Baby, Just Hold On - Chp. 27
Title: Baby, Just Hold On
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
“And… now you’re all patched up again, my handsome, little mummy,” Jack said, leaning in to press a tender kiss to the clean gauze he’d wrapped around Alex’s torso. He only did the gesture because kisses make everything better, Jack. It’s not like he was going to complain, though.
Alex sighed in relief and opened his scrunched-shut eyes, allowing his head to tip forward so that he could smile down at his husband in thanks. He would dress his own wounds by himself, but he just… he wasn’t ready to look at them. He refused to even shower unless there were thick bandages wrapped securely around his hips. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Jack certainly wasn’t going to force him.
The younger man stood to his feet to receive his own kiss, grinning stupidly (as he often did) into it. Alex’s own mouth stretched into much a similar fashion, the only factor that was able to bring them back into reality being the slight clack their teeth made.
“Alright, out we go,” Jack said after getting another short peck. His hands moved to Alex’s sides, spinning the shorter male on the balls of his feet and then ushering him from the bathroom without another word.
Adam was standing in the living room, eyes drifting around casually as he awaited the return of the two babies’ parents. Both children were asleep in their carriers, as they often were, and the silence made the whole room seem just that little bit more awkward.
When the younger man noticed his “clients’” return, he smiled with slight relief and did his best to be quiet yet loud enough to be heard as he whispered, “Did you have anything specific in mind? Where should we do this?”
Alex shrugged as Jack’s arms wrapped around his waist, the younger’s chin hooking over his shoulder as he waited to be told where to go and what to do. “Well,” the elder started, “I was thinking, like… you know in the first Spiderman, when Peter was hanging upside-down and kissing Mary-Jane in the rain?”
The bald male seemed taken aback for a moment before he was nodding, his clear confusion on full display for the parents to see. Really, Jack was feeling the same as well.
“I was thinking that maybe, like, we could do something like that? But, y’know, laying down? One of the babies and I can lay one way while Jack and the other baby lay the other way, and you could stand over us or something. Or Jack and I could lay on our sides facing each other with the babies in between us? Piggy hasn’t been feeling too good lately, so their diapers will probably have to stay on. It’d be kind of weird if only one of them had to wear one while the other was naked.”
“Whatever you want, man. Just let me know when you’re ready and where you wanna start,” Adam said with a smile and short nod.
A smile from Alex, and then he and his husband were in motion.
--- ---
“So how long have you been into photography?” Jack asked after he and Alex had put the babies to bed for the evening, Alex having finally been satisfied with the amount of photos that had been taken of his family… including a few of him and his firstborn, Cocoa. They were all sitting at the dining room table with Adam’s promised dinner in front of them-a pizza from Tony and Anne’s Diner-and the husbands were doing their best to be as hospitable as possible, what with everything their guest had done for them.
Adam smiled at the mention of his career, answering with, “I was around fifteen or sixteen at the time, so not too long. Only ten years at most. It took me a while to get anywhere with it. It’s hard to believe how far I’ve come in just that amount of time. Once upon a time it was impossible for me to book a shoot with even just small families like your own, and now world-famous bands are the ones approaching me about traveling with them. It’s like an honest dream come true or something. Sometimes I still don’t really believe that it’s my life.”
There was the slightest twinge of jealousy deep in both man’s chest at the mention of being able to travel the world and get paid to do something so… cool, for lack of a better term… but it soon passed. They’d gone over how they’d planned out their futures before they’d met, and nothing had changed since that day.
Except now their family truly was complete and they’d grown up a lot in the past few weeks, even if neither realized it. They were full-fledged adults who had to accept their reality and focus on what truly mattered in their lives.
Alex was the next to speak up after an uncomfortably prolonged silence between the three of them, clearing his throat and then asking, “What’s that like? It must always be exciting.”
“It really is,” Adam agreed, smiling a bit awkwardly. “No place is ever the same, and even the same places are different the second or third or fourth time around. There’re always new people, and it’s just really amazing to be able to do something I love and to get so widely-recognized for it. I don’t think I’d give it up for anything, y’know?”
Yeah, that was something both older men could definitely agree on.
--- ---
The next week passed by in a blur of Alex constantly checking both his and Jack’s emails, hoping beyond hope that Adam had somehow found the time in his busy schedule to upload their photos to his computer and send them over. Sadly, nothing had appeared in their inboxes, and that left him to sulk. That paired with the restless nights really didn’t help out either of the young parents.
