It was definitely a dream this time. This time, when I opened my eyes I was going to be in a quaint little inn in Atlas City, with Gourry snoring beside me and a breakfast feast waiting for me downstairs. No business about other worlds, no pint-sized squirts with metal for limbs giving me trouble, and I was certainly not pregnant.

But, just in case, I wasn't going to get up just quite yet. I could feel another presence in the room, but they didn't know I was awake. I would just lie here, pretend to still be asleep and wait for them to go away so I could sneak out the window and--

"Lina, I know you're awake."

Damn it. I cracked open an eye, glancing cautiously in the direction of the voice.

Gourry sat in a chair directly in front of me, staring at me expectantly.

"How'd you know?" I whispered, giving up on the pretenses and sitting up gingerly, my head still throbbing from its intimate encounter with the table.

"Your breathing," he responded and shrugged, "And your eyelids fluttered."

I pressed myself back against the headboard, laying my head against my upraised knees. I didn't want to face Gourry, not yet. I should have told him about my pregnancy, but I was scared and I couldn't quite bring myself to bring it up yet. I knew it was no excuse, but it was the only plausible reason, and I was clinging to it.

"Lina," he said my name softly, with gentleness, and I knew I was forgiven. I've always marveled at Gourry's incredibly capacity for forgiveness. I can't count the number of times that I've lied to him, hurt him, caused him harm in manners that make me sick to my stomach now. I've put that man through hell, but he always came back to me. He always forgave me.

Well, it was the least I could do, I supposed, to look him in the eyes. I turned my head.

"Lina," he said my name again and he had a soft smile, "Am I really going to be a dad?"

I nodded, feeling disconnected with my body. If I could tell him this, I could tell him anything.

A smile grew on his face that I'd never quite seen before. He looked as though I had just given him the world.

"And.." he was still smiling that goofy smile, like he had just had five extra servings of mashed potatoes, "What... what are we going to name it? If it's a girl? If it's a boy? Can magic tell that kind of stuff? How long have you known? When is the baby gonna be born? Amelia's a priestess, is she a midwife too? How do I--"

I slapped my hand across his mouth, a vein popping in my forehead, "If you wanted to get me upset," I snarled, "To make me forget about this, it isn't working."

"Oh," Gourry sat back when I took my hand away, a disappointed look crossing his face, "I wasn't trying that at all."

"Gourry," I shook my head, letting it fall against my knees again and closed my eyes, "Are you really OK with this?"

I could feel the confusion radiating off of him. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that he hadn't thought of any of the repercussions of starting a family. "We won't be able to travel for a while," I said, "No more adventuring, no more bandit-hunting, no more saving the world," I looked at him then, and said what was really on my mind, "This baby would be our world. We wouldn't have anything else. We couldn't have anything else."

I waited for the impact of my statement to really sink in. He never realized the consequences, he always acted with just his heart and never his mind... he could be so irrational sometimes, and it upset me to have to be the one to look at the practicality of the situation. I was the one that had to bring reality crashing down. I sniffled.

"But Lina," he finally spoke, and when I looked up I saw that that sparkle had never left his eyes, "All I've ever wanted was a family. A family with you. I don't need any of that other stuff."

I have to admit that I wasn't expecting that. I guess I should have assumed that Gourry would be far too optimistic and so sweet he gave me cavities, but my own fears seemed to be pulling me down. I'd rather face a hundred pieces of Shabranigdu before I admitted how scared I was, though.

"You're right," I smiled softly, pushing aside all my doubts and reservations, "I guess having a family with you wouldn't be so bad."

Gourry got up from the chair and crawled onto the bed with me, pulling me gently into his arms. "It's the best thing that's ever happened to me," he whispered against my hair, his hand making soothing circles on my back, "Thank you."

