Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, other than Lilly.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Het, Mpreg, Stripping, Exotic Dancing, Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, etc.

"Please, I need to see Brielle. Just let me see her. She must be so worried. I'm all that she has." Chris pleaded. There was a manic look in his eyes that couldn't be trusted. "And if not that, then just let me talk to her. One little call. You can even monitor it."

Ryback shook his head. "You already had your phone call, Jericho. We both remember how that turned out." This was true. Chris, not knowing who else to turn to, had called his father. His father had promptly hung up on him. "One call per customer."

"You don't understand. Brielle needs me. She needs her father." Chris pleaded. The handcuffs that were neatly secured around his wrists jingled with every movement. "And I can't be there for her unless I can have that phone call."

"You just don't know when to quit, do you? You raped Adam. We have the evidence to prove it. You paid off the investigator. We have the evidence to prove it. And you kidnapped Brielle. We have evidence to prove that as well."

Chris chuckled blandly, but from the look in his eyes, both men knew that this act was old. "Why do you insist on calling her 'Brielle'? She's my daughter. We both know that she's my daughter. I want you to say it to my face. Admit that you know that's the truth."

Ryback stared into his eyes. It was clear that the man had lost all sense of reality. "She's not your daughter, Chris. She never was. And the only thing that I'm going to tell you is that you just traumatized an innocent six-year-old that's never even seen your face."

"You're a liar!" Chris screamed in his face. How could he treat him like he was such a fool? He knew that Brielle was his daughter. Adam had said so! "Brielle is my baby! Don't you dare try and take her away from me! If you lay a hand on her, I'll kill you! I swear I will!"

An uncomfortable silence fell over them both as Chris realized what he had just said. He had just threatened to kill a federal officer. Undoubtedly, twenty years had just been added onto his sentence. "This interview is over." Ryback said.

Ryback rose out of his chair and slid it back to the table. There was no more to discuss. Chris was obviously extremely volatile, and as much as Ryback wanted to nail him with so many charges he couldn't tell up from down, he didn't want to risk his life. All that he had done would be in vain if he died before this could make it to trial. But there was another reason that he wanted, no, that he needed to leave. Chris sickened him. And the more that came out of his mouth, the more he wanted to shut the bastard's mouth. Forever.

He walked out of the interrogation room and shuffled through the files. He had been sure to leave a very personal photo in there for Chris to stare at and mull over for a while. It was a photo of Adam and Wade, the same one that Adam had in his wallet. Ryback wanted Chris to know what he had taken away from Adam. That and he wanted to make him aware of whom the child's real father was. It was obvious that the man was delusional, and maybe this would be what it took to crack into his shell.

Once Ryback stood on the other side of the one-sided glass, he accepted a cup of coffee from one of the other officers and watched. After several moments of hesitantly staring at the picture, Chris looked around lazily – almost as if someone would come in and stop him before he could carry out what it was that he wanted to do – and picked the picture up off of the table. A million different emotions flickered across his face. Finally, in a brutal blow of rage and frustration, he tore the picture to shreds and made it fly all around him.

"You lie! All of you are liars! Bring that fucking bastard to me! Bring him here so that I can wring his neck! I want my daughter." And then he broke down into fits of sobs, cradling his head in his hands. "I want my baby girl. Please, bring me Brielle."

Ryback turned to one of the other officers. Her name was Kaitlin. "I need you to call the crisis center. Have them send down a doctor to examine Jericho. His sanity is a tightrope that's been worn a little too thin."

Kaitlin nodded. "What about the girl, sir? Does she need to be moved to protective custody?"

Ryback was silent for a moment, before he shook his head. "I don't think so." He filled her in on his earlier conversation with Jericho. "Based off of that, he'll spend the days leading up to the trial in solitary confinement."

"This case is really important to you, huh?" Kaitlin asked with a small smile.

"Bastards like Jericho need to learn that the law doesn't bend for anyone." He retorted.

"Are you sure that it isn't because -," he cut her off before she could finish.

"I'm sure." He bit off, before he started to nurse his coffee once more.

"Okay." Kaitlin squeaked out. She knew that she had crossed a line and didn't want to push any further. "I'll see to it that the crisis center is notified about Mr. Jericho's condition."

Kaitlin wandered off to do as she was told. Ryback turned back and stared into the one-sided glass, watching as Chris broke down for all of the officers to see. He pulled his handcuffs so tightly that they cut red lines into his wrists. Rising out of his chair, he took hold of it and tossed it, to the best of his ability, across the room. His hip bumped into the table and knocked over the glass of water there, which ruined the papers that Ryback had left for him to look over. Luckily, they were only copies.

Ryback nursed his coffee, staring at the man with contempt. He sucked in heaving breaths as he destroyed the room. And Ryback would let him continue to do so. Blow off some steam. All of the furniture could easily be replaced. But the valuable evidence that they gathered from this outburst couldn't be. If Chris could be this volatile on his own, Ryback could only imagine how he was in the bedroom with an unwilling partner. And Ryback would take every bit of evidence that he could obtain…

That same day, Hunter finally came home from the hospital. He was far from one-hundred percent, but the surgeon believed that he was ready to be taken care of by his normal physician. He would have to go to the doctor every morning for the first two months to have her change the wrappings on his gunshot wound, and after the first two months, it would drop down to twice a week. Luckily, the doctor's office was just down the street and Mark could take him there on his way to work. Life was almost back to normal.

Now, all three of them sat in the living room of their small house. Lilly had curled up on Hunter's lap, a big book of fairytales on her lap. It seemed to be much bigger than her tiny body. Mark sat off to the side, one arm carefully wrapped around Hunter's shoulders. Even if Hunter constantly assured him that he wouldn't hurt him, he still felt the need to be incredibly careful with him. Until the wound healed, he refused to have sex with him. The last thing they needed as an accidental pregnancy in the middle of all of this…

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…" Hunter started, brushing Lilly's soft blonde curls away from her tiny face. She kicked her little feet as she followed along with her tiny finger. "…there lived a lovely princess named Lilliana."

