Unfamiliar

[Taniya_K]

Once again, I am so sorry for the wait. Like always, life has been hectic with uni and all. I’ll try to get the next one up soon, but I’m not making any promises.

I hope this chapter is worth the wait. I’m not too happy with it cos I think it may be slightly OOC and kind of unrealistic, but you guys are the critiques!

Chapter 64:

“Are you sure about this, Aden?”

“Belle, we’ve been through this.” He reminded her warningly while leaning a bit heavily against the hospital bed as he tried to look as if all was well. “I’m fine to leave.”

“Yeah, but you’re not.” She told him in contradiction to her own words. “It’s only been a week, and you’re still in pain. It’s better here, with the nurses and doctors to help, don’t you think?”

“Not really.” Aden replied dryly, shrugging minutely with his right shoulder; the only one that he was able to move. His left arm was still immobilised in a sling as his shoulder continued to heal, making it hard to do certain basic things, such as shrugging. “Look, Belle. There’s nothing else that can be done here.”

Sighing, Belle eyed him carefully from where she perched on the on the opposite and empty bed. The worry was still crystal clear on her face even though she knew his words had rang true. Over the past week, Aden had slowly learnt how to manage the pain that the doctors had told him would last for a few months due to the ribs, although it would dull down significantly. He still had to have rehabilitation and medication to help deal with it all, as well as plenty of rest for the time being. She knew that it was all feasible to be done as an outpatient, perhaps even better to get Aden out of the dreary hospital, but it still unnerved her when she saw how much pain he was still in.

Of course, Aden being Aden, had easily covered up how painful it all was for her sake, never letting on just how badly it hurt though it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. She had seen it etched on his face whenever he moved while sleeping, or when he thought that she couldn’t see him. Considering that Belle had been with him practically throughout the week except for the brief times that she had to get some work done and only going home at night due to his request, it wasn’t hard to miss.

“You know, Belle.” He broke the silence that they had fallen into as her eyes drifted off to the side. “If you continue to argue this anymore, I’m going to start thinking that you don’t want me to come home at all.”

“Damn, there goes my plan!” Belle said sarcastically, a wry smile tugging at her mouth. “And here I was, thinking that I may be able to get a few more days without your moaning and a spacious bed.”

“’Moaning’? Um, excuse me, but when have I moaned?” Aden asked her in outrage.

“When? Shall I give you a list of times since we’ve been together, or just in the past week?” Belle retorted with a smirk before carrying on in an imitation of him. “’This place is so boring. I need to move. I need a drink. Can we go home? This food tastes funny. My head hurts-’”

“Hey!” Aden cut her off while trying to hold back a smile. “I’m injured here; of course my head hurts!”

“Yet you still want to leave.”

“Belle, I’m fine.” He assured her. “Ok, maybe ‘fine’ is stretching it, but I can walk, I can talk, and I can breathe semi-painlessly. What more do I need?”

“You can’t remember what happened, you can’t stand around for long, you’re in constant pain, you can hardly move your upper body, you actually cannot move your left should-” Belle began to list on the contrary as Aden cut her off. In honesty, she was glad he had because there wasn’t anything else that she could think of to add what she had already said.

“Yeah, well…” Aden tried to argue, nodding as he dug through possible comebacks. “I don’t care.” Belle merely rolled her eyes at his words and crossed her arms in a way that seemed like she were intentionally mocking him considering that he was unable to copy the action. “It’s not like staying here is going to change any of that. I’ll still be going through all that here, plus being really uncomfortable and lonely-”

“Aden-” She began with a groan as he pouted softly.

“You don’t want me to be lonely, do you?” Belle pursed her lips, knowing that he was right though she wasn’t one to admit it to him. Sighing, she relaxed her posture while using one hand to brush back the hair from her face. She knew the true reason, deep down inside of her, for why she would rather he stayed at the hospital; because she knew that once he got home, he would try to carry on like normal as much as he could instead of resting to recuperate.

“Fine, it’s not like I can stop you or anything.” She gave in, watching as a smile graced Aden’s features. “Just promise that you’ll everything that the doctors say, and you’ll rest.”

“Of course.” He told her in an innocent voice as if he had never thought about doing the opposite. Rolling her eyes once more, Belle pushed away from the bed and past both him and his bed over to where some of his stuff laid strewn by the side. “What are you doing?”

“Well, seeing as you’re leaving now, I’m guessing that you would want your iPod, books and all this other stuff, right?” She asked him sarcastically as she gathered it all together to pack it up. “And don’t even say that you’ll do it, because even if you weren’t injured, you wouldn’t.”

“Hey, I’m tidy!” He corrected her, still facing away as he tried to keep the pain from both the physiotherapy session he had just been through, and standing there for a while, hidden from her.

“Oh, please. Seriously, Aden, you should be glad that we didn’t live together properly before we got married otherwise there would have been no way that I would have agreed.” Belle half-joked, shaking her head wryly behind his back.

“Ah, you love it really. You know you’d rather be bossing me around than have nothing to yell at me about.”

“I don’t yell.”

“Fine, nag.” He chuckled lightly, acknowledging the pain that it caused in his chest to refrain himself from repeating the act in the near future. “Like one of those wives who send their husband to an early grave by nagging them all the time.”

“Don’t joke about things like that, Aden.” Belle reprimanded him in tone that was now void of all amusement and light heartedness that he picked up on easily.

“I was just saying; we’re going to turn into one of those old married couples before we hit 25 at this rate.” He clarified, waiting for her to reply before letting out a breathing and looking at her over his shoulder with a bit of difficulty. She was packing things up like she had said with some sharp movements and a bit too much force. “Belle, I‘m sorry. I guess it’s a bit too soon for jokes, huh?”

“Just a bit.” She sighed heavily, leaning against the bedside table for a moment before looking over at him as he looked away. His frame was rigid and his hand clasped onto the bed tightly. “Aden, sit down. I know you’re in pain.”

“No, it’s fine.” He said in his normal voice, hoping to portray just how ‘fine’ he wanted her to believe he was.

“Aden, you are in pain. I can see it. You have broken bones, for God’s sake. Just sit down, would you? As much as you want to believe it, you’re not Superman.” A small giggle left her lips as he turned to shoot her a dark look before climbing onto the bed with a bit of difficulty. Belle couldn’t help but to remember her words to him on the first night that he had spent in hospital, telling him that he was her hero. She knew that he knew that; she had told him so many times, but right then it wasn’t necessary to repeat it.

“How do you know I’m not?” Aden shot back at her, grinning at the sight of the small smile on her face.

“You’re no way clever enough to have kept it hidden for so long.” She played along while carrying on with her task.

“Yeah, I am!” He defended himself with a hint of irritation. “How do you know? Maybe it’s all a cover. Ever thought of that?”

“Are you being serious?” Belle laughed. “You really think that you could compare yourself to Superman? Did the nurses give you the wrong meds this morning or something?”

“You know, denial’s a bad place to be in.” Aden said matter-of-factly as Belle shrugged.

“You better get yourself out of there then, shouldn’t you?”

“Haha! So funny.”

“I thought so.” She replied, before checking to make sure she had gotten everything. “Right, I think we’re done.”

“Good. Can we go home now?” Aden almost pleaded with her, hope colouring his face.

“In a bit.” Belle informed him, sitting on the edge of the bed to face him. “We’ve got to wait for Rachel to give you a check up and all that. Not to mention that Roman said he’ll be here in an hour or so.”

“I guess I could wait another hour.” He sighed although Belle could pick up that it was almost of relief. She knew how much moving, especially getting up, hurt him. “Can’t wait to get home though. Had enough of this place to last a lifetime.”

“Yeah, about that. ‘Home’ for the next few days or so will be the beach house. Irene said we could stay there and I think it’ll be better for you.” She confessed as Aden lifted an eyebrow in question.

“Better for me, how, exactly? Our place would be fine.” He exclaimed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. You can climb stairs, right?” Belle quipped dryly as Aden opened his mouth to argue before closing it again when he realised that he was trapped. Failing to come up with anything to say, he sighed heavily, giving in.

“Shut up.”

---

Walking up the driveway to the front of the beach house, Belle held back a sigh as she kept quiet while listening to Roman and Aden’s conversation about something that she had no interest in. Her hand was slipped into his, holding it tightly in the only way that she could offer him some support. She knew by the slow pace, and the way his hand clinched every now and again, that walking was taking more effort than was necessary.

Letting out a breath as they neared the shut doors, she resisted the urge to wrap an arm around his waist to aid him, knowing that he wouldn’t lean on her either literally or figuratively in her condition. Instead, she did the one thing that she hated the most; nothing.

“…home soon, right?” She heard Roman say, although the meaning behind them didn’t hit her at all.

“Yeah, ‘soon’ being the key word. Hopefully it’ll be within the next 2 and half months. Depends on when Belle lets up about it, I guess.” Aden joked as the other man chuckled. Once again, the words had gone through her without their meaning sticking at all, which caused the other two to look at her with a bit of concern at her lack of response. “Belle?”

“Hmm…?” She simply replied, confusion all over her face when caught sight of them both staring at her before Roman smiled and walked ahead to open the door. Aden, on the other hand, laughed and shook his head.

“Never mind. It wasn’t important.” He assured her, rubbing his thumb over the back of hers as they entered the house. Inside, it was almost deserted except for Irene sitting at the table having a coffee with the newspaper spread out in front of her. Her head had snapped up at the sound of the door opening before a smile broke out onto her face to see the three of them enter.

“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.” She said with humour while placing her cup to a side and eyeing the injured man carefully.

“I assume that Belle’s the cat, then?” Aden replied in a mock serious tone, a smirk curving his lips as the others laughed and Irene rolled her eyes.

“Hey!” Belle exclaimed indignantly, though the smile tugging at her lips betrayed her tone.

“So, how’re you doing, darl?” Irene asked Aden sincerely.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Nothing that a bit of time won’t heal.” He dismissed easily, just as he had with almost everyone else who had asked him the same question for the past week. The last thing he wanted were for people to feel sorry for him and pity him.

“That’s good to hear. You gave us quiet a fright there, so it’s good to see you back on your feet again. Even if it is a bit unstable right now.” She hinted heavily to the fact that he leant against the back to the couch for support.

“Right, c’mon.” Belle instructed him, pulling subtly but effectively on his hand. “You should be resting anyway.”

“Yes, nurse…” Aden mocked while Belle made it a point to ignore his words and thanked Roman for their lift back from the hospital and dumping his bag in their current room instead.

“You better do as she say, mister. It’s not the greatest of ideas to get onto the wrong side of Belle right now.” Irene advised with a hint of amusement although there was an underlying meaning of seriousness that he guess meant that she agreed with Belle.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been there a few times. Nothing I can’t handle though.” Aden winked at her before turning to Belle who just smiled at him. “What?”

“Nothing.” She told him sweetly as he followed her towards the bedroom under the stairs.

“Ok…” He said warily after telling Roman and Irene that they would see them later and entering the bedroom. Letting go of her hand finally, Aden used the many different furniture in the room to help him get to the bed and finally sit down. Stretching his legs out along the length of it, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic as Belle replaced his bag onto the chair and sorted some stuff out. “Bet you never thought we’d be back here, right?”

“Tell me about it.” Belle muttered, paying more attention to the items in her hands right then.

“Belle, can you just leave that for now and come here?” He patted the pillow next to him as she threw him a regretful smile over her shoulder.

“In a bit.” She insisted while pulling out her phone from her bag as it buzzed. Aden could see her reaction as she read it; a mix of interest and disdain.

“Who is it?”

“Just Drew.” Belle informed him while tucking the phone back into the outer pocket of her bag. “He went back to the city today.”

“Righto…” Aden murmured as he pushed himself forwards a bit to get a bit more comfy by adding another pillow behind him, which ended up being more trouble that it was worth. “So, um… Have you heard from Justin yet?”

“Not yet. Why? Have you?” She replied a bit distractedly while pulling out a drawer to store some of his clothes in.

“Nope.”

Belle shut the drawer and took a quick glimpse over at him as he stared at his left hand, flexing it in the way that he had been told to so that it wouldn’t go stiff. There was a glimmer from the light shining off his wedding ring every time he bent his fingers. She had given him back his jewellery the day after he had woken up; first the rings and then his chain a few days later when he was more mobile. The normalcy of it had helped the both of them, especially her as it gave her something else to focus on other than his injuries.

She remembered the joke that Justin had made that day when he had came to see his brother, saying how the shiny stuff blinded him from seeing the bruises. The more that Belle thought about it, the less funny it sounded, but she guessed on that day, any distraction had been good, even in the form of Justin’s lame jokes. And then him telling them that he had to go to the city for a week or so for some work-related stuff. Although Aden had practically forced him to go, telling him that there was nothing for him to do here in Summer Bay at the moment, Belle knew that there was a niggling doubt in his head that Justin would stay away permanently though neither one of them had said it out loud.

“He’s probably too busy with work and the city girls, knowing him. Showing off his battle scars in a search for some sympathy and looking after.” Belle tried to joke, lightening up the atmosphere slightly.

“Yeah, probably.” Aden agreed with a small smile before biting back a yawn that she caught all too well.

“You ought to get some sleep before you burn out.” She said softly while rounding the bed to climb onto it and sitting next to him with her legs under her. “Do you need anything?”

“Well… There is something that wouldn’t be amiss.” He replied with a suggestive smirk that she reciprocated before scooting up the bed and closer to him. Pushing herself onto her knees and using the headboard to support her weight with one hand, Belle took his lips with hers.

What started off as a sweet and tender kiss soon escalated into a heated and passionate one that made her mind go blank. She could feel Aden’s uninjured hand threading through her hair while her other one rested against his neck, and his lips working against hers as his tongue scorched a trail along her bottom one. Other than that, there wasn’t anything else that she needed to feel or think about. That was until she felt the baby begin to stir from where it had been sleeping.

Pulling away from Aden with a small giggle, she breathed heavily while trying to catch her breath once again. Her forehead rested against his, her smile firmly in place as she saw him close his eyes and grin too.

“I love you.”

“I know.” Aden replied smarmily, his grin turning into a smirk as she laughed softly.

“I know you know.” Belle retorted, pressing a kiss to his lips before sitting back again, causing his hand to drop to her lap where hers soon joined. She interlaced them before bringing them up to her lips and dropping another kiss onto his knuckles. “But considering that up to a week ago I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to say it to you ever again, I like telling you so. As well as kissing you,” She held his hand palm up in hers to press a kiss against the fading line that ran diagonally across it. “And being able to boss you around.”

“Belle-” Aden began, guilt flooding just like him every time that he was reminded how horrifying those two days must have been for her, and how much stress it must have put on both her and baby.

“Anyway, you need to take your little nap like a good boy, and I really have to get my work done soon.” Belle cut him off with a genuine smile as he gave her a dark look at her words. “You going to be ok?”

“Yeah, Belle. I’m not a child.”

“If you say so.” She laughed as she pushed herself back onto her knees to press her lips against his forehead before backing off. “I’ll be back in a bit anyway. Call me if you need something, yeah?”

“Got it.” He assured her and Belle nodded, slipping off the bed before straightening out her top which had become scrunched up by her waist. “Hey,” Aden called her back from where she was at the door, ready to leave. “Love you.”

“I know.”

---

“Aden, c’mon. Stop acting like a child already and eat it!” Belle snapped shoving the plate over to him. They were currently sitting on the bed, a few hours after they had gotten home from the hospital.

“I’m not hungry.” Aden whined, adding a pout for extra emphasis. Unfortunately for him, Belle was in one of her determined moods where she would go to extreme lengths to get what she wanted, and thus his actions had no effect on her. “And I’m not acting like a child.”

“You’re pouting.” She simply stated in contradiction to his words. “And you’re right, you’re not acting like a child. Because a child would eat this so that they could have their medication to take away the pain. You’re just being a stubborn idiot.”

“Thank you.” He said sincerely with a nod of his head and a smile that did nothing for her mood.

“Fine, be like that.” Belle huffed, placing her chin in her hand that was propped up with her elbow on her leg. She was sitting next to him, crossed legged, dressed in a loose top and jeans that looked extremely like his own, Aden realised.

“Why are you wearing my jeans?”

“Don’t change the subject, Aden.” Belle warned him carefully, eyeing up out from under her fringe.

“I’m not! I’m just curious as to how it actually fits you. Looks good, though.” He smirked, or at least he tried to as he shuffled slightly down the bed to stop his chest when aching in pain.

“Why aren’t you hungry?” She sat up straight again, crossing her arms to look like she were in more control. “I mean, you haven’t eaten a thing since you left the hospital, and that was hardly anything. And I know you, Aden. You eat a lot.”

“Thank you, once again.”

“How badly does it hurt?” She asked him innocently.

“What makes you think-?” He tried to counter her with an incredulous tone that he had to force out.

“Aden, seriously, please. I’m not stupid, so cut the bull. I know you’re in pain; I can see it with everything you say and do.” Aden raised an eyebrow at her in question, wondering how she could read him so clearly when he was doing everything he could to hide it from her. Having that to focus on kept his mind off the pain, which was good except for the fact that there were some twinges of pain that weren’t so easy to ignore. “Just eat a bit. Even half will do. Then you can have the painkillers and it’ll help.”

“I can handle it, Belle. I just don’t feel like eating anything right now.” Aden informed her, keeping the fact that it was because of the pain that he had had lost his appetite to himself. Shuffling on the bed once again, he bit the inside of his cheek on the side that she couldn’t see as he tried to get into a better position to dull the pain. “Give me a bit of time.”

“How can you ‘handle it’?”

“Belle, relax. It’s ok.” He said in an almost soothing voice, reaching out to place his hand atop of hers which now laid resting in her lap. “I’m not you. I can have a house fall around me and only come out with a few injuries as opposed to breaking my ankle by tripping over air.”

“A ‘few’ injuries. Is that what you call it, Aden?” Belle questioned him harshly. “Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that having a ‘few’ injuries would have you in critical condition for days.”

Silence followed her words as Aden struggled to think of something that would be both realistic and helpful in the current situation. Coming up blank, he merely averted his eyes down to where his hand was still resting upon hers, slowly working his fingers in between his as they continued to sit in the sombre mood for a while longer.

“So…” Belle spoke up, deciding to break them out of the heavily tense atmosphere when it became clear that Aden wasn’t going to. “Are you going to eat this now?”

“Belle…” Aden groaned once again, pulling his hand away as he let his head thump back against the head of the bed.

“Look, it’s just a little sandwich.” She insisted, picking up a slice and taking a bite out of it. “I’ll share it with you. See? I’m not trying to poison you.”

“Well, how was I suppose to know that? You did make it after all.” Aden joked with a ghost of a smile curving his lips as Belle threw him an unimpressed look, eating the rest of the slice before reaching for the water bottle that she had brought for him.

“Do you want me to make you something else? Or get something else if you’re that worried about my food.” She teased as he let out a small chuckle that didn’t hurt so much.

“No, thanks, it’s alright. I’m really not hungry.”

“Ok, I’m getting sick of that. I don’t care if you’re not hungry anymore! Just eat it. One piece. Look at how small it is! You could probably fit it into your mouth whole if you really wanted to!” Belle exclaimed, running a hand through her hair as it began to annoy her before dropping it to her stomach where she felt it start to react to her sudden change in mood. “Great, now you’ve made the baby angry and upset. I hope you‘re happy now.”

“I’ve done what?” Aden laughed, reaching out a hand only for her to slap it away. “Is the baby kicking?”

“Yes. A lot. And quiet hard too.” She winced in exaggeration as he went to feel again, only for her to stop him. “Nuh-uh. You caused this; you’re not feeling a thing until you eat up.”

“You do know that it’s against the law to keep me from my child, right?” He informed her with a tone of earnest though there was a smile threatening to break out on his face. “Especially if you’re blackmailing me.”

“It’s for your own good, babe.” Belle told him sincerely, adopting an innocent voice as she spoke and rubbing gentle circles on her protruding stomach. “Think of it as a reward.”

“You’re evil.” Aden grumbled before sighing and picking up the sandwich from the plate that she offered him. Taking a bite out of it, he chewed and swallowed it with relative easiness, something that he was surprised by. Aden kept his eyes trained on Belle as she smiled almost wickedly at him, waiting until he had finished the food before handing him the water bottle and shaking out two pills into his hand. He shot her a dry look as she stared at him quietly but pointedly. Doing as he was expected, Aden swallowed the meds quickly before they left a disgusting residue in his mouth. Another reason why he despised them so much. Drinking a huge gulp of the water, he handed it back over to her while she continued to smile. “Happy now?”

“Ecstatic.” Belle announced as she pulled his hand down to where the baby continued to fuss around. She watched as his eyes dropped down to where their hands rested, able to feel as the baby began to calm down slightly at his familiar touch.

“Definitely a girl.” Aden claimed, smiling at Belle briefly before averting his eyes back down again as he smoothed his hand slowly along her bump, coercing the baby to start moving again. “Attention seeker and bossy, just like you.”

“Extremely stubborn and sleeps at the wrong times, just like you. Definitely a boy.” Belle countered playfully as he smirked at her, pausing in his actions for a moment.

“Nah, I’m sorry, but the baby certainly did not look like a boy.” They had had the conversation about her having the feeling that the baby was a boy only a few hours after he had woken up in hospital. She had told him that the doctors had made her have another ultrasound to assure him that everything really was ok, before showing it to him and telling him how she came to the conclusion about having a boy.

“Aden, it was an ultrasound! You can’t see the difference in that! It’s all black, white and gray.” Belle exclaimed, swatting his leg with a subtle force.

“Wanna bet? Where is the scrapbook, anyway?”

“Um…” Belle uncrossed her legs before shuffling to the edge of the bed and opening the drawer for the bedside table where she pulled one of their prized possessions out of. Moving back into place, she opened it up to where she had stuck in the latest image, the date and time underneath it. “Here.”

“See? How can you not see it’s a gorgeous little girl?” Aden insisted, tapping the top of the page as it rested on the bed between them.

“The same way that no-one else can.” She retorted. “We’re just going to have to agree to disagree, Aden. Otherwise, we’re going to drive each other crazy for the next 2 and a half months.”

“Oh, we already do that.” He winked at her as Belle poked out her tongue at him before flipping back and forth between the pages that were already filled. “What ya looking at?”

“Just looking.” She shrugged. “Are we going to give the baby a middle name?”

“I dunno. Never thought about that, to be honest. Do you want to?” He asked her instead. He could already feel the medication working, making him a bit drowsy as it took the pain away too.

“I guess so. I mean, neither one of us had one, but it would make it so much more easier to pick a name if we can use two.” She rationalised and Aden couldn’t help but agree.

“Right, so who picks which name?”

“Well, seeing as I’m the mother, I’ll choose the first name, and you can choose the middle name.” Belle said politely without looking up from the book. She didn’t need to to know that he was staring at her incredulously.

“I don’t think so.” He scoffed. “How I about I choose the first name because I don’t have the incapability to make up my mind, unlike you?”

“I do not have an incapability to make up my mind! I’m just looking for the perfect name.” She defended herself, though there was no way for her to hold back her smile. It wasn’t only because his words were amusing, but also because of the banter that they now had back, something that she had missed and had feared of losing forever.

Belle banished the stray thought to the back of her mind, as she had been doing for almost the past week. Every time that something happened that reminded her never to take anything such as this moment for granted, her heart would clench at the thought of the future that could have been. She knew that Aden hadn’t said a word about it only to keep her happy and make sure that she needn’t think about it, and she did the same so not to make him feel bad.

Sighing, Belle looked up at Aden when she realised that they had fallen into a bout of silence and that the baby had calmed down slightly, no doubt due to Aden’s touch. A smile curved her lips as a thought came to her while finding the paper with baby names inserted into the small plastic covering at the back of the book.

“Ok, I’ve got a proposition for you.” She announced. Aden looked at her in surprise before licking his lips and grinning in a cheeky manner.

“I’m sure you do, but the docs said-”

“Not that kind of proposition, you idiot.” Belle cut him off with a roll of the eyes. “What I meant was about naming the baby.”

“Go on…” Aden perked up, tilting his head up to look at her through narrow eyes.

“You think we’re having a girl, I think we’re having a boy. So, how about, whoever’s right can have the first name, and the other one can choose the middle name? Sound good?” She suggested. Aden seemed to ponder about it, tapping his finger to his chin in a mocking thoughtful look.

“Hmm… Yeah, alright. Deal.“ He held out his hand and she shook it with a content sigh. “I guess it’ll be your loss then.”

“Hmm, we’ll see.” Belle said dryly. “At least this way we’ll stop any arguing before it starts, and we can choose names that we like ourselves.”

“So I can choose anything I like?” He asked her carefully.

“Yup.”

“Anything at all? And you won’t disagree?” Aden made sure before chuckling as a slightly mortified look passed her face.

“Not anything at al-” Belle began.

“No, no, you said I could choose what I wanted.” He sighed happily, smirking and stretching out a bit with his hand to rub her stomach as he ignored the deathly looks she shot him. “Hey there, baby Tinkerbell.”

---

Hope you enjoyed it.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Here’s the chapter that I promised Unfortunately, it’s only half of what I wanted, but it would get too long if I put everything in, so I’ve split it into two parts once again. Personally, I feel as if this is just a filler chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Chapter 65:

Part A

Blinking a couple of times, it took several seconds for Aden to realise when his eyes were open and when they were not. There was only a bare minimum of the moonlight streaming in through the curtains, but with time, the whole room seemed to light up. Slowly, things became more visible; the items scattered on the dresser, their clothes piled onto the chair, the mirror opposite them that show him their reflection, and, subsequently, the confirmation of their distance.

Aden sighed as he turned his head towards Belle. She was laying on her side facing him, sleeping pretty soundly and contently. Usually, the sight would bring a soft smile to his face, knowing that she was well and ok, and with him. Although that all rang true right then; her and the baby were well and ok and with him, he couldn’t help but have to fight the feeling of want that built up inside of him.

The distance between the two of them didn’t seem as big as it felt, or looked in the mirror, when he took it in himself, but it was still there. The only contact that they had were her arms wrapped around his right one with her forehead resting against his shoulder lightly. Every now and again, he could feel her feet brush against his, before almost instantly they would move away again as if she were too scared to keep them there for too long.

Sighing, he checked to make sure that Belle was truly asleep, trying to judge in the awkward position that he was in. He couldn’t move much, especially not his left arm that was kept in place over his torso with a sling or twist in her direction due to his ribs which were tightly wound around with bandages to keep them still as possible. Slowly, Aden tried to pull his right arm out of her relaxed grip, hoping to being able to use it to coerce her sleeping form closer to him. He had just managed to shake one of her hands off when a sharp pain struck him in his chest. Groaning silently, he waited as the pain began to dull into a steady throbbing sensation, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily as he did so.

The throbbing itself began to subside soon enough, and Aden opened his eyes to see a pair of chocolate brown ones staring at him as he glanced over at her. Concern was clearly written over Belle’s face, and even though she didn’t move or say a thing, he knew what the next words out of her mouth was going to be.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” He murmured, careful to keep his frustration inside of him.

“It’s ok. Are you, though?” Belle replied in a whisper, backing away from him slightly so that she wasn’t talking into his shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Go back to sleep.” Aden could feel Belle hesitate before following her eyes as she pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked at the time as it glowed on the clock behind her.

“It’s been enough hours since we went to bed.” She began with a heavy hint that he chose not to comment on. “Aden?“

“Yeah?“ He heard her sigh while turning to face him, using her left elbow to prop her up as she leant over him a bit.

