Life Unexpected, Season 1

Lux:
He did it again! Your son seriously puts the 'ew' in Stewey.

Cate:
Lux...

Lux:
Cate, what are you doing here? ... [shakes her head] Don't you people learn?

Cate:
Ryan, let's not talk about high school, okay? Everybody knows that I hated high school, so...

Ryan:
What are you talking about, who hates high school, Cate? What, did you have a pizza face or something?

Cate:
No!

Ryan:
Like an unrequited love affair with the driver's ed teacher?

Cate:
Ryan, will you...Ryan, stop!

Ryan:
Or were you one of those girls who got knocked up on prom night? (pauses when he sees Cate's reaction) Did you get knocked up on prom night?

Baze:
More like winter formal...

Lux:
(to Cate and Baze, as they argue about high school) Seriously, I'm going back to foster care. You can't be parents, you both need parents!

Ryan:
You threw a remote at my head last night.<br /

Cate:
Threw is strong. I tossed it<br /

Baze:
I'm you're daughter.

Lux:
You're my what?

Lux:
You'd think with your last name being Foster, you'd actually be equipped to be a foster parent.

Fern:
Look, an ambush is not the way to win your child back.

Baze:
I know. Before you say anything else, you have got to hear me out, okay? (pauses, turns to Cate) Go ahead.

Cate:
Okay, so I'm not a soccer mom, and he, he can barely spell PTA.

Baze:
Don't even know what it is.

Cate:
Yeah. But we're here, and...okay, we're just not gonna go anywhere until you approve us.

Fern:
Cate, listen--

Cate:
No, you listen. I gave her up 16 years ago because someone in your department promised me that there would be someone great to adopt her, and no one did, and if you would have left her with us 16 years ago, how can you not leave her with us now? She has been in seven foster homes, and she has hated every single one of them. Are they really that much better than our homes? Are we that much worse? Because we can make room for her.

Baze:
Get batteries. Not fight on the lawn. Look, we don't have it all worked out yet, you know?

Cate:
We can give her the one thing that no one else ever has: love

Lux:
My room is amazing. (pointing at the poster on the wall) But who are the Spin Doctors?

Cate:
Um...they, uh, they provided the soundtrack of your conception.

Lux:
Hmm.

Cate:
Sorry for putting that image in your head.

Baze's Father:
You know what, Nate? You can kiss the bar good-bye. I'm done.

Baze:
You know what?

Baze's Father:
What?

Baze:
I'm done. You can take your bar, because I am done with you, and I am done with all of this. Sixteen years ago, I was afraid to tell you--and you know, it seems funny, given everything--because I didn't want to disappoint you and let you down, but somehow, I have managed to do that every day since. You were never gonna believe that I was responsible. You were never gonna believe in me. So I don't, I don't know why I came to this dinner. Oh, wait. I do know why. It's because you threatened to take away the one means I have of actually supporting my kid, because that's what I'm trying to do here, Dad, whether you believe it or not, is support my kid, because that's what I thought parents did!

Baze's Father:
I supported you every day of your life!

Baze:
Not in the way that counts. You call me crazy, but I thought that, that, that loving your kid meant that you actually made them feel like you did. You know what? You ask me why I want to do this, why I want to be a dad. It's because I don't want to turn my back on Lux, the way that you...

Baze's Father:
The way what, huh? Come on, say it. Like I did to you? That's the story you tell yourself, to keep from thinking that you're a screw-up? You blame me?

Baze's Father:
What's this?

Lux:
It's what's most important, right? $3,200 cash. Rent for the bar. From Baze.

Baze's Father:
What, did he rob a bank or something?

Lux:
I'm no expert on parents, but I always thought they just wanted their kids to be happy.

Baze's Father:
I do want my son to be happy.

Lux:
You want your son to be you. You're not mad at Baze because he, because he made the building a bar, or because he can't pay his rent, or even because he had me and didn't tell you. You're mad because...because he looked at you and decided that he didn't want to be you. Now, I've only known you for a few minutes, and I've known Baze for less than two weeks, but I know he's twice the dad that you are.

