Chapter 152

Valkyrie woke up quietly once more in the early morning and got herself ready in relative silence. Nadia felt the difference in bed and got up with her, putting a jacket on over her thin pyjamas. They went downstairs where most of her brothers were halfway ready as well. Fletcher was sitting on the sofa, pale, staring. His breakfast was in front of him, uneaten.

"Morning, Fletcher," Valkyrie said quietly, trying to reassure him. "You should eat something."

"Can't," he croaked, not looking at her.

"You need to. If you don't eat, you might faint if something happens. We need you to be on it today, and you need to be on it for yourself. I don't want you to get hurt," she told him, keeping her voice quiet and gentle. She put a hand on his shoulder and he tensed for a moment. "Don't think about it too much. You'll make yourself anxious, and there's no point in that."

She left him there to get herself some food and Nadia followed like a puppy. If anything, it felt like Nadia needed comfort as opposed to being there for her. She put on some tea and made Nadia breakfast while she got her own.

"Here," she whispered, smiling at her girlfriend.

She smiled weakly. "Thanks."

"Don't be scared," she said, putting her cereal on the table next to Nadia's. "I'll be alright. Okay?"

"I know," she breathed, hugging Valkyrie close. They held each other for a long time before letting each other to go.

By the time she had brushed her teeth, it was time to go.

.*****.

They pulled up to the town they were stopping at in silence. There were four cars. She and the Dead Men were in one. Aurora, Saile and other Americans were in the car behind, and in the two ahead of them were more American's plus Fletcher. They had been given a full arsenal. Valkyrie had never shot a semi-automatic assault rifle, but that's what she had been given alongside her brothers. She had knives and several other guns with her, and shock and smoke grenades. She'd had big missions with a lot of arsenals before, but this was a different level. She had on a bullet-proof vest over her normal safety jacket, as well as a helmet. A radio was built into it.

They filed out and quickly jogged over to the first van group with Fletcher and waited while two women unbolted and pulled up a sewer plate. Fletcher looked down it with a torch, after being checked by the American's, and teleported with the first group. There were a few moments of silence again, and then he was back and took another group, and kept doing that for them all – except for the last group that was on guard, hidden in the bushes around them. Valkyrie was teleported down as the cars were driven away.

A quick hand gesture from the team leader split them up. The American's went East, the Dead Men went West. Silence reigned as the two groups jogged in opposite directions, just their footsteps echoing. Valkyrie's heart raced as she brought up the back of her group, keeping her gun up and ready to keep them safe from the back.

They came up to their station ten minutes of running later. Anton radioed over to the second group.

They were early.

Valkyrie felt a bead of sweat roll down her face. It stank in the tunnel and the darkness was hard to see around. She locked eyes with Dexter. Nothing felt off yet. The other group had longer to go. Two minutes to the arrival date. Saracen said nothing.

A small click in their ears was the cue – Erskine used his magic to snap the metal keeping it in place with efficient skill. Within a second the cover was off and they all trained their guns on the open hole.

Valkyrie saw movement and three of them shot at once and the person fell to their knees. Another shot later they were dead. She saw he had been holding a gun. A moment later her brothers across from her shot also, seeing something she couldn't, and then someone came into her view once more and she shot at them. They went in aggressively and Anton, Ghastly and Saracen going in the room above ahead of the rest of them and finished it off. They all followed.

Valkyrie took in her surroundings quickly, smelling the tangy odour in the air. Saracen had a deep frown on his face but didn't say anything and they went through into the next room. They opened the door and they all started shooting the second it opened.

Shots were fired back. It barely took a minute to take them down.

Valkyrie put her hands up.

.*****.

Nadia's POV

"Tanith?" Nadia called as she put the whisk on the counter and washed her hands. "Are you coming downstairs?"

There was no sound for a moment, and then a door upstairs opened and a few moments later Tanith was downstairs with an ever watchful Laila. "Hi," she yawned. "You making breakfast?"

"Yeah, I thought I'd make pancakes. Is Laila okay?"

"Yeah, she just ate," Tanith nodded, sitting down with the baby on her lap. "Then she threw half of it up burping."

"I think babies do that sometimes," Nadia smiled, hoping to bring some positivity to Tanith's morning attitude. "How many pancakes do you want?"

"Three?" Tanith guessed. "I really want some fruit."

