Hey, I'm back again! Can I just say a quick thank-you to my BFF who is (hopefully) reading this but doesn't have a fanfic account, because she helped come up with some of this chapter. Funny thing, I came up with the name of the chapter before I wrote it. Lol! I knew what the plot was going to be though, I'm not completely crazy! Just mostly, I guess. Kinda like Buck... but with two eyes and I don't ride dinosaurs. I'm gonna shut up now before one of you guys call the asylum or something.

Anyways, hope you enjoy, and luckily Mikayla does more than just flirt with Diego in this chapter! Phew! Even I was getting sick of that! And sorry, but there's another time change in this chapter. I didn't want to write out 3 and a half months of Shira's pregnancy in detail, and anyway I didn't have enough ideas for what the herd would be doing in that time, so they'd end up with tiny parts in the story otherwise.

One and a half months later

Mikayla sat beside Diego's sleeping form, watching him smile at whatever he was dreaming about. She had vain hopes he was dreaming about her, but she knew it was almost definitely Shira. Mikayla was pretty sure the only way she could be in a happy dream of Diego's would be if Shira was attacking her in it. She sighed and slumped down beside him. He didn't like her in the cave, and she knew that, but it was early and everyone was asleep, so she was lonely. Curiousity was gnawing away at her. What could he be dreaming about...

A small orange sabre cub was sitting at the edge of a large lake, staring at the camp on the other side. He knew exactly what - or rather, who - he was looking for, but he didn't want to admit it.

"Diego?" asked his mother, lying down beside him "What are you looking for?"

"...Shira," he admitted "Mom, do you think she's-"

"We know she's okay Diego, you saw her land on the other side."

"Yeah but, what if her Dad killed her?"

"I'm sure no father could do that to a cub."

"Dad tried to drown her," pointed out Diego.

"Yes, well..." his mother didn't really know how to put a good spin on that "He thought he had a good purpose."

"How did he have a good purpose?! She didn't do anything!" wailed Diego, cryin again "All she did was save me from drowning, and then Dad tried to drown her! There was no reason at all!"

"I know, I know," she sighed "It's just - Diego you know what being respected means to your father. You know how much he longs to be the best pack in the world."

"Well how does drowning an innocent cub make him the best?!" demanded Diego. His mother sighed.

"I don't know Diego, I really don't. Just don't bring it up again honey, it's a touchy subject for all the pack."

"Okay Mom," agreed Diego reluctantly "But you can't just expect me to forget about her!"

"Of course not. You'll probably never forget her. But you can't talk about her anymore, alright?"

"Alright."

"Thank you Diego," she said gratefully, nuzzling her son "Now come on, I think the ship should be ready now, we're going home!"

"..."

"Diego?"

"It's just, well... I'd like to see her again. You know, before I leave."

"I know you do Diego but you have to understand that it's not safe!"

"Yeah, yeah, our pack's are enemies, blah blah blah," Diego sighed, sick of all the rivalry. His mother gave him a lick on the head, and got up to walk away.

"C'mon little guy, we've gotta go."

"Okay..." he looked at the middle of the lake, where he had first met Shira and whispered "Goodbye and good luck, Shira."

Then he got up and followed his mother back to where his pack were gathered.

"Woah!" exclaimed Diego, sitting upright all of a sudden. Just then, he noticed Mikayla lying beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. He abruptly shrugged her off, not caring if he woke her up.

"Huh, what happened?" she asked groggily, rubbing her eye with her paw.

"Uhm, let's see... you invaded my cave, you invaded my privacy and you invaded my personal space!" replied Diego, pushing her further away from him.

"Look, I was just trying to help you!" she defended herself "You were mumbling in your sleep about drowning and I thought you were having a bad dream, so I comforted you!"

"I didn't have a bad dream," Diego corrected her "I had a bad flashback. There's a difference."

"Seriously dude, now you're just being contrary!" retorted Mikayla, sounding offended. Diego felt a tiny amount of guilt, but hid it well. He was realising how he was destined to be with Shira, and he was cursing himself for ever forgetting about that point in his life. He missed her, and he had his whole life. He wanted, no, he needed to find Shira again, and soon. His heart ached for his childhood sweetheart, and he knew that if she didn't return soon he woulf die. Literally, you could count his ribs as it was, and if she was gone for much longer, he would die of starvation.

