A/N- Ladeda. Okay, the flashbacks won it by one vote! Wow. And so I'm putting this chapter in because it has blood – yay blood – and fluff – yay fluff – and it continues to torture poor Mark 'n' Nina while expounding on Mark's sweetness. This'll probably be the last flashback, because after a while I get kinda tired of 'em, although I have several more written out for whatever reason... like deleted scenes... Okay, while I'm still cheerful there's something absolutely weird I have to tell you. Seriously. Okay, so the hotness guy at my school, Squishy, the one I based Scott's looks on, I stalked him for about half my freshmen year and most of this year. Meanwhile, Squishy has a best friend who I tend to call Fluffy. Fluffy's kinda cute, but it's more like aww-look-at-the-little-dorky-guy cute. Ryan in WOL looks like Fluffy (and yes, we shall see Ryan again). Well, here's the story I wanted to tell. So, I'm all obsessed with and stalking Squishy-Scott, right? Just like Nina was. Then, sometime in the last month, I randomly found I was switching to Fluffy! Like Nina did, if Fluffy was Mark. Whoa. And I suspect that Fluffy likes me, though I'm not entirely sure. See, now all I need is for Fluffy to run out in front of one of my best friends' cars so I can save him and get run over! Sorry, I just thought that was weird and that it needed to be shared.

T-R-Us- Uh-oh... a rant... -eye twitch- Am I in trouble?

Obsetress- Haha you rock! D'you wanna be staff to my C2 community? It's like The Greatest LM Parodies of All Time or something, and for some reason it doesn't show up except through my profile... It does exist, though, I promise. Yeah, I hate those last minute eBay people... they should be punished...

nebulia- Sadly, yes I do. But don't worry, things start looking up after the next chapter, and by the end I should have made up for all of this.

Mlle Verity- It's true, blood is lovely. That's why I'm writing Montparnasse's life story (my next serious work, after I finish WOL). And there's blood here, in this chapter.

Marion, that is SuperCrazy01- Yay for the Red Sox. And, of course, I'm dreadfully sorry about what happened to Mark, but I did badly need a plot, as you probably noticed from my Author's Notes and things during the first two stories. Congrats on your Mark! See my entire stalker story in the Author's Note.

H. Sibelus- Yes, last words have become something of a motif here, along with the forehead-kiss of Eponine death and... I'm sure there's something else. My English teacher would be proud.

RoesMisre- Don't feel like a sap! Crying at fanfiction is fun, unless you're in the library at school. Then it's just bad.

Pink Velvet- Hah! I watched the video again last night, except I was watching Fluffy instead of Squi, and haha it's great. You should see him during Officer Krupke and As Long As I'm Here With You (the one where they're all in suits except that one girl). And Mama Says... WHEE... it doesn't matter... Did I tell you about that? Bekah's too funny. Hmm... what else... oh, the last song, You Can't Stop the Beat... you hafta see it, really. I'm having a Squishy party part two as soon as I get a video of the homecoming show.

Sorrowful Wind-Whisperer- Ooh, evil Marks make me angry. Especially if they're evil Marks who butcher LM...

elenlaurelin- Yay, the first person who admits that I'm not evil, just an author! -cyber cookie-

Another crash of thunder shook the building as Mark put the last plate away in the cupboard. Rain pounded against the kitchen window, and he turned to watch it.

"Mark?"

Nina had come in behind him and was standing in the doorway, a hand against her swollen stomach. "What's wrong? Is it time?"

She nodded.

"Alright, let's go."

The two hurried down the hallway and into the elevator, Nina gripping Mark's fingers. "Don't be afraid," he murmured. "We're going to be parents."

"I'm going to be a parent," she whispered.

"And what am I, the guy door? Listen to me, Nina, we agreed that I'd be the child's father."

She said nothing.

"What is this, some pre-parental slump?"

"You shouldn't have to put up with this. This isn't your fault. You and I've never even..."

They'd left the elevator and were partway to the front door. Mark grabbed her arm. "Nina, look at me. Look at me. I married you and I knew perfectly well that you were going to have a baby. And I've been waiting for you these nine months-"

"But you shouldn't have to-"

"Why? Why shouldn't I?"

"Because you aren't the father."

Her eyes were on the floor again.

"Nina... did you marry me?"

"Yeah."

"Did you marry Scott?"

