Thomas was not the nervous type. Not at all. Yet his palms were sweating as he knocked on Rose's door. His heart was racing and he couldn't help but think that maybe he should just slip a note under the door and run. But Liam growled at that thought. He'd already wasted enough time away from her. She needed him. Offering his support to her was more important than his bruised ego taking another hit. So here he was scared out of his mind waiting for Rose to decide his fate. The door opened slowly and Thomas felt suddenly like he was facing a shooting squad. Rose's acceptance of him was life or death to him. The fact that she'd opened the door was a start. But her standing in front of him with tear tracks on her cheeks made him feel like one step forward and two steps back.

"Hi," she whispered quietly, staring at his chest. Not checking him out just blankly staring at whatever was at her eye line.

"Hi," Thomas said. There had been so much he'd wanted to say. He'd had a speech planned out with gestures of affection and love. But now he couldn't think of a single thing to say. All he could think about was how much his chest ached. It was a crushing feeling that he felt would eventually cause his chest to collapse. The scar in between his pectoral burned. It'd appeared right after the rejection and everything. He couldn't tell you where it came from but it hurt right now. Like a hot poker in this chest.

"Does yours burn too?" She asked. Thomas stared at her with confusion in his eyes. Rose pulled down the collar of her shirt just enough to show the beginning of a scar right in the center of her chest. "Your scar. Does it burn like mine does?"

"How did you know about the scar? I don't even know where it came from."

"Me. It came from me. When one mate betrays another a scar appears over each of their hearts to symbolize the betrayal of the pair. I don't know about you but sometimes it burns. Like right now, it burns. It feels like a hot poker in my chest."

"Yeah, it burns. It burns all the time. But I can't figure out why," Thomas replied as he rubbed at his chest. Rose carefully took his hand to pull him into the apartment and instantly it was like water had been put on the burn. The pain cooled and was almost soothed. Rose led him to the couch where TJ was passed out clutching a worn looking stuffed wolf. She picked him up carefully so that there would be room for all of them to sit.

"I think it burns when we're doing something we shouldn't be. I don't know the real answer but that's my theory," Rose said shifting TJ around to try to get comfortable. It was a struggle.

"Can I take him?" Thomas asked and held out his arms. After a moment Rose carefully transferred TJ into his arms. Almost immediately TJ wrapped his arms around Thomas' neck and pulled himself into his neck, like he was scenting him. Thomas began to rub his back to get him to settle. "He's beautiful."

"Yeah. He looks just like you," Rose said reaching out to brush a strand of TJ's hair out of the way.

"You could've told me, you know. I wouldn't have cared about you being pregnant," Thomas said after a moment.

"Things were different back then. I wasn't even sixteen when I got pregnant. I was scared and hormonal. I thought everyone was going to judge me. I mean they do now but it would've been so much worse if I had come forth as Luna. It would've sent the wrong message."

"Regardless of the message it may or may not have sent I still wanted you. An Alpha without a Luna is more embarrassing than you being pregnant. Do you know how much gossip there was because I couldn't find my mate? Everyone wanted to know what was so wrong with me that my own mate didn't want me. It was horrific," Thomas snapped. He had to restrain himself as to not hurt TJ. Rose somehow managed to look even more sorrowful when he said that. Just another thing she'd done wrong. Another person who's life she'd ruined. Thomas wanted to take it back as he saw more defeat pile onto Rose's shoulders. But it had also felt good to get that out. To tell the truth to the one person who would understand what he was going through.

"They would've wanted to know who the father is," She whispered.

"People still do, Rose! I want to know, my parents want to know, everyone wants to know who he is and why you won't just tell us! You don't have to protect him. I'm not going to hurt him," Thomas tried to reason. He was 80% sure that he wouldn't hurt whoever it was. Rose just started to shake her head. One tear fell and than another and another, until she was full on sobbing. The sound of her crying woke up TJ who instantly began to squirm and try to reach out to his mother. Thomas was forced to let him crawl out of his grasp and into Rose's. Guilt pooled in his stomach. How many times had Rose cried because of this? How long had she spent miserable and alone? Thomas just wanted to fix it. But he didn't know how.

"I wish I could tell you. God if it was that easy I would do it in a heart beat," Rose sobbed out, trying to pull herself together for TJ's sake. "But I can't. I can't. I can't. I. Can't."

Rose was loosing it quickly. Falling down into a hole of insanity it wasn't likely she would be able to climb out of. She kept whispering I can't over and over and over. She was shaking and TJ himself had started to wail as well. Things were spinning rapidly out of control. Thomas was starting to get scared. So he did the only thing he could think of that would calm her. He reached out, pulled Rose as close to him as he could get and kissed her. Her lips were wet with tears but they were still as he covered her mouth with his. Suddenly there were fireworks going off in her brain and frankly she couldn't remember where she was or what she'd been talking about. It was like time had frozen and there was nothing but the feeling of Thomas' lips against her. It was only a chaste kiss but when Thomas pulled back they both were out of breath. Her lips tingled as she stared at Thomas trying to figure out what had just happened. Then Thomas cupped her cheek with his hand and whispered;

"You can," before he pulled her lips back to his.