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Jo tried not to meet Alex’s eyes, when she met him in the hallway. They were in Sacramento, CA, and the boys had just performed in yet another wonderful show. She’d been there, keeping one eye on Bay and the other one on Alex, careful not to get too close to him. It was killing her to stay away from him, but she had to. But this time it didn’t work. His hand flung out and he grabbed her by the arm.

“We need to talk.”

“Alex... No. I can’t... I have to go to bed.”

“You’re coming with me.” He pulled her into his suite and closed the door behind them.

“Let go of me. Why are you acting like a jerk?”

“I’m not acting like anything. Sit down. We’re going to talk.” He almost shoved her down on the couch.

“But...”

“Shut up. What is with you? You’ve been totally avoiding me.”

“I haven’t.” Jo denied it, but she knew it was true.

“Stop lying! Don’t you ever lie to me again! Just tell me if I’ve done something wrong. I’ve tried to give you more time, but now I’m starting to feel as if time’s running out.” Alex’s voice revealed that he was more upset than he wanted to show.

“You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s me. I’m not... good at some things in life.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense.”

“Just leave it there.”

“I can’t.” He sat down next to her. “I love you. I can’t leave it.”

“Stop! I love you too, but you have to respect me when I ask you not to ask.”

“You’re pulling away from me. It’s scaring me.”

“I know. But it’s not because of you. You don’t have to be scared. I love you. I do love you. But I have to go now.” Jo was out of the room before he knew what’d happened. He punched one of the pillows that lay on the couch.

“SHIT!”


Alex remained sitting on the couch, staring at the tv, without really noticing what was on it. Then came a knock on the door. Believing that Jo’d come back, he ran to open. To his disappointment it wasn’t Jo, outside stood Brian and Nick.

“Man, you answered that fast. What, were you hiding behind the door?” Nick teased him as they stepped inside and seated themselves on the couch.

“Nah. Thought it was... someone else.”

“Trouble in paradise, huh?” Brian smirked.

“Seems so. Don’t know what’s happened either. Women.”

“Tell me about that one...” Nick laughed, but ended it with a sigh.

“Trouble for you, too?”

“Yup. Lina was so weird all last weekend. Don’t know what was with her. She slept through most of it, and when she wasn’t asleep, she was unexplainably gone, or she wasn’t talking to me, or she seemed pissed at me, or, at one or two points, was really cute to me.”

Brian looked highly amused. “Man, do I know about those moodswing-things. Leighanne was like that all the time when she was pre...” he stopped short.

“Lina isn’t ... you know... is she?” Nick looked at Alex, who shrugged.

“How the heck would I know? If she is, I wasn’t the one to make her. I bet you know that better than I do.”

At his comment they all broke down into laughter, not thinking any more about the women in their lives and their weirdness. They found a movie none of them had seen and watched it. Then Brian and Nick went back to their rooms, and Alex was left alone.


His thoughts about Jo returned full force as he lay in bed trying to get some sleep. A soft knock on the door woke him from his dozing, and he got up to answer it. Jo was outside.

“Don’t ask any questions, please. I just wanna be with you.” He let her in, took her hand and led her to the bed. She undressed, and lay down next to him, and he pulled her close. They lay silent for a long while, before he mumbled: “Good night princess. I love you.”

“Night, baby. Love you too.” Her answer was muffled against his chest.


The next morning he felt better than he’d done in weeks. He lay holding her, she was still asleep. Suddenly she started talking, random words that made no sense. He looked down at her, but she seemed to be asleep. Then, all of a sudden, she threw herself around, turning her back at him, and her voice was sad and a bit angry.

“Why did you have to tell me that? How am I supposed to keep this a secret from him? I love him. This is all your fault.”

Gently he shook her awake, even though he wanted to never stop shaking her. He was suddenly furious. 'Andy. I could have guessed that one myself' he thought.

“What?” she looked dazzled, as she didn’t know where she was. Then she realized she was in Alex’s bed, and turned around to give him a hug.

“Save it. I know your little secret. When were you going to tell me that you and Andy are still in love? You gonna get back together with him now? ANSWER ME!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Well, good morning to you too... And may I say: WHAT the heck are you talking about?” Jo had quite a temper in the mornings, and she let it all loose on him.

“I heard you. Talking in your sleep about not telling me. Keeping it a secret. You still love him, don’t you?”

“What? Oh my god!”

“Yeah, my god, too. You... Get out of my bed.” He wanted to call her every foul name in the dictionary, but held his tongue.

“I’ll get out of your bed, but I have to tell you, I DON’T love Andy.”

“Whatever. Just get out.”

