Both tired and weary after a long drive in a car taken from HQ, Butch and Cassidy made their way down the dingy, badly lit hallway to the motel room they had just reserved. Butch unlocked the door and clicked the light on. They were greeted by a dank, cold room which contained a double bed and not much else. There was a big moth fluttering around the ceiling sconce, and the gray- probably once white- carpet was tainted with stains. The wallpaper was barely hanging onto the plaster beneath it and the window above the bed was wet with condensation.

Cassidy looked around in disgust, staying stood by the door. "This. Is. Revolting."

"Oh, well I'm sorry I can't afford to put you up in a five star luxury hotel, princess," Butch scoffed, chucking his bag on the floor and flopping down on the bed- which was the most uncomfortable, creaky thing ever.

"I'm sure you could do better than this run-down dump," Cassidy replied, "It's in the middle of nowhere, the lady at the reception desk looked like a hooker and by the looks of it this room hasn't been cleaned in god knows how many years."

"Yeah, it's in the middle of nowhere, and that means that nobody's gonna find us here, which can only be a good thing, right?" Butch said, taking a pack of cigarettes from his pocket before extracting one and placing it between his lips. He flipped his lighter open and lit it up with a flick of his thumb.

Cassidy wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms, staring down at a stain on the carpet and then glancing back at Butch. "But this place is just temporary, right?"

"Of course. C'mere," Butch said, patting the mattress next to him. Cassidy sighed softly and made her way over to the bed, climbing on and sitting upright, her legs tucked in front of her. She watched Butch as he drew deeply from his cigarette, before letting out a puff of smoke.

"Butch," she said irritably, taking the cigarette from him with the tips of her forefinger and thumb, "I'm pregnant, this has got to stop."

Butch looked at the cigarette wistfully. "Sure, but just let me finish this last one."

"Nuh-uh, you're quitting as of now, mister," Cassidy replied firmly, reaching over to the already used ashtray on the bedside cabinet, and stubbing the cigarette out. She turned back to Butch and held her hand out. "Give me the pack."

"Huh? That was my last one."

Cassidy raised her eyebrows, head cocked to one side. "I don't believe youuu," she said in a sing-song voice. "If I have to wrestle you I will."

"Oh yeah? Bring it on, I won't go easy on ya," Butch smirked, cracking his knuckles.

"How about I tickle you?" Cassidy said warningly, wiggling her pointy, manicured fingers at him. "Last chance," she cooed, inching closer.

Butch stared back at her indignantly for a moment before heaving a sigh and reluctantly taking the box out of his pocket to hand to her. "You'll regret it, I am gonna be one grouchy grump without my nicotine."

"Tough luck, it's bad for you," Cassidy replied, snatching the box from him before checking inside and scowling. "You liar! That's almost a full pack left!"

"Worth a shot," Butch smirked. She rolled her eyes and hid the packet in her bag, before finally laying down next to him and snuggling up close, appreciating the warmth of his body against hers on this cold night.

She smiled, closing her eyes as she rested her head on his chest. "Hey, are you used to the idea yet?"

"Huh?"

"Are you used to the idea that we're going to be parents?"

There was a fairly long pause, Cassidy opened her eyes and gave Butch a light slap on the arm. "Well?"

"I dunno," he finally said softly.

Cassidy frowned. "Why?" she demanded.

"I don't know," Butch said resignedly. "I just don't think I can cut it as a dad."

"Don't be silly, you'll be great," Cassidy mumbled, closing her eyes again and huddling into him.

"Psh, c'mon, Cass. A prison escapee, a murderer and a thief. I'm the ultimate bad influence," he said feebly.

Cassidy snorted softly, hugging him tighter. "None of that matters. Okay, so, you have a bit of a criminal record, ahem, understatement, but so do I, and I know it won't make any difference to my parenting abilities. Call me big-headed, but I think I'll make a great mom."

Butch smiled. "Yeah, you will," he said, gently running his fingers through her hair, before pausing and looking at her amusedly. "Wait a sec, though, I thought you hated kids? I thought they were all 'annoying little twerps'?"

Cassidy smirked, chuckling slightly. "Yeah, but this is different. This is our little twerp."

"A little twerp who'd be better off without it's dad," Butch muttered.

"Oh, don't say that!" Cassidy groaned, sighing wearily. "You're so down on yourself sometimes. Jeez, I think I prefer arrogant Butch."

