***Navaeh's P.O.V.***
A year had passed by the time that I was answering the door with a small baby bump and a gold band on my finger. Things had been crazy obviously; Harry and Elizabeth had gotten married and seeing them so happy pushed me to take that ever important step into intimacy with Niall. It was a few months after that that Niall and I found out that I was pregnant and we'd rushed to get married during a trip to Mullingar. It was a quick little arrangement, but we were happy with it and that was all that mattered.
I'd visited the jail where James was at about a week before we had that particular knock on the door in the middle of December. I really shouldn't have gone, but he had been so damn insistent about it and I just got tired of the calls from the jail that constantly went to voicemail. He had said some pretty... disturbing things when he had seen my baby bump (and I had tried really hard to hide it, but twins didn't make it easy). I had returned home as quickly as I could and I was incredibly paranoid. Every little thing made me jump and Niall noticed right away. It was really silly to try and hide things from him. So, I told him about what had happened and he was more than upset about it all.
And that's what had led up to the knock on the door. Oliver Linwood stood on the other side; his hair was a bit longer than I had remembered it from the last time I had seen him. He was still in his police uniform and he bore a serious look. When I first saw him I let my mind run wild with what he could possibly have to say to me.
"Navaeh, it's great to see you looking so well," he greeted as he offered a kind smile for a short moment. His welcoming persona helped me to relax a little bit, but not enough to make me feel incredibly comfortable. So, with a shy smile and a hand travelling to my bump, I replied.
"It's great to see you too," it was just pleasantries compared to what was to come, I'm sure, but I would feel rude if I just urged him to jump to why he was standing on my doorstep. So, I pushed invisible dirt around with the tip of my toe as I silently wished that Niall would come out from the kitchen and join me at the door. He probably would eventually; I had no doubt that he'd get worried about my extended absence and come to see who was waiting at the door.
"I know you're probably wondering why I'm here," he started with a sigh and a dip at the corner of his lips. I nodded ever so slightly, tapping at my stomach with slight impatience. "And I won't keep you waiting long; I just came to deliver some news."
"News?" I wondered with an arch of my brow.
"Yes, I heard that you visited James about a week ago so I assume that you've been keeping contact with him." Oliver was fiddling a little while he talked to me; he was obviously concerned about something and that little fact had me even more on edge.
"I guess," I shrugged, "he was being really insistent on seeing me and I got tired of it." I had regretted going as soon as I stepped into the place, but I couldn't go back and undo that decision. I would have been happy to never speak to him again; after the threats he had made on my babies, I was hoping that I would never see his face again.
Oliver nodded curtly, moving on to his main point, "Um, I was called by the jail earlier today; James was killed by an inmate that recognized him as an ex-officer."
The news made my whole body freeze. My fingers clutched at the soft fabric of my shirt as I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that wasn't from the twins. Maybe it was just because Niall and I had been watching some cop drama the night before or maybe it was some instinct. I just had all these doubts running through my mind and I decided to voice them, "are you sure he's dead?" My tone was so deathly serious that it was almost impossible.
He nodded, "I was there to verify that it was him and I watched him get lowered into the ground." And there was a huge wave of relief that washed over me when I heard the words. I covered my mouth with my hands as a small sob pushed its way out. I was so... happy to hear the news and I didn't know if that was understandable or just plain twisted. Honestly, I had wished death upon James about a thousand times.
"Hey, Navaeh," Niall called from the kitchen, "the chicken is almost done; are you coming to sit at the table or are we eating in the living room again?" Oliver, figuring out that he had come right before dinner, gave me a small pat on the shoulder and well wishes before leaving. I closed the door behind him as silent tears began to streak down my cheeks without control. Since I hadn't answered him back, Niall was coming out of the kitchen to see what I was doing, "I got you some more wafers too so that you can dip them in the ice cream and-." He was cut off when he finally reached the foyer and saw the tear tracks on my cheeks.
