The Man Across The Hall, Chapter 8/?,

[2people2]

Authors note: Hey people! So here’s the next chapter, I hope you guys like it J

P.S. People who know anything about Lord of the Rings Fanfiction, I need to find a story I read a while ago and cannot find. I don’t want to write the whole description in this authors note so if you are familiar with LOTR fanfiction at all please either IM me, PM my fanfiction.net account, or mention in a comment that you might be able to help then I’ll give you the summary. THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!
Chapter 8. Christmas Hell. Jensen's POV


“Jensen.” Chris says slowly. “Breath.”

“Why did I agree to this Chris?” I say after I take a breath. “Why the fuck did I agree to this shit?” I take rosemary rolls out of the oven and slam them on the counter top.

“Well you didn’t really agree to this…” he trails off at my murderous look. “Just…” he looks towards the rack with cooling holiday cookies and grabs one. “Eat this, shut the fuck up, and calm the hell down before you stress yourself into early labor.” I take the cookie from his hand and take a bite.

“What did I tell you about watching that pregnancy shit on TV?” I say with a mouth full of cookie.

“Hey I was channel surfing and it happened to come up, I wasn’t looking for it specifically.” He grabs a cookie for himself. “And besides, what if you go into premature labor or something in the middle of nowhere and I happen to be there with you, I’ll need to save the day.” I laugh despite the fear and anger I’m feeling.

“Just because of that, I’m going to make sure you and me are out in the middle of nowhere in about nine weeks so I can will myself to go into labor.” He gives me a nervous look.

“You can’t…do that can you?” I roll my eyes.

“Fuck no.” he laughs as the tension rolls off his body.

“Thank god!” I’m about to say something when a voice calls from the main café area.

“Hey! Where are my boys!?!” I look to Chris to see him smile.

“We’re in here Dad!” he turns back to look at me. “My dad’s here Jen; he’s not afraid to kick Josh’s ass if he needs to.” I roll my eyes as the kitchen door opens to reveal an older, taller, almost identical version of Chris.

“Boys!” he rushes forward to engulf Chris in a hug; picking him up off his feet with surprising strength for a sixty seven year old. He brings Chris back to his feet and turns to look at me with a shit eating grin. “Well look at you son!” A smile makes its way onto my face.

“Hey Eric.” He steps up to me and attempts to give me a gentle hug; a hard thing to do with my balloon stomach in the way.

“How are you doing?” he asks as he pulls away, keeping his hands on my shoulders. “Is everything going ok in baby land?” he looks down at my pregnant belly and then back up at me and I nod.

“Everything’s all good; hopefully tonight won’t put me on bed rest or anything.” He gives me a small smile and nods as he pulls away and walks over towards the cooling cookies to grab one.

“So I was told by Chris that you’ve got a boy in your life.” He changes the subject, an evil glint in his eyes. “Why didn’t I hear about this from you?” I roll my eyes.

“I didn’t want you to scare him off redneck style.” He barks out a laugh.

“That was one time.” He defends and I lean back on into the counter, cupping my hands under my stomach to take some of the pressure off of my back.

“How the hell did you sneak a shotgun into our apartment?” I ask and he shrugs as he finishes off his cookie.

“Well it was right when you got out of your fancy culinary school and were working at that posh French place.” I shake my head fondly. “It was easy to sneak shit in there when you were gone most of the time; it also helped that you stayed out of Chris’s room.”

“His room was a scary place; I didn’t want to be killed in there.” Chris throws an oven mitt at me.

“Hey it wasn’t that bad.” He argues.

“Son I was just at your apartment and could barely walk through the thing it was so dirty; you don’t have any room to deny that you’re a slob.” Chris huffs in annoyance but nods in agreement.

Eric Kane has always been like a second father to me; a father that actually accepted me for who I was. When I came out to Chris when I was thirteen Eric was there comforting me when Chris couldn’t, and when I finally came out to my family Eric demanded that I stay with them until things died down at my house. He’s always looked at me like I was his second son, and I’ve always appreciated having him in my corner.

