Maria starred up at the dark ceiling of her bedroom. She was trying to fall asleep but the blush on her cheeks was making it rather difficult to do so. She had to be up by six in the morning if she wanted to make it to work on time, five thirty if she didn't want to repeat the morning sickness from hell like she had earlier on in the day. Rolling over on her side she decided to focus on the lamp that sat on her night table.

She was rather annoyed with Francis and Antonio's teasing her over the casual meeting that she had with Eli. If she would have told them that is had to be 100% casual seeing how it was the spot that they used to hit up in their high school years to booze it up illegally then there was no way in hell that that could possibly be considered a date (who would take a girl to that place if he was looking to get laid) but she knew better than to say that because it would quickly turn into them ganging up on her about drinking while she was pregnant. Maria knew all the risks that came with that and had put the bottle down the moment she found out she was expecting at hadn't touched it since. She knew what people who had fetal alcohol syndrome looked like, what with the small eyes and thin lips, no one wanted to make out with someone that had lips that didn't look delicious, what kind of mother would she be ruining the game of her future child while it was still in the womb?

Yet for all of the annoyance she felt towards her two friends for teasing her about her none-date-date-only-according-to-the-to-of-them was not the only thing keeping her up; Maria was also wondering, if there was any chance, any at all… that she and Eli had actually been on a date. Well there was the chance that he had invited her to the bar with motive that were less than pure: get her shit faced, then take her back to his place so that he may have his wicked way with her, only to have that plan come crashing down when he found out that she was pregnant… but that would be more like a planned out date rape, and not an actual date. Or maybe he had chosen that location because of its nostalgic value. Sure the filthy, dim, pub was far from romantic but it was a place she was familiar with and had been to with him in the past bringing on a charm that another woman wouldn't see. The thought: he knew her so well that he would select a place like that rather than the kind of classy spot that most other women would prefer would just irritate Maria—and that he wanted to show how much he cared for her by selecting a place that fit her tastes was proof that he really did feel strongly for her; had crossed her mind as well.

But that had so not been a date she thought closing her eyes tightly as she hugged a pillow to her chest (god the cliché-ness of the whole thing was killing her).

Maria's eyes opened the moment she heard her cell phone vibrating before reaching over in the darkness to see who it was calling her so late. Squinting at the lit phone's screen she sighed tossing the phone back to its spot on the night stand table. Ivan. She couldn't believe that Ivan was actually calling. Never was he the one to offer the olive branch after one of their fights, even if it was his fault (normally he would just sit depressed in his house or at the flower shop until Maria came back to him). She sat up making a face as she glanced back to the phone, she had three more vibrations to pick up the phone. On one hand she could do just that: ignore her vow to never speak to him again, and reach out in the hope that he would have her back and happily become the father to the child she was expecting yet never mentioned the pregnancy once. Or Maria could hold on to her commitment not to go back.

The phoned stopped vibrating and the screen went dark. It was as if fate had gone and made the choice for her, and it was the one she greatly preferred. Maria settled back into her pillows in an attempt to fall back asleep. There was another vibration and she turned her head to see that he had left her a message.

There was no harm in going on ahead and listening to the message. For all she knew it could be Ivan telling her how much he hated her and never wanted to see her again. Or one of his sisters had used the phone for her number just to tell her that he had died and was leaving her with a shit ton of cash. That last one was impossible, he had less cash then her without the comfort of a loaded parent to go to when times got tough… minus Ivan dying of course.

"Uh… hello Maria…" the message started, "It's been a while since we last talked so Katyusha told me that I should call you and that the two of us should meet up, yes?" Maria rolled her eyes. Of course he wouldn't call her of his own accord, he was way too stubborn for that sort of thing. Her guess was that his older sister (and the only sane one in his family) had urged him into doing it. Probably refusing to cook for him, or just by crying (she cried all the time), "So I thought that the two of us could have a conversation about everything, yes? I guess call me back when you get this message." and he hung up without even a good-bye. He could be so awkward some—all of the time. She rolled her eyes one last time before setting her phone down to charge. There was no way in hell that Maria was going to even give the thought of calling him back a serious thought.

She rolled over onto her other side so that she didn't have to stare at the phone. As she went back to trying to fall asleep Maria pushed Ivan, and his phone call out of her head deciding to concentrate on Eli instead.