She winced at the name.

"Did you?"

"No."

"Do I love you?"

"I guess so."

"You guess so? I adore you. Does Scott? Does he love you?"

She shrugged. "No."

"Do you love me?"

Nina finally smiled. "A bit." Mark raised an eyebrow and she laughed out loud. "More than Cosette loved Marius."

"That's better. And how much do you love Scott?"

"I love him as much as Cosette loved the Thénardiers."

"Where is Scott, Nina? Where is he?"

She swallowed. "Dead."

"Where am I?"

Again Nina smiled. "Right here, with me."

"And that's where I'm going to stay. Let's go have us a baby."

Hand in hand, Mark and Nina stepped out into the storm. Lightning flashed across the night sky as Mark hailed a cab. "Take us to the hospital, please," he said, climbing in after Nina.

As the cab rolled to a stop at an intersection several minutes later, Mark caught the driver studying the couple in his rearview mirror. Thunder rattled the car windows.

"Guess you'll want me to be quick, then," the driver said, eyeing Nina's stomach.

"Couldn't hurt," Mark called back over the rain.

The other man grinned. "In this weather, I'd be afraid to-"

The cab suddenly jerked forward, and Mark could hear a crashing sound that seemed to come from far away. Before he could think he found that he had unbuckled his seatbelt and grabbed Nina, pulling her into his arms and shielding her with his body. He felt like he was being prodded by hundreds of needles as the rear window shattered and sent shards of glass flying through the cab and, for the most part, into his back.

Everything was finally still and Mark sat up. Nina's eyes were wide.

"Are you okay?"

"My... my water just broke..."

"Oh, splendid." Mark leaned over to push the door open, but the force of the collision had jammed it shut. He found that the same was true for the door on Nina's side. "Well, we can't have a baby here! I wouldn't know what to do and there's glass everywhere and – how will we get out?"

"What about the rear window?"

"I don't know, there's a minivan half buried into this taxi's trunk and the broken glass is... What the deuce, we'll risk it."

Nina smiled weakly as he helped her up and brushed several pieces of glass away from the rear window. He stepped up onto the misshapen trunk of the taxi and held her hands as she climbed out to join him. Mark turned away from her to jump down and she couldn't help but cry out at the sight of his back.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he lifted her down from the car.

"Your back... Oh, Mark, your back is covered in blood! What happened?"

"I guess it was the back window..."

And older man was climbing out of the van. "Sir, ma'am... I am so sorry... Oh, God, this girl's about to have a baby! I've called the police already; you two get to the hospital! Where's the cab driver?"

Mark went over the to the front of the car. "Oh, no. Nina, come on," he said quickly, taking her hand and pulling her to the sidewalk. "Don't look," he warned.

She tried not to, but it was pointless.

The cab driver hadn't been wearing a seatbelt when the van hit them, and had been thrown through the windshield. His body lay sprawled across the hood in a pool of dark blood. The jagged pieces of glass still in the windshield's frame were tipped with red where they had torn though his skin as he was pitched forward.

"Mark! Oh, God, I think I'm going to be sick!"

"No, you're not. Come on, it's only a few blocks to the hospital."

He put an arm around her waist to speed her up.

Mark held Nina's hand as she squeezed his fingers hard enough to break them. He winced, but did not pull away.

When they had entered the hospital several hours ago, a nurse had tried to take Mark to get the glass pulled out of the gashes in his back and shoulders and to have the wounds looked at, but he refused to leave Nina until the child was born.

She screamed again – a horrible sound. The worst part was that there was nothing he could do to stop the pain. Hadn't she suffered enough since that night at the party? Why did she need this physical pain on top of everything else?

Nina seemed to relax, and the doctor shouted, "It's a boy!"

Mark sighed in relief.

"Did you hear that, Nina? We're parents! You're a mother!"

She brought his hand to her lips. "Thank you for staying with me."

Mark smiled at her, brushing a sweaty lock of hair from her eyes with his free hand. This whole night was starting to run together... in fact, his vision was beginning to blur, and his ears had been ringing for the past hour.

"Alright, loverboy," the doctor said as he handed Nina the tiny baby. "Will you let us look at you now?"

Mark nodded and began to follow the man. He now felt as though everything was far away... like it was coming to him through a haze. The last thing he heard before passing out in the middle of the hallway was something about blood loss.