Title: Heartbeat

Title: Heartbeat

Name: Joy       

Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com

Rating: PG-13

            Jondy arrived at the Cale penthouse frustrated and unnerved. 'What am I thinking? I don't know what I want,' she thought as she headed up the stairs. She entered the apartment to find it very silent.

            "Hey girl," Original Cindy said from the kitchen. They had long since made peace with each other and adapted to sharing Max's time. They even found they made a pretty good team.

            "Hey. Is Max around?"

            "She's taking a nap… Whaz up? Ya look like somethin' is on that pretty little mind of yours," Cindy said patting the counter next to her.

            "My brain is scrambled and my heart seems to have followed suit. I figured Max could lend me a little insight."

            "Sug'r may have the man of her dreams, but she don't know nothin bout relationships… I talked her through many a Logan fest…I'll do the same for you."

            Jondy considered it a moment, "Maybe an outside opinion would be good."

            "Damn straight!"

            "Alright… Well, everybody seems happy to set me up with Sebastian. Fiona successfully cleared the room tonight, so I would be alone with him. Up till now having him flirt and talk to me was fine but now…"

            Cindy got a funny look on her face, "What's now?"

            "Huh?"

            "What changed?" Original Cindy asked.

 Jondy's face became flushed with color, and she couldn't speak. "That good huh?" Cindy commented. The pink in Jondy's cheeks deepened. "Another guy… Another girl."

Jondy made a face, "Sorry Cindy… Don't swing your way."

"And it is such a shame… So a guy. They're in limited supply where you been hanging. Could this be a tall, dark guy that looks like my boo?" Cindy said watching for the color to change in the blonde's face. Jondy didn't respond in any way at all. "Then I'm confused?"

"You suggested my brother… Shouldn't you be weirded out by that?" Jondy asked.

"Nah…He's your brother only sort of. More like he's family, but family can mean a couple too. It was weird with Max and Zack because he was so insistent on calling her baby sister and yet he was all about her. She couldn't see him as anything but a brother… that doesn't mean you can't see Krit as more than a brother," Cindy encouraged.

Max walked into the kitchen for a nightly snack. "Liam," she said looking at the top of her stomach, "Mama was sleeping. If you want food you need to let me know before I go to sleep. We will have to work on this when you arrive." She bit into a ham sandwich that Logan had left for her before he and Bling had a guys' night out. "Hey Jondy. When did you get here?"

Max munched away at the sandwich as Jondy answered, "Ten minutes ago or so. You get a good nap."

"Yes and No. I love my pregnancy pillow but Logan's getting jealous of the cuddles it gets and not him. We were arguing about my 'addiction' to the pillow before my nap. Bling was instructed to remove my husband before I hit him with the big pillow… To which he yelled back 'cuddle grabber'. Man, Little One we're going to be a laugh a minute," Max said patting her belly.

"Hey guess what?"

"What?"

Jondy smiled big, "Big brother's headed to Colorado to see Rachel."

"No way!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Damn… You Chimera's will do a lot for love once you realize what it is. Now you remember that," Cindy said shaking her finger at Jondy.

"Why do I feel left out?" Max asked.

"Go on… Confession is good for the soul sug'r."

"I'm not interested in Sebastian, Max." Max looked shocked. "But I am… maybe… I don't know," Jondy muttered throwing her hands on her head.

"What?"

"There's the possibility that sug'r here has a thing for Krit," Cindy said putting her arm around Jondy.

"No way!" Max said again.

"This is a mess… A month of working with him and … agh…." Jondy groaned.

"How does Krit feel?" Max asked the obvious question.

"How should I know? He's one of us…His poker face is a killer. Sometimes I think… but then… I just don't know."

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            Krit looked at the ceiling of the guest bedroom he and Jondy were staying in. Every other night he loved staying in this room with her. They would lie awake talking for hours about the years that had past since the escape. She felt so close to him, like they'd never been separated. He thought about what Fiona had said to him about love earlier that evening, about how one day you realize it and then you look back and don't know why you hadn't noticed before. He was too scared to admit that was what he was feeling. Jondy was his sister. This would be a repeat of Max and Zack. Jondy would end up with the guy in the chair. His heart hurt.

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            The Colorado morning was brisk when Rachel was awakened at five a.m. to her doorbell ringing frantically. She put on her robe and tied it tight. She didn't even look out the peephole before opening the door. Whoever was out there was going to get an earful for waking her at this ungodly hour.

            The door stood open to reveal Zack standing in front of her "You really should always check who it is before answering," he admonished.

            "Well… Whoever was out here was going to suffer the wrath of Rachel for waking me."

            Zack pouted, "Are you mad still? I drove to the airport after we got off the phone and hopped a plane to be here this morning so you wouldn't have to wait long to see me."

            "You're forgiven," she said sweetly taking him by the hand leading him into the apartment.

