"Before that strip turned blue, I was a woman, I was your woman. I was a killer who killed for you. Before that strip turned blue, I would've jumped a motorcycle onto a speeding train. For you. But once that strip turned blue... I could no longer do any of those things. Not anymore. Because I was gonna be a mother. Can you understand that?"

"Yes." Bill, and the Bride, were now outside. Seated, he took a drink, "But why didn't you tell me then, instead of now?"

"Once you knew, you'd claim her. And I didn't want that."

He poured himself more, "Not your decision to make."

"Yes. But it's the right decision, and I made it for my daughter. She deserved to be born with a clean slate. But with you... she would've been born into a world she shouldn't. I had to choose. I chose her."

Watching Kill Bill Vol. 2 once more on the sofa, Emily was forcibly brought back to the first time that she thought she was going to be a mother. Like a stupid, selfish teenager, she had been concerned only with her boyfriend, and not the baby. It wasn't like she was doing much better now that she actually was pregnant, but at least this time she was thinking of her child. Well now she was, because at first there had been a disconnect soaked in denial, but this close to popping, there was no more room to be so thoughtless.

"Can he really understand it though?" Seated next to her on the couch, Dave's friend and actual roommate Todd shook his head at the screen. At first he had been shocked to learn of the arrangement and had protested, but in hindsight it made a lot of sense to him, so he he learned to go with it; it helped that this chick was familiar with all things nerd. "I'm not a mother - obviously - but how can he get it?"

As a mother-to-be, Emily got how a parent could instinctively get it. "Trust me, he get's it."

Todd still wasn't convinced. "Maybe in real life, but I don't feel a connect between Bill and B.B. In the one scene they have together, he could have been a babysitter, or even an uncle. I get that Tarentino wanted to keep the fact that B.B. was alive a secret, but once Bill himself says that she is, they could have cut to Bill holding his daughter in his arms, or something. I'm just saying, they could have sold that relationship better."

They could have, but that wasn't the point of the movie - the pregnancy and consequences of it where what mattered, not the actual child herself. At least that's what Emily was taking away from the movie this time. But she didn't feel like getting into it with Todd right now, so the artist kept her mouth shut. Any other time she probably would have mustered the energy to battle it out until one of them was an indisputable winner, but lately she was just so tired and wanted only to sleep when she wasn't shoveling her face or stressing out about her child. Instead of that lovely merry-go-round, she used her energy to focus on her own predicament and how she ended up there. How she ended up here, secretly subletting to her baby daddy's nemesis. Jesus, how much things had changed for her, including the fact that she couldn't even bring herself to call Chris her boyfriend anymore. But how could she, after everything?

[Chris and Emily's Apartment...]

They had been gone for a couple of months now - as fucked up as their relationship was at the moment, Chris still assumed that Emily would call him when she went into labor - but he was only waiting for an apology, for her to come back... Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't retarded, so he knew that things wouldn't just fall back into the same pattern as before (he didn't want that life anymore, now that he had virtually lost everything and realized what it was that he had done), but he failed to see why they wouldn't be together once everything was said and done.

Ok, so maybe he was a bigger douche to her than he needed to be, and it probably wouldn't have killed him to pay the one person that was always there for him some attention when she asked for it, and it likely wasn't helpful that he often took her for granted or called her degrading names, but she knew that he really did love her, right? Even after everything, this was still their apartment, and she was still... He wanted to lay claim to her the same way he did in the past, but for all he knew, all he could do was admit that he still loved her, and that he wanted her back so they could try again. So the three of them could be a family.

It was probably too much to ask for.

"Chrissy, you need to stop thinking about that little lying whore." Had it been anyone else to call her that, Chris would have retaliated and stood up for her honor. "I have my men watch her to make sure that she's not doing anything to your child, but after everything she put you through, even she's not stupid enough to endanger your kid." He considered adding in that the child was pretty much the only lifeline keeping her afloat, but Chris was still visibly affected by the she-demon, so he refrained lest his nephew get it in his little head that he was disrespecting the future of the family. "If you want, I can arrange a little meeting one of these days, so you two can discus her visiting rights."

Uncle Rocco was dead serious, as always, but Chris had no intentions of taking the baby from it's mother. Even if he didn't want to set things right with her he never would have dreamed of doing something that low. "What? No, I-"

Stern, Rocco was going to have this happen his way. "You are the child's father, and if that woman isn't willing to comply to our wishes, I am more than prepared to find a suitable substitute to assist you in raising the future of the Genovese family."

"No, Emily is the only one that will help me raise our child." That was how it was supposed to be - them together, giving their offspring what they didn't have, at least to the best of their ability. "I don't care what she did - I still love her."

As much as he disagreed with his nephew's stupidity, Rocco still appreciated the kid's loyalty. Fine, he would give the lying harlot one more chance to be a descent mother to the heir of the family empire, but at her first slip-up, she was going to meet a very special friend of his...

[Dave's Apartment]

Putting his keys up after a long day of patrol, Dave entered the living room thinking only two things as he sat down: the usual smell of the neighbor's evening meal meant that Todd had struck out again at getting Emily to cook something for dinner - which meant take-out yet again - and the room was eerily silent. The TV was still on, but it was stuck on the one channel that came in as more static than picture or sound, and most telling of all was the lack of bickering from Todd and Emily. More than anything else in his day, it was guaranteed ever since they had been acquainted that not a day could pass without one of them retorting back and forth. It got irritating rather fast, but thankfully that combined with her rapidly approaching due date had slowed any romantic reconnection they might have shared. He really hadn't been counting on Todd to eat away the time she wasn't focusing on prepping for her baby, but he was grateful.

The baby that kept her in either the living room or the bathroom or the kitchen. Could it be that...? Glancing around at the empty room, the omission of Emily's lady noises told him that she wasn't there, but she rarely went anywhere since her stomach swelled up to the size of a small medicine ball, so that meant only one thing: She had gone into labor and was on her way to to the hospital, if she wasn't already there. Unless Chris had come back for her and had taken out Todd in the process...

No, Dave shook his head, if they had come for Emily there would have been signs of a struggle and Todd's blood would have been soaking into the cold floor already. It wasn't a particularly comforting notion to imagine, but it was better to see the scenario play out in his mind than to come home to find the aftermath of a needless massacre. She rarely spoke about Chris - in fact whenever her child's father came into the conversation, so would clam up - but he could tell that she hadn't given up on the idea of a happy family. He tried to tell her once that so long as Chris was in the picture there never could be such a thing as happy, but the look in her eyes had silenced his lips.

Emily really wasn't a well woman, and he didn't have to live with her to see that...

I want to say that I had a different name planned for these series of issues (I wanted to go with 'Seeds', but since I'm kinda using that for another story (my Game of Thrones fic), I don't want to reuse it if I can help it), but whatever, this title works just as well. And yes, I'm circling back around to Kill Bill - it holds importance to Chris and Emily, as well as being an awesome movie that has some meaning in the real world. And also I'd like to thank a certain Kyle for pointing something out to me and giving me an idea! Speaking of Kyle, I'd really like to thank all of my reviewers, even if I have already! Reviews really mean a lot to me.

Kick-Ass is the property of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Emily Vela is mine. Knight, and all minor characters too.