No particular warnings other than swearing for this chapter, mostly focused on fluff, romance and pregnancy talk.
Thank you so much to everyone who continues to read and support, I appreciate it so much!

Miguel helped me pack my apartment. I stuffed what I could fit in my old backpack. Some clothes, my journal, my mp3 player - honestly I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the rest.

"Do you want to keep anything?" Miguel called from the little corner of my apartment which was "supposed" to be a kitchen. He had a trash bag and the refrigerator open.

"No, I'm good."

I sat on my bed, picking at my Spider Suit that I was still wearing. It was still dirty and stained with blood from my encounter with Rhino months before. I stuffed my Spider hood into my bag, being sure not to forget it.

"What am I going to tell my landlord?" I asked Miguel.

"I'll take care of it." He replied, shoveling food into the garbage bag.

I put my backpack on, tightening it up by my shoulders. There was so little I cared about with possessions in this world, everything important to me fit in just one bag. My stomach was growling thinking about the food that was being thrown away, I was craving some weird shit but was too emotionally drained then to even consider my appetite.

"Actually, hold that thought on the food," I interjected, walking over to where he was.

There was a jar of pickles on the counter, and I saw some mustard in the door of the refrigerator. I reached past him to grab it, and went to work opening the pickles, taking one out, and squirting mustard on it. I took a bite, savoring it like it was some type of fine cuisine. I could feel Miguel's eyes on me, stunned and probably mildly disgusted.

"That's a… choice." He commented, putting his attention back on cleaning out the fridge.

"Don't judge me, this is part of the process. My appetite has always been strange, but it's been extra weird lately." I replied, my mouth full. "You have no idea how amazing this tastes right now."

"Well, when you move in with me I'll cook you some real food."

I stopped chewing, and gaped down at him kneeling in front of my fridge. The hell did he mean "move in with him"? I was moving to Nueva York during the pregnancy, and we were still ironing out the logistics, but I didn't know I'd be staying with him personally.

"I'm going to be living with you?" I asked, astounded.

He didn't look directly at me, still focusing on cleaning the fridge as he spoke: "Yes, I think it would be best while we figure out what's going on. I'm not going to let you go through this on your own."

I was touched, although part of me knew it was the least he could do for knocking me up, but it was still good to hear him say it.

"Damn, we're really doing everything backwards, aren't we? People usually fall in love then either get married or move in together, then have kids." I laughed lightheartedly, taking another bite from my pickle.

Miguel seemed flustered and didn't reply, so I changed the subject.

"So, you can cook, huh?"

"Yes, my abuela taught me. There were days where I had to cook for my brother Gabriel so he wouldn't go hungry."

Miguel had mentioned his brother a couple times to me before, but I didn't know much about him.

"Where is your brother?" I asked in between chewing.

Miguel's eyes flickered downward, the mask slipped for a moment revealing sorrow and regret.

"He's alive, but we're not on speaking terms at the moment. My daughter is named after him, I guess that was my way of trying to show redemption. I betrayed him in more ways than one." Miguel continued, throwing away an old bottle of salad dressing.

"How?"

He seemed hesitant to tell me at first: "He was engaged to this woman, Dana. We… had an affair."

"You stole your brother's fiancé? That's cold…" I gasped.

"It's worse than that, we actually got engaged, but it didn't really work out for a few reasons. I had a girlfriend myself, Xina, who actually helped me with programming Lyla, and was a big inspiration on how she acts and how she looks today." He admitted.

"So Lyla looks like your ex?!" I wanted to throw my pickle at him.

"No, she's modeled after the tattoo that Xina had on her stomach..."

"Wow… because that's so much better. That does not make me feel that great…" I deadpanned.

Jealous and insecure is what I wanted to say, is that why he always had that damn AI around?

"I'm sorry, I was a different person back then. I wanted to tell you now before you found out later. I was reckless in my younger years, and I did a lot of things I regret and am ashamed of. I thought finding a universe where I hadn't made the same mistakes and was settled down would fix everything, but it didn't."

Suddenly I had lost my appetite, now I just wanted to throw up. I think he saw how my mood changed and stopped what he was doing to go over to where I was standing by the counter.

"I didn't mean to upset you, I just thought being honest was best." He placed his hand on my shoulder.

