A/N: Sorry for the delay. It was definitely inexcusable. I went through a bout of real dedication to my actual follow-up story and then a bout of just not writing at all. Anyway, here's another proposal for our 2 heroes!

November 25, 1978

She wasn't going to cry.

She wasn't.

The glass of water shook as she brought it to her lips, and Lily errantly feared that an earthquake had struck, but it was only her quavering hands. Some of the water slopped out onto her chin, and she hastily returned the glass to the table.

While Lily drew deep into herself, James was a hurricane of nervous energy. He hadn't stopped pacing since she told him the news, wearing a visible stripe into the carpet with his heavy tread. At this rate, he was on pace to have pulled all of his beautiful hair out before dusk. She wanted to force him to sit down, to drag him by the ear into a chair, and demand he stop bothering her because if he continued she would lose her battle not to cry. Breaking her silence, however, was sure to come with its own agonies. Better to listen to the solid if ominous ticking of the clock.

"It's just not possible," James muttered under his breath.

Lily didn't deign to respond.

Louder this time, James said, "It's just...we were careful!"

The blatant lie brought all of Lily's stress and fear roaring to life and in a fit of pique she knocked the glass of water over entirely. Three weeks late. She was three weeks late, and they were pregnant, and it was not because they had been so careful and there was a war to fight and oh god, oh god, oh god!

"You've been getting lazy," Lily hissed. "Just last night you didn't cast the spell until you were already inside me, and it's hardly the first time! That's how this happened!"

Wartime bred passion in spades. Never knowing when they might be separated by work or tragedy, they were desperate for each other with a hunger that well exceeded the typical hormones of a young couple in love. Nearly every surface of their hideout had born witness to the times where Lily would tackle James with a kiss that led to more, or the times where James would drop to his knees for her. When Dumbledore had visited their hideout for an Order meeting, Lily had burnt red seeing him at the kitchen table: the scene of so many of her orgasms that she feared the wood would always hum with the secret of it.

Passion didn't exactly breed caution. They could become so wrapped up in each other that they wouldn't remember to cast a birth control spell until Lily was already clenching down tight around him, and then, neither were self-composed enough to cast a perfect spell. While Lily couldn't remember a time they'd foregone the spell entirely, they'd had some close calls, and the spell could have failed them on any number of occasions.

She wasn't going to cry.

She wasn't.

"You can't possibly get pregnant from thirty seconds of contact with a prick," James pleaded, like Lily was somehow the decision-maker in this scenario.

"Clearly, you can," Lily said.

James was seconds away from searching for his exits, like he might be able to outrun their problems. Not that he would. Lily knew that his sense of honor wouldn't allow it, and she supposed she ought to be thankful that she wasn't about to be cast aside in favor of some new, beautiful, decidedly un-pregnant witch. A terrible line of thinking, because all her old anxieties about the way to behave and conduct oneself came roaring back, and she was back on the precipice of tears.

Finally, James said, "Well...are you sure you're actually pregnant?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Three weeks, James. I'm as regular as the setting of the setting sun. I've never been three weeks late. I'm pregnant."

"But you didn't take the potion to check, right?"

The day before, when Lily had finally faced the grim reality and acknowledged that her period had stayed away far too long to be natural, she'd begun the potion that would confirm her pregnancy. Four hours she'd spent at her cauldron when more important work had called to her. Only at the very end did she realize she was missing the final and vital ingredient: neem oil. Peter was set to resupply their hideout the next day and would presumably restock their neem oil selection, but Lily hadn't been able to suffer the wait. One look at her drawn face, and James had demanded an explanation. She'd given it.

"I told you. Marlene used up the last of the neem oil when she was brewing the electrolyte supplement for the blood replenishing potion. We'll be able to tell for sure tomorrow."

Now she was snapping at him, and Lily knew that she ought to reign in her temper because the last thing she could handle was a fight with James on top of everything else, but he wasn't helping. And maybe nothing would help, but it didn't stop her from being angry: angry at him and angry at his goddamn penis.

"We have some fucked up timing," James said. He finally ended his pacing, dropping into the chair behind her. They both faced forward, not looking at each other.

"I hate your prick," Lily said, mutinous.

"You love my prick."

Lily made a noncommittal noise in response. Something broke down inside of her, and when James threw a companionable arm around her shoulders, Lily didn't shrug him off. She leaned her head against the side of his.

"You know they're not going to let you fight while you're pregnant," James said.

"The Order or you?" Lily questioned.

"Both."

She'd known the answer all along and sighed.

"We'll need to get married," James added. Lily twitched slightly, so James continued, "I know it's not how you wanted this to go, but it makes sense, and it's not like you can argue that you don't want to get married because it's not the way things are done. We're knocked up, Lily."

