A/N: This chapter is for my Ana. She's my sister and I love the crap outta her. Hope everyone had a great holiday!
"Do you want this?" I ask Finn, offering a plate of food to him. He'd been sitting on the couch for the past hour, staring at the dark screen of the TV. That happened to be off. He glanced up at me when I basically shoved it into his face, "What's wrong with you?" I question.
"Why haven't you told your family that you're pregnant?" He responds back. I bite my bottom lip before turning on my heel and walking back into the kitchen. "Annabelle...?" He questions seriously. He leans himself up against the counter next to me, watching as I made myself a plate.
"I'll tell them." I assure him, finally looking up into those blue eyes that looked so confused.
"That's not what I asked." He states. His arm wraps around my waist, preventing me from walking away from him into the living room. "I want to know, WHY you haven't told them." He repeats.
"I just haven't gotten around to it." I lie as best as I could. I'd dept eye contact with him, hoping that would help the lie a little bit.
"Stop." He shakes his head.
"Stop what?" I ask innocently, batting my eye lashes.
"Lying." He grumbles. "And stop looking at me with those big green eyes like that'll help your case any." He raises his eyebrows. "Please tell me." His thumb was lightly stroking the skin on my hip as he looked at me, "Then we'll eat." He adds.
"Because I don't know if they're going to be happy." I finally sigh, looking away from him. In my peripheral vision I see his eyebrow scrunch together in confusion.
"Why would they not be happy?" He wonders.
"Because this isn't how it works back home." I say softly. I look back at him, scanning over his perfect features. He hadn't shaved in a few days, and his beard was looking on point right now. I loved it when his face had some scruff on it.
"How what works?" He tilts his head.
"We've barely been together for a minute." I tell him, setting my plate back down on the counter. "We've barely been together, we're not married... and I'm pregnant." My cheeks flush at that last part and I see the concern on his face right away. "You're supposed to be married before you have children. My parents have always, religiously believed that. It's how they were raised. Shit, they stopped talking to my brother for months because Randy had his girlfriend move in before they were married." I wipe one stray tear that had made its way down my cheek away with my palm. "I'm afraid if I tell them, that they'll be angry and they won't speak to me. Finn, you don't understand how much I need my parents." I finally finish. Understanding flashes across his face, and he nods before wrapping his arms around me and hugging me for a few long seconds.
"Ok." He smiles, pressing a kiss to my forehead. I just stand there and watch as he picks my plate up off the counter and takes it into the living room with him and sits down on the couch. "Come in and eat, my love." He says when he notices that I didn't follow him in.
"That's it? You're not going to tell me that I need to tell them or some kind of junk?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.
"No. I'm not." He shakes his head. "I'm not going to force you to tell your parents. I think you should, because while all of what you said could possibly be true... What if it isn't and you don't tell them? They'll miss out on your whole pregnancy, and you'd be even more upset with yourself." He explains. I fall down on the couch next to him, putting a forkful of eggs into my mouth. I glance at the door when Kelly walks in.
"Hey." She greets both of us in her usual bubbly tone of voice.
"Hey Kel." I try to smile.
"What's wrong?' She asks immediately.
"She's afraid to tell her parents about the baby because she thinks they'll stop speaking to her." Finn rattles off quickly before I even had a chance to answer. He smiles at me, and kisses my cheeck before grabbing his plate and standing up. "I'll finish my breakfast on the back patio I think." He adds, walking off.
Dick.
"Honey..." Kelly murmurs, taking his place on the couch next to me. "You're momma will be nothing short of thrilled to hear that you're having a baby." She assures me.
"Yeah? Even though I've only been with Finn for less than a year, shit, less than 6 months? And, we're not married, or engaged for that matter." I challenge her. She purses her lips into a thin line and thinks about that for a moment.
"Ok, here's the thing." She starts off. "Even if they do get upset, and yeah, they might." She nods, "It's better to tell them so they know, and give them the opportunity to be involved than to not tell them at all in fear that they're going to be pissed off. If you don't tell them, you're not giving them a chance at all. Your momma might get mad, but she won't stay mad forever. She can't stay mad when it involves a grandchild, we both know that." She chuckles, "And you're daddy... He's gonna be pissed we both know it." She admits, "But he'll come around too. The question really is... Do you want them angry now, but around when the baby is born or do you want to wait and have to do some of this pregnancy stuff on your own? There are some things that only your momma can help you with, that Finn can't or won't understand." She tells me.
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point. I'd been avoiding tell them because I knew they'd be upset and I didn't want the children before marraige lecture from either of them. The truth was though, I needed to endure it because there was no way in hell I could do this without my momma. Of course my daddy was important too, but it would be my momma that would fly out here and help me for a couple weeks after the baby was born. My momma, who knows how to make a baby stop crying. My momma, who knows what to do in any kind of situation. Finn said it himself, he had no baby experience. I know he'd be helpful, and he'd try so hard, but it was going to be my momma that will give me the help only she can.
