Sunshine (Take Two Sequel)

Chapter 21: Lilly

I was in the kitchen with some of our group early on New Year's Day. We had a New Year's Eve party and most of the group went to bed, but Joe, Ben, Rory, Winter, Freddie, Brian and I couldn't sleep. Joe had told us earlier in the night that he wanted to press charges against Nick and his gang, and none of us could stop thinking about it, so we decided to try to come up with a game plan.

"Are we trying to press charges for what happened with Joe?" Rory asked. "Or everything they've done?"

"I don't know if we should go for everything," Winter said. "What if we can't prove it all happened?"

"We don't have to be able to," Brian said. "They can be found guilty for some crimes, but not others."

"It may be hard to prove what happened to me was them," Freddie added. "I know it was them, but they knocked me unconscious. The jury may think I have memory loss or that I'm making it up, and there are no other witnesses."

"Wait a minute," I said. "We already got them arrested for what happened to Roger and Freddie, can we even charge them with that again?"

"Lilly has a point," Brian said. "It may be best to just stick with charging them for Joe's attack, but we can use thier past arrests to show what kind of people they really are."

"We could also talk about the fact that they threatened the rest of us," Ben said. I was about to add something when I heard someone come down the stairs.

"What the bloody hell are you all doing?" I heard Roger say from behind me. I turned around and gave him a cheeky smile.

"Hi baby," I said.

"It's four in the morning," he said. "Go to bed, all of you!" Since most of our group had been drinking, everyone stayed with Roger and I, except for John and Veronica. They left the party early to relieve their babysitter. It was an interesting glimpse into my future.

"I was stressed about pressing charges against the frat boys," Joe said. "So we all stayed up to discuss it."

"Why?" Roger asked. "You're not even meeting with your lawyer for another two weeks."

"He wanted to be prepared," I said. "Besides, we were all too stressed out about it to sleep."

"You should not be getting stressed out or staying up all night," Roger said to me. "You're carrying our baby."

"I'm only six weeks pregnant," I argued. "And the doctor said everything looked great! Don't worry so much." Roger groaned in frustration and rolled his eyes.

"Maybe Roger's right," Brian said. "It is really late. Getting some sleep might help us clear our minds and we can start fresh in the morning."

"Or the afternoon," Freddie said. "Even if I go to sleep now, I definitely won't be awake before 2pm."

"Yeah I am getting tired," Ben said. "Come on Joe, let's head to bed."

"I can't sleep," Joe said. "I'm too afraid I'll have that dream again." Ever since Joe was attacked he had been having nightmares about the incident. I don't blame him for not wanting to sleep. The same thing happened to me when I raped. The nightmares are so vivid, it made me afraid I would have to relive my experience every time I closed my eyes. Ben grabbed Joe's hand and kissed his cheek softly.

"Come on," he said. "We can snuggle before we go to sleep, and I'll be right by your side all night." Joe gave Ben a slight smile and nodded. Ben grabbed his hand and they walked upstairs to one of our guest rooms together.

"Well I'm not tired," I said. "I think I'll stay up a little longer-"

"Like hell, you will," Roger interrupted me. He suddenly picked me up and started carrying me upstairs. When we got to our bedroom, he softly placed me on our bed. Normally, he would toss me onto our bed in a very dominating way, but he was being very careful with me ever since I got pregnant. He was being so sweet and caring. He climbed in bed with me and covered both of us with a blanket.

"Goodnight, Mrs. Taylor," he said softly, kissing my forehead. "I love you." I smiled and kissed his cheek.

"I love you too, Mr. Taylor," I said back. I nuzzled my head into Roger's neck and he rubbed my belly while we both softly fell asleep.