All I can say is a great big gigantic THANK YOU for being so patient with me, especially with how I just stranded you at the end of the last chapter. I'm going to go ahead and let you know now that there will be no cliffhanger at the end of this one. Also, surprise! This is the longest chapter in the whole story so far, (yay!) so if I get behind and take a little longer to get Chapter 9 out, hopefully this will hold you over and you won't want to kill me and leave me on the side of the road...lol.

Now comes my favorite part...SHOUT OUT TIME!

Maraming salamat (hopefully this is right and my readers in The Philippines aren't offended, because that's what google said it was :D) to: xFabinao, Kaylee, Dawnmist of RiverClan, tsttoain, and Guest

Obligatory Disclaimer: Well it turns out that my lawyer was wrong, and I had no case whatsoever. I think it's time to get a new lawyer...lol. So until that happens, I still don't own either The Proposal or Victorious.

Now, please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, and enjoy your ride! :)

Chapter 8

Upon hearing the words that came out of Beck's mouth, Jade froze mid-step, while her jaw dropped so fast and so far down, she might have dislocated it, but at right then that was the least of her concerns. For several seconds (Jade was too stunned to count this time) after Beck's announcement, there was absolutely no sound whatsoever. It seemed as if Mother Nature herself was also too shocked by the news because no birds cawed, no dogs barked, and not a single cricket chirped. The partygoers recovered from the initial shock a lot quicker than Jade. At first everyone just stared unblinkingly at the back porch, then after processing the words that Beck had spoken, broke out into raucous cheers accompanied by a thundering round of applause.

Beck himself had also frozen, eyes wide in shock, after the words left his lips. He was literally shaken out of his stupor by his mother. She had run up on the porch and threw her arms around Beck in a bone-crushing hug after she took in what he had said. She kept repeating "Congratulations" and "Oh my God, my baby's all grown up" over and over into Beck's ear, but refused to let go of him for a full two minutes (or it could have been two hours-time had no meaning given Beck's current state).

Beck's dad was in his own stupor, and failed to notice anything at all going on around him.

Jade was brought out of her own state of astonishment at hearing all the clapping and cheering from their 'audience.' No sooner had she recovered, however, when she was taken by surprise once again. This time it was Cat who had rushed up the porch steps (after practically bowling her way thru the crowd-she may be little, but within lies surprising strength) right behind Mary, and threw her arms around Jade while shouting, "JADEY! JADEY! JADEY! OMG THIS IS SO AMAZING! How long have you and Beck been dating? Why didn't you tell me? I thought I was your best friend? Can I be in your wedding?" Along with possessing hidden strength, the red head also had the lung capacity of a whale. She had never stopped once to take a breath the whole time she was asking Jade questions.

"NEVER CALL ME THAT! AND QUIT BOUNCING!" Jade had rediscovered her voice as she semi-forcefully pulled herself away from Cat's arms. She remembered how she had left things with Cat a couple of days ago. She was too stunned during their earlier encounter, however, to speak with her then, so Jade currently lowered her voice to a more normal volume and said, "Come with me Cat. We're going somewhere more private to talk." She grabbed Cat by the arm and began leading the red haired girl away.

Cat was way too excited about the current news, and wasn't even fazed by Jade's initial outburst. She did stop bouncing, but she couldn't get rid of the twinkle in her eyes, nor the expansive smile that spread from ear to ear. "Kay kay!" She let out as Jade dragged her off the porch and inside the house.

Mary, meanwhile, had finally pulled herself away from Beck, but still couldn't wipe off the smile that appeared to be permanently attached to her face. She also had tons of questions to ask her son, but knew she'd have to wait until things quieted down. She saw Jade leading Cat away out of the corner of her eye, and realized that Beck would have to attend to all the guests' responses on his own. Because of this, Mary knew that it would be a while before she could commence the interrogation. She turned to face Craig and saw that he was simply standing there with a look on his face as if still trying to understand what he just heard. She grabbed his hand to get his attention while saying, "Come on honey, let's go for a little walk." Craig let himself be led away without protest. They passed Andre coming up the steps, but only Mary acknowledged the dread-locked boy with a smile.

/

Jade took Cat straight into the bathroom because it was really the only room Jade could remember how to find. She let go of Cat's arm only to begin pacing while muttering harshly, "Oh my god. Oh mio dio. Questo non va bene. Questo non può essere accadendo adesso. Come posso spiegare questo? Stupido Beck e la sua bocca! " (Translation: "Oh my god. This is not good. This cannot be happening right now. How am I going to explain this? Stupid Beck and his big mouth!" I used an online translator, so if it's not 100% right, that's what I wanted it to say...lol). She didn't think Cat could hear her, but she was wrong.

