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Escalation

"Hey," Kelly half smiled when he saw Lacey leaving her parents the next morning. Once she started showing, it seemed like every time he saw her she was a little bigger, which excited him even more for the baby. That was the only reason he was smiling right now though, with Casey still in the hospital and thoughts of Eric still weighing on him.

"Hi!" Lacey said quickly when she saw him, coming down the front steps to meet him. "How's Casey?"

"Still in surgery," Kelly sighed. "It's one after the other it seems like, trying to get him stable."

"They send you home?" Lacey asked and he nodded.

"They're having us take shifts at the hospital," Kelly answered, taking her hand.

"Do you want me to come down to the hospital with you?" Lacey asked and he shook his head.

"I'd rather just get home right now," Kelly told her and Lacey nodded in agreement.

"Oh," she almost forgot, stopping him. "I have my doctor's appointment this morning."

"That's even better," Kelly gave her a soft smile, needing some good news after everything that happened.

Kelly drove her to the doctor's office, with Lacey calling Gabby on the way to see how Matt was. He was still in surgery now, and Gabby wasn't going to be leaving the hospital until she knew that he was all right. Going into the office now, Kelly and Lacey waited for the doctor to come in and start her check up. There was always a slight nervousness between them as they waited for the appointment to start. After all, Lacey's appointments with their first pregnancy started off normally, until it wasn't happy or normal at all.

"Hi guys," Dr. Hooper greeted them, coming into the exam room now. "Ready to get your appointment started?"

"Yes," Lacey nodded, smoothing her hand over her paper dress.

"Ok," Dr. Hooper smiled, sitting down and getting ready to start the ultrasound. "Kelly, are you all right? You're looking tired."

"Long night," Kelly said, sitting in the other chair on the opposite side of Lacey.

"They had a late call last night," Lacey continued as Kelly took her hand.

"Oh," Dr. Hooper nodded. "Well, let's get you out of here fast, so you can get some rest."

"No, I'm all right," Kelly assured them both, rubbing one of his eyes. He loved Lacey's doctor's appointments, learning more about Zoe and how she was growing, seeing the ultrasounds and knowing she was healthy. It meant everything to him.

"All right," Dr. Hooper said, bringing up the picture. "Here is your baby." She smiled at them. "The heart rate sounds great."

"So, she's ok?" Kelly asked now.

"Everything looks fine," Dr. Hooper nodded. "You think it's a girl?"

"Our friend Gabby did that ring test," Lacey explained. "She's never wrong."

"Ah, the ring test," Dr. Hooper smiled. "I know a lot of people that worked for, but we can tell officially next month." She turned the ultrasound off. "Let's get you checked up so we can get you home."

After Dr. Hooper did the usual check up with Lacey, making sure her blood pressure was ok as well as a few other things with the baby, Lacey and Kelly left to go home. There was no word yet on Casey. They had been working to relieve the pressure built up in his brain due to the bleeding, as well as control the bleeding that had started. They were also attempting to treat the other symptoms caused by his head injury, trying to minimize the damage to the rest of his body from the seizures and other side effects of the head trauma.

"Do you want me to take you back to the hospital?" Lacey asked as she and Kelly held hands, walking down the street towards their car.

"Yeah," Kelly said honestly. "But, they'll just toss me back out." He shrugged. "Probably better to get some sleep."

Lacey and Kelly drove to their apartment now, planning to get back to see Casey and Dawson by the afternoon. With everything that had happened with Casey, Lacey decided not to mention she got another hang up call last night. Given who had shown up at Molly's a few nights ago, she had a pretty good idea who these calls were coming from now. Knowing he had enough on his mind, she kept the calls to herself. Walking into the apartment though, she found out that was a mistake.

"Oh my God," Lacey gasped, looking around. Nothing looked to be missing, but the apartment was trashed.

"Go next door," Kelly told her right away, not sure if the person was still there. "I'll call the cops."

Lacey had gone next door to the neighbors, while Kelly checked through the apartment. No one was there, whoever broke in was long gone and they hadn't stolen anything, though they had turned the apartment upside down. He called Antonio now, knowing who had probably done this. Once he knew that the apartment was clear, Kelly went over to the neighbors' to get Lacey while they waited for the police to show up.

"Ah man," Antonio commented as he came into the apartment, seeing the mess as Lacey and Kelly were surveying the damage around the main room.

Things were knocked off the wall, there was glass all over the floor from either mirrors or picture frames. Pillows were torn up and their other belongings were scattered around. It wasn't just their living room that was a mess, but also their kitchen, their bedroom, even the nursery that Kelly had started working on; everything was either knocked over or torn apart, broken.

"Antonio, hi," Lacey said in surprise. "I didn't know you'd be coming." She paused. "Have you talked to Gabby?"

"No word yet," Antonio told her. "Kelly called, asked me to come by."

