Disclaimer: I don't own Skip Beat! Manga or any of its characters, plots and etc...

I know it's been a really long while, I've explained it at my chapter update in TGE but if you haven't read that, short version is... Took a week off for my birthday, hurt my back the next week and had cold cause by season change the next. I'm really sorry, you guys... I'm getting back in shape and I hope it continues. I hope you will like this new chapter. Please excuse my poor grammar, limited vocab and typos. It's already almost 2am here. Enjoy the chappie! ^_^

Recap:

For the first time in Sho's entire life, he experienced total helplessness when he was held hostage by Saena. He wanted to help Kyoko but he had no choice because Saena threatened to kill him and he partly agreed at first to talk to Kyoko. But he didn't know it would escalate so quick and put him and Kyoko in grave danger.

Now looking at the scene before him, for the first time in Sho's entire life, he experience total hopelessness because he finally realized that there was no way of getting Kyoko back ever, even as a childhood friend. For how could she ever forgive him after what he did to her today?

Sho sighed and went to sit on the seat in front of him. He closed his eyes and leaned back in relaxation in his seat. He didn't have any choice but to wait and take a rest before they get off at Nagoya Station.

I lost her... Sho thought regretfully.

Chapter 52

When they arrived at Nagoya Station, the police where there to escort them quietly as they could to the local police station and for their official statements. The last cart of the train was sealed off as a crime scene. They let the train ran until Kyoto station and then parked it for the police to investigate and collect for evidence. Lory met them at the police station to be discreet because when had the president of LME ever be discreet? Well, except for that Egyptian statue at the Dark Moon party.

Sho went to have his statement written first and then the president offered to give him a ride on his helicopter to wherever he wanted to go. While Ren and Kyoko went in to have their statements taken, Sebastian flew Sho to Kyoto to be with his parents to assure them he was okay. Saena threatened to kill their son if they won't tell Kyoko when she called that Sho's father had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. When Sho's father heard the news, he really did have mild heart attack and was taken to the hospital.

After an hour of police procedures, statements, and questionings, they finally were able to go home. They flew to the President's mansion and was warmly greeted by the Hizuri family, Kanae, Yashiro and the little baby. They all had a late dinner as a little celebration and then Kyoko and Kuon went to take the baby to bed and turned in early themselves too. The incident that night had taken a lot out of them. Kyoko watched the baby slept on the bed between her and Kuon. She stroke the baby's angelic sleeping face.

"You're safe now." She whispered to him with a smile.

Kuon squeezed her waist where he draped his arm. He leaned over the baby to kiss her on the lips. "I love you." He whispered and kissed Baby Ren's forehead and whispered his love to the little baby, too. "No one's going to take you both away from me." He promised her.

Three days later, they finally heard about the motive behind Saena's kidnapping and why he wanted to know where baby Ren was. Since Saena's husband was filling for divorce and left her and went to Hong Kong already without the thought of coming back to Japan for the near future, she was going to get baby Ren back as leverage to secure her future from the Takahara Family and their wealth. She was charged with abandonment, kidnapping and attempted murder with Kyoko, Kuon and Sho as witnesses. Her minions were charged for kidnapping and accessories to attempted murder.

Saena was taken back to Tokyo prison while she waited for her trial and conviction. She called his lawyer but Lory already filed a charge of abandonment against her and with two more charges against her, the judge refused bail on her especially when they had evidence that she's a flight risk since she emptied her bank accounts and she has two tickets booked for Hong Kong.

Even though the nightmare still wasn't over because Saena still had a chance to wiggle her way out of it, they were happy none the less. Life was getting back to normal again and more than normal because they were more happy nor that Kuu and Julie were with them. Julie was now having plans of making a new line of clothing with the help of all the original Love Me girls. They were very glad Julie convinced Lory to change their Love Me uniform. But in exchange, they were going to name the line "Love Me" and the girls were going to be the primary models for it. They were going to wear Julie's designs and advertise them while doing their Love Me jobs. Also, the president requested pink as the first motif color of the new designs. Fortunately, the president didn't specifically identify which shade of pink it was. So, Julie chose a more pleasing color than the original bright pink color that gave anyone who look at them sore eyes.

Kyoko was also happy when Lory told her and Kuon that he filed for Kyoko to have official custody of baby Ren. They were waiting for the results now and were very hopeful. They had asked Saena for the baby's birth certificate and found out that she had not filed for it because she already planned to get rid of him after she gave birth, so her husband won't leave her and the chance to get her hands on her husband's company and their money won't slip through her fingers. She didn't even name him, which greatly saddened Kyoko but at the same time, she was glad because they could continue to call him baby Ren. They filed for certificate of birth report together with the custody case.

All was well again and so much more greater than how it used to be. Kuon and Kuu were busy planning on buying two houses. One for Kuu and Julie and for Kuon, Kyoko and the baby. Kuu wanted it to be close to each other, or better yet, next to each other so that it would be easier for Kyoko and Kuon. They could babysit anytime and the younger couple would have an easier time go to work and come home anytime without worrying of who was going to watch the baby. Baby Ren was getting used with his new grandparents and he doesn't cry anymore when only them were watching and taking care of him.