The herd knew this, and were trying everything they could to make him eat anything. He'd given up on eating most fruit, except for mangos and kiwi fruits, just because he loved them and honestly wasn't trying to starve himself; it was pure grief that made him stop hunting. And it was pure disgust that made him stop eating Sid's food suggestions: grubs and bugs.

Suddenly, as if on cue, his stomach growled loudly. He grunted in pain, but stayed where he was.

"Want me to go and catch you something?" asked Mikayla gently, expecting an explosion or something. But Diego just shook his head calmly.

"Nah, it's alright."

"No it's not! You'll starve to death!" fretted Mikayla, laying her paw on his shoulder worriedly.

"So what?!" he muttered moodily, laying his head on his paws. Mikayla sighed and got to her feet.

"Okay that's it, I'm getting the others."

"Why?"

"Because something has to be done about this. I'm calling an intervention."

"Really? An intervention? Isn't that a little extreme?"

"No, because you're going to die otherwise!"

"...I won't..."

Mikayla gave Diego that 'Oh come on!' look and strode out of the cave. And now she's gonna go to all the different caves and bug all the herd members. She does realise that while she's doing that I can just run away, right?, Diego thought to himself. But to his surprise, Mikayla stopped in the middle of the clearing. She took a deep breath, and roared. Loud. There were sounds of frantic movement coming from both of the other caves, and the rest of the herd hurried out into the clearing. That could work too..., he thought.

Gutt laughed evilly as he hauled a net containing a large eel up onto the deck. He knew how much Shira hated eel, and he thought it was the cause of her throwing up. Actually it sort of was, as her pregnancy coupled with the fact that eel generally made her puke sometimes made her excessively sick, and Gutt enjoyed this incredibly, because Shira was, in his eyes, a traitor that deserved punishment. Silas, Gupta and Raz had figured out what was wrong with her (why she was being sick so much, only Raz knew about the cubs), with a little help from Boris, who spoke perfectly fine when the Captain wasn't around. Gutt had never liked Boris's voice, saying it was too 'posh' to be a pirate's voice, and so forbid him to talk. He also hated Boris's real name, Dobson, as that was also too 'posh', so he changed it to Boris.

"Gupta!" called Gutt, holding the slimy eel upside-down "Take this down to the sabre."

He'd started calling her 'sabre' a month ago, after getting tired of constantly yelling "SHIRA!" whenever she did something wrong. Which had been fairly often in the last month. She hadn't actually done anything, but Raz and the others kept getting into trouble and she insisted on taking the blame for them, she couldn't help it. They didn't object as vividly as usual, but that was because they were building the contraption that they were testing today.

"Of course Captain," said Gupta, who wasn't on the flagpole as there was no-one else around. He grabbed hold of the eel, while Silas quickly swooped down to the sea. Back before Shira turned against Gutt, if the nets were ever damaged then Silas would dive through the air and catch a fish in his mouth for the sabre to eat, so he knew what he was doing. He caught a big fish, and flew up to the deck again. Quickly, while the Captain wasn't looking, he traded with Gupta for the eel, which he promptly threw overboard again.

Gupta then ran to the lower deck as fast as he could swinging the fish in front of him so that Gutt couldn't see it wasn't eel. Raz grinned when she saw it; she'd come up with that plan and was glad it had worked.

"Shira," she whispered soothingly "Wake up Sheila, ya dinner's 'ere."

Shira mumbled something and arched her back, yawning. She'd given up sitting a little while ago, not liking the uncomfortable feeling it brought her. The cubs really were getting bigger now, and moving around hurt her. She really wasn't used to the feeling of her bulging stomach, or the however many little bodies forming inside it. Raz slid open the panel and pushed the fish through, surprising Shira. The crew always discussed their plans in the middle of the night, when the Captain was asleep, but they would talk right in front of Shira, she just slept so deeply with the added weariness of her pregnancy that she never woke up if they whispered.

"Woah, no eel?" she asked, shocked. She'd been convinced that her babies would have to put up with slimy eel and stolen fruit until they were born, maybe even after.

"Disappointed?" said Gupta with a chuckle. Shira laughed too.

"Absolutely not!" she replied firmly, giggling. She had her back to them, to hide her big stomach from Gupta, but she was looking over her shoulder at them. She pulled the fish closer to her and started eating, turning away from them out of respect.

