Chapter 30

We're on our way to Rose's school to pick her up and Shannon's been rambling how currently excited she is with us doing this. I am too. I've had times with kids, mainly with Mae and Leonard since they're always on set every time we are filming and it gives me some kind of joy whenever I'm around them, because I'd like to think they love hanging out with Lizzie during breaks and also that's why I have a little lounge area for kids upstairs in my house.

"So sweetheart, is it okay if we get some ice cream after we pick up Rose from school?"

"Yes, of course honey." She smiles widely and glances back at the road. I raised my arm and rest my hand on the back of her neck as she places a hand on my leg. "We could have a picnic back home if you want to." I bit my bottom lip as I watch her smile from ear to ear and vigorously nods making me giggle.

"Alright, picnic it is. Anyway, is Scarlett going to pick her up or are we going to drop her off at her home later on."

"We?" She quirked an eyebrow and I mirrored her reaction quite confuse on what she's about.

"Yes we."

"Don't tell me you too." She sighs heavily and somehow I felt a change of atmosphere with a heavy weight on my chest getting heavier by the minute. "I have Scarlett thinking I'm a reckless driver, not you too tagging along with her."

"Baby, its not like that and you know it." I said firmly gently stroking the skin behind her ear to somehow ease the tension. "I just want to put Scarlett on ease if ever we would drop her off later. That's all Shan. Its not what you're thinking okay."

"Hmm, okay. I just don't want to be seen in that way just because I crashed my Dad's car that lead me into this."

"No, I don't see you in that way honey. You drove me home last night remember? and I had the best time." I can see a hint of a smile from her lips as soon as I said that and so I add. "And I kinda want you to stay with me tonight."

"Oh there we go." She chuckles and I feel heat rushes to my cheeks as I let out a giggle. "Oh right I remember, I really don't want you to do this but I have an interview tomor-"

"I already said yes." She says cutting me off. "Alyssa called me earlier while you were getting ready and I said yes." She smiles and I was stunned at that. I'm not used to it. How the words roll out her lips like it was nothing. She didn't even made a face and seems so confident about this interview and I really don't know how to feel about it so I ask,

"Why?"

"What do you mean?" She chuckles giving me quick glances like I just asked a ridiculous question.

"Uh- I mean why would you say yes?"

"Why not? This thing will go on and on and it will only get worse until we say something. That's how this works right? and besides, I want the whole world to know that you are mine." I was still stunned, I was expecting worry or a hint of panic in her eyes but not a single thing. She really wants to do it. I don't know how to feel about it still, should I be concerned or should I be happy about it.

"Baby." She whispers slightly squeezing my leg snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" She asked her face scrunched in a concern way. I sighed, maybe I should just relax. If its okay with her then maybe I should be happy about it since she's adjusting to my world pretty well than before. Maybe I'm just overwhelmed with that slight of a change at first.

"No, nothing I mean. I'm sorry, I'm just surprised that's all."

"Am I not too good at interviews before?" She make a quick glance at me as I shake my head in response and she tilts her head on the side with that spark of intrigue in her ocean eyes.

"Really?"

"Well, you can go through it, but after that it would drain you out and have slight panic attacks so I always bring a bottle of your CBD with me. Just in case."

"I use those stuff?" She asks and I nod.

"You have those even before we met, I guess." She smiles and nods. Its true though. When we got together and that hospital incident happened years ago, I bought bottles of CBDs and scattered them all over the place. I have a couple at my mom's house, in my car, in my purse, a couple of them are at our house and I always make sure I have one with me all the time.

After quite sometime, we finally arrived at Rose's school and pulled over to a parking slot near the entrance so she can easily spot us. Shannon turns off the engine and the next thing I knew was her lips were on mine and it caught me by surprise and my heart jump out of my chest.

"I've been wanting to do that all this time." She chuckles as she pulls away and gets out of the car. I smile as I still can feel her lips lingering on mine. That was a move. Shannon jogs up to my side of the car but doesn't opens the door instead she gestures me to roll down my window so I did then she rests her arm on the ledge and leans on her side.

