Chapter Text
Jay groans slumping over the toilet emptying the contents of his stomach for what seems like the millionth time this week. The different smells wafting around his restaurant don’t help. This is a new branch and he’s in the process of hiring new staff so he has to be here but it’s torture because the smell of the different foods has bile rising in his throat every other minute. After flushing the toilet he weakly pulls himself up from the floor and rinses his mouth. He is faced with his rather pale complexion in the mirror as opposed to his usually tanned skin and dread begins to set in.
This is not the time to come down with a sickness of any kind. He's really busy trying to finalize recipes and pick the perfect chefs for the opening which is less than two weeks away. Opening the door he is met with the panicked face of his assistant.
“Jay you- wait, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just tell me what happened.” Jay sighs, pushing his hair back out of his eyes.
“But you don’t look fine. You look really pale and i-
“Serim! Please just tell me what the problem is.” This time he sounds a bit more firm. It startles Serim a bit, making him drop it but the slight tremble in Jay’s voice does nothing to ease his worry about his boss.
“There was an altercation in the kitchen between two of the sous chefs in training and well…”
“Out with it Serim.” Jay sighs
“One is bleeding.”
Jay feels the tears welling up in his eyes. He has no idea why he’s crying but he can’t stop the tears from following. Serim panics resting a comforting hand on his shoulder but that seems to make Jay break down even more.
“Oh no. please don’t cry, i’ll fix it i- oh fuck. Your Alpha is going to kill me when he finds out I made you cry. Um okay, you go wait in one of the offices, i’ll call Jake since your husband isn’t here i’m sure he will know what to do.” Serim brings him to the office and closes the door behind him before heading back to the kitchen to sort out the mess.
Turning down boths sous chefs was not a part of the plan because now they’ll be one short. They need five of them based on the size of the restaurant and now no only are they down one, the team work will be severely impacted. The whole reason they are all here weeks before is to familiarize themselves with recipes and cuisines often catered and to be able to work as a well oiled machine. The machine is now missing one piece and that piece is one of the integral parts. The sous chefs has almost as many responsibilities as the head chef so the absence leaves a gaping hole in the whole operation. Serim is about to spiral from all the questions being thrown his way because he doesn’t have the answers. Jay does.
“I will answer all your questions as soon as i-
“Serim, I've got this.”
Serim’s head snaps around and reveals Jay, who is no longer crying. He managed to pull himself but if you look close enough you can still tell something is wrong.
“I’ve got a new sous chef enroute one of the head chefs will have to step in until then and work under me until then.” Jay says.
“Jay are you sure i mean-
Jay fixes him with sharp eyes and he knows not to push. “Um okay you heard him, who would like to work with Chef Jay?”
Every chef in the kitchen puts their hand up looking eager. Why wouldn’t they be? In a short space of time and at a young age Jay has managed to master cuisines from all over the world, graduating at the head of his class from top culinary school. It would be an honor to work under him.
“I’ll just work with the team that is down a member.” Jay says fastening his apron.
The hours go by and the day wraps up successfully. Jay manages to get through it without throwing up and now he can go out to eat with his friends. They haven't hung out in a while due to being busy but they all happened to be free this even so JaKe suggested they grab a bite to eat.
Everything seems to be going well. The table is filled with laughter and buzzing with life. Jay can feel the stress of the day melting away, until he is a few bites into his meal and begins to gag.
“No, no, no, please not again.” Jay mumbles pushing his chair back, hand over his mouth as he darts to the bathroom. He sinks to his knees in the cubicle regurgitating everything he just ate and he sobs feeling more bile rise in his throat. He doubles over once again emptying his stomach and his scent picks up. The sour smell of distress filling the restroom.
Jay hears footsteps and he wants to curl in on himself but he feels too weak to move so he stays on the floor leaning against the wall with tears streaming down his face and soon he meets the worried gazes of his friends.
“Jay what’s wrong?” Jungwon asks, crouching beside him.
“I don’t know.” Jay sobs, his scent being so much stronger that it makes Jungwon stumble back and cover his nose.
“Okay move let me.” Sunoo sighs once he gets close enough he can smell the subtle change in Jay’s scent.
“Can you guys leave us alone for a minute?”
“Sunoo you can just-
“Sunghoon is not the time to throw a temper tantrum, we all know he’s your best friend or whatever but you all are alphas and right now his scent is too strong for you to get close. Please leave so I can talk to him.”
