Thank you so much for all of your sweet reviews on the last chapter... some of you have made some very accurate predictions.

I think – or at least I hope – that you guys will like this chapter, it's really an introduction to what the rest of the story will focus on.

Enjoy!

Three Months

Hanna had always vowed not to bite her nails – it was something that she passionately hated watching other people do, and more to the point, she would never be seen dead with anything other than a perfect manicure. But as she sat on her bed, waiting for Caleb to reply to her text, she absentmindedly chewed away on her thumb nail as if it was the very task that she was put on Earth to do.

It was he who had text her first, unexpectedly of course, simply asking her whether he would be able to come over to her dorm in order for them to talk later that day. Hanna's immediate response was to be defensive, and ask him how the hell he had gotten her number, but when he had replied telling her that she had stolen his phone when she was drunk that night, taken it into her bathroom, and put her number into his contacts, she couldn't really think of a good enough reason to be mad at him.

On the other hand, they hadn't spoken since her little 'outburst', and she didn't really understand why he would attempt to make contact with her after a month of them both pretending that the other person didn't exist. There was a small, and growing part of her that felt guilty for lashing out at him when he had been so kind to her, but up until that moment, she hadn't quite found it within herself to admit it, or to apologise to him. And so, she'd agreed to his suggestion, and was anxiously awaiting his reply, in which he would hopefully tell her what time he would be coming over.

A short but firm knock on the door prompted her to reluctantly lift herself from her bed and walk over to open it – her back had been aching the entire day, especially after five, long college classes, and walking around was the last thing that she wanted to be doing. She didn't really know what she had expected pregnancy be like, largely because she'd tried to think about it as little as possible, but throwing up every morning and feeling like her back was going to break in half every evening certainly were not a part of the glowing-skin-happy-mother-to-be picture that so many people seemed to paint. Though, she supposed that she wasn't like most mothers who were expecting, at least not the ones who were settled, with a job and a partner, and the ones who actually tried for their babies. No, she didn't have any of those things, not even one. The thought terrified her, made her believe that maybe she wouldn't have the support or money or knowledge in order to care for her baby, that maybe she would just have to give them up altogether.

No, she would never let that happen. She couldn't.

Slowly, carefully, so as not to strain her back, she reached out and pulled the door open. Opposite to her, stood a slightly smug looking Caleb, presumably quite amused by the surprised expression on Hanna's face. "What are you doing here?" She raised her eyebrows at him, "I literally just texted you asking you when you were coming over?"

"Yeah…" He trailed off, "I thought that it would be easier to just come over to tell you that I'm coming now."

"You could have given me some kind of warning, I would have at least put on something other than sweats," She rolled her eyes, whilst simultaneously stepping out of the way so that he could move into her room, which was a lot emptier now that both Emily and Alison had moved out. Their beds were still there, though, and Hanna had moved them so as to create a king-sized bed for herself, the only perk of living alone that she had been able to think of thus far. "So what did you wanna talk to me about?" She prompted Caleb as he closed the door behind himself, "Must be kinda important if you were willing to walk all the way over here," She joked, referring to the very short distance between his dorm and hers.

Caleb gave her a short laugh in return, shaking his head at her sarcastic tone. "I don't know if you remember, or if you've just erased that whole night from your memory," He chuckled, though it was more out of nervousness than amusement, "But I uh, I kinda wanted to tell you something... after you told me that you were, you know."

"Yeah," Hanna confirmed with a short nod, her voice hushed, "And then I lashed out at you," She rolled her eyes at herself, "I remember."

Caleb inhaled deeply, and shuffled his feet around, looking down at the ground briefly before his eyes met Hanna's in an intense stare. "Think I could tell you now?" He asked cautiously, jamming his hands into his pockets.

"Of course," Hanna smiled softly at him, turning her body slightly towards his, "And I promise, I won't scream at you this time."

"You sure about that?" Caleb raised his eyebrows at her.

Hanna rolled her eyes again – this time at him. "Just tell me before I kick you out of my room," She joked, reaching out to slap his arm lightly.

He laughed back at her, his smile quickly fading as he realised that he was actually going to have to be serious now. "Marissa and I have broken up, for good," He swallowed loudly, "She's leaving college, and moving back home. You don't have to worry about her anymore. She's not going to hurt me, or you, or our baby."

