Unfamiliar

[Taniya_K]

Here's the promised update for tonight. I think this would be classed as bit of a filler!

Enjoy!

Chapter 47:

The sound of her own footsteps resounded down the stairs as she made her way tiredly, despite all the hours that she had managed to get. Another downside of being 5 months pregnant, Belle had came to notice, was the variance of days where she felt like she was bursting full of energy and then the other days where she wished she could just stay curled up in bed forever.

Finally making it to the bottom step, she paused as her eyes caught sight of Aden in the adjoining room. He was faced away from her, leaning lazily against the counter in the middle of the kitchen while most probably reading the paper.

“Morning.” Belle greeted him as she entered the kitchen, walking straight over to the kettle to make herself some tea.

“Morning.” Aden looked up from his reading material, although it was more of just a material rather than reading. He hadn’t heard her approach or enter until she spoke up. “I would have made you breakkie, but I didn’t know if you had already eaten or not…” He said apologetically.

“Yeah, well, if you hadn’t snuck out of bed this morning, you would have known.” Belle replied, pulling out the box with the tea bags from the cupboard along with a mug.

“I didn’t sneak out-” He began defensively and in slight horror of thinking that she thought that.

“Aden, I was just teasing.” She assured him, cutting him off and throwing him a small smile over his shoulder. “Where were you, anyway?”

“Just headed down to the gym.” He shrugged coolly and Belle nodded. She had woken up earlier on to the alarm that was meant for him only to find that she was alone. Switching it off, she found a small note he had left her telling her not to worry, that he had headed out and if she needed him to call his mobile. She had contemplated doing so before realising that it might seem too pushy, especially if he had already left the house to most probably think things through.

“I see.” Belle merely said as the kettle finished boiling. Lifting it up, she poured herself a cup while carrying on talking, hoping to seem casual. “What time did you leave, then?”

“A couple of hours ago.” She glanced over at the clock to see that ‘a couple hours ago’ would have been about 7am or earlier.

Picking up her cup, she walked over to where he stood, coming to a stop next to him and facing towards him. She took a sip of her hot drink attentively, making sure it didn’t burn her while Aden did his best to carry on with what he was doing and not seem affected by her. Her eyes glided down to his hands, the red rawness of his knuckles catching her attention from the corner of her eyes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he had been doing down at the gym. Placing her tea next to his glass of orange juice, Belle laid a gentle hand on his back, rubbing it in small circles as she spoke.

“Is everything ok?” She asked him softly. “Did you sleep last night?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Aden, don’t lie to me. I know you were still awake up until 5, and if you left at 7, then you must have been thinking about going for a while.” Her tone wasn’t accusing, but more rather concerned. Aden stood up straighter and downed the rest of his drink before replying.

“I slept, Belle.” Aden insisted with a tone that left no room to argue. “I just woke up at 7 and there was no point in falling asleep again, so I thought against it.”

“Alright.” She gave in, knowing that pushing the subject would be the worst thing to do when everything else seemed to be ok. “Listen, I’ve got to go in about 15 minutes, but do you fancy heading out tonight?”

“Out, where?” He turned his head to look at her questioningly.

“Anywhere. We haven’t really done anything recently, so I thought that maybe tonight…” Belle left the sentence open to his own interpretation about whatever they could do that night.

“Sure, if you’re up to it.” At her raised eyebrow, Aden continued. “I meant how you were complaining of being tired yesterday and all.”

“Oh, right. Yeah, I can just catch up on some sleep when I get home this afternoon.” She informed him with a small smile, her hand working it’s way under his shirt for a moment. “So, is that a yes?”

“Yes, Belle. It’s a yes.” He chuckled at her sweet tone, making her smile widen a bit before leaning up to kiss him. Aden turned his whole body towards her, her hand smoothing it’s way around his waist at the back, sending tingles along his entire body at the skin on skin touch. Breaking apart, he let one of his hands drop to her stomach while using the other to brushing her hair back from her face. “How’s the arm?”

“What arm?” Belle asked innocently as he frowned at her response, his hand skimming down over where she had taken off the bandage before having a shower and then used 3 band aids on it to keep it from getting infected or irritated by her elbow length sleeves.

“Belle…” Aden said warningly, a tone she knew not to mess with.

“It’s fine, Aden.” She told him soberly. “Seriously, I can’t even feel it anymore.” To prove her point, she removed her hands from around his waist and used the left one to squeeze her arm, right over where the wound was. There was a small itch and a bit of an achy sting, but it wasn’t anything that she let show. “See?”

“Hmm…” He clearly didn’t believe her but she didn’t push the matter any further, instead deciding to change the subject before all of the bad memories from the previous night came back to them, to him, and put him down.

“Here.” She retracted both her arms away from him, causing him to take his off hers too. Digging into her jeans pocket, she fished out the black pouch that he had presented to her the night before. Untying the knot with ease, she took a hold of one of his hands and tipped out the charm into it. It was almost a tradition now that Aden would be the one who would hook the new addition to her bracelet on, deciding where it went. She rarely argued with him, trusting that he had his reasons for where he would place it.

Aden held her hand with such a delicacy as if she would break if he applied if the tiniest amount of pressure upon her. Twisting the bracelet around her wrist slowly, he found the perfect place for it in the extra space between the star and the snowflake. It didn’t take long for him to have hooked it on, bringing her hand up to his lips to press a tender kiss to her inner wrist.

“How’s that?”

“Perfect. Thank you.” Moving closer to him, she pushed herself up with her hands on his shoulders and pecked his cheek affectionately before standing back down onto the flats of her feet. She picked up her cup of tea as she did so. “Shouldn’t you be heading off soon?”

“Um…” Aden looked over at the clock and winced, realising that she was right.

“I need to finish getting ready, anyway.” She told him dismissively. “I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“Wait, no breakfast?” He asked her curiously as she turned to leave, only managing to get a few steps away.

“I’ll grab some at work.” Belle said sheepishly, biting her lip at her misdemeanour.

“Belle!”

“I’ll eat something. I promise, I will.” She assured him forcefully. “I just got up a bit later than I wanted to thanks to your alarm that you forgot to switch off.” His confused look forced her on. “I fell asleep again after it went off and there was nothing else to wake me.”

“Right, sorry.” Aden said genuinely and she shook her head briefly.

“Don’t worry about it. I needed the sleep.” Belle smiled even as he still looked tremendously guilty though he tried to hide it. But it was there in his eyes; the shining baby blue colour that she adored and fell in love with long ago now a shade darker, and she knew that it wasn’t only because of the alarm. A pang of distress went through her as she realised that last night would be at the front of his mind all day.

Walking back over to him, she kissed him passionately without another word, surprising him for a small moment before his hands came to frame her face. Her hands were still full with the cup of tea that she held between them, but she pushed up to him as close as was possible, breaking away only when it was necessary to breathe.

“I love you.” She whispered, looking straight into his eyes to show just how much she meant it. A small smile tugged at his lips, although she guessed it was more of a wry one than a content one. “You should go before you’re late, and I need to get a move on too.”

“Yeah, ok.” He nodded at her light tone, dropping his hands rather quickly. “Take it easy, yeah?”

“Always.” Belle said albeit cheekily while heading out of the kitchen. She pushed the fact that it was twice now that she had told him she loved him and he hadn’t replied in the predicted way to the back of her mind, telling herself that she didn’t need the words for her to know he loved her. Not to mention, there were quite a bit of other things playing around in his head at the moment too.

Aden remained in the kitchen a few seconds longer before the silence forced him to think. Not liking it, he quickly folded the paper up again and took his empty glass to the sink and then crossed over into the front room. He had everything ready to go, having spent a bit too much time on that after he had returned from the gym while Belle had been in the shower. Keeping the mind occupied meant that all of the other dreaded feelings and thoughts were kept away. He knew that he was going about it the wrong way, but thinking about it just made him hate himself immensely, and he knew that if Belle saw that, she would feel bad and guilty when none of it was her fault. And that was the last thing he wanted.

Gathering up his stuff, he slung the bag over his shoulder and picked up his keys and phone from where he had thrown them earlier on onto the couch. Shouting out that he was leaving, Aden waited for Belle’s reply, telling him to be careful as usual, to which he rolled his eyes. She really had to stop underestimating his driving skills.

Just as Aden reached the front door, the very familiar sound of an approaching car up their driveway made him pause. Opening the door without even bothering to try and hazard a guess as to who it would be, he was undoubtedly shocked to see the white car stop right next to his black one. The owner of the car stepped out soon enough and made their way up to the front door where Aden still stood.

“Hello, Aden.” She greeted him politely when she reached the porch. Aden took a step back to let his mother-in-law in.

“Uh… Hi.” He replied, confusion colouring his words. “Did we know you were coming today?”

“No, sorry. Hope you didn’t have any plans.” Amanda said suddenly, realising that her rash decision to head down to the Bay may have been a bit too rash.

“Um…” Aden faltered, not sure what to say. Instead, he merely shrugged and headed to the staircase. “Belle? Your mother’s here.”

“What?!” Her immediate answer came, just as shocked and confused as he had been. He nodded to himself before turning back around to the door.

“I need to head off. Belle will be down in a bit.” He told Amanda who bid him goodbye as he finally left. He couldn’t help but wonder why Amanda would choose a Wednesday of all days to come down to see her daughter. Or what that look that was a mix of concern and intrigue that she had tried to hide from him was for.

Belle came down the stairs almost as soon as Aden had left, hearing the door shut just as she reached the top stair.

“Mum! What are you doing here?”

“Hello to you too, darling.” Amanda said in reply sarcastically. Belle smiled apologetically as she brushed past her hurriedly into the kitchen, forcing the elder lady to follow her in. “Where are you in a rush to?”

“I need to get to work.”

“I thought you said you had the day off? It’s why I came down here, hoping to spend the day with my heavily pregnant daughter, seeing as you turned me down last week.” Belle froze at her words, staring downwards at her own body with a small frown.

“I’m not ‘heavily’ pregnant!” She said in a defensive tone. “I’m not that big, am I?”

“No, no, of course not! That was the wrong word to use.” Amanda reassured her quickly. “Trust me, you don’t even look 5 months.”

“Yeah…” Belle nodded acceptingly, her eyes catching the time, making her groan. “Mum, I’m sorry, but I’ve really got to go. I’ll be back by midday though, so I’ll catch up with you then?”

“I guess I don’t really have a choice, do I?” She laughed lightly, walking back into the living room as Belle retrieved her camera and her bag. “Are you sure you should be working so much right now?”

“I’m perfectly fine, Mum.” She smiled at her while fitting everything into her bag. “You can always come with me to the shoot, but I doubt you’d want to.”

“I think I’ll sit that one out.”

“Alright, well, you’re more than welcome to stay here…” Belle offered while she hitched her bag onto her shoulder, jingling her keys in her hand as an involuntary movement to let out some of her newfound energy at the risk of being late to work.

“No, I think I’ll go catch up with everyone else. No point in being back for the day and just end up lazing around here.” Amanda claimed as Belle nodded, leading the way out of the door.

“Ok, if you really want.” She agreed, pulling the door shut behind her. “Like I said, I’ll be back in a few hours, and Aden’s not done until later on, so we’ll have a few hours then.”

“Sure. I mean, I was hoping to get the whole day, but that sounds fine.” Amanda reasoned as they got nearer to Belle’s car. “About Aden…?”

“What about him?” Belle’s head snapped up towards her mother from where she was dumping her stuff onto the passenger’s side of the car.

“Is everything ok? He looked a bit… off. Like he was tired or something.” She tried to explain, not really finding the right words to get her impression of him across.

“You noticed then?” Belle asked sadly, leaning against the car and gripping onto the door with a slight force to prevent herself from rubbing her arm, which she knew would be a dead giveaway. Although everyone knew that Aden would never intentionally hurt her, she was fairly sure that Amanda’s first instinct would be to go into ‘mother mode’ and not listen to her when she tried to explain it away and justify it. It wasn’t the fact that Amanda didn’t know about his past or understood completely, but it was more of the plain fact that she was her daughter and maternal instinct told her to protect and banish anything that would hurt her. Something that Belle was beginning to feel herself for her own unborn child.

“It was a bit hard not to, darling. Is everything ok between you two? Drew was saying that you had some fight-”

“Drew was exaggerating. We’re fine.” Belle cut her off, not wanting to go back to when her and Aden really were fighting, or in the sense of having a heavy tension between them. “It’s just stuff to do with his brother and all.”

“Oh. Right, I see.” Amanda had found out about Justin being back by her daughter when she had called on the weekend, asking if she was up for a visit considering that it had been a few weeks since they had last seen each other. Belle’s reply had been sincere but insistent that it wasn’t a good time and had very briefly explained about Aden’s brother being back.

“Ok, well, I really need to go so…” Belle broke the small silence they had fallen into.

“Yup, of course. I’ll see you later then.” Amanda stood off to the side as Belle smiled gratefully and climbed into the car. She waved goodbye as the daughter guided the car onto the road smoothly before realising that she was standing around like a lawn ornament. Shaking her head, Amanda got her legs working, taking her to the first place that had came to her head.

---

“Whoa!” Amanda exclaimed as she walked out of the Diner and straight into someone else, the ice tea in her hand thankfully only spilling slightly over her arm.

“Oh, sorry!” The guy who had ran into her quickly apologized. “I should’ve been paying more attention to where I was going. Sorry.”

“Yes, you should have! You’re just lucky that this wasn’t a scolding hot coffee!” Amanda practically snapped, a bit more annoyed at the fact that she could now see a small stain on her perfectly new cream shoes.

“Here, let me help you clean that up…” He grabbed a couple of serviettes that were lying around on one of the out door tables, held down by a small plate. Folding one of them up, he tried to dab at her arm only to be stopped by her pulling the tissues out of his hands with a bit of extra force.

“I can do that myself, thank you very much.”

“You’re a bit of a hothead, aren’t you. Very independent, too.” His words were lined with amusement, which did nothing to improve Amanda’s mood.

“Excuse me?!” She asked in disbelief. “Who do you think you are, judging me like that?”

“Trust me, I have a lot of experience with women.” The grin on his face was now a more cheeky and flirty one, one that Amanda had no interest in seeing.

“What’s you’re name?”

“Right to the point, huh?” He crossed his arms with a small smirk. “Justin.”

“I thought as much.” She scoffed, shaking her head. There was a small resemblance between him and Aden that almost anyone would be able to recognise with just one look at the two of them.

“You… did?” Justin question slowly, his smile deflating. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“No, but you know my daughter.” Amanda told him pointedly. A look of confusing crossed his face as his eyes travelled up and down her body rather quickly. Soon enough his posture went a bit lax although he stood up straighter and dropped his voice, a scared look colouring his face.

“Whatever she said, I swear she told me she was 16.”

“What?” His sudden fear threw her into a state of perplexity before realising what he was trying to say. Having a kid at 15 really did throw people off, she mused. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I think.”

“Huh?” Justin replied a bit stupidly as Amanda rolled her eyes and took a few steps away so that they were further away from the busy bustling of the Diner and it’s workers, mainly Colleen.

“My daughter. Belle T-” She paused to correct herself. “Jefferies. Your brother’s wife?”

“You’re Belle’s mother?” Justin sounded astonished. Letting out a low whistle, he let his eyes wander over her body once more, this time at a much slower pace. “Don’t look that much alike.”

“Hey!” Amanda snapped her fingers. “Eyes up here!”

“But you’re certainly both just as feisty. Sorry.” He certainly didn’t sound it, making Amanda frown. “You just don’t look old enough to have a daughter that old. Wow!”

“Yes, well…” She trailed off, not sure what else to say. “That’s besides the point.”

“Hmm… And what was your point exactly, ma’am?” He asked her with a very polite tone.

“That the last thing that Belle or the baby needs is anymore stress.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing that I’m not here for Belle or the baby then, isn’t it?” Justin said in a cheery tone that just made Amanda scowl.

“You might have your reasons, but just know that any pressure or stress you put on Aden, you put on her too.” She told him strictly.

“Duly noted.” He smiled brightly. “I’m not here to pressure or stress Aden, either, just so you know. I’m just merely here, having a blast of a time in the wonderful town of Summer Bay.”

“I’m sure you are.” Amanda said dryly, rolling her eyes at his suggestive tone that wasn’t hard to miss or interpret.

“So, tell me Miss…?” He stopped for effect, still grinning at her as she began to walk away.

“Mrs. Vale.” She informed him as he followed her, hoping he would get the message.

“Ah, you’re married then.”

“That is the general idea when a lady has the title ‘Mrs.’. I’d understand if you weren’t familiar with the concept of it.” Amanda sniped back, not bothering to turn to look at him as she walked a bit briskly along the path parallel to the beach.

“Oh, I’m very familiar with the concept of married ladies.” Justin chuckled, making her frown a slight disgust to herself. “Where’s your husband then? You’re not here alone, are you?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, I’m just here visiting my daughter for the day.” She said through gritted teeth, slowing down her pace as her legs began to ache.

“I figured as much.” He said matter-of-factly. “Where is she now, anyway? I haven’t seen her for a few days now…”

“She’s at work.”

“Oh, right. Of course. She’s that photojournalist, isn’t she? I’ve read a lot of her things. She’s got skill. Great talent. Truly marvellous. Probably got it from her mother, right?” Amanda stopped and turned to face him, the smile still shining bright on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, Justin, but I can tell you that it’s not going to work.” She told him slowly as his grin simply turned into a smaller one while sighing mockingly.

“Well, I was hoping to get to know you better. You know, considering that we’re kind of family now.” There was an underlying message of heavy hinting of what kind of ‘getting to know’ he was thinking of.

“You really have no respect for yourself, do you? I tell you I’m married, yet you still try to come onto me. Worst of all, I am also ‘kind of family’ too, as you put it.” Amanda reminded him sharply. Justin looked a bit taken aback, his smile faltering into an almost pout.

“Of course I have respect for myself. Can’t respect a woman without respect for myself.” His smirk was back on his face as Amanda shuddered slightly at his suggestive words before turning to walk away again.

“Don’t follow me this time.” She warned, hearing his footsteps die down a bit. “My husband’s a cop, and I can get you charged with stalking really easily.”

“I’m not stalking. Yet. Unless that’s the kind of thing you like…” Justin called after her, getting a few odd looks from some passer-bys. “No? Ok, then.” Sighing, he went back to where he was heading into the Diner, only to stop by one of the tables when he found another beautiful girl sitting by herself.

---

I hope you liked. Just some lightheartedness and humor after all the drama and angst. Hope you didn't find it OOC.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you guys SO much for the lovely comments and for bugging me to update. Well, not so much bugging as asking, but it really got me writting more and finished tonight. I'm so sorry that I made you wait a few days. I'll try to get the next up quicker. To make up for it, this chapter's a bit longer. I just hope it won't drag on.

Chapter 48:

“If this is what it’s going to look like until you find out whether it’s a boy or a girl, I think you should find out tomorrow.” Amanda commented while Belle pouted.

“No!” She almost whined, eyeing the nursery carefully, enjoying the warmth it provided, not just from the sun shining in through the big window. “Besides, there’s a lot more stuff left to do without knowing the sex of the baby. It’ll just be tiny things that are left that can be done after the baby’s born.”

“Alright, it’s up to you.” Amanda told her with a smile as they left the room, Belle shutting the door slowly behind her. “How was work then?”

“Work was work.” Belle shrugged as they made their way downstairs slowly. Like she had predicted, the few hours of being on her feet and taking non-stop pictures had drained on her energy levels. “What did you get up to ”

“Oh, nothing much. Caught up with Leah and Irene at the Diner.” She said casually, pausing for a moment. She leant against the island in the middle of the kitchen as Belle went to get something to drink out of the fridge. “I met Justin today.”

“Really?” Belle’s eyebrows shot up into her fringe as she looked up at her mother while pouring two glasses of orange juice.

“Yeah, ran into him outside of the Diner. Literally.” Amanda added. “He’s… um, he’s very confident, for one.”

“Meaning…?” She prodded curiously.

“He’s a flirt too. A nasty one. He tried to hit on me even after I told him I was married.” Amanda huffed, although there had been a small boost of her self-esteem.

“Yeah, he does that.” Belle said matter-of-factly with a small shake of the head. “He finds pride in helping women cheat. Don’t ask.”

“I don’t think I’d want to know.” Her tone was disgusted and Belle couldn’t help but burst out laughing at it.

“Oh, c’mon, Mum. You can’t say you didn’t enjoy being hit on by a 25 year old.”

“Belle!” Amanda merely exclaimed, not able to stop the small smile from tugging at her lips.

“Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.” She winked at her while passing her by to re-enter the front room. Climbing onto the single seater, Belle tucked her legs under her while sipping the cool drink slowly, eyeing her mother as she sat down on the couch to her right.

“So, what’s his story?” Belle looked at her oddly, prompting Amanda to carry on. “He’s little sleaze and all, but he seems pretty harmless. What’s the problem with him being back around again?”

“You mean apart from the whole him running off 8 years ago?” She replied sarcastically, to which the blonde threw her a look showing she wasn’t impressed by her answer. “There’s just a few… issues there that Aden has to work through first.”

“Right.” She mumbled, learning long ago that there was more to Aden than what met the eye, and that she wasn’t going to get to the bottom of it anytime soon. “Are these ‘issues’ why he looked like that this morning?”

“Kind of.” Belle sighed, averting her eyes for a moment before sinking down in her seat a bit more and tilting her head towards her Amanda, resting it lazily against the back of the sofa. “He’s just not sleeping properly. There too much on his mind with Justin being back and his exams and the baby. That’s all.”

“That’s all?” Amanda repeated in doubt. “Sounds like a lot for one guy to have on his mind.” A small smirk appeared on both of their faces. Although she hadn’t meant it as a joke, it had came out like one and they had both caught it.

“It is.” She murmured, realising that there was more than those three things on Aden’s mind. “And we kind of had a fight too.”

“Hmm… So Drew was right.”

“Yes, Drew was right.” Belle confirmed with a small nod. “It was last week and we’ve sorted it out now, but there’s still this little bit of tension lingering around.”

“Must have been a big fight if you’re still feeling it.” Amanda commented offhandedly. Belle knew that she was being so cool with it so that there was no pressure on her to tell her anything, but it was the lack of questioning that made her want to delve into it more.

“Yeah, it was. Well, it wasn’t a fight as such. It was more of a…” She struggled to find the right word that would describe what it had been. Giving up, Belle relied on explaining it to her mother, hoping she would get the picture. “Basically, I knew that Justin was back but I didn’t tell Aden. He, of course, found out about Justin before I got to tell him so that made things 10 times worse. Worst of all was the fact that he wouldn’t act angry with me, which made me feel ever guiltier. It was really horrible cos we were tiptoeing around each other a lot and barely speaking, but his actions were like normal, which was just confusing.”

“Right.” Amanda said, taking in everything that she had told her while sipping her juice.

“We talked it out, finally, and I understand now why he acted like that, but it was really bad, you know? Cos it was my fault and I messed up pretty big, yet he wouldn’t be mad at me or anything.” Belle carried on, feeling the need to get it all out as it spilled without being able to stop.

“Belle, I’m sure you had a really good reason for doing what you did. Not that I’m saying lying to Aden was the best way to go about it. And I should know. Lying was my forte.” Amanda reminded her with a small wry smile that Belle reciprocated. “But things are better now?”

“Yeah, way better.” She tried to sounds confident, but it was evident that it didn’t come out like that. “We’re getting there. We’ve agreed to talk about things. Not about Justin though.”

“Why not?”

“I dunno.” Belle shrugged. “First I thought that it might be so that he could get his head around it and sort it all out with himself, but it’s been a week now and I’m pretty sure that he’s just not thinking about it at all. Like he’s pushing it away.”

“Or maybe he’s trying to put less onto you for you to worry about.” Amanda suggested pointedly. “If I know Aden then I’m sure that the last thing he’s going to do is put any more stress onto you than what’s necessary. And I’ve got to agree with him. If it’s something that you don’t have the deal with then it’s better if you don’t.”

“Yeah, but I can’t not do anything. It’s driving me crazy, having to bite my tongue every time I want to ask if he’s thought about talking to Justin or whatever. Plus, it’s not like not talking about it is doing him any good. He went to the gym this morning and came back with bruised knuckles.” Belle knew that Justin wasn’t the reason for the beating and pain that Aden had inflicted upon himself, but not talking or bringing himself to think about him was. She knew what was going on, why the nightmares had gotten worse. It had been the same thing when Larry had died. Aden pushed the thoughts away during the day, but at night, it came back to him, harder and much more unbearable. “If he’s not talking to stop me from worrying, then it’s not working.”

“Then maybe you should take the risk and ask him. What’s the worst that can happen?” She thought about Amanda’s rhetorical question. What was the worst that could happen? Apart from insisting that everything was ok and creating a bigger rift between the two of them when they both knew it wasn’t true. Especially about the whole nightmare situation which Aden had vowed to try and fix. “Unless there’s something else that you’re not telling me…”

Belle’s head snapped up to her from where it had turned to look forwards towards the table in front of her. Opening her mouth to say something, she shut it pretty much soon after, realising that there wasn’t much she could hide from her mother for some reason. She wasn’t sure when their relationship had turned into a really close one, where they were more than estranged mother and daughter trying to find ground with each other but rather like friends. Belle could take a guess that the wedding and the baby had a great influence on that, but as she thought about it more, the more she realised that past two years had gone by with more visits to see her mother than when she was in the Bay. Their natural bond had grown stronger over time without any trying or forcing; it had just been instinctual.

“Yeah.” She finally sighed, pulling her legs out from under her to slouch in the seat, her legs curling up to rest against the armrest as she leant back against the other one. The movement stirred the baby, making it kick gently a few times. Belle smoothed her hands over her bump, rubbing it caringly to sooth the baby back into stillness before the kicks got a bit stronger and a tad bit painful.