Maria sat on the couch with one of the throw pillows Francis insisted on arranging on the couch in her arms. He said that it added class to the apartment, while she felt like it was just a waste of money and made the living room less comfortable. It had been about a month since Ivan's call and her not-date with Eli. The two of them had gone out on a couple more not-dates, to places that were borderline classy enough to make their not-dates almost be considered dates. Ivan had called her more times, and she had ignored each one of them though they were growing more frequent. It was as if the guy really didn't get the hint that she didn't want to talk to him at all.

Maria had a doctor's appointment at twelve thirty so she had scheduled the say off and was waiting for Francis to get ready so that he could take her to the appointment. She was flipping through the channels trying to find something decent to watch, but weekday morning television was total shit as far as she was concerned, so she decided to settle on Jerry Springer (watching the lowest of society fight over some trashy guy was always entertaining).

When her roommate came into the living room however he did not have on a pair of designer jeans and some overly priced dress shirt (like he normally wore every day of his overly design conscious life), instead Francis had on his black and white uniform pants, a white undershirt and his white chef's jacket unbuttoned over top. "I'm afraid we have a problem Maria." He said with a little sigh pulling his hair back into a ponytail.

"What do you mean we have a problem?" she said narrowing her eyes into a dissatisfied glare.

"Well the restaurant has a surprise lunch guests, so I must head in for lunch service today so that they can maintain their positive reputation."

"So how the hell am I supposed to get to my appointment?"

Francis sighed, "Call Antonio or catch the bus?" he added a little shrug.

Maria tossed the pillow across the room partially to express her anger like a small child, partially to annoy Francis and made a low groaning noise. "I swear you want this kid to have like three arms or something."

"Now, now Maria; my having to head to work has no effect on whether or not your unborn child will have three arms or not." He looked himself over in the mirror before smiling over his shoulder at her, "now you should hurry and call Antonio or you'll certainly be late, bye-bye." He added a wave before heading out the door to his car.

She rolled her eyes reaching her hand into her pocket to pull out her cell phone. Where to start? There was no way she would be able to get to her doctor's appointment if she were to take the bus. That was a ride that required a transfer and she had just missed the last bus for the next half an hour. So it looked like Antonio was the only option at this point. That was easy enough, he worked from home and spent most of his time running after the boys, plus she could play around with Feliciano a bit while in the car.

"Hello, who is this?" Antonio's cheerful voice said through the phone on only the second ring.

"Don't you ever check the caller ID? Anyways, it's me. Francis bailed out on giving me a ride to the baby doctor so it looks like you get the privilege of taking me instead."

There was a pause as he processed who had called him. Maria wondered why Antonio had so much trouble remembering her voice, how many other woman would call him with the sorts of demands as she did that included Francis's name as well. "Oh is this Maria?" he asked instantly becoming even more cheerful. Her reply was just a positive grunt, "I don't know if I can, I mean I have the boys and everything, would it be OK for me to bring them along?"

"I just need a ride man; just toss the two of them in the car and pick me up ASAP, ditch me at the office then go home and do whatever it is that you do."

"You should know better than to through children Maria!" Antonio said sounding rather offended.

She just blinked, "Yeah, I know you shouldn't through kids… It's just a figure of speech. Can you get me or not?"

"I don't think that I can, I'm sorry…" the usual cheerfulness gone completely from his voice.

"Right, I'll talk to you later then." Maria waited for his good bye before hanging up the phone.

There seemed to only be one option left other than canceling the appointment. Maria sighed quickly flipping through the contacts list on her phone before sighing and pressing the little green call icon when she got to Eli's name. She bit her bottom lip as the phone rang and let out a sigh of relief only to tense right back up when he answered.

"Hey, what's up? Shouldn't you be molding young minds or something?" Eli said right away.

"No, I'm not working today. Okay listen, I have a huge favor to ask you." She said not letting out the breath that she had was holding.

"OK, shoot."

"'… please?" the words just spilt from her mouth and she was certain that he couldn't understand her.

"What?" there was he confirmation, "I didn't quite catch that… all I really heard was ride and Francis… did you fuck him or something?

"Ha ha ha. As if… he's been on my shit list for the past few weeks." She took a deep breath again before getting to the point this time careful not to let the words all spill out far too quickly, "I said I need a ride to the doctor's."

"I am at work."

