Hannah
“I know that you’re sorry, E…” I told her, because I did know that she was sorry, what she said was in the moment, but it broke my heart “I mean, honestly, I probably would have been way worse in the situation but at the same time, what kills me is exactly what you said to me… you can’t forget something like that,” Her face dropped and I knew she expected me to reject her apology, but to be honest, I didn’t know where this was going. I wanted everything to be okay between us and as normal as possible.

“I would never genuinely want Baby Sanders to be dead, Hannah.” She said, her voice sounded much sadder and sorrowful than I’d expected “No matter what, that child is everything right now and I want it healthy and alive and ready to meet its amazing parents, I love that child,” She said and then, like a ton of bricks hitting me, my bottom lip started to tremble and tears started to roll down my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” I cried “It’s all my fault,” I told her “You said it, and I know you’re sorry for it, but it is my fault that this isn’t happening for you now,” I blubbered as I cradled my stomach “And I feel horrible about everything, it still hurts what you said, but it’s true, why shouldn’t you get to be a mother when I do?” I was blubbering, covering my mouth with my shaking hands.

“Ma’am?” One of the waitresses asked when she brought us our food “Is everything alright?”

I didn’t answer her, I just looked at Erin’s face, my heart breaking as I watched her watch me cry, I could tell that she wanted to comfort me, as much as I wanted to hold and comfort her, but she didn’t know if I wanted her to.

“Erin!” I cried. That’s all it took for her to leap from her chair and move around the table to me and take me into her arms the second I was on my feet.

And we stood there, in the middle of the restaurant, wrapped in each other’s arms, swaying from side to side; I cried into her neck and she cried into my hair.

“I love you,” She whispered.

“I love you, too.” I smiled, pulling back so that I could look up at her before turning to the waitress who was watching us with a big smile on her face “Can I just have some more napkins, please?” I asked.

“Coming right up,” She smiled, turning and hurrying away to get me what I asked for.

“Oh!” I gasped, feeling the strongest movement “Okay, that was definitely an attempt at a kick from Baby Sanders,”

Erin looked at me, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, her hands were twitching.

“You wanna feel?” I asked, taking her hand in mine. She nodded silently, a nervous smile spreading across her lips. She’s my girlfriend, Brian’s wife and a pretty important member in the Avenged family, and she has to be the only person who hasn’t felt the
bump yet.

I guided her right hand to the swell of my stomach in the area the baby seemed to move around the most, her left hand followed until she had a hand on either side of my stomach. She stepped a little closer to me and crouched so that she was almost eye level with my stomach.

“I can’t feel anything,” She sighed.

“Say something,” I told her, she looked up at me with her eyebrows knitted together “She can hear when we talk, and she likes it the most when we talk to her, apparently,”

She took a deep breath in and let it our slowly, shifting slightly.

