And a Baby Makes Three

Rian smiles widely when Cassadee comes bounding out of the bathroom in their apartment, holding a pregnancy test in one hand. He looks at her expectantly, but she only smiles and looks down at the test.

“So?” He asks, looking at her. “The suspense is killing me!”

She smiles at him, and she takes hold of his hands and presses the test down into his palms. He looks at the test for a few moments, before realizing he has no idea how to read the damn thing. He looks up at her in confusion, and she laughs; he’s adorably stupid sometimes. She presses a quick kiss to his lips, pulls back a little and says, “It’s positive.”

Rian stares at her, and sets the test down on the nearest side table. She looks at him, and flashes this perfect lopsided smile. Rian outright grins back, and pulls her in for a kiss, resting one hand on her hip, and the other tentatively on her stomach. She smiles into the kiss, and she’s pretty sure she picked the best guy ever to have a baby with.

“We’re going to be awesome parents.” Rian says, moving his other hand to Cassadee’s stomach.

The next week, Cassadee invites Victoria, Lisa, Hayley and Sierra over to tell them the news. Rian’s been kicked out of the house, on instruction to hang out with the boys, and tell them about the baby. Sierra’s making herself comfortable on the floor with Hayley, Lisa and Victoria when Cassadee comes back in from the kitchen with steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She sits down on the floor too and passes out the drinks.

“Rian and I have got some news.” She announces, taking a sip from her cup. “Guess.”

“You’re getting married?” Victoria suggests, leaning back and resting on her hands.

Cassadee shakes her head, and says “Close, but not quite.”

Lisa looks her up and down for a second, and then cocks her head sideways.

“You’re having a baby, aren’t you?” She says, and smiles when Cassadee blushes. “Okay, that’s just adorable.”

Hayley and Sierra instantly begin cooing over Cassadee’s barely changed belly.

“How far gone are you?” Victoria asks.

“We don’t think it’s much further than a month.” Cassadee says fondly, resting a hand on her stomach. “Don’t tell the guys though; Rian’s supposed to be doing that today.”

“Do you think he will?” Sierra asks.

“He’ll probably pussy out.” She says with a slight laugh. “And then I’ll have to tell them.”

Sure enough, Rian returns a few hours later, and he hasn’t told the boys. His argument being that there was no real place in the conversations for him to bring it up. Cassadee laughs at him, but smiles lovingly when he presses a kiss to her stomach. Yeah, she thinks to herself, he’ll be a brilliant father.

A few months pass, and Cassadee’s starting to show a little. Not much, by any means, just a cute little bulge in her belly that Rian rather enjoys resting his hand on. He guesses it’s just because of the sheer elation that a girl as brilliant as Cassadee chose him to have a baby with. Little old him.

“You should really tell the boys, you know.” Cassadee comments, watching Rian affectionately as he presses a kiss to the barely-there swell of her stomach. Rian sits up, and sends a quick text to everyone to schedule a band meeting.

“You look beautiful today, by the way.” He comments, flashing her a smile.

Cassadee blushes as she pulls her tee down self-consciously and smiles at him.

A few hours later, there’s a knock at the door. Cassadee grumbles to herself and pulls herself up, opening the door to Jack and Victoria.

“Cassiebear!” Jack exclaims, and picks her up in a hug. Cassadee laughs, and hits at his back until he puts her down. She moves aside to let him in and sighs as he throws himself on the couch. Victoria laughs at him before hugging Cassadee herself.

“How’s Momma?” Victoria asks cutely. Cassadee blushes.

Rian chooses that moment to appear on the stairs, and Jack immediately throws himself at the elder male.

Cassadee watches them for a second before turning back to Victoria.

“Your boyfriend is insane.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Alex and Lisa show up about fifteen minutes later, and they find Rian and Jack bickering about something, and Cassadee and Victoria sitting at the breakfast bar in the middle of a video call with Zack.

“Nice of you to show up.” Jack comments with a cheeky smile. Alex bats him around the head. Cassadee and Victoria start laughing at something and Zack on screen is grinning.

“Act surprised.” Victoria mutters very quietly to him, before picking up the laptop and setting it down on the coffee table in front of everyone. She and Cass take a seat and watch as Rian fumbles over his words.

“Cass is pregnant.” He blurts out, and Alex stares at him.

“What?”

“Cass is pregnant.” Zack says from the laptop. “As in, with Rian’s baby. I’m not going through ‘the birds and the bees’ with you again, Gaskarth, if that’s what you’re trying to do.”

“I said act surprised!” Victoria exclaims, laughing.

“You know I can’t act, Asher!”

“Anyway!” Jack interjects. “Since when?”

“About four months ago now.” Cassadee replies, petting her stomach gently.

“And you didn’t tell me?” Jack asks, horrified.

