Zoysite - Aaah thank you! I really love the 'light of life' myself! Emotional but still I love that it has an happy ending. And yes! Marco was stupid for even letting himself be hit by enemies! But now he won't do that anymore! He's learned his lesson and got a scare himself!
Story Absent, I still have another chapter planned for it in my mind! aaaah! like a different version where Marco's home earlier.

I know you've been having a bit of bad days, and your hubby's stress and quarrels sure don't help then! So I am giving an extra warning for you. This story is a really emotional one. Like, even I who wrote it was in tears the whole time. So if you're not feeling 100%, I really advice to think twice before reading and maybe leaving this story for another day!

Witch68 - Haha yes, that's true, it did come out of nowhere. But it is kind of the vibe I was going for. Only Marco and Ace are in on it, the rest of the ship doesn't know what's going on. I do have thoughts on another chapter to give a view from Ace's and Marco's side. But I can't promise anything since I do like the little mystery and open ending it can give so people can imagine themselves what was going on behind Marco's closed door. Still, thank you very much for the feedback!

This story is a counterpart of the story 'How it should have gone' (Found in the series 'Whitebeard Pirates' playground').

You can read 'How it went' without having read the other, the only info you need to know is that Ace is an omega and is pregnant with Alpha Marco's kid, both very happy their mating was a success!

'How it should have gone' is a 100% happy story about Ace's pregnancy and only has an ominous title because this darker story was already planned to exist from the start.

Like the title says, this is a first part and while I think the way it is now is also a nice ending, I do think it maybe deserves a second part, which will be posted this week. I just wanted some input on a scenario that's going to happen in it. More of this at the end.

Usually I write something like "I hope everyone enjoys reading!" But man, I don't even know what to say now. Maybe Ehm... I hope you'll all feel the emotions as you read this... Have tissues nearby!

WARNING WARNING WARNING
(Also already includes warnings for the second part)

A/B/O-verse

Bad ending

Angst and tragedy

Emotionally heavy/taxing

Hurt/ (no-)comfort (... trying to comfort. But since both characters hurt... it makes comforting difficult)

Self-hate/loathing

Miscarriage

Stillbirth

Death of OC character

Threats

Blood and injury

WARNING WARNING WARNING

"You like your chocoletecovered-strawberry-pickle-peanutbutter sandwich darling-yoi?"

Purrrrrrr

Marco chuckled to the obvious rumbling, smiling down at his Omega who was all cuddled up into his side at the breakfast table.

"That's great, everything for my wonderful Omega and pup." he spoke, voice full of love as he not only leaned down to kiss raven hairs, but softly rub over the bump with the arm he had around his mate.

They had only been sitting in the messhall for maybe five minutes, yet the whole area was already filled with the smell of two happy parents, a hint of protectiveness to keep touchy hands away from the alpha, but nothing to actually scare anyone. No, this smell was something for everything to enjoy, to live with the happy moment of their mated expecting commanders.

"oh, you feel that? Did you feel it, Alpha!" Ace looked, a smile that shone brighter then the sun on his face.

"I did, our little boy is awake and I think he likes your sandwich-yoi."

Ace giggled at that, placing his hand next to Marco's to feel their pup, their baby boy moving, lightly kicking under their hands.

"He's already so perfect and I haven't even seen him, yet I know for sure he'll be everything and more." Marco purred, nuzzling the other's scalp, "5 months-yoi, he's already 5 months old, it feels like yesterday when you told me you were pregnant Omega, yet look at the beautiful bump, our boy safely growing inside all thanks to you."

The coddling went on throughout the whole of breakfast, not many commented on it, not wanting to interrupt the duo, but oh so many pirates were in awe watching them. These moments made up for every single mood swing their second commander had.

"Thatchyyyy~ Can I have some milk, please?"

"Didn't you just finish a whole jug of orange juice? Are you sure you want milk now?" Though, even if the chef said this, he was already halfway up to get his friend a fresh mug of it.

"hihi, I did!" Ace smiled brightly, "But that was for during breakfast, this is my after breakfast drink and" putting both hands on his bump he smiled even brighter, "Pup wants milk!"

