A/N: Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter, I'm glad I've still got people interested :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious

Chapter Twenty: Hardships

The rest of the vacation went by as smoothly as it could go given the new information and by the time they got back to L.A everything seemed to be going okay but it wasn't okay, while Jennifer and Alex had been putting on brave faces they were also pretty upset about the revelation their mothers had told them about.

"Did you ever meet him?" Jennifer asked, Alex one day. They were currently hanging around in Jennifer's room watching the T.V. Alex turned to see a thoughtful look on Jennifer's face.

"Did I ever meet who?" Alex wandered.

"Your dad… or I guess my dad?" Jennifer asked. Alex shrugged.

"Kind of" She replied, Jennifer furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. What was that supposed to mean?

"Um" Jennifer mumbled, wanting Alex to be a bit more specific.

"Well… Before we found out about the switch the whole; "Who's my father thing" was a sour subject. I guess he'd hurt my mom and she didn't want him to hurt me too but I was desperate to know so I asked, Aunt Trina" Alex explained. "At first she too didn't want to tell me but I kept bugging her so she gave in and told me three different names hoping I wouldn't figure out which one was him… It came in handy for my science project though. I tracked them all down and convinced two of them to give me DNA samples… The other one I kind of chickened out… so I didn't ask, I just pulled out a hair when he wasn't looking" Alex explained, turning back to the teenage drama show they'd been watching.

"How'd you manage that?" Jennifer wondered, amazed.

"I don't know. He was the last one on my list and I only had his business address. He owned a motorbike repair shop. I went up to the till and asked to see him and he said that he was him and asked what it was I wanted so I just kind of… distracted him by asking about the stuff behind the till and when he turned I leaned over and pulled hair out with a pair of tweezers. I was out of there pretty fast after that" Alex responded.

"Wow, I wouldn't have had the guts to do that… I probably wouldn't have thought about it!" Jennifer mused, Alex shrugged her shoulders.

"It was just a spur of the moment thing" She brushed it off, thinking it was nothing but Jennifer it was pretty impressive.

"So what do you think of this whole going to court thing?" Alex changed the subject, she didn't want to think of the past anymore.

"I know they said they still love both of us and everything… but I don't see the point of them going to trial. I mean our life it pretty okay, now… I mean what real hardships have we suffered here?" Jennifer asked, that same thoughtful expression from before, decorating her features.

"What about the fact I never got to meet my dad… and now I never can, that's a hardship… I think" Alex stated, bitterly.

Two weeks after they had got back from their vacation and they'd all settled back into their everyday routines, Tori and Jade met with a lawyer. They sat in Jade's office one Monday morning. All the kids had gone to school and the lawyer had just arrived.

"Thank-you, for meeting with us, Mrs Owens" Tori greeted the lawyer; she was tall and wore her long blonde hair in a tight bun. She was dressed head to toe in pink and whites, kind of like 'Elle Woods' in legally blonde.

"It's my pleasure, when I saw your case I just had to do it!" Mrs Owens replied, a small smile on her face.

"So... I understand that a few months ago when you both found out about the switch you weren't going to go to court?" Mrs Owens, double checked as she looked over the paperwork in her hand. Tori and Jade nodded.

"That's right" Jade agreed. " At first I just wanted to get to know Alex and I didn't want to hurt Jennifer by going to court but when Beck told me what he told me, I changed my mind" Jade explained. Mrs Owens nodded then turned to Tori.

"And you, Miss Vega... What did you want to do?" She wondered.

"Well... I thought about it for a while but I knew that my Alex would take it the wrong way, but like Jade said... I changed my mind when we knew more" Tori explained, Mrs Owens nodded.

"I see" She muttered.

"It won't effect us in court... Will it?" Tori asked, now starting to panic.

"I'm not sure. The other party might try to use it against you, so thats why it's important for you to tell me all I need to know so I can help you win the case" Mrs Owens explained.

"So... I understand that since you found out about the switch you two have... started a relationship?" Mrs Owens added, getting straight to the point.

"That's right. At first it was hard dealing with the switch... but it made it a little bit easier knowing that I had known Jade before, I had a thing for her in High-School but I'd never done anything about it... we bonded and realized that we wanted to be together" Tori explained.

"Okay, well... I'm going to warn you now. If this goes to court and it will because I am a good lawyer and I make sure all my clients get what they deserve, e other party might try and say that because the switch bought you both closer together then the hospital doesn't owe you anything, as it did something good for you" Mrs Owens explained. Jade clenched her fist and tried not to let High-School Jade out but it was hard.

"What do you mean we didn't suffer?!" Jade demanded, Tori turned to jade.

"Calm down, she's just trying to prepare us for what's to come. Why don't you go make us all some coffee in order to regain yourself" Tori suggested sweetly, as she pressed a kiss on Jade's cheek. Jade frowned but did as Tori had told her.

"I'm sorry about Jade, she can have a short temper sometimes. It doesn't happen often anymore but it was consistent in high-school" Tori explained.

A/N: This one's short but I didn't take ages to update this time! I hope you liked it, Review please!

Thanks for reading! :)