Secrets

Homesick

Ben had spent hours reassuring Rachel that missing her godson's first birthday wasn't that big of a deal. Her stubborn ass still hadn't informed Dean that she was having his babies. So, they had a small dinner just the four of them last night, it was intimate and perfect.

He wished that could have been the end of it, his wife, however, insisted on this circus. Literally. There was a petting zoo on his back yard with clowns and face painters.

Megan had invited every single person they knew. He swears she even invited the check-out lady from the gas station. But telling her,"no," right now was next to impossible. He smiled as he watched his seven months pregnant wife introduce their one-year-old to a horse.

Ben slipped inside away from the noise for a moment, he had left a gift upstairs and he wanted to make sure he got it before Megan was ready to start the cake. He knew the moment Chase ripped into that smash cake he was on baby duty.

"God this is so trashy."

Ben was half-way back down the stairs when the sound of Lillian's whining made him groan. She and Dean must have finally arrived. Megan was not happy when Dean asked if he could bring her. Lillian had thrown a fit when she discovered he couldn't attend some high society luncheon because he needed to be here.

It shocked him when she pouted and told him that if he was going then she was going, they're a packaged deal now. It took four boxes of donuts, a week's worth of IOU babysitting, and a foot rub later Megan made him promise to keep Lillian on a short leash otherwise it wouldn't be pretty.

"I thought they had money what the hell is this the Beverly Hillbillies."

"Jesus Lily, please," he heard Dean beg, "these are my friends."

"These people are your friends," she scoffed.

"One hour," he bargained, "just be on your best behavior for one hour, let me spend some time with my godson on his birthday, please. Then we can leave."

"Promise?" he must have nodded because Ben didn't hear a response. "Fine, one hour! I'm going to go try and find a bathroom."

He heard her heels clack down the hallway before finishing his journey down the stairs. He stopped in the entryway to the kitchen and just watched his friend.

Dean looked... broken.

Ben watched as he scanned the crowd in the back yard, "she's not here."

He nodded his head not taking his eyes from the craziness, "I suppose hoping she was is kinda pathetic huh?"

Ben moved to stand next to him and cast his gaze towards the people in his home to celebrate his son.

"Is it sad that there's a crowd full of people out there and all I see is that picnic we had," Dean chuckled. "The girls hid water balloons behind that statue. They didn't know the gardener had tipped us off and we had a stash of our own ready for them. She pouted when it was over because of the mud and grass stains on her white shorts, but her smile that day."

"Dean."

"God, I fucked up so bad."

"She loved you just as much man, all this isn't just your fault. If she would have told you about her heritage, then maybe things would be different."

"Loved?" Dean looked at Ben.

Before Ben could fix his fuck up Lillian walked back into the room.

"Let's get this over with shall we."

___________________________________________________________________________

This month has been torcher.

Her assistant had just stopped coming to work six months ago, thankfully her boss let her hire two new techs to replace him. They had been starting to make great strides in her research, she had successfully isolated the chemical in her blood that caused her moon symptoms.

The next morning though she had been informed her funding had been pulled. Now she's just head of labs, no studies being done. No real work, therefore finding a substitute for her while on maternity leave was a cake-walk.

Her doctor had warned her last week that she needed to slow down, she was supposed to have gone on leave weeks ago. Rachel was stubborn, that and she knew what was waiting for her at home.

Silence.

Preparing for the twins hadn't been much of a hassle, it was doing so alone that made her not want to go home. She will forever stick to the story that her tiny one-bedroom was more than enough room for the three of them for the first year because she didn't have time to look for anything bigger.

It had nothing to do with the memories that haunted the place.

Rachel looked at her alarm clock, she was restless and couldn't sleep.

He was getting married today.

She shifted to try and find comfort as the throbbing in her back refused to dull. She sighed and shifted again, "come on guys," she mumbled, " just a few hours please."

Her phone chirped with a reminder to pick up milk that she hadn't dismissed.

Rachel unlocked it and quickly disposed of the annoyance then stared at her home page. It was still of the selfie they took on one of their many movie nights. He had licked her cheek last minute.

She felt the tears well up in her eyes.

Rachel opened her contacts and pulled up his name, a million times she's done this and a million times she's not followed through.

Before she could chicken out again, she hit the call button. Her heart was racing as the call connected and started to ring.

She took a deep breath "Hey," her voice cracked, and she sniffled. "I, um... I need to tell you something."