***
"It's okay, it's probably just a friend of mine. She said she might stop by today," Erin explained. "Come in!"
Liam relaxed his grip on his weapon, but kept a vigilant eye on the door as it opened with a slight creak of the hinges. He watched as the visitor stepped inside, his eyes widening slightly in unexpected surprise.
"Dad. What are you doing here?" Erin asked, more than a little surprised herself to see her previously absent father enter the room with an impressive bouquet of flowers and a large "get well soon" balloon.
"What, can't I come visit my only daughter when I finally get the opportunity?" Urick responded with an affectionate smile.
"Of course you can. I'm just a little surprised, that's all."
"Well, I thought it was about time I saw how my little girl was doing."
"I'm not a little girl anymore, Dad," Erin pointed out, as the politician known as her father set the flowers down on the bedside cabinet. Tied around the bouquet, the balloon swayed slightly beneath the air conditioning vent in the ceiling above. "But thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit, anyway."
Hubble looked over at a silent Liam and asked, "I trust the good Major here is living up to his Protector status?"
"Well, I don't know what there is to protect me from in here, aside from boredom and the occasion injection, but I certainly enjoy his company," Erin replied with a side smile directed at Liam.
Liam returned the smile and got up out of the chair. "I'm happy to be of service," he told her gladly, the smile taking on a charming quality. "But right now I think I'll leave you two alone. I'm about reading to fall asleep."
"Major, it's 5:30 in the afternoon," Urick pointed out.
Shrugging his shoulders, Liam stated simply, "Late night." He wasn't about to tell Urick about the nightmares he'd been having of late, filled with unsettling images of Kimeran spirits, Jaridians and an underground chamber of sorts.
"See you on Friday?" Erin asked, hopeful.
"Sure," Liam promised. "I'll even bring you something more appetizing for lunch. Hospital food stinks."
"Mmm. I look forward to it."
Liam's smile faded as he glanced over at Urick. "Hubble," he said simply.
"Major," the older man returned mildly, inclining his head almost imperceptibly.
Erin waited until Liam had left the room before dropping her own smile and demanding of her father, "So what do you really want? And don't give me any crap about worrying about me. You haven't even called me once in over a week."
"Erin, I know I haven't been the best to you in the past, but I do worry about you," Hubble assured fiercely. "You're my only daughter, the only thing I have left worth a damn, and I'll always worry about you, now matter how safe and happy you are."
"But that doesn't mean you don't have an ulterior motive for visiting me now instead of a week ago. Now out with it."
"Okay, there is another reason," Hubble conceded. "But it's an important one."
"That's a matter or opinion," Erin muttered.
Removing his thick, winter coat, Hubble sat down on the edge of the bed. "How much has Sandoval told you about his agenda?"
"Only that he's working to destroy the Taelons once and for all," Erin disclosed. "By whatever means necessary."
"And has he told you his reasons for wanting them gone so badly?"
"He said they caused his wife's death, that the CVI made him do things to her that he regrets now."
"Well, Dee Dee Sandoval is not dead," Hubble revealed.
"What?"
"A Liberation agent named Commander William Boone faked her death and she was given a completely new identity, relocated to parts unknown."
"And why are you telling me this?"
"Because I don't want you to get hurt. Think about it. Do you really think he'll still want to be you once he finds out the truth, that his wife is still alive and well? What if she wants him back? Do you really believe he'll stay with you just because you're having his baby?"
Erin was about to respond when there was another knock at the door and a female nurse peered into the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but visiting hours are up," the young woman informed.
"I'll just be a minute longer," Urick assured.
The nurse nodded and closed the door again.
"Listen. I spoke to Doctor Curzon and she tells me that you can go home in a few days," Hubble continued, turning back to his daughter. "The question is, where is home to you? I'd like it if you returned to the house with me, at least until the baby's born. I can arrange for a midwife, a nurse, whatever you need."
