Chapter 3.

Rachel P.O.V.

"What?" I asked, my eyes widening.

"I can hear the baby. It's heart beat." Ben grinned. Everyone else's jaws were on the floor and I grinned myself.

"Amazing." Anne mumbled.

"I'll say. How is this possible?" My mom asked.

"The harness gave Ben unbelievable abilities." Anne said.

"The minute Ben touched me," I smiled. "the pain went away."

Tom gave Ben and I a thoughtful look. "The harness probably has to do with it. Ever since he was harnessed, he's gotten all of these abilities. His body and blood have obviously been altered, and it's most likely in the baby's genes. That's probably why the pain stopped when he touched you."

"Whoa." Hal whistled, leaning back against the counter.

I looked from Hal to Ben and bit my lip. "I uh, could hear you two talking while you were outside the bus." I said.

"How? We were a good twenty feet away." Hal told me, shock on his face.

I looked at Tom. "And I heard you whisper to Hal to go get Ben earlier."

Anne set her hand on my shoulder. "That might be because of the baby."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, it seems like the baby has Ben's abilities. Like Tom said, Ben's blood was altered, so the baby will most likely have his abilities. And since the baby is growing inside of you…"

"I'll have the abilities too." I finished, finally understanding.

"This means that your hormones will most likely be greater than those of a woman going through a normal pregnancy." Anne rubbed my arm.

"Great." Ben and I muttered at the same time.

"You alright now honey?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, I feel totally fine now." I said truthfully.

"I want you to stay the rest of the night in the med bus, just to be safe." Anne told me.

"Sure." I nodded.

"Well, I'm going to head back to bed now Rachel. Goodnight." Mom leaned down and kissed my forehead.

"Goodnight mom."

"We're going to take off too." Tom said, gesturing to himself and Hal. They both said goodnight and Hal ruffled my hair before they left.

Lourdes and Anne went to go do something else, probably check on other patients, leaving Ben and I alone.

"You sure you're alright?" Ben asked, moving a strand of hair out of my eyes.

I smiled. "I'm sure. I had a nightmare that you were being attacked by a skitter right before the pain started and I think the baby can sense when you're in danger. I think that's why the pain stopped when you touched me, because the baby could tell you weren't in danger anymore."

His eyes widened. "That's….wow."

"I know." I sighed. "The baby is growing faster than it should be if you can hear the heartbeat."

"It's because of the harness. Look what it did to me. The baby is obviously being affected."

"I've already gained a bunch of weight." I sighed again. "This is starting to sound a lot like Twilight."

He burst out laughing. "Yeah, I doubt the baby will eait it's way through your stomach though. And in case you haven't noticed, I'm not a vampire."

I smirked. "You would be the hottest, sexiest vampire ever."

"I swear to God, the next person who touches me is going to die."

It was a week later and I was in the med bus for another check up. I had gotten really bad mood swings already and my hormones were totally out of whack. And I'm only one month pregnant.

Everyone had been on my case about resting because of what happened. Plus, a week earlier, I was thrown backwards during the detonation of the bridge we were trying to cross. Pope had grabbed the detonator out of Jamil's hands and blew the bridge to hell before Tom made it across. Thankfully, he had met up with us a while later, unharmed. Anyway, Ben had a total spaz attack when I was knocked to the ground, but then again he freaks out every time I stub my toe.

Hal, who was nice enough to accompany me to my "appointment" since Ben was on patrol, backed away, hands up in surrender.

"Chill, I was just trying to help you down." He chuckled.

I sighed and hopped down from the cot. "Sorry, I've been cranky all day."

"I can see that."

Anne smiled in amusement. "That's it for now. Remember to take your vitamin in the morning Rachel."

"Okay, thanks Anne." I smiled at her. Waving, I excited the med bus, Hal on my heels.

I told Hal to go rest since he had patrol later and he obeyed happily. After he was out of my sight, I headed for my parents tent in search of my father.

He was inside, looking over a map. He looked up when I entered.

"Hey Rach." He greeted, looking back down at the map.

"Hi dad." I walked over to him and leaned on the table he kept in there. "I want you to put me on patrol."

His head snapped up, eyes narrowing. "Absolutely not."

I groaned. "Come on dad! I'm totally fine to go out on patrol! I've got nothing to do around here!"

"You help Anne and Lourdes out with patients."

"Sometimes. Most of the time Anne makes me rest."

"Good, you need rest." He told me.

"I've rested enough in the past week!" I crossed my arms over my chest. "Please dad, I swear I'm okay to do a patrol. Put me with Ben and Jimmy."

