A/N: I am both very excited and very nervous about this chapter. Feedback is extra appreciated.

"Hey, Booth," Aubrey greeted, before he noticed that the man was heading toward him with raw fury written on his face. "What's wrong?"

Suddenly, Aubrey found himself pinned against the wall, Booth pushing his arm into Aubrey's collarbone.

"You got my daughter pregnant?" Booth asked.

"What?"

"She has dreams, you know. She's getting her PhD. I can't believe you, of all people, would ruin that for her."

"Lily's pregnant?" Aubrey asked quietly.

Booth dropped his arm, looking at Aubrey's stricken face with a sigh. "She didn't tell you."

"No. I—where is she?"

"She was at the lab. That's where she was talking to Bones about it, anyway."

"Where is she?" Aubrey demanded of the gathering of scientists on the forensic platform.

"She's in my office," Brennan told him matter-of-factly. "Did Booth talk to you?"

"Yes," he said, through gritted teeth. "And I. Didn't. Know."

"Oh." As angry as her parents were, they both turned to sympathy when they saw that he really was clueless. "Be nice to her," Brennan warned.

"Nice?" he asked incredulously. "I—"

He looked at the others' confused faces. At least not everyone knew before him. He shook his head, storming into Brennan's office.

"When were you going to tell me?" he asked, closing the door behind him with more force than was necessary.

"Aubrey!"

"When?"

"Today!" Lily insisted. "I promise, today. I was just—"

"Just what?" He sighed, rubbing a hand across his jaw. "Both of your parents have threatened me, which is not the way I wanted to find out that I'm going to be a father, thank you very much."

"They did what?"

"Your dad shoved me up against a wall," he explained, but the anger boiling in his stomach had started to give way to something else as soon as he spoke the words I'm going to be a father.

"I can't—I can't believe they did that. I was asking my mom some questions, she must have told my dad, and he thought…"

"So you're pregnant?" he half-whispered, moving next to the chair she was sitting in. "We're having a baby?"

"I don't know, James. I was asking my mom some questions because, well, I think that maybe, I could be? But I don't know."

"You're on birth control, though," he said.

She nodded. "I know. But it's," she waved her hand. "I don't know. It's not foolproof."

"Oh."

"I was waiting for you," she explained. "I was waiting for—for you to get off work, or get a break, or something, because I want to take a test, and I want you to be there. And dammit, I wanted to tell you!"

In fact, she had spent the last hour in Brennan's office rehearsing what she was going to say to him (a straightforward James, I think I might be pregnant, or James, I don't want to scare you, but there's a chance, or James, my period is late and I threw up this morning, or James, I've never been more terrified in my entire life, please hold me and tell me it'll be okay).

"Okay, well." He shrugged. "I'm here now."

"Are you okay?" he asked nervously, reaching over the center console for her hand. "Are you…" he sighed. "I don't know what to ask," he apologized.

She squeezed his hand. "I'm scared. I'm not ready to be a mom."

He nodded. "You know that I'll do whatever it takes for you to still get your PhD. You'll still be a forensic anthropologist. I promise."

She smiled weakly despite herself. "I'm not even worried about that," she admitted. "I mean, I am, because it sucks. But I'm just… not ready. You're going to be a great dad, either now or in several years. And I'm—"

"Lily. You'll make a wonderful mom. I know."

"If I'm pregnant."

"Yes. If."

She went silent, praying that she wasn't.

They stood in front of shelves of pregnancy tests, Aubrey's arm firmly around her shoulders. She leaned into his side and groaned, then reached out and picked one.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I've seen commercials for this one. And it comes with two in the box. I should have asked my mom."

When she put it on the conveyer belt, she wanted to melt into the floor—she couldn't even look at the cashier, for fear that she would give away how she really felt. Aubrey pressed a reassuring hand to her back as he moved past her to the credit card machine, before she could even reach for her wallet. He smiled back at her, and she felt tears well up in her eyes—what a wonderful, wonderful man. How lucky I am. How much I love him.

And then she cursed inwardly, because being emotional was just another symptom she could add to her mental list.

"You can come in now," she said, and Aubrey opened the bathroom door to find her washing her hands, the two tests resting facedown on the edge of the tub.

"How long?" he asked, looking at his watch.

"Three minutes."

She leaned up against the doorframe with her eyes closed, shaking with nerves, and then she winced.

"I'm going to throw up."

And she did, Aubrey kneeling behind her, holding her hair with one hand and rubbing her back with the other. With her head in the toilet, she felt like her fate was sealed.

When she was done, she leaned back against him, trying to keep herself from sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her and laid his head on top of hers.

"It's okay, Lils. It's going to be okay."

They just sat for a few minutes, silently, until Aubrey could bring himself to look at his watch.

"Time's up."

Lily stood, Aubrey helping her—she didn't look very steady on her feet. She rinsed her mouth out quickly, then turned around, leaning against the counter.

"I can't look. You do it."

He put his back to her, hiding the actual tests from her view, and she wrapped her arms around herself to try and combat the shaking. It didn't work. It felt like an eternity before Aubrey let out a breath, turning to her with a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"They're both negative, Lily."

She let out something that was half a sob, half a laugh, and fell against him in relief.

"Your dad said it like it was a fact," Aubrey told her. "I spent the whole drive to the lab thinking…"

"That we were having a baby."

"Yeah."

It was a lot of emotion for one morning, from shock and anger and a shred of happiness to overwhelming relief.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking everywhere but at him. "I'm sorry that I was so paranoid, and that I dragged you into it."

"Hey." He grabbed her arm. "Lily, you were scared. You should have shared that with me. I'd be much more upset if you hadn't. We're in this together. And I don't just mean because it would have been my baby, too. I mean life. You're supposed to tell me everything. I'm supposed to be with you for the hard things."

Lily closed the door to Booth's office behind her.

"I'm not pregnant."

He grinned, standing up. "Thank God. Does your mom know?"

"Yes."

"Does Aubrey?"

She looked at him in disbelief. "Of course."

"You didn't tell him earlier," he said in defense.

"Because you didn't give me a chance!"

"I'm sorry, Mini."

"Besides, I know that Mom told you that I thought I might be pregnant, because Mom is very precise, and she would not have gotten that wrong."

"So I was wrong?"

"You were."

"Okay." He threw his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry. But God, am I glad you're not pregnant."

"No kidding. Me, too."

"You need to be more careful," he insisted, and she rolled her eyes.

"Please don't lecture me, Daddy. Not today. I'm on birth control. I was careful. Just also paranoid. And please do not assault my boyfriend ever again," she said sternly. "First of all, if I had been pregnant, I would have needed him in order to raise your grandchild. Secondly, if I had been pregnant, I would have been equally responsible."

"I'm not sorry that I'm protective of my little girl."