Baze:
Not everything in her life was bad. I don't like the looks of it, but Bug, Tasha...

Cate:
What?

Baze:
I don't know. To Lux, they're the good. I mean, if you think about it, we both had families before Lux. So maybe she just wants you to realize that she had a family before us.

Cate:
Pretty insightful for a quarterback.

Baze:
Coffee three sugars.

Lux:
Blueberry waffle slightly toasted.

Cate:
(about the Santa letter that Lux wrote at age 8) Okay, I know that right now, this seems like a really big deal, and I am not saying that it isn't, but that letter...that letter was sweet. Anyone who reads it would see that.

Lux:
It's not sweet. It's sad. While other kids were asking for Play Stations and Barbie dream houses, I was asking for parents.

Cate:
Right, which is understandable, because that is what you wanted.

Lux:
Right. But no one wanted me, and now the whole school knows that.

Cate:
Lux--

Lux:
No! Don't you understand what I'm saying? Not a single person ever, in 16 years, wanted me! Out of all the foster homes, out of all the parents that stood outside that chain-linked fence and watched us play like, like we didn't know what was going on, they picked out kids like we were puppies...or cars. But nobody ever chose me, including you. So...so don't tell me that this isn't a big deal, or that you understand how I feel, because you don't!

Baze:
I shouldn't have yelled. I don't wanna be that guy.

Lux:
You're not, Baze. You're not your dad. He's not all bad, though. Maybe he's just one of those old-school dads who can only show love by hitting you on the head or something.

Baze:
Yeah, or he just likes hitting me on the head.

Baze:
I try to be her friend, I get punked, and then I yell at her like a jack-hole.

Cate:
Lux deserved it...except maybe that part where you called her stupid.

Baze:
Ugh, stupid...that's my dad's nickname for me for the last seventeen years. You know, it's one thing not being as good a businessman as my dad, but I thought that if I ever had a kid, I...maybe that's why I just like being Lux's friend. Because I'm afraid that if I'm a dad, I'll be him.

Cate:
You don't have to be your dad. You just have to be a dad.

Baze:
Cate, come on, let me explain!

Cate:
Explain? I mean, I just walked in on you on top of my boss. Oh, god, that image! I, I, I just...I feel assaulted. You essentially just raped my eyes!

Baze:
God, Cate, I am so sick of you and Ryan acting like I can't be a good parent to Lux. She's been in our lives the same amount of time, Cate. You don't have any more experience than I do.

Cate:
Well last time I checked, giving birth to her counts for something.

Baze:
And then you gave her up! What, what does that count for? Let me be clear: I am not dropping out of that competition to make you happy. You were the one keeping me from Lux. You were the one with a douche fiancée, and you were the one coming here, yelling at me. So the only way I am walking away from that contest is with a car.

Ryan:
I miss the smell of burning bacon, too.

Ryan:
(referring to Cate sleeping with Baze) You wanna be honest? Then you tell me why you did it. Why was he worth trashing our relationship?

Cate:
God, Ryan, he wasn't, it was stupid, it was a mistake. I don't even know why I did it.

Ryan:
Yeah, you don't know. If you risk everything, everything that we had on something stupid, some mistake, then you're even more screwed up than I thought. No, don't bother trying to fix us, Cate. You just fix yourself.

Lux:
(referring to Jones taking her to see Tasha) You know, Bug never would have done anything this thoughtful.

Tasha:
Not true. He would have driven you here...in a stolen car.

Lux:
You're asking me out? Like on a date? Why?

Jones:
What do you mean, why? Cause I want to go out with you.

Lux:
Well what do you have in mind? I stand in the cheering section at one of your games? We share a milkshake at the Dairy Hut?

Jones:
Don't hate on milkshakes.

Lux:
You know what I mean. You're Abercrombie. I'm the foster-freak bong girl. There's an inherent compatibility issue.

Jones:
Really? I thought it was a classic story. Boy meets bong girl, boy tries to kiss bong girl, boy awkwardly asks out bong girl.

