Lara nibbled on another spoonful of mint chocolate chip ice cream. She wiped a tear from her eye and took another spoonful from the carton of ice cream that was sitting on her lap. She pulled another tissue from the nearly empty box and blew her nose.

"Look Hillary, that's the kind of family that I want." Lara said, pointing to the television screen.

Hillary sighed. Don't scream. He instructed himself. Don't scream. "Lara, this is a movie. Besides, you hate wearing long dresses and you would have shot Mel Gibson yourself if he expected you to cook and clean."

"I don't care." Lara said. She wiped another tear from her eye. Hillary sat back. In an effort to get Lara's mind off of her pregnancy he had rented The Patriot. He had hoped that a good war movie would be enough to distract her for a little while. However, he didn't know about the tear jerking family content that the movie had.

Bryce leaned over to Hillary. "I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I think we should watch Titanic next."

"You'd better get another box of tissues then." Hillary muttered.

Lara glanced at the tiny swell in her stomach then back at the television screen. "Hillary, do you think the baby is a boy or a girl?"

"I say it's a boy." Bryce said. "Ooo, wanna make a bet?"

"No." Hillary said, flatly.

With another tear rolling down her cheek, Lara went to scoop more ice cream into her mouth but found that the carton was empty. She looked around. Did she really eat that entire carton in one sitting? "Hillary, do you have any more ice cream in the freezer?" She asked, standing up.

"I think we have some Godiva left, Lara. But are you sure you should be eating all of that ice cream?" Hillary asked.

"The doctor said that it was perfectly alright." Lara stated before she walked out of the TV room and went down stairs. Donnica, who had been curled up on the floor in front of the fire place, looked up and scampered after Lara. She hopped onto the kitchen counter, giving Lara an adorable look and mewing softly at her.

"At least you're still here." Lara said, stroking the kitten under her chin. Donnica mewed and purred. "Well, let's see what kind of ice cream we have left, shall we?" Lara opened the freezer and began to survey her selection. Suddenly there was a knock at the front door.

"Hillary!" Lara called.

"I'm off duty!" Hillary called.

"Bryce!"

"Come on, Lara. You're closest."

"I'm pregnant, Bryce. And the doctor told you not to stress me out so, run along and get the door." Lara smiled. There was an upside to being pregnant. The doctor said that she should pamper herself and let Hillary and Bryce pamper her, so she set out to abuse the privilege.

"Alright fine." Bryce said, admitting defeat and trotting down the stairs. Cor. I hope this doesn't last much longer. Bryce thought, he opened the door, expecting to find a solicitor or a UPS man. But instead, Alex West stood there, looking as casual as ever.

"Hey, is Lara here?" He asked.

"You! You. . . . . !" Bryce finally gave up on trying to insult him and instead dealt him a swift blow to his left temple. After hours of watching Lara train she had finally taught him how to punch. However, Alex knew the same delicate art and after an exhausting car ride and listening to nothing but Limp Bizkit for three hours straight, he wasn't about to let a computer nerd get the best of him.

Alex struck out at Bryce, nearly knocking him off of his feet with a powerful punch. Bryce dove at him and soon a full blown fist fight had broken out. Lara peered around the corner of the kitchen, curious of what was going on after hearing the sounds of a scuffle. She peered into the front room just in time to see Alex attack Bryce.

"Bryce!" Lara shouted as the fight broke out. She ran towards the two who were locked in mortal combat.

"Lara, what's-" Hillary stopped short when he saw the struggle. "Oh no." Hillary grabbed a pistol from the gun room and raced down the stairs. Lara was already at the two, trying to break them apart. Both were too furious and intent on doing the other bodily harm to listen to her. Suddenly, a gunshot went off. The fight stopped and everyone looked over at Hillary who was holding the pistol which was pointed at the ceiling.

"Bryce!" Lara said, she pulled him away from Alex, examining his bleeding nose and his already swelling eye.

"Lara, I-" Alex started.

"Get out!" Lara shouted.

"Lara, please, I wanted to talk with you." Alex tried to explain.

Lara grabbed Hillary's gun and pointed it at Alex's head. "Get out, or so help me God, I will shoot you right now."

"I- Lara, please." Alex practically begged.

Lara cocked the gun. "Walk away, Alex. Just shut up, and walk away."

Without any other option, Alex hung his head and left the Croft estates.

