Jadelyn West did not cry. It just wasn't something she was wired to do. On the same note, Beckett Oliver did not get scared. He genuinely wasn't capable of fear.
This was the exception to that rule.
The couple sat on Beck's bed while she cried and he held her, trying to act strong.
"I'm not ready to be a mom," she sobbed. "I'll be a horrible mom."
"You'll make a great mom," Beck consoled.
"Lies."
He laughed. "Okay, you'll be an unorthodox mom, but you'll still be a kick-ass one. And I'll be the dad who's always there to help."
"I just don't know what to do," she sniveled.
Beck bit the inside of his cheek, not sure how to reply. After almost a minute of silence, he spoke. "We don't have to go through with it, you know."
"I am NOT killing our baby!" Jade leapt to her feet, clutching her still-flat stomach. "I can't believe you would even suggest that!"
Beck jumped up and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend so her head rested on his chest. "I just don't want you to feel trapped."
"Well I want to keep it."
"That's fine with me." he kissed the top of her head softly.
Two hours later, after a much-needed nap, Beck and Jade sat down to look over their script.
"You know, it's ironic." Jade didn't even look up from the paper as she said this.
Beck looked up at his girlfriend. "What?
"It's like Sikowitz knew."
"What?" he repeated, growing increasingly confused.
"It's like he knew you were gonna get me knocked up."
Beck shook his head, chuckling, as Jade continued.
"He knew you and I couldn't deal with our parents, but it was a different issue than the others. We don't fear our parents like Cat and Robbie fear losing things and Andre and Vega fear failure."
Beck leaned back. She had a point.
"Which is really creepy," Jade kept talking, "because that would mean he knew we feared becoming parents which means he knows we do it."
Beck's eyes flew wide in horror. "Ok, stop talking," he covered his girlfriend's mouth. "Let's just work on editing the script and not talk about creepy things like Sikowitz knowing our personal life."
Jade bit his hand lightly and he pulled it away. "Fine. Even though I like how it is now. Why is Sikowitz making us look over it anyway? To drill the fears into our minds?"
Beck got up from his seat, walked over to his girlfriend, and sat on the edge of her chair. "He's picking his favorite to perform. We need at least four leads and a plot possible to perform on stage. At school."
"So?"
"So we need to find a way to show the implantation and birth without..." he trailed off.
"Making Cat faint?" Jade offered.
"Yeah."
Jade rolled her eyes and flipped to page three, where the girl was in the UFO. "How are we going to do this?"
The next day, a Friday, Beck and Jade entered Hollywood Arts hand-in-hand, pretending like nothing was different. Luckily for Jade, she wasn't nearly as queasy, but her breasts were tender and her choice of bras that day was a bad idea. It was far too stiff for comfort.
Of course, Cat came skipping across the hallway and met the couple at Jade's locker.
"Hey Jadey," the redhead squealed.
"Don't call me Jadey," she growled lowly enough that Cat wouldn't hear.
"Guess what? Sikowitz is out today and there's no sub! Robbie and Tori and Andre and I are going to In-N-Out for a long lunch. Wanna come?"
"Sure," Beck answered before Jade could.
"Great!" Cat squealed and hugged Jade tightly, causing even more pain in her already sore breasts.
Jade groaned but said nothing. Eventually, Cat broke the hug and ran off down the hallway to some unknown location.
At lunch, Jade ordered a burger, fries, and a shake before sitting down at the table between Beck and Cat.
Tori was playing on her phone at this point, probably updating her Slap page.
"Jade?" Cat eventually asked, having pulled out her phone.
"What?" Jade half-snapped with a mouthful of burger. The tone even surprised herself.
"I'm doing an interview for psych. I'm supposed to ask a bunch of questions to people in relationships and to single people. Can I ask you questions?"
The blue-eyed girl shrugged. "Shoot." She picked up Beck's soda and took a swig to help empty the burger pieces from her mouth.
