Title: Family Ties Author: Sorika e-mail: Webmaster@katlair.zzn.com Rating: PG13 (adult language, and scene in chapter 7) Archive: YES!!! Just tell me where, I'll give you a link back! :) Webpage: www.geocities.com/Paris/Sorbonne/5647 Disclaimer: I am in no way connected with the BSB *whimpers* Oh! And to those of you that will flame me because of Brian and Leighanne, please don't. I'm happy for them and they're happy together. So, don't hate me for breaking them up! Okies? ~*~*~ Chapter8: The Discovery ~*~*~ I opened my eyes, then immediately turned away from the blinding light that seared into my brain. Turning to the side, I saw Brian. He had fallen asleep, with both his hands clasped over one of mine. His face rested on top of our joined hands. I shivered, the open back hospital gown doing very little to stop the cold air. At this slight movement, Brian jerked awake. "Hey." He mumbled softly, his smile spreading over his face. "Hi." I tried to shift to my side to look into his baby blue eyes, but a searing pain between my thighs stopped me. I suddenly remembered what happened and knew where I was. I burst into tears, and felt Brian withdraw his hands from mine. This only made me sob harder, until he picked me up again and sat me on his lap. I turned my face to his bare chest, wrapping my arms around his stable warmth. I still had his sweatshirt laid across my lap. I had refused to let the nurses put it in the bag with my other tattered clothes. He pulled me closer, as if to press me to his very heart. When my tears finally subsided, I could hear Brian's voice. I couldn't make out the words of his soft mumbling, but the soothing tone told me everything I needed. "You okay?" He inquired, raising his voice so I could now understand. Not trusting my voice, I nodded. I lazily dragged my finger down the surgery scar on his chest, causing him to squirm. "Stop. I'm ticklish right there." He squirmed again as I dragged the finger back up. "Oh really?" I smiled, which soon turned to a pout when he pulled my hand away from his chest, interlacing his fingers in mine. "Yeah, really." He brought our hands to his lips, and began to kiss my knuckles. I sighed, and lay back against his chest. Nick burst into the room, worry etched deeply in his features. Carmen pulled away from Nick's side, and rushed to the bed, wrapping her arms around me in a hug. I gasped for air as Rachel joined her, and the hug became almost unbearably tight. Realizing what they were doing to me, they let go and I fell back into Brian's lap. "I'm fine, really! Aside from a few deep bruises which causes pain every time I move the lower half of my body, I am perfectly fine. I just want to go home." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 weeks later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I stumbled out of the bathroom, into the studio clutching my stomach. For the last two weeks, I couldn't keep anything down in the mornings. Even the saltine crackers that Fatima had just made me eat were rejected. Nick walked over to me and laid his hand across my forehead. I closed my eyes, willing the nausea away. He hooked his arms behind my knees and around my shoulders, then lifted me off the ground and turned to take me out to the bus. "Put me down, you asshole! Just pick anyone up, whether they want you to or not! I said, PUT ME DOWN!" I roared at him, as he continued to carry me too the bus. He opened the door and put me on the couch just inside. Rachel clamored on the bus as Nick began to leave. "Nicky, lock the door and don't let anyone on here, 'k?" Rachel asked, cocking her head to the side and using her sickeningly sweet you're-the-best-person-in-the-world-to-me tone of voice. " 'K." He said, obviously confused, but knowing better than to cross Rach. He closed the door and I heard a soft click as he locked it. Rachel watched out the window as he left then turned to me. "Ok, missy. Get the hell in that bathroom _now_." Her voice turned dangerous as she said the last word. I got up, the sudden change in altitude sending me running into the bathroom. Rachel calmly walked in, set her purse on the counter, and sat next to it until I had finished. I looked at her, and she grabbed the wet washcloth next to the sink and handed it to me. "Thanks." I grumbled. I rested my head against the side of the tub. "Ugh, I feel like shit." "Uh-huh." Rachel said calmly. She ripped open a package and set it on the counter, then gathered her stuff and turned back to me. "There, I'm leaving you in here. Do that thing, _no_ questions...." "Look, I'm not doing jack shit until you tell me what the hell is going through your pea sized little monkey brain, bitch." Rachel drew back and slapped me across the jaw. Stunned more than hurt, I sat back on the tub. "What was that for?" I asked, amazed. Rachel wasn't the sort of person that would resort to violence. "What the hell do you think? Damn, Liz, you are one hell of a bitch when you're prego." I felt like she had just slapped me again. "What?" I asked, my voice shaking. Rachel's face softened, and she smiled. "Seriously, Liz, I'm amazed that no one else has said anything. You keep going back and forth between sweet and a total bitch. Personally, I prefer the sweet Liz. Now, please just do that test so we have the proof." I could only nod, as she turned to leave the room. "Hey, Rachel, how the hell do you know all this?" I called before she had left. She stuck her head back in the door as I called out to her. Then, Rachel's face fell out of the slight