Siren quietly sat on her bed, the door of her room closed. Being isolated from the rest of the house had become a habit recently. Although she knew it was inevitable, she feared someone discovering the secret she had been carrying with her the past few months. She at least wanted to wait until Jared came back, but she didn’t know when that would be. She didn’t even know if he was coming back at all.

"Jared, I need to talk to you," Siren said softly as they laid there in the darkness, trying to fall asleep. She looked over into his inquiring blue eyes and had to smile. He loved her, she knew, but she didn’t know if he loved her enough to deal with this. "I have something very important to tell you."

"What is it sweetheart?" Jared asked gently, pushing a lock of her golden hair out of her face. He could tell she was worried, but about what he did not know.

"I’m pregnant." she whispered, breaking the gaze between them as she spoke. A reasonably long silence caused her to look back over into his eyes. She could tell that he was nothing short of terrified, and it made her want to break down and cry. They weren’t ready for this, they both knew it. But now it was happening and neither of them knew what to do.

"Are you sure?" he finally responded, his voice shaky. There was a small tome of hope in his voice. Hope for which side, yes or no, she wasn’t sure. As much as she wanted to tell him that she wasn’t sure, she had to nod. The only thing she had been more sure of was her love for him when she said she would marry him. "God . . ."

Siren bit her lip as she looked away from him, tears springing to her eyes. She had been battling with herself over the past few days, trying to figure out how to tell him; and when. She could’ve chosen a better time, she knew, but she was afraid that if she didn’t tell him then than she wouldn’t be able to tell him at all. With one look in his eyes she could tell that he had mixed feelings. Fear, love, confusion, happiness. So much conflict in those eyes.

All that there was to be said was said, she couldn’t do anything about it. Not breaking the stunned silence, she closed her eyes with a shaky breath and went back to the way she had been laying there, soon falling asleep.

The next morning she awoke with a sense of loneliness. She opened her eyes and looked over to the empty space beside her where Jared should have been. A small nagging in the back of her mind was telling her that he had left her, but she pushed that away. He had probably decided to let her sleep in and she had just really overslept, she figured, getting up.

It wasn’t as late as she thought, when she left the house to go sell. In fact, she had woken up exactly when she normally did. All day she pondered where Jared had gone so early in the morning, but she mainly looked forward to seeing him at the end of the day.

"Morning, have you seen Jared?" Siren asked hesitantly, sitting beside her in the lobby.

"No, I have not." Morning responded, not noticing the sad look that passed over Siren’s face.

"Thanks." Siren said softly, slowly standing up and walking to her room. She closed the door and sunk down onto the bed. The nagging from before was growing stronger and she knew it was right. They weren’t ready for this but she couldn’t do anything about it. She also knew she couldn’t do it alone.

Perhaps a small amount of hope remained because she did not want to believe that he had left her. No matter how hard she tried she could not rid her mind of the fear she had seen in his eyes. She wished she hadn’t had to tell him. She had never thought that his reaction would be so familiar.

He didn’t know about that, no one did. Not Tracker, not Morning, not anyone. If he had truly left her, he didn’t know what he was repeating. Her history was very vague, even to him. She didn’t like to talk about it, and no one asked because of that.

Siren’s father, when he found out that her mother was pregnant with her, left for a period of time. When he came back, he was an alcoholic. Not just an alcoholic, but an alcoholic that would beat his wife and upon occasion beat his daughter who was two by the time he came back. The abusiveness got progressively worse as she got older and she feared the day that her sibling would be born. When the news of her mother’s second pregnancy was shared, her father practically lived at the pub when he wasn’t at work.

That is the reason they were sent away from Ireland. She had been ten years old when her mother had Lizzie, old enough to protect her little sister from her father’s abuse. Of course, through protecting Lizzie, she just got hurt more often and more violently.

Eventually her mother had sent them away. Her final instruction to her eldest daughter was not to write to her for at least a year. Before she left Siren had managed to get her father so mad at her that he would probably hunt her down if he got the chance. It had always been a terrible burden to her, knowing that she was the cause of her father’s problems and the abuse that went on because of them.

To have her child have a father like she had had was her worst nightmare. How she longed for him to walk through that door that second. She hoped and prayed that even if he had indeed left her, he would come back before the baby was born and that he would not have turned to alcohol.

With a hopeful gaze she sat staring at the door. Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned to days. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. All the time that passed she would spend doing the same thing, day after day. After she sold, she would eat and then shut herself away in her room, staring at the door longingly, awaiting his return. She would sit watching for him until sleep claimed her, every night.

Siren sat in the lobby of the house, absentmindedly sipping her tea. It had been about three and a half months since Jared’s disappearance. Although she had been trying her hardest to keep up appearances of being normal and happy, inside she was falling apart. She faintly heard the door open but didn’t turn to see who it was until she heard someone clearing his throat. She glanced over to see Jared standing there and she smiled a bit. "Hi."

