Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold, or anything else that I've mentioned.

Summary: Helga, never imagined that one rash decision at a party, would turn her life completely on its head six years later, and leave her in a twisted web of secrets, lies and deceit. The skeletons are coming out. For Hillwood, it's the crime of the century. A love/crime/triangle drama! R&R!

A/N: Yeah. "slowish updates" my rear end...I've suddenly had plenty of time and decided to knock out another chapter in between WATO. Also, wow, thank you to everybody who has given some feedback on this story! I really appreciate it! Yeah, I know you guys have a lot of questions and some of them get answered in this chapter, but...many more get raised so...I'm not sure if I've done you any favors, but, stay with me folks...this is going to get INTERESTING.

Take me down, six underground.

The ground beneath your feet.

One year later.

"Helga...Helga! Slow down...slow—you're going to—Oh, Jesus..." Helga side eyed her boyfriend sitting in her passengers seat, one hand on the dash board and the other clutching the upper door handle, wide eyed staring out the windshield, as she sped up on another car, both fastly approaching a sharp bend on the mountain they were working up. She floored it and whipped out from behind the vehicle, blowing past them and back into their lane just in time, adding enough space for her to two break tap before careening them around the sharp curve leading into the hills. Had it been icy, she probably would have slid the damn car around the bend, "Fuuuuuuuuck!" He yelled as they plowed around the twist, G-force pushing them both to the far side. She loved it when he was foulmouthed, because he rarely ever was unless something felt really good, was really scary or he was downright angry. Hopefully her little stunt fell into the second category...and maybe the first too. When they finally made it around the turn and hit a straight away, they both sat back in their seats.

Arnold had started laughing, popping his hands together once before brushing them through his hair haphazardly and trumpeting, "What a rush!"

"I told you!" She glanced quickly at him, "This is why people love these cars," They sped around an opposite curve, going higher and higher. "My seat better be dry over there, Football head."

He looked over at her, as she was concentrated on driving. She'd promised to eventually take him for a legit spin in that thing, and on his first trip with her to her parents mountain house, she hadn't disappointed. "Nothing to worry about. It's a small puddle at best," He joked and she leaned over and shoved his shoulder before flooring it around another twisted bend, sending him flying into his door with a beaming smile.

Another 30 minutes or so of that, and they she finally turned off onto a steep gravel road leading upwards into the woods. They crept up that at a slow speed, coming to a fork which she took a left at, driving a little further before it birthed into a modest clearing where they could see her parents cabin perched in the side a relaxed vertical slope. It was the epitome of northwestern charm, with it's frontier log style aesthetics.

Helga parked, and they both exited her vehicle. "This is it huh?" Arnold squinted up at the house, before looking back at her with a smirk. She had already popped the trunk and had one of her bags thrown over her shoulder.

"Sweet escape," She replied with a grin, watching him walk over.

"I got them," He insisted as he snatched up the rest of their luggage for the long weekend. When they walked into the cabin, Helga pointed him upstairs to the bedrooms and went over and activated the thermostat to get that place comfortable. Arnold lunged up to the loft area, dropping their bags on the bed of the master room before slipping back downstairs.

"Well, what you want to do for the afternoon?"

"Whatever you want," He grinned.

"We could go hiking?"

"That actually sounds pretty nice. I need to stretch my legs after the trip."

They went on a short-ish hike, a few miles round trip, Helga showing her all of her favorite spots while she was growing up, showing him the babbling stream that was just above the cabin, where their cabin neighbors were and all the best view points were. By late afternoon they headed down the mountain to the closest tiny town and had dinner at a small dinner before returning, rounding out the evening with a terrible game monopoly, because it was the only other thing to do once night had fallen, besides watch the few local channels they had on the ancient television.

There was plenty to do during the days, and...they had plenty they could do at night he supposed as well.

Arnold was in his happy place for the night, completely, eyes shut in euphoria as his girlfriend slowly rocked against him, her hands splayed out on his chest. He brought his own hands up and grabbed her hips, oscillating her in a way that had him groaning out a string of mumbled profanities. "God, baby...you're perfect."

She seemed not to even hear him, in her own haze, lips parting as she tipped her head back and brought her hands up to run through her hair, before bringing them down to his hands where she dug her nails into tops of them. Arnold hissed, opening his eyes to stare up at her, beginning to thrust against her with much more fervor. A few moments later he felt her tighten around him as she peaked. He kept at her, giving her as much as she could take, feeling her continue to convulse around him, "That's right. Come for me," he told her, right as he was tripping over his edge.

That was when she slipped up and yelled, "Ah...fuck! Arnold I love you." Arnold's eyes widened at her, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had no choice but to ride out his, even more glorious than usual, orgasm. When she finally fell over onto him and rolled to his side he just laid there, trying to figure out how to go about everything all the while still radiating from the sex.

