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.

Bay: I go back this coming week. I always start the Tuesday before Labor Day.

Warning: Mentions of a miscarriage.

Evie's not at girl's night. She hasn't missed a girl's night since Tegan was two months old, and now Tegan's over two years old. Mal doesn't know what's been up with her lately, but she's starting to get really, really worried.

She calls Ben and finds out that Doug was at boy's night, which stands to reason that Evie's with Tegan. She tells Ben to keep Doug busy and heads over to Evie's place.

She knocks on the door and rings the doorbell, but Evie still hasn't come to the door.

"Evie, I know you're in there; I can see your car in the driveway. Now open the damn door."

Still no response.

"Evelyn Grimhilde Dwarfson, I'm going to say it again: Open the damn door."

The door of the house flies open. Mal remembers just how much she hates being on the receiving end of Evie's stink eye.

"If you wake Tegan up, I won't care if your the fucking queen or not, your head will still be on a platter."

"Understood. May I come in?"

Evie sighs, but lets her in nonetheless. Her living room is taken up by fabric, books, and Tegan's baby dolls. The coffee table is covered in old chemistry tests and Evie's lesson planner, which means she must be getting a head start on the fast-approaching September and recommencement of school.

"What brings you here?" Evie asks, straightening up some of the papers and clearing some of the books off of a chair so Mal can sit.

"Where were you tonight?"

"Here, trying to get ahead."

"Uh-huh. What's the real reason, E? You miss a girl's night for the first time in two years, you and Doug seem to be barely speaking…" She trails off, her eyes locked on Evie's face, which now has tears rapidly shooting down it.

"You've noticed?"

"Of course we have, Ev. What's going on?"

"Um, so you know how Doug and I haven't started talking about more kids?"

Mal nods.

"Well, we have. When Tegan was eleven months old, I miscarried."

Mal's hand flies to her mouth. Evie had never mentioned this, not once. And it happened over a year ago? While Mal had been pretty late in her pregnancy then, was she really that distracted to not notice that something seemed up with Evie?

"It happened on the last day of school. I wasn't even a month along. I had no idea I was even pregnant. And, after that, neither of us brought up the subject of kids, until right before Tegan's second birthday, when I asked Doug if he wanted to try again."

She already knows what Evie's about to say, but it feels wrong to interrupt now, when this is probably the most Evie's talked about any of it in months.

"He said no, because he didn't want to risk going through the pain of losing a kid again. And eventually that spiraled into a fight that got us here." She takes a deep breath. "I told him that if I was willing to risk both the physical and emotional pain, then he should be able to handle the emotional pain, emotional pain that's on a much smaller scale compared to what I went through. He said that I was being selfish, I said that he was being a coward. We're not even sleeping in the same bed anymore, Mal." The last part she adds in a whisper, nervously wringing her hands together. Mal had never seen Evie so scared.

"You two need to talk about this. You should do it when Tegan's home, and asleep, so you can't raise your voices without risking waking her up. I can't stand to see you guys like this, E. Nobody can."

Evie nods, and Mal gives her a reassuring smile. She has faith that Evie and Doug will fix this. They have to.

(And they do.)

Ben is adamant about the fact that he most definitely did not lose Aria; they're simply playing hide-and-seek and it turns out that their daughter is really good.

Mal sincerely hopes that, for her sake, Aria did not inherit Ben's lying skills, or else she'll never be able to get away with anything. He tries to remind her that he made her think he was under a love potion, but she reminds him that he'd said that he wasn't faking anything, so therefore his argument is invalid.

Since he's checked everywhere in the castle that Aria is actually familiar with, Mal decides to check places she's not familiar with. And after a quick internal debate, she enters the room where her mother is kept and, sure enough, there's Aria, doing a combination of talking and babbling animatedly to her baby doll. Maleficent is watching her, but Aria doesn't seem to notice.

"Ria?" Mal calls, and he daughter looks up in surprise, but it's happiness that overtakes her face in nanoseconds.

"Mama!" she shouts, pushing herself to a standing position and toddling over to Mal, who scoops her daughter up into her arms.

"What're you doing in here?" Mal asks her, "Dada and I couldn't find you."

"Baby!" Aria replies, showing Mal her baby doll proudly. The baby doll is a mess that Mal decides she'll clean while Aria naps, and Aria is holding the doll by the arm and shaking it. If Aria does become a big sister, Mal will have to work on how she holds babies.

"I see. C'mon; let's go eat lunch. Lumière bought more Cheerios."

"CHEEROS!" Aria shouts, wrapping her arms around Mal's neck. Aria's skin tone isn't as pale as Mal's, being closer to Ben's, but there's still a contrast between her and her daughter, and not just because Aria's childhood excitement mirrors Ben's excitement just about every day of the week. She's convinced that having a child has turned Ben into a bigger child than he already was.

Mal casts her glance back to the lizard in the spell jar, who has their eyes glued on Mal and the toddler in her arms. The lizard looks an inch or so bigger than the last time she was it, a little under two years ago. She wonders when it did that growing, and if she- it- harbors any resentment for not knowing that it had a one year-old granddaughter. Though, the lizard was a person once, and might be able to do math.

"Thanks for watching her. Mom."

She watches the lizard grow a whole inch.

A/N: The next chapter will be up no later than Friday, since I return to school this week. Until Chapter 22!