You Got Me Poppin Champagne

ERIN'S POV

"How about Maria?" I joked as I ran my hands through Alex's hair. We were laying on the floor together with the fire on, Jasey happily chasing the dogs with her new found talent for walking. I had my back against the couch and Alex had rested his head on my bump. It was nearing the end of November and it was freezing.

"No. No. If one of those twins is a girl, we are NOT naming her after a striper. It was bad enough with Jasey...no. And not Stella because that's alcohol, not Holly because that also sounded sexual, just no."

I laughed at his protest. "I was only kidding. Personally I thought it was a good idea."

"No. It is not a fucking good idea. You're mind is warped."

"Your fault."

Alex lifted his head up from my bump and twisted to look at me. A smile played on his lips. "Really? How come?"

"Well, mr Gaskarth, when I was younger I found this video of this band and it was a little bit catchy."

He let out a little laugh. "Yeah?" I nodded, smiling too. "And what happened then?"

"I never listened to them again." His face dropped in an animated style. 

"What? But-"

"Well, I never listened to them for a couple of years." He still looked unimpressed and raised an eyebrow.

"Uhuh, so what happened then? Surely you recalled the super handsome good looks of the lead singer?" Alex asked with a dazzling smile. I laughed at him and shoved him a little.

"Eh, I was just on YouTube and this video came up called Dear Maria. I checked it out and realised it was the band I listened to that did covers of Blink 182. I bought their album and soon became obsessed with four guys who were way too immature but somehow managed to create the words and music that kept me holding on throughout everything." I felt tears in my eyes and hurried to wipe them away before Alex realised, but he beat me to it, soft hands matching the soft look on his face.

"Hey, I'm glad I was there for you. I promise you I'll never hurt you like they did."

I gave him a weak smile. "I know. It's okay. I'm okay. I had you long before I met you, you never hurt me before, not once. You saved my life. You're everything to me."

Alex smiled full of pure, tentative love, and pulled me close, wrapping those arms around me that used to make me melt in the pictures I collected as a fan, and still did make me melt. "I'm so glad I found you. I don't think my life would be complete without you and Jasey."

I giggled at that. "No but you'd get a lot more sleep and it would be a hell of a lot less complicated."

Alex shook his head. "Nope, I'd be staying up because of partying all the time and it would be way too complicated having to organise parties, trying to figure out what inspiration I'd have to write a song, drinking myself into an oblivion. It'd be-"

"Complete and utter mayhem!" I supplied for him, at which he grinned at the reference.

"Exactly. So you see, life with you? Much easier. And happier."

"Even though you gotta try and pick out names and look after a kid who's almost one and a half? Not to mention your crazy obsessed fiancé?"

"Yup. That crazy obsessed fiancé turned out to be the best drunken mistake I'd ever made. Who'd have thought it eh?" Alex replied as he tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

I bit my lip as I smiled at the gesture, making Alex smile. "Come on, we gotta get back to baby naming. Two names for girls, two or guys."

Alex thought about it for a moment. "How about Millie?"

"Too cutesie."

He gave me a funny look.

"What?"

"Babies are cute, and you're calling a name too cute?" I shrugged, Alex shook his head and went back to thinking with his head on my stomach. "Kayleigh?"

"Too cliche American teen flick cheerleader."

"Harleigh?" I thought about it for a second and nodded.

"Yeah I like that. One down. I still say Maria though." I snuck a look at Alex with a smile at the ready to try and persuade him. He took a quick peek up then sighed and laid back down. 

"Fuck it. Fine. If we get two girls, Harleigh and Maria the stripper. Fingers crossed for boys. If we have one of each, we call the girl Harleigh. Damn girl, you really are crazy obsessed."

I chuckled. "Am I denying it? No. Embrace my fangirl. Without it, we would never have met."

Alex sighed, but without looking at his face I could still tell it was a happy reflective sigh. "That's true. So, names for boys, you got anything?"

"Mmm, maybe Noah? Matthew?"

"We can't have Matthew, I'd always call the little dude Matt and then it could get confusing with Coloussy and Flyzick. I like Noah though."

I nodded as I absentmindedly continued to play with his hair. "And how about Evan?"

"No. As much as I love the kirken, it would get confusing with Evan Kirkendall."

"Gee Alex, must you have friends with all the names I want for my kids?"

"Our kids," he corrected. "And yes, yes I must. It's fun watching you get frustrated. You're cute when frustrated."

I blushed and was thankful he wasn't looking at me, because that would make me blush even more. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Come on. Gimme names asshole!"

Alex laughed a little. "You're blushing now, aren't you? You mainly insult me if I've got you all embarrassed."

"Shut up you fucking, and I repeat, asshole."

"Now now Erin, don't be using that kind of language in front of our daughter. We don't want her picking up on my foul language, remember?" I rolled my eyes at his patronising tone.