Our baby.

The words sounded so strange coming from his mouth, like a foreign language. It would have been odd for him to have referred to a sandwich that they were sharing as theirs, let alone a tiny human. Despite the feeling of unsureness that had overcome her body at hearing his words, she was also overwhelmingly relieved.

Marissa was gone, and now Caleb could spend time with her, and the baby.

Did she even want him to spend time with them? Why, all of a sudden, did she feel a flood of warmth at the prospect? Was it just because she was lonely? She could hardly tell her parents about what was going on, and Emily and Alison were nowhere to be seen most of the time, now that they had moved out. It was hard not to let her mind wander, to conjure up a vision of she and Caleb and their tiny baby lounging on her bed together, his arms around her as she cradled their son, or daughter…

No. She couldn't let her imagination stretch that far.

The yearning was just loneliness, she had decided.

Caleb would never want to be a part of that picture, anyway. He wasn't that kind of guy. She was already asking too much of him, wanting him to be a part of the baby's life. Right?

"She's really leaving?" Hanna eventually choked out, sensing that the silence in the room was becoming somewhat awkward for Caleb, "For good?"

"Yeah, I spoke to her parents and they told me that she decided that college wasn't for her. I don't know why exactly," He shrugged, "But to be honest, I don't really care. As long as she's out of my sight, I can focus on you and the baby."

"Me and the baby?" Hanna raised an eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching and threatening to spread into a smile as she tried to bring a little humour to their otherwise serious conversation, "So suddenly you care about me?"

She saw something akin to panic flash across Caleb's eyes briefly before he caught on to her teasing and shook his head, rolling his eyes at her as he took a step forward. "No, you just come as a package deal, so I have to care about you by default," He joked, allowing himself to smile back at her.

"Whatever you say," Hanna shrugged, jutting out her bottom lip before walking over to her bed, and sitting cross-legged on top of her comforter, her back resting against the headboard. She stretched her arms up above her head, and a pained expression crept upon her features as she did so.

"You okay?" Caleb asked her, a little concerned as to why her face was all scrunched up.

Hanna shook her head as she brought her arms back down to her sides, "No, my back's been killing me all day, I need to lay out on this bed for the rest of my life and never get up again," She joked, "They can bring my college classes to me."

"That bad?" He grimaced, his eyes full of sympathy for her.

"I don't know, I'm probably just being dramatic," She chuckled, "But the bottom of my back feels like it's on fire."

"Uh, that sounds kinda serious," Caleb trailed off as he took a step towards Hanna's bed – she nodded, letting him know that he was welcome to sit on the end of it. "You want me to do anything to help? I can get you a hot water bottle or something?"

"I'll be fine, honestly," Hanna shook her head, smiling back at his sweet suggestion, "I'll just take some painkillers and get some sleep."

"Right, right, of course, you wanna sleep. I'll leave you alone," Caleb apologised, moving to stand up from the bed again before Hanna reached out to place her hand on his leg.

"No, you don't have to go," She gulped, "Not if you don't want to."

"You want me to stay?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

Hanna shrugged, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth. "We could watch a movie or something," She suggested, "I could really use the company, now that Em and Ali aren't here."

"They really moved out for good, huh?" He asked, his voice soft and full of sympathy. Hanna nodded, and he sat back down on the bed next to her, before pulling her laptop over and placing it in front of them. "What're we watching?"

Hanna grinned at him as he settled back against the headboard, awaiting her reply, that subtle smirk of his tugging at the corner of his lips. "Birthing videos," She suddenly announced, her face completely void of emotion, "I've been doing some research, and I think you should watch them, too."

Caleb's eyes went wide at her words, and Hanna couldn't help but choke out a laugh.

"I'm kidding," She soothed him, placing a hand on his forearm, "We can watch whatever you want."

Caleb let out a sigh of relief, and held his hand up to his forehead as he sat up straighter, laughing lightly. "Ok, I don't think I'm quite ready to watch those yet," He swallowed, "But I'm glad that you finally have a sense of humour when it comes to all of this."

"Well, I wouldn't say that I have a sense of humour," She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, tilting her head slightly before she let out a short sigh, "More like I use the humour as a defence mechanism, so that people don't know that I want to cry twenty-four seven," She finished with a laugh as she readjusted her back against the headboard.

