Lucy stopped writing for a moment, putting a hand over her belly.
There it was again. A pang of pain, and her muscles cramping together.
First she had thought it would fade away with the time, some usual false alarm. She had a few Braxton Hiccups last week already, and they went away after a few minutes. She panicked so much she called Gru, and just while they were speaking, the fake-contractions faded away. No reason to go and spook him again. So Lucy shook her head and continued typing on her computer.
But then it was there again. These terrible cramps, her abdomen hurt like hell it cut off her breathing for a second.
"Oh no ! " she gasped, for this time she was sure it was not a fake. It was too soon, she was due in three weeks! Fear bubbled up inside her and with some effort, she got herself up and walked towards the door. She needed help. She needed to inform Silas ! When she got out into the hallway, she felt her body cramp again. This was way too scary. She rushed over to the door of her director, and knocked. Silas opened the door to see Lucy holding her big belly with a stressed face. "Ms Wilde? Is something wrong?"
"I think the baby is coming !"
...
An hour later, Lucy was laying in the bed at the hospital department of the AVL, hooked up to measurement devices.
"I can't believe I paniced over a false alarm again! "
"Now now miss Wilde, that false alarm was pretty legit, nothing to worry about."
"I spooked you."
"I think you spooked everyone when you collapsed to your knees. Bloodsugar better?"
"Yeah, I got some chocolate. So, what now?"
"You get to stay at home, where you can rest. You're off from now on. I'll call Mr. Gru, he needs to stay the weekend and then we'll bring him home earlier." Lucy nodded. She would hate to tell the girls their dad wasn't coming home tomorrow, but if it meant that he got to get home from the mission earlier and be with them, it would make them more happy. Lucy saw her director picking up his cellphone and dial the number to her boyfriend before he sneaked out of the room.
In the meantime, Gru was sitting in his hotelroom in Spain, his headset on, guarding the group of new recruits through the house they were going to invade.
"A'right boys, at dhe left side of dhe house is dhe door to dhe cellar, dhey store winebottles in dhere. It's never locked, so yu'll have a good chance to get inside dhe house through dis door." Gru was sitting in front of his laptop, the phone on his ear and staring at the slowly spinning 3D-model of the house the troupe of three agents was going to invade. It seemed to be already evening in Europe, however, he could hear the other agents activating the nightsight of their fiberglass goggles. Today was the day they were going to catch the subjects and Gru sat on his little laptop from 6 am in the morning until now. "From dhere on yu'll reach dhe south wing, take care of dhe-"
A beeping sound appeared in his ear, telling him that somebody else was trying to reach him a the moment.
"Mister Gru, what did you say? Take care of the...?"
"Uh, sorry guys, hang on a minute."
He answered the other call, making sure the Agents wouldn't listen to him.
"Yeah?"
"Mister Gru?"
Gru frowned. Silas? What was it now...?
"Mister Ramsbottom, dhe boys are on dheir guards, I made sure dhey are equipped vith dhe fiberglass goggles and dhe-"
"Mister Gru, that is not why I'm calling." he said in a firm voice and Gru frowned another time. "Miss Wilde had a false alarm."
"...False alarm?" he asked, not quite understanding what he was talking about.
"Vhat du yu mean vith false ala-OH!" he jumped off his bed, widening his eyes and his body tensed. "I-is she okay? D-did anythin' happen?"
"She is fine! She's in the hospital wing, had a bit of a blood sugar drop, but she's resting and is getting something to eat. She'll stay in bed for the rest of the day and we will drive her home in time to meet your daughters after school." Siles looked trough the window in the door. The pregnant Agent was drumming her fingers, clearly bored and wanted to get up and about again.
Gru let out a relieved sigh. She was alright, and that was all that mattered for him. Dropping back on the bed, he looked on the ground, his heart pounding loudly, but a load was lifted off his mind. For the first time in his life, Gru was glad Silas called him to tell him such news. Of course, he would have hurried to be with her in time before she would eventually give birth, yet he doubted that it was a good idea to leave the other agents planless in the nowhere when they were about to catch the villains.
