This chapter is sort of filler…but it was fun to write :)

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Disclaimer: I own nothing but Mickey and Alex

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 26: The Past and the Future

By: LoveInk

Alex's alarm woke Vince up before she even stirred. He reached an arm out to shut it off, careful not to disturb his sleeping fiancée. Her hand was resting lightly on his chest, the pretty diamond ring glinting up at him. He lightly rubbed his thumb over the small diamond, smiling when her fingers curled against his chest. His other hand gently stroked the small of her back before he pulled her in closer and pressed a kiss to her hair. She stirred slightly, her eyelashes ticking his neck as she opened her eyes. "Morning beautiful," he murmured.

"Mmm," she grumbled, nuzzling her face into his neck. "Too early."

He chuckled, it was beyond him how seven o'clock was too early for her when she woke up at five to go surfing on a daily basis. "Didn't you wake up even earlier to surf yesterday?"

"No," she lied, her eyes fluttering back closed. She was too tired to explain to him that it was much easier to wake up to go surf than to wake up and go to a place where she was pretty sure she wasn't wanted.

"Liar." He moved to get out of bed, but her hand curled around his hip, tugging him closer.

"No!" she whined, trying to keep him in bed with her.

He laughed at her childish whine, easily sliding out from under her grasp. As soon as his feet hit the cold wooden floor, he regretted it. Shaking his head, he stood anyway. "I'm going to shower," he said, leaning over to press a kiss to her temple. "Feel free to join me if you want."

"I'm not getting out of bed," she replied, her words muffled by her pillow.

"Not even for some shower time with your fiancée?"

She smiled sleepily at the word before shaking her head. "Nope," she breathed, turning her face away from him.

Seconds after, she felt his strong arms slip under her stomach, lifting her out of the bed. She squealed in response, limbs flailing as she tried to get him to put her down. "I'll teach you to say no to me!" he joked, carrying her towards the shower.

Afterwards, Vince watched her as she stood in front of her vanity wearing nothing but a pair of simple black boy short underwear and a lacy lime green bra. She was staring at the ring on her hand, head tilted to the side, a sign she was in deep thought. He smiled, going to stand behind her. His hands trailed over her arms before he laced his fingers with hers. "It's real gold. Diamond's one and a half carats," he explained, setting his chin on her shoulder.

She turned her head to press a kiss to his cheek. "Big guy, you could've proposed with a plastic ring and I would've said yes," she admitted on a giggle. "I love it. It's beautiful."

He chuckled at her comment before he kissed her shoulder. "It was my Mom's."

A small gasp left her lips. "Vince…you can't give this to me," she said looking at him, her eyes wide. She could only imagine how much the ring meant to him.

"It's mine to give, Tiny," he said, his gruff voice serious. "My dad bought it for my Mom within a week of meeting her."

"He proposed to her after a week!"

He shook his head. "Nah, he waited a year first just to make sure," he explained with a grin. Memories of his parents flooded back to him. They had always been so obviously in love with each other. He could remember his Dad playing the guitar and singing to her as she danced around the room with him in her arms and Michaela asleep on the couch beside her Dad. He sighed. "They would've loved you, Tiny."

"Yeah?" she asked, her eyebrows lifted. It was very rare that Vince talked about his parents. She got the sense there was a sad story in his past, but he'd yet to reveal it. She wondered if that's what he was trying to work up to. "Where are they now?"

"Buried in New York," he replied softly. "They died in a car accident a few days before Christmas. I was eight; Mickey was just five. After that, we got sent here to live with our Aunt."

She turned in his arms, burying her face into his chest as she gave him a squeeze. "I'm sorry, big guy."

He sighed, dropping a kiss to her hair. "Don't be. Shit happens for a reason. If it hadn't, I'd still be in living in New York and we wouldn't have met."

"New York, huh?" she mused, looking up at him. "No wonder you're a Yankees fan."

