" Sit." Johnny pointed to the two chairs rested before the desk, no longer covered by papers.

Kai stood beside the desk and watched as the two sat down.

" Don't try and make it sound like an order or anything." Alex rolled her eyes.

Tala sent her a glare. " Alex! Be-"

" I'm not gonna be nice to someone who-" Alex snapped back but was cut off herself.

Kai glared at her. " Don't even say it."

Alex crossed her arms and mumbled. " Fine."

King Johnny cleared his throat and gained both thier attentions.

" Now, we have called you both here to......offer something to you." Johnny paused for a proper word.

This gained their curiosity. " Like what?" Tala asked.

" A job. A better job." Kai commented.

Alex groaned in impaitents. " Well spit it out already!"

" Not one for surprises are you?" Johnny mocked.

Alex glared at him but didn't say a word. 1) Because she was too busy thinking of ways to get it out of them faster, and 2) Because Tala was shooting her nasty glares himself.

" Alright if your so impaitent then. This offer is to help you both out in this...situation." Kai smirked, arms crossed on his chest now and leaning against the desk sideways.

Alex cocked a brow and stared at tala, who just gave her a clueless responce. " What situation?"

" You do know how rude it is to keep something this big from both your boss and you king?" Johnny tapped his fingers on the desk.

" Do you know how rude it is to not say what I'm supposivly keeping from you?" Alex snapped back.

" Alex, we know." Kai snapped at her, his face showing great annoyance. " So quit beating around the bush."

" Know I'm what?!" Alex demanded.

" Pregnant!" The two shouted.

Alex fell silent. Tala shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying to find a position that didn't show it much.

" How'd you find out?" Tala mumbled.

" Micheal." Johnny spoke flatly.

Alex growled. " Remind me to strangle him next time I see him! He wasn't supposed to say anything!"

" Did he say he wouldn't?" Kai questioned.

Alex fell silent. " No." She whispered, then went back to her normal voice level. " But he looked like the kind of guy that wouldn't say anything!"

" Looks can be deciving." Tala taunted.

Alex pointed a finger at him, her elbow still tucked beside her chest. " You shut up."

" Anyways!" Johnny shouted before an argument broke out. His voice level normal. " The reason we brought you two here in the first place."

" I'm here to offer you my job, Tala." Kai spoke plainly, standing up straight, hands on hips.

Tala looked dead stunned and just stared at the floor. " Your j-job?" He looked up, straight into Kai's eyes. " But you need that job to raise your family-"

" You have one on the way, and we both figured you'd need all the help you could get." Kai thrust a thumb towards Alex, who acctually had a faint blush appear on her cheeks.

" Don't remind me." She muttered and looked away, finding the wall very interesting.

" B-but, I- this wasn't-" Tala couldn't find the words to describe his feelings.

On one hand he was so happy! This was job he'd worked his whole life for! And it was getting offered to him on a silver plater, ready, just calling to be accepted. On the other, he couldn't take away Kai's job just because he had a family on the way. Kai actually had one to care for.

" I can't accept your job, Kai." Tala shock his head and sighed as he came to his conclusion.

Johnny and Kai both looked dead stunned. Alex smirked more to herself then anything.

" You are totally pathetic." She muttered and took in a deep breath.

" How am I pathetic?" Tala snapped, breaking the no-word-to-describe-the-silence situation.

Alex closed her eyes, crossed her arms again and turned her head in the other direction. " Do I really have to point it out? Or are you honestly that stupid?"

Tala growled, gripping onto the arm-rests with some of his strengh, the other men in the room guessing so that he didn't turn around and smack her.

" First off." Alex began, turning around to stare at him, not glare, just stare. " You were all so keen on getting this stupid job in the first place." Tala didn't say a word and looked to his knee's, realesing the chair. Alex continued. " I do belive you know what I'm talking about. Second, I didn't do this to myself." She pointed to her stomach and glared at him. " So your gonna be helping in anyway that you can, or your going to be having some serious health problems."

