Chapter 23:

A/N: Apologies for slow updates; I have been away for the week.

Stan PoV

"Ken, I need to talk to you." I say down the phone, thank fuck it was the weekend because it was midday and I had no plans to leave my bed.

"Can't you talk to Kyle?" I hear him reply, he sounded incredibly tired. "I'm a bit tied up."

"Oh yeah, great." I spit. "Thanks for your support."

"Ok, fine Stan." He mutters. "But you'll have to come here, I'm looking after Karen."

"Ugh..." I groan, slowly pulling myself out of bed and chucking a T-shirt and jeans on. I pull my red puff ball hat on over my messy hair. It was fraying now, with holes and pulls in the material.

It didn't take me long to walk to Kenny's, it was only a few houses up the road. Off in the corner of the street, out of view. He appears at the entrance to his house, where his garden looks like a junkyard; scrap metal and rubbish scattered anywhere.

"...Where's your door?" I ask him, pointing at the open doorway.

"Gone." He tells me. "Blame Kevin."

"Right." I nod. "Are you going to get it replaced?"

"Stan." He studies me. "Our roof is about to fall through, we have no central heating for the winter and we are virtually starving. The door is the last of our worries."

"...Are you drunk?" I notice his slumped body, leaning up against the door frame.

"Mmm." He mumbles. "Come in."

I follow him into his rotting home; it is falling apart, freezing cold, with dust coating everything. I hadn't been here for ages, I didn't bring myself to face that sort of torture.

"Cozy." Is all I muster and he gives me a look.

"So what do you want?" He spits, going over to the cupboard to look for something to offer me. He pulls out half a packet of stale cheesy poofs and a tin of cream corn. Apart from that, there was nothing but shit loads of bottled spirits at the back of their cupboard. How they could afford those but not food, I didn't know.

"...I'm cool... For now." I tell him and he nods, putting them back and closing the cupboard door.

"Are you going to tell me what's up then?" He asks again, looking pretty sick.

"Wendy and I broke up." I sigh.

"...I'll alert the gazette." He says sarcastically and I raise my head.

"Kenny!" I yell. "I'm in pieces here."

"Clearly." He studies me and then hesitates before opening the cupboard again. He pulls out some bottle of oddly coloured liquid, un-screws the cap to smell it and then pulls a face. All the same, he takes a long gulp of it from the bottle. "Tequila."

"Bit early for that isn't it?" I mutter, still mad at him for not caring.

"It's never too early if you haven't had any sleep." He inserts and I frown.

"You've been drinking all night?" I establish.

"Not all night, no." He corrects me. "I passed out for a few hours."

"...Something tells me that I'm not the only one who's in a bad way." I say.

"Oh no, trust me Stan." He laughs, drinking from the bottle again. "Your life is much harder than mine right now."

"No need to be sarcastic." I pick up on his tone. "So... Are you going to tell me what's up or not?"

"No rush is there?" He sneers. "Believe me this is worth waiting for."

"...Kenny." I manage to say before he grabs the back of the chair and falls onto the floor.

"Oops, missed the seat." He chuckles to himself, raising he bottle to his lips again.

"I think you should stop drinking that." I try to grab it off him, but I know not to argue with a drunk Kenny. My battered face says it all.

"No!" He yells. "I have good reason. Unlike you. Oh no wait, teenage drama, the captain of the football squad has an argument with his girlfriend and hell breaks loose. Nothing else matters. Will love's young dream make it through?"

"Shut up you twat." I snap, fed up of his sarcasm. "You know what? You're being a complete dickhead at the moment. You've wrecked my life with your stupid drunk acts. Almost killed me and your girlfriend. So you think you have the right to tell me that my life is perfect? Hey? Why don't you just-"

"My dad's died and my mom has been arrested." He suddenly blurts out, still lying on the floor.

"...What?" I mumble, wondering if I had heard that right.

"My dad is dead." He repeats. "And my mom has gone to prison... Again."

Bebe PoV

Ok Bebe, just do it. This was the third time I had hovered by the reception desk in Hells Pass, before running back to my car. Get it over and done with.

"Hi..." I suddenly cry out to the wary receptionist who had been eyeing me up for the past half hour. "...Hi... I um..."

"Mr Thomas the manager isn't here right now." She sighs. "But if you give me your number I will pass it along to him with all the others."