He sighed. "Rachel, I am not sending my pregnant daughter…"

"Dad, I'll be with Ben and Jimmy. Come on, you know they won't let anything happen." I put on my sad puppy dog face. "Please dad?"

He sighed again. "Alright, but I want Ben and Jimmy with you at all times! No splitting up for anything. And you can't be distracted. If you get the slightest bit tired or feel sick, I want you to come straight back."

"Yes sir, I promise." I grinned. He gave me a small smile.

"Good. You go on patrol with Ben and Jimmy tomorrow night."

"Thank you dad." I kissed his cheek and headed for the exit. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Rachel, love you."

"Love you too, dad."

"What in the hell are we doing all the way out here?" I asked as I followed Ben and Jimmy.

Ben and Jimmy had returned last night after saving Tom from Pope, who tried to force Tom to leave. Ben was not happy that I was coming with them tonight, but I just told him to suck it up and deal with it.

"We're patrolling, duh." Jimmy answered.

I glared at the back of his head. "Don't you "Duh" me, James Boland. We are way farther from the perimeter than we're supposed to be."

They shared a secretive look and Jimmy pulled something out of his pocket, loading it into his gun. My eyes widened when I realized what it was.

"You stole the Berserkers dragon breath?!" I shouted. "You do know they will kill you right?!"

"Not if they don't find out." Ben smirked.

I huffed. "Why do you guys need those anyway?"

Jimmy grinned. "You know, just in case we run into trouble and have to kill a few cockroaches."

A light bulb went on over my head and my eyes narrowed.

"Kill a few cockroaches?! You mean hunt skitters right?!" I was pissed now. "How fucking dumb are you two?!

Ben rolled his eyes. "Calm down Rae."

"Calm down?! You guys could get hurt or killed for God's sake! This is what you two were doing last night when you found Tom isn't it?! My dad is going to flip a cow when he finds out!"

Their eyes widened. "No! You can't tell him!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?"

"Please don't Rachel!" Jimmy begged.

I glanced in between the two of them. "Fine, I won't tell…."

They sighed in relief.

"…But only if you two give up skitter hunting and come back to the perimeter with me right now."

They groaned. "Come on Rachel!"

"If you guys seriously think I'm just going to go back to camp and pretend that you two aren't out here risking your lives hunting skitters, then you are sadly mistaken!" I ranted in anger.

"Calm down Rachel, that isn't good for the baby." Ben told me.

My eye twitched. "No Ben, what isn't good for the baby is skitter hunting! You know what, fuck this. I'm going back to camp, see you guys later." And with that, I turned on my heel and headed in the camps direction.

"Rachel wait!"

I heard them running after me and then they were right next to me.

"You shouldn't walk alone, it's dangerous." Jimmy said.

"But trying to take me skitter hunting isn't?" I snapped. That shut him up.

We walked for a while in silence because I was ignoring them and they didn't say anything to get my attention.

Suddenly there was a rustling from near bye bushes. We all froze and the guys immediately raised their guns. I had mine ready, but didn't raise it.

There was the rustling noise again and the boys walked over towards the bushes, ready to shoot.

That's when a skitter jumped out from the bushes behind me and knocked me to the ground.

I gasped and threw my hands out in front of me, keeping my stomach from impacting with the hard ground and sending a stinging feeling through my palms and up my arms.

"Rachel!" I heard Ben shout. The skitter rolled me over, forcing me onto my back. My head smacked against the ground and I felt something scrap against my cheek and then I felt it start to bleed. Two more skitters appeared and went after Ben and Jimmy. The skitter pinning me had a red eye and the right side of it's face seemed to be burned.

I could hear Ben and Jimmy shooting the other skitters in the background as I wrestled with the skitter pinning me. I couldn't break free of it though, no matter how hard I tried.

Suddenly, the skitter placed it's hand on my stomach and froze.

"Rachel!"

My head snapped over towards the boys. I saw that they had managed to kill the other skitters and now had their guns raised at the one pinning me.

The skitter made a weird noise, causing me to look back at it. I tried to remove it's hand from my stomach, my maternal instincts kicking in.

Ben charged the skitter and knocked it off of me. I immediately grabbed my stomach with both hands, protecting my baby. The skitter threw Ben to the ground and I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. Jimmy tried to shoot the skitter, but the skitter knocked him to the ground too, landing next to me.

Ben went after the skitter again, only this time the skitter held a hand up and Ben froze, his spikes lighting up like a Christmas tree. The skitter held him in his trance for a few moments, before suddenly running off.

