Author's Notes: Hmm...we'll just have to see. Will they break up or not? (Yes, I know I'm evil)
Thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming! I'm going to be out of town and away from internet connection Wednesday to Saturday (or Friday, not really that sure yet), so you may have to wait a bit for the next update. Sorry. But enjoy this one.

"What in the world made you think that?"

"I don't think that, I'm just saying that it's a possibility, and I'm kind of thinking---"

"Elaine, I know you're pregnant, but this is just crazy. If you have no evidence to support this possibility, then why are you thinking it could be true in the first place?"

Elaine hung her head and looked at Hornet's bedsheets. "I just...I don't know."

"You're the queen of insecurity, you know that?" Hornet said, a slight smile on her face, even though it wasn't a funny situation.

"Yeah, I know. It's just that...I'm kind of scared about the whole thing, you know?"

"Elaine, I've known Scipio for just about three years now, and I'm positive that he would never, ever cheat on you. Ever. He loves you and this baby more than anything in the world. And anyway, like you said, there's really no evidence, so..."

"Well, it's not that. Everything just seems too easy. I keep feeling like Scipio will...I don't know, just that something will go wrong."

They were sitting on Hornet's bed in her room, this particular morning. A few weeks had passed. Bo was watching cartoons in the living room, but other than him, Elaine, and Hornet, no one else was awake.

"It's just a pile of junk that you think he could be cheating on you. You know what I think?"

"What?"

"We should just spend today doing girly stuff, like shopping and getting our nails done and all that. I think that you need some time away from Scipio."

"No, I..." Elaine searched her brain for a valid excuse to say no. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with Hornet, but she just didn't feel like leaving the house. "Um, I wasn't feeling too good this morning. Maybe I should stay at home today."

"Elaine, come on. You've been cooped up at the house for way too long. You need to get outside," Hornet pleaded. "We can bring Madalyn with us, if you want."

"No, I just...I feel sick. I don't want to go anywhere today. Thanks, though." Elaine stood up and exited the room without another word, leaving a frowning Hornet behind. Hornet opened her mouth, as though to say something, but her bedroom door was already swinging shut.

"Alright, then," she sighed, to no one in particular. "If that's how you want it to be, then so be it."

Elaine had always been an optimistic person, no matter what life threw in her path. These days, however, she was quite the opposite. Whether it was pregnancy or something else, she did not know. She was tired, oh so tired, of being like this: grumpy, sad, rude, teary-eyed. More than once she found herself thinking, with tons of guilt following afterwards, that she wished that she could go back to that night when Scipio had first kissed her and everything had begun, and stop it all from happening. But then she thought of her baby, this tiny little being that depended on her, and her heart would melt. Elaine would go through being emotional, feeling sick, and even arguing with Scipio just for this baby, but she was getting fed up with it all.

Just getting out of the house came to be a very unpleasant time. She felt much more comfortable at home, in bed and alone with her thoughts, than out in public and in front of everyone. It was hard to explain. Whenever she did go out in public, she'd feel sick, tired, nervous, and want to go home, away from everything. This was what she often did, but at the end of the day, when she hadn't done anything all day, she felt sorry for herself.

Then there was the hopelessness. Elaine would just be sitting around, thinking, when it would strike. The feeling that nothing would ever be right. She'd always be disagreeing with Scipio, hating him with everything in her heart, not like the fairytale perfect couple she wanted to be. That she'd always be stuck in the house and moody. That she'd never get any sleep, never be happy, never, never, never. That Scipio wouldn't hold and kiss her like he used to.

Never, never, never.

Nobody had ever told her it would be like this. Nobody. That she and Scipio would get into shouting matches in the middle of the night, that anything she got down would come back up, that she'd be alone with her fears every second of every day, terrified and without any hope at all.

She hated this.

An example of one of Elaine's bad times in public would be the time she and everyone else had gone shopping. She was outside in one of the city's squares with Bo tossing coins (and pretty much anything else he could find) into a nearby fountain. Everyone else was in the store. Bo had insisted upon looking at the fountain, and as they couldn't just leave him outside alone, Elaine had stayed with him.

