"Oh Charlie, darling, why are you so cruel to me?" Alastor feigned being wounded by her words as he leaned up against the doorframe to her suite, the backside of one of his hands on his forehead and the other hand a fist on his chest.

"Would you fuck off already!" Charlie exasperated, clearly not buying his melodramatic bullshittery as she glanced up from her laptop and could see him trying to slyly peer at her through one slightly cracked open eye.

Being 32 weeks pregnant her patience had been running a little thin; however, she had been getting more sleep ever since she practically begged in tears to Dr. Vex that she wanted her sleep back, feeling like she was on the brink of insanity with how fogged and forgetful her brain was becoming. After being prescribed a drug that was safe for her to take, and finally getting eight hours of sleep, the fog seemed to have been lifted. If she could Charlie would have jumped for joy…..if she didn't have swollen ankles and still didn't feel so physically tired all the time. So her boyfriend suggested that she try kicking her feet up and spend a relaxing day working from her private suite; however, he certainly wasn't making her day relaxing. Instead of leaving her to work in peace his cheesy jokes, that she usually found quite funny and charming, were annoying the hell out of her, amplified by how much time they were spending together lately. The final straw being when she made the mistake of asking him to please place the package of vanilla wafers she had been munching on somewhere where she couldn't reach, afraid that she would end up scarfing down the whole thing without realizing it. Thinking it would be hilarious he bided her request and put them where he knew she wasn't going to be able to reach them.

He placed them on the floor.

"You motherfucker."

"Why yes, yes I 'am." He retorted. Which were very stupid words to say as he narrowly dodged the decorative couch pillow she launched at his head, nearly smacking him in the kisser as he retreated towards the door, delighted smirk on his smug face.

Alastor did feel a little bad for teasing her, but only a little. It was entertaining getting these reactions out of her while he kept a watchful eye on her, making sure she didn't head downstairs as Lilith and several of their friends were busy setting up the surprise baby shower on the first floor. However, he did have another reason for teasing her.

###############

He was grateful when she was finally able to get a restful night of sleep, normally being an insomniac himself he knew how aggravating a lack of shuteye could be. But when it came time to snuggle with his beautiful demoness, he was not expecting her normal quiet breathing to turn into loud snoring. He attempted to mute the sound by distorting the air around her. And that did work…until he realized that he had to continue being awake in order to keep the noise barrier up.

Deciding that he wasn't going to deal with that, he slipped away from her grasp and headed towards his room down the hall. It certainly felt strange sleeping alone again after nearly two years of waking up every morning with her small form curled up against his, but he thought this temporary sleeping arrangement would be better for the both of them. That was, until he finally passed out during the first night, only to wake up two hours later. His skin felt damp and he could hear the rapid thudding of his heart in his ears. And as he shot up he noticed that his mahogany board at the head of his bed had varying rough grooves etched into it from the antlers on his head, now stretched out a foot long on each side all gnarled and twisted. Scenes from his nightmare replayed in his mind. He was never the type of man to be spooked easily, but what he saw unsettled him. Quickly, he teleported back to his beloved's room, relieved to find her still breathing…..and snoring.

From then on he remained closely by her side, not sleeping very much over the last two months as she slept on, her snores reverberating in his sensitive eardrums while she laid completely passed out in his arms. She was so deep in slumber from the medication that his light touches didn't perturbed her. So while he was bored, and annoyed that he was awake during this time, he would brush the hair away from her face and see how many kisses he could get away with placing on her soft cheeks before she would mumble something incoherent and lazily swat him away. He was thinking about doing it again; and maybe see what else he could get away messing with, when he felt something nudge against his stomach. The red demon looked down as he felt it again, confused before realizing that it was coming from Charlie's swollen bump between them. So you're awake too? He thought.

Feeling curious, he glanced at Charlie's knocked out face before slipping down lower on the bed, his head aligned with her stomach as his feet slightly dangled off the edge of the bed, using one arm to prop himself up. Cautiously, he placed one of his hands on where he had felt the nudge. When Charlie didn't even stir from the touch, he gently nudged back. He had felt her bump before when she had insisted that he have a feel. And he had to admit, feeling the movement just underneath the thin layers of her shirt and skin was both adoring and freaky. That line of thought certainly ran through Alastor's mind as he felt the little nudger nudge back against his fingertips. How can Charlie not be waking up to this? He thought to himself as him and the little nudger continued on with their game.