“Do you want your meds?” She asked him with a tone of worry. Aden contemplated it while relishing in the feeling of her hand that now gently stroked his hair before running down the side of his face repeatedly. It was a feather light touch; the back of Belle’s fingers only skimming over his cheek and jaw line within mere milliseconds though it send shivers through his body. “Aden?” She whispered once again as his eyes fluttered shut although not in sleep.

“No, don’t bother.” He told her as he realised that in order to take the meds, he would have to sit up, which was one of the most painful experiences he had come to known, and eat, both of which seemed like more effort than it was worth. “The pain’s bearable. The distance, however, isn’t.”

“Aden…” Belle exhaled, and he could feel her hair brush against his bare upper chest as she shook her head before relaxing back onto the bed. Opening his eyes, Aden watched her as she leant her head onto her hand to keep it up while using the other one to play with the chain around his neck. “I don’t like it either, honey, but it’s for your own good. I don’t want to hurt you or restrict you more than you already are.”

“You won’t. Trust me, that’s not possible.” He added through gritted teeth with irritation as he turned his head to look up at the ceiling before closing his eyes. “I just miss it. I miss you.”

“I’m right here, Aden.” She assured him softly, smoothing her hand over his collar bone from one shoulder to another yet keeping wary of the injured one. “I know it’s not exactly how it was before, right now-”

“Belle, it’s nothing like before.” He cut her off, titling his head back to face her as he spoke in a low tone that portrayed his annoyance and upset in the same way as his glassy eyes did. “I can’t hug you, I can’t hold you, I can’t be with you like I want to. I can’t even feel you close to me or the baby under my hand when it moves or kicks.”

“What do you want me to do, Aden?” Belle asked him after a pause, the tears clear in her strained voice as she took in what he had told her. “I know it’s hard right now, really hard, but it’ll get better. You’re still healing and it’ll take some time, but we’ll get back there in the end. We just have to focus on you getting better now. Everything else will fall back into place soon.”

“’Soon’ isn’t close enough.” He muttered. Even in the darkness, he could see the glisten of the teardrops that had left Belle’s eyes as Aden paid careful attention to her. Suddenly, the memory of what Belle herself had gone through; the stressing and the not knowing, hit him and all the guilt and the anguish came flooding back to him. Somehow, what he had just been ranting about and all the frustration began to ebb away as he skimmed his eyes over her body quickly in an instinctive gesture. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to make you cry. I mean, what I said, I was just- I never wanted-”

“I know, I know.” She murmured, lowering herself to press a kiss to his temple before laying her head down onto his pillow right next to him. “I’m a hormonal wreak anyway, remember?” Aden chuckled lightly at her words, grasping tightly onto her hand as she slid it down his arm and into his hand before bringing it up to her lips. “I wish there was something I could do, Aden. I really do. Anything. Anything to make it better for you. But I think I’ve had all my wishes and prayers answered to for the rest of this lifetime. I may have bargained my next lifetime’s worth too, actually.”

“Really?” Aden questioned in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up. “Was it worth it?”

“Definitely.” Belle nodded, resting their joint hands lightly against her shoulder as she shuffled closer to him as she had been before. “Anyway, I don’t need them anymore. I got what I wanted, and that’s all that matters. Everything else we can take one step at a time, yeah? We’ll get through it together. We will. I know we can.”

“You always know what to say, don‘t you?” He murmured while stroking his thumb over her bare shoulder where the shirt of his that she was wearing had slid down.

“It’s a gift.” She replied seriously before smiling and leaning in as Aden took her lips with his momentarily. Letting go of his hand, Belle placed it onto his cheek, loving the tactile feel of it. They broke away only when it became necessary and she was pleased to see a much more relaxed looked on Aden’s face.

“Where does this leave us tonight, then?” He asked her, his face darkening almost as soon as the thought had passed through Belle’s mind.

“I think we should go to sleep. Here,” Retracting her hand, she took a hold of Aden’s once again and dragged it down under the covers in-between their bodies. She held onto it tightly as she pushed the back of his hand against her stomach where she knew the baby would kick when it woke up. “I know it’s not the same, but it’s good enough, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Aden sighed.

“Look, it’s only been a couple of days since you got out of hospital. You’re still getting back into routine. Just give it time.” She repeated. His jaw tightened as he nodded at her words and Belle knew that he was only reluctantly agreeing to them.

Cautiously, she wrapped her other hand around his arm before using it to help her shuffle closer towards him. She swapped the hand that held onto his so that she could use the newly freed one to rest carefully on his good shoulder before clasping her fingers around his cool, silver necklace. Closing her eyes, she could feel his on hers when she twined her leg around his, rubbing her foot along his calf teasingly before getting to the rough skin that was the current scarring for the burn he had suffered there, where she let her leg straighten again.

“This better?” Belle whispered as she relaxed completely, letting herself lean into him ever so slightly.

“Much better.” She could feel his lips move against the top of her head making her smile. “Thank you.”

“Let me know if it hurts, alright? I do tend to move around a lot in my sleep nowadays.” Belle laughed, her eyes still closed as she felt a laugh ripple through his body.

“I know; I’ve experienced it firsthand.”

“Hmm…” She replied noncommittally. “You’ll let me know?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aden sighed, although it wasn’t as heavy as it had been.

“Good.” She stated, pressing her lips to the closest bit of flesh, his shoulder, that she could reach. “Now let’s go back to sleep. I’ve got to head into work in the morning.”

“Hmm… Have fun with that.” He said teasingly as his eyes drifted close once again. “Night, babe.” When he received no reply, Aden opened his eyes look at her; a smile gracing his features when he noticed that she had already fallen back asleep.

---

“Oh, I’m going to be late.” Belle groaned as she fumbled around in her bag at the table, making sure that she had everything while eating breakfast. Glimpsing back over at the time, she sighed and shook her head. “I knew I should have sorted this out last night.”

“Don’t you think you should just calm down a bit, love? It’s not like you’re running extremely late.” Irene assured her from where she sat next to her. “And God knows how many times you have been late to work before, yet here you are; still working for them.”

“Geez, thanks, Irene. You make me sound like the ideal employee.” Belle stated, huffing, though the smile tugging at her lips betrayed her tone. “Ok, I’m off now.”

“Hold on a second, missy.” Irene stopped her as she stood up before pointing towards the plate that still sat on the table, a slice of toast still remaining along with a half full bowl of cereal. “Aren’t you going to finish that off first?”

“I’ve had enough.” She insisted. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours anyway. I’ll grab something then.”

“Have what, when?” A voice came from behind her that had cut Irene off from telling her off. Throwing a look over her shoulder, Belle frowned while hitching up her bag from the chair and onto her arm.

“What are you doing up?” She asked him carefully, taking a couple of steps closer to him in an almost protective manner as Aden stepped down from the small enclose and into the main part of the house.

“Well, I wasn’t going to stay in bed all day, now was I?” He offered her a smile which was only a fraction of the one that she would normally receive, no doubt being held back by the pain that he was reluctant to let her see.

“You should be resting.” Belle informed him, crossing her arms as Aden pointedly ignored her and slide into one of the stool by the kitchen counter. “Aden-”

“And you should finish off your breakfast.” He countered as he looked over her shoulder to the table which was now empty, but not yet cleared. Irene had migrated to the kitchen, doing her best to zone the two of them out like she had before they had gotten married.

“I’m fine. I’ve ate; I’m fine.”

“And I’m fine too.” Aden nodded. “Glad we’ve got that cleared up.” Belle gave him a sarcastic look, opening her mouth to say something before Irene’s immaculate timing cut her off.

“Belle, weren’t you running late for work?” Checking her watch this time, the girl in question frowned as she realised just how right her foster mother was.

“Yeah, alright, I need to go.” Turning back to Aden, she gave him a careful and dangerous look. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours, ok? Don‘t do anything your not supposed to.”

“I’ll try my best.” He replied cheekily as she pressed a quick kiss to his lips and then backed off.

“Bye, Irene.” She called out before leaving the house as quick as she could, not having the time to wait for a reply.

“So,” Irene broke the silence that the two remaining people in the house had fallen into. Aden’s head snapped up from where he was watching his hand as he twisted it around to stop it from getting stiff. “Haven’t see you up and about much, especially considering you’ve been living here for the past 4 days.”

“Been missing me, have you? Can’t say I blame you.” He stated in a matter-of-fact tone with the typical ’Aden’ grin on his face accompanying it for effect. Irene simply huffed and threw up her hands in mock despair as she turned around to replace the cutlery from the drying rack back into the cupboards. “You should take it up with Belle, though. It’s her being all bossy and keeping me locked up like I’m diseased or something.”

“It’s only because she wants you to get better as fast as you can, darl. Would you rather she didn’t care?” She asked him wisely instead, and Aden sighed.

“True, I guess.” He said reluctantly. “It’s just… I can look after myself. She’s just taking on stress that she doesn’t need.”

“You think that Belle doesn’t ‘need’ to look after you? She’s doing it for herself just as much as she’s doing it for you.” Irene informed him as she turned to face him while carrying on with her chore. “Don’t say a word to her, but Belle isn’t as strong or independent as she likes to think she is. She was a mess when you were in hospital, though she didn’t let many people see it.”

Aden remained quiet as he took in the elder woman’s words, knowing that they rang true. Although he was sure that she hadn’t told him to guilt him, he couldn’t fight it as it overflowed him. Belle being a mess was something that he didn’t want to think about, especially if he had been the cause of it, even if he had no control over it, just like her. Like a couple of times before, he realised once again how hard this must be on her as well and all complaints vanished from his head.

“Put yourself in her shoes, Aden. You’d probably be worse than her!” Irene told him, pulling him out of his thoughts as she let out a small chuckle and turned away from him. Aden laughed in response to her words, knowing that it would most likely be true, even if the thought of Belle being in his position almost made him physically sick, pregnant or not.

“I don’t think anyone could be worse than Belle.” He commented lightly while easing himself off the stool and towards the table. Taking the seat that Belle had been sitting at, Aden picked up the piece of toast that remained and took a bite out of it; pleasantly surprised to find that it didn’t taste like a jumble of fruits.

Pulling that morning’s paper towards him as he continued to eat, Aden skimmed over the front page, none of it exactly enticing him or taking his mind of the constant pain that vibrated through his chest at that moment. Unfolding the paper to read the top half of it, he used his good arm to smooth it out as the date caught it eye in a small shock.

“Hey, Irene.” Aden called out and she appeared in his line of sight a few seconds later. “Has Belle mentioned anything about Sunday?”

“Not unless you count warning me against doing something when I brought it up.” She shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

“Oh, so she remembers then, does she?” He joked though the look on his face was serious.

“I think there are more important things on her mind than her birthday right now, Aden.” Irene mentioned almost forcefully while returning back into the kitchen where he could no longer see her.

“Yeah, I get that, but I don’t want her to miss out on her 21st.” He replied before sighing and flipping open the paper. “She’s already told Amanda to cancel the dinner thing, and Matilda that she didn’t want to do anything. Actually, I believe her exact words were, ‘forget that there’s anything special about that day at all’.”

“You know what Belle’s like when she sets her mind to something; she’ll be hell-bent to see it through.” She reminded him with a small amused scoff. “I think your best bet would be to go with whatever she says, love.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Aden gave in while trying his best not to sound too disappointed. He carried on reading the paper while finishing off the piece of toast with slight difficulty as he coughed a bit at the dryness of it. Before he could muster up the conviction that getting up would be less painful than choking, a glass of orange juice appeared on the table in front of him.

“Get that into you before you do yourself some more damage.” Irene said strictly as he followed her instructions and then tapping the top of the small, white bottle that she placed next to the plate before retreating back towards the kitchen. “And take that too.”

“Never thought I’d see the day where you would take orders from Belle.” Aden laughed as he shook out two of the small, sugar coated pills which only made them taste worse.

“I’ve learnt long ago that there are some things that you don’t question when it comes to that wife of yours.”

“Hmm…” Aden simply said while swallowing the meds and washing them down with the juice. Placing the glass down with a thud, he cringed as Irene gave him a warning about abusing her glassware. “Sorry.”

“Just don’t make a habit out of it or I’ll ship you out of here before the weekend.” Irene told him, only half-joking while Aden chuckled.

“Oh, so you don’t mind us taking up the room and all, but as soon as it comes to the cutlery, it’s ‘pack your bags’ time?”

“Well, I can find another couple of people to stay here, now, can’t I? But I’ve had those for years now. Longer than I’ve had Belle.” She gave as an explanation while coming into his view as she went over to the store cupboard to retrieve some items.

“I’m sure she’d be pleased to hear that.” He nodded seriously even with a wide grin on his face that died down slowly as he pushed himself up in the chair a tiny bit to sit up straighter as his tone turned sincere. “I’ve been meaning to say thanks about that.” He began somewhat awkwardly as Irene looked over at him in a small bout of confusion only to see the young man playing around with the empty glass tumbler as he tilted it from one side to another, his eyes fixed upon it until he looked up at her almost shyly. “You know, about letting us stay here. I know we can be a bit annoying and can make our presence known a bit too loudly at times, among other things. So yeah…”

“Don’t mention it, love. It’s really no problem, and I think we’re all use to that by now.” Irene joked, waving a hand as she brushed it off while Aden smiled back gratefully. “Besides, anything we could do to help out. It’s what family does, so you don‘t worry about it, alright?”

He nodded in response to her question as she smiled back warmly before she got back to whatever she had been looking for in the cupboard while Aden turned back to the paper. He flipped the pages mindlessly; not taking anything in but the odd words here and there are were either in bold or in the headlines. Suddenly, an idea hit him when his eyes skimmed past an image in the advertising part of the paper and things began to connect up in his mind.

“Actually, Irene,” Aden spoke up causing her to give him a questioning look to his excitable tone. “I need to ask you a huge favour.”

---

Part B should be up this weekend, Monday the latest [i hope!]

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all for the lovely comments! I am glad that you enjoyed it and thought that it was all in character! That’s the one thing that I hate getting wrong… Anyways, here’s Part B as promised

Chapter 65:

Part B

“Is that everything then?” Belle thought out loud. She shot a look towards where Aden was sat on the bed, fiddling around on his phone until he felt her eyes on him.

“Are you asking me?”

“Well, there’s no-one else in here, now is there?” She replied with a small sigh as she turned back to the dresser to make sure that she had packed everything back again. After Aden’s appointment at the hospital that day, they were planning on returning back home after a week of staying at Irene’s place. Although she had told them that they were more than welcome to live there for as long as they wanted, Aden and Belle had both decided that it would be a good idea to get back into a normal routine.

“I thought you were talking to yourself.” He merely shrugged as well as he could in his position, which was better than he had been able to a week previously. “Yeah, I think that’s everything.”

“Alright then, let’s go.”

“What? Now?!” Aden asked incredulously while looking at the time on his phone, amazed to see that it was already 30 minutes before his appointment. “Wow. Time really passes when you’re having fun, huh?”

“If by ‘fun’ you mean not getting out of bed until midday or whining all morning, then yeah, I guess so.” Belle retorted while zipping up the bag that had most of their stuff in it. The rest of it had already been packed and placed into the car earlier on.

“Hey, if you had agreed with me, it would have saved us both that trouble.” He practically pouted while standing up carefully.

“Trust me, Aden. Getting into the shower with you would have been more trouble.” She mumbled while picking up the bag and gesturing to him to leave the room.

“Should you be carrying that?

“It barely weighs a thing; it’s fine.” Belle rolled her eyes even as a soft smile graced her features. “Now, c’mon! We’re going to be late!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Aden merely responded but doing as she said nonetheless. Walking, he had found, had become relatively painless after a few very painful experiences which he had immediately learnt from. It was either that or he had just became too use to the pain that he could no longer feel it.

Entering the main part of the house, Aden paused for a second before continuing as he spotted Annie sitting at the table with papers in front of her. She seemed to be hard at whatever she was doing, and Aden doubted very much that it was homework considering that it was both the weekend and the summer vacation.

“Hey, what’re you doing here on a Saturday afternoon?”

“Huh? Oh, hey!” Annie greeted him almost too quickly and feverishly. “Are you guys leaving already?”

“Yeah, in a second.” Aden answered, giving her a curious look. “Everything ok?”

“Yup.” She smiled widely at him as Belle entered the room after closing the one for the bedroom. “Hey, Belle.”

“Hi! I didn’t know you were here.” She replied with a smile at her younger foster sister before a dubious look crossed her face when no-one else said anything. “Something wrong?”

“No, of course not.” Annie said in reply. “I thought you guys were leaving?”

“Yeah, we are, actually.” Belle informed her while pulling out one of the strawberry laces that she had spied on the table. “Haven’t had these in ages.” She added as a form of explanation while chewing on them.

“Ok…” Aden laughed as Belle pushed on his good shoulder to get him moving.

“Let’s go before we’re late.” She cut him off before he got the chance to start teasing her about it. “Bye, Annie. See ya later.”

“Bye. Good luck with the appointment.”

“Thanks. We‘ll see you later then, kid.” Aden nodded in Annie’s direction as he was continued with gently being prodded in his shoulder to get moving. “Alright, woman! I get it; I’m going!”

Belle giggled as he headed into the kitchen on his way out of the house and towards where her car was outside. Following him, she snatched the packet of sweets off the table quicker than Annie could stop her. She knew that the younger girl wouldn’t demand for them back or try to get them off her, but she did give her a both surprised and indignant cry of ‘Hey!’.

“Sorry, but I’m really liking it now.“ Belle called out as she walked away. “Besides, I’m doing you a favour; all this sugar is bad for you!”

There was no reply to that apart from an exasperated sigh that Belle only managed to hear as she left the house. Hitching the bag up to her elbow, she fished out the car keys from the side pocket where she had put them beforehand to make sure she wouldn’t lose them at the last minute.

“Are you sure you’re ok with the driving?” Aden enquired her with concern as he pushed himself away from the car. He was squinting in the sun as she handed him the sweets for him to hold and then going to open the boot of the car.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. I’ve done it plenty of times recently.” She assured him while slamming shut the boot door and walking over to the driver’s side as Aden reminded standing at the passenger’s. “Seriously, don’t stress out about it. I still drive better than you, anyway.”

“Funny.” He stated dryly before eyeing her carefully. “Are you sure?”

“Yes!” She replied forcefully yet calmly. “And it’s not like we can ask Irene or Roman to give us a lift, what with them being really busy all of a sudden today.”

“You know that if we asked they’d be happy to.” Aden countered her. A small look of irritation passed Belle’s face as she narrowed her eyes at him; her patience now wearing thin at all his question.

“Aden, just be quiet and get in the car, alright?” She finally demanded. “I’m fine to drive, and if we don’t get going, we’re going to be late.”

“Ok, ok.” He held up his good hand in surrender, though the image was ruined with the pink strawberry laces packet in his hand and the smirk on his face.

“Get in, then.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Aden could vaguely see Belle shake her head as he spoke up before doing as she had told him. “Are those for me?” He asked her after doing his belt, pointing towards the sweets that he had thrown onto the dashboard to free up his hand.

“No, they’re for us.” Belle almost growled. “So don’t you even think about touching them!”

“Geez, alright! It was just a question.” Aden defended himself as Belle steered the car onto the main road towards the hospital. “I wasn’t going to touch them, anyway.”

“Good.” She muttered.

“Good.” He repeated, searching out his legs while slouching as much as he could in the car seat. “Don’t want your stupid sweets anyway.

“Good.”

“Good!”

---

“Have you finished all the sweets?”

“Yes.” Belle answered abruptly as they entered the elevator to go down. Aden looked over at her while she watched the numbers change on about the lift doors, purposely avoiding his eye contact.

“Liar.” He whispered. Belle continued to do as what she was doing for a second longer before sighing and reaching into her pocket and pulling out the packet.

“Here.” She held out the opening towards him as he reached for it. “This is only because I feel selfish by not sharing.”

“So you should.” Aden teased. The elevator pinged and released them on the ground floor where they headed towards the exit of the hospital.

“Only one!” Belle snapped, pulling away the sweets from him before he got the chance to take another one. “There’re bad for you; you shouldn’t eat too many.”

“Oh, but eating half the packet is alright for you?”

“Yes.” She simply said, ending the conversation with the one word as Aden rolled his eyes.

“Wow. How long did we spend in there?” He joked as they exited the building and headed towards the car which was parked a small walk away. The sun was just beginning to set, but in the summer, it was still very warm.

“As if you don’t know.” Belle quipped with a soft chuckle. At his confused look, she elaborated on her words. “I saw you checking your watch and your mobile every 2 seconds in there when the doctor wasn’t around or the physio.”

“What?” Aden tried to laugh it off. “That was just a nervous tick. You would hate hospitals too if you had to spend so long in them.”

“Hmm…” Belle replied noncommittally while looking over at him to see a smile on his face. “What’s put you in such a good mood?”

“Am I not allowed to be in a good mood?” He asked her rhetorically. “I’m feeling better, we’re going home finally and I have now got full use of both my arms.”

“Uh, just because the sling’s gone, doesn’t mean you’ve got full use of it! You heard what the physiotherapist said; it’ll be stiff and painful for a while yet.” Belle reminded him. She didn’t want to bring him down from his high or burst his bubble, but she wanted him to remain realistic before he hurt himself again, which would be the most likely outcome.

“Yeah, I heard. But it’s still good. Not to mention that everything else is healing up. It all seems to be going my way.” Aden brushed off, the grin still on his face as they approached the car. “And I can’t wait to get home to see what state my car is in.”

“Your car‘s fine.” She informed him, knowing that she had told him several times before that it was far from the fire and Roman had safely driven it back to their place the next day after retrieving certain items such as Aden‘s phone and items from it. “So, anything else you want to add to the list? You know, in case you’ve forgotten something. Or someone.”

“Nope, not really…” He replied in fake seriousness as Belle glared at him over the roof of the car before hugging and getting in. Aden followed suit, still smiling while she started the engine up and then speaking once again.

“I don’t know why I even put up with you sometimes. I should have just let you walk to and from the hospital yourself if you’re that ungrateful.”

“Sorry.” Aden tried to stifle his laughter to sound earnest, but it didn’t work as well as he had hoped. “Of course I mean you and baby too. Always guaranteed to put me in a good mood.” He winked at her while she looked away from him pointedly to being driving.

“Whatever.” She muttered, batting away his hand that came near to rest on her stomach. “I know you only used me for the car ride.”

“Um… I think you’re forgetting that it was me in the first place who gave you the car, which you give me ‘rides’ in.” Silence followed his words as Aden’s smiled transformed into an arrogant smirk. “No remark for that?”

“Just shut up.”

---

Aden unlocked the front door to enter house, pushing on it carefully to enter the deserted house. Holding the door open, he waited for Belle follow him from where she was grabbing the bags from the car at her request. He had decided against arguing with her considering that the last thing he wanted right then was for her not to talk to him.

She passed him without a word, dumping the two bags onto the couch as Aden shut the door and locked it before walking towards her.

“Good to be home, huh?”

“Definitely.” Belle replied with a small sigh as she turned to look at him while resting a hand on her hip and wrapping the other arm around her waist. “So what do you want to do now? Stay down here or go up?”

“Um…” Aden faltered, looking at her almost cautiously. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine…” She answered after giving him a weird look. “How are you?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Aden laughed as he took a couple more steps towards her; a wary look crossing her face at each one. “You still in a mood with me?”

“I was not in a mood with you!” Belle snapped back with a scoff and Aden raised his eyebrows at her.

“You barely said two words to me all the way here.”

“I had to focus on other things. Like driving.” She pointed out with a hint of sarcasm though a smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

“Yeah, yeah.” Aden simply rolled his eyes before taking her hand and tugging on it gently as he led her out of the front room and into the kitchen.

“Aden, what-?” Belle began to protest even as her feet continued to take her where he obviously wanted her to go without much resistance.

“Stop.” He cut her off, making her stop talking and walking as he let go of her hand and faced her. “Turn around.”

“What? Why?” Belle asked him.

“Just trust me.” Aden said in a form of an explanation.

“Why?” She asked again, stubbornly. Aden rolled his eyes once more and let out a breath of exasperation.

“What’s with all the questions? Can’t you just trust me?”

“Well, what’s with the weird request?” She countered, crossing her arms over her chest as she gave him a questioning look.

“Please?” He added sweetly causing Belle to eyes him before sighing and doing as he asked and turned around. “Close your eyes, too.”

Aden heard her huff and then doing what he had said without another word. He peeked at her to make sure that she wasn’t looking before pulling out one of her long-forgotten thin scarves out of his jeans’ pockets. He had tucked the red cloth there in the morning while Belle had been busy sorting everything else out. With a bit of difficulty, seeing as his left arm was still restricted to a margin of movement from the elbow upwards, Aden managed to wrap the scarf around her eyes, knotting it at the back while being careful to not catch her hair.

“You know, Aden,” Belle started with a small giggle and a suggestive tone. “I never knew you were into this kind of stuff.”

“Belle…” Aden groaned, playing along, as he made sure that the knot was tight enough as Belle continued to giggle. “If only I were allowed, sweetheart.”

“Too true.” She exhaled dramatically. “Shame too, cos this is kinda turning me on. Being pregnant doesn’t help either.”

“Belle!” He reprimanded her half-heartedly as she continued to chortle deep in her throat in an almost seductive manner. Aden had to remind himself several times just how injured he was while guiding her across the kitchen with a hand on her lower back.

“Where are you taking me?” She quickly changed the subject to, a hand outstretched in front of her to help her while the other, he could tell, was resting protectively on her stomach.

“Hold on. Stop here.” She did as he said without hesitation while Aden moved to her side and opened the back door. Once again gently, he nudged her to start walking again, taking her outside into the back yard of their house.

“Oooh, why are we going outside?” Belle questioned him with a child-like excitement to her words which only made Aden smile with both happiness and pride, not that she could see it. “This is a bit scary, you know? I’m just expecting you to take off my blindfold and some guy will be hanging dead from the tree-”

“Belle, you can stop walking again.” Aden placed a hand on her shoulder to make sure she did stop, which she did, even as she kept on talking.

“-or someone will whack me over the head with a bat like in a horror movie.”

“All that sugar’s gone to your head, you know that?” He joked while untying the knot in the scarf delicately.

“Maybe.” Belle giggled. “But it’s all good, don’t you think? Or would you rather I be ‘moody’ like you claimed I was-” She broke off as the cloth was removed from her eyes and could finally see what it was that Aden had wanted to show her. “-before…? Aden!”

“Yeah?” He replied with a smile very clear in his voice at her reaction. He could tell that she was still taking it all in, eyes wide as the shock of it settled in. Her eyes skimmed over the table that was set up with plenty of covered plates and an ice bucket with what looked like a champagne bottle in it. She turned slowly to look to her right where there were flickering candles, real ones, floating in the pool that was now filled. In the dusky daylight, it wasn’t possible to take it in properly, but Aden hoped that they would last until nightfall.

“How did you get this all done?!” She asked him, still looking out towards the water.

“Well, I might have called in a favour with Irene and Roman.” Aden confessed. “They’re the ones who helped to set it up.”

“So that’s why there were so busy today all of a sudden!” Belle made the connection instantly. “What about the pool?”

“I got someone to sort it out during the week.” He shrugged behind her back, rubbing her back slowly before breaking the moment’s silence they had fallen into. “Do you like it? I know it’s like a rip off of what you did for me after the exams, but-”

“No, no; I love it!” She twirled around to face him and taking his hands into hers. “It’s nothing like what I did for you. This is like… 10 times better!”

“Just 10?” Aden teased her with a cheeky smile as Belle neared him, laughing.

“A hundred! A hundred times bettter!” Belle corrected herself while letting go of one of his hands and placing it onto his face as she pressed a kiss to his other cheek, trailing a line of them towards his lips, where she finally kissed him somewhat passionately that ended too soon before she ended up doing something that would hurt the both of them. “It’s the best thing ever. But, why?”