Elaine was somehow caught in a big crowd of tourists when it happened: the sudden desire, no, need, to get away, escape, run, something. She felt trapped and out of breath, like she was going to suffocate among all of these people. Almost as though she were about to faint. Elaine pushed past them without offering an "Excuse me", her rising feeling of panic coming to its peak just as she reached Bo.

"Elaine, look at this!" Bo tossed a penny into the fountain, where it landed on top of the small platform showing a mermaid combing her hair. It balanced on the mermaid's tail for a moment before sliding off, into the water. He looked up at her, suddenly, and frowned. "Why are you crying?"

"Crying? I'm not---" Elaine reached her hands up to her face and found, to her surprise, that it was true. Salty tears touched her fingertips and she pulled them away. "I'm fine, Bo."

Bo was young, but not stupid. "No, you're not. Prosper said that you've been really sad lately."

"Prosper said that?"

"Yeah. He said that since you're going to have the baby, you get really sad sometimes."

"Oh."

Maybe I'm just claustrophobic, thought Elaine. She doubted it, though. There was something wrong, that was for sure...but what was it?

"Damnit, Scipio, why do you always have to prove your point like that? You think that the world's just divided into 'I'm right and you're not.' Stop arguing with me all the time."

"I am not arguing. I just have different opinions on things."

"If that was the case, you wouldn't be raising your voice at me like you're doing now. And so what if I am wrong? You don't have to keep shoving it in my face."

"I am not shoving anything in your face, Elaine. And I'm not trying to be right all the time. If you just listened, you could learn that I actually have something to say every now and then." Scipio was pretending to be calm, but on the inside, he was seething. It was a calm night outside of the house, but the battle that raged inside of their home was anything but peaceful.

"Yeah, right. Get your head out of your ass sometime, Scipio, and you might see that you're not the one who's right all the time. I'm tired of you always yelling at me like the bastard you're being now." Elaine crossed her arms over her chest and straightened herself up a bit, glaring at Scipio.

"God, can't you ever shut up for one second and just listen to me? I---"

"Shut up?! Me shut up?" Elaine's voice rose and she practically screamed her next statement, "Why don't YOU shut up for once, Scippy boy, and stop to think before you yell at me! I'm sick and tired of arguing with you over nothing. I'm tired of this, Scipio. Don't even try to yell at me again if you know what's good for you. I hate you!"

Those last three words came out colder than the Artic during a winter night, and Elaine regretted them at once. Both she and Scipio's eyes widened. Elaine brought her hands up to her mouth as she pleaded, "Oh, God, Scipio, I didn't mean it, I---"

"Maybe it'll be better if I sleep on the couch tonight." Scipio was crumbling on the inside, and he bit back sobs. From the very night he'd found her in that alleyway in Venice to now, he'd never thought he would hear those words come out of her mouth. He'd never wanted to.

"No, Scipio, please, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to---"

But he was already opening the door and leaving the room. Elaine gasped and started to cry. She felt around with one hand behind her, and, finding the bed, sat down on it, head spinning as tears flowed down her cheeks. In that moment, that one moment, she just wanted for everything to stop and rewind, back, back, back.

Elaine buried her face in her pillow. She was so stupid. She didn't really hate Scipio, of course, but now he thought she did. God. She might as well have ended their relationship with those three words. Scipio hadn't done anything to deserve this, so why was she telling him this?

No reason. No reason at all...

After thinking over her situation carefully for a few minutes, Elaine decided to go downstairs and apologize. Upon reaching the dark living room, she whispered, "Scip?" There was no answer. Elaine walked over to one of the couches and saw him fast asleep, shoes scattered on the floor below him. She felt a sudden pang of guilt and inhaled sharply to stop from crying all over again.

Elaine reached out to touch Scipio's arm, and he moved slightly. She slid her hand down his arm and held his hand in her own. Another pang of guilt hit her, and in the silence of the night, her voice sounded unnaturally loud.

"I'm sorry, Scip."