Things had to be accepted for what they were by everyone, and if that meant that parents who didn't necessarily approve of a marriage were having to grit their teeth and support it, that was just how it was. Over the next nearly two weeks, Maribelle was constantly calling to check in on the couple, just to make sure that they still weren't going to admit to carrying on a joke for far too long. It ended up looking like she had managed to get even clingier, though, and while Brady hadn't been aware that such a thing was possible, he tried his best to not let it put a damper on the newly-married bliss he and Severa were still experiencing. Even with how long it had been since their wedding, it was still surreal to the both of them to be married and together out in the real world.

After that bit of time, once the shine on the situation faded fast, the reality that the cramped and cluttered apartment he was staying in was his home for as long as that was what they could afford sunk in. Rather than telling himself to get a job to help move them into a place with comfortable room for both of their belongings, he instead spent several days just reorganizing what space they did have, trying to make it feel more like home than it already started to. Severa was spending most of her time at work, getting the money they needed to keep living there. This pattern, of him sticking around home and her being out working went on for a while, until one morning, when she should have been up and getting ready for work, she remained in bed until far past when she should have left, and Brady woke up for his day to find his wife still beside him.

"You okay, Sev?" he asked, rolling onto his side to look at her while she gave a small groan, her face looking pale and sickly. "Aren't you supposed to be at work right about now?"

She groaned again, closing her eyes tightly as she nodded. Before he could get upset that she was missing work, though, she had an answer for why. "I called one of my co-workers and she's covering for me. Don't get your panties in a knot and freak out about me missing out on money. I'll go in to work tonight, promise."

"I don't know if I'm likin' the sound of that." Brady frowned at how terrible she looked, and how determined she was to still go to work. "We don't need the money that bad right now, do we?"

"Welcome to the real world, B. We always need money now." Finally opening her eyes and looking at him, she tried to smile but managed to only look more uncomfortable. "I'll be fine later, pretty sure. Just must have slept badly or something. No big deal." Her insistence that she was okay wasn't reassuring to him, but he believed it, because that's what he felt a good husband would do in that situation.

Many mornings that followed that one were spent the same way, with her looking like she was sick but playing it off like it would pass in time, which it always seemed to do. Some of those mornings, he would wake up to find her not in bed but rather huddled on the floor of their tiny bathroom, complaining about how much her stomach was bothering her, blaming the previous night's dinner for her problem. Other mornings, she would seem fine, but be very much on edge when it came to him talking to her, and if he dared touch her while she was in one of her moods she would snap at him. It wasn't normal Severa, but she didn't seem to find it as being too abnormal so he tried to not let it bother him.

On one of her rare days off, he got called into a last-minute violin practice session at the church, and since she was feeling under the weather when it was time for him to head out, he made her promise that she'd focus on resting and getting better while he was gone. "Can't say I'll just lay around like a loser all day, but I'll try and stop feeling so bad," she told him, kissing him quickly before he left. The whole time he was gone, she was on his mind, with how ill she seemed to get at times, and he really hoped she had listened to him and was taking it easy. Because of how worried he was, he wasn't properly focusing on his violin playing, causing the practice to be ended a bit earlier than anticipated, which meant that he could get home to be back with Severa even quicker.

Of all the things he expected to see when he unlocked and opened the door to his apartment, the back of Lucina's boyfriend was not one of them. The slender guy, turning to see who was coming in behind him, gave a soft gasp when he saw that it was Brady. "You, er, seem to have returned home earlier than we were informed you would be," he said, looking at the watch he was wearing on his wrist to verify his claim. "Severa told us you would be out for another hour or so."

"Practice ended early. What're ya doin' here, Laurent? Don't remember tellin' ya that you could come on in." It hit Brady that Laurent had mentioned Severa saying something, and he squinted at the other guy. "Don't tell me you and her have a thing goin' on. Listen, I get that my sister might be a handful, but don't be taking my woman from me because Lucy isn't good enough for you."

"Brady, you dolt," he heard Lucina say, and the attention of both guys turned to the blue-haired woman standing by the doorway to the bathroom. "He's here with me, because Severa asked me to come over for…moral support." The last two words were hushed, as if Lucina didn't want to be saying them. "Don't start accusing my boyfriend of stealing your wife."

Intending to comment on the significant other-stealing part of what his sister had said, Brady couldn't help but get hung up on her hushed words instead. "What kind of moral support does Sev need that I can't give her? She didn't get super sick while I was out, did she? Poor girl's been so miserable lately and I just hate seein' her like that." While he was talking, he didn't notice Severa poking her head out of the bathroom door, face turned so that she was only looking at Lucina, and by the time he was done speaking she had retreated once more and Lucina was disappearing as well. "What gives? Where're ya goin', Lucy?"

"I think I'll leave Laurent to explain that one, honestly." To her boyfriend, Lucina said, "Tell him exactly what we talked about you telling him. That includes reading every message, word for word. We'll be out in five."

Laurent nodded, reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone, while Brady, still confused about what was going on, took a seat on the small couch in the room. "I will start this explanation by saying that this must be an exciting time in your life." Having retrieved his phone, Laurent chose to move closer to Brady, but rather than sitting on the couch next to him, he sat on the floor instead. "Regardless of today's outcome, this must be a lot to take in and process."

