Authors Note: I'm not entirely certain I like the way I handled Mad Dog in this chapter. It may or may not change to reflect future chapters. And for the record: No. Mad Dog isn't in love with Camdyn. Camdyn isn't in love with Mad Dog. 'Nuff said. Besides...what would Suki think? :)

-----Chapter 14-----

"Why'd I have to get stuck with you?" Mad Dog muttered. Camdyn shrugged. She remembered the saluki back on Breaker Island and passed along her message.

"Suki said to tell you hi if I saw you." she blurted. Mad Dog positively cringed.

"Suki? You mean she's still trailing me?"

"Well, she was at Breaker Island..."

"Wait! You've been by there?"

"Stopped for about two weeks, actually. All the ladies gave me messages to pass along when I saw you guys again. Why?"

"Come on..." without explanation or ado, Mad Dog began dragging Camdyn in another direction. They reached their destination. There were crates, boxes and all manner of things jumbled together in a large room. It looked something like the hangar in front, but was smaller. Most of the crew was there, Camdyn supposed they weren't needed or were just hiding from people. Zoll was suffering through an exam from Sophie. Camdyn saw Zoll wince as Sophie prodded him in his shoulder. Mad Dog led her down the stairway and through the jungle of junk. It was a bit noisy with everyone caught up in their own conversations.

"Yeah, I think you've managed to sprain it." Sophie poked again.

"Would you stop pokin'!? It hurts!" Zoll said.

Gwynn reached over and jabbed Zoll in his shoulder.

"Does that hurt?"

"YES!"

"I found out what hurts!" Gwynn said, gleeful.

"Hey...Camdyn's seen the Ladies." Mad Dog said. Everything went quiet.

"Really? What'd they say?" one of the pirates asked.

"Urm..." Camdyn was nervous with everyone watching her. For a dancer she hated public speaking. She looked around and spotted all the pirates who had family on the island and resigned herself. At least she wouldn't have to do this twice.

"First of all: You have the most terrible children I've ever met. When I left, they had gone through at least seven different nicknames for me, Including: "Vulture Vomit, Camdyn the Cockroach, Crazy Camdyn, Camcam, and Flying Fox." this was met with laughter.

"Is Samuel Roberts here?"

"Yeah, he's back here...playing with his radio..." a feline answered, waving his paw in the air.

"Your wife wants you roasting on a spit."

"How charming. Did you happen to find out why?" he asked.

"Well, with the condition she's in, I could really hardly blame her."

"Condition?" the tabby seemed confused.

"You mean you don't know?" he looked at Camdyn blankly.

"Oh, geez...how do you tell someone something like this?" Camdyn muttered, trying to find the proper words for it.

"Is there something wrong?" Sam asked. He was starting to look worried.

"No...no...she's not hurt or anything...just. She's very, very pregnant."

"Oh man..." Sam covered his eyes with a paw while getting teased by the others. "Why didn't she SAY something? I mean, with Kelly she at least told me..." he was off and babbling.

Next to Camdyn, Mad Dog rolled his eyes.

"You'd think he didn't know what causes that sorta thing." the mutt said.

"Dumptruck?"

"Ja?"

"Rayne says that if Gertie asks about becoming a 'wild woman' you have to tell her that the natives will eat her." Camdyn was getting a little more relaxed now that she realized that the pirates really did want news.

"Vhy?" Dumptruck asked, looking even more confused than he usually was.

"Well, she's taken to running around outside with no clothes on, painting mud on her face and attempting to hold the other children hostage. That's all true because I saw it myself. In other news: Kay sends her regards to her "Cuddle Corgi"," at this Zoll blushed under his yellowish tan fur, "Maybelle sends her love to Will," Will grinned, "Lulu says hello to her brother, and Sable gave me a demand for the "Fleabag" who took her favorite wrench to return it before he faces the consequences." Camdyn continued like that for nearly an hour. When she finally stopped filling everyone in on what had been going on, she was feeling much better about being on the airship.

"Hey, what about Mad Dog's princess?" one of the pirates asked.

"Shut up." Mad Dog growled.

