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A Wonderful Life

Book 6: Guardian

Chapter 1 Hallowed

Two Hours Later, Medical Bay, Federal Hospital at Fort Reynolds, Conakry, 1828 Military Time

"Mrs. Reynolds!?" the artic fox, clad in a radiation suit, called out, "What the hell are you doing in here ma'am?!"

Sarah was napping on Sean's chest, rather peacefully all things considered, but the doctor's voice awoke her with quite a shutter.

Almost as if she'd been caught doing something terrible, she stood up at attention and replied, "I-I... I just came in to speak to him, I just..."

The doctor took a careful step towards the rabbit and replied, "Comon ma'am, I know it's killing you, but it's really not safe for you to be here."

Weakly, Sarah nodded and followed the doctor into the decontamination chamber and out of the medical bay. She took the lead and walked back up into the observation room without removing the white radiation suit. Once upstairs though she took off the helmet and slouched in a chair.

At the moment Sean's body was just relaxing and recuperating, so the doctor had nothing better to do other than stay in the observation room, and since the opportunity was there, he figured he converse with Sarah.

"He... eh-hem, seems like he may be okay," the doctor said, "We'll know for sure in two days when we take him off the life support, if everything took, and how much if any brain damage there is."

"What reassuring words from the doctor," Sarah thought, and aloud answered, "He'll come through... he will, he's too strong not to."

"That he is..." the doctor replied and sat down at the opposite side of the observation room.

Being that she was a doctor herself, Sarah knew what the artic fox was doing, trying to draw her mind away from the terrible reality of the situation, and she knew that it was a good thing, so for the moment, she played along.

Sighing, Sarah asked, "When can I take him home..." she trailed off.

"If everything goes right, six days or so. Then his radiation levels will be normal and his reconstruction will be complete... it's just healing after that," the doctor replied.

Her mind did drift then, thinking of Sean being bed ridden for days. Then it shifted to something else, the artic fox that was his doctor. It had become almost a sad running joke with Sarah and the family over the doctor's name; none of them knew it. Steve had been the first to point it out, but no one had dared ask about the doctor's name, it seemed to be almost insulting. They couldn't even ask someone on the staff, as it was sure to get back to the artic fox and he'd certainly be quite offended.

Figuring it was good a time as any, and being that she was the most daring and without tact of the family, Sarah whispered, "This is too stupid... but what's your name doctor?"

Although she wasn't looking at him, Sarah could tell the artic fox was a little confused. He paused long enough that Sarah had to turn and look at him. The look on his mug was exactly what she thought he'd have; mild offense and utter confusion.

"Doctor Curt Constable," the fox replied, then in an almost sad voice he added, "all this time and you didn't know my name?"

Now Sarah felt like shit. This fur was possibly solely responsible for saving her husband's life and of all things she didn't even know his name.

All she could reply with was, "It's been a long week or so... but I'm sorry, I... yeah I'm sorry."

Curt sighed, "It's okay Mrs. Reynolds."

An awkward few seconds past, but Sarah's attention soon drifted back to Sean's broken body laying on the table below her. He was looking better. Although still clearly covered with scars, Sean's red fur was coming back in rather quickly, and made the battered skin below much less noticeable. Only under his chin, neck, and down his chest, where his fur was coming back in just as pure white as before, were the scars still really noticeable.

Sarah longed to rub her muzzle in that soft fur, to feel him breathing next to her, to know that he would be safe. She couldn't help in this moment to think back to their wedding, to think to those timeless, almost seemingly goofy vows, "To have and to hold, in sickness and health, until-"

She stopped herself from thinking of the remainder of the phrase. To her it was wrong, even if Sean died, she'd still love him, she always would. Love had to extend past that, past death, there was no way this feeling she had for Sean, or the feeling she knew he had for her, would falter, or worse, die, with either partner.

All of a sudden Sarah gasped in fear. It was involuntary, purely from thinking of death, but it was loud and noticeable enough that the artic fox looked back and forth from the health monitors to Sean's body to see what was wrong.

Seeing that he was fine, Dr. Constable asked, "What's wrong? Nothing's happened."

"Oh... nothing... I'm just... thinking..." Sarah replied rather dreamily.

The doctor nodded. This was semi normal, he'd dealt with spousal cases many times before; one injured the other forced to watch helplessly. And while admittedly it appeared that this pair was unique among most in the fervor of the wife, there were distinct similarities that comforted doctor Constable in this moment that he knew things should be fine.

Two Day's Later, Fort Reynolds Obstetrician's Office, 0249 Military Time

Sarah walked up to the sign in desk and waited for the nurse to look up from her computer.

"Yes?" the ferret asked.

"I have an appointment for 3:00 o'clock," Sarah replied.

After quickly typing something into her computer the nurse nodded and said, "Okay Mrs. Reynolds, just sit down over there," she gestured with her head to the small waiting room, "and we'll call you in when the doctor's ready to see you."

Sighing, the rabbit nodded and took a seat. Of course, her mind took no time to shift right back to Sean. This was the first time in days where she was purposefully bringing herself away from that small observation room. It was her first time in days not staring at his healing body. It was her first time in days that she realized that she was possibly being selfish in not caring enough for her growing young.

She sighed again, now shaking her head, thinking, "What a way to start with this kid."

It was a rather pessimistic outlook, but not really incorrect. Aside from the fact she wasn't thinking like a mother yet, the unborn young's father had almost been killed, and its pregnant mother had been neglecting her own body since she was to closely watching the father heal.

Her internal thoughts had taken longer than she'd realized and before she knew it the nurse called out, "Mrs. Reynolds? The doctor's ready for you now."

Sarah got up and followed the nurse to an examination room, the same small white room she'd been to at least half a dozen times with Sean. She always went with Sean, she always felt to nervous to go without him, but she really didn't have an option now, and the doctors would claim neglect if she didn't go for her checkup.

She remained seated on the examination table until the doctor came in. He looked at her rather sadly, word traveled fast even on a large base like Fort Reynolds.

Figuring that it was self explanatory, the doctor asked, "So how is he?"

"I don't know..." Sarah whispered, "he's been ‘repaired' I guess but they still have to make sure everything... works."

The doctor, a rabbit as well, nodded, "Well let's get started, shall we?"

Sarah nodded back.

"Lay back on the table and just pull up your shirt so I can scan get a good scan."

Nodding forcefully, to feign that she wasn't nervous, Sarah did as he said and tried hard to think of anything but Sean and the nervousness of her current situation. The doctor pulled out the small ultrasound monitor and hooked it up the monitor to the side of the examination table.

It took about a ten minutes of "hmm's" and "oh's" from the doctor but he was soon satisfied with what he saw on the monitor. He purposefully had placed it so that Sarah couldn't see the images, since he knew that even a single look at the screen would tell her more than she wanted to know.

Packing up the ultrasound he nodded to the rabbit to relax and sit up. She did, taking a letting in a long held in breath.

"So," he began, and sat up carefully, "The- hmm," he chuckled, catching himself before he said to much, "your not making this easy...

"How so?"

"Cause you don't wana know anything," the doctor chuckled, "Well everything's going well except that you need to eat a little more and I can tell from here your not resting enough."

"Yes but Doctor Packa-" Sarah began but the doctor held up his paw.

"I know, I know," he interrupted, "but I know Captain Reynolds pretty well enough to know that he'd be much happier if you were taking care of yourself and your young rather than wasting away at his bedside."

Sarah did know that was true, but she still was afraid to leave Sean alone in his current state.

Seeing her internal distress, the doctor added, "If you can't do it for yourself or for him, do it for the young, cause right now they need you more than I think your giving them credit for."

Four Day's Later, Home of Sean and Sarah Reynolds, Fort Reynolds, Conakry 0104 Military Time

"He's still not awake yet, huh?" Emily asked her pacing daughter.

Shaking her head, somewhat in answer somewhat to herself, Sarah replied, "No, he's not."

"So what does that mean, honey?" the older rabbit asked.

"I don't know."

Mr. Atric sighed, "Well would they make him stay at the hospital if he doesn't wake up?"

"I don't know," Sarah repeated.

It had been the five days, roughly, and the hospital was releasing Sean, quite ahead of schedule all things considering. His new organs, including his new, stronger heart, all checked out as operational and healthy, and his brain scans were normal he just wasn't conscious yet. That part still bothered everyone, because for all intensive purposes he should be awake by now, but he wasn't. The nice thing though, the thing Sarah was actually excited over, was that Sean's radiation levels had returned to zero, she could finally go near him, she could finally hold him, coddle him, something that as far as her own mental health went, she needed right away.

Cathy and Steve weren't at the house at the moment, they'd gone down to the hospital to see Sean brought to the house, leaving Sarah and her parent's to literally pace until they returned. It didn't matter though; Sarah would be pacing until Sean was awake and kissing her in each other's paws.

The collective ears stood on end as they all heard a car stop outside the door. Getting up and walking into the den they saw Cathy and Steve, plus two orderlies, carry Sean in on a stretcher and bring him into his and Sarah's room.

Strangely though, and unnoticeably to anyone else, Sarah froze up. Something about seeing Sean lifeless, out of the bleak hospital setting and in their relatively homely residence really struck the rabbit. He'd been seriously injured, he'd really almost died, and for the first time Sarah realized she might never have her Sean back again, ever. He may not ever wake up, he may wake up emotionless and vacant, he may not love her anymore.

The rabbit shook off the fear though, pushing it back for the moment and followed the group of furs as they softly placed him beneath the covers of the bed. Sarah just watched from the doorway, unsure of what to do.

Once the orderlies had cleared out and left, Steve and Cathy remained kneeled by the bed with Sarah and her parents standing against the far wall. At first they all just looked at Sean slumbering softly in the bed, but eventually all gazes turned to Sarah who, in a rare moment, was completely unaware of herself.

What everyone noticed was that Sarah for the first time during all this appeared sad. Obviously, she'd been upset throughout the whole ordeal, having crying fits at least once an hour, but to say she appeared sad during all that would be incorrect. The rabbit for the first time really looked depressed and generally gloomy about the situation on the whole.

Voice somewhat horsed, Cathy stood up and whispered, "We'll let you be alone with him Sarah, okay?" the vixen walked over to her daughter-in-law, "okay?" she asked again.

Although not quite all there, Sarah forced a nod and the vixen, followed by her husband and everyone else, left the pair alone, shutting the door behind them.

A deafening silence followed, the room so quiet the only thing Sarah's sensitive ears could hear was the sound of her own heart beating, somewhat fast, beneath her breast.

Cautiously, as if one false step would cause Sean physical pain, Sarah approached her side of the bed. Standing next to it she knew what she wanted to do, and digging deep, remembering her strength, she forced away the fear and carefully laid atop the covers, still not touching her comatose husband.

For a moment she really thought about that, that he was her husband, what that really meant, and she was scared. This concept of protection suddenly overtook her and softly, she slipped beneath the covers and moved her body right against Sean's.

He was fairly warm, and his newly grown fur was very soft, softer than it had ever been before as far as Sarah was concerned. Usually when she laid with him though, Sean tended to take the dominant role, rather holding her than the other way around. There was no real reason for it; it was just how they'd always done things, but this time Sarah took the governing role and held him.

With the fox's head tucked in under hers, Sarah rocked them back and forth, deep in thought. It isn't fair to say that her image of Sean had been destroyed, because it hadn't, but it had been changed drastically. Those last moments of post-adolescent invincibility were drifting away from Sarah, and she was starting to understand what mortality really was about. Sean really had almost died, and only by the luck of an unknown forced had he survived.

Now fleeting in fear Sarah squeezed him to her body. Sean still remained motionless but Sarah could feel his heartbeat, she could feel his body breathing and his muscles tighten and then relax by her touch. It comforted her as she was sure he was comfortable too. She could smell his body, that familiar scent was still there, which made her half smile.

Yet the terrifyingly scary sensation returned to the rabbit and forced her to clutch him once again. The thoughts of Sean really dieing, being gone forever wracked her brain. It was his line of work, after all, that had caused all this. Sarah desperately wanted to blame herself. She actually wanted it to be her fault that Sean had almost been killed, yet, for her, the sad reality was that it was no ones real fault. Sean was a soldier and soldiers die. It was part of his job, to protect and uphold the Federation, if need be, with his life.

Feeling sick to her stomach, Sarah cursed his job, his occupation. And in a sad way, she cursed Steve Reynolds too. It really wasn't his fault, Sarah deep down knew this, but she wanted to blame him for this. If Steve hadn't been so adamant about the military and how great it was, Sean wouldn't have been a soldier, and he wouldn't have gotten hurt.

Sarah shook her head; she knew that wasn't fair though. She was more to blame for this. After all, the only real reason he was a soldier was to give her a home, to take care of her. She realized, the only reason he did anything, the only reason he was alive was for her, to protect her and care for her.

"Not anymore," the rabbit whispered to the still unconscious fox, "Not anymore."

She held him tighter under her neck, now feeling like her body was the only thing stopping him from being hurt. The only reason she didn't completely wrap herself around him was because her pregnant belly stopped her from doing so.

In drifting into sleep, the only thought coursing through her mind was that now it was her turn to protect him, it was her turn to fulfill her vows of marriage; it was her turn to finally control things.

Chapter 2 Rouse

Two Day's Later, Home of Sean and Sarah Reynolds, Fort Reynolds, Conakry 0104 Military Time

It's funny how things turn out sometimes. The saying, "Why do bad things happen to good people," applies to furs too. Sean Reynolds was a selfless fox whose only ambition, his only real ambition, was to make life better for himself and his best friend, his lover, Sarah. Yet even with such pure intentions he was not immune to the disease of bad luck, and after surviving a nuclear blast that by all accounts, should have killed him, Sean was left essentially an unconscious prisoner within his own body.

At the moment he lay, still comatose, next to his wife who clutched and held him softly in her sleep. Of all things Sean Reynolds, son of one of the greatest hero's in Federation history, a great soldier himself, and an altruistic lover, was now reduced to basically a stuffed animal.