Not sure what Laurent was going on about, Brady shrugged. "I've been around Sev while she's sick before. Not really that big 'a deal, honestly. Didn't know she was so sick we needed to call in the nerd squad, but," he shrugged again, "that's not a big deal either."

"She asked for Lucina to come help her come to a conclusion on what ails her, and I naturally followed along. You do not need to jab playful insults at me." Laurent stiffened where he sat, looking at his phone screen from over his glasses. "Besides, as you have no honest idea what is causing your wife distress, perhaps it is best if you do not attack the man who does know?"

"I wasn't attackin' you, but hey, if you wanna play yourself the victim here, go right on ahead." Brady could hear muffled talking in the bathroom, and he knew if he pushed his head against the wall he'd be able to hear it clearer, but he didn't want to invade the privacy the ladies felt they had. "Just tell me what's up with Sev so I can help make it better."

"I shall start with reading the exact conversation that Severa and Lucina had earlier today, as directed to by Lucina. Perhaps that will be enough to clue you in." He cleared his throat and pulled his phone in closer to his face, trying to make sense of the tiny text in the screenshot of messages he was looking at. "Message from Severa to Lucina, 'Hey Lucy, you free today? I need a girl over here for moral support.' Message back from Lucina to Severa, 'Yeah, sure am free. What's going on? Got problems with being married to my brother already?'"

Brady couldn't help but chuckle at that one, because it didn't surprise him in the slightest that Lucina went to that conclusion. From in the bathroom, he heard her call out that they'd be rejoining them in three minutes, so he went back to listening to Laurent read the messages word-for-word. "Message from Severa to Lucina, 'No way, nothing like that. I've just got a bit of a problem.' From Lucina to Severa, 'Define problem. Does it need medical attention?' Severa to Lucina, 'Possibly. Just get over here. Brady's going to be at violin practice so we can do this without him.' Lucina to Severa, 'Sounds good. Should I bring anything?'" Laurent pulled his phone in even closer, trying to read the last lines of text. "Severa to Lucina, 'Well I don't know, smarty, can you think of anything to bring?' Lucina to Severa, 'My boyfriend for guard duty, and maybe some,' second message, 'Oh my gods Severa do you need my moral support because you're sick or because you're pregnant?'"

The word hung heavy in the air, lingering for a while because of Laurent having to squint even more to read the response to that message. Not sure what he could even say, Brady just hoped that the next message was Severa playing off that accusation like it was a bad joke. "Last message, from Severa to Lucina, 'Hopefully the first, maybe the second. Missed something important, but I hope it's because of work stress, not a baby.'" Sighing in relief, Laurent put his phone down in his lap and looked at Brady, who was sitting and staring at him slightly slack-jawed. "I take it that she never once mentioned this to you?"

"No, she sure didn't," he admitted, still in shock at what he heard. "I don't know how this could've happened. It's got to be stress messin' with her. She can't be having a baby. We've only been married, what, a month? There's no way."

"Contrary to your statement there, it is completely possible that she is with child. After the message exchange between her and Lucina, I was informed of what was potentially transpiring and took to doing some research in my mother's library." Once again reaching into his pocket, Laurent pulled out a crumpled piece of paper that he carefully unfolded and handed to Brady. "These were my findings. I did not write down anything that would imply that you two took part in any sort of sexual activities prior to getting married, because your sister insisted you were above such behaviors."

"We were, don't worry. Didn't so much as look at Sev with the intent of sleepin' with her until we got married." Brady looked at the paper he'd been handed, the notes on it written in such a messy manner that it was hard for him to make out anything. "What's all this supposed to say, anyway? Looks like you were writin' and not paying attention to what words you were tryin' to say."

Snatching the paper back, Laurent said, "All I did when compiling this document was write down possible dates of conception and explain how many weeks into pregnancy she might be if that were the date the potential child was created." He motioned to the first line of writing. "This would be the case if you had conceived the child on your wedding night, and this," he pointed down to the bottom line, "is the most reasonable last possible date for this to have happened."

"It couldn't have happened on our weddin' night. She wasn't up to doin' much more than some cuddling that night. Didn't happen the next couple 'a nights either, since she was—" He was cut off by the sound of someone clearing their throat, and he looked over to see that Lucina and Severa had joined them out in the room. "—oh gods, Sev, why didn't ya tell me that this was maybe goin' on?"

Severa gave a small shrug, her eyes cast downward as she couldn't bring herself to look at Brady. "I didn't want to worry you. Didn't want to worry myself either but it got to be too much, and I had to turn to someone who'd keep a level head about her in this situation." At that, Lucina laughed softly, putting a comforting hand on Severa's shoulder. "Seriously, if it weren't for Lucina I might have lost my mind."

"You would have handled this fine on your own and you know it," Lucina replied, using that hand to give Severa's shoulder a few pats. "Now come on, I think it's time for the moment of truth. Let's take a look at that test, shall we?" With her free hand, she pointed at the wad of tissue that Severa was holding, and the orange-haired woman gave a slow nod, lifting it so that it wasn't hanging by her side. She discarded the tissues one at a time, dropping them beside her, until all that was left in her hand was what looked like a white stick.

