Claimed by the reaper

Chapter 19

Sabrina drove her into town the following morning, no questions asked beyond a knowing, gentle look that told Wren her friend had likely suspected considerably longer than she'd let on.

"You don't have to say anything," Sabrina said, parking outside the pharmacy with careful discretion. "I'll wait here. Take whatever time you need."

Wren purchased the test with hands that weren't quite steady. Old fear and fragile, uncertain hope tangled together with an intensity that made the short drive back to the clubhouse feel considerably longer than it actually was.

She took the test alone in the clubhouse's private bathroom. The same careful, methodical attention she'd once brought to examining ambiguous photographs was now turned toward the small plastic stick sitting on the counter. Minutes stretched into what felt like considerably longer than the box's instructions had promised.

Positive.

Unmistakably, unambiguously positive.

She sat down slowly on the edge of the bathtub, one hand pressed instinctively to her still flat stomach. The accumulated evidence of the past two weeks was finally, completely confirmed. Disbelief and quiet, cautious joy tangled together with an old, familiar thread of fear. Not fear of the pregnancy itself, she realized, studying the confirmation with growing wonder, but fear of how considerably more dangerous this made everything already threatening to consume her fragile, hard won peace.

Marcus was still out there, however cautiously he'd retreated. The investigation into the fire remained unresolved, and the Vultures' suspicion still simmered beneath a fragile, uncertain peace. Now, suddenly and unexpectedly, she was carrying a child into the middle of all of it.

She found Sabrina waiting exactly where she'd left her, patient and quiet despite what must have been considerable curiosity.

"Well?" Sabrina asked gently, studying Wren's expression with careful attention.

"I'm pregnant," Wren said, testing the words aloud for the first time, still adjusting to their weight and shape.

Sabrina's expression broke into immediate, warm delight, though something more thoughtful moved beneath the joy.

"How do you feel about it?"

"Terrified," Wren admitted honestly. "Happy, somehow, despite the terror. Uncertain how Gideon's going to react, given everything still unresolved around us."

She studied her hands, old anxiety surfacing.

"This isn't exactly the safest world to bring a child into, Sabrina. Not with Marcus still out there, not with the investigation still ongoing."

"No," Sabrina agreed gently. "But I don't think Gideon's the kind of man who backs away from difficulty, especially not difficulty involving you. I think you might be underestimating how he's going to receive this."

"I hope you're right," Wren said quietly, old fear warring with fragile, growing hope. "I don't know how to tell him. I've been rehearsing it the entire drive back, and nothing feels quite adequate to the moment."

"There's no perfect way to say something this significant," Sabrina said gently. "Just tell him the truth, plainly. I think that's served you both well enough so far."

She found Gideon in the garage that evening, working on his bike with the same focused, methodical attention he brought to everything. Something in her nervous hesitation must have registered immediately because he set down his tools the moment she appeared in the doorway.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concern immediately replacing his earlier focus.

"Nothing's wrong, exactly," Wren said, old nervousness making the careful rehearsal she'd prepared entirely inadequate to the actual moment. "I need to tell you something. Something significant."

He crossed the garage immediately, taking her hands in his and giving her his complete, undivided attention.

"Tell me."

"I'm pregnant," she said finally, the words landing plainly without the careful preamble she'd spent the entire afternoon rehearsing. "I took a test this morning. It's confirmed."

For a long moment, Gideon simply stood there, processing the admission with visible, overwhelming stillness. Wren felt old fear surge back sharply, uncertain how to interpret his silence.

"Gideon?" she said softly, searching his face for some indication of what he was actually feeling.

"We're having a baby," he said finally, his voice rough with an emotion she couldn't fully name yet. Something broke open across his careful, composed features that she'd rarely witnessed from him before.

"We are," she confirmed, still uncertain, still braced for some reaction she hadn't yet properly identified.

"Wren."

He said her name like it held something enormous, pulling her carefully into his arms. She felt, rather than saw, the fine tremor running through him.

"I don't have words for what I'm feeling right now. I don't think I've ever been this completely, overwhelmingly happy in my entire life."

Relief flooded through her at the admission, old fear giving way to matching, overwhelming joy.

"You're not frightened? Given everything still unresolved, Marcus, the investigation, all of it?"

"I'm frightened," he admitted honestly, pulling back just enough to look at her properly, something fierce and absolute entering his expression. "Terrified, actually, of everything that could still threaten you both. But I'm not frightened of this, Wren. Not of loving you, not of building this family with you. If anything, this makes me considerably more determined to finish what we started. Ending Marcus's threat permanently, uncovering the truth behind that fire completely, and making certain our child grows up in a world that is genuinely safe rather than simply hoping it eventually becomes one."

Something in his fierce, absolute certainty settled the last of her earlier fear into steady, grateful joy.

"I love you," she said softly, resting her forehead against his. "More than I think I properly understood until this exact moment."

"I love you too," Gideon said, his voice thick with emotion, one hand settling gently and reverently over her still flat stomach. "Both of you. Completely, and without a single reservation."

They stayed like that for a long while, the garage settling into quiet, significant stillness around them. Both of them absorbed the enormity of what tonight's admission had actually changed. It wasn't just their careful, hard won relationship, but an entire future neither had fully anticipated, growing now between them with fierce, determined promise.