It was a fairly normal day in the Murphy household, the household of Milo and Amanda Murphy, that is. Amanda was going about her normal business, since it was a Saturday, she was catching up on all the chores that she couldn't schedule during the week; and Milo was doing home repair of things Murphy's Law had broken during the week. But, there was something a teeny bit different this week, that being that Milo was noticeably focusing on indoor repair, where he could keep an eye on Amanda. Why? Because Amanda was pregnant with their first child, and Milo was watching to see if a certain symptom would appear, a very Murphy centered symptom. Namely, if the child was a boy, the fetus would start to attract Murphy's Law to it, and by incident the mother as well. Right now, Amanda was twelve weeks along, which is about the time it starts to show up, but it was hard for Milo to tell when he was around, so he eventually decided to go fix the asteroid early warning system, which had been damaged by a freak, localized hailstorm on Wednesday. Everything was a quiet in the house while he was up on the roof, so Milo had relaxed a little, but then-

CRASH!

"Ah!"

"Amanda!" Milo gasped, going to climb off the roof to check on her, only for one of the rungs on his ladder to snap in half and drop him eight feet to the ground, not that it really got in his way, since he got right up and ran into the house. "Amanda, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Amanda breathed, looking to be cleaning up some glass shards. Milo looked around the kitchen and pieced together what had happened, next to Amanda on the floor was a cabinet door, and the glass shards looked to be the remains of plates. The door must have fallen off its hinges, letting a bunch of plates fall out and shatter.

"You yelled, I just wanted to make sure." Milo walked over, making sure Amanda hadn't scratched her hands on the glass, just to be safe.

"I'm fine, the plates just fell a little close, and I was surprised to have Murphy's Law acting up while you were up on the roof, did you come down early for a drink or something?" Amanda asked as she got up from her crouched position on the floor, a dustpan full of glass in her hand.

"No, I was up on the roof when it happened." Milo looked to the side, before turning to Amanda again. "Can ask you something?"

"Milo, you know you can ask me anything, what's wrong?" She asked as she inspected the ground for any leftover shards, glancing up at Milo with a genuine look for a second before continuing her inspection.

"Have you noticed… things falling over a lot this week at work? Maybe people tripping a few times, or maybe an animal got into the office?" Milo counted of as the ideas came into his noggin. Amanda stopped her inspecting of the floor and adopted a thoughtful look, seeming to realize something.

"Now that you mention it, yes, there was been a bit of that going on. With all these pregnancy hormones swarming around, I was convinced that I had been imagining it. Why do you ask?" Amanda looked at Milo, who now had on an ear to ear grin. "Why are you smiling like tha-" Milo swooped her up into his best puppy-bear hug, laughing and rambling on about something at speeds she couldn't understand. "What's going on!? You know I hate being out of the loop."

Milo separated from her, before putting his hands on her stomach.

"It's a boy!" Milo said in his best whisper yell, smile looking it might just split his face in half.

"We're having a boy?" Amanda smiled, returning the hug, but she let him go as soon as she thought of the sequence of events. "Wait, how do you know?"

"He's got Murphy's Law! That's why there's been so many accidents around you this week. The baby is attracting Murphy's Law to you in small amounts." Milo hands were still planted on her stomach, he looked down to talk to it in a baby-ish voice. "You little stinker, you go easy on her."

"The baby can do that? Wait, how does that work? How bad will the Murphy's Law get!? I don't have a schedule for this!"

"Hey, hey, don't worry, it won't be bad, I can help you prepare for all the things that can go wrong. The worst that will happen is things falling over and maybe an occasional animal attack, Murphy's Law won't even be that bad for the baby until he is around a year old, and it won't reach my levels until he's in his teens." Milo finally removed his hands, starting to speak a little faster. "I can make you a purse with everything you'll need, but I'll have to call Mom and Dad to get their opinion on what should be in there. Oh, I need to go tell them!" Milo was talking very fast by the time he finished, but Amanda caught what he said, and stopped him before he could dial his dad's number.

"We agreed that we weren't telling people I was pregnant until we were positive the baby will survive, week fourteen, remember." She said, slipping the phone out of Milo's mildly shaky hand. "That's a plan."