“Will you please just shut up for awhile? You’re jumping to conclusions, and you’re getting it all wrong.” She got up, started to get dressed.

“All wrong, huh? Yeah, right.”

“Yes, all wrong. I haven’t talked to Andy since he threatened me at the airport. THREATENED me. God, I can’t wait to get back with a man that threatens me. Can’t wait! You fucking IDIOT! Why in the name of god would I want to be with him?”

“You were with him for seven years.” Alex was defensive now, he looked as she’d slammed him in the head with a frying pan.

“Yeah. Pre-threats Andy was quite nice. Now I would never get back with him. Never. I’d die before I let him put his hands on me.”

“Am I supposed to believe that?”

“YES, if you love me, you believe me.”

“I love you, but I don’t believe you.”

“Fine. I’m leaving now, and since you don’t believe what I say, I can tell you that Lina’s pregnant. That’s the secret. There. Happy now? I’m leaving, but know that if you tell Nick about this, I’ll never talk to you. Ever again. Believe me on that one. Feel free to come apologize to me whenever. Bye!” Jo slammed the door to the bedroom shut and marched out of the suite.


Alex sat on the bed for awhile, dumbstruck by what he’d just found out. He believed her now.

“Shit.” He got up, ran out into the hallway wearing only his boxers, and caught up with her outside Brian and Leighannes room, where she was going through her pockets trying to find the key. He grabbed her by the arm again.

“You’re coming with me,” he said and pulled her back into his room. She put up a struggle, but had no chance against him.

“Let go of me, you moron!” she shouted as he pushed the door open.

“Nope. No way.” He pushed her into the room, got in after her, and closed the door behind him. “You’re going to explain this to me.”

“What is there to explain? She’s pregnant.”

“And Nick’s the father?”

“You’re such a dumbass. I won’t even answer that.”

“Ok, so he is. What she going to do about it?”

“What is there to do about it?”

“She’s going to keep it?”

“Yeah she’s going to keep it.”

“You do understand that I have to tell him about this?”

“Nope. You can’t.”

“I have to.”

“If I was pregnant, would you like to hear that from Nick?”

He fell silent.

“Thought so. She has to tell him herself. So don’t go tell him. it could destroy everything they’ve built up.”

“I guess you’re right. But she better do it soon.”

“So, are you going to apologize to me now?”

“Nope.”

“What? Why not?”

“Why should I?”

“I’m leaving now.” And for the second time that morning she was out of his suite before he could stop her.


Jo was furious with Alex for the rest of the day. She walked around muttering to herself, not even Baylee could get her to cheer up. Leighanne asked what was wrong, but got no real answer. The boys had no show that evening, so Jo looked forward to a night in the hotel gym, hoping it could help her relieve some of the anger she felt towards Alex. She got changed, and went down, found a punching bag and some gloves and let loose. She lost track of time, sweat was pouring down her face, but it didn’t make her feel better, so she went back up to take a shower. She entered her room with a towel wrapped around her to get dressed, and saw a piece of paper on her bed. It was a note from Alex.


Hey Princess.
Come to my room when you’re done beating the crap out of that poor bag.
Alex


She smiled, couldn’t help it. She dressed in a hurry, then headed across the hall to his room. She knocked the door, and he opened it. She took a deep breath when she saw that the entire living room was lit by candles. There was a table for two set up, and he was wearing a black suit with a crisp, white shirt underneath it.

“Feeling a bit under dressed here...” she joked, looking down on her simple black pants and red t-shirt.

“You look lovely, as usual. Come on in here. You hungry?” he pulled the chair out for her.

“Yup. Boxing does that to me.” She laughed.

“Yeah, I saw that. Man, you’re good. I was actually pitying that bag.”

“That was my anger speaking. I didn’t see you, though.”

“Nah, I was sneaky.” He laughed. “We should eat.”


They ate, and everything felt normal again.

“You have no idea how glad I am that you know. I hate secrets. Can’t keep them. Especially not when they’re this big. That’s why I couldn’t be around you. Every time I saw you, I was scared that if I opened my mouth, it would just come flying out of me.”

“I’m torn here. I’m glad you told me, but I hate keeping this from Nick.”

“That’s why I didn’t want to tell you. It puts you in the bad spot.”

“Yeah. It’s ok though. I’ll handle it.”

“Good.”

“You know... I’m really sorry about what I did earlier today. And what I said. I totally freaked out.”

“I kinda noticed that. It’s ok. Just don’t do it again.”

“Can’t promise you that. I’ll try.”

“As long as you try really hard, I guess I’m ok with that.”

“Good.”