The sky was clear and the sun was shining, but it brought no warmth, and the sky in shone in was pale gray rather than blue. It was chilly out on the moor, and Grasstail had half a mind to say he wasn't feeling well enough to go out on patrol and stay with Podtail in the medicine den. However, he was afraid that if he went a single day without going out and doing something, his depression would come back and he'd never be able to leave his nest again. Irrational as that fear may have been, it kept Grasstail up and on his paws, and that was exactly what he wanted. After being a dead weight to his Clan for so long, he wanted to repay his Clanmates by contributing as much as he could.

"Brrrr!" Appleshine shivered. Her red-and-white fur was too short to keep her warm very well- not at all like Watersplash, whose blue-gray pelt looked longer and shaggier every time Grasstail saw it. True, he'd only seen her twice since their reconciliation (if you could call it that), and both times had been mere glimpses when they'd run into each other at the border, but Grasstail noticed these things.

Barkstripe nuzzled up against Appleshine. "Cold, sweetie?" she murmured. Appleshine nodded, and Barkstripe licked her ear. "Try to tough it out, okay? I love you," she added, which made Appleshine purr.

Grasstail rolled his eyes and made exaggerating gagging sounds. Barkstripe glared at him, but it held no genuine animosity, and Appleshine gave him a teasing cuff around the ears. Grasstail ducked, a purr rumbling in his throat that quickly turned into a cough. The cold weather had a way of doing that to a cat. He just hoped he wasn't coming down with anything.

The patrol drew to a stop as they reached the rabbit warren. Signaling with her tail for the other two to stay back, Barkstripe dropped into the hunters' crouch and crept toward the opening. Grasstail hung back, shifting his weight from side to side to keep his blood circulating, until Barkstripe turned back to them and nodded. Grasstail and Appleshine crept around on either side of Barkstripe and lay in wait while the older she-cat squeezed into the narrow entrance of the rabbit burrow.

A few moments later, a rabbit pelted out of the opening, Barkstripe snapping at its heels. Grasstail jumped in front on if, blocking it off, and it drew to a halt with a terrified squeak. Appleshine pounced on the rabbit and held it down. "You wanna kill it?" she offered to Grasstail. He shook his head; she bit the rabbit's neck and picked up the body with a glow of satisfaction.

"Good job," Barkstripe purred. "That rabbit never stood a chance."

"There were three of us and one of it," Grasstail pointed out. "I don't think it'd have stood a chance either way."

"Shut up, rabbit-brain," Appleshine meowed, flaring her nostrils in what was supposed to look like anger but was clearly amusement. "Barkstripe is allowed to compliment me, you know. She is my mate, after all."

"I am well aware of that," Grasstail meowed with a roll of his eyes. "You can't go five minutes without reminding me."

He was glad his sister was happy, but she and Barkstripe were the most obnoxious couple he'd ever seen. He wondered if he and Watersplash were like that. They probably were in private, but Grasstail liked to think of himself and his kind-of, sort-of mate as being above that sort of thing. Besides, he reflected with a twinge of sadness, they couldn't exactly afford to be all lovey-dovey in public the way Appleshine and Barkstripe could.

After scraping some dirt over the rabbit to come back for it later, Barkstripe led them down toward another burrow closer to the lake. The scent of RiverClan carried over in the wind, and Grasstail's ears pricked up, listening for any familiar voices. Appleshine gave him an inquisitive glance, but then muttered "oh, right"- she knew all about him and Watersplash, and oddly enough, she didn't even seem to care anymore. It was hard to think that not so long ago, their relationship had nearly been torn apart because of it. Even stranger was the fact that Grasstail would have gladly estranged himself from his littermate for the sake of a she-cat from another Clan. Now he couldn't imagine trading the bond he shared with his kin for anything- not even romantic love.

Of course, that didn't mean Grasstail wasn't still crazy for Watersplash, and when he saw a RiverClan patrol swimming in the lake near the border he wanted to check if Watersplash was among them. She probably wasn't, but it was always worth checking just in case.

"Hey, you two can probably handle this on your own," Grasstail muttered to Barkstripe, angling his ears down the shore. "I'm gonna go wash my paws off in the lake; I think I stepped in some mud earlier."

Barkstripe snorted; Grasstail had to remind himself that she knew all about Watersplash too (courtesy of Appleshine, of course). "Yeah, you go 'wash your paws off'," she meowed. "Just try not to take too long."

"I won't," Grasstail promised. He bounded off toward the shore, only slowing once he was within earshot of the RiverClan cats. He was somewhat disappointed to see that Watersplash wasn't among them, but he recognized her friend Shellsong playing in the shallow part of the lake with a younger cat- an apprentice, by the looks of it. Grasstail padded forward curiously, wondering whether he should try to get Shellsong's attention or not.