"I know, but we're having a boy, the Murphy name lives on, and so does Murphy's Law, it's a big deal."

"Milo." Amanda said in such a tone that Milo knew she wasn't going to budge on her plan.

"Alright… They can wait." He said, smiling again. "I can't believe we're having a little boy. But… until I can make you a safety kit, between me and the baby, while we're both home you should wear this." And pop, a bright purple helmet was put on her head. "There."

"Good call." She chuckled, buckling her helmet. "At least it's a nice color."

"I've never seen anybody look better in polycarbonate plastic." Milo said, giving her a little peck on the nose.

…Later that night…

Amanda and Milo slid into bed, all dressed up in their PJ's. Now, normally after a long day of chores, they'd either go straight to sleep or… other, but tonight Milo was right at her side, holding her close, hands over her lower abdomen. Today Milo was in his 'big, cuddly, puppy of a man' mode, as Melissa called it.

"We're having a boy." Milo whispered over her shoulder into her ear. Amanda rolled her eyes. There had been a lot of that today. She turned around in Milo's arms so that she was facing him.

"Do you think he'll look like you? Could I be having a mini Milo?" Amanda smiled at the possibility.

"I don't know if you'd want that, my mom says that if I hadn't been born so early I would have been a huge newborn. I was born nearly a month early and still weighed seven pounds. Plus, do you really want our kid to keep the baby fat on his face as long as I did? Poor kid."

"Yes, because your chubby cheeks were the cutest thing about you in middle school." She pinched one of his cheeks, before giving it a pat. "And didn't really mean exactly like you… but is there really a chance that our baby could be that big?"

"Mhm, Dad says over the years Murphy's have been having bigger and bigger babies, something about survival of the fittest and bigger babies being sturdier and making it easier to live through infanthood. Doesn't really matter, though, only around twenty percent of male Murphy babies make it to week 40 before the mother goes into labor." Mio shrugged. "Don't worry too much about it… I wonder if he'll like the accordion."

"I don't know, but maybe you can lay to him when he starts hearing things outside the womb, so that he can get used to it."

"Maybe we can start off small with a concertina, build up to accordion." Milo pressed his forehead against the top of her head. "Do you think he'll want to play an instrument?"

"With you, Zack, Melissa, and Mort around? Definitely."

"When he's big enough, we can give him a tambourine. Just Getting Started can use an itty bitty tambourine player."

"I can show him about scheduling and order, and you'll have someone to go fishing and skiing with. Somebody in the house who can relate with your condition, when he gets older." Amanda said, choosing to change the subject.

"Yeah… That sounds pretty great." Milo said softly before looking at Diogee, who once he determined that nothing was going down with his owners that night, had curled up on his corner of the bed. "Do you think Diogee will like the baby?" Diogee's ears perked up at his name, turning his head to look at Milo. "Yeah, we're talking about you now."

"I think he'll be a good dog-brother, if his protectiveness over you is any indication." Amanda said, glancing back at the old dog. "Do you think he'll make it long enough for the baby to remember him, he's pretty old."

"Don't say things like that," Milo said shaking his head, before addressing Diogee, "you got a good five or six years left in you, don't you, Diogee?" Diogee gave a little bark before curling back to sleep. "See he's fine."

"Sure." Amanda shook her head. She didn't know what Milo was going to do when Diogee passes. "We should probably get to bed. Goodnight, Milo."

"Goodnight." Milo gave her a little kiss and she rolled over to go to sleep.

Milo rolled onto his back and put on his sleep mask to go to bed, but he was too excited to sleep. A boy! He was going to be a dad to a little Murphy. He would have been happy to have a little girl to play with and pamper, but this was great. He would have someone in the house that really understood the sort of random problems he would encounter during the day. But… that would mean the baby would get in as much trouble as he was in as a kid. Milo put a hand over his chest, over a specific scar that he couldn't even remember getting, it was really a ghost of a scar more than anything else. His chest has had to been cut open a few times over the course of his life, but the first time was when he was a little over a year old. His chest had been crushed by a big book and they had to cut him open to do repairs. Now all that was left of that was a tiny, faded white line below his clavicle, but he very well could have been permanently damaged by that incident, or worse; and there hadn't been anything his parents could have done to stop it, they had taken their eyes off him for two seconds because Sara needed help with her reading and the TV had caught on fire. Something like that could happen to his child. And then a memory came to mind that frightened him more.

