Author's Note: I'm sorry I wasn't able to update last Sunday, but I was super tired and jet-lagged. I'm finally back home and back to normal, so here's the next chapter for you! Updates are back to the normal schedule, so I'll update every Sunday. Thanks so much for all the reviews last chapter. I'm still replying to each review I get :)

Try listening to Take A Walk by Passion Pit while reading this chapter.

And as usual, I don't own or have anything to do with Skins.

Chapter 16: Take A Walk

Tuesday, August 13th, 2013

Being pregnant definitely wasn't easy. I lay awake at 2:30 in the morning, fighting the urge to run to the bathroom and puke my guts out. My pregnancy nausea hadn't improved at all. I had been up every single night for at least 3 hours fighting my sickness and nausea since Saturday. Emily had tried her best to be supportive and wanted to stay up with me, but I couldn't bear to see her yawning and grumpy when her early morning call times would come around the next day. Her job was demanding and tiring for her, and my night-time nausea wasn't helping either of us get the rest we deserved. At least I could sleep a little during the day, which was one of the definite perks of working from home. Emily was stuck applying makeup all day long with hardly any time for breaks even just to sit down.

I really hadn't expected the nausea to be this bad. I'd already lost 2 pounds since Saturday, and both Emily and I were starting to get worried about how quickly I was losing weight. So tonight, I was forcing myself to stay in bed and not be sick.

Not only was the nausea seeming to get progressively worse, but now none of my bras fit. I'd already grown a full cup size and my boobs were starting to hurt so badly I was forced to ice them all day long. I'd ice for half an hour, then leave them for half an hour, and repeat all day long. At night was the only time I couldn't be bothered to ice my breasts to numb the soreness since I was too busy trying not to throw up. I wanted to cry and scream and then take a long well deserved nap because I was so fed up.

Emily had been extra stressed the past few days. She was always researching things to try to help with my nausea in her spare time. We tried using the wristbands that I'd originally bought for Emily for after her extraction surgery, since anesthesia often causes nausea. The wristbands obviously didn't work. Nothing we tried worked.

We were both tired and stressed just from all the pregnancy symptoms that were suddenly popping up. We didn't even bother to think about the inheritance money at all yet. The money had been deposited into our bank account a few days ago. The only thing we have decided is to just let it sit there for now. Emily had frowned when we got our monthly bank statement yesterday and sighed, the worried crease between her eyebrows present as she filed the statement away in the office. It was really a ridiculous amount of money that neither of us were prepared for. I knew nothing about investments or stocks, and Emily didn't either. I didn't know what was considered high-risk or low-risk. All either of us knew was that we didn't want to lose any of our money, especially with the baby coming.

The thought of all that money sitting in my bank account was hardly distracting me from my nausea. If anything, it was making it worse. I sighed and propped my pillows up higher, adjusting myself into a half-lying, half-sitting position. I sighed heavily and tried to do some positive visualization. I'd read in an article earlier in the day that most women used positive visualization when they were in active labour and that it helped get them through their contractions. I knew this nausea was nothing compared to labour, so I hoped for the best.

I imagined what our baby would look like. I wondered whether it would be a boy or a girl. I imagined the baby with lots of blonde hair and bright blue eyes, just like Cook and I had, but oddly enough, the baby had Emily's lips. I wasn't sure how exactly that happened, but it made me smile.

The positive visualization was just starting to work when I heard Emily whimper. She often had bad dreams, especially when she was stressed or overtired. She rolled onto her side so she was closer to me and wrapped her arm around my leg. She was still whimpering and when I moved my hand down to feel her cheek, I noticed that she was crying. I decided that waking her up was the best option. Emily was always grumpy and moody the day after she had a bad nightmare, so I figured it was best if I ended her nightmare before it turned too ugly.

I shook Em awake as gently as I could, whispering to her that she had a bad dream. She nodded and came to sit up next to me and cuddled into my side.

"Nausea keeping you up?" She asked a few moments later. I nodded.

"What was your dream about?" I asked. Emily grabbed my hand and started playing with my wedding bands, an action that she only did when she was stressed or worried about something.

"The usual. John Foster," Emily said, sighing heavily. "Ever since he's been released, I feel like I'm not safe. Like he's out there and he's going to get me one day. I'm even more paranoid than I used to be, constantly looking over my shoulder when I'm on the street. It's like I'm just waiting for him to pop up and ruin my life all over again. I don't know what to do, Naoms. Now it isn't just me I have to worry about. I have you and the baby, too."

