118. Short chapter but figured you'd like an update. Also, I didn't proof.

Wyatt fell asleep in the car on the way home, but he was awake when Ed carried him into the apartment. As soon as he saw Olivia he reached for her and whimpered. Before taking him, Olivia brushed his hair back and examined the wound. Her face contorted with sympathy, and she was sure she felt some of the pain Wyatt had endured. Mothers, she was certain, suffered right alongside their babies when they were hurt or ill even if they were separated by distance. Wyatt curled his fingers around Olivia's neck and persisted in straining to be in her arms.

"Mama." His voice was raspy and insistent.

"Come here, sweetie," Olivia cradled him against her chest and pressed her lips to the side of his head. His brown locks were crusty from tears and darkened by blood. She carried him to the twins' room and sat in the rocker underneath the muted light of their floor lamp. Ed closed the door as he passed and Olivia heard him explain to Noah that Mommy and Wyatt needed some quiet time.

"My sweet, sweet Wyatt," Olivia whispered. "Mommy loves you so much. I'm sorry you got hurt."

"Cashindatable," Wyatt mumbled with his fist in his mouth.

"That's what Daddy and Noah told me," Olivia held Wyatt like an infant and he stared at her with his deep blue eyes. Even with the cut, he was gorgeous. "Does your head hurt?"

"No hurt, Mama. You rah' me."

"I'll rock you as long as you want, honey." Olivia had questions-had he hit his head hard enough for a concussion? Had the doctors examined him for one? When was he next supposed to take the medicine? Were they supposed to wake him up during the night? But, she could wait for answers. She held Wyatt tightly and sang him his favorite songs. Wyatt groggily sang a few words, but soon again surrendered to sleep.

Ed waited until the early evening to interrupt them.

"Liv? How 'bout dinner?"

"I am hungry," Olivia tilted her head back to see Ed silhouetted in the doorway.

"We went out and got some deli. Chicken and dumplings for the patient."

Olivia smiled and kissed Wyatt's cheeks. She whispered his name and eventually his eyelids fluttered open. "Hi, sweetie," she said, "Let's wake up and eat something." Wyatt whimpered and his hand flew to his forehead, "No, no," Olivia grabbed his wrist, "Does it hurt? Ed? When's he supposed to get more meds?"

"Now," he replied.

"Okay, honey," Olivia cooed to Wyatt, "Let's eat a few bites first. Daddy and Noah and Maggie got you some dumplings. You love those."

Wyatt perked up a little and asked, "Dah'get Stahbucks?"

Olivia grinned. Wyatt called all coffee shops "Stahbucks" and he always requested to stop at one when they were out and about. There was nothing more normal and in-character than her little boy asking for Starbucks, and she felt better. Wyatt was a little dinged up, but he would recover and be just fine.

"We'll get Starbucks tomorrow, sweetie," Olivia said, "I promise."

….

What began as a frantic, furious tryst in Ed Tucker's living room reached an almost delicate culmination in his bedroom. Still kissing her, Ed reached for the top sheet and slung it over their bodies. Olivia's head rose and fell with each of his breaths and she hugged his chest. He peered down at the sight of her brown hair on his ruddy skin and felt cause for celebration. Olivia was back. They were together again. Now, he only had to make sure this wasn't a fluke, that she was here to stay.

"God, I missed you," he massaged her scalp with one hand and played with her fingers with the other. His arms and legs tingled as he replayed what they'd just done. It had been a dream come true to be with her again. When she didn't respond, Ed let a minute or so pass before saying, "Liv?"

She looked at him with tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Trepidation filled his entire body. He was sure she wanted everything they'd just done. She'd even said she loved him. "Liv?"

"I...Ed, I am so sorry...what I put you through."

Relieved, Ed shifted so they were on their sides, facing each other. "There was a lot goin' on," he replied, trying his best to mitigate the circumstances of their breakup, "The job, Noah, I-"

"-I was scared," Olivia interjected. She wasn't going to allow Ed to shoulder any of the blame. The only thing he was guilty of was wanting to be with her and her son. "I think I might always be scared because the closer we got, the more I loved you, I knew it was going to be more and more excruciating to lose you."

"I was scared, too. I realized, when we were together, that I didn't want to live the rest of my life alone. I wanted to live it with you and Noah…"

Brow furrowed, Olivia asked, "...and then...why didn't you call? Why did you stay gone?"

"Because I thought that's what you wanted," he replied, "I wanted to get you back, Liv. I did. But I didn't want to dog ya, force you into something you weren't ready for. I didn't want to be the enemy, someone's name you dreaded seein' pop up on your phone."

