Friend Zone

There was a heavy knock on the hotel room door. It had been just under an hour and a half since Timothy had gotten off the phone with the two Lane brothers. Timothy opened the door and Jason, Nathan, and Connor entered the suite. The latter brother carried a large medical bag with him.

"Where is Mia?" Connor asked all business.

"She is asleep." Tim answered carefully

"Jason said she hit her head fairly hard. How long has she been asleep?" Connor asked briskly, walking further into the room.

Tim began leading Connor to the bedroom. "Around two hours."

"Mia could have a concussion which means she shouldn't be sleeping." Connor snapped worried about his sister.

Tim opened the door to the bedroom noticing how small his wife looked in the bed. Tim walked into the room allowing the doctor to enter.

"If you give us the room Timothy, I will take care of Mia." Connor said quietly, having walked up to his sister seeing her damaged face.

"I'm not going anywhere. You can treat my wife with me in the room." Timothy told Connor simply.

"Your wife?" Connor questioned remembering that Barrett had a long history of claiming Mia as his wife even when she wasn't.

"Yes, my legal wife. We were married nearly two weeks ago so if you would please? I am very worried about her and our child." Tim said, scrubbing his hands across his face.

Connor sucked in a breath before sitting next to Mia on the bed. The other two brothers stood at the doorway looking in. Connor proceeded to very carefully wake Mia. She groaned in pain as she stirred. Connor looked over his shoulder asking Timothy for a glass of water. Tim got one from the bathroom and set it on the nightstand beside her before backing up.

"Connor, what are you doing here?" Mia looked up at Timothy with concern as she obviously didn't trust Connor.

"It's alright Mia. We'll move again if we need to, but you need medical attention right now." Timothy told her. Connor gave him a scathing look.

"I need you to tell me what happened sis." Connor told her seriously. Mia heaved a sigh but started speaking quickly.

Mia told Connor that she had taken Sage for his checkup and ended up finding out that his levels weren't stable. Nick had told her that Sage may still need the cord blood. Somehow Nicholas had gotten it in his head that she was using Tim to make a baby to save Sage. Mia explained that he tried to tell her he didn't mind marrying her if she was pregnant. When he tried to touch her, she panicked and shoved him. Then he hit her, and she hit a door jam with her head before fleeing the Research Center.

Timothy listened attentively gaining a few extra pieces of information from her retelling. It seemed to him that while Nicholas was trying to be a good guy he was struggling with letting her go. Tim had wondered how Nicholas felt about Mia from different comments he had made but now he was certain he knew. The man wasn't dealing well at all with his emotions.

Connor had listened to Mia talk, his expression growing increasingly dark. Now that Mia had told him roughly the same story Tim had told his brothers but with added details Connor was at least certain that Tim had not been the one to hurt their sister.

"I don't think you have a concussion, but I need to butterfly that gash on your head." Connor took out a bunch of medical supplies and began cleaning and caring for Mia's wounds. Being careful not to put too much pressure on her bruises. Connor gave Mia a couple of tablets that he said would help her with the pain.

Once Connor was done bandaging Mia up, he handed her a cup and told her to use the bathroom. Mia sighed as she got up but complied. She came out of the bathroom and Connor went in shutting the door. Connor came out two minutes later and ran a hand through his hair.

"Mia, you are pregnant." Connor said quickly. Mia nodded, not saying anything. Connor got into his bag and handed her a bottle of prenatal vitamins and folic acid.

Connor glanced at Timothy before focusing on Mia again. "You know you don't have to keep it if you don't want to, right?" Timothy growled a curse at Connor.

"Both myself and my husband want this child Connor." Mia told him with authority. Connor sighed.

"We are not going to be able to get rid of Barrett, are we? Connor asked his sister.

Mia shook her head. "No, he's here to stay."

Connor sucked in a deep breath. "All right then. Then we need to figure out how to set this situation right because I for one am tired of our family being at war."

*

It was the next morning, not that it really mattered to Nicholas. He hadn't left his office. He had been drunk then half-drunk for the last several hours. The top two buttons on his normally pristine shirt were unbuttoned, his sleeves were unbuttoned and pushed up his arms. He had a full day's beard growth on his face. He looked like hell and felt worse. The blinds were mostly closed keeping the room dim. Nick had a mostly empty bottle of scotch in front of him and he was considering finishing it.

There was no way that Mia would ever forgive him, he knew that. He didn't deserve forgiveness. How could he have hurt someone that he loved so much? He still didn't understand what had happened. She had shoved him so what?

He shouldn't have gotten so close without her permission. He realized he'd been shoved then he had thought why can Barrett touch her and he couldn't. Then he had seen them together in bed in his mind. Nick hadn't chosen to hit her; he had lashed out not even realizing it until it was too late.

