Archive of Our Own ^beta

It’s the snow's fault. 

The power had cut out right as she was trying to make a bottle. Now she was left with a hungry and crying baby in her arms while staring across the street at the house there. 

The old Victorian seemed to be owned by a church, clergymen coming and going at all hours of the night, but most importantly it seemed to always have power. 

Eliza looks down at the screaming infant, chewing her lip for a second before quickly deciding. She was going to have to brave the storm and knock on their door. 

She makes her way through the house in the dark, doing her best to get her baby dressed as warm as possible and find something a bit nicer than the jumper and pajama combo she had been wearing for the last two days. Something that she could wear and not be judged too badly for being unmarried with a baby. 

The redhead does her best to pull her knit beanie on with one hand as she continues to sway and softly hush the baby in her arms. She struggles to pull on her coat, before pulling it closed around her baby and adjusting the small baby bag on her shoulder. “Ready?” She asks gently, pressing a light kiss to the little green hat she had put on the baby. 

Each gust of wind felt sharp, digging into her skin and forcing the air from her, making the short trek across the street feel like miles. The cold begins to creep through her boots, bleeding through the two pairs of winter socks she had on and makes each step forward a bit more uncertain. 

The street was silent, and it seemed like none of the other people on her side had power. 

Eliza glances back over her shoulder as she starts up the steps leading up to the front door of the Victorian house. She shifts her son, tightening her grip as he squirms and lets out a small cry. She steps onto the porch and instantly she starts trying to come up with what to say, excuses for where his father was or his eyes. She chews her lip as she knocks on the door, silently hoping that someone would be able to answer. 

Realistically, she knew someone was in there. She had seen a black town car pull up, a group of three men getting out before it drove off. She had never seen a man in a red cassock before this, him standing out sharply against the snow and the dark paint on the house. 

She fights the urge to peek in one of the windows and debates knocking again, only for the door to be pulled open. 

The man in the doorway takes her breath away, the lights from within the house make him practically glow as he stands in the doorway. The same man she had watched through the window hours ago.  She has to force herself not to get lost in his eyes, ones that were almost identical to the boy in her arms. 

“I’m sorry to bother you so late,” She starts before he gets a chance to say anything. “It’s just I don’t know what else to do.” 

The baby starts to cry again, causing the man to quickly step back and lead her in. 

“I haven’t been able to feed him yet,” she says, coming to a stop in front of the coat rack. “I promise he settles.” She shifts her arms, letting her coat open again as the man closes the door. 

“Don’t worry,” the man assures her, before turning to face her again. “Want me to hold them while you take off your coat?” 

“Please,” Eliza sighs, the bag on her shoulder digging in awkwardly as she carefully shifts the squirming infant in her arms to be passed over. 

“Hello there,” the man whispers, carefully taking the baby from her and starting to sway with him as she shrugs off her coat. “You can hang your coat up on the rack,” he says as he smiles down at her baby. 

She never thought she could find a strange man holding her baby could be so attractive, let alone have it look so right. She keeps her eyes on him as she hangs up her coat and reshoulders the baby bag. He looks so natural with a baby.

“Follow me. The kitchen is back here,” he murmurs, offering to pass back the infant and take the bag from her instead. 

“Thank you so much,” she finds herself sighing, shifting the baby against her chest as she follows the man down the hall.

He hums, nodding as he glances back at her with a smile. “Of course, we were expecting you,” he murmurs, “Your timing was perfect. We just finished with clergy business.” 

She can’t help the confused smile on her face as she steps into the kitchen with him. What the fuck does he mean expecting me?

“Here. Make yourself at home. I’m going to inform my brothers that our company is here.” He says, setting the bag down onto the table before moving towards the door again. 

Eliza nods confusion, stepping closer to the kitchen table and watching as the man disappears back down the hall. 

“Let's get you fed, Alfie,” she whispers, forcing herself to start making a bottle for her son. 

Alfonso is most of the way through his bottle when yelling can suddenly be heard through the ceiling. Eliza slowly looks up as she continues to sway, catching fragments of loud Italian. 

“Ho assunto una prostituta!” A deeper voice screams, “Non una puttana con un bambino!”

Eliza was rather glad she didn’t know Italian, because it sounded like they are arguing about her.

She squeezes her eyes shut, letting her head fall forward as she tries to keep humming and thinking positive thoughts. “It’s all going to be alright,” she murmurs and for a few minutes she isn’t sure if she’s talking to him or to herself. 

She turns her back to the doorway as she burps Alfie, swaying and humming as she rubs circles on his back. She’s in the middle of pretending that she can’t hear the argument upstairs when she hears rapid footsteps on the stairs coming down. 

“Oh shit,” someone says from the doorway. She turns to see a dark-haired man with eyes exactly like the first man’s standing in there, one that she can faintly recognize. “Sei una faccia da padre!”  He starts to laugh, turning away to run back out. 

Eliza stands there unsure of what is happening as the man in the red cassock returns. 

“Sorry about my brother,” He sighs, raking a hand through his hair before starting to unbutton his cassock. Her mind races as she watches his gloved covered hands, easily slipping each one out of the hole, making her wonder what else he could do with them. “They can be a lot.” 

She nods, continuing to rub Alfie’s back as she waits for him to burp. “Sorry. Did I come at a bad time?” She watches as his fingers freeze and an amused chuckle escapes him. 

