ONWARDS! After the reveals in the last chapter there's only gonna be more drama, more action, more plot! I'm really enjoying writing this story, I hope you're enjoying reading it just as much. Drop me a review to let me know how you feel about it, I'd appreciate that a lot.

OCs! Ahh! Yes, yes there are OCs. As ever the Foundlings universe is packed with them, but they do serve a purpose. This chapter we have a plethora of Grimmalks, remember those dudes? Welllll since I first introduced them waaay back in Foundlings I actually got around to playing Skyrim and realised they're kinda like Khajit. Ooops? But, whatevs, cat people are awesome whatever the universe. Prepare for more cat people in the future.

As ever I want to thank my wonderful and beautiful girlfriend for all her help generally motivating me to write this story and just being awesome and supportive. She is the best.

Content Warning: serious parental disapproval, arguments, Grimmalks, plot.

"Dude, you are so dead." Phoebe breathed as she watched the tiny speck on the horizon grow larger, hurtling towards the tower window with all the speed of an enraged soon-to-be-grandmother.

"The deadest." Jake agreed morosely. Finn didn't reply, he'd gone white as a sheet and his lower lip was trembling ever so slightly. He reflected that it had been a pretty dumb move to assume he could walk away from Victoria and the looming problem of an unplanned baby without his parents finding out, dumber not to realise Mom would be following him and would know exactly where to look for him. Mama would be furious, she'd scream at him, she'd tell him what an idiot he was. Mom though...

Finn had always had a special relationship with his Mom. It wasn't that he didn't love his Mama too because he did but he'd known for longer than he could remember that Mom had rescued him, that she was special to him. Because they'd both been alone and then they'd found each other and learned how to be a family together before anyone else had been involved. He'd been told the story a thousand times, how Mom heard him crying in the candy forest and carried him home, washed him clean while he slept and made a cradle for him out of her own shirts, played with him all night, bought him his first real clothes and kept him safe from the demons who'd murdered his human father. Mom was everything safe in the world. Nothing could harm him when she was around to protect him, Finn had never once had to worry that she wouldn't be there for him.

Until now.

Now he was consumed by panic because what if she disowned him? There were still months until his eighteenth birthday, he'd legally still be a minor. She might make him go live at the orphanage or, he gulped at the thought, what if some stranger stepped in to adopt him instead and he had to go be someone else's son? What if she just took him to the forest where she'd found him and dumped him back there? And then he'd ran out of time to panic about it because she was landing in front of him, wreathed in cold blue flame with her eyes a deep blood red and fangs grown so long they barely fit inside her mouth. He'd never seen her so mad in his whole life.

"FINN MERTERNS ABADEER HOW DARE YOU WALK OUT ON YOUR UNBORN CHILD-"

"Mom, I can explain, please, it wasn't my fault, I-"

"WASN'T YOUR FAULT? ARE YOU TELLING SHE FORCED YOU TO IMPREGNATE HER AGAINST YOUR WILL?"

"No, but-"

"NEVER IN ALL THESE YEARS HAVE I BEEN SO ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY SON, NEVER DID I THINK I WOULD RAISE SUCH A COWARD-"

"I got scared!"

"SCARED? YOU'RE SCARED? HOW DO YOU THINK VICTORIA FEELS, KNOWING THAT YOU RAN AWAY AND-"

"Marcy? Finn? What the hell is going on in here?"

And that was the new complication that Marceline had been hoping to avoid until she'd figured out what to do. Bonnie was standing in the doorway of their tower lookout room frowning around at them all; Marceline's demon growling must have shaken half the palace and of course she'd come running to see what was wrong.

"Tell her, Finn. I'm done trying to clean up after you." Marceline snarled, although her voice had calmed back down to a mostly-human fury and her fangs had retreated back into her gums.

"I..." he looked down at his feet. "I... Mama... I can't..."

"Finn got his stupid ice girlfriend pregnant and then he dumped her and he thinks he can just walk back in here like nothing happened." Phoebe supplied helpfully.

