05/14/2001…
Monday Morning hit like a truck. Jaune woke up too early, and barely survived the day as a result. It was only the promise of being able to spend the afternoon with Ruby at her place that kept him from completely losing his mind.
Laying next her in bed, feeling her breathing into his chest as she, quite comfortably laid against him as he played with her hair. Jaune swore he was, maybe not in heaven but at least taking a break at the gates.
Jaune knew though that there was one thing that was bugging her, and in classic Ruby fashion she broke the peace and spoke up. "So uh… I know now's a bad time to bring this up…"
"Then don't…" Jaune interjected
"How's Nora and Ren doing?" Ruby asked with a slight wince in her voice
Jaune groaned at the premature death of the likelihood of a second round of lovemaking today before he said "Well I know that they are still weighing options. They told me that nothing is still off the table as of right now"
"Including abortion?" Ruby asked.
"Well yeah, I mean if they can't really figure out how to make the parenting situation work, then it's not off the table," Jaune said quietly.
"You're okay with this?" Ruby asked as she started to sit up.
"I don't think it really matters how I feel about it…" Jaune replied.
"I mean, their your two best friends since middle school, doesn't it bother you?" Ruby asked as she looked at the wall.
Jaune sat up next to her and started to rub his girlfriends back "What I know, is that it's a decision to make on their own, if they decide that they're too young to become parents, then that's their choice, I know they won't make any kind of decision like this without thinking long and hard on it."
"So what if they decide to go through with it?" Ruby asked.
"Then I'll support them any way that I can," Jaune said
"God damn Jaune… I mean I don't agree with abortion, I don't like the idea of it." Ruby said. "I'm not one of these crazies that think that life starts at conception, I've been taking too many biology classes to think that. But it seems… cold to do something like that."
Jaune nodded "I already agreed to drive them to Boney lake if they decided to go that route."
Ruby sighed and stood up to get dressed. "Jesus Jaune there's supporting for friends and bringing the shovel to help them bury the body"
"Well, again, I'm not going to pretend I have the right to tell them how to handle this situation…" Jaune started to say
"'Situation'? Jaune it's a fucking baby were talking about, a possible life. You know what they look like, one's been waking you and your parents up for over a year now?" Ruby chided as she got dressed.
Jaune got out of Ruby's bed and started to get dressed "Yeah Ruby I know what a baby looks like." Jaune chided back "They're cute, their poop stinks and sticks to everything and they sound like the Russians are bombing us when they want something. I also know there are expensive, outgrow clothes every couple months and it costs a stupidly high amount for a small can of formula that will be gone in a few days."
Ruby groaned "Don't talk down to me."
Jaune rubbed his neck "Then don't talk down at me, we're both better than this."
Ruby rubbed her temples, still not looking at Jaune. "Damnit Jaune, were you always this much of a jerk and I just didn't notice it because you could only sign?"
"Yeah sorry, sign language was a good filter for my bullheaded tendencies," Jaune said with a chuckle. "If you're worried because I might push for this in the future for any happy accidents we might have, don't worry about it. I want us to have kids when we are ready."
"Yeah, but what if we have a happy accident when we are not ready?" Ruby asked.
"Come one now, my Mom had me when she was 20 or so, and your mom and dad were clearly not aiming for kids when they had you. They were not ready either, but they made it work right?" Jaune said.
Ruby sighed and turned to face Jaune "Am I being unreasonable here?"
Jaune nodded and said "A bit yeah. We can't force them to do what we think is right, It's not our future, it's theirs."
Ruby sighed "I really don't like you being involved in this."
"Then die mad then. I can't turn my back on two of my oldest friends when they need me." Jaune snaped back
Ruby looked off to the side folding her arms across her chest before pleading. "Promise me at least you'll get a second opinion before you go all-in on this at least okay?"
"You mean a third opinion?" Jaune asked.
"Gods, whatever, just get another voice to weigh on this for you," Ruby replied
Jaune smiled and shook his head declaring. "All right, I'll do it for you. You're a real pain in the ass sometimes you know that?"
Ruby nodded and walked over to Jaune saying "Well someone has to keep that big head of yours in check." before she flicked him in the forehead. "Now get out of here before my parents get home."