"Just like our kids will be," he teased, chuckling when she pulled away, her eyes narrowed at him.

"Oh hell no. Our kids are going to be Giants fans or we're not having any."

He laughed, throwing his head back. "Is that a threat?"

"Yes. They can be Knicks fans; they can love the Jets, but not the Yankees."

He couldn't stop laughing at the incensed look on her face. He couldn't care less what team they're future kids rooted for; he was just happy there would be kids in his future. "What about the Dodgers?"

"That's it. No more sex for you," she said, pushing him away playfully.

He chuckled, shaking his head at her as he watched her change for the day. She stared at her drawers, contemplating. Finally, she decided on a black bikini top with cut off shorts before going to his drawer. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching her rifle through his clothes. "Last time I checked that was my drawer."

She ignored him and pulled at a black mesh tank of his. She pulled it on over the bikini before turning to him. "Ta da."

"Oh that's hot," he practically growled at her, his eyes looking her up and down hungrily.

Alex grinned at him; there was no mistaking the reason behind his Coyote nickname. She took the top off and threw it at him. "Too bad I can't wear it though," she said on a frown. She played with her engagement ring nervously. "Can I wear my ring?"

Vince thought the idea through. People were bound to find out eventually and now that he'd seen the ring on her dainty finger, he hated the idea of it not being there for the rest of their lives. "Fuck it," he said after a minute. He tossed her the tank. "Wear both."

"What?" she breathed, her eyebrows raised in surprise. "Vince…"

"If Mickey and Leon know we're together, Jess and Letty know. If Let knows, Dom knows. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the punk knew by now. News travels like wildfire with the team."

She couldn't wrap her head around what he was saying. "I don't…I…what about Dom?"

"Fuck him," Vince said flippantly, stepping around her to grab a shirt out of his drawer. "You're going to be my wife whether he likes it or not, so he's got to suck it up and deal."

He'd barely gotten his tank over his head when she threw her arms around his neck, pulling his head down for a kiss. A huge smile was on her face when she pulled away. He raised an eyebrow at her, confused by her reaction. "What was that for?"

"Do you know how hard it is to lie to all of them?" she asked, her eyes sparkling happily. "I mean, thankfully we told Mia, but Mickey is perceptive as hell and I swear Letty knew from seeing me for two seconds!"

Vince chuckled before pressing a sweet kiss to her lips. "That's because you're a shitty liar."

"I know," she said rolling her eyes. "Should I make breakfast?"

He shrugged a shoulder. "I'm sure Mia's making a big one. We could go there."

"Facing the problem head on, huh?"

"I don't have Mickey's aversion to confrontation," he said on a shrug. He put a mesh tank over his black sleeveless shirt before grabbing his keys out of his pocket. "You ready?"

Alex nervously chewed at her thumbnail. "I don't know."

"How bad can it be? Most of them already know," he said, shrugging again. At Alex's apprehensive look he sighed. "Dom won't touch you. I won't let him. He says one thing and I'm decking him, no questions asked. You're the mother of my future kids; no one fucks with you without consequences." With that, he started heading out the door.

She stayed behind, eyes wide. "Mother of your kids?" she repeated. She loved the sound of that.

Vince turned on his heel and started walking backwards. "Yeah, we're going to have like twenty," he said, a playful smile on his face.

"Twenty!" she exclaimed, trying to keep up with his rapid pace. "You're insane! They hurt, you know!"

"Not me," he said cockily as he opened his car door for her.

Alex glared up at him. "I'm gonna hurt you!"

Vince chuckled as he closed the door on her. When he got into the car, he looked over at her, pleased to see she was still smiling and not legitimately mad at him. He leant over the center console and pecked her cheek. "Love you, Tiny."

"I'm not having twenty kids," she said, folding her arms over her chest. "Maybe ten, but definitely not twenty."

His gruff laugh filled the car, making her heart do flip-flops. "Honestly, I don't care about numbers; as long as they're happy, healthy, and ours."

