POV y/n
"Scar, we can't paint it again. I've painted it three times. The walls are going to explode if I put more paint on it." I say staring at the freshly painted room we are going to use as the nursery. We've painted this a cream color first, but Scarlett didn't like it. Then I chose a baby blue but Scarlett said it looks more like an animation in here so that wouldn't work. Now we decided on a different cream and I took it upon my self and painted an accent wall this deep beautiful forest green.
"I hate the green. It's too dark" she says
"I like it. And my idea was to put up these skinny posts on the wall and put a name plate over it. It's basically a background color" I say.
"Why green?" She asks looking disgusted at it.
"Baby you can't be serious" I laugh and she tilts her head at me. "Green is my favorite color because it reminds me of you. The color of your beautiful eyes that I fell inlove with. The color of the forest and grass that our very house sits on. The house that we are going to grow old in and watch our kids chase each other around in. I picked green because I wanted our son to be reminded of his wonderful, careless mother's eyes when he wakes up in the morning, or middle of the night." I say and wipe the tears flowing from Scarlett's eyes.
It's been another 10 weeks and that's means we are officially in month 7 of pregnancy. Which also means that we are two months away from the baby coming and we are stressing. I should really say me, I'm the one stressing. On top of the house chores, and baby shopping, and Roses extra curriculars, I'm swamped at work. I established a sort of reputation since I've won the last couple cases I've had and now I'm being reached out by lots of other people. But they aren't located near LA and now I have a meeting with a client that's 3 hours away. I was meant to leave 20 minutes ago but Scarlett didn't like the room and I wasn't going to leave her upset.
"I don't deserve you." She sniffles.
"Baby don't even start. You know we belong together and I'd be lost without you. Can we just keep the green for now. Sleep on it maybe?" I ask
"Yes yes I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go to your meeting." She says wiping at her face furiously.
"I don't have to go. I can stay here and come to soccer practice with you later" I offer
"Stop it. Go, you only have 10 more weeks to work until your stuck home with me for a little" she teases
"Oh could we make that happen now. That sounds amazing" I groan
"You won't be saying that when we're up all night changing poop diapers and feeding our son."
"You're right. But Oliver will so be worth it.
"No. We are not naming him Oliver. So he can be a grandpa his whole life." Scarlett laughs.
"It just popped into my head. Thought I'd say it out loud. But you're right. I don't wike it" I pout and she laughs at me.
"It'll come. We'll find something. Don't worry my love. But please go. You're going to be late" she says and pull me in from the collar of my shirt and kisses me hard. It's so hard to leave but I have to and eventually I do.
I start my journey to Cambria. I don't know much about the area just that it's on the water. I know I'm meeting with someone who is involved in the government because I need security clearance to meet with them. My car phone starts ringing and Danny's face pops up on the screen. I laugh seeing his mouth hung open and his eyes crossed in the picture.
"Hi Danny!" I answer.
Oh....i never told you what happened after Danny was in the hospital. Well...nothing really. That's the thing, absolutely nothing has happened since Danny was attacked and Olivia told the FBI everything. Anna got me the files the FBI wrote up and they seemed to arrest a judge from New Mexico from whatever Olivia gave them. But no one else. I was guessing it was a big cover up but something tells me it's a lot bigger than what the FBI can handle too. Danny recovered fast and refused to be transferred to San Diego. He's bound to desk duty for a while but that's where I need him. He's actually a great assistant.
"Hey y/n. So I figured it out. You're meeting with Sara Jacob's. She's a US congresswoman."
What could she want?
"Any reasons for my need that you see?" I ask
"Recently divorced. Credit score dropped 400 points and seems like she recently filled some prescriptions for anti-psychotics." He reads aloud from the database.
"So maybe she's depressed. Any children?" I ask
"Nope." He says.
"Okay. Thanks Danny. I'm gonna drive back tonight so I'll come into the office with all my notes tomorrow." I tell him
"Okay. Be careful. If you're tired just book a hotel please" he says and I smile. He's become quite protective lately and I think it's nice. Although the constant check ins from both him and Robert do make me question if they are planning that together.
After a pit stop for some caffiene and a snack I'm finally pulling up to the hotel where I'm meeting Sara. I text the number of her assistants, who I've been emailing, and she says to come up to room 406. I grab my briefcase and slide out of my car and enter the hotel. It's a rather run down hotel, and it makes me wonder what someone with money or status would be doing in here?
I ride the shady elevator to the fourth floor and walk to the door at the end of the hall with the '406' hanging from it. I knock twice and hear shuffling by the door then it opens a crack, still chained to the deadbolt.
"Ms. Y/n Johansson?" A shaky female voice asks.
"Yes it's me. Im alone" I say realizing she must be afraid. The door closes for a minute and I hear her unlatch it and it opens again slowly. There's a brunette woman, very skinny and covered in baggy sweatpants and a hoodie that's 3 sizes too big. Then there's a red headed woman, she looks a little more put together and has a Bluetooth set in her ear. I'm guessing the red head is Dina, the assistant and the other woman is Sara.
