Chapter 3

"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Beck whispered, as Jade woke up. "You had me worried."

"What happened to me?" Jade asked, groggily, not remembering anything after the baby was placed on her chest.

"Well, you gave birth. The baby was placed on your chest. You stared at the baby for about a minute, until you started getting really pale. After about 2 minutes, you passed out. The doctor said you hemorrhaged. There was a lot of blood. They had to take you into emergency surgery to remove the placenta and stop the bleeding. While in surgery, they gave you a blood transfusion. You're still hooked up to blood and IV fluids." Beck explained, pointing to the IV pole with fluids and blood hanging off of it. "The doctor said you'll be ok. You'll probably have to stay here for a few days, just so that you can recover."

"How long was I out?"

"Well, the baby was born at 11:03. You passed out around 11:06. They started the surgery at 11:20. Right now, it's 9am. You've been out for like 10 hours."

"Where is the baby? Did you give it away already?" Jade had remembered telling Beck she didn't want to keep the baby.

"No, I didn't give him away. He's in the nursery."

"He? It's a boy?"

"Yep. He was 7lbs, 8oz, and 19in long. The pediatrician said he's really healthy, especially considering we didn't even know you were pregnant and you had no prenatal care."

"Is he cute?"

"He is. He's the cutest baby I've ever seen. He has your eyes and your curly hair. He looks like me, though. Do you want me to go get him?"

"No. I don't want to see him. I don't want to get attached. We're not keeping him."

"Jade , he's our baby. He's our son. We can't just give him to strangers."

"Beck, we're not even 19 yet. We can barely afford to feed ourselves. We're broke college students. How the hell are we going to be able to afford a baby? It's just not going to be good. He wouldn't have a good life with us. He could have a good life with parents that can give him everything. We're not those people."

"We can't just give him away. I can't give him away. He's our son."

"Any good parents would realize when they can't afford their child. We can't afford him, Beck. We just can't."

"What if I dropped out of school and got a job? Then we'd be able to provide for him."

"Yeah, because working a minimum gets you so much money. Not to mention the fact you'd be giving up on a dream you've had your entire life. You can't do that, Beck."

"Well, I can't just give away my son!" Beck yelled, clearly frustrated.

"What if we gave him to your cousin? Her and her husband have been trying for like 3 years to have a baby, right? At least if they adopted him, he wouldn't be with complete strangers. He'd be so loved and well taken care of. He'd get to meet his biological family. He'd have a great life with them."

"They live all the way in Maine."

"Ok, and?"

"We'd never get to see him. He'd never know us."

"That's the point. I don't want an open adoption. I don't want to get attached to him."

"What's so bad about getting attached to him?"

"I don't want to get attached, because if I did, I'd never be able to give him away." Jade choked out, a few tears escaping her eyes.

"And there's nothing wrong with that. We're his parents, Jade. He's meant to be ours."

"We can't, Beck. We can't be the parents he needs us to be. The parents he needs are in Maine."

Beck sighed deeply and sat back down in the chair next to the bed. He knew Jade was right, but he really wished she wasn't. He didn't want to give his son to anyone, even if those people were his infertile cousins. That baby boy was their son. His son. Beck felt like they'd be failing him by giving him away. He knew Jade was right, though. They couldn't provide for themselves, let alone him. The choice was clear, but why did it have to be so damn hard?

"You're right, I just really wish you weren't." Beck said. After staring off into space for a few moments, Beck suddenly stood up and walked out the door, not giving any clue as to where he was going.

After leaving the hospital room, he wandered around the halls for nearly an hour, giving himself time to think. Jade had called him after 30 minutes, but he ignored it. She called him 5 more times after that, but he ignored all of those, too. Around 10am, Beck finally decided he'd walked around enough and headed to the nursery.

Once at the nursery window, he immediately spotted his son. One of the nurses gently handed him to Beck, and Beck sat down in the room next to the nursery with the newborn.

"Hey, buddy. I know the first few hours of your life have been crazy, and I'm really sorry about that. I'm also sorry that your mama doesn't want to meet you. I hope one day you'll understand. Your mom and I love you more than you'll ever know." Beck stopped talking to wipe away a fallen tear from his cheek. "I promise you that we aren't doing this because we don't love you. We are doing this because we love you so much. We want you to have the best life possible. We want you to grow up never needing or wanting anything. We wish we could give you the world, but we can't, so we have to give you parents that can. You're gonna have an amazing life. You're gonna do amazing things." Beck gently pressed a kiss to his son's cheek and held him closer to his chest. Beck's heart melted and broke at the same time when the baby curled into his embrace. Beck had to keep telling himself that giving him away was for the best.

Beck and the baby sat in the room together for a whole other hour. After that hour, Beck snapped a few pictures of the baby with his phone, knowing that there would come a day where he and Jade would regret having not taken pictures. As Beck was about to take the baby back to the nursery, a nurse came into the room and sat across from Beck.

