Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, other than Brielle.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Het, Mpreg, Stripping, Exotic Dancing, Violence, Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, Mentioned Self-Harm, etc.

Adam, who felt his concern mounting as Brielle failed to return, anxiously wiped his hands off on his apron. "Brielle, sweetie, who is that at the door?" When he felt he was on the verge of working the skin right off of his bones, he let the apron fall. Brielle was slow to answer, so he tried again, "Brielle? Sweetie?"

"Adam, darling, quite frankly I'm insulted. I mean, a face like mine is rather hard to forget." Wade took that opportunity to pass through the foyer and into the kitchen, lovingly ushering a bubbly Brielle before him. "But, I'll enlighten you... just this once."

Adam's reaction was less than appreciated by the British-native. "Ah, yes. I'm feeling very enlightened right now." The pretty blond rolled his eyes, before crossing his arms over his chest. "Would you be so kind as to enlighten me as to why you're here... I mean, if you don't want to... well, there's always the door."

"You wound me, Adam!" The histrionics would've been borderline comical... had this been anyone else. "Can't a man just drop by and see his ex... and lovely daughter?"

Brielle's bubbly giggles were like knives in Adam's chest. Would she rather be with Wade than with him? "Unfortunately, no. Not when he fakes his own death."

"Have you seen the news?" Wade asked, suddenly changing the subject. The look on his face was that of complete seriousness, despite his earlier humor.

"What the hell does that have to do with anything -," before he could even finish, Wade had snatched his wrist and had started to lead him into the living room.

It didn't take long for Wade to find the remote. Shoving Adam down into the EZ-chair, he turned on the television and waited as it slowly booted-up. There was a moment of tense, awkward silence as Adam glared burning holes into his ex-boyfriend's back. And then, everything seemed to freeze as the newscaster's voice filled the otherwise silent room. She was reporting on a murder that had occurred in the local prison - the victim was convicted rapist and kidnapper, Chris Jericho. The scene then cut to the very security footage that Randy had watched just fifteen minutes earlier. Adam's breath caught in his throat and he choked.

Brielle's joyful giggles had ceased and she let out a horrified little cry, too young to understand that the bad man that had hurt her had been shot, but wise enough to know that somebody had hurt him badly and now she was being forced to watch it. With a choppy little sob, she launched off of the couch, bypassed Wade, and threw herself into Adam's arms. Vicious renderings of the bloody mess that he had been found in were being recounted in horrific detail by the different reporters on the case. The words, too complicated for little ears to understand, still held a sort of bearing with her. And Adam, who could understand it all, was terrified.

Wade turned off the television then, turning to face Adam with a demented grin. Adam clutched the little girl closer to him, feeling his chest constrict as Wade started to come closer. "It's funny... You would think it would be a lot more difficult to impersonate a prison guard." A deathly smile, followed by a flash of the gun he toted.

Adam forced a deep breath, rubbing comforting circles on Brielle's back - constantly assuring her that everything would be okay, even if it clearly wasn't. "Why are you here, Wade?" For the first time, both realized that he never answered that question.

Wade's smile fell a little, "I came to give you a choice." And, slowly, he reached behind himself, snapping the gun out of his waistband in one flamboyant movement.

"You don't have to do this, Wade." Adam forced his voice to remain steady and even, even as he clutched his little girl tighter.

"Oh, yes... Yes, I do have to do this. One little bullet is all it takes to end everything." Wade, opening the gun, showed the two bullets inside. "One for you, and one for her. Your choice? Which one of you dies first?"

Randy sped down the expansive stretch of highway that marked the distance between the modeling agency and his home, finding himself cursing the considerable distance for the first time. Usually, the drive was actually almost pleasurable, a time to wind down from the pressures of work and actually come to anticipate coming home to screaming children and a soon-to-be-husband that was suffering from runaway hormones thanks to a pregnancy he wasn't supposed to know about. But now, there was a psycho loose in his house and he wasn't there to protect the people he cared about most. He definitely had a problem with that.

He was going dangerously fast, taking turns like there would be no tomorrow - and there wouldn't be, not if Adam wasn't there to share it with him. It wouldn't be worth it to wake up every morning if the one reason that he had found to live for wasn't with him anymore. He didn't think that he could take such a hard-hitting loss again, not after Sam's death. Jay, who was silently sitting in the passenger seat, subtly reached for the nearest solid surface to hold himself down. From the way that he was trembling, it was clear that he was terrified of the idea that Randy could lose control of the car and send them both into oblivion...

