Right, so the all fighting, all screeching chapter I promised you was a lot longer than anticipated so I've had to cut it in half. The next one is better than this one although I did love writing scenes for the boys again :) Hope you guys enjoy this, even if you don't leave a review, I just did a 3 and a half hour long journalism paper yesterday and could use the cheering up, so make sure you're nice! Cheers guys! xx
"I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air, they fly so-…"
"Oh fuck, that's proper rotten that is," Bovver laughed as Ned keeled over mid song and vomited onto the pavement.
"Get up, you tart," Keith slapped the younger man on the back and pulled him upright, just in time to see him wipe the remnants of puke off of his chin with the back of his hand before bursting back into song.
"They reach the sky and…"
"Fucking 'ell," Pete shook his head as he slowly followed the boys down the path. Despite wanting to stay at home with Allie tonight, she had more or less kicked him out of the house adamant that what he needed more than her staring at him for another evening was a night out with the boys. It was strange being out with them again after everything that had happened, even stranger knowing that back at the house Allie was stuck with Shannon who had barely uttered two words since she had shown up on their doorstep two days ago. "How much Sambuca did Terry give 'em?"
"Not enough!" Ned slurred, turning to face them and hiccupping. "The cheeky slag wouldn't do doubles so I…" hiccup. "I 'ad to just order lots and put 'em in one big glass. It don't taste as bad if you down it like that, y'know?"
Terry had recently become the landlord of a new pub in the same neighbourhood as the Abbey and the boys thought it only right that they go down there and christen it for him.
"D'you know what I'm gonna miss about the GSE?" Ned slurred.
"Oh Christ, 'ere we go," Dave shook his head.
"This," Ned gestured to all of them. "Now granted we all know that Dunham is on the verge of being a married man now, not to mention he knocked the Sloaner up," Pete rolled his eyes and laughed. "And we're all coming to grips with Matt's gayness,"
"I'm not gay!" the American shouted from where he too was bent over, arms wrapped around his stomach trying to prevent himself from puking.
"Matt, please don't interrupt me when I'm trying to make a point," Ned pointed at him. "As I was saying, we've all dealt with Matt's man love tendencies,"
Pete pissed himself laughing and nearly bumped into Dave as he did so; it had been two months since he'd drunk like this and his body was far from being used to it.
"And I just want you to know that you're like," Ned stopped and shook his head. "You're my brothers and I love you," he pointed at Matt again. "That was not an invitation,"
"That was fuckin' beautiful mate," Swill shook his head, throwing his arm around Ned's shoulders and nodding.
"I was being serious," Ned told him, lazily slapping his face. "I love you, mate. Even if you are a penniless cunt who owes me at least a million beers,"
"Am I fuck!" Swill pulled away. "You owe me more like,"
"Ladies," Ike shook his head. "Let's not get into this 'ere,"
"Yeah," Dave nodded and then paused. "Because we all know that if anyone's owed beer money 'ere it's me,"
"Oh shut up," Swill frowned. "We don't owe you shit, your pay packet looks like someone's mobile phone number for fuck sake!"
"Bollocks," Dave snorted. "Now pay up or I'll get Matt to slap you,"
"Yeah," Bovver laughed. "Remember, he's the fucking Karate Kid,"
"I can't believe that was your opening line," Ike snorted. "You actually thought that we would believe you were…"
"I am," Matt told them. "I just never…never break into it because I can't control it when I do…it takes over me,"
"What does?" Ned frowned. "The Karate or the gayness?" he looked at the Yank seriously. "Just what did Mr Myagi want you to wax on and wax off?"
Matt stared at him long and hard for a moment before breaking into a run, chasing him down the path.
"Go on, son!" Dave shouted after him. "Slap him good,"
"Ned!" Swill shouted. "Use your vomit as a defence tactic. Go for the eyes,"
Coming to a stop beside the remnants of the Abbey, the boys stood there for a long moment, staring what had once been their second home.
"It looks fucking weird, don't it?" Swill mumbled, staring across the cordoned off section of ash and rubble. "We spent the better 'alf of our lives in that place and now look at it."
"Oi," Pete smirked, glancing over at Bovver. "D'you remember the cup final in '96? Sneaking in 'ere with Steve and his lads, getting pissed off our 'eads on 6 cider?"
