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Love Front

Book 3: Birth

Chapter 1 Content

Four Weeks Later, Consular's Estate, Conakry 12:24 PM Local Time

"Good evening Captain Atric," the cat stifled a chuckle and nodded to the rabbit, "Captain Atric."

Emily smiled, "Hello Mr. Parks, is the Consular or his wife home?"

"Mrs. Reynolds is but I'm afraid the Consular has not returned from the senate yet," the cat replied, frowning, but then gestured with his paw and added, "Please, come in, I'm sure Mrs. Reynolds would be pleased to see you both."

Sean and Emily nodded and walked into the estate. They had been here a few times before but it still got them every time they walked in. It was huge and amazingly luxurious, not a place either of them could imagine Cathy and Steve, two soldiers, really getting used to.

Parks lead them to a lounge of sorts, easily the size of a bridge on a capital ship and left to fetch Cathy. A few minutes later the vixen came walking into the room, her face covered with excitement to see her friends after their long honeymoon. Sean didn't notice but his wife did, the vixen was starting to look a little "bigger." By no means did she look fat but her figure was definitely much fuller than it had been when Emily and Sean had left; her offspring were coming.

In the past few days Emily had noticed her own belly starting to swell, although maybe only an inch she still felt it. But Emily was looking forward to having her offspring; she really wanted to be a mother, especially the mother of Sean's offspring. Their long honeymoon had really brought them together, they had spent so much time together neither wanted it to end, but they had both been so eager to see the new place at Camp Levit's that was given to them that they couldn't wait. Besides, four weeks had been plenty long to stay at the best, and most expensive, resort in the entire Federation.

"Hi, oh my..." Cathy said as she got a good look at the two furs, "You must have spent a lot of time in the sun..."

Both Emily and Sean grinned, their pelts had been slightly bleached from all the time spent asleep and cuddling on the sand. Sean's once orange pelt was now a little yellowed and Emily's creamy brown was now closer to white. Also both of their pelts had softened considerably, something they both loved and made a point to spend as much time as possible rubbing each other with their bodies.

"So you had a good time?" Cathy added, taking a seat across from the couple.

"Yes very," they both answered simultaneously.

The three furries chuckled softly and Cathy shifted positions, she was a little self-conscious about her belly and wanted the subject off her.

Emily caught the move, being that she was looking for just such a thing. She had been feeling something too and wanted to talk to Cathy about it, but not with Sean present, things like that still made the fox a little nervous.

"How have you two been?" Emily asked.

Cathy's whole face warmed, "Good, although I wish Steve wasn't the consular sometimes, so that he could just stay home. I don't think he likes the job much anyway."

They both nodded, but Emily really understood what the vixen was saying, she didn't want him to be the consular, she didn't want to have to share his time with the senate. The rabbit could relate, and she made a mental note to start thinking of a way to keep Sean to herself.

"But what about you two?" Cathy asked excitably, this was the most excitement she had at home in days... minus every moment that Steve was there with her.

"We'll we have our new house at Camp Levit's," Sean answered, "I figure we'll have some kind of orders then but I figure it will be smalls tasks, I don't think Steve wants us in another situation like we had back on Earth, which, by the way, had did that all go?"

Sean and Emily had been out of "the loop" their entire honeymoon, to much of their enjoyment, but being back in Army uniforms... for something other than "games," had reminded them both of their still embedded duties and they were interested.

"Okay I guess," Cathy said, "Steve didn't want any casualties nor any property damage. I honestly can't figure out why he cares so much about it, it's not even his home planet. Anyway though we just used overwhelming troop forces and they surrendered about a week later, they were actually all focused on the same continent that we were on, Europeaia I think?"

"So it's really all over, for real now?" Emily said, even Cathy a bit surprised by her enthusiasm.

The vixen knew from the moment she had started talking to Emily that she didn't want her new husband or herself in the army anymore, Cathy could relate to her in that respect but this seemed to be almost a bad thing to Emily, whereas it was just an annoyance to Steve and herself. Cathy still thought it was unfair that Steve was constantly pulled away by the senate. She figured that would change soon anyway, her baby was coming.

"Cathy?" Emily asked, the vixen being deep in thought for a moment.

"Oh, ya. No their done, the war's over. General Rodina now says he has complete control over all wolves and last week he and Steve finally signed a peace accord," Cathy answer, although she still sounded and looked distracted.

Sean finally started catching on and noticed his wife seemed to be very interested in whatever Mrs. Reynolds was thinking about. In reality, Sean wasn't that interested, he had a slight suspicion to what it might be and knowing what was soon to come from Emily as well, he didn't want to run right into that conversation yet.

"So we're does that leave us, like in a combined force?" Sean asked, trying to deviate the two female's minds.

"That's actually something that has the senate a little worried," Cathy explained, "Rodina wants the wolves to be a separate nation but still have mixed units. Apparently everyone in the senate is convinced he means to have a revolt later on."

"What does Steve think?" Emily replied, trusting Reynolds above the senate.

Cathy bit her lower lip, "He's not sure, he's not a fan of the wolves even having a military anymore. I kinda agree but there's no way that the wolves will go for that, so Steve's allowing them to have a 2/3 ratio of wolves to Federal soldiers in all units. The mixing is working okay for now, no real problems but..." the vixen trailed off, the rest was self explanatory.

Then she smiled and added, "You two look much happier than when you left."

The rabbit and fox smiled as well and both said, "We feel happier."

Parks came walking in, the three friends turned to meet him.

"Ma'am," he said and bowed to Cathy, "The consular has requested that both of the Captain Atrics report to his office."

"Thank you Parks," Cathy replied and he bowed again and left.

Cathy sighed and turned back to Emily and Sean, then had an idea. She really wanted to speak to Emily in private, as she could tell Emily wanted to do the same, and figured a way for this to work, she'd explain it to Steve later anyway.

"Okay," the vixen began, "Sean you go first, I want to show Emily a few things and she'll catch up in a few minutes."

The fox tilted his head, "What?"

Cathy forced an innocent giggle, "Wife things, now go, Steve probably has your assignments."

Captain Atric shrugged. He gave Emily a quick kiss on the cheek and left without a word, figuring she'd explain it later on.

Both of the females watched Sean walk off then, also without a word, got up and walked up to Cathy's bedroom. They walked in and Cathy sat on her bed while Emily took a seat on the chair a few feet away.

"What's up Cathy?" the rabbit asked, although she was pretty sure she knew what the vixen was going to talk about.

Cathy grinned and held her belly, "How long 'till yours?"

The rabbit giggled and answered, "I don't know, I haven't checked yet."

"Is the suspense killing you as much as it is me?" Mrs. Reynolds asked eagerly.

"Definitely," Emily replied, "But I haven't been able to talk to Sean about it, he gets kinda nervous when we talk about things like that."

"How come?"

Emily shrugged, "I don't know, he's gotten better about other things, but that still makes him stutter," she smiled and added, "It's actually kinda cute sometimes."

The fox smiled as well and asked, "Stutter?"

That was something she couldn't imagine. When they had been searching for Steve way back when he had been the strongest willed furry around, the thought of something scaring him enough to make him "stutter" was strange, especially after Cathy found out what it was.

"Well he gets nervous about sex," Emily said bluntly, although the vixen wasn't effected, "I can't figure out why and he has gotten better but it makes him nervous, especially to talk about. Oh and sometimes he can't even get a whole sentence out," she added with chuckled.

Cathy nodded, "Steve was a little off beat at first too, but," the vixen smiled and looked off, "he got better, I'm sure Sean will too."

"They can't figure out that we'll take care of them I think," Emily commented.

They both chuckled, that being an understatement. As much as Sean and Steve took care of their wives, it was more than obvious that Cathy and Emily looked out for them just as much, if not more since those two had such a knack for getting themselves into trouble.

"So how's yours going?" Cathy asked, gesturing to Emily.

The question caught the rabbit off guard but she managed to reply, "Oh, well fine so far I guess. I really didn't notice anything up until recently. I had a hard time staying awake all day, I'm really tired but other than that I'm fine, what about you?"

Cathy shrugged again, "Pretty much the same, tired a lot and stuff. My chest is a little sore as well but that all started months ago."

"Hey mine too," Emily commented, "usually around morning."

"Ya, and also, well you can tell right?" the vixen asked in an innocent and submissive tone.

"Tell what?" the rabbit asked, not catching on this time.

"You can't tell? It isn't that noticeable?" the Cathy asked, her tone somewhat hopeful and embarrassed at the same time.

Emily nodded, "Must be cause whatever it is I don't notice it."

"Oh I was so worried I was looking... big," Cathy replied.

The rabbit clenched her teeth and held out her paw, making a "small" gesture with it, "You do a little," and she then threw both her paws up defensively, "Not a lot but just a little, you have to look for it to notice."

The vixen rolled her head back and fell onto the bed.

"I knew it!" she shook her head, sounding discouraged, "I knew it! I've been doing exercises since I found out I was pregnant, but that was just because I knew it was good for the baby, but now I got to do it so I don't look fat!"

"Why? You really haven't gotten that big and you shouldn't," Emily said as she got up and sat down by the vixen.

Cathy sighed, "I don't know, I don't like it I guess, doesn't feel right, getting bigger that is. I've been this size since I was like 13, I shot up and never grew at all past that so it just feels... weird I guess."

The rabbit gave her a small shove, "Comon don't be such a baby," Emily chuckled, "if you didn't get bigger that would be a bad thing, it would mean that it wasn't going to be healthy."

"Uhh uhh," Cathy replied, shaking her head, "I'm not having kits, at least we're pretty sure I'm not."

"You went to a doctor yet?"

"Yes but they can't figure it out until some time has gone by, we all kinda start out and grow the same, it's only later on the differences start," Cathy answered.

Then it sunk in and Emily let out a low whistle, "Wow, so your gona have a baby, like a human?"

Cathy, still with her head lying on the bed, grinned widely, "Yep."

"That'll look weird, a person coming... out of a fox..." Emily said and trailed off.

They both tried to contain it but they eventually started laughing a little. It was all too much to contain. Both the expecting mothers wanted so much have their young now and to have nice families were having fun with each other, Cathy most of all though. She was board, and this was a nice distraction. Sometimes she would go out, see sites during the day, but it wasn't much fun since about ten body guards, which even if Steve told them to not, even though he wouldn't, followed her everywhere. It was all for her safety but it just... took the fun out of everything she was trying to do. She exercised for that reason too, it actually gave her something to do all day until Steve came home, then she had someone to talk to and be with. Cathy was starting to see Emily now as a friend that would be someone to chat with until Steve came home every night.

For a moment there was just a silence, then Cathy shrugged and said, "Hey tomorrow if you don't have anything else to do, we can go do something. I figure Sean's gona have new things to do, I know Steve's gone all day, it can keep us busy."

Emily smiled, "Sounds good, I'll come by tomorrow."

Consular Reynolds' Office Conakry 2:27 PM Local Time

Sean Atric sat in the waiting room outside the Consular's office. He wasn't alone; there were various military and civilian officials, a few wolves, which apparently were a normal sight by now because no one seemed to really take notice to them. Sean was a little worried now though, just in a time sense since he had arrived last and there were at least fifteen other furries and people in the waiting room.

"Captain Atric?" the secretary called out and Sean stood at attention and walked over to her desk, "Consular Reynolds will see you now."

The fox nodded and chanced a look over his shoulder. All of the other furries and people huffed and stared angrily at him, not happy that Steve had pushed Atric to the front of the line. He walked into the office and saw Steve sitting, with a rather board look on his face, staring blankly at a computer screen.

The man turned and smiled right away at Sean.

"Hey Sean," he said and then looked around, "Where's Emily?"

Captain Atric shrugged, "Her and Cathy wanted to talk and told me to come here alone."

"Okay..." Steve replied, "anyway how was your two weeks?" the Consular smiled even broader, he liked knowing that everyone was having better times now that the war was over.

Sean smiled broadly as well, "Good, very good. Emily loved the beach."

"Looks like you loved the beach too, your furs a little-"

"Bleached ya, well we kinda spent a lot of time in the sun," Sean explained, rubbing his yellowed fur, "it was nice to see Emily relax totally," the fox paused then added, "That actually reminds me of something."

"What?" Steve asked, although his instincts told him already what it was.

The fox licked his lips and said quietly, "I don't want either of us on active duty again, ever please."

"That's not a pro-"

"It's not because we don't like the Federation or want to do our duty, just know it breaks Emily's heart whenever she thinks either of us might have to be put on active duty. We'll both-"

Steve silenced him with a hand in the air, "That's not a problem, in fact I called you both here to talk about that but I guess you can tell Emily later."

Sean sat up a little and listened closely.

"Well I agree with you on the active duty thing, I don't want you guys being shipped around, believe me. I wouldn't want to and I know Cathy wouldn't want to either," Steve explained, "however, I do feel that your needed, for just a little while longer. The Ranger's are kinda suffering now, they've lost two company commanders, very quickly and if I do say so myself, two very good ones."

"Thank you sir," Sean said.

"No believe me, your just as capable, maybe a little more than I was," he continued, "I need you to do two things; train a true, capable replacement for us and I need you heading something for me at Military Engineering."

"What sir?" the fox asked.

Steve rolled his eyes, he had told Sean so many times he can call him Steve but for the moment he ignored it; "Well your use of the P9 armor was pretty rushed, the systems and programs being jerry rigged to work on a canine anatomy. You know I spent a long time working with the armor and the engineers that developed it to make one that works for everyone, people and furs, but someone needs to make them work. I hope that we don't need those suits anymore but I still need them up and running and there are plenty of furries that would make great Predator users."

"So you want me to go and do what?" Sean asked, still not understanding.

"Well we need someone to make 'em work fast, like I said," Consular Reynolds explained, "and a..." he clenched his teeth, "Test the new suits as their made. I figured you and Emily could cover that."

The fox chuckled, "She's just gona love testing experimental equipment."

He sighed. It was obvious Steve liked the couple, and they liked the Reynolds as well, and Steve meant well, trying to keep them off of active duty but still giving them a job that they would excel at, but Sean really wanted Emily out of the Army. He wanted her somewhere safe and free of concerns.

"Can I ask you a favor about that sir?" Sean began.

Steve nodded and sat straighter in the chair.

"I don't want Emily part of the program. I barely want her in the Army anymore but please just let her not be part-" Steve silenced him again with a hand in the air.

"Whatever you want Sean," he said calmly, "I can understand, believe me. You don't see Cathy taking part in any drills anymore and she's still a Captain too," Steve thought for a moment, "What's she going to do then all day?"

"What does Cathy do?"

Reynolds chuckled and shrugged, "Wait for me to come home. She does a little exercise too but she mainly sits and thinks..." Steve mumbled something that Sean didn't catch.

"What was that sir?" he asked, then wished he hadn't mentioned it.

"Eh... tell me what you think of this," Reynolds began, clearing wanting to vent a little, "Cathy wants to go back to her planet, Foc, to have our kid, but obviously I don't think that's a good idea, what do you think?"

The fox thought for a moment, "What does she want... I mean she really wants to go there, and she's okay with it all?"

"Ya, ya," Steve replied, although sounded a little distant.

"Then unless you have a really better idea, do what she wants," Sean answered, "From the time I spent with her searching for you I learned that Cathy will do whatever you ask her to do, but she won't do anything bad for you or herself."

