"Well, hello there, Mr. William..." Priya says as Beck hands Liam to her "S'nice to finally get to meet you."
"Did..." Jade exchanges a look with Beck "Did you just call him William...?"
"His name is Liam, Ma."
"Which is short for William, isn't it?" Priya clarifies "The same way that Beck is short for Beckett."
"I mean, in some cases...yeah, I guess." Beck shrugs "But we named him Liam, not William. His birth certificate says Liam Beckett Oliver."
"Not William." Jade adds
"Right, no William anywhere."
"A nickname for a given name instead of a formal one..." Priya sighs "Interesting..."
"Oh god..." Jade grumbles, loud enough for only Beck to hear
He reaches over and gently takes her hand in his, pulling it into his lap.
The two of them sit side-by-side on one couch, while Beck's parents, James and Priya Oliver, sit opposite of them on another.
"C'mon, Pri..." James teases his wife "Times are different now. Liam is a popular name."
"So is William."
"Anyway!" Beck cuts in "We gave him my name as his middle name because you gave me dad's as mine. We thought it would be nice to start our own father-son family tradition."
Jade braces herself for Priya to make some kind of snide comment about how, when the time comes, William would make a much better middle name for a child than Liam would, but thankfully she doesn't.
"Yes, that is sweet I suppose..." Priya nods "My goodness, he's a tiny little thing, isn't he?"
"Yeah, five pounds, nine ounces when he was born." Jade tells her "He had his one week check-in the other day though and he was up to six pounds, one ounce. So he's growing."
"Would've weighed more than that to start with if there had been some prenatal care, I bet."
"He might've, yeah..." Jade agrees with a defeated sigh
There's no use in trying to defend herself to Beck's mother. Priya has always looked down on her, and the 'not knowing I was pregnant' scenario definitely isn't helping. In Priya's eyes, Jade had caused her grandson some kind of harm by not receiving any kind of prenatal care, despite him being born healthy and despite everyone telling her that not knowing wasn't her fault. It's a strike against her. Everything that she says or does seems to be a strike against her in one way or another.
"The average birth weight in the United States is between five and a half and eight and a half pounds." Beck informs his mother "He fell within that, and he was born fully-developed with a clean bill of health. He's healthy, that's all that matters. Not how much he weighed."
"He just has so much catching up to do."
"He's fine." Jade insists "Several doctors have told us so."
"I'm just trying to look out for him."
"And we appreciate that." Beck says calmly, squeezing Jade's hand in an attempt to put her at ease "But he's good, Ma. I promise."
"If you insist..." Priya nods, looking down and the baby "He definitely came from the two of you. I see a mix of your features."
"You think?" Beck smiles "I think he looks like Jade."
"No, he looks like you." Jade smirks "He has a few of my features, but he has your face."
"I agree with you on that, Jade." Priya nods
At least she agrees with her on something.
"Mind if I take him for a bit?" James asks his wife
"Oh, I suppose." Priya sighs, handing the baby to her husband gently
"Hey Liam!" James smiles "It's me, Grandpa! S'nice to meet you, buddy."
While Priya definitely appears to have love for Liam, James definitely seems more excited about the idea of being a grandparent.
"We'll have to take him fishing with your grandpa when he gets bigger." James says to Beck "Four generations of Oliver men out on the water together, how cool will that be?"
"It'll be great, yeah." Beck agrees with a smile "We'll get him up there to visit Gram and Gramps long before then though."
"They would love that."
"I'm sure they would..." Priya sighs
Jade knows, and only because Beck has told her, that while his mother is friendly with his father's parents, they've never gotten as close as his father would have liked them to. They're friendly enough, and they get along well enough to be able to spend time together without James being present, but it's a very formal relationship and not a very personal one. Priya probably has a long list of things she'd rather do than visit her in-laws in Canada, but Jade doesn't actually mind making the trip. Although traveling with a child will be more difficult than traveling as two single people, she actually enjoys spending time with Beck's grandparents. They're nice people who are nice to her, much more friendly to her than Priya is.
