Another short chapter to overcome writer's block and try and get back to regular updates!

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"Garrett!" I was in the shower when he yelped my name, and my stomach dropped, thinking something was horribly wrong, until he burst through the bathroom door far faster than he should have. He didn't give me a chance to ask what had happened. "He pleaded guilty!"

I shut off the water, leaning my forehead against the wall as I tried to process what he was saying. It was way too early in the morning for this. "What?"

"Caius pleaded guilty; I don't have to give evidence against him. They only have to decide his sentence," he explained, managing to calm down enough to speak at a normal pace. "It's over...I won…" A smile was irresistible.

"What if he gets a lighter punishment?" I frowned, wanting nothing more than for the bastard to burn in hell, plea deal or not. As much as I didn't want tarnish his excitement, I also didn't want him to get ahead of himself.

He sat on the edge of the bath to talk to me, all the movement sending him off balance. "I don't care; he's away from me and I don't have to face him."

Giving up on a peaceful shower, I grabbed my towel and got out. I didn't blame him for barging in unannounced, biting back a grin at the slightly embarrassed look on his face as he considered his own behaviour.

"Sorry, I, um…"

I leaned down to kiss him lightly, chuckling to myself. "It's okay. I'm happy for you, just still be careful for a while; you've got time off work for a reason."

He nodded that he would be.

As time when on, I could see that the news made all the difference to him. The physical pain seemed to affect him less, and he coped better with the idea of talking to someone now he knew that he was safe from the awful man. I hadn't realised how scared he'd been of Caius still being a threat. Despite knowing that he was in custody for aggravated assault and sexual harassment and wouldn't be seeing the light of day for a while, I couldn't shake the feeling apprehension whenever I was reminded of him.

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I was not in favour of a family meeting. At all. Thank god, we didn't have to drive to my parent's place, and were meeting at Eleazar's instead, but I was still shitty about it. The amount of pain it was about to cause Carlisle wasn't worth whatever my brother so desperately wanted to tell everyone. Still beyond happy about Caius, my boyfriend really hadn't thought that far ahead; he's been the one to speak to Carmen on the phone, and had agreed to going without a second thought - in any other situation, I would have been over the moon about his willingness to see them, but not this time.

"Are you sure-"

"I'll be fine, Garrett, it's okay," Carlisle reassured me for the millionth time. We'd been sitting in the car for a good twenty minutes now, but he didn't look too uncomfortable yet. Granted, he's taken a shit load of painkiller before we came out, just to shut me up.

"Just don't let Kate jump on you," I reminded him, already planning how I might intercept her before she inevitably did it.

"I know," he said softly. His hand found its way onto my thigh, fidgeting with the fabric of my pants. Why he was being so plassid about the situation, I never know; I suspected that perhaps my sister-in-law had already told him the reason for the visit, but he refused to budge on it.

I turned to face him once the car was parked in their driveway, cupping his face in my hand to force him to look at me. "Promise me that you will tell me if this if too much," I murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.

"I will, Gar; I love you."

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The first awkward moment was when my family laid eyes on Carlisle. The brace around his wrist wasn't exactly subtle, despite him trying to hide it under his jacket, and although the bruises had mostly faded, they were still visible. I stammered to answer my mother's careful question as to what happened; it wasn't like I could I could openly tell them.

"...I fell…" Carlisle mumbled after a pause, his cheeks burning as he looked down. At the same time, I saw Eleazar's stare harden, almost fixated on him. My nerves instantly prickled. My own reaction instantly made me check myself; this was my brother, for god's sake, he was hardly a threat.

The rest of them took the lie easily, and it earned from gentle teasing from dad about him being clumsy. It made my boyfriend smile, even if out of nothing but relief to be left alone.

Just as I'd expected, Kate charged us, bursting into a fit of giggles as caught her waist and lifted her up. She immediately repeated Carlisle's greeting to her in a bad version of his accent, and the tension in the room eased as everyone chuckled. She twisted in my arms to face me. "Uncle Garrett, is Carlisle your husband?" she asked innocently.