“’Yeah’ that there’s something else, or ‘yeah’ that you’ll ask him?” Amanda questioned after they fell into a silence.

“Both.” She confessed as she contemplated telling all to her mother. On the one hand, having someone to talk to about it and get some advice on how to help Aden would be great, but on the other, to betray his trust and hurt him by telling someone else about his weakness wasn’t something that Belle fancied doing. She knew that he wouldn’t blame her for telling someone; it wasn’t like he had made her promise to keep it a secret, but she knew that he was deeply ashamed of what had happened and that the last thing he wanted was for people to pity him or to think that he couldn’t take care of her or the baby properly. “It’s just-” Cutting herself off, Belle shook her head tiredly, letting it slump against the sofa. “I wish things could go back to way they were before the whole Justin situation arose.”

“We all wish for a simpler life, Belle, but there’s no such thing. If you don’t try hard or fight for something, then it’s not worth having.” Amanda informed her lovingly. “Just look at Peter and I. It took us years, and a lot of grief, to get to where we are, but it was all worth it in the end. It’ll work out for the two of you, and you’ll end up stronger for it.”

“I guess so.” Belle couldn’t help but to wonder when her mother’s words had struck so deep in her or when she had became so wise. A smile slowly crept onto her face as she remembered telling Amanda the same thing about the latter a few years back.

“What?” Amanda’s inquisitive voice snapped her out of her thoughts as Belle simply shook her head lightly before shifting in her seat to sit in a more comfortable position. Both her back and her legs ached from sitting in an awkward and squished position, and as she struggled to get into a better one, the baby began to protest too. Sighing in frustration, she pushed herself up and joined her mother on the couch where there was more space. Ignoring the curious look that she shot at her, Belle fluffed up the pillows behind her with one hand before slumping back against them. “Comfortable now?”

“Yes, thank you.” Belle muttered as she rubbed her stomach, glancing up to see Amanda’s amused and somewhat admiring smile. “What? She asked her now.

“Nothing.” She replied with a small laugh before carrying on as Belle gave her a disbelieving look. “Just look at you. You’re doing really well, and you’re already becoming a great mother.”

“Doesn’t feel like I’m doing well.”

“You are, Belle. Trust me. I’m proud of you.” She reached over and gave her daughter’s hand a small squeeze.

“Thanks.” Belle merely said, a small blush reaching her cheeks as she felt a small bout of relief and a childlike sense of happiness knowing that her mother thought that she was doing a good job. “Hold on.” She quickly grabbed onto her hand as she began to slip it away before placing it onto her stomach where the baby was still being quite active. Apart from Aden, or Dr Reed when it was necessary, there was no-one else that she let touch her bump or to feel the baby kick. Not even Mattie, who she knew had itching fingers almost every time she saw her. It was just something that she never felt comfortable with. “Do you feel that?”

“Yeah…” Amanda’s voice trailed off as she concentrated on her grandchild kicking against her hand for a moment. Prying it away after a moment, she let a small giggle out, seeing on Belle’s face that the baby still carried on. “The baby always this active?”

“Not all of the time. When the kicking starts, though, on some days, it won’t stop for a while.” Belle told her as she continued to rub circles to calm it down.

“Might be a boy then.” Amanda informed her before explaining her logic. “You were a quiet baby. Didn’t move much or kick up a fuss.”

“Of course I was.” She replied cheekily. “Although Aden will be disappointed with that.”

“He wants a girl?”

“Well, no, not really. He just thinks we’ll have a girl. Actually, he’s so convinced that we’re having a girl that the idea of having a boy is probably as foreign as rocket science to him.” Belle said in mock seriousness as Amanda rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure that Aden would be happy with whatever. Besides, you never know; maybe rocket science is his strong point.” She joked while Belle gave her an amused look.

“Aden’s clever, but he’s not that clever.” Even as the words left her mouth, she hoped that Aden himself would never find out that she had ever said that. The teasing would never end if he knew that she had said he was clever. Sure, she had told him a few times, usually in serious conversations, but those were times when things that were said could never be used against each other.

“Alright, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see then.”

“Yup. It’s only another 4 months.” Belle tried her best to sound optimistic, but just saying out loud that there were still 4 more months to go before she would find out didn’t do anything to help strengthen her patience. “You know what?” She began suddenly, desperate to change the subject before she gave in and made any rash decision. “I really could do with some ice-cream. Do you fancy some?”

“I’ll get it.” Amanda insisted, getting up before Belle could get another word in. “You’re supposed to be relaxing.”

“I can handle getting some ice-cream, Mum.” She retorted with a huff, watching her mother’s retreating form as she pointedly ignored her, taking the two empty glasses with her into the kitchen. “Thanks. You know where the stuff is, right?”

“I’m guessing that the ice cream is in the freezer.” Her tone was half sarcastic, half humorous that made Belle smile to herself.

“Yes, Mum, it’s in the freezer.” She could hear the laughter drifting through from the other room as well as the opening and shutting of several cupboards, drawers and doors. There was another sound that Belle was able to identify as she twisted to look over her shoulder at the front door as the handle of it rattled before swinging open. “Hey!”

“Hey.” Aden replied after a second, taking in Belle and her cheery mood, and the rustling in the kitchen.

“You’re back early.” She said with a small frown as he crossed over after throwing his bag onto the floor on the side. He leaned over the back of the couch that she was sitting on, keeping a tiny bit extra distance than was necessary, she noticed.

“It’s half 4.” Aden informed her after a quick look at his watch, making sure that he wasn’t mistaken. “I finished at 3.”

“Ok, so you’re late.” Belle amended with a small tilt of the head, a smile forming on her face. “Where have you been then?”

“Had to go to the library quickly.”

“Oh, right.” She murmured, watching him closely as he stared downwards towards his clasped hands in front of him. They stayed in a bit of silence, the only sounds coming from Amanda as she took her time getting the ice cream, until Aden pushed away from the couch a few moments later. “Wait, where’re you going? Mum’s just getting me some ice cream so-”

“No, that’s fine. You guys talk. I need a shower anyway.” Belle felt his hand glide lightly across her shoulders as he passed, eyes following him until he disappeared up the stairs. It was the first time in a while that Aden had kept a minimum contact with her, and it was most probably the first time ever that he hadn’t asked if she or the baby were ok after a day of work.

Footsteps entering the front tore Belle’s attention away from the opposite wall, taking the proffered bowl of vanilla and chocolate ice cream from her mother. She looked at the contents suspiciously after Amanda sat down on the other end of the couch with only half of the amount.

“Sounded like you would need it.”

---

Creeping up the stairs as slowly and quietly as she could, Belle kept an ear out for any unusual noises to indicate what Aden was up to. He had been upstairs since arriving home an hour previously, and Amanda had left only 5 minutes before hand, having to go pick Ryan up on the way from footy practice.

Approaching their bedroom, she gently pushed the unlocked, ajar door open silently. There was little light in the room; the sun blocked out by the drapes that Aden must have shut before falling asleep. Exhaling deeply, Belle sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over to gently stroke his mussed up hair. He laid on his back, face tilted away from her and towards the drawn curtains with a change of clothes to what he had been wearing earlier. There was no motion of any kind to show that he had acknowledged her touch, proving her theory right of the lack of sleep and just how tired he must have been. Looking at him now, he looked extremely peaceful and there were no marks, bar the knuckles, to show any kind of pain or fatigue.

Belle stood back up after a few minutes, wondering what to do. Although she had came up to see what had kept Aden occupied, she had also intended on sleeping for a while. Suddenly, she felt uncomfortable with the idea of laying down beside him without his knowledge after what his reaction had been like the night before when he had been awake.

Thinking about it while changing into some more comfortable and looser clothes, she finally decided that merely sharing a bed with him wouldn’t do any harm. It wasn’t as if acting any differently was going to do them any good, and she had been the one trying to act as if everything was perfectly normal that morning.

She slowly sat back down at the top of the bed, peering over to see if Aden was still asleep. Happy that he was, her eyes automatically drifted over to his hands to see if his peaceful demeanour was a charade or not. One of them laid on the pillow by his face, curled up loosely. The other rested flat on his chest, the main indicator to show that he was indeed sleeping painlessly.

Finally content with that, Belle slid down on the bed to lay on her side. Sleeping on her back was almost an impossibility nowadays and sleeping on her front really was an impossibility. Facing Aden, she slowly trailed one hand carefully over his arm before leaving it to rest on his hand. She could feel the heat radiating off his body, even though there were almost no other body parts that touched.

Closing her eyes, a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips as she felt Aden subconsciously spread his fingers slightly to interlace them with hers. She blinked twice as she felt him shuffle in his sleep, turned his head towards her on a natural instinct. Making sure that he was still asleep, Belle took her chance and moved in closer until she could rest her head lightly against his shoulder.

Sleep came easy to her, but it wasn’t the deep kind. A while later, and the smallest movements from Aden was enough to bring her back from the peaceful world. She didn’t open her eyes or make any movement to show that she had registered his. Not even as his grip on her hand tightened before letting go, or when he lovingly brushed the hair back from her face before slipping out from under her and laying her head on a pillow. Not even as she felt him caress her face with the back of his hand or skim down her arm, only to realise that it was the wrong one.

Belle could feel his eyes on her as she remained completely still, listening to his heavy breathing. She eventually gave in and peer through narrow eyes and her eyelashes to see him perched on the end of the bed with his head in his hands. Debating on whether to ‘wake up’ or not, she continued to watch him as he lifted his head up and held his shaky hands in front of him. She wasn’t sure where the anxiousness had came from; she was fairly certain that there had been no nightmare.

Aden finally pushed himself up from the bed, walking with small steps and dragged feet until he got into the bathroom where he shut the door behind him and locked it. Only then did Belle let out the breath she had unknowingly held. The shower started up pretty soon later, making her wonder whether this time it was to wake him up or to wash away negative feelings he was undoubtedly swarming in.

Gazing up once again, Belle caught sight of the alarm clock, shining bright in the false darkness of a summer’s late afternoon. 6:04pm. He had lain with her for less than 34 minutes before having the need to get away. Things definitely weren‘t right.

---

Once again, I'm sorry for the wait! I hope this made up for it.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

I can't believe that you've got 95 pages and 48 chapters on this fic. Not long now till 100 pages and 50 chapters!

Tell me about it! I'm amazed that you guys are still sticking with the fic after so long. I'm glad it still intrigues you all

Thank you all once again for the lovely comments. They all mean a lot to me.

This chapter was meant to be longer but I've split it into two chapters instead so that I could delve more into Belle and Aden's thoughts/actions and all that jazz. I hope that made sense, lol.

Chapter 49:

She had fallen asleep again before Aden had came out of the bathroom, waking up as the last digit on the clock changed from a ‘9’ to a ‘0’ to show her the time 7:30 exactly. Sighing as the memory came back to her, Belle pushed herself up to take a look around, not surprised to see nothing different. Exhaling once again, she swung her legs off the bed and trudged into the bathroom to freshen herself up whilst thinking of a ways that might be of use to help Aden.

Her bare feet made almost no sound as she walked slowly down the stairs, peering over the banister in faux casualness to see if Aden was there. Disappointed to find it empty, she carried on into the kitchen where she could see the lights were on. Belle had only made it halfway there before she spotted him at the table, a book open in front of him and several sheets of paper to his side.

“Hey. Up at last.” Aden greeted her with a smile that took her aback. Shaking it off, she reciprocated it before taking the seat next to him at the end of the table.

“Yeah.” She replied softly. “When did you get up?”

“Just a little bit ago.” He shrugged as he lied to her smoothly, turning back to his work. “I didn’t want to wake you; you seemed pretty tired earlier.”

“So did you.” There was a pause as Aden scribbled something down onto the paper without another glance at her, although she could see his smile fading into a straight line as he pursed his lips.

“When did you want to go out then?” Aden changed the subject with a forced sense of nonchalance, never averting his eyes away from his work.

“Um…” Pushing a hand through her hair to move it away from her face, she glanced over at the clock that told her it was now a quarter to 8. “Actually, let’s just stay in.”

“You sure? You sounded pretty keen this morning.”

“I’m sure. I don’t really fancy getting changed again. We can just get some takeout or something and hang out here.” Belle suggested as he tilted his head to look at her briefly, nodding.

“Sounds great.” There was no sense of the enthusiasm that his words may have hinted to. Instead, he turned back to what he had been getting on with, almost as if to end the conversation. Placing a hand on the table, Belle made to get up before changing her mind and twisting in the chair so that she was facing him more directly.

“Aden, is everything ok?” She asked him attentively. He paused in what he was doing, giving her a confused look.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Belle laid her hand on top of his, her thumb delicately stroking his raw knuckles as a sign. “Everything’s fine.”

“Everything’s not fine.” She told him in a gentle yet pointed voice as he snatched his hand away, picking up the pen that he had dropped and began writing once more. “I know I said I wouldn’t ask about Justin, but you said we’re going to start being honest. And this is me, being honest, telling you that I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t need to be worried about me.” Aden informed her a bit harshly. The emphasis on the word ‘worried’ played on her mind. Did he not think she was really worried? Or did he just think that she should be more scared and angry than worried?

“You know, Mum ran into Justin today.” That definitely caught his attention, turning to look at her curiously. “Yeah, he tried to flirt with her. He does that; hitting on married women.” As she paused, Aden raised an eyebrow in a silent question as to why she was telling him this. “Don’t you find it strange that I know more about your brother right now than you?”

“I know a lot about Justin, Belle. I grew up with him. I doubt he’s changed much.” He said dryly and matter-of-factly.

“Maybe not. I mean, are you the same person as you were back then?” Aden took in a deep breath while leaning back in his chair, throwing his pen back onto the table as he held onto the side of the table with a tight grip.

“Ok, so maybe I’m being hypocritical and unfair and cruel and whatever the Hell else you want to call it by saying that, but I said I didn’t want to talk about Justin.” There was no anger in his voice, just tiredness and a strain that sounded like pleading. Belle eyed him for a minute before nodding and letting it go. As much as she did want to talk about it, she knew that pushing the matter right then when other things were playing at the front of his mind was not the best way to go about it. “So… uh,” Aden faltered, fiddling with the pen he had picked up and averting his eyes to it. “You and Amanda talk about anything interesting?”

“Such as…?” Belle prompted before realisation hit her. “Oh-”

“Never mind. It’s was a private conversation with you and your mother.” He quickly cut her off, shaking his head before going back to his work. Reaching out, she hesitantly places a hand on his forearm, making him stop with the tapping of the pen yet not look at her.

“I didn’t tell her about what happened, if that’s what you’re asking.” She told him quietly. “There’s nothing to tell about it. It was an accident, no big deal. Like when I cut your hand, remember?”

“That was entirely different, Belle.” Aden replied with a semi-disgusted tone. “That was an accident, and in somewhat my fault. And it was a one-time thing-”

“And so was this!”

“No, it wasn’t! You said it yourself. It’s been happening for years.” He corrected her strictly as she grimaced at the reminder of last night’s confession.

“Maybe that bit’s different but the rest if the same.” Belle assured him, giving his arm a little squeeze to show him how much she meant it. “It was an accident. To me, it was.”

“I don’t want to argue with you about this, Belle. Can we just leave it for now?” Aden sighed.

“Fine, alright.” She agreed with a sigh of her own. “For now, though.”

“Didn’t you want to get some takeout or something?” He questioned her distractedly, a sign that she could clearly interpret as a way to get rid of her.

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” Belle said as she stood up and tucked the chair back in under the table, careful not to nudge Aden. “Anything specific?”

“Whatever you want, babe.” He murmured as she walked into the main room, a small humourless smile tugging at her lips at his words. It had been a while since she had heard him call her that and strangely enough, she had missed it. Things felt out of place when he repeatedly called her ‘Belle’. It was her name, sure, but it was what almost everyone else called her. With Aden, however, he had always slipped in a nickname here and there, giving them a special and blasé connection that had been swaying back and forth for the past week. Now, she thought, it may just be strengthening through his subconscious.

---

Belle glanced up at Aden as she heard, and felt, him take in a deep breath while stifling a yawn. The clock opposite on the DVD player told her that it was half past 11 with about another 30 minutes of the movie that was playing left.

She waited until he noticed her looking at him from where her head rested on his chest. They were cuddled up together on the sofa as always; Aden slouched down with his feet propped up on the foot rest while she curled up to his side, his arm around her waist keeping her close to him. She didn’t know whether it was because he was awake, or if her words from earlier had sunken into him, but the closeness was all that she was focusing on. He seemed relaxed for the first time all day, bar from when he had been sleeping, especially with her.

“What?” He whispered, finally seeing her. Belle shook her head, turning her face inwards into his shoulder for a moment before backing away slightly.

“Let’s go to bed.”

“Don’t you want to watch the rest of the movie?”

“I’ve seen it plenty of times before.” She commented, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I’m feeling really tired. I’d probably fall asleep in a bit anyway.”

“Alright.” Aden gave in, loosening his arm from around her to allow her to get up. She pulled away slowly, immediately missing his warmth and safety. Getting up, she turned on the lights so that they could see what they were doing and where they were going. One look at Aden and his eyes that were starting to go red from being tired, Belle knew she had made the right decision to suggest going to bed rather than asking him. “You head up. I’ll be there in a sec, yeah?”

“No, I’ll help clear up.” Belle argued, stretching out gently on her tip toes before looking at the takeout boxes on the coffee table. There weren’t many but it was still more than was necessary. She shuffled towards them, only to be stopped by Aden stepping out in front of her.

“Belle, seriously. Go to bed.” He instructed her softly, his hand automatically finding their way to her waist for a moment. “I’ve got it here. It won’t take me more than 5 minutes.”

“5 minutes.” She told him warningly as his hands trailed over her stomach, rubbing circles on it gently. “I’m timing you.”

“Ok, I’ve got it.” Aden smiled slowly, making her smile back. Placing a hand on his cheek, Belle leant in and kissed him. It wasn’t passionate or hungry, but rather loving and simple.

“5.” She reminded him when she backed off, letting his hands drop off her before turning away and retreating upstairs.

Aden stood rooted in the same place for a brief while, thinking what to do. Finally getting himself to work, he switched the TV off and took the DVD out of the player. Grabbing the stuff from the table, he entered the kitchen to dump it all in the trash. With that done, he looked up at the clock. 2 minutes left.

Leaning against the island counter, Aden debated on what to do. He knew Belle had been serious about the 5 minutes. She probably had him sussed out already that he was not looking forward to sleeping with her that night. No matter what he had thought of all day, there had been no methods that he could come up with that would guarantee the fact that last night would never happen again. Nothing except for not sharing a bed, which he knew Belle wouldn’t allow. Even he didn’t want that to happen. After 3 years, most of which they had spent together at night, he wasn’t sure if he could go back to sleeping without her in his arms. Especially not right now while she carried his child. It was the one time that Belle was at her weakest to protect both her and the baby, when it was his job to keep them away from harm’s way. But now the person who he feared most to stop him from that was himself.

The second hand on the clock approached ‘12’ and Aden knew that it was literally seconds until his time was up. Sighing, he pushed away from the counter and left the kitchen, switching off the lights on his way as he made his way upstairs. There wasn’t anything else left for him to do. A day hadn’t been enough to come up with a method. Not even the psychology books that he had rooted through, hoping that his specialised area might just help, had contained nothing on how to keep nightmares at bay or to sleep soundlessly.

Their bedroom door was open as he reached it, entering to see Belle getting changed. She looked at the time as he entered, a smirk playing on her lips.

“6 minutes.” She told him in fake annoyance. Aden rolled his eyes silently. “Fine, I’ll let you off.”

“Thanks.” He replied, passing her to go into the adjoining bathroom. He could feel her eyes on him right up until he closed the door. Even then he was pretty sure that she was looking in his direction. It was a good thing that as perfect as Belle was to him, she had her flaw in not having X-ray vision.

Leaning heavily against the counter, Aden stared at his reflection in the mirror. If it wasn’t for his eyes, he might have been able to convince himself that nothing was different from 24 hours before hand. They were bloodshot and ringed in a slightly darker shade of pale than the rest of his face. Fatigue was clearly written on his face, there was no doubt in that, just as there was no doubt that Belle had obviously seen it too.

Twisting the cold tap on, he splashed his face numerous times to help wake him up and get rid of the images at the back of his eyelids. The more he dreaded it, the more it came to him. Aden had always been about to push the remains of the nightmares to the back of his mind almost as soon as it was over and he woke up, but for the first time, the vile anticipation of them brought it forward before he went to sleep. More than that, he could also see the scratches along Belle’s arm mixed into it and he wasn’t sure which one was worse.

Aden turned the tap off and picked up a towel, forcing the pictures out of his head. If he was thinking about it now, then there was no chance of escaping them while sleeping. Forcing himself to think of something more positive, his mind wandered over the events of the day, none of which helped, before remembering the importance of tomorrow. He couldn’t believe how the scan had slipped his mind after looking forward to it for weeks. It had been in and out of his head all day, but never really focusing on it for more than a second as it disturbed him from thinking of something else. A pang of guilt went through him as he realised that he hadn’t put his child first, but rather his own problems.

Sighing at the thought, glad that he now had something else to focus on, he left the bathroom and entered the dim bedroom, just able to make out Belle already in bed. She twisted a bit onto her back to look at him as he got changed and finally got in next to her. Aden avoided her eyes as he reached across her to switch off the only light in the room before laying back down. He hesitated while resting one of his hands on her waist, waiting until she took it in her own and pulled on it to lay on her stomach. Almost immediately, Aden slipped it out of her grasp and placed it on top of her hand to use it as a barrier between him and the baby. Hurting her was the last thing he wanted, but hurting the baby was even beyond that.

Once again, Aden felt Belle’s eyes on him as she shuffled back and twisted her head towards him. He kept his eyes closed, knowing that she would turn away soon enough when the pain of looking over her shoulder like that got too much.

“Aden?” She breathed so quietly that he wouldn’t have heard it if he hadn’t been so close. Opening his eyes, he looked straight into her chocolate ones, shining bright even so late. He saw her search his eyes before smiling sadly. “Don’t be scared. I love you.”

“Love you, too.” Aden managed to get out. Her smile grew a bit bigger before turning away again to sleep.

He watched her over her shoulder inconspicuously, closing his eyes every now and again but never long enough to let sleep take him over. Hearing Belle’s breathing even out, he propped himself up to look down over her, making sure that she was indeed asleep before ever so carefully pulling away his hand from hers. He prayed that the baby wouldn’t kick and wake her up, holding his breath as he got his hand away completely. The next few minutes went slowly as Aden kept a watch on her, glad that there was not one smallest twitch from her.

With his arm beginning to ache, Aden turned to lay on his back, putting a bit of space in between the two of them. It wasn’t too much, but it was enough so that he wasn’t touching her. Taking in a few deep breaths, he let his eyes flutter close while still concentrating on what the next day would hold. Luckily for him, it was peaceful enough to drag him into sleep.

---

Blinking a couple of times, Aden woke up to feel a slight weight on his right hand side. Getting his bearings, he looked down to see Belle sleeping against him, her head on his chest with arms wrapped loosely around his midsection. He glanced over to the side for the time. 5:37am. Considering that he had been sound asleep for the past 5 hours with no nightmare or awareness of his wife snuggling up to him, Aden deemed it as a good thing.

Pulling his arm out from under her shoulders, he looped it tightly around her waist, holding her close to him by using his other hand to smooth back her hair before letting it thread through it. He felt her cling onto him a bit more, shifting as much as her body allowed to lay against him. Resting his cheek upon her head, Aden laid as still as was possible, taking in as much of the moment as he could.

Letting his eyes droop close briefly just so he could savour the moment for longer, it wasn’t long before he had drifted back to sleep again. However, this time it was much more lighter and he snapped his eyes open mere minutes later. Swallowing at his mistake, Aden let go of his tight hold on Belle, pushing himself up to rest against the head of the bed while laying her down gently onto the bed. He manually forced her arms off him and untwined their legs before inching out of the bed altogether.

Making his way silently to the bathroom, he locked the door behind him and stared at himself in the mirror once again. This time, he was happy to see, his eyes had returned back to normal as had the rings around them. He wasn’t sure how long that would last, but there was no way that he was going to risk falling back to sleep now. Not when he had managed to get 5 hours peacefully.

Splashing his face with the cold water in a repeat of last night, Aden felt himself wake up more and more a the seconds ticked by. Finally, he managed to get his brain working enough to work out that if he were to have a shower here, there was a great chance of Belle hearing him and waking up. Instead, he unlocked the door quietly, peering around to make sure that she was still sleeping, before leaving both their bathroom and bedroom to head down the hallway towards the main bathroom.

Stopping momentarily at the only other frequently visited room, Aden couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out on his face as he opened the door to the nursery, the sunlight already threatening to stream in as it shifted through the clear blue sky. There was still so much to do and with less than 4 months left, there was no time left to wait. Shutting the door as he left, the smile stayed on his face as he recalled that the scan was only in 6 hours. Now all he had to do was to find something to keep him busy and awake until then.

---

Thanks for reading. I don't think I've ever said that before, but I do mean it

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all for the lovely lovely lovely comments! And even the suggestions for racyfluff! I've taken it all into mind...

Anyways, sorry for the wait once again, but in my defence, this is my longest chapter ever and it is number 50 [whoop!].

Enjoy!

Chapter 50:

Belle sighed as she woke up, not having to open her eyes to know that Aden wasn’t there. Rubbing at her eyes even before they cracked open, she turned around onto her other side, finally peering through her eyelashes to see the time. Her eyes widened when she saw the figures blinking at her, showing her that it was 10:29am. Considering that their appointment was at 12 noon, Belle frowned when she realised that there was a great chance that they were going to be late. Again.

