ACK! Got this done last second! I know in "Surfacings" Part 6 I said there was no part of this story up for this week, but after I sent that in I took the last few hours and actually managed to write this part, cause I know you guys were waiting for it! Disclaimers at the bottom. Thanks! ^_^ -Lianne (LianneSen@aol.com) *Usagi and Mamoru's Love: Surprises* Part 9 Mamoru looked at his wife unbelievably. "You...you...no...you're not..." Usagi looked at him hesitantly. She tried to smile, but she couldn't when she she saw his face. "Mamo-chan," she said meekly. "I...I'm sorry..." "Usako?!" Mamoru slowly slunk lower to the floor, not taking his eyes off her. "You really ARE pregnant?!" Usagi quickly took his hands. "I was going to tell you, just not right away..." "Who DID you tell?" Usagi looked down. "Uh...just a few people." "Luna and Artemis?" "Yeah, them," Usagi said quietly. "The senshi?" "Yup." "Inner and Outer?" "Inner and Outer." "Motoki and Reika?" "Uh-huh." "Umino and Naru?" "Them, too." Mamoru fell to the floor, exasperated. "Who else? If there IS anyone else in Tokyo." Usagi started ticking off with her fingers. "My friends from my work, YOUR friends at work, although a lot of the guys DID seem rather spiteful about it for some reason...uh, where was I? Right! Um...some of our neighbors at the apartments, kids I knew from back in school, Yuuichiro and Rei's grandfather, naturally, I told Urawa over the phone, the mailman..." "You told the MAILMAN but not ME?!" Usagi waved her hands urgently. "Well...he was disgruntled! I had to tell him SOMETHING to entertain him!" Something died in Mamoru's eyes then. Usagi didn't know what it was, exactly, but it suddenly scared her more than anything in her life. A cold chill swept through her and her blood stopped, turning to ice. Her heart started to quicken with worry as he turned from her. "Mamo-chan?" she squeeked. He was silent a moment. "Usako, why didn't you tell me?" he whispered after a moment. Usagi desperately wanted him to turn around again. His eyes...what had died in his eyes..."I...I thought you'd be...overprotective of me! I thought... well...if you knew I was pregnant, you'd lock me in the closet or something to keep me from possibly having an accident!" Mamoru was silent. Usagi started to feel panic clutch her heart. "M...Mamo-chan?" He didn't look at her. She touched a hand to his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. Usagi felt her heart stop. "M...M..." "Enough!" queen Nestia yelled. Her eyes flicked clear. "I shall put my spirit into the fetus already in your womb. The process will not kill you, female. I need you to live to give the birth. Which will become, then, a child with my spirit." Her lips curled into a smile. "The process of giving birth to a posessed child will kill you. At that point you wouldn't be needed, anyway. But, as of now, your husband is not necessary. I could dispose of him now." Her eyes flashed wickedly. Usagi threw her arms around Mamoru. "NO!" she screamed. "DON'T KILL HIM! YOU...YOU *CAN'T*! I...I'll KILL myself before you're ever born! And then you'll die, too! You'll not be able to take over Earth!" Nestia's eyes darkened, then narrowed at Usagi. "Yes. I thought of this. Which is why I decided I WOULD take both of you. By yourself you prove a danger to my existance. Therefore, I'll keep him around for now to make sure you WILL give birth to me as planned. Because if you don't, he will die the most slow, painful death you can imagine right before your very eyes." Usagi took in a breath. Nestia smiled. "Yes, female. There is no way for you to escape this. Once I do possess your fetus, the process is irreversible. You will be destined to die during the birth process, while I go on to conquer your beautiful planet. Everyone will either be killed or become my slaves. And you won't be alive to do anything about it." Nestia smiled as she saw Usagi shake slightly, her eyes wide. Nestia waved her hand. "Take them away. The ceremony of my spirit being put into her child will take place in time." From the shadows, previously unseen servants came out and surrounded them. One pulled out a similar staff to earlier, and shot them with the green light from it. It encased them in a sphere again, and Usagi shook as the sphere