A/N: Thank you ChangingMie for the picture!

P.S. I can guarantee no one will like this chapter…lol

-----

Everything was going fine. We hadn't fought in days, almost a week. I was even considering asking him if he wanted to try to make this into a real relationship.

But no, Mikko just couldn't keep his life drama free.

Nikki and I came back from the store after indulging in a girlie day. We had bought some baby bottles and even a cute unisex blanket. I was actually happy. I was thinking that this life could be pretty cool.

When I set the bags down on the couch, I heard rustling above me, coming from my room. No one was supposed to be here.

Then I heard a woman's voice try to say something quietly. I looked at Nikki, and she was shaking her head.

"That son-of-a-bitch!" she said in disbelief.

I quickly made my way upstairs to see Mikko pulling on his shirt and an underwear clad woman trying to put her pants on quickly.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" I yelled. "In my fucking bed?!"

Mikko just looked at me with a blank expression. I looked at the woman since Mikko wouldn't reply. It was a girl I knew in high school. I was so furious I couldn't even recall her name.

"And you!" I walked towards her, but Mikko quickly blocked my path. I pushed him, but he didn't move.

I saw red. "You couldn't let things stay civil could you? You have to bring this whore to my house and screw her in my bed!" I yelled, swinging my fists at him furiously. "You don't care about anything or anyone but yourself! Get your shit and get out!"

His jaw clenched. I knew he would think that I was just being defiant and that I couldn't order him around. But I didn't care. I turned around and shoved past Nikki. I was at the bottom of the stairs before Nikki caught up.

I threw open the closet and started pulling out the three jackets that were Mikko's. I threw them out into the snow. One of those jackets was leather. I hoped it would get ruined. Next I grabbed the keys to the car he had given me. Those were tossed out as well.

The whore came down the stairs behind Mikko. He didn't have his bags in his hands. The woman looked at the ground until she was out of the house, which was a good thing since I would've killed them both if either of them commented on my behavior.

"You're going crazy." After Mikko walked her to his car, he came back into the house with his jackets and my… his car keys in hand. "You weren't even supposed to be here."

"Get the fuck out." I growled with my arms crossed over my chest.

He tossed his jackets on the floor. "I'll be back." It sounded more of a threat than a promise.

"I'll make sure all your shit it outside. There's nothing you need in this house. Until these kids are ready to be born, I expect for you to make yourself scarce."

With another unhappy glare, he turned and walked out of my house. I immediately went upstairs and started shoving anything of his in the duffle bag he brought weeks ago.

"You're working yourself up," Nikki said from the doorway of my room. "You should calm down and take a breather."

"I'll breathe when all his shit is in the snow," I said furiously. "I don't want him to take another step into this house."

"You think he's going to listen to your commands?"

I nodded. "He will or I'll shoot him."

Nikki sighed. "I'll clear out the guest room too."

When she left me, I felt myself deflate. This past week had given me so much hope. It made me think I might just get the family I wanted. Fat chance of that happening now. I was more likely to shoot him now.

I threw the duffle bag out of my window, not even caring that I had shoved his laptop in that bag. It landed in the snow with a solid, satisfying thud. I took the bedding off of my bed then shoved that out the window too, even the pillows followed out the window.

When Nikki came into my room holding another bag, I was sitting on my bare mattress feeling my babies move.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

I slowly looked at her and nodded. "Yeah. Everything was going great. We were getting along. We weren't fighting. I was even getting used to him sleeping next to me." I wiped away a couple escaping tears. "He's just a selfish asshole. Right now he'll be lucky if I let him be there when the babies are born."

She sighed and left the bag by the door. She sat down in front of me and put her hands over mine.

"It will be okay Em," she said comfortingly. "Mikko is a fool. When he hurts you, he hurts his kids."

I shook my head. "He doesn't care. This is all an obligation to him. He doesn't want this." I wiped my face again. "Bringing that skinny whore here and screwing her on my bed was a slap in my face."

She sighed. "Maybe it was just his dick thinking."

"No," I said regretfully, "I slept with him yesterday." She gave me a look and I shrugged sheepishly. "It makes me feel less neurotic."

Nikki nodded. "You were starting to fall for him, weren't you?"

I looked down at my growing belly and regretfully nodded. "And that made me look like the fool I am."

Nikki shook her head and grabbed my face, making me look at her. "You're not a fool Emily. He is the fool. He led you on then threw it in your face. He disrespected you in your own home, where you're supposed to feel the safest. He knew what he was doing. He could've taken her to a hotel, but he didn't. He threw it in your face and will use the fact that you're not in a relationship as a shield for his actions."

"I should've been stronger. I gave into a fantasy where I could have a loving husband and happy kids." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I won't let that happen again. I can't give him the leverages to let him hurt me so easily. He's just the asshole who knocked me up. Nothing more."

When I looked at Nikki, I knew she was just as sad for me as I was. She knew I was giving up on the dream I had since before my mother died. "You know I'm here for you?" I nodded and felt tears collecting. "You know I love you."

