Hell's Coming with Me

Freight Trains and Monsters

A/N; Thank you to all my readers. Sorry it took so long - I've been working over 50 hours a week due to mandatory overtime. It's been exhausting and I finally decided to devote my day off to writing this instead of doing my other errands. Enjoy!

Freight Trains and Monsters

Ryan woke me up at dawn. I groaned and pulled the blanket around my body as Ryan jostled the air mattress and got to his feet. My eyes opened, blearily watching what my husband was doing. He noticed and once he was fully dressed, put a hand on my stomach.

"Go back to sleep, sweetheart. It's early still," Ryan whispered, leaning down to brush a kiss to my forehead. I murmured something unintelligible, before my eyes closed.

When I finally awoke, it was closer to eight in the morning. I got up and dressed in a pair of maternity jeans. Then I pulled a tank top with a flannel layered over that. Once I was finished running a brush through my hair, I attempted to shove my feet into my boots. I grunted, my stomach getting in the way of my normal, daily tasks. Finally, with a sigh I managed to get my feet into the shoes.

I left the tent, out of breath and panting from the exertion of putting on my shoes. Now I understood why most women told me that while being pregnant was rewarding, it was a challenge. While my husband was up at daybreak, tending to the cattle, I was exhausted from cultivating life within my womb.

When I emerged from the tent, I was shocked to find that no one was fishing. Daddy was sitting around the campfire, drinking a cup of coffee. I sat down beside him, accepting the cup of raspberry tea that Gator pressed into my hands minutes later.

"Where's Tate?" I asked my father, blowing on the herbal tea in my hand. Daddy waved a hand to the tent he shared with his grandson.

"Still asleep," he grunted, accepting the plate of biscuits that Gator handed him. I accepted the smoothie that Gator gave to me for my breakfast.

"Really?" I asked, shocked. Apparently, the fresh air and change of scenery had done my nephew some good.

None of us wanted to disturb Tate, since he had been sleeping very fitfully since the kidnapping. Ryan hung close to the camp, since he had promised Tate to go fishing. However, as the minutes wore on, it became apparent that no early morning fishing was going to transpire.

We didn't wake up Tate, to remind him of the fishing plans, just let the kid sleep. Ryan was finally relieved by Lloyd, and he came over to the campsite. Ryan pressed a kiss to my lips and greeted Daddy with a hat tilt. My father said nothing just handed his son-in-law a biscuit. Ryan had finished the biscuit and sneaked a few sips of my smoothie when Tate finally emerged from the tent.

"I overslept!" He complained, coming out of the tent into the mid-morning sun. It was after ten now, closer to eleven. Gator had handed over an entire Thermos of coffee to Daddy about twenty minutes ago. Due to the fact that I couldn't enjoy coffee, I was leaning over top of Ryan and trying to get as deep a whiff of the scent as possible.

"Lily!" My daddy finally yelled, after he nearly smashed my face in with the hot thermos full of coffee. I didn't even realize that I had gotten so close to my father in my quest to second-hand enjoy the coffee.

"I miss it so much!" I whined. Both Ryan and Daddy rolled their eyes at my dramatics. I huffed and got up from my seat, Ryan following as he went to talk to Colby.

"Yeah, well, you - " Daddy turned to Tate, now that I was far enough away from his coffee. He patted the seat beside him. "You slept. That's what matters."

"Is it too late to go fishing now?" Tate sighed, looking forlorn at the thought of not being able to fish.

"Trout are like bankers. They don't do a damn thing in the morning," Daddy said, before he stood up and drank some more coffee. I snickered at his analogy. I'm not too sure of how accurate it was, since I had many meetings with my bankers in the morning.