It has been a while since I updated... I think. Well anyway here's chapter 8.

It has been six months since their first date and the two are starting to hit some hard times. Anthony's money has run out and he and Vinny are both still unemployed. Not only this, but she has some unexpected news that will push him onto a path that will shape his life in a way he won't expect.

"Anthony," a familiar voice called to Anthony. He opened his eyes and looked up into the face of his brother.

"Tim, am I dead?" Anthony asked.

"No, far from it," Tim said hovering over Anthony in that same pure white room.

"Then why am here? More importantly, how am I here?" Anthony asked as he heard a loud bang. "What was that?"

"Shit, they know you're here!" Tim yelled looking at towards the direction the noise came from.

"Who knows I'm here?"" Anthony asked starting to get worried looking at Tim's facial expression.

"No time to explain, but I couldn't let you go into this blind," Tim started to explain now looking into Anthony's eyes. "Now Anthony, listen carefully, I can only tell you this once. Whatever you do you can not let anything happen to your family, ever. You need to protect them with your life."

"Them?" Anthony asked.

"Shut up Anthony and listen. Their will be three people you can trust. You will now them as Specs, Raven, and Birdy. Trust them and guard them with your life and in return they will help you when you need it most. But, before they will help you, one of them will die. There is nothing you can do about this but try to keep the rest of you three together. Your family depends on you three staying together as long as possible. You must be willing to sacrifice everything for your family, even if it means leaving them for their protection," Tim explained with a very serious voice. "If you want them to survive, you must do this. First thing you must do is save them financially. Your true life journey starts now, Anthony. Prepare yourself."

Anthony lay on the ground looking up into his brother's eyes astonished at what his brother just said, but before he could say anything, another loud bang sounded, closer this time. Tim turned towards the sound and then back at Anthony.

"Eyes are looking good Anthony," Tim said smiling as he pulled out a knife. "Sorry, this is for your own good." As Tim finished saying that he took the knife and plunged it into Anthony's abdomen.

Anthony sprung out of bed his eyes were as wide as they could possibly be as he gripped the spot on his lower abdomen were Tim had just stabbed him. Anthony removed his paws from his stomach and saw nothing and let out a sigh of relief. He then felt a pair of paws on his shoulders. He looked up and saw Vinny's green eyes staring into his.

"You okay, Anthony?" Vinny asked worried.

"Yeah, just a really strange dream, nothing to worry about," Anthony answered not sure what to think about his dream, if he could call it that.

"You sure?" Vinny asked.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Anthony reassured Vinny as he got up and put a grey t-shirt on. He was about to put his sunglasses on but Vinny put her paw on forearm stopping him.

"Don't put your sunglasses on. I like your eyes and you know that, Anthony," Vinny told him as Anthony put his sunglasses back down.

"You seem to be the only one, Vinny," Anthony said as he kissed her.

"Well… How are your kids supposed to know what your eyes look like if you're always wearing sunglasses?" Vinny asked with a smile on her face.

"Kids?" Anthony asked as he looked at her smile.

"That's right Anthony, you're gonna be a father," Vinny said as her smile got bigger.

Anthony got a smile on his face and hugged her. "Oh my god, we're gonna be parents!"

"That's right, Anthony," Vinny said returning his hug.

Anthony pulled out of the hug with a worried look on his face. "How are we supposed to afford this though, Vinny? I don't think Logan has the money to support himself, us, and kids."

"Don't worry about it, Anthony. We'll figure something out," Vinny said as Anthony pulled her pack into a hug.

"I hope you're right," Anthony said as the two just stood there for what seemed to be eternity to them.

"Have you told Logan yet?" Anthony asked.

"No, I figured you'd want to be there when we told him," Vinny said. "It's probably the biggest news of his life you know."

Just as she finished that sentence, Logan burst through the door with a big smile on his face.

"I'm gonna be a grandpa!" Logan shouted as he ran to Vinny and hugged her. He turned to Anthony and put his paw on his shoulder. He was almost in tears by how happy he was.

"Dad! How long have you been standing there?" Vinny asked surprised.

"Ever since I got up," Anthony said smiling at Logan.

"And you didn't think I should know he was there?" Vinny asked a little angry.

"I didn't think it was, too, important at the time," Anthony said.

"Not important, huh?" Vinny asked.

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to tell me that you were pregnant, Vinny," Anthony said smiling.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

"I got it," Anthony said as he grabbed his sunglasses put them on and headed down the stairs to the door smiling the whole way at the thought of him being a father. He opened the door and saw a dark brown chipmunk standing in front of him. The chipmunk was wearing glasses and a dark blue t-shirt that stated "I'm with Genius" with an arrow pointing towards himself. He also had two black stripes that went from the top of his head down his back and he had quite a bit of scars as well, but not nearly as bad as Anthony's scars. The chipmunk pushed his glasses closer to his eyes and looked at Anthony.

"You must be Anthony," he said smiling.

"Yeah, can I help you?" Anthony asked.

"Well actually, I'm here to help you. I'm here to offer you a job," the chipmunk said.

"What kind of job?" Anthony asked.

"The kind of job you're experienced at," the chipmunk said.

"If you're talking about a military job, I'm not interested," Anthony said as he started to close the door.

"You'll get twenty-five thousand dollars when you sign up, and I know you could use the money, Anthony. Think about your family." the chipmunk said and then the door swung open again.

"What did you say? How do you know about my family? Answer me you piece of shit!" Anthony yelled getting into the chipmunks face.

"It's one of my jobs, Anthony," the chipmunk said looking into Anthony's sunglasses.

"Well, you can take your job and shove it up your ass!" Anthony yelled as the other chipmunk pushed his glasses at his eyes again.

"It seems that we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start with my name. I'm Jeremiah, but you can call me Specs. Everyone else does," the chipmunk said extending his paw. Anthony's eyes got big as he recognized the name from his dream.

"Wait! What did you say your name was?" Anthony asked as he grabbed the chipmunk's shoulders.

"Jeremiah," He said as tried to pull away from him feeling nervous.

"No, your other name, what was it?" Anthony asked.

"Specs," the chipmunk answered not sure what was going on as Anthony let him go. "Do we know each other from somewhere?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll take the job," Anthony said smiling.

"You will?" Specs said surprised as he repositioned his glasses on his nose.

"Yeah," Anthony said sounding fairly sure of himself.

"Um… Okay. Here's the location of the meeting place in Florida. Be there in two weeks," Specs said handing Anthony a piece of paper. Specs turned and headed towards the tree line.

Holy shit, it wasn't a dream is all Anthony could think as Specs disappeared into the forest.