A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! Here's the next chapter!

Miley frowned as she studied her image in the floor-length mirror in her hotel room. She was going to start showing soon. She could already notice some subtle changes in her body. Things that she knew other people would never pick up on. It was way too soon for that. Still, it made her incredibly nervous when she was performing, like earlier that afternoon. It would've made her feel better if she could wear baggy clothes, but that in itself would draw suspicion.

"Hannah?" She glanced at the door at the sound of her father's voice combined with a rapping noise. Then she slipped the blond wig back on and went to answer it.

Miley forced a smile as she opened the door. She didn't want her dad getting suspicious that something was bothering her. Because if he did, she knew that she would break down and tell him everything. And she just wasn't comfortable telling this information at this point.

"Hey, dad."

He smiled, walking inside. "You were great out there, darlin'. As always."

"Thanks", she smiled back as she closed the door. "And thanks for coming with me. Even though you really didn't have to. I'm only gonna be here for one night."

"You've been doing a lot of shows lately", her dad remarked.

Miley nodded. She had been doing a lot more Hannah stuff as of late. She was just trying to squeeze in as much as possible before her pregnancy became noticeable. But she had promised Nick she would slack off the minute she felt it was all becoming too much.

"Yeah, I know. But I'm staying as close to home as I can", she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "And I call Nick all the time to make sure him and Belle are okay. I think it's kind of starting to get on his nerves."

Robbie Ray smiled. "You really do love him, don't you?"

"Like crazy", she answered with a grin. "Is it obvious or something?"

He sat down beside her. "Well, your eyes light up when you talk about him. Or even when you two are in the same room. And I still don't know the boy very well, but I do like what I see from him. He treats you like you deserve to be treated."

"You used to say that a boy would be good enough for me the day that pigs flew", she reminded him.

"Hey, I said I liked what I've seen. I'm still sure that no boy's ever gonna be good enough for my little girl. But this one's a hell of a lot better than the last one you brought home, so I can't really complain."

Miley knew he didn't mean anything by the comment, but the reminder of her stupidity still stung. But she also knew that her family didn't know half of what really went down.

"I'm sorry, dad", she said quietly. "I should've never let him come in between our family. I mean, we missed so much. Because I just had to prove that I was smarter than y'all. When nothing could be any further from the truth."

Robbie Ray shook his head. "We all make mistakes. And me and your brother weren't blameless. We should've just accepted your choices."

"No", Miley said quickly. "You shouldn't have. You were right to be suspicious of Jake."

"Baby, what exactly happened between you two?", her father asked after a moment.

At that moment, she wanted to tell him everything. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "It's complicated", she finally replied. Then she gave him a sad smile. "Who would've ever thought Jackson would turn out to be the good one, right?"

He sighed. "I don't know what it is you're not telling me, Mile. But I am almost positive that your brother has screwed up just as much as you have. The only difference is that he let me be there for him through it. I wish I could've done the same for you."

Miley hugged her dad tightly. "I know. I wish that too."

Nick sat at a table in the mall's food court, utterly exhausted at this point. Lilly had ran him all over that place to show him where everything maternity, baby, and toddler-oriented was located. She was obviously thrilled at the prospect of having a new little niece or nephew. And he was excited about it too, but he kind of felt like Miley already had this stuff covered. He loathed shopping unless it was absolutely essential. When he was forced into this place, he usually spent most of his time at the arcade.

"I can't wait till' you guys find out what you're having", Lilly gushed. "I'm gonna throw Miley the most amazing baby shower. Thank God she's not one of those people who are like, 'Oh, I want it to be a surprise!' I don't think I could handle waiting that long."

"Weddings, baby showers, kids. Don't you ever get tired?", he asked.

"Sure. You learn to multi-task eventually though. Look at Miley. I mean, that's some serious multi-tasking at work there. I'm pretty much the norm. Oh and speaking of weddings, has Miley talked to you about moving it up yet?"

Huh? "Why would we move it up? We've had this date picked out all along."

Lilly leaned across the table in an attempt to keep her voice down. "She's worried about how she'll look in the dress. She'll probably be starting to show by then. Not a whole lot, but enough to make her self-conscious."

