Changes-Chapter 25

"Abby?" JJ breathed, words failing her as she stared at the positive pregnancy test on her daughter's dresser. She couldn't say anything else because her brain was shorting out; she literally couldn't speak at the moment as she thought of her own past as a college mom and the difficulties she faced.

"It's not mine," Abby said quickly, as she saw her mom pale.

"Then whose…" JJ trailed off as she saw the tears stream down Becca's face. "Oh honey," she said as she opened her arms. The teen, who she had gotten to know so well over the years, fell into JJ's arms and sobbed. JJ gave her time to cry, but once she heard the sobs die down into sniffles, she released the girl, but stayed close to her. "How did this happen, sweetie?" She asked. "Did you use protection?"

Becca shook her head. "I normally do, but there was this one time, my boyfriend and I were really into it and we didn't have anything, so we took a chance." Her sobs started anew at her admission. "We…we thought that I wouldn't get pregnant if we only did it once. I am such an idiot!" She wailed, as the tears poured down her face.

Abby quietly moved from the bed to the comfy chair in the corner of her bedroom. This conversation was between her mother and Becca and she knew she didn't have much to offer. In fact, she had tried edging toward the door at one point, but her mother shot her a look that made it clear she should stay in the room and maybe learn something from this cautionary tale.

JJ and Becca discussed options, and Becca let JJ know she wanted to keep the baby and raise it, but she was scared she would screw up. JJ, having had those same fears 18 years prior, tried to allay them, but she also was honest about the difficulties she faced. Becca nodded as she listened to JJ speak and, once the older woman finished, her eyes filled with tears once again.

"I don't know how I'm going to tell my parents," Becca said, rightfully afraid of what awaited her when she did. "They are going to be so mad!"

JJ looked at her sympathetically. "I know your parents and, yeah, they probably aren't going to be thrilled to hear that they are about to become grandparents, but they won't kill you, or even kick you out. They will probably be upset and angry but they love you and they will help you through this.

"You really think so?"

JJ nodded. "I do. They will realize that a college degree will give you and your baby many more opportunities in life and they will support you. It may mean that you transfer to a closer school, but they'll be there for you. And, if for some crazy reason they won't help you, Dave and I will."

"Really?" Becca asked as she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing she wouldn't be alone, no matter what happened.

JJ nodded and hugged the girl again, "Of course we will, I've known you since you were ten years old and you're practically a daughter to me. I wouldn't let Abby handle something like this without my support, and I won't let you do it either."

"Thanks JJ," Becca said gratefully. Just knowing someone was there to help her took some of the pressure off of her and, for the first time since she took her pregnancy test, she felt a bit better about the whole situation.

"Now, should we go tell your parents, or would you like to talk to the father first?" JJ asked as she stood up.

"You'll help me tell them?"

JJ nodded, "If that's what you want."

Becca stood up as well. "I do. I'll talk to my boyfriend tomorrow, but I should probably tell my parents before I lose my courage." She turned and looked at Abby, who had gotten up from her unobtrusive seat in the corner of the room. "Thanks for making me tell your mom about this, Abby."

Abby smiled, "No problem, she can be pretty cool sometimes." Becca returned the smile and gave her friend a hug.

"Well," she said, taking a deep breath, "We'd better go back to my house before I chicken out."

At that moment there was a knock on the door and it opened. "I'm about to make popcorn," Dave said as he stepped into the room. "Do you ladies want-" The question died as Dave saw the positive pregnancy test that was still on Abby's night table.

Abby saw her dad turn pale and realized he had made the same mistake as her mother and thought the test was hers. "Dad," she started, but was cut off.

"I knew it," Dave said as his shock turned to anger and the connection between his brain and his mouth was severed. "I fucking knew that something like this would happen if you went to that Godforsaken school! For Christ's sake Abby! Pregnant?! You party, and you drink, and you do whatever the hell you want and you don't think it will catch up to you?"

"Dave-" JJ tried to interrupt, but her husband wouldn't let her. Abby just stood in shock as her father laid into her.

