We've Got Unfinished Business

"Lex!" I yelled for Alex from the living room.

"What's wrong??" He quickly ran in and asked.

"Can we go get food? I'm starving!" I complained and he rolled his eyes.

"Jack you can't scare me like that. You're almost nine months pregnant, I thought something was wrong."

"Somethings gonna be wrong if I don't get food right now."

"Yeah yeah. What do you feel like eating?"

"Tacos, soft tacos with jalapeños."

"No that's gonna give you heart burn." He argued.

"I wasn't asking." I chuckled and he frowned at me.

"See, how am I supposed to leave you here by yourself if you can't even be responsible with what you should and shouldn't eat?"

We've been arguing for months on whether or not he should leave for a tour. It was only two weeks long in the U.K so I was barely going to be nine months when we got back. I really wanted him to go so he wouldn't let his fans down. I haven't been loved by some of them since he didn't tour during the summer because of our wedding and honeymoon. I just wanted him to continue doing what he loves. I didn't want to hold him back.

"Lex, Kellin volunteered to stay with me while you're gone. He's almost as annoying as you are when it comes to making me follow my diet. There's literally nothing for you to be worried about."

"What if you go into labor while I'm gone?"

"Then you can just cancel the rest of the tour and fly back to me. But I doubt I'll go into labor while you're gone, baby. I'll just be turning nine months when you get back." I explained.

"I'm just not comfortable leaving your side. I wasn't there for Aubrey being born, but I want to be there for him."

"You will be! Not stop being stubborn and let's go get tacos."

"We can go get tacos, but this conversation is not over...and you're not getting jalapeños." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Come on Aubrey let's go get food." I said and she ran over to grab my hand.

"Baby's hungry?" She asked.

"Yeah he's hungry." I chuckled.

Alex took us to Taco Casa and ordered our food. I begged him to get jalapeños and he gave in like he always did when I bothered him. He said I was only allowed to put one on each taco.

When we made it back home I went straight to the kitchen table and tried to eat. Alex came over and put took three jalapeños out of the container. He put the rest on top of a shelf he knew I couldn't reach.

"Alex please don't, my hormones are off and I really don't want to fight you." I sighed.

"I told you, you could only have three." He said and my eyes began to water. I wasn't that sad over this, but being pregnant made it easier for me to make myself cry.

I started sniffling and Aubrey came over to rub my stomach like she's seen Alex do before.

"You're really going to guilt trip me into giving you these jalapeños?" Alex asked and I sniffled more. "Fine just don't come to me when your chest is hurting." He grabbed the container and brought it to me. I smiled to myself as I opened the jalapeños and put them on my tacos.

"Faker." Alex chuckled as he sat next to me.

"I wasn't faking, I was really upset." I said.

"Mhm of course you were." He hummed and I hit his leg.

"Kellin wouldn't have broken down and given me these. He would have just let me cry my eyes out." I told Alex, thinking back to when I was first pregnant. Kellin would barely give into my cravings, he only did every so often.

"Maybe I can trust him to watch you." He said and I nodded. "I just can't imagine leaving you right now. Matt said I need to tell him by tomorrow if I want to go or not so we can refund everyone their money back."

"Just go Lex, I'll be right here when you get back." I promised and he shook his head.

"I really don't feel comfortable leaving you right now, Jack."

"How about we sleep on it. If you still feel the same in the morning then you should stay." I said.

"I most likely will feel the same way tomorrow, but okay." He shrugged.

We finished up our food and then got ready for bed. Aubrey had fallen asleep before us so Alex put her in her own bed. We were trying to get her used to sleeping alone. Then we went to get in our own bed. Alex slowly helped me into bed before going to lay down on his side. I laid on my side facing him and he kissed me before turning off the lamp on his side.

"Goodnight." I told him.

"Goodnight."

I snuggled closer to him and he wrapped his arm around my body.

I woke up four hours later to a bad pain in my stomach. Usually I would just change to a different position to get rid of it but this time that wasn't working so well. My chest was also burning from the jalapeños.

"Lex." I whispered on the verge of tears as I shook him.

"Yes baby?" He mumbled.

"I think I have heartburn." I said and he sighed.

"I'm too tired to lecture you right now, but in the morning you're definitely getting an ear-full." He complained as he forced himself up got to get some Tums from our medicine cabinet. He came back still scolding me and trying to hand me the medicine. "Here." He said.

I couldn't take my hand off of my stomach. That's where majority of the pain was starting to set in. I was having really bad stomach cramps.

