You'll have to forgive me for this one, it's not as long as the others, but the next chapter is something of a monster so I thought I'd keep this as short and sweet as possible. I hope you like it, keep leaving me those wonderful reviews and you may just get another helping before the weekend ;) xxx

"Fuck!"

Pete shouted as he stared at the ceiling, tears stinging his eyes as the searing hot pain shot through his leg again. He'd been at home for a three weeks and this was his physiotherapy sessions without a doctor there to help him weren't exactly his favourite part of the day. He had begun walking without his crutches, but his muscles in his leg had gone to shit after a month of lying in bed so he had to work hard at building them back up. He just hadn't factored in the utter agony…

"I can't do it," he growled, gripping the side of the bed so hard that his knuckles cracked.

"Try one more time, ok?" Allie asked as she stood above him, her hand suspended a foot above the bed, signalling where he had to stretch to.

"Allie, I'm in fucking agony." He snapped, trying to take deep, soothing breaths.

"I know, baby," she smiled sadly at him. "But just try…"

"I can't," his voice broke and he turned his head to the side, refusing to meet her eyes. Allie bit her lip, knowing that right now, he didn't really want comfort, deep down he wanted her to push him. Looking at the pain etched across his face she realised that there was no was she was going to be prepared to force him to do anything, but she would happily give him a little inspiration.

"Well," she sighed loudly, kneeling on the end of the bed and flicking her hair over her shoulder. "That's a shame because you know when you were asleep all those weeks, a lot of things changed." Allie smirked at him. "I did tell you about the Dior shipment we got in, the practically not there underwear."

Immediately, Pete's head snapped back up and he looked at her hard, his eyes narrowing; he knew what her game was, he wasn't stupid. But that didn't mean he wasn't willing to play along…

She unzipped her hooded sweatshirt to just above her bust and then stopped, glancing up at Pete and seeing the frustration in his eyes. Jesus, men were so predictable; tell them they need to do something for their own health and it's a chore, show them a little skin and hint at physical contact and you could probably get them to run a marathon even in a leg cast.

"All I need you to do is one rep," she held up a solitary finger. "And you get a free pass to the show, which believe me Dunham, given in six months I'm going to look like something that should be swimming in a tank at SeaWorld, isn't an offer you want to turn down, ok?"

Pete laughed and shook his head at her, his eyes lingering on the slightest bit of lace he could see peeking out from her top. One rep…he could do that…

Standing back up, Allie held her hand in the air and looked down at him with a gentle smile.

"Ready?" she held his gaze. "One, two, three…"

Allie very nearly blushed at the series of swear words that came out of Pete's mouth as he lifted his leg just high enough so that the tips of his toes brushed her palm. Dropping it back down, Pete threw his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes tightly, simply letting the pain wash through him for a long moment. That was the downside of being a PE teacher…he knew what was happening inside his knee when he'd done that, and he knew that as much as it was hurting now, it would be nothing compared to what he'd be going through in a few hours when the pain really kicked in.

"Hey," he opened his eyes and looked up to see Allie perched above him, holding herself up high enough so that no part of her body was anywhere near his for fear of hurting him. "I'm proud of you," she smiled. "You did good,"

She brushed the short amount of hair that had started to grow since he'd been in hospital. "You want me to shave it for you?" she asked, giggling slightly when the little spikes of hair tickled her palm.

"Yeah," Pete nodded breathlessly. "It must look fucking ridiculous,"

"No you don't," she laughed, digging around in the en suite bathroom for the pair of clippers that Harry had leant her this morning. "It's actually pretty cute,"

Walking back into the bedroom, she saw that he had sat up and was now leaning down slightly, examining his knee which was still bruised and swollen. Moving to stand in front of him, she tilted his head up and leant down, gently kissing his forehead.

"You're sure you want me to do this?" Allie asked him nervously. "You wouldn't rather do it yourself?"

"Nah," he smirked up at her. "I trust you."

