YES, I GOT MYSELF A NEW (cough old) COMPUTER!!!

This chapter and the next one was original meant to be one very long one, but as I was finished with this one and still needed to edit the rest I decided to upload this one and make it a two part chapter and make it a little more easy to read.

Thank you to all who have reviewed:

MigetX: Thanks I really try to make their relationship develop naturally even though Max has her trouble with trusting men.

Buffalocatz: Thank you for your review; I love writing cuddling scenes and I promise that there will be more than just cuddling later on; it's rated M for a reason.

Kuro Tatsumaki: Thank you for your review, Here's the next chapter that you asked for ;)

Domo-Kun: Yes you were right; I did continue this. (Your jedi mind trick worked – sort of) Anyway thanks for your comment, it made me really warm inside.

Tennoda: Thank you; yes I tried to give Max some weak spots that told us that she indeed was a human after all and that you never can run from your family (no matter how hard you try) On another note; just want to say that I love your story and can't wait for the next update.

Disclaimers: I don't own the predator but the humans and everything in this fic is mine. A special thanks to my friend for borrowing her name for Ian's and Tina's daughter.

-

Chapter 8: Fireball aka Josephine

"You don't have to do this Max'" Toh was still worried that the female didn't understand the danger by going into her brain to take some of her nanobots.

The woman stepped out of the bathroom dressed in a couple of long comfortable pants and a small top that revealed the top of her long scars on her back.

"Don't worry Toh." She said, stepping over the male to get to bed. "I know I haven't told you yet but I think I can control them now." She said just before crawling under covers and the blanket. It was too cold to sleep only with the thin cover.

Toh was not sure he had heard her right. "You can do what?" He asked astound by her statement.

She popped up on her elbow catching his eyes. "It is normal that you can make them do other things than what they original were programmed for right?" She asked, now worried that something was wrong.

Toh shock his head. "No, they should only do the things that they had been programmed to do before they were injected to someone's system. You're telling me that you can make them do other things than translate for you?" He asked concerned for her.

Max bit her lower lip, it wasn't like she had done something wrong but still felt like it; then nodded yes to his question.

"Can you… Um. Can you show me?" He asked not sure how to comprehend this. She nodded again and before Toh could reach out for his mask, Max bent over him to get it. This made him jump a little as she brushed her torso against his lap. She placed the mask on his face; knowing exactly how to fasten it to his face.

"Ready?" She asked.

Toh changed the view in the lenses before giving her his conformation. The sight shocked him utterly. The injection had contained roughly 500 nanobots. About half would stop functioning during the implantation and still the rest would have to work together for her brain to understand the translations. But this?

What he saw was well about all but one leaving her brain and traveled all through her body. The lightning red dots were finding their way al over her body.

"Can you still understand me?" He asked, almost sure that she couldn't.

"Of course, I left one for that job. Tell me that you know what is going one Toh." She said almost pleading. He took off his mask to look into her eyes. They were full of concern and he felt the same way.

"I can't." He sighed. "I have never seen anything like this. Can you… feel them?" He asked, not sure if he wanted her answer.

Max shocked her head. "I can't feel them move inside of me or anything but I can think of something for them to do and they do it. I don't know how much they can do yet; the only things that I have experimented with was moving them around, increase my senses when necessary." She answered with a shrug. She saw the worried look in Toh's eyes and knew that he was thinking of cancel their deal with Ian. He would if he thought it would harm her, she knew that and with that thought her heart fluttered with warmth and joy.

Toh's mind was almost blinded by thoughts. First he had only been worried about Max and what if he would hurt her to help her siblings, but now; this new knowledge made him almost call off everything. Never had anyone been able to manipulate the nanobots to do what they wanted with their mind alone. It took a computer and a connection between the two to do so. What if this was bad, what if he had endangered his woman by injecting something that wasn't computed for oomans? He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he had hurt her with this act; yes it had been the best solution at that time, but what if..?

"Don't worry about me Toh." The female interrupted his endless thoughts by placing her hand on his. He refocused his eyes with hers. They were so beautiful and calm. With that though he mentally tried to remember when he started to think of an ooman as beautiful? He had been one of the worst to come with all the 'an ooman is so ugly that…' jokes back on the ship and look at him now. He was practically in an ooman female's mercy. He cared for her so much that it almost hurt him to think of it.

"I can't." He admitted; grabbing her hand more firm in his.

A playful glint played in her eyes. "You better, I can't have my best friend go around and worry about me all the time. I'm not going to translate for you the rest of your life you know." She said with a smirk as she saw the confusing in his eyes.

Toh opened his mouth to reply but found that he didn't know what to say.

Max's smile grew, she wasn't sure of her own feelings but that didn't mean that she would remain passive.

