With a resolved sense of direction and a measure of peace, the couple left the room and slowly made their way down the hallway. Shego leaned heavily against Drakken as her leg stung and throbbed due to the recent abuse she put it through running to her room, and barely a minute passed before she was limping painfully.

On entering the living room they saw Estelle Lipsky pacing back and forth in front of the Christmas tree, wringing her hands. Admiral Cuddles was running back and forth at her side, whimpering and looking up at her anxiously as if he could sense her distress.

"Mother..." Drakken said, and the older woman looked up with a startled gasp. He looked down at Shego, who leaned into him and dropped her gaze to his chest. But a moment later she looked up at his face as it bloomed into a shy, anxious smile. "We're...we're going to have a baby."

"Oh, Son!" Estelle cried joyfully. Her hands went up in fists by her face as she rushed forward, and a moment later she was embracing them both. The tiniest of smiles crept into Shego's eyes as she saw the older woman's joy, though she struggled to breathe under her crushing hug.

"Oh my!" she said once she'd released them, looking between them both with a smile.

"Lost count..." Shego said quietly, and Drakken looked down at her quizzically.

"My son is a hero...he's engaged, and I'm going to have a grandchild!" Mrs. Lipsky shook her head in disbelief. "This is...this is the greatest gift I could have asked for. What a wonderful surprise!"

"Well, it's...a surprise to us too, Mother," Drakken said, blushing shyly.

Shego didn't let go of him as he moved to sit on the sofa, and she melded her body against his even as he reached for a snickerdoodle and chewed it nervously as his mother sat down next to them.

'Rrarf!'

Admiral Cuddles jumped up onto the center of the sofa, looking between Drakken and his mother and wagging his tail excitedly as he sat between them. Shego watched the dog rather than look at Mrs. Lipsky's face. After the day largely filled with verbal torment, she realized she wasn't ready for whatever may come next with the latest revelation.

"You did give me a fright though, the two of you. I don't know why you didn't just tell me the truth in the first place."

Shego rolled her eyes from where she leaned against Drakken's shoulder.

"Mother, we...we didn't know Shego is pregnant. And...um..."

"Our relationship isn't your business," Shego added as she lay her injured leg across Drakken's lap to rest it. Drakken looked down at Shego in alarm.

Estelle's face flushed and she frowned. "You could have at least said that you were dating. You weren't even acting like a couple. I was actually surprised Shego said yes when you proposed, Drew."

Shego looked up at Drakken, whose brow creased uncertainly. Shego grimaced and lay her head back against him. She was done cleaning up his messes for the day, if not for the rest of the year.

"Actually, Mother... We've been engaged for almost a month."

"What?" Mrs. Lipsky asked, her brow twisting in confusion.

"We wanted to surprise you, for Christmas. But when you started worrying that Shego was still evil and...when you kept trying to convince me to send her away, we didn't know what to do."

"It was his idea to propose in front of you..." Shego added, not wanting to be blamed for that stupidity.

"So everything today...was just a sham?" Mrs. Lipsky asked, looking between them in confusion.

"Well...not everything," Drakken said. "I did build all of those things in the lab."

Shego rolled her eyes.

"But then what about the police coming to talk to Shego? And that...dirty word on your car?"

Shego shrugged. "I might have let some guy's pet bird fly away after he keyed the hover car."

Drakken looked down at her. "Do you know why he wrote that, in the first place?"

"Hover car took up more than one parking space. In the handicapped row," Shego said, running her hand lightly over her injured leg to make a point. "I didn't want to move it."

"Oh," Drakken said, his brow furrowing.

"Some people are just jerks," Shego said with a shrug.

Estelle sat up straighter. "Then why did you tell me it was a gang?"

Shego groaned. "I didn't want you to be offended by the language. I was trying to protect you."

"Well dear, I understand, but do you see how out of hand all of your lying got?"

Admiral Cuddles crept over to lay his head on Estelle's lap, and Shego frowned. Even the dog was taking her side?

"You'll need to get out of that habit as heroes, besides," the older woman continued. Shego smirked up at Drakken, who looked away nervously.

"Ah, you're right of course, Mother. Now...how about we all...go back and continue dinner and celebrate?"

He set his hand over Shego's abdomen and she closed her eyes with a sigh, her irritation fading. Her entire life was about to change, but at least she had—

"Drew, I think that food is a bit rich for Shego now, don't you?"

Shego blinked, frowning at the woman as Drakken helped her to her feet.

"Why don't you fix her up some boiled eggs and I can put away all the other stuff."

