As usual, I don't own Attack on Titan and will never own it.

Notes: Hello, I'm back with the next chapter, thank you to any one who read, I appreciate it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter. I'll leave the long note for the end. Oh, italics in the story mean it's a flashback.

Chapter Two: The underlying issue

Jean woke up with a massive headache and a stiff back. Groggily, he sat up on the couch holding his head in his hands.

Marco walked in with a glass of water and aspirin. "Oh you're awake, how are you feeling?" he asked his friend, handing him the glass of water as well as two aspirins.

Muttering thanks, he quickly took both aspirins and drank the water before answering the question. "I feel like shit…what happened?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"No."

"Eren brought you home last night. You were beyond intoxicated, to paraphrase Eren, you were piss drunk, so drunk you actually flirted with him at the bar for a little bit."

"Shit."

Marco sat down beside him, "Don't worry I didn't tell him why you were staying over, if that's what you're worried about, and you didn't either which is a miracle cause normally when you drink you're more blatantly honest than when you're sober. Oh and I'm sure he doesn't care that you came on to him, he'll probably forget by the end of the week." he joked.

Jean shot him a glare but let out a relieved sigh. His eyes felt heavy and he wanted to sleep off this hangover but he knew that wasn't happening today. He had to be at work at 9 that morning because there was a monthly meeting.

"What time is it?" he feared the answer because if it was after 7:30 am, he was going to be late.

"It's 6:15." Marco answered.

"Thank the heavens."

"I would have woken you up before I left for work, you know. Do you want some coffee? Maybe it'll wake you up more." he offered his best friend, he had wanted to ask him something but he wasn't going to go and ask him he wasn't in the mood he could tell and it was still too early. 'I'll ask him tomorrow.'

"Sure, let me just freshen up and get dressed and then I'll meet you in the kitchen."

Humming in reply Marco walked off to brew a fresh pot of coffee, because boy were they going to need it.

"Does anyone else have anything they would like to add?"

The room full of editors stayed silent as a sign that they did not have anything else to say. "Alright that's going to be it for this meeting. You can all go back to your offices."

Slowly the room started to empty as the employees walked out of the board room, Jean stayed behind waiting for everyone to leave before making his way back to his office.

"Hey Jean," he heard his boss say, "don't forget I need that manuscript edited by the end of the week."

"No need to worry, I'll have it done by then."

His boss hummed and gave him a curt nod before exiting the room. Sighing, the ashen haired man walked out of the room. On the walk back to his office he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"What the-" he trailed off as he noticed it was Hitch. "Oh it's you. What do you want?"

"That's not a nice way to greet your co-worker."

"What did you want me to say? That it's great to see you?"

"Okay your sarcasm is clearly noted."

"Look sorry I'm just not in a good mood."

Hitch scoffed, "When are you in a good mood?"

Jean's eyebrow twitched. "Okay if you just came over here to annoy me then walk away and let me get back to work." Before he could turn around he grabbed his hand. Pausing he pulled his hand away and frowned. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk to you."

"…We're talking now."

"Well let me rephrase that I want to speak to you privately."

Jean sighed but asked, "You aren't going to stop bothering me unless I agree?"

Hitch grinned. "You know me so well."

"Fine. We can talk."

"Great. We can have lunch at the cafe down the street so I will see you later. Do not try to get out of it."

Jean waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah yeah, see you later."

What could be so important that she needs to talk about?

Sasha heard the doorbell ring. She stretched and then got up from her spot on the couch walking to the door and opening it expecting it to be Krista, Ymir or her father but to her surprise it was Connie.

"Connie! You're back! How are you?" She greeted her friend happily holding the door open for him to walk in. Once he was inside Sasha gave him a hug. The buzz cut returned the hug. "How have you been?"

The brunette sighed, "I've been better," she responded but before he could ask her anything else she quickly asked her own question, "How was your vacation?"

Connie smiled, "It was great, I had so much fun. You would have liked it if you would have tagged along."

Sasha gave him a smile, "Let's go sit down, I'll order us a pizza and you can tell me all about it."

"Sure thing."

They two made their way to her living room and took a seat on her couch. Grabbing the cordless phone from off the end table, she dialed the number to her favorite pizzeria.

"So, how are things down at the bakery?" Connie asked, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Things are fine, it's been pretty busy lately."

"Good, I can't wait to go back. I missed being at the bakery."

