1-28: Ready When You Are

Calm down, don't take it too far
I know only time can heal scars
So I'm ready when you are.

(A/N:

From here until the end of generation one, things get kind of time jumpy. Not because I don't want to share every moment of Eden's life and love affair with you, but let's be realistic. That would take about 50-60 chapters, and Eden hasn't even gotten pregnant with any of the possible heirs for generation two.

So for the rest of this generation, only the important things will be covered. I guess it's up to you to decide how much time has passed between each section, but I'd like to say this all ends around the time Eden turns 26-27 and we lead into generation two.

 I just thought you guys deserved a heads up, and a prevention from getting confused... because a bunch of important life-altering things happening one right after the other can tend to get that way.

So.... I'm going to stop talking now and let you get to the actual story....)

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"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Eden dropped her head into her hands, taking a deep breath. After a few moments, she reached over to the sink next to her and filled the cup up that was sitting there again from the faucet. She tilted her head back and drank as fast as she could, sitting back down on the edge of the bathtub. She stared at the two red lines on the stick in her hand and groaned, sliding down to the floor.

She pushed the cap back on the stick and tossed it next to the other seven sticks with identical bright red lines that were on the floor next to the toilet.

"This has to be a joke. It has to. God wouldn't do this to me. Not yet. I'm twenty one."

She was talking to herself, half convinced she was going insane. She wasn't crying though, that hadn't happened yet. She kept waiting for it, but the shock wouldn't seem to wear off enough for her to produce any tears.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Kiara a text, her hands shaking in her attempt to form coherent sentences.

-Are you in my fucking house?-

It took a few moments for Kiara's reply, but eventually her phone went off and it slid into view.

-....I'm always in your house? Where are you?-

-In the upstairs bathroom. Can you get your ass in here?-

A response never came, but soon, Eden heard the footsteps that she'd grown to know as her best friend's. Kiara didn't even bother knocking, just slung the door open like she always did. She took one look at the boxes scattered around the floor, and the her eyes widened and she quickly shut the door behind her.

"Uh oh."

Eden reached out and grabbed one of the sticks, throwing it at her feet.

"Tell me this doesn't mean what I think it means. Please."

Kiara kicked the stick out of the way and walked over next to Eden, sitting down on the bath mat. She looked at the pile of sticks and a smile crossed her face, but it quickly disappeared.

"It means you're pregnant. You're not that stupid, Eden."

Eden groaned and this time when Kiara grinned, it stayed in place. Eden really wanted to punch her, but knew that was the worst choice possible.

"Eight tests though, Eden? Was that actually necessary?"

Eden pulled her head out of her hands and looked up at Kiara, scowling.

"I slept with him once! I've banged other guys dozens of times and I never got knocked up. What does this guy have, super semen? This is not okay. I'm not ready to be a mom."

Kiara reached over, brushing Eden's hair out of her face.

"Maybe not, but you're going to be. So you should probably accept it."

Eden rolled her eyes, getting to her feet and picking up the sticks, tossing them in the trash.

"I realize that. Can't I just pretend that I'm not until I get fat and feel something move inside of me?"

Kiara shook her head, laughing.

"No, I don't think so. But what you should do is go and tell Xav. This is kind of a big deal. He might want to know about it."

Eden's eyes widened and she rubbed her forehead with her fingers.

"What if he doesn't want to keep it? What if he doesn't want anything to do with me after this?"

Kiara raised an eyebrow, grabbing a couple of the boxes and tossing them in the trash on top of the pregnancy tests.

"I don't think Xavier is that kind of guy, and I'm pretty sure you don't actually think that either... You don't really have much of a choice here. He needs to know."

Eden placed a hand on her stomach, turning to face the mirror. She studied her face, the curves of her hips and her stomach. She knew how much her body was going to change. She knew what this meant, and she knew what her only choice was. She would never terminate, and definitely wouldn't give her baby away... But she had thought she would have to make this choice a lot later in her life. Maybe even never.

She just didn't know where to go from here.

"I'm having a baby. What the hell?"


Kiara stood next to Eden in the mirror, that same smile still in place.

"You are. Congratulations."

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Eden knocked on the door to Xavier's house hard enough to hurt her knuckles. She didn't stop knocking until she heard footsteps, finally taking a step away from the wood. Xavier opened the door, and as soon as he saw her, a smile broke his features.

"Hey Eden, what's up?"

She scowled, brushing past him.

"Don't smile at me. You smiling at me is what got me into this mess in the first place."

As Xavier shut the door, he looked over at her, confusion in his eyes.

"What? What's wrong?"

Eden crossed her arms over her chest, pursing her lips.

"I currently hate you, and your penis."

Xavier looked even more confused, crossing the room and standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry?"

His voice matched his expression and Eden sighed, throwing her hands in the air.

"I'm pregnant. It's yours and I hate you so much right now."

Xavier froze, his mouth dropping open. His eyes traveled from her face to her stomach and back to her eyes. It seemed to take him a few moments to formulate enough words to respond.

"We had sex once... What?"

Eden nodded, letting out a groan.

"I'm aware. But just in case you missed health class in high school, once is definitely enough."

She crossed her arms over her chest, and finally, she found the words she knew she had to ask.

"So what do we do now?"

Xavier cleared his throat, taking a couple of deep breaths. He put his fingers underneath Eden's chin and lifted her face so he could look into her eyes. 