Throwing aside the covers, she slid out of bed slowly, pausing to sit at the edge for the moment as the baby began to move. Looking around the room, and then into the bathroom through the open door, she was able to figure out that Aden must have been up for a little while. The only time that he would ever be this neat and put everything away, including her stuff from yesterday, was if he had time on his hands. Which, with Aden, was very rare.

Placing a hand on her stomach as she finally stood up, the baby’s movements became stronger, giving her small kicks here and there. She rubbed circles in an instinctual manner while entering the bathroom, frowning as she did so. This room was just as neat as the other one. Worse, there was no steam fogging up the mirror, or water trailing on the floor or even on the counter, let alone in the shower itself. It all seemed a bit too off for her, as if there was something there, right in front of her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it exactly.

“What’s your daddy up to, hmm, baby?” Belle mused quietly, not really expecting any kind of response, although she was surprised when the baby became still. She remembered Aden telling her months back that the baby could typically start to hear voices at 25 weeks, and recognise them at 27, but there was something inside of her telling her that their baby might just already be listening.

Shaking her head ruefully, she turned on the taps before hesitantly cupping both the hot and cold water to splash onto her face. It did it job and woke her up, making her look more presentable than before, even if she did still feel a bit grungy.

Leaving the other acts of the daily morning ritual for later, Belle left the room in search for Aden and some food that her stomach demanded for. Treading lightly down the carpeted stairs, she paused halfway when she spotted his bag and a few books and folders pilled up on the couch. There were papers strewn around on the coffee table, in what she guessed was Aden’s mishap of order, indicating that he had truly been up for a while.

Continuing her way down, her feet automatically took her into the kitchen where she already knew Aden was. He looked up at her from where he stood at the island counter, buttering some toast. To his side, there was a cup of coffee, and on the table there was already a glass of orange juice and a small bowl of fruit salad that she had began on once again.

“Morning.” He greeted her frozen form standing in the middle of the kitchen.

“Uh… morning.” Belle replied distractedly. “What are you doing?”

“Making breakfast. What does it look like?” Aden said in a teasing manner, a small cheeky smile appearing on his face that shocked her more. He looked more happier and himself that morning, something that Belle found strangely out of place seeing that Aden was not one to gloss over stuff at times. Especially not with things when it came to her and them. Unless, of course, he had finally listened to her and understood what she had said, although she doubted it was likely. He was also very stubborn.

“Yeah, I can see that. Sorry.” She shook her head while taking a seat at the table as Aden came over with her plate of toast and his coffee. “Where’s yours?”

“I’ve already eaten.”

“When?” Belle tried to sound casual as she picked up the fork and speared a pineapple piece in between the strawberry and an orange.

“Not long ago.” Aden told her simply, shrugging as he sipped his coffee. “Why?”

“No reason.” She sighed, chewing on the fruit for a moment while pointedly ignoring his eyes on her. “You know, you could have woken me up. We’re going to be late again.”

“Sorry, I was planning to soon.” He insisted sheepishly. “I was going to bring you breakfast, actually, if you hadn’t woken up.”

“Really?” Belle exclaimed, her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Can’t remember the last time I got breakfast in bed.”

“Hence why.”

“Speaking of ‘why’,” She carried on quickly from his words. “Why have you been up so early revising for?”

“I couldn’t sleep so I thought I may as well do something with the time.” Aden explained nonchalantly, tapping his fingers against the mug in his hands in a repeated sequence.

“Why couldn’t you sleep? You should have wok-”

“Hey, it was nothing.” He cut her off quickly, seeing her concerned look and knowing exactly what was going through her mind. “It’s probably just my mind telling me to get some work done before I fail this year. Especially seeing as I hardly got anything done yesterday and will probably not get much done today either. I guess I just felt guilty for not working with exams in a few weeks. That’s all.”

Pursing her lips, Belle forced herself to break out of it and give him an understanding smile. She wasn’t sure whether he bought it or pretended that he did as he began to ask her how her and the baby were doing and then about the scan. The normalness of it ate at her from the inside. She was fairly certain that the only guilt that Aden still felt was for hurting her, and even if he didn’t try to show it, she could see it in his eyes just how careful he was being around her. Almost as if to make everything seem as ok as she wanted it to be, which only made her feel bad for forcing him into that situation. Although forcing Aden to do something was quite possibly impossible, Belle decided to remain quiet about it for the time being. The last thing she wanted to do was to bring up an argument an hour before they had to go for the scan. It was meant to be a joyous occasion, and from the looks of it, Aden seemed happy, at least on the outside, so she would leave it there for now. After all, what harm could a day or so do?

---

“So you could tell us, in a matter of minutes, whether the baby’s going to be a boy or a girl?” Belle threw him a glare as she laid on the examination table, her top pushed up to reveal her slightly protruding belly.

“I could indeed.” Dr. Reed assured Aden as she prepped up the machine. “But Belle here says that you don’t want to know.”

“No, we don’t.” She said through gritted teeth, staring hard at him as he took a seat in the chair next to her. “Do we, Aden?”

“No, of course not.” Aden sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. “The surprise would be better.”

“Ok, I’m glad you both agree then.” The doctor chuckled. “It gets a bit difficult when one wants to know and the other doesn’t.” She told them before squirting some of the gel onto Belle’s skin, making her gasp at the coldness. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok.” Belle managed to get out as Dr. Reed used the small wand to spread the cool stuff over her abdomen. Her hand tightened around Aden’s grasping it as the tingling began to settle. She could see the smirk on his face out of the corner of her eyes, but she decided to grill him on that another time as the picture on the screen on her other side began to become more clearer.

“Alright, it seems like the baby’s finally cooperating with us.” Dr. Reed commented jokingly when she finally found the perfect spot and both parents-to-be were able to kind of make out what they were seeing. “Things are looking good.” She told them smiling before pointing out where the head, body, arms and the feet were. The baby was laying nicely upright so that most of it could be seen. “Looks like the baby’s pretty happy.”

“That’s good.” Aden replied, his eyes still fixated on the screen. The image was way more astounding than the ones in the books that he had came across. Although, that could have been because this was his own child and that it was moving ever so slightly. There wasn’t much movement, except for the arm which looked as if it were waving. He knew it was really unlikely that a 21 week old baby knew the concept of greetings, but the thought had just flitted through his head and he had liked it.

“Very good.” Belle added, her own eyes stuck onto the screen although the screen was more tilted away from her and obscuring a bit of the side from her. It wasn’t much though, so she was able to enjoy it without a complaint, bar one. “Um… Not to sound rude or anything, but doesn’t that baby look a bit too big to be my baby?”

“What?” Aden’s eyes were torn away from the image for the first time to look over at her, confusing and a bit of worry written over his face.

“I’m just saying. I don’t look like I have a baby as big as that in me.” She tried to shrug in her position, but it came out more as a small shuffling of her shoulders.

“It’s ok, I understand what you mean.” Dr. Reed cut in, freezing the image on the screen before taking the wand away from her stomach. “The ultrasound image may look big, but in reality you baby would only be about an inch or so bigger than the span of your hand.” At her words, both of them looked at their free hands, trying to imagine their baby being that small. “And you shouldn’t worry too much about how you look. Everything’s looking perfectly fine, and I expect that in another 18 weeks or so, you’ll have a beautiful, healthy baby.”

“Thanks.” Belle smiled at her gratefully, even as the thought that there were only 18 weeks left until the baby would be born. She used Aden’s arm to help her push herself up into a sitting position as the remaining gel was wiped off her stomach, smoothing out her top over it.

“No problem. I’ll leave you guys alone in a moment while I go and get some more paperwork, but I was wondering whether you’ve considered birthing classes yet or not?” Dr. Reed asked them casually as she jotted a few stuff down, looking up at them when they didn’t reply. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then.”

“We haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.” Aden supplied with a small smile, exchanging a look with Belle as she frowned a bit.

“Hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

“Well, I’ll get you some numbers and info on some of the local classes. It’s a good thing to attend. Helps a lot with the actual labour and birth.” The doctor explained to them before moving away when they nodded silently at her words. “Ok, well , I’ll let you have a moment or two alone.”

“What do you think?” Aden questioned her once Dr. Reed had gone. Belle sighed before shaking her head slowly.

“I really don’t fancy it.”

“Why not?” His tone was full of surprise as his forehead creased in thought. “It would be good for you. For both of us. I thought you were dying to get as prepared as you could for almost everything and anything to do with the baby?”

“I am, I am!” Belle defended herself quickly as she shifted on the bed and pulled one leg up slightly. “I just don’t really like the idea of being in a class with loads of other pregnant women who are probably handling this way better than I am, or with those who would think that it’s alright to touch me just because I’m pregnant and act all bubbly and happy without a care in the world.”

“Belle,” Aden began, keeping the smile that tugged at his lips back at her rambling. “You are handling this pregnancy well. Really well considering that we’re so young and you’re still working and it was a surprise.”

“Ok, maybe, but I still don’t want to go. Please, Aden? It’s not compulsory or anything. Can’t you just buy us another book on it or something?” She practically pleaded with him.

“Alright, if that’s what you want, then I’ll get it later today after uni.”

“Is it what you want too? I mean, you’re going to be there too, at the birth and all. It’s not just me, you know…” She asked him as he looked at her in perplexity. “You are going to be there, right?”

“No, Belle. After 9 months of this, I’m going to sit out on the birth.” He replied sarcastically, before sliding a hand over her stomach. “What I meant was that I’m not the one who’s going to have to go through it all. You’re the one physically having the baby. Whichever way you wanna learn and be prepared, I’m all up for it.”

“No classes.”

“Ok. No classes.” Aden smiled at her before turning their attention to the screen to Belle’s side. “Look at our baby.”

“I know.” She said in a tone of awe. “I never expected it to look like that. So perfectly formed.”

“Well, almost.”

“Yeah, almost.” Belle giggled as she reached over and pulled the piece of equipment closer to then. “You can see everything when you look closely. Little eyes and ears. And fingers and thumbs. I think, at least.”

“I think you might be right.” He backed up her, squinting at the black, white and grey image. “They really need to invest in one of those 3D machine thingys.”

“Trust me, it still wouldn’t be enough.” She laughed.

“True.” Aden sighed, relaxing back against his chair. “Only about 18 weeks left though.”

“It’s really gone so quick.”

“I hope the rest go quicker, believe it or not.”

“Yeah, me too.” Belle grinned before adding light-heartedly. “Believe it or not.”

---

The drive home from the hospital afterwards had gone quickly and teasingly as Belle stared at the ultrasound picture trying to see if she could see what Aden could, that the baby was waving. The mood had settled and there had been no tension, like things always had been before everything had started up.

After Aden had dropped her home, he had made her a quick lunch before leaving for university. She hadn’t made any comments on his behaviour, although she had asked if he was up for driving all the way to the city considering the lack of sleep he had had. Aden had brushed it off easily, stopping her mid-sentence with a kiss before grabbing his keys and was out of the door before she could get another word out. She had stood in the same place as she got her proof that he really was trying to make it look like everything was ok to her when they certainly weren‘t.

She hadn’t asked him about it when he had gotten back home, looking much more tired than he had the day before. Belle had forcefully and literally bitten her tongue while making dinner, taking her time as Aden took his in the shower. The meal itself was a more casual occasion, mainly on his part, as she tried her best to act normal and avoid the obvious problem between them. They had talked, teased and joked, reacting with genuine smiles and laughs that had helped relax her.

Before Belle had gotten a chance to perhaps even bring up the subject, Aden had dragged her into the front room, handing her the book that she had nicely requested from him and sat her down on the couch while he cleared everything up in the kitchen and washed up. She had barely gotten past 2 pages by the time he came back to her 20 minutes later, her mind preoccupied on him.

They had spent a couple of hours pouring over the new book, grimacing at certain points which went into a bit too much detail for the both of them. They knew it was essential to be in the know about it, but it didn’t mean that they liked it or found it pleasurable. In fact, the more she read, the more Belle wanted to keep the baby inside of her. People had always claimed that the pain was worth it in the end, but somehow, she wasn’t able to see it via the words and pictures on the page in front of her. Voicing her thoughts to Aden, he had merely laughed and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, telling her that it would be worth it in the end and that she would just have to wait and see.

By that time, Belle was yawning constantly, the excitement of the day catching up to her, not to mention the worry too. Considering that she had to work the next day, and that she had skipped out on a nap in the afternoon as she was busy flipping through the baby’s scrapbook and adding the new ultrasound and info to it, there was little argument from her when Aden had ushered her upstairs.

Things became a bit more awkward in the bedroom with no words being exchanged as Aden locked himself in the bathroom after she had used it and gotten changed and into bed. It was all a reminiscent of the previous night. This time, Belle sat up in the bed, propped up by the pillows behind her to stop her back from aching. She waited until Aden returned back to her and he had climbed into bed next to her, the only words coming out of his mouth asking if she was ok.

“Yeah, I was just…” Belle trailed off, shaking her head as she slid down and fluffed the pillows up to lay them down onto the bed. “Never mind. I’m just tired.”

“Alright. Go to sleep then.” He instructed, reaching over her like always to switch off the light. Like the previous night again, Aden placed an attentive hand on her hip that she claimed with her own to wrap around her waist. This time, however, he left it there. With a small smile on her face, Belle let sleep overtake her as she cherished the closeness and protection that he gave her.

---

Stumbling slightly, she used the wall to help guide her towards the light that got brighter and brighter as she neared the stairs. Belle used her other hand to pull her dressing gown tighter over her body, feeling uneasy and a bit dangerous as she stepped onto the first stair in the dark.

It was just past half 3 in the morning, and she had woken up to an empty bed. With no movement coming from anywhere near her, Belle had forced herself out of bed, much to the protest of the baby, and pulled open the main door to see the dim light travel from downstairs to illuminate the end of the hallway.

Belle could feel eyes on her as she reached the last few stairs, her eyes narrow as she adjusted to the light. Walking slowly, she headed straight for the couch where Aden was sitting and climbed on next to him without a word, facing him while he shuffled a bit to correct his posture to give her his attention.

“Hey, what’re you doing up at this time of the night?” He gently reprimanded her as she covered a yawn with the back of her hand.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” She replied, slouching a bit to rest her head against the back of the sofa while curling her legs up next to her.

“I couldn’t sleep so I though I would make use of the time.” Aden answered quickly, throwing a hand out to indicate to the book on is lap and the folder to his other side on top of which laid two pens and a highlighter.

“Right now, though?” Belle questioned, blinking a few times as her eyes got used to the light. At his nod and innocent look, she bit on her bottom lip before sighing. “Aden, we’ve got to talk about this.”

“Talk about what?”

“About you not sleeping.” She told him straight out before lifting the book off his lap and leaning forwards to place it onto the coffee table. “I know why, Aden. And I know it’s got nothing to do with the revising or the exams. Well, not originally, has it?”

“Belle-” He began but she cut him off with a sharp shake of the head, telling him that she wasn’t going to let this go or believe his excuses.

“You have to stop blaming and beating yourself about this.” Belle said forcefully, taking his hand into hers as his eyes drifted away from hers. “Stop feeling guilty about it. Because I don’t feel any of that for you. I don’t blame you, and I don’t think that it’s a big deal to beat yourself up about it or feel guilty.”

“Of course it’s a big deal, Belle!” Aden finally responded, his voice only a tad bit louder than hers although the dead of the night intensified it. “I hurt you. Do you have any idea how it feels to know that I have the ability to do something like that?”

“Yeah, I do. I’ve hurt you a lot, especially recently. But we’ve talked it all through, haven’t we? We can do the same with this if you would just listen to me when I say that you have nothing to feel bed about. Because I don’t hate you and I’m not scared of you. I only feel bad myself because you have to go through this.” She said softly. “I said it then and I’ll say it now; if I could have chosen, I wouldn’t have told you ever.”

“That wouldn’t have stopped the problem.” He argued, tightening his grip on her hand as he looked down at them. “And it’s a different kind of hurt.”

“Hurt is hurt, Aden. Physically, emotionally, mentally… It’s all the same in the end.”

“If it’s all the same, then why haven’t you told anyone about what I’ve done?” Aden asked her suddenly with a tone of intrigue. “I’ve hurt you a lot of times in the past, and I know you’ve told someone about it. And I’ve always told someone too. But not this time.”

“Because there’s nothing to tell. I don’t go telling everyone another every cut and bruise I get, and I’m sure neither do you.” She told him with casualness.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair while tilting his head back to rest against the sofa. “You know as well as I do that if you told someone they would jump to the same conclusions-”

“No, Aden, that’s not true.” Belle interrupted instantly. “I didn’t tell them because there was nothing to tell, and even if I did tell someone, then explaining it all wouldn’t be easy. And to be honest, it’s no one else’s business.”

“Wouldn’t be easy at all…” He muttered with a clear underlying tone of self-disgust.

“I know that you would never, ever hurt me intentionally. I mean, you can hardly even stay mad at me or yell at me. How could you ever possess the ability to hurt me intentionally?” She informed him, speaking low but pointedly.

“It’s not the same thing.” She heard him whisper harshly. Moving a bit closer to him, Belle placed her free hand on his cheek to turn his face and look at her.

“Aden, this…” Belle faltered as she sought for the right word to call his nightmares and his reactions to it. Not able to get her mind working properly so early in the morning, she settled on a basic word. “stuff has been happening for 2 years, ok? If I were scared of you or I thought that you would hurt me on purpose, then I would have left you a long time ago. But I didn’t, and we’re here, married with a baby on the way because I love you and I trust you. All I want to do is to help you and stop the pain. I know I can’t, that I’ll never be able to, but if it’s the least I can do, then I’ll share it with you.”

“You shouldn’t have to put up with it, though. It’s not fair on you. You don’t deserve it.” Aden said adamantly, swallowing at the thought of it.

“Life isn’t fair, Aden, and you don’t deserve it either. In fact, after everything that‘s happened, you deserve it less.” She explained, her voice so passionate that he had no response to it other than to look down and away from her, pushing off her hand from his face.

They fell into a bout of silence as Belle kept watch of him, seeing him relax a bit as he slumped back against the couch once again. He closed his eyes momentarily and she could see the tiredness around them, etching lines that he was far too young to have.

“I was thinking about it before, and I think that maybe you should stop putting it off and talk to Justin.” She spoke up in a bare whisper, seeing his head snap around to her at the mention of his brother’s name. “Hear me out.” Belle got out just before Aden was able to open his mouth to reply to her words, knowing that it would be an almighty ‘no’. He nodded hesitantly and she copied the gesture, taking hold of both his hands now. “Aden, since Justin’s been back, you’ve had these nightmares, and they’ve been stronger than before. I think it’s because you’re not letting yourself think about it and deal with it when you can, so when you can’t as you sleep, it comes to you then. So I thought, that maybe, if you stopped putting it off, it might help.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Aden mumbled, twiddling with her fingers with his as fatigue laced his words, acknowledging that her logic was actually correct. “I don’t know, Belle. I’ll think about it.”

“Will you? Because if you had been thinking about it like you had promised, then I don’t think that you would be having this reaction to it.” Her tone wasn’t one of accusation or annoyance, but more of love and concern.

“I will.” He assured her with a sigh. “I’ll think about it. I still need time, though.”

“I understand.” Belle smiled gently, leaning in to place a delicate kiss to his cheek, letting her lips linger there for a moment before pulling away and tucking her face into the crook of his neck. She could feel the coolness of his chain against her jaw and then his cheek upon her head as he let go of one of her hands and laid it on her legs to pull her closer to her. “Will you come back to bed now?”

“I- I can’t.” He stuttered slowly, lifting his head up from hers while shaking it.

“Please, Aden?” She pleaded, looking straight at him. “I can’t sleep without you there and knowing that you’re too scared.”

“How can you not be scared?” Aden questioned her slowly. “I can’t control this, Belle. If I could, then I would understand, but I can’t. I wish so much that I could… but I can’t.”

“It’s not your fault.” Belle whispered, tears pricking her eyes at his heartbreaking words. She pulled her hand out of his to that she could wrap her arms around him, bringing him into an uncomfortable embrace until he slid his own arms under her and shifted her onto his lap. Her hands found it’s way to the nape of his hair, stroking it gently as she twisted, ending up kneeling with one leg on either side of him. “It’s not your fault, ok?” She breathed into his neck before looking over at him as they pulled away slowly.

He didn’t reply in any way but she could see the want in his eyes. The want to believe it and the want for it to go away. Leaning in, she brushed her lips against his, coercing him to respond a few seconds later. His hands cupped her face as they carried on kissed softly until a well aimed kick from the baby caused them to part, laughing.

“I think we were squishing the baby.” Belle giggled, slipping off his lap and back onto the sofa.

“I don’t think that the baby likes being pushed out of the centre of attention.” Aden countered, resting a hand on her stomach, right where the baby had kicked her and, subsequently, him too.

“Yeah, maybe.” She simply said, holding his hand to her while keeping her eyes locked on him. Suddenly, she pushed against the back of the couch and got up, keeping hold of his hand and tugging on it lightly. “C’mon. Let’s go to bed.”

“Belle-”

“You can’t go on like this forever.” She told him strictly. “You have to try and overcome your fears. That’s the only way to get past them.”

“Yeah, I’ve tried that, Belle! For the past 10 years, I’ve tried it and look where it’s got me!” He exclaimed, snatching his hand away from hers.

“Well, this time you have me. You have us, and we’ll help you.” She insisted, not letting his tone deter her. “I’m not giving up on you, Aden. On us. We can work through this as long as we try.”

Aden didn’t respond once again, but instead sighed and closed his folder that still laid next to him and threw it onto the table in front of him before getting up. Taking Belle’s proffered hand, she smiled encouragingly at him which he didn’t even try to reciprocate. Nodding at her to go on, she led him towards the stairs as he reached out and switched the lights off.

Belle pushed him onto the bed after he had gotten rid of his shirt and jeans, and her of her dressing gown. The room was dark, lit only by the sliver of moonlight squeezing through the gap in the drapes. Once he was laying down, Belle climbed in next to him, snuggling up as close as was possible. She could feel him tense up as she laid her head on his chest, pulling on his arm to wrap around her waist as she had done on the night of the incident, before securing hers around his.

His fingers on his waist worked their way under her top briefly, rubbing small circles into her skin for a few moments before pulling away and letting the hand rest more safely on her upper leg. Belle didn’t make any adjustments to this, even though it felt greatly odd to have him so close yet not have his hand protectively over their baby.

Pressing a kiss to his bare skin as she turned her head quickly, there were no words to be said as he rested his chin on her head, presumably giving in to her. Counting his breathing to keep herself awake, she waited until they evened out completely to look up at him. His eyes were closed and there was no sign of consciousness on his face. Smiling, she got comfortable once again and let sleep come to her for the second time that night.

---

The constant beeping of the all too familiar alarm dragged Belle out of her dreamless slumber the next morning. Growling in frustration, she flung her hand out across the bed in an vain attempt to get Aden to shut it up. Finding nothing, she snapped her eyes open, biting back another growl to see the place next to her empty except for a paper tucked under the pillow with a corner sticking out.

Ignoring the alarm for a second, she pulled it out and read it bleary eyed. She already knew what to expect, but it still twisted her stomach to read his words telling her that he had gone to the library because he had forgotten something and that he had reset the alarm for her.

With anger rising inside of her, she turned around and hit the alarm with more force than was necessary, switching it off promptly, and perhaps permanently. 7:45am it read. Seeing as Aden had a 9am start that morning, and that he would typically leave at 8, Belle was forced to admit to herself that he had indeed, once again, snuck out early after a lack of sleep. If he had gone to the library, there was no doubt he would have gone at least an extra hour early. Meaning that the most sleep he had gotten after the talk would have been about 2 hours or so.

Sitting up, Belle crossed her legs and dropped her face into her hands. She had truly believed that her words had gotten through to him. That him coming up to bed with her and then finally going to sleep meant that he was willing to give it a try and move past it. How could she had been so foolish to think that he would change his mind so easily? She knew him better than anyone else, even better than he did at times. Of course he wasn’t going to change his mind that quickly. She had told herself that the morning before, that he was too stubborn for her words to simply change his mind in such a short time.

Lifting her head up after running her fingers through her messy hair, she picked up the note once again. Reading it again, she found another line scrawled at the bottom. They were two simple words, just the two that made her heart ache as a lump rose to her throat.

I’m sorry.

---

I feel like something spectacular should have happened in this chapter because it was number 50. Sorry!

I hope you did like it and that it didn't drag on. It did get a bit too long...

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all for the lovely comments! I can't believe it's on page 101 already!

This chapter was meant to be a bit longer [just a bit... ] but I have no time to do it now, so I'm posting it in two parts. The second part will be up tomorrow

As promised, the smile and sweet line is for Louise, and the purple is, as always, for Naomi.

Chapter 51:

Part A

Aden stabbed furiously at the key on the laptop as it refused to do what he wanted. Tapping it over and over, the clicking sound it made each time he pressed it resounded to Belle’s ears when she came down the stairs.

“That’s not going to help.” She said light-heartedly, spotting the irritated look on his face.

“It’ll help me!” He replied through gritted teeth.

“You’re going to break it.” Belle sighed, climbing onto the single sofa that he was leaning against as he sat on the floor, the laptop on the coffee table in front of him “Or your finger. And that‘s not going to help with your exams.”

“Stupid, piece of junk!” Aden growled before slamming his palm to the edge of the table in frustration. Shaking her head, Belle placed her hands gently onto his shoulders, pulling him back towards her and away from any other furniture for him to destroy.

“You need to calm down, Aden.” She reprimanded him before leaning forwards to press a kiss to the side of his jaw, her hands working on his tense muscles, hoping to help him out a bit.

“I will be calm when this works!” He told her with a huff as she pressed another kiss to the side of his head. She knew that his impatience was coming from the stress he was putting on himself regarding the upcoming exams, not to mention the lack of sleep too. Since their talk during the night on Thursday, Belle had given up on trying to talk to him about his sleeping patterns. There still hadn’t been one night that he had slept through, and it was now the following Saturday, which meant that since the incident, he had gone 11 nights with minimum sleep.

