Hey guys! Please don't kill me! I'm sooooo sorry that I've been such a slacker. In my defense, I do have a very good excuse. I don't know if any of you have ever thrown out your sciatica, but two weeks ago I did. It is one of the worst pains I have ever experienced in my life (FYI I've never given birth). I could barely get out of bed for like two whole days, and when I did get up, I walked slower than my grandma. It just takes your breath away and makes everything so hard to do. I was able to make it to the hospital, but all they did was give me a muscle relaxer and sent me home. I still am unclear as to how I did it, but I was told it can take like 4-6 hours after the injury occurs for it to set in. I have just been so unable to work on my story much ever since it happened. I'm not 100% happy with this chapter, (it's more like 90%...lol) but I wanted to get something out to you all for being so incredibly patient with me, and not giving up on my story yet! You guys are so amazing!

Now for all of our favorite part-SHOUT OUT TIME!

Muito obrigado (I'm currently watching a movie with Gisele in it so there's some Portuguese for ya) to: xFabinao, the Guest, and Dawnmist of RiverClan!

Disclaimer time: Due to the lovely hospital bill I have now incurred, I will not be able to afford the rights to The Proposal or Victorious. Therefore, I do not currently, nor will I ever, own either one.

And now for the hopefully fun stuff!

Chapter 9

By the time Beck and Jade had rejoined the party, (somehow without managing to run into each other before hand) Andre had pretty much calmed things down, and no one attacked Beck with any questions. At that point, most people were leaving to go back to the mainland, and simply offered congratulations on their way out.

"Hey Jade. Listen, I'm sorry for-" Beck had finally found Jade and was trying to apologize, but was cut off before he could get too far.

"Look, there's too many people still here, and I haven't quite calmed down enough to not want to kill you yet, so let's just try to get through this thing right now, and then we'll discuss damage control later." Jade spoke in the eerily calm tone that always belied her immense anger.

Beck was normally a very calm and collected person, but when Jade used that voice, it never failed to rattle his nerves. He had to swallow a slight lump in his throat before replying. "U-um, okay. T-that sounds g-good."

"There you two are!" Betty had picked that exact moment to join Beck and Jade, and Beck couldn't have been happier to see his Nana. Anything to keep him from being alone with Jade in her current state was paradise in Beck's opinion. "I just heard the news and wanted to congratulate you both! I'm sorry I missed the big announcement, but I was in the woods with Mr. L-"

"NANA! TMI! TMI!" Beck did not want to hear anything else Betty had to say, and practically knocked her over in his rush to cover her mouth with his hand.

Jade, on the other hand, was curious to hear what else was going to come out of the older woman's mouth, if only for the fact that it would take the attention off of her and Beck. "No Beck, let her talk. I want to hear all about your Nana's adventures." Jade's mischievous smile had Beck rolling his eyes, but he did not remove his hand right away.

"Oh no! I am not removing my hand until I know that Nana's not going to continue with her current news." Beck stared somewhat defiantly at Jade.

"Oh really? Well, speaking of your hand's present placement Beck, what the hell was that?! You don't treat your grandmother that way. If you ever do that to me, or talk to me like that, you'll come back with one less hand, a black eye, and no fiancee." Jade actually liked Betty, and in trying to defend the older woman, didn't even realize how naturally the word fiancee came out of her mouth without making her want to gag.

Beck, on the other hand, had zoned out with the ease in which Jade spoke about their 'relationship,' but as the rest of her words finally made it through the fog in his brain, a slightly chagrined look formed on his face as he spoke to Betty. "Okay Nana, I'm going to take my hand away, but you have to promise me that you won't say anything else about your personal life. Can you do that?" At Betty's nod, Beck took his hand away, but stayed standing right next to her just in case.

"Jade's right Beck. You're just lucky I'm too happy about your news, or I would've told you exactly who else was with me just now. Since you don't want to hear it though, come on Jade, let's go for a little walk and I'll tell you all about my rendezvous." Betty ended with a large smile, and conspiratorial wink to Jade. The two linked arms and left Beck standing there with his mouth gaping open and chills of revulsion running through him.

/

Fortunately for Jade, (because she liked Betty, but besides the fact that the woman is Beck's grandmother, Jade really did not want to hear about old people hooking up-she only said that she wanted to because it made Beck squirm so much which amused Jade greatly) the two had not gone ten feet before running into Cat and Andre. Andre made his way over to Beck to say his goodbyes and make plans for the following day, while Cat stayed to talk to Jade.

"Hey Jadey, Andre says we have to go back to his parent's house now because everyone else is leaving and we can't miss the boat. You and I are totally going to hang out tomorrow though and go shopping right? Because Andre said that he and Beck are hanging out and I don't want to stay with his parents." Cat had once again showed off her amazing lung capacity by not taking a single breath as she spoke.