"Alright, you're right." I finally sigh. "I'll call them today." I nod.
"Good." She smiles, pushing some of her blond hair behind her shoulder. "You'll feel better after, no matter what the outcome is." She assures me.
****...****...****
"I'm going to call them, please don't say anything." I tell Finn. I was perfeched at the island in the kitchen and he was leaning up against the counter across from me. "Don't interject yourself into the conversation. If they're going to get mad, just let them be angry." I say to him.
"I'll be quiet." He nods, making a motion like he's zipping his lips shut. With a sigh, I hit the call button on my cell phone. My momma picks up after only a couple rings.
"Hey baby." She answers in her perky tone.
"Hi momma, how are you?" I ask her, chewing furiously on my bottom lip.
"We're good hun, how are you? How's Finn?" She asks me back.
"I'm good."' I tell her, glancing up at Finn. "He's good too, we just finished eating breakfast a little bit ago. Is it late there?"
"Not to terribly late, no. I would have been glad you called no matter what time it is." She chuckles, making me smile.
"Momma, I got something I need to tell you." I finally say.
"You and Finn are visiting again?" She asks hopefully.
"Well, not quite." I let out a soft laugh.
"What is it baby?" She questions.
"Please don't get angry..." I murmur.
"What's wrong?" I hear my daddy ask in the background. My stomach instantly drops, I'd have rather told my momma this without my daddy around but I'm clearly going to have to tell them both at the same time.
"Your daughter is on the phone." Momma answers, "You're on speaker hunny, unless it's something you just wanted to talk to me about." She offers.
"No, no momma that's ok. Daddy needs to hear it too." I sigh, "Hi daddy." I greet him.
"Baby girl, I'm missin' you." he tells me.
"Miss you too daddy. I just called to tell you guys that I'm pregnant, Finn and i are having a baby." I spit it out quickly, not giving myself a chance to turn around and change my mind. There's a long, and super painful pause on the other end and if it wasn't for my daddy's breathing I'd have thought they hung up.
"You ain't been with that boy more than 6 months." My daddy is the one to finally break the silence.
"It doesn't matter daddy, Finn is it for me." I answer calmly. I was hoping that if I was calm, he'd stay calm. I wasn't worried about my momma getting too entirely upset.
"You're not engaged to that boy, you're not married. It ain't how it's done. Why would you be so careless and reckless?" He asks me. He wasn't yelling, but his voice was louder than what it usually was.
"I really just want you guys to be happy..." I murmur, studying the lines on the counter top.
"Baby, we're so-" I heard my momma start to respond, but she was quickly cut off.
"Quiet woman." My daddy tells her. "I thought when Randy let Lizzy move in when they weren't married was disrespectful but this takes the cake." he tells me.
"Daddy, it's not the 1500's anymore. Can you just stop?" I sigh, getting annoyed.
"That's the problem with the world anymore, children ain't got no respect. Ain't got no respect for their parents, who raised 'em." He starts to grumble. I let out a long, loud, aggravated sigh.
"Momma I love you, call me when daddy is done being a neandrithal from the stone age." I finally say before hitting the 'end' button on my phone and promptly turning it off. "There. It's done, they know. Are you happy now?" I growl at Finn. I was blaming him right now, even though I knew that none of my parents reactions were his fault. He just looks at me, doesn't say anything and doesn't respond in any kind of way. "I'd like to go see Dillon." I tell him.
"Ok." He agrees. "Go get dressed and we'll leave."
"Do you want me to leave for a while?" He offers, patting his own horses nose.
"I really do." I nod, "I'm sorry." I tell him. I felt bad for pushing him away.
"It's alright, my love." He smiles, palming my face. "Come inside when you're ready." He tells me after pressing his lips to my forehead. I took Dillon out of his stall and he followed me outside. I spend the next hour with my face buried into my horses neck. He just stood there and let me cry, every once in a while his lip would brush across my shoulder or he'd use his head to hold me against him.
"You're such a good boy." I tell him, wiping my face. Animals are really the best kind of therapy out there. There was just something about hugging an amial that just made you feel better.
***...***...***
A week later I was in the kitchen with Solomon. Finn was off at work, and for the record, yes Finn knew that Sol was here right now. We were busy making sugar cookes, and watching him decorate sugar cookies was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen.
"What is that?!" I ask him, trying to control my laughter.
"It's a bush." he shrugs, trying to his his own grin.
"You don't make bushes out of sugar cookies!" I laugh, "You're supposed to put like happy faces... or something on them." I try to insist.
