Space Oddity: Episode IV Return

by Observer123

Finally he's coming home! But his return was not even a bit like he would have ever expected it. Not only that he had crashed onto the planet with his crew members and was stranded there, also everything had changed on his planet. The world he knew was destroyed after a invasion, Kitty was kidnapped by the enemy and there is also his teenage son who does not accept him...

29. The new home

Green. The switch in him granting merciful slumber was flipped once more and his optical nerve sent the well-known shade, that greeted him like an old friend, to his cortex. He knew the standard med bay and their green regeneration tanks. How often had it happened that he had found himself in one of them after losing consciousness in a fight or next to an exploding plasma duct? He stopped counting decades ago.

There were a lot of close shaves in his career, and they all ended in this green goo. He was once told that it was modified algae that kept the water germ-free and gave the liquid its color. The massive amounts of drugs and femtobots pumped into the container on the other hand were colorless.

Dudley started moving slightly. It was always weird to breathe in water. Though the oxygen inside was dosed high enough to make that work, the feeling was still more than wrong. And it always led to the same outcome. Dudley's movement intensified until he was finally knocking in panic against the glass that surrounded him, praying for real air.

The deity answering his prayers, and the one whom Dudley finally landed in front of as the glass pane in front of him was removed, was Ryan, who greeted him with a misanthropy that felt more comfortable than the one from back on the planet's surface.
"You cannot even give me a break during my free time, can you?" He said starting to examine the dog that disgorged green liquid.

"Since when… do you spend your… free time in the… sick bay?" he retched and another mouthful of liquid landed on the ground.
"Shut it and get dressed." The doctor stepped back from Dudley and sat back down on a stool placed among the green tanks.

It took the dog a few moments to get to his quivering feet and then to the neatly folded uniform that just waited to be put on by him. Dudley started with the pants, which was bold considering he was still standing quite wobbly on his feet. After a victory won on that part, he wanted to put on his shirt as it finally hit him.

His arm was different, furless, and longer than he was used to. His still intact hand touched it and the first scare abated to make space for the annoyance he expressed with a groan. "More cybernetics? Really?!"

"Listen I am growing a new arm for you, but I cannot do that at full capacity right now, so you have to take what's there right now," Ryan said looking up from a tablet from which he was reading.
"Fine fine…" Dudley grumbled and put on the shirt and the jacket which completed his uniform. "Can you at least bring me up to speed? How long was I out?"
"Good question… 5 hours I think," Ryan said this time without looking up. "Casey can tell you about the rest. See her on the bridge."

"Casey? What about Pow-" Before the dog could ask Ryan pointed onto another green vat which contained something that looked more like charred remains than a body.
"He's barely hanging on. There was a fire in the cockpit."
"Will he-"

"Next hours will tell, now go and bother someone else." The doctor hushed the dog out of the med bay and Dudley found himself in the hallway. His head still felt dazed and his throat sore but his feet carried him, mostly driven by muscle memory, towards the bridge. He knew that there was still work to do, the fight wasn't over, but a certain euphoria started to spread in his chest as he walked down the well-known halls.

They had made it. He didn't remember how or what happened exactly but for him, being alive and in a place where he spent most of his life was enough to help him through the uncertainties. Of course, Kitty, Nick, his mom, and all the others were on his mind, and he knew he would see them after being informed about the situation.

Dudley's walk turned into a jog while thinking about the next steps to take and quickly halted his run as he entered the bridge. The crew was there absorbed in their work just a worn-out Casey greeted him with a stiff posture and a salute.

"Captain Puppy." She said in her military staccato. "It's good to see you back."
"Alex." The dog said gently smiling. "Stand at ease."
The air leaked out of Casey like out of an untied balloon and her back almost seemed crooked. "It's so good to have you all back."

"Your time here wasn't a cakewalk either, huh?"
"If I wanted to be captain, I would have applied to be one." She explained briskly. "The administrative side is pure torture."
"Yeah, I'm also not a big fan of the reports."

"It's not that, the people management…" She groaned as her back stiffened up again "Field commanders don't have to discuss the importance of proper holodeck etiquette."
Dudley contorted his face in disgust. "So, it happened again?"
"Again? You want to tell me it happens more often?!"