"I remember you puking like a bleedin' tart in the park on the way 'ome if that's what you mean," he laughed, pushing his hair out of his eyes. He hadn't cut it in a few weeks and the boys were starting to joke he looked like one of the Gallagher brothers, Swill even going as far as to belt out 'Don't look back in anger' every time he walked into a room.
"Oi, I hadn't 'ad anything to eat that day and Steve was making me neck that awful shit," he frowned. "You try not Ralphin' your fucking guts up after a triple shot of mystery green liquid,"
"Fair play to you, Dunham," Dave winked. "At least you've got better with time whereas the Yank 'ere," he ruffled Matt's hair. "Is still on par with Allie in terms of puking,"
"I beat Allie," Matt frowned, straightening his jacket.
"Nah mate," Swill laughed. "You weren't 'ere the night she left for New York, she 'ad all of us under the fucking table,"
"We don't talk of that night, alright?" Bovver shook his head. "Drunk under the table by a Sloaner…" he looked at Pete. "I still reckon she was tipping the drinks in 'er purse when we wasn't lookin',"
Laughing, Pete adjusted his hand on the crutch, frowning slightly when he saw a blister appearing on his palm. He'd be glad when he could get rid of this fucking thing once and for all, although as he looked down at his still swollen knee, he wasn't sure how long off that was. The wedding was in less than a month now so he wanted to be alright for that; he and Allie deserved it.
"Fucking 'ell!"
The boys all turned in the direction of the voice and spotted five blokes stood in the middle of the road staring at them.
"Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is that Petey Dunham?" the bloke stepped forward and from what Pete could see he was no older than maybe 21, but the determined look in his eyes would have you think otherwise.
"Do I know you mate?" Pete frowned, shaking his head.
"Given from what I 'ear you've spent the better 'alf of the last few months unconscious and pissing through a tube, I'm gonna say nah," he grinned.
"That's some lip you've got son," Pete turned to face him. "Didn't mummy teach you any manners?"
"Save it for someone who gives a shit, yeah?" the lad shot back and then leant back, rocking of the heels of his trainers as he looked the GSE up and down. "So, you're the big bad GSE, eh?"
"Mate, are you lost?" Bovver stepped up to stand beside Pete. "Or 'ave you just 'ad a bit too much sugar? D'you 'ave any idea who you're talking to?"
"Am I supposed to?" he laughed. "The GSE is all washed up, ain't it? I 'eard the Major went and got 'imself killed but apparently not," he looked at the long crutch upon which Pete was leaning and smirked. "Didn't come out of it too squeaky clean though, didja?"
"And what the fuck is it you think you know about the GSE?" Pete laughed. "Look at the state of ya, comin' all the way out 'ere looking like a fucking Clearasil advert, reckonin' you can take us on?"
The bloke backed up slightly and Pete smirked as the rest of his mates suddenly became more alert. It was like watching a bunch of puppy dogs trying to hide behind each other after spotting the big bad wolf.
"You're 'ardly in tiptop shape yourself are you, Dunham?" the boy snarled. "What're you gonna do? Sic your band of little girls on me?"
Suddenly both men's attentions were drawn away from the other as one of the lads behind him cried out in pain and fell to the floor. Glancing behind him, Pete raised an eyebrow at Swill who was looking sheepish as he tossed another large rock back and forth between his hands.
"Sorry, Pete," he shrugged. "I was getting bored with chatting," he smirked. "Are we on or not?"
Glancing back to the lads who were starting to jog back up the road, the head of their gang still standing over the semi-conscious form of his mate; annoying as the little shit had been, he hadn't been far wrong with most of his assumptions. The GSE were done, at least Pete was; he had better things to worry about right now. But staring at the lad, feeling the familiar buzz of adrenaline shoot round his blood stream, he shot a glance at his boys over his shoulder and grinned.
Fuck it; you could take the boy out of the GSE…
"Yeah," he nodded. "We're on."
"Are you finished?"
Shannon glanced up from her food as Allie stood above her, looking everywhere but into her eyes.
"No," she muttered, frowning when the blonde ripped the plate from in front of her anyway. Not that it mattered; she hadn't really eaten since she'd been here.
Here…she looked around and fought the urge to start laughing; her marriage was falling apart and she was staying with Pete of all people. The one man who she had been certain would go nowhere in life and do nothing of any real importance was living here with the woman he loved and expecting a child. Somehow it didn't seem fair.
