Here's the next chapter. Enjoy!!!
"Looks like people are arriving," Miley said, looking out the window towards the house just as a car pulled into the long driveway. Lilly peered over her shoulder, watching as a couple opened the back doors of the car to let three small children tumble out of the back seat, laughing and screaming. "Grandma'll kill me if we aren't down there pretty soon."
"Are those your cousins?" Lilly asked softly, staring after the small children.
"Yeah," Miley said, smiling slightly. "Joey, Lizzie, and Carrie. They're all cute and funny. Triplets. They're always full of energy when they get here, and then when they finally run out, they just fall asleep where they're standing. I think they're four this year, so they'll be excited because they think they're big kids."
Lilly watched as the couple, Miley's aunt and uncle, herded the triplets into the house, shutting the door behind them. "Do you…do you think that my baby will be like that?" she asked quietly.
Miley slid up next to Lilly, putting one arm around her waist and settling her hand on her stomach. "Hey, I'm sure that the baby will be the cutest little girl there ever is to be born," she whispered. "And if you get uncomfortable at any time with my family, all you need to do is tell me, my grandma, or Aislinn and I'll either take you up to our room or Aislinn or my grandma will come and get me, okay?"
"Okay," Lilly whispered, looking down at her lap where she was twisting her hands nervously. "Do you think that you're family will like me? I mean, after they find out that we're dating? They won't get mad or damn us to hell or anything, will they?"
"They'd better not," Miley said darkly. "If they say even one word against you, they're gonna have me to reckon with, and then they're going to have to deal with Grandma, and she's not going to be too happy about people insulting her favorite granddaughter and her girlfriend."
"Isn't every one of her granddaughters her favorite?" Lilly asked, amused as Miley looked at her with an appalled expression on her face. "Come on, let's go before your grandma decides to come out here and look for us."
They let the ladder down and climbed to the floor of the barn. Lilly reached out for Miley's hands, lacing their fingers together, and they set out towards the house. When they got to the front door, there were several more cars parked in the driveway and a truck was driving slowly towards the house. Miley grinned and waved to the man driving, who grinned back at her and honked his horn. She just shook her head and opened the front door for Lilly, following her inside.
The house was already crowded, kids of all ages running around and their parents lounging around on the couches and chairs, talking loudly to each other. Miley grabbed Lilly's hand, pulling her through the crowd to the kitchen where Ruthie was pulling something out of the oven and three women were sitting at the table in deep conversation. They were quiet when Miley and Lilly walked into the room and there was an awkward silence.
"Were ya'll talking bout me again?" Miley asked in a thick Tennessee accent.
"Hey, hey, it's Miley Rae," one of the women said, standing up and pulling her into a hug. "We've missed you! When are ya'll movin' back here? There're some pretty nice ranches for sale."
"You know that isn't an option," Miley said, dropping out of the thick accent.
"Is your father here?" the woman asked.
"No, he and Jackson are at home. Well, Dad's at home, Jackson's at college. He finally moved out, thank God," Miley said, making everyone laugh. "I thought he'd never leave. Now it's just me, my dad, and Lilly." The laughing stopped.
"Your dad has a girlfriend now?" one of the women at the table asked.
"Oh, no, no, no, this is Lilly here," Miley said, laughing slightly as she pulled Lilly forward to be examined by the three women. The blonde could see Ruthie out of the corner of her eye, watching them carefully and knew that if the women said anything, she would at least have Miley's grandma on her side.
"I didn't know you were allowed to bring friends to the family reunions," the first woman said slowly. "Else I would have brought Mary. You know she's been begging to meet my whole family. But I thought it was just family and partners."
Lilly looked at Miley worriedly, who only smiled at her and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. "Aunt Trish, Lilly's my partner," she said, kissing her lightly on the temple. "We've been dating for about a month now and we've been best friends for three and a half years."
"Is this a joke?" the woman who was Aunt Trish asked.
"No, these two girls love one another," Ruthie said, cutting in. She came up behind Miley and Lilly and put her arms around them. "And I support them wholeheartedly. I've seen what Lilly's done for our Miley Rae and I would never want my granddaughter to be unhappy because someone doesn't approve of her relationship." She glared pointedly at all three women and they all looked away.
"Well, that's good for you," Aunt Trish said uneasily.
