A/N Yeah!!! I am finally back on line! We have moved to Warner Robins, Georgia (home of Robins Airforce Base – the husband's new job!) and we are finally all settled in to the new house and our internet service finally got hooked up today! I was a little worried, the husband's computer went up no problem, but because we now have wireless internet, the guy had to add something to my computer and wasn't even sure at first if it would work! He politely called my computer a "classic." But thank god, here I am! I have missed all you guys, your reviews and your stories so much! So glad to be back on online.

Because it has been so long, I'm going to give a recap of where everything stands and who everyone is.

Currently, Cass is pushing three months pregnant. Roger is on tour as a temporary fill in guitar player for two weeks, leaving Cass and Mark home alone.

To recap all the characters (if I forget anyone, or if anyone has any questions, just ask.)

Jason – Collins boyfriend, teaches art at a local college.

Jennifer – Jason's twin sister. Lives downstairs on the second floor.

Ginny – Old friend of Mimi's from the Cat Scratch Club, lives in her old apartment on the third floor. She is in her last semester of nursing school and works as a stripper to support herself while still in school.

Leslie – Lives next door to Ginny. She is very quite.

Izzy – Owns the Iguana, the bar where Roger works and supposed it's his band Roger plays in, but Roger really runs the band.

Krystal – Izzy's long time girlfriend. She teaches fourth grade and works at the bar.

Trey – Izzy's cousin. Has an up and coming band. Currently they are the opening act for a bigger name on tour. One of their back up guitar players had to do community service that is how Roger got the job for the two weeks. He really likes Roger's songs and was talking to him about them in previous chapters.

That should do it for now. I'll recap more as we come to more people.

Chapter 60

"Mark?" Collins called as he walked through the door.

"Hey." He walked out of the office.

"Hey. Cass said I could use the computer to type up my final exam. I hate using the department one."

"Yeah, come on in. She's taking a shower. Want a soda?"

"Sure. How does she feel?"

"Crappy. She's been throwing up all day again. I can't get her to eat anything again either. And her computer's making it worse I think. She's having major computer problems I guess." He handed Collins a soda.

"Am I going to be in her way?"

"Naw, she'll put you on the play computer as she calls it."

Just then Cass came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of Roger flannel pants and Mark's sweater with her hair in a towel.

Mark looked up as she came out. "You feel any better Cass? You want some food?"

"No, the last thing I want is food. My head is killing me." She squeezed her eyes shut as she said that. "Hey Collins."

"Hey sweetie. You sure you don't mind me using a computer to type this up? I could probably use Jen's if I need to."

"Huh?" She looked up from where she had started hitting keys. "No it's fine. Work you no good piece of industrial crap!" She hit a few more keys. "Okay you no good mother, frigging son of a … you better work now or I trade you in for a dishwasher!"

Cass stood up. "Yeah. Mark can get you onto the other computer. Whatever you do, don't touch these two. Just let them run through their systems while I dry my hair. I'll cuss at it more later." She said disgustedly.

"Oh okay. If you're sure." Collins laughed as she walked into the bathroom.

Mark got up and opened the door letting in Jason. "Hey Mark. Collins here yet?"

"Kitchen." He told him turning on the computer Cass lets them mess around on. He heard Collins and Jason talking in the kitchen. Sometimes they were as sickly sweet as Cass and Roger to listen to. God they were going to be disgusting to hear the first few days after he got home.

Jason and Collins came out of the kitchen. Jason paused to toss his keys on the counter. "Hey Mark, you guys got a message."

"Huh? Oh, um hit the button. I heard it ring early this morning before we got up and I completely forgot about it."

Jason hit the button and the machine re-wound to the beginning. The woman with a heavy French accent began to speak, obviously to Cass. "Dis is Marguerite, I am looking for Cassiopeia."

"That's the lady that like runs their office in France."

The voice on the machine continued. As she spoke Mark got pale. The message got the attention of both Collins and Jason. Mark dropped down, the couch ended up under him as the message ended.

"Mark are you okay?" Collins asked him from the barstool he sat on.

Jason stood by silently. He didn't know what to do or to say. He felt like it wasn't his place to do either. All he could do was stand there.

Mark opened his mouth but no sound came out. Just then Cass came out of the bathroom. They all looked up as she came out.

"What?" She looked at them.

Collins was watching Mark, who wasn't moving and wouldn't look at her. Finally Jason spoke. "Um, you got a message on the machine Cass. From Marguerite?"

"Ugh." She said with a fair amount of displeasure in her voice. "What now?" She shook her head as she hit the button.

