Insert freaking longest chapter ever!

Holy crap, I had no idea how long this chapter was! Believe it or not, this chapter and Chapter 6 were supposed to be together. Good thing I decided to seperate them.

Anyway, seriously you guys; THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SOOOOO FREAKING MUCH FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL REVIEWS! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, SO SO SO SOOOOO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO NOT ONLY FAVORITED AND SUBSCRIBED TO THIS STORY, BUT WHO HAVE ALSO SUBSCIRBED TO ME AS WELL!

You guys will never know this much all this support means to me!

From the very bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I love each and everyone of you so FREAKING MUCH!

And please don't forget to review:)!

Chapter 7: Support All Around

As Jake pulled up beside the awaiting pair, Dirk opened up the door on the passenger's side and helped his little brother into the SUV.

"Bro, I can do this myself," Dave said to his older brother, a bit annoyed at his overprotectiveness.

"I just don't want you to fall and get hurt," Dirk told his brother, causing Dave to roll his eyes. The vehicle was barely two feet off the ground, and it had a step. How could he possibly fall and get hurt?

Dirk knew Dave probably wouldn't fall and get hurt trying to climb into his friend's SUV. Normally Dirk would laugh when his brother would do something clumsy, like fall or trip, just so long as he wasn't hurt. But now with the baby, Dirk wouldn't risk his brother getting so much as scratch, not on his watch at least. He already had too much on his plate to worry about, he didn't need to add Dave falling and hurting himself or the baby to that.

"Hey man, thanks for picking us up," Dirk said to his best friend as he climbed in shotgun.

"Don't think absolutely nothing of it, my good man," Jake replied with his usual British toothy grin.

But that grin soon fades when he notices his friend's still bruised and slightly less bloody knuckles.

'Strider, you stupid...What did you do?' the Britain mentally face palmed.

And the look Jake gave his best friend said just that.

Dirk didn't say anything, he just rubbed his brow; which over the years, Jake has come to learn that the Strider way of saying, 'I'll tell you later'.

Jake just shook his head slightly and sighed heavily through his nose and dropped the subject, for now.

Jake adjusted the rear view to and smirked alittle bit when he saw Dave looking out the window, with his arm draped over his stomach.

"How are you feeling this morning, Little Man?" Jake asked.

"Good," Dave replied, "A little tired but good."

"That's good," Jake said, "You'll have a bit more energy after lunch. Mr. Egbert cooked a feast."

The thought of a delicious home cooked meal made Dave's stomach furiously growl.

"Well put the petal to metal English! My stomach is about to feast on my backside over here," Dave retorted.

The sound of Dave's stomach getting ready to tear through his abdomen, made the two adults in the front seats chuckle.

"Hold your horses, kiddo. We'll be there in a minute," Dirk told a rather impatient Dave.

That minute couldn't come fast enough to the starving teen in the backseat. He hadn't had anything to eat since dinner at the Egbert's last night, which promptly exited his body when he found out about the little bungle of joy brewing in his belly. And that was well over 12 hours ago.

When the vehicle finally came to fault in the Egbert's driveway, Dave didn't hesitate to fly out of the SUV and run as fast as he could up to the front door. Completely ignoring his brother's calls for him to wait on them.

By the time that two adults made it the door, Dave had already gave the door a serious beating.

"Didn't I tell you to wait on us?" Dirk said as he grabbed his brother's shoulder, pulling him back from the door.

"Sorry Bro, wait is not in my vocabulary," Dave said as he heard foot steps approaching from behind the door.

"Dave Strider, I ought to have known that was you," Rose said as she opened the door to greet the perpetrator responsible for nearly beating down the front door.

"Where's the food?" Dave bluntly said, barging in through the doorway without so much as hello to his friend.

"Well hello to you too," Rose retorted as she watched her friend make a B-Line to the kitchen.

Jake and Dirk just shook their heads as they entered into the house.

"Don't feel bad Rose, you should have seen him when the doctor told him he couldn't have any more sodas," Dirk said.

"Oh God, that poor doctor," Rose smirked as she and two adults behind her walked into the kitchen.

There they saw Dave helping himself to a hapless basket of freshly baked rolls on the kitchen counter.

"Dave don't eat all those, somebody else might want some too," Dirk said as he witnessed his little brother shove his third or fourth roll into his mouth.

"Don't worry Dirk, there's plenty more where that came from," Jane said, pulling a tray of piping hot rolls out of the oven, "Dave sweetie, lunch will be ready in just a minute. Don't fill up on too many rolls."