As it turned out, he didn't have to make that decision. The apprentice she was playing with sniffed the air and let out a little mew of surprise. "I can smell a WindClan cat over there," she mewed, angling her ears to where Grasstail crouched among the reeds.

"WindClan?" Shellsong echoed. "Emberpaw, are you sure?" She looked back at her Clanmates, who appeared to be fishing further out in the lake, and padded onto the shore.

Grasstail recognized the name Emberpaw, and upon closer inspection, he recognized the apprentice too. Wasn't Watersplash Emberpaw's mentor, though? Worry pricked his pelt as he watched the black-and-orange she-cat scamper after Shellsong. Had something happened to Watersplash?

Grasstail held his breath and pressed his body to the ground, but Shellsong must have caught a glimpse of him through the reeds, because she snarled and the next thing he knew, she'd pinned him to the ground.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he stammered, keeping his voice low so nobody else would hear. "Take it easy, okay? I'm only here because I want to know how a friend of mine is doing."

"Can't you wait for the Gathering?" Shellsong growled, but she stepped off of him and he got up, his pelt prickling as he took in the RiverClan she-cat angry glare. How could Watersplash be friends with someone so aggressive? "If you're talking about Watersplash, I've got news for you, buddy," she continued. "You won't be seeing her for quite some time. Let's just say she's… not exactly fit to perform warrior duties at the moment."

Grasstail leaned forward in confusion. "What are you talking about?" he hissed. With a pang of worry, he asked, "She's not hurt, is she?"

Emberpaw looked up at Shellsong in surprise. "Did you hear that?" she whispered. "He doesn't know!"

"Well, would you care to fill me in, then?" Grasstail pressed, growing increasingly frustrated.

"Watersplash had to stop being my mentor and move into the nursery with Graysmoke," Emberpaw explained. "That's because in a couple weeks, she's going to have kits just like Graysmoke's!"

It took Grasstail a moment to comprehend Emberpaw's statement. When he did, he could still hardly wrap his mind around it. Watersplash… was going to have kits? His kits?! That had to be it, right? He was the only cat she had mated with…

After hearing that, Grasstail staggered back to Barkstripe and Appleshine, who didn't say a word as they picked up their fresh-kill and headed back to camp. They knew better than to ask Grasstail about his encounters, and Grasstail couldn't have been happier about that. He wouldn't have known what to say.

He was going to be a father!

One thing had become very clear to Watersplash since she had been more or less forced to move into the nursery: she did not like lounging around doing nothing.

Her legs screamed for her to run, jump, swim; her claws itched to be dug into something- or someone. Whenever some ca would drop in to see how she was doing, she would want to beg them to take her with them when they were called away. She wanted to join the next patrol. She wanted to go fishing. She wanted to take Emberpaw out for a training session. What she did not want to do was stay cooped up in the nursery with Graysmoke's kits clambering all over her, but since Watersplash was expecting kits, that was what she had to do.

"How much longer is it going to be before Watersplash has her kits?" asked Cloudkit, a light gray tom-kit who bore a striking resemblance to his mother. "Pebblekit says she wants new friends."

Graysmoke bent down to lick the top of her son's head affectionately. "No cat can say for certain what the exact day will be," the middle-aged queen purred. "But Mossnose says Watersplash's kits are going to be coming along very soon."

"You won't be able to play with them right away, though," Watersplash interjected when Cloudkit's face lit up. "It'll take a while before they even open their eyes."

Pebblekit frowned, cocking her head so far to the side that it almost looked like her neck was broken. Watersplash suppressed an amused purr at the way her ears flopped over to the side. "How come?" she mewed.

Watersplash sighed. "That's just the way it is with kits."

She still couldn't believe that in just a few days- probably less than a week- she was going to have kits of her own. It just didn't feel like it was really happening. It was like Watersplash had temporarily taken over the body of some she-cat who was expecting kits, and as soon as she gave birth she'd go back to her normal life. But that wouldn't happen. She'd be stuck looking after the kits- her kits, as crazy as that sounded- until they became apprentices. And if Graysmoke's litter was any indication, that was going to be quite a pawful.

One night, while Cloudkit and Pebblekit snuggled up against their mother, an out-of-place but all-too-familiar scent was mixed into the wind. Watersplash thought it was part of her dream at first- another nightmare about storms and falling from Shale Hill. The scent would have fit in well with that dream, as she always saw him standing there below her; always there, but never saving her.

Watersplash knew it wasn't a dream, however, when a fat drop of mud rolled onto her face. She screeched- more of a squeal, really, but that didn't seem fitting for a she-cat who was about to become a mother- and sat up. Her eyes shot open and she took in the cat standing over her, who promptly whipped his tail, which was also dripping in mud, over her muzzle to silence her.

