Part 2: Separation

Saber didn't think he had ever been more content with his life. He had a job he enjoyed, a great place to call home, awesome friends, and - most importantly - the prettiest, sweetest wife. It just didn't get any better. With a happy sigh, he kicked off his boots after a satisfying afternoon at work and relaxed on the couch while Joy started on dinner. He'd help, but she was picky about being bothered while she was cooking. The kitchen was her domain, so he reclined on the family room couch with his arms folded beneath his head, feeling comfortably lazy.

It just figured that someone would start pounding the front door's buzzer.

Someone extremely impatient, he noted dryly as he got up to answer it. "I'm coming," he called, exasperated, as the poor buzzer hiccuped like it was choking to death.

The second he hit the button to unlock the front door, someone came flying across the threshold. Someone white-furred, out of breath, and wild-eyed as he grabbed the front of his vest. Saber grunted and tried not to fall backward as Vector shoved him away from the door. "You have to help me," his lifelong friend panted, clearly frantic. "I'm desperate! I don't know where else to go!"

"Really, old buddy, if you need to take a dump, just say so. Bathroom's open."

Vector must have left his sense of humor at home today, because he grabbed his arm and continued to shove him along as he twisted it behind his back. The two of them went awkwardly down the hallway and through the game room doorway before stumbling and falling onto the armless loveseat in a tangled heap. "You know something?" Saber asked, voice muffled as he spoke into a throw pillow. "That's getting old."

With a crack that split the air, he whipped his tail up and snared the end around his best friend's neck. Rat tails were longer, thicker, and stronger than anything a full-blooded mouse (or a half-human mouse like Vector) had, and he was able to pry the unreasonable rodent off with ease. While Vector struggled crankily, he calmly turned himself over and pinned an elbow to his chest. "You were saying?"

To his surprise, the white half-mouse stopped struggling and deflated like a balloon, ears and antennas drooping. "I messed up. I messed up bad. This has got to be the dumbest thing I've ever done."

Saber hummed thoughtfully. "Now that would be a hard call."

Scowling, Vector snapped his tail against his shoulder. The sable hybrid felt pleased with himself that he took the blow without flinching. Getting rock-hard muscles from lifting crates all day had its perks. "I'm serious," his best friend insisted. "Does it look like I'm joking?"

As he took another look at him, Saber realized how shaken he was. Whatever happened had left fear behind his eyes. Frowning, he slowly released his grip and sat up. "What'd you do?"

Vector stayed lying flat, his dark eyes shifting to the ceiling. Like he didn't want to look him in the eye as he answered. "I got her pregnant."

The sable hybrid felt his stomach drop out. "You what?"

His best friend hid his face in his hands with a groan. "I know," he cried, "I know! You don't have to tell me how much I screwed up, I freakin' know!"

Saber's mind was reeling so hard he had to lean a hand on the back of the loveseat. "We're talking about Chloe, right?" he asked dazedly.

Vector lowered his hands and nodded. Saber pressed his other hand to his spinning forehead. "You realize what this means?"

"Yes," was the groaning response. "We're bonded forever."

"And you're okay with that?" the sable hybrid questioned dryly.

There was a pause, and then Vector sat up, expression serious. "Yes," he said again. "I love Chloe with all my heart. I wasn't sure if that would happen when we first got together, but it did. She's the only one I want for the rest of my life."

This admission surprised him - just like the news that his best friend was secretly seeing the young Imeeran in the first place had. As far as he knew, he and Joy were the only ones who were aware of the relationship. Saber could understand why neither of them wanted Chloe's parents to know just yet, but since he didn't figure the two of them getting together would lead to anything, he hadn't thought much of it when he found out. Now that he knew how far things had gone, he had to shake his head in shock. "She's just a kid."

"She's not," Vector said defensively. "She's very mature, and she's almost seventeen."

"That's still underage," Saber pointed out.

