Author's Note: Sorry for the wait! I still have company, but I managed to write this while they were 'playing killing games'.

Marco rested his head in his hands while skimming through his paper. He had actually finished, even through Dylan's incessant need to 'play' after arriving. Marco had so much else to do that he was simply putting off, using his pregnancy as an excuse.

He sighed. Finishing school was important to him, and he was screwing it all up. Rubbing his eyes tiredly with his free hand, he got up from the counter stool. "I'm just going to print it later," he said to his friends in the living room.

Marco collapsed into Dylan's lap on the couch. "Hey," said Dylan, laying his hands on Marco's shoulders. He'd been trying to leave Marco to himself for as long as he needed to get his work done.

"Stressed?" asked Paige sympathetically. "I went through it too, trust me."

Marco nodded in Dylan's chest, though he didn't think Paige understood how he really felt.

"Don't be; it's bad for the baby," said Alex.

Dylan rolled his eyes. "That should make him feel less stressed," he said sarcastically. "Thanks."

Alex returned the eye roll. "Anytime."

"Speaking of the baby," said Dylan, motioning for Marco to move his head out of his chest, "I think you should see a doctor."

"Yes," the three girls said in agreement.

"I mean, it has been about two and a half months now, Marco," Ellie pointed out. "You've been putting it off long enough."

"Okay," said Marco, giving up his stubborn attitude only because he knew how important it really was.

Marco headed over to the doctor's office after his last class of the day was completed, carrying even more of a workload than he'd had going in. He'd made an appointment, but knew he was still going to have to wait for quite a while in the waiting room, which wasn't exactly pleasant for him. He tried starting some of his schoolwork.

"Marco Del Rossi," said a worn out looking nurse, coming out of a small doorway.

"That's me," he said, taking his books with him into the actual office.

Marco only had to wait a few short minutes in the office. He thanked God for that because he wasn't exactly in a patient mood.

"Hello, what seems to be the problem?" asked the happy-faced doctor when he came in through the door just a bit later.

Marco hated when they asked that. They usually already knew! He'd called in to make an appointment. Did no one tell him why? Was he just trying to torture Marco? Besides, he was the doctor, so he should know better than anyone, yes?

Marco didn't stop to think that he might have been being unfair. "Well, I'm pregnant. Don't diagnose because I know it for a fact."

The doctor looked a little surprised at Marco's snippy attitude, but said nothing about it. "I see," he said simply.

"Well, my boyfriend made me come see what's what, so here I am," he said, hoping the doctor could now just get on with it.

The doctor raised his eyebrow. "So, you haven't yet seen a doctor?" he asked.

"No…I found out about…two and a half months ago," Marco replied, shrugging.

The doctor didn't look especially pleased with his answer. "We're going to need to perform a lot of—"

"Don't make another appointment for whatever tests you want to perform," Marco interrupted. "Can you do anything now?"

The doctor sighed, but smiled slightly, guiltily enjoying Marco's impatience. "I might be able to do some."

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Marco called Dylan while he walked home from the office. He and Dylan didn't exactly live too far away from anything.

"Hey, I'm on my way home," he said.

"Took you a while," said Dylan, not meaning for it to sound edgy.

"Yeah, he wanted to do some tests," said Marco, holding the phone up to his ear with his shoulder while he compulsively rearranged the books in his hands.

"Oh," said Dylan. "Well, is everything good?"

Marco turned onto his street. "Yeah, just fine. I'm almost there." He hung up the phone without an answer from Dylan.

When Marco walked into the house, he found all of his friends at the dining room table eating. He smiled half-heartedly, placing his books down gently on the table, and sat in one of the empty chairs next to Dylan.

"While you were gone, we were talking a lot about this whole baby thing," said Alex. "We actually think it could be…" she paused, looking at Paige, "good," she forced out. Obviously, she wasn't as convinced as the other two girls.

"Yeah, I could help," said Paige. "Since I'm not in school right now, I'd be around a lot."

"Thanks, but could we stop talking about this?" Marco asked as calmly as he could.

"I mean," said Ellie, "it'll still be really hard, but we'll have options is all we're saying."

"I know," said Marco, "but please stop talking about this."

"And we could—"

"Stop!" Marco demanded, interrupting Paige's suggestion. "Just…don't you understand me? I'm going to my room." He got up from the chair, taking his books with him, and walking quickly upstairs.

Dylan looked at the other, confused, and then followed Marco's lead. "Marco," he called, nearing their bedroom. "Marco, what's wrong?" he asked, opening the door.

When Dylan was upset, he usually found Marco lying on his side, staring out the window, and generally refusing to speak. However, this time, he found him pacing the room while talking to himself.

"Marco?" he said again.

"I don't want to be bombarded with questions and the suggestions about the baby, okay!?" he said, still continuing his pacing.

"Sure," said Dylan, wrapping his arms around Marco's waist, moving closer to lay his chin on Marco's shoulder. "Whatever you want."

Marco closed his eyes, taking in the feeling of just being close to his boyfriend. "I've ruined everything for you," said Marco.

"What?" asked Dylan, tightening his hold. "No, you haven't."

"That's not up for argument," said Marco quietly. "And I did it all for nothing."

Dylan was still befuddled. "Marco…"

"Dylan…just say something to make me feel better," said Marco desperately, holding onto Dylan's hands that were around him.

"About what?" he asked, concerned. "What's wrong?"

Marco tried to sound like it wasn't the biggest deal in the world, telling himself that it may have been better this way, anyway.

"There's a very good chance I lost the baby," he said, keeping his voice as strong as possible.

Dylan didn't say anything. He only held onto Marco tightly, just trying to be there for him, knowing there was not much else he could do.

Author's Note: Like I said, the next couple days are busy, so I tried my hardest to get this one up :) Pleeeeeease review.