When she gets home, it's just after sunset, & Nico is waiting for her out on her beach. Jackie doesn't know what she wants to do about Nico. She loves him so much, it drives her crazy. But just as she getting to where to she might trust him, believe him when he says he loves her, along comes something to break her down. She can't even deal right now, with worrying she might be pregnant, so she's managed to convince herself it's the stress that's making her so sick all the time. "How was it?" Nico asks her as she joins him on the beach. "I don't want to talk about it," she says at first, and then changes her mind. "I ran into Monica, that bitch editor of WhooNoo magazine, and she told me...she told me..." and she bursts into tears, hating herself for letting him get to her, for loving him so much while he's screwing everyone around town, making her a laughingstock. Jackie doesn't have to finish her sentence: Nico knows what he's done. "Jackie, listen," he sighs, putting his arm around her, "I can't change what I've done or who I was...but I'm done with that now, I promise. You asked me to stay, for you, and I'm here. Because I love you, Jackie...not because you're famous or rich or any of that, I promise..." Oh, how Jackie wishes it were true...

He drives her so crazy, she doesn't know what to do. But she loves him too much, she can't be in his arms without wanting him, and despite herself she ends up making love to him on her beach, and taking him back up to her bed to make love to her all night. And after only a couple hours sleep, she wakes before morning light, nauseous, needing to vomit. She can't deny it to herself anymore: she hasn't had a drink in two days, but she's as sick as ever. She doesn't want to be pregnant, especially not with Nico, who she cannot trust. So cries as she throws up, sobbing & wretching uncontrollably. Even when she's done being sick, she's crying so hard she can't lift herself off the bathroom floor. Nico comes in, woken up by her loud sobbing & heaving, which she still can't stop, and he lifts her head off her toilet. "Are you okay, Jackie?" he asks, his voice soft with concern, "Maybe you should get to a hospital?" She doesn't answer, and he picks her up & carries her into her bed, holding her while she cries. Though she doesn't really trust him, she can't help but love him, and when she's in his arms, it's her whole world. "Nico...I think...I think...I might...might be..." she sobs each word out & then bursts into tears so hard she can't speak at all. "You're pregnant, aren't you," he says, and it's not a question. She feels so wretched, all she can do is cry. "I love you, Jackie," he says to her, and she just keeps on crying. Until, worn out, she falls asleep on him.

She wakes a little later & he's gone. Of course she thinks, he took off as soon as he could, now that she's pregnant. But then she smells breakfast cooking & she knows that isn't her butler down in her kitchen. Suprised at how hungry she is, after being so ill, she heads downstairs & it is indeed Nico cooking.

She doesn't know what to say to him, about their problem, and they eat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Until Nico decides to speak, "Jackie, I know I'm nobody..I'm not even employed, and I have no business asking you this...I've told you how I feel, that I love you...and I think we should...I mean, I want to marry you...I want to do right by you & our baby..," he says, and Jackie is actually touched. But she's so unsure of their relationship, whether he's only with her for the money, to get himself a record contract, who knows what he really feels...

"Nico, this isn't the 19th century. A baby is no reason to marry someone....And I don't know that I want a baby...." It was a difficult thing to say, but she managed it. Nico sits staring at her, mouth open, fork raised, frozen in the air.

He gets up from his chair & comes around the table. "Jackie, I know I can't tell you what to do, and I'm in no position to ask you anything, but, this is as much my responsibility as yours. It's my baby, too... You've never told me if you love me or not Jackie, but I do love you, I want to marry you & I want our child....At least consider that before you..before you make any decisions..." His expression is so openly pained & twisted, Jackie can't disbelieve him. He seems to really want this child & her along with it...he looks like he might cry again. Jackie loves him so much, but she never told him so, no matter how often he said it to her. Because she didn't believe he really loved her, and didn't want him to know she loves him.

"Do you really mean it when you say you love me?" Jackie asks him. She has to know, especially now. He groans a little & looks like he might collapse on her. "Jackie, I know it is hard for you to trust me, because of how I've lived, but please, please, let's put that behind us, okay? I've never lied to you, I've never thought of you like, like other women, okay? I love you, Jackie, and I've never said that to anyone, no matter what they were paying me. I love you, Jackie & I will still love you if you kick me out on my ass & send me home. If you let me stay with you, I'll say it everyday, and I'll mean it every time. I love you, okay? Do you believe me yet?" Jackie listens to every word of his speech. She's worked very hard at resisting him, at keeping him out of her heart & trust, but she can't do it anymore. She falls crying into his arms.

"Jackie, do you love me, at all?" he asks her, his eyes pleading with her. Until now, she has been unable to admit it, afraid if she says it, it would somehow destroy her. But she sees now how much her silence on this point is hurting him: he's told her now he loves her, several times...and she thinks maybe now she believes him. "Yes, Nico, I do love you. I tried not to...," she finally admits, and is suprised at how much relief she feels just in speaking the words at last.

He kisses her like she's made him the happiest man in the world. But she's still not sure, what she wants to do, whether she's ready to be a parent, whether their love is solid enough to make a marriage.