Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Dedicated to Lonelygirl703 once more.

Chapter 74

Valkyrie cried almost hysterically in Wolf's arms in their office as he rocked her gently and stroked her hair. He muttered that it'd be alright, but all she could think was that Nadia was sick and she didn't know why, and that she missed her so, so much, and she loved her even more, and couldn't decide if she should go see her since she didn't have a phone or if she didn't want to see Valkyrie regardless of not having a phone.

It felt like one big punishment for something she barely even understood.

Corrival decided to join them and slammed the door shut behind himself. "What's this?" He growled loudly. "Which one of you lousy dick-bags made her cry?"

Valkyrie laughed a little through her tears and looked at him, sitting herself up. "It's not them," she told him, wiping her face roughly. "Nadia's father visited me to pretend to apologise and told me Nadia's sick."

He glared at her. "Well, none of this crying business in here, understand me? Either you go to Nadia and cry, or you suck it up and move on. Understand me? Good. Now, Skulduggery, what lead do you have?"

Valkyrie moved carefully onto her own chair and gave Wolf a grateful smile when he put an arm over her shoulders still. She'd be strong, which was what Corrival was trying to say. Nadia had to make the choice herself. If Valkyrie went to her, Nadia may never come to Valkyrie to apologise and work through their problems and Valkyrie didn't want to be the only one trying. Even if it did make her physically sick to think she might never come to her.

"I had a call from a woman in Roarhaven about a Russian man in a mask. He goes into a bar in the village several times a day and drives away in a black van. I believe he's Tesseract and whoever he keeps visiting is either a prisoner or his employer."

"Why'd he keep visiting an employer?" Weasel asked.

"My thoughts exactly. Someone hiring a professional killer like Tesseract wouldn't have him visit so often. I think he has a prisoner there, and if we go when Tesseract is gone we can break them out," Crow said. "When Tesseract realises what's happened, he'll try and kill us or flee, either way, we need to be ready to catch him."

"Agreed," Corrival said. "A killer like him needs to be held accountable. If we can catch his employer out at the same time, all the better."

"That's the hope. I want to have us spread around Roarhaven, and we'll watch for a time he's just left. He comes every few hours, so we must time it like that. Everybody needs to eat and prepare."

They nodded and Corrival gave his luck. He left after giving Valkyrie a pat on the shoulder.

"Cub," Wolf said quietly as they left to get some fast food. "Do you want to do this? You can go home and stay with Tanith if you want?"

"I want to," she said resolutely. They got to the stairs and she saw Mr Vinay pacing by the door and looking at his watch and felt herself stiffen.

"I think you need to take the day," Weasel said kindly, putting an arm around her. "We can go out the back."

Valkyrie nodded as a few tears leaked down her cheeks silently. "Okay."

They drove her home and let her in without a fuss from her as her mind was stuck on Nadia and didn't even consider Tesseract or anything else. Panda left with them to fight, and Valkyrie was left in Tanith's arms as they both cried.

It must have taken at least ten minutes before they calmed down.

"Why are you crying?" Tanith asked her.

"Mr Vinay came to see me and made me cry," Valkyrie sniffed. "Why are you crying?"

Tanith began crying again and fell into Valkyrie. Valkyrie held her sister tightly, knowing whatever it was couldn't be good. They stayed on the sofa and Tanith cried almost to sleep before she pulled herself together and announced she needed to wash her face. They both went to their bathroom upstairs and used the Jack and Jill sinks to wash their faces.

"Come on," Valkyrie told her resolutely and took them to Tanith's room. She sat them on the middle of the bed cross-legged and held her hand. "You need to tell me, or someone else, what is going on. I don't care who, but someone has to be there to help you."

"I don't need help," she said quietly, holding her stomach.

"You look like you need someone to talk to at least," Valkyrie said slowly, tucking a piece of hair behind Tanith's ear. "I won't say a thing if you want. I just want you to be okay."

Tanith smiled. "See, if we had never met or become sisters, I'd have wanted to date you so badly. You're super cute. Is that weird?"

Valkyrie grinned. "I am pretty awesome. But that didn't answer what I asked."

Tanith lost her smile and squeezed Valkyrie's hand. "You might want to prepare for it."

Valkyrie nodded and held her breath.

"I'm pregnant."

"Shit," Valkyrie breathed out with wide eyes. "Like, you're having a baby, pregnant?"

Tanith smiled tightly. "That's the only pregnant I know about."

"Oh my God," Valkyrie said. "Who have you told?"

