Figure It Out

-A Victorious ONESHOT-

Beck walked into the bathroom to find a little plastic box sitting on the counter. Instantly, without even giving it a second glance, he knew exactly what it was and what the results read. Jade had spent nearly 20 minutes in the bathroom that morning. Still, with all that time, she must've forgotten to throw away the stick, or hide it.

They were 20 year old college students living out of a crappy 600 square foot apartment that they barely afforded the rent for. Nearly all of the money they made went to rent.

New York had always been the place they wanted to end up, and after a year at one of the local community colleges in LA, they both acquired enough credits to transfer to a university. For Beck, that university was NYU. For Jade, her school of choice was Pace University. They were both on full ride scholarships. To make extra money to be able to afford (barely) to live off campus, they picked up part time jobs. Beck worked as a waiter at a bar, and Jade worked at a bookstore and took paid singing gigs as they came.

Needless to say, they could not afford a child.

Not only were they young and broke, they were far too immature for a kid. Hell, they nearly ended their relationship every week because of stupid little things. If they couldn't even get their shit together, how the hell were they supposed to raise a child together?

After a few minutes of staring at the test, Beck finally picked it up to confirm the results. Sure enough, that stupid little plus sign stared up at him, taunting him.

Fuck.

Beck sat with the newly acquired information for a couple hours, until he had to go to work. Before he left the apartment, he scribbled a note on a sticky note and attached it to the pregnancy test. 'We need to talk.'

When Jade got home from school, about an after hour Beck left for work, she immediately saw the sticky note. Beck had left it taped to the wall right inside the apartment, specifically so that would be the first thing Jade saw when she walked in.

Jade had taken the test that morning. She spent nearly 20 minutes in the bathroom. The first 10 of those minutes were for her to build up the courage to even open the box. The last five of those minutes were for her to process the information given to her by the little plus sign. She probably would've spent more time in the bathroom, but she had to leave for class. She was in a hurry, so she forgot to throw the test away.

Jade was…indifferent to the positive result. Sure, she was nervous about talking to Beck, but the actual thought of having a kid didn't terrify her as much as she thought it would. At 17, about 2 months after her and Beck got back together, they had a pregnancy scare. They talked in circles for nearly 12 hours. They stayed up the whole night, just discussing all of the millions of things that could go wrong if they had a kid. Beck seemed perfectly adamant about not having a kid, especially at 17. Jade told Beck she didn't want a kid either, but she'd really only told him that to end the conversation. In the end, the whole conversation didn't matter, because Jade got her period two days later.

Jade thought about those few days a lot. As relieved as she was that she hadn't been pregnant, she held that experience with a certain amount of sadness. Part of her had wished that the pregnancy had been real. Part of her wished that she had become a mom.

This time, she was fairly certain this was not just a scare. Her period was nearly two weeks late, she was nauseous all the time, and she couldn't stand the smell of meat. On top of that, she really did feel different. Call it a mother's institution, but she knew she was pregnant.

She knew, realistically, having a kid wasn't in the books for them, at least not at that point in their lives. There was no way they could afford to live in New York, raise a kid, go to school, and maintain their jobs.

Jade would be lying, though, if she said she wasn't sad by the choice she knew she'd have to make. She had always dreamt of having a kid, maybe even two or three. She knew kids would happen for her one day, but maybe this just wasn't the day.

Jade didn't have time to sit around and be sorry for herself. She had to go to work at 2:00, and then she had a gig at 8:00.

When Beck got back to the apartment around 9, Jade, of course, wasn't then. Beck immediately checked the place on the wall where he left the pregnancy test and sticky note. They were both still there, but there was another sticky note on top. 'I know. I'll be home by 10:30.'

Jade didn't get home by 10:30, though. She didn't arrive back at the apartment until nearly 1am. Beck had tried to stay up and wait for her, but he fell asleep somewhere around 11:30. Jade found him asleep on the couch when she walked further into the apartment.

"Beck. Wake up." Jade gently shook him awake. She figured there was no use in waiting to have the inevitable conversation.

Beck drew in a quick breath, as he slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Jade.

"Hey." Beck gave, his voice gravelly from sleep.

"Hey." Jade had no idea how to start the conversation. She drew in a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet. "I was going to wait to take the test with you, but you went on a run this morning. I didn't want to wait anymore, so I just took it. I was going to tell you tonight. Obviously I forgot to take the test off the counter."

Beck sighed. He was so exhausted. He really didn't want to have this conversation, but he knew that needed to.

"I'm not mad, Jade. I mean, I fucking terrified, but I'm not mad." Beck had been mad when he first saw the test. Mad that Jade didn't tell him immediately, mad that they were in this situation. Eventually, he realized there was no point. What was done was done.

"How do you feel about it?" Jade knew how she felt, but she wasn't going to tell him until she knew how he felt.

Beck blew out a breath, running his hands through his hair. Stressed, Jade thought.

"I don't really know." Beck didn't know how he felt. It was a lot to process. Beck quickly stood up from his spot on the couch and began pacing around the living room. "I mean, it's a lot."

Jade knew exactly what he meant. She was the one pregnant, after all. Nonetheless, Beck was allowed to have his feelings, just as she was allowed to have hers.

"Yeah, it is. Do you want to go to the clinic with me tomorrow?" Jade hadn't made an appointment yet, but she knew of a clinic about a block from their apartment that took walk-ins.

"What?" Beck was shocked. He knew this had all been extremely unexpected, but he couldn't believe Jade would already make the appointment without at least talking to him first.

"Not for that." Jade knew exactly what Beck was thinking. "It'd just be an appointment to confirm the pregnancy and make sure I'm healthy." Beck left out a small sigh of relief. He wholeheartedly believed that she had full reign over her own body, but he was hopeful that she would at least let him know if that's the decision she ended up making.

"Yeah, I'll go with you." After Beck's answer, there was an uneasy silence between them. Neither of them really knew what to say, and they were far too tired to come up with the words that needed to be said.

"I'm exhausted." Jade glanced down at her watch and saw it was nearly 1:30am. "As much as we need to talk, we also need sleep. We can continue this conversation in a few hours when we've both slept on it." With that, Jade walked into the bedroom, leaving no room for further discussion.

"We'll figure it out." Beck whispered into Jade's ear, pulling her into his arms as they laid in bed.

"Yeah, figure it out."