"Hey, Mommy, what is that scar on your head?" Milo asked, peaking into his parents bathroom. They were getting ready to go to one of Bridgette's cousin's wedding, and so they had to all get all dolled up. Bridgette herself was dressed and currently putting up her makeup, so she had her bangs pulled back, revealing a scar that went into her hairline.

"Hey, pal, aren't you supposed to be getting dressed?"

"I'm all dressed, I promise!" Milo stepped out into his mother's view. Doing a little spin so she could see his dress clothes and red clip on tie. "What happened to your head?"

"It's nothing, sweetheart, it's just a scar I got when I was pregnant with you. Murphy's Law happened and a pot fell on my head, cracked my head open." She explained, finishing up her makeup and letting her hair back down.

"Didn't that hurt?"

"Yeah, but you and me both survived and that was what matters."

"…So, you got hurt because of me?" Milo asked, eyes looking pitifully sad, shuffling his feet like he was guilty of something.

"No, no! It wasn't your fault, it was Murphy's Law." She went over and gave him a hug. "There was nothing you did, you weren't even born yet."

"Okay…" He nodded, smiling up at her a little.

If his mother got hurt, even after being married to his dad for a few years, then what could happen to Amanda, who is a lot less used to Murphy's Law then his mother would have been when she was pregnant with him. Between him and the baby, Amanda could get seriously hurt, or worse, killed. It was one thing if a Murphy's Law accident made her loss the baby, they could make more babies, but he only had one her. If he lost them both… He shook his head. He shouldn't think of that. He needed to sleep.

…The Next Morning…

Amanda woke up, having just had the nicest dream about her baby boy. In the dream, Milo had been playing with him, tickling him, and everything had been calm. She liked having dreams like that. She rolled over, expecting to see Milo either dead asleep or smiling back at her, but Milo's spot in the bed was empty. That was weird, Milo normally left a note or something, but there was nothing. She shook it off, with some difficulty, as seeing Milo next to her was a part of her morning routine. He probably got up early to fix something. Amanda got up and went to the kitchen, and just like every Sunday Milo was cooking breakfast, and just like every morning there were two stacks of food, one burned to crisp, and one that was actually edible; but even amongst all this friendly familiarity there was a strange feeling that made her feel uneasy.

"Good morning, Milo." Amanda smiled, sitting down in front of her already made plate.

"Morning. How's the baby?" Milo asked, and Amanda felt a little perturbed. Milo sounded… different, not mean or malicious, but sort of withdrawn? That was weird for Milo.

"He's okay." Amanda said, picking up her fork and starting to cut her egg into even pieces. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Milo said, switching off the oven and fixing himself a plate. "Sorry I'm up so early, a tree crashed into the backyard and I've been cleaning it up. I'm probably going to be rushing through breakfast to get outside and finish. Now that you're awake I can use the big saw."

"Okay, maybe I can come watch you, make sure you're safe."

"That's okay, I'll be fine on my own. You were really busy yesterday, so you should stay inside for the day. You can catch up on all your shows." True to his word, he hastily cut his egg into huge chunks and shoved them and started to shove them into his mouth.

"Good point. My schedule is wide open, after all!" She smiled. After several years, with Milo's help, she scaled down from extensive scheduling everyday, to regular scheduling on weekdays and lax scheduling on weekends. She was honestly find with that, because the weekend was her time with Milo and any schedule she did would have to be thrown out anyway. She wondered if their little boy would be into order like she was, or more of a free spirit like Milo. Or maybe a mix of the two? Maybe he'd take after his grandparents, that could always happen.

Soon after the tree was chopped up, Milo got it hauled away. Amanda had expected him to join her on the couch to watch TV, but instead he said that he needed to do something and disappeared into town for the day. When he got back that afternoon, they watched the newest episode of the Dr. Zone spin off, but something was still… off. Milo wasn't being as snuggly as he usually was, now it wasn't like Milo was a snuggle muffin all the time, he'd pull away every once in awhile, some sort of weird guy thing she didn't understand quite yet; but this was different. Colder, not really mean or malicious, but… cold. Amanda was sure it would be fine, it was probably something to do with the baby. He was excited yesterday, he must finally be settling into the reality of the situation and what them having a little boy means. He would pull back soon enough.

