A/N: Here goes the next chapter. 42 more days.
Jake walked into the room full of military advisers, scanning it quickly to make sure that there was not an immediate threat and also making sure that there were no B6-13 agents he recognized. He didn't recognize any, but that didn't mean that they weren't there. Anna had been right. This was an awful idea. Rowan had B6-13 agents embedded everywhere, and the more he thought about it the more he was convinced that some of them were among the people in the room, other than himself of course. This was why he had wanted it to be his guys. While being Rowan's right hand man and while being command, he had accumulated a group of, what Rowan would call, rogue agents. Agents that had been commandeered against their will as they all had, but who wanted out and saw no other way to do that than to take down command. He figured that these people were more loyal to him and each other than Rowan, though he wasn't naive enough to believe that one or all of them couldn't still be working for, infiltrating their group, under the influences of Olivia's father. He couldn't really focus on that now though as he realized that the screen they were watching showed the woman who he was in love with sitting with one of the most dangerous men on the planet, and she had dragged their unborn child along with her for the ride.
He noticed a figure out of his side view, across from him that seemed to stand out from the rest, in dress and in the fact that she couldn't seem to keep still. He turned his head to get a better look and as he did she just so happen to look up at him. They shared a concern look before both turned back to the television. It seems that Anna had decided to come back to see what she deemed 'the shit show' to actually go down. This was not going to go well, he knew it, he just hoped that whatever happened that Olivia would get out of in unharmed. He continued to watch as Olivia and Rowan continued to talk, it did not help that they did not really have any audio to go along with the video. He sat up a little straighter in his chair as he saw Rowan change seats to sit next to Olivia. Completely out of the safe zone for the snipers that were positioned outside of the restaurant.
So far her father had been going on another one of his long tirades. This time he was apologizing about being and awful father, and the little girl inside of her wanted to buy it, but the grown woman knew better.
"Why are you saying these things to me?" she asked him, not sure of the answer she would get, but she knew there had to be a reason.
He went on telling her how he basically lived for her and every single thing that he had done in the past, good and bad, was for her. That was when he got up, taking a seat closer to her.
"That's what you were to me. Everything. And that is now over," she couldn't help the surge of emotions, panic and sadness that briefly washed over her, but fear soon over took that. The little girl inside of her having an internal struggle with her current self, her younger self trying to have an emotional break down over the prospect of losing another parent, but the grown woman fearing for her life as well as the unborn child's life inside of her. He then proceeded to tell her that he was leaving and not only tried to make her feel guilty about the men outside he had ordered to be killed, but also about wanting him to stop being a horrible person even if that meant holding him accountable for all of his crimes.
"You have forsaken me," he stated simply. "I am leaving Olivia," he informed her once again, "but if you for one second think that I am going to let you drag my granddaughter into this peasant life you have chosen for yourself than you are dead wrong."
Her mouth fell open and panic rose to a whole new level at the word granddaughter. She heard nothing he said after that as a pulsating sound, which she could only assume was her heartbeat, drowned out everything around her. How? She knew that there was a good chance that he knew about the pregnancy, but the fact that he even knew the gender of her baby let her know that he had infiltrated that part of her life more than she had expected. And that just made her feel even more afraid and powerless, helpless she believed was the word she was looking for. She had tried and failed terribly to protect and hide from him the one thing in the world that had come to mean the most to her over the past few months.
He stood up, and that made her tune back in to what he was saying. "You think your world is so terrible with me in it, wait until you see what it's like without me." He walked away, and she just sat there, doing and saying nothing. She didn't feel that it would matter anyway.
She held the hot mug of homemade tea in her hand, sipping from it occasionally and absentmindedly stroking her now freely protruding abdomen with her free hand. There was no use in hiding it now. Everyone knew about it. She continued to rerun the events from earlier through her head trying to either fight off or come to terms with the sense that she had already failed.
A firm knock on the door shook her from her unpleasant thoughts. She stood frozen for a minute, not really sure if she should or if she wanted to go to open the door. The knock came again and she figured she would at least look through the peephole first before making that decision. She didn't get that chance though as his voice sifted through from the other side of the door.
"Olivia, are you in there? Open up," he said knocking again. She continued towards the door, not really sure what it would bring but it would hopefully be a welcomed distraction or outlet.
