Lloyd's P.O.V.:

Well it had been two weeks and my father was still in jail. I wanted to leave and go get him or at least check on him, but Ryder wouldn't let me leave. And me, still regretting all the pain and suffering Harumi put him through, couldn't bare to put my foot down. His utter adorableness wasn't helping either. I swear my boy has the element of cuteness and can use it as a weapon of manipulation.

Today I hoped that was going to change. Kira's friend Ava was a child psychologist from her work. She was finally back from vacation so Kira convinced me to make Ryder an appointment. I didn't think he needed it at first, but his behavior was getting out of control. I haven't left the house in two weeks unless Ryder was with me, and even then he was afraid to let me out of his sight or let go of my hand.

That wasn't the only problem we were having. Yesterday Kira felt the baby move for the first time. Sure we were excited, but we were also worried that people were going to find out about her pregnancy. Kira was starting to show a small baby bump and it was becoming more obvious that she was carrying a baby. We wouldn't be able to hide it much longer.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to hide. Harumi wouldn't be a threat and everyone would know and help us welcome our baby girl or boy into the world. Then the baby would be more of a welcomed surprise and not this huge, yet wonderful, inconvenience that we have to work around. It kills me every day that Kira had to hide her pregnancy, especially considering this is her first one. This was probably not the way she imagined this moment in her life and I feel like she doesn't get a choice if she wants to keep the baby safe. I hated doing this to her, but it would be for the best in the long run, for both her and our soon to be son or daughter.

Right after Ryder's therapy session, we had to go Kira's ultrasound. She had been stressing about it all week and in all honesty I was too. I know what you're thinking, but I never got to do any of this with Ryder. Harumi didn't want people finding out about Ryder, so we never did any of the hospital stuff up until he finally arrived. I was hoping this time it would be different, and it was. I got to help out with the baby this time but I felt like I should know more than I do considering I've been through this already. At least this time I get to be a good dad and be there for my wife when she needed me.

We all got ready to go and Kira drove us to the therapy clinic in my mother's car. I would have taken my dragon, but ever since Kira got pregnant flying makes her nauseous. Plus it was better this way so we could keep a low profile.

We arrived and checked Ryder in for his appointment. We were waiting in the waiting room for them to call his name. Ryder seemed nervous about it.

"Are you nervous bud?" I asked him.

"A little." He answered. "Is this like a check up?"

"Not exactly." Kira answered him. "Just relax."

"W-will I have to get a shot?" He asked nervously.

"Don't worry, you won't." I giggled. "This will be good for you."

"Ryder, we're ready for you." A lady with a name tag called with a smile.

Kira and I stood up and Ryder got scared and froze. I held out my hand and smiled.

"Don't worry bud, it's ok." I said. "We'll go in with you."

He loosened up a bit and grabbed my hand. We followed the lady to a room in the back. It was ninja themed and had posters and merchandise from the time Dareth was our manager.

"Look Daddy! That's you!" Ryder said pointing to a picture of me.

It was one from when I was a kid before the tomorrow's tea incident. I was surprised he remembered how I looked back then because he had only seen pictures in photo albums.

"Yeah that's right bud." I said.

"Nice bowl cut." Kira giggled and so did Ryder.

"That was the style back then." I said.

"Dr. Jones will be with you in a moment." The lady said quietly shutting the door.

I looked at my son and he seemed much more relaxed now. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

Kira's friend walked in and introduced herself.

"Hi, you must be Ryder." She smiled at my son.

"H-hi." He stuttered and leaned into me.

"Sorry, he's a little nervous." I apologized.

"Don't be nervous sweetie, this is a safe place." She assured him. "You can call me Dr. Jones."

"O-ok." He stuttered.

"Is it ok if I speak to Ryder alone?" She asked me. "I want to see how he does on his own."

"Will you be ok with that bud?" I asked him. "We'll be right outside."

To my surprise, he nodded and gave me a big hug. I was actually hoping he would do what he usually did when I leave a room so Ava could see it, but I wasn't complaining.

Kira and I exited the room. I hoped this was going to fix our problem.

Narrator's P.O.V.:

"Before we get started, why don't we get to know each other a little." Ava said to Ryder. "Tell me about your family Ryder."

"I live in a big monastery with my dad and my mom, well she's not my real mom, but she's better." He said. "Oh and I'm also going to be a big brother soon."

"I bet that's exciting." Ava smiled. Kira had told her about the baby beforehand just in case Ryder mentioned it. "Are you nervous about becoming a big brother?"