"I kind of figured that out. Like don't you go on lunch soon or something, I just need a ride there and that's it. Francis had to head in early because some important jerk popped in without a reservation."

"Didn't you call Antonio?"

"I tried him already, and he said that he couldn't so I thought I'd give you a try since you said I could call you if I needed anything."

She heard Eli sigh. It was the good sort of sigh though the one that made it obvious he was thinking about what she said seriously. For as tough as Eli liked to pretend to be he really was a big softie on the inside. Maria made a mental note to not make fun of him. "Yeah I'll do it. When do you need me to get you?"

"ASAP. Oh my gosh thank you so much man, I really owe you one." She bounced up and down of the couch a couple of time before standing up.

"Yeah, you sure as hell do."

"Seriously what do you want bro? Whatever it is just tell me man."

"I'll think about it, just be ready when I pull up or else I am leaving you." he said before hanging up the phone.

Maria nodded despite the fact the conversation was over and even if it wasn't there was no way that he would have seen her. She slipped her phone back into her pocket and hurried away to the bathroom to make sure that she was presentable to her coachman. With everything in check and a quick bathroom break (seeing how her bladder was starting to get to the point where it was magically full like all the time).

Once dressed and relieved Maris hurried out of the apartment and down to the street so that when Eli pulled up all she had to do was hop right in. It looked like she was going to owe him next time the two of them went out; if she had it in her ability to drive without crashing into everything, than she'd get him totally shitfaced. Or maybe she couple just pay to destroy his liver and they could chill out at her place eating piles of food. But Francis lived there and he would start up, probably even call Antonio over and then it would be the two of them teasing while Eli drank himself into oblivion. And that wouldn't even be the worst of it, with Antonio came Lovino and Feliciano; last time Maria checked getting shitfaced in front of kids wasn't exactly responsible and frowned upon by the majority of society that weren't alcoholics. That ruled out the Beilschmidt-Bonnefoy pad, so it looked like she'd have to get him drunk off of his ass at his own place.

That Maria could deal with at least if she were to hang out at Eli's Bachelor Pad, than she could just deal with Francis and Antonio's teasing on her own. She'd already been putting up with it ever since the first time her and Eli had hung out, and was practically immune (as long as they were behind closed doors).

He laughed louder than he had so far throughout the whole ride thus far and accented it with a little victory dance as he turned onto the street that the office was on.

Maria pointed up a head, "Just pull up here, I'm not sure how long it's going to take exactly. Just go grab something to eat or something like that and I'll call you when I'm done."

"Naw, I think I'll come in with you. Waiting for the appointment to start always sucks, plus I want to know what kind of outdated water stained magazines there are in this sort of place." He turned the car off and began to fish through the unused ashtray looking for enough quarters to feed the meter."

"You really don't want to do that sort of shit and you know it." Maria said looking right at the side of his head. "Trust me I can entertain myself perfectly fine."

"Nope, not changing my mind. How much is it an hour?"

"They're going to think that we're dating or something like that." Maria said her cheeks getting warm. Oh great now she was blushing, as the guy whom she had had a crush on back in high school, with whom she had just rekindled a friendship with, was insisting that he join her in the doctor's office for a checkup and ultrasound for the unborn child she was carrying by her ass of an ex(fuck-buddy)boyfriend. It was so like something from one of those terrible cliché chick flicks that Francis bitched about having to take his dates to.

Maria just wanted to bash her head on the dashboard of Eli's car, or maybe just smack her face around—honestly anything to have a scapegoat for why her face was turning to red. Fuck glass for not allowing UV light into cars!

"Are you okay?" he asked leaning into look at her after he had paid the meter.

"JUST PEACHY!" she shouted ripping the seat belt off of her and hopping out of the car like some kind of terrified crab. Maria grabbed her bag quickly before slamming the door shut and looking up at the row house that had been converted to a series of doctor's offices. "It's on the third floor."

"Can't you walk that far up?" Eli asked as the two waited for the elevator, he was ready to play around again; must have been riding that high from his victory in the car.

Why didn't he mention my face yet? Maria thought before responding with a smug smile and a cocky, "Of course I can!"

"Are you sure you look like you've started to get kind of fat."

