Author's Note: Okay, I'm gonna try and get this baby done today so I can get started on the next chapter of HAT. You see, I'm trying to alternate the chapters. Anyways, on with the show. There's some talk about X and Y chromosomes in here... hehehe... hope that doesn't confuse anyone... I don't remember when you learn that in school...

Note to Ezri-Candy: A marble statue of Squallie??? :::grins and drools::: Thank you!!

Disclaimer: Still don't own them, but thanks to Ezzy, I now have a marble statue of my Squallie.

Chapter Three: Nightmares

The days of Yuffie's pregnancy flew by and her morning sickness soon subsided to just every once in awhile. Soon, it was Christmas and the Hollow Bastion occupants spent much time and energy decorating the whole palace. Of course, Yuffie had to fight Squall tooth and nail for her to do anything herself as he was worrying over the least little thing. Squall was so protective of both her and the growing baby inside, that he very nearly followed her around like a shadow and did everything for her.

That is, he did until his ninja insisted that she could do these things without hurting neither her nor the baby. She even went so far as to search the library for books on pregnancy to prove her point to her lover. He finally conceded and only helped her with the more difficult things, although he did watch her for any tell-tale signs that she needed help with something less difficult.

It was now just a few days into the new year, the holiday season having already come and gone, and Yuffie was just a little over two months pregnant as far as anyone could tell. Her stomach still remained flat, but had grown to become extremely firm as the baby grew and pushed her organs around in her stomach. And right now, the pregnant ninja was propped up on a pile of pillows on her bed with Squall's head in her lap, her fingers lazily running through his hair while he played with her stomach.

She giggled softly when he stroked a lone finger down her side, crossing over the sensitive spots on her flesh. "That tickles, you know?" she told him, gently massaging his scalp and looking down at him.

"I know it does. Why else do you think I did it?" Squall retorted, pushing her sweatshirt up so he could have clear access to her stomach. He gave it an experimental poke, finding that the flesh didn't give in hardly at all to his finger. "That's going to turn into a rock soon, I think."

Drawing her brows together, Yuffie poked it herself, then leaned over and poked Squall's own stomach. "Yeah, it's harder than yours now." She poked him again, laughing as he winced since she poked him a bit harder. "Of course, maybe you're just getting a little flabby since you're not training so often and you're eating so much," she teased, remembering how many cookies she had seen him wolf down on Christmas Eve, after Aerith and Shera had just finished baking them.

"You're eating a hell of a lot more than me," the swordsman retaliated, rubbing her stomach as he pulled the elastic waistband of her sweat pants down lower, to reveal all of her abdomen. "Like that tub of Rocky Road ice cream you finished off last night."

Yuffie playfully thumped Squall's nose, rolling her eyes as she did so. "I'm pregnant, you idiot. Of course I was hungry," she muttered, easing her head back down on the pillows and slowly closing her eyes. She was still tired most of the time, beginning to take naps in the middle of the day, right about now, as it were.

Seeing that his love was beginning to fall asleep, he grasped the hand that had thumped him and brought it to his lips, giving it a soft kiss. The gentle smile that appeared on her lips was answered with his own and he then turned his face to her stomach. "You won't be withdrawn, you'll like people," he began, his lips nearly touching her stomach as he talked to it. "You will be fascinated by sword lore. You will be a girl. You will be an ace student."

Shifting somewhat on the bed, Yuffie released a drawn out sigh, her fingers once again running through Squall's hair. "Squall, I am about nine weeks pregnant. I don't think he can hear me yet," she told him, making sure to emphasize the word 'he.' It had become an ongoing discussion between them whether the baby was a boy or girl.

"But what if she can? And maybe these subliminal messages would work," Squall insisted adamantly, stormy blue eyes staring up into Yuffie's indigo. He closed the fraction of the space between his lips and her stomach, placing a kiss on her belly button before sitting up and situating himself next to her. He pulled her into his arms, her back against his chest and his hands splayed across her still bare stomach. "And before you say anything, it is a girl."

"No, it's not. It's gonna be a boy," the ninja argued back, leaning her head back against shoulder and twisting her face so she could kiss Squall's chin.

"Girl."

"Boy!"

"It's going to be a girl and I'm the one who gets to choose," the swordsman finally said, smirking because he thought he had won the argument.

