A/N Guys! Over 6k reads! Oh my, oh my, can't breathe! Thank you!!!!!!!



Life is depressing. It seems that in the months I've been here I have made a full circle from desperation to hope, from hope to fear, from fear to boredom, from boredom to excitement, then to fear again, and finally to desperation again. Nothing seemed to go my way. It was the end of August already, we were brewing potions for a week straight, but nothing was working. I felt useless. Useless and a burden. Everybody looked tired and stressed. Even Shirley and Hannah backed off with the feeding, because it didn't seem to work, nothing seemed to work.

And Nick. Damn it. Every time I looked his way I felt real pain in my chest, not the mental one. It was real. I longed for his touch now, the small gestures weren't enough for me anymore. I needed him to hold me, to comfort me, to touch me, but I was to embarrassed to ask or to do it myself. I was utterly confused as to why he was avoiding me, or maybe it was just my imagination?...

After a few more days filled with suffering, Lena decided to step up and do something. On a sunny afternoon I suddenly found myself sitting on the couch and Lena standing in front of me like a parent giving his kid a hard time for misbehaving.

"That is enough! I'm tired of your sulking!" She said in a stern voice and then pointed a finger my way, "you sit here and wait." And with that she marched out of the living room only to return with Nick, dragging him by the hand. Nick looked confused and I'm sure I did too. Lena pushed him to sit on the couch next to me and now we both looked like two teens in trouble instead of just one.

"I am sick of you both! You are mates, start acting like ones!" she even stomped her leg.

"You, Nick, are an idiot!" he growled at her, since she offended a big mighty wolf, but she was fast to continue, and her words cause Nick to pale. "Can't you see that she's not eating because you ignore her?! It's bad for her AND the baby! She needs your care now that you've found each other more than before! And you!" then she turned to me and I tried making myself disappear between the couch pillows. "You have to stop being shy! He is your mate, he also needs you, just like you do! And he probably thinks you're afraid of him, that's why he keeps as far from you as he can! Am I correct?!" She turned to Nick again.

"Yeah..." he said shyly.

"Brilliant." she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Now, I am going to bring you two some tea and shut that freaking door from the outside. I promise to keep everyone away from here for as long as I can, so don't waste your time and start acting like a couple!"

And then we were left alone. We sat in complete silence avoiding each other's eyes until Lena brought us our tea, and then she left again, the sound of the door closing was loud as a shotgun, and I shivered. Nick quietly passed me my cup, and I accepted it with a small smile, enjoying the heat it provided.

"I'm sorry..." he said in almost a whisper.

"For what?" I asked confused a bit.

"For avoiding you. I really thought I scared you and that you wouldn't want me around..."

I took a long look at him and if it weren't for the hot tea in my hand, I would slap myself. Or Nick. He looked so vulnerable, so unsure of himself. My strong and brave warrior was scared? My heart swelled in my chest, and in a matter of seconds I was laughing.

"Whaaaat?.." he asked with a goofy grin.

"We are so stupid! My god!" and he joined me with his loud melodic voice, that seemed to engulf me in it's huskiness. After a minute he carefully extracted the cup from my hands and embraced me, tucking my head under his chin. I shyly wrapped my arms around his waist, and finally relaxed for the first time since we started the damned brewing. Nick seemed to bring out the best of my feelings to the surface, I was happy again, calm, relaxed, warm...

I don't know for how long we sat there, just hugging, but at some point I heard a knock on the door. After a quiet 'come in' from Nick, Lena appeared in front of us with a huge smile on her face.

"That's much better! Now you both have to eat! Here, I brought you stuff..."

With that she placed two plates with pasta on the coffee table in front of us and left again. I just shook my head, but never let go of Nick. I wasn't that hungry, and having him in my embrace was way better than food. I wanted the moment to last. But Nick had other ideas.

"Emily..." he started detaching me from him, I reluctantly let go. "Let's eat and then let's take a nap together, ok? The last days were exhausting, you need rest."

"And you will stay with me? You won't go away?" I hated how desperate I sounded, but hell, I didn't care. It was too good to let go. I deserved it.

"I won't. Never again." And I believed him.



