Whoot, so finished my history paper and I can now post this without regrets. Well almost no regrets. I really hate these sort of chapters, but it needs to be done so you all understand kind of what I did to poor Oda-san's characters. So here is a very long chapter 8. Enjoy guys.

Chapter 8

The next morning Ace slept in much later than he was used to, and thankfully woke for once without nausea. Marco had saved him some breakfast in their room and after eating he headed to his lovers' office to see him about the doctors visit. Entering the First Division Commanders office he was greeted by the sight of a very crowded room. It seemed that all the present Commanders had squeezed themselves into Marco's office in order to do what only Ace could make guesses at. Upon opening the door they all turned to look at him, and Marco look up and gave him a weary smile.

"What's going on everyone?"

"Ah well we just were talking to Marco about shore leave in a few days, and we were making a list of things the baby would need." Thatch supplied.

"Ok, but shouldn't we be worrying about that?"

"Well there is an old tradition some of us want to follow…"

Marco interrupted then, "They want to throw us a baby shower yoi."

Ace blinked once, then twice, and then what his lover said seemed to make its way into his brain. "They want to WHAT?"

"Told you it was a bad idea yoi."

Thatch lifted his hands in a placating gesture before he continued talking, "Come on Ace, it's a way for everyone to chip in for the baby and an excuse for a party at the same time, and then you and Marco don't have to worry about paying for all those baby things. It would end up making everyone happy."

Ace pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a frustrated noise, "I don't have a say do I? ….You already planned it? Didn't you?" Thatch nodded his head, "When?"

Haruta chimed in to answer that question, "One month from now."

"And just our crew right?" There was a pregnant pause.

"Right? Oh come on who else could you invite?"

Izou answered first, "Well Thatch invited all our Allies to join in, and we decided every crew can reserve one item or type of item to bring."

Vista continued, "Your old crew also thought you might enjoy Red Hair being there as well, so he got an invite."

"Which I don't approve of yoi." Marco interjected.

"And that's why Marco's feathers are all ruffled." Thatch finished.

"Enough with the bird jokes!"

The other commanders all laughed. Now Ace knew why Marco was so upset, he did not like Shanks in the least. It especially pissed him off that every time they met with the other Yonkou that he always tried to get the First Division Commander to join his crew.

Ace let out another sigh, "Alright, so they all know about Marco, the baby and I. You do know that you all probably increased the chance that the Navy will know as well don't you?"

The silence and the commanders trying to look inconspicuous told him that they had not thought of that outcome. Some times Ace could swear they were all just as bad as Luffy.

"Great so I can look forward to my Gramps showing up with a bunch of his marines to try and see or even take the baby. Nice guys."

Haruta spoke up at that one, "Your Grandpa is a Marine?"

"Yeah. Long story short, he adopted me, wanted me to be a marine and I didn't."

"Wow, sounds rough." The other nodded their heads at Haruta's response.

"Eh, it was what it was. He never could get rid of our dreams to be pirates, and when I was 17 I left home and never looked back. I'm happy where I am, and wouldn't have it any other way."

"But to command enough power to even attempt to come after you, he'd have to be at least a Captain to be able bring a ship out here." Jozu chimed in. The others looked thoughtful a moment and then looked at Ace. Ace was going to let them try and figure it out, but then Marco spoke up, "You might as well tell them who to be worried about yoi." Frankly he had known for months.

Ace looked thoughtful for a second then sighed in agreement, "Fine." The other Commanders leaned in closer, "His name is Vice-Admiral Monkey D. Garp."

The silence in the room was deafening, then all hell broke loose.

Thatch was by far the loudest, "Garp. The Garp! The one who took Roger to the chopping block? That Garp?"

The others were not doing that much better, Marco as always was the only exception. "Thatch there is only one Garp in the Marine's that I know of yoi. And the only D., which makes sense when you think about it."

"He also has the same last name as little bro Luffy." Curiel chimed in.

Saying that the others seemed to realize the truth behind his words and calm down a little, though the information still seemed to require some time to process.

"Still weird." Haruta contributed.

"Either way, Ace is our brother yoi. Now if you'll excuse us, we are on our way to the doctor. That's why you came in here originally, right yoi?"

"Ah, yeah. We should probably go now, before lunch. I think I'm already getting hungry."

"You're always hungry yoi." Everyone laughed at that and nodded agreeing with that statement.

Marco's POV

Getting away from the others was harder than it should have been once I had mentioned that Ace and I were going to see the doctor. It was like once news of the kid was out, all of the sudden Ace's and my private lives were gone. Oh well, I figured that later when we were lacking sleep when the kid was here we could pawn him or her off on the lucky Uncles. Thinking about it actually made me smile a bit.

"What has you smiling Marco?"

"Hmm, ah. Just imagining who will get baby sitting duty first yoi."

Ace laughed, "Thatch, see how he likes a few sleepless nights as payback for his pranks." He began laughing at the image it must have brought up.

