A MILLION thanks to: Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto (I'm glad I made your day better!:]), Magenta Stone, xsparklesthemagicalunicornx, Rue Dawn, and VincesDirtyGirl!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Alex, Mickey, Ronnie, Adri, Mattias, and the lovely twins

Gah! Sorry this is a filler! I just needed to establish some relationship stuff with the different characters before delving into juicy stuff! ;) Next chapter coming really really soon, I promise!

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 49: Just a Little

By: LoveInk

On the way home from lunch, Leon took a detour to the dance studio. He headed up the front steps, a paper bag Mia had sent with him in his hand. He had a feeling Alex hadn't eaten since breakfast and was probably starving. The dance studio was empty as it usually was in the late afternoon. All Alex and Michaela's dance classes ended around three during the summer and then the space was rented out to other teachers for adult classes.

He heard the soft, Spanish music coming from the office and followed the sound to the small room in the back. She was sitting behind the computer, her fingers tapping away at the keyboard in front of her. "Hey you," she greeted, her eyes never leaving the computer screen.

"Hi," he said as he sat down in one of the leather chairs on the other side of the desk. He threw the paper bag onto the desk. "Mia sent food."

Alex stopped typing and carefully opened the paper bag. She smiled when she saw the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "I love that girl," she said on a happy sigh. She took a bite of the sandwich and looked at Leon expectantly. She knew he had something to say. He wouldn't have sat down if he didn't.

"So I'm fucked," he said clapping his hands together in front of him.

"Woah there, tiger," she commented, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. "That's quite a statement."

"She saw me with Mattias and she had that look in her eyes, Shorty," he stated, running his hands through his hair nervously.

She perked up slightly, bouncing in her chair. "Your family's here?" she asked excitedly.

"That's not the point," he said giving her a dark look.

Alex groaned, rolling her eyes at him. "You're so paranoid, Lee," she stated. "Until she's on top of you begging you to make a baby, don't stress about it."

His face went blank with shock and surprise. "Wow. You just said that."

"My point is. You're stressin' about it too much. It's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, bro. The more you say it, the more likely it's going to happen."

"Mmm," he said in response, chewing hard on the toothpick in his mouth as he thought. "Am I an asshole for not talking to my family for three years? I mean, my nieces should hate me, right? They shouldn't want anything to do with me. My sister too."

She shrugged a shoulder. "Family is family, Lee. The love is unconditional. You were going through something and you needed to be away, so you left. Now you grew up and smartened up and you chose to go back."

"Am I an asshole for not wanting kids?"

Alex didn't know what to say to that. "You're not an asshole. You're just…selfish. And that's fine! You're in your early twenties, Lee. You can be selfish for a few more years. And Michaela's still young too! You shouldn't even be thinking about these things. You should be having fun!"

"You're the same age, Lex," he reminded her as he dug through his pockets for a toothpick.

"I'm at a different place than you," she stated softly. "I have Vince. We're getting married. This baby thing happened by accident. We weren't trying for it. Of course, now that I'm pregnant, I want it; but if it wasn't by accident, V and I were going to wait a few years before having kids. You know, have some fun first?"

Leon chewed on his toothpick pensively, moving it from side to side as he considered Alex's words. "Yeah."

She wondered for a brief moment if she got through to him, and then realized it didn't matter much. This whole thing was out of her hands. The best thing she could do was give Leon advice. Whether he took it or not, was his decision. "If your sister's at home…why are you here?"

"I came to talk to you," he said looking at her like she was an idiot.

"Why? I'm going home in like," she glanced up at the clock, "two minutes."

He shrugged a shoulder. "There's no privacy there."

"You're so weird," she said rolling her eyes at him. She shut down the computer and started packing her things. "What was it like seeing them again?"

Leon let out a long sigh and shrugged a shoulder. "It was weird. Sort of sad. I see a lot of Essie in Adri and the girls. And Adri brought old pictures so I'm dreading that."

"She did not," Alex exclaimed, her eyes shining with excitement.

He nodded slowly. "Don't start. Mickey's already freaking out about it. Mia too. I'll never hear the end of it. I don't know why she'd do that to me."

"Because you left for a few years and payback's a bitch?"

"Oh. Right."

Alex finished updating the registration file she was working on before shutting down the computer. She put what was left of her sandwich back in the bag before standing up. "Ready?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "No."

She shouldered her dance bag and beamed up at him. "Too bad. We're going."

"Gimme that," he said, taking the heavy bag off her shoulders and putting it on his own. He headed toward the door, Alex following him, flicking off lights as she went. "Ronnie's a pain in the ass, by the way."

"I could've told you that," she mumbled under her breath while she locked the door.

He gave her a questioning glance. "Why did you have him come work with me then?"

She gave him a sheepish grin. "Because I sure as hell don't want him anywhere near me when I'm working," she said walking quickly down the steps to get away from Leon. "Pluse, he's a terrible dancer. The worst on the tour. Fish and I had to spend extra hours with him until he got the dance down right."

"So you made me work with him? That's just mean," he said, shaking his head at her, a scowl on his face.

