It all started with a simple phone call. Tohru was currently preparing lunch for Shigure, Yuki, and herself as she did everyday. Shigure was in his office, writing his latest novel, and Yuki was out tending to their secret base. Today was just like any other day until the phone rang. A couple of rings from the telephone made Tohru turn off the stove, wipe off her dirty hands, and scurry over to the living room to answer, but she had no idea what was waiting for her on the other end of the line. As usual Tohru greeted the person cheerfully with a wide smile across her face that a caller could never see; she got her reply in a slow almost torturous voice.

"Hello, am I speaking to Tohru Honda?" asked the voice she barely recognized. She knew this voice, even though it took her a minute for her to realize that it was her obstetrician, but why would he be talking in such a dolorous voice? The answer was simple; he had bad news to tell her. Still, Tohru expected nothing and would soon be caught off guard by his news. Tohru remained optimistic as always as she cradled the phone against her ear.

"Yes…" she replied.

"I have the results from your karyotype… You might want to sit down before I tell you this…"
"Sit down?" She could only repeat his request like an idiot as she seated herself down on the couch, still oblivious to the dark aura that seemed to be loomed over her. Tohru was still beaming as she crossed her legs. The doctor seemed to hear the sounds from the other end and took a deep breath. Tohru was partially excited to hear the results; her brain couldn't put together the ominous tone and karyotype results together and realize she was in for something bad. The doctor didn't really want to ruin her pleasant mood and tell her what he had to, but it was his job, and she had a right to know. She was still smiling as she waited for him to tell her the results.

"…There's a problem with the chromosomes, three of them to be precise. Instead of pairs of two, two of them came in groups of three and the other came by itself. That means, you are missing a chromosome and you have two extra," he said tediously.

Tohru's eyebrows furrowed with worry. She didn't understand anything he had just said, but by the tone of his voice that didn't sound like good news at all. Tohru tried to figure out what the terms meant with no success. Were two extra chromosomes, and a missing one really going to affect a baby so drastically? Tohru didn't know the answer, and frankly she wasn't even sure what a chromosome was or what it did. She didn't exactly ace her genetics unit in school. Honestly, she had barely understood any of it, and she almost failed the course. Tohru half wished Yuki was here right now so he could explain the terms to her. He had always been rather talented in getting her to comprehend topics she didn't before, but right now he was busy so her obstetrician would have to do. She frowned and bit her lip as she asked, "…What does that mean?"

"Most likely, that you'll have a miscarriage… I'm sorry… Even if the baby survives, it won't live long," the doctor answered truthfully.

Tohru was silent, she had nothing to say. A part of her refused to believe what the doctor had just told her. Her whole body shook and trembled, her hands especially. The phone slid out of her hands and crashed onto the floor. She made no attempt to pick it up. Tohru's hand remained raised by her ear, her fingers still curved around an imaginary phone. Her fingers shook vigorously as her mouth dropped open. It took her brain a minute to register what he had just told her. Her baby wasn't going to survive, her only baby was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She hadn't even taken any drugs or drank any alcohol. Women who did that were supposed to be the ones who ended up with miscarriages and deformed babies, not her. It wasn't fair. Tohru wanted to be a mother, she desperately wanted to be a mom.

"Honda-san, are you there?" the doctor called out to her.

His calls weren't heard by her. She sat there staring forward before her hand flew to her mouth, and the tears started to flow. Tohru could only stay seated there a moment longer before her legs lifted her and carried her to her room. Shutting the door behind her, she could no longer support her body. Her legs gave in and she leaned against the door, sliding to the floor. She continued to wipe at the endless rivers that flowed from her eyes. They wouldn't stop; she gave up and covered her face with both of her hands, letting herself cry her heart out. Her lip quivered and her body was tense as her tears raced down her chin dropping onto her legs and skirt, leaving wet trails behind them. Tohru's fingers clenched themselves into tight fists; anger starting to build itself up inside her body. She was more frustrated and angry than she had ever been in her entire life. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs and hit something. It was so unlike her to feel like this, and she couldn't bring herself to do anything but cry.