I blinked and felt the tears fall. "This isn't fair." I started crying. "What did I do to deserve this Nikki?"

She scooted closer to me and pulled me into a hug. "You didn't do anything to deserve this. This is just a temporary problem. Everything will settle down eventually."

"Eventually." I hiccupped and took added breath. "I need a bath."

Nikki nodded. "I'll go start the water. You lie down and rest for a bit."

I leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. He had to have done this intentionally. He wanted me to get mad with him. He wanted me to know that I was replaceable. He wanted me to know that I would never have the life that I dreamed of with him.

Message received loud and clear. I thought to myself.

"It's warm." Nikki shouted over the sound of the running bathwater. "Do you want bubbles?"

I rolled of the bed onto my feet.

"I can get it," I said while walking into the bathroom. "Why don't you make sure that duffle bag you brought over goes with the rest of his crap?"

She nodded and looked into the room. "Where did you put it?"

"I threw it all out the window."

She smirked as she walked out of the bathroom. "That's my girl."

I shut the door behind her and relaxed my worries away. When these babies were out I would worry about what kind of co-parenting relationship Mikko and I would have. Right now, it wasn't worth the fuss.

I didn't even have time to start undressing before something felt wrong.

My entire abdomen tightened painfully in a very strong contraction. My initial reaction was to freeze. The stress from the altercation was affecting the babies now. I couldn't let my stress affect my children. That wasn't fair.

I felt the contraction ease up completely, but the painful backache stayed. What the hell was that? It was almost strong enough to bring tears to my eyes. It made my knees feel weak, so I sat down on side of the bathtub.

The pain didn't lessen. I felt a pooling of heat between my legs. It was embarrassing when I randomly leaked caused by all those extra hormones, but this was different. It felt like a lot of fluid.

This is different.

I took off my pants to see clear and bloody mucus. My stress level skyrocketed to a panicked level this time. Mikko's whore ways couldn't send me into labor! I was only twenty-seven weeks along. They would be too small. Their lungs wouldn't be developed. If they were forced to be born now, they would die.

"NIKKI!" I screamed as loud as I could. If she were five miles away from me, she would've heard me.

She was in the room within seconds, with a worried look on her face that probably matched my panicked one.

"What's wrong Em?"

I felt tears form in my eyes. "I think I'm going into labor."

Her face dropped when she took in what I was saying. "They're too little Em."

"I know. We need to get to Albert," I said when my brain started working again.

The contraction let off completely when I got to the bottom of the stairs. Nikki didn't bother helping me into shoes or a jacket, or even a new set of pants, on the way out. She wrapped me in the blanket that had been on my couch and scooped me up before she carried me to the car, her werewolf strength coming in handy.

When I got to the alpha's house, Finn was outside waiting for the car to pull up. He was the embodiment of calm, like he had everything under control, when that was probably the farthest thing from my mind.

When Nikki stopped the car, Finn picked me up and carried me to the infirmary, which was brightly lit, with doors all open.

Albert was waiting for me. I would probably be under his close observation for a few days.

When Finn set me down, Albert shooed everyone out of the room. I inserted my own IV as Albert did an exam. It was uncomfortable to have him examining me so thoroughly.

"Turn onto your left side and practice some breathing techniques," he said as he left the room for a moment. While he was gone, I tried my best to just focus on the babies, to not think about what Mikko had done.

I cringed when a third contraction started. This one was stronger than the previous ones. This wasn't normal. All the stress from the fighting with Mikko ended up with me going into preterm labor.

Albert came back into the room with two fetal heart rate monitors and another device to monitor contractions. "It's going to be a long night for the two of us."

I took a deep breath, trying to clear my mind of everything that would stress me out. "I don't want any visitors."

He nodded. "No one's going to be coming in here, except for me."

I nodded and tried to get comfortable. I would be in this position for a long time, either until I was safe to go home, or until my babies were born.

Albert put two medications on the tray beside me. "Just in case."

I saw a corticosteroid, which would help accelerate the lung development and brain maturity in the babies.

"I'm scared."

Albert secured a total of three monitors onto my belly. "Everything will work out Emily. Being positive about this is the best thing you can do for the babies right now. We both know if you don't stop this preterm labor from continuing, you'll be having babies that need a real NICU."

I nodded and closed my eyes. "Happy thoughts," I told myself. I didn't want my babies to have to be transported to a neonatal intensive care unit in an emergency situation.

Albert sat on the bed, behind my back and gently pulled my arm back. "I'm going to give you magnesium sulfate. If it doesn't kick in as soon as I want it to, I'm going to give you the corticosteroids."

"Maybe you should give them to me now," I looked at him from over my shoulder, "just in case."

He shook his head. "I don't want to give it until the birth is imminent. There are too many side effects for it to be safe, especially if this therapy works."

"Alright." I laid my head back down and closed my eyes again. The best way to stop the stress would be to sleep, so that was what I tried to do.

Albert stuck around for a long time. We both held our breath when the heart rates dipped during the fourth contraction. The contractions were lowering the blood and oxygen supply to my babies. I couldn't be in labor for long; otherwise there would be serious consequences.