“I knew it.” Aden laughed, pushing a tendril of her hair behind her ear. “I knew you’d have forgotten it’s your birthday tomorrow.”

“I haven’t forgotten!” Belle exclaimed. “But like you said; it’s tomorrow.”

“Yeah, ok, that’s true.” He admitted with a small nod of the head before grinning in his typical manner. “But I thought that we may as well celebrate the lead up to it in style. It can also be to say thanks for everything that you’ve done for me over the past week, cos I know I’ve been a bit of a pain to be with.” His smile had died down into a subtle and appreciative one as his words softened too, watching as Belle coyly bit her bottom lip.

“Don’t worry about that; it’s ok. I kind of signed myself up for that by marrying you.” She teased him as he laughed.

“That’s funny, you know that? Real funny…” Aden said dryly, though the amusement in his voice ruined it. Belle smiled and pressed her lips to his briefly.

“I know.” She murmured against them and then backing off a bit. He chuckled at her not-so-modest words, letting his hands rest lightly on her rounded abdomen.

“So, are you hungry then?” Aden asked her, looking down at where his hands were and then up again.

“Definitely.” Belle answered in a voice that he could only describe as sultry, confusion setting in when she gave him another kiss, this one lasting longer than the previous one, breaking off only before it become too much. “But I think we should eat first.”

“What?” Aden enquired when she moved away and towards where the food was set up, throwing a wink over her shoulder. It hit him suddenly what she had meant, and he mentally cursed the raving hormones of pregnant woman. “Funny. That was funny. Again.”

---

Over an hour later, the two of them sat at the edge of the pool with their legs dipped in the cool water. The sun had set and the dark, velvet sky was rolled out above them with the blinking stars and waxing moon acting as their spotlight. They had only been sitting there for a few minutes after eating a bit too much and just enjoying having a good, romantic time with each other.

“Hey, you comfortable sitting here?” Belle asked Aden softly, turning to see him sitting up as straight as he could so not to fight the bandaged that held his healing cracked ribs in place. He was kicking his feet in the water like a 5 year old, making her laugh soundlessly.

“Yeah, it’s alright.” He assured her, tilting his head towards her. “I can cop it for a little while longer, I think.”

“Maybe we should go in…?” Belle frowned, worry written all over her face as she leant back and began to shake the water off her legs in an act to get up.

“No, c’mon, it’s fine.” Aden quickly stopped her with a hand on hers, which was still resting on the side of the pool. She gave him an uncertain look while Aden tried to think of something to convince her. “Look, we haven’t even drank the champagne yet!”

“Aden…” She began, reluctantly letting her legs soak in the water again as Aden reached for the bottle with his good hand, seeing that he had thought about it before hand and placed it on his other side with two flutes. “You do remember that neither one of us is allowed alcohol right now, right?”

“Yeah! Do you really think I’m that stupid?” Aden scoffed, carrying on as Belle opened her mouth to say something. “Don’t answer that!”

“I wasn’t going to- Yeah, actually, I’m not going to lie.” She giggled, shaking her head at his pout that she leant in to kiss away. “Better?”

“For now.” He winked before showing her the back label of the bottle. “It’s non-alcoholic, you see? Here, open it. It’s for your 21st.”

“Which is tomorrow!” She reminded him, but taking the bottle off him anyway.

“Why are you still arguing with me about that? You’re getting spoilt before your birthday. Most people would love it! I would!” Aden exclaimed with semi-seriousness though the twinkle in his eyes told her that there was humour there too.

“You know I don’t like getting spoilt, Aden. Nor do I care about these things. It’s the non-materialistic things that are the most important to me.” Belle informed him softly, placing the champagne bottle to her side as she spoke and gripped the edge of the pool once again.

“Does that mean that you’re not like this, then?” Aden asked her in a voice that was only half-joking. She could see the disappointment start to make it way across his face even if he tried to hide it by looking straight forwards towards where most of the tea lights had migrated to due to their motions in the water.

“No, of course not, Aden! I’m loving this. Honestly, I am. It’s brilliant and so, so sweet of you to do this for me. I just hope that it’s not the beginning of a day full to the brim of more things to ‘spoil’ me. And not because I won’t appreciate it; I will. But I’m pregnant, and you’re still injured, and all I want to make my day special tomorrow is to be with you, ok?” Belle reassured him, keeping her eyes on his as she reached out and placed on his jaw to turn his face to look at her. She smiled softly as he pulled her hand down and dropped a kiss to her knuckles, butterflies awaking inside of her at the gentle gesture, before wincing as she felt the kick at her almost angrily. “And the baby, of course. With you and our baby.”

“Is it kicking?” Aden asked as her eyes dropped down to her stomach where she had placed her other hand to help ease the baby’s fussing around. Belle nodded, removing hers to allow him to feel the kicks that had steadily started to calm down, no doubt due to Aden’s touch as he rubbed soothing circles on the spot. “How bad is your mummy for forgetting about you, huh?”

“Hey! I didn’t forget!” Belle exclaimed, hitting him lightly on his good shoulder. They sat in silence for a while, Aden continuing to caress her baby bump until the baby had seemed to have fallen asleep. She smiled as she watched Aden’s intent face; his eyes glued onto his hand although there was nothing really for him to see.

Shaking her head to snap herself out of her thoughts, Belle reached to her side for the champagne from where she had placed it.

“Should I open it now then?”

“You may as well, because there’s no way that I’m going to do all this tomorrow again for you.” Aden joked, removing his hand from her as she shuffled slightly on the concrete floor. “Even though it is your actual birthday tomorrow. Wouldn’t want to ‘spoil’ you, you know?” He chuckled. Letting her know that his words were spoken light-heartedly.

“Good to see that you’ve finally gotten the message!” Belle laughed softly. “You do know that I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful or rude, don’t you? I was just-”

“Belle, it’s ok. I know. And I know you.” Aden cut her off, assuring her with his special smile just for her how much he understood what she meant. Once again , Belle leant in to kiss him briefly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She murmured against his lips. Moving away, they shared another smile before she turned back to the bottle in her hands. “Right. So how do we open this then?”

---

Hope you enjoyed it. Some back-to-basics [almost] fluff, and hormonal Belle! So much fun to write!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Once again, I’m so sorry for the wait. Life’s just been a bit busy. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this…

Chapter 66:

The familiar tune of her mobile phone woke Belle up the next morning. Groaning, she shuffled away from where she was cuddled up to Aden’s side to silence it before it woke him up too. She twisted around to her other side so that she was now facing the bedside table where her phone lay, lazily throwing her hand out without opening her eyes to find it. Her hand brushed across several other items, including the house phone, Aden’s wallet, a watch and a random plastic packet, before finding her phone which continued to ring and vibrate under her fingers.

Picking it up, Belle rotated her body a bit so that she was able to read who it was that was calling her so early. Growling under her breath at the name on the caller ID, she answered it anyway before they hung up and rang again later on.

“Drew…” She managed to get out in a low and sleepy voice, eyes closing once again. “What are you doing? It‘s 7am!”

”Hello, to you too.” Belle could barely hear his rather perky response as she struggled to keep awake. ”I know what time it is, but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday before I went to bed, cos knowing me, I‘ll forget later on.”

“It’s 7am.” She repeated, slowly starting to come to the living world. “Why are you just going to bed?”

”Because I‘ve been out and just got home.” He told her, and she could almost see the smirk on his face that would have accompanied those words.

“Well, that’s great to know.”

”Why are you so moody for?”

“Because it’s 7 in the morning!” Belle reminded him with a huff; the words carrying across her frustration at being woken up so early even without the need so raising her voice.

”Yeah, I know! You‘ve told me enough times already.” Drew informed her with an edge to his words that would have been more effective if Belle thought he wouldn’t wake up with a hangover. ”So what‘s the plan for the day now you‘re 21?”

“No plan. Just relaxing at home.” She replied as silence followed her words and then laughter from Drew’s end.

”Good one, sis.” There was another pause as Belle decided against answering, knowing full well that it could start another argument between the two of them. ”Wait. Are you being serious?”

“Yeah, why?”

”Married people have all the fun in the world, don‘t they?” He asked her sarcastically as a slow smile formed on Belle’s lips for her no-one’s benefit but her own.

“You have no idea just how much fun…” Her tone was heavily suggestive that she knew Drew would have no problem picking up on what she meant.

”That‘s gross, you know that?” He told her in a dry voice that made her chuckle sleepily.

“Shouldn’t have asked then.” Belle replied before yawning. “Listen, call me back when you get up. I’m still half-asleep here.”

”Yeah, sure. I‘m starting to knock off too. I think the alcohol‘s wearing down.”

“You still sound pretty out of it to me, to be honest.” Belle told him lightly. “Bye, then.”

”See ya.” Drew replied before hanging up almost immediately afterwards.

Sighing with a small smile on her face, Belle replaced the phone back onto the table and peeked at the time once again. Shaking her head minutely, she turned back around in the bed and snuggled up to Aden once again. She wasn’t so surprised to see him barely awake, rubbing his eyes gently in a way that reminded her of a child.

“Who was that?”

“Drew.” Belle merely said, already wrapping her arms around his and burying her face into his good shoulder as the urge to fall back asleep overtook her.

“What time is it?” Aden groaned and Belle tilted her head up to see him looking to his other side to check the alarm clock. “God, that’s early.”

“You better get use to it, honey. You’ll be getting up a couple of times before this in a few months’ time!” Belle giggled, pressing a kiss to his shoulder as she got comfortable again.

“Yeah, for our baby. I’d do that any day. Not for your stupid brother.” Aden scoffed as Belle laughed once again.

“Really?” She asked with intrigued although she didn’t move from her position; the smile on her face growing. “Well, I’ll just have to remember you said that when it comes to it then, yeah?”

“You do that.” He agreed as a yawn broke through his words, causing Belle to laugh once again, squeezing his arm in response.

“You better catch up with as much sleep as you can now, I think.”

“Good idea.” Aden said as he rested his head atop of hers; using his slightly stiff arm to reach across and brush away the hair that fell across her face. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Thank you.” She spoke into his shoulder while feeling him press his lips to her forehead sweetly. “It is quite ‘happy’ right now.”

---

Letting out a breath of content, Belle sat in front of the mirror after dumping the clothes that Aden had left on the stool onto the bed. She had had a long, hot shower which had now left her refreshed and cleansed inside and out.

Brushing her hair through a couple of times to rid it of any knots, she gave up on trying to do anything else to it. It was already reaching peak temperature of the day although it was only 11 in the morning, and the coolness of her wet hair kept her from having the typical pregnancy hot flashes.

Dropping the brush with a thud onto the dresser, she stood up and reached for her bracelet. It was contained in the same box that she had received it in over 2 years previously. Moving so that she could use the top of the chest of drawers to rest her hand on, Belle managed to hook the bracelet up without much trouble with her calm and steady hands.

“I know you’re there.” She spoke up without making another movement. There was a low chuckle from the doorway where she had sensed his eyes on her though he had tried to remain discreet. Footsteps sounded as Aden began to near her, and Belle could almost feel him approach her, stopping right behind her where she still stood in front of the drawers.

“Close your eyes.” He whispered in her ear, causing a shiver to travel down the length of her body. There was no part of him touching her as of yet, but he was so close that she could tell every movement that he was making regardless.

“Again?” Belle joked, clearing her throat as it came out a bit raspy before a smirk formed on her lips. “Didn’t we do this last night?”

“Yeah, but you liked it the last time didn’t you?” Aden laughed. “Hopefully you’ll like it this time too.”

“Alright!” She sighed dramatically and closed her eyes. She could feel Aden’s breath on her jaw as he looked over her shoulder to make sure that she had done as he had asked before moving back and brushing aside her damp hair. He laid a trail of kisses along her shoulder and neck, and Belle had to do everything in her power to stop herself from turning around to get what she wanted. Instead, her eyes fluttered open briefly as she bit back a moan pleasure which she was sure Aden had heard deep in her throat briefly.

“I said to close your eyes.” He reminded her, speaking directly in her ear once more.

“I don’t need my eyes closed for that.” Even as she spoke, Belle let her eyes fall shut in contradiction. Aden laughed once again, and she could now feel the vibrations that coursed through his body at the action as he leant against her ever so lightly.

Her eyes were still closed but she could play it all out in her mind. She felt Aden lean to his right, around her, and open one of the drawers near to her. There was the rustling sound of clothes being moved and then the sound of something hitting the wood of the furniture.

Aden took her left hand in his after closing the drawer and stood behind her once again. He turned it upwards and Belle smiled as he stroked his fingers along her palm before placing a hard, smooth and fairly medium size object in it. Instinctively, Belle used her other hand to make sure it didn’t fall out of her hand.

“Open your eyes.” He instructed her and for once, Belle did what he said without another word. Her grin softened as her pulse began to race with excitement as she took in the neatly wrapped, slightly rectangular present in her hands. “Open it.”

Without even hesitating, Belle skimmed the fingers of her right hand over the side of the item, finding the place where the golden wrapping paper was being held in place. Ripping the tape with a fingernail, she copied the action on the other side, trying her best to seem calm with slow, careful movement though in reality, she wanted to rip it all off.

Once she had torn the piece at the bottom, the paper came free and Belle was able to take it off. Cautiously holding the object in her hands, she slipped the wrapping paper off and onto the table to her side, eyes widening in surprise as a small gasp left her mouth when finally seeing the present for what it really was.

She tilted it in the light slowly so that different parts of the silver trinket box glimmered in the sun. There was a simple swirl design that ran around the four sides of it, with her name in cursive writing on the top and a small butterfly in the corner with wings the same colour as her birthstone, she noticed.

“It’s so you can stop storing your bracelet and all the other jewellery, whenever you do take them off, in the box that you’ve kept for so long.” Aden broke her out of her daze while she kept on trailing her eyes and fingers over the delicate work on her present. “I know you said that you didn’t want anything ‘materialistic’, but do you like it?”

“Aden… It’s beautiful.” Belle finally found her voice to verbalise her thoughts. “You really didn’t have to get me anything.”

“Belle, seriously.” He scoffed at her words, a smile clear in them. “It’s your birthday; I‘m your husband. I think it’s my job to get you something.”

“You didn’t have to.” She shook her head, turning to face him at last. “You’ve given me so much over the course of the last year. I’m actually surprised that you haven’t ran out of ideas yet.”

“I will one day.” Aden laughed before tapping the top of the box in her hands. “Open it and look inside.”

“It better not be anymore jewellery, Aden.” She warned him as he rolled his eyes at her mockingly. Giggling lightly, Belle did as he asked. The lid came off easily, and she bit her bottom lip to keep back the smile that threatened to break through when she saw that it was empty.

Just as she was about to question Aden as to what the point of opening it was, something on the inside of the lid caught her eye. In the same script that was on the other side of the top of the trinket box, there was a longer inscription on the inside. Belle turned to catch the sun’s rays on the newfound words, squinting as they reflected off easily to read the small writing. ’To my darling wife on her 21st birthday. Love you always, Aden.’

“I couldn’t think of anything else to write. I think my head was just drained from all the exams back then.” Aden broke the silence, making her turn to face him. “Something short and sweet, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Belle agreed, tears already brimming her eyes. She placed the box onto the dresser before she did something to it and then stepped a bit closer to him. “It’s perfect.”

“You sure? Because the tears are saying otherwise to me…” He questioned her with a hint of amusement that made her laugh lightly while brushing away the water that had spilled over onto her cheeks.

“I’m sure.” Belle assured her before, for the first time in weeks, she pushed herself up onto her toes and gently wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him into an embrace. It was slightly distant and definitely not the same as either one was use to, but it held the same feeling and gave the same comfort anyway. She stepped back down onto the flats of her feet too soon for the both of them; her hands trailing down his arms lightly to his elbows.

“You’re still crying.” Aden pointed out as Belle wiped them away again with a giggle.

“It’s the stupid hormones, still.” She reminded him and this time it was Aden’s turn to laugh.

“Oh, right. Like I could ever forget about that.” He teased her while rubbing a hand over her stomach caressingly that led for the baby to start kicking against his motions. They both relished in the moment for the time it lasted as the baby became still again.

“So…” Belle began, tilting her head to the side as she questioned him. “How did you manage to keep the present hidden from me for so long? Because it wasn’t in there before you went on that course.”

“Magic, sweetheart. It’s a skill that only I have.” Aden tried, adding his cheeky smile to it that made her grin back and raise her raise her eyebrows in a way that showed him that she really wanted to know the truth. “I gave it to Nic to keep until yesterday.”

“Wow. That must have been the first time that Nicole’s been about to keep her mouth shut about something.” Belle said in an awe-like manner to which Aden chose not to comment on.

“Right, now that’s out of the way, are you hungry? I think it’s time for your birthday breakfast!” He exclaimed excitedly; a feeling that spread to her.

“Hold on!” She reprimanded him as he moved his hand from the bump to her back to edge her along towards the door. “You’re suppose to be resting, remember? That doesn’t included cooking breakfast.”

“It’s good exercise for the shoulder.” He replied coolly as Belle gave him an incredulous look over her shoulder while her feet kept on carrying her out of the room.

“Since when has cooking been ‘exercise’ of any type?”

“Since I haven’t been able to do anything of the like for a while.” Aden remarked. He was no longer forcing her forwards as they climbed down the stairs but his hand remained on her back nonetheless.

“It’s for your own good. Besides, weren’t you complaining about not wanting to be my servant for 3 months before the exams?” She asked him when they reach the bottom of the stairs, throwing a smirk over her shoulder at him.

“Yes, but if you remember,” Aden corrected her. “I also said that it sounded good after being away for a few days. And it‘s been more than a ‘few days’ now, and it‘s sounding better and better with every passing day.”

“Aden-” Belle started to try and tell him how his condition was much more serious than hers when she had stepped foot into the kitchen and paused at the sight before her. The kitchen table wasn’t clear as it had been the previous night. Instead, it had a huge bouquet of various flowers with a small teddy holding ‘21’ in it’s paws in front of it and a wicker basket that she could see was filled with chocolate sitting on it. “Aden! Now this really is spoiling me.”

“If it’s any consolation, the flowers and the teddy are from me, but the basket is from Roman and Nic.” Aden told her as he leant against the counter in the middle of the kitchen, watching her as she walked over to the gifts to look at them closely and peeking into the basket while riffling through the different kinds of chocolate.

“It’s a great present. Got to be one of the best.” Belle laughed while Aden coughed dramatically. She rolled her eyes at him before turning back to the present and picking up the teddy to hug it close to her. “I said ‘one of the best’. Yours is always the best.”

“Good to hear.” Aden replied, pleased with her assurance. He continued to watch her with a smile on his face which soon turned into a chuckle at her expression that he could only class are cute when she rubbed her nose as it tickled after smelling the flowers. “Alright, so what do you want to eat?”

“Hmm…?” Belle turned to face him; the teddy still held to her chest with an arm keeping it tightly to her. “I’ll make it. Like I said; you should be relaxing.”

“Not a chance.” He scoffed. “It’s your birthday; you should be relaxing.”

“It’s just food, Aden, and I don’t mind. I don’t want you going out of your way to do something that you’re not meant to just because it’s my birthday.” She explained to him, placing the teddy back down next to the basket and heading towards the fridge.

“It’s fine, Belle. I can do this.” He followed her to stand next to her, eyes on her face as she shifted hers to his for a second.

“Fine. But I’m helping out too.” Belle relented, reaching out to take out certain items of food and passing them over to Aden, who had opened his mouth to say something. “Don’t argue with me and don’t make me angry on my birthday.”

“Ok, ok!” Aden reluctantly agreed. “Whatever you say. What are we making then?”

“Well, seeing as it’s my birthday, I want something with a lot of chocolate in and with it.” Belle smiled widely at him and he caught on with what she meant instantly.

“Pancakes?” He made sure as she nodded fervently at him, closing the fridge door to get the flour from the cupboard. “Alright, let the master work, then.”

“’The master’?” Belle questioned him in mock surprise. “That’s funny; I didn’t know that Roman was around.”

“Oh, ouch!” Aden winced with a hand over his heart as Belle stuck her tongue out at him while placing the complete ingredients onto the counter. “Right, just for that, you’re not getting any chocolate with your food.”

“Aw, you wouldn’t.” Belle pouted while Aden gave her a ‘wanna bet?’ look as he got started on the mixture. “Never mind; I have a whole basket full. All for me.”

“Good for you.”

“And none for you.” She taunted, standing next to him to throw handfuls of the chocolate chips into the batter before he could argue. “Is that enough?”

“I think there’s more chocolate than pancake mix in there.” Aden sighed dramatically, prodding the batter with the spoon to take a break as his arm began to ache. “May as well just eat the chocolate for breakfast.”

“Ooooh-”

“I was joking!”

---

Aden sat on the sofa with his feet up on the footrest as Belle sat next to him as closely as she could. Her head was on his good shoulder, her knees bent up to rest on his leg and an arm looped through his as it laid across her legs. The only reason why she didn’t have her other arm around him too was because of the teddy she clasped tightly to her. It hadn’t left her side in the 9 hours that she had had it, reminding Aden of a kid with their favourite toy.

“You know,” He whispered quietly into her hair, claiming her attention from the movie they were watching when he felt her head tilt slightly upwards towards him though her eyes still remained transfixed on the TV screen. “The teddy won’t disappear if you leave it alone for a few hours.”

“But I like having it with me. It’s soft and cute. Not to mention it says ‘21’, and guess what, Aden?” Belle asked, backing away a bit to look straight into his eyes with a mischievous smile before adding in a lower voice as if she were telling him a secret. “I’m 21 today!”

“Really? Would never have guessed that!” Aden played along, chuckling and leaning down to drop a kiss onto her lips. She smiled in response and then turned back to watch the film once again. The quietness last only a few seconds before Aden broke it once again. “Is this how you imagined your 21st then?”

“Yup.” Belle answered without hesitation or taking her eyes off the TV.

“Babe, be serious.” Aden scoffed. “Honestly, what was your plan for your 21st? How did you want to celebrate it way before everything happened?”

“’Before everything’ as in before the incident, or everything everything?” She questioned him back. He knew that by the last choice she was talking about before getting married and pregnant.

“Either.” Finally, Belle tore her eyes away from the movie to look back up at him and sighed.

“I wanted to do my 21st abroad somewhere.”

“I’m sorry that it didn’t happen.” Aden said with genuine regret, causing Belle to shrug nonchalantly and pushing herself up a bit in her seat so she could talk to him properly.

“I’m not. I’ve done that now, Aden. This was my idea before we even got together. Like, when I was 18. I’ve never thought about my 21st after that, to be honest.” She confessed, biting the inside of her lip as she thought back to see if there was an occasion recently that she had thought about it. “Anyway, I couldn’t have gone now, could I?” Belle let out a light laugh while smoothing her hand, which still grasped onto the teddy’s paw between her thumb and forefinger, over her stomach. “But it’s ok. It doesn’t sound so much fun anymore.”

“Oh, but being at home with me and doing nothing is your idea of fun?” He commented in a sarcastic tone that was stronger than the guilty one that was still there.

“Yes, it is, because you are here, alright?” Belle snapped, waiting a second as realisation hit him before carrying on determinedly yet softly. “It’s only been a few weeks, Aden. I want to cherish whatever I can for now.”

“I still feel bad for ruining your 21st. Even if it wasn’t going abroad.” Aden got out quickly as Belle’s eyes narrowed to remind him about what she had said. “That dinner that Amanda was going to organise, or the party-”

“The party that I didn’t want, you mean?” She interrupted with a half of a smile and Aden nodded. “I don’t want you to feel bad. That part of my life is over. I’ve been abrade, I’ve celebrated birthdays with friends. I probably still will. Just not this one. It’s time for us now.”

“Bet you never though that part of your life would be over so soon, huh?” Aden asked her, making her laugh and shake her head in mock despair.

“Well, I could say the same about you, couldn’t I?” Belle grinned at him while he laughed and shook his head in the same manner as she had done. “See? It’s not bad and it’s not just us. Everyone’s at university or working. Or travelling.” She added, her mind drifting back to when she had formulated the plan of having her 21st abroad and thinking about Lucas, who had been there back then. As had Cassie. “Or on the other side of the world. Besides, we have new things to celebrate, like our wedding, the baby, anniversaries…”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” He agreed as she trailed off with her list. “I just wish that we could have done something for your birthday.”

“Aden, please; don’t say another word about it. You’re acting like… like the world is ending or something.” Belle smiled as Aden laughed at her teasing words before leaning forwards to lay her head onto his shoulder once again. “I’ve loved today. You’re the one complaining, not me.”

“Alright. Just promise me something, Belle.” He waited for her reply, watching her turned her head to rest her chin on his shoulder now before raising her eyebrows in question. “Promise me that when I’m better, and preferably before the baby’s born, we’ll do something. A belated celebration.”

“Ok. If it’ll stop you from ruining the rest of my birthday by feeling bad, then I promise. When you’re all better.”

“Thanks.” Aden sighed in relief, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Belle’s eyes fluttered close for a second and then turned her head back towards to TV. “And I’m sorry for ruining your day. I just don‘t want you to miss out. It‘s a big deal, the 21st.”

“You haven’t ruined it. Yet!.” She joked, shuffling as close to him as she could. “I’m right where I want to be, ok? I’m the one who decided to cancel with Mum’s plans because I wanted to be here. With you.”

“And the baby.” He added with a soft smile as Belle nodded.

“Of course. Never forgetting the baby.” She said, rubbing her hand over the bump as Aden did the same gently. Like expected, the baby began to stir under it’s parents’ fingers; slowly at first so that only Belle could feel it until a few stronger motions let it become more pronounced.

Letting out a breath of content, she removed her hand to let Aden experience it as much as he could, knowing just how much he loved to feel the baby kicking, moving, or practically do anything, which wasn’t much at the current moment. Glancing up at him to see a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, with a look of admiration clear on his face, Belle knew that this was exactly where she wanted to be. Small moments like these that she had feared she could have lost only a couple of weeks beforehand made her appreciate them more, and she couldn’t think of a better way to spend the special day than with her own soon-to-be family.

---

Just a chapter full of mostly Adelle. I know it kind of makes Aden seem too perfect, but oh well… Hope you liked it.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all for the lovely comments I’m glad that you’re all enjoying it still. I’m beginning to worry that this fic’s starting to drag on, so I think it’s time to start coming to an end But the actual won’t be for a while yet, though these chapters will start to skip time, so be warned.

Chapter 67:

She leant against the doorway languidly; the big gray teddy that she had bought for the baby cuddled in her arms with her face half buried into it’s unbelievably soft head while looking into the nursery. With the late morning sun shining in through the big window, the room seemed larger and emptier than it really was. Of course, there was a rather spacious gap in the corner on the far end of the room where they had decided that a small sofa or something else to sit on would go, and packaged items were still scattered on the floor, including a few shelves that were left to put up and the odd bits and bobs that they had already bought to fill the drawers. But even with that all, it still seemed incomplete.

Belle’s eyes drifted to the plain, white walls of the room; the right one which now had a rainbow shining across it due to the star that Aden had long put up to hang by the window. She smiled at the colour that it added to the otherwise rather bland room. Without knowing if they were having a boy or a girl, only white, cream and yellow filled the room. There were hints of brown regarding any woodwork, and the odd splash of colour coming from the books that had taken refuge in the room. And with the teddy that she had brought from their room to place in the baby’s, there would be some gray too. Apart from that, Belle hated to admit it but she was starting to regret on deciding to not find out the sex of the baby.