"Ahhh!" I yelled out as the pain got worse.

"Jack what's wrong?!" Alex panicked.

"The baby...I don't know what's wrong but it hurts." I cried.

"Can you move?" He asked and I shook my head. I couldn't imagine moving out of bed with this amount of pain. I squealed my eyes shut trying to get through the feeling.

"Hi ma'am I need an ambulance to 5678 Stella Drive." I heard Alex say on his phone. "My husband is pregnant and he's in a lot of pain...the pain is in his stomach..." Alex listened held the phone between his shoulder and ear as he pulled my pants and underwear to check on something. "No he's not bleeding he's just in pain...yes ma'am thank you." Alex hung up and kneeled next to me. "They're on their way." He said and kissed my hand.

"Okay." I said while exhaling. I was taking deep breaths to keep myself from breaking down. "Go get Aubrey ready for the hospital." I told Alex.

He hesitated before getting up, "okay I'll be right back." He quickly jogged off to get her.

I laid my head back against my pillow and rubbed my stomach. I really hoped the ambulance would get here soon. I knew something wasn't right.

"Alex!!" I yelled as another bad wave of pain hit me. He quickly ran back in with Aubrey and her shoes.

"I'm right here! I'm not going to leave you again." He said as he came back to my side.

"Lex it feels like I'm dying." I sniffled.

"Jack don't-" Alex was cut off by the doorbell.

He ran off to let the EMT people in. They followed him with a stretcher to our bedroom. Alex tried explaining to them what was wrong.

"We're going to have to take him to the hospital so they can do a sonogram and figure out what's wrong." One of the guys told Alex and he nodded.

Both guys worked together to get me on to the stretcher and they wheeled me out the door and to the ambulance.

"We're going to meet you there, okay?" Alex said as they slid me into the ambulance.

"Okay. I love you." I said, trying to hide the fear in my voice.

"I love you too."

I waved to Aubrey and she waved back, way too sleepy to understand what was going on.

I laid back on the stretcher listening to different machines beep instead of the EMT guys. I didn't want to hear any bad news.

***

Alex

I drove Aubrey and I to the hospital where Jack was being taken. I was scared out of my mind that something was wrong with him or our son. I didn't want to expect the worse but it was hard not to when you didn't know what was happening.

We made it around the same time as the ambulance, but we had to go through the front door. One of the attendants at the front desk told me that we couldn't see Jack until they got him in a room after they finished running different test. That stressed me out more knowing that he had to go through most of it alone.

I sat down in the waiting room with Aubrey asleep on my shoulder. We waited twenty minutes before one of the doctors came out to talk to me. I immediately thought the worse, usually doctors only came out when they had bad news.

"Hi Mr. Gaskarth, I'm Dr. Marsh." He shook my hand. "It turns out your husband is going into premature labor. We're going to have to perform the C-section now and he asked that you be in the room with him." The doctor explained.

"Okay." I said and took a deep breath.

"We can't let the toddler in the operating room, but we have an excellent childcare facility here. You're more than welcome to leave her there until we're finished."

I looked down at Aubrey still sleeping in my arms. Hopefully she would stay asleep through Jack's whole C-section so she wouldn't be afraid.

"Okay thank you Doctor." I told him.

He called a nurse over to take Aubrey for me and then I followed him to the room Jack was being prepped in. He made me stop and change into a pair of scrubs so I wouldn't track any germs in.

Once I was allowed in with Jack I saw him lying on the hospital bed. He didn't seem like he was in pain anymore and he seemed kind of happier.

"Hey baby, are you alright?" I asked him.

"Yeah I feel better. The doctor gave me some pain medicine and it's doing wonders." He smiled and I chuckled. I kissed him on the cheek. "Where's Aubrey?" He asked worriedly.

"She couldn't come in here with us so she's at the childcare place here in the hospital. She's okay." I assured him.

"Okay." He sighed.

One of the nurses raised a curtain so we wouldn't see what was happening to Jack's stomach. She told us they were starting the C-section now.

A few minutes later Jack looked down at his stomach and twitched. He could feel them starting to cut his stomach. I grabbed his hand and ran my fingers over his knuckles to distract him.

"You're okay." I whispered to him and he nodded.

I ran my fingers through his hair soothingly to relax him while we waited. I could tell he was just as worried as me about something being wrong with our son. We just didn't admit it to each other.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later I heard the doctor ask for the scissors. There was a snip and a suction noise and then we finally heard crying. I almost cried hearing a noise from him.