"On every ship. Also, on mine" He sighed confirming Casey and making her shudder.
"I better go back to my place…" She said and took a deep breath. "Alliance fleet code 665, I hereby transfer the commando to the highest-ranking officer onboard capable of performing his duties."
Dudley saluted her and nodded. "Noted Lieutenant, I will gladly be your Captain for now."

"Good." Casey quietly trotted back to the console she usually worked from, but Dudley stopped her before reaching it.
"Casey I do have work for you though."
"Administrative?"

"No something more hands-on."
Casey tilted her head like an animal sensing danger. "Nothing bureaucratic?"
"I doubt choking bureaucrats counts as bureaucratic." He said and turned to the hologram projector in the center of the room. "But first, status, where are we what is the situation?"
"To be as brief as possible-"
"I'd appreciate."

"We are right now in orbit of the planet after…" Casey started to giggle a little. "Crushing the enemy's so-called fleet."
"Three cruisers, two bigger ship classes." An officer chimed in.
"Right, there is not much left for them to even get off the ground, so we decided to stay in orbit for a few hours." The tactical officer typed on her console and a hologram of the Leviathan in the planet's orbit appeared. "Energy reserves are down to 10 percent, if we are conservative that should last for two days."

"Without much moving or fighting?" Dudley speculated and was confirmed by Casey.
"Correct." She said. "So, a place to load would be needed."
"Yeah, I had an idea for that and that's where you come into play." He said looking at the hologram of the ship. "I know it's cheap doing the same trick twice but we are desperate so could you and your boarding troop conquer a few more of their citadels? I do not expect large reactors underneath them but we could load up enough for our next target."

"Simply seizing their tower and overloading the reactors? No problem at all, captain." She said and saluted.
"Very good, also, don't bother negotiating with the lizards for too long. Give them one warning to hand over control but nothing more. We do not have the time for extended negotiations."

"I am no diplomat, captain." She explained already typing on her console.
"Nice," Dudley praised satisfied. "Now, next item on my agenda, where are our guests? Still on the freighter?"

An older-looking woman turned in her chair towards him and said. "We had to abandon the freighter after its hull integrity went critical. The survivors are in the loading bay."
"Alone? No one taking care of them?"
"Isaac was meant to calm them."

"Great…" Dudley mumbled. "Well, I will take care of this now, thank you, Miss…"
"Misses Charleston." The woman replied mid-turn back to her console.
"Thank you, Mrs. Charleston." Dudley nodded towards the woman even though she did not see that and then left the bridge walking determinedly towards the loading bay.

As much as he wanted to mindlessly enter the spacy cargo area, he knew that this would just be inefficient and cause more confusion than anything. He decided to enter the location on a higher level to get access to one of the catwalks which allowed having an overview of the whole extent.

Entering the elevated walkway the first thing his eyes spotted was a hull break, provisionally closed with alloys of not the same color as the ones used on the rest of the ship. This must have been the less pure materials Meliha had talked about. It looked like someone had smeared dirt over the rift and the question of the structural integrity of the ship awoke a certain anxiety in him.

"At least it's close." He mumbled in an attempt to calm himself. His eyes wandered to the crowd of people who looked lost between the cargo containers. Some of them slept, resting after a harshly earned victory. Some of them wept, grieving the losses that they endured and experiencing the full scale of the survivor's guilt. And some of them just stared into the nothingness, still trying to grasp if this was reality or just the cruelness of a dream that would dissolve any moment now.

Dudley watched a few moments longer, his eyes quickly alternated between Nick and Kitty. Nick was leaning onto a crate, next to him though, close enough that it made the old dog smirk, was Annabel. Thought leaning against separate crates the feet of the two teenagers touched. Dudley would have liked to grant these two more sleep but for now, that had to wait until everyone was accommodated.

Kitty was sitting close to her son. She stared down at her hands silently weeping. The war had taken a toll on her, crushing her soul to dust and sifting it through fine sifts. Healing, if it would ever be possible, would take a long time.

Again, the dog sighed, he knew he needed to go for another approach. He took a ladder close to him to the ground floor and slowly approached the crowd. Just some of the starers saw him but did not move in any capacity still absorbed by whatever thought they were haunted by. He moved to Kitty and as she didn't look up he sat down next to her.

She was still crying and he didn't know for how long she had been. Searching his mind for a good conversation starter and as he couldn't find one, he just blurted out the first thing coming to his mind. "I think Snaptrap kept his weight. Even after starvation and rationing… Kind of a unique talent, huh?"

