Outwitting the Fox Ch. 05

"That's why she took off. I left her scared, and alone, and maybe pregnant. And then I asked her if she wanted to be fuck buddies." Finn finally said, breaking the silence.

"Jess." Gabriel breathed. " - Tell me you used protection."

"Of course I didn't use protection. I'm a fucking idiot. A fucking insensitive prick."

"Oh good, self pity. That'll fix this." Gabriel said sarcastically.

Finn spared him an irritated look before striding forward and upending the trash can into the sink. Sorting through the rubbish and packaging he finally found the stick, which told him nothing.

"It's empty. Aren't there supposed to be circles or something?"

"Lines. Maybe it didn't work?"

Finn leaned against the sink dropping his head down and closing his eyes. "Gabe, you have to ask her."

"Me? What happened to growing up? Taking responsibility for your own actions?"

"I can't. I promised her I'd leave her alone. If she is, and she needs me then I'll be there for her, I'll help her raise the child. But if she isn't then I should just leave her alone. She doesn't need me making her life harder. She deserves better than someone like me."

Gabriel hissed angrily, and let loose a right hook, catching Finn on the jaw and sending him sprawling onto the floor.

"Wake the fuck up Finn." He dropped a set of keys onto the floor net to the wolf, grabbed Jess's bags, and headed for the door. Before he left the room he turned snarling at the younger man.

"Don't come back into my house until you've sorted yourself out. Grow up, figure out what you want, and unless you're ready to fight for her then I suggest you leave her the hell alone."

He left Finn groaning in pain on the bathroom floor.

***

It only took a week for Gabriel to succumb to his curiosity. He and Jess were sitting on one of the benches in the gym after a self defence class when he decided that asking for his own piece of mind wasn't the same as asking for Finn's. If anything it was dangerous for him not to know while they were training together.

"Jess..."

She looked up at his tone. She hadn't exactly been talking to him lately - when Finn hadn't come home earlier in the week she had confronted Gabriel, who had refused to say anything about the matter.

"I've been meaning to ask..." Gabriel franticly looked for a plausible explanation for the questions he wanted to ask. "Um... Are you ok. Health-wise?"

She stared at him for a moment before nodding mutely.

"So... You're not... Hell, I'm no good at this. Jess, are you pregnant?" Gabriel blurted out.

She stared at him in shock for a moment before answering "No I'm not. Why the hell would you even ask that?"

Gabriel cast around for a valid excuse - his mind had gone blank. He couldn't exactly say: 'oh Finn and I were digging around in your trash, and we found a pregnancy test. then I punched him, and kicked him out of the house...'

She would probably pull a gun on him and shoot him dead on the spot. Or she'd tell Max, who would shoot him dead on the spot. Or she'd thank him for punching Finn. Maybe.

"Uh.. I've noticed you've gained a little weight." Gabriel froze in horror. Had he actually just said that?

Jess stared at him with narrowed eyes. "All right, so I'm packing on the pounds. I'm not pregnant! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Ah. Just thought I'd... Ask..." He said weakly.

Jess continued to stare angrily. "Just so you're aware, I'm envisioning the sound you'd make right after I slam my knee into your groin."

"Right. Sorry."

Jess stood and stormed out of the gym, passing by Michael and Grey, who were standing awkwardly in the doorway.

Looking up Gabriel saw them and growled. "I suppose you heard that?"

Grey tipped his head to the side. "Every word. What were you thinking?"

"Finn and I... We found a pregnancy test..." He said rubbing his temples.

"Right, was this before, or after you kicked him out of the house?" Michael asked.

Gabriel frowned at the pair. He hadn't been aware they knew. The only person he'd told was Marcus, because the wolf was Finn's alpha. Marcus hadn't been pleased, but he'd understood.

"Tell me, were Max and I this bad?" Gabriel asked.

Michael snorted. "Lets see, you had her shot, she was nearly killed by bomb welding assassins, you had her apartment blown up, you 'lost' a multi-million dollar necklace for her-"

"-Which the insurance company is still pissed off about by the way." Grey broke in.

"- She tried to kill you with a stapler, a vase, and her bare hands, you both walked around acting like childish, prickly brats for a very long time, and you fired Christina in a fairly unorthodox way for her - we were lucky not to be taken to court over that one." Michael finished drily.

"So what Michael is saying is yes, you were both complete idiots about the whole thing."

Gabriel sat for a moment absorbing what they'd said. He had no idea he and Max had been that bad to deal with. "Oh good. So long as it's normal then..."

***

Finn sulked for the first five days, alone in the hotel room drinking, watching crappy day time television, and torturing himself by imagining what Jess was doing, thinking, saying and feeling. It didn't help that he kept catching her scent in the hotel room - reminants of her being there.

When he woke up on the sixth day he took a good look at himself in the mirror. "Christ, he's right, I'm being a child about this."

With that Finn checked out of the hotel, charging the bill to his own credit card, rather than the company one Gabriel had given him back when he started working for him. After sitting behind the wheel of the car Gabriel had left him he decided to head back to the old Louvre Wolf Pack stomping grounds. He needed something to do while he figured it all out, and a road-trip seemed perfect.

Two weeks later he found himself in a seedy bar in the middle of nowhere. He had scouted around the old territory, and seen no one. The wolves had moved on. Without them the town was slowly dying - unable to sustain itself without the business and added population they added.

He spent a few days staying in Marcus's abandoned house, running the trails, and indulging his wolf, letting himself roam his old familiar territory. Being back in his old childhood haunts hadn't made him happy. It made him sad that he'd never seen a reason to move on until Marcus had given him one.

More than that he missed the people who had made this place home. Before it had all gone so wrong. Before the pack had broken up.

With that in mind though, what Marcus, Sabeen and Finn had found with Gabriel was better than anything any of them had ever imagined possible. He had his Alpha and his best friend still there by his side to look out for. He had friends he cared about, and who cared about him in return. And he had Jess.

Wolves were fairly family oriented groups, and though technically Gabriel's pack of shifters wasn't the wolf pack he was used to it was pack, and it was family - slightly dysfunctional, sure, but all families were.

He sipped at his beer considering all that he'd learnt in his time away from the others. Gabriel had been more right than Finn would have initially guessed, but nearly two weeks of solid introspection and navel gazing, he was beginning to get the point.

- The point being, of course, that he'd acted like an ass, and that he wanted Jess more than he wanted anything else in the world.

With that in mind he set his beer back on the bar and headed back to the car. He was ready to go back and face the music, and he was ready to fight for her.