"You're not going to let me out?" I asked a bit confused and she shakes her head and say,

"In five minutes tops, kids will going to burst out of those double doors and having a superhero with me will definitely catch attention so you stay there and just be my lady and be pretty for me okay?"

"Okay" I chuckled resting my head on her arm making her turn to me and placed a soft kiss on my forehead and we stayed like that for a couple of minutes until soon enough kids started going out of those double doors and parents starts appearing in plain sight and it brings a smile on my face.

"There she is." She says making me raise my head up and look towards the direction she's pointing at and I saw little Rose looking around near the entrance. "I'll just get her" I smiled and nod before she jogs off towards her and hear her yell 'Pumpkin' which is the cutest thing I hear her say. I wonder what can we call our kid someday, woah, its too soon, I think.

Rose runs to Shannon as soon as she spots her just to be lifted up to the air laughing and giggling. It was something I needed to capture so I took my phone out and took a shot of them sending it also to Scarlett telling her we already have her kid with us. I smiled as I look up and saw them walking towards me with Shannon carrying her in her arms.

"Lizzie!" She cheers as soon as she saw me which is a surprise since I haven't saw this kid in like two and a half years and she's gone so big. Shannon laughs as she steps aside so I can open the door.

"Hi sweetheart!" I say as she launch herself to me squeezing me so tight before giving me a little kiss on the cheek. She's so adorable, I want to just cuddle her and smother her with kisses and so I did causing her to erupt in fits of giggles. "How big are you now, huh?"

"I'm going to be seven in August" She smiles as I take her backpack off her shoulders and placing it in between the driver and the passenger seat.

"Okay you're going to be seven in August and because of that we need to have ice cream." Shannon says and that made her eyes lit up as she starts bouncing up and down on my lap. Shannon and I shared a laugh watching her get hyped up before she places a kiss on top of our heads before closing the door and jogging up to the driver seat while Rose slides to the seat beside me, swinging her legs back and fort.

"Where's mommy?" Rose asks as soon as Shannon gets in and starts the engine.

"Well, they're stuck in a meeting pumpkin so they asked me and Lizzie to pick you up and maybe have a picnic Lizzie's place." I quirked an eyebrow at Shannon at the use of my nickname while Rose nods vigorously. She shrugs and laughs and starts to drive. I'm still not use to her calling me by my nickname, not unless she's drunk. "So how was school?"

"Well, I did well on our exercises in Math and got an A."

"Oh yea! Hit me up princess!" Shannon cheers raising a palm in the air and gave Rose a hi five which is so adorable it made me giggle in awe. "Now give Elizabeth one" Rose turns to me and give me a hi five before giggling and sat back to her seat leaning against me so I placed a soft kiss on top of her head and put my arms around her.

"Shannon?"

"Yea? What's up?"

"Why do you call Lizzie, Elizabeth?" Shannon looks at me like the answer was plastered on my face. Well, I know the answer to that and it's the same one as before.

"Well, First of all you little rascal" Rose giggles. "That is her real name and second, I love it." She glances at me with that charming smile creeping on her lips and I feel my cheeks starts to heat up again. "It suits her."

Rose turns and looks up to me and I smiled down to her. She tilts her head to the side making me confuse and intrigued on what's currently on her mind. Its really hard to read a child's mind rather than a grown up really.

"So Lizzie what do you call Shannon?" I raised my brows at that question because it made me think of what I actually call her. Well, there's honey. Sometimes it would be Shannon or Shan and when I'm pissed it would be Shannon Nicole. Then a name quite familiar pops up in my head and it made a smile automatically appear on my face.

"Shanbee" Rose chuckles at the name and it's the cutest laugh I've heard so far. I glanced up to Shannon who was a perfect grin plastered across her lips shaking her head.

"Shanbee? Shannon's not a bee Lizzie" She laughs

"Oh well she is sweetheart, she's always busy as a bumblebee and that's why I call her that." Rose giggles and surprisingly, Shannon does too making me look up to her. She takes a quick glance shaking her head.

