A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait. This is the second version of Chapter Four, and the first part contains material that was already in the previous versions of chapters, but in a different order than it had been previously. The second part of the this chapter it entirely new. This chapter and the next one are the only ones left to be rewritten, then the fic will (finally) start progressing.

Also, I have realized since beginning this story that it was heavily influenced by a Bleach fanfic I read. My plot is similar in one specific event to Princess Kitty1's Ulquihime fic "Muse". I would hate to not give credit where it is due, and credit for part of my plot belongs to Princess Kitty1. I would recommend "Muse" to any Ulquihime fans. It's extremely good.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please read and review. :)

Even though Gil had clearly forgotten all about the movie by the time they got home that night, Matthew couldn't forget that she had never seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To a person who'd grown up owning every Disney movie as a kid, it was disturbing to find someone who had never watched a single one. It was for that reason that when the next weekend rolled around, Matthew decided to pay a short visit to his brother, who owned every special edition of every Disney movie to borrow his copy of Snow White. Or at least Matthew had intended for it to be a short visit.

But Alfred being Alfred, hadn't let Matthew go, talking a mile a minute about every possible topic under the sun: the new edition of the Pokémon game he'd bought, how much he hated being an intern under Ivan Braginsky, the new McDonald's opening closer to his apartment, the newest horror movie he had rented but had been too scared to watch yet, how much he hated being an intern under Ivan Braginsky, the latest episode of Hannah Montana (Matthew didn't even want to know why his twenty-five-year-old brother watched that show), how much he hated being an intern under Ivan Braginsky, and the new Call of Duty game he had been playing. And then for a change of pace he talked about how much he hated being an intern under Ivan Braginsky. Of course, Matthew had stopped really listening to anything his brother said about Dr. Braginsky. He was convinced that his brother insisted he hated the man so much only because he was trying to deny to himself that he actually liked the Russian surgeon.

With the sheer volume of prattle Alfred managed to put his brother through, nearly three hours had passed by the time that Matthew finally got the Blu-ray disc from him. It was a relief to get back to his apartment where he could finally escape Alfred's endless chatter. He entered his apartment, surprised to see that Gil wasn't lounging on his couch and watching TV as she so often was when he came home. Instead, he found her in his home office (which had been temporarily transformed into her bedroom), sitting in front of his desk with her knees drawn up to her chest, staring at his laptop with a frown. He peered over her shoulder, curious to see what she was doing.

She was on the internet, looking at what appeared to be an adoption website. The page was pastel pink and blue with clip art of booties and rattles framing pictures of smiling couples pasted in every spare pixel. The families all looked wholesome and happy, though Gil was eyeing the screen in suspicion. Still, Matthew felt a great deal of relief that Gil had apparently given up on the idea of getting an abortion.

"Are you thinking about adoption?" he asked hopefully.

"Not anymore," Gil responded, clicking the exit button on the internet browser violently. The page of smiling families disappeared along with Matthew's short-lived sense of relief.

"Why not?" he questioned with a frown.

"Those families are fucking creepy," Gil accused, jabbing a finger at the computer screen. "They're too perfect!"

"What's wrong with them?" Matthew asked.

"According to them, nothing! They all paint this beautiful picture like they're fucking saints for taking your accident off of your hands and they list weirdass hobbies like croquet and chess and water skiing and say creepy shit that doesn't make any sense. This one guy put on his profile that his worst quality is that he 'tries too hard'. What the fuck does that even mean?" Gil fumed, sending another glare toward the computer, even though the adoption page had already been closed.

Matthew hadn't known Gil for very long, but it was still plain that looking at the adoption pages had stressed her out. The glare on her face seemed almost forced somehow; it wasn't difficult to imagine that underneath the angry front she had put up she must be scared and upset by the magnitude of the choice she had been considering. It was unnerving to see that kind of uncertainty from somebody as tough as Gil had proven to be in the last few weeks. In an attempt to comfort her, Matthew shut the laptop gently.

"You don't have to make any decisions right away," he assured Gil. "You still have plenty of time." She didn't answer him.

So he decided to do the one thing he knew would cheer anybody up: he made pancakes for dinner.

When he started pouring the batter on the griddle, the smell of the pancakes cooking lured Gil out from her gloom in the office to the kitchen. She sat in silence at the table, watching him cook. When the pancakes were ready he set them down in front of her along with the maple syrup, then joined her at the table. Matthew picked up the syrup and poured it liberally on his pancakes before setting it back down on the table, closer to Gil. She eyed the maple leaf-shaped bottle suspiciously.

"Something wrong?" Matthew asked when he realized that Gil wasn't eating and was instead appeared to be having a staring contest with the bottle of syrup.

"I've never eaten real maple syrup before," she muttered. Matthew gaped at her in horror.

"Try it," he ordered in a rare moment of assertiveness. "Maple syrup surely brings happiness to the people who eat it."

Gil looked like she didn't believe him, but uncapped the bottle and poured the sticky, amber liquid on her pancakes anyway. Tentatively, she took a bite. Matthew waited for her reaction. There were a few seconds of silence. And then–

"Oh my God, this is fucking delicious."

