A/N: Hi, yes, new chapters huzzah.

ISFNE Chapter 19

Eric POV

I stalked through the town silently looking for an unsuspecting candidate to sustain me for now. I, unfortunately, would have to be somewhat selective, choosing someone would could take losing a little more blood than normal as I was completely drained and therefore famished. But though I had a pressing need for blood, my mind was still only consumed with Faith and my child. Our child, I quickly corrected myself. I wondered about them, worried Faith would have trouble after waking and that she'd be overwhelmed with the extra strain of a child. But as I thought into the future, I knew that the child had a lot of potential in helping locate Faith. With the child she'd be more rooted, especially as time progressed if this search took years. She'd settle down, and settling down made eliminating possibilities easier.

I let the train of thought go, knowing that as soon as I was revitalized with fresh blood I could try to contact Faith, and maybe get some more hints for Maxwell. And then I saw my victim. A young woman was just getting out of her parked car, obviously about to walk toward her apartment. She looked as though she'd had a very…passionate night. All the sweeter her blood would be, all the easier my marks could be written off. Perfect.

Simon POV

As I drove back to the bookstore I replayed everything that had been revealed in the past hours. I had feelings for Allison beyond mere friendship. I hated when my friends knew me better than I knew myself, they'd called me out on what I'd been blind to this whole time. As I thought further though, I knew why my feeling were being so repressed. There were so many logical obstacles that I couldn't write off…or wouldn't. I was armed with my excuses to keep my friends from pushing that front, hopefully it would be enough. I'd been too frank with Allison before I'd left though, I wasn't ready for that sort of confrontation, it would give too much away. No, I'd keep my feelings repressed, it would be better for both of us in the long run.

Allison POV

After evaluation, I was told I could be discharged in the afternoon, just to make sure I was truly on the way to recovery. Eleanor was able to come by with the promise that Simon would be back to pick us up and the gift of a bag of clothes which I was finally allowed to put on with supervision and a little help out of and onto the bed. Of course, many of them were quite loose on my no-longer-pregnant torso, though I did still have some tummy to lose. I slipped on a blue sweater and yoga pants as well as a new set of color contacts, starting to feel a little more like myself again. I had the twins brought closer to my bed and was cooing over them when I was interrupted.

"Ms. Freedman, there's a Chloe Liang and Kyle Purnell to see you," a nurse said coming in, two people following behind.

I opened my mouth to deny knowing these people but the girl behind the nurse gave a smile, shook her head slightly, and mouthed the word 'please' to me. I was confused but figured I had the call button on my bed if I needed someone to chase them off.

The girl was tall and thin with almond eyes and black hair had previously been blonde as it got progressively lighter to a light honey color at her shoulders. Somehow she made it look natural. She was in a pair of high-waisted jeans and a white, blousy cami under a long green sweater with navy blue stripes. The guy with her was about the same height as her with blonde hair, shaved on the sides and longer on top and wore tan pants with a maroon plaid shirt. I'd never seen them before in my life, I was sure of it, which, of course, made me extremely wary. The thought suddenly struck me that they could be more of Eric's lackeys; maybe I should have sent them away to begin with.

"Well, you're not exactly what I expected," the girl said sitting down in one of the chairs by the bed, the guy followed suit, taking the other chair.

"Am I supposed to know who you are?" I asked carefully, not wanting to offend but also desperately confused.

The guy laughed and playfully nudged at the girl with his shoulder, "I'm sorry, my girlfriend her has no filter. I'm Kyle, this is Chloe.

The girl, Chloe, rolled her eyes at him but turned back to me with a smile, "It's Allison, right?" she asked.

I barely nodded, feeling slightly relieved that they weren't looking for Faith but still wary of their intentions.

"We're sorry to drop in at random like this," she apologized, "Kyle here is one of Simon's roommates and, well, we were just getting curious as to who Simon was hiding from us, so we took matters into our own hands."

"Correction, Chloe took matters into her hands," Kyle piped up.

"Oh, don't act like you weren't curious," she snipped back playfully.

"Wait what? I'm not – I mean – I don't –" I struggled for words trying to grasp the situation.

"Simon's just been very…'off' lately for lack of better word," Kyle supplied, "and, well, he left in the middle of a blind date the other night at random because he got a phone call from Grams, he was really upset, and he said your name at one point during the conversation. So we had to practically pry your name out of him to find out who the heck you were, he'd never mentioned that someone else was living at the bookstore."

"Plus we wanted to see if his story really did check out," Chloe added. "Amazingly, it does. He didn't come back to the apartment last night for another round of questioning so we had to make do."

Okay, definitely Simon's friends. They knew Grams and the bookstore, but the whole thing surprised me immensely. Simon had hidden my existence from what seemed like his close friends?