"What?", Nick said, surprised that this was the first he was hearing of this. He didn't mind at all if Miley wanted to move the wedding up, but he thought she would have mentioned it by now.

"She didn't want to make everything about her", Lilly said, as if she was reading his mind. "We had already settled on a date and she didn't want to screw with that because she was feeling nervous about how she looked."

Yeah, that sounded like Miley. Always trying to think of everyone else's feelings before her own. "Well, I'll marry her tomorrow if she wants", he stated. "Gladly, in fact."

Lilly smiled. "I told her you would say that."

"Hey, look who it is!"

They turned to see Joe standing next to the table with a stroller, two kids, and a handful of shopping bags. Nick suppressed the urge to laugh. His brother was a good dad and uncle, but he could never deal with more than one kid at a time for more than a couple of hours. Especially in a mall where there's a million things for them to get into.

"Hi, honey. Having fun?", Lilly teased as he leaned down to kiss her.

"You know it", Joe replied before adding quietly, "I see why you don't give them chocolate now."

"Dude, what all did you buy?", Nick asked curiously, motioning to the shopping bags.

"Daddy got video games!", Myles informed them.

"And a rainbow dress!", Belle added, pulling a multi-colored outfit out of one of the bags. "Look at all the sparkles, daddy. I thought it would be perfect for Vannah."

Nick laughed and pulled the little girl onto his lap as Joe collapsed into the empty chair beside him. "Yeah, these two really like spending money. When they aren't getting us kicked out of Toys-R-Us anyway."

"We're not the one who got in a fight with the manager, daddy", Myles reminded him.

"Joe!", Lilly exclaimed.

"Hey, that little weasel called our son and niece 'brats who need to learn how to behave in a store.' Then he went on to say, 'Some people have no business raising kids.' He was calling me a bad parent, Lilly! And the toy had a damn 'Try Me' sticker on it! What does he expect?"

"Uncle Joe got mad", Belle said seriously. "He called the worker a-"

"Okay, we don't need to repeat all of that", Joe said quickly, cutting her off.

Nick smiled to himself. Then he briefly looked away for a moment, noticing a brunette looking in their direction out of the corner of his eye. He didn't think anything of it at first. Then he looked back, and he could see that her dark eyes were zeroed in on them. Intently.

He expected her to look away after he had caught her staring, but she didn't. Instead, she looked him directly in the eyes. And her lips twisted into a smile that sent shivers down his spine.

"Uh, guys?", he said, turning back to them with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I think we have a stalker."

They all looked in the direction he was pointing. But by the time he looked back, she had disappeared. His eyes searched the area in disbelief. He only had his head turned for a second!

"Who are you talking about?", Joe finally asked.

Nick scratched his head, even more freaked out now. "Never mind. Maybe I'm just seeing things."

"Belle? You okay, sweetie?", Lilly asked, looking concerned. Nick looked down at his daughter, whose expression was completely frozen. Like she couldn't even speak.

"Hey. What is it, baby?", he asked gently, looking into her eyes. She didn't respond. This look of complete shock was scaring the hell out of him. "Belle? I need you to talk to me, princess. What is it?"

"I can't tell you", she whispered. "She'll hurt you."

"Who'll hurt me?", Nick pressed. "That woman? Did you see her?"

Belle reluctantly nodded, leaving everyone looking at her in confusion. Nick knew there was something that didn't sit right with him about that woman. Belle obviously felt it too. It wasn't just the twisted smile she had given him. She seemed familiar somehow. He didn't know where he had seen her before, but he was almost certain that he had.

"Who is she?", Myles wondered.

"Guys, it was probably just some random person", Joe tried to reason. "Who just happens to be a little strange."

"I don't think so", Lilly said quietly, her eyes still focused on Belle. "Sweetie, do you know who the woman is? Why do you think she'll hurt your dad?"

"I can't tell you. She made me promise."