"I'm really hoping that I'm just stressed and that this isn't going to be how I'm scared it is," she admitted, before looking to what she was holding and frowning when she saw it. Her facial expression said it all: the result of the test was one she hadn't wanted to see. Lucina leaned over to look at it herself, and when she saw it, she moved to wrap Severa in a hug. "H-hey, this isn't time for celebrating! You can't be seriously happy that I've got something cooking inside me!"

Starting to shake, Brady stood up and went straight to where Severa was standing, looking down at her with eyes that were beginning to fill with tears. "What did ya just say there? Somethin'…inside you?" He motioned towards her stomach. "That's not that funny of a joke, Sev, because we can't be havin' a kid. We just can't be."

"Yeah, well, guess what? We are." She turned what she was holding so that he could see it, the two parallel pink lines strikingly obvious, and he began to choke up, trying to find words that were coming out instead as tearful babbles. "Oh, cut the dramatics. We're not ready for this kind of thing, yet it's happening anyway. We've got to suck it up and deal with it."

"B-b-but," he stammered, using his arm to wipe away tears, "I'm not going to make a great dad to this baby! Sev, I can't do this!" His crying must have gotten on Severa's nerves, because she wrestled her way out of the hug she was held in and harshly slapped Brady across the face, leaving both her hand and his cheek stinging from the impact. "What the hell was that for? I was just cryin', which is completely reasonable here!"

"You're annoying me," she replied, before turning to look at Lucina and how she was staring, shocked at the violence she had just witnessed. "Can I take back what I said before? I am having problems with your brother now. He thinks he can cry and act miserable about this, when he's not the one having the damn baby we didn't ask for."

Lucina gave a hesitant laugh, shaking her head. "You knew he was a crybaby when you signed up to marry him. So, uh, good luck dealing with him, I guess?" She took a step backwards. "Then again, I think handling Brady crying will be a lot easier than breaking this lovely news to everyone. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, handling everything about this will be much, much easier than telling certain people."

"I can understand why you would say that," Laurent interjected, "but in my basic research I did to compile the dates on which this could have been made possible, I found some information that would lead anyone to believe quite the opposite. I wholeheartedly believe that telling your parents of this development will be easier than—"

Whatever his thought was, he didn't get to finish it due to Brady loudly dissolving into a fit of sobbing. "Ma is going to kill me for this!" he choked out. "She already wants to kill Sev for bein' herself, now she's going to kill me for having a kid with her!"

"Hence why I said what I did." Lucina smugly smiled at her boyfriend, who muttered something about how he'd been cut off. "I know my mother and my brother too well to know how all of this is going to turn out. I'm so sorry that you're going to have to go through this, Severa," she said, looking to the still-frowning woman. "At least on the bright side, you can say you've made this kid out of love, right?" Judging by the way Severa turned, glaring, with her hand raised as if she were going to smack her friend as well, that wasn't a bright side to the situation at all.


"I still can't believe this! My most dearest cousin, becoming a father in a matter of months! Had I known that my officiating abilities would lead to this so quickly, I certainly would have warned you, but…" Owain's thought trailed off as he saw that Brady, resting his head in his hands with his elbows on the edge of the table. "What's the matter? Is my excitement not catching on?"

"I think he's just thinking, Owain," Noire said, putting her hand out to touch one of Brady's arms. "He's had a busy past few weeks, and I'm sure telling us about what's going on is taking a lot out of him mentally." She gave a small smile and a soft sigh. "I can only imagine what it's like to know you're having a child, but then again, my role would be the one Severa's currently in, not the one we're witnessing."

As if she were summoned at the mention of her name, Severa came walking over, her work uniform in disarray and a spilled glass on the tray she was holding. "Trust me, Noire, you don't ever want to have a kid. Ever. Worst experience of my life so far, and I'm only, what, seven weeks into this?" She set the tray down on a nearby empty table and came back over to them, putting her arm on the top of Brady's head. "Even still, I'm having a walk in the park compared to what this guy's going through."

"But aren't you the one who has to experience the gross parts?" Noire asked, retracting her hand as to not give Severa the wrong idea of her intentions. "The sickness and tiredness and everything? How can he have it worse?"

Severa grinned. "Because he's a fucking pansy, that's how. Poor guy has it so rough, having to think about how to tell his mommy that she's going to have a grandbaby to be answering to soon enough." She laughed, shaking Brady a bit with the arm on his head. "No, but seriously, between him crying over feeling so bad that he did this to me, and him crying over not knowing how to pick up the phone and tell his mom that I'm pregnant, his life has become nothing but moping and constant pity parties."

"He still hasn't told Aunt Maribelle?" Owain raised an eyebrow, one that only went higher when Severa "mmhmm"-ed him. "Which means that Uncle Chrom doesn't know. Which means that I better not tell either of my parents, lest they break that news to them for him. That would not be the ideal way of letting them know they are to be grandparents!"

"Lucina ain't squealed yet, thank the gods, and now I've got to trust you not to either," Brady finally said, looking straight at his cousin. "Don't want them hearin' this news from anyone but me or Sev."

"You're never going to tell them," Severa said, still shaking him with her arm, "because you're going to break down every time you try. I can imagine it now, we'll be taking the damn baby home and your mom will call, and you still won't tell her then."

"I'll tell her when I come up with a good way to. Can't do this wrong like when we told 'er about us bein' married." He sniffled. "Besides, she's got to be there for us before this kid's born. I'm not goin' through this without Ma there."

