Always

They walked into the house. Jack was carrying most of Maeve's bag. 'I can handle it. You're pregnant' he insisted several times. Maeve was capable of handling it herself. She was a big girl. Not a child. She just wished Jack would let her handle things on her own. Let her deal with the demons.

"We're home!" Jack yelled. He sat all of Maeve's stuff down near the couch. Rian came out from the kitchen.

He had a smile like an angel, Maeve noticed. "Hey! I'm making cookies!" He looked down at Maeve's stomach with knowing eyes. Maeve tried to cover her stomach. "Maeve, you look great, but I'm sure you could use some cookies too. They're white and milk chocolate chip cookies." Maeve's favorite. But how did he know-

She looked at Jack and he gave a gentle smile to Rian. She made a guess that even though Jack said nobody knew, he told Rian. But she remembered Rian. They hanged out a bit when they had come to visit. He was a nice boy. And sweet. She liked him.

And he made cookies just for Maeve. That definitely gave him some brownie points.

"Thank you." Her soft voice said. "And thank you for letting me stay with you guys. It means a lot. I hope I'm not over-"

"Maeve, we're happy to have you here. No worries, okay?"

She nodded. But she couldn't help but feel awkward and like she was invading on territory. She just felt that she was crossing the boundaries.

"Where are the boys? We have to explain everything." Maeve sighed. She didn't want to explain everything.

Alex's voice was heard from all the way up stairs. "Everything?" he bounded his way down stairs. Messy hair, v-neck, and skinny jeans. He looked great to Maeve. Even though he was a sick douche bag.

The first person he noticed was Maeve and when she saw that she shrank into Jack. He wrapped his long arms around her pregnant waist. Which she had to admit, wasn't as big as she thought it was. Which stressed her out a lot. Weight gain was always a fear and issue of hers. Maeve always struggled with her body image. And being pregnant, definitely messed up her body and it's image.

His chocolate eyes looked on hers. His were nearly the same as hers. Hers had more yellow, and his were more earth tones though.

The connection between them was ridiculous. Maeve could feel the vibe she got from being near him. She hardly knew him but she was so drawn to him. It was un-ignorable. That wouldn't stop Maeve from trying. Alex wasn't good. Even Jack, his best friend, told her that.

"Oh, hey, you're here. How are you?" The awkwardness in his voice was unable to be masked.

Rian decided it was his time to join the party in the living room and he sat on the couch.

Maeve looked away and looked at Jack. Saying nothing to Alex.

He was left to stand there scratching his neck.

"What's going on? Why is she here?" Alex probed Jack.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Sit, we'll talk about this."

The stress Maeve was feeling was through the roof.

"Where's Zack?"

Just as Rian asked his question it was answered. A shirtless Zack popped into the living room and sat down next to Alex.

"I'm here. What's up? What's going on?"

"Maeve, let's sit down." Jack suggested.

They sat down on the chairs across from the couch. As she walked to the chair, she noticed that her belly was the thing Alex watched. His eyes were wide. Like a deer in headlights.

"Okay, I know this is going to be a change to this house, but you guys are pretty much my family. I need your support. And so does Maeve. I've already talked to Rian about this, and he's fine with it. I just need you guys to be fine with it too."

The puppy dog eyes of Jack burned into Alex. Maeve knew that Alex would be the only one that had a problem with the situation. Even though he was the one that caused it.

"Come on Jack. Just say it." Zack spoke up.

"I got Maeve pregnant. We have had a thing for a while now. Several months."

Alex only had one thing to say. "How long is several months?" His eyes contained worry.

Jack squinted his eyes at Alex and so did everyone else. Maeve shook her head and looked off into the distance. He was asking merely for the fact of his having sex with Maeve. Alex just wanted to make sure he didn't make a bad best friend move. Which if the story was actually true, that would be a horrible best friend move. Hell, not even a best friend would do that.

Alex knew he was in the wrong.

"At least six or so months." Jack lied. But his lying was great. There wasn't a flaw in it. If Maeve wasn't on the side of the lie, she would believe him. Hell, she almost did. Which made her laugh quietly to herself.

Green quickly showed itself in Alex's face. "O-oh-h." He stuttered.

The tension in the room was definitely awkward. Maeve felt every bit of it.

"I'm fine with her staying here. I got your back, Jack, May. We love you Jack, so we will support you. And Maeve, I don't know you super well, but we all spent those few weeks together and I know how great you are. Welcome to our little family." Zack said.

Maeve jutted out her bottom lip. "Awh. Thank you, Zack."

Rian nodded. "I agree. You're our family now. We'll protect you. I'm pretty much mama bear here, so I can help with baby stuff!" He winked at her.

"We can't have a baby here!" Alex exclaimed.

Maeve heard an angry groan come from Jack. She knew it was Jack's way of holding back the need to tell Alex that having a baby here was his fault.

Rian gave him a dirty look. "Of course we can. It's Jack's child. This is all of our house. We all bought it. Jack is entitled to having his child live here. We have two spare bedrooms. It's not like we need them. And it's not like we have to live here forever."

"Eventually we can move out and live separate. SO relax." Zack agreed.

"I don't know how I feel about this." Alex whined and looked at Maeve. Tears were forming in her eyes. She was upset and shaken. Obviously she didn't plan this. It wasn't her fault. It was all Alex's fault and he was being an ass about it. She wasn't a violent person. Not in the slightest. And animal lover, peace fighter, long time vegetarian. She didn't want to hurt anyone. But right now, she wanted to punch Alex so hard in his sadly attractive face.

Punching him would feel so great for her.

"I don't care how you feel about this." Jack gritted his teeth.

Maeve had tears falling. She didn't want to cause problems between them.

And that is exactly what this situation would do to them.

Dammit, Alex Gaskarth.