"I don't like it," Lily muttered.

"You've made it very clear how disgusted you are by the idea of marrying me. Plus, I can't imagine it'll be easy being married to someone with a cock you despise, but it's best for our girl, boy, whoever," James said.

Lily's lips quirked, but she patently refused to smile. He wouldn't make her.

James stood up, and Lily clung to his hand in protest. For a moment, at his side, she'd felt almost normal. She wanted to kick herself for denying all of his proposals in the past. All those opportunities to be a legitimate wife with a romantic proposal, and she'd elected for the shotgun wedding approach. Petunia was going to have a field day. In fact,…

"Do you think I'll show at Petunia's wedding?" Lily asked, horrified.

"That would have to be a fast-growing kid," James said. Petunia's wedding was in three weeks and, against the odds, Lily had yet to be thrown from the bridal party. An unmarried pregnancy would guarantee her banishment from all wedding festivities.

"Or twins," Lily said in a horror-struck whisper.

"Okay, let's not panic. First thing's first, we need to confirm that you're pregnant for sure –" Lily quickly interjected that she was, and James continued, "Muggles have pregnancy tests also, right? So let's go buy one. I don't think I can wait for tomorrow. Once that's done, we can write to my parents about our engagement and see about getting you access to the family healer."

Sticking her head between her legs, Lily breathed deep for a few seconds. It always seemed to work in the movies, but, nope, panic still very much present.

"Do you still have that ring?" Lily asked. When James said yes, Lily demanded, "Go grab it."

"What a romantic way to accept a proposal, Evans," James said. "I don't know what's more charming: the hyperventilating or the head in your crotch."

Lily slipped her watch off her wrist just so she could throw it at him. "I'm not hyperventilating, and I want you to get the ring so that the pharmacist doesn't know we're not married. I don't need to deal with people judging us right now."

"Pushy, pushy," James griped before running up the stairs to fetch the ring he'd hidden away.

While he was upstairs, Lily repeated her mantra:

She wasn't going to cry.

She wasn't.

Before they left for the drug store, James took both her hands in his and said, "Lily, I'm petrified, so don't think I'm viewing this as an opportunity. I'm not. It's a terrible time to bring a child into the world. But…I really couldn't love someone more than I love you, and I know this is going to work out."

They apparated to a town in Gloucestershire, hand-in-hand. Before they entered the store, Lily ordered James to pretend that they were overjoyed at the prospect of pregnancy, and they both put on a show for the ten minutes it took them to locate the pregnancy tests and make it through the checkout line. The checkout clerk offered them a smiling congratulations, and James answered with all the right lines about how they'd been trying for months. Artificial as it was, he almost succeeded in convincing Lily that this was a blessing rather than an unmitigated disaster.

Unlike most women, Lily didn't spend the time waiting for the test to finish filled with anxiety. She already knew in her bones that she was pregnant. Stick in hand, James paced the corridor outside the bathroom, shaking the test periodically like he could agitate the results into reality.

Finally, the stick changed colors and James sank to his knees on hardwood. From her seat on the toilet, Lily stared out at him. His face was hidden as he looked down. All that bluster, and he was every bit as terrified as she was.

Sympathetically, Lily said, "You said it yourself, James. We're going to be okay."

Queerly, James said, "You're right. We are going to be okay –" He exploded to his feet with a whooping cheer that shocked Lily so much she almost slid off the toilet seat. " – We're going to be okay because we're not pregnant! Ha!"

"What?" Lily screamed.

James was already rushing her, picking her up off the toilet and spinning her around. The bathroom was so cramped that she dinged her elbow on the sink and her knee on the towel rack, but she didn't give it a thought, too focused on the impossible dream.

"Look! Negative!" James screamed, shoving the test directly in front of her so that it was nothing but a blur. Not trusting him – he could need a new prescription for his specs after all – Lily looked at the test. Sure enough, there was a red minus sign.

Joyously, jubilantly, Lily kissed James on the mouth. Short, firm kisses that blended together as they celebrated. All the while, James babbled his thanks against her lips.

"We don't have to get married!" James cried.

"Whatever, you so want to marry me," Lily teased, even as she rejoiced in turn.

"Sure, but not like that," James grinned and then kissed her some more. "You know…I don't think we'd be remiss to work on that birth control spell right now." Just to be sure she got his meeting, James looked deliberately down between their bodies and then back up.

"Not a fucking chance," Lily growled.

Lily craned away, still in his arms, as he began to kiss her neck. The horny insatiable bastard. She was saved by the sound of Sirius singing in the hallway, newly returned from his mission. Their friend would be exhausted, and they'd need to cook him some dinner and settle him down on the couch to give a full report. There was so much to do, and none of it involved planning for a baby.

She wasn't going to cry.

She wasn't.