A/N: There are aspects of season one and season two here. I think this is the longest chap so far; please enjoy.

Trust is something that once given is hard to keep. It is something to be treasured and upheld. Trust allows bonds to be formed, creating the idea that you can rely on the other person, that they know you and you them; when you give someone your trust you become vulnerable and with vulnerability the cracks that couldn't form before you let your guard down begin to show. But the bonds you form with some people will make you look past anything; ignore what they've become. You'll hang on to the version you want to remember and not the one in front of you, the one that is breaking all the trust you have built up, testing the limits of that bond. And yet still you hold onto that version of them, idealized, because if you can't believe in them, trust them, then what does that say about you?

Joss often found herself wondering about how easily Aidan had taken her in. She had never been one to trust easily, she'd always been rather cynical. But Aidan…he broke through her defenses almost right away and he had proved himself worthy of her trust time and time again. Granted there had been times, such as when he left her to the mercy of the other vampires or more recently with his erratic behaviour, when he had let her down, but she believed in him. Aidan was good, he was supportive when she needed it, he always knew just what to do and he kept his word; never had he brought anything connected to his life with the vampires into their house. He knew what that meant to her and even when she was mad at him she still respected that he had enough respect for her to do that, no matter how hard it was. Still, there are times, she supposes that exceptions must be made.

"Oh god," she groaned as she leaned over the sink dry heaving, thankful that she hadn't thrown up. Slowly, she raised her eyes to take in her pale complexion in the mirror, noting the dark circles under her eyes. Get used to it, she silently berated herself; this is going to be going on for a while. Just as she was splashing some water on her face the doorbell downstairs sounded. She quickly dried herself off and bounded down the stairs, although she didn't really feel up to moving quickly.

" Who is it?" she asked Sally, who was sitting on the couch staring at the black TV. If her voice came out a little hoarse neither of them acknowledged it.

"Dunno."

Joss paused. "You didn't check? You always check." She was surprised; Sally usually had to know who was at the door before anyone else.

"Old Sally checked," was the cryptic reply.

Joss rolled her eyes and turned to the door, putting her friend's cryptic remark and odd behavior out of her mind for the moment. She hoped that the ghost was only having a bad day and something else wasn't wrong.

Opening the door she came face-to-face with Aidan accompanied by a hunched over figure, which was covered in a blanket.

"I need you to let us in," Aidan said urgently, drawing her gaze away from the figure and back to him.

"You mean you need me to invite him in," she looked at the figure uncertainly. "I thought we didn't do that."

"This is different. This is Henry. Uh," he took off his sunglasses and looked at her cautiously, lowering his tone. "It was a long time ago but I made him Joss, he's my son."

She nodded, glancing at the figure, no Henry, again and finally noticed that the one hand, which she could see, was completely devoid of skin. "Did you make him without skin?" she looked at Aidan in disbelief. She so didn't need this on top of everything that was going on with Nate being changed, which Aidan had not really been sympathetic about, and well…

"He needs a place where I know he'll be safe," he spoke quickly, trying to convince her. "That's here. So please."

She looked at him for a moment, trying to ignore the pleading in his eyes, the urgency, which pervaded him. But she couldn't. Closing her eyes briefly she sighed, "Fine."

Aidan's eyes widened and he made a gesture with his hand, "Please? A little bit more huh?"

She sighed again, "Enter," she said in exasperation. "I invite thee, me casa es su casa."

Aidan pushed past her, bringing Henry with him. You're welcome, she thought sarcastically. "I can't deal with this, I'm late for work." As she rushed down the stairs and down the street she couldn't help but curse Aidan's timing; she had really wanted to talk to him, but apparently that wasn't happening. Still, maybe there was someone she could talk out her fears with, to some extent.

At work she avoided running into Nate, not even trying to make it look like she wasn't trying to stay away from him and when it was time for her break she went outside and sat on a bench, before taking her cell phone out and dialing a familiar number.

"Emily speaking."

Joss almost sighed audibly, but instead bit her lip slightly, closing her eyes in relief that she had answered, before she spoke.

"Hey Em, you got a minute or five?"

"Oh my god, Joss!" there was a pause, "I didn't even think you had my cell number any more." She didn't know if she was joking; with her sister it could be either way.

"Of course I do. I'm sorry I haven't called you or Mom in a while, I just…I've been swamped with…" she took a shuddering breath.

"Are you okay?" The concern in her little sister's voice was enough to cause her to tear up slightly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just really glad to be talking to you. I didn't really know who else to talk to this about, I mean I can't talk to Aidan, he's being an ass of late, and I don't want to talk to Nate and I definitely was not going to call Mom…"

"Joss," there was fond exasperation in her tone. "You're rambling. What's wrong?"

"I'm uh, I think I might be…I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant." And there it was, the words finally out in the open. It was only a slight relief though.

The only response was static and silence from the other end of the line. She knew that if Emily were there in person, she would have that half frown, half raised eyebrow look that usually came upon her when something really surprised her.

"Em? Are you still there?"

"Are you sure? You're preggo, for sure? You took at test and everything?"

