Untitled

“Brooklynn, I…” Brooklynn shoved Martin Krebs hard enough to send him into the wall, riled up with anger.

“You’re a monster, Martin Krebs! What did you do to her?!”

"She was calling for help!" His voice was maddeningly even. "On an open radio channel." 

"So what?! She was terrified!" 

"So the moment that mayday goes through, we'll have coastguard, authorities, and every relevant agency trying to figure out what an unregistered research vessel is doing in a restricted zone with illegal biopsy equipment and a live Mosasaurus blood sample." He let that sit for a second.

"This mission isn't exactly something we can explain to the authorities, Brooklynn. You knew that when you signed on."

She opened her mouth and closed it again. She hated that she understood what he was saying. 

She hated even more that some small, rational part of her brain was processing it while the rest of her was still feeling the horror of Teresa's fingers slipping out of her grip. 

"She needed your help!" She broke down anyway, still in disbelief. "She was screaming, and she was a kid, and she was terrified. How could you do this?!" 

"Brooklynn, if that call goes through, we don't just lose the mission. We lose everything! The sample, the research, the funding. Every person on this boat faces criminal charges. Including you!"

“Don’t you want to save your daughter?”

Tears streamed down Brooklynn’s face as she shook her head, still in shock. "Don't you dare use my daughter. Krebs, don't you dare use her against me right now."

"I'm not using her against you." He placed both hands on her shoulders. "I'm reminding you why you're here. You’re on this boat for a reason, Brooklynn, and it isn’t for them." 

“Don’t forget that!”

Brooklynn stood there for a moment after he said it, breathing, wondering how she got herself tangled up in this, in the first place. Darius was right. The fear of losing Isabella had led her to make so many wrong decisions, but having to choose the mission over saving a life was the worst of it.

When my eyes found Darius, they stayed there longer than they should have.

Kenji was handsome, that was obvious. Brandon had that easy warmth that made him look like someone everyone already knew and liked. Darius was the youngest, but definitely the most good-looking out of the three.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, with fresh retwists that suited him in a way that felt genuinely unfair, and something about his eyes that made me feel like I was trying to remember something I couldn't place.

Because I could’ve sworn I had seen those eyes before.

I just couldn’t put my finger on it, but the moment I’d caught his gaze at the dinner table, I’d been taken back to that cold little room again, and I couldn’t understand why. Anyone who reminded me of my past felt like an obvious threat, but for some reason, he didn’t.

I was still staring when he looked up and caught me.

I looked away immediately, but then looked back, because apparently that's just who I am now. He looked away, too and then glanced back. I’d noticed his reaction when I’d walked in, back at his mother’s suite, and he kept looking for that necklace that I’d taken off for the sake of this dress. I just couldn’t understand his fascination with that pendant, but that was nothing compared to the shame I’d felt remembering that he’d caught me in Daniel Kon’s office.

“Hey.” he lifted my chin to look at him, the second he noticed that I was now avoiding his eyes. “You don’t have to force yourself to be okay around me, you know?”

Fuck. Looking into his eyes felt like torture. How long could I keep doing this?

Before I could even respond, his lips moved to my neck, kissing just beneath my ear in a painfully slow and gentle manner that made me begin to lose myself. Before I could fight it, my eyes fluttered shut, sucking in my breath as his hands slid up my sides carefully, like he was handling something fragile.

“I know tonight sucked,” he murmured against my skin. “Dad was being an asshole again. I’m sorry he embarrassed you like that.”

There he goes again, apologizing even when he was the victim in all this.

I swallowed hard because the worst part about dating Kenji Kon had never been his family name, but the way he loved without holding back. He loved like he’d handed me every vulnerable part of himself years ago and trusted me not to destroy it, and maybe that was why I couldn’t fully love him back, no matter how badly I wanted to.

Because every time I looked at him, I saw Daniel Kon standing somewhere behind him like a shadow neither of us could escape. He didn’t want me to see his father whenever I looked at him because he wanted me to believe he hated the man his father had become, but I always did.

I saw the empire built on blood and secrets, and the girls who’d been with me that day, but whose names never made the news.

