Don't Leave Me

by AndyH

Gaz is a solo-gamer who needs a team partner to compete in a national video game competition, but doesn't think much of the humans around her. Neither does Zim, a solo-invader. And how will they manage all that happens after? An eventual ZAGR piece, but it won't happen the way you think it will. It wouldn't be IZ unless something went haywire. Will build up slowly. A 1st Fanfic.

22. Chapter 21

A/N: Again thanks to my reviewers. alexrushing5, Zerg170, Guest, cold blue, ZimStarwarsRules, Kazehana23, memmek10k, Canadafangirl11, and tamashi-aoitsuki who has volunteered to translate this story into Spanish. And of course CoffeeWench. Wow, such complements! And last but not least SpookyZalost.

I know I've taken too long to post a new chapter. I hate it as much as you do. But with my fatigue levels, sometimes it takes a few weeks to get my brain into a functioning gear. If I'm delayed, it's because I'm really that exhausted, and am probably trying to keep up with the dishes and laundry. You know how real life has a way of messing with what you want to accomplish.

Guest: Hey again! I hear what you say about Skoodge. It was just one of those random ideas that I had not really put much thought into. But I can still see him as 'Governor' with all the work (such as parking Taller's spacecraft for them) of a governor but with the title, glory and rewards going to the figurehead the Tallest put in his place as an acceptable poster boy for Impending Doom 2. You know Skooge always gets the short end of the stick, so I can see this as plausible. Thanks for enjoying the Dib/Tak thing in the last chapter. I wasn't originally going to write much on Dib or Tak in the story (to be honest, when I started I never imagined this story would be more than 20,000 words), but sometimes you get a thought in your head and it won't let you go. Same thing with the last chapter. I too realized that Dib is a guy and being close to her, not to mention all the bathing, would effect him (It's been a long time since I was a teenager). I didn't see Tak getting knocked up until about a third of the way though and struggling to create some content in the chapter. Then there was figuring out how it could happen. As for the confusion bit, I will explain at the end of this Author's Note. I went ahead and sent a friend request in Facebook. Don't really know how use it (had technophobic parents so my internet experience is limited) but I figure I'll learn eventually. Read the rest of your cut-off review, and have to say you seem very insightful. Would like to bring in Skooge and Tenn. Those are good ideas. Unfortunately I am struggling with the number of characters in the story already, and suffer from chronic exhaustion due to one of my disabilities. It will be all I can do to finish this story. Just the last chapter was about 50 hours of effort (mostly staring at a monitor trying to get brain to put ideas into words). But I do like your ideas. Actually I like a lot of your ideas. Will see what I can work in, especially Mimi being a comfort device for Tak. But perhaps you should think about writing those yourself in greater detail. Let me know what you decide as I am going to open this up to one-shots and mini-episodes if other writers wish to do so, once the story is finished.

coldblue: Thanks for your comments and suggestions, and your willingness to be helpful. For a description of the smeet Zim designed for him and Gaz, there is a brief one in "Chapter 14." Dib and Tak's would be mostly Irken, but with hair. It is heartening to see a reader that is chomping at the bit for a new chapter. If I could post faster I would, but the best I can do is the best I can do, ya know?

Note: I have not done a lot of proofreading yet, so please bear with any mistakes. I will have to fine tune it later.

---

IRKEN BIOLOGY: I know this bit could have been a bit confusing on some of the implications involved. This was sort of deliberate as I was writing based on the perspectives of characters with little or incomplete knowledge available. They were dealing with a lot of unknowns at the time. Especially the bio-technician. His view was to maintain the status quo, to keep Tak as a 'proper' Irken without irregularities. Much like Air Force pilots are required to keep in what seems like perfect health or be grounded.

That said, here is how it goes. The egg sac, much like the Sqeedily Spooch, serves as several human organs in one. Ovary, uterus, cervix, ect. It contains a single egg cell attached to the very top of the organ's inner wall. The Egg Sac is indeed fragile to a certain extent, and designed to rupture and leak enzymes. Rather than just flood Tak with hormones, like a Human, it triggers a temporary form of 'puberty.' That is the closest human word I know to classify the process. Let's just say that her belly-button is not a belly-button and set a few inches lower than a human's. It is incredibly small and normally sealed tight to prevent infection of her inner organs. This is an important feature for combat troops who have a very dirty job which exposes them to all sorts of dangerous elements. Not to mention what she dealt with on Dirt. However, when the Egg Sac is ruptured, it dilates to allow an Irken to be receptive to her mate, and allow access to the egg itself through the small tear of the sac lining. Once fertilized, the Egg Sac would expand as the embryo develops and eventually the rupture section of the Egg Sac would serve a third purpose. To expel the fetus when the time came.

There is a difference between a designed rupture and traumatic rupture. A severe impact to the Egg Sac could cause it to rip completely open, tear from it's connective tissues, or simply crush the organ; resulting in significant internal bleeding, excruciating pain, possible overdose of enzymes, exposure of the inner body tissues to outside contaminants with resulting infections, and so on. Surgery would be required to repair the trauma. This is a major weakness you would not want in a frontline soldier and explains the bio-technical's concern, even if he did not know all the details. It also shows what Tak was willing to give up for her mate.

As all Irken females have their Egg Sacs removed upon graduating from smeethood, it explains why the Irkens as a whole know little or nothing about these things. Unknown is the fact that a female's antennae also emit a very weak pheromone during egg sac rupture, requiring physical contact with a male's antennae to trigger a similar process with his physiology. This goes further into explaining why Tak is so into running her antennae through Dib's hair. It also shows why Zim nor any other Irken is not acting like a typical hormonal human male (It's Caveman! The superhero women love to hate!). Aside from the fact that he is an alien, not a Human in Irken skin. Normal Human rules do not apply in these relationships.

Does that mean Zim and Gaz are stuck as she does not have antennae or pheromones? No. Am I going to go into that now? A definite no. Unlike Tak, Zim is not in his third stage of bonding yet. But you know someday he will.

---

Gaz tossed and turned in the darkness. Not that she was exactly uncomfortable. It was all just different. There was too much space, and the sheets and mattress were brand new. Nothing had been broken in yet. Then there was whenever she would stretch out her feet Gaz would stub her toes on the solid form of Gir sleeping at the foot of the bed. Then the robot would start snoring. Well, if you could call repeating 'snore' rather loudly snoring.

She sighed and finally gave up. "Computer, lights. Dim, please."

"Yes, Mistress," Computer replied. The lamps sitting on the two end tables at each side of the bed within Zim's new bedroom at his base came on. But not bright enough to hurt her eyes.

Gaz looked around. She had never looked in here before she had tried to get some sleep. The decor was mostly reds and blacks. A set of dressers at the foot of the bed offset the end tables on either side of the headboard. The picture of the supernova remnant hung over the subdued headboard also. A wardrobe leaned against the far wall.

She got up without waking Gir. Having the robot squeal in joy that he was awake again was not something she wanted to subject herself to this late at night. Gaz walked in her pajamas through a door and into the adjoining bathroom. The human turned the knobs on the human sink and splashed water on her face. She grabbed a nearby red washcloth and dabbed her cheeks and chin.

The girl looked up. "Computer. Tomorrow have a mirror installed over this sink." Computer had done an adequate job on Zim's new bedroom, but naturally a computer would not understand the need to check one's appearance.

Gaz reentered Zim's bedroom. No, she thought. Someday this will be our bedroom. Pretty soon I'm going to be living here. She looked at the other door leading into another adjacent room. Gaz hadn't mentioned another space when she ordered Computer to set up a living space for Zim. But with the day's events still fresh in her memory and the knowledge that she had a niece on the way, Gaz knew what that neighboring room would eventually be and what Computer had in mind when he had installed this base expansion. The nursery for her own future child.

Which also reminded her that she knew Dib and Tak's child was not the result of a pressing a wrong button on a smeet chamber. Which led to thoughts that once she moved in this would be her and Zim's bedroom, and that one day she and Zim would follow in their footsteps. Something that she was not ready to face yet. Gaz loved Zim, true, and was his wife. But crossing that line with another species wasn't something for her to face lightly. She hadn't been open to the paranormal like Dib had been for years and years. Or open to being close to any person in general either for that matter.

It was no wonder she couldn't get any sleep. There was too much going on in her mind. May as well take a bit of a walk. "Computer, where is Zim?" she asked quietly, so as not to wake up Gir.

"Mistress, Master is in the computer lab."

Gaz walked barefoot out of the bedroom door and into the corridor. Thoughts about one day living here collided with more comfortable thoughts on Zim's terrible, half-formed ideas of what an Earth home should look like up on the surface level. I mean Computer has a better grasp on interior design than Zim does, Gaz thought to herself. She always thought it was awful and stupid up there. But it was Zim's, not hers; and over the years she had just gotten accustomed to what Zim's base looked like during her occasional forays to drag Dib out of whatever trouble he had landed in while trying to infiltrate Zim's base. Plus she had spent a great deal of time here ever since they partnered up for the CWZ competition.