"It might be a question you're tired of hearing but because I'm your dad, I have to ask it." James says, looking to Beck "What's the plan?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're back here and living with Jade's parents because you couldn't afford to be out on your own." James reminds him "Which is the responsible thing to do. It's better than stretching yourselves too thin at the start and then ending up on the street because you were evicted. But from here...what's the plan? Work? School? What are you doing to get on your feet?"
"I'm going to take the rest of my classes online. Whether I do them all in one semester or spread them out over two, we're still trying to decide..." Jade explains "But for right now, I'm not going to work."
"And why not?" Priya appears surprised, and judgmental
"Well, she did just have a baby." Beck reminds his parents "And even though she never appeared pregnant, she was. She's still going through the process of postpartum recovery like any other woman would...and Liam needs her too. Average maternity leave would be ten weeks, give or take a few, and by then she'd be getting ready for school to start again."
"With school, any work that I would be doing would be part-time." Jade adds "Which would pay some, but not a lot. It would all end up going to pay for Liam's childcare, which wouldn't be worth it. I'd be working to pay for him to go to daycare, which wouldn't make any sense when I could just have him home with me. And when he's young and content to just be held, I'd be able to get more work done and finish sooner anyway."
"That...makes sense." Priya nods "You're right, you need to spend time with the baby. Especially if you're breastfeeding him. Where does that leave you, Beck?"
"The company I was working for in New York has another distribution center out here, so I'll be able to transfer." Beck tells his parents "It'll take about a week or so for the paperwork to go through, but that'll be a good thing because I'll be able to adjust to being back here and help Jade with the baby during the day. They give me health insurance and I'm coming up on two years with the company as well, so hopefully there's a pay raise coming sometime soon."
"And I assume you'll still be auditioning?"
"Of course I will." Beck says with an 'isn't-it-obvious' tone of voice "I still want to be an actor more than anything."
"That was a perfectly reasonable mindset before..." James points out "But you have a child to think about now."
"Liam and I support Beck in that choice." Jade chimes in "We'll do whatever it takes to continue to support him in that as well."
"Even if it means taking a job for the pay rather than enjoyment once you graduate?"
"Sure." Jade nods "I mean, yes. Yes, if that's what it takes."
"Keep in mind that you need to support her dreams too, Beck." Priya says pointedly "She's going through an awful lot of effort to finish her degree, you need to make sure she gets a chance to use it."
Jade is surprised by Priya's support. It might be the first time that she's ever given her any, especially when the opposing party is her own son.
"I know, Ma. Don't worry."
"Should I pester you about setting up his college fund now?" James teases "Or should we leave that for another night?"
"I think we can leave that for another night." Beck laughs "Actually, I think we should get going. All three of us have had a very long and busy day, and we're still on east coast time so it's feeling closer to eleven than eight."
"Of course." James nods "Thank you for bringing him by. It was so great to meet him."
"Yes, a real pleasure." Priya agrees "Despite everything, he really is a beautiful baby."
"Thank you." Beck and Jade say in unison, which causes them to smile
If there is anything that everyone seems to be agreeing on lately, it's that Liam is truly an adorable baby.
Both of Beck's parents offer him hugs, and Jade is surprised that once she finishes securing Liam in his carseat, they offer them to her as well. It might be the first time that either of them have ever hugged her, but now she supposes the circumstances are different. Up until a week or so ago, she had only been Beck's girlfriend. While she's still that, she's now also the mother of their grandson...she's cemented in their lives now whether they like it or not.
"That could've gone worse." Beck points out as they begin their drive back to Kaitlyn's house
"It could've gone better too." Jade sighs "Your mom is always going to hate me. I'll never be good enough for you, and now I'm never going to be good enough for Liam either."
"S"not true..." Beck assures her "She's judgmental, I'll give you that, but she's not heartless. She's going to come around. It's just...a shocking situation for everyone involved."
"I hope you're right." Jade sighs again "Otherwise we're in for a long eighteen years."
"Jade?"
