Fucking hell, she was worse than Dmitri. Beau pried at her grip, but was too afraid of hurting her to release himself fully. It wasn't a matter of wanting to be alone, because, fuck, he did. If that were the only factor he'd pull from her grasp, her injuries be damned.

"I'm not going to like it, not always." He stated. "Nor do I have to. We're still our own people, Eva. Who have a right to fucking quiet alone time when we want it." He pulled once again at her grip. Perhaps this time she would let him go.

  

Her resolve was starting to crumble, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. "Tough shit." She would sure as hell rather be sleeping right now, but here they were. "Fine, don't like it, but I'm not giving up on you just because you're being a surly bastard. You're away from me all damn day right now." She eyed him with raised eyebrows, but there was a softness just behind her eyes that she hoped he wasn't too blind to see at the moment. She was worried and when she worried, she attached. Her entire career was working with animals that needed the extra attention. The more they were hurting, the more they needed the support. He was going to have to deal with it. Maybe it would be a good distraction who knew.

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"I know," he acknowledged sadly. Not having her at the aviary was his least favorite result of the pregnancy, but he refused for people to consider his kid a bastard. Beau couldn't provide much, but he could definitely protect them from such a label. "I know," he admitted again, as most of his anger escaped him in a long exhale.

Whar an awful husband he was being. Yeah, he needed to be alone, but she was pregnant with his child. Any and all of her needs trumped his own, and he needed to do a better job of acknowledging that. The drama with Odina just had him all out of sorts.

Pulling once more at her hands, Beau sat on the bed besides her and stripped off his filthy clothes. "You need your rest." He stated simply, refusing to add anything more. Tomorrow he'd go down by the lake for a bit before coming home, perhaps he'd be able to be alone then. Beau got comfortable on the bed but made no motion to hold her as he always did. "Rest, Eva. If not for me than for the baby."

  

Eva sighed as he seemed to relax a little and she allowed for him to peel her off. She eased back into bed a little ways, making room for him, watching him carefully. She'd out-stubborned him this time and she felt mildly guilty about it. It was hard to feel too guilty as he settled in bed and she automatically moved to curl up next to him. Her quality of sleep had gone way up since she'd started sharing a bed with him on a regular basis.

"Only perk of being home is I get to take naps." She chuckled quietly. The rest would get made up easily for her. She wasn't so sure about him. "She'll be fine, she's kicking up a storm right now." The little flutters had become full-blown kicks by this point and she was rolling around, clearly not ready for bed like her mamma. It might have been part of the reason she'd woken up in the first place.

Snuggling all of the way in, though he wasn't exactly reciprocating, Eva looked up at him with a sad smile. "I'm sorry." She admitted. Picking a fight hadn't been her intention, but she'd won in the end, though she did feel just a bit bad about it.

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The kicks were still too light for Beau to feel them from the outside of Eva's rounding form, but it didn't stop him from placing his hand on her anyway. Regardless of whatever happened with Odina and Toby, regardless of his pain and frustration, Eva and their child would always trump all. Even when Beau craved alone time to process his thoughts. He'd known it back and Arizona as surely as he knew it now, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her.

"Rest, Eva." Beau instructed softly despite not relaxing at her touch. The apology would be a discussion had in the morning, for he truly did need time to himself every now and again. Quiet, independent moments where he could work out whatever violent thoughts he had through his hands. Without those moments, Beau was sure to explode at some point or another, something he never wished to do to near her.

  

She couldn't relax, her mind wouldn't allow her to, knowing he was all worked up and there was nothing she could do. "I can't," She admitted in a quiet, desperate whisper, blue eyes turned up at him. Even though her body ached to curl up and pass out, her mind was working a mile a minute and she couldn't turn it off. "Not when you aren't either."

She sat up a little, leaning on her elbow, the other hand cradling the baby bump without thinking, fingers brushing his gently where they met. "I don't like not knowing what to do, not being able to help and I'm sorry if that comes across like I'm being a petulant pain in your ass, but I legitimately don't know what else to do." Eva didn't want to make things any more difficult for him, but she couldn't handle feeling useless at the same time.

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He sighed heavily and allowed the silence of the night to brew between them. The restless that had first forced him from bed already making his free hand fist and unclench with his pent up frustration and energy. There was nothing to be done, not really. The situation with Odina was what it was, and he should've known and accepted the risks of fathering a child when they had first slept together. Beau was no stranger to where children came from, he knew the act required to reproduce was the very same base behavior he so thoroughly enjoyed. Siring a child — a son — he had no hand in raising was a consequence he should've been prepared to accept.