The worse part was that Sean was really unaware of all this. His last semi conscious thought had been the doctors putting him into the cellular reconstruction tube, which in his cataleptic mind had been bastardized into a dream of being put into his coffin, to be buried at sea for some reason. Now though, his mind was blank, incapable of actually thinking. If he woke up, it would be to him as if waking from a dreamless sleep, which in a way, would be his only chance of peace with this event; not remembering it.

Still though, he was nowhere near that point. In Sarah's dreams, the rabbit remembered her childhood, and playing with Sean before they'd become lovers. She remembered chasing him; Sean had always been fast, down one of Foc's many soft dirt roads. She was aware of everything in the future though, their love life, their marriage, what they later learned they meant to each other, but in the dream she played along with the innocence, enjoying the carefree moment of childhood.

She continued chasing him then, along the streets of Foc, some familiar, others not, her sleeping mind filling in the necessary holes for her. What confused the slumbering rabbit though was that she couldn't catch him, no matter how many corners she cut, or how fast and hard she ran, she couldn't catch him. It confused her because even though Sean had been a fast little kit, Sarah had always been a faster bunny. It didn't matter though, she still couldn't catch him.

Not wanting to play anymore, Sarah stopped and yelled out, "Please stop, Sean, I need to talk to you."

The fox ran a few more feet along the nameless road, stopped, turned around with a wide, innocent grin and called back, "I'm not gona fall for that."

"No please Sean, please come back to me..." Sarah yelled out, now frantic.

A few seconds past and Sean's smile faded and he said, "We're playing though."

Terrified now for some reason, Sarah said in a trembling voice, "I'm not playing Sean, please come over to me."

The fox still hesitated though, and testing the waters he asked, "Why?" then raising his playful eyebrow he added, "Your not trying to trick me are you?"

"No!" Sarah yelled, "Please Sean I need you. Come over here please..." then feeling more like an adult rabbit than the bunny whose body she inhabitant in the dream, she added, "Please I love you, I need you now."

Very confused, Sean tilted his head and took a few cautious steps towards her, yet from the rabbit's perspective he got no closer to her at all.

Now a full adult, in every way but appearance, Sarah whispered in a shaky voice, "Please I need you Sean, come over to me now..." she saw the fox recoil a little and frantically she said, "I'm-I'm-I'm hurt Sean, I-I need your help. Please come to me Sean."

There wasn't a moment's hesitation now; the fox ran right to the bunny, stopping mere inches from her.

"Where ya hurt, Sarah?" Sean asked in an honestly worried tone.

Biting her lip, having lied to get him over, Sarah wanted to hug him, but she didn't want to scare him either, so she whispered in reply, "I'm- here," she pointed to her chest.

Still a simple minded kit, Sean looked right at Sarah's chest and saw nothing wrong and asked, "You sure?" then in a surprised tone added, "Why are you acting so strange Sarah?"

"Please Sean I nee- I'm scared, please just let me hug you okay?" Sarah whispered, she had become much more mature later in life, much to the surprise of the still preadolescent Sean.

Not seeing anything wrong with that though, Sean wrapped his small paws around his friends body, not entirely sure why he was doing this, or why she wanted to, but he was still going to do it.

"I'm scared Sean..." the bunny repeated, voice cracking.

"Why?"

"I'm so scared that I'll lose you, that I'll never see you again," Sarah whispered, she wasn't sure why; she wasn't aware in the dream world of reality anymore, yet the feeling of sheer terror remained with her.

Then in a voice that sounded more familiar to the Sean of fifteen or so years later, the younger fox whispered, "I'll never leave you Sarah, you know that."

With that Sarah awoke, muzzle to muzzle with her still unconscious lover. Putting her long ears against his chest Sarah listened closely. Yes, he was still breathing and still warm.

The rabbit sighed and pulled him under her neck, "I know you're in there somewhere."

No sound came from Sean, only his continued soft breathing and actually loud sound of his new heart beating.

Having been thinking of childhood, Sarah let herself pretend, for a moment, that nothing was out of the ordinary. Sean was just sleeping soundly in her arms; they'd just had a nice night of lovemaking and now the rabbit was solely focused on the comfort she felt and her partner felt. She managed to pretend well enough that she actually could feel the after affects of sex, that nice exhausted feeling and unbelievable comfort. It was only when she looked down at Sean and didn't see him looking back up at her that she was forced out of this idealistic dream.

This time Sarah sighed heavily, wishing desperately for that scenario to be true. It wasn't though, much to her sadness.Â

***

It had taken hours but Sarah had eventually fallen back to sleep. After a few hours more, she awoke and lingered in bed though for a few more hours, clutching Sean and thinking. Nothing in particular went through her mind, but thoughts coursed through her mind nonetheless.

Eventually though she did feel hungry and she forced herself out of bed. She was starting to really show signs of pregnancy now, her stomach was clearly larger and she was starting to get the eerie, yet acutely calming feeling of another presence with her wherever she went. She still couldn't feel it though, and while her mind was pretty much completely preoccupied with her husband's plight, she was thinking of her growing young, and what its status was.

Out of motherly love and terrible pity, Emily had prepared a mass of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for her daughter, so that the rabbit wouldn't have to cook. Sarah took a moment to heat up one of the prepared breakfasts and picked at it for a while. Eventually though the smell of the food got to her and her appetite kicked in.

About this time in fact, Emily herself came over to visit. Both Sean and Sarah's parents had decided that they would take individual turns watching the pair, making sure Sarah was eating, that things were being cleaned, and just the overall safety of the pair.

Sarah didn't even get up from the table though, she didn't even look up. Emily just walked into the house and stood and watched her daughter.

Bluntly, she asked, "So has he woken up?"

The younger rabbit huffed, "You think I'd be sitting in here if he'd woken up?"

"No, probably not," Emily replied and sat down, "But it was worth asking."

Sarah didn't offer a reply.

Shifting carefully, having grown somewhat used to this dance with her daughter, Emily continued, "How's he doing then?"

"I don't know," Sarah replied, barely paying attention.

Emily sighed, "Well you're a doctor honey, when do you think he'll wake up?"

More sadly this time, Sarah answered with a dejected, "I don't know."

Silence enveloped the pair. Emily was trying to think of things to talk about meanwhile Sarah was trying to think of ways to get her mother to leave. It wasn't because she didn't like her mother, it was just the only other fur Sarah wanted to be around right now was Sean, and all her mother was doing at the moment was reminding her that he was the one fur she couldn't talk to.

"What are you gona name it?" Emily whispered, being wise enough to realize the subject of Sean wasn't something her daughter was comfortable with.

"I don't know," Sarah said once again, but continued with, "I haven't really thought about it."

"Well what is it?"

Realizing that she was saying it a lot herself, Sarah actually managed a weak smile and replied, for the fourth time, "I don't know."

"Well you should think of names," Emily went on, "Your father had thought up your name months before you were born and your... your getting there."

It had worked, for the moment. Sarah's thoughts drifted to names, to offspring. The concept of actually naming them felt so foreign to her, yet strangely exciting.

"If it's a boy... I think Simon. Yeah, Simon," Sarah answered.

"Why Simon?"

The younger rabbit shrugged, "I don't know, it just kinda comes to me I guess."

"And if it's a girl?"

Sarah thought for a long moment, "What was Sean's mom's, mom's name?"

"Oh God I haven't a clue," Emily replied, "but that's an interesting idea..." she wondered for a moment why Sarah hadn't asked about her mother, but then again Emily wouldn't have exactly liked for Sarah to name her possible daughter after her grandmother; Emily had never really reconciled completely with her parents.

At the thought Emily chuckled softly to herself. Her little bunny was all grown up, this was the first time it really hit her. She was really talking to Sarah about what her offspring were going to be named. She was really going to be a grandmother in the near future. It was a humbling thought for Emily, and yet at the same time she felt old. She was forty-eight years old, and while she certainly wasn't decrepit or even remotely close to the mere idea, she felt extremely experienced. She'd really seen a lot, thinking back on it all, and was filed with a quick moment of clarity she had to share.

"Sarah... things are going to suck sometimes in life," Emily began out of nowhere, catching her daughter off guard, "but there's one thing I realize, from everything I've seen you know, and that's that things change all the time, and I think- no, I know that they do turn out for the better. Maybe at the time they don't look good, and maybe not in years will it look good, but nothing bad is permanent. Injuries heal, wrongs are forgiven, sadness is comforted. Only the good things in life last forever, like family, like love. They never go away, even if the sources they come from do."

Caught very off guard Sarah was unable to comprehend the life lesson. The expression on her face denoted that and Emily sighed, knowing deep down that the lessons of the experienced can't be imparted on the inexperienced, they had to earn that over life, and they had to come by that knowledge through the natural course of actions. Emily still wished, still hoped though that maybe the fact that she was sure may cause Sarah to at least feel a little better and secure with her situation.

In a glimpse of her stronger self, Sarah looked down and whispered, "Well jeez mom, I was just gona ask what you thought would be the best place to put the baby..."

"Not in your room," Emily replied quickly, knowing that Sarah just wasn't ready for life lessons, "You can't let them get to comfortable like that. And it'll kill you, I know it killed me, but you gota get them used to sleeping on their own early on otherwise they'll always need another fur in the room..." then smiling to herself Emily thought, "Just look at what happened with you and Sean... one to many sleepovers."

"Then where?"

"Well you must get a new housing assignment right? When you have offspring? I mean this is a couple's house, but I know you must get a family unit home when you get your first kid."

"First..." Sarah whispered, "I don't think there's gona be past a ‘first.'"

Emily wouldn't touch that one, she knew better.

Instead she pointed out, "And anyway, worse case you set it up in the den for a little while before you get a larger place; I'm sure if Sean requested it they'd give it to him."

"If he gets up..." Sarah whispered quietly.

Things were still bleak in her mind, and hope was dwindling. She knew it was, and desperately wanted it to stay, she wanted to believe that Sean would come out of this state of unconsciousness, yet with every passing minute, with every silent breath, Sarah's hopes and dreams pushed away from her.

There was a knock on the door that grabbed both Emily and Sarah's attention. They looked out into the living room and watched Cathy push her way into the house.

Seeing the two rabbits eyeing her from the kitchen, Cathy nervously approached saying, "Sorry guys, I left my coat here last night."

"No it's okay Mrs. Reynolds," Sarah replied; she'd revered back to the childhood habit of calling her by her "adult" name.

Getting up Sarah added, "Here you can sit down, I've got coffee."

I little put back by Sarah's attitude, rather its improvement, Cathy left her coat on the couch and walked in and sat down. She turned in the seat to watch Sarah as the younger rabbit poured a cup and handed it to the vixen.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question actually, Mrs. Reynolds?" Sarah asked softly.

Taking a quick sip she nodded, "Of course Sarah."

"What was your mom's name?"

Cathy paused for a moment. She had to think hard. It was a sad fact but she rarely if ever thought of her parents. Her father was left out of her thoughts for obvious reasons but her mother was sadly absent from her mind purely because Cathy really didn't know her.

Finally she cleared her throat and answered, "Jennifer, Jennifer Grey- wait," then quietly to herself she whispered, "I know her maiden name... W- Williams," then louder she clarified, "yeah her name was Jennifer Williams. Why do you ask?"

"Well cause we were talking about what to name the baby and I figured if it was a girl I'd name it after her," Sarah explained.

Surprised that the rabbit had thought of her mother, given that Cathy didn't even think her and it was her mother, the vixen stared with a clear look of confusion on her muzzle.

Chiming in Emily added, "I haven't a clue why either."

"Yeah that is a tad odd Sarah, I mean I know I've never mentioned her to you, I barely mention her-" Cathy stopped herself, "Well thanks, I don't wana sound ungracious it's just kinda odd is all."

The younger rabbit shrugged, "I know it's odd, it just came to me for some reason. Same with a boy's name; Simon."

Cathy glanced at Emily, "I don't have a Simon in my family, I don't think Steve does."

"No one in mine either," the other rabbit answered.

"No, it just came to me," Sarah repeated.

Giggling softly, Cathy asked, "Well like in a dream?"

"No, just now, when me and my mom were talking about it," Sarah explained, "I just was thinking of good names and for some reason Simon just came to me and your mother."

Cathy and Emily both glanced at each other carefully, but figured that it must make more sense inside of Sarah's mind.

A few seconds of silence feel in the room while everyone drank their coffee quietly. Eventually Cathy turned her chair so that Sarah, who was still standing next to the counter, had somewhat of an audience. It did make her a little uncomfortable, but it had the nice effect of giving her something else to be worried about, if only for the duration of the conversation.

Taking a final sip of her coffee, Emily asked, "We were also talking about where she'd put the baby."

"Not in your bedroom, it's-"

"I already told her that," Emily laughed softly, "I was trying to tell her that the military will definitely give her a bigger place once she has a kid."

The vixen nodded, "Yeah I think that's true too."

It took a few seconds but Sarah finally nodded. They were older, more experienced military wives too and in all likelihood they knew better than Sarah, the rabbit knew this, and coupled with her exhausted state, she didn't feel like diving deeper into it.

Trying to keep the conversation going Emily asked in the happiest tone she could manage, "So are you excited?"

"About?"

"About being a mom," she clarified.

With that Sarah visibly changed. Her ears twisted confusedly.

In a playful tone Emily continued, "Well comon you gota be excited?"

"I-I guess... well no," Sarah answered, "I don't think I'm excited, or a least that's not the way you should say it. I think- I know I want a baby now, I want it to be happy though, and I don't want it born without a father."

"Just give him time, honey," Cathy whispered.

Sarah shook it off, "Anyway, yeah I guess you could say I'm excited... cept one tiny thing," she gestured with her paw, "is it uh... I mean how much is it really gona hurt?"

Humorously, Emily groaned and looked at her friend, who was already biting her lip to hold back laughter.

"Uh... well hmm," Emily was trying to think up the proper analogy, "Imagine trying to fit- well put it like this honey, things go into there a lot easier than they come out."

The words had their intended effect, they made the rabbit feel no better, possibly worse even.

"On the bright side your young so you'll snap back okay," Cathy pointed out, stifling a giggle.