When I went an hour without another contraction, I knew the medication was having an effect. The preterm labor was stopped for now. I just had to hope that it wouldn't start up again. There were no guarantees if it started again, that Albert would be able to stop them.

I got very lucky that the babies weren't born that night. My babies would've had to live with the consequences of Mikko's actions (and mine) for the rest of their lives.

Sitting alone in the infirmary, gave me time to relax without being bothered. There was only one entrance to the infirmary, and I had no doubt that there were werewolves waiting for my approval to let someone in to check on me.

I wasn't surprised when the first one into the room was my father. Albert had limited my visitors to one at a time. I was sure he even kept out certain individuals that would cause me more stress.

He frowned when he saw the IV hooked up and the monitors constantly recording everything that was happening.

"I don't like seeing this baby girl."

I huffed, but smiled. "I don't like being hooked up like this."

He put his hand on my belly. "I don't understand that mumbo jumbo." He waved his hand at the machine displaying all the stats I had been memorizing for the past few hours. "Just tell me if I need to be worrying about buying some car seats."

I put my hand over his and gave him a real smile. "You can hold off on the car seats. This is all just a precaution now. Albert just wants to make sure we're out of the woods before he sets me free."

Dad smiled back and bent down to kiss the side of my belly. "No worrying me like this anymore. Your old man can only take so much."

I noticed bruises on his hands and arms. "Looks like the old man can handle some scraps."

My father smirked at me. "He didn't even see it coming."

"You attacked Mikko?" I asked in disbelief.

"I sure did." He was proud of himself. "I got a few good shots in."

"I'm glad to see he didn't whoop you this time." I teased. "That would just stress me out worse, but since you got a couple shots in, I think that makes me a little happy."

He smiled and reached up to kiss my forehead. "Nikki told me to make it quick. I'll be back later tonight, after you've rested."

I nodded and watched my father leave. He wasn't gone for more than thirty seconds before Nikki was coming through the door in a hurry.

"Oh no!" she said horrified by the amount of things I was connected to. "No one told me it was this bad!"

I chuckled at her as she continued to have a panic attack. "It's really not that bad Nikki. Everything's much better now."

"It shouldn't have gotten to this point," she said angrily. "I could've killed him, if I had the ability."

"Me too." I agreed. "If only we had our guns ready. There would be no more Mikko issues."

She smiled at that. "Wouldn't that be nice." Nikki looked over at the monitoring screen. "That's a lot of stuff going on."

"It's actually not so bad once you understand it."

She snorted. "Well I don't understand it, miss nurse."

I stuck my tongue out at her. She sat down on my bed and put her hand on my belly, probably taking a moment to calm herself down. This had been quite the experience for the two of us!

"I'm sorry if I worried you. I was freaking out last night."

She gave me an understanding nod. "You had all the rights in the world to freak out. Last night was a horrible turn of events. Everything will get easier now." She felt a baby kick. It was a good one too. "This is kind-of a reality check for all of us."

"Our actions have consequences on the baby." I breathed out a long sigh. "This won't happen again."

She rubbed the spot where she received a kick, probably trying to get another one. "If Mikko doesn't straighten up after this, he's an idiot and should stay away…forever."

I smiled at the resentment in her voice. "Forever."

She pushed herself up with a sigh. "The doctor -" she spat like a curse "- says we only get ten minutes. The jerk. Mikko wanted to come in next."

I shook my head. "Not Mikko. I want to talk to Finn first. I don't want Mikko in here right now. Not so soon."

Nikki nodded and wrapped an arm around me in a half-way, awkward hug.

"I'll send Finn in next." Then she was gone.

Finn would be the last person I had to talk to today. I was ready to be alone again. It was so peaceful to just sit here and not worry about any werewolf drama. It was just me and my growing babies.

Finn didn't come into the room as quickly as Nikki had. I even heard his steps getting closer before his figure loomed in the doorway.

"I can't say I'm very surprised that you wouldn't want to see Mikko right now."

I pushed myself up into a sitting position, keeping an eye on the heart monitors for any changes. "I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that I don't want him around."

Finn stood at the foot of my bed. "Mikko explained what happened to cause this."

I felt slight tightening in my abdomen again. I closed my eyes and tried to relax. "I just can't do it anymore Finn. Your son is a dose of drama with an extra shot of crazy."

"That's putting it very nicely." Finn smiled at the confusion I was probably showing. "I know my son hasn't acted much like the man I thought I raised. What has happened has opened his eyes to what he's doing to you and to his children. You two can't be constantly fighting if you're going to bring these two to term."

"I don't want to see Mikko for a while. I just can't handle him right now," I told Finn in complete honesty. "He comes with a lot of stress and that's just not what I need right now. I need to be calm and happy." I added a fake smile for emphasis.

Finn bobbed his head once. "Mikko will stay away until you think you can stand to be around him."

"That makes it sound so much worse," I mumbled to myself. Why did I have to be the one who felt bad about shutting Mikko out for a while?

I needed this time to make sure the babies were carried long enough so they would survive delivery.