"She's is being put on vacation now Mr Gru, her body needs to rest for the baby to not be born premature. I can't believe I'm asking this of you, but please, stay over the weekend. If you can crack the case now, we can bring you home earlier and stay with her until it's due."
"I'll hurry...dhe boys are prepared to get dhe subjects, and I'll make sure dhey'll be back on monday..." he murmured into the phone.
"Please...can I talk to her for a second?"
"Absolutely Mr Gru, just hold on." Silas stepped back into the room and reached his phone towards Lucy. "Your partner wants to have a word with you." Lucy grabbed the phone carefully and put it towards her ear. "Hello, Gru?"
"Lucy..." he clung to the phone, glad to hear her voice that calm and . "Honey, how are yu? Is everythin' okay? Vh-vhat happened?"
He heard the nagging sound of the beep in his ear, the other agents wanted to get him back to coordinate him, but he didn't care for them.
"Silas told me yur bloodsugar dropped. Have yu forgotten to eat somethin'?"
I guess I kind of forget the time and haven't eaten lunch yet, yeah.", Lucy explained, blushing over her being a scatterbrain.
"Oh Lucy..." he sighed, but smiled. He knew he couldn't run around and watch over her like a kindergarten kid, she wouldn't even allow that from him. But if he wasn't that glad she was okay, he would have told her that she should take better care of her eating-habits in future to avoid the previous events. " But everythin' is fine, right?"
"Everything is fine, I'm fine, Robin's fine, I'm mostly just being bored. I just thought... that I was going into labor. Feels kind of shameful really that I don't know my body enough to know it was a false alarm." she chuckled.
"Sweetheart, it's okay...dun't feel bad. Jus' be glad dat it was jus' a false alarm."
He leaned against the big, fluffy pillows.
"So, Silas told you to stay the weekend? When will you be home?"
"Yeah, I gotta stay over saturday and sunday, but-good news are we're pretty sure we'll catch dhe guys dis evening, or tomorrow. We'll be back on monday."
He looked outside the window. It was snowing...winter was upon them and he smiled softly.
the beeping sound just started to get on his nerves.
"Sorry Lucy, I gotta go now, dhe odher agents need my assistance. I'll call yu dis evenin'!"
"Bye, baby - and good luck !"
And with that, Lucy ended the call and sighed, rubbing her belly. the baby was sleeping apparently, it wasn't moving. "For a while i thought you was gonna slip out before it's time, Robin." she talked to her unborn child and laughed softly. "You gotta wait a few more weeks, until Daddy is back home - then you can come out." a small kick was the only reaction she got.
...
Back home, Lucy sat at the kitchen table, a basket of fruits and champagne standing on it. A little gift from the AVL to make her feel better. Lucy sighed. She just really hoped the last few weeks of this pregnancy would be over soon. It was not like she hated being pregnant, but she was just exhausted. her belly had grown terribly big and heavy. She was already in her last trimester, eight months and four weeks. Just as she had assumed - she was nearly incapable to do anything. She couldn't pick up Agnes anymore, she couldn't bend or sit without being slowly and having troubles to do so. And these false alarms. Ugh. Robin was stirring inside her slightly. She patted her belly and hoped Robin would settle without hitting her bladder again.
How she missed having Gru here. Something in his touch was magical, for each time Robin was particularly active, his hand on her belly settled the baby within seconds. A smile cracked her features. He was such a great father to the girls, and she was sure he was going to be a wonderful Dad to the newborn. She still wasn't sure if she even mastered to treat the kids right. But Gru and they have assured her a lot that she was the best mommy they could dream of.
Speaking of the devil, the door opened and the three kids came back home from school.
"You think Lucy is back from work already?"
"I don't think so, she said she always takes longer to -oh!"
