A/N: I hope everyone has recovered from their Easter chocolate comas. Happy reading... or not!

Corinne... You're the best! xx

o~O~o
Chapter 31
Fuck Ups & Flashbacks
o~O~o

Jesse didn't turn around right away. He was too ashamed of the things he had just said in the heat of the moment to even look at Beca. He listened to her sniffling as she slowly walked up the stairs, jumping when he heard their bedroom door slam shut with such force he imagined a huge crack appearing in the door jam. He hated it when she slammed doors and she knew it. The sound brought him back to the days when Chuck would shove him into the hall closet and leave him there for hours at a time.

He hovered in the kitchen, rocking from foot to foot as a dozen thoughts ran through his mind. He nervously flexed his fingers, not quite sure what to do with himself.

"Did I hear her right?"

"Pregnant?"

"How?"

"Well, I know that much."

"When? We haven't... oh wait, the night we wrapped on the album."

"Is the baby mine?"

"Of course the baby is mine. She's not like me. She's faithful."

"Wow… another baby."

"Is it safe for her to be pregnant so soon after losing Bodhi?"

"Oh God… why did I tell her she couldn't mention him?"

"Did she find out about Pepper and do this on purpose to trap me?"

"What am I thinking? We're married and even if we weren't she wouldn't trap me."

As he began to walk toward the stairs, fully intending to go upstairs and have it out with Beca, when he heard one of the dogs whimper in the family room. Glancing to see if the puppy was stuck under one of the end tables again, his eyes swept into the dining room. Beca had set the table for dinner, complete with candles, cloth napkins and the fancy place settings. She had a plan… just as she always did and he'd been too selfish and blind to see it and all because he was acting like a total douchebag. She planned a wonderful meal for the two of them to tell him the exciting news about the new baby and he ruined it.

Like a train slamming into his chest, it hit him. By becoming pregnant again, Beca was on the road to healing and despite everything he was doing to ruin their relationship, he wanted nothing more than for her to be happy. She needed this... and he'd taken it away from her. Jesse's breath caught in his throat and he tried to swallow the hard lump that had formed there. Until then he didn't realize that he hadn't grieved for his son until that very moment. And all he had done was to push Beca further away, when all she had done was to try to pull him closer.

Why was it so hard for him to accept that he'd married a loving, caring woman that took a real interest in what was going on in his life? Was it because it was easier to fall back on old, familiar habits so easily? Or was it because he didn't feel like he deserved her love and affection because the years of being told he was a failure was embedded in his soul? He loved Beca with his whole being but was he in love with her? That was a question that he'd never really been able to answer. Beca was home, safe, predictable with her generous love whereas Pepper was wild, off the wall and up in the air all the time. He liked the uncertainty but at the same time, it was slowly killing him. It wasn't as if Beca didn't like adventure, sharing new things together and she made him laugh more than anyone else did. He couldn't understand why he wasn't completely infatuated with her. Was he just waiting for her to leave him, like everyone else in his life had?

He sank to his knees and raised his eyes to the heavens. "Why do I continue to fuck things up with this woman?"

'This woman' … Was that all Beca was?

Jesse's phone, the bane of his existence, started to vibrate in his pocket. Changing his mind about going upstairs, he stood up and walked toward the back door and he removed the phone from his pocket. As he sat down at the table on the morning porch, the phone continued to vibrate with message after message, some filled with anger at his lack of response, some teasing him to go to their favorite seedy motel and then there was a few pictures that would have made a porn star blush. After the tenth message came through, Jesse took the phone from the table and threw it into the pool, hearing a satisfying splash before watching as it quickly sunk to the bottom while the life drained out of it.

He felt a sense of relief immediately.

