A/N~Thanks to Aelle and the other person who reviewed! I hope you like this, and get to know Tabetha a little better. The next chapter is where you'll see the thorns on the rose. As always, please R&R!

Walking home, I again found myself thinking of the night Tabetha was thrown out of her house. It was the day she found out she was pregnant. I walked her home.

"Hey Marco," she said, shuffling her feet. "My mom's really racist."

I was surprised. "Really? I guess I better not come in and ask for dinner," I said, as lightly as I could.

"It's not that," she said. She lowered her voice. "The man that raped me was black."

"What do you think your mom will do? Kill the baby?"

"She would, but I won't let her." Tabetha's eyes flashed. "I won't have an abortion."

She looked at me, eyes, pleading. "Will you come in with me? Please?"

I eyed her warily. "I thought you said your mom was racist."

"She is…but you look white in some lights, you know?" I couldn't say no to her vivid green eyes, so I sighed and agreed.

Slowly we walked up her steps. I was a little nervous, but hey. This isn't exactly how you'd picture the big, "Meet the Parents," moment.

"Mom?" Tabetha called, stepping in the door. "Mom, I need to talk to you."

"What?" the plump woman in an easy chair called. "Come in here if you want to talk to me."

So tentatively I followed her into the living room. "This is Mark," Tabetha said, introducing me. I gave her the fisheye. She pretended not to notice.

Her mom grunted an ascent that she had heard me, eyes still glued to the TV screen. "Is that all?"

"No, Mom, I'm pregnant."

Her mother laughed. "Yeah, right."

"No, really. I was raped about a month ago, and found out I was pregnant today."

The woman actually muted the TV, then stared at her daughter. "Tabetha, was it a-"

I don't need to tell you what she said. Tabetha's eyes narrowed. "It was a black person, if that's what you mean," she hissed.

The reaction was instantaneous. The woman leaped from her chair. "Well, you better march your scrawny little ass somewhere downtown and find a clinic!"

"I will not," Tabetha said evenly.

"You will if I say you will!" her mother roared. "I will not have one of those…those beasts in my house!"

"It's murder," Tabetha hissed.

"It's not murder if it's not human."

Tabetha's eyes narrowed even thinner. "It is a human. And you won't have to have it in your house."

We walked out the door. As we left, I turned around and said, "Oh yeah, my real name's Marco. I'm Hispanic. And I think you are the sorriest excuse for a human being I have ever seen."

She shrieked insults at us all the way down the yard. We just kept walking. Tabetha came to my house.

I gave my Dad a sketchy explanation. He took it at face value, and Tabetha stayed with us for a couple nights. After that she went out to the woods and lived with Ax in his scoop. No one at school missed her. People noticed she was gone, like teachers, and I just told them she had gone to live with her Dad. The only reason they noticed she was gone was because everything they ever said in class wasn't challenged by someone smarter than them anymore.

See, Tabetha and I might be equally intelligent, but she actually uses her brain, whereas I simply allow mine to rot.

After a while, people forgot she had ever been there. No one really cared what happened to her.

Just like Tobias.

I stopped in front of my house, debated going in, then changed my mind and walked some more. My mind flew to when Tabetha first told us what had happened.

We were standing around in the woods. Tabetha needed it. She said she couldn't be in the barn, it was too closed in. None of us knew what had happened yet, except maybe Cassie.

"I was walking home, when some guy comes up behind me," she said. Her hands were shaking. I wanted to hold them, but I didn't know how she would react. "He says, 'You're an 'Andalite bandit,' aren't you? I'll make you morph.' And then he…he starts attacking me."

My blood froze. "You mean hitting you?" Jake asked.

"No. I mean…well, he raped me."

Dead silence followed those words. I felt a cold fury rising in my heart.

"Did you morph?" Jake asked.

Tabetha looked up at him, eyes angry. "I'm not an idiot. I could have stopped him, but I didn't. I didn't morph."

Rachel's eyes flashed. "You should have."

Tabetha shook her head. "He would have ran while I was in mid-morph, then what? We'd be over. Through. I had to take it."

"What happened to the guy?" Jake asked.

"He said something like, 'You weren't too bad, and it was worth it, even if you aren't an Andalite. Guess we didn't need to suspect you after all.' Then he left."

"Do you think he was told to do that by someone?" Jake pressed.

Tabetha shook her head. Cassie was glaring at Jake with intense ferocity. He didn't notice.

"That scumbag, probably just wanted an excuse. Although he might have suspected me."

"You've gotta go get tested," Rachel said. "Ax, can diseases be cured by morphing?"

