Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya! I'm so glad you're all liking Rose so far. She's been pretty fun to write for. And I'm skipping over their actual time with Rose, and just showing their last day, to kind of move things along. But I might write some pieces later on showing their time spent with Rose. Haven't decided yet.

Enjoy!

Breathing in deeply as she slowly starts coming out of her deep slumber, Skye takes a moment to let the rest of her body catch up, despite not wanting to actually get up. The bed in the guest room at Rose's house is far more comfortable than the beds at the base are. She is really going to miss this bed when they leave later that day.

Shifting on the mattress, she frowns when a heavy, slightly unfamiliar weight across her middle keeps her from moving any further. She starts to panic internally until memories from the night before start to come back to her little by little.

Grant had offered to take the floor for the couple of nights they'd stayed with Rose, allowing her to have the bed. But last night, their last night staying with Rose, she felt bad that he'd been sleeping on the floor the entire time and told him he could share the bed with her for the night. He'd hesitated before accepting the offer, the two of them doing everything possible to stay on their own sides of the bed as they were falling asleep.

But apparently, they'd gravitated toward each other during the night since his arm is draped securely over her waist, his hand splayed across her stomach. The sight makes her heart ache, knowing that he wasn't as present as he could have been while she was pregnant with Adian.

Of course, if things were different, they probably would have been waking up like this every morning, his hand covering her stomach each and every time, subconsciously protecting their child as he slept. They would have been happy right from the get-go had he not done a lot of the things that he did. But there's no use in dwelling on that now. It won't change anything that's already happened.

Swallowing back the tears that are fighting to be set free, she does her best to shift in the bed and nudge Grant's arm.

"Grant," she whispers, trying to get his attention. He doesn't move. "Grant," she repeats a little bit louder.

His brows furrow for a moment before he's slowly opening his eyes and looking at her. "Skye?"

"Could you…?" she trails off, gesturing to the arm that's still wrapped around her.

His eyes go wide and he quickly moves back, raising up on his other arm. "Sorry."

She shakes her head. "It's fine. I'm uh...I'm going to go and check on Adian. I haven't heard him yet this morning, so I think Rose probably has him."

"Probably," he agrees. "I'll meet you downstairs."

She nods silently, giving him a tight smile before standing from the bed and shuffling out of the bedroom and into the hallway after checking to see that Adian isn't in his portable crib.

Letting out a yawn, she moves down the hall and descends the stairs to the main level of the house. She walks in the direction of the kitchen, hearing a single, familiar voice talking in the room.

"I had a feeling he was with you," she announces her presence, smiling at the sight of Rose bouncing Adian in her lap from her place at the kitchen table.

The older woman smiles at her. "I figured I'd let you and Grant sleep in a little bit. Speaking of…" she trails off, giving Skye a knowing look.

Skye shakes her head as she moves forward to take Adian into her arms, the little boy instinctively curling up against her. "Nothing happened, I promise. I let him share the bed with me so he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor again. That's all."

Rose nods but doesn't look convinced in the slightest. "Uh-huh. So you don't have any feelings for my brother? None whatsoever? Because I've seen the way you two have been interacting since you've been here. And I've seen how he looks at you even when you are looking at him. You can't honestly tell me that there's nothing going on there. You two have a child together."

She adjusts her son against her, holding him close. "Adian is the product of a single moment of bliss that happened before our lives went to hell and your brother broke my heart. It took a long time but I'm finally getting back to a place where I don't want to break down crying when I see or think about him. He's a great father and a good friend. But that's all we are right now. We're just friends." Her brows furrow as she thinks over the idea. They've never actually talked about what they are to each other, but she figured there's really no label for it. Their whole situation is a bit of a mess.

"Okay," Rose concedes, her hands in the air. "I'm sorry. I just...I don't think I've ever seen my brother so happy before. Even when we were kids, he was hardly ever happy like he is now."

"I think a lot of that has to do with this handsome guy right here," she says with a smile at her son, bouncing the boy a little. She sighs when he whines and paws at her shirt. "Of course, of course. Give momma a second and then she'll feed you."

"Speaking of hungry children, mine will probably be up soon looking for food as well."

Skye looks up at her as she adjusts her top to let Adian latch on. Rose made it pretty clear from the moment they met that Skye didn't need to shy away with anything involving motherhood from her, seeing as she'd gone through it all herself. The first time she'd nursed Adian in front of the other woman had been a little weird, seeing as she's usually in a room by herself, but she hadn't had the option at the time. She definitely feels a lot different about the whole thing.