It had been a shitty day and if he were on the road with the band, he'd be drinking by now, despite everyone telling him he needed to quit. Drinking seemed to make everything better, or at least that's what Jesse thought. In reality, the last thing Jesse needed to be doing was drinking… especially after what he saw earlier. He knew he'd taken out his frustration on Beca and he was man enough to admit that he'd fucked up. But he also knew Beca well enough to know that she needed time for herself and wouldn't take kindly to his quietly tapping on the bedroom door and seeking permission to enter. He completely understood her need to be alone. He had rushed home to tell Beca about his afternoon, then faltered at the door when he realized he would have to tell her more than he was prepared to share. He too needed some time alone.

o~O~o
Flashback
o~O~o

Arriving at 156 Oaktree Drive, Jesse pulled into Pepper's complex using the gate code she'd given him several weeks earlier. He felt compelled to take it and the key to her apartment despite a persistent ache in his gut telling him to walk away. She had a hold over him that had seemed sexy and mysterious in the beginning but now, his moment of stupidity was going to cost him everything.

As he began to climb the stairs to her apartment on the third floor, he thought back to his wedding day and the buzz of the phone in his pocket as he sat in the reception, doing all he could to focus on Beca and their special day.

He'd been shocked and fearful when he'd heard that Pepper was on her way over to the house to, as she told him in her first text message of that morning, fix everything with Beca. He had felt his blood run cold and his throat close up as he hurriedly shot a text back to ask her what the hell she was playing at.

"Why the fuck are you coming to my house on my wedding day?"

"Relax. I'm coming to see the little woman, not you. Although, if you need stress relief, I am sure I can slip away."

"Why do you need to see Beca?"

"Apparently her hair is out of control."

"Huh?"

"I'm a hairdresser dumbass."

"So... um, you are not going to tell her about us?"

"And miss the opportunity to make you sweat some more? No sir!"

"This has to stay between us Pepper."

"I'll be at the house in half an hour. I'll try to keep my mouth shut."

"Pepper, promise me you'll behave. Not today, ok?"

"Pepper, are you there?"

"Pepper, please promise me?

"Pepper?!"

"Hello?!"

Twenty five minutes later, and a whole lot of nervous twitching from Jesse, his phone finally began to vibrate again in his pocket. He'd taken a quick walk out to the pool to get some air and was well aware of at least a dozen pairs of eyes on him as he kicked a stone about with his foot. He tried to pretend he was practicing his vows in case anyone important was watching him.

"Dude, I'm late."
"Late? Where were you going? I thought you were coming straight here?"
"I'm late you jackass."
"Is traffic bad?"
"You're such a dense fucker at times… I'M LATE!"
"Late for what?!"
"Late as in late late."
"Did you forget an appointment? Don't worry about coming to do Beca's hair then. It might be best if you don't show up here anyway."
"OMG… Call me!"
"I can't… I just had a huge fight with Casey and I'm getting some air."
"Call me NOW or I'm calling Beca!"
"You can't do this to me now."
"I can and I will. You have 5 minutes to call me."

He didn't make the phone call as it was at that exact time that Casey called him and said that he'd spoken to Anne and if Jesse still wanted him to be his best man, he'd be there for him. Casey told to him that he was on his last chance with him and that Jesse had to make a choice, it was either him or Pepper.

Jesse had promised Casey that he'd make things right with Beca and that having his brother by his side through life was more important than his pole dancing lover. Jesse could hear Casey's joy through the phone and Jesse had hung up with a renewed interest in making his marriage work. He was about to send a text to Pepper when he heard her car pull up in the driveway. Gritting his teeth, he peered between the thick hedge that ran the length of the back yard, separating the driveway and the backyard. He'd watched as Pepper jumped out of her car and headed straight for the front door. He heard Aubrey squeal with relief as she saw Pepper standing on the front door step before she animatedly ushered her inside with a cheerful story about how she needed to pee every few minutes. Jesse lost the rest of the conversation as the front door slammed and he didn't hear from Pepper until later on that evening when she began texting as he entered the reception with his new wife. The texts were proof of Jesse's infidelity.

Pepper was pregnant with his baby.

He managed to keep his cool during the honeymoon. In truth, he shut the whole thing out and concentrated on his time with Beca. It wasn't until the drive home, and an inbox full of text messages, that he had to face reality because whether he liked it or not it was hitting him in the face like a shit ton of bricks.