materialized back to the dungeon, leaving them on the floor of it and disappearing. Luna and Artemis ran up to them, faces worried. "What HAPPENED?! What did they do to you two?!" Usagi hugged herself fearfully. She quickly told Luna and Artemis all that the queen had said, and they listened in silence. Artemis slunk to the floor. "My God. What can we do?" "We...we've got to find a way out of here!" Usagi exclaimed as she stood up. She was shaking fearfully. "We'll...we'll get out!" Luna looked at Mamoru, who was staring at the floor, unseeing. She went to him. "Mamoru-san, are you OK?" Mamoru didn't move. Usagi looked at him, still shaking. Luna could tell by the look in Usagi's eyes she was shaking not in fear of the queen, but out of fear with something with Mamoru..."Mamoru-san?" He still didn't budge. Usagi walked over to him, reaching out to him. Her hand quavered like a child's. "Mamo-chan..." "I don't want to talk to you." His voice was level and emotionless. It stabbed Usagi through the heart more than anything else ever could. Luna was taken aback. "M...Mamoru-san..." Usagi made her hands into quaky fists. "You're...you're mad I didn't tell you I was pregnant, aren't you?" He didn't answer. Usagi felt tears form in her eyes, but she blinked them away. "You...you're just gonna be like this? We're all gonna die if we don't get away NOW. You're gonna let your anger override the value of our lives?" "I don't believe you would do something like this to me," Mamoru answered quietly, his voice like stone. "That you...you'd hide something you KNOW is so important to me like that...I thought you were better than that, Usako." "Mamo-chan, it wasn't meant to hurt you..." "Well, I GUESS you got what you didn't expect, DIDN'T you?" His voice shook, but he didn't turn around. "Maybe you should have thought of that FIRST." Usagi's eyes grew glassy. Her fists clenched tighter. "Well...well FINE! I don't CARE if you're mad! You shouldn't have taken it so PERSONALLY, anyway! I was GOING to tell you, you know! It's not like I would have a baby behind your back!" Her eyes welled with tears, and they streamed down her face as her body shook with her anger. "GO AHEAD! BE MAD! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! If you're gonna be HARD-HEADED enough to take this like a stab in the heart and not TRY to escape with me, then...then I JUST DON'T CARE! We'll just have to die! It doesn't matter to ME! If you hate me, then I don't even WANNA live!" She whipped away, running to the opposite corner of the dungeon, and curled up on the floor, crying fitfully as she buried her face in her knees. Luna and Artemis could only stare, awestruck. "U...Usagi-chan? Mamoru-san?" Luna put a paw to her mouth. "Oh, my God! This..." Mamoru lay down on the floor and closed his eyes. Luna was about to go up to him, when Artemis shook his head. Luna's eyes welled up with tears, and she slowly nodded. She and Artemis slowly walked to the back of the dungeon, curling up together on the floor for the night. Usagi cried herself to sleep. ********************* Usagi woke abruptly in the middle of the night. She groped around for a second, her eyes scared in the darkness, as she tried to remember where she was. After a moment, her eyes made out the dark bars of the cell, and she remembered with slow, syrupy thoughts all that had happened. Mamoru's eyes surfaced in her head. The way they had flickered, like something died within him...and his cold words...Usagi hugged her knees, trying not to cry. she kept thinking. She started to sob softly again, unable to hold it in. She hugged her knees tighter, trying to bury her tears in the dirty denim of her worn jeans. A quiet voice hardly reached her ears. "Usako?" Usagi stopped breathing. She looked up slowly, holding in her sobs. Mamoru was crouched beside her, looking down at her with light eyes. "M...Mamo-chan?" She bit her lip. "I...I know you don't want to talk to me...it's all right, I understand why you don't..." Mamoru didn't say anything. Usagi kept going on, looking away. She couldn't bear to look into his eyes. "I...I was wrong...it was wrong of me...not to tell you...it's my fault...I can understand your anger..." Her voice started to shake, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "I...I know