"Well at least it's cute," Lauren sighs as she cuts the engine. I chuckle softly as we stare at the cabin in front of us. "We'll make do, just pretend it's one long girl's night," she chuckles. I roll my eyes undoing my seatbelt and glancing over at Addie who was asleep. We had driven from Virginia to Upstate New York, taking a plane would've been too dangerous for us so we drove. Lauren and I took turns of course.

"So how often have you done these protective services thing?" I question as I grab Addie's car seat and we begin to walk up to the cabin.

"Not a lot, just a few times but you are definitely gonna be my favorite ones to look after," she jokes winking at me as she unlocks the door. I chuckle.

"Is this like the government issued or?"

"It's actually Alex's," she tells me, "well his parents but I guess it's obviously his and his sisters, apparently they used to come up here but," she shrugs and I nod as we enter.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought," I mumble.

"Apparently Alex has had a few people he knew and trusted to prep the house, the nursery is upstairs, his childhood friend would drop off food and essentials every Friday. So girl we're set," She fists bumps the air and I laugh. We begin to settle in and soon we were in the kitchen, Lauren cracking open a bottle of wine as she began to cook some pasta.

"You okay?" She asks. I nod slowly as I cradle Addie in my arms. "It'll work out Penny, don't worry. Alex won't stop at nothing," she tells me.

"I know," I nod stroking Addie's cheek.

"He truly did look heartbroken when he left," she says softly, "I've never seen him look that sad,"

"I don't think I could possibly leave after my daughter was born but like you said he's relentless and won't stop at all," I say.

"You know before this whole thing between you two happened, he hardly spent his time out of headquarters. We were worried that he'd become like William," She says and I chuckle.

"Really? He was never that serious around us four, I mean especially with me,"

"When he told us he got someone pregnant we didn't believe it but then he started to pull out the sonogram and all this shit," she stops, "sorry," she mumbles for swearing and I laugh, "but anyways it was a complete turnaround, he smiled more, talked a lot about you and Addie, like god I kinda wanted to die,"

"Wait so how did the godfather competition go? I told Xander to call it off,"

"He did, don't worry. The boys were pissed though," she chuckles.

Addie begins restless and starts to cry, I sigh and rock her as I pull up my shirt slowly.

"Nice ring," Lauren winks at me as she separates the pasta into two bowls. I roll my eyes at her "you know I helped him,"

"Pick the gift out?" I ask and she hums.

"He read the idea of a push present online and wanted to do it but was completely lost, so I helped,"

"I love it," I say glancing at the ring on my left hand. "I also love how he was one too," I say as Addie immediately begins to feed.

Addie has been an easy baby, for the most part, she feeds easily and somewhat slept throughout the night, but I kept telling myself that it couldn't be this easy so I was mentally preparing myself for the worst.

"Hey Lauren," I say and look up at her, she raises an eyebrow. "Thank you, for doing this," I tell her and she smiles at me.

"My team is my family, even though I still think they don't trust me because I'm a girl but details," she rolls her eyes, "Anyways my team is my family and I'll do what I can to help and protect family," she tells me.

I smile, "so it isn't as fun being the only girl on the team?" I ask, she laughs.

"No, we'll Eh sometimes it's fun. Usually when I end up doing something badass which is slim but I do kick butt at poker," she smiles triumphantly. "But I mean they do treat me like family and sometimes treat me like I'm one of them,"

"Men," I mumble jokingly. She nods agreeing.

"Exactly," she winks. "Men, can't live with them but can't live without them," she lifts a shoulder sipping on her wine. "Hmm, so can you really not drink wine?" She asks.

"Not while I'm breastfeeding," I said glancing down at the current situation I was in.

"Ugh boo," she whines and I laugh. Maybe this thing won't be so bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was wrong to say Addie slept through most of the night because she had become restless and I honestly tried not to cry when she did. Lauren tried to help whenever she could but I think Addie somehow realized that Alex wasn't here.

A month and a half had gone by, we hadn't heard anything from anyone, not like we were supposed to though. The plan was that we'd be contacted once everything was over. Addie was starting to lift her head and bring her hands to her face.