Shaking her head, she stepped into the room and placed the huge plush toy onto dresser’s bare top, making sure that it balanced right. She took another look around the room as her arms found their way around her waist automatically when they found themselves now empty. Even with all the space, there wasn’t much left to buy for the room. Clothes were going to have to wait until after the baby was born, except for the few unisex onesies in white that had magically appeared in a drawer, along with a matching pair of socks, a hat and hand muffs to complete the outfit. Belle had coincidently discovered them the day after Amanda had came to see her for a late birthday visit.

The only thing that was truly missing from the nursery was the baby itself. They had left most of the other stuff that didn’t belong in the nursery to buy until the end so not to go entirely overboard, but seeing as there was almost exactly 12 weeks left until the baby was due, Belle began to wonder whether that time had now came. They didn’t have a baby monitor, or a pram, or even a car seat, which, she realised wryly, would be essential if they wanted to bring the baby home from the hospital.

Sighing at the realisation, Belle headed back out of the room, keeping the door open for once, and back to their own. Walking straight over to the bathroom, she trailed her fingers over the other teddy that Aden had given her for her birthday, which sat either on the bed or, as it were now, on top of the dresser and next to the trinket box. As much as she had loved carrying it around with her all the time, it had become impractical after that one day.

Once she had reached the door to their adjoining bathroom, which she knew for a fact wasn’t locked, she paused when the sound of running water became clearer. Without another hesitation, Belle pushed the door open, calling out Aden’s name as she did so.

“I’m in the shower!” He replied incredulously as she shut the door behind her.

“I know.” Belle said nonchalantly, pushing herself up to sit onto the counter halfway between the door and the shower itself. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Is everything ok?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” The concern in his voice, which she knew would grow in time if she didn’t say anything, made her dismiss his words quickly and easily.

“Well, can it wait until I get out, then?” Aden asked her with a hint of dryness to the words that made Belle laugh.

“Aw, c’mon. I never thought I’d see the day that Aden Jefferies would go shy on me. Especially considering that you’re only in the shower, and it’s not like I can see you through the all the steam and the condensation on the door.” She commented, leaning forwards slightly so not to get her back wet with the water that had cooled onto the mirror behind her.

“I’m not shy. It’s just a bit… awkward and weird taking to you from in here.” Aden defended himself. “Though, if you joined me then it wouldn’t be so bad at all.”

“Oh, I’d love to, honey. But I’ve already had a shower so it would be too soon. Sorry.” Belle replied with a small giggle, ruining her attempt on sounding serious.

“So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about that was too important to wait?”

“I was just thinking that we needed to go shopping.” She told him, ignoring the small sarcasm in his words, and then carried on hurriedly. “For more baby things.”

“Yeah, ok. That sounds great.” Aden said with genuine enthusiasm that easily spread to Belle. “Do you want to go today then?”

“Um…” She faltered, playing with the charms that hung down from her bracelet in a nervous way, glad that he couldn’t see her. ”Actually, I thought that, maybe, we could check the stuff out on the net first.”

“Belle.” Aden sighed heavily, his voice lowering in volume as he turned the shower off. “I have to go out at some time. It’s been weeks now.”

“We will! We’ll have to go shopping soon, anyway. Just not today.”

“I want to go baby shopping. In the city or Yabbie Creek. Not just around here.” He told her pointedly while stepping out of the shower, knowing exactly the excuses that she would make up to keep them either home or close to it.

“We will, Aden. I promise.” Belle paused, her mind working as fast as she could make it to think of a viable reason why they should stay at home that day. “But there’s no point in wasting a day out and about, with the two of us both getting tired or worn out for no reason. We should, you know, check things out first and find out where to go, what to buy and all that.”

“If that’s the real reason behind it, then yeah, I guess that does sound like a wise idea.” He agreed with her. Belle could tell that it was a reluctant agreement, but she brushed it aside as she watched him from behind while he wrapped a towel around him before picking up another to dry his face and rub at his hair. He turned to face her with his typical arrogant smile that made her raise an eyebrow. “Like what you see, do you?”

“No.” She said deadpanned causing him to laugh.

“Sure, sure. I always know when your eyes are on me, and what they’re doing.” Aden told her in a matter-of-fact tone, though accompanied by a cheeky grin.

“I was just thinking, actually, and staring mindlessly. You just happened to be in the way.” Belle informed him as he nodded in a mocking manner.

“Alright. If you say so…” Aden commented, holding back his smile as he walked over to where she sat and stood in front of her as if to figure her out. Belle held his eyes for as long as she could, doing her best not to give in. Unfortunately for her, he was better than her and Belle let out a sigh while her eyes drifted naturally down. Smoothing a hand on his, she took the towel out from his hands and looked back up at him with question in her eyes.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Fine. Why?” Aden shrugged, confused at her sudden enquiry though he had learnt that it wasn’t odd for her to ask him that out of the blue nowadays.

“Honestly, Aden. Don’t lie, or hide it from me.” Belle said sternly. Her eyes had once again averted, however this time it was to focus on the job at hand as she carefully began to dry off Aden’s torso, patting lightly around the injured areas in fear of hurting him. The stitches from his operation, which were now gone after 3 weeks, had left her a superficial reminder of everything that had happened in the shape of a pale scar down his chest.

“I’m not!” He exclaimed, insistently. “It’s true; the pain’s getting better, I’m not really taking anything for it, final few weeks of rehab, thank God-” Belle gave him a warning look at his verbal displeasure at the physiotherapy that he had undergone quite a lot. She had heard it all before, and each and every time her response that it was for his own good fell upon deaf ears. “-and the shoulder’s almost as good as new. I’m fine.”

Belle knew that the ignoring of her glare had been a ploy of his to emphasize the fact that he was ok, not that it did anything to help calm her fears. Even after the numerous times that he had told her so; when he had returned back to doing things as normally as he could, or when he tried to make sure that she was relaxing and getting things for her so she didn’t have to move unnecessarily, Belle couldn’t help but to feel guilty about the fact that it should be her helping him out, though she knew he wouldn’t accept it even if she hadn’t been pregnant.

Pursing her lips to stop herself from saying something, she picked up his hand from where it rested on the counter next to her as she carried on working with the towel in her hands. She gave it all of her attention while thinking whether it was worth arguing with Aden anymore about if he were fine or not. Especially when the answer was always the same, and she couldn’t win.

Although Aden’s silence was almost unnatural when they were on this topic, Belle chose not to comment on it as she swapped the right arm for the left one of his and continued to dry it as gently as she could. If her mind hadn’t been so focused on other things, she was fairly sure that the intimacy of her actions right then would be driving her raving hormones wild, as would the fingers that Aden now ran tenderly through her hair.

“What’s wrong?” Aden murmured, taking a step closer to her as she remained quiet. His hand caressed her cheek before gliding down her arm to her bent elbow and finally onto her stomach. His motions didn’t halt hers, though it did break her out from her silence.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Belle sighed, relaxing her posture a bit to compliment her words. “I’m just thinking.”

“You’re doing a lot of that today.” He joked, making Belle laugh as she finished up with her job.

“Don’t worry; I don’t expect you to understand the concept of it.” She teased lightly while folding up the dampened towel on her lap with extra care to avoid his eyes.

“Belle, tell me what’s wrong.” Aden pressed, tilting her head up with a hand under her chin to make her look at him when she repeated the same answer as before. “Belle.”

“It’s really nothing.” Belle smiled softly at him, dropping her hands onto her lap instead of playing with the towel that was on it. “You’re being paranoid. I really was just thinking.”

“Alright.” He accepted as he laid his hands onto her stomach, which for the moment gave him no response. “So what were you thinking about?”

“Just this and that.” She said vaguely with a minute wave of the hands. Giving her a pointed look, Aden urged her to carry on. “I was just thinking about how quickly time has gone, you know? There’s only 3 months left until the baby’s born. Well, they say 3 months, but it’s really about 2 and a bit. That’s nothing compared to how much time has already gone.”

“That’s good though, isn’t it?” Aden smiled at both the reminder of how soon their child would be with them, and Belle’s mini babble.

“Yeah. Well, it should be good. Hopefully.”

“Thing’s are calming down, Belle.” He countered her discrete words, knowing what the underlying message for them were. “Everything’s looking up and nothing bad is going to happen. There’s no reason to keep us locked up inside…”

Aden knew that he had got it spot on as a look of guilt crossed her face before she titled her head downwards without saying another word. With a rueful ghost of a smile on his face, he pushed her chin up again and pressed a kiss to her lips before she could either question him or turn away. He waited until she responded, which wasn’t long, and made the kiss deeper.

She could feel herself forgetting all her worries, no doubt his objective, as Aden ran the tip of his tongue along her bottom lip teasingly. He had let his hand curl up from under her chin to gently use his thumb to stroke her cheek while the other one was now on her back when he stepped as close to her as was possible in their position. One of her own hands had found their way up his chest and over his shoulder to clasp at the hair on the nape of his neck, still wet from the shower, while her other hand on his arm stopped her from jumping off the counter completely.

Breaking apart only when the necessity to breathe became obvious, the deep breath in Belle’s throat hitched when Aden began to trail a line of kisses along her jaw, towards her neck before nudging lovingly at her and burying his face into the crook of her neck for a moment. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders to keep him close, feeling him continue to pepper kisses against her skin as his arms came around her waist.

Too soon, Aden pulled away from her and stood up straight; giving her another brief kiss in the process. He gave her cheeky grin in response to her content sigh and smile which made her huff before throwing the towel from her lap over his shoulder and shoving him away from her slowly.

“You should to get ready and changed into something.” Bell advised him pointedly as Aden retracted his arms from her waist to her hips and then down her thighs to rest on her knees.

“If I must.” He grumbled dramatically. “Are we staying in then, or going out?”

“Probably at home mostly.” She shrugged coolly, making him smirk in a way that made her cautious.

“Good. Don’t have to wear everything then.”

“What? What does that mean?” Belle questioned him, perking up especially due to the suggestive tone that went with his words. Aden merely laughed at her words and headed back into the bathroom; his amusement still reaching her ears. With images and scenarios being conjured up in her hormone-ruled mind, Belle called out once again, this time rather feverishly. “Aden! What does that mean?!”

---

“Now that’s done, I need some food. I’m starving!” Aden exclaimed though he made no action to move.

“Sorry for keeping you.” Belle replied sarcastically. She sat up straight from where she had been cuddled up to him on the sofa, with his arm that had been around her shoulders to hold her close dropping down to his side. Almost as soon as she was settled back a bit, Aden lifted up the laptop from his legs and placed it onto hers before going to push himself up to stand. “Wait a second-”

“Don’t, Belle. I can make something to eat without doing some damage to myself, you know?” He cut her off abruptly and standing up.

“So can I, yet you still feel the need to treat me like this.” She countered, waving a hand around to show that she was still sitting down with a juice bottle and an empty bowl of crisps next to her that he had sorted out for her before they had began earlier in the afternoon.

“Like, what? You can’t tell me that I’m treating you any different than I would be if you weren’t so pregnant.” Belle pursed her lips at his words, knowing that arguing with him would dig her into a larger hole in this argument. “Exactly. Now, just sit here, and relax. Get some work done or something while I go and make something to eat. Think you can handle that?”

“I dunno. You might have to repeat that once more…” She teased as she stretched her legs out along the couch and settled into the cushions behind her with the computer open on her lap.

“Funny.” Aden said dryly while picking up the empty bowl and then leaning down over the back of the sofa to press his lips to her temple. “Just relax.”

“I’ll try.” Belle replied as he disappeared into the kitchen after giving her a smile and a thumbs up in a taunting manner, to which she stuck her tongue out at behind his back. Once he was fully out of her sight, Belle exhaled with tiredness and ran a hand through her hair while contemplating what to do. Since Aden’s accident, and as she progressed through her pregnancy, work had been on the light side, all of which she had already done.

Pressing the eject button on the side of her laptop, Belle waited as the CD player popped out so show her the item in there that she had been avoiding for a pretty long time. It had been there ever since Aden had bought the book about births and planning for it in substitute to going to birthing classes. The CD had look interesting, but that was before she had inserted it into her laptop on a day that she was home alone for a few hours. She had made her way through the list on the programme pretty easily, hardly taking anything in unless it actually looked vaguely interesting. It had basically been a waste of her time, considering that she had learnt more from general life and the book. That was until she had, to her relief, gotten to the last section on the CD.

The laptop began to whir as she pushed the player back in and began to load up. Belle was determined to get through it all this time around. It was only a short animation piece; much better than if it had been a real video, she had told herself, urging herself to believe it. But it still unnerved her as she began to click on the buttons on screen to take her to the place that she had left off at the last time.

“Belle!” Aden’s voice broke her out of her own little world only 10 minutes later when he appeared in the doorway between the two rooms, concern, and now mirth, written on his face.. “I’ve called your name at least 3 times already. What’s got you so captivated?”

Instead of replying, Belle shot him a dirty look for both disrupting her and putting her into the situation in the first place. Still chewing on her thumbnail with her other hand tucked under her elbow to deter herself from stopping the video she was watching, she stared at him for a moment longer, eyes narrowed, before he moved over to where she sat to see for himself.

“What have I done now?” Aden sighed, knowing that her glare was one of blame. He stood behind the couch to look over it and at the laptop that was still open on Belle’s lap. Tilting his head to see the screen and get rid of the small strip of sunlight that shone on it, Aden recoiled slightly at the sight. “Oh, right.”

“Aden, I hate you. I’m not doing this.” Belle finally spoke up, pulling her nail out of her mouth to point at the screen.

“C’mon, it’s not that bad. It’s just a little cartoon version anyway. I’m sure the reality of it is much more… pleasant.” A small wince accompanied his last word, unable to tear his eyes away from the birthing video.

“I saw that!”

“Belle, you‘re overreacti-”

“No! Don’t tell me I’m overreacting when you grimace at the sight of it!” She snapped at him, a look of complete fury over her face with a hint of fear appearing with time. Aden bit back a laugh at her words and swallowed the immediate witty remarks that had came to him. He was pretty sure that it wouldn’t end well for him had he not held his tongue.

“Well, maybe you should think of it this way;” He began, rubbing circles between her shoulders on her back in a soothing motion. “At least you won’t have to see it.”

“Oh, no. I’ll just have to experience it!” Belle argued, finally giving in and slamming the laptop lid down. “I’ve got a better idea; the baby can just stay here.”

“I don’t think that’s medically possible, sweetheart.” Aden laughed, coming around to the front of the couch where he perched on the edge of the armrest opposite her, sitting straight up so not to nudge his ribs. He was dressed in only his board shorts and a tank top, under which bandages wrapped up his upper half to help him heal. “Look, it’s all natural-”

“’Natural’?” She cut him off once again, her tone incredulous as she looked at him as if he was crazy. “That-” Belle tapped the top of her laptop; her words dangerously calm. “’That was not natural.”

“I thought you had gone through all this before. At least, I thought you knew where babies came from. Or did you believe that the stork still had something to do with it all at the end of the 9 months?” Aden joked, getting a cushion in his face for his efforts. “Hey!”

“I’m not stupid, Aden! Just never been this well informed, so to speak.” She sighed, crossing her arms and slouching to her side lazily. “And I never went through all this before. I lied.”

“Yeah, I figured that out, funnily enough.” He stated with a roll of the eyes. “Anyway, isn’t it better to be more informed than to be ignorant? Especially with something as important as this?” Aden knew his words had hit Belle when her eyes glided up to him and then down again while remaining quiet. He could almost see her mind working as she tried to come up with a way to dispute what he had said, only to come up blank. Letting out another sigh, Belle sat up a bit straighter once again.

“You’re only saying that cos it doesn’t affect you in any way.”

“Belle, I’m going to be there. It’ll probably affect me more than you.” He pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone, keeping his words soft to stop her from snapping at him again and to keep himself from laughing. He knew that it was wrong; that there was almost nothing funny with the situation, but he couldn’t help it. Ever since the initial fear of become parents, she had been so calm and collected when it came to the baby and almost eager with every aspect of the pregnancy. Yet now, when nearing the end of it and the actual event that she had to endure 9 months of carrying the baby around, she got thinking about what was going to happen and freaked herself out. Aden was sure that with time, and a few more attempts of viewing and understanding the whole concept of giving birth, Belle would get over her hysteria surrounding it all. “It’s alright to be scared, you know?” He broke the silence they had fallen into, nudging her foot with his. “I think every mother is. If not before, than after seeing that.”

“I’m not scared.” Belle insisted stubbornly. “Just wary.”

“Belle.”

“Aden.” She replied with the simple edge to it that he had uses to tell her to be honest.

“Fine, I get it. Drop the subject, right?” He asked her.

“For now.” Aden nodded and stood up once again. “Ok, I’ll get back to making some lunch. Anything you want in particular?”

“Would chocolate cake be pushing it?” Belle questioned him, her words lined with both hope and humour.

“Right now; yes.” He laughed while heading back into the kitchen. “Will a sandwich do for now?”

“Throw in an apple and I’ll be happy!”

“What? In the sandwich?” Aden asked her doubtfully, appearing in the doorway once again with a green apple in his hands just in time to see her roll her eyes upwards while setting the laptop to a side. “Here, catch.”

“Don’t you even dare!” She warned him even as her hands came up in a manner to catch it instinctively. “Aden!”

“I’m kidding. I know how bad your hand-eye coordination is, don’t worry.” He teased while walking up to her to give her the fruit straight into her hand.

“My hand-eye coordination is just fine, thank you very much!” Belle scowled as she pushed herself up straighter on the couch. “Your aim, on the other hand, is debatable.”

“My aim? My aim? Do you really want to start this argument, babe? Cos I can show you a lot of bruises and marks from your misaims.”

“I still manage to get you, don’t I?” She raised an eyebrow at him while taking a bite out of the crunchy apple, daring him to say something in retort to her words.

“Never mind.” Aden mumbled, almost stomping his way back into the kitchen and leaving a giggling Belle behind.

Still grinning a couple of minutes later, though it had died down considerably from boredom, she opened the laptop up once more. Pointedly ignoring the video that had automatically been paused, Belle pressed the arrow in the bottom right-hand corner to take her to the next page. It was the last thing on the CD and it was another thing that she had been putting off. Consisting of a checklist, the page had basic bullet points about how to be prepared for the birth, and any other important factors such as alternatives and complications; both of which Belle had pushed out of her mind. The stubbornness in her was determined to believe that everything was going to go the way they had planned, even if the ’plan’ was rather vague at that present time.

She shoved the laptop onto the couch while simultaneously shutting it and swinging her feet off onto the floor before pushing herself up off the couch. Trudging into the next room where Aden was, Belle threw the remains of the apple into the trash and washed her hands, all the while feeling his eyes stare at her from behind every two seconds.

“Everything alright?” Aden finally spoke up as she dried her hands. Not responding, she walked over to one of the stools and sat herself in it comfortably with her hands covering her stomach protectively.

“Aden, what’s our plan?” Belle answered his question with one of her own. The worry that she had intended on keeping to herself had seeped through into her words; something that he hadn’t missed, she noticed, as he threw her a glance over his shoulder while carrying on with making lunch.

“Plan for what, gorgeous?”

“The birth.” She added, using her elbows to support her weight as she leant back in her seat as much as she could. “You know, what’s going to happen when the time comes?”

“We need a plan?” Aden asked her, almost dumbfounded.

“Well, yeah. That’s what the book says.”

“Ok, how about,” He began, not bothering to stop as he chopped up some vegetables for the sandwich. “You go into labour, I take you to the hospital, the doctors to their thing, you do yours and a few hours later, we’ll have our baby.”

“Aden, be serious.” Belle chastised him, looking up at his back from where her eyes had glided down to the tiled floor.

“Who said I wasn’t?” Aden questioned her with a twinkle in his eyes and a cheeky look across his face as he shot her a smile over his shoulder quickly, only for it to fade when seeing her less enthusiastic one. “Belle, we have weeks yet. We’ll be ready by that time. Don’t stress out about it.”

“What if we don’t have weeks? I mean, things go wrong all the time, and people have babies early. 28 weeks; it’s a good chance of happening, Aden.” She blurted out, words that she had refused to think about coming to the tip of her tongue and beyond in an instant.

“Alright.” He sighed, his mood turning solemn as he dropped the knife and cleaned his hands on the towel to his side before coming to stand in front of her. “Where’s all this coming from? Are you worried, or scared? Or is there something else going on?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. I’m just trying to get prepared. We haven’t thought about this, or spoken about it when we really should have. I mean, what if something does happen or you’re not there-?”

“Where else am I going to be, Belle?” He said with a small laugh, taking one hand out of hers from where she had grasped onto them and pushing back her hair behind her ear. “I’ll be there. I’m not going to leave your side for the next couple of months just to make sure.”

“Funny.” She replied dryly, though a smirk tugged at the corner of her lips regardless. “And what if something goes wrong? Like, if you had to choo-”

“Is this like all your maternal instincts joining forces or something all of a sudden? Or is it like when people get cold feet before they get married, but it’s before having the baby instead?” Aden cut her off once again. His words were quick and a humour was forced out with them that brought on the silence afterwards as Belle bit her bottom lip before nodding and then speaking.

“You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?” She asked him softly.

“I was wondering how long it would take before you brought it up. Ever since my accident, I’ve seen you avoid it. TV shows, movies, books, magazines, newspapers…” He explained with a tone that made him seem reluctant to even admit to it and eyes that had seemed to have darken quickly. But, just as quickly, he smiled softly at her and kissed her on the forehead. “And I don’t want to hear it, ok? It won‘t happen.”

“We should at least talk about it.” She grabbed onto his hand, tightening her hold as much as she could when he went to turn away and back to what he had been doing.

“Belle-”

“No!” Belle interrupted fiercely, taking a deep breath in while choosing the right words. She dropped Aden’s hands to glide her own up his forearms to his elbows before smoothing them around his waist as far as she could in her sitting position and looked him straight in the eyes. “If something were to happen, and if - if - there was nothing else left, I want you to promise me that the baby will come first. That you will choose the baby. Because I know,” She carried on with calm and straightforward word when he pulled away from her slightly and his eyes averted away as he fixed his jaw to mask his emotions. “I know that if it were you, you’d say the same. Right? Right?”

“You don’t know that.” He told her tonelessly, bringing a smile to Belle’s face when she realised that his coldness was out of both fear and guilt.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Look, it’s not going to happen that way, alright? Everything’s going fine, so it’ll be fine. You‘ll be fine, and so will the baby.” Aden said, emphasizing the last word as he looked back at her with eyes back to the way she knew them; a clear pool of crystal blue. “Why are we even talking about this?”

“If you’re so sure that it’ll be fine, then what’s the harm in agreeing?” Belle countered, trying to lighten the atmosphere by tugging at his shirt gently and working her finger under the hem of it on his back. “We have to be prepared for anything. Chances are it won’t happen, but just in case-”

“Ok.” Aden stopped her, a sigh of defeat leaving his lips before he spoke again. “Ok. I promise. Now can we stop talking about it?”

“Yeah, sure.” She answered back with a bit of confusion. She watched as he nodded and headed back to the counter to finish off with what he had been doing before she had came in. There was something in his rather sharp and rigid movement that made her question him. “Aden, are you really ok with it?”

“No.” He let out a dry laugh, shaking his head without turning to look at her. “But you’re right; we have to be prepared. And there’s no point in arguing, cos we both know in the end, I’ll end up agreeing. Doesn’t mean I like it though, or want it.”

“I don’t want it either, Aden.” Belle hurriedly assured him, climbing off the stool and going to stand next to him. “And I certainly don’t like the idea of it either, but yeah, we have to be prepared.”

“But can we move back onto the happy and fun stuff now? Like shopping and the next scan and what you‘re going to name our little girl?” He smirked at her as she gave him a delicate squeeze to his arm.

“Or what you’re gonna call our boy.” She reminded him, both of them chuckling at the memory of the bet. She wasn‘t so sure about Aden, but she was starting to regret making such a hasty decision with the bet. Somehow, she didn‘t think it was going to work out too well for her. Shaking her head, Belle pushed it all out of her mind for the time being, and focused on the present. “You fancy going for a walk on the beach?”

“Yeah, sure.” Aden replied, surprise colouring his words though he didn’t let it faze him. “Later on or after we’ve ate?”

“Um… How about after we‘ve eaten, and we the grab something for dinner at the Diner?” Belle answered coyly, smiling wide as he looked at her as if she had gone mad.

“Wow. A walk on the beach and hanging out at the Diner. All in one day. What have I done to deserve this?”

“I guess it’s just your lucky day!”

---

Hope you all liked it as much as I liked writing it!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Sooooo sorry for the wait. Unfortunately, even though it’s the holidays now, I think updates will still be irregular seeing as I have exams coming up . But I will update as much as I can as quick as I can!

A huge thank you to Naomi for proofing this for me!

Chapter 68:

Letting out a silent sigh of content, Belle looked out of the thin slits that she had permitted herself to see through with her eyelashes blocking out the morning sun that shone directly onto her. Pulling the sheets closer to her, she curled up into herself as Aden vanished into the bathroom for a few seconds before reappearing. Dressed in just his jeans that slung low on his hips, Belle unashamedly drank in her husband’s fine form and blamed it all on her pregnancy hormones for her inability to tear her eyes away.

Her eyes followed him as he crossed the room towards the wardrobe which was out of her sight. Slowly, her eyelids closed and she could hear him shuffling around as he pulled out a belt that she had most probably misplaced after wearing it one day. A lazy smile broke out on her face as she recalled the several times that Aden had whined about her wearing his clothes and then misplacing them. He had only given up when she had told him he sounded like a girl; something that she had known would bruise his ego and shut him up.

A shadow fell upon her, blocking both the heat and the light from her body, just moments before a light breeze tickled her skin and made the wind chimes that hung up on their ceiling tinkle. It didn’t take a genius to work out that Aden had opened the balcony doors, nor that he had done it to wake her up.

“Ah, so you are up. I was beginning to think you’d entered hibernation.” He joked when she let out a low groan and twisted around in the bed to face away from both him and the sunlight.

“Time?” She mumbled without bothering to open her eyes.

“10:15, and you’re meeting Mattie at 11.30.” Aden added and Belle let out another low groan. Opening her eyes, she blinked a couple of times before tilting her head up a bit to look at the clock that usually resided on the bedside table on Aden’s side to see for herself. A smirk came upon her face as Belle caught sight of a couple of items that blocked her view.

“Well, well, I’d have never, Aden.” She began while pushing herself up into a sitting position, her voice low and husky from both the early morning and a sudden bout of lust rushing through her.

“What?” He asked her in genuine innocence as he looped his belt around his waist.

“Whipped cream and chocolate sauce?” Belle informed him, nodding towards where the two items remained on the table next to the bed. “Throw in a pair of handcuffs and who knows what fun we could have.”

“Is that a suggestion?” Aden asked her with a sly grin before disappearing into the bathroom again.

“It’s whatever you want it to be.” She replied, giggling and gave him a wink as he re-entered the room with a tray in his hands.

“Well, I did intend it to be for this, but if you’d rather…” He left the sentence unfinished while pausing at the edge of the bed. Belle looked as if she was deciding but they both knew what her answer was going to be.

“If only.” She sighed, patting the bed and shuffling along to give him space to sit and place down the food. “No extraneous activities, remember?”

“I’ve got the all clear. Remember?” Aden countered, whispering the words into her ear to make her shiver. They had visited the hospital just the previous day where the doctors had told them that, 6 weeks after the incident, Aden was looking back to normal. Though his ribs were still achy and painful at times, everything else had healed nicely and he was allowed to get back to most day-to-day things, such as going to the gym and driving as long as he was careful and didn‘t strain himself.