How on earth could I separate him from that?

How could I trust someone raised by a monster not to become one eventually?

Kenji kissed my throat again, and I couldn’t hold back my moan when I felt his hands on me, because no monster had ever touched me this gently. One brush of his lips over the spot beneath my jaw, and I began to lose control. It was a lot easier at the start of our relationship back in high school, back when he was just one of the other guys I’d been with. I’d felt nothing when he’d touched me back then, sometimes rolled my eyes, and dreaded the next time he’d invite me over. But a lot had changed in the past year, and something was different with Kenji. I honestly didn’t know what, but somehow I suddenly began to hate myself.

For lying.

For making him fall deeper in love with me, and wanting this anyway.

For refusing to accept that deep down…I was falling in love with him too.

“You’re thinking too hard again,” he mummured between kisses.

He was tall, which was the first thing her brain registered before anything else, because she'd walked directly into his chest. His dark hair was slightly grown out and had that end-of-a-long-flight look, the kind that fell across his forehead in a way that looked accidental but probably wasn't.

He had soft features and a gentleness to the way his face was put together that caught her off guard every time. His dark eyes were now a little more tired than before, and the collar of his Gucci shirt wasn't sitting right. He had the general energy of someone who wanted to be literally anywhere that wasn't an airport.

She'd seen this face before.

She knew this face.

It was him. Here in Portland, which didn't make any sense because the last time she'd—

She shut that thought down before it finished. “Wait…Minho?”

Her heart had never raced so fast as her gaze fell to his tag. The little paper sleeve around his carry-on handle had Portland as a destination, and not a departure point.

None of that made any sense.

"You're here?" She asked, and the laugh that came out was more confused than anything else. "Why are you…I mean, I'm literally about to board a flight to Seoul. What are you doing in Portland? You didn’t tell me you…"

She had to stop because something wasn’t right, and the look on his face spoke volumes.

They weren't exactly friends, and they both knew that. What they had was deeper and more complicated. They were in each other's lives in ways that looked like a relationship to the people who didn’t know them. They’d spent late nights on his couch, they had the keys to each other's apartments, and they were each other's emergency contacts. They knew each other's coffee orders, their nightmares, and the specific way the other person cried.

Darius had called it a queer platonic relationship when trying to explain them to Sammy. He’d said that it was a bond that existed outside the usual boxes of friendship or romance and in ways that had nothing to do with sex or dating.

And Brooklynn wouldn’t deny that it worked for them. 

Except for one thing: it had never been platonic from her end. 

She'd fallen for him. Hard. In a way she just couldn’t come back from.

She wanted everything he was willing to give her, but she also wanted so much more. She wanted his mouth on hers, his hands in her hair, his skin on hers, wanted to wake up next to him, but this time, have it mean what it looked like it meant.

Darius saw them differently because to him, what they had was perfect. He loved her with his whole heart, and she never doubted that. He'd move mountains for her if he had to, and would drop everything if she called. 

"Hey, babe," he'd always greeted with a warm smile when he returned home from work, dressed in his DPW uniform, tie loosened, hair messier than it had been that morning. He had kicked off his shoes by the door and somehow still managed to stop and set them neatly on the rack.

"Hi, Love." She remembered wishing she could run and embrace him the way she usually did before her pregnancy.

She'd been sprawled on the couch with her feet propped up on three pillows because her ankles had swollen so badly her socks left marks. The apartment smelled like burnt garlic as she'd been trying to make pasta for dinner, but had only gotten as far as boiling the pasta before chopping onions and garlic in a pan and letting it burn to a crisp. 

The pot still sat on the stove, and so was the pan of burnt garlic, but she'd been too tired to move it and too uncomfortable to care. Darius had noticed the pot, but didn’t care either. He just walked over, leaned down, and kissed the top of her head. Then he held out a bouquet of bright yellow daffodils and a box of her favorite chocolates, the expensive kind with the caramel centers.

Brooklynn stared at them with a smile on her face, then up at him. "What's this for?"

"Do I need a reason?"

She'd giggled, pulled him into a close embrace, and planted a kiss on his lips.

