Anonymous-It's boring in fantast to.

ketaglass-You want a birth scene, you go write it yourself.

Buka2000-Bed rest IS boring! It's even boring to write with.

Pharaoh Feliecia-I'm also calling the people who handle people who break the laws of physics. What's that group called?

journey maker-Come to think of it, I haven't done much with Bakura lately, have I?

dragonlady222-okay, then.

Chapter 23

Malik grimaced noticeably as Ryou screamed in the other room. He was probably wishing he'd waited a few more days in bed before letting himself go into labor. There'd been a huge storm the other day that kept the hospital from getting all of its supplies, so he couldn't be numbed before giving birth.

"Hey, where's Duke?" Joey asked after a few more minutes of awkward silence.

Suddenly the awkwardness was even worse "He's in questioning. Yoshio mentioned him as one of the various people he's worked for" Anzu said, then her voice became lower "He mentioned Duke as his last employer" And Yoshio's last hit had been Malik

Joey didn't make the connection. None of us explained it. We all just sat there until the Ryou's screaming finally died down, though we could still hear the screams of other women in the area.

Finally, a doctor came out and let a few of us in. Malik and I were the first, along with Anzu. Ryou and his father were already in the room.

Ryou smiled at us when we entered, though he looked exhausted. There was a small bundle in his hand which happened to have a little baby girl in it.

Malik looked thrilled, being the father. "That's her? She's so cute? Have you come up with a name for her yet?"

"Aori" Ryou said (pronounce ey-or-ie) "I thought you might like with the middle name"

Ryou's father scowled at Malik. He didn't know all the little details of how Ryou got pregnant, but Ryou had told him that Malik wanted to act as the child's father. I think his dads catching on to the fact that Malik really is the father.

Malik wasn't allowed to hold the little girl, since he was still recovering and no one wanted him to hurt himself or accidentally hurt the baby. I got to hold her instead while he thought of possible middle names. I never heard what they finally agreed on, but it wasn't a name Malik came up with. His were all weird.

Finally, the doctor took Aori away to get her examined. Make sure she was healthy, since Ryou had almost had her several months ago, and the likes. He came back with the good news that she was fine, but they wanted her and Ryou in the hospital over night.

Ryou looked upset, but we all said it sounded fair. We were escorted out of the room so that more people could come in to see Aori and Ryou.

SC

The phone was ringing. Picking it up proved that Malik was on the other side "Hey… Yugi?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… has Ryou been kind of weird around you like… ever since Aori was born?" For the past five weeks? He'd been completely normal. Except without the mood swings, but I guess that's just something I grew used to during the pregnancy. I missed those mood swings…

"Not… really. Why?"

"I think he's avoiding me"

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SnowCreek: Mmmmm. I had shrimp with lunch today. Yummy. Anyway, I decided to just skip that one extra chapter and go straight to bringing Aori into the world.

Aori was born May 24th