"Alright alright," Thatch laughed fully up, "Let me get your boy some fresh milk, will only take a minute. And I assume, chocolate?"

"Yes please!"

With a nod of the head he was about to turn around but stopped seeing Ace's expression change from extremely happy to confusion to ... to fear?

"Ac-?"

"Ace-yoi, what's wrong?" Marco interrupted Thatch to looked down, smelling lots of different emotions suddenly being emitted from his mate. His Alpha was sent into panic the moment Ace looked up and met his eyes, not only from the pure fear he could see, but from the intense wave of distress rolling over them.

"Pup. Something's wrong with our pup." The words left the omega in a scared whisper, making Marco need to prick up his ears to even hear it.

"What?"

"Nurses", Ace sat up fast, far faster than he had been able to do these last months and held out his hands to Marco. Soft voice picking up to panicked screams, "take me to the nurses, alpha! Something's wrong. Wrong wrong! Something's wrong with our pup!"

Marco didn't get what exactly was going on, but with the words he picked up -Wrong- and -pup-, a lump was quickly forming in his throat, the pheromones his mate were releasing also not helping the dread in his stomach. He didn't waste another second to jump up and take his omega into his arms before running out. Not even questioning why Ace wouldn't try to run himself by instinct, this was the fastest way anyway!

Luckily the dread and fear they were by now both emitting made the hallways clear without any need for them to stop running, doors were opened, items moved, all so they could get through as fast as possible.

In the minute it took for them to reach the infirmary, news had somehow already gotten there and Bay was just rolling a bed over, team in the background getting dressed at lightning speed.

He had barely put down his omega, not even able to say any words of reassurance before they nudged him aside and took over. Taking all kinds of apparatus ready, Bay listening carefully to the babbling of Ace who was trying to explain what his omega was telling him what was wrong, but never stopping the already basic tests.

Throughout the whole tests Marco was at Ace's side, holding his hand in a sturdy grip as he leaned over him, caressing his head with his other hand and shielding him from seeing everything the nurses were doing, even if he wanted to look himself. It would only make their combined fear worse seeing the hectic mess.

"I-I'm sorry."

At his he had to look over, seeing one of the nurses holding up a gel covered wand uselessly, she apologized again when he looked, seeming to be quickly growing pale. "What do you mean 'I'm sorry-yoi'? What's going on? What's wrong with our pup?"

"I can't - I can't-"

"What can't you do? Do you know what's wrong or not? Do something, say something so Bay and the others can help our pup, my omega!"

Marco wanted to strangle the poor nurse, as she kept stuttering of not finding something. Why wasn't she just saying what was up, or even helping them! Every second counted!

"What is going on with my pup! Answer!" Yes, he snapped. Even in his state he's not proud of it as he felt his omega flinch under his hands, but he couldn't control his instincts right now, his alpha picking up quickly on something the Omega was omitting, knowing whatever was going on was something bad, extremely bad.

The nurse eeped and took a step back, Bay quickly next to her, "Tell me, Joyce, what did you find."

Like a lifeline Joyce clutched to the doctor, "h-heartbeat, I can't f-find it.". She whispered stuttering to the other woman.

"You didn't find what-yoi?" He voiced his question in an empty voice. Hands clutching to his Omega who already started to sob. He must have heard wrong... They just had their last check up yesterday, everything had been well. The freshly developed ultrasound pictures hanging above their nest a clear sign that it had been real. Their pup had been healthy in every way. Growth was on scheme, size was okay, heartbeat was strong, Ace was as healthy as could be.

The nurse started stuttering again as Bay was furiously moving the want, searching, searching... and searching...

"I'm sorry c-commander. I- your pup- your pup's n-not showing s-signs of l-life any-anymore."

Marco was silent as his life came tumbling down, staring at the gel covered bump, the unmoving bump. No signs of life? His pup was dead? What kind of inhuman joke was this? His pup hadn't even had a chance to be born yet!