After he had returned home from university on the Friday, there had been no discussion about him up and leaving in the morning, even though Aden had walked in attentively with a guilty look on his face, hands in his pockets, looking for all like a lost child. Instead, Belle had simply wrapped her arms around him as he did the same to her, holding her as close to him as her pregnant body would allow. She had then told him to get some rest in the early evening, hoping that it would help to even up the hours.

He had done as she had said, but the guilt had still been bright in his eyes. That night, and almost every since, he had gotten up at an ungodly hour and each time, Belle had been oblivious to it. However, she did know that in the time that he spent awake while the rest of Summer Bay slept, he had revised, read a few of the baby books, surfed a few sites and, ultimately, built the crib in the nursery. The latter she had watched him finished off in the morning only a few days back. It now stood proudly in the room, waiting to be used in 3 and a half months.

Most of the other mornings had been normal. She wouldn’t ask how long he had been up or what he had been up to, simply accepting the breakfast that he would have been preparing or have made for her. One look at him and Belle was able to tell if Aden had been up for an hour, or for 4. It wasn’t right, she knew that, but he wasn’t going to take help from anyone and she was stuck for anymore ideas except to simply support him. She would urge him to take a few hours sleep during the day, and he would reluctantly agree seeing as she wouldn’t be there and therefore the problem would no longer exist. But a few hours during the day didn’t even it out wholly, and it did nothing to help him either.

“Listen, why don’t you take a break?” She whispered into his ear, her thumbs digging into his back muscles as he began to relax against her movements. “Take a nap or something.”

“No, I’m not tired.” Aden quickly rebuked the idea. She restrained herself from saying anything to counter his words. “I just need to get this stuff done.”

“You’ve been at this all morning.” Belle informed him, glancing at the time in the corner of the laptop. It was only 1 in the afternoon, but he had probably started his revision session near the break of dawn. “Have you had lunch yet?”

“Um…” He thought about it before shrugging under Belle’s hands. “I don’t think so.”

“Ok, how about we head out and grab something to eat then, yeah? The fresh air will do you good and so will some brain food.” She asked him gently as he reached out to press another button on the laptop.

“What’s wrong we eating here?”

“Well, I for one cannot make any food what will help you to concentrate and work. Unless you want to eat one of my salads or something…” Belle smirked while peering over his shoulder to see him wince a bit at the thought of eating that.

“Yeah, you’re right. Food isn’t your specialty.” Aden sighed and Belle pulled back again, her back aching from the twisted position. “Give me 5 minutes.”

“Ok.” She murmured, dropping a final kiss to the top of his head and retracting her hands from him and pushing herself up. Wandering into the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water, knowing that Aden’s ‘5 minutes’ meant about 15 nowadays.

Flicking mindlessly through several mail letters that she had no interest in opening right then, Belle was pleasantly surprised when the sound of approaching footsteps became louder and louder until the owner appeared in the doorway between the two rooms. Looking at the clock, she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Want to go?” Aden questioned her, ignoring her look.

“Now?” She asked back, incredulously.

“Yeah, I said 5 minutes, didn’t I?” He said carefully, checking his watch to make sure that he was right. “It’s only been about 3.”

“I know you said 5. It’s just… You never take 5 minutes when you say ‘5 minutes‘.”

“What? I’m not a girl, Belle.” Aden rolled his eyes at her while she gave him an unimpressed look. “Ready to go?”

“Uh…” Belle looked down at herself, smoothing out her long T-shirt over her stomach to take the emphasis off it. “I guess.”

“You look fine.”

“Just ‘fine’?” She asked in a mock offended tone while passing him to head into the front room to grab her bag. She heard him chuckle lightly at her words, glad that she could actually do such a thing. It had been a while since they had had any light banter between them.

“Fishing for compliments, are we?” Aden joked as she decided to take her phone and her keys out of her bag and leave the rest at home.

“Hmm… what can I say? They are very rare and few nowadays.” Belle played along, putting on a sad face to make it seem more realistic as she walked up to where Aden was waiting, holding the door open. He stopped her passing him by with a hand grasping onto her wrist, pulling her to a stop and to face him.

“You look beautiful. You always do. Whether I say it or not, I see it.” A red tint coloured Belle’s cheeks at his words as she looked away with a coy smile. “I mean it, alright?”

Gazing at him up out of the corner of her eyes, Belle nodded gratefully before turning her face back to look at him and using his forearms as leverage to push herself up to reach his lips where she brushed hers against. She could feel his hands grab hold of her waist to keep her steady as the kiss escalated a bit before they parted for air.

“Thank you.” She murmured against his lips as she let go of his arms and stepped back a bit and out of the door.

“No problem.” Aden replied a second later, making a note to himself to keep on complimenting her if that was how he was going to get repaid.

---

Pulling her closer, he let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. They were near to the Diner now and most of the walk had gone in silence apart from a few questions from Belle asking about his exams.

“It’ll get better.” He breathed into her hair.

“What will?” She questioned, looking up at him in confusion, wondering what it had been that had ran through his mind to break the quiet.

“This.” Aden needn’t go into any more detail than that one simple word; he knew that she would understand. She stopped mid-step, making him copy her actions, turning to face her while his arm still hung casually over her shoulder, the hand stroking her hair back.

“I know it will.” Belle smiled softly at him, and he reciprocated it. It wasn’t the full one that she was used to, but it was a great start. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pulled him into an embrace as his hand fell to her waist. “We take it one step at a time, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He sighed heavily as they parted and carried on down the trail towards the pier. They fell back into the comfortable silence even though Aden could see Belle shooting him no doubt worried looks out of the corner of her eyes. He politely ignored them, fiddling distractedly with her rings on the hand that he held in between both of his.

It took them only a couple of minutes to reach the edge of the pier, walking up through the bustle of a busy summer’s day where everyone was either heading to the beach or to the Diner for a cool drink. The outside tables were all filled; the parasols offering the shade that would be needed to sit still in the hot sun.

Aden’s eyes naturally skimmed across the crowd, squinting slightly as he regretted not retrieving his sunglasses from the car before leaving. His sight falling upon a figure that he had both dreaded and awaited bumping into again. Pausing unintentionally, he felt Belle pull on his hands as she carried on a few more steps before realising that he had frozen. Following his gaze, she understood what it was as she returned back to his side, looping an arm around his waist.

“One step at a time, right?” Aden asked almost nervously, looking over at her. Belle nodded encouragingly, offering him an almost proud smile it hadn’t been filled with concern too.

“I’ll be inside.” She told him, knowing that it was the right kind of support he need right then; to know that she thought it was a good idea but left him to take care of it himself.

“Ok.” He replied quietly, dropping a kiss on her lips before she left, giving his hand a squeeze as she did so. Watching her enter the Diner, Aden exhaled deeply before walking over to where Justin sat at one of the tables. With his back towards where they had been, and in a fair distance, Aden was able to guess that he hadn’t seen or heard them.

Rounding the table as he neared it, Aden saw Justin’s head tilt up just a tiny bit when his shadow was cast upon the paper he was reading. Stopping opposite from him, he laid his hands onto the back of the plastic chair, leaning onto it while debating on what to say.

“Take your time, lil bro. I’ve got all day.” The smirk on his face was evident in his words, making Aden roll his eyes.

“Can I sit?”

“I dunno. Can you?” This time, Justin looked up at him with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes that faded away when he saw Aden’s form. Sobering up instantly, he nodded, holding out a hand to indicate for him to take a seat. “No offence, but you look like crap.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Aden said dryly. He knew that he must have looked a bit tired, but he hadn’t thought it would be that much. Pulling out the chair, he sat down slowly, leaning forwards and placing his joined hands onto the table in front of him.

“So what can I do for you?”

“You said that when I wanted to talk…” Trailing off, he waited for Justin to acknowledge what he meant. It took only a few seconds before he was nodding.

“Yeah, sure.” A smile curved up his lips while Aden focused more on his hands for the moment. “Let’s talk then.” Aden’s mind went blank as he fought to think of some of the questions that he had wanted to ask him for so long. He realised that his efforts to stop thinking about Justin entirely had worked when nothing came back to him. “Right, well, you do realise that to talk we need to actually… talk.”

“I know.” Aden simply said, glancing up at him slowly. He raised an eyebrow in question when he saw something different about him from the previous time. “What did you do to your hair?”

“Ah, it’s noticeable is it?” Justin asked sheepishly, running a hand over it. “I wanted to get it back to what it was normally, but it didn’t work.”

“What did you use to get it like that?”

“Peroxide.” Aden’s eyebrows shot up at the idiocy of his brother’s actions. Although, now that he thought about it, there wasn’t really another way to get hair so blonde that it was almost silver.

“Still the genius you were, I see.” He said sarcastically as Justin rolled his eyes at him.

“Speaking of geniuses, how’s university going? What are you studying?” Pursing his lips, Aden mulled over the question for a moment before reminding himself that if he wanted answers then he had to give some too.

“Psychology. And it’s going fine.”

“’Psychology‘?” Justin repeated with wide eyes. “Wow, always thought you would be the one to make something out of yourself. Although I did think that it would be as a footy player. What happened to that? You were good.”

“Did my leg in.” Aden shrugged, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “Got kicked off the team too. Didn’t really help matters.”

“Well, at least you got into university. That’s really something.” There was tone of pride underlying his words that Aden had noticed almost immediately. Simply nodding, he licked his lips while a few of the questions that he had stored in his head came back to him.

“What about you? Belle said you got a place here.”

“Yeah, I little apartment by the beach. Really cool. I told her she should come check it out.” He informed him with an almost sad smile. “She wasn’t impressed.”

“That’s Belle for you.” Aden told him with a shake of his head as he imagined the actual situation. “So, uh… How can you afford staying here? I mean, the last time I checked, these places are pretty expensive.”

“I do have a job, you know. How else did you expect me to last 8 years and end up still looking as good as this?” His voice was so sincere that it made Aden scoff at his self-appreciation.

“What do you do?” Aden questioned in genuine interest, wondering what kind of job a rookie like Justin could have gotten.

“Construction stuff.”

“Didn’t know construction jobs paid so good.” He commented with a tilt as Justin chuckled, turning the paper that he had been reading over before searching for a certain page.

“Good paper, by the way.” Justin said offhandedly, still flicking through the pages. “Tell Belle that she’s got true talent for her work. Although I’ve got to say I’m disappointed that she kept her maiden name while working. Would be good to see our name doing something proactive.”

“It’s called remaining professional, and yeah, I’ll tell her you like her stuff.” Aden merely replied just as his brother flipped the paper over, folding it twice before shoving it in his direction. Leaning forwards once again, he skimmed over the page only to see that it were the advertisements at the back. “What am I looking at here?”

“This.” Reaching over, Justin tapped at a medium sized ad in the middle of the page. “That’s my business.”

“You own a business?” Aden asked in shock, eyes skim reading the little ad before looking at him.

“Well, not yet. I’m usually the onsite project manager. Soon, though.” He nodded in a knowing way that almost seemed sadistic to Aden.

“How will the business be yours, exactly?”

“To cut a long story short; the current owner will be retiring soon and I’m his one and only protégé.” Justin explained smugly.

“Righto. Good for you.” The words may have been short and simple, but Aden knew that he could hear the honesty in them. They fell into a silence as Justin took the paper back, not replying to his words while Aden chewed on his lip wondering what to say. Scanning the nearby area that they sat in, he sought for nothing more than a distraction that might help with the uncomfortable quiet. Giving up, he looked back over at his brother, who was watching him closely before sighing. “Why are you still here, Justin?”

“What do you mean?”

“In the Bay. If you have a job, shouldn’t you have gone back to it already?” Aden asked him carefully.

“I know the boss. He’s given me time off for now. Waiting until the next job comes along, wherever it may be.” Justin shrugged. “Luckily, there’s been jobs over here recently.”

“It’s a national business?”

“Kind of, I guess.” He shrugged coolly once again. “Why?”

“No reason.” Aden quickly dismissed, trying to hide his dismay at the new information. “You said-” He cut himself off, clearing his throat as he recalled the brief and heated conversation that the two of them had had the first time that they had talked since his return. “You said you needed me for something and that’s why you’re here.”

“What?” Justin questioned, confused. “I’m not here to ask you of anything, Aden. I’m just here to see how you are and what you’ve been doing.”

“No, you said that you needed me. When I said that I didn’t need you, you said that you might need me.” Aden insisted, getting a bit aggravated as Justin continued to look puzzled. “Justin, I remember those exact words coming out of your mouth 3 weeks ago.”

“Ok, so maybe I did say it, but I don’t remember it, and I didn’t mean it.” He said rather casually.

“Why would you say something like that but not mean it?” Aden asked with an edge to his words.

“Aden, I can hardly remember half of the things I ever say. Seriously. Sometimes I speak before I think and then at other times I say things that have no meaning whatsoever.” Justin told him. “The rest of the time I try to think and then speak, but it’s a really hard job for me. You ought to know best, bro. We speak in defence rather than in truth.”

“Spoke.” He corrected him, resting back against his chair while letting go of his flare of anger. “That’s not me anymore.”

“Yeah, sorry. I forget.” Aden saw his eyes flicker to where his hands remained on the table, eyeing the ring on his fourth finger on his left hand. Pulling them away, he folded his arms over his chest once more, bringing Justin’s attention back to him. “8 years is a long time.”

“That it is.” He murmured, sighing, before speaking up. “Why now? If you found out about Dad a few months back, then why are you back here now? Did you know that he was in jail?”

“Yeah, I did. It was in one of the papers a few years back.” Aden nodded at his words, a small frown settling on his face as awaited for the answer to his other question. “And I told you why I was back now. I wanted to see how you were.”

“Why the wait?”

“Cos I didn’t know if you’d want to see me or not.” Justin said straight-out, dropping his cheeky manner and adopting a more serious one. “I’ve been in the city for weeks now, mate. 6 weeks exactly. It’s the closest I’ve been to Summer Bay in 8 years. And everyday before I finally got the nerve to visit back again, I’d try to convince myself that it would be better if I didn’t and let you get on with your life.”

“Why didn’t you then?” Aden questioned him further, wanting to find out the final answer and reason before making a judgement.

“Because I didn’t know what kind of life you had. When I found out that Dad had died, it bugged me that out of us all, I didn’t know what was going on with you. At least when he was in jail, he was still around. You still had someone.” Justin said, trying to get his reasoning across.

“I moved out of home a year before Dad died.” He informed him as Justin pursed his lips for a moment.

“Dad was still around though. The house, car, any savings. After he died though, I began to wonder whether you had a job, if you were at school or uni or if you were still even around here.”

“What if I hadn’t been here? Say that I had ran away too. Then what?” Aden asked him in pure intrigue.

“I guess so.” His tone was unsure and a bit hesitant. “I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest. I was going to take it a step at a time.”

“I still don’t get it.” Aden shook his head, scooting forwards in his seat to sit near the edge of it while leaning on his forearms on the table. “What were you thinking of doing? If you have a job to get back to, you’re clearly not planning on sticking around for long, right?”

“Depends when the next job is. It usually takes a few months. The last one’s been on for 2 so it‘s really a matter of time now.”

“Ok, so say I wasn’t at uni, and I didn’t have a job. What would you have done then?”

“Helped you out. Made sure that you were doing ok, had a place to stay, some money and all that. Maybe even get you a job if I could.” Justin replied straightforwardly. “I told you, I came to make sure that you’re ok.”

“If Dad hadn’t died, would you have came back?”

“What’s with all the questions, Aden?”

“I’m just curious. It’s been a few years, that’s all.” He merely rebuked, not missing the weary look that Justin through at him. “Would you have came back?”

“Maybe. I dunno, to be honest. I guess not.” He faltered, jumping from one option to another before settling on the last. “Look, when I left, I left to make it all easier on you guys. After Sean went to jail, which I found out about pretty soon, I figured things would be easier with it just being you and Dad. So no, I don’t think I would have came back, and I don’t think that’s wrong of me.”

Aden took in his words, the last of which were said at a slower and lower tone. He couldn’t argue with them because they did make sense. Breathing in deeply, he let out the breath after a minute or so when his lungs began to burn.

“So now that you know that I am fine, what you going to do?”

“Talk, catch up maybe. Hang out like we use to.” At his words, Aden let out a small chuckle.

“I’m not 13 anymore, Justin.”

“And I’m certainly not 18. But it doesn’t mean we can’t still… you know. I’d like to know what you’ve been up to for the past 8 years.” He requested, trying to act nonchalant at his caring words. “Tell me about Belle, and the baby. Plans for the future, cos mine are looking pretty much dire and repetitive until I get the head job.” Justin laughed at his last line, but Aden was more caught up with what he had said. Thinking about the future undid almost everything that he had just realised about the past.

“I can’t do this.” He suddenly declared, pushing his chair back and standing up. Justin jumped up a millisecond later, his hand shooting out and clasping onto his younger brother’s upper arm as he tried to brush past him.

“Can’t do what?” He asked as he felt Aden tense before turning to face him, not bothering to shake off his hand.

“This.” Aden emphasised. “Catching up, talking about whatever and trying to act normal. I can’t talk to you about it.”

“Why not?” Justin shot back quickly. “I told you, I’m here for you.”

“No, Justin, you’re here to make sure I’m ok. To give me money or a job if I need it. But then you’re going to head off again, back to your own life.” He told him, pulling his arm out of his grip finally. “Don’t get me wrong, you deserve to have your own life and I’m not trying to stop you from that, but being back for a few weeks doesn’t change anything. A few quick chats isn’t what I want.”

“What do you want then?” He asked him, using a soft voice that Aden was able to recognise from his childhood when his big brother was the only one he was always able to turn to. Sighing, he let his eyes drop to the ground while tucking his hands into his pockets, taking a step backwards. He shrugged, struggling to find the right words before the obvious hit him. Looking back up at Justin and into the clear blue eyes he was use to seeing as his own, he swallowed.

“I want my brother.” Aden simply said before turning away and heading back into the Diner where Belle was waiting for him, leaving a saddened yet understanding Justin behind.

---

I hope you liked it.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Oh, P.s. Taniya, I have the court date...

I just spotted that! So when is it? I'll be prepared...

Sorry for the late update, but this chapter just wouldn't end and I kept adding bits into it and... yeah. But I got to where I wanted to get to so I'm happy. I just hope it's not too OOC or sudden or weird or anything like that.

Anways, enough of my babbling, here's the chapter.

Chapter 51:

Part B

Since Belle had spotted him walking in through the Diner entrance, a mask so clearly pulled over his face to stop anyone else from seeing what had happened, she knew that it hadn’t gone the way she had hoped the talk would have. She didn’t ask him about it, and he didn’t talk about it, instead having their lunch on the grass outside, under a tree for some shade. The quietness helped them both to relax and although Aden hadn’t been in the talking mood, a few words exchanged here and there, especially about her impromptu picnic of sorts, made it easy to handle.

They had gotten home about an hour after that, where he had fallen straight back into his revision while Belle did some of her own work. The rest of the day had gone pretty much similarly except for when she had dragged him away from his books to help her make dinner. Aden hadn’t really done much, but the conversation had picked up, focusing mainly on the safe topic of the baby.

Belle had kept a constant eye on the clock and Aden after that. It was only when she saw him flicking the same page back and forth that she had switched the TV off and told him that she was going to bed. His first answer had been that it was only 10pm and that he would be up later on. After her dark and challenging look, he had slammed shut his book and stood up without another word in argument, following her up the stairs.

It was almost inevitable that as soon as they had stepped into the bedroom that the tension would increase immediately. She felt it when Aden shut the door behind him, enclosing them in their bedroom like every night before that one. They silently got ready for bed, Belle climbing in first, as always. She watched the clock as the minutes ticked by. It had soon become a quarter of an hour since he had disappeared into the bathroom and concern filled her. Pushing herself up on an elbow, Belle opened her mouth to call out to him when the door was unlocked. Exhaling deeply, she laid back down, waiting until she felt the bed dip behind her and Aden reaching over her to switch off the lamp before relaxing slightly.

His hand slid across the small of her back and over her hip to rest on the side of her stomach, using his fingers to rub small circles before removing his hand completely. She had learnt that he had taken her words to heart and teased both her and the baby, smiling softly to herself as he hand came back to rest where it had been as the baby kicked slowly a couple of times before calming down. Aden’s hand remained where it was and it was with that feeling that she had drifted off to sleep with.

---

“Aden?” She asked groggily, rubbing at her eyes as she sat up in her lone bed. It had been barely 2 hours since they had gone to bed, which must have been a record for Aden. A suddenly coolness enclosed her and the fluttering of the drapes caught her attention. The warm summer night’s breeze swept through them, and as she approached the doors, Belle let out a small sigh when she spotted Aden sitting on the floor a few feet over.

Sliding open the door so that she could walk through, she tiptoed carefully over to him. Silently, she crouched down next to him, using a hand on the wall that he leaned against to help her keep balance. Aden’s arm had automatically came to wrap around her waist to assist her, although there were no other signs or acknowledgment from him. Resting her knees on his outstretched leg, she sat back a bit before laying a hand on his other knee that was bent up.

“Aden?” She tried again. “Is everything ok?”

“It’s a clear night.” Aden said, ignoring her words. Sighing, Belle looked up at the sky briefly, deciding to go along with him.

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you believe in Heaven and Hell?” He questioned her, never averting his eyes from the blackness of the sky with the few thousands of twinkles lighting it up.

“I- I dunno.” Belle answered truthfully. “I was brought up to believe in Heaven and Hell, but I dunno. I guess not. I think that there’s a place where people go when they die, though. At least, I’d like to think that. Somewhere where they can rest in peace.”

“Yeah, me too.” A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips as Belle kept her eyes fixed on him. “I think that when someone leaves us, they don’t ever leave completely. They’re always watching over us in the form of stars.” Aden cleared his throat and tilted his head slightly in her direction. “Because they’re always out, aren’t they? Day and night, and all around the world. Millions of them.”

“Hm-mm.” She simply replied, both her hands grazing lightly over his arm which he had moved to rest on her bent legs now.

“Sounds stupid, doesn’t it? For me to believe something like that.”

“No, of course not.” Belle quickly argued. “Everyone has their own ideas of life after death. We’re all entitled to our own thoughts and opinions on it.”

“It’s not really mine.” Aden told her looking away again at the bright stars. “Justin use to remind me when we were younger and I fought so hard not to go to bed. I think he always thought I had a fear of monsters under the bed or something. He use to tell me not to be scared cos Mum was always watching over me.” He paused as he swallowed the lump in his throat. “Which was wrong, because if she had been then all that stuff wouldn‘t have happened.”

“He didn’t know.” It wasn’t a question anymore to her. Although she had never asked him, Belle had always wondered whether Justin had suffered the same fate as him or if his older brother even knew. Now, she got her answer and it started to make a bit more sense.

“I couldn’t tell him.” Aden shrugged, turning his head downwards towards his hand that was curled into a loose fist. “How do you tell your older brother something like that? The one person who you looked up to, who was more than a brother in the way he took care of me. Justin was strong, you know? Never let any of the family stuff get to him, at least not publicly. I wanted to be like that too. I didn’t even know if he would believe me either.”

“He would have.” Belle assured him, squeezing his arm gently. “He would now too.”

“I’m not going to tell him.” He informed her, shaking his head. “It’s too late. I don’t want to bring it down on him.” She remained quiet at his adamant answer. Eyes trained on him, she let them wander only as his shifted away from where they had drifted to the side and back to his hand. She watched as he uncoiled it, seeing her precious charm bracelet laying in the centre of it. “I always wondered why we got Mum the star pendent and when I asked Justin after she died, he said it was because she had told him that it were the stars that kept him safe when she couldn’t.”

“So if she had a star…” She began, realising the logic behind it, even though she was surprised that Justin at a young age would have thought of it.

“… then she could always keep us safe.” He laughed wryly at his own words as he shook the bracelet around in his hand, making it jump a few times until the star pendent-turned-charm was on top. “You know, when she used to come to check if I were in bed, she would always redo the curtains and leave this little gap that shone on the opposite wall. I always thought it was strange, but I never got the courage to ask her. Then, I think it was the first or second night after…” He trailed off, lost in the horrid memory.

“Yeah…?” Belle prompted him, not sure that she wanted him to stay in that place for too long.

“I told Justin that it didn’t work; that she wasn’t doing anything to help. I can still remember him rolling his eyes and pushing me back into the room.” Aden’s words were laced with a bit of humour as he spoke the last few. “He took a look around before pulling open the curtains a bit, saying that the reason that Mum wasn’t helping was because she was being kept out by them. So I finally got my answer.”

Belle nodded, placing a hand on top of his open one to cover the piece of jewellery and keep it locked in between their palms. She wasn’t sure what to say; if there was anything that she could say. Certain things fell into place now, though. She had always assumed that the streak of light coming through their balcony doors and drapes was due to his haphazard way of drawing them, but now she realised the significance behind them. Even years on, and even though his belief had been weakened by the horrific acts of his grandfather, he carried on the tradition that his mother had done. Yet not once had Belle ever put a second thought into it.

“You know what he said to me today?” Aden’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. Not trusting her voice, she shook her head as he turned his head upwards, resting it lightly against the wall that was shared by their room. “He wanted to catch up and hang out like we use to. For me to tell him about you and our baby. About the future and what we have planned. And for a second, longer than a second, I wanted to. I wanted to so badly, cos I wanted to tell him everything that’s going to happen and I wanted him to tease me about thinking too far ahead of myself like he use to.”

“Why didn’t you?” She whispered in question, still not sure whether she’s be able to speak without letting the tears that blurred her vision fall.

“Because he also told me that it was only the matter of a phone call from work that would make him get up and leave again.”

“Aden…” Belle began, lifting a hand to raise it to his face, her thumb stroking his cheek slowly before letting it slide down to his neck.