Not that she cared all that much about such things. Her own room back at the Membrane residence wasn't much better, truth be told. Sort of like some dark dungeon with free game posters hung up on the walls around the occasional medieval mace. The underground sections of Zim's base she could live with. But up above? When she moved in, there were going to be some changes. And the first thing that is going to go is that toilet next to the refrigerator along with those stupid 'I Eat Food' posters.

She walked into the computer lab. Zim was seated in front of the large displays, combing through what appeared to be a large amount of data. She looked at him, wondering if this was what it was like being married to a workaholic. Then Gaz saw the look on Zim's face when he turned his head to see who had entered the lab. It wasn't even close to the look of focused-on-work like her Dad always had. Zim was instantly focused on her, although his expression was a bit queasy.

No, Gaz thought. The late nights may end up being similar, but it's because Zim doesn't need to sleep every day. Not because his work is more important. He just needs things to do while I sleep like a human does.

"Can't sleep, Gaz-blossom?" Zim asked.

"No. My brain won't stop thinking," she replied. "What are you up to? I though you would be at the new base."

"The aircraft conversions can wait. Zim is looking up Irken medical references. The best thing that Zim can say about that bio-technician is that he is incompetent. He will not come near the niece of the mighty ZIM!"

Gaz stood behind the chair Zim was sitting in and put her arms up on the backrest. She rested her chin on her knuckles as she looked over Zim's head at his displays. "Sooo you're going to be Tak's O.B.?"

"BEE?" Zim screeched, spinning his head around. "My Irken technology!" He pulled a flyswatter out of his PAK and turned it on. It began to hum with a green glow of a standby repulsion field around the swatting end. "Where is it?" he shrilled, looking around.

Gaz rolled her eyes, but there was a slight smile on her face. His moments of such idiocy was having a certain appeal at times. As least when it was silly instead of just stupid. Like right now, it was almost cute in a demented sort of way. The girl knew her heart was doomed to being in love with Zim when something so absurd as a turbocharged flyswatter could light up her world.

"No, Zim," Gaz said as she stretched her arms around the chair and mildly hugged the Irken from behind. "Not a bee. An O.B., short for an obstetrician."

"An Obstacletrician?" Zim mispronounced, looking puzzled at Gaz;s reflection in his display. "There is a plot of Tak's that Zim must foil?"

That earned a rap on the head between Zim's antennae with Gaz's knuckles. The difference between silly idiocy and stupid idiocy was in the eye of the beholder, and Gaz was the beholder that mattered. Not rap of doom, but lightly. A warning that Gaz was on the edge of annoyance.

"Hey!"

Zim turned his head and scowled at his Gaz, who leaned over and planted a quick peck of the lips on top of Zim's head. The various expressions on Zim's face was priceless. It was as if his brain didn't know whether to be pleased or vexed and couldn't do both at the same time.

"Not obstacle. Obstetrician. A smeet doctor," Gaz explained.

"Ah, yes. ZIM will be the GREATEST smeet doctor of ALL TIME!"

Of course Gaz wasn't about to let that one go. Somebody had to keep Zim's ego in check. "Because you are the only smeet doctor around."

Zim fixed her with a definite look now. Gaz returned her arms back around the chair to embrace Zim. "You know I have to keep you grounded before that ego of yours gets the better of you."

"Zim knows no such thing," the green alien muttered as he resumed his view of the displays before him.

Gaz had to smile. "Yes, you do. You just can't admit it."

The girl squeezed her arms a little tighter and leaned forward over the backrest further so she could also rest her chin between Zim's antennae. She was up on the tips of her toes, and it was an awkward position to reach over the backrest. Zim's antennae curled inward to rest in her purple hair, and the alien let out a contented and blissful sigh.

"You saved their baby, Zim. No one else could or would even try to save a child out of that genetic mess. Yes, you are way more intelligent than what I gave you credit for in the past-" Gaz let out a sigh of her own as she took pleasure in Zim's antennae running through her hair. "-but that doesn't mean you don't have gaps. You know you do. But just like you can have your Irken love for me despite being human, I can love you despite you're occasional… miscalculations."

The antennae in her hair stopped moving, and Gaz tilted her head and kissed Zim's scalp to ease the sting of her truthfulness. "Like when you thought I was talking about a bee a just now. In the past I would have felt contempt at what I saw as just stupidity. But now? Now that sort of mix-up brightens my day because I'm finding it endearing. It makes me smile. Makes me grow closer to you."

Zim tilted his head up to look into her human amber eyes. Gaz looked back warmly. "It's a human thing. It means I'm falling in love with you, Zim. More so each and every day."

The Irken smiled and his antennae resumed running through his bondmate's hair. He knew this was a momentous thing for Gaz to say. "You are more relaxed now. Will you be able to get back to sleep?"

Gaz pulled back, not because she wanted to, but because of the uncomfortable position. She shook her head. "There are too many reminders. Its like everywhere I look I see things that remind me that you and I will one day have a smeet. Being away from home so Dib and Tak can have a night to come to terms with suddenly expecting a child. Even here in your base are reminders of what our future holds. You researching for Tak's pregnancy, being in your bedroom and knowing someday I will be living here with you. Husband and wife together." Zim wouldn't really know what that meant yet.

She let out a deep sigh and took one of Zim's hands. "We've made a decision. But I feel like its hanging over my head, waiting. It wouldn't be so tough, but it's not a theoretical idea of 'someday we will have a smeet.' Zim, we made a tangible plan for me to be implanted with her embryo in a few years. We even know what our daughter will look like. She's real to me. Not an abstract idea like it would be for most couples. If I close my eyes I could see her. Its more like 'someday I will actually hold her in my arms.' I can see it already. It's not a dream or an imagination, but a future reality."

Zim looked at her and placed his other hand over hers as well. "You wish to reconsider?" He was eyeing her questioningly.

"No. I can't. I can't pull the plug on her."

"Then you wish to proceed."

"No, Zim. We aren't ready yet." Gaz saw the confused look on Zim's face. "Zim, you haven't completed your bonding process with me, and its necessary. Tak was, and they were still reckless. We can't be reckless, Zim. We're not in their position. Dib is human and can help her through it all regardless where his bonding with Tak is right now. I saw that just researching for our niece was making you queasy. This would be radically more involved, because I'm the one that's human. Your Irken brain hasn't adapted yet.

"Could you handle my vomiting when I started going through morning sickness? Help me into the bathroom so I could pee, let alone help clean up if I didn't make it in time? I might not be able to bend over to do that, Zim. I might not even be able to see my own feet past my belly, let alone put on my own shoes. I'd be dependent on you just to move around. Just to get up out of bed or a chair. And then I'd need you to help me pass our smeet out of my body,with all sorts of fluids and stuff. Your Irken nerves would be screaming the whole way. Not drawing us closer together."

Zim looked like she was describing the innermost circle of Irken hell. "Gaz! How could you want- How could anyone- Without a smeet factory?" Zim stammered. "It's sounds barbaric!"

"It's rough," Gaz admitted. "But it wouldn't happen all at once. It's a gradual progression as the smeet grows. But it's what my body is designed to do." She looked at Zim. "But there are good things about all of it too. That would outweigh the bad. And in the end its all worth it. But you can't understand these things until your Irken nerves go into your final stage of bonding. They won't let you."

She was glad Zim hadn't asked exactly how Tak and Dib (or humans in general) had started a smeet. Zim looked rather pale with just this. That was definitely a subject for another time.

"How do you know all of this?" Zim asked.

"I had to hear about it standing in line at the supermarket," Gaz answered. "And in health class they taught us how our own organs work. But I admit I don't really know much. Not about what I would go through in real life anyway."

"Why did Zim not take this 'health' class?" Zim protested.

"You did. Dib said you were passed out the whole time. He hacked the school computer so you wouldn't take the class again without him being there to make sure you didn't weaponize something."

Silence echoed through the room. Gaz reclaimed Zim's hand. He had let go at some point. "Zim, even from what little I have heard there is no joy like bonding with the little life growing inside you. Without that- Zim, I don't want to turn out like my mom. What she did to me. How she left me."

That part was something Zim understood about Gaz very much indeed.

"You won't, Gaz-blossom. You could never do that. But Zim does not know what you need to do right now."

"I guess I'm just feeling like I'm standing under the shadow of all this," Gaz replied. "It's keeping me awake."

"Then you must step out from under it," Zim commented simply.

Gaz regarded her Irken husband. He might not know what he was really talking about, not having a human thought process. But he was right, and there was only one direction in which to take a step.

"Zim, I need to do something rather than just wait. Otherwise I'll just keep thinking about it. Can you take me to the medical chamber? I want Computer to remove one of my eggs and place it in stasis."

---

Zim and Gaz weren't the only ones having trouble sleeping that night. Dib was wide awake too, lying next to Tak who was curled up next to him. She was out cold, plugged into the PAK maintenance unit. His room was a mess, having to rearrange half his room to fit in the maintenance unit next to the bed where Tak could access it without sleeping on the floor. Fortunately Mimi had been there to help haul the heavy thing. But Dib wasn't in a mind to tidy things up afterward.

Tak was still in her holographic disguise, and Mimi was curled up at her feet in her feline form. Tak's side rose and fell with her breathing underneath Dib's arm. He lay on his own side facing her, looking at her.