"No, come on! We've followed her this far...any news about her?" Sam, who had quite recovered from his news, declared, waving a chart in the air.

"Princess? I didn't see any princesses...at least I don't think I did."

"Um...her name's Suki."

"Suki? Suki Elverson? She's a princess?" Camdyn looked baffled.

"Ja! That vould be her."

"She's at Breaker Island." Sam made some marks on his chart.

"I knew she'd catch up to you...I knew it." Sam muttered.

"Shut. UP!" Mad Dog snapped. "She's not gonna find me because the Ladies never come onboard the Vulture and I never go to Breaker Island. Why doesn't that moronic saluki go home?!"

There was silence for a few minutes.

"What's she a princess of?"

"The Princess of Pain in my Ass!" Mad Dog turned and stomped a few feet away. He stood there looking irritated.

"She's some sort of Aridian princess. Apparently she decided that Mad Dog was her one true love and has been following him since we left Mirita." Zoll informed the still confused Camdyn. Camdyn decided that "Elverson" didn't sound like a very Aridian name. She had to tell the truth that she had wondered about Suki's accent a little.

"If she's a princess, why hasn't her father tried to find her yet and take her home?"

"Because she's the ninty-second princess." Mad Dog muttered sulkily. He dragged Camdyn out of the room and down a corridor, shoved open a door and went inside. Camdyn wondered if she should follow him.

"Are you going to stand out there all day?" Mad Dog muttered.

Camdyn stepped inside and found that she was in his quarters. It wasn't quite as messy as she had expected it to be. Apparently, Mad Dog had no room mate because the other bed was folded against the wall. Mad Dog grumbled about being a vixen-sitter. Half the room obviously belonged to the mutt. He had pictures taped and tacked to the wall above the hammock he used instead of the normal bed. Some of them were pictures of movie starlets that he'd evidently filtched from someone's magazine and a few were pictures of people that Mad Dog apparently knew. There were also postcards with neat pictures on the fronts of them and she resisted the urge to stare at them. There was apparently more to Mad Dog than met the eye. Camdyn wanted to ask him who the people in the photos were, but instead said:

"Nintey-Second princess? Her dad has ninety-one OTHER princesses?"

"Yes." Mad Dog said. He picked up a half-empty bottle of soda pop, shook it, discovered it was indeed flat and drank what was left of it anyway.

"I feel sorry for his wife...I didn't think people could have that many kids..."

Mad Dog stared at Camdyn for a moment.

"You really are stupid."

"I am not stupid!"

"Yes, you are. Think about the country we're talking about. Did I fail to mention that she's the sixth daughter of the forty-second wife?" Mad Dog said, waving the now empty bottle at her.

"I- did you just say the forty second wife? Great googly moogly..."

"Yeah, see, in Aridia, you can have more that one wife. I thought everyone knew that." Mad Dog said, he flopped in the hammock that he used as a bed and stared at the ceiling. "Most of the guys thought it'd be great to retire there." he laughed.

"Why don't I go see where I'm supposed to stay?" Camdyn asked, hoping to change the subject.

"You're supposed to stay with me."

"With you? Here? I don't think that's what the captain meant."

Mad Dog looked at Camdyn. He sighed and got up.

"You want to go ask him?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, I do."

Mad Dog sighed resignedly and led Camdyn back to the hangar. Della was still there and glared as they arrived, Mad Dog promptly ignored her and the itching fit she seemed to be having. Don Karnage was having Ratchet report to him about the condition of Camdyn's plane. Mad Dog stalked up to them, then gestured for Camdyn to go ahead.

"Excuse me." Camdyn said politely. Ratchet stopped talking in mid-sentence and glared at Camdyn. Then he looked at Mad Dog, who pointed at Camdyn as if that would explain everything.

"What?" Karnage asked, frowning at the interruption.

"Where, exactly, am I supposed to be staying? Because I was just wondering since you told Mad Dog he had to keep me in his sight at all times."

Don Karnage looked a little confused.

"You stay with him."

Mad Dog smirked at Camdyn and gave a mock bow.