Steve shrugged, "I've looked at pictures and read a lot about Foc in the past few weeks, and for the most part it sounds nice enough, and I wouldn't mid living there, but I don't know what that would do to Cathy mentally."

"Sounds like a real nice place," Sean commented, although unintentional, it was a pretty sarcastic comment.

"Hey of all furries to say something like that, you'd be the last in my mind," Steve said, "It's basically 100% foxes, which is the one thing that might sway me."

Sean retracted his whole face, "Why?"

"Well I figure Cathy seems most comfortable around her own kind," Consular Reynolds explained, "she's happy when she's around me but seems to be very upset when I'm not around."

The fox chuckled, "I don't think that has anything to do with being a fox, I think she just loves you a lot."

Steve chuckled very softly and stuttered a moment himself, "Well I meant that she's unhappy when I'm not around except when someone's around her she can relate too, like you or Emily."

"Well I know Emily and her have a lot in common, and I think they're gona have a lot more, Cathy seems eager to be a mother," Sean commented.

Consular Reynolds sighed and thought for a moment, "What about you two, how long until you're a dad too?"

Sean almost chocked. The question caught him way off guard; no one, not even Emily had put things like that, so bluntly.

"Oh I... duh I oh," Sean stuttered.

Steve chuckled and tilted his head, "You alright?"

"Ya, I just, I... I get a... Fine, we don't know," he answered, stumbling over his words.

The fox tried to appear okay but his tail gave him away, making nervous wide circles beneath the wooden chair that he sat in.

Steve was smarter and more keen to people and furries he respected, and Sean definitely qualified as someone he respected. Also Steve was 100% sure what was wrong with the fox, the same thing happened to him but only when he had to talk about "stuff" with Cathy.

"Well anyway good luck with the engineers, don't let 'em push you around," Steve said in a friendly tone, "and also I hope you like your new home at Camp Levit, we had it build 'specially for you two."

"Thank you sir," Sean said and stood up to shake the Consular's hand.

Steve huffed and smiled as he shook the fox's paw, "Sean can you do one thing for me though?"

He nodded.

"Stop calling me 'sir.'"

Camp Levit, Conakry 1645 Military Time

Emily always preferred driving herself; she even preferred it to having Sean do it for her. She also loved to drive; it was one of the few things she really got into. Her original unit, the 34th Mechanized, she acted as a driver most of the time, of course the one instance where she had been acting as an infantry support she had been captured, but thinking back now it was worth it, although losing her sister did put that into question, yet she really, really loved Sean.

When the rabbit left the Consular's estate Cathy had given her a car, a rather good one too. She had a minor problem at Camp Levit's gate, the guards weren't sure at first but when she explained who she was they let her past without question, even in the red sports car.

The housing unit they had been given was deep in the officer's quarter of the base, apparently from what Cathy had described quite a good one as well, but Emily was having a hard time finding it. It was okay though, for the moment, she hadn't done any recreational driving in years, not since leaving home to join the army so for the moment, it was nice. Then, about a half hour after entering the base, she stopped in front of what the directions said should be her new house.

It was actually nice looking, considering it was on a base, but then again they were officers, and they deserved to live in style. Emily didn't care, she was happier about who was inside it.

She parked the car with a screech and got out, admired the sports car for a moment, then walked up to the door.

Just as her paw was about to knock on the door it opened quickly and Sean stood grinning, his tail wagging happily behind him, less than a foot from where she was standing.

The rabbit practically threw herself at Sean, something she was apt to doing. She was starting to like doorways. A lot of the time she and Sean had great moments with each other it started right near the door, and Emily liked where it usually lead.

They kissed happily, both excited to have somewhere, somewhere not cut off from the rest of the normal world yet still someplace they could have some privacy. Sean reached around and shut the door, pulling his rabbit in closer. He then laid his paws on her little tail and pat it softly, causing Emily to giggle softly into his maw.

Sean pulled his lips back a half and inch, "This is a nice place, I think you'll like it."

Emily giggled softly again and brought their lips back together. Sean was excited though, and wanted her to be excited too, and he wrapped her paws around her body and walked her, their lips still locked, through the house, which was surprisingly large.

After a few more moments of kissing Emily became aware of her surrounds but didn't loose focus on Sean. The lapse in what they had been doing for the past few weeks was big enough that they both wanted to do this as long as possible. The constant contact was nice and they were enjoying the moment.

Finally Sean played with her tail, sending a small shiver through her body, causing her lips to lose their grip on his.

"Comon," he whispered lovingly, "Take a look around."

"Okay," she replied innocently.

The fox rested his arm on his wife's shoulders and walked her about the house, watching her excited reaction to each room. The kitchen, the living room, even a small dining room, the bedroom, at which Emily couldn't help but giggle at the huge bed, all were much more than either of them were used too.

"So what do you think?" he asked, tilting his head and resting his snout on hers.

Emily smiled and brought her face back close to his, "I think I choose the right fox."

She kissed him again and brought him back into their new bedroom. They both laid down as one, kissing and hugging all the way. This was actually more than usual, much more than Emily usually was into and not that Sean didn't like it, he was a little worried something might be up with her.

Pulling his maw from hers for a split second he whispered, "What brought all this out?"

"Cathy reminded me exactly how lucky we both are, that we both found such wonderful husbands. I love this house, I love this life, and I really, really love you," the rabbit explained and laid her soft head down on his chest.

Sean was only in his boxers and a tee shirt. His furry chest was soft, mainly from the sea air that had affected his entire pelt. She like it, he was soft and warm, yet strong and protecting, she felt extremely comfortable and further realized that, although she would look out for him, she could now let him take care of her.

The fox wrapped his whole person around hers, "What did you two talk about for so long?"

After thinking for a moment Emily replied, "Babies, things to do. We're going to go driving tomorrow..." she trailed off, remembering she was still just a soldier in the Army, "Well we were gona, what did the Consular say?"

Sean wasn't able to answer, he thought about what he and Steve had talked about, about being a father. He saw how comfortable Reynolds was with the concept yet it frightened Sean. He wasn't sure why but it did.

Emily sighed softly and nuzzled his body with hers, "Comon Sean, I know you can deal with it. You don't need to worry you'll be a great dad."

The comment didn't help and she felt him freeze up and clutch her a bit tighter so Emily let it drop for the moment. She trusted that Cathy was right, that Sean would get better as time went by.

"So what are we doing now?" Emily asked a few minutes later, trying to keep Sean from falling asleep that he was coming close to.

"Oh I uh," the fox yawned widely, "Steve said that I'm going to work with engineering, they want to make the Predator system work seamlessly for furries. You are supposed to go too, as another tester," he took one of her paws in his, "I don't want you to."

Emily licked the inside of her mouth, nodded into his chest and whispered, "Okay," then in a fuller voice added, "I think Cathy needs a friend too, and I haven't been able to do 'friend things' since Sarah died and I think Cathy and I can do them now."

At hearing the mention of his wife's dead sister, Sean gripped her tighter, knowing that was one of the few subjects that was definitely touchy with her. Emily didn't appear to react though, she was trying her best to be strong and not let that upset her, she had to get past it. She didn't want to forget Sarah though, that wouldn't be fair to her little sister, but Emily couldn't let that destroy her, not now, not after coming this far.

"So your okay with not working at engineering?" Sean asked, now trying to bring her out of a trance.

The rabbit nodded into Sean's chest, "I don't really want to so don't worry."

Sean smiled. The main reason the fox didn't want his wife testing an experimental armor system was just how dangerous the armor system really was. Up until recently they hadn't figured out how to make the armor cover a furry's snout, tail, and other appendages that some had and others didn't, making the armor pretty useless. They had just managed to make the armor cover the snout, only one's of canine's too, since the only two furries to use the armor like that were, coincidentally, Cathy and Sean, both foxes. Emily, having her long ears obvious presented a new challenge for the military designers and engineers but Sean remembered how much it hurt the fist time he put on the P9 armor, when it crashed down on his snout and cut down into it. The engineers had eventually fixed this, sort of, so that it loosely covered his snout but it still had to leave a hole for his tail.

"Testing this thing isn't going to be fun," he commented aloud, thinking about when they want to test covering for his tail. The thought sent shivers up Sean's spin and down his tail.

Emily felt his tail straighten up and hook along her body. She reached down and pat it softly, brining it up between them. She had come to enjoying playing with his tail, since he loved playing with her so much. It was really soft, she was sure it was softer than hers, and since it was longer and bigger she could give it a hug.

In turn Sean chuckled, he was starting to like it when she played with it as well, all the more reason for him not to want to lose it during a test.

He gave her a kiss and whispered, "I love you," softly into one of her ears that tilted lazily on top of her head.

Emily snuggled into his furry body, getting nice and close. She felt their shared warmth grow. Then she reached down, pulled off her BDU's, and threw them off of the bed and let her fur roll over and mingle with his, making both of them even warmer.

"I love you too," she finally replied and soon they were both asleep in their new home.

Chapter 2 Kin

Two Weeks Later Camp Levit, Sean and Emily Atric's Quarter's 0929 Military Time

"Ohhh..." Emily groaned, waking Sean up within half a second.

The fox, now totally awake, said in a worried voice, "What's wrong?"

Emily shook it off, "Oh I just had a small stomach ach, I think it was just the baby moving around."

Sean sighed in relief, but it was enough to make him too alert to not be able to fall back asleep. Still, he pulled Emily in closer and gave her neck a kiss. Things had been progressing quite well, just a few days ago they had gone to the base's doctor to see how their offspring were coming, they were just waiting for the test results to come in.

"So what are you doing today?" Sean whispered, actually feeling the rabbit smiled into his chest.

"Me and Cathy are going to the mall," Emily answered, sounding excited.

About ten minutes went by, occasional kisses and squeezes from each of them, but they eventually got up and got dressed for the day. Emily actually needed to leave first so as she showered Sean made her breakfast, a big one too. Although Emily hadn't gotten much bigger she was eating a ton of food, more than Sean had ever seen anyone eat but he made sure she had what she needed, to make sure both she and whatever was growing inside her stayed healthy.

After they both had eaten Sean walked her to the door and gave her a kiss. Emily smiled and told him she'd be back at about four; Sean usually was done at the labs by three so they should be home around the same time. Sean suggested they'd go out, off base that is for dinner but Emily told him that Steve and Cathy had invited them for dinner.

She left and Sean took his shower, got dress, and was just about to leave himself when the phone rang. The fox shut the door and answered the call.

"Hello?" he asked in a rather annoyed tone, he hated being late to the labs because he hated being held later than he had to be.

"Hello is this Captain Atric?" a female voice asked.

"Yes who is this?" Sean replied, not recognizing the voice.

"This Dr. Andrea Morison, your wife's obstetrician," the voice answered, Sean then remembered who she was, "Your wife's reports should be in around noon so I'm just calling to give you both a heads up if you want to come in or have it delivered."

Sean thought for a moment then asked, "Will you be at your office around three, three-thirty? I can come by then and pick them up?"

The Doctor, used to this kind of thing, asked bluntly, "Your not going to try and hide this from your wife are you Captain?"

There was a pause on Sean's side of the line, long enough to answer the doctors question.

She sighed and added, "It's okay, I'll be here 'till about five anyway."

"Thank you," Sean managed and hung up the phone.

It wasn't so much he wanted to hide things from Emily, he just... had an idea and a hope that would be a gift to her if he managed to guess right and keep things as quiet as he wanted.

Plaza Mall, Entertainment District, Conakry 12:02 PM Local Time

"Oh... oh! Over hear Cathy!" Emily yelled out over the crowed.

The vixen was standing, two guards in toe, about twenty feet away in front of a clothing store. Even over the extremely loud crowed Cathy still heard Emily's call and started walking over to where the rabbit was standing. The guards stayed a little back, but close enough to advert an emergency situation. It didn't matter anymore, Cathy and Emily had gotten used to them and more over, used them to carry whatever bags and things they had with them or bought.

"Hi Emily!" Cathy said when she finally reached the rabbit, giving her a small hug, "Hey where'd you go yesterday? I missed you."

Emily shrugged, "I had to go down to the engineering department with Sean, they wanted to test a few things and they needed a female. Sean wasn't thrilled but I went and things went okay."

"Oh, well lets go, there's this dress I saw that I know Steve 'll love but I want a second opinion," Cathy said.

"Actually," Emily started, and was a little embarrassed but managed to continue, "Can we get something to eat? Unless you're not hungry, I can wait but, well you know."

Cathy grinned, "Ya, I am actually, comon."

The pair walked over to the food court and sent one of Cathy's bodyguards to get some food.

"You know I think you're more embarrassed about being pregnant than I am," Cathy said in a happy tone.

Emily grinned, "Its just most people aren't used to seeing me eat as much as I do now. I don't know why but I just get so hungry."

"So do I but I don't worry much about it," the vixen took a look around the room, noticing maybe 10 or 15 furries and people adverting stares at her, "everyone already knows I'm pregnant, so it's kinda expected out of me," she smiled and thought for a moment, "You and Sean are pretty famous too, I think everyone knows your expecting too."

"Can I ask you something about that?" Emily began, still in a friendly tone.

"Sure," Cathy replied.

"You and Steve have gone to the doctor right? To find out what you having and that it's all okay right?"

The vixen shifted a little uneasily, "Well we did go to the doctor, but we wouldn't let him tell us what it is or how many there are."

"Why not?" Emily asked, the suspense of knowing what her own was killing her.

"It would ruin the surprise," Cathy said and shrugged, "Me and Steve want to do our own guessing. We figure it's got to be a baby, I told you that."

Emily nodded.

"It has to be I haven't gotten that big yet and I'm apparently pretty far along," Cathy finished just as her bodyguard returned with two full trays of food.

"Thank you Marshal," Emily said and took her tray from the tall squirrel.

The pair ate and talked, enjoying the afternoon. Only two weeks had gone by and they had already become fast friends. Cathy did however, seem a little distracted but Emily let her be for the moment.

They got up and went to a few stores; tried on some clothes that neither would buy but it was fun nonetheless. They went to another clothes store and Cathy saw a dress she really, really liked but got that distracted look again, this time Emily bit and asked her what was wrong.

"I asked Steve last night if we could, like in the next few days, go to Foc. Just to look around and get our bearings, but he really didn't like the idea."

Emily didn't know exactly what had happened to Cathy. She had gotten a few bits and pieces from her and from Steve, a few more from Sean but the full picture didn't seem clear. All she knew was that Cathy's mother died around the time she was two or three and her father had been arrested when she was about twelve or thirteen for assaulting her. That made Cathy's situation all the more impressive, that she really had gone through everything and came out the other side on top. Although she wouldn't admit it, Emily had been through enough as well and was equally lucky.

"What do you think?" Cathy asked finally, after a few silent seconds.

"Well," Emily said, licking the inside of her own mouth, "You-you really want to go there?"

The vixen nodded.

"Then I figure if it won't hurt you, go, but I can't see why you're so dead-set on having you baby there?" Emily answered.

Cathy looked about. Her bodyguards, being they were in the lady's clothing section, were off a little farther than they normally would be.

In a slightly quieter voice Cathy replied, "Its," she sighed, "I want, hmm," she stopped again, still not sure how to put it.