Kitty winced and turned to him shocked. "Dudley!" She said and quickly dried off her tears with her sleeve. "You are okay! I was sure…"
"You know, knife to the heart, arm getting ripped off, I can take a few hits as long there is a physician with high-tech equipment nearby." He smiled and laid a hand on her cheek. "We made it Kitty… we are here."

"I know it's just… a lot…" Her gaze wandered over from his face to his arm then back to his face. "And it somehow keeps piling up."
"I feel you, we better get you all somewhere where you can properly rest…" Dudley fell silent and then jumped to his feet.

"Everything alright?!" Kitty got onto her feet too checking her surroundings in panic.
"No please, everything is okay." He said and grabbed her hands. "I just had an idea, I'm sorry, take a deep breath."
Kitty nodded and started breathing slowly as Dudley called out into the room: "Mike?"

"Reporting for duty, captain." The disembodied voice from the ceiling promptly answered.
"I need a few crew members that are on their break now for a special request. Can you notify some?"
"Currently 24 crew members are off duty, want me to notify them all?"
"That would be great, yes. Thank you, Mike."

"Always a pleasure." The voice fell silent, and Dudley turned his attention back to Kitty.
"I will have to get some things straight and then I bring Nick and you to my temporary quarter." He smiled and saw that the idea of a quiet night's sleep caused a silent tear to run down her cheek.

"I could use some silence." She whispered and moved onto his chest. Dudley did not hesitate to complete the hug and the two enjoyed the tranquil moment until footsteps broke the stillness.
Dudley gently moved her off him but not without keeping on holding one hand of her. Next to them now stood a group of people half as big as the survivor group.

One group eyed the other as the survivors slowly got out of their stupor and got to their feet. Two walls of people, alien to another, simply observed until one in the human group shooed the silence that had made itself too comfortable in the hall. A dark-skinned woman rushed towards Dudley and took him into a bone-crushing embrace. Dudley knew her, even if her now shoulder-long hair were a novum.

"Captain it is so good to see you!" She yelped and Dudley also wrapped his arms around her and laughed.
"Okay, Olivia, calm down, it wasn't that long!"
"Too long if you consider the danger!" She said and let him go clearing her voice with a sheepish look on her face. "I'm sorry for the outburst."

"Considering the situation we are in, I'll let that slip." Dudley winked and looked over into Kitty's skeptical eyes. "Kitty, this is Olivia, my Comms-officer she…"
"Hold up that…" Olivia now started examining Kitty like she was a sculpture in an art gallery. "I mean Meliha told us she saw you but… You really look like his drawings."

"Not now, Olivia." He whispered and the officer understood.
"Of course, captain." She nodded and walked back into the group of humans.
"Well, the reason I have gathered you here." Dudley raised his voice addressing the Leviathan's crew. "Is a shortage of accommodations for our guests. The course of action I suggest, which should especially make getting used to life on a ship easier for our guests, would be a buddy system. This is, of course, completely voluntary but comes with the obligation to share the quarter with the buddy, if necessary."

"Captain?" A young man raised his hand. "Shouldn't we still have more than a dozen unused quarters. Wouldn't it be a better idea to fill these first?"
"Very good point, but even with triple occupancy in these rooms we cannot accommodate everyone, and I like to keep the conditions bearable if possible."

The young man nodded and put his arm back down. Dudley now turned to the non-human group and started speaking. The whole process took a while. Dividing the crowd into smaller family or even friends groups, which were then assigned a buddy and a separate quarter, until the empty quarters were filled.

It took a while for the crowds to warm up with each other, but they started to mingle. First gentle attempts of conversation were held and mostly quickly ended in awkward silence. Nevertheless, at the end of it, all survivors had chosen their human guides and vice versa.

Dudley confidently nodded and once more raised his voice. "Very good, now, be so kind, show them around on the ship a little. Oh, and show them the way to their beds of course."
It took a while again, this time a little longer than the last time, but the crowd finally dispersed in several directions leaving just the Puppy-Katswell family standing next to the crates.

Once more the dog nodded satisfied with the result before gesturing to Nick and Kitty to follow him.
"I hope you two are okay staying with me in my room," Dudley said as they finally arrived at the door which opened as soon as he was close to it. He had moved into this room temporarily for the mission he was assigned to support Powers. The furniture was standard for the ship nothing special.