By the next morning, Nick had still been unable to get Belle to open up about the mysterious woman. Every time he had even attempted to approach the topic, she clammed up. She still looked so shaken up about it. He was too. But what could he do? Try to track down someone whose name he didn't even know?

"Nick? I'm home!" He looked up from his seat at the kitchen counter when he heard Miley's voice combined with the door shutting.

"I'm in the kitchen!", he called back before taking a deep breath. This was the last thing Miley needed to hear right now, but he had no choice but to tell her.

"Hey", she grinned, walking into the room. She leaned across the tile countertop to press her lips to his. "I missed you."

"I missed you too", he said, forcing a smile back to her. She looked incredible, not much different than usual. But he could see the glow radiating from her. He hated that her beautiful smile was about to disappear.

"Missed you more", she countered with a smile, kissing him again.

Nick slowly drew back. Why wouldn't the universe just let them be happy for two seconds before some new crisis popped up? It felt like it was one thing after another. That made it hard to enjoy moments like this.

"Uh...so how did the show go?", he asked as he raked his hand through his hair.

"Good", Miley answered, immediately suspicious of the look on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"Well...yeah, kind of."

"Oh, God. What now?"

He proceeded to relay the incident from the day before to her. As he suspected she would be, she was absolutely horrified.

"And she was just sitting across the food court staring at you?", Miley uttered in disbelief.

Nick nodded. "She looked about our age. Dark hair. Dark eyes. And I really think I've seen her somewhere before. I just can't figure out where that would be. But Belle knows her. She's just too scared to tell me who she is."

Miley stood up and began to pace the floor. None of this made any sense to her. The idea of some strange woman threatening her and Nick's lives to their young child...it made her sick. The one thing that was clear though- this woman had needed Belle to keep her mouth shut about something.

"The kidnapping", she said in a near-whisper at the realization. "She's the one that took my baby."

"But a complete stranger wouldn't have a motive to take her", he pointed out.

"The ransom, Nick!", she gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh my God, what if Jake was actually telling the truth?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders, a bit surprised at the conclusion that she was arriving at. "Baby, Jake was the one behind that. Macy backed it up, remember? The only reason he got away with it is because there wasn't any evidence to support it."

"How do we know Macy wasn't lying? She lied about everything!"

"Listen, I know she did some messed up stuff. But she's not a bad person. Besides, what good would it have done her to confess to everything if it wasn't true?"

"I don't know! To get some kind of sympathy from you! 'Oh Nick, I was forced into it. I was just trying to support myself. I had no idea the kind of person I was working for.' She didn't tell you anything until after she found out that we thought it was Jake."

Nick shook his head. "I just don't think she was lying at the end. It didn't seem like her. And look at that ransom story, Miley. How would the kidnapper even be able to connect Belle to Jake? She doesn't use his last name. He hadn't been anywhere near her for months. How would they know to send the note to him?"

"Everybody knows Jake is filfthy rich", Miley said with a sigh. "And it would be as easy as a quick look on Wikipedia to find out about Belle and me and maybe even you."

The theory did make sense to him, if they were choosing to believe Jake's story over Macy's anyway. Which he couldn't do. That stunt had Jake Ryan written all over it. Plus, he had came pretty damn close to confessing to it. But he supposed Miley had a point too. Macy had done plenty of things that he didn't think she was capable of. He obviously hadn't known her as well as he thought he did.

Nick looked up at her from his seat. "You want to believe that he didn't do it."

"In a way, yeah", she admitted, sitting down beside him. "I mean, I was with him for a long time. I'd like to believe that he has some kind of conscience. But I'm honestly more concerned about this woman right now. We have to find out who she is."

He sighed, sensing the determination in her voice. "Miley, you're pregnant. You can't handle any more stress right now. And there's really not anything we can do until Belle's willing to talk about it."

Miley knew he was right. But she couldn't stand wondering what this stranger put her daughter through all those months ago. What was worse was knowing that she couldn't help her. But for the sake of her unborn child, she couldn't let the stress get to her.

She released a deep breath. "I know. I have to stay calm."

Nick gave her a small smile. "She listens to reason."

She laughed slightly. "Well, we'll see how long that lasts."