"I know," said the white half-mouse, tone turning meek. "That's why we agreed we were going to take things super slow until she turned twenty. By then I figured I'd know for sure how I felt about her, plus it'd be okay to tell her parents."

"Uh-huh. And what exactly happened to this little agreement?"

Meekness growing, Vector folded his hands in his lap and fidgeted for a minute or two. "She's so cute!" he finally blurted.

Saber pressed his hand to his forehead again as he groaned long and hard. "You do realize that her daddy is a heavily armed and extremely dangerous military general, right?"

"And she really loves me," his best friend went on, pretending not to hear him. "She let me feel how she feels. Do you know what that's like?"

He did, actually. On their wedding night, his new wife had touched him with her antennas and truly opened herself up to him for the first time - far more than the time she'd teased him with a sample. Feeling her love and passion flowing out of her heart and into his own had taken his breath away. Being able to feel someone else's love was an amazing, almost overpowering experience. Thinking about how complete he felt the first time that connection was formed - and how ready he had been to make that connection go even deeper - made him more understanding about how Vector could have lost himself in a special moment...but that didn't change the situation his best friend now faced.

Imeerans had laws - strict ones. You didn't force yourself on the women and you didn't seduce girls too young to make irrevocably life-altering decisions. As far as he knew neither of those laws had ever been broken before...yet he'd heard of the consequences. A wronged adult chose the punishment herself, but when a crime was committed against a minor, the choice was left to her parents. Which meant that when word got out that sixteen-year-old Chloe was pregnant, Vector's fate would be in the hands of General Jayce.

Saber sank back with a sigh. "It's been nice knowing you, old buddy."

"Don't even joke," Vector groused.

"I'm not. When that girl's daddy finds out what you've done, you're either going to face certain death or life behind bars."

He started to say more...then shut his mouth with a hard frown as, all of a sudden, it hit him. "Wait a minute. This has got to be a mistake."

"Whaddya mean?"

"I mean Chloe can't be pregnant - at least not by you. You're like me, remember? A hybrid. Hybrids shoot blanks."

A funny look crossed his best friend's face. "I forgot about that. But Chloe is pregnant - she said she took about a dozen tests to make sure. And I'm not completely stupid," he went on with a scowl. "I stayed away from her the last time she was fertile. She wasn't when it happened, and she wasn't supposed to be for another couple of weeks, but..."

But Imeeran fertility cycles fluctuated; they didn't always start exactly four months after the last one ended. And no one had forgotten what happened to Throttle. Poor mouse ended up stressing out for almost a year, all the way until Thea was born. His family's story had a happy ending, but Saber was afraid that Vector and Chloe's tale wasn't going to turn out as positively.

Unless...

After hesitating a long moment, he sank back a little further. Drumming his fingers on the back of the loveseat, he ventured, "So, you're sure she's having a baby. But..."

He drummed his fingers again. "Are you sure it's yours?"

There was a brief silence as Vector stared at him blankly - and then he lunged with a snarl. Saber was anticipating a reaction like this but still ended up falling off the loveseat as the white rodent tackled him. They hit the floor with a bang that rattled the shelves and almost knocked over the end table. The lamp sitting atop it teetered and fell, though thankfully it didn't break. Grunting, Saber tried to push his overreacting best friend away - and then the white rodent suddenly went sliding off with a yelp. Like somebody had grabbed him by the tail and dragged him.

With a hard scowl, Joy let go of her bewildered brother's tail and, as he started to roll over and sit up, pressed him back down with her foot before sitting on his chest. "Don't manhandle my husband," she ordered, as she pinned his shoulders to the floor.

"I could have done that," Saber said mildly. "But thank you, my dear."

He got up and kissed his wife's cheek, making her beam. A second later she was scowling down at her brother again. "What is your problem? And this had better be good, I've got pots boiling on the stove."

When Vector hesitated, eyeing his sister's already dangerous expression, Saber volunteered the news for him. "He says he got Chloe pregnant."

"He what?" Joy shrieked.

