So, I tried to get Donna to go to a birthing class. I mean, we were raising the next little Howlett baby. This kid was going to be wicked awesome. I could see her now, jumping around in an X-man uniform, claws slicing and dicing. And I already had so much planned! I could already see her watching hockey with me and Logan, dissing Megan constantly, calling Aqualad guppy, tripping Kid Flash, driving motorcycles, this kid was gonna be bad ass.

So I figured we should all make sure that we knew what to do should something happen.

Ya know what happened? Donna threw a lamp at me, screaming, "I AM NOT MY MOTHER!"

So me and Connor figured the best thing to do would be to just take the birthing class together, so at least we would know what to do.

We had to sit down on these mats, while a this lady started talking about fears. "Most expecting mothers have similar fears, something going wrong with the birth, not being a good mother once the baby is born, things like that. But right now, let's look into any questions and fears the men might have."

Connor raised his hand.

"Yes, young man in the Superman shirt." I needed to take Connor shopping.

"Uh, after the baby is born, does everything just... go back to normal?"

The lady smiled, "Ah, you're afraid that the mother of your child here, won't have any sex drive, right?"

I busted out laughing, while Connor's face turned fifty shades of red. "Guh, no, I-"

"It's alright." She assured, "It's actually a very common question. And let me just give it to you right out, you aren't going to have time for that. Between your work, the baby, showers, eating, and the precious time you have to sleep, you probably aren't going to be able to have sex... at least six months after the baby is born."

Connor's jaw dropped open, and I gave him a look. "You still want a baby?"

"... A little less now." Every soon-to-be Dad in there glared at Connor like he was a disease.

The woman just chuckled. "Tell me, how old are you two?"

"We're both sixteen." I answered. Well, Connor was technically about one...

The woman sighed, "I'll be honest, I don't support young pregnancy because it's just so hard, even for an adult. For a teenager, it's so much harder. Are you married yet?"

"No." Connor said. "Why?"

"It's just... young couples aren't likely to stick together. Pregnancy at such a young age puts a pressure that younger people can't deal with. I've never met a young couple that stuck together." She explained.

"I'm not pregnant." I said, and then looked down at my stomach, wondering why she would think that. Oh yeah... Donna's cooking gave me a little bit of a muffin top. Don't judge me, taking care of Donna doesn't leave much time for exercise! "We're just here because my dad left his pregnant girlfriend, so we're stepping up to help with the baby."

Every soon-to-be parent in there stared at us. The couple sitting next to us smiled, the woman said, "That's really responsible of you two. I was scared enough stepping up for my own... I don't know if I would have done it for someone else's."

The guy reached over to shake Connor's hand, "I'm Bill by the way."

Connor shook his hand slowly, "Connor."

"It's pretty great what you two are doing. So, are you raising it as your own, or just helping the Mom?"

"We moved in with her." Connor explained. "I don't know how long we'll be able to stay though, we live in Happy Harbor."

The woman raised an eyebrow, "You live together?"

I nodded, "For a few months now."

"And you're parents are okay with that?"

"My mom's dead, I told my dad to follow in her footsteps." I explain.

And then the stares got worse.

LATER ON:

Connor rode behind me on my motorcycle, arms wrapped around my waist, lips next to my ear, "Why can't I ever drive?"

"It's my bike." I argued.

"And you won't let me bring mine over." Connor grumbled.

"Donna is only allowed two parking spots." I snapped, pulling into the apartment's parking lot.

"I have other means of transportation."

"The space bike is out of the question."

"Damn it." He grumbled. "Hey, why did they all stare at us when we told them we were living together?"

"Society doesn't really approve of teenagers being in that level of a relationship." I explained, "They think it's trashy."

Connor followed me as I got off of my bike, "But, why would being in love be trashy?"

I felt myself tense as I heard that word, love. I'm still not comfortable with it. I took a quick sniff through my nose, and smiled a little at the familiar scent. "They don't consider people our age able to understand what love is."

Connor came up behind me, both his tree branch-like arms around my waist. His lips brushed against the shell of my ear, pressing a light kiss there. "I know what love is. Love is the feeling I get when I'm with you. The feeling that lets me know I would die for you, run across the world looking for you, go to Hell and back for you. Love is knowing that if anything ever happened to you, if anything ever took you away from me, I'd be a wreck."

I swallowed, uneasy, "Uh, Connor, maybe we should save this for another time-"

"And sometimes that love get's physical." Connor went on, "And when you're ready to take that step, I've got it covered."

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, and fished around in it, pulling out a square foil package, "I'm pretty sure it's the right size."

I sucked in a breath through my nose, and let it out slowly through my mouth, "Connor... Logan is here."

Connor froze where he stood, "Uh... so I should... fly away?"

I rolled my eyes, turned around, and looked him right in his eyes. "No, idiot. You're going to stick your hand down your pants, grab your balls, and remind yourself you're a man. Then you're going to remember what kind of man you are, and that you're no one's whipped bitch. Not even Logan's. Not even mine."