"A little but I'm excited."

"And what about your parents? Where do they work?"

"My Daddy's the green ninja." Ryder said.

"Is he home with you a lot?" Ava asked.

"Yes but sometimes he goes on missions." He frowned.

"And do those missions take a long time?"

"Sometimes he's gone for days and sometimes for weeks."

"Does it bother you when he's gone for a long time?" She asked.

"It didn't used to but he gets hurt sometimes. That bothers me when he's not careful." He frowned. "He's the only Dad I have."

"And your real mom, where is she?" Ava asked.

Ryder went silent and looked away from her. He wasn't sure what to say about it. Ava knew a little about what his mother had put him through, but she didn't know the whole story and wanted to hear Ryder's side to better help him.

"You know what, let's try something else." Ava dismissed. "Do you like to draw?"

Ryder turned back to her and nodded. She told him to sit down a small table in the corner of the room. Then she handed him a small box of crayons and a piece of paper.

"Now can you draw me a picture of your family please?" Ava asked him.

"Ok." Ryder nodded and started coloring on his paper.

"While you're doing that, I'm going to step out for a second and talk to your parents. Is that ok?"

Ryder nodded and Ava went outside the room to talk to Lloyd and Kira.

Lloyd's P.O.V.:

Ava came out into the hallway, but she didn't have Ryder with her. I was already freaking out enough.

"How are things going?" I asked.

"Everything is going just fine, I actually wanted to talk to you." She told me.

"Me? Why?" I asked.

"Because it's obvious that Ryder's bothered by something when you leave him for your missions." She said.

"He didn't do it back there, but whenever I have to leave he starts to get a little clingy and won't let me go." I explained. "It's not just my missions either."

"Now I understand he's been through some trauma with his biological mother yes?"

"That's a long story." I sighed.

"Was it recent?" Ava asked.

"I rescued him from his mother a little over a year ago." I told her. "She's in Kryptarian now and I have full custody of Ryder."

"I see." Ava wrote something down on her clipboard. "Do you discuss it with him at all?"

"I do when he brings it up, but I honestly didn't think he would remember any of that." I admitted. "He was really young when it all happened."

"Is that what's been bothering him lately?" Kira asked.

"It's hard to tell at this point. Kids his age usually take a while to open up." Ava said.

"He just needs to get over his separation issues with Lloyd." Kira said. "It's been hard for Lloyd to leave the house when Ryder's not with him and with us trying to hide the baby soon I won't be able to leave the house either."

I saw the partially panicked look on Kira's face and I felt so guilty. She had to hide to keep it safe, but I could tell she didn't want to. I didn't want her too either, but unfortunately we didn't get a choice.

"Lloyd?" Kira got my attention.

"Oh sorry, I'm fine." I lied.

"Well I definitely see some separation anxiety between you both." Ava said. "It's not an easy fix, but there are some things you can do to help him."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well you can start by being separated on a temporary basis. Like if you're taking a quick trip to the store." She suggested. "It's all about baby steps."

"We'll try that, thank you." I said.

She went back into the room to check on Ryder. I turned to Kira.

"Kira, I know this wasn't the way you planned for this moment." I looked at her stomach and sighed. "It's my fault that we have to hide it and I can tell you're not ok with that."

"I told you that I was willing to do anything I had to keep our child safe, no matter what it takes." She smiled and held my hand. "And I can't imagine having this baby with anyone else but you."

"I just don't want this one to go through what Ryder did." I frowned.

"It won't." She smiled at me. "Not with both of us here to protect it."

"Thank you for being so cool about this."

"Of course." She smiled and held her stomach. "Anything for little Casey or Jane."

"You mean little Carter or Riley right?"

"We don't even know the gender yet."

"Well your about two months along so we should know this afternoon." I smiled. "That is, if you want to know."

"I don't want to know if you don't want to know."

"Well it's up to you, it's your baby."

She grabbed my hand and smiled. "Our baby."

Narrator's P.O.V.:

Ava walked backed into the room and saw that Ryder was done coloring. He showed it to her.

Ryder had drawn him in the middle holding hands with Kira on his left side and Lloyd on his right. He had also drawn his grandmother next to Lloyd. But in the corner there was a sad looking white haired figure with three big vertical lines colored over her. Ava thought that must have been Ryder's mother.

"Ryder, can you tell me about her?" Ava pointed to the drawing of the woman.

"She's in jail because she hurt me." Ryder frowned. "She hurt my daddy too."

"Are you afraid of her?"

"No, my daddy will protect me."