Lux:
Is this a sex talk?

Baze:
It's...it's more of an anti-sex talk.

Abby:
There are many other ways to get the same feeling without actually having sex. Um...flexible shower heads, vibrating back massagers, the spin cycle of the front-load washing machine. (Lux and Baze stare are her)

Baze:
Like little due - quarter back Jones?

Cate:
You're wearing a shirt that says Tap that.

Baze:
You're wearing a small garden on your wrist.

Baze:
Jones you stand up little dude - my ass.

Cate:
Being back on this gym actually makes my boob hurt.

Bug:
Cher. But not in a gay way.

Baze:
Is there another way?

jones:
(to lux)want to go the winter formal tonight?

lux:
I'd rather eat paste.

Cate:
I was just thinking about you.

Ryan:
Yeah?

Cate:
Yeah, well, I mean, I was thinking about your hot legs and my cold feet. Why is it so hard to keep a pair of socks together?

Ryan:
The missing one usually turns up. Sometimes it just takes someone else to find it.

Fern:
(to Cate and Baze after an emotional confrontation with Lux) I know it doesn't feel like it, but what you had today was a breakthrough. Trust me. I've seen other kids have moments of honesty like this, and that's usually when things take a turn for the better. I know that you tried to shoulder the blame, but it doesn't belong with you. I'm not going to remove Lux from you care. If anything, this shows me that you're a real family, with all the bumps and bruises that a teenager brings, like anyone. And as far as I'm concerned, you two should start the process of having your parental rights reinstated.

Baze:
Really?

Cate:
Is there, is there really a chance at that?

Fern:
In my opinion, yes. I can see how much she means to you, and that all three of you are committed to making this work...perhaps Lux most of all. It was a hard thing she did, saying that. She risked losing you all over again.

Cate:
(crying) She doesn't need to worry about that, ever.

Fern:
You don't have to convince me. Convince Lux.

Fern:
That's what this is really about, right? Cate not being there?

Lux:
I say yes, and what? You send me away to live with someone else? I don't want to live with someone else. I want to work it out with Cate and Baze. I just...

Fern:
Look, I'm the one who's going to decide if you stay together, but ultimately, it's not up to me. It's up to you. If you can't be straight with me, you're never gonna be straight with Cate and Baze, and then you'll be right back on my couch six months from now, so when you say that Cate wasn't there for you, tell her what you mean.

Lux:
(long pause, turns to Cate) Where were you?

Cate:
What?

Lux:
I was out there my whole life. Where were you all that time? You never even checked. You never wondered what had happened, if I was okay?

Cate:
I...I mean, I...I didn't really think that I had to worry, because they told me that you were gonna be adopted, that you were gonna have a better life. I really, I really thought that I was doing what was right for you.

Lux:
It wasn't for me. If it was for me, you would have checked! But you did it for you. You did the right thing for you!

Baze:
Lux, it's not all on Cate. I wasn't there exactly, either.

Lux:
Yeah, but you didn't know, and nobody who knew you would have expected you to be there.

Cate:
I was sixteen years old. You know, I didn't have anyone to turn to. You know my mother. She was drinking her way through another divorce. I even wrote a letter to my father, but when I realized that I didn't know where to send it...you know, that's when it hit me. I had no idea what a good parent was. There was just no way that I could be one. Not at sixteen.

Lux:
Then...what about a few years after that, when I was three and stuck in a hospital where no one visited? Or two years after that, when my foster mother shoved me into a wall and told the social worker that I fell off a swing? Where were you? We used to make up these stories about why we were given up, because we didn't want to believe that our parents, our mothers, could hold us--their babies--and just give us up! But you did. You gave me away to nothing, like I didn't matter to you, because I didn't!

Cate:
No, no, Lux. You do. You matter now.

Lux:
No.

Cate:
No, Lux. You matter. You do. You matter now, Lux!