"You don't have to sit there," Allie told her, pulling the dishwasher open and placing their plates inside. "Go watch TV, have a bath," she shrugged. "Whatever you want,"
Shannon nodded but didn't make a move, instead folding her arms in her lap like an obedient child and clearing her throat, feeling sheepish as she spoke.
"I keep thinking about the last time we saw each other," she practically whispered, but she knew Allie could hear her. "About how…" she looked up at the blonde haired girl with tears in her eyes. "I know that Steve wasn't the only one who I abandoned that day and I'm sorry."
"You didn't abandon me," Allie shrugged.
"I didn't make my decision easy on you though, did I?" she shook her head. "Allie, I was just scared and I needed to-…"
"Shannon," the blonde laughed, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "You really don't need to justify yourself to me."
"Will you just let me talk?" the older woman snapped.
Allie blinked in surprise; that was the most animated response she'd had from Shannon since she'd turned up two days ago. She'd been carefully spreading her time between looking after Ben and crying in her bedroom so she wouldn't have to talk to any of them about what was going on with her.
"I left," Shannon looked at her dead on. "I left for two months because I got scared of losing my husband, so sue me! I mean, I get that it wasn't the wisest decision to make but…"
"The wisest decision to make?" Allie laughed bitterly. "Shannon, you left the country with your son and didn't call anyone for almost two months! How the hell do you think we all felt, on top of everything back here we had to worry about you!"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Shannon laughed, shoving herself up from the counter. "Did my actual problems interfere with another episode of the Pete and Allie show?"
"What?" the younger woman asked darkly.
"It's always about you isn't it?" she shot back. "Always! Even now you're so caught up in what's going on with you…"
"Oh what, you meant the fact that I'm planning a wedding and having a baby?" Allie asked her, her eyes wide. "Yeah, gee you're right Shannon, what a selfish bitch I am."
"I'm not saying that," she yelled. "I'm just trying to…"
"What? Get me to feel sorry for you?" Allie snorted. "Shannon, you had everything and you willingly tossed it away. Am I supposed to give you a hug, tell you it's not your fault that you left and screwed up your life?"
Allie looked at her for a long moment and upon getting no response, shook her head and went back to loading the dishwasher.
"Steve wants a divorce."
The words cut through the silence painfully and Allie jerked her head up, staring at the raven haired woman in horror.
"What?" she whispered.
"He's seeing someone…" Shannon started to unconsciously twist the wedding ring on her finger, feeling the same sickness in her stomach as she had earlier when he'd told her. "Pete's doctor actually…"
"Gemma?" Allie hissed out in disbelief. "Steve is seeing Gemma?"
"Did you know about it?" Shannon asked her quietly.
"No," Allie shook her head. "I swear…but I mean, you can't really be all that mad at him." She caught her surprised look and shrugged. "Isn't this what you wanted? You made it clear you weren't coming back, Shan."
"And?" the American shouted. "You think that means I wanted him to jump into bed with another woman at the first chance?"
"Of course not," Allie rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant, I-…"
"What if you'd left Pete?" She interrupted. "Are you really going to sit there and tell me that it never crossed your mind? The thought of leaving him, of leaving all this and finding something better?"
Looking at her seriously, Allie thought back to the night she had spent beside Pete's bed, holding his hand and praying to every single God that apparently existed for him to just open his eyes. Would she have walked away from that?
"It was shit," she nodded. "Every morning I woke up and remembered where he was and what was going on, I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest," she looked at the other woman and spoke clearly. "But no, leaving him never crossed my mind, because even if all the time I had left with him was sat in that hospital holding his hand and talking to him while he slept then I would've rather died than walked away from it."
Shannon shook her head, staring at the girl for a moment and letting the silence weigh down on them.
"And you think that now he's out that all the problems you had…" she waved her hand dismissively. "They'll just float away right? God, Allie, you're so naïve,"
"How am I naïve?" Allie shook her head. "Because I love Pete?"
"No, because you trust him," Shannon shouted, causing Allie to take a sharp intake of breath. "You honestly think that this," she gestured around them. "Is what Pete wants? You think the 24 year old head of a gang or whatever wants to get married and have a kid?"
