Author's Note: This is the latest story in the series that begins with Alex Gets Punished. See my author page for the full series. If you want to jump in here, though, these are the things to know:

- Alex and Justin have had an established sexual relationship for about five years. She's 20, he's 22. Max is 18.

- Alex created a duplicate that became permanent, who now lives with their mom and dad, freeing Alex to live with Justin. Those who know she's a duplicate call her Lexie.

"We are not changing this now!"

Lexie's voice was loud and insistent, coming through Alex's phone, and she kept talking even as Alex protested, "He's my little brother! I want to get to see him graduate!"

"The whole switch-off thing was your idea! You'd go to Justin's graduation, and I'd go to Max's! And they're my brothers too, you know! You can't always have things your way, just because you're the original!"

"But Justin's going to go to graduate school, so he'll be doing it again! And you have the same memories of his high school graduation that I do! Max may never graduate anything again!" Alex gestured as she talked into the phone, which wasn't something she normally did, but she was feeling really worked up over this. "And besides, you'll get to go to my graduation, but I can't go to yours!"

"Max not graduate again? You haven't even been spending time with him, have you? If you had, you'd know that he's not the dumb kid he was when I - you - when we were sixteen! He's grown a lot in the last four years!"

"Well, duh, I know he's grown! He's taller than me now!" Alex stopped on the corner, ignoring the stares people were giving her as she continued to argue on the phone. "And, you know, the fact that I haven't been able to spend as much time with him as you have is another reason why I should be the one who goes to his graduation!"

"You know something? There's no reasoning with you," Lexie shot back. "God! No wonder Mom can't talk to me for more than five minutes!"

"Yeah, well at least you can talk to Mom about things! I - Oh, you did not just hang up on me!" Alex pulled the phone from her ear, stared for a moment at the "Call Ended" on it, hit the "Redial" button.

She held the phone to her ear, growled again when she got voice mail, hung up, then angrily stuffed the phone into her purse. I do not need this. Not on top of the projects I have due, and Justin wanting us to move, and the damn wizard competition. Alex almost laughed at that - four years ago, the wizard competition had seemed like the most important thing that was ever going to happen... and now it wasn't even at the top of her list. And it's... oh hell, it's tomorrow! She blinked as she suddenly teared up, wondering how the week had gone by so quickly - here it was Friday, and it seemed like Monday had just been yesterday.

Okay, screw it. It's time to depressurize a bit. And I know just who to call for that...

An hour later, Alex was sitting cross-legged on a cushion in Miranda's apartment, holding a hot cup of chamomile tea in both hands and slowly drinking it. Miranda had just sat down on another, on the other side of the low table from Alex, and picked up her own cup, drank from it as well.

"So," the older girl said, "you've been feeling really emotional the last week or two? And you've been feeling tired and queasy?"

"Yeah," Alex said, shaking her head. "I've just been so stressed out with everything - planning the move, and finishing up the semester... and the usual family stuff, only more, with Max and Justin both graduating." She ignored the familiar twinge of guilt at not being able to tell Miranda what was really going on there, and once again thanked whoever might be in charge of these things that her brother's ex-girlfriend had turned into such a good friend.

"A couple more weeks, though, and everything ought to be back to normal... well, except for the fact that we'll across the country," Alex continued, rolling her eyes. "I just have to get through it all."

"Alex, sweetie... I think there might be more to it than you're thinking." Miranda bit her lip, and Alex felt a swell of annoyance.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"When was the last time you had a period?"

Alex frowned, thinking, said, "Six weeks ago. I think all the stress made me miss this last one, and -" She stopped, looking at Miranda's understanding expression that held the faintest hint of amusement, then said, "No. Oh no. I can't be -"

"I think you might be. But if you want to know... I've got a test left over from when I thought I might be."

Setting down her cup, Alex held up both hands and said, "No. I am not pregnant. No way."

Miranda sighed a little and rolled her eyes just a little. "Alex - you're a healthy twenty-year-old woman, and Justin's a healthy twenty-two-year-old man. And birth control does fail. If you're far enough along for it to affect you, though, then the test should tell. It'll only take a few minutes."

Fifteen minutes later, after hemming, hawing, and a bit of arguing, Alex and Miranda were both waiting, Miranda sitting while Alex paced. "Has it been three minutes?" Alex asked, looking over toward where they'd left the test, sitting on the counter. That'd been Miranda's idea, that they sit down and wait instead of standing there staring at it, but she was starting to regret it.

It's just her hormones making her irritable. Miranda smiled a little, thought, Wow. Never thought I'd hear that excuse from myself. "Not yet. Another thirty seconds," she said aloud. "Sit down. Try to relax. I'll tell you when it's -"

She broke off and sighed as Alex headed over to the counter, picked up the test, stood and stared at it. Then Miranda got to her feet and moved behind Alex, put her hand on the other girl's shoulder as they both watched. Alex took in a deep breath as the clock symbol on the test's display disappeared - and then was replaced by YES+.

"Oh… oh my god," Alex said, blinking quickly. "I'm pregnant. I'm…." She stopped, turned, and hugged Miranda hard. "I'm going to have a baby!" Miranda hugged Alex back, started to speak, but before she could get anything out, Alex was going on, saying, "Oh… oh no, I have to tell Justin. He's going to freak. He…."

"Hey…" Miranda gave Alex a squeeze, said, "Justin's a good guy. He'll take it okay."

"No - Justin likes things organized, and babies aren't organized. And he hates surprises. He won't be mad, but… he'll be upset. And he doesn't need that right now." She stopped, sighed, said, "I know I'll have to tell him soon. But it needs to wait a few days."