In the ensuing weeks, Pepper had promised to keep the news to herself and to keep her baby's father's identity a secret in exchange for a large sum of money and a monthly income when the baby arrived around Christmas time. They both knew it was blackmail and both chose to ignore that fact. Beca couldn't find out and Jesse would have agreed to do anything, even speaking with Cynthia Rose about Pepper getting a larger cut of the band's profits when the album sales came to fruition. Pepper was now receiving a higher profit than the rest of the band put together and Jesse wasn't sure what to do when Beca found out that particular piece of information.

Unable to think rationally, Jesse reached for the whiskey bottle and spent more than one night making friends with Jack Daniels while pretending and downright lying to Beca that he was on tour with the band. In truth, he was sleeping in a dingy, dirty motel room, trying to figure out the best thing he could do with the circumstances he found himself thrust into. He knew he only had himself to blame but also knew that the deed was done. For a brief moment, he hoped that Pepper would miscarry the baby and then hated himself even more for thinking those things. He also realized that the darkest thoughts were the whiskey talking smack and managed to stop himself from falling too far into the painful cycle of over drinking.

During this time, he kept on receiving messages on his phone from an unknown number. At first he deleted them, thinking the requests to 'meet in person' and 'you can't ignore me forever' texts were a wrong number. He erased them until he woke up to a surprising message one Saturday morning that mentioned him by name. He had shot back a response and was physically shocked to learn that it was his birth father who had been messaging him all along.

He'd returned home that night, after a day spent at the studio where The Riff had finally wrapped on their first album. He had fully intended on coming clean to Beca about the messages from his father and telling her that he was going to get a new phone number. He'd arrived home to find Beca in a fantastic mood, having received a phone call from Cynthia Rose about five minutes before Jesse got home.

Beca was waiting with a bottle of sparkling cider and Chinese takeout and had already begun celebrating in his absence. Caught up in her infectious good mood, Jesse conveniently forgot about the texts on his phone. They'd ended up celebrating the finished album late into the evening, culminating in an epic, semi aggressive and hot but very much needed sex session that had them both in bed way past noon the next day.

Jesse had left Beca sleeping as he'd left the house to drive over to Pepper's to attend one of her prenatal appointments. It was there that he'd seen his baby on the screen for the first time and something had changed in him there and then. He wanted to make a go of things with Pepper and his baby properly and began to think of ways to afford an attorney so that he could divorce Beca before Christmas.

He hated that he was so cowardly and hoped that one day Beca would forgive him.

As Jesse reached the top of the stairs of Pepper's apartment complex, Jesse felt in his pocket for the small engagement ring he'd bought for her after getting the money from selling a piece of Beca's jewelry that he knew she didn't care for too much. He tried hard not to think about the irony in his purchase as he rang the bell and waited for Pepper to answer. After knocking loudly for a couple of minutes, he checked his phone to make sure that he'd read her text correctly about meeting at her apartment that afternoon.

When she didn't answer, Jesse used his key to let himself in, calling out her name as he closed the door behind him. She didn't reply but he heard loud music coming from her bedroom and, knowing she had a dance pole in her room, he guessed she was in the middle of a workout. Crossing through the living area to the other side of the apartment, he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it onto the couch by the window. He was just about to reach for her bedroom door knob when he heard Pepper giggling inside. Wondering if she was about to jump out and surprise him, he braced himself to laugh at the joke as he opened the door.

He wasn't prepared for the sight that greeted him as the door banged against the opposite wall.

Pepper was laid out on top of her quilted bedspread, her knees locked on either side of another man's head. One hand was clutching a handful of his hair and her other hand was busy tugging on her nipple as she bucked against the tongue that was being dragged through her folds.

Jesse's eyes flew open at the sight and he stood there trying to make sense of what was going on. He knew he hadn't had a drink for over a week but the guy working between Pepper's legs looked incredibly familiar. In his shocked state, all Jesse could think about was the baby nestled safely inside Pepper's small rounded belly.

