Chapter 22

Drake

'And we're going to be parents…' Her words seemed to echo through my head. 'W…what?' I asked while stuttering. Her face grew slightly red, as she grabbed something out of her pocket. 'Guess you and I both brought things to show the other,' she said, biting her lip. She handed me a pink stick, and I looked at it. 'Is this a pregnancy test?' I asked, my eyes gliding over the plus sign on the stick. She nodded slowly. My heartbeat quickened, and the stick grew sweaty in my palms. 'Valentine… when did you-' I looked up, and felt another lump in my throat. 'Are we…'

She put her hands in front of her mouth as she nodded again. 'Really?' I asked, a smile breaking through on my face. She let out a soft, relieved laugh as she saw the happy look on my face. 'Yes, Drake… you're going to be a dad,' she said happily. 'Hell, Valentine!' I called happily as I pulled her closer and closed the gap between our lips. 'I love you!' She laughed, a pure loving laugh after we'd kissed a few times. 'I love you too, Drake!'

I shook my head, smiling wider than I'd ever smiled before. 'I didn't mean we had to get started right away during my proposal, but now it's here…' I shook my head again, and kissed her once more. I gently pushed her down onto her back, and lifted her shirt to kiss her belly. 'You listen to me in there,' I said, the big smile still on my face. 'You'd better stay in there, because if you do…' I looked up and looked into Iris' eyes lovingly. 'You'll have… just about the most loving parents.' She smiled, her eyes watery, and she stroke the side of my face as she sat back up.

'I found out this morning. I'd felt slightly strange for days, not bad… just strange. So, I'd bought a test, back at Piloude, yet I hadn't had the time to do it yet.' She paused. 'When Maxwell brought my bag, this morning, I realised the test was in there… so I took it, and when it came back positive, I felt riled up all morning. We're about to go down in a murderous plot with assassins, this is hardly the time to get pregnant,' she said, and wrung her hands.

I felt the familiar fire inside me light up instantly. The day before, I'd jumped a bullet to save my girlfriend… from now on, I'd do anything to protect my fiancée and my baby. If you mess with a man's loved one, you'll mess with the man himself.

Instinctively, I placed a hand on Iris' non existent belly, and noticed my eyes had slightly narrowed. 'We'll just have to work harder to take those guys down, nothing will happen to you or that baby.' She smiled slightly, and pecked my lips. 'You are going to be an amazing father, Drake. I can't wait to see you holding our baby.' My heart skipped a beat as I thought back of the dream I'd had about Iris and I having a daughter. 'A while ago, I had a dream about us having a family together. That was during the time you and I were apart, and I dreamt about me being at Piloude, and you walked over to me, telling me to come see my favourite person in the world.' I paused and rubbed my neck slightly.

'I didn't understand, because you are my favourite person, so I told you that, and you laughed, kissed me, and took me upstairs. I was completely confused, until you took me inside a nursery…' She smiled big. 'There was this really cute baby, brown hair, green eyes… a baby girl,' I smiled. 'In the dream I was extremely happy, yet I wasn't entirely focused on the baby, because I was asking you why you'd run off with Jimmy, but now I think about it, we named her Elena.'

Iris' mouth fell open slowly. 'Elena?' I nodded, raising my eyebrows. 'What, you don't like that name?' Her cheeks grew red. 'Ask Emma, and she'll tell you that I've been wanting to name my daughter Elena since the moment I found out I could have children someday!' I stared at her. 'You're kidding, right?' She laughed and shook her head. 'Ask Emma once we get back.' I grabbed my phone and raised my eyebrows. 'No, she'll be on to us. I want to keep this secret between the two of us for today.'

"Em, we're having a discussion about you not knowing everything about Iris. How would she call her daughter, if she were to have one?" I texted Emma. Iris nodded her head. 'Smart move.' Emma texted back quite quickly. "Elena. Duh."

My mouth fell open, as Iris started laughing. 'You see?' Her eyes widened. 'Maybe your dream was a sign, maybe we're going to have a daughter!' She looked so excited, I started laughing and shook my head. 'As long as you're the woman I'm having this baby with and it's healthy, I couldn't care less about t being a boy, a girl, or another Pilou.' She burst into laughter and slapped my leg softly. 'If we do the math, Drake… it happened the night we'd finally gotten back together, the night of Jimmy's proposal.' I grinned. 'Really, that night?' She nodded and giggled. 'We were so happy to see each other alone again, that we'll never be alone again.' I let out a happy laugh and out my forehead against hers. 'Six months together or six years, it wouldn't have mattered. This baby will always have a loving home.'

A little while later, we decided to walk back, and we'd promised each other to keep both the engagement and the pregnancy to ourselves, just that day… to enjoy it together. It wouldn't be long before Jimmy would call anyway, so just a few quiet moments of happiness with my future-

My phone rang. I grabbed it, and looked at the display. Jimmy. 'Jimmy,' I said, looking at Iris, while putting the phone on speakerphone, so she could listen as well. All of a sudden I heard him running, and he was panting. 'DRAKE! My father was poisoned, he's still alive but his conditions are dire! Whatever group this is doesn't want to be found, they're on to us… we have to be incredibly careful!' He called in to the phone. 'Jimmy, why are you running, what's going on?!' Iris asked worried, her eyes big. 'Because Bastien and I are being follo-' he started, but we heard a gunshot. 'JIMMY!' I called. 'I'm here, that was Bastien, you guys have to get back to the palace, the assassins know about the safehouse!' Jimmy yelled, and hung up. 'Fuck!' I cursed, grabbed Iris' hand and started running towards the safehouse, bursting in the door. 'GUYS!' Iris called.

