Maxi glanced at her reflection and for the first time was convinced that her pregnancy was showing. It wasn't much, but it was there, and she already avoided wearing pants because the pressure was uncomfortable.

It had been long enough. She had to believe that. It was time to finally tell Freider. The thought sent her heart into a convulsive dance, but she bit the insides of her cheeks and steeled herself. She had nothing to fear. This was good news and she had to deliver it as such.

The door to the bathroom opened and Freider stepped out, drying his hair with a towel. She immediately lowered her dress.

"What are you doing?" he asked with a grin. "Trying to see if you're just as beautiful as you were on the day we got married?"

Here it was, her perfect opening. "Not exactly," she said, keeping her voice coy. "I might have a surprise for you."

"Oh?" He dropped the towel and tilted his head, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "A pleasant surprise or an unpleasant one?"

"I'd like to believe that it's the best surprise we could have hoped for." Even if her voice sounded cheery, Maxi was a moment away from fainting. "I didn't say anything before because I wanted to make sure, but..." She let the rest of the sentence trail off to build a sense of excitement. "Freider, I think I'm pregnant."

The amusement drained from his face and his jaw dropped. She kept the grin plastered on her face, hoping he couldn't read the despair in her eyes. Sweat coated her palms, and she fought to keep herself from wiping them on her dress.

There was a shift in his gaze and she was sure he was doing the math, trying to determine if it was possible this soon. But it was. She'd been with him, sleeping with him for over two months. It was perfectly possible for it all to happen. She'd been very careful about that, not to spring the news on him too soon.

"Are... Are you sure?" he asked, his voice filled with uncertainty.

"Well, no." She let out a tiny laugh. "But I'm pretty sure."

His eyes lit up and he grinned. It had her shoulders loosening once the hesitation morphed into joy. "You're right! We should go to a doctor!"

The blood froze in her veins and it was very hard not to lose her smile. "Whoa there. I think I should actually take a test first."

"Oh, right, there's that. Um..." He glanced left and right as if he expected a pregnancy test to jump at him from somewhere inside their bedroom.

"Don't worry about it," she said, her smile honest this time. "I'll go buy one from a drugstore. You can go to work."

"But..."

"I can wait until tonight so that you'll be here for the result."

He nodded, strode to her and planted a long kiss on her lips. She kissed him back and molded into him, wondering when all of this would become easier. They were already married for three weeks and it didn't seem to change anything. Being with him was still hard.

More time. I just need more time.

It was her own fault anyway because she kept thinking about Davyn every time they had sex. It was the only way she could bear it, if she imagined it was Davyn touching her, holding her. Which she was aware was not right. She had to start living in the moment and accepting that it was Freider who was her husband now. Her love. The only man she should want to sleep with. But every time it came to it, she'd like to herself that she'd only think about Davyn one last time.

"No, now it will be different," she whispered to herself as she waited for Freider to come home so that she could prove she was pregnant. Now they had a family.

Her, Freider and their baby.

And her sulky mother-in-law. Even after the wedding, Grace was still around because she didn't like any of the smaller houses Freider suggested. They'd been to a couple of viewings each week, but Grace continued to insist that this was her house and she wasn't going anywhere.

"Honestly," Freider mumbled, shaking his suit coat off, "I warned her that I'm going to sell that house right from under her if she doesn't knock it off."

"Can you do that?" Maxi asked, waiting patiently for him to be ready.

"Yeah. She's still under my tutelage because even if I took her out of that care facility, I think you've noticed she's not all there."

Maxi hummed. She didn't like Grace, but she didn't appear to be insane or unfit to make decisions regarding where she lived or her own finances. She was moody and grumpy, but that was it. But Freider having custody of her was problematic in other ways.

"Will she be able to handle herself if she moves out?"

He froze at her words, as if he hadn't considered this. Then, a mild frown on his face, he continued to undress. "I'm sure she will. I'll se how it goes. I'll talk to the doctors and argue she should be left to her own devices after I sell this house. I really wouldn't want her here if there's a baby on the way."

