First of all thanks to the likes and the comments. It's amazing to know to know you love this story.
When he returned back to the museum again, it was near closing time. The guy at the desk had told him that she was still present, but couldn't meet with anyone. Instead of being let in though and giving up he headed for the employee entrance and waited for her to come out of the building.
He didn't have to wait very long though as he noticed her walking out, her briefcase and handbag in one hand. Their son resting on her arms as she made her way to an Audi parked in what seemed to be her spot.
"Yes, Kate I'll be there at eight sharp." He heard Kate say in an amused tone and her familiar laughter rung in his ears. He couldn't help but smile and remember all the times he'd heard that laugh. He noticed her phone being tucked between her ear and shoulder as he heard her talking to someone on the phone.
Walking towards them as quietly as he could, he watched as she put their son in the car seat in the back of the car. He watched her throw her briefcase and handbag into the back seat as well as she buckled their son up.
"Nah, he's out of the night I think. He spent his entire evening going over the baby dinosaur eggs they discovered. I had to literally pull him away from the lab." he heard Kate laugh as she rounded the car just as she reached the door, he reached the hood of her car.
Their eyes locked with one another, he could see the fire returning in her eyes before she said. :"Sorry Kate, I've gotta go." she tucked her phone in her back pocket as she continued to glare at him.
"Haven't I made myself clear yet?" she asked him, leaning on the door of the driver as he watched her hand a teddy bear blanket to their son.
"Mummy," Arthur called out and Kate bending down to look at him through her door. "It's alright little man, you want to play a game on my phone?" she asked him when he nodded his head she gave him a small smile and dug for her phone, before handing it out to him after sliding the phone open.
"Can I see him?" Glen asked with a hopeful tone and gaze after watching them interact again. But she shook her head at him. "I don't know what has made you want to talk to us or see us all of a sudden. But I'm not about to hurt my son by you showing up out of the blue to then disappear as well," she told him as she shook her head and by the tone of her voice, he knew it would be hard to change her mind.
"Our son." he corrected her with a smile on his face as he said the words 'our son'. But he realised that she wasn't so happy about it by the look on her face albeit it being the truth.
"My son," she told him in a clear voice. "I was pregnant whilst you were travelling the world. I was only an inconvenience whilst I had to make sure everything was in order at home and work to give birth to him. I raised him on my own for all I know, you were just a sperm donor." she told him through gritted teeth as her hands clenched her door she leant on.
"I was just another notch on the great Glen Power belt," she told him in a cruel chuckle as he saw the hurt in her eyes as she said the sentence and there could be nothing further from the truth. "That's not true." he started to say but realised he would have to do the explanation first.
"I talked to our manager, he never told me," Glen told her as he took a step towards her. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her, breathing in her familiar scent. Hold her body against his and getting familiar with her body again. To love her and show her the love he still held for her.
Kate was however worried that her son would hear something that he shouldn't. opening her window a tiny bit so she could still hear him, she closed the door.
"He thought you were lying and were trying to get a piece of me and the band. I'm so so sorry Kate," he told her as he heard the hurt and pain in his own voice as he took another step up to her. "I missed so much with you, with our son, I missed you," he told her with a teary sigh.
"I tried and tried looking for you for, but I could never find you. You've been on my mind for the last five years and I wanted to find you so hard. I wanted to continue where we left off in Greece." he told her with a small shake of his head, not letting her stop him from talking as he took another step up to her.
"I was falling in love with you on that trip. Those four weeks were one of the best moments of my life. Hadn't I told you who I was, you wouldn't have known? You liked me for the person that I was and not what I do. I fell in love with you." He paused, taking the final step up to her as she leant against the car with her back, her head bent down, he standing right in front of her.
"And I know you fell in love with me too, I know you wouldn't have slept with me if you hadn't," he told her with a knowing tone as he reached out to take her hand in his and he watched tears gathering in her eyes as she lifted her head.
"Glen please?" she begged with a deep breath, shaking her head lightly. "What?" he asked her, taking both of her hands in his and they still felt as soft as they five years ago. He remembered those hands running over his body, gripping him and holding him.
Kate, on the other hand, was having more than a little internal battle. She had loved him, had fallen so hard that she'd never recovered from it. A small piece would always be in love with him no matter what. Was he telling her the truth? Should she listen to him? Let him explain to her? When he'd come to see her for the first time he never talked about a child, it had been strange when she thought about it afterwards. It had also brought up all the emotions that she had felt for him.
But looking into those blue eyes she'd come to love so much she could see only love and honesty in them and a lot of curiosity.
"I can't do this again Glen," she told him shaking her head as she fought the tears in her eyes. "You're right I fell in love with you. I trusted you," she told him with a hurt smile and shake of her head.
"And when I tried sending you a text at first I thought you were busy. Then I thought I had just been another notch on the Glen Power belt," she told him as she sighed softly.
"When I discovered I was pregnant I'd just moved here. And instead of being able to share it with the man I had fallen in love with, I was told you didn't want to talk to me," she told him and the hurt she must have felt at that point reflected in her eyes and voice.
"I was all alone here, pregnant, ill and new here despite the six month internship I had done," she told him as her vision cleared up, knowing she'd have to hurt herself again in order to protect her from the much bigger pain which was sure to come if she let him in.