"Jadey? You're kinda scaring me right now. You know I don't like it when you speak those funny words. And when you say them like that they sound so mean. Isn't this a good thing?" Cat spoke in a voice that was more timid than usual. Although she was scared from Jade's yelling, Cat really wanted to hear all about Jade and Beck's relationship, and therefore stayed where she was while waiting for the Italian born director to calm down.

Just like that the proverbial light bulb went off above Jade's head, and she turned to face Cat with a winsome smile on her face. Jade knew she'd have to speak to Cat in the soothing voice a mother uses when speaking to her child in order for Cat to really listen and believe the words she was saying. "Cat, I want you to listen closely to what I'm about to say because I really don't want to repeat myself, and no speaking until I tell you it's okay. Got it?"

After receiving an affirming nod from the red head, Jade continued.

"Now, I want to start by telling you that I'm sorry for yelling at you the other day at work. I had just gotten bad news and I shouldn't have taken it out on you. You know I'm not one to apologize for anything, so you better enjoy this moment." She glanced at Cat's wide-eyed amazement, but was glad she wasn't interrupted. "Ok, now as for what you heard Beck shout out just a few minutes ago, yes we're engaged, but no one was supposed to find out. It's hard to explain what's going on, but Cat you cannot repeat anything you hear or see while we're in Canada to anyone back in Hollywood, but you are allowed to tell your boyfriend because I'm sure Beck will let him know what's going on. If I find out you said something to anyone else though, I don't care how close we are, I will use my favorite scissors and cut off all of that pretty red hair of yours."

Cat inhaled sharply upon hearing those words, and her hands flew to the top of her head, where she started patting her hair to make sure it was still there. She ignored Jade's earlier order for her to be silent, and replied with a, "Graphic."

Apparently Jade had expelled any lingering anger because she didn't even reprimand Cat for speaking without permission.

Taking the risk that she probably wasn't going to get yelled at for talking again, Cat hesitatingly began questioning Jade for the second time since 'the announcement.' This time, however, it was about something that was still confusing to her (well one thing amongst the many). "So if you and Beck are like together, how come I've heard him talk about going out with other girls?"

Jade turned away after she finished speaking, so when she heard Cat's question, she almost gave herself whiplash by turning her head back around so quickly. "WHAT?! How many other girls has he gone out with? How serious were they? How come I've never met any of them?" When she finally stopped to take a breath, common sense seemed to prevail within Jade, and she cut off her line of questioning almost as soon as she had started. "Never mind. Forget everything I just said. I'm not really thinking straight right now with everything that's gone on recently."

Cat simply sat there staring wide-eyed at Jade's line of questioning, and this time stayed silent until she was told by Jade that it was safe to speak again.

After taking a few calming breaths, Jade felt coherent enough to begin again. "What I meant to say earlier is that Beck had to pretend to be interested in other girls so our relationship wouldn't be discovered. People would make assumptions about why we're dating, and we both felt that it would be best to keep everything secret...until now apparently. I know you want to know everything, but Cat, now is really not the time to have that discussion. WIth that said, I guess I have nothing else, so it's your turn. No more questions about my relationship with Beck though." Jade wanted to roll her eyes when she saw Cat's 'thinking' face, (which consisted of Cat staring off into space and biting the corner of her bottom lip between her teeth) already regretting giving the red head another chance to say something.

Cat surprised Jade by sounding a lot more grown up than she was usually given credit for being. "I still don't understand why you didn't tell me. I thought I was your best friend?" Jade saw Cat's eyes starting to get watery and opened her mouth while moving to interrupt the red head, but Cat soon recovered enough and continued before Jade could do or say anything. "I'm not mad at you, and I promise Jadey that I won't tell a soul anything that you don't want me to, but only on one condition."

Jade was so grateful that Cat was being so mature in this situation. She let Cat get away with calling her that awful name just this once, and vowed to agree with anything Cat asked. "Of course baby girl. What can I do for you?"

"You have to promise that when we get home we'll have a sleepover, and you'll tell me what's going on. I mean I wanna know everything. You and Beck are like my family and I want you both to be happy, so I'm glad that you guys are together." That was the first time Jade could remember Cat ever saying something that sounded so grown up. Of course what she said caused those weird stirrings in Jade's stomach again, and the more they came, the harder they were becoming to ignore.