“Jen you look like your about to pass out.” Chris says, breaking me from my thoughts. “Why don’t you go sit down out there.” He says, jerking his head behind him towards the kitchen door. “You can relax while you wait for your man; didn’t he say he was on his way with his folks?” I nod.

“He should be here in about ten minutes.” I say, looking at the clock on the wall. I look over towards Eric nervously. “You’re not going to scare Jared off…are you?” I ask biting my lip nervously, and he gives me a small smile.

“I won’t scare him off if you help me get my son a lady.”

“DAD!” Chris yells in shock and I laugh; hard.

“Son you’re not getting any younger…” he trails off, clearly enjoying seeing his son all flustered. “Jen, go relax, I’ll help Chris in here.” I nod my head and push myself away from the counter; walking out of the kitchen with one hand pressed to the base of my back. Once in the main area of the café, I walk over to one of the comfy chairs in front of the fire place, slowly lower myself down into it and close my eyes to try to relax.

Ever since Kackles opened, me and Chris have always had Christmas dinner here; it’s centrally located between the airport, me and Chris’s apartments, and the hotel most of the extra guests usually stay at. Also it’s nice to not have to worry about having people over at one of our apartments.

I hear the jingling of the café door opening and my eyes shoot open as my head jerks to the side. I smile in relief, glad that Jared and his family beet my parents, as I push myself up from the chair. “Hey.”

“Hey! Merry Christmas Jen!” Jared says as he walks through the door holding a present in his hands. He sets the present down onto a table before walking up to me. He pulls me into his arms, and leans down to capture my lips in his. “On a scale of one to ten, how much are you silently freaking out right now?” he asks once he pulls his head away from my lips, keeping his arms wrapped securely around my swollen middle.

“About a fifteen.” He nods his head sadly and kisses my forehead slowly, the warmth of his lips making me relax somewhat.

“Everything will be fine.” The front door jingles again and Jared pulls back, sliding one of his hands down to grasp mine.

“Jensen!” Jeff says with a smile, holding up three bottles in his hands. “I’ve got wine for the normal people.” He says, shaking the two bottles in his left hand. “And a bottle of sparkling raspberry juice for you and my mom.” My heart warms at his thoughtfulness.

“Jeff you didn’t need to do that.” He sets the bottles down on the counter and shrugs.

“From what Jared told me, you’ve been up since five this morning cooking, it’s the least I could do.” He steps up to me and pulls me into a quick hug. “Thanks for inviting us, it was gonna be boring in Texas with just the four of us.” He pulls away after lightly slapping me on the back and I smile.

“Hey you guys are doing me a favor.” I say, and his eyes darken slightly.

“You’re brothers a homophobic asshole right?” I widen my smile to try to hide my feelings towards the whole ‘Josh here for Christmas’ thing and he nods his head, plastering a smile on his face. “Well we’ll use the Padalecki charm on your family, this Christmas is gonna be kick ass.” Jared laughs a little bit as their parents come into the café.

“Jensen, this place is so cute.” Sherri says with a smile as she pulls off her light jacket, setting it over a chair. “And look at you!” she says, walking towards me and placing her hands on my shoulders. “Getting close huh?” she asks with a kind smile and I nod as she pulls me into a hug.

“Merry Christmas Sherri.” She laughs as she pulls back.

“Thanks for having us hun.” She looks around the café with a smile before looking back at me. “So where’s your friend, Chris is it?” I nod.

“CHRIS! Get your ass in here!” I yell, and smile when I hear cursing coming from the kitchen. “He’ll just be a minute.” Gerald chuckles as he walks over towards us. “It’s nice to see you again Gerald.” I say, stepping forward with my hand extended. He smiles and engulfs his hand around mine, slapping my shoulder in a friendly manner with the other.

