Reg's apartment blinded Maria as soon as she walked in. She took Bohemian to a Turkish extreme--beautiful, but rich. Maria didn't notice the guy sitting on the couch because of how overwhelming the colors were. Her father may have hated Americanized Italians but he fast dropped the Mediterranean décor from his life. Though different, she should have grown up in as much color and not been near as blind.

"So, what's up?" Reg set her purse down on her dining table.

"I got myself in a predicament-need to take a pregnancy test but just found out that my boyfriend has cameras in my apartment."

Reg let out a low whistle and went into the stubby kitchen that was maybe 600 ft. squared to grab a waxed paper cup. "That's a mess. Speaking of which, have you taken one before?"

"No?"

She shoved the cup in Maria's hand. "Well, they expect you to be able to aim like a dude when you're in shock. Most of us have done a pee test. If you can do a clean enough catch in the toilet, great, saves me trouble. But if you can't, the shower is clean and I'll just scrub it out afterwards. Dip the tip into the cup until the stick absorbs it, then toss the rest."

"Sounds like you've dealt with this before."

"It's something, every week." Reg wandered over to her couch to pop the top of the guy's head. He jumped and took out an earbud, protesting. "Get dressed, Bud, another case."

Watching the guy shamble off-not bad looking-made Maria uneasy. The guy went off in one direction while Reggie went the other, gesturing for her to follow. She tapped on a door. "Go on in. I'm going in the next room to pack up my laptop and a couple of gadgets so we can go check your place over, alright?"

"I'm not so sure how useful that will be since I just found out my ex owns the property..."

"Hrm, same guy?"

Maria nodded.

"Well, just go do your test. If you can't find a place to crash, you can stay here in the third room, or hell, up my brother's backside if you're the type."

She left a very confused Maria to take care of her own business-successfully. Why am I in Pre-med if a simple pregnancy test is my undoing? Maria leaned up against the counter, holding the test, as she waited for a few minutes to roll by. Two seperate lines. Grandma said that this would be positive, so there was confirmation enough between the two for her to accept it. What am I doing with a kid?

The crazy part is most adoptions aren't an option. Maria was told she was part Throne, and this was a Fey's baby. A human mom and dad wouldn't be able to shield a child from that. Pops chose not to protect her, so she was seeing a hint of what would happen to this baby.

Maria shook herself out of her musings-it wasn't the place.

By the time she walked out the bathroom, Reggie and her brother whisked her off in the car, and back in her own apartment before she could process everything.

Reg immediately set up her laptop and started yelling, "Mick, see if you can spot the one in the window sill behind the sink."

This attic window was small, not even filling the space a normal kitchen window would, but at least she could look outside and see leaves and a bit of sun when washing dishes. She spent too much time there. Maria's eye trailed behind the guy, noticed her pan of sauce still sitting out for a couple of hours-thankfully with the lid. The lasagna itself was in the fridge. It would still be good if someone ate right this minute. "Y'all eat Lasagna?"

"Sure, babe-Mick eats anything," Reggie said it absently, like she wasn't all there. "You see the booger yet?"

"Yeah, the detector has one in the windowsill." Mick pulled out a pocket knife and put down a black palm-sized contraption to pop up a part of the wood on the windowsill. "I'm not so sure this one was working still."

"I was getting a clear signal on my end."

Maria prepped the lasagna for the broiler all over again for her guests. She'd wait to see if they wanted more, but would otherwise throw out the leftover sauce. As it was heating up altogether, she didn't worry about the broiler, just set it to bake longer while she began packing her room behind the folding screen-camera or no camera, she wanted out. When the timer went off, she ran into Mick as they were about to trade spaces.

He balanced her to keep her from falling, a soft clasp to the forearm, "Watch it miss..."

"Maria."

The young man smiled cheerfully as he let go. "Very pretty name."

"Thanks," Maria gave polite words, but checked out instantly.

This time the two plates of lasagna were far more inviting than for her date. Not that she was hungry but setting down with the two of them was less stressful than Nico ever was.

Maria let them take a few bites before asking, "Mick, I was never really introduced to you. Can I know a little about you, so I know why you've been dragged into this?"

Reggie mouthed an oops before shoving another bite in, to keep her from saying more.

"I'm her brother. She drags me out on all of these things as her gopher and muscle. Sometimes I'm arm-candy for people who need a new boyfriend for a while. Most just settle for a documented cheating session because most guys that won't let go will after that." Mick smirked through most of his descriptions." It gets me laid with no commitment, occasionally I get into a fight-which is fun, but mostly I'm just a nobody, a blip in these women's lives."

Maria shook her head-she already had one lover leave a mark...well, a child in her while being a blip in her life. "I couldn't imagine needing that right now."

"Well, you never know..." Mick winked.

There was a knock at the door, which caused Mick to stand up instead of continuing with his flirting. Something about the look that passed between the siblings showed how used they were to protecting people.

Mick walked back with Mark in tow and Reggie immediately objected. "You! What have you done, this time?!"

"Cool it, Crusader, I'm Baby-Daddy's guardian, not the ex. Just got back from ah... inadvertently destroying evidence."

"What?!" Maria wasn't sure she heard him right.

"Demons don't like failure. They lost, someone paid." The crow shrugged. " It's the risk that's taken any time I go after demon-spawn."

Since all three of them seemed to not get upset by that, Maria felt like she had no choice but to accept that Nico was gone that quickly. She didn't like her ex, but this was too much. She nearly bit her lip to keep from saying anything further.