"I'll cut some." Nadia got on with that while Tanith changed Laila's nappy and cooed at her. After twenty minutes, Nadia had a small stack of pancakes with a little bit of proper butter and powdered sugar over the top, and a large bowl of berries and melon for them to pick at together. Laila was starting to wave her hands around now, and it was very amusing to watch her stare open mouth at the two women eating while dribbling and batting her hands around for the fruit bowl out of her reach. She was too young to get bits to eat still at seven and a half weeks but Nadia was really excited for when she was old enough to feed actual food. She could hold her own head up, although was sometimes a little shaky, and she was starting to smile by herself whenever she saw her mother after being away from her. Ghastly wasn't quite getting that reaction, but to be fair to him, Laila mostly watched out for her mother's breasts rather than her face.

"So," Tanith said, pushing her plate, knife and fork away from her curious child. "When do you think the others will be back?"

"This afternoon?" Nadia asked.

Tanith shrugged. "Maybe. I kind of want to go out."

Nadia hid her grimace. Her stomach was rolling with nerves. She didn't want to go out, she wanted to hide in bed and hug Valkyrie's pillows. She was already wearing Valkyrie's unwashed top under Valkyrie's slightly cleaner hoodie. Not to mention, the weather had taken a turn over the last few days to look a lot more like winter. It was seriously cold and kept raining without warning.

"I'm not sure," Nadia said.

"You don't have to come, but I think I want to go on a walk," Tanith said, standing up and picking up Laila. "I'll be, like, an hour getting ready."

Nadia smiled. "Sure."

Tanith did take forever to get ready and then needed help getting Laila into the little baby carrier harness. The two of them looked absolutely adorable together and Nadia even took a picture of them to show Valkyrie later, and then she left. Nadia took her time getting a really long, warm bath with a bunch of bath salts and even did a moisturising hair mask followed by a face mask. She cut her nails too short trying to get them all the same length and cleaned the kitchen. Myra came down and got breakfast at one point and they spoke about their families baking recipes but disagreed on how to get the gooiest chocolate chip biscuit and, perhaps it was because she was already really nervous, but Nadia got way too upset and practically stormed off.

She got guilty after just a few minutes of crying and calmed down enough to think about how stupid she was before getting worried for Valkyrie and deciding she'd apologise when she felt like not crying again. She heard Myra go into her own room after a long time and after some time bickering with herself, she very quietly left her room and snuck downstairs to watch television to distract herself.

There was a knock on the door.

Nadia muted the television, looking at the door. Should she open it? Could she defend herself and Myra? Was she being paranoid? It was probably just a neighbour. Or was it someone from the Sanctuary here to say something awful had happened?

Her heart jumped into her throat but she got herself up and answered it. On the other side was a smiling, dark-haired man. He was of Asian ethnicity and work tight jeans with a tucked in black shirt, dress shoes and a coat. His hands were in his pockets and he towered over Nadia at what seemed to be over six-foot-five.

"Good afternoon Miss Robin," the man smiled. He had an American accent but Nadia wasn't familiar with what area it was from. "I am from the Sanctuary here in Arizona. Do you have a moment to talk?"

"What about?" She asked, frowning.

"About your partner, Valkyrie Cain, and her family. It is very important. May I come in?" He asked again, the smile unmoving.

Her heart jumped into her throat but she tried to stay calm. She had no idea who he was – she couldn't be stupid and let a stranger into her house just because he said something she didn't like. "Can you show me your identification, please?"

"Of course," he said, and pulled a hand from his pocket. He cocked the gun at her face. "I'm Lilo. May I come in?"

.*****.

Tanith's POV

Tanith sat on the park bench, looking at the ten or so children running around and playing on the small playground together. Laila was asleep in her little pouch, and she was tired herself. It was a struggle recovering from pregnancy. She hadn't felt this unfit in her life. She remembered the first ever time she was told to climb a rope and had been completely incapable. She felt as weak as she did when she was seven years old. She had never wanted that for herself – but at the same time, it felt sort of worth it for the baby on her chest. Not that she was enjoying feeling so out of breath by any means, but it was good to have her Laila with her.

There was a dull thud and Tanith looked up in time to see a four or five year old start crying because she'd fallen off of the fireman's pole and onto the floor. Half a dozen mothers went running towards the child and that same child was screeching like a demon. She tried not to roll her eyes. She hoped Laila would learn to not screech like that. She was allowed to cry, but God, that kid was hurting her ears from where she was sitting.

She looked at her phone and tried to work out her way back home. She'd been out for an hour and a half already, and it looked like it would take that much time to get back. She was about to leave when she saw an ice cream van pull up on the other side of the park and got the craving to have something cold. She had no idea why it was about in late-November, but she was suddenly glad it was.

She and all the other parents and kids lined up to get something – she supposed it was sort of comical how it was around so literally all the parents were allowing their children the treat. She waited at the back with the slower parents.

"Hey, are you new?" A mother asked her, tapping her shoulder. Tanith turned and smiled.

"Yeah, I moved here a few weeks ago," she said sociably.