“How about you give me my breakfast, and then we can have this discussion in another few weeks?” Belle instructed, all of her initial feelings of arousal dying down once she was fully awake and able to control herself as she was use to doing.

“I’ll remember that.”

“I know.” She spoke around the bite of the toast she had taken. On the tray was another plate of pancakes and a bowl of fruit, and, she had just noticed, there was a glass of juice on the table behind the clock. Belle had decided against asking him why the cream and sauce had ended up next to bed while the rest of the food in the bathroom, realising that she didn’t really want to know the answer to that one. “So…”

“Yeah…?” Aden looked up from where he had been skimming the tips of his fingers along the side of her protruding stomach under the covers, hoping to either feel or make the baby kick.

“When are you leaving then?”

“Well, Nic said she’d be here for 11, but knowing her, she’ll be late. So I don’t really know.” Aden answered with a quizzical face. He shook it off quickly and eased himself off the bed to finish getting changed and ready.

“What’s the plan for today? Apart from hanging out, that is.” Belle asked him casually as she shifted in the bed. The warmth of the morning was getting to her, so she pushed back the sheets off her and climbed on top of the bed, using the pillows to rest back against and support her.

“If that’s your way of telling me not to overdo it, then you can relax. We’re just going into the city for a spot of shopping.” He informed her with a cheeky smile as he pulled on a t-shirt.

“Shopping with Nicole? You sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?” Belle questioned him with fake concern while forking a couple pieces of fruit into her mouths followed by a small portion of a pancake.

“Don’t worry. I can handle Nicole.”

“Yeah, well, make sure you don’t ’handle’ her too well, alright?” She warned him, making his eyebrows shoot up in surprise before letting out a chuckle.

“As if I would do that. With Nicole, too.” Aden shook his head, adopting a contemplating tone as he paused in front of the mirror and ran a hand through his still wet hair. “She’s a bit close to home, don’t you think? I’d go for someone you didn’t know… Like from the city.”

Belle had already pulled one of the pillows onto her lap when he had paused, knowing that his following words were going to be taunting her. Almost as soon as the words had left his mouth, she threw it straight at him. It hit him in his back; lower than she was aiming for but she put that down to the fact that he was so far away and she had just woken up. Within seconds, however, Aden had picked up the fluffy item and had it ready to return it in the same manner.

“Don’t throw it back!” She reminded him, pointed towards the food that laid in front of her. “Otherwise you’re cleaning it up.”

“Oh, you are so lucky there.” He remarked, holding the pillow between both his hands and pointing it in her direction as he walked back over to the bed where he replaced it.

“Oh, I know.” Belle smiled sweetly, accepting the kiss that he dropped onto her upturned lips when he leaned over to lay the pillow down behind her. “Hmm…” She murmured seconds before he pulled away to leave the lingering sense pleasure on her lips.

Instinctively, she slid the tip of her tongue over her lips while sucking them in slightly to rid the tingling that he had left upon them. Her appetite for food had not-so-miraculously disappeared; instead replaced by a hunger for something else that had seemed to be forth on her mind a lot even though she always pushed it away immediately, just like then. Clearing her throat discreetly, Belle pushed herself up from the bed carefully, making sure that she didn’t nudge the tray the wrong way to cause a spillage.

“Hey, where’re you going?” Aden twirled around from where he was trying to clip on his watch when she began to pass him by. “What about breakfast?”

“I’ll have it after I get ready.” She assured him, pausing reluctantly in front of him.

“But I made it for you to have it in bed so you can chill for a bit. That’s why it’s called ‘breakfast in bed’. Kind of defeats the purpose otherwise.” There was a hint of disappointment on his face while his mouth was threatening to turn into a pout.

“I will. I promise, I will. I just need a shower right now. It’s hot and I feel all icky.” Belle informed him, placing her hands onto his waist to pull him closer to her as she pushed herself onto her toes and did the worst thing that she could have done in her current predicament; kissed him. Backing off soon after, she smile wryly against his lips, keeping her eyes closed while speaking. “You had to get me pregnant in the summer, didn’t you?”

“Sorry.” Aden chuckled, pressing his lips to hers briefly before she pulled away once again. This time, she removed her hands from his and manually detached his from her body, taking a few steps away to keep him out of reach. It took only a couple of seconds as the familiar feeling of want built up inside of her, and for the baby to kick. “Baby wanting food?” He questioned her as Belle’s hand covered and rubbed the spot where she could feel the motions the strongest.

“No. Baby wanting shower.” She told him while walking towards the bathroom.

“Make sure it’s a cold one, then.” He instructed her offhandedly while turning back to where his phone was buzzing on the dresser top.

“Wha-what?” She faltered at his words. Even the nonchalance tone to them made her doubt his coolness about them.

“The shower.” Aden said slowly as he gave her a funny look. “You said you were feeling hot. So have a cool shower rather than the boiling one you usually take.”

“Oh. Yeah, right.” Belle replied, trying to laugh it off. Aden’s forehead creased as he drew his eyebrows together to look at her oddly.

“Everything ok?”

“Uh-huh.” Belle put on the best smile that she could manage, hoping to convince him before taking the last two steps to enter the bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She locked it straight after, not even wanting to take the risk of Aden walking in casually or to check up on her.

Letting out a shaky breath, she let her head fall forwards onto the door with a low thud and a dull ache on her forehead, vowing to herself to seek out help about everything she was keeping inside herself. Which, she reckoned, was going to sooner or later cause her to spontaneously combust and that would certainly not be good.

---

“God, Mattie. You don’t understand. It’s just so… Argh!” Belle couldn’t even get the right word to form as she slumped her head back against her best friend’s headboard of her bed. She waited for some kind of response from where Mattie was standing to her right, in front of the long mirror. When there was none, Belle lifted up her head to look towards her, expecting to see her towelling her hair dry as she been doing minutes beforehand and not inspecting herself in the mirror the way she was. “What the Hell are you doing?”

“What do you think? Yes or no?” Mattie asked her.

“If the question’s whether or not you’re losing it, then yes.” Belle answered with scepticism. “What are you doing?”

“I was just wondering if I’d suit being pregnant or not.” She shrugged, smoothing a hand over her makeshift bump from where, Belle could now tell, she had stuffed a pillow up her top. “You make me jealous.”

“You sure that’s it? Like, you’re not really pregnant, are you?”

“Just because you’re having a kid, doesn’t mean everyone else has to.” Mattie huffed with a frown marring her face while readjusting the pillow to make it look more natural.

“I was just saying…” Belle defended herself, raising an eyebrow in her direction. “You alright? Your moods are crazier than mine right now.”

“I’m fine. Just getting a bit broody, I think.” She brushed aside when happy with her work. “There. What do you think?”

“That you and Ric really need to have the talk.” Belle joked, settling back against the headboard and placing her own hands on her own genuine bump.

“Alright, so you were saying?” Mattie prompted her though she still paid a bit too much attention into the mirror and her new form. “Have you thought about the fact that you’re just looking too much into it? It can’t be as bad as you’re saying, otherwise I doubt you’d have resisted for so long.”

“No, Mattie, seriously. Every. Freaking. Time. It‘s like I have no control over myself anymore.” She explained slowly, frustration returning almost as soon as it had vanished.

“Well, you don’t. It’s all due to your crazy hormones.” Mattie replied. “Which is all due to your pregnancy, and I honestly have no idea why you’re complaining.”

“Why I’m complaining?!” She practically cried. “Where have you been for the past month and a bit? Aden’s still injured, so it’s not like we can do anything to actually… you know.”

“Satisfy your needs?” Belle winced at Mattie’s blunt words. She couldn’t even bring herself to think the words in fear of digging up her currently buried desires, let alone say them. “Ok, well how about you talk to him about it?”

“Oh, ok. Yeah, that should be a blast!” She began sarcastically. “’Aden, do you reckon you could perhaps stop walking around half naked, touching me, kissing me or even looking at me before I cause the two of us some harm one day by jumping you?’ Somehow, I don’t think he’ll take me all that seriously.”

“Yeah… Well…” Before Mattie could get the rest of her words out, the laughter that she had tried to keep inside burst out.

“Thank you, Matilda! So nice to know that I can always come to you with my deepest secrets and problems.” Belle scowled as Mattie leaned against the cupboard and faced the other girl, dissolving into a fit of giggles. The pillow that had been held between her body and top had fallen out onto the floor in her sudden movements.

“I’m sorry. I am.” Gasping, Mattie took in several deep breaths and rearranged her face to look serious. It lasted a less than half a minute; a twitch pulling at the corner of her mouth before the laughter rang free once again. “Sorry!” Mattie got out just as Belle threw the teddy that had been sitting next to her on the bed towards her.

“So you-” Picking up the decorative cushion from next to her, Belle hurled it towards the girl, who was desperately catching her breath. “-should be!”

“Ok, ok! Stop it; I’m not laughing. I’m not.” The loud amusement was beginning to die down into a grin; the words, it seemed, more to convince herself than Belle. “I’m not. Ok, so…?”

“What am I supposed to do?!”

“How about…?” Trailing off, Mattie picked the pillow back up again while thinking of a good suggestion. “How about thinking about other things?”

“What do you mean?” Belle questioned her hurriedly. “And will you stop that? It’s starting to freak me out!” She added when Mattie once again replaced the pillow under her top.

“Like, whenever you find yourself in that position again, think about something totally unrelated and kind of a passion killer.” Mattie explained, ignoring her other words. Belle nodded and took in the idea for a moment.

“I think you’re forgetting the fact that, for that, I’m going to need some control. And when I’m in that position, most of my self-control goes flying out the window. The amount that’s left is the reason why I’m here complaining.”

“Then maybe you should just screw it all and give in. Doesn’t seem like you’re going to find a better way to get rid of it, and to be honest, I don’t think you want to.” She pointed out to the pregnant girl, not even bothering to hide the heavy sigh that she let out with the words.

“Mattie, if that was the answer I was looking for, then why would I be here? I’d be at home. In bed. Still!” Belle exclaimed with a hint of light-heartedness though her own frustration hadn’t lifted at all.

“Are you seriously telling me that if you gave Aden the opportunity, he wouldn’t take it?”

“That’s not the point!” She argued and slid down on the bed slightly as she felt herself starting to both grow bored of the argument and feel disheartened.

“What’s the point then? He’s not stopping you. You’re stopping you. And then you moan about it.” Mattie told her straight out, nothing tact about her words at all. Belle turned her head to glare at her only to find that Mattie was currently more interested in her hair than her. Frowning, she turned back towards the front and towards the vanity table where there were a copious amount of photos stuck to the mirror.

“It’s more than just Aden and I in this, Mattie.” Belle finally spoke up, her voice softer and blank of the defensiveness that had lined it before.

“Well, if it’s more than just Aden and you, then something’s obviously wrong.” Mattie said suggestively. It took a moment for it to hit Belle, but as soon as it did, a look of disgust crossed her face and her head snapped around to the other girl.

“Oh, gross! That’s not what I meant! It’s just that the physio said-”

“-no extraneous activities. I know.” Mattie interrupted her. “But the last time I checked, sex wasn’t always so extraneous. Never heard of the term ‘sexual healing’? Just don’t break the bed or anything.”

“Easier said than done.” Belle said, deadpanned, as total shock and a bit of wariness covered Mattie’s face.

“What? You haven‘t-?”

“No!” Belle quickly cut her off before she got the wrong idea. “I was talking about the actual whole concept of giving in. I mean, on the one hand, it might just do the both of us some good, but on the other…”

“Ok.” Mattie spoke up after a beat, wondering whether she was supposed to know what was ‘on the other hand’. “You have officially lost me.”

“Never mind. I just needed to vent about it.” She dismissed it with an airy wave as her mood dispersed away.

“If you say so.” Mattie complied, turning in her direction as a thought passed her mind. “But I still think you ought to talk to him. Hey, you never know; Aden could be messing with you. It‘s the kinda thing that he would do.”

“Please. Aden knows that I wouldn’t hesitate to file for a divorce if he even thought about something like that.” Belle said matter-of-factly though something inside of her began to wonder whether Mattie was right or not.

“You think I’m right, don’t you? I can see them wheels working in your head.”

“I’m just considering the possibility. I doubt it though. Aden wouldn’t be so subtle or passive about it.” Belle argued with both herself and her. “He’d just-”

“Hey, Mattie. Did I leave-?” A voice interrupted her several seconds before the door swung open and Ric’s eyes drifted from Belle to Mattie, where they widened, before averting to the opposite side of the room. “Hey Belle. Didn’t know you were over.”

“Uh… yeah. Didn’t Mattie tell you?” She answered as Ric headed for the desk where she saw his phone was lying. Out of the corner of her eyes, Belle had caught Mattie spinning around so fast that it was amazing her head hadn’t fallen off and then tugging out the pillow. Sparing her a glance, while keeping a bay her amusement, she could practically see the embarrassment on her face from behind as she refused to turn around again but pretending to be more interested in some clothes. “So, where are you off to then, Ric?”

“To the city.” He replied, the awkwardness clear on his face, in his words and in his posture. “To see Drew, actually. Anything you want me to pass on?”

“Just that I’m still waiting on my birthday present.” Belle told him with a wide and sweet smile.

“I’ll let him know. Catch up with you later, yeah?”

“Sure. See ya.” She called after him as he left, looking as if he couldn’t get out of the room quick enough. The door had just slammed shut when the she collapsed into a fit of chortles. “Oh, Mattie! Did you see the look on his face?!”

“That wasn’t funny.” She reprimanded Belle with a clipped tone, finally turning away from the clothes with a look of relief on her face. “I’m never going to live that down.”

“Just look at the bright side; at least it was only Ric. And now you know what his reaction would be if you were pregnant.” She giggled, struggling to calm herself down. “Plus, you’ve totally taken my mind of my problem, thanks.”

Merely giving her an unimpressed look, Mattie stayed silent and got back to her hair as quiet giggles emitted from Belle, which then receded into a small shaking of the shoulders before completely stopping.

“Ow, ow…” Belle let out a deep breath and let a small giggle erupt with it, while rubbing her stomach. “Ok, I think that was too much excitement for the baby.”

“More like punishing you for being so mean to it’s favourite aunty.“ Mattie muttered as she threw aside the towel she had been using on her hair and turning back towards Belle. “Is it still kicking?” Mattie perked up, glee filling her words easily. She sat on her knees next to her best mate on the bed, hands clasped together on her lap to keep her itching fingers away.

“A bit too much.” She winced in pain as another good aim at her internal organs hit her.

“Probably because it’s all squashed in that little bump of yours. I swear; I’ve seen women halfway through their pregnancy with a bigger stomach than you.” Mattie told her with a chastising tone that made Belle scoff.

“Not my fault. Another thing that I can’t control.” She sighed before carrying on with a subdued tone. “There’s a lot of loss of control over your own body when you get pregnant.” There was a pause where her words hung for a second until Belle inhaled and grabbed Mattie’s wrist. “Here. You’ve been dying to feel, right?”

“Seriously?!” Mattie asked in disbelief, the eagerness on her face giving Belle the answer that she was hoping for. Without another word, her hand was glued to the position that Belle had guided it to. “Wow…”

“Powerful, huh?”

“That’s one way to put it.” Mattie murmured with her palm still pressed flat against her abdomen. “Oh my God, this is so much fun! Why have you kept me from this for so long?!”

“’Fun’?” Belle exclaimed. “That’s not the word you would use if you were in my position right now.”

“But I’m not, am I? I’m in this position and it’s great fun. Oh, I can’t wait for the baby to be born now!” Mattie squealed suddenly as Belle’s eyebrows shot up.

“Ok. That’s enough of baby stuff for you then. One thing at a time, alright?” She told her, prying her hand away from her body while readjusting herself on the bed into a more comfortable and closed stance.

“Still worried about the birth?” Belle didn’t reply to her question; instead paying more attention to her fingers and rings. “I thought you said you watched the rest of that movie thingy?”

“I did.” She frowned. “Didn’t help much. It’s still really, really, really not right. Honestly, it’s just something that I could do without thinking about. And not that whole ‘it’ll be worth it in the end’ crap that seems to be the only thing that people care to add to it.”

“Well, I guess, it will be. At least, for me it will be. You suffer the pain; I get a baby to play with.” She joked and Belle rolled her eyes while a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. Even the wrong words, which if it had been from Aden or someone else she would have argued against and perhaps hurt them, made her smile when they came from Mattie. There wasn’t much doubt in Belle’s mind that Mattie would be her baby’s favourite aunt, not that she would ever tell her. “So, how’s my little Beanie doing nowadays? Only 9 more weeks to go!”

“Yeah, good.” Belle pointedly ignored Mattie’s nickname for her baby. She had told her numerous times to stop but seeing as it hadn’t worked, she had now just given up and had began finding the term almost cute. “I would show you the scan from yesterday, but I’ve just realised I left it at home.”

“Belle!”

“I’m sorry!” She quickly apologised to her best friend’s outrage and shrugged. “I was in a rush to leave. I had left it out so I would remember to bring it.”

“Well, that worked, didn’t it?” Mattie grumbled as she repositioned herself to cross her legs. She slumped forwards a bit to place her chin on her hand with a clear upset face.

“Hey! I was in the middle of a crisis. I’m surprised I made it here in one piece!”

“And without jumping every guy you passed- Oi! Ow, that hurt!” Mattie complained, rubbing furiously at the side of her head where Belle had hit her. “Right, we’re not going to talk about that anymore, then.”

“Good idea.” She replied. “What time is it, anyway? Shouldn’t we be heading off if we want to grab something to eat first?”

“Yup. But first…” Mattie trailed off as she pushed herself off the bed and towards the chest of drawers at the side of the room. Belle watched in both curiosity and confusion as she dug out a small box and placed her other hand on top of it to cover it from her. “I know it’s late, but I only got it a few days ago.”

“Mattie, you didn’t have to get me anything. I was only joking about Drew.” Guilt flooded her instantly as she recalled the words to Ric only a little while beforehand.

“I wanted to. Besides it was your birthday. I think it’s obligatory for me to get you a little something.” Climbing back onto the bed, she pushed the small black box into the waiting girl’s hand. “Now open it and tell me that it’s the best thing that anyone’s ever given you. I won‘t tell Aden!”

“Let’s see what it is firstly.” Belle laughed, pulling off the top of the box to see it’s contents. Her breath caught in her throat once she saw it, pushing aside the cotton that cushion it both under and above. “Mattie, it’s beautiful.”

“Read the back.” She instructed with zeal. Belle did as she was told, picking up the thin gold chain from the box with the tips of her forefinger and thumb. Pulling it free of the box, the oval locket that hung at the bottom of it gleamed in the light. The number ‘21’ and a ribbon cross, which she assumed represented a kiss of sorts, shone in a whiter tone and took up only the bottom left-hand corner to let the rest of the gold background give its emphasis.

Laying it in her palm, Belle turned it over to see the inscription that Mattie wanted her to read. It wasn’t too small, but it was enough so that it would remain private. ’For my best friend. Always. Love, Mattie.’

“I didn’t know what else would fit. So I kept it short.” Mattie broke the silence, watching Belle run the pad of her thumb over the words.

“Short and sweet.” Belle told her, remembering Aden’s words to her about the inscription on the trinket box. Tears sprang to her eyes though she managed to keep them back. “Mattie, it’s beautiful! I love it.”

“Yeah? Be honest! Because if I see it hanging of that stupid teddy’s head in a month’s time, I’ll know!” Neither one need more of a clarification to know that the ‘stupid teddy’ was the one that Aden had given her for her 21st. Surprisingly enough, it was her favourite gift, though the box and now the locket followed closely behind.

“I am being honest. I’ll put pictures in them as soon as I get home and I’ll never take it off!” She insisted, replacing the jewellery back into the box before pushing herself forwards to embrace her best mate. “Thank you. So much.”

“It’s alright. I’m glad you liked it.” Mattie replied, returning the hug as well as she could. Backing off, she looked at Belle earnestly before continuing. “It’ll remind you that no matter what, I’m always here, yeah? Even though you’re now a wife and are going to be a mother.”

“I know that, Mattie. I think it should be me telling you that!” She laughed, brushing her fingers along her eyes to get rid of any stray tears. “I’m the one who came here and ranted about my problems to you. And I’m sure there’s going to be more soon.”

“Well, I’ll be here. And I’m sure that sooner or later, it’ll be moaning to you, so don’t worry about it.” She pointed out and then shrugged coolly but with a twinkle in her eyes. “Though I guess, if you really feel bad-”

“I didn’t say I felt bad.” Belle interrupted.

“-you’ll let me feel the baby kick more often. Say, every time I’m near?” Mattie suggested innocently as Belle chuckled.

“We’ll have to see about that.”

---

Had to get Mattie back into it! I dunno if it’s a bit OOC, but I hope it was good nonetheless.

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you all once again for the lovely comments. Seriously, I love each and every one of them And here's another chapter with another character that I just love writing...

Chapter 68:

“…have seen the look on his face, Aden! He was more shocked than you were when I told you I thought I was pregnant!” Belle laughed as she retold the events to him of that day. “And then he stuck around for about a minute trying to make conversation with me before bailing as quick as he could.”

“Uh-huh.” Aden murmured almost distantly. The two of them were sitting on the couch, her feet resting on his lap while he painted her nails for her. It had taken a few pouts and batting of her eyelashes before Aden had given in with a roll of the eyes and a deep sigh.

“You know, I should call Drew and see if Ric said anything about it. I bet he would have. What do you think?” She asked him while munching on a couple more of the salted popcorn from the big bowl on her lap that she had made for herself.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Is that a ‘yeah, sure’ that he would have said something, or a ‘yeah, sure’ that I should call him?” She prodded, looking at him oddly though Aden’s eyes never once averted from his task of painting her clean nails in the chocolate brown shade. “Aden?”

“Hmm…?” He replied with the same tone as before.

“You’re not even listening to me, are you?” Belle realised, voicing her thoughts to him as a question.

“Yuh…“ Receiving no response other than another hum of inaudible words, frustration got the better of her.

“Aden?” Getting no reply, she took a handful of her food and threw it in his direction, aiming straight for his head while raising her voice. “Aden!”

“What? Hey!” He flung his hand out to stop the single kernels that she had dug out to hit him with. When that didn’t work, Aden replaced the brush back into the bottle to free up a hand to grab onto hers. “Stop it!”

“You’re not listening to me!”

“I was. I am!” Aden quickly corrected himself as she pulled her wrist out of his grasp to drop it back onto her lap.

“Yeah?” Belle asked in a challenging voice; eyes hard as she stared at him dangerously. “What did I say?”

“Something about Mattie and Ric.” He said easily with a small shrug.

“And…?”

“And…? And…” Racking through his brain, Aden winced when he realised that he had not, in fact, been paying as much attention to her as he had first thought. There had been many times where he was able to bluff through a conversation with her and he was sure that it was occurring more often nowadays then ever before. This time, however, he was totally blank. “And nothing?” He tried, hoping that it was only a trick question.

“No!” Belle exclaimed, throwing another popcorn at him.

“Well, what was it then?”

“I’m not telling you now!” She scoffed at him. Aden gave her an unimpressed look and gently squeezed her leg to perhaps coerce her.

“Belle, c’mon-” He began softly only for her to cut him off with a shake of the head and a stubborn glare.

“Nope. Your loss.”

“Fine. Never mind.” Aden sighed before taking the small brush back into his fingers and continuing with her nails. He heard her huff while he did so, childishly wriggling her toes to make his job harder until he placed the bottle down onto the table and grabbed a hold of her foot to keep it still.

“Ow, Aden! Watch it! My feet are killing me as it is.” Belle cried out.

“And so are mine. I went shopping with Nicole, for God’s sake. But you don’t see anyone giving me a pedicure.” He grumbled. The words that he had said hit him a second later, accompanied by his wife’s amused look. “Not that I would want a pedicure or anything.”

“Why not? Plenty of guys get pedicures. Oh, it could be fun! I could do your nails, and then we could do each other’s hair and then who knows! Maybe even a pillow fight!” She added with a cheerful yet deadpanned tone.

“I’m liking the sound of the pillow fight.” Aden said with suggestive tone that she tried to ignore with all her might. “You’re not going anywhere near my hair, though.”

“Aw, but I could make you look really pretty!” Belle gushed with a giggle, admiring her new toes when he told her that they were done. “Good job. I think this might have to be a weekly appointment.”

“Um… Do I not get a say in this?” He inquired while twisting in the couch to face her properly and dropping the closed nail varnish pot onto the side.

“Nope. You’re my servant, remember? You do as I say.” Belle told him sweetly, batting away his hand when he reached for some of the popcorn. “The food is for us. Go make your own if you want some.”

“Wait, what? So I come home, as tired as you are, yet I have to paint your nails for you and make my own food when there’s some right here? When you get to laze around doing nothing?” Aden asked her in mock outrage. There was a small twitch at his lips that he managed to keep at bay, though the teasing twinkle in his eyes was much harder to control.

“No, you have to paint my nails for me and make your own food when I have spent the whole afternoon being dragged around Yabbie Creek with Mattie while carrying your child. Who, for your information, is getting quite big and heavy.” Belle countered. “And I made this popcorn myself.”

“Yeah, well…” Aden tried to argue. He knew that mentioning the fact that he was still a bit sore would only work against him in the long run, and admitting to her what him and Nicole had gone shopping for was a definite no. Letting out a breath with defeat, he spoke half-heartedly. “I still painted your nails for you.”

“And you did a very good job, honey.” She said almost patronizingly. Just as Aden had opened his mouth to ridicule her tone, the doorbell rang out loud throughout the house. “Ah, saved by the bell, huh? I’ll get it.” Belle said with a laugh, handing over the bowl to him and swinging her legs to the floor before pushing herself up. As she did so, she reached over to mess his hair up and then got away quicker than he could possibly retaliate in any way.

“What was that for?” Aden called after her while getting up also. Walking a bit awkwardly with her still wet nails, Belle simply threw him a grin over her shoulder as he headed towards the kitchen with the now empty bowl and then unlocked the front door. Still laughing silently when she pulled it open, Belle almost froze when she saw the person on the other side.

“Smiling even before you see me! I see my charm precedes me.”

“In case you didn’t notice, the smile died down when I saw you.” Belle told him matter-of-factly.

“Good one. Gonna let me in then?” With a subtle roll of the eyes, she smiled and opened the door wider to do as he asked. “Where’s Aden?”

“Not even going to ask how your niece or nephew’s doing?” She chastised lightly while leading him towards the kitchen. They had only made it halfway there when Aden appeared in the doorway between the two rooms. “Aden, look who-”

“Hey, little bro.” Justin cut her off casually.

“Justin. Hey, what’re you doing back?” Aden greeted him with more than just surprise. Belle was pretty sure she could here the elation and relief with his words though he tried to keep it hidden.

“I thought I’d come and see how you were doing. Finished with work. Well, the stuff in the city. Didn’t take as long as I thought.”

“5 weeks not long enough for you?” He laughed in reply, causing the other two to join in too.

“When you have work like mine, mate, it’s nothing.” Justin told him before a silence hung in the air. Figuring that it would be best to leave the two brothers alone for a while, Belle broke the quietness first by turning to Aden, who now stood next to her.

“I’m going to go lie down for a bit, yeah?” She informed him in a soft voice.

“Is everything ok?” Aden asked her in concern almost immediately. Smiling, she nodded and waved a hand airily.

“I’m just tired after today. That’s all.” Belle reassured him, giving his arm a squeeze to add emphasis. Seeing him nod, she turned back to Justin, her smile still in place and genuine. “It’s good to see you again, Justin.”

“You too, Belle.” He replied with a matching smile, one void of all types of flirtation, as she passed him to head towards the stairs.

