Just a short filler chapter... :-)
Chapter 21 - Only a Matter of Time
That afternoon they were met with the happy faces of their friends. Kate came bouncing through the front door completely ecstatic as she and Sarah bounced around happily, Delilah all smiles. Ever looked at them a bit frightened, wondering what had gotten in to them.
"What's going on?" She asked looking from face to face.
Pogue was behind them talking to Reid, Caleb and Tyler and he had a never ending smile on his face.
"Pogue proposed!!" Kate exclaimed throwing her arms around Ever's body.
Ever's eyes grew in complete shock, "Wow… Kate that's fantastic!"
Ever put her arms around her and hugged her happily, Sarah caught sight of the ring adoring her left ring finger and her eyes bugged out of her head as she grabbed her hand. Ever's eyes grew wide as the three girls inspected the new piece of jewelry.
"Oh my god!" Sarah screeched. "What is this?" She asked in an elated tone.
"It's a promise ring…" Ever answered, the girls frowned and looked at her. "What, hey- I wasn't even expecting this… did you see these?" She asked pushing her hair behind her ears showing off the new diamond earrings.
"Wow, Reid sure went all out, didn't he?" Kate asked grinning stupidly. "I'm so happy for you…" She gushed.
"Me? We should all be fawning over you Mrs. Pogue Ihavenoideaifhehasamiddlename Parry…" Ever grinned grabbing Kate's shoulders.
"Mrs. Kate Marie Parry… has a nice ring to it…" Delilah grinned.
"Ok, you girls need to stop with this mushy crap…" Caleb grinned coming over to them. "You're going to be putting some thoughts in to my girlfriend's head…" He stated with a grin.
"Caleb!" Sarah pouted.
"What did he get you?" Ever asked raising an eyebrow.
"He won't give it to me yet…" Sarah frowned giving her boyfriend her best puppy-dog face.
"Not gonna work," Tyler announced from behind Caleb. "Trust me…" He grinned.
"So Reid is wearing a ball and chain, huh?" Pogue asked lifting his friend's right hand.
"'Tis true my man… and you're getting married…" He laughed slapping a hand on Pogue's back.
"Love birds…" Delilah squirmed behind them; Tyler put an arm over her shoulders and led her in to the living room.
"Sickening, aren't they?" he asked.
"Very," She nodded.
The afternoon consisted of the friends exchanging presents and running a serious muck over the Garwin Manor. Meredith had happily taken Declan to play with his toys, in his brand new nursery that Meredith had surprised the kids with and was having more fun playing 'Grandma Meredith' than either Reid or Ever would have thought.
It was the day after Christmas and Ever was in the large gourmet kitchen whipping up a nice fresh breakfast for the household. She shuffled her spatula through the eggs that were cooking; she smiled feeling a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist.
"I could really get use to this whole domestic thing…" His voice was playful. "My little house wife, and stay at home mom…" He grinned placing a kiss on her healing cheek.
"Wife?" Ever asked turning around to look at him. "Jumping the gun a bit there, huh babe?"
"It sounds good," He smirked at her.
"Did the Kate, Pogue frenzy nip you in the ass?" She asked turning back to her eggs with a smile on her face.
"Can you blame a man for knowing what he wants?"
"Not at all," She shook her head, feeling his lips on her bare neck again.
The temptation with Reid was becoming more and more unbearable. She was trying to hold off until she felt that it as right to be with him, but with everything that was going on lately, it was hard for her to decipher to herself when that would be.
Ever finished cooking breakfast and was making plates for herself, Reid and Meredith. Reid had wondered back upstairs and Ever had no idea what he was doing. She was putting a bit of garnish on Meredith's plate as her cell phone began to vibrate wildly. She glanced down at the piece of technology and wiped her hand off on the hand towel next to her.
She flipped the phone open and it read 1 New Picture Message. She pressed the read button and watched as a picture of a diamond heart necklace popped up with text below it:
Isn't he sweet?