"You won't be saying that when I accidentally scalp you," she muttered, switching them on and gently running the clippers over his hair, shortening it to its usual length. It took her less time than she thought it would have and she stood back after a second, admiring her work. Without the bruising on his face and the cuts, he looked like Pete again, in fact were it not for his knee, you probably wouldn't guess there was anything wrong with him. Catching the scar on his stomach peeking out from beneath his t-shirt as he stretched, Allie winced. Well, maybe there were a few other hints.

"How're you feeling?" he asked her, gently pushing up the material of her sweatshirt and placing soft kisses along her stomach. Closing her eyes at the sensation, Allie tried to keep herself calm; she didn't know whether it was just her and these stupid hormones, but sharing a bed with Pete after nearly a month and a half of…not having a lot of alone time was starting to get to her.

Glancing down through hooded eyes, she saw how hard he was struggling to keep control of his own body and felt slightly better that it wasn't just her.

"Me?" she squeaked out as he ran his tongue over the top of her ladybird tattoo on her hip. Concentrate, she scolded herself. "I'm, um, I think I'm fine, I don't know…how are you?"

Grinning against her skin, Pete knew exactly what he was doing to her and pulled her even closer, pressing his mouth openly against her skin.

"No morning sickness then?" he mumbled, keeping his mouth against her skin as he blindly reached up and felt for the zip on her sweater.

"Um, a little actually," Allie conceded. That was a lie to start with; she'd woken up at 5am this morning and had to run to the bathroom, actually getting to the stage where she was having to bring books with her to keep her brain occupied in between puking sessions. But with the way his mouth was moving over her skin, hot, open and eager, all of that seemed a life time ago right now…

"Allie," Pete pulled away from her and she looked down at him, fighting the urge to screech at him in outrage. "Why didn't you call me?"

"So you could do what exactly?" she shook her head. "Count the colours and try and guess what I ate last night?"

"That's fucking gross," Pete laughed at her, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I know," she laughed, blowing a piece of hair out of her eye. "And it's bad enough that one of us has to go through it, let alone both. Besides, I've got nine months to worry about me, right now, all I want is for you to get better,"

"I can think of a couple of ways you could do that," he smirked up at her and reached for the zipper on her shirt again.

"Pete!" she laughed, dodging away from his touch. "We can't ok? Believe me when I say I want to, but we can't,"

"Why?" Allie shook her head and laughed; Jesus, he looked like he was a step away from stamping his foot and pouting. "The baby?"

"What?" she frowned. "No, no. It's just…look at you. You can't even kick your leg a foot in the air, Pete."

"Which is such a key movement during sex," he frowned, shaking his head at her.

"Ok," she laughed. "Fair enough, but I just," she bit her lip. "I don't want to hurt you,"

"You won't," Pete shook his head and pulled her down so that she was sat next to him on the bed. "Come here," he leaned in and kissed her softly at first, then harder until she was kissing him back with just as much force, their bodies heating up quicker than usual, obviously having felt the strain of the last month more than they thought.

Pete fell back onto the bed, bringing her with him and pulling her so that she was half leaning across him, her hands resting on his chest as though afraid to move anywhere else.

"How the hell are we going to do this?" she muttered and felt him laugh against her neck.

"Closing the damn door would be step one," Lara called as she walked passed, not giving either of them time to respond as she kicked the heavy oak door closed with her foot.

"Christ!" Allie laughed, falling against Pete's chest as he too burst out laughing, leaning against her neck and shaking his head. "So much for romance, right?"

Leaning up and kissing her again, Pete removed her shirt and smiled against her mouth when she finally got the idea and straddled his legs, her hands trailing downward to work on the sweats he constantly had to wear as all his jeans were too tight over his knee. Whispering the words he had only ever said to her in her ear, Pete closed his eyes and let himself get lost in her again, temporarily forgetting that anything other than her existed and silently wishing that he could stay in this world forever, but he knew it was impossible.

Allie walked into Pete's flat and smiled, the familiar surroundings reminding her of a time when things hadn't been quite so complicated. Letting out a deep breath, she put her bag down on the table top and bit her lip, not really knowing where to start. She had left Pete in Harry's less than capable hands along with Swill, Dave, Ike and Ned for an hour or so while she came over here and got some more of his stuff together.

