Ava Grace

A week later on the tenth, Ava had barely spoken to anyone even Liana since the phone call and wouldn't even take calls from her mother, sisters or Adrienne, and the only people she talked to very any length of time was the movers when the came to get her things that day, telling them, Billie Joe's address and paying them for the trip.

Three days later, she picked up her files from the doctor's and had her next check up since the doctor had a cancellation. That evening, Ava was looking at the pictures from her sonogram the month prior, when there was a knock on the apartment door. From the kitchen, Liana yelled "I'll get it."

A few minutes later, Jakob and Joey ran in the living room followed closely by their mother and Liana. The two young boys ran to their aunt and hugged her. When they pulled away, Ava looked up and Adrienne then said "If you're here, what if my stuff shows up in Berkeley?"

"Your brother's there. He can deal."

"And you three are here why?"

"To get you. Since you weren't responding to anyone's calls, Billie Joe got worried and bought three tickets to here and four to go back tomorrow. In fact, he forced Mike to tell him about the message he left which I found out about from Liana."

Ava gave Liana a death glare and said "It's nothing...he was right."

"He shouldn't have done that though. Your brother actually punched him for it!"

Ava sighed and said "I'm not ready to go back to California."

"Since when?"

"The phone call. What's he going to say when he sees me?"

"Hi. I missed you. You look good. I was wrong?"

"He still with the girlfriend?"

"Yes."

"Then he won't say that."

Adrienne sighed and sat down next to Ava as Liana brought the boys in the kitchen to eat something.

"Are you packed?"

"There's a few more things."

"That have to wait I'm guessing?"

Ava nodded and said "How are we gonna keep Mike away from me until the dinner at Citron?"

"We won't have you in the house if he's there. I'm actually surprised he hasn't found the rooms yet."

"Let's keep it that way till he knows I'm there."

"We are."

"Okay."

The next morning, Ava was finishing her packing after showering and getting ready when Liana knocked on the door and walked in followed by Jenna and Kristin.

"So you all ready to go Avs?"

"Almost...just my hair dryer, straightener, my hair products and my make up basically."

Jenna hugged Ava and said "What are we gonna do without you?"

"I'll be back once in a while. And, you three will see me when you fly to Berkeley for my baby shower. You three are still coming right?"

They nodded then Kristin said "It's gonna be so weird without you around."

Ava looked up from packing and said "How?"

"I don't know...it's just in the last six years since we met and NYU I've known you to be the life of the party and the exciting one, even though you're a neat freak and you nag everyone. What's it gonna be like without you here..."

"I'm still exciting. And a neat freak, and I nag even more now because of the pregnancy. What's the difference?"

"I don't know actually..."

The four laughed and Ava put the last of her things in her larger suitcase then zipped it up.

"Well, that's everything."

Adrienne popped her head in the doorway and said "Ready to go?"

"I think so."

Ava pulled her suitcase off the bed, and picked up her messenger bag and purse that she'd be taking on the plane. Each of her three friends took turns to hug her, then Ava said "Well, we'll all talk...and I'll see you three in May."

Liana hugged her again and said "I'll miss your weird punk music being played in the apartment."

"Ramones and The Clash, Lee...they aren't weird to me and my family..."

"They're weird to me."

"Cause you're from Ohio."

Jenna and Kristin laughed as Liana pouted and Ava hugged her.

"I left my favorite Ramones cd in the stand for you. Take good care of it or I'll kill you."

"Okay."

Ava wheeled her bag out into the living room and Adrienne had Jakob sitting on the couch and she tried to tie his boot. As he squirmed, Adrienne persisted with "Please Jake be good. We're flying back to see daddy."

Ten minutes later, the four were outside to get a cab, and within a few minutes were on their way to JFK. An hour and a half later, they were on their flight to San Francisco. Six and a half hours later, the four arrived at the San Francisco International airport, where Billie Joe was waiting for them at their gate.

The boys ran to their father even though they had only been away a day and he bent down to be close enough to their heights to hug them. Pulling away, he stood up and kissed Adrienne.

"Happy Valentine's Adie."

"I was gone a day."

"But, it's still Valentine's Day."

"Then, what did you get me?"

"You'll see later. What did you get me?"

"You'll see later."

Billie furrowed his eyebrows, kissed Adrienne again and said "Fine."

He stepped over to Ava and said "I'm so sorry about his phone call."

Ava started crying and Billie wrapped his arms around her. As his little sister cried into his shoulder, Adrienne said "I guess I should've told you that I promised her we wouldn't talk about him for at least today."

"Thank you for warning me."

"It slipped my mind."

Adrienne picked up Jakob and said "Can we go get the bags?"

Ava pulled away from Billie, wiped the tears off her face with the sleeves of her Berkeley sweater, and said "Did my boxes get here?"

"Sure did, I put all your clothes ones in your closet and the rest are in the corner of your room by the window."

"Okay."

"Now, c'mon Tre's waiting for us at baggage claim."

"Tre's here?"

"Yeah. He knows you're in town and offered up his SUV for us to get home in."

"Why don't you two have a family sized car?"

Adrienne looked at Billie Joe and said "Cause your brother is cheap."

"I don't see why we need a minivan or and SUV or some other car when we have two sons, and just us. You have your BMW, I have my BMW, plus the Fairlane."

Ava looked at her brother and said "You still have that piece of junk."

"It's not a piece of junk. I love that car."

