The FABULOUS A/N: ermm… here's the first chapter. Just and intro chapter, much more to come.

And honestly, I'm not here to have my ego stoked. If you don't like it, SAY SO! Tell me how to do it better, tell me what you hated, tell me if I've put too many commas in. Believe me, good reviews make me fuzzy, but bad ones make me work more.

After

Chapter 1: After the Choice

Liz was coming to the conclusion that Catholic mothers were obviously some sort of different species of human, possibly with largely unexamined physical attributes. Namely; a coating of steel in their wombs. How else would they be able to stand producing all those kids? She was only on her first two and already was at her breaking point.

She whimpered at the thought that she still had about two months ago with this bulging front. Two more months of puking every morning and grunting when bending over and not being able to sleep on her back or her side or her front…It wasn't that she didn't want kids; it wasn't that, it was just…

Okay, the truth was that at first she had been horrified at the thought of becoming a mother. Liz knew she wasn't ready. She just knew she would be the most horrible mother ever. She knew nothing about babies and she could barely keep herself out of mental institutions. How was she supposed to be a caregiver to children? Thoughts had kept running through her head, worrying her to the point of nausea. What if she dropped it? What if it got sick and she couldn't get it to the hospital? What if the Bureau took her baby away?

What if it wasn't fireproof?

The thought had driven her to her knees in the auction room, stricken with terror. It was only denial that enabled her to use her power in the end; the sheer strength of the absolute denial that said Abe was wrong, he had to be. After, when Liz found that, no, she was still pregnant, she figured the kid had to be fireproof after all that. But it still made her cringe to ignite.

Liz hadn't known what to do. She had considered every choice, even abortion and adoption, though she crossed adoption off pretty quickly. Abortion had lingered longer in her mind, simply because it was the way out. HB would never need to know, and she had thought that Abe would keep his silence to the death, for fear of hurting his friend. In fact, she had almost incinerated him when she woke up that night to find him about to drunkenly reveal her secret. At that point she still hadn't decided what to do. She hadn't made her choice until she was standing before that goddamn angel of talking crap, supporting the man she loved with her own pitiful strength.

Choose, the monster had said, with rotting teeth grinning at her. The world…or him. And it was him, him every time without even a thought. The decision had been made long ago without her even realizing it, and she was just a puppet following the motions. How could she say anything else?

Give him a reason to live, the angel had said. Hellboy was so strong and she was so weak beside him. But Hellboy was dying and she was still alive, still alive…

She was doubly alive, in a way. She carried his child and the proof of his love inside her. He had chosen her over the world, and had faced death itself to bring her back. If he was strong enough for that then she was strong enough for a kid. And she told him so right then, her choice made.

Liz didn't regret it. She knew she never would, no matter what happened. She would simply have to become strong enough to bear up under the challenge. She knew she would, because she had her guy beside her. He was the man who had turned his back on his destiny for her, who had fought the Golden army and lived. He was a man who had quit everything he ever knew to start a new life with his family, and a man who saved the world every day, in every way he could. A man who loved her.

"Liz?" A voice yelled from the yard outside their new home. "Did you say the sewage line was in the front yard or the back yard?"

"Front yard!" she yelled back. Dead silence met her response.

"Shit!"

Liz just shook her head and smiled to herself. This was going to be interesting…but she didn't regret it. Not now, not ever.

"Liz, can you bring me the duct tape?"