He quickly made his way over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders as he looked me in the eyes. His grip was gentle and his eyes were probing while he had a bit of panic written on his features. "Hey, what's wrong? Did I do something again?" he questioned urgently. My tears were wiped away as best as they could be with his thumb and I shook my head when he had stopped trying to get the tears to stop.
"James is dead," I told him, and I had no doubt that he could hear the relief in my words. I expected him to be surprised; I expected to see his jaw drop at the news. However, he didn't seem taken aback at all. He just looked at me with a solemn gaze and then brought me into a hug that I desperately needed. My arms looped around his neck as I held him as close I could and cried quietly. "I'm finally free," I muttered only to have his arms tighten around me in response to the statement. Safe. I was finally safe.
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"Once upon a time, there used to be a very sad princess that was under the control of a horrible monster," Niall's voice drifted from the twins' room along with the soft light from the lamp that was in there. It had been a long day; Davey—being the newborn that he was—had spent hours crying bloody murder and nearly drove Niall and I insane. The girls were also being a handful; they were whining a lot throughout the day and eventually Niall figured out that they were jealous of the attention that Davey had been getting from us. They were only four; they weren't aware of the fact that babies needed a lot of attention until Niall and I explained it to them. So, Niall had decided to calm their worries about us not loving them anymore by cuddling up with them on one of the beds and telling them a story.
I walked to the door frame and leaned up against it so that I could look at the scene with a smile. The two little girls were tucked under his arms as he let his chin rest on Hope's head lightly. He had a small smile on his lips that probably mirrored my own, and he continued with a fond tone, "The monster hurt her very badly and was very inconsiderate of the princess. And one day, when the monster was being particularly mean to the princess, she ran away from the monster and hid under a big tree." The girls gasped at the words as if they were the most shocking things that they had ever heard.
"Not too far away, there was a prince playing a game of footie with his friends. One of his friends kicked the ball so hard that it accidentally hit the princess. The prince, who was so worried about whether the princess was okay or not, rushed over to her. After figuring out that she was okay, the prince and the princess became friends and they talked all of the time." My smile grew as I realized that he was telling them our story with that fairytale twist to it. They were none the wiser, but I knew.
"And they got married and lived happily ever after?" Charity prompted as she played with Niall's hand, tracing her tiny fingers through the gaps between his larger ones. Niall chuckled but shook his head before going on,
"Not quite yet. You see, the bad bad monster was still out there, and he was very mean to the princess still. The prince knew about the monster, and he wanted to save the princess, but he didn't know how to. The princess was strong, though; she saved herself from the horrible monster and the prince whisked her away to somewhere where the horrible monster would never get to her again." My fingers tapped against my thigh lightly; the smile never left my face as I continued to look at my husband and two daughters all cuddled up.
"Were they happy after that, daddy?" Hope wondered, angling her head up so that her brown eyes could look into his while she waited for the answer.
"Mhm; they got married and had two beautiful little girls that were their whole world;" he bopped her nose and then did the same to Charity which earned big cheesy smiles and high pitched giggles. They snuggled even closer into him as he let out a hum and they all settled down after the short moment of excitement. "And the prince took care of the nasty monster so that it would never hurt his family and so that they could all live happily ever after." The last part caught my attention; I straightened up as my mind processed the words and my eyes widened ever so slightly. I silently wondered if I was reading too much into the finishing sentence; surely Niall didn't mean that he had something to do with James' death. No, my mind was just running wild again and it was silly to assume such a thing (even if he had been gone the day after I told him about my disturbing visit to the jail).
Part of me didn't want to know the truth. So, I didn't ask him when he came to bed that night. I was safe; my family was safe. How that had happened didn't matter. What did matter was that we were happy, and I wanted it to stay that way.
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Ah, finally, we reach the end of this story. It was a long and hectic ride, yeah? Thanks for all the votes, comments, and reads on Broken. And--sorry for my shameless self advertisement--check out the other stories in this series (Ditched, Crazy, Created, and Found) for little snippets of these two love birds. I hope you enjoyed and, for the last time in this story:
-cow_queen