He wasn't, though. Not in the least.

Beau withdrew his hand from the soft swell of her stomach and folded his arms across his chest. Eva was headstrong, it was one of his favorite traits of hers, but just once he wished she might've listened to him. Just once he wished she wouldn't push back when he demanded space. "You wanted me to come back to bed, I'm here," he pointed out, his brewing anger evident in his tone. "There's nothing wrong, nothing to talk about. Just go to sleep, for the love of God."

  

Silence stretched out between them and all it did was rile her up even more. She was wide awake now and simmering. It was her turn to feel the rising frustration bubbling up to a point where she couldn't take it. She whipped out of the bed faster than someone growing a human should have been able to, streaming from the room and through the house at a fast clip.

She was to the door with her cloak and slipping into her boots without so much as a thought as to what she was doing, but angry tears had welled up into the corners of her eyes (damn pregnancy hormones!) and she refused to let him see her cry again. Slamming the door behind her, she bounded off the porch and started up the lane toward the zoo, dark and time be damned.

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Beau was after her in a flash. She barely made it ten feet down the path before he reached for her wrist, forcibly stopping her from venturing through the woods (the fucking woods!) at this hour. The lane leading to their small farm was reasonably safe during the day, but Beau knew better than to trust the dark. All sorts of nasty beasts lurked in the woods, werewolves, vampires, fucking hinkypunks. Beau would sooner have them argue until their throats were raw than allow her to risk her life and the life of their unborn child.

He had nothing useful or productive to say, nothing to deescalate the mess he'd caused for himself. "I was asking for space," he muttered without meeting her eyes. "I don't like to talk. That's not who I am. I thought —" he released her wrist to rub tiredly at his temple. "I thought you knew that."

  

As soon as he dropped her wrist, she took a few steps away from him. Merlin this was ridiculous. She was all wound up now though, hot-tempered Irish genes flaring up. The tears prickled in the corners of her eyes and she was thankful for the darkness covering them up. "I'm giving you space, lots of it, if you need it that badly." In the ten feet she'd made it down the road, she'd decided the sofa in her office would be much better suited to her tired body that this.

Eva had known marriage wasn't all sunshine and daisies, it was work, hard work, especially when it came about quickly and with complications; knew he didn't have a frame of reference for what a healthy marriage looked like, but for fuck's sake, he wouldn't even work with her. "I'd gathered that yeah," She still knew little to nothing about his past before Arizona, after Ilvermorny, other than he regretted a lot of things that he'd done and it involved some kind of fighting, physical, brutal fighting. Oh, and he had a son with another woman. She thought she'd been pretty graceful, forgiving about that.

"But we're married now, you're supposed to trust me, supposed to be my partner," The tears spilled out now. Eva didn't want to make this about her, didn't want to to splay her own insecurities out between them, but it all came tumbling out now. "I don't want to change you, I love you, but you should know by now I physically cannot sit by and watch people I care about struggle." Maybe he didn't, clearly their communication could use some work, but at almost three in the morning on the road outside their fledgling little farm was not the time or place. Meeting in the middle or compromising seemed impossible right now. "So take your space and I'll be at the zoo." She stepped back again before turning around to resume her walk.

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"Damn it, Eavan!" Beau shouted, grateful as ever for the lack of nearby neighbors. Her tears were never meant to be caused by him, and she was fucking bonkers if she thought for a single minute he was letting her walk to the zoo alone. "I am your partner. Jesus, I'm here, aren't I?" A partner wouldn't have spent every dime of his savings to purchase this farm. A partner wouldn't have married her just because she was carrying his child. Beau remained absolute that they would've married eventually, but he hadn't had to.

He didn't dare let more than ten feet exist between them, not when so many unknowns existed in their surroundings. Beau swiftly followed after her with his unlaced boots flopping uncomfortably on his feet. Perhaps if she stopped, if she allowed him to bring her back inside, if she chose any other route than them both sleeping awfully at the zoo, he could find a way to let her in. "Let's just go back inside," he pushed.

  

She rounded on him for only a moment. "Physically yes, you're here, well done." Emotionally he was miles away from her and now she needed the physical space and so she kept right on walking, frustrated tears spilling down her cheeks. She mopped them up with the hem of her cloak and marched on down the road.

