It’s been awhile, friends! I’m sorry again but, you know, sometimes things take time and this was one of those things but this is a little longer so hopefully that makes up for the time difference! Now please enjoy
Previous Chapters
Lauren had first noticed the bi-weekly phone calls about two weeks after first settling in with at the Raudenfeld home. The blonde hadn’t been exactly getting along with her father’s girlfriend’s daughter (meaning Lauren had yet to acknowledge her at all) but she noticed the schedule they seemed to be set on.
And part of the schedule was the phone calls.
Amy, every Monday and Friday, would scamper up to her mom and whisper something too low for Lauren to hear, Farrah would sigh and huff and pout but with a few more minutes of gentle prodding—they were both up the stairs and out of sight. Lauren followed with quick and light footsteps and pressed her ear against the door in which the two had slipped into, Farrah’s bedroom, and listen as intently as she could.
It was pretty silent, and then Amy would say ‘hello?’ and then Farrah would yank the door open (Lauren was fairly quick to get away because loud thumps against the floor gave her some fair warning) and pace in front of the door for the next hour. Her daddy would come and pry Farrah from her place and then Lauren would go back to pressing her ear against the door.
She heard nothing except for Amy talking, laughing, and sounding happy. Sometimes, not too rarely but not too often, Karma was allowed in the room and she’d hear them both talk loudly and happily and it was annoying to no end because Lauren had no idea who was on the other end of the phone.
But now Lauren had acknowledged Amy’s existence—they were friends, and had become rather close due to the fact Lauren is one of the two people who know about Amy’s current situation so she gathers up the courage to ask and finally end her torment about not knowing who was on the other end of the line.
“Amy?” Lauren slipped from bed; just a few minutes after hearing Farrah and her daddy close their bedroom door, and crossed through their conjoined bathroom and quietly stepped into the blonde’s room. She knew Amy wasn’t asleep because she could hear the girl watching ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ from the bathroom.
Said girl looked up, her eyebrows scrunching together “yeah?”
“I was wondering, if I could ask you something?” Lauren sat at the end of the bed “It’s kinda been bothering me for a while”
Amy nodded and paused her show; she pushed the laptop off her lap and sat up a little straighter “What’s up?”
“I, um—“ Lauren sighed, she didn’t want to push Amy because they had finally gotten to a good place and, as much as she won’t admit it out loud, she doesn’t want to ruin that “I noticed something when I first moved here” she pauses “I noticed that you would call someone?” she sees and hears Amy’s sharp intake of breath “Or something and I just wanted to know who or what it was”
“oh” she looked down and sighed “That, um, is kinda a long story”
“If you don’t wanna say it then—“
Amy shakes her head “No, it’s okay. I can sum it up”
Lauren nods and waits for Amy to speak; she can see the girl gathering her thoughts and try to formulate a good sentence. “I love my mom” she says suddenly and Lauren’s brow furrows
“I know but—“
“It’s not gonna sound like I love my mom but I do, I really do but when I was younger she wasn’t the best and—but, I love her, okay?”
Lauren nods slowly “okay”
Amy takes a deep breath “My mom was kinda young when she had me, she was 19 and finishing up her first year of college and—and she didn’t want me but her mom made her keep me because she had been living with her at the time and—“ Amy shakes her head “not the point. Point is, she didn’t want to be a mom but she had me anyways and—and it was fairly clear that she wasn’t ready”
“She was so focused on school, that she never had time to be a mother. She never had the time to really be around me, but I had my dad so I didn’t care too much but then—“ she pauses and Lauren can see Amy steeling herself, trying to squash those emotions down as far as she can “yeah, well you know what happened. Anyways—and then my mom was kinda on her own and she didn’t know how to be a mom but all of sudden she had gotten into contact with an old friend of hers and I just started spending a lot of time with him” she sighs
“My mom was working a lot and my grandma couldn’t take care of me anymore so—I just spent time with him and his girlfriend and they kinda became my fill in parents, there wasn’t a day I didn’t see them and—“ she smiles a little “I loved them, I loved being with them and spending time with them and, it just felt nice to be a part of a family”
Lauren looks at her closely, she had never heard of these people. She never has seen anything either “What happened?”
Amy shrugs “I don’t know, one day they asked to speak to my mom alone and the next? My mom said that Karma’s parents would be the ones to pick me up from school, instead of them”
“So , the phone calls…”
“Right, right” Amy sighs “Well, I loved them and they were such a big part of my life so my mom decided that I could call them, at least but it’s only twice a week and only for two hours”
“Why do you think she’s so strict with them about this?”