"Hey kids, you get something other than eel for a change!" she whispered to her stomach, giggling at herself for talking to her stomach. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her belly, and gasped in surprise. She rested a paw on the spot where the pain had been, before feeling another one on the other side. She growled in pain, not liking the fact that the pain moved.

"Sheila? Wha's wrong?" asked Raz, prepared for the worse. Shira suddenly realised what it was.

"They kicked!" she exclaimed, as quietly as she could "They kicked, Raz!"

"Oh, Shiela tha's great! How many times?"

"Four!" she replied, her voice shaking with excitement. Gupta stood there awkwardly, not quite understanding what was happening. In answer to his silent question, Shira gently rolled over so he could see her huge stomach.

"My cubs kicked me," she repeated. Gupta's eyes grew wide with amazement. His little sister; pregnant. He was having a little trouble processing that. He didn't need to ask who the father was, it was obviously Diego, but he did anyway.

"The father?"

"Diego."

"Should I tell the others?"

"NO!" said Shira and Raz at the same time, their eyes big with fear.

"Vhat do you-"

"Gupta, do you have any idea what Gutt would do to my cubs if he knew about them?!" asked Shira seriously. Gupta nodded, understanding.

"I have to go," he said and Shira and Raz nodded, knowing that Gutt would wonder where Gupta was. The badger scurried back to the upper deck, his mind still buzzing with all the questions he wanted to ask about Shira's kids. But they would have to wait until later on.

"Mikayla what's going on?" asked Ellie sleepily, rubbing her eyes with her trunk. Manny grunted his agreement with the question, while Crash and Eddie mumbled in their sleep. They were hanging off Ellie's tusks, as Sid stood beside her, his Granny asleep on his back. Somehow, Mikayla hadn't woken her up, so Sid just carried her out of their cave. Peaches followed her parents, Louis and Meghan beside her. They'd slept over that night, so they attended Mikayla's intervention.

Diego didn't leave the cave. He crawled over to the rock he shared with Shira and sniffed the leaves. Somehow, they had managed to hold her scent all this time, which both pleased and depressed him. He liked that he could still smell her in their home, but he didn't like it because it made him sad. Mikayla padded into the cave to find Diego with his nose in the leaves, sniffing gently and blinking back his tears.

"You really, really miss her, don't you?"

"Talk about stating the obvious," scoffed Diego, rolling his eyes, which were still watery.

"Look, I know you hate me. But I don't hate you. And I can't just sit by and watch you starve yourself to death," explained Mikayla kindly.

"Okay, if this is some dumb long-winded way of getting me to like you then it's not working!" retorted Diego, uncomfortable because Mikayla wasn't just straight-out flirting with him.

"It's not Diego, I'm worried about you! Please just come outside and talk to the rest of the herd," she begged "We're your friends! Well, they're your friend, even though I'm not, and we can all help you! Please?"

"Mikayla," Diego took a deep breath "If you maybe stop obsessively hitting on me, then I guess, if you're really that worried about me, we could try friendship."

"Really?!" asked Mikayla, her eyes lighting up with hope "I'd love that!"

"Only if you stop flirting!" said Diego firmly. Mikayla nodded, and led the way outside. Diego looked up at the sky and whispered "Don't worry Kitty, I'll never stop loving you!" before following Mikayla. The herd were sitting in a semi-circle, watching the two sabres. Diego sighed, expecting one of Manny's long lectures, but what actually happened surprised him. Ellie got up and walked over to him, carefully laying her trunk over his shoulders.

"Diego," she sighed "We know you miss her, we all do. But starving yourself? That's not what she would have wanted, and you know that."

"I know," Diego lowered his head "But without her, I just-"

"Yes, you love her and don't want to go on without her. But do really think she'd have wanted you to isolate yourself from the herd? To refuse food and drink unless we make you have it? That's not what she'd want!"

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts, mate!" said Buck firmly "We're worried about ya!"

"He's right, Uncle Diego," Peaches had tears in her eyes "You can't go on without her, but we can't go on without you! You've been around my whole life, I'd be lost without you!"

"Mr. Diego?" Everyone turned to Louis "You're grieving, we get that, but... aren't you taking this to kinda extreme levels?"

"Yeah, Louis is right," agreed Meghan "We're all grieving for her, now please don't take this the wrong way, but you don't see anyone else on the brink of starvation!"