* * *



And he kept his word. Even in the face of danger my mind was calm as a newborn baby's one. We ate together, than took a nap on the same couch and Nick held me tight. I was happy. The next few days were good. We still did the brewing, and it still didn't work. But that didn't bring me down as much as before. We tried, yes, but I long ago realised, that all our attempts were to be futile. Doc's previous suggestion, that my powers would remain dormant until birth-giving were proving to be correct, but everybody except me refused to give up. And I also kind of didn't, I continued brewing after all, but it was mainly for the sake of everyone else and to concur the boredom.

On the third day after our sweet reunion, I overheard a conversation in the kitchen and right away understood, that the brewing days are over for now. I was on my way from a bathroom break with my new crutches (because the cane was not enough anymore), and they had nice rubber cups on the end, so no one heard me approaching. Oh, and also because they were so engrossed in the conversation, that they didn't pay enough attention. So I decided to stick around in the doorway and just listen to the hushed quarrel of Shirley and doc Evans.

"I think we need to stop this, doc." Shirley said tiredly. Doc responded in a quiet and disappointed voice.

"You are probably right..." he rubbed his eyes in a gesture of fatigue. "We are just torturing her, when we need to concentrate on other pressing matters."

"Are you not telling us something?"

"No, no, nothing like that. But we do need to plan ahead, so let's pack these herbs for later, and focus on something else..."

"Ok, doc, as you say..." Shirley exhaled with some relief and then continued "So what exactly are our next moves?"

"Well, for starters we feed that monster inside of a pretty young thing that is eavesdropping on us right now" he said with a smirk and I knew I was busted.

"Young lady!" Shirley exclaimed in outrage. "Do you know that is just rude to eavesdrop on grownups?"

"Sorry..." I muttered sheepishly and moved into the kitchen. "But in truth, I'm glad we're dropping this all brewing for now... It's kind of depressing..."

Shirley was at my side instantly, helping to hop on the stool and rubbing my back.

"I'm sorry, child, I guess we've got carried away there a bit..."

"No, it's ok, I understand, it was worth a shot. And we did some useful things for later, right? So the time is not wasted, right?"

"Of-course it's not, honey!" Shirley patted me on the head like puppy, to which I snickered, and then she moved to the stove. "How about some soup?"

"I could use some!" Said an excited Nick entering the kitchen and planting himself on a stool next to me. "Are you hungry?" He turned my way and pecked my lips. I blushed. I was still slightly uncomfortable with this public display of affection, but kept quiet not to lose these sweet moments.

"We sure are!" I answered happily. And so we ate together, and it was a good afternoon.

Later that evening we were again in the living room, planning our next moves. All the team was here and the mood was serious.

"When is Lisa supposed to call?" asked Nathan. Doc looked at his wrist watch and furrowed his brows slightly.

"In an hour or so. As soon as she's back to her hotel. If I'm not mistaken, tonight she is having a dinner with the Mayor and the dean of the university."

"Good. Andrew, what's the situation with Henry and the rogues?

"Still the same. Henry is still safe and undetected, and the rogues are doing basically nothing."

"I don't like it." Said a grim Jonathan, "I don't like it at all. Too easy and too calm."

"Yeah..." doc Evans agreed. "How's the situation with the rogues at our borders?"

"It's been pretty quiet, but we're not reducing the patrols." Answered Andrew.

"Good." was all that doc said then looked at his watch again and added "I really hope Lisa has some interesting news for us."

"But what if she has none?" asked Simon.

"Then we wait. We don't have many options for now." answered Nathan.

"I don't like it." once again was Jonathan's statement.

"None of us does, but I don't see what else we can do here." Said a slightly disappointed looking Nathan. I kept to myself during this conversation, tucked into Nick's side. In truth, there was nothing I could say. Even if we suddenly found out that my mother was indeed helping the Mayor, we couldn't do anything about it, so... We were just left waiting.

"I say we use this time to relax a bit and watch a movie, what do you say?" Shirley clapped her hands once and stood up from her spot.

"That is actually a good idea, we need a distraction." agreed Nathan. "But I rather go home then, Angela has been bugging me that I don't spend enough time with her."

"Go to your mate, son, we've got thin." Jonathan gave Nathan a side hug and shooed him out of the house.

"We'll get the popcorn!" Shouted Simon and together with Seamus ran to the kitchen.

"Don't forget the ice-cream!" I shouted after them with a light laugh. Shirley rolled her eyes at the twins and went to grab a movie, Lena went to get some more pillows and soon enough we were deep into an imaginary world of cinema. That was a good evening.

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end.