"Guys,  I got it." I tell my husband and best friend as they help me walk into the house.

I had to fight them for ten minutes because they insisted Camden carry me inside.

Finally they agree to just help me into my room.

Eventually, very slowly, we make it to my room and they help me into the bed.

Willow grabs me a bowl of ice, I've been craving it like crazy, while Camden puts pillows behind me and blankets on top of me.

"Guys, really, I'm fine." I tell them but they just wave me off.

"If you need anything, just call me." Willow tells me with a big smile before leaving, probably to find Everett.

Camden sits next to me and I smile at him. "I'm okay." I tell him softly.

"We almost lost you." He whispers, his voice hoarse.

I move a hand through his hair. "But you didn't lose me, love. I'm right here." I say comfortingly.

He gently grabs my wrist and brings my hand to his mouth, kissing my palm softly.

"I love you." He tells me.

"And I you." I say to him and he nods.

"I know." He says and we're both smiling.

He kisses my stomach. "We should think of baby names. Maybe if we start planning then we'll get lucky and everything will be okay." He suggests.

"I agree. I was in that hospital for two months, Cam, and everything was fine. We should start planning."

I'm seven months pregnant now, so we don't have that much time.

We have enough time though, we can get everything done quickly.

I've already been shopping for him for months and his nursery is almost completely set up.

"What about a B name? My names Camden and yours is Athena. A B C. I don't know, maybe that's stupid." He changes his mind mid sentence.

"I don't think it's stupid. Besides, I've actually found a name I really liked the other day and it starts with a B." I tell him.

"Really?" He asks and I nod.

"You give me your name suggestions first though." I say and he nods.

"I don't know. Blake, Benjamin, Bentley, Brice, Benny?" He lists names with a face that says he doesn't really know what he's saying.

I laugh at him and he starts laughing too, shaking his head.

"You actually said the name I was thinking of." I tell him, surprising him.

"Oh yeah? Which one?" He asks, interested.

"Guess."

Lately things between Mason and I have been interesting, to say the least.

We don't really talk about it but we watch movies while cuddling and we kiss and stuff but we just never actually acknowledge it.

Camille, River and Jeremy, along with anyone else who's in this house, are so confused but I can't give them answers to their questions because I don't know the answers.

I have no clue what's even going on with us.

He walks into the room while I'm sitting on the couch and he sits next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

I lean my head on him, enjoying the comfort of him.

We watch tv for a while but I really wanna know what we're doing here.

"Mase?" I ask him and he looks at me.

"What are we doing? What is this? I need to know." I sigh, needing answers.

"What do you want it to be?" He asks.

"Tell me what you want it to be. I asked first." I state and he sighs.

"Well, if it were up to me, I'd want this to be permanent. I'd want this to be a marriage. I'd want to fall in love. However, if you want something different I understand." He explains, looking a little nervous.

I think for a moment before answering. "I think I'd want it to be real, too. I'm married to you whether I wanted it or not, and I don't want to be in a loveless marriage. We should see if we can fall in love. If we do, great it's officially a real marriage. If we don't, fine we'll figure something out." I explain and I see him trying not to but he ends up smiling.

"Alright. Let's see what we can be." He agrees and we turn back to the tv, leaning on each other in silence.

Alexia falls asleep on me and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me.

I don't know why I feel this way about her.

I knew that I could see us being happy in our marriage, even if it wasn't love, but I didn't know I'd get nervous every time I'm around her.

Honestly, I regret everything I did and said at the start of our marriage.

If I could take everything I did and said back, I would.

Except the whole marriage thing. But I wouldn't go about it the way I did.

I'd negotiate and give her brothers anything they want for peace. Eventually we'd run into each other every now and then. I'd ask her out and she'd agree. After a while of dating, I'd propose and we'd have a real wedding and be in a real marriage.

I know I want a real marriage with her but I also know I don't deserve it.

"You don't know how badly I wish I could start over. Slate wiped clean. I'd do everything so differently. Better." I whisper to her, knowing she's asleep and won't hear me.

Figuring it's time for me to go away, I try to get up.

She wraps her arms around me tighter and keeps sleeping on me, not wanting to let go.

I chuckle a little and get more comfortable since it seems I'm gonna be here a while.

I take my phone out of my pocket and go through some emails, making sure everything is okay.

There's nothing that seems to be wrong so I set my phone down on the table by the couch, closing my eyes for a few seconds.

I hear the sound of a camera clicking and open my eyes to find Camille with her phone, taking photos of us.

I give her a look. "What?" She asks innocently. "You guys are so cute!" She beams, and I roll my eyes at her.

"Send me the photos." I mumble, unhappy that I'm asking.

"Well of course." She says in a sickly sweet voice before leaving the room.

My phone dings and I look at the photo of Alexia and I laying on the couch, both of us seeming asleep.

Despite myself, I smile at the picture.

It's been a month and things between Mason and I have been really great.

The other day we went to the park and there was this lake that we sat by while we ate food and talked about our lives and about what we want for our future.

It was really amazing and I think I'm starting to be able to see myself with him.

We haven't really done anything besides kissing and getting to know each other but we're taking it slow, for now.

I'm drawing me and Mason by the lake when Camille walks in and sits on my bed.

"Hey Cami, what's up?" I ask without looking away from what I'm doing.

"I have a bad feeling." She told me with an unsure voice and I set down my pencil, turning towards her.

"What do you mean?" I ask her.

"I don't know, Lex. I just have this feeling in my gut and it's freaking me out." She tells me, showing how anxious she is.

I go over and sit next to her, comforting her.

"Cami, I'm sure everything is okay. That use to happen to me too but it was just stress. Is there anything you're stressed about?"