"I can't let you in for you to leave afterwards. It isn't just me anymore. I have my son to think about as well." she told him, her shoulders feeling as heavy as the world lived on. After five years of hurting and doing things alone, it wasn't hard to imagine that she carried a lot of weight on them.
She'd never fallen out of love with him. Having seen him 3 times now in the last two days was hard enough as it was. having been made to believe that he'd never wanted them.
And now he's waltzing back in her life, breaking the walls she'd build around her heart to protect it. It was still in his hands though and seeing him reminded her of that. She still loved him, she still loved the person she'd fallen in love with. It didn't help that her, their son looked exactly like him either.
"Kate I never wanted you to go through that." he started as he reached out to touch her cheek, but she pulled away and he dropped his hand. "Had I known you were pregnant with our child I would have been there. I would have supported you, been with you, love you like I had in Greece," he whispered in an emotional voice as he reached out to cup her cheek. She couldn't help but lean into his touch though, closing her eyes for a split second, remembering their time in Greece. All the moments that they had shared. Their one and only time they'd made love and the night Arthur had been made.
Glen relaxed a little at the fact that she didn't yell at him anymore. There was a change going on. he felt like he was finally getting through to her and even the tiniest bit, he would take it for now.
"Mummy, who is that man?" Flynn's voice asked her from the car behind her as he watched his mum talk to this stranger he'd never seen. "No one," she told him, looking over her shoulder, towards the small gap in the window. "Just continue watching Fireman Sam," she told him, having heard the familiar tune of the cartoon moments before. She had those episodes on her phone for moments such as these.
Glen couldn't help but feel hurt when he heard Kate tell their son that he was no one. He wasn't no one, he was his dad and he wanted to be a dad to him.
"Please let me have a chance of getting to know my son," he begged her with tears in his eyes as he looked at the dark window where he knew his son was and could hear him watching something.
"I haven't even seen him up close. I only saw him, the picture from the announcement of him being a page boy. And the short moment in your office before you send him away. And now it's dark." he explained with a shake of his head as he looked into her eyes.
"I want a second chance. I want to get to know you again. I want us to continue what we had in Greece. the connection we had and we know we had it, we still have it." he told her as he squeezed her hand in his warm one as the warmth of his hand warmed hers in the cold air. "I want to continue loving you like I did back then," he told her as he leant his head forward, dropping his head against hers, his hand resting on her waist as she looked into her grey-bluish eyes.
He watched as her eyes close for a second as he felt her shake her head a little. "I can't tell him you're his dad. If you decide that he isn't worth your time again. He'll be heartbroken." she told him, knowing the question he asked her pretty much all the time. Why didn't he have a dad like other children? What had happened to his dad? Didn't his dad love him enough to be with him?
"I need to protect my son," she told him, her head ever so slightly leaning against his head. She could hear the walls around her heart crumbling and breaking down. She couldn't give him whatever was left of her heart. She needed to toughen up if he was going to be in Arthur's life.
She remembered all those time, they played in front of her eyes like a movie. Home asking about a dad both at Thomas and Preschool. Why George had a mummy and daddy? Why did he have more than one gran and gramps? It had broken her heart so many times when she had to tell him that they were different. It reminded her each time of Glen, the hurt at the rejection and the way she'd been told that he wanted nothing to do with them.
If he really wanted to be in his life. Maybe her son wouldn't feel as excluded from the one thing he was excluded from. Harry and William had been as much of a father figure in his life as they could be. William and Harry were Uncle Bill or recently Uncle Will and Uncle Harry. She'd tried to give him as much of a normal life as possible. She'd done her best, but she couldn't be mum and dad at the same time. He at least had a much better life than she ever had. She didn't have to worry about anything financial, worry about not having food on her table. She supported herself, had a nice house, supported her son. And still send a chunk of money to her grandparents, she could afford it and they had given so much to her.
"I wouldn't do that to our son," he told her, his thumb rubbing back and forth against her cheek as she closed her eyes again as she felt the tears filling her eyes again.
"Just let me see him and talk to him for now," he asked her with a begging look and tone. "The rest we'll figure out later," he added with a small whispered and sigh. Her eyes were always so telling and that hadn't changed at all. He could see the hurt he'd done to her and he felt so horrible and it was something neither of them was at fault off. He saw her resolve at whatever battle she was having in her head.
He saw the worry in her eyes and the subtle gaze to the corner of her eye, checking in on their son. He couldn't see him from where he was standing, but he heard the cartoon and the soft laughter of his son.
"If you hurt him, I'll make sure you are the first mummified body in this museum and they won't even know it's you," she warned him with a dig of her finger in his chest. There was no doubt that she would in her tone. She would really hurt him if he hurt their son, but he had no intention of ever hurting them again.
He wanted her and he wanted them to be a family. he'd imagined it in Greece, having a family with her. Never had he expected that he already had a family, they were just without him. But so far he'd been denied a family so far. He'd love nothing more to have some more children with her, running around them. But he was jumping too far ahead in the future and facts right now.
"I need to get him home though. I still have to make dinner, give him his bath and check his homework," she told him as she nodded to Arthur.
So that's the chapter a bit of a short one. But I'll have another one up soon. The first four to leave behind a comment can expect a small preview. 😜