Hi everyone, this chapter wasn't planned, I basically just wrote then read back and was SO surprised what I'd just written. But I know you'll enjoy it!

Nine

"Do you like Alika for a boy? It means guardian." Me and Kai were getting ready for bed. I was brushing my teeth and he was getting his pajamas on. I left the bathroom and saw his tattoo that spread across his chest before he pulled his shirt on.

"Eh, it's nice but we've been discussing boy names all night, what if it's a girl?" Kai came over to me and rubbed his hands along my protruding stomach.

"Oh, I know it's a girl," He spoke softly before pressing a kiss to my lips. His arms tightened around me and I ran my finders through his curly hair. He pulled back and leaned his forehead against mine, breathing in my air.

"How do you know it's a girl?" I asked with a small smile. He was always as hard as a rock around people but around me he thawed. He became the most loving, most compassionate person I knew.

"Well, I'm only allowing girls who look just like you." I laughed and pulled back to look at my stomach that was pressing in between us. His hands caressed my stomach and he leaned down and kissed it. I looked up and laughed then he stood up to face me again. He led us towards the bed and we laid facing each other.

"Well, if it is a girl we should probably start discussing girl names." I told him, his thumb traced my jaw.

"Hmm, Hani? It means happy." I shook my head.

"It sounds too much like Hemi." Kai nodded his head and thought again.

"Or Kahula, it means dancing," He gasped, "What about, Leilani? It means heavenly." I smiled; I liked the sound of that.

"I love it." I told him, his face imitated mine, growing in a smile. It really was a beautiful name and our child was already heavenly, even unborn.

"Me too," he told me, "So that's the name then, for a girl?" I nodded and he let out a small laugh, I laughed too. We were really going to be parents!

"I love you Kai, more than you can ever know," I gave him a small kiss and pulled back only a centimeter, "And now I'm going to have a family with you, do you remember right before we had to leave Mahawai?" He nodded. I remember all too well the day we decided to paint my room, the day my tracker malfunctioned.

"Remember how I said I wanted to be a family with you?" A happy tear slid onto my cheek, he brushed it away, "That's finally coming true, and I couldn't be happier." He nodded and pulled my head to his chest, he stroked my hair and my eyes felt heavy. I drifted off to sleep with a smile on my lips.

Kai

The rain was pouring outside. I had a glass of water in hand and Nine was making herself some toast in the kitchen.

"Hmm," Nine looked out the window, "Rain's a bad omen in freedom. It rained and them my shuttle crashed, it rained and I left Theron here."

"Ah, that's where you're wrong. You left Theron and got me instead, was that really a bad omen?" She giggled and I went to stand beside her.

"Sometimes I think it was." My mouth dropped open in a smile; she laughed and shied away from me knowing what was coming. I set my glass down and went to tickle her, which was getting hard with the baby in the way. She shrieked and set the knife she was using to butter her toast on the counter. I backed her up into a corner so she had no escape. She held her hands up in surrender.

"I think if you tickle the baby any more she'll want out." She warned; I smiled at her attempt of escape.

"Nah, I'll need a better reason than that." Her eyes darted back and forth searching for an answer. I took a step towards her again and she looked at me with a fearful smile on her face.

"Ugg, um…I'll, um, make you breakfast…" She offered and I laughed outright. She understood what a stupid offer it was.

"Yeah, 'cause you're the best cook I know." She laughed and I joined her, then when she wasn't looking closed the space between us and my fingers skimmed along her side. She laughed and tried to duck under m arm but I wrapped an arm around her so she couldn't escape. She looked up at me.

"Okay I give up." She was out of breath, and I smiled at my victory. I swooped in and kissed her, I laced my hand into her fiery red hair. She pulled back, "My toast's going cold." She pulled away from me and went to her food. I looked out at the rain again. Maybe Nine was right, maybe something bad was going to happen today. I brushed the thought away and went to our room to get ready. I was always bummed when I say the empty wall. It was for color, then I knew what'd be doing that day.

"Nine," I left the room after I got dressed and went to my wife, "I'm going to paint our room today." She looked at me skeptically. She'd been stuffing her face with some of the leftover cookies.

"How?" She asked when she had room in her mouth to speak.

"Well, I'm sure we can find paint somewhere, I'll ask Pua to help me look." She nodded then swallowed her food. Her eyes lit up and she jumped over the back of the couch.

"I'm coming too." She called as she went to our room to get dressed. I chuckled and left our apartment to see if Pua was up. I knocked on mom and dad's door and was greeted by mom's smiling face.

"Hey honey, what do you need?" I smelled bacon inside and remembered I hadn't eaten. My stomach rumbled and my mouth watered.

"For starters, I'll need some of whatever's cooking. And secondly I was wandering where Pua was?" Mom chuckled and ushered me to the kitchen. Dad handed me a plate of food. I plopped a piece of food in my mouth and sighed in delight, "Mmm, that's good. I haven't had anything like this in a while. It makes Nine puke." Mom laughed.

"Would you rather eat that or have your wife puke?" I laughed in response, "And I think Pua went to Theron's place this morning." I nodded, I probably should have checked there first. I rinsed my plate in the sink and kissed my mom on the cheek before leaving. I went down one floor and down the hall to Theron's door, I paused before knocking. I heard a string of laughs from inside that were unmistakably my sisters. I smiled a bit but also felt my stomach churn protectively. She and Theron were almost inseparably lately and I was wandering why they hadn't just gotten married already; they'd known each other for almost a year now.