"Really? that's why you gave me that name?" I nod in agreement and she pulled on a face between disbelief and me being so ridiculous. "I am not."

"Well, you were and still are."

"That's lame, I'm not busy at all right now. If I am then we wouldn't have time for ice cream, don't we pumpkin?"

"Yea!" Rose cheered before bursting into fits of giggles again.

"Oh so you two are taking on each other's sides now aren't you?" I warned setting Rose to giggle before I started tickling her and that cause screeches of laughter and squirms to burst out of her.

"Lizzie! Stop!" She says breathlessly while Shannon has one eye shut and a hand covering one ear looking so annoyed at the moment making me laugh as she mutters,

"Do you really have to burst my eardrums baby" I stopped letting Rose fall into my arms trying to catch my breath.

"Well, that's what you get for teasing." She rolls her eyes with a smile on her face as I grab Rose's water bottle on the side of her princess back pack and let her drink the contents of it. "All better?"

"Yea" She breathes in before releasing a giggle which somehow sends relief to me "I'm not taking your side anymore Shannon." I laugh upon hearing that while she moves closer cuddling into me.

"Wha- You're lucky I'm driving or else I'm going to tickle you myself." Rose giggles then hides her face in between my arms before glancing back at Shannon with her now bottom lip sticking out along with the puppy dog eyes she's flashing her at the moment. This kid really knows how to use her cuteness as a weapon.

"Oh don't give me that look missy, I can't stand that look." She never did and instead she pulls away and moves closer to Shannon's side leaning against her arm that is holding the gear shift. I sat back and watch in awe at the interaction. These two are so cute.

"Rose" She warns but a small smile is slowly appearing on her lips. She wouldn't stand a chance.

"You're not going to tickle me." Rose says in the most adorable voice, I could just grab her and squeeze her tight. I need to put this on video and so I did as I pulled my phone out and start filming.

"Oh yes I am, as soon as we get to the shop."

"No you're not." Rose shakes her head still staring at Shannon with precious puppy eyes.

"Yes I am"

"No you're not"

"Rose"

"Shanbee" That one, got me giggling making their heads snap at me. Rose smiles teasingly while Shannon looks at me in disbelief.

"Baby watch the road." I say constantly reminding her to try and not look at us for a very long time. She snaps her head back before saying,

"You're seriously filming this?"

"This is a precious moment so don't start with me." I say and she again, rolls her eyes and sits back on her seat then Rose says giggling,

"You fight like mommy and daddy." I sighed as Rose looks at the both of us turning her head every 3 seconds from me to Shannon and Shannon to me. I smiled and stopped filming giving Rose a kiss on top of her head before resting my hand on the back of Shannon's neck gently stroking the back of her ear and I can tell by the way she relaxes in her seat that she loves it.

We stayed like that for quite sometime, listening to Rose rambles on about school and her homework for tomorrow for art class. Its a good thing, I have some art materials for her to use at home so Shannon's on homework duty later on while I prepare some snacks for our picnic.

"Alright we're here." Shannon pulls over by a parking lot a few meters from McConnell's. She turns off the engine as Rose stands up from her seat, she's a bit small for her age so she still fits well standing up in front of me. I gather my things while Shan climbs out the car and jogs to my side opening the door for us. I got out the car first with Shannon helping me as always before I turn around and put my arms around Rose while she puts hers around my neck and lift her out of the car.

I let out a breath as I set her down to the ground while Shannon locks up the car. She's a little heavy for her size and that took out a bit of my energy.

"Alright, let's go!" Shannon cheers as she holds out her hand for Rose to take and she did. Well, before taking mine into hers as well that is. So we're now walking through the side walk hand in hand and my heart keeps on jumping up and down at how bizarre this moment is. Its just so precious I want to freeze time.

A bell rings as we enter the shop and I think that's just a signal when customers comes in. There were a few people in the shop so eyes were on us when we got in even the staff were a bit shocked.