"And when he's not around who protects you then?"

"Mama K or my grandma, but they don't protect me like my daddy does." Ryder frowned.

"I see." Ava said. "Are you ready to bring your parents back in here now?"

Ryder nodded and Ava opened the door and told Lloyd and Kira to come in. Ryder ran to Lloyd, gave him a big hug, and set on his lap.

"Hey bud." Lloyd smiled and ruffled his son's hair.

"Did he do ok?" Kira asked Ava.

"Oh he did fine." She told her. "Ryder, do you wanna tell them what we talked about?"

Ryder shook his head and leaned into Lloyd.

"It's ok bud, you don't have to." Lloyd told him. He took out a dollar from his pocket and gave it to Ryder. "Here bud, why don't you go get a snack from the vending machine."

"Thanks Daddy." He smiled and went out of the room.

While they were alone, Ava told Kira and Lloyd everything she was allowed to say about Ryder and what he had told her. She showed Lloyd the picture and told him what he had said about Harumi.

Lloyd's P.O.V.:

As I was looking at the picture Ryder drew. I was a bit concerned about what Ryder had said about Harumi. The experience must still be traumatizing for him and I'm an idiot for not seeing that.

It also reminded me that my father was still in jail and had been for two weeks. We never told Ryder that he was arrested because the whole thing would be too complicated for him.

"What can we do to help him?" Kira asked.

"Well the problem is that whenever Lloyd isn't there, he doesn't feel protected." Ava said.

"I love my son, and if I could be around him all the time I would, but I can't." I told her. "And as hard as I try, I can't bring myself to say no to Ryder when he begs me to stay."

"I can see that." Ava said. "Do you think that maybe you're afraid to leave him?"

"I just don't want what happened to him before to happen to him again." I frowned. Maybe I was scared to leave him alone.

"It won't, you have us to help you now." Kira smiled. "You need to trust we can protect Ryder just as good as you can."

"And I do, but now I have you and the new baby to protect." I said looking at Kira's stomach. "I can't take that risk."

Just then Ryder walked back into the room eating a chocolate bar. I looked at the clock and realized that we were going to be late for Kira's ultrasound.

"You ready to go bud?" I asked him.

"Mhmm." He nodded with his mouth full.

"Ok come on." Kira said getting up and taking his hand.

"Thank you." I told Ava.

"No problem, see you next week." She said.

We finished our good byes and we got back in the car. Ryder had fallen asleep in the back seat after two minutes. I thought Kira was driving us to the hospital, but then she pulled up on Kryptarian Prison instead.

"Kira, why did you stop here?" I asked.

"Because you deserve to talk to your father." She whispered so she wouldn't wake Ryder. "We'll Wait in the car and Harumi won't even we're here."

"But won't we be late?" I questioned.

"I'll call the place and tell them we'll be late, I'm sure they won't mind." She winked.

"Ok but be careful." I kissed her on the cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too." She kissed me back. "Now hurry before he wakes up."

I went into the prison and told the warden to let me speak to my father. He agreed and led me to the visiting center with a glass window between us both. We were talking through the telephones.

"Hey Dad." I said to him.

"I told you not to come here." He said.

"You can ground me later, right now I'm in a hurry." I said.

"Why did it take you two weeks?" He asked. "You usually disobey me quicker than that."

"Sorry, it's a long story. Ryder wouldn't let me leave the house and with everything else going on with Kira and the... well you know."

"About that." My father interrupted.

"Oh no, does she know?" I worried.

"She knows that Kira is carrying a baby, but..."

"Dad I can't believe you told her!" I screamed. "Mom was right, I never should've trusted you."

"Lloyd, let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain, I trusted you and now my whole family is in danger."

"I don't know why you're freaking out so now, the baby isn't even yours." He said.

I froze as my eyes widened. What did he mean it wasn't mine? Did Kira... no she wouldn't do that, much less tell my dad of all people. Maybe my father was trying to get me to shut up so I would listen. Well if that was the case, it worked.

"Why so shocked, you knew she was a surrogate for another family from her work." He winked at me and pointed to the phones.

I take that meant that Harumi could have been listening in on us. I wasn't sure if she was or not, but with Kira and Ryder right outside, I couldn't afford to take any chances. I nodded and went along with that cover story.

"Oh of course I knew that." I went along with it. "I just wanted to make sure that's what you told her, because that's the truth and nothing but the truth."

"I didn't exactly tell her, she partly figured it out on her own."

"Why am I not surprised?" I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry about my outburst back there, I thought that you..."