She wasn't going to be silenced that easily, however. "Grasstail, what in StarClan's name are you doing here?" she hissed. "You can only waltz into RiverClan territory so often before you get caught, you know!"

"It's okay," he whispered. "I rolled around in mud to hide my scent."

"I can recognize your scent with no trouble."

Grasstail worked his claws into the ground. "Whatever," he muttered. "Anyway, you know why I'm here. Your friend Shellsong told me you're going to have kits."

Watersplash swallowed hard. Grasstail had been bound to find out sooner or later, and he deserved to know, but it seemed wrong for Shellsong to have been the one to tell him. In an ideal world, in which they were in the same Clan, Grasstail would have found out at the same time as Watersplash had.

"What are we going to do about this, Watersplash?" Grasstail demanded. He kept his voice quiet, but Watersplash still flinched. She hadn't given the matter as much thought as she should have. "If your kits- our kits- end up looking like they're half-WindClan- which they are- then the gig is up! We'll probably be banished!"

His words stung, but Watersplash knew the truth they held. They weren't going to be able to raise their kits together, obviously, and that was painful to think. Watersplash had been feeling so sorry for herself that she hadn't considered how hard it would surely be for Grasstail to have to watch his kits grow up from afar. Then again, she didn't even know for certain if they were Grasstail's kits- they could just as well be Oakleaf's.

She had to tell him about that possibility now, she decided. There was no use in hiding the truth from Grasstail, and if it was Oakleaf's kits she was expecting, Grasstail was bound to find out sooner or later. Surely it would be better for him to find out from her than to realize it after the fact should Watersplash's kits turn out not to look like him.

"There's something I need to tell you, Grasstail," Watersplash whispered. "The kits I'm pregnant with might not be yours." She shrunk back in shame as Grasstail's eyes narrowed. "There's a chance that… the father might be Oakleaf."

What?! Grasstail blinked, stupefied, at Watersplash. Oakleaf might be the father? The cat who'd assaulted her?! How could that be?

"When did you mate with Oakleaf?" Grasstail hissed. He tried not to let Watersplash see how hurt he was.

"I didn't want to do it, Grasstail," she explained. "He was going to report Emberpaw for attacking him."

"And did she attack him?"

Watersplash sighed. "Yes, she did," she admitted. "I told Emberpaw that Oakleaf had hurt me, so she came after him one day and left him with a scar on his neck. I hadn't been aware of the incident until he showed me the scar and threatened to report her."

"A scar on his neck?" Grasstail echoed. "Watersplash, that's serious business! Your apprentice must've been trying to kill him! She deserved to be held accountable for her actions!"

"Grasstail, you have to understand," Watersplash cried. "She's just a 'paw; she doesn't know better. Miststar would have given her a worse punishment than he gave Oakleaf, I just know it."

Grasstail wavered at the sight of his beloved Watersplash looking so distressed. Her ears were pressed flat against her head, and her blue eyes were round and apologetic. He gave her a comforting lick on the head, and she seemed to calm down a bit. Then he remembered how old Emberpaw was and his anger returned.

"I saw Emberpaw the other day, when Shellsong told me you were pregnant," he meowed. "She must be at least nine or ten moons old now- more than old enough to know not to attack a Clanmate!"

"Oakleaf is a crowfood-eating minnow-heart," Watersplash snarled. "Miststar should have banished him for what he did to me."

"Who are you to say what the Clan leader should have done?" Grasstail snapped, raising his voice a bit higher than was safe. "You may think you have some sort of special destiny, but that doesn't make you better than any other cat!"

Watersplash flinched. "Grasstail, you're upset," she meowed gently. "Go back to WindClan and we can talk this over later like responsible adults."

Grasstail didn't want to talk it over later, but he knew Watersplash was right. The last time they'd fought like this, they had almost permanently destroyed their relationship. He had never been in a position like the one Watersplash was in now, and he never would be. He still felt that Watersplash had made a mistake in allowing herself to be manipulated by Oakleaf, but what was done was done. Even if the kits she was expecting weren't Grasstail's, it wouldn't make any difference. He wouldn't be able to raise them even if he was the father.

"I'm sorry, Watersplash," he muttered. "I'll go home now and stop acting like such a rabbit-brain. I love you," he added.

Watersplash pressed her muzzle against Grasstail's neck. "I love you, too."

After that, Grasstail left Watersplash alone, and was careful not to be seen as he was leaving. They had a lot to talk about, and only time would tell whose kits Watersplash was really expecting. Either way, their lives would never be the same.

Grasstail was so wrapped up in his thoughts as he made his way back to WindClan territory that he didn't notice the pair of hazel eyes that followed him, gleaming in the murky night.