"Alright Thatch, can be the first to play the favorite Uncle."

Ace continued laughing until we reached the infirmary.

Opening the door we were thankfully greeted by the site of an empty room save for the two doctors that were on shift. Upon seeing us the two automatically stood and made their way across the room. The two on shift, Thelma and Brandon, were only two of the many doctors that called Whitebeard, Pop's. He had for his children's sake placed a rule that a female and male doctor must both be on shift at the same time, so if any emergency occurred no one need be embarrassed. I had hoped that Jared the head doctor and oldest one on board the Moby Dick would be there to see Ace, but if nothing was wrong, then I could always come back later to ask the older doctor questions.

Thelma was the first to speak up, "Marco-Taicho, Ace-Taicho what can we do for you today?"

"Well I'm assuming that you've heard about Ace's condition yoi?"

Brandon spoke this time, "Ah you want a check up on him and the baby?"

"We'd appreciate it, we know nothing about this, so we could use some medical expertise." Ace let out blushing a bit.

The two doctors shared a look between them, and then Brandon turned back to us to speak. "We'd love to help you, but we have no idea about this sort of thing. We can give you information on a normal pregnancy, but it might be better to call Jared or the other doctors and see if they have anything more for you."

"I was thinking of talking to Jared anyway yoi."

"If you'd like I could do some of the basic things we'd do for our normal pregnant patients, and Brandon can go call for Jared?" Thelma motioned for them to go over to one of the beds lined against the wall.

Ace looked to me, and I simply shrugged my shoulders. He nodded and moved over to sit on the bed Thelma had pointed to, and I moved to follow. Sitting next to the bed that Ace was on, I watched Thelma pull out some equipment before coming to where we were. Pulling a strange machine behind her and a tray filled with needles and other equipment. I could see Ace wince, and I felt sympathy for him. He found needles creepy, and I could agree with him. Something about them going into your skin just made you shiver.

Pulling a stool up next to the bed Thelma pulled the tray with the needles on it first.

"Alright Taicho, I need to take some blood. I'd like you to come in again tomorrow after fasting for twelve hours, so I can take some more blood. First though I'll take your blood pressure."

Ace nodded and turned to me while she quickly went about doing as she said she would. She was quick and efficient, and when it was done she placed a cotton swab on the site and had him hold his arm up, while she carried the vials over to desk to be tested later. Walking back she pulled the strange machine from earlier closer. Opening it, he realized that there was a screen on it.

"So this is the fun part, we can get a look at the little one and see what he looks like."

A bit surprised Ace and I both looked at her.

"You can do that yoi?"

"Yes, it's not the clearest image, but it's not bad for the baby and can help us see if there are any problems, as well as telling us the gender once Ace-taicho is far enough along."

We both summarized our amazement clearly, "wow."

"Now hopefully we can get an image, it might be a little different for Ace than for women, but we'll see what we get. This is going to be a bit cold." She said the last part as she started to smear what seemed to be a clear gel on his lower belly. She then places the piece in her hand against the same spot and pressed down, turning to the screen she popped it on and the image of blurry black, gray, and white fuzz appeared.

Speaking as she went about moving what she had labeled the transductor, Thelma paused a few times before finally stopping and pressing harder to the spot she'd found. Squinting I couldn't discern anything that looked remotely like a baby, and a quick glance at Ace's face told me he thought the same thing. Turning to us and smiling at our obviously confused expressions Thelma began to talk again, "Don't worry we have to get trained to properly read one of these." Looking back at the screen she moved the transducer a bit more before frowning, "Well that can't be right." Marco was about to ask what she was talking about when a voice cut in before anymore could be said.

"I see that you seem to be over half way there Ace-Taicho. Sorry I'm late. It takes me a little longer to make my way here than it used to."

"No problem Jared. Now what were you saying about half way yoi?"

"Ah, yes male pregnancies caused by Devil Fruit's always seem to move much slower than normal pregnancies seen in women for the first half of the pregnancy, then speed up in the second half normally after the fetus has reached about the size of a normal month old fetus. So don't worry Thelma, I have no doubt that he's telling the truth about the baby being yours, you would 't be the first or last to assume otherwise."

She nodded, not that anyone wanted to doubted Ace, but even I had been a little scared when I had seen how small he still was.

Jared sat down on a stool nearby before continuing, "The last male pregnancy I saw ended at around seven months or 28 weeks time, though they appeared the full 40 weeks along, so you'd be about three and a half months along if we follow that time frame. Though these pregnancies can vary in length, it's more based on what type of fruit you've eaten than anything else. I was told by Pop's that you told him you were around four months along; can you pinpoint the date of conception?

Ace and I both nodded, and I spoke up, "It would have had to have been right before he left to chase Blackbeard. Which was just over four months ago yoi."

"I see, well Ace did you ever have any symptoms to tell you, you were expecting?"