"Thanks for the offer, but I have a perfectly suitable apartment of my own," Erin explained. "And I can take care of myself and my baby. This hospital's only thirty minutes away by bullet-train and three by Portal. I'll be fine."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. It's what I want. Now, if that's all, I think you should leave. Oh, and I know what you were trying to ask earlier, and the answer's no. I won't tell the ANA anything about Ron."
"Even if it would help save lives?"
"He doesn't tell me his plans, so I wouldn't be of any help to you anyway," Erin insisted, slightly exasperated with her father's persistence.
"All right. But I want you to think about it, okay? Please?"
"Fine," Erin sighed. "But I won't change my mind."
***
As Liam exited the humid, confining elevator and stepped out into the ground floor corridor, he wavered a little and leaned against the wall. He felt nauseous, dizzy and suddenly very warm as his surroundings seemed to shift in and out of focus.
"Liam? Are you all right?" The concerned voice of Allison Curzon startled him, but he didn't turn around to face her as she approached. He was certain that if he moved his feet even an inch he would collapse to the tilled floor.
"Major, is something wrong?" Curzon asked again, moving to stand in front of the silent young man.
"No, I'm just... just a little dizzy," Liam murmured quietly.
"Maybe you should sit down, let me take a look at you."
"No, I'm fine, really. I just haven't been sleeping much lately. I feel better now."
"You're sure you don't want me to run a scan, just in case?" Curzon pressed, concerned for her hybrid patient.
"Thanks, but I have to be going. I promise to call you if I change my mind or feel worse."
"Okay. You have my Global number - call me at any time, day or night, no matter the hour."
Liam managed a small smile of gratitude. "All right," he promised. "See you in a few days."
***
12:30 a.m.
Erin released a frustrated sigh as she turned over onto her side to face the window. Even though the baby was sleeping soundly for a change, she just couldn't fall sleep herself. Her earlier conversation with her father had been plaguing her thoughts all night, the part about Dee Dee still being alive particularly troubling.
Would Sandoval really abandon her if he knew that his wife, his first love, was still very much alive?
Erin wanted so desperately to know the answer to that, to be assured that her baby's father really did care about her as much as he constantly claimed to. But she had decided not to tell him about his wife, not yet. She had to keep it to herself. If not for herself and the baby, then for the woman that had feared for her life enough to create a new one.
And it would complicate things even more for Ron. He's already under enough pressure as it is. God, when did my life become such a soap-opera? All I need now is to fall into a coma and have my baby stolen my some crazy woman, and that's a whole year's worth of plot lines right there... Speaking of soap-operas, I might as well watch some TV...
Carefully turning over onto her back, Erin grabbed the remote control off the cabinet and switched on the flat-screen TV mounted to the far wall.
After a few minutes of watching a nature programme, she was finally beginning to feel as though she could get some sleep, when she heard loud, angry footsteps stalking down the corridor. She started slightly when they stopped outside her door, which was abruptly pulled open and in stepped an enraged FBI Agent...
"Ron, what are you doing her this late? Is something wrong?" Erin asked, noting the increasingly angry expression on her older lover's face. The pure rage she saw in his dark eyes scared her more than she thought possible. He'd never looked at her with such eyes before, not even when something else had been responsible for his unpleasant mood.
"Don't play innocent with me, I don't buy it anymore, Erin," Sandoval hissed, stepping closer to the bed.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the lies, the manipulations! I should have known this was all just some ploy to destroy me and everything I've worked for!"
"Ron, I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I have never lied to you, not once," Erin insisted.
"Oh, really? Then what about the time you told me you were carrying me child? Or rather, the time you let me believe you were."
"Are you drunk? I didn't lie about being pregnant! What do you think this is, padding?" She gestured to her swollen stomach, as she sat up against the back wall.
"I didn't say the fact that you were pregnant is a lie, I was referring to the little matter of paternity. I'm not the baby's father, am I?"