He was relieved to hear it, but still curious about, why she picked right then.

"So, you want to talk about that?" He finally asked after his heart had somewhat normalized.

Yet, she seemed completely oblivious as to what he was talking about, "About what?"

"You said you loved me."

Shit. Helga's face dropped and took all of the color with it, "Did...did I say that aloud?"

Arnold sort of half smiled, "Yeah...you did."

"Fuck!" She swore in a hiss and quickly sat up, "I am...so sorry. That was probably really awkward for you."

Arnold rushed to sit up as well, reaching out to touch her arm, "No, really, it's not a big deal. I—"

"I screwed this up didn't I?" She looked back at him with that expression she always harbored when she was royally pissed at herself for something.

"No. Not even close," He shook his head and waved the erroneous suggestion off, "I was going to say that...I—I feel the same way." Her face softened as she gazed at him, "I love you too. Haven't found the right moment to say it because I was afraid you would get freaked out, and...well, I was not expecting that a minute ago." He smirked.

Four years & six months later.

Helga walked into her kitchen, footing the door to the garage shut, more interested in sorting through the pile of mail that was in their mailbox that Friday than anything. She hung her keys on the hook, distractedly flipping through envelop after envelop in her hands when her eye caught sight of something small and red laying on the wood floor. She looked past the mail and realized it was a rose pedal. Scratch that, not just one, but a whole mess of them scattered from the door, leading through the kitchen and turning into the living area.

She dropped the mail down on the bar, eyes squinting curiously as she followed the trail, a little smirk jumping to her face. She couldn't imagine what he might have been up to. "Arnold?" She beckoned. No response.

It was obvious that she was suppose to follow the roses somewhere. Lord knew what was waiting or why. Her heart began to beat a little faster as she walked through the kitchen and around into the living room, seeing that the floral trail led out into their newly expanded back patio. She opened the door to see him sitting in one of their chairs, a glass of red wine in his hand and a couple steaks sizzling merrily on the grill. He had the whole back area golden lit with their torches and a little bit of music playing softly through the outdoor speakers.

Hearing the door slide open he turned his head and looked back at the house, smiling happily when he saw her, "Hey," He greeted and took a sip of his wine.

Helga stepped onto the patio giving him a suspicious look, "Hey, you," She walked towards him, "What occasion do I owe all of this to?"

Arnold stood up, walked over to their patio table and poured a second glass of wine, handing it to her with a grin, "It's a special day."

Her eyebrows lifted and she took a sip from her glass, "Is it? I can't for the life of me think of what?"

"You'll remember, trust me," He was grinning at her like he was majorly up something, "Sit. Steaks are almost done," He turned and walked back over to the grill.

She humored him and slid down into the table chair, "You could just tell me, you know," She said, watching him tong the steaks onto individual plates and then cut open a couple foil packets that he had vegetables roasting in, spooning them on as well. He returned to the table, sitting everything down and seating himself across from her.

"I could tell you, but that would be too easy," He smirked like a cocky little bastard at her, picking up his fork and knife.

She forked a piece of broccoli into her mouth, chewing and swallowing, "So you're just going to force me to play a guessing game?"

"If you want. I'd prefer to just hear about your day."

She quietly chuckled, "Fine. We'll do this your way then."

For the next 45 minutes, that chatted about their days while eating their dinner that he'd surprised her with. The whole time she couldn't figure out if she had really forgotten some important date for them, which, she'd admit was entirely possible considering the week she'd had, or if he was trying to butter her up to ask for something, and what that could be, she had no clue of.

It better not had be him telling her they were going to have to move, because so help her, she'd be pissed. They had just bought that house five months prior and she was not about to try to unload it into the market as it was being torn apart with renovations. They both had quickly discovered that they shared the same city life exhaustion, having both grown up in town, amidst the hussle and bussle of everybody's work life, that when they had decided to leave their apartment and purchase a house together, they each knew that they wanted to live on the outskirts of town, in a much quieter area. It wasn't a huge house, but not a tiny one either, needing its fair share of work, and a decent face lift to boot. Arnold had fallen in love with it immediately, loving its classic charm and the fact that it had originally been built in the early 1900s by a doctor. Seemed fitting to him that another would live in it again. After Helga had gone through it with a fine tooth comb, and said that it structurally checked out, they bought it, moved in and started doing a little work to it here and there as they had the time. Windows, back patio expansion, updated appliances and fixtures, ripping up flooring, the works.

It probably wasn't that. She probably had really forgotten something. And it would probably be super obvious when he reminded her. Whatever. She wasn't worried. When they finished eating, he plated his napkin and stood, offering his hand out for her take, which she did.

