Always There

When Billie Joe heard the click of the kitchen phone hanging up, he shoved his hands into his back pants pockets and bowed his head sheepishly as he walked into the room, sensing that Maria was staring at him with serious eyes.

Swallowing back another lump, he warily lifted his green eyes up and offered her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I didn't think Adie would--"

"It doesn't matter," she insisted. Folding her arms over her chest, Maria walked right by him and stepped into the living room, not paying attention to Billie Joe following behind her. Or perhaps she was trying to ignore him. Either way, it didn't make him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Maria--"

"You didn't tell me she kicked you out," she remarked. "Hell, you didn't even tell me you told her yet. I mean, here I was thinking you were still hiding it from her. But she knew and here I could've been a little prepared for the tongue-lashing she gave me."

Turning her eyes to Billie Joe, she gave him a disappointed gaze. How was it that he kept screwing things up with the women he loved? Why in the hell did he have to be such a man whore to begin with?

"I'm really sorry," he apologized. "If I knew she was gonna call..."

"You woulda told me? Only if you knew she was gonna call? Weren't you gonna let me know she knew? Or were you hoping I wouldn't care?"

"You know that's not it." He sighed, walking up to her and cupping her face in his hands. "I told her everything; about how we'd been sleeping together, that I got you pregnant...that I never meant to do it." Frowning, he pushed some hair behind her ear. "But I left out how I'm still sleeping with you and how, even though I didn't plan on being with you, I still want you."

She leaned her head forward, pressing it to his, placing her hands on his shoulders as she took a small breath. "I know you do."

"Maria," he began. "I need you, too."

"Maybe. But you know what I think?" she asked rhetorically, her chin starting to quiver as she stifled back some tears. "I think you need to go home to your wife and your boys. I think that you and I shouldn't be together the way we have been anymore. It only complicates things and..."

He started to panic. He wasn't sure he could stay away from her. "Baby..."

Her brow was knitted as she gave him her best 'I'm serious' face. "Pack your things. I'll call you a cab."

"Maria--"

"You don't have to leave New York right away, but you just can't stay here anymore. A-and I can't go to your penthouse anymore. Ben and Nate miss their dad, and there's no doubt your boys miss you. So, I'm gonna work it out with Mitch and you're gonna go home to California and work it out with Adrienne because I know you still love each other," she told him with a deadpan expression. "It's time we acted like adults."

"What about Olivia? What about our baby?" Billie Joe wonder, desparately grasping for straws, so to speak.

"Well, Olivia has the musical this month that she's gonna want you at and then she can stay with you during the summer and all the holidays or any time you're in New York. As for the baby...I dunno. I want you in its life as much as possible, but I can't do this, Billie. I can't be a homewrecker when I've got my own to take care of. And I can't do it alone. I need Mitch here for that."

"What're you gonna tell him about me? About the baby."

"I suppose I'll tell him the truth. Him and I will hafta start keeping an open and honest relationship. I don't have to tell him all the details. I'll tell him...that when I kicked him out, you came here to see about Olivia's problem and you and I slept together and I ended up pregnant. It's still the truth, but without admitting everything that happened before. He doesn't need to know that part."

"Maria, baby, I just can't walk away from you."

"You're not walking away," Maria assured. "You're just...walking a different path now."

Billie Joe shook his head, pressing his lips to hers as she covered his hands with hers. Pulling back slightly, he ran his hands down the sides of her body and snaked them around her waist in order to wrap her up in an embrace; their faces cheek to cheek. Maria dipped her head forward a bit, burying it slightly into his shoulder so that her ear lay against the material of his dark shirt.

"This sucks," Billie Joe muttered into her hair. "I'm losing you again."

"You never lost me. Just misplaced me."

"Same thing." He kissed her head and held her tighter until she started to wriggle out of his hold.

She kissed him lightly on the lips and then touched his chest with her hands. "Go pack," she whispered.

* * *

When Billie Joe returned home, it was quiet. Almost too quiet. There was no television on in the living room, to radio playing anywhere, no yammering voices from his sons playing throughout the house.

He set down his suitcase in the hallway and scratched at his temple, poking his head into the kitchen where he found it empty. Adrienne's car was in the garage, so unless she got picked up by someone else and took the boys with her, they should be around somewhere.

But then he noticed them. All three of them in the backyard around the pool. He stepped up to the door and looked out one of its several windows, watching as his wife sat on the edge of the shallow end with her feet wading in the water, swishing back and forth, while Jakob ran by her and did a canon ball, splashing both Adrienne and Joey, who was swimming over to the ladder.

