Happy New Year, my friends!

I'm actually really happy with this chapter because I've covered several aspects. Zim's feelings, Gaz's feelings and a potential reconciliation between Dib and Gaz. I tried to get realistic pertaining to thoughts and emotions. I hoped I portrayed them well.

I hope you guys like this one!

Chapter Eight- Wait For It

Birth on Irk was a marvel of science. Humans would never be able to grasp their filthy heads around it. Zim was born via a mix of genes. Genes from who? He would never know. The genes were inseminated into a test tube, which produced life the way a human woman's womb would. Mock uteruses, givers of life. He never knew the love of a family, and so Zim never knew what love was.

He was learning drips and drabs from the humans. The way a man held a woman, the way a woman smiled up at him. The ways they acted so foolishly when enamored with sex, whether opposite or same. Zim had seen it from both perspectives in humans. He had been studying pheromones when Gaz entered his life.

Sex, love, and the magic surrounding it was fascinating enough for an invader to take a break from seizing control over an entire planet. Madge and Skoodge had their roles and kept to them well. He never envisioned himself attracted to anyone, let alone a human. Zim was always under the assumption that his marvelous genes would be spliced to create human life. He had just been thinking about it far too mechanically and sex itself was simpler than Zim anticipated.

But, to produce life in a way that was so un-Irken was astounding to him. He had no intention of going against the grain of his people. But, now here was the Gaz-Human slumbering beside him with a rounding belly that protected his smeet. The human body was amazing, especially now that it affected Zim. Before, he thought them to be squishy meat bags filled with stupid and loathing. The human female body was worth so much more. Life givers, they were.

He tilted his head, antennae drooping over his shoulder as he leaned over to place his hand upon her swelling belly. Perhaps too soon to feel his son or daughter. He looked down at his hands, slipping off his gloves before placing his bare skin to hers. He didn't do this often for the force emitting from them was far too much to contain. However, Zim held such desire to feel his child. He was astounded at this idea of what the human female's body was capable of.

He swallowed when he felt it, his red eyes glancing over to make sure Gaz hadn't woken from his ministrations. A small swell for now, but it would grow. The smeet communicated with him and he felt his heart swell. Perhaps there were some things more important than domination. All he wanted now was to build a life that would befit his child. Gingerly, he moved his hand along her, stopping and feeling his breath hitch when he felt it.

His child had a heartbeat. Far more developed than he imagined, wondering where and when it began. Such a rapid heartbeat with the promise of strength and growth. Zim lowered his head, still trying to wrap his head around this, resting his forehead where he felt the heartbeat.

"I promise you, smeet. Your father is Zim, and will allow no harm to come to you."

Though she remained still, Gaz peeked an eye open, both listening and watching Zim's actions in the corner of her eye. Initially, Gaz had her own flux of emotions when she discovered that her monthly blood hadn't come, her breasts were tender and a sharp pain implanted itself into her uterus. Blood rushed straight towards that location, and she knew something was amiss. Hiding it from the family, who poked their noses into everything, was no easy task.

But, when she realized that life now inhabited her body, if she were honest with herself, she was uncertain if she was ready for motherhood. Ruining her own life was one thing, but then to care for a child while she was still trying to figure things out was a whole other ordeal. She didn't think being with Zim would have had to take precaution like a normal man. But, if he had the tools for job, anything was possible.

She imagined her mother, struggling, heartbroken, uncertain of what was to become of her and her children. Then again, their mother relied too heavily on a man with no skillset to become anything more than what she was and Gaz refused to face that same fate. Gaz made certain to frequent the Ryder's library as she was a learned woman.

She questioned herself over and over again. Her brother made certain she was in a safe house, but what would happen when the child came? Did she even want the child? If anyone were to have heard her would have called her blasphemous. A child was a gift from God. However, so many of those morons clung to that mentality that children roamed the streets because people who weren't meant to be parents had them. Children were abused because parents didn't know how to cope and more of them roamed hungry because their parents couldn't keep up with the number of mouths to feed.

Gaz had said to herself that she never wanted that for any child she may have brought into the world. And now she was, and she pressed a number of hard inquiries to her brain that she would have to answer. Hearing Zim now, the way he spoke to her belly, she inwardly groaned. He wanted the baby, and she was uncertain if she did. She wondered how much of a terrible person that made her. These times were hard, she didn't want them any harder for her child, who would be born in the throngs of a war.

