On my way home

Kennedy drives Leah and I to my school while Jake follows close behind. I call Mac and she comes to let Jake, Leah and I into school. We stop by my locker so I can get the things I need. Then Mac leads us to where practice happens to be today. Turns out it was in the cafeteria. Thankfully there isn't a huge welcome back, though it's bigger than I expected and would have liked. There was a lot of "how are you"s and "are you okay"s and similar things. I'm not really in the mood for a show of things so I tell them everything is fine and ask to join practice. Thankfully Coach agree. So Jake sits with Leah while I warm up and stretch.

When we get our first water break I'm panting and sweaty, but I'm happy to be doing what I love. Leah wiggles her way out of Jake's arms and comes running to me. "Mumma," comes a weak shout. I'm shocked, I've hardly every heard her speak, and she knows I'm not her mom. I guess I've been her mom for a day now, she could just be confused. Regardless she bounces up to me and begs me to pick her up. I pick her up and start walking into the hallway to get a drink, Jake close behind me. I carefully get a drink and a few of the girls ask if they can hold her. I tell them that they can if she wants them to hold her. There's a quick game of pass the child as we go back inside to continue practice.

By this time it's almost four thirty. "Hey Jake check the clock." He checks the time. "Time to get her home. And could you also get some food ready?" He nods and smiles. He goes to collect our girl and grabs one of my two bags. "She better be asleep when I get home." I warn him. He turns as he's walking, "Yes ma'am." I laugh and shoo him from the room.

When I turn back around everyone is watching me. Including the exchange students who came to get their dinner on the other side of the cafeteria. Including Nick. I smile at everyone and brush it off, continuing with practice as if nothing had happened.

When practice ends Mac rushes towards me. "Hey, did you want to get some extra practice in for our side thing?" I ask her. She shakes her head in amazement. "What?" I ask her. "You just became a mother and you're thinking of dance?" she asks incredulously. I shrug. "Not so loud," I hiss. She looks at me confused. "I don't want to make a big deal of it," I explain. "I don't have to be home for a while yet, do you wanna work on it?" She just shakes her head, amazed. "Rebecca Alison, you are an impossible woman," she says. I smile at her, "Why thank you Mackenzie, I'll take that as a compliment."

She laughs while I get my shoes out and find our music. "So are we on or what?" She agrees and we practice for about another hour.

"So how is everything working out?" Mac asks as we take our shoes off and clean up. I look at her, "What are you talking about?" She rolls her eyes at me, "You and your ex, raising a kid. How are you guys," she pauses and I give her a look, "y'know." She finally gets the whole thing out. I stare at her, "Mac, we aren't like sleeping together. Or getting married. We share a room in his apartment. He goes to work, I go to school. I'm gonna start moving in this weekend." Her eyes get as wide as saucers, "You're moving in with him?"

"Of course." I say like it's obvious. "We want to give her as close to a normal upbringing as we can give her. So yes, I'm moving in. Yeah, we share a room. And until we can figure something else out, we are sharing a bed. But that's not a problem for us. We're not sinning, so please keep your judgements, and this information, to yourself." Slowly she agrees. "Thanks Mac, you're the best" I tell her as we exit into the parking lot.

"Do you need a lift home? You live kinda close to the apartment." I ask her. She checks her watch and sighs. "Yeah, it's probably the best chance I have of getting a ride home." I lead her to my car and we get inside. As I'm pulling out of the parking lot she asks hopefully, "So are you going to be in school tomorrow?" I glance at her in the mirror, then immediately look at the road again. "I'm sorry sweetie," I say and her face falls. "We still have a lot of things to try to figure out. And we have to pick up his dog and my pets. There are still a lot of things we need to do before the weekend." She seems really disappointed so I add, "You can come over on Saturday."

She smiles slightly, still a bit disappointed. "At least I get to come over on Saturday." I nod, happy to see she feels a bit better. "That's right. Just tell me when. And I'm still coming to the game tomorrow night" We drive the rest of the way to her house and I drop her off. After I make sure she gets inside alright I call Jake and put my phone on speaker, resting it in a cupholder.

I pull out of the driveway and start heading home. Home. It was so weird to think of the apartment as home already. I still called the place I lived at before I moved here home. And still it seemed only right to call the new place I now lived in home. Home. It seemed it was such a relative term to me now. But it was still nice to think of a place, with a family, as home. A cozy place, full of happy memories.

"Hello?" Jake's voice comes from the other end, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Hey, it's me. I just dropped Mac off. I'm on my way home. I should be there in about five minutes." I say as I turn down another street. "Okay, I'll get some food ready and unlock the door for you. See you soon." Then the line goes dead as he hangs up. "Bye." I say to the silence.

I turn down our street. I don't think about how I'm already starting to call things "ours" or "mine." I don't let myself dwell on how bizarre this whole things is. I just go home. And it feels good. Like I have my own place. Like I have my own family. It may not have happened in quite the way I thought it would. But it's still a good feeling.

I park the car and go into the apartment. Jake having unlocked the door for me since I don't have a key yet. "I'm home," I call softly through the house. I put my keys on the counter and drop my bag into a chair. Jake is in the kitchen pulling some food out of the microwave for me. "Welcome back Beck." He says as he sets a plate on the counter for me. "It's good to be back." I say as I start eating, not bothering to sit down first. He sets a tall glass of water in front of me too, "We don't need you getting dehydrated."

"I'm fine Jake. You don't need to shove water down my throat." I whine like I'm two or so years old. Jake chuckles, "Would you just drink it Beck and not whine about it." I roll my eyes and sigh dramatically. "Fine," I huff. "But if I drown it's your fault." Jake laughs, "Whatever you say ma'am." I smile at him over my food. I forgot how much I missed this. Us, teasing each other, it was like old times. But better. In the pain of the past year I had found solace in humor. The more pain I suffered at the hands, or rather words, of others the better my humor got. So teasing? That was easy now. Especially with this silly boy.

I quickly take one last big bite of food and chug the rest of my water. "I'm gonna go check on the little one. Then I'm going to take a shower. See you in our room in about half an hour." I say before I put my dishes in the sink and turn down the hall to Leah's room.

She's sleeping peacefully when I enter. I walk over and kneel beside her bed. I take a blanket from the end of her bed and lay it on her. I bend down and kiss her head, brushing her hair with my fingertips. I smile at her and get up to leave. Then I gather my things and take a shower. When I get out Jake is in our room. "What did you want to meet for?" he asks. I cock my head to the side as if I'm thinking. "I can't remember. Why don't you remind me." I say as I climb onto the bed and prop myself up on my elbow. He raises an eyebrow at me, "What did you ave in mind?"

I shrug and lay down, "I was thinking of the good old times. About a year or a year and a half ago. Remember those times?" He nods, watching me carefully. "I might remember a thing or two. They were good times, fun times. Any particular incident you have in mind?" I smile, "That's more like it. Yeah actually. Like that one movie night." His eyes go wide as he sees where I'm going with this. "You sure? I don't want to force you, or rush you," he states. I nod, "So are you going to come over here or are you going to make me come over there?"

He smirks, "Why can't we meet in the middle?" His hand snakes around my waist and pulls us together. I smile, "There you are." I roll onto my back as his lips meet mine. When he pulls away I realize that this really isn't a good idea. Thankfully Jake is just as gentlemanly as ever and agrees that I'm right. We settle down and I fall into a deep sleep in his arms again. My mind racing to think of why I actually thought it was a good idea in the first place. After all I didn't want to start anything up with him again.