“You to son.” He says as his hand pulls away. “This is a nice place you got here.” He compliments, and I smile with pride.

“Thank you; I really love this place” I say as The kitchen door opens to reveal Chris and Eric.

“Howdy.” Eric says with a grin, putting on his southern charm.

“Eric, Chris; these are Jared’s parents Sherri and Gerald, and his brother Jeff.” I say, pointing to each person. “That’s my friend Chris and his dad Eric.” The Padalecki’s give them friendly smiles.

“It’s nice to meet you two.” Sherri says as she moves over towards them, giving them each a warm hug.

They continue to greet each other, the bottles of wine are found, and ten minutes later everyone is sitting in comfortable chairs by the fire drinking and chatting happily, waiting for my family to show up before we can eat. The panic I was feeling all day starts to die down slightly as I watch my friends and the Padalecki’s hitting it off.

“So everything seems to be going ok so far.” Jared says quietly as he brings the ham out to the table. I shrug my shoulders as I set rolls down on each end of the table.

“Yeah, that’s because my family isn’t here yet.” The door jingles behind me and I sigh. “Spoke too soon I guess.” I turn my head over my shoulder and sigh in relief at seeing only my mother coming through the door. “Mom.” I say with a relieved smile on my face. She returns the smile as she looks at my stomach briefly.

“Baby.” I walk over towards her and throw my arms around her. Even though I don’t want Josh here and I’m dreading what the nights gonna bring, I’m really happy to have my mom with me. “God look at you.” She says as I pull away, placing her hands on the sides of my stomach. “You look great Jen.” She looks me in the eye. “I’m so happy for you Baby.” My smile widens as she pulls her hands away, and I reach out towards Jared.

“Mom, this is Jared.” She looks up at Jared with a kind smile.

“It’s great to finally meet you Jared.” She says, reaching her hand to greet him. Jared gently squeezes her hand in his and smiles.

“It’s great to meet you to Mrs. Ackles.” Mom rolls her eyes fondly.

“Call me Donna.” As Jared nods his head its then that I notice the others standing around us.

“Guys this is my mom Donna, the other two will probably be here in about a minute or two.” My mom nods her head at me to let me know I’m right, then goes to meet the Padalecki’s as my father and brother walk in. I feel Jared squeeze my hand comfortingly as I take a deep breath before walking forward.

“Hey Dad.” Dad looks at my stomach for a moment, then looks me in the eye with a small forced smile.

“Jensen.” He greats, reaches out to squeeze my shoulder gently, then walks over towards my Mom to meet the others. I look towards my brothers fake smile and prepare myself for the night ahead.

“Josh.” I say and he nods his head in greeting.

“So you’re really pregnant?” he asks while looking down at my stomach, and I can’t help but place my right hand over it protectively. “That’s good, you’ve always wanted kids right?” he’s faking nice: every time we’ve seen each other for the ten years he always starts out nice, then goes to being a complete asshole within five seconds. I nod my head in answer and force a small smile onto my face, willing it to reach my eyes.

“Josh this is Jared.” I say, jerking my head towards the god of a man standing next to me. Josh’s gaze turns towards Jared, looks him up and down before looking back towards me.

“New boyfriend right?” even though the others are talking quietly among themselves I can feel them watching what’s going on, ready to strike if necessary. “What happened to…Matt?” Jared squeezes my hand.

“I honestly don’t give a shit about what happened to him.” I say and he nods, calculating some things in his head before his fake smile turns somewhat more sincere.

“Typical.” He says, before walking over towards our parents. I close my eyes once he’s out of sight to try and calm myself down.

“So dinner will be served in about five minutes.” I say, getting everyone’s attention as I turn around to face them. “Chris can you see what everyone wants to drink?” I ask and he nods, giving me a small, reassuring, smile. I smile back and pull my hand from Jared’s, walking towards the kitchen with one of my hands pressing the base of my back for support.