By the time the following Monday had finally rolled around, the endless and sleepless nights had officially left Jack with the feeling of absolute dread at the sound of his alarm going off. It was his first day back to work after having taken so much time off to help his husband with the babies, the housework, and the shopping. He wasn’t looking forward to leaving his loves for eight hours, nor was he looking forward to leaving them with Zack.
He, admittedly, had only talked to his elder friend to let him know when his assistance would be required, and he was still more than skeptical about everything he’d been told. Jack doubted very highly that Zack was really stupid enough to pull anything like he had before, but he could still feel nervous about leaving his vulnerable family with someone he’d lost a great amount of trust in. Who wouldn’t be nervous about that?
Alex and the babies were both still miraculously sleeping when Jack’s alarm went off at the far-too-early hour of six a.m., and Jack thanked the heavens for that. Granted, Alex could have probably slept through a train taking out the entire building, and the babies were still more than likely full, warm, and content from their feeding only around a half-hour before.
Tired limbs took what felt like hours to stretch themselves into working order, bleary eyes roaming the darkened bedroom as a heavy sigh pushed its way from the very depths of his vocal chords. Sure, he’d missed his friends and coworkers, but he was really not in the mood to deal with any of them so early in the morning. And sure, Gemstone didn’t open for another two hours, but he needed a half hour to wake himself up, another half hour to stop by a Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks to get an espresso, and he also had to be there at least a half hour before opening the front doors so that he could set things up and start answering emails. With the closest of either coffee place being around twenty minutes from the apartment and Gemstone both, he really didn’t have much time to laze around.
God, he was the farthest thing from ready. He was willing to bet that he’d spend his lunch break taking a power nap in one of the back rooms or something. Maybe if one wasn’t open, he’d be able to get the heat running in his car before his hour was up. Oh, how he prayed.
Jack didn’t concern himself with taking even a whore bath as he stumbled his way around the room in search of clean clothes, ending up with a fleece Young Guns shirt, a The Veer Union hoodie, and a pair of jeans that were probably just a little too big for his thin waist. With a quick reminder to go through Alex’s maternity clothes the next chance he got since they weren’t necessary anymore, he was reaching for a belt and moving over to their dresser to pull out a pair of clean socks.
The young man couldn’t help himself from sitting on the edge of Alex’s side of the bed before he exited the room, letting his left hand comb through disheveled hair and effectively pulling the elder’s drowsy body into the real world, even if it was only long enough for him to say a murmured, “I’m gonna head out in a few minutes, baby. Zack should be around soon. If he’s not here by the time the babies wake up, call me and I’ll come right home, okay? If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call and let me know.”
Alex was still too far into his exhaustion that he didn’t really catch anything of what was said, but he grumbled an agreement all the same before turning onto his side and snuggling back into his pillow. Within five seconds, light snores were filling the silence once more. A fond smile, a kiss to an exposed forehead, and Jack was padding his way from the room, whispering a soft, “I love you,” to his sleeping family.
Lights were flicked on as Jack scoured the apartment for his keys, his wallet, and his phone… where did Alex plug in his phone the night before… the bathroom, that was where he put it.
By the time Jack was truly ready to embark on his journey into the working world, it was nearly five minutes past six-thirty. He was running later than he’d hoped to, and if he didn’t hurry, the lines at all the places that sold even halfway decent coffee would be far too long for him to stand in, and they’d only succeed in making him late on his first day back, and who would’ve guessed that returning to work could ever be such a stressful experience?
The young parent didn’t pay much mind to his surroundings as he tugged the front door of the apartment open so that he could rush from the building to accomplish everything he’s hoped to, and he almost ran into Zack. A large fist was poised at about the level of Jack’s chest, and he almost slammed into it as they both moved forward.
Twin surprised gasps rushed from their mouths, eyes widening and bodies jumping back to go along with them. Nearly thirty seconds were wasted as each caught his breath and stilled his hammering heart, and then Jack was straightening himself out and gesturing for his friend to enter the apartment.
“I really have to get going now, dude. Alex will let you know what he needs and what to do when he wakes up. He’s not going to wake up on his own, so just listen for crying. They’ll all get up at the same time. Alex is gonna be ready to pass out at any second, so don’t push him, Merrick. If he needs to take a nap or something when the babies are up, it should be fine. Only wake him up if they both start crying and you can’t handle it on your own. I will make sure to ask him how his day was, so don’t screw this up,” he warned, body already on its way out into the hall.
Zack wasn’t given the chance to respond before the door was closed behind his best friend, and instead of opening the door that separated them to retort, he instead simply opted to recline on the couch until he had something to do. It was only a matter of time.
