Hope you all enjoy this update! Sorry if there's any mistakes in the next few chapters - I wrote them a long time ago and I'm trying to devote my time to finishing the story so my proofreading is basically non existent!

If Tori wanted an insight as to how the female population of Hollywood Arts had reacted to Beck's new single status, she needed look no further than her own sister, who at that moment in time was writing out a list of potential restaurants for her and Beck's first date, despite the fact that he had most definitely not asked her out to dinner.

Looking over her sister's shoulder, Tori had to refrain from making corrections out loud. Beck didn't like seafood for a start, and she'd heard him talk about how much he hated pizza restaurants. No, he'd much rather go for a burger at a diner on the beachfront, with waffles at a local ice cream parlour afterwards. Maybe that could be a plan for the future, when the dust had settled of course. She wasn't about to be like Trina and salivate over a man less than a week after his dumping. Anyway, she had more pressing matters to deal with, like whoever the hell was ringing her doorbell into oblivion.

"I heard you the first time!" She yelled as she went to open the door. It was probably a pizza delivery guy at the wrong house, or some neighbourhood kids playing games, or-

"Jade?"

Tori was taken aback. Yet again, Jade West was standing at her doorway. Yet again, without an invite. But this time, instead of looking like she was ready to make Tori the world's first headless high schooler, her image was quite the opposite. In fact, Jade West was crying.

"Hi." Jade responded, in a way that Tori could only describe as 'wobbly'.

"What are you doing here?" Tori asked defensively. Whatever Jade was here for, she just knew she wouldn't be in the mood for it.

"I- I don't know." The girl replied, averting her gaze.

Tori didn't know what to say. "Well, I'm kinda busy and I don't really feel like getting shouted at again so-" She said, beginning to close the door.

"I want Beck back." Jade said hurriedly, stopping Tori in her tracks.

"You-"

Jade pushed past Tori into the house, causing the latter girl to raise her eyebrows in shock. She turned around to see her nemesis sat down on her family couch, head in hands.

"And now you're in my house." Tori sighed, following Jade over to the couch. "So... you want Beck back?" She asked, awkwardly.

"Yeah." Jade replied, lifting her head up and rubbing her eyes.

"Well, thats, er-" Tori began, struggling with the inner battle between her incessant desire to help people and her current desire to get Jade West as far away from her house as possible. In the end, she decided to resort for honesty.

"Um, not to be mean or anything, but why are you coming to me about this?"

Jade messily wiped away her tears and met Tori's gaze. "Cat's away and I- I don't know. I guess... Beck might listen to you. You don't have psychological problems."

Tori wasn't sure whether it was rude to agree with that so she simply pursed her lips quietly in response.

"Could you... do you think you could talk to him?" Jade asked, almost helplessly.

Tori was taken aback. They'd never even had a pleasant conversation and now Jade was asking favours of her? She must've been really desperate.

"I don't know, Jade. What would I even say to him?"

"You could tell him how cool and hot I am, and how it makes sense for us to be together." Jade managed to eke out between sobs.

Tori sighed. This was going to be difficult.

"But most guys care about more than just how cool or hot you are. There's also, y'know, being a good person." Tori suggested provocatively.

Jade shot Tori a look, not missing that clear barb. "I am a good person. Do you think he'd want me to be his girlfriend if I wasn't?"

"But he doesn't want you to be his girlfriend." Tori replied, slightly by accident. Her eyes bulged as she realised what she'd said, and she almost braced waiting for Jade's response.

"I know you'd just love that to be true, but it's not." Jade spat. "We'll work things out."

Tori couldn't help but retain her scepticism. If Jade was having to resort to her for help then the situation really wasn't looking too positive for her.

Sensing she was losing grasp of the situation, Jade sighed. "Please, Tori. I know I'm not the nicest person in the world..."

Perhaps the understatement of the century, Tori couldn't help but think.

"...but this isn't about me. Sure, I want Beck back, but I mainly just want Toby to have parents that are together, that actually love each other. I came to you because people seem to think you're a good person..."

A compliment, perhaps?

"...so I - I really just hope that you can see that this is the right thing to do." With that, she looked up expectantly from her seat on the couch. She'd stopped crying, although her eyes still glistened from her earlier tears. Even with the black mascara mixture staining her rosy cheeks, Tori couldn't deny that she was pretty, and always pretty, clearly, if she could earn that label even in this situation. She almost thought the whole thing would probably be easier if Jade was so unattractive that she could question Beck for ever even going near her, but alas, she had to settle for questioning him for his attraction to her behaviour, which was really quite objectively justified, she thought.

