Diego POV

01/24 8:00 AM

I looked at all my siblings, gathered up in the den, Allison and Luther sitting side by side. She held a hand over her stomach, which had grown since the last time I saw her.

'So, Diego, what did you bring us all here for?', Five questioned, kicking back in his chair with an arm around Dolores, sipping a cup of black coffee with his free hand. She nestled into his arm, and drank a cup of coffee as well. A pink painted mug, made by Annie presumably, with a scribbly painted heart and a label reading 'I love aunt Dory'.

'Yeah, what's the meeting for?', Luther questioned, too quick to become tense. As always. Dad should've left him on the moon. Tense, up tight, annoying little ape-man.

'I have to warn you, I-'

'Warn us of what? And where have you been, anyway?', Klaus interrupted me. 'You know, when you go shopping in Walmart with someone, and they go off to the bathroom, it's only common sense to expect them to come back. I had to find the gender reveal supplies all by my lonesome self.'

'Yeah and we all know how that turned out.', Vanya said, laughing lightly.

'Epic blowout?', I asked.

'Green cake.'

'Ahhh, priceless.'

'Let the man talk. What do you need to warn us about, Diego?', Five said, hushing the commotion as he took another sip out of his coffee calmly. 'But first, why were you with Lila?'

'That's a really long story that I honestly don't know surely for myself.'

'Fair.', Five nodded.

'Diego, this is making me nervous. What's going on?', Allison asked, her other hand now gravitating to her stomach as well and resting atop the other one. Geez. Don't know if I even have the heart to tell her what Lila's planning.

'I needed to tell you that…'

'Yeah?'

I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell her Lila planned on brutally murdering her babies. That would send her into a panic, and that could harm them before they're even born. I switched the route my sentence was taking as I thought about her.

'I needed to warn you all that Lila has been placed as the new handler, and that she doesn't exactly have warm fuzzy feelings for us right now.', I said, evading having to tell them the hard things. Cowardice? No. Protection. I could keep them safe, and they wouldn't even have to know they were in danger in the first place.

'You mean that one chic who nearly suffocated me? Her?', Allison questioned, her eyes growing wide.

'Yeah, that's the one.'

'She's in charge of the timelines now. And all the assassins.', Allison said, standing up, growing visibly nervous. 'No no no, that's not good, it's not safe, she'll come back and get us all.'

Luther stood up, rubbing her back, trying to get her to calm down. 'It's okay, Allison. Don't work yourself up. Lila won't hurt you again.'

Ouch. Like a knife in the neck, but right in the conscience.

Five shook his head, but then shrugged. 'I knew it would happen. The woman would have never left the position to someone who she couldn't make sure would run the place just like her.'

'Yeah. Just thought you should all be aware of that.'

'Thanks, Diego.', Klaus said. 'But honestly I'm not really even that concerned by that. Nothing super-duper scary about her. She does have fabulous eyeliner, however. Wish I could've asked her what her technique is.'

Everyone else stared at Klaus, speechless for a moment.

'I'm just saying.', Klaus said, shrugging, and then he went back to helping Annie paint her face in zebra stripes. 'Fabulous little zebra you are, diva cup.', he said to her as he ran a paintbrush along her eyebrow.

'Was that all you needed to say?', Dolores asked, smiling at me.

No.

'Yep, that's all.', I answered her, giving a small corner smile. 'I'm gonna' go and rest. Been gone for a while.'

More like let my conscience take a rest. This was brutal. And I walked off, without another word, into my room and away from my endangered family.

Dolores POV

1/31 12:00 AM

Frick.

I sat in the bathroom, the whole house quiet, staring down into the toilet.

Four entire weeks late, and nausea reigned.

No. No, no, no, no, no.

This wasn't happening. Not now. Not after-

The fear flooded through me like a tidal wave. Was it even his, after what happened with the king?

My eyes stung with tears as I sat in the floor, knees crunched up to my face, head between them. Five and the others were all asleep, and I'd gotten up with the nausea, wide awake now.

No.

I let my head fall back on the bathroom wall as a hot tear fell down my cheek.

I'm too young. Nineteen is too young. Too newly married. I don't even want babies.

A knock came at the door, causing me to wipe the tears away quickly and try to make my face look presentable.