"Yeah, I took two tests. So I'm either pregnant or have a tumor and given everything I would say that its not likely to be a tumor."

"Wow. This is major; mum is going to flip! What does Aidan say?"

Joss frowned, "Why would he say anything? I mean we barely talk anymore, its like ships in the night and whatever other…metaphor you want to use."

"So its not his kid?"

Joss blinked in disbelief; she was sure her mouth was hanging open. "No Emily, Aidan did not get me pregnant, he was not present at all when the act took place. Why would you think, I mean what possible indication could there have been that Aidan…" she sighed in exasperation.

"Chill big sister. I just thought that maybe you guys had gotten together by now; I mean the chemistry is there, even Mom and Dad noticed it when they met him. So whose the father?"

"His name is Nate." Suddenly she was feeling very tired. "We've been dating for a few months, but I guess we really haven't talked since I met him, so you wouldn't know."

"Well if you called me or better yet came to visit…"

Joss smiled slightly and shook her head. Her sister would never change, but that was reassuring. She had so few constant things in her life. They ended their call shortly after, but not before Joss extracted a promise that Emily would not tell their parents what was going on.

Later, as she was pushing a patient in a wheel chair back from x-ray, she saw Nate at a med cart writing on a chart. She watched him for a moment, her resolve steeling. She couldn't keep this from him; it wouldn't be right or fair. Getting the attention of an orderly she passed the patient off and slowly approached her boyfriend.

"Hey,"

He looked up at her and then back down to his chart; she could tell from the slight furrowing of his brow that he was probably mad at her.

"Hey there you," she sighed, "You're annoyed. And mad. You're annoyed and mad and you should be. I'm so sorry-"

"You've been avoiding me for three days Joss." He looked at her.

"I'm so sorry."

"What happened?"

She hesitated and he shook his head, his expression speaking of annoyance. " You can't say. Or rather you won't."

She reached out and touched his hand. "Nate, I am so sorry. All I can say is that I had a lot on my mind and I'm just, I am sorry."

"You feel guilty, still, about what happened, about scratching me." He lowered his voice slightly so no one listening in could hear that part.

"I will always feel guilty about that," she said truthfully. "But that's not it."

"Then what? You don't need to feel guilty anymore Joss, I forgive you; it was an accident. Its done and we have to live with it now but-"

"I'm pregnant."

They stared at each other and now it was him that was gripping her hand. "You're what? Pregnant?"

She nodded.

"As in with my baby?"

"Really? I hope this is just surprise taking over and you are not implying that I was sleeping around. Of course with your baby." Men, why did they have to ask stupid questions at the most inappropriate times?

"Why didn't you tell me? I mean I can only assume this is why you've been avoiding me. Were you afraid or something? Please do not turn us into cliché's here doe eyes."

Joss shook her head. "I was scared, surprised. I didn't think I could get pregnant."

"Well it wasn't exactly like we were being careful," he reminded, a bit sardonically.

She put it down to shock at her confession. "I know that Nate; I meant that I didn't think I could get pregnant at all. I didn't think I was capable of that anymore." She gave him a meaningful look, hoping that she wouldn't have to come right out and say it.

He seemingly caught on, because he nodded. "So what are we going to do?"

She shrugged. "I am going to go home or somewhere, because my shift is done. And you are going to finish your shift. And tomorrow we will go to our lockers and change and after that we will pull ourselves together and go from there. I just wanted you to know what was going on." She started to pull her hand away, but he didn't loosen his grip, instead using it to pull her in and place a kiss on her forehead. "Go to my place, you know where the key is. We will talk about this," he promised. "I'm not going anywhere doe eyes."

She nodded and he let her go, watching her until she was down the hall and out of his sight.

She did go to Nate's and when he got home they sat on his couch and talked and she told him her fears about the baby and what could happen. There was only one thing she didn't say and she wasn't really ready to admit it, even to herself. The next day, Nate had to work again, but she didn't, she slept late and then made her way home, coming up on the house to find Aidan talking to a man in a toque and some men in coveralls moving boxes into a truck.

As soon as Aidan looked at her she knew something was wrong; he looked jittery, his eyes slightly glassy looking, his shoulders slightly hunched and his hands shoved in his pockets. The other man turned to see what Aidan was looking at and smiled. She stopped in front of them and extended her hand, feeling slightly ill at ease although the man was giving her a friendly enough look.

"Hey, I'm Joss," she introduced as he shook her hand in a firm grip.

"We met yesterday," he said. "Thanks for the invite."

She let go of his hand in disbelief; how had he healed so fast?

"You're Henry. You look so much better." She looked at Aidan and he looked away guiltily and she knew, she just knew that he had done something.

"Catch you later," Henry patted Aidan on the back and then touched Joss' shoulder slightly in thanks and was gone.

Aidan still wouldn't meet her gaze and Joss found herself pushing down nausea. If she could have seen her face then, she would have been surprised to see how angry she looked. Later, Aidan would find himself reflecting that he himself had never seen her so angry and disgusted, angrier even then when she had yelled at him for belittling her problems.