"Hi Sarah!" I hear Shannon says waving a hand in front of a girl maybe in her early twenties or maybe younger, I guess. She has red curly hair like autumn and green eyes a shade darker than mine and freckles on her cheek. Obviously, she's a ginger and her staring is making me a bit uncomfortable so I smiled and look around keeping Rose close to me as possible.

"Earth to Sarah!" Sarah snaps out of her gaze and turns to Shannon with a nervous smile on her face. "You alright? cat got your tongue? What?" She chuckles teasingly and I don't know why is that. I figured maybe Shannon and Rose always goes here since every staff knows her name.

"Hi, Ms. Elizabeth?" I turn to my side and saw a man about the same height as Shannon's holding out a pen and a notebook. He looks so shy and probably has the same age as Sarah who I still can feel her eyes on me. I smile

"Oh hi" I whispered.

"I'm sorry to be a bother but can you please sign this for me?" He whispers smiling nervously. I glanced at Shannon who is now looking at me then the man with a look I've never seen before and its making my heart race.

"Uhm, yea sure" I cut eye contact and turn to the young man taking a hold of the sharpie. "For who?" I asked.

"Brent" He simply says so I write a little note to him and signed below it. "There we go." I smiled, he gently takes the sharpie from me and pulled out his phone before looking up to me and asks,

"Can I?" He says and I nod. He was about to take a selfie when I heard,

"Here, let me" I turn to look at Shannon coming towards us with a serious look on her face and before I could even react, I felt my hand being tugged so I look down at Rose who seems to be a little bit annoyed.

"Just a second sweetheart okay?" She nods and waits patiently holding my hand with both of hers.

"Rose come here." Rose lets go of my hand and runs to Shannon's side keeping an arm on her leg. I look up to Shannon who takes the picture almost immediately but enough time for me to flash a smile.

"Thank you Ms. Shannon, wow that was amazing." Brent says while Shannon gives the phone back to him while Rose runs back to me and takes my hand.

"Don't mention it." She smiles putting an arm around my shoulders. Okay, something is strangely odd. Brent waves good bye and I waved back before looking up to her with a questionable look on my face.

"What?"

"What was that?"

"What was what?" I stared at her in disbelief as she gives me a shrug and plants a kiss on my temple.

"My God, please feed me!" Rose whines catching our attention. Shannon chuckles before calling Sarah's attention.

"Yea?" I turn my gaze to this ginger girl who is so pretty, like a cottage girl who lives in the middle of nowhere surrounded with just flowers and a pretty garden, more like where I currently live but out and far from the city. That's how I picture her.

"The usual and hmm." Shannon glances at me then turns her gaze to her. "Salted Caramel Chip for my lady." Wait, how did she know?

"Ho-"

"The twins told me. You love a good caramel ice cream with some toffee on it but unfortunately they don't have toffee here baby I'm sorry." Right, the twins. I thought, she would've had figured out herself. I need to take a mental note that Shannon won't remember something unless she would have a flashback or someone told her anything. That's just how everything works.

——————-Shannon's P.O.V."How come you never told me you have a kids lounge in your house?" I ask as I sit here leaning against the huge tree, watching Rose run around the open field pretending to have a dragon chasing her around in the area. She loves this place, she says 'its like the ones on my princesses book.'. Well yes, it is exactly like that to be honest. This place is magical and breath taking.

"Kathryn's kids, Mae and Leonard, had grown close to me during Wandavision days. Sometimes they would come and have a sleep over at my mom's house when they want to which is a lot, so I bought books and art stuff also video games for Leonard so they would have somethings to do every time they would stay over, so when the house was finished I decided to bring everything here. So they could come here anytime they want and still have fun." I smile. She really has a good heart, the purest. She's good with everyone even with kids. Now I imagine what it would look like when we have one of our own. I would probably be the happiest."

"Earth to Shannon!" I snapped out of my daze and turn to look at Elizabeth who is currently giggling beside me.

"What?"

"You're smiling to yourself like a fool honey." I let out a giggle joining her. "Something on your mind?" and without hesitation, I asked her.

