The tears were falling freely from my eyes.

I had my hands covering my face, absolutely balling. I was overwhelmed emotionally, the revealing of the gender causing the realness of it all to sink in even more than it had before. Before it was "the baby this" and "the baby that." In a way, it had been abstract. Now the baby was he. It was a boy.

I was having a boy.

The blue goo was wiped off of me and the paper sheets untucked from my clothing. I wiped the tears off of my face, putting my shirt back in place. I sat up, turning to Emmett and hugging him from where I sat.

I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. Carla murmured something about printing the ultrasound and slipped out of the room. It was my guess that she wanted to give us some space. Emmett put his hands on either side of his face and gently made me look at him.

"Darlin, are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm perfect," I said, hiccuping as I used the back of my hand to wipe away the last of my tears. "I'm just o-overwhelmed. I'm so...so happy."

"Me too, baby. Me too."

He kissed me, and then helped me off of the table as Carla came back into the room. She handed me the envelope with the ultrasound pictures in them and the prescription for new vitamins and we made our date for the sixth month check up.

When Emmett and I got back into the truck, I pulled one of the ultrasound pictures out of the envelope and looked at it. Really looked at it. I ran my fingers over the picture of the little baby, feeling in love. This was my baby. This was my son.

Looking over at Emmett while we were at a stoplight, I reached over and ran my thumb along his jaw line.

"He's going to look like you, you know," I said, picturing a lively little boy running after Emmett on the ranch. "He's going to be just like you. I can see it now. Strong, respectful and smart and a real southern gentleman."

He stared at me for a long moment, grabbing my hand and kissing it.

"Thank you, baby. I appreciate that."

He was about to say something else, when the people behind us honked. We shared a laugh before he returned his eyes to the road, but kept his hand in mine on his lap. He was silent for a moment before speaking again.

"We'll raise him right, you and I. He won't be like those disrespectful boys they got runnin' around here now. He's going to have good morals and work ethic. But you know between the both of us, he'll definitely be hard headed."

We laughed about that, and continued our conversation on what our son might be like in the future. What kind of goals and aspirations that he would have. Who he would look like and who he would look up to. What kind of music would he like? What would he want to do when he grew up?

Before heading back to the house, Emmett and I grabbed lunch in town. He'd done what he had to do before the appointment, so he could take the rest of the day off. After lunch, we visited with his parents.

"Good afternoon, honey," Rebecca said, hugging Emmett first and kissing him on the cheek. She turned to me and gave me the same treatment. "How are you feeling, Charlotte?"

"I'm great, thank you," I answered, smiling. Daniel shook Emmett's hand and hugged me, and we walked into the living room to sit around the coffee table, and Rebecca went into the kitchen to grab Emmett and I glasses of sweet tea.

"How did the appointment go?" Rebecca asked, clearly on the edge of her seat to find out what the sex of the baby is.

"The baby and Charlotte are both doing well," Emmett said, putting his hand on my knee and smiling at me. I nodded at him because I knew that he wanted to break the happy news to them himself.

"We're having a boy," Emmett said, handing over the picture of the ultrasound to Rebecca. She looked at it, stay eyed as she beamed.

"Oh, a boy. I'm going to have a grandson!" She said happily. "This is wonderful news. You know, Anna and I thought you were having a girl. But Debbie has been swearing it's going to be a boy, and she was right. I'm so excited, he's going to be adorable!"

"He kinda looks like a little alien," Daniel observed. He was sitting back on the couch, his arm around the back of it as he peered at the ultrasound. Rebecca snorted, elbowing him and doing her best to hide a smile.

"Oh, would you stop," She said, "He does not look like an alien."

"Maybe a cute alien," Emmett shrugged.

"Emmett!" Rebecca and I chastised at the same time.

We stayed for a while longer, and left when it was getting closer to dinner time. He and I made dinner together. We had decided on tacos. After dinner was cleaned up, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching television.

Somewhere around ten thirty, both of us started yawning and getting sleepy. I took a long shower before getting into bed with my boyfriend, snuggling up to him. He put his hand on my belly.

"Can I tell you something?" He asked.

"Of course," I replied.

"I was secretly rooting for a boy," He confessed.

