A/N: I'm SO sorry it's taken me this long to get this chapter up! Eighth grade has been horrible so far, with tons of homework each night for EVERY subject, and even some on the weekends! God I'm so overworked, I feel depressed. I swear, I'm about to crack under all this pressure.
And this chapter is once again in Marlin's POV.
Disclaimer: The only thing that belongs to me besides this story is the character that comes into play in this chapter. His name is Alan. I got his name from Alan Gabriel of Big O. He's evil in that show, so I figure that name will fit the Alan in this chapter.
What was going on here? Well, I actually knew, but what I meant was… why? I was terribly confused, but all questions could be put aside until later. For now, it was just Dory and me… me and –
"Well, well, well," said a sly voice. We stopped and looked over to see four male blue tangs. They were swimming closer to us with smirks on their faces. "What do you think you're doing, Dory?" asked the leader-ish looking one who was now standing in front of the other three. Now I was really confused. How did this fish know Dory? I looked at her and saw she looked shocked. I heard her whisper, "Alan…"
That was when I looked back to 'Alan.' His smirk was wider now.
"So you do remember me. And I thought that horrible memory of yours would have wiped out all of me from your head by now." I finally decided to speak up.
"How do you know Dory anyway?" I suddenly felt Dory's grip on my fin tighten. I glanced to her and she gave me a warning look. I could tell she wanted to tell me something… something she couldn't say in front of Alan and his friends.
"I know Dory from our days in school," Alan said. "And I'm terribly sorry if we… interrupted anything." Him and his friends started to laugh and I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. Dory angrily swam in front of me. "Now, y-you lis-sten here, A-al-lan!" I had never heard stutter like that before. "I remember you, AND wh-what you di-did!" It really seemed that Dory was scared, but tying very hard to hide it. I wish I knew what this Alan guy had done that Dory was talking about.
"Yeah?" Alan snapped, his face turning mean. "Well, Dory, maybe I should do the same to you!" Dory backed up next to me and clutched my fin again. I suddenly felt a very strong hate for this fish. I started to move forward.
"Marlin, no!" Dory cried out.
But I ignored her. "You stay away from Dory! If you do anything to her, I swear I'll make you regret it!" I shouted at him. Alan looked surprised, but only for a split second. He swam up to me so that we were face to face. His brow furrowed.
"Well, why do you care?" he asked. I definitely hadn't expected that. I paused, not knowing how to answer. I mean, I cared about her, no doubt about that… but there was something else, wasn't there? Something that I wasn't getting, even though we had almost…
Alan's smirk returned. "Is it because… you love her?"
He must have seen the shocked look on my face because he chuckled. "I thought so," he said maliciously. "I saw that you two were going to kiss, so I thought I'd do something. Personally, I think inter-species relationships are disgusting."
I gritted my teeth and held in the anger that was threatening to get out. Dory's fin was now shaking in mine. I gave it a comforting squeeze, not wanting to look back.
"So," Alan started. "I came over to show Dory what relationships are right."
I didn't like the way that sounded at all. Alan made his way towards Dory and placed a fin on her cheek. She dropped hold of mine and continued to glare at the fish in front of her. Then, he kissed her forcefully on the lips.
Dory's eyes widened and she tried to pull away, but couldn't get out from Alan's grip. My mouth hung open and I stayed frozen until Dory's eyes shot to me with a 'why are you just standing there?!' look in them.
"Stay the hell away from her!" I yelled, going for them. But before I could reach to two, the other three tangs came at me. I gave it my best shot to get through, but I couldn't. One of them hit me in the head, making me dizzy. Then I felt a strong force come at me from the side, slamming me head-first into a nearby rock.
My vision went black, and the last thing I remember was hearing Dory's scream…
~*~
My eye opened slowly and my head hurt beyond belief. "Ugh… what happened?" I meant it… what did happen? I don't remember anything past seeing the fireworks with Dory – Dory! Where was she? Something bad must have happened to make me lose my memory like this! I shot up and looked wildly around for her.
I spotted her a few yards away from where I was. She was lying on the ground, motionless. I swam to her as quick as I could. When I got to her, I was relieved to see she was breathing, but she had terrible bruises everywhere. I patted her lightly, trying to get her to wake up.
"Dory? Wake up."
I tried for about five more minutes before she finally began to move. She moaned lightly and her eyes opened. "Marlin? What happened?" she asked, confusedly. "I don't remember anything…" She got up, but unsteadily. I made a motion, as if to catch her when she fell, but she didn't.
"I don't remember either. Are you alright?" I said. She looked at all her bruises. "Yeah, well… I mean, I'm kind of sore, but other than that, I'm f—oh." Her face scrunched up in pain. "What? What's wrong?" I asked worriedly.
"I just got this pain in my stomach," she said through clenched teeth. She then seemed to relax a bit. I took her by her fin and began leading her towards home. "Come on, Dory. We're gonna go to the doctors."
What seemed like a long while later, the two of us arrived late at the doctors cave. We had to wait for maybe a half hour before Dory was allowed to go in to be checked. I waited nervously outside.
If anything was wrong with her, I didn't know what I'd do. If she had some kind of fatal infection, I… I shook my head, trying my best to get that thought out of my head. I tried to tell myself that nothing like that was going to happen, but because I'm me, I could do nothing but panic and think horrible thoughts like that.
It felt like an eternity had passed by while I was waiting for Dory. I think I had been swimming around in circles (making the other fish stare at me, but that was the least of my problems), and maybe I went outside of the cave too. I don't know, I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing.
At long last, Dory and the doctor (who was a lobster) came out. I rushed up to them and saw Dory had a big smile on her face. Something was up.
"Dory, why don't you go wait outside while I talk to Marlin?" he said. Dory nodded and went to the outside of the cave. I was staring at the lobster intently, waiting to hear about Dory.
"So?" I asked. "Is Dory ok?" He sighed heavily. That wasn't a good sign. You don't sigh like that unless there's something wrong. I panicked. "What? What's wrong with Dory? Is she sick? Is she gonna die? Will she get better? What does she need?!" Too many question to even think about!
The doctor put his claws up, motioning for me to calm down. He smiled. "Marin! It's alright! Dory's just fine. Actually…" He trailed off.
"What?" I urged on.
"Marlin… Dory's pregnant."
