Author's note: Hi again everyone! Okay, well, um, this originally started as a one-shot (i.e., the last chapter), but I've thought it over, and I've decided to make it a collection of MartinSandyBaby themed one-shots. That said, this one-shot features Martin's father, whom we haven't seen on the show in a while. This may be outdated as Martin's storyline progresses on the show, but I couldn't help myslef, I had to write it. Keep in mind that this takes place just after the episode Ring Around the Rosie.

"Martin, is that you?" Lt. Bill Brewer called from the kitchen as Martin walked through the front door.

"Yeah, Dad... It's me." Martin replied, somewhat reluctantly. Dropping his bag on the couch, an action he knew that his obsessively tidy father would likely scold him for later, he headed through the living room and into the kitchen.

"You're just in time, Marty. I made dinner; that new instant lasagna you've been wantin' to try." His father said.

In reality, Martin was about as excited to eat right now as the Wicked Witch probably was to see that bucket of water.

"Sounds great, Dad." Martin replied, forcing the cheerfulness into his voice.

Bill Brewer looked at his son, and despite having spent the last year of his life in a bunker in the middle of the desert, he knew instantly that something wasn't right. He knew because his wife used to wear the same expression when she was upset, as Martin was wearing right now.

"Why the long face, kid? Something bothering you?"

In the process of setting the kitchen table, Martin shook his head. "I guess practice was just longer than usual."

"Martin, I've spent the last two years of my life wading through the sand of a foreign country. I'm a little sharper than you think. You've been moping around about something for a few weeks now, don't think I haven't noticed."

Oh, no.

"Are you going to tell me what it is?"

His father looked at him expectantly. Martin knew that look well. He couldn't lie to his father, and he never had. Sure, he'd neglected to tell him things, but he had never flat-out lied. In his heart, he knew that he wasn't going to start now.

"It's kind of complicated." Martin said, almost timidly.

"If it's complicated, it's complicated." Lt. Brewer pulled out a chair at the table, and encouraged Martin to do the same. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to help you."

Martin ran a hand through his dark hair, sighing in what seemed to his father like nervousness.

"Do you remember last summer, the night I went out with Simon?" Martin asked. His father nodded in response, then sat silently while his son continued to explain.

Several things ran through Bill Brewer's head as his son spoke. The first of which was the thought that the whole situation was his fault. After all, he'd left his teenage son half a world away for more than two years, with only brief and occasional visits in between.

Of course, he and Martin had talked about things like this before. That was the problem, he realized. The discussions had taken place before Martin ever actually had a girlfriend, before he was even really dating seriously, before he was swayed by the pressures of high school precedent. Martin had always reassured him, always told him that he wasn't going to have sex before marriage, that he didn't have to worry. But now, it looked as if all of that was out the window. So much for not worrying.

How had he not seen this coming? Did he really expect that Reverend and Mrs. Camden would be watching his son's sexual habits that carefully? That they would be able to talk him out of having sex, not just with any of his girlfriends, but with any other young woman who might try to persuade him into having sex?

Then again, Martin had just said that he'd lost his virginity in June. He was already home in June. Martin asked come to him for permission to go with Simon. Why had he said yes? Was it because he really believed that Martin was mature enough to socialize with college students? Or had he somewhere, subconsciously, perhaps, been trying to make up for the time he'd been away by giving him freedom? It was almost like buying his love with favors.

Getting to the end of his explanation, Martin said finally. "She tracked me down after church a few weeks ago. From what she told me, It, ..."

This was very hard for himsay this tohis father, the man whom he respected so deeply, loved so much, who wanted nothing more than to make proud of him, and now that was all about to come crashing down.

"...It looks like I'm gonna be a father."

The last thing that Lt. Brewer had ever expected to hear was that. He'd thought Martin would say that he regretted having sex, or that he maybe ended up with a reputation at school. But never, ever, would he have though that his son could be that rash when it came to something this serious.

"You didn't use protection?" It was more a statement than a question. Martin shook his head, and then lowered it, looking completely ashamed at having disappointed him.

"Are you still seeing her?"

Again Martin shook his head. "I didn't even really like her." He admitted sadly.

"Oh God." Bill said to himself, putting his head in his hands. This would mean the end of everything he'd tried to give Martin. No college, no well-paying job, no major league baseball. But what was worse was that he was powerless to stop it.

"Oh God!" He exclaimed again, this time in anger. In one swift, almost involuntary motion, he cleared the entire table with one sweep of his arm, sending several plates, forks, and knives hurling to the floor, the plates shattering in the process.

Martin stood quickly, trying to avoid being hit by any of the flying dinnerware. There was only one thing he could think of to say.

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"That's an empty apology, Marty, and you know it!" His father shouted, without meaning to sound so angry.

"What are you gonna do now? How are you going to support a family? I'm not a millionaire, Martin. I get paid for my work overseas, but I can't handle another family, let alone the amount of money it would take to raise a baby. I hate to say it, but 'Sorry' can't fix this."

The tears Martin felt he deserved were slowly leaking from his eyes, when he said. "There's Mom's life insurance policy."

"I don't want to hear you bring that up again." Lt. Brewer said, his voice still raised slightly. That money is for your college education. That's the whole reason your Mother took that life insurance policy out in the first place."

"Well, the way it looks, I'm probably not going to college." There was an edge to his voice now, his shame turning to anger. Not at his father, but at himself.

"Don't you dare use that tone with me, Martin! You're going to college, if It's the last thing I do!"

"The same thing happened to Mom, and she never finished." Martin commented.

"You have a lot of nerve bring that up. It was not even remotely the same situation. You know that!" His father roared.

"I don't see how it's any different. Mom got pregnant with me out of wedlock, didn't she?" It stung his father to hear that, and he could see that. "Technically, that was the reason you guys even got married in the first place, right?"

He could have smacked his son at that moment, and that was saying something, as he had never hit Martin before.

"That's not true at all, Martin! Your Mother and I were both adults when you came along. We'd finished high school, and I'd already been given my first assignment as a Marine. We were going to get married anyway, when your Mom found out she was pregnant we just got married sooner."

"But you still had sex out of wedlock." Martin countered.

"Don't follow my example! Just because I got lucky when it came to the timing, doesn't meanI was right in what I did!" That had come out wrong. Hefelt itas soon as the words left his mouth.

To Bill's surprise, though, Martin didn't yell back. He reacted simply by leaning against the kitchen wall, and sobbing. A more anguished cry than he had heard out of any wounded solider, or any war-stricken civilian in Iraq.

Stepping meekly over to his son, a wave of the utmost sorrow and regret flooded him, and for the first time since he'd been home, he took his son in his arms, and held him.

"I know, Martin. I didn't mean that. I'm sorry." The only thing he could do now was hope that it wasn't an empty apology.

Okay that's it for this chapter! Um, just to let everyone know, what was mentioned about Martin's Mom and Dad getting pregnant out of wedlock is true. Martin's father mentions it in the episode of season eight when he visits called Healing Old Wounds. Anywho, Tell me what you think!

Did you love it? Hate it? Did you wonder how the hell it was possible for someone to write something so badly? Tell me in a review! Thanks!

-Tessie:)