Emma almost jolted up on the couch, groaning, and Maxwell and Tim did jump up. 'Jimmy is under attack, Constantine was poisoned, we have to get out of here, NOW!' I ordered. Tim and Maxwell nodded quickly, and started running to get our stuff. Iris ran over to Emma and helped her up from the couch. While Iris and I helped Emma get to the car, Tim and Maxwell appeared, throwing all our luggage into the car. 'LET'S GO!' Tim yelled, throwing the keys at Iris. She nodded, and jumped behind the wheel. I sat down in the front seat, and Tim and Maxwell supported Emma in the back seat.

Iris drove off, almost slipping away, and Maxwell's eyes widened. 'Guys, what the hell happened to Jimmy?!' I tried to explain somewhat less panicked, but Emma grew panicked instead. 'No, not Jimmy, Iris, speed up!' Iris frowned. 'I'm already kind of driving 90 where I'm supposed to drive 60, Em.' Emma rippled her nose. 'I should've gotten my drivers license, this looks like a road to drive 200 on.' Within ten minutes, we'd arrived at the palace, covering a twenty minute drive. I looked at Iris, slightly surprised. 'What, how long did you think it took me yesterday evening?' She said, a slight blush on her face. 'Even less probably,' I said with a frown. 'We'd arrived within eight minutes, but this isn't the time to gloat,' she said quickly, and ran out of the car, over to the palace. 'Or arrested,' I called after her.

Tim carried Emma, and I carried some luggage in the hand I could still use. Maxwell carried the rest, and we ran inside, looking for Jimmy. The moment we'd gone inside, we heard a car pull up. 'EMMA!' Jimmy screamed, and ran inside. Tim put Emma down, and held her until Jimmy took over. 'Jimmy!' Emma said relieved, and wrapped her arms around him. They held each other close, and kissed desperately. 'I was so worried about you,' Emma said softly, as she stroke his arm. He shook his head. 'I knew what was at stake,' he said lovingly, placing his hand on the back of her head, and closing the gap between their lips again. He lifted her up carefully, and greeted the rest of us. 'We'll go back to my chambers, Bastien is following,' he said, and walked upstairs. I grabbed Iris' hand, and held her close as I felt uneasy being at the palace.
With so many assassins around… who else had gone rogue?

Iris caught my eyes, and seemed to think the same thing. I pinched her hand, and felt the engagement ring sting my hand. I felt a soft spark in my stomach as I remembered that she wasn't my girlfriend anymore, she was my fiancée… but I didn't have time to think about it any further.

'Okay, the situation is worse than we thought,' Jimmy said, as we'd all arrived at his chambers. Hana and Olivia had both joined us too, and everyone was on edge. 'Someone is trying to hurt the crown, the reason why is unknown, but I'm starting to feel that it's pointed at me. It has something to do with me being King, and marrying a commoner.' He looked at Olivia. 'Did you find anything?' She nodded. 'I flew to Lythikos this morning, and started searching. I've searched all day, and I found a few things, Jimmy.'

She grabbed three books. 'There are three possibilities. 'There's an anti-monarchist group called the Liberation-Core. They've been growing bolder in the last few years,' she started, and slightly frowned. 'I'm not sure if they were the ones that would pounce like this… They would probably at least appreciate a commoner being Queen. Doesn't seem like the time to go crazy and send assassins.' Jimmy nodded. 'Seems like less motive, but we can't rule them out.' Olivia nodded agreeingly. 'Then we have Sons of Earth, who aren't anti-crown, but they do have their own opinions, and aren't afraid to show their opinions,' she continued. 'Well that could be it, considering the motives, maybe they don't agree with a commoner as queen?' Iris said, her brow furrowed. I nodded agreeingly. 'That seems like a better option than the first one,' Hana agreed.

'Finally, and this one bugs me…' Olivia said, her eyes growing dark. 'The Nevrakis family.' 'What?' Emma asked confused. Jimmy looked worried. 'What do you mean?' Olivia sighed. 'When my parents died, overthrowing the throne, I was the only Nevrakis left in Lythikos. My parents were traitors, and I swore never to become like them and become a true Nevrakis. Fierce and loyal to the crown, as we'd always been. However, my aunt, Lucretia, has never really taken an interest in Cordonian politics, or me, so to speak. It would be strange for her to come up out of nowhere and arrange God knows how many assassins,' she said as she closed the book and frowned. 'I am not ruling her out yet, and I'm counting on you guys not ruling me out yet.' Emma shook her head. 'I trust you, and I'm pretty sure the others do too.' I saw Iris and Jimmy nodding. 'Just, investigate. I want to prove I'm innocent,' Olivia stated, with a glare.

'Sure, red, we'll investigate you,' I said, and nodded at her. 'Thanks for the info.' Olivia shook her head. 'I'd be disappointed if we would go friendly, Walker.' I snorted. 'Never.' The others laughed. 'You guys called me smug,' Emma said, folding her arms. Iris chuckled. 'That's because you guys were terribly smug.' I shrugged my shoulders. 'I've been called smug twice now, you see me care?' 'Deep down, you're crying, just a little bit,' Maxwell joked.

'Guys, before we get down to jokes,' Jimmy said, his face serious, 'we have to get all the houses to support the crown. How do we do that?' Hana looked up with a smile. 'How about a unity tour? You and Emma have to reschedule your wedding anyway, maybe we can travel around all allies, and make sure we're prepared on your actual wedding day?'

Emma frowned. 'Maybe that won't be "special" enough, because they just attended our wedding and they were attacked?' Iris caught my eyes, and searched for my opinion. I smiled at her and nodded. 'Well, maybe we could make this a double wedding?' She stuck her hand in the air, showing off her ring with a big smile on her face. I looked at her, lovingly, and nodded at the others. 'Showing all our allies that we're certain enough to do a double wedding.'

Jimmy's eyes sparkled. 'Perfect.'