Vector's cheeks turned as red as his antennas. "How could you just tell her like that?" he complained. "You're my best bud."

"Wife trumps bud," Saber pointed out casually. "I don't keep secrets from her."

Said wife was busy smacking his best bud with three appendages at once while muttering to herself that it was a shame none of his good points ever rubbed off on somebody. Vector shielded himself with a pitiful whine. Hiding a smile, Saber coaxed his wife to her feet. "Come on now," he soothed, patting her shoulder. "Let the poor boy live. I was just telling him that it's not likely he's the one responsible for this."

For a second Vector's eyes flashed and the sable hybrid thought he was going to tackle him again, but Joy shoved him onto the loveseat with a terse order to "Sit down and shut up." She ran off to the kitchen to check on dinner before hurrying back. Arms folded, she stayed calm and had her husband repeat what Vector had been saying since he burst through the front door.

"You have a point," she said when he finished. Vector shot her a dark look. "But at the same time," she went on, with a warning glance at her brother, "what you're suggesting makes about as much sense as my brother knocking someone up."

"That's right," Vector said firmly. "It's impossible for there to be anyone else. Imeerans aren't biologically wired to cheat. Chloe is mine and mine alone."

Saber knew this, but...he was just trying to examine this situation from all possible angles. Arms still folded, Joy faced her brother, green eyes stern. "Just how many times did you two do it anyway?"

Vector turned red again. Hands clasped in his lap, he hemmed and hawed before finally mumbling in a tiny voice, "Just once."

Scoffing, Joy gave him a weary look. The white half-mouse flashed a wide, innocent grin and didn't say anything else. "Once is enough," Saber murmured.

Or at least it would be, if Vector were a normal male. When he pointed this out, his best friend said, "But I'm a different kind of hybrid. I'm half human, not half rat. Maybe that means I shoot silver bullets instead of blanks?"

His sister let her arms droop as she and her husband exchanged a sad glance. She shook her head. "Saber and I both went in for thorough exams right before we got married, just to satisfy our own curiosity. Our results were the same. We're both one-hundred-percent sterile."

"Oh."

Despite his own predicament, Vector looked at the two of them with sympathy for a minute. He shrugged. "Maybe it's just me, then?"

Saber didn't see how. But just before he was about to say so, he had a major revelation for the second time in the last half hour. "You know something? He could be right."

Joy looked at him questioningly; taking her arm, he gently coaxed her to take a seat next to her anxious brother. "Don't forget," the half-rat said, as his wife elbowed Vector for room, "you two weren't conceived the same way."

The pale-furred half-mouse rolled her eyes. "Like I could forget. He acts like not being conceived the 'fun way' gives him bragging rights."

"It does," Vector insisted defensively.

Joy started to say something else - and then her eyes lit with understanding. "Wait - do you think that might have something to do with it?"

Saber gave a shrug. "It could. There's really only one way to be sure."

For a moment Vector gave him a dull stare. Groaning, he slumped in his seat. "I have to go see a doctor, don't I?"

It was quickly decided by the three of them that going to Malteria instead of the local hospital was a better idea. Imeeran medical technology was more advanced, plus their doctors were more experienced when it came to issues like this. Getting to Malteria in secret was easy enough; aside from the military version, the general undercity populace now possessed compact wrist communicators of their own. Since traveling via transporter was the fastest, easiest method around, the three of them had acquired their own communicators years ago, so they could travel to Malteria or Earth whenever they wanted.

Saber thought that Vector should go alone to avoid attracting too much attention, but Joy didn't trust her older brother to properly handle something like this by himself. So in the end the sable hybrid ended up tagging along...which Vector was clearly relieved about.

They also decided the less said about what was going on, the better. Just mentioning that an Imeeran had been impregnated by a non-Imeeran would cause a stir, so when the two of them reached the hospital they carefully omitted that part of the story. All they said was that Vector was going to be a father when he shouldn't be able to; they let the nurse they spoke to and the doctor she took them to see make their own assumptions.