"You did?" Lacey asked now, looking over at Kelly.

"No one will let me do this my way," Kelly said, remembering Clarke and Casey keeping him from tossing Eric out of the bar on his ass, how Lacey kept telling him not to worry about it. Antonio was the only one who had told him to go for it, given what he found out about Eric's past. "I figured better to call the cops."

"About Eric?" Lacey asked and he nodded.

"Do you think he did this?" Antonio asked her. He would have to investigate of course, get proof before he could charge Eric with anything. Given the circumstances though, how Eric had very likely been following her and now this, it would be just enough to get a restraining order.

"Um..." Lacey looked around the apartment, her eyes welling up. The situation was already trying enough, but her hormones were also making her emotions haywire. "Mhmm," she nodded quickly, wiping at her eyes.

"C'mere," Kelly said gently, bringing her over to the couch to sit, Antonio taking the chair next to them.

"I didn't think it would get this bad," Lacey tried to explain. "I just thought he'd keep calling, then he'd get bored and-"

"Wait, calling?" Kelly asked now.

"He's been contacting you?" Antonio asked, not knowing this part.

"A couple times," Lacey nodded, twisting her hands. "It's always late, and he hangs up-"

"That was him?" Kelly interrupted and she nodded. "And this happened more than once?" He only knew of the one time when she had been sick before, and he wondered if he missed other calls because he was either sleeping or at work.

"Last night," Lacey answered. "When I was at my parents'." Kelly sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I'm sorry," she quickly apologized, afraid he was mad at her. "I just didn't want you to be mad or worried-"

"I'm not mad at you," Kelly clarified. He'd probably take Eric's head off the next time he saw him, if he was actually stupid enough to show his face around Kelly again. Antonio had pretty much given him the unofficial ok on this and after what happened at the apartment, it was more tempting to take care of this himself.

"He's done it before," Lacey continued to give her reasoning for not telling Kelly. "It was never anything...I didn't think this would happen." She was getting more and more upset as she talked about it.

"Ok, ok," Antonio nodded sympathetically, wanting her to calm down. "He's done this to you previously?" he asked and she nodded. "When?"

"Um," Lacey bit her lip now. "When we first broke up, he'd call me sometimes." She shook her head. "But, he was usually drunk or something, so I just ignored it. Then, he got a new girlfriend so it went away. But, ah..." She was looking at her hands, twisting her fingers still. "After graduation, we started teaching in the same district, so he started calling me again. I just figured it was because we were around each other..."

"Ok," Antonio stopped her now, having more than enough. "I had no idea before that he was calling you, and given that he's done this before, I think it's going to be more than enough for a restraining order." Both Lacey and Kelly nodded. "Do you guys have some place to stay for now?"

"Wait, the guy from the bar the other night?" Shay asked in confusion, standing at the counter with Lacey.

With the cops at their place, plus the fact that everything was ruined, Kelly and Lacey were going to need a place to stay for a few days. They showed up at Shay's apartment, bags in hand, hoping to stay in her spare room. Of course, she was more than willing to let them stay there. Lacey sent Kelly to bed right away, since he still hadn't slept since the night before.

"I'm gonna kill him," Shay continued, observing Lacey's expression as they dug into various left overs Shay had in her refrigerator. "Actually," Shay went on. "Kelly's probably going to be the one to kill him, I'll just help."

"Can we talk about something else?" Lacey mumbled, pushing her food to the side now.

"Ok," Shay promised, seeing how upset Lacey was. "Um..." There weren't many good things going on. "Have you talked to Dawson at all?"

"No, you?" Lacey asked and Shay shook her head.

"Something else else," Shay agreed.

"We picked a middle name," Lacey switched the subject completely.

"Oh yeah?" Shay asked. "How is my goddaughter, you had a doctor's appointment today right?"

"Doctor says everything is good," Lacey nodded, looking down at her stomach now.

"What's wrong?" Shay asked, seeing she was upset again.

"I never should have let this go," Lacey shook her head. "It's not just me and Kelly anymore and if I...if something happens to Zoe, I-"

"No," Shay stopped her, going around to hug her. "No way would that happen, Kelly'd never let anything happen to you guys." She wanted Lacey to smile again. "C'mon, no more about this guy. Tell me your middle name idea," she smiled.

"Um," Lacey half laughed, wiping one stray tear away. "Me and Kelly were talking and...just with the big role you've had with us, and that you're going to have with the baby..."

"Oh, that's really sweet," Shay was telling her. "But Zoe Leslie?"

"We talked about that," Lacey smiled. "Um, we thought Zoe Shay sounded better."

"Zoe Shay Severide," Shay said now. "I love it."

"Me too," Lacey agreed.

"It's gonna be all right," Shay promised, her phone lighting up now with a call from Dawson. "Everything will be fine."

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