Elora's point of view:

Days became harder and harder as he kept being gone. Without Flynn I didn't know who I was, what I had, what I could do. I hated knowing that he was all it took for me to fall into shambles like some schoolgirl in love with a boy from class. I tried fighting it but it was no use, I had no one here to comfort me or distract me from the fact that Flynn was gone and very well could not come back.

Rowan was gone as well. She called me this morning and said she was fine but she didn't plan on coming back for a while. Apparently she had met someone who had a boat and wanted to take her around for a few days. I had to admit that it was almost better not having her around to badger me about wallowing over her son that she didn't even care about. I couldn't believe that I was here, but I was thankful I had a place to stay.

It was a Monday when I woke up and began the usual morning sickness of the morning. This morning it was so bad that it took half an hour and falling asleep on the bathroom floor until it came to its most desired end. At around nine in the morning there came a small, quiet knock on the door. That had never happened before, and I had to admit that it alarmed me.

My eyes shot open and I weakly stood from the bathroom floor. I flushed the toilet and quietly stepped along the floor of the house and to the front door. I looked into the little peephole of the door, barely tall enough to reach it even on my toes. When I saw who was out at the porch, relief suddenly pooled over me. Finally, something in my life was actually happy and working out the way it was fortunately intended.

"Dad?" I said as I opened the door and saw him standing there, holding a bag and wearing a suit. It had been a while since I had seen him wear the one of the travel suits mom had bought him over the many years of their marriage. He usually only wore them when she was around so he would look impressive to other people and appear handsome enough to, in his words, 'deserve a woman that gorgeous'.

"Hey, baby girl," he said. He placed his bag on the ground and pulled me into a massive hug, twirling me around the room as I embraced him in return. I smiled brightly as I felt the warm hold of my father again after what felt like such a long time. I didn't know what he was doing here, but I was glad that he came.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as he put me down onto the floor again. I took his bags from the floor and placed them on the sofa. It looked to me like he planned on staying for a while, and I didn't care whatsoever. Rowan didn't plan on being here so why the hell could my father not take the place of protector? I felt a lot better with him around anyway.

"Flynn came back to your mother and I, and he was so torn up about leaving you here all alone. Since I felt like I had to do something, I came here to stay with you. I don't want you to be on your own just as much as Flynn doesn't," he replied. To hear that Flynn felt this way made me feel better and worse at the same time. I didn't want him to feel upset that I was alone, but I was also glad that he thought of me this much.

"I'm not really alone," I replied. I was already having reservations about telling my father that I was pregnant. But now would be as good a time as ever since I finally had him in a room that didn't contain Mihn and maps for battle strategy.

"Of course you were before I came here. Doesn't look to me that Flynn's estranged mother is exactly present," he replied. I nodded, knowing he was fully correct about that. Now I didn't know what to tell him. I wished I could have been perfectly out with it and just said that I was having a baby, but there was this wall of fear that kept me from being so straightforward.

"You're right, but that still doesn't make me alone. Not technically," I replied. This was when his brow went up in confusion. If it were my mother she would be able to sense it in five or so seconds. My father wasn't like that, I don't think many men were.

"Baby, you need to explain this to me. I don't understand," he replied. I took a deep breath and tried to do my best to make it clear. Who knew it was this hard to tell someone you were pregnant? I never had this much trouble with Flynn, but then again, he found out the same time as me so I had no time to drink it in.

"Dad, I'm uh---having a baby," I said. I watched as his eyes widened and his head turned away from me. I waited as he took the information in slowly, his eyes tracing hints of the room nervously. I wanted him so badly to answer me, but he just sat there like he was frozen solid.

"Does Flynn know?" He asked. I didn't really expect him to say that in return but at least he spoke to me. So I nodded and moved closer to him, taking his hand in mine as his exasperated expression remained tattooed on his face.

"Yes, he knows. He's really excited, but that's why he left me here. He didn't want anything happening to me that could hurt the baby," I replied. My father nodded and he breathed a few times, and then, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. He held me in his arms closely, smiling as he kissed the top of my head.

"Then it's definitely good that I came here," he said to me. I nodded and smiled as I leaned against him and lifted my legs onto the sofa. He held me there for a while, allowing me to recall the times he would do this when I was a little girl. This wasn't any different, but I had to admit how much I missed him holding me. I never really realized how amazing of a father I had. Some people weren't so lucky to have the parents they did, and I was fortunate to have a pair of angels raising me.

"You know this is going to make more trouble, though, don't you? You'll be in even more danger, and another life is at stake," he replied. I nodded, knowing this more than I cared to acknowledge. I wished I could have been naive about this like I was about everything else, to expect the best out of it. But now my life had become so jaded that I knew it was impossible for something to work out like I was a normal person with a normal life. He had no idea how many times I had felt so alone that I wanted to die.

