A trillion thanks and hugs to: Violet201, xsparklesthemagicalunicornx (I hope your essay went well!), Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto, Magenta Stone, Rue Dawn (Loved the mega review! I think Lee is avoiding a psychological throw down for as long as possible…one is coming though ;]), Bindie, VincesDirtyGirl, and Anonymous (I'm glad you liked the changes!)

It might take a while for me to update again, so my apologies in advance! I've got my last set of finals this week and I'm graduating from college on Sunday! So the coming days will be a bit crazy! o.O

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Alex, Mickey, and Ronnie.

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 52: Doubts

By: LoveInk

Alex was sitting at the table when Leon got home. He glanced at the clock and sighed. "Shorty, it's 6 in the morning, you should be asleep."

"Ron's hogging up the bed, and he smells like cigarettes," she explained with a shrug. Her small fingers were wrapped around a mug as she sat there looking thoroughly exhausted. "How's Jess?"

"Didn't get to talk to him much. She came in and I just…couldn't stay," he said, taking the mug from her. He tasted what was in it and pulled a face at the sickly sweet lukewarm liquid. "That's not coffee."

She sighed and frowned. "I know. Ron put the coffee on the highest shelf because he heard it was bad for the baby. I can't reach it. This is some weird tea he deemed acceptable. It's not bad once you put half the sugar bowl in it."

He shook his head, heading over to the cabinet and getting down the coffee. "One cup a day is fine," he stated, shaking his head as he started the coffee maker. "You get more than that and you'll have problems."

Alex narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"When Adri was pregnant with the kids, we had to put her on coffee control. Adri drinks like three cups a day normally, so Chuck, Ess, and I had to watch her to make sure she only had one. I can't tell you how many things I've had thrown at my head because I decided to take a cup away from her."

She laughed lightly. "How are you doing, Lee?"

"Me?" he asked, setting a mug down beside her and sliding it closer.

"Mm-hmm," she said taking a long sip of the coffee. "I don't like to see you smoking."

He shrugged a shoulder as he sat down next to her. "I used to smoke all the time. She made me stop. I won't do it around here, I promise. I know that it's not good for you, Preggo."

"It's not good for you, either. Ronnie used to smoke multiple packs a day on tour. He insisted it made his voice raspy or something stupid like that," she said softly. "Two years ago, he went to the hospital with severe chest pains. His lung collapsed. The doctor told him it was too much smoking and he needed to stop before something worse happened. I don't want that to happen to you."

"I'm fine," he insisted trying to give her a smile and failing. "It calms me down, Shorty. I need that right now."

Alex pulled a face but didn't say anything more about the subject. She'd said her piece. It wasn't her responsibility to force him to quit. If he wanted to smoke himself into an early grave, there was nothing she could do to stop him. "What'd Mickey do when she saw you?" she asked.

"She didn't see me. She ran in and while she was huggin' Jess, I left."

"Are you guys ever going to talk about it? I mean, this is totally fixable. You know that, right?"

Leon shrugged. "She's stubborn, hates confrontation, and has a firm belief that she's always right. You think we can work things out? I doubt she'll even listen to me, and I'm not going to bend on this one."

"Oh c'mon, Lee. You told her you wanted to have fun. How dense can you be?"

"That's what you told me!"

"I didn't think you were going to say it to her!" Alex exclaimed on a laugh. "There's a better way to explain how you feel."

He rolled his eyes at her. "Really? Go ahead. Try it."

She pressed her lips together as she thought. "You could've calmly explained to her that you loved her and while you didn't want kids now and didn't want to get married now. You'd think about doing it in the future."

"I don't want kids."

"Now who's being stubborn?" she shot back at him.

Leon scowled at her. "Maybe we need a break," he admitted, running a hand through his hair before hanging his head.

Alex shook her head at him. She knew he was saying it because he, like Michaela, liked to avoid drama at all costs. "You should fight for her, Lee. You know that's what she wants."

"Is it what I want?"

"Would you get your head out of your ass for like five minutes and really think? Think about the future. Think about where you want to be in five, ten years! Is it sad and alone wishing you'd gone after her? Or is it with her, just being happy? Because that's what she makes you. Anyone with eyes can see that!"