"Oh fuck you." She rolled her eyes flipping him the bird as the elevator opened up. Quickly she hopped in and attempted to have the door close before he could get on, but that did not happen, his leg was too fast and Eli had successfully managed to get on but this was without a stream of curses as the little lady at the desk to one of the first floor offices just watched with an increasingly horrified look on her face.

"What the hell was that for?"

"Calling me fat."

"Oh since when have you been such a woman!" he rolled his eyes clapping her on the back, "Seriously, I've called you a fat-ass a million times by now. And we both know you're not fucking fat."

Maria pouted for a second before instantly correcting herself, she was not the kind of person to fucking pout! "I know that it's just—it's not me you're insulting when you call me fat." She said crossing her arms, "It's the baby. And I won't let you just go around dissing my kid." To accent this point she pushed her stomach forward and pointed at the ever growing mound, it had upgraded from a bump about a month ago.

Eli just rolled his eyes stepping out into the hallway, "Which office is it?"

Maria squinted, "The one right across the hall way from the elevator." She said with a little frown, "Don't you pay attention to these sorts of things?" she said stepping into the unsettlingly clean office that smelt like it had been soaked in Fabreeze.

A woman that looked like she was nearly forty and clearly trying too hard to look like she was in her twenties sat in a chair off in the corner. Her two-year-old son was going on-and-on about something that the mother clearly couldn't care less about. She was just nodding and repeating "uh-huh", "yes", and "is that so". Sitting closer to the door were a young couple cheerfully chatting that glanced up at Maria and Eli as they came through the door. There was nothing particularly interesting about the two other than the fact that they were clean pressed and looked like they belonged on a poster from the fifties (though updated) urging young people to get married and move into a newly built suburban home assisting in making American Morals stronger than they already were. Eli had to shoot Maria a look to keep her from snickering.

He took a seat halfway between the woman and her child and the happy young couple as Maria stepped up to the desk to get the paperwork from the woman working there, getting a low-down on how long the doctor would be. She took the clipboard of paper work and took a seat next to Eli, all the while glancing over at him with a look that said "why the hell did you have to come in with me?"

As Maria stood to hand over the paper work over the woman was called back and gathered her son with her as she went. The young couple looked toward the two of them before attempting to start up a conversation with the two of them. "Is this your first child too?" the woman asked all the while holding the hand of her companion.

"Yep, very first one." Maria responded in an obviously bored tone.

"Are you nervous? I mean we've," she motioned towards her husband, "been reading so many books about parenting and stuff, yet the two of use as still so nervous about it! It's our first child too, though don't get us wrong we are still excited, aren't we honey?" she turned her head to her husband who smiled and nodded.

"Oh he's excited too?" Eli asked, "I never would have guessed."

Maria rolled her eyes and slapped her friend's chest, "Trust me I wasn't trying to get pregnant at all. I just like having sex, without a condom, you know I don't care what anyone says it's always better with all those fluids all over the place." The other two looked rather offended, and settled back into their seats wanting to end the conversation, "He's not even the father." She said motioning towards her friend.

"I'm not?" he asked looking at Maria confused. It looked like it was round three as far as playing around went.

"Don't be silly every time we fucked you wrapped your willy!" she laughed turning her head towards him.

"What are you talking about?" he half yelled before hushing himself again, "Are you telling me that you've been cheating on me?"

"How dumb are you?" she asked turning her head to face him right on, "What do you think I was doing whenever you were gone on business or when I was out late?"

"Bitch, you need to get the hell out of my house—" the nurse came out and called the now terrified young couple back to the office. Eli laughed the moment they were gone, "That was fun wasn't it."

Maria smiled, "Yeah I guess. Those too were way to clean to even have a chance of dealing with the two of us at the same time." She leaned back in the chair and rested her hands on her stomach twiddling her thumbs together, "I guess I'm not too angry that you came in here… though I still wish you wouldn't have come."

"Why not?" Eli asked keeping his voice low.

She was quiet for a moment as her face grew warm and she started to blush again. "Those two thought that we were together…"

"You know what they saw about assuming things. Who cares what they thought? Seriously they seemed to live in such a sheltered little world it's kind of amazing that they even knew how to make a baby."

"Yeah, but you know very few people bring just friends to a checkup on their pregnancy and an ultrasound. That's normally reserved for special relationships…" Maria looked at him, her voice and face far more serious than it had been all day.

"Since when have you been worried about the normal?"