Without a word, Jesse backed out of the room toward the living room. He stumbled out of the apartment door and clumsy staggered down the stairs.

"Jesse! Come back so we can talk about this!" Pepper's singsong voice echoed down the stair well.

"Fuck you!" Jesse yelled back but paused at the bottom of the staircase. He realized he didn't have his jacket with him and he'd left his keys in the inside pocket.

"That would be awesome but as you can see I've got company this afternoon." Pepper giggled, wrapping her robe around herself a little tighter.

"How long has this been going on?" Jesse asked, turning back to the stairs and tentatively walking up the first step. Despite everything, he wanted to be clear on what was happening.

"What?"

"This affair you've been having with my... with that man."

"Why don't you come up and we'll talk about it."

"I'd really rather not."

"Really Jesse? There's a lot you'd rather not be doing but it would seem you have more than an addiction to booze and drugs. You can't seem to let me go either."

"That's a-"

"-Come up and get your coat." Pepper said, turning around and walking away from the stairs. Jesse breathed a hearty sigh and slowly climbed back up the stairs.

His mind was racing. His heart was breaking. His throat was tightening. And yet, the ache in his groin was what was surprising him the most. He hated himself for being so turned on by watching Pepper in bed with another man. He didn't even begin to fathom how it was his father who was laid out with her. What did David Russell have to do with all of this? By the time he reached the top of the stairs, he was feeling quite sick. He knew he was about to lose Pepper and the baby and wasn't sure how to handle it. He almost laughed to himself because he was seemingly more upset by that than the thought of having a conversation with Beca about wanting a divorce.

"Drink?"

"Sorry, what?" Jesse said, startled out of his day dream by a male voice.

"I said, do you want a drink?"

"Yes." Jesse replied. "Something stiff."

"Jesse likes something that's stiff, don't you big boy?" Pepper purred from the sofa in the lounge.

"Chloe, dear, why don't you fix us a drink so we can talk this all through?" David asked, turning to Pepper. Jesse was more shocked when Pepper quickly got up from the sofa to head in the direction of the kitchen. In all the months they had been together, Jesse was the one who had fetched everything, Pepper having refused to do anything she didn't have to do. Jesse began to rationalize that he was a bit of a sap in all of this.

"Ice?" Pepper called from the kitchen.

"Please." Jesse said, not completely sure why he was still here. He wasn't sure whether he was going to give Pepper up without a fight. The thought of being with Beca for the rest of his life wasn't something he could fathom.

"Take a seat." David said, nodding towards the single armchair.

"I'd rather stand." Jesse said, as coldly as he could manage.

"Suit yourself." David said, sitting down on the sofa and crossing one leg over the other. Jesse recognized the pose as one that he did. He also realized that David was very comfortable in the apartment and looked like he belonged.

"What are you doing here?" Jesse asked. "I told you before, when you threatened me with a knife that I wanted nothing more to do with you. That wasn't exactly the best way to introduce yourself to me after all these years."

"You've done your part."

"How?"

"I'll let Chloe explain."

"How long has this been going on?" Jesse asked Pepper as she came out of the kitchen with a tray. The icy bottle of whiskey was almost full and the frosted glasses looked inviting to Jesse.

"What?" Pepper said innocently.

"This affair you have been having with my father?"

"It's not an affair Jesse."

"What do you mean?"

"I've known David since I was seven years old."

"Um, what? Please explain." Jesse said, taking one of the glasses from the tray and filling it to the brim with whiskey. He took a healthy swig from the glass, holding the liquid in his mouth for a second or two before swallowing in a painful gulp.

"Well, David met my Mom when I was about seven, right?" Pepper said, looking at David for confirmation. He nodded his response as Jesse took another mouthful of drink. "They dated for about a year before David moved in."

"He's your step father?" Jesse spat out the words as well as half of the whiskey in his mouth. Wiping his chin, he looked between the two of them. "That is beyond fucked up."

"He was my stepdad, yes." Pepper went onto explain.

"Was?"

"Yeah. He divorced my Mom when I was sixteen."