it was...wrong. I was wrong...I'm so stupid, Mamo-chan...I don't...deserve you...I can understand...if you don't love me anymore..." She tried to speak through her sobs, but was mostly unsuccessful. "You...have a right...to hate me...but...I'll always love you... Mamo-chan....even if...you never...love me...anymore..." She couldn't say anything more as she was immideately engulfed by him as he threw his arms around her and pulled her against him, burying his face in her hair. Usagi could hardly breathe, her heart going flitty and pumping as quick as a bird's. She slowly realized he was crying. His wet tears dampened her hair as she could feel his chest racking against her, his arms tightening over her like she would disappear if he didn't hold onto her tightly enough. She could feel his heart beat quickly through the worn fabric of his shirt. "U...Usa...ko..." he sobbed. Usagi couldn't cry. She could only stare out in shock as she was nearly buried within his arms. "M...Mamo-chan?" She didn't know what was going on. "Usako...please...I'm sorry...I...I couldn't sleep all night, I was so afraid you hated me...my...my stupid anger got in the way when it had no right to... please...PLEASE forgive me! I...I can't live...without you..." Usagi choked on the lump on her throat as tears flooded her vision. "Mamo-chan..." "PLEASE!" He held her tighter. "Forgive me! Usako, I'm sorry!" Usagi broke down. She started crying uncontrollably, curling up in his arms. The two cried for a few minutes, neither able to say a word. Usagi's head spun, and emotions flooded from her heart as she felt to be completely drowning in his arms. After a minute, he looked down at her, his crying reduced to silent tears falling from his crystalline eyes. "Usako, please...I was wrong...I shouldn't have taken it so badly...you didn't try to hurt me...I...I can't be angry when we're in situations where it's most important to be together...please...I'm sorry..." Usagi shook her head. "Mamo-chan..." she sobbed. "I'm so sorry! I should have known it'd upset you so much...children are so important to you, I should have KNOWN how much it would crush you if you didn't know...please don't hate me..." He held her so tightly, she could hardly think. "Usako...I could NEVER hate you...you're my life...I couldn't live without you...my wife...I need you more than anything...I live every day...to see you...without you I don't know if I could go on..." Usagi cried harder, burying her face in his chest. "Mamo-chan...I love you so much...please, don't let us get seperated! The queen...she wants to kill us and our child...please, don't LET her..." He pulled her against him, holding her like a crying child. "She'll NEVER get you," he whispered. "I'd die fighting her before she could take you and our child away...you're my only family...I love you more than my life... I would die for you in an instant..." Usagi curled up against him. "Please..." she whispered. "Don't let her keep us apart..." He lay down on the floor, holding her as close as he possibly could as he let his tears disappear in her soft hair, his eyes drying as he closed them. "Never..." he whispered. "She'll never...I'll never let anything happen to you..." She shuddered in his arms as she sobbed. They lay, she held tightly in his embrace. She buried her face in his shirt, pressing against his warmth, trying to stay as close to him as she could. She just wanted to stay in his arms forever, where he would always be there to hold her and protect her from anything, her guardian and love, the one whom she would die for and whom would die for her. Her heart was his, her love was his, her soul was his. Bonded. Husband and wife. They fell asleep, in the protective shining circle of love where no one could touch them. To be continued... -Liked it? I know, they fought, but doesn't it make it more emotional when they make up? ^_^ See you next week, where I'll try to have the conclusion of this up. Arigato, minna-chan! ^_^ -Lianne (LianneSen@aol.com) *Sailor Moon and all its characters are copyright Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha Ltd./Toei Animation, Co., Ltd. and the English adaptation is copyright 1995 DIC productions, LP. This story is copyright Lianne Sentar, October 1997. **DOWN WITH DUB-BASHING!!!