"Eli why can't you just see what I am getting at?" she asked turning her head to the side, a small smile and a faraway look in her eyes.

"Maybe?"

"Well how do you feel about people thinking we're a couple."

"I kind of like it." Eli said reaching over and taking Maria's hand. He paused for a moment and gave her a smile when he turned his head to look at her, "I more than kind of like it to be perfectly honest, I really like it… and well I thought that you liked it too."

"When did you decide that you liked people thinking that we were a couple?"

"Just when those too assumed that we were a happy married couple on a doctor's visit together to check up on how you were doing and the child that we were expecting together was doing." He smiled, "So do you want to go ahead and make it official, that we are a couple—and not just a couple of just friends."

Maria sighed, the blush in her cheeks were pretty much on fire. She tossed the thought around in her mind a bit. Sure her whole goal was to be awesome and do this whole raising a baby thing on her own, but on the other hand this was Eli Herdervary here asking her to be his girlfriend. It was like all of her penned up hormonally driven teenage dreams were coming true. She would be a fool not to say yes. "That doesn't sound half bad. Just as long as we keep things the way there are now. You know just having fun none of that mushy stuff. The only thing that's changing is that we can fuck now, okay."

"I like fucking." He said with his smile getting larger, "and I like talking with you like you're just one of the guys."

"So you agree?"

"Yeah, I agree."

Maria turned so that the two could shake on it, "So it's officially we've escalated this bromance into a romance."

"How was it bromance if you don't have a dick?"

"You should know by now I am packing five meters of delicious, thick, juicy man meat baby."

"How the hell is that even physically possible?"

"Maria Beilschmidt," the nurse called from the door. Maria cursed mentally, she couldn't stand this bitch. What with his blonde bob, green eyes, sassy attitude and need for her first to rearrange his face; there was always that look he would give her whenever she was in the office. And somehow Maria always wound up with the bitch, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Now, what was with that look he was giving—"ELI!" he shouted, "OMG, like what the hell are you doing here? Don't tell me you're the baby-daddy." He giggled, yep male the nurse in the pastel pink scrubs just giggled, honestly Maria couldn't say she was shocked by the giggling; the knowing Eli on the other hand…

"I'm with Maria." Her now boyfriend who she supposed she must have really been dating, and not so-not-dating said beaming. She guessed that this man now popping gum (since when did he have gum to pop?) was his friend, "So this is the office that you're working at huh? I got to say I am kind of surprised."

"This is just temporary; once I get my full degree in nuclear engineering I am so like totally gonna quit this bitch. So how long have you been with Maria?" he asked leading them to the scale.

"Two seconds before you came out into the office to claim her," Eli smiled.

"Oh that's good so this isn't your kid."

"Feliks…"

"You know I'm joking!" he turned to Maria, "Could you just step right up here then with your back along the wall?" there was a moment of checking what the digital piece said, "Oh wow you went up, ten pounds since the last visit." He clicked his tongue without saying anything else, though she knew he was mentally playing some kind of snide one line normally reserved only for high school cheerleaders in his head.

"There is a something growing inside of me—aren't I supposed to gain weight."

"Well yeah." He said rolling his eyes, "let's just get you into a room and do a quick look at all the other junk I need to cover before the ultrasound technician gets to deal with all of you."

"That's all I ask of you Feliks." She responded as they went into the small room.

"So you two have been going out since right before you came back here." Feliks laughed wrapping the blood pressure cuff around Maria's arm, all the while talking just to Eli, "I swear man you have the weirdest ideas for what's romantic. I'll have to tweet that one later." He began to pump the air, "So how long have you known each other and stuff?"

"Since forever man," Eli responded not noticing how the nurse man was avoiding her name, "She's Rue's cousin, but I've known Maria longer than I knew Rue… it just never really clicked between the two of us until just now I guess."

"That sounds about right." Maria said relieved that that air was being released from the pouch around her arm.

The nurse took down the information then went about the rest of the tasks. All while happily chatting away, ignoring his patient beyond what he had to do. Maria took this time to read the various charts located about the room. She was halfway through the one about the correct amount of weight gain when Feliks mentioning it was time for him to get going but he would so be waiting for Eli to text him later on. She waited until he was gone and the door safely shut before she looked over at her now boyfriend.

"I don't like him." She said right out the gate.