The three of them had turned to walk to the kitchen, only to see Lucy with her cup of tea and the basket of fruits on the table.
"Hey guys." - "Lucy, uh - hi! Didn't you say you had to work today."
"Yes, guys, uhm...but i had a false alarm at work."
"A false alarm ?!" the kids gasped. "Girls, it's fine. It just frightened me a bit, but we're okay." she patted her belly. "You guys want the fruits? I can't eat them, you know i get sick of them."
The three nodded shyly, before they grabbed the basked to fish out the apples and oranges and pears, but they left the champagne unattended.
They knew Lucy wouldn't like to eat any fruits, she avoided them ever since she got pregnant. Sitting next to Lucy, they talked about their day at school, and also Lucy informed them about Gru coming home a week later, and his mission would be over soon.
In the meantime, Edith didn't take her eyes off of lucy's belly it was frighteningly big by now, and the way lucy clung to everything she could grasp by now while walking, it must be very heavy.
"Does it hurt...?" asked Edith, looking at Lucy's gigantic belly. She couldn't even comprehend how some tiny baby was even taking that much space.
"It looks so heavy, and you keep clinging to stuff while walking..."
"Oh Edith, it doesn't hurt, don't worry. I'm tired though, it IS heavy. I can't walk around a lot, I need to take breaks and walk slow and I can't move my upper body without getting out of balance if I'm too fast. It's also hard to bend down and stuff, so thank you very much for the help." Lucy set the time for when the food was going to be ready and slowly waddled over to the girls, setting herself down.
"When will you give birth to Robin?" asked Margo. "It's not much longer anymore, is it?"'
"Yeah, it's not long time left at all now, I'm in my ninth month now. Robin is actually due exactly three weeks and five days from now. Allthough, it could happen sooner, it could happen later. I want you to be prepared on that when it happens, you need to listen to me and Gru and not start any fights. We will need to get to the hospital and depending on how fast it goes, we can be in a hurry and be very stressed. So if me or Gru is crying or shouting at you, just remember that it's not that we're mad at you, we're just very nervous and need things to go as smoothly as possible." she smiled at her daughters, exhausted from carrying that huge belly for nine months already. By now, she was just happy to give birth to her little baby. What seemed so frightening all these months, was now like an anticipated salvation.
The kids suddenly were scared. Their teacher told them some things about a birth, and how a baby comes to live, but now that they realized it was that close until the baby would be there, they started to become both excited and nervous. "Three weeks?" Margo beamed at Edith and Agnes and could see they were a bit creeped out.
"Edith, we'll have a little sibling in less than 30 days!" - "I know, i can count on my own." Edith rolled her eyes.
"Will Gru be done with the mission then?" asked Agnes, a bit worried. She turned towards Agnes and grabbed her small hands. "Gru will be there. He'll come home this weekend, and then he'll just be gone for one more week, and then the mission is finished. That sounds lovely, right?"
Agnes hugged Lucy's tummy, it was hard to actually hug Lucy herself, but she was simply in love with that belly the first time she told them she was pregnant.
"Okay, as long as Gru will be there for you...we promise we won't be a bother for you when it's time, right?"
"We won't." Margo crossed her heart. "I'll make sure they'll behave."
For a few moments none of them spoke a word, until Agnes looked up at the redhead.
"Lucy? I uh...I still have fingerpaint upstairs. I'd love to draw something on you belly and take a photo so i can show it to the minions and Gru when he's back home."
She smiled at her.
"Please...it wouldn't be much, just a rainbow, or a unicorn..."
