They were both restless all night, sleeping in a guest room - Joohyun wouldn’t go within ten feet of her childhood bedroom - and trying to relax enough to fall asleep, exhausted and drained from the events of the day. Dinner had been a tense affair with Seonho and Yujin, Chaeyoung taking it upon herself to keep up a steady stream of polite conversation with her brother-in-law in order to diffuse the discomfort, with little success, and after they’d finished eating, with Joohyun barely touching her food, they went upstairs to their room. Chaeyoung coaxed Joohyun into the waiting bath, and then straight into bed, worried that the stress of the day might be too much for her body, and unwilling to let her strain herself further.

Joohyun looked disgruntled amongst a nest of soft pillows and a pile of blankets, her dark hair undone and a little unkempt as she let her wife fuss around her. Chaeyoung suspected that she only allowed the near-smothering fussing because she’d missed her so much, but she finally toned it down as Joohyun started to get short with her constant questions about how she was feeling, and the multiple attempts to ply her with tea and biscuits. In the end, Chaeyoung climbed into bed with her, holding her close and feeling somewhat relieved, despite the electrifying feeling of danger coursing through her body as she thought about how close she’d come to losing Joohyun. It made her stomach lurch, a feeling of nausea washing over her, so strong that she thought she was actually going to be sick, but she just tightened her hold on her wife and mentally kicked herself for triggering the series of events that had led to putting her in harm’s way. Chaeyoung told herself that she would never have let something like this happen in Avalon, let alone within the walls of Sunstone Palace, but dread knotted her stomach as a tiny voice intruded on her thoughts, telling her that she couldn’t protect them from everything.

Speaking in quiet voices, they lay in the dark for hours, talking about anything that wasn’t about the bomb or the investigation - baby names, where they should vacation in the summer, whether they should request poached eggs for breakfast, or if they might prefer an omelette instead - until they descended into silence, with Joohyun nestled up against Chaeyoung’s side, her head tucked into the crook between her neck and shoulder, while Chaeyoung absentmindedly her arm in a soothing manner. Drifting in and out of sleep, the hours slipped by slowly with lots of tossing and turning, terrifying nightmares, and frequent bathroom trips due to the babies, until it was a few hours away from dawn and they silently stared at the ceiling, wrapped up in each other’s arms as they waited for the day to greet them.

Showering and dressing in easy silence for the first time in weeks, with the occasional gentle touch as they moved around each other with familiar ease, they made their way down to breakfast. While Joohyun would’ve preferred to have a tray brought up to her room, even she glumly admitted to needing to talk to her mom again, and Chaeyoung struggled to keep up with her brisk pace, waddling slightly with her bigger stomach, until Joohyun breezed through the doors of the dining room. Seonho and Yujin both broke off mid-conversation at their arrival, and the king climbed to his feet, a slight smile on his lips as he stepped away from his chair and pulled the one to his immediate right out, and the one beside that one.

“Good morning,” he cordially greeted them, “I hope you slept well. There’s plenty of food, so help yourselves.”

He ushered Joohyun into the one furthest away, dropping a kiss onto her head, before helping Chaeyoung into the seat at his right and giving her shoulder a quick squeeze. Taking his seat again, he resumed eating, and everyone was silent as a serve stepped forward with a pot of steaming breakfast tea and filled their cups. Freshly buttered toast was procured, and they both started helping themselves to the spread of food in front of them, Chaeyoung piling hers high and then sneaking more onto Joohyun’s plate, prompting her to eat more after her meagre meal the night before.

Yujin dismissed the staff after that, the four of them alone with a retinue of bodyguards crowding the hallway outside. Clearing , she took a sip of coffee and set her cup down, giving them an unreadable look. “You both look terrible.”

“We need to talk,” Joohyun brusquely replied, cutting up her omelette with more force than was necessary, “or rather, you’re going to tell me everything you know. I don’t give a about your stupid favours and prices, I know you know more than you’re letting on, and you’re going to tell me right now.”

With a sigh, Yujin leant back in her chair, giving her daughter a shrewd look while her son carried on eating as if no one had spoken. He seemed disinterested for the most part, no concern for his safety inside his palace, and Chaeyoung shifted slightly in her seat, feeling uncomfortable at the tension in the air.

“Fine. That man, Lee Junho, he opened the bank account. There was another, called Ok Taecyeon, that my investigators found, who was driving the car of Park Haejin and Park Eunhye when it crashed. And another called Kim Jaejoong, the new personal bodyguard of them both, replacing their old one a month before they died.”

“And?” Joohyun bluntly asked.

“They’re all ex-military,” Yujin told her, taking a demure bite of her food, “and they all died within a week of each other.”

Chaeyoung frowned as she set her cup of tea down, “what does that have to do with anything?”

“It means someone infiltrated the palace and is trying to cover their tracks,” Joohyun muttered, “someone with enough knowledge to influence your parents. To convince them to change bodyguards, to have enough power to get someone to open a bank account for them, to organise a driver for them. To cover up the investigation as soon as it started. Their killer was never found, which means that someone high up didn’t want them to be found. The same with the rest of your family, no doubt.”

Her voice grew harder as she spoke, a stony look on her face as she stabbed at a cherry tomato, a muscle leaping in her jaw. Chaeyoung rested her hand on her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze, feeling go dry. “But what would anyone gain out of this, unless it was actually Baltia?”

“Oh, you naive little girl,” Yujin laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement as the corner of her lips curled up into a tiny smile, “who do you think? The bomb on the car? It was remotely detonated, which means that someone didn’t want to kill Joohyun. The bullet that nicked your arm, just grazed you. They don’t want to kill you, they just want to scare you. Tell me, why would someone try and blow up my daughter?”

Scoffing, Joohyun gave her mom a hard look, “well I wouldn’t be surprised if it was you trying to force me to go home to Avalon by proving Chaeyoung right. And seeing as it wasn’t, who else- oh .”

“No,” Chaeyoung mumbled, “she wouldn’t.”

“Oh but she would,” Joohyun stonily replied.

Pushing her chair back, Joohyun climbed to her feet and walked off without another word, roughly yanking open a door and slamming it shut behind herself. Chaeyoung let out a quiet sigh, giving the rest of her breakfast a look of regret, and Seonho and Yujin apologetic looks, she excused herself and followed after Joohyun at a slower pace. It wasn’t too hard to find her, with Yujin’s appointed bodyguard standing beside Seungyoon - who had been questioned and returned to his duty - and she bid her own guards to wait outside, nodding to Seungyoon, who gave her a grave nod in return, and walking through the door that was opened for her.

Chaeyoung warily hovered just inside the door of the sitting room Joohyun was in, watching as her wife angrily paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching her hands, waiting for her to say something. She’d obviously heard Chaeyoung enter, but made no move to acknowledge her for a moment. Walking over to a sofa, Chaeyoung sat down and patiently waited for Joohyun to speak, her own mind clouded with conflicting thoughts.

“That conniving little cow,” Joohyun seethingly exploded, pacing back and forth as the muscles in her jaw worked and her stomach strained against the fabric of her shirt. Chaeyoung watched on from her seat, a stony look on her face as she tried to piece it all together, figuring out if it made sense. “That evil scheming .”

With a sigh, Chaeyoung pressed a hand to her stomach and pushed herself to her feet. “Joohyun-”

“No! Do not defend her to me,” Joohyun snapped, anger burning in her eyes as she w