Sasha raised an eyebrow as she bit into her slice.

"What? I did miss going to work. I actually like all of our employees and I see my best friend everyday so it's a win win."

"I know how much you love the bakery and for the record we all did miss you," she said before adding, "running it alone was stressful, Petra took vacation the same week you and Hannah got married so she's away on her honeymoon, so I was down two managers three weeks in a row. Oh and we are down a pastry chef."

"Well that's a bummer. Who quit?"

"Daz quit yesterday, I went to check up on things on my day off since I was around the way and he told me he had gotten accepted to a program to study abroad."

"Well damn that sucks he was one hell of a pastry chef."

"I know."

"How's Jean doing?"

Sasha stiffened at the mention of her husband. This was still a sore topic for her, now she was in a pickle, does she lie to her best friend, to protect her secret and Jean indirectly from Connie, or does she just tell him the truth and ask him to stay quiet about it.

Connie watched his friend as she was lost in thought. 'Was it really that hard of a question? Or is something else the matter?'

"Hey is everything okay?"

"No, not in the slightest."

"Do you want to talk about it?" The question was asked cautiously; he didn't want it to seem like he was trying to get her to talk about it if she did not want to.

It was at that moment Sasha broke down.

Connie froze for a minute trying to process what was happening, then finally settled into best friend mode. He reached over to her and leaned her into him. She relaxed into his side, still crying as he rubbed her arm.

"I'm sorry for crying."

"Don't apologize, I'm here, if you want to cry it out or vent, I'm here.

Hitch stirred her coffee and watched as Jean poured in what seemed like his fifth sugar packet.

"Maybe you should stop with the sugar before-" she stopped when she noticed the glare that Jean gave her she let out a sigh

"So how have you been?"

"I've been better but I'm fine."

The woman scoffed at his reply, "You aren't fine. You haven't been yourself for almost a month. I mean sure you're always a miserable intolerable ass but you're an even bigger ass now."

"Geez thank you. Did you bring me here just to tell me that?"

"No," she sighed, "Look I know to say we aren't the best of friends is an understatement, and I know when we dated back in high school things ended on really bad terms but believe it or not I still care about you. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the change in you either."

"What are you getting at?"

"I'm saying if you need an unbiased person to vent to I'm here to help, No one wants to see you all depressed and shit."

"I am not depressed!"

"Pssh yeah...okay I believe that. You look like a lost sad puppy who can't find a way back home."

Jean chuckled. "There's a sad analogy."

"Look I'm not telling you to tell me what's going on, I'm just telling you that I'm here if you ever do want to talk. I don't know anybody you know outside of work and I know Marco through you."

"When did you grow up huh? You were such a brat back in high school."

Hitch shrugged, "People grow up and almost losing Marlowe made me realize things. The fact that we're almost 30 also helps put things in perspective.

He took in all what Hitch was saying.

"Hey." he said softly, feeling a bit bad having come at her rude when all she wanted to do was help.

"Hmm?" she replied, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Jean walked back into his office and sat down. He grabbed the manuscript he had to edit and opened it, fully intent on at least getting started on editing it, but his thoughts kept going back to the conversation he and Hitch had over lunch. She had made a few good points, some that had him seriously thinking about everything.

When the hell did she get so smart?

He thought as he closed his eyes and thought back to part of their conversation.

"Can I ask you something?" Hitch asked. Taking a sip of his coffee he needed.

"After we broke up, senior year of high school did you date after me or was your wife the next woman you dated?"

"No, I dated someone else the summer we graduated."

"Did that relationship last long?"

"About a year and a half." he answered all her questions. "How is this helping me?"

The woman held her hand up, a sign that usually meant shut up and let me talk. "Was it a good relationship or did it end on bad terms?"

Jean frowned and Hitched raised an eyebrow as she waited for an answer.

"It ended on real bad terms. It made our break up seem like a walk in the park."

"Bingo. That's probably your problem."

"What on earth are you muttering on about?"

"You had two really unhealthy relationships back to back. You met your wife I'm assuming a year or two after that failed relationship?"

"Yeah give or take a year."

"You never gave yourself time to work on yourself. Maybe you're the type of person who doesn't need help, but you never took the time to fully recover. To enjoy your life Do what you want to do." she took a breath before adding, "From what you told me your wife is everything you could want in a woman? Yes?"

The ashen haired man nodded.