"Oh? Well... hehe, okay Agnes, I think we could do that. You go and get the paint, and I'll go and sit." She had let the girls hold her belly all the time, but this was a bit different, so, naked. But she wouldn't deny them this opportunity while her belly was still big. Agnes cheered and jumped off her seat to run upstairs and get the paint, followed by edith. Going to the living room, she sat herself on the floor, leaning her back against the crocodile couch and pulled up her shirt over the bulge, wedging it in under her breasts. Margo sat next to her, and with an insecure look towards her, she gently caressed her belly. "Is Robin awake?" she whispered. "Gru told me they are moving a lot." Lucy chuckled and watched Margo's hands. "Actually, to be correct, Robin is always asleep. As long as the foster is inside of the mother, it stays asleep, but has two states. Passive and active sleep. But no, Robin seems to be sleeping right now, haven't moved for an hour at least." Just as she said that, Robin gave a firm kick straight into Margo's hand and started to move around. There wasn't much space left to move around in, but Robin sure tried. Margo flinched when she felt the baby suddenly giving a strong kick inside her palm and she stared back at Lucy before a faint laughter of surprise escaped her lips."Oh my gosh!" she gasped. "It kicked right in my hand!"Placing it back on the place she had left, she felt movements inside her. Declining movements, but Robin was quite active now. Lucy laughed with Margo, falling silent a few seconds later. It felt a bit strange. Good, but strange, to have her belly exposed without any fabric for someone else but Gru. Her skin had stretch marks on the sides, which she hated, they were pale and would never come off. It was just so large, she would never have guessed it would grew to this size. "How are you feeling about all of this? Nervous?"
"Yeah, well-not really nervous. More excited." she said.
"I once was at some nice family that took care of me for a couple of weeks, they were also expecting a baby. But I never dared to touch her belly or talk much about it, but she told me a lot about having a baby. She was...quite similar to you, in fact..." she started to mutter. "Nice and...and strong and cool and...just special..."
Lucy's heart swelled with love for the eldest of the three kids. Oh Margo - her little, strong, wonderful Margo. She seemed to drift away from the topic, so she glanced back at her. "How about you? I guess you'll be happy when it's over, huh?"
"Oh yea, I am happy once it's over. Don't get me wrong, this is really cool, but I miss all the fun stuff I used to do. And I don't like how big and heavy my body is. I miss running. I miss missions, I miss action." Robin kicked some more, and then calmed down again.
"But Margo, if you feel that you want to talk, or if you just want to sit and listen to the belly, just tell me. You shouldn't be afraid of talking to me, I'm you mom, right? Sure, I haven't signed on any adoption papers, but I want you to be able to talk to me about anything."Margo could imagine Lucy would miss all the great activities, but...bearing a child was such a big deal to other women. They loved their round belly, loved that they were going to have a baby - some even have the desire to be back in that form right after the baby was born. But Lucy didn't. She was glad when she was done with the pregnancy, and somehow, he could hear her.
She moved closer to Lucy, smiling at her words and resting her head against her shoulder. Hugging would be a bit difficult, so she simply held onto her arm.
"I know...Thanks Lucy-"
"I found the fingerpaint!" Agnes proudly held up the colorful tiny buckets as she returned into the living room. Lucy and margo jumped from Agnes sudden loud voice.
She jumped onto the couch, next to Lucy and her sister, examining the bare skin of her belly.
"Lucy...what are these?" she suddenly said, pointing at the thin lines running along her body.
"They weren't there before...!"
"That's stretch marks Agnes. You can get them from many things, it's when your body grows quicker than your skin can follow. Some people get it when they gain weight, bodybuilders get them if they build muscles to fast, and many women get them on their bellies when they're pregnant. Even when Robin is born, I'll always have them, just like a scar." She had always admired her scars she had from missions. But these... felt embarrassing. She was proud over managing this, but a scar for walking around and being a babyvessel for nine months was just not as impressive as fighting against five villains at once, or something.
Agnes drew her fingers along the scars with admiration. They looked hurtful, but Lucy seemed to be fine. "I think they don't look that bad." She replied. "You could say you fought a tiger and you beat him, but he left these scars on you belly, and you can-"
She paused her fantasy and looked back at Lucy, with Margo resting against the redhead, exhausted from the day. Both were laughing loudly over Agnes ideas.