Walking them to the edge of the patio, he pulled her in front of him, putting his arms around her from behind, bringing her back flush with his front and began swaying a bit to the music, "I love those woods, you know that? So...quiet and peaceful. This whole place."

She chortled, fishing for his hands to wrap hers in, "Me too," She agreed, really wondering where he was going with it all, especially since he wouldn't give her his right hand for some reason.

"I've been thinking though," He said into her ear, continuing to sway them to the music, "I really want to make all of this official." He reached over with his right hand, using his left hand to hold hers still while he slipped something onto her finger and then asked, "Will you marry me?"

Helga gasped and spun around in his arms looking up at him in shock and then back down at her hand where a lovely, yet eloquently simple white gold diamond ring sat on her left hand. Perfectly her too. He knew she wasn't a big jewelry girl, the 90s kid in her wore a thumb ring on her right hand and that was it. Her eyes jumped back to his smiling face, realizing that she had yet give him an answer. Reaching up, she pulled his face to her, kissing him hard before saying, "Of course I will. I love you."

Smiling from ear to ear, Arnold pulled her even closer to him, getting a little wrapped up with her mouth before finally whispering back, "I love you forever."

"Not maybe?"

"Not maybe."

He was right. She would remember that day.

Four years & eight months later.

It was a lazy kind of night after a long, very long week being on the run and, in Arnold's case, putting in some crazy residency hours at Hillwood Medical. The two had intended to go grab dinner with Phoebe and Gerald, but that had degenerated into them just choosing to veg out at home instead and crawl into bed early for some much needed them time. Helga herself had a lot twirling around in her head, especially after an annual doctors visit that week. With she and Arnold moving forward in life together, it would eventually come up, she just didn't want to wait too long.

So it was that night, while she had her head laying on his chest, enjoying a little afterglow cuddling that she finally just decided to broach the subject with him. "What do you think about trying to have a baby?"

Unsurprisingly to her, he didn't skip a beat. He was Arnold. Cool as a cucumber. His only movement was to tilt his head down to stare at the top of her head. She could sense that and pulled away from his chest to lay her head beside his on the pillow, continuing to rest her hand on his belly. His eyes followed her and he was wearing the warmest smile, his eyes all squinty, when he asked, "Phoebe giving you baby fever?" He picked, referring to the Johanssen's and their impending parenthood.

"A little bit, yeah," She admitted with a smirk.

"And now you want one? We have our wedding in a year. Destinational, might I add."

"Well, no I don't want one right now."

He was a little confused at that point. She wanted to have a child, but didn't want to have one? "So...if you don't want one right now, then..."

She sighed, "Because I know it's not going to be a quick thing for me."

Now his interest was really perked, "And why is that?"

"I've always had this...irregular period thing. Birth control evens me out but, I never realized that my mom and my sister both had a lot of trouble getting pregnant until my mom mentioned it to me when she was asking if you and I wanted kids," She absently began tracing circles on his stomach.

"Uh huh."

Her eyebrows popped once as she ceased her skin doodling, "They had the same irregularness that I have so...I just know it's going to take forever. I mean, it took my mom five years to get pregnant with me. Five years! I don't want to be into my mid-30s, popping out my first kid because I waited so long."

He chuckled, "Yeah, I don't want to be old either," He agreed, still gingerly smiling at her, "But I'm sure it wont take that—"

"—But what if it does?"

Arnold sighed, reaching his hand down to his belly and intertwining his fingers with hers, "Can I finish?" When she gave him one of her famous, teasing eye rolls, he leaned in and kissed her on the nose. "I doubt it will take that long. You're probably the exception. It's kind of your thing, after all."

"...yeah."

"Plus, they have some really effective treatments for this kind of thing now."

"Sure, if you're okay with potentially having multiples at one time. No thanks," She sighed, "Look I get it. You aren't on board. You could've just said so instead of beating around the bush," She told him, sounding as if it didn't bother her. Truthfully, it wasn't the end of the world to her, but it had been something that had been on her mind for a little while by then. It was what it was. Perhaps it would be best to just wait till after they got married and hope for the best.

Arnold was having none of that though. He believed her, he thought she was having a bit of a complex over it, especially just making the assumption there would be a problem, but hey, he was becoming a heart surgeon, what did he know about potential fertility issues? Not exactly his focus of study, "No I didn't say that." She gave him a skeptical look, and he continued with, "I was just pointing out your assumption. However...if you, I don't know, started doing absolutely nothing to prevent it from happening, there wouldn't be any objection from me."

"Really?"

He smiled, "Really. I want us to have a family together. The 'when' has never been particularly important. Whether you want one now, a year from now or five years from now isn't a concern to me, just that you do want one with me. But..." Quite suddenly, he rolled himself onto her, pinning her beneath him, while bringing his toothy smiling face nose to nose with hers as she stretched her arms up and then hung them around his neck. Kissing her quickly he went on, "If this happens quickly, so help me, I'm taking your butt down to the court house and we're getting married right there. Kiss Belize goodbye."