"To be honest, Ron will do the business some good. He's got a good head for numbers and stuff," she said on a shrug. "You'll get used to him."

Leon threw her bag into the back of the Jeep and watched her get up into the driver's side. "How's the Grem? Didn't you have your doctor's appointment today?"

"Mmm-hmm," she said on a nod. Her hand unconsciously went to rub at her mostly flat stomach. "Grem's fine. We saw the heartbeat. Mia started crying and then I started crying, it was a big mess. I think next time I'll take Ron. At least he'll make me laugh."

He chuckled, shaking his head at her. "Pain in the ass," he mumbled under his breath. He tapped his hand against the window. "I'm gonna head back to the garage. I'll see you later."

"You're avoiding going home because of this picture thing, aren't you?" she shouted at his back.

"Like the plague," he shouted over his shoulder, waving goodbye to her as she pulled out of her parking space.

Leon walked into Alex's place, slightly surprised at the scene in front of him. Alex was in a deep conversation with Hope while Mia braided Leah's hair as she talked to Adri. Michaela and Ronnie were in the backyard, Ronnie manning the grill while Michaela held Mattias perched on her hip. Mattias was looking between her and Ronnie with adoring eyes, the fingers of his hand in his mouth, his head on Michaela's shoulder.

He walked up to Alex first, pressing a kiss to Hope's temple as he greeted them. Hope looked up at him with her beautiful green eyes. "Tio Leo, did you know that Alex dated Eddie Romero for like five years? She was sorta famous!"

Leon chuckled and shook his head. "She tell you she's going to marry some other guy?"

"Yah-huh," Hope said on a nod. "She said he's like a bajillion time hotter than Eddie. I haven't seen a picture yet so I can't judge but I doubt it. Hey, Tia, what's it like to kiss Eddie?"

He marveled at the comfort level between them. Hope was already calling Alex, Aunt as though she was actually his sister. Shaking his head at them, he moved toward Mia and Adri. "How you girls doing?"

"We're having girl talk, Tio," Leah stated easily. "Sorry."

Leon gave her a quizzical look before moving outside, where he hoped he was more wanted. Michaela's eyes brightened the minute she saw him. "Hey baby," she greeted, a wide smile on her face.

He leant over and kissed her lips briefly. "Hi," he replied before rubbing a hand over Mattias' Mohawk. "How's my favorite nephew?"

Mattias looked up at him with happy green eyes before reaching his arms out to him. "Tio Leo," he said begging for him to grab him. Leon obliged, holding the small toddler in his arms. "You work on cars today?"

"Yeah, buddy, lots of 'em," he answered with a wide grin. Balancing Mattias on one hip, he dug around in his pocket for the small metal car he'd found in Jesse's office. Ever the proud godfather, Jesse had a drawer full of toys he'd bought to send to Mattias. Sometimes he remembered to actually mail them, but most of the time he was distracted by something else so the toys lay forgotten in his junk drawer. "That's from your Padrino." (Godfather)

"Oooh. Tanks," Mattias cooed, squirming to get down playing with his new toy. He toddled off toward the table so he could roll the car around.

"We went to see him today," Michaela said, studying Leon's face as she said it. Leon didn't respond, he was too focused on watching Mattias, but she knew he was listening. "He's responding to pain and stuff, but…he just doesn't want to wake up."

He nodded and shrugged a shoulder. "He'll come around. Jess is just being lazy."

"You didn't tell me your family was comin', Lee," she brought up quietly.

His eyes left Mattias and looked at her in surprise. "I didn't?"

"No. Alex knew though."

"Mmm," he grunted, not understanding what she was getting at.

Michaela sighed. "Why do you tell her more than you tell me?"

"She was upset. I was trying to distract her," he explained vaguely. "I was going to tell you, Princess. I just forgot. There was too much shit goin' on."

"Okay," she said, dropping the subject entirely. "Mattias is adorable. Just like his uncle."

Leon lifted up his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Sounds like I have some competition."

Michaela leant her head against his shoulder. "Just a little."

"Yeah, between me and Mattias, you better start playing your A-game," Ronnie teased as he flipped a burger.

"Oh please, Ron, I'm so out of your league it isn't funny," she stated rolling her eyes at him. She liked Ronnie, but she would never even consider dating him. He was too much of a goof ball.

He grabbed at his heart in mock pain. "Ouch, that hurts. Leah, you'd give me a shot, right sweetheart?"

Leah, who had only gone outside to tell her Uncle something wrinkled her nose in disgust. "No."

"That's my girl," Leon said proudly. He wrapped his other arm around Leah and kissed her temple. "Stay away from my girls, Ron," he said, his tone light but his eyes serious.

Ronnie rolled his eyes at him. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want 'em anyway. They're too pretty. I need to be the pretty one in the relationship," he joked.

"No wonder you haven't found a girl yet," Michaela teased. "It must be hard to find a girl so ugly she makes you look good."

Some fun and some serious stuff too. You like? Let me know! :)

I apologize for the long lag in posts! I've been crazy busy with graduation stuff! Gah!

~LoveInk