"Has your wife woken up yet? Does she want to see the baby?" The middle-aged nurse asked.

"Um, yeah, my girlfriend woke up."

"Do you want someone to take this little guy to your room?"

"Um, no. Jade says she doesn't want to see him. She says she doesn't want to get attached." The nurse gave him a questioning look and prompted him to elaborate. "We're freshmen at UCLA. We didn't even know she was pregnant until last night when we got here. We're young, and broke, and we can barely provide for ourselves, let alone a baby. We are giving him to my cousins. My cousin Lorelei and her husband have been trying to pregnant for like 3 years. They went through 2 failed rounds of IVF and a failed adoption. They really want to be parents. I don't think either of us really want to give up our baby, but we know it's the best thing for him. She doesn't want to see him, because she's afraid she'll get attached, and if she's gets attached, she'll never be able to give him up."

"Is she sure she doesn't want to see him?"

"Yeah, I think she's pretty sure."

"And what about you? Is this going to be your last time seeing him?"

"I think so. I need to detach myself. I have to go call my cousin and tell her the good news."

"I know you probably don't want any advice, but I'm going to give it to you anyway." Beck politely nodded at the nurse. "I've seen this situation happen before. I've seen teens parents give their baby up for adoption. Almost always, their number one regret is that they didn't name the baby. I think you should name your son. You should give him something to remember his biological parents by."

"Don't we have to put our names on the birth certificate in order to give him a name?"

"Normally, yes. I am going to make an exception for you, though, as long as you can get the intended parents here before tonight at midnight."

"Really? That's so nice. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Just remember, you are making the right choice. You are already an amazing parent by realizing your son needs the best life possible with the people who can give him that life." And with that, the nurse handed him the birth certificate, told him to find her when he was done, and walked out.

Beck knew almost immediately what his son's name would be. He and Jade had talked about kids' names mostly as a joke at the beginning of their relationship, and then again more seriously about a week after high school graduation.

Weston Beck Oliver. Weston because it had West in it and it paid homage to Jade. Beck after the father, of course. Beck wrote out the baby's name on the certificate, in his best hand writing possible. He pressed another gentle kiss on Weston's cheek, and murmured an "I love you." He then took him back took the nursery, said his final goodbye, and found the nurse again.

"Weston. Such a strong name." The nurse said, looking at the certificate.

"Yeah. My girlfriend and I agreed on it last year. We agreed that we'd name our first son Weston." Beck explained.

"We'll take good care of him. He'll be ok." The nurse promised. Beck gave her a weak smile, and then walked off.

He ended up wandering around some more, deciding he wasn't yet ready to face Jade again. He slowly made his way to the cafeteria. He grabbed a muffin and some coffee and sat down at a table in the corner. He took a few sips of his coffee before finally biting the bullet and calling Lorelei.

"Hey, Lori, it's Beck." He greeted into the phone.

"Becky? It's been so long. How're you?" Lorelei asked.

Beck cringed at the use of his childish nickname, but continued on.

"I'm, um, good. I actually wanted to give you some news. Hopefully you'll find it to be good news."

"Is everything ok?"

"Yeah. So, last night, I took Jade to the ER after she'd been having pains all day. She claimed that they were just really bad period cramps, but they kept getting worse. She started screaming in pain with every cramp. Anyway, we got to the ER and they did an ultrasound. We found out that she was 38 weeks pregnant and in labor."

"Congratulations, Beck. You and Jade will make great parents." Lorelei said, a hint of sadness filling her voice.

"I'm not done with the story. So, anyway, she was taken up to L&D and after less than an hour, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. He weighed 7lbs, 8oz, and he was 19in long. Jade passed out shortly after giving birth and was taken to emergency surgery. She's ok now, but she'll have a long road of recovery."

"I'm glad she and the baby are ok, but I'm not sure why you said I would find this to be good news."

"Jade and I aren't ready to be parents yet. We don't have the money or the space or the time to be parents. As much as it hurts us, we can't properly take care of our son. We decided that we want to give him to you and Ethan. We want our son to have the best parents possible, and we think you can be those parents for him."

"Are you serious?" She asked, her voice shaking from the tears welling in her eyes.

"Yes. Jade and I want you to have our son. We want you to adopt him."

"Oh my god, Beck. This is our dream come true. Thank you so much."

"We know how hard it's been for you guys to become parents and we want to help you finally fulfill your dreams. The only catch is that you have to get here today before midnight California time. If you don't, child services will have to be involved."

"We'll be there. I promise we will. Thank you so much, Beck."

"Ok, I'll see you when you get here. Bye." Beck said his goodbye and hung up.

Beck breathed out a sigh, gulped down the rest of his coffee, took a few bites of the muffin, and ran his hands through his hair. Today had been by far the most emotional day of his life. He'd experienced emotions he hadn't even known existed. He sat in contemplation for a few moments longer, before getting up, throwing away his muffin, ordering a coffee for Jade, and making his way back to the hospital room.