I Got Your Picture I'm Coming With You

LEXIE'S POV

"ROAD TRIP! YAY!" I screamed as soon as Alex started the car.

"DUDE! I need my ears! They're important for my line of work!" Alex yelled back as he started the car up.

"Oh, I didn't realise whores had to listen to their customers now," Rian said, in the front passenger seat.

"Yeah, it's all part of the new and improved service. You get paid more for it too," Alex replied.

"I may have to look into it. I mean, I need to earn a little more money."

"Hey, does anyone know if Jack is coming out the house any time soon?" I asked, interrupting their conversation.

They looked at each other. "Well I'm not checking," Rian stated.

"Me neither," Alex said, and they both turned to look at me. "Sorry rookie, looks like you gotta get your ass outta the car and go check on diddums. Shoulda jumped in first."

Great, what a way to start the trip, by getting picked on. I rolled my eyes but nonetheless went to go and find Jack. I opened the door again, and saw his cases by the door, but no Jack. "Hey, Jack? You here? We need to leave!" I yelled. No reply. I shuffled through the house, checking all the rooms, until there was only his room left to check. "I swear Jack, if I walk in here to find you having happy time I'm not gonna be happy, and I won't fucking share any jelly worms with you!"

I heard a faint laugh, evaluated the situation and decided that Jack wasn't in fact getting off, and opened the door. Sure enough, there he was, sat on his bed, just...well sitting. He looked kinda sad too.

"Jack, are you okay?"

He looked up, made a small smile and sniffled a little. "Yeah...just remembering the last time I went on a roadtrip...it was nothing like this...completely different." Jack sighed, I knew he was talking about Vienna, but he didn't know I knew. "Time to go?"he asked as he took in deep breath and collected himself. I nodded and he stood up. I never got over how tall he was, compared to me. Jack smiled at me and we left.

The guys had had to cut down on the amount of stuff they took. I mean, Alex's car was big, but when all of our bags or cases and other crap was shoved into the trunk, he had to sacrifice about three of his cases, I only had to sacrifice one small bag. Soon enough though, we were on our way, singing along to the radio.

"Hey, guys?" I asked, addressing them all.

"Yeah?" Rian replied. Spokesman for the team. Yeah, he would check us into hotels and such.

"Can we put on some of my music?"

"Sure," Alex shrugged. I knew Jack would be chuckling to myself. He knew what was coming.

I leaned over from the back, catching Jack staring at my ass as I did so...there were worse people who would stare, but I guess it didn't help that I was wearing shorts and knee socks...it was warm over here for April...but I guess that's only because I wasn't used to the weather. I should have known better, Jack had mentioned before he got off on knee socks and shorts. Fuck. I would have to be more careful around him. I was trying to re-unite him with his ex and child, not tempt him away from them! Anyway, I leaned over and put my CD in the player. I hadn't gotten around to getting new iPod, so all the All Time Low albums were compiled onto one disk...thanks to Jack.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I mean I like our music, but I don't wanna listen to it all the freaking time!" Alex burst out as he figured out what song was playing.

I laughed at him. "Hey, car rule, we listen to all the tracks and when it's back to the start, we take it out."

"That's alright..." Rian started.

"How many tracks are on here?" Alex asked.

"Well how many songs have you made? Including covers and acoustic versions?"

"Shit," Alex said with a sigh.

I giggled. "Thank Jack, he was the one kind enough to put this together for me," I said, giving Jack a hug, as he was in the back with me.

Alex glared at him in the rearview mirror. "You fucking asshole. You have created a monster."

"Hey, you say we should be nice to our fans!" Jack countered, smiling. He still had his arm around me.

"I'm gonna fucking kill you when we make the first stop."

JACK'S POV

We spent the first few days in Richmond and North Carolina, so Lexie could take a few pictures and generally soak in american life...which she had been doing in Baltimore, but oh well. then she decided she wanted to go to Chicago in Illinois. She was very particular about which states we were going to see, and where exactly she wanted to go. I tried to dissuade her from going to Illinois, but she wouldn't listen. I guess she had no reason to think it was a bad idea. She wasn't to know that it was where Vienna's parents lived. But I mean, Chicago was a big place. Chances are we wouldn't bump into them.

Before we'd left, I was just thinking about Vienna, our first roadtrip. It had only been to the surrounding states, but it was something. It was where we fell in love more or less. didn't know if I wanted to experience that again...but Lexie was different. This roadtrip would be different. I didn't have to worry about Lexie.

I was thinking maybe it was time I told her...but I don't know. I couldn't tell her the truth...I'd only tell her part of it, like what I had told the guys. If she knew the truth, she would hate me. And it would be Vienna all over again. Except with less complications shall we say? I could only guess what I had put Vienna through. But why couldn't she understand at the time what she had put me through? I didn't understand how she could be so selfish! No, wait, that wasn't fair was it? I shouldn't be like that but she pushed me away. And I won't pretend like I feel different to how I do, I did that enough already with everyone else. I wouldn't try to fool myself too.

It was getting kind of late, and Alex had been driving for six hours...which was way over how long you're supposed to drive without a break. None of us had enough energy to check and see where the nearest motel was to check into, and Alex was ready to collapse, so we just pulled over at the nearest place we were allowed to. Surprisingly it was a nice spot, kind of in the middle of nowhere, but there was a lake and some picnic benches, and one of those on the road diner's, which was shut. Great. Oh well, at lest we had breakfast!