"Come Toh, we need some rest; it will be a long day tomorrow." She tugged in her hand to make the male to follow her to lie down.

"I'm fine." He said ignoring the drowsiness that washed in over him when he finally felt the bed underneath him.

"Sure." Max smiled, seeing his eyes loosing the battle of staying open. Tugging the cover over him the best she could do with only one hand, Max fell asleep still not sure what to do with all the mixed emotions. This was something that she only could let time fix and with that thought she rested closer to the male; the warmth calming her even further into peaceful dreams.

-

The morning had been quiet as had the drive to the small home of Ian Trail. Once again was the big male cloaked and together they stood in front of a smaller house. It was nice kept but instead of being located far away from civilization as both Max's and Terry's house's were this one was on a small road with at least 7 more homes. Some looked like the one they were about to enter, but others looked like they would collapse any minute. Not thinking more about it, Toh followed Max into her brother's home. There hadn't been anyone to open, Max simply locked herself inside.

"Hello anybody home?" Max called after telling Toh to uncloak.

"Max?" A female voice called from one of the adjoining rooms.

Max smiled and motioned for Toh to follow. "Hi Tina, how are you?" Max asked as they stepped into a big kitchen. A short woman stood by one of the counters with her back to them, cutting some kind of vegetables; her height making her almost half of his. Her hair was long and black with almost bluish streaks.

The woman turned sending Toh a look before looking only at Max like she had known the yautja all her life. "Oh fine, Josephine's with her grandparents, she should be home around midday though. Ian is down in the lab." The woman now looked at Toh smiling, extending her hand to him. "Hi my name is Tina, I am Ian's wife. Nice to meet you." She said polite but sincere.

Toh looked a little dumfound at her hand, was this another ooman ritual? He wondered.

"What is she doing?" Toh asked Max; not knowing what was expected of him.

Max smiled at him. "Take her hand and shack it." She told him and showed him as she took a hold of Tina's hand gentle and shock it once before letting go for him to try. He took a hold of the woman's tiny hand tying not to crush it within his huge one as they shock hands.

"Strange costume you oomans have." He chuckled which gained a light punch from his woman.

"Behave." She scolded him, but silently gave him right in that one.

"You are so cute together, you know that?" Tina giggled after watching the two banter at each other like every other couple did.

"What?" Max turned her head so fast that she almost felt lightheaded by the movement.

Tina contained her laughter but couldn't hide a giant smile from her face. "Ian's down in the basement." She said ignoring the glare she received from her friend; she knew that Max couldn't stay mad at her for long, just like her brother.

Max nodded still a little taken aback at the fact that they had been the house for about 5 minutes and Tina could already see the bickering she and Toh had between each other. Not that cute was a word she would use for it.

"Ian?" Max called as she dragged Toh with her down a flight of some very narrow stairs. The basement was divided in two rooms. One with all kinds of computers installed and the other filled with all sorts of chemicals.

"Max! Toh! Come, I was just making everything ready for us." He said happy from behind one of the gloving screens.

If Toh had been worried about not having the right equipment, it had vanished with the sight of more advanced ooman equipment that he had ever seen any where else on the planet; most looked like Max's brother had made them from scrap. Look could deceive though but for now he was pleased.

-

"What do you mean by it's not working?" Max asked looking at Toh. They had worked the most of the morning. Toh and Ian had been convinced that this had been an easy job if they just got a sample of Max's original nanobots, but now as they had replicated one of them it just didn't work. The earthen technology and the yautjan were too far from each other to synchronize that easily.

The doorbell sounded along with the front door opened. "Mommy, Daddy, I'm home!" A girl's voice cut off all thoughts.

"Maybe a brake is what we need?" Max asked them both. She was not as nerdy as her brother and the only reason she would bother being down there was to be the human translator or she would have been spending time talking with Tina or working in the living room with one of her own projects; her boss still needed the last rapport about her translating. Though it had been a lot easier lately to do her work, not only could she use Toh's pad for help but also the fact that she had learned the yautjan main language, the ancient tongue were a little harder but still manageable.

"Maybe. Is that Ian's pup we heard before?" Toh asked as they followed Ian upstairs.

"Yes, you'll like her." Max smiled, then stopped in her thoughts. "Umm Ian… Have you told Josephine about Toh?" She asked hoping that he had.

Ian stopped as well; he too saw the flaw in their doing. "Ups, um… Wait here until I call, okay?" He said before running the last steps two at the time.

Toh, who was standing behind Max, was starting to get restless. He had been sitting in a chair for too long and now standing still on a tight stair; the only good thing about this was the view. If he stepped back a couple of steps he had a nice sight of Max's butt.