But, then a week past, and Milo was still keeping his distance. He also seemed extra weary, like he might not have been sleeping well. She'd tried to ask him about it, but he brushed it off. That was normal enough, though, Milo wasn't big on other's worrying about him. One thing she had underestimated how important Milo was to her daily rhythms, and it was starting to make his distance itchy for her brain. She didn't want to push him, so she called up the only person she knew that was an expert on Murphy men, and what they were like when they found out they were going to be a father to a Murphy boy: Bridgette Murphy.

"Amanda, sweetie, it's been a minute since we talked, how are things going?"

"Hello, Mrs. Murphy. Things are okay…" Amanda cringed inwardly at her less then okay tone.

"Are you sure, you sound upset?"

"I need ask you about something, but to talk about it I need to tell you a secret. You can't tell Milo I told you, because we aren't telling people yet."

"Aren't telling people?"

"I'm pregnant."

"Oh my gosh, Amanda, that's fantastic! I'm so happy for you two."

"There's more, there has been some… Murphy's Law activity around me when Milo's not around."

"A boy? That's great Amanda, Milo must be so excited."

"He was the first day, but… that's why I called. When Mr. Murphy found out Milo was going to be a boy, did he start acting different?"

"I can't say so, but I'm somewhat of a Milo expert, so maybe I can still give you a hand."

"It's just that Milo has been sort of distant, and just… not my Milo, and I was hoping you could help. He's been making excuses to be out of the house, he get's out of bed earlier, last night he even slept on the couch! A few days ago I think he might have let a table break on purpose so he could leave to get a new one."

"Right… I think I know what's going on. You know how Milo can be protective of others when it comes to Murphy's Law?"

"Milo might love it, but when and if others get hurt because of Murphy's Law…" She had only seen it a few times, because Milo was normally good about handling situations that it was rare that anybody got hurt that wasn't him; but when it did happen, Milo always took it hard.

"Well, I think this might be an expansion of that. He's gone and gotten himself all in a twist about the possibility that you or the baby can get hurt with all the extra Murphy's Law whirling around. You and that baby are the most important things to him, and the best way to make sure you and the baby are safe…"

"Is to stay away." Amanda finished her sentence. "What do I do?"

"Well, you could try and talk to him, but if I know Milo, he's missing you as much as you miss him. He'll probably come to you, and soon."

"You think so?"

"I do. And Amanda? Congratulations."

"Thank you." She smiled, before saying her good byes and hanging up.

Meanwhile, across town, Milo had taken an early lunch break to go get lunch with his dad. He needed to talk to someone about this thing with the baby. He could tell that Amanda was bothered, but he didn't know what to do. He couldn't lose her or the baby. They were worth too much.

"So, how are things going with you and Amanda? Good, I hope." Martin smiled at his boy, who wasn't really a boy anymore, but a young man; yet, he'd always be his little boy.

"Yeah, about her, when you found out that I was going to be a little boy, how… was that?" That was a really awkward way to ask that question.

"I was elated. Don't tell me, is Amanda?" Martin's already smile grew into full grin.

"Little boy. Thirteen weeks along." Milo smiled a little at the thought. As worried as he was, he was still happy. A little boy, his boy.

"Milo, that's fantastic! Congratulations." He reached across the table and gave Milo a pat on the shoulder.

"It is, it's great. Amanda is excited, I'm excited too… but, I'm a little worried. When you found out, weren't you worried that I might get hurt? That Mom might get hurt?" Milo fidgeted, looking visually nervous now.

"I guess I was a little worried, that comes with the package for lots of fathers, I think, though the matter might be a little more pressing a threat for Murphys, all things considered." Seeing that that didn't help alleviate Milo's anxiety any, Martin decided to try something a little different. "Milo, you shouldn't freak out about this too much. A Murphy hasn't died from a Murphy's Law accident in decades. Safety regulations in most places are higher and stricter than they've ever been. So long as you and Amanda are vigilant, there shouldn't be any problems. If I'm being honest, you and Amanda might be one of the most capable couples to raise a Murphy we've seen in a while. Between your ability to handle emergencies and think quickly, and Amanda's planning abilities, I don't think there is much of anything that could be thrown at you or the baby that you two couldn't handle. So long as prepare properly."