The next morning, she left Zim's base to head back to the Ryder home. She applied a poker face on as an added accessory to her makeup and bunched up her gowns as she ascended the staircase and rounded to the back where she often entered through the back door. Her heart jumped into her throat when she found Dib and Amelia in the kitchen.

The smell of the bacon was enough to send Gaz heading for a chamber pot. She was better off back at the base with Zim, where it was dark and smelled of metal. Metal she could handle, but not the dead animal that was frying in the pan. Amelia glanced up at her sister-in-law, her wedding band glinting in the sunlight as they came out from hiding in their marital suite. The look of content on her brother's face and the glow on Amelia's told Gaz what they had been up to. Although the content look shriveled as the siblings made eye contact.

"Are you just getting in now?" Dib asked as he raised his coffee cup to his lips. As the bottom of the cup scraped against the china's bottom, Gaz swept her bangs from her eyes. She needed a bath and a change of clothing. She didn't want to discuss anything with him now.

"Gaz?" Dib asked, his face dropping with further concern.

"Can we not do this now, Dib?" Gaz asked, dropping her attitude, asking sincerely. Dib placed the coffee cup down and blinked at his sister.

"Your face is pale. General Membrane was saying how you were sick the night of the wedding. Did you have too much to drink?"

"Yes," Gaz quickly lied. "That's exactly what happened. I had too much wine." The flatness in her tone caused Dib to sigh.

"You'll come to me when you're ready to talk?"

"When are you going back to base?"

"Tomorrow," Dib replied, exchanging glances with Amelia as she transferred the meat and eggs onto a plate as Gaz could no longer handle it and quickly dispersed from the room. Dib immediately stood from the table and gave his wife a look of concern.

"Damn it, kid," Gaz whispered into the chamber pot. "I didn't even eat anything."

Dib moved from the table before Amelia grasped his arm. "Don't push it. Let her settle herself in. Whatever it is, we can't change the past of her actions. We can only do damage control and move forward."

Gaz had made it a point to address herself as no lady. She didn't want to be associated with the puffy dresses that swept by in their petticoats and boned corsets. Gaz had minimal petticoats and refused to wear a corset. Zim was attracted to her because she refused to be those things. She refused to be what everyone else expected her to be. But did that wind up hurting her in the long run?

She ran herself a bath and sank into the warm water, running the washcloth over her skin. She used to be so certain of what she wanted, and now this changed everything. She let the droplets fall over her swell, interrupted by a voice from the other side of the door. Gaz knew this could be only one person.

"Maybe you should listen to your wife and give me my space."

"I did give you your space and you wound up pregnant," Dib didn't even falter at those words. Perhaps marriage had made him grow into less of a nervous wreck. "Gaz let me in."

"Into the bathroom? Where I'm kind of naked?"

"What? No! I mean let me in….talk to me. The whole family is concerned."

"Those people are NOT my family, Dib." He could hear the sloshing of the water in the tub, which meant she was making her way out. That was progress. "Which one of them told you? Let me guess, it's that goody-goody wife of yours?"

"Even if it were Amelia, it was only out of concern. It was Mrs. Ryder." Dib now had a wife to defend, and wasn't going to allow his sister to spit her acerbities at her. "She had suspected it for some time now."

Silence. More ruffling of clothes indicated she was either dressing or was putting a robe on. She opened the door, donned in a thin bathrobe for the winter. Dib's eyes immediately darted down, and where the baby lied. He was speechless, brows knit together before looking at his little sister. He remembered her as a little girl, and now this little girl was having one of her own.

"Gaz…"

"Spare your sympathies, Dib," Gaz pushed past him towards her bedroom, clutching the robe tighter around her.

"Gaz," Dib said her name more sternly. It brought her attention enough to stop walking, water dripping around her feet as she glared at him. Dib could feel the hatred radiate from her and he lowered his defenses. No more, it was time to stop.

"Meet me downstairs after you've dressed. This discussion is not over." This baby was nothing to play around with. It wasn't a puppy, it wasn't a stray animal they released back into the wild after feeding it. This was his future niece or nephew on the line.

