As always, let me know what you think

Healer Fords smiled at us.

"Everything is normal, and you're growing in a normal tact."

Ian's hand around mine tightened a little.

"You're going to have a..." a short break.

"A what?" Ian asked.

"I'm sorry, do you want to know the sex of the baby?" Fords asked, and I bit my lip.

Ian and I hadn't really talked about that. We just wanted to know everything was normal and perfect.

I looked at Ian, and noticed him looking at me.

"We don't know..." I said, and Fords nodded.

"Why don't I leave you alone for a few minutes, and you can discuss it?" he asked.

I nodded my head. "Thank you," I said, and Fords left us alone.

I sat up, and Ian placed himself inbetween my partly spreaded legs. His hands came around my waist, and rested on the small of my back.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"I don't know..." I said, honestly. I hadn't even thought much about if it was going to be a boy or a girl. And I didn't care.

"But I guess it would be fun to know. It would make things easier. With clothes and everything," I said, and Ian nodded.

"It certainly would. So you want to know?"

"I don't care. What do you think?"

"I don't care either. But you're right, it would make it much easier to get clothes and everything."

"So let's find out?" I bit my lip again, and stared into his blue eyes.

"Let's find out," he agreed smiling, and I returned his smile. He leaned down and gave me a gentle kiss.

When Healer Fords came back a few minutes later we told him we had decided that we wanted to know.

"Then I am happy to tell you that you're going to give birth to a baby girl in the end of april, around the 29th."

A girl. We're having a girl. A small, beautiful girl. To hold in my hands.

I felt the tears stung in my eyes, and fighted them.

I could see Ian smiling, and felt myself do the same time.

Fords told us some other things, and then asked us if we wanted a picture of the baby.

We said yes, of course.

He printed out a picture. It was what we had just seen, only know I knew it was a girl. Our girl.

I fighted the tears again. It was ridiciolus, even if it was tears of joy.

He started to talk about coming in two times a month and do measures, and I hurried to interuppt him.

"We know a doctor who can do that," I said, and he smiled softly. There was no way I had the time to come to the hospital twice a month, and besides, Doc could do it.

"Okay, then. Here is the paper I want you to write on, and a tape measure," he said, and handed Ian some things. He told us some more stuff that we needed to know, and then we were ready to go.

We thanked him, and walked out of the hospital.

"Wow, a girl," I said, not fighting the tears anymore.

"Yeah, wow," he said silently, almost in a whisper, and pressed my body closer to his.

"What would you have hoped for?"

"To be honest? I hadn't really thought about it. But a girl is... – wow."

I laughed.

"I feel the same way," I said, as I climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

---

We saw them before we even stopped the car, and Ian's face was twisted with both happiness and cautious. It was his sister after all, but there, standing next to her, was Burns.

Did he know that I was Wanderer – the soul he met over a year ago?

How much had Amanda told him? Told everyone else?

"Hey baby brother," Amanda smiled as she hugged her brother.

"Hey sis," he answered her, and I clearly saw the quick glance he shot at Burns.

So did Amanda.

"He wanted to come meet Wanda. Hi, Pet."

I relaxed as she called me Pet, and I could see that Ian did so as well.

"Hi, Amanda," I said, and Amanda opened her arms for a hug that I gladly gave her.

"You didn't say anything?" I whispered in her ear, and she slightly shook her head.

I let go of her, and Ian took my hand as we started to walk.

Amanda and Burns walked a few steps behind us, and we lead the way. I trusted Amanda, but I wasn't sure I trusted Burns. Yes, he seemed nice, but I didn't know him. Another sign that I was turning into such a human...

Amanda knew the way out and in of the caves, and yet she had come to the place where we has the cars. I knew she would have walked straight to the caves if she didn't have Burns with her.

"Should we… Do we want him to know the way?" I whispered quietly.

"Probably not. Do you have anything to blindfold him with?" Ian asked, and I nodded.

I did have a thicker cardigan on me, and I wouldn't freeze if I took it off. I did have a jacket on, too.

I begun to remove my jacket, but Ian stopped me.