"Hey." Jared said somewhat quietly, walking over and sitting beside her when she moved so there was room.

"How are you?" she asked softly, wanting to throw her arms around him and not let go.

"I’m good, you?"

"I’m doing alright." she said with a small smile. He averted his eyes from her’s, looking down at his hands.

"I’m sorry I left you." She frowned, biting her lower lip.

"It’s okay, you’re here now." she said softly, looking over at him.

"I missed you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you either." he said, still not looking at her. She lightly lifted his chin, making him look at her. Leaning over to him, her lips lingered on his for a brief moment before she pulled away, looking into his eyes.

"I missed you too." She reached up and gently pushed a tear away that was starting to fall from his eye.

"I love you. You know that, right?" he asked, not breaking the gaze between them.

"Yeah, I know," she said softly, extremely glad that he loved her enough to come back before she gave birth, and also that he was not intoxicated when he had done so. He looked away from her, and she could tell that he felt really bad about leaving. She set her empty teacup on the ground and folded her hands in her lap.

"I -really- missed you," Siren said quietly as he took her hand in his, rubbing it lightly with his thumb.

"I’m sorry I left you. I didn’t know what to do."

"I understand why," she said with a small nod. She understood more than he would ever know. Even though she didn’t know what to do, she did not have the luxury of being able to leave.

"Does anybody else know?"

"No, now one does," she said, nervously pushing her hair out of her face. When he looked at her in disbelief she had to smile a little. "I . . . didn’t want to tell anyone when you were gone."

"They’re still going to know why I left. I . . . I . . ."

"You’re back now, so it’s okay." As she said this, he pulled her into a tight embrace. That was all she had wanted since the moment he had walked through the door. She closed her eyes, holding him there in her arms for a long moment. As they pulled apart she quietly inquired, "what are we going to do?"

"I don’t know. We have to tell someone. We can’t do it alone, that’s for sure."

"I know we can’t do it alone, but who do we tell?"

"Who can we trust the most?"

"I don’t know."

"Me either."

"I would go tell Molly Ann, but . . ." Siren said with a frown.

"Who’s Molly Ann?"

"She owns the pub where Morning takes violin lessons. We went there after the wedding."

"All I remember is the wedding, and the celebrating afterwards. Not where, but celebrating." Jared said, looking up as he tried to remember.

"Well, she’s nice. And Morning’s friend Ophelia is staying there, she just had a baby."

"Could she help us?"

"Molly Ann, or Ophelia?"

"Either or."

"Molly Ann probably would, but I’m not sure about Ophelia."

"Do you think she would?" he asked. Siren nodded with a small smile. "Should we tell Charity too? I mean, it is her lodging house."

"Yes, I think we should." she said after a small hesitation. She remember back before they got married when Charity had objected so strongly under the pretense that Jared would her pregnant and leave her. Her prophesy had been fulfilled, but he was back now.

"I just don’t want her to get angry, like when I told her we were getting married."

"I know." she said with a small frown. Almost instantaneously her frown dissipated and a smile took over her face. "But now she’s engaged."

"Smudge, right?"

"Right."

"Good, I’m glad for them." Jared said with a smile. "They are perfect for each other." Siren nodded and rested her head on his shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you too." she said with a smile.

"I can’t believe you didn’t tell anyone. That really must have been difficult."

"It was, but I didn’t want to with you gone."

"Did you ever think about. . .you know. . ."

"No." she said firmly, looking over at him. She shook her head and he smiled. "I couldn’t do that."

"Why?" he asked, but then quickly added, "although I’m glad you didn’t even think of it."

"I just. . .can’t."

"I love you more than anything in the world." he said, his smile growing.

"Good." she said with a smile.

"I don’t know what I would do without you in my life," he continued, causing her smile to grow considerably. "I’m really glad I came back, I can’t believe I was gone so long. How did you do without me? ‘Cause I know I struggled without you."

"I tried to find other things to think about."

"Other things, not people, right?" She nodded with a sigh, resting her head on his shoulder. He rubbed her back in a comforting manner, until they heard a strange whistling noise.

"Who’s that?" She asked, looking around.

"The sink?" he said with a shrug. She gave him a look, an amused look.

"Sinks don’t whistle."

"I missed you too." he said with a smile. She wanted to melt right there on the spot; God, she had missed that smile.

After going into the kitchen to prove that it wasn’t the sink -it was Jumper- they went upstairs to go to bed. They laid down and Siren snuggled up beside him with a satisfied smiled. Jared smiled and said, "I missed you -so- much."

"I missed you too." she said, resting her arm around him. This was one of the things she had missed the most when he was gone – not having to worry about becoming cold during the night because he was there to keep her warm. He wrapped her in his arms and kissed her on the forehead. "Don’t ever leave me again."

"I’m sorry I left you this time. I was scared. I didn’t know what do so I left."

"I know, just don’t do it again." she said softly, burying her head in his chest. They fell asleep like that, just happy to be together again.