021:

Megan ran to keep up with her sister who seemed exuberantly giddy now that they were out of the parking lot and waiting for the light to change so they could actually dig their toes into the sand and surf. They had been too busy all summer to go to the beach, and Megan, who liked to surf, and loved the ocean had felt majorly deprived.

Melia was bursting with something. Megan could tell. She dragged Megan across the hot pavement, kicked off her sandals as soon as they arrived on the sand and flipped them up into her hands. It was then Megan noticed she wasn't even carrying her purse. Melia never left anywhere without her purse. What was going on?

"Mia, what's wrong with you? Are you having a nervous breakdown?"

Melia twirled around and walked backward, giving her twin the eye, and a crooked finger. They ran down to the edge of the ocean and Melia walked along for a minute, kicking penny surf as she went.

Suddenly she pulled up her t-shirt and pushed back the flapping blouse. She put Megan's hand on her belly and pushed. "You want to know why I can't lose weight? You want to know why I always have gassy bubbles? You want to know why I haven't had my period?"

Megan hadn't known about the period thing. She'd thought Melia had lost all her baby weight and then some. She didn't know that was one of her complaints. She started putting the symptoms together and shook her head in disbelief.

In fascinating shock Megan's eyes got round and she kept her hand on the slight mound, and slid to the ground in front of her sister. Her eyes took in the hard rounded protrusion she'd been seeing and not understanding for months now. "We just thought you had lost weight too fast and didn't catch up with yourself. We just thought you were under so much stress...."

"I'm pregnant!" Melia gasped and slid to the ground clutching her sister's hands, as they knelt in the small rushing waves facing each other, sunlight in their eyes. "It's a girl. Hannah is going to have a little sister!"

"Om, Mia...?" Megan stared at that little round mound. "How--- far along are you?" She whispered against the flowing breeze as both of their blouses flapped around them rambunctiously.

"Almost seven months. Is that whacked or what? How can I be almost seven months? How could I be so naive? How could I not know?"

"Seven months?" Megan breathed in awe. "It's... it's Jared's?"

Melia was nodding, biting her lips, tears in her eyes.

"You must have got pregnant like...."

"Oh, I know when I got pregnant!" She threw back her head, nearly hysterical, still holding her sister's hands to her belly that suddenly felt right instead of wrong, and no longer the enemy at all.

"You guys did it, like...."

"Yeah." She breathed, her eyes focused carefully on Megan's face. "Yeah. I have to tell you, Megs. I have to tell you."

"Tell me then!" Megan shook her gently, running her hands down her sister's arms to hold her belly again, feeling like she was holding onto Jared once more too. She hadn't felt this close to him since the letter.

"We were out running, up and down the stairs that led to the beach. And he was ahead of me; it was my first time really on the stairs, which are a lot harder. And he jumped the path and went into our gazebo, and he hid from me, and I followed him and he tackled me! And we made love on the lounge. It was the only time. He died that night."

Her grin was huge, shaking in excitement and joy. Megan couldn't believe it; she kept running her hands over the roundness. "What a parting shot!" she laughed, giddy with the same excitement as wavelet after wavelet hit them and soaked them.

"A baby!" Megan breathed, her eyes still focused on Melia's little round belly. "I knew it was something, but I would never have guessed that. Never in a million years, Mia. Never! I mean, you haven't even been sick! Not one single day! How is that possible?"

" Actually I have been sick, a lot, just I didn't... I couldn't....I don't know, Megs. I don't understand it, either! I didn't even know you could get pregnant right after having a baby. I mean, she was only two weeks old. And I was just so caught up in losing him, that I never even thought about being pregnant. I can hardly believe it myself."

Megan looked up. "It's gonna cause the biggest media scandal since JFK. Nobody will believe its Jared's, especially with how little you are. You barely even look pregnant, no, you don't look pregnant. You look like you haven't lost your baby weight, right in your tummy. Good grief, Mia, you are seven months? How can this be?"

"I don't know." She shook her sister's hands up and down. "But it's real! I saw the ultrasound, it's a little girl. A beautiful little girl."

Megan hugged her twin hard, not letting her go, not daring to breathe too hard, and then she heard the sounds of her own gasping tears. "Melia, you're carrying Jared's baby! You're having another baby! Are you so stoked? Are you in awe? Are you amazed?"

"I am." Her throat choked up. "All those things." And then she looked down, catching sight of the tears waiting to fall from Megan's eyes. She wished so badly she could let that emotion out, now would be the perfect time, now, when she was feeling such strong emotion. But she had grounded in the ocean. She was so calm, so in control, so relieved, and so happy.

"It won't cause a media scandal." She said seriously. Then she stood up and pulled Megan up with her, wrapping her arms around her and starting back up toward the parking lot. Several photographers had spotted them and her father had got word and sent the troops to round them up.

"How will you stop it?" Megan jerked her head in annoyance at the press on the pier.

"I am going home. Or else I'm going to Catalina. Yeah, I'm going to Catalina. I'm going to have this baby right where Hannah was supposed to be born. I'm going to our home, Megs. And I'm not coming out."

"What? Are you kidding? What about concerts and... and the film you're finishing with Tom? You have contracts."

Melia smiled a grim smile of determination. "You're right. So, I'll have to do those and only those things. Then I'm going into seclusion for... awhile."

Megan grinned. "Then I am coming with you!"

*******