"Aww they're so cute!" Chloe suddenly exclaimed, catching sight of the twins for the first time and wandering over to the other side of the bed to get a better look, Kyle following behind her. "What are their names?"

"Eleanor and Solomon," I answered with pride. Chloe looked over at me tenderly, "You named her after Grams? That is so sweet," she said quietly.

I nodded, "Thank you, the Timmons' saved my life, it was the least I could do."

"Now, THAT sounds like a story," she said with a smile, "I'll torment Simon with it though, it'll be much more fun."

Kyle rolled his eyes at her, "I'm sorry about all of this, Allison, we can definitely leave if you like."

I found myself surprisingly shaking my head, "If you want I won't keep you, but I've been hurting for company, if you're willing to stay. Besides, I'd love to have some dirt on Simon, which I'm sure you can provide," I said with a grin.

"Oh, I like her already," Chloe snickered.

Simon POV

I came by the hospital about an hour after Grams to take Alice and the twins back. Everything was set up at the bookstore for the new arrivals. I walked by the desk and toward Alice's room only to stop dead in my tracks at the doorway. This was not happening. I thought to turn and leave but I'd already caught Alice's attention as she waved me in. Oh my god, this was a nightmare. How had Chloe and Kyle even found her? And how dare they go behind my back and hit it off with her? I walked in slowly, hoping and praying I would wake up.

"Oh! Simon, I'm so sorry, I completely lost track of the time, I just need to get a few things together and I'll be good to go," Allison said as I entered.

"That's fine," I said, not looking at her, my eyes locked in on my former friends, with a look that told I was going to be civil for all of the next two minutes, "Kyle, Chloe, and I will be out in the waiting room, right guys?" I said amiably. The look I was giving them, on the other hand, said something more like 'I'm possibly going to murder you both in the hallway.'

Chloe just smiled almost smugly at me and then turned back, "It was so wonderful to finally meet you, Allison, here's to a speedy recovery."

Kyle waved as they both followed me out of the room. Finally out of Alice's earshot, I turned and glared. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Just making new friends," Kyle said with an even smile. "We approve greatly by the way," he added with a wink.

"I don't know what you two think you're doing but you need to stop right now. You're already way too deep."

"Simon, we're doing nothing wrong. We're trying to help," Chloe said gently.

"In what way could you ever define this as being helpful? You're making a mess of everything." I said acridly.

"Hey, we haven't done anything out of line here," Kyle quickly defended, "You're the one who lied to your friends for months."

"Not to mention that you've failed to tell us how in love you are with the girl," Chloe added.

"I am not!" I spat out defensively.

"I'm going to let that slide seeing as we're friends, Simon, but we're talking this through back at the apartment tonight. If you don't show, we all come over and talk it through at the bookstore with Allison present." Kyle said with a smirk that told me he knew he'd won.

I glared at them both, "You're both dead to me."

"We love you too, Simon!" Chloe teased as they walked out, "See you tonight," she called back.

… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

The ride to the bookstore with Allison and the twins was awkward and silent, neither of us seeming to have the ability to bring up anything from the past days. The questions were gnawing at me unbearably though. I had to know what they'd talked about. We arrived and unloaded, each of us grabbing one of the twins and, after being greeted by Grams, went to settle them into their cribs, where I'd placed the two teddy bears from the carnival already. As we put them down I finally gave in.

"So, what did you think of Chloe and Kyle?" I asked lightly, "I'm sorry they came by uninvited, they are…somewhat nosey."

She turned her head to meet my eyes briefly and stood up from her hunched position over the crib, "They were really nice," she said softly, looking back down at the twins, "I haven't met anyone new for ages."

She was acting strange, it only made me worry more about what they could have possibly told her. "What did you guys talk about?" I continued, trying to sound nonchalant.

"You mostly," she said, "I mean, you were kind of the common denominator so we started there at least. They told me how you and Kyle met, it spiraled into how Kyle and Chloe met. We didn't really talk that long before you showed up."

I seemed pretty safe by her description. Still, I worried about the trial I was awaiting back at the apartment. I glanced at Allison, she seemed upset, though she was obviously struggling not to look it. I decided not to ask for her sake.

I looked down at Eleanor and Solomon with a smile. "They need nicknames," I said changing the subject.

Alice seemed slightly thrown by the change but smiled, "Well, you're the expert there," she teased.

I'd missed Allison's teasing; it was such a rare thing that I appreciated it all the more when it did happen. "I'll work on it," I said with a chuckle putting my hand on her shoulder briefly as I turned to leave, I felt her tense and then slowly force herself to relax. Every time, no matter how amicable we got, it continued to happen. I'd thought it'd be different after her initiating at the hospital. I carefully removed my hand, "You should try to get some sleep now, you don't know when they're going to want you up," I said gently.

"Okay," she said, her voice still tense.