"Wanda…"

"I won't freeze," I said, and continued. As soon as the jacket was off I felt the cold December air against my skin and I did freeze. I hurried to take my cardigan off, and pulled my jacket on again.

I gave the cardigan to Ian, who gave me a look that clearly said he didn't like this.

"I'm not freezing. Besides, we got something to tell your sister," I said, smiling as I said the last thing.

Ian wrapped his arm around me, pulling me close, hearing the small, small lie.

"You wanna do it?" he asked, knowing I would.

"Yes, but you should do it. She's your sister, Ian."

"And you're friends," he said, and I nodded. We hadn't met in almost a year, but we had become close during the weeks we spend together.

"If you want to, do it."

"Ian…" I started, but his arm left me and his walk slowed down.

"Amanda, she wanted to talk to you about something," he said, and I heard the smile in his voice.

"Burns, lets give them some private time," Ian said, and hurried their steps, leaving us behind them.

He smirked at me as he passed me.

"Wanted to talk to me?" Amanda asked as we walked slowly behind her brother.

"Thank you for not… you know."

"No problem. I didn't tell anyone. That's for you and everyone else to tell, if you wanted to."

It was quiet for a few seconds, and I heard Ian talking to Burns about something.

"That's not what you wanted to talk to me about, right?"

"No, not really. I actually think Ian should do this, but he wanted me to do it. And I don't really have a choice."

She laughed once, and slightly shook her head.

"You usually don't with him. God, that man can make you do anything."

She was right about that.

How would she take it? Would she take it good, bad?

I stopped my steps completely.

"Okey, something serious then," she said, her face becoming serious.

I took a deep breath.

"Ian and I recently came from the hospital," I started, and searched for the new picture in my pocket.

"What did they say?" she asked, a new tone of worry in her voice.

"Everything we wanted to hear," I said, and gave her the photo.

"I'm eighteen weeks pregnant, and everything is normal and perfect and you're having a niece in the end of April."

"A niece?" she repeated, a big smile playing on her lips. She was happy.

She handed me the photo back, as I nodded.

"She's going to have amazing parents, Wanda," she said, and then I was in her arms.

She hugged me tightly, and then we started to walk again.

"How did Kyle take it?" she asked.

"He told us not to put any new ideas in Jodi's head, but he's glad. I finally feel like he's accepting me. He probably would of a lot sooner if I wasn't a soul, but it feels good that he finally did."

"Hey – listen to me. He accepted you long ago, okay? It's just… he's Kyle, and he's never been good at this kind of stuff, you know. It took him forever to accept Ethan," – her voice became sadder as she spoke of Ethan, -"but then they became best friends. So don't talk like that."

"No chance we're going to be best friends, but he did call me his sister," I smiled, and so did she.

"See? Accepted by my thick-headed brother. Now C'mon," she said, and paced up until we were almost running. We we're now several hundred metres behind Ian and Burns, but it didn't take long for us to reach them. She jumped up on Ian's back, hugging him.

"I can't believe it, my baby brother is going to be a father," I heard her saying, but for some reason I couldn't explain I looked at Burns. It was hard to see what he thought about it, but for a short second I could have sworn I saw betrayal, hurt and anger twist in his face. But why would he feel those things? It was ridiculous, and I shoved it away.

Ian spun around once, and then Amanda hopped down, walking between Ian and Burns.

Ian placed his arm back around me, and pulled me close again. I leaned my head against his side as we walked.

-

"See you soon," I said to Ian – he knew what I had to do – and hurried down the corridors.

Burns was still wearing the blindfold, and I knew Ian would take it off soon.

But I had to make sure no one would call me Wanda, they needed to know I was Pet for a while.

I looked in the kitchen first, and I was lucky. It was time for dinner, and almost every one had squeezed inside the warm kitchen. Everyone was eating, or about to eat.

"Wanda, how did it go?" Doc was first to spot me.

"No, no. Not Wanda – Pet."

Everyone looked at me confused and I hurried to explain.

"Amanda and Burns are here, and Burns doesn't really know about… well, me. So my name is Pet, for a while at least."

