Face Your Fears

Chapter 12

Christmas passed with next to no drama - which was surprising, considering all that happened in the past few days.

 Of course I still had the urge to sock Havoc in the face whenever I saw him with his hands on Lauren, but I was thankfully able to restrain myself. 

 All of the younger kids were thrilled with their presents, the adults enjoyed catching up with one another, and it was with a depressed air that we all departed from Sophia and Marc's on December 27th. 

 Hadley was bombarded with ten times the amount of hugs and kisses she normally would've been had she not been pregnant. My aunts told her they all needed to call her and keep her updated on how she and the baby were doing, and that they expected to know straight away when she went into labor.

 That was still a little far off, I thought, but it was never too early for my aunts.

I heaved all of our luggage into the back of the SUV while everyone else did the same, and then came the goodbyes. 

 "You keep in touch, too, young man!" Karin scolded me, pinching my cheek after giving me a bone crushing hug. "We live in the same city, but we rarely ever see you anymore."

 "Sorry, zia, I'm just busy with work," I said, grinning. "And now with the baby..."

Yeah, I didn't want to think about how hectic things were going to be when the baby arrived.

 "All the more reason to keep in touch!" Karin cried, whapping me in the arm.

Good point.

I caught hold of Lauren's arm as she passed to say goodbye to Mom and pulled her to the side, away from prying ears.

 "Listen," I said immediately. "You need to watch your back, okay?"

Lauren frowned, looking confused. "What are you talking about? Watch my back with what?"

"That guy you brought home," I muttered, dropping my voice to a low whisper. "He's bad news, Lauren. Trust me. And I don't want to see you get hurt."

She looked at me incredulously for a moment, waiting to see if I was actually serious. When it became obvious that I was completely serious, she snorted out a laugh.

 "Archer, come on. I would expect you to be protective over the triplets, but not me. Henry's a good guy, he's - " 

 "Just trust me on this one, Lauren. Seriously."

 She glared up at me through narrowed eyes, and she had an uncanny resemblance to her mother.

"You don't even know him."

 "Do you even know him?"

"Of course," she snapped. "Of course I know him."

 "I wouldn't be so sure."

 I wasn't normally one for physical affection - except for where my wife was concerned - and just to prove my point, I hugged her tightly for a moment and then stepped back.

 "I'm serious, Lauren. Be careful."

I left to say goodbye to the others before she could say anything else, leaving her standing there with a baffled expression on her face.

I wanted to shout at her the real truth of what was going on and why I got the creeps whenever I saw Henry even looking at her, but that would just make matters much worse. And like she would believe me anyways.

 There wasn't anything else I could do, was there?

 After we were all squeezed to death and had said our goodbyes, the triplets and Mom piled into the back seats of the SUV - I was expected to drive again, sadly - and Hadley joined me up front.