A/N: Well, here it is: the last chapter before the epilogue. Enjoy!

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

A couple weeks after my wedding to Yuu, I was woken early in the morning by an overpowering wave of nausea. I was away on a mission at the time and it really freaked me out. I couldn't be sick right now; there were too many things to do. I couldn't shirk my exorcist duties just because I had a stomach bug.

I felt better once I'd emptied the contents of my stomach into the toilet, and the nausea didn't bother me for the rest of the day, so I figured it was something I had eaten. With the way I ate, it was entirely possible that I had unknowingly devoured something I shouldn't have.

However, when the next morning came, I was once again kneeling in front of the toilet puking my guts out. Only this time I recognized the weird feeling that settled in my stomach afterwards. I had missed it the day before because it had been a few years since I last felt that way.

I wasn't sick, and I definitely hadn't eaten anything bad. I was pregnant.

The realization hit me at the same time as Lavi knocked at the bathroom door, preventing me from processing the information. "Are you alright in there, Bean Sprout?"

When I didn't answer right away, he came in. I couldn't see him, but I knew exactly what expression was on his face from the sharp intake of breath he let out. He was worried over finding me in front of the toilet like that, and I could only guess that I looked as horrible as I felt. "Alright, spill. What's wrong?"

I couldn't bring myself to answer him, so he continued to talk. "You may as well tell me. That husband of yours is going to hold me responsible for whatever it is that's happened to you, and I'd like to know what that is before he hurts me for letting it happen."

That almost made me laugh; Yuu had definitely become even more protective of me now that we were married. But I wasn't in a laughing mood. "Yuu would hurt you just for walking in on me in the bathroom."

I frowned as I bit back the urge to throw up again. "But I see your point, so I'll let you off the hook. I'm not injured and I'm not sick. There's no reason for him to blame you for what's going on with me."

"That's not going to stop him." Lavi moved from the doorway to sit beside me on the floor. He tousled my hair in the process; treating me like I was a child was part of his older brother routine, it was meant to convince me that I could trust him. "And I don't believe that you're not sick. You've spent the last two mornings vomiting. You definitely have some sort of illness."

Irritated with both his attempts to get me to talk and myself for getting pregnant again, I pushed myself off the floor and stalked back into our room. "I'm not sick. I'm pregnant. There's quite a difference."

"Al-len!" Lavi groaned my name as he followed me out of the bathroom. "You shouldn't be on a mission if you're pregnant!"

I clicked my tongue and rolled my eyes at him. "I know that. My morning sickness didn't start until after we got here."

I expected Lavi to argue with me, but he just stood there staring at me. It made me more irritated than I already was. "What?!"

He blinked and shook his head at the confrontation. "Nothing. You just sounded a lot like Kanda right then. That's all."

"So? I've been a Kanda for three weeks. What's your point?"

"I still can't believe that you actually took his last name." The whispered words were said without offense, but they still hurt. Lavi brushed past it though and kept talking. "And now you're carrying his child. ... Again."

He sighed, grabbing my wrist and dragging me out of the room. I fought back. "What are you doing?"

The look he shot me made me cringe and stop trying to escape. "I'm calling Komui so that we can get you home. You can't stay here if you're pregnant."

"But I'm only a couple weeks along at most, and it hasn't even been confirmed yet. I can finish this mission!" Great. Now I sounded like a whiny child.

The redhead fixed me with a serious stare that sent chills down my spine. "I can't allow that. If you miscarry because I let you stay, Kanda will kill me. You're going home."

Unfortunately, Lavi had a point. I couldn't risk miscarrying my child, so I went home without a fight. Komui met me at the gate and took me down to the infirmary. Half an hour later, my pregnancy was confirmed and I was officially benched. It was going to be at least a year before I could go on missions again.

Fortunately, Yuu wasn't home, so I had time to gather my thoughts before I would have to tell him that I was pregnant with his second child. There was really only one thought in my head though: I don't want this.

I had reached a decision about my pregnancy, but that didn't help with my emotional distress. What would Yuu think when I told him? Would he accept my decision or would he hate me for it and push me away? Was this possibly the end of us?