He lifted his head to glare at her. At his look, she held up her hands in defeat. "Whatever, Lee," she said pushing away from the table. "Talking to you is fuckin' useless. I know you already made up your mind. Just don't come crying to me when you see her with someone else because all I'll say is I fuckin' told you so."

Leon's eyes widened as he watched her walk away. The last sentence had sounded so much like Essie it was scary. And the way her green eyes had glared at him with barely concealed anger were also eerily like his sister's. If it weren't for the outrageous height difference, he'd have a trouble keeping them straight. Shaking his head, he stood and headed outside for a cigarette.

Alex stared at Ronnie who was spread across her bed on his stomach. He'd taken to sleeping with her after he'd heard her crying one night. He insisted that it was better to have company while she cried than be locked in her room alone while everyone else was sleeping. She got into the bed, nudging his thigh so he'd scoot over. He moved without waking up, nuzzling his face deeper into his pillow.

She sat down on Vince's side of the bed and grabbed her pillow, burying her face into it. It had been Vince's pillow, but she had started using it, preferring it over her own because it still smelled like him. Tears came before she could stop them as they usually did now that she was pregnant.

She was truly sad for Leon and Michaela. They'd had such a good thing going for so long and in one crucial moment, it was all destroyed. It was like someone had pulled the wrong Jenga piece and it all came toppling down. The worst part was Leon wasn't willing to fix it. He was giving up.

What if Vince gave up on her? What if he changed his mind about getting married? She'd heard time and time again that prison changed a man…what if it changed her man? Maybe once he was out, he'd want to be free from everything including her. What if he forgot about her? She wasn't allowed to see him, so she couldn't remind him and the last few times they'd talked on the phone, they'd fought. They weren't big fights. Just silly little fights about nothing that mostly came from how angry she was about not being on that damn visitor's list. She'd written him a letter, but his response wasn't very satisfying. Sniffing, she reached out and grabbed the worn piece of paper from her bedside table and read it again,

Tiny,

Everything's fine here. Love you.

Be good,

V

Alex ran her fingers over his scratchy script. His writing seemed to be etched into the paper as it always did since he put too much pressure onto the pen. She'd made fun of him for it once, telling him that he wrote like a caveman trying to scratch something into a rock. He'd laughed at that one and then gave her shit for making her "A" look like a star in her signature. She hugged the letter close to her heart as if the hug could somehow transfer to Vince.

"You cryin' again?" Ronnie questioned, his voice slow and sleepy.

"No," she lied, wiping at her eyes.

But there was no hiding from Ronnie. With a groan, he flipped over and sat up. "C'mere," he grunted, holding out his arm to her.

"What if he forgets about me, Ron?" she sobbed, leaning into his side and resting her head against his strong shoulder.

Ronnie had the audacity to laugh at her. She lifted her head to glare at him and he shrugged. "I'm sorry, Lexi, but that's fuckin' ridiculous. How is this guy going to forget about you? He loves you. I think he's proved that more than once."

"Yeah but look at this letter. He barely wrote anything!"

Sighing, he took the letter she offered him and read it over. "Looks like he wrote all that matters. He's fine, he loves you, and he wants you to be good. What else do you want him to write, Lexi? He's in prison for cryin' out loud! You want him to go into detail about the people there? Hey wifey, I met a murderer today. Don't worry, he promised he won't use the shank he's making on me. Would you be happy to hear that?"

She gasped, her eyes wide. "Ron, what if he gets shanked and the last time I saw him was when he was being taken away?" she asked, more tears falling from her eyes.

Ronnie instantly regretted even mentioning it. "He's not going to get shanked. I was just kidding around."

"Don't do that," she said, elbowing him. "I have enough stress as it is!"

"C'mon, Lex, you think a guy that size would let someone shank him? The shiv would probably break on his rock hard abs," he joked with a roll of his eyes. Alex giggled at the idea, wiping at her eyes. Ronnie let out a sigh of relief, glad he could make her stop crying. "It's all going to be okay, Lexi. You just have to have a little faith and trust and…"

"If you say pixie dust, I will kill you."

He frowned. "Nevermind."

Let me know what you think! Your comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. are well loved and listened to. If there's something you want to happen, let me know, if I like it, I'll put it in there! :)

Thanks again for reading! Ya'll are awesome!

~Love Ink