Yuffie pulled away from, turning to look at him with raised eyebrows. "Just because it's your chromosome that decides the sex of the baby doesn't mean you get to choose," she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest in mock anger. "Besides, it was my egg that decided whether it was an X or a Y that got through. And I say it was a Y chromosome." To finish up her argument, she stuck her tongue out at him, but found herself yawning as she did so.

Shaking his head, Squall reached over and gently pulled her back down to him, having her lie on her stomach against his chest while his hands rested gently on her lower back. "Just go to sleep," he muttered into her hair, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "You know you're tired, I know you're tired, and I could go for a nap myself."

"And why are you tired, Mr. Leonhart?" she asked playfully, crossing her arms on his chest and resting her chin atop them so she gaze upon his face. "You aren't the one pregnant."

"No, but I'm the one with a pregnant girlfriend who likes to toss and turn in her sleep," Squall replied, beginning to run his hands down her back in long, caressing strokes. "And, I do believe it was this morning that Cid woke me up at six to help him work on my Gummi ship, wasn't it?"

Moving her arms from his chest to wrap beneath his own arms, Yuffie lay her cheek against his chest, listening to the heartbeat beneath her ear. It had a soothing quality that always made her feel safe, like nothing bad could ever happen to her as long as she could hear the beating of his heart. "Fine," she conceded, yawning once more. "You have the right to take a nap, too."

"Good, because I wasn't planning on moving from this spot," Squall murmured, tightening his grip ever so slightly on her waist as he closed his eyes. He felt her shift somewhat and opened one eye lazily to make sure she was alright before closing it again.

"Well, I'm glad since you make such a nice pillow," the ninja mumbled sleepily, her eyes slowly falling shut and her breathing becoming more even. She hazily noticed that Squall's had as well, signaling that he had already fallen asleep. And it wasn't long before she, too, joined him in slumber.

At dinner that night, all six residents of Hollow Bastion sat around the large dining room table, eating bowls of the chicken stew Aerith had made that day. After being on this world for the past three months with no café such as most of them were accustomed to in Traverse Town, it was decided that Aerith and Shera would take turns doing the cooking as they were the only two who were able to make anything edible. Sure, they had tried out everyone's cooking, but most of the time, someone ended up with food poisoning after trying the concoctions the others had made. Most notably, Cid's cooking had managed to make everyone sick and he was no longer allowed in the kitchen except for repair work.

But, tonight, the chicken stew the gentle flower girl had prepared that day seemed to be going over well with everyone as most of them were working on their second and third bowls. Conversation flowed around the room on two or three different subjects, except for at the end where Squall and Yuffie sat. There, the ninja would look up from her bowl occasionally and glare at the swordsman across from her. The normally talkative teenager hadn't spoken a word to anyone after they had sat down to dinner.

Finally, unable to take this silent treatment any longer, especially considering he had no clue what she was mad about, Squall burst out. "What's wrong?" he hissed to her rather loudly, loud enough to stop all other conversations around the table.

Everyone stopped eating and turned to watch the couple at the end of the table, waiting for Yuffie's reaction to Squall's outburst. Cid elbowed Cloud in the side, muttering about placing bets on what upset the pregnant ninja this time. They were becoming fairly used to frequent mood changes in the girl, having seen her go from anger to tears in just a few short minutes.

"What's wrong?!" Yuffie asked incredulously, dropping her spoon into the bowl and ignoring the stew that splashed onto the table. "You know very well what's wrong."

"No, Yuffie. I don't. So, please enlighten me so I can fix it," Squall told her as calmly as he could, trying to ignore the stares from around the table. He hated seeing Yuffie so moody all the time, but he attributed it to the rapid hormone changes taking place in her body and normally wouldn't let it affect him.

"If you don't know what's wrong, then I'm not going to tell you," the ninja growled, narrowing her eyes into dangerous slits as she glared daggers at the man in front of her.

Squall buried his face into his hands, letting out a deep breath as he did so before lifting his head to look at her again. "So, what you're saying is that if I did know what's wrong, you'd tell me? Is that what you're saying, because that makes no sense whatsoever," he inquired, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice by reminding himself that she was pregnant and very hormonal right now.

Crossing her arms over her chest, the ninja quirked an eyebrow and glared at him. "You took my seat," she grumbled, leaning back in her chair and turning to glare at everyone else at the table. She noted that they all immediately dropped their gaze back to their bowls.