His attention was grabbed when Ace sobbed louder due to the words from the nurse and he was quickly turning to hold onto him, pressing lips to his forehead. Though... he couldn't form any words on what to say. What could he say?

In the few moments the Alpha's eyes were off of her, the nurse somehow was able to catch her breath and talk further. "It will soon be rejected by Ace's body, there will be when it-"

"Our pup is not an IT!" Marco growled turning back, "It's our pup-yoi, our boy!".

"I-im sorry, I'm just saying- we need to remove i-"

At this it was Ace's turn to speak for the first time since he was brought into the infirmary, "Don't touch my pup! Go away!"

"Ace..." She started softly, the face of the omega breaking her heart, "We have no choice, we need to get it-him out of y-"

"No! He's my pup! G-get her away from us! Alpha!"

Bay already knew all reasoning was lost by now as Marco's eyes shifted to a darker blue and a loud growl was there as he straightened out, eyes piercing her nurse.

With a curse she pulled her nurse aside as the Alpha lunged, pulling her all the way out of the infirmary, screw the precious equipment she heard falling to the ground, right now Marco would kill if anyone touched his mate or even said anything about removing the pup.

The door slammed shut behind them and shuffling of objects was heard, multiple items hitting the door until it stopped. Ace's cries the only sound now carrying passed the shut, and probably barricaded door.

"We need to inform Pops, the commanders." Bay spoke holding the trembling nurse.

"B-b-but patient- patient confidentiality?"

"Patient confidentiality is the last of my worries now... this could get nasty... Very nasty." She whispered looking at the door. The door separating them from their two strongest men on the whole ship, both who they wouldn't be able to talk sense to for quite some time. Especially not the first commander, not with Ace literally asking for protection from his Alpha.

Meeting room

It was eerie silent in the meeting room as everyone let Bay's words sink in. Only after a minute did emotions start to appear, tears, confusion, anger... denial.

"But that can't be!" Thatch stood in his chair, "We-I- They were just with us at breakfast! Everything was fine! Ace was fine! He was happy, eating as usual." The chef was denying it, couldn't accept it, yet everyone saw that even he knew it was real by the tears streaming down his face, "He-he asked me for milk! L-like he does every day! Nothing was wrong!"

"And now something is." Bay remarked without emotion.

"NO! You can't just-"

"Son."

"Pops!"

"Please sit down."

The words were spoken oh so gentle, yet one couldn't help but follow them like they were an order yelled throughout the whole ship.

"Bay, daughter." The elder started quiet but serious, a light crack behind his voice of emotion. "What happened? What went wrong?"

The doctor took a breath, clenching her fist, this part of her job is something you can't get used to, especially since... "I don't know." She shook her head, continuing while leafing through some papers, "I don't know," she repeated, "as you know, we did a full check-up yesterday and ... everything was fine. Every single stat was fine. Yes, he was at the smaller end of the scale, but nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that should have been of any concern, his growth in general was going steady like it should have gone. I- I hadn't predicted even a single complication from how well Ace was carrying up until now."

"Is it our fault?"

"Huh?" Bay looked up over the commanders, seeing many look to her with big eyes.

"Was it us?" Jozu said and before she could ask what he meant, more commanders came through, "Did we do something wrong?" - "Were we too rough with Ace?" - "Was it the food I made?" - "Is it because I..." and so on and so on.

"No- no no no" Bay shook her head. "It was none of us."

"But you don't know what is was."

"... Pops..." She whispered looking up, seeing the unshed tears threatening at old eyes. She can't imagine how he must feel. Their biggest supporter in everything, loosing his first grandchild, the child from his favourite sons, even if he treats them all equally, they know Marco and Ace have a special place in the man's heart and the unborn pup had quickly gotten it own spot between them too.

"I don't know what it was, what was the cause. Maybe if I can do more tests I can figure it out, but with the current situation, They won't allow it. Not Ace, not Marco. But I do know it wasn't anything we did. I know everyone around them has been careful, has been gently, took the utmost care of Ace and his pup. Thatch, the food you make and have been making, I for one have been watching it and I know you've done your research too, nothing that Ace has eaten that you've given him has been bad. I am not going to make conclusions or exclusions of what the cause of this disaster has been, but I know none of us, no one on this ship would have done anything on purpose to make this happen. So... so we shouldn't focus on that, searching for something, for someone, to give the blame to." She took a breath, straitening up, "We need to focus on what needs to be done right now. We can't change the situation. We can't reverse time. But if we don't do something, we don't only lose the pup, we'll lose Ace too."

