A/N: This just sort of came to me one night as I was listening to Kellie Pickler's Someone Somewhere Tonight. It goes along with my other stories "Sandcastles & Fireworks" and "He Didn't Have to Be". Again you don't have to read them to understand this one but they sort of lay the ground work. This fic is definitely Bensidy and will have 4 parts. The first part is kind of shorter than I like and not very fluffy but it was a good spot to split it up and don't worry it will get happier. You know what you have to do if you want the other parts quickly: Review :) Here or on Twitter (Dimonkey17). I think that's all you need to know, besides that I own no one except Avery. Oh and this is dedicated to Erica (who disappeared from Twitter so I can't tell her I finished), Sindy, Fiona, and Sara who are all really good at pressuring me into writing. Enjoy!

Well, babe, lie down here beside me
And let's lie real still
And tell me you love me
And you always will

Olivia slowly padded around her small kitchen, quietly singing along with the Luke Bryan song that filtered softly through the Bose speakers, opening cabinet doors and perusing the contents of the cupboards as she went. Jars of peanut butter and boxes of pasta and Pop-Tarts acquired new locations on the various shelves as a growing pile of items that were past their expiration dates collected in the trashcan behind her. An assortment of cleaning products cluttered the counter, waiting for their opportunity to scour a variety of surfaces—the stove, the sink, the floor, the counter tops. Turning and bending, two actions that were not her friends these days, were done with the greatest of ease, all the while supporting her lower back with her hands as she moved. With only roughly a month to go before baby Avery made her appearance in the world, Olivia was supposed to be taking it easy—propping up her swollen feet and ankles, sipping lemonade or other unexciting caffeine and alcohol-free beverages, eating bonbons, and blocking out all the problems of the world. If her doctor, or Brian for that matter, could only see her now, Olivia would probably be in a world of trouble. But a combination of boredom, unfounded jealousy, and frustration had left Olivia's nesting instincts in overdrive. So at 8:00 at night, while she waited uneasily for Brian to get home, Olivia found herself executing the mother of all cleaning and organizing rampages.

She had already attacked with gusto the bedroom she and Brian shared as well as the adjoining bathroom, and the living room was next on her list. The thought of alphabetizing all the books and albums scattered on their row of bookshelves, a usually daunting task, enough to make her slightly giddy. They had previously rearranged Noah's bedroom in anticipation of his little sister's arrival and already washed and folded all of Avery's tiny "birth to three months" size clothing, all in varying shades of pink and purple, but Olivia was currently contemplating a different set-up for the small room that she would implement tomorrow with Brian's help. If he didn't get called into work on his day off, which seemed to be happening more and more these days. A fact that had not gone unnoticed by Olivia.

Despite the fact that the air conditioner was running full blast, Olivia had still managed to work up a sweat, her tanned skin glistening in the moonlight that shone through the full length windows. Pausing momentarily, leaning the bulk of her weight against the counter, Olivia wiped the perspiration from her brow before pulling her thick shoulder length brown hair up off the back of her neck and into a ponytail. Just that simple action was enough to make the room seem ten degrees cooler. Closing her eyes, she reached her hands up once again and massaged the aching muscles in her neck and shoulders, moaning softly as she attempted to knead away the bottled-up tension. After a few minutes, feeling slightly refreshed, Olivia managed to push herself back to a standing position.

Olivia took one more cleansing breath before turning her attention back to the open cabinet in front of her. She thoughtfully examined the items on the shelves, absent-mindedly running her hands over her large belly, smoothing out the wrinkles in her light-weight purple tank top as she did. She smiled briefly when she felt her daughter's tiny elbow jab into her side, just underneath the spot where her right hand rested. The smile was short-lived, fading the instant her eyes settled on a box of Brian's Frosted Mini Wheats sitting where it always did, right between her pre-natal vitamins and Noah's Cheerios. Immediately the events of the day came flooding back and an emotion that was a combination of anger and deep-seeded hurt took hold of Olivia.

Unable to look at the box any longer, she forcefully grabbed onto the open wooden door and flung it closed. Milliseconds before the cabinet door slammed shut and shook the kitchen with its reverberations, Olivia came to her senses and caught the door, reminded at the last moment that Noah was sound asleep in his bedroom just down the hall. Instead she yanked the door back open, pulled the cereal from the shelf, and threw it into the nearby trash can. A six pack of beer, a bag of pretzels, and several jars of spices that Brian used when he cooked followed close behind. The bunch of bananas hanging from the banana holder were next in line for Olivia's wrath, but she stopped herself moments before they could join the other food items in the waste receptacle.