For a moment there was absolute silence in the room, Finn could hear nothing but his own pulse loud and horrified in his ears. Then-

"Get out of my sight. Go to your room and stay there, Finn. But I can't look at you right now." his Mama said quietly. That was all wrong, why was Mom the one who exploded in anger and Mama the one who sounded like her heart was breaking with disappointment? It was like they'd switched roles but his feet at least weren't going to let him wait around and find out why; they automatically took him off to the staircase and along to his room while his brain was still reeling in shock.

For half a heartbeat Jake and Phoebe watched their younger brother slump from the room in defeat before Jake was tugging her along too and muttering some excuse about her helping check on the pups. That left Bonnie and Marceline alone, staring out at the sunset.

"You knew." Bonnie announced in a heavy voice. It wasn't a question.

"Yeah. I was looking for a good time to tell you they were seeing each other, I didn't know about the pregnancy until about half an hour ago. The only reason I didn't tell you yet was because I didn't want to upset you, babe."

"Upset me? Upset me? No, my royal tarts getting burnt or an experiment going wrong upsets me. Finding out my youngest son is expecting a baby with the girl I was tortured for and forced to create against my will? That goes a little deeper than being upset. Finding out my wife knew about it for Grod knows how long and didn't tell me? Can you guess how far past upset that makes me?"

"Babe, I-"

"No. Don't you dare interrupt me, Marceline. Not on this. I sacrificed my health and a good part of my sanity to keep Phoebe safe from that madman only to discover that she'd never been in danger. You sacrificed half of your honeymoon. It doesn't really compare. And I asked you to stay away from them and you didn't. Then I asked you to make sure the kids stayed away from them, and why am I even surprised when you failed to manage that too? And now this. And of course it was Finn who got into trouble!"

"What the hell do you mean by that? Are you trying to imply that this is somehow my fault? Like mother like son, is that it?"

"Well if the shoe fits, Marcy! You've let him away with everything from the moment he could walk, I've always had to be the mean Mama while you got to be the one he ran to for kisses and cuddles and I had to discipline him! Of course he doesn't have any boundaries because you never set any for him! You can't just leave me to clean up all your parenting disasters just because you never had a real childhood!"

Marceline whirled on her wife, fury in every line of her body.

"Don't you talk about my childhood! What would you even know about being a child? You're a piece of sentient food, you're not exactly winning mother of the year either. Maybe if you'd been a little less busy with your stupid experiments and actually spent some time with Finn he wouldn't be scared to tell you stuff, he's terrified of making you angry!" Marcy shot back furiously. It took a lot of effort to keep her voice from spilling back into a growl and she was just too damn worn down to deal with it more. Before Bonnie had a second to draw breath and answer she'd pushed into the air, transformed into a giant bat and swooped off into the twilight with a snarl.

"Fine! Just run away and leave me to fix it all for you then!" Bonnie yelled uselessly after her wife's disappearing silhouette. Marceline didn't slow down or turn or give any other indication that she'd even heard.

...

"Leave me alone." Finn growled when the door of his room opened. He was lying on his bed with his head under the pillow, he didn't even look around because he didn't care who it was.

"You missed dinner, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are your favourite. I could hear your stomach rumbling along the hall." a plumy voice announced. Peppermint Butler, then. Finn sighed and sat up reluctantly.

"I'm not hungry, Peps. Get out of my room."

Instead of listening to him, because nobody ever listened to him anyway Finn thought listlessly, the round striped candy man placed the platter of sandwiches on Finn's night stand and came to sit next to him on the bed.

"I hear congratulations are in order."

"I hear you can go fuck yourself. Dude, I can't be a parent, look at me. I can't even look after myself."

Instead of looking offended Peppermint smiled and regarded Finn fondly.

"Nothing is new under the sun. You sound just like Queen Marceline, you know, back in the day. She was so scared to be anything but your protector at first, she insisted she didn't know how to be somebody's mother and that you'd be better off being raised by a pack of bloodthirsty wolves than you would be with her. Was she right?" he inquired with a quirked brow.

"Mom said that? But... I thought she wanted me? She said I was her baby the second she picked me up." Finn whispered. He looked away, down at his shoes. Wow, so even Mom hadn't really wanted him.

"You misunderstand me, your little Highness. Your Mom wanted you very much, she was like a protective mother bear if anyone came near you without her permission. But she was so scared that she wouldn't be good enough, that she was biologically too young or just too inexperienced. She told me once that she considered just leaving you here with your Mama instead because she was only ever going to fuck you up."