"WHAT?!"

Pops had to step up to calm everyone down and asked for an explanation.

"There are a lot of reasons why a miscarriage can happen. Depending on how and why, Ace will go into labor."

"B-but the pup's dead."

Bay nodded, "but the pup still needs to get out of Ace's body. It could very possible be that ... nothing is really wrong internally and Ace will naturally go into labor in some time. If there's no compilations, he and Marco should be able to rely on their instincts and safely deliver the stillborn."

"S-stillborn."

"... the pup. But." She looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone, "We don't know what's going on. There could be an internal bleeding. Ace could be dying of bloodless right now, be developing an infection. Anything."

"WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING HIM THEN."

Bay stood, slamming hands on the table, "Because your strongest men are ready to lunge at anyone who tries to lay a hand on that pup right now!"

Mouths snapped shut at that. "that... That's a problem."

With a sigh the doctor nodded, weaving a hand through her hair as she sat down. "It is. Restraining Marco is one thing. As a last effort Pops should be able to literally grab him, maybe knock him out even. But we can't do that with Ace, he's the one with the pup. Not only do we have to be very careful how we handle him physically, emotionally is also something to worry about. The poor thing is obviously already in a lot of distress as it is, if we remove Marco..."

"We're taking away his only pillar support... His protection."

Sinking into her chair she nodded to the captain. "If they could let me near for just a minute, let me do a few tests, I can pin-point if there's anything that would make a stillbirth a priority to happen right this second or if we can wait it out or not."

"If... we wait it out.." Haruta started, "How long would that take."

"Unknown."

"What? But you said it would happen naturally."

"And it will. Every person is just different commander. Though, 2 weeks is around the most a deceased pup can stay in the womb before labor starts kicking in."

"... And... if you can like... confirm that's okay to do... ehm... can ... is it safe to like wait? Ace won't get sick from... from... the d-d-dea- from the pup?"

"No, he'll be okay. It's just that..." Bay sighed for the umpteenth time, wiping a hand over her face. This was all so complicated. "first of all, two weeks is kind of the limit, if he doesn't go into natural labor, I'll need to induce it, anything longer can make it dangerous, life-threatening for Ace. But even if he goes into labor, delivers safely, the two weeks the pup gets left inside, it will effect its appearance... Just picture someone falls in the sea, dies, only gets recovered some time after..."

"We can't- We can't let them see that!... can we?" Fossa started strong but ended softly... how some men were recovered... If their pup looked like that...

"I would also like Ace to birth as soon as possible, with the pup being 5 months old... even closing in on 6 months, he'll already resemble a proper baby,... he'll even have fuzzy hair already on his head."

"Oh god-"

Closing her eyes for a moment she let that settle in, the crying around starting up. Every miscarriage was a bad one no matter if early or late but... it makes it so much worse that their pup will already almost look like he should have at his birth.

"He'll look most descent the sooner we get him out. And we could even let Ace and Marco have some time with the pup."

"But he's dead? Don't you just like, dispose of it-"

"Kingdew!"

"You better not speak like that close to them. And it is the parent's choice. Of course they can't keep the pup forever, he'll... start decaying like any normal dead body. But, while I've had the luck to not go through this myself, I've heard stories of other parents where there was a stillbirth and they had some moments after the birth with the pup. They, even if dead, gave the pup their first bath together, dressed them into close they had picked out, cuddled, took pictures. They simply made just a few tiny memories, made a few keepsakes before saying goodbye."

"I want them to have that chance." Pops started, pulling all the weeping eyes towards him. "I want my sons to have the chance to spend whatever time they can have with their pup, if they wish for it. Bay." He looked down at his daughter, "Tell us, tell me what to do to give them that chance."