Jaune chuckled and shook his head as he left "See you in the morning then? Maybe after school as well?"
Ruby shook her head "Sorry I don't think I can make it, I have a full plate tomorrow with my parents."
Jaune sighed and said, "Well, I'm sure we'll have some time this week to figure out things okay?"
Ruby smiled as Jaune headed out, once she heard the front door close and his truck start up and drive off Ruby allowed herself the luxury of doubt and fear as she spoke out loud to no one in particular "How much time are we really going to have left for each other though?
Ruby's college applications were sent out weeks ago. She had sent out applications to several colleges, trying to keep her options open, but she admitted she knew she would only hear back from a small number of them before too long if Jaune had managed to get his school choice...
She didn't want to think about it right now.
The following day, Jaune had managed to arrange for him and Blake to sit down and talk about Ren and Nora's situation. Blake had asked that they talk about it at the old abandoned house they had talked privately in the past.
Back when Jaune was still seeing Pyrrha…
Since the last time they had come here, Blake had managed to drag in a few items to "spruce" the place up a bit. She had added a makeshift table made out of a Large cable spool from some construction project, a few abandoned lawn chairs that were still usable. She even hung up a few tarps and managed to get a lantern for a light source.
Jaune understood the need for privacy, but he didn't understand why she would choose this place of all places to do so.
"So what's on your mind Jaune?" Blake asked as she leaned back in her seat and lit up a joint.
"I didn't know you smoked," Jaune stated.
"Only once in a while, don't tell anyone okay?" Blake said
"My lips are sealed," Jaune said pushing the potential conversation about Blake's recreational habits aside for another day.
"Well let's cut to the chase, I'm willing to bet you want advice about how to guide Ren and Nora yeah?" Blake said with a smug look on her face. "Your Mother Theresa complex is showing again."
"Well you're close, but that's not what I'm doing," Jaune said flatly.
"Wait what? Then what the hell are you doing?" Blake Asked Jaune, looking confused.
"I'm mostly doing this to make Ruby happy, I've already mostly made up my mind to help Ren and Nora if they decided to end the pregnancy by driving them to a clinic," Jaune said.
Blake blinked several times before taking a drag off her joint and holding it in two fingers "So what are we doing then?"
Jane rubbed his beard while thinking about it. "I guess I mostly needed someone to help me sort out my thoughts on the subject you know?" he declared
"Well then start sorting them out then," Blake said
"I guess, I can understand where Ren and Nora are coming from, they both had plans for after high school, Ren wanted to go to college and flight school after we graduate." Jaune said, "Nora wanted to go into a culinary program to become a chef."
"That's hard to pull off if you have a child, you have to pretty much go straight into the workforce to try and support that child," Blake said.
"Ren would have to enlist pretty much right away once he graduated…" Jaune sighed
"Yeah, that's also true," Blake said.
"But I see where Ruby is coming from," Jaune said. "We all know Ruby was the result of her dad cheating on Yang's mom with her mom."
Blake had Jaune pause for a second to ask "She's against the idea of Ren and Nora terminating the pregnancy?"
"Yeah she is, I should have started with that part," Jaune said with a slight look of embarrassment.
Blake took another hit off the Joint she was smoking and said "Keep going…"
"Right, so I get where she's coming from. Her parents could have made the choice to end the pregnancy with her to keep the relationship secret yeah? Tai could have had the best of both worlds, his family, and Summer." Jaune said as he rambled.
"But they chose to keep Ruby and the rest is history." Blake said, "Ruby of course is well aware of this so this is going to skew her views towards Ren and Nora keeping the baby."
"But Ren and Nora are not Tai and Summer, and it should be their choice to make," Jaune said.
Blake leaned back in her lawn chair and kicked up her feet "Then you have me, who had her psycho ex-boyfriend forcibly end a pregnancy and you want my take on it as well?"
"I don't know anyone else who has any kind of life experience on the subject," Jaune said
"Let's come back to me later then. What do you think Ren and Nora should do? I mean in your honest personal opinion" Blake asked Jaune directly
"Honestly I don't even know what I would do in that situation," Jaune stated. "I mean I want to think I would do the right thing, but what would that even be?"