"Then you moved on…"

"No," Ed kissed her on the lips and closed the inch or two worth of distance between them. "I tried. But I knew, what we had, I wasn't gonna get that ever again. But I was ready to settle for second best, 'cause, Liv, it sounds wildly out of character, but I like havin' someone in my life. I want that, I need it-"

"-you need to take care of people," Olivia traced the outline of his pecs with an index finger.

"I guess I do."

"I think I was scared of that, too."

"You're so strong," Ed caressed the exposed side of her face, "But letting me take care of you, take care of Noah, doesn't mean you're weak. It means together, we can be even stronger, for each other, for him." He gave her a few pecks on the lips before falling onto her for a more passionate kiss. Pausing for breath, he felt her body respond to his touch. After a quick glance at the clock, he asked, "How we doin' on time?"

"We're good," she half-gasped.

Ed began slowly kissing his way down her body. She moaned in anticipation and then cried out with all of the familiar "yesses" and "don't stops." But, most encouraging, was when she intoned the deep, throaty, seductive, "Edddd." He was addicted to the sound of his name, stretched into multiple syllables, coming from her mouth as he loved her. Furiously he worked until she writhed, arched her back, and pawed at him to slide back up and hold her until they absolutely had to leave the bed.

…..

Instead of staying home on her day "off," Brooke took the train to Manhattan and met Sarah for a late lunch. Sonny had promised to pick up Sofia after work, so Brooke had several free hours. The sisters met at a bar called The Malt House. Brooke felt slightly underdressed and annoyed with her sister for choosing the place when she knew she would be attired in work clothes and Brooke was in jeans and a sweater. The crowd turned out to be a mix of tourists in backpacks, young professionals, and neighborhood clientele, so Brooke felt less self-conscious and committed herself to enjoying the time with her sister.

"Jesus," Sarah said, "Dad's appointment is in a couple of days and Sonny just got out of the hospital. Hopefully we're dodging a couple of bullets." She cringed, realizing the metaphor surely conjured images of Dave shooting Kyle in the Carisi loft. "I'm sorry...figure of speech."

"Yeah…"

"Seriously, I'm sorry, c'mon, cheer up. Your husband's fine and Daddy's going to get another clean bill of health and you have a gorgeous daughter. We have Noey, Maggs, and Wyatt-"

"-Ugh, poor Wyatt. God, that was horrific."

"Noey said he was gushing blood."

"He was."

"You did, too, when you hit the stoop when you were, like, ten?"

"I remember." Brooke sipped her martini, "Noah was...so great though. Dad was kind of freaking out, yelling for a rag, but Noah just kept telling Wyatt it was okay. It was kind of weird, actually."

"Weird how?"

"He has a sixth sense about crisis," Brooke said, "He's seven...what seven-year-old is going to jump in, hold his bloody brother's hand and say, you'll be okay, it's okay…" Brooke trailed off.

Sarah sensed she was implying a more sinister slant to the story, "You're making zero sense. That's how Noey is." She squinted at Brooke, and sneered, "Stop it."

"It's not out of the realm of possibility."

"You're crazy."

Brooke was not backing down. "We weren't watching them. What if Noah pushed Wyatt into the table?"

"Brooke, are you fucking insane?" Sarah hissed under her breath and, out of frustration, yanked her ponytail in opposite directions. "You think Noah would intentionally hurt anyone?"

Brooke did feel terrible entertaining the idea, but she also was, in her own opinion, the only person in the family to have concerns about Noah's biological parents. Even though the evidence overwhelmingly proved her wrong, she couldn't help but wonder if there was a sliver of potential evil in Noah's DNA. It frightened her, but she couldn't make it go away.

Sarah didn't wait long for a response. "You better never, ever let Livvie or Dad know you said something like this," she sneered.

"Sare, I'm," Brooke groaned, "I don't want to think like this. But I worry. And Noah is always so perfect. How is that possible?"

"He's not perfect," Sarah said, "In fact, G told me about him beating himself up about sort of lying about getting too many Capri Suns. Like, he was worried he lied to his mom. I lied to our mom zillions of times. Never worried. Not even now do I feel remorse. Am I a sociopath?"

Clearly regretful, Brooke replied, "No."

"Are you going to be like this forever?" Sarah asked, "Always skeptical of him?"

Brooke lifted her eyes to meet Sarah's, "I hope not. I don't want to be. I…"

"...Like I said. We can keep this between us, but don't ever tell Dad."

"I know it's probably not the case," Brooke said weakly, "But..what if…?"

"We need to talk about something else," Sarah said, "Because I'm very close to walking out of here right now and not wanting to see you for a while." She flashed a sweet grin and signaled for another round.

"So...Valentine's plans?"

….