While responding, Jade decided to ignore the rest of Cat's comments, and just concentrated on the promise Cat had asked of her. "Yes Cat, we can have a sleepover when we get home (Jade smiled as she began to realize that she liked being able to call Hollywood her home). I promise that I'll tell you everything you want to know then. It's crazy to see how much Andre has changed you since you guys started dating. You're having flashes of being a grown up every once in a while." Jade kept the smile on her face to let Cat know that she didn't mean anything bad with that statement.

Cat had gone off into her own little dreamworld of cotton candy and unicorns after she heard Jade's promise to hang out together, and was only brought back to the present, when as usual, someone mentioned Andre's name while he wasn't with her. She got so excited thinking about her boyfriend, however, that she didn't hear Jade's attempt at a joke. She jumped up from where she had been sitting and ran out the door after yelling that she had to find Andre without even saying goodbye to Jade.

"Bye to you too Cat!" Jade hollered after the bouncy girl. She was grateful that Cat was placated for the moment, and only because she was alone, took a minute to laugh softly to herself as she watch the red head leave.

/

Meanwhile back with Beck and Andre...

"Dude, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Far from being happy, at that moment all Andre felt was betrayal and anger at Beck. He punctuated his question with a little-harder-than-friendly punch to Beck's arm.

"OW MAN! That hurt! Beck rubbed his arm while noticing that everyone was still pretty much glancing in his direction. Look, we both know this is not the place to be having this conversation, so let's go into the library because nobody goes in there, and we shouldn't be interrupted. I promise I'll answer all your questions then."

Still full of anger, but feeling a little better after punching Beck, and knowing that he was finally going to get the truth from his best friend, Andre agreed, and like Jade and Cat, the two guys went inside the house. Beck didn't even acknowledge the people still gathered on the lawn watching him leave, therefore, he failed to notice the flash of pain that flickered through Violet's eyes. He hoped that either his parents or Nana would handle things until he was ready to accept everyone's congratulations on his 'engagement.'

As soon as Beck shut the door behind him, Andre was on him again. "Care to explain to me NOW why you've been not only keeping a relationship secret, but AN ENGAGEMENT as well?"

"I know. I know. I have A LOT of explaining to do, and I will, but before I get into all that, I need you to promise me something." Beck looked pleadingly at Andre, begging him to agree to the request.

"Normally I would without hesitation, but things are different now Beck. You're going to have to tell me what it is first before I promise anything."

"That's fair. Ok, I'm asking you to promise me that whatever I tell you in this room stays in this room. You can't tell anyone. Not my parents, not your parents, not our friends, and especially not Cat. I know you hate keeping secrets from her, but until I talk to Jade and find out what she's told Cat, you cannot tell a soul. Can you please do that for me?" Beck contemplated actually getting down on his knees to beg, but decided to save the dramatics for when they were really needed.

After his initial reaction, Andre's anger had slowly been fading since they left the porch. Now he was upset with Beck, but wasn't boiling with rage. Knowing Beck for as long as he has, Andre knew his best friend had to have a very good explanation for what was currently going on, and Andre decided he was going to stick by Beck. "Alright, I'm willing to listen to your explanation. As of right now I'll promise not to tell anyone, including Cat, but this whole thing had better be worth it."

"Trust me dude, it is." Beck inhaled deeply before the opening of his monologue. "I'm going to be 100% truthful about everything, but no interruptions until I've gotten everything out okay?"

Andre nodded to let Beck know he would stay silent. He took a seat on one of the couches and waited for Beck to explain everything.

Beck began pacing as he spoke, because it helped his train of thought. "Okay. Let me back up a few days. I know you remember how pissed Jade was at work earlier this week. You even asked me to calm her down because she was unnecessarily mean to Cat." He paused to glance at his best friend, and at Andre's nod of confirmation, he continued. "Well the reason she was so mad was because her meeting with the studio execs didn't quite go as well as it could have. They threatened to deport her back to Italy, and replace her with another director to finish the movie, because her Visa has expired."

Andre's eyes widened considerably at the words he just heard, but wanting to hear the rest of the story, he kept his promise and stayed quiet.

"I didn't know this fact when I walked in with her coffee, but oh boy do I have such wonderful timing (said sardonically). Turns out there is a way for Jade to be able to stay in Hollywood and continue making her movie. She can marry a United States citizen, thereby becoming a legal resident." Beck was smiling ruefully at this point, but knew he had to continue his story because his best friend needed to know how bad the situation truly was.

With every word that came out of Beck's mouth, Andre's jaw kept dropping closer and closer to the ground. A whole army of flies could've flown into his mouth and he wouldn't have even noticed.

"And as I'm sure you've probably figured out by now, you're looking at the lucky man who gets to gets to undertake that job. Sorry I didn't tell you before, but it's just been a lot to process these past couple of days, and I still haven't gotten my head completely wrapped around the whole situation yet." Beck decided that he'd said enough for now, and went to sit on the other couch in the room, across from Andre.

