I AM SO SORRY EVERYONE. This past week has been extremely hectic-too long to go into-and I haven't had time to write. I don't even have time to respond to reviews this week. SORRY!

~Topaz

Some time after Featherstar left, Dawnpool was called out of the den. With her kits asleep, Brightpaw decided to doze off for a while. She was woken up what felt like minutes later when two kits raced over to her nest and started badgering her. "When will they come play?" Greykit asked, poking Beechkit with an impatient tail. The small she-cat, born a moon after Brightpaw became an apprentice, was just starting to get some color in her previously kit-blue eyes. Right now they were green, but they were starting to veer towards yellow.

"All they do is sleep!" complained Lizardkit, pawing the ground in impatience. Brightpaw stifled a purr. Lizardkit was impatient as ever. He had Dawnpool's build, being slender and delicate-looking, with a narrow face and small ears. His tail was long and bushy, as if to make up for it.

"They won't be ready to play for a while, you two," Brightpaw chided them, "They're very small."

"But it's been for-eveeer!" whined Lizardkit, "I wanna play with them now! The others are boring, and Adderkit is super bossy!"Lichenkit mewled and turned over, then sat up and started pawing at Brightpaw's belly. "Hey! She looks a lot like Pricklekit!"

Fear went through Brightpaw. Lizardkit was right, only a few days after birth, Lichenkit was developing a stocky build, with long fur and a skinny tail. Her shoulders were extremely broad for a she-cat, and her body tapered into a slender back. All very much like Pricklekit-and by extension, Eelspots. "You're imagining things, Lizardkit," she snapped, not caring about whether he got upset.

Lizardkit ran away. Brightpaw sighed in relief, then froze as Dawnpool entered the nursery. The older queen stopped when her son came up to complain, then followed Lizardkit back to Brightpaw's side. "Is something wrong?" Dawnpool asked, looking down at Brightpaw. There was an odd look in her eyes. "Lizardkit said you snapped at him when he said something about your kits." Brightpaw shrugged, not knowing what to say. Was Dawnpool going to get mad at her for yelling at a kit? There was silence for a minute as the kits looked up expectantly at Dawnpool. Then she turned to Lilystep. "Lilystep, darling, could you watch my kits and Brightpaw's for a minute? I need to talk to her about something."

Lilystep blinked, then shrugged. "Sure." Brightpaw was about to argue, to say she was busy with her kits or apologize there, when Dawnpool nudged her out of her nest and through the nursery entrance. Brightpaw glanced back to see Lilystep settle down into Brightpaw's nest and tuck Brightpaw's kits closer. At least they were warm. Before she could remind Lilystep that Tumblekit liked to crawl all over his siblings, and that Nettlekit would give little nips when she was hungry and trying to find a nipple, Dawnpool tugged her further away from the nursery.

"What is it?" Brightpaw asked once they were behind the apprentice's den. The apprentices were all out training. Brightpaw watched Dawnpool's face, but was unable to keep herself from glancing back at the nursery. Sure, they were obnoxious, and Brightpaw hadn't gotten a good night's sleep since before they were born, but they were her kits. Brightpaw didn't feel comfortable leaving them with only Lilystep for company.

"Eelspots is the father, isn't he." It wasn't a question. Brightpaw jerked back and stared at Dawnpool, who just looked...guilty. Brightpaw didn't know why. "Featherstar spoke to me."

Brightpaw looked down. "It's not his fault..." she whispered, hating herself for saying it but knowing she had to.

Dawnpool's eyes widened. "Brightpaw, you knew the consequences. Every cat here knows you would never jeopardize serving your clan like that."

"But it isn't!" Brightpaw cried. Was Dawnpool suggesting that Eelspots should leave the clan? How could she? She was supposed to be his mate! Sure, her life was over now, and if Eelspots had made it more clear none of this would have happened, but she should have known better. She just had to ignore the part of her that said it was his job to teach her, not mate with her, or give her confusing messages. "He-he said it was secret warrior training! If I had realized what secret warrior training meant, I would have said no! He didn't know that I didn't know that secret warrior training was mating! Please don't tell Featherstar to banish him!" Brightpaw was whining at this point, her voice in a low wail, and her fur was bushed out. Brightpaw braced herself for Dawnpool's attack, for Dawnpool to yell at her or tell her they were both being banished.

Instead, she felt Dawnpool's pelt brush against her as Dawnpool licked the top of her head. "Oh, Brightpaw...I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

Then Brightpaw broke down. Hearing Dawnpool verify all the thoughts in the back of her head, how Eelspots had done the wrong thing, how it wasn't his right, how he should have known better. It destroyed the barrier she built up against it. Brightpaw wailed into Dawnpool's fur. She cried for her lost innocence, for her wasted apprenticeship, and for the abuse she had taken all in the name of the mentor/apprentice relationship, just because she thought she was supposed to.

...So that's a pretty short chapter. It packs a punch, though. IMHO.

Anyway, see you next week.