Had the Tuckers had a landline phone and nothing else, it would have been ringing off the hook. The days before Valentine's Day were stressful for Wyatt, for he was the object of several middle school girls' obsession. He mostly shrugged off the attention, but Maggie reported new developments each day. So-and-so wanted to know his favorite candy; another girl wanted to know what he liked at Starbucks; a few even asked about his favorite foods and gave Maggie the impression they wanted to cook for him. All at the age of thirteen and fourteen. Ed was amused. Olivia was concerned. Maggie and Wyatt were required to leave their phones with their parents overnight, and in the morning, Olivia saw a multitude of alerts on his screen.

"Ed, this is harassment," she handed him the phone, "It's nonstop. We need to call their parents."

"I dunno if Wyatt wants that."

"Does he want this?" Stopping short of opening the messages, Olivia saw the previews. They were, to her relief, tame, and consisted mostly of emojis and GIFs.

"We have a movie-star handsome son," Ed replied matter-of-factly. He spoke the truth. Unlike most kids, Wyatt had never gone through an awkward stage. He didn't have the slightest blemish on his skin. He was tall and strong, but not gangly. His teeth were perfectly straight. Without trying, his hair always fell neatly across his forehead and around his ears. Even Olivia had to admit, he was model-worthy. However, Wyatt had never been one to seek out that type of attention. Maggie and Noah teased him about his spots on the show Olivia helped to produce, but that had been the end of his film career. Whatever Wyatt chose to pursue, it would, most likely, be a field where he could work behind the scenes and not be the center of attention.

The phones were returned after breakfast and Wyatt nonchalantly shoved his in his pants pocket. Before he left for school, Olivia was able to catch a few moments alone with him and asked about all the texts and other social media alerts. "It seems like...a lot," she said. Wyatt was always good at filling in the blanks when she began conversations vaguely. Not even Noah offered up information as readily as Wyatt.

"They just want to see if I'll dance with them," Wyatt said, referring to the school's "spring" dance which coincidentally fell the week after Valentine's Day. "Or if, I dunno, or if I'll bring them something."

"Are you going to bring someone something?"

Wyatt grinned and cocked his head slightly to the right like he always did when he was about to say something funny or witty. "I'd have to buy a lot of stuff," he said, "There's like...six girls."

Olivia shared his laughter but also asked, "You're thinking about buying presents for six girls?"

"No, Mom. I'm not buying anything for anyone. Valentine's Day is...it's kinda dumb. I mean, except for Dad. And maybe Noah. I think he's going to get Mia something."

"He is?"

Wyatt shot his mother a semi-reproving expression. He was more than willing to offer up details of his personal life, but she was going to have to work harder if she wanted information about Maggie or Noah. "I'm going to school, Mom," he said, "See ya later."

"Okay, honey."

"Oh, and Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"You can be my Valentine again this year."

Olivia's heart melted as Wyatt smirked-it was a surreal image, for he resembled her in all features but his eyes. The smirk, though, he'd inherited from his father and Olivia knew it would be used, one day, to charm the love of his life. Wyatt seemed to have been gifted with the best of his parents' traits.

"Well, in that case," Olivia replied, "Don't forget my chocolates."

"I won't."

….

No one expected Ed's chest MRI to come back with problematic signs. He was taking better care of himself than ever, and he'd had no alarming symptoms. In the past few years, aside from the low blood sugar incident, he hadn't even been ill other than a few colds here and there. Nevertheless, both he and Olivia stepped into the doctor's office with a deep sense of dread. Both attempted to hide their jitters, but when Olivia took Ed's hand, they realized each was trembling. Ed kissed her and whispered everything would be okay. Consumed with terror, Olivia swallowed the lump in her throat and managed only a nod.

An hour later, they were seated at a nearby pub sipping celebratory cocktails. They were offered a booth in the nearly empty space, but Ed wanted to sit at the bar so he could lean in for kisses without obstruction. Giddy with relief, he had trouble staying farther than a few inches away from his wife.

"I was so scared," he said.

"I was too," Olivia replied. "You, um, we've never talked that much about the initial diagnosis. Only that one time…"

Unwilling to relinquish his good mood, Ed offered as jaunty of a response as he could possibly utter, "Like I told ya, it was bronchitis, but, they saw somethin' else on the x-rays and I got lucky. But after that...well, I can't say all the time, but that's when I stopped smoking, yeah, I snuck a few every once in a while, but I…" he intently met her eyes, "...I didn't want to die. Or be sick. But those were the same things."

Olivia's eyes shot wide open. "What do you mean?"

A look of resignation settled in on Ed's face, "Liv, if I woulda got a terminal diagnosis, I wouldn't have wanted to put Brooke and Sarah or anyone else through that kinda illness."

"Ed."

"But that didn't happen," Ed took her face in his hands and kissed her firmly. "Because someone knew I had you and Noah and Maggie and Wyatt, that's how it's supposed to be. You're never gettin' rid of me, Olivia Margaret Benson Tucker."

He kissed her again for emphasis.

"Never."

….

#Tuckson