***

"Cor! Did you see that punch I landed on his face?" Bryce asked, excitedly. Lara dapped the blood off of his face and handed him an ice pack to hold against his eye.

"That was a very nice punch, Bryce. Alex never knew what hit him." Lara smiled.

"Don't encourage him." Hillary muttered.

"You're only mad cause you missed out on all of the action." Bryce said.

"Oh, yes, getting attacked by Alex West is a huge honor." Hillary said, sarcastically.

"Well, I do believe Alex will think twice before he comes to call again." Lara snickered.

"Lara, has to ever occurred to you that Alex should know about the baby?" Hillary asked.

"He left me." Lara said, sourly. "If he cared, he would have stayed. So he's given up any right that he may have had to his child."

"He is the father, Lara, he deserves to know." Hillary sighed.

"He deserves nothing from me. Right, Bryce?"

"Right." Bryce agreed.

Hillary shot him a death glare. Lara was difficult enough without having Bryce egging her on in her anti-Alex campaign.

***

"Gwenavere? Are you there, love?" Hillary asked. He spilled two Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"Yes, Hillary. What do you need?" A business-like voice asked.

"Have you seen the papers recently?"

"You know I don't pay attention to anything the press says." Gwenavere stated.

"Well, let me fill you in then. Lara and Alex West had a Christmas fling. He picked up and left her at the first possible chance, didn't even bother to say good-bye, Lara is now pregnant and she refuses to tell Alex about the child."

"I'm a lawyer, not Dear Abbey, why on Earth did you call me?" Gwenavere asked.

"Because I want you to talk some sense into Lara. I think you'll agree with me that Alex has a right to know that she is carrying his baby."

"Hillary, the last boyfriend I had was four years ago who ran off with a eighteen year old model from France with tits the size of her head. Forgive me if I'm not very sympathetic to the male side of this story."

"Gwenavere, please. This is about the baby. I don't believe that it should be raised without a father and I know that Lara will regret it later in life, so I need you to convince her that she has to tell Alex about the baby."

"Hillary, Lara is a big girl and she is not your responsibility."

"That is where you're wrong, Gwenavere. I swore to her father that I would look after her and he would not be very happy that she is now unmarried and pregnant!"

"That contract was moral, not legal, you have no obligation to fulfill it. Besides, if you simply want a father for the child, who says that it has to be the biological one?"

Hillary stopped and thought. "By God, you're right! There are plenty of men much, much better then Alex who could marry her. You are a genius, Gwenavere. Thank you, so much!" Hillary put the phone down and went to go find Bryce.

Bryce was in his trailer sitting at his computer, sorting through his vast library of MP3s and toying with the idea of burning another CD. He looked up when Hillary entered the small room which was growing messier by the day. He set his head phones down and raised any eyebrow at his co-worker.

"Any luck with Lara?" He asked.

"Well, no." Hillary said. "But I rang Gwenavere and she gave me an excellent idea."

"What? To stop Alex from ever reproducing again? I'm sure she could give you a few methods to make sure of that."

"Very funny." Hillary stated fatly. "But getting back to what I was trying to say. Gwenavere said that if Lara's child needs a father then it doesn't necessarily have to be the biological one."

"Yes. . . . . Okay. . . So what are you getting at?"

"We find Lara a husband."

"You're insane."

"No, it's a perfectly logical explanation. I mean, how hard is it to find a man who would want to marry a beautiful millionaires with a wonderful personality?"

"Well, if we tell them that, none. But if we tell the whole truth, that she's stubborn, thick headed, doesn't listen to a word you say and is more content shuffling around in old tombs with three thousand year old mummies and blasting little mechanical toys to bits and building assault courses and taking trips all over the world then anything else. Not to mention, she doesn't know how to cook, she hates cleaning, she's not fond of children, which is going to be a problem pretty soon, she hates fancy dress parties and she refuses to follow anyone else's direction if their not her own. And-!"

"Alright, Bryce. I understand." Hillary snapped, cutting him off. "Lara isn't perfect, but that's hardly a reason to keep from trying. Besides, I don't want to condemn the child to a fatherless existence, especially when there are plenty of things that we can do to prevent it."

"Has it ever struck you that, maybe, just maybe, you should but out of Lara's business?"

"Bryce, if this wasn't coming from someone who just attacked one of her ex-lovers it might have a little more sting to it. Now, let's not waste any time? Hmm?"

