no one expects the adhbhar invasion

Hadley hadn't been surprised when, one morning, some of his military officials showed up to gravely inform him that Earalas was under attack by outside forces. In fact, he'd been expecting an attack by Deilig for months now. It was why he had made an alliance with Dian and reinforced the northern border.

He was surprised, though, when the generals informed him that they weren't under attack by Deilig in the north. They were under attack by Adhbhar. In the west. Where hardly any soldiers were stationed because what the fuck, why were they under attack by Adhbhar in the west?

The obvious answer was that Kole had somehow infiltrated Adhbhar the way he'd infiltrated Solas. Well no fucking wonder Arizona hadn't responded to any of Hadley's requests for allies. Who knew if she was even fucking alive. There was no time to dwell on that now, though. Hadley had to order his generals to scramble to get their troops over to the west before Adhbhar's armies could make it any further in. They especially couldn't be allowed to take the coal mines, which would spell disaster for pretty much the entire world. Of course that would leave them vulnerable to Deilig in the north, so now Hadley was going to have to beg Tamar for even more reinforcements. Great. Fucking great.

I didn't realize I was signing up for this shit when I became overloridian, he thought to Nila, just as another meeting with the generals was ending. He could tell they weren't especially hopeful about this situation, nor his leadership skills. After all, who wanted a fucking blind guy in charge during a war? Nobody, that's who. Morale was probably dismal among the clio right now.

There wasn't much more he could do at this point but hope that his and Tamar's forces could hold the attackers off until the rest of Amelia got its shit together and came to help them, so after the generals had left he just went into his office, put his head in his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. Why does this have to be happening?

Remy had received word via letter that Earalas had been invaded. Remy's stomach dropped the moment she read the words, but it was nothing she hadn't expected. It wasn't until she read that the attack had come from Adhbhar that she really started to worry. No one had even thought to put any troops in the west! Arizona was an idiot, but she wasn't evil. Hadley wrote that Adhbhar had to have fallen to Kole, which Remy agreed was probably the case.

She wondered briefly if the Samples siblings were okay before immediately sending for a balloon to take her back to Earalas. In the letter Hadley had commanded that she stay in Cuir but there was no way in hell she'd leave Hadley alone in this. Not that he was alone, Alicia was there. But there was nothing else to be done in Cuir, anyway. Liam had joined the war because of Redfern and Nadar had as well.

The flight into Earalas had been a terrifying one--Cuir was currently floating over Deilig and Liam had given specific instructions to the Cuir airforce that no one was permitted to enter or leave the island for any reason. Only by screaming at Liam himself was Remy able to take her balloon.

Now Remy stood outside Hadley's office door where she'd been told he was. She let her forehead rest on the door for a moment and took a deep breath. The last time she'd seen him they'd yelled at each other and she'd left in anger. The Leander argument seemed so trivial now (not that she thought it hadn't been necessary), and Remy was just happy to know that Hadley was okay. He was right on the other side of the door.

She laid a hand on her growing belly bump for a moment, then knocked quietly on Hadley's door before opening it and walking in. "Hadley?"

Hadley raised his head a little bit when he heard a soft knock at the door. He knew who it was going to be before he even heard her voice. "I knew you'd come back," he said. When he'd sent Remy the letter to let her know what was going on, he'd explicitly told her to not, under any circumstances, return to Earalas. He knew from the moment he sent it that she would immediately return to Earalas.

Deep down he was secretly, selfishly happy she was back. Of course he wanted her and the baby to be safe, but he also didn't want to be alone during this. He wanted her here, with him.

He didn't even think about the argument they'd had the last time she'd been home. It just didn't seem to matter at all right now. He got up and moved in her direction so that he could pull her into a hug.

Remy let Hadley hug her, and it felt so good to be in his arms. The bump rested neatly between them, but it would only be a matter of time until it was too big for comfortable hugs. "Of course I came back, you idiot," Remy said softly into his shoulder. She could tell he wasn't mad she was back.