She opened the door and stood there staring at him as he did the same. He was breathing a little hard and she had to wonder if he had run all the way from the pentagon to her apartment. Or at least up the stairs, being too impatient to wait for the elevator.
"Hi," she said with a somber smile.
"Hi," he replied still staring intently at her. He gave her a quick once over, not missing the her round midsection that he figured would never cease to amaze him. "You okay?"
The smile remained as she looked down at the floor before looking back at him. "I'm fine, Jake." She turned and walked away from the door leaving it open for him to enter behind her. The smile now gone from her face since he could no longer see her expression which had transformed into a panicked look as she tried with all of her might to keep from crying. Maybe opening the door hadn't been the best idea.
He locked the door behind him as he followed her into the kitchen. "I saw it," he started, "We saw everything, but there was nothing I could do to stop it." He watched as she kept her back turned to him, and after taking another long look at her, he could tell she was not fine.
"Liv, are you sure you're okay?" he asked her, not wanting to push her. He expected her to turn around and insist that she was fine, even though he knew she wasn't. He had prepared himself to stay close by for when her walls finally broke. He didn't however expect them to break this easily.
She turned around slowly, her eyes meeting him as the tears that she wasn't able to stop continued to flow freely down her face. He watched as she looked down at the floor, shaking her head.
"I was supposed to get him," she told him trying to keep from choking on her words. "I didn't want him dead. I just wanted him to stop hurting people. I wanted to not have to worry about him. Now I have keep looking over my shoulder, wondering when he's going to pop up again and what's going to be the reason. Is he going to come back and kill someone I love or if…," she stopped, as though just voicing her next thought somehow made her heart come to a sudden stop, but she managed to continue. "Or if he's going to have one of his people crawl through my window and snatch my baby out right out of her crib." The tears came harder and faster as she finished the last sentence. He made his way over to her in a few strides, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer to him. She returned the embrace and continued to cry freely into his chest.
"What did he say to you?" he asked her, but he received no answer. So he just continued to rub her back as he held her close. He tried a few more times to ask her what her father had told her, but again received no answer as she just continued to cry. During the silence, save for Olivia's soft sobs, he had time to think and process everything, including once again having the feel of Olivia in his arms and the unfamiliar feeling of their growing child between them.
He placed a kiss on the top of her head, before whispering soothingly, "That's not going to happen. We're not going to let that happen?" He continued to let her cry as he whispered reassuring sentiments into her ear.
Her tears had subsided but they were still holding on to each other when they heard someone at the front door. Jake's head snapped in the direction of the noise as he felt Olivia tense in his arm. She relaxed after hearing the jingling of keys followed by Anna's distraught voice.
"Olivia?" she called out to her, and she could hear the girl making her way towards the kitchen as she pulled away from Jake and tried to wipe the tears from her face. She had not done a good job when Anna rounded the corner. She stopped suddenly, taking a breath at seeing a physically unharmed Olivia. "Oh Liv, thank God." With that she walked over and wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders pulling her into a hug, Olivia hugging her back. "What the hell were you thinking?" she said pulling away from Olivia enough to look her in the eyes before quickly pulling her back into another hug. "You scared the hell out of me."
"I'm okay," Olivia tried to reassure her as she felt the tears welling in her eyes again after seeing the few tears that had slid down Anna's face.
Jake sat down at the kitchen bar with the bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice he had made for himself. He was shocked but happy to see that Olivia now had a fully stocked kitchen. She was still asleep and he had heard Anna leave earlier this morning so for now he had the place for himself. He grabbed the paper and began flipping through it, but that didn't keep his focus long as he remembered the photo that he had not let leave his person, other than to take a shower, since he got his hands on it. He reached into the pocket of his sweat pants and pulled it out. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face every time he looked at it, but he was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Anna's keys being tossed on the table next to the door.
He put the picture back into his pocket as he heard her coming towards the kitchen. She let out a huge sigh as she rounded the corner to the kitchen, but didn't say anything, so he remained quiet too. He figured she had been running given the attire she was wearing and she still seemed to be breathing a little hard. He still wasn't sure what to make of this woman, other than that she and Olivia meant a lot to each other, so he would just feel her out a little more. She went over to the fridge and grabbed the orange juice before she reached up into the cupboard to find a glass.