"Only one thing would make him heal that fast," she hissed as she stepped closer to him. Aidan still would not look at her. " What happened in there?" from the corner of her eye she could see the men moving a refrigerator box onto the truck and it all just clicked. She closed her eyes briefly in pain and yes disgust, before looking at him again. She could forgive him so much, look past what he has done and could do, her love for him and her belief in him strong, but this was too much. It was defiling the one thing that was neutral, that was hers without pretense, the one place she was safe to just breath and be herself.

"I know I've screwed up, but I have never brought it here." She pointed at the house angrily.

"I didn't have any other place to go." He was upset, perhaps disgusted with himself, but she didn't care. She was done caring.

"You know how many places I've got where there is no pretense? Where just being isn't exhausting? One. This house, with you and Sally." She couldn't believe this; didn't want to believe it.

"Joss," he was desperate for her to understand, "I almost have my freedom for once and for all, but I told you things could get messy."

She shook her head, "No, no, no. There is messy and then there is this, Aidan." She didn't even want to be near him anymore.

"This is never going to happen again," he promised, again the desperate tone coming into his voice. " We're going to get it back to the way it was, don't worry about it."

They looked at each other, staring, reading the others emotions. She wanted to believe him, but she was beginning to wonder if she could. What would it say about her, she wondered, if she just let him get by with this, with hurting her again, breaking the faith that she had in him, more trust than she even had in Nate and she was pregnant with his child! The reminder of the being growing within her settled it. It wasn't about what she wanted anymore.

"Please," he pleaded. "Don't turn away from me Joss."

She closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. "Its too late Aidan." And with those words she turned and moved up the steps and into the house, aware that he was close behind her, probably about to try and convince her that it wasn't too late. Whatever more they would have said to each other though was pushed from their minds as the first thing they both saw when they entered the living room was Sally putting her hand through her friend Nick's chest. Joss was only able to stare in shock, but Aidan apparently had more faculties about him.

"Sally!" He moved in front of Joss and advanced towards the Kitchen, "Sally, Sally let him go," he said it gently, as if he didn't want to scare her. Joss was close behind him, although he kept a hand out keeping her from moving past or beside him.

" You don't want to do this," she cautioned her friend, but Sally just looked at her with a strange malevolent light in her eyes.

"I think I do. Oh and guys? Sally isn't here anymore." And then she pushed her hand all the way through Nick and withdrew it quickly, causing him to shred apart in a cloud of green light.

This truly is the day from hell, Joss thought as she was finally able to move away from Aidan's protective arm.

"What did you do?" she breathed.

"Oh, he had to go. They all did."

"You don't get to decide that." What the hell was going on with her two best friends? Everything was becoming so topsey turvey. Aidan's hand came down on her shoulder, again holding her back, and when she looked back at him he shook his head slightly, warning her not to go any further.

"Somebody has to," Sally said in an almost pleasant voice; it was condescending in its sweetness. She began walking towards them. "Somebody has to tell them that they don't belong here anymore. That its time to stop holding on."

"Sally, you belong here with us," Aidan assured her, again in that gentle tone.

"Awe," her voice came out sounding demonic now, "that's so sweet. You sound just like Nick."

A wind began to kick up, throwing things around in the living room as she advanced on them and they moved away from her. Joss fell back and was able to right herself enough to throw herself over the couch and duck behind it for shelter, while Aidan ended up on the floor by the fireplace. Peeking over the couch she saw him grab the iron poker and stand quickly, swiping it through Sally and dispersing her. The wind stopped and Joss pulled herself back to her feet. They looked at each other, both breathing hard from adrenaline, for the moment their earlier dispute put aside, and then looked around trying to see where she could have gone.

"On the Stairs," Joss looked behind her to see her friend lying in the spot where she had died.

"We need to, to do something, before she wakes up."

"Salt," Aidan ran for the kitchen and grabbed the box of sea salt from the cupboard. "We need to encircle her in this," he explained as he moved towards the stairs. Joss followed and sat on the steps above where her friend lay, as he outlined her body with the white powder. He then joined her in her perch, bringing the fire poker along and handing her a skillet. And they waited.

Eventually Sally opened her eyes and, seeing them looking down at her, spoke softly, "What's going on?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

"We're not sure yet," Aidan told her cautiously.

"Are you, are you OK?" Joss asked, worry over taking her. Sally seemed back to normal, but what they had witnessed was truly bizarre.

Sally nodded and licked her lips. "I think…I can't…can you um."

Joss started to stand, "Yeah, of course." She seemed fine now; they could probably let her out.

"No, no, no." Aidan grabbed her arm, pushing her back down.

"What?"

"Guys," Sally pleaded, "Let me out. Come on."

As they looked on her expression began to change and Joss was glad that Aidan had held her back.

"I SAID LET ME OUT!" Again a demonic voice burst forth from the ghost.

"Oh my god," Joss breathed, taking up her skillet again. "Oh my god Aidan, what do we do?"

They looked at each other, the sound of the demonic screaming coming from their friend drowning out everything else.

"We figure out a way to fix this," he told her. "It can be fixed. It has to be."

Joss wanted to agree but really sometimes things, which are broken, can never really be fixed.