When I enter the kitchen I walk up to the counter to lean onto it, closing my eyes to prepare myself for the rest of the night. I hear the door open behind me and I turn my head over my shoulder to see who it is.

“So that’s your brother?” Jared asks, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. “What did he mean by typical?” I sigh as I lean back into his chest.

“He meant that it’s typical that gay people don’t understand commitment like heterosexual people do.” His grip around my waist tightens. “And it’s kinda funny to; I’ve only been with three people, one who I had sex with, and Josh has slept with like twenty women.” I can feel him shaking his head. The door opens again and the next thing I know Chris is slamming a piece of paper onto the counter top.

“Josh is an asshole.” He says and I roll my eyes.

“Just get through tonight without punching him in the face please.” He sighs.

“Where’s the fun in that?” I chuckle as I pull away from Jared to finish grabbing food for the table, praying that Josh will stick with little comments like that for the rest of the night.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For an hour everything was fine. Dinner went off with a hitch with small talk while everyone enjoyed my food. Josh stayed silent under the watchful eyes of Jeff, Jared and Chris; not saying anything to trigger an all-out Christmas war. But when we decided to digest for a little bit before desert, I could tell that something was going to go down sometime within the next twenty minutes. Dad was asking Josh about him being a doctor in an ER which usually always leads to homophobic or carrier slurs from my asshole brother, and it also doesn’t help that both Josh and Chris have been drinking…

“So how’s everything going?” Mom asks as we sit around the fireplace; mom placing a delicate hand on the outward curve of my stomach. “Did you finish up the nursery yet?” she ask and I nod.

“Yeah I finally got the crib put together yesterday actually.” She smiles.

“Do you have any paint colors chosen yet?” I’m about to answer her when I hear my brother say:

“When I saw him I got another doctor to trade cases with me.” I know why Josh would trade cases with other doctors, but since he didn’t actually say the words ‘the guy was pregnant’ or ‘the guy was a fucking flamer’ I decided to let it slide; not wanting to start anything if at all possible.

“I was thinking pu--” I’m cut off by Chris, who apparently wants to start something in his somewhat intoxicated state.

“Why did you trade cases Josh?” Chris asks as he takes another sip of beer, his fourth beer of the night. Josh looks at Chris for a moment before rolling his eyes.

“Chris just leave it alone ok?” I ask pleadingly, wanting to stop this bullshit from starting.

“Yeah, listen to Jenny Chris.” I stop myself from frowning at the nickname; I don’t mind if Chris calls me that, but Josh saying it is a direct insult to me being gay.

“Don’t call him Jenny, I’m the only one allowed to call him that dipshit!” the others look between Chris and my brother and I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose in frustration.

“Son, why don’t we go get you some water in the kitchen.” Eric says, grabbing onto Chris’s shoulder gently.

“Eric I’ll take him.” I say, pushing myself towards the front of the couch to get up. I hear Josh snort as he gulps down some more beer and I stop in my tracks. “What?” I ask suspiciously.

“It’s just…weird man.” He says, looking me up and down for a moment before taking another sip of beer.

“Josh.” My mom says in a warning tone, and he nods his head.

“You are such a fucking asshole Josh!” Chris yells, slamming his bottle of beer onto the coffee table.

“Chris!” I bark, trying to stop him from doing something stupid.

“No Jensen! This asshole has been nothing but horrible to you since you came out; he can’t get away with acting like this while you’ve fucking protected his ass for all of these years.” I find the necessary strength to push myself up from the low couch in one try and walk up to him; taking ahold of his upper arm in a death grip.

“Chris, you’re drunk; why don’t we go and get you some water huh?” I say in a calming voice, trying to get through his pig headed skull to shut the fuck up.

“Jensen.” Eric says, grabbing onto my wrist from his chair. “What’s he talking about son?” from the corner of my eye I can see my dad frown at the ‘son’ comment.