The two furs couldn't handle it and started laughing. Of course it hurt, and Sarah damn well knew that, and it was just something she was going to have to learn on her own. Sarah growled softly to herself and shook her head.

Trying to put them off, she asked, "So you two ‘excited' over being grandmothers?"

They both silenced immediately, feeling self-conscious for a moment.

Sarah grinned, feeling victorious, "Hmm?"

Neither had really thought of themselves as grandmothers yet. Emily had sort of, in a passing thought, but no direct attention had been brought to it. Moreover the subject had been a bit of a taboo with everyone at the moment, even not in Sarah's presence, for fear of further jinxing the rabbit's life. Anyway though, being a grandmother was really the next stage in life for a female and it made both Sarah and Emily feel much older.

With a very similar expression Emily looked at her daughter and replied, "Well I am excited over being a grandmother," Cathy stared at her friend in confusion, "because I get to enjoy little children without the hassle of changing or cleaning them or dealing with them when their being annoying."

Sarah huffed. Seeing that coupled with Emily's response sent Cathy back into roaring laughter, causing the vixen to nearly fall off her chair. Emily laughed too, a bit from Sarah's reaction and a bit from Cathy's reaction.

All the while Sarah just continued shaking her head until her eyes went wide and her whole body went ridged. At first the two older females didn't notice, they were to caught up with their amusement, but soon Emily slowed her laughing as did Cathy until the room was silent.

Eyes seeming to be two coal fires, wide in terror, the rabbit put her paws to her mouth, feeling something inside her that was indescribable.

***

"Sorry guys, I left my coat here last night."

The voice broke into his semi-conscious mind. He recognized it, it was definitely familiar, and definitely one that registered as a voice that brought comfort to him.

This wasn't the first time he'd come to like this, sort of anyway. He couldn't tell anymore, after all, what was a dream and what was a reality. His unconscious mind wouldn't allow that, it held him prisoner, not even revealing to him his own identity.

Sean wanted to shake his head, he wanted to shake it off but he couldn't. Still though, he could hear things, and he could remember other times he'd heard things, but this time he could understand them.

"No it's okay Mrs. Reynolds."

That voice was different, one almost more familiar, and possibly more important to him. He couldn't recognize it though, but the words he did. "Mrs. Reynolds," Sean knew that meant something special to him, the title that was supposed to be.

"Here you can sit down, I've got coffee."

Hungry, he was hungry. The primal instincts of his body still worked and inside his head Sean knew he wanted food. Unbeknownst to the unconscious fox, he was still plugged into an IV, which indeed supplied him with nutrients and kept him alive, it hardly could compete with food, real food, and Sean was hungering for food terribly. This too though, this feeling of hunger, was nothing new to the fox, he'd been feeling it all through his incapacitation, kicking in whenever the smell of food wafted into his bedroom. He wouldn't have a conscious thought about it, it was more of a subconscious pain in his stomach. Still though, the smell of fresh coffee was tantalizing his brain.

He coughed.

That hurt. Right away bright light went into his head as his body hemorrhaged up a little blood into his mouth as his lungs tried to build up enough work to wake up his whole body.

Again a cough raged through his body, less blood this time, but the fox could still taste it. He could taste it though, that was new, he hadn't been able to really sense anything other the fact that there was noise around him, not specifically what was being said, although that had just changed too.

Sean was becoming more aware. He could feel a thick layer of mucus down deep in his throat, definitely near his lungs, preventing him from getting a full breath. Gripping instinctively to the bed sheets, Sean managed to gain enough leverage from his chest muscles to work up a big enough cough to expel the mucus.

As soon as he did he felt the thick, gross slim lay on his face, but a second later the feeling was eclipsed with the comfort of taking a full breath, feeling his lungs fill with air completely.

The forced cough had hurt too, and it had forced his mind to wake up. Sean let out a low groan and as a groggy fox, actually tried to go back to sleep, being that, for all intensive purposes, he hadn't actually fallen asleep in about two weeks.Â

He had paws though, that much he was aware of, and his name...

"Crap-p-p-p," Sean coughed.

This one forced his eyes open, but their sensitivity to the light caused him to shut them right away in pain. Although weak, he managed to bring his paws to his eyes, to shield them from any excess light that may seep in through his eyelids.

Whatever he'd spit up onto his face touched the fur on his paw, bothering him a little. Involuntarily he rocked his body side to side, still not recognizing what had happened or really of himself in general.

It took a few minutes but soon he was able to remove his paws and crack open his eyes just enough to see the white ceiling above his head. Blood flowing to his extremities he felt some strength, almost enough to sit up, and he tried.

Just managing to go vertical in the bed, Sean looked around. He knew subconsciously this was his room, but he still was not registering anything, and after a few more minutes of building up strength he managed to swing his hind legs around and onto the carpeted floor.

He stood, however wobbly, and stretched his back, feeling his tail try and stretch itself out to capacity as well. Somewhat hunched, he attempted a step. Sean still wasn't strong enough for that though, and he staggered against to doorframe a few feet away.

Taking a moment to rest with his eyes still basically closed, Sean could hear voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying but he recognized each of the three distinctive voices. Who specifically owned them he still couldn't remember, just that they did belong to recognizable beings was about all he could do at the moment.

Taking another feeble steep, Sean held with both paws onto the wall, managing to take another and another, until he was out into the living room.

A burst of female laughter almost made Sean fall down in surprise, and he staggered another few feet, this time leaning against the arm of the couch.

Eyes still weak, he gazed across the room into the kitchen and saw a cream brown rabbit, ears up in curiosity, shaking her head at two other furs, one a fox and the other a similarly colored rabbit, who were laughing hysterically.

The rabbit looked up from the two amused furs and locked eyes with the still inebriated Sean. Her whole demeanor changed in an instant; her eyes went wide and she stood up straight as if in terror.

Moments later the other two furs stopped laughing and tilted there heads in confusion at the frozen rabbit, who slowly brought her paws up to her mouth.

Everything froze then, in a single instant, nothing moved and no thoughts were to be had. Sean staring at Sarah and Sarah staring at Sean, unable to acknowledge the other yet internally screaming at one another.

Forgetting herself, rather not caring, the rabbit's eyes watered profusely and tears started running down her furry cheeks. The silence had persisted long enough that finally Cathy and Emily turned to follow her gaze and both started displaying similar reactions to the stunned younger rabbit.

They didn't have long to stare though, as soon as they had turned, Sarah had burst into a full run and practically launched herself at Sean, who was too dazed and confused to react. She landed about half a foot from him and wrapped her paws around his torso, hugging him possibly dangerously hard.

"Sean!" she cried out into his chest.

Sarah had to force herself not to faint into his paws, which hung rather limply around her sides. It was no use though, the feeling of relief and excitement over her husband's apparent reawakening was too much for the pregnant rabbit to take and she soon went completely limp against Sean's weak body. They both feel onto the couch, where Cathy with Emily in toe ran over to and picked up. They brought them both into their bedroom, laying them down side by side.

All the while this was happening, Sean appeared to be conscious, yet unresponsive. Cathy kneeled at his side of the bed, while Emily stayed next to her daughter, both mothers trying to coax their offspring into answering to them.

It took a few minutes of soft speaking and softer pats, but eventually Emily managed to wake her daughter up, bringing the confused rabbit back into the world and making her aware again of the situation.

She awoke with a gasp that clearly said, "Sean!" and without really seeing her mother, Sarah rolled over to see the back of Sean's head.

Not sure what to do, having been patting her offspring herself, Cathy just removed her paws and backed a little off as Sarah softly but swiftly rolled Sean over so that he was facing her.

Placing her paws on either side of his blank face, Sarah whispered in a begging and frightened, yet calming tone to the fox, "Sean? Sean say something..."

He didn't reply, he just continued staring blankly.

"Comon Sean, you were up and moving on your own... say something please Sean," she continued.

His red furry cheeks poofed in her paws, they both felt them move. Trapped within his mind, Sean meant to say, "I'm okay, I love you," yet all that he managed was a weak tensing of the muscles in his mouth and throat.

Sarah took a deep breath, she'd try as hard as possible to not treat him as her husband, but as a patient, so she whispered softly, "What's my name, Sean? What's my name?"

His cheeks and mouth definitely moved, although not noticeable to her eyes, her paws firmly pressed on his cheeks picked up the muscular movement.

"What's my name, honey? Comon, sound it out Sean."

A weak, barely auditable, "S-ssssss," came low from Sean's throat.

Controlling her eagerness, Sarah clawed mentally at the bed sheets, trying to vent the excess energy to speak, "Good Sean, keep going. What's my name?"

"S-sss-ssss," was all that came from him, but it was still a vast improvement over the last two weeks.

Emily and Cathy looked on in amazement though at what was transpiring. Their thoughts mirrored as they both realized how infatuated Sarah was for this fox, and how much she was going to do to make sure he was okay.

"Sssss-sssaaar," Sean almost groaned, now making more than a simple "s" sound.

"Very good Sean," she continued coaxing him on, "just keep sounding it out."

Visibly gulping, the fox went on, "Sssaar- Ssar- Sarah... Sarah."

"Good! Very good Sean..." she released her hold on his cheeks and brought a paw up to his face, "Follow my paw okay? Just watch it carefully."

"Saraaahhh... Sarah..." he repeated a few more times.

She moved her paw carefully side to side, watching his eyes as carefully as possible. Every hair on her body was standing on end with anticipation, praying, hoping he was all there, that he was okay.

Without much hesitation, Sean's eyes followed her paw moving back and forth.

Almost completely sure that he was okay, Sarah moved onto the last test, and placed her paw right below his soft muzzle.

"Blow onto my paw, Sean," she whispered.

It took a few seconds but Sean managed to take a deep enough breath to force a breath out onto her paw. Sarah also breathed out, although hers was more of a sigh of relief.

He was definitely physically fine, everything worked that is, and gulping she whispered, "Hug me Sean... please... if you can..."

Taking a few more deep breaths, Sean's limp paws came to life and reached out for Sarah. Moving a little closer, yet not quite right into his paws, Sarah laid in eager wait.

Mentally clear now, Sean dug deep and forced himself to move, and squirmed his way on the bed over to Sarah and, feeling her soft body against his, wrapped his paws around her neck and held her close.

Aside, Cathy chanced a look at Emily who got the point. Silently, they stepped out, Emily shutting the door behind them and both practically running to the kitchen to phone their husbands and the doctors.

Back in the bedroom though, they two younger furs embraced each other in a level of comfort impossible to describe. Sarah couldn't even cry, and she actually somewhat wanted to, she was just too happy.

"Ssss-ssorrrryyy," Sean whispered out of breath.

Sarah looked up into her husband's face, "Oh no! No... no don't be."

In all honesty, Sean wasn't sure why or what for he had felt the need to apologize for, but it just felt right. He thought hard for a moment and decided he did have a reason to be sorry, he left her and that was wrong, didn't matter why it just was.

"Ohh I love you Sean," Sarah whispered into his face as she nuzzled him softly.

The fox wanted to reply, he really did, but he was just too tired and too weak.

"No," he told himself, and taking another long moment, he managed to raise his voice high enough to get out a horsed, "I love you."

Hearing those words from him really had an effect on the rabbit and her ears pinned back and her whole body tightened against him, wanting to be as close as she could get.

Clearing her throat Sarah whispered, "Let's- ahem- lets just rest okay?"

All Sean could manage was a nod.

Two Day's Later Federal Hospital at Fort Reynolds, Conakry, 0954 Military Time

"Alright you two, the doctor will see you now," a short cat nurse said to the seated fox and rabbit.

Giving him an arm to lean on, Sarah limped Sean into the doctor's office, skipping the examination room for whatever reason Dr. Constable thought was right. They found the artic fox sitting behind his desk, a mild smile on his face seeing Sean up and about, looking through the various papers regarding his reconstruction and health status.

"Sit down, sit down," he said without looking up.

Sarah made sure the help Sean first, then she took her own seat right next to him, still holding his paw in hers. Since he'd woken up, they hadn't broken contact once, not for anything, and it didn't look like they were going to stop any time in the near future.

Too excited to wait, Sarah quickly asked, "Well... how is he?"

Sitting up, Dr. Constable's smile faded and he said in a calm tone, "Just to start, he is okay, everything he needs works fine; his heart, his lungs, etcetera. His bones and muscular systems are back to normal with no signs of cancer or breakdown, and you can expect a nice long, healthy life."

Sarah had heard speeches like this before. Hell she'd given them before, and in mildly worried tone she asked, "But....?"

Seeing no escape the artic fox submitted, "But, there are some things that we just couldn't rebuild or fix."

Sean, who was now completely aware, albeit still to weak to really move under his own power, did look a little unsettled, it was his body after all.

"First of all, Captain Reynolds... well let me put it like this; it's a good thing you two are having children now, before all this happened," the doctor said as he stared at the red fox, "because if you hadn't, you wouldn't of ever had the option."

Neither of them was stupid enough to not catch on, but Sean didn't believe it. It was a horrifying concept.

Clearing his throat, he asked quietly, "So... so I'm... sterile..."

"Yes," the doctor said plainly, trying not to make a big deal out of it for the fox's sake, "now let me be blunt by saying everything will still work. You can still have erections, you will still be able to have orgasms and have full ejaculations, it's just your gamete production has been so altered by the radiation that any sperm produced will be completely impotent."

Hating the word use, and the concept, Sean sighed and whispered, "Could be worse..."

Sarah gripped his paw tightly, that was a tough pill to swallow for a male. He didn't work anymore, not as a male anymore. Yet at the same time Sarah was breathing a mental sigh of relief to what the doctor had said. For the first time Sarah was really glad they were having their offspring now, that they would have offspring, that she could be a mother.

"Anything else?" the fox asked with ears pinned back and his tail hanging sadly behind him.

Dr. Constable nodded, "As I'm sure your more than aware of right now, your going to be feeling fatigue for a few weeks. Since most of your bone tissue and muscle tissue and connective tissue has been rebuilt from scratch, you literally have to break them in, which will just take a few months of easy exercise."