A bed in front of a big window facing the stars, a table with four chairs, and a little glass cabinet filled with a few lonely-looking paper notebooks. And a white monolithic desk on which an animated holographic version of Dudley was standing and looking around unimpressed. The only personal piece of furniture in there was the easel which was, at this point, exhibiting emptiness.

"I'm sorry that it looks so blank. I was called here on short notice." His apology was met by two faces that looked around the room in awe. It must have been quite the shock coming from bunker bunk beds to complete luxury. After all, every modern age middle-class people live more luxuriously than a medieval king.

"I'm… I'm taking the bed!" Nick said and ran like a tired zombie to a bed. He took a leap and landed in the middle of the mattress that accepted the harsh weight shift tonelessly. "Mom… it… it is so… so soft." He whimpered grabbing the white pillow and placing it underneath his head.
"Be my guest." His father smiled and then walked to an inconspicuous part of the wall which he revealed to be a door. "If you want to take a shower first or go to the bathroom."

"A shower would be a good idea." Kitty mumbled still eyeing the room like it was an ancient temple. "Especially you Nick, you are dirty."
"Sure, after a short nap" He yawned.
"No chance, get up, you are soiling the sheets."

"Come on Nick, your mom is right." Dudley said and walked over to the bed. "A nice warm shower won't be the worst thing right now, will it?"
"Warm?" Nick was immediately back on his feet and rushed into the washroom. The boy locked the door from the inside and the next thing the two adults heard was the sound of running water and approving laughter.

"Okay… I actually wanted to show him how to use it first." Dudley said and scratched his head.
Kitty laid her hand gently on his shoulder and sighed. "The kids today are tech-savvy. You wouldn't believe what a hassle it was to get him off his devices."
Dudley took her hand and turned to her smiling warmly. "I want to hear all about it, every story."

"Oh, that'll be a long night then." She laughed.
"Look outside, night is the standard time of day." He chuckled as sunshine fell through the window. "Except now, but that just happens about every 30 minutes."
The smile on Kitty's face quickly faded and she looked to the ground. "Dammit…" She whispered as a sob escaped her mouth. "I really want to enjoy this but…"

"I know this is not easy." He said and hugged her. "A lot happened."
"I feel like getting torn apart… every piece of our life. Rob, Herbert, Becky…" she sobbed even more the longer she listed names. "And I still feel like they could break through that door any second…"

"Breathe." He pulled her even tighter to himself. He felt her heart racing, her body shiver. The horrors of what she had been through might be in the past but the trauma remained. And without the bandage of survival instinct, the wound lay open. "We will work this out, no matter how long it takes." He gently kissed her forehead and looked into her wet eyes.

The sound of water, which had become background noise at this point, stopped and Kitty quickly broke out of Dudley's hug wiping her tears away.
"That was quick," Dudley said as Nick entered the room with just a towel around his hips.
"Really? I'm usually quicker but…" He stretched and yawned as the towel did its very best to stick to him. "The warm water was nice for a change."

"You could have showered longer." His father smirked as the boy jumped on the bed again wrapping himself into the sheets.
"Nah… maybe later." He yawned closing his eyes.
"Hey, I'm going to show your mom the ship… if you need anything, just ask Mike, okay?"
Soft snoring was the answer he received and with a ripple of laughter, the elder dog said. "Sleep tight."

"We better leave him alone." Whispered Kitty taking Dudley's hand.
"Agreed, let me just…" He quickly grabbed a device out of his desk that looked like a tablet pc but exuded the charm of a clipboard. "Now, we should go and get you something to eat and I want Ryan to take a look at you."

"Is that necessary?" Kitty looked like she had been dipped into ice water in the second the two were in the hallway. "I am not hungry and I don't feel unwell… at least my body does."
"We definitely do both things." He said sternly as he steered the two of them towards the medbay through the uniform looking spotlessly white hallways that seemed to not even know the concept of dust or dirt.

The lights were bright and Kitty had to squint for a while to even see something. She held onto Dudley who once in a while let go of her hand to project a hologram above his clipboard or type on it.
"Ah Dudley!" Olivia appeared in a door frame next to them. "You're off duty?"
"Off duty, please explain." The dog smiled the smile of someone who was already overworked before work even started.