"Randy... Randy..." Jay hardly realized that he was screaming, but quickly quieted when Randy took his eyes off of the road, still maintaining constant speed. "Randy, damn it, it won't help Adam if you kill us before we can get to him! Slow down a little bit, okay? There's still some stuff you need to know about Wade."

Randy took his foot off of the gas, albeit a tad hesitantly. "And what would this 'stuff' be?"

"Well, you know that he was a bare-knuckle brawler, correct?" Randy nodded. "He also has a record. I did some digging before I came over, just to be sure..." Pulling out a sheet of paper, his eyes scanned over the lettering, before saying, "He killed a woman... his wife, to be more accurate. Her name was Eva. He shot her once in in the head."

"I hope you have a good reason for wanting to tell me this." Randy said, pressing down a little harder on the gas. "And I hope it wasn't to make me feel any better."

Jay shook his head, "No, it shouldn't make you feel any better. And, the rest of my news isn't that great either. The uniform of the guard that he stole... the guard had a gun, which is what he used to kill Chris Jericho. The gun had three bullets in it. Only one was found in Jericho's body."

Already knowing what he meant, but afraid to accept it, Randy asked, "And what do you think that that means?"

"It means that he has a bullet saved for Adam, and one for himself... or..." here, Jay took a deep breath, "or one for Brielle."

They took the first exit off of the highway. Randy almost killed them by plowing the car into one of the many cattle stalls, and, narrowly avoiding a collision with the fender of a truck, started toward the road that would take them to Randy's home. Jay's last words were echoing inside Randy's head, like they were on some sort of sick loop. One for himself... or... or one for Brielle. That monster was planning on killing his fiancé and their sweet little girl, and even pushing sixty-five miles per hour, the street signs weren't passing fast enough. Finally reaching his street, he burned rubber just trying to turn onto it at his current speed. Once he came to his driveway, he slammed on the brakes.

That was when he heard a sharp snap, followed by the undeniable sound of a child screaming. "Brielle!" Not even bothering to wait for Jay, he stormed in the front door.

Adam was breathing heavily, wincing as the white-hot pain in his shoulder slowly started to spread throughout his body. Blood was slowly oozing from the wound, making a mess of his shirt and apron. Brielle was screaming, hot tears streaking down her face as Adam continued to gently shush her. No matter how much he tried to assure her that he was okay, she could see. That was when Randy stormed in, seeing the blood on little Brielle as she tried to cover Adam's wound, seeing Adam suck in deep, trembling breaths as he tried to calm down... and then Wade saw him, and suddenly, the gun (and the bullet that was meant for Brielle) was pointed at him.

"What the hell have you done?" Randy fumed, even as Adam shook his head and tried to tell him to calm down. "Put the fucking gun down and face the facts like a man, Wade. You killed a man and they have you on camera. They'll throw your ass in jail before you can even say - but he deserved it."

Wade's finger was like lead on the trigger, and his eyes were deadly cold. "So, you must be the lovely fiancé that Adam has told me so much about. He says that he tells you everything, huh? So, I'm sure that you know all about me, hmm? And if that's true, then you know about the little incident from 2003... about what a little whore he is."

"Just drop it, Wade..." Adam was beginning to sound breathless, "Put the gun down and we can all walk away from this, okay?"

"No... I've changed my mind. There's no reason to be afraid of Daddy, Brielle. Your safe... for now. I think I've found someone a little more deserving of this bullet."

The sound was like a crack of thunder. The bullet tore from the gun, spinning through the air at a volatile pace. Within seconds of releasing from the weapon, it hit Randy in the side of the neck. The sheer force of the blow was enough to knock him to the ground, and he lay on the floor, twitching as unimaginable pain conquered every nerve in his system. Brielle screamed, the sound rivaling that of the bullet. And Adam, in disbelief, slowly turned back to watch as Wade calmly tucked the gun back into the back of his pants. It was only then that the first cramp hit his stomach, a powerful pinching sensation that could only mean one thing...

That's when he blacked out.