A/N: HELLO EVERYONE! I'm back! And I've actually got the next few chapters panned out, so update time will be much quicker in the coming week. Please enjoy! :)
Chapter 8: Begging Me to Open Up
Seven minutes.
Not a particularly long amount of time, but as Jack paced around the bathroom impatiently waiting for his pregnancy test results to develop, it felt like an eternity.
Thoughts raced through his mind in the meantime. If it was positive, what would his next steps be? He certainly wouldn't be able to leave Tom properly if that happened. And leaving Tom was something Jack considered top priority. Even if he would still feel a connection through their bond, Jack would much rather stay the hell away from the creep. The physical distance between them did seem to be doing the trick to lessen the weight of the bond, something Jack greatly appreciated.
Cold, gentle fingers rubbed at the still aching bite mark on his neck, and Jack sighed. If only Tom hadn't bonded him, then Jack would have no problem avoiding the Alpha in the first place. But Jack understood how hard it would be for an Alpha to withhold bonding while mating with an Omega, especially one in heat. Even if he hated that it happened, he understood why. It was biology.
His foot tapped irritably against the tiled floor. Even if it was biology, it was still bullshit.
His phone buzzed on the counter to his right. The timer he had set ended. Taking a deep steadying breath, Jack lifted the test in his shaking hands. Displayed on the small piece of plastic was a minus sign.
Negative.
Jack felt the tears bud in his eyes, quickly spilling down his cheeks in utter relief. He reached out to the counter top to steady himself.
Despite everything, Jack found himself laughing. It started out as nothing more than a small chuckle, but his laughter grew as the tears continued to fall until all the hysterics brought on a headache. How the actual fuck had he managed to dodge that one? He was almost sure that he would have been pregnant after everything that had happened. Regardless, Jack sent a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was listening.
Calming down a bit, Jack gathered up the used test and box and stuffed them in the waste bin, covering it with extra toilet paper for good measure.
A knock on the bathroom door startled him slightly. "You okay in there?"
Jack smiled, wiping the tears from his no doubt messy face. "Fine, Mark. I'll be out soon."
"Okay…" Mark replied, and then there was a beat of hesitation before he spoke again. "I'll be in my recording room if you wanna do a collab later."
"Sure," Jack agreed easily, knowing that that would give him the perfect opportunity to have a talk with Mark. After he heard the shuffle of Mark walking away, Jack snatched up his phone and immediately dialed his older sister. "Come on, come on, pick up," Jack whined.
"Hello?"
"Yes! Oh thank Jesus, Allison," Jack said, sighing out in relief.
"Seán? What's wrong?" Her tone was filled with worry.
Jack brushed it off. "Listen, I need you to do me a favor."
"And what would that 'favor' be, exactly?" She sounded skeptical.
"Well," Jack paused, gathering his lie that he had spent so long forming. "I've come to America for a last minute YouTube thing. And it was so last minute that I don't think I locked my apartment. Can you go check for me?"
"Christ, Seán!" Allison practically shouted, and Jack moved the phone away from his ear at the volume. "Last minute is right! And what about Tom? Is he not with you?" Her tone hardened, and Jack swallowed nervously. He knew that Allison, being the Alpha in his family, had been very wary of Tom from the beginning. She had been suspicious of Tom from the start, and even though Jack knew that she would support him if he decided to tell her the truth, Jack would rather not have two Alphas fighting for him. His decision to keep the truth from her only solidified further.
"Yeah, no. He's not with me. Tom had some family stuff to do, so I've come alone. Can you just check in on my apartment and make sure it's locked up, please?"
Allison sighed in defeat. "Honestly, Seán. You're so forgetful sometimes."
Jack grinned. "Thanks, Alli! I'll owe you one."
After saying their goodbyes, Jack hung up.
He felt bad for lying to his sister, but he needed her help. Jack had literally dropped everything, abandoning his apartment and everything in it, including an injured Tom, as he flew halfway across the world. It was risky, and Jack definitely couldn't trust Tom in his apartment.
Jack wondered of how mad Tom might have been when he woke and found Jack gone. He wondered if the Alpha might have trashed his apartment in rage. He wondered if Tom were still at his apartment, or if he had left and given up on Jack. In any case, things weren't looking good.
That's why he needed his sister, a trustworthy Alpha, to go check on things for him. And if Tom had left Jack's place, then Jack didn't want his apartment being unlocked with him being gone so long and all.
The whole concussion and possible pregnancy scare had really been weighing Jack down, but now that those issues were clearing up he had more time to worry about other things. Like the state of his apartment, for one.