"Oh, well." She saluted briskly. "Sorry for that, captain, I didn't want to assume anything. I just thought because you two walking here hand in hand…"
"It's all part of making our guests feel welcomed." He winked at her and Kitty added.
"He wants me to go to see Ryan."

"That's anything but making them feel welcome," Olivia said and looked harshly down at her captain.
"I know but it's necessary…"
"I am fine, Dudley."
"She's fine D…Captain." Olivia agreed.

"I don't need to see the doctor, everything is alright it's just a transitional period right now." Kitty meant and forced a smile on her face while Oliva kept on being her yes-man.
"Who didn't go through one once or twice in their lives." The human asked amusedly.
Dudley looked at the two, straightened up, and said. "Very well, if you two want to be like that, I'll make it an order."

"Oh come on, you can't give me orders." Kitty rolled her eyes.
"No, but I can give orders to everyone else around you. I will make it the crew's number one priority to hunt you down and get you in front of the lovely physician of this ship." The dog said tonelessly.
Seeking for help Kitty turned to Olivia whose face looked like she wasn't thrilled but also not into starting a mutiny.

The cat gritted her teeth and hissed. "Fine."
"Thank you." Dudley nodded and pointed at a door nearby. "Go in there, I'll follow you in a minute, I got to discuss something with Olivia real quick."
Kitty angrily stomped away from the two. The last thing she heard from them before words became incomprehensible noise was Olivia saying "So about this long-range transmission…"

He did it again and what was worse he had succeeded once more. The latter was even more annoying than the first but what should she do? The first time since she knew him Dudley was in a position of power and he was enjoying it a bit too much in her eyes.

The door to the medbay opened and Kitty's eyes did not dwell too long on the beds. Peg was in one and she seemed to be in a sedated slumber, no need to go there. Instead, her gaze was drawn to the green vats that were, all except one, occupied. Kitty saw an almost charred thing in one, of which she didn't know if it was one of them or one of the humans.

The others were filled with known faces. Tammy was in one, badly wounded by the blade of a lizard that had tried to cut her down. Also, Keswick missing half of his lower body swam there lifelessly. She would have been shocked by his state but she had seen the wound when it was fresh. It looked a lot better now.

Kitty's curiosity was ready to take another gander but her stomach forced her to stop. She turned away and took a few breaths as Ryan's ever-unpleasant voice approached her from behind.
"Came here to gawk at my patients?" He said with a tone that tried not to conceal his displeasure.
"No…" Kitty said taking deep breaths. Her heart rate was kept high by the things she had just seen. "I was sent here by Dudley."

"Is that so? Why?"
Even if her heart was pounding in her chest like a jackhammer and her stomach felt like it wanted to send acid back up she still managed to convey the annoyance of her being there to Ryan by a simple groan. "He thinks I need to be looked at."

It was strange but instead of the usual vexation that clung to Ryan like a koala to a eucalyptus tree, the physician chuckled a little. "I see, he tends to be overly careful with his people… Which makes my job more frustrating as long as he's captain." The doctor took her by the shoulders and pushed her onto a nearby table made from a white metal where he started his examination.

With the white glove he wore he tapped onto Kitty's neck and in the next second a life-sized hologram of her appeared next to the table. Ryan turned to the hologram and calmly checked it. Nothing seemed unusual as he slowly took closer looks at her internal organs, he suddenly stopped. Wordlessly the doctor turned on his heels and hurried through a little door at the other end of the room. Kitty blinked a few times just to be sure that this hadn't been a hallucination.

"Doctor?" she called after him but received just the clanking of glass as an answer. She knew that wasn't a good sign. A running physician was never a good sign.
The sounds of glass on glass continued as Dudley entered the room looking troubled at his clipboard.
"Kitty, do you happen to know why Snaptrap could have stolen all the pillows from the neighboring quarters? Has he become clep-" the dog looked up for the first time now standing next to her and looked into her worried face. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, he suddenly started running."
"Running? That isn't g… that's unusual." Dudley cleared his throat. "Ryan, status."
"Myocardial necrosis at the pivotal point of developing symptoms." The doctor said returning with phiales filled with fluids in all kinds of colors and stages of viscousness.

"But isn't that good? We caught it early." Kitty said and nervously laid a hand on her chest.
"Well… I don't want to scare you… So, don't worry" Dudley meant and laid away the clipboard.
"What do you mean by that?" She asked as her voice shifted up an octave.