“I wish I knew. I miss them and I love talking to them but—but whatever they said must’ve pissed my mom off”
“Do they live here? In Austin?” Lauren usually might’ve been able to restrain herself and not ask so many questions but suddenly there’s this whole piece of her step-sister that she’s never seen before and she wants to know every inch of it.
“No, they moved to Dallas a few years ago. We use to sneak some time in together but now it’s just phone calls”
Lauren nods and places her hand over Amy’s “Thanks for telling me”
“No problem” Amy lets out a deep breath and shakes her head “Now—are you going to be joining me for some Netflix or what?” Lauren nods her head and lays down next to Amy as the girl un pauses the show and lets the cheery theme song fill the room.
-
Amy siting on her mom’s bed, her legs crossed. She stares at the phone in her hand and sighs—she wanted to tell them, at least if she told them and they were mad all they could do was yell and not kick her out or anything. She dials their number and hits ‘call’, she only waits a second before a cheery voice comes through “Amy!”
“Hi, Lex” she smiles “How was your week?”
“No, no, no” she can practically see the woman shaking her head “This is about you, little miss, I wanna know how your week was”
Amy plays with a loose strand of thread coming from her mother’s comforter “I actually wanted to—“ she swallows hard, gathering up her courage “I wanted to talk to you and Mark at the same time”
“Oh, sure, hold on sweetheart” she hears her yelling for Mark to ‘get his ass over here and talk to their girl’ and within the minute she hears his gruff voice
“Hey, Otter. What’s up?”
Amy smiles a little at the nickname she had inherited at seven years old, it was a comfort as she tried to come out with the secret that she carrying around “Um, am I on speaker? I want you both to hear this”
“yeah” the woman, Lexie, comes back on “We can both hear you, babe”
“Okay, so—“ Amy sucks in a deep breath “I just—I need to tell y’all something and, um, it’s kinda big”
“Okay” she hear worry in Mark’s voice “what’s going on, otter?”
“I’m pregnant” there’s a full five seconds of silence “I—mom doesn’t know and—“ she can feel her eyes burning at their lack of response “and I just wanted to tell y’all and I get that you’re mad o-or upset but it’s done and-and I can’t be helped, you know?” she’s rambling and she can’t stop herself “I told the dad and he’s all in and—and so am I”
There’s no response.
“I—“ she swallows hard “Guys? Lexie? Mark?”
“um—“ her heart stutters as she hears Lexie “I just—we’re not sure how to respond right now, baby”
“Just say you don’t hate me” she sounds so small and any other time, Amy would scoff at the way she begs them but now isn’t that time. These were her second set of parents and having them in her life was so important to her, she could live through a lot but she doesn’t know if she can live with the people who helped raise her, hating her.
“we don’t hate you, otter” Mark says quickly and the name and the urgency in his voice give Amy a sense of comfort “We’re just a little shocked”
“I know, I was too”
“so you mom doesn’t know?”
She shakes her head, despite knowing they can’t see her “I haven’t worked up the courage to tell her, yet”
“tell her soon, Amy” Lexie’s voice is stern and loving “She’s your mom, she needs to know”
“I know”
“we love you, Amy” she assures her gently over the phone “We love you so much and nothing could make us hate you or not want to talk to you, baby”
She tries to blink away tears “okay”
“You’re seeing a doctor, right?” Mark asks
“Yeah, yeah. In Dallas actually”
“really?” he sounds happy “When’s your next appointment?”
“um” Amy thinks for a second “this week, it’s my first sonogram”
“oh!” she can hear Lexie’s smile over the phone “Call us when you’re in town, baby—we’ll take the day off to go with you”
Amy nods and doesn’t even think before saying “okay”
They talk for an hour more or so before they bid her a goodnight and as Amy sits there, phone in hand she suddenly feels so much less scared to tell her mom because if they, the people who only met Amy when she was seven, can still want to be there for her then surely her mother would too.
Or at least that’s what Amy is going to tell herself until she tells her mother.
-
The next day is Saturday and Amy is a nervous wreck—it was her and Karma’s day today. Usually she’d be nothing but smiles because she loves spending the day with her best friend but today’s different. She’s pregnant with Karma’s ex-boyfriend’s baby and she hasn’t told Karma, yet.
It kinda puts a whole damper on the ‘spending the day with your best friend’ thing.