Not just at Tak. But at his Irken wife, Tak. The mother of his unborn child, Tak.

The paranormal side of him wanted to, but he just couldn't. He couldn't bear to see his mate, let alone his unborn daughter as alien. They were precious. The most precious people on the planet, and a tear rolled down his cheek as he held on tighter to the two lives he now loved more than any other. It may not be fully entrenched in the romantic in form yet; such things took time for those roots to burrow down deep. But a love for an unborn baby girl and her mother were a powerful thing.

I never thought this would ever happen to me, Dib thought as he put a hand over that hard knob within Tak's abdomen. He caught himself and laughed a little on the inside. Well, now that I think about it, who else would this happen to? Knocking up a girl from another planet?

The heat emanating from the egg sac had dissipated quickly after the surgeries, one on Tak and the other on the egg cell. He knew this would happen, but still he worried. Not that Zim had sabotaged anything. There was no need, for the egg would have aborted on its own without intervention. But what if Zim made a mistake somewhere? But then surgery on a DNA strand was mostly up to Irken technology. And even Dib had to admit that Zim had a knack for biological manipulation. His creatures had chased him often enough to know.

Yes, he had worries. Lots of them. But they all were covering over the one big thing he was trying to come to terms with. That one Dib Membrane was going to be a daddy. And never in his most far fetched, crazy dreams could he have imagined that his child would be Irken.

Dib raised his head as he heard the front door open and close. That couldn't be Gaz. He got up out of bed and entered the hallway. The light downstairs snapped on, and the figure in the living room was walking into the kitchen. Dib stepped down the stairs, no longer alarmed.

"Dad?" he asked. "What are you doing home?"

Professor Membrane turned to face Dib. "Oh, hello son. The cleaning lady finally threw us out for a hour. Doesn't she know that she's interrupting SCIENCE! But it does give me a chance to use these new hyper-nap blindfolds. It will allow me to get a month's worth of sleep in twenty minutes!"

The Professor proudly held up a pair of glowing eye patches. Strangely they seemed to be glowing the color black. It did not seem a healthy thing to place on one's face to Dib.

"That's great Dad. Listen, I need to talk to you about something."

"Yes, yes. More of your insane mumbo jumbo, I suppose," the Professor said as he removed a loaf of bread from the refrigerator.

"No, Dad," Dib said. "I got in some trouble."

"Yes. The school notified me of your suspension. Daughter sure is a handful, isn't she? But you know better than to provoke her. There was always something not quite right about her temper matrix."

"Dad. Please listen to me for once. I got a girl in trouble."

"Did you accuse the Henderson girl of being Bigfoot again?" Professor Membrane asked. "You should know better by now than to make such insane accusations just because she has long hair."

"No, Dad."

"Little Debbie next door of being a weresheep? She was only going to a skool play, Son."

"Nooooo."

"Julie-Anne Stormon of being a paste monster? You realize she had an accident helping her uncle wallpaper their bathroom."

"Dad!" Dib cried. "I- I got a girl pregnant!"

Professor Membrane didn't move.

Dib went on. "Dad, she's upstairs sleeping. Its been a real strain on her, and she's not been well. She doesn't have any family except us, Dad. We almost lost the baby a few hours ago. She needed surgery." Dib sat down heavily on the sofa in the living room. "We're trying to not freak out about this. She needs me, Dad. They both do."

"Now son, I know you're insane and given to all sorts of crazy stories-"

"What is WRONG with you!" Dib yelled as quietly as he could. "I'm not even telling you about the paranormal here! I'm talking about a girl- oh why do I even bother?"

Dib grabbed his father's sleeve, dragged him up to his room and pointed inside toward the sleeping girl in a light purple nightie under a mound of blankets.

"Son?" the Professor asked. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Tak. She's a refugee. I first met her in elementary skool, but she got sent back home. Her people treated her badly, and she suffered for a long time."

Mimi opened her eyes and gave the humans a hostile glare. Dib went over and sat next to Tak on the bed. "Mimi, stay. It will be alright." Honestly Dib didn't know that yet. "This is my dad. Just like I'm the baby's dad. He won't be staying long."

Mimi gave the Professor her best 'I'm watching you' scowl.

Dib looked from Tak back to his father. He felt exposed. Was this kind of what Zim felt like every day I was after him? he asked himself. Is this what Gaz felt like when Dad came home and found Zim in the bathroom? The Professor just looked back.

"I can't let anything happen to them, Dad," Dib stated with a trembling voice. "Tak has… she's been through too much already. She was broken when I found her, Dad. I couldn't stand by and do nothing. But then we became a pair. Now we have a baby on the way. Tak's not ready for this. I'm not ready either; to be father, Dad. But they need me."

"Son," Professor Membrane said walking up behind him, "let me tell you a secret. No expectant father is ever really ready. Not until the moment they welcome their child into the world and he knows he must change the world for that tiny hand wrapped around his finger."

Dib looked up at his father standing there, and knew he was speaking from personal experience. It also explained why he was never around. Ironically, it seemed the reason the Professor had no time for his children was because he was too busy changing the world for his children. Not that the thought helped much.

"Thanks Dad," Dib said as he took his sleeping mate's hand. He didn't say anything for several seconds. "I'd rather this be under better conditions. You know, with her conscious. But you'll be back at the lab soon." Dib sighed. "Dad, I'd like you to meet my family. This is my wife Tak. And that's her cat Mimi." Dib gently touched a spot on Tak's abdomen through the blankets. "And this in here is your granddaughter."

Mimi just kept her red eyes on Professor Membrane, ready to defend her Mistress.

The Professor eyed the sleeping form in Dib's bed. "She's a fine looking girl. Uh, Son. Why is she plugged into that machine?"

Alarm bells started going off in Dib's head. Not that his father would ever believe the truth. "Dad. That thing on her back is what keeps Tak alive. It needs maintenance at night. I told you she suffered quite a bit. And she has to wear a disguise to keep her safe. If the wrong people discovered where she is…" Dib left the rest unfinished.

"Surely she is far enough away that she is safe. Just one face among millions. She doesn't need to put on a disguise when she goes outside."

"No Dad," Dib said not knowing how to steer the conversation. Then an idea popped into his mind. Use the Professor's own ideas of why an obvious Irken form wasn't an alien. "This isn't what she really looks like. She's using a hologram right now. Tak was in a teleporter accident. You know. Like Zim? You remember Gaz's husband. He was here the last time you came home."

"A holographic disguise?" his father said. Obviously he would address a scientific achievement first.

"Yes, Dad. Tak made it herself. She's very intelligent. But we can't risk her being seen in her real form. Not even in our own house." Dib put a hand on his forehead.

"Son-"

Dib interrupted the Professor. "And what am I going to do when the baby is born? Someone could take her, Dad. My wife too. Just because they don't look like humans do." Saying that tasted dirty to Dib because not too long ago he would have been counted as one of those people who would do such a thing. It made him realize how unbalanced he had once been.

"Slow down, Son. You're getting way ahead of yourself. Not that I can't blame you. But those things can be solved another day, by SCIENCE! So what does my daughter-in-law look like?" Professor Membrane asked.

"She had a similar profile as Zim does," Dib started. "But she was on a starvation diet for a long time. Her ribs show a great deal and she is too thin for her good." Dib stopped himself. He was doing it again, treating Tak like a patient. "She has green skin, and three fingers per hand," he said as he brushed his hand over a holographic brow and down her cheek. "She's about a foot shorter than I am, and has these antennae that have this bent curl to them, and these amazing purple eyes. They can be scary at times, but when we're alone and Tak looks at me- Well, its hard to describe."

Dib looked down at his Irken wife wearing the human hologram. His mind's eye showed him the Irken form underneath. He saw her as she really was, except for that invisible aura that newly expectant fathers could see surrounding their pregnant mates. "She's beautiful, Dad. And our daughter is going to look a lot like her I think. Tomorrow I want to take Tak out and register our marriage. We were going to wait, but with the baby on the way I don't want to anymore."

"You do understand that just because she looks different, that doesn't mean she's an alien?" the Professor asked.

Dib could finally give his father a truthful answer and be not be seen as crazy. "I know, Dad. When I look at Tak, I honestly don't see an alien."

Instead he saw his wife and an expectant mother. Irken? Yes. But Dib had been around an Irken or two for years. Not to mention his pregnant mate was Irken. Scary at times? Yes. But Dib had lived with his scary sister for most of his life, even if those scary edges had been rounded out recently. But alien? No. Not any more. And definitely never his own daughter.

"Then there is hope for your sanity yet," Professor Membrane declared. "When you take her out I will have my workmen deal with the windows. A family should be able to let down their guard at home. I will write her a note, but I need to get back to the lab soon! SCIENCE awaits!"

---

Tak opened her eyes as the cables retracted into the PAK maintenance unit. Snuggling into her was her human mate. Dib was fast asleep, and seemed to be clutching a piece of primitive paper in his hand, which rested on her chest. She took it from his hand. It had unfamiliar writing on one side.

