AN: You have no idea how much I love writing this. Seriously. I've been waiting to write this chapter for so long.

Natara admired Malia as she slept soundly in her crib. Smiling softly, she couldn't believe that there had been a time when she hadn't wanted children. Now, she couldn't imagine a life without Malia.

The door opened and Natara smiled as two arms wrapped around her middle. Andrew pulled her back so she was leaning against his chest and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Wake her up and I will kill you," Natara growled playfully. "God, I just can't believe she's almost two."

"Marry me, Natara." She spun in his arms, placing her hands on his chest.

"What?"

"Marry me. I know that we've only bee dating for a year and a half, but the truth is I love you, and I love Malia." He tucked a stray hair behind her ear and cupped her chin. "So what do you say?"

Natara swallowed and found herself nodding. "Okay. Yes. I'll marry you."

Malia's head broke the surface of the river and she flailed there for a moment before treading water. Her heartbeat was frantic as she searched the water around her.

"Jared!" she screamed. "Jared where are you?"

"Malia!" She caught sight of him on the shore, clutching his leg tightly. She paddled over to him, dragging herself out of the freezing water. The sun was beginning to set, she realized; surely people would have noticed they were missing by now, right? She stumbled over to where Jared was sitting. His jeans were ripped open and the edges of the hole were being dyed a deep crimson as blood leaked from his outer thigh.

"Jesus," she breathed. She quickly tore off a piece of her sleeve and tied it tightly around the wound, blinking the water out of her eyes as she did.

"We can't stay here," Jared managed to say around his chattering teeth. "We have to keep moving."

"On that leg? I don't think so." Malia straightened up helped Jared stand, allowing him to put most of his weight on her. She led him over to the base of a tree, so they were at least out of sight. Jared leaned heavily against the trunk, panting from exertion. He watched her as she spun, trying to find a suitable place for them to hide.

"Malia, just go find help," he urged her. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Just please, get away from here."

"I'm not abandoning you," she said desperately. "Especially not with those psychos running around out here. You're unarmed and wounded, and if you stay here you'll be killed for sure."

"And so will you if you stay here with me!"

"Just... give me a second. I'll figure something out." She slowly circled the tree, searching for a place to hide. Climbing a tree was out of the question, as was trying to outrun the hunters. Hiding somewhere on the ground, somewhere the hunters wouldn't think to check, was the only option.

"Come on," she whispered, returning to him. She helped him stagger over to a raised tree root. He balanced carefully as she knelt on the ground and inspected the root. There was a burrow underneath it, just big enough to hide the two of them. She grinned and helped Jared lower himself into the hole. His wounded thigh scraped against the ground and he bit back a cry of pain, knowing she would stop him and insist on finding a new hiding place.

"Stay right there, I'll be right back," she told him. He huddled against the ground peering out of the small opening for any sign of the hunters. Everything was still and peaceful, as if something so dark and horrible hadn't happened here in these woods.

Ken would find them, he reassured himself. Someone would have noticed that they weren't there, and they'd send out a search party. He tried not to think about how long that might take; these woods were huge, and it would take days to find them under normal circumstances. But they would be searching in the Eastern part of the woods, where the scavenger hunt had begun. They would be going in the complete opposite direction.

The burning sensation in his leg hadn't subsided; whoever said that gunshot wound eventually go numb obviously had never been shot before. He clutched at it, biting down another cry of pain. This was all his fault. He'd gone off alone after the hunters, and now he and Malia were stranded in the woods with a bunch of psychotic district attorneys.

Malia appeared at the opening again, scooting down into the burrow. She reached out and dragged clusters of underbrush and dead leaves in front of the opening, masking their hiding place.

"They're clever."

"Hmm?"

"They're clever," Jared repeated. "Sick, but clever. They've got this all worked down to a science. They're executing the criminals who got away. They knew what we would be looking for and what we wouldn't see. They hid the bodies in the woods, and we dropped the cases because there was no body."

"I know. But what about Kathryn? That's the one I don't get."

"I don't know. I guess she somehow found out what Marvin and his friends were doing and called off the engagement. That was probably the thing she couldn't forgive him for. She knew too much, and they'd already gotten away with it multiple times... They got cocky."

"They took her out here, and they killed her," Malia realized.

"But she managed to take one of them out. Marvin. She must have gotten away, and then he got too close. She must've ripped his jacket in the struggle... stabbed him... and then they killed her." Malia shuddered involuntarily.

As the sunlight faded, they curled up next to each other for warmth and settled in for a long, sleepless night.

Elsewhere:

Mal gripped the steering wheel tighter and gritted his teeth. A thick, awkward silence hung over the car, and his eyes darted to the passenger seat. Natara was tapping out an uneven rhythm on her leg, staring tensely out the windshield. He hadn't wanted her to come, but she'd threatened to shoot him and steal his car; she was going no matter what.

The sun's afterglow was quickly fading, and he could only hope that his son and Malia had found shelter by now. He adjusted his grip on the wheel again, flying down the road.

"So, Mal, are we going to talk, or are we just going to sit here and pretend we don't know each other?" Mal scowled, thankful for the dark.

"I don't see what we have to talk about." Natara scoffed at him and crossed her arms, turned her body slightly away from him.

"Maybe we could talk about the fact that we haven't seen each other in over thirty years. We could catch up, banter like we did in the old days, way back when."

"Or maybe we should talk about the fact that our kids are missing." Natara rolled her eyes and turned back to Mal.

"You know, I'm trying to distract you from that," she informed him tersely. "It's not good to dwell on it for long periods of time."

"And let me guess: you're telling me that as a profiler?"

"No, I'm telling you that as a mother. And as your friend."

"Alright then. Let's talk. Maybe we should start with the fact that you just up and left thirty years ago, dropped off the face of the earth, and then showed up out of nowhere again, hmm? Do you want to talk about that?" Mal barked. He glowered silently out the front window, trying to force himself to calm down. He knew he wasn't really mad at Natara; he was just stressed and worried beyond belief and was taking it out on her.

Natara dropped her eyes to her lap. "Mal, I'm sorry I didn't call or try to contact you, but it was for the best." Mal continued staring out windshield and she let out an irritated huff.

"Why did you leave?" he asked finally after a few minutes. "Is it because of what happened?" Natara was silent for a long moment.

"Well, yes and no," she said. "I don't regret what we did. But it created a complicated circumstance, and I just thought it would be better if I left."

"Circumstance?" Mal looked over and met her eyes for the first time since they'd left the station. "What circumstance?" Natara took a breath before answering him.

"I was pregnant, Mal."

AN: AND THE TRUTH COMES OUT! Whoo! Geez you have no idea how long I've had this chapter planned for.