"She was wrong." Finn said decidedly. "Mom's the best parent ever, even if she's so pissed at me right now she won't look at me."

"So if you could reach back in time sixteen years and talk to that lost, confused vampire staring at the abandoned baby in the forest, what would you tell her?" Peppermint pressed quietly.

"Not to be afraid. That I love her, that I've seen glimpses of the world where she's not my Mom and I don't want to live there. That if I could pick anyone at all to adopt me, it would be her. That I don't care if she looks forever nineteen or if all my school friends have a crush on her or if she wears crazy makeup. She's my Mom, I'm always gonna love her. Mama too. That, they're just the best parents and the thought of them not being there for me... Oh." Finn stopped, and let all of that click into place. "Do you think if my baby could reach back in time sixteen years and talk to his confused, messed up father he'd say the same thing?"

"I'd hazard a guess that he might. I know one thing for certain though. If you bail on him now, before you've ever had a chance to see if you can be good enough, he's only ever going to say that he hates his father, or even worse, 'Finn who?'. I know you don't want that."

"I'm scared." Finn admitted quietly.

"I know. But if you never get scared how are you gonna have chance to be a hero?" Peppermint asked quietly.

Finn thought about that as he munched on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that had appeared in his hands without his noticing. He was scared. But he was a hero. And as scared as he was, wasn't Victoria gonna be even more scared? She didn't have the option of walking away from the pregnancy unless she decided to get an abortion and she'd already told him that she was going to keep their baby. Jake seemed to enjoy being a father and his own parents had nothing but good things to say about child rearing. Still, children were so messy and gross, and he couldn't go out doing dangerous hero work if he knew he'd be leaving a baby fatherless if he was killed. Then it occurred to him he was already leaving a baby fatherless. Even his own criminal scum human father hadn't just walked away from him, he'd been trying to take Finn to the palace so Mama could protect him. Probably. It didn't matter, Finn realised.

"Will you do me a favour?" Finn asked Peppermint Butler, swallowing the last bite of sandwich.

"Anything." the little man replied happily.

"I'm gonna write an apology letter to Victoria, can you make sure she gets it?"

"It would be my pleasure."

Peppermint Butler waited while Finn penned a quick missive to his girlfriend, only letting out the silent breath of relief that he'd been half holding when the prince's back was turned. One down, two to go. Now he just had to make sure both of his mistresses were ok. If they weren't talking by dawn he'd have to intervene, but he'd give them the night. Peppermint Butler didn't want to have to micromanage the whole royal family if he didn't need to.

...

It was about an hour before dawn when Marceline landed noiselessly on the wide flat roof of the stable block and made her way quietly into the palace. As usual she'd needed the time flying to decompress and realise that true to form she'd been the one who'd fucked up, yet again. And more spectacularly than ever. Marceline got the feeling it would take more than a wildflower bouquet to make it up to her wife this time.

She let herself noiselessly in the bedroom after a quick search had revealed the study, library and laboratory to be deserted. There was Bonnibel, asleep upright in her chair facing the balcony with the curtains drawn; she must have waited up as long as she could. Another twist of guilt added itself to Marceline's already knotted insides.

"Bon." she said quietly, shaking her wife's shoulder a little. "Babe, wake up. Can we talk?"

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry."

"Oh. You came back." Bonnie replied sleepily, looking up at eyes that were almost the same shade of grey as her wife's skin in the gloom.

"Did you think I wouldn't? I'm sorry I had to get out. I needed to think. And you're right, this is all my fault and I'm sorry, I-"

"Shut up and come to bed. I thought about it too and what's done is done. Whoever's to blame it won't make Victoria any less pregnant. We do need to talk to Finn though, make him at least consider supporting her through this. And... I owe them both an explanation for how she came to be. I thought I could just leave it in the past but it won't do any good to keep it secret. Finn already found her, it's not like we're protecting him by keeping her from him anymore." Bonnie replied softly.

Marcy nodded, that made a lot of sense. She held her arms out cautiously and her wife allowed herself to be lifted effortlessly into the air and carried to the huge bed they'd shared for so many years now. Whatever Finn had done it wasn't worth risking their marriage over, they'd both independently come to that conclusion.

"You're suspiciously calm and healthy." Marcy noted as they were getting settled under the blanket together.

"Yeah, I need to thank Stefan. He's decided to take on my migraines permanently for now, I tried to argue him out of it but he's the most stubborn person I ever met. He's even worse than you." Bonnie replied, snuggling eagerly into the arms she'd been missing all night. What she'd needed more than ever was her wife by her side, united and backing her up. And she really blamed herself, what had she expected Marcy would do when she got yelled at?

"We can't afford to fall apart, babe. Can we put a moratorium on fights for now? Things are about to go insane enough without us being at each other's throats. And I don't know about you but I don't know if I'm strong enough to do this alone, I need you by my side if we're gonna get through this." Marcy whispered.

"You've always got me by your side, love. I made a vow, remember?" Bonnie lifted her left hand up between them and her silver wedding band gleamed a little in the low light.

Marcy sighed and hugged her wife closer. She was warm and soft, she was everything Marceline needed right then. More than anything, she felt like home. Soon enough there would be enemies at their gates and people would die and she'd be forced to take more lives from her own people. Rebels, yes. And murderers. But still her people, still the citizens she was tasked with leading and protecting. Some of them had even been her friends and lovers once upon a time, she had no doubt. And now her two worlds were colliding in the worst possible way. Her family and her new kingdom were at risk because she'd been too much of a coward to stay and let the rebels end her all those years ago. All she could do was try to weather the storm as best she could, hope that when it was all over the people she loved were still alive. In comparison to all of that Finn expecting his first child wasn't such a big deal, really. Marceline wondered why she'd even been angry except that it was a reaction to his childish abandonment of his girlfriend. She'd talk to him in the morning, she decided. And this time she'd keep her temper, make sure he knew he could talk to her about anything. Because the very worst thing was being at odds with Finn, it hurt even worse than arguing with Bonnie. He was her little boy and however big he grew she'd always see that same beautiful golden haired baby smiling gummily up at her from her lap when she looked at him. But he was a man now, soon he'd have a family of his own. She needed to come to terms with that and help him accept it, too.

"You think he'll marry her?" Bonnie asked, sleepy again now that she was back where she belonged in Marceline's arms.

"Perhaps, who knows? He's not the crown prince and Jake has heirs now and Firefly is older than him anyway; if it ever came to Finn's child inheriting the throne then something so big must have happened that I doubt there'd be a kingdom left to govern. So it makes no difference if they're born outside of wedlock, surely?"

"Hmm, not to us it doesn't. Ice King might see it differently though, the child would be second in line to the Ice Throne and he might care about things like legitimacy if he needed someone to inherit. Since we're all about to be invaded it's more of a worry than it used to be."

"True. Someone needs to tell him about the baby." Marcy sighed.

"I nominate you." Bonnie murmured in reply.

"You're all heart."

"Mhm. G'night."

...

Bonnie wasn't even surprised when morning brought more complications. It took a lot of courage for her to reach out and pluck the missive from the messenger's paws; even though he was crouched in a kneel with it held high above his head and his eyes fixed respectfully on the floor.

"My Darling Daughter and Daughter-In-Law," she read aloud, "I received your message about your impending invasion and am more than happy to open the Demon Dimension to any and all candy citizens who wish to flee until the danger has passed. In addition I am also sending you all the reinforcements I can spare, as well as my specialist demon forces. Please do not hesitate to ask if I can be of any further assistance, I will wait for your updates but if I do not hear from you weekly I will assume the worst and ascend above to discover what has happened and avenge you accordingly. Yours with love, The Prince Of Darkness, Lord Of The Flies, Ruler Of Demons, The Evil One, Father Of Lies etc etc Hunson Abadeer (Daddy)."

"Wow." Phoebe announced into the silence that followed. "We've got our own demon bodyguards. Cool."

"Rise." Bonnie commanded the messenger. He swept upright with lethal grace, flowing smartly to attention and snapping off a crisp salute. "What is your name and rank, soldier?"

"Gal'no Fullclaw, Second Captain of The Third Grimmalk Battalion." the messenger replied with a proud purr behind his words. "Herald and Messenger to First Commander M'iol Deservingblood. How may I be of assistance to their Royal Majesties today?"

"Take your battalion to the dungeons, you may garrison the lowest levels. Once your soldiers are settled in see my chief of staff, Peppermint Butler. Between you I want you to work out a guard rotation for the town's borders and the palace perimeter with extra cover at night." Bonnie commanded.

She kept her voice steady; it helped that this Grimmalk bore no particular resemblance to the one who'd mauled her all those years ago. His fur was a distinctly fluffier cloudy grey topped with a magnificent bush of whiskers and a huge luxuriant tail that fanned slowly like ostrich feathers as he moved. When he met her eyes briefly she could see the irises were more of a mossy green than unnerving gold. Still, there were two hundred Grimmalks armed to the teeth in her courtyard. It made her more than a little jumpy. They trooped to the side door leading to the dungeons in double file with surprising stealth; Bonnie knew that she was supposed to feel safer having Hunson's hand-picked elite forces to protect them but she wouldn't sleep soundly again until the only animal fur in her palace belonged to her elder son. That reminded her that she also had a younger unruly son to talk to and she scanned the courtyard for him but Finn's mane of shiny golden hair was nowhere to be seen. Probably still in his room sulking, she figured. Peppermint Butler had taken a breakfast tray up to him an hour ago, Bonnie hadn't felt able to talk to him just yet and besides she still had to deal with an avalanche of messengers from their allied kingdoms about the Grand Council meeting she'd called for that evening. Soon though, she needed to talk to him soon. Apart from anything else the child now growing in Victoria's womb was her grandchild, which made the ice girl family and she wasn't going to leave her family unprotected. As much as it brought bile to the back of her throat to think of it Bonnie would need to tell Finn and Victoria the truth about how the girl came to exist and her own shameful part in creating her. It wouldn't be an easy task and she was counting on Zoe consenting to help keep tempers calm while they spoke. With a quiet sigh Bonnie turned and headed indoors to the throne room, she had a court to hold and more messengers to answer.

She had barely gotten settled on her throne and called forward the messenger from Castle Lemongrab when a loud voice interrupted her.

"Mom! Mama! I've got something important I need to tell you!"

"Finn, sweetie, we're in the middle of some important business, can't it wait?" Bonnie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Hadn't she told him to stay out of her way until she sent for him? Maybe not but she'd thought he'd be smart enough to figure that out for himself anyway. But no, there he was striding up the length of the throne room while the muttering crowds parted for him. And Bonnie noticed that Finn was dressed in his holiday clothes, a quartered pink and black tunic bearing the family crest with his hair tied back in an elaborate Viking style braid and his dumb replica axe strapped ceremonially across his back. And he wasn't alone, there was a pale figure dressed in whites and blues following him. Bonnie's stomach jolted with recognition.

Finn dropped to a respectful kneel before his mothers' thrones and when he spoke it was with the ancient official protocol language used between royalty to prevent diplomatic incidents due to misunderstandings. He was every inch the perfect young prince bowing formally to older, more powerful monarchs that he had wronged and wished to make amends to. Bonnie shot Marceline a confused glance and her wife shrugged, she had no idea what was going on either.

"Your Royal Highnesses Queen Bubblegum, Queen Marceline, please accept my most humble apology for the unforgivable delay in presenting you to my paramour, Princess Victoria Petrikov. We seek your formal blessing to bring our unborn child into your kingdom and to shelter here from the threat currently menacing the kingdoms of Ooo. We also meekly request that the Ice Kingdom be officially allied with the Candy Kingdom and offer what assistance they can during the imminent war."

The room erupted; there were candy girls and a couple of candy boys sobbing into each other's arms because the rumours were true and Finn had a pregnant girlfriend and they'd clearly missed their chance, there was Peppermint Butler shouting himself hoarse trying to calm the older members of the crowd who'd heard the word 'war' and reacted with tediously predictable panic and then there was the Lemon messenger shrieking that he was not to be ignored, he had an important message from the Earl that could not wait. Above all that noise and movement Finn rose from his bow and grinned sheepishly at his parents who smiled back.

"Well done, Finn." Marceline murmured, impressed with how he'd handled the situation. Looked like he'd finally learned how to make an entrance, anyway.