Caleb furrowed his brow, "You really feel like that? I mean, you really feel like crying all the time?"

Hanna simply mumbled something incoherent in return, lowering her head slightly and fiddling with her hands for a moment before she turned her attention to the laptop screen in front of her.

Caleb reached out to place his index finger under her chin, gently tilting her face up, towards him. "Hanna, do you really feel that sad?"

"Sad, alone, fed up. You name it," She murmured, closing her eyes in embarrassment. She could feel his finger moving away from her chin, and had assumed that he was leaving, before, to her surprise, his warm palm slid across hers as he entwined their fingers.

"Is this okay?" He asked gently, unsurely, raising an eyebrow.

She swallowed, pretending think for a moment, even though she already knew what her answer would be; a short nod confirmed to him that what he had done hadn't overstepped the line. It was strange to Hanna that they were tiptoeing around each other so carefully now, when a couple of months previously, they had slept together. Wasn't it supposed to work the other way around? Though, she supposed that getting pregnant a few weeks after meeting the baby's father didn't really fit with what she had planned out for herself, either.

Hanna had always imagined that she would meet a guy when she was young – seventeen, eighteen at the most – fall in love with him, marry him, and have children with him… maybe they'd even get a dog, too. Now, she was beginning to realise just how naïve her way of thinking had been, that no matter what she had wanted, or been striving for, her reality was completely different. It was a scary thought for the most part, but there was a small spark of excitement in the pit of her stomach that ignited every time she thought about the purpose and meaning that a tiny newborn baby would bring to her life.

There was no sexual intention behind the way in which their fingers were intertwined, and the way in which his thumb was now drawing circles over the back of her hand. It was a simple gesture of acknowledgement, but also one of reassurance, something to let her know that he wasn't going anywhere, that he would be around for as long as she wanted him to be. Feeling his palm against hers was more comforting than Hanna had thought it would be, and she found herself becoming more and more relaxed the longer that his hand stayed in place. She gripped it a little tighter, fearful that he would pull away.

"So what about this movie, huh?" She eventually breathed out, "Any preferences?"

"No," Caleb shook his head, "You can choose, it's okay." There was a distinct hint of sadness in his eyes, the remnants of hers reflected in his endlessly darker orbs, Hanna realised. She could tell that he was pitying her, or feeling sorry for her, or something along those lines, and it was making her feel guilty. This was her pain. He shouldn't have to share it with her. Of course, that wasn't totally the case, and their situation had come about due to the actions of them both. But, being who she was, Hanna Marin had placed all of the blame on herself.

Knowing that there was finally someone who wanted to share that blame, to ease the feeling of guilt that she had become so accustomed to, was making her feel just a little more hopeful.

"There was actually something else that I wanted to tell you," Caleb murmured after noticing that Hanna wasn't making any sort of a move to pick out a movie for them, "Other than the whole Marissa thing."

"Uh, sure, go for it," Hanna swallowed, turning her head towards him as she tried to clear her mind of all other thoughts.

"I know you probably just wanna take your mind off of the whole pregnancy thing for a while, but, uh, I really meant what I said," He started, his voice a little shaky, "I would never want the baby, our baby, to grow up without a father. I grew up without one, without a mother too, actually, and the thought of our baby having to go through the same crap that I did…" He trailed off, letting out a sad laugh as he folded his knees up to his chest, finally letting go of Hanna's hand in order to wrap his arms around his legs, "No, that's not gonna happen."

"You didn't have a mom or a dad?" Hanna spoke softly as she raised her eyebrows at him, her gaze full of concern.

Caleb shook his head briefly, and then stayed silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I was passed between foster home after foster home, made to live with people who didn't care about me, just wanted me for the support cheques," He shrugged, staring down at the bed. "I know what it's like to feel unwanted, and I don't want our baby to feel the same way. I want them to know that they have two parents who care about them. It's shit to grow up feeling like you're an inconvenience."

Hanna nodded slowly, biting her bottom lip as she processed his words. It hurt her to know that Caleb had gone through that – in a way, she felt like she could relate somehow, with her father having left their family home a few years beforehand. He'd married another woman, become a father figure to another teenage girl, and somehow ended up preferring her to Hanna, or at least that's how she had interpreted the situation. She had been abandoned by her father, and worse yet, somebody else got to have him as their father instead.