“Can I stay?” Riki asks hopefully and Jay has a soft spot for the young alpha so he nods.
“Only Ni-ki can stay… the rest of you out!” Sunoo orders. “ And you” he says pointing at Ni-ki “whatever i say to Jay hyung in here you keep it to yourself, got it!”
“G-got it.”
Sunoo was always scary when he got like this, he’s very protective of Jay hyung. So it’s best not to argue when he’s like this.
“Jay hyung… you’re pregnant.” you can hear a pin drop after Sunoo makes the revelation.
“No! That- that can’t be we were careful. I- I'm on the pill.” Jay is crying again and Sunoo pulls him into a comforting hug.
“You may not have planned for it right now but it’s not the end of the world. You are married and mated plus the baby will have very loving people in its life. It may take a while to wrap your head around but I'll be here if you need me.” Sunoo says. It makes Jay sob even harder, he has such good people in his life.
“I’ll be here too.” Riki chimes in crouching beside them.
“I guess all the crying lately makes sense.” Jay giggles through his tears.
“You’ve always been a cry baby.” Riki snickers.
“Hey don’t tease me, I'm pregnant.” Jay grumbles.
“Right, I guess I'll have to wait nine months.” Riki laughs.
“I don’t even know how far along I am and how am I going to tell Heeseung.” Jay sighs. “I- i don;t want anyone else to know until i tell him.”
“Don’t worry hyung your secret is safe with us.” Sunoo says.
“Yeah but for now lets get you up of the floor and get you home.” Riki adds.
Sunoo pulls back from the hug to let Ni-ki help Jay up. He stumbles a bit weak from throwing up all day so Riki picks him up to take him over to the sink to rinse his mouth while Sunoo flushes the toilet.
When they finally emerge from the rest room they are met with worried stares from their friends. Ni-ki is carrying Jay and Sunoo seems even more on guard about his hyung than he usually is.
Sunghoon rushes over trying to get close to Jay but the omegas scent hasn’t completely subsided making it hard for him to do so. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’ll be fine but were taking him home for now.”Sunoo says.
Everyone looks at Ni-ki hoping to get something out of him but Sunoo folds his arms and his scent spikes making them recoil. “I know you’re worried but either go back to eating or go home. I said he’ll be fine.”
“Why do you have to be so scary?” Jake grumbles.
“I am an omega but that doesn’t make me weak now does anyone have anything else to add or are we done here?” Sunoo looks at them daring them to press more but they decide against it for their safety.
They arrive at Jay’s house and Riki helps Jay change his clothes and get settled in bed in his and Heeseung’s shared room which usually reeks of the alpha but since he has been away on business for a while his scent has begun to fade,
“Can you stay?” Jay asks meekly.
“Are you sure? Heeseung hyung’s scent is fading and I don't want to overpower what's left.”
Jay pouts mumbling a small plea and Riki gives in changing into clothes he has left behind from sleeping over so much before climbing into bed. Silence engulfs them as Jay is safe in the young alpha’s arms but the omegas thoughts are going wild and Riki can sense it.
“What are you thinking about?”
“I dunno i guess, i was wondering if i’m a bad omega?” Jay whispers.
“That's ridiculous. Why would you think that?” Riki snorts. He’s never heard such inaccurate words strung together in his life. There is no planet, galaxy or universe to exist in which Jay would be a bad omega, he took such good care of him when he was just a pup away from home, again when he presented and was snapping at everyone he came close.
“How could I not know I was pregnant?” Jay mumbles sound like he is about to burst into tears again. Riki unwraps his arms from around him and cups his face.
“You are the best omega ever and you’ll be an even better mom. Did you forget that you practically raised me, when you didn’t have to. If it weren't for you i wouldn’t be the alpha i am today and you also need to remember you and hyung weren’t trying to have pups right now, in fact you were being very careful so you would have no reason to believe you were so don’t beat yourself up too much i’m sure hyung would be sad if he found out how hard you are being on yourself.”
Jay cracks a smile and snuggles closer to the young alpha. “When did you get so wise?”
“I learned from the best.” Riki chuckles.
Sunoo waltzes into the room soon after with fruits and some water in hand. “Okay so I think this might be the safest thing for you to eat. I don’t want your stomach to stay empty, also your alpha will have a heart attack if he comes back and you are any lighter than you were when he left.”
“Sun are you sure? I really don’t want to throw up again.”