Addie was quite supportive while I was experiencing my emotional turmoil. I didn't even have to tell her that I wasn't in the mood to play with her; she somehow knew that I was upset all on her own. She brought me her favorite stuffed animal - I have no clue how she even had a favorite; she had more than fifty to choose from, and that was only counting the ones that Teidoll had given to her - and curled up on the bed beside me.

We lay together in silence for a while before she looked up at me with her big silver eyes and told me in her broken toddler speech that it was ok to cry.

I completely broke down at hearing that. My baby girl was perfect. And that's when I knew what I had to do. The new baby inside me would be just as perfect as its sister. Even though I didn't want to be pregnant, I had to do it. Just like I had done for Addie, I had to bring this new baby into the world.

I couldn't go through with my decision to abort my baby.

Komui had told me that I had to wait until I talked to my husband before he would perform the procedure. There was a weird look on his face at the time that I didn't understand, but I did now: he had known that I would end up going back on my decision.

I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I was aware of was Yuu, back from his mission and sitting on the bed next to me. He was watching me sleep as he braided his long navy hair; Addie curled up in his lap. He smiled mischievously at me as I blinked the sleep out of my eyes. "Good morning, Moyashi. Did you have a nice nap?"

Rolling over onto my back, I stretched my limbs. I knew better than to fake a smile, he would see right through that, so instead I tried to brush it off and change the subject. "It felt good to catch up on some lost sleep. How was your mission?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Nice try, but Addie told me that you spent all day crying. What happened?"

Ignoring his question, I glared down at our daughter. I was upset, but she smiled back at me, instantly winning me over with how precious she was. "You tattled on Mommy? Why would you do that, Addie?"

She responded with a giggle. Then Yuu's hand was on my chin, forcing me to look back at him. He scowled at my attempt to change the subject. "Tell. Me. What. Happened. Allen."

I sighed heavily. "My mission didn't go well, that's all."

"So the akuma got away, huh?" Yuu laughed at my expense, but I was just relieved that he wasn't pressing the issue. Despite having spent all day thinking about it, I was still not ready to tell him I was pregnant.

.x.x.

Ever since he had returned early from his last mission, the Moyashi had been acting weird. It was almost like he was mad at me. I knew I was just a scapegoat, he was taking his frustrations with his failed mission out on me, but as the days passed, I began to wonder if that was truly the case. He seemed to be avoiding me. It was weird behavior for my husband of three weeks; when Allen was mad at me, he wouldn't shut up about it. Moping and the silent treatment were definitely not his style.

I finally got the chance to confront him in the bathroom one morning, but it was interrupted by him kneeling over the toilet and throwing up. Worried, I brushed his hair back and tied it into a low ponytail so that it would be out of his face. The sudden vomiting freaked me out. The Moyashi sounded really sick.

He glared death at me when the throwing up passed, but I ignored it. "Are you ok, Allen?"

I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but it was immediately smacked away. The Moyashi's voice was filled with danger when he spoke. "Don't touch me."

It confused me how upset he was. "I'm just trying to help."

My hand was once again pushed away. "Oh, you've done quite enough, thank you very much."

The Moyashi's glare immediately faded as he turned back to the toilet and began to vomit again. I knelt beside him and rubbed soothing circles on his back while I waited for him to finish. With that sarcastic comment, everything finally made sense, though the possibility that that was happening again scared me a little. Pregnancy would certainly explain the Moyashi's behavior over the past few days though.

When he was done throwing up, he feebly tried to push me away. His hand on my chest barely made me budge. "Go away."

I couldn't do that. He was clearly miserable, and after almost two years together, I felt the need to comfort him. I also needed to know if he really was carrying another child. I pulled Allen into my arms and he immediately tried to squirm away. I brushed my fingers into his hair in an attempt to soothe him. "Allen... Are you pregnant?"

He didn't respond, instead he leaned over the toilet and puked once more. It was the only answer I needed. His vomiting was definitely morning sickness.

Allen stared up at the ceiling as he sat back on his heels, the expression on his face clearly said that he was trying to keep his anger in check. The tears that fell did not escape my notice. "I found out the other day. That's why I came home from that mission early."

It bothered me that he had known for that long without saying anything. We were married now; he was supposed to come to me with stuff like this. "And is there a reason you hadn't told me yet?"

The Moyashi got up and went to rinse his mouth out at the sink. "Because I haven't decided yet if I'm keeping it."