Allie felt almost ill as the pain sliced through her at Shannon's words; she wanted to shout back at her, to tell her to stop, but she couldn't.
"He'll get sick of it and he'll leave," she carried on. "Because like it or not the GSE will always come first and you being pregnant or wearing some stupid ring doesn't change that,"
Glancing down, Allie realised that Shannon's hands were shaking, her eyes watering as she tried desperately to keep her voice from wavering. It was in that second that Allie realised none of that the older woman was saying had anything to do with her at all. This was about Shannon being scared again, about having to sit there watching as her world caved in around her and having only Allie there to place the blame on.
"Shannon," she shook her head, taking a step towards her.
"No!" she screamed. "I don't want to hear what pearls of wisdom you think will benefit me," she laughed through her tears. "Allie you're just a fucking kid, what do you know about marriage? About loving someone?"
Walking over to her, Allie reached out to take her hand but Shannon snapped, shoving her backward perhaps a little harder than she meant to.
"Get away from me!" she shouted. "I don't need you to stand there and tell me about the mistakes I've made," she cried. "Funnily enough, I actually know!
Rubbing her shoulder where Shannon had grabbed her, Allie shook her head and watched as she walked over to the set of stairs in the kitchen which led to the guest bedroom and sat down, wrapping her arms around herself, rocking back and forth as she sobbed.
It only took a second for Allie to walk over and sit beside her, unmoving, letting Shannon do what she needed to, if all she wanted was to sit there and cry then Allie could handle that.
The older woman looked up at her, artic blue eyes made even bluer by the tears spilling out of them.
"Allie," she cried, her voice breaking. "I just want it all back," she whispered. "I just want…"
"Shhhh," Allie instantly wrapped her arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back as she lay her head against Shannon's. "It'll be ok,"
"I'm so sorry," she cried, burying her face in Allie's shoulder, her body shaking with sobs.
"I know, hun," Allie gently stroked her hair. "It's ok. We'll get through this, I promise."
Glancing outside as the first drops of what was to be a heavy rain storm brushed delicately against the glass, Allie realised she didn't quite know what she meant by that. Shannon had lost the man she loved, how could they ever make that ok?
Hugging her tighter, Allie stared out of the window, rocking her gently until her tears subsided two hours later.
"I wasn't joking when I said I was gettin' too old for this shit,"
Pete turned to Dave who was sat next to him, crammed in the back seat of Ike's car as they drove back towards Victoria. There was a cut above his eyebrow and blood was still trickling out of one nostril. "That little fucker with the red hair proper caught me off guard with that last punch,"
"I still can't believe they 'ad the balls to come up to us like that," Bovver shook his head, taking one last drag on his cigarette and tossing it out of the window. "Can you imagine what would 'ave 'appened to us if we'd gone after Steve and his boys when we were their age?"
"We would 'ave been dead before we hit the fucking floor," Pete laughed.
"Maybe you're just not as scary as you used to be," Matt offered with a bloody smile. His front tooth felt a little bit loose but the alcohol in his system was fast quelling any worries he had about it.
"D'you wanna fuck off?" Bovver frowned.
"Nah, he might 'ave a point, Bov," Ned winced. "Look at the state of us. The only one who got off without any real damage was Dunham and given he's still fucked, I reckon we should be ashamed of ourselves."
Pete grinned smugly as he noted that out of all the lads, he did have the smallest injuries; the only evidence of him being in the fight was a cut next to his eye and a what he knew would be a fast forming bruise on his cheekbone. Staring down at his knee for a moment, he felt a surge of panic when he realised that for the first time in maybe a month, the bloody thing didn't actually hurt. Did that mean he'd just done so much damage that all the nerves had shut down or something?
Shaking the thought out of his head, he bent it subtly, not paying attention to the drunken conversation taking place around him and grinned in amazement when true to form, he managed to bend it without screaming in pain.
"Don't tell me you've gone and got your Christmas miracle Tiny Tim," Dave raised an eyebrow as he followed Pete's determined gaze down to his knee.
"Fat fucking chance of that," he replied, wincing slightly when he moved to try and straighten it.
"Ay," Dave leant in and lowered his voice. "Allie's not gonna go spare, is she?"
"Over what?" Pete shook his head.
"Well, the state of you for a start," the older man prodded the cut on Pete's face and showed him his bloodied finger.