“Oh no, not at all,” He continues to unbutton his cassock before shrugging it off to reveal a black clerical shirt and slacks. “It’s a good thing you came to us.”

Eliza’s eyes narrow for a moment as she processes that, quickly turning away as she tries to figure out what he means. Alfonso decides to burp in that moment, giving her the perfect escape to focus on her baby completely. “Good boy Alfie,” She whispers, shifting him back into her arms before starting to wipe the spit up on his chin. 

Her baby smiles up at her, eyes opening to look up at her. She presses a light kiss to his forehead.

“Is there anything you need?” The clergyman asks. 

You. The back of her mind whispers, thinking back to his hands again. “I’m okay, thank you.” 

“If you need anything just ask, yes? I’ll get Secondo down in a moment to talk about next steps.” 

Next steps? She turns back to look at him and slowly nods. 

The man nods, grabbing his cassock before leaving the room again. 

Do they think I’m giving up my baby to the church? Eliza chews her lip as she takes a seat at the table, gently laying Alfie down on the table before starting to take some of the extra layers off. 

Eventually slow footsteps make her look up from where she was watching her son drift to sleep in her arms. Another semi-familiar man enters, this time the man was bald, but the eyes were the same, and he seems just as confused as she was. 

“You Jessica?” the man, Secondo she assumed, asks, tucking his hands into the pockets of his black cassock. 

“What?” she asks, confusion clear in her voice and on her face as her eyebrows scrunch together. “No. Who is Jessica?”

“Then who the fuck are you? We were expecting Jessica.” He moves closer, coming to a stop on the other side of the table. 

“Eliza. I live across the street.” 

Secondo’s head tilts in confusion. “But the baby? Who’s the father?” 

Dread pools in her chest, maybe things would be okay if she told some form of the truth, after all this priest was cursing. “His father isn’t in the picture.” His brothers paid me to fuck him on his 30th birthday. 

“Ah…” He slowly nods, eyes moving to look at Alfie. The boy is fighting off sleep, head turning to find the man’s voice. “Wait…” The man’s eyes instantly darted up to look at her, “You're that girl. The one we hired last year. For our square of a brother.” 

Panic floods her, everything suddenly sinking in. That’s why the other two were familiar. Why all three of these men have the same eyes as her son. Her hands tighten on her baby, her baby, suddenly so afraid that she had walked straight into a trap. 

“Primo!” Secondo yells, starting to laugh, “ Sei un fottuto idiota! ” 

“I think this was a mistake,” She finds herself saying, quickly standing up and starting to one handedly shoving their things into the baby bag. Two sets of footsteps rushing down the stairs cause her to give up on some of the items, quickly shouldering the bag as she tries to rush past the man to go down the hall to the entryway. 

The men round the corner from the staircase as she steps into the hall, making her freeze. 

“What’s going on?” Primo asks, looking between the frozen redhead and his brother behind her. 

“It’s your baby you idiot,” Secondo says, causing the dark haired brother to burst into laughter. 

Primo’s eyes grow wide, focusing on Eliza again and making her wish she could just disappear through the floor. “What? When?” 

“I thought she looked familiar. It’s the girl from your birthday party,” the shortest brother says, patting Primo’s shoulder before moving to walk past them into the kitchen. “Nice to see you again, piccola gemma ,” He says, smiling at her as he passes. 

Then they were left standing alone in the hall staring at each other.

“If I had known…” He starts, hands folding in front of himself.

“If you had known, what?” Tears well in her eyes as she tightens her hold on her baby, taking a step back as he took a step towards her, “Paid me off? Tried to take him from me? Clergymen can’t have families.”

“Supported you,” he says gently, making the thoughts rushing through her head stop. “Support whatever choice you wanted to make. Men of my faith can and are encouraged.”

“Stop lying to me,” She whispers, eyes falling to her son as he starts to squirm.

“Why don’t we have a seat and talk about this? The storm is so bad, it’s not safe to go back out there.” 

Her eyes dart up to make contact with him, he seemed to be speaking honestly, and when she looked out side-light by the door it was clear the wind and snow was picking up. “Fine… I’ll stay,” she says after a few long moments, struggling to figure out what else to say. 

A soft smile spreads across his face, nods as he motions for her to follow him.

Eliza sits down on the edge of the bed in one of the guest rooms, hands smoothing over the soft comforter on the bed. She glances over her shoulder at her baby who was laying on the other side of the bed, surrounded by pillows to keep him from rolling around. 

A sigh escapes her as she stands again, stripping off her clothes before slipping between the sheets. They had talked a lot that night, he had given her a lot to think about and presented her with a lot of good options. 

Having a face to finally associate with her memories of that night was relieving.

She could finally put a face to the husky voice that whispered praises as he fucked her. She normally wouldn’t have accepted a job like that, preferring to always meet the client before scenes like that but something had told her to accept.

She settles in bed, one arm tucked under her pillow and the other carefully taking hold of her son’s tiny hand, eyes locked onto the door as she listens to the men in the house go about their nightly routines. 

She had locked the door and pushed the chair from the desk in the room under the knob to secure the door. She wanted to believe that they wouldn’t try to come in while she was sleeping but couldn’t risk it. 

The house goes silent as she started to drift to sleep, relaxing into the warm sheets and for once in a long while content in knowing that it would still be warm when she woke up.