A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

*IMPORTANT*

I was asked (rudely) to go down to only post once a week for reasons that aren't polite enough to repeat.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if there are other people out there who want me to do this, if there are I guess I will do it.

I know it sounds cheeky but…

Would you mind letting me know what you think about this before I commit myself to anything?

To let me know whether you want me to continue as I am or do as this person 'requested'.

Chapter 18: Give Or Take A Month

Erin waited for impact to come; her eyes were closed so tightly they hurt. Seconds stretched out before her.

She jumped as she felt something completely different. Her eyes snapped open and she looked down at her stomach.

Bertrand had gently laid his hand on her stomach; she looked at Vlad who was ruffling his hair trying to get the small flakes of wood from his hair, wincing as sharp jagged edges dug into his hands with every tiny movement.

Vlad stopped what he was doing and looked at her in complete confusion, Ingrid looked identical to her brother with the expression she was pulling.

Erin was frozen, she didn't want to risk breaking his train of thought in case he remembered what he was doing and finished his attack.

Bertrand looked up at her with a faint smile on his face, stepping away from her. "He won't harm her because she's pregnant. He won't harm any child." Only Ingrid knew the full story behind this.

Erin placed both hands over her stomach, a smile crossing her face. Bertrand was still in there, overriding some of the bite, the procedure had worked, even if it was only a little, it had worked.

Vlad looked at Ingrid in shock, she nodded to him. Vlad lifted his hand and clicked his fingers.

Immediately Bertrand collapsed, completely unconscious.

Ingrid ran to Bertrand's side, she wasn't going to leave him like this again – anyway Vlad would only order her to Bertrand's side.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Vlad had taken Erin back to their room, out of the way of the others. They couldn't do anything at the moment. He didn't want to stay in a room where everyone's eyes were on him, expecting him to provide the answers. They'd been given some pieces of the puzzle but not all of it. Bertrand couldn't be blamed for that, he'd told them as much as he could before the bite reasserted itself.

"It must be like a bacteria." Vlad whispered, "If you don't get all the substances then it must multiply and reassert itself." What he knew was from biology lessons at school. He took her hands and sat her next to him on the sofa, she curled her legs up underneath her before moulding herself to him.

Erin ran a finger along the bridge of his nose, "What are you going to do about the mirror and the bone?"

Vlad shrugged, "I can't do anything unless I know where she is. The slayers slaughtered too many clans; she could be at any one of their blood mirrors. Without Jonno and Mina, without an army in place it'll take forever to find out."

"Maybe Bertrand will be able to tell us when he wakes." Erin suggested, perhaps it was because he was so exhausted that the bite had reasserted itself.

"Maybe." He looked down at her, "He's in there, he wouldn't harm you because you're pregnant. No other vampire would care." Ingrid must have told him Erin was pregnant when she'd explained why Erin wouldn't be tested on it to him. Ingrid wouldn't keep it from him.

"I know." She looked down and a comfortable silence took over. Something occurred to her then, something major that she'd never thought about before. "I never asked, about a vampire pregnancy…" She trailed off, she was afraid Vlad would think she was an idiot for asking.

"Yeah." He twisted around, seeing the way she was looking through her eyelashes he knew she was embarrassed about something.

She winced as she said her next words, "Is it, you know, normal?"

"Normal?" He didn't understand. She rolled her eyes at him, knowing that as a breather her cheeks would have been flaming. "Oh…" He trailed off, "Yeah, its like a mortal pregnancy." Or so he'd been told. "Give or take a month."

Erin shot up in his arms, "Ten months?"

"I meant between eight and nine months. You're the first half fang to have a baby a full vampire pregnancy is eight and I'm going by the fact you were a mortal." He looked at Erin, noticing for the first time her sceptical look. "What?"

Erin couldn't understand on thing, "I'm not the first half fang…"

Vlad nodded, rolling his head slightly, "But you're the first to have a child."

She gave him a faint disbelieving smile, "You're telling me the others weren't pregnant at some point?"

He shrugged, "Yeah but…" He looked down trailing off, his eyes involuntarily being drawn to her stomach. He felt guilt as he knew she'd seen his actions, she let out a gasp.

