Vera wasn't really a woods and hiking sort of person but here she was trying to clear her head. They'd had Alejandro locked up for a few days now, a few days of Vera wondering about the future of her order, the wolves, herself, the world. The hardest future to think of was one she didn't even think was possible anymore, the future of her own baby. There was a lot on her mind and being away from everything and everyone. Coming to a sizable stump Vera sat down on it and closed her eyes listening to the sound of the forest around her. She remembered being a little girl up in a tree out in an old farm field. She used to just sit up there for hours hiding from her foster family. The too good, too righteous couple that only took her in to feel good about themselves but never really gave a damn.

The only time Vera ever knew what it was like to be in a family was when she held her daughter for the first time. She had been her family, her whole world, her life. Her foster parents had been so cross with her, called her a harlot and a whore but how could she have been something so evil, so bad if she had made something so good? The day she had lost her daughter was the day she'd lost the best part of herself. She couldn't lose what good part of herself she still had. Her choice would always remain the same, what she had told Hamish that day was still true. "Maybe nothing in this world is perfect, and no one is really good or evil but I can say this. I think your father is right, I feel your powers but you aren't dangerous and like hell I'm ever letting anyone take you away from me too."

Vera startled hearing a twig snap in the distance and looked up to see who was coming. "Hey there little red riding hood." Hamish spoke up, putting Vera at ease as he stepped out from the brush.

"How did you find me?"

Hamish smiled at her tapping his nose. "Vera I could follow you to the end of the earth, you have a very distinct scent that is easy to track. Besides Fluffy has amplified it times 100."

"Fluffy?" Vera asked with that same playful tone of voice she broke out so rarely.

"Randal's idea."

"Of course."

Sitting down on the stump next to her Hamish wrapped an arm around her and pulled her in close to him. "So, I thought you said talking to them was pointless since they are still too little to understand."

Ha, he'd actually caught her, stupid wolves and their stupid keen hearing. "It's true still, I mean do you remember anything from the womb?" Hamish narrowed his eyes at her, he didn't like that she always had to be right but at least this time she was so he'd give it to her. "That's what I thought." Of course he wasn't letting her off that easily. Vera had despite saying they were keeping their baby, tried not to get too attached. She knew in life tragedy always struck and it struck closest to her. "It's strictly for my own selfish reasons. If it wasn't for always feeling sick and being tired and in a serious need for a nap I wouldn't even know they were there." She paused. "Well, aside from the fact that half my skirts down fit right now and I can't get the top two buttons on all my shirts to close anymore."

Hamish sounded a little disappointed by the last part. "Oh, so that's not you just trying to show off your..." He let out a little sigh seeing Vera glare at him from the corner of his eye. "Hey, even Randal thought you were just being flirty."

"You want to know the worst part, I'm too tired to even be angry at Randal right now." Vera leaned into him resting her head on his shoulder.

"So, maybe it's a bad time to tell you why I tracked you down?"

Sitting back up she looked cross, "Alright, what has Randal done now?" She was tired but she wasn't afraid to go at that boy if he didn't behave. Randal had always been on her list of people who seriously needed to be put in their place, right after Jack Morton.

"It's not Randal Vera." He put a hand on her back making her melt back down into his shoulder. "Actually it's probably a lot worse." Vera pressed her face into his side and groaned against him. What could possibly be worse than dealing with the wolves disobeying her again, causing the council to turn on her, and lose her powers? "My parents are in town this weekend." Vera sat up straight again, the look in her eyes said it all.

"See, I don't really do the whole meeting parents thing because I don't really do the whole dating thing." She was trying to make a valid point for abandoning him to deal with his parents all on his own.

Hamish just smiled though and pulled her on closer to him with a devious little grin. "See Vera, normally you could say that's fine but you are kind of carrying their grandchild right now."

"Crap." He had a point and it was a difficult one to argue because sooner or later they were going to find out about Hamish jr and want to meet Hamish jr. "You sure you don't want to carry the baby for a while then? My arms are getting tired." She smirked knowing she wasn't getting out of meeting his shitty parents. Hamish didn't talk about them much but when he did it usually started with 'reasons my father is disappointed in me' and 'my mother is stuck up because'.

Standing up he grabbed Vera by the hand and pulled her up too before sweeping an arm to the back of her leg and picking her up off the ground so quickly it actually made her schriek. Vera wrapped her arms around his neck so she wouldn't fall, not that she thought Hamish would drop her but if he did he was a dead wolf. "Vera, you two are surprisingly…." he paused, having almost said the worst possible statement to her. That 'chose your next words carefully or I'll kill you' stopped him in his tracks though before it was too late. "So light."