Now my family was really laughing, but my face was burning and I didn't know what to do. Carmen tried to shush her but it was too late. His name sounded cute when she said it though, not quite pronouncing all the syllables correctly. "Um, we're not married, Katie," I explained carefully, shooting Carlisle a playful glare as he hid a smile at my awkwardness.

She frowned as seriously as a five year old could. "Not married like mummy and daddy?" she reiterated. "But you live together!" I knew exactly what parent she got her dramatic flare from as she announced that; it had Eleazar written all over it.

"Enough, Kate," Carmen scolded through her giggles. "Leave them be."

"Have you been sending that kid to Sunday school?" I laughed to my brother. He just rolled his eyes at me.

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My niece wouldn't let up on her badgering of my boyfriend, demanding his attention so determinedly that he opted to sit on the floor with her in the living room and endure a round of building houses for her dolls out of lego. I winced on his behalf - he was going to pay for being on the ground later. Still, dad was watching him, a fond smile on his face. As soon as he caught me watching him studying Carlisle, his cheeks flushed and he quickly looked away again.

"You're going to be doubly in demand when Kate's little brother or sister is born," Carmen told him, semi-offhand but unable to resist a smile. One of her hands was wrapped in both of Eleazar's and they exchanged a glance.

There was a ten second pause where everyone processed the information, and my heart skipped a couple of beats. Suddenly, mum squealed and jumped up, her voice reaching a couple of octaves I'd never heard before as she embraced the couple. Dad quietly celebrated from his seat on the couch, congratulating them and grinning. Proud grandparents to the extreme.

I was on my feet before I realised what I was doing, crushing my brother in a hug, all reservations from before forgotten. "This is why you were dragging us all across town, huh?" I laughed. Suddenly, I was glad that we'd come.

He nodded, rolling his eyes. "Yeah; mum would have killed me if I'd just sent you a text." Well, he wasn't wrong.

"Congratulations, Carmen." Carlisle's voice made me glance over at him, just in time to see him carefully hug her. She immediately frowned, no doubt feeling the strapping across his ribs. He distracted her again before she asked. "How far along…?" It was the first logical question that anyone had asked since their announcement.

Her smile was back immediately. "Six weeks; it's probably too soon to be telling everyone, but we can't keep that from family."

Mum, seemingly forgetting that they had already had a baby before, and that said child was about three feet away from her, was set off fussing about how to manage morning sickness, what she was supposed to eat and what activities were good or bad for baby. Good god, I was glad I wasn't a female; I liked mayonnaise too much.

Leaving my parents to their over excited babbling and Kate's whining until she had my boyfriend's attention again, I followed my brother into the kitchen as he began to make cups of coffee - partly because I missed him, but mostly because he made shit coffee and needed supervision if it was going to be drinkable. He frowned upon seeing me with him, suddenly in thought. My confusion heightened as he shut the door behind us. He kept his back against the doorframe as he eventually spoke. "I had an interesting talk with one of the guys at work yesterday."

"Yeah?" It seemed like a dumb conversation to me, but then this was the consequences of us not spending much time together anymore; we were awkward. Why I needed to be physically blocked into the kitchen to have it was another thing, though.

"And I know what really happened with Carlisle," Eleazar murmured, keeping his voice low as he met my gaze.

My heart leap into my throat, but I swallowed the wave of dread and instinctively looked away. "What'd you mean?" I asked slowly. Although I tried to keep my tone light, I didn't have any success.

"I mean, I know he was sleeping with his boss, and it went sour." His expression was stern when I looked up at him, disapproving. "You realise you don't have to stay with him if you think he cheated, right?"

Apprehension was replaced with pure rage. "He didn't cheat on me, Eleazar, his boss abused him and beat the shit out of him; there's a fucking difference," I snapped back, spinning around and starting to spoon sugar into the mugs. I'd rather make the drinks by myself if he was going to be a dick. What a bloody turn of events. "Who told you that, anyway?"

"That's convenient for Carlisle, isn't it? To get 'perks' at work and then get you to swoop in and save him when he's had enough? And the guy is going to prison, but he gets a paid holiday."

"You didn't see it happening; he never wanted it. It isn't like he hospitalised himself for a week and a half, is it?" I growled. "And barely being able to breathe without being in pain is hardly a holiday, Eleazar. We don't know what's happening to his boss either; prison is the best scenario."