Marguerite began to speak. "Cassiopeia you received a telephone call form Dodge. He seemed necessary to speak to you. I would no give him your telephone number and he said he could no computer speak to you."

Cass laughed a little as she shook her head. "That office would be lost without her, but God she can murder the English language. His name is Dodger, not Dodge. What did that ass do now?"

"He say to tell you," the voice continued. "He is very extremely sorry, and you need call him. He had a test and he have a illness? He told me in English, I am so sorry Cass. He say he has a, a virus? He say you need test and he very sorry. You call him yes? Have good day. You call me, I miss you."

Mark had gotten paler as he heard it again. As she said the part bout the virus Cass jumped up. "No! I can't deal with this right now!" She quickly started moving to the computer trying to shut down the systems she had been trying to re-boot all afternoon. "That Fuck! I'm going to kill him if he did this!"

"Cass…"

She ignored Mark and just kept yelling punching numbers into the phone. They all watched her. Jason could see the color draining from her face as she hopped around and it was slowly replaced by a greenish hue.

They heard the hello through the phone as Cass attacked the person at the other end of the line. "You Fuck! What did you do?" She kept punching keys. "Damn it! What am I supposed to do now Dodger! You Fuck! You had to go screwing around on me! What the hell is wrong with you?" She listened for barely a few seconds. "I don't give a fuck where you got it from! It is your fault. All you fault, especially if you gave it to me!"

She took in a breath and was about to start yelling again, but stopped herself. "Okay. I'm not going to yell anymore. It's making my head hurt worse." Her hand went to her stomach. "Just tell me what you're going to do about it." She paused. "Yes you! You fucked it all up! You're going to fix. Because I don't feel up to spending the next 48 hours going through and rewriting a trillion lines of computer code!"

Mark had been staring at the ground, Collins had been watching Mark. Jason was the only one really paying attention to Cass. At her last statement, something clicked. He listened to her tell this Dodger guy he had five hours to be standing in front of her or else.

He looked back at Collins and Mark, realizing what an everyday fact of life logic like they had right now had become for all them. That made him sad, which in turn made the whole scene funnier. He started laughing.

Cass slammed down the phone. "God I so don't need this fucking mess right now!" She stormed into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

Jason kept laughing, Collins then Mark looked up at him like he was insane. "It's her computer. She's got a computer virus. That Dodger guy gave her a computer virus."

I never even thought that." Collins said slowly grinning.

"What?" Mark was confused.

"Her computer Mark, she's got a computer virus. That's probably what's been going on the past day with her systems. That's all it is, a computer virus." Jason explained

"A computer virus? That's all? Just her computer?"

"Apparently." Collins told him as some of the color returned to Mark's face.

"Just her computer? Oh God, cause I thought, well you know."

"Yeah," Collins shook his head. "I know. I thought that too."

"You okay Mark?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Okay. Listen we'll go down to Jen's and use her computer. Call us if you need us."

"Okay." Mark told them from the couch. He sat there for a minute or two after they left. He could hear Cass throwing up in the bathroom. Finally he got up and got her a drink taking it to the bathroom. "Sweetie are you okay?" He asked softly.

"No. I work for idiots. I have idiots that work for me. My entire system has probably crashed. My headache is worse and now I've got this stress like stabbing pain behind my left eye."

Mark could see she was almost in tears. All he could do was rub her back and sit with her. And he was more than happy to do that. After what had just been running through his mind, she could throw up all over him and he wouldn't care at this moment.

The term computer virus never entered his mind when he heard it. His thoughts immediately went to the other virus. The only definition of it Mark had come to know. The one that already claimed four of his friends lives, two of them already taken away. He didn't care if he sat on the cold bathroom floor the rest of the night now.

Mark sat there for the next hour. Cass had her head in his lap and he just kept rubbing it for her. She shivered again and woke up. "Sweetie, why don't we go into the other room. You're gonna catch a cold laying on this cold floor."

She nodded and got up, headed to the couch. Mark realized both his legs had fallen asleep, but he hopped on the pins and needles next to her on the couch.

"What time is it?" She asked lying back down on Mark's lap.

He pulled the blanket off the back of the couch and covered her up. "Almost seven. You want something to eat." She shook her head. "You gotta eat something Cass."

"I will later, I promise. I can't believe that idiot could be that stupid! He better be able to fix this. And now I have to call Carlton and Andre too. God this whole mess is making my head worse."

"Well try not to think about it. Who is that Dodger guy anyway?"