After she finished, Cat looked so sad at the prospect of not hanging out with Jade, causing Jade to not hesitate in giving in to the red head's request. Jade had also agreed to Cat's request for selfish reasons, because she really didn't want to hang out by herself with Beck's mom and/or ex-girlfriend, as she knew Beck had other plans already with his dad and/or Andre too. She would never admit it out loud, but Jade was really glad Cat was there with her this weekend. Even though she didn't like lying to the other girl, having her best friend here was going to be life-saving, not just for Jade, but for anyone she might have had murderous thoughts about.

With Jade's agreement, Cat's mood did a 180, and she was Normal Cat once again. "Yay! Ok, so goodbye Jadey! See you tomorrow!" Cat then went to give Jade a hug goodbye, and was surprised when Jade actually allowed it and didn't shove her off right away.

Although she let Cat hug her, (because she was trying not to be 'Good Jade' in order to appease Beck's family) Jade didn't let it last too long. "Yep. Bye Cat."

Jade had stepped out of the hug and was saying goodbye to Andre as he had come back to get Cat after speaking with Beck, when Mary and Violet approached the group, with the latter still looking slightly uncomfortable-which brought great happiness to Jade.

After they finished saying their goodbyes to both Andre and Cat, with Cat and Violet (who was once again her cheerful self, but only because she was speaking with the red head) excitedly talking about hanging out together the next day, (meaning Jade would not be having a good time at all) Mary explained the reason she and Violet were there.

"Jade I've been looking for you. Beck you come over here too." Mary didn't even wait for Beck to join the ladies-she walked over to him, grabbed his arm, and dragged him physically into the conversation. "It's getting late and since everyone has pretty much left for the night, I want to show you both where you'll be sleeping."

"Uh mom, I thought I was just gonna sleep in my old room?" Beck's confusion was evident in his voice, along with his raised eyebrows.

"Oh honey that room would barely be big enough for you. Plus, well, we kind of already turned your old room into a storage room for your father's things." The way she said 'things' caused Beck to hesitate and close his mouth, deciding he didn't even want to know what his mom was talking about. "Now if you'll both come with us, (indicating herself and Violet) we'll show you to your room." She then turned and led everyone up to the house without waiting for any responses.

Not one to be left behind, Betty decided to tag along with the group and followed behind Mary, Violet, and Beck.

Beck hadn't really been paying attention to his mother's word choice, and simply followed her and his ex-girlfriend, but Jade had caught on to the fact that Mary said room, as in just one. Her eyes widened to about twice their normal size, but luckily for Jade, she was at the back of the group, and no one saw her slightly panicked expression.

/

"Here you are!" Mary said the words with great enthusiasm, while waving her arm with such a flourish that Beck wondered if she had been a game show assistant in the past and never told him.

"Wow, thanks mom. The guest room looks great!" Beck was either in denial, or it still hadn't registered yet that there was only one bed in the room for both he and Jade.

"Glad you like it. You and Jade should be able to sleep pretty well in here. Remember, of course, that you'll have to close the curtains so it will get dark in here." (I'm pretty sure it does get dark at night there because they're not in Alaska like the movie, but for this story's sake, we're sticking with the fact that it's sunny pretty much all the time)

Betty had gone over to one of the closets in the room and pulled out a beautiful handmade quilt. "And here's the blanket my mom gave to me when I got married. It's known in our family as the 'baby-making blanket,' so you two have fun!" Betty spoke in an amused tone, and punctuated her words with another of her conspiratorial winks in Jade's direction.

Jade, not wanting to alienate the only member of Beck's family she actually tolerated, settled for slightly turning up her lips while clenching her jaw tightly. She turned towards Beck so that only he could see the criminal intentions in her eyes.

Beck actually surprised Jade by hiding any shock he was feeling a lot better than she had thought he would, both to his grandmother's words and her own expression. He instead used his quick thinking, and surprised his 'fiancee' once again when he responded to Betty's words with, "Thanks Nana, but Jade and I have decided to wait until we get married before we sleep together."

Violet, who had previously been simply standing in the background, couldn't keep the huge smile off her face at hearing those words. In her mind, she believed that if Beck and Jade weren't sleeping together, she might still have a chance at getting back together with him, because she knew Beck wasn't a virgin, (as she had been his first) and she was fairly certain that Jade wasn't one either.

Jade saw Violet's smile, causing a scowl to appear on her own face, and her eyes to narrow once again with bad thoughts on her mind. Inspiration soon struck however, and walking over to Beck, she wrapped her arm around his waist while saying, "Oh come on darling, they don't need to know all our business. Besides, I don't remember agreeing to that." Seeing the confusion on Beck's face, (along with a little lust, but she was the only one who saw it since he was looking directly at her). It took her a minute to collect herself after seeing that look in Beck's eyes, and when she had, she continued with, "I mean, who knows what will happen while we're here? We are on vacation, so anything is fair game." Simply wanting to get back at him for disrupting her, she didn't even think about what she was doing as she gave him a little-longer-than-just-a-peck on the lips, and was proud to discover that her action caused him to become hypnotized with his lips slightly parted, and his eyes unfocused. Of course it wasn't until after she took her lips away that she thought, 'it was just a stage kiss to rattle him, so why the hell does my stomach feel so fluttery?' For the time being, though, she opted to push that thought as far back in her brain as it would go.

