you wasn't working."
Not Chris, but her actual biological father, John West. She ignored his calls for almost six months when she first moved to Hartford, she never answered a single one. When the calls stopped coming, she thought that he had finally taken the hint that she wanted nothing to do with him...apparently she was wrong.
"How did you even find me?" Jade asks "I went to great lengths to make sure that you wouldn't."
"I hired a private investigator."
"You hired a..." Jade sighs, closing her eyes "Wow...okay. So you were having me followed?"
Suddenly she's disgusted at what feels like a severe invasion of her privacy. Not just her's, but her family's as well. Was this private investigator looking into Beck too? Did they know about his history with Alyssa? She imagines the the thought of a man in dark sunglasses and a trench coat standing across the street from Chelsea's school, watching her play at recess. It's probably an exaggeration, she realizes, but that doesn't make the whole 'private investigator' thing any less invasive.
"Well, I wouldn't put it like that." John shrugs "Listen, Jade. Enough is enough, alright?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I get it, you came out here to prove a point." He tells her "But it's been two years. I think I've given you enough space. It's time for this little 'social experiment' to be over."
"Social experiment?"
"You did it, you made it on your own without my help." John says "Congratulations, but it's time for you to come back to Los Angeles now."
"Excuse me." Jade scoffs "I'm a grown woman, you do not get to tell me where to go and when. I'm in charge of my own life now. You do not get a say in anything I do."
"Jade, enough." John shakes his head "There is a paralegal position waiting for you at my firm, you can start after the first of the year. You'll make much more money and be much more-"
"This conversation is over." Jade cuts him off "Leave."
She closes her computer and gathers her materials, then stands up to go back to her office to grab her bag and her coat so she can go home. As she does so, however, John gets a good look at her for the first time since he had arrives, and it's only then that she notices her baby bump.
"Are you pregnant?" He follows her out of the classroom and down the hallway towards the English office
"What gave you that idea?" She rolls her eyes, still walking ahead of him and not turning back at all
"How'd it go?" Laura asks as she enters the office
"Can you call down and see if security is still here?" Jade asks "He doesn't have a student that attends this school so he has no business being here."
"Oh, shit. Okay." Laura nods, picking up the phone
"Jade, do not walk away from me when I'm talking to you!" John insists
Jade doesn't say anything as she makes her way back to her desk. Of course, John follows her despite Laura's warning not to. When he arrives he immediately notices all of the pictures that are either framed and sitting on her desk or tacked up to the wall beside it. Most of them involve two little girls with brown hair and brown eyes that he's never seen before, and a man that he doesn't recognize either. There's a picture of the three of them together with his daughter, all in matching denim jeans and grey sweaters like it came right out of a Christmas card. There's another of Jade in a white dress, kissing the mystery man. When John sees that, his eyes immediately move to her left hand, where he spots what can only be a diamond engagement ring and a matching silver wedding band.
"So, you're trying to assimilate?"
"What?" Jade sighs, shoving her computer into her bag
She had been aiming not to have to do any work at home this weekend, but she also wants out of this situation as soon as possible. It's not worth staying late anymore.
"You're one of them now, huh?" John gestures to the pictures "A housewife? With the husband, the step-kids, and the baby? All your dreams and aspirations dead and gone?"
"Fuck you."
"Don't speak to me like that!"
"Like you're speaking to me any kinder?" Jade scoffs "I need you to get it through your thick skull that I am happy. This is the life I chose for myself and I love every single aspect of it. I know it's not what you want, but it's not up to you. I came out here to get away from you and your...need to control every single aspect of my life!"
"God..." John sighs "It's like I don't even know who you are anymore."
"Like you ever knew to start with?" Jade spits "You barely saw me for the first twelve years of my life and even after that, you left me to be raised by a step-mom I didn't like and who didn't know me either! Face it, you fucked this up. You're not getting the lawyer daughter married to her lawyer husband who are ready to inherit the firm once you retire. Your daughter is a high school English teacher, married to a carpenter, with two great kids and another one on the way. But I guess your private investigator already told you that huh?"
Her father is quiet. For the first time, he doesn't have a response.
"If my life isn't good enough for you, then I'm sorry." Jade shrugs "But it's everything I want and more, so...deal with it."
"Sir..." The school's security guard appears "I'm going to have to ask you to follow me."