Jack was in too much of a rush to concern himself with anything but coffee, work, and not dying on his way to either of his destinations. He’d deny that he took any time to send out a prayer to whoever may have been listening while he was in the elevator and he hoped that his signal wasn’t cut off because of his location.
The lobby was empty save for Karley’s father, the owner of the building, who sent a wave as greeting before returning to his morning paper, and Jack could see before he even opened the front doors that the roads were packed with other drivers all racing to get to their own jobs on time.
His day had barely even started and it was dragging on much too slowly for his liking.
With dangerously hazy vision, Jack made it to Dunkin Donuts at just a little before seven, and it was like the floodgates holding back the true traffic had been crushed in his brief stop. However, he still didn’t arrive soon enough to Gemstone.
He was on time, of course, but it seemed like everyone was already there and waiting for him. Dylan was leaned back in his old swivel chair-something he was surprised still hadn’t snapped in half-and he grinned the widest when Jack pushed his way through the door with only half an espresso and his jacket hanging off of one shoulder, hair looking as though it hadn’t even been brushed.
It, in all fairness, hadn’t.
“We missed you, dude,” Dylan said as he stood and moved around the counter to engulf his friend in a tight hug. “You gotta tell us all about these past few weeks you spent away from us. You must be living the dream, right?”
He tried to pull away from the hug with that, but Jack still clung to him, leaning all of his weight forward and pushing his heavy head onto his coworker’s shoulder.
“The dream? I haven’t had one of those since… long time,” he groaned, puffing out a sigh as Dylan pushed him away just the smallest bit harder.
“Well, that’s just the price you pay,” someone else piped in. Jack just really hoped that they actually understood what it was like.
“He’s right, bro. Come on, you gotta tell us everything. There’s still a little while until doors are opened. Start with when they were born. How shocked were you and Alex, huh?” Dylan encouraged, dragging the exhausted Lebanese man over to one of the leather couches in the front and allowing him to sit as they all crowded around, excited and curious as to what he could possibly have to tell and (hopefully) show them.
Jack, who was usually more than willing to talk about his family, could only throw his head against the back of the couch and groan, mind being stuffed with far too many questions at once. Didn’t grown men know how to wait their turn before they spoke?
He decided then that his day was going to be so much longer than he’d originally expected it to be, and he was anything but prepared for that. Fuck.
Author: Jamie jamieall_over
Pairing: Jalex
Rating: NC-17 Overall
Warnings: Mpreg
“And… now you’re all patched up again, my handsome, little mummy,” Jack said, leaning in to press a tender kiss to the clean gauze he’d wrapped around Alex’s torso. He only did the gesture because kisses make everything better, Jack. It’s not like he was going to complain, though.
Alex sighed in relief and opened his scrunched-shut eyes, allowing his head to tip forward so that he could smile down at his husband in thanks. He would dress his own wounds by himself, but he just… he wasn’t ready to look at them. He refused to even shower unless there were thick bandages wrapped securely around his hips. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Jack certainly wasn’t going to force him.
The younger man stood to his feet to receive his own kiss, grinning stupidly (as he often did) into it. Alex’s own mouth stretched into much a similar fashion, the only factor that was able to bring them back into reality being the slight clack their teeth made.
“Alright, out we go,” Jack said after getting another short peck. His hands moved to Alex’s sides, spinning the shorter male on the balls of his feet and then ushering him from the bathroom without another word.
Adam was standing in the living room, eyes drifting around casually as he awaited the return of the two babies’ parents. Both children were asleep in their carriers, as they often were, and the silence made the whole room seem just that little bit more awkward.
When the younger man noticed his “clients’” return, he smiled with slight relief and did his best to be quiet yet loud enough to be heard as he whispered, “Did you have anything specific in mind? Where should we do this?”
Alex shrugged as Jack’s arms wrapped around his waist, the younger’s chin hooking over his shoulder as he waited to be told where to go and what to do. “Well,” the elder started, “I was thinking, like… you know in the first Spiderman, when Peter was hanging upside-down and kissing Mary-Jane in the rain?”
The bald male seemed taken aback for a moment before he was nodding, his clear confusion on full display for the parents to see. Really, Jack was feeling the same as well.
“I was thinking that maybe, like, we could do something like that? But, y’know, laying down? One of the babies and I can lay one way while Jack and the other baby lay the other way, and you could stand over us or something. Or Jack and I could lay on our sides facing each other with the babies in between us? Piggy hasn’t been feeling too good lately, so their diapers will probably have to stay on. It’d be kind of weird if only one of them had to wear one while the other was naked.”
“Whatever you want, man. Just let me know when you’re ready and where you wanna start,” Adam said with a smile and short nod.
