Living on Love

Two

"Malcolm James McCormick junior!" Ariana shouted as the little boy ran upstairs. "If I ever see you do that again I'm busting your ass!"

"What did he do?" Mac asked.

"He gave the mail lady the finger."

"Mac! Come here buddy!"

"Don't 'buddy' him, he's not off the hook."

"Did I say he was? Let me deal with it."

"Malcolm! Now!" Ariana shouted up the stairs.

"What?" Malcolm asked as he walked down the stairs.

"You know what, get your butt in there to your dad right now."

Malcolm ran past Ariana, avoiding the swat she intended and laughed as Mac picked him up. "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me."

"I'll smack you," Ariana muttered. "Where's Stella?"

"Mom has her," Mac said.

Ariana walked towards the boys and took Malcolm's cheeks between her fingers gently. "Gimme a kiss you little troublemaker."

Malcolm kissed her and she walked into the kitchen, sitting at the island. "Hi Mommy," she said.

"Hi baby. What did junior do?" Joan asked.

"Flipped off the mail lady."

"Jeez. He's gonna be cussing at them soon."

"Probably."

"Mama," Stella said from her high chair, holding her arms out.

"Hi Munchkin," she said kissing the baby's cheek before lifting her out of the chair. "Were you good?"

"She was great. She always is," Joan said.

"Auntie Liz is coming over. And Auntie Lexie will be here soon."

"I haven't seen Liz in a while. How's she doing?"

"Good. I think she's waiting on the word about Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. But other than that I hear she's good. She hasn't said otherwise."

"Not that she would. She doesn't like people to worry."

"It drives me nuts. What the hell are you doing Stella?" She asked as the little girl tried climbing up her.

"She's been doing that lately."

"Has she? Mommy needs to spend more time at home then, huh? I'm missing all the new stuff," she said, kissing Stella's cheek.

"She knows your working, Mommy."

"Yeah but I was here for all of this stuff with Malcolm. Not that I don't love him but I thought I'd be around more for her. She's my little princess. She's the one I was planning all these years."

"You got her. Don't stress."

"Does that make me a bad mom? Being more excited about her than I was about Malcolm?"

"Not at all. You still love them the same don't you?"

"Of course."

"You were a lot younger when you had Malcolm."

"Finding out I was pregnant with him was a disaster... I got my own show canceled."

"Dan said that wasn't your fault."

"But it was. He specifically said..."

"We can't have Cat be pregnant, Ari," Dan said.

"Dan, I'm so sorry about this..." Ariana said.

"Don't be sorry. If this wasn't a kids show and Car wasn't still a child this would be different. We'd be able to work your pregnancy into the show but with her still only being sixteen we just can't work it in."

"We can't just say she's fat? Or like... use props to hid my belly?"

"I'm sorry kiddo. We had to get rid of Jamie Lynn too."

"But she was sixteen, I'm an adult."

"Playing a child. I really am sorry, kiddo. I'll talk to the crew and see what they feel is necessary but without our main character the show will probably get canceled."

"Jesus..."

"I don't want you to worry about this. You worry about yourself and that baby you've got cooking in there and you do what you need to do to keep you both healthy, okay? That's more important than Sam and Cat. You'll have other opportunities after you have the baby."

Ariana nodded. "I'm so sorry..."

"That's because you were on a kids show, honey. If she wasn't a kid then it would have been different."

"I just... wasn't happy when I found out with him though... that's not good mom quality. I was so happy when I found out about Stella, why was I so upset with Malcolm?"

"You were nineteen years old with Malcolm. You were still a baby yourself. And you didn't plan him. You planned Stella and you'd always wanted a little girl."

"I still should have been as happy with Malcolm..."

"Oh my god," Ariana said. "Oh my god!"

"What! What happened?" Mac asked as he ran into the bathroom.

"We did it!"

"Did what?"

"We made a baby. I'm pregnant!"

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Ariana said with a small laugh as tears filled her eyes. "Oh my god, were having another baby," she said as he hugged her.

"I just feel bad for not being happy with Malcolm," Ariana said.

"I wasn't happy when I found out about Frankie. I was ecstatic when I found out I was pregnant with you. There's nothing wrong with that."

"Of course not, I'm the golden child."