He was quiet, but his brows knitted together.

I was quickly losing my temper, fighting to keep my voice low. "Who the fuck told you?" I demanded.

Sighing through his teeth, he came to help me at the sink. "I work with one of Carlisle's friends - Randal?"

I squeezed the bench to remind myself not to lash out. Dammit, Alistair. "He obviously hasn't got his facts straight." Jealous more like it, especially if his own relationship was going down the drain. I wondered who's side Alistair would take if I told him, but I didn't really want to hurt him like that, even if his partner was a twat. "And you can't say anything to mum and dad- you haven't, have you?" My heart rate picked up; if this conversation was going south with my brother, it was going to be a mess if I tried to have it with dad.

"No," he grumbled. "I knew you would be pissed if I did." That was the end of it. He fled from the kitchen, into the hallway and out of sight.

My mind was reeling. I couldn't decide whether Eleazar had just taken the news badly, or if Randal really had purposely tried to hurt us. There wasn't a chance in hell that Alistair had started it; he'd already seen the state Carlisle was in, and they loved each other too much for that childish bullshit. Theoretically, he shouldn't have told his partner at all, but it was too late for that now. Whatever the case was, I couldn't let Carlisle find out; he'd lose his shit. It took me a horrendously long time to finish the drinks, until I was brave enough to go back to my family.

I grabbed Carlisle once he was close enough, pulling him into a tight hug. "I love you so much," I murmured past the lump in my throat, kissing his neck as he leaned his head against my shoulder. "More than anything."

"Are you okay, Garrett?" he asked carefully. "What brought this on?"

"Nothing; just don't ever forget that."

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I was still shaken up by the time we got home hours later. The visit had aggravated all kinds of pain for Carlisle, and he went straight to bed once we got in the door. As I helped him out of his clothing and wrapped the blankets around him, I was well aware that I was treating him like my child more than my twenty-four-year-old partner. Despite wanting independence, he was too tired to resist me at that point, not caring what happened to him as long as he could curl up with a book - and Fox, who had inserted herself into the situation without being invited.

He grabbed my hand when I tried to stand up again. "Are you alright?"

I nodded, sitting back on the bed and knotting our fingers together. The lump in my throat wouldn't shift, but I wasn't quite sure what it was that was making me want to have a meltdown. "Yeah, I'm okay," I told him, forcing a smile.

It wasn't convincing; he knew me too well. Unfortunately, he hit the nail on the head when he guessed what was so wrong, knowing before I'd even figured it out. His hold on my hand tightened. "...Do you want kids, Garrett?" he asked softly, almost shy about it.

I shook my head even though my heart wrenched painfully; Carlisle was my first relationship - because I'd never imagined myself with another man before meeting him, I hadn't entirely thought through this part of our reality. I'd never considered not being able to have children, not seriously. Seeing Carmen and Eleazar this afternoon had brought on a pang of longing that I didn't fully understand.

Carlisle forced himself to sit up, shuffling up the bed so that he could face me properly. His proximity to me made me feel more vulnerable than I would have liked, and the urge to have him in my arms was overwhelming. "You want children…?"

I tried to hug him, wanting him closer, and thankfully he moved into me so that I could. "I-I don't know...I love you…"

"I know," he assured me softly, his fingers brushing through my hair. "I love you too." Still, he looked a little sad, and I worried that it was my fault.

"Sorry, I-"

He cut me off with a kiss. "It's normal, Gar, don't apologise; I guess it's something we should have talked about earlier, seeming as I'm your first boyfriend," he chided gently.

"I didn't think it would matter," I mumbled, biting my lip as I realised something else. "You don't want to be a parent?"

"No, not really," he admitted, hesitating a little before quickly carrying on. "But then, I've never been with someone who I've loved, so maybe that will be different this time."

I shook the thoughts from my head; we hadn't even been together two years - there was no point in worrying about kids yet. Besides, I wanted Carlisle far more than I wanted to father anything. Jesus, I could barely keep myself alive anyway. And we currently had the sweetest little purring creature on earth. I scooped her up from where she lay on the other side of the bed, setting her between us. "It doesn't matter right now; we've got a cat."