But this situation was complicated, and Tori felt as though her head and her heart were being pulled in opposite directions, by talons which seemed to twist and slice and gouge at her in equal measure. On the one hand, she categorically and unequivocally believed that Beck deserved better. The fact that he had a child didn't change the fact that he was still a child himself, and a 16 year-old, or a guy of any age for that matter, shouldn't have to wallow in a miserable relationship just because of a kid he never chose to have. She didn't even mean herself when she considered 'better', either, just not Jade, although the thought of him with someone who she couldn't reject in their entirety made her feel a little uneasy. But nevertheless, on the other hand, maybe Jade was right about prioritising the baby. Tori had had a great childhood, with two parents who loved each other and loved her, and the moral part of her wished that for everyone. But were Beck and Jade anything like her parents? Would bringing them back together cause them to damage each other and their son by default? Tori didn't know if she could stomach the idea of little Toby growing up to be the second coming of Jade West, or whether she could handle the guilt of being somewhat culpable for that.

"I..." She began, with no real idea as to where her sentence was going.

"Please, Tori. For Toby's sake."

And that was how, 30 minutes later, Tori found herself walking up the driveway of an address Jade had given her, with no real idea of why she was there or what she was going to say. She cursed herself for being so manipulable. Maybe if she took a leaf out of Jade's book and acted without conscience then she wouldn't find herself in these kind of situations.

Jade had told her not to head up to the main house because, despite the grandeur that Tori couldn't help but take in as she headed towards it, Beck didn't actually live there. It had come as a shock and slight horror to Tori that he, in fact, supposedly lived in a metal RV parked in said splendid home's driveway. Jade had delivered this news with incredible nonchalance, as if every 16-year-old boy lived in a glorified tin can, but as Tori neared it herself, it occurred to her that Jade had probably spent plenty of time there herself, to the extent that it was in fact normal to her. Toby had to have been conceived somehow, after all.

The RV itself was fairly large, situated between the house and a small building beside it, with all three secured from the outside world by a towering, spike-encrusted gate which Jade had also, albeit reluctantly, given her the code for. Walking up to the door, Tori felt a pang of jealousy that this all felt so unfamiliar to her. Jade knew Beck's address and where exactly he lived, knew the code to his gate, and probably made this walk without having to take in all the surroundings, because she saw them so often that there was nothing unfamiliar to register. Tori couldn't help but wonder what that was like.

She constructed her first sentence to Beck before even pressing the doorbell, not wanting to stumble over her words when she saw him. That plan, unfortunately, miraculously failed when he opened the door in just a black wife-beater and grey joggers, a towel slung over his shoulder to catch the drips from his sodden hair.

"Tori?" He smirked, amused. She took some solace that he didn't seem discomforted by her sudden appearance.

"Hi." She replied, awkwardly.

"What are you doing here? And how did you get here?" He asked, still seeming relatively unfazed.

"Oh, I just came to talk to you... if that's okay?" She replied, purposefully ignoring his last inquiry.

Beck paused to consider this for a moment, before smiling and stepping aside to let her in. "Enter."

Following these instructions, Tori stepped inside the RV.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Beck said, stretching out his arms to gesture to the room. Tori's eyes buzzed from one corner to another, taking it in. She couldn't help but register that she was in Beck's home... in his bedroom, as a matter of fact, she noted, glancing at the double mattress by her side. Further in, there was a small closet, a couch and a table, upon which there was a noticeably dirty-looking fish tank. Other than that, the RV was cleaner than she'd expected, given that it was owned by a guy who lived alone, save for a few clothes pouring out of the closet, and some toys strewn out on the floor. Seeing these would've reminded Tori of the task at hand, if she hadn't also seen an even bigger clue just beyond them, in the form of a grey travel cot, inside which she could just make out the sleeping form of an actual human child - Beck and Jade's baby.

"That's Toby." Beck grinned, catching her gaze. "I would get him out to say hi, but he's only just got to sleep, and if there's one thing Friends has taught me it's to never wake a sleeping baby." Beck joked. "You can come see him though, as long as you're quiet." He said, gesturing for her to follow him as he walked over to the bassinet.

Tori had seen babies before. One of her cousins had a three year-old daughter, and Tori had spent a lot of time with her when she was younger. But there was something about this one belonging to two people her age that felt incredibly odd.

Nevertheless, she followed Beck the short distance to the cot and peered in over the edge. She was expecting to see a Beck Jr., or have a fright in the form of a perfect mix between him and Jade, but in reality all she saw before her was just a standard sleeping baby. He didn't look like anything really.

"He looks like you." Tori said, looking back up at Beck, not knowing what else to say.

He cocked an eyebrow, conveying his disbelief. "I don't get that a lot."

"Oh, well, maybe when he's awake." Tori stuttered, her cheeks turning red as she realised Beck had easily seen through her lie.

"Nah." He shook his head. "He's all Jade." There was a pause as Beck seemed to contemplate something, before he started again. "I don't mind though. I'll just have to make sure he gets my personality or something."

Tori couldn't help but hope so too, for the sake of the world.

"But anyway," Beck said, leading her away from the baby and gesturing her to sit down on the couch. "what do you think of my RV?"

"I can't believe it's just parked in your parents' driveway. Do you not worry that someone could break in or something?" Tori asked.