"It's ok son." He said. "I understand how you would think that I would lie and put your family in danger, but I'm a changed person now."

"I promise, I'll get you out of here."

"No rush son, I'll be ok." He smiled. "You better get back to your family. I'm sure Ryder needs you."

"Yeah you know him, he keeps me busy." I laughed. "Thanks Dad, I owe you one."

"You owe me two, I did save your life." He reminded me.

"Ok, two." I agreed. "I'll come back and visit when I can."

"See you later son." Dad smiled.

I left the place with a smile on my face. Thanks to my dad, we wouldn't have to hide Kira's pregnancy anymore, at least for a little while anyway. I don't know how we would explain why we still had the baby after it was born, but I'm glad my dad brought some time.

I got back in the car and quietly shut the door behind me. I looked in the back seat and Ryder was still sound asleep. I looked at Kira and hugged her.

"Thank you." I whispered.

"Of course." She smiled.

She started the car and we headed to the hospital.

"So I take it that it went well?" Kira asked.

"It went great." I told her. "In fact, I think my father may have solved all of our problems."

Yep, that's the first time I've ever said that.

"How so?" She asked.

"Well Harumi found out that you were pregnant, but my dad came up with an idea." I said.

I explained the whole situation that my dad had told me. Kira was a bit on the fence at first.

"So are we just supposed to tell the whole world that I'm a surrogate?" Kira asked.

"You're missing the big picture." I said. "If we use this cover story, you won't have to hide your pregnancy and Harumi won't be after the baby."

"I know that, but what do we do after the baby's born?" She asked. "I'm really looking forward to the whole mom thing and I don't think I have the heart to give it up for adoption and abortion is not an option."

"Relax, I don't want to do that either." I assured her.

Kira doesn't know this, but if I hadn't found out Harumi was pregnant when I did, Ryder wouldn't have been born. I can't remember how many times I had to talk her out of aborting Ryder, so I was glad Kira felt the same way I do.

"Ok so then what do we do?" I asked.

"I don't know, but we can think of something." I said. "We can make this work."

"If you can find a way to make sure we can keep it, then I guess we can use the cover story." Kira said.

"We've got seven more months, I'm sure we'll think of something by then." I said.

"And what about Ryder?" She asked.

"Oh right." I thought about it. "Well we'll just make sure he doesn't the opportunity to tell anyone that doesn't already know."

"Ok, but that means we have to keep an eye on him. You know I love that kid, but I'm not sure he can keep a secret this big."

"I don't think that will be a problem." I said.

We pulled into the parking garage at the hospital and we walked inside. I was carrying Ryder because I didn't want him to wake up from his nap and get cranky. We checked Kira in for her appointment and now we were waiting for the doctor to come back.

I was sitting with Ryder still asleep in my lap. He was adorable but also heavy. My shoulder was still bothering me a little when I lift something too heavy or when I did something too stressful.

"Are you alright?" Kira asked me.

"I'm good." I nodded. "Are you nervous?"

"A little." She said.

"Don't worry, it's gonna be fine." I assured her.

The doctor came in and then Ryder woke up. The doctor got Kira ready and I set next to her and held her hand. Then the baby showed up on the screen we all smiled.

"What is that?" Ryder asked.

"Ryder, that's your new little brother or sister." I told him.

"Well which one is it?" He asked.

"Do you guys want to know?" The doctor asked me and Kira.

"It's your call Kira." I told her.

"I think I'll leave this one up to Ryder." Kira looked at him.

"What do you think bud?" I asked him. "Do you want to know if your getting a brother or sister?"

"Tell us! Tell us!" He chanted.

Kira smiled and squeezed my hand. I pulled Ryder into a hug to keep him from getting too excited.

"Congratulations, you're having a baby girl." He said.

The biggest smile appeared on Kira's face, and on mine too. I was so excited to be getting a daughter of my very own. I couldn't wait until my baby girl got here.

"Awe man, I wanted a brother." Ryder frowned.

"I'm sure when your sister gets here you'll be happy to have her." I assured him.

I was actually glad Ryder was going to be a big brother. I didn't have any brothers or sisters growing up other than the ninja, so I was glad Ryder was going to have someone to play with.

"Ok." He sighed. "Do you think she'll like me?"

"She's gonna love you Ryder." Kira smiled. "You'll be the best big brother ever."

"She'll also have the best mother ever." I whispered.

We all walked out of there feeling so happy. And I was ecstatic to be getting a baby girl. All we had to do now, was keep her safe.