"I'm honestly dreading Adian growing up for the sole fact that he's probably going to eat a lot. If his appetite is anything like it is now, then I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine," Rose tells her. "Honestly, people exaggerate when they talk about what it's like to raise boys. If you ever get overwhelmed, though, and need some tips or advice, I'm only a phone call away."

Skye smiles at her. "Thank you."

"Of course. We're family. Sisters gotta look out for each other"

Her smile drops a little. "Rose, we're not actually…"

"Stop." Rose holds a hand up, a serious look on her face as she looks directly at Skye. "You may not be married to my brother, or even in a relationship with him, but you're the mother of my nephew. That makes us family in my book."

Her smile grows again. "That works for me."

.

.

.

Skye smiles as she watches Rose hug Adian and plant kisses all over his face, whispering quietly to him as she rocks from side to side. The last few days have been pretty great, having some time to just relax and not worry about everything else that's going on. Especially getting to spend time with Rose and really get to know her and know more about Grant as a child. But they need to get back. They can't stay forever, not with the two of them essentially still being fugitives.

"Promise me you'll text me constant updates about Adian and let me FaceTime with him every once in a while so he doesn't forget me?"

Skye snorts. "Now you're sounding like his parent."

Rose smiles. "I can't help it. He's just way too cute."

She smiles proudly and runs her hand over the top of her son's head. "Yes, he is." She carefully takes her son from his aunt and settles him in her arms. "If he keeps up his streak of looking like Grant, then I'm probably going to come close to losing my mind a few times as he gets older."

She and Rose share a laugh before stepping into a hug. Spending so much time with the older woman brought back those feelings she used to have when she was younger, of wanting a sibling. She likes to think she would have thrived having a sibling. Especially if they'd grown up together.

"It was so good to finally meet you," Skye tells her when they pull out of the hug.

"Same to you. And I hope to see you again soon."

"We will definitely make a plan," she promises. "Now that you're back in his life in a positive way, I don't think Grant is going to want to stay away for too long."

Rose nods. "Good." She glances over her shoulder. "Matthew, come and say goodbye to your cousin."

The young boy runs over to them and smiles up at Adian. "Bye to your cousin."

She and Rose both laugh at Matthew's antics. It has definitely been fun getting to know the young boy during their stay. Grant was pretty happy to hear that he's an uncle and had made sure to spend as much time as he could with Matthew while they were there and learn about everything he likes. He called it 'making up for lost time'.

"It was really great to meet you, Matthew," Skye says to the young boy as she bounces Adian a little in her arms.

"Uh, you too." He ducks his head momentarily before looking back up. His eyes light up a second later. "Uncle Grant!" He darts across the lawn to where Grant is loading their things into the back of the car.

"I love that he took so quickly to Grant," Rose tells her. "I was a little worried at first, I wasn't sure if Matthew had ever heard any of the things Thomas used to say to me about Grant. I'm just glad that he didn't and that he was so happy to have another uncle. Eric doesn't have any siblings, so he just has mine and Grant's younger brother Thomas."

"Grant hasn't told me a lot about Thomas. I think it's a sensitive subject for him, he still has a tendency to blame himself for a lot of what happened. It's gotten better in the last few months, but I know he still holds himself partially responsible for not stopping it sooner."

"I hope they can reunite eventually," Rose admits. "I'd really love for them to reconnect. I don't think Grant would be opposed to it, but I'm not sure how Thomas would feel about it."

"Guess you'll just have to play it by ear, then," she suggests. "Maybe bring up the subject of Grant and test the waters, see how he feels."

Rose nods. "Yeah, maybe. I'll let you know how it goes."

"That'd be great. And I promise to send you constant pictures and videos of Adian."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"Skye, we should probably get going."

She looks over her shoulder and laughs at the sight of Grant standing near the car, Matthew hanging nearly upside down off one of his arms.

"I think Matthew's going to miss Grant," she tells Rose.

"Oh, he definitely is. Which is why the three of you need to visit again as soon as possible."

Skye smiles at her. "We will, I promise."

They share another goodbye, Rose taking a moment to gush over Adian one last time before they load up and head back to base.

Thankfully Adian falls asleep pretty quickly once they get going so she's able to relax a little while Grant drives.

Their visit with Rose went a lot better than she was initially expecting and she's beyond grateful for that. She knows Grant is going to do well with having his sister back in his life, especially since she seems to not hate him for everything that happened in their childhood. She knows he's a lot better off with his sister back in his life. They're all a little better off.

So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!