"Do you want kids someday?" She looks at me completely surprised at my sudden query. If she might've been drinking I bet it'll be over the place right now. I raised my brows at her waiting for an answer.

"Are you seriously asking me that?"

"Yes, why?" I chuckled as I kept glancing at Rose who is still running around. She can be a klutz sometimes and Scarlett won't be so nice if she would've seen any scratch on her daughter's precious skin. Well, so far so good.

"Come on answer it." She giggles and then settles her book down beside her before moving closer to me resting her head on my shoulders and sighs.

"I do want kids yes, but not at the moment since I still have work with projects on the line. But I do want one."

"Just one?" She giggles again then looks up to me making me glance back down to her.

"Well how many would you prefer then?" I smiled and chuckled at the way she was looking at me. Her bright eyes are making my heartbeat fast I can hear it in my ears.

"Well, two maybe. Being an only child can be lonely sometimes my love." Her smile grows wide as she glanced down at my lips then up to my eyes.

"Then two it is."

"Oh yea?" I ask leaning forward for a kiss.

"Yea." I give her a kiss before hearing a cry that made us spring apart. I look towards Rose who is now on her knees on the ground crying.

"Oh shit!" I mutter as I stood up and rush towards her and carrying her in my arms. This is what I'm talking about and now, Scarlett's going to kill me for this.

"What happened? Let me see." Elizabeth says as soon as I set her down with me beside her. Rose continues to cry as I lift her skirt just above the knee revealing a small scratch wound  on her knee. Scarlett's going to really kill me this time.

"Okay, its just a tiny one pumpkin." I say as I placed a soft kiss on her forehead trying to somehow calm her down while Elizabeth stands up and rushes to the house to get her first aid kit. "You are really one little klutz are you my love." I mutter to Rose and this made her giggle through her tears and giving me a soft slap on the chest.

"Stop it" She whines crying again this time.

"I'm sorry" I giggled placing another kiss on her forehead. Elizabeth finally comes back with the first aid kit in her hands. She rummages through it getting a cotton ball out and some rubbing alcohol which made my eyes wide.

"Baby, she couldn't take that. That stings." She looks up to me with dead eyes, like I've just said the obvious.

"Can you relax I'm just going to clean around the wound." I held Rose as close to me as possible shutting my eyes while Elizabeth works on it. After quite some time, Rose relaxes in my arms and not a cry was heard from her.

"There all done."  My eyes snaps open to see her wound already dressed in a clean bandage while Rose stops crying in my arms and instead she's ready to fall asleep. I think its time we get her home.

"Well, I'm impressed my love." She gives me the sweetest smile as she packs up the first aid kit and winks at me making me chuckle.

"I think someone had enough for the day." She gestured to a sleeping Rose in my arms. Well, she's been all hyped up at the ice cream shop earlier then had a playtime upstairs at the kids lounge area before we finished her homework, then played chase with her imaginary dragon friend which I kept forgetting the name of.

"We should get her home."  Elizabeth nods and sighs.

"Take her in, I'm just going to pack this all up." I stood up, carefully not waking her up and looked at Elizabeth.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes honey, just go and prepare her stuff so we can go after I finish here, okay?" She walks to us and places her hand on the back of my neck pulling me in for a quick kiss before giving Rose a kiss on the forehead. "Now go."

I do as what I'm told and carry Rose inside. I lay her down on the couch before gathering her things putting all her workbooks in her back pack which is so cute by the way. Then I grab her cute tiny human size jacket and gently lift her up so I can put it on her properly. It was a bit difficult because I was constantly checking on her if she would wake up at any moment, but she didn't. So that tells me, she really is tired.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and type a quick text to Zoë that I'm spending the night here since me and Elizabeth both have an interview tomorrow and also with majority demand and by majority mainly my lady's demand that I should stay with her tonight.

After quite sometime, Elizabeth was done packing up and now, we're ready to go to Scarlett's to get Rose home and also to get an earful from the Black Widow herself. Fuck! I need to get myself ready for this.