"You think so?" Milo gave a small smile, feeling considerably lighter than before.

"I know so." Martin grinned back, happy that he had seemed to get through to Milo. "I think we still have some baby books around, if you'd like those; and I'd be glad to come over and give the house a nice inspection before the baby arrives."

"That'd be great. It'd also probably help if you could teach me a bit about how to do a house inspection, so that I can do them myself in the future."

"Good idea. So, have you thought about names yet?"

…Later that night…

Amanda had been waiting for Milo for two hours. She had been kept busy with her shows, but the Dr. Zone Reboot was coming on in a few minutes, so she hoped he got home soon, because having to pause the show until he got back would tax even her patience if he was gone too long. Thankfully, just as she thought about it, Milo walked in the front door. He was smiling and gripping his backpack straps in the way that he gripped them when he was excited about something.

"Amanda, I have to show you something- well, I need to talk to you," Milo scratched the back of his neck, shuffling his feet. Amanda was familiar with this sort of reaction in Milo. He was feeling guilty. At least he was acting like Milo again. The cowlicked man walked over and sat next to his wife. "I need to talk to you, then show you something."

"Okay." Amanda said, smiling and putting a hand on his leg. She ran her thumb back and forth over his knee to calm his nerves a little.

"I'm… sorry that I've been so weird this past week. It really wasn't okay, I just got really in my own head about the baby, and Murphy's Law, and I just… I'm sorry. I know that all my weirdness must have offset your patterns, I know how crazy that makes you feel." Milo leaned over and swooped her up in a hug. Amanda smiled and hugged him back, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"Well, that is true, but I also love you, and miss you when you aren't around." Milo started to rub little circles on her back, hugging onto her even tighter. Amanda's smile grew, there her Milo was. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

"I know, I just… Can I just pull the 'Dumb Husband with Poor Communication Skills' card?" Milo asked and Amanda snorted in mild amusement.

"Just this once, but never again. And you're not dumb, you just did a dumb thing. How many times have you asked me how I was, and I said I was fine, when I wasn't fine?"

"Plenty, but I think this might be a little more drastic than that."

"Only by a little, though." Amanda pulled away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay now, yeah." Milo nodded. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay now too." She nodded back at him, prompting him to light up like a Christmas tree.

"Great, now that that is over with, I have a surprise." He reached back into his backpack, and pulled out a sizable bright magenta bag. "Tada! It's all filled with supplies to protect you from falling objects and animal attacks, as well as plenty of vitamins, and non-perishable snacks incase the baby gets hungry."

"This is great, Milo, and the purse is so pretty too!" Amanda said, taking the purse and getting a better look at it. She then hugged it to her chest. "It's like I got my own backpack. Thank you."

"It's no problem. Melissa actually helped me pick it out. Don't worry, I didn't tell her about the baby, I just told her that I had made you mad and was trying to bribe you with a gift."

"Good cover." She was clearly less then pleased with his excuse.

"I also got this while I was browsing for supplies." Milo pulled out a tiny blue onesie with a monkey on it. "It's pretty cute, yeah?"

"It's adorable, Milo." Amanda plucked the thing out of his hands and examining it closer before reaching over and giving Milo a hug that he readily returned. There was her cuddly puppy of a husband.

"You know, I was thinking, maybe we should have a dinner with Melissa, Zack, and your parents tomorrow to tell them about the baby."

"That sounds like a great idea, but… can we maybe wait a few days? I haven't been sleeping much because I've been stressing about the baby…" Amanda noticed how tired Milo looked now. She wouldn't be surprised he gotten more than ten hours over the last four days. And honestly, she was pretty tired too. They could both use a breather.

"You're right. How about Wednesday?"

"Wednesday it is." He said, giving her a peck on the lips. Things were going to be alright.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Aggghhhh, this story didn't turn out well, but it took so much damn time that I'm posting it anyway. Now I can start my next fic, and I won't give any details, but it's going to be a little different then my normal sort of fluff. Just need to finish some planning before I get started.