“I want him to stay. I know it sounds selfish and cruel, but I want him to stay.” He swallowed hard while turning to face her. “I can’t do it, Belle. I can’t do it. For years, I‘ve always wanted Justin to come back. Not as much as I use to, but I did. And now that he‘s here, all I’ve thought about was that if I even try to get things back on track with him, it‘ll all fall apart again in the end.”

“You don’t know that, Aden.” She said soothingly.

“I do.” He told her, nodding and looking away once again. “I can’t stop thinking about the past every time I try to think about talking to him. And every time I think about the past, it’s too much. I hate it, Belle, I do, but it hurts to think about back then. It’s not worth it. I want it to be, because I want to spend time with him, but it’s not worth it. I’m hurting you over it, I’m going to hurt myself over it and I’m…”

“You’re what?” Belle prompted as he trailed off, using his free hand to wipe away the tear that she couldn’t see but knew had fallen down his face. She was just managing to win her fight against hers. “Aden?”

“I’m scared, Belle. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what the right choice is.” Aden finished off in a hoarse whisper. “Tell me what to do, Belle. I need you to tell me what to do.”

“You know I can’t tell you that.” She said quietly, her words making him face her.

“Yes you can.” He said forcefully. Belle took in a deep breath, her hand finding it way to the back of his neck where it threaded into his hair lightly, playing with it softly.

“It’s not my decision to make, honey. Only you can do it.” She insisted, tears rimming her eyes at his crestfallen look.

“What would you do?” Belle closed her eyes at his question, removing her hand out of his that held the bracelet to brush away the drops of water that had cascaded down her cheeks before answering back.

“I would try to work out which decision I would regret the most.”

“What about what I want the most?” He asked her softly as she shuffled closer, letting her legs curl up to her side so that she could pull him closer to her. Aden laid his forehead against her shoulder as she continued to soothingly stroke his hair, pressing a kiss to his temple before he back off a bit, still leaning tiredly against the wall.

“In a few months or years from now, you’re not going to look back at what you did, but you’re going to think about what you didn’t do.” Belle told him pointedly. “There is no wrong choice, Aden. And whatever you decide, you know that I’ll always support you on it.”

“I don’t know what to decide. I can’t think anymore, Belle.” She caught his hand that went up to rub at his eyes, using her own to dry the tears as the reluctantly fell.

“You need to sleep on it first. You’ve had too much to think about today, and you haven’t had enough sleep.”

“I’m not going to be able to sleep with this playing on my mind.” He informed her and she sighed.

“Aden, I’m not going to make the choice for you, but think about it this way. If you let this opportunity go, when will the next one come around again? If you don’t talk to him now, Justin might stay away forever. But if you try now, if you bare the pain now, then maybe he would keep on coming back every now and again.” She said wisely, not sure where the words were coming from. All that her mind was telling her was to ease his pain and suffering and self-torture, and this was what it was coming out as. “It’s been 8 years, Aden. I’m sure you have a lot of questions. It could help to ease the pain.”

“What if I do all that, yet it never gets better and he still stays away?” Aden asked in a little voice.

“Then at least you know you tried.” She replied before twisting around to face him, placing both of her hand on his shoulders and bringing him forwards to rest her forehead against him. “I’m always here, ok? I’ll help you with the pain and I’ll never leave you.”

“I love you.” He murmured and Belle could feel his lips touch hers as he spoke.

“I love you, too.” She assured him before pulling back and running a hand through his hair. “You need to sleep. Everything will be easier when you’re rested.”

Instead of replying, Aden dropped his head into his hands, rubbing at his eyes furiously for a moment before dragging his fingers through his hair and then lacing them at the back. She knew exactly what was running through his head. The last time he had been immensely emotional, he had had the nightmare, and he had hurt her. Realising that sleep was the most important thing for him, Belle nodded to herself. She placed a hand on his back, smoothing circles on it slowly.

“Alright, I’ve been thinking, Aden, that if you’re really scared of sleeping with me then maybe you should use one of the other rooms.” His head snapped around to her in an instant and Belle carried on urgently. “Honey, you’re beyond tired. It’s been over a week since you’ve had a full night’s sleep and you didn’t even sleep during the day today. With your exams starting on Wednesday, I don’t want you to risk it. If, for now, it’ll help you sleep, then I think you should do it.”

“I’m sorry.” Aden whispered, his gaze falling down almost in shame.

“No, no, no! It’s not your fault, ok? It’s not your fault.” She added immediately, lifting his gaze back up to her by a hand on each side of his face. “It’s not your fault. We’ll work through this. We will. But for now, your exams are the most important thing, and as much as it will hurt me to not be there if you do have a nightmare, I want you to be rested. Your health is the main thing here, alright?”

Aden reluctantly nodded as she gave him a soft smile before leaning in to press her lips against his briefly. It didn’t go any further than that, but it was more than enough for the both of them, she knew.

Using his shoulders as leverage, Belle managed to stand back up again as Aden guided her with his hand on her waist. He pushed himself up from the floor too, brushing off the bottom of his jeans of any dust or dirt. She took a hold of his hand when he was done, guiding him towards the doors and back inside once again. Surprisingly, the house was cooler than the night air.

They stopped near the edge of her side of the bed, where Aden pulled the covers aside, indicating for her to get in. She did as he wanted, perching on the side before laying down, eyes never him even though he wouldn’t look up at her in the eye. As he turned to leave, she grabbed onto his hand, pulling him back, using her own signs to make him sit down.

Sitting up, Belle shuffled forwards until she was right next to him before wrapping both her arms around his shoulders and hugging him. His hands remained stiff on her back for a second before travelling up, one of them getting twined into her hair while the other slid around her waist, still coiled into a fist. She could feel the coolness of the tears that clung to his eyelashes against her neck where he had tucked his face.

“It’s going to get better.” She repeated his words from that afternoon. “We’re going to work through this. Tomorrow, we’ll talk.” Belle said calmly and soothingly. He let go of her slowly as she did the same, waiting until he was far enough so that she could catch his eyes to speak again. “This doesn’t mean anything, ok? I don’t think any less of you and I certainly don’t love you any less.”

“You shouldn’t have to put up with any of this.” He murmured, guilt colouring his words along with shame.

“I’m not ‘putting up’ with anything, Aden. We’re in this together, remember? That means everything.” Belle reminded him, lovingly skimming her fingers along his jaw line as he looked away.

“You should go back to sleep.” He told her, ending their conversation in what she knew was a way for him to stop her from trying to make him feel better. She nodded and laid back down, moving up so that she could reach the pillow. A minute ticked by where neither of them moved until she timidly reached out a hand to place atop of the one that he rested on the bed, palm flat down. Her actions made him look up at her before pulling his hand away and getting up silently.

Belle watched him as he walked up to where the box for her bracelet laid on top of the vanity table, opening it carefully and replacing the piece of jewellery where it usually remained at night. Without another word, Aden shut the box before heading towards the balcony doors, which to her surprise, were still open. Closing and locking them securely, she felt her stomach twist for unknown reasons when he drew the curtains close, leaving a small gap that let the moonlight shine across the bottom corner of the bed without even thinking about it.

He crossed back over to the bed, stopping at the edge of where she laid before leaning down and pressing his lips tenderly to her temple. Belle’s eyes fluttered shut at the touch, feeling his warmth and protection sweep through her in an instant that was gone far too quickly for her liking as he stood up straight again.

“Night.” Aden whispered while tucking her hair behind her ear to stop it from tickling her nose. She kept her eyes closed, even as she replied back with the same parting, not wanting to see him leave. The twist in her stomach had shifted to her heart, clenching it tighter and tighter right up to when she heard the retreating footsteps and the bedroom door open. The footsteps continued to sound farther and farther away, but Belle never heard the clicking of the door again.

Finally opening her eyes again, she twisted around slowly to lay on her other side and more into the centre of the bed, facing the door. It was left ajar with a gap that would have been big enough for her to fit through up to 2 and a half months earlier. Nothing else registered to her as the pressure intensified on her heart, making it ache physically as she let all the tears that she had managed to keep back free.

---

The kitchen clock told him that it was only 12:35am. After trying to coerce himself to sleep for an hour by telling himself that Belle was safe that night, Aden had given up on tossing around in the empty bed. Treading with the lightest steps he could manage and had perfected over the last week and a half, he had came downstairs, hoping that some ice cold water and a small walkabout would relax him. Unfortunately, 15 minutes later and he felt more awake than ever.

He set down the glass into the sink before entering the front room. His book were still out, along with the laptop and notes just to the side of it. However, there was no energy left or urge inside of him to pick it up to even try and get something done. Thinking things through wasn’t seeming that appealing either. The only thing that he wanted right then was sleep. And his wife and unborn child in his arms as he did so.

Sighing, Aden walked back up the dark stairs and down the hallway, stopping at the nursery as he did so. Pushing open the door quietly, he couldn’t keep the feeling of tranquillity that it brought him just being in there. There was so much left to do, but as he approached the crib that stood right in the middle of the room, perfectly built and finished as it had been in the store, nothing else really mattered. This one piece of furniture was what made the room all so real. The place where the baby would lay every night, sleeping peacefully and dreaming of all things good and bright.

Picking up the small white bunny teddy bear that they had bought on their first shopping trip of many to the store from the corner of the crib, Aden smiled at the impossible softness of it. Everything that they had already gotten for the baby was so soft to the touch, not daring to have anything nearby that could be harmful. Of course, the wooden crib didn’t help, but that was a necessity that they couldn’t get out of. Plus, Belle had already lined it with cream and yellow blankets, just to make it look more inviting. Which it certainly did, in his opinion.

Aden placed the teddy back into it’s corner before leaning on his forearms over the side of the crib. There was only so much that they could buy to keep the baby safe, he realised. Ultimately, it was up to the two of them to give them what money couldn’t buy. Love, protection, safety, along with happiness, trust and a place of belonging. Most of which, Aden told himself, wasn’t possible if they weren’t there, just like him now.

Exhaling deeply, he dropped his chin to rest on his clasped hands, wondering what to do. He didn’t want to hurt Belle or the baby, but he knew that he wasn’t going to get any sleep that night if they weren’t next to him. As tired as he was, being alone made him think, and thinking meant bringing up the past, and that meant his brain was too wired to let him shut it off.

Coming to the conclusion that there was only one way he was going to sleep that night, even for the fewest of hours, Aden pushed himself away from the crib and headed for the door, taking one last look into the room as he shut the door.

Their bedroom was the next room along, not too far from the nursery as was intended. He carefully pushed open the door, slipping in when there was more than enough space for him to do so. His eyes fell straight onto Belle who looked sound sleep with a pillow hugged close to her. A soft smile came upon his lips at the sight, even though the guilt of making her sleep alone ate at him too.

Walking over to the side, he took off the jeans that he had pulled back on after getting out of bed the second time and then returned to the bed. He lifted up the corner of the covers gently, Belle’s arm stopping it from going too far. Aden had just managed to fold it over when her eyes snapped open, almost in shock. He could see her arm tighten around the pillow and her breathing cease for a moment until she recognised that it was him and relaxing.

“Aden?” She asked, voice full of concern as she pushed back the pillow to it’s original place at the top of the bed and used her elbow to sit up a bit. “What’s wrong?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” He mumbled in reply, still standing at the side of the bed. Belle clearly saw the awkwardness of this, pulling back the sheets for him to get in. he complied without another word.

“Everything ok?” She questioned as he laid flat on his back, hands covering his face.

“No.” Aden laughed dryly. “Everything’s so far from ok, I can’t even remember what ‘ok’ was.”

“Hey, it’ll get better.” Belle told him quickly, pulling on his arm to let her see him. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

“Cos you weren’t there.”

“Oh.” She bit on he bottom lip to keep the grin back at his matter-of-fact words. “I’m here now.”

“I can’t sleep without you there, but I’m too scared to sleep with you here.” Aden admitted without trying to hold any of his self-anger back . “And I can’t stop thinking about Justin when there’s nothing else to focus on, which means-”

“Ok, ok, I get it.” Belle interrupted him soothingly, letting her hand caress his arm and he dropped them both down. “Don’t be scared to sleep here. I’m not.”

“I’m scared of what I’ll do to you if I have a nightmare.” He informed her, tilting his head to face her. There were dark circles under his reddened eyes, showing just how tired he must have been.

“You won’t do anything.” Belle tried to assure him. “The last time you did anything was that night. You haven’t hurt me since then.”

“That’s because I haven’t had anything to react to since then, Belle.”

“I thought you kept on leaving because you kept on having bad dreams?” She said in confusion, a frown marring her features as he shook his head before turning onto his side to face her. Hesitantly, he took her hand into his own, fiddling with her fingers before looking straight at her.

“I got up whenever I woke up during the night. I figured that if I had slept that long peacefully, then I didn’t want to risk falling back asleep again and…” He swallowed as his eyes averted away from her and Belle realised just how ashamed he was to admit that he had nightmares even after all this. Lifting up at hand, she rested it on his cheek, her thumb skimming over the darkness under his eyes as they fell shut for a moment.

“It doesn’t work like that, babe. You’re putting too much stress onto yourself for no reason. You’re worrying about something that doesn’t even exist.” She pointed out with a soft tone.

“It does exist, Belle. The marks are right there on your arm.”

“The marks are fading.” She argued. “And so will all this tension and fatigue if you stay here with me tonight. I won’t let anything happen to you or the baby.”

“I don’t care about me. I don’t want anything to happen to you or the baby.” Aden corrected her with added emphasis. Belle slid her hand down over his jaw and then over his muscular arm, travelling all the way to where his hand was still meshed with hers.

“It won’t. We’ll be ok.” Belle reassured him. “You need to sleep. Here or somewhere else, I don’t care. I’d prefer it be here, but the main thing is that you actually get some rest. It’s up to you, Aden.”

“I can’t sleep without you there right now.” He confessed, eyes glinting with unshed tears. “But I can’t hurt you.”

“We have to face our fears at one time or another, Aden.” She said affectionately, letting her hand glide over his waist as she moved closer to him. “We’ll do this tonight, and then we’ll talk about everything else tomorrow.” She decided for him, knowing that he was putting it off so that he wouldn’t have to say the words himself, only to regret them if he did something during the night.

“Promise me that you’ll wake me up if I’m hurting you.” Aden asked her with a mix of anxiousness and demand.

“Only if you promise me you won’t leave in the middle of the night.” Belle countered. She saw his jaw lock tightly as her words. Pursing her lips, she gave him and answer first. “I promise I will wake you up.”

“Good.”

“Promise me, Aden. There’s no point in you not sleeping when I’m right here to wake you up if you do fall into something bad.” Belle persisted until he signed and nodded tightly. “Say it.”

“I promise.” He whispered, his lips hardly moving to form the words. Smiling in relief, she snuggled up closer to him, feeling him stiffen as always at the close contact.

“Thank you.” She murmured into his chest while lacing her arm around his waist while his finally came around hers, letting go of her hand. They had laid there for a minute or two before Belle felt him inhale deeply and relax, moving so that they fit perfectly together. It took only another minute or two before she heard his breathing even out, telling her that he had indeed let go of his fear and everything else and given in to sleep just as she had asked.

Lulling herself to sleep with the rhythmic beating of his heart next to her ear, she prayed with every last bit of consciousness that she had that she would wake up hear the same sounds.

---

Her personal alarm clock consisting of the kicking from the baby woke Belle up the next morning. She groaned into the pillow, wondering what it was that the baby could possible complain about so early on a Sunday morning. Rubbing her eyes with her free hand, she opened them to see that it was just passing 10am, yet she was still tired and the baby still kicked.

Dropping a hand to her stomach and closing her eyes once again, she smoothed circles over the site of where her child had decided to drum their feet against. The movements slowed down a bit, never ceasing until the familiar warmth and touch of Aden’s hand skimmed over hers.

“Something wrong?” She heard him murmur sleepily into her hair. Smiling broadly, Belle held his hand to her stomach before taking a deep breath to calm her racing pulse down at the joy she felt as he pulled himself closer to her.

“Nope. Everything’s great.”

---

Hope you enjoyed it. I guess you can tell why I had to split it into two parts

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all for the beautiful comments! I don't say it enough, I don't think, but I cherish each one, good or bad! And I always forget to thank Laura for proofing for me! Thanks a million!

This is another chapter that got too long I hope it doesn't babble on too much.

Chapter 52:

“What’s this?” Aden asked as he walked into the kitchen to see Belle multitasking by pouring a glass of orange juice while switching off both the stove and the kettle. She threw him a smile over her shoulder when he had spoken, turning back just as quickly.

“It’s called breakfast.” She replied smarmily.

“Really? Even at 1 in the afternoon?” He joked, walking up to her to help with all the randomness that covered their kitchen. There were several pieces of toast stacked up on a plate, scrambled eggs still in the frying pan, fruit salad in a bowl, coffee, tea and juice in separate cups and a lot washing up left to do. “How long was I in the shower for?”

“Half an hour.” Belle told him while screwing the lid back onto the juice carton and placing it to the side with the collection of other items that needed to go back into the fridge, such as the milk, butter and eggs.

“You did all this in less than 30 minutes?” Aden questioned her with an air of disbelief as he took some food and drinks towards the table to clear up the clutter.

“Yes, why? I can cook, you know. And I can do it quick and properly.” She informed him with a huff, moving some stuff that needed to be washed over to the side.

“Sorry, didn’t mean it like that.” Amusement was clear in his voice, but Belle let it go, smiling to herself as she finally returned the items back to fridge. “What’s that smile about?”

“Nothing.” She said airily, not bothering to look over at him as she helped Aden grab the last of the food and bringing it over to the table before taking a seat. His eyes had been locked on her all throughout, questioning her silently. “You’re looking a bit more relaxed.”

“Yeah…” Aden replied with a lazy smile, picking up a fork and twirling it around on his plate as he spoke. “It’s amazing what a night’s sleep can do.”

“And a morning‘s.” She teased with a small laugh. After being woken at 10, they had both fallen back asleep soon after, although Belle had waited for Aden to give in before she did. It was at midday that she had finally dragged her body out of bed, leaving a sleeping Aden behind. By the time she got out of the shower, he had been up looking better than she had seen him in weeks.

“That too.”

“That’s good. It’s good.” Belle repeated, nodding and reaching out for his free hand, curling her own around it. “I’m proud of you, you know?”

“For what?” Aden scoffed, not removing his hand away from hers even though he focused all his attention on his food.

“For last night.” She simply answered before elaborating. “For telling me what you did, for trusting me enough to tell me and to come back to me. For sticking to your promise and facing your fears.”

“Thanks.” He murmured self-consciously as was usual whenever she told him that she was proud of him. “And I’d always come back to you, Belle.”

“I know.” Belle said matter-of-factly, remembering the time before their wedding he had said the same thing. She shuffled her chair towards him, stopping when it was close enough so that she was able to pull her legs up onto the seat to cross them and rest one knee on his thigh. “I told you it would get better, didn’t I?”

“I think you’ll find it that I told you that yesterday.” Aden countered with a smirk. Belle thought about it for a moment, biting her lip while removing her hand from his to pull the bowl with her fruit salad in closer to her.

“Yeah, but I’m the one who said…” She trailed off as she failed to find something to back herself up.

“You just can’t admit when you’re wrong, can you?” He joked, laughing softly which caused Belle to shoot him a dark look out of the corner of her eyes. They fell into silence after that, the only sounds coming from the cutlery as they continued to eat until Aden spoke up again. “I couldn’t have done it without you, though.”

“Aden-”

“No, seriously.” He cut her off before she could protest. “If it wasn’t for you, then I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it. Not last night, not yesterday and not everything else that came before it.” Aden tilted his head to look over at her and Belle could tell exactly what he meant by his last statement by the look in his eyes. ‘Everything’ truly meant ‘everything’, right from the beginning of their relationship. “I don’t think I can ever thank you enough for it.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Aden. As long as you’re happy, stress-free and rested, then that’s enough for me.” Belle told him with a tone indicating that there was no space to argue. She picked up his hand with both of hers and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “I love you. I’m always here for you, to help you, alright? We both are.” She added, placing his hand onto her protruding stomach where the baby was beginning to move around.

“I love you, too.” Aden replied, forgetting about his late breakfast for the moment and rubbing gentle circles where she had placed his hand, waiting for a few seconds before he could feel the lightest of kicks. “Both of you.”

Smiling at his words, Belle trailed her hand along his forearm slowly, stroking it tenderly as she debated whether to ask him if he had made a decision on the Justin issue. From the way he was acting, she was pretty sure he had decided on something, one way or another. If he had still been in two minds, then he wouldn’t have seemed so at ease.

“What’re you thinking about?” He asked her, breaking her out of her own little world, concern colouring his eyes.

“Nothing.” She sighed, trailing her hand up past his elbow to wrap it around his upper arm and leaning into his shoulder slightly. Aden kept his hand still on her stomach, shifting in his chair so that he could turn his body towards her as he leant forwards, resting his other elbow on the table. Eyeing her for a moment as she pointedly avoided his eyes, pretending to be fascinated with playing with his wedding ring instead, he was able to guess quite easily what she was thinking about. To be honest, he had wondered how long it would be before Belle would ask.

“I’m going to talk to him.” Aden informed her before pausing, watching as her motions became still and her eyes snapped up to his. “That’s what you were wondering, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. But there’s no pressure, ok? You take the time you want to think about it, and I’m not going to question you on it either.” Belle hurriedly explained to him. He shook his head slowly, retracting his hand away from her, which in turn caused her hand to fall of him.

“I know, but I think I should get it over and done with. It’ll only play on my mind more and more if I delay it, and with exams starting on Wednesday, I need to get this out of the way.” He explained, putting effort into every word to make it sound like he was absolutely sure about it, when in fact there was still a part of him that just wanted to stay away until Justin left the Bay.

“It’s up to you, Aden. Either way, I‘ll support you wholly.” She insisted, reaching over his hands that he held clasped on the table for his piece of toast. She could feel his eyes on her every movement, although he didn’t comment on it.

“I know.” He repeated. “I just hope it’s the right choice.”

“There’s no right or wrong in this. Whatever you’re comfortable with is what you should do.” Aden held back a scoff at her words, pushing away the thought that no matter what he did, the fact would remain that Justin was still there and until he left, he would be thinking about him. Which would mean that until then, and probably for a while after, there would be residue of the pain it brought up lingering around with him. The only difference was that if he went to spoke to him, then there was the off-chance that he could get some answers that may provide some closure on things that he had never thought of. “Urgh.”

“What?” He questioned Belle’s grimace as she dropped the piece of toast back onto the plate.

“Orange marmalade.” She clarified for him, taking a sip of her tea to clear the taste out of her mouth. “Your child doesn’t seem to be liking orange.”

“Funny that.” Aden said before lifting up the fork in her fruit bowl and spearing on an orange segment before eating it himself. “You would think you would take them out of the mix if you didn’t like them.”

“Ha ha.” Belle replied dryly. “I meant the stuff on your toast.”

“Righto.” He chuckled before a thought hit him, sobering him up. “Wait. If the baby does something wrong or that you don’t like, it’s my child?”

“Well, I’m not going to blame myself, now am I?”

“Of course not.” Aden rolled his eyes at her cheeky tone, making sure that she didn‘t see. Belle had already gotten back to eating, her appetite growing almost everyday, he had noticed, although she still managed to look on the petite and slim side of pregnancy, if there was such a thing.

“So, are you going to go see Justin today, or…?” She trailed off with her question, glimpsing at him out of the corner of her eyes to try and gauge his reaction. He merely sat back in his chair and shrugged.

“I don’t know.” He sighed, fiddling with the fork in the bowl. “I’d rather get it out of the way but…”

“… you’re kind of dreading it too and would rather leave it until later?” Belle finished off for him, turning it into a question while he nodded.

“Yup.” Aden agreed, dropping the fork and laying his arm along the back of her chair casually. “And then there’s the fact that I’d have to go out seeking him seeing as I have no other way of contacting him.”

“Uh…” Belle faltered, trying to seem nonchalant as she leant forwards in her seat and picked up her mug of tea with both hands. “I might.” She spoke into it before sipping it attentively.

“You might what?”

“Have a way of contacting him.” She admitted, still trying, and failing horribly, in trying to seem ok with the situation and bringing up her mistake. “I might still have his mobile number hanging around somewhere.”

“You do?” There was a hint of humour lining his incredulous words, and she figured that he was rather laughing at her attempts to make it all seem like nothing than her words. “From when…?”

“Yeah.” Belle breathed out, the word barely audible as she continued to look away from him and tried to keep occupied with the drink and food.

“Why are you getting so anxious about it for, Belle?” He questioned her with genuine interest, running a hand through her hair as he fought to keep his amusement about her uneasiness to himself.

“I’m not!” She defended herself while pulling away from his hand, finishing with the tea and munching down on some plain toast. Silence enclosed them once again before Belle sighed and uncrossed her legs so that she was able to twist in her seat to face him. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I had his number. In all honesty, I had forgotten. It’s just been lying around somewhere since that day in the Surf Club and I hadn’t used it since.”

“Belle, don’t worry about it. I didn’t ask.” Aden waved it off, drinking his own juice and turning away to end the conversation.

“I know you didn’t, but I’m being honest here. Like we said we would be.”

“Ok.”

“I’ll get you the number later. I’ll need to find it first…“ Belle muttered, thinking aloud rather than speaking to him.

“Ok.“ Aden repeated.

“And stop saying ‘ok’.“

“Ok.“ He smiled. It occurred to him that he had done a lot more of that in the hour or so he had been awake that day than he had in the past week. Things were definitely getting back on track, one step at a time.

---

Flicking though the next few pages, Aden realised that there was too much left to get to the next section for him to wait and eat. Placing the textbook upside down onto the coffee table to save the page he was on, he pushed himself off the couch and ventured into the kitchen. The muscles in his legs protested against he sudden change of pressure, aching dully as he entered the other room where Belle was sat at the table, transferring items from her camera to her laptop, and vice versa.