Taking her arm off his head, Severa rolled her eyes and went back to pick up her tray. "Okay, you keep telling yourself that, B. I'm pretty sure what I said's going to end up being true, and then there's no one but you to blame." She balanced the tray on her hand and started walking away from the table. "I'll be back after I check on my section. Don't leave or anything until then!"

"We weren't planning on it," Owain told her, and as soon as she was gone he leaned in closer to the others. "Okay, now that she's gone, I have a suggestion. We need to celebrate this wonderful event in her life somehow. Who's with me?" He was met with silence, although Noire's face did light up at the mention of celebrating. "Come on, you two! Ideas!"

"Not up for celebratin' this, really." Still sniffling, Brady watched his cousin's expression fall from excited to a more neutral one. "Seriously, bigger things to be worryin' with than going out and havin' fun because me and Sev made a choice we probably shouldn't have."

"I think the idea of celebrating somehow is lovely," Noire softly said, leaning her head against Owain's shoulder. "When I make your birthday cake, I think I might bake her something as well. I'm sure that will be celebration enough for everyone, right?" Owain eagerly nodded, mentioning something about how great the cakes Noire made were, and she blushed. "Oh, no need for that kind of flattery. I just really like baking…"

"Ooh, what are we baking for?" It was a new voice entering into the conversation, and all three participants looked to see a brown-haired, perky woman standing at the end of their table, wearing a much neater work uniform than the one Severa had on. "Sorry, was just walking by but I couldn't help but overhear that Noire's doing some baking. Owain never shuts up about how great what she makes is, so…what's the occasion?"

"There isn't an occasion, Cynthia," Brady muttered, causing the new woman to tilt her head at him and give him a confused look. "They're just tryin' to make somethin' better than it actually is. You know, the kind of stuff Owain's great at doin'?"

"I don't think I get it," Cynthia replied, kneeling down where she was standing, putting her hands on the table. "What's so bad in the first place? Severa hasn't told me anything that's going on, other than that she's not been feeling so hot lately." The innocence in her question was enough to get Owain to crack up in laughter, followed by Noire giggling a bit, all while Brady began looking even more distraught about things. "Oh! Oh gods! She's dying, isn't she? My best co-worker buddy, dying right before my eyes!" She jumped right back to her feet, slamming her hand on the table as she did. "I've got to go let her know I'm totally here for her in her time of need!"

No one stopped her as she ran from the table and back into the kitchen area at the restaurant, screaming for Severa as she went. "I, uh, don't think we should have laughed there. Might have given Cynthia the wrong idea." Owain, covering his mouth to mask any stray chuckles, looked at Noire who had gone from giggling to cackling like a mad woman. "And you as well, I guess. None of this mental instability stuff while we're here, please. I can't handle—"

"Who dares refer to this as 'instability'?" Noire barked, her voice gone gravelly. "If you cannot handle me at all my times, why should a lame fool like you handle me any time at all? You shouldn't, simple as that!"

"You two work out your problems, I'm going to just get on outta here. I'm not feelin' like great company today and I'm just burdenin' you both with my presence." Brady slid off his seat and fished out a few dollars from his pocket, throwing it onto the table. "That should cover what I got. Nice to see ya today, Owain, and, uh, a happy early birthday, I guess." He waved, knowing that his cousin was a bit occupied with trying to keep Noire from doing anything drastic while in her mood, and started to leave the restaurant.

He made it to the door when he felt someone wrap their arms around him, and the familiar smell of Severa's long hair let him know it was her. "I thought I said not to leave until I was done checking my tables and making my money. What, did you think now was a perfect time to leave your pregnant wife and start fresh somewhere else? I don't think so, mister."

"Sev, I'm just headin' home. Not leavin' ya, just getting out of this place before I lose my mind over everything I'm stuck dwellin' on." He heard her sigh, followed by her arms unwrapping themselves, and he turned his head to look over his shoulder at the pout she was showing him. "Come on now, don't do this to me. I don't want to be here any longer."

"And you think I do?" she asked, making her lip quiver. "I'm almost done working for the day, promise. Just stay here and we can go home together." He wanted to resist and start walking home, but the way she looked so pitiful was too hard to ignore, so he let his shoulders sag and told her that he'd stay. "Oh, thanks so much, Brady! I'll be done soon, and then that means it's back home for us." She leaned up and kissed him, before walking off back to wherever she'd been before, leaving him there to stand and wait for her return.

He wasn't sure what her definition of soon was, but it definitely hadn't been used in any way that he would have used it. It wasn't for close to an hour later that she came back, uniform shirt untucked and her hair hanging long and loose over her shoulders, and he stood up from the bench there in the foyer area, looking cross with her. "What took ya so long?" he asked, as she tried to hurry him out the door. "I wanted to leave forever ago!"

"Trust me, it's better if I don't tell you what took so long. You'll never let anyone live it down," she replied, grabbing his hand and dragging him outside, towards the beat-up car that they called their own. "Let's just forget that I took forever and call it good."

"You're hidin' something, aren't you, Sev?" he asked her, following along at her brisk pace. "You've got to tell me what's goin' on eventually. Nothing good comes out of lyin' to each other, ya know."