Dave's head lifted up and watched as Mr. Egbert walked from the kitchen to the dining room with a huge plate of ham. He quickly abandoned the basket of rolls, saying, "You won't have to worry about that Jane," as he followed Mr. Egbert into the dining room.

"Poor boy must be starving," Jane laughed and shook her head, "So how has y'alls morning been?"

Dirk just shook his head and lifted up his hat and ran a hand through his hair, "Busy. When the doctor told him all things he he could and couldn't do, I thought I was gonna have to go hunt down a roll of duck tape."

Both Jake and Jane just laughed and shook their heads, completely believing everything their friend just told them.

"And then he almost gave me heart attack when he was doing wheelies in his wheelchair and almost flipped over," Dirk said, "I told him you can't be doing crap like that anymore, that he hand to watch out for the baby."

"That reminds me," Jane said, "Mr. Egbert wanted us to all talk about we're all gonna do, with the baby coming. How are we gonna keep this, 'under the radar', so to speak. I mean it's not everyday you hear about a pregnant male teenager."

"Shit," Dirk said, "I hadn't even thought about how we're going to pull that off. I'm glad somebody was."

"That's what friends are for Dirk," Jane said as she refilled the roll basket and carried it into the dining room, her two friends following right behind her.

"Alright everyone, lunch is served," Mr. Egbert announced as Jane sat the basket on the table.

Everyone then took their places at the table.

Mr. Egbert sat at the head of the table.

Jane sat to his left and Jake sat to his right.

Dirk, Dave, and Jade sat on Jane's side. And Roxy, Rose, and John sat on Jake's side. In that order.

"Alrighty, everyone dig in," Mr. Egbert said.

And everyone done as they were told.

After everything was passed around; Dave had ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato soufflé, corn, and due to a combination of weird cravings and his brother just shoving stuff on his plate, peas and carrots.

As Dave feasted on his stacked high plate, he couldn't help but over hear the snickering coming from his three nearest and dearest friends.

"Alright," Dave said, pulling out his iPhone to the timer, "You three have 60 seconds. Go."

"Geez Dave, are you feeding an army? How many do you have in there?" Rose went first.

5 seconds.

"Well what do you know Dave, it looks like Bec was trying to warn us about your alien baby after all," the next one came from John.

"Oh hey Dave, I know how you can hide the pregnancy. When you get bigger, all you have to do is put on a fake pair of boobs and maybe grow your hair out alittle. People have already mistaken you for a girl before, you should fit right in," Rose less than jokingly said.

"Go to hell Lalonde," Dave retorted.

"Ladies first," Rose replied.

This sent the table rolling in light laughter.

Dave just sat back in his chair and pouted, "Well I suppose I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"Alright, y'all got 15 seconds left. Anyone else?" Dave said looking down at his phone.

"Ah, come on Dave. Don't you see the irony in all this?" Jade finally spoke, "I mean in this relationship, who would have thought that you would be the one getting pregnant."

That light laughter around the table, now erupted in a roaring laughter that lasted a good minute and a half.

Dave sat there in his chair trying to hold back his laughter, even he had to admit it, that was a good one. His girl had spunk, makes him so proud.

Now that you think of it, this whole situation is right up his ironic alley, ironically and quite literally.

"Alright, alright, you've had your fill, now get it out of your system and...Egbert, what the hell are you giggling about?" Dave said as he looked across the table and saw John giggling like an idiot.

"It's going to be in your system for 9 months," John laughed.

Yeah, this wasn't gonna stop anytime soon.

Dave retorted by throwing a roll at his friend's face.

John was about to throw it back, along with a few other things, when Mr. Egbert felt like it was time to intervene.

"Alright you two, cut it out," Mr. Egbert calmly stated, "Do I need to put you two in a corner?"

The corner had always been Mr. Egbert's form of punishment. When they were little, and they would act up or fight, Mr. Egbert would put them in the corner. Even though it had been years since they both had to spend time in the corner, both boys knew Mr. Egbert wasn't joking and quickly calmed down.

"No sir," both boys quietly said.

"Good," Mr. Egbert said, "You two can fight after the baby's born," Mr. Egbert smirked before quickly putting back on his serious face, "But in the meantime, we all need to seriously have a talk about what all we need to do. For David's sake, we need to keep this under raps as best we can."

"Any ideas?"

"That joke that Rose made about Dave dressing up like a girl when he gets bigger, is actually not that bad of an idea," Jane said.

"You're kidding right?" Dave asked.