Feeling all the energy drain from her body in the aftermath of her outburst, Olivia despondently hung the bananas back on their holder. A few tears which had spilled from her dark chestnut eyes, made their way down her face, leaving a salty trail in their wake. Angrily wiping the tears away with the back of her hand she chuckled cynically, thinking it was almost ridiculous that it had been a box of cereal of all things that triggered the release of her pent-up fury. Frosted Freakin' Mini Wheats. She had sorted through an entire dresser full of his clothing earlier in the evening and while she had not been particularly pleased with him at the time she hadn't been tempted to throw his clothing out the window or shove it down the garbage disposal either.

Placing her hands on the counter, Olivia leaned forward, taking the pressure off her lower back for a moment, and hung her head while she contemplated her out of character reaction. As she ruminated, it dawned on her that Brian had not eaten breakfast with her and Noah one time in the past three weeks.

Breakfast had always been Brian and Olivia's favorite time of the day. Even as early as the very first days in their relationship when they were just sneaking around and hooking up for sex, they made a point to eat breakfast together the next morning, forgoing the typical shoes-in-hand, clandestine escape by the light of dawn. Whether it was just muffins and juice or an actual home cooked meal. Some mornings they bantered back and forth, discussing everything from work to his family to current events they came across in the Times. And some mornings no words were exchanged at all—both of them just content to sip their coffee and watch the sun rise, basking in the quiet time together. The gradual disappearance of this ritual from their lives after Lewis' trial and Brian's transfer to IAB was actually one of the major red flags that their relationship was crumbling.

Once they "re-coupled", they immediately reinstituted the tradition, this time with Noah included. There weren't too many quiet breakfasts anymore, not with a rambunctious toddler. And the meal was rarely anything elaborate; cereal being the food of choice more often than not. But it was a different kind of special. It was still a chance for Brian and Olivia to talk, sharing both serious concerns and mindless chatter, but also a moment for them to spend as an entire family. A chance for them to share this sacred time with their son, and soon their daughter as well. Television was turned off and cell phones were ignored as much as possible, taking the time to just enjoy each other's company.

Olivia was surprised she hadn't picked up on the obvious omission from their daily routine sooner. She could probably blame the pregnancy induced exhaustion. She blamed almost everything on it these days. Now that she had realized it though, she couldn't help but worry that she and Brian were unintentionally headed down the same path they had traveled a little over a year ago, with another disastrous break-up looming in the future. Under normal circumstances she would brush the thought aside, certain she was making a big deal out of nothing, but today wasn't a normal day. Today was the day Olivia had the great misfortune of meeting Miss Oklahoma, otherwise known as Brian's new partner.

The rational Olivia, the Olivia she had been her entire life up until about eight months ago when hormones took over her judgment and reasoning skills, knew in her heart that this was nothing but a huge misunderstanding. That Brian was only working the extra shifts because they needed the money since she was currently not working at all and so he could take more time off once Avery arrived, not because the company at work was preferable to that at home. But the irrational, fueled by an overload of estrogen and progesterone and whatever other hormones decided to invade her body, Olivia knew what she had seen and refused to accept any other explanation for the scenario other than the obvious, which was that she and Noah had intruded on Brian in the midst of an act of infidelity.

Pushing herself up from the counter, Olivia brushed a stray hair that had escaped from the ponytail out of her face and picked up her glass of water and Noah's baby monitor before heading into the living room. Finishing the kitchen could wait until tomorrow. She paused temporarily when Noah's soft whimper drifted through the monitor, followed by an assortment of sighs and muffled sobs. Afraid that he had been woken by her display of emotion, Olivia was about to make her way down the hallway to his room to check on him but stopped herself when the noise was replaced by a low rhythmic snoring sound.

After another couple minutes passed and Olivia was sure her son had indeed lulled himself back to sleep, she took a long swig of her water and placed it on the shelf in front of her. Doing her best to block out the negative thoughts and concentrate on the task at hand, she began removing all the items from the first shelf, setting anything with an "A", "B", or "C" title in a separate pile so they would be easily located when she needed them. The country station still played softly in the background as she worked. She was in the midst of organizing the "B's", wondering which of them actually owned a Backstreet Boys CD, when the Kellie Pickler version of "Someone Somewhere Tonight" started to play. The few CDs she held in her hand slid from her grasp and landed at her feet with a quiet thud on the woven area rug.

Inspired by the chorus from the song, Brian and Olivia had promised each other in their wedding vows that no matter what else was going on in their busy lives they would always remember to lay down together side by side, and to tell one another they loved each other and always would. Knowing that even when things seemed overwhelming, it could be much worse. That somewhere else in the world every night there would always be someone dying, someone drowning their sorrows in the bottom of a bottle, someone paying for their sins in a jail cell, someone ending a relationship that had once been full of hope and promise. Now only six short months later, Olivia couldn't help but wonder if Brian had already forgotten about that oath as she sunk into the couch, tears streaming down her face, letting the events of her miserable day fight their way to the surface of her memory.

TBC : ) It will get better I promise...it just may get worse first.