She pulled away. "How could I stay away when I heard about Adhbhar? How are we doing?" It couldn't be good. "Liam is sending troops over as soon as he can. He's got the island on lock down right now." She left out the part about her screaming at him.

Hadley held Remy as tightly as he could without feeling like he might squish the little bump in between them. It was strange, but try as he might, he just could not picture Remy visibly pregnant. So even though he knew it was there, the belly bump always came as a little bit of a surprise. Our little war baby, he thought, and wanted to laugh at how absurd it was that they had accidentally gotten pregnant during a fucking world war. The other overloridians probably all thought they were idiots.

"Sure would have been nice to have Liam's help sooner," he muttered when Remy told him he was sending troops as soon as he could. Some aerial scouts might have seen Adhbhar's army from a distance. Fucking goddamn coward Liam. He sighed. "Things are...they could be worse. We stopped them before they got to the mines. Or any towns. They're being held off in the mountains for now."

For now...but for how long?

Remy let out a sigh of relief but it was short lived as she let her mind wander.. It was good news that they'd been able to hold off the forces for now, but she couldn't help feel worried. The Adhbhar clio knew the mountains just as well as the Earalas, not to mention they could dig tunnels like fucking moles.

What was going to happen if Kole took Earalas? Remy didn't want to think about it, but unless Cuir and Nadar got their forces here soon it wasn't looking good.

"I'm afraid," Remy said suddenly. Said truthfully. She wasn't often this candid about her feelings, but it was hard to keep her emotions in check these days. What would they do if everything was lost? If Cuir and Nadar didn't get there in time--if if if. She shook her head. She didn't want to say any of this out loud. Didn't want to let Hadley know she was even thinking that they might not win this.

Maybe that was Hadley's cue to be reassuring, and to tell Remy that everything was under control, and that the combined forced of Dian and Earalas could easily hold off their enemies, and that it would all be okay. Instead, he said, "Me too." What if it wasn't enough? What if they lost? What would happen to him? Would he be taken alive, and brought to Kole as a prisoner? Dying would probably be a better fate than that. He wondered what was happening to Arizona right now. He wondered how Kole had gotten to her. He thought about his parents, and his star piece.

"Rem, if anything happens to me," he said, "take care of Earalas, okay? Take the star piece somewhere safe, to Cuir, or give it to Tamar, or something."

He almost couldn't believe the words coming out of his own mouth. His old self never would have even entertained the option of sacrificing himself for anything, not even Earalas. Hell, his old self would probably be hiding out on Cuir right now, leaving his own eilemaiden to fend for itself. So much had changed in the last year.

Remy's eyes glistened with tears as she nodded, knowing full well Hadley couldn't see her silent affirmation. She couldn't admit it to him immediately. It felt like abandonment, agreeing. But she knew it was the only thing that could be done. If it came down to it, Earalas needed to be saved at any cost. At all cost. It took her a moment to find her voice, to be able to offer up a small, "I will." She knew he may have to make the same decision about her--that if Kole somehow got his hands on her, Hadley would not be able to give into demands. It was a strange feeling--to love someone more than anything in the world, but to know you would give them up.

She felt like a thousand pound weight sat upon her shoulders, and wondered with a pang how Hadley felt. The sight of him alone was enough to break her heart into hundreds of pieces. She too thought about how much had changed in such a short time. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought they'd be in this exact predicament. So many crazy things had happened, one after the other. Some good, some horrible. Over and over.

A relationship. Blindness. A brother. The death of Hadley's parents. A baby. A war.

Hadley was relieved at Remy's response, though a tiny, contradictory part of him had hoped that she would say the opposite, that if he got captured she'd do anything to get him back. Some selfish little remnant of Old Hadley that wished he could just give up everything and save himself. For the first time ever, Hadley found that he didn't miss his old self.

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

It was quiet for a while. Too long. "Gods, could you have ever imagined any of this would be happening just a year ago?" he asked, needing to break the silence. "Imagine going back and telling your old self where you'd be in a year. It's insane."