He'd kissed her back, gentle and unhurried, like they had all the time in the world. When they pulled apart, he'd been grinning.

"You look like you're about to collapse," She'd said, studying his face.

"So do you." He'd set the flowers and chocolates carefully on the coffee table, nudging aside the pregnancy books she'd been pretending to read, and sat down beside her. He'd moved slowly, making sure not to bump her stomach. "Rough day?"

"I gave up on dinner." She'd gestured toward the kitchen with a defeated sigh. "It's still sitting there. I couldn't even finish without burning everything."

"I saw." He'd smiled with no judgment in his eyes. "That's okay. We can order something. What do you want? Thai? Pizza?"

"I'm supposed to be able to handle this stuff." She’d whined. "I used to be able to do everything. Now I can't even make a simple meal without screwing it up."

"Brook." He'd taken her hand in his. "You're literally growing a whole human being. I think you get a lifetime pass on burnt garlic."

She'd laughed out heartily, and their baby had kicked right after, like she was agreeing.

"She's moving," Brooklynn had said, her hand flying to her belly.

Darius's entire face had lit up. He'd always looked like that when Isabella moved, and it was endearing. She'd placed his hand where hers had been. They'd waited together silently until there was another kick, stronger this time.

"There she is," he'd whispered, his voice full of awe. "Hi, Isa. It's Daddy."

Brooklynn's eyes had been filled with tears watching him, but the happy kind. She'd turned and wrapped her arms around him, completely overwhelmed, pulling him as close as her belly would allow. She'd buried her face in his shoulder and breathed him in.

He'd held her in return without question, with one hand in her hair, and the other around her waist, pulling her even further into him.

"I love you," she'd whispered against his neck.

"I love you too." His voice had been low, warm against her ear.

She'd pulled back just enough to look at him as her fingers traced the line of his jaw. His eyes had darkened slightly with that look that made her stomach flip even after all this time.

He'd kissed her again, slower this time, deeper. His hand moved from her hair to cup her face, thumb brushing across her cheek. She'd sighed into his mouth, her fingers immediately finding the buttons of his shirt and undoing them quickly.

"Brook," he'd moaned against her lips, smiling. "You're six months pregnant."

"So?" She'd pulled back, eyebrow raised. "That doesn't mean I stopped wanting you.

"Well, when you put it that way..."

He'd kissed her neck, just below her ear, the way he knew drove her crazy. She'd melted into him, her hands sliding under his loosened tie, feeling the warmth of his skin through the thick fabric of his shirt.

"The burnt pasta and garlic can wait," she'd whispered.

"Hold on. Did you burn the pasta too?"  

“What were you thinking, Kenji?” Ben hastily sent a text to Professor Loomis. “Why didn’t you just talk to me about this? Don’t you trust me?”

"Ben, I…"

"Did you really do this just for Brooklynn?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"No, you don't get to be mad, Kenji!" Ben was furious now. "I do!"

Kenji glanced at him with tears clouding his eyes. "I was trying to save Audrey, too. I thought if there was even a chance, even the smallest possibility that this could work, that I could bring her back…bring them both back. I…I had to try."

"Kenji, it still doesn't…"

"I was selfish because I grew up without a mother, and losing her was the worst thing that ever happened to me." Kenji's voice cracked completely, the words tumbling out between sobs. "It's like I'm watching the same thing happen to my kids and I…" He pressed his hands against his face, his shoulders shaking. "I'm so sorry, Ben. I know it's too late now, but I'm willing to do anything to fix this."

"You know," Martin Krebs shrugged, not even seeming to be bothered by her reaction, "When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I'd be having drinks with Brooklynn Miller at a university event. Life's full of surprises."

"We're not having drinks," Brooklynn said flatly.

"Semantics." He teased. "You're standing next to me in a quiet corner of the hall. I’d say that’s close enough."

"I need to talk to you about something serious."

"I don’t know, Brooklynn, I’m kinda distracted by the fact that you look incredible tonight. That's a problem for me."

Brooklynn shot him a look. "Are you always like this?"

"Like what?"

