Ben's First Birthday

**Ben's First Birthday** is the second chapter of Push to the Limit and the three hundred and seventy seventh chapter of the series overall.

Tensions rise high as Julie returns to Lima for Ben's party. Ryder is nervous about having sex with Julie, while Sam fights her for custody of Izzy and Gaby.

## Plot

Harmony helps Ryder prepare the food for Ben's birthday party. As they talk, Julie arrives, surprising them both. Harmony leaves and Julie attempts to get intimate with Ryder, who rejects her advances once again. After Ryder explains that he wants to take things slow, Julie says they're ready and implies that Sam would've already pleased her, which angers Ryder. To make things worse, Julie leaves the conversation to take a call as Ryder sings A Part of That and wishes she would focus less time on fame and her career and more time on him. However, he knows he has to be supportive.

Stefan and Marley prepare Ben for his party and Bree arrives with Amity and Dan behind her, the latter two claiming they are early to help. Marley tells them that Ben now answers 'no' for everything and Harmony arrives, greeting everyone and asking further about Ben's vocabulary, with Dan comparing it to the twins' just in time for Julie to arrive. They express shock at seeing her there and Julie greets them, suspecting that Harmony is less than pleased about her presence because she has gotten close to Ryder with Julie gone. The guys go outside to grill but Dan doesn't want to join them, telling the women that he's not so sure the guys are cool with him yet after the disaster that he was the previous year. Sam, John and Alex then arrive with the twins and gifts. Julie is eager to see her daughters and Sam escapes to the backyard to avoid fighting with her. After John and Alex leave, Dan says Alex has been less receptive to his return to town than anyone else and Julie says she will handle it, while Bree hopes she'd return too. Julie says she only has a few days left to be there.

Luke surprises Travis before the party and tells him he was ready to quit on Santana in order to see him. Luke wants to stay in for a bit and catch up physically but Travis is eager to get out since he's been trapped indoors and away from other people for months. When Luke says he is leaving the next day, however, Travis agrees to stay in.

Whitney and Jake arrive at Bree's house but Whitney doesn't want to go inside, saying his friends don't want them to date and feel sorry for her. Jake says as a teenager he stayed away from his friends when his ex would be there with her boyfriend, making her realize she is acting like a child, so they go inside. As they do, Shana and Santana arrive, flirting with each other as Leila and Zoe ride uncomfortably in the backseat. After they get off, Santana tells Shana that she loves being with her and they agree to go rub their happiness in their friends' faces. When they walk inside, Bree makes everyone clean their shoes and Santana mocks Whitney for being a beard. Whitney immediately responds by asking Bree for alcohol, through which the two bond.

Jake steps outside with the men as Ryder is asking Stefan for advice on how to handle Julie. Alex warns Jake to walk away from the conversation as Ryder is asking each of Julie's past sexual partners what it was like to have sex with her. The guys mock Ryder for going seven months since being with Julie and not having sex with her. Alex tells him that Julie will break up with him, but John assures him it's a joke. Ryder says he wants to wait until they're married to make it special but John says Julie doesn't care about that. However, Ryder doesn't know what to expect with her experience, to which Sam responds by calling Julie "vanilla". Stefan suggests that he have sex with her on Halloween and Ryder turns to Jake for advice, but Jake is uncomfortable with saying more. John decides to leave but Alex wants to stay and listen. Ryder asks for help knowing how to set the mood without it seeming like it's planned and Jake explains how it happened for him. Ryder plans on replicating that but Alex insists on hearing about Sam's first time with Julie. Sam gets upset, however, and leaves.

Julie tells the women about the best show on her tour and John interrupts with food. Everyone goes outside but Julie stays inside to talk to Sam, who wants to know if she plans on taking the girls from him while she's in town. She assures him her priority is to be with them and not Ryder or anyone else, insisting that he stay at her place to make it easier. He agrees but says that they need a system so that he isn't expected to just wait for her to miss them. This annoys her and she explains that she tries not to inconvenience him but he doesn't like having them traveling back and forth so much, adding that he wants permanent custody of them. They are interrupted by Amity and Julie angrily goes outside, while Sam confides in Amity that their current arrangement isn't working anymore. She suggests that they each get one girl but he doesn't want to split them up.

Everyone is outside talking and Sam can't stop thinking about Amity's idea to split up the girls. The guys get asked about their upcoming album and Sam says that half of the album is very depressing so he has to write more uplifting songs first. The guys are asked to perform their most recently written one, Heart and Soul, which they do to the enjoyment of everyone.

During the cake cutting, everyone sings 'Happy Birthday' to Ben and then they proceed to open presents. Julie steps aside with Sam and Amity, who share the idea to split up the girls. Julie refuses at first but then realizes it's the best plan to stop fighting over custody and agrees to give it a try.