To my newest daughter Tak. Dib introduced me to you while you were asleep. I am a very busy man, so I regret not being able to meet you like a daughter should be met. I am understanding that you have had some difficulties, and that you must wear a disguise. I am familiar with your basic appearance from other teleported DNA accidents. ('Huh?' asked Tak.) My son-in-law is also one such as yourself. Fortunately my son is able to recognize that you are not an alien. How preposterous such an idea is.

When my son takes you out tomorrow, my workmen will come and install holographic windowpanes in all the windows. Not only are they bulletproof and blast resistant from the outside, but they will display any home scene that my family wishes to program for outsiders to see. You and my grandchild may be yourselves at home, Daughter, without anyone the wiser. Dib said you had suffered a poor diet at the hands of others. On the kitchen counter I have left a loaf of my latest version of super-toast. It is a marketing failure as it causes significant weight gain, but it will help you recover from your ordeal. Take half a slice twice a day until no longer necessary.

I must go now. I cannot delay any longer for SCIENCE can't be kept waiting! Welcome to the family, Daughter. And welcome home.

Tak's eyes watered until she couldn't see any longer. The first time she had been to Earth, this letter would have been a deadly insult or an opportunity to exploit in order to pursue the takeover of Zim's mission. But now it was something very different indeed.

Mimi walked up and settled next to Tak's side. Tak reached down and began to stroke the holographic fur. She was still troubled. Disconcerted about the little life growing inside her. Of one day passing a living being out of her own body. She reached down and touched that spot in her abdomen. Tak was anxious about becoming a mother to a smeet. Afraid that the little life within her might be growing wrong, or not growing at all.

Yet she also felt safe. Safe next to her Dib. Her human mate who significantly demonstrated that he could take care of her and their smeet. He had known what to do, who to go to for help regardless of how insane it seemed. Dib had known without doubt, and had acted when others had told her to give up the life within her as a lost cause. Tak even felt safe knowing Zim and his human bondmate were nearby, who had saved her doomed smeet.

No, Tak thought to herself as she glanced at her mate sleeping so close to her. Our smeet. Our precious little smeet.

Tak consciously realized she wanted this for the first time since she learned of her pregnancy, as tears flowed down her face. There was something right about a little piece of her mate Dib growing within her. Even if her Irken senses told her it was barbaric and a disgrace to her kind. Well screw Irken, she thought as she tilted her head next to Dib's, running her antennae out of the confines of the hologram and into his hair as she took hold of one of his five fingered hands. She placed his human hand over her abdomen and held it there tightly.

The disguised Irken paused stroking Mimi long enough to pick up the letter once again. She couldn't see through the tears to read it, but she remembered the last line.

Welcome to the family, Daughter. And welcome home.

She was reclining with her mate in a genuine nesting place that was theirs. Not some temporary compartment on some ship. This was their home, on her new homeworld. She had not been just accepted, but adopted as if an offspring herself into this human family.

Tak dropped the paper and resumed her stroking of Mimi's holographic fur, which seemed to further soothe her nervousness. "Mimi, we're home. We're finally home."

---

Gaz unlocked the front door and led Zim inside the Membrane home. Well, perhaps more on the order of stumbling inside with Zim following. It was too early in the morning again, but a house call was necessary before they continued on to skool.

"Diiib," Gaz croaked loudly. "I brought Zim by to check on the baby before we went to skool."

The human girl plopped down on the couch and pulled out her GameSlave IV. Zim stood near the door waiting in his human disguise. While he had been here with Gaz on their movie nights, they had the house to themselves at the time. But Dib was back, and now this was Tak's lair as well. This seemed to call for what Gaz had called "best behavior." It was still not clear what that meant as Zim always gave his best. Well, as least when it was deserved.

Tak's voice called down quietly from upstairs. "Just a moment. I need to change." Then they heard Tak's voice again. "Mimi, stay in our room until called for."

She appeared at the top of the stairs a moment later wearing one of Dib's plain white undershirts and a pair of black pajama bottoms. She was still in her holographic disguise. Tak eyed Gaz sitting on the couch playing her GameSlave, and motioned Zim into the bathroom. Dib was still asleep in their room, and something about Gaz was saying 'Do Not Disturb.' Besides, Tak felt a bit vulnerable at the moment, as if a part of her was holding her breath.

Tak sat up on one side of the long bathroom counter next to the human sink and rolled her eyes, resigning herself to the need to be examined by Zim. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" she asked the other Irken.

Zim pulled a sophisticated scanner out of his PAK. "After Zim resequenced your smeet's genetic code you still have doubts?" Zim noted Tak's hand moving to her abdomen. "Fine. Zim spent all his time after the surgery researching Irken smeet development. While there is nothing for-" he gestured to Tak "-this, there is enough public data on general smeet specifications. Now I need to scan your egg sac. Now place this over it." Zim handed her a detachment from the scanner he was holding.

Tak lifted up a corner of her shirt and slid the scanner's reading head over the necessary location. "What happens in the smeet factories and what is happening to me are nothing alike."

Zim showed his annoyance as the instrument gathered data. It was no where near as powerful as what what available in his base, and was much slower. "Zim knows this, Tak. Zim may have a defective PAK, but that does not mean Zim is an imbecile!"

Tak held up a hand. It surprised her. She had no wish to fight, demean, or put down Zim for the sake of the past.

The device in Zim's hand beeped. He looked down at the readouts. "The egg cell has successfully divided, and it is maintaining its metabolism. All functions appear stable, as was expected."

Tak didn't say anything for a moment. "My smeet is going to be all right?" She caught Zim's arrogant scowl. "Zim, I'm the first Irken to bear a smeet. I will become the only mother within our species, and my smeet is part human. My health is still in recovery as well."

Zim took a seat on the counter on the opposite side of the bathroom sink. "Zim comprehends some. Zim will continue to act as your smeet doctor and monitor regularly."

"Zim, what do you care? Why do you care all of a sudden?" she asked.

"Gaz-blosson reminded Zim that we could have been in trouble like you and the Dib-stin-, I mean Dib. We have plans for a smeet of our own. If something were to go wrong… Well, Zim does not like to think of such things but he is not stupid."

Zim watched his feet dangle over the bathroom floor. "Besides, Dib explained families to Zim. Your smeet and Zim's future smeet share a bloodline. They are connected. Will be connected. Whatever. He said that even though we dislike each other, if something happened to Zim and Gaz-blossom that you and Dib would accept our smeet as your own. And if something happened to you and Dib, your smeet would be as if our smeet."

Tak didn't know what to make of this. "Sort of like possible hostages? Is that why you care, because I could end up with-"

"No!" Zim scolded. He pulled his Pad out of his PAK and showed Tak an image. A semi-Irken child that looked a lot like Gaz. The skin had a faint touch of green, but with red human eyes that were set between diminutive ears and a nose. Two Irken antennae sprouted out of purple locks of hair. "Not them as possible hostages. Us as possible replacement parents. This family thing is a difficult concept for the Irken mind. But we are not on Irk."

It was true that family was difficult for an Irken mind to wrap itself around. Tak recently had her own experiences to relate to, and soldiers knew all about replacing losses to fill the ranks. But Zim was talking about adoption. And not a formal and meaningless one, but a real one; for their smeets would share a blood connection through their human roots.

Tak looked at the smeet design pictured on Zim's Pad. "Zim? She looks human. But you despise the humans."

Zim tucked the Pad back into his PAK, looking almost thoughtful. "True. But Zim loves a human too. Zim designed our smeet only to confort Gaz-blossom and to show that such things were not impossible. But Zim now realizes that Zim wanted our smeet to reflect much of his bondmate," The Irken let out a sigh, looking in a particular direction as if he could see through the wall and down at his human wife. "Zim is in love with Gaz-blossom."

This admission startled Tak. "Zim? We're Irken. We don't love, we bond."

"Zim had more than bonded, but Zim is not foolish to think that it is the same as the humans. We do not have a vocabulary for these other things, so Zim must borrow terms."

Neither Irken said anything for awhile. "What stage are you in now, Zim?" Tak asked.

"The end of the second stage," Zim replied. "It may take awhile yet, but something significant could trigger the completion. Why do you not display your contempt for Zim?" he asked, changing the subject.

Tak thought about this for a minute. "I hated you for ruining my life. You were a defect and yet everything seemed to go your way whereas I was at the top of my class and thrown away. You devastated Irk and Devastis-" Tak stopped herself. "Because you were right. If things had been different, I would not have bonded with my mate. I.. I would not have had the things that are important to me now," she said holding her abdomen and thinking of when she and Dib had conceived. "Most of all because only you decided to save my smeet when no one else would have even tried." Tears welled up in Tak's eyes, for her smeet was fine and growing.

Tak kept going. "I can't even hold you being defective against you. Not after I realized I am one too, and a major deviant as well. And you know what, Zim? I like being a deviant. I want part of Dib growing within me. But it's unnerving too."

"Zim's Gaz-blossom has said she wishes to carry our smeet as well."

Tak paused to look at the other Irken. "Zim? You and I are the only Irkens who have bonded with humans. More than bonded. Zim, there are things I need answers to. I don't want to do something that would hurt the smeet. You may need answers as well."

"What are you talking about?" Zim asked. "Zim does not have much time left before we must leave for skool."

