One Night Standards

Getting a Baby

"Are you going to pick that up?" Jax asks, staring at my phone as it buzzes on the counter top. 

"No, I really don't think so," I admit, pulling my pony tail out and running my hands through my hair. "It's probably just Edward again."

"What's wrong with you two, you used to jump to answer his calls?" He asks, taking out his homework. 

"It's nothing J, just -"

"What? Adult stuff?" He questions, voice full of sarcasm. "You know, you don't need to take all that on on your own."

"I can't burden you with stuff like this, Jax. I just can't do this to you," I defend, pausing with my hands gripping the edge of the island, his, Ada's and my lunch sacks in front of me.

"That's bullshit-"

"Language mister!" 

"No, the only word that describes it is bullshit. You don't have to always take the weight from everyone else's shoulders Rem! You have taken it upon yourself to raise all of us after Mom opened her shop and even more so after Dad took off! It's been ten years! You can tell me! I'm not a child anymore!"

"But you always will be to me! You're my little brother -"

"That may true but I need to know what's going on! You can't keep me in the d-"

"You want to know?" I question, heart rate raising by a ten fold. 

He turns to me finally, eyes making contact with mine. "Of course I do! Just let me help carry a little bit of that weight."

Sighing, I let out a sad chuckle. "I'm pregnant, Jax. You can't help with the weight I'll be gaining."

He stands, jaw agape as he moves towards me, pulling me into a tight hug. 

"You - how?"

"You've taken health," I joke, although he doesn't laugh. 

Pulling away, his hands are still on my shoulders. "How-how long have you-?"

"I'm about eight weeks along," I answer, his eyes dropping to my stomach and back up. 

"And I'm guessing Edward is the-?"

"Father? That would be why I'm avoiding him. I blew up on him tonight at the diner so now his entire family knows."

"Isn't that better? For him to know?" Jax asks, stepping back and leaning against the wall, arms crossed. 

"It makes everything... more complicated," I answer, trying to go back to making lunches. "It makes it so that more than just my opinion. If he wants his opinion to be in the cards."

"He'd be a fool not to," Jax says. "But if he doesn't want to be involved, that's on him. That baby is going to be more loved than anything else," He assures, putting tears in my eyes. 

"What baby?" Ada's voice mumbles, peaking around the doorway. "Are we getting a baby?"

I pause, Jax doing so too as we turn to our littlest family member. 

"I am," I confess, moving to where she stands, a giddy smile lighting up her little face. "They're growing in here," I explain, placing her hand on my stomach. 

"That's just your tummy!"  She giggles.

"In there a baby is growing," I begin, trying to think through how to explain this to a kid. "They're too little to see or feel yet, but they're in there."

"There's a what in there?" Mom's voice asks, although it's a surprise I remember it with it being two days since I've seen her. "Remington Alexis Rhodes, are you pregnant?"

Standing slowly, I look over the scene that's in front of me. 

This is not how I was going to have Mom find out. 

"I- I am," Is all I can mumble.

"Who- who is the father?" She asks, voice shaky. 

"Edward Cullen."

"Jaxon, take Ada and go upstairs."

"Mom-"

"Jax, please go upstairs," I request, him nodding this time, picking Ades up and leave. 

"And how does Edward feel about this?" She asks, moving forward and pulling my attention to her. 

"He- he called it a mistake," I explain, the tears starting to fall. 

"Oh honey, I should have been here," She mumbles, also crying too. "I should have been here."