Reaching the car, she let go of his hand and ran to the driver's side, climbing in as fast as she could, while he got in much slower. "Nothing good ever comes out of lies, yeah, but as long as you're still hiding everything from your parents, I'm not admitting this to you." She pushed the key into the ignition and started the car, revving the engine a few times before driving away. All he could do was stare at her and wonder what it was she was going on about, but then his phone began to ring and she nearly slammed her foot on the brakes in fear. "Brady," she cautioned, "do not, under any circumstances, answer that call."

He was already pulling his phone out of his pocket, noticing that the call was coming straight from his mother. "Uh, why do ya say that? It's Ma. I've got to answer it if I know what's good for me." She visibly tensed up, tapping the brake a few times to try and deter him, but he clicked to answer the call anyway and was greeted with his mother furiously shrieking at him about how she had to find out his big news through someone else, and that he was a terrible son for not telling her anything. By the time he hung up to silence her, he was crying and shaking and Severa was sitting in her seat, wishing he'd listened to her about answering that call.

"I might have accidentally let it slip to Cynthia that we're having a baby," she admitted, "and you know her. First thing she does with any exciting news is tell her mom, who then told her dad, who called your dad immediately." She sighed, listening to Brady try to form words while crying too hard to manage it. "B, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to let it happen. Trust me, telling her was not something I intended on doing until everyone else knew."

"Why'd ya have to tell her, then?" he choked out, tears streaming down his face. "She thought you were dyin', couldn't ya have just played along with that? Now Ma knows and she hates us more than usual because we didn't tell her right away, and this is all because of Cynthia not knowin' how to keep secrets from her parents!"

"Well it makes you feel any better, I'm not planning on telling her anything else. She can find out things the same way your mom did." Sighing again, Severa gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter. "We've got to go face her in person before she tells my mom. Last thing we need is both of our mothers gunning for us because we've hidden this from them."

"Oh no, we're not goin' to go see Ma today. No way." Despite his crying, Brady was able to make himself sound at least semi-forceful. "She's going to kill me, then kill you, then kill me again, and then she'll make us regret doin' this. We just can't go talk to her about this, not when she's most angry about it."

"If we wait, she'll tell my mom, and we don't need the police at our door to freak us out. Talking to your mom, no matter how terrible of a person she is to interact with, is going to work out for us in the end." Severa plastered a fake smile on her face. "And once we're done talking to her, we don't have to talk to her about anything else for a long time. Hopefully." He wanted to believe what she was saying, but he knew his mom better than she could ever claim to, and therefore he knew that she would not be content with not hearing anything about the situation.

They pulled up in front of the house at about the same time that his dad did, and so the front door was open and Maribelle was standing there waiting when she saw not just her husband come home, but her child and his newly-expectant wife showing up for a visit. Rather than greeting Chrom like she usually did, she made a determined march down to the sidewalk outside the house, hands on hips and a stern expression to prove she wasn't pleased at all. "I hope you two are going to explain yourselves!" she yelled, before either of them had opened their doors. "I am far too young to be having a grandbaby!"

"I'm going to set her straight real quick," Severa muttered, before opening her door and joining Maribelle out on the sidewalk. "Look, I get it, you want to think you're some young woman who's got her whole life ahead of her. Well guess what? Your youth left you decades ago, and so you're very much old enough to be having a grandchild."

Not used to being sassed back, Maribelle blinked a few times to make sure that what she had heard had really just happened. "Yes, well…" she started, before turning to look at Brady, who had just gotten out of the car. "Brady! Please tell your dear mommy that what everyone is saying is a dirty lie, and that it's all for laughs!"

"Can't do that, Ma," he replied, walking around the car to come stand beside Severa. "What you heard's truer than true and there's nothin' we can do about it."

Maribelle blinked several more times, now in shock that her son didn't do as she said. "But my dear, aren't you too young to be having a child? The getting married thing, I've already forgiven that, but a baby is a huge responsibility—"

"Enough, Maribelle." Interrupting his wife, Chrom came down to the sidewalk to join the conversation, after having dropped his work things off inside the house. "You were younger than he is now when you took on that responsibility for the first time. While I can't say I'm proud of what's happened, at least he's got his priorities in order and married the woman before he had a child with her."

"—okay, I can accept that he is older than I was, but that doesn't mean he's fit to be a parent!" Coming back from that interruption, Maribelle shook her head at what she had heard Chrom say. "Especially not since I am almost certain these two are only married because this happened prior to their secret ceremony! What sort of couple, one-half of which is a devout member of the church, would do such a thing?"

"Er, we would?" Chrom put his hand on his forehead and sighed. "Maribelle, listen, you're being irrational here. You are getting on them for possibly doing things that we did, and I think you need to step back and calm down." She started to say something that began with the word "but", and he shushed her. "No, no buts. We're not thrilled that we're going to be grandparents, sure, but we're not going to harass either of them for this."

"I want to see her punch me," Severa off-handedly said, mostly in a whisper to Brady, but just loud enough that Maribelle heard it. It was a split-second movement, but the older woman curled one hand into a fist and made a lunging motion towards Severa, but she was stopped by Chrom grabbing her other arm, as well as Brady stepping between the two.

