I fell asleep that night not thinking of any consequences, not caring about what happened in the morning.

But after waking up in the next day, it was a different story.

I blinked slowly, letting my eyes get used to the light streaming into my room. The clock on my nightstand said it was 6:30 am. I mentally groaned knowing I only had a short time window until Grayson woke up. Michael must have been to focused to notice the baby things laying about the apartment last night.

I smiled and bit down on my lip thinking of last night. It's been more than two years since he'd touched me like that. My legs and arms felt sore this morning, but who was I to complain?

His arms wrapped around my middle were tight and warm. I burrowed back into his embrace and let it wrap itself around me for a moment longer.

I could hear his breathing, soft and even, against my shoulder. The thought of him lying naked behind me almost made me turn around and wake him up for a repeat performance of last night, but I knew today was the day for us to talk.

His body suddenly tensed up as I felt him stretching behind me. The movement against me was going to drive me insane if he did not stop it.

"Good morning." He said, his voice thick with sleep. "You have no idea how good it feels to wake up next to you." He nuzzled his lips against the back of my neck. "Pressed against you." His lips began a torturous trail over my neck and up to my ear as his hand traced circles over my belly.

Oh god, "Michael…" I moaned.

He murmured something intelligible into my hair.

I forced myself out of his arms, "We have to talk about something. Something that's important."

He propped himself up on his elbow and watched me walk over to my dresser to get dressed. "Can't it wait for an hour?"

I pulled my shirt over my head and rolled my eyes at him. "Get your mind out of the gutter, Scofield. We had sex two times last night."

He reached over to me and pulled me back onto the bed beside him, "Well lets make it two more times to make it even." His breath was hot against my collarbone. "I like making you mine."

I blinked back a sudden onslaught of emotion. It's a pretty safe bet that he won't want me to be his when he finds out what I've been hiding for the last two years.

Flashback

"Goddamnit, Abbie. I'm going to be late for work if you don't stop the puking." Lincoln yelled at me through the bathroom door.
He was supposed to be at the factory in fifteen minutes and I was currently leaning over the toilet, throwing up everything I ate that day. And some stuff I do not even remember eating.

I managed to stop long enough to open the door and let him in. He stormed in with a pissed off look on his face, but it melted when he saw me lying on the floor trying not to cry.

"Hey there, baby. I'm not mad at you." He whispered, pulling me into his arms. He rocked me softly in his arms while kissing my hair. "This is the third day in a row that you've been sick. I think you might need to go to the doctor soon. I'm starting to get worried."

I shook my head. Not only were we broke, but we did not have any way of acquiring insurance. A doctor's bill would lose us a months worth of food.

"Maybe I could ask Michael for some money. You know he'd lend it to me if I said it was for you to go to the doctor."

My head shook even harder, making me dizzy again. "No." I said, vehemently. If Michael knew I had been sick for three days and had not told him, he would be upset. We had not talked to each other in almost a month. Ever since he had come to our apartment to talk to Lincoln about something and saw that he was not home. One thing led to another and we had ended up frantically sleeping together in Lincoln and I's bed. I had been so ashamed of it that I have not been able to see him since. My phone rang off the hook when Lincoln was working, but I could not answer it. I eventually just turned if off and left it. Thankfully, he had enough sense not to barge back into the bar looking for me.

"I'm fine." I mumbled, falling asleep in Lincoln's arms. "Just something going around."

I vaguely remembered him carrying me to bed and pulling the covers over me.

When I woke up, it was hours later and the sun was starting to come up. I stretched on the bed and brought my hands out beside me. I hit something warm and jumped up off the bed in a panic.

Jeannette laughed and stood up. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Linc called me and told me to come over and make you go to the doctor. He's worried sick over you."

Jeannette was our neighbor in the apartment building. Her husband and Linc worked together in the factory so we saw quite a bit of each other. We had become good friends over the last few months.

"I'm not going to the doctor, so you might as well go home." I loved Lincoln, but that man could be annoying. When do mean realize that no means NO?

Her eyes narrowed at me angrily. "Lincoln told me that under no circumstances am I to allow you to talk me out of it. He said if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming that I am allowed to do so. So you might as well get dressed peacefully while I fix you breakfast. Then we are going across town to the clinic. They have a cheap payment plan for people with no insurance." She pushed me to the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

The walk to the clinic did not help clear my mind of Michael. Maybe a break from each other was what we needed to think rationally. If you love something let it free and all that shit. No one ever mentioned that letting what you love free would tear out your heart and mangle it into a thousand pieces. Or that you would physically ache for them.

I shook my head, and thought of other things. Lincoln running his fingers through my hair. Kissing me roughly when he would leave for work every night. I smiled as thoughts of him made me feel warm inside. Not hot and desperate like thinking of Michael could do to me, but a nice comforting feeling.

Maybe I could force myself to stay away from Mike for Lincoln's sake. Linc would be devastated if he had ever found out. He was so insanely in love with me that I knew he would never do anything as horrible as this.

