"Sit down," Kaalia said. "You aren't going anywhere. This, this is your fault. If he wrecks his bike and dies, you'll have another person's life on your conscience. Because Liliana and Toby weren't enough for you, apparently." Kaalia was shaking with anger, she felt as if this-this- could she even call him a person? Kallist went out and laid down his life for people he didn't even know- and this rat couldn't even help his own family. Unless they were his blood. Well Kaalia Claire Markov knew family wasn't about blood.

"He didn't make Josu storm off like that! You don't get to blame him for Josu having a temper!" Karen seethed at her.

"Josu wouldn't have had to storm off if he wasn't a LIAR! How do you even know that he's not reporting back to his brother? Josu lost everything because of those people! His sister, his father-"

"Don't you dare throw Nicolai in my face, he was like my father!"

"Couldn't tell, you weren't at his funeral. Your father and brother were but where were you?"

Rose came up behind Kaalia and smoothed her hair down and planted a kiss on top of her ginger locks. Kaalia looked up at the woman who had helped raise her. This was the place where she'd had half of her firsts: her first kiss, her first fight- with Jace, of course. She'd lost her virginity to Rose's oldest son in that back bedroom. She'd cooked many meals with this woman, laughed and cried at her kitchen table. She'd been in the living room when they found out about Kallist. She'd been here. For all intents and purposes, she had been there for her as much as Avacyn was. How fitting was it that she felt as if she'd lose Kal and Su in this room, on this couch.

Lia put her head in her hands and fell to the couch in a heap of tears. Rose looked at the pair of people in her living room and subsequently excused them to the porch. Karen wasn't stupid enough to leave, if Josu got here with her father and they weren't here then it would hell to pay for the pair of them. The only time that Giovanni had been truly angry with her was when she and Liliana had snuck out at the age of fifteen to go hang out with Grimsley and Xenagos, and with good reason. They were three years shy of a decade their seniors and Giovanni and Nicolai had hated their father, Pryce. With good reason, too. They had no idea what went on in that combine of Grecian people. Karen's heart was shattering into a hundred million pieces knowing that Will had kept this from her.

She knew how menacing they were. She had been there when Xenagos had wanted to go further than kissing and Liliana told him no- he just continued anyways. She had been the one to explain to Nicolai how she got those bruises because Liliana was too embarrassed. They'd seen how outwardly cruel they were to people who weren't like them. She understood that he was scared, but how could he just not tell her? She had told him what had happened, but never that she was their other target. She had never told him how she had ran for her life, leaving her best friend to plead for hers.

She knew that Giovanni was upset with her for sneaking out to be with them, because he knew how dangerous they could be. Karen had never thought in a million years that something like this would happen to Liliana and her, but Giovanni was right to be wary. Because after the episode with them sneaking out, it was a mere two weeks before she went missing. They all knew what has happened, who it was. Karen had been there, after all.

The last time he had been here it had been with Emmara, and he wasn't eager to repeat that, as his sister had very nearly died that day. They wouldn't take her symptoms seriously and she went into kidney failure. Jace was not about to let that happen to his Lilipad.

"I'm fine Jace, we can go back home. Toby doesn't need to be around all these sick people," Liliana said to him.

"Tobias is fine, just lay on my shoulder please," Jace said. He could see that she was in pain. Jace had gotten here faster than he ever had when he saw his girlfriend bleeding. His overactive brain was running every single possibility from a kidney stone to a perforated bowel.

He stroked Liliana's hair and held Toby close to his chest. Jace could tell that it was killing him not to crawl into Lili's lap, but Jace explained that she was sick and Toby understood; he could see it on his mother's face. So, he sat against Jace's chest, thumb in his mouth until he fell asleep. After what had seemed like hours, the nurse moved them to a room there in the ER.

"We are going to get her some pain medicine, and then run a CT. It could be a while before the doctor comes in, she's relatively low on the trauma list. Let us know if she gets any worse, or has any lower back pain. It could be her appendix."

"Don't have one," Liliana said, very obviously miserable. Jace still had Toby on his lap, but he reached for her hand and squeezed it.

"Medicine should be working soon, sweetie." The nurse patted her feet and walked out the door.

"I promise I'm not usually this high maintenance," Liliana said to her boyfriend, rolling onto her side.

