“Well, all I have to do now is go and talk to the doctor about something that she wanted to talk to me about and then I can go back to the house.” I handed Thomas to BJ. He had, by now, been christened Tommy, by …well everyone.
We had all had a nice long talk about what Nick had told me right before my water broke. Everything was cool.
I walked into the office and sat down in the chair. A few minutes later Dr. Fremont came in another door. “Hello Faith.”
“Hello doctor.”
“How are we feeling today?”
“Just fine.”
“Well, that’s good.” She sat down at her desk. “Faith I’m afraid I have some bad news.” The first thought that went through my mind? SOMETHINGS WRONG WITH TOMMY. “But don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with your baby.” I relaxed a little. “The bad news is that because you are only 18 years of age, we can’t let you raise Thomas, by yourself.”
“WHAT?!?!?!?” This wasn’t happening.
“I’m sorry Faith, but it is State law. We aren’t allowed to let you keep him.”
“But the guys. I’m living with five guys and a few other people.”
“Yes, I know but seeing as you aren’t connected to any of them I am not allowed to let you keep Tommy.”
I was to scared and shocked to over react. “Is there anyway around it?”
Now, this doctor had a really big heart. I could tell that she wasn’t suppose to tell me that there was a way for getting around it. “The only way that you can get around it is to get married. Or at least be engaged. They will let you have the baby if you engaged, but that still means that you have to get married.”
“OK. And how old do you have to be to have a child and not be married?”
“20 years old.”
“How old does the person that you are engaged to have to be?”
“Legal. They have to be legal, but your best bet is 21 or older.”
“Thank you. Is that all you needed to tell me?”
“Yes. I am so sorry, Faith. But I don’t make the rules. If I did, you would have your baby boy.” I was crying by then.
“How long to I get to keep him, if I don’t get engaged?”
“About two weeks. After that we will have to put him up in a foster home and then try and find someone to adopt him.”
“Thank you.” I got up and walked out of the room. The group was sitting out there waiting for me.
“Hey, Faith. How did it go?” AJ asked, before seeing my tearstained face.
“Not too well, judging from the tears streaming down her face.” Kevin said.
“What’s the matter Baby?” Nick asked me, using the nickname that he had given me.
“They… They are going to take him away … away from… m…me.” I finally managed to get the words out.
“WHAT!?!?!” They all said at the same time. “Who is going to try to take him away from you?” Howie asked.
“The State.” I collapsed and Brian caught me.
“Lets get her home and let her rest a little. Then she can tell us about it.” He suggested. The others agreed.
A little while later, back at the house, I was better, but I wouldn’t let Tommy out of my sight. I was going to have to tell them. “Brian, can you get everyone together?”
“Yeah, sure Princess.” He came back with everyone following him. “Are you going to tell us about before?”
“Yeah” I handed Tommy to Brian, who had see to take to him. “OK here it goes. The state is going to take Tommy away from me. They think that anyone under the age of 20 is incapable of taking care of a child by themselves. They are going to put him in a foster home.”
They were all shocked. “Is there any way around it?” AJ asked, hoping, like all the others, that there was something he could do to help.
“There is only one way around it. I have to get married.”
“Married?” BJ squeaked.
“Well, I have to be engaged and to keep him and then I have to get married still. I guess the officials have to be present or something. The person has to be a legal adult but the doctor said that my best bet for keeping Tommy would be someone over the age of 21.”
“21?” Nick choked. I nodded. “Well, I guess that counts me out.” We all look at him in shock.
“What are you talking about, Nick?” I asked.
“What? You can’t honestly believe that I was going to sit here and watch them take your baby away from you.”
“Well, no, but….”
Nick continued. “And if getting married is what is going to get you out of this mess then, well, I was going to do it.”
“But Nick, she said that they could be as young as age 18. That’s how old you are buddy.” Howie said.
“Yeah but if her best chances of keeping Tommy are going to be if she marries someone over 21 then I don’t want to ruin those chances.” He looked to Brian.
“I’ll do it. I’m the youngest one over the limit. I’ll do it if you get to keep Tommy.” Brian said.
“I don’t want anyone’s pity.”
“We aren’t doing it out of pity. We love you and we want to see Tommy grow up too!”
“OK I think we have had enough of this conversation!” I ran upstairs to the room that I shared with BJ. She followed me.
When she entered the room I was face down on my bed. “Faith?”
“Yeah?”
“Here, he wants you.” I sat up and she handed Tommy to me. I took him. “Faith, why don’t you let Bri help you?”
“I don’t want his pity.”
“He doesn’t pity you. None of us pity you. We just want you to raise your child and if this is the only way it is going to happen then I think that you should let him help you.”
“But that would be wasting the next two years of his life, maybe even more.”
“He wants to help you. If he thought it would be wasting his time he wouldn’t have said anything.” I looked down at Tommy in my arms and thought about what she was saying.
“What about Nick?”
