TONI POV:
I look at Sweet Pea as he walks into the apartment. "Hey." I say quietly. "Hey." He says in shock. "What's wrong?" I ask him. "Ah! I just got back from picking my stuff from Veronica's." He says quietly. "Ok." I say quietly. "I'm sorry." I whisper. "She's pregnant." He tells me. "What?!" Cheryl and I ask in shocked. "She's pregnant with my kid and her and Betty are gonna raise it together. She said I could be as involved as I want to be." He explains walking over to us. "What are you gonna do?" I ask helping him into the chair. I sit on the Ottoman in front of him. "I'm gonna be there for her." He says quietly. "My mom was a single mother, I know she'll have Betty but I don't want her to have a child and be alone. I still love her. Even if she's not my wife anymore. I've always wanted a kid, it's a little messed up, but, there's not much I can do about it at this point, I'm gonna tell her not to have the kid! And I am happy for her and I am excited but this isn't how I was picturing this to happen. I thought we'd still be together at least." He explains. I can tell his thoughts aren't fully together and his words out coming out as fast as he can think them. I take his hand. "You're doing the right thing." I tell him. "Am I? I could be messing this kid up! What if the kid grows up thinking I don't love them because I don't live with them-." I stop him. "Sweet Pea. As someone who grew up not seeing their parents together, it's not easy but if you are there for the small things and you see the kid as much as you can for as long as you can. You'll all be ok. This kid is gonna have 3 parents who love and care about them." I tell him. "My mom was there for everything! Even in high school when she didn't need to show up to all of my softball games! It was a little annoying actually but it meant a lot it showed she loved me even if she wasn't with my dad. If you do that, with your kid, it shows you care." I tell him. "How often did you see your mom? Like you stayed over at her house?" He asks me. "Not enough. I was mostly there if my dad was going to be busy or out of town. Or when I wanted to see her. She had a one bedroom apartment so it was hard for me to stay there a lot." I explain. He looks at me. "I don't want to move out of this place yet-." I stop him. "I'm not saying you have too." I tell him. "What about when I have them for the weekend or something?" He ask quietly. "Well, either, I can go over to Cheryl's or I can stay here if you need extra support. I don't really mind either way." I tell him. He nods. "Also we have 9 months to figure this all out." I say smiling. "7." He corrects me. "Still, we have time." I tell him. "It might not seem like a lot but pregnancy is the longest thing you'll ever know." I tell him. "How would you know?" He ask quietly. "Sweet Pea, remember when my sister was pregnant with my nephew?" He nods. "That was the longest 9 months ever! Anticipating how long until the baby is born! It's painful!" I explain. He nods.
I look at Sweet Pea as he lies in my bed with me and Cheryl. "I'm scared." He whispers. "I know." I whisper. He looks at me. "I'm gonna be the worse dad is the world." He says quietly. "No, I think that title goes to my father." Cheryl says quietly. "As long as you don't kill your son because he pissed you off a little and then yourself so you don't have to deal with the consequences when a group of high schooler figure it out before the police. You'll be good." She explains. Sweet Pea and I look at her in shock. "I'm sorry." She says quietly. "I don't even think about it anymore. I forget people are still awkward about it." She says quietly. I nod. "So I won't do that." Sweet Pea says quietly. "I'm gonna be an aunt." Cheryl says quietly. "What about Juniper and Dagwood?" I ask her. "They're actually related to you too." Sweet Pea adds. "Oh yeah." She whispers. I look at her. "I never see them, since they're in Ohio."
I go into the kitchen where Cheryl is, she's sitting at the counter eating breakfast. "Have you seen Sweet Pea?" I ask Cheryl. She shakes her head. "No why?" She ask quietly. "His truck is gone and I went into his room and a bunch of his stuff is gone." I tell her. "I didn't see him." She says quietly. I look at her. "He might have gone to Veronica's." She tells me. "Remember how scared he was last night?" She nods. "You really think he ran?" I nod. "We should check Veronica's first." She says getting up. "He might be there."
I look at Veronica's house. "I don't see his truck." I say quietly. "We can go by Betty's. I don't think anyone is home anyways. I don't see any cars." I tell her. "I think Veronica is moving in over there since it's more kid friendly." She says quietly. I drive off and we go to Betty's. "He's not here." I say quietly. "I don't want to go ask her, if she doesn't know I don't want to freak her out." I whisper. I look at Cheryl. "I think Veronica really wanted him to be involved..." I take a deep breath. "Maybe we should go in and talk to her." Cheryl says quietly. "What?" I ask her. "She needs to know and she might already and be able to help."