Emily didn't blink or make a sound, now interested in what the vixen was trying to say.

"I guess," she forced a chuckle, "I guess I want to prove something great can come off of that planet. I know my baby will be great and kind, I just know it, and I want it to prove to everyone that Foc isn't some," she sighed sadly, "piss-ass fox-trash planet."

The way she put that seemed so much like she believed it that it made Emily a little uncomfortable. The rabbit didn't really have any serious attraction to her own home planet. She didn't really think she needed to. Sure it was a nice place but she'd seen plenty of nicer places in the relatively short time she served in the army, she just couldn't figure out why Cathy's home planet factored in so deeply with her moral code.

"Cathy," Emily began in a low tone as well, "I don't think, after all you've been through, I can't imagine anyone thinking of you badly. You're the Consular's wife, you had a grand wedding, your one of the most famous furries in the history of the Federation, I don't think anyone sees you as 'fox-trash.'"

"I still think Foc is a bad place, but I know it isn't," the vixen explained, leaning against a clothes rack, "I know if I have our baby there I'll feel better about that place."

Emily nodded in agreement. In reality, she didn't see the reasoning, but she was starting to realize there must be some real horrors in Cathy's past. One day, but definitely not now, Emily might sit her down and see if she can't learn something about what had happened to the poor fox but not now. Emily had enough bad memories from recent day but Sean... Sean made her forget all those bad things. He made her feel so much better about anything and everything, so much so that unless someone directly brought it up, Emily completely forgot about that terrible month spent in the Alpha Wolf's captivity.

The one thing about this that made her feel bad was that she sometimes forgot about Sarah, something she didn't want to do. She really didn't want to remember the end of Sarah's life, but Emily found herself enjoying life so much with Sean that she forgot the good times she and her sister shared. She needed something to keep pleasant memories of her sister in her mind.

All this time Emily had been staring off, looking distracted while Cathy stared at her. Finally Cathy tapped one of Emily's paws and brought her abruptly from her train of thought.

"Duh, Oh sorry Cathy, I was just thinking,'" the rabbit apologized.

Cathy smiled, "No problem. So what do you think?"

"Think about what?" Emily replied, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

The vixen chuckled, "About how to convince Steve to come with me, or even to let me go. He seemed pretty sure that he wasn't going to allow me to go there because he's afraid I'll break down or something."

At that Emily grinned, "Cathy, I don't think there's a thing that we could really ask of our boys that they wouldn't do for us if we really asked them," then the rabbit grabbed a soft, silk black outfit off the rack, "But a nice skirt helps too."

Infirmary Camp Levit, 1429 Military Time

"Oh shit! What the hell happened to you?" a ferret, a corporal asked.

Sean sat in the waiting room, holding his mangled tail in his paws, occasionally letting up the pressure to see if he was still bleeding. His fur, which had been returning to it's original perfect orange color, was starting to look more like Cathy's from the blood that was staining the places where his tail touched him.

"You all right?" the ferret asked again, not realizing Sean's rank or identity.

Taking a deep breath Sean replied, "I'm okay trooper, please just be quiet."

Taking the hint the ferret shut up, all he had was a broken paw, Sean's tail looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. Unfortunately for him though, another furry, a husky if Sean saw right, had been brought in with a crushed airway and he had priority so Sean had to wait. The nurse had offered to call Emily for him, being his registered next of kin, but Sean refused. She was probably having a nice day; he didn't want to worry her. Besides, she'd find him soon enough.

After sitting for about a half hour the nurse came in and ushered the wounded fox into an examination room. The doctor came in soon after, and only to add to Sean's growing worry about his wounded appendage, the doctor cringed at the sight. He came closer and, carefully, took Sean's tail and examined it closely.

"Alright son," he said, not looking up from the injured tail, "looks like its just surface damage, nothing broken, some fur pulled out and a good sized gash but nothing to serious."

He reached to the nearby desk and took out a cloth, dampened it. Then the doctor carefully cleaned the largest wound then with the aid of a nurse bandaged Sean's tail up tightly.

"If you don't mind my asking Captain, how'd you do this?" the doctor asked, securing the bandage in place.

Sean was actually a little embarrassed but being that the doctor was a major, and he was asking him a question to fox answered quietly, "Testing the Predator II Armor, the speed-take-up caught my tail and got it jammed between a few plates."

Seeing the fox's discomfort the doctor put a hand on Sean's shoulder and said, "Trust me son, this hurts allot more than it's worth. You cut it open pretty wide but it'll be fine. We'll give you some quick heal that you can apply later on."

For a moment Sean just stared at his tail, a little blood seeped out and stained the bandaged as well but it slowed just enough to leave a red mark. The doctor left and Sean sat for a moment. He didn't have a long time alone though, as Dr. Morison walked in.

She was a tall, very tall, golden cat. She was extremely thin and wore glasses that appeared to be at least half an inch thick. In short she looked like a bookworm and Sean knew she was extremely smart.

The cat looked Sean over and huffed, "I see your taking care of yourself well Captain, I hope you do better with your wife and offspring."

"Thank you ma'am," Sean replied softly.

"Well since I heard you were here I figured I'd drop by and give you your information now, being that I don't have any appointments today anyway," the cat explained and held out a brown folder.

Sean took it and said without looking up, "We'll how many appointments can you really have? There aren't to many females here who are pregnant."

"There's about 200 females on this base Captain Atric," she replied.

"How many of them are pregnant?" Sean asked, failing to see her point.

The cat forced a chuckle and repeated, "There are at least 200 females on this base and I'm the only doctor qualified to act as a gynecologist as well."

Sean, feeling stupid now, didn't offer a response; he just began to pull out the papers but Dr. Morison stopped him.

"Keep in mind Captain," she began in a stern tone, "Everything about your offspring is in there; their sex, how many there will be, any problems that they may have, what they will be, everything."

At that Sean hesitated, he was going to find out because he was hoping it would play into his plan for Emily, a surprise for her, but he didn't want to find something out she wanted to too.

"Does Emily know that you made this, that you're giving it to me?" he asked carefully.

"I'm required to make this list, to check for medical problems which you two would need to be informed of, but other than that I didn't tell you or your wife about this," Dr. Morison explained, her glasses catching the glint off the room's lights, "unless you told her this hasn't gone past you yet."

Sean bit his lower lip, "If she asks for this will you tell her?"

"I have too, I'm her doctor, but something tells me she won't," the cat commented, "She's far enough along that she probably won't have enough time to think of that."

That caught his attention and Sean continued opening the envelope. He read along the first part, a list of all the possible problems any young could have, their young not testing positive for any of them. A good way to start. Then he got to the personal information on it. He took a deep breath and continued reading.

The fox smiled softly and whispered, "Thank you."

"Hmm?" the cat asked.

"Nothing, I'm just very glad with what I see," he answered, forgetting the pain in his tail, "This is all 100% accurate?"

Dr. Morison nodded.

Sean's prayers had been answered, his hopes for something that he knew would make Emily smile and feel better. He continued reading, learning that there would only be one, that it would be healthy, all the important things, even how much it would weigh.

Eventually the doctor left without a word and even later, maybe a half hour, a nurse with a lieutenant in toe came in.

"Sir? Lieutenant Marcus will take you back to your quarters," the nurse said.

Sean nodded and got up. For a moment he thought about throwing the report away, not wanting Emily to see it, but figured that he might as well bring it. As he began walking out of the infirmary the pain in his tail seized him and he had to sit back down, which only hurt worse. The nurse and the lieutenant went to help him but Sean refused, siding he just needed to take a rest for a moment. He had already been here and an hour so the nurse, nervous about Captain Atric, called Emily who, rather hasty, arrived at the infirmary.

She ran into Sean as fast as she could and hugged him right away, deathly afraid something terrible had happened to him.

When she saw his bandaged tail she hugged him even tighter and said in a frightened voice, "Oh God are you okay?!"

Sean nodded into her shoulder and shifted his body uncomfortably. As much as he liked her hug it was causing his tail to tense, which hurt a lot.

The rabbit saw his discomfort and released him but then slung his paw over her shoulder and walked him right away out of the infirmary. Sitting down wasn't fun but Sean got himself into Emily's sports car and, due to Emily's gift of being a "lead foot" they were home within five minutes.

She helped him into the house and laid him down on his side on the bed. Then Emily kneeled down by his side and pat his face. She was terribly worried, the nurse hadn't been very... tactful about Sean being injured and had made it sound like he was very, very hurt.

Sean forced a chuckle and pat his wife's face in turn, brining a mild smile back to her pretty face.

"Don't worry," he said quietly, laying on his side didn't hurt anything so he was pretty okay, "It's a good sized gash but I'm fine."

Emily gave him a soft kiss and whispered, "Your okay?"

He nodded.

"What happened?" she said just as quietly.

Sean sighed unhappily, he had been dreading this test the most and of course, it had fucked up and nearly cost him his tail.

"We were testing a feature on the Predator II Armor, the new one I told you about," the fox explained, "there's this feature called the speed-take-up and it loads all the plates in like, two seconds, but when they tried it on me my tail got caught between a few plates. It only was a second or two before the engineers shut it off but I cut it up pretty bad."

At hearing the explanation Emily frowned, she hadn't liked Sean being a test subject for this project. She wasn't going to let him do this anymore, she had almost gotten a heart attack when the nurse called and told her that he had been injured.

Carefully Sean pushed himself a little away from the edge of the bed and rubbed the mattress to coax Emily in. She smiled and followed through, coddling Sean in her paws as she snuggled in closer against his body.

"No more playing soldier for you..." she whispered as she rested his head against her chest.

Without hesitation Sean replied, "Okay."

Emily smiled and held him closer. She was tired of seeing him do this every day, she didn't want to be a soldier anymore and she didn't want him to be a soldier either. The Federal Army would be fine without him, she couldn't stand worrying about him anymore.

At the moment, Sean wasn't interested in being a soldier anymore either, he just wanted to lay like this with Emily. Besides, his plan was so close to being done, things were working perfectly, minus this tail incident but he would work around it. He was going to make things perfect for his wife and he was getting excited over seeing her reaction to when he finally put everything together.

For some time, maybe another hour, they laid there, both actually pretty content and comfortable enough to start falling asleep but Emily remembered their dinner plans.

"Can you get up?" she asked, then added in a fuller voice, "to go to see Steve and Cathy for dinner I mean."

By now Sean had been resting on her body, not asleep yet but still resting with his eyes closed. He was just thinking how lucky he was and how much he couldn't wait for their offspring to be born.

Without opening them he whispered, "What time is it?"

Emily looked across the room at the clock, "About 5:30."

"You want to go?" he said, feeling okay to go or to stay.

He felt Emily nod her head above his and Sean whispered an okay. A few minutes later she helped him up, rather coaxed him up, and brought him to the bathroom. The rabbit washed his bandaged tail, getting the bits of dried blood that stuck to his fur. Once clean they both changed and left to go see Steve and Cathy. Most furries would find it strange to just go out to dinner at the Consular's Estate, but to Emily and Sean it was just seeing friends. The fact was that Steve was about least stereotypical Consular in the history of the Federation and he didn't appear to actually see himself as the Consular. Either way Sean was just glad that Steve was just as honorable now as he had been in the Rangers.

The normal drive from Camp Levit to the Consular's Estate was around an hour and a half, maybe two if one took it carefully; Emily pulled it off in a little less than forty-five minutes. That was something Sean didn't think he'd ever get used to, Emily definitely drove way to fast. She was a good driver, but still much faster than you'd expect even of her.

They pulled up to the front of the Estate, a security officer did a normal check, had someone take their car to be parked and walked Sean and Emily to the mansion itself. Parks met them at the door and, after greeting them, brought them to the dinning room where Steve, Cathy, and the two pups sat. For such a large room it was quite a small party, only six, but then again, everything was oversized in the Consular's Estate so it fit for the most part.

As Emily and Sean entered the attention of everyone was drawn right to them, then right to Sean's tail.

"Oh my God what happened?" Cathy asked as she looked the fox over.

Steve clenched his teeth, already having a good idea what happened to Captain Atric.

"Accident with the Predator system," Sean explained and, with the help of Emily, sat down at the large table.

All six were seated around one end of a long, hardwood table that could easily seat a hundred dinners.

Just as Emily sat down a few servers came in with a nice spread of food. What was interesting about the food was that it wasn't so much exquisite as it was comfort foods. Averaged steaks, sides, salads, and foods of that nature, hardly a meal that one would expect the leader of the Federation would eat and feed to his guests.

The couples, including the pups, chatted and enjoyed themselves well enough. Sean and Steve were wearing semi-causal military uniforms but Emily and Cathy... they were a completely different story.

Emily was wearing a short, actually very short, causal drab skirt, form fitting officer's jacket, something she had started wearing more for Sean's benefit than anyone else's and a pair of high healed shoes that made a wonderful "click" every time she took a step on the hardwood floors. Cathy however, Cathy was wearing a black silk dress. It actually looked very good, did her figure great justice; allowing the fine lines of her rump and enlargened breasts to be very easily noticed, even though it was a black dress. It was tight enough that it was really the first piece of clothing that really showed that her stomach was getting bigger and you could really visually tell she was pregnant.

Cathy winked at the rabbit; glad she had suggested the dress. She had, before the dinner, finally convinced Steve to accompany her to Foc, the next day no less and she was very excited to say the least. One thing that had been bothering her, which she had also forgotten to mention to Steve was that she had been having more and more cramps recently, not really painful but she was starting to worry about the baby.

Of course during dinner Sean had to recount the events of the testing of that day and, remembering what Emily had said back at their house, made a mental note after dinner to ask Steve for a reassignment or a suggestion of what to do, Sean really wasn't sure where to go next.

"So what are you two doing tomorrow then?" Steve asked, paying close attention to the Atric's reaction.

Sean shrugged, as did Emily who looked over at Cathy who nodded back.

"I don't know," Sean replied, "I figure I'll take the day off, I can't test what they need to be tested now anyway."

The consular nodded and looked over at Cathy, who turned quickly and smiled at her husband, trying to be a nice as possible being that he agreed to take her to Foc.

"What about you two?" Emily asked, sending a streak of surprise right from the tip of Cathy's tail to the tips of her ears, leaving them standing erect on her head.

Steve sighed heavily and, carefully looking at Cathy who just grinned a toothy smile, replied, "We're going on a bit of trip tomorrow, Cathy wants to go see her planet."

Sean, having not been told about Cathy's intentions, was about to ask why but Emily laid a paw on his leg and he knew to shut up.

But, to the surprise of everyone, Mrs. Reynolds sat up and began, "I want to see if it's a good idea to have our baby there."

Again Emily squeezed Sean's leg and he didn't pursue the matter although his curiosity was pretty peaked. The consular though sighed quietly, although all the furries heard how exasperated it was.

Having been quiet the entire time, the two pups Karl and Lucy decided to change to subject.

"When is your baby going to come?" Karl asked the Atrics.

The question caught everyone, particularly Emily, off guard.

"I... uh... I don't know..." the rabbit stuttered.

Sean listened carefully, worried that Emily's interested might peak and she'll want to find out the nature of their offspring. Sean wouldn't withhold the information, but it would ruin his surprise.

"Not long I think," Emily added, her voice showing a definite sign of uncertainty, something very uncommon for Emily.

