A/N: I kind of am back now. And I would very much so appreciate it if no one tries to kill me for leaving after such a long time. There has been a LOT of shit going on in my life lately, so I'm lucky to even be able to get some time off. But please, enjoy the following chapter!

Thanks to RxRFannnnn, krazieneko, crazynerd, teresa, Latezz123, TheDreamChaser, Emerald, mageblood, callmechristina, heartless16, wolfhead, MysteryGirl2401, DarkGirlRavenGrayson, Katherine, Gingerstorm101, Doidazzleu11, blue-wasabi, Scarlet Phoenix Roth, teresa (again…?), titangrace, Earlie Birdie, Waterfairy delilah, RaeRoballtheway, Smiler, castlegirl22, and xxravenwingsxx for reviewing!

blue-wasabi: I'm sorry to say, but Jack isn't really based on Jack-Jack. I just really like the name Jack. But my other choice was actually going to be Spencer, and then his little bird name (his parents both have one, why not him?) would have been Sparrow or something. But I think I love the name Jack too much.

heartless16: I realize my first chapter or two or three focused a lot on sex, but remember, this story was based off of their sexual relationship. So I'm sorry if it had too much sex in it. The sex was incredibly important though, considering they have a kid together now… But now, since there is a LOT of tension between them, I definitely will be focusing more on emotions and stuff. As for the high school background stuff you mentioned, I only planned on having them in high school for about three chapters, so I didn't want to focus too much on high school.

Latezz123: Don't worry, the "new style" was only supposed to be used that one chapter to show the time transition but still give readers some information on what was currently going on, along with showing the tension between Rachel and Richard. As for the paragraphing issue, I think it would've been much more helpful to leave the ranting paragraph in since I have no idea what you're talking about. For the flowers thing… he doesn't realize that she had been staying there. They had literally just arrived, and had happened to show up with some flowers to give to Azar. But keep in mind, he also is pretty dense… I guess I should explain the white-blonde hair too. I chose white-blonde because it's the color no one would guess Rachel would have. She would also hate it, and want to dye it some other color, hence the purple hair. And for the last thing of recognizing his voice, I kind of messed up on that part, and decided to go back in this chapter to re-do it. So please, ignore that part because it didn't make complete sense.

Enjoy the chapter! Please leave a review at the end!

Chapter 5

Rachel watched as her five-year-old son dragged her old best friend back up the stairs to show Jennifer all of the toys he had. The doorbell rang as she was about to climb up the stairs after them, and called to her grandmother, "I'll get it!"

Rachel walked to the front door and was instantly met with a face full of flowers. She took a step back from the overpowering scent of the assortment and glanced at the man holding them. The flowers cut off his face, but the rest of his body was visible. Rachel could hardly recognize the man standing before her, but once she saw his cuff links, she knew. They were the exact same pair he had in his desk constantly from his father before he had died.

"Richard."

The flowers moved down to uncover his face, revealing his stern mouth and expensive sunglasses. Rachel saw his eyebrows move just above the rim of the glasses, confirming her suspicions. "Rae."

Richard had moved to remove his sunglasses, but Rachel didn't want to have to stare into his eyes that haunted her dreams since the moment they had broken up. She grabbed at the flowers and mumbled a quick "Thank you," before attempting to slam the door in his face. His hand had stopped the door from completely closing on him. Richard pushed the door open completely and stared at Rachel. "You're seriously going to slam the door in your best friend's face?"

They stared at each other for a couple moments before Rachel finally responded. "Yes." With that, she slammed the door with her foot and moved to lock it. She rolled her eyes in anger and walked down the long hallway to the kitchen. Richard knocked a few times and waited, Rachel feeling almost all of his impatience through the door. The knocking continued, pausing for short intervals. Azar came shuffling down the hallway toward the front door before Rachel stopped her. "Don't. Leave it."

Azar looked toward her granddaughter and saw the anger in her eyes. She pulled away from the door towards the flowers Rachel was holding in her hands still. "What beautiful flowers." Rachel silently handed her the bouquet before running a hand through her medium length hair and giving a long sigh.

Azar stared at her for a long moment, watching Rachel glance around as if she was thinking of something of deep importance. Azar put a comforting hand on Rachel's shoulder, and quietly asked if she was alright.