"She'd have never believed," she said truthfully. Too much had happened that still hadn't made it into Remy's "this is my life now" state of mind.

As if on cue, Remy felt a little flutter in her tummy. A surprised, "oh!," escaped her lips and she put a hand under her shirt against her skin. The flutter happened again, and Remy felt her stomach extend slightly.

Without a word Remy reached over and grabbed Hadley's hand and stuck it under her shirt. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if to ask what the heck she was doing when Remy felt the flutter from within again.

Her heart pounded as she watched Hadley's face in anticipation.

Hadley was about to reply when Remy gave a little "oh" and grabbed his hand. At first he thought she was gonna hand him something, as she usually did when she grabbed him like that, but instead she stuck his hand up under her shirt. Utterly confused, he was about to ask her what the hell she was doing when he felt a little...something. Oh.

Oh.

"Oh! I felt the baby!" he exclaimed, suddenly feeling more excitement over this whole baby situation than he ever had before. In between all his thoughts of war and death, he hadn't been expecting this sudden rush of emotion. He smiled, in spite of everything else that was happening right now.

The smile was everything. The last few months had been comprised of highs and lows and lows and lows and lows, but this smile, today, was just maybe enough to help Remy get through it. There was much to be afraid of, a lot to work for, but the smile caused by something they had (accidentally) made together gave a small beacon of hope.

Remy had to believe things would be okay. There was too much to live for. A few moments ago she couldn't believe this was her life, but as the baby kicked again, it seemed to insist, "I'm here now!"

They'd make it through this. She get to watch Hadley lead their clio through this war, and then she'd watch him become a dad. They thought their lives had changed in the last year? The world would change again when they took out Kole (because they would), for the better. And, more intimately, their world would change again as they became parents. As they had a tiny well dressed Hadley running around causing trouble to the employees of the estate.

Who knew what the next year would bring? She squeezed Hadley's hand.

Hadley's smile stayed on his face when Remy squeezed his hand. She was good at that, expressing thoughts and feelings through the littlest gestures. This one seemed to say, We're in this together, and we're going to make it. They'd already been through so much together, one little military invasion wasn't going to be enough to bring them down.

"I love you, Rem," he said. He very, very rarely said that out loud to Remy, even though it was a given. "Hey, listen. When this war is over, and the baby is born, I was thinking...maybe we should get married. You know, assuming we're not dead."

Remy smiled back when he told her he loved her and was about to say, "Of course you do," when he followed up with a

Hadley wrote:"Hey, listen. When this war is over, and the baby is born, I was thinking...maybe we should get married. You know, assuming we're not dead."

Married. To Hadley. Now this was something Remy never would have guessed would happen. She felt her heart swell.

She pulled him closer and kissed him deeply. "If I say yes, you have to let me pick out my ring," she told him, after breaking away. "And it's not going to be cheap." She kissed him again. "Assuming we're not dead, of course," she repeated with a smile.

Instead of answering right away, Remy pulled Hadley into a deep kiss, which he gladly returned. He decided he would take that as a 'yes.' She gave him her real answer next, in between some more kisses.

Remy wrote:"If I say yes, you have to let me pick out my ring. And it's not going to be cheap. Assuming we're not dead, of course."

Hadley grinned. "Well, duh. Why do you think I haven't bought you one yet? If I picked it out without you, who knows what it would end up looking like."

Hah...proposing to Remy on the day their eilemaiden was attacked by invaders. It seemed extremely inappropriate, yet fitting for the two of them at the same time. Their relationship had never really been conventional.

It felt very strange to be so optimistic about the future on a day like today, but somehow that had been the outcome of this small reunion between Remy and Hadley. The adrenaline and euphoria from feeling the baby move and becoming engaged to the only man Remy had ever truly loved would soon fade, but for now, she was just happy to have her arms wrapped around Hadley.

They put off strategics for the moment and moved to the bedroom. Adhbhar would still be in the west when they came out, so for now it was time just to enjoy the moment.