'Til Death Do Us Part- Part 3 Brian left a few minutes later and I put the ring back up. An hour later, AJ brought Mary home. After he left, we stood in the livingroom, silent.
"Mary," I finally said, "what's wrong?"
"Nothing..."
"No. Don't give me that. I am not going to take 'nothing' on this. Tell me why this upsets you so much."
"I don't want a baby, Kev. I'm sorry, but I don't."
"What are you scared of?"
"I don't know."
"Then what's wrong?"
"I don't know," she whispered. I sighed.
"Why is that always your scapegoat? I'm not mad at you, not at all, I just want to know what is going through your mind and your heart."
She stared at me, her eyes filling with tears that were threatening to spill over.
"Are you afraid I'm going to leave you or something?" I asked her softly. Her eyes drifted from mine and she raised a hand to wipe her eyes.
"Mary, why would I leave you? I've loved you for years, a baby is not going to make me leave you, especially my baby; nothing could make me leave you."
"Really?" she said in a small voice.
"God, yes, really! If I were to leave you because you were pregnant with my child, it would be a grotesque twist of my morals, and besides, I'm almost 100 percent sure Brian or AJ would have my head on a platter." I smiled at her and she laughed slightly, a few tears still falling.
"I just hope our baby doesn't end up with your eyebrows."
I laughed. "That's the spirit." I wiped the tears off her cheeks and kissed her gently. I stared at her for a minute, then remembered what I was gonna do.
"Stay here." I went back to the bedroom and took the ring from its box, then went back out to the livingroom.
"You see this?" I said, grinning at her. She nodded, curious.
"This is going to go right here on your finger and will never come off because I love you and I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. If that's okay with you, of course."
She laughed and nodded. "It's perfectly fine with me, I love you, too."
After I kissed her, she looked up at me.
"But I wanna get married after the baby's born, because I don't want to have a dress made for my pregnant body, I want one to fit my normal body."
I nodded. "We can do that."
"Good." She hugged me and when I hugged her back, it felt like she was trembling.
"Are you okay?" I asked, pulling away from her.
"Yeah, why?"
"You're shaking."
"I'm just excited."
I laughed. "Oh, okay."
"What's funny about it?"
"Well, you know how Tyk shakes when he gets excited-"
"Don't you even!" She laughed and smacked my arm. I grinned and fell back on the couch, pulling her on top of me. She smiled and positioned herself until she was comfortable.
"Comfy?" I murmured, taking her hands in mine. She nodded.
"Very."
"Good." I kissed the backs of both of her hands, then looked at her. "I love you."
"I love you, too." She pulled her hands from mine and wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my chest. We fell asleep like that.

I was awakened very abruptly the next morning by the phone ringing right in my ear. I reached back and tried to find it, in the process knocking a lamp and what I think was a picture frame off the side table before I found the phone.
"Hello." I was still trying to wake up.
"What is this I hear about Mary being pregnant?"
"Morning, Tim, nice to hear from you, too. How's your wife?" I yawned and stood up, careful not to wake Mary up. I bent down and picked up the picture frame I knocked over. The glass was broken.
"Kevin."
"What?" I carefully pulled the picture of Mary and me from the frame, tossed the frame out, and made a mental note to get the glass up before one of us stepped on it.
"Mary? Pregnant?"
"Yeah, she's pregnant. You been talkin' to Brian?" I carried the picture back to the bedroom.
"Yes, I've been talking to Brian. Kevin, how did she get pregnant? You two aren't even married."
"No, but we're engaged."
"Since when?"
"Last night. Don't preach to me, Tim. You are my brother and I love you, but I am fully aware of what I am doing and what I have done and the repercussions of my actions, okay? You can put the evils of adultery in your sermon for Sunday."
"You're not just marrying her because she's pregnant, are you?"
I frowned at the phone. "Of course not, you know me better than that. I'm marrying her because I love her. Being the father of her child is just an added bonus."
"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into."
"Thanks for the warning, Tim, I'll talk to you later."
"Bye."
I hung up the phone and shook my head. Too caughed up in my business.
A little bit later, I heard Mary yell from the livingroom. I musta dozed off, 'cause I wouldn't have even heard her had I really been asleep.
"Kevin, why is there glass on the floor?" she called, pain tinging her words. I got off the bed and went out to the livingroom. She was sideways in a chair near the couch, gingerly picking at her foot.
"Glass is attracted to me, I swear," she muttered, carefully pulling a piece of glass from her foot and wincing slightly.
"I'm sorry, I meant to clean that up. You okay?"
"No; it hurts." She was still concentrating on her foot. I went in the kitchen and got some paper towels and brought 'em out to her. She cleaned the blood off the bottom of her foot and I got her a band-aid.
