Teamwork

Easter Sunday goes better than she expected.

She's running a little bit late of course because that's just the person she is, but as soon as she walks in the door, Gigi Rose wraps her in a tight hug then ushers her through the foyer and into the living room, gently pushing her into the nearest armchair and then disappearing from the room. Julia looks around in confusion and goes to stand up so that she can find out what's going on, but as soon as she's back on her feet, the whole family floods into the room, armed with pastel colored gift bags. Her uncles drop several at her feet while Gigi Rose places a little pale yellow one on her lap. She looks up to find her mom watching silently from where she's leaned against the doorway, a smile on her face and Rick's arms wrapped around her from behind, his chin resting on her shoulder.

"Open them!" Gigi urges, waving her hand toward all the presents around them and Julia just chuckles as she pulls the tissue paper out of the small bag in her lap then peeks inside.

Maybe it's all the hormonal changes happening inside her body that she's still getting used to or maybe it's just the surprise of the overwhelming feeling of support from the people she loves the most, but she dissolves into tears when she pulls the contents out of the bag and unfolds a tiny gray onesie with the word 'loved' printed across the front. They all surround her in a big group hug, her uncle Dante poking a little fun at her, but then they get back to focusing on the gifts, everyone basically unwrapping everything they bought to show Julia what they'd gotten her. She can't help laughing when Nolan pulls out several baby sleepers from one bag. "Did you all just go shopping last night after Mom told you?"

Dante narrows his eyes playfully. "Maybe."

"You guys really didn't have to do all this," she says, and her voice is shaky, still feeling emotional but Gigi Rose wraps her in another hug and presses a kiss to her temple.

"We wanted to," she assures before pulling away to grab another gift bag from the floor. "Here, open this one."

The gift opening continues and by the time it's all finished, Julia is pretty sure the baby has more clothes than she does and they don't even know the gender yet. She can only imagine the damage her family is going to inflict on local stores once they do find out. As they move into the dining room for lunch, it becomes apparent to her that for the next thirty or so weeks, her whole family is going to hover over her and just in general be overly attentive. Nolan reaches out a hand to help her stand up and then Dante pulls out her chair at the dinner table. She went to pilates class last night but her family won't let her slide a wooden chair two feet to sit down today.

Julia guesses her mother told everyone that things are a bit messy because no one asks her any questions about the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy and she's thankful for that because the boys will be flying home from Detroit in the morning and it's at that point that she'll either have to decide to tell them or wimp out and just break off contact completely. She can't even think about it without feeling nauseous so she tries her hardest not to while she's there sitting around a table with her whole family and copious amounts of food.

After lunch has been eaten and the kitchen has been cleaned, when Rick has to run to the office and her uncles are meeting some of their friends in town to go antique shopping, Gigi Rose goes into her bedroom for an afternoon nap and Julia takes off her boots before settling on the sofa, resting her head in her mother's lap. The house is quiet and Angela gently brushes her fingers through Julia's hair, twirling and playing with the soft strands, and Julia feels like a kid again because it used to be the only thing that would calm her down when she was upset.

"Mom, can I ask you something?" she finally says, breaking the quiet around them.

"Of course, sweetie. What is it?"

"How did Anthony react when you told him?" Now that it's quiet and it's just the two of them, she's having trouble not thinking about telling Mike and Tom about the baby and she's scared of how they might react. She doesn't want them to hate her, but how could they not after this?

Angela is silent for a long time, like she's thinking of whether or not she should be completely honest. "First, he cried," she starts, continuing to stroke her daughter's hair. "Then he got angry. We yelled at each other for hours. He asked me to-...."

"Get rid of me?" Julia supplies, because she already knows that part and she knows her mother hates saying it.

"Yeah," Angela whispers sadly. "But I said 'Absolutely not' and so he said he couldn't be with me anymore."

Julia nods but her chest hurts a little, feels heavy knowing that she was the cause of all that pain her mother went through. "I'm sorry," she mumbles but Angela just smiles down at her and brushes her finger across her cheek.

"I'm not. Julia Rose, you will always be the best thing that ever happened to me."

Julia feels her eyes water and she reaches up to squeeze her mother's hand. "Thanks, Mom."