My heart swelled as I watched one nurse bring our baby to the sink to be cleaned off.

"Mister Gaskarth we have to put him in an incubator to make sure his body temperature is regulated and no harmful germs get to him. He seems pretty healthy right now, but we don't want to risk it since he's premature." The doctor told me.

"Okay." I said sadly. I watched as the nurse put our baby into a temporary incubator and wheel him over to us.

I panicked when I first looked at him because he was so small. I could also see his blood vessels because he skin was so transparent. He began to scream his head off inside the incubator.

"Is he okay?" I asked worriedly.

"Yes sir he's just not used to being out yet. I'm sure after we let you two hold him he'll be a happy camper." A nurse told me.

"I want to hold him now." Jack said.

"We have to wait a little while. Just until they make sure he's healthy." I told him and kissed him on the forehead. I wiped away his tears as they quickly started to fall from his eyes.

"We'll see him soon." I promised and kissed him on the cheek. I watched as the nurse wheeled our baby boy out of the room.

Forty minutes later the doctor had finished stitching up Jack and we were allowed back into his hospital room with Aubrey. I had called Vic and Kellin, my parents, and Jack's mom to tell that what happened. Vic and Kellin we're on their way now while both of our parents were going to book their flights in the morning.

Aubrey was awake now and she wouldn't leave Jack's side. She was annoying him to death but he didn't hate the attention.

"Do you think he's okay?" Jack asked me.

"Yeah I think so. He's a fighter just like you, so he's strong enough to get through this." I told Jack and he smiled.

Ten minutes later a nurse walked in with a portable incubator. She smiled at us as she brought our son in and rolled him next to Jack's side.

"Here's your baby boy." She said quietly trying not to wake him. "We can take him out for an hour, and then he'll have to go back in the incubator. Just until he can control his body temperature on his own." She told us.

"Thank you." Jack told her and she nodded.

She opened the incubator and carefully pulled the baby out. She handed him off to Jack and left us alone for privacy.

Aubrey and I got around him to see the new addition to our family. He was so small and fragile. I felt like if we moved to fast it would hurt him.

"He's so light." Jack said.

"Yeah he looks like he doesn’t weigh much." I agreed.

He opened his eyes for a few seconds and quickly closed them. He was still curled up as Jack held him as if he was still in Jack's stomach. I felt so bad for him, he was supposed to be in there another month. He was probably so confused.

"Here you should hold him." Jack told me.

I was kind of nervous to hold him. I didn't want to hurt him. Jack slowly handed him over and I began to hold him in my arms. He couldn't weigh more than a stuffed animal.

"Hi." I whispered to him and he closed his eyes tighter and I chuckled. "Aubrey say hi to your little brother." I told her.

"Hi baby!" She exclaimed and he began to whine. "Uh oh." She said.

"It's okay honey, I think he's a little hungry anyways." Jack said. He pressed the call button and asked a nurse to bring him a bottle. I handed out baby back to Jack so he could feed him. I thought he would enjoy the bonding time with Jack a little more.

A few minutes later Kellin and Vic came in. They were both in their pajamas but they weren't sleepy. They were both still awake doing god-knows-what when I called. Aubrey ran to Kellin and he picked her up.

"Oh my gosh he's so cute." Kellin quietly gushed. He walked over to Jack and let our baby grab his finger as he drunk his bottle.

"He's so small." Vic said and I nodded.

"Yeah it scared me when I first saw him, but he's okay." I told him.

"What's his name?" He asked me.

"We're going to give him my middle name."

"Ummm...?" He thought out loud and I glared at him.

"It's William, jerk." I said and he chuckled.

"Hey it's four am and I can't think straight." He complained.

"I like it." Kellin said.

"Yeah it took forever for us to pick it." Jack said as he pulled Will's blanket around him tighter after he finished feeding him. Then he lifted him back up so I could take him. I smiled down at him as he closed his eyes and yawned.

"Somebody's sleepy." I kissed him on the forehead and slowly rocked him. I went to sit next to Jack so we could both spend time with him before he had to go back into the incubator.

"No more kids." Jack mumbled into my shoulder and I laughed.

"You sure you don't want to have just one more?" I jokingly asked.

"Maybe ten years from now, but no time soon. My body is tired and I'm almost finished with school and ready to work finally."

"Okay no more any time soon." I agreed and kissed him on the forehead. "Thank you for the two you've given me already."

He looked up and smiled at me before saying, "You're welcome."

Notes

Their family is growing! But the very last chapter is next :(