The male doctor wasn't someone either of them knew, so as Vector made himself comfortable on the exam table, the two of them explained the odd way the hybrid Martian came into existence. It was easier to explain here than anywhere else, since Imeerans were the only ones they knew that had actually heard of Rigavians and their mission to keep the universe populated.

"It's quite possible that your chromosomes were manipulated in vitro," the doctor noted after they finished talking, curiosity clearly piqued. "In fact, it would be odd if they weren't, considering."

Both rodents gave him a questioning look, but he was already busy prepping equipment and didn't say more. For the next hour or so, the skilled physician (whose combo of pale green hair and apricot skin reminded Saber of a cantaloupe) ran scan after scan. He started with the basic laser scan before moving on to more in depth methods, including a system that pulled up a 3D grid of his best friend that floated, video game-like, above the regular monitors. The doctor's expression as he studied each graph and number was as fascinated as their own. Vector was clearly an intriguing patient.

"My, my," he murmured, as he looked over two different readouts at once. "That would certainly explain it."

Saber perked up in his seat, but Vector had looked only partly awake for a while now and merely mumbled a half-hearted, "Hmn?"

The doctor started shutting the scanners down and putting his tools away. "I wanted to make sure this wasn't just a rare instance of a hybrid being born fertile - that happens once in a great while, you know, and sometimes two different species are similar enough that their offspring are able to reproduce with either one purebred gender or the other, or with the same kind of halfbreed. From the look of it your reproduction system was definitely modified. Yours is even hardier than the other Martians we have on file and it looks like you have an exceptionally high fertility rate."

Vector lifted his head and gave him a puzzled look. "But how?"

"Alien technology we're not advanced enough to understand, I suppose," said the doctor. "Your system has also been adjusted so there's no chance of sterility. You have equal possibility of impregnating either an Earth human or a Martian mouse."

Ah, thought Saber, understanding now. A quest for re-population via halfbreeds wouldn't get very far if the first generation of children were born sterile. And Rigavians had been collecting and storing countless samples for an untold number of years, so whenever they decided either Earth or Mars was at risk of their population dying out, they would step in and artificially impregnate numerous surrogate mothers, whose children would grow up to pass on their altered chromosomes to the next generation. Re-population secured.

It was all crystal clear to him now, but Vector still look puzzled. He sat up with a frown. "But Chloe isn't a human or a..."

Saber made a sputtering sound. Catching his slip, Vector went white under his fur and shut his mouth so fast his teeth clacked. He lay back down, still as a corpse, hoping his slip had gone unnoticed. Saber glanced nervously at the doctor; he had his back to them as he put the last of his tools away. For a second his movements halted, his back rigid. His actions were stiff as he finished cleaning up.

When the doctor spoke again, the friendly tone he had been using ever since the exam started was gone. The new tone was frosty - cold and business-like. "Yes, well, she wouldn't need to be. Due to us being engineered from so many different species, our creators did a little reproduction modification of their own. The only way to make us reproduce the way they wanted was to make us omni breeders. We can impregnate or be impregnated by just about anything."

"Oh," Vector said meekly.

He was still lying stiff and motionless, hands clasped on his chest. It looked like he was trying to shrink down into the exam table, like he wanted to make himself invisible. The doctor turned around and studied him, face and eyes grim. Saber had no doubt that he knew Chloe, and knew her well; she'd been a full-blown nurse for a couple of years now. Her perky disposition and casual bedside manner made her popular with patient and physician alike.

"There are firm laws in place," the doctor went on, voice matching his expression. "Because our biology works the way it does, we need to protect our children from choices they're not mature enough to handle making. It's not at all unusual for a young Imeeran to be drawn to someone they might end up mating with someday, even someone years older than they are, but the law clearly states that all Imeerans must reach a certain age before a relationship is consummated."

He paused, the look he gave Vector significant. "Sixteen isn't it."

