What if leaving triggered something seriously f**ked up happening to her and their baby?

“Fuck,” he groaned.

He could feel her smiling against his lips. She was a smug little thing, he noted as he thought over what she’d said, trying to find an argument that would support his plan and admittedly not trying very hard. He didn’t want to leave her, but he also didn’t want her or the baby to suffer because of him.

“What’s your plan?” he asked, sighing heavily as he opened his eyes and raised his head, already knowing that she had one.

“I thought that you’d never ask,” she said, smiling as she readjusted herself on his lap, careful of his shoulder. “We interrogate your brothers,” Marty said, smiling as she easily said the word and making him want to roll his eyes, “and find out absolutely everything we can about the curse and the events that led up to the curse getting activated. That way we know what to watch out for and we can make plans.”

He reached up with his good hand and pushed a loose strand of her hair back as he gently cupped her face. “What if this plan doesn’t work?”

“Then we’ll learn from our mistakes and the next time-“

“I don’t want to put you or the baby through this again,” he said quietly.

She turned her face and pressed a kiss against his palm. “I would rather free the baby than to take the chance of sending him back to wherever he’s been, Tristan. If that means that we keep coming back until we get this thing right, then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

“I don’t think that I could keep putting you through this, Marty.”

“We don’t have a choice,” she said with a sad smile that made him want to take her in his arms and never let her go.

“Because it’s the only way that we’re going to get our happily ever after.”

He pulled her closer so that he could kiss her, praying that he didn’t f**k this up.

*-*-*-*

“What’s the verdict then?” Finn asked as Shayne materialized in the kitchen.

“She talked him out of it.” Just as he knew she would.

“Thank f**king God for that,” Fergus muttered as he leaned back in his chair.

He’d never seen his brothers look so relieved before. Then again, they’d never been asked to remove their little brother’s soul before. It wasn’t as though they were really killing him. Tristan was one of them. He was a cursed soul and removing him from the body that he currently occupied would have only been returning him to his true form. Reminding themselves of that fact certainly hadn’t helped.

As pissed off as the brothers had been, none of them had been able to do it. He was their youngest brother, their responsibility and they hadn’t been able to overlook that, even if it meant saving Marty and the baby any more heartache or pain. Tristan was right.

They were f**king wimps.

Now they had to make a few choices. Did they make another attempt or did they go along with Marty’s plan and try to destroy this curse once and for all?

“What do we do now, Liam?” Declean asked as he frowned down at the apple pastries on the counter that he’d finally managed to steal for Marty.

“Other than wait for the curse to take them?” Liam asked, shaking his head slightly. “I’m afraid there’s really not much we can do.”

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have to wait very long for the curse to demand its due.

Chapter 36

“What are ye doing, lass?” Shayne asked as he appeared right next to her, startling a small scream out of her and making her drop her cell phone.

“What’s wrong?” Declean demanded as he appeared on the other side, earning another scream from her and had her stumbling back.

“What’s all this screaming for, lass?” Fergus asked as she banged into him.

“Stop doing that!” she snapped, placing a hand over her pounding heart as she struggled to calm her breathing. Honestly, they were going to give her a heart attack.

“Doing what?” Finn asked as he suddenly appeared, sitting in the black leather chair that the brothers seemed to favor.

“Scaring the hell out of me!” she snapped, taking a deep breath as she bent down and picked up her phone.

“Ye didn’t have to yell it, lass,” Fergus said with a touch of a pout as he took a seat on the couch.

Shayne let out a long-suffering sigh that had her torn between rolling her eyes and smiling. “She always was a violent little thing.”

“Aye,” Finn readily agreed, giving her a pointed look.

“Remember the beatings?” Declean asked conversationally as he sat on the couch near Finn.

“I doubt any of us will ever be able to forget the beatings,” Fergus said in a harsh whisper that had the others nodding enthusiastically.

“Are you done yet?” she asked, refusing to be amused by this. She had something that she needed to do and she couldn’t do it with an audience.

“Why?” Shayne asked, his eyes twinkling with amusement, “are ye gonna beat us?”

“You really are related to Tristan,” she muttered, shaking her head in disgust as she turned around and walked out of the room.

“What are we doing?” Declean asked as he appeared on her right side, startling another scream out of her and causing her to stumble forward.

“Anything that we can help with, lass?” Quinn asked, appearing to her left and catching her by the elbow and steadying her before she fell flat on her face just as the rather frightening screams started from what sounded like the kitchen.

Instead of answering him, because at that moment she was pretty sure that she’d lost the ability to talk, she blindly reached out and grabbed his hand. She squeezed the hell out of it while she watched a half na**d man with shaggy dirty blonde hair run out of the staircase wall, across the small hallway, and through the opposite wall.

“Get back here, ye little bastard!” Aidan shouted as he ran out of the wall, across the small hallway and through the opposite wall after the shaggy haired man who wouldn’t stop screeching.

“Are ye hungry, lass?” Declean asked, giving her hand a gentle tug that had her automatically following him. A few seconds later he pulled her back when the shaggy haired man, still screeching, suddenly jumped out of the wall and ran back the way he’d come.

“We could get ye some bread or fruit,” Quinn offered.

She couldn’t do more than shake her head as she watched Aidan come running through the wall, looking really pissed as he ran across the hall and into the wall.

“Ye really should eat, lass,” Declean said, giving her another nudge that had her once again walking towards the kitchen.

“Stop trying to touch me, you pervert!” the shaggy haired man screeched as he once again made an appearance, but this time she’d heard him coming and managed to stop on her own without having to be prompted. They watched as he ran back through the wall and then as one, they turned their heads and watched as Aidan stumbled out of the wall after him.

“Will ye be needing some help with this one?” Quinn asked, sounding thoughtful.

Without sparing them a look, Aidan flipped him off as he took off after the shaggy haired ghost who couldn’t seem to stop screeching. Quinn and Declean chuckled as they once again started to lead her towards the kitchen, but between the screeching, the men scaring the hell out of her by popping in and out of the room, and watching the two men run back and forth, she had the start of what promised to be a really fun headache.