Too shocked by what he just heard, Andre forgot all about his anger at Beck. The two sat in companionable silence, each lost in thought. Finally it was broken when Andre said, "Wow. That's a lot to take in man. I'm sorry for getting so upset with you. When I heard your outburst, I just assumed you were dating behind my back and I hated that you didn't think I deserved to know. After hearing everything just now though, I can see why you kept it from me."

"Yeah, normally I never keep things from you because you're like a brother to me, but you know how persuasive Jade is when she doesn't want something known. Let's just say that simply blackballing me in Hollywood would seem like heaven compared to what she did threaten to do to me if I said anything." Beck shuddered at the memory of Jade's very detailed description as to what, in her book, constituted as a punishment for that crime.

Seeing Beck's shudder caused Andre to do so as well, though his wasn't as noticeable. Once he recovered, he spoke again. "Let me get something straight. You're telling me that Jade and you have to get married so she can become a United States citizen, but how is that possible? Don't you have to be a citizen first in order to make it valid for her?"

Beck, visibly calmer now and glad that Andre was being so understanding about everything, said, "I'm already a U.S. citizen. My mom was born and raised in New York City, and met my dad while he was there on vacation. They got married and decided to live here so dad could take over the family business. Although I was born here, my mom being an American citizen gives me dual citizenship." This wasn't the first time Beck had to explain that to someone. Shortly after their plane had taken off and before she became absorbed in her magazine, Jade had asked (demanded) why Mr. Amberson didn't inquire about Beck's own American citizenship since he was from Canada.

"That makes sense. Being fake married to the wicked witch is about the worst it gets though, right? I mean yeah that's bad enough, but you won't have to stay married for too long, will you?" Andre could only imagine Beck's confusion regarding the whole situation, as he himself felt as if he were in a tiny raft in the middle of the ocean with nothing but the current to help him.

Beck gave a humorless laugh before answering his friend. "Hah, I wish that's as bad as it got. It actually gets worse. Let me backtrack a little bit. The reason we were gone yesterday morning was because we were meeting with an immigration officer, Mr. George Amberson. He kindly explained to me that if he finds out we're faking anything, I can get fined $250,000 and spend five lovely years in jail."

"Oh my god dude! I really had no idea how bad this has been for you. I swear I won't say anything to anyone. I'll also help you with whatever you need. Just let me know man." The more Andre heard, the more he was glad it was Beck in this situation and not himself. "I'm gonna go back out to the party now and try to handle everyone while you take a few minutes to recover."

"Thanks 'Dre. You really are a great friend, and I'm glad you're here with me this weekend."

With Beck's final words, Andre nodded at his friend then left the library.

/

As soon as Andre turned around after shutting the door, he was literally run into by his girlfriend.

"Oh gosh, I'm so sorry!" Cat in her rush to find Andre, wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Realizing she had actually run into her boyfriend, she squealed and jumped up, throwing her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

"Whoa baby, what's the rush?" Never one to complain about holding Cat, Andre was still curious as to where she was going in such a hurry.

"I was looking for you silly!" She stopped to give him a loud lip-smacking kiss. After they parted for air, and when Cat regained her breath, she spoke again, but this time it was in a whisper as she actually had the presence of mind to not want to be overheard. "I was just talking to Jadey and she told me what's going on with her and Beck. She said that it was okay for me to tell you, but I can't tell anyone else or she'll cut off my hair." Once again one hand flew up to her head to make sure her hair was still attached.

"Don't worry Cat. I won't let anyone harm a single strand of hair on your pretty red velvet head." He moved a hand up Cat's side to slide a lock of her hair through his fingers.

"Thank you so much my big Canadian cupcake!...hee hee." Cat punctuated her gratitude with another kiss to Andre's lips. As their kiss started to get more heated, Andre turned and pinned Cat between himself and the wall. She mewled in pleasure while trying to push herself as close to her boyfriend as was humanly possible.

Just as Andre was about to throw Cat down and prove how much she meant to him right then and there, the two were interrupted by a group of drunk girls complaining about the, "Bitch who stole our Beck."

Their little love bubble effectively popped, and not in the mood to get into a verbal argument with the drunk girls, Andre set Cat back on her feet, grabbed her hand, and led her outside to face the music on behalf of his best friend.

A/N: See? No cliffhanger, just like I promised. Aren't you happy? Hope you all have a great day, and until next time Valete (bringing the Latin back...watch out now...lol) my vivacious velociraptors :D