"I, um, yeah. I have always wanted kids. I think it would be neat to have what my mom and I had. But see it from the other side."
"Oh, my God. Are you crying?" Astrid snorted at Liv who was definitely swiping at her eyes.
"No."
"You so are. Motherhood has made you soft." It wasn't meant as an insult, but Liv's chin lifted.
"I dare you to spend one week in my life and try to tell me that my children are not every bit as terrifying at times as a Hungarian mob boss."
"Well, she's got me there."
I don't know how long I sat there and listened to their back and forth, occasionally piping in when Astrid shot somewhat invasive questions at me.
Mostly, though, I was just enjoying being a smart part of their dynamic, feeling just a little bit connected, like I had a place and people and inside jokes.
It had been so long.
Too long.
And I wasn't going to take a single moment of it for granted.
Sometime around early afternoon, West showed up at the door, allowing Liv to get back to her kids and Astrid to get back to her, well, chickens.
"I don't see why I need a babysitter is all," I told him, watching every move as he made me a fresh cup of coffee. "If Cam is out there, you know, handling the only threat on my life."
"All I know is Cam wanted his girl protected. And I was free. So you get to be babysat by me. Luckily for you, I am almost alarmingly handsome and heartbreakingly charming."
"And not very smooth at all. I saw you pour that salt in there," I told him, shooting him a smile when he looked disappointed. "You're going to have to do better than that to get one over on me."
"Pretty Girl, that sounds a lot like a challenge to me."
It was.
And West took a challenge very, very seriously.
He stayed with me, though, the entire day. Being charming or a pain in the butt in equal turns, shuffling me off to bed when I started nodding off while watching movies with him.
Once I went through the motions of getting ready for bed and finally climbed in, alone for the first time, the worries started to sink in.
About Cam.
About something happening to him.
About Thomas hurting him.
About him getting caught by the police.
While trying to do something to help me.
The very idea of that made my stomach clench.
"I can hear you overthinking in there," West called, not bothering to turn the very loud TV down - Because the fuckheads upstairs need to get a taste of their own medicine - as he did so. "Relax. Cam is fine. Go to sleep. He will be back when you wake up."He was, too.
I woke up feeling warmer than usual. Too warm for just the thin blanket draped over me.
It took me a long couple of sleepy moments to figure out it was because there was something warm wrapped into me from behind.
Or, more precisely, someone.
Smelling like leather and wood.
That was my Cam.
"You're back," I whispered into the dark, not wanting to wake him if he had drifted off.
"Y-Y-Yeah. G-Go b-b-back t-to s-s-sleep. W-We c-c-can t-talk in t-the m-moring."
"I'm awake now," I told him, turning in his arms so I could face him, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. "Are you okay?"
"F-f-fine, b-babe," he told me, arms going tight around me, giving me a squeeze.
"Are you sure? I don't want you just to say you're fine because you think that is what I want to hear. I want how you really are."
"I-I'm g-good. F-Feel b-b-better. It's o-o-over. W-We c-can s-s-s-start s-something n-n-now. F-For r-r-real."
And so we did.EPILOGUECamden - 4.5 months"I'm just wondering. Who wins the bet about them moving now?" Astrid asked, yanking a box out of Liv's hands. "You know you're not supposed to be carrying shit. That is why we have ten burly biker dudes here today. To do the heavy lifting."
"It was a box of pillows," Liv reminded Astrid. "Stop treating me like an invalid. There are..."
"Women in third world countries who squat to give birth in the field, then get right back to work. I know. I have heard the story a million times. But you're not a poor lady in a third world country who doesn't have a choice. You have luckily been born right here in these times of 'resting your feet' and afternoon pregnancy naps and epidurals. Take the easy when it is being handed to you."
Very, very little in the world freaked Astrid out quite as much as pregnancy and childbirth. She practically went green at the idea of a baby stomping on your bladder, let alone all the stuff that went down in a delivery room.
That said, this was Liv.
This was her mother figure, her best friend. And she made it her life's mission when Liv was pregnant to make everything as easy as possible, to make her take it easy, to remind her that she had a long, long run of being a badass, that she could go ahead and enjoy her retirement.