***

"Okay, I worked on this all last night." Bryce said, he entered the dinning room where Hillary was sitting and dropped a tall stack of papers in front of him. "But before I share with you my work, where is Lara?"

"She's gone out shopping with Gwenavere. They won't be back for several hours, now what did you find?" Hillary asked, reading over the papers.

"Well, there are twenty-six unmarried lords between the ages of twenty-five and forty." Bryce said, showing Hillary a list of names. "I made sure that each one is of good moral character, no other children, messy divorces, that sort of thing. And the list went down by half. But from there I narrowed it down, since two are engaged, another two have serious girlfriends. Then I asked an online friend to rule out a few based on looks. And now, it's down to three." Bryce said. He took out pictures of each of the lords along with their vital statistics and bios.

"Now. To my knowledge, Lara doesn't know any of these men. So, do we introduce them to her all at once and let her pick, or go one by one and see which one gets along with her best?"

"We could just throw them all into a giant pit and the survivor gets to court her."

"Dear God, you made a joke. Are you alright? Do you need to lay down or something?"

"Shut up, Bryce."

"Fair enough. Let's get to work."

***

"What do you think of this, Lara?" Gwenavere asked, holding up a little black dress.

"Very nice." Lara said, half hearted.

"Well, I've got a date later this week, so I thought I might as well get something new." Gwenavere smiled.

"You have a date? Dear God, I think all hell might freeze over tonight." Lara smiled at her friend.

"Very cute, Lara."

"So, what's the lucky guy like?"

"He's sweet and gentlemanly and his kisses are amazing."

"Ooo, what's his name?"

"Oh, was I supposed to get his name? Oops." Lara laughed. Although Gwenavere spent most of her time as a starchy, all business lawyer, she still had a sense of humor.

"So, Lara, how is your love life going?" Gwenavere asked.

"What love life?" Lara countered.

"Well, you are pregnant. So you must have had some sort of love life at one time."

"There's not much to tell. He picked up and left me at the first sign of money."

"Does he know that you are pregnant?"

"No. He's not going to know either."

"So you're not telling him that you are pregnant with his child, why again?"

"Because he left me. He doesn't deserve to know."

"And you're going to make an innocent child suffer because of this."

"Leave me alone, Gwen. I don't want to argue about this."

"Neither do I, but you cannot doom your child to a fatherless future simply because you disagree with what he did ages ago."

"And what if I do tell him and he leaves me and the baby? Then what?"

"You won't know that until you try, Lara. Think of your father. Would you have wanted a live without him?"

Lara's hands crept to her stomach. She sat down on a bench that was sitting outside of a dressing room.

"Oh no. . . . ." Lara murmured. "Gwen, what have I done?"

Gwen sat down next to her, taking her hand. "It's alright, Lara. You can ring him when we get home. It is not too late."

"Thanks, Gwen." Lara said, resting her head on her friend's shoulder.

"Not a problem." Gwenavere said, looping an arm around Lara. "Come on, we've got to finish shopping. And I've got dips on the little black dress."

Lara smiled. "Okay, but I get the red one."

***

"Alright. . ." Lara starred at the phone. How in the world was she just supposed to call up Alex West and tell him that he was going to be a father? Is there a way other then blurting it out? She wondered.

Lara sat down on her bed and thought for several seconds. She tried to remember how her friends had told their husbands that they were pregnant. But their scenarios were much happier. Lara wasn't sure how Alex would react to the news. Having him drop the phone and leap around his room in excitement was not something that she was expecting him to do.

"Okay, girl." Lara said to herself. "Enough stalling. . . Time to face the music." Lara picked up the phone and with all the strength in her body she dialed his cell phone number. The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

"Hello?" Asked a tired voice.

"Alex?" Lara blurted out. The voice sounded different.

"He's not here." The voice was female. "Hey, who the hell is this!?" The demanding voice snapped.

"I need to talk to Alex. When will he be back?"

"Listen bitch, you stay the hell away from my man, you hear me?! I'm his fiancé you little slut, you call back here and I'll get a restraining order on you! Whore!"

Suddenly, Lara was greeted by the sound of the dial tone. The phone dropped from Lara's hands and fell with a thud onto the carpeted floor. Lara sank to the ground, shaking. She curled up into a ball to try and stop the tremors that were racing through her body. Now, it had finally struck her, that she was pregnant. And now, Lara Croft was completely alone.