Vector was silent for a long moment. Saber didn't speak up either; there wasn't much left that he could say. Finally, the white rodent tried his most beguiling smile. "Sorry?"

"Don't tell me," said the doctor. "I'm bound to confidentiality with my patients, but a matter like this overrides my doctoral silence. Chloe is underage, and that makes me legally obligated to notify her parents."

Here I go, thought Vector, blind and deaf as he moved forward in a daze. Lamb to the slaughter. Cute, cuddly, fuzzy-wuzzy lamb doomed to certain death and dismemberment.

Saber had offered to go with him, but he'd - reluctantly - refused. He needed to be adult about this. It was his mess and he needed to take care of it himself. Besides...he wasn't going to be alone. Chloe was already there, waiting for him. Chloe needed him.

The quickest, easiest form of space travel had its drawbacks. By the time he and Saber left the hospital, the message had already been sent out to Chloe's parents. They already knew she was on Mars; it probably took them less than five minutes to track her down and bring her home.

He and Chloe both knew they'd messed up. They didn't realize until this very day just how much they'd messed up, but...they'd never pretended that they hadn't done something they shouldn't. But he knew Chloe. She'd try to cover for him - was probably trying to that very second. He wasn't going to let her do that.

He had no excuses. He couldn't say it was a case of getting too close while she was fertile and losing control of himself. They'd been extremely careful on that front, being well aware of the risks. Chloe started a cycle a couple of months after they got together and stayed on Malteria until it was over, the two of them staying connected with computer messages and their wrist communicators. Almost four months had gone by since then and they'd planned to do the same thing again soon, not worrying about it in the slightest.

No, their slip had nothing to do with her being fertile, nothing to do with that irresistible scent he'd heard so much about but so far had been spared from. It was all because of how, one night as they were saying goodbye at his doorstep after an evening out together, Chloe commented on how much she loved feeling how he felt about her and wished he could do the same.

Which he of course could, Chloe being aware that mice could connect their minds but not realizing that they could also share emotions that way. And that one brief, simple touch ended up starting something neither of them were able to stop.

Memory of exactly what happened was a little fuzzy. He could remember feeling completely overwhelmed by the powerful, all encompassing love Chloe had for him, but he couldn't remember grabbing her, couldn't remember going inside, couldn't remember how they wound up in his bedroom. And the whole time a voice in his head was saying 'don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it - oh my god that was incredible let's do it again!'

Technically he'd fibbed when he told Joy they only did it once. They did it four times before finally calling it quits, but technically they were only together one night. Technically.

In the morning the gravity of what they'd done finally sank in, and for a moment they'd both panicked...but then they talked it over and eventually decided they needed to face whatever consequences were headed their way calmly, maturely. Together. Everything would be okay as long as they were together.

No one other than Saber and Joy knew they were a couple, and this wasn't a good way to break the news. Chloe wasn't able to go home; Imeerans always had a special scent for a while after making love, especially when it was for the first time. The way they smelled as their bodies synchronized with their new mate's was unmistakable, or so he'd heard.

This scent took a long time to fade away - days - so Chloe had stayed at his place. While they waited they decided it was better to admit what they'd done than to wait for someone - possibly someone who'd get very, very upset - to find out on their own. Yes, Chloe was underage and that meant he could potentially get in trouble with Imeeran law, but they were both hoping that if they made it clear this had happened in the fullness of a relationship and not on some selfish whim, there would be little, if any, punishment. He'd make it clear that he loved Chloe and wanted to take care of her - he'd already decided that as soon as this situation was sorted out, he was asking her to marry him.

Sure, Imeerans didn't marry, but Martians did, and he didn't see why Chloe couldn't be the first Imeeran bride. He wasn't physically bound to her like she was to him and he wanted to prove his love by promising to be with her forever. He'd make it explicitly clear to her parents that he wanted to make that promise...though he hadn't mentioned it to Chloe yet.