"She's too busy playing with the dogs. Come on. We need another name."

"Alright...well if we had two boys...the second boy...could we call him Thomas?" I blinked for a few moments and my hand stopped running through Alex's hair. 

Alex eventually lifted his head off me again and looked me straight in the eye with a small smile, moving himself so he was hovering over me. I put my hands on his broad shoulders, the shoulders that had had to carry so much in his life. He gave a weak smile. My face became gentle and a soft smile placed itself on my lips as I looked into Alex's chocolate eyes with all the love and support I could muster. "Of course we can."

His smile faltered, and maybe he was rethinking the request, maybe he was trying not to let the memories get the better of him, but his lips soon formed a genuine smile once more and he swiftly kissed me. "Thank you," he whispered, and I nodded with a smile. There was a mutual understanding. He knew I was a fan. I'd heard all the rumours, spent many times looking in awe at the beauty of his rose tattoo. Maybe he still didn't want to talk about it, but I got it. It hurt too much. I wasn't gonna force him. If he didn't want to, then I wasn't going to possibly destroy us by trying to push him to open up. He'd already shared so much with me, and it wasn't like our relationship wasn't strong, because it was. We'd had a tough couple of times and he was still here. I was still here. We were here together and we were making it through.

"Daddy! Mommy!" Jasey squealed, tearing Alex's attention away from me, which I didn't mind. I liked how attentive he was with her. He moved so she could run into his arms, and cuddled her close to his body, sitting beside me. I was sure I saw some tears in his eyes, but quickly blinked them away so I wouldn't be worried, so he could prove he was strong enough, so he could do better to protect me. I frowned a little while he wasn't looking. I wanted to be there for him too, I wanted to protect him. Maybe I'd question him about it some other time. Right now we were too happy. 

"Well, Jasey, what are we doing now?" Alex asked our daughter. "Mommy and I just finished picking out names for your little brothers or sisters, we could watch a movie, or play some guitar, or you could even sleep so mommy and I can-"

"Alex," I said with a warning tone. He turned to me and smirked.

"What? I was only gonna say so we can have a quiet night and get a little more sleep."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure thing babe, of course you were." But no matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop the wistful smile. Alex knew it too, and laughed at me.

"See, Jasey? Mommy just finds me so irresistible."

"Along with the rest of the planet," I joked.

"Oh they can't help it. I'm just so fu-ducking hot. Yeah, I'm ducking hot."

"Alex, you need to work on better substitutes for cursing. Our child better have a clean mouth when she grows up." Alex rolled his eyes at me this time.

"Right, because every kid is clean mouthed, never gets drunk, never has underage sex...oh shit, I don't want my daughter having underage sex...in fact I don't want her getting into that at all...Jasey, boys are icky. Remember that. Don't go near them. Stay away. Apart from me. You can hang out with me. No other boys though." I laughed at his protective father instinct. Well I would never have guessed he could be like that. Not after all the girls he bedded.

"You're such a hypocrite." I joked.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just think back over all the fathers that must have hated you in the past..." I teased.

"Exactly," Alex stated. "I don't want her near boys who turned out like me. They'll screw her over. I don't want her crying because of them. She's too good." I raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jasey in a worried but protective manner. "What?" he asked once he noticed me staring.

I smiled at him. "Well it's just...I mean...who'd have thought after all, Alex Gaskarth would get this protective over a kid."

"But she's not just a kid. She's my kid, out kid, and I'm not letting anyone hurt her. She's one of the best things that ever happened to me. You, the twins and the band being the others." 

The phone rang and I made to get up to answer it, but Alex stopped me and placed Jasey on my lap, who immediately put her arms around me and started playing with my hair.

"No way, you're staying here, I know how long it'll take you to get up without help. Don't strain yourself, I got it," Alex said with a dazzling smile and left to answer the phone.

I smiled to myself and looked down at Jasey, who had now moved to playing with my bump, spreading her small hands over it and pressing her ear to it, trying to figure it out I guessed. "Who knew something so small could be so important, huh? Don't listen to daddy. Someday he'll want grand kids and he'll want to see you get married. Just find a guy who treats you right, okay? And they will break your heart, I know that. So you just cry to me. And I'll let daddy know and he'll beat that guys ass and play you a song and we'll eat ice cream and watch a chick flick and everything will be alright. I promise. Just get married before you have kids. Daddy will like that better."

A few moments later and I heard Alex come back to the living area. "Hey, who was it?" I asked as he sat back down.

He was silent and I looked over at him. I was shocked at how...angry he looked. 

"Alex? Are you okay?"

He looked up at me, locked eyes, then tore his face away again.

"Hey, what's wrong? Who called?"

I could tell he didn't want to answer me, and that worried me. But after a few minutes of him taking in deep breaths and presumably trying to calm his nerves down, he answered me.

"It was your mom."