~No, he said. ~That stays with the DNA.

"Right," Rachel said. "So we're going to get you tested tomorrow. And if we happen to see that creep…" her eyes narrowed and she punched her palm.

I stayed silent. "Tabetha…" I whispered. "I'm just worried about you. Are you OK?"

She smiled her sad smile at me, the one that made me want to cry and laugh at the same time. "No," she said honestly. "But hey, none of us are OK, are we?"

I shook my head. She took my hand.

"Someday," she promised, "we'll be OK. But not now. Now we're teenagers, and supposed to be screwed up."

I laughed in spite of myself. Then I noticed something-Cassie and Jake were gone. So, in spite of my better judgment, I decided to go and see where they went.

I didn't have to go far. I found them in a little clearing. Cassie looked angrier than I had ever seen her.

"I'm not stupid or blind, Jake," she hissed. "I saw the way you looked when Tabetha told us what happened. You thought, well, thank goodness she didn't morph. You thought, at least it wasn't Rachel, she would have morphed. You didn't care that she was in pain!"

"Pain is for later, alright?" Jake snapped. "Pain is for when you don't have to worry about survival or trying to keep your friends from becoming slaves, tools of the enemy!"

"Pain is real, Jake! And you can't exactly control when you feel like it or not!"

Jake suddenly shrank. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I just…I don't know. I'm so scared that something's gonna happen and someone will get hurt."

"Someone did get hurt," Cassie retorted, her anger slipping away. "Remember that. She needs us all now."

With that she turned away. Jake was alone in the clearing. I watched him for a few seconds. Finally he left, too.

I walked into the 7-11. Grabbed a slushee. Paid. Went home.

I really wanted to go see Tabetha. But my dad would go ballistic if I was late getting home again. I went up to my room, claiming I was tired. I was. But I wasn't going to bed.

As soon as I got up to my room, I stripped down to my morphing outfit and focused on the image of the great horned owl, lord of the night skies. I could see EVERYTHING! I mean, better than a hawk sees, yeah, but in absolute darkness I could see the antennae twitch on a cockroach.

Not that I would want to.

I flew to Erek's house leisurely, glad I didn't have to bide my time. I soared inside (Erek always left a window open,) and demorphed. Once I had, I headed towards Tabetha's room.

"You need to sleep," a Chee was telling her.

"I've got all day to sleep. Besides, Marco's about to come over."

"You and that boy…"

I knocked on the door. "Who is it?" the Chee asked dramatically.

"If I tell you, I'm afraid you might fall over from the magnificence of my presence," I said.

Tabetha laughed. "Or from the stench. Come on in, Marco."

I walked in the door. "Hey, Tabetha. How are you feeling?"

"Well, it beats being attacked by a mob of angry monkeys." She gestured to a chair, and I sat. "Amelia is a very good healer."

"My masters created me to be sort of a "doctor" Chee," Amelia, who was obviously the Chee said. "However, they usually count on rest to help a person get better."

"Well, if my good looks are keeping Tabetha awake…"

"Oh, shut-up," Tabetha said, smiling. "I'm feeling a lot better. I'm not on the verge of death, anyways."

"I'll leave you two alone," Amelia said, leaving the room and closing the door.

"Are you really OK?" I asked her in concern.

She nodded. "It's weird, lying in a bed, in a room. Mind, I'm not complaining. I like being warm."

I smiled. "I forget the little things you've lost."

"I'm not worried for me," she said. "I'm scared for this kid. I don't know what's gonna happen to it. I mean, a baby who..." she trailed off, looking distracted.

I nodded. "Somehow, it'll all work out. There's not sense in speculating."

She pursed her lips and nodded. We fell silent for a few seconds.

"I was so scared, earlier today," she whispered. "I thought I'd lost you. You didn't see how you looked when Rachel pulled you away. I just saw glimpses of you through the Hork-Bajir. You were half-holding your insides in place…" she trailed off, and shuddered. I slipped my hand into hers.

"Yeah, well, I was hoping we could bottle it and make a whole new line of snack foods." She wrinkled her nose.

"Gorilla guts? Low-fat, available on the exotic foods aisle?"

I laughed. "Yeah, I think there's a niche in the market for it."

She looked at the clock next to her bed. "You really should go home," she said. "Get some rest."

I shrugged. "Fine. I think we're meeting at Cassie's tomorrow after school. You gonna be there?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I wouldn't miss a meeting. I'm feeling a lot better, anyways. By tomorrow, I'll be good as new."

I morphed back to my owl. "Have a good flight," Tabetha said as I soared out her window.