"Who's Mr Thomas?" I question.

"I assume that's why you are dithering around here, waiting for him to come out of the back room so you can look at his ass." She shrugs. "It's what they all do."

"...Ok." I gulp. "Well... As tempting as that offer is... I'm actually here for an appointment."

"Oh." She mumbles, turning to her computer screen. "Name?"

"Um... Bebe Stevens." I tell her, wringing my hands.

"...You're here for a five month pregnancy scan?" She sounds shocked, which didn't surprise me.

"Erm, no, you must have got that wrong." I deny quickly, the words falling out of my mouth all at once. "...Yeah, that's me."

"Right." She nods, trying to keep things professional. "Well you are fifteen minutes late but if you hurry to room sixteen, you can be seen now."

I just give her a slight smile before jetting off down the corridor in the hope that I don't see anyone I know. I find room sixteen and hesitate before knocking. Jesus, no I couldn't do this. I still had time to leave. Do it Bebe, do it now. My hand gives a muffled knock on the door. You can still run away. Go. Run.

"Miss Stevens?" A woman appears at the door.

"No that's not me." I do it again and she looks confused. "...Yes?"

"Nervous?" She asks me. "That's okay, I'd be surprised if you weren't."

She leads me inside and sits me down on a bed covered with paper sheets.

"I'm sorry, I'm not..." I begin but then my mouth feels like sandpaper.

"I am doctor Qasim and I will be your midwife. I'm just going to ask you a few questions first." She gives me a warm smile. "Firstly... Does anyone know about your pregnancy?"

"...Just um." I try to spit the words out.

"Take your time." She reassures me.

"Just my best friend, Wendy." I tell her. "Oh and this fat kid from school. He over-heard me in the toilets, I didn't tell him. Although I probably shouldn't call him fat because that's what people will be calling me soon. Won't it? Oh God..."

"Right." She nods, looking slightly confused. Score Bebe. "Have you experienced any discomfort in your abdomen?"

"Not since the crash, no." I recall. "Well, except for morning sickness."

"And any painful gas?" She questions, scribbling on her notepad.

"Ew! No!" I virtually scream and she looks up suddenly. "...Sorry..."

"That's fine." She smiles again. "Can I get you to put this robe on and lie down on the table?"

"Look... Mrs... Doctor..." I stutter.

"Qasim." She reminds me.

"I've decided I'm going to get rid of it you see." I pull the robe on. "So I need to get it done as soon as possible."

"Well you have very limited time at this stage." She tells me. "You are almost twenty one weeks Bebe, abortion isn't allowed after twenty four."

"Precisely why I need one now." I explain.

"Well there is a waiting list." She adds. "You'd have to make an appointment and standard procedure is-"

"Hold on." I put my hand out to stop her. "Are you denying me an abortion?"

"No, I'm not." She argues, talking softly. "I'm just saying you will have to act fast and you have to be absolutely sure."

"I am sure." I persist.

"Then why are you here today?" She inquires and I pause for a second.

"...I just..." I mumble. "I just wanted to... See it."

She studies me carefully and I lie back on the bed, clenching my hands into fists so that they don't shake with fear. I wait while she starts up the ultrasound and gets things ready.

"Ok, I'm going to place some gel on your stomach, so it may be a bit cold." She informs me and I feel a twinge as the liquid is rubbed near my belly button. A low beeping noise sounds and then a quiet, steady beat as she begins to move some device around. It gradually gets louder and I see her smile whilst looking at the screen.

"...Is everything ok?" I ask.

"Everything is fine." She beams.

"...Can I see... It?" I gulp and she turns to screen slowly. My eyes fall on a tiny figure, moving around, black and white waves swimming around it. I bite my lip to stop the tears but they come spilling out all the same. "I'm sorry."

"That's ok." She gives a slight laugh. "I'm used to it trust me. Sometimes we have mother's balling their eyes out in here."

Mother. The word echoes in my head. Whether I liked it or not, I was a mother. This baby was inside of me. I could see it with my own eyes. It was feeding off me, living off me, I was raising it up.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" I suddenly ask.

"Well, it's hard to determine from this scan but my guesses would suggest you have a baby boy." She says and my face breaks into a smile.

"A little baby boy." I whisper. "My little baby boy."