Infirmary

After barricading the door, throwing over several beds and locking them under the handle, Marco made his way back to his weeping mate. He took some tissues and even got some warm water before he gently cleaned the gel covered bump. Carefully wiping over the stretched skin, his hand stuttered and his vision got blurry as he went over the spot where he had felt his pup kicking just 20 minutes earlier. How? How did everything suddenly change so fast?

"A-alpha-"

Sniffing Marco started moving again, "sorry love, I'll- I'll get you clean and dressed again in a second." He said as gentle as he could, switching over to a new dry tissue.

"Can you listen?"

He froze, lips trembling as he heard the 'please' being added and he nodded, wiping the area dry and putting it all aside before cradling the bump with his hands, rubbing over the flesh before he leaned down and put his ear over it. He loved doing this, used to loved doing this. Unlike normal humans, thanks to his Phoenix he had enhanced hearing and had been able to hear their little ones heartbeat for a while if he really focused on it. The amount of times he had laid on Ace's bump when they went to bed, just to listen to his pup's heartbeat were too many to count, he knew the rhythm of his son's heartbeat by heart now.

But... As he was listening... it stayed quiet, oh so quiet. The only sound he heard was the sound of his mate's bloodflow under the skin, the workings of his organs, but no thumps. No little beats. And he sobbed. Sobbed for the first time since he got the news. He squeezed at Ace's bump as he felt finger on his scalp and his mate's voice pleading for him to listen, to tell him he could find the little beat and drop kisses to his stomach in rhythm to it. Something he also used to do to also give Ace the experience of knowing his pup's heartbeat. But he couldn't, he couldn't, there wasn't a rhythm to kiss too.

Slowly he raised his head, without being able to drop a single kiss and he heard Ace sob at it, the last confirmation the omega really needed to know it was real. Their pup was gone.

After a moment Marco realized he was staring into space... right at the bump as he caressed it gently, trembling he pulled his hands away and as if on auto-pilot pulled Ace's fluffy oversized sweater down and fixed his pants, carefully pulling the stretchy fabric until over the belly button. Making sure everything was covered, knowing Ace got cold quicker now if there was a gap somewhere in the clothes, before he went and took some of the fluffier blankets from a nearby closet. Walking back he tucked them in at the bottom of the bed, and as he slid into the bed beside his mate, he pulled them up, covering them both.

He however hadn't even been properly in bed and his mate was against him, clutching at his shirt and crying his eyes out. Wrapping his arms around his smaller love he squeezed him against him, kissing his head before leaning his forehead on his hair, tears leaving him as he too wept at the loss of their little one. The unmoving bump, that little circle of heat pressing against him under the blankets now felt stone-cold. Filling his eyes with more tears instead of making him smile like it usually did.

Was it from exhaustion or something else, he didn't know, but it wasn't long before he felt the trembling in Ace's being lesson and his breath even out, though the occasional sob and tears never stopped. And while the smell he omitted dimmed, it was still filled every feeling of pain and spelled out pure loss.

As his mate slept he started apologizing. Not knowing why. But he had to. He said he would protect his mate, his omega and their pup. He promised to take care of them. Protect them from all harm. Yet... he failed. He failed to protect them. To care for them. Their pup was gone. One of his hands moved down, trembling as he rested it on the bump. Mere inches away was his pup, their beautiful little boy. The small bean he was supposed to protect, and now he was gone. He failed them.

That was it for now! So like I said, I feel this needs a second part because I did go over removing the pup from Ace in the meeting. But do let me know what you all think of it.

About the input, it's about how they're going to go at it. Marco will be on a murder streak to anyone trying to get close. So... the options of what happens when it's time to get the pup out.

1. Marco gets pulled away, restrained, knocked out, removed from the room. Leaving Ace alone as the others work. (Ace obviously screeching and in much distress as he too needs to be pinned down to be able to work on.)

2. One way or another they work around it and can allow Marco to stay by Ace's side. Maybe guide him through what needs to be done. So Marco will essentially be doing the birth (assisting Ace) instead of Bay and the others.