"Hey Momma, are there anymore tacks in the...Rick."

Rick smiled when he saw Laura enter the dining room.  He noticed she was dressed in baggy sweats and a pink t-shirt. He also couldn't help but see the small bulge in her stomach.  Rick did his best to look away from the sight. "Hey, Laura. How ya been?"

"I forgot that Rick was coming over to help me with the new blinds I bought for the dining room." her mother explained.

"It's ok. I could come back later or something." Rick said as he pointed back towards the door and was about to leave.

"No, no...It's ok. It will only take a minute, Rick. I wouldn't want you to have to come all the way back over here later on to do a 5 minute job." Mrs. Charles explained.

Laura sat at the dining room table and give directions to the two of them as they struggled to get everything centered over the window. Once they were finished Connie asked if Rick could run with Laura over to the store.

As Laura was driving she noticed his gaze was towards her abdomen. "What's wrong? Never seen a pregnant woman before?"

Rick shifted in his seat and watched her as she drove before asking, "Does he know?"

"You, Hallie, and my mother are the only ones who know...And I am hoping to keep it that way."

"Come on now..How long have you known me?"

"I'm sorry. I just don't know who to trust anymore."

After they stopped off at the store Rick took over the driving and brought Laura to a place she hadn't been in years. As they drove down the long pebbled pathway Laura's mouth dropped open in awe. They soon found themselves in the middle of a large clearing in the woods. When they were younger, it had been turned into a park and picnic area for the locals. She recognized the gazebo that was sitting near the large lake. Rick slowly pulled up in reverse almost to the edge of the hill that led to the lake and turned off the car. It was too cold outside to go and sit anywhere, so they decided to just sit in the car and watch the ducks from the back of the SUV.

He laid out the back seats and had Laura sit between his legs so she could lean back against him to be more comfortable. They both were silent as they just watched the still water and listened to the ducks squawking outside.

"You seem very deep in thought right now." he said as he rubbed the sides of her arms to keep her warm.

"I am."

"About?"

"Hmmm...It's not just one little thing...It's everything. My whole life up till this point."

Rick understood exactly what she meant and decided to reflect on his own thoughts. "My sister is a living, breathing, and walking train wreck."

Laura chuckled a little before leaning back against him more and saying, "It's not completely her fault. I can't blame her for everything that is wrong in my life."

"Yeah, but she has a big part in it, Laura."

"Ehhh...I dunno about all that."

"Even when you two are enemies you find some way to defend my sister."

"It's not that, Rick. You're sister is a good person...Underneath it all. She has a fucked up sense of reality, but besides that, she is pretty cool. We are inseparable when it's just the two of us, one on one.  But when money and popularity get thrown into the mix, some people just become obsessed with having it and keeping it...No matter what."

Rick knew his sister had always fantasized about having the best in life and he knew just how determined his little sister was when it came to having what she wanted.  He tried to remember back to the good old days before both women started the ride of their lives in the entertainment business.  "You remember that time back in high school when Daryl Woodward told you that you couldn't play the piano for shit?"

Laura laughed at the memories racing around in her head. "And Rachel came out of no where and tackled him? All anyone saw was this tiny chick kicking this huge football players ass! It was hilarous!  Or that time when..."  Laura continued to recollect things from the past with her ex-love. 

Once their laughter died down, Rick went to ask her a more serious question. "Do you think that one or both of you were in the wrong somewhere along the lines in this whole mess?"

"I go over it about a million times in my head everyday...Was I wrong to keep her secret? Was it right to betray one friends trust for another's. Should I have done the right thing...No matter what? Why did I cross that sacred line of friendship by getting involved with JC in the first place?" She took a deep breath before continuing. "I think in our own way we thought we were doing the right things. Rachel genuinely thought that the baby was Jerry's. But when Nikky was born and he had the blue eyes and the thick dark brown hair like JC's we both were worried. But by then it was too late for her to say 'hold on guys, I think there was a mistake.' JC had already kicked her to the curb and Jerry would have definitely thrown her out on her ass if she even mentioned doubts of paternity. Then you have the fact that she seemed to genuinely love Jerry. I don't know if it was because he spoiled her to death with all the attention and gifts or if it went beyond materialistic things. But either way, she adored him. At that point I didn't think that it would have upset her too much if something happened between me and Josh...Especially since it had been a year since they split. Being that your sister is an actress, pretending comes naturally to her. So while she is off pretending that life is perfect, I am trying to hold everything together and help JC deal with the breakup, help myself deal with these feelings I am not starting to have for him, and to top it off learning how to deal with this huge secret she begged me to keep."

"Seems extremely stressful." he sympathized.

"It was...It got worse when JC and I started seeing each other, cause now I had another secret that I needed to keep."

"He wanted to keep you a secret?"

"No, he wanted to tell everyone. And I was a big hypocrite for telling him that I didn't want all of that attention focused on us when the media found out, or having to hear our friends and family's opinions. Because it mostly was a fear of what Rachel would say. Dating your best friends ex-fiance is not something that is taken lightly between women. I knew I was in the wrong. But I couldn't help the way I felt about him...It just happened."

"So what you are saying in so many words is that JC walked out on you to go back to my sister because you kept a promise to a friend?"

"Yeah, that and the fact that he doesn't want to be a part-time father."

"Yeah, but what about this one?" Rick asked as he gently rubbed the side of her stomach. "He can't be a full-time father to both of them."

Laura shook her head, not really knowing what to say.

"Laura, he's going to find out about him or her sooner or later. A kid isn't something that you can really hide."

"I'm not trying to hide the baby at all. I'm just not going to chase someone who doesn't want to have anything to do with me. Rick, I tried calling and writing him. He won't return my calls and he sent back my letters. So what else can I do, but move on? I'm not going to spend the rest of my pregnancy stressing myself out over this...It's not good for me and it surely isn't good for the baby."

"I think if you really wanted him to know you'd try harder?"

"What? You want me to show up on his doorstep and point down and say surprise?"

"Honestly? Yeah."

"Well it ain't gonna happen. If he doesn't want to have anything to do with me then so be it. I'm not going to be the fool here."

Rick decided to back off the issue for a while. He didn't bring her out to the lake to argue. "You remember when we used to come here?"

"Yeah." she smiled. "I used to love coming here with you. It was so peaceful. Not to mention romantic as hell when it was spring time and the nights weren't too cold or too hot."

"Yeah, you ruined it when you brought my sister out here drinking one night. We weren't able to get rid of her after that." he laughed.

"Yeah we were wild back then."  she grinned.  "We always had each other's backs." Laura drifted off thinking back on their friendship.

"You miss her?"

"Well in my own way I do. I love your sister...Besides the fact that she sometimes reckless with her life and most often times doesn't make the right decisions and I am left trying to bail her out..."

"That's what I could never understand about you...Why did you keep bailing her out?"

"When you do something for so long, it just becomes common place. I didn't have any brother's and sisters. I didn't have many friends. I was always being teased because I was considered different or stuck up because of all the attention on my family or music...She knew how I felt. She could relate. And even now I don't hate her. And I miss Nikky like crazy."

After Rick updated her on how the baby was doing, they both decided to sit there and just watch the sun go down. They remembered back to better times. Times when they had been so happy with one another. Rick wondered what his life might be like had he not been so afraid of losing Laura to the business. He then asked himself if this could be his second chance at happiness with the girl he had always loved.