Sabotage

Chapter 3

A/N: Found some wifi, so have chapter third and final. Enjoy.

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They're filming a stupid pit video another week or so later – 10 weeks into her pregnancy, by his calculations from the night of that party – and he's already on edge, recognising the loose mens' shirt she's wearing, pretending she isn't doing so to hide her stomach, as one of his own she'd stolen some time ago. He's mostly managed to throw his weird energy off and settle into the chaos of the video they're filming, pelting Noah with small dodgeballs as Courtney and Damien stand, unimpressed, off to the side of the set.

Noah calls them out for not being involved, though, lining up a shot aiming straight for Courtney's stomach.

Shayne reacts on pure instinct, protectiveness gripping his heart with force as he jumps into the way of the ball, in front of her, taking it to his own abdomen instead and largely ignoring it as his tone turns sharp and he glares at Noah.

"Noah, she's fucking-" he snaps, not finishing his sentence, knowing the ending is implied. He has the decency to look guilty, for half a second, before he tilts his head and his smile turns diabolical.

"Why are you so protective, huh?" Noah queries. Shayne can almost feel Courtney about to say exactly the same from behind him, and he quickly shrugs and relaxes his body and his tone as he moves back away from her.

"I care about my friends, dude, try it sometime," he shoots back, less aggressive than before, an intentional bridge between his earlier reaction and letting them brush it off.

Kiana is directing, and she gives him the rest of the bridge with her own terse commentary.

"Well, how about we keep everyone safe and get back to the actual point of the video instead of throwing dodgeballs everywhere?" she pushes.

Shayne doesn't kid himself, though – he knows he won't get away with that blatant of a reaction. He's quietly glad when it's Damien who grabs his arm first and drags him outside into the small courtyard behind the building as soon as they finish filming.

"So what the hell was that? And does it have anything to do with why you and Courtney have been acting super weird for the last, roughly, six weeks?" Damien asks, eyebrow raised. Shayne sighs, and he tries to find the words to explain, but instead he finds himself breaking into tears as he sniffs loudly and brings a hand up to hide his face. "Woah, Shayne, hey, I'm sorry I asked so aggressively- what's wrong?"

"It-" Shayne starts, sobbing loudly before he shakes his head, shaking off his tears, "it's my kid. Courtney and I slept together drunk after some party ten weeks ago and she was on contraception but it didn't work and this happened and I want to do the right thing and be supportive and I'm trying to but she won't let me and she's self-sabotaging and she's convinced I'll abandon her over it and-"

"Shit, dude," Damien mumbles, reaching out to pull Shayne into a hug, "that's... really hard, Shayne, I'm sorry. Why haven't you talked to me about this before?"

"She didn't want anyone at work to know it was me. And that was a self-sabotage thing, she was going to pretend it was some guy she doesn't know and let me pretend I wasn't involved. Except I don't want to pretend that," he replies, tone low and hesitant as he reluctantly steps back out of Damien's hug.

He could probably go for a longer hug, but his brain reminds him forcefully of male social norms. Or at least, some extent of them.

"Well... I'm sorry if I forced it out of you, but I'm glad I know you're going through this now. Have you been able to talk to anyone about it at all?" Damien asks, concerned, Shayne shrugging.