“Nothing. You know how Chris is when he drinks too many beers too quickly.” I say as an explanation.

“Fuck no!” he jerks out of my hold. “That fucking asshole is the reason Jen almost died.” He says, and my mom and Sherri gasp in shock.

“Jensen what the fuck is Chris talking about?” Jared asks nervously, standing up from his chair. I look over towards my boyfriend and force a smile onto my face.

“Jared it’s nothing.” He gives me a small glare that reads ‘stop lying to me’ and I sigh. “When I was sixteen I was beat up really badly at my school.” I start off, shrugging my shoulders slightly. “A group of jocks from the football team was waiting for me and the next thing I knew I was laying on the ground in a lot of pain.”

“Stop down playing it; they broke your arm, dislocated your knee cap, broke you cheekbone, cracked several ribs and causes one of them to break and puncture your lung. When an ambulance finally showed up you weren’t breathing anymore” Chris adds, and I turn to him.

“Shut up Chris.” He glares back at me as I turn back to Jared. “It’s all in the past ok?”

“Since we already have it all out in the open why don’t you just tell everyone how Josh was involved?”

“What do you mean?” my dad asks, finally speaking up. “Josh was at someone’s house studying for midterms.” Chris laughs.

“Studying my ass, Josh was there the whole time watching Jensen get his ass kicked.”

“JOSH!” my mom screeches as she shoots up to her feet.

“He didn’t do anything mom.” I say. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“Yeah he didn’t do anything; he just watched you get beat up, walked away, and then out of guilt later on called an ambulance while you were laying there bleeding.”

“Enough Chris!” I yell, I look over towards the Padalecki’s and see their shocked faces. Great; well Christmas is ruined…wonderful… “Are you guys ready for desert? I’ll get that ready.” I say quickly after a moment of silence; walking as quickly as I can to the kitchen before Chris starts screaming again.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” I mutter to myself as the kitchen door closes behind me.

How did any of this fucking happen? I thought the worse that could happen was Josh saying something homophobic, me commenting on it, the evening being awkward for a little bit then we all move on. I never knew that my biggest fucking secret would come out in the open by fucking Chris.

“You are such an asshole!” Jared yells from the other side of the door. “How could you do that to your fucking brother?” I close my eyes, and lean against the counter with my left hand; bringing my right hand up to cup under my stomach. I hear the door open behind me and I’m shocked to see Jeff.

“Are you ok?” he asks with concern written all over his face. I shrug.

“It’s not fucking natural!” I hear Josh yell, and Jeff winces.

“Not really.” I say, not having the energy to fake it anymore. I push myself away from the counter and walk towards my office; pulling out a chair from the desk and setting myself down. “You don’t seem really surprised.” I state as I listen to the others fighting, looking up as Josh sitting down on my desk.

“I kinda already knew about you getting beat up.” My eyes widen.

“How?” he shrugs and gives me a small, sad smile.

“I know people who know people.”

“And you!” Gerald yells, and my eyes widen towards Josh. “What kind of a parent are you!”

“Jensen it’s ok.” I hear Josh’s pain yell and I take a deep breath. I’m about to open my mouth when I hear Sherri shriek:

“Jared!”

“You giant asshole!” Josh screeches. “You broke my fucking nose!” My eyes start to burn and I close my eyes as the first tear falls, leaning forward to towards the desk to prop my forehead in my hand.

“This is a fucking nightmare.” Jeff pats my shoulder.

“Hey it could be worse.” I look up at him in question. “You could have gone into early labor or something.” I glare as I splay hand protectively over my stomach.

“Don’t even joke about that.” He gives me an apologetic smile.

“GET THE FUCK OUT!” I hear Chris bellow. Tears fall down my cheeks as I hear people stomping around in the front part of the café, more yelling, and finally a door slamming shut. Jeff squeezes my shoulder in comfort and keeps his hand there, ignoring the fact that I’m crying like a little girl.