"It's junk now can we please go get the bags so I can unpack my things."

"Yes."

Adrienne took Joey's hand and the three allowing with the boys, made their way down the terminal hall to the baggage claim where Tre was. When Ava, Billie Joe, and Adrienne walked up to him, Tre hugged Ava and said "Hey preggers."

"Please don't call me that."

Adrienne sighed then said "He calls every pregnant woman that. Try getting it for two pregnancies."

"I didn't call Claudia or Lisea that."

"Cause you were married to them, and Lisea threatened you when you said it to me."

"I actually remember that."

"Surprisingly."

Ten minutes later, they were on their way to the Armstrong residence. When they got to Billie Joe and Adrienne's house, Billie took the boys out into the backyard to play soccer, and Adrienne brought Ava inside to show her the nursery and then, Ava's room. When Ava saw the nursery, with it decorations and the furniture, she smiled and hugged Adrienne.

"Thank you so much Adie."

"Hey, getting to decorate even just half a room for a little girl was a thrill."

"But seriously, I could never have done this ever. Probably not even with my own painters hired and an interior designer."

"Wanna see your room now?"

"Yeah."

Adrienne brought Ava into the pale yellow room and as soon as Ava saw the king size bed, she said "This is officially my favorite room."

She laid on the bed and said "I could nap for hours right now."

"Did you want me to wake you up for dinner?"

"Would you?"

"Well, no doubt your brother is taking me out so it'll probably be pepperoni and cheese pizza for you, Joey and Jake."

"Fine by me."

"All right."

Adrienne left the room, closing the door behind her, and Ava quickly drifted off to sleep. Hours later, Joey and Jakob woke up their aunt, just before their parents went out for Valentine's Day.

By ten, Ava had the boys in bed and was laying on the couch watching television when Billie Joe and Adrienne got home. They said good night to her and quickly made their way upstairs. Three hours later, Ava finally made her way to bed.

The next day at four-thirty in the afternoon, Billie Joe had already left for his mother's house with Joey and Jakob, and now Adrienne and Ava were still getting ready at the home of Billie Joe and Adrienne in Berkeley.

Nearly an hour had passed before the girls left. Ava was dressed in a sundress, the only thing that made her feel comfortable on the warm day, and Adrienne was in her usual jeans and t-shirt.

When they arrived at Ollie's home in Rodeo, they parked in front on the street and made their way inside, just as they entered everybody was about to sit down to eat. When supper was done, the women of the family, including Ava and Adrienne all sat around the kitchen talking about the twins.

By the time that Billie Joe brought the boys home, they were asleep and since Adrienne and Ava were right behind them, Adrienne got them to bed with help from Billie Joe and Ava went to bed herself.

The entire next day, the sixteenth, Ava spent most of her day unpacking her things, only stopping long enough for a break.

The next day was the seventeenth, and Billie Joe's thirtieth birthday.

That night, the Armstrong family, as well as Mike, Sarah, Tre, and his wife Claudia would all go out to dinner at Citron, and then Billie Joe, Adrienne, Ava, David, his wife Rebecca, Mike, Sarah, Tre, and Claudia would go to Ruby Skye, a club in San Francisco.

By five that afternoon, the babysitter arrived and Billie Joe was waiting downstairs for his wife and younger sister. He yelled up the stairs "Can we please get going? The reservation is soon and I'd like to show up on time on my birthday."

Adrienne appeared at the top of the stairs and said "You're never on time for anything."

"I try though. Where's Ava?"

"I thought she was already down here."

"Uhh, no. Unless she's invisible."

Adrienne walked to her husband at the bottom of the stairs and said "Well, go get her then, Mr. We Can't Be Late."

Billie Joe sighed and ran up the stairs. He knocked on Ava's partially closed door and said "Avs, you ready?"

"No."

"Are you decent?"

"Mm hmm."

Billie pushed the door open all the way and leaned against the door frame, and watch his sister stand in front of the full length mirror on her closet door. Ava glanced at Billie Joe then pulled her loose ponytail of curls, at the base of her neck, over her shoulder and whispered "I don't wanna go."

Billie Joe walked over to Ava and said "It's my birthday Avs. You have to come to dinner, I can drop you off before we go to the club."

"I'd go if Sarah wasn't going. I want to talk to Mike, I need to. I have to tell him the twins are his."

"I think it's too soon Ava."

"I don't. He has the right to know. And, for five months we've led him to believe they're Ben's. He doesn't even know it's twins. I want him to. And, I need him in their lives."

"You act like you want a future with him and right now, he doesn't even want to hear your name. It's hurt him to much."

"Because he thinks I'm having a baby with my ex-boyfriend who died in the Twin Towers. Of course, he's hurting. I slept with him and we were all ready to start a relationship and everything then bam, I tell Adie I'm pregnant, who tells you, then you told him."

Billie Joe sighed and said "Please don't do anything tonight..."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want anything major happening. I want a nice dinner for my birthday with our family and extended family, then I want to go get drunk, and then I want to come home and have sex with my wife. Can't you please save the drama for another day?"

"Maybe."

"All I get is a fucking maybe?!"

Ava thinned the midnight blue dress to her fuller figure and said "Okay, I'll greatly consider saving the drama for a different day."

"Thank you. Now can we go."

"Yeah."

Ava grabbed her silver clutch off the bed, that matched the flats she was wearing, and her and Billie Joe left the room. They met with Adrienne at the bottom of the stairs, and then left for Citron.