"Glad you're out jailbird," she said suddenly, "now you can help us move all this crap over to the new apartment."
He looked up at her and contemplated her words, mostly the jailbird part since she really didn't know him from Adam. "Whose apartment?" he decided to reply.
"Liv, she's moving," she said pouring the juice into her glass. "A three bedroom apartment a couple of blocks over. And she's making us help." She added looking at him and shaking her head. "But now that you're here, you can do all the heavy lifting."
He gave her a forced smile, still trying to figure her out. "You know, Olivia never told me she had other family."
"We like to keep that between us, plus I'm a drifter. Trying to stay away from the crazies," she told him, .
"And how's that going for you?" he questioned.
"Apparently not as well as I thought," she replied as she turned to place the glass in the sink. "But you know," she said her voice changing to a theatrical tone as she leaned back on the sink and flipped her hair. "What can you do? I can't help it if I'm always in such high demand."
He smiled at her, genuinely this time. It was clear that she was being sarcastically dramatic. She smiled herself before she turned to make herself some coffee. She reminded him of a hippie Olivia, which in itself was an oxymoron, because even hippy Olivia wouldn't be considered an actual hippie. She just seemed more laid back and carefree than Olivia, everything about her. The way she dressed seemed more like the way Olivia would dress if she wasn't constantly working and lead more of a normal carefree life that consisted of more casual brunches with people who were actually her friends and nights out on the town. Her hair seemed as if she hadn't straightened it in a few days causing it to look slightly wavy and more untidy than Olivia would ever allow in public. But it worked for her and it made her intriguing in a different way than Olivia.
"Hey, can you teach me to kill people?" she said suddenly turning back around to face him. He was speechless as his mouth fell open. "I mean not really kill people, anyone can do that but you know ninja kill them. The whole make them disappear and get away with it part."
"Umm, sure," he said going along with it since he was actually becoming amused by it. He knew that if Olivia had heard the last part of their conversation he would be in big trouble, even if he was just joking around.
"Great," she said before turning back to the counter, but then she turned around again quickly, causing her ponytail to whip around too. "Oh, but it can't be this weekend, or Thursdays I have to meet with my choreographer. That's going to be my cover. You know no one ever expects the beautiful ballerina to be the ninja assassin, so don't think I'm not committed. I just have to keep up the appearances, know what I mean?"
"Yeah, no, I totally get it," he replied without missing a beat. He watched as the woman gave him a thoughtful look before smiling widely at him. She turned back to finish making her coffee. "You know, I like you Jake Ballard of B6-13."
"Former, B6-13," he told her stressing the former.
"Yeah, yeah," she said before whipping back around again, "Oh, maybe we can start our own agency. We already got like four people."
"What would we call ourselves?" he asked, as he took a sip of his juice as he continued the entertaining conversation.
"Hmm," she paused, before putting a finger up, "let me get back to you on that." She turned back to the counter and he snorted when he heard her whisper, clearly actively contemplating a name for their soon to be agency, "This has to be good."
"Morning," Olivia said walking into the kitchen going straight for the fridge, but Anna interrupted her before she could get there.
"Guess what Liv?" she asked not giving her a chance to reply, "Jake's going to teach me to kill people."
This caused Jake to almost choke on his juice and Olivia whipped her head around towards him, a horrified look on her face.
"I'm not," he spat out in his defense not wanting to get the tongue lashing he was surely about to receive nor did he want to upset her. "We were only joking around."
Olivia studied him for a while before turning back to Anna, seeing the amused smirk on the woman's face. She would let it go for now, but she would surely have to have a talk with both of them later.
"Oh by the way, good job last night Jake," Anna told him as she poured some coffee into the mug she had taken out. He squinted his eyes at her, waiting for her to continue. "I haven't heard Liv scream or moan that loud since I spent that week with her during my freshman year of college." Olivia sat the kettle down loudly almost dropping it as she started blushing. Jake's eyes widened in disbelief at the woman's boldness. Anna remained quiet as she exited the kitchen with her coffee, a satisfied smile on her face, Olivia glaring at her until she disappeared around the corner.
Jake continued to look at the door through which she had exited, studying her latest actions. "Well she's entertaining," he finally spoke.
