i run to you ,

[alana noelle taylor]

alana noelle taylor .
----when this world starts coming undone, baby your the only one i run to .

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ALANA HAD BEEN KNOWN FOR being just a bit crazy from time to time. She was a little out there and she wasn’t afraid to do something incredibly stupid. Once someone thought they had her figured out, she did something completely out of character and kept them guessing even more. She was a sweet girl, though, and she had hardly ever done things that could be considered bad. She never did what she wasn’t supposed to. When she got older, though, she had gained a little bit more of a rebellious streak and broken out a little more, doing things that probably surprised a lot of people. But this here, in the present moment, was something that would shock everyone. No one on Earth would believe that sweet, innocent, outgoing Alana would have gotten herself pregnant. And they would never even believe who the father would be. She could hardly believe it herself, and she was actually there! This was all so crazy and messed up, that she was sincerely hoping that it was all just a bad dream, and that she was going to wake up at any moment and be able to heave a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be what was happening, not at all.

GIVEN THAT LITTLE PIECE OF information, she finally decided that she couldn’t keep it in anymore, and she had to tell someone. So, she collected her courage and started walking to her best friend, Jacen Ward’s, house. For as long as she could remember, Jacen had been a prominent part of her life. If ever something went wrong, all she had to do was crawl through his bedroom window and she would find someone that was willing to help, or at least make her feel better for a little while. And her own window had always been open to him. Of course, Jacen’s childhood had been a lot better than her own. Most nights she snuck out just to get away from her mother’s drinking, or her parent’s fighting. Now she had her own home, but that didn’t mean that their nightly visits had stopped. There had been plenty of bad things happen Emily’s death had taken a toll on the entire town, and Jacen worse than most. And then when Carter and Kade had lost their son, Mason, it had been a difficult time as well. Alana herself had loved and lost, and ran to Jacen to help her sew up her broken heart.

ALANA WALKED UP THE FRONT steps to Jacen’s front door and just let herself in. She looked around, but couldn’t find him at first glance. “Marco!” she called from the doorway, hearing a responding “polo!” from the kitchen. When she walked in, he was standing at the stove, pouring over what was going to be tonight’s dinner. She immediately walked over to the counter close by and pushed herself onto it, which was nothing new. She looked over at what he was fixing, but couldn’t quite make out what it was he was fixing. “What’s for dinner?” she asked curiously, “and is there enough for two?” Again, Alana’s immediately inviting herself for dinner was also nothing new. Jacen’s home had always felt like her own as well, her parent’s like second ones to her, maybe even first, since hers hasn’t been that great. Alana was simply comfortable around Jacen, and his family, and she didn’t see a time when that would ever change. At the moment, she had something pretty big to tell him, but she didn’t know if now was the right moment, or if she should really wait. How did someone even tell someone this kind of thing? She had never been there before, that was for sure. He was sure to see that something was wrong, though, so she might as well just go ahead and get it out, but even still she held back. This wasn’t going to be easy. At all.

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tagged for jacen ward ,

[jacen lee ward]

jacen ward.
when lies become the truth, that's when i run to you.
___________________________________



-----Jacen, put in the simplest of terms, was the nice guy. He was the one that people knew to always be kind, and to always have a good head on his shoulders. Jacen was reliable, dependable, and just about every other adjective that one could think of to put in that group. He was a safe place, the kind of guy that all the girls want even if they don’t realize it until it’s too late and they’re married to some asshole that they don’t even love. Jacen had a good heart, and put a lot of faith into people that sometimes didn’t quite deserve it, but he did it anyway. Right now, that was coming back to bite him in the ass in a big way. Jacen had known that his friend Jasper was always a little off when it came to morals. Jacen himself was no saint, but Jasper sometimes took it to a whole other extreme that Jacen didn’t understand. But, Jasper was his friend, and Jacen overlooked faults like that when he really shouldn’t have. It had just recently been brought to Jacen’s attention that Jasper wasn’t the great friend that Jacen had thought him to be. Jacen had been engaged to Emily Bennett, and during that time, Jasper and Emily had had an affair. Jacen was upset with Emily, of course, but she was killed in a car accident almost a year ago. She was gone, and that left Jasper as the target for all of Jacen’s anger and confusion. Needless to say, the two weren’t in touch these days, Jacen not really caring if he didn’t speak to him again. That might be petty, but Jacen had been the nice guy for this long. He deserved to be pissed and a little selfish, especially when dealing with something like this.

-----But, really, he was having a hard time holding a grudge. Jasper had messed up, but it wasn’t all his fault. Emily had chosen to do it when she could have said no, when she could have been loyal and the woman that Jacen had thought he had known so well. Maybe it was really raw of Jasper to sleep with his best friend’s fiancée, and it was something that Jacen would have never done to his friend, but it was in the past. Every day it got easier to accept, and easier to let go of. Besides, he had a whole new slew of issues going on. Between trying to counsel Kade, who was having a hard time dealing with his wife returning after two years of absence, and this kind-of-relationship he had with Krystal, he was finding less time to be angry over something that really had no affect on him now. He had loved Emily very much, and had been prepared to spend the rest of his life with her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have proposed. He knew that he would have given her anything that she wanted, and had thought that she was ready for all the same things. However, all of those dreams had died along with her, and Jacen had accepted that a long time ago. He was moving on, even though some might argue that being with Krystal, Emily’s twin sister, wasn’t moving on much. Jacen stood pondering over all of this as he waited for the skillet to warm up, his mind sometimes caught up in an endless loop of thoughts like that. They were soon pushed away as he started on dinner.

-----Before long, he had most of the food prepared. He was going Italian tonight, with a salad chilling in the fridge and some bread in the oven. The last thing he had to let finish cooking was chicken he had browning in the skillet, sautéed in a Sicilian sauce his mother had discovered years ago and that Jacen loved. He was stirring the chicken around, trying not to let anything burn or stick when he heard the front door to his house open and close. He wasn’t too worried about it; Jacen rarely locked his doors, and the only people that dropped by were his friends or his mother. “Marco!” A smile came to his lips. ”Polo!” he responded, without a second thought. It was Alana, and he heard her move through the house and turned to greet her with a smile as she came into the kitchen. He turned back to the stove as Alana pushed herself up onto the counter. Alana Taylor was probably Jacen’s best friend in the world, only tying with Kade as it stood now. She had always been there, and she was that shoulder he had to cry on when he needed it, which he had in Emily’s death, and even when Kade’s son, Mason, had died. Alana was Jacen’s first go-to person, and it had been that way since they were young. Of course, she came to him more often than he went to her, but that was because she had had the misfortune of a crappy childhood. Jacen had always been there for her, though, just as she was there for him. Her being there in the kitchen was familiar and comfortable, Alana seeming to belong there as often as she was over. “What’s for dinner? And is there enough for two?” He grinned again. ”I don‘t know. Got any money?” Jacen always made enough food for three of four when he cooked, even though he was just cooking for himself most of the time. He was in no way opposed to leftovers, and Alana joined him for dinner frequently. Either way, he was set.

-----The timer went off on the oven, signaling that the bread was done. Alana always had good timing, showing up just when everything was ready to eat. And it wasn’t like he ever expected her to pay to eat; he had been kidding, even if Jacen had been able to keep a straight face when he had asked. ”Go ahead and get something to drink and get the plates. I got this.” She did as she was told, sliding from her perch on the counter. Jacen watched her out of the corner of his eye, seeing that something was….off. He frowned slightly as he bent to get the bread from the oven. ”Something wrong, Ali?”

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[alana noelle taylor]

alana noelle taylor .
----when this world starts coming undone, baby your the only one i run to .

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ALANA SAW THE GRIN SPREAD onto Jacen’s face yet again. She loved to see him smile like that, and loved even more that she was the one that had put it there. She liked to make people happy, and she liked to think that she had a fairly good sense of humor and could make people laugh easily. Of course, like everyone, she tended to say some pretty stupid things from time to time that were really everything but funny. ”I don‘t know. Got any money?” Alana laughed. “Umm, that would be a no.” That would be absolutely no surprise at all. She had put herself through college and earned a degree that she had no idea that she would even use now. She was in debt, like most college students once they came out of college. She hoped that wouldn’t last for long, though. In the meantime she was working at the local radio station in the mornings and into the afternoon. She was pretty popular, but that wasn’t saying entirely too much, considering there were very few radio stations in Belmont. She didn’t think that this type of thing was for her, though. She enjoyed it well enough, but the pay was crap, and she definitely needed a new source of income, especially considering what she had just found out. If she didn’t find something else to do, then she was pretty much screwed. Looking forward at that prospect didn’t make her feel at all good or encouraged. She only hoped that things would get better.

