Eight months had passed, and I was pregnant. With a human being. A human being that was slowly but steadily growing inside me. A boy.

I have to say though that Joseph was more freaked out than I was. The day I told him he was frozen. Shell shocked. He didn't say anything for a long time, and when he finally did it was "are you sure? There's no way this could be fake." He asked seriously gripping my shoulders.

"Yes I'm positive. I even had one of your doctors here check." His face was abnormally pale. My spirits had deflated immensely. He didn't was this child he had helped create. I was sure of it. I could sense his fear and discomfort. This was not a situation that he had ever been in.

"How are we gonna do this." He whispered. "Neither of us have any very good parents to be examples to go off of. What if he turns out bad because we couldn't handle it." He expressed his concerns making me even more nervous about the situation I was in regardless of what he wanted.

I gripped his face in my hands and stroked the skin under his eyes. Something I had learned calmed him. "Whatever happens, we'll get through it together. I know that we don't have any expirence in this, but we'll make it work. I believe in you Joseph Copland. We can do this." I said hoping to inspire courage in his mind.

He smiled lightly and brought his lips to mine. "If I'm with you we can get through it."

I smiled at the memory. We were going to have a baby boy together. We had started to prepare the room for him right after we found out the gender. The man that had occupied the room adjacent to Joseph and I's room was told to move because that is where our sons room would now be. The room was painted blue and new furniture was placed in the room until it was perfect and ready for a little person to be living in it.

I sat in the blue room singing softly to the unborn baby. Things had been perfect. With no Romano out there to keep trying to ruin our lives things were quiet. It was almost like we were living as a normal couple. Sometimes Joseph would go into the office and sometimes he would stay home and work from his office. The only loose ends out there were Stefan and Cameron. I was sure that they were out there somewhere biding their time until they could get their vengeance on Joseph and I. However I had learned in the passed couple of months that worried about something that might happen did nothing except keep you from enjoying the present.

"Jessica." Joseph interrupted my thoughts and singing. "I'm sorry to interrupt you but I have to run into the town for awhile. Apparently they need to have an emergency board meeting at the company building." He came and kissed me on the lips, then the forehead and then left the room.

Joseph owned they company on the side. He was almost never there. It was mostly Matthias that ran things there but Joseph was chairman of the board. No big decisions were made without his consent. What took up his time most of the day was working to keep up everything with the gang running smoothly.

I sat in the same place for a while longer until my butt started to hurt. I got to my feet struggling with my very pregnant stomach. I waddled down the hall to the kitchens to find something to eat. My appetite had increased significantly in the last eight months.

"Miss Jessica." All the cooks said as I walked into the kitchen. "Is there anything I can make for you?" One asked and hurried forward to help me to a seat at the small table by the door.

"Oh no milly I just wanted some crackers." I thought for a minute. "And some cheese."

"Of course." Milly smiled at me and hurried off to the pantry and fridge to fetch what I had asked for. With all the cheese I had been eating lately I was surprised I hadn't broken out with pimples everywhere.

Milly came back with the snack in her hands and presented them in front of me. "Here you go Jessica." She hurried back to her station at the cutting board and continued to cut her vegetables.

I didn't get two bites in before Ruben came bursting into the room. He looked around frantically. I raised an eyebrow. What had his panties in a bunch. When he finally found me he ran over.

"Jess you have to come with me. Now." His face was deadly serious. He pulled me to my feet a little to fast. My vision blurred slightly and dark spots appeared in my vision. I leaned against him until it passed. "C'mon Jess we have to hurry." He pulled me along behind him almost to quickly for my pregnant body to follow.

"Ruben what is going on!" I yelled and slowed to catch my breath.

He glanced behind him at me. "Stefan is here somewhere. He wants you. I have to keep you hidden until Joseph gets here. I already called him he on his way. Now come we have to hurry to the safe room."

I swallowed hard. Stefan who no doubt hated my guts was here, no doubt to kill me and my unborn child. It was half my fault that his father was dead. I picked up my pace as much as I could pushing my limits. We got to the stairs that lead down to the room I had only been in once before when the mansion was infiltrated when I first arrived here. Only now I would be alone in there seeing as how all the other "whores" had been sent home.

"Get to the safe room Jessica. Get there and lock the door behind you."

"What Ruben you have to come with me." I pleaded with him.

"I can't Jessica. You know I can't." He let go of my hand. "I have to go-" he was cut off by a loud laugh.

"There you are! Miss Jessica I have been looking for you." Ruben and I both froze. It was too late to run down the stairs. He held a gun loosely in his hand. Ruben had one tucked in a holster where it would do him no good.

"Stefan. It's been awhile." I said and turned to face him. Ruben quickly snapped out of his frozen state and pushed my large form behind his.

"That it has." His voice turned dark. He didn't have his fathers self control. "I think you know why I'm here." He said striding forward. Apparently he was also not a fan of foreplay like his father was. Which in this instance was unfortunate.

"You know you can't possibly get out of this alive. This in our home base. We have men everywhere. I don't know how you got this far in the first place, but in a few minutes you'll be dead." I said trying to think of anything to say to buy time.

"Maybe so. But at least you'll be dead with me." He lifted his gun and aimed it at me and Ruben.

"If you want to get to her you'll have to go through me." Ruben stood tall in front of me. Ready to take whatever came at him.

"Fine. But you asked for it." He pulled the trigger and sent the deadly bullet into the dead center of Rubens chest. I gasped at the deafening sound and the sight of my best friend falling to the floor in a heap.

Tears instantly welled up in my eyes. I bent to my knees and choked back a sob. "No!" I whispered. The guilt and horror hit me like a truck. This was my fault. "Ruben! Ruben please keep your eyes open." I said slightly louder than my whisper before.

"You know I'm awfully sorry to cut this short but like you so kindly pointed out earlier I don't have a lot of time here." I turned my head to Stefan. He was a monster. I glared daggers at him. He lifted his gun again and aimed it in the same place Rubens bullet had gone.

I was going to die. Right here right now, and my child along with me. I braced myself.

"Open your eyes." Stefan growled. I obeyed him and looked him in the eyes. "I want to watch the life drain out of you like I had to with my father." Then he pulled the trigger.

I gasped and my eyes widened. I had been shot before, but that was in the leg and as much as that hurt this was 10 times worse. I gasped again trying to get air in. I fell from my kneeing position to my side still gasping for more air. My hand went up to clutch the wound in my chest. It hurt like hell.

I could feel my baby kicking inside me. It knew something was wrong. I was dying.

I heard footsteps pounding on the floor. And two more gun shots rang out. I felt Joseph's familiar hands on my body. He replaced my hands with his and kept pressure on the wound just like I had done for him so many months ago.

"You don't quit on me ok." Joseph cried. "You don't quit on us. An ambulance in on the way." I couldn't tell if he was crying or not with my blurry vision.

"I won't quit." I mumered. "I won't quit." I kept saying that in my mind. Even when I closed my eyes and everything went black around me.

"I won't quit"

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Im gonna make the next chapter in Joseph's point of view. Hopefully that will add a little to the effect.

We're getting close to the end. Just a couple chapters left.