Always

"Pregnant!" Jack screamed into the phone.

Rian, Alex, and Zack who weren't too far away all stared at him with wild eyes.

Jack looked at them and nervously smiled. He put his hand over the mouth piece. "My dog is pregnant."

They all accepted that.

Jack removed his hand and made his way out of the tour bus and down the side walk of the park they were parked at. Maeve sniffled while he did this.

"I'm sorry." She was whispering.

"Maeve, don't you fucking dare say sorry. This isn't your fault. Who the fuck am I beating up? You were such an innocent girl! Fuck!" He kicked the sidewalk with all of his strength, only to cause pain to himself. "Who fucking took that from you? I will kill them. I will. I fucking promise."

She whined. "Honey bun, calm down. Please."

He didn't like her not being straightforward. It only upset him further. "Who. The. Fuck. Was. It?" Each word had a space between it. Each space added more emphasis to his anger.

"Please don't be mad."

That statement only added to the anger. He decided to just say nothing.

"Alex."

Blood sped its way to Jack's face. He started to shake. Nobody, nobody messed with his Maeve. "I'm going to beat his face in." Of course, Jack's luck got him in a situation like this. Just as he was edging from the friend zone. Slowly, but surely.

"No!" Maeve yelped. "Please, Jack, Please! He cannot know!! I don't want him to know! I don't like him! I don't want him in my life!"

Jack rammed his fist into the nearest thing he could find, which so happened to be a very thick tree. He could feel the blood trickling down his fist. it didn't matter. "He needs to pay for what he did! I fucking knew he would! He got you drunk. That fuck." He loved Maeve. In ways he shouldn't love his best friend, he didn't want her to be dealing with this.

She sighed. "But Jack, if he knew, he would have to be involved. I don't even want to ever talk to him again. Can we just pretend it wasn't him?" Jack wished. Oh he wished that they could all pretend it wasn't Alex. Jack wished he could pretend she wasn't pregnant.

"Who is going to raise this child then, Maeve? You can't do it alone."

"Melinda. Holly. Grace. We'll figure it out."

"It needs a father, Maeve."

Cries are heard through the phone. "I know! But it can't!"

Jack shook his head. "How will you afford it?! You need a support, a dad. Alex can support it even though he can't raise it right."

"I don't want him to be the dad. Jack, I wanted to tell you to have someone to help me feel better about this. I need your support."

Suddenly, Jack had an idea. It was crazy. "You have my support. I have an idea. It's crazy. Insane. But I love you, so I'll do it."

"W-what is it?" She managed to stutter out.

He would do anything for her. Why didn't he think of this sooner? "I'll be the dad."

Before Maeve could talk he could hear her resisting. "No. No. Jacky, I love you. But I refuse to let you give everything up for me and this thing. No. No. No."

"I want to. You need me. It needs me. We can do this. It would be okay. Everything would go smoothly. Alex never has to know. I can fix this Maeve." If she would just let him fix everything. He wanted too. He needed too. He loved her. Maybe this would make her see that he is more than a friend. Maybe it would open her eyes.

Maybe. He could hope.

"It would be a good cover up. More than you just saying it was some guy. It would make sense." He continued.

"But Jack-"

"Let me make this better. I'm your best friend. What could go wrong?"

He heard her open her mouth for her to start listing things.

"Don't answer that. Just know, more could go wrong if I didn't help."

"Okay." She said in a small voice.

"So can I be your baby daddy?"

A gentle but strained laugh came from her. "Yes."

"Yes." Jack said back.