He'd done everything right by her, married her, bought them a house, but it was fucking pointless if he wasn't going to be any kind of open with her. She couldn't handle living in parallel, sleeping in the same bed if they weren't on the same page. How were they supposed to have this baby if this was what happened every time one of them got upset? If they couldn't communicate properly?

Wondering if he'd stop and let her be at any point, (the hypocrisy was not lost on her) she refused to look behind her to see. But that was before a sharp pain went stabbing through her abdomen, not entirely unlike the crocodile attack, but this time far more alarming. She stopped quick, doubling over in pain, a desperate whimper hissing out as she stumbled.

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Desiring independent time to process and come to terms with the fact he had a child he could never acknowledge or know wasn't an insult to their marriage, he very nearly screamed. They were both still individuals at the end of the day, their paths merged but not. She knew little of his upbringing, less still about his years between graduation and the circus. Eva hadn't ever pushed to know because it didn't effect them, just as he never pushed for details of her early life. It was what worked for them.

A long, frustrated rant was poised at the tip of his tongue, ready and willing to fill the air with thunderous emotions, as something very clearly happened to Eva. Panic unlike Beau had ever known flooded his system. He had killed his mother as his very first act in life. Lena Miller, who had birthed well over a dozen children before him, died a gruesome, bloody death as the story went. Surging forward, Beau scooped Eva up into his arms and all but ran back towards their cottage. He didn't care if she hated him for doing so, cared less still if she tried to stop him. Something was wrong and there was nothing he could do about it in the middle of the bloody road.

Once in the security of their house, Beau laid her gently on the sofa and knelt before her. "What is it?" He asked urgently. "Do I need to summon someone?"

  

Eva had reached for him instinctively and he was right there, scooping her up for the second time that night, but with an urgency she knew they both felt in spades. She didn't know what was wrong, what had caused the shooting pain to rocket through her, but it was already fading to a dull ache. She tried to breathe through it, could still feel the baby doing her somersaults, but it made her incredibly uneasy. Eva had known getting pregnant was nearly an impossibility for her, was keeping the baby almost as difficult? She was too far along now, it would be life-threatening to lose the babe now.

She tried not to panic though, she left that to Beau, she could feel it in his arms as he placed her on the couch. Eva curled up into the fetal position protectively around the little bump. Everything was fading already, reminiscent of a muscle cramp, but even so, it worried her. "I don't know," She managed after a moment. "I don't think so, it's ebbing." It probably wouldn't hurt to give it a minute before they woke Winnie up in the middle of the night for no reason. "I'm alright, just a little light headed." She assured him, reaching out to brush her fingers across his cheek.

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To say Beau was frightened was an understatement. His breaths came in heavy pants (mainly from sprinting with her in his arms) as he remained planted on the ground. Beau couldn't lose Eva. Not now, not ever. He would mourn the loss of their baby if it happened, but not her. Her bright blue eyes grounded him, her smile was the light of his life. Beau would be ruined without her, and he hadn't respected that tonight.

He held one of her hands tight within his grasp and rested the other on her stomach. The smarter decision would've been to carry her back to bed and curl himself around her, but he still wasn't convinced they didn't need urgent help. "I'm right here," Beau promised her with a kiss to her hand. "Whatever you need. Always."

  

The lightheadedness persisted, but any residual pain was faded now, she was just a little uncomfortable. "I'm okay Love, I promise." While she didn't know that for sure, something told her nothing was seriously wrong. Call it intuition or just a gut feeling, but she rather thought it was her body's way of rejecting the fight and telling her to cut it out. "I'll send for Winnie in the morning." Certainly the midwife would be able to explain it— and how to remedy it.

What an overly dramatic ending to an unnecessary fight. Eva, through the worry and exhaustion also felt a little sheepish, guilty for letting her inability to help get the better of her. "I'm sorry I pushed." She wouldn't do it again. Maybe that was what caused their current predicament. Gently she squeezed his hand. "Not now obviously, but you can go pound fence posts until you feel better, or whatever it was that you need to do at two am with all that pent up frustration, whenever you need, without me bothering you." She sniffled back a couple of tired tears.

"I'll wait until you're ready to tell me." With more patience than she possessed, but she'd figure it out. He wasn't the only one with projects to do around the house.

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