"Fuck," Pete whispered. "I didn't…"
"Dunham, this is your stop," Keith called, pulling into the grand looking paved driveway of Allie's house, the old school Victorian lamps outside the front door still lit, letting him know that she hadn't gone to bed yet.
"Right," he nodded, grabbing his crutch and nodding his thanks to Swill who scooted out of the car and allowed him to do the same.
"D'you want me to walk you to the door?" he asked awkwardly.
"Why?" Pete smirked, more than a little amused. "You hopin' for a kiss or something?"
"Nah, I've got your mum for that," he shot back with a wink. "She normally throws in a cheeky 'and job n' all so…"
"Alright, fuck off," Pete laughed, shoving him back towards the car. "I'll see you lads later, yeah?" he bent down, looking in through the window and frowning when he saw Matt and Bovver having a drunken argument over who was going to play who on the playstation when they got in. Now that was something Pete Dunham could have bet his life on that he would never see.
"Yeah, we'll be round tomorrow," Dave reached his hand out of the window and clapped it against Pete's. "We've gotta get started on plans for your stag do,"
"We still goin' to Prague, yeah?" Swill asked.
"Only if I don't 'ave to sit next to you on the plane again," Ike piped up. "You snore like a fucking granddad, it was embarrassing."
"It don't seem to bother your mum," he smiled in the mirror when Ike flipped him the middle finger.
Matt laughed suddenly at something Bovver had said and stopped abruptly when his tooth chipped off and fell onto the floor.
"Oh fuck!" he cried, picking scrambling about for it and shooting Ned a grateful look when he picked it up and examined it.
"Wey-hey!" Ned laughed, pointing at him. "Oi, can I keep it as a souvernier?"
"No you fucking can't!" Matt snapped. "That's my tooth!"
"I found it," Ned frowned. "So technically it's my tooth, ain't it, sunshine?"
"I'm gonna punch you in the back of the head," Matt warned him. "Just give me back the-…"
"I'm forever blowing bubbles…"
The entire car groaned as Ned started singing again, waving the chipped tooth back and forth in front of Matt's face.
"They fly so high…"
"Keith, mate just crash the car," Bovver begged. "None of us will sue you or nothing, just try and do it so Ned goes through the windscreen and I'll even pay ya,"
"Fortunes always hiding…"
"Fuck this," Keith laughed. "I don't care if its 'alf way across town, we're dropping 'im home next,"
"Catch ya later, bruv," Bovver called to Pete with a grin as Keith put the car into reverse and pulled out of the driveway. Laughing to himself, he realised he could still hear Ned singing.
"Pretty bubbles in the-…"
"Oh no you fucking didn't!" Keith roared. "Tell me he didn't just Ralph in the back of my fucking car!"
Watching as the red lights disappeared around the corner, Pete limped towards the house, his leg moving at a slightly faster pace than normal as he neared the front door, still chuckling to himself over the boys. They were fucking nuts but they were his brothers and he couldn't change them for anything. All of them had been there for him at points in his life when even his own family hadn't been and even though he didn't want to go all gay on them by coming out and saying it, it meant more to Pete than any of them would ever know.
Pushing the door open as quietly as he could so as not to wake Allie, Pete sighed, leaning back against the old oak door before catching the sound of the TV drifting up the long hall from the spare room he had been using up until last week when stairs weren't as much of a challenge as they once had been.
Hobbling towards it, he crept in, not all that surprised to see the blonde in the centre of the bed, her hair falling down in gentle waves around her face as she stared intently at the TV screen. He could smell the vanilla and coconut of her shampoo and smiled to himself as she bit her lip at whatever was happening on screen, her hands clutching the material of the t-shirt of his that she was wearing. Her bright green eyes widened as someone screamed on the TV and Pete realised that he could have easily stood there watching her all day. Fuck, she was gorgeous.
Without realising what he was doing, he let go of his crutch, wincing when it clattered to the floor.
"Fuck!" she squeaked, jumping back in fright, placing her hand on her chest as she tried to get her breathing under control. He caught her lips turning upward in the first sign of a smile only to see it disappear from her face altogether when she caught sight of him. "Oh my God…"
Pete frowned wondering what could be wrong and then winced remembering that he had planned to at least clean himself up before he saw her.
"What the hell happened?" she gasped, climbing off of the bed and walking over to him.