"Well - yes i could! And everybody would say ' behold, Lucy Wilde fought a gigantic tiger while carrying a child." She mused. "So, what do you want to draw?"
"Oh, uh... Lets start with Mister Fluffy!" She picked white and pink paint, dipped her finger inside and started to draw on Lucy's belly. "Is that okay? If it hurts you gotta tell me!" - "It doesn't hurt at all honey, go right ahead!" - "Can you close your eyes? so it's gonna be a surprise for you."
And with a smile and a slight roll of her eyes, Lucy held her hands before her face.
about ten minutes later, the kids asked her to follow them to the mirror so she could have a look at it.
"Okay, open your eyes now!" Agnes said. And Lucy did. Her belly was covered in blue paint, white paint and something round and yellow - a sky with a sun. Beneath on something green, probably grass, sat a grey unicorn with a scarf, next to a red unicorn - and in between sat a little miniature horse in purple, around were three kittens in green, blue and pink. Lucy threw her hands to her mouth.
"Girls, this is..." - "It's from the story you told us." Edith explained. "See? This is robin." they pointed at the baby-horse. Lucy smiled at them with tears in her eyes. They were such wonderful girls. Daughters. And sisters... she couldn't have asked for better siblings for her baby.
...
Turning around the key in the keyhole, he opened the door - but oddly, nobody was there to welcome him home.
"Hello...?" he asked insecurely.
"Lucy? Gurls?"
"Gru!"
He heard hasty footsteps from the stairs and he saw the little girl approaching him, worry in her eyes.
"Agnes, vhat is wrong? Vhere are dhe odhers?"
"Upstairs! Lucy is in the bathroom, she didn't feel so good, all day long."
"Vhat?! D-did she say somethin' about labour pain? Or did she tell yu to call de ambulance?"
"No, she just said she felt very dizzy and now she's sitting for hours in the bathtub."
Still worried, he dropped the back, picked Agnes up and made his way quickly to the stairs to meet Margo halfway.
"Gru, Gru, relax - she's fine, just another false alarm!" she spoke to her gather and he stopped, looking at her and once more, he felt his heart dropping from relief.
"Thank goodness..." he muttered. "Agnes, Margo, Edith - yu go and look vhat i got for yu in my bag downstairs, okay? I'll go and speak to Lucy."
The girls left quickly and Gru approached the door to the bathroom, gently knocking on before opening the door.
"Lucy...hon, is everythin' okay?"
"Oh? Hey Gru, you're back!" Lucy's cheeks pulled her into a smile. She patted the water a bit with her hands, her belly poking out of the water like an island in the ocean. It was cold by now, but she enjoyed the levitating relief of the water taking her weight.
"Everything's fine, I've just been achy today and I got some pre-contractions. They've calmed down now, but I just haven't felt like getting up again. I pretty much went to take a bath as soon as the girls got back from school, so I knew I had somebody to call for. Did everything go fine? The bad guys are caught now? You're staying home?"
Gru closed the door behind him and knelt down next to her, brushing his hand over her forehead. She looked exhausted.
He didn't know either he should be terribly worried or just happy to be with her now, so he decided to stay positive over the situation."Si senora, dhe bad guys are under lock and key. I can stay home for dhe rest of dhe year. I'm jus' glad I'm done vith it, now i dun't need to be worried dat i wuldn't be present if anythin' happens."
He leaned in to kiss her temple, gently caressing her up-popping belly. The last week, Gru just hoped to be, well, home - ever since Lucy had her false alarm, he was scared and restless. She noticed it too. Her hand slowly emerged from the water and caressed his cheek. "I'm glad you're home..." she whispered. "I was scared you wouldn't come home in time." - "I wuld have moved mountains to be vith yu vhen it's time." Gru promised softly, and they smiled, Lucy cupping his face, his hand over her belly and her head, they stared at each other with affectionate glances, like they always did when they were alone.