Darius took another drink. He should’ve looked away when she caught him staring. He knew he looked pathetic and should’ve focused on literally anything else. But he couldn't.

It was Brooklynn.

With all the anger he held towards her, his heart still yearned for her.

"So you want to know about San Diego?" Brooklynn raised a brow.

Isabella nodded so hard her plushie almost fell. "Did you see any new dinosaurs there, mommy?"

"A few. Not like the ones on Nublar, though. Some of them were sick. Some are still dying." She paused. "None you haven't seen."

"Daddy took me to work! I saw a…"

"Oh, he did?" Brooklynn shot Darius a look. "You're taking her to work now?"

Darius shrugged. "She wouldn't stop crying. And it was just the observation deck, nothing dangerous."

"Mm-hm. And let me guess, she didn't just watch?"

Isabella sat up straighter, holding up her plushie. "I saw a Backysaurus! It was so big, Mommy! Bigger than our house. Daddy said it eats leaves, not people."

Darius laughed. "Backysaurus, huh? That's a new one."

Brooklynn kissed Isabella's hair. "Brachiosaurus, baby. But I like yours better."

"Backysaurus," Isabella repeated, nodding.

"Careful," Darius said, "if you rename all the dinosaurs, Isa, I'll have to rewrite my whole field guide."

Her eyes went wide. "All of it?"

"Every page." He tickled her sides. "And that's a lot of dinosaurs."

Isabella loved to pick up Darius’s field guides that held pictures of dinosaurs. She didn’t understand any of the words, but she’d flip through them, more interested in them than in her bedtime stories, pointing at the ones she knew by name and making up her own for the rest.

“I can help you, Dad, I can draw the Backysaurus, with a really, really long neck.”

She nodded and took the test from Sammy’s hand and stared at the box. The instructions seemed blurry, so she had to read them twice before they made any sense.

Open the package. Remove cap. Pee on the stick. Wait three minutes.

At least the instructions were simple, because nothing about this felt simple.

"Do you want us to wait outside?" Sammy asked.

Brooklynn shook her head. She couldn't be alone right now. If she were alone, she'd fall apart completely.

"Okay." Sammy squeezed her shoulder. "We'll be right here."

Her hands trembled as she opened the package. She followed the instructions and stood there, staring at the test. It seemed like the longest three minutes of her life.  Her heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. Her mouth was dry. What result was she hoping for exactly? Did she want the result to be positive? Or negative?

She and Darius had discussed kids so many times she’d lost count. She knew he’d looked forward to starting a family with her. She didn’t have a single doubt that he wanted to be a father someday, but Darius had so much going for him right now, and the timing just felt…wrong.

Three minutes.

Just look, Brooklynn. Pick it up and look.

Brooklynn held her breath as she finally looked at the test.

Two lines.

Two very clear pink lines.

Her knees buckled. She grabbed the edge of the sink to stop herself from falling as Yaz and Sammy rushed to her almost immediately.

Sammy saw the test first. Her eyes went wide. "Oh my gosh!"

"What?" Yaz looked over her shoulder, and her hand went over her mouth. 

Brooklynn couldn’t explain the emotions that took over. She was terrified, no doubt, but underneath all that fear and a million reasons she tried to give herself to justify why they weren’t ready, there was also a feeling of warmth she couldn’t explain.

"Brook?" Sammy's voice was gentle. "Talk to us. How do you feel?"

"I don't know," she finally managed. "I don't know how to feel."

That was a lie, and she knew it. She knew exactly what she was feeling, she just didn't know if she was allowed to or if it would be selfish to feel it yet.

Yaz guided her back to sit on the edge of the tub. "There's no right way to react to this, you know. Whatever you're feeling is okay."

"I'm scared," Brooklynn took in deep breaths. "I'm really, really scared."

"And that’s totally normal," Sammy said, sitting on her other side. "This is huge."

"But I'm also..." Brooklynn's throat tightened. She pressed her hand to her stomach again, and that unconscious gesture now suddenly made so much sense. "God, this is crazy. Why am I not just scared?"

Sammy's expression softened. "Maybe because part of you is happy about it?"

