Heroes and Thieves Book II: Apologies to Your Mother

Prologue

"Derek the reason we should go visit your family over Christmas is because A-they haven't met Lizi yet and B-For my mother Christmas is a formal and stressful event" Emily argued because for the last week the two had been discussing whose family to visit over the Holidays and they had to make a decision tonight.

The reason Emily wanted to go to Derek's family was because they hadn't seen their now eight month old daughter Elizabeth Morgan, and as she was starting to crawl a bit Emily thought this would be a good time to take her. Derek thought otherwise, he was convince Emily should be closer to her mother, but didn't seem to understand that the last place Emily wanted to go was anywhere her mother was but since she was currently in Rome Emily really didn't want to go there. She hadn't been to Rome since 1985 and she was going to keep it that way.

"I get that but we'll be back in February for my mother's birthday if we go now." Derek sighed. "Besides, you need to try to make amends with your mother."

"No I don't! I don't want to, and I don't need to." Emily protested. "My mother has seen Elizabeth a hundred times; your mother who was always bugging you about having grandkids hasn't even met her! My mom never wanted grandkids – hell she never wanted kids – so we should take her to someone who actually wants to meet her."

"Okay I can't exactly argue with that, so fine we'll go to Chicago, but we are visiting your mother this summer and you are going to make amends okay?" He said.

"Fine, we'll visit my mom in the summer but I won't pretend to enjoy it." She groaned.

"See now that we have our decision I'll book the plane tickets and we'll get some sleep." He said as he kissed her pink lips gently.

"Okay, sleep sounds –" She was cut off by the baby monitor making a noise. "Damn, Sergio must've woken her again."

Ever since Sergio discovered Elizabeth he'd loved her, which meant he would jump in her crib and scare her in the middle of the night. Most nights Emily just put him in the basement for the night but she had forgotten to do that due to the argument that she'd been having with Derek.

She went into the nursery and pulled Sergio out of the crib, then picked up Elizabeth and sat in the rocking chair. Leaning her against her breast, Emily rocked her slowly stroking her soft brown curls.

"See baby, Mama's right here, I know the kitty is scary but it's okay, Mama will keep you safe." She whispered. "And so will Dada and he's got 100 pounds on Mama at least and is much stronger so he'll keep us both safe, but don't tell him because he's already got a huge ego!"

Elizabeth cooed and held on to Emily's shirt, her heart sank, she knew that if she were to put her back in the crib Lizi would start crying, Emily sat there gently rocking. Slowly the small child fell asleep in her arms and she got up, she walked past the crib and into the bedroom.

"She sleeping here tonight?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, I just can't stand to let her cry when I put her back." She whispered kissing her daughters head again and lying in bed with her.

"I know you can't and I love nothing more than to wake up with you and my daughter next to me." He kissed her and then Lizi's hair before getting in bed next to her. "I told my family we were coming down to Chicago for a week or two over Christmas."

"Okay, night Derek." She smiled turning off the light.

"Night, Emi." He smiled kissing her neck and pulling her close before falling asleep.