Walking straight to the freezer, he pulled it open, looking through all the drawers and the shelves in search for what he wanted, or more rather needed considering that it was close to 30 degrees outside. Frowning as he failed to find the one thing his body was actually asking for, he turned to his wife in question.

“Belle, what happened to all the ice-cream?”

“I dunno.” She replied after a small pause, not bothering to look at him as her voice adopted a sweet tone. “Someone might have ended up eating it all while you weren‘t here.”

“’Someone’, huh?” He asked, shutting the freezer door when he realised that there was nothing in there for him to look for anymore.

“That’s what I said.”

“Alright, I’ll go get some more then.” Aden shook his head light-heartedly.

“I didn’t know you liked ice-cream so much.” Belle commented, looking at him curiously as he came to stand at the opposite side of the table.

“I don’t. I just really wanted something cold right now.”

“We have ice. And cold drinks.” She pointed out, tapping her own bottle of cold water sitting right in front of her, albeit afar from the technology as it could be.

“Nah, I’d rather eat something than drink right now.” He told her. “I’ll be right back, anyway.”

“Ok.” Belle said cheerily as he turned around to leave. “Bring me back some, yeah?”

“Of course.”

“Chocolate ice-cream.” She called out, leaning to her side so that she could see him in the front room, picking up his keys and phone.

“I know, Belle.” He called back, mock exasperation in his voice.

“No, double- triple chocolate. With the little marshmallows.”

“Alright…” She could tell just by the sound of his voice that he was rolling his eyes at her demands, but it didn’t do anything to stop her.

“And get something for yourself, too!”

“Obviously!” He yelled back while the sound of the front door opening came to her. “Anything else before I leave?”

“Nope, that’s all.” Belle smiled to herself at his words, glad that there was some kind of regularity between them once again. “Thank you. Love you. Bye!” The sound of his amusement reached her ears as he laughed at her antics before she heard the door shut to signal that Aden was out of the house.

Turning back to her work, she continued to press the same button over and over again as the transferring of the pictures took time. Sighing, Belle looked at each one briefly. Most of them were personal pictures, mixed with a few for work that she had somehow managed to capture on the wrong memory card, hence the reason for all the button pushing and moving. Growing bored of it, she clicked on the ‘Yes to All’ button before pushing away from the table and heading upstairs to go in search for the number that she had told Aden she would find that morning. She honestly had no idea where it was, which was going to lead to a very interesting, and time-consuming, afternoon.

---

Pulling up by the curb near to the Surf Club, Aden made a detour on the way to the grocery store. He had spotted the figure very easily in the secluded area, seeing as everyone was either on the beach or in sea, or indoors.

Getting out of his car, he shut the door and locked it before crossing over the road towards where the huge tree stood up by the dunes and the wooden fence, which Justin was leaning against to stay out of the sun, and probably the public eye.

“Is this all you do all day?” Aden questioned him when he got close enough. Justin spun around quickly, a look sheepish look mixed with shock covering his face while Aden came to stand next to him, looking out towards the sea with him.

“I don’t know what you mean.” He replied coolly, crossing his arms and standing up straight.

“Sure, sure.” He followed his brother’s gaze, finding that it didn’t reach as far up to the water as his originally had. Instead, it faltered on the beach were there were a group of girls playing in the sand and then some sunbathing. “You’re a perv, you know that?”

“What?” Justin asked, his tone turning innocent. “It’s not wrong to appreciate fine works of art, is it? And that’s what these lovely ladies are. It would be wrong not to look.”

“You’re so wrong.” Aden shook his head as he spoke in disgust although there was a small smile on his face.

“C’mon, you have to admit that’s one of the perks of living in the Bay.” He persisted, nodding towards a certain girl who was heading down into the water. “Check her out. Alone, good looking, having fun… They do it to tease.”

“She also has a boyfriend.” Aden added, shifting his eyes away to look at the sea faraway rather than to even look like he was doing what his brother was enjoying wasting time on. Not only would Belle most probably kill him if she found him ogling some other girl, but seeing as the girl in question was his pseudo-sister, it didn’t give him any joy.

“You know her, then?”

“Yeah.” He confirmed. “She’s like family to me.”

“I see…” Justin trailed off, slumping forwards to rest his forearms on the barrier in front of him, eyes still trained on Nicole who was now swimming in the sea. “So are they serious? Her and her boyfriend?”

“Why do you do that?” Aden answered with a question, turning around so that he was able to lean back against the fence before taking off his shades and crossing his arms.

“Do what?”

“I told you she has a boyfriend, yet you’re still interested in trying to chase her.” He explained. “Not to mention Belle and Amanda too.”

“The thrill is in the chase, Aden.” Justin told him, a smile clear in his words. “It’s twice as good if you have to work for it.”

“Even if it means breaking people up?” He asked incredulously, a smirk fighting it’s way onto his face as he recalled the beginning of his and Belle’s relationship. That certainly had been a chase on his behalf, and it was, and still is, worth it.

“Well, my take on it is that if they really were in a happy relationship, then they wouldn’t cheat.” He explained in such a serious tone that Aden almost accepted it as being alright. “And I didn’t know that Belle was yours, or that she was pregnant.”

“Not like finding out changed that, right?” There wasn’t any accusation or anger in Aden’s voice, but it was more dry and deadpanned.

“So what’s up with this? Yesterday, you were ready to cut all ties with me.” Justin changed the subject, taking one final glance at the girls on the beach before turning around to copy his brother’s stance. “I’m not saying that I’m disappointed or anything, but the going from back and forth is getting a bit too confusing for me.”

“I did some thinking.”

“And…?” He prodded.

“And I figured that if it’s taken 8 years for you to come back once, then it might take you another 8 again.” Aden began, knowing that his words confused Justin more. “You don’t always have to be here to be my brother. But I’d rather that for the next 8 years I have some contact with you and some answers instead of regret.”

“It won’t take another 8 years, bro.” Justin told him sincerely. “I would have came back sooner, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. Now that I know that you’re alright, I think I have a reason to touch base regularly.”

“What about your job?”

“What about it?”

“You said that it took you 8 years to get even near to Summer Bay. If you’re working away all the time, then you’re not going to exactly be able to get away.” Aden said, noticing the hint of dismay that had seeped into his words.

“It only took 8 years because I kind of avoided this place, or anywhere in the state, with more than necessary need. There were plenty of jobs going here, but I never took them.” He shrugged at his words.

“You actually went out of your way to avoid coming back home?” Aden enquired, turning sideways to face him with a slight hardened look. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No, I’m not, and it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t out of guilt or anything.”

“Then what was it?” He questioned, slightly gutted that his brother had cottoned on to what he was thinking, and rebuked it easily. There was still a part of him that wanted to have a reason to hate him so that it would make it easier to handle when he left again. So far, Justin had been able to explain almost everything away, something that he didn’t particularly like.

“Honestly?” He began and Aden nodded. “I wasn’t too sure if I’d be welcomed back here. Don’t get me wrong, I regret staying away for so long and thinking about me rather than you, and I’m sorry for making you go through all the stuff with Sean and Dad alone, but it was much easier for me to think that everything was ok back here and carry on like normal instead of worrying myself crazy about what could have been going wrong.”

“Why did you leave in the first place, Justin? You could have stayed and just moved out like I did. If you wanted a job, you could have gotten one here.”

“Moved out where, exactly? I had no money and everyone around here knew what kind of bad rep I had. No-one would give me a job here.” Justin sighed, rubbing his forehead with a hand as if thinking about the past gave him the same pain as it gave Aden. “I left to make it easier on you guys. I was a burden here.”

“You know, since you’ve came back, you’ve apologized for a Hell lot of things.” Aden pointed out, returning back to his original position and squinting into the distance where he could see his car. “But not once have you said that you were sorry for leaving me behind.”

“That’s because I’m not.” Justin said straight-out, not bothering to sugar-coat it for him.

“Of course you’re not.” He scoffed sarcastically, shaking his head ruefully even though he had found something to hold against his brother now. “Why would you be?”

“Oh, come off it, Aden. Stop acting like a brat.”

“Do I at least get an explanation?” He asked through gritted teeth, resisting the urge to walk off. Belle’s words from the previous night about how he would look back at the things he didn’t do came to him, and he knew that if he didn’t get a reason for it, it would always be at he back of his mind.

“Aden, if I hadn’t left, do you know what would have happened?” He twisted his head to face him, watching the side of his little brother’s face as he remained silent, taking it as a cue to carry on. “Dad was still drinking like crazy, Sean was next to no help and I was close to being thrown into jail. If that went on, then social services would have been brought back into it again. Seeing as Granddad was no longer around, what do you think would have happened to you? And I know for a fact that you would have hated being taken into care back then.”

“I could have came with you.” Aden replied softly, his stiff demeanour relaxing at his brother’s logical words. As much as he hated what had happened in that house, and as much as he despised his father for letting it happen, he was sure that Justin was right; that he wouldn’t have gone quietly or willingly to a foster family. “You were 18, a legal adult.”

“Right, cos they would have let me have your guardianship.” Justin laughed bitterly. “Besides, with no money, food or shelter, it wouldn’t have been right. You had a better life here. You have a better life here. Look at you, Aden. Do you really think you’d be married with a kid on the way if I had taken you along with me?”

“Why couldn’t you have told me all this before? Or when you left? Or somewhere in between?” Aden snapped, although he was fairly sure that the anger was directed more to himself than Justin. “You knew where we lived, to get in contact with us or people in the surrounding area.”

“Like I said, I didn’t know if I would be welcomed or if you would even hear me out. I’m actually surprised I haven’t had a fist in my face yet.”

“Trust me, it was hard to resist.” Aden said with a small chuckle. He could see Justin nodding out of the corner of his eye before a bit of awkwardness came between them and neither one knew what to say. Subconsciously looking at the time on his watch, Aden cursed under his breath when he realised that he had just spent over 30 minutes talking to his brother.

“What is it?” Justin asked in curiosity as Aden pushed away from the fence and pulled on his sunglasses.

“I have something to do, and I told Belle I’d be back soon.” He explained after a moment’s hesitation, pausing in his actions to get away.

“She’s got you wrapped around her little finger, hasn’t she?” Aden pursed his lips as Justin laughed turning back around to face the sea, and the girls.

“Better than the alternative.” He said pointedly, nodding towards where a group of girls were sitting around giggling while taking in the sun, knowing that it was there that Justin’s eyes had been drawn too.

“For you, maybe.” He huffed. “How long have you been with Belle now?”

“3 years.”

“Yeah, you see.” Justin twisted his body towards him even as his eyes stayed glued to girls. “I couldn’t stay with the same girl for over 3 days. Hours, if she’s a real pain.”

“Hmm…” Aden replied noncommittally. He opened his mouth to say something just as he phone buzzed in his pocket. Pulling it out he wasn’t surprised in the last to see the text from Belle.

’Where on Earth are you?! How far have you gone to get the ice-cream? The City? Hurry up! We’re starving here!!! x’ Rolling his eyes at her typical craving-driven words, he responded quickly saying that he was on his way and had been caught up by something.

“I have to go, Justin.”

“Yeah, alright.” He finally gave his little brother all his attention as he spoke. “Catch up with you later?” Aden thought it through quickly, wondering what would be worse. Spending time with him now and have him leave, or not spend now with him when he could and have him leave anyway. The answer was pretty clear as he sighed, pushing his hands into his pockets before nodding causally.

“Sure.”

“Good. We have a lot to talk about.” Justin smiled gratefully, no hint of cheekiness or anything else for once.

“Yeah, we do.” Aden agreed before heading off back towards his car. He let out a deep breath as he walked briskly across the road, a small grin tugging at his lips as he felt something else begin to lift of his shoulders, and his mind, that day.

---

I hope enjoyed it and it didn't drag... Thanks for reading!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Here’s the update as promised! I’m glad that everyone’s liking Justin, even though he’s a sleaze. I wanted to make him into a guy that you just can’t hate, so I think I’ve gotten that right, yeah?

Anyway, this chapter is mainly just a break from all the drama and angst. And it’s for all of you who begged and begged for racy fluff Told you it was coming in it’s own time, didn’t I? So be warned.

Dedicated to all ya crazies dying for Adelle to have sex Except for Louise [she knows why… ] Special thankies to Laura who proofed it for me!

Chapter 53:

“At last! I was about to send out a search party!” Belle’s annoyed voice came to him as he stepped through the front doors, rolling his eyes at her. “Don’t patronise me! Do you have any idea how long it’s been?”

“47 minutes.” Aden replied in a smug voice as her mouth closed into a tight line and glared at him over the back of the couch which she sat on with her legs stretched out along the length of it.

“Did you get it?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to return home after all that time without it, was I?” He claimed, handing her the plastic bag that contained a huge, share-size tub of the triple chocolate ice-cream with mini marshmallows embedded in it.

“Where’s yours?” She asked while pulling out the tub and taking off the lid instantly. “I have spoons.” Aden turned around from where he was heading into the kitchen at her words.

“Yours looked nice.” Belle gave him a deadly glare as she held the tub closer to her, eyeing him as he lifted up her feet to take a seat, replacing them back onto his lap.

“What makes you think I’m going to share?” She questioned him carefully, raising her eyebrows at him as he chuckled.

“Cos if you don’t, the next time you want ice-cream, I’m not going to go get it.” He told her, reaching out to take a spoon out of her hand and pulling her closer to him by the legs. She squealed in surprise, thrashing her feet until he let go before edging herself away from him and back to lean against the armrest.

“No ice-cream for you! You don’t even like the chocolate stuff.” Belle reminded him, digging her own spoon into it and scooping out a huge amount. “Hmm…” She murmured as she ate it, closing her eyes in satisfaction. Getting no remark from Aden, she opened her eye to see him watch her with a ghost of a smile. “What?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head lightly, twisting her anklet around her ankle gently.

“What’s going on?” Belle asked him cautiously. “You’re different. What happened?” As he remained quiet, she pursed her lips before sighing. “I’ll share the ice-cream if you tell me.”

Aden looked at her as if debating with himself whether it was worth the deal or not. Finally coming to a conclusion, he lifted up her legs an inch or so and slid closer to her until he was near enough to reach the tub that she rested on her thighs. Rubbing a hand tenderly over her stomach for a moment, he waited for a response, not disappointed when there were a sequence of kicks meeting his hand before ceasing completely. Laughing silently at Belle’s small wince of pain that he guessed the last kick would have caused, he trailed his hand down her leg and let it lay just above her knee on his lap.

“Here.” Belle tilted the tub in his direction and he dipped his spoon into it, taking only a scraping of it that filled less than half a spoon. “That it?”

“Hold on! I don’t scoff the stuff down like you do, Belle. It’s a bit too chocolaty to have too much at once.” Aden laughed as she huffed and took another spoonful for herself.

“Whatever.” She merely replied once it had melted in her mouth. “So what kept you?”

“I ran into Justin.”

“You did?” Belle asked in astonishment, her hand carrying the spoon and ice-cream pausing in mid air.

“Yup.” Aden confirmed, keeping his eyes on the food as he scooped a bit more out.

“You’re telling me that I just spent the last 30 minutes turning our room upside down, back aching, looking for his number for no reason?” She growled out at him. “You could have at least said something!”

“Sorry.” He replied sheepishly, feeling a bit guilty for making her suffer for that. “Kind of slipped my mind. Did you find it then?”

“Yeah, I found it.” Belle sighed, pointing towards the coffee table where the tissue laid with her pinkie finger while eating another huge scoop of ice-cream, dissolving her mood with it. “I’m guessing that it went good?”

“You could say that.” Aden answered vaguely. “We talked a bit. About why he left and why he never said anything about it before. And why he goes after married women.” He added with a small laugh.

“The first two sound great. Not so interested in the last.” Belle smirked, going along with his good mood.

“Neither was I, to be honest.”

“What did he say then?” She prompted. Aden hesitated for a moment, putting all of his attention into the ice-cream as he tried to work around the delve that Belle had created in the middle of it to fish out a spoonful of marshmallows. He pushed the spoon back and forth, scooping out ice-cream here and there until he found a section with a load of it. Unfortunately, it took time to do and Belle had caught on with what he was doing. Trapping his spoon with hers, she snapped at him. “Don’t just eat the marshmallows! I need some too.”

“Not just some.” He muttered under his breath as he let go of the spoon and left it in the tub for the time being. He wasn’t sure whether she had heard his comment or not, but either way, Belle didn’t make any kind of response to it.

“If you had told me that you had been talking to Justin, I wouldn’t have bugged you to hurry up, you know?” Belle’s soft voice broke the silence that they had fallen into.

“I know, but it’s ok. I don’t think there was much more to talk about right then.” He inhaled deeply. “I’m still trying to get my head around some of the things he told me.”

“Yeah? Such as…?” At his pause, Belle quickly added. “If you don’t want to tell me, that’s ok. I just thought that you might want to talk about it.”

“No, it’s fine. I do need to talk about it.” Aden assured her, skimming his hands over her legs before letting them stop either side of her knees where he began to draw lazy circles with his thumbs. “I asked him why he left. You know, cos that was the one thing that always bugged me. Why he left without saying anything, especially to me. Or why he didn’t take me with him.”

“What did he say?” She asked, more because she felt like he had paused for her to have an input rather than anything else.

“He said…” He took in a breath and let his head fall back as he slumped down in the sofa a bit, propping his own feet up on the edge of the coffee table. “He said that he did it for me.”

“I asked him the same thing, that first time we met and I knew it was him.” Belle confessed, pushing herself up a bit, all the while keeping the ice-cream tub balanced on her thighs, resting against her stomach to keep it steady. “He said it was because he was a burden on you guys and it would have made things easier for you if he left.”

“Didn’t you believe him?” Aden questioned her, tilting his head to face her as she shrugged, pulling her own legs up before handing him the ice-cream tub with the spoons stuck into them so she could curl her legs under her. She shuffled closer to him, letting her bent knees rest on his leg and taking the cold treat out of his hands and placing it back on her lap.

“Kind of.” She told him a moment later. “But I got the feeling that he was hiding something. Like there was another reason behind it too.”

“Yeah, there was.” He backed up her theory, knowing that Belle had a good sense of knowing when someone was keeping something from her. “I’ve spent 8 years hating him, Belle. 8 years. It’s a long time and a lot of hating. And then he comes out and says that he did it for me.”

“For you, how, exactly?” Belle pushed him, a bit confused at his sudden change of mood. The relaxed face and posture that he had had was now gone, replaced by a tight jaw and stiff body while looking away. “Aden?” She said quietly, dropping her spoon into the tub and reaching over to place her cool hand onto his shoulder, working it’s way to the back of his neck and then into his hair, which she stroked gently.

“You know how social services made my Granddad move in because of Dad’s drinking and all that?” He spoke after a little bit, his features softening as he swallowed hard at even the mention of his grandfather. Belle nodded at his question and he carried on. “Well, after he died, there was no-one else nearby in the family to help. Seeing as our family was still falling apart as it had been, it was only a matter of time before social services stepped in again. If they thought that Dad was incapable of looking after us, or rather me as I was the only one under 18, they would have put me under the care of someone else.”

“It couldn’t have been one of your brothers?”

“Nope. Neither of them had a job or any kind of income, a house or even a good background.” Aden explained to her.

“So by leaving, there wouldn’t be anyone with a criminal record in the house.” Belle connected the dots. “And there would be more to go around. More money, more food. More time.”

“Exactly.” He breathed out. “I can’t hate him for that. I wish I could, cos it would make life so much more easier, but I can’t. If it wasn’t for him, then I doubt my life would have been this good.” Aden turned his face to look at her, lifting up a hand to brush the tendrils of hair away from the side of her face. “I might never have met you, and none of this would have happened.”

Belle retracted her own hand away from him and took his into hers, bringing it down to press a kiss into the palm of it. She held it close to her chin for a few seconds, just thinking a few things through before untwining their fingers and letting him drop is hand to her legs while she took hold of her spoon once again.

“Did you talk about everything else?”

“Like what?” He asked her, confused.

“About him leaving again, or him coming back again?” She clarified and Aden nodded.

“He has a job to do, Belle. He has his own life. I can’t expect him to leave it all just because I’d rather have him around.” He admitted to her something that he had thought about the previous day. “But he did say that he would visit often. That’s something, right?”

“Yeah, it really is.” She smile, spooning ice-cream into her mouth.

“I’ve figured that, seeing as we’ve got the time now, I should at least try and make the effort to get along with him. I mean, it’s not going to be perfect anytime soon, or be back to what we use to have, but I can try at it, right?” He looked at her hopefully, almost as if looking for her approval and say in it.

“If you think it’s the right thing to do,” Belle began before swallowing the ice-cream in her mouth. The coldness of it hurt her head, but she shook it off easily, having grown accustomed to the brain freezes. “Then you should do it. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself doing something that you don’t want to do. Justin would understand. As much of a sleaze he is, he’s quite compassionate, scarily enough.”

“True.” Aden chuckled. “No, I’ve asked him enough questions and he’s given me a lot of the answers I had been looking for, for years. It‘s the least I can do.”

“Yeah? Is that why you’re looking so much better?” Belle smiled, giving his shoulder gentle shove with her own, still eating her ice-cream. It was almost half empty and she had no intention in stopping anytime soon.

“I guess so. That and last night. It just feels like things are falling back into place, one by one. They’re getting easier to handle.” He admitted, a smile growing on his lips as she nodded.

“I’m glad you feel that way. I like this.” At his questioning look, Belle elaborated with what she meant. “Us, sitting here together, just talking. And eating. You not burying yourself in your work and everything else to get away from this.” She tapped a finger to his temple and he chuckled lightly at her actions.

“I suppose it is a bit more fun to hang out with you rather than the books.” Aden said teasingly, with a small sigh.

“Just a bit?” She asked, outraged. “Geez, you may as well tell me you’d rather be alone!”

“Aw, you know I was just kidding, right, gorgeous?”

“I don’t know. Were you?” Belle said pointedly, taking another mouthful of ice-cream and holding the container out of his reach as he went for it. “No! You don’t get any ice-cream after saying that.”

“Of course I was kidding.” Aden assured her, watching her intently as she carried on eating without even giving him another look. Her spoon went into the softening treat with an added force, coming back out with a very generous amount before she ate it tantalisingly slow. Smirking, he realised that she was doing it to get at him. Leaning in suddenly, Aden caught the lobe of her ear in between his teeth, nibbling on it in a way that he hadn’t for weeks, making her both jump and moan in pleasure. Before it could get another further, he backed off as if nothing had ever happened.

“That was mean.” Belle hissed before huffing in disappointment. “I’m a pregnant woman here. Hormones are going crazy. Left, right and centre; they’re everywhere. You don’t get to tease me like that, alright?”

“I’ll try to handle myself.” He joked, giving her his ‘bad-boy’ grin that made her melt each and every time. He turned his head away, groaning as his eyes came to rest on the book on the coffee table. “I need to revise. Stupid exams.”

“I’m sure you’ve done enough revision to take a day off from it, Aden.”

“Not with only 3 days remaining, I don’t.” He countered, pushing himself forwards with the hand on her lap to quickly swipe the textbook from the table and onto the couch. “I’ll be free in 2 weeks, though. Then we’ll have the next 3 months or so to focus wholly on the baby. And each other, of course.”

“The baby could be born before you go back to uni, you know.” Belle pointed out and a smile broke out on his face at the thought of it. “Listen, I know we said we would talk about it nearer to the time and all, but I think it’s near enough and we should clear this up right now. I don’t want you to waste next year, Aden.”

“What?”

“Go back to uni and do it full time. It’s your final year; you’ll have plenty of time at home too. I’ll be more than happy to stay at home for as long as it takes. I’m getting used to working from home now, and it’ll be worth it in more than one way.” She refreshed his memory about the chat they had had right at the beginning of the pregnancy. Aden thought about what she said, staying quiet for a moment before speaking up.

“I’d rather be here with the two of you than at uni.”

“I know you would, but if you think about it, you last year’s going to be more about your own studying than going in for lectures. In a way, you’ll have the same amount of time off as you would have being a part time student. And you’ll be done in a year, which means that after that, you can start working, or spend some time at home if you’d want. But at least that’s out of the way.” Belle carried on, trying to sway him in her direction of thoughts. “We’ve done well for the past 5 months; there won’t be much different. We can work it out. I’m not so scared anymore. I mean, I’m terrified of becoming a parent, but everyone will be around, and you’ll be here most of the time too. You’ll have breaks, weekends, days off. It’ll be fine.”

“How about we talk about it more after the exams? I don’t have to make a decision or anything until after then, and nothing’s certain until I get my results.” He informed her, still thinking it through in his head.

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you want. It’s up to you, alright?” Belle smiled and he nodded, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her a bit closer to him to press his lips to her forehead lovingly. “Ok, are you going to get back to work, or you going to take the rest of the day off and help me make a late lunch, slash, early dinner?”

“Um…” Aden hesitated, looking over at the time. It had just past 5 in the afternoon and so far he had read only 4 pages. Shaking his head he rubbed circles on the small of her back gently. “I think I should get some studying done.”

“Alright.” She sighed dramatically, fiddling with the spoons in the tub. “I guess I’ll go slave away in the kitchen then.”

“Just like a good housewife should.” He said in a fake earnest voice.

“Oi!” Belle exclaimed, hitting him around the back of the head. “I’m not a housewife! Forget it, I’m not cooking tonight.”

“Good. Save us both from that cruelty.” Aden chuckled while turning his book over to find where he had left off earlier that afternoon. Glimpsing sideways towards her, he managed to catch her flailing hand that was aiming for his head once again. Unluckily for him, her other hand came towards his chest, hit him hard right in the middle. “Ow! That really hurt, babe!” He winced, dropping her hand and prodding the affected area gently, not liking the pain it caused.