"And you kept in touch with him, obviously?" Jesse asked.

"Well yeah. We'd been in our own relationship since I was fourteen."

"What the fuck?"

"It's not as weird as it sounds." Pepper laughed but Jesse felt sick.

Turning to David, Jesse curled his lip at the smug look on his father's face. "You're a fucking pedophile?"

"It was consenting." Pepper said. "I loved him and he loved me. We just had to wait until I was of legal age."

"So you two were fucking while he..." Jesse pointed to David with his whiskey glass. "... was married to your Mom? And then you two what? Kept in touch and became fuck buddies in between relationships? That's beyond fucked up."

"No!" Pepper laughed as she and David exchanged a knowing glance.

"What then?"

"He left my Mom for me."

"Dude." Jesse said, looking at David for confirmation.

"I've always liked them young Jesse."

"What?"

"Women. Your Mom was young when I knew her too."

"You leave Bambi out of this. Just don't go there."

"How is your Mom Jesse? How is she-" Before David could finish the rest of the sentence, Jesse flew at him with his fist out, catching him squarely on the jaw. "Ow, fuck!"

"Don't you ever mention her name again! How dare you!"

"Wow! Like father, like son!" Pepper giggled, crossing her legs on the sofa and pulling a cushion onto her lap.

"He's not my father!"

"Well, yeah, I am." David said, rubbing his chin before taking a seat next to Pepper. "We had the DNA tests, if you remember?"

"You told me that was due to a genetic condition and you felt compelled to tell me about."

"Yes, I did."

"Ok, ok... I am beyond confused right now. I need one of you to start talking and explaining properly what the fuck is going on." Jesse said, a hint of pleading to his tone.

"Well Jesse..." David began. "... I met your Mom when she was fourteen. She was a fun kid to hang out with, I was a senior in High School but the five year age difference wasn't a problem. She got pregnant and I admit, I was scared. Your grandma was pretty feisty Jess. Anyway, I went MIA for a bit but heard through friends that you had been born and you were healthy. I did see you and another little boy out with your Mom a few years later and guessed she had moved on and settled down with someone new. I'd always wondered about her."

"But not enough to get in contact and get to know me?"

"What can I say? I was young and stupid. I know it's not much of an excuse but it's all I got for you. Anyway, a few years went past and I met Fran, Chloe's Mom. I wasn't looking for anything serious but we got on well and I enjoyed taking young Chloe out to places. We got married and her Mom started working nights as a nurse a few years later. It meant that Chloe and I spent a lot of time together. I admit, I liked her but I wasn't going to act on it and make the same mistakes I made with your Mom."

"You don't have to call me a mistake to my face."

"That's not what I meant. But anyway, eventually, we couldn't hide our love for each other any longer..." David picked up Chloe's hand and kissed her fingers. Jesse tried not to throw up. "... and I started divorce proceedings with her Mom. She was beyond pissed when she found out Chloe was the reason for the decline in our relationship-"

"-You blame her?" Jesse interrupted.

"... And threw Chloe out. It was a week after her sixteenth birthday and she moved in with me. I'd never officially adopted Chloe so there was nothing her mother could do about keeping us apart. Although she did try."

Jesse watched Pepper shrug her shoulders as if she really didn't care.

"I started feeling a little unwell a few years back and started questioning my existence. I was in the hospital for a while and it got me thinking a little bit about you but also that if I were to die, it would leave my Chloe on her own. We got married in Veg-"

"-Wait, what?" Jesse blurted out, his mind and heart racing.

"... Vegas and made it official and tried to conceive a child."

"I think I'm going to be sick." Jesse cried out. He turned to Pepper. "You're my stepmom? That's gross..."

"Unfortunately, the treatment I had for my liver disease left me infertile. I told Chloe that I wouldn't be able to give her children and at first, she was ok with that. She was sad that we'd never have our own children. Jesse, I never told her about you and after confessing-"

"-Confessing." Jesse scoffed.