Ever smiled and wrote a quick text message back to her telling her how sweet Caleb was. She grinned before placing the plates down and running up stairs to gather her new family. Reid tiredly rubbed his eyes and gave her a playful glare; she was literally dragging him out of bed and from a great dream.
"I was this…" He made an example by holding up his index and thumb fingers only a centimeter away from each other. "Close to banging Jessica Beil and you just had to wake me up…" Ever rolled her eyes. "I'm kidding," He laughed wrapping his arms around her tiredly.
"No you weren't…" She grinned pushing him off of her.
"Ok, so maybe not… but still…" He smirked at her.
"You were gone for like ten minutes, how did you fall asleep that fast?" She asked.
"Its easy falling asleep, it's the getting up part where things start to get difficult…" Reid shrugged
"You're too much," Ever laughed walking in to the nursery. She found Meredith sitting down feeding her son. She smiled seeing the happy look on Reid's mother's face.
"I hope you don't mind… I was walking by and heard him getting a little fussy, so I came in to feed him…" Meredith stated looking up at Ever.
"Not at all, " She grinned. "I made breakfast, why don't you come downstairs and eat?" She offered.
Meredith smile pulling herself out of the chair and following the two teens down to the kitchen. She smiled seeing the nicely put-together breakfast. She sat down placing Declan in his highchair and looked at the food.
"Have you ever thought of culinary school?" Meredith asked appreciating the plate in front of her.
"Not really," Ever shook her head.
"You should…" Meredith pointed out dripping some syrup on to her stack of freshly made French toast.
Ever blushed and took a seat next to Reid. The blonde boy inhaled his food and happily took the baby from the highchair. He disappeared in to the other room leaving Meredith and Ever to chat.
The two women talked for almost an hour before Reid came back with a fully clothed Declan. He had dressed himself as well, looking at Ever expectantly.
"What's going on?" Ever asked looking at the blue-eyed boy.
"We have something we have to go take care of, remember?" He asked. Ever gave him a questioning look and he narrowed his eyes at her, holding Declan with one arm, "Ever…"
"Oh, ok… I remember…" She stated shortly.
"You kids go ahead; I'll clean up the kitchen…" Meredith stated waving her hands at them.
"You sure mom, I can have it done like that…" Reid snapped his fingers, a playful smirk tugging at his pink lips.
"Trust me, go…" Meredith stated giving her son a pointed look.
Reid shrugged his shoulders and pulled Ever up to her room, urging her to get dressed quickly. He sat on her bed playing with Declan; he caught himself looking up at her as she sifted through some clothes. Meredith had bought her a bunch of clothes for Christmas, and she was having a hard time finding something to wear.
She peeled off the tank top she had worn to bed and pulled on a long sleeve blue shirt, with a deep V-neck. She paired it with a pair of skinny jeans and a belt around her waist, she could feel Reid's eyes on her and they made her nervous.
She turned around and he was blatantly staring at her. Her cheeks flushed and she turned to the drawer next to her pulling out a pair of socks, she took a seat next to Reid and slowly pulled them on.
"Stop it…" She demanded giving him a curt look.
"Why?" Reid asked nuzzling his nose with the baby's.
"Because you're making me nervous…" She insisted.
"Why do I make you nervous?" He questioned.
"I don't know…" She turned to look at him, holding his gaze. "You have a very intense stare…." She smiled grabbing her boots and pulling them on.
Reid shrugged his shoulders and stood up with Declan in his arms, "You should wear that new coat I bought you…" He stated motioning to the closet.
"I swear, you spent way too much money on me for Christmas…" She told him shaking her head as she walked to the closet and pulled on the suede jacket that he bought her along with several other extremely nice gifts.
"Never…." Reid shook his head with a grin.
"Terrible…" She shook her head and picked up the diaper bag by the door. "So off to the Simms?" She asked.
"Yes my dear," He nodded his head.
Ever was quiet most of the trip to Tyler's house. She hadn't been to his house before and was expecting something just as nice as Reid's house. And she wasn't disappointed. She grinned seeing the large house that was only about two blocks away from Reid's.
"You guys all live close, don't you?" She questioned.