That didn't sound so bad for Sean, still though, the fact that he was sterile now was already weighing on his mind. Sarah's soft paw though, clutching his, helped make him feel a little better.

"Also," the artic fox continued, "there are two other things. Since we had to do a one hundred percent bone marrow transplant, your going to be very susceptible to infection for the next few months, so," he turned to the rabbit, "your going to have to make a choice. Either ‘a,' you stay away from him for the next month or two, or ‘b,' you stop working at the hospital, a nice breading ground for infections, and limit your contact with other furs and people as much as possible."

Sarah huffed and couldn't control herself from responding, "Like there's even a choice."

Chuckling and shaking his head, Dr. Constable leaned in and said in a softer tone, "And the other thing you're going to have to watch out for is your eating habits. This isn't going to be fun for you Captain Reynolds, but your looking at a liquid diet for the next month at least."

"That part's the least of my worries, doc," Sean replied, clearly dejected.

He nodded, "I know Captain Reynolds, you're not the first male I've had to tell that to. It's tough, I'm not gona sugar coat it, but there's nothing we can do about it, there really isn't."

Sean nodded weakly, he was feeling tired already, partially because he was depressed from this new news.

Sensing this, Sarah gripped her husband's paw a little more tightly and whispered, "And that's all?"

He nodded again.

Unable to look up, Sean said in a very sad, yet the conviction was clear, "Well doctor, I can't say how thankful I am for you..."

"Yes," Sarah continued for him, "I don't want to think we're we'd be without you. You kept him alive; you saved my husband. I don't know how- if, I can repay you."

"No," Curt replied, shaking his head, "You can't because you don't have to, Dr. Reynolds. You know just as well as I do, knowing that your patient will live and be happy is thanks enough, and I can tell, he'll be happy."

Sean perked up a little, the doctor's confidence affecting him deeply.

Without another word, the two furs got up and, each shaking Dr. Constable's paw, walked out of his office and back to the waiting staff car. Within minutes they were walking, still holding each other's paw, to their own, quiet little house on Fort Reynolds, unsure of everything coming except they'd meet the future together.

Chapter 3 Dawn

Ten Hours Later, Home of Sean and Sarah Reynolds, Fort Reynolds, Conakry 2016 Military Time

"Comon you," Sarah whispered cheerfully as possible, "Bed, lets get you to bed right now."

Sean nodded and tried to get himself up. He just managed it but Sarah wouldn't let him walk himself, instead she walked over and placed her paw under his armpit to hold him up. Carefully she limped her husband into the bedroom and laid him down before circling the bed to lay along side him.

Snuggling up against him Sarah caught his eye and they shared a silent moment.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

He nodded, "Yes- no," Sean couldn't lie.

Sarah knew why and hugged him, "It's okay Sean, it really is."

"No, no it's not," he reasoned, but kept hugging her all the same, "I know, I know I shouldn't feel like this but I feel like I'm not as much of a male as I was before this."

Thinking for a moment, Sarah whispered, "Why?"

"Why? Why do you think? I can't- I mean I can't do what I should be able to do," he replied, "I can't make more of me," he said with a feign humorous undertone, "I can't- I mean that's it. I'm not a male anymore."

"Aww..." Sarah tisk, "Sean comon, yes you are."

Ignoring her, for the moment, Sean changed the subject by asking, "How you...? I never asked how you... I mean what happened while I was gone?"

"I worried," Sarah forced a weak giggle, "I worried and cried until you woke up."

Actually smiling, feeling humbled by the gesture, Sean hugged her a bit tighter and continued, "And what about this," he moved a paw down onto her pregnant belly, "you weren't like this a month ago."

"I know," Sarah whispered, and moved her body against his paw, loving his soft touch, "It's really not going to be soon."

Sean nodded to himself, "I can't tell you how glad I am we did this already, that we can have a kid now... before it was too late."

Sarah still, even so late into her pregnancy, still wasn't feeling the maternal instincts she should be but knew enough to nod, "So am I."

Sean sensed it though, he couldn't help it, and called her on it by saying, "Your still not sure about it?"

Closing her eyes, the rabbit's ears lowered slightly and she made a soft moan, "I don't know..."

"Sarah...." Sean said at a draw, her classic bullshit answer coming out.

"I don't know Sean, I really don't," Sarah said with more passion than before, "I know I should be excited but I'm not. I think its cause of all this-"

"It's not," Sean interrupted, then pulled back a little so that he could see her face.

She was so beautiful to him. Softly he pat her face, pushing her hair away from her face.

Smiling, Sean continued, "It's cause you're a tomboy at heart," Sarah frowned, she hated being called that, even by Sean, yet he was the only one she would tolerate saying it, "and this is... well it's pretty much everything a boy doesn't do..." he thought of his own plight, "so this is gona be really far from your own ideas."

"Maybe..." Sarah whispered and nuzzled his paw still stroking her face.

"And I wonder when it will kick in, you wanting to be a mother and all," Sean mused, "It'll happen, I know it will, I just wonder when."

In a way, it was right now. Merely talking about it with Sean, her husband, the father, was making the idea closer to her.

Sean continued, "You'll be a good mother too, I know it. You're the nicest fur I know, and you love me, I know that and I know your gona be great with the baby."

"And your going to be a wonderful father," Sarah whispered, bringing a question to her mind, "What about you? What have you been thinking about this?"

Truth be told Sean hadn't been thinking about it at all. He couldn't have, he wasn't able to think of anything for the last few weeks, but bringing it up now he was excited, not so much to be a father, but to share having a baby with Sarah. He really wanted that, he really did.

Now nuzzling her with his face, Sean whispered in reply, "I can't wait."

"Really?"

"Yeah," the fox said, "I can't wait to be a parent with you."

It was half true, half for comfort. Sean knew that Sarah was still nervous about everything, and feeling the wrong emotions about it, and even though he was the one who was recovering, Sean also knew Sarah looked to him for help. She always had, she probably always would. It was never said that she did, but they both knew it.

"And," he continued, "I... I think I want a kid too, to play with..."

Sarah gave him a perplexed look, "That's all you want one for?"

"Well no, that's not all," Sean explained, "but... well you remember when we were kids right?" she nodded, "Well I remember how much fun that was, just playing with you, playing with my dad, playing with our friends. Those are some of my favorite memories and... well I guess I want to have a kid myself to do that."

Agreeing with him, Sarah made soft nods, "I'm just worried about actually being a mom."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

Pulling back a little Sean looked her in the eye again, "Well your gona love it right?"

"Yeah."

"And your gona take care of it right?"

The rabbit nodded a few more times, "Of course."

"Well what else is there?" Sean reasoned.

Sighing, Sarah explained, "I'm talking about all the things my mom did for me," she paused shortly and added, "Think of all the things your mom did for you. Do you think I can do that?"

"Yes," Sean answered without hesitation.

"Why?"

"I've told you why before, and it's the same thing I've told you all my life," Sean replied, "Because you love me, and I love you, and you won't hurt something that we made together."

"But I don't know how to do those other things," Sarah pointed out.

The fox smiled and shook his head softly; "You said you remember all the things your mom did for you right? Well then do those. You- we turned out great. I'd be proud if our kid turned out as great at you."

They both let those words hang in the air for a few minutes, although Sarah's mind was on something else.

It wasn't long before she sighed and, in snuggling closer to her love, whispered, "I- Wh- What do you think it will be?"

"I don't know."

"Are you wondering?"

"Yes-no- well yes..." Sean replied, voice weak and tired from more talking than he'd done in almost a month, "sorta I guess. I wana know and then part of me doesn't want to think about it."

"Why not?"

"I don't wana start wishing for one thing or another, then be... I don't know, disappointed when it's born. That's not fair to them, and I don't wana think like that, I just wana be the happiest fox possible when it's sitting in my paws."

Sarah could understand that. Moreover she could agree with it. For a few minutes Sarah sunk herself into internal thought, which was broken when both Sean and Sarah felt something move below the covers. For a moment Sarah actually thought it might be Sean, rather a part of him that was excited, and she looked at him with a confused and humorous look, yet he stared back with just as confused face.

"That's not you?" she asked with a smile.

Nervous, the fox shook his head, "No."

"Then wha-" Sarah stopped mid syllable.

They both felt it again but this time it was harder and there was no question in Sarah's mind at least where it was coming from; below the covers and inside of her.

Sean was catching on too and, with a smile, whispered, "Is... is that what I think it is?"

All the rabbit could do was shrug.

They both slowly moved a paw each, down the covers and up her shirt, resting on her tummy.

A second later they felt it, a soft kick from inside her womb. Sean looked up to find his rabbit wife biting her lip. They both chuckled softly and felt another kick.

"Well we know it's there at least," Sean whispered, holding in further laughter.

Sarah couldn't answer she just shook her head with a smile and kept biting her lower lip. At that Sean knew better, and bringing his paws back up to her face, they kissed very softly yet fully.

It didn't take long for Sarah to start getting more into it, Sean too, and over time each made soft moans as their tongues intertwined within their mouths. Part of Sean wanted to go further, maybe as far as possible, but another part of him was terrified of the concept, more afraid of it than he'd been as a kid, so that "part" won out in the end. It was just as well in this case; Sarah wasn't exactly mentally ready to have sex, not while she was this pregnant.

Parting lips, Sarah ended the soft make out by licking a little of her own spit off Sean's slowly panting tongue and soft lips. Whenever she did that Sean would practically melt for her and, given all that had happened in the past few weeks, it was just what he needed, and feeling amazingly relaxed Sean snuggled with his soft rabbit wife, both falling into a nice intimate sleep that forced the worries of today out of their minds.

Six Weeks Later, Federal Hospital at Fort Reynolds, Conakry, 1338 Military Time

Things had gone better over the past month and a half. Sean was still off active duty but he was much stronger now and in a weird way, he felt better than he had before, likely from his new heart and lungs. Sean's parents had returned about three weeks ago, seeing that their son was okay and on his way to a full recovery, and Sarah's parent's had returned a week ago but had to almost be driven away with a stick, not wanting to leave when their pregnant daughter was so close to delivery. Sarah had even continued working at the hospital right up until yesterday, when her last meeting with her obstetrician has shown that she was less than four days from likely giving birth. Instead of risking a trip back and forth from the hospital, Sean and Sarah opted for her to spend the remaining time in the hospital, where she was slowly losing her mind.

"God I wana go home!" Sarah moaned and tossed in the hospital bed.

Across the room Sean stood up from his crunches, whipping some sweat off his furry brow, "Then get on with having the kid."

Sarah looked at him without capitulation, "Give me a break. Only reason your not bored is ‘cause you can come and go as you please and you've been working out for most of the time anyway."

"Yeah but I need to do that," Sean reasoned, no real argument in this one.

The rabbit sighted heavily and laid back. She heard her fox lover pad over to the bed and stand on the opposite side.

"I'm gona go take a shower then I'll walk you around, okay?"

Sarah, not looking up, put out her paw, "Lay with me for a little while."

"I smell," Sean warned.

"I like your smell," Sarah replied, not untrue either and continued gesturing with her paw for Sean to lay down with her.

She put her back to him as she felt his weight press down on the bed and his whole hot body press against her back. Softly and instinctively he wrapped his paws around her waist and held her close.

"You don't smell bad at all," Sarah whispered

And to her, he didn't. Actually he smelled good, almost sexually good, like a turned on male showing off his prowess for his female; pretty much what was going on anyway. He gave off more of a sensual aroma for her, almost pheromone like, rather the offensive smell of a sweaty male just finishing a workout session. In short, it made Sarah want him on top of her.

Moaning happily, Sarah pushed her back into him more, trying to be as close as she could. A few minutes past and Sean didn't make an advance so Sarah actually moaned sensually, trying to get his attention.

"You know my mom warned me about this," Sarah whispered.

Behind her, smiling, Sean replied, "And what was that?"

"About having sex now..." the rabbit whispered with a slight devious undertone, "that it can... move things along a lot faster."

A little defeated, as he was getting on the aroused side of things, Sean submitted to simply kissing the back of her neck, "Not gona work, you. We're gona have a nice, normal birth here okay?"

Sarah made a soft growl and whispered, "Go have a shower, you smell."

"Ha," the fox grunted and, giving her another soft kiss, this time between her perky ears, got up and walked to the bathroom to shower.

Alone now, Sarah rolled onto her back and laid spread eagle on the bed, sighing in discontent. She wanted this over with, she wanted to have her offspring in her paws right now; the suspense was killing her. Its kicks were now more forceful and rapid and Sarah knew in her heart, without doctor's prompting, that things were less than a few days away, if that. She was actually excited though, that much everyone sensed. It was very obvious that she was, as the time drew nearer and nearer, interested in giving birth, not merely to put it behind her, but to be a mother. It made Sean feel the best out of all though. It made him feel proud, like he really had a family now. He did, too.

A few minutes later Sean returned, wearing naught but a towel and quickly dressed, catching his happy wife peaking at his redeveloping body every now and again.

He walked over to her bedside and asked, "Well... wana go for a walk?"

"Anything to do something," she replied quickly and put out her paw for Sean to aid her in getting up, then feeling ironic for a moment, the rabbit added in a low tone, "You know what's gona happen right? We're just gona start enjoying the walk and my waters gona break and that'll be the end of that."

Playing back, Sean replied, "Well let's get on with it then," and gave her a wink.

Carefully Sean helped her up, the pregnant rabbit being quite off balance, and carefully they walked out of her room down the halls to the courtyard of the hospital. It was almost a nice small park, patients and nurses in white coats everywhere; a generally calm atmosphere.

It was nice. That pretty much summed it up. It was nice and Sean and Sarah knew it was nice, and they walked paw in paw down the little paths, past the little ponds designed to bring peace to possibly troubled minds. This purpose did have an effect on the two furs, and they sat down on the grass in front of the pound, not speaking, just enjoying the serenity of the moment.

"Whatever happens," Sarah broke the silence with, "I want you to know I love you."

"What does that mean?" the fox replied, curious as to where that statement had come from.

The rabbit shrugged and rested her body in his shoulder, "Nothing, just felt right for the moment."