"What are you doing?" Max asked, but didn't have to turn to know where his eyes were glued to.

"Making the best out of the situation." He answered but decided that being near her was much better.

"So you stare at my ass?" Max frowned, but couldn't stop a smile as he stepped right up behind her, stroking her hand on the banister with his own.

"If you want me to do something else with it…" He smirked as she turned and hit him on the arm; not too hard but with enough force that he could feel it afterwards.

"I prefer you forgot about my ass and concentrated on something else." She interrupted and by his look he did as he still stood a step lower than she did and with the new angle, he had a nice view of her front.

Giving the male a warning glare and with a hopeless groan, she turned her back to him once again. Not only to hide her breasts from the over hormone producing male but also to hide the smile that was almost impossible to force away.

"what?" She could clearly hear the smirk he had on his mandibles and that made the forced-away smile to reappear at her face.

"Why do you have to look at me like I'm some kind of piece of meat and you'll someone who haven't eaten for days?" She asked.

He was about to come with a response when they heard Ian's voice from the other side of the door.

"Okay guys, you can come out now." He called and with that they climbed the few remaining steps before entering the main house.

"Maxi! Maxi! Maxi!" A high girly voice called and before anyone knew it a 4 year old girl jumped up into Max's arms.

"Woaw, I'm happy to see you too." Max laughed as Josephine hugged her aunt for all what she was worth.

"Grandma and Grandpa got a puppy and they said that I could name him so I called him Spot because he has so many spots and…" The girl ranted on about her visit.

"That's nice." Max said knowing that it could take a while before the little fireball calmed down to actual listen. Tina and Ian had already disappeared properly to get a few moments alone.

"…But mom always tells me that we can't get a puppy… Wooow…" Josephine said; with large eyes looking at Toh.

"What..?" Max asked but started to get nervous as she knew that Toh stood right behind her. "Don't worry honey he won't hurt you." Max said calm, just in case the girl was frightened.

"You are big!" She exclaimed while she wriggled in Max's arms to get down.

Seeing the shocked and almost afraid expression in Toh's eyes was enough for Max to let Josephine down.

"Hi!" Josephine greeted with her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth on her heels. "My name is Josephine, what is yours?" She asked and to the hunters horror the girl stretched her arms for him to pick her up.

"What is she doing?" He asked the female beside him; ignoring the smile Max flashed by his discomfort.

"She wants you to pick her up." She answered not covering her smile at all.

"I can see that but…"

Toh was about to end his question when small hands tugged his loincloth for attention.

"You sound funny." Josephine said looking up with clear green eyes.

"So do you." He answered as he picked up the little pup. She didn't weight anything and her small frame made him wonder if he would break her if he wasn't careful.

The girl giggled as Toh lifted her up to sit on his arm. "You look strange." Josephine stated as she first pointed at his mandibles, and then took one of them between her thin fingers.

"I must amid; she's a brave little on. Or stupid." He added through his remaining three free mandibles.

"Behave, just because they can't understand you, you don't have to talk like that." Max said disappointed.

"What did he say Aunt Max?" Josephine asked, looking at the male in awe.

Make smiled at her little niece. "He just called you brave honey. Why don't you go out in the kitchen to your mom and dad, I need to talk to Toh for a moment." Max took Josephine from Toh's grip before setting her back down on the floor.

"Okay Aunt Maxi. Mommy, Mommy, I just met uncle Toh!" Her voice was carried all through the house as the girl ran gingerly for her parents.

"Uncle Toh?"

Max placed a hand on his arm and guided him to the living room. "It's just her way to accept you, you should be honored; she's normally shy around strangers." Max said feeling stupid as it seemed like her smiled just couldn't fade.

Ian and his family joined the two not long after and after good 10 minutes talk and a lot of probing from Josephine's side, Ian, Max and Toh resumed work.

-

They had reached little progress, though the nanobots still weren't ready for injection they weren't far from it. The time read 1 am and Max was beaten and all she could think about was a soft bed. They had already agreed to stay over that night. More to Toh and Ian's request as they seamed to get along and both really wanted to get the nanobots finished and the fact that it had started to snow and as it looked like it wouldn't stop anytime soon.

"God, no matter what you say, I'm going to bed." Max said with her fifth yawn in less than 10 minutes. Toh looked at the tired female and silently agreed with her, she needed the sleep as he wasn't about to have a cranky female the next morning.

"What, you need to translate for me, or this will be turned into a guessing game." Ian pleaded.

Giving her brother a glare she shocked her head no. "I'm tired and you should be going to bed too and start on a fresh tomorrow anyway." She said before started her ascend up the stairs.

"Sleep well my woman." Toh wished and laughed at her muttering of property confusing and he should be glad that she was too tired to kick his ass.