As he continued to gently press and feel over her firm abdomen he found himself gradually getting lost in his own thoughts, not realizing he was whispering them out loud. "I never thought I would fall into domestic life, honestly not quite my style. Didn't think I would still be involved with this hotel sham for so long either." He admitted before taking a quick glance up at the angelic face of the sleeping beauty drooling onto her pillow. "But I find your mother to be quite fun and entertaining." He smiled as he redirected his gaze back to where his hand was still gently being nudged. "She's also extraordinarily dear to me. I never thought I would care about someone so deeply again." He quietly stated as thoughts of his own mother resurfaced. "Let me give you some advice sport, be a little kinder to your dear mom, you'll only ever get to have one." He paused as another thought occurred to him. "I guess that means you also only have one father."

Even with Charlie he never discussed the past events of his human life very much, preferring to keep it buried. "I never met my old man," he confessed as his smile faltered slightly, "but I promise you son, I'll do whatever it takes to be there for you and to keep you safe, you and your mom." He added as he glanced back up at Charlie's sweet drooling face, remembering his nightmare. "Although, I don't think we have to worry about that." He said, in an effort to ease his own thoughts. "I don't believe many would dare cross me. And your mom may seem soft, and believe me she is, but she's certainly capable of packing a punch when she wants to, so I think you're as safe as you can be in Hell."

So that's how Alastor spent most of his long, sleepless nights. Mumbling late night thoughts and singing random tunes that drifted into his mind as him and his little nudger continued on with their game. The next morning he would be both glad and slightly annoyed that Charlie seemed to be more awake and brighter after getting a good night's rest. Leading him to tease her a little more than usual as a form of petty revenge, like he was doing right now as he watched her go back to angrily typing on her laptop as he stood a safe distance away by the doorframe. He was about to spout a few more jokes when one of his shadow puppets emerged next to him from the inky shadows, making sure to stay out of view from Charlie as it relayed the message that they were ready downstairs.

"What if I told you that I have a surprise up my sleeve so mindboggling amazing that it would instantly make your frown disappear." Alastor grinned towards Charlie after shooing the shadow away.

"Is it a new boyfriend?" She quipped, not even glancing up from her screen.

"Ouch." He answered as his phantom microphone audience responded with a shocked "oooh" sound. It was then that he realized that he may have been going a little overboard with his jokes and teasing as of lately. Alastor made his microphone stand disappear before cautiously approaching the unhappy demoness. "Look, sweetheart," he said as he took the empty spot on the couch by her feet, "I've realized that I may have overdone it with the teasing, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't like you so much." All he heard was the hard tapping of computer keys as her response. "Charlie," the red demon started as he placed his gloved hand on one of her nicely shaped gams, even more nicely shaped with being hugged by one of the pairs of leggings she had been wearing a lot recently. He was surprised that she didn't pull her leg away as he continued, radio filter severely dialed back, " you know I don't mean to upset you, doll-face. It's never my intention to make you sore, but I think with how little shuteye I've been getting lately I've been taking it out on your patience instead." That seemed to have gotten her attention as her typing stopped. "I don't know if it's just a bad case of the heebie-jeebies, knowing that you could pop at any moment, imagining everything going wrong, and feeling that there's not much I can do- that I 'am doing." He confessed as he watched her close the laptop. "But my lack of sleep is no excuse for toying with you so much." Alastor stated, giving her calf a gentle squeeze as their eyes locked. "Darling, I'm sorry."

She sighed and softly smiled as she motioned him to take her computer from her. When he took her device he made sure to place it on the coffee table next to his knees and not on the floor, unless he wanted to be scorched to a crisp.

"And I'm sorry too for what I said earlier, that wasn't very cool of me." She apologized as she shuffled herself up into a sitting position and was about to scoot over to his side of the couch, but he beat her to it as he closed the distance. "You know I actually don't want a new boyfriend." Charlie confessed as she cuddled into his side, resting her head on his chest as he placed his arm around her, pulling her in closer.

"I know." He smiled smugly, radio filter back in his voice.

"I'm sorry that you haven't been sleeping that well. Do you mind telling me what's been keeping you up at night?" She asked while tracing one of the pinstripes on his suite.

"It's probably just some first-time parent jitters." He shrugged, not wanting to discuss the morbid scenes in his recent nightmares that involved her. "I'll be fine, sweetheart."

"If your nervous I can give you some of the baby and parenting books I've been reading. They've honestly been helping me feel a lot less nervous. Oh!" She exclaimed excitedly as she looked up at him, suddenly remembering something. "And I even have my birth plan figured out with Dr. Vex. Do you want me to fill you in?"

"Maybe after we attend the party downstairs that's currently waiting on us, my dear." He smiled down at her as he grasped her hand, a quizzical expression on her face as he helped pull her up from the couch.