She took it as a sign to pull out the pregnancy test from the drawer of her nightstand and show it to him. "Can I?"

"I'm shocked you could wait this long," he said with a smile. "Go on. I'll be right here."

She stood and walked to the bathroom door, but faltered at the entrance. "Are you excited?" she asked, turning to him.

"Very," he said, and he sounded sincere.

It proved to be true. When she came out and showed him that it was positive, he whooped and pumped his fist in the air. Then he caught her in a hug, kissed her hair, and promised that they will be happy forever.

She could only hope that he was right. 

♣

Davyn couldn't remember much about what happened once they exited the temple. He felt as if he'd left a part of his soul in there with Walt.

There was sand, he knows there was, and walking many hours. Little water, cold and cutting wind. next to no food. There was also companionship and warmth as those left alive enjoyed each other. There was friendship, and it was probably the only reason why he hadn't collapsed on the way and found his tomb in the sand.

They had succeeded, and yet nothing had felt more like failure. Why did that stone matter so much when it had cost four people their lives?

The greater good. It was all about the greater good. And after he beat that thought into himself enough and noticed that they seemed to be going in circles, he took the lead again and got them out of the desert.

He wasn't sure how. He just knew that he'd let the Snitch Gravel part of him take over and buried the rest of himself in his pain. It paid off. They reached the barracks, and from there, they could use the information in Edwards' office to call the Counters to pick them up. In a matter of hours, someone had come to take them home.

Davyn could remember handing over the jewel to a suit-clad man clearly, but everything else was a blur. The flight, the trip from the airport to the Counters' facility in Washington, the passage of time... They all molded until he found himself in front of doctors patching up his wounds, hooking him on IVs. When they gave him something to help him sleep, he embraced the darkness. It was nice to have a reprieve from thinking about Walt. About Edwards, Omar and Ahmed. About what they'd been through and what they had to do to get that jewel.

When he woke up, he still felt as if his entire body was covered in dust and blood. At least he was no longer hungry and thirsty.

"Hey, you're up."

He jumped and turned to his right. Rachel was by his bed, huddled up in a large pink sweater, smiling weakly.

"I didn't take you for a pink kind of girl," he said.

"I like all colors." She hugged the sweater tighter around herself. "Simon got it for me."

"That's cute."

"How are you feeling?"

Davyn lifted himself higher on his pillows. His body felt a little numb, but otherwise, everything seemed normal. "I'll live."

"We all will," she said with a nod. "We just... Have to come to terms with how."

He sat up at her words. "Rach, we didn't do anything wrong."

"I know." She rubbed her sleeve under her eye. "Wrong things were done to us. It's been... It's been chaos." 

Davyn frowned. "What do you mean? How long have I been under?" He glanced around, but there was no clock in that room.

"Three days."

"Three days?"

She leaned closer and lowered her voice, her lips barely moving as the words moved past them. "They've been interrogating us about what happened separately. I'm not sure, but I think they left you last."

He gritted his teeth, trying to keep his face as impassible as possible, just in case someone was watching. "What are they asking?"

"They mostly want the story, but they also ask about everyone's role in this matter. Don't get me wrong, they're not hostile at all. They seem very pleased with us. But it's still..."

"Off," he supplied. 

"Yeah, off."

"Are the others okay?"

"Yeah. You can imagine, after everything we've been through, this feels like a five star hotel." She stood and only then did Davyn notice how much thinner she looked than when they first met. "I should go. They'll come for you soon."

Rachel wasn't wrong. Davyn barely had time to stretch a little and go to the bathroom before a smiling doctor came to unhook him from his IV. He was next offered a proper meal, and only after he'd eaten his fill of mashed potatoes and steak was he called into a meeting room before three suits.

"Sit down, sit down," the one in the center said. He was the oldest of the three, but otherwise, they all looked similar with their buzz cuts and shaved jaws. They reminded Davyn unpleasantly of Edwards.

"I am  Benjamin and these are Fredricks and Abraham. We've heard a lot about what you did out there, Davyn."