"I need to know how much work I can do still. I know I can't take chances now. And how much time I have."

Zim sighed. He had just wanted to take a scan. That's all. Not all this talking stuff. But unfortunately this was a legitimate concern. "You are still mobile as long as you are careful not to fall from stairs or from other heights. Or taking significant blows to your lower sections. The smeet is still just a few cells and is resilient. That will change in time. Unlike the full Irken development cycle of five years in a smeet chamber, simulated projections indicate about twenty months for gestation. Then development will continue after you pass the smeet. You will be occupied afterward for a long time, Tak."

That was actually a relief to Tak. She had time to adjust to her new life. "Can I still open my egg sac?" Tak asked hesitantly.

Zim looked at her confused. Tak elaborated. "If I clench my muscles I can open a small rupture in my egg sac. Can I still do that or will it hurt my smeet?"

The confused look grew. More elaboration was necessary. "It's so my abdomen will dilate again."

"Well," Zim let the word hang for a bit. "Technically speaking, as long as everything around you is sterile and you are careful not to exert excessive pressure. That will no doubt change later on. But that seems a rather stupid thing to do for no reason."

Tak looked away with a smile and a far away look in her eye. "Oh, it's not stupid, and it has a definite reason. I know human females don't have the same workings, but Gaz would understand. I mean, how else do you think Dib fertilized my egg? It's not like humans have smeet factories."

"What exactly does Gaz-blossom understand?" Zim asked, feeling a bit queasy.

Tak was brought back to the present by the question, and her cheeks flushed. "How is it that you have been here all these years studying the humans, married a human, even love a human and not know how they reproduce?" Truth was Tak had a pretty good idea why. Well, on top of all the Irken ones. First up was that sort of thing wasn't Irken anymore. Probably hadn't been for centuries at least.

"Zim was interested in making less humans, not how to make more of them!" He retorted. He quieted down. "There is something Zim is missing, isn't there?"

Tak nodded. This wasn't like them, but they were the only Irkens facing human relationships. There were no other Irkens in this arena. There was no research to study. No experts to fall back on for strategy. "I'm now realizing I'm missing something also. Dib talked about that it's important to be in love, too."

"It's a human thing," Zim said. "But we've bonded with humans. They connect emotionally. We bond with mostly instinct and altered brainmeat. But Zim finds he now has some emotions connected to Gaz-blossom. My wife calls it Irken love."

"Last part of stage two?" Tak asked.

Zim nodded. "The consequence of being bonded with an amazing human." But Zim said this with a feint smile.

Tak saw this. She knew that smile herself. "Just wait until you get to the final stage, Zim. There is nothing like mating with your human."

She knew she had said that out loud only after she said it. Tak looked over at Zim. His eyes were large and looking straight at her. "I didn't mean to say that. I know I'm a disgrace at best. Defective. Deviant. Every other name they can call me." Tak let out a sigh. "Zim, once I saw they cut out my egg sacs it triggered my bonded instincts. I can only see my egg sac as belonging to Dib."

Zim seemed to be trying to form words.

"Dib's my husband, Zim. Just as Gaz is your wife. More than just bondmates. We both married humans. We both are going to have smeets with them. We've crossed so many lines already."

Tak just looked down at her holographic feet and took a deep breath. "Zim, it wasn't easy for Dib and I. We both had some issues. You and Gaz might already be facing the same ones. I don't know. But Dib and I reached a point where this was what we both wanted. I shouldn't have said anything."

Zim finally spoke in a weak voice. "How? You're Irken."

"I had my egg sac put back in. Without the enzymes it releases I couldn't be receptive to my Dib."

"That is why you were asking about opening your egg sac?" Zim asked in near revulsion.

"Yes," Tak answered with a fond far away smile. "I liked it when Dib and I were together. When we conceived our smeet. I want to mate with my human again."

---

Gaz looked up from her GameSlave as Zim came running down the stairs. "MY BRAINMEAT!" he was screaming and holding his head in both arms. "BLEACH! MUST. BLEACH. BRAINMEAT!"

The human girl got up and moved to restrain Zim as Tak appeared at the top of the stairs. "You told him?" she asked Tak harshly.

Dib appeared by Tak's side, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "What's going on?" he asked as he watched Gaz pulling Zim away from the entry to the kitchen where the cleaning supplies were kept.

"Tak!" Gaz yelled. "This is your fault. Do something!"

Tak walked down with Dib following. She grabbed one of Zim's arms and flipped him on his back. She kneeled down and began to speak. "Zim. Listen to me. I know where you are right now. Before I bonded I would be reacting the same way. But Zim, being a mate is a very good thing. You'll see when you reach your final stage of bonding. It can bring you closer than you can believe possible."

"It's not possible!" Zim screeched in blind hysteria. "Zim has no mating appendage like Dib-stink. THERE IS NOTHING BETWEEN ZIM'S LEGS!"

Tak reached past Gaz and belted Zim in the gut. Not enough to actually do damage. Just enough to hurt and get the attention of Zim's brain.

"Agh!" Zim cried as he curled onto his side, holding his belly.

Gaz was stunned. She continued to kneel by Zim, but now was offering comfort as she glared at the other female. "What the hell was that?"

Tak looked back at her briefly, and then at Zim. "Zim, where are you hurting?"

Zim glared back at Tak in a lot of pain. "Where do you think? You hit me in the sqeedily spooch!"

"Zim, listen to me very carefully. I had to eat meat for over six years. I know about internal pain, and let me tell you that our squeedily spooches don't have pain receptors down there."

"Of course it does!" Zim growled back at her. "It hurts!"

"Tak, you had better-" Gaz started to threaten.

"Zim, that is not your squeedily spooch," Tak informed him. "My egg sacs were in similar locations."

She turned to look at Gaz, and saw death incarnate dancing in her eyes. Then Tak realized what she had done.

Gaz's voice echoed a thousand past doomings. "General Tak Membrane. Do. Not. Move."

Tak stood up at straight as she could. She was actually afraid, because it wasn't Gaz kneeling by Zim anymore. It was Lady Gaz Membrane of the Irken Empire.

"General, I deployed my people to get you off of Dirt. Sheltered you aboard my ship under the Ikren's noses. Shipped you clothing and other supplies. Okayed your emergency recall back to Earth. Reasoned with Zim to save your child. Stayed with you and Dib until you had healed enough, then drove you to my home. Stayed away so you and your husband could have time alone to adjust to your new situation. Then I come back with Zim first thing in the morning to check on your baby rather than just heading straight for skool.

"In turn," Gaz continued as she helped Zim over to the couch, "on the first day on Earth you strike your rightful Governor, my bondmate, and interfere with my bond with Zim. Did you really think it was your place to tell Zim of all people about what Dib did with you? What exactly did you think would happen? Perhaps lifting you off of Dirt was a mistake. Now tell me, General. What exactly can I do to you?"

Tak was fearful now. Striking a governor was very bad. Interfering with other's bond was really bad. She of all people should know that, as jealous as she could be. But striking a bondmate? She answered truthfully, eyes straight ahead in duty-mode. "Anything you wish, Lady Gaz."

"No limitations? No restrictions?"

"None," came the answer. Her life was forfeit, and a tear crept down Tak's cheek.

"Gaz, you can't seriously-" Dib tried to step in.

Gaz interrupted him. "I don't want to be late for skool. Dib, help Zim outside and into my Jeep. I want to speak to Tak in private so she can explain herself without you butting in."

Dib grabbed one of Zim's arms, and helped the moaning Irken out the door. Gaz turned her attention back to Tak.

"Lady Gaz. Zim and I are the only Irkens bonded with humans. He is in a stage of bonding that I skipped, and I am in one he will soon be entering. Zim told me he is at the end of his second stage, and that he is in love with you. I don't have that, having skipped straight to the final stage of bonding, and this 'love' is important to Dib. I am the only Irken that has mated, and with a human too. Zim will enter his final stage and will face this as well. I know what that was like when I discovered what being a mate involved. Zim was figuring it out.

"I was remembering my time with Dib, before it all turned to a blur of terror. I let some things slip that I should not have. You saw what happened, but you don't recognize what was happening. I saw it on Doomwind when the female contingent discovered they had been harvested and had smeets made in the smeet factories. They started to lose their sense of identity just learning that they had offspring. The others were struggling with knowing they have offspring. Irkens do not reproduce. Irkens do not have offspring. They do not mate. It has become part of what it means to be Irken, Lady Gaz.

"Zim just had that slapped in his face. We are both defects. Both deviants in different ways. He is bonded to a human, like me. He is one day going to have a smeet with a human, like me, but hasn't actually faced that yet. But he is about to enter his final stage of bonding as I am now. And he now knows that I mated with Dib, and that is how we are having a smeet. "

Gaz studied Tak coldly. "So Zim was having one of his freak-outs."

"More than that. Our perception of what it means to be Irken is crumbling. And hasn't Zim has always been proud of being Irken?"

"Fine. Did you have to hit Zim? Or was that because you still hold a grudge against him?"

