The ominous look of the horizon spoiled Gregory's plans for an after dinner walk. In all honesty, Olivia was a little grateful for the inclement weather. Curling up by the fire he was building in the hearth of the bedroom seemed infinitely more rewarding. She was tired again, but at least now she knew to blame the medication. Those dammed blue pills made every movement that much more tiring then it would normally be.
Just watching Gregory bustle about the kitchen washing the dinner dishes made her ache with exhaustion. Cate and Sean would never believe how domestic their father could be. They were both too little to remember him cooking before he got too busy at the office. Before he stopped wanting to cook for her.
Gregory sat back from the fireplace, brushing his hands on rag and looked rather pleased with his little blaze. "That should help keep the rain out."
Olivia nodded slowly, reaching for the blanket on the foot of the bed. She started to pull it around her shoulders. Though the days were still warm, the chill at night was a growing reminder that the seasons were changing. She had forgot what winter was like in the unchanging beauty of southern California. "It's lovely darling."
He retrieved his glass of wine from the ledge surrounding the fire and sipped it languidly. Gregory took his time watching the firelight grow into a glimmer in her eyes. The green blanket tightened around her shoulders and he realized she was cold. She was so much more sensitive when she was pregnant. Everything affected her more. He knew he couldn't understand what changes took over her body when she carried their children.
Olivia's hand rested over her stomach. Both of them kept their hands there more often when she was pregnant. It was as close as they could get to their baby. Her engagement ring, the diamond he'd given her, refracted the light from the fire into tiny points of light that danced over her robe and the blanket over it. Gregory set his wine down on the night table and sat down on the bed next to her. Wrapping his arms around over her blanket, he rested his head on her shoulder.
Outside the bedroom, the rain started to pound down on the roof over their heads. She nestled closer, letting him slide his hands down to the baby. "You were right." Olivia whispered contentedly.
"Right about what Liv?" Trapped between his hands on her stomach, her cool fingers started to warm. Her hair tickled his neck as she titled her head. Loose dark curls escaping her shoulders and crossing over to his chest.
"It's safe here." Her quiet admission came with a sigh of relief. After the attack at the hospital, both of them had been on edge. Only now he could feel her shoulders relaxing.
"You're going to be safe now." Gregory leaned back, taking her with him to the pillows. "When we go home, Cole won't be able to come after you anymore."
Thunder boomed outside, making her jump. He tightened his arm around her shoulder, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. Curious, Olivia tilted her head up towards him. "How do you know that?"
Gregory's silence was nearly as ominous as the next clap of thunder. "I found a lead on him and it should be enough to keep him away from you for good."
Her voice quavered a little, and he could feel her fingers take a better grip on his arm. "Do you really think so?"
He sat up slightly, forcing her to lift her head. "This time, I do." Gregory smoothed her hair back away from her forehead. "I really do."
His eyes said there was more. Secrets he wasn't ready to share with her. Another time she might have pushed him, but she was tired. Fear was still a familiar sensation, one that took much of her energy. She didn't have enough strength to keep fighting Cole. The memory of the terrible pains in her stomach were too fresh, so was the horror that came along with it. She didn't care what revenge Gregory had planned for Cole. Cole deserved Gregory's worst.
The thunder echoed through their bedroom again, this time the lightning flashed across the ceiling. Olivia curled closer to him, dragging her knee up over his leg. "Remember our first storm?"
Gregory stroked her head thoughtfully, drifting through his memories. "When the electricity was knocked out all down Ocean Avenue. We don't have any lights to lose Olivia."
She ran her hand over his chest, stopping with her palm over his heart. "I don't know if I'm up to our 'solution' tonight either." Staring down into the fire, she licked her lips, wishing she could be more energetic for her. "I'm sorry darling-"
Gregory's chuckling surprised her. "There's no reason to apologize. We'll have more then enough time for that."
His confidence brought her a small smile. "You think so? With our son running around underfoot, me up to my elbows in paperwork at Liberty and you dashing off to save the world from criminals?"
Olivia felt his chest shake with laughter. "Some things are worth making time for, even if it's at lunch, on your desk in between meetings."