“Sorry.” Belle said in genuine remorse, pulling the spoon out of her mouth and dipping it into the ice-cream tub. She dug through it for several seconds, although Aden was more concerned about his ribs than what she was doing until she held out the spoon in her direction with the contents piled on top of it. “Marshmallows?”

---

The rest of the evening had gone pretty easily for the both of them. Feeling tired and a bit bloated after managing to finish off the whole of the tub of ice-cream, with the slight help of Aden, Belle had decided against cooking and ordered in. She then had to put up with his teasing about her culinary skills until she reminded him that she had worked at the Diner before, as had he, therefore they had the same skills. That, to her dismay however, hadn’t stopped him from insisting that the jobs she had done weren’t that hard and he had only stopped talking when Belle had walked off in a huff.

After that, she had gotten back to her own work, leaving Aden to read in peace. She was sure that the only reason why he hadn’t followed her a few moments later to apologize was because he had either decided to give her some space to calm down, or because he thought she had only been playing around. Although the latter was a little truthful, Belle would have at least liked an apology just for the sake of it. But then again, their relationship had been based on a lot of teasing and joking around that it was almost natural for them to fall into that kind of conversation and not think twice about it.

Dinner began quietly, with Aden trying to coerce her into talking to him without being sarcastic or sending him death glares. His attempts had worked in the end when he had stayed quiet and the silence had gotten too much for her. After her original harsh words to tell him to say something, her mood had dissipated and they had fallen back into their normal light-heartened conversations, although Aden did stay away from offending her for the umpteenth time that day.

The relaxed atmosphere had lingered thereafter, something that Belle had come to realise seemed a bit nostalgic in a good way. She couldn’t remember the last time that they had had a full day of being like this, teasing each other mercilessly and being completely free from worry and anything else weighing either one of them down.

“You up for a movie tonight?” Belle asked him as she picked up the plate from the draining rack and drying it with the cloth in her hands. She was sat on the counter next to it, but far enough to stop herself from getting splashed with water when Aden placed the just washed cutlery there.

“Don’t you have work tomorrow?” He replied, giving her a curious look.

“Yeah, so?”

“Shouldn’t you get some sleep before I have to drag you out of bed in the morning?” Aden laughed lightly as she shook her head in amusement.

“Oh, but honey, you know you love dragging me out of bed in the morning.” Belle said in a over the top sweet voice, adding a wink to it that made him simply roll his eyes as he carried on washing up. “I’ll be fine. It’s early anyway.”

“Um…” He looked over at her for a moment before nodding hesitantly. “If you’re up for it, then sure.”

“Cool! Besides, you can do the rest of your revision tomorrow while I’m at work.” She told him matter-of-factly and he agreed easily. “Ok, well, after I’ve done this, I’ll get the popcorn.”

“Popcorn?” Aden questioned incredulously, rinsing his hands to get rid of any of the suds that may have clung to them. “Haven’t you eaten enough?”

“Well, yeah, but you can’t watch a movie without popcorn!”

“Hmm… Of course not.”

“Don’t worry, you can choose the movie while I make it. Fair compromise?” Belle asked as she placed the last of the washing up next to her and threw the cloth onto the counter across from her before sliding back onto her feet, Aden’s hands automatically coming to her waist to assist her. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure, sweetheart.” He smiled back, keeping his hands where they were as he pressed his lips to her head while her own hands glided up his arms before they both pulled away from each other, his fingers smoothing across her stomach as he did so. Belle waited for the response from the baby as she got about with making the popcorn while Aden put everything away, not disappointed to feel the now familiar fluttering sensation that it caused when it moved lazily.

Making the popcorn didn’t take long, nor did adding the extra flavouring to it. By the time she had entered the front room again, the big bowl held with both hands, Aden had already stuck a DVD in and was sitting on the couch flicking through the channels to waste time. Belle took her seat next to him, letting his arm come around her to hold her to him as she cuddled up to him as close as possible.

“What’s this?” He asked her, picking up a single popcorn out of the bowl she was already munching away at with his thumb and forefinger and squishing it. “Popcorn isn’t meant to be so soft.”

“It’s not soft.” She insisted with a distracted voice, watching the TV instead.

“What did you put on it?”

“Lemon juice.” At her words, Aden promptly dropped the piece back into the bowl with a small grimace. He saw Belle tilt her head up to look at him from where it rested on his shoulder before giggled erupted from her, shaking her body. “I’m kidding. It’s butter. I added some more.”

“Why it’s all… liquidy?” Aden inquired with a confused look, poking at the popcorn with a finger.

“Because that’s what butter for popcorn is like. You can’t exactly put a whole solid piece of butter in with it, now can you?” She laughed as he continued to look doubtful about what she said. Rolling her eyes, she plucked up another piece and held it out to him. “Just try it. Seriously, it’s just butter. Trust me. Would I make you eat something like that?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Aden retorted a spilt second before Belle had managed to shove the popcorn into his open mouth and then turning back towards the screen without another word. “Hmm… You were right; it is butter.”

“Really, Aden? Wonder how I knew that.” She muttered. Hearing him taking in a breath to speak, Belle cut in first. “Don’t. You’ll only make it worse. Just be quiet and watch.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said obediently, only to receive a glare for his efforts. “I’ll be quiet.”

---

“But I’m not tired…!” Belle whined childishly as Aden pushed her up the stairs with his hands on her hips, guiding her along the upstairs hallway as she began to drag her feet.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s past 11pm and you’ve got work tomorrow. You’re going to be tired and grumpy and cranky in the morning if you don’t sleep now, and I don’t feel like having to deal with it on my day off.” He said softly, only half teasing.

“Sorry that we’re such a burden on you!” She snapped, huffing as she pulled away from his hands and made her own way towards their bedroom with a sudden burst of energy. She slammed the door shut when she entered it, only a few steps away from where Aden was. He laughed at her behaviour, wondering why it had taken so long for her mood swings to resurface again.

He opened the door without knocking, not surprised to see it wasn’t locked. As Belle got ready in the bathroom, Aden got about dealing with other stuff such as making sure the balcony doors were locked and drawing the drapes. He had just began to take off his watch and place his mobile to the side when Belle re-entered the room. She walked right up to him as he finished with what he was doing before turning to face her. Without another word, she placed her hands on either side of his neck and brought him into a passionate kiss that he had no ability to resist or question.

Belle’s hands wandered over his shoulders, fingers trickling down his arms like water until they reached his hands. Before he got the chance to let go of her waist where his hands were placed to intertwine them, she moved on to the main part of his upper body, encircling his midsection before tugging lightly at his t-shirt. Aden’s hands moved up to her face, stroking it gently as hers ran under his top, pushing it higher and higher until they had to pull apart so that it could be disposed of. Just as he leant back in to kiss her once again, Belle pushed against his chest to stop him, giving him an innocent smile to his perplexed look.

“Just needed the shirt.” She informed him straight-out, walking away from where he stood frozen for a moment.

“You couldn’t have just asked?” Aden finally got out, his tone filled with disbelief. She shrugged dismissively at him, not bothering to turn to face him while she got changed.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Belle mumbled, busy with sorting some of the clothes out. Shaking his head to clear it, he managed to move, heading straight for the bathroom. Still feeling the after-effects of her actions, he didn’t bother to close the door, turning the taps on immediately and splashing his face with the cold water to bring him back to reality.

Reaching out for a towel, he dried his face just as he got control of himself again and got his breathing back to normal. That was until he felt a pair of hands glide around his waist before coming to a stop at the front. Looking up into the mirror, he could see the seductive smirk on Belle’s face over his shoulder as she pressed up against him as much as she could, her fingers working to undo his belt pretty easily considering.

“I’m really not sleepy.” She whispered as she trailed a line of kisses along his bare skin on his shoulder, all the while fiddling with the button on his jeans. Aden continued to stare at her via the reflection, trying to work out whether she was playing him again. He held onto the counter with both hands, gripping it tightly to keep himself from twirling around and kissing her like before as she stopped with the little gestures of affection and unwound her arms from around him after unfastening the button.

Belle let one hand smooth across his back slowly while coming to stand next to him, leaning against the counter to look at him. She raised an eyebrow when he took in her attire of just his shirt, eye lingering on her form a moment too long for him to pretend that she hadn’t affected him at all. Pushing herself up onto the bathroom counter, Belle knew that the top had ridden up further, giving him a glimpse of the lacy underwear that she had brought before the wedding while on a shopping trip with Mattie.

She tugged lightly on one of the belt loops on his jeans and Aden finally let go of the counter and moved, a sly grin growing on his lips as he did so. Belle gave him her own smile as he stopped right in front of her. He placed his hands on her bare knees, moving them upwards slowly to entice her while she pulled him closer by his belt. He stood up as straight as he could so she couldn‘t lift her head up to kiss him, resisting the urge to give her what she wanted for while longer.

“What’s all this about?” He murmured, digging his fingers lightly into her upper thighs while speaking directly into her ear.

“Like I said,” Belle breathed back into his. “I’m not tired.”

“Are you messing with me again?” Aden asked, the words barely audible as he hardly moved his lips to speak. However, with his lips now hovering above her own, it wasn’t hard to make out what he said.

“You’re the one who started all this.” She told him, swallowing as he brushed his lips along her jaw line. His hands had moved to her hips, applying pressure to force her forwards to which she had complied.

“You kissed me.”

“You bit my ear.” Belle countered as he pulled away, making her groan involuntarily. Aden chuckled, trailing his index finger down the side of her face in a featherlike touch that made her eyes fall shut.

“That one small thing made you like this?” He questioned and she opened her eyes, a small pout forming on her lips.

“I have raving hormones, Aden. One small thing excites them all.” She enlightened him, shimmying closer to him until she was so close to the edge, she was close to falling.

“Explains the mood swings.” Aden smirked, capturing her lips in an attempt to stop her rebuke. It had worked, he was glad to find, as she tried to pull him closer by his jeans, wrapping her legs around his to help keep her balanced.

Disappointed with the distance still between them, Belle broke away from him and pushed him back so that she could slide off the counter. Once steady on her own two feet, she let Aden bring her back into their hungry kiss, continuing like they hadn’t needed that break to breathe. He wrapped an arm around her waist, the other hand threaded through her hair, not that she noticed much. Smiling against his lips, Belle pushed him backwards with her hands on his toned abdomen, fingers curling slightly as if she couldn’t get enough of him.

“Where-?” Aden began as he pulled away an inch, realising in his midst of a mind that she was taking him away from the bedroom. She hushed him quickly, pressing her lips to his while continuing to push him back until he felt the coolness of a glass pane against his back.

“It’s been a hot day.” Belle said as a way of clarifying her motives. Aden smirked as he pushed away from the shower door for a second to pull on the hem of his shirt that she wore.

“It totally has been.”

---

Well, there you have it. Racyfluff! I wanted to have it as a surprise, but I thought I ought to warn you. Hope it was enough/not too much. I didn’t want to get too much into it, cos you know, Belle is 5 and a half months pregnant

Hope you enjoyed!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you for the comments guys! Loved them all! I was so glad to read that you all loved the racy fluff scenes, and the other stuff too. I really liked writing Belle like that, so much so, that I think I may continue. I just hope that it’s not too OOC or out of line with the rest of the fic. In my defence, considering that her and Aden hadn’t been really on good terms, I don’t think it would have been realistic to make her demanding and moody and all.

Anyways, here’s the next chapter. Oh, and there’s a little bit [really tiny] in here for Laura as a thanks for putting up with all my moaning and everything, and always proofing my chapters!

Chapter 54:

“She’s my mother, Mattie. I think she has a right.” Belle said exasperatedly, following her back into the house.

“And I’m your best friend! I want to feel the baby kick!” Mattie pouted in a very childish manner, making Belle roll her eyes.

“There is a slight difference there, you know?”

“Such as?” She prompted, pulling out two bottles of juice from the fridge and ushering her into the front room.

“Well, for starters,” Belle said slowly. “She’s my mother.”

“Yeah, but I’ve known you for longer than she has.” She countered, sitting down on the sofa.

“Not really. Besides, it doesn’t change the fact that she was the one who actually brought me into this world.”

“And I can very easily take you out of it.” Mattie argued, raising an eyebrow. Belle gave her a worried, and a bit scared, look as she eased herself down onto the sofa, sighing after a hectic day at work.

“Is that a death threat?” She questioned with a hint of fear, although most of her words were spoken in amusement.

“Perhaps.” Mattie played along, keeping a straight face. “So, how’s everything?”

“Everything’s good.” Belle replied simply before laughing. “Why? What have you heard?”

“I’m just wondering. The only time you come over here randomly nowadays is because there’s a problem with you and Aden.”

“That’s not true!” She quickly defended.

“Oh yeah?” Mattie challenged. “When was the last time you came over here just for the fun of it?”

“Right now.” Belle told her as Mattie just shook her head. She thought back, wondering when the last time she had visited Mattie had been. “I came over after the last ultrasound.”

“Yeah, because you were worried about Aden-”

“No! I brought the scrapbook, remember? I know you’d want to see it, so I thought I would come over.” She explained as Mattie grudgingly accepted her answer.

“Fine, once before today.”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve came around to ours, either. And that place is easier considering that it’s just the two of us right now.” Belle pointed out. “Not to mention, I’m the pregnant one here. I shouldn’t be doing so much extraneous exercise.”

“’Extraneous’?” Mattie scoffed. “It’s like a 10 minute walk! That’ll do you and Beanie some good.”

“What did you just call my baby?”

“What?” She asked nonchalantly. “I can’t call the baby ‘it’ or ‘he’ or ‘she’. Saying ‘the baby’ gets a bit too repetitive. Besides, gotta give my favourite niece or nephew a loving nickname.”

“Doesn’t it have to be that?” Belle questioned her in disgust. “And don’t you already have two nephews and a niece? You can’t call this one your favourite. It would be unfair.”

“Ok, my newest niece or nephew. Happy?” Mattie sighed heavily. “Don’t even try to change my mind, because it’s set.”

“Just wait until Aden hears about it. Or Mum even.”

“Aden will find it cute, unlike someone, and I can deal with Amanda.”

“Sure, sure.” Belle simply said, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand.

“Long day?” Mattie asked sympathetically and Belle just nodded, taking a sip of her juice to help wake her up a bit.

“Something like that.”

“Maybe you should stop working so much, then.”

“Nah, work wasn’t so bad. I made it worse for myself.” At her best mate’s confused look, a shy smile tugged at Belle’s lips as she recalled the previous night. “We kind of fell asleep late.”

“Oh, really?” Mattie sat up straighter, suddenly intrigued. “So you and Aden back in sync again?”

“You could say that. I hope so, at least.” Belle added, smoothing her hands over her stomach. “After last night… Let’s just say pregnancy hormones can go really wild and in a good way too.”

“Sounds like a good night.” She smirked, shuffling forwards subconsciously, keen for all the gossip. Being the close friends that they were, they had never been shy about sharing most aspects of their lives together.

“That it was.” She giggled, hoping that she didn’t look as flustered as she felt while thinking back to the snippets of last night. There wasn’t much that she could remember, which did worry her, although the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. She could hardly ever tell what was going on in the real world when she merely spent time with Aden, let alone when they were actually entirely succumbing to each other like the previous night. The only thing that was very vivid in her head was their struggle to get from the shower to the bed without prying apart from their kisses or touches for more than a second at a time.

“I’m surprised you got any sleep at all!” Mattie laughed unashamedly as Belle shook her head to clear it.

“Yeah, if it were up to me, we most probably wouldn’t have.”

“And here I was thinking pregnant women had no energy left by the end of the day.” She teased, holding her arms up as a cushion came flying her way, even as Belle laughed at her words.

“Give it another couple of weeks and sex will most probably be a very foreign thought.”

“Uh-um!” Mattie coughed dramatically. “Somehow I doubt it could ever be that far from your mind.”

“Oh, shut up!” Belle exclaimed, sinking down in her seat to get a bit more comfortable. “Why do I even tell you these things? All you do is tease!”

“Because you love me.” She said in matter-of-fact tone as Belle sulked.

“Unfortunately.” She muttered, giving Mattie a weary look before snatching the cushion that she had thrown at her out of her hands and placing it behind her to get comfortable.

“If you’re really not here to share a problem, or to talk girl stuff,” Mattie began, breaking the silence they had fallen into briefly. “Then why are you here?”

“Cos I wanted to see you. Aden’s busy revising so I thought I’d give him some space.” A sudden thought occurred to Belle and a hand flew to her mouth in realisation. “Oh, no, Mattie! You weren’t revising too, were you? I totally forgot you would have exams too. I mean, of course you would, seeing as-”

“Belle, Belle, relax!” She quickly cut her off with a hand on her leg as Belle made to get up. “Seriously, calm down. Don’t worry about it. I can do with a break.”

“You should have said something when I called! You’ve got the whole place to yourself for a bit; you should be studying.”

“I can study when everyone’s back. It’s not that bad around here.” Mattie assured her. “Besides, I’ve got make the most of these times now. Soon enough, I’m going to have to share you with Beanie here.” Belle screwed up her nose at the nickname but didn’t say anything against, knowing that it wouldn’t do any good.

“Don’t!” She caught Mattie’s hand before it got to her, pushing herself up in the sofa and a bit away from her. “How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Now, you’re going overboard.” She huffed, drawing her hand away from hers. “One day, Mrs. Jefferies, one day. Just you wait.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Belle rolled her eyes with a small smile at Mattie’s attempt to sound menacing. “So, how is your studying coming along?”

“Alright, I guess.” Mattie shrugged as Belle looked over the top of the couch and towards the table, surprised to find it clear of any books. Looking back towards the coffee table in front of her just in case she had managed to miss the huge law textbooks that she knew lived in this house, Belle frowned to see nothing except a copy of the newspaper that everyone seemed to buy now that she worked there, and worn down copy of ‘Moby Dick’ that she assumed to be Miles’ or maybe Jai‘s.

“Where are all your books?”

“Upstairs. I figured I got more done if I stayed in one place that didn’t have food or the computer or the TV nearby.” She explained with a light laugh.

“You’ve always been great at studying, Mattie. Perth keeps on wanting you after all this time.” Belle prompted with a raised eyebrow as Mattie sighed heavily, averting her eyes to the hem of her short skirt where her fingers played with the loose threads. “Still haven’t made up your mind?”

“No, I have.”

“And…?” She tried to catch Mattie’s eye, leaning forwards and placing a hand on her knew to get her to look up at her.

“I’m going to reject the offer.” She told her semi-confidently. “I don’t want to go half-way through my degree. I like it here.”

“Then why do you sound like you’re trying to convince yourself more than me?” Belle asked with concern. “Mattie?”

“I just don’t think it’s worth the hassle, you know? I’ve got a perfectly great course going here, it’s at home with my family and friends. Ric’s got his job here that he actually likes and his family and friends are all here too.” Mattie explained.

“It’s not about Ric, Mattie. Nor about where everyone is. It’s about what’s best for you and your future.” Belle said in a soft voice. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to ship the two of you to the other side of the country or anything, but sometimes you’ve got to be selfish and think about what’s best for you. We‘re always gonna be here, and we‘ll always be your family and your friends, no matter how far apart.”

“I know that, but in a way, it is about Ric too. I mean, he’s going to have to move too, unless we try a long distance relationship. Which, I for one, am not too keen on.”

“He would want what’s best for you too, Mattie.” Belle reminded her although she simply shook her head.

“I’m not that keen on moving to Perth right now, anyway. There’s too much going on. Maybe after I’ve gotten a degree and all that’s out of the way, I can go do my post-grad over there.” She said before putting on a huge smile. “Anyway, I wanna be here to spoil the baby like crazy! Can’t let Beanie have it’s favourite aunt all the way on the other side of Australia, now can we?”

“You’ve got to stop that. It’s starting to sound alright.” Belle’s tone was one of mock horror as a smile tugged at her lips. “And you most certainly shouldn’t be staying because of me and the baby!”

“I’m not! It’s just another factor in the whole equation.”

“To which the answer is that you’re staying in Summer Bay?”

“For at least another 2 years, yes.” Mattie confirmed, sounded much more reassured with herself. “Just do me a favour and never bring it up again.”

“Let me guess; you’re not telling Ric.” At her silence, Belle continued. “Take it from an expert, Mattie; hiding things from each other does not end up well at all. No matter how small or irrelevant it is.”

“Yeah, but this is to do with me, not him. Not wholly, at least. It’s not his decision to make about anything.”

“And if it slips out a few years down the line?” She questioned her intently, hoping to get her message across.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s nothing big, and only the two of us know. I’ve even gotten rid of the letter.” Mattie told her dismissively and Belle simply nodded after letting out a breath.

“Alright, it’s up to you.”

“Thanks.” She sighed in relief, visibly relaxing in her seat a few seconds before her eyes widened, opening her mouth to say something. “I forgot to ask; how are Aden and Justin doing?”

“Um… Yeah, they’re alright, I guess.” Belle said in uncertainty. In all honesty, she wasn’t really sure how they were. Aden had accepted him and had said that he wanted to spend time with him, but she wasn’t sure if that meant they were ‘good’ again, whatever that meant. “Aden spoke to him yesterday and they’ve cleared a fair bit of things up.”

“So you would say things are going well?” Mattie asked with a tinge of disappointment.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I was down by the beach yesterday while heading back from the Diner.” Mattie started her story, pushing herself up in the sofa and curling her legs under her. “And do you know who I happened to meet on my way?”

“Really!?” Belle gasped, following by the little giggle. “Did he hit on you too?”

“He wouldn’t stop! It’s like every word that comes out of his mouth was a way of flirting. Even when he asked where I was going, how nice the weather was, if I had a boyfriend. That all had that suggestive hint to it!” She exclaimed. “I was so close to throttling him, but I kept telling myself that he was Aden’s brother and therefore, your family too. Not like that would stop me, but it did help from sending me to jail.”

“If it had gotten that far, then I know a pretty good lawyer.” She winked at her as Mattie rolled her eyes. “Did he get the message in the end?”

“I think so. I swear he was going to follow me home. That was until we passed this group of blondes. Then he mysteriously disappeared.” She laughed along with Belle. “What is it with the Jefferies boys? Is there something about me that reads to them that I’m an easy pull? Aden, Simon and then Justin.”

“In his defence, Aden only did it to annoy you.” Belle insisted. “Simon was just Simon, and you didn‘t really help with… you know.” She moved on from that quickly, not wanting to dwell on that mistake for long. “And Justin’s a flirt. He goes for anything that can move and would wear a skirt.”

“One day, someone’s husband or boyfriend is going to beat the crap out of him.” Mattie scowled. “Does he never take ‘no’ as an answer?”

“No, he does not.” Belle stated plainly. “He’s like an itch; just ignore him and he’ll go away.”

“’Ignore him‘?” Mattie questioned dryly. “Next time I see him, I’m going to whack him over the head with a brick or two!”

“Remember how we said we don’t want you going to jail?” Belle managed to get out in a calm voice, keeping her laughter at bay, patting Mattie’s knee as she nodded.

“That wouldn’t help, would it?”

“Not in the least.”

---

“Aden?” Belle called out when she got home an hour later. His books and papers were still strewn all over the coffee table and the sofa with his laptop on the floor. Biting her lip when she got no response, she dumped her bag onto the floor nearby and pulled out her phone, making sure that she hadn’t missed any messages from him.

Glad that she hadn’t, a small bout of worry settled inside of her as she headed towards the kitchen. She stopped at the fridge, pulling the door open in an automatic reflex for a bottle of water in the hot weather, just like she did practically everyday after work. It was only when she shut the door did she see a piece of paper that had clearly been ripped from the corner of a lager page, stuck to it with a magnet.

Belle slipped it out from under it, reading Aden’s handwriting pretty easily, telling her that he had gone out for lunch with Nicole and should be back soon. Shaking her head, she left the note where it was on the counter while taking a sip of the water, wondering where it was that the two of them would go for lunch. The most likely answer would be the Diner.

“Daddy better bring us back some chocolate cake…” She mumbled under breath, skimming a hand over her stomach just as she heard voices approaching the front doors. Stopping what she was doing so that she could hear more accurately, it wasn’t long before the locks turned and the door opened.

“… big place!” Belle heard the male voice before she saw the person.

“It was a present from Belle’s mum and step-father.” Aden explained to him in a straightforward tone.

“Really?” Justin’s voice was rich with surprise, and a hint of intrigue as Belle made her way to the front room. “She doesn’t happen to have a sister or anything, does she?”

“No, I don’t.” She cut in before Aden could say a word. “Although I do have a brother a year older than me.”

“Yeah, I think I’ve seen him.” He smiled at her nonetheless. “A pleasure to see you, Belle. Looking radiant as always.”

“It’s, uh… good to see you too, I guess. Nice hair.” Belle faltered, hearing Aden snigger behind her as he headed straight for the kitchen with a cake box in his hand that had caught her attention. “So what brings you here?”

“Aden, actually.”

“I had to.” Aden spoke up from the kitchen before returning back to where she still stood in the front room, and where Justin had ventured off to look around at the pictures and stuff. “Nicole was ready pound him to death with her bag.”

“You couldn’t have just let her?” She asked him innocently, making him raise his eyebrows at her in shock. “He hit on Mattie too. Several times, non-stop.”

“Which one was that?” Justin piped up, obviously keeping an ear to their conversation.

“My best mate yesterday. You were close to stalking her home until you found a group of blondes.” She informed him, looking towards where he stood in front of a whole collection of photo frames on a couple of shelves with his back to the two of them.

“Oh yeah. I remember her.” He replied slightly distractedly. “She was pretty. Shame about the boyfriend.”

“Yeah, well, just forget about her.”

“I’ll try. No promises though.” Belle could hear the smirk in his voice as she simply shook her head and turned back towards Aden.