"No I'm not kidding. Listen Dave, what do you think people will say, let alone do, when they see a pregnant teenaged boy walking around. They'll freak out, call a news station somewhere and you'll be on every news channel in the state," Jane stated, "However, since you're not exactly the most, masculine teenaged boy; when you get bigger, you'll be easy to pass off as just as another pregnant teenaged girl. That way, no one will know."

"You know Janey," Dirk spoke up, "That's not a bad idea."

Dirk couldn't believe what he was actually saying, but that actually made sense. I mean when Dave was little, people used to think he was girl all the time. When Dave was 3, one woman even had the nerve to ask him why he dressed such a pretty little 'girl' up in boy clothes.

So needless to say, when you really think about it, that crazy idea doesn't sound so crazy after all. There was just one thing wrong with that idea.

"What about school though?" Dirk asked, "What are we gonna do when he starts showing?"

"Oh, I know!" Roxy blurted out, surprisingly sober, "You could get him enrolled in the homeschool program that Rose is in. It'll be better than sending him to school and risk him being detected. The tuition is not that expensive, the curriculum is great, and it's flexible so he can do it whenever is best for him."

"Lalonde," Dirk said, "That is the smartest things that has come out of your mouth since you told us that started taking birth control in the summer of '98. That is a great idea! We'll definitely do that!"

"Hey, I still have some brain cells left," Roxy said, ending her sobriety by chugging back a bottle Vodka.

"There goes the rest of them," Rose mumbled underneath her breath.

"David, what all did the doctor say as far as your diet goes?" Mr. Egbert asked as they finished their lunch.

"He told me a whole bunch of crap about what I can and cannot eat," Dave said, getting the list out from his pocket, "He even gave me a list," Dave said passing the list to Mr. Egbert.

"Well David, this list seems very reasonable," Mr. Egbert said, looking over the list, "Dirk, I'll have to teach you how to prepare all these foods that David will need for the baby."

"Oh Mr. Egbert, there's no need to do that," Jane spoke up, "If it's alright with you Dirk, I'd like to be able to do all of the cooking at y'alls house. My grandmother has a cookbook specifically for pregnancies, and I'd love to get to try it out. And besides, I could stay on Dave with his homeschooling," Jane smiled.

"That's very thoughtful of you Jane," Mr. Egbert said.

"Jane, are you sure?" Dirk asks her, "You don't have to do this. I can borrow one of Mr. Egbert's cookbooks. And I'll be at home most of the day, I can make sure Dave does his schoolwork."

"I know I don't have to, I want to do it!" Jane told her friend, "And Dirk honey, no offense, but you aren't exactly the greatest motivator when it comes to getting things done."

Dirk had to admit, she did have a point there, he wasn't the most motivating person when it comes to getting school work done. In fact, his motto in high school was, 'If it can be done today, it can wait until tomorrow.' How he passed all of his classes was completely beyond him.

And Jane, she could get stuff done. If she couldn't do it herself, she will motivate you to do it. Maybe this is what Dave needs?

"And when you go to work, I could stay over and watch out for Dave," Jane added.

Sold.

Dirk's mind was made up instantaneously. What if Dave fell or something while he was at work and got hurt? Or worse, what if Noir decided to come after Dave while he was out? Nope, not gonna happen under his watch. If anyone tries to come after both of his babies while he's gone, they'll be answering to Jane and her gun.

"Ms. Crocker, you have a deal," Dirk said holding out his hand.

But instead of shaking his hand, Jane threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug.

"Thank you Dirk!" Jane said, hugging the life out of her friend.

This meant much more to her than Dirk realized.

Even though Jane really did want to help to Dave and Dirk through the pregnancy, she had something else in mind as well.

With Jane now being able to be around Dave, maybe, just maybe she can slowly convince him to consider keeping the baby. She didn't want to see that baby go into a crumby orphanage, and may never even be adopted, and live it's life thinking that it has no family and no one will ever love it.

Not when there is family right here that loves it already.

Jane has known Dirk her entire life, and by now, she could read him like a book. Even with his iconic shades on. And she could tell he really didn't want to give up the baby. She knew that he knew what their mother would want, for them to raise it, as a family.

'Maybe, if I could get Dirk to realize, just how bad he wants to keep this baby, maybe it'll be that much easier to convince Dave,' Jane thought.

"Is that okay with you Little Man? That Jane help you with your schoolwork and stay with you at night while I work?" Dirk asked Dave when Jane finally let go of him.

"Yeah, cool. That's fine with me," Dave said.