"Uh, nothing…" he shook his head, limping into the bathroom with her right behind him and grabbing some tissue, dampening it quickly and shoving it on top of the cut next to his eye.
Rolling her eyes, Allie shoved him down into the chair in the corner of the bathroom, picking up her dressing gown and chucking it onto the floor before carefully peeling the damp tissue away from his face and dropping it into the bin.
"Is 'nothing' GSE slang for 'someone beat the shit out of me', by any chance?" she asked, making him chuckle as she pulled out a small plaster and the dreaded disinfectant spray.
"It was this group of right cocky little bastards," he told her. "We 'ad to sort 'em out,"
"Did you now?" she raised an eyebrow. "How exactly did you manage to fight with that?" she pointed to his knee.
"When someone's clocking you around the temple with a bottle, you tend not to think about any other pain you might 'ave," he told her with a wry grin.
Shaking her head, Allie carefully applied the plaster to his face and bit her lip. Yes, part of her wanted to fly off the handle, to scream at him that he had promised her the GSE was done. But at the end of the day, when you loved someone as much as she loved this man, nothing else mattered other than that. And she knew the firm was done, that this was just a one off but all she could hear were Shannon's words from earlier buzzing around her head and making her feel almost nauseous. She sighed and pulled away from him, frowning when he grabbed onto her hips and brought her back to stand in between his legs.
"I'm sorry," he told her, tucking her hair behind her ears. "About the fight and all that shit. I didn't mean to…"
"Actually, I'm sorry," she interrupted.
"Uh," Pete laughed nervously. "You know you're not supposed to drink when you're knocked up, right baby?"
"Funny," she told him. "No, I just…I've always been proud of you," she met his eyes head on, needing him to know that she meant this. "And you've always been what I've wanted and if I've ever made you think otherwise then…I'm sorry,"
"Oi," he frowned, pulling her even closer. "Where's all this coming from?"
"Nowhere," she shook her head. "Just something Shannon said…"
"Shannon's talking?" Pete raised his eyebrows.
"Steve asked her for a divorce," she smiled sadly, watching Pete's blue eyes widen in shock.
"He did what?" he whispered.
"He's uh, started seeing someone else," Allie bit her lip, not knowing what his reaction was going to be.
"No he hasn't," Pete protested. "He would 'ave told me,"
"Actually," she winced. "I think you're the one person he might want to keep this from,"
"Why?" he frowned.
"Because he's seeing Gemma," Allie answered.
"Gemma?" Pete laughed. "As in my physio…blonde, sporty, football loving, the complete opposite of Shannon, Gemma?" he shook his head. "Bollocks,"
"Nope," Allie raised an eyebrow. "He told Shannon yesterday, she's pretty distraught, it took me so long to calm her down."
"It's not like she didn't bring it on herself, is it?" he scoffed.
"I guess not," Allie mumbled, shrugging and causing Pete's t-shirt to fall off one shoulder, baring the mark that Shannon had left when she'd shoved her in the kitchen.
"What's this about?" Pete frowned, seeing it instantly and reaching out to gently brush his fingers over it.
Allie held her breath for a second, deciding what to tell him; somehow she didn't think 'well Shannon got really angry and shoved me into a wall even though I'm two months pregnant' would go down all that well with him.
"Oh, that's nothing," she waved him off, pulling the material back up to cover it. "I banged it when I was getting out of the bath earlier,"
Pete frowned, not overly happy with that answer but didn't have the time to question her further when she started speaking again.
"Are you um," she looked almost bashful as she stared down at her bare feet, watching as she wiggled her toes which had been painted a light peachy colour from the boredom of spending a night alone.
"Allie," Pete reached out and tugged her chin up, forcing her to look at him. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," she shook her head. "I was just wondering…I mean, I just wanted to check that…" she sighed. "Are you happy?"
"What?" he frowned.
"Well with everything going on lately, I know you've been under a lot of pressure and I just didn't know whether you were still ok with…" she cast a lightening fast glance down at her stomach but Pete caught it. "With all of this,"
Pete knew that Shannon must have said something to her because there was no way this kind of shit would occur to Allie without someone putting the idea in her head first. Gritting his teeth, he wondered briefly what his brother had ever seen in her but then came back to the beautiful woman standing in front of him waiting nervously for an answer.