Sean chuckled and kissed her between her ears. For a few more minutes they just sat, then without prompt they both stood up and continued their calm stroll.

Mindlessly, they eventually made it back to the main building and by the time they realized it they'd both decided to return to their room to just lay in bed with each other.

On the way back though Sarah caught eye of an almost pure white tail entering a door and she called out, "Dr. Constable?"

The tail paused mid air for a moment and twirled away, being replaced by an artic fox's head.

"Hello Mr. Reynolds, Mrs. Reynolds," the doctor said to each fur, "Captain Reynolds. I was actually going to come see you both today. I got your tests back," Curt said and walked over to the pair, specifically Sean, "the final tests. Everything shows that you're okay, other than those... constituents we talked about earlier. Other than those your fine."

Sean nodded and smiled. In turning to Sarah, the fox saw an even greater smile on her muzzle.

"We won't need to see a checkup from you until your next yearly physical, and I'd be very surprised if there was a problem," Doctor Constable added in an congratulatory manner.

Hugging him tightly, pressing her whole self against him, Sarah almost yelled, "Oh thank God your okay!"

Sean hugged her as well, the idea of being as okay as he was going to get making the fox feel a little better than before. A moment later though, still hugging his wife tightly, Sean felt his leg go very wet, sickly wet.

At first he ignored it but soon he was forced to push back from Sarah and he looked down and a clear, milky, almost semen-like liquid was covering his leg.

"Oh God..." Sarah whispered and instantly clutched Sean and appeared to strain against an internal force, "Oh shit!"

Sean looked down again, his mind working quickly, "You okay?!"

"God no!" Sarah said in a strained tone continued grasping onto Sean.

More liquid spurted from inside her and ran down both their legs onto the floor below.

Breathing hard Sarah whispered, "It's the baby! It's the baby!"

It didn't take long for the display to catch the attention of every medically trained fur and human in the immediate vicinity. Within moments they swarmed upon Sarah and a stretcher, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, was put together to carry her to a delivery room.

Sean followed as close as he could, not letting his groaning and screaming wife out of his sight. All the while Sarah continued clutching her stomach, rolling back and forth while various orderlies tried to calm and restrain her.

When they did reach the delivery room Sarah was clearly well into labor already, falling into terribly painful contractions seemingly without break. The onset was so sudden that both of their conscious minds had barely caught up with their instincts, Sean to protect and Sarah to birth her offspring.

About four minutes after Sarah was put into the delivery room her obstetrician arrived. The older rabbit walked right up to Sarah, nodded quickly to Sean, and kneeled down to have a look at how Sarah was coming along.

"Rate of contractions?" he asked aloud as he observed Sarah's somewhat dilated privates.

"Every fucking minute!" Sarah screamed and held onto the sheets as hard as she could.

Seeing her distress, Sean pushed past a nurse and gripped his wife's paw, who clutch so hard that he tried to pull away at first, then seeing the look on her face, allowed her amazingly strong grip on his paw to continue.

Turning to a nurse, a short vixen, the older rabbit asked, "How long?"

"About one every eighty seconds; her water broke in the hall," the vixen replied, "and she's was pretty dilated when they brought her in."

Dragging over a stool to sit down beneath her, the doctor said, "Well it's time," and added in looking up at Sarah, "It's time Mrs. Reynolds. Don't push all the way yet though."

Sarah groaned in a rasping voice a reply that was unintelligible. It hurt so bad, she couldn't stand it.

Eyes completely locked shut, Sarah squeezed Sean's paw tightly and yanked on it to bring him down to her face.

In a very strained voice she whispered, sounding terrified, "I didn't know it was gona hurt this much!"

"Okay Mrs. Reynolds..." the doctor said, breaking into her thoughts, "Won't hurt much longer."

One of the nurses hooked up the IV and the pain medication started dripping into her bloodstream. There was an almost immediate effect on the rabbit, and she calmed down a bit, yet her grip was still strong and her breathing still short and raspy.

"Now..." the older rabbit started but stopped.

Sean continued looking back and forth from Sarah and the doctor. He could smell the sweat below his wife's fur and, grabbing a nearby towel, pat down her head and pat her pinned back ears softly as possible.

"It still hurts..." she whimpered.

"It's gona hurt, honey," the fox whispered back, "It's gona hurt. But not for long..."

Satisfied with what he saw, the doctor said in a calm voice, "Okay now, push now."

Sarah gripped hard on Sean's paw once again and strained against the force inside her. She could feel the offspring moving around inside her, much more mobile now than ever before. Moreover the feeling was lower than it had ever been before, much closer to the entrance, rather in this case the exit of her body was.

"Okay, okay, keep pushing, Mrs. Reynolds," the doctor coxed on, "Keep pushing."

With all her might, Sarah pushed. Every muscle in her body was tensed and straining to release the young inside her. Even with the pain medication it felt like her body was being ripped in two, like she was instantly trying to push out her intestines or something.

"You can do it Sarah," Sean whispered, "You can do it honey, just push."

"What the hell do you think I'm doing!?" the rabbit screamed out and twisted her neck, straining to force out the offspring.

From the doctor's point of view, Sarah was doing fine, right up until he was sure the offspring was midway through the cervix and into her canal when the clear signs of her pushing ceased. In short, she was either tiring or giving up, both of which he'd seen dozens if not hundreds of times.

"Mrs. Reynolds? Mrs. Reynolds you can keep pushing, it's really close," he called out, testing to see which reason it was she had stopped.

"I... I can't," Sarah whispered, part of her leg muscles also relaxed.

Tiring, it was usually tiring.

Sitting up so that they could make eye contact, the older rabbit said quickly, "Comon Mrs. Reynolds, just a little bit more and you'll be done."

"Comon honey, try," Sean whispered.

That was something new. He'd said it three times now. He'd never called her "honey" before.

Her thoughts were broken in by feeling the offspring move inside her and her body instinctively tried to bear down, and Sarah remembered she had to get it out of her, she had to birth it.

Gripping her husband's paw she gave another hard push, the doctor looking down just in time to see the tips of the ears and head pop out of the rabbit.

"Okay, okay, okay," the doctor said quickly and cradled the newborn as it was expunged from within Sarah.

Feeling relieved at first that it was out, Sarah was instantly confused to still feel pregnant, but she remembered from medical school that, that usually happened.

Trying to sit up, she whispered, "Leme see it..."

"Your not done yet, Mrs. Reynolds," the doctor said, letting the proverbial "cat out of the bag."

"What?" Sean asked loudly.

"A few more pushes and you'll be okay," the doctor said.

Sean nodded, "Oh... oh it's the placenta thing... okay Sarah you can do it."

The pain returned and Sarah screamed out, "Ohh it feels as big as the baby!"

Surprised that neither had caught on yet, the doctor figured it might be better to keep his muzzle shut, for the moment.

This time Sarah pushed with more fervor, wanting this whole ordeal to be finished as soon as possible. She felt the second mass from inside her moved down, squeeze out, and when it reached her canal she felt it move... that bothered her.

"Okay..." the doctor said, "One more big push and it'll be out, Mrs. Reynolds."

"You can do it honey!" Sean yelled, getting excited to the situation.

On the other side of the room Sean could hear the baby cry and the nurses scurrying about to care for it. He half wanted to run over to see it, but Sarah was clearly still in pain and needed him, so the fox controlled himself for the moment. Yet, he couldn't help but look every half second to try and catch a glimpse, the thought of finding out what it was tantalizing his brain.

"And... there it is... push Mrs. Reynolds, push!" the doctor yelled.

Then something happened that equally confused Sean and Sarah. Just as she felt the relief of finally releasing her internal pressure, they both heard another set of infantile cries, and a sudden realization swept over both of them.

"Now push out the placenta's," the doctor said, giving the final hint as to what had been going on all along within Sarah.

Stunned, and unable to comprehend, Sarah didn't try and force anything out. Instead she just shifted her gaze back and forth from Sean to the backs of the nurses as they cleaned the offspring.

Moments later two of them turned and, still unseen to Sean and Sarah, walked over and then handed to each, a newborn. To Sean they handed the firstborn, a male buck, same coloring as Sarah as it appeared, and to Sarah they handed a very small female vixen.

"T-t-two?!" Sean asked confusedly, staring down at the squirming infant.

Sarah looked just as stunned and they both looked at the doctor.

"You told me not to tell you," he said, "and what I told you then still holds true. Their both healthy and we see no problems so far, and I be surprised if we do," then smiling he added, "Congratulations."

Now more stunned than before, Sean and Sarah looked at each other again, then back down at the newborns. Of the two, it was impossible to see who was more stunned. Sean at the mere concept of being a father of twins, or Sarah for the fact that she had twins. They were both so stunned that all of Sarah's muscles relaxed, and she didn't even feel, or notice quite frankly, that she passed the remainder of the placenta birth fluids.

The nurses cleaned her up and one came over to the parents and said, "You can put your legs down, Mrs. Reynolds, and do you want formula for them or are you going to breast feed?"

Sarah didn't lower her legs or answer. She didn't even acknowledge the nurse; she just remained transfixed at the little vixen in her arms, the cute little fox that she had made. She looked over at her son, her little buck she'd made.

Used to mothers reacting like this, the nurse resigned to do it herself and lowered the rabbit's legs, which were unresponsive, and pulled the medical sheet over her legs. Then she grabbed two of the pre-made formula bottles and handed one to each parent.

"Here you go," she said, and each parent took one, but didn't use it, so the nurse added, "It's very important that you feed them now," and she gave both a soft, yet forceful, squeeze on the arm.

"I-I... I'm gona breast feed them," Sarah whispered.

"Oh... okay," the nurse retrieved the bottles, "I'll leave you to this then, the call button's on your right."

With that the last two nurses left, leaving Sean and Sarah alone.

Having taken what the nurse had said a bit more clearly than Sarah, Sean circled around the bed and sat down next to her, "You need to feed them."

Gaze wide, Sarah whispered, "At the same time?"

"I guess... I can help you if you need."

"Please," Sarah whispered and was about to hand Sean the vixen, but stopped.

She didn't want to hand her off, and now she wanted to hold her son too.

"Okay just... here pull down my shirt," she whispered, and Sean pulled down the front of the hospital gown to reveal her supple breasts.

Then, carefully, Sean handed her the small buck, not wanting to but knowing it was for the best. Rather instinctively, each newborn took one of Sarah's nipples in their mouth and sucked along, milking her as if they knew all along how, from birth, ironically.

Taking the moment Sean whispered, "Two..."

"Two..." Sarah repeated, "Sean we have two."

Both slightly regretted now not having been told what it was, or that they'd be having two, so that they could have done their homework a bit better than they had.

That sense of depression disappeared however when Sean whispered, without thought, "Twice the love..."

"Oh Sean..." Sarah whispered and looked up at her husband.

He lowered his face to hers and they kissed and nuzzled softly as their children suckled from Sarah's breasts. Eventually they both had their fill, and sat squirming on her chest.

Pushing himself more onto the bed, the fox whispered, "What are... how are..." he stopped, there was nothing he could say, but he had to say something, he wanted to, and then, feeling that he really wanted to say this, whispered, "Their beautiful."

"I know," Sarah replied quietly.

"Are we- what are we gona name em?"

Since the pain medication had been removed from her, Sarah was becoming clearer and more aware of the situation, so in a louder, stronger voice she said, "Well... I had thought up some names..."

"Okay and?"

"Well... well it's not fair if I just name em."

"Na it's fine," Sean whispered and nuzzled her again, "Go on, what we're you thinking."

Looking into his eyes to see if it was really okay, Sarah saw that it was and whispered, "Simon... I want to call the boy Simon."

"Sounds great," Sean smiled, "And the girl?"

"I asked your mom," the rabbit started, and Sean half expected her to say "Catharine" for the name, "and she said it was okay if we named her Jennifer, after her mother."

Sean's eyebrows went up, it certainly wasn't what he'd thought of.

Unfortunately Sarah mistook his reaction, and said in a rather emotional voice, "Ohhh you hate it."

"No!" Sean replied loudly, "No it actually sounds good. I just never woulda thought of that."

Different emotions running through her, Sarah asked, "You really think it's okay?"

"Yes, and I think my mom will be very flattered that you want to name her that," Sean replied.

Smiling, Sarah whispered, "So Simon and Jennifer?"

"Simon and Jennifer," he repeated, then looked at his two new children and asked, "Can I hold one."

"Which one?"

"Simon," Sean answered, then smiled, "And Jennifer?"

They both smiled at that, "One at a time okay?"

"Okay," and Sean picked up the little bunny.

He squirmed a little, then settled down in his father's paws. Needless to say, he was adorable. He looked pretty much the same as Sarah, same coloring at least. Every second he held his son though Sean smiled wider. While he was, Sarah pulled Jennifer up closer to her face and rocked the vixen back and forth.

"A son and daughter, Sarah," Sean whispered, voice getting heavy, "I'm so... we have both. We got both..."

The reality was warming over both of them and Sarah with an equally heavy voice said, "We made these Sean... I can't believe we made these..."

Jennifer yawned in her mother's paws and appeared to start to sleep. Sarah really gave her a good looking over, past the idea that she was her daughter, and more into what her daughter was. The little vixen couldn't have been much larger than a shoebox, with a small bushy tail very reminiscent of Sean's. Interestingly, she wasn't the same blood red color that Sean and his mother were, Jennifer was a softer red, getting closer to the orange that Sarah's father was.

A few moments went by and without words the two new parents traded young, Sean getting a look at his beautiful new daughter and Sarah a first good look at her son.

Simon was still awake and a tad softer than his sister but a little smaller, probably since he was a rabbit and not a fox. His fur was identical to Sarah's and his grandmother's and squirmed around every few seconds until she started nuzzling him, at which point the little buck calmed almost immediately.

The doctor entered, followed by two nurses who each stood next to the parents and attempted to coax them to hand over the young.

"We just need to check them again, make sure everything's staying clear," the doctor explained and, not happily, Sean and Sarah handed over their offspring.

Looking each one over, testing their breathing, heart rate, and responsiveness, and once satisfied handed the young back to each parent.