“Rian was supposed to, but he pussied out. The girls have known for months.” Cassadee continues.

“You have no idea how difficult it was not to tell you.” Lisa says, pressing a kiss to Alex’s cheek.

“How did you know?” Rian asks, looking down the camera at Zack.

“Cass and Victoria just told me.” He smirks, to which Victoria glares at him.

“You weren’t supposed to tell!”

A month or so passes, and Cassadee’s quite happily watching reality TV on the couch while Rian does the dishes. She’s pretty sure she’s seen this episode of Jerry Springer at least four times, but she isn’t bothered.

She’s about to take a drink from her steaming mug of hot chocolate when she feels something move. She freezes and sets the mug down on the coffee table, pressing both of her hands to her swollen stomach.

“Do that again.” She mumbles, and as if it heard her, the unborn baby in her belly moves again.

“Rian!” She yells. “Rian, come here!”

Rian comes running out of the kitchen in a panic, pausing and taking a second to breathe when he sees that Cassadee is still in one piece.

“Feel this.”

Rian kneels down and Cassadee takes his hands, placing them on her stomach and holding them there.

“Do that for your daddy.” She says, and then she feels the littlest kick, and Rian looks up at her, a grin plastered on his face.

“Wow.” He says, tears in his eyes. “That’s our kid.”

Cassadee smiles, moves her hands and pulls him closer to kiss him.

They go for a sonogram the next week. Rian holds Cassadee’s hand as the doctor moves the scanner around. She holds it still and then looks at the two of them with a smile. She gestures at a shape on the screen.

“That’s your baby.”

Cassadee hears Rian gasp, and looks over at him with a smile. He’s crying. He looks down at Cassadee and a watery laugh leaves his throat.

“You are incredible.” He says. She smiles, and he kisses her forehead.

“I try.”

The next day, Alex and Lisa come over. Lisa and Cassadee sit discussing names while Rian shows Alex the sonogram.

“Look, it’s there.”

“Ri, they just look like lines.”

“It’s a baby, you moron.”

“Let me see it.” Lisa interjects. She takes the sonogram from her boyfriend’s hands and looks at it.

“Awwh.” She coos. “Don’t worry, Rian, he’s just insensitive.”

“I resent that.” Alex comments, pouting.

Another couple of months pass, and by now, Rian’s framed the sonogram and it’s sitting pride of place atop the fireplace in the living room.

“The baby’s got rhythm like you, I swear.” Cassadee grumbles, laid out on the couch with her head in Rian’s lap. “Either that, or they have a marching band in there, or something.”

Rian laughs.

“It’s not a laughing matter, Ri!”

“Sorry, it’s just the way you said it.” He smiles, playing with her hair.

“I was joking, Ri.”

“I knew that.”

The due date is creeping ever closer, and Cassadee’s getting nervous. It’s two weeks away now, and her belly’s so enormous she feels about ready to pop.

They’re sitting on the couch together when suddenly, Cassadee feels something drop.

“Rian,” She says shakily, “Ri, I think the baby’s coming.”

“What?” He asks in disbelief.

“Ri, the baby’s coming. I think my water just broke.” Her eyes are wide with fear.

“Get... Get a doctor or something... And get Victoria.” She says quietly. Rian nods, and hurriedly dials for the hospital.

He rings Victoria’s cell, only to have Jack answer the phone.

“Hello?”

“Jack, this is important, where’s Victoria?”

“She’s showering. What is it?”

“Cassadee’s having the baby. And she wants Victoria to be here.”

“Well... Fuck.”

“I know. Just... get her out of the shower and over here. Sooner rather than later.”

Rian hears Jack move and then yell ‘Victoria! Cass is having the baby!’ at the top of his voice. A few minutes pass, and Cassadee starts making pained noises and clutching her stomach.

“It’ll be okay.” Rian says, kissing her forehead. Cassadee grits her teeth.

“What is it?” Victoria’s voice suddenly asks.

“Cassadee’s having the baby!” Rian exclaims. “She needs you here!” Cassadee whimpers and nods in agreement, even though Victoria can’t see or hear her.

“We’ll be right over.”

Sure enough, Jack and Victoria come bursting in about ten minutes later.

“You’ve called the hospital, right?” Jack says as Victoria settles herself on Cassadee’s other side. Rian nods, wincing a little as Cassadee grips his hand tightly.

“Call Alex and Lisa.” Victoria instructs, smoothing the hair from Cassadee’s face. Jack nods, pulls out his phone and disappears into the kitchen.

The doctors arrive a few minutes later, and Jack hangs behind to finish calling everyone and to wait for them all to show up.

Victoria and Rian go with her, and Victoria presses a quick kiss to Jack’s cheek and tells him she’ll see him soon. Alex and Lisa come bursting through the door five minutes after they’re gone, and Alex drives to the hospital in Jack’s car while he calls Cassadee’s parents.