Lauren had bought a new phone so we could take videos and photos of Addie for Alex. We both had to leave our phones at home and when the guy was caught or whatever we'd get a package with a disposable phone and that's how we'd know.

"Oh yea that's right slobber all over Auntie Lauren's hands, I don't care," Lauren says from the living room. I laugh walking in with a bowl of ice cream for the both of us.

"Oh god I could just squeeze her little cheeks forever," Lauren says in a baby voice and I laugh. "You know she's got a good mix of you and Alex but definitely your fiery personality, she tried to bite off my finger,"

"She has no teeth," I deadpan.

"Same difference," she waves me off as I swaddle Addie up and slowly pull her into my lap. We eat out ice cream as an episode of Grey's Anatomy plays on the tv in front of us.

"I'm gonna go and try to get Addie to sleep," I announce, and Lauren nods as I move away from the living room and upstairs. The nursery was upstairs and so were two bedrooms. I think it was Alex and his sister's room when they were here because the downstairs bedroom was the master, or so Lauren and I think. But all three bedrooms had queen-sized beds so it didn't really make much of a difference.

I did the normal bedtime routine of Addie, giving her a shower and then feeding her.

"Want to hear a different story this time? It's about mommy and daddy," I say stroking her cheek. She was just so soft I couldn't help myself.

"Mommy and daddy actually disliked each other, we were always making funny faces at each other, he tugged my hair," I say softly smiling sadly. "But when we found out about you Addie, he never left my side. He came to every doctor's appointment he could, he picked up all the weird foods I wanted, he lost sleep because I made full course meals, he gave me foot rubs because my feet are swollen" I sit down on the bed beside the bassinet.

"You know I never thought your daddy had a nice bone in his body, not towards me anyways but somehow during these nine months he's proved me wrong, absolutely wrong and the worst part is or I guess not worst part but in these nine months I've somehow fallen completely and utterly in love with him, I never told him, never had the chance too," I say as she grabs my hand in hers, tugging it gently.

I sigh and blink away a tear "I never said it back to him when he told me he loved me at the hospital," I say and tighten my arm around her. Sniffling a bit I put on a smile as she stares at me with wide eyes.

"Don't worry though, daddy will be back soon and then we'll be together. We have to find a way to persuade daddy not to leave us for this long again," I smile at her.

I slowly place Addie in her bassinet after she's done feeding, rocking the bassinet slowly I grab the scrapbook on the nightstand, flipping to the back I see one of the many Polaroids Sav took, it was a picture of Me, Addie, and Alex. We were all on the bed, I had her in my arms as we both smiled down at her.

God, I was an absolute wreck. I didn't know I could miss someone so much who I wasn't even dating but it felt like we were.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Placing the baby monitor on the coffee table I flop down beside Lauren. I had changed out of my t-shirt and thrown on one of Alex's hoodies.

"Can I ask you a question?" Lauren asks me.

"Always," I nod as I stare at the tv screen.

"Do you think you and Alex are gonna get married or anything? I know you two aren't together, the team things you are but Alex has never kept anything from me, and because I'm annoying," She says.

Biting my lip I play with the strings of the grey hoodie, "I don't know," I sigh truthfully. "I mean I never said this to him but I love him and I just," I trail off.

"Do you see yourself with anyone else or?" She chuckles.

"Honestly, no, and that kinda scares me the most. What if the only reason I love him is because of Addie, I mean he's the father and she's his child so what if it's just because of that?" I ask.

"Well," she says placing her feet on the coffee table and crossing them. "I mean tell me something you like about him that doesn't include your daughter,"

"Well I mean I guess I kinda enjoyed how we teased and fought with each other, I like that even before I knew I was pregnant he knew when I wasn't feeling myself, that's his thing you know, observing and knowing something most people don't," I tell her and she hums.