"Why not your desk?" Propping herself up on one elbow, she raised an eyebrow playfully.
Gregory half sat up, reaching for her chin gently. "My new desk is going to be in the Federal Building. I don't think it'll be appropriate for the new District Attorney to 'break in' his office that way." His breath was hot as he kissed her. "No matter how much he'd like too."
"And he would?" Olivia prodded with a wicked glint in her eyes.
He leaned closer, near enough to smell the rosemary in her hair. "There are few things in this world he'd rather do." Gregory slipped away from her, leaning back against the headboard as he reached for his glass of wine. "But, not tonight."
Sitting up with her back to him, Olivia's hand went to her head as it protested the motion. She hated the weakness, the way it infected every aspect of her life. Most of all she hated feeling fragile, hated the headaches and the way her muscles ached. Her body wasn't hers now that she was pregnant, it didn't respond to her wishes anymore.
Gregory stopped reaching for the book by his wine and stretched his hand out to her back. "And that's all right sweetheart." His wine went back to the table by the bed, freeing his other hand for her shoulder. "Come here."
His hands folded around her waist, settling her into his lap. Resting her head against his chest, Olivia sighed heavily and let her eyes close. "I'm sorry."
"We covered the fact that you shouldn't apologize, didn't we?" Gregory reminded her firmly as he figured out how to drink the last of his wine around her body. "It's our baby Liv. I should be apologizing to you because I can't share this with you." The soft silk of her robe caught on the rough skin on the palms of his hands. Bringing the firewood had torn up the skin.
"You got to share the fun part." She teased as he straightened the blanket around her legs. "You should consider yourself lucky."
For awhile they just listened to the rain, tapping against the tiles of the roof above them. As their silence continued, Gregory started to think she'd fallen asleep, but her mind was wandering.
"When do you think it was?" She finally voiced curiously. "In Wisconsin? Or before we left?"
Gregory's guilty expression was safely behind her head. His voice was carefully neutral. "I didn't think they could narrow the date down any more then a week. As I remember it, there was a lot going on that week in the end of June."
Olivia raised her head to his shoulder, watching her fingers and trying to remember what he was referring too. "It just happened so suddenly. As soon as we're talking about having a baby, we're pregnant. I would like to think that we'd know when we made our baby. Do you think we felt something and discounted it at the time?"
"Perhaps." Gregory's hand slipped under her arm to rest on her stomach. "What are you getting at?"
"Oh nothing really." Then she paused, remembering her first conversation with Roger when she went to him for help. "Actually, now that you mention it, there was something odd about the way Roger suspected I was pregnant. When I first approached him for the fertility drugs, the ones Alex helped me with-"
A sudden bolt of lightning rattled the tiles on the roof as the thunder came directly on top of the flash.
"Somehow he knew I was already pregnant." Olivia finished thoughtfully.
Gregory turned his head secretively to the window. "Must just be a lucky guess of his. No one knows how Roger's mind works." His long-suffering conscience nudged him, reminding him that Olivia would love him, no matter he had done. He steered her away. "I think it happened in Wisconsin. There's something about hotel beds-"
"It's because I cried." She realized suddenly, twisting the corner of her mouth up in a half smile. "You think it was then because I cried."
He nodded quickly, relieved he'd been again spared his admission of guilt. Even if Olivia didn't react poorly to his actions, she'd certainly take issue with his timing. Cole wouldn't be the most terrifying thing to ever come to sunset Beach if Olivia wasn't pregnant.
"It is one of your more disconcerting character traits." Gregory admitted sardonically as he masked his concern with gruffness. "When you cry, I want to make it stop. I-"
"You like to control everything." Olivia answered for him, trying to save him the vulnerability.
Gregory's tone dropped seriously, even carrying a trace of regret through to his fingertips on her forehead. "I'd rather not be the cause of any more of your tears."
"I don't mind crying when you're with me."
The thunder rumbled overhead, drowning out any attempt at a reply. Instinctually they moved closer to each other, taking comfort in their proximity to each other.
