Listen (Patrick Stump / Fall Out Boy Fanfic)

Chapter 40 - My Picket Fence

A/N: Just a warning...these next couple of chapters will move somewhat quickly. I don't want to beat this story into the ground, but I don't want to short change it either. Still, there's only a couple of chapters left...possibly only one more after this one. I'm really excited to start the next story, the prologue to which will be up moments after the last chapter of this one. Just so you guys know! Hope you enjoy this chapter! <3

Waiting was the hardest part. I sat on the edge of our bed, having barely finished unpacking from the trip, and Aria had just shut herself in the bathroom. She had taken all three tests with her, and was going to do them all at once. I bounced one knee up and down, nervously staring straight ahead at the door until it opened. The second she stepped out, I jumped to my feet and held out my hands as if to catch her, but she only froze and smiled at me in amusement. "Five minutes," she giggled, stepping towards me to lace her fingers with mine. I sighed and pulled her to me, squeezing her hands and leaning my forehead to hers. "What makes you so sure?" She whispered, watching my face even though I had closed my eyes.

I hadn't told her about the old lady on the plane, nor did I tell her of Meagan's suspicions. Instead, I had merely made a big deal of the fact that she needed to take her pregnancy tests immediately when we walked through our front door. As excited as she had been in Paris when she'd bought them, now she only wanted to unpack and take a nap. She was jet lagged, but I was far too used to long flights and now I was worked up over the possibility of her being pregnant. Finally, once she'd made me help her unpack everything, I convinced her to just take the tests, and then she could nap all afternoon if she wanted.

When I didn't answer her, Aria reached up with one hand to touch the side of my face. I moved my now free hand to her waist and drew her slightly closer, opening my eyes and looking at her hopefully. Her thumb moved over my lips then, gently tracing my bottom lip, and she followed her thumb with her eyes. I stared at her curiously, wondering what she was thinking, until her hand suddenly slipped down to my neck, trailing her fingers over my Adam's apple. She kept her hand there and looked up at me, silently asking a question I was used to hearing at this point. "Now?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her in amusement.

She nodded, pulling me back down to the edge of our bed and touching my neck again. "Something I haven't heard yet," She added, biting her lip as she looked up at me. "It'll help pass the time."

I nodded slowly, thinking for a moment, and then cleared my throat and leaned into the touch of her hand on my neck. There was a song Pete and I had been working on right before the wedding, and no one had heard it yet. I wanted her to be the first. "Stuck in the jet wash. Bad trip, I couldn't get off. And maybe I bit off more than I could chew, and overhead of the aqua blues. Fall to your knees, bring on the rapture. Blessed be the boys time can't capture, on film or between the sheets. I always fall from your window to the pitch black streets...."

As I kept singing, Aria kept her hand on my neck, as if she still needed to listen that way, and she also stared at my lips, watching them move as they formed each word carefully and decisively, as if she still needed to read them. But now, I knew she was listening differently, and I could tell she was loving the song by the smile on her face. I sang all of the way through the song, making up words as I reached verses Pete and I haven't quite finished yet. I made a mental note to write some of them down later, and when I was finished, Aria's hand slid from my neck. "That was beautiful," she whispered, smiling.

"Thank you, baby," I whispered, leaning towards her to press our foreheads together again.

"What album was that on?" She was trying to catch up on over a decade of Fall Out Boy, slowly piecing together which songs belong on which albums as she hears them, at least until she has a chance to sit down and listen to our music to her heart's content.