"Hello, thank you for coming. My boss has some sensitive matters to discuss and she .." she pauses and glances at the brunette woman who seems to be staring just at the door. "Well she is being harassed by her husband, soon to be ex husband. But he's threatening her and there's been previous acts of domestic violence. She's been trying to get away but he always finds her." She says and my heart hurts hearing someone in trouble like that.
"I'm so sorry you went through that" I say looking straight at Sara as low and clam as I can.
She focuses on my eyes for half a second and then back to the door.
"She's scared he's going to find her, please excuse her lack of response" the assistant says to me.
"Not a problem. If this isn't a safe place can she go anywhere else? Also I'm guessing you've already made a police report right?" I ask
"That's the thing. Her husband is a u.s Senator and pretty much has immunity. She's just trying to get rid of him in her life. She knows she can't beat him or get him arrested." The red head explains and I furrow my eyebrows. There's always a way, and I'm not one to back down just because someone's a little powerful.
"I'm going to help and do everything in my power to get him away from you. Who is your husband?"
"Ted Johnson. He represents California, currently is in Washington DC though which is the only reason Sara agreed for you to be here. She's loves hotels 8 times in the last two months because he's found her and tried intimidating her to drop the divorce. She has been through countless arguments and has several threats where she can't even go to work anymore and is responding terribly to her depression meds because it's just not getting better." The assistant explains.
I kneel down infront of Sara so I can try and get through to her. I notice she grips the ends of her sweatshirt where her arms go through tightly as if she's hiding something. Also, she has this familiar look in her face. It's the same look Scarlett had the night she came over the house after that fight with Colin. The night she decided to leave him and get out of there. She came to me for safety. Just like Sara, so it's my job to protect her as well. I will not let another over powered man try to take over the life of an innocent woman.
"Sara, I'm going to help you. I promise we're going to build a case and get you away from him." I say and for the first time she looks into my eyes and she nods her head. I hope she can believe in me.
After about 3 hours of talking and writing down every piece of harassment and threat she could think of I'm finally heading back home. It's 7 pm so I'm not going to get home to see Rose but hopefully Scarlett will still be awake. I forwarded all my notes to Danny already and considering we only have 1 form of evidence but over 20 incidents I know we are going to have to set up surveillance but maybe Danny could do that for me. I decide to call Scarlett while I'm getting gas to let her know I'm leaving now.
"Hellooo" her beautiful voice rings out into my ear.
"Hi baby. I'm just getting gas and I'll be heading home."
"Are you tired at all? Have you eaten? Did you take check your sugar?" She rambles out quickly
"I'm not tired, yes my sugar is okay and I'm about to crush a gas station hot dog" I say and hear her laugh.
"Drive safe and call me if you feel yourself getting tired." She says letting me know she will be awake if needed.
"I will, love you baby"
"Love you more"
The drive back was smooth and I actually got home a little quicker than expected. I enter through the front door and see the downstairs is cleaned up and 'put to sleep' as Scarlett calls it. I head upstairs and stop at Roses room before going to our bedroom. I peak my head in seeing she is fast asleep. Her projection machine turned on which makes me smile at how much she likes it still.
I head into our bedroom but frown when the bed is empty, including the pillows and blankets. Where is Scarlett and what happened to the bed? I quickly change, leaving the room in just sweatpants and a crop top tank. I go to walk back downstairs but hear subtle music coming from upstairs still. I walk further down the hall and stop infront of what will be the nursery. I can see the light is off from the crack in the door but something is glowing behind it. I crack it open slowly and see the whole room glowing is little tealight candles that are set up alone the window sill and floor and shelf's. There's a plate of fruit and cheese on the floor and Scarlett is sitting in the middle of a makeshift bed. That explains where the pillows and blankets went.
"Welcome back my love." She says in her low raspy voice which makes my lip curl up in a huge smile.
"What's all this?" I ask
She pats the blanket on the floor and I go and sit next to her. "I wanted to make sure you got some nutritious food in you, and thought maybe you could use a little lovin'. You've been so good to me and taken care of me, I wanted to something nice for you." She smiles and makes my heart flutter a million times faster.
"You are the best." I say and grab a cheese cut and pop it in my mouth.
"How was your meeting?" She asks holding up a strawberry to my mouth. I take a small bite and swallow before I talk.
"It was good. I'm still going to have to meet with her a bunch of more times but she was really scared. You know I can't talk too much about it but the look in her eyes broke my heart."
"You have the biggest heart which is why you want to help everyone. Please don't fall too deep into this" she says with worry. She must see the determination in my eyes.
"I'll try. It's a good thing I have more to focus on here at home. It will keep me at bay" I say and it makes Scarlett nod
"I just don't want to you to get too lost in your head with the baby's due date coming up. We also have to have the baby shower here soon and I want you here for that. Not at work behind your desk" she says
"I promise I'll be here. I came back tonight right?"
"Yea but I can see how tired you are." She says and opens her arms so I can lay on her chest. My hand instinctively lands on her bump and I caress it as my head sinks deeper and deeper into her.
"I'm okay baby. I'm right where I need to be."