'Dory?', I heard a whisper from the outside. 'Dory are you in there?'

'Who is it?', I whispered back, my voice still unsteady from having cried. The pit was still in my throat, burning and twisting.

'It's Klaus, are you naked?', he whispered, causing me to laugh a little.

'No, I'm not naked.', I whispered back, laughing slightly, wiping another tear.

'Oh, great, can I come in?', he asked.

I opened the door up, cracking it and eyeing him.

'You know you can.'

He came in, dressed in a robe, and looked at me.

'Hey, hey! Are you crying?', he asked in a low tone, his face growing worried.

'Just a little bit.', I answered him.

He sat down next to me, his fuzzy socks soft against the tile floor of the bathroom. He looked at me, and frowned.

'What's wrong, lighter fluid?'

'Is that my nickname now?'

'Yeah, I thought it was fitting.'

'Ok. Sounds good.'

'So….. so why are you in here? All alone? At midnight?', he questioned, his voice hushed, as he stared back at me.

'Klaus.'

'Yeah Dory?'

'I think….. I think I'm pregnant, and I'm not sure if it's Five's.', I said, and I wiped another tear. Klaus' face dropped into a confused look, and he nodded slowly.

'Dory I…. did you cheat on Five?'

'No, no, I would never! Not at all.', I said, reassuring him, placing a hand on his tattooed forearm.

'I knew you wouldn't have.'

I took in a hitched breath and let it out shakily.

'I was raped, Klaus.'

His eyes closed, and his face drooped and turned downwards to the floor. He took a tight breath in.

'I'm sorry, Dory.', he said, wrapping his arms around me. I started crying harder now, laying my head on his chest, bundled up in the fluffy robed arms of my brother. 'Do you know the man?'

'King Henry the eighth of England.', I answered him.

Klaus' head turned and he popped it up quickly, looking down at me like I was insane.

'Should I even ask?'

'I'd rather you not, to be honest.'

'Yeah. Crap happens when you're married to a time traveler, I guess.'

We both laughed just a little bit, a little sliver of joy in such a morbid moment.

'Well, there's an upside in this situation, Dory.'

'What's that?'

'In that worst case scenario that it doesn't turn out to be Five's, your kid will be royalty.', he explained, fiddling with the tie on his robe.

We both giggled quietly just a bit.

'That's true I guess.'

I sighed.

'I'm too young for this, Klaus.'

He patted me lightly on the head.

'You can handle it. If you can handle Five, you can handle anything.', he said, making me laugh pretty hard.

'I mean, honestly though! He scares me sometimes!', Klaus said, through hushed laughter.

I was smiling through my tears. 'He can be pretty intense sometimes.'

Klaus sighed, mimicking me.

'Have you told him yet?'

My heart picked up somewhat.

'No, I haven't.', I said, looking at him. Another tear formed in my eye, and it fell. 'I just now realized. And I'm scared to.'

'Piece of advice?'

'Shoot.'

'Never be afraid to tackle anything between you and the one you love.'

'Wow Klaus, that's actually really deep.', I said, touched.

He smiled. 'Yeah, have I ever told you the fable of the frog and the scorpion?'

'Allison told me about it. Very touching.'

He laughed. I laughed. We sat there smiling.

'I came up with that one night when I was high as a kite on marijuana brownies. Wrote it down, found it the next morning, and was like 'hey, I should use this!'

'Marijuana brownies? Are those good?', I asked. I'd never even heard of that, somehow.

'Oh, they're incredible, Dory.', he answered, nodding.

We sat there for a minute, nodding.

'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?', I said, turning my head.

'Are you thinking about how hippos have really paintable toenails?'

'No Klaus.'

'Then no.'

'I was thinking that we should go and make some of those.'

Klaus raised an eyebrow.

'I'm sober, and you're pregnant, chickabiddy.'

'Oh, shoot, yeah I forgot. Wanna' just make regular brownies then?'

He hopped up from the floor, and reached his hand out for me chivalrously.

'Heck yes I do.'

And we walked out the door, sneaking down the stairs to the kitchen, sharing this sibling moment.

'I call licking the bowl!', he said.

'Nah, we're going to have to play rock paper scissors for that privilege, bud.'

'You're on.'