THANKYOU FOR LOVING ME AND WAITING FOR THIS! I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN! Life has been a fickle pain in the rear end.

On that end, I'd like the place a shameless plug for anyone willing to help a girl out. I've started streaming on twitch, and for anyone who enjoys DbD, RPG games and the like, if you would give me a follow, it would help so much to further me to a subscribe button! It wouldn't cost you anything, and you can watch me stab people to death as Michael! Much love! Twitch . tv/ ThatAwkwardVampire. A simply follow would help me so much! On that topic, next update will be a long chapter, and it will be coming very soon as I have a lot of time on my hands. Mwah!

/

Nadia stared at herself in the mirror, eyes running up and down the length of it, her breath releasing slow and a bit shaky. It was an odd sight, to see herself dressed so formally, well, formal compared to what she normally looked like. Black ankle boots with a tiny heel, to save her poor swollen ankles and feet from more discomfort, a bit of leg showing, leading up to just above her knees, where the form fitting black dress started. It hugged every available curve, something she didn't entirely enjoy, especially considering it was a maternity dress. It was decently low cut to show just a hint of cleavage, and the sleeves were off the shoulder, running down to her elbows. The dress itself was comfortable, but her eyes kept staring at the one rather large detail.

Now sitting square at 30 weeks, she looked ready to burst, despite her due date still being a good 2 and a half months off. She'd even begun feeling the intense pain of contractions, despite being told multiple times she had no other signs of early labor. Gabriel seemed content where he was, though didn't seem to have much issue causing her a great deal of pain every now and then. Michael had noticed the episodes as well, and it was sincerely starting to make Nadia feel claustrophobic. Every corner she turned he was right there, and it didn't help that she'd been stuck inside the house for the past near two weeks. Thinking back, her worst episode of the pain had occurred the night before, and Michael was once again up her ass, metaphorically. She'd been bent over the counter in the kitchen, white knuckling the edge of the sink and hissing as the pain pumped through her lower abdomen.

She had heard him walking into the kitchen, and felt him walking closer. He'd taken to just observing her snarling in pain, and offering no assistance or console. "Fuck off!" Nadia had snapped, looking at the man who had a look of either confusion or amusement on his face. She couldn't quite tell through the hair. "LISTEN." She'd managed to stand up straight. "Pendejo, you better get the FUCK out of this kitchen before I jam a knife into your gut and SHOW YOU how this feels!" After the outburst she'd slid to the floor, tired and still in agony. It seemed Michael understood well enough, as he walked past her and right out the back door. After managing to calm down and breathe after the pain went away, Nadia realized how stupid it was to have yelled at him like that, and managed to make her way to the couch, falling asleep eventually as she waited on him to return.

He'd come home likely early in the morning, as she woke up in bed with a massive hand plastered against her stomach. She attempted to ignore the bloodstained clothes he'd left on the floor, not sure if her anger had resulted in someones agonizing murder, or if he'd just slaughtered another neighborhood cat. Not long after waking up, Loomis had given her a call and made her an offer she had decided to take, just to finally get herself out of the house and make her put in some effort to feel more human and less like an incubating chamber.

So here she stood, hair curled, makeup on, and wearing a dress, with eyes drilling into her back as the figure on the bed watched her finish getting ready, his legs crossed and his elbows on his knees, like a fascinated child during story time. Michael seemed intrigued enough to see her so dressed up, possibly even liked the look of it. She could only assume from his interest that he enjoyed it. Grabbing a large knit cardigan, it was all Nadia could think to use to at least partially hide her bump. It felt rather appropriate, considering the event that Loomis wanted to drag her to. Of course, she was sure he'd given no such option to Laurie or Annie, as both had tried to dissuade her from going at all.

Nadia had been keeping up with Annie since the hospital, and was surprised that the two had become rather decent friends. She still kept her distance from Laurie, but Laurie seemed content enough to do the same, though was still polite when Nadia would pay Annie a visit. In fact, Annie had only tried to come over once, which Nadia caught her on the porch and quickly darted out, managing to talk the woman into going out to get food. Her heart had nearly exploded out of her chest at the thought of Annie coming inside. She had no idea what Michaels reaction would have been, and she didn't intend to find out.

Exhaling sharply, Nadia made her way over to the bed where the giant sat, and she checked inside her purse to make sure she had everything. "You know the drill, food in the fridge, call me if you need anything. I should only be gone a couple hours." Her phone beeped, and a text appeared on screen from Loomis, stating that he was waiting outside. Nadia sighed once again, something she was getting too used to doing, and grabbed her purse to leave. Michael's hand grasped her wrist, holding her in place with a tight grip, almost painful. How she hadn't expected it she didn't know, though she didn't expect him to grasp her jaw with his other hand and drag her face to his, dragging her into a kiss that was both forceful yet gentle. Nadia sank into it for a few moments, nearly falling over when he finally completely let go of her. She took a second to figure out if she was still breathing, see the stupid smirk prodding at the corners of his mouth, and grab her purse and walk out. "Behave!"