"Oh, so barbaric."

"You aren't popping a kid out without being a legit Shortman. I won't have it," He kissed her again.

She smirked back at him, "We're going to Belize babe, trust me."

"We'll see."

"Yeah, we'll see," She echoed.

"Hey," He perked up, as if the thought had only just occurred to him, "You know what baby making means?"

"What?"

"Fifty percent more sex."

She rolled her eyes at him, "How does that work exactly? You're already insatiable."

"Like you aren't? Also, I'm a doctor. I know what I'm talking about here."

She snorted, "You're a quack."

Five & a half years later.

Helga had woken up that cloudy Saturday morning, more than a bit of a curmudgeon and in an particularly pessimistic mood for a weekend day. Her mind dwelt on it all while she sat outside on her patio, sipping her coffee and watching the wild rabbits from the woods nibble on blades of grass in her back yard. She partially blamed her mood on the argument she'd gotten into the prior night. There was a lot of wisdom in the saying, 'never go to bed angry.' and it was advice she hadn't heeded for an exchange so stupid, she wasn't sure why it was even an argument.

Though, just like any other couple. They weren't above a good bickering.

She hated their dogs sleeping in the bed with them, and she definitely wanted to put a stop to it now, given their new circumstances. She'd crated them before she went to bed and before he'd even gotten home from his shift. What had he done when he got home? Let them out and let them get in the bed. Needless to say she was not happy about being woken up by two beagles jumping on top of her

She fussed, he fussed back, they both ended up rolling away to their separate sides of the bed, backs to each another in agitated huffs, leaving two dogs still in the middle of the mattress.

The rest of her tartness she blamed on her utter tiredness from tossing and turning the remainder of night from sea sickness. Sure she had been aggravated, but pregnancy was proving to be a cruel endeavor for her. Even a mere 13 weeks in, she was already hating life, and hating feeling like she was plowing through the perfect storm on a fishing boat, non-stop. If she were honest, it had gotten better since her doctor had put her on a little medicine for it. But still, some days she would have a rough morning, other days it might be a rough afternoon, and still other times it might be a night of feeling like if she moved too quickly, she'd puke all over the bed.

None the less, she was still as enthusiastic as ever. Grouchy a lot of days, but otherwise over the moon about it all.

Her ears perked when she heard their back door slide open, the boisterous clicking of canine paws across cement as their two mutts went flying past her and into the backyard, hurdling towards the thick woods that lined their property where the disappeared into its shaded abyss.

A pair of much heavier, exhausted footsteps dragged behind them and Arnold slumped down in the patio chair next to hers. He looked tired, hair a wreck, raccoon eyes and she was surprised that he was even awake seeing as he had done a 24 hour shift at the hospital by the time he had arrived home the night prior, "Hey," He mumbled, bringing his own coffee cup to his lips as he squinted into the yard and then side eyed her, trying to gauge the mood she was in, after last night and all.

"Morning," Was her own tired response as she glanced at him briefly, still holding on to a bit of a grudge, "I'm surprised you're awake."

He yawned, "The dogs woke me up."

"Did they?" She sarcastically feigned surprise.

"I'm sorry," He said after some time, reaching over and putting his hand over top hers on her armrest, giving it a gentle squeeze, "About last night. We'll start crating them...every night. They are pains, really." Helga looked over at him, gave him a faint half smile and nodded. He took another sip of his coffee.

"Especially when I'm the one they insist of sleeping right on top of."

He chuckled, bringing her hand over to his mouth and kissing the top of it. All was forgive. "You feeling okay this morning?"

"I feel like I'm on a boat."

"Anything I can do?"

She shook her head, but offered him a sincere little smile, "No. Hopefully I'm just getting it out of the way for the day." She didn't want to worry him with her complaints about an ordinary problem that millions of other women had dealt with. She wasn't the whiny type. And if that was the only thing in her 27 year old life that she had to complain about, then she was fine with it.

All things considering, and in spite of the fact that she currently felt less than ideal, at such a young age, she was living a fairly charmed life. She had a good, if not mundane commercial inspecting business, a handsome doctor-in-residency fiance'-scratch that, husband, in a month-whom, she would soon have a beautiful baby with, and a storybook Victorian home on the outskirts of Hillwood where they would raise he or she.

Picture perfect.

Pretty good considering their wild, and adulterous start as a couple. Oh but there they were, to the surprise of most, almost six years later, still unable to get enough of one another, and with no signs of another dreaded five year itch for her on the horizons. There really had been something to that old saying she'd casually mentioned to Phoebe that day at their luncheon. She'd never had a day where she wondered if she were really in love with him.