She runs a hand through her hair. "Not really, I- I don't know. Nothing wrong has been going on so I don't know why I feel like this. The only thing I can think of is a while ago when my boyfriend died but that was probably for the best and honestly I feel kinda free from that and I just don't know." She rants.

"Woah, Cami, okay, it's fine. I'm sure everything is alright, okay? Maybe you're just tired. Have you been sleeping?" I ask her.

"Kind of. Not really. Ugh, Lex I don't know." She groans, falling back onto my bed.

There's a knock on my door and Mason walks in, looking at Camille confusingly.

"She has a weird feeling and we're trying to figure out why. I think she might just be tired but she says she doesn't know." I explain to my husband.

He sits down next to his sister and looks down at her.

"It's okay, Cami. Everything's been really quiet for a long time. Everything's fine." He assured her and she nods, sitting up again.

"Do you guys wanna watch a movie?" He suggests, knowing it'd be a good distraction for Cami.

We both agree and we all go into the giant movie room and watch a movie.

I'm sitting on the couch when I decide to call Peyton.

"Hello?" She answers and just hearing her voice makes me smile.

"Hey babe, what's up?" I ask her.

"Nothing much, just hanging out with Lyric. What about you?" She asks me.

"I'm bored and wanted to know if you could come over. Lyric can come too." I explain.

"Sure, we'll be there." She says before hanging up the phone.

I'm the only one home right now, besides Athena who needs to be on bed rest.

Especially now that she's 8 months pregnant.

Texting Francis to let him know Lyric's coming over, I hear a knock on the front door.

Going to the door, I let them in and Francis comes downstairs.

He immediately goes over to Lyric and wraps his arms around her waist while she wraps hers around his neck, kissing each other.

I go over to Peyton and pick her up, spinning her around before kissing her deeply.

"I missed you." She tells me while smiling and I smile back at her.

"I missed you too, babe." I kiss her again before we go over and sit on the couch.

Francis and Lyric go downstairs laughing and talking together.

"Should we go with them?" She asks me softly, sounding tired.

I lean her against my chest and kiss the top of her head. "Not today, you seem tired."

"I'm fine I've just had a lot going on with work and my family." She explains vaguely.

Her mom died when she was younger and her dads an alcoholic and addict.

She spends all her free time trying to take care of her little sister and making sure she's safe.

She says it's fine and she doesn't mind it but I can tell how tired she is.

"Alright, do you wanna go down with them or stay up here?" I ask, leaving the decision up to her.

She thinks for a moment. "We can go down with them." She tells me and I nod.

We go downstairs and walk past all the couches and tv's and games.

I go over and pull a certain book on the bookshelf and one of the walls moves to the side, revealing a door.

We go to the door and walk inside, seeing Francis and Lyric already inside.

They're in a section of the room that we're going to, so we just go right up to them.

"Hey guys." Lyric says with a smile before going back to what she was doing.

I go over and grab two handguns, one for myself and one for Peyton.

Francis and I have been teaching Lyric and Peyton how to defend themselves ever since the night Lyric found everything out and we decided to go ahead and tell Peyton too.

They've gotten really good at everything we've been working on.

Lyric is best at shooting and throwing knives while Peyton is best at hand to hand combat.

Though, they're both great at basically everything.

Francis and I leave them to practice their shooting while him and I go over to the mats.

"It's been a while since we've fought." Francis says while we get on the mats.

"It has. We just need to remember Camden's rule, we're not allowed to seriously hurt each other." I remind him and he just smiles at me.

We start fighting and it's actually pretty fun.

Francis and I have always liked fighting each other, just because we're so close. We're not afraid to actually hurt each other but we're also very afraid of hurting each other. It's confusing, I know.

Francis and I end up just laying down on the mats, waiting for Peyton and Lyric to finish up.

"Do you have a weird feeling too?" Francis asks me out of nowhere.

I sigh. "Yeah."

Mason and I are laying down on his bed, just cuddling and being in each others presence.

"How was your day?" He asks me after a minute, kissing my head.

"It was good, I just hung out with Camille after you went to work." I tell him.

"I'm glad you had a good day." He tells me.

"How about you?" I ask him.

"It was okay. Works been really difficult lately but I think we're finally getting somewhere. It's been quiet for a long time so that's a good thing." He explains.

"That is a good thing." I agree, nodding my head.

We look in each others eyes for a moment and when he looks at me I smile because he's looking at me like there's something worth looking at.

"I love you." He whispers and it takes me off guard, my eyes widening.

He looks shocked himself, probably not believing he just said that.

"I- um- I-" he stammers, not being able to complete a single word.

I cut him off by kissing him deeply and he holds onto my waist.

"This may be crazy...but I think I love you too." I whisper against his lips.

This time he kisses me, pulling me closer.

Our hands are roaming each other's bodies and he helps me takes off his shirt, laying down on the bed.

We make out more but he has trouble taking my shirt off so we sit back up and he pulls it over my head.

I pause when I remember the ugly scar on my shoulder from those throwing stars.

He notices me pause and I look down, feeling ugly.

He gently lifts my chin and looks in my eyes. "You are so beautiful, Alexia James." He tells me sincerely.

I nod, not knowing what to say, but he leans his head down and kisses the scar gently.

It gives me chills and he notices and pauses for a second before kissing it again.

He kisses his way up to my lips and we both smile against the kiss.

—————————————————————————-

Hello everyone!

I know that was fast paced but I wanted to get things moving along.

Sorry that I'm terrible at writing romance scenes!

Sorry this chapter was super long but with editing it just made things easier for me.

Half of this is more of a filler so all the drama can be more drama-ey.

The next chapter will start up all the drama, finally.

Thank you all so much for reading!! <3