"Mother...it can't be that bad?" Drakken said as he set his arm around Shego's waist. The two slowly followed his mother back into the kitchen at a speed Shego's injured leg would allow.

"And I'll just pour the eggnog down the sink. You don't have any other alcohol in your apartment, do you?"

Drakken nervously watched as Shego's expression grew harder.

"Well, actually—"

"Drew, you know how I feel about alcohol," his mother scolded. "Did Shego get you into drinking, too?"

"It's not really—"

"Show me where it is and I'll pour it all out. Oh, and you can't have coffee anymore, dear."

They had reached the kitchen, where Estelle was now going through the cupboards.

"No. Coffee?" Shego growled.

"Of course not dear. Caffeine is bad for the baby."

Shego watched as the tower of red hair moved from cupboard to cupboard, examining things and either putting them back or setting them out as apparently unsuitable. Not that Shego had the faintest idea of the the majority of the things Drakken stocked in the kitchen. But that wasn't the point.

"Mama Lipsky, we don't need your help figuring out what to eat."

The tower of red hair turned around. "Oh. Have you been pregnant before?"

Shego clenched her teeth. "No."

"Then you need someone to tell you what to do, sweetie."

"'Sweetie?'"

Shego pushed herself away from Drakken's side and then leaned across the counter, cringing as she forgot about her wrist and put weight on it. When Estelle turned around they were face to face, and the older woman took a step back in surprise.

"Now listen close. The only person who tells me what to do is me. And if I decide I want a cup of coffee tomorrow morning, I'm going to have one."

Her voice rose in volume with each word, but Mrs. Lipsky appeared only mildly perturbed. She lowered her voice.

"Drew, why don't you send your fiancée off to bed? The pregnancy is giving her mood-swings."

Shego's hands flared green. "That's it!"

Drakken grabbed her wrists and whirled her around to face him. Shego gasped at the sudden pain in her sprained wrist and shot a small blast at his chest.

"Ow!" he said in surprise, wincing as he took a step back and let go of her left wrist.

Admiral Cuddles had followed them into the kitchen and was now alternating between barking and whimpering at Shego, apparently unsure of her behavior.

"Drakken! Tell your mother to keep her nose out of our business!"

"But you need the help, dear," his mother continued. "I only want my grandchild to be well taken care of."

Shego snarled and yanked herself away from Drakken. She cradled her left wrist close to her chest, and he immediately tried to examine it even though her right hand was still flared and raised in warning.

"I have done nothing the last day and night but try to give you a good Christmas," Shego growled through clenched teeth. "And you've done nothing but try to make me feel inferior. And I just found out I'm pregnant. And...and..."

At that moment, Admiral Cuddles jumped up to the calf of her injured leg and began humping, his tail wagging excitedly. Shego fired a blast at him and he leapt back with a yelp. Instead of running from the room the small dog postured angrily and growled at her. Her brow rose.

She looked up at Drakken's anxious, worried face. She looked across the counter at his mother's annoyed one.

"I'm done," she said, dropping her hands to her sides and limping out of the kitchen, her head held high.

'Rrarf! Rrrr.'

"And you can keep your opinions to yourself too, Shorty," she said, glancing back at the growling dog.

Drakken watched Shego until she'd disappeared down the hallway, and then bent down to attend to his dog.

"Admiral Cuddles...no!" he said, shaking a finger at the dog.

Properly reproached, it began whimpering and took a step back under the kitchen table.

"Drew, how could you let Shego speak to me like—"

"Stop."

"What?"

Drakken's brow was creased and his eyes closed. He raised his hands to his head and dug his thumbs beneath his brow bone where he felt a headache beginning.

"Mother. Shego is marrying me. She is not...marrying you."

"What? Drew why would you say something like—?"

Drakken had stood up and was now facing her, a deep frown on his face as he carefully measured his breaths.

"If you... If you ever want her to let you see our...your grandchild, then...you had better start being nice to her."

His mother frowned at him. "Drew Lipsky! You mean to tell me you would withhold my grandchild from me?"

"Yes!" he snarled.

He watched her face fall. He felt a pang in his chest at the shock and sadness on her face, but...things had gotten too far out of hand.

"Shego's right. She didn't want to...do Christmas. I don't think she even likes Christmas. She definitely doesn't like Admiral Cuddles, and it's his fault she's hurt. And right before your plane landed he destroyed the Christmas tree and was chewing on glass. And...even though she had just gotten back from the emergency room she took him to the vet and then picked you up, while I fixed everything here so we could still have Christmas."

His mother stared at him as she took the information in.

"She's miserable. But she's doing all of this for me, and she's doing it for you. And she didn't want to lie to you about the engagement, either. She wanted everything out in the open right away. I'm the one who was trying to ease you into the idea, since...since you seemed to think she wasn't anything more than a former evil assistant."

His mother's lower lip was trembling. She looked near to tears.

"And Mother, it's not your fault I became a villain. I fully understood the choices I was making. I did what I wanted to do. And I'm...still going to do what I want."

His chest was aching at the look on his mother's face. He turned away from her and started gathering up the cold dinner plates from the table and scooping the food items back into their various trays.

"Drew..." His mother's voice was quiet, and trembling. "I...I just love you, Son."

He looked up at her from his task, his frown still deep and his chest still tight.

"Then love Shego too. She's...she's the mother of my child. And she's going to be my wife. She's my whole world."

His mother set one hand cautiously on his forearm. "Why did you choose an ex-villain to be your—"

"And I did what I wanted in...in my love-life," he said. "I'm just lucky enough that...somehow," he shook his head in disbelief, "she loves me too."

His mother's hand fell away, and he watched peripherally as she started cleaning up the uneaten dinner alongside him.

"My life...is her life. So if you want her to let you be part of it...you might try making at least some of the effort she made the last day and a half, instead of just trying to make her mad."

She didn't answer. His head was definitely hurting, after the intensity of everything he had said. He continued packing up the dinner, wrapping the trays in plastic wrap and pushing them all into the fridge. He was moving quickly, and perhaps more carelessly than he usually would. He wanted to get back to Shego.

His head was still reeling with the fact that they were going to be parents, and unfortunately some of his mother's worrying had been passed on to his genes. He wondered...would Shego's anger somehow impact the pregnancy? Did she in fact need to change her diet? And how could they begin discovering all of these things that were undoubtedly important for a growing baby, without her losing her temper?

"I'm sorry, Drew."

He moved over to the sink and began washing his hands.

"I'm going to...try to calm Shego down, and...I'll see you in the morning, Mother."

After turning off the tap he shook the water from his hands and strode out of the kitchen and toward the hall.

"Tomorrow's Christmas Day," his mother called after him.

He paused and looked back.

"I know."

"Are we...going to have breakfast?" she asked, her brow twisting in concern.

"Yes, Mother. We'll have breakfast...and cocoa-moo...and open presents together while we listen to Christmas music and watch the parade on TV."

He saw her smile shakily.

"Sleep well, Mother."

Drakken knocked on his own bedroom door cautiously. When there was no answer, he opened it just a crack and peeked inside. Shego was sitting at his small desk looking at something on his laptop, her back toward him. He stepped inside and closed the door.

"Ah... Shego?"

She spun the office chair around and answered him with just a look, a frown still darkening her features.

"I've...um...I've talked to Mother. I'm sure she's going to be on her best behavior...for the rest of Christmas," he said. "Or else..." he added under his breath.

Shego stood up and half-limped, half-hopped toward him, her face unreadable. He crossed the moat and they met at the foot of the bed. He clasped and unclasped his hands nervously as he looked at her dark expression.

"So...you don't have to worry about her anymore."

Shego shrugged and crossed her arms. "I'm not worried. I told you. I'm done."

He pursed his lips uncertainly. "Ah...right."

She looked up at him and her eyes began to soften ever-so-slightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Her frown deepened, and she shook her head. "No."

He cautiously set a hand on her left wrist, worried since he'd grabbed it so hard before. Her look softened again as she allowed his gentle examination. After a few moments, she sighed.

"Um...what can I... Can I do anything to help?" he asked.

Her expression darkened slightly and then her eyes scanned him quickly. He recognized something in the look and found his heart was suddenly pounding.

"I'm in a bad mood," she said, uncrossing her arms and sliding her hands up his chest. His eyes widened and he backed up until his legs bumped into the bed. Her fingers tightly gripped the front of his shirt. "You'd better...cheer me up."

The next moment, all Drakken knew was that he was in the air. Shego threw him onto the bed with such force that his vision blacked out momentarily. When he recovered a second later she was already on top of him, her lips attacking him with ferocity as the press and roll of her hips against his made her desire clear.

He reached for her shoulders, but she grabbed his hands and pinned them above his head with lightning quickness.

"What about your wrist?" he gasped as she lowered herself down against him.

"Don't care," she breathed as she kissed him again. He relaxed into submission and simply thrilled in the caress of her lips and the warmth of her body pressed against his.