Every inch of her existence was in love with that man, and if soul mates existed, he was definitely hers.

Thinking about it made her smile as she finished off her one cup of coffee for the day. She'd tried to make it last as long as possible, but as with everyday, she'd reached the bottom way too quickly. Only being allowed a cup was a form of torture. Truly. Especially on weekends when she got to watch Arnold practically drink a pot on some days.

"So," He began after he took a long sip, "What do you want to do today?

"We really need to go price out some hardwood." Arnold lifted an eyebrow, throwing her a less than enthusiastic look. She was hell bent of renovating their old house and he was hell bent on...putting it off for as long as possible so he didn't have to deal with it. "Babe, our child is not coming home with our entire upstairs still bare sub-flooring."

It could be so time consuming renovating a house, and as much as he knew that she was right, they really did need to get that finished before their baby arrived-because of sanding dust-he dreaded having to take on the project at the moment. All things considering. He was working a lot, she was working a lot, he was under a lot of pressure, some things were going on at the hospital, and dear God did he need some 'me' time.

He just wanted his damn weekends. But, getting that stuff done made her happy. If she was happy, he was happy. It was weird how that worked, but it was true.

"I know, I know. But, I was thinking tonight though, if you're feeling up to it, we could go to the baseball game."

Helga raised her eyebrow at him, a playful smirk jumping to her lips, "Tonight huh?"

"Yep."

"You have a lot of faith in us."

Her fiance' laughed, "What are you talking about?"

Helga pulled her legs up in the chair and leaned against the arm rest, twisting her body to halfway face him, "Here's how I see this going: No matter how much of a sour puss you are about the floor, we're going to get sucked into the hardwood thing today, just admit it. Then later on, were going to be getting ready to go to that game, but lets face it, we'll probably end up having sex, but then we'll lay in bed for an hour watching hardwood install videos on youtube...definitely have sex again cause, you know...its us...finally say, fuck the game, go get take out, watch two hours worth of HGTV, and have some night cap sex before bed."

He was laughing so hard he'd managed to spill a little coffee in his lap, "Nooooo. We've never watched that much HGTV in one sitting. Everything else, yeah, pretty spot on."

"What can I say, we're creatures of habit," She shrugged but laughed as well, "But, yeah, if I'm not feeling too crappy later, and you can manage to get us out the door, then sure, lets go."

"Alright, fair enough."

She sat back in her patio chair, they both staring out at the woods, both wondering what their two dogs were up to in there.

Arnold was finally the first to speak again, "I didn't have a chance to tell you last night but, Monica, the head nurse on my floor, is still missing."

"Really?" She again turned towards him.

He nodded, "Nobody has heard from her in two days now."

Helga frowned, "Has anybody gone to her house to check?" Seemed obvious but, one could never know.

"Yeah, a couple of the other nurses did. Nothing. She's not there."

"How long until she's considered a missing person?"

Arnold shrugged, "I really don't know. I would think by now."

"Yeah, no kidding. I hope nothing bad has happened."

"Yeah..."

Helga finished her coffee and stood up from her patio chair, "Jack! Rory!" She called down to the yard where their dogs had since emerged from the woods and were running around in circles, one biting at the other, "I swear, if I could put them both in time out, I would."

Arnold snorted, "Do it." Neither he nor Helga had ever fancied themselves as being much of animal people, much less dog people. They would have been perfectly content never having any animals. But on a weekend getaway to her parents cabin in the mountains, they'd stumbled upon two beagle puppies wandering around at a gas station, and couldn't just leave them there. Fast forward two years and now they had two fully grown and fully rambunctious boys who insisted on sleeping right on top of Helga whenever they sneaked up to the bed, and fighting like human children every chance they got. Oh, and they'd become dog people. Ha! "Want me to make us some pancakes?" He then asked, finally pulling himself from his own chair.

Helga shrugged, but nodded. She doubted she'd be able to stomach much, but she liked the thought, "Yeah, if you want," Rory and Jack came scampering onto the patio, Jack chomping at Rory, who was protectively hoarding something in his jaws. She took notice, attempting to grab him before he ran from her, knowing he was in trouble.

"Arnold, he's got something in his mouth," Helga pointed to him as he laid down near their chairs and began steadfastly gnawing away at the something.

"Rory," Arnold began scolding, walking over and grabbing the dog by the scruff and forcing the hard, round object out of his mouth, much to the animal's disappointment. He looked at it, Helga leaning in, giving it a intrigued inspection.

"Is that a bone?" She finally asked. It was so chewed up that it was hard to identify it as anything other than a hard, round-ish...something-or-another.