Nicholas would have given anything to take that moment back. He had taken years to cultivate his lack of an emotional response so something like this could never happen. Nick had major anger issues in his youth, but it had been years since he had even felt the need to raise his voice. He had blown his entire life plan in one damn day. Nicholas finished the bottle and reached for another when there was a knock on the door.

"Go away." Nicholas croaked with a raspy voice. There had also been crying and a lot of it.

"Open up, Nick, we need to talk." Mia's beautiful voice came through the door.

Nicholas stumbled to the door and opened it a crack, she was alone. Mia was wearing sunglasses. After a moment's hesitation he opened the door. Mia swept by him into the room before sitting in a chair facing the desk and taking the sunglasses off. Nick moved back around the desk to sit down. Studying the black eye and bruised cheek, the cut on her head and mouth and the purple bruise along her jaw where his fist had hit her. He swallowed thickly.

Nick was about to beg her to tell him why she had come. Was it just so he would have to remember what he had done to the woman he loved?

Mia spoke also tired of waiting. "I shouldn't have pushed you, Nicholas. I panicked over Sage, and I reacted poorly."

Nicholas didn't understand what was happening. "No, Mia. I behaved like a monster, and I will never forgive myself. What you did or didn't do has no bearing on that. There is no excuse for my behavior. I am so sorry, but I don't deserve your forgiveness."

Mia sighed. "It's been a long road to this point hasn't it Nick? You have been my most steadfast friend through the worst times of my life. You're right that normally this situation wouldn't deserve forgiveness, but our situation has never been normal."

Mia paused trying to find the right words. Tell me something, honestly, did you wait for me all these years because I told you Sage needed to be well first?"

Nick had and he felt foolish. "Yes." he answered after a moment.

Mia leaned back in her chair taking a deep breath. "Then I can understand your anger. To have delivered on your promise only to find Barrett in your chair."

Nicholas leaned back in his chair watching her closely.

Mia stood up walking to the edge of his desk and leaning against it. "Three years ago, when we were seeing each other, I could never get past how cold and emotionless you were. It's like you were just vacant so color me surprised that you have a temper. Don't take this poorly but I didn't know you were capable of strong emotion."

Nicholas gave himself a mental shake. He had driven her away in his drive to be anger free. Nick cursed softly. "When I was a youth at the Court of the Orators, I had anger problems. People got hurt so I tried to eradicate it from myself."

Mia smiled at her old friend grimly. "Have you ever heard the expression that the only way over is through?" Nick shook his head. "Emotions are things that just are. They can't be erased or eradicated. Bottling them up makes them more powerful, not less. If you want to beat them, you will have to feel them. Or that anger that turned on me will turn on everything you ever care about until it finally turns on you."

"Mia, are you pregnant?" Nick asked suddenly.

"Yes, I am. I didn't know yesterday but I suspected." Mia answered in a calm tone.

"How did you find out?" Nick questioned genuinely curious.

"I stole a pregnancy test from storage room B." Mia snickered.

"Seriously?" Nick raised an eyebrow. Mia nodded.

"Do you want me to confirm it for you?" Nick offered.

"Connor did it when he was fixing my face." Mia shrugged.

Mia rose and grabbed her glasses. "Nick can we just call yesterday a dreadful day that had been a long time coming and move forward? I still need my friend. To be honest I don't know how to live if you don't have my back anymore."

"Mia I will care for Sage no matter what." Nick said sadly.

"No this isn't about my son. This is about us. It doesn't matter who I am with. I'm never going to be able to imagine my life where you're not around. You are my best friend, and I don't care who that upsets. We have been taking turns dragging each other out the pit for too long to give up now." Mia told him heatedly. "You have been there for all my worst days and never asked a thing from me. That earns you one do over."

"Yesterday never happened. If you mention it again, I will throw large stones at your head." Mia said emphatically.

Nick was trying not to smirk. Mia grabbed his hand. "Give me a hug, I need to run before they send in the calvary."

Mia hugged him. "Oh hell. Did you drink every bottle of scotch ever made? Take a shower, man." At that Nick started to chuckle. "I will call later this week and make sure you have climbed out of the distillery. Talk to your sister. She is worried and needs to understand what has been going on."

Nick nodded at Mia, placing his hand gently on her cheek. "I am so very sorry, doll."

Mia nodded at him. "I know you are. I knew it as soon as it happened, but I needed to deal with me first, you know?" Nick smiled at her and stepped back perhaps proving to himself that he could."

Then Mia was gone, and Nicholas stood there wondering what next. Mia was a truly amazing woman as she had proven once again. Nick went into his bathroom and turned on the shower.