In turn Sean wrapped a paw around her shoulders, rocked her quietly, and said in the most confident voice he could muster, "Are you two as excited as we are?"

Steve and Cathy smiled and nodded simultaneously.

"Yes," the vixen replied, although in a hushed voice, "I don't think either of us can wait much longer."

She held Steve's hand in her paw tightly, and felt a small... push inside her, a slight twinge of pain but it only lasted a second so she paid it no mind.

The pups once again spoke again but this time brought u a conversation about shooting. Emily got excited and in a moment of self-praise told everyone how much she improved in her abilities to shoot over the past few weeks. Steve offered to let her try his Thompson, something that was quite the offer. Very few times in his family's history had the weapon been shot by anyone outside his family, and it appeared to have the nature of bringing in whoever shot it into his family anyway, Cathy would attest to that.

The small dinner party went on and on, none of them wanting to leave but then, around 9:30 Emily glanced at her watch and almost fainted.

"Oh no, we have to go," she said, rather dejected.

"Why?" Cathy asked, not wanting the nice event to end, she viewed Sean and Emily as part of her family and didn't want them to leave.

Sean looked at his watched and replied, "The base closes at 10."

"Ah you can't get all the way to Levit's, not in a half hour, you two can stay here," Steve said and took a big sip from a glass of wine.

At hearing that Emily's attitude changed into a challenge. Driving fast was her "thing" and this might be a cool chance to really race it.

"Na," she said, that eager and excited glint in her eye and one ear hanging on her shoulder, "I can drive us there in half that."

Even Cathy looked at her friend in surprise, "It's like 45, 50 miles from here right? And through the capital?"

The rabbit couldn't help but grin and nodded.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Sean replied, trying not to laugh at how much his wife liked to drive fast.

"We'll probably won't be back until late tomorrow so we'll see you on Friday," Cathy replied, a tidbit that might reassure Steve that his decision was sound.

The Atrics nodded and waved good-by, Sean shaking Steve's hand and Emily and Cathy giving each other a friendly kiss good-by.

Commandant's Office, Camp Levit 2229 Military Time

"Uh General?" the orderly, a cat said timidly as she entered Lt General John Vines office.

"Yes Major?" he said, packing up his papers as he prepared to go home for the day.

"The MP's just brought in two officer's in," she said, standing half in and half out the door.

In an annoyed tone Vines, also a cat replied, "Is it necessary that I see them now? What did they do?"

"Well," Major Coltstan whispered and read the file, "Apparently they arrived on base about 5 minutes late and were speeding along through the capital city streets at a little more than," she read carefully to make sure this was right, "150 miles per hour."

"What?" the General said in astonishment, not able to conceive how anyone could drive that fast through the capital, "Send them in," he said finally.

The General turned his computer back on, figuring that if he was going to have to stay later he was going to make these two pricks pay.

A moment later Captain Sean and Emily Atric walked in, Emily thoroughly pissed and Sean shaking his head, figuring this was going to be new, he hadn't ever really been in trouble with a military leader.

"Sit," General Vines said and pointed to a pair of chairs before his desk.

The two Captains sat down and an awkward few seconds passed, the General staring the two furries down. Neither of them flinched but Sean appeared to be the most uneasy of the two so Vines focused his attention to him first.

"Captain Atric."

"Yes sir!" they both answered simultaneously, and both had to stiffen a chuckle, but General Vines was not amused.

Another long awkward silence past, this time the General brought up the two Captain's records, reading each one. He, like most furries and people in the Federation, knew exactly who Sean and Emily were but he now realized something else, the two were very, very different. Sean was a serious, career soldier; he went to the Army Academy here on Conakry, served with the Ranger's in the final, most pivotal battles in the War with the Wolves, and was, up until this afternoon apparently, involved with a crucial engineering project at the Weapon's Engineering department; a true soldier until he met this rabbit. Emily then, was his opposite; she had just "joined up" out of high-school, applied to of all things a mechanized division where she apparently was a "reckless" driver, and seemed to continue along this path right to the moment that landed her in the General's office.

Then he saw it, Mrs. Atric apparently had more than a history of driving to fast, but a habit. She had four arrests as a teenager for speeding and apparently in the past month alone six instances where she and to be warned by MP's for excessive speeds in residential portions of Vines' base.

"That's it," the General began, ever the hot head, "Your off my base, tomorrow."

"But sir?!" Sean said, and stood up, sending a wave of anger through the thoroughly pissed Lt. General.

"No, you two are off my base, that's final and non negotiable," he read a little more of their reports, "I don't care how good friends you are with the Consular and his wife, your wife has been warned to many times for speeding and apparently you've been taken off that engineering project so neither of you needs to be here anymore," the General turned on his intercom, "Major Coltstan, bring in an order slip."

A moment later the cat walked in and gave the General an order slip.

"Where was your last posting?" he said, not bothering to check the Atric's files.

"The Endeavor sir," Emily answered, feeling bad she had gotten them kicked off the base. This was happening so fast they barely had enough time to recoil.

The general wrote out a reassignment order and handed, rather threw it, at Sean and without a word pointed to his door and kicked the two bewildered officers out.

General Vines called the Major back in and gave her orders to send a MP down to the Atric's home to make sure they were out before morning, the General didn't want them anywhere near his base anymore.

***

"I'm... I'm so sorry Sean," Emily said quietly as they drove slowly, down the roads in the residential area of the base, "I was trying to get us-"

"It's okay Emily," Sean said, although he was a little annoyed.

"No," she said, and rubbed his paw softly, "I fucked up, I know I did. We should have just stayed at Steve and Cathy's tonight but I..." she trailed off.

Sean sighed and wrapped a paw around her shoulders, resting her head on his as he drove the car down to the last road to their house. They were met by a MP at the door, looking just as enthusiastic as General Vines had been.

"You have until 0200 to have this place cleaned out and off this base sir," the MP informed Sean and Emily and let them inside.

The fox had Emily just sit while he packed, he didn't want her doing any physical exertion at the moment. It took about an hour but Sean soon packed up all their clothes and limited possessions, having a chuckle at how much new stuff Emily had gotten during the time she had shopped with Cathy.

When he had everything ready to go he found his rabbit laying down on the bed quietly. At first he thought she was asleep and was going to ask the MP to let her sleep the day out, as a favor but when he walked over and pat her softly he found she was wide awake, just deep in thought.

"You okay?" he asked softly, rubbing her back.

"Ya, I just had a stomach ace," she replied and rolled over.

Thankfully to Sean she was smiling and after holding her paw he could tell that she was happy. He figured it must be because she didn't want to be in the Army anyway, this was sort of a Godsend.

Sean laid down and spooned her from behind, "Do you want to just stay here for now?"

"No, lets get back to the Endeavor, I like it there anyway," she replied.

Five minutes past with neither moving.

"Honey are you sure you don't want to stay?" Sean asked in an amused voice, seeing that his wife didn't appear to want to get up in spite of what she said.

The rabbit tried to get up but apparently she was tired because her legs failed her. It didn't matter, Sean had a firm grip around her waist and chest, hugging her closely and lovingly from behind.

"We can get up, let's go, I liked our old room on the Endeavor anyway," she said and Sean sat up, gave her his paw and helped her from the bed.

For the first time Emily felt pregnant, felt like she needed Sean's physical help to move. It was a strange sensation and Emily wasn't sure she liked it until Sean rested a paw around her shoulders and she felt better.

They walked outside and, in a firm commanding tone Sean ordered the single MP to load his and Emily's belongings into their car.

Then quietly he asked the rabbit, "Do you want to drive?"

She looked up to see a mischievous look in the fox's eyes and Emily couldn't help but nod and smile back just as happily.

A minute later their car was loaded up and Emily was behind the wheel, gleaming with excitement. They drove away at a little over 70; about 50 over the recommended speed for the area but Emily handled the little sports car just fine. Just for fun she drove past where the Commandant's home was and "buzzed" it at about 100, giving them both something to laugh about.

It only took a few minutes for them to reach loading dock where they had a shuttle waiting to take them to the Endeavor.

Chapter 3 New

Three Days Later Captain Atric's Stateroom Aboard FN Endeavor 0805 Military Time

"Sean, Sean wake up!" Emily said eagerly, shaking her husband awake.

"What? What? Are you okay?" he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

She smiled and hugged him, "Yes I'm fine but Cathy and Steve are coming back today and guess what!"

"What?" he asked, now awake and rubbing Emily's belly softly.

Then with a face full of eagerness Emily replied, "Their baby was born yesterday!"

Sean was really awake now and sat all the way up.

"Yesterday?" he said in astonishment, "Is it okay? Isn't it a bit early?"

Then Emily really grinned, "It's not a baby it's a kit!"

For a moment Sean just stared at his wife then let out a low, "Wow..."

Emily, still smiling, coaxed the still drowsy fox out of bed and onto his feet. She practically dressed him and they were on the surface within an hour. A few minutes longer and they were at the Consular's Estate, Cathy and Steve still a few hours away.

They sat down in one of the main halls that Parks had brought them too, by themselves but both excited. The rabbit was sitting on Sean's lap; she was playing tensely with his tail, which was now fine, out of the bandages.

"I can't wait to see it," Emily said, "I hope Cathy's okay."

"I'm sure she's fine, but I bet Steve is falling apart at the seems," Sean commented.

Emily tilted her head softly in confusion, causing one of her ears to flop over onto her head, "Why do you say that?"

"Well he gets nervous too when it comes to stuff like that," Sean replied calmly.

At that the rabbit smiled and nuzzled Sean's snout, "Your doing much better now you know. You barely ever stutter," then she gave it a second thought, "What happened that's made you so much easier going?"

The fox just shrugged, "I don't know, I just did."

Emily shook her head softly and continued nuzzling her husband.

"Then I guess you've been thinking a lot about our offspring too?" she whispered, not trying to bother him, just trying to figure out what was on his mind.

"Yes," he answered and rubbed her stomach softly, Emily shifted around uncomfortably and he stooped, "Have you?" he added.

She nodded into his neck, "Yes, I can't wait until it comes," then, adding carefully, she whispered, "It's shouldn't be that much longer either."

"How so?" Sean asked, wondering if she had possibly found out the same information about their offspring that he had.

It took a few seconds then Emily replied, "Well I became pregnant only a week or so after Cathy did and she just had her kit yesterday."

Sean could tell that wasn't the reason and he called her on it.

"Oh..." she said, not wanting to say what was on her mind for real.

"Comon Emily," Sean coaxed, "Tell me."

She pulled her head back and looked him in the eye, "I can feel it coming. I can't describe it but I can just you know, feel it, like it's only going to be a little while longer."

For a moment they stared at each other and Sean gave her a soft kiss on her cheek and laid her head on his chest.

"Can you feel if it will be healthy?" he asked quietly.

Emily smiled and whispered, "Yes, it will be."

"What about what it will be?" Sean continued, eager to make sure she didn't know what he did, lest his surprise be destroyed.

"I don't care," she said in an honest voice, "it will be ours, that's all that matters."

Sean sighed happily and hugged her a little tighter, "I love you Emily."

"I know," she replied and licked his lips meekly.

The fox lowered his snout to hers and gave Emily a soft, yet deep and loving kiss. He was so happy that she was so... perfect. She really loved him and that felt great. That made all his work worth it, especially his set-up for the next few days. If their offspring was coming soon it would all be one big surprise, definitely something that would get Emily going.

They sat cradling each other like that for another hour, both so comforted by the other's presence that they skipped breakfast even when offered by Parks and the other butlers and maids.

Then, at around a quarter to one, one of the maids, a young and rather small collie came in and informed the Atrics that not only had the Reynolds arrived, but were already upstairs. That woke the Atrics out of their soft embrace and the two stood up and basically ran out the hall and up the stairs.

They saw Parks come out of the room that Emily knew to be the nursery set up by Cathy for their baby; kit rather. The cat stepped out and smiled and nodded to Sean and Emily and gestured for them to go in.

Emily let Sean go in first and the fox was totally taken back by what he saw. Ahead of him the two pups were watching eagerly and sitting down in a chair he saw Cathy hold a very, very small, dark red kit. Sean was amazed at how small he was but big. It was hard to take in right away, the kit was small like you'd expect a baby fox to be but it looked big, muscular anyway.

Steve stood by her side but when Karl walked over and asked to hold the kit he walked over to the Atrics, gleaming with pride.

"A kit huh?" Sean said, smiling at Steve, figuring this all must be a huge surprise to the human to have fathered a baby fox.

Smiling as well Steve replied, "I'm proud of that," then thinking he added, "I'm glad that finally my family has something other than people in it."

Very, very interested in the newborn Emily asked the most obvious question; "What's its name?"

Still in a proud tone Steve answered, and looked directly at Sean, "His name is Sean Reynolds."

Emily gasped and held Sean's paw tightly.

"Oh you guys didn't have to do that Steve," he said shaking his head, very taken by the gesture.

Standing straighter and resting a hand on Sean's shoulder Steve replied, "I was the one who said it and I'm glad I did," he gestured to Cathy, "you made it possible that we could have him, it's the least I can do."

Sean was speechless needless to say at the gesture and managed to offer his paw out to his friend. Steve took it and brought him in and hugged him as a friend.

Seeing that Sean and Steve were busy Emily released his paw and walked, carefully over to Cathy and her kit.

In a low and amazed tone Emily whispered, "He's a cute little fox."

She kneeled down before Cathy and, making sure that the mother was okay with it, pat the kit's face. The contact made the newborn a bit more aware of his surroundings and he yawned and began, surprisingly, observing the room.

Amazed that he opened his eyes and was looking around Emily asked quietly, "He was just born yesterday?"

"Yes," Cathy replied, understanding why her friend was confused, "we can't figure it out. He's healthy, and his eyes are fine, he just opened them a bit earlier than they would normally," the vixen looked over to her husband and smiled, "Steve thinks it has something to do with the fact that he's a man, and that's changing the way he develops, but he's healthy and that's the only thing that matters to me."

Emily returned her gaze to the newborn who looked at her, then back at his mother and, to the disbelief of the on looking rabbit, made a clear, crisp smile.

For a second she didn't believe it but then exclaimed, "Oh my God he smiled! Sean look he smiled!"

Cathy smiled very proudly, "He does that too, we can't figure that one out either."

At her exclamation Steve and Sean walked over, Steve sanding beside his wife and Sean kneeling down next to his.

The kit's smiled followed through to his father and Steve whispered in an esteemed voice, "He's a special little guy, that's for sure."

Sean felt his rabbit hold his paw tightly, apparently seeing this newborn had really send the issue home with her. She could barely wait to have their offspring before, but now she wished it would happen right away.

The kit soon blinked slowly, yawned and fell asleep in his mother's arms, all noticing that he actually seemed to hug her paw, which held him tightly. The Atrics, who soon stood up, and the two pups watched for a few minutes, looking at the small fox. It was amazing how much he looked like Cathy; same coloring and color, that deep blood red so unique to her and yet he looked like Steve. It was amazing and a strange thing to think but the kit, a fox actually looked like his father, a human of all things. Steve and Cathy both thought it on their own, and both thought their offspring looked like the other.

In what sounded like a tired voice Cathy whispered, "He looks so sweet when he sleeps..."