"Oh, how come? Feliks is loads of fun." Eli actually seemed shocked to hear that it was possible for anyone not to like the effeminate man nurse.

"I don't like the way that he looks at me."

"He looks at everyone like that. Really he's great once you get to know him, but that takes a while since he's super shy."

"He's shy?"

"Yeah, trust me, he's a big softie and really chill once you get to know him. The name calling, weird comments, and the way he eyes people is just a part of the wall that he's built up to defend himself. As you can imagine people are kind of mean to him."

"Hasn't he ever heard of the golden rule. You know that's like the very first thing they teach you in kindergarten."

"Trust me once you hang out with him, Feliks is a total bro." he reached over for her hand and gave it a squeeze. There Eli was already using that trick to toy with her emotions, and it had been what ten minutes. She had half a mind to go ahead and tell him off, but that warm hand of his holding hers gently like she had imagined it would feel for so long, was enough to make her blush. And she was already fighting the blush off like a ferocious mad woman.

"Okay, fine." She managed to get out concentrating fully on keeping her blood from making its way back to her cheeks.

The two quietly sat there making comments about the posters for a few minutes until the ultrasound technician made his way into the room. A small man with a childish looking face and a wide smile on his lips, "Hello Maria," he extended his hand, "I'm Tino, so how about we get right down to business and take a look at what's going on okay?" he motioned towards the bed for her to get on while he started up the machine and went about getting everything ready to go.

Yes this guy was just as chatty as Feliks was but something about him was way less annoying. As Eli went to helping her up, Maria mouthed to him I like this guy way better. and he mouthed back, Feliks is still my friend. to which she responded by sticking her tongue out at him.

"Alright so are you all comfy and cozy?" he asked turning to face the two, both of which had their tongues sticking out at one another, and quickly put back into their mouths when they noticed the friendly little man looking at them. "Okay then I think you are. Maria could you please lift up your shirt and slide down your pants, not all the way at all just so that they're out of the way."

"Yeah sure." She nodded pulling the clothes out of the way and tucking them in as best as she could to keep the out of the way.

"Alright than, that looks good." He nodded a bit to accent his point, "Now I am going to put this gel on you, and it's kind of cold so don't freak out too much." With that Tino squeezed what looked like a clear restaurant ketchup bottle filled with the blue gel they put in freezer packs all over the mound of growing baby on Maria's lower abdomen. She tensed up a bit despite being warned it would be cold causing Eli to laugh. The technician laughed a little bit as well using the head of the ultrasound wand to rub the stuff around, instantly warming it up. "I told you it would be a little cold right?"

"Yeah I just guess I wasn't exactly paying attention." She said with a shrug.

"You've got a problem when it comes to that don't you babe?" Eli added.

"I don't really need your commentary right now. You've already been weird enough today man."

"I could have just ignored you in your time of need. I think I've earned the right to be a little weird today."

"Okay then…" Tino said trying to steer the conversation from what could have possibly been the start of an argument between the two of them. He hadn't even been working this job for a year yet, and already he had seen so many different things. There had been tears, yelling matches, threats on lives, and a whole bunch of other crazy things that had taken place in the little room. Whenever he could he tries to steer things away from arguments as best as he could, "everything is looking good."

He smiled moving the wand over her body and inspecting the screen as he went pausing in spots, "There is the head." He waited as he paused over the spot. And the two looked at the screen. Whatever Maria was feeling earlier had completely melted away. It was hard to explain what exactly she was feeling but there was a sort or heavy warmth that had settled somewhere in her chest near her heart, and there were no words in her vocabulary that came to mind what to call it. There was something just so special about seeing her child on the screen.

The man went on, "We've got a leg here, and an arm there… and it looks like the baby is in a good position to tell the sex if you want to find out."

"You should do it." Eli piped up cheerfully.

Maria nodded, that was what she had been planning to do from the start, but she couldn't even really speak still focusing on the fact that she was looking at her kid. She found herself nodding again, wanting to know what pronoun she should be using when referring to the unborn child. Calling the baby-to-be "it" didn't feel quite right, "Yeah," she started, that warm feeling spreading throughout her body as she was about to find out what the sex was, "I want to know." Her eyes were still focused on the screen.

Tino moved the magic science wand into place and with his voice ever cheerful declared, "It's a boy!"

AN fun fact this chapter is 6,126 words and 32,460 characters long.