ALANA HEARD THE BUZZER GO off, and she could have almost patted herself on the back for her good timing. It wasn’t like she planned it that way. She didn’t decide to leave because she was sure that Jacen would have food ready, or anything like that. She was just good. Maybe she was a tad psychic. Who knew? ”Go ahead and get something to drink and get the plates. I got this.” She grinned and slid off the counter, not just jumping off like she usually did. She walked over to the fridge and started rummaging around and looking for something that she was sure to like. Just as she had expected, there was a bottle of orange soda in the back of the fridge. She could always count on Jacen to keep her favorite soft drink around. She was reaching for it when she heard Jacen’s voice. ”Something wrong, Ali?” She froze. Yeah, there was definitely something wrong, and she would have been completely stupid to not expect Jacen to see it. She sighed softly to herself, grabbed the bottle from the fridge, and straightened up. She turned to look at him. “Yeah, there is, but it’s not really a dinner-type conversation.” She turned and reached for a glass in one of the cabinets and poured the orange soft drink into it, watching it fizz and topping off the glass when it had settled, then she recapped the bottle and stuck it back into the fridge. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

ALANA TOOK HER GLASS OVER to the table, then went back and got the plates, knowing exactly where everything was. She walked back over to the table and her and Jacen got their food. Alana ate, but not as she usually did. She pushed her food around a good bit, and she was more than sure that Jacen noticed. She could feel her stomach knotting at the prospect of telling him about this. She eventually ate most of the food on her plate. Jacen was a good cook, and despite the fact that she felt more like throwing up than eating, she did get a good bit of it down. Not to mention she would have felt guilty if she had only ate a little bit of it. She was over here often, and Jacen never seemed to mind her company, but it wasn’t like she had contributed anything to the meal. Finally she set her fork down. “I’m pregnant, Jacen.” It was blunt, out there, and straight to the point. She didn’t even hesitate. But then, that was just Alana. Why struggle to get something out when all you had to do was just spit it out? And instead of wondering how someone would react, why not just get it out there and see? Alana didn’t know what she expected. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about all of this. She figured, though, that sooner or later she was going to have to, though. And then, she was going to have to tell the baby’s father.

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[jacen lee ward]

jacen ward.
when lies become the truth, that‘s when I run to you.
___________________________________



-----Jacen loved Alana, in the way that all best friends loved each other. He stood up for her, always taking her side even if she were sometimes wrong. He lied for her when it was necessary to do so; basically, Jacen would do anything and everything in his power to make sure that Alana was okay. He was pretty much a kick ass friend, just as she was for him. That’s the way that they had always worked. They also knew each other extremely well, Ali unable to hide anything from Jacen like he couldn’t hide anything from her. There was no point in lying to each other, and it was damn hard to keep secrets. When one was able to surprise the other with anything, it was always a great accomplishment that took a lot of work and restraint. That being said, it was easy to see why Jacen was able to pick up on the fact that there was something wrong with Alana. Maybe not physically wrong, but he knew that there was something that she wasn’t saying that she wanted to. Jacen knew that sometimes, she would come out and say it on her own, in her own time. Other times, he thought that it was best to kind of prompt her and let her know that she wasn’t getting away without telling him. Today, he had called her on it. “Yeah, there is but it’s not really a dinner-type conversation.” That did nothing to reassure him that it was something minor. He felt himself give a small sigh as he brought the bread out of the oven to sit on the stove top. This was going to be some big, life altering thing, and she was going to spring it on him when he was least expecting it. He just knew it.

-----And that was just going to have to be okay. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” Jacen looked at her for a moment, seeing those dark brown eyes of her almost pleading with him to drop it for now, so of course he did. ”Okay.” He reluctantly tore his eyes away from her, worried now. When things like these came up, Jacen always expected it to be the worse possible thing. It really seemed to be a good method, because that way if it was bad he was at least prepared. And, when it wasn’t as bad as what he had imagined, then it always seemed that much better. If that made sense at all. He went back to work on getting things ready to serve as Alana worked on getting plates. She knew exactly where everything was, moving around the kitchen like it was her own. It was amazing how well they functioned, what a well oiled machine they had turned out to be after so many years of friendship. It didn’t take long to get everything on the table, and once it was, they both sat down and started making their plates. It was done mostly in silence, but then they broke into their natural rhythm of things and chatted about small things, things that didn’t really matter at all. Jacen kept waiting for her to drop the bomb of whatever it was that she had to tell him, noticing how it almost seemed to be a struggle for her to choke down her dinner. That wasn’t like his Ali at all, and it made him feel like not eating much, either, but he was able to eat and actually kind of enjoy his well prepared dinner.

