Pro Con list

Jimmy was worried, having checked his phone for the second time that morning he still hadn't heard from Lou and it had been at least 4 days. She was definitely avoiding his calls.
He got that a baby was a big deal and was not in her immediate plans; particularly when the baby's father was a dickhead, but she couldn't bury her head in the sand much longer. Lou knew as well as he did that she would keep the baby and it would make it easier all round if she just scrapped the her Pro Con list obsession and told Matt he was going to be a Daddy.

He was also concerned that she was pushing herself too hard. From the little contact he had with Lou he knew she was still pushing her training routine to the max, which couldn't be good for the baby. He was half tempted to send Dan to Stanford to keep an eye on her, giving him strict instructions to keep her workouts to a minimum but Dan would only question why he needed to babysit the 20 year old World Champion and Jimmy knew he couldn't give him the answers.

He was growing increasingly frustrated with the deal he made with Lou, as she was seemingly trying to worm her way out of her end of the bargain. He'd come close to telling Matt or her sister Lacey on several occasions only for Leana to intervene and glare at him before he could reveal the secret. Lou needed to realise she was being childish, he was on her side but it was getting to the point where he felt sorry for Matt and what he was missing out on.

Checking the time on his watch he groaned it wouldn't be too long before one of the guys arrived to take him to the studio to finish off the demo track. Grabbing his phone from the side table he checked, once again, for new messages as he walked downstairs to the kitchen. He let out a huff when he saw there were no new notifications from Lou. That was it, he was going to call her tonight and she was going to speak to him even if it took a bit or emotional blackmail. Having made himself his morning cup of coffee he took a seat at his breakfast bar and fired off a text:

"Lou Lou, you and me face time date tonight. If I don't hear from you I'll have no option but to tell Matt about our Bat baby. J x"

Five minutes later Jimmy heard his door open and saw Matt walking towards him: "You ready to go Rev?" Jimmy gave him a dirty look but nevertheless replied "give me two minutes" and walked out the room.

Matt sighed, little had changed between him and Jimmy over the past 6 weeks. He was still only getting one word answers to most questions and Jimmy made it clear he was on Lou's side. Not that Matt blamed him, he knew that what he did to Lou was wrong and couldn't even begin to explain how much he regretted it. As soon as he heard her walking up the stairs that night he'd known that he'd made a mistake and that he loved her but he also knew that wouldn't matter. She was gone, she wouldn't stay with a cheat, she'd always made that clear to him.

Val had come back into his life a month prior to the incident, she'd heard about how he'd matured in his relationship with Lou and wanted to give it another go; there were no groupies, they went out on proper dates and commitment was on the cards. Towards the end of Matt and Val's relationship those had been things that were lacking and Val walked away before irreversible damage could be done to their friendship. Had it been anyone else he'd have refused the sex and the sneaking around but it was Val and he'd been in love with her for 10 years. She turned his head and he felt he owed it to them both to try even if he wasn't quite willing to end it with Lou until he was sure, but Lou had come home early. He hadn't spoken to Val after she left that night other than to tell her he chose Lou, he was in love with her, and wanted her back if she would take him and that's what he focussed his energy on doing- trying to convince Lou to speak to him and working on the Album. Not that he was having much success with his ex-girlfriend.

Jimmy's phone going haywire on the table suddenly broke Matt out of his thoughts. He reached over to pick it up and saw that a number of messages had come through from Lou. Jimmy walked back into the room just as Matt caught what was written...

"Jimmy I've been busy in class, the baby and I are fine. I'll give you a call later. You can't tell Matt yet, I just need time. L x"

..."Jimmy what baby" Matt said thrusting the phone back in Jimmy's face, his voice quivering in either anger or pain, which Jimmy couldn't tell. "Jimmy! What does she mean? Baby? Answer me!" Jimmy stood routed to the spot not knowing what to say, his mouth opening and closing quickly without finding words "Please Rev, I need to hear it, I can see it on the fucking phone but I need to hear it." Jimmy could hear Matt's voice break in desperation, so feeling guilty took one look in Matt's eyes and replied: "Lou's having a baby, your baby, she's having your baby. At least I think she is but..." Matt gasped once he heard the confirmation, he was going to be a Dad but quickly realised that jimmy had said 'but'. "What do you mean, but? What are you getting at?" Jimmy looked down to the ground before delivering his next words carefully "she's making a list Matt, Lou's making a Pro Con list and I don't know which way she's going" "Give me the keys Jimmy, I know you have them" Jimmy looked at him not moving "Give me the spare fucking key for her dorm, I know you have it."
"Matt calm down, don't do anything stupid..."that's my baby Jimmy, she can't make that decision without me and you should have told me weeks ago, now give me the dammed key".
Jimmy knowing that Matt meant business opened the 'Man drawer' of his kitchen unit and pulled out the key, "be careful with her Shads, she was never not going to have our little Bat Baby; she just needed to get her head round it." Matt acknowledged Jimmy's words with a nod and turned on his heel and all but ran out of Jimmy's front door, shouting "tell the others I can't make the studio today" before slamming the doors behind him.

Jimmy shook his head and called Lou leaving her a message for when her class finished - "Get ready baby girl, baby daddy is on his way... he knows x'.

Notes