"I don't." Beck replied, shaking his head. "But Jade's eternally paranoid that something will happen to the little guy so me and him will both be sleeping in the main house tonight."

"You listen to her even though you're broken up?"

Beck shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "I don't want her to worry more than she already does."

'Jade' and 'worry' were two words that Tori hadn't often put together. It felt like an insight into the side of Jade that she was only just beginning to realise existed.

"She worries a lot?" Tori asked, hoping she came across as curious and not nosy.

Beck smirked in a way that made her feel like he could see right through her. "All the time. I think being a parent does that to you. To her at least."

Tori nodded as if she could understand. "Do you think it's changed you? Being a dad?"

Beck screwed up his face a little as he pondered this. "Yes and no. It's... I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. You have to grow up fast. Sometimes I go to play a video game, or ask the guys to hang out and then I realise that actually I should be checking in on him or he's got a doctor's appointment or something."

"It must be weird - having that on your mind when you're still so young."

"Yeah, it is. I was worried I wouldn't be mature enough for it, but to be honest he's just fitted into my life. It's like an adaption - you just get used to him being there and having to care for him, and you start to forget that you ever had a life without him." Beck smiled.

"That's - that's really special." Tori smiled back. She hadn't missed the gleam in Beck's eye when he was speaking about Toby, and there was something so heart-wrenching about a man that cared in that way.

"So, what brings you here then?" Beck asked, after a moment's pause, which she slowly realised had probably bordered along awkward. "Assuming it wasn't to quiz me on my teenage fatherhood." He smirked.

"Oh, right, yeah..." Tori replied clunkily, as she approached the uncomfortable subject. "Well, I was just, um, in the neighbourhood, and I thought, 'gee, I've never seen Beck's place before' and, um, I figured it could be cool to drop by and see it and, er, also talk to you and see if you would get back together with Jade."

The room descended into a silence as black as Tori's cheeks were red. Beck raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You want me to get back together with Jade?"

"Uh, yeah." She mumbled in reply, a palpable lack of conviction encircling her.

"Tori, c'mon." Beck smirked, moving closer to her. "We both know that's not true."

Tori could've sworn her heart was about to jump out of her chest. He knew. Few times in her life had she physically felt her heart begin to race, but she could certainly add this to the list. This was the moment, and despite dreaming of it when both awake and asleep, she had been caught by surprise. Never in her dreams had this happened whilst she was trying to convince him to stay with Jade.

"R-really?" She stammered, her breaths short as she stared into his eyes. She had once thought they looked mature and compassionate. Now, they looked lively and warm. She wondered how hers looked in comparison, and whether they gave away the weeks' worth of longing that had led up to this.

"Yeah. Why would you want to help Jade get us back together? You're not even friends with her." Beck replied matter-of-factly, leaning away from Tori as though he didn't even notice her body language. "In fact, I bet you don't even like her. Tell me one good thing you can say about her." He instructed, raising an eyebrow.

"Um..." Tori stumbled, taking an awkwardly long pause, as her mirage fell in a spectacular fashion. Her dreams could continue, it seemed, because she wasn't going to get the real thing as long as Beck remained so utterly clueless. She fought back a sigh - in addition to having to rectify her lost train of thought, she'd now been set a challenge. Seeing Jade in a positive light wasn't something she'd tried to do before, and it was proving difficult.

"My point exactly." Beck smirked. "Not many people get Jade, at the best of times, and, obviously, we love this guy," He said, pointing at Toby. "but he basically steals all her sleep and makes her even more irritable than normal. So I think I might be right in guessing that you're not looking to sign up to the Jade West Fan Club any time soon."

Tori had no reply to that.

"So I'm assuming she put you up to this?"

"Uh-er-"

"I'll take that as a yes. Look, Tori, this isn't your problem. I don't want you to get stuck in the middle of all of this."

Neither did she!

"If Jade wants to get back together then she can come and talk to me about it."

"She said she did!"

Beck ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, let me rephrase. If Jade wants to get back together then she can come and properly talk to me about it."

"What do you mean?" Tori asked, confused.

Beck sighed. "Tori, I love Jade. There's no one else I would ever even consider being with-"

Ouch.

"-but she has a some flaws that she really needs to sort out, because it's not fair on me or him." He looked down at the sleeping baby. "I want Jade to be my girlfriend, but I also want her to realise that she can't break up with me over every little thing that bothers her because it's not just me and her now. Toby deserves to have a stable family and she needs to do her bit to help that happen."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So I think it would be best if you call it a night. I appreciate that you care about our relationship but this isn't your fight."

Tori nodded and silently moved towards the door. Beck let her out with barely another word and she begun the walk home with her mind on the complexities of the conversation she'd just had. Beck and Jade's relationship was crazy, she'd always believed, but this was perhaps the first time that she'd seen how much they both really wanted it to work. The irony of this occurring during their breakup didn't escape Tori, however, and she wondered whether that was what love was all about. Continuing to love even when letting go seemed the far more sensible option. But Beck was a sensible guy, right?

Right?