Faces (Lannan Eacott) *Under Editing*

Chapter Twenty-One

I jolt up from sleeping. Sweat dripping down my forehead. The darkness around me is somewhat alarming and as I move my hand to find Lannan, I realize the bed is empty. I can hear laughter from downstairs so I make my way towards the sound. The kitchen light beams towards the stairs and I realize I'm in an unfamiliar house. As I turn the corner to the kitchen I find Lannan standing at the counter cooking something. But the laughter isn't coming from him. In a Mickey Mouse high chair sits a sweet little boy no older than three. A huge smile crosses his face when he sees me.

"Mommy!" Lannan, who is now facing me with a plate of pancakes, can see the confusion on my face. "Mommy, mommy, mommy." Lan ruffles the boy's hair and looks back towards me.

"Everything okay, love?" I don't know what to say. Everything is familiar but different. There's a child sitting five feet away from me and he's calling me mommy. "Well don't act like you don't know your own family, Sammie. Come eat breakfast." I slowly sit down and focus my attention on the plate in front of me. "James said a new word." I glance up at Lannan as he sits across from me at the table. He begins to slowly feed the child, piece by piece, of pancakes. "Sammie."

"Who is James?" Lannan sighs at my question. "Lan, I don't know what's going on." He continues to feed the little one as he reaches across the table to grab my hand.

"Babe, your son, James." I finally turn my attention to the small child in the high chair. I notice how much he looks like Lannan. He has the same nose and his hair is the same color. But his gorgeous brown eyes are what stands out the most. He locks his eyes on me and begins to reach out. His little hands were covered in syrup and bits of pancake, but the urge I had to close the gap and hold the small child overpowered everything else my brain was telling me.

"You're just adorable." The small child giggles in my lap and begins to play with the hem of my shirt. The stickiness of the syrup the last thing on my mind. "What is your name?" The small child looks up at me and tugs on the end of my hair.

"James Eacott. And you're mommy." I hear Lannan chuckle from across the table and notice how he stares at us in adoration. "Can I go see daddy now?" I nod my head at the question and watch as James runs into Lannan's arms, as if this is an every day occurrence. I had never really seen Lannan interact with children, so watching him with poke this little boy's nose and hearing that sweet giggle left my heart feeling overjoyed.

Even though I was still very much confused, I took in the scene before me. Lannan gently rocked the small boy in his arms and used his free hand to ruffle his hair. The smile on his face enough to leave even the coldest room warm. Lannan and the small boy began to fade. Their existence fading from this reality that I had never seen.

My eyes flew open and I found myself staring at my alarm clock. I rolled over and there was Lannan. He was sleeping peacefully. I slowly began to run my fingers through the loose ends of his hair, careful not to wake him up. My dream began to fade from my memory, but I couldn't forget how sweet the image of Lannan holding our own child was. The huge smile on his face as he watched our little boy tug at the ends of my hair.

      Don't get me wrong. I knew it was too soon to even consider kids, or even consider marriage. But I couldn't help but think about how nice it would be. Lannan and I in our own house with a cute little human that if half of either of us. I could only imagine how atrocious our child would be having his wild genes. But my heart fluttered at the thought.

      Lannan's eyes began to slowly open and a huge smile crossed his face. Within seconds I was being tugged into his arms. The all familiar smell calming me. He rested his head on top of mine and gently trailed his fingers down my spine.

      "What would you like to do today?" I hummed softly against his chest. "We could go to the beach. Or film a video. What about the zoo?" All of his suggestions sounded like solid plans. But all I wanted to do was just stay in his arms.

      "Let's just stay like this for a minute." He chuckled and wrapped his arms tighter around me. "Lenny?" He hummed in response. "What's your thoughts about having kids in the future?"

      "I've always wanted kids. Right now I think life is going pretty good, I don't want to mess it up." He stopped for a second before realizing what he said. "Not mess it up. That's not what I meant. I don't want to complicate things. Kids are a lot of work." I nodded against his chest and closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat. "But if there's anyone I would want a kid with, it's you, love." He pressed his lips against the top of my head and we stayed in our position for what seemed like an eternity.

      "I love you, Lan." And with that, I slipped into a peaceful slumber.