Stepping outside and locking the front door, Nadia tried not to roll her eyes when a driver stepped out of the car and opened the back door for her. "Uh, thank you." She managed to say, trying to maneuver through the door and place herself on the leather seat next to Loomis. "A bit much, don't you think?"

"Oh, come now, I'm sure you can enjoy being chauffeured around a bit." Loomis smiled at the woman in the car, though his face changed to a bit more of a perplexed look. "You appear to have smudged your lipstick a bit, dear." He pointed at his own mouth, as if to emphasize what he meant. Nadia cursed under her breath and dug out a compact mirror from her bag, noticing the smear of red down the side of her lip. 'Fucking dammit, Michael.' She quickly went to work fixing the mess, wondering how she had missed it smeared on his mouth. "Well, are we excited, then?"

"Should I be?" Nadia asked. Excited wasn't the word. Worried, terrified, maybe a bit bloated. "You said no cameras, right? And it's just a small group, right?"

"No cameras." Loomis nodded, Nadia shoving the compact back in the bag. "Though, I should say I did lie a bit about the size of the audience." He saw the glare and the words of abuse ready to bubble out of Nadia's throat, and put his hands up quickly. "Now, that wasn't entirely my fault. It's a large auditorium, and my publicist noticed the tickets were selling very quickly, so she decided to sell the amount of seats in the room."

"Are you fucking kidding me, Sam? This is all just for your book, right?" Nadia stared, and when the man didn't immediately answer, she exhaled slowly and heavily to keep from punching him directly in the nose. "No, Sam. No. No. I'm not answering questions. I'm not being interviewed. I'm not sitting on a stage and playing up some victim woes bullshit, do you fucking hear me?"

"Of course! Of course, I would never put you in a place where you would be left feeling uncomfortable!" Loomis, in an attempt to appear comforting, placed his hand on top of Nadia's, and she quickly yanked hers away. "I just think it would be good for you to bring yourself out just a little, so people can see at least one survivor is doing well for herself!"

Survivor.

Nadia could almost feel herself retching at the use of the word, but she slid herself as far to the other side of the backseat as she could. The privacy screen was up, and it didn't appear the driver was paying any attention, or could even hear them. "Who have you told, Sam? Who knows?"

"Told what? What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about. You want to put it in your new book, don't you? You're going to try to play up the shit with Laurie too, aren't you?"

"Never!" Loomis' voice rose a bit. "There is enough to put into a book without terrorizing you or Laurie! Why would you think I would put you in such a place of danger? I want whats best for you and Laurie, and your baby." Loomis sat back. "I swear on my life."

"Would you?"

"What?" Loomis looked over, and Nadia had moved closer, staring intently, the brown in her eyes appearing intense.

"Swear on your life?" There was a moment where Loomis glanced at his briefcase on the floor of the car, but quickly looked back at the woman, unsure but sure at the same time.

"Nadia. I promise, on my own life, I will not allow any harm to come to you for my own profit." He tilted his head, staring at her. "Should I be afraid?"

"That's up to you." Nadia twirled a little silver ring on her finger, leaning back in the seat and staring forward. Thoughts were twirling through her head, but a fear was still flooding through her stomach at what Loomis had planned. The car pulled up alongside a large building that sat on campus of a local community college, and the driver got out to open their doors, and also help Nadia pull herself from the backseat. She could partially make sense of why they had to use a side entrance, but it still didn't make her feel better to enter unseen. A woman greeted them at the door, handing off a drink and quickly starting to run down things with Loomis. It became apparent that she was his publicist, and the woman stopped short at seeing Nadia.

"Uh, Nadia, right? Th-thank you for coming. My name is Nancy." She attempted to smile and held out a hand for Nadia, but Nadia blatantly ignored it, nodding only in response. Nancy cleared her and quickly put her hand down. "Well, the hall is almost full so we're going to go ahead and get everyone in and sat down." She smiled and began to head in, and Loomis followed, along with Nadia. She felt cold flooding over her, and quickly wrapped the large cardigan tighter around her body. They entered a door that led to what looked like a backstage area, and Nadia could feel the anxiety flooding in.

Nancy led them to the curtain, and pulled it open to allow them to walk through. A few comfortable chairs set up, a podium, a projector screen to the side. Nadia's eyes hit the audience and she audibly gasped, her body freezing in its spot. She couldn't move forward. There could easily have been 600 people, with new ones coming in every so often from the doors. "Jesus fucking Christ Loomis." Her voice was cracked and quiet.

"Sam.." Nancy looked uncertain as well, but Loomis moved to push an arm around Nadia and walk her to the nearest chair, helping her to sit down.

"Don't worry. Just breathe." He said, taking a seat in the chair next to her.

Nadia's fingers dug hard into her purse, holding it tightly in her own lap. Her eyes scanned the crowd, as wide as they could go. So many faces, so many voices. The pain was starting to flair up again, and she could only wait and see what was going to happen.