I hugged Emily closer to me because I really didn't know what to say right now. I wasn't sure how to comfort Em because, to be honest, I was worried about the exact same thing as she was. I knew that John would have to be a real idiot to come after Emily, a woman that has a restraining order against him and who he has been found guilty of abducting and raping. But I wasn't sure that the consequences would stop a man like John Foster from getting revenge on Emily for what she did to him. And now, Emily and I didn't have just ourselves to worry about, just as Em had pointed out. Soon, we'd have a baby. Our family would be in danger every day that John was out of prison. I couldn't think of anything that could keep my family safe. So I just held my wife as tightly as I could. And soon both Emily and I fell asleep, despite the worrying thoughts crossing both our minds.

The next morning I woke up earlier than usual to make breakfast for Emily as a treat. She smiled at me and didn't seem to be grumpy or moody because of her nightmares last night. She left at 6:30 that morning for work. I didn't eat any breakfast because I was still feeling nauseous. Really it was quite an achievement that I even managed to make Emily any breakfast since the sight and smell of food usually made me sick.

I went back into the bedroom, made the bed, and set down Libby's dog food bowl. Libby came sprinting out of the office where she slept, laid down in front of her bowl and ate. I went to get dressed to take Libby for her walk, trying to fight off my nausea using my positive visualization again.

By the time both Libby and I were ready to go out for our morning walk, it was almost 8 o'clock. We were running half an hour late. I took Libby to the park across the street from our apartment building as I always did, but something felt off. I had a knot in my stomach that wouldn't go away and it was making my nausea a hundred times worse. My palms felt sweaty and I wasn't breathing properly. I sat down on a bench to try to catch my breath and calm myself down. Libby was so worried by the way I was acting that she wasn't interested in doing any of her normal morning walk routines. She hopped up onto the bench next to me and perched her front paws on my legs, whimpering and licking the side of my face.

After a few minutes of trying to regain my breath, I decided Libby's walk would have to be cut way short. I walked the short distance back to the apartment, Libby at my side and watching me carefully the whole way home. As soon as we got into the apartment, I went to lay down on the couch and Libby hopped up onto my lap. She laid her head down on me and seemed to sigh in relief. She barely moved, save for tilting her head to lick my wrist every few minutes. Eventually, I felt better enough to take a nap to catch up on my lost sleep from last night.

When I woke up from my nap at around 11 o'clock that morning and I still felt uneasy, I made a rather rash decision. I called Effy, with every intention of inviting her over and telling her absolutely everything that I had been keeping from her for the past few weeks. Maybe keeping secrets from my best friend was why I was feeling so anxious. Maybe I just needed to talk to someone who was going through the same thing as I was. I didn't know what possessed me to call Effy without consulting Emily, but I did. I knew that Emily would understand, given how anxious and stressed I was feeling. The stress and anxiety wasn't good for me and it certainly wasn't good for the baby.

"Hello!" Effy called from the front door, letting herself in as I'd instructed her to. "I come bearing Chinese food, just like you asked."

Effy walked over to the couch and sat next to Libby, who refused to move from her spot next to me on the couch. Effy put the food on the coffee table and looked over at me with a smile on her face, which quickly faded when she saw how I looked.

"Wow, Naoms, you look like microwaved shit. What's wrong?"

"I'm six weeks pregnant and nauseous and tired all the time and I'm miserable and my boobs hurt and my dad left Emily and I £650 000 plus a trust fund for our children that's worth £350 000. We don't know what to do with the money and all the stress is making me sick and I couldn't even take Libby for a walk this morning because I had a massive anxiety attack at the park and I'm so tired and Emily's rapist was released from prison and we're both so worried about whether he'll come after our family or hurt Emily again. And I feel so guilty that I've kept all this from you because you're like a sister to me and sisters shouldn't keep secrets from each other and I'm starting to learn that now and I missed you."

Effy stared at me, mouth agape and completely shocked. She took a deep breath in and her forehead creased in concentration.

"That's a lot to take in all at once," she said quietly before smiling over at me. "We can be pregnancy buddies!"

And then Effy leaned over to hug me and congratulate me and I started crying into her shoulder. I was an absolute mess. I couldn't keep track of any of my emotions, but I knew that Effy would understand and maybe even start crying with me.

Effy didn't say much else about the pregnancy and eventually got me to eat some Chinese food, which seemed much more appealing now that I'd gotten all my secrets off my chest. Thankfully, Effy understood why I had to keep those secrets from her and even offered me financial advice to help deal with my inheritance issue. She also gave me a card with her midwife's number on it so we could have the same midwife and we swapped pregnancy horror stories. It felt so good to have Effy back in my life and knowing everything that was going on. Talking to Emily about things and talking to Effy about things were two completely different circumstances. I got a sense of relief and accomplishment from talking to both of them, but there's just a special something about talking to a friend that you've known for years and years. I was so glad that I had Effy, and I was even more glad that we got pregnant at around the same time. We went on a due date calculator website and found out that Effy's due date was March 4th, 2014 and that mine was April 7th, 2014.