"Here, I'll introduce ya'll," Miley said. "Guys, this is Lilly, Lilly, this is Aunt Trish," she pointed to the woman who had stood up to hug her, "Aunt Mabel," the woman sitting down with long, blonde hair and thin lips, "and Aunt Cass," the only aunt who looked genuinely happy for Miley.
"Nice to meet you," Lilly said quietly, staring down at her feet as her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
"Hey, don't be shy now," Aunt Cass said, standing up and pulling both Miley and Lilly into a big hug. "These humbugs love you no matter what, and I love you even more because of this. And Miss Miley, how many times have I told you that the right person for you has been right under your nose all this time."
"You were talking about Alex," Miley said, crossing her hands over her chest.
"Is he here?" Aunt Cass asked, her eyes lighting up. "I was thinking Jennifer might like him now that you've found someone…" She bustled off into the next room, muttering to herself, and Miley looked after her with an amused expression on her face.
"Grandma, do you need any help getting the rest of dinner ready?" Miley asked. "Me and Lilly would be more than happy to help."
"No, you go ahead and introduce Lilly to everyone," Ruthie said, wiping her hands on her apron and going back to the stove. "And if anyone gives you any trouble, just come tell me and I'll take care of it. So help me God, I won't have anyone insulting you two in my house. I don't care what their pastors say and whatnot, what I say goes, and that's how it's gonna stay."
Miley pulled Lilly into the next room, a smile forming on her lips. Lilly hesitantly gave in to Miley's pull and followed her into the room, the dining room, where the men had set up a game of cards. The blonde couldn't recognize the game, but Miley immediately gravitated toward the table, pulling Lilly with her. One of the men quickly won, grinning as one and five dollar bills were handed over to him along with a cacophony of groans.
"Hey, it's Miss Miley!" one of the men exclaimed, standing up and pulling Miley into a big hug. "How've you been doing? I haven't seen you since what, June? And who do you have here with you? Don't let my wife see her or she'll give you trouble. Only God knows how long she's been complaining about how much she wants to bring Mary to one of our family gatherings. She was moaning all the way here, and it's a three hour drive. If she sees your friend here, she'll be moaning for the whole ride back, too."
"Uncle Rick, this is Lilly," Miley said, and he held out his hand, shaking Lilly's hand once before letting go. "Lilly, this is my Uncle Rick and he's married to Aunt Trish. I'll introduce you to their kids later. This is Uncle Ted, he's married to Aunt Mabel, Uncle Sean, he's married to Aunt Thalia, you haven't met her yet, and this is Uncle Josh, and he's married to Aunt Cass."
Lilly gave everyone a wave and they all murmured their hellos, already focused on the next card game. Miley smiled down at her and put an arm around her waist, pulling her close.
"Guys, I wanted to announce something," Miley said loudly, drawing the men's attention to her again. "Lilly and I…we're dating. We've been dating for about a month now and we're really happy with each other. And I would really appreciate it if you accepted Lilly like she was family, 'cause she's going to be around for a while now."
For a moment, the men just stared at them. One of them, Ted, got up from the table and left the room, throwing his hand down on the table in front of him. Identical grins spread over Miley's Uncle Josh and Uncle Rick's faces as they stood up, shouting their congratulations and clapping Miley on the back.
"She's a good catch," Rick said, grinning down at Lilly and giving her a wink. "And you didn't do so bad yourself, Lilly. Our Miley here has a voice on her, if you didn't already know that, and she has to be one of the kindest, sweetest girls to ever walk this earth. Just promise me that you'll try not to hurt her. I wouldn't be able to stand it if I knew that Miley's heart was broken."
"I'll do my best, sir," Lilly said in a small voice.
"You don't have to call me sir," Josh laughed. "Just call me Uncle Josh like Miley here. You're family, now. As soon as you graduate from high school, Miley had better propose to you, and you'd better darn well accept or else you'll have this whole family following you around for the rest of your life."
"O-okay," Lilly stuttered, her eyes wide.
"Stop scaring her," Miley said, stepping in front of Lilly to shield her from her uncle. "Really, Uncle Josh, the first time you meet her and you're already giving her a speech like that. You waited until you met Aislinn's boyfriend for the third time."
"And look where that got her," Josh said.
Lilly could tell by the way Miley stiffened that this was dangerous territory. "You don't understand half of what happened there," she said quietly. "Don't even pretend to understand. You may be my uncle, but I won't hesitate to slap you across the face. Besides, it's kind of hard to get pregnant with two girls, isn't it?"