"They all miscarried." Erin began to pull back, shaking her head. She crawled away from him, before pushing herself from their couch. "I'm going to lose ours…" She couldn't go through that, she couldn't lose something she loved so much. Vlad followed her, he went to grab for her but she pulled back, shaking her head she didn't want to be touched at the moment. "You didn't tell me."

How could Vlad keep it from her?

"It will be different Erin…"

"How Vlad? Tell me how? Were you supposed to go through this too, revenge for choosing me and not a beautiful vampire?"

"You are beautiful and you are a vampire," He leaned up and meeting no resistance cupped her cheek gently. "I've never met a vampire more beautiful."

"Don't change the subject Vlad," She answered, "Its why you insisted Renfield check me over after the fight, you know it'll happen at some point."

"It won't happen Erin."

"Vlad, if every other half fang miscarried…"

"Even full vampires miscarried with a half fang husband." He cut in quickly, it wasn't just female half fangs at fault.

Tears sparkled in her eyes. "So we're just not compatible?" She wanted his children, she'd never wanted any as a slayer, Vlad was the only person she'd felt that way about.

Vlad kissed her quickly, taking her mind from the conversation for a few seconds before speaking once more. "Erin children are born out of love aren't they?" His point was direct and to the point. Erin nodded slowly, "The feelings after being bitten aren't love. That's why the child can't survive. In women their true feelings and the created ones conflict, putting them under stress and the baby can't survive like that."

Erin looked at him, that explained the female half fangs, "What about full vampires?"

Vlad shrugged slightly, "The same, they know their chosen partners don't genuinely love him and start to feel guilty and that causes the stress."

"Vampires claim not to love but they have to in order to create children. It's the one thing that we can't escape. Even Mum must have loved Dad at some point, hard to imagine I know."

Erin snorted, she looked back up at him. "You think it'll be okay?"

Vlad nodded frantically, their lack of reaction to each other's bites had proved that. "I do."

They had all the odds in their favour.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

The older vampires leaned towards her, Erin pressed a finger to his lips, he pouted a little put out at not being able to kiss his own wife. "What are we going to do about clothes?" Erin asked him softly.

"What do you mean?"

She shook her head, an amused smile gracing her lips. The answer to that was obvious wasn't it? "I'm going to get bigger Vlad, I won't be able to fit in mine. We can't exactly go to town and we haven't even thought about the baby's room…"

Vlad nodded as she spoke, it was a problem but they could deal with it together. He cut her off with a finger pressed against her lips. "Wear mine like you did when we first met." Vlad had leant Erin his shirts when she'd first stayed with them, she'd worn vests underneath because they were so baggy on her.

Her smile was wide, "You'll let me wear yours again?" He really did take 'what's yours, is mine' to the extreme but she wouldn't have him any other way.

Vlad doubted he'd ever had a choice in that, "Erin you wear my t-shirts at night all the time, I doubt anyone would notice if you wore them all day long."

She couldn't help it that she found them so comfortable, "Usually that's only us."

She couldn't be embarrassed, they couldn't afford to be at a time like this. "Erin it's not just going to be us for the next… well, however long this stupid war will last."

"They always said being married meant no privacy." Her tone was dripping with sarcasm. Ever since their ceremony they had few and far between moments together.

"Mated actually." He corrected with a smile making her laugh. He wrapped his arms around her, he looked behind. "We'll get a bed, there's one here somewhere. You won't fit in the coffin either."

Erin wasn't going to sleep in a bed with the current situation. Vlad would want to sleep next to her and at the moment it would be too dangerous without the safety of the coffin lid.

"If I lie on my back…" She protested, before realising how narrow the curved lid actually was. She fought not to let it show in any hesitation.

"You won't manage." Vlad grinned.

Erin folded her arms over her chest, "How do you know?" He could tell that from just looking at her – or maybe he could and she was just too stubborn to admit it.

"Test it." He gestured for her to sit in the coffin. Erin did as she was asked and smirked widely at him as she positioned herself in the coffin.