"See Diego?" he turned to look at Mikayla again "They all need you. And, I do too. I know you hate me, and I've been totally insensitive this whole time, but if you did, uhm... you know, I'd be distraught! You know, I can't help feeling this is my fault and-"

"Mikayla, Gutt coming back and getting his revenge is not your fault, okay?" Ellie looked her in the eyes "But, uhm... you haven't been the best at helping him get over this."

"I know," she sighed "But that's going to change. Diego, if you want, I'll just leave. I mean, I love you, but if I'm making things harder for you than I'll just go!"

"Is it okay if I say yes to that?"

"Of course it is, I suggested it. But I'm still gonna drop in every now and then. Ya know, make sure everyone's alright," she smirked "And anyway, when this Shira comes back I DEFINITELY want to meet her!" everyone just stared at her "What? I've heard a lot about this super-sabre, and I'd like to meet her!"

"Hmm... well, if you're planning to meet Shira if she comes-"

"When she comes back!" Manny corrected him. Diego rolled his eyes.

"Fine, when she comes back, you probably don't want to be hitting on me because, well... she'd rip you to pieces. But thanks for helping, in your own little way. See ya around."

"See ya around."

Mikayla waved to the rest of the herd, who said their goodbye's, and walked off into the forest. The herd just sat there, silently, until Buck stood up and yawned.

"Well, I'm off to bed. See ya in the morning!"

That snapped the rest of the herd out of their daze, and they all headed back to their caves. Diego sighed and looked up at the sky again, watching the moon. He remembered how Shira loved the moon because it had been with her for her whole life.

"Hey Diego," called Sid "Do you wanna come sleep in mine and Granny's cave tonight?"

"Yeah sure," sighed Diego, not wanting to spend the night alone again "Thanks sloth."

He padded carefully into the sloth's cave, settling down by the entrance. Slowly, he drifted off to sleep, but not before wishing Shira goodnight, wherever she was.

Gupta, with the help of Silas and Boris, quickly loaded as much fruit as he could into a woven sack that Raz had made. It had taken them over a month, but they'd managed to set-up a system to get more fruit down to Shira. They'd carved little hooks in the walls of the ice passage down to the cell, wrapped a sturdy vine around them, and attached a hook to the vine, so that if they hung the sack on the hook it would swing down to Raz.

They did this now, and watched as the vine carried the sack of fruits down to Raz, who was sat waiting for it. She unhooked the sack and swung the vine so that the hook was back with Gupta and the others. She emptied the sack's contents into Shira's cell, threw the empty sack to Silas, who caught it, and carefully woke Shira up.

"Sheila? Wake up!" she repeated until the sabre opened her sapphire eyes "Gotcha a midnigh' snack."

Shira thanked Raz and dug her teeth into the fruit, saving the seeds as usual. She had a lot of them now, but she hid them away behind the pile of hay, just in case Gutt or someone else tried to take them from her. After she finished off all the fruit, Shira stroked her stomach and whispered to the little cubs growing inside her. Raz pretended she couldn't hear, but she couldn't help listening as Shira talked to her kids. She gasped in pain, and Raz pressed one hand against the ice-door worriedly.

"Just a kick," Shira assured her "They probably just got excited about the fruit."

"Oh sorrah, Sheila. Ah didn't mean ta wake 'em up," apologised Raz quickly. Shira shook her head.

"Not a problem, that just means they enjoyed it."

"Good."

There was a slightly awkward silence.

"Hey Raz?"

"Yeah, Sheila?"

"Well, would you mind if I went to sleep again now?"

"Course not, Sheila. If ya're tired go ta sleep. Ah'm certainly goin' ta."

Shira giggled and got comfortable again, rubbed her stomach one last time and drifted off to sleep.

"Night Diego," she whispered, before she lost consciousness "Love you, Softie."

Raz sighed and settled down to sleep. Shira really underestimated her sister's hearing abilities.

So, how was it? Sorry if you thought it was bad, I had to redraft the bit where Mikayla left over and over before I was finally satisfied with it. I basically got tired of Mikayla pointlessly flirting, and anyway I didn't really think she'd be doing that for over two and a half months. She's not gone forever, but I kinda wanted her out of the way for a bit. And I didn't want one of my favourite characters (Diego) to starve to death for real, so I felt like I had to change that too.

Don't worry all you guys who are waiting for the reunion, it's not that far away. Just wait like, a few chapters or something. There's one more time skip, and then everything happens quite fast. Anyways, thanks for reading and please review! XD