###############

"Woah! This is so thoughtful and amazing you guys." Charlie smiled as she looked around the beautifully decorated reception hall. "You're seriously going to make me cry." She hiccupped as she took in the view of balloons, party streamers, what looked to be an array of whacky party games on one side of the room, a table overflowing with gifts that were mostly from Lilith, and on an adjacent table was a gorgeous white cake, decorated with edible roses.

"I made it myself yesterday during baking class." Tammy beamed with pride as she asked the teary-eyed demoness, "What do ya think, suga'?"

"It's wonderful Tammy, thank you." She said as she hugged the she-wolf.

"Now let's get this party started! Starting with the game I whipped up this morning." Angel boasted, holding up a poster board that read Labor or Porn?, with pictures of various imps making 'O' faced expressions that could either be due to screams of pain or moans of euphoria. What the answers were per picture was anyone's guess, but it was made clear that Rosie, Alastor, Vaggie, and a few other hotel residence thought it was obscene and foul as hell. The real guessing game later was which one set Angel's ludicrous image board ablaze.

Luckily, there were other, less distasteful, games to play. The first being a racing game involving water balloons that the contestants had to waddles with in-between their knees to the finish line. Mimzy easily won with having short, pudgy legs; with Vaggie and Lily coming in as a tied second while holding hands, not winning the basket full of cookies but certainly having fun. The game didn't have more rounds as Angel and a few other contestants kept accidently popping their balloons, causing Nifty's OCD to go into overdrive to clean up the mess. Truly a terrible game to play indoors.

The second game also involved balloons, but this time they were only filled with air and tied around the contestants mid-sections as they played twister. Angel actually enjoying and winning the game thanks to his ridiculously long extra limbs and having a seven-foot tall, lanky body.

The third and final game was all Lilith's idea. A drinking contest involving apple infused vodka…..that were in baby bottles. Which Husk shamelessly won quickly, offering to chug the other contestants drinks. He may have won, but he certainly was not given the first-place prize of more alcohol.

Charlie, for the most part, sat on the side lines with Alastor, Rosie, and a few other hotel residents, enjoying chatting with everyone and being the referee for most of the games. But felt a little awkward when it came to opening gifts in front of everyone as Tammy excitedly handed her each present, feeling even more awkward when she actually did cry in front of everyone upon unwrapping a lovely crib set with the card To my precious apple pie. Love, Dad. Charlie made sure to quickly dry her tears before it was time to bring out lunch and enjoy some cake, which she felt kind of bad that they were about to take it apart.

"Well don't just stand there admiring it! Cut the gender reveal cake open!" Lily yelled.

"It's a what?" The words barely left Charlie's mouth before the loud shattering of glass was heard. She was not expecting to be yanked back quickly as something- actually someone- crashed through the window and flew through the air towards her, narrowly missing her as her field of vision was filled with the sight of a familiar, red pinstripe suit.

The demon that crashed through the window smashed through the cake hard before they reached the end of their range of projectile at the tables on the other side of the room.

"Hey! Cherri, baby! Nice of you to crash by, literally. But I never thought you were the type to go to a baby shower." Angel smirked at his friend who was currently upside down, legs dangling over a table she had toppled over during her rough landing.

"Ow! Oh fuck that hurt." The strawberry blonde cyclops mumbled as she glanced around her surroundings, replaying Angel's words in her head, noticing that she was covered in white frosting and bright pink cake. "….uhhh…congratulations!" Her awkward confusion was soon replaced with panic as she saw the Radio Demon narrow his static filled eyes at her. She trembled and gulped hard, figuring she was a goner; however, she was surprised to see him let go off the heavily pregnant demoness he was shielding and head not towards her, but towards the broken window she had crashed through. It wasn't long before a hand belonging to her six limbed friend was extended towards her face, offering her a lift up.

Meanwhile, Charlie was immediately swarmed by her mom, Vaggie, Lily, and Tammy, all asking if she was okay.

"You okay, suga?" Tammy urgently asked, making quick glances from Charlie's face to her bump, resisting the urge to reach for it.

"A gender reveal cake? Tammy, what the hell? Why do you even know that? How do you even know that?" The blonde furiously questioned the she-wolf.

"Wait, espera un minuto, you're telling us that wasn't supposed to happen?….the cake I mean." Vaggie clarified as she glanced over at a pink cake and white frosted covered Cherri Bomb chatting with Angel, noticing that the Radio Demon was nowhere in sight, a small crowd gathering by the window.