"What am I going to do?" I asked.

"We'll figure it out. I'm here now. Don't worry," he replied.

•••

Flynn's point of view:

Seven Months Later...

Our entire case had gone cold. We had all looked so hard, into every inch of every place, and yet nothing had even glinted, not a shred of a lead showed up. Even when we couldn't find a thing to go on, we kept going. The reason for this was because there was no response from anyone. The Klan was no longer harassing us and Jack had reported on numerous occasions that Elora was just fine. It scared me that they were so very silent on trying to find her, which just drove me to keep searching.

Elora's pregnancy being on the verge of its ending was also driving me to a little point of insanity. The fact that a baby was on the way and I couldn't see it was absolutely agonizing. I always wanted to be there to see my baby born, to be the first to hold it. Now I didn't have a right to do that, because I was here and she was there. I felt better knowing her father was there to help her with all she needed and he seemed to be a good caretaker. This didn't surprise me as he raised five children all close together in age.

Yet it didn't stop me from realizing her due date was all but a week away and I hadn't even seen her stomach grow. It was one of the most painful things that I ever had to experience, knowing that I wasn't there to see that beautiful baby inside her grow. The little baby that I had created, the little baby that was rightfully mine. I didn't think that I'd be gone so long, I didn't think that the case would freeze like this. But now all I had were the negative effects of a puzzle with a missing piece.

As days went by I kept thinking about it even more. Hilda and Harry tried to keep me distracted but it was no use. I was rendered basically catatonic due to the fact that I couldn't see the woman I had made a child with. The child that had yet to be born, the child I promised silently that I would be there to hold it when it was finally born. I was surprised that I hadn't died from such a broken heart. It may sound dramatic to everyone else, but everyone else didn't feel what I felt. Hilda tried her hardest to make me feel like it wasn't my fault, but every day that passed made me feel just that. It was around this time that it was true; that without her in my life I was an empty life form with nothing to lose.

It was New Year's Day of 1971. We were in California, and it was raining hard. It didn't snow here, not at all. I hated that it didn't snow at this time of year here. I was used to seeing the picturesque view of snowfall in Washington. I knew Elora was probably seeing that right this second, holding her growing belly as our child rested within her. Jack was spending these days with her, and that was a good thing. He had mailed me a single photo of Elora standing against the wall of my mother's kitchen when she was seven months pregnant. All I did was look at that image, imagining it a little bigger now. She was smiling as bright as the winter sun, her skin pale and beautiful like the snow that fell in Washington. She was so beautiful, so magnificent and magical. The only thing missing was me holding her as I felt the baby kick.

Jack wrote to me saying my mother had come back a week after he had arrived there to stay with Elora. She was fine with Jack staying, him explaining the only reason was because she found him magnetically handsome, as she put it. This made me chuckle, and then I read that she had left again a few weeks later, and didn't come back for three months. According to her, she had gone to Monaco with the man she had met before. When she came back, she had barely stayed for two weeks before she went off again with the very same man and hadn't come back since, only communicating with letters and phone calls. I suppose it was better that way if she kept trying to make a move on Jack, who would've ran off with his daughter if it continued. It was amazing to know how faithful Jack was to Hilda.

Hilda and Harry were grabbing food for us to eat that night when I sat in my hotel room all alone. I was sitting on the bed as the TV blared in the background. Some sitcom rerun played its comedy, the voices of laughing coming in every time someone in the show said something. I wasn't even paying attention as I stared at the small picture of Elora smiling as she held her stomach. Temptation began to build up, the temptation to leave and find Elora.

I was aware of how reckless and extremely dangerous it was to leave and find her. But there was this hole within myself that made me unable to function without her presence. There were the thoughts of her having our baby all alone, and that was slowly sending me off the cliff of giving up and just going to her. I was her husband, I had to be there for her. What kind of man did it make me if I wasn't there when she delivered the baby?

It had been decided when I placed the picture in my pocket, swore profanely, and left the bed that I was sitting on. I went for my bag, packed it up with all I would need, took my coat and room key, and was ready. The last thing I did was write a letter to Hilda and Harry that explained to them where I went, and that I felt that I was going to die if I didn't see her as soon as possible. I had a naive hope that both of them would understand and not come back for me and bring me here. I didn't really care at that point, all I wanted to do was have her back in my arms, even if it was just for a while.

I left the hotel in a hurry before Hilda or Harry could run into me leaving. I took my car, leaving theirs parked beside mine. I started the engine, and left the hotel parking lot immediately. I found it one hundred times easier to breathe when I was finally away from that place. It wasn't that the building was in bad quality, but I knew this was one step closer to being with Elora, and that was enough to relieve me of my mental struggles.