"I could be better. Thanks." Azar gave Rachel a quick hug before moving off to put the flowers in a vase of water. Rachel watched after her for a few seconds before walking to go up the stairs towards Jennifer and Jack. She climbed them two at a time before reaching her old bedroom door, cracked slightly open. She could hear her son giggling at some Jennifer had done in their game of cars. Rachel smiled to herself as she pushed open the door, revealing Jack building a large tower out of legos and Jennifer driving a car around. Jennifer looked at Rachel and gave her respective greeting; Jack was still completely focused on building the tower at least half as tall as he was. Jennifer poked him in the leg and he looked up at her, before finding his mother with his eyes. "Mommy!"

Jack ran towards her and gave her a hug. "How are you and Jennifer doing?" Jack gave her a cute pout. "She doesn't know how to build lego towers right." Rachel laughed and looked towards her friend, who simply shrugged her shoulders. Jack grabbed Rachel's hand and dragged her toward the tower he was building.

"You need to show Jenn-if-er how to build one right." Rachel smiled at her son and rolled her eyes at Jennifer.

The three started building a very small city out of legos and were driving around Jack's matchbox cars when Azar had lightly knocked on the door and poked her head in.

"Rachel, there's someone on the phone for you." Rachel got up from her kneeling stance and walked outside of the room to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Rachel."

Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head. Obviously, Richard couldn't take the hint that she didn't want to talk to him. "What?"

"I was just calling to see how you were doing."

"Fine." Rachel's confusion was laced into her words, wondering why Richard was calling her to see how she was.

"I mean, your mother did just, uh, pass away…" Rachel had practically forgotten about her mother. She hadn't spent the most time with her, but she almost couldn't believe she had forgotten that her mother had died a little over a week ago.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Nothing. I was just calling… Anyways, do you want to go out to lunch with me, get to catch up?"

"Not really, no."

"Rach… C'mon, we haven't seen each other in, what? Five years? I'm sure something interesting has happened in your life since then."

Yeah, a baby. "My answer is still no."

She heard Richard's deep sigh on the other side of the phone. "Well, that's too bad. Because tomorrow, we are going to lunch together at the little diner on the corner of Light and Printon?"

"I don't remember saying that I'll go with you."

"Well, I happen to remember that force works best with you when you refuse to do something."

"You mean… like rape?" Rachel smirked into the phone, knowing what he meant but not showing she did.

"What? No, I mean… No! You know very well that what we did was never rape."

"How do you know? Maybe after the first time I hated every second of it. Maybe I was trying to forget everything that was happening instead of-"

"Please. You and I both know that it wasn't rape."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"So I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Oh yeah, no."

"Why not then?"

"I'm busy."

"Spending time with Jen doesn't count as busy."

"Well, maybe I wasn't hanging out with her tomorrow."

"Then what?"

"If you must know, I was going with Azar to finalize plans for my mother's funeral. So. Unless you want to have lunch on my dead mother's coffin…"

"No, no, that's fine. How about Friday then?"

"And you say I have to?"

"…Yes."

"Fine then. Friday."

"See you then! Oh, but…"

Rachel was quickly becoming impatient with Richard now. "But what?"

"If you don't mind my asking… When is your mother's funeral?"

"Wednesday."

"Do you mind if I come?"

"You didn't even talk to my mother that often."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yeah, whatever. It's in Lyndon Church."

"I guess I'll see you Wednesday then."

"Yeah. That all?"

"For now. See you."

Rachel hung up the phone after their almost tedious conversation. Rachel went back downstairs to give the phone back to her grandmother.

"Was that Richard?" Rachel nodded. "He's such a nice boy."

"I guess. Do you need help making dinner?" Azar glanced at her granddaughter with a question evident on her face.

"You cook?"

"I kind of have to with a child." Azar gave Rachel a smile.

"Sure. I guess you finally realized how hard motherhood is on a person."

"It's okay. It's definitely worth it." Azar smiled at Rachel's back when she bent down to gather some vegetables in her arms.

"You're making spaghetti, right?" Azar nodded. "Good. That's one of the best things I can make."
"That's probably because it's one of the first things someone learns to make." Rachel and Azar spent around an hour making everything from scratch, save the pasta. Around 6:30, Jennifer and Jack came down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Hi momma!" Rachel smiled back at her son and put the spoon down. The pasta sauce was left to simmer as the garlic bread sat in the oven and pasta was put in the boiling water. She gave him a little hug and stood back up.

"Can I have some milk?"

"Sure."

Rachel walked to the refrigerator and pulled out the gallon of milk. Rachel walked back to the cabinets and pulled out a small, plastic cup from the time she went to Chuck E. Cheese with Richard years ago. She poured some milk into it and gave it to Jack. "Thank you!"