They find Sierra, Hayley and Chad pacing around outside of Cassadee’s room.

“How is she?” Lisa asks immediately.

“She’s doing good, apparently.” Sierra says with an almost smile. “Have you called everyone, Jack?”

The boy nods.

“Alex, Jersey, Mike, Patrick and her mom and dad are coming up from Florida as soon as they can, you guys obviously got here, Zack’s flying over as soon as possible and Ri’s mom and dad are on their way.” Jack says as he takes a seat beside the door.

What feels like hours pass, and Rian’s parents show up and take the two seats next to Jack while they wait for their son.

“Zack’s going to be here soon,” Alex says, looking up from his cell, “he got on an early flight because they had spaces.”

The door to Cassadee’s room opens and everyone stares at it. The nurse in the doorway smiles, before announcing, “You can see her now.”

Everyone follows after Rian’s parents and the first think Jack and Alex see is the tears. Cassadee’s crying, the baby in her arms is crying, and Rian’s crying. Jack hugs him with one arm and the elder smiles at him.

“It’s a boy.” Rian says quietly. Jack smiles, and hugs Rian tighter.

“We’re calling him Joel. Joel Vincent.” Cassadee says, smiling up at everyone. “And seriously, Jack, your girlfriend is an angel.”

Victoria laughs, and Jack wraps his free arm around her.

“No, seriously, don’t let her go without a fight.” Cassadee continues, looking at the both of them. Jack smiles, mumbling something along the lines of ‘I don’t plan on ever letting her go’ before kissing Victoria.

Joel is then passed around between everyone who wants to hold him, and then Jack decides to upstage the moment (albeit only for Victoria) by pressing a box into her palm.

“Marry me?” He whispers, pressing a kiss to her jaw. Victoria giggles and blushes, nodding and kissing him properly.

“Sure, why not.”

Zack and Jersey choose that moment to burst through the door, which, for some reason, Alex finds highly amusing. He stops when Joel, who is currently getting quite comfortable in his arms, pulls at his hair.

“Okay, he’s not even a day old and he’s already bullying Alex –you two have awesome genes.” Zack comments, walking over to everyone. Jersey follows behind him, a smile on his face. Alex pouts, fixing him with a glare as he passes Cassadee her baby back.

A few hours pass and finally everyone leaves, and it’s jut Rian, Cassadee and baby Joel. Rian’s sitting down on the chair at Cassadee’s bedside, with Joel in his arms. Cassadee’s watching them both fondly.

“Did you hear about Jack and Victoria?” Rian asks, moving Joel gently in his arms as he drifts off to sleep. Cassadee shakes her head.

“He proposed.” Rian says with a smile. Cassadee’s jaw drops.

“Seriously? When?”

“Today. Not long after you said that Vee was an angel, actually.”

“Well, that’s just adorable.”

“He’s been wanting to for months, he just hasn’t had the nerve.” Rian says, watching the baby in his arms wiggle around a little. He presses a kiss to the baby’s tiny forehead and Cassadee smiles with pride.

“You’re incredible, Cass,” Rian says, glancing over at his girlfriend, only to find her looking at him, “and I love you. I feel like I don’t tell you that enough.”

Cassadee giggles.

“Oh, trust me, you say it plenty.”

The next morning, Jack and Victoria come back, holding hands and with a card and a carefully wrapped box.

Jack sets it on Cassadee’s lap while Victoria shows off her engagement ring. He pauses for a second and watches Rian with his child. It’s pretty cute, he has to admit.

“Guys, you didn’t have to.” Cassadee sighs as Victoria passes the card up to her.

“Yes, we did.” Jack replies, and Rian laughs at him, beckoning him over. He passes Joel over to him, introducing him to the baby as ‘Uncle Jack.’

Cassadee rips open the card and reads it, before giggling to herself and showing it to Rian.

Momma Pope and Daddy Dawson,
Congratulations on baby Joel –he’s a cutie. So he doesn’t take after Rian, then.
Ignore Jack, Joel’s adorable. That much is true, I guess.
Good luck. You’ll need it.

xo
Vee and Jack.

Rian laughs, and looks over at Jack, who’s making baby noises at Joel.

“I’d hit you right now if you weren’t holding my kid.”

Victoria takes Joel from her fiancé and smiles at Rian.

“Go ahead.”

Rian and Cassadee take baby Joel home a few days later, and find that Alex and Lisa have renovated the spare room into a nursery while they’ve been gone.

“Okay, your friends are brilliant.” Cassadee smiles, kissing Rian’s cheek and then kissing her baby’s forehead. Rian smiles and kisses Cassadee properly.

“I know.”

Cassadee sets Joel down in his crib, then walks back to Rian and rests her hands on his hips.

“Love you, Ri.” She says with a smile, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“Love you too, Cass.”