Tremendous thanks to my loyal reviewers. Your reviews keep me motivated and updating just as fast as the story will allow. Please, please keep letting me know your thoughts and opinions: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's the only way I know what you like and can get better. I do not own any of the established characters only Haydence and my plot (as always).
A few days later, Lucas still couldn't believe that Hayd was gone.
With no family to take care of Hayd's personal belongings, Lucas volunteered to sort out her flat. When he got there, the door was broken into by an amateur but only a few things were missing. He looked everywhere for the quilt she had wrapped up in the first morning he watched her sleeping, but it was nowhere to be found. He also couldn't find her baseball bat, her portable record player, or her dad's old 33s.
"Damned kids."
He decided to give her clothes and furniture to charities. A picture album from her youth, Lucas kept for himself. But the pictures in it weren't his Hayd. They were of a girl happy and innocent. While he could never have given her innocence back, Lucas had hoped that Hayd would have found happiness with him. If only…
Lucas had promised Hayd while she was dying that he wasn't mad at her; but now that she was gone, he couldn't help being angry. He understood why she came to the restaurant. She came because she loved him, but why couldn't she just stay where she could be safe? She was so damned stubborn. Lucas corrected himself. She had been so damned stubborn. The correction made him choke.
Finding the iron skillet Hayd had used to cook breakfast for them rusting away in the sink, Lucas broke down again.
Three months later and Lucas was still numb from losing Haydence.
The YIT who had murdered Hayd had been quickly found and put to trial. Testifying at the trial was one of the hardest things Lucas had ever done. He had not wanted to break down on the stand, but he simply couldn't stop himself. The YIT had gotten a long sentence, but it still wasn't justice.
What he hadn't been able to endure was telling Mr. Gambon and James about Hayd's death. Harry offered to do that unpleasant duty, and Lucas gratefully accepted. Reading Harry's report on the meeting, it read, "Both men cried openly. James Roberts blamed the new man she was running around with for getting her into trouble. He didn't ask about having his money or Oyster card returned."
Going back to his own flat didn't help matters; Lucas still didn't know what to do with Hayd's ashes. So they sat in a beautiful lavender urn on his table. She had always loved lavender. Now he understood Durning's despair at the loss of his sister. He almost pitied the man.
Lucas opened a new bottle of Dickle whisky. Even after such a short time, he was starting to prefer it to vodka.
Six months after Hayd's death and Lucas was still in no better shape. Try as he might, he couldn't shake his heartbreak.
Coming onto the grid, Harry found him right away. "Lucas, I need you in the conference room. We're getting a new member of the team."
Lucas nodded and followed Harry. Just what he needed. A new face to have to deal with. Everyone at work knew something had happened and had kept a respectful distance. But new blood meant that someone would have to explain to the rookie that he needed to give Lucas his space.
Harry opened the door to the conference room and let Lucas enter first. Seated at the first chair on the right, a woman sat there in a muted lavender and gray suit. Medium length light brown hair angled down into the woman's face. Her bangs obscuring her eyes. Then the woman brushed her hair to the side. Somehow that movement, the flick of the wrist, was familiar. Lucas looked to her face. She smiled at him, and he gasped. That smile had been his constant companion for a week, and it's absence had haunted him for the last six months.
"Hey, Strawman." Hayd's voice was a tentative whisper. Almost as if she didn't want to put him into shock.
Lucas didn't know what miracle had occurred or how it was possible. All he knew wast that Haydence Todd was sitting in the conference room alive and well. Rushing to her, Lucas knelt down and covered her with kisses. Harry discretely pushed a button to close the blinds and locked the door behind him as he left.
Finally coming up for air, Lucas gasped. "How? Why?" Tears fell freely down his face.
Hayd's tears flowed as well. Her voice was shaky. "Harry's intel told him that the Russians would stop at nothing to capture me. They wanted the dirt on Gavin and Six that badly. The only way for me to be safe was if they thought I was dead. When you told Harry that I needed an ambulance, he took over from there."
A mixture of gratefulness and anger surged through Lucas. "I'll kill him."
"No. You won't. Not when you calm down and see that he did the right thing."
"Ok. I'll thank him. And then I'll kill him."
"Lucas."
"Hayd, he should have told me."
"Harry needed your reactions to be real. The Russians know you. They know how you'll react. It was the only way."
"I have been in agony since that day. Your ashes greet me each time I go home. I gave all your stuff away."
"Well, not everything. My baseball bat, my Dad's quilt, the record player, and the 33s are safe and sound."
"You took them?'
Shaking her head, Hayd replied, "I was still in hospital then. I was in hospital for quite some time actually. So, Harry arranged to get them for me. I think he actually sent Ruth."
Lucas looked like he would burst into tears.
She tried to sooth him. "But it's ok. It's over now." She caressed his face and hair.
Lucas tried to hug her closer, but something was in the way. He looked down to see that her belly was protruding outwards. "You're pregnant?"
"Yes." She grinned.
Lucas stood up and walked to the other side of the table. His hand on his mouth. Something in him visibly changed.
"Are you happy?"