We chatted for such a long time but we didn't notice how quickly time was passing. Before we had even finished saying everything we wanted to say, it was time for Effy to go home and start making dinner for Katie, and it was time for me to start tidying the flat a bit before Emily got home. I made Effy promise to not tell Katie about the pregnancy just yet, and then I made a promise to her that Emily and I would tell Katie ourselves by Friday since apparently Effy couldn't keep a secret from Katie for more than three nights.

Emily came home about half an hour later than usual, which I normally wouldn't notice. But today, my guilty conscience kept me glancing at the clock. I knew I'd made a pretty big mistake, telling Effy about my pregnancy and the inheritance without consulting Emily first. The things I told Effy didn't just concern me, they concerned both Emily and I, which was why I felt so guilty about not talking to Emily about it beforehand. But when Emily walked in looking dead tired and like she was about to cry, I knew better than to bombard her with my own guilt from the day without asking her about her own day.

"Em, what's wrong?" I asked as I walked over to her. I grabbed her handbag and cases and a few shopping bags and set them down by the door while Emily took her shoes off. She didn't say anything and just walked over to me and hugged me tightly.

"It's John," She said, finally looking me in the eye. My body froze at the mention of his name, but I knew things weren't as bad as I thought when Emily smiled slightly. "It's okay. Relax. I just had a call from my lawyer and he's been arrested. He violated the terms of his probation. But you're not gonna like the next part."

Emily sighed and walked into the kitchen, smiling when she saw I'd already started making dinner. It was a rare occasion when I made dinner. But my main concern right now wasn't impressing Emily with my somewhat limited culinary skills. I was dying to know how John Foster had violated his terms of probation.

"He also violated the terms of my restraining order against him. He came within 100 feet of our apartment. He was found in the park across the street early this morning and was arrested at about 8:30."

My blood completely froze. I had left the park only a few minutes before 8:30. The feelings of anxiety were starting to come back to me – maybe I hadn't been feeling guilty about keeping secrets from Effy this morning. Maybe some part of me knew that I was in danger.

I pulled out a dining chair and sat down, burying my hands in my face. Emily came over to rub my back.

"Hey, it's okay. I know it's a bit scary...oh my god, Naoms, are you crying?"

"I was late taking Libby for her walk this morning. I took her to the park at about 8 this morning instead of at 7:30 like normal. I was in the park when I started having a huge anxiety attack and I left at about 8:20 after trying to calm myself down. I thought I was feeling guilty from keeping things from Effy and that was why I had a panic attack. But it was because John Foster and I were in the park at the same time," I said quietly. Emily looked just as shocked as I felt. "He came too close this time, Ems, way too close. What if he knew I was your wife? What if he knew where we lived, and watched me walk out of the apartment building and everything? If they hadn't caught him, he'd probably have tried to break into the apartment and hurt us."

Emily hugged me and tried to comfort me, but I knew this was only the beginning unless John was finally locked away for good, which I doubted he would be just for violating a restraining order and the terms of his probation.

I felt completely unsafe and worried for my family, and I knew Emily felt the same. A man that I'd never even met before was slowly tearing apart our life together.

I had been so upset that I had completely forgotten that I needed to tell Emily about the whole Effy scenario until we were finally in bed that night.

"Em, I made a mistake today," I said sheepishly. Emily looked over at me from her side of the bed, where Libby was laid on her lap begging for a belly rub. "I sort of told Effy about the pregnancy and the inheritance and everything. I just felt so guilty about not telling her things and I wanted to get it all off my chest. I'm really sorry that I didn't talk to you about it first though."

Emily sighed heavily and started giving Libby a belly rub. "It's okay, Naoms. Now we just have to tell my sister soon and then we'll wait to announce it to everyone else. But we can't ask Effy to keep it a secret from Katie for too long, that isn't fair on their relationship."

I nodded and leaned over to kiss Em on the cheek. "Thank you for understanding. We can invite them over for dinner sometime this week and we'll tell Katie then."

Emily nodded and took my hand in hers. "Just don't tell anybody else without letting me know first, yeah?"

I nodded at her and kissed her again. But I still couldn't get John out of my head. I just wished Emily and I could somehow take a break from everything that was worrying us.

And suddenly, I had an idea that could put some of our inheritance money to use.

Author's Note: Please don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you thought!

See you next Sunday :)