Lilly looked up at Hunter and met his eyes. She flashed him a childish smile. "That's my name, Mommy!" She giggled cutely, before she touched one of the pictures. "Pretty princess."

"Yes, pretty princess. Just like our beautiful Princess Lilliana." Hunter leaned forward and kissed the crown of her golden hair. "She had two daddies who loved her very, very much. Lilly was the happiest girl in the entire kingdom."

Mark leaned forward. "What's that word there, Lilly?" He asked.

Lilly squinted at the page. "It… It is… ha-hap-hapwiwy."

"Close. Instead of 'wah', think 'le' like 'Lilly'." Mark helped her.

Lilly blinked a few times, before she offered, "Ha-Happily."

Mark smiled. "Good job, sweetheart."

Hunter continued to read the story, gently tangling his fingers in her soft blonde hair. It just felt so nice to be able to hold her after so long. She was heavier than he remembered, and taller too. Her hair tumbled back over her shoulders and she could recite the alphabet and could count back and forth to ten. He hated that he had missed so much of her life. He would have loved to have been there to cheer her on, to catch her when she fell, and to congratulate her when she reached that milestone of being able to recite the alphabet or count to ten.

When the story was over, Lilly had fallen asleep. Her soft blond head rested on Hunter's chest, mere centimeters away from his bullet wound. There was a little bit of pain from the pressure of her head, but he couldn't say that he truly cared. When Mark realized that she had fallen asleep, he carefully took her into his arms and stood up. She didn't even stir. Her head lolled into the crook of his neck and he tucked an arm under her legs, making sure that she wouldn't fall over.

"I'll take her to her room and then we can go to bed, okay?" Mark tossed over his shoulder, even as he started to carry her into her bedroom. Hunter closed the book, his mind obviously elsewhere.

Hunter nodded, but when he realized that Mark couldn't see him, he said, "Okay."

Hunter made his way into the bedroom and slid the book onto the shelf. Quickly, he undressed and put on his pajamas. Climbing into bed, he waited for Mark to come back from their daughter's bedroom. When he did, he changed into his pajamas as well and climbed into bed beside him. He took Hunter into his arms and kissed the crown of his head. He was so afraid to release him, because if he knew that, if he did, he could go up in a puff of smoke and never come back.

"You don't know how scared I was. I was so scared that you'd never wake up. I had to lie to our flower and be brave for her, but…" it wasn't normal for Mark to be this emotional. He must've really been in a bad state. "Now, you're here."

Hunter offered a weak smile. While it was true that he was here, at least in the body, his mind continued to revert back to that night. All he could see was Mark fall, the bullet impaling his flesh, blood spraying everywhere… "I'm here now, with you."

Mark leaned down and kissed his forehead, so grateful to feel the warmth of life in Hunter once again. "And you have to promise me now that you'll do whatever is in your power to make sure that you'll never leave us. Lilly needs both of us."

Hunter nodded. "I promise." And then, "I love you." He leaned up and brushed his lips softy against Mark's, before he cuddled down and started to drift off to sleep.

Mark stared down at him fondly, unable to resist a smile of his own. "I love you too."

Adam had checked with every local airport. There was only one within a hundred-mile radius that had an outgoing flight to their home state. By the time that Adam had obtained the information, the flight departure had drawn a half hour nearer. Breaking every traffic law ever written, he somehow managed to make a forty-five minute drive in twenty minutes. With a little over an hour left before Randy's flight left, he figured it was plenty of time. And it just added to his luck that he found Randy within five minutes of his arrival.

The slightly shorter man sat on one of the bothersome plastic blue chairs, a travel brochure in his hand. It was obvious that it didn't truly have his attention, however. He thumbed through the pages disinterestedly. There were discounts on trips to the Caribbean and the Bahamas, as well as coupons for four star hotels. When he had finished looking through it, he tossed it aside. Maybe someday… When he turned back to watch the other travelers log their items, he came face-to-face with Adam.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Adam? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Randy gasped. He put his hand over his heart and tried to regulate his breathing, as if to show his point.

"I could ask the same of you." Adam hissed. He wanted to make it as clear as possible that he was pissed off. "How could you just leave me like that? Just when I start to realize that…"

Randy blinked, Adam's confusion and embarrassment not sinking beneath his protective layer of self-pity. "How could I not realize what, Adam? That I was blind? That you never loved me? That I was only fooling myself?"

"You're such an idiot." Adam chastised him gently, before he leaned forward and smashed their lips together in a bruising kiss. "You're not the fool. I am. Or maybe we both are. I was too blind to see the love there and you refused to believe it."

Randy smiled weakly, unable to believe that this wasn't some kind of dream. "Guess we were kinda made for each other, huh?"

Adam returned the smile, knotting his hands in Randy's shirt. "Guess so."

Randy leaned forward, this time taking the initiative to kiss Adam. Adam moaned into the kiss, fisting Randy's shirt tighter as he allowed himself to be swept away by the sensation. Pleasure rolled down his spine in waves and he could feel the first hints of arousal stir. And, to be honest, he couldn't think of anyone he would trust more to take him then Randy. He knew that, if he handed himself over to Randy, then Randy wouldn't break him. Randy would never betray that trust.

"I want you to take me back to the hotel, Randy." And then, Adam leaned forward, whispering the last part in his new boyfriend's ear. "And I want you to make love to me."

The dark blush that stained Randy's cheeks made Adam chuckle. The COO nodded, before he whispered one word in return, "Okay."