"Their fine, now we need you to give us the information for the birth certificate," the doctor said and grabbed a file off his chart, "Lets start with the buck..." the older rabbit muttered to himself as he filled out the initial heart rate, time of birth, and the rest of the initial medical information, then looked up at the parents and asked, "You have a name yet?"

"Yes," Sarah whispered, and looked at Sean who nodded, "Simon Reynolds."

The doctor scribbled it in, "And names of parents," there was a pause from the parents and without looking up the doctor added, "It's a formality, legal thing."

"Sean Reynolds and Sarah Reynolds," the fox replied and stroked his son's little paws.

Finishing Simon's file, he turned the page and filled out the remaining data. He then handed off the first page and started writing the information for the vixen.

Looking up this time the doctor asked, "I take it you have a name for the vixen too?"

This time Sean answered, saying, "Yes, Jennifer Reynolds."

"And parents names," the doctor replied.

Both Sean and Sarah sighed and shook their heads, and Sean repeated, "Sean Reynolds and Sarah Reynolds."

"Okay," he finished up the paper, "We'll send you a copy of each, and later on we'll move you all back to your room upstairs. If you want we can phone each of your parents."

Glancing at Sarah whose ears twitched their own little sign for "no" the fox shook his head and replied, "No, we'll take care of that tomorrow."

With that the doctor and nurses left, leaving the new family quite happily, alone.

Four Days Later, The Atric's Home in Hartsdale, Foc 5:41 PM Local Time

"So what's the plan then?" Emily asked excitedly, putting on her small jacket.

"Well," Sean began, and looked over his wife quickly, "I figured your better off picking up Steve and Cathy and I'll grab Sean and Sarah at the station."

Huffing cutely, she asked, "Why you?"

"Cause if you go your likely to take em and hide them so you can have em' all to yourself," the fox replied with a smile.

Emily just furrowed her brow and sighed, "So you get to see our grandchildren first."

"I'll promise not to look at them too much," Sean said reassuringly.

Still ticked, the rabbit whispered, "Liar."

At that he laughed loudly, loving how cute his wife was. Sean grabbed his keys and sat down at the edge of the couch waiting for his wife to finish getting ready.

Calling out from the kitchen Emily said, "Two... I still can't believe our baby made two."

"I know..." Sean whispered quietly, "Twins," he added louder, "I bet their both shitting themselves after all this."

"Ha!" Emily laughed, "I bet they are."

Soon they both took their respected cars to each place, Emily to pick up Steve and Cathy and Sean to grab the young pair from the transport station. They were all going to go to a party at a hotel then back to the Atric's for desert, but Steve and Cathy needed help carrying the food and gifts and other materials to the party and then to the house, so Emily was going to aid them with that.

Sean drove like a mad-fox to the transport station though. He never really drove like this, that was more of his wife's thing, but something about being a grandfather, about meeting his offspring's offspring just thrilled him. It only took him a few minutes for him to reach the landing pad, about five minutes before their scheduled arrival. Still though, he excitedly ran over to the landing pad and watched the sky for signs of the transport.

Finally he saw it, a glimmering star that grew larger and larger as it came closer to the ground. Eventually it took shape of a normal Federal transport, coming down slowly, going through a normal landing cycle, coming to rest with a shudder and groan as the landing gear touched down.

The bay doors opened and a few various furs pilled out, Sean watching eagerly all the while. Then, turning the corner to the exit bay, he saw his daughter first, holding what he assumed was his granddaughter all wrapped up in a small towel, then Sean holding their son.

They smiled widely and started walking towards Mr. Atric, gleeful and patting their newborns softly.

"Daddy!" Sarah called out as she reached the bottom of the gantry.

Sean took a step forward to meet her but the whole of the ship was enveloped in a great fire and an explosion rocked through the air, sending everyone flying into piece.

"My babies!" Sarah screamed and sat up in bed in a flash.

No sooner has she screamed had Sean sat up and cleared the room mentally for threats, then turned over and gripped her soundly yelling nervously, "What's wrong!? What's wrong?!"

"My babies!" Sarah screamed again, still not quite out of the nightmare.

Catching on, Sean, still nervous though, hugged her tightly, her pinned back ears tight on her back, and whispered, "Sarah their okay, their okay, it was just a bad dream."

"A dream?!"

"A dream honey, just a bad dream," Sean said calmly, or seemingly calmly, he was in reality, nervous as hell.

It did help though, and Sarah's accelerated breath slowed a little, although she still trembled, "Leme... help me to them."

Still in the calm voice Sean replied, "Okay, okay, just breath slowly."

Sarah nodded rapidly and practically tried to jump from the bed to run to the babies' room. The fox made sure she was calm though, so not to get overzealous and fall and hurt herself running.

Carefully he walked her down the hall into the den where the two cribs were set up, both Simon and Jennifer sleeping soundly and quietly, not stirring at all.

After staying two days at the hospital they'd cleared the family to return home where they'd spent the last day resting up for the move at the end of the week. Now, Tuesday, they were waiting anxiously for so many things it was starting to kill both of them. Both of their parents were going to arrive tomorrow to help with the move, but in the meantime Sarah had broken first.

Still shivering, she approached each crib and checked them carefully, making sure they were really both okay. They were but Sarah was still terrified.

"What was it?" Sean asked, coming up behind her and holding her softly.

"I- we went home and the transport blew up with us on it," Sarah said bluntly and her eyes twitched in fear.

"Just a dream Sarah, just a dream," Sean replied reassuringly, then in a careful tone added, "we can wheel them into our room if you want."

Sarah shook her head, surprisingly, no, "No... no I'm okay," then turned back and whispered, "just promise me you won't tell my mom about this okay?" then thinking she added, "or your mom."

Surprised, Sean nodded a yes but made sure to say, "I won't."

Not waiting an extra second, the rabbit walked slowly back to their bedroom, followed closely by Sean. They both got into bed and Sarah clutched onto her husband, a bit tighter than normal and started kissing and rubbing his neck.

"I'm so worried about all this Sean," she whispered softly.

"How come?" he said and started nibbling on her ears ever so softly.

The rabbit sighed, "Cause... well the doctor told me something... kinda offhand, like not trying to scare me but he did."

"And that was?"

"Well he told me I was lucky. He said that I was really lucky that nothing bad happened, that I was okay and that they were okay," she explained, "He told me that we both have such a family history of birth complications that I was pretty likely to have one, but I didn't. I mean I was born in a strange way, you too, and your mom's mom... she died during childbirth."

"Well that didn't happen," Sean said bluntly, "your okay, their okay, so don't worry about it, your just gona scare yourself," then he smiled, "Your always hurting yourself, I don't know why."

Sarah just nodded, not wanting to get into that now. Instead she just nuzzled his neck and kept kissing him. Surprising herself, she moaned lustfully into her husband's neck as she felt his body grind against hers.

They both laughed softly at the sound and cooled back a little, not quite ready for that yet. Still though, it was fun nonetheless.

"I've missed this," Sarah admitted.

"Me too," Sean replied.

"I can't wait to play with our children though," Sarah whispered, "I can't wait till their older and they can talk and they can play, like the way we did."

Smiling, he whispered, "Did?"

At that Sarah cooed and pat her husband's face, "I love playing with you... your still my best friend after all."

Sean loved that, he loved thinking of Sarah still as his little friend from childhood, he loved remembering how far they'd come, from birth to friends to lovers to husband and wife and now, parents.

She liked thinking of that too, it made what they had all that more special, but she took it a step forward and whispered, "Their gona have whole lives too... their both gona find other furs to fall in love with, someone they can love like this," she stroked his face, "it's a little scary isn't it?"

"That's so long Sarah, they've got a long time till they gota worry about that."

"That's not what everyone tells me, they always say that they grow up really fast," Sarah said, a little sad.

Sean wasn't upset though, and he whispered, "Then we just make the most of the time we get..." then thinking for a moment he added, "You are a great mother... I can tell already."

They both really smiled from that, and to reciprocate his feelings Sarah replied, "And you're a great father..." then she really thought about it, how protective Sean always was, how protective he'd just been when she'd had her nightmare, "You really are going to be a great father..."

Her eyes welled up and she hugged him in a more intimate, dear, way.

"You'll really be a great father..." she repeated with a half broken voice, "I'm so glad it's you, Sean, I'm so glad that it was you."

Her emotions imprinted onto him and Sean, with a heavy voice too, whispered back, "I love you Sarah... this is- I can't tell you how happy I am that we have a family of our own now... cause we do... we have a family... just little us all together now."

"Just little us?"

"Just little us."

Sarah forced a weak, tear ridden giggle, "I wana just run around now I'm so excited from all this, I wana hold them and kiss them all night."

"I do too..." and Sean was half ready to fulfill that urge but his newfound parental ideals told him not to, so instead he added, "But we can't... we can hug and kiss each other though."

There wasn't a need for a retort for that, Sarah was on him, kissing him deeply and pressing her whole self into him. They licked each other's tongues, gladly tasting each other as much as possible.

Clearly pleasured, and borderline in heat, Sarah groaned out, "God lets make more!!"

The whole mood crashed and they both stopped right away. Then it hit her, and she was instantly ashamed.

"Oh no! Oh Sean I'm so sorry!" she yelled and nuzzled him tightly, "I didn't-"

He looked like he was about to cry, Sarah could see it all too clearly in her husband's face.

"No it's okay," Sean whispered, his voice sounded upset though, "cause I'm- I am glad... I love my two new children... and I'm even happier that you gave me two offspring. One of each... so I don't need to be sad about... it..." Â Â Â

Sarah was still upset. In the heat, almost literally, of the moment, part of her had actually meant it. Parts of her more feminine side were all being reawakened including the urge to be a parent, and Sarah of course was feeling that urge in spades.

"I'm sorry," she repeated, feeling terrible.

"Don't be, please don't be," Sean replied and pulled his face a little back so they could lock eyes, "I can't tell you how glad I am.... I really can't, cause, well I still got to have kids, and that's all that matters. I get to have two little kids grow up and I still get to be with you, that's all I want... and yeah... I can't make more..." Sean trailed off, still sad.

Not going to take this at face value, the rabbit persisted and whispered, "No, I want you to be honest. If it means yelling at me, that's okay, or being angry with yourself, I just want you to be honest okay?"

"I am being-"

"No Sean, I can tell from that look on your face," Sarah whispered, and the fox frowned ever more, biting his lip, "I can tell there's something more to this, your more angry than your admitting."

"I'm not angry though," he replied and Sarah went to retort but Sean continued, "I am upset... but I mean how couldn't I be. I mean think about it... what if this was you? What if they told you, you couldn't make babies anymore?"

Sarah didn't have an answer to that. It'd probably crush her, even though they really had no intentions of having more children at this point, the idea of being locked out of that choice forever would crush her. She knew it too.

So, knowing that honesty was the name of the game, Sarah replied, "I would probably be angry and sad as hell."

"Then you can understand a little right?" he whispered, "I mean it makes me feel useless, like I can't do what I need to for you."

"That's not true at all though."

"I can't make children," Sean pointed out.

Interestingly, that hurt Sarah a little, and because of that she whispered, "Sean you can't really think that?"

"Think what?"

"That you're useless to me cause you can't make more kids."

Sean realized the poor wording of that statement but the logic still sat with him.

Just as sad as he was now, she continued, "Your so much more to me than just a baby maker..." she feigned a sad smile, "You're my best friend and- and my lover... how could you forget that?"

"I... I didn't... I just- I mean you said-"

"I know what I said... but that's not all I'd ever want from you," the gears of Sarah's mind turned and she thought up a good explanation, "I mean think about it, if all I wanted you for was making babies wouldn't I have just left you when we found out you couldn't anymore?"

It had a bad connotation but it was true, clearly Sean had much more to offer to her than merely reproduction.

Trying to be as soft as she could be, Sarah nuzzled him and continued speaking in a loving tone, "We can still do everything we've always done, ever since we were little kids. We can still kiss, we can still hug, we can still walk in the park, we can still go shooting, we can still go and make love in the generals office," both of them were making sad but happy smiles, "we can do all of that stuff... only one thing we can't do... and guess what- you know what?" Sarah nodded and looked him in the eyes carefully to make her point, "We shouldn't do that one thing to much, because we have two kids now, and more would be nice, I won't lie to you, but I'm really just as happy with them since I'd love them all just the same."

Sean really didn't have an answer to that small speech. He just spent the next few silent minutes taking it all in.

"I still love you, Sean, I still love you," Sarah added, "No matter what you can or can't do I'll always love you, and want to be with you."

"And that's all that matters to me," Sean replied, his voice heavy.

The pair hugged tightly, feeling much better having said all that.

Whispering into her soft furry shoulder, Sean said, "I'm so glad you're my wife, Sarah... I can't believe how much I love you, and that you really can love me that much. It actually scares me a little... but in a good way..."

Brushing a few tears out of her eyes Sarah let out a stiffened giggle, "What am I gona do with you... your more screwed up than I am."

"Heh," Sean chuckled and also wiped a few tears away, "You're just as screwed up as I am."

Feeling better, considerably better, Sarah played back and asked, "How so?"

"Oh in your own special ways," Sean kissed her between her ears, stopping to rub his muzzle in her soft fur, "The ones that I love you for."

Pressing herself onto him, glad that he was smiling now, she asked, "Like?"

"Like... like your pushiness..."

Sarah furrowed her brow, "‘Pushiness..."

"It's a good thing honey... you always know how to put me back together and you never stop, that's what I really love, you never stop, you care too much to stop."

Satisfied with his response, Sarah licked his lips and wrapped her paws around his neck, "Well I'll tell you what quirks in you I like. I like that no matter what happens, you always lie first, then come out second."

A few seconds of silence past but Sean smiled and shook his head, "Shush up you," and with that they kissed, this time it was much more loving, without lust or sexual energy but purely out of love and gratefulness for the other's presence and love.

When they did part lips, some salvia resting on their lips, Sarah whispered, "You know... you know- well leme just remention the other part; you can't make babies... but you can still do the-"

Sean gave her a goofy look, he knew what she was trying to say but she was trying to be too elegant about it.

