Because I owed you an update! I clearly don't like Nick much in this chapter... I would like to point out that the prejudices he shows against women are not mine, nor do I think in any way that all men are like him. (Just look at my Strange, for proof of that... or my Tony, or... you get the idea.)

I do not own Doctor Strange. More importantly: The Cloak isn't mine, either. :'(

TapTap

The best laid plans of mice and men... Nick sighed. He had been trying to woo his fellow doctor for years now, but that weirdo Strange (never was a man more suitably named, seriously!) always seemed to pop up somehow and ruin it every time.

Christine was beautiful, clever and a fantastic surgeon, and she would be lucky to get someone like him, someone man enough not to be threatened by her success. (Little did Nick realise that that thought itself meant that he was so very wrong about that.)

He was sure they'd be married with kids (who he expected her to put her career on hold to look after, of course - but only until they were old enough for a nanny, for which he thought himself very generous) by now, if it weren't for the constant sabotage of Strange. Not only did the man seemed decided on outshining him - thereby hampering his well-deserved career - but he kept Nick apart from Christine, too.

At first it was by way of rivalry; Christine choosing Strange (and how weird was that, anyway) over him, then after the couple broke up, Christine was seemingly heartbroken (Nick didn't recognise being fed up with men when he saw it) for a while and didn't respond well to any of his advances.

Then, finally, Strange had disappeared, but just as Nick thought he finally had his chance the insufferable man had appeared yet again. So now, he was left waiting it out for the thousandth time. Sigh. Anyway, at least Strange wasn't a surgeon any more. Surely Christine couldn't want to be with a bum, right? Oh, what did he know. Women were such puzzles.

Little did Christine think that the first person she'd tell about her pregnancy woud be Nick, out of all people.

She had just picked herself up after a very early morning of being bent over the toilet bowl -deeply regretting all the times she thought lightly of morning sickness, experienced by other women - and walked into the hospital to start her shift, when he pounced.

She was aware that Nick fancied her, of course, but she had been convinced lately that he had finally got the message and realised that she wasn't even remotely interested in him. His old-fashion tendencies aside, she wanted a man she could discuss things with; someone who was intelligent enough in his own right to complete her own ideas. Stephen had been that man, briefly, and now that he had finally grown up out of his self-centred faze he might very well be again.

She had hoped so, to be truthful, for months now, and with the baby Strange making her puke her heart out every morning, she only hoped it more.

She didn't think of herself as old-fashioned, really, and she saw none of the blacks or whites other people seemed to obsess with (especially in her recent situation). She had already decided to keep her baby, and what Stephen thought about it, nevermind if he wanted to - or she'd let him - be a part of raising this little gift (she thought gift, yes, most of the time. In the mornings, was another question entirely) had nothing to do with it. Yet, anyway.

Still, she had easily discovered once she'd first thought about it, that she wanted to share this with him. Not because either of them had to, because they had made a baby together, but because they wanted to. Assuming that Stephen did want to. If not, she'd just have her baby and that was that. She was a Doctor, for goodness sake, she'd manage just fine on her own.

But, increasingly, she suspected that Stephen would, in fact, want to. Maybe, when she looked back to the paternal smile she remembered him with from when he was telling her about Elice's studies, he wanted it more than she did. Certainly more than she'd thought either of them wanted it. Maybe all either of them lacked was the creativity of knowing they wanted a family, before he had a house full of pupils - children, if you liked - and she was bent over the toilet bowl. Ridiculous, maybe, but considering that she was expecting the baby of a Sorcerer in robes with a sentient robe for a sidekick (assuming it wasn't actually the other way around, like Christine sometimes suspected) she'd stopped calling anything impossible. Maybe they were just simple, clueless people like that.

Naturally, just as she was smiling at her increasingly peaceful thoughts, Nick was there with his most obvious flirting of all year, obnoxious as rarely ever before. He even brought up babies, for goods sake, (why, she couldn't say) and had the cheek to tell her to just, "Get over Strange already", because clearly, "it would go nowhere."

She was not sure what it was that did it, but later she suspected it was the sheer, implied assumption that she'd rather replace her own baby with something else from his imagination, that finally made her snap.

"Look, Nick," she sneered coldly, staring into his startled face without even caring any more, "Stephen and I have started over - I am already expecting his baby, in fact - so just back off, will you?" She stalked off before he could reply - or she could remember just why telling him that was an awful idea.