"Oh, well then, Pet, how did it go?" Doc repeated the question.

I sat down beside him, and gave him the picture of my daughter.

"Everything is normal and I'm going to need your help in the end of April. And to do some measurements every other week. " Mel came to sit beside me as I spoke and Doc gave her the picture, nodding.

"Wow…" she whispered, not knowing what to say. I smiled, and she gave me the photo back, giving me a hug as she did so.

"Are you sure you want me? You can easily go to a real..."

"Doc, you're going to deliver my baby. I want you to." I knew he could do it, and I trusted him completly.

"Well, if you're sure.."

"I am," I told Doc, and then I stood up and walked over to Kyle, standing at the counter next to Jodi.

I heard footsteps coming closer, and hopped onto the counter.

"So, Kyle, want to see a picture of your niece?"

"Niece, huh?" he looked at me, a small smile, and then Ian, Amanda and Burns entered.

"What's going on?" Ian asked, standing beside me, placing his hand on my knee.

"Not much, we're just talking about my niece," Kyle answered with a real smile on his lips now.

I could feel eyes on us, and looked around the room. Maggie, Sharon and Burns.

Maggie and Sharon looked away as soon as they saw me looking at them, but Burns didn't.

He just stood there, frozen in the entrance to the kitchen, looking at us. I felt a little uncomfortable, and focused on the conversation going on around me.

"So, how you been sis?"

"I've been good. Although, I did miss my best friend," Amanda said, and hugged Jodi. Both of them were laughing. My stomach twisted with hunger, and I jumped down from the counter to get something to eat. As I had taken food I jumped onto the counter again, holding my bowl of soup in my hand as I ate. I was hungrier that I thought I was, but I wasn't surprised and Ian chuckled low when I took another bowl and gave half of it to him.

"Yes, I'm hungry but I'm not two-bowls-of-soup-hungry," I said, and Amanda chuckled with Ian.

But Ian ate the rest, and took a bowl of his own after.

The pregnancy had made me hungrier, and I wondered how hungry I would be in the end when the baby was bigger. I relaxed against Ian. There was no more work to do; everything had been done before dinner. It had been a long day, and now as I relaxed beside Ian I was surprised by the fact that I was tired already. I also had a small head ache, but nothing that disturbed me.

It was too early to go to bed, so I fought my tiredness and stayed.

There was a big discussion about the fact that we would have to do a new raid in about a week.

The last raid was three weeks ago, and that one was short. So we needed to do a long one, and we would be gone for at least a month. Everyone was involved in the discussion, besides Burns, Amanda and me. I was too tired to talk, but I listened. There would be Mel and Jared, as usual, but Ian and I wouldn't follow this time. We had agreed after the last raid that I would skip this one, and Sunny would hop in instead of me. Now they were discussing who would be the substitute for Ian.

It looked like Jeb himself would follow.

But then there was another small problem – Mel and Jared's wedding was in three weeks and it would be hard to do a long raid. So they also discussed if there would be two short one's.

Amanda would sleep in our room, and she would take the other mattress that we never used.

Burns we're going to take the hospital, and Doc we're sleeping there as well. Even if Nate's group trusted him, we didn't. Not yet.

"Hey," Ian said quietly to me, and I turned my head to look at him.

"Go to bed," he whispered, and I shook my head.

"It's just a few hours left, and I'm not that tired."

"Stop being so stubborn and go to bed. You're tired, so sleep."

I just looked at him. He would win this one.

I leaned my forehead against his, and sighed.

"I'll come to bed as soon as this discussion is over," he said, and I nodded and placed a kiss on his lips. Then I jumped down from the counter I was still sitting on, and walked over to Mel.

"Hey, see you tomorrow," I whispered in her ear, and she looked at me concerned. We we're supposted to talk more before we went to sleep, mostly about the baby and the wedding.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired," I answered, and gave her a gentle hug before I walked out of the kitchen.

Burns met my eyes as I walked pass him, still standing in the kitchen door.

There was something there again, although I couldn't place the emotion in them.

So I ignored it, and continued walking.

I could feel a small ache in my body as I walked, but I guessed it was just from sitting still so long.