"That's what probably happened. You meet your wife, you two hit it off, and then you pursue her. Then when you two start dating to the day you get engaged it's all a blur because it's all new to you and exciting. Even when you two got married and after the honeymoon you were still on cloud nine. You didn't have time to think of all your worries and fears until now. I think your reality and fears came crashing down. And all of those memories and insecurities that you have pushed away are coming to light now all because you didn't want to deal with them then."

Jean blinked and swallowed hard. How had she gotten that from what little he told her.

"Look, you're probably second guessing everything she does. Thinking she's too good for you. Or how she may possibly hurt you. So, you do what you do best, you push people away. But you're married now you can't just do that, that's selfish. You need to admit that you may need help so you can help yourself then work on your marriage. That's the only way you'll save your marriage. You know not all women are here to hurt you Jean. Nor do we all take advantage and lie. And before you say it, you're not a failure, your father chose to walk out on your mother and you. You're not like that. Please do not blindly make the same mistake."

Silence followed for a few moments as Jean processed all she had said and Hitch reached for wallet pulling enough money to cover lunch as she got up. Before walking away, she added, "You're a good person. No need to make yourself miserable, you deserve happiness." and with that she walked out and headed back to work leaving him there to process everything.

Jean shifted in his seat and closed the manuscript. He wasn't going to get much work done that he knew.

Part of me wants to just call her to see how she's doing. But the other part of me wants to wait it out and see what happens.

Running a hand through his hair he sighed.

I may have fucked up everything.

Two weeks have passed since that break down in front of Connie. Thankfully he being one to keep his promises he hadn't said a word to anyone, however he did need to be persuaded not to track down Jean so that he could, as he put it, punch the ever loving shit out of him for being a jackass. Since then he along with Ymir and Krista have been keeping tabs on her, accompanying her to her doctor's appointments and in general keeping her hopes up. If it weren't for them she'd probably be a hermit never leaving the house except for work and doctor's appointments.

Sasha groaned as she tried to button her jeans. "Argh I'm fat!"

They were currently in Sasha's room helping her sort through her clothes to donate or put whatever clothes didn't fit in storage, when Connie suggested they go out for lunch. So not wanting to go out in sweatpants she went to put on her jeans where she found that while they went on just fine she could not button them, just zip them up.

Krista and Ymir exchanged looks, "Girl you're not fat." The freckled woman told her and Krista followed with, "You're pregnant. You know you aren't gonna fit in your clothes eventually, you need maternity clothes."

"And that time is now." Ymir muttered. Connie threw the pillow he was clutching at her and watched as she dodged a direct face and hit her on her shoulder.

"Hey shorty! What was that for!?"

"For being inconsiderate."

"I was being honest."

Sasha sighed, "Well she's right. I was just hoping it'd be a while longer before I needed to upgrade my wardrobe, you know. It's only about the 8 week mark I wasn't expecting to be, you know." She motioned her hand over her belly to say she was getting big and was starting to become obvious.

The blonde walked over to her friend and grabbed her hand. "It's all going to be okay. You're going to make it through this and you're going to have your babies and everything is going to work itself out. Just give it time and be patient."

The brunette gave her a smile, "You would make an exceptional motivational speaker you know."

"Oh heck no I would not be good at it all. I'm good at motivating friends, not complete strangers."

"I was messing with you."

"I know anyway if you have a tunic top with length you should be fine, it'll cover up the fact your jeans are unbuttoned."

"Okay let me find one."

"We are going to wait for you out in the living room." Ymir informed her to get up from Sasha's bed.

"Okay be out in a few minutes."

The three friends walked towards the living room.

"I don't know about you guys but I think Jean needs to find out what's going on. Maybe then he can wake his ass up, work out whatever problems he has and then they can work this out together." Connie said in a hushed tone so Sasha couldn't hear.

"As much as I'm all for that, ultimately it is Sasha's choice whether or not she tells him so we shouldn't get involved. As her friends we could only support her. Besides, the last thing she needs is to feel pressure or stress because we feel she should handle it differently. No stress on her means a potentially easy pregnancy if it all goes well."

"I hate it when you're right."

The three stopped talking when they heard a door open and then close. Seconds later Sasha joined them in the living room.

"Alright I'm ready, let's go."

Notes: And that's chapter two. Please let me know if you like the story! Anyway the first three chapters are done so the update will be faster after that we're looking at once a week or twice a month updates. Please review if you're inclined to and see you in the next chapter! Thank you!!