Meanwhile, Yuki walked into the house only to see Tohru rush past him and upstairs. His hand was extended from his attempt to stop her. She had clearly not seen him standing there. He closed his fingers into a fist, feeling something wet on the tips of his fingers from brushing against her cheek. He switched his gaze from the wet substance on his fingers and stared up the stairs at her closed door trying to decide whether he should go ask her what's wrong or to wait for her to tell him. She had seemed so distraught from something. He had no idea why, but he didn't like to see her in this state. Yuki placed a foot up the stairs, trying to rack his brain for any ideas of what had caused this sadness, but he could come up with none.

Shigure walked up to him, holding the phone Tohru had dropped, "I think you should go talk to her…"

"Why? What do you know?"

Shigure paused, thinking about how he should word his response. By the time he came up with something Yuki was already upstairs and knocking on Tohru's door. Shigure shrugged and sauntered back to the living room to put the phone away. The doctor had already informed him of what Tohru knew. He knew this was something Tohru and Yuki would have to get over by themselves. There was nothing he could do to make this problem go away no matter how much he wanted to, and because of that he chose not to go with Yuki to comfort Tohru. His job would be to be the cheerful one so Tohru had some happy influence at least. Besides, the one Tohru wanted to be comforted by was not him.

"Tohru, Tohru? Tohru, open the door…"

The only response he got from Tohru was her soft weeping. At this point his concern was doubling at the least. A few tears signaled a bit of unhappiness but from the sound of her bawls, he felt that it was a lot more than that. He stood there, feeling the urge to cry just from listening to her sobbing. Tohru wasn't supposed to cry like this; she had always been so peppy. A smile always suited her personality more than tears did. He didn't like to see her cry, and he didn't want her to, but having her cry was better than her sticking on a false smile and covering up her emotions.

"Tohru, what's wrong?" he tried again.

Still, no answer. He was about to knock again but he heard her reply in the softest voice, "I'm not going to be a mother…"

He almost didn't hear her say that. Yuki was silent for a second trying to decode her sentence with no success. He didn't understand what would make her say that unless she had a miscarriage or something like that. But that didn't make sense. She had been eating properly, she hadn't consumed any drugs or alcohol, and no one beat her. He couldn't remember her doing a single thing that would lead to a miscarriage. Tohru had been taking care of herself and the baby perfectly. There shouldn't have been a miscarriage or anything of that sort. It couldn't mean she didn't want to be a mother because she said she wasn't going to be a mother, not that she didn't want to be one. He couldn't figure out what she meant.

"What do you mean? Tohru what happened?" Yuki asked her softly.

Tohru said no more. Yuki sat down against her door, knowing it would be locked without him having to try to open it. He rested his head on his arms which were folded across his knees. Hiding his face he waited for her to calm down so she could explain what she meant. For a minute all he did was listen to her cry. She didn't seem ready to stop crying and talk yet. Yuki sighed and looked up about to make another attempt to lure her out of her room when her door flew open. He lost his balance and toppled into her room. Yuki lied on his back staring up at her tear streaked face. Her arm was covering her eyes as she wiped the water away and sniffled. She blinked and smiled, trying not to look so sad, but her eyes gave it all away. Not only were they red, puffy and tear-stained, but he could see the sadness held in the usually joy filled chocolate orbs.

"What's wrong?" He repeated his question reaching up and brushing a stray tear off the side of his face. He made no attempt to sit back upright, and she didn't try to hold back the tears any longer. She recovered her face with both of her hands again leaning over her sobs coming out all over again. Her face hovered over his own stomach, a few tears slipping through the cracks of her fingers and landing on his shirt. Yuki tentatively stroked her back hoping the cause of her tears wasn't too serious. She lost her footing and fell onto his abdomen. She was too overcome with grief to even be embarrassed about this. His fingers grazed her back, pressing down the tiniest bit, letting her know it was okay for her to remain there as long as she didn't hug him and make him transform.