“So…?” Aden said nonchalantly once Belle had vanished up the stairs easily and left the two of them standing there. Realising that, he moved towards the sofa as Justin followed suit and took a seat on the chair to the side.

“How’re you doing? You look better than you did the last time I saw you. I mean considering that the last time I did see you, you were in hospital.” Justin clarified with his typical confidence with words

“Yeah, I’m better. Got the all clear from the docs yesterday.” He told him as Justin nodded.

“That’s good.” He merely said in replied. Eyeing him carefully, Aden wondered what it was he was keeping himself from saying. It was clear in his voice, words and actions that there was something more to the off-the-whim visit that Aden had no doubt Justin had intended on having. “Belle’s looking good too. How long until the baby’s due?”

“About 9 weeks or so.” Aden answered anyway, pushing aside his thoughts for the moment.

“Wow. I didn’t know it was that soon. You must be pretty excited.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it.” He chuckled lightly while relaxing back against the couch while feeling Justin’s inquisitive eyes on him. “It’s nothing. Belle’s just stressing out about things that she doesn’t need to. She’ll get over it soon, though, I hope.”

“Well, it’s not like it can last forever. Give it 9 weeks and she’ll be fine.” He spoke with a wise tone though there was teasing underlying it. Aden laughed at his words, nodding in agreement until they fell back into silence. “Look, Aden, I’m not gonna beat around the bush with this. There’s a reason I’m here.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.” Aden smirked as Justin leaned forwards a bit, resting his elbows on his knees while shaking his head.

“Righto, ‘course you did. What, with the advanced thinking you have cos of your fancy degree.” Justin joked, rolling his eyes.

“Unfortunately, it’s just psychology, and I don’t have the degree yet. Can’t see into the minds of others right now.” He reminded him, adding the last couple of words with a raise of his eyebrows for emphasis.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Alright,” Aden said with a sigh to get back onto topic, his words now sounding serious. “So what’s the reason why you’re here?”

“There’s a new job. And I’ve got to take it, you know?” Justin told him straight-out.

“Yeah, sure. Especially seeing as you’ve taken like,” Pausing, Aden counted back to when Justin had first arrived in the Bay. “11 weeks off.”

“11 weeks? Mate, just say 3 months.” He mocked as the younger brother shook his head.

“Sorry. Everything’s in ‘weeks’ nowadays.” Aden shrugged lightly as if to brush off his brother’s taunting and the slight embarrassment that came upon him. “You arrived here when Belle was halfway through the pregnancy, and now she’s at 31 weeks, so…yeah.”

“You really need to start hanging out with some guys, mate. For your own sanity, if nothing else.” Justin grinned at him momentarily, as a sheepish look came across Aden’s face. “I’m kidding, You know, Aden, I think-” He broke off to correct himself when Aden’s eyes flickered back up to him from where they had drifted off to the side. “I know that you‘re gonna be one Hell of a dad. You‘ve had a load of examples of what not to do from our family-”

“Not always. Not everyone.” Aden told him pointedly with a soft smile that lingered for a while after they had stopped talking. Sobering up from the thoughts and clearing his thought subtly, he asked a question that had instantly came to his head moments beforehand. “Where’s this job that you’re going to take, then?”

“In Western Australia.”

“Whoa. That’s…” He trailed off in a small bout of shock.

“Far? Yup, I’d say so.” Justin finished for him. “2 and half day’s worth of driving with barely any company. Joy.”

“Well, I’d offer to come with you, but I doubt you’ll be back within 9 weeks, right?” Aden questioned. It was meant to be light-hearted, especially as he added a smile to it, but they both heard the seriousness in his words and the falter in his actions to portray his more deeper thoughts about him going away.

“Very improbable.” He agreed almost reluctantly. “Besides, I’m sure Belle wouldn’t be too happy with that.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t think so either.” Aden exhaled, chuckling quietly at the thought of even mentioning to her. He could just imagine the conversation, and knew that the outcome would probably be tears; most likely his own. “When are you leaving then?”

“Um… That’s kind of why I came around with no notice. Again.” Justin added with a smirk that faded quickly. “Hopefully, tonight.”

“That soon, huh?” Disappointment tinged Aden’s words even as he tried his best to sound more excited and upbeat about it. “Must be a good job if you have to leave so quick.”

“It’s why I was in the city for longer than I said. If I had known, I’d have mentioned it before.”

“And, of course, the concept of picking up the phone isn’t clear to you, right?” Aden said rhetorically with a wry laugh.

“Aden, bro, you know that’s not true. I just thought that you’d think I’d be making up excuses if I called. Better to have let it be with what I told you when I went.” Justin explained to him forwardly. “Look, if I’d had known that it would have helped-”

“It’s alright. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” Aden stopped him, pushing himself up from his relaxed position in his seat. “Sorry. You have your life too. I know that.”

“Well, I did say a week or two. And it would have been the right thing to do, I guess.“ Justin accepted with a nod. “Though you do know that the phone works both ways, right?”

“I know.” Aden sighed.

“But…?” He prompted him. Staying silent, Aden ran his hand through his hair whilst fighting with himself whether to come out and tell his big brother his thoughts exactly on him going or not.

“But, nothing. It’s your job. You can’t choose and pick at it. Do what you have to do.” He told him, giving him the shortened version of his views, and the conclusion that he had came up with. “You’re leaving tonight then?”

“I guess so. I wanted to run it past you first. Other than that,” Justin shook his head and sat back against the sofa he was on. “There’s nothing to stop me.”

“I wouldn’t have stopped you, Justin.” Aden insisted, laying his head back to look up slightly and then towards him. “It’s not my right to stop you. And I wouldn’t want to anyway.”

“That’s not what you would have said 11 weeks ago.” Justin joked as Aden raised an eyebrow up at him.

“11 weeks ago I wanted you to leave. Try about 9 weeks ago.” He corrected him. “A lot has changed since then, Justin.”

“So you’re saying that you don’t want me around then?” Thought his words were light as always, with a hint of uncertainly, for the first time in a while, Aden could hear a bit of the same fear that he himself felt; the fear of losing a brother again.

“That’s not what I said.” Aden informed him, sitting straight once more.

“It kinda is.” Justin said blankly. “You‘re sending out really bad mixed signals, you know? No wonder you got married so young.”

“Firstly, don‘t compare me to one of your bimbos.” Aden rolled his eyes while trying to sound serious even as a smile tugged at his lips. “Secondly, like I said, things have changed- I have changed since then. It’s cool. Don’t get me wrong; if you want to stay then that would be great. But you can’t. Though, you’ll come back to visit right? Sometime soon-ish? Not 8 years or a decade this time around.”

“I think I may be able to manage that. In fact,” Standing up, Justin dug into his back pocket on his jeans and pulled up an piece of paper folded 3 times over into a small square. He threw it in the direction towards Aden before sitting down, where it landed onto the space next to him. “I’ll be back pretty ‘soonish’ to see how that’s working out.”

“What is it?” Even as he asked the question, Aden opened up the piece of paper to see the details of an apartment in the city, that was now out for rent.

“An investment, of sorts.” Nodding at his words, Aden let out a low whistle when he spotted the monthly rent for the place.

“How can you afford to buy this in the first place?”

“Insurance payout on the other place.” Justin elaborated with casualness.

“You can’t have afforded this with just that! You didn‘t even own that place.” He reminded him, a bit suspicious as to where the money had came from.

“I’ve told you before; I have the money I need. I’ve worked and saved for years.”

“Wouldn’t you need that for day-to-day basics for the next few weeks?” Aden asked him, folding up the paper and sliding it across the couch towards him, where they both left it sitting for then.

“I’ll be working, won’t I? I’ll get the money I need.” Justin told him almost tiredly.

“You know,” Aden began, shuffling on his seat a bit and then nodding towards where the shelves lines the alcove in the wall; all of which had photo’s on them and other keepsakes, apart from a small section with papers. “That money is still yours. Whenever you need it, or want it, you can have it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” His deadpanned tone made Aden frown but he didn’t push the matter further, but rather let it go.

“So, if you’re going tonight, what’s the plan for the rest of the evening?”

---

“What on Earth is that?”

“That’s our baby!” Belle told Justin defensively, and a bit harshly as her maternal side took over.

“Not ‘our’ baby, sweetheart.” He winked at her with a laugh. “Though I can understand the denial about it.”

“Actually, I dunno why anyone would want to reproduce with you.” She added a sweet, sarcastic smile to words for effect which made Justin smirk in return.

“I’m sure you said the same thing about Aden once, right?”

“I still do.” Belle told him flatly. She could hear the footsteps from the kitchen crossing towards the front room where the two of them sat, watching the TV.

“Still do what?” Aden enquired as he perched, with a small shot of pain at his hunched form, on the arm of the sofa next to Belle. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. And I’m just showing Justin the recording from yesterday, seeing as he asked.” She threw a look over to the man in question, almost as if daring him to argue with her.

“What do you think; boy or a girl?” Aden spoke up instead, not missing the challenging look, or his brother’s mouth about to open, no doubt to say something what would open up a whole can of worms that he would have to deal with.

“Human.” Justin simply replied, seriously. “I think.”

“Hey! Watch it! I already have a tally of things to get my own brother back at after the baby’s born. Don’t make me add you to that list!” Belle informed him strictly, narrowing her eyes dangerously at him. Justin threw up his hands in defeat though amusement still shone clear on his face.

“I take it back, then.”

“Never thought you to be one to give in so easily.” Aden taunted him as Justin shot him an unimpressed look while Belle giggled.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyways,” Justin quickly changed the subject while glancing over at the time. “I should go. It’s getting late.”

“It’s barely 9 o’clock.” Aden pointed out, standing up as Justin did so nonetheless.

“I know. But I did say I was leaving tonight so I better get a move on before it gets too late.” He reminded him, his tone a bit regretful. “Thanks for dinner, Belle. You’re not as bad as Aden claims yo-”

“Ahem!” He interrupted to suddenly cut Justin off.

“You’re welcome anytime, Justin.” Belle said pointedly, shooting Aden a dark look as she spoke the last word and then pushing herself up from the couch. “Have a good drive, yeah?”

“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be ‘good’ somehow.” Justin joked, his words suggestive that none of them missed. “Take care of yourself. And the bub.”

“You, too.” She replied with a soft smile, taken aback a bit when Justin stepped up to her side and pressed a light kiss to her cheek.

“Look after Aden for me, too.” He whispered to her so low that the third person in the room couldn’t even hear them from mere feet away.

“You know I will.” Belle told him sincerely before he backed away. Justin headed towards the front door with Aden while Belle decided to give them some privacy and busied herself with taking out the DVD.

“Right, so…” Aden began, stuffing his hands into his pockets when he failed to think of anything else to say. “What Belle said, I guess.”

“Gee, thanks, lil bro. Nice to see you care.”

“Well, I’ve never really done this before considering the last time you actually left, you just left.” He justified as Justin nodded acceptingly.

“I’m giving you the chance now though, aren’t I?” Justin informed him, stretching out his arm around him to show the ‘now’. This time it was Aden’s turn to nod but he still remained quiet. “Ok, so you have my number right? Let me know if you need anything. And whether it’s a boy or a girl.” He added, titling his head in the direction of where Belle was still keeping herself preoccupied.

“Yeah, sure. You’ll be the first to know.” Aden assured him.

“The first?” Justin asked him sceptically, making his chuckle.

“One of the first, then. Alright?” He adjusted.

“Ok. So, I guess I’ll see you later, then. Just for the record, I’m glad I came back to the Bay. It’s been good. Most of it.” He smirked while rubbing subconsciously at the small scar above his eyebrow which had been the result of the fire.

“I’m glad, too.” Aden agreed, keep back the sigh that threatened to leave him. “I’ll see you, then. Soon.”

“Yup.” Offering his hand in a form of a handshake, Aden grasped it after a moment’s hesitation before surprisingly, yet gladly, being brought into a brotherly hug. It shocked him just how familiar and comforting it felt, especially as Aden could barely remember the last time he had embraced either of his brothers, or his father for that matter, in such a way. The last person who he could recall embracing him in that particular gesture had been Roman, however, even that was different.

They pulled away fairly quickly, not out of uneasiness but rather custom, and stood opposite each other for a second silently. Before Aden could move or say anything, Justin had his hand on the door handle, with a teasing smirk and a glint in his eyes as he turned his head towards the kitchen where Belle had disappeared too.

“You’ve got my number too, right, Belle?” He called out. There was no reply but both brothers could hear her approaching footsteps until she appeared and paused in the doorway.

“Uh… yeah, I think so. Why?”

“Just in case. You know, if you change your mind or anything. I’ll gladly come back.” Justin grinned at her, making her cross her arms and just shake her head though she knew the deeper meaning to why he had asked if she had her number; the same reason why he had told her to look after Aden.

“You wish.”

“I most certainly do.” He gave her a wink and then opened the door. “Night.”

“Night, Justin.” She replied, preferring it over the word ‘bye’, which sounded much more absolute.

“See ya, mate.” Justin nodded at Aden, who had crossed over to the sofa and leant against he back of it. Offering him a small wave, Aden waited until he was halfway out the door before returning the words. Justin didn’t respond after that but instead let the door go behind him. And as the door closed, he was gone. Again.

---

I hope you liked it. Not too sure about the ending, but there you go

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

It's happenned. It's finally happenned. Belle and Justin in scenes together and they both rocked. This chapter was . And let the gushing begin.

Aw, I'm glad you liked it that much! I recall you saying that the Belle/Justin scenes were a bit so this was a pleasure to hear

Fantabulous chapter

Love that word! Haven't used/heard it in ages!

I have so much of this to catch up on!!

Eeeek, hope you enjoy it...

As you can tell, I'm in a rather talkative/hyper mood, and I think some of that has transferred into this chapter. But I hope that's just made it good. So, with guest number three, here's the next chapter!

Chapter 69:

“Who was that?”

“Justin.” Aden sighed from where he was laying on his back on the bed, atop of the covers although already stripped down to his boxers.

“Oh.” Belle said, caught in surprise. In the past 3 weeks since the elder Jefferies brother had left, neither one of them had heard from him in any way or form. Although they knew he was busy with work, and probably other things that neither one wanted too think about too much in detail, Belle knew that Aden was still disappointed when he never contacted them. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah, fine.” He replied while still staring up at the ceiling with his arms folded behind his head.

“Why did he call then?” She prompted while pausing in front of the vanity mirror after leaving their en-suite, taking off her bracelet and the locket to put it away into her birthday trinket box. It had taken her a couple of weeks before she had managed to find the perfect pictures, resized them and get them printed for the locket that Mattie had given her, but it was now done and had become another one of Belle’s prized possessions. “Does he need something?”

“Uh…no. It was just a random call. See how things were going and all.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that.” Belle gave him a curious look and she could see his eyes avert down to her before going back up again.

“I am. It’s good to hear from him.” Aden told her with enthusiasm.

“What’s he got to say for himself then?” She asked him, going back into the bathroom to switch off the light.

“Nothing much. It’s Justin, you know?” He pushed himself up onto his elbows to watch her as she crossed back over towards the bed, switching the main light off on the way so only the lamp on the bedside table lit up the room efficiently. “Just that he’s working hard and that it’s gonna take a few more months cos it’s a big job. He’s having fun though.”

“I’m sure he is.” Belle laughed as she climbed into bed with a bit of difficulty considering that Aden was still laying on top of the covers. “Honey, you going to get in? Or are you just going to lie there all night and make me extremely uncomfortable?”

“Lie here.” Aden replied seriously though with a ghost of a smile curving his lips as he collapsed back against the pillows before rolling onto his side to face her. “So, how are you?”

“I’m tired, for one.” She told him. Although it hadn’t been much, they had spent the evening at Roman’s where he cooked dinner for just the four of them. It had been somewhat fun and relaxing, but also taken a toll on her.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” He scoffed, scooting a bit nearer to where Belle sat propped up by the pillows and the headboard. Using a hand to support his head, he placed the other one onto her expanding stomach, finding his way under the shirt that she wore to bed.

“Gee, thanks, Aden.” Belle huffed, although amusement was clear on her face. She was use to Aden addressing the baby as if it could respond and talking to it as if it were with them. She knew that it was his way for connecting with their unborn child in one of the only ways that he could, and Belle wasn’t one to deprive him of it. Especially when it gave him so much joy and made him feel better. Plus, not to mention that she found it extremely adorable.

“No problem.” Aden smiled at her before looking back down at her stomach. “How did you enjoy Roman’s food? Mummy ate enough too, so you can’t say you didn’t like it.”

“Well, the baby’s going to need it to be a strong boy, aren’t you?” Belle added the last words while tiling her head down to speak towards where she smoothed her hands across the bump over her clothes before dropping one hand to rest on Aden’s back and leaving the other above her stomach.

“I don’t think so! All baby’s are nice and chubby when they’re born. So it could go either way.” He countered her words. “Though I still think it’s a girl. You’d have a bigger appetite if it were a boy. And be eating less chocolate.”

“You don’t know that! The kid could take after me!” She argued, sticking out her tongue childishly at the end of her words. “And we like our chocolate.”

“Ok…” Aden rolled his eyes silently. “Never mind. We know that no boy would love chocolate that much, don’t we?”

“No response. Guess that means they don’t agree.” Belle laughed as Aden waited for the baby to kick against his hand, that he now moved in circular motions.

“C’mon, baby. Kick for Daddy.”

“Not going to work, Aden. I think the baby’s already asleep.” She hinted to him heavily before adding when he didn’t give any sign of acknowledging it. “Like we should be.”

“In a minute.” He muttered, still running his hand over her belly.

“Aden, it’s sleeping. You don’t wake up a sleeping ba-”

“Ah-ha! See! Told you!” Aden exclaimed as several small beats kicked out against his hand. “Good baby.”

“That doesn’t prove anything except that you know how to wake it up!” Belle hurriedly said. “Which, for one, I wouldn’t be proud of.”

“Hmm… Alright then. Let’s settle this for once and for all.” He suddenly told her, lifting up his head from his hand to lean on his elbow and over her stomach slightly.

“How, exactly?” She questioned him a bit suspiciously. “You’re not gonna make me have the baby somehow, are you? Because I’m looking forward to these 6 more weeks to get my head around giving birth.”

“Chill, babe. Like I’d do that.” He shook his head. “I’d probably never get to see my kid again.”

“That’s not true.” Belle said earnestly. “I’m sure the courts will let you have every other weekend and we can share the holidays.”

“Funny.” Aden couldn’t keep the smirk back even as he tried. “But no.”

“Ok. Once again, then. How, exactly?” Belle repeated with the same scepticism in her voice as before.

“We’ll ask the baby. Cos surely, they’ll know, right?” He told her matter-of-factly. Blinking a couple of times, Belle moved her hand from his back and onto her stomach to join the other one in a protective manner.

“The baby can’t talk, though, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Yes, I know that, Belle. But it can kick. And it seems to listen to me to do as I say.” Aden said, throwing her a grin as he briefly took his eyes off her stomach. “So, baby, can you hear me now?” There was a pause in which Belle opened her mouth to tease him, only to close it when a few out of sync kicks beat out against where his hand laid.

“That was a fluk-” She began with a frown.

“Ok, baby. Time to prove your mummy wrong.” He cut her off, pointedly ignoring her words and speaking directly to the baby as if the barrier of Belle’s body didn’t exist. Waiting until the movement stopped, Aden spoke once again. “If you’re a girl, kick once, and if you’re a boy, kick twice.”

“Aden, this is not going to work.” Belle ridiculed his idea with a tired, and incredulous, tone.

“Shhh… Sure it will.” Aden hushed her; paying all of his attention towards the baby bump. When there was no response, he rubbed his hand over the side of it again, hoping to coerce it to react. “Baby?”

“Leave it alone. Probably fallen back asleep again.” Just as the words had left her mouth there was a single kick that both of them felt.

“Haha! Told you!” Exclaiming joyfully, Aden was about to carry on taunting Belle when another kick followed.

“Haha! Told you! Good bab-” The two of them looked at each other as Belle was cut off this time when the baby kicked once more.

“Well, that ain’t right.” Aden murmured, eyes going back to where his hand rested. “Maybe it’s just 3 single kicks, you know? Emphasising that it’s a girl.”

“Aden, give it up.” She laughed at his attempts. Even though they were both vying to be the one who was right, Belle knew that whatever the outcome of Aden‘s ‘bright idea‘ had been would have to had been taken lightly. Something, she was sure, Aden didn‘t comprehend as the baby continued to kick, gradually growing to make her wince. “Now look at what you’ve started.”

“Sorry.” He apologized in a tone that suggested that he wasn‘t sorry at all. Rubbing soothing circles onto her stomach in an attempt to get the baby to calm down, Belle frowned when his actions did the opposite and brought about even harder motions. “Did you just see that?!” Aden suddenly gasped, pushing himself back away from her in near-awe.

“See what?” She frantically looked down after catching sight of his face and how nervous he looked.

“That!” He exhaled, relaxing back into the position that he had been in previously.

“Oh, my God…” Belle whispered in amazement. She could feel the baby continue to kick, but now, to her surprised, she could also see it. ”Is that a foot?”

“Or a hand. Or something that can hit you hard enough.” Aden replied, skimming his fingers along the places where small bumps formed at the contact, only lasting for a mere second, but long enough for them both to relish in it.

“Huh! Mattie was right; the baby is getting squished.” She recalled, sounding thoughtful yet not able to keep the huge smile from her face.

“Do you think it’s alright? I mean, it does looks like it’s trying to break out.” Aden asked her worriedly although the powerful kicks had now stopped and all that Belle could feel were inner ones aimed at her organs, and a lot of moving around.

“I’m sure it’s fine. There’s no problems, remember?” She dismissed his concern easily, pressing her fingers against the side of her bump gently where she could feel the most amount of movement. “I remember reading that it happens to woman with multiple babies, or to woman who don’t really grow much.”

“Like you.”

“Yup.”

“Hey, what if there’s two babies? That could explain the 3 kicks!” Aden exclaimed suddenly. She could tell that he was all caught up in the moment, especially as they could both still see the baby moving around in the bump very discreetly.

“Maybe. Even 34 weeks later without having anyone else notice it.” Belle countered sarcastically with a raised eyebrow as he finally gave her his whole attention for a split second.

“It can happen! No?“ His words were one of defeat, reluctantly agreeing with her. “Ok, fine, maybe not. Especially with the ultrasounds.”

“Aden, just admit it. Your method didn’t work.” She laughed when he gave her a dark look out of the corner of his eyes before a smile pulled at his lips when the baby carried on move about.

“Are you kidding me?” Aden exclaimed proudly with a small shake of his head. “Look at my baby move! It worked alright!”

“Aden!” Belle laughed at his enthusiasm. “Alright, I think it’s time for us to all go to bed now. And that includes you too, my baby.”

“Aw, c’mon. The baby wants to play!”

“No, you want to play. We want to sleep.” She correct him, forcing his hands off of her. “And if you stop touching me, the baby will stop moving!”

“Maybe I don’t want to stop touching you.” He winked at her while Belle pushed him on his shoulder over onto his back.

“You can touch tomorrow. Not like that, either, before you get any ideas.”

“Isn’t Amanda coming over tomorrow?” Aden heard Belle curse under her breath as she began to settle down in the bed.

“Forgot about that.” She sighed, finally laying her head down onto the pillow like she had been hoping to do for hours now.

“I thought you two were fine with each other…?” Aden turned the statement into a question as he leaned over her to switch off the lamp, though having enough light from the bright moon through the small gap in the curtains to see her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just know that Mum’s planning something or another, and I’m not liking the idea.”

“You don’t even know what the idea is, yet. Maybe you should wait and see what she has to say. You never know, it could be good.” Aden said, trying to sound confident and optimistic until she shot him a dirty look. “Or it might not be, cos you hate surprises and I have no idea what I’m talking about?”

“Hmm…” She mumbled quietly, closing her eyes and snuggling deeper into her pillow with the covers wrapped tight over her, though they were straining. “Aden, get in the bed, or get out.”

“Righto.” Aden muttered, deciding to do as she said before she lost her temper at him. He had learnt the hard way how short her fuse had become recently at night or whenever she was tired and cranky. Rolling off the bed, he carefully pulled the sheets loose before climbing in. Almost instantly, Aden could feel Belle pulling the covers over to her while he shuffled up right up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist; one hand as always resting on her stomach. “Night, gorgeous.”

“Night.” Belle replied sleepily, laying her hand atop of his to keep it securely against her body. “And Aden?”

“Yeah?” He said before pressing a small kiss to the back of her neck while using his thumb to stroke the bump through the fabric.

“You make the baby kick on purpose tonight, and you’re sleeping in the spare room for the next 6 weeks. You got it?” Aden’s whole body went rigid at her words, tucking his thumb under his hand slowly to keep himself from moving it.

“Got it. Sorry.”

---

“Mum.” Belle said calmly, hoping to stop Amanda from carrying on talking. However, as always when it came to her mother, it wasn’t that easy.

“-here or in the city. We wouldn’t mind-”

“Mum!” Belle tried again, to no avail. The two of them were sitting outside by the pool but in the shade and opposite each other on the table. Amanda was busy talking and planning away while flicking through a couple of baby magazines she had brought with her, supposedly for her daughter, though they both knew it was for herself. “Mum. Mum, Mum, Mum-!”

“-doesn’t it look pretty? If only you knew if you were having a boy or a girl! It would make thing’s so much more easier.” She tutted with a roll of the eyes while Belle grabbed the notepad that laid beside her and a thin, black marker. Ripping off the top page, she scribbled down her message onto the next, all the while carrying on with trying to grab her attention. It was almost as if they were in two separate worlds at that moment. “-girls in blue, but not really boys in pink-”

“-Mum.” Sighing, Belle snapped the lid of the marker back on and placed it onto the table once again. Looking up, she noticed that Amanda was still flicking through the glossy pages of the magazine. “Mum, will you listen to me? Mum? Hello? Mother?!” Still not able to gain her attention, Belle reached out across the table with a bit of difficulty and slapped her hand down in the middle of the page. “Mum!”

“Yes, darling? Did you like something?” Amanda asked hopefully. Shaking her head, Belle held up the notepad towards her so that she could read the words clearly.

“Now will you listen?” She said while skimming her finger along the top of the page, indicating to Amanda to read what she had written.

“You haven‘t thought about it yet, Belle.” Amanda laughed airily, ignoring the thick, black words standing out on the stark white paper.

“Mum, I have thought about it. It‘s all that Mattie‘s been hinting at for the past 2 weeks. Something that I ignore.”

“Yes, well, Matilda and I are both very different sometimes when it comes to planning a little party.” She assured her politely.

“’Little‘? It won‘t be little in the least! I know what you‘re like Mum. And I appreciate the thought and all, but,” Belle tapped the notepad that she had laid back down onto the table, right in the middle of the two of them, and read off it. “’I don’t want a baby shower!’”

“Look, Belle, it’ll be fun. Not to mention a great way to relax with all your friends and family, especially after everything that’s happened.”

“It’s because of everything that’s happened that I don’t want a baby shower. I never wanted one, anyway. It’s not me, Mum.” Belle informed her in a soft voice. “A couple of friends and family around would be fine, not half of the Bay.”

“You shouldn’t be putting your life on hold, Belle. It’s all in the past now, and Aden seems like he’s back to normal. He wouldn‘t even be there.” Amanda reprimanded her gently. Surprisingly, though she had done her best to hide it, even her mother who she only saw occasionally could read her mind clearly. “When was the last time you did something like this or went out?”