I let myself melt into his embrace, taking the comfort he was offering. Gourry was happy about it, immensely happy in fact, and that seemed to take a weight off my chest. Maybe we could raise a kid. With Gourry's optimism drugging me with hope, I could almost see ourselves in the future with a small child. I held the kid in my arms, a tiny sorcerer's cape fastened to its neck and a toy sword grasped firmly in chubby little fingers. I smiled with the vision, snuggling deeper into Gourry's warm chest. We sat like that for a while, and I was beginning to doze off when someone knocked gently on the door.

"How is she?" Amelia's head peeped in through the crack of the door.

"I'm fine," I answered, not moving from my position, "I just needed some rest."

Amelia opened the door wider, her smile widening with it.

"What?" I asked. She had a strange look on her face, like she knew something I didn't. She never knew anything I didn't. "What?" I repeated, beginning to grow irritated.

She then surprised me by sniffling, small tears rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry, Miss Lina," her voice was raw, as though she had been crying for a while, "I just can't believe that you're going to be a mother. I'm so-so happy for you!"

"Oh, Amelia," I left the comfort of Gourry's arms and stood in front of Amelia, my hands placed gently on her shoulders. She was still crying softly, but she looked up into my eyes when she felt my hands on her shoulders.

I smiled at her gently, "Thank you," and I put my arms around her, something that I rarely did. I loved Amelia like a sister, and despite the fact that we often slept together, bathed together, and spent every waking moment together, I wasn't quite sure that she knew just how deeply I felt.

It was as though a dam broke. As soon as my arms were around her Amelia began to sob harder, her hands reaching up and her fingers digging painfully into my back. Sob after sob racked her body, and in between hiccups I heard her mutter, "We- we'll be a family, right, Miss Lina?"

I let her cry, her tears soaking into my tunic. I suddenly understood why she was so upset. She thought she was never going to see her father again. "Amelia," I whispered into her hair. We stood there for another few moments, and I felt a larger pair of arms encircle us both, and I sighed at the warmth that Gourry always seemed to radiate.

We took what comfort we could from each other, and eventually Amelia began to quiet down. I could tell she was exhausted from her emotional outburst, and Gourry helped me to set her gently in the bed. She dozed off almost immediately. When we walked away arm in arm, I suddenly had a vision of doing the same thing, only with our child. The thought made me smile.

"You look like a family to me," Pinako was standing in the doorway, puffing on a long pipe.

"Yeah, well," I scratched the back of my neck, smiling widely, "We've been through a lot together. You kind of get really close really fast when you've been through the stuff we've been through."

"Your trials and tribulations only help to strengthen your bond," as we exited the room, I saw Edward leaning against the wall in the hallway, "It's equivalent exchange. Your tears and blood for a deeper relationship with your companions."

I frowned, "That's an interesting way of looking at things."

He pushed away from the wall and placed his hands in his pockets, "It's the way the world works. In order to gain, something of equal value must be lost. It's the first rule of alchemy, and the way life works."

"How narcissistic," Zel entered the hallway from the direction of the kitchen, "To think that you could understand how the world works so perfectly."

Edward scowled. "I've seen things," he whispered, his voice rough with anger, "And you wouldn't understand."

"I understand that you've been through tough times with your brother, and because of that you feel entitled to power and respect that you haven't yet earned," Zelgadis passed Ed with a sneer, and made it a point to stand behind me on the other side of Gourry. I wasn't so sure the show of loyalty was necessary.

Pinako, being the wise woman she had proven herself to be, excused herself to work on some especially difficult automail models she was toying around with... whatever that meant.

Our stare-down was still going on when, a moment later, Alphonse was pushed forcefully into the room. He seemed to take the situation in immediately, looking as nervous and surprised as a piece of armor could look.

"What," he began, hesitating, "What's going on here?"

