Hey guys! So here's chapter 3. I'm trying really hard to put a lot of scenes from season 2 in this story while still trying to keep everything fresh and new. This chapter takes place about two weeks after the last chapter. Once more, Veronica's thoughts are italicized. Hope you enjoy.

Duncan's Gift

Chapter 3:

There were many reasons why Veronica was upset this week; one reason being that finding an OB she liked was harder than she thought. She'd already seen 2 from the list Dr. Bishop had given her, and both made her want to punch them in the face. The second reason behind her less than cheerful disposition the fact that she'd been diagnosed with Chlamydia. Thankfully the blood test she'd been given at the clinic caught it soon enough and she was now on antibiotics. Her big task however was finding out how the hell she'd contracted it. The one thing to distract her from that was that today she was going for her first sonogram. It was still hard for her to believe that she was pregnant; despite her many symptoms, she still looked the same and mostly felt the same.

She sat in the hospital lobby and waited. She was in a room full of pregnant women, all with their partners, while she sat alone working on homework. When she walked in she saw some of the looks she had received and though it didn't make her too happy, she had grown used to it from the past year.

"Veronica Mars?" She heard her name being called.

She looked up and walked up to the redhead holding a clipboard.

"Hi Veronica, I'm Alex. I'll be doing your ultrasound for today."

"Nice to meet you."

They walked to the room where Alex then had Veronica lay back on the table and lift her shirt.

"So, we've warmed up the gel so you won't have to feel cold." Alex informed. "So is this your first?"

"It is."

"That must be so exciting for you."

"Exciting and scary." She replied.

After squeezing the gel onto her stomach, Alex placed the transducer and moved it around. She pressed and prodded making Veronica want to run to the bathroom. Before her ultrasound, she was told to drink 32oz of water and now that she had a woman pressing down on her lower belly, she was bursting.

"This sometimes takes a little while, especially because you're so tiny."

Veronica nodded and kept looking at the ceiling.

"Oh, there we are!" Alex cheered.

Veronica instantly turned her head to look at the screen. So there is a baby in there! It looked somewhat blobish, but she could easily point out the teeny head.

"So it looks like you're measuring at 9 weeks and 4 days along. Your due date should fall on August 17th. Would you like to hear the heartbeat?"

Veronica nodded unable to speak, this was real now. She saw it on the screen, she was carrying a human life, Duncan's baby, Lilly's niece or nephew. She then heard the sound of her baby's heartbeating causing her to gasp.

"So, baby's heartbeat is at 182 beats per minute, which is perfectly healthy for this stage in pregnancy." Alex informed her. "Okay Veronica, I'm going to print you off some pictures and then I'll get you cleaned up."

"sounds good." Veronica replied still in awe over everything.

She remembered watching movies or shows where women cry after hearing the heartbeat or seeing their baby, but Veronica felt no tears or need to cry. Yes, she was happy that her baby was healthy, and it was amazing to see and hear her child, but something still stopped her from crying. She figured she was in shock. This reality of her pregnancy was staring at her in the face and she couldn't help but think of scary thoughts and things that could go wrong. It also didn't help that she had no one to 'celebrate' this with her. Duncan was gone, her friends had no idea, and it would be awkward if her dad were there.

After her Ultrasound, Veronica drove to Mars Investigations. She knew her dad would be there and she knew she needed to get some work done as well. On the drive over, she couldn't get the sound of the heartbeat from her head. It really hit her then that there was no turning back from this. She knew that legally she still had options, but after seeing her baby and hearing the heartbeat, she couldn't let this go.

"Hey Dad, I'm here." She said as she walked into the office.

"Hey honey, how was your appointment?" He asked.

"It went well. It's really happening now…"

She reached into her bag and pulled out the pictures.

"Wow." Keith sighed. "Yeah, this is definitely really happening."

Even though he was being supportive, Veronica still felt terrible. She knew she was disappointing him by being in this situation. Seeing his face while he looked at the sonogram proved it to her a little more.