"And sweetie, Tom is not your father. We were sixteen when I got pregnant; we were still in high school, still living at home with our parents, we had no way to support ourselves. But you're adults; you have jobs and homes and everything you need to raise a baby."

"I've only known Tom for like five months. We're not even in a relationship. On top of that, I don't even know if it's his."

"Speaking of, you never told me who else's it could be."

Julia groans and slaps a hand over her face, covering her eyes. "It's Mike."

"Mike who?" her mother asks and only a moment after Julia squints one eye open to look at her, it clicks. "Oh my God, his friend Michael?!"

"Yep," Julia mumbles. "Friend....Roommate....Teammate."

"Jesus, Julia."

"I know."

"So," Angela starts, brushing a strand of hair out of her daughter's face. "Are you going to sit them both down and tell them?"

Julia sighs. "I think I should, but I honestly don't know if I'll be able to go through with it. I'm scared."

"Well, even if it doesn't work out, even if Tom or this Mike don't want to be a part of it, you'll still be okay. You can absolutely do it, and you know that your whole family is right behind you. You have all the support in the world, baby. There's no reason for you to be scared. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to."

"Yeah," Julia agrees quietly but the conversation ends there, and she lets the gentle movements of her mother's hands in her hair lull her into to sleep so that she doesn't have to think about it anymore for at least a little while.



Her phone vibrates on top of her desk as she's handing back midterms she graded over the break and when she picks it up to see that it's a text from Tom saying they're about to take off from Detroit on their way home, she promptly drops the phone and hurries to the door, barely able to tell her students she'll be right back before she rushes out of the classroom and down the hall to the faculty restrooms to empty the contents of her stomach. It's impossible to tell if it was a wave of morning sickness or just her nerves but regardless, she feels exhausted and a little weak by the time she carefully dabs her face with a cool paper towel then drinks a few sips of water. She pops a stick of gum when she gets back to her classroom and proceeds with the lesson as best as she can, but she's pretty sure her students know she's not feeling well anyway.

Tom texts her again during her lunch period to make plans for tonight now that he's back in DC and she just agrees to everything he suggests, knowing that they'll never get to that because she's going to have to drop the bomb on him as soon as she sees him. She's not going to be able to fake it to his face like she has been through text the past few days. He throws in a few kissy face emojis when he tells her he'll pick her up at 7 and she has to take a few deep breaths to keep herself from bursting into tears in the middle of the cafeteria.

After school is out, she jumps into her car and hurries home to wait for Melissa so that she can make her go with her to Arlington for moral support. She just sits on the sofa bouncing her knee for an hour until her roommate gets home and then she's immediately pushing her back toward the door, despite Melissa's protests of wanting to change into sweats first. The original ultrasound photos are on her dresser in her bedroom but she made several copies for her mother and Gigi Rose, and an extra to show the boys in case she has to leave it behind trying to get out of there fast. She grabs it from the front of the fridge and stuffs it into the pocket of her dress before she leaves the apartment.

Melissa offers to drive since Julia is so obviously high strung at the moment and Julia leans back against the head rest, closing her eyes and trying to take some deep breaths to keep herself from hyperventilating. Melissa parks the car across the street from the guys' building and walks inside with her, Julia tightly squeezing her hand the entire elevator ride up to their floor. "Okay," she says as they both step off and she turns to look at Julia, letting go of her hand to grab her by the shoulders. "You can do this. Whatever happens, it'll be okay, right? I'll be right out here when you're done."

Julia nods weakly and turns to head over to the appropriate door while Melissa stands back out of the way and she lets out a slow breath before she finally raises her fist to knock. It's only about fifteen seconds before it swings open and she's standing face to face with Mike, who grins when he sees it's her.

"Oh hey, Julia! What are you doing here?"

"Um, we need to talk. Where's Tom?"

"He's in the shower but he'll be out soon. Come on in." He steps aside so that she can walk into the apartment and she immediately goes over to sit down on the big tan sofa while he shuts the door behind her and heads back to grab his beer from the kitchen counter. "You want something to drink?"

"Huh?" she says delayed, her mind a little preoccupied. "Um, no thanks."