-----Then, it happened. Jacen heard her set her fork down, looking up in time to see her look at him. “I’m pregnant, Jacen.” His reaction to this? It was the typical blank stare for a few seconds, and then the searching of her face to make sure that there was no hint of a joke there. When there wasn’t, there was the slow dawning of realization; this was true. Jacen somehow managed to swallow the bite he had in his mouth without choking on it, and then he too sat down his fork. ”You were right. This isn’t a dinner-type conversation.” Okay, time to regroup. Think, Jacen. ”You’re sure?” Yeah, she was sure. ”How sure?” She explained, and then he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Shit. ”Who’s the father, Ali?” He asked quietly, hoping that she knew and wasn’t one of those girls that had it narrowed down to five possible guys. Jacen and Ali rarely touched on their sex lives except when it was something that they really needed to talk about, but Jacen didn’t think Alana was really that bad. She told him, and that bewildered Jacen a little more. Jacen and Noah were good friends. This was just…weird. ”Have you told him yet?” He was asking a lot of questions, but this was just his way of dealing and sorting through this. After all, it was life altering, for both of them. ”Are you gonna be okay?” he asked finally, reaching out to take her hand with all the caring and kindness in the world showing in his eyes.

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[alana noelle taylor]

alana noelle taylor .
----when this world starts coming undone, baby your the only one i run to .

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ALANA COULDN’T SAY WHAT SHE was expecting, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if his jaw had dropped. She was just as shocked as he was. This wasn’t the type of thing that should have happened to a girl like Alana. She was a good girl. And yet it had. And now all she could do was deal with it all. She watched as Jacen searched her and analyzed what she had said, but he wouldn’t find any hint of a joke. She was completely serious. Finally he set his fork down. ”You were right. This isn’t a dinner-type conversation.” Well that was really helpful. She had known that it wouldn’t be, which is why she hadn’t even tried to. After dropping that kind of bomb, the last thing that either of them would have wanted to do was eat. The food would have been forgotten completely. So she had saved this conversation until after they had ate. ”You’re sure?” Alana could have been insulted by that if she had really wanted to be, but Jacen was just trying to cover all the bases, she knew that. She could deal with that just fine. “Yes, I’m sure.” She was very sure. ”How sure?” She sighed. “Very sure. I did one of those home tests from the drug store and I’m late, Jacen. I’m never late.” She had never been late, ever, in her life. Alana was very consistent. And the test had been positive. She didn’t need anything else to tell her that she was, indeed, pregnant. She was twenty-one years old without a boyfriend and now she was going to have a kid. Just the thought of it freaked her out, and she very much wanted to burst into tears.

SHE HEARD JACEN TAKE A deep breath and then exhale. Yeah. She knew how that felt. ”Who’s the father, Ali?” That was a good question to ask, and was logically the next one that should come up. Alana was very sure of who the father was. She wasn’t the type of girl that slept around for the heck of it. In fact, she hardly ever entered a bed that didn’t belong to her boyfriend. But Alana was known for doing unexpected and stupid things. It was nothing new to her or to anyone else. And this was definitely one of those kinds of things. That hadn’t been the intention to start with, but one thing had led to another and, well, there they were. “Noah,” she said softly, feeling almost a little ashamed for having to admit it. “Noah’s the father.” Noah was one of her very best friends. They had grown up together, and had known each other for what seemed like forever. They had both been completely sober and in their right minds when they had been together. There was no excuse for what they had done except that they had wanted to do it. And Alana simply felt bad because of that. And Jacen had no way of knowing that she had been with Noah not too long ago. She and Jacen just didn’t talk about that thing on a regular basis. Not that they hadn’t talked about it before. ”Have you told him yet?” Yet another good question. She was just full of them. “No. You’re the first person I’ve told.”