"We taught you better than this, Abby! Did you even THINK about the consequences of your actions? Is this what you wanted? To be a mother at 18? Do you know what this will do to your future? Do you know how hard it will be for you to finish college now? I can't believe you would do this! I am so disappointed in you!" He could see that Abby's look of shock was changing into one of disbelief mixed with anger. Well tough. She was going to have a Come to Jesus moment and he was going to give it to her. Maybe if he had done it a little earlier, she wouldn't be in her current predicament. Maybe if he had put his foot down when he saw all of the crazy pictures she posted on her social media, he wouldn't be a grandfather at the moment. Maybe if he had taken a hardline stance and a yanked her out of that Goddammned school when she had been freaking ARRESTED, he wouldn't be standing here looking at her positive pregnancy test!

"Dave, stop it!" JJ tried again, but Dave was on a roll

"Who's the father?" He asked rhetorically. "I'm assuming he is one of those idiots you go to school with, so who is he? I want to have a little chat with him. I want to-"

"Mr. Rossi!" Becca shouted, finally breaking into his tirade. "The pregnancy test isn't Abby's, it's mine!"

"Yours?" Dave asked in confusion, as the interruption to his tirade had confused him a bit.

"I can't do this," a visibly shaken Becca said to JJ, as tears once again coursed down her face. "My parents are going to kill me. Mr. Rossi is a cool dad-" Abby snorted rudely at that. "And if he reacted this way, my parents are going to be SO much worse!"

"You are going to tell them," JJ told her firmly, as she shot a death-glare at her husband, who had made the situation about 50 times worse than it already was. "We are going to tell them right now," she said as she led her daughter's friend out of the bedroom. Once the girl was out in the hall, JJ turned back and faced her husband. "And you," she whispered in an angry hiss, "are going to stay here and try and fix this!" With that, JJ disappeared down the hall.

With JJ and Becca gone, Abby and Dave just stared at each other in angry silence. "Well," Abby said, after a long minute, "at least I know what you really think of me." Her words were clipped in anger, but Dave could hear the hurt mixed in.

Dave, for his part, didn't exactly know what to say. Had he been wrong? Sure, but he felt like he didn't know who his daughter was anymore, based on the past few months, and a small part of him felt it was simply dumb luck that it was Becca who had gotten pregnant and not Abby. "Well what the hell am I supposed to think, Pumpkin? You could be doing God knows what out in California, although your Instagram and Facebook pictures paint a picture of some of your activities and they're not good!"

"Well don't worry, you're going to be blocked from both accounts in just a few minutes!" Abby shouted.

"For Christ's sake Abby, will you grow up for just a minute and try to see this from my point of view?" Dave yelled. "You're 3,000 miles away at some hippie school, you talk about Thirsty Thursdays, you have friends named Fish and Bleep, for the love of God, and your photos show you at parties just about every weekend! What in the hell was I supposed to think?"

"You were supposed to realize that I am still your daughter and I still have the morals that you and mom raised me with! Am I having a little more fun than I did when I was in high school? Sure, but everyone does! Didn't you go a little wild when you went away to school?"

"That is neither here nor there," Dave responded back, dodging her question. "You are having WAY too much fun. God knows what your grades are like! You could be flunking out for all I know!"

Abby just glared at him for a moment and then flounced over to her computer, hit a button and waited by her printer. A second later she grabbed the printed piece of paper and shoved it into her dad's hand.

"Look at it," she practically snarled. Dave glanced down at the paper and saw that it was her grade report, a report which showed straight A's. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to throw all of my hard work away at this point in my life?"

"Abby, I'm sor-" Dave tried to apologize but Abby wouldn't let him.

"Would you please get out? I really want to be alone right now." Abby hated that the hurt in her voice was overtaking her anger. She knew she was going to cry soon, but she wanted to be alone when that happened. The last thing she wanted was her father to try and comfort her. She was pissed as hell at him, and she wasn't even close to ready to forgive him.

Dave, who still felt justified in some of the things he had said to his daughter, knew he had hurt her feelings and he didn't want to make things worse, so he just nodded and left the room. After he closed the door to her room, he waited outside of it for a moment and then heard her begin to cry. He felt like an asshole and hoped this wasn't what the rest of her time at home would be like.