Frowning the noticed one of the posters on the wall was ripped and ran her finger along it, wondering how it had come to be in such a state. Spotting the slight dent in the plaster beneath it, she was hit by the memory of the night Steve had been stabbed and what had happened between her and Pete and immediately blushed. Right, so that would explain the fingernail marks along it.

"Allie?"

The woman in question jumped, shrieking slightly as she turned to meet the burning blue eyes of Matt Buckner, who stood there staring at her, his hair still wet from the shower.

"Shit!" she laughed, pressing her hand to her chest. "You scared me,"

"Sorry," he laughed, making his way over to her and pulling her into a tight hug. "I was actually just on my way over to yours to see Pete," he explained. "I'm late though,"

"Its fine," Allie assured him. "You've only missed three of what I assume will be over a million rounds of FIFA on the playstation."

"I've already missed three?" Matt gasped, smiling when she giggled and shook her head. "Well, if you want I can wait for you and we can leave together?"

"Translation: Allie can I get a lift?" she smirked at him.

"Well, as you're offering…" he winked at her.

"Very funny," she grabbed a few of Pete's books he needed for his school work and chucked them into the bag. "Come on, Captain America, you can help me,"

"So how's the morning sickness?" he asked her as they made their way down to Pete's bedroom, which was just as Allie had left it the morning she had followed him down to the Warf.

"Getting better," she told him with a smile. "I'm down to only three times a day now,"

"Nice," Matt laughed, pulling a handful of t-shirts out of the wardrobe and handing them to her. "Are you getting excited though?"

"Oh my God," she laughed. "Are you kidding me? I have my first scan next week and I swear Pete's like a kid before Christmas, I mean-…"

Allie stopped suddenly, looking towards the bedroom door and frowning.

"Hey," Matt looked at her seriously. "Allie, are you ok?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm fine, I just thought I heard something…" shaking her head she went back to the task at hand and smiled up at the American.

"So what are you doing about the wedding?" he asked her.

"Well, I mean, I know its stupid but I do wanna get married before the baby is born," Allie rolled her eyes. "Call me old fashioned, but I just kinda want-…"

A loud crash sounded through the apartment causing Allie to drop the pile of clothes she was holding and look at Matt who was already on guard, his bright blue eyes boring into the door as though trying to stare through it.

"Ok, we can't blame it on the hormones this time, you heard that too, right?" Allie asked him, feeling a lot more nervous when he hushed her, not looking even slightly amused. "Matt, its nothing," she shook her head and made her way towards the door.

"Allie!" he hissed, reaching out to snag her arm but missing her completely as she strolled over to the door and out through it towards the kitchen.

Cursing under his breath, Matt followed her, finding her standing in the centre of the living room with her arms stretched out in an over exaggerated shrug.

"It was the window," she pointed towards the open bay window. "Nothing to be scared of," Allie laughed. "You full on pissed your pants just then didn't you?"

"Get lost," Matt rolled his eyes, trying not to grin at her. The smile bled off of his face when he looked past her and saw the front door open, moving lightly in the breeze coming from the window. "Allie, get out," he ordered her.

"What?" she frowned? "Why?"

"Allie, just get out, ok?" he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door, crying out in pain when something sliced hard into the side of his leg and making him lose his grip on her as he fell to the floor.

"Matt!" Allie dropped to her knees next to him and looked at the blood which was pouring from his leg. "Oh my God!" she shook her head, trying to understand what had happened…feeling something move behind her, Allie looked up and felt her blood run cold. She didn't have to ask his name…she had only seen those eyes once, but they had been burned into her memory.

"You'll have to excuse us for a moment, Yank-y boy," Tommy Hatcher smiled down at the terrified blonde, tears shimmering in her emerald eyes as he twisted the knife which was dripping with Matt's blood in front of her face. "It's just Blondie and I need to have a little chat…"