At that Emily realized that the Reynolds probably wanted to have some time alone with their new addition and hence the rabbit stood up, pat the two pups on the shoulder and whispered, "Comon you two, we need to leave this happy family to themselves for a little while."

As she lead her husband and the two pups out Emily looked back at Cathy who smiled back to her. The smile said something that Cathy didn't need to say, her kit was the best thing she ever had and that Emily would feel the same when she had her offspring.

The Atrics walked out and left the consular's estate, returning to the Endeavor to report what they had seen. On the way up however, Sean thought not of the Reynolds' new born, and not necessarily his own soon to be litter, but of whether he should give Emily one of her surprises early, like tonight.

They reported to General Osing and Admiral Drake, but Emily had so much more on her mind that when she saw that the two officers were ignoring her and her husband the rabbit slipped away with Sean in toe, leading him back to their room.

When they entered the room she immediately sat him down on a chair near the bed where the rabbit took a seat.

The rabbit looked troubled and Sean said very carefully, "What's up Emily?"

She was regretting having not been completely honest with him back at the Consular's Estate and replied quietly, "I went to the doctor yesterday Sean," she saw the fox stiffen up a little, "and it's going to be really soon for me too."

The fox sighed, realizing now that she might have been trying to surprise him as well.

"Do we have any ideas for things for the baby?" she said quietly, starting to wish she was sitting next to him, "Like where to stay or even a name?"

At that Sean sighed in relief; she didn't know what he did and everything he had been doing in secret was still just that. He felt so relieved that he decided to have a little fun with her.

"I already thought of a few so don't worry," he replied finally, causing a surprised and mix reaction to the rabbit, who hadn't yet herself.

"Really?"

"Yep," Sean replied and smiled softly, "and you'll like them, I know it."

Emily got up and walked over to bed, wanting to sit next to him and hug him desperately.

As she sat down and Sean began rubbing her back the rabbit asked quietly, "And a place to live?"

Sean took a deep breath, the excitement flowing through every hair on his pelt and replied, "I set up a nice place," the rabbit's eye's widened in further surprise, "down on the surface, its just waiting for us."

They both let that sink in for a moment but then overwhelmed with excitement Emily lunged out and practically tackled Sean to the bed, unable to contain what this meant.

"It's in the city?" she asked eagerly.

He nodded, brining his face right next to hers.

"A real place, not on a base or something?" she went on, her anticipation growing.

The fox grinned widely, "Yes, our own apartment. I had us both pulled off the duty list yesterday, we can now live wherever we want."

Emily squealed happily and kissed her husband excitedly. This was what she had been desperately waiting for, a time and a way to get Sean away from the Army, away from bases and war and everything else. Cathy and her had talked about this, both wanting to get their husbands away from duties so they can just be happy families and for Emily her part was coming true.

"When can we go?" she asked, letting her lips leave his for a second.

Sean pressed his back against hers and whispered right into her mouth, "Whenever you want honey."

Emily didn't need to say it; Sean could tell just by the way she was holding him that it wouldn't be tonight, tomorrow, but not tonight.

Twenty-Two Days Later Apartment Complex Conakry, 10:32 AM Local Time

Emily was sitting down at the table as Sean made breakfast. She read the paper happily and could smell the eggs and bacon frying in the pan.

"How hungry are you?" Sean asked, his tail back to its vibrant orange self waving behind him.

The rabbit grinned, "Very, make like, four eggs."

Sean cracked six, knowing she'd probably end up wanting more anyway. A few minutes later the doorbell rang and Emily went to go get it.

He quickly turned and put a paw up, "No you sit, just call me if the eggs start to burn."

For a moment she paused midway off the seat but then sat back down, feeling the same pain across her abdomen and figuring he was trying to help her anyway. The rabbit heard Sean walk over to the door, open it, and come running back.

"The new furniture's here!" he said excitedly.

Emily wanted to see this and, with aid from her husband, stood up and walked over to the door. He continued cooking as she oversaw the horse and ferret who brought in the new furniture.

It was a full bed set, a couch and chairs; everything that a good apartment needed. They set them up in the appropriate rooms quite quickly and just as Sean had finished cooking breakfast the two movers left.

After he served her Emily practically attacked her breakfast, woofing it down so quickly that she barely took time to chew. Sean just sat and watch, chuckling to himself. When she did finish Emily realized what she had done and that Sean had been watching quite amused and felt embarrassed. Her embarrassment only made Sean burst out in laughter.

"Oh how can you laugh at me?" she asked, whipping some egg left on her fur.

Sean stood up and draped his paws down onto her chest and stomach, "Cause your just so cute."

Emily didn't offer a reply and just rubbed her face into his paws but then said, "Comon lets see our new stuff."

The fox helped her up and she walked him into the living room.

At seeing the new furniture Sean let out a low whistle. They were dark black leather couches and chairs, they looked great and Sean could smell the fresh leather from far away. He rolled his paws over them.

"They're really smooth..." he commented.

Emily walked up behind him and took one of his paws and rubbed it on her soft chest fur, "Not as smooth as me..."

Then with a wide grin Sean whispered, "Lets see the bed."

Smiling just as wide Emily said innocently, "Okay."

The pair walked into their bedroom and Sean was surprised already.

"You put sheets on?" he said and pressed his paws into the bed. It was soft like a sponge and gave him idea's he normally didn't have.

She nodded quickly and rested her head on his shoulder. Sean was so taken by the bed that he growled softly, wrapped his paws around her waist and laid her down on the bed with himself atop her.

The rabbit giggled excitedly as Sean tickled her neck and breasts. They rolled around, playing with each other's bodies, not sexually, but just for the fun of playing. It was innocent play enough but they were starting to get too "into it" and Emily wasn't sure if that was okay. After a minute or two she stopped playing back and Sean stopped just as fast.

"What's wrong?" he said, patting one of the ears draped lazily on her head.

"I don't think this is safe, for the baby you know," she replied, moving her face into his pat.

"What?" he said, not sure what she meant by that.

She sighed and looked him in the eye, "I don't think, I mean..." she paused for a moment, "I'm just a little uncomfortable that's all."

Sean just smiled and kissed her softly, "No problem Emily."

The rabbit loosed up a little, glad that Sean was so understanding and kissed him back, feeling the warmth of his body against hers. They laid like this for a few minutes but eventually Sean's hard on that he had been trying extremely hard to hide poked into the rabbit's leg.

Instantly Emily stopped kissing him and stared him down.

Sean tried to hide his grin but he said defensively, "I'm trying honey, I really am."

"I know," she replied, and didn't pull away because, although she didn't want to admit it, she was starting to enjoy it that much too. Emily was just deathly afraid of doing something to hurt her baby.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked, figuring doing something would help calm himself down.

Emily was still weighing the possibility of doing something more with him, she was interested and was definitely aching a bit for it herself, liking how gentle and loving he was with her.

Seeing that she was still troubled Sean patted the whole side of her head and said in the most tender tone he had, "What's wrong now honey?"

"Why can't we have sex?" she asked, originally she intended to just say it to herself but she accidentally said it aloud.

"Honestly? I don't know," Sean replied softly and shifted part of himself off her, not wanting to seem like he was pressuring her.

"Do you know if it can hurt?" she said, starting to warm up to the idea.

With her warming up however, Sean was cooling down; he didn't like the idea of hurting their coming offspring either. He shrugged not knowing what to say at the moment.

"Do you really want to?" she asked, not sure entirely herself.

Sean chuckled, "I don't know now, I don't want to hurt it either."

"Oh well now you got me all riled up," Emily replied, giggling softly.

"What do you want to do today Emily?" Sean asked sweetly and patiently.

The rabbit reached around Sean's back and grabbed his tail in her soft paws, brought it around and played with it between them. They both smiled as the rabbit pat it softly. Sean had come to enjoy it when she played with his tail, even when she slept on it.

"Well?" he said, brining his face down closer to hers.

Emily took a deep breath and kissed his lower lip, "Let's break in our new bed."

Carefully Sean looked her in the eye, making sure what she meant was what she meant. The rabbit giggled and nodded, practically reading his mind. Sean chuckled and lowered his snout back down to hers, kissing her very deeply and began softly massaging her again, this time more erotically.

Emily let out a low moan as his paw came in contact with her nether regions; even through her clothes she was getting excited. She smiled and kissed him back as softly as he did to her, lowering her own paws to the font of his pants. All she did was unbutton them and unzipped the front, she didn't waste any time slipping her soft paws down the front of his body, taking hold of his now protruding hard on.

The feeling definitely set something off inside Sean and smiled as she kissed him and, not wanting to miss a beat on his own, undid the front of Emily's shorts as well and began slipping his paw between her soft pussy lips. She gasped as soon as his paws came into contact with her sensitive privates, but groaned happily began a more serious jerking motion on his fully erect cock.

"Oh I knew you still liked this," Sean whispered into her mouth, cupping her whole pussy in his paws.

"Still? Why wouldn't I..." she replied deviously and undid her shirt.

At the first sight of her big soft tits Sean took one instantly in his mouth and massaged it with his long tongue. He sucked it softly and to his surprise actually milked her. They both knew it and Sean removed his mouth, both chuckling softly.

That feeling was very nice to say the least to Emily and she began humping his leg as soon as he returned his lips to her breast. The feeling was actually amazingly pleasurable, at the moment better than him playing with her pussy.

Sean removed his lips from her breasts and began lowering his maw down to her dripping pussy but she held the sides of his face, "No, no, suck my tits. It feels so good..."

The fox smiled and obeyed, his tail making big, happy circles in the air behind him. Emily moaned contently as he began suckling her perky breasts again. The rabbit didn't know what to do, she was enjoying so much she just rubbed her paws over him, herself, the bed, the feeling almost to much to stand it was so good. She wasn't sure if it could bring her to climax but it sure felt good and she could barely stand it.

Then they both heard a knock on the door and froze. Sean with Emily's tit still in his mouth looked up at her and they both sighed deeply.

"Whose," Emily began in a strained voice, then cleared her throat; she sounded like she was getting pleasured, "Whose there?"

"Captain Atric?" a voice said; neither Emily nor Sean recognized it.

"Yes whose there?" Sean replied, letting Emily's nipple fall from his mouth.

No answer back came. They waited. Six, seven seconds past, still no answer. A few more and something was starting to click inside of both of them. After ten seconds Sean got nervous and, to the surprise of the unclothed Emily, scooped up his wife and, carefully, laid her on the floor behind the bed and covered her with his own body.

The former Ranger reached behind him into the nearby dresser and produced a service pistol and then Emily got it. She began putting her clothes back on and pushed herself into the corner, putting a wall between the door and herself.

"Oh God Sean tell me this isn't happening..." she whispered and held her stomach.

Sean didn't believe it himself so he whispered, "Just stay down and be quiet, no matter what don't get up."

The fox was more worried about a bomb than anything, but how could this be happening? All that ran through his mind was who, who would want to do something like this. There wasn't a war anymore; the wolves were actually, to the amazement of everyone, integrating quite well. Sean couldn't fathom who would do something like this.

"No I'm getting to ahead of myself," he thought, then, in a clear and seemingly unworried voice, asked, "Whose there?"

Still no answer, and Sean's mind raced.

He turned and look and whispered, "Stay down please Emily..."

Emily still held his tail and he turned, nodded and stood up, moving carefully towards their bedroom door. She felt his soft tail leave her paws and she curled up into the corner she sat in, so alarmed her paws began trembling.

As the seconds ticked by Sean crept his way ever so slowly to the door, his pistol trained on it with perfect for and skill. He kept the trigger slightly depressed, himself extremely terrified of the thought of harm coming to his wife and unborn offspring.

After about a whole minute of careful, silent steps Sean was a foot from the door, kneeling behind a wall. He weighed the possibilities of what to do: call out and see if someone was waiting for him to come out or burst in, burst out the door himself and pray there were fewer targets than bullets in his gun, or sit tight and wait.

He looked back at Emily and couldn't see her, something that relieved him and made him sad at the same time. It was better off that way, she was out of harms way like this.

Carefully and so silently that the rabbit back in the room less than twenty feet away she couldn't hear him Sean stood up halfway and walked the last foot to the door. He checked his pistol; loaded and cocked.

One last look over his shoulder to make sure Emily was behind cover and Sean raised a hind leg, created the mental picture of the hall outside the door, and listened carefully. He didn't hear anything but that didn't really mean much. He remembered the hallway was longest to the left, maybe ten yards, whereas the right was only one other apartment.

Figuring it was best to work from least likely to most likely Sean shifted his legs, holding his left leg up and resting it flatly against the door.

"Just like old times..." he thought to himself.

Then in about a third of a second he shifted his weight down, sending the door flying open. He kneeled and checked right; nothing. A half-a-second later he rolled forward and checked left; also clear.

"Oh shit!" Sean yelled, "Emily stay down!"

Nothing happened. Sean was sure a bomb should have gone off by now but nothing. He was only 22 but he'd already seen a lot of strange, urban combat and assassinations and he figured he was dead.

Still nothing, a full five seconds after opening the door. He turned and, in the same soft touch he used on his wife, Sean pulled the door back to check for a bomb or something; nothing to be found.

Now fifteen seconds after the breech a now curious mouse stuck his head out his apartment, the one next door to Emily and Sean but was met by a fox with a gun raised and pointed at his head.

"Yo man I don't want any-"

"Did you see anyone out here!?" Sean interrupted, not removing his aim from between the mouse's eyes.

The scared rodent shook his head quickly and Sean figured he was a bystander. He carefully shifted his aim off him but didn't look away from the mouse. The now terrified rodent ducked back inside his apartment and Sean stood up and walked down to the end of the hallway; checked the stares, nothing, listened carefully, heard nothing.

"What the fuck..." Sean whispered to himself and looked around once more.

A few more tenants stuck their heads out their door, also met with the sight of a gun toting fox.

"Whoa buddy," one of them, a horse, said slowly, not really knowing who Sean was, "just put the gun down."

Sean realized there wasn't anyone out here, now he was sure it must be a bomb. He walked back to his apartment and looked around the doorframe, nothing, no holes on the wall, nothing behind any pictures. It really was clear.

He turned around to the now growing crowed, "Someone call the police please, tell them to come to Captain Atric's apartment."

The horse nodded and returned into his apartment, to do what the fox with the gun said.

Sean returned to his own apartment, taking a moment to double check the doorframe, still nothing. He walked back into his bedroom and to his horror saw a pool of liquid on the floor, he saw it before he saw Emily.

"Oh my God Emily!" he yelled and jumped all the way across the bed to see Emily.

She was okay, but clutched her stomach and had a pained look on her face.

"Sean," she said in an out of breath voice, "Sean please help me it hurts. Oh God it hurts! It's coming now I can feel it!"

At that the fox felt relieved and even more terrified at the same time. At first he thought she was shot or stabbed or something but now he finds that she's just in labor.

He was hesitating so Emily repeated in a strained voice, "Please help Sean!"

The fox came out of his trance, stuck his pistol in the back of his pants, and quickly helped her up, grabbing the sheet off the bed and wrapping her in it. Thankfully for Sean the crowed in the hall had dispersed and furries were either back in their rooms or leaving the building so he was able to get his birthing wife out in a few minutes.

They got into Emily's sports car, and being that she was between contractions Sean, in as joking tone he could muster, offered to let her drive. Emily replied with a glare that would have caused General Osing to flinch.