"Hey, mind if I join?" he asked with a trail of mild cockiness in his voice. Lucy chuckled, and then made a ' come hither' motion with her finger.
Pulling out his sweater, he threw it over the chair next to the sink.
Actually, he was quite curious how these contrations were even feeling like, on the other side, he knew that it wasn't that funny when you had labor pain. Lucy complained often enough when she had her 'ladies days', and after reading they felt similar to labor, he was glad to be a man.
Getting rid of his pants as well, he carefullyclimbed inside, sitting behind her, so she could lean against him. Lucy sighed happily, leaning her head against his chest.
"Gosh...I'm really glad I'm back home...really crept me out, dhese false alarm of yurs back dhen." he said. "Yeah, they creep me out too", Lucy said and put his hands over her giant belly, sorrowfully tracing the stretch marks when sinking her hands down in the water. The tub filled itself slowly with warm, relaxing water and the white fluffy foam surrounded them, and Gru felt all the stress dropping from him, sitting here with Lucy, save and sound, and finally he could be with her, waiting for Robin to be born. His hands held onto her belly, caressing it gently and with eager admiration. It now was really really big - nothing compared to the last few months. He still remembered the time he was so giddy over it growing to be just a handful. Lucy twitched when she felt another, very small cramp rushing through her, but she knew, it wasn't serious. "My muscles start to cramp and I really think 'this is it' and I think I need to get to the hospital. But then it goes a bit and I notice that they are not in rythm at all, they just happen a little bit now and then. Real contractions increase in time every time, and these, just don't." She looked up to his face.
"Thank you for getting home. I've missed you. Now I know you'll be here for when it happens."
He glanced down at her with a warm smile, kissing the top of her head, lovingly rubbing over the skin of her stomach. "I'll always be dhere for yu, Lucy." he answered, feeling Robin moving inside her and Lucy gave a small sigh, leaning into him more, feeling so safe and sound, so peacefully here with him in the water, his hands holding onto their unborn baby...
"You know, first, I really thought I was going to be alone. I've never had any long relationships, just a few months here and there, and never one where I felt I could have a baby in." She sank herself deeper into his chest. "And when you got mad at me, I was sure that was it. I was sure you would leave me and never want to talk to me again. And now I'm here, living with you, expecting our child, viewing the girls as mine and they call me mom sometimes when they slip. Talk about committed relationship, hey?"
Gru listened to her words, here and there a sigh escaped his chest, stroking her belly with loving hands, watching the water flowing with each of their movements...
Indeed, he had tried to suppress that memory, how he snapped and yelled at her, that they would go separated way from there on...
He said a lot of things when he was seriously mad and disappointed.
"Lucy...I'm sorry vhat happened. Yu shuld know, dat even if yu wuld have aborted Robin, I'd still have talked to yu. I'd still have loved yu dhe same..."
His head craned down to nuzzle his forehead into the crook of her shoulder, pulling her closer, at least as close as possible. And Lucy raised her arms to loop them around his neck.
As much as he was happy about them having a baby together and living together, he was glad the girls considered her as their mother...
"Yu have no idea how happy I'm about all of dis...startin' dhe day I fell in love vith yu."
Giving her neck some soft kisses, he smiled against her skin. "I'm happy too. I'm happy for being in this family. I'm happy that the only child I am ever going to carry, that you fathered them. I can't imagine a more loving and wonderful dad than you."
"Hmhm..." Gru chuckled softly against her hair, having his eyes closed and his hands still lingered on her belly. " And can't imagine a more lovin' and wonderful modher dhan yu."
Now after all the time he reminded himself about it, he questioned himself: Was he ready for raising a baby? Agnes was a toddler when he adopted her, nothing compared to a small living person that wasn't ale to do anything without his and Lucys help.
It would be much work, but...he couldn't wait until their little offspring was officially a part of the family.