Olivia's kiss surprised him with sweetness and her gentle laughter added to the calming effect of her warmth. "I'm sorry, darling, but you're going to have to find a way to deal with me." Her blue eyes regarded him with pity as she sat up from his chest. "I'm always an emotional wreck when I'm pregnant. I'm sure you haven't seen the worst of it."
Taking her face in his hands, Gregory let the rain be the only sound in their bedroom as he tried to quiet the storm in his heart. "For you, Olivia, I could learn to fly."
Filling the parlor with haze, the cigar smoke from the lips of the secretive circle rose to the ceiling. Tribuno Ricciardi stood behind his desk, the Conciliatore at his left hand. Gregory knew the faces, but no names were used at this meeting. Every body in the circle of six exuded wealth. From the toes of the hand-shined leather shoes pointing in towards the center, to the rings and the watches that glittered in the weak light from the gas lamps, it was obvious that these were men of distinction. Men of power and purpose.
He was accustomed to being the wolf among sheep, but here he was surrounding by men of his caliber. One glance around the circle sealed the fact that he was surrounded by predators. After he cleared his throat, the dry voice of the Conciliatore began the ceremony of the binding.
"On behalf of Don Tribuno, I am pleased to be in the august presence of so many fine gentlemen. And it is no small occasion to bring the heads of the family together in such a fashion, but I think you can all agree it is necessary. A member of our family has a promise to make that must fall on all of your ears." He inclined his head a few degrees towards Gregory. Setting down the ornate silver goblet on the small mahogany table in the center of the circle, the Conciliatore returned to his place at the left hand of the Don.
Tribuno lit a new cigar, smacking his lips around it as he inhaled deeply. "Though his father cut himself off from the family, and even went as far as to change his name to hide himself, Gregory Richards returns to us, his family- his blood, to offer the most scared of oaths."
"Una vita per una vita." He intoned regally as he watched his eldest son, Gaetano, add the silver dagger with the crest of Ricciardi stamped on the hilt across the rim of the goblet. "The greatest thing you can ask of your family, in return for the greatest gift you can give them." Tribuno touched Gregory's elbow, signaling that it was time for him to step forward.
Gregory took the dagger in his right hand, wrapping his fingers around the heavy metal of the hilt. He liked the weight of it in his hand, the power it conveyed in the perfect edge of the blade. "I, Gregory Richards, humbly ask the family that shares the blood in my veins to give me the life of Cole St. John, the man who threatens everything and everyone who is dear to me."
"I understand the gravity of my request, and to show the seriousness with which it is intended, I have a life to trade." The fury in Olivia's eyes would physically scorch him when she found out, but he continued. He could almost feel Cole within his grasp. The corded muscles of that bastard's neck bulging beneath his hands as he squeezed the last from him.
"On behalf of the child my wife carries, I make this oath to the family Ricciardi, from the first breath to the last sigh, my child will serve the family in whatever capacity he or she is best suited." Gregory drug the dagger's edge over the fleshy pad of his left ring finger. Blood welled up, rich and red in response. It ran down his finger and dropped into the silver goblet, splashing against the bare metal.
"I seal my promise with my blood, Ricciardi blood." Gregory wiped the blade of the dagger on his handkerchief. Careful to keep his bleeding finger over the rim of the goblet, he slapped the hilt of the dagger down into the Don's outstretched palm.
Tribuno set his cigar down on his desk and made his grip on the dagger comfortable. Choosing the same finger on his own hand, he cut deeply into his flesh. "By blood is your oath accepted on behalf of your child, who is of you and of this family."
Gaetano covered the blood with a thick layer of wine, lifting the cup and swirling it to mix everything together. When he was satisfied, he handed it reverently to his father.
Tribuno raised the cup to his lips and took a healthy sip. "As head of this family, the blood oath will be upheld."
Gregory stared into the eyes of his cousin, the same deadly brown as his own, as he took a sip of the fragrant wine. "On my honor, the blood oath will be upheld."
The silver goblet was passed around the circle of strength. Each hand that took it and each pair of lips that drunk from it strengthened the oath. When the cup returned, Gregory finished the last of the wine and grinned to the empty cup. Flashing in the weak light, his bared teeth were a predatory smile that went around the circle as a contagion. Cole's fate was sealed.