"Yep, surprising that we only met when we were thirteen, huh?" Reid asked getting out of the car and unstrapping Declan.
"You're getting really good at that…" She noticed, remembering all too well Reid's first battle with the car seat.
"I've been practicing…" Reid snipped with a grin in her direction.
"I've noticed…" She smirked pulling out the bag from behind the seat.
She walked up to the large home, Reid casually knocked on the door and a very tired looking Tyler Simms answered the door. His blue eyes brightened at the sight of his two close friends. He ushered them in giving Ever a tight hug as he stole the baby from Reid.
"My mom is in the kitchen," Tyler stated as he grabbed Reid and pulled him in to the other room.
Ever looked at the guys leaving her and towards the kitchen, she could hear Rosalind humming lowly as she moved about the kitchen. She straightened out her jacket and walked towards the kitchen, a bit of confidence in her stride.
She set a foot in the kitchen and Rosalind's head jerked up in her direction. A smile placed itself on the woman's face as she came towards Ever, her arms outstretched.
"Tyler told me you would be stopping by…" She stated hugging the young girl. "How are you feeling?" She asked.
"Ok," Ever nodded a bit nervous now.
"He told me that you had something important to tell me… something that concerned the trial?" She asked.
"I do," Ever nodded.
"Let's go in to my office, come…" She motioned for the young light-haired brunette to follow her.
Ever took a seat across from Rosalind looking around the large office, her green eyes took in the large pieces of art work and the massive bookshelves that decorated the room. She sat straight up, hands folded politely in her lap as she waited for Rosalind to get settled.
Rosalind slipped on a pair of reading glasses and looked up at the young woman across from her. She smiled warmly taking her fountain pen in her grasp.
"So Ever, what may I ask was it that you had to tell me?" Rosalind Simms questioned.
"Well…" Ever sighed looking up at the woman. "My mother was killed…" She whispered starting off slowly.
"Yes, I remember reading that in your file…" Rosalind nodded, her look turning to one of concern. "It was unsolved…" She pointed out.
Ever nodded sadly, holding back the tears, "He killed her…"
Rosalind's mouth fell open, she quickly recovered and leaned forward, "Who killed her?"
"Richard…" She whispered tears falling form her eyes.
"How do you know this Ever?" Rosalind asked getting out of her seat and walking over to the girl before her.
"I was there; he killed my mother in front of me…" She whispered. "To prove a point…"
Rosalind sat at her desk mauling over the information that the young girl had just given her. She called the local police department to have them fax over all the information they had on Adelaide Carmichael York's murder file. She was sifting through the information roughly looking for the evidence that pointed directly to Richard York.
She noted that Ever had been signed off as traumatized from the situation and after her first initial interrogation she wasn't questioned again. She looked over the information and there was no reason that the case should have gone unsolved, the evidence was there clear as day.
She picked up her phone and called in a favor.
Ever glanced around the room, her gaze settling on the blonde that was half asleep next to her with the baby boy on his chest. A smile danced on her lips at the sight of the two together, Reid didn't treat him any differently, he treated him just as he had when he thought the boy was her brother.
Her green orbs rested on his long naked hands, he no longer wore his fingerless gloves around her, and he spoke about getting the tattoo removed for good. She left that decision up to him. The platinum band on his right finger made her smile even wider.
Her gaze shifted again this time to the gold ring that was prominently placed on her left ring finger, looking a lot like an engagement ring. She sighed heavily; she never thought that she would find love at such a young age.
She always thought that she would marry much later in life, probably when she was thirty, perhaps even forty by the time she settled down. Reid changed all that. He had her from the first meeting and she tried to fight it but she knew in the end that he would win her over.
He was the first person she told everything to, and he was the first person to understand her. His friends had become her friends, he made her life better than he would ever imagine. He changed everything for her, the way she looked at her life.
She no longer wanted to run away from Ipswich, she wanted to stay and raise her son, and hopefully she would be able to do that son without the Devils incarnate looming around the city. She would be able to live her life without fear and not have to worry about anyone but herself, Reid and Declan.
It was only a matter of time.
Please remember to R&R!