"Thank you sweet heart!" Jane leaned down and gave the boy a light, big hug.

'Dave needs a mother through this. Dirk, bless his heart, he does his best. But sometimes you just need a mother's touch. I just hope I could be as good a mother to him as Cynthia would be," Jane's thoughts continued as she let go of the boy.

"Hey Jane, you alright?" Dave asked, noticing little tear drops forming in Jane's eyes.

"Huh? Yeah, yeah I'm fine sweetie. I just got something in my eye," Jane said, quickly wiping the stay tears from her eyes, "I need to go help Mr. Egbert with the dishes," Jane said getting up as she began helping Mr. Egbert gather up all the dirty dishes from the table.

"Dad, lunch was great!" Dirk said to Mr. Egbert, "And I hate to eat and run, but Dave is getting pretty tired," Dirk looked over at Dave, who was nearly passed out on the couch from his food coma.

"Why thank you son," Mr. Egbert said, putting up the last of the dishes, "And don't worry about a thing! When my wife was pregnant, God rest her soul, she would eat and pass out 30 minutes later."

"If there is anything, ANYTHING, you or David need, just let me know!" Mr. Egbert added.

He thought of both Strider brothers as his sons, and he would do anything he could for either of them. Especially now with a baby on the way.

"Thank you Dad, we greatly appreciate that," Dirk said.

"Come on squirt, ya ready to go?" Dirk gently shook Dave awake.

"Yeah, yeah," Dave quietly said as he slowly got up off the couch.

"Bye Dad, thank you for having us! Lunch was great!" Dave said to Mr. Egbert.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it David," Mr. Egbert smiled, "If you need anything, just call me or John okay?"

"Thanks Dad, I will," Dave told Mr. Egbert as he walked out the door and followed his brother and Jane to her car, as Dirk's was still at the club.

Before the three got into the vehicle, the three were stopped by a British accent, "Hey Strider! Could you spare a moment to speak to a friend?" Jake called out from his Land Rover.

"Let me go see what he wants," Dirk told Jane and Dave as they got into the car.

"I suppose you want to know about last night?" Dirk asked his best friend and colleague.

"Strider, what did you do?" Jake asked, noting the bruises on his knuckles.

Dirk clinched his fists, "I done what I should have done all along."

"I didn't kill him, I just made him wish he was dead," Dirk said, looking down at his bruised knuckles.

"Dirk Strider," Jake shook his head, "You have got to be the stupidest bastard that has ever shart between two shoes! You know that?!" Jake told his friend.

Dirk let out a loud sigh, "Tell me something I don't already know."

Dirk didn't tell him, what he had told to Noir; he would have just been adding further insult to injury.

Jake English has known Dirk Strider since they were thirteen years old when he was just a foreign exchange student from London. The two quickly became best friends. When Jake's family finally moved to Houston for Jake's high school years, the two were inseparable. Dirk even went with them to visit Jake's grandfather in Australia over one holiday.

And over the years, Dirk and Jake had done some pretty stupid stuff together. Jake had seen Dirk do some pretty stupid stuff. But of all the stupid things that Dirk Strider has pulled over the years, this single handedly takes the cake.

Jake knew of Noir's notorious rap sheet for coming after anyone who crossed him. And Jake was deeply afraid that this stunt would deeply cost him. If not his life, than the life of his beloved brother and his unborn baby.

And he wasn't about to let that happen, to either of them.

Jake reached into his glove compartment and pulled out a fully loaded 9mm handgun and handed it to his best friend.

"I know how much you love your swords, but this might come in handy," Jake said.

Dirk knew what he was trying to say and took the gun and stuffed it into the pants, before engulfing his best friend in a gracious bear hug.

"Thank you man! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Jake just smiles and returns the hug.

"Use it when you need to," Jake said as Dirk let go of him.

Before Dirk turned and left, Jake told him other thing.

"Hey, take the week off. You look like you have a bunch of stuff to take care of," Jake told his friend.

"Thanks man," Dirk said with his classic Strider smirk and walked back to Jane's awaiting car.

"What was that about?" Jane asked as they drove off.

"English gave me the week off," Dirk replied, choosing not to tell her of the gun right now.

"That was nice of him," Jane said.

"Yeah," Dirk tried not to sound preoccupied.

Even though Jake was always right about certain things about 90% of the time, Dirk prayed to God he wasn't this time.

And he really hoped he never had to use the weapon tucked in between his pants and his hip. But it was to protect his little man and the baby.

And whoever decided to mess with either of them, better pray to God that they weren't on the wrong end of this gun.