Disclaimer: So I don't own Final Fantasy VIII and I don't own the characters. I do own Toby though!

Small Print

Irvine had never reached the lower level so quickly in his life. He was upset at what had occurred in his absence. He came into the room abruptly and paused to look at the baby asleep in the crib. He then looked over to make sure that Selphie was there and then shut and locked the door. Irvine didn't say anything at first, he only went to the side of the crib and lightly rubbed his son's slightly rotund belly. He exhaled loudly as he turned and sat down on his bed. Selphie didn't look at him, only stared at the crib. It made him feel ashamed, as if he'd betrayed her in some way that he wasn't sure how.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expectin' her ta show up," He said quietly. "She's not still in Garden is she?" Selphie shrugged as a few tears fell. "Don't do that Darlin'," Irvine cupped her chin in his hand and wiped away the tears.

"She showed up here and told me she was taking Toby," Selphie whispered as she buried her face in her hands. "I know he he's not my baby Irvy. But it felt like she was trying to take away a part of me." Irvine remained silent but pulled her up into his lap and cradled her.

"Ya shouldn't have to go through all this," He said as he rested his chin on her head. "It was my mistake not yours." Underneath his arms she tensed.

"But I love you," Selphie whimpered. "And if you have a son, I guess I'll just get to be his Mama. It doesn't bother me. I like children."

Irvine sighed. "Ya shouldn't have to raise someone else's though. Especially when ya still have your life ahead of ya and can have some of your own."

"You're not trying to break up with me are you?" She looked up at him through teary eyes.

"No, that's the last thing I'd never want," Irvine ran his hand along her cheek. "I just don't want ya ta feel like ya hafta take care of him 'cause he's mine," Now Irvine's voice was wavering and his words were beginning to run together.

"That's what makes him special," Selphie said as she sat up in his lap and put her arms around his neck. "Think about it. You don't have to be someone's biological parent to love a child. Look at us. We both came from an orphanage and were both adopted by families. Actually, I've always planned on someday adopting a child, so it doesn't bother me that you have one already..." She paused at her words.

"It doesn't?" Irvine asked surprised.

Selphie chewed on her lip for a moment. "Okay so it does just an itty bitty bit. But that's only because I wish I were his mother instead," Selphie's voice dropped lower in embarrassment.

"I wish you were too," Irvine said as he hugged her tightly against his chest. "I need to go talk to Cid." He stood up, letting her slide off his lap and onto the bed.

"Why?" Selphie asked hesitantly.

"'Cause I think she might be able to legally take him from me, and I might need his help," Irvine leaned over the crib's railing and lifted the small boy up. Selphie paled at what he said and quickly hurried to his side.

"I'll go with you," She insisted. "Anyone that tries to take my baby is in for a fight." Irvine raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"She may be tall, but you could take her," Irvine tried to joke. "Seriously though. How did ya get rid of her?"

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The door slid open to reveal the interior of Cid and Edea's apartment. Selphie offered to take lightly dozing Toby and sat down with him on the couch. Irvine looked down at her as she sat rocking his child. Toby was his but not hers, at least biologically. It worried him that she'd get too attached and then he'd lose him. She was already really attached he noted as she brushed a light strand of hair from the boy's face.

Irvine turned to Cid's footsteps and didn't even feign that he was in a good mood. He leaned on the windowsill and looked out at the beaches of Balamb. Edea walked over to him and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Talk to us child," She said as she hugged him.

"I can't loose my baby Matron," He looked from her to Cid and then back to the window.

"Why would you be afraid that would happen?" Edea asked.

Irvine took a deep breath. "Cause his momma," Irvine paused. "His real momma showed up today and tried t'take him from Selphie." Edea turned to Cid.

"Why would you think that she could take him from you?" Cid entered the conversation.

Irvine took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. "Cause these here papers say he's mine while I'm underage so long as I still got a livin' guardian. My adoptive father died a few months ago. I guess its really a bit longer than that but still, she found out obviously. And she's a legal adult and I'm not." Irvine handed the papers to Cid. "This was the agreement we reached and signed off before he was born." Irvine's voice was beginning to sound strained. "Technically, she can take 'm back now cause I'm just shy of the legal age." Edea looked from Irvine to Cid and then decided on trying to comfort her child. Cid carefully took the papers from Irvine's outstretched hand.

"It'll be alright dear," Edea spoke softly. From her seat on the couch, Selphie wanted to do something, but found that with Toby finally sleeping soundly, that would be near impossible. She reluctantly settled for watching the scene unfold before her.

Cid walked slowly across the room and sat down by a lamp. He slid his reading glasses on and looked over the document. "According to this little piece of paper, you were both under age when you signed it, so you had your guardians or parents sign it as well." All attention turned to him. "It basically states that you have full custody so long as you are a legal adult or have a guardian while under age. It says that if for some reason, you were unable to maintain the requirements, his custody would revert to her, seeing as she is the oldest." Cid frowned at what he just said. "Why would she put something like that in the document?"

"Just in case she changed her mind later. I guess. I don't rightly know, but I think her mother had something to do with that." Irvine answered solemnly. Cid and Edea both frowned at his answer. Cid groaned as he found his feet and walked over to the safe built into the wall.