" You would do that to the father of your baby?" Johnny asked shocked.

Alex sent him a straight smile and a glare. " You don't know me that well."

Tala shifted again. Alex growled. " What's wrong with you, you got a worm up your ass or something?!"

Tala glared at her. " You wouldn't last if you were in my position, so I suggest you can it!"

" ENOUGH!" Kai shouted. " Stop before this turns into a full course argument."

" I don't argue, Kai. I only point out the facts." Alex stated in her defence, then fell silent in her seat.

Johnny shock his head and stared at Tala. " This is an order now, Tala. I order you to take Kai's position as Head Guard in order to aid in your own personal situation."

Tala set on an expression of defeat. " Yes, Your Highness."

Alex let out a cry of realization. " Wait a second, if Tala has that job, then he's my new boss."

Johnny nodded and Alex paled. " GAH! No way! I got told Kai at the beginning, I'm so not listening to a guy who can't take no for an answer!"

Tala didn't say a word, stood up and didn't move from there. Alex shock her head fusiously. " Does this still mean I have to be his little personal bitch for the next little while?"

Johnny nodded, his brows scrunched toghter. " Servant." He corrected. " And yes, that punishment still holds. You are dismissed."

Alex let out a whine, surprising everybody but Tala, who happens to have a smirk on his face right about now.

" This is not happening to me. This is not happening to me. This is not happening to me. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING TO ME!" She shouted, holding her head in her hands and breathing heavily, letting out a whine of fustration.

" Put a cork in it and start walking, Moren." Tala pointed towards the door.

Alex growled and glared at him as she walked past. " Don't think that just because your my boss now, that gives you the right to boss me around every second of my time here."

Tala smirked as he turned to watch her leaving. " Alright, but what you just said only holds until after the Games."

Alex stopped, growled then ran out of the room. Tala smirked to himself and left, after getting a warning from Kai not to do as Alex had pointed out.

VWV Last Day of the Games WVW

Word sure travilled fast around the kingdom that Tala had now taken up Kai's job. Alex was getting teased by fellow servants she didn't even know, Ray was disgusted, Tyson was wondering why, and Amber was just poking ever last detail out of what had happened the night she got taken away from supper.

(A/N: By the way, Alex never did win the obstical course, she was 'taking it easy' even though she hates admitting it. Princess Mariam won.)

" Oh, Amber. Leave her alone. You know she's not going to say anything." Ray spat, letting his fustration get knotted into his conversation.

" Ray!" Tyson patted him on the shoulder. " Calm down, you scaring her."

" Is not." Amber stated carefully. " Since my training on becoming a sorceress has started, I've been taught to be a little more.... head strong."

The boys glanced at each other and burst out laughing.

" You? Head strong?" Tyson laughed.

" It's un-imaginable." Ray added.

Amber sighed. " I knew you'd laugh."

Alex hesitated, then patted her on the back. " Just set your mind to it, but be careful. It doesn't take much to become completly head-strong."

" Learn it from the pro." Tyson laughed and then chuckled nervously when Alex glared at him.

" Save the insault for someone it acctually makes an affect on." She sneered, turned and walked away.

" Geeze. Why is she so grouchy lately?" Tyson sent the floor an angrey expression.

Amber smacked him over the head. " If you were in her shoes, wouldn't you be grouchy too?"

Tyson rubbed his head. " I guess..."

Ray shrugged. " Just leave her alone, she'll simmer down."

" Ok fine." Tyson stated stubbornly then stared at Amber. " As long as you don't hit me."

Amber crossed her amrs, trying to act smooth, but broke. She cracked a smile and burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, Alex strolled down the hall, cluching her stomach. It was cramps either way she thought of it. The kid or lack of food.

" Don't fall over or anything." Somebody chuckled and Alex looked up to meet a pair of baby blue eyes.