"... she urged me to get in touch with you, if nothing else to tell you about the hereditary liver disease I had. I may have unwittingly passed it onto you and felt compelled to tell you about it. I didn't know how to approach you so I started watching you from afar, I was waiting for you outside your place of work and home. I admit that the way I approached you to begin with was a bad idea but I didn't think you'd take me seriously if-"

"-If what? You'd written me a letter or got in touch through a lawyer? Like a normal person?!"

"I admit, my thoughts were not the best. I also had to make sure that you were really my son and after you agreed to the DNA testing, I was really pleased to find out you were. I came home to tell Chloe about it and she asked if we could all meet up perhaps. We both came by to meet you at work one day and that's when Chloe saw you with your girlfriend at the time."

"Beca."

"Yes, Beca. Chloe knew her from some excercise class she'd once taken and said she seemed really nice and was very wealthy. I followed you home once and was so proud of the house you owned with your girlfriend."

"It's always been her house. It's not mine." Jesse admitted.

"Still, I admit that I became a little jealous of your success. You seemed to be on the up and up and we, Chloe and I, were unable to add to our family. That's when Chloe had the idea to keep it in the family."

"Can I just get something straight?" Jesse asked as David took a breath. "You basically started a relationship with a child, married her out of school, tried to father a baby with her and when that didn't happen, decided to use your estranged son to be what, a sperm donor?"

"Yep, that about sums it up." David said, smiling.

"What in the world of fucked up scenarios makes that ok with you?" Jesse spat, draining the glass of whiskey in his hand. "This has got to be the most bizarre thing I have ever heard."

Jesse moved to look out of the window for a moment, needing to collect his thoughts. He turned back to Pepper.

"So, all this time... you pretended to be interested in me, wanted to have a relationship with me, lied through your teeth about wanting us to be together and all this time, you've been married to my own father."

"I guess so, yes. Although I do love you Jesse, I've never lied about that. David and I have a very open relationship. He has brought extra people into our marriage a couple of times and it's fun for a year or so but then we go back to it just being us." Pepper said.

"I don't understand."

"I thought it would be a good idea to keep the genes in the family." Pepper admitted. "That way the baby would look like his dad-"

"-Grandad!" Jesse spat out.

"... and no one would question anything. We had found out that David couldn't have children and I was the one who suggested we see if you would be willing. I thought I'd get to know you a little better and by luck, Beca invited me to her New Year's Eve party and I got to hear you sing. You are really talented Jesse and I was impressed by all of it. I admit, I was a little starstruck by you and by the end of the evening, yeah, I wanted in your pants. I feel in love with you and when I joined the band, that was the icing on the cake. We'd have money to adopt and so I put the idea out of my head but then you started calling me. You were trying to seduce me so I went with it. David was all for it. He was away on business for a few weeks so we planned it all out and you were putty in my hands. I loved you anyway and the afternoon we made love in your bedroom was incredible. It was so good, I didn't even stop to think about Beca in all of this."

"You got pregnant on purpose."

"Not that time, no. About a month before your wedding, when you told Beca we were touring with the band but you and I were up in mountains fucking like rabbits, that's when it happened."

"You told me you were on the pill."

"You told me you were going through with the wedding. While I was never going to leave David, I didn't want to lose you either. I had some leftover Clomid from when I was trying to conceive with David and I'd started taking them again to increase my chances."

"Holy Fuck!"

"It worked though." Pepper said, patting her stomach and smiling at David.

"You two are the most fucked up people I have ever met."

"The three of us are." David said plainly.

"Excuse me?"

"You have a beautiful, talented, loving wife at home who seems willing to do anything for you, giving you chances at life you never thought possible, picked up your sorry ass off of the streets more than once and yet here you are, involved with another woman. Son, that's fucked up."

"I love you Pepper." Jesse spat out.

"I know you do." Pepper said. "I love you too."

"And that's definitely my baby?" Jesse asked and was surprised to see Pepper look hurt for a moment or two.

"Yes." She said quietly. "Considering you and I have been sleeping together almost every day, apart from your honeymoon, I'm not sure who you think could be the father."