            They stood very close together as Zack looked down at the blue-eyed girl he'd been dreaming of the whole flight up. He stroked her face and hair as he stared at her lips briefly. "I… I've never… felt this way before." He kept touching her face with the lightest possible caress. "This is real," he whispered before kissing Rachel for the first time.

            Tears descended her face from the intensity of the moment. It was all she could have wished for. "What'd I do wrong?" Zack said pulling away suddenly when he felt her tears.

            She grabbed his hand and pulled him to her again. "Nothing… You did nothing wrong. These are tears of joy, you make me that happy." She smiled up at him and he smiled back before kissing her again with greater passion.

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            With in a week the serum was ready for testing but Dr. Spencer felt it might be best to wait until Zack's return from Colorado. The Seattle fam ate dinner happily enjoying their success.

            "To my brother and sister in law for their tireless efforts to ensure the welfare of Little Liam," Logan said as a toast. Max and Cindy looked nervously at Jondy for a reaction. None came. Poker face for company.

Truth was Krit and Jondy had been working diligently to avoid talking about what might be brewing between them. Their late night conversations had all but ceased. Krit felt sure that Jondy was interested in Sebastian and Jondy felt sure that Krit only saw her as a sister. Fiona still had hopes that Jondy would come around to liking Sebastian, so she neglected to mention Krit's questions about love to anyone. It was becoming harder to deny the electricity between them and soon she would have to break down and say something.

Dinner moved smoothly until Liam kicked Max violently. "Ouch. Hey, cut that out," Max demanded. In a minute she knew something was wrong by the vibrations in her belly. "I don't mean to worry anyone…but Bling could you check the baby's heartbeat," she said quite seriously.

The dining room became a flurry of motion. Krit spoke first, "He's seizing…I can hear him..."

"So can I," Jondy said taking his hand briefly.

Max's face was tear stained in seconds. Fiona flew to the phone and called Jessica. Logan and Max were huddled together around their son praying he would be ok. Bling came with the stethoscope. "The baby's heartbeat is erratic. Get Jess here Fi," Bling commanded.

Cindy thought out loud, "What if Max took some of her pills? Wouldn't it flow into Liam?"

"Jess just said the same thing. She's on her way," Fiona announced to the frightened parents as Cindy got the meds. Max swallowed three for good measure and waited.

It seemed an eternity for Jessica to arrive and check on Liam. "I'm glad I was in the neighborhood… The meds helped but any prenatal seizures are hazardous to Liam's health. I think we'll need to up your dosage to help compensate for his need as well."

Krit spoke firmly, "Let's run the test. I know the risks…let's just get it done. I don't want him to have to go through that again."

"Zack is the one who has worked most closely with the serum. I want him to look over the final product before we proceed any further," Jessica responded.

Krit said nothing and just grabbed Jondy by the arm and headed out.

"Where are we going?" she said half dragged down the stairs to the garage.

"Don't worry. Just come on," he said grabbing his bike and nodding Jondy to get on it. At any other moment she would have been flattered or maybe even turned on, now she was just scared.

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            The lab was dark when they arrived at Sebastian's. "Krit… What are we doing?" Jondy insisted as she put her helmet down.

            Krit got the serum, liquid tryptophan, and two syringes. He filled one syringe with the liquid tryptophan and the other with the serum. "We are saving our nephew!" he snapped. "Give me the serum… if I start to seize give me the other as well."

            "No way… It might kill you!"

            "This is what I came for Jondy… Not like I have much going for me…I'll ensure that baby lives better then we did," he responded.

            "He already will, Krit! Please don't ask me to do this," she begged.

            "I have to do this… We have no idea when Zack's coming back Jondy. This is what loves about J, sacrifice," Krit said searching Jondy's eyes.

They moved as one back to the examination table in the room. Krit was about to lie down when a thought struck him. "I have to do one thing before the shot."

"What's that?" Jondy asked with alcohol swab in hand.

Krit looked at her briefly then kissed her. This wasn't a little sweet 'I like you' kiss. This was an 'I may never wake up' kiss. Jondy responded in kind with strong passion and energy. Sebastian went to check on the motion detector the pair had set off on accident. He saw through the glass the blonde he had developed feelings for kissing the dark haired man she had been working next to for over a month. Sebastian rolled away from the window broken hearted.

Jondy broke off the kiss to whisper, "We'll talk about this once the serum works." He gave her a sexy smile. She swabbed his arm and injected him with the serum before kissing him lightly again. She held his hand waiting to see what would happen. The light in his eyes faded as he began to seize. Jondy administered the other injection. The seizing stopped suddenly.

Krit looked too still. Jondy checked his pulse to find his heart wasn't beating.

"NO! KRIT!!! KRIT!!! WAKE UP! NO!!!"

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A/N: Doesn't it suck I just caught a major case of writers block!

           

A/N2: I'm lying. I know exactly where this is heading. I just plan on making you wait. I might be persuaded to post the next chapter sooner if I got reviews encouraging me to do so.