Tak spoke carefully. "Zim's brainmeat was stuck in a loop, and needed a distraction to give him a chance to reorganize and to have something tangible to help him not deny his own anatomy. I hold nothing against Zim. I can't anymore."

Gaz came over and looked down at Tak right in her holographic eyes. While Gaz wasn't what you would call tall for a human, but she still had an eight inch advantage over Tak. "And why is that? He destroyed your life."

"Because he did I have everything I value most in this new life. I have a mate with Dib. I was able to retrieve my egg sac that was taken from me, and we are having a smeet together. I had a second chance as a General. I have a new homeworld after being nothing but rejected from my native one. And last night your father adopted me into your family as if I were another daughter. He said that he will make it safe for me and my daughter to look like ourselves inside our new home. Zim saved my smeet's life, and is continuing his role as a medical specialist. Zim even said that you and him would adopt our smeet as your own if something happened to Dib and I, just as we would apparently adopt yours. As much as I may not like it, I owe Zim everything. I- I just needed to know if opening my egg sac again so I could mate with Dib would hurt my smeet. But things got out of hand. Now its all forfeit because I didn't see Governor Zim and Lady Gaz. I just saw Zim."

Dib stuck his head in the front door. He had been just outside listening, unsure if he should intervene or not. "Zim is in your Jeep waiting."

He paused and licked his lips in nervousness. Dib had seen Angry Gaz many times. Vengeful Gaz, Indignant Gaz, Gaz the Keeper of Grudges, the Embodiment of Wrath and so on. But never had he seen his sister in her Lady Gaz persona before. Dib had seen how this persona had an effect on the Irken smallests onboard Doomwind, but he hadn't ever though about how it might have effected Gaz. And part of that persona was as the Official Right Hand of Judgement where Irkens were concerned. Strange and dangerous as it seemed Gaz right now represented Irken Law, and Tak knew it.

Dib spoke up in Tak's defense. "Gaz, we're all neck deep in unfamiliar territory here. She doesn't know about social, work and family boundaries like we do. Tak didn't mean anything by it." He wanted to stand up to Gaz for Tak's sake, but Lady Gaz was addressing her General who had screwed up. "We're all trying to adjust to all of this, Gaz. We're family, but have official roles to play with each other too. Irkens don't have multiple roles in their lives."

The fire in those amber human eyes died down, and there once more stood Gaz Membrane. From the look on Tak's face Gaz saw that she had brought out the 'presence of doom' too forcefully. Belting a governor on Earth was a serious thing, and belting her Zim was worse. But Tak wasn't from Earth. When Tak had said that there were no limits on what punishment could be given out, she had spoken from an Irken perspective that included banishment, torture, and execution. Tak had already suffered or faced all of those in some form or another when she was dumped on Dirt and left to die after a slow, withering existence.

"Then she needs to learn fast," Gaz stated flatly. "Zim and I don't want nor need to hear about your love life. If anyone is going to educate Zim it's going to be me, his wife." She poked a finger into Tak's chest. "And you. Don't ever lay a finger on Zim again. And I mean ever. I don't care what reason you think have, or what provocation Zim gives you. Don't even think about it. If anyone is going to pound on Zim, its going to be me."

"Yes, Lady Gaz," Tak said in a monotone.

"Now, do I want to know about how you got your egg sac back?" Gaz asked. "Somehow I don't think you just asked for it and they meekly handed it over."

"We stole it back," Tak answered.

"We?" Gaz asked. "And stole from where exactly?"

"The other female Irkens from your ship, and from a high security genetic repository on Irk."

Gaz had to take a step back. "Please tell me nobody was actually shooting during this incident."

"Well, their security teams believed we were there to assist them after the initial missile spread, and there were locks and other security measures that needed to be overcome. Then that needed to be covered up by-"

The Irken was stopped by a groan from Gaz. "Cowboys. I've got a bunch of wild cowboys running around out there."

Dib moved closer to where Gaz and Tak stood in the living room. "Gaz, I don't think the situation is that bad-"

"Are you kidding me?" Gaz nearly shouted. "Did your brain take a vacation, Dib? Your wife just told me that her and my people out there just committed an act of war against the Irken Empire of all people! Right on their damn homeworld! You mean to tell me that all these years of your obsessive compulsive need to prevent an Irken invasion of Earth you actually missed that?"

Gaz took a moment to collect herself. "Tak, tell me this. Will they discover what you have done?"

"No. They believed we were assisting them in keeping the facility secure as we retrieved a rouge SIR unit."

Gaz looked at her wristwatch. She was almost late for skool and Zim was waiting in the Jeep outside. "I don't have time for this right now. I want a full report logged with Computer by lunchtime. That includes ones from Beed and Lim as well. I also want the new base ready to go by tomorrow night. That means security, residential, medical, and storage areas, the fabrication and assembly bay, ordinance production, hangers, and drydock all operational and ready to receive Doomwind. Then I want the full complement of your strike fighters upgraded and ready to transfer to Doomwind in one week and the Spittle Runners transferred to the base then they touchdown. I also want plans for constructing heavy ground units and on upgrading Doomwind's defenses."

The first half of the list was mostly either instructing Computer how to reconfigure spaces or move machinery within the new base, or grunt work running tests and personally checking to make sure all was up to specifications. The second half was all grunt work or tasks with an unrealistic deadline to keep Tak busy and not causing problems. Tak still looked on edge and unsure of what would come next. Dib on the other hand was looking a bit manic like in the old days.

Gaz looked back at Tak. "You can have Computer and Mimi help out, but Dib will be busy getting airframes lined up with his Swollen Eyeballs until his suspension is up on Friday. Once Doomwind arrives, I will allow one of the cargo shuttles to act as on retainer for their use with one of our pilots and three others for security. But I want no more surprises. No more problems. Understood?"

Tak nodded. Even her PAK was recognizing Lady Gaz as a rightful Taller.

Dib spoke up. "Gaz, I was going to take Tak and get married today. You know. Officially." He was looking rather worried. No doubt visions of Irken ships coming down like rain was filling his mind.

"Then you two can do that over lunch, but I'm afraid you two are going to have a very busy honeymoon," Gaz said with an evil smirk. She finally took a breath and let it out. "Now speaking as your smeet's Aunt, don't hurt yourself. You need to let yourself recover and heal too. I've never had a sister before, and I'd rather she not get broken in the first week."

Gaz let out a huff and walked out the door.

"Tak?" Dib asked.

The Irken let out the tension she was holding, turned and moved to put her arms around her mate. "Lady Gaz was decreeing my punishment. There is no real threat to your planet. But I did not realize what I was doing, Dib. She could have just as easily sent me away back to Dirt. I could have lost everything."

Dib wrapped his own arms around his wife and ran a hand through her blue holographic hair. "It's all right. You know things got out of control yesterday. That was just Gaz laying down the law. But at the end she took off her commander's hat and spoke to you as family. Gaz called you her sister. I think she's looking forward to becoming an Aunt."

---

Gaz was sitting down on the floor in front of her locker, pushing buttons on her GameSlave. Class would start in another ten minutes, but Zim was out of sight.

Zita stopped nearby and opened her locker to retrieve her books. She hesitated before looking down at Gaz. "Hi Gaz. Where is Zim? We don't often see you two apart these days."

Gaz didn't look away from her GameSlave, yet the screen was still in its start screen. It looked like Gaz was just pushing random buttons while her mind was elsewhere. "Zim needed some space this morning."

Zita accepted this non-explanation. "I hear congratulations are in order. I guess the rumors turned out to be true after all."

Gaz pulled her head up and looked at Zita with a glare but some confusion as well.

Zita explained herself quickly. "You had a doctor's appointment yesterday. You know, for your baby?"

Gaz took in a long breath and let it out slowly, but not in anger. It sounded to Zita more like resignation. "Zita, I just had an emergency to deal with and needed an excuse to leave without questions."

"Oh," was all Zita said. She didn't know what else to say. But there still seemed something that was off about Gaz, so she sat down next to the purple haired girl. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Hell YES!" Gaz let out as if she had been holding everything inside for a decade. "My stupid brother is the reason for all the speculation about me, and he turns around and gets a girl in trouble."

"Dib?" Zita asked incredulously. "Dib and a girl? You mean a real girl? Not like some zombie sort-of girl or some girl he built in his garage?"

Gaz had to chuckle at that. "Yeah, she moved in to my house last night." Then she sobered at the memory of her brother's face as he carried Tak down to Zim's lab in mortal terror. "Her name is Tak. You might remember her from elementary skool? Anyway, when they came in yesterday she was in critical condition. Emergency surgery and everything. Almost lost the baby. It was really close. They're getting married at lunch."

Zita's eyes were wide, but not really looking at anything in particular. "Wow," she said. "That sack of crap! He wrecks your reputation, and then turns around and does it for real? Gosh." Zita shook her head. "How are you doing? I know that this rumor must feel like a lot of pressure on you and Zim right now-"

Gaz interrupted the girl sitting next to her simply by turning her head and looking at her. Gaz's eyes weren't watering or any such thing. But they looked that she was holding back a lot of something. As if Gaz's eyes could leak something other than tears they would be.

"Gaz? What is it?"

"The rumors are nothing, but I'm really feeling pressure right now."