“Ahhh, Nick. The big question, what about Nick? Well, I’m not going to lie to you and say that he doesn’t like you, he does. But I also think that he likes you enough to know that this is going to make you the happiest because you get to keep Tommy.” There was a knock at the door.
“Come in.” The door opened and there stood Leslie. “Hey, Leslie.”
“Hi.” She came in and shut the door behind her. “They are downstairs, talking about this whole thing. All the guys agree that Brian should do it. Even Nick.”
Then almost as if on cue, there was another knock at the door. “Who is it?” BJ called.
“It’s me. I need to talk to Faith.” Nick’s voice came through the door.
The two sisters got up and Leslie opened the door. They walked out and Nick walked into the room. He shut the door behind him. He came and sat down on the bed next to me. “Hey.” He started. “Faith, I have to tell you something.”
“Hi. OK. Tell me.’
“Well, Faith I was going to tell you this before, but I never really got the chance to. Faith, I like you. More then as just friends. I REALLY like you.
“I like you too Nick. But this whole stupid thing had to show up. No one ever told me about this!!!” We were quite for a minute. Tommy had fallen asleep. “OK, now this is really weird.”
“Yeah I know it is.” He looked at me and then at Tommy. “Faith, I like you a lot, and I’m not going to say that I wasn’t disappointed that I couldn’t help you the way that Brian wants to help you. I’m not very excited to see my best friend marry the girl that I like, but-“ I cut him off
“I never said I was marring anyone!”
“Faith, just please, listen to me.” I nodded. “I was just going to say that, as long as you are happy, I’ll be happy and I think that what would make you happiest would be to marry Brian so that you can keep Tommy. I think that it would be the best for both you and Tommy.”
“But, Nick-“
“No buts about it. If you really want me to be happy, then you’ll do it. For Tommy. For me and for Tommy.”
I though about it for a minute and then I looked at him “OK, I’ll do it. But only because I want to keep Tommy.”
“That’s my girl! Now lets go downstairs and tell the others.”
“OK just let me put him in his playpen.”
After I put Tommy in the playpen in the corner of the room, we went downstairs. “Hey everyone, Faith wants to tell you what she has decided to do.” Nick said as we walked into the room It was immediately silent.
“I’m going to do it.” Brian’s stood up and walked over to me.
“I’m glad that you choose to co-operate.”
“Yeah, well Nick talked me into it.”
Brian and I decided that we needed to talk some things over so we went upstairs to BJ and my room and locked the door, so no one would bother us. As soon as I sat down on my bed, I breathed a heavy sigh. “Am I really that bad?” Brain asked, jokingly.
“Oh yeah Bri. I am going to be totally miserable these next two years.” I said to him in the same tone of voice. “Actually, I was thinking that this really sucks. This is the only way they will let me keep Tommy.”
He came over to me and wrapped his arms around me. “I know it sucks. Believe me, I’m just glad that I’m going to be able to help the two of you stay together.”
“But Brian, I can’t help but feel like you are throwing away two years of your life because of us.”
“NO! Don’t even think that. I know that Tommy is only a week old but I love him like he was my own. We all do.”
“Yeah I know. Man this is going to be very weird.”
“Yeah it is. But we will be able to get through it.”
Then I thought of something. The group. The guys were in that music group. How was this going to affect his career? “Um… Bri?”
“Yeah, Princess?”
“Well, um what about the group?”
“What about it?”
“Well, how is this going to affect your career and touring and all that stuff?”
“Well, the fans will be a little angry, but they will be fine after a while and if they are real fans they will be happy. As for touring, don’t think I’m going to leave you at home all by your self. You and Tommy can come with me.”
“How are we going to tell, well, the world I guess?”
“We'll cross that bridge when we get there. You worry too much. It’s all going to be OK.”
“OK if you say so.”
“Faith, I have something else that I need to ask you.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, there are a few things. First of all, the guys and I are going to be doing a live show for MTV on Halloween. I want you and Tommy to come with us. BJ and the kids are coming. Plus we are going to have to practice this couples thing.”
“Yeah, your right. We are going to have to practice that.”
Suddenly his face lit up. “I have a great idea. You know how you asked about how we were going to tell everyone? Well, I can purpose to you on the show. We can have your doctor watch it that night. Then she’ll know, too.”
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“Do you have a better one?”
“Well, no but….”
“Well, then that’s what we will count on doing for now.”
“What are you going to tell your parents?”
“I’ll just tell them that I met a really sweet girl and fell madly in love with her. I’ll tell them about the TV thing before hand so that they don’t have heart attacks. And I will tell them about Tommy too. I wouldn’t want them to freak out when they see you with him in the show.”
“On the show?”
“Yeah, everyone is going to be on the show. BJ, Leslie, Angel, Aaron, everyone. And since you are going, then he is going to be on too. Plus where else is he going to go?”
“No where!”
“OK. Now, the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about."
"Yeah?"
"Faith, I want to adopt Tommy….”