Gaz's knuckles turned white from how tightly she had clutched the robe to her. She whipped around toward her bedroom, hearing the footsteps dissolve as Dib descended the staircase and headed into the parlor, which was warmed by the sun from the opened windows.

"Thank you, Ms. Rosie," Dib thanked the servant as she warmed a smile in his direction.

"Mrs. Amelia insisted on bringing lemon tea. Ah….Mr. Dib?" Rosie asked.

"Hm?"

"Are you mad at me for telling on Ms. Gaz?" She bit her bottom lip. "About her being with child?"

"Mrs. Ryder gave herself as a cover. No one is mad at you." Dib shook his head and sat up straight in the plush chair. "That was a really good thing you did, and I appreciate it. Gaz was always good at hiding things from me. I don't know how I didn't see this happen."

"Sometimes we only see what we'd like to see. You wanted to see the best in your little sister."

Dib nodded at that and rubbed his temples. Their bad relationship caused this to occur. A relationship he felt he never bothered to fix. He couldn't blame any of this on Gaz. He was her older brother, it was his responsibility to set things right.

"Are you well, Mr. Dib?"

"Can you excuse us a moment, Ms. Rosie?" He showed the other woman respect, to which she bowed her head and nodded. She left the room, closing the doors behind her as Gaz entered, wearing a frock left behind by Mrs. Ryder. They knew, they just didn't say anything. Sandra had created enough of a scandal in their home, this one wouldn't be any different.

Gaz crossed the room and took a seat across from her brother. She was tired from the number of changes coursing through her body and her inability to keep anything down. She sat in the seat as she straight as she was able, while Dib poured a cup of hot water with some lemon, since the tax of actual tea was so high the product was scarce. It reminded him one of the reasons why he was fighting in this war.

Gaz accepted the cup and eyed her brother.

"Can you tell me who the father is….if you know?" Dib asked her cautiously.

Her eyes widened. "You think of me as some common whore, Dib? That is just splendid."

"I don't know what you're doing when you're sneaking out at night," Dib replied honestly. "Gaz, you don't talk to me. You're leading your own life out there, just like you wanted."

"It's better than listening to you ramble on about crazy bullshit. Ghosts, aliens, El Chupacabra, zombies. C'mon, Dib. They're. Not. Real."

Dib pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gaz, you're purposely neglecting my perspective on this. You like your card games, I like my paranormal and Amelia believes in it, too. There are believers."

"You and your nutcase wife."

"Watch it," he said warningly. Gaz sipped lightly on her hot lemon water, thinking about adding ginger to settle her stomach. Although she and the baby both knew, there was no winning here. Smeet's rule.

"I don't understand why this conversation is necessary," Gaz said after taking a long sip.

"Alright, let's start over. Gaz, I should have had this talk with you a while ago. When I found out the money was raised to send to send us abroad, I worried about you. I worried about the kind of life I could provide for you. I'm not saying you couldn't do it, but it's hard for a woman to handle life on her own. And hey, that goes for anyone. Big brother to little sister here. As trying as you can be sometimes, I care about you. I wanted the best life for you, and if that meant finding you someone who could take better care of you than me, then…I'd have to do it."

"You were trying to pawn me off to someone," Gaz condensed it sharply.

"No," Dib corrected, shaking his head as his scythe followed with his movements. "You're looking at it like dad left us. I wasn't trying to accomplish that, at all."

Gaz looked down at the lemon slice, turning it over with her spoon. Perhaps she was wrong, again. "Maybe I was thinking about dad."

"I refuse to turn into him, you have to believe that. And I know you've got to be thinking about mom now." He leaned forward in his seat. "Just because they were our parents, doesn't mean that we are going to turn into them. When I become a dad, I'm not leaving my child. I'm going to be there for that baby, and my wife. And I'd like to start by being a good uncle to your baby."

Gaz leaned back into her seat. "You mean you're not going to freak out?"

"I did, at first," He admitted. "But, I can't get upset about past actions because of miscommunication between us. I take responsibility for that. You're still my sister, and I'm going to work hard to take care of you and the baby."

"The baby has a father," Gaz said then, causing Dib to straighten.

"Who is the father of the baby, Gaz?"