I was too tired to handle the heavy atmosphere. I liked to pick my fights carefully (unless it concerned food, of course, because those were all valid) and this fight was pointless. I threw my hands into the air, breaking a little bit of the tension. "Hell if I know," I muttered, glaring at both Ed and Zelgadis. "These two seem to be in some sort of pissing contest. Who's suffered more, or deserves more respect for that suffering or something like that." No one moved or spoke, and I allowed myself a heavy sigh. "Come on, Gourry," I said, "Let's leave the kids to figure this out by themselves."

"Lina!" Zel stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, and it felt heavier than it should have. He leaned toward me as he lowered his voice, "I was just trying to support you."

"I didn't start this argument, Zel," I said, stepping away. He let his hand fall dejectedly to his side.

"Why don't you go check on Amelia, huh?" I smiled that condescending smile that everyone hates to be the target of. I was tired, I couldn't hold back!

Zel's face looked stricken. "Amelia? What's wrong with Amelia?"

Oh, yeah. Zel hadn't been here for our lovely exhibition of togetherness. "Nothing," I reassured him, "She's just a little emotional, and tired. She's resting in our room."

Without a moment's hesitation Zel opened the door and rushed into the room.

I stood there for a moment, because I felt that if I moved the events of the last day and a half would press upon me and smother me. I let myself take a deep breath, let everything that had happened file through my mind.

"Lina?" Gourry stood beside me, a questioning look on his face.

"I feel pretty useless," I admitted, leaning against him and letting my head rest against his chest. "I mean, I'm supposed to be this great sorceress, and I can't even figure out what went wrong with the spell. I've gone over it a thousand times in my head, and every time I come to the same conclusion."

"What's that?" It was Alphonse that asked.

I looked up and responded, "We should be dead."

I felt Gourry stiffen at my back. Alphonse's response was similar, and Edward just continued to scowl in my general direction. I was about to elaborate, when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end due to a high-pitched squeal coming from the direction of the bedroom.

We all turned in time to see a very red chimera rush out of the room.

"I'm sorry, Amelia!" Zelgadis was holding the door closed behind him, using more force than should have been necessary.

"Mister Zelgadis!" Amelia's voice was muffled by the door, and I could hear her grunting as she slammed into the door again, trying to force it open, "Mister Zelgadis, I won't forgive you!"

"It was an accident!" Zel was blushing harder now, his face a mask of embarrassment and agony.

"Gee, Zel, what did you do? Walk in on her naked?" Gourry asked with that dumb smile on his face.

'Don't even think about hitting him, Lina,' I told myself, 'That's spousal abuse!'

However, the guilty look on Zel's face said it all.

"Oh."

The thumping was becoming less frequent, so Amelia was probably wearing herself out. She'd either get tired and just forgive Zelgadis, or she'd pretend to forgive him and kick his ass as soon as he let go of the door. I was betting on the latter.

"It's really beautiful outside," Alphonse said genially, "Why don't we continue our conversation out there?"

"Good idea," I agreed, and followed the brothers through the hall and out of the house. Let Amelia and Zel work out their differences by themselves. Edward and Alphonse stopped and stood at the bottom of the porch, so I took the liberty of using the steps as a seat. Gourry sat beside me.

"Please," Alphonse encouraged, "Tell us more."

I shrugged, and felt all my tension bunching up in my shoulders. 'Note to self: make Gourry give me a massage.'

"I'm not really sure how much detail I should go into. You guys know virtually nothing about our world, so I may just take some information for granted that you've never heard of before. So, I guess, just stop me if you don't understand."

"To put it simply, a lot of Mazoku want us dead, and.."

"Mazoku?" Alphonse stopped me.

"Monsters," I explained, "They're very powerful beings that exist on a separate plane. They can manifest themselves in our world, but their real bodies exist on the astral plane, so its very difficult to cause them any harm."

"I see," Alphonse sounded impressed, and Ed just continued to scowl in my direction.

"So, a lot of these Monsters want us dead," I reiterated, "And they can be very difficult to kill. One of these Monsters that wants us dead found us, and was doing a pretty damn good job. Our normal spells weren't doing much good, and we still haven't found Gourry a sword to replace his Sword of Light, so..."