SWEET PEA POV:
I look at Veronica. "What's up?" She ask quietly. I take my back pack and open it. I pull out a few things. "I had these when I was a kid, they really helped me when I was sad or something. I went out and got new ones that weren't completely destroyed and that I could find." I tell her handing her a new stuffed animals and toys. "I can't be a good father." I whisper. "Here are the divorce papers. I signed everything I needed to. You just have to sign and bring it to the lawyers." I tell her. "I can't do this. I want to but I can't." I whisper. "Sweet Pea, you aren't gonna be living here with us! You don't have to be up all night-." I stop her. "For me, it's all or nothing." I tell her.
I look at the lake as I sit in my truck. I hear a knock on my window. It's Toni. I unlock the car. "You need to be there for her!" She yells as soon at the door opens. I look at her. "I will." I say quietly. "I am! I just needed to panic." I tell her.
7 months later
I look at Veronica as she holds our son. It was just me and her in the room while she had him. Besides the doctors of course. It was Veronica's choice and Betty was ok with it so it was fine. "Why didn't you want Betty here?" I ask her. "Because a much as I love her, this is you and I's baby. Yes she's gonna help raise him. But I felt like this was something that should just be between us." She tells me. "You really don't have to do this." She whispers. "I want to." I tell her. "I'm sorry I dropped all of this stuff on you." She whispers. "How long did you know?" I ask her. "I don't know." She tells me. "Betty knows I don't hate her right?" I ask her. "Yeah. She's just still a little jealous. She thinks you still love me." She says quietly. I look at her. "You do don't you?" I nod. "I do. But you're with Betty and you're happy and I'm so happy for you. I'm trying to get over you and it's happening slowly. I did go on a date last week, didn't end well but it wasn't my fault." I tell her. "What happened?" I ask quietly. "Her ex boyfriend showed up and somehow won her back." I say sadly. She looks at me. "I'm sorry." She says quietly. "Cheryl set me up with her, she doesn't know what my type is." I tell her. She smiles. I look at our son who made a small noise. "He needs a name." I whisper. She looks at me. "You know. This is gonna sound bad. But I promised Archie, I would name my son after Fred. Since he wasn't able to have children." She tells me. "I like Freddie." I whisper. She smiles. "Also Betty and I both like the name." She says quietly. I nod. "I like it." I whisper. "But we're calling him Freddie until he says otherwise." I tell her. "I'm ok with that." She smiles. We hear a knock on the door. "Hey!" I look up and see Betty, Toni and Cheryl. "He sleeping." I whisper. "Ok so we will make sure to scream extra loud in his face." Toni says sarcastically. I smile a little.
TONI POV:
I look at Sweet Pea who's looking at his son. "Does he have a name?" I ask him. "Freddie." He says quietly. "You ready to do this?" I ask him. "No." He whispers holding back tears. "You'll be an amazing dad." He nods. "I'm scared." He tells me. "Like shitting my pants and trying not to throw up scared." He explains. "I'm a dad." He says smiling. "You'll be amazing." I tell her. He smiles. "Are you sure you'll be able to help whenever I have him?" He ask quietly. I nod. "Of course." I smile. "What if you and Cheryl go off and have your own life?" He asks quietly. "You'll probably know what you're doing by then." I whisper. He nods. "Was this really the one time you guys didn't use protection or something?" He nods again. "She didn't take her birth control that morning." He says quietly. "The one time." I whisper smiling a bit. "Well, he's really cute so I guess that makes up for it." I whisper. "He looks just like you." I tell him. "He looks like every single baby here." He says quietly. "No there's that one, he's black." I say pointing to another baby. He looks at me annoyed. "Why are you like this." I smile. "Comic relief or something." He nods. "At least you're self aware." I nod.
I look at Sweet Pea who's in full dad mode. I smile. Cheryl hands me a cup of coffee. "They grow up so fast." She says sarcastically. I smile. "It just yesterday he was yelling about how he never wanted kids, now look at him." I say adding to the sarcasm. "I hate you both." Sweet Pea says quietly. "Yeah whatever." I say quietly. Freddie starts crying. "What do I do?" Sweet Pea ask panicking. "He's hungry feed him." Cheryl says quietly. "How do you know?" He asks her. "That's a hungry cry. Trust me." He gets the bottle and feeds Freddie.
I look at Freddie who's sleeping in my arms. "I want one." Cheryl says quietly. I look at her. "Right now? We need an extra part for that." I say confused. She smiles. "I really want one." She whispers. "Shouldn't we get married first?" I ask her. She sits up and looks at me. "Do you want to get married first?" She ask quietly. I nod. "We've been together for a while. I think it's the next step." I whisper. She smiles. "Did we just get engaged?" She ask smiling. "I don't have a ring." I tell her. "I don't care." She says quietly. I smile. "Can I ask you formally?" She nods. I switch my hands to hold Freddie better and take her hand. "Cheryl, will you make me the happiest person on earth and become my wife?" I ask her. She nods and pulls me into a kiss. "No sex around my son!" Sweet Pea says pissed. "We're engaged." I say smiling. "Well, you're both gay so I don't think any revelations will happen." He says quietly.