Locked in.

Ellie's POV

I walk with Ben down the medical isle, hand in hand. We reach the shelf that has the medicines and Ben tugs my shirt as I'm trying to fond the right medicine.

"Hm?" I answer, half listening.

"Eh-wee, do you wuv Michael?" He asks with such innocentness. Me, only half listening, brushes off his questions with a quick "Yeah, sure."

I pick him up and hold him up to grab the medicine we need.

"Alright. Let's go find Michael." I say. Ben nods and we keep walking.

"Can I have a piggy back ride pwease?" Ben asks with a giant grin.

"Of course!" I answer and bend down, he jumps on my back and we keep walking.

Ben stays pretty quiet. But all of a sudden, I feel him start to shake.

"You ok bud?" I ask. He sniffles and wipes his eyes.

"I miss my mommy." He whimpers. I flip him around and give him a big hug. Once I hug him, he breaks down into more and more tears.

"You're so brave, little man. I'm so proud of you. We'll find her, bud. I promise." I whisper, tearing up a bit myself.

He sniffs and smiles, and then falls asleep in my arms.

I keep walking through the giant store when all of a sudden, the lights come back on! I immediately dash to the front door, holding Ben's head tight against my chest so he doesn't wake up.

I get to the doors and bang on them.

Nothing.

Sighing, I walk back to Michael.

"DID YOU CHECK THE DOORS?!" He exclaims with a giant smile on his face.

"SHHH!" I motion towards a still-sleeping Ben. "They're still locked."

"Fuck." He cusses. I toss a Gatorade at him and give him a couple pain pills. He gulps them down and Ben, who's laying in my lap, starts to wake up.

"He's really cute." Michael says.

what? Did I just hear that right? Michael Barlow, saying a kid is CUTE?

I smile at him and he's smiling down at Ben. I can tell, despite his personality, he's going to be a good father.

He looks up at me a smiles. Ben wakes up and sees how we're having a moment. He crawls off my lap and walks over to Michael, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Come here! I gotta tell you a secret!" Ben says to Michael.

Michael offers an ear and Ben whispers something. Michael looks shocked at first, and then gets the biggest grin on his face.

They both look at me and smirk.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" I ask, now suspicious.

"Nope." Ben answers, popping the p.

I grab a blanket and pillows for Michael, Ben and I and make a tiny bed. I'm exhausted and the other two look equally as.

I lay in between the two boys and close my eyes, facing away from Michael. All of a sudden, a muscular arm is draped over me. I roll over and Michael smiles at me. What... I must be going crazy. I lay my head on his shoulder and slowly fall asleep, listening to Michael's breathing.

---------------------------------------------

I wake up slowly and glance at my new handy glow in the dark watch.I've only been sleeping for 5 hours. Michael's sound asleep, snoring softly with his arm around my waist. Ben mumbles something in his sleep and then sits up.

Suddenly, I get a good idea.

"Ben!" I whisper shout.

"What!" He whisper shouts back.

I motion for him to be quiet and follow me. I carefully untangle Michael from me and lead Ben to the toys and gardening supplies isle.

"What are we gonna do?" He asks with curiosity.

"We're gonna squirt Michael with some water guns!" I giggle.

He gasps and then falls on the ground laughing. I pick the biggest, fanciest water gun for me, and a smaller, less intimidating one for Ben.

"WOAH! THIS IS AWESOME!" He shouts.

I laugh.

"Now let's fill them up." I say as we walk into a different woman's bathroom than the one we were in before.

We walk in and i let the sink fill up the water guns. I hear a thump on the wall but ignore it.

As we're walking out the bathroom door, we hear Michael calling for us. Ben and I run behind a display of beach toys and wait.

Michael turns the corner and we jump out, spraying him with water. He's shocked at first, but once he sees what we're doing, he spring to action. He seems majorly recovered from his fight yestarday.

He sprint towards me and takes my gun, tossing it to Ben and starts tickling me!

"ST-STOPPPPP!" I laugh.

"You gotta do me a favor if you want me to stop!" He continues to tickle me.

"ANYTHING! ANYTHING!" I wail, tears now streaming down my cheeks.

"Kiss me." He says with all seriousness.

He stops tickling me and I sit up. All of a sudden, time starts going in slow motion.

We slowly lean in and have a gentle, passionate kiss. It was the most amazing thing ever. His soft light lips brushed over mine and i took it all in, never wanting it to end. His grip tightened around my waiste, and id hoped that that meant that he wasnt going to stop, but i was wrong, and he pulled away.

we sit there, foreheads pressed together, smiling at each other. My little watch helping us see eachothers faces.

"Ellie... I love you." He says.

"I love you too Michael." I smile, blushing intensely. I couldnt control myself. I mean michael is the biggest player at my school. Of course he didnt mean it, and of course i was just making a fool of myself by saying i loved him back, but really.. I do.

"I know. Ben told me." He says giggling.

Say what..

I start to question when we're cut off by Ben's shrill scream.

"MOMMY!"