I Heard A Rumor

Chapter 13: Ours

I fit perfectly in Jon's arms and at that moment I fully comprehend just how much I've missed Jon the past three weeks. Being in his arms just feels like this moment was always meant to be. I pressed my face into his shoulder, just wanting to take all of him in and make sure this was real.

"Autumn, I-"

I shake my head, "Not yet. We have time to talk. Just.. what are you doing here?" His arms still envelope my body while I press my face into his neck.

He moves back slightly so he can look at me, "I wanted to see you again. I needed to see you again. And now I'm here."

I chuckle, "And now you're here."

I can feel Amy's eyes on us, and as much as I love her, I want some privacy with Jon.

"Maybe we should take a walk."

Jon smiles, "That'd be a great idea. Let me run to the bathroom real quick."

He leaves, and I walk over to Amy.

I hug her again, "Thank you for everything. I wouldn't be here without you." She smiles, "Of course. Anytime, sweetheart. I love you."

At that moment, I make a decision. Amy's the reason why Jon and I are here, together, or really being honest, the reason I know Jon in the first place.

"Amy, I need to go, but while I'm gone, look at what's in this bag."

I handed her the bag I brought home from the hospital. It has prenatal vitamins, some fliers on pregnancy, and an ultrasound picture in it.

Amy, understandably, looks confused. "Just wait. I want you to be the first one to know."

She looks like she wants to say something else, but then I decide that I want to see her reaction. I take the bag back and pull out the ultrasound picture, showing it to her.

She gasps, "Autumn, you're.."

"Yeah, I am", for the first time since finding out, I feel happy saying that. I put my hand on my stomach, there's no physical difference, considering I'm about 8 weeks into the pregnancy. But my heart swells, feeling my stomach, knowing that there's a baby in there.

Amy grins, "We can talk more when you get back, I can imagine you have a lot to tell Jon. I'm so proud of you, Autumn. So, so proud. You're going to make an amazing mom."

She hands me the ultrasound photo, and I can't help but smile when I see it. I remember the doctor telling me that, right now, the baby is around the size of a kidney bean. I hear Jon's footsteps coming down the stairs, and I quickly slide the picture into the jacket pocket.

"Ready to go, Autumn?"

"Of course."

I walk towards Jon, looking back at Amy only to see her wink as I walk out the door.

It's still lightly snowing outside when we walk out. As we walk down the steps, Jon slides his hand into mine. It's pretty cold outside, so the move is more than welcome. His fingers tangle into my own, and I'm reminded of how much I love feeling his hand in mine.

Jon starts, looking over at me, "You're wearing my jacket."

I look down, noticing that he is indeed right. Honestly, I didn't even realize. He'd left the jacket over at my apartment and I decided to bring it home just to have something of his.

"Jon, I'm sor-"

"Don't be. It looks cute on you. You have nothing to be sorry about."

I shake my head, "But I do though. What I did to you was terrible. I can't put into words just how sorry I am. I'll never forgive myself."

He holds my hand tighter, "Don't do that to yourself, babe. I forgive you. I didn't understand at first what you were going through. But now, I get why you didn't tell me. The only thing that I regret is that I wasn't able to kick Michael's ass."

I chuckle, "You did though. Figuratively. You exposed him to the entire country and he resigned. You had my back even when everything wasn't okay and you protected me. You were there for me even though we were over a thousand miles away from each other. That's way more than I could ask for. I didn't tell you about this huge assignment. Because I was scared. I was terrified of losing you. And when everything did happen, I didn't know what to do with myself. It's okay that what happened did happen, because you have a right to be hurt. Honestly, I've tried pretending that I don't need you. That's bullshit. If the past few weeks have taught me anything, it's that I need you, Jon."

I look into Jon's eyes, wanting to continue. I can't help but notice how I can see his smile through his eyes, even as I now notice that it's started snowing some more since we've gotten outside.

"What we have isn't a lie. I have had feelings for you from the moment I first saw you in my aunt's office. It definitely didn't start like any fairy tale, but it's our story. And I don't want anything else. I just want us. Together."

Jon smiles, "I want that too, Autumn. I didn't realize until you were gone just how much you mean to me. I found myself missing the little thing. Wanting to wake up beside you. I missed visiting you at work. I missed having you in my arms as I fell asleep. I missed your mediocre driving. I missed the smell of your shampoo in my shower. I missed your snarky comments whenever we watched a movie. I missed all of it.

I wasn't hurt that you had that assignment. I was just hurt that you didn't tell me, and now I get why you didn't tell me. You really did everything that you could not to hurt me. Even before you knew me, you didn't want to hurt me. You just did what you had to do. And when I really thought about it, I realized the reason why I was so hurt by you not telling the truth."

I hold my breath, "Why's that?"

"Because I'm in love with you. There's nothing that I've ever been more sure of in my life. I love you, Autumn."

I swallow my tears, saying the only thing I could bring myself to in response, "I love you too, Jon."

I'm not totally sure which one of us makes the move first, I just know that our lips lock into each others at the same time. I can feel Jon's lips curl into a smile in the kiss, while I bring his face even closer to mine to kiss him fully, deeply. I feel like I'm invincible kissing Jon, and I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life. I never want it to end. I know I can't bear losing him ever again.

As cold as it is outside, I can't feel any warmer inside than I do right now. We pull back after a moment, just leaning our foreheads on one another's.

Suddenly, I realize that I have one more thing to tell him.

I take a deep breath, "Jon, I know this is a lot coming at you at once, but I really want you to know this. From here on out, I'm all in. And that means I'm going to tell you everything. That starts here."

I grab the ultrasound photo from my pocket and hand it to Jon.

I place it into his hands, only saying, "I'm pregnant, babe."

His eyes grow in surprise as he stares at the picture, and I see his thumb tracing over it.

"I'm going to be a dad?"

I nod happily, "Yeah, you are. I want this. I want all of it with you. There's no else I'd ever want to have this with."

Jon laughs happily, "We're actually going to have a kid. We're going to be parents. It's like.. There's actually a product of our love for each other? That's so cool." He brings the photo back down to me so we can look at it together, I lean my head on his shoulder and place my thumb over his. His thumb is placed on the picture where it hovers over the baby.

Our baby.

And I can't stop smiling thinking about that.