Status: Work in progress!

Smoke on the Water

proud within her heart.

Peter walked into the master bedroom to find his wife of forty drinking, what he was sure, not just one glass of wine. She was sitting at her vanity table, swirling the red-violet liquid in her delicate hand while deep in thought.

“Drinking’s not good for your health,” Peter commented. He was always health conscience ever since he could remember. He rarely went out for fast-food, never touched alcohol and didn’t even come close to cigarettes. He taught Brody by example and thus his son, too abstained from cigarettes and alcohol, although fast food…. Well, there’s not a lot of healthy places in New York City.

“Yeah and so is getting your girlfriend knocked up, but our son did that,” she retorted coyly.

Peter walked over to the vanity table where Jeanine was sitting and took the bottle of Dom Perignon away from her. He had to talk to her before he could let her drink away all her problems.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked as she looked at the expensive champagne bottle in his hand.

“We need to talk about our son.”

“He is not our son, he is your son. My son wouldn’t go out and have sex with some sleazy whore and get her pregnant.”

“Natasha is not some sleazy whore!” Peter raised his voice a little bit.

“Yes she is!” Jeanine countered. “You’ve seen the Hutchinson house. They spoil her rotten. They send her to the best school, buy her the best cars, the best clothes…. She’s a spoiled brat. Why else would she have gotten pregnant before marriage if she had moral taught to her by her parents?”

“What happened between Brody and Natasha was, granted, a mistake. Do you think that when Natasha had sex with Brody she wanted to get pregnant? No! But she’s owned up to it and even told us all to our faces,” Peter argued. “Would you have liked it better if she kept the pregnancy a secret and eight months later we’d get a phone call saying we’re grandparents?”

Jeanine looked in the mirror at her husband and sighed. He was right. She knew he was right, but she had not wanted to admit it. How would it have looked upon them in the community if anyone found out that her son got his girlfriend pregnant at only eighteen years of age? It would be disastrous; a true scandal of magnificent proportions.

“Look, whether any of us like it or not, she is Brody’s girlfriend and she’s made him very happy,” Peter explained as calmly as he could. “And the two of us need to respect and accept the fact that Natasha and Brody are in love with each other and are going to be together for a long, long time.”

Jeanine looked at her husband, appalled, “Are you actually defending the fact that they are going to have a baby together?” When Peter didn’t say anything she continued, “You are, aren’t you?”

“Listen, I’m not happy that Brody and Natasha are pregnant, but what are we going to do? She’s pregnant; that’s a fact. And now we have to figure out what’s going to happen next.”

Jeanine inhaled sharply and briskly sat from her wooden carved chair and face Peter. She had rage under her tired looking eyes as she stared at her husband. “What going to happen next? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen next. She’s going to be a good little whore and go get an abortion. Then after all is said and done, she can go to Columbia or wherever those parents want her to go, Brody can go to Temple and we never speak about this baby, or Natasha, ever again.”

“Getting an abortion does not solve anything!” Peter yelled. He noted that this was the first time he yelled in a long time. He was almost always the calmer out of the two. “It’ll just be more added stress on Natasha and Brody’s life. Stress which neither two of them need at the moment.” Peter took a deep breath before continuing, “And it doesn’t solve the fact that Brody loves Natasha and he loves that baby.”

“Love?” Jeanine scoffed at her husband. “What does Brody know about love? He’s only ever had one girlfriend.”

Peter looked disapprovingly at his wife as he sat down on the king-sized bed, “I don’t know what he knows or doesn’t know about love. All I know is that Natasha Hutchinson has made him a very happy man. And the moment when she told him that she was pregnant was without a doubt the happiest moment in his life.”

Jeanine turned around from the mirror to look at her husband. Her eyes were saddened and emotion riddled on her face as Peter continued.

“And while I’m not happy with the thought of having a grandchild at forty-five, I am willing to put aside my petty problems to help Natasha and Brody while they have this baby. God, Jeanine you saw his face when Meredith mentioned abortion. If Natasha kills that child, it would devastate him. And while you’re thinking about all of this, just please remember your son and what this baby means to him.”

Jeanine looked down at the emerald green carpet before looking at her husband again, “This baby really made him happy didn’t it?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, very much,” Peter whispered before stepping out of the room to leave Jeanine alone.

Jeanine thought about everything Peter had said. She thought about the pregnancy and how hard it would be for the two teenagers to make ends meet. She thought about how hard both Natasha and Brody would have to work just to get by. She thought about how much sacrifices Brody would have to make to support his girlfriend all the while going to Temple University.

“Brody,” she whispered as she looked at the framed photograph of him on her vanity table.

He was her last son and now an only child after Brody’s older brother, Ricky, died in a motorcycle accident five years back. He was only nineteen years old. Ricky’s death was hard on the family emotionally and financially. This was around the time that Brody was heading to private school which meant debt was to be paid. Add on the funeral costs and the Baxter’s were in trouble. After Ricky died, both Peter and Jeanine promised that Brody would be their top priority. They would work the hardest to make him happy and open doors for him to succeed. And now that his girlfriend is pregnant, they have to work the hardest to help Natasha and Brody support their baby.

‘So many sacrifices, he’ll have to make,’ she thought to herself. It’s enough to make any teenager run for the hills.

If it were any other teenage boy who got his girlfriend pregnant, he would just leave the poor girl without ever turning back and never taking the responsibility of having a child. But it wasn’t just any boy that got his girlfriend pregnant, it was Brody. And the fact that Brody was willing to make all those sacrifices, made Jeanine proud deep inside her heart.

“He’ll be a good father,” she finally decided.
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Hello there my beauties! So what do you think about Jeanine's change of heart? Was it sweet, nice, undesearved? Love to hear opinions!

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