“So, are you sure you can do this?” Lauren’s looking at her closely “Cause I don’t need you telling her the secret and then having to drag a crying Karma out of this house”
“I’m sure” she’s not but fake it till you make it, right? “She’s my best friend and all I have to do is forget for a few hours that I am, in fact, pregnant”
Lauren raises a brow at her “okaaay but remember please remember that I will not hesitate to punch her in the face if you tell her and she gets violent”
-
Karma arrives and it’s easy enough—they cuddle on the couch and watch TV, Karma does her hair and they even make a trip out of the mall (a small victory for Amy because she had puked twice when they were there and she managed to hide both times from Karma) and now they’re back home.
Their bellies full, eyes sagging and slowly drifting off on Amy’s bed as a queued up show plays on Amy’s laptop “Amy?”
“Hm?”
“do you feel a little less stressed?”
Amy smiles a sleepy little smile and snuggles closer to her friend “much”
“good” she feels Karma press a kiss to her head and manages to ignore the guilt that weighs her down because right now she was able to forget—forget every single fucked up thing about this whole mess and just be a regular teenager who’s cuddling with her best friend and quickly falling asleep because they ate too much at the food court.
She also ignores how wrong it feels to forget the little thing in her stomach.
-
Amy wakes up first and she sits up, slowly untangling herself from Karma. She slips off to the bathroom and then as she exits, she stops and looks at the sleeping girl—every bone in her body wants to tell Karma.
Wants to tell her friend that she’s pregnant and that it’s Liam’s and that as fucked at it all is that she still wants her by her side.
She wants to do all of that but she doesn’t want to break her friend’s heart either but Karma finding out from anyone else would be wrong. It would be pouring salt on the wound; she deserves to hear the words from Amy’s mouth and hers alone.
“Hey” she spins around to see Lauren looking at her, her side pressed against the entrance to the bathroom from her room “Now is not the time” she says easily and it stopped throwing Amy off at how well Lauren read her
“Lauren—“
“Look” she crosses over and takes Amy’s hand, gently tugging her till they’re in her room. She closes the door and looks at the blonde “Amy I know you love her and I know you want to tell her and—as much as I don’t like her, she does deserve to hear it from you but I’m telling you. Now is not the time”
“but why? We had a good day and—“
“That’s why, Amy. You guys had a great day, let her have this day before you say anything—let her at least have this day before you tell her and then both of your worlds unravels”
Amy sighs “I want to tell her”
“I know” she reaches out and takes Amy’s hand, gently squeezing it “but not today”
-
Lauren says what she says for Amy. She doesn’t like Karma and she doesn’t know if she ever can but she likes Amy and she knows whatever she tells Karma is going to hurt her just as much so she does what she does for Amy.
She really doesn’t care about Karma in this situation all that much, if she’s being honest.
-
Karma wakes up alone and immediately pouts; she sits up and rubs her eyes and looks around but finds no one. Swing her legs off the bed she slowly pads to the bathroom and opens the door just in time to see Amy opening the door from Lauren’s room.
Amy jumps a little “oh, hey”
“hey” Karma’s face bunches up “Why are you coming from Lauren’s?”
“oh, I—“ Amy feels herself clamming up “just needed to talk to her”
“about?”
“Just—you know, stuff, like—you know”
Karma furrows her brow “Amy, you are the absolute worst liar in the world”
“Just—“ Amy sighs “some stuff is happening and—and I was just talking to her”
“anything you can tell me?” she places a comforting hand on Amy’s arm and it makes the knot in the blonde’s chest, tighten.
“No” she shakes her head “Not today but maybe another day”
Karma smiles softly “Okay now please get out of here—I need to pee”
-
“Not that bad, right?” Amy asks the day after her day with Karma “Nothing too bad”
Lauren sighs “I suppose not but, please, the next time you get caught doing something—work on a better lie because Karma’s right—you suck at lying”
-
A week passes and nothing really happens. Amy throws up in a bucket after getting hit in the face with the most fruitiest perfume she’s ever smelt while in the middle of the hallway, Liam, Amy and Lauren all spend a few more breakfasts or dinners at the little diner that they had grown use to, and now it was the day of Amy’s first sonogram and she’s terrified.
(they all are but Lauren and Liam are a little better at hiding it)
“what if I’m pregnant with twins?” Amy puts a hand on her stomach “I can’t do two babies”
Lauren scoffs and waves her hand “Please, that’s not gonna happen”
Liam squeezes Amy’s shoulder “Take a deep breath, Amy. This is gonna be fine” she sucks in a deep breath and leans her head back against the window.