I was stunned speechless. I had known that Allen's first pregnancy was hard on him and that he didn't want to ever have another child, but I didn't think it was so bad that he would actually consider an abortion. It didn't mesh with what I knew about him; he carried Addie to term and she was conceived during drunk sex back when we hated each other, he should want the child he conceived legitimately.

"Please say something, Yuu."

The words snapped me from my thoughts. The Moyashi was watching me with fear in his eyes. I said the only thing I could think of. "What do you mean when you say that you haven't decided yet?"

Allen sighed and leaned back against the wall with his eyes closed. "Every time I decide that I'm going to abort the baby, Addie does something adorable that convinces me that I can't go through with that. Then I recall how awful my first pregnancy was, and I'm reminded of how much I don't want to do this again, and I talk myself back into having an abortion. It's a vicious cycle."

He slowly opened his left eye and stared levelly at me. "I was waiting to tell you until I had settled on one or the other. I wanted to either be telling you that we were having another child, or that I was getting rid of it, and I wanted to be confident in my decision so that you wouldn't be able to change my mind. And to be honest, I'm more than a little pissed at you. What the hell happened to your promise to never touch me without protection?"

The accusation hurt, but it didn't make me angry. Allen was obviously emotionally messed up and not thinking clearly. Which was why I chose to stay sitting on the floor rather than get up and embrace him. "First of all, I never actually promised that, and second, I have always used a condom when we've slept together. You know that; you would have noticed if I hadn't: it would have felt different."

He frowned at me. The Moyashi didn't like it when I pointed out things that he should have known. "Fine. I'm obviously going to end up doing whatever it is you want me to do, so let's just get this over with. Do you want me to keep the baby or not?"

I frowned at his word choice. "I want you to do whatever will make you happiest. I will support you no matter what you decide. If you decide to keep the baby, I'll be there to help you, and if you decide to have an abortion, I'll be there to comfort you afterwards. But it has to be your decision. I'm not going to make it for you."

He stared at me in silence for a moment before his expression turned into a suspicious glare. "What do you mean 'comfort me afterwards'? Are you implying that I wouldn't be able to handle having an abortion?"

I rose to my feet and walked over to him, stopping just inches in front of his face. "Moyashi. You know as well as I do that you view abortion as murder. It's why you had Addie. Even though she was an accident, you couldn't bear the thought of killing her. If you decide that you can't do the same with this baby and abort it, there's going to be a lot of emotional crap for you to go through afterwards. At some point it will hit you that you killed it because you were being selfish, and that's going to cause you lots of pain."

Allen's glare never faltered and his voice was cold. "So you're telling me to keep the baby."

It really bothered me that he kept acting like he expected me to tell him what to do. I placed my forehead against his and stared into his silver eyes. "No. I'm saying that I think you will regret having an abortion. I want you to do what will make you happiest, and in my opinion, that is keeping the baby. You may be miserable for the next few months if you keep it, but you will hate yourself forever if you abort it. That's why you change your mind when you see Addie. Every time you see the baby you kept, you feel guilty for thinking about getting rid of this one."

The anger that was in his eyes faded the instant I said the word 'regret'. And by the time I was done speaking, Allen had collapsed to the ground and covered his mouth with his hands. He sat like that for a moment and then he looked up at me with tears in his eyes. "Oh god. What did I almost do?"

He wrapped his arms around his waist as he began to cry. "I'm so sorry, Baby."

I watched him mumble apologies to the baby for a moment before I sat beside him and pulled him into a hug. I repeatedly brushed my hand through his hair to soothe him while I waited for him to finish crying. The tears eventually faded to hiccups and he laid his head on my shoulder.

But then Allen suddenly pushed me away and gave me a look. "Wait. You still haven't told me whether or not you actually want the baby."

I sighed as I pulled him back into my arms. "The way I see it, it doesn't matter what I want. I would never expect you to abort the baby because I don't want it, or keep it because I do. However, because I know you won't drop it, I want the baby."

I shifted my hold on the Moyashi, and got to do something I never had the chance to do during his first pregnancy: place my hand on his belly. There was no bump yet, but it still felt amazing knowing that my child was in there. "This little one is going to be every bit as amazing as its sister and mother. I can't wait to meet it."