They were both comfortable with their decision to come forward and were prepared in every way to face whatever lie ahead. And while they waited for Chloe's system to balance out, Vector grew used to the new facet of his life; being able to sense his new mate's emotions when they were close to each other.

The two of them were only together that one night - and they had no intention of going that far again - so the connection wasn't very strong. But it was there, and coming home after work to a feeling of love and happiness became a bright spot in his day. Until today, when he came home and felt that Chloe was in a panic.

He soon found out why, and it wasn't long before he was in an even bigger panic. This was going to get him in so much trouble. Going too far with someone underage was one thing, but this? Could this get him beheaded? Castrated? He didn't know which was worse. Chloe had no idea what was going to happen to him either and was terrified of when her parents found out. Everything he planned to say and do before now was meaningless, and in his panicked state he'd run to the only person he could think of going to for help.

And now here he was. Each step taking him deeper into the residential block. The carpeted hallways were almost eerily quiet, his boots barely making a sound as he came to stand outside the home of General Jayce and family. For a moment he just stood there, almost trembling with fearful anticipation. He was debating whether or not he should hit the buzzer or just go in...and then he felt it.

Chloe knew he was there. She was just inside, close enough for him to feel how afraid she was. She was completely torn, not knowing whether she wanted him to run as far away as he could or hurry in and stand at her side. Feeling her fear and how it was solely for his sake made his own fear vanish. It was with shoulders back and head held high that he moved forward and stepped inside.

His sudden confidence faltered as soon as he was across the threshold and saw the scene that was waiting for him. He saw General Jayce first, standing just a few feet from the door with his arms crossed and his feet apart, like he was poised and ready. Instead of his favorite red jacket he had on a black one that matched his jeans. Vector had forgotten how tall he was, how broad his shoulders were, how intense of a gaze he had...and why did he have to have those scary red eyes?

Vector averted his gaze for a second as he gathered his courage again - and spied little Dee standing just behind and a little to the left of her mate. And close to her side was Chloe. Deichan was watching her mate, but Chloe's eyes were on him - her own mate. Before either of her parents could react she bolted forward and threw her arms around him.

Vector wordlessly held her to him, while Chloe buried her face in his chest and trembled with emotion. She sniffled thickly as the white rodent cupped the back of her head. "Don't hurt him," she pleaded.

Still silent, Vector looked over at her father, whose stony glare had softened with a hint of surprise. As gently as he could, Vector pried Chloe away from him, pressed a kiss to her forehead, then urged her back to her mother. He then turned and faced General Jayce squarely, hoping that he looked more prepared for his fate than he felt.

Apparently, how he was feeling was exactly what Jayce was interested in. He could have done anything - grabbed Vector's arm or shoulder - but instead he uncrossed his arms and held out his right hand, like he wanted to shake hands. But Vector knew what he really wanted. Jayce didn't have strong empathic abilities, but a direct touch was still enough to expose what someone else was feeling. And while he could have easily reached out and done exactly that, he instead wanted to see if Vector had the guts to expose those feelings himself.

And so he did. With his mind full of Chloe and all their wonderful times together these last few months, he reached out and gripped the General's hand firmly. What felt like minutes but were probably only seconds passed before Jayce let go and crossed his arms again. "Do you know why mating with other worlders is so risky for us?"

Of course Vector knew, and he knew that Jayce knew that he did, but he understood why he was asking. Jayce wanted to hear him explain it out loud, in his own words. "Because," Vector began quietly, barely able to keep a quaver out of his voice, "it means that someone like me isn't bound to someone like Chloe, like she is to me."

He hoped that that was enough, but those dark red eyes hardened, ordering him to continue. Vector swallowed uncomfortably and forced the words out. "Which means that she's connected to me forever while I could...could fool around if I wanted to."

But he didn't - he'd never do that to her, and said so. And having peered into his heart Jayce had to know he was telling the truth. But there was no sign of the hardness in the General's eyes lightening up. No sign of the tension in his rigid form easing. Vector glanced over and saw that Chloe was in tears. Her petite mother put a comforting arm around her, squeezing her shoulder as Jayce spoke again.