"Yeah," He quickly confirmed, "Probably a deer vertebrae," He looked off, his face awash with new concern as he gazed into the woods, "How about you go get the griddle warmed up. I'm going to go look and see if I see anymore laying around," When Helga gave him a somewhat strange and 'why bother' look, he clarified with, "They could choke on this."

Alright, so that made sense, agreeing with him as she too wasn't eager to be making any emergency vet visits that day. She ushered their 'sons' into the house, and fed them before flipping the gas burner on the stove and putting their giant cast iron pancake griddle on top to heat up. Arnold came walking in not long after, tossing the bone in the trash and flipping the faucet to wash his hands, "I didn't see anything. Who knows where they got it from," He scrubbed up and dried off.

"No telling. The deer are everywhere back there."

Arnold threw together his famous pancake batter and within a 20 min they were sitting down at their kitchen table, digging into several stacks of fluffy, buttermilk and syrupy heaven on earth.

Well, he was digging, Helga was steadfastly nibbling on her mound, wishing desperately to down them, but still feeling way too nauseated to attempt such a task. She glanced back at the wall clock, surprised to see that it was almost mid-morning, "Crap. I forgot that I have an appointment to get my oil changed in like...30 minutes," She announced, throwing her napkin on her mostly uneaten food as she stood from the table.

Arnold finished chewing and swallowed, "Want me to take it?"

Helga leaned against the counter where she'd just cleared her plate into the trash, "No, it's fine." turning, she rinsed it in the sink and then stuck it in the dishwasher below.

"You sure?" He asked again, knowing how she could be sometimes.

Helga turned back around and smirked at him, "I've got it. Seriously, go catch a few more 'Z's' or something," She breezed over and kissed him, "You look like death," She playfully teased and kissed him again.

Arnold gave her a slightly smirking, but deadpanned look, "Thanks. You're full of the best compliments," He replied. By that point she had walked over to the door leading into their garage and grabbed her keys from the wall hanger. "I'll see you in a bit. Love you forever. Not maybe," She called the last bit in a very sing-songy voice as she walked out.

"Love you!"

Helga pulled into the dealership with 10 minutes to spare, parking and somewhat dragging her feet into the service center. When she walked in, there were two people waiting and a man at the counter, hopefully getting his car to leave at that moment. She had an appointment time, but it always seemed like they could never be on time with them.

He was tall, black hair curling out slightly underneath his ball cap, with skin that looked like he had no trouble with tanning. She couldn't see his face, but as she was standing there, browsing shit on her phone, she realized he smelled very familiar to her.

Intimately familiar. It was weird how senses worked that way. One could go for years without hearing a certain noise, or smelling a certain scent, but recognize it the minute it reintroduced itself. Like still knowing the words to a song one hadn't heard since middle school, or smelling the mix of laundry and aftershave of an former flame.

She overheard the service guy walk back up to the counter and announce, "Alright, Mr. Kirk, your truck is ready," Her head shot up as she heard his name and a set of keys clatter down on the formica counter top.

"Thanks," The man replied back, pocketing them.

"See you in five thousand."

The dark haired guy gave the employee a tight smile, a curt nod and turned, nearly running into Helga, who, for her part, had quickly pocketed her phone and was trying to divert herself away to not be seen. But he still had to tiptoe back from her, and as he was, his chocolate brown eyes grew wide at exactly who was standing behind him.

"Helga," He blurted out, almost as if she'd scared him.

She inwardly groaned, starting to burn a little all over, never expecting to run in to him ever again, "Jeremy," She mimicked his surprised response. She had to be bright red by that point. She just knew it.

He began to smile at her, shaking his head in what appeared to be disbelief, as he removed a toothpick from the corner of his mouth and then crossed his arms "Wow...it's been a hot minute."

Helga sort of shifted her jaw around in a circle and smiled up at him, still, to that day, not sure of what to say to him. After all, the last time she'd seen him he'd just busted up in Arnold's dorm and caught the two of them in bed together. That'd certainly leave one at a loss of words. No matter how much time passed.

And she hadn't spoken to him since that night.

And...absolutely refusing to start thinking about it in that moment, she had forced herself to put on a smile, gaining her composure with a nod, "Yeah, it's been awhile," She agreed, "How are you? What have you been up to?" She felt like a jackass for even asking.

"I've been good. Been busy. I'm a detective for Hillwood PD now."

"Ah, look at you."

"Yeah. Brian...or you call him Brainy I think? He is my blood spat guy down there and Sid Moretti is my partner. Small world right?"

"Very," She raised her brows in surprise, "They both were...characters," Thinking of nothing better to reply with. She hated small, void filling chatter anyway. And she really wanted out of this situation.

He nodded, "Sid's a nut. So, how about you? What have you been doing?"

