London, England 1940

Val's family came over to have dinner at the O'Connells' that night. Except Valancy was acting a bit strange. She was pacing a lot and she was incredibly jumpy. She wouldn't look anybody in the eye and she didn't say that much either. Even Alex couldn't get her to settle down a bit. After awhile, Alex pulled her into the parlor without anybody noticing. He held her by the shoulders so she wouldn't start pacing again and looked her in the eye. "Val? What's wrong?" She looked away until he cupped her face gently in his hands, making her look at him in the eyes. "*What's* wrong?" Tears started welling in her eyes.
"Alex......I think I'm....I'm...."
"You're what?"
"I think I'm....pregnant....."

Alex's jaw dropped as his eyes widened. Maybe he had heard wrong. "Wha-what?!"
A tear rolled down her cheek. "I think I'm pregnant."
He used the end of his thumb to gently brush away the tear, and held her close. He didn't know what to say. "It's.........it's okay.....we'll think of something........."
"I'm only sixteen!"
He nodded. "I know......let's just go to dinner. They're probably waiting on us now." And he led her into the dining room and after he held the chair for her, took a seat for himself. They ate and listened to them talk. Evie took a drink, "Did you know Vanessa finally had her baby?"
Valancy practically jumped out of her seat. "Baby? What baby? I don't know of any baby!"
They all stared at her in bewilderment. "Our friend......she had her baby......that's all......."
She settled down a bit. "Yeah......of course....I knew that......."
Val's mom, Sherry, said, "Anyways......Did you hear of Carrie's daughter? She had her baby not too long ago. Had a miscarriage though.........turned out, she ended up passing away. Poor girl. She was only sixteen...........Honey, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Valancy shook her head. "Oh......no.....nothing. Will you excuse me? I think......I don't feel too well......." She got up and left the room. Alex got up and followed her out, and found her sitting on the front steps. He sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. Valancy finally spoke up,
"I'm-"
"You're not going to die."
"I-"
"Our parents won't kill us, either."
"But-"
"I know."
"What if-"
"It'll be okay."

She looked up and couldn't help but smile. Alex smiled back. "It's about time you smile." And they sat and watched the sunset together.

************

Two days later, them two were at Val's house in her living room while her parents were gone.

"So how are we going to break the news? I mean they're going to find out sooner or later........They won't believe that I'm just gaining weight."
"Well maybe if you wear oversized clothes................"
"Alex!"
"Just a thought."
She sighed.
"Well, maybe we should run away and send them a postcard!"
"I'm serious!"
"So am I!" he defended.
"................Okay, that *is* a good idea..........but we have nowhere to go."
"True......"
"I guess we can........."
"We *do* have the money to have our own place........"

************

The next day, Alex came into the house holding two plane tickets to Australia. He had to go pick up Val soon because their plane left in another hour or so. He bumped into his dad in the hallway and quickly held them behind his back. Rick smiled, "Hey Alex............what's that?"

"What's what?"
"That behind your back."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Alex started to walk away before Rick stopped him and grabbed the tickets. It didn't take him long to read them.
"Alex...what is this for?"
".........Uh........"

Rick led him into the living room and they sat down on the couch. "Well?"
"Well what?" Alex asked.
"What *are* these?!"
"They're plane tickets, Dad."
"Really?" Rick asked sarcastically. "But what are they for??"
"To go to Australia......"
Rick narrowed his eyes. "Why do you need to go to Australia?"
"...Um..............."
"Well?"

Evelyn walked into the room to see her husband interrogating their son. "What's going on now?"
"Seems as if our son was trying to run out on us..."
"What?" Rick handed her the tickets.
"What is this about, Alex?"

Just then, Valancy came running into the room. Alex stood up quickly and walked over to her as she jumped on him and wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She kissed him, "It was a false alarm!" She smiled. Alex grinned and kissed her again.

Evie and Rick were incredibly confused by now. "False alarm?" The young couple looked up. Valancy saw the plane tickets in Evie's hands.

"Oh yeah, you see I thought I wasn't going to be able to come over. We wanted to tell you we got you two some tickets. For a vacation."

Rick smiled. "So that's why you wouldn't say anything." Evie jumped forward and hugged her son as Rick hugged Val.

"Thank you two so much!"
"No prob, Mum." Alex said as he gave a look to Val over his Mum's shoulder that said, 'That was a close one.'