"Are you still a virgin?"
Jade choked as she swallowed. Beck patted her back. "Am I a WHAT?"
"A virgin," Cat repeated lightly. "Meaning have you ever, you know...?"
Jade glanced at her boyfriend, then back at Cat. "No, I'm not."
Beck blushed all shades of red. Andre looked across the table at him with a nod of respect.
"Ok," Cat typed the answer into a note on her phone and scrolled to the next question. "What's your favorite thing about your significant other?" She looked up at her interviewee. "That means Beck."
"I know what it means!" Jade snapped, then quieted in thought. "His appearance."
Cat nodded and typed in her answer. "Do you ever want to have kids?"
Jade froze and Beck wrapped his right arm around her. She swallowed. "Yeah, I guess."
"Daughters, sons, or both?"
Jade didn't know how to answer. She absent-mindedly placed a hand on her belly. "Doesn't matter," she shrugged.
Cat nodded and typed furiously into her phone before looking up again. "Beck, may I ask you now?"
Beck nodded. "Sure."
"Are you a virgin?"
"No."
"What's your favorite thing about Jade?"
Beck looked over at his girlfriend, who was pretending to be absolutely absorbed into eating her fries. "What isn't there to love? She's beautiful and talented and smart and witty."
"And a complete gank," Rex added.
Robbie shushed the puppet while Beck shot it a glare and Jade threw a straw wrapper at its plastic face.
Cat continued her interview. "Do you want kids?"
"Yeah." Beck tightened his hold around Jade and she cooperated, moving closer.
"Daughers or sons?"
"Humans," Beck answered with a shrug and laugh.
"Okey dokey," Cat giggled and slipped her phone back into her pocket. "I asked Tori and Andre on the ride over, so I'll pass this assignment, I think."
Jade rolled her eyes. Cat was so easy to please.
The rest of the long lunch passed with conversations about their scripts and the other composing assignment going on.
Eventually, Robbie ended up on the Slap with Rex reading over his shoulder.
"Did you know Trina had a pregnancy scare last month?" Tori offered, trying to break the awkward silence growing around the table. "She kept running around the house with WebDoctor on her phone and listing off symptoms."
Jade felt her stomach drop at the mention of pregnancy.
"Who would sleep with that cow?" Rex asked.
Jade felt like she was turning green.
"That's my sister!" Tori defended.
"That solves nothing. The only attractive things about her are mounted on her chest."
"Bad images!" Robbie shouted and covered the puppet's mouth.
Rex bit him and kept talking. "But seriously, who would sleep with Trina? And the fact she thought she got pregnant? What a whore!"
Jade jumped up from the table and stalked outside. She couldn't listen to this. If a pregnancy scare caused this drama, she couldn't imagine an actual pregnancy. The blue-eyed girl leaned on the wall of the building and closed her eyes, just breathing.
Eventually, the door opened and a pair of footfalls made their way closer to her. She opened her eyes.
"Hey, Jade." Beck stood in front of her, blocking the sun.
"I hate that puppet," she grumbled.
"I know you do. Robbie's telling him off as we speak."
"Rex is Robbie, you idiot! Robbie thinks Trina's a slut for thinking she might be pregnant. Imagine if Robbie makes another Robarazzi! 'Is Jade West really pregnant? What a slut!' I couldn't do it! I can't let that happen!"
Beck stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Jade's waist, pulling her close. "I would kill him. Or at least capture him and let you kill him. Shall we go back inside now?"
Jade nodded. "Fine."
Upon arrival at the table, Jade found Rex staring at her. "What was that about?"
A dagger-like glare flew from Jade's blue eyes to Rex's plastic ones. "Does the concept of a garbage sale sound good to you, puppet? Because that's where you're going to end up." Jade said nothing more and returned to eating her fries.
Beck sighed and placed a soothing hand on his girlfriend's thigh. It was going to be a long nine months.