Backdated to August 1st

[first_pink_lady]

By golly, she was nineteen.  Nineteen and on a tropical hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean.  Then again, it wasn't all that grim- nIneteen wasn't that landmark of an age, anyway, and the island wasn't so bad when she wasn't playing fetus-babysitter or stuck in a month-long monsoon.

If she'd been home, they would have graduated by now - most

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[hbicheer]

"Do you mind putting that out?"

Ordinarily, the voice wouldn't be asking but commanding. There wouldn't be a tone of weariness but iron hard sunshine.

But that's not where Quinn's head is these days, and so she's making the request, only words away from the most dangerous word of all: please. "I'd rather not have a kid with pre-blackened lungs."

[first_pink_lady]

If it'd been anyone else, Rizzo would've given her a hard time about it. Maybe tease, maybe snort in derision or roll her eyes, but she probably would have done it eventually if solely for the reason given. She may be dumb in a lotta ways, but she'd never purposefully hurt a baby.

But for Quinn, she immediately dropped the cigarette to the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of her black slingback. She'd been in the other girl's shoes - in the most unfortunately literal way possible - and knew far too well how it all felt to deny her anything as petty as a cigarette.

"How're you gunna keep peanut away from weeds when it's old enough to blacken them itself?" She asked with a titled smile and a raise of her eyebrow when the obvious so I guess you ain't popped yet was too, well, obvious.

[hbicheer]

"Threats, punishments, all that stuff parents use," Quinn says warily, suddenly aware that this woman knows her. "I think the lack of gas stations and convenience stores will help."

She leans against the doorframe, arm curling under her own swollen stomach. "Do I know you? I feel like I should know you."

Apart from the whole Grease thing, which wouldn't have been fair to bring up.

[first_pink_lady]

She pointedly moved her eyes to the huge belly, then back up to blondie with a knowing smirk, making it clear she knew that whole threat of parental authority clearly hadn't stuck with her, either. She didn't know a whole lot about Quinn, but she'd got the whole knocked up cheerleader scenario.

"Sure, I was landlord of that baby-wagon of yours during the whole Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing." Rizzo said, ignoring the mixed metaphors and waving a hand vaguely, as if that could possibly encapsulate all the insanity and chaos of that weekend.

[hbicheer]

"You were," says Quinn incredulously, and strangely, she feels a little bit better. "Thanks, then. For keeping her safe. I didn't even realize--"

She bites off the words, and then takes a breath. If she can't trust this one, who can she trust?

"I didn't realize what it would mean to be a mom until she was gone."

[first_pink_lady]

Rizzo just nodded to her thanks, because really, what else are you gunna do when you wake up eight months pregnant with someone else's kid? It helped that her best friend around these parts was a baby doc, too.

Even though she only carried the thing around for three days and referred to it as the wonderfully gender-neutral 'peanut' - well, occasionally 'parasite', when she was particuarly in a mood - it was an oddly satisfying thrill to hear it was a little girl.

"You've really warmed to it - to her, huh?" Rizzo wondered if she would have too, if it hadn't just been a false alarm and she really had shown up on the island with a bun in the oven.

[hbicheer]

"It's weird," Quinn confesses. "It's really weird, but I wasn't even going to keep her at home. I mean, my parents would never have gone for an abortion. Not that they were helping...." She trails off, turning pink.

"I didn't mean to dump that on you. You've just been me, and...."

She's getting stupidly teary again.

[first_pink_lady]

"They the kind to send you away during your 'condition?'" Rizzo guessed, because she'd spent long hours at night awake wondering what her own parents would do. If she wasn't going to keep it at home, the grandma-passing-kid-off-as-own scenario was out.

"Don't sweat it, honey." She said, hands tucked around the knee of her crossed legs. "After carrying Miss Peanut around for a few days, I'm curious about the down and dirty details."