The Whipping Turn

Paris - The Five Sisters

It was 5 hours to Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Jenna had called dibs on the backseat, effectively ensuring neither tall man felt compelled to give her the front seat. They'd just looked at her like she was five years old. But when Jean had called dibs on first shower and first coffee, and Jenna realised she'd created a monster. When he called dibs on first to have sex, Oliver put his foot down and ordered there would be no more dibbsing in their house. Jenna had watched Jean's eyes sparkle with laughter each time he'd done it. He loved seeing how far he could yank Oliver's chain.

An hour into the journey, the coffee had been drunk, grumbles on the traffic on the A10 had been voiced and they'd realised they'd forgotten the fancy and expensive wine for Jean's parents.

Jenna was now stretched out in the backseat, pillow behind her back, legs straight out along the seats, headphones on and working her way through a French to Arabic translation. She found typing Arabic impossible on her laptop without the special keyboard so it was an easy one for the car, with pen and paper. She loved the long strokes and the quick upward actions. It was a moment before she realised that Oliver had turned around to watch her. He turned back to Jean to say something she couldn't hear and she took off her headphones.

"What did you say?"

"Oh now you decide to join in. When we're talking about you."

"Well, yeah. Talking about the local elections is far less fun."

"I mean...that's fair." Oliver turned in his seat and grinned at Jenna, "It wasn't interesting. I just said I don't know how you can do that in the car. I'd be sick by now."

Jean was watching the road, but he glanced at Oliver, "Tell me again, Babe, just how did you manage to survive all that warfare. It's a miracle you did."

"Shut up you dick." Oliver punched him lightly, "I just tried to never be the passenger doing the map reading."

"Do you get sea sick, Jen? Plane sick? Roller coaster?" She could see Jean look at her in the rearview mirror.

"No, boats and planes, I'm fine. Haven't really been on a rollercoaster. I'm not really sure that would be my thing. Ugh."

"I love a good rollercoaster! Oliver here is the greenest thing on a boat. It's such an interesting colour."

"And that's why I never joined the navy, right there."

"I wonder if it extends to everything. Like Oliver, would you get sick in a fighter jet? Would Jen get sick if she ever got pregnant? Could I go into space and still be fine?"

Jenna's heart dropped. It was a bit of a now-or-never in though.

"Um. Why do you guys get to be top gun and astronauts and I get to be knocked-up?" Before they could answer she hurried on, "Also, uhhhh, I was pregnant once. And yeah I was mostly fine, so maybe your theory works."

As the pause hit, Jenna realised she had not been in so many situations as she had been lately where silence very often descended like a vacuum.

As Jean finally choked out a "what?!", Oliver swung round in his chair and gave a bit more, "What? Really? When?" His face was slightly pale now and Jenna really hoped it wouldn't get to green.

She lent forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's ok, Oliver. Ummm ok, to answer your questions.. I was pregnant, yes really and it was a long time ago. When I was 18. Before I left."

Jenna could see Jean in the mirror and she knew he had five million questions and he didn't know how to ask any of them.

"I'm going tell you guys what happened. Then you can ask any questions. I'm ok with it now so its fine to ask. If I don't want to answer something I'll say and I'll try and tell you why. Sound ok?"