Connor closed his eyes, took s deep breath, let it out, and then opened them. What he did next was something I've never seen anyone ever do in my life. He stood straighter than I've ever seen him stand before. He put an arm around my waste, dragged me to the front door of Donna's apartment, and stepped inside. "Hey Donna, hey Logan."

Donna looked up from her seat on the arm chair, rubbing her bloated stomach gently, "Hey kids."

Logan stood up from the couch, "Boy, maybe me and you need to have another talk."

Connor didn't back down, "I hope this talk doesn't end in you having to call two of your over powered friends over here to help you kick my ass, because you can't do it yourself."

Nice knowing you Connor.

As they went to take it outside, Donna turned to me, "Mio, can you grab the lemonade from the fridge, so we can sit out on the porch comfortably while we watch this show?"

"Okay Donna."

THREE HOURS LATER:

"Five more minutes, I would have had him." Connor growled as I slapped the ice pack onto his left eyes, masking the horrible looking bruise left by Logan's fist.

"Stop whining, you're the first boyfriend any of Logan's kids have had that ever stood up to him." I assured Connor, "In fact, I'm gonna text jubilee about this."

"I'm not whining." Connor whined. "I'm just saying, five more minutes, that old man would be out cold."

"Quit yer bawlin' boy." Logan snapped as he came back from the kitchen, a beer in each hand. He sat down on the couch next to Connor, "It was a damn good fight, and maybe-" he handed Connor one of the beers, "Maybe yer good enough for my little girl. Maybe."

Connor tore the top off the beer with his teeth, and chugged down a third of the beer faster than even I could have. He probably didn't even taste it. "I didn't do it to prove you to I was good enough, I know I'm not."

"Connor-" I started.

"Mio, stop trying to change my mind." Connor growled, "You're amazing, I'm pretty good. I get it, you're way hotter than me, and you're a better fighter."

I leaned down over the arm of the couch, and kissed his temple gently, "Yeah, but you're the much better person. I'll never be able to top that, no matter how much my girls grow."

Donna sighed, "We're out of lemonade."

I grabbed the keys from the coffee table, "I'll go pick some up, you need anymore beers Logan?"

"Nah, I'm good fer the night darlin."

"Okay."

WITH CONNOR:

I zoned in on the sound of Mio, driving off on her motor cycle, as she got farther and farther away. Logan shook me from my thoughts with his words, "So, I suppose you're gonna leave her broken, depressed, leave me to clean up the mess."

I glared at him over the top of my beer, "The hell?"

"The only boy she was ever into, I thought I scared him straight, made sure he wouldn't hurt her. But the little bastard went and broke her heart anyway." Logan explained.

I set my beer down on the coffee table, looking Logan straight in the eye, "I'm not going to hurt her. I'm in love with her."

"So was the other boy." Logan shrugged off.

"No, he only loved part of her. I love all of her, ever single part." I explained.

"You think you love all of her." Logan said sadly, "And I'll admit, you must love an awful lot of her. But Mio's got more layers than an onion. You love the part of her that helps strangers, that protects her family, that shelters people, and tries to do good to make up for past wrong. But there's more to her, there's still a part of Mio that will never be sorry for what she's done. There's still a part of her that lusts for blood, any blood, and all blood. It'll never go away. She'll get better at controlling it, but it'll always be there. Can you really love that part?"

I shook my head, "I don't love that part, but I accept that's it's there, and I try to help her with it. She hates it, she works against it every day, and I know she'll always win."

WITH MIO:

"Anything else dear?" The cashier asked.

"Nah, I'm good. But a little warning, some baby spit up on aisle eight." I laughed.

She sighed, "One thing after another around her, never does end."

"That's life, you take what you get, and you get ready for more." I said, shrugging.

She handed me my receipt, "Well, thanks' for coming in dear."

Someone put a hand on my shoulder, "Hey are you done? I've gotta get home."

I turned my head to hand a world of kicked nuts to this guy, but the second I saw his face, I just wanted to run and hide. "Jake..."

His eyes widened, a smile spreading over his face, "Mio! Hey, I haven't seen you in forever! I told Amber I've been wanting to see you, did she tell you yet? Cause I've just really been wanting to tell you how sorry I am about what happened between us."

Each tiny word hit my ears like a bullet, slowly turning me into a pile of pain and hurting. How could he say that? How could he just show up after the years it took me to pull myself back together, and just say that he was sorry? How can he!? He doesn't even know what I went through, how that pain made me strong, but put up walls that Connor had just barely been able to climb over.

"I'm sorry too."

"Well great, because there's a diner not far form here-"

"No, you don't understand. I'm sorry that you shallow personality and misplaced hatred cost you the best thing that you could have ever had. I'm sorry you screwed up your chances with me. But you don't get another chance." And with that, I walked away.