Tyler appears at the top of the staircase leading to the upper level of the house when he hears his sister and her boyfriend enter the house. He had spent most of the evening in his room by choice, although his parents probably would have sent him right back if he had tried to emerge.
"Yeah?"
"Can I...talk to you?"
Jade looks from her brother at the top of the staircase to Beck, who is standing behind her.
"Go ahead." He gives her a nod of encouragement "I'll put Liam in his pajamas so he's ready for bed when you come down to feed him."
"Thanks." She smiles, kissing him quickly on the cheek before turning to venture upstairs "I'm coming, T."
Tyler has retreated to his bedroom, and Jade passes the bedroom that had once been her own on her way to his. It still looks like it did when she was in high school, posters and photographs cover the walls and some clothes still hang in the closet. She supposes that her mom will want her to clean it out now that it's going to be used as a makeshift guest room since she and Beck are going to be living out of the actual guest room.
"What's up?" Jade asks as she enters Tyler's bedroom
"I'm sorry for yelling at you." Tyler apologizes "And I'm sorry for bumping Liam. Mom told me I could have hurt him."
"You could've..." Jade nods as she sits beside him on the bed "He's okay though."
"I know, Mom told me."
"Did she tell you that you had to apologize too?"
"She said I should, not that I had to." Tyler tells her "But...I want to apologize. I called you stupid, and I called Liam stupid. That wasn't cool."
"You're right, it wasn't." Jade agrees "But...I know you were upset, and when I get upset I sometimes say things that aren't cool too...so I can't be that mad at you."
"Why didn't you tell me you were having a baby?"
"Because I didn't know." Jade admits "There's a whole medical diagnosis behind it that will bore you, but my body basically tricked me into thinking I wasn't pregnant until it was time for Liam to actually be born. I was as surprised as anyone else was."
"So, you didn't keep it a secret on purpose?"
"No, I wouldn't have done that. I promise."
"So, you'll tell us about the next one?"
"Whoa, slow down there." Jade laughs "Liam is a week old. Who said anything about another one?"
"Dunno." Tyler shrugs "Most people have more than one kid."
"We'll see what happens." Jade assures him "If I ever have another baby, I promise to tell you that I'm pregnant. As long as we don't end up in this 'surprise' situation again."
"What are the odds of that happening twice though?" Tyler points out
"What are the odds of it happening at all?" Jade laughs "Don't worry. It'll be a long time before we ever need to even think about it."
"Because having a baby makes you not want to have sex?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'm twelve, Jade." Tyler reminds her "I know where babies come from."
"I...don't know how I feel about that." Jade chuckles "You're still a baby in my eyes."
"I'm twelve." Tyler says again, almost as if to justify being the age that he is
"I'm aware." Jade smirks "Look, T. I'm sorry about your video games, okay? Beck and I aren't planning to be living here forever, it's just until we can get things together enough to be able to support ourselves and the baby. I promise I will help you move your stuff back down there myself as soon as we move out."
"Deal." Tyler nods "For what it's worth...I'm kind of glad that you guys are back here. I wish you were living in your room instead of downstairs, but I like it when you're home."
"Yeah?" Jade smirks, nudging him with her elbow "S'not the end of the world?"
"No, I guess not."
"I'm glad we get to be here too." She tells him "I have a feeing that Liam is going to really love his Uncle Tyler."
"Is he still awake?" Tyler asks hopefully "Can I meet him? I haven't gotten to meet him..."
"Yeah, because you were mid-tantrum when I brought him upstairs earlier." Jade reminds him "Beck is getting him ready for bed. Tomorrow, okay? Maybe he and I can meet you at the bus stop after school."
"Really?"
"Sure. Why not?"
"Cool." Tyler smiles "None of my friends have nephews, I'm the first one."
"You're right, that's pretty cool." Jade agrees "I need to go feed the baby, but thank you for apologizing. I appreciate it. And I'm sorry for stealing your man cave, but you're welcome to come down to visit us whenever you want."
"Thanks, Jade." Tyler smirks "I love you."
"I love you too." She tells him "Goodnight."
