A.N— Here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoy! :D

Chapter 22: The Liar and the Mistake

Adriana grumpily makes herself a bowl of rainbow sherbet ice cream and sits at the table grumbling to herself some. "Why me?" She mutters and begins on her frozen dessert. "I don't want to be a mother. I never have wanted to be a mother." She looks with a frown at her stomach. 'Though, I guess I don't really have a choice about it now, do I?' She thinks.

She silently finishes her sherbet and then takes her dishes to the sink where she washes and dries them. "I wonder how Pedro will take this..." She says thoughtfully. "I mean, he said it himself that he likes chicks...Maybe he can just keep it and I just go back to Spain..." She then goes silent for a moment. "Though...He or she could be an excellent excuse to get Jabez to flipping leave me alone..." She says as she starts putting the dishes away. "Or, he will just want to kill it and Pedro..." She frowns. Adriana isn't sure of how much she likes that idea. She likes Pedro more than Jabez...But now either way she will have to deal with a despicable and useless creature that she is expected to raise.

Mostly, it's just that she doesn't think that she is ready to be a parent.

Adriana thinks about how her parents had been, she knows that neither were the best examples to parent based on. She hadn't known either of them very long as her mother and father divorced when she was a chick and soon after that she had ran away from her father. She growls a bit as she remembers her father. She had always hated him. She remembers as she waddles to the bedroom about how her father would almost always come home drunk after his work as the General of the Spanish Base. She and her mother had always tried to avoid him during this time as he would attack whomever was closer, which is why her mother finally left. She had lost the custody battle over Adriana, though, forcing her to have to continue living with her abusive father. Adriana tries to shake these thoughts away as she lies down upon the bed. "Maybe this is all just a bad dream that I'll wake up from in a minute..." She sighs. "Just maybe caused by indigestion from Pedro's lasagna..."

Pedro and Bob waddle to the locker room from the auditorium. "But, seriously, I'd be fine with leading a mutiny if you planned it." Pedro grumbles. He is not fond of this Commander Estrada. He seems like even more of a pain than ex-Commander Harold had been, which is saying something because he had hated him, too.

"I'm sure we'll get used to him eventually..." Bob says and shrugs a bit.

"Yeah right..." He grumbles back and opens his locker. "He seems like he's going to be a worse than Harold."

Bob nods in agreement and opens his locker. "Maybe we will be lucky and he will do something stupid to get himself fired soon." He says.

Pedro gets his keys and sighs some. "Hopefully..." He shuts the locker and looks at his friend. "Anyway, before I can go to the bar tonight, I need to go home and check up on Adriana. She wasn't feeling well this morning and I just want to see if she needs something before I go to the bar." He says.

"Alright." Bob replies with an understanding nod. "Tell her I hope she feels better soon." He says with a smaller smile.

'You wouldn't say that if you knew the truth, though...' Pedro thinks, but nods with a small smile. "I will, Bobby. And I guess I'll meet you there in a couple hours?"

Bob nods. "Sure." He says, shutting his own locker. "See you then, Ro." He says and slides from the locker room.

Pedro shortly follows him out and then continues sliding from the base to his house. He waddles inside quietly and goes straight to the bedroom and softly looks at Adriana in the bed, looking like she is sleeping. He silently waddles over and feels of her forehead again. "You can stop doing that, Copper." Adriana says and opens her eyes and looks at him. "I'm not sick."

"But, you must be...You were throwing up..." Pedro says and sits on the edge of the bed as Adriana sits up.

"A woman doesn't necessarily have to be sick to be throwing up, Pedro..." She says and looks at him to see if he catches the hint. He doesn't and just looks at her confused. She sighs and gets out of the bed and waddles to the bathroom and grabs her test and he watches her, still confused and concerned. She waddles back to him and shows it to him. "This make more sense to you, Papá-to-be?" She asks, rolling her eyes.

"P-Papá-to-be?" He stutters with wide eyes and looks at the positive pregnancy test. "Y-You-you're—" He then faints and falls back on the bed.