“Hyung i know you’re worried but you can’t just not eat so lets try small bites. Have as much as you can, but I just want you to have something in your stomach. I also called and made an appointment for you to see a doctor. Heeseung hyung has been gone for almost two months so that could be how far along you are. We need to get a check up to be sure, I'll take you.”
It takes a while for Jay to process everything that just came out of the younger omegas mouth. “Sunoo you know you don’t have to do this, both of you don’t have to do all this. I can take care of myself.”
“We know you can but you shouldn’t have to. You’ve taken good care of all of us even when we thought we didn’t need it so i couldn’t possibly sit by and allow you to do this on your own. You will have to get used to it until your husband comes back and even then we’ll still be around.” Sunoo declares with Riki nodding in agreement.
Jay finishes the fruit without having to rush to the bathroom and Sunoo was right he does feel a bit better after eating. Later that night when Heeseung calls to check up on him he talks to him like normal trying his best not to make him think anything is wrong. He knows Heeseung well enough to know that if he senses that something is wrong no matter how small it is he’ll be on the first flight back to korea and he doesn’t want him to abandon his work so he tries his best to act like everything is normal.
The sun rises quickly and the time for his doctor appointment rolls around quickly. For some reason he is nervous. Maybe it’s because he has been skipping out on his regular check ups under the guise of being busy but it seems that it has finally caught up with him because now he is not only here for himself but for a baby growing inside of him.
“Okay Jay-ssi, your charts indicate you have not been getting your regular check ups. If you were you’d know that you are very fertile which is why the birth control you were on didn’t work. You are one of the few omegas that can conceive outside of your heat.” Dr. Lim says. Jay ducks his head feeling like a child being scolded, he should. If he didn’t pay such scant regard to his health he could have done things differently.
“I’m sorry I didn't mean to skip my check ups but i was just busy. I have been traveling a lot lately.” Jay says.
“From the looks of it you haven’t been sleeping much either.” She chides.
“I-
“Jay hyung don’t deny it.” Sunoo scolds.
“Fine. I don't get much sleep when I have to sleep alone so sometimes I don't bother going to bed.” Jay mumbles feeling ashamed of himself. He does dare meet Sunoo and Riki’s eyes already knowing what their reaction will be
“I promised your husband that I would tell him when things aren’t going okay with you because we know you like to sweep things under the rug.” She sighs.
“Wait, please don’t. He’s on a business trip and he’ll be back in a week. That’s when I plan to tell him about the baby if you call him now- just please give me some time.” Jay pleads with her. The doctor's expression softens when his scent picks up.
“A week is all you have not a second more than that. I can’t allow you to keep this up, it’s been like this since i first saw you years ago.”
“We will be taking care of him until his husband gets back.” Riki chimes in.
“Good because he needs someone to look after him.” She says
Riki and Sunoo take over, tell the doctor everything that has been happening to Jay, know he will downplay everything if they allow him and by the end of it she looks disappointed.
“Jay-ssi i won’t scold you too much only because the past month must have been very difficult for you but you have to take better care of yourself. Anyway we’ll do a scan to verify how far along you are and make sure everything looks good then we’ll discuss the rest as we go along.”
Jay sighs when Riki helps him into the car even after he insists he can move on his own. They are going to be very annoying about this whole thing, but he supposes it’s his fault. If they could trust him to take care of himself then he wouldn’t be in this predicament.
“Okay so we have to get your supplements and prenatals, stock up on groceries, then stop by our house to get some clothes because you can’t be left alone.” Sunoo says.
“I am not a child.” Jay grumbles.
“Then don’t act like one.” Sunoo chides.
“Let us take care of you because we're practically risking our lives by keeping this from Heeseung hyung.” Riki hums.
Jay huffs leaning back in his seat. “I’m not even showing.”
“Yeah well you’re only ten weeks and you’re tiny so i don’t think you’ll show a lot.” Riki chuckles.
“I am not tiny, you're just tall for no reason.” Jay hisses.
“It’s not just your height, Jungwon and I are a bit broader than you even though you’re a little taller so it doesn’t really show much.” Sunoo adds.
“Leave me alone!” Jay snaps curling up on the back seat.
“Is he-
“Shh he’s just moody, it’s normal.” Sunoo whispers.
“Yah! I can hear you.”
Sunoo and Riki ignore his little outburst knowing it’s only going to get worse.
“You guys better buy me ice cream for being annoying.” Jay huffs.