Chapter 2

Two pink, parallel lines.

That is what the test showed a month later after Mal took the test in the safety of her father's home. It took Professor Yen Sid quite a bit of manipulation to get said test without revealing too much information to the current King and Queen of Auradon. The do-goer simply told the royals that an unnamed villain was unsure of something and needed to be confirmed for peace of mind.

It was confirmed alright. The results were positive, which meant Mal was—

"Do you want me to tell him?" Jay offered softly, though there was a hidden tenseness to it. "No promises that I won't do anything to him."

"The same goes for me," Hades warned as he crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest. "In fact, I wouldn't mind teaching him a lesson or two."

"No," Mal quickly denied before her father could get any ideas. With a new weight of responsibility on her shoulders, she asserted, "I need to be the one to tell him. I need to be present when he finds out so I can witness his reaction. I already know what he's going to do, it's just the matter of seeing it for myself."

The fairy offered a brave smile to her father and friend, who gazed at her with sympathy. "Don't worry," she reassured calmly despite her current predicament. "I'm happy that I am . . . you know. I just wish it was under better circumstances and by someone who actually cares for me; not someone that used me like he did."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

After a leisurely walk that afternoon, Mal arrived at the docks with a somewhat blissful attitude. Despite the pain she went through, Mal was practically walking on cloud nine at the news. She just couldn't believe that in a few short months she will be a—

"Hey, Mal."

Mal flinched as her focus was adverted to the elder teenager in front of her, who was grinning from ear to ear like a senile killer. Harry seemed to gaze at her with a certain gleam in his eye, the same gleam that had been there a month ago when he took advantage of her. The fairy's blood suddenly turned cold at the chilling atmosphere between them.

"I need to talk to you," Mal mumbled so only he could hear her, "in private. . ."

"Of course." The pirate's smile turned a little more sinister as he suggested, "We could go back to my room on the ship if you'd like. Give you another ride—"

"I'm pregnant."

At first Harry didn't believe the fairy. He thought it was a prank Jay schemed for her to do after telling him about her 'wonderful' night with the pirate. However, when he noticed the serious look in Mal's eyes, Harry visibly paled as his shit-eating grin suddenly dropped into a horrified, agape frown.

"It can't be mine," Harry refuted with a scared head-shake of rejection. "There's no way."

"You stole my virginity," Mal reminded quietly as she kept her eyes on the bystanders around her, who wasn't paying any attention to her or him. "You were the only person I had sex with because you forced yourself on me. You didn't use protection and I didn't have any because, as I had previously mentioned, I was a virgin. I wanted to wait until I was married, but you prevented that from happening. Now, we are having a baby."

"You are having a baby," Harry corrected in a harsh whisper. "I want nothing to do with it. This is all your fault!"

"My fault?" Mal repeated incredulously as she finally felt her getting angry about her situation. "You were the one that forced me to get drunk. You were the one that forced yourself on me when I tried fighting back. You were the one that raped me!"

"That thing isn't mine," Harry retorted bitterly. "I never wanted kids. As far as I'm concerned, it would be best to get rid of it before it's too late."

Mal glared at the pirate with a certain stubborn fire in her green eyes. "You said they aren't yours so, as far as I'm concerned, you can't tell me what to do with my child. I am keeping my baby and I will love them unconditionally. Unless you change your mind, I will raise my baby without you. If you don't before they are born, then they will never know you to be their father."

"Good!" Harry exclaimed through a whisper. "Gives me one less problem to worry about!"

Returning to her father's home where her friend also awaited her, Mal reiterated the conversation between her and her assaulter. Just like her daughter, Hades suspected that the pirate wouldn't own up to his mistake. Admittedly, Jay had been optimistic that Harry would do the right thing, despite being raised another way. Now, the infamous thief was more furious than he's ever been before.

"I'll do it," Jay declared in a moment of silence. "I'll raise it as my own."

"They," Mal corrected while sitting next to her father on the sofa, who had an arm around his daughter's shoulder to comfort her. "And I can't let you do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you're gay," she reminded with a slightly teasing tone as she leaned on her father for support. "You would be miserable trying to raise my child because you only see me as a best friend, nothing more. I would rather have you be their uncle or even their god-father, not their father. I can't ask that of you."

"And you two can argue about that later," Hades interrupted before the thief could fire back. "For now, we have to worry about you during your pregnancy. Do you want to keep it a secret?"

"For as long as humanly possible," Mal confirmed with a slight nod. "And maybe even a couple years after I have my baby, just so Mother can't do anything to us."

"She won't," Hades promised for the second time. "If you want to keep your baby a secret, then we will only tell a select few. One person that we will have to tell is Lady Tremaine. I may be a god, but I can't deliver a baby, and she has the most experience on the island. We can keep your baby here until we tell everyone."

"We'll have to tell Dr. Facilier," Jay claimed knowingly. "We may be in the winter months now, but by the time spring rolls around, Mal's pregnant belly will start to show. She can hide it with large coats during the cold, but people will find it suspicious if she does that in the warmer weather. If she stops going to school before then, she will miss three months. If you, Hades, talk to the headmaster, he can lie to the other teachers about Mal being sick, convince them that she is being home-schooled so she doesn't get held back."

"I'm nearly a month into my pregnancy," Mal acknowledged as she tried to do the mental math. "That means I will have to hide out during the summer until I have my baby. I may miss a week or so of the new school year, but I can catch up."

"And Facilier and Tremaine will sympathize with you," Hades commented to comfort his daughter. "They will allow you to skip their classes so you can spend time with your baby; maybe do the same for Jay. You could also skip the usual lunch period to spend it with him or her."

Mal sighed at all the planning they had to do. "I hope I have a girl," she revealed with a light shrug. "I wouldn't have to worry about her resembling Harry as much."

"Or about getting clothes for her," Hades joked half-seriously. "I still have all your clothes from when you were a child because your mother didn't want them taking up space at her place."

Jay tilted his head curiously. "If you do have a girl, what will you name her?"

Mal pondered on it for a few moments before the perfect name came to mind. It was a combination of her name and the father's, just to spite him that she kept their child. The daughter's name will be—

"Mallory."