But she knew in her heart, that what she had gone through was nothing compared to what Caleb would have experienced; she couldn't even contemplate what it would have felt like if her mother had left her, too. She would simply have been broken. Her heart sunk at the thought of the pain that Caleb must have endured over the years, of his face when he had been told that his parents had gone, that they had left him for good.

"How, how old were you? When they left?" She choked out, noticing that her eyes had begun to tear up a little. In contrast, Caleb's looked stone cold as he continued to stare down at her comforter.

"I never met my father," He mumbled, "And uh, my mom left when I was five. Left with me with my aunt, who passed me on to social services. Nobody wanted me."

Now, it was Hanna's turn to reach out, and entwine her fingers with his. Caleb didn't even look up as she did so, just gave her hand a gentle squeeze as a sign of his gratitude to her. "I know this sounds super cheesy," She breathed out, "But you have people who want you now. Your baby wants you, needs you, and so do I. I want you here, no matter how many times I yell at you or tell you to leave," She rolled her eyes at herself, trying to lighten the situation a little. "It's just all been so… strange, and intense, and I guess I've never really been able to tell you how I feel about the whole thing. But I've come to terms with it now, maybe not completely, but enough to know that I want the baby and that I want you to be in their life. Things will be so much easier, so much better with you around, Caleb."

As she finished speaking, Caleb looked up for the first time in minutes, meeting her gaze and shooting her a warm smile. He nodded slowly, an acknowledgement of the fact that what she was telling him, was the absolute truth. In some ways, it overwhelmed him – nobody had ever told him that they wanted him around before. It made him feel warm, gave him some sense of hope, and it was that very sense of warmth and hopefulness that made him feel a little uneasy. The sense of belonging was so unfamiliar to him that he didn't know what to do with it. And so, he tried to bounce the attention back onto Hanna, in order to move it away from himself. "So what about your family?" He asked her, moving to sit cross-legged on the bed again, "What're they like?"

Sensing that he was trying to steer their conversation in another direction, Hanna happily complied. "My family are just very conservative, you know. If they came to visit and saw the way I dress when I go to parties, or knew that I would going to parties at all, actually, then they'd take me straight back home with them," She rolled her eyes, a small smile tugging at her lips.

Caleb nodded in understanding. "Do they know yet?" He enquired, cautiously, "Have you told them?"

"Do who know what?" Hanna raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he was trying to get at.

Caleb exhaled, before sucking his bottom lip into his mouth, fully aware of the fact that he was about to bring up a particularly sensitive topic for Hanna. "Your parents. Have you told them that you're pregnant yet?" He asked gently.

"No," Hanna retorted, immediately looking down at her hands, "And I'm not going to, I can't."

"So if they come to visit, and you're seven months pregnant, then you're ju-"

"Caleb!" She interrupted him, clearly starting to get worked up, "I said I'm not going to tell them! I can't, they can't find out, they can't know about... this... any of it..." Her last word trailed off as she spluttered, and a series of tears cascaded down her cheeks, creating tiny wet patches on her cotton shorts.

Caleb instantly knew that she didn't want him to say anything else, that what she needed wasn't for someone to tell her that it would all be okay, because she knew, and he knew, that it wouldn't. It was going to be hard, for both of them. And so, he simply closed her laptop, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and let her tears fall against his skin as she buried her head into the crook of his neck.

It was three o'clock in the morning when Caleb woke up – he was only aware of the time due to the fact that his phone had buzzed beside him, and he had looked over to see that he had a text from his roommate, asking where he was. He squinted for a moment, partly because of the light emanating from the screen, and partly due to the desperate attempt that he was making to remember where he was, and why he wasn't in his own bed.

He finally came to his senses when he looked to his other side, and saw Hanna nuzzled up against his chest, fast asleep, her cheeks still stained with mascara. He should have known, given the fact that the entire left side of his body was numb. He smiled to himself, and shut his phone back off, before wrapping his arm a little tighter around Hanna's shoulders as he allowed himself to drift back off to sleep.

For the first time in his life, somebody needed him.

I think the next few chapters of this story are cute… you guys may or may not like them. Just want to apologise for the slow speed of my updates, too – I'm crazy busy with uni at the minute, and it's really hard to find any time to write (as much as I want to!). As always, reviews are very much appreciated, and just let me know in a review if you want a preview x