Jace carefully sat Tobias down in the chair and covered him with one of the warm blankets that the nurse had brought. He sat on the edge of Lili's bed and put his hand on the small of her back, where she said the majority of her pain was radiating from. He then made soft kneading motions, hopefully easing some of it. This was what Mom did when Emmara's muscles seized up.

"C'mere," Liliana told him, wrapping his arms around her waist, trying to pull him in tighter. Jace didn't know what she was doing but he went with it. She pushed her hair over the side of her shoulder, exposing her bare neck. She scooted even closer to him, thinking that she was being obvious, but Jace's mind was in ten different places at that moment. He just kept putting steady pressure on the small of her back, as he was trying to stave off a mental breakdown.

She smelled so good, like lavender, freesia , and orange blossoms all mixed into one. She rolled her back flush with his chest. Their skin was touching, just barely, and he felt something start to happen that hadn't happened in over a year. He begged his body to stop, this was the last place this needed to happen. He groaned and tried to pull away, but Liliana pulled his hands back in, and rather than rolling out, he in rolled toward her.

"Oh, hello," she sniggered. Whether on purpose or not, Jace had no idea, but she scooted closer to him, closing the distance. She then flipped so she was lying on her other side, and kissed his still-open-in embarrassment mouth.

"Why is it that my body decides to go and get hard when you are like this?"

"Is it because you think I'm preeeeeeeeetty?

"You know I think you are beautiful," Jace said as Lili planted kisses on his neck. She then moved back up to his mouth, but brought his hips back up to her. "The most beautiful girl in the world," Jace said through the onslaught of kisses.

"You know, I like the way your mouth tastes," Liliana told him seriously. "It makes me wonder how you taste," she finished with a wink. It took Jace a second to garner what she was saying, but when he did, his eyes went wide.

"Lili, it's time to go to sleep while we wait for the doctor," Jace said, cradling his girlfriend to his chest. She didn't contest him, she let the medicine take over, and for the first time in forever, Liliana rested.

Josu was lucky. Giovanni and Silver, and Silver's little daughter, Laney, were all at his DC office. He had known they planned on coming up a few days after Karen and Will, and Giovanni didn't disappoint. He never did. If he said he would, he did. It had been a few months since he'd seen all of them. When the door swung wide, his second father hugged him fiercely. They hadn't been able to speak at any sort of length since they told him that Liliana was back. He was ready to see his adopted son, and he was beyond ready to see Liliana for the first time in five years.

Giovanni hadn't been part of the investigation the Metro DC Police had conducted, because apart from them being indifferent to their family's pain, it had been essentially fruitless. Giovanni had connections to some less than savory types. However, that didn't stop him. Giovanni Voss never sat idly. He had conducted his own investigation, of course.

There were nights when Josu and Giovanni just watched, patrolled, and waited. Neither of them knew how they could keep her as hidden as they did; they expected that she was being hidden in plain sight. Giovanni kept tabs on the public record, but neither of them expected much from that.

Just like Josu, Giovanni didn't move on. He knew his family was still in trouble, and Nicolai's untimely death still unsettled him, even if the fuzz did label it as an accident. He didn't buy it. Josu didn't mess up while driving. And Giovanni didn't sleep on that information. He was always on the move, looking.

He was worried when Josu had demanded to speak to him and Silver face-to-face and away from Karen. It was very atypical from the way that they would do things. It was opposite from the way that Giovanni held dear. They never kept secrets from their inner circle, ever.

"Papa," Josu said, chagrin and anger still thick in his voice. "How much do you know about KK's new boyfriend? Have you ran background on him yet?"

"Karen found I was doing so with a couple of her college friends and boyfriends ago and she asked me to stop and trust her judgment as an adult, so I did," Giovanni said, arching one of his eyebrows in questioning.

"Have you met him yet?"

"Not at any sort of length, Josu, what are you getting at, son?"

"He's brothers or cousins or some shit with Grimsley and Xenagos," Josu said, anger still thick in his voice.

"Silver," Giovanni said, his voice low and deadly. "Let's go."

Jace was the only one awake, and he was painfully so. Tobias was asleep on his lap, and his mother was tucked away in a pleasant dream, or at least Jace hoped so. He was still terrified, the relationship was so new- but he'd never been surer of anything. What he wasn't sure of were the medical professionals. What if it was something that couldn't be cured? What if it was something that could take her away from him-and Tobias-forever? Jace pushed the haunting thoughts to the back of his mind and snapped a photo of them-his family, his cyclone. He kissed Liliana on her brow.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you, or him," Jace promised.

