27 Weeks

"How have things been with his therapy?" Barb asked her daughter as they set the table for dinner.

"He's been doing a lot better. He doesn't like to talk to me very much about what goes on in the sessions though." Sadie admitted. She tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "I wish he'd open up about it more."

"All in time." Barb patted her daughter on the back. "He'll tell you when he's ready."

The door bell rang, interrupting the conversation between mother and daughter.

"I'll get it." Barb told her. "You get your boy toy." She winked, causing Sadie to blush deeply.

"Mom!" Sadie punched her lightly in the arm as she passed by. Her mother only cackled in response. "Lars? Are you ready?" She knocked lightly on the bedroom door.

"Almost." She heard Lars sigh, pushing open the door she saw him standing in front of the full-length mirror with a tortured expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" Sadie asked, moving towards him.

"You mean other than the fact that I'm wearing on honest to God maternity shirt?" He complained, turning to the side. Sadie had to admit, in the past month his stomach had swelled rapidly. His bump had become a veritable mountain as the eggs hit what Peridot called "the rapid expansion period". Sadie found it cute, Lars did not.

"It's just my mom and the gems." Sadie told him, picking a piece of lint off his black, long-sleeved shirt.

"I know." Lars sighed. "But still…I look like a fuckin' girl." Aha, there it was.

"You don't look like a girl." Sadie assured him. "You look like a weird pink alien." She joked, trying to distract him from the feelings of dysphoria.

"Thanks, Player Two." He said sarcastically. He tugged on his clothes a little, as if that would somehow help them to hide his very obvious pregnancy.

"Come on." Sadie tugged on his arm. "Everybody's here."

"Okay." Lar sighed again and Sadie made a mental note to talk with him after everyone left. She dragged him down the hall and into the living room where Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot stood with Sadie's mom. Another gem stood behind Peridot, taking in the scene nervously.

"Lars, you're looking well." Pearl gave him a rare smile. She seemed pretty excited about the idea of new gems.

"Yes, the eggs seem to be progressing nicely." Peridot commented in that weird mad-scientist tone she had. She moved forward and held her hands out, waiting for permission. Lars nodded and the green gem broke out into a grin, leaning in to feel his large belly.

"Where's Steven?" Sadie asked. She hadn't seen the young teen since he had come along with Greg to deliver groceries almost a month earlier.

"He and Connie have both come down with something." Garnet told her. "Dr. Maheswaran called it mono?"

"Ahh, the kissing disease huh?" Barb lifted her eyebrows. "Yeah, Sadie got that too." She turned to look at her daughter. "You remember, when you were dating that kid…."

"Mother!" Sadie clapped a hand over her mom's mouth.

"Kissing disease?" Pearl murmured. "Why do they call it that?"

"Cuz you get it from swapping germs." Amethyst chimed in.

"I'm sure Steven and Connie haven't been exchanging any bacteria." Pearl said skeptically.

"No, no." Lars put his hand up. "They call it that cuz you can get it from kissing other people. Amethyst means they've been making out."

"What!?" Pearl squawked, falling backwards onto the couch.

"She's so dramatic." The blue gem said dryly.

"Ugh, all the time." Amethyst complained. "Oh hey, yeah! Guys this is Lapis," She pointed to the blue gem. "Lapis, the short one is Sadie and the one with the mohawk is Lars."

"I'm sorry, are we not going to discuss this 'making out disease'?" Pearl shouted. The group laughed at her apparent distress. Sadie attempted in vain to convince the pale gem that they were only joking and that human kisses were NOT fatal. The latter took several kisses shared between Sadie and Lars before Pearl would believe them, not that either minded. Dinner passed with laughter and good conversation, which was a relief to both Lars and Sadie. Neither had really been very social since they'd moved in together. However, it was a tiring affair and by the time the dishes had been cleared and the goodbyes said, Lars was falling asleep in his chair.

"Come on." Sadie laughed. "Let's go to bed."

"M'kay." Lars yawned, letting Sadie pull him down the hall to their bedroom. He sat down hard on the bed, stripping to his boxers and undershirt while Sadie changed into her pajamas. She wore faded blue shorts and an oversized "Fangs of Love" T-shirt.

"That was fun." She commented, sitting down at her vanity to brush out her blonde hair before bed, otherwise it was a tangled mess in the morning.

"Yeah." Lars leaned back, one hand on his aching back. "You're so beautiful." He commented, watching her brush through the mane of blonde curls.

"Shut up." She blushed.

"No really, you're gorgeous." He insisted.

"Psh, whatever." She threw the brush down and joined him on the edge of the bed. The hand on his back was replaced with hers as she dug her thumb in to a particularly sore spot. He hummed appreciatively, leaning back a little further, putting his weight on one hand. The other slipped under his shirt pressing a little on one of the eggs, trying to get it off his hip bone.

"They bruised me again." He observed, pulling up his shirt to expose the hip. Sure enough, there was a patch of blue-black skin extending from the bone a few inches up the side of his stomach.

"Ouch." Sadie sympathized. She reached over to gently pull his undershirt up, exposing his whole stomach. The pink skin was littered with bruises in various stages of healing. "We should have had Peridot check these."

"It's not a big deal." Lars shook his head. "We knew I'd probably bruise."

"Yeah, but there's a lot." Sadie complained, running a hand lightly over his skin.

"It's fine." Lars insisted.

"Well, I'm calling Dr. Maheswaran tomorrow." She said. "Just to be sure."

Lars sighed, running a hand through his pink curls. In truth, the bruises were really annoying, but he had a habit of hiding things like this from Sadie. She was so worried about him all the time, he didn't want to burden her with little things like this. So, he pretended to be happy and smiled his way through dinner. Later tonight, when Sadie was curled up asleep, he'd sneak away to the bathroom and let himself be angry and in pain for a while. But not now, not with her.

"Come on, let's go to sleep."

"Alright."