Sean helped her in and jumped into the driver's seat. He drove so fast to the hospital he might have given Emily a run for her money. He slowed down three-fourths of the way there as she entered another contraction, coming to a screeching stop about a mile from the hospital.

She put out a paw and gripped onto one of his, "Just go, just drive Sean."

He nodded and continued driving and within a few minutes they were at the loading dock by the hospital's entrance. At the entrance the Atric's were met by a short, rather dainty looking cat with a wheel chair.

She saw the fox and rabbit drive up, and said in a calm comforting voice, "Alright, your Mrs. Atric."

Emily nodded quickly and Sean helped her out of the car into the wheel chair.

"It's okay honey, I'll be your nurse okay?" the cat said, "just sit tight and hold on, everything will be fine in a moment."

The nurse began wheeling Emily inside with Sean close behind, holding her paw tightly.

As they wheeled along the hallway to Emily's room the cat began fumbling through her chart.

"This is your first offspring right honey?" she asked.

Emily nodded but couldn't answer, she had a searing pain inside her and could barely breath.

The nurse started to look troubled, something both Sean and Emily noticed right away. When they reached the room the cat went to help Emily into the bed but Sean lifted his light rabbit up and laid her down gently. A few more aids and the doctor came in.

Then, as another contraction seized her, Sean pulled away the first nurse, the cat and asked in a clearly frightened voice, "Is she supposed to be in so much pain?"

"It's a little excessive but it's probably because this is her first litter," the nurse explained in a calm voice.

Sean nodded quickly but wasn't satisfied. He turned and saw the doctor inspecting her, and the nurses going about their business. The fox took a stand next to her bed and held her paw softly, although she had a vice-like grip around his Sean didn't flinch or say a word.

"Oh God doc this hurts to much! Let me get this over with!" Emily pleaded, the pain so bad it was actually making her lightheaded.

The doctor, also a rabbit, looked a little confused and looked at her heart rate. He saw a few other things and commented something about her endorphins being a little high.

"Honey," one of the nurses said in a caring voice and whipped Emily's forehead, "you need to calm down. You're too nervous and scared. Don't worry your fine, your litter's fine, just relax."

Then Sean remembered the apartment and the whole ordeal leading up to this, and said in as calm a voice as he could manage, "I need to call the police, I think someone might have tried to kill my wife and me."

That got everyone in the rooms attention. The doctor paused but returned to his job and one of the nurses took him aside.

"Your Captain Atric right?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am," Sean replied nervously.

"I don't think anyone's trying to kill you sir, your known as a hero," she said trying to make the clearly panicky fox calm down a little too.

Sean's attuned ear's picked up the doctor saying something about Emily's heart rate still being too high. The fox left the nurse and kneeled down next to the doctor.

"What's wrong sir?" he asked quietly, not wanting to make Emily any more nervous than she already was.

The doctor sighed and scratched one of his long floppy ears, "She's very nervous, her endorphin levels are way high and she won't be able to focus enough to do the delivery. And as nervous as she is your litter is just as nervous inside her and is kicking around, which is why she is in so much pain."

Sean nodded and walked back to Emily's side. She had tears on her furry cheeks and after Sean whipped them away he lowered his face to hers trying to make her feel better. In Emily's mind it did make her mind feel better, but it felt like something was clawing away the inside of her stomach.

"Why are you so nervous ma'am?" the doctor asked quietly and walked over to her opposite side.

Emily didn't look over to him or even really answer him, she just said in a raspy voice, "Sean did you check and make sure no one was in the apartment?"

He nodded into her cheek.

"Who said that then?"

"I don't know honey," Sean said and kissed her forehead, "but your okay and safe now, just try and calm down a little so this can be done."

The doctor raised a paw, he was an old black rabbit and had seen just about every kind of birth so he already had ideas on what was going on.

"What's all this talk about someone trying to get you in your apartment?" he asked carefully.

Sean stood up but didn't release Emily's paw, "Right before she went into labor someone came to the door and asked for us, didn't answer and I think it was someone trying to..." he trailed off.

"Did that scare you honey?" the doctor asked Emily calmly.

"Fuck yes!" she said winching in pain.

The doctor, used to that too, smiled, "Don't worry either of you. This was just a panic induced labor. I've seen it before and everything will be fine. Your due now right?"

Emily managed a nod.

"Well your litter was already getting close to coming and when you got scared your stomach muscles contracted, and when they contracted that squeezed your litter, scaring them as well and it started kicking," then he said to Sean, "her water broke already right?"

The fox nodded as well.

"Okay than things are going fine, you just need to stop being so scared ma'am because if your nervous your litter will be too and it will keep squirming around inside you which is this bad pain."

Emily nodded quickly and took deep breaths but her heart rate didn't change. It had been quite the scare back there, especially when Sean yelled out for her to hide. And, knowing his wife quite well, Sean could tell the was the only one that would make her calm down, the meds they had already given her were clearly not having any effect.

After the doctor went back down and began preparing for the delivery Sean took a deep breath, knowing what he will do will calm her down, but will probably be terribly painful. He took another deep breath then hooked his soft orange tail around and let Emily hold it.

Just as Sean had suspected she took it in her paws like a vice grip and of course Sean yelped instinctively but got control of himself and just pat her head as softly as she could. It only took a few seconds before he was sure he felt something crack in his tail but he saw how much pain his wife was in and realized that this was nothing in comparison.

Being just as close to Sean as he was to her Emily knew exactly why he had done what he did and that it had the desired effect. From his soft pats to his super soft bushy tail she was able to bring her breathing down to a more manageable level and felt a little better.

The doctor and nurses noted that she was definitely calmer and was gaining a bit more self-control. It still hurt terribly but Emily was doing much better.

Sean rubbed one of her paws that was latched around his tail, which by now was numb.

"You can do it Emily," he whispered in a strained voice.

He knew exactly what and how many were coming, and he was sure on what name to give it but in the state she was in right now he wasn't sure how Emily would take to it. He started having second thoughts but it really was to late now.

"Okay here it comes," the doctor said and Sean felt Emily clench down even harder on his tail.

The rabbit whimpered and shut her eyes as the birthing began.

"Hold-hold on Mrs. Atric," the doctor stuttered, "Don't push that hard yet."

"I'm not pushing at all!" Emily said in a strained voice, "I thought you wanted me to relax?!"

That worried the doctor but he kept his cool.

"Alright it's coming out try and push a little Mrs. Atric," he said.

Sean watched on and saw her tighten up even more, and, to the surprise of everyone especially the doctor, the newborn came out on it's own, crying as you'd expect but it's hind leg's kicked strongly.

Emily breathed hard and deep, feeling light headed but a definite sense of elation. Sean just smiled and rubbed her paws softly and she slowly, watching the doctor clean and tend to the newborn.

Within a minute the doctor walked back to the Atrics carrying the little package that was their offspring.

At first sight Sean smiled even wider, which barely compared to Emily's reaction as she held out her paws to receive the newborn.

"Here's your bunny ma'am," the doctor said and handed Emily the small brown bunny, "She's healthy and strong, very strong."

The bunny was crying softly but calmed down pretty much completely when Sean and Emily to her in their paws.

"Oh God she's beautiful..." Emily whispered and nuzzled the bunny, then smiled softly, "She looks..." and trailed off.

Sean knew exactly what she was about to say, she had actually beaten him to the punch but the fox didn't care.

"Want to know the name I have for her Emily?" he asked, kissing his wife softly.

"Mmm hmm," she moaned quietly, still nuzzling the bunny.

Sean took a deep breath, placed a paw on the newborn's small cheek and whispered, "I think we should name her Sarah."

Emily froze and looked up slowly at Sean. She wasn't smiling and was clearly weighing that thought, but she nodded quickly and said in a quiet voice, "Yes."

"Okay," Sean replied and kissed her softly.

One of the nurses approached slowly with some paperwork and said, "I just need your personal information okay?"

Emily rolled her head to the side and let her eyes close for a moment.

Sean, seeing this took the nurse aside, "Here you want me to fill this out?"

"No but you know all the correct information right?" she asked.

Sean nodded.

"Well I need the mother's name, age, and species," she began.

"Emily Atric, twenty-two, rabbit," Sean answered.

"You're the father?" the nurse asked, it was mostly a formality but it was also a legal thing she had to do.

He nodded.

"Then your same information please," the nurse went on.

"Sean Atric, twenty-two, fox," he replied.

The nurse wrote this down and looked back at the mother and bunny, "The bunny is a female correct?"

"Yes ma'am."

The nurse continued writing down the information, mumbling slightly as she recorded it, "Alright female... and a half pounds... 3:23... and you've given her a name?"

"Sarah."

"Sarah Atric. Okay," the nurse finished the additional information and removed the coversheet, "We keep this, and you have this copy."

Sean said, "Thank you ma'am," and returned to his wife.

Without opening her eyes Emily asked, "Everything good?"

Sean just kissed the top of her head and sat in a chair that had be brought for him. For the first time he realized how tired his legs were and how much his tail hurt so he took a moment to inspect it.

At the moment Emily opened her eyes and looked over and saw him looking over his tail and whimpered, "Oh Sean I'm so sorry."

"It's no problem honey," Sean whispered, although he could feel one or two bones that might be broken towards the middle of his tail but let it drop to his side and asked quietly, "Can I see her?"

"Sure honey," Emily replied and carefully handed their daughter to Sean.

The first thing Sean noted was not only how light she felt, but how soft she was. The newborn wasn't crying, but was still awake, eyes shut of course.

"She really is beautiful Emily," Sean whispered and the rabbit put her paw in her husbands.

Sarah yawned and snuggled into her father's paws, soon falling asleep. Sean didn't let her go though, not wanting to and not sure if he could. Now he really had a family, something he never thought in a million years he'd manage to get and, in a manner of speaking, he had "won." He had the perfect wife who loved him dearly, a new daughter who was just as beautiful as her mother and had all the time in the world to spend with both of them.

Emily was really smiling now, thinking to a similar line as Seam and rubbed his paw back and forth, feeling very comfortable and very tired.

A few minutes later a nurse wheeled a crib in and set it up less than a foot from Emily's bedside, in which Sean laid the newborn bunny in and, after giving both Sarah and Emily a kiss, left the room to tend to the other matters of the day.

As soon as the fox left the room hospital room where his daughter and wife slept Sean went directly to the nearest phone and called up a military police detachment. After his explanation a squad of six MP's arrived at the hospital to guard Emily's door.

Once he was sure that his family was safe Sean went and finally received some treatment for his tail. Sure enough, three bones were broken and required some quick set, stimulating new bone growth that should heal his tail completely in a day or two.

Now that he was fine, his family was safe, Sean let his growing exhaustion overwhelm him. He walked into Emily's room to find she was sound asleep, as was Sarah. He smiled and sat back down in the chair by Emily's bedside and, resting his snout on her paw, finally allowed himself to fall asleep.

***

Sean awoke later; he was too disoriented to be able to tell how much later, by a knocking on the door. He shook his head and reached around to the back of his pants where the pistol was still tucked, it was still there. He checked his watch, it was a little bit past six, he had slept for about an hour and half but Emily and Sarah were still asleep so Sean, carefully, stood up and walked to the door, his paw resting on the butt of his pistol.

"Whose there he asked?" terrified of hearing silence.

"Captain Atric? Sir there are uh.. a few visitors to see you and your wife," a voice said, one of the MP's.

"Who?" Sean asked, just being careful.

"Well the consular for one and a pair of rabbit's claiming to be Mrs. Atric's parents," the MP replied.

Sean was now wide-awake, he had never met Emily parents. In fact they hadn't really talked about them, except that Emily was too afraid to face them after her sister was murdered.

"O-Okay Sergeant," Sean said through the door and unlocked it, "Send them in."

"Yes sir," the MP replied and the fox heard him walk off the get the visitors.

Steve and Cathy would be nice to see but Emily's parents... Sean didn't even know their names. A moment later Steve, followed closely by Cathy walked in.

As expected they were smiling widely, as Sean was now as well and Steve shoot Sean's paw and Cathy gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Congratulations Sean," they both said and Cathy looked over at Emily and Sarah, "Oh we're not interrupting, we don't want to wake-"

Sean put up his paw, "Don't worry, if Emily wakes up I'm sure she'll be glad to see you."

"Can we?" Cathy gestured to the bunny's crib.

The now proud father nodded and walked the Reynolds over to Sarah's crib.

"Aww..." Cathy said at the sight of the newborn, "She's adorable!"

The little bunny coddled into her blanket and yawned, yet remained asleep. Emily stirred as well but awoke, a little disoriented at first but then saw her friends and smiled.

"Hi everyone," she chuckled softly and sat herself up in the bed.

"Oh Emily she's beautiful," Cathy said and sat down by her friend.

"Thank you Cathy," the rabbit replied and looked over at her daughter.

Sean walked to the other side of her bed and held one of her paws. Emily smiled up at the fox, feeling much better now.

Watching for a moment Steve came and stood next to Sean, "You alright? We heard what happened at your apartment complex."

Both Emily and Sean got quiet and had the urge to hold Sarah.

"The police checked," Steve continued, "there's no bombs or unauthorized personal in your area."

Sean's face turned to a look of dismay, "Steve we both heard someone ask for us and we answered but no one answered."

He held Emily's paw a little tighter and walked around the bed and pick up the sleeping bunny carefully, she still didn't wake up. He handed the bunny to Emily who held her closely to her body.

Then another knock came from the door and Sean remembered Emily's parents.

"Whose there?" Emily asked quietly.

"It's us Emily," a male voice said from behind the door.

She didn't recognize it and said, "Us who?"

Sean lowered his face to hers and whispered, "It's your mom and dad honey."

Hearing that, and the fact that Cathy knew the situation, the vixen gestured to Steve and walked over to Sean, "I think we'll give you all some privacy."

They walked over to the door just as a pair of brown rabbits walked in, both actually pretty tall, taller than Sean and Steve for sure.

As if they didn't even see the Consular and his wife they walked right past and, giving Sean the same "courtesy", walked over to the opposite side of the bed and looked down at Emily who clutched onto Sarah, clearly uncomfortable by their presence.

"Hi Emily," the male, obviously her father said.

Without looking up from Sarah she replied, "Hi dad."

Her mother stood next her father and pat her cheek, Emily didn't appear to react.

"Hi mom," she said, still not looking up but looked over to Sean with a gaze of dismay.

"What's wrong honey?" her father said, "Why didn't you call us or even talk to us in the last few months?"

Emily didn't answer, not sure what to say. She was actually hopping to never have to confront her parents.

"Your not even going to introduce us to your husband?" her mother said, her voice Sean noted was just as strong as Emily's.

Still not looking up at her parents Emily looked over and reached out for Sean's paw, "Mom, dad, this is Sean. Sean this is my mother, Angela, and my father, Nicholas."

Sean held out his other paw to Emily's father, "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Gates."

At first the older rabbit didn't accept it, but, realizing this was awkward enough, Mr. Gates took Sean's paw and shook it shortly than let go and returned his paw to his pockets.

Mrs. Gates, carefully, placed her paw back on Emily's cheek then, being even more careful, pat Sarah's face very, very softly.

"And what's my new grandchild's name?" she asked, her voice not able to hide the feeling of rejection.