"Well, I'm starting a new trend. Bush cookies." He tells me in a very matter of fact kind of tone. It only made me laugh harder. I was glad he'd showed up this morning, I really needed this kind of day just just laugh and not think about anything.
"Bush cookies?" He smirk, "Ok. Keep making your bush cookies." I nod, still grinning from ear to ear."
"What's that then?" he asks, pointing to my own cookie.
"It's a puppy." i tell him. He looks at it skeptically, then looks up at me with the same expression. "It is!" I exclaim. "There's the nose, the eyes, I even put ears on him." i tell him, pointing to each area.
"We'd hate for him to be a deaf puppy." He nods very seriously.
"You're so stupid." I chuckle, putting a few small pink dots onto his completely green iced sugar cookie.
"Hey! That's my cookie!" He exclaims.
"The bush needed berries." I tell him seriously. He pauses, and looks at it.
"You're right, definitely needs berries." He finally agrees. We both pause, and look at my cell phone when it starts ringing on the counter. I expected it to be Finn, but when I dried off my hands and picked it up it was from my daddy. I had a though about just ignoring it, because I was having a good day.
"Hello?" I answer, pointing at the undecorated cookies and looking up at Sol who rolls his eyes at me.
"Baby girl." My daddy answers.
"Hi daddy." I murmur. There a few seconds of a pause before he starts again.
"I'm sorry." He finally sighs. "I over reacted the other day. I just want to make sure you're happy, and this is what you want and if it is that you're taken care of. When you're not married to that boy, it gives him a chance to take off on ya, and I don't want that." He explains.
"Daddy..." I smile. "That's not how it is." I assure him. "Finn isn't going anywhere, he's not leaving me and he's so happy about this." I tell him.
"We're so happy!" My momma exclaims in the background.
"We are." My daddy agrees.
"We'd love to see you before your due date." My momma tells me.
"I'm sure we can do that momma." I assure her, knowing that Finn would be more than happy to have us visit them for a week or so.
"Your work won't mind?" She asks me. I haven't even been to work now in days. This whole situation had put me into a mess and I'd been sick on and off so I just decided to stay home. Or actually, Finn decided that I would stay home.
"No momma, I can get some time off it's not an issue." I tell her.
"I'm so exctied!" She exclaims happily, "My baby is having a baby!" She adds making me chuckle. I took that moment to look at the cookie Sol was decorating and point to it, looking at him like 'WTF'.
"It's a dying bush." He shrugs like he doesn't even know either. I only roll my eyes.
"Well, I just wanted to call and apologize to ya." My daddy says.
"It's ok daddy." I tell him.
"Love you darlin'." Both my momma and daddy say in unison.
"Love you too." I tell them before we hang up. "Dying bush..." I roll my eyes again, laughing at Sol and giving him a light punch in the shoulder.
"Your parents sound pretty nice, what's it like to have parents?" He asks me. That question made me stop whatever I was doing and I looked at him, a little wide eyed.
"You don't have parents?" I ask him curiously. Now that I think about it... I'd never asked Finn about his family situation either. And I needed to.
"I'm sure I did. I don't remember them now." He shrugs like it was no big deal.
"I don't know how to describe it..." I murmur. "It's like having someone who cares about you all the time, but not like a friend of a spouse would. They'd give literally anything for you, or to make you happy." I try to explain. "Wow, I'm really not good at explaining this." I chuckle.
"That's ok." He smiles. A few hours later we'd finished the cookies and we're both literally covered in flour and frosting from the cookies. Finn walked into the kitchen, with raised eyebrows looking from us to the cookies.
"What are those?" he questions, pointing to the cookies Sol had made.
"They're bushes." I smile at Finn. "My parents called earlier, we need to go visit soon. No plane please, I can't do that kind of anxiety while pregnant." I tell him simply.
"I'm going to go on home, I had fun." Solomon smiles, using one arm to half hug me quick.
"Thanks for coming over." I smile as he left out the back door.
"You made up?" Finn asks curiously.
"My daddy called to apologize." I nod. "They really want to see us before I have the baby, and i told them that wouldn't be a problem." I say to him.
"It's not problem at all." He smiles, looking a little relieved himself. His demeanor lately had been very laid back and chill, it was a nice change. Don't get me wrong, there were some days that I just loved to fucking fight with him. It seemed that he knew with some of this pregnancy stuff that he needed to be calm and collected for both of us. "You let me know when you want to go home, and we'll go." He tells me.
"Ok. Not for a few months though." I tell him, "Look, I made this cookie especially for you." I grin at him. He chuckles, as I handed him the cheesy looking sugar cookie. I'd made a big red and pink heart on it and put his name in the middle in black.
"Thank you." He chuckles, taking it from me.