"Just you. Civet knows but hasn't told anyone, obviously. Because it's a doctor thing and everything. But I haven't told Ghastly or my brother or anyone else," Tanith told her. "I was trying to tell Ghastly all morning, but I just couldn't do it. I've taken six pregnancy tests, Val, and Civet did a blood test, and all of them are positive and I still barely believe it."

"God," Valkyrie breathed, rubbing her eyes. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm keeping it," Tanith said slowly. "At least, I'm ninety-eight percent sure of that. But I don't know about anything past that. Me and Ghastly have been great and all but we still barely just got together. A few months is nothing compared to a lifetime commitment and a baby!"

"I don't even know what to say. Do I say congratulations or sorry?"

Tanith shrugged. "I'm not sorry I'm pregnant. I'm just sorry I got pregnant now. If this was four, five years down the line after dating Ghastly I would be all excited and would have said it to him first and would have jumped on telling you as quick as possible. It's just that it's so soon and I don't know where I'm going or if Ghastly will want a baby, or who I'll have helping me. I don't know if I want to live with Ghastly or see him if he doesn't want to help with our baby. God, just calling it that is so strange."

"It's weirder to hear, I promise. Is it bad that I'm kind of excited?"

"It's not bad. If I wasn't stressed about Ghastly and all the shit I've been through before finding out, I'd be excited too."

"Oh God, yeah! All the fighting and training and everything," Valkyrie said.

"It will probably be nothing, but there's a chance I'll miscarry," she said quietly. "Civet said it was unlikely since it all happened and there hasn't been one yet, but it's why I can't so much as lift a box now. It's why I've been so sick. The pregnancy itself isn't the issue, it's my body straining too much to do all the work and have a baby."

"Damn," Valkyrie whispered with wide eyes. It was so weird to think of her sister as now a vulnerable person because of a pregnancy. She was never vulnerable. "You know you can stay here, right? This is my house and you're my sister. Ghastly can leave if he has a problem. And you know, I think I have all my old nursery stuff here too, so you don't have to buy a ton. And I have a house in France if you'd rather get away."

Tanith smiled. "I don't think we need to think that far ahead just yet. Ghastly might prefer for us to move into his shop."

"His shop has a one bedroom apartment above it and you're having a baby, what's he going to do with the kid?" Valkyrie said, rolling her eyes. "Either he's getting a new place, you're both staying here, or it's France."

"Or living with my parents," Tanith groaned. "I am not moving in with them. Not a chance."

"You can stay here, it's fine. There's a room at the back of the house with massive windows that are joined to two other rooms, it's meant for parents and kids or a massive office or something. You can have a playroom and a bedroom and a babies room, all close together but still not falling over the other idiots that could wake the baby up."

"That's not an awful idea. And I'd give me and Ghastly space since we're still a new couple and all," Tanith said in slow consideration. "I don't want to move too quickly just because of the baby. I'd rather sleep separate and us not be fully together for the first few years of its life than be too quick and break up."

"That's true," Valkyrie nodded. "Come on, I'll show you. Since it might need changing, I can't remember how outdated it is."

They took the long way to the rooms – Valkyrie knew the way through the walls from when she was little and those rooms had been a massive playroom for her – and Valkyrie opened the one door into the three rooms.

It had dark yellow walls and dark oak floors that were deeply scratched, and there were no curtains for the massive wall to ceiling windows, the same as in Valkyrie's room on the other side of the house. It was a gigantic room, especially as a bedroom, and it had open archways on the left and right into identical little rooms. There was built in storage next to each arch, leaving a short hallway into each room which made it difficult to make a door, Valkyrie imagined, but not impossible. Opening the built-in storage doors, Valkyrie found boxes and boxes of her mother's things.

"This was my Mums," she said quietly, grabbing a box and pulling it down. "It's got all my old stuff in."

Mostly it was old clothes of every age Valkyrie had been at whilst her mother was alive, alongside a million and one pictures of each age. Valkyrie didn't actually feel a massive attachment to it as most of it was just her by herself, but there was one box that had been gone through likely by Gordon that had everything of herself and her parents up until the age of two. She decided she'd keep that but the others were kind of boring.

"Why did Gordon and your mum keep so many clothes?" Tanith asked.

"I have no idea. I didn't know they'd kept it. I'll go through it later, but look," she said, pointing in the cupboards, "they're wardrobes. So you'd have lots of space in here."

"True," she said, shutting the doors. "There isn't a bathroom, is there?"

"Don't think so, but there's one across the hall. But I already know that needs a serious makeover."