"Seriously though, Cass," Butch said in a firmer tone, leaning up on one elbow and looking at her seriously. She looked back at him, mocking his over-serious facial expression. "What can I give you? You shouldn't in this sleazy, cheap motel hiding from the cops with me. You should be somewhere warm and clean and safe, with someone who can look after you properly."

"You do look after me, idiot," Cassidy replied irritably, pulling his arm around her shoulders. "Do you have any idea how safe I feel when I'm with you? I really don't think you realize how much you mean to me...which is... probably my own fault, huh?"

"Well, you could say that..."

"Things will be different now. I promise," she said gently, kissing him on the cheek. "Hey, I wonder if we'll have a boy or a girl? I want a girl."

"Yeah? I don't mind, but I think I'd rather have a boy," Butch decided.

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Cassidy smiled. "No, I definitely want a girl. I'll be the type of mom she feels she can tell anything to, no matter what, and I can take her shopping and buy her cute designer outfits, and play hairdressers with her..." she turned her head to look at Butch with a smile. "Seriously though, I still can't believe were going to be parents. A year ago I would have fallen about laughing if someone told me this was going to happen."

"Mm. I'm gonna miss it being just me and you, though," Butch said with a soft sigh. "Now it's gonna be me, you and pipsqueak."

Cassidy frowned and gave him a slap on the arm. "Hey! I prefer the term 'our baby', not 'pipsqueak'! Anyway, what's so bad about it being me, you and our baby? ...Is it because you know that the baby's going to have my full time care and attention and you're not?" She smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you going to get jealous, Butch?" she cooed, poking him playfully.

Butch scoffed. "No! Of course not. But we're never gonna get any time alone anymore. The kiddo's gonna have us up at all hours with its screeching and crying and we're never gonna get a break."

"You're so pessimistic."

Butch looked at her, head cocked to one side. "I'm not, Cass. I'm just trying to make you realize that it's not gonna be all fun and games with this baby, we're gonna have responsibilities, y'know?" he heaved a sigh and let his head fall back on the pillow, closing his eyes. "As if we didn't have enough problems already," he muttered.

Cassidy's face crumpled, she gave him a little shove. "You know, maybe you're right. I don't think you're going to be a good father at all, not if you're just going to act like this baby's a nuisance, just another burden to add to our ever growing collection of problems!" she snapped, pulling away from him and turning over on her side.

Butch sighed wearily and pulled her back close again. "Hey," he said resignedly, "I didn't mean it like that. Y'know what, Cass? You're right, I'm being pessimistic about it, ignore me. I'm just a little bit stressed right now. "

"Ugh, but you're saying it in that tone of voice which means you're mad at me," Cassidy whined.

Butch rolled his eyes. "I'm not mad at you, tootsie, see?" he pulled her into a hug and squeezed her tight, causing her to giggle and attempt to squirm away.

"Okay, fine. Jeez, we need to stop arguing about every little thing," Cassidy snorted.

"You mean you need to stop getting mad at me about every little thing," Butch corrected her.

"I'll try, but you're pretty maddening," Cassidy joked. "You're right, though. I know having a baby's going to be hard work, but I don't care. I never thought I'd say this...but I'm actually pretty happy that I'm going to be living a normal life," she beamed, "We're going to have a nice house, and get real jobs and it's going to be perfect."

Butch gave her a wavering smile. "Yeah, I'm sure it is."

Cassidy looked at him, sensing the uncertainty in his voice. "Hey, we're... going to be okay, aren't we?" she suddenly asked, her eyebrows creasing slightly, her glossy, violet eyes looking straight into Butch's deep, brown eyes. "Like, we're safe now, right? And when we have the baby we'll be able to give it a proper home?"

Butch averted his eyes for a moment, but then forced himself to look back at her. "I'll do my best for you, Cass, that's all I can do."

"But...what if...what if the cops found out where we were, and you got sent back to jail? What would happen to me then, Butch? Or what if Giovanni tracks us down and...just...what if..." her voice trailed off to a whisper, her eyes brimmed with tears, a tiny whimper escaped her lips before she pressed her face into Butch's shoulder, letting the fabric of his shirt soak up her tears. He held her close, his hand gently rubbing her back. "I'm scared," she whispered.