Jack carefully walked over to the dining room table and pulled himself up onto one of the chairs around it to sip his milk. Jennifer and Azar both looked at her.

"Is he not allowed to drink anything in the living room? He can come sit in the chair and drink it." Rachel shook her head at Jennifer.

"He's not supposed to have any food or drinks in the living room unless his nanny, Toni, or I say so."

"He has a nanny?" Even though Rachel wasn't really looking at Jennifer as she asked the question, she can imagine her mouth wide open in shock.

"In the college I went to, it was only for teenage moms, so they gave each girl a nanny. Toni's only like 5 years older than I am, but she looks so much younger. She basically watched Jack while I went to classes and to get a break. She's still his nanny though; she lives with us in our townhouse. I think she said she would be arriving tomorrow…"

"I think it will be nice to finally meet her." Rachel nodded at Azar and turned back to the cooking. Jack came back in after ten minutes of sitting at the dining room table alone. "Here ya go!"

"Thank you. Do you think you can set the table for mommy?" Jack nodded and grabbed the plates from Rachel's hands. Rachel could see him struggle to carry the plates over by himself. "Do you want any help?"

"No! I'm a big boy! I can do it all by myself."

"Okay."

As the table was being set, Jennifer and Azar had come into the kitchen to help finish the dinner up faster. They all finally were able to eat after a long time of waiting, and ate the delicious food. After eating dessert with the family, Jennifer said her good-byes and left to go back to her apartment.

~(oOo)~

Rachel felt as if Tuesday had sped by. Azar, Rachel, and Jack had all gone to the church and cemetery to make sure everything would be ready for the funeral the next day. The church was completely set up by the time they left that day, around 6. Rachel had driven Azar back to the house in her rental car and then left with Jack jumping around in the backseat to pick up Toni. By the time Toni was settled, Jack was fed and tucked in, and Azar was sent up to bed, Rachel herself was sent to bed by Toni.

Wednesday came by faster than she could ever imagine. Rachel felt as if she had gotten an hour of sleep after tossing and turning. She dragged herself out of bed and got dressed in a simple black, sleeveless dress. She pulled a cardigan over her shoulders and walked to Jack's room. She woke him up gently, got him dressed, and went down the stairs. Rachel could feel herself going through the motions, and realized that she was truly mourning her mother now. Azar, Toni, Jack, and her finally were able to leave the house after everyone ate breakfast, got dressed in their respectable clothing, and piled into the rental car. Rachel drove to the church and Toni got everyone out so she was able to park the car. Rachel walked inside and gave Toni her purse.

"I'll sit here with Jack so you can go do your daughterly thing, ok?"

"Thanks, Ton."

Rachel walked into the lobby of the church and stood next to her grandmother as the people began to arrive. Jack ran up to her after she met with a few people to stand with her. "What happened to Toni?"

"Toni said I gotta be really nice to you today cause you aren't feelin' well, so I asked her if I could give you a BIG hug." Rachel smiled at him and bent down, and Jack jumped into her arms to give her a giant bear hug.

"Well, thank you, Jack." He gave her a goofy smile and stood next to her, holding Rachel's hand as people continuously began coming in. Rachel could recognize some of the doctors and nurses her mother had worked with before, along with some of the neighbors. Rachel shook so many hands and was seriously considering just going to the seats Toni had for them. A grip stronger, yet more gentle than the rest of the viewers caught her attention and she looked up. Rachel stared straight into Richard's blue eyes that were widened with indefinite shock. He was glancing between her and Jack, while trying to focus his attention on her, but failing. His eyes demanded an explanation and Rachel was at a loss for words. Richard tried to get something out, but Rachel practically pushed him down to her grandmother and moved to a new person.

Rachel felt Richard standing there, waiting for her, and Rachel desperately tried to make each person's handshake and words of rememberance last longer. Rachel felt Richard's eyes burning into her, and she never realized that every time she read about the burning sensation, it was completely true. She turned to glance at him, and saw the wheels turning in his head. She had hoped he was dense enough not to figure out the connection between Jack and him, but her hopes were useless. Everyone was called into the room where her mother's corpse lay, and she began walking toward it, Jack's hand still in hers. Richard had swooped beside her, where Jack was not, and put his hand on the small of her back.

She suddenly could remember him putting his hand in the exact same place it was now whenever they would be… His words dragged her out of her reverie.

"We need to talk."

.

.

.

I will be trying to update SOON.

~klrob