"True," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Hey, you two stay out of trouble. I'm going to try to get the guys back in here to play another hand. You're little announcement broke up our game." He gestured to the empty room and Miley smiled sheepishly, gathering Lilly in her arms and kissing the top of her head.
"I just couldn't wait to show my girl off," she said, and Lilly dug her head into the crook of Miley's neck, her face flaming in embarrassment. "I'm going to introduce her to the cousins, now. Or, what cousins are still left in the house. The rest are probably out riding, and I'm banned for the day."
"Did you get bucked off again?"
Lilly turned to see a teenage guy leaning against the doorframe leading to the living room, a smirk on his face. Miley stopped smiling and Lilly could tell that she didn't like this kid. She looked at him warily, trying to search for something in his stance or demeanor that would tell her why Miley instantly stiffened at the sound of his voice, or her face immediately grew hard as soon as she saw him.
"What's wrong?" she whispered in Miley's ear, rubbing a comforting hand on her arm, still keeping her eyes on this boy.
"This is Alex," Miley said stiffly.
"Oh, so you aren't going to introduce me to your beautiful friend," Alex said with a grin, stepping forward and taking a hold of Lilly's hand. She shuttered as he brought her hand to his lips, looking at her with an expression that she couldn't identify. He let go of her hand, gently pushing a stray piece of hair out of her face and bringing his mouth to her ear. "I can tell that we're going to be very good friends," he whispered.
"You stay away from her!" Miley growled, pushing him away from Lilly as the blonde closed her eyes, struggling not to relive the memories of her rape. "I don't care if you hit on me or try to get with me, because I know you and I know when it's appropriate to slap you across the face, but if you lay even a single finger on Lilly, I will knock you unconscious, strap you to the back of a wild horse, and then let it go."
"A little protective of your friend, aren't you?" he asked mischievously, unruffled by Miley's shove. "I think she should be able to make the decision for herself. After all, she's just a friend of yours, isn't she?"
Miley lifted him by the collar of his shirt, heaving him up against the wall and shoving her face in his. "Lilly is my girlfriend, and that's the way it's going to stay," she said quietly, dangerously. "If I even suspect that you've even looked at her the wrong way, you're going to regret it. Do you understand?"
"It's clear as a crystal?" he said with a smug smirk, although he avoided looking at Lilly at all. Miley paused for a moment, then, satisfied with his answer, let go of him, stepping back so he could slide to the floor.
"And that's why you don't mess with Miley Stewart when she's mad," someone said.
"Go away," Miley said impatiently, hurrying to Lilly's side. "Honey? Can you hear me? Open your eyes, baby. It's me, Miley. Nod if you can hear me."
Lilly nodded, tears starting to trickle down her cheeks as she leaned into the brunette's open arms. Miley rocked her back and forth, and there were worried whispers around them. The blonde was suddenly aware of at least half a dozen eyes on her and tried to make herself smaller and disappear into Miley.
"Okay, clear a path for them," the clear voice of Aislinn said, and suddenly Miley was ushering away from the room, away from Alex, away from the memories, through the kitchen, up the stairs, and to the seclusion of their bedroom. Miley helped her sit down on the bed then closed the door gently, and Lilly heard the click of the lock, instantly stiffening when she realized that she was trapped in the room.
"What's wrong?" Miley asked immediately.
"Trapped," Lilly whispered, trying to fight back the memories.
"Do you want me to leave the door open?" Miley asked, an expression of worry appearing on her face.
"Just…just leave it unlocked," Lilly whimpered.
The lock clicked open and Lilly instantly relaxed. She felt the bed sag a little as Miley sat down and she flinched away from the brunette's touch, guiltily aware of the hurt flashing across her girlfriend's fac. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"No, I should be the one apologizing," Miley said quietly. "I should have known that he would be invited and asked Grandma to keep him away from us somehow. And I knew the moment I saw him that he would try something like that, and I didn't even try to prevent it from happening. He's…I hate him. And it isn't just you, everyone feels uncomfortable around him, with the exception of Aunt Cass, and that's because she's practically adopted him from his family. They're all creeps."
Lilly needed to focus on something else besides her reaction to Alex. The rape memories that started to pop into her mind. So she searched for anything that would keep the conversation away from that. "What did he do?" she asked.
