Note: I do not own or have anything to do with The Predator franchise. The only reason I have wrote this fanfiction was for entertainment purposes and I will not be making any profit from it in any way, shape or form.

Chapter Seven

Meanwhile, at the waterfall on the outer parts of their home, Marion had herself sitting on the edge of the pool so her feet could wade into the water as Mariah was swimming about in it. She smiled to her from where she was while her eyes watched her to be splashing around and having a great time there by herself. It brought her back to memories of when she was growing up as a little girl back home in the states and how much she enjoyed being in the water by herself since she could do what she wanted to do and use her imagination to come up with little games to play in it. Seeing Mariah to be doing similar things in the water had her heart to become warm from where she was sitting.

While she was relaxing with her feet to be in the water, she found Mariah to be turning her head over to where she was with a sweet smile and speak to her with a child innocence in an happy tone of voice.

"Join me, mama." Mariah said, giggling. "The water is really nice."

She thought about the concept of getting herself into the water in the outfit she had on since it wasn't one of her swimming outfits that she had worn the last time she came out to swim in the water before Cohra got home. The water did look really nice though and it would feel really good to let herself cool off in it. Nodding her head to her daughter, Marion eased herself on down into the pool of water. Her smile grew a little more as she was met by Mariah coming up to where she was and hugging onto her. The feeling had her to lean down and return her hug to her. She watched her lean her head up and proceeded to speak up with a more curious sound to her speech.

"Where is papa? He has gone for a long time?"

She went to speak when she picked up on the light sound of movement in the area. Her eyes moved up to the ledge that was the first place that she met Cohra, and found that something to be up there. She kept her eyes on the area while her body was tense. Marion didn't know if it was her mate coming to visit her, the elder on the ship, or something that had come there with intentions to take her daughter and herself away from Cohra. She kept her eyes on the area for long while before the sight of her mate coming onto the edge of it entered her gaze and she started to feel more at peace. A heavy breath of air left her mouth before she spoke up towards Mariah with a smile.

"There is your papa now."

She watched Cohra make the move to leap down to where they were before her eyes moved to where Mariah was at her side in the water to find her climbing out one of the sides of the pool with a smile. Her heart leaped up to her throat to find the little girl who had been badly abused by her birth father running towards Cohra and wrapping her arms around him once he had picked her up in his arms. Seeing how her daughter and husband interacted with one another on the edge of the pool gave her hope that perhaps humankind would be able to accept the yautja and they could in fact, perhaps, live peacefully among them without the need to try and force many of them into a position of servitude or killing them if they chose to go against them.

Marion remained in the water as she watched Mariah ease her back some from where Cohra was holding her to speak to him.

"Will you join mama and me in the water, papa?" Mariah asked, hopefully. "It is really nice."

"I think that is a great idea, Mariah." Cohra replied, easing her down onto the ground. "Give me a moment and I'll be in."

Marion smiled as she watched Mariah get back into the water to splash around some more before she looked to her mate to find him already working on removing the armor from his body. Her attention stayed on him, waiting for him to tell her what had happened. She found her time of waiting wasn't long before she found him to be picking up on what she was doing and chose to speak up in a tone to where she could hear what he had to say.

"The man who had been her father is dead." He whispered, dropping the armor he was taking off of him to the side so the water wouldn't damage it. His voice had a more serious tone to it instead of the light-hearted one he had used with their child. "To be quite honest, I should have murdered him long before now if I had known that was how he was treating her."

His response caught her off guard. It appeared to her that Cohra knew who Mariah's father had been but that he wasn't aware of the abuse that he was doing to his own child. She glanced over one of her shoulders to make sure that Mariah wasn't near them but was okay in the water before she looked back to him, lowering her voice to the level of his own.

"You knew her father?" She asked, softly.

"Her father was one of the guides of your group in the rain forest, Marion."

"What?" Shock and disbelief crept into her voice from the realization that one of the men that had been hired to lead her classmates from the university into the area on a trip for their college had been responsible for what had been done to Mariah. "Manuel did this to her, Cohra?"

"Yes, but we don't have to worry about him anymore."

"Was there anyone in the area to hear what happened?"

"There wasn't a soul in sight since the house is positioned by an old tower I have seen several times while living in the jungle."

She was relieved to know that no one had caught onto what he had done to Manuel. Her eyes watched him get down to his loin cloth before climbing into the water with them. Her eyes looked to Mariah to find her still swimming around without a care in the world, and smiled at her having fun as Cohra eased an arm around her body from where she was standing for the moment. Her attention remained on her daughter while she kept talking with Cohra as he spoke to her.

"Her family's home would be the right size for our family right now, Marion. It has a lot of room in it and would give us the chance to be able to have a home that looks like a normal human home and I could still have the ship hidden out here in the jungle behind the waterfall for us to come back to whenever we need a little place to get away to and when I need to work on plans with the elder on anything that is going on."

"That sounds like a good idea to me." She looked to him with her smile staying on her face. "I have enjoyed your ship, but I would like to be in the comfort of a home that I am used to back in the states. I am sure though that any home would be just fine with all of us living in it together."

"We will head over there tomorrow morning to start work on it. For right now though, let's just soak in the water and play with our daughter. We have all the time in the world for the house tomorrow."

"That's wonderful to me."

With them having made a decision about the house, she eased herself to sit down on a spot in the water with him at her side. Her head leaned over and rested against his shoulder of the arm that was still wrapped around her. Her loving smile seemed to grow a little more from finding him to be leaning his head atop her own while they watched their little girl playing about in the water without a care in the world and never having to worry about being hit by someone that is suppose to protect her again.