YEAH, SO MAYBE SHE WASN’T the best person to keep something like this from Noah, but it was not a conversation that she was really looking forward to having. She wasn’t worried that he would just brush her off or not be there, because a guy like Noah would definitely stick around. The thing was, the child was going to have a pretty rough life. Alana in no way loved Noah, and she was pretty sure that he didn’t love her. They were never going to be together, and so this kid was going to be split between them. That was just not a good way for a kid to live. ”Are you gonna be okay?” He reached out and took her hand. She thought about that for a second. “I don’t know, Jace,” she said softly. She honestly didn’t know. “I mean, I always thought I’d end up having a husband and children and a white picket fence, but I always figured the husband and the fence would come first.” It was true, too, and something she had never really told anyone. Alana wanted that life. She wanted a family and a home and something safe and secure. She had never felt that as a child, because her family had been so screwed up. The closest she had ever come to feeling safe was when she had been with Jacen and his family. “And I have no idea how I’m going to be able to take care of this kid. I can barely take of myself.” Which was also a truth. Alana didn’t know the first thing about raising a kid. She had always loved them, but that didn’t mean she was in any way understanding as to what the baby would need. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

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[jacen lee ward]

jacen ward.
when lies become the truth, that‘s when I run to you.
___________________________________



-----Jacen had never really imagined something like this happening. Sure, he knew that it was very possible, and kind of knew that it probably would happen at some point in the future. The main word in that sentence being FUTURE. As in, not right now. Having children and becoming parents was certainly a big deal, a huge responsibility, and something that people didn’t do just for the hell of it. It happened by mistake a lot of the time, but even then it always seemed to work out okay. People got married, families helped take care of the new child. It was all good. That didn’t make it any less scary, or make Alana being pregnant okay. It was just so out of place, something that Jacen was desperately trying to wrap his head around and figure out so he could maybe be of some kind of help to her. All of his questioning probably wasn’t doing much for her, though, but Jacen couldn’t help it. He was sometimes the kind of guy that would rather ignore all the little, minute details of a situation and just deal with what there was to deal with, but in this case he couldn’t be. This was Ali, after all, and this was a pretty huge deal. Jacen needed to know all of the things that he had asked, started off with whether or not she was absolutely sure that she was indeed pregnant. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that that could have probably been taken the wrong way, but Alana would understand his need to know, and not take it that way at all. “Very sure. I did one of those home tests from the drug store and I’m late, Jacen. I’m never late.” Damn. Leave it to Alana to be absolutely regular and with no doubt in her mind that this was real.

-----Then, toss in the fact that Noah was the father of this child and it was just a whole new world of confusion. Noah, Alana, and Jacen were all close friends. But, Ali had never shown that kind of interest in Noah that Jacen was aware of, and he didn’t know if he wanted to know how they had even ended up together in the first place. It was just a weird idea in itself, and now they were having a child together? Even weirder. He wasn’t even going to try and reason that one out. And there was the fact that Alana had yet to even tell Noah that she was pregnant and that it was his. Noah deserved to know, but Jacen had to admit that he liked that she had told him first. That was just the way that they were. Whenever something big happened, he told Ali first. It didn’t matter who else it involved, or if it was something that she really shouldn’t know at all; Jacen still told her. Apparently, it worked both ways. He would have to stress to her that she needed to tell Noah, and tell him soon, but right now wasn’t the time for that. She needed support, not lecturing, and especially from her friend that really had no experience in this kind of thing. Emily had been pregnant when she had died, but Jacen hadn’t known, and it hadn’t even been his child. So, that didn’t count. Noah would find out about this whenever Alana found the right place and time to tell him. For now, it was hers and Jacen’s little secret.

-----Taking hold of her hand, he held it gently in his own. Jacen had asked her if she was going to be okay, and he knew that was a difficult question to answer. She obviously wouldn’t have come over like this if she were feeling good about this, but he needed to see where her head was at, like she had done many times with him. “I don’t know, Jace. I mean, I always thought I’d end up having a husband and children and a white picket fence, but I always figure the husband and the fence would come first. And I have no idea how I’m going to be able to take care of this kid. I can barely take care of myself. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Wow. Where should a person even start with that one? ”Well, if it helps, you should know that you’re not going to have to do it alone,” he told her, giving her hand a light, reassuring squeeze. ”Noah isn’t the kind of guy that would just walk away from something like this. You know that.” Noah was another one of those good guys, and if anyone had to be the father of this child, she was actually kind of lucky that it was Noah. There were a lot of men that wouldn’t care, but he would. ”And I will always be here. I’ll do whatever I can to help. We’ll make it work, I promise.”

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