“No, I always worry about you, I always will.” It was instinct, the same way he worried about her and the baby, she worried about him and the baby just as much. Okay so maybe she was giving him news that would make for more concern right now, but that didn’t mean he had a monopoly on wanting to protect the other. Her hand went across her stomach as she used the other to wipe at her face. Push the hair that was stuck to her cheek off it, not knowing where they were going to go from here. Her immediate reaction to him wanting a name was to tell Nik that it wasn’t possible, that it was literally impossible to tell him that, but…he was right she had said no secrets and if Millie wanted a hope in hell of winning him back at all she was going to have to do that much. It was the bare minimum after all. The way he called her Millie, he wouldn’t come sit with her on the sofa again, it broke her heart into a million bits all over again. There was such a void between them now and she’d been the one to cause the gaping divide, she’d wedged it open, she just had to close it. She had too.
“Of course I stopped to think about that, I think about it every single second of every single day since I found out I was pregnant. When they recruited me though there was no one else to think about because I was all alone in the world. I know it sounds pathetic but I just wanted to belong again. So badly.” Elbows resting on her knees she put her head in her hands, shaking it slowly, knowing the blonde was making the leaving suggesting as part of a panic reaction. She wasn’t going to let him leave his family, as if she hadn’t caused him enough pain already. “Nik, no. They’d find us, they have resources you couldn’t even imagine. Plus your family are here and this is your home. I’m not doing that to you. We could never get far enough away, we could never stop running either, what kind of life would that be for the baby?” No worse than having a monster for a mother though. A strangled sob escaped her as he rejected herder the first time since the day they had met, not knowing how to handle it, every fibre in her body was screaming for her to go over to him but that physical rejection would be too much. No, she had to give him space. Should she leave maybe? But she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave right now - not when there was so much more to explain.
“They don’t know I’m pregnant yet, Niklaus. I haven’t told them.” A sigh whispered past her lips, finally she looked back up at him, removing her face from her palms her eyes red rimmed. Face swollen from the emotional racking through her in a way it hadn’t in a long time, Mason telling her about the engagement was horrible but having to explain all this to Niklaus was worse somehow. “I don’t want anything or anyone to hurt the baby, you know that right? You believe me don’t you?” The brunette asked earnestly, lips quivering as she waited for a reply, hands fidgeting in her lap. “I want the killing to stop, but I don’t know how.” That came out as a whisper under her breath, blinking back even more tears, pressing her lips together. Alright she had to bite the bullet. “I’ll tell you who they are, I’ll tell you what I know, I promise. Just…please come and sit down. You can ask me anything you want and I’ll be honest. The family is called the Wilkes family…they…they’re like a mob family. I know this sounds mental, I know.” She felt like she was caving into herself, she wanted to know what was going on in the blonde’s head so badly. “I love you so much, I love you so much Niklaus Reign, please …”
"Maybe if you tell them about this pregnancy they’ll let you stop?” it was a long shot, but again, Niklaus didn’t know these people well enough to know that this probably wouldn’t happen. He nodded gently when she spoke about not wanting anyone to hurt their baby, because it didn’t matter that she was a trained assassin who killed people for a job, Niklaus knew that Matilda would be an incredibly protective and loving mother to their child. He knew she’d do absolutely anything to keep their baby safe, just as Niklaus would as well. “Yeah. I do...” his reply was barely audible, but he meant it. “I....I don’t know what to do...” he admitted after a moment. There had been times in Nik’s life when he’d felt absolutely helpless and it was a feeling he’d always hated. Right now, as Matilda was telling him about how she couldn’t get out of this life she’d gotten herself into at a younger age, the man felt this helplessness strongly. How the hell was he suppose to get her out of this? How was he suppose to keep her and his child safe when he was only one person and the people she was working for were apparently an entire mob family? No doubt just as trained to use guns and kill as she was? He couldn’t.
Matilda’s last words seemed to snap him out of whatever hold his feet had to the ground and he slowly made his way back over to the sofa to sit beside her again. He stayed silent, lost in his thoughts--- wondering how he was going to help her while still letting all of this news sink in. “So...” he paused, once again struggling to find words. He’d never been in this position with Matilda--- never struggled to form sentences with her. Talking with Matilda had always been easy....so why was it so damn hard now? “...so you work for the Wilkes family as a hitman?” it sounded like he was asking a question, but the man was just trying to make sense of this by saying it out loud. “...and you don’t want to do this, but you’re forced too because they’ll kill you if you don’t?” she was doing this to keep herself alive. Niklaus might not have agreed with all of this, but he was way too deep in this relationship to turn away. Too in love with this woman to allow something this insane pull him away from her. And sure, this might put a bit of a strain on their relationship, but Niklaus knew in his heart that they’d get through this somehow. Once again, Niklaus was falling into the same kind of mind set he had for work. When he was managing to keep himself calm during a stressful situation. “These people you work for---- do they keep you safe? I mean, you kill for them....would they ever kill for you? To protect you?” he asked softly, needing to at least know that Matilda had that safety.