"Don't contact me or my family ever again." Jade tells him "And if your PI keeps snooping around my life, you'll be hearing from my lawyer."
"Hey!" Beck grins as Jade enters the kitchen later that night "How was your...oh shit, what happened?"
He can tell immediately just from the look on his wife's face that something is wrong. Whatever had kept her at work so late definitely hadn't been pleasant, and the grief followed her home.
"My dad found me." She says flatly
"Chris?"
"No." She clarifies "John."
"Oh shit..." Beck repeats "Do you want to-"
"Mom's home!"
"Later..." Jade sighs as Aspen and Chelsea run into the room "Hi ladybugs!"
Both girls run to hug her, and Jade hugs them each back a little tighter than she normally would. She never wants to make her children feel the way that her father makes her feel, and despite what he says...these two girls really are two of the best things to ever happen to her.
Beck handles bath time for Aspen that night, wanting to give his wife some time to decompress from whatever had been bothering her. Jade still does both of the girls' hair and reads to them before bed, but she's more than thankful for the alone time with her husband once they're asleep.
"Do you want to sue him?" Beck asks
"We can't." Jade sighs "He didn't cause any of us any physical harm by doing it...and it's not like he accessed anything that wasn't already part of a public domain."
They had gotten ready for bed right after Aspen and Chelsea went down, and are now laying together in their own bed with the television on but on mute. After hearing the specifics of what had gone down with his father-in-law, Beck is furious. He doesn't like that someone had been looking into his wife, and their family by default, he doesn't like that he showed up at her school like it was nothing, and he definitely doesn't like the nature of the comments that he made to her. The whole situation is just so fucked up, and his heart hurts for Jade. It also makes him worry that maybe Alyssa might try to do something similar to his daughters down the line, but he convinces himself not to worry about that right now. He needs to focus on Jade.
"If he tries to contact you again, I think you should file for a restraining order." Beck admits "I mean...what he's doing is harassment."
"You'd think being the big hotshot lawyer that he is, he would know that."
"You would think." Beck agrees, wrapping an arm around her waist "I'm sorry that this happened."
"There's nothing you could have done." Jade sighs "It's just...fucked."
"It is." Beck nods "How's Baby Bear doing?"
"He's good." Jade assures her husband, moving his hand to the lower part of her abdomen "Feet are over here right now."
"There he is." Beck smiles as his son's feet brush up against his hand "I take it we won't be naming him John?"
"Too soon."
"Okay, sorry."
The door to their bedroom creaks open just the slightest, and the couple can just barely make out Chelsea's face behind it in the dark hallway.
"Hey kiddo." Beck calls out to her "Everything okay?"
"Yeah..." Chelsea nods as she steps inside the bedroom "Mom...? Are you okay?"
Aspen had been rather oblivious but being older, Chelsea had definitely noticed something about Jade was off from the moment she came home. She hadn't wanted to say anything, convinced that it was nothing and she was just making it up. But after going to bed she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep unless she asked.
"Oh baby, I'm fine." Jade assures her as she moves closer to the bed "I just had a bad day is all, it happens."
Although she's much older and mature than she had been when Jade first met her, it's clear that Chelsea is still too young to have all of the details.
"Is the baby okay?"
"The baby's fine." Jade nods with a smile "Dad was just feeling him kick."
She reaches out and takes Chelsea's hand, placing it beside Beck's. Eventually she's able to feel the baby kick too, and it's clear that doing so had reduced some of her anxieties.
"Okay..." Chelsea sighs "Good. I just wanted to make sure. I...I couldn't sleep."
"It's sweet that you were worried." Jade tells her, rubbing the girl's arm gently "Do you want to lay in here with us for a little while? Just until you feel a bit more sleepy?"
"Yeah." Chelsea nods "I think so."
"Watch the baby." Beck warns her as Chelsea climbs over Jade to lay in between them "There ya go."
It's clear that they'll have to finish their conversation about Jade's father later, but neither of them mind. Chelsea is much more important. Beck grabs the remote and takes the television off of mute, then flips it from the news to reruns of a sitcom from the 90's in hopes of it being a bit less stressful for Chelsea. Within minutes her breathing has slowed and her eyes are heavy, and not long after she's fallen asleep hugging Jade's arm.
"Should I move her?" Beck asks, looking to his wife
"Not yet." Jade shakes her head "We don't know how much longer she'll be willing to crawl into bed and cuddle with us."