Barrel was in town trying to steal candy when he heard the news. He liked that everyone was distracted enough for him to be able to take pretty much anything he wanted, but part of him missed the excitement of getting caught and being able to outrun any of the older residents of Halloween town. There was no fun without the challenge.
"We're having a baby," He heard Jack say, making him jerk his head over in that direction fast enough to give himself whiplash. There they were, the newlyweds, announcing that they were going to have a baby. The first thing Barrel could think to do-- after, of course, stealing all the candy that his little arms could hold-- was run back to the treehouse and tell Lock and Shock the big news.
But by the time he got back, the Mayor had gotten in his car and was broadcasting it in all the parts of Halloween town around the town itself. Which meant that the news had gotten to Lock and Shock before Barrel came tumbling in, trying to keep a hold of his candy.
"This would be the best time to get back at them!" Shock was saying just as the cage elevator came up into the treehouse and Barrel was manuvering to unlock the door. "They'll be completly distracted by the new baby! They won't even see it coming!"
Lock was sitting in the couch, listening to Shock. Although Barrel could guess that he was really only half listening, Lock never completely listened to Shock unless she was saying something that interested him. Judging by the look on his face, she was only being half-interesting at this particular moment.
"But we should tell Oogie," she added, very diplomatically. She was positive that Oogie would have a fool-proof plan to get back at Jack for what he did to their leader only two years before. They needed a fool-proof plan too, Lock and Barrel could mess everything up.
So all three of the Oogie's boys went to Oogie to let him know about Jack and Sally's expecting child. They were all excited about what dastardly plan he had in mind, but they were more eager to just cause trouble instead of getting back at Jack. But Oogie would want revenge, and if they got to have some fun making nuicences of themselves, why not kill two birds with one stone?
They didn't go down into Oogie's lair, they were nowhere near brave enough to do that. They just went to the tube sticking out of the wall that they would feed him bugs through and talked through that. Oogie had been busy re-doing his lair ever since they ressurected him. He needed to fix the slot machine gunmen that Jack had destroyed last time he was there, and the gear that turned the cold rock slab towards the boiling lava and back was starting to rust from the two-years it was out of service.
But when he heard Lock, Shock, and Barrel's plan to strike while Sally was with child, he felt a smile grow on his face. They were going to have a little brat of their own, who'da thunk it? It wasn't just going to be any brat either, it was going to be the brat that helped him get his revenge on Jack for what he did to him two years before. Those bratty little kids upstairs might just be in it for the ride, oh but Oogie was in it to see true pain in that blasted skeleton's empty eyesockets.
"Don't touch that little ragdoll or Jack," Oogie ordered strongly, and wasn't happy to hear the protesting whines of his little worker bees. "I've got a plan, and it involves you three leaving those two alone until I say otherwise. Got it?"
They were too scared of Oogie to disobey him. They didn't want to end up on his blacklist, people on his blacklist tend to disappear into nothingness. So they agreed not to do anything to Jack or Sally, no matter how much they wanted to.
----------
Jack and Sally went to see Dr. Finklestein later that afternoon. He hadn't been in town when they made the announcement, but they were sure that he'd heard it when the mayor shouted it to the heavens through the giant megaphone on his car. If he had, then Jack promised Sally he would take full responsability for not letting him know sooner. If not, then it would be the exact same as if they had told him first.
Unfortunately, he'd heard the mayor.
"Hello Dr!" Jack said when he and Sally came in through the door, his voice echoing through the big hollow metal entryway. Finklestein moved his wheelchair over to the side of the ramp to see who was at the door.
"Well, if it isn't my son-in-law!" He shouted back, "Whats this I've been hearing about Sally being with child?"
"You heard?" Jack asked as he and Sally started walking up the spiral ramp to meet the Dr. at the top.
"With that mayor's blasted blowhorn of a car, I suspect they heard the news all the way in Christmas town." He said, "And, of course, the one who created the mother-to-be is the very last person in town to know."
"I'm afraid thats my fault," Jack said while Sally tried not to shrink away beside him. "Sally wanted us to tell you yesturday when we came back, but I wanted to wait until today."
Finklestein laughed. "You two didn't waste any time, did you?"
Jack laughed too, but remembered to give Sally a gentle rub on the shoulder so she wouldn't start trying to disappear again. He just wanted to remind her that nothing could hurt her while he was around. Not even embarrasing words from her father.
The three of them sat down to a cup of tea with Jewel, Sally's mother-figure, talking about Sally's pregnancy and how it should go. He'd created her afterall, he should be in the know in how she would give birth.
"If the little thing is anything like it's mother you'll have your hands full my boy," Finklestein said as Jewel poured him another cup. "Heres some advice: If it makes you soup and it smells funny, don't eat it."
Jewel lightly hit him in the arm. "You shouldn't make jokes," she said sternly, "Poor Sally is going to have enough trouble as it is without you making fun of her." She put her hand on Sally's arm, "Dear, take my advice: rest up all you can now. You probably won't get a lot of sleep when the baby is crying at three in the morning."
Finklestein looked at Jewel strangely. "How would you know? You've never been pregnant."
"I can read, can't I?"
"Why would you read up on something like that? I'm too old for that sort of thing." and immediately Sally wanted to throw up her tea.
By the time Jack and Sally left to go back home, Sally felt very sick and awkward about the topic they'd discussed over tea. For some reason, she wasn't incredibly comfortable wtih the image of her father getting Jewel pregnant. But she was uncomfortable in a sort of good way.
That had been the first time she and Dr. Finklestein had really bonded.