"Eden... I'm not going to leave you. I'm okay with you having a baby. My baby. It's fast, but we can make it work. Hell, we've been slow at everything else. Something had to happen like this right?"

He bent down, pressing a kiss to her forehead, a small smile on his lips when he pulled away. She blinked a few times, finally exhaling the breath she had been holding. Xavier tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and laughed a little, pulling her into his chest.

"I do, however, think this might be the right moment for me to ask you to be my girlfriend."

Eden couldn't help but laugh, uncrossing her arms and wrapping them around him.

"Talk about slow.

But yeah, Nile. I kind of want to kill you sometimes, but I'll date you. Why the hell not? I'm pregnant with your spawn after all."

Xavier chuckled, shaking his head and pulling away enough to look down at her.

"I'm pretty sure those kinds of things are the reason why I fell in love with you. 

Maybe."

Eden nodded, pressing onto her toes and brushing her lips against his.

"Maybe."

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"So, we have something important to discuss."

Kiara looked up from her book, rolling her eyes at Atticus' tone. She put her feet up on the Simon's kitchen table and scoffed, flipping to the next page.

"If you're about to tell me that your twin sister is pregnant, I already know. She told me first."

Atticus dropped the glass he had been filling with water in the sink and it shattered, his eyes glued to Kiara's form.

"Eden's pregnant?"

Kiara sat the book down on the seat next to her and cleared her throat. She hadn't exactly meant to let that cat out of the bag. Eden was already around 16 weeks, how did her family not know?

"Uh... Yeah... It's Xavier's... They're dating? How out of the loop are you, exactly? I've known for two and a half months."

Atticus shook his head, his eyes widening slightly. He walked over to her, his face still colored with confusion.

"Two and a half months? .........What?"

He took a seat next to her at the table and rubbed his face with his hands, exhaling softly.

"Yeah, she finds out what she's having in like... a month. 

Can you, like, not tell her I told you though. I have a feeling there's a reason she hasn't told all of you guys. I'm just surprised she hasn't told you, at the very least."

Atticus nodded, reaching out and taking Kiara's hand with his.

"That makes two of us, but that's not what I wanted to ask you."

His face turned serious and Kiara raised an eyebrow, running her tongue across her lips.

"What? I'm not going to marry you, sorry."

She said it jokingly, but Atticus' face didn't look humored at all.

"Not quite, but. I'd like for you at least to be with me again. Give me another chance Kiara?

Cause we both know that I love you. That I always have."

Kiara's lips turned up, and she leaned over. She pressed her mouth to his cheek and laughed, her breath on his skin.

"I know. And you're right, I always did.

I also knew that you were too coward to say it."

She kissed him again, but he still seemed tense as she pulled away. She shoved his shoulder lightly, her smile not fading.

"Oh come on, Simon. You know it's a yes."

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Time passed faster than Eden counted on, and being pregnant wasn't something she was convinced she was even semi-equipped to handle. She found out that she was having a girl and let her entire family know by telling them they needed to 'buy her lots of pink stuff in tiny sizes'.

And not only that, just three weeks after she knew the gender of her own baby, her mother went into labor.

And the moment Bliss Lyric Simon was brought into their tiny dysfunctional world, it was like things started shifting. In all of their lives. 

Noticeable shifts.

In Cassius. In her mother. In her father.

With bright pink eyes and hair the exact color of her mom's, Bliss and her perfect, innocent face seemed to have healing properties. 

As Cassius held the small pink clothed bundle in his arms the first night in the hospital, the tears fell out of his eyes and onto the floor. He didn't speak for a moment, but out of nowhere, his eyes went brighter than Eden had ever seen them.

He looked up at Eden and back down at Bliss, and his voice was so quiet, she barely heard him.

"I see her in her eyes, E. I see nothing but her."

The room went silent, and Eden didn't have to look up to know her mother was sobbing. It swept through the room, and collected on the air. It passed through every single one of them, and she wasn't sure that any of them weren't crying in that moment.

Eden knelt down, rubbing her finger across her baby sister's forehead. She wrapped her arms around her little brother's shoulders and felt every shudder of breath that left his body.

"I'm sorry. I fucked up, and I'm sorry.

I'll change."

He whispered the words into Bliss' ear, and Eden pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"We've all fucked up, Cassius. Maybe you and I more than the others, but we have. What matters is what you do with that knowledge. How you grow from it."

Cassius looked up into Eden's eyes, both of them bleary with tears, surprise hanging in the air between them.

"I can safely say, I never thought I would hear something like that coming out of your mouth."

Eden nodded.

"People change. Things change. 

Lyric's gone, and I know she was the only one on this planet that meant anything to you, but you have to let her go. Let her rest. There's a new baby girl you can protect now. Right there in your arms.

A wise man once said to me, 'If I could bring her back, I would. But I can't, and nothing can ever change that. 

But you're gonna be okay.'

And I don't think anything else quite fits."

She looked up, and her dad's eyes met with hers, and the smile on his face was something she wasn't sure she had seen in years.

That visible shift in her family, that loss, and that pain, finally seemed to have come full circle. 

And maybe things had gone farther awry than any of them ever could have thought, and maybe all of them had dealt in horrible ways... But it felt like that was over.

Maybe they had all learned something through this, even if it had been in a tragic way.

Maybe it was possible that this dysfunctional family she had sworn off for so long, was worth mending. 

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