There was a sound of the breeze swooshing through the door as it swung wide. The little bit of light and sound was enough to wake Lili up. He couldn't help but think of Ivan Pavlov and his classical conditioning. A single stimulus causes a single reaction. It took Lili a second to adjust to where she was. The first thing she did was look around for Tobias, and then sigh with relief. After she adjusted and sighed, Jace saw her whole body slump with assuagement. Again, he gently laid the slumbering boy in the chair and walked over to his girlfriend; her tiny hand was outstretched for him. He smoothed her hair down and kissed her forehead, to which she sighed, again.

"We're going to need to run a couple tests on you blood, we think it could be a bad UTI, because there is not enough blood to make us think that it's anything more than a bad panic attack triggered by pain," the doctor said .

"I want to see her results for myself," Jace said. "The original lab report."

"Miss Vess has to give you that right-" the doctor started.

"He's fine," Liliana said. "I trust him."

Jace leaned down and pecked Lili on her lips, cradling Lili's face to his. "I love you," he said to her.

"Me too," she smiled. She couldn't say it yet, but she would. She wanted to.

"We are also going to run a CT," the doctor continued, "Is there any chance you could be pregnant? Because a miscarriage isn't outside the realm of possibility given the nature of the pain."

Not again, Lili thought. Her hand flew down to her abdomen as the color drained from her face. She drew a shaky breath and dropped her head, unable to look her man in the eyes.

"I suppose there is a chance," Liliana said, her voice barely louder than a whisper.

Karen sat with her knees pulled up to her chest on the front porch swing of a woman that she didn't know. She was so angry, angry at Josu's bitch, angry at Josu himself, angry at Liliana for choosing someone over her family, but mostly, she was angry at Will. She knew that her father was going to commit a murder right here, but as angry as she was, she still loved him, she would stand in between Giovanni and Will.

"Why did you lie to me?"

"I never wanted to, Karen, but I had - have to protect my mother! You think that Lili looked bad? Do you know what they would do to her and to me if I show you anything that has anything to do with them?"

"You're protecting a rapist! We're sure he killed Nicolai and tried to murder Josu just so that Lili had no where to go - and I was there! I was able to get away from Grimsley- but Lili, she wasn't as lucky. You knew who she was a week after dating me! Why couldn't you tell me? My dad can protect you!" Karen screamed.

"I don't want his conditional protection, Karen," Will said.

"But you'll protect someone who raped my sister," she spit at him.

"Karen, I for one know it was far more complicated than that," Will said

"I don't give a damn how complicated it was, how could you lie to me?"

"I was scared, and embarrassed," he said, dropping his head.

"You know who was scared? Liliana was. I was. I was scared of men for nearly four years,"Karen said. "I thought you were different than them," she said, as hot tears stung at her eyes.

"I am, they aren't me, Karen, please, just give me the benefit of the doubt," Will was begging. He couldn't tell her where, but he wasn't going to stand in their way. He owed it to Karen, but he especially owed it to Liliana and Toby.

"Are you helping them? Your brothers?" Karen asked him.

"What? Of course not," Will said. "When I left, I was dead to them. I was held against my will just like Liliana was- Josu thinks it was as easy as just telling but it was so much more than that," Will said through tears. "He played it up like they were married and I had no idea for a lot of the time, she did seem happy," Will said.

"Stop! I know you can't comprehend emotion, but don't play this off," Karen screeched at him.

"Why can't I make you understand?! I wasn't trying to, but you have no idea, just please listen to me," Will said.

"You're asking me to choose you," she said.

"I chose you, didn't I?"

"Then rather than running a CT on your abdomen, we'll do an ultrasound and look at your kidneys and ovaries the tests take time, and I can do this now, I just have to go get the machine." She exited the room and Liliana lost control.

She yanked the blanket over her head and Jace could hear her sobbing, and Toby just shifted in his sleep.

"We are in this together, regardless, Liliana." He climbed into the bed behind her and tried to soothe her, kissing her head and hair, rubbing up and down her arms. "Shh, Lilipad. Everything is going to be okay."

"I don't know what I feel, I don't want to lose him, but I can't do this alone," Liliana said. "I'm not even good enough for Tobias, I can't be responsible for anyone else," Liliana bawled.

