Eternal Rest

As they walked form the council room Brian sighed and held Nia close. She looked up at him knowing that he was suddenly very truly worried about her. He pulled her to him and leaned down kissing him. Not caring anymore. She pulled back and looked into his saddened eyes. She knew why. She rested her head on his chest and gave him a little bit of comfort. He had told the council that he wasn’t going to be doing things for them full time, he had a family. That wasn’t changing. They had nodded and agreed. They all knew that Nia was expecting twins and he was going to be a step father. They also knew that this was going to kill the guys on the whole band thing that they had loved so much.

Matt held Vaeh close as the group waited for his dad to join them. Vaeh was nervous. He hadn’t said anything when he heard earlier when Nevaeh and Matt had been speaking about her being pregnant. Matt looked down at her. She smiled gently up at him and he brushed a strand of her dark hair from her face. They both waited for his father to say something to the two of them but he just smiled and hugged his son. Which threw Matt off completely. Matt hugged his dad back who then moved and hugged Nevaeh. She smiled at Matt’s dad and when Melody walked in she only shook her head at her son.

“Look at it this way son, you’ll have more time for your family.”

“Mom… how the hell are we supposed to explain how Brian died?”

“Whoa… seriously what even started this conversation?” Brian asked walking over hand in hand with Nia.

“Not my fault mom won’t stay out of my head.” Matt muttered.

“Ahh that explains it.” Nia said as she laid a hand on Brian’s shoulder.

“Well someone has to broach the subject.” Melody said. Brian sighed.

“Yeah well I’m gonna be bored for a while, and we’ll have to move.”

“Brian, baby, we could always go live on that island…”

“She has a point Bri, no one in their right mind would look for you there. Hell we could all go, make it a vacation.” Zack said as Laila rested her head on his shoulder agreeing with him. The others nodded their heads in agreement. So they would make a vacation of it. Spend some much needed time resting. Matt glanced at Nevaeh who smiled and leaned against him. As they all left Brian with Chryslyn so that the others wouldn’t be seen with them. Nia left her eyes filled with tears when she thought about how sad her boyfriend was now that he had only her to worry about. She knew deep down inside that he would always play guitar and she hoped he did, just to keep himself busy. That and she liked hearing him play, liked watching him mess with his guitar.

When they assembled at Brian and Nia’s hours later Nia and was sitting in a chair downstairs watching Brian work out, knowing that he was hurting on the inside. He didn’t want to talk so she was reading and letting him be. She had a book of baby names that she was going through and occasionally asked Brian who ignored her and finally yelled at her to ask Zack and she promptly burst into tears just as Matt and Nevaeh walked downstairs to find them. Brian was up immediately realizing what he had done.

“Baby, oh god Nia I’m sorry…” Brian was stuttering and pulling her to him. She let him hold her and cried on his shoulder. He sat and pulled her into his lap. Matt turned Nevaeh around and the pair walked back upstairs. Ten minutes later Nia and Brian were upstairs with the rest of them and Nia looked like she had been crying but she was smiling and wasn’t letting go of Brian’s hand. Nevaeh smiled at them and Laila grinned.

“So who’s ready to try that vacation thing again… we never really did hit the beach…” Chryslyn said with baby Serenity on her hip.

“We’ll have to rebuild the house.” Brian said.

“Shouldn’t be a problem. I mean seriously there was more than one house on the island in that area. There’s one on the beach we can all stay at until the other is finished.” Nia said and the others laughed. She was right though.

Two days later Nia found herself sitting with Laila when she noticed that Brian was sitting off by himself. She sighed as she carefully stood and headed over to her boyfriend. Maybe he would talk to her now that he had some time to cool off.

“Bri…what’s wrong honey?”

“Everything.”

“Why?”

“Because Nia, we can’t be a family now, sure I can be with you but I can’t marry you, like I planned on doing, I can’t be seen with you…”

“Brian calm down we’ll figure something…wait marry me?” She looked at him and he pulled her gently down beside him.

“Yeah marry you. I planned on giving this to you once you forgave me… and now…” Nia rested her head on his shoulder and he put an arm around her.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine. Besides I’ve always been good at figuring things out. We have our whole lives to figure this out.” Nia told him.

“So in the mean time are you okay being my finace as long as it takes?”

“Yes…” she replied and he placed a kiss to her lips gently and slid the white gold ring on her hand. She smiled at him and he stood holding his hand out to her. She stood with him and they walked back to the group.

“You really don’t mind living in exile for twenty years or so…”

“Oh don’t be like that… we’ll just move somewhere safe and you can’t leave the house but I will how’s that?” Nia asked causing him to the laugh and the guys to smile. They hadn’t heard him laugh since the ‘accident’ as they were now calling it.

“And babe by the way, I like Rose and Riley, but run it past Zack too…”

“You were listening!”

“Of course I was.” Brian responded as she stopped and hugged him.