Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please review, I love getting comments, but I love constructive criticism most of all! Especially in the chapters from Amelia's perspective…any thoughts?

Amelia glanced out into the Etherium and sighed. The cool night air blew up onto the deck and whipped against her. Two months ago her worst nightmare became reality. Not the littering, that was a side effect. No, she lost to her animal instincts.

Normally during the piques of her cycle she locked herself in her quarters and had no contact with the outside world. But this time, something she could only describe as peculiar happened. Rather than sticking to her normal plan, she invited someone into her room. And that someone was Dr. Doppler.

Why Doppler?, she asked herself. He's nothing like my usual type. But then again, all the other men on the ship are underage or unsavory… At least I didn't extend the offer to Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Scroop, or god forbid Mr. Silver. That would have made this situation thoroughly more unpleasant.

Not to say that the past month hadn't been unpleasant. Nearly every morning, she woke up feeling ill. One morning it was so bad that she needed to stay in her cabin for the entire day. Arrow visited her, but as far as she knew he only saw her as having an unexpected bout of ship-sickness. Doppler, however, fretted over her when he visited. He rushed around her quarters trying to make her as absolutely comfortable as possible, pillows, blankets, warm water, the whole shebang, all while looking at her stomach as much as her eyes.

She hated to admit it, but he was fairly adorable when he did that. Something about him worrying over her, like her older brother Nathan used to, made her feel tremendously loved. The way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her when no one was around, the way he went to whatever lengths necessary to make sure everything was alright. Somehow it all felt right.

Amelia smirked. Don't be ridiculous. It's just the hormones talking. Wait until these little kittens start kicking, then you won't love him so much then!

After all, it was natural for her to assume they were going to be Felinids, any species' offspring are more likely to be the same species as their mother, or so Doppler had told her one evening after making her solaris seed tea to ease some particularly ghastly cramps.

But, Amelia thought, why should it matter? It isn't like I'm planning on keeping them. No matter how hard Doppler tries to convince me otherwise. He never gave up. Whenever he was with her he would mention something involving the children. Some nights they would be sleeping, some nights reading, and other nights playing together. 'Imagine how happy they're going to be,' he would say while trying to care for her, 'out here in the world with each other.' To which she would reply, 'Yes, they will be very happy with whoever chooses to adopt them.' Doppler would nod, and then change the subject to anything else.

She could see he hated the idea of putting them up for adoption. But what else were they going to do? They were too far away from any charted planet to visit a physician and…abort (even now she was beset with nausea whenever she thought or mentioned it) the fetuses. Doing it on the ship in secret was too dangerous, what with no licensed physician on the ship, and there was no way she was going to trust anyone who wasn't licensed with her body. And if she actually kept them, they would all be miserable. Between caring for them, keeping up with finances, and not going stircrazy, there was no way that would end well for anyone. They would be miserable, she would be miserable, and if Doppler chose to help like he offered, he would be miserable too. Not to mention the social isolation they would all receive by bearing the litter out of wedlock.

"Captain!"

She turned to see Mr. Arrow saluting her. "Yes Mr. Arrow?"

"Permission to request an audience with you?"

"Permission granted."

"Captain, if I may…"

"Arrow, no one else on the ship is awake. Please, you don't have to be formal with me now. Come over here, so we can talk without yelling."

"Of course," Arrow nodded and walked over to her.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Just some ship business."

"What sort of business?"

"Oh, the usual. However, there have been some bizarre thefts recently."

Amelia's ear twitched. "Thefts?"

"Yes, it seems that Mr. Silver has noticed a few foodstuffs have gone missing. Jemseed, Rathian squid, purps, pickles, and a lot of other things. Odd items to steal, considering every member of this crew gets their fair share of rations."

"Yes, quite." She could see herself sneaking under the cover of darkness into Silver's kitchen to satisfy her cravings and keep her and her offspring healthy. She hadn't thought that anyone noticed. Until now. "I believe that we are going to have to keep a closer guard, lest we find ourselves robbed starved."

Arrow nodded in agreement. "How are you feeling, Amelia?"

Amelia blinked at the abruptness of the question. "Fine, thank you." Did he know? "Why do you ask?"

"Last weekend you were ill. Ship-sickness, I thought."

Amelia exhaled. Perhaps he didn't know.

"But just today I remembered that when we were on our first voyage, and the financier vomited the entire way, you told me that you did not get ship-sickness."

"There is a first time for everything, I suppose…"

"Amelia. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Arrow, don't be ridiculous. Just a bout of bad luck."

"Amelia, as your oldest friend, I assure you, anything you tell me will not travel farther then my mind."

"Arrow…"

"Please. If there's something wrong, I want to know."

Amelia bit her lip. Should she tell him? What would he say? She opened her mouth to speak…

OOOOOH Cliffhanger!

But seriously, sorry it's taken so long to update this. Life is funny sometimes.

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