Sorry this took so long. Life/writers block complicated things. Please R&R if you get a chance. Thanks!

Chapter 7

Wills feet were throbbing. His arms were tired and his back was stiff, but those were minor details compared to his feet. Shopping for maternity clothes was taking far longer than anticipated but he was trying his best not to complain. He flopped into a chair by the dressing room as Emma went in with 10 more outfits to try on. With any luck, they would be the last ones.

He couldn't help but wonder why women needed so many different types of clothing, particularly if they were only going to be wearing them for a short period of time. He was happy to be joining his wife on this venture, particularly since his ex-wife never included him in all things baby, but it was hard to focus on that feeling over the pain in his feet. He looked down at his watch and realized that they had been shopping for nearly 6 hours. He couldn't believe Emma had made it this long.

"I should have worn tennis shoes…" Will mumbled to himself as he fingered the handle of one of the shopping bags.

"What?" Emma called from the small dressing room, "Did you say something Will?"

"Oh, no Em. I didn't." He brushed off quickly. "Hey, is there anywhere else you were wanting to go after this, or is this the last stop?" Will tried, but couldn't hide the hope from the inflection of his question. He wanted to go home and snuggle with Emma for the rest of the day.

"This is the last stop. My feet are getting tired." Emma looked at her reflection assessing the dress she was trying on, completely unaware of the irony of her last statement.

Will mouthed a silent "Yes!" and pumped his fist in the air. Relief for his feet would be soon.

"Okay, Em. Want to pick something up for dinner on the way back? I can call Shannon and see if she's eaten." He questioned.

The door to the dressing-room opened and Emma appeared with hangers of clothes in her hands. "Sounds good to me." She said with a soft smile. Will melted every time he saw it.

Emma sorted out the clothes she wanted to buy from the ones she didn't and exited the dressing room, ready to purchase her selections. Will picked up the other bags and was on his feet once again as the pair moved to check out. It wasn't until they were leaving the store and entering the main floor of the Lima mall that Emma got a chill. Something seemed…off but she couldn't quite place her finger on why.

The feeling of being watched was beginning to build and she couldn't help but glance around her for a moment, observing the other occupants of the mall.

Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but the feeling still remained. Will noticed her movement and turned around as well to attempt to figure out what she was looking at. When he saw nothing out of the ordinary he turned to Emma. "What's wrong?" He asked, slightly concerned at his wife's behavior.

"Oh nothing, it's just…" She scanned the crowded walkways once more, "I have this strange feeling." She said.

"What kind of feeling?" Will asked, closing the space between them swiftly and protectively.

"I don't know, that something is off. Like when you're missing something but can't figure out what."

Will scanned the crowd again as well, this time checking for any more dangerous threats. He didn't see anything and looked back to Emma. "Why don't we get you home." He said, putting his arm around her.

She wrapped her arm around Wills in return and leaned in to him a little bit more. "Yeah. Let's go home." She said as they headed to the car.

Will and Emma arrived about 30 minutes later to Shannon's place with a car full of clothes and some take out. Emma immediately went in and fell into the overstuffed chair in the living room putting her feet up on the ottoman as Will carried in the bags of clothing and the food, setting the take out on the table and bringing the clothes to the bedroom.

"Shannon, we're back." Will called out, alerting his friend to dinner. Shannon emerged moments later from the hallway and glanced over to Emma sprawled out on the chair and Will who was now sitting on the bench by the door taking off his painful shoes.

"Rough day of shopping?" She asked with a teasing smile.

Emma sighed as Will rubbed his sore feet. "You could say that." He laughed. "But we should have enough clothing now to last for the rest of the pregnancy so that's a good thing." He added.

"Gosh, I didn't realize how tired I was until I sat down." Emma said as she relaxed further into the soft chair.

"Well why don't we eat. Maybe that'll get your strength up!" Shannon said, heading for the table.

Will got up from the bench, happy to have his feet free of their painful restraints. He walked the few feet to the living room and reached out a hand to Emma. She grabbed his hand, accepting his offer of assistance, and he helped pull her to an upright position.

Emma giggled as the momentum of the movement nearly launched her into his chest. She snuggled close to him for a moment and Will couldn't help but look into her amber eyes. Her breath caught, the way it did every time he looked at her like that, and he leaned in for a kiss. She returned it with passion and love and all the things she couldn't express in words.

They stared at each other, absorbing the other ones features for a minute until they were interrupted by a cough coming from the dining table. They looked up, remembering that Shannon was sitting there watching the whole exchange. Emma blushed as Will smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry about that Shan." Will said as he grabbed Emmas hand and led her to the table.

"That's alright, I would've just let you keep on keepin on, but your food's getting cold." She said, throwing him a wink. It was Wills turn to blush at his friend as he pulled out the seat for his wife and joined her at the table.

They passed around the containers of food until everyone had theirs and began eating.