"Lilly said you wanted to move up the wedding", he remarked, taking a hold of one of her hands.

Miley couldn't hide the fact that she was caught off guard by that statement. "Well...I mean, yeah. But we don't have to. I was just kind of thinking-"

"I love the idea", Nick smiled, cutting her off. "The sooner I get to marry you, the better."

"Really? Because I know we'd already picked a date, and I don't want to mess everything up. I just wasn't really planning on being pregnant when I picked out my dress, and I don't know how good it'll look with a baby bump."

"So we'll move it up. It's not that big of a deal", he assured her. "But for the record, no matter what dress you wear or how pregnant you are- you'll still be the most beautiful girl in the world to me."

She smiled as she rested her head on his shoulder. "You're too good to me."

And she truly meant that. Nick was always so supportive of her, even when they didn't agree on something. There were so many things going on in her life that she was uncertain about, but the fact that she was absolutely ready to marry him was not one of them.

The girl looked around at the people in the room. One familiar, the others not. They all wore a look of sympathy in their eyes, even as they backed her into in a corner. God, they all thought she was crazy. But they were wrong. She would never hurt her baby. Ever.

"Honey, we need you to give us the child, okay?", an older redheaded woman told her in a gentle tone, reaching her arms out for the baby.

"No!", she said defensively, tightening her hold on the child in her arms. He was crying. Probably because he could sense how upset she was. Didn't these people understand? She was his mother! They couldn't just take him away from her!

"Mikayla, it's not going to be forever. You just need some help, that's all. You can't take care of him like this."

She turned her eyes to the traitor that had put her in this horrible situation. "How could you?", she whispered in a deadly voice. "What kind of heartless bastard tries to rip a baby from his mother's arms?"

He slowly stepped closer. "Listen to me. I'm going to take care of him. You don't have to worry about that. And when you get better, you're going to come home to us. We'll be a real family. We'll have a real wedding and a real honeymoon. And we're gonna be happy. But you have to get better first."

"Do you really think I want to be with you now?", Mikayla asked, leaning closer to him. "I deserve better than someone who stabs me in the back like this. And let me tell you, I won't forget it."

"Sweetheart, we are only acting in the best interest of the child", the redhead spoke. "Your emotions are swinging all over the place right now. We can see that you love your son, but we can't- in good conscience- leave him with you in this state."

"I'm sorry, who are you and why is my child any of your business?", she snapped at the woman.

"You need to listen to me right now, okay?", the only familiar face said quietly. "I woke up with you holding a knife against my throat. You almost smothered our newborn with a pillow. What if something were to happen again and I couldn't get there in time to stop you? Can't you see that you need some help?"

"But I didn't do it!", she insisted. "I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't go through with it!"

"You could have", a gray-haired man said, without the same sympathetic tone as the woman. "We're going to need you to give the child to your husband, ma'am."

Mikayla shook her head furiously, holding the baby tightly to her. "No. No, you can't take my baby!"

"I'm sorry", her husband whispered before prying the baby out of her arms.

"No!", she cried. "Please no!"

"No!", Mikayla screamed, jerking her body up from her sleeping position. Her forehead was dripping with sweat, and she felt as if she could barely breathe.

She threw the covers off of her, still trying to catch her breath. It had seemed so real. It always seemed so real. She had the same nightmare over and over again, and she could feel herself slowly being driven to the point of insanity. As usual, there was nobody to care.

They didn't understand. She needed her baby. She needed more than a five minute phone call every few weeks. All because they had the nerve to say that she would hurt him. It infuriated her. Why should people like Miley or Hannah- or whatever she's going by next week- get the chance to be a mother when she didn't?

Frankly, Mikayla thought the other girl should've gone without her child for much longer than she actually had to. Maybe then that bitch would get to feel just a little bit of the pain she's had to suffer through. She wouldn't escape unscathed though. Of that, Mikayla was sure of. She let a slow smile spread across her face.

"Two birds with one stone."

Dun dun dun. So now you know a little about Mikayla's backstory. But what is her plan exactly? And how is Miley involved?

Let me know what you think! :)