There's honesty and then there's brutal honesty. Damn, Miguel, you could've eased me into some of those details a little easier. Knowing I got pregnant by a man who was a serial cheater and a player in the past didn't help me feel that confident right now. Maybe I should've known, a man that attractive was bound to have a lot of people swooning over him, but being that messy was a choice.

"So that's what you meant before by relationships not working out?" I questioned.

He nodded: "Yes, and they didn't work out because of me. I was immature, had a lot of growing up to do." He glanced around the apartment. "Now let's finish up here so I can get you to get checked out by the doctors back home."

I threw my half eaten jar of pickles and mustard into the garbage bag.

"Sure." I said with a shrug.

I know the medical staff at Nueva York were not happy to see me again when I waltzed back through their door. Honestly, it was the last place I wanted to be, too. Miguel was a nervous wreck, barking orders at them, getting testing arranged; this poor crew needed a break. I went with the flow, sitting where they wanted me to sit, letting them weigh me, take my temperature, do blood work - all that medical stuff. Miguel had told me he was worried not only about the health of the fetus, but potentially how it could look. His DNA was fifty percent spider, and I had some spider DNA intertwined with mine as well when I got bit. Now I was scared I would give birth to an actual spider.

Thanks, Miguel, you always know how to keep me calm. Now I've got the image in my head of giving birth to some splice/alien/human/spider hybrid thing, or it breaking out of my womb like in those creepy mouth hugging creatures in those Alien movies.

I was about to get an ultrasound so it could be determined how far along I actually was, and if everything was going well. Even in the future that jelly stuff they use for ultrasounds is ice cold, a sound of discomfort resonated from my throat when the technician put it on.

"Try to relax," the technician cooed, attempting to calm me down.

I wasn't calm, I was the complete opposite. The blood pressure monitor for me was displaying my anxiety to the world with the consistent beeping. Miguel sat beside me, his leg thumping restlessly, his hands drawn up to his chin. His watch kept pinging, he told Lyla to shut up a couple times while we were in the medical center. I felt the pressure as the transducer pushed into my stomach. The monitor by us lit up with a black and white image. I thought in the future this would be more state-of-the-art, but I was told this was the least invasive way to perform the procedure.

"There's the head," the technician pointed out.

I didn't want to look, but I saw Miguel study the monitor. He seemed intrigued and relieved at the same time. It was like his eyes both lit up and softened all at once, and I swear my heart skipped a beat from observing him. Seeing his reaction made me brave enough to look at the monitor for myself. Now I'm not very familiar with how fetuses are supposed to look, but it seemed pretty normal to me. The technician didn't alert us to anything bad, and as far as I know all my blood work came back normal.

"Little twitchy, sea monkey." I said aloud.

Miguel chuckled, one of his hands still in front of his lips. The way he was leaning forward toward the monitor, unable to suppress his smile… goddam I was in love.

"Looks like you're about thirteen weeks and four days, according to this and your last menstrual cycle. Everything appears normal so far. Very strong heartbeat." The technician described to us, moving the transducer around. "Still a few weeks too soon to determine the gender."

"Not sure if I really want to know, to be honest." I replied with a shrug. "I just want to know that it's healthy."

"I'll print out the sonogram for you. The doctor will recommend making appointments every four weeks to monitor your health and development."

"We've got it covered," Miguel answered.

"I'll leave you both to have some privacy." The technician dismissed himself.

After a couple minutes of trying to process everything, I looked over at Miguel. He seemed so deep in thought that he physically lost himself. I scooted over in the hospital bed, inviting him to lay down next to me. He hesitated at first but obliged. His larger body was half hanging off, but I liked having him next to me.

"So, we're really doing this?" I asked him, my hands placed over my stomach.

"Only if you're comfortable."

I stared up at the ceiling, pondering what I was going to say. This was not just a big decision, it was a decision that would change the course of both of our lives. The biggest decision I could ever make, honestly. I thought about the joy that flashed over his face for a second when he was looking at the monitor, how this warm feeling bloomed in my chest at the sight of him happy.

"You looked… so excited during the ultrasound. I think we have the potential to really be good at this, but some things need to change."

"Mm." Miguel hummed in response, also staring up at the ceiling.

"Like, not being an asshole would be a pretty solid start."

"That's a good answer." Miguel pinched the bridge of his nose, as he often did when faced with something difficult.

"You have to be there, more than you have been. Like we need to decide where the child can stay, I guess which universe? Not sure how that works. And I need to be included, like staying here, I mean. Whatever fears and issues you have from growing up or from the past, you need to work on those in therapy or something."