One night, Kyoko and Kuon arrived at the president's mansion. They went straight to baby Ren and played with him for a little bit with the blocks. He was a very good baby because the things he get hold of he doesn't put it on his mouth. Most babies put things in their mouth but baby Ren doesn't. He just dropped the things he gets a hold of. He enjoyed dropping things and watching everyone picking what he dropped and gave it to him again only to drop it again and again. He also liked paper especially white papers. He liked the color white. Now, they are playing with blocks and baby Ren was enjoying picking up and dropping blocks. Kuon built a pyramid of blocks and when baby Ren saw it, he slowly crawled to it then dropped his hand on it. He giggled adorably as he watched the blocks tumbling down as a result of what he did.

They fed him his dinner after they played and then they had a fun bath. They had a little tug-of-war with the book during story time, too. He wanted to play with the book. After they finally settled him down, they went to the dinning room for dinner. It was pleasant and full of discussions about their plans and how it was progressing and about their jobs. They discussed what the viewers thought about the the first episode of Kyoko's debut mini-drama. It almost broke the record of the ratings of all the first episode of all the dramas ever shown in the last twenty years. Everyone was curious after they watched that sneak peek in the episode of Bridge Rock!

After dinner, Lory asked them to join him for coffee in his office. When he said office, they knew something was up. They only talked of the most private and important stuff in his office. The office that is sound-proof, bulletproof, maybe even missile-proof and has signal scrambler, so nobody can spy on them through sound or video. Well, that's Lory for you. He likes movies and he likes bringing what's in them to life. That was why he liked cosplaying so much.

The four of them went inside the president's bunk of an office. A few seconds after they had sat down, Sebastian came in with the coffees and teas. They took a sip and then looked expectantly at the president.

"What's up, boss?" Kuon asked impatiently.

"I received a letter today from the attorney in-charge of the baby's custody case." Lory began. "It wasn't a good news."

They looked at him anxiously. They wanted him to spit it out already and let them know what the problem was. He was scaring them all.

"The Takahara heard about Saena's arrest and charges. The family wants to have custody of the baby because baby Ren's a Takahara."

Silence reigned in the room as their brain worked to understand the sudden news of the surprising turn of events. They just finished with the problem called Saena and thought that it was already over but now came the Takahara family.

"NO!" Kyoko stood up as she exclaimed her extreme protest. "I will NOT give baby Ren to anyone! And NO ONE can take him from me!" Kyoko screamed at the president.

Then, suddenly she stormed out of the office and everyone gaped, following her with their eyes. That was the first time they had seen her screamed bloody murder. Kyoko was sweet, impossibly polite, sometimes scary weird and they've seen her scream in anger because of Sho. But this time it was different. It was very different. She was like a bear and a tiger combined, bearing her fangs at them who dare hurt or take away her baby.

"F*** this s**t!" Kuon cursed. "F*** them! Just because a little of their blood runs in him, they have the right to take him? They don't even know him. I don't think they've even seen the baby!"

"They do have the right, Kuon. He has their blood running through him." Lory explained.

"His father didn't want him. His mother abandoned him. What does that tell us about their family?" Kuon reasoned.

"They prevented Saena from having an abortion." Lory answered.

"Do you want to hand the baby over to them?" Kuon exclaimed at Lory in frustration.

"No. I'm just trying to make you see the whole picture, so we can think of ways to win in court." Lory calmy explained.

"Calm down, Kuon. We'll get through this." His father assured him.

"Yes, honey. We will hire the best lawyer. Hire people to get evidence to help our case. Use every resources we have to help you." His mother chimed in, trying really hard to be brave for her son and grandson. But Kuon could clearly hear her voice shook. Kuu had his arm around his wife in a comforting hug.

Kuon took a minute to calm down and think straight again because he was seeing red just now. "What is the baby's last name in the birth certificate you filed?"

"We have the certificate the hospital issued which had no name of the baby but they have Saena's name. I could not file the report without putting his last name as Takahara because his mother's name written in the hospital record is Takahara." Lory explained. "When Kyoko-chan gets his custody then we can change his last name to Mogami."

Kuon let out curses again as he thought of a way for them to win the custody battle. He badly wanted to go to Kyoko right that moment but he didn't know what to say to her. His assuring words would just be empty. He didn't want to be a liar. If he would comfort her, assure her and promise her, he wouldn't want to break any of it.

"He was abandoned, their family had never set eyes on him. They don't know him. His father does not want him. He's not even here." Kuon mumbled his thoughts out loud to explain everything. "They're getting divorce so she won't be a Takahara any longer. You didn't write the name of the baby's father in the report, right?"

"Saena didn't inform them who the father was, so they didn't have that information written on their record."

"Good. So, they don't have legal ground on their side after the divorce is final." Kuon sighed in relief.

"What if they demand a DNA test?" Kuu asked.