"Pressure? From what?" Zita asked.

"I'm married, and it's coming with a lot of responsibilities. And more keep piling up. Right now I don't have time for much of my old life. I mean I don't mind so much, but right now I'm feeling a lot of responsibilities hanging on me," Gaz answered.

"Well I know married life has a lot of responsibilities we don't really appreciate until we're either older or hitched."

"It's not that. Its all the other things that came with it."

Zita just looked at Gaz with confusion. Gaz rolled her own eyes. "If it was just marrying Zim, it would be fine. But I didn't. I mean I didn't just marry Zim. I married into a position too."

"I don't understand," Zita responded. "No offense, but Zim's a nobody."

How do I explain this? Gaz thought. She let her shoulders slump. Fill in some details with believable fictions to translate the truth. "You know Zim's a foreign exchange student. Back home he's considered- Well imagine that the President of a militant country has a guy that is so inept that his efforts routinely and single-handedly obstructs every thing that country tries to do. So the President sends him off to be Governor of a state that doesn't exist. That's Zim."

"That's messed up. But Zim?"

"Yeah. But what you all see is him trying to not draw attention to himself," Gaz tried to explain. She saw the look on Zita's face. "Hey, I said trying. But after I married Zim, I got dragged into it. But there are rules about what a Governor can have, power, all sorts of stuff. This fake thing is starting to turn into a real thing."

"I don't get it," Zita said. The bell rang, and the hallways, which had been slowly been clearing of students, emptied. Zita grabbed Gaz's arm when she tried to get up, and she ignored the glare of doom. "You need to talk to somebody. We can just tell them I'm helping you with morning sickness. They won't question it."

Gaz hung her head down and sighed. "Fine, but you don't breathe a word of any of this. Understood?"

Zita nodded. Gaz's expression prophesied doom if her confidence was broken. It was about as surprising as legal wavers for catapult rides into a brick wall.

"Zim named an aircraft carrier after me," Gaz started off. "I'm a doomer, and my online name is The Wind. Thus the CVE-1 Doomwind."

"Wow!" Zita exclaimed. To many people having a ship named after their significant other was a romantic gesture. Perhaps even if it was a warship. Zita wouldn't have imagined Zim capable of such a thing. She watched Gaz's faint smile. "That is so- Wait. You mean Zim, our Zim, is connected?"

"A little. Then there is my own private security," Gaz went on. "They should be arriving Friday morning. And I have no idea what I am going to do with them. I mean it will take them a week to unload and stuff, but I have to assign them jobs to perform."

"You? Security?" Zita asked in disbelief. What amazed her more was that it was clear Gaz wan't joking. "You mean like four bodyguards with handguns? That kind of security?"

"No," Gaz said seriously. "More like a hundred and thirty Marines with an interceptor squadron and air cavalry transport with enough equipment for a small amphibious landing. Plus about sixty or seventy refugees that signed on. Family they managed to slip away from their homeland."

"Damn," Zita said. "No wonder-"

"And then there is my new sister-in-law. Another exile from Zim's home. She was sent away and left to rot and die seven years ago. Dib found out and left to get her. She's been traumatized, and it looks like she might be a bit of a loose cannon. I mean she and some of my people received some disturbing news and got in a freaking firefight somehow. I'm getting the reports at lunch."

Zita just gaped at her. A firefight? As in actual shooting? And Dib's girl is in that?

"And then when we checked in on her and Dib this morning, Tak said some things to Zim," Gaz went on to relate. "He had one of his freak-outs you know, and so Tak hit him. I almost lost it. I mean she hit my husband. I went into full doom mode, you know. Lay down the law sort of thing."

Something in Gaz's face kept Zita quiet.

"I saw the look in Tak's eyes, Zita," Gaz said quietly, her gaze far away. "She was looking at death in the face. And I don't mean my usual promise of doom. She struck a Governor and a Co-Governor's husband. I could do what ever I wanted as her punishment. I had the legal authority to have my pregnant sister-in-law put in front of a firing squad and shot, but what's worse it that she knew it."

Zita just looked at Gaz. She saw her pull something out of her pocket and looked at it. It was a picture of some sort. Gaz was staring at it. "I caused Tak's life to flash before her eyes because I was in the middle of a mood-swing. It didn't occur to me what was happening until afterward."

"Gaz?" Zita asked timidly. "Who are you?"

She didn't say anything for awhile. "My full title is Lady Gaz Membrane of the Irkenstan Empire."

The crazy level of security forces, the authority to be literally judge, jury and executioner, and several other things added up in Zita's mind to one thing. Well, two things. But everyone knew Gaz was no liar. More like brutally honest. "You mean like royalty? You? Gaz Membrane the Dark Fury is a freaking prin-"

Zita was muted by a fist clutching her lips. "Don't even think of calling me a princess."

Zita nodded as best she could with lips that were held in Gaz's iron grip. They were released, but Zita's eyes were still wide. "But you are like royalty. Right?"

Gaz sighed. Zita was not the type of person to let that concept go easily. "Sort of, I guess. I mean if I wanted to Zim and I could start our own country." She wasn't about to tell Zita that, technically speaking, she was ruler of the planet. Starting a country on it would not be a problem. "I've got the impression from my people that if I wanted to, I could have a few thousand eventually. But I just want to live my life, build up and enjoy my relationship with Zim."

Gaz smiled at the thought.

"But I can deal with all that. It can be tough, but I can. I'm not alone in it. I've got Zim. Plus Dib and Tak are willing to help too." Gaz abruptly changed the subject "But these rumors about me having Zim's kid? You know what's really funny? Zim and I can't even conceive without the assistance of a lab. Then Dib and Tak showing up and expecting a baby? That's what I keep thinking about the most. Me having a little one."

Zita put a hand on Gaz's arm. "I'm sorry to hear that," she told the girl next to her. A couple learning they couldn't conceive could be devastating news, but a couple so young so as to still be in hi-skool? "Who's the picture of?" Zita inquired.

Gaz tried to hide the picture, as if she hadn't realized she had pulled it out where others could see. But then she seemed to decide it was too late, and held the picture in her fist with her thumb covering the top of the person's head.

"This is a genetic construct I guess. The girl Zim and I are going to have someday. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Kept me up last night. I still think about it. This girl is real to me. Real to Zim too. You know I'm actually a little jealous of Dib because I have to wait. Zita, I'm really tempted. Really, really tempted. And this mood swing isn't helping."

Zita was a bit confused. The picture clearly had both Zim and Gaz's features, even though most of the purple hair was being covered up by Gaz's thumb. Also this was the second time Gaz mentioned having a real mood swing. But not only did Gaz keep saying that she wasn't expecting, she just said that Zim and Gaz couldn't. "You're tempted, Gaz?"

Gaz shyly pulled up a corner of her shirt. There was a clear puncture mark on one side of her lower abdomen, and surrounded by some minor bruising and covered in a small spot of some sort of sealant.

Zita stared at the spot. "What happened?"

"I had one of my eggs removed and put in storage." Gaz pulled her shirt back down. "Had some synthetic hormones pumped into me last night so I would ovulate. It's why I'm having this… thing I'm having. It's having some weird side effects. Plus being jabbed with a large bore needle-probe does not motivate one to stand up and move around."

Zita gave her a look of concern. "Gaz? What are you even doing here? You should be in bed!"

Gaz let out a slight laugh. "Zita, I can make one phone call and be implanted in a hour. And to be honest, the only reason I haven't is because I know Zim and I aren't ready yet. He's almost there, but not quite. I'd need him to help me a lot, and he just couldn't handle it right now. But if I'm just laying there all day thinking about this girl," Gaz gestured to the picture in her hand, "I think I would end up doing something stupid."

Zita gave Gaz a worried look.

"Zita, I can deal with all of these things. I know I can. But I just don't have time. I haven't had time for really dealing with all of these responsibilities the way they I should. I need more time for my relationship with Zim. To be a married couple. I haven't had time to relax with my games for hours on end like I should. Zita, I don't have time for skool."

"Gaz, are you thinking of dropping out?" Zita couldn't blame Gaz if she was.

The other girl shook her head. "No. But something has to give."

"Maybe you could try to graduate early," Zita suggested. Gaz looked at her. "Oh come on, Gaz. You never hear of someone who graduated at 14? You're the smartest girl in skool. I bet you could get straight A's if you put down that GameSlave for just ten minutes each class. You never applied yourself. Well, not until lately. Don't you think you could pass any test they required of you?"

Gaz wasn't sure. It was true that she had never really applied herself in her studies. She had always just done what was needed. Not to excel. "I signed up for home ec and some economic class next semester. I never took those before."

"Yeah. Big deal. You can sign up for high school classes at the community college. All on your time frame. Just take one class a day or something when you feel you need one until you get everything settled down."

Gaz let out a long breath. Perhaps one she had been holding in for a long time. "Zita, can you do me one more favor? Could you help me up?"

---

The door closed behind Zim as he walked Gaz down the hall. She had shown up at his class saying that she needed his help. Then she had conquered the teacher's protests with "Because if anyone other than my husband sees me start to cry over spilt yogurt, I'm not leaving any witnesses."