Just as Jace was going to say that she wouldn't be doing this alone, the doctor came in with the sonogram machine. He sat on the edge, next to her, holding her hand. The doctor asked Liliana to roll on her side, and she couldn't help it. She buried her head into Jace's shoulder and hoped that he would stay with her, though she couldn't blame him if he left, because this life was too much for her. She couldn't force him to love another child that wasn't his.

"Your kidneys are fine, but the blood was caused by a cyst that ruptured on your ovaries, which you have quite a few of. Some women do, but you need to ingest as much water as you can - potassium too. Can you flip over to your stomach, Miss Vess?"

She couldn't. She felt Jace walking out, it was all she could see, the only outcome that she could fathom. Jace never released her hand. He kept his forehead pressed to hers, but rolled her gently to her back. And then he heard it. There was a steady swishing sound that neither one of them had ever heard. There was a beating heart. Liliana hugged her boyfriend to her, and in that moment, when he heard it, his heart changed too. He looked around him, at the woman, the little boy, and the picture on the screen. He planted a kiss on Lili's tearstained lips. How could Jace love something so much, when he had never even knew he wanted them? He took Lili's shaking hand in his and dropped them to her abdomen. Through tears, Jace only managed to choke out one word.

"Family."

"I'm not asking you to abandon your family. I'm just asking you to stand by me. I am asking you to let me have the rest of my life to show you that I can make it up to Toby, Liliana, but mostly to you. I don't blame you if you want to walk out. But I'm begging you not to." Will was not too proud to beg. He knew that Karen was it for him. He loved her wholly. But he was so terrified.

"I would choose you, even if I had a million other choices, but I can't turn my back on Liliana. Not again." Karen said. "I can't watch Josu break. I can't do this again," Karen said. "Are you being honest with me?"

"Karen, I don't have anything else to lie about, I have nothing left to lose."

She gathered his hands in hers and made a promise to somehow bridge this gap between the two loves of her life, to make them into one family. She didn't know how, but she knew that that was her only option. She wasn't going to let go. Not again.

Liliana sat in the passenger side of Jace's car, looking out the window. She couldn't look at him, she just knew that she was going to lose him, she knew that Toby was going to lose him, and she had no idea how to explain that to Toby. He wouldn't let go of her hand, he hadn't released it since the hospital. She didn't want to let go either- she was scared that if she did, she'd never feel his hands against hers again. Liliana's eyes started stinging again, so when she went to wipe the tears away, Jace could feel the moisture on the back of his hand.

"LiliPad, what's wrong? You should be happy. You're an amazing mother and we're going to have an amazing child."

Liliana could barely believe her ears. After five years of being told that she couldn't parent, that she didn't love her son, that she didn't know what was best for him, the man that made her feel, the man that made her happy was telling her she was a good mother. She squeezed his hand.

"I love you too much to saddle you with another child that isn't even yours," Liliana said, her tears staining the front of her shirt.

"DNA doesn't make a family. I won't let a group of arbitrary acids dictate how I feel about my family."

"I am twenty-one years old, I had a child at seventeen, I haven't finished high school, I'm dyslexic- I basically can't read, and I have somehow made a genius love me and my son. I don't know how I got so lucky. I thought, and still think that you are far too good for me. But I'm having another child -"

"We. We are having another child."

"You still want to stay?"

Jace closed the gap between him and Liliana, kissing her softly and slowly, trying to mend the brokenness that that monster had created. He saw her for everything that she was, and everything that she wasn't, and he loved every bit of her.

"I love you, I love you," Liliana said. "I know I don't deserve you but I love you," She said against his lips. "I'm sorry," she said.

"You are my life- and I will work every single day to make sure that I'm the parent that these babies deserve. You will have to help me and show me how to parent and how to be a boyfriend and a husband, but please just give me the chance, give us the chance, and I'm making the promise to be what they need, the parent that you are. I will never let go. I won't give up on us," Jace said.

Liliana wasn't even coherent by that point. She looked at her sleeping son and at the man next to her, the man that showed her what a real man was, the man that her father would have been proud of, that loved her and her brother and loved her son- her children like they were his.

"You love them like they're yours," she managed.

"Ours," Jace said as he reached back to the boy that would be his son. "Ours."

"I won't give up on us, even if the skies get rough,

I'm giving you all my love, I'm still looking up

I won't give up on us, God knows I'm tough enough,

We've got a lot to learn, God knows we're worth it...