"I would most definitely love to punch you in your smug face," Maribelle sneered, trying to shake her way out of her husband's grip, "but I'm too much of a lady to partake in such crude activities. I can promise you that what I'll do to you is much, much worse than anything I could inflict with a simple fist."

"Yeah, I think we're done here." Brady pushed Severa back a bit towards the car. "Sorry ya had to find out about the whole havin' a baby situation through someone else, but we're not dealin' with this here today." He looked to his dad, who gave an approving nod, before looking once more at his still-angered mother. "Ma, once ya get back to your senses, we can talk, but for now it's not happenin'."

They got in the car incredibly quickly and drove off, leaving the two standing there, one still restraining the other. "He's right, you know," Chrom said, finally letting go of Maribelle's arm. "You've lost your senses. I'm sure, once the shock wears off, we'll both be happy about this, but for now it's just a lot to take in. Our little boy, grown up so much that he's starting a family of his own! Crazy to think about, huh?"

"I swear, the next thing we're going to hear is that Lucina's doing something illegal with that intellect of hers." Sighing deeply to collect herself, Maribelle looked to Chrom with a small, genuine smile. "I'm sure you're correct, though, and in due time we'll be happy with this development. As long as this is the last development of this type that he drops on us in the near future, anyway."


Once she accepted things for how they were, the problem with Maribelle even knowing about the baby situation was simple: she became overbearing once again, always checking in to see what was going on, to make sure that everything was perfectly fine. She insisted that she know everything and be told about every single piece of information relating to the child, beginning with being one of the first to see the initial sonogram image that clearly showed the little child in its tiny glory. (Of course, Severa wouldn't show her that without a fight, one that included making it perfectly clear that the image proved that the kid's existence wouldn't have happened had it not been for Maribelle's ultimatum that day at the house.) No one was sure if she was going this because she really cared, or because she wanted to get on her son's nerves, but the second option seemed all the more likely when she'd place phone calls at odd hours or simply drop by the apartment at random.

After they had managed to get her out after she came to the door unannounced for the third time in a week, and for close to the fiftieth time since she'd found out, Severa seemed eager to get out of the house herself. It was one of her sparse days off, which she normally chose to spend at home, but this one she wanted to spend differently. "Come on, let's just go somewhere," she said, as she dressed herself in one of the nicest things she could manage. "Drive around until we find something to do. Better than sitting around here and waiting for your mom to try walking in again."

"She wouldn't try that one twice on the same day," Brady replied, before sighing when he saw the dead serious look Severa was giving him. "Okay, okay, I'll go ridin' with ya. Don't need to be givin' me the death glare any longer."

She laughed, pulling her shirt over her head as she did. "There, glare's taken care of." He muttered that he wasn't quite meaning like that, so she finished putting her shirt on properly, taking special care not to let it get caught on her navel piercing, which seemed to be a bit more prominent than usual. "Gods, you can't be serious!" Her voice got high pitched as she looked down at how her piece of jewelry was making the tiniest of impressions through her shirt. "I can't be starting to get fat already. It's been, like, three months!"

"Maybe if ya didn't make it a point to eat everything Noire bakes for ya, this wouldn't be a problem!" Even as he was looking at her standing there, staring at herself in contempt, he didn't notice anything about her physically that was out of the ordinary, but if she could see it, he had to at least play along. That changed once they were out in the car, with her behind the wheel and him as the passenger, because he could look to her and see the very slight curve of her stomach, accented by the jewelry she was wearing—and it was at that moment that the reality of the situation really began to hit him. He could try and blame those friendly baked goods for this, but that excuse would only hold for so long.

"You can stop staring at me whenever you want," Severa told him, not taking her eyes off the road before her. He mumbled an apology and turned away. "Seriously, I get it. You can't look away from how hideously gross your wife already is. I deserve it, probably."

He slammed his hand down on the dashboard. "Come on, Sev! You're far from hideous or gross, and I'm pretty sure it's impossible for ya to ever fit either of those descriptions. What, did Ma comin' in this morning trigger some sort of 'self-hate' switch in your mind?"

"This has nothing to do with your mother!" she snapped in response, leading him to ask what the real motive behind everything was, as she had framed this "aimless" drive by saying it was to get away in case Maribelle came back. "Ugh, I should have thought this through a bit better before opening my damn mouth."

"Yeah, you should've. Now get to explainin' what's up before I jump to conclusions." He pulled his hand back closer to his body, while looking around at the empty scenery they were driving past, leading him to think maybe they were going somewhere secret. "We aren't goin' somewhere to…" His voice choked up before he could finish the suggestion, yet Severa went wide eyed at the mere implication.

"I could never even think of that, you monster," she spat at him, "and I can't believe you just seriously tired asking me that! I thought you super church-y people were above killing babies." He tried to spit out a sincere apology, but he had begun crying and was beyond being able to form words. "I get it, really, I do. You were demonstrating how you jump to conclusions. But no big deal. We're just going out to the jail."

Since he was crying and blubbering like a child, Brady couldn't ask why that was their destination, but he had a fairly solid guess as to what it was. They were probably going to have a little visit with Severa's father. But when they pulled up outside the foreboding building, he was told to just stay in the car, only to get out to move to the back seat. He ended up sitting out there, alone in the summer heat, for close to half an hour, during which he collected himself and got ready for whatever was going to happen, all while sitting with the door wide open to allow for fresh air. The furthest thing from his mind at that time was the possibility that they were there to get her father, yet that was exactly what was happening; when Severa came out of the building, she had with her a man that Brady didn't recognize, but could he easily guess it was her father due to them having an almost identical hair color.