Maybe I was being too bold, but now is as good a time as any to spill my guts out.

"You're right, and I know."

"Like, any mommy or daddy issues, got to work on those now. Got to attempt to heal in order to be a better parent."

He glanced over at me. "Is it that obvious that I have both mom and dad issues?"

I scoffed, "Dude…"

"Okay, fair enough." A ghost of a smile twinged on the corner of his lips.

He moved his free hand over toward my stomach, I lifted my hands to make room for him. He looked there, and then at my face. With how deeply he was gazing at me, it was almost hard to hold eye contact in return. I was literally pregnant because of this man, and yet here he was still making me feel bashful even still.

"I'm sorry this is what it took for you to come back here, I was being overly cautious to the point of being insensitive. I really do care about you, I mean that. I know it was juvenile how I handled the situation, and irresponsible with… all this." He patted my stomach, gesturing about the pregnancy. "I'll make sure you're taken care of, you won't have to worry about me being there, I'll be present for both of you, I promise."

"Miguel?"

"Hmm?"

"You're such a sap."

He couldn't hold in his laughter this time around. I joined in, unable to contain it myself. Was I laughing because I'm just that funny, or a mixture of so many emotions were making me slowly lose my mind? Who knows, probably both. Miguel's laugh was like music to my ears. Him not brooding and looking genuinely happy for once was so attractive and calming. I felt completely at peace for the first time in months, don't get me wrong I was still scared as hell at the thought of going through a full term pregnancy and being a parent, but at this moment it felt like everything was going to be okay.

"I'm still mad at you, you know." I interjected, when the laughter died down.

"I know, and you have every right to be." He agreed.

His free hand ventured up to my face, stroking the side of my cheek with his thumb. Jesus, why does he do these things to me?

"I think Lyla was right." He said with a sigh.

"About what?" I questioned.

"About me, and how putting off what I always wanted in my own universe; it was pointless." He admitted. "I was so focused on going out and finding a universe where I could be happy with a family to restore the wrong that I've done, that I lost sight of what I should be focusing on right here."

I glanced over at him, putting one of my hands over the hand he had on my face. I felt guilty, not even thinking about how this could potentially bring up a lot of old feelings of loss and pain. How scary it must be to try again, especially while he was still grieving.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked him.

"It's going to be hard, I won't lie to you. I still think about her everyday, almost every minute. I miss her so much. I know she wasn't biologically mine, but she was my daughter." His voice was shaky.

To my dismay I saw him start to tear up. I think the feeling of my eyes watching him made his tears swell more. He pulled back his hand from my face and covered his eyes with it. I saw his mouth draw back and I knew he was getting ready to weep. Alarmed, I scooted over a bit closer to him, wanting to comfort him. Poor guy has been holding everything in for so long, not just with his grief of losing Gabriella or his family issues, but holding all of these universes together. I moved myself up further so I could cradle his head, drawing him into a hug.

I held him in silence, listening to his breath hitch and his stuffy nose breathe in occasionally. I let him cry without judgment, stroking his hair. After a few minutes he sat up, wiping his eyes. They were red-rimmed but he didn't have any more tears forming.

"I'm okay," he reassured me. "I'll be fine."

I rubbed his back as he sat up, letting him continue to process whatever he needed to get out.

"I love you."

I let it just slip out. My eyes widened, and I clasped my hand over my mouth. Miguel's back was facing me, but I saw him twitch. I mean, it wasn't a lie though, I don't think? Usually couples date and fall in love before they reproduce, but nothing about our relationship was ordinary or traditional. Were we even a couple? I was moving in for him, but I think that was solely because of my pregnancy.

"I love you too, Mi Vida." He replied, his back still facing me.

I felt like I could melt, knowing he reciprocated.

"I wanted to let you know, I listened to that tape you made me. I really liked that one old song you had on there, the one that goes "Thunder only happens when it's raining." I know it's way before my time, but it's really good." Miguel added, finally turning to face me.

"You really are a sap," I joked, but smiled warmly at him.

He returned my smile, and leaned in to kiss me. It was short and awkward because I was still hooked up to that stupid blood pressure machine thing, but passionate.

I was on cloud nine.

Dreams - Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)

Notes:

Miguel is so messy in the comics, I had to sprinkle in a little lore into this chapter.