"More like exhausting," Olivia corrected. She loved Anna, but the woman was too often in her "on" state for her liking.
"Yeah, I can see that," he said finally turning back to Olivia, as she put the finishing ingredients in her mug of tea. "So how are you feeling this morning?"
She picked up her mug before turning to look at him. She studied him for a little while, trying to find his angle. Yes he had come over last night, they had talked some, she had cried some, he had slept in her bed, and yes they had had sex. And although she had to reassure him multiple times that it was okay to have sex with her being pregnant they still had not talked about the implications that the result of the pregnancy would bring about. They would no longer be Olivia and Jake, business woman and special agent, republic or socialite conspirator and skilled assassin. They would be parents, Mommy and Daddy as soon as the baby growing inside of her learned to enunciate the syllables or even sooner depending on how you looked at it. They continued to stare at each other, each waiting for the other to bring up the elephant in the room. Jake, usually being the one to do that, made the first attempt, though for whatever reason he went with a more subtle approach this time.
"So, what'd I miss?" he asked after eyeing her stomach.
She gave him a sincere smile before replying, "Not much." She brought the mug up to her mouth, beginning to sip from it.
He continued to stare at her. She looked absolutely radiant. Not that she wasn't beautiful before but the fact that she was visibly pregnant with his child sparked something even deeper inside of him. And she seemed to glow, he could tell that she was genuinely happy about this baby, and that made him even happier and drawn to her. He had heard a few guys describe this phenomenon back when he was in the navy about witnessing your child growing inside of the woman you were love with but he had never thought that he would have that experience after being recruited to B6-13, but here he was.
She began rubbing her stomach and looked down at the floor, becoming a little self-conscious under his gaze. Not that it was him that was making her uncomfortable, so much as it was her own thoughts. It was one of those things where someone makes it seem like you are the most amazing thing in the world to them, and the only thing that you can think of at the time is your short comings and you can't really see past them to see how someone could love you so much.
She hadn't realized that he had made his way over to her until his hand made contact with her stomach. He hadn't had a chance since being released to just fawn over it. And seeing her standing there freely caressing it made him more anxious to do so. Sure he had read about the unwanted pregnant stomach touching people, but he was pretty sure that didn't refer to the father of the child growing there and whom the mother still freely allowed into her home. And if it did, he was sure she would let him know.
She jumped a little as his hand made initial contact with her stomach. He looked into her face to gauge her reaction but only received a smile when she looked up at him. He smiled back at her and placed her hand on top of his before taking his other hand and placing it on the other side of her abdomen, keeping both her hands on top of his.
This was what she had wanted. She finally felt somewhat of a sense of calmness, like she wasn't alone in this. She hadn't really felt completely alone having Anna and Abby, and she was sure whatever Quinn and Huck could offer as soon as they were officially informed, but she had always known that Jake always had something special to offer her in every type of situation, and she was sure that would be even more true in this situation as she felt he was the only person that was as deeply tied to this baby as she was.
Suddenly she felt a swift hit, likely a kick to the left side of her stomach, right under the area where their hands rested. It caused her to flinch a little as she had never felt one so strong before. She looked up to Jake to explain her jumpiness as it seemed no one but her would ever be able to experience this tiny little being moving around inside of her except for her, but she was met with a curious, unsure look from him. Her brow furrowed, also in curiosity. Had he felt it? They stared at each other for a little while.
Here question was soon answered as he spoke.
"Was that her?" he asked, with a smile starting to pull at the corner of his lip.
She nodded slowly, as she replied still in disbelief that someone other than her was able to experience this. "Yeah. You felt that?"
He nodded. "Yeah," he smiled.
"Really?" she asked, trying to make sure he was sure.
"Yeah Liv, I," he stopped as he felt it again, "she just did it again."
She smiled at him before reaching up and wrapping her hands around his neck, pulling him down into a kiss, his hands staying on one her stomach. The kiss lasted a few short seconds before they were interrupted.
"Aww com'on you guys, I'm still here," Anna said as she walked to the sink to wash out the coffee mug.
Olivia pulled away from Jake, still smiling as she walked over to Anna. "Feel this," she said grabbing the woman's hand and placing it where Jake's had been a few moments ago.
A/N: Hey, still feeling this story out and trying to set a pace fore it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed.