She took a step back, fully expecting either Tristan or one of the men that claimed to be his brother to step in and handle the ghost. When the man shuffled closer, Marty took a step back and risked a glance towards the other side of the room. What she saw had her rolling her eyes and making a mental note to kick Tristan’s ass later.

While Tristan chewed Shayne out, and she fully planned on finding out what that was about later, the rest of the men crowded behind him, looking ready to jump in at any second and grab him. As she took yet another step back, she couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t just grabbed him and ended the whole thing.

As she moved around the back of the couch, she watched as Quinn moved to grab Tristan by his shoulders when Tristan got a little too close to decking Shayne, only to watch the man hesitate, shake his head and drop his hands by his sides as he let out what sounded like a curse. It was an odd move, but then again, so was being chased around the couch by a na**d elderly man that she didn’t know.

During her second lap around the couch, she watched as Fergus moved to grab Tristan only to have a similar reaction. They didn’t want to hurt him, she realized as she slowed down to watch an obviously frustrated Liam attempt the same thing and fail, which was kind of screwed up since he was the one who’d hurt Tristan in the first place. He made one more attempt before he dropped his hands by his sides and curled them into fists as he let out what she was definitely sure was a curse and disappeared, only to reappear in front of Tristan a second later.

She was so focused on what was going on with Tristan that she didn’t realize that she’d stopped moving until the sound of a shuffle and a grunt had her saying a curse of her own and hauling ass, well, walking away really fast. She was still nauseous after all and all of this walking in circles wasn’t helping. After her fourth time around the couch, she, and her stomach, finally had enough.

“Would someone mind giving me a hand with this guy?”

For a moment, they simply stood there looking adorably confused as they watched the old na**d guy chase her around the couch for another lap. Knowing that her stomach wasn’t up for another lap around the couch, she veered off towards them, deciding that she’d had enough of, well, everything tonight.

She walked right passed Finn and Quinn and kept going towards Tristan, who appeared just as confused as the rest of the men. Once she reached him, she grabbed his good hand, gave it a pull and somehow was able to get him to have a seat in the ugly chair that Liam had vacated. Before he could get up and go after Shayne, and she knew him well enough to know that was exactly what he wanted to do, she sat on his lap, careful of his bad shoulder and made it clear that she didn’t plan on getting up anytime soon.

When Tristan tried to shift her off of his lap, she decided that perhaps a little clarification was in order. “If you so much as move me an inch, I will give the term ‘morning sickness’ a whole new meaning,” she swore, wishing that it wasn’t true, but with all the running around, stress and exhaustion, her stomach was less than pleased with her and was at that very moment threatening to turn her promise into reality.

“That threat won’t work forever,” he said, sighing as he wrapped his good arm around her and pressed a kiss against the top of her head all while he probably glared in Shayne’s direction.

“We’ll see,” she said with a shrug as she watched Declean reach out as the na**d old man neared their group and pressed his hand against the old man’s chest.

A beautiful white light spread over his chest until it surrounded them. Feelings of love, happiness and calm spread over her, stealing her breath and making her feel safe and cherished. It was a feeling that she wanted to last forever, but all too soon it was gone and so was the elderly man.

“What just happened?” she asked, forcing herself to remain calm when all she wanted to do was to jump off Tristan’s lap and get out of this room, this house, this town and go somewhere where she didn’t have to worry that she was losing her goddamn mind.

“He just needed help finding his way,” Declean said with a shrug as he sat down on the couch.

After a slight hesitation, Finn joined him. When Quinn went to join them, Fergus calmly shoved his brother out of the way and sat down. Flipping his brother off, Quinn moved to stand next to the fireplace, placing him between a probably still glaring Tristan and a remorseful looking Shayne, who’d since taken up his spot against the wall.

“As a rule, we don’t tell each other about the curse until it’s the right time, and we sure as hell wouldn’t tell a child the truth of his existence,” Liam said, taking up where they’d left off and Marty hoped that he managed to finish the story before anything else happened. She really wasn’t sure how much more she could handle tonight.

“Shayne didn’t tell ye everything, because ye made him promise to do everything that he could to keep Macha safe and whether ye like it or not, that included keeping her away from ye until the time was right.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked, noting the way that Tristan tensed beneath her, probably wishing that he could take another swing at Shayne.

“Because out of all of our soul mates, ye have suffered the most, Macha, and we’d all hoped to give ye a little peace, but that’s never been enough for Tadgh. He wanted to give ye yer freedom even if it meant that the two of ye had to go through hell first to get it,” Liam explained softly.

“I don’t understand,” she mumbled, feeling even more confused.

“Years ago, more like centuries ago,” Shayne said, taking over, “when we’d all come to accept that there was no breaking this curse. We also realized that the curse was stronger in yer case. Not only were ye stuck being born over and over again with each life being more trying than the last, but ye were cursed to experience heartbreak each and every time, lass.”

“While Tadgh was willing to keep going, intent on breaking the curse, we weren’t,” Quinn added.

“It seemed that every time was worse than the last time for ye,” Declean said.

“We realized too late that ye carried yer heartache with ye into each new life and that each time that Tadgh was taken away from ye that yer pain was greater than the last time,” Aidan explained before Liam once again took over.

“Tadgh was determined to end yer suffering by destroying the curse, but we just couldn’t allow it any longer. We did everything that we could to get him to see it our way, but the stubborn bastard wouldn’t give up. He lied to all of us and promised to leave ye alone only to break his promise and chase after ye. After the last time, we really thought that he’d finally come to his senses, but he hadn’t.”

“Somehow, and we’re still not sure how he did it, he found out where ye’d be born and he found a way to be born a few years before ye. It made it impossible for us to find him and put an end to this before ye got hurt, Macha and for that we are deeply sorry.”

“I would never hurt her,” Tristan bit out coldly.

Liam nodded in agreement. “Aye, we know that, lad. We know that ye meant well, but that doesn’t change anything. We have to do this before things get worse.”

“How are things going to get worse?” she found herself asking as she reached down and took his good hand in both of hers, desperate for his touch and the comfort of the connection that she was only now beginning to understand.