"Sword of Light?"

I groaned. I hadn't realized how difficult it would be to explain everything. All these details were common knowledge in our world, and I didn't even think to put things in simple terms. It was like trying to explain the hierarchy of the gods and mazoku to Gourry. You had to use really small words and speak really, really slowly.

Surprisingly, however, it was Gourry who answered. "The Sword of Light was a really famous sword that was passed down in my family," he said, "And the blade was made of a powerful light that could cut anything!"

"Not only that," I felt the need to elaborate, "But the blade was a manifestation of the swordsman's will. The strength of the blade depended on the wielder's determination and inner-strength. If you were a weak human being, you couldn't wield the Sword of Light successfully."

"Wow," I could hear the awed smile in Al's voice, and even Ed looked as though we had piqued his interest. "You said you hadn't found a sword to replace it. What happened to it?"

"It's kind of a long story," Gourry volunteered. "The Sword of Light didn't really belong with me, so I gave it to someone who would take it back to where it belonged."

"Another world?" Ed asked scathingly.

"Yeah, actually," I responded, standing up in my anger. "You know, you've given us nothing but trouble ever since we told you the truth. We're not asking you to believe us, but don't look at us as though we're idiots. If we wanted to lie, we could come up with better lies than this!"

"She's done it lots of times," Gourry grinned.

Ed looked a bit taken aback, but never lost his scowl. "Just finish your story," he muttered.

I opened my mouth, intending a scathing insult and then to continue where I had left off, but... "Um... where was I?" I looked at Gourry.

"You're asking me?" he replied, looking stunned.

Oh, that's right. Never, ever rely on Gourry's memory. "What was I talking about before someone decided to insinuate that I was a liar?"

"That's it," Edward stuck his hands in his pants pocket dejectedly, "I can't listen to this crap anymore." He stomped back up the stairs without looking at us, his gaze intent upon the floor beneath him. "Al, just fill me in later without all the dramatics." He shut the door behind him with a soft click, and I was surprised the wood didn't go up in flame from his touch alone.

"I apologize for my brother," he sounded as though he was used to it, "But he only believes in what he thinks is logical, and nothing you say makes any sense to him. Ed's kind of a... genius, really. He's not used to people telling him something he doesn't already know."

I shrugged, because it was really all I could think to do.

"Don't worry about it," Gourry had his jellyfish smile on, "I'm sure we'll work out our differences eventually."

Alphonse seemed relieved. Just how many potential friends had Edward alienated?

"Please," the armored boy disrupted my musings, "I really do want to hear the rest of your story."

Gourry looked at me expectantly, as though he hadn't lived through everything I was describing. I wondered if our kid would be as empty-headed as Gourry. I certainly hoped not. 'I wonder if I could pick and choose the kid's personality. Let's see... my brains, my sorcery skills, my charm and my good looks and Gourry's... swordsmanship. Yup, we've got a winner right there!'

Gourry poked my side. "Finish the story, Lina."

"Well..." I smiled at Alphonse, embarrassed, and shrugged, " I think that little part of Gourry inside of me is a bad influence."

"What do you mean?"

"I have no idea what I've already told you!"

Author's Notes:

OK, first off, I want to apologize to those offended by my comment about developing relationships. Let me clarify: I usually like to read stories about Lina and Gourry's first love confession, first kiss, etc. That's what I meant by their developing relationship. I in no way meant to insinuate that the relationship between partners stops developing after marriage. I'm sorry if I offended anyone.

Sooo... this story is getting out of hand. I originally intended it to be a one-shot, and my only purpose was to get Lina and Ed together to blow up at eachother. Well... obviously its just a bit longer than I meant it to be.

The plot's kind of developing as I write this, so sorry not much happened in this chapter, but I'm getting to it... gradually...

Hope you enjoyed. Review and make me smile like a goofy teenager.