Thanks to all the congratulations! :) After four long years of hard work and fun, I finally graduated from my university! YAY! Now I'll have a lot more time to write! YAY! ;)

A trillion thanks and hugs to: Magenta Stone (I'm working on a short fic. We'll see if I like it enough to post it ;]), Mrz Letty Ortiz-Toretto, VincesDirtyGirl ( I'm working on the dragging issue, I swear! :) I just don't want to go too fast either…), Violet201, xsparklesthemagicalunicornx (I'm loving your new story, btw), and Rue Dawn.

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

Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 53: Not Right

By: LoveInk

A few weeks later…

Mia felt the usual nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach as she approached the prison. She sucked in a deep breath as she headed through the main lobby doors. The man behind the reception desk glanced at her before recognition flashed through his dark eyes. "Mia! It's been a long time since I've seen you around here!" he exclaimed with a bright smile.

She gave the man a small smile. "Hello James. How are you?"

"I'm good, thank you. Is your brother back here?"

She shook her head. "No, sir. It's another brother. Vincent Catella."

He typed a few things on the computer. "Go right on through, Mia."

"Thank you," Mia said walking passed the metal detector.

It took a while but soon she was sitting at the plastic table in the meeting room, waiting for Vince. She drummed her nails on the table as she waited anxiously. So much had gone on in the past few weeks; she didn't know where to even begin.

She watched him round the corner, his usual scowl on his face. His hair and beard were longer and messier than usual making him look even more bear like. She was pleased to see they'd let him change into a casual dress shirt and beige slacks.

"Mia," he greeted with a grunt as he sat down across from her.

The prison was a low security one, meaning they got to share a table rather than speak to each other through a glass pane. "Hey V," she said on a sigh. "How are you?"

"Fine," he said curtly as he set his interlocked hands on the table. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," she said with a shrug. "Can't say the same for everyone else, though."

"Is it Alex? Is she okay? What happened?" he asked, his questions coming out quickly as his blue eyes grew worried.

Mia smiled warmly and shook her head. "She's fine. Just pregnant and crazy. It's Mickey and Leon I'm worried about."

Vince sighed in relief. "What happened?"

"They broke up."

"What'd he do?" he asked. He knew better than to think Michaela had said or done something wrong since Leon usually gave into whatever she wanted. Mia sighed heavily before launching into the whole story, going into more detail than he wanted. When she was finally done, he heaved a sigh and ran a hand over his face. "Gimme a break. They really broke up over that?"

Mia nodded. "Now, they won't talk to each other. Mickey moved back into your place. She's been hanging out with this guy now…Jeremy or something. He's nice. They're not serious or anything and she's never slept over…"

"Mia, please. Stop. Talking," Vince said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How's Alex?"

"She's better now. She's out of the moody stage so she's not crying all the time any more, though sometimes she gets sad. Mostly because of you. Now she gets these weird cravings. Luckily the boys are always ready and willing to drive places to get what she wants. Jess has been the best at that. He knows where to get the weirdest things. Like last night, she wanted a California burrito and none of us knew what it was but Jess did. He got it for her."

Vince smirked. "How's Jess doing?"

"Fine. He's back to driving and working on cars again. Slowly, of course. He can't do much heavy lifting so Lee's got him on the computer instead of under the hood," she explained with a smile. "I have pictures!"

He gently picked up the first one he slid over. It was of Michaela lying on the beach, scowling up at the camera. Leon was sitting at her side, laughing. "This was before?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately, we haven't developed the more recent roles so these are from a few weeks ago," she explained with a frown. "Here's one of Lex and Ronnie sleeping. I know you two had a fight about that but look, they're not even cuddling."

He smirked as he stared at the picture. When Alex had told him that she and Ronnie were sharing a bed, he had flipped out. Looking at the picture, he saw that he hadn't had cause to. Alex was sleeping on his side of the bed, curled into a ball, her face pressed against his pillow and Ronnie was on the exact opposite side, on his stomach, his face pointed away from her. He ran a finger over her sleeping form. "Is she any bigger?" he asked, swallowing hard.

"Yeah. You can tell she's pregnant now. She hates that." Mia pointed to another picture. It was of just Alex in her little green bikini. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, big mirrored aviators covering half her face, and her tongue sticking out. He glanced at her stomach and noticed it was a lot rounder than he remembered it being. He also noticed her chest had gotten a bit larger as well. God, he missed her. "She was upset because Ronnie hid her surfboard because he didn't want her to surf while pregnant," Mia explained with a laugh.

Vince chuckled, he knew well how annoyed his fiancée got when she wanted something and someone got in her way. "Did she find it?"

"No, he put it on top of one of the cabinets in the garage. She can't reach it. He also puts all the coffee on the tallest shelf so she can't drink it since he heard it causes premature labor. Ron's good about that kind of stuff. He's been taking care of her. Making her take vitamins and being patient with her moods. They bitch at each other constantly though. But say one bad thing about either of them and they'll turn on you. It's sweet."

"Sounds like somebody has a crush," he grunted, taking his eyes off the picture to give Mia a look.

Mia scowled and rolled her eyes. "Ronnie? No. Ew. I was just letting you know that she's well taken care of."

"Wish I could be the one takin' care of her," he muttered under his breath.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "When do you get a probation hearing?"

"A few months. I have to hit the halfway mark first."

"Good. You better be behaving," she said wagging a finger in his face.

He rolled his eyes at her. "Yes, Mama Mia," he teased with a smirk.

"I have one more picture," she said giving him a thinner piece of paper. A blurry black and white image was on there. "It's an ultra sound. That's your kid. See, there's its head and its little arm and feet. Lex, insisted that the doctor not even try to make out its sex, but I think it's a girl."