"No, it wasn't." Charlie stated as she placed one hand on her hip and the other to her temple, trying to keep her temper under control. "I didn't want to know the gender, I wanted it to be a nice surprise. Why would you take that from me, Tammy?" She cornered the she-wolf.

"I…I..uh.." The brunette stuttered, her focus shifting from the angry demoness in front of her to the loud commotion happening outside. She swore she could hear heavy metal grating and crushing against itself, accompanied by terrified screams.

"Charlie, honey, I'm so sorry!" Lilith exclaimed.

"What?" Charlie snapped her head towards her mom.

"Your friend said that she wanted to make you a really sweet gift, but that she needed to know the sex of the baby before she could make it." Lilith explained.

"How the hell did you know?" The angry demoness questioned, her doe-like eyes changing to their more demonic red form.

"Please don't be mad at me, angel-face. I just couldn't wait…..so I bribed Dr. Vex." The Queen remorsefully admitted. "I thought you would never find out that I knew. And I didn't think that your friend's gift was that cake."

"My gift isn't just the cake. I wanted to knit the baby a blanket, but I needed to know what color yarn to use." Tammy defended.

"Then why the cake?" Charlie hissed, horns on full display.

"I-I know that you said that you loved surprises. Your only a month away from your due date, hun. A-and when I had my own baby shower I loved having a gender reveal cake-" The she-wolf rambled.

"Well this isn't your baby shower, Tammy." Charlie snapped.

Not too far away, there was quite a crowd formed around the shattered window. "Where are your manners, Alastor?!" Rosie yelled out the window. "You almost forgot to give him his party favor." She chimed, her and the other onlookers quickly moving out of the way as an inky tentacle shot through the window from outside and into the room.

"What the absolute fuck?!" Cherri Bomb screeched as the black appendage tightly wrapped around her ankle, yanking her to the floor before dragging her out the window.

"Oh come on! It's not her fault Sir PinDick McNo-Legs shot her halfway across the city!" Angel shouted as he ran after his screaming friend out the window.

###############

"I think those eggs may have given me indigestion." Alastor stated as he quietly burped into the side of his closed fist. "Do we have any Tums, dear?"

"Ughh, I can't believe her. And not just her! My mom and that damn doctor." Charlie ranted as she paced around her bedroom, tossing her cellphone onto the foot of the bed before quickly stopping by her bedside drawer for a moment to toss a small bottle of antacids to her boyfriend.

The chat that she just had with Dr. Vex about patient confidentiality certainly did not help her mood. The end of that phone call wrapping up with Charlie being scolded to calm down and to think about her blood pressure; and to think about the possibility that she could go into premature labor due to stress.

She couldn't hit the End Call button fast enough.

Feeling quite defeated about the whole situation she kicked off her slippers and crawled into bed, slumping onto her side and laying her pounding head into Alastor's lap, mumbling "goddam fucking assholes" as she got comfortable. Alastor also attempted to get as comfortable as possible, despite suffering from an unsettled stomachache, as he tried to comfort his beloved, turning on some soft music as background noise as he gently rubbed his hand up and down her back.

She sighed and tried to focus on the feel of his pleasant touches instead of the constant dull throbs currently plaguing her temples, feeling quite upset and kind of sad that such a beautiful surprise was ruined for her. Ruined by two impatient demonesses and a money persuaded imp.

Assholes.

A loud grumble coming from the stomach she was snuggling against brought her out of her ill-tempered thoughts. "Why did you eat a quarter of Sir Pentious's egg minions?"

"When presented an opportunity, it's unwise for one to turn up their nose and look away….and I didn't have enough fuel in the tank to rip apart that abomination he calls an aircraft." He admitted as he stroked his fingers through her blonde locks, tucking the stray strands behind her ear.

"Was it worth it?" She asked.

"Every beautiful scream; just symphony to my ears." He grinned, delighted to have murdered the pesky snake that nearly smashed a cyclops demon into his girlfriend and vulnerable unborn child. The red demon continued to grin as he stroked her hair, eventually trailing his fingers back down her neck and shoulders, all the way to the dip in the middle of her back before moving his gloved hand over to her bump.

He was the only person that didn't need to ask for her permission. She actually wanted him to touch her stomach and to speak to their baby more, trying to encourage bonding early, but he seemed to only do so during the moments when she asked him to.

"Do you care that it's a girl? I know you really wanted a boy." She curiously asked as she looked up at him, placing her pale hand over his gloved one.

"A boy would have been nice…"Alastor started to say, feeling his little nudger nudge against his palm, "…but I think I prefer her instead." His grin turning into a genuine smile.