"Aw, how fun!" The woman cheered and the three other mothers nodded around her. "Where are you living?"

"In a little cul-de-sac an hour walk from here," Tanith said vaguely. "It had a bunch of oak trees around it."

"Oh, I think I know where you mean," the woman grinned stupidly. "Is this your little one? She is just so sweet."

"Thank you," Tanith smiled now, looking at Laila. "She's almost eight weeks old now."

"Aww, that's such a good age," one of the other mothers, a very unnaturally blonde woman, said. "I loved it when my little ones were that old. I've got three now, and none of them want to cuddle anymore."

"Tell me about it," the first one rolled her eyes and they laughed. Tanith just smiled. Laila was not allowed to not hug her, so this did not apply to her whatsoever. "You know, we have a tumble-tots class in an hour, do you want to come? I know your baby is too young, but we'd love to see you there. It won't be long until she's joining in, and there are a few other mom's with littluns there."

Tanith thought about declining but then thought about being at the house with Nadia trying to hide how stressed she was, and Myra who was constantly hiding in her room, and considered how boring it was to watch television all day, and agreed.

"Oh, that's great! We're walking over in a minute," the woman said, and Tanith let her babble on while she got her can of coke and little ice lolly.

Tanith waited for the other ladies to be ready and ended up in conversation with a mousy brunette with a child that walked all over her. She was talking about her Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks ago and how her mother-in-law had upset her, and Tanith just let her vent. She watched the group and saw how there were three 'leader' women with the most amount of children, five women that were happy to just be there and either listened to the 'leaders' or spoke together, and then there were three 'followers' who just nodded and looked as if they had followed every fad that had existed in their lifetime, and then there was this one outcast that looked very downtrodden. Usually, Tanith would ignore a woman like her too – it annoyed her when people didn't stand up for themselves enough to not get spoken over by their own friends and children – but she just felt bad for her today and listened.

"What would you do?" The woman, perhaps called Ashly or something like that, asked.

"Well, I had something sort of like this happen," Tanith told her, trying to think of a good answer to her problems. "My mother sent me to boarding school as a child and it made me hate her, but I never said anything. I didn't talk to her for years after I left the school, didn't even visit after I graduated. I decided to forgive her eventually, although it took a long time to choose to do that. But even after, I still get mad at her. She wanted me to call my baby some stupid family name when I didn't want it. But after what she did to me as a child – sending me away that is – I had to stand up for myself and tell her how it is. She cannot control my life, and if I want to call my child a name I've chosen, or move to a house I want to live in, I will do that. It took a long time for her to get over that, but each time I take control it makes us have a better relationship."

"It does?"

"Yeah," Tanith nodded. "It creates boundaries. It makes us understand each other more. For instance, she can suggest names for my baby, but she cannot just tell me what my child is called and expect me too just accept that."

"Does she take it well?" The woman gasped, shock in her eyes.

"Sometimes," Tanith smirked. The look of shock didn't leave. "I take it you don't think your mother-in-law would take it well?"

"Never!" She said with conviction.

"Well, it might take a long time, and you might make her angry, but I expect it would make you feel better to have some personal space," Tanith told her. She was obviously more than unconvinced, so they spoke of other things like schools and food and their holidays abroad. "And, really, it's up to your husband to do that. His mother shouldn't be allowed to be horrible to you. He's a dick for not standing up to her."

The lady didn't look very convinced. She was about to answer with some overly negative response when Tanith heard someone running up behind them and turned to see Myra. She was pale, sweaty and panting.

"Myra?" Tanith asked, looking at the girl. "What are you doing here?"

"Tanith!" Myra gasped out. "I need to talk to you! Something happened to Nadia and the others!"

Woah! That's a lot! But you know, not as much as the chapter I wrote in the future oh gosh will you love it! The next five-plus not too much but that one I just did will make you happy! Think about that while I wreck lives in the present chapters ;)

Demise Rim: Thank you for your comments, it was fun to hear of your progress, you were the little number traversing several chapters a day in the statistics! I'm glad to have a new reader, don't stop commenting now ;) I haven't written any explanation for Erskine and Saile, they just do know each other. Maybe from a fight, maybe from travels, maybe introduced. I didn't even plan to put them together at all (however casual and temporary) until he just jumped into his arms all by himself. My plot planning is just that but all the time. I can come up with something elaborate if you like but it'll just be as a response, not in the fanfic sorry! No time for these details when craps going down, just know that it was very sexual and probably physically improbable. Good job checking for updates, I am trying to update as much as I can. It's three twenty in the morning as I post this :D If you make an account I can annoy you directly and I can answer other questions, or just keep commenting (which you should totally do anyway) xx