It took me no longer than usual to reach our room, and well there I closed the doors behind me and changed from my jeans and shirt to a comfortable over sized grey t-shirt. I was freezing now, standing in just the shirt, so I hurried to put on my pyjama pants and get under the covers so that I could relax. It was still a little cold, but I knew that as soon as Ian would come it would be warm. I relaxed more, and it didn't take long before I fell asleep.

-

When I woke up I was freezing so much that I was shaking, and my whole body was aching.

I groaned, and turned around; creeping closer against Ian's sleeping form. My arm around his waist pulled me even closer, and I burrowed my head against his chest.

I was so cold, and not even Ian's warm body helped.

I didn't mean to wake him up, but when I once again snuggled closer his loose arm tightened around my waist.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," I whispered. It was hard to speak since I was freezing so much.

"Wanda, you're burning," he said, moving his hand from my back and up to my face. His hand traced over my cheek, and then moved down to my back again.

I opened my eyes, and saw that it was starting to get light in the room. It was morning.

I closed them again, holding Ian tighter. No matter what he said, I was cold and I was freezing.

And I wanted him closer, wanted him to warm me. But he leaned away, and I tried to come closer.

When he didn't let me in full way, I tried another way.

"I'm cold," my voice was weaker than I thought it would.

But my pleadings didn't work. Instead, Ian left the bed and I froze even more.

I heard weak noices, and it took a few seconds before he said anything.

"I know, c'mon," he said, and in a swift move he was holding me in his arms.

I could feel him moving under me, but I didn't have the strength to care why.

I felt close to sleep again, even though I was so cold, and I tried to relax which was hard.

I could make out voices now, but I didn't know who they belonged to.

But the distant voices were enough for my head to throb hard and loud.

The voices came closer, but I still didn't know who they belonged to.

"Ian? Wanda?" the voice belonged to a man.

"What's wrong with her?" This time it was a woman.

"She has a high fever, where's Doc?" This voice I knew. Ian.

I tried to open my eyes to see who he was talking to, but my eyelids were so heavy.

I didn't hear the response to Ian's question as I was surrounded by sleep and everything went black.

---

When I woke up I found myself lying on one of the uncomfortable cots in the hospital.

I could feel something against my left arm... It felt like Ian's face?

I opened my eyes and found it very light in the room. It was day. Maybe noon.

I looked around and found Doc sitting at his desk. The desk wasn't far away. A few metres, maybe.

I turned my head and found Ian sitting on something that looked like a chair, leaning his head against my arm. He was asleep.

I smiled at the picture before me. He looked so peaceful...

I was still a little cold, not so much that I was freezing, though. But my body was still aching.

I looked over at Doc again. I wanted to ask him what I was doing here, but I didn't want to wake Ian.

Although, there is hard waking him...

"Doc?" I asked, as high as I could without risking to wake him up.

Doc's head popped up.

"Oh, Wanda, you're awake," he said, looking quite relieved.

"What am I doing here?" I asked.

"When Ian found me, carrying you, you had a high fever. But you we're asleep. I gave you some Cool, and the fever sank immidiatly. But it seems like half the people in this place has the same thing as you do," he sighed at the end.

"Everyone's sick?"

"Yes, the virus has probably been going around for a few weeks..."

"Who else is sick?"

"Many, and more is probably going to be," he said, and sighed again.

That's when Ian woke up.

"Hey," he said, and I lowered my eyes to meet his.

"How are you?" he asked, before I had the time to say something.

"Fine..." Ian gave me a look that clearly said 'Don't lie to me'.

"Fine, I'm not. At least I'm not freezing anymore," I sighed.

His eyes wanted more information. I sighed again.

"My body is aching, and no, I'm not taking any No Pain."

Ian gave me a dissaproving look, but gave in.

"Fine."

"Good. How long was I down?"

"A few hours, maybe," he said and I nodded. I felt rested.

"You know I hate this cots, and you won't let me work today, so can we go back to our room?" I asked, and Ian chuckled.

"You're right about that. And yes, we can," he said, and got up and lifted me up in his arms again.