"Her name is Sarah ma'am," Sean answered, seeing that Emily didn't want to say anything.

A troubled look went over all three rabbit's faces. Emily's was one of pure awkwardness, not much of anything else but her parents... they had a clear mixture of anger, rejection, and now at the learning of their first and only grandchild's name looked a little upset.

Her father sighed and said in a quiet voice, "Emily you don't think that's a little-"

"I picked the name sir," Sean interrupted, not wanting anything else that was unneeded on Emily's shoulders.

That sent her parents back into a silence, not sure what to say to that. Neither of them had really ever thought Emily would get married, she was just to stubborn and pig-headed in their opinion, and the fact that she had met a soldier of all things just added to their confusion.

"Emily," her mother began, "You have to know your father and I always love you but we're just upset you didn't even tell us you were getting married, much less invite us to even meet your husband."

"Oh mom," Emily moaned, finally looking up at her parents, "We both know why your upset. You don't care that I got married without telling you. Hell you didn't even think I would ever meet someone as nice as Sean anyway. Your angry because I let Sarah die and now your mad that my daughter's name is Sarah."

Emily gripped Sean's paw a little tighter and he rubbed her side softly, kneeling down to be eye level with his wife and looking up at her parents.

"Emily," her father began, "There's no one in this room that's not aware," he looked over to Sean who nodded, he was intuitive enough to know what was coming, "of what happened to you and Sarah. We don't blame you, how can we. Sarah joined to follow you into the Army, you didn't force her and we both know you tried to talk her out of it."

"But you told me to watch her and I failed," Emily said in an edgy voice, clutching onto her daughter who by now was awake.

Sean pat her face and turned it to meet his, "Now you know that isn't true. You didn't do anything wrong and it wasn't your fault. I thought you understood that?"

The rabbit shrugged.

Another uncomfortable silence went by. The fact was that Emily's parents were a bit resentful of their daughter now. While they knew the general idea of the ordeal both Sarah and Emily had gone through and the events of Sarah's death, they really hadn't been told all the details, obviously. Only two living beings other than Emily knew every detail and they were Sean and Consular Reynolds, both of whom would keep such things in the strictest of confidence.

After about three minutes of no sounds, no movement other than Sean's soft petting of his wife's paw Emily's mother held out her arms and whispered, "May I hold her?"

Emily hesitated at first, but Sean gave her paw a tight squeeze and she, after kissing the bunny's head, handed the newborn to her grandmother.

"Hello there..." Mrs. Gates said softly to the bunny.

Sean, having the moment, looked Emily's parents over. Their fur was a much darker brown than hers and they were much, much taller, and not necessarily because of their ears which stood at perfect attention on their heads. They also didn't look that old, maybe late thirties or early forties, but then again Emily was pretty young anyway. Her mother had the same strong physique that Emily had and the same penetrating and strong look in her eyes; clearing where Emily got most of her traits. Also Sean notice that Emily seemed to display much more hostility to her mother than her father, Sean didn't know why, he hadn't ever pressed the issue with her because it was touchy, but there must be something in their past that was quite bad.

Her father was very different. In fact without introductions Sean wouldn't have guessed he was Emily's father to begin with. He was dark brown, close to black actually, tall as his wife and same perfectly straight ears. Also Mr. Gates was not nearly as strong looking as his wife or Emily. He had the same strong eyes but he was a light build otherwise. Sean was much stronger looking than him and was really almost half his height.

"You have a nice family now Emily," Mrs. Gates said quietly.

"Yes I do mom," Emily said just as quietly.

Her father sighed, "Well then I hope you plan on taking good care of them."

Mrs. Gates handed Sarah back to Emily and walked out the door, followed by her husband who paused to look at Sean and said, "May we talk to you outside Captain?"

Sean looked back to Emily who nodded, "It's okay, I have to feed Sarah."

At first he forgot about her parents, Sean wasn't aware that Emily had planed on breastfeeding their offspring but he heard Emily's father waiting by the door so he just kissed both of them on the head and followed the Gates out the door.

Sean shut the door behind and continued following, pausing to repost a guard. They went down the hospital's cafeteria. Mr. Gates grabbed trays of food for himself and his wife, only. Sean was pretty hungry and realized it had been done on purpose but wouldn't dare bring it up, this was the first time he'd met his in-laws and he really, really didn't want to screw things up. In fact the fox wanted to see if he could manage to patch some holes between Emily and her parents.

"Captain-"

"You can call me Sean sir," the fox interrupted, his ears lowering slightly on his head as he tried to at least appear a little submissive to the rabbits.

The older rabbit sighed, "Okay Sean, to get right to it you can understand my wife and I's shock to this situation?"

Sean nodded.

"When we let our daughters-" the rabbit cut himself off and took a deep breath, "Emily go into the army, she left single, paining to go to school and had a bright future, but now we find her married with bunny already."

"With all do respects Sir," Sean said carefully, "you are over-simplifying things, this wasn't an easy 'jump' for Emily."

Her mother leaned in and whispered, "We're aware of that Sean-"

"No, no I don't think you really are," Sean interrupted again.

Had Emily been watching she would have been amazed. Few furries were ever so direct with her parents.

"Emily went through something neither I nor either of you could ever imagine and," Sean continued, "she has the internal conflict... we both do. that of all things it was necessary."

"Necessary how?" Mr. Gates asked in disbelief.

"Necessary in that we wouldn't have met each other otherwise," the fox explained and sighed, "If she hadn't gone through that, and trust me, you probably have about the vaguest description of what happened to her, I wouldn't have found her and we wouldn't be where we are today, married with our first offspring. We both have to live with that because, and I am completely truthful in this, it might have been worth it, to me, to never have known or met your daughter if she didn't have to be put through that. She doesn't even feel as bad as I do in that respect, instead she has the problem with thinking her sister's death was necessary to meet me."

That left the two rabbit's speechless. Sean had said it with such conviction, such clear honesty there really wasn't a rebuttal that could be offered and, unknown to Sean, Emily's father was a prominent lawyer on her home planet and the fox had left him stumped. What made that possible was that everything that Sean said was true, moreover he and Emily had gone through a great amount of time talking on just that subject. It was a hard thing to accept, that Emily had to be raped and assaulted so much to meet her husband, and that Sean had to live with the fact that the only way he would have her was that she had to have been so brutalized. In the past month or so they had been coming to and understanding and acceptance of this but it was a long road but they took comfort in that they did both feel the same.

"So what is it your really worried about?" Sean finally added, his commanding tone reminiscent of a time when he was just a commander of troops, not the protector of his family.

Mr. Gates shifted uneasily, "We did research on you, you know before we came here."

"And?" Sean said, his tone softening now that he appeared to actually have these two under control.

"And we know that you were a great soldier," Mrs. Gates chimed in, "And we know that you were part of one of those Special Forces units-"

"You don't need to worry about the military ma'am," Sean interrupted, he could tell this pissed them off to hell but he had to, "I'm already off of active duty and- so is Emily, and we'll both probably retire from the military soon anyway."

Emily's father shifted a little, "And what will you do to support them?"

Sean chuckled softly to himself, he was starting to understand why Emily had such a demanding personality, her parents were the same but tenfold.

"Your worried about me not being able to feed my daughter?" Sean asked, still in a mild tone.

"Frankly... yes," her father answered, actually sounding like a lawyer for a moment, "And we were more worried about you leaving them in a bad position."

That struck a nerve with Sean but he contained himself, not wanting to make enemies of the two, not yet at least.

"Well," Sean began carefully, "I don't have any degrees or training in a lot of things or anything but! But!" he raised his paws to make sure he would be able to continue, "I'm not afraid to say that I am extremely skilled in what I have been taught, and I will learn whatever I need to, no matter what I need to support my family."

Mr. Gates huffed, not to satisfied with that answer but he was starting to see that he really didn't have a say in any of this, a fact that angered him terribly.

"So can I ask you two a question?" Sean said, trying to switch the table completely around and control the situation.

It did catch the two off guard and Mrs. Gates managed a nod.

"What is this whole thing between you and Emily?" he said, his voice changing to one of concern which, at least Mr. Gates picked up on, "Why all this anger?"

Emily's father went to say something but her mother raised her paw, "Emily doesn't like to do what's expected of her, even if it's for her own good."

"For her own good in whose opinion?" Sean said; he was really starting to see the picture now, he learned just as fast as he said she did.

"Well in ours for one," her father answered bluntly.

"Yes," Mrs. Gates continued, "we only want to see what's best for her. She has a habit of not wanting to follow our lead though, she never does what we ask her to do, she never did either," the rabbit looked down and clasped her paws, "Neither did her sister."

Sean now understood two things. One; he realized how much Emily really did love him because, from what it sounded like, he was the only she listened to and two; Emily's parents had their own plan for their daughters and it hadn't played out quite how they expected.

"Let me ask you one more thing and then you can ask and say whatever you want to me," Sean said in commanding tone again, "Are you unhappy that Emily married me? Do you not like me or want me to be the father of your grandchildren?"

Once again the fox had caught them off guard and Sean, noticing this felt like he had won and his tail made interested circles behind him, despite the broken bones in it.

"I don't think either of us have anything wrong with you Sean," Mr. Gates explained, "You're an honorable and good fox. Your protective, caring, loving, and I know you wouldn't let anything bad happen to our daughter or yours; we did hear about what happened this morning."

Sean frowned at that, he couldn't figure out how rumors spread so fast through the Federation.

The rabbit crossed his paws in front of himself as he continued, "Most importantly we both feel that Emily is in safe paws with you, but something just doesn't sit right with us."

"And that is?" Sean asked, now interested.

"We just can't see Emily married," her mother explained, taking over the Gates side of the argument, "She never was very good in relationships. She didn't stay with anyone or try and stay with anyone through problems. She rarely if ever even tried to make relationships, usually it was males asking her out and Emily accepting because she was bored. We both don't want to see our grandchild living in separate homes."

The fox just huffed at that, now having heard enough, "I think I figured it out, the real problem between you and Emily. You don't know each other, or at least you don't know Emily. You think she would be the one to leave me? Well in the last Operation of the war, Emily and I were a spearhead to it we had a fight that let us both thinking it was over. In the end I was done with her and had given up on trying to fix things, I did, but Emily didn't, she tried and trusted me and did everything she could to fix things in the end and now we're both as happy as ever, even with the mixed emotions. All along she's been the one perusing our relationship, trying to make things work. I got nervous in the beginning just trying to talk to her sometimes but she helped me. If your worried about us ever getting separated then I'd have to say your insane, Emily wouldn't let me go even if I wanted to and now, especially now, I know I will never want to be away from her."

"Well then Captain," Mr. Gates said in an actually commanding tone as well, "I would like to ask that, for at least a little time like a few weeks that you and Emily come to stay with us, just so we can get to know you both."

"I'll have to discuss that with Emily first," Sean replied.

He stood up and nodded to the two rabbits who sat there, once again not sure what to say and Sean wasn't going to give them a chance. He had been away from his wife and new child far to long today and he wanted to return to them and never leave either of them again.

Chapter 4 Attempt

Five Days Later, Home of Mr. and Mrs. Gates on Laios, 3:27 PM Local Time

"Hi mom, dad," Emily said, rather uninterested as her parents opened the door for her and her family.

"Hi Emily, Sean," they greeted as Sean, carrying two bags with Emily in front carrying Sarah entered.

Being that it was the same house that Emily had grown up in, she led Sean without saying a word to her parents upstairs to the guest bedroom where she figured they would stay. Sure enough the bed was made and a crib set up for Sarah.

Emily laid the small bunny down and tucked her in. They had come right from the hospital, not even stopping by their apartment and Emily had really only come because Sean had insisted. Also, he was going to take Sarah no matter what, and Emily wasn't going deal with that.

The Gates walked up the stairs behind them and stood at the guest bedroom's door, watching the goings on.

"So, we're all going out to dinner tonight, around," Mr. Gates checked his watch, "fiveish? So until then you can look around if you want."

Emily didn't look up from her daughter to answer, she just nodded slightly and her parents walked away.

Since she appeared frozen in place, Sean came up behind Emily and hugged her softly against his body, resting his snout on her shoulder and looking down at their daughter as well.

She cracked a smiled and cooed softly as Sean wrapped his paws around her waist. He had, ever since Sarah was born, been even more very soft and loving with her, something she had all to easily embraced. The rabbit loved how much he hugged and kissed and pat her and Sarah so much, now that he was acting less like a soldier and more like a husband and father. The rabbit swayed her body back and forth in his grip and couldn't help but giggle when he kissed her neck.

"Well, show me around," he said softly, making Emily giggle again.

The rabbit took a step around his body, holding one of his paws and led him downstairs and back out the front door. Outside it was bright and warm, this system had two stars and Laios was smack dab in the middle of them. Sean liked it though, Emily was wearing a nice tight pair of shorts and a tight shirt and he was able to get away with a pair of shorts and tee shirt himself. He really liked what Emily was wearing actually and, as she walked him around the grounds he was having a hard time keeping himself from just gazing at her.

They went to one of the gardens that was around the house, looked at the flowers and various plants that grew but Emily could see that it was more than obvious that her chosen clothing was having the desired effect on Sean. He couldn't really focus on anything and he was very, very drawn to her.

Then, about ten minutes after starting this tour the pair came across a hammock and that was it in Sean's mind.

The fox walked right over to the hammock that had been baking in the suns all day, got in and made a come hither motion to Emily. She grinned widely, having been looking forward to this, and walked over and laid right down next to Sean, coddling up to him and resting her head on his chest.

"This is something I can get used to," Sean commented and rubbed Emily's furry shoulders.

Emily didn't answer she just closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep on Sean, letting both his and the air's warmth and the soft rocking of the hammock coax her into sleep. She moaned softly in her sleep, making Sean chuckle quietly and cuddle her a little closer. Her body was so hot it was making him pant from the heat, but more noticeably her closeness and aroma was driving his libido wild.

The rabbit shifted her position and whispered quietly, "Sean can you move your paw, you're pressing to hard on my belly."

Sean, knowing what really causing her discomfort, moved his hips away from Emily, but unfortunately, so to speak, for him the rabbit coddled right back against his body figuring his paw was out of the way. When she felt his hard on pressing against her belly again she opened her eyes and looked own.

"Oh Sean..." she whispered in a surprised tone, then it hit her and a smile formed in the corner of her snout and in a more sensual tone repeated, "Ohhh Sean."

She moved really, really close now, straddling his legs with hers and intertwining her body with his. The last time they had gotten this close they had really, really been interrupted and both were still interested in getting "close" again.

Rather submissively Emily looked up at her fox and kissed him tenderly. Soon her kisses went from tender to direct and faster. Then, in a careful move as to not have them both fall off the hammock, Emily rolled her body on top of Sean's, now leaving the fox in a situation that he could barley contain himself.

"You want to do this out here?" he whispered and stroked her soft ears.

"Well we can't do this in the bedroom, not with Sarah sleeping in her crib," Emily reasoned and lowered one of her paws to the front of Sean's shorts.

He nodded and moaned himself as her warm paws enveloped his rod, using the fur on her paws to great effect on the panting fox. Sean's tongue hung slightly out of his mouth and moved his face up to her and gave her a deep kiss. And, not wanting to leave Emily out, Sean lowered both his paws to both of her known pleasure points. Right away he separated her sweating pussy lips and he pat one of her swollen tits softly with his other paw.