"Okay," she whispered and smiled softly, "we can still have sex."

"You wana?"

"Well this isn't the sexiest way to start," Sarah giggled.

Sean kissed her again, and made a point to keep it passionate, "This is."

"Mmmm yes," the rabbit moaned and rocked her body against his.

Their muzzles met as did their tongues, mid air at first, but soon the rest of their open mouths came together and their tongues licked and tugged at each other as they kisses softly yet fully.

Sarah moaned again and they both started touching each other's quickly warming bodies. It didn't take long, but Sean's paws made their way around behind her, rubbing her back at first but soon he began lifting her shirt up from behind, petting the soft fur as more and more was revealed.

Petting the small of her back, they both kissed a little harder, the moment heating up with every stroke, every lick, every quiver of their pressed bodies.

They separated their lips for a moment and Sarah bowed her little rabbit head. Carefully Sean lifted her shirt, revealing her two luscious tits still captured in a soft lacy bra.

Before he would remove the final article though Sean and Sarah shared another few moments of blissful kissing, happy to feel each other's lips smack as they kissed.

Sarah's paws got to working as well, prodding her husband's strong body too. She pat the soft fur covering his hard, muscular arms, rubbing and holding him as the mental anxiety started to catch up with her, desperately wanting to feel him inside. Her body was so used to having something inside of her, specially that area, she had to feel it again, if only for a few hours.

This time they didn't break from kissing, Sarah just pushed the straps of her bra over her shoulders and rotated her chest until her two tits were free and pressing against Sean's still clothed body.

Preferring to feel her mounts against his unclothed chest, Sean carefully reached down; lips still locked with hers, and unbuttoned his sleep shirt and pulled it off.

With both their chests exposed, the fox whispered, "You're so soft."

"I know," she replied in a soft and weak voice.

Ears perky, Sean continued petting her back and massaging her tits as he said, "Your also too beautiful."

"Too beautiful?"

"Yeah... it's scary," Sean was truly feeling more infatuated for her than he'd ever been in his entire life.

"You're too nice," Sarah replied and lowered her ears meekly to kiss him.

Hardly possible, but they managed to kiss even more passionately than before, not letting a single breath of air to pass out of their sealed lips as their tongues danced together. Slowly Sean pulled himself atop the rabbit, who sighed happily in mild submission.Â

Then something happened though, while still kissing and fondling her, and Sean stopped, his mind racing on a line of thought. More than able to tell that he was really thinking about something, Sarah just tilted her head and looked into his eyes.

"You know..." he began a moment later, and smiled softly, "This is the first time I've felt like an adult with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I don't feel like a teenager having sex with his girlfriend anymore," Sean explained, "I feel like a full-grown fox having sex with his beautiful, grown up wife."

It was an interesting point because, for the most part, Sarah still thought of herself in similar terms. To her they were still two little kids, madly in love, living out a real version of a figurative "house" game. While this view didn't lessen what they had, nothing ever could, this new revelation did cause it to evolve. At the same time as her husband, Sarah felt more adult about her relationship and life.

"Yeah... yeah I can see that," she whispered finally after a few seconds of hard thought.

"I like it," Sean replied, then nibbled softly on the base of one of her ears, "I like it a lot."

She murred happily and ground her body against his, trying as hard as she could to grind out her own drooling pelvis.

Sensing this, Sean gave one final nibble and reached around behind Sarah and started rolling down her pajama bottoms, slowly revealing her soft rump.

Now giggling, the rabbit kissed her husband harder, feeling more and more enamored as the moments passed. As every inch of fur on her body was slowly revealed, as ever individual hair felt the cloth lower or his paws touch Sarah felt more and more electricity surge through her pussy.

With nothing but soaked panties on, Sarah winked at Sean and managed to get the fox to shift positions, now putting him on his back with Sarah straddling his body. At first Sean laid there with his paws crossed beneath his head, waiting for Sarah to take the lead, but instead they both just sat like that for a few minutes, smiling and looked at each other lovingly in the eye.

This nice, calm moment was ended though when they both felt Sean's very hard cock, even still confined within his sweat pants, press and push its way, gagging to get into the rabbit's body.

Biting her lip with anticipation, Sarah bend down and gave Sean a few kisses on his forehead, then down to his snout to lick his tongue, then slowly kissed her way down his body until she was face to face with the top of his sweat pants. She pushed them off, along with his boxers, letting his cock flop out and stand at attention before her.

Eager and ready, Sarah pressed his cockhead against her lips, slowly licking the tip with her tongue, feeling his body shake with anticipation, then pushed her head down to take half his cock into her mouth, licking it all the way.

Sean let out a held breath and gripped the sheets of the bed, feeling the rabbit suck his member dry, release it from her mouth to lick the shaft, then once more bob up and down slowly, taking his full length each time.

Glad to see her husband squirm, Sarah pulled up and softly licked the head, making circles all the way around and letting out the most pleasing slurping sound that made Sean want to push her over and fuck her silly. He had to do something too, he couldn't take it, it just felt to damn good.

Deciding on his course of action, Sean forced himself up and, panting hard enough that his long fox tongue dangled from his jaw, he whispered, "Come ‘er."Â

Not sure what he was planning, Sarah gave his cock a good final lick from balls to tip and pushed her body up the bed to be face to face with him.

"Here," he whispered, and started to push her body around, head back towards his aching cock, "we'll do each other."

"Ohhhh...." Sarah groaned excitedly, and crawled over to his waiting member, dangling her soft rear above his head.

They both had to adjust themselves, Sarah being physically shorter, not counting her ears. Carefully, almost afraid of the first feel of his open mouth, she lowered her dripping pussy to his lips were his tongue practically shot up her folds, licking her back to front and teetering on her erect clit long enough that Sarah almost sat down on his face out of reflex.

She groaned pleasurably and almost forced herself down onto his body, taking his cock immediately in her muzzle, and sucking it as fast as she could, feeling that her actions here were linked to how fast she would cum.

On his end, Sean gripped the sides of her soft hips and held her in place as his long skillful tongue probed her hot insides, tasting every inch, every nub, and every soft fold of pink skin it offered. Soon Sean tried simply bobbing his own tongue in and out of Sarah, mimicking her own constant actions on his cock, which she sucked and groaned on vigorously, quickly jerking off what portions weren't in her mouth at any moment.

Sarah was more sensitive now, more so than she'd been in the past, partially due to the muscle stimulators the doctor had given her after she'd given birth, to return her cunny to almost a virgin tightness. This, coupled with the fact Sean knew every little spot on her pussy that could make her squirm, brought her agonizingly closer and closer to an eventual cum.

She sucked and groaned on his cock, bobbing faster and faster. The vibrations as she moaned made it even better for the fox, tensing his cock. Wanting to make him enjoy it more, as he was doing for her, Sarah threw in her specialty of holding his whole cock down her throat and sticking her tongue out below, licking the base of his balls in a tantalizing way.

Even Sean groaned at that, and could barely stand it. In turn he focused all his licks on her clit, making her almost choke on his cock as she lost control of most of her muscles.

Moaning too much now, Sarah let Sean's cock drop from her lips and she rested her head on his pelvis, his cock bouncing in front of her as he continued eating out her pussy. Sean licked her so hard that he was practically humping her with his maw and her body reacted so, grinding against his face the same way she would against his crotch given the chance.

Not even having a chance to yell some ecstatic phrase right before orgasm, Sarah came hard right on Sean's face, sending a small, but strong stream of super hot cum right onto his tongue; dripping into his mouth and all over most of his face.

All Sarah could do was scream and groan in pleasure, whole body shaking in orgasmic pride. She convulsed, as usual, but it hurt, that was new, or at least not something she'd experienced for years. Cumming hadn't been actually painful, to any degree, since they'd been little kids, right when they'd started having sex. She knew why though, and almost feared the coming fucking she'd receive from Sean, who's red-topped cock showed what she would surely receive.

Unsuccessfully trying to catch her breath, Sarah rolled off of Sean and put her paws to her chest, holding her own breasts, trying as much as she could to get back into the game.

Sean took a moment as well to catch his breath, having spent the last few seconds gulping down what femie juices he could. Clearly, this had been a slightly too fast start for them both, neither having stimulated the other or themselves like this for more than three months now.

Still though, they both wanted more, and Sean took the initiative, being the most aroused of the two at the moment, and slide his way to be next to the still out of breath rabbit. He placed one of his paws on her chest and almost made the effort to help her breath better. It was a sweet gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Sarah, and she took a few deep gulps of air, actually aided by Sean's pressured, licked her lips, and rolled on her side looking at Sean.

Smiling happily at her, Sean was about to take his paw off her chest but decided to play with her a little first. He moved closer to her body, letting their hind legs mingle a little, and he started petting her breasts. Softly at first, merely stroking the soft fur on her tits, it was clear that he was going to make sure this was going to be fun, not that it wasn't already.

Sarah smiled too, liking the gentle touching. Generally, she liked being felt up between sex sessions, it kept her physically going sexually and kept everything softer. That was the other thing; they'd become much softer now, being more mature. There were times where they both had thoughts of doing some of the odder ends of sex such as the exhibition and mild S&M they took part in while still in high school, and even once or twice they had indulged in it, but they had grown up over that, they'd seen the better side of sex and they both knew what they wanted: love, and of all things, they had it in spades.

Heating up a little Sean moved closer, mingling his paw over more sections of her body. Eventually he moved all the way over to her, chests touching and legs wrapping, and Sean started softly patting and rubbing the rabbit's back.

"He he..." Sarah squealed softly, "we gona make love now?"

Sean kissed her quickly and nodded, a devious smile on his lips. He continued petting and rocking their bodies together, both enjoying it intensely.

Now much more turned on, fully recovered now, Sarah whispered, "Please Sean... Please... lets do it!"

Not wanting to disappoint, Sean pulled them as close as he could manage to get their bodies. Carefully he used his strong legs to lift up one of hers and he started lining up their parts. While doing this Sarah reached around behind her fox lover and started holding his bushy tail, feeling that she was neglecting her part.

At first she pet it softly, but as he started rubbing his cockhead into her pussy, probing it softly at first, then pushing in to make entry, Sarah realized how much tighter the muscle stimulators had made her again. She was probably tighter than she'd ever been now, and as soon as Sean trusted in it was to late, and she yelp in surprise and pain, grabbing onto Sean's tail which caused him to yelp in turn and trust harder as a reflex. Along with that, he yiffed pretty loudly, loud enough that they both thought right away of the sleeping babies.

It didn't have to be said, and Sean forced himself up and walked over to the door, shutting it softly as he could. Then he turned and looked at Sarah grinning as she grinned back, turning over and laying spread eagle on the bed. In a move that was more enticing than any other, the rabbit reached down and held her soft pink pussy lips and pulled them an extra half inch apart, revealing more of her tight passage.

Sean basically ran at the rabbit, launched himself into the air, and landed right on top of her, mauling her with kisses and pressing and hugging her as much as he could.

Moaning with glee, the soft rabbit pinned back her ears to smooth out her head as her husband's paws pat her between kisses.

As he sifted to her neck, Sarah groaned, "God yes...now Sean... I want you all the way now!"

Obliging his wife, Sean, while still kissing her and rubbing his muzzle in her furry neck, reached down with one paw and lined up his red, throbbing member with her waiting passage. With a single, quick rub, he pressed it against her lips and forced it in with a few mild thrusts.

Sarah moaned pleasurably and reached around his body to pet the base of his tail, wanting to make this sex as complete as possible.

Although he tried, the fox couldn't stop himself and he yiffed in a high voice right into her neck. They paused momentarily while Sean eyed his wife who looked up at him and licked his open mouth playfully. Sean pressed his lips right into hers and they started wrapping and licking inside each other's mouths.

It started with mild thrusts at first, Sean feeling his way out inside of the squirming rabbit yet still more focused with her super hot mouth and tongue inside his, but soon her pussy creped more into his mind and realized that the slow rate he was at was about as fast as he could go; she was too tight.

Groaning with each full stroke, in and out, Sarah was clearly enjoying all the attention, the full body touching, the kissing, and his soft humps. That was good enough for Sean. Still though, he was tempted to move faster, but he was sure it would hurt her, yet he really wanted to.

So, being smart about it, he whispered, "Can we go faster?"

"I don't know, can we?" Sarah replied.

"You think it'll hurt?" he whispered back, stopping on the in stroke, leaving his lover filled with as much of his cock as he could.

She paused to think for a moment, focusing her mind on her spread folds, how little room was there and how wonderful that feeling of his cock moving in and out was already producing.

Weighing the possibilities for a few more seconds, she licked her own lips, then his, and whispered, "Well... well we'll just go slow at first? Like always, we'll start things slow."

"Okay," Sean replied and gave her a kiss, making sure to twist his head so that he could open his whole muzzle with hers, knowing how much they both loved kissing like that.

Then, slowly and not stopping his deep kiss, Sean started his pull out, followed as fast by a quick trust in, but not much faster than before. Still though, the rabbit let out a soft moan into Sean's mouth, but it was one of comfort and not quite strained yet.

So, giving a few more of the softer pumps, Sean, in a manner of speaking, took a wind up, and gave her a good, hard thrust into her hot sleeve, filling her up outright. It was such an unexpected feeling for Sarah that she accidentally bit down on Sean's tongue, which was at the moment, wrapped around with hers inside her mouth.

Sean pulled back right away and started rubbing his long tongue on the roof of his mouth.

"Sorry," the rabbit apologized.

Sucking his tongue carefully, he asked, "You okay?"

She nodded quickly, "Yeah... we can keep going."

Sean nodded as well and, kissing her deeply again, started humping her, not as hard as that one thrust, but good enough that he could feel her losing control. A few more minutes was all she could take; she broke their kiss and let her head fall back as she moaned with each full trust.

Smiling at her enjoyment, and at that of his own, Sean lowered his head to kiss her neck, knowing the more he stimulated her the more she'd moan, and the more she'd moan the more he'd enjoy it as well. Their arousal was linked and when they came, they were going to cum together, and good and hard.