"ZIM! Come out of that hovel of yours now, and face me!" Dib's fists were clenched, white at the knuckles as one pounded against the hard wood of the warehouse doors. He didn't think he'd visit here again under these pretenses. "YOU! You did this to my little sister!?"

"Dib! Stop this!" Gaz sighed and placed her hands around his arm, attempting to hold down his fist.

"Stand back, Gaz. Someone has to fight on behalf of your honor!" He gently nudged his sister behind him. Her condition was delicate, and therefore, Dib had every intention of the fight coming to physical blows and did not want her in the middle of it. It was enough she had followed him here.

"It's not like we did this knowing this would happen!" She gestured to her middle.

"What did you think was going to happen!?" Dib asked her, astounded. "We've had The Talk before! Unless you've tuned me out?"

Gaz sighed, hearing the double doors of the warehouse creak open. Zim stood there with his fists at his sides, arching a brow. Dib's cheeks reddened by the bitter cold that had settled in, puffs of breath emitted from between his lips as he breathed heavily from anger.

"Dib-stink, I do not have time for this nonsense," Zim said. "Unless you've come to work before we depart back to base, I do not see a reason for you to have come today."

"You impregnated my little sister, you monster. You're going to allow this child to be born out of wedlock?"

He waved his hand towards the other, brushing the works away like the dust in the air. "Wedlock, shmedlock. Zim knows not of this wedlock. But Zim also needs not to explain his intentions with you."

Dib had no idea how it was possible for an alien to copulate with a human woman and produce a hybrid specimen. No matter how Dib looked at it now, that hybrid child was his future niece or nephew. Of all the beings for Gaz to share herself with, it had to be with the alien. Was it to spite him before they had made such progress that afternoon? All Dib knew now was that he had to make a point on behalf of his family.

He was little aware of what thoughts were actually flowing through his mind. Dib lunged at Zim, knocking the other back between the ajar doors and rolled the two between the aisles of workbenches and tables. Zim was supposed to have been his fellow soldier in arms. He was uncertain of whether or not they could have called one another friends, as Zim was often volatile towards him. Moreover, no matter how Dib held back from spitting back at Zim, he couldn't contain himself now that he had touched his little sister.

"Stop this!" Gaz shouted, although her cries were ignored. "Knock it off!"

Zim rolled on top of Dib and struck him once, twice, and was blocked upon the third blow by Dib extending his arm and raising his knee into the others abdomen.

"How about that squeedlyspooch, spaceman!?"

Zim growled. To Dib, it was of no normal growl. Developed deep within the throat, almost animalistic; Zim pinned Dib down, an antennae poking out from beneath his wig.

"Listen here, human. I will destroy you. I will rip you apart limb by limb, and I will savor every moment as I do." He jerked Dib back onto the ground, slamming the back of his head into the floor.

Glasses broken in the right lens, his left eye opened as he stared hard at Zim. The other's weight had pinned him down, hips driving further to make sure he stayed down. Beneath his gloves, if Dib didn't know any better, would have assumed they were claws. Three prongs digging beneath his clothes and into his flesh. He yelped out in pain, underestimating the others strength. Upon physical appearance, Dib wouldn't have known how strong he was. This was no monster strength; this was of another species altogether.

"You are lucky you are related to my mate. She is the only thing right now keeping you alive. I give you warning, Dib, and let this warning linger. Come near me again, you will suffer. You will suffer more than any human will suffer when I take over this pathetic planet." He struck Dib against the pavement again, his own lens popping off, the wig sliding off and landed beside the two. Dib had all of the confirmation he needed, and Gaz knew all along. She was protecting him.

"Zim, stop this." Gaz's voice had simmered, almost pleading. "Don't."

Zim began to rise from the floor, brushing his clothing off and reaching down to pick up the broken lens. He would have to find a suitable spare. "Fear not, Mother of my Smeet. I shall not risk my child, nor you. I shall release the Dib beast. Take him home and return to me tonight." He left her with his order.

"Zim, y-you won't get away with this." Zim's foot pressed into Dib, hearing the other outwardly groan in pain. The more he thought about that statement, he glanced over his shoulder to Gaz, who was holding her belly protectively. Zim released his foot off of Dib, the other coughing for air, feeling the break in his ribs.

"I believe I already have, Dib. And it's as you say just you wait. I have only just begun."