Chapter 10

Dib was sitting in his window one night, looking up into the star filled sky, thinking. He was so lost in thought he didn't even hear his sister come in with a plate of food for him.

"Hey, Dib," Gaz set the plate on the dresser next to her brother. "Come on. Dad said you gotta eat this stuff to stay healthy..."

Dib nodded, but didn't even glance towards her or the food.

Gaz walked over to stand by his side and look out the window with him. "Thinking of how much you miss Zim again?"

"NO!" Dib snapped at her. "HOW MUCH I HATE HIM, MABYE! But... NO! I'm not thinking about him at all!"

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Whatever... Here!" she shoved the plate of food in his face. "Eat your mutated soy paste-uh...I mean...mutated soy pasted...yeah."

Dib sniffed the questionable substance. "Who made this..Dad or Gir?"

"Gir."

"...Well, mabye it won't taste too bad..."

As Dib dipped his spoon into the lumpy green paste, he was saved from eating it by the cries of little Zen.

"Uh-oh!" he abandoned the food and swooped over to the baby crib Membrane had built for him.

"Hush..." Dib whispered to his son. "Daddy's here."

He pressed a button on the side of the crib and out popped a lukewarm bottle of hybrid safe milk (also invented by Membrane soon after the crib).

Zen sucked on his bottle happily and Dib smiled down at him.

Gaz cleared her throat behind him. "Bro..?"

Dib looked up at her. "Yeah, Gaz?"

"Listen...you know school starts tomorrow, right?"

"Oh...yeah. I should probably go to sleep now, huh?"

He sounded almost sad to say that. Membrane had also programmed the crib to transform into an automatic rocking cradle to help Zen sleep. It was programmed to bottle feed him, change his diaper, bathe him and everything else that babies need. But Dib often preffered to do it all himself. He liked holding his son in his arms and listen to him giggle and babble baby nonsense. He wondered if that was how his own father had raised him and his sister...mechanically. He knew his dad cared about them and all, but still...he wanted to physically interact with his child, to always be there for him and love him 24/7.

Gaz sighed. "It's not that...I was just wondering what you were gonna do with Zen. I mean, you're going to school and so am I. Dad's always busy at work so there's really no one left to take care of him during the day. What are you going to do?"

Dib hadn't thought of that. "I-I...don't know."

"Maybe you could call up a baby-sitter?"

"Baby-sitter?"

Dib thought about it. About someone else being there for Zen when he said his first word, or took his first step. He thought about that person somehow finding out that Zen was part alien and trying to turn him in to Mysterious Mysteries. He thought about...

"No." Dib said firmly. "No baby-sitter! I'll just...just..."

"Just what?" Gaz asked. "You're not thinking of taking him to school with you, are you?"

He was now. "Yes! I'll take Zen to school with me!"

Gaz shook her head. "I don't know..."

"It'll be hard, I know." Dib placed his now sleeping son back into his crib. "But until I can think of something better, it'll have to do. We'll be okay, Gaz."

Gaz didn't look convinced but didn't say anything about it. Dib gave her a hopeful, almost pleading smile. It seemed to ask: Let me handle this.

Gaz just sighed again. "Okay. Good-night, bro."

She walked out of Dib's room and closed the door behind her.

Dib sat on his bed and looked over to Zen's crib. It'd be okay for them, wouldn't it? Things would be different for him now, wouldn't they? The kids at school wouldn't do anything to Zen would they..?

Dib had a sudden flashback of a time when some bullies were playing keep away with his laptop, tossing it to each other whenever he tried to get it back. This time however, the laptop was replaced by Zen. In his flashback one of the bullies had either purposefully or accidentally let his laptop fall, and it had been broken in half on the floor...

Dib shook the images out of his head and turned his gaze back out the window. The potatoe paste lay still ignored on his windowsill and the green texture reminded him again of the thing he'd been thinking about when Gaz had come in.

He'd lied. He had been thinking about Zim. He did miss him. A lot. While raising Zen was fun and he loved her very much, being a single parent was hard. He found himself wishing that Zim was there with him and helping them raise their child together...why did he have to turn out to be such a rotten boyfriend? Why did he have to go behind Dib's back like that? Why did everything Dib do have to end up as-

"Stop it!" Dib told himself. He'd been through this with himself before. It was useless to keep beating a dead horse, as it were.

Dib was already in his PJ's so he just took off his glasses and set them on his dresser and climbed into bed.

He looked at Zen's crib again.

At least not everything that comes from Zim is bad he thought with a smile.

"Good-night, Zenny." he whispered softly.

Snuggling under his covers, Dib turned again towards the window. The stars twinkled like they always do. There was no moon out, but that just made them twinkle brighter. The stars seemed to be winking at him, telling him everything was going to turn out okay in the end.

After another moments' hesitation, Dib allowed himself to breath out one last parting to the concsious world.

"Good-night, Zim..."

(End Chapter 9!)

AntisociaLxMe: Eh...sorry of the wrong spelling of your nameness...

Techno Doofus: I think their kid is...anywhere from 1 to 3 months...

TezzWoods: I agree with you on both counts! Ms Sweeters is great and flamers...aren't XP

Ryu Forte: I wish I had Ms Sweeters too...

Night Masters: Not that I own or know how to operate a truck but...I will "keep on truck'n" as you say!

Princess of Despair: Thankies!

drowningsiren: Yep! DQ's my baby! But this one is all Ynnep-san's story.

Invader Iza: Mmm...Spagetti!

Chess 77: Thanks

Invader Aqua: I'm sure Ynnep's happy you like her story!

animeninjaNIPPON: Yay!