He blinked suddenly as the warmth vanished and she sat up over him. His pulse began to race as she quickly peeled out of her black velour jacket and stripped off the pink crop top, looking almost disgusted at the interference of the clothing in her pursuits. His hands followed their own commands as they went to her hips and began feeling slowly up along her newly exposed, creamy skin.

"You didn't wear a bra again."

She looked surprised. "You didn't notice?"

"Wasn't looking," he said, as his fingers crept higher.

"Such a gentleman," she said with a smirk. His fingers changed direction to trail back down her sides, and she frowned.

He smirked and lifted his brow.

She fell back over him again with a slight growl of impatience, her fingers threading into his hair as her eyes flashed with urgency. He let his hands drift down to the back of her thighs where he dug his fingers in possessively while his lips answered the demand in her eyes and attended to the offered flesh. She gasped at his skilled attentions, and time slipped away between them as she communicated her approval through gasps and moans and he furthered his efforts to please her with each sound she made.

"Drakken..." she breathed.

He dug his fingers hard into her rear and then set his hands in front of her hips, pushing her up. She clawed at his polo shirt, breathless as she dragged it up over his head and threw it away out of sight. He pushed himself upright and she rose up on her knees in front of him, her fingernails gently scratching his back as he kissed her navel, and then downward.

She gasped, and tremors ran through her legs as his fingers kneaded into her rear and his lips continued claiming her flesh. He pulled back suddenly and looked up at her with a wicked grin, and she frowned.

"You're wearing too much," he said, glancing at her track pants as his arms circled around her waist.

"So are you," she complained, crossing her arms and looking pointedly down at his jeans.

"What are you going to do about it?" he asked, laying back on the bed and folding his arms under his head.

She growled and started fumbling with his belt buckle. He watched her flushed face with amusement, reaching one hand out to run his fingers through her hair. The way it fell in dark waves over her pale green skin always set his heart racing.

He kicked his shoes off in anticipation, and a few moments later she was tugging his jeans down over his hips. He sighed in relief as a great pressure was released with the removal of the constricting garment, and he smirked with a bit of pride as he saw her staring lustily at his crotch.

"This...is why I love you," she said, continuing to pull his jeans off.

"Is that the only reason?" he asked with mock-concern.

She sat up on the edge of the bed to pull her pants off and then rolled back over, looking him up and down eagerly before her eyes settled on his private region again.

"No..." she said thoughtfully, sliding her hand slowly up his thigh. She smirked. "But it's a big one."

He lunged forward and grabbed her arms, throwing her onto her back. This time it was his hands that held her arms out to her sides just below her elbows, pinning her where he wanted her. Her legs went around his waist and locked tightly at her ankles, trapping him against her. He kissed her neck slowly and repeatedly, covering every tense muscle and every inch of exposed skin with the soft touch of his lips.

He hummed in contentment, but she bit his shoulder impatiently.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Just enjoying the moment," he said with a smile, kissing her cheek and then between her eyes and down her nose.

"Well, there will be plenty more," she said and rolled her hips up against his. Her annoyance melted into a mischievous grin. "I could keep you in this bed for days."

He released her arms and pushed himself back, looking at her ravenous eyes, her kiss-swollen lips, and her heaving chest.

"Is...something wrong with you?" he asked. His eyes suddenly widened as he realized how she could misinterpret that. "I mean, not wrong, but you've been so... And you don't tend to... I mean, I'm usually the one who—"

"Relax, Dr. D." she said with a smile.

He let out his breath and sank against her, his pulse rising with the more intimate contact.

"You're right, actually. I was looking it up just before you came in..." she continued.

"Looking...what up?"

"It's one of the side-effects. Pregnancy increases the sex-drive in the first trimester," she said, wrapping her arms around him and lightly scratching up the length of his back.

"It...does?"

"Mmhm," she said with a smirk, running her fingers through his hair and pulling his ponytail loose. "And apparently the effect is extra-strong on comet-powered green villainesses." She gently pulled his head down to whisper in his ear. "So you'd better get some sleep tonight... I already know what we're doing all day tomorrow."

He shivered at her suggestive tone and pulled back to look at her. She bit her lip almost shyly and then pulled him down into a kiss. He sighed happily into her touch and replayed her words in his mind. If she was fully embracing all the side-effects of having their child growing inside her...the best thing to do would be to embrace them right along with her. Starting immediately, he thought, as he shifted his position atop her with purpose.

"Oh!" she gasped in pleasure. "Oh, Drakken!"

"You complete me... I didn't know how much of me was missing until I found you... I love you so much..."