“Hey baby,” She said to my stomach “I’m your aunt Erin, and I love you very much and we can’t wait to meet you, but you gotta promise to stay in there until you’re as cute as you can get before we see you, okay?” She waited a few second “I know you can hear me in there,” As soon as those words left her mouth, there was a definite movement in there “Wow…” She breathed “I felt it,”
~~~~
After lunch, I felt like walking to stretch my legs a little, I kept getting leg cramp and sitting on the chairs in the restaurant was making my hips sore.

We were walking around town, talking about nothing but everything at the same time, from both of us needing new cars to wondering if we would be given the all clear to go on tour.

“Wanna have a look?” She asked, stopping me in my tracks. I turned around to see what she was talking about, and I saw her looking into the baby store that I’d had my eye on for weeks now.

“Erin…” I sighed, and she raised her eyebrows in surprise at me, probably at the fact I didn’t jump at her question “You don’t have to push yourself to do this kind of stuff for me,” I told her softly.

She just laughed a little and took my hand in hers.

“I want to go in there, watch you get all excited and emotional over how tiny the new-born clothes are, and then I’m going to buy you something that you really love, and spoil my niece,”

She didn’t let me protest anymore, she just dragged me inside the store.

We were walking around in almost complete silence, except for the occasional ‘aww’ coming from one or both of us, and squeaking when we found something small and cute.

“Chose one thing for a boy, and one for a girl,” She told me, and I did as I was told.

I grabbed a new-born sized pair of pale blue dungarees and a little puffy pink dress for a little girl.

“Have you guys thought of any names yet?” She asked.

“Well, we’re pretty sure it’s going to be a girl, but we have names for a boy, too.”

“Tell me,” She laughed.

“Okay,” I chuckled “If it is a girl, we like Dallas, Alice and Eilidh,”

“Eilidh?” She asked.

“The Scottish equivalent to Ellie,” I told her.

“Ah!” She realised “And if you happen to have a little boy?”

“Cooper, Brandon or Hunter,” She nodded along and told me she liked all of the names “Yeah, I’m trying not to make the list too long, because when she’s born, she may not look like any of the names we choose,”

Erin’s phone started ringing and she excused herself outside of the store, leaving me to browse while she answered it.

I heard two people talking heatedly amongst themselves and my curiosity got the better of me, I looked over to where the voices were coming from and saw two men, they were wearing sunglasses, -shirts and shorts, but I’d seen them like, three times today and not once had I taken them for a gay couple. Why else would they be in here, if they weren’t getting a baby of their own?”

“Hannah,” Erin whispered, a fake smile on her lips “Come on, let’s pay for these and head home, okay?”

“Uh… alright,” I chuckled “But what’s the rush?” I asked as she pulled me towards the counter.

“Matt and Brian just need to speak to us about something back at your place,”

“Enough,” I hissed, yanking her back so that she stopped walking and turned around to face me “What is going on? And tell me, because the last time you got a phone call and dragged me away from shopping, someone was coming for us, who is it?”

“See the guys over there?” She asked, gently rolling her head to the right side. I took a casual sweep of the store, nodding my head so that anyone would think we were just talking “They’ve been following us all day, the guys think they know who they are, they might be working for Gena and Val,”
~~~~
Matt
Hannah and I had a joint hospital with Erin and Brian today with Brent, so while we waited for the girls to come home, we did all the searching that we could, trying to find out who the guys following the girls around were.

“I’ve got a horrible feeling about this,” I admitted “I think that it could be someone from… before, you know?”

“I was thinking the same thing,” He sighed, rubbing his face with his hands “Val and Gena could get anyone to do anything that they wanted, and it would help against us if it were someone who already wanted us dead,”

“We fucked up,” I whispered “We fucked up in the past and didn’t think about how I would affect us in the future, now my wife and unborn daughter are in danger as well as your wife, we fucked up big, Brian and now everything we love could be taken away from us in the blink of an eye,”

“Hey,” He whispered, hurrying to wrap his arms around me in our type of typical hug “They’re coming home, okay?” He asked and I nodded against his shoulder “Erin, Hannah and your baby are coming back to us,”

Brian just sat there and let me lose it, he never judged, it was one of the many reasons we were such good friends for all of this time.

“What’s going on?” Hannah asked, concerned as the two of them walked into the house. I pulled away from Brian and wiped my face “Matt, are you alright?”

“This is all my fault,” I told her, looking between her and Erin “This is our fault,”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.

“Everything we did in our past, it’s coming back to haunt us, everything is going to come to the surface, and soon, you’re going to find out everything we ever did to get to where we are now, and because of all of that shit, you’re all in danger,”
~~~~
The four of us were in the semi-private hospital room, l the girls were sitting up in their separate beds while we waited for all of their test results, trying to make conversation with Brian and I, but we were both a little lost in our heads, but I knew that they just didn’t want to think about the events of today and my outburst back at the house.

“How are we all doing in here?” Brent asked as he entered the room with that famous Haner smile on his face while flipping through a pile of paper.

“Fine,” Hannah smiled.

“Feeling so much better than before,” Erin told Brent honestly.

“Well,” He sat down on a chair in the middle of the room, at the end of both beds “Everything looks great,” We all let out sighs of relief “Erin, you look better than you did before the crash,” He told her, looking through her results “You’re a fighter, but I knew that from the moment I met you,”

“What about Hannah?” I asked.

“Amazing,” Brent said “Everything is right on schedule, your pelvis is holding up really well, but I am going to up your pain meds for the tour, you could get really, really sore over the few months you’re away, but other than that, everything is amazing, your concussion is gone, the baby is healthy and your boot can come off the day before you all go off on tour,”

Sometimes I think that Brent gets a little jealous of the life Brian leads, making music, having fans and touring the whole world, while he is stuck here being the doctor.

“You’re all clear to go,”

Notes

This is much shorter than I wanted it to be, sorry guys!
So, the girls have the all clear for tour while Matt is feeling guilty. I wonder what Brian is feeling. Who were the guys following them around?
Much more to come, don't you guys worry! Up next is my amazing bestie and co-writer, elovebakervengeance! <3

- LMV (: