DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.
A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.
I will not be accepting any more names (For now). Thank you for all of the suggestions (I've gotten some great ones!) and I hope you all like the name that I pick out. (I got so many great ones that I actually haven't even chosen the winners yet!)
I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in eight days, this story has gotten 163 reviews, 257 followers, and 183 favorites, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!
Secret Identity: Thanks for the last name suggestion! I plan on using it, if that's okay with you?
"So, we're up to twenty-three weeks," Ben narrates. Mal poses for him quickly before going into the bathroom to brush her teeth. "Aunt Evie says you're the size of a large mango. I've seen you squirm once through your mom's skin, and I've gotta tell you, Beastie, it was freaky," she hears him add for the camera. "You can also supposedly hear us out here. I apologize for the snoring, bud. Your mom is like a freight train."
"Hey!" Mal's toothpaste-filled mouth shouts, "I can hear you!"
"I know you can," he says. "She's mellowed out hormone-wise, so thank you, but she still puts marshmallow fluff on her Cheerios. You better like marshmallow fluff, kid, because your mom hates the stuff. And she misses her strawberries."
"You're damn right I do," Mal mutters, sliding into the bed. "I most definitely didn't say a bad word, Beastie. Most definitely not," she adds to both the camera and her stomach. "That's really the only interesting thing to talk about."
"Not your birthday? Your twenty-fifth birthday that was yesterday?"
"Yes, I've lived for a quarter of a century. Give me a fu- freaking prize."
"Will you accept a kiss?"
"When did you become so corny?"
"Mal, please. I've always been this corny. I sang you a song about how in love with you I was."
"Well, I'm gonna turn this off before Beastie has to see any more of this. They must already get it enough. Bye, Beastie."
"Bye, Beastie!" Ben adds. Mal shuts the camera off and sets it down on the bedside table with a smile. She leans in to kiss him when there's a knock on the door and he groans. "Go away!"
"Ben, it's your mother," Belle's voice calls from the other side of the door, "So you better open up. Preferably not butt-naked." Mal stifles a laugh with her hand as he, throwing his wife a dirty look, goes to open the door. "Chip and I managed to find the movies you wanted. Seems like Mrs. Potts's filing system is much more elaborate than I originally realized." She hands over two DVDs and then walks away quickly. Ben shuts the door behind her and turns around to look at Mal.
"What're those?"
"I told you I would find my baby diary," Ben says, putting one of the DVDs into the player.
"Well technically, Belle and Chip found it," she replies teasingly.
"Mal."
"Benjamin."
"You know, when I'm mad at you, I might just start calling you 'Mallory,' so that way you can have the full-name treatment without using your full, legal name."
"Put in the video, Ben," Mal says after she whacks him hard with a pillow. He presses the 'play' button on the remote and the video starts.
The first thing on the DVD is an ultrasound. Mal hears Adam's and Belle's voices talking in the background, but the baby on the ultrasound is what captures Mal's undivided attention. That tiny little fetus in the grainy picture of the ultrasound is her freakishly tall husband lying next to her right now.
"Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?" Belle and Adam are asked in the video, snapping Mal back to reality.
"Yes," Belle replies.
"It's a boy," they are told. Adam moves the camera to Belle's face. She looks like she's crying and has her hand over her mouth.
"Are you okay?" Adam asks her, taking her hand.
"I'm great," she promises through tears, "Absolutely great."
The video changes into a string of ones similar to the ones Ben and Mal have been doing so far, though with much less cheeky banter. Mal watches them with little interest, as her husband is what captivates her, so she settles for watching Ben out of the corner of her eye. He is entranced as he hears stories of the havoc he wreaked on his mother during the nine months they'd been as close as mother and son could be.
She realizes, then, what exactly what the point of these videos is. Ben has never seen these before, that much is evident by his in-awe face. It is for their children, about to become parents themselves, to fully understand and appreciate their parents in a way that they could never do before. Whether it be his mother having similar cravings to his wife, or his father sharing their same awe over everything, for one moment, Ben and his parents had the chance to fully understand each other.
Mal thinks that's beautiful.
She also thinks it explains why she doesn't have one.
After Ben has gone to bed, she takes the camera back off the table and angles it on her.
"Hey, Beastie," she whispers quietly so as not to wake up Ben, "It's Mom. I'm hoping that you watch this last once we eventually make this a DVD for you. I wanted to tell you that I love you so much and I haven't even met you yet. If you watched this whole thing, then I hope that's evident. I didn't have the best childhood until I met your father, and I hope that Ben and I gave you a great one. I hope it was nothing like mine. If you don't know that story yet, get me and Aunt Evie and Uncle Jay and Uncle Carlos to tell it to you. It's a pretty important one. I love you."
A/N: Next chapter will be up soon!