Ace nodded before elaborating, "I felt more tired than normal and a bit weak, and my appetite was down, even though I'm probably the only one who noticed. I also just felt off. It was after the weakness appeared and I was with my brother in Alabasta that I talked to his doctor, and he told me about the baby. He also gave me an herbal remedy for the tiredness, and I made those last for the two months before I found Blackbeard. It was on my way back home with the Kuja when the nausea started, and I've had a few more bouts since returning to the ship. The tiredness seems to have worsened even more than it was when all this started. And when I'm not nauseated my appetite is back and I'm definitely eating a bit more than normal."

Jared nodded, looking very pleased, "Those all are normal sounding. The true fast growth of the fetus would have started around the time you started being sick. The tiredness will also become much worse as you get further along, probably even more than normal because you pushed it aside to run around chasing after Blackbeard, it might even make the nausea all the worse even make it last longer than normal. I'd like you to rest more to make up for the stress you put your body under the last few months."

We both nodded, Ace wincing at hearing the word rest again. Then Jared continued, "You've probably also noticed you're starting to lose those abs of yours. Don't worry you won't ever get as big as some women get. Your body simply won't support a very large baby. When he or she is born, it will be small. The last one I saw delivered was a little more than 6 pounds."

"That does sound small yoi."

"Yes, it would be a mite scary weight if you were a woman whose babies average about 8 to 9 pounds, but it will be healthy if you do everything right. Also that devil fruit user was smaller than Ace-taicho. We will continue to check on you every few days, and take scans so we can check on its growth. Also when the time comes would you like to know the gender so we can stop referring to the poor thing as it?"

Ace and I looked at each other, "I think it's up to you yoi, I will agree with what ever you choose."

Ace seemed to mull it over a bit before he turned to Jared and shook his head, "We already agreed that we don't care about gender as long as it's healthy, so I think a bit of a surprise will be fun."

Jared nodded and looked at the screen, "Do you have questions for me before you go?"

"Should I be worried about him eating anything, or working too much yoi? Also what will happen when it's time for the baby to be born?"

"Good questions, he shouldn't eat anything raw or undercooked, also none of those strange tropical things that you all find and like to try even when you don't know what it is. As for working, no heavy lifting and rest whenever you get tired. You'll want the sleep while you can get it."

Ace nodded.

"As for the birth, there are a few ways it could happen. He will go into labor, but we will be watching him for the next few weeks and talk about how we will proceed, a little closer to the actual due date."

They talked to Jared for a few more minutes until it was approaching lunchtime, and Ace's stomach made it known how late it was getting. Thanking the doctors we left for the mess hall feeling much better about what we were getting into.

Normal POV

Lunch was the usual messy, loud, and boisterous affair that it was every normal day. This time however no one tried to steal Ace's food, random people whom he normally didn't converse with came up to ask how he was doing, and of course the women. God the women had all converged around Ace the second he had sat to eat, all to talk about baby things. Marco the stupid bastard had left him alone, conveniently claiming to have things to talk to Pop's about. So there Ace was trying to eat with a whole herd of women surrounding him, all asking him about baby beds, baths, names, and all the other things that one could associate with babies.

'Oh what I would give to strangle Marco right now, leaving me with these harpies.' Ace sighed as the continued to talk around him, 'Maybe if I sit long enough I'll just pass out.' Another sigh. Then salvation walked up in the form of Thatch.

"Yo Ace. Pop's wants to talk to you about something."

Ace's interest perked at that, nodding he got up to go to Whitebeards room where he was eating. Entering the room, he noticed Marco sitting next to their father not looking very happy about what ever they were talking about. He turned to look at them as they approached, smiling a little at Ace.

"Ace glad you could join us."

"No problem Pop's, you actually saved me from all those harpies and their baby talk."

Both men laughed at Ace's statement.

Smiling at them Ace looked at Marco again before he continued talking, "So what did you need to see me about Pop's?"

Whitebeard and Marco both stopped laughing at his question. Taking up a serious face Whitebeard began talking. "Ace you've told both Marco and myself about your father." Ace frowned at the mention of said man, but nodded and Whitebeard continued. "I also have reason to believe that Sengoku may be aware of your secret as well. One of our Allies tapped the Supreme Commanders den-den mushi line and overheard him talking about 'Portgas relation to that man.'"

So what do you all think of my devil fruit pregnancy senario?

I made this as scientifically plausible as I felt was necessary, but seeing as One Piece defies the laws of physics (among other things) all the time, I decided I didn't need to go into full biological description (noting I'm a nursing major and could have). Still not sure how I want Ace to give birth I'm torn, but as Luffy would say it's still a mystery. Also 6 pounds is small for a baby, but not a weight most doctors might consider premature. Fun fact, smallest premature baby ever to survive weighed under 2 pounds.

Anyway, please review. You all keep me going on this. Also currently working on the other story I mentioned, just trying to get the kinks out at the moment, but I'm hoping to post the first chapter of that by next week at the earliest.