smile that she wore. She looked as if she were about to cry. "Liz, the week before you joined us, I had a miscarriage. I was pregnant thanks to AJ. That was the best and worst thing that's ever happened to me." She turned and looked in my eyes. A tear fell down her cheeks. "I never told AJ." **************************************************************************************************************** AJ helped me spread the blanket out on the grass. Aside from the slight cold, it was a perfect day for a picnic in Central Park. I reached in my pocket to make sure that *it* was still there. AJ and I walked to the road as the carriage pulled to a stop in front of us and Lizzie and Rachel climbed down. We slipped behind them and silently placed blindfolds over their eyes. Then, we led them gently to the outspread blanket. I whipped Lizzie's blindfold off. She gasped. "Oh Brian! This is great." I felt her arms wrap around me. I pulled her closer, sighed, and breathed deeply, taking in her sweet scent. When we parted, Rachel was already sitting on the blanket, AJ lying with his head cradled in her lap. I sat on the blanket, pulling Lizzie down beside me. She slipped easily into my lap and rested her head against my shoulder. "Bri, I need to tell you something important...." She mumbled, before Rachel accidentally kicked her knee. "But it can wait for now." We sat and ate the picnic, and then I got up and took Lizzie back into the nearby grove of trees. I set her down on a twisted iron bench. I dropped to my left knee and pulled small velvet box from my pocket. Her eyes became huge and I blurted out, "Lizzie, will you please marry me?" Not exactly the speech I had planned, but it was still better than nothing. Lizzie looked at me, then burst into tears. She doubled over and hugged her knees, sobbing into her legs. Shocked, I sat on the bench next to her and put my arm around her shoulder. This was it; she didn't want to marry me. She leaned against me, her hand grabbing a huge chunk of my shirt and pulling me closer to her. I pulled her as close as I could, praying that she was changing her mind. Through choked sobs, I heard my answer. "Yes...Oh, Brian.... I ...I ...I love you." She hiccuped. My heart nearly burst; I wanted to get up, to dance, to scream to the world that I had the most perfect person in the world, and she had just promised herself to me. Instead, I sat next to her and trying to will away the tears that fell against me. Finally, she had calmed down and stopped crying. I began to get up to go back to the blanket (sure that AJ and Rachel were beginning to wonder if we were all right), but she pulled me down. "Brian, wait; before we go back, you have to know something." I wrapped my arms around her as tears sprang into her gray eyes. "Brian...I'm pregnant. And, it's Jackson's." She buried her face in my shoulder, as soon as she said this and began to cry again. "Does he know?" I asked. She shook her head. I cupped my hand under her chin and slowly lifted it so I could look in her eyes. "Then it doesn't matter. This will be *our* baby. No one else has to know." "But, Brian, you won't be the father..." I cut her off as her head once again sank down, avoiding my eyes. "I will be the father in every way but one, and that is the one thing that doesn't matter to me." She braught those amazingly clear, blue- gray flecked eyes to look at me and wrapped her arms around me. We got up, she wrapped her arm around my waist and I placed mine around her shoulder with my face in her silky hair again, and we slowly made our way back to Rachel and AJ. When we arrived back in the small clearing, Lizzie stopped short. I pulled my face away from the top of her head to see what the problem was. Rachel was now lying in AJ's lap and they were in a highly advanced state of kissing. I softly cleared my throat, but it was enough to send AJ and Rachel five feet in the air with matching gasps. Rachel leapt to her feet, turning several shades of red (most of which I had never seen before) and AJ scrambled to recover their lost diginity (along with his shirt). Silence decended between all of us. Lizzie finally broke the moment by erupting into a fit of laughter and falling to the ground, unable to stay standing. I looked down to find her slighty less red than Rachel from the effort that she had taken the keep from laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but the looks on your faces were just to funny!" We all sat on the blanket, once again calm. AJ piped up. "So, B-rok, did you finally ask her?" "Yeah, did you," I asked. Rachel's head snapped up. "What?" Her shocked voice made me smirk. AJ cowered before Rachel. "Rachel, darling, love of my life, I'm sorry for being the perfectly stupid idiot that I am." The shameless groveling had begun. "Will you put up with my stupidity for the rest of my life and marry me?" Rachel looked at me. "How long has he been planning to ask this?" "It's been about two months since he bought the ring..." I said, the smirk only growing. "I worked up the nerve after only a week " An evil look came into Rachel's eyes. "Gee, AJ. I really like you, but I don't know. I meet another guy yesterday and he's the sweetest." AJ bent further down to kiss her feet. "Rachel, goddess of my destiny..." Rachel's burst of laughter interupted him. "AJ, of course I will. Now get off the ground, you're embarassing all of us." AJ leapt off the ground and pulled Rachel to him. I sank my face into Lizzie's soft hair to keep from having to look at them.