Ack! It took me a while...right? Sorry! But here's another chapter and since I'm now on vacation I'll probably write the next one soon. (:

Be happy!

Storm alert.

"Little Master! Miss Fadilah!"

"Rashid!" shouted the siblings in unison, the older one letting go of his mother's hand and running down the boarding ramp, while his sister struggled with their father to put her down.

"Ok, down you go, but don't run. Fadilah!" the blond man sighed when his baby girl nearly tripped, just to be caught in the strong arms of his old friend. Dorothy came to his side, her lace handkerchief pressed to her temple. "Are you alright?" He asked, and concerned by her paleness, put one of his hands over her forehead.

"Yes, Quatre I'm fine. It's just… I had forgotten all about the marvelous desert heat."

He chuckled. "We can turn the air conditioned once we get home."

"I just need to take a shower and then I'll stay put and enjoy the hot breeze."

"You insisted on com-"

"Hush, I know. Now walk, I'm starving."

"Yes, ma'am." Despite her steady walking, he remained on alert just in case she swayed, which she did at the end of the ramp. Quatre was fast enough to steady her by grabbing her elbow. "Dorothy!" His other hand was quick to find her face.

"I'm fine," she insisted, but his hard stare made her add, "Perhaps a little tired so I got dizzy. Don't you dare carry me, it's unsightly."

"I won't, we'll stay like this until you can walk."

"Papa! Hurry up! Rashid said the others are waiting, and that the cook made a lot of food! I'm so hungry! Come on!"

"Coming!" Quatre shouted back to his son, and quickly turned back to his wife. "You ok now?"

"Yes," her hand took his from her face, but linked her arm with his.

He frowned at the tight grip she kept onto him.

"Mama, are you sick?" Little Fadilah was peeking from behind one of the pillars of the garden, worriedly looking at her mother reading by the central fountain.

Dorothy quickly gazed back to her child…she had been caught distracted, "Ah, sweetie, no. I'm just tired." Closing the book that had failed to interest her, she gestured for her girl to come closer.

"But papa said-"

"Your father is worrying too much, you know how he is." She winked and Fadilah giggled, finally coming from behind her hiding place. "Where's your brother?"

"He went downstairs."

To the base? "Does your father know?"

"Yup." Her little hands were again playing with strands of her curly golden hair.

"Didn't you want to go?"

The girl just shrugged and sat by her mother, both of them enjoying the cooling breeze as the sun set. A few minutes passed and the Duchess noticed her baby daughter nodding off. Suddenly, the blonde woman felt her skin prickling, which made her look up at sky and listen to her surroundings. Silence was all she heard.

Alarmed, Dorothy stood up, startling her daughter awake, and gently if a bit hurriedly took the child's small hand into hers and entered the house. A young maid was passing by.

"Ah! Nida, I'm so glad to see you. Take Fadilah to her rooms, she is tired."

"Right away, Mistress."

"And activate the panels, please. A storm is coming." She watched the maid's dark eyes widen.

"Y-yes Mistress!" The girl's voice changed to a calmer tone when she bent to speak with the child, "Then let's hurry up, Miss Fadilah." The little girl just nodded and waved her mother goodbye with her free hand. Both retreating girls missed the older woman's sudden stagger as she turned on her heels.

He stomped towards his wife, who immediately raised her fencing sword and put it between them, effectively halting his advance.

"Stop right there Master Winner, if you do not want to be harmed."

"No, you stop Duchess. Leave that sword and go get some rest."

"Don't need it, please stop overreacting."

"Yes you do and I'm not overreacting, I am just trying to take better care of you…you're three months pregnant and you're not getting any healthier, the doctor told you stay put Dorothy." He tried to advance but her sword touched him on the chest.

"I know what the doctor said, and I am quite aware of my state…I rest all the time, you don't let me get close to my paperwork – I'm getting bored Quatre!" Her little outburst was for him the perfect opportunity to take away her sabre, but she reacted in an instant and prickled him on the right arm. With a yelp he took a step back, and bowed his head to check on his injury…it was shallow with just a bit of blood flowing slowly from it. The muted clatter of metal hitting the padded floor made him look back at his wife. She was frowning.

"I told you to stay back. I told you. Are you stupid?" Her right hand was closed on a tight fist over her chest. He was stupid. He had practically thrown himself to her weapon!

He guessed what she was thinking, "It's nothing, just a scratch. See? Come here." He extended her his injured arm to show her it was nothing serious, but she turned away…for a second. Then she was all over him, revising carefully his tiny wound. Her eyes burned with unshed tears. Her stupid hormones and her stupid space-colonist of a husband only ever managed to make her look like she was fretting over having hurt him…again.

"Stupid! I told y-you to stay back!" She let out a muted sob, and his arms instantly wrapped around her.

After that, she had calmed down a bit and reluctantly had let him take her to their bedroom, where she had roughly tended to his wound, changed out of her fencing uniform and hastily left. He had followed her to the garden, and after making sure she wasn't going to attempt to go back to the training room, he too had left for his office.

Now immersed between layers of copies of space colonies projects and bills, he tried to concentrate but couldn't. A month had passed since he had brought his family to Earth; autumn had fully arrived, and with it lower temperatures at night…but she was not getting any better and he was worried sick. She wasn't as lively as in the two past occasions, and she certainly now wasn't as healthy as before they left the colony. He had left her reading peacefully in the garden. Quatre sighed and ruffled his hair.

She had intended to practice some fencing poses. Just poses, she had said, but he was having none of that. Not a chance!

'Hi darling, want to practice?' had been her exact words when he had rushed inside the specially equipped chamber he and his friends used for sparring. She was a vision of beauty all dressed in white and he had almost accepted her invitation, but the slight protuberance of her three month belly had been enough to shake him from his trance. And then she had accidentally hurt him because he had been careless and made her cry.

The sudden rattle of his high windows startled him and made him look at the sky; there was a big cloud of dirt on the distance. He disconnected his laptop and hurriedly slammed one of several buttons atop his desk. As he hurried through corridors, he heard slight clicking noises behind him, signaling the activation of the protective panels all around the house. He had been too distracted to notice the storm coming, but someone hadn't been as slow. Quatre reached his rooms in no time, and found his Duchess reading papers between the bed covers.

She spoke before he could. "Yes, I gave the order and yes, this is work."

Sighing, he didn't dare reproach her, "Where's Fadilah?"

"In her room. Halim isn't back yet."

"He might have to stay down while the worst passes."

"Hm."

He left his laptop on the nightstand and took off shoes and shirt before getting inside the sheets. He noticed his wife staring at the same page as minutes before… "He's going to be fine, he's with the guys and he'll be back in no time, you'll see." His arm gently embraced her, and she let him, so he knew she was really worried. He kissed the top of her head and kept silent.

"Does it hurt?"

"Mm? What hurts?"

"The wound."

"No it doesn't."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't. It was my fault."

"Yes it was."

"Now that's settled, would you please leave your work and sleep?"

"…"

"Dorothy?"

"Fine."