I finally knocked on the door and their laughs faded immediately. "Hey love birds; it's your favorite brother." There was a moment of silence then I heard Theron replaying what I'd just said to Pua. Then the door flew open in my face and Pua was in front of me. She held I finger in my face as if she was scolding me.

"Hey, I never said you were my favorite. Sure you may be my twin but Tama needs way less attention than you." I laughed and heard Theron chuckle from inside. I draped my arm around her shoulders and we walked into the kitchen but stopped at the edge of the spilled flour.

"So, how was cooking?" I asked, Theron blushed, Pua giggled, "Also, are you getting married or what?" The silence that followed was neither good nor bad. Theron and Pua seemed to talk to each other through their stare. Pua blushed and Theron's face turned serious. Pua opened her mouth to answer but closed it again.

"I'm joking," I said, "Don't look so petrified." Theron let out a nervous chuckle and turned back to cleaning. Pua slid out from under my arm and went to help Theron in silence. After a minute of me standing there, I went and tapped Pua on her shoulder so she could read my lips. I told her why I really came here.

"I'd be happy to help you," She didn't look at me as she said it, I was worried I'd maybe struck a nerve, "Will Nine be helping as well?" I nodded and she turned back to finish cleaning. After a moment Theron turned to me. Pua couldn't see his lips from where he'd positioned himself.

"Hey, I know you're probably worried you hurt us or something but it's really no big deal," He looked at his feet for a moment before looking at me with a determined face, "I want to propose to her. But I don't know how, or what I'm supposed to do." I was slightly taken aback when he told me this. I was flattered that after everything I'd done to him, he came to me with this. I know I'd been hard on him for a while and I wasn't really welcoming. But now he came to me asking how to propose to my sister.

"Um, well-" I stopped talking as Pua walked past me to get her shoes on, "Well, you usually need a ring, or something. Theirs different traditions and stuff but that's usually how it is." Theron nodded and Pua called me to go. I gave him an encouraging smile before leaving.

Nine was outside the apartment building kicking a rock around the pavement, "Where have you been? I've been waiting here for twenty minutes!" She smacked my arm playfully but had a serious face. I leaned in and kissed her softly before she pulled back abruptly, "Also, what did you eat? It makes me want to puke." I laughed and grabbed her hand in mine. Pua walked next to Nine as we walked down the street to the core building. Nine said it was our best bet, no one really knew where all the construction materials and tools were. Freedom would sometimes change overnight and there were no traces on how. We walked up the street and passed batchers that were recently released from the Tower. Theron decided last week that they should be able to be free.

They'd started to blend in with everyone else, but they didn't fit in. They were always worrying about being remade and all of the other citizens were disgusted at them.

The wind whistled in our ears and Nine's hair whipped me in the face. Nine and Pua started laughing and I brushed it off my face. We got to the Core building and I held the door for my sister and Nine, following after them. There was no one at the desk as everyone basically ditched their jobs. Plus there was tons of damage done to the building but most of it was cleared. Nine went around the desk and opened a folder. Her finder traced down a list of rooms and their floors. She stopped towards the end of the list.

"Apparently, there's a sub-level seven where they keep everything. Let's go." Me and Pua followed her to the elevator but we all stopped when there was a crash behind us. I turned and shielded Nine prepared for anything. I was surprised to see Theron burst through the doors and one of them slam into the wall. He was panting as through he'd run here.

"Hey…" He took in a gulp of air, "Theirs someone trying to get into the city and three people have been shot off the wall on the north side." Nine gasped as though she'd remembered something.

"Eri said they were coming…" She looked at me, "I thought they wouldn't come because of the virus but…" Her voice drifted off and her face turned pale. She rubbed a hand down her stomach and looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"Kai, we need to find a cure fast or everyone will die." Tears ran down her face and I pulled her into my arms, "Take me to the lab, just one more test. Please." My thoughts instantly went to the baby. Our baby.

"No, remember what Theron told you?" I pulled back to look at her, "It could harm the baby." She looked down at her stomach and more tears spilled out.

"I just want to help," She closed her eyes, "I feel so useless." I wiped the tears from her face and turned back to Theron. He shook his head at me as to say, 'It's not happening'. I nodded and turned back to Nine.

"You're not useless. You're growing our baby." She smiled weakly at me. I turned back to Theron, "Take me there. Oh, and bring some guns. Pua, you take Nine home." They both looked me and I knew they were about to complain so I made my way to the door, leaving no room for excuses. Theron followed behind me.

We climbed up the ladder to the top of the stone wall that was constructed along with Freedom. I pulled me handgun into my hand then climbed up to look out. You could see the ocean on one side and stone on the other. There was a thin road weaving through the rock and I could see a large car with spikes along the front. It was positioned somewhat behind a large rock. There was a large gun on the side of the vehicle but it didn't appear to need a person for it to shoot.

"Kai," I turned to the voice and saw one of the rebels, "We shot at them a few times but their vehicle appears to be bullet-proof." I cursed. They could shoot at us and we couldn't do anything about it.

I'd love to get some comments! How do you like the story so far?