"So we're sleeping in the car, right?" Rian asked.

Alex stifled a yawn and answered, "yeah, we'll have to put our seats down, and Jack and Lexie best get close enough to snuggle on the backseat. We can't put their seats down with all the junk we have in the back." That was true. I didn't mind though.

"Erm...well I'm just gonna go change then, I'll just be behind that tree," Lexie said, and got out the car.

After a moment of silence, Alex and Rian laughed at me. "Dude, just go after her, but don't make it obvious you're perving on her, kay bro?" Rian said, making fun of me.

Whatever. Douche. Potatoes are so overrated.

I rolled my eyes, but got out of the car with a sly grin anyway.

It really was dark out here...I tried to pick my way through, and called out for Lexie.

"Yeah?" I heard her reply, and followed her voice.

"It's me, Jack! I'm coming to check up on you...make sure you don't get murdered or eaten or raped or something."

"Jack, you're the only one out here who can do any of those," she laughed.

"Well you know, I'd only think about doing the last one to you."

"And you know it's not rape if I consent, so technically you can't rape me. I want your barakitties too much," Lexie giggled.

I smiled to myself. "How about we make the dream a reality?" I saw a flash of leg and found the tree she was changing behind. "Nah, I'm all dressed now, there's no point."

"I could always undress you?" Oh yes, I was enjoying imagining that.

"Nope, sorry Jackie, you'll just have to stay frustrated a little while longer," Lexie said and came out from behind the tree. She was dressed in a panda onsesie. And she still made me tick. Damn girl! "So, shall we head back to the car?" she said brightly.

I nodded and held out my arm as she took it and stared up at the stars. "Wow, it really is a beautiful night," Lexie stated. It was an impressive night, bright stars, black sky, luminescent moon, almost magical. The way the lights danced on the calm waters of the lake was so elegant it made you just want to jump in and be a part of it, but at the same time just stand back and stare at it in case you ruined the tranquility.

But it wasn't as beautiful as the girl stood next to me staring at it.

"Hey, I want to talk to you...because I feel like I can..." I started. Her eyes looked up at me, staring into my own dark eyes. I doubt she could see them clearly in this light though.

"Of course, I don't mind."

Breathing in deeply, I started. I spoke about Vienna's mental health issues, that I hadn't told the guys, I spoke about her getting pregnant and thinking we could get better as a couple, but she wouldn't get the treatment she needed and pushed me away. She hurt me and scared me every time she pushed me away. The suicide attempt. So I pushed her further away, the biggest mistake of my life. And she had miscarriage and left without a word, and about the letter I had received a few weeks later. I lied. I told some of the lies I had told the guys, but I also told her more truth than I had told the guys. But I didn't tell her the whole truth. I didn't want to push her away.

Lexie had a funny look on her face for a little while. "Jack...I have a confession. Alex told me everything. Don't get mad at him, it was when you freaked out that I wasn't home. I'm sorry, I should have told you I knew. But I just didn't wanna make you sad again by making you think about it. But he never mentioned her mental health, I'm so sorry Jack."

I sighed, I guess I should have known. "It's okay, they were bound to blab sooner or later. None of the guys knew about her mental health...so don't tell them okay? I promise me?" Lexie pinky promised me, and we carried on our walk back to the car. "Can we...not go to Illinois now? It's just...well that's where her parents live and I-"

"We're still going Jack, it's exactly the reason why we're going. We're going to find Vienna and your little girl, and you're going to be able to be a dad. A real dad."

That made me smile. That she cared enough to go to that trouble. I just nodded and smiled at her in thanks. I just hoped no one told her the truth. I couldn't let anyone know the truth. At least, not yet.

I stopped her just before we got into the car. "Hey, Lexie...thanks. For this. For looking out for me. For being a fan, I guess," I said sincerely.

Her face broke into a smile. "Oh Jack, you already saved my life once, and I might need you to do it again, so really, this is just a small favor in comparison."

That gave me a really bad feeling. You didn't need to be a genius to know what that meant. I hated it when I herd our fans went through that, but I was glad that our music could save them. I was proud to be 25% of that. If I had anything to do with it, there would not be a next time, never another time where she needed to be saved.

We got into the car, and Rian and Alex were already sleeping. Huh, guess they didn't try to eavesdrop on me. Lexie and I whispered to each other as we tried to figure out a way to sleep that was comfortable. In the end, I lay on the outside, careful not to fall off the bench seat, made a gap for Lexie who clambered over me to fit in the small gap. Then my arms went around her, and hers went around me, trying to hold us together in the back and she snuggled into my chest, as her leg went over my hip. I don't think she did it intentionally, because this was like half an hour later and she was snoring lightly. I chuckled softly. I liked this position, like I was protecting her.

"Hey, Rian, look at the love birds," Alex whispered loudly so I could here. Rian laughed, quietly because of the only person in the car who was trying to sleep.

"Shut the fuck up guys!" So they never were asleep huh? But judging by their mocking, they hadn't eavesdropped, because if they had, they would probably be questioning me as to why I didn't tell them about Vienna's state of mind.

I stole Alex's heavy blanket to shut him up and draped it over me and Lexie. He moaned but didn't steal it back, just ended up fighting with Rian over his blanket, so in the end they had to share it somehow because we didn't have another, they were all in the trunk and we could not be bothered to go out in the cold.

"Night dudes," I said with a yawn.

"Night," they grumbled simultaneously, and we all fell asleep.

But I fell asleep with a smile on my face.