I left her, feeling conflicted. She was obviously trying to hide whatever was bugging her, I didn't know whether to ask or not. And she was still being so jumpy at any contact. I walked down the stairs, my mind consumed with these thoughts and the thought of going back to the apartment for another round of questioning. Why was all of this so difficult?

Allison POV

I left the hospital, Solomon in my arms, Eleanor in Simon's, as we were helped to the car. Simon helped load us up and we were ready to head home. I was settled in for a peaceful ride back, or peaceful as it could get with newborn twins in the car.

I suddenly felt a pull that almost took me down with it though I managed to keep my bearing, quickly realizing Eric was trying to bring me to the halfway room.

I felt him heave a tired sigh as I dug in my heels, determined to be left alone as long as possible. I still didn't know how I felt about our past few interactions. They'd all been so disjointed that I had no idea where we stood, and I was not eager to find out. He thankfully didn't push it, though I was sure I'd see him soon enough.

Grams greeted me and the twins warmly as Simon helped me settle them into the office turned nursery.

"So, what did you think of Chloe and Kyle?" Simon asked suddenly, "I'm sorry they came by uninvited, they are…somewhat nosey."

I turned to meet his eyes briefly and stood up from putting Solomon down, "They were really nice," I said, focusing on the twins instead of Simon, "I haven't met anyone new for ages."

"What did you guys talk about?"

He seemed intent on a specific answer, though what I had no clue, "You mostly," I said truthfully, "I mean, you were kind of the common denominator so we started there at least. They told me how you and Kyle met, it spiraled into how Kyle and Chloe met. We didn't really talk that long before you showed up."

Are you angry? Why did you hide my existence from your closest friends? Are you ashamed to associate with me? All these questions bounced around in my mind, threatening to spill out. But I knew the answers.

I knew what I was in his eyes and all of society's. I was an outcast. A careless teenager too dumb to avoid pregnancy. I was a dirty secret. The person who people wouldn't quite look in the eye, or take seriously. The girl who would be written off and judged at every turn. I might as well sew a huge red "A" on my clothing now. I scoffed, no it wouldn't be an "A" it'd have to be an "S" or a "W" or another unsavory term. It didn't matter how, or why, or who I was before; all that mattered was that there were two bundles laying in their cribs in front of me, and they were mine. But somehow, I'd thought Simon didn't see me that way lately. He'd befriended me, he'd helped me, and he'd forced me to confront some of my problems head-on. But in the end, I'd just learned the inevitable, something I'd known would plague my every step the rest of my life. How dare you be disappointed, I berated myself. You knew this would happen. Goddamn it, Faith, jaded and untrusting as you are, you somehow still manage to invest too much. You continually set yourself up for heartache you absolute fool. I felt like crying. That would be absurd though, I wasn't going to cry. I didn't care. I did NOT care.

"They need nicknames," Simon said out of the blue, startling me from my spiraling thoughts.

I put on my most convincing smile, "Well, you're the expert there," I teased, hoping to cover any hint of my inner turmoil.

He laughed, "I'll work on it," he said, suddenly putting a hand on my shoulder as he turned. I tensed reflexively at the contact, but quickly tried to force myself to relax, I wasn't about to have another episode with Simon here. He could obviously feel my reaction. "You should try to get some sleep now, you don't know when they're going to want you up," he said, slowly removing his hand.

"Okay," I responded, not turning to face him, my voice still tight with suppressed emotion, scared that I might break down any moment.

And then, I was left truly alone for the first time in what felt like forever.

Now what was that, I heard suddenly. Eric had apparently been somewhat attentive during the exchange, and I hadn't been very vigilant about keeping the connection completely closed.

I'll see you soon enough, have you no patience, I practically hissed back.

So you're not going to continue avoiding me? He said in what sounded like genuine surprise.

Are you going to continue to be the incarnation of my every nightmare? I shot back.

He didn't respond for a long time; I gave myself props for taking him down a peg. It seemed to be the best I could do anymore.

Hopefully not forever. He finally answered. Please sleep, Faith.

I didn't deign to respond but instead picked up Eleanor as she began to cry, carefully trying to rock her back to sleep. This soothed my nerves as well, giving me something else to focus on. She refused to be cajoled with mere shushing, so I sat and gently began to sing,

My life flows on in endless song,

Above earth's lamentations,

I hear the real though far off song,

That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

While to that Rock I'm clinging,

It sounds an echo in my soul,

How can I keep from singing?

Eleanor finally fell silent and I gently put her back down in the crib and crept away to my room across the hall. I sat back against the headboard and tried to sort everything that had happened both in reality, and in my immaterial rendezvouses with Eric. What kind of mood I would find him in this time I had no clue; he seemed as unpredictable as ever. I'd have to be well anchored in case of the need to escape again. I knew that a meeting was inevitable now.