They went into the rooms on the left and right and she could see Tanith's eyes brightening as she considered her life in those rooms. She started talking about furniture, and adding a small vanity into the bedroom to make it easier to handle a young child, and which room would be the child's, and even made a small comment about siblings. She stopped using the term 'it' and started talking about 'my baby' instead.

With a potential future in her mind, she seemed to see exactly what would happen and how she wanted it.

"Now you just have to tell Ghastly," Valkyrie grinned.

"Yes," she smiled. "I think I'll do that tonight." She bit her lip suddenly. "Do you want to be there when I do it?"

"And see his face? Yes please!"

.*****.

They chatted and spent the afternoon talking about Valkyrie's new Dragon Diamond and the baby, looking online and in the loft for some of the baby furniture. They, or rather Valkyrie, brought it all down from the loft and they were quite confused as to why there were quite so many sets of nursery furniture up there, but chose the nicest nonetheless.

Tanith wanted to paint them, but they were still so pretty, with intricately woven pieces of wood and carvings on the cot, and it also had a matching bedside bassinet for when the baby was very little. There was a changing table and wardrobe and chest of draws, as well as a rocking chair and a box for the toys. It was a lot of furniture, especially to paint, but it was all Tanith needed and they brought it downstairs to the garage to deal with.

They decided to let the boys do that as their contribution to their nephew or niece.

Those boys got back mostly unharmed that evening to the dinner the girls had made.

"This looks great," Panda told Tanith softly as he walked past, giving her a peck on the lips. Tanith gave her a thumbs up and they all had a hearty dinner. When it got to after desserts, Tanith made her announcement.

"I need to talk to Ghastly with Valkyrie for a few minutes, and then I think we all need to talk," she said quickly, standing up. Valkyrie noticed she was holding in her stomach ever so slightly even though she was only two months along and didn't have a bump yet.

Panda looked confused but Valkyrie avoided his eye and did her best not to grin until she'd left the room. They went to a seating area away from the boys snooping and sat down, Valkyrie next to Tanith and Ghastly opposite them.

"What's this about?" Panda asked Tanith slowly.

"I'd say it's nothing serious, but it is," Tanith said slowly, her confidence seeming to dwindle. Valkyrie squeezed her hand and she sat up straighter. "I have something very important to tell you Ghastly. I need you to listen."

He nodded. "I am."

"Good. You see, I – I'm pregnant."

He stared at her without moving for a good, long few seconds. "Pregnant?"

"Yes."

"With a baby?"

"That's what pregnant means."

"With me?"

"Yes."

He suddenly went very pale and started swaying.

"Don't you dare faint," Valkyrie told him and he looked at her and took a deep breath, leaning back into the sofa and held his hands over his face.

They let him think it over for over a minute and looked at each other slowly. He could be stubborn, and they'd gone over every scenario, including not wanting to talk about it, but it was harder when they were waiting.

"I'm not getting rid of the baby," Tanith said suddenly to her knees. Panda dropped his hands and looked at her though she didn't see. "I'm having it and I'm staying here. I don't have another home and Valkyrie is my sister. I'm going to need her help."

"You don't want to move in with your parents?" Panda asked her.

"I'm not leaving the country so you can forget about me," Tanith snarled.

"That's not what I meant!" He said quickly, sitting up. "I just thought – it's your family, I thought you'd want to be with them."

"This is my family," Tanith said, squeezing Valkyrie's hand. "My parents don't want me living with them, or a newborn. I'm barely two months along, so we have time to sort ourselves, but I've already made my decision. I'm not leaving this country or the baby, and I'm definitely not leaving my home just because you're unhappy. Please don't make this more difficult than it's already been."

"How long have you known?"

"Only since I was discharged."

"That was six days ago," he said quietly. "You could have said something."

"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do then," she said fiercely. "I do now, and it's take it or leave it."

"I'm not going anywhere," he growled back. "And I'm not going to stop loving you because you're pregnant."

Tanith went red, and after a moment Panda went red too. Valkyrie just smiled.

"We'll work this out," Panda said slowly, looking at her hopefully.

"That's what I want." Tanith smiled tentatively. "And we have to tell the others too."

Panda groaned. Valkyrie grinned more broadly. This was so exciting!

They went to the dining room where the others were bickering about what it could be but went silent when they came in. Tanith and Panda were holding hands and Valkyrie sat down to give them their moment.

"Right," Panda said, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "Don't have a fit." He said and glared at them all slowly. "Me and Tanith are expecting a baby."

Oh my god oh my god oh my god! It's so exciting! Who honestly expected that? Honestly? Eeeeee I'm so excited :D