"With HIM? Wait just a minute...I'm not staying with him...how am I supposed to get dressed? In case you haven't noticed, I'm a female..."

"Yes, yes...I have noticed that. Did you think I was confuse-ed? You stay with him. It is being the only place left."

"There isn't anywhere else? No little place you could stick me?"

"There is always the brig." Karnage answered. His ears flicked impatiently. "No, wait...I believe Della's crew is there."

"How could there be nowhere else on a ship this big?" Camdyn asked. Karnage's temper was beginning to fray.

"There are SIX crews aboard this ship. You cannot possibly be believing the difficulty in trying to find somewhere for them all to be. If you do not like Mad Dog, go...sleep on the roof." Karnage snapped, then turned back to Ratchet and motioned for him to go on. Ratchet looked at the captain then muttered, "No one ever stays with Mad Dog more than once."

Camdyn sputtered a protest as Mad Dog again led her away. Mad Dog was laughing at her.

"What are YOU laughing at?"

"You should have seen yourself."

"Oh shut up." Camdyn was perturbed about being forced to stay with a male pirate. She followed him through the ship, staring at the floor and wondering how she was possibly going to live through this. She found herself back in Mad Dog's quarters. She had to wonder, at least for a moment, why no one else would stay with him. She put the thought to the back of her mind for the time being and began trying to get herself situated. She was just getting ready to figure out how to unlatch the bunk when a ball of cloth hit her in the back of the head.

"What was that for?" she snapped.

"It's a hammock. You can try the bunk if you want to, but I don't think you'll like it. It's just like sleeping on the floor." Mad Dog answered as he rummaged through a drawer. Camdyn sighed and began tying the hammock up. If the room's sole occupant suggested it, she'd try it. She had some experience with hammocks from her childhood.

"You really ought to learn how to control that big yap of yours. You're technically a prisoner. That's why I can't let you out of my sight."

"A prisoner? Who ever heard of a prisoner who's allowed to walk around without being tied up? And it's a good thing that I haven't got any other clothes." Camdyn finished tying the hammock up and was hit with another ball of cloth.

"Have a blanket. Who knows why the captain is letting you roam around...just try to get some sleep while you can."

Camdyn gritted her teeth. "Thank. You."

Mad Dog smirked and climbed into his own hammock. As Camdyn got herself situated in her own, she began to wonder exactly what Ratchet had meant when he said that no one ever stayed with Mad Dog twice. With that question in her head, she dozed off. A few hours later, she woke up to hear Mad Dog whimpering in his sleep. She looked over at him. He was sound asleep, but he was sweating and twitching and every so often he'd mutter something unintelligible and whine pitifully. She wondered if she ought to wake him up, but then thought better of it since she'd heard it wasn't good to wake someone up suddenly when they were dreaming like that.

Camdyn lay back and attempted to get back to sleep. She heard Mad Dog move and a soft thump as his paws hit the floor. She glanced over at him.

"Where is he?" Mad Dog asked. He was wide awake, but he seemed confused.

"Who?"

"The hunter..."

"I don't know. He's not here."

"I'm gonna kill him." Mad Dog muttered, more to himself than anyone.

Camdyn swallowed hard. So far, he hadn't seemed to think that she was the hunter. She was suddenly very glad she wasn't a male. It had just occurred to her why no one shared Mad Dog's quarters, if he had these sorts of dreams often, he probably woke up and attacked them thinking the other guys were the Hunter.

"I know."

"I'm gonna kill him for Zan." with that, Mad Dog seemed to be falling back asleep and he simply curled up on the floor. Camdyn looked at him.

Camdyn wondered if Mad Dog had thought she was Zan or if he was just talking to himself. Camdyn didn't know whether to be relieved or to be frightened of this. As she thought about it, she herself dozed back off. She was rudely awakened around an hour later as an alarm went off in the corridor outside. She jumped as she woke up and dumped herself onto the floor. Mad Dog was already on his feet and opening the door.

"What's going on?!" She asked.

"Don't know. It's not good though. Come on." Mad Dog hauled her to her feet and began working his way through the crush and out to the hangar.