After another minute of crying, a few sniffles, and a few soothing words from Yuki, Tohru managed to hinder her cries. Her body still trembled as she lifted her head and saw the dark spots from her tears that covered his shirt. She apologized, bowing her head several times. She pulled away from him dabbing at her cheeks with the hem of her sleeves. Yuki raised himself into a kneeling position. He lifted his hand and wiped away a tear she had missed that was running down her chin. Tohru looked down at her lap, her cheeks glowing red slightly. She played with the hem of her skirt knowing what he was going to ask her now. She couldn't look him in the eye knowing what she had to tell him sooner or later. Tohru wasn't even completely sure that she could tell him what she had to. It would be hard, especially since she'd sound like a wreck after crying so much. Yuki's eyes ran over her as he tried to decide whether now was an appropriate time to ask her or not. It was something serious, she might not be ready to tell him or maybe she didn't want to tell him. Her grandpa could have been in an accident, or she could have cut her finger, or she could have fallen. The possibilities were endless.

"Tohru, can you tell me why you were crying now?" Yuki persisted a bit stubbornly.

"… The baby is going to die…" Tohru whispered hoarsely.

"…What?"

Die? Why would the baby die? And how did she know this? Had she been able to secretly see into the future all along or something? Under normal circumstances Yuki would have kicked himself for thinking something that ridiculous, but his brain couldn't come up with anything else that would explain how she knew the baby would die. How would she know something like that? Yuki swallowed anxiously waiting for her to explain what she had just said. Tohru slowly drew her head up to face him with her grievous face letting him know what she had just said was anything but a joke. She looked ready to cry all over again. If she kept this up, she'd end up at the hospital from dehydration.

"The baby is going to die… I was a bad mother…"

"Wha- That can't be true… Did the doctor tell you this?"

Tohru could only nod as she struggled to choke back tears. She tried to tell herself that she had cried enough, and that tears wouldn't make the baby alright, but it didn't work. Crying hadn't even made her feel any better. Tears usually gave her a sense of relief as if some burden was lifted off her shoulders, but not this time. The pain almost seemed to increase. Still, her desire to cry was starting to overpower her will against crying. She was barely able to keep the tears from cascading down her cheeks. Staring at the brunette Yuki could sense a bit of the inner battle going inside of her, and right now, the side of her that wanted to cry was starting to win. A hardly audible whimper left her mouth as water bubbled out of her eyes. She still attempted to keep the tears from spilling over though.

"What did he say?"

"The baby… has extra chromosomes…" Tohru murmured.

Yuki was silent, not sure what he could say at the moment to make it better. There was clearly nothing he could do to fix this problem. It wasn't possible for him to fix every single cell of the baby. That was impossible yet he still felt guilty, that this was somehow his fault. This would be Tohru's only child; he could have other children if he wanted to. This wasn't fair to Tohru. Tohru did the only thing she could do, cry. Yuki wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a half hug, pulling her as close as he could without transforming. He moved his hand to the back of her head and let her press her face into his shoulder as she cried. He hated the curse more than anything at the moment. It was the only thing that was keeping him from being able to comfort Tohru properly.

Tohru cried and cried some more for her child that would soon be lost, for herself who would never get to be a mother, for Yuki because she had ruined his shirt and because she had wasted his help, for her grandpa who was starting to look forward to being a great grandfather, for Ayame and for the rest of the Sohmas who were getting excited about the child. Yuki kneeled there patting her back softly. Even though he wasn't crying, he was just as upset about this as she was. He didn't want to cry; he wanted her to be strong, he wanted himself to be stronger for this. And frankly, he wanted to believe that the doctor was wrong about this.