He also realized that he needed to talk to Mark again.
Mark was one of Jack's best friends, and never in a million years would Jack have guessed he'd be saying that he was best friends with Markiplier of all people. However, the Alpha had proved himself to Jack time and time again that he was there for him and truly cared about him, and if the whole thing with Tom had never happened then Jack might have pursued something with Mark.
Jack let out a heavy sigh, thinking briefly of how things could have been. But he knew there was no sense in dwelling on how things might have turned out. All he could do now was focus on how to move forward.
He splashed his face with water in the sink, the coolness of it helping to clear his mind and wash away any remaining traces of tears. Jack then pulled out the makeup he had gotten from Mark, and got to work covering the bruises.
When he was satisfied with the even coverage, Jack noticed the eyeliner in the bottom of the bag. He grinned. The Alpha had been very meticulous picking out Jack's skin tone with the makeup, and Jack knew for a fact that Mark had put the eyeliner in there for a reason.
Feeling more confident than he had in days, Jack unwrapped the felt tip eyeliner and carefully applied it.
It had been a long time since Jack had taken time to do his makeup and doll himself up, and as Jack looked himself over in the mirror, he couldn't keep the smile from his face. He felt much better, seeing how nicely the bruise covered up, and Jack felt much more put together than he had since the Tom incident. All in all, Jack thought he did a rather good job with his makeup. He couldn't wait to see what Mark thought.
Grin in place, Jack headed out of the bathroom towards Mark's recording studio. He knocked before entering, not wanting to interrupt Mark mid-recording. Luckily that didn't seem to be the case as Jack heard a slightly muffled "Come in!" a moment after.
Jack entered just as Mark was taking a sip of his water, and Mark choked upon seeing him. Jack's grin only grew wider. "You alright there, Marky boy?"
Mark sputtered, wiping the water that fell from his lips as he snuck obvious glances at Jack. "Y-yeah. Fine. Your, uh, makeup looks nice. You look nice."
"Thanks," Jack chuckled. Mark was just too cute. "I figured since ya went through all the trouble to get it all for me, I might as well wear it."
As Mark finally collected himself, he met Jack's eyes with an honest smile. "It suits you."
Now it was Jack's turn to avoid his gaze and fight off a rising blush. Stupid Mark saying such nice things all the time!
"Anyways," Mark said, steering their conversation to something more serious. "I wanted to talk to you about… some stuff."
Jack raised a brow. "So did I. What kind of 'stuff' did you want to talk about?"
"Well, about your mate for one," Mark said matter-of-factly, and Jack stiffened at just the mention of Tom alone. "Among other things."
"What 'other things?'" Jack asked stiffly, taking on a defensive edge now that Tom was going to be brought up.
Instead of bristling up, as most Alphas would have in response to the tone Jack had used, Mark just looked at him sadly. His expression was enough for Jack to settle down again, taking a steadying breath.
"Sit down first."
Jack knew an Alpha command when he heard one, and rather than fighting Mark further he moved to a loveseat against the far wall. Mark joined him after a moment.
"I know it's going to be hard," Mark started seriously, staring directly at Jack, who tried not to shy away from the intense gaze, "but I need you to tell me everything about your mate."
Jack didn't miss the way Mark practically spat the word 'mate'. He avoided Mark's eyes as he finally spoke in a quiet, timid voice. "I've been off my suppressants for the last six months or so to try and regulate my cycle again. To, ya know, stay healthy and all." It was an incredibly awkward thing to do, discuss his heat cycle with an unmated Alpha, but the way Mark was nodding along and clung to Jack's words spoke volumes of how attentive the Alpha was being. Jack brought his feet up on the couch, wrapping his arms around his knees for comfort. "It's still out of whack from the meds. My last cycle came early."
"How early?" Mark intervened.
Jack hesitated, feeling his nerves building. "Uh. About two months."
"What?!"
Jack winced at the Alpha's sudden outburst. He could smell the surprise and shock Mark was emitting before he reigned it back in.
"Sorry," Mark murmured, and Jack could sense the guilt from his yelling. "Please, continue."
"I'm not sure I can," Jack said with a snort, voice strained. "It gets kind of fucked up from there."
Jack didn't know he was shaking until Mark placed a grounding hand on his arm. Mark rubbed soothing circles into him, and Jack leaned into Mark instinctively.
"Alright," Mark relented, grabbing Jack's hand and tightening his grip reassuringly. "You don't have to talk about it now. Besides, I don't want you to ruin your makeup."