They’ve been driving for about an hour and still have two more to go. Liam was in the back, while Lauren drove and Amy took the passenger seat. It was comforting to Amy knowing that the people she wanted most were right there with her.
“oh” she shifted in her seat “That’s right I forgot to tell you something” Lauren raises her brow
“What?”
Amy sucks in a breath and starts telling Lauren of her latest phone call, and then at Liam’s confused stares she tells him the whole story just as she had told Lauren “So, yeah” she finishes, the story and looks at them both—Lauren’s eyes are trained on the road and Liam has his head cocked to the side
“So, in the simplest terms, I’m meeting your second-dad?”
The blonde thinks for a second before nodding “yeah, that’s a good way to put that”
“I’m meeting him and I got you pregnant”
“yup”
“I’m the guy that got his baby girl pregnant—“
“well, I wouldn’t say—”
“—he’s gonna kill me” Liam runs a hand through his hair “I’ve never had to deal with parents but now I do and it’s not cause we’re dating or something innocent it’s because you’re pregnant!”
“Liam calm down” Amy turns in her seat and puts a hand on his knee “He’s not gonna kill you”
“but—“
“I swear he’s not. He’s a little protective, sure but he won’t kill you”
Liam nods and lets out a breath “okay, okay”
“Now when we tell my mom though, I’m not too sure how well God is gonna save your ass”
Lauren hums and speaks “Oh yeah, Farrah is the one you should be worried about”
-
“You okay?” Amy lolls her head to the side and looks at Lauren—Liam had fallen asleep about 20 minutes ago and now it was just the two blondes “You were pretty quiet”
“yeah”
“Lauren…”
“I’m fine” she grips the steering wheel a little harder “just worried is all”
Amy picks up her head “About?”
“I don’t know” Lauren sighs “just like—now someone else knows and-and it won’t be too long before we tell Farrah and daddy and then Karma and then the whole school and—“
“woah, woah, woah” Amy places a hand on Lauren’s arm “calm down, even I’m not getting that far ahead of myself”
They pull up to a red light and the smaller blonde looks at her step-sister “soon this is gonna be out and I don’t know how to process all that”
“Well, surely however you do it, you’ll do better than Liam” she smiles and points a finger to the boy who snores loudly in the back “he nearly had a panic attack at the idea to meeting Lexie and Mark”
Lauren manages a small smile and snorts “I can do anything better than Liam Booker”
“I know” she squeezes Lauren’s arm before retracting her hand “now, please, calm down and lets just get through today and when the time comes—then we panic”
“okay” she presses her foot down on the gas and they drive the rest of the way in silence.
-
They pull up the clinic and Amy lets out a deep breath, her hand gripping her legs “so this is really happening”
“yup”
“okay” she sighs and turns around, smacking Liam on the knee “hey! Wake up!”
He slowly comes to and lets out a tired ‘huh?’, before slowly sitting up, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He looks around and lets his brain slowly connect the pieces as it still struggles to wake up “oh”
“yeah now get out of the car” Amy opens her own door and steps out of the car, she stands up and looks around. It looks the same just as it did last time; her eyes scan the area looking for the familiar pair of people.
“Amy!” she spins around just in time to see the woman coming right at her, her arms instinctively go and wrap themselves around her. She feels another pair of arms wrap themselves around them both and she buries her nose in the woman’s neck—it had been just about a year since they last saw each other in person and being there felt like a part of her was coming home.
She pulls back and smiles brightly “I missed you two”
“We missed you more” Mark kisses her forehead “Now introduce us to your friend, otter”
“Oh, right” she steps out of their embrace and goes and tugs Lauren and Liam’s arms so that their both standing in front of the man and woman “Mark, Lexie this is my step-sister, Lauren”
The small blonde sticks her hand out “Nice to meet you”
Lexie takes her hand and shakes it “you too”
“and this” she pushes Liam ever so slightly so he’s standing in front of her “is Liam. He’s the, um, baby’s father”
“Oh” Lexie looks over at Mark and watches the man carefully. Mark looks down at the boy and after the tensest five seconds Liam has ever faced, he smiles and takes Liam’s hand
“Nice to meet you, son”
Lauren and Amy nearly laugh and how Liam looks like he could pass out from relief.
-
After a pretty standard wait of 30 minutes, Amy, Liam, Lauren, Mark and Lexie were all squeezed into the tiny exam room. Lexie and Mark stood behind the exam table and Lauren and Liam stood by Amy’s side with Liam closes to her head.