Helga shrugged. Fantastic, it was her turn to share pointless facts about her life that she knew he didn't really care about, "Just life you know. Running my own commercial inspection business now."

He smiled, putting the toothpick back in his mouth, and raising his left 'chipped brow'. She remembered the car wreck he'd gotten that from, junior year of high school, "Running the show now huh? Nice. So, you and Arnold still..." He trailed off, obviously fishing for her to fill in his blank.

"Um, yeah...getting married in a month, expecting a baby..." She herself trailed off this time, realizing that she'd just absently rattled off all of her and Arnold's current joys in life. And now thoroughly feeling like a real jackass about it too. You mean still with the guy I was sleeping with behind your back for a time? Yes! As a matter of fact, I am. Oh, and check this out: He put a ring on it last year, and finally managed to knock me up too. Might as well have said that. God, she could be such a tool. A simple, 'yeah' would have been more than enough. But oh no. Nope, she had to rattle off everything. She really felt her jackassery when she saw his lips downturn into a very faint scowl that he quickly tried to hide with the thinnest smile.

Though, she really didn't know why she even cared anymore, or why she was still worried about his feelings. They hadn't spoken for five and half years and would continue not to speak after that God awful encounter passed by. But yet, to that day, standing there and staring at him, she still felt the faintest pang of guilt about how she had done him.

Jeremy was a nice guy. He hadn't deserved what she'd done to him. In the end, it really had been matters of the heart, but she could have gone about it much more tactfully than she had. There had been no excuse for it. And yet, she'd never apologized, never had tried to reach out to him after that night, and really, had secretly hoped she'd never have to face him, or run into him ever again.

Something she'd been doing pretty well at until that day.

He finally cleared his throat, "Wow...congratulations," He told her pretty flatly.

"Thanks."

He smiled tightly at her again and twirled his keys around in his hand, "Well, it was good seeing you again," He moved around her a bit, obviously ready to leave. She was ready for him to leave too.

"Yeah, you too."

"Take care of yourself," He said before walking off to the doors and exiting. Helga turned and walked up to the counter, more relieved than she should have been about that encounter being over.

She gazed out through the lobby glass, into the parking lot, seeing him climb into his red truck and drive off. Jeez, she really didn't feel like reliving that crap today.

Luckily, her time at the dealership was short lived, and she herself was soon receiving her keys back and walking back out to her work SUV. Having not eaten much breakfast, she had started feeling the slow burn of hunger pains, and her stomach was feeling sturdy enough to hold some more food at that point. She grabbed herself the blandest bagel imaginable and a decaf tea from a local coffee house before deciding to go ahead and knock out some grocery shopping while she was Arnold free. A rarity, and a luxury. She could shop in peace and spend half the time they normally would and actually get crap they needed.

So, after an afternoon spent deciding between floors they wanted, they had managed to make it to the baseball game, with only a few parts of Helga's prediction coming true. They had gotten caught up in a little pre-game quickie, but Arnold had managed to corral them out the door before anymore of her prophecy could come to fruition.

Though she had sat in the car, youtubing floor installation videos on the drive to the stadium. They had made it to about inning six when they both mutually decided they were done and ready to call it a night. The game was a home team loser for the series anyway. When they got home, Arnold took the dogs out, insistent of continuing his search for spare bones that they could choke on while he was out there. Helga let him have at it, choosing to draw herself a bath and getting pretty comfortable in it's bubbly hotness. Melting into the relaxation the liquid lavender brought her, only wishing that she could be sipping a nice glass of red wine as she read her book. Wine and a good book, they really were a dynamic duo, especially on a bath bomb night.

Some time later, her blonde companion pushed open the bathroom door. She cast him a smile, which he returned as she looked back to her book.

"You're going to prune up in there," He picked at her, as he walked over to the tub and sat down on the rug in front of it, draping his arm over and running his fingers up her leg to her knee.

She again looked up from her book and smirked, "You don't find prunes sexy?"

Arnold chuckled with a grin, "Only you. Hey, guess what? thirty-five days from today we're going to be sitting on a beach in Belize; sipping cocktails as Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Shortman."

"You excited yet?" She was full on smiling now, setting her book down, "And you'll be the only one sipping a cocktail on that beach."

"Girl, I would have taken you down to the court house already if you'd let me but..." He feigned an eye roll, along with a fake sigh, "Clearly that wouldn't fly with you, so I have to wait thirty-five more days. And you're correct, I suppose I will be the only one partaking in the gratuitous amounts of alcohol available."

"I am a little bummed. I was actually starting to like the idea of possibly drinking my weight in rum while there."

That would have been a sight to see. In their almost six years together, he'd only seen her get drunk once. And he would admit, he been really looking forward to possibly seeing her cut loose again while they were in a vacation mecca. It was what it was, and neither one could even think about wanting to change the circumstances. "Well, I think that having our baby is way better than 120lbs of rum though." He winked at her.