"I like how after the whole hostage thing and after I found out I was pregnant he showed up after work and brought a slice of red velvet cake, I didn't even tell him I loved that flavor he said he just had a hunch"

"Wanna know what he said to me on the way back from when we went to DC?" She asks turning to me. I raise an eyebrow, "I don't think he knew what he had confessed this but he was just rambling on about how you guys made a cake the night before and said that even though you two were always bickering and teasing each other it was the comfortableness between you two, that you two were comfortable and could talk about anything and everything and how you didn't give a shit about what people said or did about you, he also said you were hot when you painted," She laughs.

I smile, "I know we aren't romantically together but I can't imagine my life without him or even with anyone else," I confess.

"It's different and feels different when you announce it out loud huh?" She asks me and I nod slowly.

"I had never felt this way about anyone but I'd do anything for him and Addie, of course,"

"You know I knew I should've helped him pick an engagement ring before all this," she says and slouches back onto the couch. I chuckle embarrassed.

Obviously, Alex and I weren't even dating but if he did propose, would I accept it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The snow had begun to melt in Upstate New York, I mean we were into April now. April, it's been four months, four months since Lauren and I took Addie and left and four months since I've seen Alex.

Currently, Lauren and I were walking around the forest area we were in, Addie was in her stroller wide awake.

"Lauren, I won't paint you like Leonard DiCaprio did in Titanic," I laugh loudly.

"Have you ever done a nude paint session before?" She asks me dead serious.

"What? No!" I exclaim. She raises an eyebrow.

"I was nineteen," I mumble. She laughs and grabs onto my arm.

"See!" She exclaims "and how was it?" She asks "was the nude person a Dude?" She asks and I nod slowly "was he hot?"

"Obviously," I blurt out and she laughs.

"Was his dick big?" She asks.

"Lauren!" I gasp swaying her gently. She laughs.

"Was it? Or are you not gonna answer cause Alex's is bigger?" She wiggles her eyebrow. I roll my eyes.

"I'm keeping my mouth shut, if you want to know you should do a nude painting session," I tell her.

"I think I'd just go there to see the naked man, who cares about painting," She waves her hand as the wind blows past us, pushing my hair off my shoulders.

"I cared about painting," I laugh as we turn the road and head back to the cabin. As we walk towards the cabin Lauren quickly grabs my arm and stops us, I glance up and look towards the cabin. The door was open.

"Penny hide behind the car," Lauren instructs pulling out her gun from her ankle. "I'll be right back," she says nudging me towards the car. I quickly obey and hide behind the car. I watch as she slowly approaches the cabin, her gun raised as she enters the cabin and I watch her disappear.

A beat passes and she comes back tucking her gun away and waving me in. I slowly move the stroller and go up to the cabin slowly. Behind Lauren, a man comes out.

"Pen this is Tucker," She introduces us, "he's FBI secret service too," she tells me. I nod and we shake hands.

"What's going on Tuck?" Lauren asks as we get the stroller onto the porch and I pick Addie up slowly.

"The stalker is on the move, he found out you've been moved." The male sighs stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks. Lauren glances at me.

"We've got a chase going after him, all local polices have been notified from Virginia up to here. He won't get far but I've been issued for back up."

"Of course," Lauren chuckles.

"Alex sent me," Tucker deadpans at Lauren as she waves him off.

"H-how is he?" I ask, hoisting Addie up more as I cradle her in my arms. "Alex I mean,"

"He looks tired as hell but very determined, he won't stop until he's back with you two," Tucker says glancing over me and Addie. I nod.

"Do you think he could come here?" Lauren asks as she gestures for me to walk in. I listen to them talk as I walk towards the living room.

As the night carried on, it started to rain. The FBI agents with me treated the rest of the day like a waiting game, guns at the ready if they needed to. I slowly place Addie inside the bassinet she had finally fallen asleep.

Headlights bring my head to snap towards the window "Pen stay upstairs!" Lauren yells before I hear the front door open and close.

Slowly moving around the room, I pull the curtain back and I lean forward to see three people standing in front of the car's headlights. Suddenly one person looks up and I finally recognize him as Alex. I cover my hand to stop myself from crying. Alex was quick to rush past the two other agents and jog towards the door. I let my feet carry me out of the room and towards the front door. I stop at the bottom of the stairs as the front door swings open.