"Really?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yes," He confessed sheepishly. "Don't get me wrong, now...I would have loved a girl just the same. But I really wanted a boy. Are you mad?"

"Of course not, Emmett," I said, shaking my head. "It's perfectly okay to root for a gender. I know you would have cared for a girl just the same. Plus, if it would have been a girl...Imagine sixteen years down the road. I don't want you in jail for murdering some poor boy wanting to go on a date with our daughter."

Emmett laughed heartily.

"Yeah, yeah. That's probably true," He said. "But if you think about it, if we ever have a girl with him and I that's double the protection."

"Oh God. Two of you," I giggled. "Double the protection and double trouble."

We talked until both of us got too tired to continue the conversation. I rolled on toy right side, and Emmett put his arm around me.

I fell in to a deep, hard sleep.

Somewhere around two thirty in the morning, there was a shrill ringing. It took me as second to realize that it was not in my dream and was instead my own cell phone ringing.

I rolled over, still half asleep when my hand reached out from under the covers to swipe around blindly for my phone. Who could be calling at this hour?

"Hello?"

"Charlotte?"

The small, scared voice shook me awake in a single instant. My heart jolted as I heard the fear in her voice.

"Kira? What's wrong?" I asked, sitting up.

"He's really drunk. He's really drunk and he's hurting me."

"Where are you, Kira? Where is he?" I asked.

"H-He's downstairs. I think he's coming up here. I need you."

My eyes darted towards Emmett, who was still fast asleep beside me. That boy could sleep through a freakin' hurricane.

"I need you to hide, Kira. I need you to hide from him. Go under the bed."

There was a shuffling sound, and I was sure that she'd done what I told her to do.

"It's worse this time. He drank something different this time. Ever-something."

"I'm going to-" I began, but was cut off by her small voice.

"Please!" She pleaded, her voice growing more and more panicked. I head a door burst open and a loud male voice on the other end.

"Kira! Kira, are you okay?" I asked.

There was a loud scream right before the phone cut off.

With out a second thought, I leaned over and shook Emmett as hard as I could. He was heavier than he looked. Groggy, he opened his eyes.

"Charlotte, what's wrong? Is it the baby?"

"No, it's Kira. Her dad is hurting her. He's hurting her now."

He sat up suddenly.

"What? How do you know?" He asked, alarmed.

"She just called me. She screamed and the line cut off."

He was out of bed in a flash, reaching over and pulling on a nearby pair of jeans.

"Where does she live?" He asked.

I gave him the directions, which weren't hard because it was a small town. He was dressed and ready to go in less than a minute.

"You stay here, okay? Call 911 and then call your aunt."

He leaned over, kissing me hard and was out of the bedroom door and heading down the stairs in a rush. I picked up the phone, calling 911 quickly and then calling Aunt Lauren. Her reaction was much the same as Emmett's and I's: startled and quick moving.

After that, I went outside and sat on the porch swing. My phone was next to me, in case they called me. It was warm outside. A soft, southern breeze was blowing through and the stars were bright and shining.

I would never get used to seeing this breath taking view.

There was nothing like this in the city.

The view provided a distraction, but it was just for a couple of minutes. It didn't last long.

I was on edge, waiting impatiently. What was going on? Was Kira okay? What had happened after the phone had hung up? My adrenaline was pumping, and I found I couldn't stay still. Instead of sitting in the swing, I paced. And paced.

And paced.

I put my hand on my belly, my worry growing as more time passed.

"Where's Daddy?" I asked the baby, shaking my head as I walked. "Where is he? He'll be okay. I'm sure he'll be okay. He'll be safe."

Right?

My mind was going non stop, thinking of what could be happening. I swallowed hard, praying that Kira's piece of shit father didn't have a gun or some other weapon.

The baby started moving around, slowly at first but kicking hard after a while. My son seemed to be impatient, too. He wanted his Daddy back.

And so did I.

Finally, at four thirty in the morning Emmett's truck pulled into the driveway.

Author's Note: Kira's dad is a dick. Fuck him. What do you guys think happened at the house? Is Emmett okay? Is Kira okay? Let's hear your predictions...GO!

Also, I do have a name picked out already. ;) Not telling, though.