"Zim, how are you doing?" Gaz asked. "You had a rough morning."

"Zim's insides are no longer in pain," he muttered.

"You haven't held my hand yet," Gaz commented. Honestly she didn't blame him.

The disguised Irken didn't say anything. "Is Zim failing his Gaz-blossom?" he finally asked.

"No, Zim. Your not if you don't withdraw from me. Just remember we're not them and you haven't finished your bonding cycle. We're not there yet."

"But we will one day. Won't we?" Zim asked.

Gaz stopped in the hallway. "Zim, please hold me." The disguised alien hesitantly drew the human girl into an embrace. "Zim? Do you love me?" She whispered.

"Yes, Zim loves his Gaz-blossom very much. You know he would collapse into a rotting ruin of putrid flesh and misery without you."

Gaz actually smiled. Zim sure had his own way of expressing warm fuzzy feelings. "I love you too, Zim. And I don't want to be without you either. It would shatter my heart." That thought actually brought a tear to her eye, and she kissed Zim on the lips. Softly. It lasted not long, but as if in slow motion.

She pulled away, took his hand and continued down the hall. "Was that bad to you, Zim? Disgusting?"

"No. Zim enjoys your fondness of Zim."

"Now remember us even just one year ago. You would have been bleaching your face and I would have been pummeling whoever it was that suggested we would ever be snuggling, holding hands, and kissing. And neither of us would have shown any mercy if someone had suggested we'd enjoy these affections we show for each other. Right?"

Zim nodded.

"That's how it will be for us, Zim. Okay? But not today and not tomorrow. Focus on us as we are today. Forget Dib and Tak. They were stupid. We aren't."

They finally reached the front office, and Gaz paused outside the door. "Zim, I want to see about taking a test for an early graduation program. I need more time for us, to handle all my responsibilities and problems that come up. I can't squeeze in everything, Zim."

"Zim will also do this. Skool was just a ploy to search out your planet's secrets, then just became a routine. It is not needed for Zim anymore. The only thing here for Zim is his Gaz-blossom."

Gaz nodded and stepped inside the office. She had doubts Zim could pass some spur-of-the-moment testing that was supposed to examine an entire hi-skool's curriculum. But he only had the remainder of this skool year until he graduated anyway. It wouldn't make that much difference.

The girl stood up to the front counter until one of the staff noticed her scowls and stepped over to her. "Yes?" the office drone asked.

Gaz spoke before Zim could open his mouth and insult someone or something. "We're here about the early graduation examination."

Sudden silence swept through the office area. All eyes were on the pair of students. The door behind them snapped shut. "They have spoken the holy words!" The office staff whispered in reverence. The lights dimmed and chanting began as Zim and Gaz were led into an office door marked 'Councilor.' The office was dark, despite the lighting and they couldn't see anything past the wide desk.

A man's voice thundered down at them. "So, you think you have what it takes to escape, I mean, graduate with the limited time, inattention, and sloppy homework you two have turned in?"

Zim countered. "Do you think you could block the MIGHTY Zim if he turned his cerebral bore onto your misshapen skull-" Zim let out a grunt as Gaz elbowed him in the ribs. "I mean, why yes. Yes we do."

"Uh, why is it so dark in here?" Gaz asked, hoping to distract from Zim's indiscretion. He still had difficulty with skool authority.

"Budget cuts," came the thundering reply. "Anyway, the test may take all day and all night. You may miss all your classes for some time. You will receive failing marks during your absence. How will this effect your grades for the semester and your chances for graduation?"

Gaz answered the voice. "We will pass the test and graduate, so we won't need to attend any more classes anyway. We won't need to turn in more papers or tests. We won't need to finish the semester and we won't get graded on anything. Your question is irrelevant."

The voice behind the desk remained silent for a full minute.

"Congratulations!" the voice thundered again. "You have passed the test."

"What?" Zim asked in disbelief. "That's it? What kind of test it that for the likes of ZIM?"

"Budget cuts," said the voice. "it's the most comprehensive one we can afford these days. Here are your diplomas."

Two diplomas with their names scrolled on them were passed over on a dark platter. "Um," Gaz said. "These are printed on cocktail napkins."

"Budget cuts."

"And they are printed with what appears to be crayon," Gaz also observed.

"Budget cuts. Now that you are no longer enrolled in our learning establishment, please empty your lockers and return your books to the front office," the booming voice ordered. "And remember when your kids come to this skool, and they will, vote for higher taxes and increased funding."

---

"Zim thinks they have been waiting to be rid of us for some time," Zim said as they left the office once more after depositing their skoolbooks. Their lockers had been mostly empty of anything important, and were quickly emptied into the trash.

Gaz eyed the Conga Line dancing in the front office with the chanting "Two down! One to go!" and a game of "Pin the diploma on Dib" going on in the background.

"Your're probably right, Zim. And I can tell you right now that we are hiring private tutors for our kids, because that was just pathetic."

Gaz slipped her arm around Zim's and held his hand as they walked out toward her Jeep. "Well, Zim. It looks like we will be able to make it to Dib's wedding after all."

---

There were many rumors going around skool at lunch. That Gaz had killed her brother and was on the run; Dib hadn't been accusing anyone of anything for nearly a week, so he must be deceased. That some curse had been lifted and so now Gaz had slithered back into the underground classroom where she had originated. That Gaz had been transferred to a skool in a hostile country by the army as a weapon of terror. That Gaz had gone into labor. That Gaz was lurking in the skool's vents and was listening for those who spoke ill of her and was now plotting vengeance. Nothing was ever really spoken of Zim. Most never even noticed him when we was there.

Zita ignored it all for she knew the truth, such as it was. That Gaz and Zim just graduated from skool so they could get a better handle on their responsibilities. So they could enjoy a marriage and have that kid in the picture someday. Zita felt honored in a way. She was only one of two or three people who had ever really gotten a glimpse of what lay in the heart of Gaz the Dark Fury: A person who took their responsibilities for the people under her authority seriously and without thirst for power or greed. Who hadn't asked or demanded it out of ambition. Yet who hadn't shied away because it was thrust on her without her approval. A wife's love for a very strange husband and who wanted that marriage to last a lifetime. To flourish and grow in the years ahead. And by far the most amazing of all? A mother's love for a child that wasn't even conceived yet. Who wanted to hold that child so much that Gaz carried a simulated picture of that girl with her.

Who would have ever thought that anything even remotely like that could exist inside that shell?

---

The manager of 'The Wedding Hut' was ending his services. He eyed the couple before him again. The young man was very young, and wearing a black trench coat. He was nervous, yet happy and kept looking at his bride. She on the other hand also looked young, at least from what he could tell from the alien costume makeup, but was wearing grey fatigues with the name 'TAK' stenciled above the left breast pocket. Obviously military. She was also wearing a small white wedding veil for the occasion. She looked extremely happy, like she had been waiting for this moment all her life. But nervous as well. A certain trepidation that couldn't be hidden even behind those solid purple contact lenses in her eyes that matched the groom's subtle expression.

Yeah, definitely pregnant. thought the manager. He had seen it often enough. The two family members seated nearby were also young. A young man who seemed to be feeling queasy with that green tint to his skin, and a girl with purple hair who wore a large wedding ring on her finger. Not potential customers. Beside them were their pets, a cat and a strange dog standing by white buckets.

What seemed strange to him was that the bride had put on the full face and arms of her costume, but had neglected to change into the outfit. But hey, the customer is always right. It wasn't like it was the weirdest thing he had seen this week.

It looked early for the groom, but he was definitely into his bride. She had clearly been sold long ago. A guy who was determined to do right by his girl. "And by the power invested in me by the state of Nevada, I pronounce you Paranormal Investigator and Alien Wife. Now go ahead and kiss your girl," the manager said with a grin.

Dib lifted the veil over Tak's antennae and kissed her bashfully. Tak reached over and drew him in. They broke off, collected and signed their marriage license, and walked down the aisle with Zim and Gaz trailing them out of the building with Mimi and Gir following closely with their buckets.

As they exited the building Mimi silently communicated with Gir. Are you certain this is the custom?

Ohhhhh, YES! Computer explained in detail, Gir radioed back. Now begin throwing!

Mimi and Gir uncovered their buckets as Dib and Tak walked to Tak's ship and the nearby Voot Cruiser. Then they began throwing white lab rats at the newlyweds. Zim collapsed, howling with laughter and Gaz couldn't help but chuckle as well. As least Gir had gotten it close.

"Gir! That's supposed to be white rice. Not white mice!" Gaz called after them as Dib and Tak were pelted with white rodents. From the looks of things, it seemed that the couple didn't even seem to notice in their excitement. "And Tak! Remember I want you back at the base in thirty minutes! Your day isn't over yet!"

Tak's ship hovered and left the parking lot, waiting to gain any altitude until it left the city. Gaz pulled Zim up off of the ground and called to Mimi and Gir to get in the Voot Cruiser. "Come on Zim, I need to stop by my house and get my overnight bag again. There is no way I'm getting any sleep there tonight, and I said we'd baby-sit Mimi and Gir. Besides, it's been too long since we both played down in my Gaming Den. I've missed my partner."