"See." She gestured to herself.

"You're not showing." He turned around and searched the room for something. A grin crossed his face, one Erin knew to be weary of. He grabbed a nearby large, blue, cotton cushion pushed it towards her.

"You've got to be kidding." She shook her head. Vlad thrust it towards her more forcefully. She snatched it off him and shoved it under her shirt. "I can't believe I'm doing this." She muttered. She looked down at herself daring Vlad to laugh; he watched her biting his lip and rolling his tongue in his mouth.

She looked ridiculous with the obviously square cushion under her shirt. She lay down, it was nowhere near the side that she'd become, she could tell that. She tried to roll it to make it rounder but it didn't work.

"Just lie down Erin." Erin did as she was told, lying in the centre of the coffin.

She flailed her hands to prove a point, "There, see perfect fit." She sat back up struggling with the cushion, it only gave her an insight of what to expect in a few months.

Vlad climbed into the coffin next to her. "You don't sleep in the centre though do you?" He lay down forcing her across to her side of the coffin. She growled at him and he wasn't phased. "See I still…" She was cut off as he clicked his fingers and as it closed she felt the coffin lid press into the cushion, she turned her head to face him, rolling her eyes as she saw his self satisfied expression.

She hated it when he was right.

"Is there still room?" He asked her in an annoyingly innocent way, forcing her to hit his leg. She was wedged, she could only roll sideways to face him.

"You don't need to look so smug." He looked sheepish but the smugness was still in his eyes. "When I get big enough we'll change to a bed."

"Thank you." He smiled. Erin looked upwards, expecting him to have opened the coffin. A faint smile crossed her lips as she realised something.

"Was this all just to get me in the coffin?" She grinned up at him and he shrugged not denying it but not confirming it either.

Vlad closed the gap between them, kissing her gently. Erin reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him so much closer to her before growling at the cushion that stopped her contact with him. Vlad beat her to it though, he pulled up her shirt and grabbed the cushion throwing it behind them. Erin gasped as the air hit her stomach. Vlad pulled back thinking he'd done something wrong.

His eyes were soft and scared. She smiled, clicking her fingers, the lid opened automatically. She wasn't going to get out though. She hooked a leg around his waist and rolled them so she was above him, she loved seeing the surprised look on his face every time she did that. She bent down towards him, smiling as he automatically opened his mouth a fraction so the kiss could deepen almost immediately. Their tongues battled for dominance, their kiss increasing in passion making up for what they'd missed.

Vlad rolled her back under him, moving his lips down her neck to kiss her collarbone. She let out a moan at the sensations that raced through her. He smirked against the skin he found there earning himself a thump on the back a fraction of a second before her felt her fingers slip under his shirt and begin to push his shirt upwards, until it bunched around his shoulders. She prepared to pull it over his head when she heard something.

A creaking sound caught Vlad's sensitive hearing, his head snapped up in time to see their door opening fully and quickly.

The Count poked his head around the door, forcing Vlad and Erin to separate. Erin tipped her head backwards against the coffin to look at the Count fully. Vlad lifted his head upwards to stare his father down. The Count threw his hands over his eyes seeing the compromising position his son was in.

He cried instinctively, "Dad! Knock!"

"You shouldn't be doing 'that'!" He protested gesturing a finger blindly towards the couple, missing them widely. He let out a cry of pain, "OW!" as he hit his hand on the doorframe while trying to erase the image that probably scarred him for the rest of his unlife from his mind. No father should ever see his son doing, or about to do, 'that'.

"We were kissing, nothing else." They hadn't had chance to get much further. Vlad looked down, seeing the way Erin's shirt was around her rib cage. Vlad pulled Erin's top back down and she quickly smoothed down his t-shirt. "Why am I even defending us?" He muttered, he didn't need to defend himself. "We're mated and this is our room, if you don't knock…" He gave up, his father wouldn't learn, so there was no point in mentioning it. "What do you want anyway?"

"Mina's awake."

TBC

A/N: Please let me know what you think.

I'd be eternally grateful if you could let me know what you think about my problem and whether you think I should reduce my posts.

Thanks for reading.