So sorry for the delay on this chapter, I had some personal problems I needed to sort out. Thank you for your patience and enjoy.

Part 4: News

"Feeling any better, hot shot?"

Throttle rolled onto his side and looked at his mate, who was facing him in the same fashion, head propped on her palm. Her pale skin had a soft glow in the hazy morning light filtering through the windows up above the headboard. From outside came the thrum of heavy rainfall, with an occasional rumble of thunder in the distance.

Her question was mostly a rhetorical one, since she could plainly feel how he was feeling this morning, so he flashed her a wry smile. "Ready when you are, Tam."

It'd been almost two weeks since his operation, but despite feeling completely recovered already, his cautious mate didn't feel right about taking him for a 'test drive' just yet. "I don't have any plans for today," he went on casually. "You?"

She gave a shrug, the blanket slipping an inch or so off her bare shoulder. Still smiling, Throttle turned his attention toward the space between their pillows. "How 'bout you?" he asked. "You ready to go back to your own bed?"

Thea, who was snuggled between the two pillows with the blanket pulled up to her chin, let out a shudder as another thunderclap sounded, closer and louder than the ones they'd been listening to for the last few minutes. She hid her round face behind the stuffed mouse doll she was clutching. "Not yet," she mumbled, voice tiny. "Muffy's still scared of the storm."

Throttle felt his heart melt in a wave of fatherly love. "That's okay, there wasn't anything I wanted to do other than keep Muffy from feeling scared anyway."

Clearly relieved, his fuzzy daughter scooted closer, burrowing against him until she was tucked, ball-like, under his chin. She shuddered again as another thunderclap sounded, then went still - except for a tiny set of coughs that briefly shook her small form.

Tamerin sat up with a frown. "She keeps doing that."

"It's all this dampness," said Throttle, as his mate got up and hunted for a tissue. The last few days had been unusually stormy for this time of year and some of his joints were already starting to complain. "I'm telling you, if this planet is gearing up to start a second wet season, we're moving to Arizona."

Tamerin didn't respond as she returned to the bed and blotted their daughter's little black nose, which always grew damp when she coughed like that. Thea waited patiently until it was dry before hiding her face in the hollow of her father's throat. Outside, the wind blew louder and the storm kicked its intensity up a notch, and the room grew dimmer as the already weak light was blocked by heavy clouds. Throttle was glad he didn't need to go into work today, because at this point in time he had no urge to leave bed.

It didn't feel like Tam was interested in going anywhere either, and she settled next to him and Thea again, her strong hand gently stroking their daughter's fuzzy head between her round ears. Throttle could tell by how distant her mind felt that her thoughts had wandered far away from what they were talking about just a few minutes ago. These days tracing her threads of feeling and figuring out what she was thinking was almost second nature, but sometimes those threads were too random for him to really piece together. Right now it felt like her mind was vaguely on the two of them, and family in general. Though her eyes were unfocused, Throttle lifted his eyebrows, projecting his curiosity to her.

Tamerin focused on him with a shrug. "Just thinking about how special our little girl is," she murmured. "And how there'll never be anyone quite like her again."

Not even someone with similar parentage, Throttle finished to himself. He was quiet for a moment, his own thoughts wandering, then asked, "Have you talked to Vector recently?"

"A few days ago," said his mate, her finger absently tracing the shape of Thea's ear. "Jayce made me confiscate his wrist communicator."

Throttle went quiet again as he thought back on the last few months. To say that learning someone he'd watched grow up from babyhood was having a baby himself had come as a shock would be a criminal understatement. They'd all been floored, but no one more so than Vector's parents. Vector himself had been surprisingly quiet about the whole thing, usually only speaking up when he had a question about child-rearing and parenthood.

The tan mouse thought he was being uncharacteristically mature about the situation, so as unexpected as it was, Throttle felt that it would all turn out all right in the end. He wasn't sure if a certain someone agreed, though. "Do you think he overreacted at all?" Throttle wondered, even as he imagined he would probably react far worse if he were ever in a similar situation.