Adriana looks at him with raised nonexistent eyebrows and pokes him. "Pedro?" She says and pokes him again with a frown. 'What is he? A freaking zarigüeya*?' She thinks greatly unamused at his fainting. She then waddles to the kitchen and fills a cup with water that she brings with her back to the bedroom. She dumps it on his face and he comes to, sputtering.

Pedro coughs and wipes his face before looking wide eyed at Adriana again. "You're embarazada*?" He asks almost silently.

"Apparently." She says shortly and sits back down. "And I hope that you're happy about it, because I, for one, am not." She snorts. Pedro just looks at her for a moment, speechlessly opening and closing his beak as he tries to come up with a response. He then just hugs her. 'Ah yes, as if a hug is just going to fix everything...' She thinks sarcastically but hugs him back.

"I know an apology isn't going to make you any less pregnant...But...I'm sorry, Adriana..." He then says silently. "I know how much you abhor the thought of chicks..."

Adriana snorts a bit. "Well, seems like I'm stuck with one anyway." She mutters and releases him with a look. "Anyway, just go on to the bar or wherever you were going." She says.

Pedro looks at her confused. "How did you know...?"

"Lucky guess." She shrugs. "Just don't come home drunk again, alright?"

"Sure..." He says with a small nod and looks at her. He is still trying to process that Adriana is pregnant with a chick. His chick. He doesn't know what he needs to do. He doesn't know anything about being a father. Pedro already decides that he will ask Bob for advice while they're at the bar, after Bob first tells him more about that Lithuanian position.

Adriana nods and gives him a small kiss on his cheek. "Bueno. Now get your annoying, fainting tail-feathers out of here." She says giving him a small shove. Pedro nods a bit and waddles from the room quietly.

Pedro slides over to the bar that he is meeting Bob at. He stops at the door and straightens a few of his feathers before waddling inside. He sees Bob at their usual spot and waves some to him as he waddles over and takes a seat. "So, how was she?" Bob asks politely as he orders Pedro a drink.

"Much better..." Pedro says with a small, slightly weird smile. "Now, you were saying about that promotion?" He asks, changing the subject.

Bob looks at him curiously at the unusual smile his friend is wearing. He remembers Pedro only using that one when he hasn't been completely honest about something to someone and something related to that just happened. "What's wrong, Ro?" He asks.

"Nada." Pedro says and starts on his drink. "And that Lithuanian thing you were talking about earlier?" He tries again to change the subject.

Bob looks at him obviously not believing him and takes a sip of his drink. He decides to humor him and allow the subject change for now. "Well, I've gotten a letter from Base Q in Lithuania, Europe." He says. "The position is to be a Lieutenant General, which from what I have heard, is mostly just paperwork stuff and the occasional mission now and then." He says.

Pedro nods and has already finished his first drink. He remembers how Adriana has asked him not to come back drunk, and mentally tells himself to slow down and drink slower. He also tells himself to calm down. "Sounds like it'd probably pay you more." He says.

"Yeah, that's why Risette is wanting me to take it." Bob says with a nod but then shrugs. "But it sounds so boring, and I am completely fine with staying a medic here." He says. "Plus, you are here and wouldn't be there. Heck, I might never see you again if I did take the position."

"Nah." Pedro says with a small smile and orders a second drink. "I'd probably still see you around sometime." He says. "I could come visit now and then."

Bob nods some. "That would be nice..." He says and finishes his first drink. "If I was to take that promotion..."

Pedro nods some and recieves his second drink and starts on it. "Say, Bobby?" He says after a moment.

"Yeah, Ro?" He replies, wondering if Pedro now is going to tell him what is wrong and was causing the crazy smile.

"You know the hot girl, Adriana?" Pedro says and Bob nods for him to go on. "Euhm...What...What should I do if I...Ehm...Have gotten her...Pregnant?" He asks silently looking at the table.