Hours passed as I drove and never did I regret leaving Hilda and Harry. I knew they were definitely wondering where I was and had probably already read the note I had left them. I crossed all of the borders, from California all the way up to Washington. It took just a little less than two days to get there at the fastest route. Trains and cars ran through my head and crashed every time I drove closer to my mother's house where Elora would certainly be. Finally, I would have her with me again.

•••

Elora's point of view:

It came to no surprise that the night of January second I felt the sharp labour pains known as contractions. I was full with child and, the way my father had pleasantly described it, 'ready to pop'. I couldn't laugh at his joke due to the fact of terrible pain running through my body. Immediately my father acted, telling me to get in the car so we could drive to the hospital.

We drove fast but no matter how quick we went, it was never enough. I wanted to get there soon, because the pains were getting closer and closer together. I had done enough research to know that was a sign the baby was coming closer and closer. I didn't think they'd progress this quickly, but Lord did they ever get here like they were running a marathon to make me feel like pulling my hair right out of my skull.

My dad rushed into the hospital with me hanging off his arm as he ordered for someone to get me in a wheelchair. The nurses acted fast and had me in the chair and wheeling towards a room to have me deliver in. They almost denied the entry of my father into the room, as that wasn't really how things went when it came to giving birth. But I begged and begged for them to let him in, because I had no one else to hold my hand. Even then, they still argued with me, saying that wasn't permitted under hospital rule. My father tried to persist but even then I was beginning to get extremely upset with them.

"I'll say this one more time: Let. Him. In!" I shouted, almost at the top of my lungs. I was angry and wanted my dad to be there while I had a baby, whom of which was sparing no time in trying to get out of its mother. It was after that that the nurses realized I wasn't playing around and allowed for my father to go in with me. He thanked them and said I was better off with someone, that I had had a tough few months.

I was loaded onto a hospital bed where the doctor came in to check if I was ready to have the baby. He had been surprised when he noticed just how quick it had taken for me to become fully dilated and prepared to push the baby out. I was glad for this as I just wanted it to be over. I had never felt such unmistakable pain until I felt the burn of pushing a baby out of me.

My father held my hand the whole time as I moaned and screamed for the pain to stop. It just kept coming though, and I felt every inch of the baby as it left my body. I breathed as best as I could to try and relax, sweat lacing my hair and skin as I reddened with tiredness. It was a long time before I finally heard the high pitched wail of a baby that had been born into the world.

There she was, crying and being held in the arms of the doctor that had delivered her. My heart swelled at least one hundred times as I saw her there for the first time, that beautiful little girl. It was the most precious moment of my life, until the laborious pains of birth began to arrive back to my body. It was then that the doctor handed the baby girl to the nurse and said words I never expected to be said:

"There's another one. Prepare for the rest of delivery," he said as my eyes went wide in surprise. I had gone to the doctor many times and never once did he detect any hints of twins. This one must have been hiding, because it had gone uncovered for nine months.

I kept pushing until I felt the second little baby make its way out. There I met my second daughter, born four minutes after the first one. Both of them were two of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen, both definitely identical twins. I couldn't believe that I had two babies, two to take care of, and an extra one for Flynn to see when he finally got to hold them in his arms.

"You did it, baby girl! You did it!" My father exclaimed as he saw the little girls being taken to be cleaned and wrapped up. He held my hand as we both smiled at each other, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't even talk to him. He could tell how ecstatic I was to have these little children that would always love me no matter what, that I would always love unconditionally.

"Yeah, yeah I did it," I whispered, barely able to speak only those few words. But in my mind, I was shouting to the heavens that I had done it, that I had had these babies, and that they were mine and no one else's---except Flynn's.

When it was all done, the girls were taken to the room with all the newborn babies so I could get some sleep. I had had no trouble with dozing off deeply, dreamlessly. My father was asleep in the chair next to my bed, the quiet of the night taking all of us in. I was at peace for once in my life, and I wasn't surprise sleep brought me that.

At around two in the morning, I heard a soft shuffling around in the room. I had debunked it, half asleep, that my father had just gotten up to use the bathroom. I let my eyes shut again, but I heard the sound again, louder this time. My eyes bolted open and I sat up. As I looked around the room to see what was wrong, I noticed my father was not in his seat, and the bathroom was completely empty. Just as I was about to call for him, I felt a hard and sharp pain hit my head, everything going black.

Note: hello! I'm back! I'm terribly sorry for such a long wait! Thing is, is that I recently---and still kind of am---having some boyfriend troubles. Don't worry, I am alright. I just had a bit of a writers block. Everyone has their Brönte moments, especially when one meets a Mr. Darcy. Comment if you know what I mean there! Haha. Anyway, be sure to vote and comment on the chapter and let me know what you think. Also be sure to follow me for updates on all things writing! Catch you later! And happy reading!