"Now I'm gonna limp around for days," she said, standing up carefully. "Why is there glass on the floor?" she asked again.
"I knocked over the picture that was on the table."
"Why?"
"I was trying to answer the phone."
"Who called? And when?"
"Tim; about an hour ago."
She frowned. "Why did he call?"
She didn't like Tim because he was a preacher, and she didn't like preachers. She seemed afraid of them at times, and me having a brother who was one put a damper on our relationship occasionally. Knowing he had called about her would definately not make her happy. I'd tell her anyway.
"He called about you."
Her eyes positively flashed. "Why is he even thinking about me?"
She really didn't like Tim. Of course, Tim wasn't too fond of her either, 'cause she cussed too much and took the Lord's name in vain. But they could be around each other and stay civilized- so long as he didn't start preaching to her and she watched her mouth.
"He heard you were pregnant."
"Who told him?!"
"Brian."
"Ugh! The last thing I need is him getting all pissy because we've broken one the ten commandments."
"Mary, he's not taking this up with you."
"He'll find some way to," she muttered, limping back to the bedroom. I sighed and went to cleaning up the glass and picking up the lamp.
I hoped this rift between the two of them wouldn't damage our marriage.
I wanted to go out and get a new frame and some breakfast for us, but I didn't wanna deal with fans. I glanced up at the clock. It was only nine a.m. Most kids weren't up this early on break.
I was still debating going out when Mary came out, showered and dressed.
"You wanna go out?"
"For what?"
"A new frame and something to eat."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Sure."
"Alrighty."
A few minutes later, we made a brief stop and got a new frame, then stopped off at a restaurant for breakfast. Mary wanted to sit beside me instead of across from me, like she normally did. She didn't order much; she normally didn't eat breakfast. She grabbed my hand and rested her head on my shoulder.
"You feelin' okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah, fine." She paused. "Does Tim have to come?"
I laughed. "Well, sweetheart, I'd prefer it if my whole family could be there."
She groaned. "But why does he have to be there?"
"He's my brother. I think that constitutes him as family," I said, still laughing.
"Oh, God, that means he'll be my brother-in-law. God, that's scary," she murmured, actually sounding scared. "He is not touching our baby."
"Mary, what exactly is it that you have against priests?"
"I'm not sure. All I can remember was I was younger, it had to do with Tiffany, and some evil preacher."
"What, did this evil preacher molest you two or something?" I was totally serious. Well, mostly serious.
"No." She hit my leg and I laughed. "I stopped going to church when I was about 12 or 13, this was after."
"Oh, no, something else for Tim to harp on you about. You stopped going to church at a very young age, and now you're unmarried and pregnant. He'll be convinced you're the spawn of satan."
She giggled. "My horns hold up my halo."
"Your halo is tarnished. Badly." I grinned and kissed her. The waistree brought our food over, giving us a slightly strange look.
After she left, Mary looked up at me.
"You think she knows who we are?"
"Probably. Most people do."
"You think she overhead us?"
"Probably," I said again. "Let her tell the press if she wants."
"Oh, I hate publicity." Mary groaned and wrinkled her nose in distaste.
"Baby, someone was gonna find out anyway, even if we don't tell the press. You're gonna start to show in a few months."
"I still hate publicity. Well, the gossipy kind."
"Sweetheart, all celebrities hate gossipy publicity. We're cursed with it."
"Just the same, I wanna try and keep all, or at least most, of the wedding a secret. I don't wany anyone besides who should know knowing about this wedding. I mean, they can know, just no details."
"Fine by me."
"You're too understanding." She looked up at me, her eyes narrowed. "Are you sure you're male?"
I laughed. "I think we've proven that by now."
She grinned. "I suppose so. And what a hell of a male you are!"
I laughed again. "Thanks."
She giggled and kissed my shoulder, then rested her head on my shoulder again.
"Ew!" she said suddenly. I looked at her, startled.
"What?"
"I'm gonna have to wear those nasty maternity clothes."
I laughed. "Yes, you will."
She actually shuddered. "I hate maternity clothes."
I snickered. "So borrow some of Lou's clothes."
"Lou?"
"Pearlman."
"Ew!" She hit me hard this time. "That's even worse."
I laughed. "I know, I was kidding."
She shuddered again. "Nightmare provoking."
"Sorry." I squeezed her hand, still laughing a little.
"You finished eating?" she asked after a minute.
"Have you even started?"
"You know I don't eat breakfast."
"Maybe you should start."
She sighed and I bit my tongue. She hated being told what to do, and I did it too much.
"Yeah, I'm done, let's go."
She nodded, took a quick sip of her soda, then slid out of the booth after me. After I paid, we went home.