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Seventeen year old Beck Oliver sighed as he opened the front door to his RV. Once he had dropped Jade off here after school, he had immediately gone out to get some groceries, hadn't even stepped foot inside of his RV yet. Now, hauling a plastic bag on each arm, Beck did just that. Or at least he tried to. Getting past the doorway proved to be a problem when he tripped over a pink, plastic baby doll bed.
Although he was still glad to be home, he almost growled when he saw the toys spread all across the RV floor. He kicked the cheap toy across the room and watched it clatter against the opposite wall.
"Roxy," Jade tapped the shoulder of the toddler who was sitting and coloring at the popup table, saying, "Why don't you and Mommy pick up your toys while Daddy puts the groceries away, okay?"
"Daddy?" Roxy repeated excitedly as her little head popped up, causing her fine black curls to bounce.
Beck couldn't help but smile as he sat the grocery bags down on the couch. Apparently she hadn't noticed when he came in; she'd been too fixated on coloring Sophia the First - who would have guessed what color? – pink. He walked over and placed his palms flat on the table, leaning down until he was brown eyeball to blue eyeball, smiling broadly for her.
"Yes, Daddy."
Little arms were thrown around his neck, and he straightened up slowly, leaving her hanging for a second until she laughed before he slid his own arms underneath the two year old. "Daddy! Grandma cookies?"
"Grandma" being Beck's mother – more of a grandparent to little Roxy then any of her biological grandparents would ever be.
"Did Grandma give you cookies?" he asked, bouncing her in his arms.
Her little face scrunched up, and Beck took that as his cue that he had misinterpreted whatever he was being told. He turned to Jade for the answer.
"She made cookies with Grandma today," Jade supplied.
"Oh, you did?" Beck chuckled as he made conversation with his step-daughter.
Short black curls bounced vigorously as she nodded, then pointed to the evidence – two cookies on a plate set on a far corner of the table.
"Yous!" Roxy informed him.
"For me! Yum!"
"Mommy!"
"You mean I've got to share?" Beck pretended to pout.
Roxy giggled, nodding again.
"Okay," Beck sighed.
"Alright, Rox," Jade broke in. "you and I need to get these toys picked up and we need to see if we can't get you to take a nap before supper. I think Grandma might have let you eat too much cookie dough at her house."
Beck cringed at the thought as he lowered the little girl to the floor. She ran towards the toys and began picking them up alongside Jade as Beck took care of the groceries.
Once Roxy was laying in his and Jade's bedroom, Jade flopped down onto the couch with her homework, and Beck took a seat at the table. The only time that they usually had for homework was when Roxy was asleep or at his parents' place.
Taking his homework out of his backpack, he realized that he had forgotten to put his ring on after he and Jade had left the school. Digging it out of his back pocket, he slid the gold band casually onto his ring finger and set to work on his algebra.
"I think I'll take care of supper tonight," he said after a few minutes of silent concentration.
"Why?" Jade asked, looking up at him. "It's my night."
He kept on working the problems as he answered, "Yeah, I know, but you've had a bad day."
"I have?"
Beck sighed as he looked over at her, holding her gaze as he said, "I know that this thing with Tori is still a little hard on you some days."
Jade licked her lips and set her homework aside, signaling that they were heading into a long conversation as she said, "I've been thinking about that."
"What about it?"
"About... us, actually."
"What about it?" Beck repeated.
"I think that we should tell them," she blurted out.
"Tell them about what?" he asked. "They already know that we're together."
"About all of it; they just think that we're dating. They don't know that I live here, that we've been married for over a year; Andre thinks that I gave Roxy up for adoption, and the rest of them don't even know that she exists..." her voice dropped to something low and almost scared as she added, "Let alone what started all of this."
Beck abandoned his homework and went to sit beside his wife, pulling her close as she rested her head on his chest. "Do you want to tell them that? No one has to know. You can tell them everything but the last part and no one will question a thing. I'm her daddy in all the ways that count, and that's all that matters to me; that's all that would matter to them."
Jade shook her head. "I want to tell Tori. And I want you to be there with me when I tell Andre everything. I don't care if Robbie and Cat know, they started going to our school after I had already had Roxy, so they won't suspect anything. It would probably be better if they don't know... Tell Robbie if you have to, but I don't think that Cat would know how to handle knowing 'that last part.'"
Beck nodded, agreeing with her assessment. He kissed her hair, rubbing his hand up and down her arm as he asked, "So how do you want to do it?"
She paused, thinking before she answered, "Let's invite them all over this Saturday; we can ask Tori and Andre to stay a little later then Robbie and Cat and give them the whole story when it's just the four of us."
"What about Roxy?" Beck asked.
"We can let her stay here; she won't understand what we're talking about."
"Okay," he just held her for a second, then repositioned so that he was looking straight into his wife's clear blue eyes as he asked, "Are you sure that you want to do this?"
A moment of pained indecision flashed through her eyes before he saw resolve replace it as she nodded. "I just need you to be with me when I do."
"I've always been there for you;" Except for once. "I've always protected you, and I always will. I promise."
