Chapter Four: Baby Girl

They were hanging out in Royce's room that night after a long day at work, moving everything from one storage container to the other. Royce was playing on his computer, instant messaging Rosalie and sending her pictures from his webcams of him singing country music. Jasper looked over at Emmett and mimicked putting a gun to his head and firing. Emmett laughed taking a bite of his hamburger they had picked up on the way back to the barracks. Royce's phone rang and he answered it almost immediately.

"Hey baby girl."

Emmett almost gagged on his food at how thick Royce was starting to lay it on Rosalie. He felt awful that she didn't know that he was still talking to Maria and begging her to come back, though he talked nothing except for bad comments about her behind her back. He mostly tuned out their conversation until Royce suddenly said his name.

"Yeah just hanging out with my friends Jasper and Emmett, do you want to say hi?"

Emmett's head snapped up giving Royce a puzzled look, before shooting Jasper a frown. Jasper shrugged his shoulders as Emmett swallowed his food watching Royce toss Jasper his cell phone.

"Hello darling', so you're the one Royce won't shut up about," Emmett snorted almost spitting his soda out. Jasper wasn't lying, Royce took every opportunity to talk about Rosalie as if he were rubbing her in his face. Though he knew this wasn't true because he hadn't said anything about his feelings towards the girl he never talked to.

"I'm Jasper, yes I'm the blonde one in the picture," Jasper laughed at something she said. "Yes he told us you were pregnant, also said you had an ultrasound today."

This was news to Emmett, his ears perked up. Royce hadn't said anything to him about Rosalie having an ultrasound, it must have been when he had run inside the corner store for a pack of cigarettes. He continued to eat his food and tried to not look interested as he listened to Jasper's conversation.

"Well I've seen a picture of you too, and you're not too bad lookin' I guess Royce lucked out, his soon to be ex-wife isn't really that much to look at," Jasper laughed at something Rosalie said. "Yes I'm from the south, where are you at? South Carolina? That's not really the south."

Jasper laughed again, obviously teasing her. Emmett cocked an eyebrow at his friend crumpling up his wrapper and throwing it in the garbage can and took another drink of his soda.

"Well here darlin' I'm going to let you talk to our friend Emmett now, he looks like he's chompin' at the bit to talk to you," Jasper laughed again. "You have a good night."

With that Jasper tossed Emmett the phone and he almost dropped it. His palms were sweating and his mouth suddenly felt dry.

"Hello?"

"Hi, you must be Emmett. The one with the pretty smile in the picture."

God even her voice was sweet. Emmett suddenly found himself at a loss for words as his brain tried to catch up with his mouth.

"Pretty? No. Handsome? Yes," she laughed and his heart started to melt a little. "So, a little birdie says you had an ultrasound today."

Emmett found himself smiling as he listened to her tell him about how her visit went with the technician and he frowned when she told him about the nurse. He congratulated her when she told him she was having a little girl, but then grew curious when she started to sound a little down when she started talking about baby names.

"Why would it be a problem to name her after your sister?" Emmett asked, noticing that Royce had reappeared. Royce picked up his own food and started eating again, obviously in no rush to get back on the phone with Rosalie so Emmett grabbed a cigarette out of his pack and wandered outside with the phone.

"Well my younger sister died when I was little," Rosalie's voice grew very small and vulnerable. "I don't think my mother would appreciate me naming my daughter after her."

"Fuck what everyone else thinks, it's your kid. You should be able to name her anything you want."

"It's really, really complicated Emmett," her voice became strained. Emmett tried to relax a little bit pausing to take a drag off his cigarette, he had to be careful he didn't want to scare her off.

"Well, do you want to tell me about it? I'm a good listener and a pretty good friend," he offered.

"I wish I could, but I have to be going to bed soon, I have school in the morning and I'm a couple of hours ahead of you," she sounded like she had wanted to say more, so Emmett took the opportunity.

"I can give you my phone number if you'd like and you can call me in a few so I have your number and I can call you on my lunch break tomorrow if you'd like."

He hoped he didn't sound too desperate to talk to her, but he found himself not wanting to get off the phone with her. She was silent on her end for a little bit and he held his breath waiting for her to answer.

"Okay, it'd be nice to have someone to talk to."

"Okay," he rattled off his phone number to her and then headed back in the room wishing her a goodnight and handed the phone back to Royce who looked curiously at him as he threw himself down on Royce's bed.

"Hey baby," Royce said through a mouthful of food.

Jasper threw his food wrapper at Emmett who threw it back.

"What?"

"Did the two of you have a nice conversation?"

"Shut up. All she was saying was she was having problems with what to name her daughter and I offered some advice," Emmett an arm over his eyes to block out the light. Now that he was full, he was ready for bed. Royce was still talking to Rosalie in the background.

"Alright baby, I'll let you go. You have a good night and dream of me, I'll be dreaming of you," Emmett rolled his eyes internally gagging at Royce.

Royce hung up the phone, "I think she loves me."

"Aren't you still in love with your ex-wife?" Emmett asked monotonously from the bed.