"Shhh," Butch said gently. "You don't need to be scared. I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you, no matter what happens, you got that?" She only nodded. "Giovanni isn't going to track us down. You gotta trust me on that one. And as long as we keep it on the low, the cops won't find me, they'll have to give up looking at some point." He knew on some levels he was just saying this to make her feel secure. He couldn't be sure that Giovanni didn't have men out looking for them this very moment- after all, it was against the rules of Team Rocket to run away and people who did were nearly always found and punished severely, sometimes with assassination. All agents knew what Giovanni was like. He had no limits. Butch also knew the police weren't going to give up looking for him anytime soon either. But the only thing that mattered to him right now was Cassidy's peace of mind.

She wiped her tears and looked at him, giving a small smile. "I know I'm safe with you, Butch," she said quietly.

Butch forced a smile back and ruffled her hair gently. "You got that right. I'm never gonna let anyone hurt my Cass," he said, "We're gonna be fine, me 'n you. You've got nothing to worry about."

Cassidy nodded confidently. "I believe you. You wouldn't lie to me," she smiled, snuggling into him. "Hey, we'd better get ready for bed and get some sleep."

"Aw, why? It's not like we have to be up early like usual, we can stay in bed all day tomorrow if we want," Butch said.

"Well unlike some people, I'm not lazy enough to stay in bed all day. Anyway, I'm exhausted, I need some sleep," Cassidy said, before a huge yawn escaped her mouth. "See?"

Butch smirked, nudging her. "Lightweight," he teased.

"I don't care!" Cassidy said, sticking her pointy, pink tongue out at him. "I'm going to sleep whether you like it or not." She sat upright and began to get undressed, pulling off her Rocket dress over her head and chucking it to the ground carelessly, then tossing her hair while Butch watched her in awe.

"Hey, Cass? You sure you wanna go to sleep? I mean, there's plenty of other things we could be doing in this bed..."

Cassidy smirked at him and fluffed up her hair before climbing onto him and bending down to kiss him softly. She clasped her hands in his hair as they kissed. Just as she felt his tongue on her lips she pulled away, still smirking. "Not tonight, sweetie. Like I said, I'm exhausted." She gave him an innocent grin before hopping off the bed to take off her boots and search through her bag for her nightdress.

"Aw man, you cannot do that!" Butch whined.

Cassidy chuckled to herself as she unzipped and pulled off her thigh-high white boots. "That's funny, because I just did," she smirked.

Butch rolled his eyes at her, but didn't complain any further and sat up on the bed to get undressed himself. Cassidy glanced at the fading, purple bruises on herself before she put on her silky nightdress, and swallowed nervously. Looking at them just brought bad memories back. How could she forget? She knew that even though she was safe now, the nightmares she had when she drifted off to sleep wouldn't stop anytime soon. Giovanni visited her every dream like a demon. Trying to reassure herself that she needed to forget about her boss, she slipped into her nightdress quickly and climbed into the cold bed next to Butch, who put his arm around her and pulled her close, warming her up.

"You know what I feel worst about?" she suddenly blurted out, staring up at the ceiling.

"Mm?"

"I wasn't the only one Giovanni was...doing that to," she explained quietly, shivering. She had just suddenly thought of Jessie- how helpful and kind she had been despite everything. How she welcomed her to spend time with her and James, like they were friends. How she'd trusted her. "He does it to Jessie too."

Butch looked at her, frowning. "Messy Jessie?" he smirked.

"Whatever," Cassidy said softly, suddenly feeling awful as she imagined Jessie being abused by Giovanni- with nobody to talk to about it or help her through it anymore. It didn't seem fair somehow. "She helped me, she gave me a shoulder to cry on when you weren't around. I felt like we'd finally resolved our differences. I mean, I know we've never got along, but she was so selfless and kind to me, after all the shit I used to put her through. And now I've just...left her to carry on getting abused by...him, without even saying goodbye or anything. What sort of a selfish bitch am I?"

"Hey, no you're not...well, you can be, but c'mon, who care's about Jessie? As long as you're safe, that's all that matters," Butch said gently, kissing her on the cheek and cuddling her close. All he got in return was a sad sigh.

"Let's go to sleep now, it's late," she whispered, pulling the covers up slightly.

"Okay. Nighty night."

"Night."

"See you in the morning."

"Yeah."

"Love you."

"Ditto."

...

"You okay?"

"...Shh. Go to sleep."