This was only cemented further when she handed the guy the keys to the car and he got in to the driver's seat, while Severa climbed in to be the front passenger. "Hey, who's the big guy in the back?" the man asked, looking at Brady through the rearview mirror. "Looks like he's the mayor's kid, with all that blue hair he's got. Severa, please tell me he's not here on business of that law-crazed mother of yours."

"He's not here because of my mother or his," she replied, turning her head to look back at him. "He's here because it's about time you get to meet the love of my life."

"Oh, so this is the boy you've talked about endlessly for years?" She nodded, and the man smiled, giving a small wave to the back seat. "Well, kid, it's nice to meet you after all this time. The name's Gaius. I'm Severa's dad."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Brady, but, uh, I'm sure Sev's mentioned that a time or two." Scratching his head a bit for what else to say, Brady figured he could hit on one of the points Gaius had raised before. "And I am the mayor's kid, yeah. Don't worry, though, because I'm not anything like my dad. Or my mom. I'm just me."

Severa gave a long, slightly dreamy-sounding sigh. "And you're totally my husband, right?" Gaius choked on air when he heard the question, and looked like he was going to choke again when he saw the way Brady nodded in response to it. "See, Daddy, I can manage myself while you're in jail. I went off and married myself into a good family. With good people in it."

"That's wonderful," he managed to say, still looking at Brady through the mirror. "Nice to know that my little girl's out there taking care of herself, even when her dad's not around to steer her right." He gave a forced laugh, before sighing. "Your mother doesn't know about this, does she?"

"Oh, she knows nothing." Severa's eyes lit up, and she reached back to grab Brady's hand, which he took a firm grip of, the rough feeling of her ring's gem under his fingers. "Which I'd like to keep it that way. She's still blissfully unaware that her daughter's married, and so she totally doesn't know what else is going on in my life." Gaius narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out what she was implying, but she went on ahead and spelled it out for him: "I want you to promise me you won't tell her that me and Brady are having a baby."

If hearing his daughter was married almost made him choke, that revelation was quite nearly enough to kill the man. "You're what?" he asked, causing her to repeat it, complete with a protective hand flourish over her stomach. "Oh gods, you're not kidding, are you? Severa, you're not being very funny if you think this is a joke. Let your old man be out of jail for a few days before you drop this sort of thing on him."

"Sorry," she replied with a fake and overly sweet tone to her voice, pulling her hand back to her so she could place it on her cheek to make herself look slightly excited about what was to follow. "I just couldn't wait any longer to get to tell you this great news! I thought it would be a good way to make you, hm, shape up and stay out of jail permanently?"

Gaius couldn't take his eyes off how his daughter was smiling at him, how she seemed to be so pleased with herself about what she'd just told him. He slowly nodded, making sense of everything that was going on. "Yeah, yeah, I'll try. For the kiddo."

"And for me too, right?" She bat her eyelashes a few times. "Daddy, you've spent so much of my life in and out of jail that you should really try for me too." He told her that he would, although it was clearly a half-hearted answer, but she accepted it, thanking him over and over again for being willing to give following the law a shot. "All I'm asking for is at least the next year," she explained, while her dad started to drive the car back towards town. "I'd like you around more than that, of course, but I want my baby to get to know the cool parts of its family, like you."

"I hear you on that one. Let's just hope that your mother doesn't decide she wants this to go any differently." Gaius paused, before shaking his head. "Damn it, Severa, how are we going to keep me out of jail if your mother doesn't know about the kid? You've got to tell her so she doesn't get it in her head that I deserve to be arrested again."

Listening to the two go back and forth, Severa trying to remain adamant that her mother didn't deserve to know anything while Gaius tried to convince her otherwise, Brady began to think about how different his wife's family life was than the life he knew. While his parents were happily married and never seemed to have problems, Severa's parents appeared to have some strange issues between them, to the point that, as far as he could tell, her mother was responsible for the multiple times her father had been arrested and sent to jail. He knew that she was not on good terms with her mother, but discovering how close she tried to be with her father, it made him slightly curious as to what was so off-putting about her mother.

"Brady, answer me!" It was Severa, sounding impatient, as if he had ignored something she'd said (which, because of slipping into his thoughts, he clearly had). He had to ask her to repeat herself, which she did with a huffy breath. "I asked you if you could tell my dad about yourself a bit more, but clearly you don't care enough to be paying attention to me or him, so what's even the point?"

"I got to thinkin' about how weird your family life is, so sorry that I wasn't payin' attention!" He didn't mean to snap at her, but like he normally did when she got on his nerves and misinterpreted his intentions, he was stuck having to backpedal and apologize for his brash attitude. "Sorry, Sev, for bein' rude there. Wanted me to talk about myself, yeah?" She nodded, giving a fake sniffle to make him feel bad. "Okay, but there's not much I can say about myself that's not obvious."

"I need to know if I need to be happy my daughter's married to you or not," Gaius said, chuckling a bit. "You might be the mayor's kid, and you claim to not be like your parents, but can't be sure of that until you start talking."