Squall rose from his seat, picking up his bowl, and walked around to where she was sitting. "There, you can have your seat back now. I didn't know we had assigned seating," he muttered, beginning to pull her chair out for her so she could take her seat.

"No, I don't want to sit there now," Yuffie insisted, refusing to budge from the chair. "So, you just go back over there and eat." She gestured with one hand towards the chair he had just recently vacated for her.

Sighing and closing his eyes in slight frustration, the brunet swordsman slowly walked back over to where he had been sitting and tentatively took his seat, half expecting her to explode again. A few minutes later, he noticed that Yuffie was back to her cheerful self, looking up from her bowl to smile apologetically at him. Conversation resumed around the room, this time both Squall and Yuffie joining in on it.

Yuffie got up from the table to get herself another glass of water from the kitchen, and as soon as she was gone, Aerith sighed deeply and stared at Squall. "Leon," she muttered, shaking her head slowly, "haven't you learned that you can't argue with pregnant women? Just nod your head and acclimate yourself to saying 'yes, dear.'"

"I'll keep that in mind," Squall mumbled in reply, wondering if his ninja would be like this for the whole pregnancy, or if it was just going to be like this in the early stages. But, he didn't dwell on it for long as his mind was already drifting to another matter at hand.

Later that evening, Squall nervously paced the floor in their bedroom as he waited for Yuffie. She had told him to go ahead and go upstairs as she had something she wanted to discuss with Aerith before the flower girl, herself, headed for bed. He couldn't fathom what she wanted to talk to Aerith about, but he could guess it was about her pregnancy as the older woman was the only one in the castle with any medical experience.

But, Squall didn't spend anymore time thinking about that, his thoughts drifting instead to the small velvet covered box in his hands. He had been half-lying earlier in the day when he had told Yuffie that he had to get up early to help Cid with his ship. Yes, he had worked on his ship, but the only reason he wanted to do it so early was so he would have the time afterwards to go down to the small village surrounding the castle to buy this.

He opened the box and stared at the thin silver band with a small emerald stone, a smile coming across his face as he did so. Really, he had no clue why he was so nervous. He was almost positive that Yuffie would say yes, there was nothing to suggest otherwise. Sure, there was a nine year age gap, but if that hadn't bothered them yet, why would it affect them now?

The sound of the doorknob slowly turning caused Squall to hastily close the box and put it in his pocket before she could see it, planning on asking her in a few moments. But, when he noticed how pale and green her face appeared as she walked into the room, all thoughts of his proposal temporarily fled his mind. "Yuffie," he murmured as he strode over to her, putting his arm around her shoulders to help her over to the bed.

"I guess the morning sickness is coming back with vengeance, huh?" she asked quietly, laughing half-heartedly as she clutched her stomach. This was the sickest she had felt since she became pregnant... hell, the sickest she had ever felt in her whole life, even with all her motion sickness. She quickly changed out of the sweat pants and sweat shirt she was wearing and into her favorite flannel nightgown, the one that came to her mid-thigh, even if Squall did hate it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Squall asked gently, sitting down next to her and taking one of her hands in his own and entwining their fingers. He heard her groan softly and her face paled even more. "Yuffie?"

Wincing, Yuffie lay down on her side, curling up into a ball. "Yeah... I- I think I'll just try and go to sleep to see if that helps," she muttered, trying to ignore the stomach ache and push it out of her mind. But her stomach just hurt so much.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" the swordsman inquired softly, brushing her ebony bangs out of her face.

Yuffie was about to answer when her stomachache suddenly became much worse and she leapt out of the bed as quickly as she could and dashed to the bathroom. Squall, used to her doing this with the morning sickness, sighed before getting up to follow her down the hall. Reaching the bathroom door, he flipped on the lights since Yuffie had neglected to do so in her rush. And just as he was about to enter the bathroom to get her the damp washcloth he knew she would want, he stopped and stared.

On the bathroom floor, in a trail leading from the door to the toilet was blood. His eyes followed the trail to see it trickling down Yuffie's legs and falling into a puddle beneath her.

Author's Note: Okay, I know you guys hate me now. Not only did I do that to Yuffie and Squall, but I'm leaving you with a cliffhanger. And, just so you know, I'm crying right now. Anyways, review for me. I gotta go to school now.