"I'm sorry Dad."

"Veronica, you don't need to be sorry. Remember what I said; yes, this isn't the best of situations, but I still love you and I'll still support you. Most importantly, I'm kind of excited too."

"You're excited?"

"I am. Admittedly, I'd have been more excited if you were 30 and married, but having a kid is an amazing thing. I wouldn't trade you for the world, and I'm 100% sure that this grandkid of mine will be exactly the same."

"Thanks Dad. I really needed to hear that." She replied giving him a hug. She suddenly felt herself becoming over emotional. She had tried to keep any pregnancy conversation from happening because she had felt so ashamed for being in this situation, but hearing her dads words helped her release some of those negative feelings. In fact, she was feeling some excitement creeping up as well. She knew she could be a great mother. She didn't grow up with the perfect mother, however she had the damn-near perfect father and she was going to follow in his footsteps.

"So what do you need me to work on today?" She asked after the hug was over.

"Answering phones."

"Really Dad, what do you need?"

"I'm serious Veronica. I want you off of cases, it's dangerous enough being that you're still in high school, but now that you're pregnant I don't want to put both of you in danger."

"I'm always careful, but now I'll be even more careful." She bargained.

"I know that you're always careful, but things can happen unexpectedly. Like with Aaron Echolls, you were being safe, but he ended up being in the back of your car."

He was right. I wasn't just putting myself in danger, I now had to think about my baby.

"Okay. Let's make a deal. I help you with all of the paper trails and desk work investigating and you do all of the actual leg work."

"I should've known that I wouldn't be able to deter you from this entirely." He sighed. "But it's a deal."

2 weeks later.

Veronica had mostly stuck to the deal she'd made with her dad. The bigger cases that came in she had stayed on desk duty like she promised, however when it came to students at Neptune High needing her help, she dove in full force.

She was now 11 weeks and 5 days along and she had finally found an OB she didn't want strangle. So far in her pregnancy all was well, her fatigue was diminishing as were her headaches and she was having less food aversions. When she looked in the mirror, she could tell that she was pregnant. She had a small bump concentrated to her lower belly that she had grown used to placing her hand on the rounded hard surface. To anyone else, she still looked the same, but to her it was noticeable. She remembered freaking out over it when she'd first discovered it, and had waited for her dad to bring up her sudden plumpness. However it never came. She had figured that he was trying to avoid the conversation to spare her feelings but when she called him out on it, she realized he'd had no clue. Regardless, she still noticed it which meant she was very aware of her body now.

Another exciting thing that had happened in the past few weeks, was that she had bought her first baby items. She hadn't meant to, but while she was at Target, she had accidentally stumbled across the baby section. She was overwhelmed when she had first seen all of the items she would need, but after the shock had warn off, she made an internal list of the things she would need to save up for and buy. Her first items bought were a set of white newborn bodysuits and a set of grey hat and mitts.

She smiled to herself whenever she thought of the tiny clothing that occupied the first drawer in her dresser in her room.

"You okay Veronica?" Wallace asked.

"What?" She replied coming out of her daze.

"You were light years away. What's been up with you lately?"

"Nothing, really."

"See, with that quick answer I know something is up."

"Fine. I'll tell you after school today."

She knew she wanted to wait until she was in her second trimester to tell her friends, but Wallace was her best friend and closest confidant, keeping him out of the loop was probably not the best of ideas.

How does one tell her best friend that she's pregnant?

The rest of her school day was spent contemplating how she would tell her best friend that he was going to be Uncle Wallace in a few months.

Once school was dismissed, she found Wallace waiting by her car.

"So what's been going on?" He asked.

"Let's go for a drive." She replied all too aware of the many students in the parking lot.

"Where to?"

"My place."

"I'll follow you in my car then."

"Enough delays, tell me what's wrong?" Wallace asked once they entered the Mars apartment.

Veronica went to her room and pulled out the only way she could tell him, without sounding like some dramatic TV show.