“Jensen?” I hear Jared’s voice coming from my office door and I turn my head to face him. He walks over to me and crouches down in front of me. “I am so sorry.” He reaches out towards my hand that’s holding my stomach, entwining our fingers together. “Just…oh my god.” He says, a look of despair on his face. “Please don’t cry Jen.” I swallow thickly.

“I can’t really help it.” I say with a sad chuckle, wiping my eyes with my free hand. “This is…like…fifty times worse than I thought it was going to be.” He leans upwards to capture my lips in his, trying to comfort me. “I’m so embarrassed.” I saw once he pulls away, and he cubs my jaw with his free hand.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about, if anything Chris and Josh should be for getting drunk in the first place.” He rubs my jaw bone with his thumb slowly.

“Since everything’s out in the open.” Jeff starts after a moment of silence when I start to calm down. “Why did you keep the whole Josh thing a secret.”

“Jeff.” Jared says warningly and I shrug.

“Jay it’s ok.” He looks into my eyes for a moment and nods. “I was going to tell them actually.” I say. “But when I woke up in the hospital room Josh was the only one there, and he actually looked at me like he somewhat cared you know?” Jeff nods. “He apologized, he told me that he had a problem with me being gay and a carrier, but I didn’t deserve to die because of it.”

“So you didn’t tell anyone because of that.” Jared finishes. “Even though he was a complete asshole he was still your brother, and you still felt some form of loyalty towards him.” I nod.

“I hate Josh with every fiber of my being.” I start. “But he’s still family.”

“You should have told someone.”

“I told Chris, and he’s kept my secret for twelve years.” I look up at the clock on the wall, 8:23 PM, and sigh. “And even though he hated the fact that I’m gay, I know on some level he still cares for me to. He asks our Mom about me sometimes…” I trail off, knowing that the Padalecki’s could never understand me and my brothers fucked up hate/someone tolerate each other relationship.

“Jensen?” I hear Chris’s voice coming from the kitchen and I turn around to see him rushing towards my office. Jared moves to stand up and the next thing I know Chris is pulling me into a gentle hug. “I am so fucking sorry.” He says in my ear. “I shouldn’t have done that…god I’m such a fucking idiot.” I bring my hands up to wrap around him and sigh.

“It would have come out eventually; I kinda wish it wouldn’t have happened when I was in my third trimester of pregnancy but oh well.” I dead pan, and he pulls away, looking even more guilty. “I’m not mad at you anymore ok.”

“If I were you I’d punch me in the face right about now.” I roll my eyes fondly.

“You’re my best friend; nothing you could do could make me love you any less.” He gives me a small smile.

“Do you want to go back out there? The others are worried about you; they know you heard the whole thing.” I nod my head and reach my hand out towards him.

“Help me up?” he grabs my hand and pulls me up slowly, not letting go until I’ve got my balance. “After all of this shit is over can you make me one of your chocolate milkshakes?” I ask, and he lets out a relieved laugh.

“After the night you’ve had I’d make you twenty if you’d ask me.” I give him a small smile. “But everything’s ok right? I don’t need to bring you to the ER or anything right?” he asks me, looking down at my stomach worriedly.

“Everything’s good.” I say, not wanting to tell him that I was feeling Braxton Hicks contractions earlier. He slaps my shoulder and smiles.

“Well I’m going to grab myself some water; I’ll see you out there in a minute.” I nods at him as he turns around and walks out of my office; grabbing a bottle of water from one of the fridges before walking out of the kitchen. I turn to face Jeff and Jared and give them a small, tired smile.

“Are you gonna be ok?” Jared asks worriedly, walking up to me and wrapping his arm around my gravid waist.

“Not for a while probably, but I can fake it.” He kisses my temple and leads me out of my office; Jeff turning off the light behind us.

I hate fucking holidays…

Link to Chapter 9: http://2people2.livejournal.com/7508.html