Shannon looked up at Emma after taking a mouth full of pasta, "Oh yeah! Em, Officer Michaels called while you were out. He wants you to call em' back when you get a chance. I told him I'd leave you the message." Shannon continued piling the creamy pasta into her mouth, even though she hadn't swallowed what was already in there.

"Oh really?" Emma asked, observing her friend as she too took a few bites of pasta. "Did he saw what it was regarding?"

"I think he said something about a SPO expiring? I could be wrong on that though." Shannon's brow furrowed as she continued to chew noisily, trying to remember the details of the conversation.

Emma looked to Will with concern. "Your SPO is expiring? It's barely been four weeks since you were attacked." Will pointed out.

Emma began biting her lip compulsively.

"What's SPO?" Shannon asked curiously.

"SPO stands for stalker protection order. It was automatically filed after Em was attacked. It basically means that the police will help protect her against a stalker, free of charge, for as long as she needs it." Will explained.

Shannon seemed to be connecting the dots. "Oh. So it would be bad if that expired."

"Yeah." Will filled in as he tightened and loosened his grip on his napkin over and over again, his own anxiety beginning to show.

Shannon looked nervously between the couple as they were processing this new bit of information. Dinner had been all but forgotten by this point, with the exception of Shannon's chewing.

"Wha- What should we do, Will? What if he comes back?" Emma asked, the lines in her face more pronounced than usual as fear and concern began to take over.

"Well let's not panic. We'll just call Officer Michaels and see what he has to say. It may be nothing. And if they have called off the SPO, we will just go to court and issue a new one. It's not a big deal. We'll get it taken care of." Will said, trying to bring some calmness to the room. He could see Emma battling her anxiety and he knew what would happen if it completely took over.

"You're right. I'll call him. It may be nothing." Emma said as she put her fork down. She got up and headed for the phone, taking it to the guest bedroom they had been staying in. Will excused himself from the table and followed close behind.

Emma sat on the bed, quickly dialing the number to the police station. After only two rings she heard a voice on the other end. "Uh yes, hi. This is Emma Schuester and I would like to speak with officer Michaels. Is he available?" She asked as she bounced her foot on the floor. "Thank you." She said, as she waited to be transferred.

Will sat down beside her taking her free hand in his. His thumb began stroking the soft skin of her forefinger as he watched her bite her lip once more. Soon enough he could hear the soft muffle of a voice coming from the receiver she held to her ear. "Hello Officer Michaels, this is Emma Schuester. My friend Shannon mentioned that you called so I wanted to return the phone call." She said, explaining herself.

Will could hear some more muffled talking through the phone. "Yes" Emma replied as she listened further.

"I see." She called into the phone. Another pause on her end.

Will tried to focus on a spot across the room. Anything to distract himself from the one-sided conversation going on beside him. He would just have to patient until she was done and the answers came.

"But what do I do if I-" She stopped. "And I can't-" Once more she stopped.

"Yes, I understand. Thank you for your help officer Michaels." She said. "Goodnight." And with the she clicked the phone off.

Will looked directly at her, trying to gage her reaction. She sat there numbly for a moment while her thoughts raced.

"Em?" Will asked, unable to take the waiting any longer.

"Officer Michaels says that they will continue to follow my case but that my SPO has expired." She said, trying to process her own words. She was staring at the ground by this point.

"What?" Will said in disbelief. "Why?" He asked, trying to make sense of his wife's words.

"He says they typically have a four week shelf life. If no contact has been made from the stalker then the SPO expires. Something about county funding or something. I guess their money is better spent elsewhere." She said as her grip on Wills hand tightened.

"Are you kidding me? It's their job to keep the people of Lima safe!" He said exasperated. "We'll just have to take it to court then." His statement was one of definity and not suggestion.

"He said we could take it to court, but the process takes about six weeks."

Her lip began to quiver as she finally looked to Will, "What happens if he comes back Will? What happens if he-if he" She broke out into a quiet sob as Will pulled her into his chest. She tightly clenched to his shirt as he drew comforting circles on her back.

"Em, it's going to be okay. I would never let anything happen to you or the baby. I'll always be here to protect you." He promised as a stray tear rolled down his cheek. "I love you baby. I love you so much." He whispered into her hair as she sniffed in between cries.

"I'm so tired of living in fear. This isn't fair." She confessed as her grip on him loosened a small amount.

"I know love. It's not fair. And you are the last person in the world that deserves it. But I'm not going to let what happened to you before, happen again. I can promise you that." Will said as Emmas cries lessened. "You can stay by me until we can figure out who's behind all of this, okay?"

Her crying had all but stopped, except for the few sniffles here and there. "Will, I can't be with you every second of the day. What about work?" She pointed out.

"We'll just have to talk to Figgins about that. We'll get something worked out though so don't worry." He placed a soft kiss on her head.

Emma trusted Will, but she still couldn't get rid of the uneasy feeling that it wasn't that simple; that it wasn't over. All she could do was brace herself for whatever the future held.