"Could you not scare her?! That steals time and I want to get this done quickly." Ryan snapped at him as he mixed several of the vials together inside a titration flask.
"Why are you resorting to mixing that stuff together, by hand?" Dudley asked now holding Kitty's hand and patting it gently.

"I need to be more resourceful and the molecular readjusters use a lot of energy."
"Noted. And the syringe?" Dudley turned to his fiancé.
"Am I being audited now? We don't have the time for unnecessary scrutiny now!"
"Breathe, Kitty, okay, calm." Dudley said to her not intending to anger Ryan more. He would bring that ordeal back to the table when it was time.

"What is he going to do?" Kitty asked keeping her eyes on Ryan who had pulled out one of the syringes which looked compared to the rest of the equipment in the room like a doctor whipping out a stone axe in an OR.
Kitty's eyes widened with every milliliter the doctor filled the archaic tool. "Seriously what is he going to do?"

"I advise you to turn away." Ryan flicked his fingers against the syringe.
"I agree with his assessment," Dudley said and tried to turn her so she faced him.
"No, I will not simply let him-"
"It's either that thing into your heart or three to ten days in a vat until we have grown you a new one." Ryan now gave her his full attention. "Death is also a viable option. Could you turn around please?"

"To the heart?!" Kitty exclaimed in shock as a stabbing pain struck her like lightning. She grabbed her shirt in front of her chest and fought for air. Her other hand searched for Dudley and he caught it. Swiftly he turned her to him exposing her back to Ryan.

"Now or never." The doctor calmly said and rammed the needle into her flesh. Ryan knew his anatomy, even if it wasn't human anatomy, and the needle traveled without being obstructed directly to her core. The cat couldn't even scream out the pain as a foreign liquid filled her heart chambers only for a moment.

"There there…" Ryan said and patted Kitty on the shoulder. He had the nonchalance of someone who had just pulled a splinter out of a finger. "Should be better any moment."
"Dudley…" Kitty gasped weakly and the dog moved his ear closer to her. "Next time you want me to see a doctor, remind me to punch you as hard as I can."

"That would make both our lives easier." Ryan mumbled and then cleared his throat. "I think we should be beyond the point of worry now but I still recommend a good night's sleep."
Dudley nodded and picked Kitty up like a tired child. "I'll bring her to my quarter."
"That is fine by me, just don't clog the medbay further." The doctor already had turned around again to pack up his equipment.

The two left and Kitty groaned. Being carried like a sack of beans wasn't a way she wanted to be seen in public. She tried to struggle but whatever the doctor injected into her seemed to have drained the strength out of her. "Dudley please." She begged. "This feels so… undignified."

"If you are worrying about that, you are better off than I have expected." He gently put her down onto her wobbly legs. "You really think you can walk."
"A little help is appreciated but don't carry me!" She stated and took his arm. The two now looked like a couple on a leisurely walk rather than a harbor worker carrying a coffee sack. "This is a lot nicer." She said smiling.

"I admit it is." He replied chuckling softly. It was the same looking hallways and the same looking lighting over and over again but this monotony now calmed Kitty. She knew a bed was waiting for her and some rest, without the hazard of immediate death. The feeling constricting her chest since they had arrived here, the unwillingness of her body to relax, had disappeared.

She suspected a sedative inside the injection and she was happy about it. Rest was exactly what she needed and now it was possible if only for a night.
Even the rather violent shaking of the ground beneath her couldn't worry her now. Dudley on the other hand stopped their walk and looked at the ceiling.

"Status!" he yelled out.
"Lieutenant Casey reports successful recharging operation!" It reverberated with military briefness.
Dudley exhaled in relief. "Splendid work Casey. Continue the harvest."
"Aye aye, captain!" The female voice replied and then fell silent.

Dudley turned to Kitty and grinned happily. "Some good news for a change."
Kitty just smiled back and yawned. The drugs lulled her brain more and more and she slowly sank into his arms. The question if everything was alright she just answered by snoring gently.

"God, I love you." He whispered and picked her up again. The last few meters to the bed were a mere formality. She would rest for a few hours and he was fine with that. As much as he wanted to spend time with her there was work to do now, a lot of it.

-Authors note: Well seems like they are no longer in immediate danger... at least for now. As always, tell me what you think in the comments and of course, stay tuned :)-