"Well, uh…" Brady began to fidget, trying to think of anything interesting about himself that he could say, but drew a complete blank. "I've got nothing. There's not much to me, other than who my parents are and that I'm married to Sev, I guess. Can't all be exciting winners in this world, ya know."

Rather than seeming disappointed at what he heard, Gaius seemed to be perfectly fine with the non-answer he was given. "Hey, it takes some kind of modesty to be able to say you're not interesting at all. But you've got to have something about you, if you were able to sweep my little girl off her feet." Under his breath, he added, "Definitely not your looks, though."

"I heard that, Daddy!" Severa shrieked, slapping her father on the arm. "I happen to think that Brady is one of the most attractive guys around, thank you very much. He's tall, dark-haired, and super handsome…even with that scar on his face. Makes him look rugged." At the mention of his scar, Brady covered the afflicted eye with his hand, trying to hide it, but he quickly realized that there was no point as everyone had already seen it.

"To each their own, I guess," Gaius said in reply to his daughter's proclamation of love for her husband's appearance. "Then again, what can I judge? I've been with a woman who's got nothing worth mentioning for a chest, and I wouldn't trade her for the world. On her good days, anyway." He gave a soft chuckle. "On her bad days, I'd love to trade her off to someone who won't arrest me for breaking small laws."

"How can you love someone who's down for arrestin' ya all the time?" Brady asked, trying to overcome how embarrassed he was about his face to become part of the conversation. "That just doesn't make any sense to me, and I don't think that's how love's supposed to work."

Severa snorted in laughter, while Gaius tried to find the words needed to explain his situation. "Well, you see, my dearest wife felt like she wasn't going to find a man out there in the world, especially not when the man she did want hooked up with some snobby law-loving woman that she became super jealous of. And so, when she finally found me out there in the world, she just sort of settled for what she could get." He paused, looking back in the mirror for a second to catch Brady's reflection, before shaking his head. "I just can't believe that my little girl's gotten with the son of the guy my wife wanted all along."

"Isn't that the best part though?" Snorting again, Severa tilted her head back to take a deep sigh. "I bet, if Mother ever finds out about this, she'll be so angry that she'll take it out on anyone around to hear it. Sorry in advance for that, by the way," she told her dad, who accepted the preemptive apology, although it quickly came to be relevant to the situation. This was due to the fact that Gaius had driven them straight to his house, and standing on the front porch of the modest-sized home (it definitely made Brady feel like his parents' house was a large mansion, in comparison) was a woman with long red hair that shined in the afternoon light.

At the sight of this woman, Severa let out a string of curses, begging her dad to drive somewhere else so she didn't have to face her. "Hey, no one said you had to go up and talk to her," he replied, bringing the car to a halt in the driveway. "Just get out and get to walking to your place without saying anything. I'll do the honors of talking to her for you."

"Make sure you don't tell her anything about me being married or me having a baby! I don't need her tracking me down to get answers from me, seriously." Severa held out a hand with a pinky outstretched and her dad latched his pinky around hers, promising her that he wouldn't do anything she didn't like. "Thank you so much! Now have fun with your freedom and your car and your crazy wife! I love you, Daddy!"

"Love you too, Severa," he said, letting go of her hand. She and Brady both got out of the car then, heading down the driveway to start walking to their apartment—and until she was out of view, Severa had a hand raised high in the air with her middle finger pointed upward. Gaius saw this, chuckling when he did, but he pretended not to find it amusing when he approached the woman standing on the porch, her arms crossed and a foot tapping. "Hey there, beautiful. Long time no see. What's it been, six, seven months?"

"Nice of you to ask our daughter to pick you up rather than me." The woman cracked a small smile, but did not drop her disappointed pose. "I thought better of our relationship, Gaius. I really did."

He shrugged. "We've got a great relationship, Cordelia. You know this. I just figured I should burden Severa with getting me this time, and boy was that a good decision. She's got some secrets she's hiding from you." He watched as the smile faded from Cordelia's face and she implored him to continue. "No way, pinky promised her I wouldn't. My lips don't open nearly as easily as her legs do."

"Her legs…?" Cordelia inhaled deeply, puffing her chest up in anger. "How dare you talk about our little Severa like that! She would never!" He reached up and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to puff up a bit more. "Gaius, you better get to explaining before we go chase her down so I can get answers for myself." He smirked, miming zipping his lips, and she narrowed her gaze. "Last chance, before I find a way to send you back to jail now."

Cordelia was calling her daughter in complete disbelief and looking for confirmation nearly hourly over the next few weeks; Severa ignored every call until she felt like answering one to tell her mother to leave her alone and stop being so bothersome. That only caused Cordelia to come make an unexpected visit to the apartment, and her appearance was appreciated just as much as any of Maribelle's ever had been, or quite possibly even less so. Brady had always thought that no one could possibly have a more love-hate relationship with their mother than he did, but he was proven wrong by watching just how much hatred Severa held towards Cordelia, only for the two to end up hugging it out at the end of the home visit. Severa swore that her mother was still a terrible person, but at least she was understanding and accepting of her daughter's life choices in the end. Even if, at that point, there wasn't anything anyone could do but accept things for what they were.


A/N: clearly this chapter has a running theme. c: Hope you all enjoyed it, and stay tuned for next week's chapter!