Yaz agreed. “Wait till Darius finds out about it.”

Brooklynn smiled, feeling a mix of overwhelming joy and terror all at once. She broke down with tears rolling down her cheeks. Yaz and Sammy leaned into her to comfort her with huge smiles on their faces. 

She let out a shaky laugh through her tears, still in disbelief. "He's going to lose his mind."

“He’s going to be so happy.” Sammy grinned. "Can you imagine his face when you tell him?"

"Or he might not," Brooklynn said quietly, the fear creeping back in. "I still think we should have waited a bit. What if he’s…"

"Then you both will deal with it together," Sammy said firmly. "But you're thinking too much about it, and you don't even know how he'll react yet."

“I tried to tell her, Sammy,” Yaz asked, exchanging a glance with Sammy that Brooklynn was too distracted to notice. "When are you planning to tell him?"

Brooklynn thought about it. "He just left for Redwood this morning, and then he'll be off to Colorado tomorrow on a project that is going to last a week."

"You can’t tell him over the phone," Sammy said immediately. "This is way too big for a phone call."

"I could fly out there," Brooklynn suggested.

Yaz shook her head. "He's going to be buried in that project. You know how focused he gets. He deserves to hear this when he can actually process it."

Sammy and Yaz exchanged another one of those weird looks she’d complained to Darius this morning about.

"What?" Brooklynn asked, wiping at her tears.

"Well," Sammy started carefully, "you still need to come to Costa Rica with us. "

"Oh god." Brooklynn had completely forgotten. "I don't know if I can go now that I’m…"

"No, you should definitely still come," Yaz said a little too quickly.

"Actually, it might be exactly what you need," Sammy agreed. "A week away to process everything and figure out what you want to say to Darius."

"I’m pregnant, Sammy," Brooklynn said. "I’m gonna be sick and ruin the vacation for you guys."

"We'll take care of you," Sammy replied firmly. "And you can see a doctor before we leave, make sure everything's okay."

"When does Darius get back from Colorado?" Yaz asked.

"Around the same time we return from our vacation," Brooklynn said. "The day before his birthday, I think."

"Perfect!" Sammy's eyes lit up. "So you go to Costa Rica with us for a week, come back, and then when Darius gets home, you tell him on his birthday."

"His birthday?" Brooklynn wasn't sure if she could keep this secret for a whole week.

"Think about it," Yaz tried to explain. "By then, he'll be done with his project, and there will be no work stress. You'll have time to see a doctor, process everything, and then you’ll tell him when the timing is right."

"I think it's perfect," Sammy agreed without hesitation.

"Okay, what aren't you guys telling me?" Brooklynn asked suspiciously.

"Nothing!" Sammy said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. "We just think the timing makes sense, that's all."

Brooklynn looked between them, but she was too physically and emotionally exhausted to push further.

Sammy squeezed her hand. "Come to Costa Rica with us. Take the week to let yourself breathe and figure this out. And then when you get back and Darius gets back, you tell him."

“Brooklynn, you’ve met Brandon…this is Darius…his younger brother,” he persisted, his voice all forced casualness. “Darius, this is my girlfriend, Brooklynn Miller. She’s pretty much part of the Kon family now…and I’m crazy about her.”

I cringed so hard because what the fuck was Kenji doing? The way he said it was so passive, and made it sound like a statement of fact, one he wanted Darius to hear and remember.

Darius seemed amused with that sly smirk on his face, and I wanted to rip my hair out. Having Kenji speak so highly of me after watching me snoop around in his father’s office had to be a fucking joke. What was I thinking? Why couldn’t I have waited a little longer till everyone was asleep? Gosh, this was so messed up!

“Yeah,” Darius replied, looking like he was assessing whether to play along or blow this entire moment up. “Seems like you’ve got yourself a real… keeper.”

Kenji grinned, completely oblivious. “Exactly. Four years together, and I couldn’t be happier.”

The way he looked at Kenji told me there was more he wanted to say, but he swallowed it back. Then his eyes found mine again, and they were unreadable.

 “It’s nice to meet you, Brooklynn.”