"Yes." Hayd looked perplexed not understanding Lucas's train of thought.
"Well, that's all that matters." He paused, his next words difficult and strained. "My congratulations to you and the father. Just…just tell me it's not that pillock, James." His voice had gone numb. He started to walk out the door not bearing to hear the answer to his question. Lucas was surprised to find it locked from the inside. What the hell was Harry playing at?
Hayd rose quickly for a pregnant woman. She walked over to Lucas – her stride not quite a waddle yet – and wedged herself between Lucas and the door.
"Lucas, I don't think you understand." She pushed him back from the door. He stared over her head. He wouldn't even look her in the eye. Hayd brought her hands to his head forcing him to look at her stomach.
He knew she looked bigger now than when she was sitting. But the information was still not computing in Lucas's brain. He stood there in front of her with his arms crossed. She wrestled one of his hands away from his chest and held it firmly in both of her hands.
"It's been six months since we've been together, Lucas."
"And, you've obviously been busy." He tried unsuccessfully to hide the hurt in his voice.
She held her tongue and moved his hand to the top of her stomach. Her eyes widened purposefully. "Six months, Lucas."
Slowly the penny dropped. His eyes widened. "Six months?" Lucas whispered. "You mean?"
Hayd nodded. "Lucas, you are going to be a father."
A sound of utter joy escaped his lips. He hugged Hayd but not with his full strength. He had to be careful with her now. Careful for the baby.
Falling to his knees, Lucas kissed her stomach through the suit. He looked up at her.
"Haydence Catherine Chandler Todd, will you marry me?"
She shook her head. "Haydence Todd is dead. But Hannah Taylor will."
He looked at her questioningly.
"That's my new name. Hannah Taylor. And, I will marry you, Lucas. I will with all my heart."
He rose quickly, reached behind Hayd, and unlocked the door. But before he could open it, Hayd reared her fist back and pummeled Lucas in the arm - twice.
"What was that for?"
"That was for thinking that I'd just let anybody knock me up. And James of all people! I hope you're just in shock because I don't want to be marrying a bloody mor..."
Lucas silenced her with at kiss.
"Follow me. Don't talk."
Lucas led the way and came up to Harry. "Harry, I'm going to take Hannah for a private debriefing of our latest cases." He didn't wait for an answer. He simply took Hayd's hand and started walking.
Harry called over his shoulder. "Good, Lucas. Private sounds good."
As they walked away, Ruth brought a tissue up to her eye. She looked up at Harry. "I love happy endings."
Harry patted her shoulder. "I prefer to think of this as a happy beginning. But, we need more of both in this world."
Ruth watched them go. "We definitely do."
Back at Lucas's flat in the comfort of his bed, he marveled at Hayd. Her body had changed in so many amazing ways but at the same time still was Hayd. The only thing that chilled Lucas was Hayd's scar from the bullet wound.
But he did have happier things to think about. Cuddlin' from behind, his hand always found its way back to Hayd's stomach. Suddenly he felt something hit his hand. Hayd slightly groaned.
"Love, have I done something? What was that?"
She smiled at his lack of knowledge on the subject. "She's just saying 'Hello'."
Lucas let her ease onto her back. "She?"
"Our daughter, Lucas."
"A girl." Lucas smiled with pure joy. "Well, if she's anything like her mother, we'll be in for a right time."
"Consider yourself lucky that you're not in my aim at this particular moment."
He kissed her shoulder in apology.
"One thing I don't understand though."
"What, love?"
"Why did you wait six months to come back to me?"
"Part of it was Harry wanting to be sure the Russians had accepted my death."
"And the other part?"
She took a deep breath. "Lucas, I have been pregnant before. While I was married to Gavin."
Lucas stayed quiet knowing that Hayd would tell him in her own time.
"I had a miscarriage - in the third month. I know how hard it is to lose a child. How could I come back from the dead under the possibility that I might not carry our child to term? I couldn't bear to put you on that roller coaster. Especially with you so keen to have a child."
"Oh, Hayd. I'm sorry." He stroked her unruly hair out of her face. "And, you went through those months all on your own. I wish you hadn't done that."
"Well, that's in the past. I want to think about the present. I'm fine. The baby's fine. We should start thinking about names actually."
"What about 'Haydence'?"
"Dear God, no. We want to give her a good start in life don't we?"
" 'Catherine' then?"
"That might be nice. Yes, that's definitely a contender."
"So are you actually a new member of the team?"
"I am. Strictly as support – no fieldwork. At least not till the baby's born."
"And afterwards. No fieldwork at any time."
"Yes, Lucas." The corners of her mouth turned up. "Whatever you say."
Pulling her closer to him, Lucas continued with debriefing the newest member of the team. He never knew a debriefing could be so good.
I hope my most loyal readers will forgive me this twist. If it's any consolation, I wrote the last three chapters over the weekend in order to make sure I could post this chapter no more than a day later. I didn't want to be too cruel. Also, some of you have mentioned crying as you read it. Be assured, I cried as I wrote it. Anyway, I'm not quite done with this story yet. Still a bit more to come. Thanks as always for reading!