“Last week for New Year’s. We came up to the city to see you and the family, remember? Plus, last night we went over to Roman‘s.” She told her, making her frown a bit when she realised that it was true. “And I’m not putting my life on hold. Look at me, Mum. Seriously, does it look like I’m taking time out to think things through right now?”

“Even more the reason for a baby shower! It’ll be a celebration. With a lot of fun, food… chocolate.” She tempted Belle, seriousness lining her words. When her words failed to gain a response; only an unimpressed look, Amanda decided to take it a step further. Letting out a sigh, she closed the magazine that she had been reading and rested her arms onto the table lightly. “Ok, I guess it’s up to you.”

“Really?” Belle replied in shock at how quick her mother had relented.

“Yes. It’s your baby, and it’ll be for you, so in the end, it’s up to you.” Amanda told her solemnly, which only made Belle more suspicious. Leaning back in her seat, she crossed her arms over her protruding stomach.

“What’s the catch?”

“Belle! How can you ask me such a thing? There is no ‘catch’.” She gasped out, offence clear in her words.

“Ok, ok. Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” Belle quickly apologized, feeling bad for coming to the incorrect assumption about her mother’s words.

“Don’t worry about it. I mean, it would have been nice to be able to throw my only daughter, my precious baby girl, a baby shower for her firstborn. It’s not like Ryan, or even Drew, are going to bestow me the honour anytime soon. But never mind. Maybe next time.” Sighing again, Belle groaned and sat up straighter again.

“Mum…!” She moaned tiredly while pushing her chair back a bit in a gesture to get up. “Don’t try and guilt me into it. I feel bad enough as it is now.”

“I’m not trying to guilt you into anything, darling. I’m just making a statement.” Amanda replied sincerely, following Belle as she re-entered the house via the kitchen with two empty glasses in her hands. “A very true and heartfelt one, but a statement nonetheless.”

“I know it’s true, Mum, and I’m sorry that I’m not exactly the ideal daughter to have-” Belle began, only to be interrupted by Amanda as the two of them stood in the kitchen surrounded by the faint echoes of violence and weapons, followed by short chortles of glee, from the front room where Aden and Ryan were playing on the games console.

“Don’t be silly, Belle. You are who you are.” She told her in a gentle yet forceful voice.

“Yeah, but this is like the…” Pausing while crossing over to the sink to pour herself a glass of water, Belle tried to think of the recent events where she hadn’t let Amanda do as she had wished. “The 3rd time now that I’ve kind of ruined your plans.”

“The third? What were the other two?”

“Well, the party for my birthday, and the wedding that you had to organize in 5 weeks. You can’t tell me that you weren’t disappointed that I didn’t what that big wedding you had probably been planning since we got engaged.” Belle reminded her, her words hinting light-heatedness though they were earnest too.

“Ok, perhaps that’s true, but in the end, you did let me plan the wedding.” She countered with a slight hopeful tone. “It can be the same this time. You can have the say on everything while I’ll just organize it all. I’m not even trying to keep it a secret from you, Belle. I was pretty sure that if I had, you’d have turned around and walked straight out.”

“See? You know me, Mum.” Belle said in a happy tone as she headed to the fridge. “And you know that the last thing I want is people fussing over me.”

“They’ll be fussing over the baby.” Amanda corrected her. “Think about your poor baby. How upset would it feel if it found out that it never got a baby shower?”

“I’m sure they’d get over it, considering that they don’t even know what a ‘baby shower’ is.” Belle told her matter-of-factly while peering into the fridge before letting out a huff in displeasure. “Look, Mum, I’m sorry, but you’re not going to be able to convince me. It’s too late, anyway.”

“It’s never too late!”

“How about a compromise?” She offered her mother, slamming the fridge door shut and, without waiting for a response from Amanda, made her way towards the front room. “Aden!”

“Yeah?” He replied, eyes still trained on the TV and hands moving furiously fast across the controls.

“Where’s the cake?”

“Um…” Several seconds passed as he thought about her question, all the while continuing with the game. “Should be in the fridge.”

“Yeah, I know. That’s where I just checked, but there’s not there.” Belle sighed heavily, leaning against the doorway as Amanda stood next to her.

“There was some yesterday.”

“Well, we must have finished it then.” There was a heavy suggestion carried along with her words that Belle was sure that Aden would have gotten if he had bothered to spare her a look for a even a second.

“More like you’ve finished it.” Aden chuckled, finally doing as she had hoped and pausing the game that they had been playing. “You know,” He stage whispered to Ryan who was sitting on the couch to his side, only a few feet away. “Only half of that is the baby. The rest is all the chocolate your sister eats.” His words made everyone laugh except for Belle, who merely looked at him, unimpressed.

“We’d have cake at the baby shower, you know, Belle.” Her mother said nonchalantly from next to her and it took almost all her strength to keep herself from stomping her feet and throwing a tantrum.

“Aden, tell my Mum that we don’t want a baby shower.” Aden looked at her in surprise, wanting to question her about why she didn’t want one, only to be quietened by a stern look that told him to do as she said or to suffer the consequences.

“Hold on.” Amanda spoke up before he could get another word out. “Darling, a baby shower would have nothing to do with Aden. He wouldn’t even have to be here, or do a thing. It wouldn’t affect him in the slightest, and I’m sure Aden would like for his child to have a party, right, Aden?”

Flickering his eyes between the two of them, Aden gulped. Anyone who looked at Amanda and Belle, at first glance, would never come to the conclusion that they were mother and daughter. But now, as he felt both of their glares boring into him for his support on their views, he could see their resemblance when it came to personalities. And as much as he knew that he should backup Belle, he couldn’t help but agree with Amanda.

“Uh…” He faltered and he could see that Belle was getting more than a little frustrated at his hesitance. Knowing that he wasn’t going to get out of this no matter who he sided with, Aden turned towards Ryan to speak to him instead. “Fancy heading down to the Surf Club?”

“Yeah, sure. Can we go to the Diner first, though?” Ryan replied as Aden smiled at him and stood up.

“Sure thing, mate.”

“We just had lunch.” Belle pointed out in a cold tone to Aden as he switched off the TV and the Xbox as quickly as he could; all the while ushering the younger boy towards the front door. “Aden-!”

“He’s a growing boy; can’t deny him the food.” He told her with a cheeky smile whilst heading towards the door also. “I’ll bring back some cake, alright?”

“Aden-!” She tried again, only to see and hear the door slamming shut after he blew her a sweet kiss while departing as a response. “Idiot.” She grumbled under her breath and walked into the front where Amanda was now standing. “Before you say anything, Mum, just hear me out-”

“I think I’ve heard enough, Belle.” Amanda said lightly, taking a seat on the couch. Standing for a couple of moments, Belle decided to join her mother and sat down next to her, albeit uncomfortably as she turned her body to face her. “For now, just promise me you’ll think about it.”

“The answer’s not going to change.” She told her strictly, leaning back into the couch slowly and using her hands as guidance for her aching body. “But I will think about it. Especially if it means that we can stop talking about it for now.”

“Alright.” Amanda agreed, and Belle got the feeling that it was only so that it wouldn’t stress her out. Pursing her lips a bit at knowing that Amanda had only given in right then due to the fact that she thought that Belle couldn’t handle it in her condition, she kept her mouth shut and thoughts to herself as the blonde spoke up again. “So…”

“Yes?”

“Are you going to show me the recent images of my grandchild, or are you going to deprive me of even more things today?” Belle rolled her eyes at her subdued tone before pushing herself up off the couch. “I can get it, sweetie. Just tell me where it is.”

“Don’t worry about it. I wasn‘t that comfortable anyway.” She brushed off her mother’s worry as she headed towards the shelf which was home to the recent recorded images of her baby. It was only another short piece, but it was better than nothing, and much better than the ultrasound printouts that were close to becoming worn out, even from inside the baby scrapbook. “Ok, I’m guessing I don’t have to explain this to you then?”

“Not really.” Amanda laughed as Belle came to sit down next to her with the control. They sat in a bit of silence while she started up the DVD, leaning against the elder lady in an instinctive gesture for support. Belle looked over at her mother once the TV screen was showing non-static black, white and gray; studying her face that was currently filled with admiration before resting her head lightly on her shoulder to watch the TV. She had seen it numerous times before, with a copy saved onto her laptop too, but there was no way she could get enough of it.

“So what do you think? Boy or girl?” Belle asked her suddenly, watching as Amanda squinted her eyes and looked sideward’s towards the image as if to analyse it.

“I’m going to say a…” Trailing off, she laid an arm across Belle’s legs casually while tilting her head even more so.

“A…?” She prompted her.

“A boy.” Amanda finished of with a small smile that made Belle giggle.

“Good. Now tell Aden that for me, please. Before he comes up with another stupid idea to guess the sex of the baby.”

---

“Hello…” She whispered sultrily into his ear as she approached him from behind, placing her hands on his waist and chin on his shoulder with the rest of her body pressed up to his back.

“Hey. Nice nap?” Aden smiled at he, twisting around a bit to look at her. After they had returned back home, an hour later, Amanda and Ryan had had to leave. To his relief, Belle had seemed more calmer, and even in a cheeky mood, by that time so he hadn’t been to worried to be left alone with her. Soon enough, though, she had retreated upstairs to relieve herself of the day’s stress and tiredness, something that Aden had encouraged her right up to tucking her in and ignoring her sarcastic comments.

“Yup, it helped.” Belle smile back, giving him a brief kiss as his arm went around her waist while one of her hands grasped lightly at the vest top that he wore. “So what’s going on here?”

“I thought I’d get the last of these shelves up.” He informed her, pointing over at where the 3 discarded packages laid in the corner of the room. “I’ve got the time now, so why not?”

“Are you sure you should be doing this?” She asked him in concern, letting go of his top and running her hand down his chest lightly to indicate what she meant.

“I’m fine, Belle. I’m not that injured anymore. I can handle a few planks of wood.” Aden shrugged and removed his arm from around her to get back to seeing if the two shelves that he had already gotten up were alright.

“And screws, a screwdriver and them metally things that hold the shelves up?”

“Yes, them too.” He laughed. “Do those look straight to you?”

“Um…” She looked at what he was staring at, squinting her eyes slightly to get a better judgement. “I’d say so.”

“You’re tilting your head, Belle.” Aden sighed dryly, watching her.

“Oh. Well, I guess they’re not straight, then.” Belle informed him, heading over towards the window seat to sit down.

“Useless.” He muttered under this breath as she walked away, going to grab a spirit level to tell him instead.

“I heard that, thank you very much.” She told him while getting herself comfortable on the seat. “And if I’m useless, then so are you seeing as you asked for my help.”

“A mistake I won’t make ever again.” Aden said, this time loud enough for her to hear. “So…“ He changed the subject, deciding that the shelves were straight enough and got started on the third, and the last, one. “Did you think things over then?”

“What? About the baby shower?” She saw him nod in reply to her question when resting her head against the window pane. “I still don’t want one.”

“Have you even thought about it properly?”

“Yes, I have. Besides, it’s my decision at the end of the day, right?” Belle questioned him pointedly, and although he couldn’t spare her a glance, he could feel her eyes piercing into him.

“Of course it is.” He agreed. “But you’re not doing a lot of things, you know?”

“No, I don’t actually. Care to explain?” She prompted him, her words edgy and slightly on the dangerously calm side.

“Well, first the birthing classes, and now the baby shower. Not to mention the birthday party and dinner your mum wanted to have.” Aden elaborated, looking over at her for a second. “You deserve to have something like a party.”

“It’s just not me. Especially the birthing classes and the baby shower. I mean, I get why Mum wants to throw one, but still…” Belle shrugged lightly while letting out a small breath; guilt still weighing upon her even though the conversation had been forgotten by the time Amanda had left. Or, at least, it hadn’t been brought up again, though she had conveniently forgotten the magazines there too. “It’s just not me, Aden. You know what I mean?”

“Honestly?” He asked her as he held up a bracket for the shelf with a screw and a screwdriver in his hands. “I have no idea.”

“I meant like, having people making a big fuss or trying to be all touchy-feely with me.” Belle pulled a face, looking out the window absentmindedly whilst lightly tapping her knuckles against the glass. “Or having to be surrounded by those ladies who are all bubbly and all things pink and blue for the whole 9 months, or whatever.” Aden laughed at her disgusted tone as well as the little scowl she had let out with it.

“Ok, I get it.” He told her softly, still giving all of his attention to the job at hand while talking to her. “Just as long as you’re enjoying the pregnancy, and cherishing it, and celebrating it in your own way.”

“I am, Aden. You know I am.” Belle answered back with a smile that he met quickly over his shoulder before getting back to the last shelf. They basked in the silence for a little while as Aden finished up with his handiwork with Belle looking on, the smile still present on her face.

“There.” He exclaimed proudly minutes later, brushing off his hands and turned to look at her. “Done. What do you think?”

“Well done; it looks good, babe.” She assured him as he gave her his heart-melting grin after her words. “Looks like the nursery’s finally almost done. Now all that’s left is the couch and baby.”

“Don’t forget the toys and clothes! We hardly have any of that yet.”

“’Yet’ being the key word. We’ll get it all properly after the baby’s here. There’s enough for now.”

“If you say so.” He laughed, bending over to pick up the few tools that laid haphazardly on the floor near his feet.

“Aden, carefu-!” Belle began as he stood up from his low crouch without looking up and hitting his head against the bottom shelf that he had just put up. Letting out a small gasp before giggling as Aden hissed in pain, rubbing at the spot on side of his head near the back, Belle stood up. “Ouch.”

“It’s not funny.” Aden growled at her as she made her way over towards him.

“It’s karma for not agreeing with you dear wife and mother of your child earlier on.” Belle informed him seriously even as a smile tugged at her lips. “Pretty quick too, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”

“Alright, grumpy. Let me see.” Forcing his hand away from the injury, Belle used her own to poke and prod to see what the damage was, making him curse when she found the centre of the pain. “It’s not bleeding or anything. Probably just a little bruise.”

“Yeah, I can tell that for myself, thanks, sweetheart.” Aden replied while turning to face her, his words dripping with sarcasm. “How about a kiss to make it better?”

“Hmm…” After contemplating it for a moment, Aden stole the kiss from her himself; wrapping his arms around her waist to bring her closer to him.

“That’s better.” He breathed once they parted, both in need of air.

“Oh, really?” Belle questioned before finding the injury again and pressing her fingers against it to make him cry out in pain. “I think you’ll need some painkillers for that.”

“How about another longer kiss?” Aden called out behind her as Belle made her way out of the room and presumably towards their room for the medication. Left alone, he gently ran his fingers over the small irritated site on his head where even the skimming of his fingers shot a bolt of pain through his head, most probably due to Belle‘s prior actions. “God, I can feel the headache already.”

---

Hm... So I've figured out that, with the way that I want this fic to go, I doubt Drew will be back on his own But he will be back soon!

Hope you liked this chapter as much as I liked writing it!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thank you guys once again for the comments. Sorry that this update took ages again. Exams seem to be taking over my life!

So a landmark chapter - number 70! And because of that, it's a bit... eventful

Chapter 70:

Eyes snapping open, Belle shot up in her bed, using one hand to support her and breathing very heavily. She quickly twisted to look over her shoulder only to see that the rest of the bed was very cold and empty.

“Aden?” She tried to call out though her hoarse voice, after sleeping for so many hours, quietened it to a rasp. Clearing her throat, she tried again, this time a tad bit louder. There was still no reply, and from where she was, she couldn’t see nor hear any movement.

Belle closed her eyes momentarily to get a hold of herself, crossing her legs to sit up properly on the bed. Dropping her face into her hands, she tried to get rid of the remains of dread that lingered both inside and out of her being. Her heart was thumping almost a hundred times a second, and as she ran her hands through her hair, she made the mistake of opening her eyes, freezing her rapid heart instantly.

”Mrs. Jefferies…” The doctor had began in a solemn tone that turned Belle’s blood to ice within a millisecond. “I’m sorry. We did everything we could…”

The words hit her heavier than anything else could, like something invisible pushing her back, trying to get her away from the origin of the pain that threatened to pierce through her currently numb body. The numb body which, as she took a single step back away from the doctor, let her down and made her legs buckle from under her. But as she did so, thankfully, someone who surrounded her had managed to grab onto her arms to steady her; a finger nail scratching her during the process although she didn‘t - couldn’t - register it.

Belle couldn‘t recall as to who it was; everything was so fuzzy, but it all seemed too real. Yet she couldn’t remember anything more. Skimming the tips of the fingers of her right hand over the red line that ran down her left forearm, fear settled inside of her as her brain started to churn out images to her third eye. Images that she didn’t want or needed to see.

“Aden!” She called out once again, her voice slightly stronger though she doubted it carried out through to anywhere past them four walls. Every door was shut, bar the small gap in the main bedroom one. Letting out a shaky breath, Belle tossed aside the covers with the intent to get out of bed and search the house for her husband in an attempt to prove herself wrong. That it was just a horrid dream that had somehow mixed up her reality with her fears to produce something so realistic that with every second that passed, she felt herself fall into it more and more.

She had managed to get one foot onto the carpeted floor, an arm wrapped protectively and self-consciously around her swollen belly, when her eyes caught sight of her discarded bag laying on the floor by the stool for the vanity table and her half-cut denim jacket laying across the top of it. Striking her as odd that her jacket would be sitting around haphazardly especially after the recent couple of weeks of ‘nesting’ that she had supposedly been through, Belle finally pushed herself up off the bed and towards it while trying to clear her mind up as another piece of her memory, whether it was real or not, she wasn’t sure, cam back to her.

The whole house was rather cold, but their room even more so.

Neither one of them spoke a word as they entered the bedroom. Either that or Belle couldn’t hear anything from the elder woman, though she somehow found a way to react to everything she said. A small tug at her jacket from her and Belle pulled it off, throwing it onto the bed along with her bag before entering the bathroom with slow and steady steps.

Closing the door behind her, she lit up the room by switching on the light by the mirror, illuminating only a small area of the spacious en-suite. Tilting her head up to see her reflection, her sight was no better than before as her eyes refused to focus on any faces, including her own. Instead, Belle looked back down and opened up her clenched fist to reveal two rings that she laid down onto the counter by the sink hesitantly though swiftly at the same time.

Dropping the jacket that she had picked up, Belle hurriedly made her way to the adjoining bathroom in search for the two items. She knew that Aden never took off his wedding ring, and rarely ever his other one which she still had no idea where it had came from.

“Aden!” She cried out, finally as loud as she wanted it to be with the acoustics of the bathroom echoing her voice. Eyes searching, relief flooded her when she saw that the counter was bare like always except for a few beauty and health products. And as she calmed down, though tears lined her eyes, she could smell the familiar scent of Aden’s aftershave in the air around her.

Pushing her hands through her hair once again, Belle re-entered the bedroom to sit down for a while to get herself together again when she heard footsteps near the room only seconds before the door swung open. Still a bit shook up, she paused in her tracks immediately with a small gasp as Aden made his way over to her.

“What’s wrong? Are you ok? I heard you call for me. Belle?” He questioned her rapidly, everything about his portraying his concern as she remained motionless until he reached her. It was only then that she could move; wrapping her arms tightly around his neck while pushing herself up onto her toes and tucking her face into his shoulder. The baby bump made it somewhat awkward, but Belle wasn’t thinking so logical right then. “Hey, what happened?”

“I just-” Belle began in an unsteady voice before breaking off to take in a breath and pull away from him, letting her hands glide down the front of his light green t-shirt as if to take him in. “Just a bad dream.” She mumbled finally, eyes trained on her fingers as they fiddled with the hem of his top.

“What was it about?” Aden asked her softly as he pushed her head up to look at him with a hand on her cheek that slid into her hair that was still roused from sleeping.

“Nothing.” Belle sighed, knowing that admitting how she was still not over his incident that had occurred around 3 months earlier would only worry him more. Especially as they did their best to leave the past in that past. Instead, she simply shook her head and leaned against him instinctively when most of the feelings from earlier on had drained away, leaving her slightly fatigued already.

“C’mon; you can’t tell me ‘nothing’ and then be like this.” Aden tried to joke as he brought his arms around her shoulders lightly and rested his head upon his while exhaling heavily. “Everything’s ok. I’m here now. You’re alright, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’m alright now.” She replied quietly with her head against his shoulder as she stared off to the side. She wasn’t too sure how long they stood like that but soon enough, Belle could feel the baby begin to stir which only made her back away. “Sorry. I’m overreacting.”

“Don’t worry about it. I think you’re allowed to be over-emotional with all of your flying hormones and all.” He laughed, placing his hands onto her stomach to rub it carefully as Belle let out a laugh of what seemed relief.

“So you’re off to…um…” She faltered when she took in his attire and the fact that he was up quite early for a weekday during the final few weeks of the summer break.

“To the city, maybe?” Aden supplied for her with a boyish grin that she wasn’t sure whether it was because of him teasing her or because of the baby that was drumming one of it’s limbs slowly against his hand.

“That’s it.” Belle nodded, recalling both him and Mattie telling her about the re-enrolment day that they were going to that day together to sort out thing for the upcoming year. After much talking, and arguing which always ended abruptly before she got too stressed out or angry at him, she had managed to get Aden to come to the conclusion that going back fulltime for this final year would be the ideal solution as Belle had readily agreed to working from home for a lot of the time for the year too. It had been a win-win situation for them both, with Aden being able to complete his degree and Belle still working, all with still being able to be parents most of the time. Or so they hoped. “Shouldn’t you be going soon?”

“Yeah, in a bit.” Aden told her as the concerned look returned. “I can stay, you know? They’d understand. I could do it another day sometime-”

“Aden, don’t be silly. You have to go.” Belle waved a hand and put on a smile to reassure him. “I’m just being stupid.”

“You’re not, babe.” He said calmly though his voice carried care and determinism in it. “Everyone has nightmares, ok? And I should know better than most how they can leave you feeling.”

“It’s ok.” She assured him, trailing a hand up and down his arm casually. “You’ll be back in a few hours anyway. I’ll just get ready and eat, and probably finish up my last article for the paper.” Belle added a dramatic sigh to the end of her words, making Aden chuckle though they both knew that she had left it until late to begin her maternity leave.

“Alright. Just take it easy, ok? And call me if you need anything.” Aden reluctantly agreed, resting his hands on her waist to look her straight in the eyes to show how much he meant his words. “Even the tiniest thing, you call me.”

“I know, I know. You don’t stress out about me while your away, though, alright? God knows I‘ve got enough to worry about without adding you and your driving to my list.”

“My driving is just fine.” He defended himself with a petulant pout that disappeared rather quickly into a small laugh as Belle rolled her eyes while Aden used one hand to play with the tendril of hair that hung by her face. “And, you know, with just over 2 weeks to go before the baby’s due, I kind of stress out every time you’re out of sight.”

“Aw…!” She smiled sweetly at him as he expressed his soft-hearted side to her before pressing a kiss to his lips lightly. “Does that mean you’ll join me in the shower?” She asked against his lips, only moving away when she heard him groan low in his throat that told her ‘no’.

“I’d love to, but I have to pick up Mattie in less than 30 minutes. And I doubt that’ll happen if I say yes.” Aden explained to her, still holding her close as possible. “However, I do have time to make you something for breakfast.”

“Well, that does sound like a reasonable deal, I guess.”

“Good. Cos it’s the only one I can give you.” He informed her before leaning down to give her another brief kiss and then turning to leave the room as Belle headed towards the bathroom. Halfway there, however, she paused and turned back again to see Aden almost near the door.

“Aden?” He turned to look at her over his shoulder, curiosity and concern covered his face. “Where did-? How did I get this?” Belle held out her left arm to show him the scratch as he took a few steps closer to see it.

“Oh, that! That was last night, remember? In the kitchen?” He told her, searching her face for any signs of recognition before letting out a chuckle. “Never mind; you were half asleep.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Belle shook her head as Aden neared her once again and pressed his lips to her forehead reassuringly. “Don’t you have breakfast to make?”

“Alright, alright. Slave driver.” Shooting him an unimpressed look as he left, Belle headed back into the bathroom where she locked the door behind her and looked straight into the mirror, almost a carbon copy of her actions in her dream.

Belle let out another shaky breath while trying to reassure herself that everything was ok. But, as Aden had said, there was an unnerving feeling that the nightmare left behind that she simply couldn’t get rid off. The only thing that she held onto was the fact that Aden was well and truly with her, puttering around downstairs and taking care of her and their unborn child right then. And that the dream was only that; a dream.

---

Arriving home in the early afternoon, Aden was surprised to find the downstairs of their place deserted. After walking through to the kitchen and peering into the back yard, he returned back the front room and headed upstairs; the only other place that he hoped he would find Belle.

Reaching the upper landing, he could hear the telltale sounds of shuffling and slamming of both fabric and wood which kind of terrorized him. Aden quickened his pace towards their bedroom, pushing the door open as soon as he reached it to find Belle inside like he had predicted. Unfortunately, like he had also predicted, several drawers of the chest was open along with the cupboard doors and items strewn or laid out onto the bed.

“Belle! What are you doing?” She spun around from where she was replacing a few articles of clothing back into the empty drawer, a look of surprise that melted into a smile on her face.

“Hey! You’re back early!”

“Yeah, things got sorted pretty quickly.” Aden told her while clearing a space on the bed and perching on the edge of it, all the while watching Belle get back to what she was doing. “Why are you up here?”

“Had nothing else to do, so I thought I’d sort this mess out.” She replied with a delicate shrug of the shoulders.

“’Mess’?”

“Yes, a mess! I know you’re a guy and all, but seriously, Aden. Is it too hard for you to replace things from where you get them from?” Belle reprimanded him with a huff as Aden sat with his mouth open for a second.

“Um, excuse me, but who borrows my clothes and puts then somewhere else?”

“That’s because you misplace them in the first place.” She informed him while he gave her an incredulous look. “Never mind.”

“So why aren’t you working then?” Aden asked her as he poked through the stuff on the bed.

“Because I’ve finished it already.” Belle said matter-of-factly.

“Already? Wow. That’s quick.” She simply nodded to his words, turning away from him to get back to her job after taking a few more items from the bed to replace into the drawers. “Why aren’t you relaxing then? You shouldn’t be on your feet all day or doing mindless things that don’t really need doing.”

“I got bored. I was watching TV, but daytime TV sucks, and the soaps are too confusing with all the love triangles and murder plotting.” Belle explained to him. “Then, I was going to make cookies but I couldn’t cos…”

“Cos…?” Aden prompted her, wondering what it was that made her back down from the challenge of baking, another skill that she didn’t have.

“Cos I ended up eating all the chocolate chips because they tasted better than cookie would have.” He stifled a laugh at her words, knowing that it would not do him any good.

“Doesn’t mean you should be doing this. You could have called Annie or Geoff, or someone else, over for company. You know they’d all come.”

“I know.” Belle simply said with a smile as she returned back to the now near empty bed. “But you were coming home soon so what was the point?”

“Ah, so true. I wouldn’t want to share me with anyone, either.” Aden replied cheekily, throwing he a wink as she pushed a box into his leg with a small force. “Ooh, is this what I think it is?”

“Perhaps.” She merely offered as an answer, carrying an armful of folded clothes back over to the drawers while Aden took the top off the securely shut box that, once opened, he saw that he had guessed right about the contents. Inside was a very neatly and professionally folded wedding dress along with the small lace top and garter that he assumed was returned by Geoff rather hastily. “Very nice. Where has this been all this time?”

“At the top in the cupboard.” Belle explained, pointing over to the space that was on the top shelf in the fairly large wardrobe. “Now it’s going in this bottom drawer along with other precious stuff.”

“Such as…?” Aden prodded as she came over and took the box away from him to place it in it’s new home.