"I give no time to Beca." Jesse mumbled to himself, loud enough for David to hear.

"You stick with her son, she's the best you can get."

"Our relationship..." Jesse began to say.

"Your's and Beca's?" Pepper asked and Jesse nodded.

"We don't... you know?"

"Then you have to decide Jesse. Do you want to be with Beca or Chloe?"

"Wait, hang on, what?"

"You can stay with Beca and move on and we'll forget about involving you in the baby's life or you can move in here and we'll all raise the baby together."

"That's a whole new level of fuckedupness." Jesse exclaimed.

"Think about it Jesse." Pepper softly said, as she uncurled herself from the sofa and stood up. She walked over to him and wrapped her hand around his. She reached up to whisper into his ear. "I still love you."

Jesse was ashamed to note that his groin ached with need as he felt her hot breath in his ear.

o~O~o
Present
o~O~o

As he stood waiting outside their shared bedroom door, Jesse didn't know what to do with himself. He hated every fiber of his being and he hated that with just a few simple words and action, Pepper had almost seduced him again that very afternoon. He'd followed her into her bedroom but the memory of his father having sex with Pepper was burned into his brain. The ripple of reality coursed through every vein and like a punch to the gut, he realized he couldn't ever touch Pepper again.

As he stood up to leave, making a stand to show his disgust at the situation, she pleaded with him to stay. He gave her the coldest look he could manage even though all he wanted to do was seek comfort in her arms. Walking away from the apartment and to his car was hard for him and he beat his fists on the steering wheel in frustration.

He despised himself but swallowed it down to make it safely home. As a trio, they had agreed to keep the baby's paternity a secret but had come up with a plan to tell Beca that Jesse was in touch with his father again and that surprisingly, he was married to someone they both knew. Jesse wasn't convinced he'd be able to pull off the lie. He knew that Beca might question him about how he'd spent a lot of time with Pepper over the last few months and that it had never come up in conversation.

Pepper had said that since Jesse had come up with a decent cover story for the last few months, a few more lies weren't going to hurt. He wanted everything to end. He wanted out of the relationship with Beca. He wanted out of the relationship with Pepper. But at the same time, he wanted them both. Pepper had texted him the whole way home and he was beyond irritated.

Jesse had arrived home in quite the temper and had slammed the front door with a huff. He had planned to take his guitar out to the guest house for a few hours and work through his anger until he figured out what to do. Instead, he was confronted with the delicious smell of dinner, a sparkling clean home, two happy puppies who just wanted to love on him and a beautiful, faithful and trusting wife who was keen to make him happy.

All that goodness, everything that was a man's dream in life, made him angry.

He'd emptied his pockets and tried to avoid talking to Beca. He was later than he had said he would be and was on edge because he feared that she would know what he was up to. Before long they'd gotten into an argument and his rage only started to subside when Beca had cracked him across the face. He'd been too blind to see that Beca had set up the house to tell him the news that he was going to be a father again.

As Jesse hovered outside the bedroom door, he knew he had a decision to make. If he entered the bedroom, he knew he had to end things with Pepper permanently. True, they were contracted to work on another album together but he'd get in contact with Cynthia Rose and tell her that they wouldn't be able to work in the studio together because of personal reasons. If their manager didn't like it, well, she'd have to get over it. Jesse thought he could probably manage one more album together and then pay off Pepper and his dad to leave them alone for ever. He'd find something to confess to Beca and beg for her help and forgiveness. He could straighten up his act for the last time and move away from Chloe.

Jesse also knew if he backed away from the door, he clearly didn't love Beca enough to stay with her. He'd hurtfully told her to call Luke but in truth, as much as he barely acknowledged it to himself, he wanted to be like Luke. Honest, trustworthy, proper, decent and the very best friend that Beca deserved. He was fed up with trying to be like him. His head was singing with the notion that Beca had chosen him over Luke and there had to be something in that. Did he want to spend the rest of his life with Beca? Was he prepared to man the fuck up and prove her family wrong?

Jesse didn't know what to do as he fingers hovered over the door knob. The choice was his to make.