Jack chuckled at Mark's weak joke. "Nope, we definitely wouldn't want that."
There was silence between them then, and Jack noticed after a moment that Mark was trembling slightly.
"I'm sorry," Mark said, and Jack glanced up at him with worry. The Alpha's almond eyes were watery.
"Stop apologizing," Jack muttered, punching Mark's shoulder gently as he looked away. "You're just making me feel worse."
"Sor– uh, yeah," Mark sniffed, taking his glasses off for a moment to wipe at his eyes. The two sat there on the sofa, leaning into each other's shoulders as Jack tried to think of something else to say. Luckily, Mark spoke again. "I've been doing some research."
"About?" Jack prompted.
"About forced bonds, and if there were ways to break them."
Jack felt his heart skip a beat. "And?"
Mark hummed in thought. "There really wasn't much, initially. So I did some more digging on private forums, and apparently it actually is possible."
"Apparently?"
Mark let out a deep sigh. "It's still just the internet, after all. I couldn't find any medical journals or documents about it. Just people sharing their own stories and experiences. You kind of have to take their word with a grain of salt."
"Well, it's good enough for me," Jack assured easily. "If people say it can happen then I think it's worth a shot at least."
Mark smiled warmly at him. "Always the optimist."
Jack grinned back, squeezing the Alpha's hand lightly from where their hands were still intertwined. As Mark's expression sobered up again, Jack tried to center himself once more.
"Your bond is incomplete, isn't it."
Mark said it as more of a statement than a question, as though he were simply stating a fact. Jack nodded in reply.
"Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to scent with me this morning."
"Yeah," Jack agreed. He knew the Alpha was right. If Jack's bond had been whole and complete, then he would have no drive or desire to deeply scent with someone other than his mate. But since it wasn't complete, Jack hoped that he could break the weak bond between him and Tom.
Mark rubbed his thumb over the back of Jack's hand slowly. "From what I've read, there's no true way to break the bond. I'm sorry."
Jack's breath caught in his throat. "Wh– what? But–"
"But," Mark interjected quickly before Jack could prattle on more. "There seems to be an alternative."
Jack wasn't sure he could speak if he tried. He opted to stay silent and wait for Mark to continue.
"The alternative being to create a new bond with a different Alpha, a wholly complete bond. That way, your biology will focus solely on the complete bond rather than the forced one, which can fade significantly over time, as some Omegas have said."
"Mark, that's, that's just crazy," Jack choked out. "I've never heard of something like that."
"Crazy, I know. And I've never heard of it either, till a bit ago," Mark replied with a sigh. "But it makes sense, doesn't it? Biologically speaking."
"I mean, I guess," Jack mumbled.
As silence took over once more, Jack could taste the rising apprehension in the air of the elephant in the room. Obviously Mark would be the best candidate to try this with. Jack could try and bond with him to override his bond with Tom. And it might work, even though Mark didn't seem too over the top with his found solution. But if it didn't work… Jack could only imagine how fucked up their bond could get, skewed and distorted as Jack technically already had a mate. Jack shivered at the thought.
Mark patted Jack's thigh reassuringly. "We can talk more about it later. For now, let's get some recording done."
Jack nodded, smiling as he and Mark got up from the couch. "Right. So, I was thinking that we could do a 'how well do you know each other' type video. I saw the one you did about me, and figured we could do something along the lines of that."
Mark let out a bellow of a laugh. "So you did see that train wreck of a video."
"No, no, it was great," Jack assured with a laugh of his own. Before he could say anything more, his phone buzzed rhythmically in his pocket. He snatched it out, minutely surprised to see the caller ID reading as 'Allison'. "It's my sister. I'm just gonna take this real quick." Jack quickly exited the recording studio, answering the call as he shut the door behind him. "Hey, Alli. What's up?"
"I just got to your apartment."
Jack startled slightly at her serious tone. "And?"
"The door was unlocked. Your living room is a mess."
"What else?" Jack's mouth felt dry.
"Pheromones are all over the damn place. Seán… what the hell happened here?"
"Um," Jack began, voice quieting as he glanced around the empty hall. "Tom and I may have gotten in a fight."
"Uh, yeah. No fockin' shit, Seán," His sister deadpanned. "Did he do something to you? Do I need to kick his ass?"
Despite the severity of their conversation, Jack found himself smiling. "No, it's okay. I'm going to take care of things."
Allison sighed. "You fockin' better when he gets there."
Jack froze. "Wait. What?"
"There's some flight details on your computer still up. It looks like he just left your apartment, too."
