Blackmailing Aria Original Version

Epilogue

Two years later: 

"We should really get home," I whisper into the silence of the car. 

"Alexandria is fine," Xander assures me as he continues to plant kisses over my neck, making my head spin.

"It's not Alexandria I'm worried about."

Xander lifts his head from my shoulder to look at me with a smirk. "Do you really think Marco lit the house on fire?"

"No," I shake my head. "I think he's busy making babies with his girlfriend on our dinner table."

Xander's thoughtful face appears. "Damn it, you're right," he mutters before facing the wheel and turning the ignition.

We drive away from the barren hill side, back towards home.

"She is pretty though," I admit. "They would make gorgeous babies."

"Are you calling my brother gorgeous?" I hear a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Let it go, Xander," I sigh. Even after two years of being together, Xander still gets jealous of his brother.

"He still calls you 'Eddy'," he grumbles.

I ignore his sour attitude and grab his hand from the steering wheel to put in my lap. This is the night of our second-year anniversary, so we asked Marco and his girlfriend to babysit little Alexandria for the night, to spend some time together. I don't want Xander's jealousy to ruin the nice night we've already had.

Xander squeezes my hand in his and continues driving. As the city lights pass by in the distance I admire the ring on my left hand.

A little after finding out we were pregnant, Xander proposed to me. He wrote up a whole contract that said that; I will be his forever until the end of time, I will kiss him goodnight every day, and he will make me coffee every morning, and that we will never stop loving each other, or else he would send me to jail for breaking and entering his pent-house. At the end of the long contract he typed up, instead of a line where my signature would go was the box containing the engagement ring. Engraved on the inside is 'You're mine now'.

I found the whole proposal romantic and humorous; it was the same way we began, minus the actual contract.

We were married one month later - after my grandpa demanded I be married before I gave birth. The wedding was small...well, as small as it could be for Xander's family. Xander's immediate family came only; his parents, cousins on each side, and aunts and uncles. Of course, that still added up to about sixty people, including my small portion of guests - which included; my grandparents, uncle, and some friends from town. The wedding was held in my grandparents barn, of course they decorated it to look amazing though. No reporters knew of the wedding until after it happened, thankfully. And as Xander promised, he stayed with me at the farm house for all nine months. He had to go to New York a few times for important business things, but he would always rush back to Ohio.

We drive up to our small, secluded, five-bedroom home. It was the smallest house in the area, and the most isolated. The road getting up to the house alone, takes three minutes, but it's exactly the way I wanted it. Xander and I had to compensate on a lot of things in order for each of us to get what we wanted but it's all worth it in the end.

Xander gives me one last heart-melting kiss before getting out of the car and running to my side. We slowly make our way to the front-door, knowing that we don't want the night to end.

Still, the door comes, and sadly we have to end the night here.

Quietly, we open the door to see Marco with his girlfriend sleeping on his right shoulder, and little Alexandria curled up on his lap with her eyes closed. She has the same blonde hair as I do, but she got her eyes from her dad and her attitude too. What she wants she gets, but that's also because Xander can never say 'no' to her.

Marco is still awake, admiring both girls in his arms.

"How long has she been asleep?" Xander whispers as he gently takes Alexandria from him.

"About an hour," Marco shrugs.

"I'll put her in bed," Xander tells me. "I'll meet you upstairs. Goodnight Marco."

"Night brother," Marco waves him off.

We both watch Xander as he walks up the stairs with Alexandria clutching to him like a monkey, even in her sleep. His smile takes up his whole face and his eyes are bright as he looks at her. I swear he see's Alexandria as the most interesting and precious thing in the world. Even more than me.

"How was it?" Marco asks as I sit next to him on the couch.

His girlfriend stirs in her sleep, her head falling into his lap. His fingers run through her dark, curly hair, softly. I remember Xander's fingers running through my hair when he held me as I was crying after I found out about Holden and Sydney. Gosh, that feels like a lifetime ago, not two years.

"It was romantic," I smile, thinking about the sweet picnic we had in the planetarium. Xander knew how much I missed looking at the stars back in Ohio - something you could never do in the city because of the bright lights. When I was pregnant, we would take my grandpa's truck, drive out into the middle of the field and look up at the stars. Growing up in the city, and having to travel to other major cites, Xander had never really looked at the stars before, so those nights were always important and fascinating to him.

For our two-year-anniversary, Xander bought the planetarium for the night, and we had a nice picnic as we stared up at the stars. It wasn't the same as back in Ohio, but it was still beautiful and meaningful.

"Thank you for watching Alexandria tonight."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Marco waves it off. "You know I love my little princess."

"You know, if you keep calling her that, she'll start believing it," I raise an eyebrow and cross my arms, trying to look stern. Really, that girl is already bossy as it is, at just the age of a little over one!

"As she should," he smirks. I just roll my eyes. "Speaking of, I should get my queen to bed."

He carefully picks up his girlfriend into his arms, not waking her. I walk him out and help open the car door, so he can lay her in the passenger seat.

"Goodnight, Marco," I wave goodbye to him.

"Night, Eddy," he hollers out the car window before driving back to the city.

With a roll of my eyes and a huff, I go back inside. I creep past Alexandria's door, not wanting to wake her again.

When I open the door to our bedroom, I'm surprised to what I find.

Xander is lying on the bed, completely naked, his head propped up on his hand, and a sexy smirk on his face.

"I believe you still have a present to give to me?" He says, huskily.

Best anniversary ever.

THE END