A/N: Wow! Three thousand hits already! I can't believe it... thanks so much, everybody. :) Especially those of you who have been kind enough to review.

Also, a HUGE thank you to theatrics, who dealt with my Internet illiteracy for long enough to help me find that awesomely amazingly adorable Hairspray icon that is currently on my profile. (This story was brought to you by the letter A.)

On to the chapter!

Chapter Sixteen:

Link, Hear the Bells

Two weeks came and went, with still no word from Link. Tracy could tell that Penny was worried about her, but she still continued to act like everything was all right. She ate, she slept, she took her pills, and (every morning in the middle of breakfast, like clockwork) she dealt with her morning sickness like a seasoned professional. Most of all, she tried to look happy; and, for the most part, she succeeded.

All of it fell apart on that Saturday morning.

Tracy was eating lunch (saltine crackers and peanut butter—they were quickly becoming a staple food) with Penny when the phone rang. Penny got up to get it.

"Hello, Penny Pingleton speaking." Her face went white. She coldly said, "Yes. She's here," and held out the receiver to Tracy.

"It's for you."

Tracy didn't bother asking who it was. Slowly she got up and took the telephone from Penny.

"Hello," she mumbled.

"Hey, darlin'. I called the apartment, but you weren't there, so I guessed you were probably at Penny's."

"Yeah." Tracy felt like she had fallen asleep in a Frigidaire. "Where are you?"

"I'm at Danny's."

"Oh." Tracy had almost forgotten about Link's older brother—he hadn't really talked about him that much. "In Bethesda?"

"Mm-hm."

She took a deep breath. "That's not too far from here."

"No, it isn't."

"Does that mean you're… coming home soon?"

He paused. "I… I don't know."

"Oh." Tracy's voice cracked. "You are coming home before the baby's born… aren't you?"

Another pause. "Maybe."

Tracy realized that tears were running down her cheeks. "Are you even coming home at all?"

"Yes," he said defensively.

"So when?" Tracy was trying very hard not to start sobbing, but it wasn't working out as well as she'd hoped.

"Soon. When I get a few things figured out."

"Couldn't we try and figure them out here? I could help you…"

"This is something I need to do on my own."

Suddenly she got mad. "Fine. You figure out what you need to figure out, and I'll tell this baby why its father didn't want it."

There was silence. "I love you," he said quietly.

"No, you don't." She hung up and tried to stop crying.

PENNY'S POV

While she listened to Tracy's end of the phone conversation, Penny's mind dredged up memories from fourteen years before…

She was sitting on the stairs in the house she'd grown up in, surreptitiously listening to her parents in the kitchen.

"When are you coming back?" That was her mother, using the shrill, anxious voice that Penny would hear for years to come.

"I don't know." That was her father. Penny was surprised she could remember his voice so clearly. "I've lost myself. I need to go find what I've lost."

"All right"—there was the shrill voice again—"you go find yourself, and I'll stay here and explain to our daughter why you don't love her anymore!"

There was silence for a minute or two, and then Penny heard the front door open and squeak shut.

And he was gone.

Suddenly it was too much to bear. Penny ran out of the room and flopped down on her bed. She didn't cry—she never did when she was really upset—but instead she shuddered and shivered uncontrollably, sobbing dryly and gasping for breath.

In a few minutes, she felt hands gently rubbing her back. "Deep breaths, Penny, deep breaths." Eventually she stopped shaking and was able to breathe normally.

"There, there, it's okay," Tracy clucked. "I'm sorry you had to listen to that... I know what it must have done to you." Of course Tracy knew all about Penny's father. In the sixteen years they had known each other, nothing had ever happened to one of them that the other wasn't told about.

Penny hugged her. "Thank you." Suddenly, she remembered why the call had been important in the first place. Embarrassed and feeling a little selfish, she pulled out of the hug and put a sympathetic hand on Tracy's shoulder. "How are you?"

Tracy smiled wanly. "I'll be fine." She perked up. "I had some ideas about the wedding."

Penny grinned back. "Great! What kind of ideas?"

Tracy stood up and led her to the kitchen. "Well, I was thinking basic pink for the bridesmaids' dresses, and white for you of course. Lilies would look gorgeous in your hair, or maybe pink roses to go with the bridesmaids… What do you think?"

"Sounds great." Penny really didn't feel like planning the wedding right now, and she could tell that Tracy wasn't exactly up to it either, but she would go along with it, because that was just the kind of thing best friends did.

TRACY'S POV

Two months later…

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Penny asked her for the thirtieth time that day.

"I'll be fine!" Tracy laughed as she playfully nudged her friend's shoulder. "It's just for a weekend. I'll probably be so busy planning the wedding that I won't even have time to be spoiled by Mom." Penny's chorus competition was that weekend, and Tracy was going to visit her parents for a weekend. She had only told her parents about her pregnancy a week ago, and they were, of course, thrilled. Her father had wanted to talk to Link, but she quickly came up with a story about a weird craving for egg foo yung from China Buffet in D.C., and he settled for leaving a message.

The taxi driver stopped in front of Tracy's parents' house. Tracy paid him (with protests from Penny) and stepped out onto the sidewalk. She waved goodbye to Penny as she hurried up the steps to ring the doorbell.

The commotion started as soon as the door opened.

"TRACY!" Her mother pummeled her with a hug, and then stepped back to look at her. "Oh, Tracy, even if you hadn't called last week I would have known you were pregnant. You're glowing… and you're starting to show!" She shouted back into the house. "WILBUR, SHE'S STARTING TO SHOW!" She turned back to Tracy and seemed to suddenly realize that her pregnant daughter was standing outside in the cold. "Come on in, dear, have some hot chocolate."

Tracy obliged… but the moment she stepped into the kitchen a flash of light blinded her. When she could see again, she realized that her father was holding a Polaroid camera.

"Hey, honey!" he said cheerfully as he waved the photo around, trying to clear the picture. "How goes it at the Larkin household?"

"Fine." Tracy forced herself to be cheerful. "Such a shame he had to go on that promotional tour… but now I get to visit with you!"

Her father grinned. "That's right. Hot chocolate, anyone?"

"Please," Tracy and her mother said in unison.

Tracy smiled. The more things change…

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. This time, Mrs. Turnblad looked genuinely confused.

"Who could that be?" she mused as she went to answer the door.

The door opened, and Tracy could hear her mother squealing again. It was probably one of her clients—her plus-sized clothing business was booming.

But the person that came into the kitchen looked nothing like a middle-aged size 20 woman.

Tracy froze. "Link…?" she murmured.

DUN DUN DUN:)