"Honestly? He's a hacker. He's good. Very good. But he's also very young and stupid." She shook her head. "I just have to wait till he gets here, talk to him, and we'll work it all out. Eventually, I hope."

"If you say so Cass."

"Mark?" She said hesitantly. "Do me a favor and don't tell Roger about all this. Please?"

"Why?"

"He already thinks I spend too much time in front of that stupid thing. He'll just get upset and he doesn't need all that. Not now. Just let him finish up playing the tour. Please?"

"Okay, if that's what you want I won't mention it." He won't like it, but I won't mention it he thought to himself.

******************

At about 9:30 that night Mark heard a knock on the door. He opened it to find two skinny guys. Both looked barely legal and were carrying laptops and other computer equipment.

"We're looking for Thena."

"Who?"

Cass sat up on the couch. "It's about time you idiots got here."

"We're real sorry Thena. It was an accident."

"I don't want to hear it Dodger, just fix it." She snapped at him.

"Nice place Thena." The second guy said sarcastically, looking around as he walked in. "When I heard you were moving to New York this wasn't what I was expecting."

"Shut up Skee! There's the computers, there's the bathroom. You can order a pizza if you want, just fix it. And did you bring your passports, because you may be going to France."

"France? Why do we have to go to France?"

"Because I'm not! And you two idiots were the one that fucked this up! And for what I pay you two this never should have happened." She snapped.

"Okay, okay. We said we were sorry. Let us just look at it. What's the matter with you anyway?"

"I got a stomach thing. Just get to work." She got up and walked into Mark's room, flopping on the bed. "I still can't believe this is happening."

Mark laid down next to her. "You head still hurt Cass?"

"Yes." She told him, her arm covering her eyes.

"I'm guessing they don't know you're pregnant?"

"No and let's keep it that way. Let them think it's just a migraine."

"Okay. So who's Thena?"

"Me. Athena. Daughter of Zeus and Zeus alone. His favorite child. She sprang from his head full grown and in full armor. In the Iliad she's a fierce and ruthless battle-goddess, but the rest of the time she is more of a protector. She's also supposed be the goddess of wisdom and reason and purity. What a joke all that turned out to be." She laughed. "God my head hurts."


"You really need to eat something Cass."

"I can't. I tried."

"Well, try again. Either you eat something or, or, or I tell Roger!"

"That's blackmail."

"Yup. But it will work."

"Fine. I'm gonna throw it up, but I'll try. Just don't tell Roger how sick I am. Deal?"

"Okay. Deal."



******************

"Okay so explain to me again who the two freaks sleeping in Roger's room are?" Jen asked.

"Apparently some kind of computer hacker geniuses. They work for Cass. Or at least did. She' s already fired them three times today."

"And they built a virus?" Collins asked

"Well what they said was they were trying to see how hard it was to do. Not that they planned on sending it anywhere, just to build it and try it out on an old computer they were going to rebuild anyway."

"So in other words, they're stupid teenagers who got bored." Jason stated flatly.


"Probably, I guess. Either way, they accidentally sent it out to Cass."

"Man was she pissed too. I swear that kid's first word is gonna be fuck." Jason laughed.

"Well I don't blame her for being mad. Those two have been working on the computer since last night. They're running something now. That's the only reason they're allowed to sleep. They've been working almost 24 hours."

"Well luckily for Cass, and them, they built it to only go to one computer and then send to one specific computer. The two they were going to junk and rebuild. But they sent it to Cass by mistake. It's been searching her computer trying to access the other computer it is supposed to go to, but since that one isn't on line, it's just jamming up her one system. Luckily it didn't make it into the server of her main office system in France." Collins explained.

Maureen came out of the bathroom. "Well she drank some of the soup at least. She's just laying in there on the floor."

"God I feel so bad for her." Jen said. "Did that ginger tea Joanne sent her help any?"

"A little." Maureen said. "She got it at one of those little Chinese herbal stores. Where you go in, tell them what's wrong with you and they just pull stuff out of drawers. Joanne said it was really a neat place."

"Well, you guys ready to eat?" Collins asked. "Mark you want us to bring you back something?"

"Naw. We actually have food believe it or not. I'll just stay here and figure out how to lie to Roger."

"What do you mean?" Jen asked.

"She won't let me tell him how sick she is or about her computer. Last night I got around the computer issue. And I sort of blew off the fact that she was sick again, but I doubt he'll buy it from me again. And you know he always knows when I'm lying to him."

"You are a lousy liar Marky."

"Not all of us can have that talent Mo." He told her.

"When I do it, it's acting not lying."

"Right." Mark laughed. "Go to dinner."