Those were the last few words Matthew heard from Gil for a while. She was too busy shoveling pancakes into her mouth at an impossible speed for any conversation during dinner which didn't bother Matthew at all. He was slightly concerned that she might choke, but shrugged it off. He knew the Heimlich Maneuver. So instead of worrying, he just paid more attention to his own pancakes, which were as tasty as ever. But when the meal was over, she still seemed a little despondent, so Matthew popped in the movie he'd borrowed in hopes of distracting Gil from what was upsetting her.

"We're watching this," he announced to Gil, who had lied down on the couch with several Hostess Cupcakes smeared with peanut butter.

"W'a ith it?" Gil garbled unintelligibly through a mouthful of peanut butter and chocolate. After a lifetime of translating whatever Alfred said though a mouthful of hamburgers, Matthew was easily able to understand what she had just said.

"It's Snow White," he answered as he slipped the disk in his Blu-ray player. Gil made a noise that sounding like she was trying to whine about Matthew's choice of movies but he ignored her.

"Scoot over," he said, gesturing to Gil to make room for him on the couch. Glaring, she moved her legs for a minute, then plopped them back down on Matthew's lap once he had sat down. She wasn't very heavy, so Matthew let her lie on him and started the movie. At first she complained about how "lame" the movie was, but Matthew was pleased to see that after a while Gil got into the movie, shouting colorful comments at the characters. She even sat up and moved off of his legs, something that Matthew was extremely grateful for (they'd started to fall asleep).

"No, don't eat the apple you dumbass!" she shouted at the screen as Snow White took a bite of the poison apple the disguised Queen had just offered. The cartoon princess fell over in a faint as the evil Queen cackled with glee.

"Snow White's friggin' stupid!" she exclaimed to Matthew. "Why the hell would she trust that old bitch when she's clearly evil? Even her nose looks like it would murder a puppy!"

Matthew laughed at Gil's ridiculous comments. He enjoyed her company a surprising amount and liked Gil despite their bad first impressions of each other. It was nice to have a friend in the house rather than living alone. He found himself minding less and less that she was probably going to be here for a long time.

In the end, it was borrowing Snow White that screwed Matthew over. Because he forgot to give it back, and Alfred, being Alfred, saw no problem in dropping by unannounced to retrieve it. Matthew was cleaning up in the kitchen when it happened; he heard the door open and Gil say, "Who are you?" followed by a shriek. The plate in his hands fell back into the sink and he ran into the living room, afraid of what had caused the shriek. He turned the corner to see Gil and Alfred, staring at each other awkwardly.

"Matt!" Alfred wailed and threw his arms around Matthew, almost knocking him over. "How could you?"

He looked over at Gil for an explanation for the outburst. She merely shrugged.

"How could I what?" Matthew asked, already dreading hearing whatever crazy idea had upset his brother so badly. Alfred pointed angrily at Gil.

"First, you don't tell me your girlfriend moved in and then you didn't bother to tell me you made me a nephew! I didn't even know you had a girlfriend!" he wailed. Matthew's palm would have crashed straight into his forehead if Alfred hadn't been pinning his arms to his sides. Not this again.

"Alfred," he tried to interrupt.

"Does Mom know about this? She's gonna be pissed you didn't tell her, you know that, right?"

"Alfred."

"She looks pretty damn young, too. Never pegged you for a cradle robber, man. When did this happen?"

"ALFRED!"

He jumped in terror at his brother raising his voice.

"Gil is not my girlfriend," Matthew said firmly. To his surprise, Alfred looked even more distressed.

"You mean you got married without telling anyone? That's even worse!"

"No!" Matthew tried to take a few calming breaths before continuing. "Al. Listen to me. Gil is not my wife, and she is not my girlfriend, and she never has been. We are just friends." He made sure to state the last part slowly, so that there was no possibility of Alfred misunderstanding again. And because Alfred had opened his mouth again, Matthew added, "And I am not the father."

"Oh," Alfred said, sounding disappointed. "Too bad. I wanna be an uncle."

"Don't you start with that, too," Matthew muttered.

"Sorry, sorry," Alfred said, holding his hands up. "So why is she here?"

After telling his brother a somewhat abridged version of how Gil ended up living with him, Alfred took his Blu-ray disc back and Matthew noticed that Gil had disappeared during their conversation. He found her in his room, standing sideways in front of his mirrored closet doors in nothing but her underwear. There were a few seconds where Matthew was frozen in shock and couldn't look away from her, the black lacy undergarments doing very little to hide her pale skin from view. He quickly snapped out of it and turned away from her, feeling his face heat up in embarrassment.

"I'm showing," Gil wailed.

*I went to an adoption website to see what they look like. The wording on some couple's profiles can be a bit unsettling.

*Canada's line about maple syrup is taken directly from the Ore-sama no Blog, found here:

spazzy .starry -sky oresamanosite /t .html

*In case it wasn't clear, Russia is a surgeon and America's completing his residency under him with three other interns.

By the way, I am in no way trying to make any political statements with this story.