Pete Dunham had never been good with words; in fact he was pretty shit when it came to this type of thing. On the few occasions he had managed to approach suaveness, like when he'd proposed to her, it was almost as though he blacked out and someone else took over. Someone who watched too much TV and managed to limit their swearing to the point where they could almost pass for a gentleman.
"Am I happy?" he repeated slowly then shook his head and looked at her seriously. "For someone who 'ad a private education, you can be a right fucking idiot, you know that?"
The shock registered on her face for all of a second before she opened her mouth to say something, the anger in her eyes making him smirk. Not giving her the chance to get out so much as a syllable, he brought her head down to his and kissed her hard.
Allie moaned quietly when he tongue brushed over her lips, his hands drifting down under his shirt she was wearing, growling against her mouth when he felt that she was only wearing her underwear.
Pulling back from her, he watched as she stood there with her eyes still closed for a few seconds, panting lightly as she licked her swollen lips, tasting him.
"Yes," he smirked, kissing her lightly, teasingly. "I'm happy as a fucking clown,"
She opened her eyes and giggled, resting her head against his chest before he pulled her back up to face him, feeling her breath catch at the lust in his eyes.
Whoa, boy. She knew that look.
Yanking his shirt up over her head, she threw it to the floor, watching his blue eyes darken considerably as they travelled up her body, the peach lace of her bra and matching french knickers slightly over the top to wear to be but hey…give it six months and she'd be confined to granny pants and support bras. She was making the most of this body whilst she still had it.
"I love y-…" she trailed off, feeling more than a little hurt when he got up suddenly and limped over to the door, yanking it open and peeking around the corner.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
"Looking for your old man," he hissed over his shoulder. "I still aven't been able to look him in the eye after the other day,"
Remembering her father's reaction to finding her and Pete in the corridor, she laughed and waited for him to shut and lock the door before smirking at her.
"So what was that you were saying?" he raised an eyebrow, swallowing hard as he gazed at her body. She was his for the rest of his life, his and his only. Fuck, that sounded good.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "Something about not hating you,"
"Don't tease me," he shook his head, getting nearer to her.
"As if I would," Allie winked, reaching out and grabbing him by the material of his jacket which she quickly pushed off of his shoulders before getting to work on the buttons on his shirt. "I love you," she smiled. "There, better?"
Pete's hands drifted down her stomach, rubbing circles on the incredibly soft skin, smiling at the knowledge that their child was under there. He knew that it was the size of a match box or whatever but even so…
"Much better," he smirked, bending down slightly and hooking his hands under her knees, lifting her into his arms.
"Pete!" she shrieked, hitting his shoulder. "Put me down, you idiot! You could hurt your leg!"
"I won't," he told her simply, walking over to the far wall and pushing her against it, securing her legs around his waist. He put their combined weight through his left leg, only just letting the right one rest on the floor.
"Baby, I'm serious, put me down," she pushed against his chest. "I don't want to hurt you,"
"You've taken care of me for three months," he told her with a mischievous grin. "So how about you let me take care of you?"
Butterflies broke out in her belly at the thought and she bit her lip, her brain fighting against her body to see common sense and wriggle out of his arms before he hurt himself. That was until he whispered, 'I love you' in her ear and then growled, diving straight for that spot on her neck.
"Ooooh, fuck," she whispered, digging her fingernails into his back, her lips finding his shoulder.
"Allie," he whispered, kissing his way up to her ear.
"Mmm-hmm," she mumbled, breathing in the scent of his skin as she felt his fingers reach for the clasp of her bra.
"I've only ever been happy when I've been with you," he whispered. "I'm not sure I even know what it was before,"
Grinning, she pulled back and looked into his eyes, seeing the sincerity there.
"You're good," she told him, kissing his jaw as he started laughing. "Very, very good,"
Tugging her hair back so he could press his lips against her throat, Pete smiled when she bit her lip, running her fingernails over his shoulders and pushing his shirt to the floor.
How could she ever question whether or not he was happy with her? He wouldn't trade this for anything, he couldn't, wouldn't dream of imagining his life any other way.
For the first time in a long time, everything was perfect…now it was just a case of keeping it that way.
So that last line is minor bull...I mean come on, when have you ever known the GSE to keep the peace? ;) The next part will be up...soon-ish, it all depends on if you review or not I guess... ;) haha.