A smile from Alex, and then he and his husband were in motion.
--- ---
“So how long have you been into photography?” Jack asked after he and Alex had put the babies to bed for the evening, Alex having finally been satisfied with the amount of photos that had been taken of his family… including a few of him and his firstborn, Cocoa. They were all sitting at the dining room table with Adam’s promised dinner in front of them-a pizza from Tony and Anne’s Diner-and the husbands were doing their best to be as hospitable as possible, what with everything their guest had done for them.
Adam smiled at the mention of his career, answering with, “I was around fifteen or sixteen at the time, so not too long. Only ten years at most. It took me a while to get anywhere with it. It’s hard to believe how far I’ve come in just that amount of time. Once upon a time it was impossible for me to book a shoot with even just small families like your own, and now world-famous bands are the ones approaching me about traveling with them. It’s like an honest dream come true or something. Sometimes I still don’t really believe that it’s my life.”
There was the slightest twinge of jealousy deep in both man’s chest at the mention of being able to travel the world and get paid to do something so… cool, for lack of a better term… but it soon passed. They’d gone over how they’d planned out their futures before they’d met, and nothing had changed since that day.
Except now their family truly was complete and they’d grown up a lot in the past few weeks, even if neither realized it. They were full-fledged adults who had to accept their reality and focus on what truly mattered in their lives.
Alex was the next to speak up after an uncomfortably prolonged silence between the three of them, clearing his throat and then asking, “What’s that like? It must always be exciting.”
“It really is,” Adam agreed, smiling a bit awkwardly. “No place is ever the same, and even the same places are different the second or third or fourth time around. There’re always new people, and it’s just really amazing to be able to do something I love and to get so widely-recognized for it. I don’t think I’d give it up for anything, y’know?”
Yeah, that was something both older men could definitely agree on.
--- ---
The next week passed by in a blur of Alex constantly checking both his and Jack’s emails, hoping beyond hope that Adam had somehow found the time in his busy schedule to upload their photos to his computer and send them over. Sadly, nothing had appeared in their inboxes, and that left him to sulk. That paired with the restless nights really didn’t help out either of the young parents.
By the time the following Monday had finally rolled around, the endless and sleepless nights had officially left Jack with the feeling of absolute dread at the sound of his alarm going off. It was his first day back to work after having taken so much time off to help his husband with the babies, the housework, and the shopping. He wasn’t looking forward to leaving his loves for eight hours, nor was he looking forward to leaving them with Zack.
He, admittedly, had only talked to his elder friend to let him know when his assistance would be required, and he was still more than skeptical about everything he’d been told. Jack doubted very highly that Zack was really stupid enough to pull anything like he had before, but he could still feel nervous about leaving his vulnerable family with someone he’d lost a great amount of trust in. Who wouldn’t be nervous about that?
Alex and the babies were both still miraculously sleeping when Jack’s alarm went off at the far-too-early hour of six a.m., and Jack thanked the heavens for that. Granted, Alex could have probably slept through a train taking out the entire building, and the babies were still more than likely full, warm, and content from their feeding only around a half-hour before.
Tired limbs took what felt like hours to stretch themselves into working order, bleary eyes roaming the darkened bedroom as a heavy sigh pushed its way from the very depths of his vocal chords. Sure, he’d missed his friends and coworkers, but he was really not in the mood to deal with any of them so early in the morning. And sure, Gemstone didn’t open for another two hours, but he needed a half hour to wake himself up, another half hour to stop by a Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks to get an espresso, and he also had to be there at least a half hour before opening the front doors so that he could set things up and start answering emails. With the closest of either coffee place being around twenty minutes from the apartment and Gemstone both, he really didn’t have much time to laze around.
God, he was the farthest thing from ready. He was willing to bet that he’d spend his lunch break taking a power nap in one of the back rooms or something. Maybe if one wasn’t open, he’d be able to get the heat running in his car before his hour was up. Oh, how he prayed.
Jack didn’t concern himself with taking even a whore bath as he stumbled his way around the room in search of clean clothes, ending up with a fleece Young Guns shirt, a The Veer Union hoodie, and a pair of jeans that were probably just a little too big for his thin waist. With a quick reminder to go through Alex’s maternity clothes the next chance he got since they weren’t necessary anymore, he was reaching for a belt and moving over to their dresser to pull out a pair of clean socks.