Seconds raced ahead, turning into minutes, the minutes piling up quickly. Neither of them knew how long they were there, but it didn't really matter to either of them. They didn't even realize that they were locked in a half embrace. Their torsos were only half a foot apart, though that was enough to keep him from transforming. The moment was too grave for it to be an embarrassing situation. It actually didn't even occur to them that Shigure had been standing behind them with the phone in his hands. They didn't even hear the phone ring, that or they didn't care that it did. Tohru had already received her phone call of doom, and at the moment she didn't really like phone calls. After what she had heard, it was no surprise she was starting to think all phone calls were bad,

"Ah… Yes I have found Yuki… It would seem that his hormones are acting up and he's currently taking advantage of a poor innocent girl… I'll leave him your message, buh-bye," Shigure responded in a rather joyful voice.

"Who were you talking to?" Yuki asked glaring at Shigure.

"Manabe… I believe that is what he called himself. Anyways, he says you need to go over to his place for an urgent meeting," Shigure replied.

Hearing Shigure tell anyone what he just did was enough to make Yuki want to murder him, but the fact that the caller had been Manabe made it twice as bad. Of all times for Manabe to call, he had to call now. How did he even know Yuki's phone number? Yuki didn't want to see that guy, he saw enough of him at school, and he didn't feel up to listening to his ridiculous ideas right now. Actually, he never really felt up to hearing his insane suggestions. Couldn't Shigure see that Tohru needed him now? It wasn't as if Shigure was doing anything to make her feel better. That dog really had to learn to be more considerate of other people's feelings.

"Call him back and tell him I'm not going," Yuki muttered.

"He did say it was urgent though Yuki," Shigure pointed out.

"He never has anything important to say, besides, Tohru is what is important now. He can wait," Yuki told Shigure before looking down at Tohru and asking, "Are you okay?"
Tohru lifted her head slowly and nodded. She pulled away from him shyly with a bright red face. The last thing she wanted was for Yuki to feel obligated to stay here and comfort her the whole day. He should be free to do as he pleased. Plus, whether he knew it or not, he had already made her feel a lot better. Making him stay here would be asking too much from him. She wasn't a baby, she was supposed to be having one though; she could take care of herself at the least. She rubbed her eyes with her arm trying to erase all the signs that said she had just cried from her face. Even with her vigorous effort, it was still blatantly obvious that she had sobbed her heart out. Neither Shigure nor Yuki commented on this though. Tohru tried to smile, getting her lips to curve upwards the slightest bit. She didn't want them to be concerned about her anymore.

"You should go, you never know. It might be really serious. I should go make your lunch anyways," Tohru insisted.

"You don't have to do that. Rest and Shigure can order out or whatever," Yuki told her.

"No! I co-couldn't do that! That was the deal! I do the cooking and cleaning so that I can stay here!" Tohru squeaked. If she didn't do those things for them then there was no reason for her to continue staying here. She remembered the lunch that was sitting on the kitchen countertop that she had abandoned after the phone call. It was waiting for her to finish cooking it. All she really had left to do was chop a few more vegetables and heat up the stew. Tohru glanced up at the clock now and noticed it was past lunchtime already. Shigure and Yuki must be hungry. The least she could do was have lunch ready when Yuki came back since he was leaving without having eaten anything since breakfast time.

"Do I have to stay here then and make sure you rest then?"

"N-no…"

Yuki smiled and patted the top of her head glad to see that he was able to get her to see things his way. She was stressed, he could see that, and he didn't want her to overexert herself with work. Tohru deserved a break once in a while, and he wanted her to take one now regardless of how hungry he was. Yuki sighed, not really wanting to leave her to go to Manabe's place. Since she requested that he went, he'd go, but only for her, not because Manabe wanted him too. He'd have to trust Shigure not to be perverted while he was gone, and he'd also have to give Shigure the job of making sure Tohru rested. She was more stubborn than most people thought.

"I'll be back soon then," Yuki told her before reluctantly heading down the stairs and out the door to Manabe's place.

