Alias- Forever And Always

69) Love Will Find A Way

AN: Music for this chapter (on repeat): The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, The Beach Song by Hans Zimmer, To Make You Feel My Love by Adele, Together by The xx, Cosmic Love by Florence & The Machine, The Beginning of The Partnership by Stephen Warbeck from Shakespeare in Love Soundtrack, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Junior Boys Mix) by Sarah McLachlan & Junior Boys

SEVENTY

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*The Christmas Song*

Arman woke first and smiled at the weight on his body, realizing Lena had stayed there for the remainder of the night, with her chest pressed to his and face snuggled down against his neck with her warm even breath, consistent in its pace as she remained asleep. His fingers on her lower back danced lightly in the dip of her spine while he looked around the room, smiling when he saw the fire still going beside them in the fireplace and the snow falling in flurries outside the balcony windows creating the perfect Christmas morning and he could imagine no greater present, then the one she had given to him with her own declaration of love and waking up with her now in this moment.

The angle they were lying in across her massive bed afforded him the ability to see for the first time, the photos on the nightstand beside her glittering Imperial tiara. The first photo was of she and Antony at about five years old and apparently taken just after they met because Lena still sported a black eye and split lip from the abuse at the hands of her kidnappers. The second was of Lena dressed like Pocahontas and Antony as her John Smith from a costume ball when they were teenagers and the last was of them in a completely candid shot from the Moscow Olympics where she'd just won the marathon and had jumped into his arms with her long legs wrapped around his waist and their foreheads pressed together with raging smiles. The love between them was obvious.

A flash of Antony in those same clothes standing in the elevator when he first met them, just minutes after this photo had been taken crossed through his mind and brought the prickle of tears, remembering how deliriously happy the two had been in the elevator that day, and his fingers stopped dancing to drop his whole hand across her flesh holding her to him protectively and then swallowed hard seeing the last two images.

The first was a picture of her mother lying in her hospital bed in the CIA cell most likely but was too close up to tell though it had to be, he thought, as Lena was such a tiny new baby and her mother was wearing a hospital type gown. Her mother's eyes were closed lying back on the slanted position of the bed, asleep with her cheek nuzzled against the head of the baby on her chest with Lena's angelic little perfect face facing the same direction towards the camera.

The second photograph was almost the same as the first with a mother and child in a hospital bed in the same position only it was Lena asleep with her cheek nuzzled against the little head of her own baby and he swallowed his sob with eyes flooding in tears realizing that this gorgeous baby was not asleep like she was in the picture beside it on her mother's chest. No pictures had ever been released of baby Antony and he'd never seen one anywhere in the palace either until now. She was holding her baby almost like he was holding her now with his own cheek pressed against her head as she snuggled against his chest and could feel her heart beating against his…something she never felt with her child as his heart had stopped before he was born.

Lena had woken feeling the warm tears dripping on her forehead and when she realized what they were, looked over to where his sight might be and fell upon her nightstand with the photos of her 'Antonys.' Her heartbeat and breathing changed instantly and Arman knew she was awake.