"Gru, Lucy? Are you okay in there?"
Gru cringed a bit, and the silence was disturbed by his movement stirring up the water.
"A-A-Ehh...Everythin's a'right honey, dun't worry." he called back.
"Oh..okay! Gru, Edith won't give me back my gift you brought us, she says she rather wants to have the turtleninja with the red mask."
"I don't want the blue one!" Edith retorted.
"Gurls, come on, please, we vant our privacy here."
"What are you two doing inside there anyway?"
"We're havin' a bath."
"EWWWW!" Both shouted and Agnes started to giggle while he heard Edith running away and into her room.
Gru grinned slightly.
"Off dhey go...!"
"Aw, they probably think we are doing some nasty stuff in here", Lucy cooed teasingly, pressing her back against Gru, looking up in his face. Her hands found his, and she circled her belly together with him. "Grownup stuff that got us in this situation in the first place." She laughed a bit, stretched her neck and gave him a kiss on his cheek. "Hehehe..." He chuckled cheekily, her fingers joining him to rub over her belly and his thumb brushed gently over her knuckles."Well, we can delay dat to later..." He winked at her, relaxing once more, hearing as the girls kept mumbling something in their room, probably still debating on which action figure they can have or not. Lucy hunched her shoulders and giggled seductively, before growing silent again. Resting his lips on the base of her ear to kiss it gently, he started to whisper lowly: "I never wuld have thought I'd have a child of my own...But I'm glad dat it'll be our baby..."
"I'm glad too Gru, I'm glad too. I never thought so either, for mixed reasons. One was that relationships never worked for me, another was that I decided to focus on just working once I hit my mid thirties. Have you ever tried before? Finding a spouse and start a family, before you became I villain, I mean?" She played with the water, making drops drip from her fingertips onto the round belly, it was the only way of making it wet.
Moving a bit in his spot, trying to find a comfortable position, he mumbled some words, biting his lip and drowning his thoughts in shy Uh's and Hmm's.
"Well..." he finally started. He was sure he hadn't told her about that certain one relationship with that certain little incident that he had tried to suppress.
"I have tried it, to be honest...I-I mean, not intentionally, but...well, i was thinkin' about havin' a family on my own, way back vhen I was still quite young.
Bach dhen I had a gurlfriend, called Maggie. She was attendin' dhe same lectures vith me, and one thing led to anodher and we became a couple, but...hm..."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"I started to meet Nefario regulary, so we both happened to become villains, so dhe thought of havin' a family kinda...vanished. To dhe day Maggie told me she was pregnant, dat is. But...well...she miscarried. One week later."
He paused for a moment. "I was...racked by dat message. She blamed me for her miscarriage because I didn't support her and spent more time meetin' Nefario, and so we went our own ways. I dun't know to dhe present day vhat happened vith her, but I knew dat Nefario finally accepted me as his apprentice, and so I became a villain. And vith dat, I've lost interest in startin' a family...somehow..."
Gru silented for a while, but he continued to run his hand over the base of her belly.
"But I'm..actually happy it happened to become true eventually. Not necessarily by dhe time vhen I was still young and dynamic, but...eventually..."
Smiling weakly, he paused again, looking down at Lucy.
Lucy had no idea. She would have expected him to say no, that he never had interest in children before he got the girls. That he had experienced a misscarriage before, and his girlfriend blamed him... No wonder he freaked out at getting a second chance. And she blamed him for making her pregnant when it had been their contraceptive that failed them. Robin moved around a bit, not kicking anymore since there simply wasn't any room, but you could see bulges move around whenever the baby moved.
"Oh,honey..." she started, and tried to turn around, but her belly was simply too big to move. "I'm so sorry..."
"It's okay..." Gru chuckled and kissed her head. "I dun't care anymore - i got yu. I got dhe gurls. And i got robin."
Lucy chuckled, still looking at him.
"And so do I. And i got the best boyfriend in this universe."