"Woah, cheeseball alert!" she teased, slouching down before kicking her feet up onto the dash. "I love you too, Vincent Cash."

He gave her a questioning glare. "What is with people using my middle name? I've heard it more this week than I have in a long time."

"Dunno. I think it's kind of hot," she answered on a shrug. She'd always been curious about his badass middle name. "How'd you get that name anyway?"

"My Dad was a Johnny Cash fan," he explained on a shrug. "My Mom almost killed him when she saw the birth certificate. He did it without telling her. He tried to have Mickey's middle name be June, but my Mom caught him."

Alex laughed, shaking her head slightly. "You do that to me, and I'll kill you."

"Can I at least name like half of them?"

"What names are you thinking?"

"Oh, you know, Nissan, Maxima, Honda," he listed, trying to keep from laughing at the look on his fiancée's face. "What? You don't like those names?"

Alex rolled her eyes at him. "You want to name our children after cars."

Vince turned into his driveway and nodded enthusiastically. "Why not? We could call Maxima, Maxi."

"Poor thing would get made fun of for their entire life," she mumbled stepping out of the car.

"I highly doubt that," he replied, walking around the nose of his car to meet her on the other side. He slung an arm around her shoulders. "Look how cool my car is. If people knew she was named after this," he gestured to his car, "they wouldn't dare."

Michaela skipped out of their house just then, Leon trailing slowly after her. "Your brother wants to name our future child Maxima."

"You would," Michaela said, rolling her eyes at him. "No way am I naming our kids after cars."

Alex watched Leon's face blanch slightly; he'd obviously never thought of having kids before. He coughed a little before shaking it off. Vince smirked at his sister. "Good, that means we won't have any competition over Nissan," he said as he walked with his sister toward the fort.

Alex hung back with Leon, studying his face. "You don't want kids," she stated quickly.

Leon clenched his jaw and shrugged a shoulder. "I don't know what I want. I haven't thought about it. Apparently, we're having kids though, so…great. We're not even getting married yet."

"Relax, flaco," she said, grinning at the worried look on her brother's face. "Everything is going to be fine. So when are you going to propose?" (Skinny. It's a Spanish nickname.)

He rubbed a hand over his face as he sighed. "Don't start that shit. I have absolutely no idea. I don't even have a ring. I went into one of those stupid stores and they just stared at me."

She giggled. "No worries, I'll help you out next time."

Leon sighed again. "Yeah, okay," he said on a nod.

"If you don't want to ask her, don't ask, Lee. No one's forcing you to."

"Forcing him to what?" Michaela questioned as they approached the front door.

Alex shrugged a shoulder. "Forcing him to be an ass. It comes naturally."

"Oh, you're real funny," Leon shot back at her. He walked into the fort with Michaela leaving Alex and Vince outside.

She swallowed hard as she looked at the front door. "Is this really a good idea?"

Vince gave her a reassuring smile. "Tiny, they're going to find out eventually, might as well be today."

Alex let out a long breath as she nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into the house. When they walked into the dining room, it fell silent. Dom's dark eyes seemed to be trying to bore holes through her as she took the empty seat next to Leon and across from Vince. Mia gave her a bright smile. "Hey Lex! You excited for Race Wars?" she asked, offering her a plate of bacon.

Alex let out a breath she hadn't noticed she been holding. Extending her arms, she reached for the plate. Mia's eyes widened when she caught site of the ring, the plate of eggs falling from her fingers and landing with a crash onto the table. "Oh my gosh! Sorry, sorry!" Mia exclaimed rushing to clean up her mess. "Lex, can you help me in the kitchen? Please."

Vince watched his fiancée push away from the table, a look of amusement in his blue eyes as he watched her go. Mia's shrill scream of excitement rang through the dining room. Jesse winced as he played with his food. "Someone's happy you're back together."

Hehe so...what'd you think? Let me know in a review!

~Love Ink