"I know you feel that way now, and that you believe what you're saying. But unlike us, your feelings can change in very little time. Other races fall in and out of love and move on from one partner to the next with little thought or effort."

"I won't," Vector swore, though he had a sinking feeling his word wasn't enough. "I love Chloe and I'm never going to leave her."

"You believe that now," said Jayce, "but time will tell."

He looked away long enough to glance at his daughter, who was watching the two of them anxiously, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "Under any other circumstances nothing would stop me from appropriately punishing you," the General said, stern tone quieting a notch. "Even if it meant my daughter would never forgive me. But I can see that you got carried away out of love and not because of something else."

The already imposing Imeeran pulled himself straighter. "So it's my decision that the two of you are to end all contact with each other as of immediately. If what you said today is true, a little time apart won't change the way you feel. But if it does...it's better for my daughter to learn that now, when your bond is still weak and she has the chance to recover, someday."

Vector mutely nodded his understanding...and acceptance. He knew that was the best offer he could expect to get and wasn't going to push it. "How long do you want us to wait?" he asked in a small voice.

"That's for me to decide."

The white rodent nodded again. There was nothing left for him to say. Or do...except leave.

He took one last look at Chloe, who watched him go with anguish in her teary eyes. But she didn't cry or beg, knowing just as well as he did that he was getting off easy. Knowing this didn't stop the pain he felt forming in her heart. But the connection between them, created in only one night, was weak and distant. Her emotions faded out of his reach when he was just a few short steps outside the front door. That automatic door slipped shut behind him, like a knife severing their connection with cool finality.

Even though that connection was weak, even though it had only been in place a short time, it was still a part of him. The thought of not feeling the one he loved for an unknown amount of time still left him rattled and shaken. How long would they have to wait? Months? Years?

If it was just the two of them it would have been one thing, but it wasn't. There was a third person involved in this, a person Chloe was going to have to take care of on her own, without him. The thought of losing contact with Chloe was bad enough, but it was the thought that he was going to miss out on every stage of their baby's growth that had him teleporting straight home, slumping at his computer desk and crying silent tears.

Alone and miserable, Vector opened one of the desk drawers and sifted through the pile of small, colored paper he found there. Even after he knew who she was and the two of them were growing closer and closer, Chloe never quite stopped hiding notes where she knew he'd find them. Notes full of her love and admiration for him. Throat painfully tight, he lifted one from the pile and brought it to his nose, inhaling the subtle fragrance hidden on the paper.

He'd never seen for himself, but judging how more than one of her notes smelled like sugar and other sweet things, he'd come to strongly suspect that she penned a lot of them during slow moments at the cookie shop. He could picture her now, bent over a table covered in decorative plates, expressing her feelings for him between stacks of cookies and fudge squares.

A chiming noise made him jerk his head up. A message box was open on his computer screen, the icon in the corner unmistakably blank and the text in the box without a screen name. Are you there?

Vector almost fell out of his seat as he scrambled for the keyboard. im here, he typed frantically. im right here.

I can't stay, they'll figure out what I'm doing. I just wanted to tell you that I love you more than anything. Please wait for me.

ill wait forever if i have to. in the meantime im going to learn how to be the very best father i can be, so i can take care of you and our baby as soon as were together again.

There was a brief pause, and even though he couldn't feel her, Vector clearly saw his mate smiling through her tears. Thank you.

She logged off a second later. With a shaky breath, Vector sank back in his seat and dried his eyes. He'd get through this. First thing tomorrow he was going to go shopping for a ring - secretly, of course. And then he'd start reading books on baby care. He had a lot to learn and an uncertain amount of time in which to learn it. If anything it'd keep his mind occupied.

It wasn't going to be easy. But he'd get through this. He didn't find the woman of his dreams just to lose her.