Tohru stood up feeling the need to finish lunch anyways even though Yuki didn't want her to. It was still her responsibility, regardless of what she was going through. Yuki had been right about her determination. When she set her mind on something, she wanted it done, and right now she wanted to cook them lunch. Shigure was the one to stop her this time. She glanced at him oddly since she knew for a fact Shigure liked her cooking a lot more than take-out.

"Tohru-kun, I agree with Yuki. I won't let you stay here anymore if you don't take a nap or something like that," Shigure said to her in a stern voice.

She gaped in horror. Tohru didn't want to leave this place. Unwillingly she obliged, giving in to the two men. After apologizing to Shigure for not being able to make him something to eat, Tohru walked back into her room. Her fatigue overcame her and she fell asleep as soon as she lied down on her bed. All that crying had worn her out, both mentally and physically. She slept for an hour until the shrill cry of the telephone awoke her. Shigure answered the phone after the first ring, letting Tohru curl back up in her bed to sleep some more until he burst into her room without knocking.

"Telephone for you," Shigure informed her as he stepped to her bedside with the phone outstretched towards her.

Tohru rubbed her eyes sleepily before taking the phone from him. Before she could thank him for bringing the phone up, Shigure was already out the door to give her some privacy. She peered down at the phone wondering who could be calling her. Was her obstetrician calling to tell her more bad news? But what could be worse than hearing that her baby would die? Nothing could be worse than that unless the police was calling her to tell her that Yuki had just been hit by a car as he was walking to Manabe's place. If that happened, she wouldn't know what to do. Normally, Tohru wouldn't be thinking so darkly she couldn't help it at this point. Her mind was clouded with grief and anger.

"Hello?"

"Hello Honda-san, this is Dr. Kioshi. I have to apologize for making a mistake earlier," he told her in an anxious voice.

"Mistake? What do you mean?" Tohru questioned.

"I mixed your karyotype up with another lady's… Your daughter has the correct amount of chromosomes. She should be born healthy," he told her.

"Daughter…" Tohru breathed in shock.

"Oh, did you not want to know the sex?" he asked slowly.

"She's going to be fine… Oh my…Oh my god…" Tohru choked out as tears streamed down her face again. She clasped her hand over her mouth crying all over again, but this time, these tears were from pure bliss and joy. There were no words that could accurately describe how she felt at the moment. She was ecstatic to hear that her baby would survive; she was crazed with excitement as her worry faded; and she felt a tad bit guilty for making both Shigure and Yuki worry. Tohru didn't even think about feeling angry at the doctor for making the mistake. Anyone else might have sued the obstetrician for doing that, but that thought never even crossed Tohru's mind.

"I'm so sorry for all the trouble…" The doctor continued, but Tohru was no longer listening.

She had heard the front door swing open and was already running downstairs to tell Yuki the good news. The phone lied discarded on top of her bed. Tohru wasn't even sure if she even hung up, but that didn't matter to her now. Tohru just wanted to tell Yuki that the baby would be fine, that their child was perfectly healthy. Upon her face, was the biggest grin she had ever worn. This day had started out as the worst day she had ever experienced, but now it was starting to become one of the best. She was going to have a beautiful daughter, a daughter with the perfect amount of chromosomes. Nope, she still hadn't figured out what chromosomes were, but as long as they weren't killing her daughter anymore, she didn't mind.

"Yuki-kun! The baby is going to be fine!!!" She exclaimed as she skidded to the front door. Tohru slipped on the wood floor and toppled over backwards landing on her bottom. Through the long strands of hair that had fallen across her face she stared at the orange haired teen standing in front of her with a bewildered expression across his face. His eyes were almost as large as hers were at the moment. He was one of the last people she expected to see, even though he lived here. After standing there for a minute thinking about what she had just said he was still unable to figure out what it meant. He decided to brush it away as he walked over to help her up. He held out his hand to her and pulled her up effortlessly.

"…Kyo-kun… You're back…"