Tamerin's mouth quirked. "On the contrary, I think that, considering how his little girl is going to go down in history as the first underage female impregnated since the laws were instated, that brother of mine showed remarkable restraint."

"You'd think with how tempting females are when they're fertile, things like this would happen more often. Mistakes happen, even between people who love each other and mean well."

"True," said his mate, "and plenty of mistakes happened back when we were learning the hard way how our biology works. It was only after we figured ourselves out that the laws were put in place. We've been extremely fortunate since then."

And interaction with other planets and races outside of scouting for resources had only become more common within the last century, Throttle reminded himself, especially after the war ended. More mistakes were bound to happen now that more members of the populace were interacting with residents of other worlds - particularly young ones who were still getting used to their blossoming adult urges.

He might have slipped up along the way, but Throttle felt that Chloe could do a whole lot worse than a rodent who was spending every spare moment trying to become the very best mate and father he possibly could. It actually didn't leave any of them with much to say to Vector; there wasn't anything they could berate him over that he wasn't already remorseful for, nothing they could advise him to do that he wasn't already doing.

So instead he smirked and said, "Last time I talked to Vinnie he was whining about being a grandfather so young."

"Funny, the last time I talked to my mother she mentioned being a great-grandmother."

"Does she mind?"

"Not at all. Where we come from, having a few 'greats' tacked on to you is normal."

Throttle tried to imagine what that was like, but looking at his little girl, still snuggled up against him as the storm thundered on, the thought of their family growing seemed so far away. Sure, Michio was old enough, but he'd always been less interested in girls and more into books and Bunsen burners.

Tamerin's eyes went distant again, her fingers continuing to stroke the back of Thea's head. "Do you think things will work out for them?" she wondered quietly.

"Honestly? I do. I really do."

Vector was parked at his desk, surrounded by the stacks of baby care books and child rearing magazines scattered around his computer. With a bottle of root beer in one hand, he absently sipped while he flipped through the pregnancy book he had propped open in the other. It was a detailed book with full-color photos of each stage of a baby's growth, from conception to birth. Books like this were how he was keeping track of how big their baby was right now, though he had to adjust for the four month difference between mice and Imeeran pregnancies.

He'd been a little weirded out by all the graphic info at first, but now he was just fascinated. It was amazing all the things a baby could do in just the first few months of life. Suck their thumb, make a fist, respond to sounds - like their mother's voice.

Their baby was three months old now and developing rapidly, as Imeeran babies did at this stage. It'd been well established by now that Imeeran genes were dominant, so he didn't hold on to much hope that their little one would turn out anything like the baby mice that filled the pages of all the books he was studying. He had just closed the one he'd been reading and was about to reach for another when a chiming sound caught his attention.

He nearly dropped both book and root beer as he scrambled for the keyboard. Hey, the simple message onscreen read.

hey yourself, he typed back rapidly. how are you two doing?

Chloe tried to send him a message at least once a week, though sometimes she only had time to type something as brief as 'I love you.' Most of the time when she had a chance to sit down and talk for a few minutes, she'd just come back from a checkup. She always kept him up to date on how she and their baby were doing - and she still kept all her information securely blocked, since she wanted to keep what she was doing hidden from her parents. Seeing that blank message box pop up never failed to make his heart race.

We're great, Chloe told him. We're both healthy and everything is going just how it's supposed to.

There was a pause, and then: I learned something special today, too.

really? Vector asked eagerly. what?

We're having a boy.

Vector felt his heart take off like a bike making a wild jump, even as tears clouded his eyes. He quickly blinked them clear as he typed rapidly again. thats awesome. i cant wait to meet him. i love you both so much.

I know, me too. Talk to you soon.

She logged off, and Vector sank back in his seat and took a moment to compose himself. He was still wiping his eyes when somebody buzzed the front door. "Coming," he called, as he hopped up and hurried to answer it.

When the front door swished open he found his mother standing there. His eyes immediately dropped to his boots as his ears warmed. "Hi," he mumbled.