Feeling Hamish about to spin her Vera panicked and slammed her palm into his chest a little harder than she had originally intended. "Don't spin me or so help me I'll throw up all over you."

"Oh, right." Hamish continued to hold her in his arms though. It might make Vera a little uncomfortable being she wasn't in control of the situation in any shape or form and she loved control.

"You can put me down now." She pointed to the ground and nodded her head a little as Hamish looked into her eyes looking a little lost.

"I can." He added "But I won't."

"Okay, then you can." Vera's words were cut short when Hamish kissed her. Not his usual 'kissing you for comfort' but rather 'I've got something big to show you.'. She had to catch her breath between their kisses, smiling a little when he moved down to her neck. "Go on." Hamish laughed against her shoulder biting her lightly and feeling Vera squirm in his arms a little. Hamish set her back down, his mouth returning to hers as he pulled at the buttons on her blouse. She stopped him waiting a moment so he kind of shut down and caught up with her. "Really? In the woods? Do you think that's even a good idea?"

"Come on, I thought you were the one who liked an adventure."

"I do." Vera responded with a sort of breathy tone. For the first month of their whole relationship Hamish had actually been the tired one who just looked at Vera like 'oh man, again?' YES, what guy was going to complain about sleeping with Vera? None, he knew that but sometimes she was inconvenient with when she was turned on and turned off. Sometimes you would be in the reliquary in the middle of a discussion when she just couldn't be shut off and suddenly you were knocking everything off her desk and then other times they would be cuddled up in bed and as soon as Hamish made a move she would shoot him down. Everything more or less ran on Vera's schedule. "It's just that my adventurous nature got us in this mess to begin with."

"What mess?"

Vera caught her breath again while Hamish put his hands on her hips and started leading her back to the big stump since that was really the only thing around that wasn't just a pile of leaves. "You know, baby, killer jaguars, having to face the council, telling your parents that I haven't even met yet that they are going to be grandparents. Probably forever ruined your life too."

Hamish stopped kissing her for a moment and pulled her into a hug rubbing her back. "Vera you didn't ruin my life." So Fluffy had been an accident which was a little unfortunate but Fluffy wasn't a life ruining accident. If anything Hamish felt a little guilty himself because it felt a bit like he'd trapped Vera with him. He didn't know if their relationship had been built to last, at least not on Vera's end since she was so reluctant to get close to others but this had almost forced her to let him in. "And, I'd rather have this than any alternative. You know when Cassie died I didn't think there was a point to living a long life because I didn't think there was a point to living anymore. My hopes of a normal life were already gone when I became a werewolf and when she died my hopes for anything else died with her."

He kissed her on the cheek trying to get that sad look off her face. Even harder were the tears, now that she was more prone to crying she had a lot of those to shed and maybe it was good. Vera was too strong to cry otherwise and she'd deserved a good cry after everything that had happened in her life. "Then I met an alarmingly attractive temple Magus who wanted to help us to stop Coventry, perhaps one the of the biggest dicks I've ever met. She was really bossy but she was still alright even if she did take away my memories for a whole summer and made me forget I was a werewolf."

"Sorry." Her voice cracked a little. Wait, no, he wasn't trying to guilt trip her. He wasn't trying to make her feel bad.

"No Vera, no sorry. It may have pissed me off and it may have made me hate you at first. Enough that I only wanted revenge but then I started to see you and you brought back this spark, this hope. You gave me a reason to want to wake up and see you smile, see you laugh, just see you. You'd have thought that the baby on top would have ruined the day for me but it just made everything better. Sure I wasn't planning on it and I still don't think I'm ready for it but you know, despite being very impatient about it I get to be a father and when Cassie died so did those dreams. You have no idea how amazing it is to wake up next to you and realize next year I'm going to be holding a much smaller and hopefully much more adorable version of us. You are so remarkable that I don't even have words for you."

Vera crossed her arms over her chest, she liked to be listened to and obeyed but the woman couldn't take a compliment to save her life. "Well I do put up with you, it takes a rather remarkable person to do that." That was his Vera, not one for soft sentiments but rather a sarcastic though girl with her forever chin up routine. As much as he wanted her to be gussy and whisper sweet nothings in his ear or confess her undying feelings Hamish didn't want her to change. He wanted her to be his strong chin up sort of girl because he hoped she'd impart that on their kid. He knew with that mentality from day one that child was never going to let anything bother them or force them to apologize for who they were. Only problem is they would probably be more than capable of world domination and if they had her smile he'd probably let them get away with it too.