"Woah Veronica, is that what I think it is?" He asked after seeing the black and white scan sitting on her desk.

She turned around to see him holding up the framed scan.

She nodded. "It is. I'm a human incubator."

"That's a surprise." He replied. "Does anyone else know?"

"Just Dad and you."

"I'm assuming it's Duncan's."

"You're assuming right. So Wallace, are you ready to become Uncle Wally in a few months?"

"As long as your kid doesn't call me Uncle Wally."

"Uncle Wall-Wall?"

"I'm cool with Uncle Wallace."

"You're no fun!"

"So I'm really going to be Uncle Wallace?"

"Hell yeah you are! This kid is going to need a cool Uncle."

"Yeah, I am the most qualified for cool uncle." He laughed. "So this is why you've been off these past few weeks." He stated.

"Yeah, I'm now just getting used to the fact that I'm growing a child."

"When are you due?"

"I'm due August 17th for now. My due date can change apparently."

"At least you won't be going into labor during prom or graduation."

"That's exactly what dad said to me."

After she dropped the big news, Wallace asked a few questions but overall remained supportive as he always was. Now that Wallace knew, that meant that she had told everyone important. She could now keep everything to herself until it began to show. She prayed that she wouldn't show for a few more weeks, or that she was one of those freak-show pregnant women who didn't pop until their third trimester. She also prayed for an absence of stretch marks and an easy labor and delivery. She instantly thought back to the terrible labor and delivery video she had to watch in health class last week. While the other student in her class fooled around and laughed at the video, her eyes had remained glued to the video in fear.

"Nice to see you Wallace." Keith said as he entered the apartment. "What brings you to the Mars residence?"

Wallace looked over at Veronica cautiously. He didn't know how to respond in this situation.

"I just told Wallace that he's going to be an uncle." Veronica answered for him.

"Did she tell you that she's going to name the baby after me if he's a boy?"

"I never said that. You brought it up and you assumed that I agreed."

"Well if you need any name suggestion, Wallace is a great name too."

"Hey easy there, I'm the granddad, I get first dibs on the name."

Veronica rolled her eyes and laughed. "If anyone gets dibs on the name, it should be the human incubator."

"As fun as this is, I'm going to head home. I'll see you tomorrow Veronica, bye Mr. Mars." Wallace said.

"Bye Uncle Wall-Wall."

"Bye Wallace."

"So human incubator, what do you want for dinner tonight?" Keith asked after Wallace had left.

Veronica shrugged. Every now and then she still had some pickiness when it came to foods, and today it was one of those days.

"Are you going to be difficult again?" Keith teased.

"Yeah. You choose what to eat tonight. Hopefully I'll like it." She walked to her room and sat at her desk.

The mystery of how she contracted Chlamydia still wasn't solved. The constant thought that ran through her head was if this baby wasn't Duncan's last gift, but instead contracting the clap was. She was nearly done with the antibiotics given to her. Normally if she weren't pregnant, she would've been finished with them a week ago, but since she was pregnant she had to have a lower dosage for a longer period of time as to not affect the baby.

She leaned back in her chair and stared at the sonogram picture. She remembered she had always laughed when she saw women in movies frame their sonogram pictures, but here she was staring at a framed black and white scan. Her mind had definitely changed about this pregnancy. When she first found out, she was scared, ashamed, and upset that she had fallen pregnant so young. But with the support of her dad and Wallace along with the ultrasound appointment, she was now beginning to feel excited to be a mother. Albeit she was still scared, but she figured it was natural for every first time mother to be scared no matter what their age was.

That is it for chapter 3. I hope you enjoyed it! Chapter 4 will be up by the next Sunday and I may or may not be adding some Lamb and Logan to it. And for those wondering, I was just like Veronica when it came to sonogram pictures. I used to always laugh when I saw women framing their scans and now here I am with frames and photo albums dedicated to my sonogram scans. I'll see you all next week!