Mike walks over to the living room to join her and he furrows his brows at her odd behavior. She's sitting on the edge of the cushion, which is no doubt uncomfortable for her back; she's bouncing her knees as she drums her fingertips against her thighs and she may possibly make herself bleed if she chews any harder on her bottom lip. He's never seen her looking so nervous, not even when they first met.

"Is everything okay?" he asks hesitantly, but she's seemingly lost in thought and she doesn't hear him, so he moves to sit directly in front of her, setting his beer down so that he can grab her small hands in his much larger ones. "Julia, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she says automatically, and then when her eyes meet his, she shakes her head. "It's-....I just-"

"Jules? I thought I was picking you up at yours?"

Julia and Mike both look over Mike's shoulder to see Tom where he's paused halfway through the living room on his path to his bedroom. He's got nothing on but a towel wrapped around his waist and there are still little beads of water slipping their way down his strong chest. Julia fixes her eyes back on her hands so that she won't be distracted from her current predicament, but Mike's still holding them tightly in his and that's almost worse, so she drags her gaze back down to her knees instead. It becomes her focus as Mike takes over answering his roommate.

"Go put some clothes on then get your ass back in here."

"What's going on?"

"Willy, just go."

"Alright, alright," he concedes, quickly making his way down the hall to his room. Mike doesn't let go of her hands the whole time they're waiting for Tom but he doesn't say anything either, which she's thankful for. Tom returns a few minutes later wearing a Capitals tee shirt and some basketball shorts, and he sits down next to her, rubbing his hand up and down her back soothingly. "Babe, what's wrong?" he asks but she springs up from the sofa and walks around the ottoman to stand in front of the tv, unable handle him touching her, being so sweet and caring right now. She has to prepare her heart to let go of him.

"Yeah," Mike adds, suspicious of her behavior. "You look pretty freaked."

"Look, guys. I really don't even know how to begin to say this so I'm just gonna-....." She swallows hard as she slips the ultrasound photo out of her dress pocket and carefully places it on the ottoman in front of them before drawing back quickly, bowing her head and crossing her arms tightly over her chest to make herself seem as small as possible. She can't even look at them and the dead silence that follows seems to stretch out for an eternity.

Finally, finally Tom clears his throat to speak and when she looks back up at him, he's sitting on the very edge of the sofa, staring down at the photo which is now in his hands. "This is-....you're actually-...."

Julia bites her lip and tries not to tear up at the terrified looks on both their faces. She knew it was going to be bad, but she still wasn't fully prepared to have to come in and drop this bomb on them, wasn't prepared to see them looking like this. She has to do something, anything to stop them from having a full blown freakout. So even as scared and nauseous and embarrassed as she feels, she has to shove that all aside and be the strong, sure, steady one right now.

"About ten weeks," she says, and their eyes immediately drop to her stomach like they'll somehow be able to magically tell there's a fetus in there now. "Which happens to fall right around the time that I was still seeing both of you."

The color visibly drains from Mike's face right before her eyes and Tom stares at the ottoman in front of him, breathing a little heavier than normal. They're definitely freaking out anyway.

"But listen," she starts, automatically trying to fix the damage she already knows is irreparable. "This is not me saying this to hold something over your head or get something out of you. I'm not asking for anything, I don't expect anything, and I'm not going to come back later and change my mind. I'm going to have it and keep it; I've thought about it a lot and that's the decision that I came to for myself but I'm certainly not going to try to obligate you to my decision. That wouldn't be fair to you. The point you're at in your careers, in your lives-....I wouldn't expect you to want to-.....I completely understand. Anyway, I just thought you deserved to know."

The both of them just sit there, blinking slowly like they're still too stunned by the news.

"So now that you do, I guess I should get going."

Julia doesn't give them time to protest, not that they even would, but she quickly makes her exit from their apartment, shutting the door behind her and leaning back against it with a heavy sigh. Melissa straightens up from where she's leaned against the wall in the hallway and Julia's eyes immediately well up with tears when she sees her. "Aww sweetie, come here," she says sympathetically and that just makes it worse. Julia walks into her outstretched arms and lets Melissa hug her for a few minutes before she pulls away and turns back to look at the door she just came out of one last time. After a moment, she sighs and pushes the down button for the elevator then wipes the tear tracks off her cheeks.

"That's it," she mumbles as the metal elevator doors slide open and they step inside together. "I'm never gonna see them again."