It took the males 20 minutes to realize that they too were tired and wanted some sleep before they continued.

"Listen Toh, since we only have one guest room, I thought that you could use the couch." Ian said motioned for the living room but Toh ignore him. Why was all oomans so persistent about letting him sleep on something that clearly wasn't made for someone to sleep on?

"Toh, where are you going?" Ian asked, but he was cut off as Toh closed the door behind him to the guest room. He took off all clothes and armor except his soft leather loincloth and joined his woman under the cover. She slept peacefully and with a low purring he snuggled as close as he dared to preserve her warmth before he too fell into a peaceful sleep.

-

"So what are going on between you and you know?" Tanya laughed. Max didn't look at her sister but continued her work with the dishes.

"I don't know what you're talking about Tanya." She tried to hide her annoyance as she knew exactly what the younger woman was talking about.

Tanya smiled. "Oh I think you know precisely what I'm talking about. Ian told us that Toh insisted on sleeping with you last night."

Max rolled her eyes, of course he did, that man was even worse than Terry to keep anything for himself. "First of all, we didn't sleep together; we just slept in the same bed." She paused as the said male came to view from the kitchen window along with her two brothers; both trying to bring her friend down. He hadn't quit got the rules of how to play football yet and an involuntary smile replaced her previous frown.

"See, that's what I'm talking about." Tanya said with a smug grin but Max didn't see it as her thoughts wandered back to the event the same morning.

She remember going to bed and sometime later felt Toh coming to join her. If they hadn't slept in the same bed together for so many weeks now she would have shouted at him to get out, but she let him sleep up against her and as she had felt that it wasn't enough she had crept closer to the male.

Hell, he had seen or at least felt her naked at this time, so this was nothing and she felt better when they were close. Thinking of it, everything felt better if the yautja were close by. Even with his comments and his constant nickname she liked it when he was at her side.

The morning had only magnified her trust and comfort with the male. She had been having one of her nightmares that normally had roamed her mind before she met Toh. They still came but not as often and many times when she woke up they were only blurs that told her that they were a nightmare but she couldn't remember what they had been about.

Not this time; the nightmare had been like they always were, about her youth and in a mix of true events and her own fantasy; all in one mixed bowl of horror and angst.

She had waken covered in sweat but she somehow instantly felt safe as she felt strong arms around her and the familiar purring that was unique for her best friend.

-

Toh woke with the sound of his woman whimper in her sleep. He always hated seeing her like this and with no hesitation he wrapped her in his embrace to give her strength and comfort. The purring came on its own as he could feel her tear rub off on his chest.

"Be strong Maxine." He whispered tracing one of her scars on her back. He knew where they were now and felt the same kind of proud about them that he did about his own. Even though she had told him that they were nothing to be proud of, he couldn't stop seeing them as a part of her and they told a story of how great a worrier she was even as a young pup.

He could feel her relax a bit and her bearing, breathing and heart rate told him that she had woken. Looking down at her he just smiled down at her and she returned the smile as she reached over to hold the male closer.

"Thank you." She whispered as they lay back in comfort just enjoying the silence, warmth and feeling of each other.

Toh traced his mandibles over the top of her head, inhaling her scent in the same time; he never grew tired of the smell and if he could only smell one smell for the rest of his life, it would be this one he would choose.

She sighed; when did all this become so… Comfortable? Nice? Safe between them? When did she think of him like someone she could trust and not the brutal single minded male that she had convinced herself that all men were?

"What are you thinking of Max?" Toh asked, stroking her hair and traced her curves down her back; stopping just before her bottom.

"You. Me. This." She sighed once more, trying to decide if she should pull away or just stay in his arms forever, exploring the unfamiliar yet exciding feeling that he produced inside of her. It wasn't like the hot primal cry for sex that she so often took men for, but this feeling that told her that as long as he was here she would be safe, be cared for, be loved. 'Loved? God my head must be twisted; I can't love, I don't know how and after reading about Toh's race on his pad I doubt he knows what love is either. Maybe that is what makes him… No I must not think like this I…'

Max was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't hear Toh's question or see how the male looked down at her to see if she was alright. She was not sure what to think, her mind told her how everything should be but her heart and the rest of her body told her otherwise and truthfully; it was rather scary not knowing what to do or expect.

-

I know that I stopped in a cliffhanger this time, please forgive me.

And if you want a face on our heroes I've have a link on my profile for you all to see (my homepage), and note that Maxine's colors isn't the right ones. I don't know if it's my scanner or my computer or something. You can tell that I'm not the biggest brainiac with a computer right? Well check them out for yourself and tell me what you think.

Review if you would be so kind ;)