Lux:
No! (stands up) Now doesn't count! I...I'm sorry. I don't forgive you, Cate. I don't. (walks out)

Lux:
I know I seem like I'm okay, but I'm more messed up inside than you realize. And the truth is, I don't forgive you. I don't know when I'll ever be able to forgive you.

Cate:
Lux, you don't have to. You don't ever have to forgive me. I'm never gonna be able to forgive me. I just want a chance to make it right with you. Will you tell me what I have to do to make it right?

Lux:
Let me come home.

(Cate hears Baze tell Abby that he has feeling for Cate)

Cate:
Now it's going to be so weird when I'm around you. It's gonna be weird for Lux, and weird for you, and weird for Ryan. Oh my god, Ryan. What am I supposed to tell him? You are, like, this gigantic issue for him. You know what? He's finally back, we're happy. We are supposed to be on the coast getting married.

Abby:
(referring to her relationship with Baze) God, Cate, shut up! You bitch about us being together, now we're not, and you find a way to bitch about that! This isn't Burger King, you don't get everything your way!

Lux:
How long has it been?

Baze:
How long, how long has what been?

Lux:
Since you've had feelings for Cate.

Baze:
I just...I thought that if I gave it time, the feelings would go away. But after the last two days, I don't know if I want the feelings to go way. We felt like a family, the three of us, for the first time. It felt really good.

Baze:
All right, if I tell you something, you know, big dude to little dude, can you keep it on the DL?

Bug:
Sure.

Baze:
Do you remember Cate's sister? She thinks I have a thing for Cate, which I don't. I mean, I know I don't, but she got this idea stuck in my head and now I'm all screwed up. I mean, I don't know, lately whenever Cate's around, it's like she's changed her shampoo or her dryer sheets or something, ahh..is it weird to want to smell someone?

Bug:
Yeah.

Cate:
Thank you for being there.

Baze:
Always.

Lux:
Just stop making excuses! You spend so much time denying it, and rationalizing it and, and talking yourself out if it, what if you just admitted it?

Cate:
What would you like me to admit, Lux?!

Lux:
That deep down, you're having doubts about Ryan because you know that you're meant to be with Baze.

Cate:
Baze and I, we are not meant to be together. My soulmate is not some guy that knocked me up in the back of a minivan.

Lux:
(referring to Cate) Are you really not gonna say anything? About how you feel? You're just gonna watch her get married tomorrow?

Baze:
I'm not gonna watch anything. I'm going to steer clear of all things wedding. I don't wanna see it, I don't wanna hear anything about it.

Lux:
So that's the kind of family we're gonna be? The kind that just sits around, lying to each other because we can't say how we feel?

Baze:
Lesson numero uno: that's every family.

Cate:
[voiceover]: When I was a little girl I thought I understood how things worked. Girls grew up and married boys. Fathers walked their daughters down the aisle. there was an order to things. First, came love. Thank came marriage. Then,, came an overpriced, ridiculously complicated baby carriage. But when I grew up, I realized that's not necessarily how things worked. Girls can marry girls, and boys can marry boys. Mothers can walk their daughters down the aisle. And kids can come before love and marriage. It's taken me 32 years to figure out who I want to be, and what I've learned is- it's a choice that you make every day about who you want to be and who you want to be it with. It means you appreciating what's happened in your life to bring you to this point and letting go of it. And it means being willing to commit with no guarantees. It means knowing and accepting reality, you might just get the fantasy you've always dreamed of.

Lux:
I don't know what's worse having your foster parents treat you like crap or having your own parents treat you that way.

Lux:
(voiceover, from her letter to Santa) I want parents. Two parents. They don't always have to say stuff right and do stuff right. It's okay if they don't. They just have to be nice people...who will try. So if there are two people out there for me, Santa, please tell them that I'm here. I'm waiting for them, and I love them already.

Cate:
(to her father) All this time I've been blaming Baze, like he's the only one who has left me. I thought he was the one that wrecked me - you were.

Ryan:
You've been spending so much time trying to be the parent. But you wanting them to be together maybe means for the very first time that you learned to the kid... their kid.