The young man couldn’t help himself from sitting on the edge of Alex’s side of the bed before he exited the room, letting his left hand comb through disheveled hair and effectively pulling the elder’s drowsy body into the real world, even if it was only long enough for him to say a murmured, “I’m gonna head out in a few minutes, baby. Zack should be around soon. If he’s not here by the time the babies wake up, call me and I’ll come right home, okay? If you need anything at all, don’t hesitate to call and let me know.”
Alex was still too far into his exhaustion that he didn’t really catch anything of what was said, but he grumbled an agreement all the same before turning onto his side and snuggling back into his pillow. Within five seconds, light snores were filling the silence once more. A fond smile, a kiss to an exposed forehead, and Jack was padding his way from the room, whispering a soft, “I love you,” to his sleeping family.
Lights were flicked on as Jack scoured the apartment for his keys, his wallet, and his phone… where did Alex plug in his phone the night before… the bathroom, that was where he put it.
By the time Jack was truly ready to embark on his journey into the working world, it was nearly five minutes past six-thirty. He was running later than he’d hoped to, and if he didn’t hurry, the lines at all the places that sold even halfway decent coffee would be far too long for him to stand in, and they’d only succeed in making him late on his first day back, and who would’ve guessed that returning to work could ever be such a stressful experience?
The young parent didn’t pay much mind to his surroundings as he tugged the front door of the apartment open so that he could rush from the building to accomplish everything he’s hoped to, and he almost ran into Zack. A large fist was poised at about the level of Jack’s chest, and he almost slammed into it as they both moved forward.
Twin surprised gasps rushed from their mouths, eyes widening and bodies jumping back to go along with them. Nearly thirty seconds were wasted as each caught his breath and stilled his hammering heart, and then Jack was straightening himself out and gesturing for his friend to enter the apartment.
“I really have to get going now, dude. Alex will let you know what he needs and what to do when he wakes up. He’s not going to wake up on his own, so just listen for crying. They’ll all get up at the same time. Alex is gonna be ready to pass out at any second, so don’t push him, Merrick. If he needs to take a nap or something when the babies are up, it should be fine. Only wake him up if they both start crying and you can’t handle it on your own. I will make sure to ask him how his day was, so don’t screw this up,” he warned, body already on its way out into the hall.
Zack wasn’t given the chance to respond before the door was closed behind his best friend, and instead of opening the door that separated them to retort, he instead simply opted to recline on the couch until he had something to do. It was only a matter of time.
Jack was in too much of a rush to concern himself with anything but coffee, work, and not dying on his way to either of his destinations. He’d deny that he took any time to send out a prayer to whoever may have been listening while he was in the elevator and he hoped that his signal wasn’t cut off because of his location.
The lobby was empty save for Karley’s father, the owner of the building, who sent a wave as greeting before returning to his morning paper, and Jack could see before he even opened the front doors that the roads were packed with other drivers all racing to get to their own jobs on time.
His day had barely even started and it was dragging on much too slowly for his liking.
With dangerously hazy vision, Jack made it to Dunkin Donuts at just a little before seven, and it was like the floodgates holding back the true traffic had been crushed in his brief stop. However, he still didn’t arrive soon enough to Gemstone.
He was on time, of course, but it seemed like everyone was already there and waiting for him. Dylan was leaned back in his old swivel chair-something he was surprised still hadn’t snapped in half-and he grinned the widest when Jack pushed his way through the door with only half an espresso and his jacket hanging off of one shoulder, hair looking as though it hadn’t even been brushed.
It, in all fairness, hadn’t.
“We missed you, dude,” Dylan said as he stood and moved around the counter to engulf his friend in a tight hug. “You gotta tell us all about these past few weeks you spent away from us. You must be living the dream, right?”
He tried to pull away from the hug with that, but Jack still clung to him, leaning all of his weight forward and pushing his heavy head onto his coworker’s shoulder.
“The dream? I haven’t had one of those since… long time,” he groaned, puffing out a sigh as Dylan pushed him away just the smallest bit harder.
“Well, that’s just the price you pay,” someone else piped in. Jack just really hoped that they actually understood what it was like.
“He’s right, bro. Come on, you gotta tell us everything. There’s still a little while until doors are opened. Start with when they were born. How shocked were you and Alex, huh?” Dylan encouraged, dragging the exhausted Lebanese man over to one of the leather couches in the front and allowing him to sit as they all crowded around, excited and curious as to what he could possibly have to tell and (hopefully) show them.
Jack, who was usually more than willing to talk about his family, could only throw his head against the back of the couch and groan, mind being stuffed with far too many questions at once. Didn’t grown men know how to wait their turn before they spoke?
He decided then that his day was going to be so much longer than he’d originally expected it to be, and he was anything but prepared for that. Fuck.