Ben dropped to his knees, a look of shock and confusion on his face. Jimmy got up and offered his hand to me. I ignored it and pulled myself up.

Rushing over to Ben, I knelt by his side. "Ben, are you alright?"

I may be pissed at him, but I'm still concerned about him.

"I'm fine." Concern was all over his face and he set his hand on my stomach. "Are you alright?"

The sharp pain in my stomach disappeared and I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Jimmy came over. "I think we should head back to camp now."

I rolled my eyes. I was pissed.

Ben pulled himself up and set a hand on my shoulder. "Rae.."

"Don't." I shrugged his hand off. "I want to go back to camp, now."

Ben sighed and nodded. We started walking back, he and Jimmy staying on either side of me, worry on their faces because I was still bleeding.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Jimmy asked. I huffed at him and wiped at my cheek, staining my sleeve with blood.

"Rae, please talk to us." Ben begged.

"Did you guys have fun skitter hunting?!" I asked sarcastically, glaring at them. Their shoulders sagged and they looked at the ground. "That's what I thought."

Shaking my head, I crossed my arms and stomped on. Once the airport hanger came into view, I started for the med bus, Ben and Jimmy on my heels.

Unfortunately, my dad and Tom were near bye and spotted us before I could get to the bus.

"You guys are back already?" Dad asked as they walked up to us. His eyes widened when he saw the cut though. "What happened?!"

Ben and Jimmy went pale.

I sighed, trying to calm my anger. "We were attacked by skitters."

Ben and Jimmy's head's snapped towards me, shocked that I didn't rat them out. I looked away from them. It wasn't a total lie, we were attacked. But we wouldn't have been if we had just stuck to the God damn perimeter.

Tom glanced back and forth between the guys, suspicion in his eyes.

Dad's eyes narrowed slightly. "Alright. Rachel, I want you to go see Anne and get checked out."

I nodded and started for the med bus again. I was slightly worried about what he was going to say to the guys, but we did go against what he said. He would want to talk to me later, no doubt.

After Anne cleaned up my cut, she sent me back to my tent to get some rest. I didn't argue with her this time. I was still pissed about what had happened, and after all of the walking and wrestling with that skitter, my back was killing me.

Stepping into Ben and I's tent, I sighed and sat down on the cot, letting my hair out of it's ponytail. I ran a hand through it and let myself fall back onto the cot, staring up at the ceiling of the tent.

Not ten minutes later, I heard the tent flap being opened, Ben and Jimmy stepping inside.

"Rae…."

I didn't look at them, keeping my gaze on the ceiling. They sighed and I felt the cot dip down as Ben sat down next to me, Jimmy standing a few feet away.

Ben reached out and lightly touched my arm, causing me to huff.

"Come one Rachel, please look at us." Ben's voice was filled with desperation. I felt myself melting slightly and I glanced over at them.

"What?" I muttered.

"We're sorry Rachel, we really are." Jimmy spoke up, stepping closer.

"Yeah Rae, taking you out there, planning on skitter hunting, is the stupidest thing we've ever done."

I huffed, sitting up. "Damn right it is! You two could have been killed! I could have been killed! Our baby could have been killed! Just because you two wanted to hunt some skitters!"

They didn't say anything, guilt on their faces. I glared at them for a few seconds, before my gaze softened and I reached out to grab both of their hands.

"I know that after all of the horrible things these bastards have done, that you both want revenge. And I understand the feeling of wanting to hurt them, kill them just as they've hurt and killed us, but we can't just go off hunting skitters. We can't risk getting hurt or dying just so we can give them a taste of their own medicine, no matter how much we want to. And believe me, I want to. But we're needed here, alive. We have to fight so that someday we can have our world back. The Second Mass, these people need you two. I need you two, and so does this baby."

Ben and Jimmy listened to me carefully, Squeezing my hands. Against my will, my eyes started to water. Standing up, I pulled them both into a hug.

"You're right Rae." Ben whispered. Jimmy nodded.

"Promise me you guys won't hunt skitters again?" I sniffled.

"We promise." They chorused.

I squeezed them tighter. "Good."

After we pulled away, Jimmy yawned. "I'm pretty tired. I'm gonna hit the hay."

"Alright, goodnight."

He waved at us and headed to his tent, leaving us alone.

"Thanks for covering for us earlier, Rae. But we got busted anyway." Ben kissed my forehead.

"How did our dads react?"

"They got pissed, gave us lectures and told us if we ever did it again, they'd kill us."

"That's good, I guess." I chuckled.