"Can't we stop them from doing that?" Julie asked worriedly.

"No. They'll request it and the judge would certainly approve it since she was married to a Takahara at the time of conception and birth." Lory replied.

They ran out of ideas and were silent again. It looked a bit hopeless to them. But they could not think of giving baby Ren up, so they had to fight.

"Look, I gotta go." Kuon stood up and made his way to the door. "I have to see how she's doing"

Kuon found Kyoko in their room holding the sleeping baby in her arms with tears slowly streamed down her face. She was afraid someone might take him away from her again. The first time was very difficult for her. Now that she knew baby Ren was her baby brother, she was never ever going to let go of him. And the thought of someone trying to separate him from her was tearing her apart. She was going to fight tooth and nail, screaming and kicking, whatever it takes. But it didn't mean she was not scared. She was really scare for her baby Ren. She just wanted to protect him and keep him happy.

Is that too much to ask? Kyoko yelled at fate whom she thought was trying to make all their lives difficult.

Kuon went to wrap them in his arms and whispered soft words of comfort and assurance and sweet kisses on their foreheads. They didn't know how long they stayed there like that with Kyoko holding baby Ren and Kuon holding them both, the most precious and important people in his life. He assured her that nobody's going to take away baby Ren from them and whoever tries, they would be facing a solid concrete wall because he was going to block all of them no matter who they were.

Kuon finally persuaded Kyoko to let the baby sleep comfortably on the bed and she should get some sleep too. Kuon laid down with them and continuously rubbed circles with his thumb on her skin to get her to relax and sleep. Kyoko had a hard time going to sleep. She kept worrying about baby Ren. But eventually her body needed it and she succumb to sleep. Kuon stayed up gazing at her and baby Ren.

Without Kuon's notice, his heart already grew twice the size and baby Ren took that whole chunk of extra space in Kuon's heart. He knew that if the Takahara win the custody, he would lose his whole heart because it would break Kyoko and she would not be able to take losing her baby brother who was more like her own baby now. He racked up his brain all night thinking of a solution to their problem. Dark Kuon suggested to hunt them down and take them out. Kuon should seriously try to shut him up but he was useful in special times like the time in the bullet train with stopping Saena and her minions.

By four thirty in the morning, an idea finally came to him that was not so violent a scenario. He jumped out of bed and went to hunt for Lory to make his idea into reality. Not caring for the unreasonable time of the day he banged on the president's bedroom door. He had to bang a few times to get him to answer. He was a bit startled when the president opened the door. He was in a cow printed pajamas with huge tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Whoa!" Kuon stepped back from the door. "I... I didn't know you were so scared of losing baby Ren, boss."

"I'm not crying about that!" He protested immediately. "I was watching a rerun of one of my favorite drama. You just came at the goof part. Would you like to join me?" He asked while he wiped away his tears and went back to his sofa in front of his flat screen TV.

Kuon wondered how it was a good part when Lory was crying about it. "I didn't exactly come here for a drama marathon night." Kuon replied. "I thought of a possible solution to our problem."

"Well, that didn't take long." Lory turned off his TV as they both sat down and Lory poured Kuon a cup of coffee.

"Who is really trying to fight for baby Ren's custody?" Kuon inquired.

"The sister of Saena's husband, Takahara Maeko. 32 years old. Has two children. One in middle school and one in elementary school."

"Call her and schedule a meeting with her." Kuon commanded. "Tell her I'm going to bring baby Ren with me."

"Is that such a good idea?" Lory looked at him with a worried look.

"It better be." Kuon sighed. "Because it's the only way I know how to settle this quietly and without hurting Kyoko and baby Ren."

Lory studied him for a few minutes and he sighed too and stood up to pour two glasses of scotch on the rocks. He took the two glasses with him as he walked to Kuon and gave him one. He took a big sip and said, "I'll make the arrangements. Although it might take some time."

Kuon nodded and downed his glass of scotch in one gulp. He put the glass on the table and stood up. "Thanks for the drink, boss... and for taking care of everything. I really appreciate it." He said sincerely and slightly bowed to the president.

He walked out of the president's bedroom suite and went back to the loves of his life and catch some sleep in what time he had left before he had to prepare for work again.

I am so happy I finally finished this chapter update because everyone was really looking forward to this one. When I finished writing the previous chapter, Takahara family trying to get baby Ren did not enter my mind yet and now it has and a new problem arise again. It's problem right after another, huh? When is this gonna end? Lol I hope you liked it and enjoyed this turn of events and I think maybe next chapter will be the last one. Or maybe there's an epilogue after the last chapter. I don't know. I still haven't got a clear view of how this story would end yet. But I know that I am very near to the end...

I am so much grateful and thankful for all your support everyone. For reading and all those lovely reviews, follows and favs that made me feel your likes and loves for my stories... I love you guys! I really appreciate all of you. I will read you next chapter as always... God bless and take care. And please PRAY for all the people who were victims of the super typhoon in the Philippines! ^_^ Happy Thanksgiving everyone! and happy shopping on Black Friday sales!