Helga curled her legs up under her and leaned over the tub, giving him a kiss, "I do too. It's been a long year."

He kissed her back, smiling, "Incredibly. Any longer and the man in me probably would have broken down and just snapped."

She giggled, "Snapped? And done what? At most I probably would have eventually let my doctor put me on the Clomid and hoped to God we didn't have triplets. But I'm curious about your plan now."

"Probably brought another dog home and resigned myself to the idea of us being pet parents only."

Helga rolled her eyes, still grinning, "Ugh, I would have smothered you in your sleep with a beagle."

"Wow...harsh," He chuckled quietly before giving her a mildly bashful look and admitting, "Seriously, there is something entirely ball crushing about not being able to get your girl pregnant quickly."

"Hey, I told you."

"I know you did."

"Imagine being my parents. It took them three years to have my sister and five years to have me."

Arnold shook his head, "God bless their determination. Without it, you wouldn't be here," They both laughed, "But man, I just don't think I would have had it in me."

Helga snorted, and gave him an absurd look, "You act like if we hadn't been trying to have a baby we wouldn't have had sex nearly as much as we have. And we both know that's not the case," She laughed and pointed at herself, "Baby on board. Still fucking like rabbits."

He grinned at her, "Alright. Keep it up and I'm going to come in there and do some more bad things to you tonight."

She kissed him, "Oh, I thought you'd never threaten," At that time his phone started ringing from where he had sat it on their vanity. He scooted over and snatched it up, bringing it to his ear.

"Hello? Hey...uh..." He looked back at Helga, who had settled back into the tub, stretching out, "Yeah, I can. If you need me. No, no problem. Really, I understand. Alright...be there in a bit." He hung up the phone and sighed.

"Hospital?" She asked.

"Yeah, I've got to go in tonight. We're shorthanded as crap."

It was early, early in the morning when Rory and Jack started whining in their crates, jarring Helga awake with their high pitched yelps. They wanted to go out, and while she was pissed about being disturbed, it was her own fault for not letting them out one last time before she went to bed. She pulled herself out of bed, half asleep still, zombe-ing over and letting them out before opening the bedroom door for them to run into the hallway.

They all made it downstairs where she let the slip into the back yard while she went and sat down on the couch and dozed for a bit, waiting for them to come back to the sliding door. She didn't know how long she cat napped before the scratching of little paws re-woke her. When she let them in, she noticed that, once again, one was fighting the other, and she figured, one of them had found another damn bone. She couldn't even tell which one it was in the dark, but she scooped him up, "Give it here...give it here!" She demanded and the dog finally released the item into her awaiting hand.

She sat him back down and marched to the kitchen, preparing to throw it in the trashcan when she noticed it had a very peculiar feeling in her hand. So, feeling a little more alert by then, she decided to flip on the kitchen light before canning it just to...well, see exactly what it was. When the shadows of dark disappeared and she finally got a good look at what she was actually holding, she dropped it on the counter in absolute horror. "Oh my God!" She scooted as far away from it as she could, "Oh God..." She breathed again, starting to feel very nauseated.

What should she do? She had to get the police out there. Was she sure that that was what it was? Yes. Yes absolutely. There was no doubt in her mind. She scooted over and grabbed their house phone off of the dock and called it in, telling the operator exactly what she was one hundred percent sure it was.

When they had promised to send somebody out right away, she hung up and dialed Arnold's cell number, hoping desperately that he would be available to pick up, and breathing a sigh of relief when she heard his panicked voice say, "Helga, everything okay?" He knew she shouldn't even be awake, much less calling him up that early. Something was majorly wrong.

"No, everything is not okay!"

"What-what's wrong? Are you okay? Oh no...no, no you're not...Jesus you're miscar—"

"No! I'm fine! I just...I let the dogs out this morning and they brought a bone in the house, and it's...it's human! It's a human jaw bone, Arnold! The police are coming out to do...something. They brought it out of our woods!"

"You called the police? Sweetheart I'm sure it's just another deer bone—"

"No deer bone looks like this!" She snapped back, "I get that I'm not a damn doctor, but Arnold, it's got silver—fucking—fillings in the molars!"

There was a brief pause on the other end before he sighed and said, "Okay...I'll be home as soon as I can."

A/N: Oh, now that you're comfortable...*Takes steering wheel, cuts it all the way to the left. Veers off the road* Those woods though?!

Alright, so, just like first chapter, when I totally I had Fright Night in my head, this chapter I totally had a song stuck in my head for their proposal. Massive Effect's - (exchange). Take a listen if you want some mood music. Lol.

Also- Sorry (not sorry) about the cliffy?