Miley took a deep breath and looked away. "He…he got me drunk," she whispered. "Well, not really drunk, but tipsy. And he…he tried to…he started kissing me, and suddenly we were in one of the unused guest rooms, making out on the bed. He tried getting my clothes off, but I hadn't drunk as much as he thought I had and I managed to knock him out and get out of the room before it went any farther."
"You were drinking?" Lilly asked, eyes wide.
"I wasn't at a party," Miley said quickly. "Actually, there aren't really any parties out here, just in Nashville. It was at a family reunion, kind of like this one. Grandma trusts us to drink responsibly, and my dad wasn't here, obviously. Aislinn had lost track of me and I had lost track of how many drinks I had drunk. Let me just say, I haven't touched alcohol since then."
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Lilly asked, hurt.
"It wasn't on purpose," Miley said, shrugging. "To be honest, I try not to think about it. I try not to think about Alex. I would never try to keep anything from you and I'll be completely honest with you about anything you ask me. The only reason I wouldn't tell you something would be because it didn't come up in conversation."
Lilly blushed, looking away. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"Hey, it's fine," Miley said with a small smile. "And I know how much you're trying to avoid this, but…I think you need to talk to someone about what happened down there with Alex. No, you don't have to be a tattle tale or whatever you want to call it, but you should talk to someone. I don't want you holding everything inside. If you don't want to talk to me, there's always Aislinn or my grandma, or you could call Oliver and talk to him."
"I don't think I would be able to talk to anyone but you," Lilly whispered.
"You don't have to do it now," Miley said quickly.
The blonde closed her eyes, struggling to hold back the tears. "I just want to forget what happened," she whispered. "But that's going to be impossible because I'm going to have a baby and every time I look at her, I'll…I'll remember what happened. And I know it's really selfish, but I don't want to have her. I wish she would just go away."
"No, no, you're not selfish," Miley said in a comforting tone. "It's understandable that you would wish that. Anyone in your position would, and many would go to the measures to make sure that their baby wouldn't be born. You haven't done that, and I'm proud of you for it. And I guarantee you that this little girl won't remind you of those men. Once you learn how to cope with the memories, you'll be able to look at her like any other child you might have with…with…"
"You?" Lilly offered.
"Would…would you want to have children?" Miley asked hesitantly. "I mean, with me?"
"Of course," Lilly said, smiling slightly as she gently stroked the smooth skin of Miley's cheek. "You…you're different than those men. They took what they wanted and left me. You give me what I want, no matter what it is, and you never leave me. You love me."
Miley smiled and her eyes sparkled. "I…I don't know what to say," she whispered, getting choked up. "Ever since…ever since I found out that…that I like girls, that I like you, I thought that I would never have any hope of having children…because, well, because we're two girls."
"We could always ask Oliver," Lilly said as if that was a perfectly reasonable choice. Miley stared at her, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide with shock. "I'm joking, I'm joking," Lilly said quickly.
"Thank God, because for a moment there, I was going to say that I would much rather prefer it if we just didn't have kids," Miley said, sighing in relief.
"You thought I was serious?" Lilly asked, slightly amused. "Do you really think I could ever sleep with Oliver? Or that I would force you to? I mean, Miley, really, let's look at this, he's Oliver for crying out loud!"
"I know, I know," Miley said laughing, then she got serious again. "Are you okay, now?" she asked.
Lilly nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I think I'm okay for now," she whispered. "Just…promise that you'll stay with me this whole time. I don't want to be alone, just in case…in case…you know."
"I'll be right by your side the whole time," Miley whispered, pulling Lilly into a hug. "I'll be by your side for the rest of your life."
Hope you liked it!!! I'm trying to get some chapters up at least once a week that are a pretty decent length, so I don't think that I'll be able to get another chapter up by the end of Saturday, so count on another update next week. I might get some inspiration for a one-shot, so definitely check my profile for that. And I updated Remembering Miley, as well, so if you haven't checked that out, either, then feel free. Thanks for the reviews from: AshleyAlien1408, Lovergirl242, CaseyBug14. I really appreciate you guys telling me what you think.
And really, please REVIEW!!!! Tell me what you think about the chapter, even if you didn't like it, especially if you didn't like it. I would like to know if there's anything I could do to improve the story, so feel free to give me some constructive criticism. Thanks for reading my stories!!!
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