As Jade turned back towards the others in the room, she caught sight of the glassy look in Violet's eyes, and sent a smirk her way.

"Aaaaand that would be our cue to leave you two lovebirds alone. Night night!" Leave it to Betty to break up the awkward silence that had followed Jade's words and the kiss. She then proceeded to escort the still stunned Mary and Violet out of the room, with Violet appearing to let a few tears escape before she was able to turn and walk out.

/

As soon as the door shut behind the three women, Jade removed her arm from Beck's waist like she'd been electrocuted. "God, am I good or what?"

For someone so normally well-reserved, Beck seemed to get stunned a heck of a lot whenever he was around Jade. Finally coming out of his latest trance, it took him a minute to register what had just happened. When he did, he couldn't help but reply with, "You're good? Who the hell had to rescue you from my grandma's 'baby-making blanket'?" Somehow, the kiss that Jade had given him hadn't even crossed his mind as he spoke.

Jade was starting to become angry upon hearing Beck's response (his refusal to even acknowledge the kiss just contributed to that anger, but she refused to be the one to bring it up first). "Rescue me? Who the hell are you to decide that I even needed to be 'rescued' huh? I could've handled your grandmother just fine if you'd have let me."

"Riiiiight. So you were handling things just fine when you looked at me with that murderous expression on your face like you wanted to kill my grandmother?!" Beck was starting to get worked up himself, as only Jade could make him.

"Oh relax, contrary to what you might think, I actually like your grandma. I would never want to hurt her. I was just upset that they were still in here and I was ready for them all to leave. I didn't really care about what she said" (because it was easier to act pissed off than to give credence to the insinuation that was made-Jade barely acknowledged that she slightly-more-than-tolerated Beck. She absolutely did not want to think about sleeping with him right now. She was currently still trying to process the fact that she had kissed him, and she flat out refused to think about the subconscious reasoning behind that decision instead of just sending him a sexy wink).

"Uh huh...suuuuure. You know you're thinking about sharing this big old bed with me." He had gone over and was patting the bed and smiling stupidly as he spoke. He had calmed down with Jade's words, but not because she had told him to do so, but because he could see that she did not fully believe the words that came out of her mouth, whether she realized it right now or not.

"One-quit being sarcastic. That's my thing and it doesn't suit you at all. And two-I don't know what you're thinking, but you're sleeping on the floor and I'm sleeping in that bed all by myself." Jade gave him a self-satisfied smirk as she walked over to him and shoved him off the bed where he had been sitting.

Beck did not want to sleep on the floor, but he also didn't want to fight even more with Jade, because then he might end up sleeping on the couch in the living room, and that would raise questions that he really wasn't wanting to answer. Instead, he huffily took a couple of blankets out of one of the closets and made himself a pallet on the floor.

After the two had gotten ready for bed, (with Jade making Beck use the bathroom down the hall instead of the one in their room) Jade tried to make herself comfortable in the bed while Beck tried not grumble too much about the hard floor. "Aren't you at least going to give me a pillow?" Beck attempted to ask nicely, but couldn't help the slight frustration he was still feeling, while trying to repress the thought of sharing the bed with Jade, and how he wouldn't exactly be opposed to that idea.

"Here." She roughly threw the pillow at him, hitting him in the stomach, and causing a grunt of pain to come from him. "Goodnight. Sleep well dear."

Beck had to grudgingly admit (only to himself) that the sarcastic tone did fit Jade's voice much better than his own, but wouldn't give her the satisfaction of a reaction. He just said goodnight while trying to get comfortable, and ignoring the tingling feeling that continued to linger on his lips.

Beck was actually an easy sleeper. It had never taken him long to fall asleep. Five minutes after he shut his eyes, he was on the brink of unconsciousness when Jade's yelling voice pierced the quiet atmosphere of their room.

"BECK! GO CLOSE THE CURTAINS! I CAN'T GET TO SLEEP!"

"Shhhh! You'll wake up the whole house with that tone!" Grumbling under his breath, Beck stood up and closed the curtains. "There. Happy Your Majesty?"

"What did I tell you about the sarcasm? And as for waking anybody else, whatever because I don't care." Jade then turned away from the window and after making herself quite comfortable, soon fell fast asleep.

Beck laid back down on his 'bed' and after punching his pillow around and muttering out a "you're welcome," finally fell into a much needed dreamless sleep, with all thoughts of what else could happen this weekend way back in the far recesses in his mind.

A/N: So there you have it for now. I know the wait was bad, but I hope this chapter was worth it. I am now going to humbly get down on my knees and beg for your forgiveness because you're going to have to wait again (for at least two weeks) before I can get Chapter 10 out. I'm flying back with my sister to Texas because I really need a vacation, and I'm not really going to have time to be working on this story while I'm gone. I totally promise to give you guys a super long chapter when I get back to make up for my absence! For now though, Au revoir my animated anteaters :)