Before I could even respond, he turned and walked away, hands in his pockets, so nonchalantly, while I was here, almost dying on the inside. It seemed like he was enjoying watching me get tortured like this, but I couldn’t blame him for it. I needed to think fast, come up with a lie or an excuse to explain why I was in Daniel Kon’s office, but part of me was convinced that it wouldn’t make a difference. Darius was just too smart to fall for any of that.

But one thing was certain.

“I should’ve been here,” he muttered under his breath.

Brooklynn blinked. “What?”

Darius didn’t answer right away. His jaw clenched, throat tight with guilt. “I hate that you didn’t think you could tell me,” he said quietly, rubbing his thumb in slow circles along the side of her ankle. “Like maybe I’d be too busy or too far. I don’t blame you anyway….I have been quite distant these days.”

“Come on…you know that’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Come here, babe.” She smiled, gesturing for him to stand. Darius hesitated, unsure, still holding her ankle like it was the only part of her he had left to take care of. But Brooklynn didn’t drop her hand this time, she reached for him, curling her fingers around the front of his shirt and giving it a light tug.

“Come here,” she said again, quieter now, eyes soft but sure.

So he stood, eyes fixed on her.

She pulled him in, getting up from the table on her good foot to press her lips to his, firm and warm, not hurried or dramatic, just real. Her hand slipped up the back of his neck, fingers tangling in his hair as she kissed him like she wasn’t hurting, like none of the space between them had ever existed. Darius exhaled against her mouth, shoulders finally relaxing as his hands braced on either side of her, framing her gently. He didn’t realize how much he’d needed that anchor until now.

When she pulled back, her thumb brushed the corner of his lip. “It’s okay,” she said, her forehead nearly touching his. “I wish you were here more often. But I also wish I were there for you more often. You were sick a month ago, and I felt horrible. It’s why I insisted that you take some time off so I could be with you…and take care of you.”

“It’s hard…I know it’s hard, but we're doing fine,” she continued, her voice quieter. “You still showed up today, and I don’t even want to ask what strings you had to pull to let your boss let you get on a plane down here in the middle of an important mission.”

Darius gave a soft laugh, “Let’s just say he’s going to make me do three weeks of swamp recon with the new tracking team. Pretty sure I’ll be eating mosquitoes for breakfast.”

Her eyes widened, then softened. “Darius…”

He shook his head slowly, his hand moving up to cradle her jaw, thumb brushing her cheek like it was porcelain. “Brook, I’d do it a hundred times over. You’re worth it.”

She blinked, lips parting, but he leaned in before she could argue, closing the space between them until his forehead nearly brushed hers, his voice low and sure, like a secret meant just for her. 

But even as her heart swelled from the love of her friends, her eyes were already drifting from them, eagerly searching for her best friend.

And there he was.

Darius stood a little behind the crowd, letting them all have their turn, bouquet still in one hand, sign folded under his arm now. His smile hadn’t faded. If anything, it had only grown softer, like he was watching her in slow motion, and it was all perfect.

Brooklynn didn’t wait. She moved to him with the kind of urgency you save for dreams you’re afraid will vanish. And then she threw herself into his arms.

Darius dropped the flowers without a second thought and caught her mid-run, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and lifting her right off the ground.

“Hi, Love.” She laughed, a breathless, shaky sound that cracked around the edges. “You’re really here,” she whispered, clinging to him, hoping it would somehow show how much he missed him.

“I told you I’d try,” he whispered back, pressing a kiss into her shoulder as he spun her once, then twice, letting her feet dangle and twirl above the grass. “I couldn’t miss this. Not for anything.”

She pulled back just enough to look at him, her face flushed from laughing, crying, and maybe just the overwhelming joy swelling in her chest. “I thought you said something urgent came up?”

He smiled, brushing long brunette strands gently away from her damp cheek. “It did. You. This is an emergency, isn’t it?”

“You’re so corny.” And just like that, she kissed him. Passionately. Sliding her hand into his hair, tugging him impossibly closer as if she could pour every missed moment, every ache of the last two weeks into that single, breath-stealing kiss.