Davyn sat, fighting the impulse to ask these people their full names and their ranks within the agency. "Thank you," he said instead, even if no one had outright paid him a compliment.

The one called Benjamin seemed to have noticed this, because his smile caught a shrewd edge. "You took up the mantle of leader and got your team out safely."

"It was a team effort," Davyn said with a shrug. "And someone always has to take the lead."

"True, true." The three men surveyed him closely for a few minutes before Benjamin spoke again. "It is uncanny how much you look like your father."

The words made Davyn jump and he hated himself for having any reaction at all. "So I've been told."

"Your father was a good man and a valued member of our agency," Benjamin said, his smile turning indulgent. "He was also a naturally born leader, just like you."

"I'm taking my reviews were positive."

"Of course. You managed to complete the mission and lead your team to us."

They should really stop acting like he'd done it on his own, but he saw no point in driving that point any further. These men were buttering him up too much and he had a feeling he'd be shoved in the oven soon enough.

"The photographs you took..." Benjamin finally stopped staring at him and shuffled the papers on his desk. "Fascinating. This shows that our work is far from done. I'm not sure how much Edwards told you, but these jewels... They are part of one of our most important projects."

"Yes, he told us about that," Davyn said under the expectant gaze of the three men.

"Given your particular set of skills, we would like you to continue working in this project and find the other jewels."

He'd expected that much, but it still made him squirm a little. "What about the rest of the team?"

"They will be helping you, of course, but they won't all be focusing solely on this project, like you. But yes, you will still be a team, and should you uncover to location of another jewel, you will be tackling it together."

That was at least good news. "What about Walt?"

"What about him?" Benjamin asked, the annoying smile still on his face. "We will be searching for another linguist."

Of course they would. "No, I mean what about his family? His wife and kid?"

Silence greeted Davyn's question and the three men exchanged sober looks. Finally, after what felt like a minute of silent conversation between them, Benjamin turned to Davyn again, the smile back in place.

"It is most unfortunate when we lose one of our agents, but you were all informed regarding the risks. However, we look after our own. His family will be taken care of and his son will have many opportunities."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Well, now that it's done, you will be taken to your room for the night and tomorrow, you will tour the facility and be handed over your office."

Davyn almost flinched in surprise. "My office?"

"Why yes. Where would you think we'd expect you to conduct your research? I believe you will find that our facility has all the necessary amenities. And we can start presenting you your choices for a place to rent."

The new information buzzed around Davyn's head and a giant hole filled his stomach. "Wait. So I'm not going home?" 

He hadn't even begun to think about it. Everything that had happened had utterly erased his past from his mind, but now, face with his future, everything came hurtling back. He'd been away for so long, and Millie must be out of her mind with worry, especially since he hadn't written to her in almost a month. He needed to get back to her, to explain everything and figure out how to integrate his new life into his old one.

Whispers passed between the three men at his question, but he was too rattled to even try to pick up the words. He'd forgotten about Millie. This was bad. He didn't even know if things had calmed down after the school fire. He had no idea if he'd gotten into college. Even if his life had shifted for the past months, the world hadn't stopped.

"Would you still want to go back?" Benjamin finally asked, his words careful.

Davyn took this to mean that they knew about his problems with the police, but they hadn't found it yet so he would risk going back. Besides, he'd counted on all of it going away.

"I think you are more than capable of taking care of what ails me."

"Well, we do look out for our own."

"Highly appreciated." He stood. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to head home for a little while before settling in for this new job."

"The job's not new, Davyn." Benjamin leaned in his seat, a big grin on his face. "You just need to ease into this particular side of it. Good luck home. And hurry back."

"Will do." And he walked out.

Davyn wasn't sure what to think about this encounter. Technically, he got everything he ever wanted. But the smiles, the whispers... Rachel had been right. 

Something was off.

♣♣♣

Can you believe that I'm updating again? Me neither!

Anyway, the adventure is over and Davyn is coming home. To what... Well, that's an issue for the next chapter, innit?

Stick around for some delicious drama!

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