Alex growled. " What do you want?" She snapped.

Enrique smirked. " Just came to give you some good news."

Alex sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. " Go for it. Shoot. Make my day worse."

Enrique glared at her. " Well you don't have to be so snappy about it. I just wanted to tell you that I'm no longer going to be looking out for Lord Tala."

" That's it? That's the big, good news you came to bug me with? Your pathectic." Alex groaned the last part as a jolt of pain shot through her stomach, her hand finding it's way back into it's former position.

Enrique's gaze softened as he stared at her. " If you need help, you just have to ask."

" First of all, I don't need help. Second, if I wanted help, you'd be one of the last people on that list and third, quit being so nice, your scaring me." Alex walked past him and continued down the hall to no place in particular.

Enrique glared down the hall as Alex took a left. ' From the way your additude's going, your going to be needing a lot of help.'

" Hey! You there!" Somebody called.

Alex's head snapped up and she twisted her neck around. No expression came onto her face except more pain from her stomach.

" Oh, you poor thing. You should sit down or something." Mariam patted her on the shoudler as she came closer, panting for air.

" Fine." Alex muttered then glanced at her. " Where were you going in such a hurry?"

Mariam's gaze leveled with hers and she smiled. " To talk to my brother. Care to join me? Or-"

" I'll come. It'll probably get my mind of anythnig else that's bugging me." Alex cut in and replied with a rather venomous tone.

Mariam thought, but never asked as she lead Alex down a couple flights of stairs. As they went lower, Alex noticed that it became a lot darker and colder on the skin. Her eyes adjusted fairly quickly but her other sences just seemed to be blogged. All at once, she stopped on the stairwell and just stared into the darkness, seeing nothing else.

Once her footsteps had halted so abruptly, Mariam stopped herself and looked back, seeing a very dark outline of Alex's figure.

" I don't like this place." Alex whispered without even thinknig about how cowerdly that sounded.

Mariam reached out and tightened her grip on what she found to be Alex's arm. " It's meant to be that way. This is what this kingdom likes to call the 'death dungeon'. Basically, each cell down here is cursed to the one who in sentences to it. The curse is meant to ripe away any strengh or any of the human sences and the body is left with no real reason to live."

Alex flinched unexpectedly. " Thanks for adding onto the feeling. But ... I don't know, it just seems ... like something else."

Mariam had a smirk spread across her face, though Alex's lack of sight could only make out her figures outline.

" To you maybe. If the King hadn't given you the job as servant, you would have been sent here. Theft of an heir loom is a huge offence."

Alex wasn't listening, though she was straining so hard. Before she realised it, her knee's buckled and she tumbled down a couple stairs, but thankful to Mariam's grip she was caught before she bruised herself. She slid an arm around Alex's waist and hoisted her up, whispering into her ear.

" Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I should take you back." Mariam then shut herself up as Alex let out a few struggled breaths.

With much difficultly, Mariam began to pull Alex up the stairs, back into the light. As soo nas they reached the top stair, the weight was too much for Mariam and she dropped her, Alex falling to her side rather softly.

Mariam panted for more air. " I don't know what happened. She just passed out while she was talking to me-"

" Don't explain, Princess. She shouldn't have bothered you." The man had a good grip on the brunette's waist.

Mariam shock her head and looked up into his blank eyes. " I asked for her to join me. She agreed under my terms. But, I don't know ..." Mariam gave Alex a look of enough sympathey to kill an evil witch.

" Don't stress yourself, Princess Mariam. I'll take care of it from here. It is my job now after all."

Mariam gave him a smile and nodded, brushing past him. Just before she turned the corner, she looked back and smiled again.

" You will make a great father someday, Tala."

VWVWVWV

Author's Note: XD The mystery person was Tala! But I bet you guessed it already. :) Right, well srry that this chapter came out late, I took longer to write it then I thought I would ... since I added onto where I was supposed to leave off.

R&R ... Peace out guys!