Bob looks at him with raised nonexistent eyebrows. "Get her a ring and start planning a wedding before it comes then, I'd say." He says surprised. He can't believe Pedro has managed to get himself into such a situation. Actually, he can, but he likes to pretend that Pedro has more sense than he does.

Pedro silently looks at his drink for a moment. "And if this girl pregnant with my chick also is the criminal La Sombra...?"

"What?!" Bob exclaims and nearly falls from his seat. "I thought La Sombra was a GUY!"

"I thought the same at first...He isn't...He's a she and is pregnant..." Pedro says with a sigh and drinks on his drinks.

Bob just looks at Pedro with a wide open beak. Now he seriously can't believe that he has done something so stupid...And has lied to him. "So...So..." He then frowns and narrows his eyes. "What really happened, Pedro." He kind of growls.

Pedro sighs a bit drinks a little more before looking at Bob. "After I found out that she was a woman...I fell in love with her...I mean, we were cuffed to each other for almost a week. We both nearly got eaten by predators several times. We had lost the key for the cuffs in Spain..." He says, "And well...When we got about a slide away from the base...I shot the cuffs and left her a map back to Spain...I just couldn't bear to turn her in..." He says. "And then well, that night I got drunk over it, I came home to find that she had broken into my house and well...I guess you can guess what else happened that night...I'm sorry, Bobby." He says, shaking his head and looks at the floor.

Bob just looks at him, frowning. "And why did you lie to me?" He ask.

"Why does anyone lie? I got scared, Bob!" Pedro says and looks at him. "I know how you are about criminals! I thought you'd end up telling Harold or Estrada or someone else!"

"You really thought I'd turn you in?" Bob asks, looking at him. "After all we've been through together? You seriously thought I would turn you in over this?! I may not like it, but you know better that that, Pedro!" He says, starting to raise his voice some.

Pedro nods a little and looks at his drink which he finishes. "I know...And I'm really sorry, Bob..."

Bob snorts a bit and sits back down and finishes his drink and orders another drink. "Well, Adriana being a criminal changes things, Pedro." He says and glances at him. "You shouldn't marry her. You should put her in a cell like you should have done in the first place, where she belongs, and then put the egg up for adoption." He says.

Pedro looks at him taken aback. "Adoption?!" He exclaims. "But it's half mine, Bob! Why would I want to give my son or daughter up for someone else to have?! Do you think I'm not responsible enough to raise an egg or something, Bob?" He kind of growls.

'Basically.' Bob thinks but keeps it to himself. "Well, if you don't want to do the adoption, put her in the cell and then take the egg after she has had it and raise it yourself." He shrugs. "I still think the adoption option would be best, Pedro."

"And why the grilled halibut is that, Bob?!" Pedro growls getting up.

"Because that would be the easiest way for you to clean up this mistake of yours!" Bob growls getting up, too.

Pedro looks at him with narrowed eyes. "My mistake huh? That's what you really think?"

"No, I actually think that this is the stupidest thing you have truly ever done, Pedro. I think this is the worst and most regrettable mistake you have ever done." Bob growls. "Put the egg up from adoption if you really want what's best for it." He growls. "You're not ready to be a parent yet. You aren't responsible enough."

Pedro growls and narrows his eyes. "I AM NOT PUTTING OUR CHICK UP FOR ADOPTION, BOB!" He shouts. "And you know what? I'm going to marry her anyway, Bobby." He then grins. "I'm sure that I can keep her from being criminal. I'm going to be responsible. Just you wait, Bob." He says. "And you know what else? You can go to Lithuania for all I care, if my familia* is going to bother you so much!" He then slides out of the bar, leaving his third drink half-finished on the bar.

Bob snorts angrily with crossed flippers. "MAYBE I WILL, PEDRO!" He shouts after him. He then gives angry glances around at the other penguins in the bar looking at him now. "What are you looking at?" He snorts. The other penguins just shrug and go on about their own conversations.

Translations:

*Zarigüeya — opossum

*Embarazada — pregnant

*Familia — family