We'd been living together for years and years, ever since I was twelve and he had found me on the street, huddled under a blanket. He took me under his wing, no questions asked, and I would never be able to thank him enough. At first, he was just like an older brother to me, but when I turned fifteen I started noticing him in a different way. Watching how his muscles would contract when he took his shirt off. The way a drop of sweat would roll down his forehead, his neck, his chest, only to finally land at the waistband of his jeans. How his tongue would stick out through his lips when he was trying to concentrate on something.

Somehow, I managed to hold myself off until I was sixteen, but a few weeks after my birthday everything changed between us.

I thought he was gone one day when I was getting dressed in our current tiny apartment. I was planning on heading out and trying to find a job since I was now old enough to work. Lincoln was supposed to be out; doing what, I didn't ever ask.

I was standing in front of the closet looking for something decent to wear. I didn't have much, but he never let me go without nice things. No matter what he had to do to get them for me. My body was clad only in a blue bra and pink underwear. They weren't even that pretty, but I guess they served their purpose, because when I turned around, there was Linc standing in the doorway. His eyes were trailing over my body and when they came up to meet mine, I saw the pupils were so dark they were almost black. His gaze was deep and lustful and I felt myself grow hot under the intensity of it.

My body reacted to his almost instantly. My eyes lowered to take him in and I noticed how prominently he was responded to me.

Biting my lip, I took a step closer to him.

"See something you like, Lincon?"

He was frozen in the doorway as I stood in front of him. I put my hands on top of his balled fists and slowly ran them up his arms to his neck. The eyes pointed at mine never lost the wanting in them. I wondered if he had been thinking the same impure thoughts my mind had been going over for the last year.

His heart was pounding against my chest as I pressed my body against his rigid one. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to mine.

I shook my head out of my daydream. I remember needing him so badly when I was younger.

And through it all, constant dependable Michael had been there. We wasn't as close as we would end up being a few years later, but I considered him my friend.

No matter how amazing the first few years were with Linc, I never felt a tenth of the raw primal need I felt with his brother. I needed Michael near me as much as I needed air. Lincoln may have been in my heart, but Mike WAS my heart, my soul.

The clinic was small, but packed about ten other patients in the waiting room. The nurse told me it would probably be about an hour wait. That was fine, where would I go anyway?

Jeannette got me a magazine to look at as she pulled a book out of her purse.

The nurse finally called me back to the room about an hour and fifteen minutes later. Jeannette stood up to go with me but I waved her off. "I think I can manage this. I'll be right out."

The doctor was a short thick man whose name tag read Doctor Rich. I snorted at the irony.

"So Miss Houston, tell me what's been bothering you." He said, settling down into a chair.

"It's just a bug going around is all. My boyfriend forced me to come. I feel fine right now, actually."
He frowned, "So you've been throwing up for how long?"

"Just the last few days, but it's kind of off and on. Like I said, I feel great right now, so I think it's passing."

The doctor chuckled and pulled a cup out of the cabinet. "Why don't you go to the bathroom and give me a sample of your urine. Then we'll take it from there."

I shrugged and did as he asked.

Fifteen minutes later, he came back in the room and dropped a stack of pamphlets on my lap.

"Congratulations Miss Houston. You're pregnant."

End flashback

"Abbie? What's wrong?" I heard Michael ask as I pulled myself out of my memories. He was leaning over me, his face etched with worry.

"I-I'm fine, Mike. Just thinking." I looked up at him. He was so beautiful, so good and pure that it hurt me to look at him.

He sensed that something important was bothering me, so he laid back down beside me. "What did you want to talk about that was so important we're not allowed to touch each other?"

I hesitated and bit down on my lip hard enough to hurt.

"Michael, you know how much I care about you, right?" I kissed his chest and let my tears finally fall. "You know I don't ever want you hurt. I would rather die than see you upset. You know that, right?" I mumbled against his stomach.

"Abbie, you're scaring me." He said, pulling me back up to face him. "What happened? Why are you so upset? Nothing you could ever say or do would ever make me stop loving you." He wiped my tears away with his thumb, but more came pouring out anyway.

I pulled myself away from him and stood up. "I have to show you something. Something that may make you take back your words."
He started to jump up in the bed, but I held my hand out, "No. Just stay there, please. I'll be right back." I walked towards the door, but stopped before I got out of the room. My back still to him, I lowered my head. "I do love you. No matter what." I whispered before leaving my room.

I headed down the hall toward Grayson's room. He was still asleep, but his eyes were fluttering like they always did minutes before he woke up.

"Good morning my sweet angel." I murmured to him, picking up his little body and holding him to my chest. He sighed and wrapped his hand in my hair. I reached my bedroom door and stood out of Michael's view for a moment, gathering all of my courage.

Finally, I walked in and looked at Michael.

His mouth dropped open and he looked at Grayson and then me. "What's going on?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"Michael, I'd like to introduce you to Grayson." I looked him in the eye and tried to telepathically apologize. "This is my son."