“I’m scared” Amy admits softy “This is gonna make it real”
Lauren scoffs “I’m sure the past month of morning sickness made it pretty damn real” she gives Amy’s calf a light and quick squeeze.
“I know but—“ Amy sighs “But this is actually seeing it and-and that’s big, you know?”
“You’ll be alright, otter” Mark encourages softly as he places a hand on her shoulder. Lauren smiles and jumps in
“Okay, so I gotta know—the nickname, what’s up with it?”
Lexie smiles brightly and Amy lets out a loud groan “Okay, so—“ a knock on the door interrupts the woman’s sentence and Amy smiles
“oh thank god”
The nurse, a young and preppy girl peeks her head in “you all ready?”
“yeah”
She smiles at them and walks into the room, fully and plops down on the rolling seat near the exam table “Okay, mama let’s get down to it” the nurse says kindly “can you please roll your shirt up and unbutton your jeans for me?” Amy nods and quickly unbuttons her jeans and scoots them down the tiniest bit and drags her shirt up her stomach.
The nurse grabs a bottle “okay and this is gonna be a little cold” she squirts the gel on Amy’s exposed stomach and the girl tenses, Liam notices and takes her hand and squeezes it softly “now” the nurse says happily “let’s get this show started” she places the probe on her stomach and presses down “Okay so let’s find this—“ she cuts herself off “oh there they are” she looks over the five faces looking at her “Wanna see?”
Liam nods eagerly “yes, please”
“Okay, well” she pushes the monitor towards them “they don’t look like much being you’re only two months buuut—“ she uses the mouse and circles a blob on the screen “That’s your baby”
“Oh” Amy feels her heart stutter in her chest, she never thought she would feel like this. She never thought she would look at something that doesn’t even look like a baby and feel so much—love. “Wow”
“And this” she presses a few keys and the room is filled with a loud and fast sound “is your baby’s heartbeat”
Amy faintly hears Lexie whimper and Mark squeeze her shoulder, she looks over at Liam to see him smiling so widely it looks like his face is gonna spilt in half and Lauren has a soft smile tugging at her lips. She squashes any feeling of guilt at not having a few other people here because right now this wasn’t about them. She looks back at the screen and then at the nurse “it’s supposed to sound like that, right? That fast?”
The nurse smiles “yes, mama, it’s supposed to sound like that. Your baby’s got a good, strong heartbeat”
“yeah?”
“yeah”
Amy squeezes Liam’s hand and bites her lip, she really doesn’t want to cry but she blinks and suddenly there’s a tear trailing down her cheek and she can’t do anything about it. She sees something out of the corner of her eye and looks over to see Lauren handing her a tissue
“Wuss”
Amy lets out a watery chuckle and takes the tissue from her hand “like you’re any better—I see those shiny eyes, Cooper”
Lauren rolls her eyes but she’s smiling “shut up”
-
They get five copies of the sonogram. One for each of the people that went with her and one for Amy to keep to herself, she already knows she’s gonna go home and stick it in her photo album that sits in her nightstand. It holds precious pictures like her and her mom when she was a baby, her mom’s first wedding, pictures of Karma, even a few of Lauren from their recent month of friendship—she figures this little black and white photo will fit in just fine.
“Okay, well” Lexie wipes at her eyes “Congratulations on making me cry”
Amy smiles and tugs the woman close “I’m so not sorry” Lexie laughs and hugs her tightly
“Oh” she buries her nose in Amy’s neck “I don’t wanna let go”
“I know” she pulls back “But Lauren will leave me here” she nods over to where said girl and Liam wait for Amy to be done with her goodbyes.
“Okay, okay” she wipes at her face and sighs “See you next month then, right?”
Amy nods “next month”
“Good” she leans down and presses a kiss to her forehead “Now, I’m gonna go to the car before I start crying again” Amy laugh lightly at Lexie’s retreating form before looking over to Mark
“Well, did I make you cry?”
“Nah but you got pretty close”
Amy smiles “I’ll get you next time”
“sure, whatever you want to believe” he tugs her to his chest and wraps her up in his arms, resting his chin on her head “I’m gonna miss you, otter”
“Me too” she pulls back a little “but next month remember, not a year like last time”
He smiles “next month” he kisses her forehead “now go before your friend leaves”
“okay, okay” she starts to walk away before she turns around “love you!”
“Love you too, now go!” she smiles and then piles into the car
“Everything good?”
Amy nods “yeah just—“ she sighs “Just a little emotional today”
Lauren smiles sympathetically “Come on, let’s go home”