"Hello," Mom said evenly. It wasn't until she edged her way past him and went inside did he realize she had a box in her arms. Feeling awkward and sheepish, he trotted after her. His mother moved down the hall and into the rec room, where she set the box down and popped the lid off. "Just some of your old things I thought you might need," she said.

Vector watched mutely as she sorted through a few of the items inside. He instantly recognized some of it, was instantly taken back to bygone days of playing with toys, building forts, trying to keep Joy from crashing his sleepovers. But there were a few things he didn't recognize. He would have been too young to remember when he'd used them.

"You really kept all this stuff?" he asked in a small voice.

Mom smiled as she held up a tiny set of blue sleepers. "It's what moms do. I hung on to all the things I just couldn't part with."

Her smile softened as she carefully folded the sleepers and put them back. "I planned to hang on to them forever, but I think you need them more than I do."

Vector swallowed back the lump in his throat. "Thanks."

It used to be there wasn't anybody on Mars he felt more comfortable with than his mom. But this was the most they'd spoken since his parents found out what happened. After the initial, expected reaction - you did what?! - he'd barely seen or talked to either of them. Which was partly because they weren't sure how to approach him, and partly because he was afraid of what would happen when they did.

Now, with he and his mother finally alone in the same room together, he found himself asking timidly, "Are you disappointed in me?"

Mom stood up and turned around to face him slowly, her eyes doing a scan of the rec room. His new hobby was visible here too; a clutter of books and magazines, a handful of baby toys, a small pile of clothes and blankets.

The soft smile never left his mother's face as her eyes focused on him. "I'd be lying if I said this didn't come as a shock, but...a lot of guys in your position would have run by now. But you're still here, and working so hard to learn how to be a good father. I could never be disappointed in you for that."

Vector tried to nod casually...but instead the lump came back with a vengeance and his eyes clouded with fresh tears. He tried to look away and sniffle discreetly, but just like a mom, there was no hiding from her. Before he knew it she had stepped forward and put her arms around him.

And just like that, all the tension and anxiety of the last few months melted away. It was like the last ten years of his life vanished and he was a little boy again, warm and safe in his mother's arms, the one place that could make everything better. In a flash of memory he saw himself at bedtime, or heading off to school, squirming away when Mom tried to hug him and complaining that he was too big for that. He wondered now what the heck his problem had been.

It'd been so long he couldn't remember the last time he'd actually held still long enough for her to really hold him. And so he stayed still and clung to her for ages, shamelessly enjoying how she stroked his hair and petted his ears, just like he'd never grown up. And when he finally let go and she wiped her eyes with a quiet thank you, he didn't wonder why.

She tried to be discreet about it, but Vector saw how her eyes darted around the room again, saw the memories playing behind them, the longing they held. It brought an ache to his heart - and he found himself blurting out what he'd been hiding for three months. Because if not his own mother, who could he trust?

"I haven't been as good as you think," he faltered.

Mom stopped looking around and focused on him again, expression blank. "What do you mean?"

"Chloe sends me messages. She keeps me posted how our baby is doing."

He expected his mother to respond - to get mad and start yelling - but instead she just nodded. "If it was just us two it'd be different," Vector stammered on, "but it isn't. I-I need to know our baby is okay."

"Is he?" Mom wondered.

"He's great - and he's really a he. I mean, we're having a boy."

He stopped stammering and went quiet, face heating. And Mom flashed a dazzling smile and hugged him tight again. "That's wonderful. I'm so happy for you."

"Really? You're not mad?"

"Of course not. And I promise I won't tell anyone. Not even your dad."

When he saw the light in her eyes as she let go he knew she meant it. This was something special shared between just the two of them. After keeping his distance for so long it felt funny to suddenly be so close to his mother again, yet at the same time it made him so happy his eyes moistened again. Smiling, Mom smoothed his hair back and kissed his forehead.

"You're always my favorite little boy, you know that?"

"I'm your only little boy," he reminded her wryly.

"That's besides the point. Believe me, one day soon you're going to understand exactly how I feel."

And just like she always seemed to be - just like a mom - Vector knew she was right.