"What? Of course you are! I told you, I haven't been with anyone but you in months. Why would you think otherwise? Is this about my attraction to Liam? Because if it is, neither of us would ever do something like to you."
"Just stop lying to me, dammit!" Sandoval yelled. Suddenly, he reached down and pressed his fingers sharply to the side of Erin's rounded stomach. Ignoring Erin's obvious discomfort, he demanded, " Am I this baby's father?!
"Yes! Stop it, you're hurting me!" Erin pleaded, tears threatening to spill. "I didn't lie to you, I swear!"
"Then how do you explain this?!" He pulled Tate's Global out of his coat pocket and accessed the footage from the Kobe Club.
"What the Hell...?" Erin gasped as her brow furrowed in confusion, watching in disgust as a woman who looked very much like herself did nauseating things to a man she wouldn't even vomit on. "I don't know who that woman is, but she's certainly not me. See there?" She pointed to the woman's back on the small screen. "No tattoo on the left shoulder, and no birthmark on my lower back. That's not me." She handed the Global back and lowered her hand to her stomach, which was burning from the pressure Sandoval had applied to it. "How could you even think that I would do something like that, with Tate of all people? He's disgusting!"
Ron didn't know what to say. He had been so angry that he didn't even know what he would have done if Erin had confessed to the accusations he had made being true. He had seen the fear in her eyes at the rage evident in his, and he was suddenly ashamed for have been responsible for evoking such an emotion in her. Erin was the one person that always regarded him with nothing but love. She had left him once already because of her fear of what he was capable of, and he had sworn to himself that he would never give her a reason to do that again.
Right now, she looked positively terrified of him, on the verge of tears.
"I-I'm sorry," he apologized quietly, his expression softening. "The analysis of the footage supported Tate's claim of what it depicts. I'm sorry for doubting you. And I'm sorry I frightened you."
As a tear slipped from her eye and began a path down her cheek, Erin felt gentle arms envelope her carefully, pulling her into a comforting embrace. She allowed him to hold her, resting her head against his chest. She could feel the baby's agitated movements and could hold the tears at bay no longer.
Ron gently rocked her back and forth as he ran a hand soothingly over her silken hair, apologizing over and over for having hurt her. But something told him that she wouldn't be so quick to forgive him this time. For few minutes there his control had slipped and had Erin admitted to her lies, he suspected that he would have done a whole lot more to harm her. And that, he had to admit, scared him. Perhaps Erin's fear that she could not always trust him to be kind and gentle with her and their son was justified. Perhaps she was right that a man capable of violence and murder would one day turn on his loved ones...
Maybe she would be better off without me...
They stayed that position for several more minutes, with Erin's sobs quietening as she grew tired. Finally, she pulled away from the Implant and laid back on her side, facing away from him.
"Are you all right?" Sandoval asked softly, concerned that he might have injured the baby.
Erin didn't respond. Instead, she simply pulled the blanket tighter around herself and continued to stare at the shadows on the wall.
"Do you want me to call a nurse?"
This time, Erin shook her head. "Just leave me alone," she murmured.
"Erin, I �"
"I said leave me alone! I don't want you here anymore."
"Okay," Ron acknowledged reluctantly. He opened his mouth to say that he was sorry once again, but knew it was useless. He had to leave her be for a while, even though he had a terrible suspicion that she would not be there when he returned.
Quietly, he left the room and closed the door tightly behind him.
Erin waited until she heard the footsteps fading down the hall before sitting up and wiping her eyes dry. She had thought she would never consider what she was about to do, but she knew now that she could never have a normal, safe life with Ronald Sandoval.
Removing her Global from the drawer at her side, she slid the device open and keyed in a number she hadn't called in months.
After several beeps, the person on the other end of the call finally answered. "Erin? Is something wrong?" Hubble asked, his half-asleep senses becoming fully alert as he saw his daughter's tear-streaked features looking back at him.
Erin nodded miserably. "I've changed my mine. I want to come home..."
***
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