"I can't answer that for you honestly…" Blake said as she took one last drag and discarded the remainder of the joint "Honestly I don't think there is a right or wrong answer for this."
Jaune then sighed and stated, "I guess in that case then, if this was Ruby and me... I think would maybe want to keep the child then."
"Even though that would put the nail in the coffin of your plans for college? Even though it would screw over any chances Ruby would have in the medical field?" Blake asked.
Jaune sighed "Shit! I don't know then!"
Blake smiled "Well I bet that's what Ren and Nora are thinking right now as well, I mean the third option is the adoption of course. But even that could be a hard choice for a parent to make."
Jaune chimed in "Well both of them had been bounced around the foster system for their entire lives, and their home situation for before Sam took them in was pretty rough." Jaune sighed for a second before continuing "I mean the family they were fostered by before Sam made Torchwick look like a model citizen after all."
Blake nodded "So you think they would shy away from Adoption because of that."
Jaune shrugged and said, "I don't know, I mean It'd be in the back of my mind if it was me."
Blake nodded "Alright, so what are you thinking now? That we had a chance to talk it out a bit more?"
Jaune deadpanned "My girlfriend is an idiot."
"For real though," Blake said
"Honestly I'm still back at square one, I still think the only opinion that should matter is theirs when it boils down to it," Jaune said.
"Seriously?" Blake asked.
"Yeah, I mean Ruby didn't change my opinion and you didn't try to change it, but you both gave me some perspective and I feel like I understand it a bit better." Jaune said, "Do you need a ride home?"
"Nah I'm good, I don't think you want your truck smelling like Weed," Blake said.
"Well yeah, true," Jaune added
Blake leaned back in her seat and got a serious look on her face "Jaune, the truth is, I didn't get a choice when it came to what happened to me, but I can honestly say I don't think my life would be better if I had Adam's kid."
Jaune nodded and found himself unable to speak so he signed it out instead [Yeah, I understand what you're saying.]
Blake chuckled and said, "Hey now, you didn't have a year of speech therapy to sign at me, get out of here and go Mother Terresa it up my friend."
Jaune chuckled and waved as he stood up and stepped out.
When he got home he saw a message on his IM from Ren and Nora.
They made their choice.
So before I go into it, I want to talk about the subject of the chapter and why I tried to tackle it the way I did. I wanted to give characters the chance to express their feelings about the idea of two of their friends considering terminating a pregnancy a... I don't want to say middle of the road approach, but I wanted characters to either be fine with the idea of it, or against it for strictly non-political opinions. For those readers in the united states, you know how, well politically charged this topic is. So when I decided I wanted Ruby to take a stance against the idea of Ren and Nora ending the pregnancy, I wanted her reasons to be baked into her as a character, and not some generic pro-life stance. The reason Ruby was my choice for the "Keep the baby" opinion was strictly based on her life experiences and her backstory. Blake on the other hand, didn't take a firm pro choice stance, but she was not against it strictly due to her own life experience.
It was a Juggling act to try and carefully write out to say the least and with the current state of American politics I figured I didn't want the chapter to be politically charged. Outside of that, work and life is a zoo as typical for the holiday season, so here we are with a grossly delayed chapter.
Dragon Lord, Teenage stupidity is the fuel source of this entire story, lets not lie to ourselves here. It's still refreshing that the end of the story has such a mundane problem hanging over it like this.
Jay I hear you, I was in college when 9/11 hit, and while I wasn't personally affected by it, I'm personally relived that my plans to restrict the story to the highschool era of these kids lives is going to allow me to dodge that situation a bit.
ZHSteven, Again I agree, I think part of this is because the last two major arcs, the breakup, and Adam's arc were both novel length storylines, I kind of wanted to give them some overdue comparative calm and peace. (Seriously, how did any of you let me get away with a light novel length breakup story line is beyond me.)
Beowolf, Yeah I wanted this fic to end as close to chapter 100 as I can get it, and this story line will get me pretty close I suspect, Either way it's been a wild ride still.
Also again, I hope this chapter has the bare minimum amount of preachiness to it, and hope you all have a great rest of your days till next time and thanks once again for reading.