“I’m making an effort.” He whispered, shrugging. They both knew that he was talking about his relationship with Justin and trying to get it back to up to scratch again, which was the only reason why Belle rolled her eyes and walked past him into the kitchen.

Spotting the cake box on the counter in the middle of the kitchen, she made her way over to it. Grabbing a knife from a drawer, she slit across the tape that held the top down before replacing it back. Carefully, she opening it, eyes widening as she saw the contents.

“Aden!”

“Yeah?” His voice came to her from the other room along with the sound of footsteps.

“What’s this?” She asked as he appeared in the doorway, a cheeky smile on his face.

“It’s called a cake, Belle.” Aden said slowly, walking up to her.

“But why’s it got fruit on it?” Her tone was filled with genuine perplexity that he couldn’t help himself from teasing her.

“Because that’s what you normally get on strawberry cheesecakes.” He informed her, pressing a kiss to the back of her head to hide his smile from her before she got angry with him at the sight of it.

“Why didn’t you get a proper cake? Something unhealthy and delicious like chocolate?”

“Cos eating healthy won’t kill you, you know?” Aden told her, rubbing small circles to her stomach in an instinctive gesture. “You like strawberries. You have them at breakfast.”

“Yeah, as fruit! Not as some kind of sticky red thing on top of a cake that’s trying to be cake, but is failing horribly because it’s not a cake!” She growled, closing the lid and twirling around to face him. “I want chocolate. We want chocolate. We don’t function properly without chocolate.”

“I dunno if you’ve heard this before, but there is chocolate in forms other than cake.” He smirked as she crossed her arms.

“Funny. You’re funny.”

“Thank you. I know.”

“We don’t have any chocolate in the house. We finished the ice-cream yesterday and there’s nothing else around.” Belle filled him in as a look of surprise coloured his face.

“I swear there was some just the other day…”

“Someone might have finished it all.” She shrugged with a single shoulder, letting her arms loose and doodling with a finger on the cake box.

“This is why Irene wouldn’t give me the cake.” Aden told her seriously. “Belle, you really need to slow down on the junk food. I get your pregnant and all, but you’re eating way too much chocolate. Am I going to have to ration your food or something?”

“No.” She sighed. “I do eat properly. I just eat more chocolate than anything else.”

“Well, if you keep going at this rate, you’re going to get sick of it pretty soon.”

“Unlikely!” Belle scoffed.

“I’ll get you some later on. But you’re going to eat this cake too, alright? It’s nice.” Aden’s tone was strict and not to be messed with. The only times that she had heard him use such a voice on her was only when it came to her or the baby’s wellbeing, so she had no choice but to take him seriously.

“Fine.” She agreed. “But later on. I need a shower and some sleep first.” His face softened a bit and Belle quickly added in a warning tone. “And don’t think of anything.”

“Oh, too late.” Aden smirked at her.

“You go keep Justin company and ‘make an effort‘.” Belle instructed, heading back into the living room to go upstairs. “And make sure he doesn’t break anything.”

“Damn, there goes my plan to destroy this whole load.” Justin said with a dramatic sigh, hearing her words. She gave him a sarcastic smile while he grinned back at her. Waiting until she had completely disappeared and out of earshot, he looked over his shoulder at Aden before speaking. “Is she always like that?”

“Depends what you mean by ‘like that’.”

“Kind of demanding. A bit feisty, I’ve found. And stubborn. She‘s stubborn, that‘s for sure.” Justin listed, going back to the items that lines the room.

“Yeah, that’s Belle for you. Although the demanding part is more to do with her being pregnant.” Aden told him, leaning against the back of the couch on his forearms, watching Justin take everything in with a weary eye.

“Good luck there. Handling girls are hard at the best of times.” He laughed, turning around with a photo in his hand. “Who are these people?” Rolling his eyes at Justin’s bluntness, Aden took a glance at the picture in his hands.

“That’s Roman and Nicole.”

“Right. She’s the blonde from yesterday, yeah? The one who was in the sea?” Justin questioned in genuine curiosity that, for once, had no sleazy tone to it while referring to a girl.

“Yup, that’s her. And you might want to put that photo back before Belle has a go at you for doing something to it. She’s really possessive over the pictures.” He informed him as Justin nodded, taking a final look at the picture before replacing it.

“Is that a Belle thing, or a pregnancy thing?”

“The possessiveness is a Belle thing. Her hurting you will be a pregnancy thing.” Aden smirked as Justin shook his head, digging his hands into his pockets to stop himself from touching anything else, yet still looking at all the other photos.

“Are these from the wedding?” He asked, nodding towards the shelf from which the photo he had picked up had belonged to.

“Yeah, which is why Belle’s in that white dress.” His words were too earnest to not be sarcastic, something that Justin had picked up on although he didn’t comment on it.

“I’m guessing these two were the bridesmaids.” Justin took out a hand and pointed towards a picture of Belle, Mattie and Annie, taken before the actual wedding. At Aden’s confirmation, he carried on with the pictures. “Who was your best man?”

“Roman.”

“So you two are pretty close then?”

“I guess you can say that.” Aden said vaguely as Justin gave him an interested look. “After I moved out of home, Roman gave me a place to stay. He gave me a job too, and to be honest, he was more of a father to me for those 3 years than Dad had been since Mum died. Nicole, his daughter, became like a sister and for the first time in a while, it felt like having a family again.”

“I’m glad you had someone, then.” He told him seriously. “What were the other 5 years like? Before you moved out?”

“They were…” Aden stood up straighter, crossing his arms as he struggled to think of the right words. “They were the same. Day in, day out; nothing really changed. There were the odd few days when Dad wouldn’t drink and things were ok, but they didn’t really come often, and were usually on match days.”

“He was always proud of your footy skills. We all were.” Justin informed him with a soft smile, turning back to the pictures. “Even Mum all those years back. She knew that you would have made something of your life.”

“Yeah…” He murmured, feeling slightly uncomfortable talking about their mother, yet at the same time, strangely elated to know that she had thought that.

“I wish I could have been here for the wedding. Would have given you one Hell of a day, I would have, if I had been your best man.” Justin joked, lightening up the mood.

“Who said you would have been the best man?” Aden scoffed, uncrossing his arms and resting his hands on the couch, a smirk on his face.

“True, wouldn’t have wanted me upstaging the groom, now would you, little bro?” Aden chuckled at his words, finding them more amusing than truthful or arrogant.

“With hair like that, I would doubt it would have been possible to upstage anyone.” He teased as Justin ran a hand over his still platinum blonde head, a frown settling on his face.

“Shut up.”

---

I hope you enjoyed it. I'm a bit 'meh' about this chapter, but I missed Mattie, so I had to get her in here, and I’m trying to keep away from drama right now

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Once again, thank you for all the lovely comments!

This chapter is purely Adelle because, well, it just worked out that way. But don't get use to it.

Chapter 55:

“Belle, I’m leaving!” Aden called up the stairs as he made sure that he had the essentials on him for one final time.

“Hold on a second!” He could hear her footsteps lightly on the upper landing, a door closing as she made her way towards the stairs that he assumed to be the nursery’s that he must have left open after being in there earlier that morning just for a few minutes.

As he leant against the banister in impatience, Belle soon appeared at the top of the stairs hurrying down in a state of half undress. She had on her jeans and a vest top, but that was it. Her hair was pulled up into a messy pony tail, face bare of any makeup and Aden could help but to smile at the sight. Although he had always found her to be beautiful no matter what, he was sure that glow of pregnancy emphasized it even more, as did the modest bump that she had a hand on while coming down the stairs as fast as she could.

Belle stopped at the last step and he crossed over to stand in front of her with a questioning look. She gave him a smile in return that he couldn’t help but to reciprocate before placing a hand on his shoulder to pull him closer. Aden took a few more steps towards her, resting his hands on either side of her stomach as hers came up to his face and brought him into a rather passionate kiss. Not one to argue with that, he went along with it, smile turning into a wide grin against her lips as they parted for air and stopped before things got too far.

“What was that for?” Aden asked her as she sighed contently, resting her forehead against his, eyes closed.

“That was for good luck.” Belle whispered, opening her eyes too look into his and then pushing away from him.

“Good luck indeed.” He replied, licking his lips as if to savour the kiss as she hung her arms over his shoulders, hands wandering over his neck and the nape of his hair.

“You’re going to be fine.” She told him confidently as he merely took in a deep breath. “Alright, you better go before you’re late. And then you’re not going to be able to ace anything.”

“True.” Aden agreed, rubbing his hands over her stomach even as he spoke, only moving when Belle took away her arms and forcefully pushed him away.

“Aden…” She said warningly and he smirked at her, nodding.

“I’m going.” He sighed heavily, dropping his hands as she moved up a couple of steps. Checking for a final time that he had everything, Aden picked up his keys from the side before looking back over at her. “You going to be ok?”

“Yes, Aden, I’ll be fine.” Belle rolled her eyes. “I’ll need to leave in about an hour anyway, and I’ll be back probably after you. You focus on your exam. It’s just another day for me.”

“Yeah, ok.” Walking back over to her, he stepped onto the first stair and pressed his lips to hers quickly, backing off before she could start to protest. “I’ll see you then.”

“Good luck!” She repeated as he headed towards the door, throwing her a smile over his shoulder before actually leaving. He could hear her laugh just as the door shut, hopping down the two steps and towards his car with a small smile on his face and the belief it was going to go well.

---

Glancing at the time on her phone, Belle growled in irritation to find that there was still at least another 15 minutes before Aden’s exams would finished that day. She had been allowed to go home a few hours early seeing as her job in the office was done and the rest could be done at home, and she was eager to find out how Aden had gotten on. She was fairly sure he would do fine, even with all the drama that had gone on over the past few weeks.

Walking down the main street in Yabbie Creek, she headed to the nearest shop for her fix of chocolate and a cold drink. She had had her breakfast like always, and several cups of water since being at work, but none of it had helped satisfy her cravings for the sweet taste of chocolate, and oddly, cherry soda.

By the time that Belle got to the shop, bought what she had wanted and gotten out again, it was well past 15 minutes, something she hadn’t failed to notice. Her craving waning for a moment, she placed the two items into her bag and got out her phone, ringing Aden immediately. Unluckily for her, it went instantly to voicemail, informing her that he hadn’t switched his phone back on yet. Not have the patience to wait, she typed out a text asking him how it all went and sent it.

Belle had just looked up again, tucking her phone into the side of her bag so that she could hear it if it rang, when she slowed down and froze mid-step. She wasn’t sure why it had caught her eye, seeing as she had passed that small shop plenty of times before, but this time, she had managed to see what was inside. It was a warm and welcoming store that she knew she had to go into. There was something about it that had made her stop, and this was it. Smiling, Belle had already forgotten about the drink and the chocolate as she pushed the front door open and entered, excitement bubbling through her at the anticipation getting the item and showing Aden.

---

She could hear the loud sounds of the TV before she even got to the door. It was the very familiar noise of explosions and gunshots that could only have came from one place, something that was proven to be right as she entered the house.

“I thought you said the exam went well?” Belle said with a hint of amusement, closing the door with a bit of adding emphasise to claim Aden’s attention. He pressed the pause button almost immediately, twisting is head around to look at her.

“What?”

“Exam. Went good?” She shortened, rolling her eyes at his response.

“Yeah, it went fine. Didn’t you get my text?” Aden asked her with slight concern, eyes following her when she placed her bag down onto the side and then went over to perch on the arm of the couch that he slouched on.

“Yeah, I got it.” Belle confirmed. “I’m just wondering why you would be playing such a violent game so loud if you weren’t trying to get your anger out.”

“Because it’s more fun this way…?” He replied in a tone that suggested his answer should have been obvious. Belle simply nodded, resting her elbow on the back of the sofa and propping her head up with her hand. “Why are you home early?”

“No reason. Just had nothing to do that I couldn’t do at home.” She shrugged as good as she could in her position. Aden eyed her for a moment, deciding whether to believe her before nodded and turning back to the game. She stood back up as he unpaused it, rounding the couch to come stand behind him. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she leant down so she could whisper into his ear. “Don’t you have an exam to revise for?”

“I’ve got all day tomorrow.” He merely answered, attention still on his game. Belle gave up before she even started to try and compete with that, too tired to have the energy to do anything.

“Alright.” She stated while moving away, going into the kitchen for a drink. She had made it to the fridge, hand on the door when she realised that she still had her drink in her bag that she hadn’t touched. Suddenly, her craving for it came back. Heading back into the front room, Belle wordlessly picked up her bag again and retrieved the bottle before dropping it back to where it usually laid.

“…Belle?” She turned around when she could hear him, seeing that he had paused the game again and pushed himself up in the sofa to look at her with concern. “Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

“You’re really quiet.” Aden commented, getting up and walking over to her. “You sure everything’s ok?”

“I’m sure.” Belle smiled as his hands rested on her waist and them travelled slowly onto her stomach. “I’m just a bit tired. I might go and have a bit of a lie down or something.”

“Sure sure?”

“I’m sure.” She giggled, pushing herself up on her toes and giving him a brief kiss before manually taking his hands off her.

“Alright. Let me know if you need anything, yeah?” Aden said softly, tucking her hair behind her ear as she nodded and left to go upstairs, the bottle of cherry soda still unopened in her hands. She had just reached the last step at the top when the noise from the game started up again, making her roll her eyes.

Entering their room, Belle placed the drink onto the bedside table and sat on the bed to relieve the weight from her feet. It was only then did she realise that not only was her bag downstairs with her phone, there was chocolate in there too, which Aden did not need to know about, and the little object that she had bought. Biting her lip in contemplation whether it was worth making a fuss over getting the bag when she could hardly gather the energy to move, she sighed and laid down the bed, figuring that if her phone was to ring, there was next to no chance that Aden would hear it with the noise he was making. The same noise that Belle could still hear through the closed door.

Turning over onto her other side, she frowned when seeing that she had forgotten to draw the curtains so the sunlight still filled the room. Pursing her lips, she eventually let out a sigh and got up, walking over to the drapes first and doing them up. Turning back around to the bed, Belle took a single step before a single loud sound from the game that Aden was playing reached her. Growling under her breath, her crankiness got the better of her and Belle yanked the bedroom door open, yelling out Aden’s name as soon as she did so. Not so surprisingly, he didn’t respond.

“Aden!” She tried again, walking slowly down the hallway until she reached the stairs, still getting no reply at all. Stepping down until she got far enough to peer around the wall and over the banister to see him, she called out his name once more, this time claiming his attention.

“Yeah, babe?” He asked a bit distractedly as he paused the game and looked up at her, finally seeing the irritation written over her face.

“I’m trying to sleep here.” Belle said through gritted teeth as he smiled sheepishly.

“I’ll put the volume down.”

“Good.” She stated before stalking back up the stairs, the sound of Aden chuckling following her. Soon enough, he had restarted the game and Belle was glad to find that it was drowned out by the door as she laid back down onto her bed, getting as comfy as she could while her yes began to close. Only at the last moment did she realise that she had, once again, left her bag downstairs, however this time, she pushed it to the back of her mind and let sleep take her over for the time being.

---

“Hmm… You see, as sure as I am that Justin’s a wonderful worker and is good at his job, I don’t think I would trust him to build me a house after what he did to his hair.”

“That was just a stupid mistake.” Aden defended his brother even though he had to bite back a laugh.

“Mixing up peroxide with hair dye isn’t a mistake. It’s the inability to follow instructions.” Belle told him from where she sat on a stool in the kitchen, her laptop open next to her with a recipe for a meal that she had found online showing. She wasn’t so sure how she had come across it while trying to find baby names, but she had and the description of it, along with the picture, had made her mouth water, thus forcing Aden to attempt making it for her.

“I think cosmetics and construction are two totally different things, Belle.” Aden laughed, stirring one of the pots in which there were several different vegetables. He really had no idea what he was doing but simply following Belle’s directions, figuring that at least that way he couldn’t get in trouble with her.

“I guess so.” She mumbled. “Did he say when he was coming over then?”

“Nope. You know Justin. Whenever he‘s free from chasing a girl, he‘ll stop over. Probably on the weekend or something.” Aden murmured, prodding the contents of the other pan with a spatula. “Belle, what’s supposed to be happening with this cheese sauce thingy?”

“Um…” She turned back to the laptop, finding her place again. “It should be simmering and really smooth.”

“’Really smooth’ as in what’s around lumps?” He questioned in a tone that indicated that he knew what the answer was.

“Not according to this.” Belle sighed dramatically. “Alright, what have you done wrong?”

“Hey, I’ve done everything you said! You’ve sat there watching me, too.”

“Well, you can’t have if it’s not ‘really smooth’. Apparently, it should be done in a couple of minutes.” She read off the screen before sliding off the stool and walking up to his side. Peering into the pan, she pulled a face. It smelt alright, but it definitely did not look like what she was expecting. “Maybe you should try it and see what you did wrong.”

“Why me?” He asked her with a scoff. “You’re the one who wanted it.”

“Because you’ve made it. The chef always gets to try it first.” Belle countered, placing a hand at the small of his back, curling her fingers into his shirt as she tiptoed to look over into the other pan. “The veggies look ok.”

“You’re damn lucky I love you so much.” Aden muttered, turning off the stove for both of the pans before lifting up the spatula for the sauce and dipping his little finger in it and tasting it. Belle studied his face closely as he grimaced and then coughed. “Yeah, it needs salt. A lot of it.”

“You put salt in it.” She told him. “Remember, when you had to put those herby things in with the veggies?” Silence followed her words and Belle got the hint as to what had happened. “Seems like the ineptness in following instructions is a family thing then.”

“Well, if you think about it,” Aden carried on, ignoring her quip. “When you have these two together, it’ll taste just fine.”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Belle dismissed. “It doesn’t look that appetising anymore.”

“After tasting it, I don’t really blame you.” He winced, still trying to smooth out the lumps just for the fun of it.

“Never mind. At least you tried.” She assured him soothingly, pressing her lips to his shoulder. “So… any preferences?” Aden shook his head, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

“Whatever you’re craving for.”

“I think some pizza would be great right now!” Belle said in a sudden bout of happiness, clapping her hands as she twirled around back to her laptop to shut it down. “I’ll order, you tidy up.”

“Yes, slave driver.” Aden said with an exaggerated sigh.

“Do you really want me to help?” She asked in an innocent voice, her hands skimming over her stomach lightly as she faced him. He gave her a glare before rolling her eyes and turning away.

“You’re milking it now, Belle.” Aden joked.

“Am not! I’ve just been to work and back today, whereas you had a few exams and then came home to play on the Xbox!” She argued.

“Belle, I was just teasing. Go relax. I’ve got it covered here.” He told her lightly. “It won’t take me longer than 20 minutes.”

“Alright. Besides, it wouldn’t kill you to do some cleaning around here. You could be the good little housewife tonight while I go and get some work done before the food gets here.”

“Make sure you actually order it, yeah? Otherwise the food’s not gonna get anywhere near here.” Aden reminded her as she crossed over to the front room.

“Really, Aden? I would never have figured that out!” She replied in a heavily sarcastic voice.

“Hence why I told you!” He called out, waiting for her response. When he got nothing in reply, he stopped what he was doing and walked over to there threshold of the two rooms, seeing Belle sitting on the couch with her feet propped up on the foot rest.

“I’m not starting an argument with you. It always ends badly.” Belle told him without even taking a look at him.

“What do you mean, it ends badly?” He asked in disbelief. “I think it ends pretty well, considering.” Aden added with a suggestive tone.

“I’m not giving you that satisfaction of playing on my hormones.” She snapped, inadvertently making him smile at the fact that the argument had truly begun.

“Whatever you say, sweetheart.” He chuckled, going back into the kitchen. “Whatever you say.”

---

“Aden…” Belle began sweetly from where she sat at the top of the bed a few hours later.

“Oh, you’re talking to me now, are you?” He enquired in doubt although there was amusement underlining it.

“You shouldn’t have taken the ice-cream away if you had wanted me to keep talking to you!”

“I warned you not to get anything with chocolate, didn’t I? You can’t blame me for that.”

“They didn’t have anything else!” She argued, crossing her arms in a childish manner as Aden continued getting changed for bed.

“They had a lot of stuff. And if you wanted ice-cream, we had some in the freezer.” He reasoned with her, going over to the bathroom to switch off the lights.

“Yeah, vanilla.” She spat out. “It’s so… urgh. We need something tasteful!”

“What was it that you wanted?” Aden changed the subject as he checked the doors to the balcony before re-doing the curtains. He turned to face her, awaiting her reply before grinning cheekily and raising an eyebrow at her. “Or is that answer pretty clear?”

“Huh, you wish!” Belle scoffed as he perched on the edge of the bed, leaning in to kiss her. She turned her head away from him and she could hear him huff at her before averting to her neck and lining it with kisses instead. “Not going to work…”

“Really?” He murmured against her skin, pulling her down the bed from her sitting position slowly as she let out a reluctant moan of pleasure, running a hand through his hair. After her momentary lapse, which he took great advantage of to work his hands under her top, Belle got a grip of herself, digging her fingers into his scalp with a bit more force than was necessary, making him back off. “Ow! Way to kill the mood…”

“Please! Like I can ever kill the mood for you.”

“True.” Aden accepted, giving her his smile that she couldn’t help but to return as he took her lips with his. She gave in to him until they needed to part for air, using her hands to on his chest to push him away before working herself up into a sitting position once again.

“Do me a favour, and I’ll return it to you…” Belle told him in a low and sultry whisper that simply made him groan.

“What is it?” He grudgingly asked.

“Go get my bag from downstairs?”

“What? Why?” Aden whined. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No, it cannot!” Belle replied in a strict yet gentle tone. “I need my phone and I got something that I’ve been dying to show you. I wanted to keep it until after your exams finished, but seeing as you’re not really stressing out about them, I wanna show you now.” Aden pouted gently, almost fighting with himself with what to do. “Please?”

“It can’t wait until the morning?”

“Aden, get off your lazy backside and go get me my bag!” She instructed him before softening her voice. “Please?”

“Fine!” He complied, getting up.

“Thank you!” Belle practically sang as he shook his head at her forever mood changes.

“Crazy pregnant woman.” He mumbled under his breath.

“I may be crazy and pregnant, but I’m not deaf!” She called after him, making him wince at his foolishness as he walked down the stairs. He returned with her bag in hand only a couple of minutes later, knowing full well where it had laid.

“Here.” Aden placed the bag in front of where she sat crossed leg, sitting down opposite her in a mirrored position. “What was it that you wanted to show me?”

“Hold on.” Belle said, digging through her bag for the certain objects. She found her mobile pretty easily, laying it on the table before looking for the small paper bag. Not finding it after a few minutes, she tipped the contents of her bag onto the bed, something she realised to be a mistake when Aden reached out for the chocolate bar.

“Belle?” He simply questioned and she bit her lip before smiling at him sweetly, trying her best to look as innocent as she could.

“I dunno how that got there…”

“Belle!” Aden pressed.

“Ok, fine! So I wanted some chocolate after work. Big deal! It’s not like I ate it, anyway!” She rolled her eyes at him while stuffing everything back into her bag bar the paper bag. Looking up at him, she tried to swipe the chocolate out of his hand but he took it out of her reach.

“I’m keeping this. I thought we agreed you’d slow down on the chocolate?”

“No, you said that and I just nodded along to make you think I was agreeing. How could you believe that I could go the whole day with just one intake of chocolate?” Belle laughed as he gave her a stern look that made her laughter die in her throat. “Don’t you wanna see what I got?”

“Let’s see then.” Aden accepted the change of subject, putting the chocolate to one side as Belle unravelled the paper bag and slid the item out from inside it into her hand. All that Aden could see was a long, silver chain with some kind of large thing secured to the end of it. “What is it?”

“Look.” She smiled softly, picking up a ring that was on the other end of the chain and holding it up so that it all became a straight line. Finally, it lifted off of her hand and hung freely. He looked at it with confusion, reaching out for the crystal star that was at the bottom of it.

“Where did you get this from?”

“It was in one of these shops in Yabbie Creek. I was just walking past it and it caught my eye. I thought it would be great for the baby’s nursery.” She told him, the smile on her face faltering when she took in his expression. “Don’t you like it? I just thought that it would be a good idea, cos you were talking about-”

“No, no, I love it. It’s a great idea.” Aden cut her off with a smile, taking the object out of her hand and into his own. “I just have no idea what it does.”

“Oh.” Belle laughed, figuring it to be obvious that he wouldn’t when she thought about it. “Basically, you hang it up on the ceiling near the window and when the sun shines through it, it creates a rainbow.”

“Right, I see.” He murmured, still fiddling with the object in his hand with an intense look on his face.

“You don’t like it.” Belle stated, interpreting his look in the wrong way.

“No, I do! Seriously, I do.” Aden glanced up at her, picking up her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “It’s just really…”

“Really…?” She prompted.

“I dunno. Really sweet, touching, meaningful, loving, wonderful-”

“Ok, you can stop now.” Belle interrupted him, a red tinge rising to her cheek at his words. He grinned at her uneasiness, knowing that she was unable to take a compliment at times, dropping a kiss to her palm this time before laying the crystal star on it, winding the chain around.

“It’s all that and more, ok? I just never thought you would have done anything by what I told you.” Aden shrugged, watching her replace it safely back into the bag and then onto the side.

“Why wouldn’t I? It’s one of your beliefs that should be passed on. It can be a tradition.” She explained to him, twining their fingers together with the hand that held hers. “I have one with me all the time, so I thought that the baby should have one too.”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Belle smiled, running a hand over the side of his face as he leant in.

“So amazing you’ll give me my chocolate back?”

“Nope.” He laughed, bringing her into a passionate kiss. Aden pushed her backwards gently, using an arm around her waist to keep her steady as she uncrossed her legs and laid back against the propped up pillows. “You’re way more amazing than that.”

---

Hope you enjoyed it. Thought I would return 'back to basics' as I like to call it.

xoxo