“Such as photos that I have no place to display, other mementos from the wedding and your things from the old house.” She said nonchalantly, finally happy with her work and pushing in all of the open drawers on the chest. “That’s done. Now just to put all this away.”

“Ok. Well, I’m bored, so don’t take too long.” He informed her, shuffling back to lean against the headboard and stretch his legs out along the bed.

“If you’re that bored, maybe you could lend a hand then?” Belle suggested even as she started on the last of the items.

“I would love to, babe. But we both know that it’ll just give you an excuse to yell at me so I’m not going to give you that pleasure.” Aden countered cheekily with his typical boyish smile.

“You are so funny!”

“Just being honest.” He replied to her sarcasm seriously, the grin still on his face although Belle didn’t turn to look at him this time around.

“Have you had lunch by any chance?” She asked him suddenly, breaking the small comfortable silence that they had fallen into.

“No. Why? Have you?” Aden answered, rubbing at the back of his hand to try to get rid of the pen mark that he had just discovered.

“Not really. Just them chocolate chips.” Belle threw him an odd look when she saw him reach for some of her cocoa butter lotion and squirt it onto the back of his hand. Shaking her head and deciding to let it go, she turned back around and spoke with a heavy hint. “I am starving though. Wouldn’t mind some of Roman’s lasagne.”

“What’s wrong with mine?” He questioned her, offended by her words as he glanced up towards her with a saddened look of a pout and puppy dog eyes.

“Nothing’s wrong with yours.” Belle quickly assured him in a sweet voice that almost crossed the line of patronising. “It would be rude of me to ask you to cook after just getting home, that’s all.”

“Oh, so what? It wasn’t rude of you to wake me up during night to ask me to make you something to eat then?” Aden teased her as she finally shut the cupboard doors, having finished her work and coming over to stand next to bed to glare down at him.

“I was hungry. What was I supposed to do? I was craving for your yummy food.” She shrugged lightly, smoothing down her hands over her stomach carefully. “It’s not my fault I get so hungry at weird times.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But you really shouldn’t be blaming the baby, you know?” Aden reprimanded her with a twinkle in his eyes to show that he was joking.

“I wasn’t.” Belle insisted, laughing and reaching out to shove him in the shoulder. “So, are we going to the Diner then? I want to go for a walk on the beach.”

“Well, you could have just said that!”

“Seriously? If I were to tell you that, you’d have just told me that I need to ‘rest and relax’.” She scoffed, mocking the last few words with a tone of disgust.

“You really underestimate me, you know that?” Aden said in a saddened tone. “And it really hurts.”

“Aw, my poor baby.” Belle sympathized for a moment, taking a step back and patting his legs from where she could just reach them. “I’ll make it up to you. I’ll buy you lunch. Now, let’s go.”

“Yes, ma’am!” He replied strictly, swinging his legs off the bed and standing up. “You’re being really moody today. And bossy.”

“You love it!” She told him with a deep chuckled, tugging on his hand to guide him out of the room.

“Yes, I certainly do.”

---

They had only spent 20 minutes walking along the beach, parallel to the sea, when Belle had started to drag her feet inconspicuously. He knew that she wasn’t letting on how much her feet were probably aching, as well as the rest of her body, but he could recognise the subtle signs that she failed to hide from him clearly. Suggesting that they head up to Diner, Aden didn’t miss the dirty look she shot him even as he tried to remain neutral and guided her up to the pier anyway.

“Who is that?!” Aden exclaimed as Belle’s phone buzzed to signal the arrival of another text just seconds after they sat down at a table inside the Diner.

“None of your business.” She teased him, adding a small poke of her tongue at him while picking up her phone to read the text. The words brought a smile to her face, something that Aden didn’t miss.

“Ok, now I’m really curious. Why are you smiling like that?”

“I’m not allowed to smile now?” Belle asked him with fake seriousness, all the while typing back a reply to the sender.

“Not like that. That’s a smile you’re only allowed to use when I send you a message.” He informed her childishly as she finished off with her text; the smile still place on her face.

“Jealousy is an ugly emotion, Aden.” She told him matter-of-factly.

“Who said I was jealous?” He huffed, the words leaving his mouth a split second before Irene appeared next to them.

“Wow, love. I can’t say that I’m not surprised to see you out and about. I thought this one had you on house arrest to stay and put your feet up!” Irene laughed, patting Aden on the shoulder as she spoke. His attention, however, was more focused on Belle’s hand, or rather the phone in it.

“You ought to know by now that I can make Aden do whatever I want, Irene. Isn’t that right, hun?” Belle turned to him, only to see his eyes transfixed on her mobile which she had placed down onto the table. Covering it with her palm, she knew that he had already read who the recipient of her text message was as his eyes flickered to hers in shock of being caught. “Right, Aden?”

“I think so?” He answered, uncertain as to what the question really was while trying to ignore Belle’s glare.

“Well, you make sure that you don’t let her completely wrap you around her little finger. You’re meant to be taking care of her, not giving in to everything she says!” Irene told him off lightly, making Belle giggle and Aden chuckle softly.

“Don’t worry. Belle just likes to think she has a hold over me.”

“Oh? And you go along with it for…what? The fun of it?” Belle questioned him with a smirk.

“You know it.” Aden replied, throwing her a wink and a click of the tongue as she turned away from him to face Irene once again as she cut into their small argument.

“Before this carries on,“ Irene spoke up, claiming both their attentions. “Is there anything I can get you kids to eat?”

“Just some pasta and salad, please.” Belle replied politely, feeling Aden’s eyes bore into her.

“I thought you wanted Roman’s lasagne?”

“I lied.” She simply said.

“Of course y-” Aden began, only to be interrupted by a huffing Irene.

“What about you, mister?” She prompted him with a glare that matched the one that Belle had sent his way earlier.

“Burger and fries.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back in a bit then.” Irene told them before retreating back into the kitchen. They sat in a bout of silence until Belle’s phone vibrated against the table.

“What?” Belle asked him innocently when he gave her a questioning look.

“Do I want to know why are you’re texting him for?” Aden replied carefully, leaning forwards to rest his forearms onto the table.

“Not really. I don’t think you’ll appreciate it.” Belle said earnestly.

“You taking him up on his offer or something? Cos then I think I should be a bit worried.”

“Yup, I definitely see a better life for me and the baby that way as opposed to this one.” She told him mockingly nodding her head as she replaced the mobile back onto the table; this time learning and laying it facing downwards.

“But then again, you can’t really run away while 9 months pregnant, now can you?” Aden added, earning himself a swift kick to his shins for his efforts. “Ow! What was that for?”

“For calling me fat. And because I don’t have the energy to reach out and slap you around the head.” Belle informed him, her words dangerously calm and her eyes shooting him daggers.

“I wasn’t calling you fat. Just pregnant. Which you are. Very much so.” He tried to clarify, waiting until Belle relented with her dark looks. “I should just stop, right?”

“That would be a good idea.” She muttered, rubbing a hand on her stomach were she felt a small twinge. Before either of them could say anything about it, her phone buzzed again as another text message arrived, and soon after Aden scowled as she let out a light giggle, which, unbeknownst to him, she was faking.

“Ok, yes, I get it. He’s much more entertaining than me right now.“ He growled in annoyance, slumping back in his seat and crossing his arms with a heavy sigh. Belle did nothing to correct him, or to agree; instead just carrying on with replying. “God, the food can’t get here quick enough.”

---

Letting out a nervous breath, Belle closed her eyes slowly as her tummy flipped when reality made her face the truth. Eyes fluttering open once again, she wasn’t surprised to see that not even a minute had passed, and that it was still 6:52am.

Rotating just the slightest bit until she came in contact with Aden’s body, she opened her mouth to say something as she glided her hand up his muscular arm, only to shut it when her stomach churned apprehensively again. Instead, Belle gently pushed his hand away from her body and carefully slid out of his embrace to sit up in the bed. Aden’s arm tightened slowly around her upper legs where it had fallen to without waking up. Taking in a couple of steadying breaths, she lifted her hand with the intent of either getting out of bed, or waking Aden up, but in the end resigned to dropping it back down onto the pillow next to her, right by her sleeping partner’s head. Slowly, she played with the tips of his soft and tousled hair, allowing time to pass her by.

When the clock next to her hit 7:02am, indicating that she had now been up for exactly 2 hours, Belle gave in. Moving her hand again, she laid it onto Aden’s bare arm and shook it in an attempt to wake him up.

“A-Aden?” Belle stuttered, whispering the name into the dim room. “Aden.” A soft groan was her response before his hand found it’s way to the other side of the baby bump where he left it. Rolling her eyes, frustration got the better of her and Belle hit him hard on the shoulder making him moan and move away a tiny bit. “Aden!”

“What is it?” He replied groggily to her harsh hiss of his name, rubbing at his eyes as he blinked to look over and up at her before rubbing at his arm. “That hurts, by the way.”

“Sorry.” She said sheepishly, eyes dropping down.

“What’s wrong? It’s only…” Pushing himself up onto his elbow, he looked over at the time and then let out another quiet moan. “7 in the morning, Belle!”

“I know, I know. I just couldn’t sleep.”

“So you thought you’d share the joy?” Aden asked her dryly, running a hand through his hair as he spoke. “Why can’t you sleep, then? Are you hungry again?”

“If I were hungry, I’d have said so.” Belle told him with a forced annoyance that made him attentive.

“What’s up, then?” At her silence, he waited a few more seconds before prompting her once again. “Belle? Is there something wrong?”

“My, uh… My back is killing me.” She confessed. Aden narrowed his eyes at her and then nodded slowly.

“Do you want to move or something? Or, um…” He trailed off as nothing else came to mind, hoping that Belle herself would fill in the blank for him.

“No. I don’t think that will help right now.” She informed him, slowly letting out a breath while tilting her head up to lay it back against the headboard and look directly across the room towards the ajar door of the bathroom. As if on instinct, Belle ran her hands over her stomach from under the covers; a movement that Aden didn’t miss.

“How long have you been up, babe?” He asked her suspiciously while pushing himself up a little bit more as his brain began to function and wake up.

“A couple of hours.” She said factually, her words so steady and precise that only confirmed Aden’s suspicions.

“You’ve been aching all this time? You should have woken me, Belle!”

“I thought it would get better!” Belle snapped back at him with a small grimace, neither one of their voices rising above the quiet tones that they had adopted.

“Ok. Ok, I’m sorry.” He apologized, leaning forwards and pressing a kiss to her shoulder; the only place that he could reach.

“It wasn’t you.” She admitted as Aden let out a heavy yet shaky sigh.

“Does it hurt anywhere else?” Belle shifted her eyes to his at his enquiry, and he could see the answer clear in them. Clearing his throat as anxiousness flooded him, Aden smoothed a hand over hers with only the fabric of the bed sheets separating them, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible as he continued to speak. “Belle, sweetheart, are you in labour?”

“I don’t know, Aden.”

“You don’t know.” He repeated, nodding his head and sitting up straight opposite her as he recalled certain things that he had read in books and been told by their doctor about labour signs. “Back pain’s common, yeah?” Belle nodded in agreement to his question. “Contractions?”

“Yeah, I think so.” She answered after a lengthy pause.

“Getting more stronger and painful?” Aden asked her, checking off items on his mental list and unsure how he was remaining so together right then.

“Aden…” Belle said fearfully, her eyes glassy while giving him a tiny nod.

“Ok, it’s ok, gorgeous.” He comforted her, taking a hold of her hand that came searching for his. “Last one. Have your waters broke?”

“Not yet.” She shook her head with a bit more confidence as if she had just snapped back to herself, straightening her body and swallowed a couple of times before speaking in a tone filled with awe, dread and worry, all at the same time. “I’m having the baby, aren’t I?”

“I think so, Belle.” Aden grinned, biting his bottom lip as it threatened to spread further than his facial muscles allowed it to.

“It’s two weeks early, Aden. I’m not ready!” She told him almost hysterically, eyes wide and her hand clenching his tightly.

“Well, I don’t think our baby really cares right now.” He chuckled, pulling one hand away from hers and laid it back on top of her stomach. “And to be honest, neither do I.”

“Oh, my God, Aden. We’re having a baby.” Belle exclaimed in a hushed voice with a ghost of a smile undecided whether to show on her face or not. “We’re actually having a baby.”

“Yeah, Belle, we are.” Aden laughed, leaning in to drop a kiss onto her lips and then her cheek and jaw before pulling away to look at her. Her eyes were still unfocused as tears brimmed them, but he could tell by a mere glance into her eyes that they were of happiness of what the day would bring them. Finally.

---

70 chapters later, and we're finally getting to the end of the pregnancy

Hope you liked it

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Heya adelleforever. Thanks for the lovely comment! So glad that new people are reading this when it's so close to the end. And your question about if it's a boy or a girl will be answered! Symphony, once again, I hope you do enjoy it! Though I think the travelling is a bit more fun than reading this!

Thank you all for the comments. I loved them all! I can't believe that this chapter is FINALLY here. It's like what everything this fic has been building up to. So I hope it does it all justice. I apologize in advance if it's a bit OOC.

Chapter 71:

“Something’s going to go wrong.”

“What?”

“Something’s, going to go, wrong.” Belle repeated slowly, sighing at the end in both frustration and relief as another second passed by with no contraction following.

“Why would you say that for?” Aden asked her worriedly from where he sat behind her, giving her as much comfort as he could. He rested his chin on her shoulder, one of his hands playing with her stray hair to keep it away from her face as he looked over at her. She was grasping onto his other hand that now laid limply on his leg, both of which were on either side of her on the hospital bed. It was amazing just how much you could get away with when in labour, Belle had realised, figuring that this closeness that she had with him would not have been possible at any other time.

“Because everything’s gone so good so far.” She told him in a matter-of-fact tone, swallowing at the anticipation of pain that didn’t follow once again.

“Oh… You scared me for a moment there.” He laughed.

“Don’t laugh!“ Belle practically growled. “You know it’s true; nothing ever stays good for too long. What if this is why everything’s been smooth running for the past month or so? What if that’s why it’s taking so long? Or it’s so painful?”

“Belle, it hasn’t been that long, and I’m sure it’s supposed to hurt.” Aden reassured her.

“It’s been over 8 hours!”

“So? You’re lucky. Some first labours can take more than 12 hours. Or even 24.” He reminded her, pressing a delicate kiss to the side of her neck. Her hair had been pulled up into a messy bun about 5 hours ago, but the loose strands had now began to curl from the perspiration and the icy cold damp towels used to keep her cool.

“Don’t, Aden.” Belle moaned, pulling away from him with as much energy that she could muster. “Now’s not the time.”

“I’m not doing anything!” He said innocently, leaning back against the pillows, bringing Belle with him to lean against him lazily.

“No, you’re not doing a thing.” She grumbled, twisting with the tiniest movement so that she could fit more easily into his arms that were now wrapped around the back of her waist and the other still holding onto her hand.

“You know that if I could, I would, Belle.” Aden’s tone was earnest as he picked up on her double meaning. She sighed tiredly at his words, squeezing his hand gently in apology and appreciation. Apologising for making him feel bad about something he couldn’t control, and appreciating the fact that for the past several hours that they had been there, he hadn’t left her side for more than a minute, and that was only when it was necessary. And he had never left her alone for a single second since, even though there were many nurses, midwives and doctors around and in and out of her room.

“Aden, what if something does go wrong?” She questioned with a hint of fear after a moment’s silence, not lifting her head up from where it lay on his shoulder to even bother to look at him.

“Everything’s going to be ok. The doc said it was all looking good, and it’s all going as planned. Stop stressing out. No ‘what if’s, ok?”

“But-”

“No, no ‘but’s either!” Aden cut her off forcefully yet lovingly, speaking directly into her ear. “It’s almost over, anyway. Doc said another hour the most, hopefully. Then we’ll have our beautiful baby with us and it’ll all be worth it.”

“Another hour.” Belle tried to sound calm, but she could hear her own voice shake slightly. Another hour and they would be parents. Another hour and they would have a baby, their baby, for them to cherish, love and spend the rest of their lives with. For them to look after, take care of and bring up. Suddenly, the overwhelming feeling of doubt swept through her, bringing anxiety and a bit of terror with it. “Aden, are we ready for this?”

“I think we’re going to have to be.” He joked with a smile but none of it had an effect on Belle.

“Aden, be serious!” She practically snapped. “We’re having a baby. You know, a whole other life for us to alter and mould. What if we do it wrong? I mean, I can barely look after myself, Aden, and I am useless when it comes to some things! Not to mention we’re too young. We’ve hardly experienced half of the things that we should have. How can we teach a child something that we don’t know?”

“Belle-”

“We should have waited. We’re not ready for this.” Belle spoke over him, stopping when she felt the pressure well up inside her. Her hand grasped onto his tightly as she gasped and squeezed her eyes shut; riding it through without a single sound to show just how much pain she was in. Even in labour, Belle did everything she could to stop herself from seeming weak. All Aden could do was to rub soothing circles on her back and skim his thumb over her clenched hand in his while pressing kisses and murmuring nothings into her hair.

“Over?” He asked her quietly when her hand went lax in his. She nodded wearily as she rested her head back against his shoulder once again.

“I can’t do this, Aden.” She said almost timidly, her eyes shutting as her body started to relax.

“Yes, you can. We can.”

“No, I meant this.” Belle ran a tentative hand over her small 9-month bump slowly. “I’m tired already and I have no energy to pretend that it doesn’t hurt.”

“No-one’s telling you to pretend it doesn’t hurt.” Aden held her as close as possible to him while brushing a hand up and down her arm reassuringly and lovingly. “And you can do it. Women have been doing it for years-”

“Oh, God. Don’t give me that crap about women doing all this for the past few thousand years and all that without modern medicine!” Belle interrupted him with irritation. A smirk appeared on his face when he recognised her sudden change of mood and re-boost of energy.

“It’s true though.” He argued. When she didn’t counteract, Aden thought for the second that he might have just gotten through to her. However, her nervously shaky deep breath told him otherwise. “What’s wrong?” Aden looked over her shoulder to get a glimpse of her face. She still had that glow and radiant beauty, even if there was an immeasurable number of emotions and feelings playing out on it.

“Are we really ready for this? I know it’s a bit too late, but the closer it gets now, the more I realise that there’s so much left to do.” There was something in her tone that told him that instead of seeking for reassurance, what she sought for was proof and a valid reason to tell her she was wrong.

“Listen to me. We’ve had the last 9 months to get ready, and we’ve done a lot. We’re never gonna be perfectly ready, Belle. If we had waited, we would just have gotten used to that life for a little bit longer and made it all that more difficult to change. All the time in the world wouldn’t have helped.” He replied in a low voice, smoothing her fringe back off her forehead before pressing his lips to her temple. His cool hand brought her back to reality a bit more, although her eyes still remained shut. “We just take this one step at a time.”

“When did you get so wise?” Belle questioned teasingly, hearing and feeling him laugh deep in his throat before placing a kiss a bit below her ear.

“When I married you.” Aden whispered.

“Smooth talker.” She huffed half-heartedly.

“Everything happens for a reason, remember? We didn’t decide or plan to have a baby, anyway. It just happened, so it’s not like we could’ve waited.”

“It’s didn’t ‘just happen’, Aden! You got me pregnant.” She retorted with a roll of that eyes that he couldn’t see.

“I believe it takes two…” The smile was evident in his voce and it only worked to annoy Belle more.

“Well, if you had some more self-control-”

“Hey!” He broke her off indignantly midway through her sentence. “I thought we established that it wasn’t only me. And are we really going to talk about this now, Belle?”

“Yes! I’m in pain here and I’m tired and I’m frustrated. I’m not going to blame myself, and I’m definitely not going to blame the baby. Which only leaves you!” She snapped.

“Alright, alright! No need to bite my head off.” There was amusement underlining his words and he could tell that she heard it when her nails dug into his forearm too quick for it to be another contraction. “Ow!”

“You think that’s pain?” Belle asked him cynically, tilting her head to look up at him. Aden merely pursed is lips and shook his head, knowing it was best not to reply to that. They fell into a bout of silence before she groaned in exasperation. “Why the Hell did you propose to me for? We were way too young! 19, Aden! Who proposes at 19?!”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” Aden enquired in confusion. If she had accepted any kind of pain relief, he would have started to wonder if they had gone to her head.

“It doesn’t, but I don’t like blaming you for getting me pregnant cos it sounds ungrateful and like I regret it, which I don‘t.” She explained quickly.

“So you’re going to blame me for proposing?” He asked incredulously. At her nod, Aden simply lifted an eyebrow at her. “Why did you say ’yes’ for then?”

“Stop trying to blame me!” Belle managed to get out before another contraction hit her, and she grabbed onto his wrist this time, nails no longer hurting as they dug into his skin seeing as she had pretty much cut off all the circulation by her tight grip.

“Ok, ok. I’m sorry.” Aden mumbled as he waited for it to end, once again helpless to do anything to stop the pain. Soon enough, her grasp loosened and he could see the three crescent shaped marks left on his skin as he looked down but decided not to comment on it.

“Look, Aden.” She began, trying to control her breathing. “Right now, all I need you to do is to give me a reason to blame you and hate you. Because if you don’t, then I will find something else to say and it won’t be so nice. And regardless of whatever I do say, after all this, and after everything’s calmed down again, you’re going to be a great husband and you’re going to pretend that none of this conversation or anything that’s been said ever happened because I’m never going to bring it up again, and neither are you. But right now, while I’m in the middle of giving birth to your child and my hormones are driving me crazy, you’re going to give me a reason to blame you!”

“You know, if you put all that energy you spent on giving me that speech on the baby, you wouldn’t need a reason to blame me.” He said smartly, not able to help himself.

“God, I hate you! Why are you even here if you’re just going to annoy me?” She growled at him while Aden did everything he could to not laugh.

“Would you rather I go and let you deal with this alone?”

“Yes! Go!” Belle hissed. Retracting his arms from around her, Aden pulled up his legs slightly to help elevate himself from the bed carefully without nudging her. “Whoa, where are you going!?”

“You said to leave, so I am.” He told her matter-of-factly as she grabbed a hold of one of his calves, pulling his leg straight next to her before he got any further.

“Like Hell you are! I’m not doing this by myself.” She almost whined, only her maturity and dignity turning it into a mix of anger and worry. “Besides, at the rate your going, you don’t wanna miss this because there’s no way I’m letting you ever touch me again.”

“Aw, you don’t mean that.” Aden said patronisingly as he settled back down behind her, pulling her closer to him, although he pulled both of his legs up and left them bent, aching after keeping them straight for so long. “Give it a few weeks and you’ll be begging me.”

“Will not.”

“Will too.” Aden countered cheerily, making Belle scowl.

“Will not and end of!”

“Alright, alright!” He gave in, knowing that this was certainly not the best way of getting her to relax and calm down. Sighing, he smooth her hair back from her face once again, pressing a kiss to her temple as she began to relax against him. “Do you need anything?”

“Just this baby out of me.” She murmured, closing her eyes, awaiting the next contraction and the next visit from the midwife or doctor.

“It’ll be soon, gorgeous. Very soon.” Aden told her soothingly, ignoring the voice in his head that told him that Belle was being very hypocritical considering that a few minutes ago, she didn’t think they were ready for the baby. “It’ll all be worth it in the end, I promise you.”

---

“Ok, just one more push and that’s it.” The doctor told her to her horror.

“No, I can’t. I can’t.” She gasped, slumping back against Aden who held onto her tightly, one hand pulling loose of her hand and smoothing back her hair.

“Yes, you can. Just one more, Belle.” He assured her, speaking directly into her ear. “It’ll be worth it, yeah? Remember that?”

“If you think it’s gonna be so worth it,” Belle sucked in a deep breath, her body still reacting from her last contraction. “Then why don’t you try it?!”

“You know I would if I could.” Aden told her seriously although there was a hint of a smile on his face. He could hear Dr. Reed and the assisting midwives stifled laughs at her words. “C’mon. Just one more. For me, sweetheart? Me and the baby, yeah?”

“It hurts and I haven’t got the energy for it anymore, Aden.” She claimed tiredly as he pulled both his hands away from hers and tucked them in between where she was leaning against him, gently massaging her lower back like he had learnt to do to help remove the pain. She had been in this stage for about half an hour so far and he wasn’t really surprised that she had no more energy to push.

“I know, babe, but just one more. Then you can do whatever you want.” Almost as soon as his words were out, another contraction built up, causing her to stiffen and make a grab for any of his limbs. Offering her his hands once more, Belle gripped then with all of her power and strength, which Aden had been surprised to find had increased tenfold from the labour bit to the giving birth bit.

“That’s it, Belle.” Dr. Reed encouraged her as she finally gave into the pain and did as she was told. Everything else washed over her as Belle put all her attention into it, the pain building up until the point where it got too much and everything was numb. She couldn’t feel, hear, or see anything except for the unfathomable pressure in her abdomen that suddenly disappeared, accompanied by a high pitched shriek of crying that broke into all of her senses and brought her back to reality. “It’s a girl! Congratulations.”

Belle fell back against Aden, panting for air all the while not sure whether to laugh, cry or a mix of both. She could hear the baby’s cry above everything else. Aden’s low chuckle broke her out of her stance, a smile making it’s way to her face even as she struggled to calculate her breathing.

“A girl, Belle. We have a girl.” He whispered into her hair with a clear tone of pride and joy, pressing a kiss to the back of her head as she squeezed his hands tightly to show she felt the same.

“You were right.” She finally managed to get out, causing another laugh to erupt from Aden. She could feel the vibrations of it from his chest and through her back, making it feel like her own. The doctor called him, reminding them there were other people around right then, asking if he would like to cut the cord. “Go.” Belle whispered, pushing herself up when she felt him hesitate even though she knew deep down he would love to. Especially if it meant getting a first look at their child. She couldn’t deny him that. After 9 months of having carried their baby, being with her all the time, feeling her move for the first time, and feeling her kick numerous more times than he had, Belle knew that he deserved something to do with her first.

Her eyes followed his each and every movement, up until when the midwife handed him a small bundle wrapped in a white blanket at that moment. The cries still reached her ears, but somehow, Belle had managed to drown it all out. Pulling herself up into a sitting position as well as she could with only pillows for support in her tired and aching form, her eyes never drifted away from the tiny person that Aden now cradled. He shushed her gently, bouncing her ever so carefully as he did so, a smile forever plastered on his face. Approaching Belle’s side, he averted his eyes for the briefest moment to her before looking back down towards his daughter and pressing a kiss to her forehead and then sitting onto the edge of the bed to hand her over.

Belle took her cautiously, not once breathing while Aden shifted her into her arms in fear of hurting her or nudging her in the wrong way. Finally, as she laid in her arms, Belle let out her breath, natural instinct telling her to rock her like Aden had. Merely minutes old, she was so perfect. Perfect nose, perfect mouth, perfect little eyelashes and faint eyebrows. Perfect small tuft of hair, perfect size, perfect everything. Belle couldn’t take much more in. Colour or resemblance didn’t register with her as tears filled her eyes even as she tried to keep it back so she could adore her daughter for just that little while longer until they took her away to be cleaned and checked over.

Looking up at Aden as he continued to watch their baby, stroking her chubby arm slowly, she tried to speak, only to find the lump in her throat stopping everything she could do. He glanced up at her with the same glassy look although he was doing a better job at keeping it back than she was. Mouthing a ‘thank you’ to him, still unable to get her voice out, she caught his grateful look before gazing down at the joy in her arms. Finally, Belle was able to recognise something as the baby’s eyes opened and shut in a few drastic motions against the harsh bright lights. They were blue.

---

So there you go; they have a girl Sorry it was a bit short but I didn't want to go on and on about other stuff in this chappie. Plus, it meant I got it up quick.

xoxo