Previously in this fic: SHIT. WENT. DOWN. That is all.

It never really got completely dark in the district, even at night. There were always a few burning houses here and there, and the ever-present light of Johannesburg illuminating the horizon. As such, Christopher and Wikus had a pretty good view of their surroundings as they made their way to the meeting site. Chris stopped when the bulldozer was visible and lowered Oliver from his shoulders, setting the boy on the ground and speaking quietly to him.

"You remember what I told you to do?"

Oliver nodded dutifully. "Hide and watch you and Mr. Wikus and wait for you to call me."

"And if something bad happens to me or Wikus?" His father prompted, glancing back at the fence.

"Run away as fast as I can and go to Samuel's house, but don't let anyone see me," the child recited. Christopher patted him on the head and clicked approvingly.

"Go on, then."

Oliver ducked under a pile of tires, his mottled green carapace camouflaging him easily in the dappled shadows cast by the pre-dawn light. Wikus coughed and Chris stood up to follow him. When they were within a dozen feet of the abandoned machinery, the prawn held out an arm, halting the human.

"I should go first," he clicked quietly. "If this does turn out to be a trap, I would prefer that I be captured rather than you."

Wikus hated that, Christopher's "protect Wikus/sacrifice self" impulse that seemed to have become as instinctive as the need to protect his kid, but the human nodded anyway. His eyes were drawn involuntarily to the alien's form as he strode past, to the sharp, jutting hips and smooth, sleek exoskeleton aglow in the firelight of a nearby trash barrel. That was something else he hated: the fact that Chris seemed capable of completely derailing any train of thought Wikus had with the simple act of walking or stretching or any number of motions that set the human's brain on fire. The most annoying part was that Christopher appeared to be utterly unaware of this effect.

Fuck, Wikus thought angrily at himself. This is no fucking time to get hormonal. That was a year ago; it's not happening again. His body disagreed, but he managed to beat back the urge to tackle Chris to the ground and ravish him. Fuck, fuck, I thought all the prawn hormones were supposed to be gone by now. It's been two fucking years! He was so caught up in his internal rant that he didn't realize Chris was gesturing for him to approach until the alien hissed his name.

"Wikus! What's wrong? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah! I, uh- yeah. Right." The former MNU agent hurried over and ducked down in the flickering shadows next to Christopher. "I was just, uh, reminiscing. Y'know, two fookin' years in this place."

"I understand." The prawn glanced toward the distant shacks. "I cannot really say that I will miss this place, but it has been quite an experience. One which I hope never to repeat."

"Yeah, I'm with you there," Wikus agreed, grinning, then froze. "Look- someone's coming."

A large, black car approached slowly, headlights off, and came to a halt on the other side of the fence. Christopher crouched defensively, shielding Wikus from possible gunfire.

The window slid open. Wikus felt Chris tense.

"Well, are you two coming or not? Hurry up!" Tania's voice rang out urgently, her expectant face peering out at them.

Wikus sighed in relief and started to stand up, but the alien held him back. "Wait."

Christopher stood up, a towering, protective force, and called out, "Open the doors, please."

"What's that?" Tania asked, tilting her head. "Sorry, I'm still only on beginner Prawn."

"He-he wants you to open the doors," Wikus said. "We need to know this isn't a set-up." This is so surreal.

"Oh, of course. Right." She swung out of the vehicle and pulled the doors open one by one, revealing a pleather-padded interior that was mercifully free of gunmen or bombs.

Christopher's antennae twitched back and forth in consideration a moment before he nodded and turned back in the direction they'd come from.

"Oliver!" He called. "Run home!"

"What?" Wikus stared up at the tall being quizzically. "But it's not a trap; why would you-"

Oliver came scurrying over and grabbed onto his father's leg, trilling happily. Wikus looked at Chris for an explanation.

"It was a code," the alien said, lifting the child in his arms. "If I were held at gunpoint, say, and ordered to tell him that it was safe to come out, he would have known it was a trap and run away."

"Sneaky fooking prawn," the human said admiringly, even affectionately.

Christopher's expression was unreadable, but his mouthparts curled and wove silently for a second before he turned away. "Quickly, let's go."

The fugitives ducked through one of the ever-present holes in the chain-link divide between District 9 and the rest of the world.

Tania smiled and came forward to wrap her arms around Wikus, then stepped back and turned to address Christopher. Wikus blinked in surprise. That's it? He'd been expecting a big, dramatic scene, lots of kissing and crying. Not expecting so much as dreading, really. He had no idea how to face her, how to explain everything, how to tell her that he…

…he was no longer in love with her.

"Hello again, Mr. Johnson." Tania spoke to Chris with surprising ease. "And hello…"

"Oliver," Wikus supplied vaguely.

"Oliver," she repeated, shaking hands with the little prawn. "Well," she stepped back and glanced around. "We'd better go before we're noticed." She climbed back into the driver's seat.

Feeling oddly numb, Wikus sat next to her, Chris and Oliver clambering into the back seat. They pulled away, leaving the District behind them.

After ten minutes of unbearable silence, Oliver couldn't contain himself, and he began babbling in the excited manner of children on their way to a completely new environment.

"Where are we going? Is it far away? How big is it? Is it inside or outside? Do you have an inside toilet? I've heard about those. Do you have one at your house? Are you rich? Do you have food at your house? I've never been in a car before; this is a car, right? Are there kids where we're going? Do we get to sleep in beds? Father, look look look out the window, look at that! What was that?"

"Little One, settle down," Christopher admonished quietly, glancing at the humans in the front seats.

"No, please, don't shush him," Tania said, smiling wistfully. "I like hearing kids talk, even if I can't understand a word they're saying. I love kids."

"Tania…" Wikus began, but she cut him off with a shake of her head.

"Later."