His eyes grew sad as he ran his fingers over the blurry image. He should be there. He should've been the one at the doctor's office holding her hand and listening to his baby's heartbeat. He should be there to talk some sense into his sister and kick Leon's sorry ass. He should be home. Not stuck behind bars only able to experience these things through crappy photos. His hand slowly curled into a fist and hit the table. "This is such bullshit," he muttered under his breath. "I should be there for her, for them."

Mia knew she was treading dangerous waters now. If he got any angrier, he might take his anger out on something else, and then there'd be no chance of him coming home early. She smiled at him reassuringly. "V, calm down. You're going to be home soon. You just need to behave yourself. It's just a few more weeks, Vince. You can do it. Just be positive."

Vince sighed and bobbed his head up and down in a nod. "I know. You tell them you were comin'?"

"Mickey knows. I didn't see Lex or the guys before I came. I've been living at your place with Mickey, so other than when they come to lunch, I don't see the guys often," she admitted with a frown. "Lex, I see more because we do baby stuff together."

"Does she hate me?"

Mia laughed and shook her head. "No, Vince. Of course not! She could never hate you. She just…misses you. A lot. We all do."

"Time, miss," the guard said, interrupting whatever Vince was going to say in response.

"Tell Lex I love her," Vince told Mia, a mixture of sadness and anger on his face. "I'll see you around."

Mia nodded. "Be good, Vince. Don't do anything stupid. Remember the Gremlin."

Michaela raised an eyebrow at the unknown number. Vince rarely called her cell phone, and when he did it was because he couldn't reach Alex anywhere else. Sighing, she picked it up. "Hey bro. I'm not with Alex right now. I think she's at home."

"I didn't call to talk to her, Mickey. I called to talk to you," his deep voice replied.

She grimaced, she knew what this was about. She couldn't say it caught her by surprise. She'd avoided talking to him about it for weeks, and she knew Alex hadn't said anything. Phone time with Vince was so precious and short; they didn't usually talk about anything else but the baby. But Mia had gone to the prison the day before, so she should've expected it. "Don't waste your phone time, bro. I'm fine. "

"I've got plenty of time on the cards," Vince stated confidently. "Spill."

Michaela sighed. "We don't want the same things."

"I don't believe that. You want him, he wants you. What's wrong?"

"V, he doesn't want to get married, he doesn't want a family. I want that."

Vince let out a long sigh. "Mickey, you don't want that right now, do you? It ain't easy."

"See, you guys all say that, but look at you and Lex! You're doing it!"

"Is that why you're going insane?" he questioned on a laugh. "Always gotta copy me, huh Mickey?"

She scowled. Of course, he would make this about him! Sure, she did want what he and Lex had, but she wasn't copying him. She wanted a life of her own…that was similar to his. And who wouldn't? They were happy together! What was so wrong with wanting that? "That's not why, Vince," she assured him.

"Sounds like it."

"Don't be ridiculous. I wanted kids and a family long before you did!"

Vince chuckled at his immature sister. "Micks, you're just a baby. You have lots of time for all the business. You probably scared the crap out of Lee."

Michaela clenched her teeth tightly together, trying to hold in her anger. "I am not a baby, Vince! I have wants and needs and dreams and I don't want to give them up because he's too stubborn to look in the future! He says he doesn't want kids, but I know he will eventually, right? He has to! He loves kids! I see him with his nieces and nephew. He freakin' loves them!"

"Michaela, you can't change what he wants. If he doesn't want kids, that ain't gonna change. He's gotta have a reason why."

"He does," she said, frowning slightly as she remembered his "I won't be good at it" reason. She was almost positive there was something he wasn't telling her, but she had been too angry with him to find out what it was. "And it's dumb. And I have to go. I have a date tonight."

Vince rolled his eyes. "A first one? That poor sucker."

"No, it's actually a third one, and we all know what that means," she replied with a smirk. "Ta-ta, V. Be good!" With that she hung up and skipped back up to her room to get ready.

She hadn't been lying to her brother when she told him she was going on a third date with someone. She'd met Jeremiah Johnson at a bar one night. He'd been sitting in the corner, a cowboy hat covering half his face as he drank his Budweiser. He'd noticed her as soon as she sat down and had asked if he could sit next to her in his thick Southern drawl and because she was royally pissed off at Leon, she'd said yes.

They'd gotten to talking and she found that, although he didn't give her butterflies or make her heart skip a beat, she did like him. He was charming and polite and he made her laugh. She couldn't ask for much more.

She changed into her cut-off jeans and the cowboy boots she'd stolen from Alex. They were too tight on her because Alex's feet were ridiculously tiny, but it would be worth it to see Jem laugh. He loved when she tried to be act country since she was clearly a city girl. Looking at herself in the mirror, she sucked in a deep breath. It was times like this when she didn't recognize herself.

The girl staring back at her in the pigtails and plaid shirt was not the same girl she'd been a few weeks before. The girl she saw reflected back at her was older, smarter. She didn't give into impulses or act like a child. She respected Jem and listened to him instead of fighting him like she did with Leon.

Michaela smiled at the new girl, though she wasn't sure if she liked her yet. Picking up her keys, she headed to her Celica. She flipped down the sun-visor to check her appearance once last time when something fell out of it. It was a note written in Leon's neat cursive with just a few simple words on it. She crumpled it into a fist and tossed it into her back seat before starting her car and peeling out of the driveway trying to ignore the niggling voice at the back of her head that was screaming at her to turn the car around and head right back to Leon and the girl she'd been before.

I swear I'm trying to make it move faster! Sorry! :(

Did you like this? I would've put more of Michaela's new boy "wooing" her but I tried writing it and it just felt...awkward in the story (and made it move even slower!).

Any changes/suggestions/comments/boos/cheers, etc are greatly appreciated! Leave them in a review. :)

~Love Ink