A/N: So, the Sugarless Gum fandom finally enters its Baby Boomer phase. Oh how I do so love a good pregnancy fic. I couldn't help myself. This one's going to have multiple chapters, of which this will probably be the longest.

Edit: A reader asked whose sperm was used to get Marceline pregnant. I figured that candy tissue must be really easy to engineer, especially bubblegum tissue. So PB could have taken a glob of her hair or some other tissue and used her science to re-specialize it into sperm, similarly to how we can re-specialize stem cells into nearly any other type of cell (even sperm). That would be what the "milky primrose fluid" is, artificial Bonnibel sperm. That's my pseudoscience and I'm sticking to it.

Had it only been one month? Time raced by quickly for her, centuries blending into mere year spans, and yet the last thirty days had seemed a millennium to her. The vial was long and thin, almost filled with a milky primrose fluid, corked tight with porous, spongy wood. The needle was long, yes, but her tolerance was high from combat and the Princess had a steady hand. They would reconvene there in a month's time. To see if the procedure had worked.

And a month had passed, leaving Marceline strumming anxiously on her bass at home. She had the consternation of one expecting a visitor. The visitor would bring precious news for which she had waited that long, long month. On cue, a knock sounded at her door. Laying down her bass on the couch stiff from disuse, Marceline floated toward the door and tried her best not to fling it open with relief.

"Hey."

A forced response. Something cool to say.

"Hey," Bubblegum smiled and Marceline matched, with an uneasy grin.

"Um, I guess it's time to head over to your lab, huh?"

"I think so."

"It's dusk out there, right?" she queried, pulling on tanned bomber jacket.

"Of course."

"Alright then," Marceline stepped out of her house, pulling her long arms through the jacket's sleeves. With a wing tucked over her stately head, the Princess' giant falcon sat preening in the mouth of Marceline's cave.

"You brought the Morrow?"

"Some of us can't fly," Bubblegum teased, "I needed to get here somehow."

"Duh," Marceline knocked a gentle fist to her temple in a mock gesture, "How do I ride her?"

"Just on her back."

"Ok."

She hopped on to the Morrow's broad back. The bird's crowned head turned back, examining Marceline curiously. Her eyes, furrowed into her great skull, focused in on the vampire queen, her gently writhing tendrils of hair, her glinting canines. Marceline reached out to pat her beak, another hand scrubbing her feathered brow.

"Hey there, girl."

Bubblegum smiled, pleased at the affection, before joining Marceline on her steed's back and asking if she's ready to go.

"Let's do it," Marceline replied, placing a silently meaningful hand on her lover's knee. The Morrow took off, flying victoriously from the red jaws of the cave. She reached altitudes high, but not as high as Marceline usually flies. Still, looking down on the quickly darkening land below, the vampire became unusually dizzy. That struck her as definitely out of place. Heights hadn't bothered her since before she first became a vampire, and the sensation perturbed her. Bubblegum noticed.

"Are you alright back there?"

Marceline tossed her head forward in a half-nod, trying to steady herself by keeping her eyes on the Morrow's neck before her. Upon arrival at the Candy Castle, she wobbled to the tiled floor, still light headed with vertigo. Bubblegum's hand on her shoulder proved lightly steadying, but, too proud, she shrugged it off.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Let's get down to that science dungeon of yours."

"It's not a dungeon," Bubblegum chastised playfully, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever."

Marceline took a thick sheet of black hair on her arm, then tossed it over her left shoulder before making her way down the halls with the princess. The castle was full of candy servants and courtiers, readying themselves for the night's sleep. A caramel square nearly bumped into the wall, so tired was he, earning a snicker from Marceline that in turn incurred an annoyed glance from Bubblegum.

They entered the Princess' lab through an antechamber in which Bubblegum's lab coat hung. She donned it, as well as a pair of visor-like goggles that she insisted Marceline put on as well. The lab itself was lit brightly. The whole place seemed claustrophobic, each surface cluttered with this beaker or that dusty textbook. The red pupil of an oval eye stared at Marceline from its pale green jar atop a shelf. A cooler lay in the corner of the room, a neat row of pink-filled syringes chilling upon its ice chips. A skull sat atop a flask labeled "DO NOT DRINK" and rested its jaw on an Anti-Gravity Tote Chamber waiting patiently for next year's Back-Rubbing Ceremony at Congressional Hall. Marceline paused to examine a pale map of Ooo tacked to the wall, pointing to her cave and smirking.

"So, how's this gonna go down?"

"I just need to run a couple of tests," Bubblegum was already readying her equipment, "It shouldn't take too long."

"What kind of tests?"

"You know. Pregnancy tests."

An awkward pause commenced between the two women. Was it really the first time either of them had mentioned it all month? Marceline swallowed thickly, but broke the silence.

"No duh, Bonni. But I mean, how do they work? Do I just sit there or what?"

And how did I get roped into this? she wanted to ask, but bit her tongue.

"Well, I'll need a urine sample and maybe a fetal heartbeat."

"Um. So. I pee in a cup...?"

Bubblegum nodded and handed her one, which she took sulkily to a washroom in the antechamber. Upon her return Bubblegum noticed a deep eggplant blush plastered across her cobalt grey face. As innocuously as possible, Bubblegum retrieved the sample, then exited into an adjoining room, returning in a few minutes.

"Well, I've got to check on that later."

"What've you got going in there?"

"Oh nothing," she murmured, dismissive and perhaps embarrassed, then hastily changed the subject, "What shall we do while we wait?"

Marceline shrugs, "How about reminding me why I'm the one doing this again? I mean, no offense Bonni, but when we talked about starting a family I imagined you as the barefoot and pregnant type."

Her voice hitched trying uncomfortably to make that penultimate word escape her mouth in a manner that seemed natural.

"Because I wanted to study vampire reproduction, Marceline."

"Right."

"And," the princess smiled, "you'll be cute."

"I'm not cute! I'm sexy and mysterious and a vampire for glob's sake!" Marceline's face heated a little, "'m not cute..."

Bubblegum kissed her blazing cheek with a giggle, "Sure, Marmalade."

Marceline crossed her arms and perched her right leg atop her left knee, kicking out her booted foot grumpily.

"Yeah, well, shouldn't my pee be ready by now?"

"Just a couple more minutes. Just give Science a bit more time."

There was that embarrassment again, and a small blush.

Marceline snorted amusedly, "You're so dorky. What's so embarrassing? What's that big blush for?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm just going to check on Science - "

"Wait, the rat?"

"Yes," she skittishly exited into the same room as before, "I'll be right back."

Marceline followed her into what turned out to be a specimen closet, the central table in which was occupied by Science the Rat's tank. The rodent was there, in the throes of heated mating with a male candy-corn rat. Marceline laughed out loud.

"Oh my Glob, I've never seen her so . . . active. But what does your horny rat have to do with me being pregnant?"

The word was becoming more natural.

"Well, I, um . . . I injected your urine into her ovaries. The high concentration of pregnancy related hormones are making her so . . ." blushing, Bubblegum couldn't bring herself to complete her sentence.

Marceline's breath quickened

"So I am then? Pregnant . . .?"

"I think so."

"Wow . . ."

The tall woman slipped over to where her lover stood, threading her long arms about Bubblegum's waist. In an unusual state of quiet, Marceline pressed her face into the warm curve of the princess' pink neck so that Bubblegum could feel the smile there. It was fierce and uncertain, triumphant and yet dumbfounded. And as Bubblegum reached down to place a trembling hand on Marceline's abdomen she heard her lover's voice rumbling something unintelligible.

"What was that?

"I'm pregnant," she repeated.