Billie Joe smiled.

Then, taking a deep breath, he opened the door and walked out onto the patio, shoving his hands into his front pockets as soon as the door closed behind him. Hearing his footsteps, Adrienne turned her head up at him; the expression she wore hard to read.

"Daddy!" Jakob exclaimed as he pulled himself out of the water and ran up to Billie Joe while his wet feet smacked against the concrete.

"Hey, Jake," Billie Joe smiled as he hugged his youngest son against his side. Joey came over as well so that he had two soaked kids practically clinging to his legs and soaking them as well. He leaned down and kissed both of their heads while glancing over to Adrienne who hadn't moved. "Why don't you boys go get your squirt guns and pretend to kill each other while I talk to your mom, okay?"

Joey was the only one who hesitated at first, but then shrugged. The two little Armstrongs grabbed their towels and dried off a bit as they ran into the house in search of their super soakers. Billie Joe took the opportunity to kick off his shoes and socks and roll up his pant legs as he sat down beside his wife who, admittedly, looked so beautiful in the bathing suit she wore.

"Hi," he muttered, sheepishly.

"Hi," she replied.

"I, uh, I didn't know you guys were home. It was so quiet inside."

"Yeah. We were out here."

Silence fell over them for what seemed like forever, until Billie Joe licked his upper lip and turned his face to Adi. "I betrayed you and hurt you and I will always be sorry for that. I don't know what I could do to ever earn back your trust, if it's even possible, but I love you, and I wanna at least try," he began. "You've been nothing but supportive and loving for the past twelve years of this marriage, and you deserve better than that. You didn't deserve what I did to you."

"No, I didn't," she agreed.

"I'm sorry for sleeping with Maria. I'm sorry for getting her pregnant, but I can't change that. It happened." Then he swallowed back a lump in his throat. "We're not together. She's trying to work out the problems in her marriage. But I will go back every so often, because that child is still mine. Olivia is still mine as well. And I will not walk away from them."

"I wouldn't ask you to do that," she insisted. "I'm not a bitch. The kids aren't to blame for any of this. They never asked to be brought into this world, but they have. This is your fault and Maria's. You did this, not them. Not me. I've accepted Olivia, because she was from a relationship with Maria before we ever got back together, before we were married. I have no problem with her. She's a great girl, and damn, if she doesn't look just like you. But, this baby...knowing the circumstance of how it was created...I doubt I'll ever be able to accept it like I can Olivia."

"I guess I shouldn't expect you to," he admitted. "But I do love you, Adrienne. I don't wanna throw this away if we can work it out. We've hit so many snags before--"

"--Why can't we unsnag this one?"

"Yeah," Billie Joe smirked. He took a chance at covering her left hand with his right one and giving it a gentle squeeze.

They sat there for a little bit, again in silence, watching as how the bit of a breeze they had rippled the pool water. Judging by the quiet that still surrounded them, the boys were still trying to look for their super soakers. But then, the silence was once again broken. This time by Adrienne.

"I wanna meet her. Face to face," she announced.

"Who?"

"Maria," she clarified. "I went through all your things when you were gone and found pictures of you and her together from when you were dating. I know what she looks like as a twenty-year-old college girl with blonde or brown or red hair, but now I wanna know what she looks like as a thirty-something housewife with three kids. I wanna meet her husband and her other children. I wanna see who she is."

Billie Joe bowed his head to his chest and nodded. "Okay."

"How soon can I meet her?"

He looked over at her and bit his bottom lip. "I'm going back in a couple weeks for Olivia's musical. She's playing the Wicked Witch in 'The Wizard Of Oz.'"

"Good enough for me. We'll take the boys too. And then our family will sit down for dinner with hers."

Oh shit, that would be incredibly awkward. But he couldn't tell Adi no. Not if he was trying to make things right.

"Alright. I'll tell Maria."

"Good."

"Anything else I can do to make it up to you?" he wondered curiously.

Adrienne looked up at the sky and twisted her lips in a sort of thinking pucker. Then, she nodded. Without warning, she placed her hand against Billie Joe's back and gave him a shove, knocking him into the pool face and chest first; his arms shooting out like a seagull that couldn't fly. With a quick splash, he fell under the surface of the water, popping back up as he found himself drenched head to toe while still fully clothed.

He brought his hands to his face and pushed the wet, clingy hair out of his eyes as he squinted up at his wife.

"Yeah, I guess I deserved that."

Thankfully, Adrienne smiled.