A/N: Skippy The Wonder Fish- I have Microsoft Word and I save my chapters under My Documents, d'you know how I can get italics to show up??? Please e- mail me. Also anyone else can if they know how I can get specials like bold, underlined, italics, etc. to show up on my story. My e-mail is in my info thingy.

I am trying to make the chapters longer by adding new scenes that I hadn't originally written, and also by combining two chapters into one, so hopefully I wont have as many chapters in the end. Another thing- this was written a few months ago (started in January, finished in May) and it was taking me forever to end it. I'm just saying this because it starts to get a bit rushed (at least it does to me) and it skips ahead in time more frequently. Sorry bout this. I'm a very impatient person.

One last thing- I couldn't think of a name for this chapter because it's a combination of two, and when I combined the titles it sounded stupid. Extremely stupid. So if anyone has any ideas, pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaase tell me.

CHAPTER 17- (Any ideas?)

When Cornflower returned to the abbey that night, she was immediately bombarded by dozens of dibbuns talking in their cute manner.

"Miss Co'nflowa! Miss Co'nflowa! Mista Maffias sayed we tell you thatta you in big t'ubble!"

"I'm in big trouble?" she asked, feigning fear and shock. "But whatever for? You all know that I'm never in trouble. You'll help me, won't you?" She pleaded, bending over so they could hold her paws.

Rusty, the young squirrel who spoke before, stuck his face up near hers and waved a sticky paw at her in a reprimanding manner.

"He sayed we take you to Consta'ce and put you inna baff wiv lots an' lots of soap and scrub you till you squeaker clean!"

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, still playing along with them, "Surely you wouldn't do that to me? I promise I'll never go out again!"

"What you fink, Mist Mafias?"

Unbeknownst to Cornflower, Matthias had crept up behind her and was watching the whole scene with a false look of disapproval on his face.

"Thanks for guarding the prisoner. I'll be sure to let you know when I scrub her down, alright?"

The dibbuns ran off, looking for more fun elsewhere. Cornflower watched the little figures running off, smiling fondly.

"They're so sweet. I can hardly wait until Retto has grown some, though I have a feeling he'll be something of a troublemaker."

"Aye. If we have any of our own we'll be in for it. They're likely to get your reputation."

"My reputation?"

"Yes, yours. 'Twasn't me who was getting yelled at by the dibbuns, now, was it?"

They both burst out laughing watching the dibbuns being shooed out the kitchen by Friar Hugo.

"Fine, you win," chuckled Cornflower. "Lets go in and eat. It looks like there's going to be a storm tonight."

********

By that night, as Cornflower had predicted, a huge storm was dumping water on Mossflower. Cornflower sat in Cavern Hole with some of the other abbey members who were trying to comfort the frightened dibbuns.

"Miss Co'nflowa, when will the big booms stop? I frykkened," said a young hedgehog named Emilie.

"Hush now, it's just a storm. We're perfectly safe here. No harm will come to you if you stay inside. Try to go to sleep," she said to them in a soothing voice.

Matthias came in not too much later with Retto and helped her take the now sleeping babes to their dormitory. When this was finished, they ran back to their little gatehouse cottage and turned in for the night.

*******

Cornflower was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud boom followed by Retto crying. She jumped up, accidentally hitting Matthias in the stomach as she threw the covers off.

Retto's cries, along with the thump in the stomach, awoke Matthias. He, too, ran to the cradle to see what was the matter.

"Thunder?" he asked sleepily.

"Aye. It scared the living daylights out of him. You don't mind if I bring him in with us, do you?"

"No, s'fine," he replied, rubbing his stomach.

*******

The next morning, Matthias stayed in the gatehouse for most of the day, watching Retto and trying to clean up some. He spent more time on the former, though, because Retto had recently acquired the skill of crawling, and liked to practice it whenever possible. He crawled off quite a few times.

Matthias eventually gave up trying to accomplish anything and played games with his son. Both mice were completely happy playing games like peek-a-boo and lights-off. Retto giggled with delight as Matthias blew lightly on his fluffy stomach.

"Well, how do you think it looks? Mommy and Daddy have worked hard for it, you know. What d'you think?"

Retto just giggled at him some more. Matthias picked him up and went over to the bed and sat down, lying back on the pillows.

"Look at you, young sir, completely covered in dust! What will your mother say?" he asked, stroking Retto's soft stomach. Retto remained quiet, crawling out from under his father's paw. Matthias watched him scoot down to the foot of the bed, pulling himself onto his father's footpaw.

"Some day you will be a grown mouse, and I hope that you will find somebeast to spend your life with. I am extremely lucky to have your mother, and I hope one day you will have a family of your own, with a maid you love as much as I do Cornflower," he said thoughtfully, sighing.

He pulled himself up into a sitting position, and was about to pick his son up, but found that he was gone. Matthias jumped up in panic and ran out the open door just in time to see his paw turn the corner of the abbey. He bolted after the crawling babe, catching up with him quickly.

Cornflower had been picking ripe fruit from the gardens for most of the day, and had just been walking to get a drink, when she saw Retto crawling towards her.

"What are you doing here, sir?" she asked him, picking him up gently.

Just then Matthias came in to view, running towards her.

"Oh good, you caught him. The little rogue crawled off while I was talking to him, and I didn't even notice," he said giving her a quick kiss. "How did it go, m'dear?"

"Well enough. I was just going in to get a drink. Please don't call me m'dear. It makes me feel old."

"Yes, m'dear."

Cornflower laughed at him. "Really, you astound me with your nerve."

They were interrupted by a squirrelmaid who was barely out of dibbunhood named Isabelle. "Excuse me, Lady Cornflower, can I hold him?"

"Of course you can, Isabelle, just be careful that he doesn't get away from you. He just learned to crawl," replied Cornflower, passing him to her, smiling.

"Thank you," Isabelle replied, bobbing a curtsy and going off into the abbey.

"Now, where were we?" asked Matthias.

"You astound me with your nerve."

"Aah yes. You've got such a wonderful memory m'dear."

Cornflower laughed at him and pounced. They fell to the ground, tumbled and rolled over each other, while tickling their opposite like dibbuns. Eventually they called a truce, and Matthias lay on the ground with Cornflower. She rested her head on his stomach, using him as a pillow. Matthias stared up at the sky, daydreaming, and was quite surprised when Cornflower let out a long sigh.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"I suppose." In truth, she was trying to think of a way to tell Matthias that she thought she might be having a babe in a month or so. She wasn't showing at all as of yet, so she knew she had more time, but it still seemed impossible to tell him.

"Lets go in," he said, lifting her to her feet. He slipped his paw into hers and was about to start going in when he looked into her eyes. She looked troubled. Something wasn't right. "What's wrong?" he whispered, looking apprehensively at her face.

"N-Nothing. I'm fine, believe me," she said, looking up at him. She could see that he was worried about her; it lurked like a shadow in front of his grey-blue eyes. Normally his eyes were hard and steely, but they softened for her.

"If you only knew," he said softly, shaking his head as if in disbelief.

"Knew what?"

"How lucky I am to have you," he responded with a kiss. "C'mon, lets go get Retto. Hopefully Isabelle has him still."

They went in to get their son and their supper.