"Nah, this girl is perfect. She's gorgeous, already has a kid on the way, she's smart, and funny."

Emmett got up quickly from the bed and made his way to the door.

"Where you goin'?" Jasper asked.

"To bed, I'm exhausted and we have PT in the morning remember?"

"No we don't," Royce said through bites of food.

"We don't?"

"No tomorrow is Saturday, we don't even work."

Emmett stopped abruptly. He had completely forgotten what day it was even, which meant he could call Rosalie in the morning if he wanted to. She must have also forgotten what day it was, because he was pretty sure there wasn't any classes on the weekend.

"I'm still going to bed, I'm exhausted from this week."

Jasper snorted, "Yeah it must be hard being on your period."

Emmett chuckled a little at this comment before shooting him a glare, "You would know."

Royce laughed so hard he started to choke on his food a little. With that Emmett left the room for his own. When he got there he turned on the light and sat down in front of his computer and opened his social media page. He automatically started searching for Rosalie's page through Royce's friend connections. When he found hers he sent her a friend request and leaned back in his chair to wait. Emmett didn't have to wait very long, because within a couple of minutes he got the notification that she had accepted it. He sent her a quick message with his instant messaging contact information and opened his instant messenger. Within seconds it opened up and there was a message from Rosalie.

"Hi."

"I'm not keeping you up am I?" he typed out.

"No, I can't sleep, my stomach is getting too big for me to be comfortable."

His hands hovered over the keyboard as he thought of what to say next to her, "Did you know tomorrow is Saturday?"

It was a stupid question and Emmett mentally kicked himself for asking it. He sat there waiting for a reply from her and saw that she was typing.

"No I totally forgot, I've been so busy this week I actually forgot what day it was."

"If you'd like I can call you in the morning?" he typed out. Emmett waited patiently for a response. The next thing he knew his cell phone was buzzing in his pocket.

He didn't recognize the number, but decided to answer it anyways.

"Hello?"

"Hi," Rosalie breathed out. She was whispering because her parents were already asleep and she didn't want to wake them up since she was calling from the house phone. She didn't know why, but she was nervous about calling him and she couldn't figure out why.

"Hi beautiful, how's your night going?"

"Well since we last talked about twenty minutes ago, it's been pretty uneventful other than some stranger sending me a friend request and now I'm on the phone with him," she teased. Rosalie heard him laugh on the other end and felt a smile grow on her face. Emmett seemed to be pretty easy to talk to.

"I would guess so since it's pretty late over there, you sure you don't have school tomorrow?"

"No I have school only Monday through Thursday."

"Okay as long as I'm not keeping you up late," his voice was laced with a hint of worry.

"Would you stop fussing over me, I'm pregnant not glass."

She could picture him rolling his eyes at her and heard him chuckle, "Okay, I just don't want you to be too tired in the morning."

"I'm going to be tired regardless, I'm pregnant. I can't ever get enough sleep," she replied sarcastically making him laugh again.

"So what's this business about you being worried about naming your daughter after your sister?"

Rosalie cringed, she didn't want to drag him into her family drama. It was overwhelming to her most of the time.

"My mom, she's," Rosalie hesitated. "She wants things a certain way when it comes to me because I'm her first born and everyone is always telling her how much I'm like her, but I'm not. I only sound like her and look like her, but I'm far from being anything like her."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Rosalie thought she heard movement coming from her parents' room, "Hold on a second."

She got up quietly and shut her bedroom door with a soft click.

"What did you ask?"

"What do you mean by your mom has certain things planned for you? You're your own person aren't you?"

"Yes, it's just a long story and a lot of drama you probably don't want to hear about."

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know," he retorted.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, tell me."

Rosalie took a deep breath, "Alright I'll make you a deal, I'll tell you a little bit about my life tonight as long as you promise to call me tomorrow."

Emmett didn't seem to hesitate, "Deal."

Rosalie launched into telling him about the argument she and her mother got into when her mother had found out she was pregnant. Her mother had yelled at her instead that this wasn't what she had planned out for her life and that she was too young to be a grandmother and that there was still time to fix this.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. You have to understand my mom though, she had a rough upbringing and she only wants the best for us," Rosalie rushed out.

"Rosalie, stop making excuses for her. That's not right, a parent should never say that to their child. And hinting at your own kid to get an abortion? That's horrible!"

"It's really nothing Emmett, that's just who she is."

"Well it's not right sweetheart," his voice was laced with a sadness she had heard before, it matched her own.

"That's my mom though," she replied quietly. Rosalie yawned into the phone and hadn't realized that somewhere during their conversation she had laid down in bed and was quite tired now.

"You sound exhausted, lay down and get some sleep. I'll call you tomorrow beautiful."

Her heart fluttered when he called her beautiful, but she was too exhausted to notice, "Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

They whispered their goodbyes and Rosalie turned off the light, rolling over on to her side and hugged her pillow to her. She was glad she had made a new friend, even if he was the friend of the guy she was seeing.