"I don't see why you're so worked up my boy," Cid's voice sounded cheerful and optimistic. Irvine watched intently as the older man turned the dial to unlock the door. The door opened to reveal a monstrous amount of paper work. "Its in here somewhere," He dug through numerous files as Irvine waited. Edea smiled when she realized what was going on.

"I'll get it," She said as she joined her husband and pulled a few faded green files from the bottom of the paperwork. They now clearly had Irvine's attention. He slowly walked over to them and looked down at the folders she dropped on the table. "Your's is in here somewhere."

Irvine shifted through the folders with his right hand and read them silently to himself. 'Raijin Zaback, Fujin Barr, Quistis Trepe, Zell Audley? Selphie Felch? What?' He continued to look through the file names as Edea checked to see if there were any more. 'Squall Leonhart, Seifer Almasy, Irvine Wyman? My name was Wyman?'

"Are these our files from the orphanage?" Irvine asked as he pulled his free and opened it before Edea could protest.

"Yes," She answered as she pulled a something out of the back of the folder. Irvine disregarded what she was doing while he looked over the photograph of what was labeled as his mother. He looked around for any indication of his father, but all he found was three letters under the name Curtis Wyman: P.O.W. Irvine sat down at the table and began looking through the file. "Because of the nature of some of the files, we're reluctant to even hand them back to you children." Edea said as she pulled at Irvine's folder.

"But this is our past," Irvine said numbly as he watched her shut his file and place it back in the safe with the others.

"Not everyone is ready to know their pasts," Edea said softly. "Not everyone came from a family like yours. Maybe in time we'll give out the files, but not now." Irvine sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Edea looked past him to be sure that Selphie wasn't listening. "It could be very detrimental for someone your age to find out what those folders hold. Please just take my word on it and don't tell a soul I have them here." Irvine looked over to where Edea was looking and realized she was talking about Selphie. He turned back around to question Edea, but Cid was standing there instead.

"Here it is," Cid unfolded a bundle of papers that Edea had obviously given him. "This, is the paperwork that Rodney Kinneas filled out fourteen years ago," Cid turned it so that Irvine could read the ending clause.

"If for any reason due to death, illness, handicap, or any other circumstance party A is no longer to properly care for party C, then full custody of party C reverts directly back to party B. No authorities nor local governments, known as party D, have any influence nor power in this matter," Irvine looked up at Cid. "I'm confused, am I party C?"

Cid began to chuckle lightly. "Yes my boy you are. Since Mr. Kinneas obviously cannot provide adequate care for you considering he's deceased, I legally have custody of you. Or rather Edea does." Cid looked over at his wife. "Your adoptive father may be gone, but this document will still hold up in a court. Don't worry about Ms. Gray. She can't take anything away from you." Irvine reread what had he had just read aloud and smiled faintly.

"She can't touch Toby," He said more to himself than to anyone. "Wait, how did ya know her name?"

Cid smiled. "I have a disciplinary committee for a reason. They report to me about everything. You didn't really think it was something Seifer came up with on his own now did you?" Irvine shrugged as he handed the papers back to Cid.

"Lock those up and don't loose 'em," The cowboy smiled.

"Already done," Cid smiled. "Now go on back to your dorm and don't worry about getting any unwanted visitors."

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edenblack18- I bet Selphie was thinking the same thing a few times in the past few chapters.

Dark Topaz-Here you go.

aratcorien - Finally! Someone likes my Seifer! Yeah I like him too. I'm working on making him into a tough guy that does have a soft side; he just tries to hide it for the sake of his reputation. In all honesty, I really don't think he was as truely mean as the game tried to make him out to be. Although I think Squall is my ultimate favorite, I almost want to believe that he holds just as much of the blame as Seifer does in why they don't get along. Maybe its something from their childhood we just don't know about.

Verdanii - The fact that anyone in the Final Fantasy world wouldn't automatically recognize Seifer, scar and all, shows they're either stupid or have been living under a rock. I'll let you decide later. Yeah well, after I wrote the chapter I wondered myself why Irvine slept with her and just settled for the simplest conclusion I could. She was older than him, he obviously found her attractive and she gave him the time of day, and he was young and stupid. lol

Ameli Stoncius - You wrote a poem about Gore's lockbox? In a very disturbing way, that sounds like it could be entertaining. And you best stop running off with Irvine's baby, or Lynns is never going to see Dante again. glares You're not the only one with a lock box. And just for anyone reading this that's not Ameli, I'm not normally this weird. I promise.

Chapter eight was a tuffy but I muddled through it. Hopefully these chapters will come easier now that I'm only working on one story...at least on this website anyway. I really hope it didn't bore you guys to death, this was just one of those chapters that had to be written so things flowed.

One last thing. Up until the end of this story I will be taking your votes on which story you would like me to post next. I've got one for Quistis Zell and Seifer all lined up so let me know. I have to get these three up before I can even begin to think about putting the sequels up. And yes, more than one of these already have sequels in the works; including Darkened Ice. If you don't vote, I'm going to flip a coin or close my eyes and randomly pick one.

Please read and review. And be gentle, you don't want to hurt Toby's feelings now do you?