That woke something up inside of Emily and she, for a moment, removed her paws from Sean's piece and quickly removed his shirt and hers. She still wore a bra but that was soon lowered by Sean's efforts.

Emily lowered her face to Sean's chest and rubbed her snout on his pelt. His body was so hot and comforting, and his aroma was having a similar effect on the rabbit's senses. For a split second she thought about possibly being caught by her parents, but that thought and worry disappeared as Sean began rubbing her pussy rapidly, slipping it in every now and again.

As she began grinding against his paw Emily whispered in a begging voice, "Sean, do me now, please I can't wait any longer..."

He nodded carefully and lowered his shorts as Emily followed suit. They threw their clothes and shoes into a pile next the hammock and Emily didn't waste a moment of time. Right away she reached down and grabbed his throbbing member and slipped it between her love folds.

Immediately she threw her head back in pleasure, letting out a high pitch moan that actually scared Sean enough to place a paw on her cheek.

"Emily you can't scream like that," he warned quietly, now worried as well that her parents might walk in on them.

"I-I know," she said in a pleasured tone and began rocking her hips, "but it just feels sooo good..."

Sean smiled and kissed her softly, then moved his paws down to her hips slowly began moving her up and down, letting about half of his cock rub in and out of her slick sleeve.

They both got so into it so fast they didn't notice the hammock doing more than an acceptable amount of swinging and on one of Sean's down strokes the hammock gave way and the linked pair toppled to the ground with a light thud.

"Oh God," Sean chuckled and sat up on the grass, "You okay?"

"I'm fine..." she said and wiped off her back, then in a clearly aroused voice said, "but lets keep going."

Sean grinned and, without removing his cock from deep inside her, picked up the light rabbit and walked her over to a nice, sun drenched area off on the edge of the property. He laid her down on the grass and pick up right where he left off, only this time he lifted her hind legs and rested them on his shoulders, so he could look down at his beautiful wife as he fucked her.

She moaned graciously as he thrusted in, locking hips with her. Her tits bounced as he went in and out, Emily enjoying herself enough to reach down and play with them. Sean pulled his dick out to the tip; it was shinny with her juices and the smell that came from it made Emily shake her hips in a way to entice him to reinsert it. Obviously he did and she moaned happily for it.

Soon though her happy and content moans turned to ones that were strained and increasing in pitch.

"Oh..." she moaned weakly and added, "Oh Sean I'm gona cum!"

It was only a moment longer before she climaxed. As hard as she tried not to, she yelled out as her pussy quivered and clamped down on Sean's cock, trying to coax him into cuming as well but he wasn't ready yet. Nonetheless though her pussy tried and she humped him furiously until her cum subsided. It left her out of breath and Sean, after pulling his cock out, let her legs fall to his sides and he laid down on top of her, kissing and massaging her softly.

"That... that was the best cum I've ever had Sean..." she said but the fox figured it was just because they hadn't had a chance to do this in so long.

"You okay to keep going right away?" he said eagerly, giving one of her tits a soft squeeze.

She giggled softly and in a quiet, out of breath tone, whispered, "Why would I want to wait?"

Sean grinned as he sat up. He figured the rabbit was enjoying this positioning so he got on his knees and rested her rump on his lap, her hips slightly higher in the air than her head.

Slowly he began moving her hips up and down on his lap, almost immediately Emily started moaning pleasurably, using her paws to steady herself on the grass. Soon he had worked up more than a good rate; her soft furry tits rotated on their own on her chest driving the rabbit's mind wild.

"Oh fuck Sean..." she strained as his cock spread the folds deep inside her pussy.

The fur near her cunt was pretty moist and the skin had become quite puffy from being so aroused. Sean used a paw to rubber her lower abdomen and played with her pussy lips, sending a wave of pleasure surging through the rabbit's body and making every one of her hairs stand up on end.

Then something, somewhere where his cock touched her sent a huge wave of pleasure through her body and Emily threw herself up against his body and began humping him furiously. Her tits were right in front of his face and after rubbing his snout in the soft fur between them and he took one in his maw and sucked it softly. Her moans switched from strained to happy and she pat the top of his head, playing with his short ears as he suckled her.

Giggling softly Emily whispered right into his ear, "Oh Sean, your so sweet."

Her breath was warm and didn't even cause his ears to twitch and Sean could only think the same of her.

The rabbit began humping his lap, moaning each time her drooling pussy lips opened wide at the base of Sean's member. Sean let go her tits because he was starting to moan a little himself and carefully he took hold of her soft hips and began bringing her up and down, each time pressing his was deeper and deeper between her warm folds.

They were both very hot. They were hot for each other and because of each other and it was great. Emily's fur was so soft now, she had learned to "poof" it from Cathy and it just caught the surrounding air and made her sweat, putting a smell into the air that the fox's nose caught and just turned him on even more.

Being so excited he started slamming Emily down harder and faster, her desperate moans following his rate and becoming more and more strained.

"Oh! Ohhh! Ohhhhh!" the soft rabbit moaned and hugged him tightly, gyrating her pelvis against his.

Groaning himself Sean asked in a strained voice, "You gona cum?"

Unable to verbally answer Emily pulled her face back and nodded as he sped up a little fast.

Her pussy lips glistened with her juices and just before she climaxed Emily let Sean's cock flop out and rest on her cunny; a mixture of his precum and her juices making his cock glow as well.

"Oh shit! Ahhh God!" she screamed and shook as waves of her orgasm crushed her body, making her go stiff as a board against Sean's chest.

During her cum Sean just smiled and pat her back quickly, bringing further warmth to her body.

Her pussy convulsed and she could feel her juices dripping around and slowly coming out of her pussy, making her feel wetter than before. She ground her hips against his stomach, wanting pressure on her pussy and to be close to him.

When she was done, Emily was clearly out of breath so Sean just pat her softly, kissing her lips, so happy he could love her like this again.

"Oh Sean..." she whispered, feeling tired but still wanting some, "Please cum, I need you to cum!"

Sean nodded and reached around behind Emily and pat her soft tail, playing with it in his paws making the tired rabbit giggle.

He went to say something but Emily put a paw to his lips and nodded. Carefully she laid down on her back, rubbing her paws on her pussy, letting her paw pick up some of her juices and dragged it up to her maw and licked some of her own saltyness from her pussy.

With his big bushy tail swaying behind him, Sean mounted his little wife and slipped his cock inside her right away. Equally quickly Emily began moaning, his cock was so hot and great inside her pussy. She felt her cunny lips spread to take it all in and she held his shoulders softly to give them both leverage.

Sean's cock made soft "squishes" as he fucked her as hard as he could. He wanted to see her cum; he really liked seeing her cum. In the past she never came this much and Sean really like seeing her in so much pleasure.

"Oh God! Ohhh God!" she moaned, "Ohh please!!!!"

He sped up even faster, the fox's tail rocking in the air above him. He was groaning as well which made Emily happy, she wanted him to cum, she wanted to see him fall on top of her body so she could hold him in his weakened state. She loved that almost as much as Sean loved holding her. Even though Emily had become much more submissive lately she still felt as though she was really protecting him and he seemed most hers right after he came good and hard.

The fox was moaning enough that Emily figured he was about to climax so she shifted her paws to his furry cheeks and kissed him through both of their gasps for air.

"Your gona cum? Your gona cum?" she asked straining her quite voice.

He nodded.

"Cum in me," she pleaded, "I want you to cum in me!"

Sean looked up to the house less than a hundred yards away, "But what if we get caught? We'll tie and-"

Emily put her lips to his to quiet him, "I don't care, please cum in me. Don't you want to?"

"Of course," Sean whispered and nuzzled her face softly, "And I always want to, I just don't want to hurt you or embarrass you."

She smiled and continued humping him softly. As she did they both felt more blood rush to his cock and his knot began growing. Sean held the rabbit's soft sides and held her as close as he could get her, raising his hips slowly but forcefully; her tightening pussy and his growing knot was making it harder and harder to continue any motion whatsoever.

"Oh God Emily!" Sean moaned and kissed her lips sloppily as her cunt milked him as hard as it could.

The rabbit was unable to answer, her orgasm was a moment from seizing her and she gripped her husband tightly and tried as hard as she could to hold back the floodgates until he was there as well. A moment later they both felt his knot form up completely and lock the pair together. Sean brought his snot to rest atop her head and clutched Emily tightly as his cum began filling her insides.

Emily screamed in ecstasy as she let her orgasm flow and her pussy clenched down, sealing and locking the pair in an even tighter grip then their paws made as they clasped to each other.

Sean, although in his own tension of cumming, managed to lower his snout and form another seal around her lips, silencing her scream. It didn't matter; she had yelped loud enough that if anyone could have heard it, they did. But Sean enjoyed kissing her and wanted to at the moment anyway and took his free paw to hold the side of her small muzzle.

As they both came Emily shook her hips against his. It was involuntary but it felt so good just because it coaxed more and more of his cum deeper and deeper inside her, letting her convulsing pussy grip onto something.

Even though his lips were held firmly on hers the rabbit still screamed, the vibrations from her throat going into Sean and just adding to the overall feeling.

Finally the brunt of their orgasms died down and left them both very weak and tired. They kissed each other softly but they're paws didn't lose their grip on each other's pelts. Sean's died down completely but Emily's aftershocks continued for some time, actually causing visible "shocks" to go through her little body, making her shake softly against him; Sean letting her sensations roll over her so that she could enjoy it as long as possible.

Then, about six minutes after they had both come to their climax, it finally clicked into both of their minds they might have made a bad move. They were both completely nude, less than a few hundred feet from Emily's parent's house, and there was no way the could move because Sean's knot had formed and there was no signs of it going away. Moreover they had made much more of a racket then they realized at the moment and anyone outside within a few hundred yards would have had no problem hearing, and knowing, where and what they were doing.

But, even knowing this, they were both feeling very happy and content with their situation. They had just broken what had been a much to long stretch of little or no sexual contact and the perfect way and both were more than satisfied.

They paused their kissing for a moment and softly nuzzled each other's faces. Sean's fur was so warm and soft against hers that Emily was sure that she would be asleep soon, and the only thing she could think of, at the moment, that was bad about that was that she wouldn't be able to kiss and hold Sean if she did fall asleep.

Emily looked over Sean's furry shoulder and looked across the big lake, smiling softly at the thought of it. As a bunny she had spent many hours swimming, playing, and just being a youngster on these shores and in the lake but of all those many years and past memories, this one was without a doubt the best ever. She let her gaze fall back to her husband and kissed him softly, smiling as she did.

Although very tired himself Sean couldn't stop himself from wanting to kiss the rabbit and petting and holding her as close as he could. He slipped a paw beneath her and played softly with her tail, making her giggle just ever so softly into his maw. He chuckled back and pulled his face back for a moment to just look at her.

Behind him Emily could see his bushy red and white tail making very happy, very big, slow circles. Seeing where her gaze was directed Sean tensed his tail and brought it down to her face. He knew how much she liked his tail, probably grown out his almost fetish for hers. His tail rolled over her face and she rested her head on it, opening her lips a fraction of an inch, which was more enticement than Sean needed to know what to do. He kissed her softly again brought his paw to her now normal, slim stomach, petting the super soft fur that was there.

And now letting the realization that this was a bad position, Sean whispered right into her lips, "Honey we're gona get caught you know?"

At that moment she didn't care, she wasn't capable of caring so she softly moved her paws up the sides of Sean's furry cheeks, around the back of his head, and pulled his lips closer to hers. Emily didn't want to move, not that they could have, and just wanted the moment to last as long as she could make it. She felt his tongue in her mouth cradling hers, softly licking as he pat her body so softly that it made her tired body quiver.

Sean really did care either, the only people who really could have walked in on them were Emily's parents and, after "chatting" with them a few times, Sean was sure now that he really didn't care about what they saw or thought. All that mattered was that Emily loved him, that Sarah loved him, and they were both okay.

Then another realization clicked into both their minds simultaneously, Sarah was back at the house alone. They hadn't ever left her alone before; in their heated state they had both failed to realize that.

Noticing that Emily had realized the same thing he had, Sean rubbed her face and kissed her deeper; without words putting the new mother's mind at ease.

When they finally ended their embrace the fox wrapped his paws and tail around her body and just snuggled into her, basking under the two suns, and both supremely glad and content with their spouse.

***

A few minutes after the Atric's had fallen asleep, still tied together, Mrs. Gates was just going upstairs to see how her daughter and her husband were doing. Low and behold the older rabbit did not find them but, seeing that she had a moment in private with the newborn, sat down beside the sleeping bunny's crib and watched her silently.

She smiled as her husband, who for the first time in their marriage, actually looked like an older buck. For a split second Mrs. Gates found herself jealous of her daughter for finding such a good-looking young fox. She soon checked the thought and Mr. Gates sat down beside her and looked the small bunny over. She was quite adorable. Darker brown then her mother, probably due to her father's difference in fur. She was pretty small for a bunny too; she looked to be a tad light as well but was clearly very healthy. Her hind legs however were much bigger than you'd expect from a newborn rabbit, something that was noted in both of the on looking grandparent's minds.

The bunny stirred a little, woke up and rolled over, looking the two older rabbit's over.

"Hi there," Angela whispered softly, making a small wave at the bunny.

Sarah rolled all the way over and sat up, giving them another look over and, although only and infant, could tell neither of these two rabbits were her parents and she began to get a little nervous.

Nicholas caught the look of nervousness on the infant's small muzzle first and quickly, yet very carefully and gently, padded over to her crib and picked up the bunny carefully. Sarah squirmed a little in his paws but soon gave up and sat, although clearly not entirely at ease, and let the situation continue.

He just stood there holding his new granddaughter, not sure how to feel. She did look the way Sarah had when she was born, a little different but the likeness was there, and being the fact that they shared the name made this all the more... strange.

"You think she'll take care of her okay?" Mrs. Gates asked softly.

Nicholas didn't turn, he just stared at the bunny and nuzzled it softly, calming her down a bit.

"Hmm?" Mrs. Gates pressured when he didn't respond.

Mr. Gates chuckled softly, "I don't know honey, it's not really up to us anyway, she's Emily's and Sean's daughter, not ours, they'll raise her in the way they want."

"Hmmm..." Angela moaned at a draw and tilted her head letting one of her old ears flop to the side of her head.

She brushed it out of the way and stood up and, carefully, was handed Sarah from Mr. Gates.

After she sat down Nicholas chuckled again and said in a whisper quiet tone, "Why are you so scared Angela?"

Without hesitation she answered, "I don't think Emily can handle it. I don't think she's ready to be a mother."

"Well I... I mean really what makes a female 'ready' to be a mother?" he asked, not ever having given the subject any real thought.

Not really prepared for that Angela thought for a moment and sighed, "I guess to know how to take care of an infant."

"Well how did you learn?" he asked, being a lawyer he tended to ask the right, or rather in the eyes of the questioned, wrong questions.

"I learned as I went on..." she replied, slowing towards the end of her answer.

Nicholas smiled and sat down beside his wife and rubbed her back, "I'm sure she'll be a great mother. You were."

"I hope so honey, I really do for her sake," Angela whispered as Sarah fell asleep in her paws.

-End