The fox pushed himself up on his paws, holding his body above Sarah's. She wrapped her paw around his neck and smiled, rolling her head side to side and groaning all the while as her tits bounced on her chest with every hump.

Panting, the fox huffed, "You like this?"

"I love it baby!" she replied sensually, "I fucking love it... fuck me Sean, ohhhh..." she moaned weakly then spoke up and add, "Ohh please fuck me!"

She let her paws fall to her own chest, rolling her tits beautifully in front of Sean's hanging head, her whole body trusting back and forth as Sean trusted into her as hard as he could before it would hurt her.

Her body stopped for a moment as Sean ceased his humps, grasping her strong hind legs for a moment and pushing them over her, resting them on his shoulders. Classically, Sarah bit her lower lip in anticipation, watching helplessly as her lover rubbed the length of his cock along her outer lips, brushing her agitated clit and torturing her with the agony of waiting for anticipation.

"Comon Sean..." she said in the most sensual, begging tone she had, "now... do me now!"

Her voice was so enchanting that Sean merely nodded and obeyed, pressing his shoulders against her calves and trusting his length in. A shock when through the rabbit's body and she squeaked out a moan of almost distress but Sean knew better, she was really loving it now, she was hot as hell and wanted a good fucking.

The fact her legs were being stretched out over her head, which further pulled apart her lips, made it so Sean's cockhead was able to go much deeper then before, and she could feel his hot rod spreading apart her tight cunny, and she, as a reflex, boar down on him, which only gave the fox more reason to push harder and harder into her slit.

Seeing her reactions, Sean whispered, "You love it?"

Weaker still, she replied, "I love it... I wa-wan-want it..."

On one of his hard outstrokes he gave a full press right into her special spot and Sarah squealed with delight, then took a deep breath and started feeling everything tighten up. Her legs, her butt, her pussy most of all, even her neck tightened as each following trust pounded that area.

Pausing, near the brink of his own orgasm, Sean let Sarah's legs fall to his sides and he let his body lay right on top of hers, pressing their chests together.

Nearly out of breath he whispered, "Shit... God I love you... I-I wana cum in you so bad."

In a wanting, loving tone she replied, "Cum in me Sean, cum deep inside of me."

He waited a few more seconds before starting again, making sure that the building orgasm had enough time to be pushed back, to allow for as much love making as he could.

With a quick trust he started hard, pounding into her so hard that the whole bed rocked. Sarah screamed right way, wrapping her paws around his back and clutching onto him. She was so close, right on the edge. She had to wait though, her body wouldn't let her cum without him, she lived for that, but it was so hard. It was so hard that it hurt, she had to cum.

"Cum! Please cum! Sean!" she pleaded between moans.

The fox wasn't ready though, he'd paused just long enough to send that built up orgasm packing and now he was ready to keep going.

Still fucking her hard, he said in a strained voice, "Cum a little, it's okay."

"No!" she screamed and clutched him harder, "No I wana cum with you!"

That was sweet, needless to say, and made him feel even hornier and ready to cum.

Actually trying to focus on it now, trying to think of how tight she was, how her pussy lips closed in on his cock's base when he sheathed himself all the way inside her, and best of all how she moaned at every slight movement, happy and terribly pleasured moans that told him that this was feeling as good for her as it was for him.

Trusts harder now, coming all the way out to the tip of his cock, pausing slightly, then slamming back down again, balls deep, they both moaned, panting and sweating as they fucked as hard as they could.

Sarah was almost relieved when she felt the base of his cock start to thicken on one of his outstrokes, it meant her body would finally let out this terrible pressure. She could cum, he could cum, they'd cum together and she was going to be filled to the brim.

Feeling his knot forming, Sean slowed and lowered his trusts, making sure they'd tie; they both loved that. It reached it's biggest size, bigger than normal too, and Sean felt the hot liquid start to move it's way inside him, running towards the tip of his cock, desperately wanting to fill his rabbit's waiting pussy.

She was rocking her head back and forth so much against his furry, muscular shoulder that Sarah didn't know what to do, those anxious hundredths of a second ticking away like hours. She just lowered her head and quickly pressed her soft lips against his, pushing so hard into him their heads bumped but neither noticed. Almost as soon as their lips parted and their fretful tongues touched the first gobs of cum shot from Sean's cock, hard too, right into her belly, pushing deep and hard inside of her.Â

It was probably a good thing that Sarah had kissed him, they likely would have screamed so hard that the twins would have definitely woken up.

As each shot of cum went into her, Sarah twitched in orgasmic throws, pushing her tongue deeper and deeper inside Sean's mouth as his cum seeped deeper and deeper inside her fresh womb. Worse off her pussy decided to spurt juices too, but Sean's cock was blocking any exit for her cum, so it just mixed and further filled her, stimulating her already shocking pussy to convulsed violently and squeeze her whole body. She loved it though, every moment she came was like an hour and she squeezed her furry lover with all her might, her mind too aroused to tell her to do anything else.

Sean's end was just as good; her pussy massaged his cock, from base to tip, pressing out more cum than he thought he had. He came so much and so long that the back of his balls actually hurt a little. And her mouth, it was so warm, just like her pussy, and her tongue wrapped and played with his, a miniature sex between their tongues right inside their mouths as they both were rocketed with apparently crippling orgasms.

They breathed hard into each other's mouths, and every inch of both their bodies tingled with each pulse from his cock and each twitch and constriction of Sarah's pussy. His knot reached full size and a few lasts globs of cum spurted into her, further prolonging her orgasms, which, along with her own cum, pushed it up deeper and deeper inside her body, extending the feeling of fullness to which Sarah took much delight.

The kiss was broken and they both moaned terribly, breathing hard and moaning softly right in each other's face. As it died down further their moans were still high pitched and weak. Then the drained feeling hit them both like a sack of bricks, and they both barely were able to keep their necks taught enough to hold themselves up.

Still panting and out of breath, Sean pat his wife's head, petting her long ears as well, and whispered, "I love you..."

"I love you too," Sarah weakly replied, "I... it feels so... I love you so much Sean..."

Head dipping from the exhaustion, the fox licked her lips, something that Sarah usually did, and whispered, "So I really do work..."

"You work great," she replied quickly and soundly, "you work great... and guess what? We don't need to worry about things from now on, no pills and stuff... we could wake up in the morning and just keep going."

Sean smiled and kissed her softly.

"You work great..." she repeated once more.

Hearing that really made him feel better and he relaxed most of his body, or at least what he could, and let himself hug and cover Sarah's tinny frame. In turn Sarah nuzzled him and for a few minutes they played like this softly until Sarah realized that it might be a good idea to sleep, and that this wasn't the best way.

Carefully and softly, the rabbit whispered, "Sean... can I sleep on top of you tonight? Its just cause I-"

"It's okay, Sarah," he answered quickly, truthfully understanding her position.

She nodded and the two worked together, being tied after all, and managed to flip over so that the rabbit laid gently and comfortably on top of him, resting her head on his strong chest. Sean wrapped his tail around her leg and she looked up meekly, knowing the subtlety of the act, being his own, silent way of saying how much he loved tying with her.Â

They laid like that for a little while, resting and recuperating, but not quite falling asleep yet.

Out of the blue Sarah commented, "You know your softer now."

"What do you mean?"

"Your fur," she explained, "It's softer since its regrown."

Mildly surprised, and although tired he did love talking to her, so he continued playing along by asking, "Really?"

"Mmm hmm. I like it too," Sarah replied, "you feel less like a soldier and more like nice little soft fox..."

"Ha, little," Sean chuckled harmlessly and rubbed a paw down her back, holding her to his chest.

They didn't feel right just sleeping nude like that on an open bad, not with their own babies in the same house, so Sarah carefully pulled up the sheet over their tired bodies and further snuggled into his chest.

Smiling and rubbing her whole muzzle into his, she asked quietly, "Sleep?"

"Sleep," Sean replied and with that the pair fell silent, soon asleep together in loving embrace, their lot in life finally starting to clear out the way it should.

Chapter 3 Row

The Next Day, Home of Sean and Sarah Reynolds, Fort Reynolds, Conakry, 0952 Military Time

"Comon you..." a soothing voice said, "I think it's about time you got up..."

Sean yawned widely and opened his still sleep filed eyes. He saw his cream brown rabbit, still laying on his chest, looking up to his face with a very happy smile; she always was happy in the morning.

"You up?" she asked.

Nodding, the fox pat her back under the covers, feeling her soft fur, "Yep... what's up?"

"We gota get up."

"How come?"

Sarah giggled softly, "‘How come?' Cause we gota feed the babies, pick up our parents... I mean we got a shit load of stuff to do."

"Five more minutes."

Having no qualms with that, Sarah laid her head back down on his chest again and whispered, "Okay."

It was pretty comfortable laying like this, but within about ten minutes Sean really heard what Sarah had said, and he rubbed her furry arm quickly.

"What's up?" she asked, looking up his muscular chest.

"Let's go see ‘em."

The rabbit grinned widely and nodded quickly, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

She carefully began to sit up, taking care to let Sean's still firm cock slip out of her and making sure to actually clench to make sure none of what was the leftovers of last night's escapades dripped out. Once up, she swung her sexy legs over his body and stood up at the side of the bed.

Holding out her paw she helped Sean up and the two almost ran right to the babies' room, but then decided that it might be a good idea to get dressed first. Essentially just throwing on a pair of sweat pants each and for Sarah a small t-shirt, they walked quickly to the babies' front room.

First sight made Sarah run excitedly and then she tip toed over to Simon's crib, kneeling down and resting her head on its top bar.

Sean came up behind her and pat the top of her head, content to see her smiling widely.

"He's so beautiful... just like his daddy," she whispered contently.

That made Sean smile too, and he kneeled down along side her, "Should we wake them to feed them?"

"I don't know... probably not. I mean if their hungry they'll wake up right?"

The fox nodded and stood up, shifting over to look over Jennifer. She was so beautiful, Sean loved her deeply already, something that actually surprised him; he hadn't thought that the attachment for both his children would have set in so quickly and so strongly in such a short time. It had though, and he was so glad it did.

Unable to help himself he carefully scooped up the infant vixen and held her tightly to his chest. Sean walked over and, careful and silently as he could, reached back and pulled over a chair to sit next to where Sarah was still kneeling next to their son's crib.

Sarah looked over at him and nodded, "I guess I'll feed her first."

"You could do both," Sean replied, then smiled in advance, "You do have two of each."

At first the rabbit just brushed it off, then shook her head laughing softly.

"Dirty fox," she whispered under her breath and winked at Sean who was still chuckling.

As softly as her husband had, Sarah scooped up Simon and held the small buck tightly as she walked over the couch. Seeing no other option, she removed her shirt and waited for the infant to wake up enough to realize it was feeding time. When he did, he suckled for a few minutes, having his fill, then snuggled into the soft fur of his mom's breast and rested while newborn digestion kicked in, eventually waking him up enough to yawn and look around the room intently.

By this time Jennifer had awoke too and, squirming around in her father's paws, was handed off to Sarah so that she could be fed as well. Meanwhile Sean took hold of his son, looking at the small rabbit contently. Sean thought about it for a moment and realized that, while he looked like his mother for the obvious reason they were both rabbits, as far as he noticed, Simon didn't acutely resemble anyone in either of their families. Sure Sean had seen pictures, off paw, of Sarah's grandfather and in a passing thought he realized Simon probably would look like him, or more like him, but Sean's mind drifted to thinking about being a rabbit.

"Hey, leme ask you something," he said out of the blue.

Sarah didn't answer, she just looked up while Jennifer continued feeding.

"What was it like growing up for you?"

Confused, the rabbit tilted her head and made a queer smile, "You were there, Sean."

"No, I mean like how did you feel about it- being a rabbit in a town of mainly foxes."

"Oh," she said quietly and paused for a moment, "I don't know... I guess it really didn't bother me. I mean it did sometimes," she corrected, "but not enough to really bother me..."

Pausing for a few moments to give his query more thought, Sarah recalled a lot of things about their lives rather quickly.

Smiling she nodded to herself once or twice and added, "I remember. If you remember, we were just getting ‘older' when we started with each other," across the room Sean nodded, "and that was about the time that it started bothering me that it was really just me and my mom... and maybe your dad, that were different, but then you and I started... and I guess I was so focused on other things," bobbing her head she admitted, "bad and good, that I didn't really think about being a rabbit."

She let that hang for a few moments then asked, "Why'd you wana know?"

He shrugged, "I was just thinking about Simon. He's the first male rabbit, for the most part, in our families, and I was wondering what that'd be like for him."

"What? Growing up?"

Sean nodded.

"Well I guess it depends on where he grows up," Sarah added, completely without extra intent, although it made Sean think, it made both of them think.

Realizing it Sean whispered, "Yeah... where."

Sarah didn't hear that though, she was focused on something. She remembered her thoughts from when Sean was still basically in a coma, about her job. Things had happened so fast recently she'd forgot that whole thought line, about marriage and what it meant. She wasn't going to forget it now, but it wasn't, rather that wasn't, a conversation to be had now. That was a serious, in bed, all-nighter conversation, one that Sarah knew would be tough on both of them, for so many reasons that it terrified her now but she couldn't show it, for Sean's sake, for her sake, and for Simon and Jennifer's sake.

The rest of the next few hours went rather uneventfully, involving putting the twins back in their cribs while Sean and Sarah washed up, ate breakfast quite happily together, and Sean drove to pick up their parents at the station while Sarah stayed with the twins.

Needless to say, Cathy and Emily practically stormed Sean, showering him with congratulations and kisses, excitedly squealing at the thoughts of their children having children of their own. Steve and Mr. Atric however where not as enthusiastic, and stood however proudly and happy for their children, yet both had the feeling of being old for the second times in their lives, realizing they were both grandfathers now.

Even with Emily at the wheel, and driving the way she did, they didn't seem to get to Sean and Sarah's home fast enough, and Cathy and Emily didn't even wait for Sean to exit the car, they just ran up to and inside the house.

They found Sarah sitting with both of the twins on her lap and everyone froze. The two older females melted at the sight, looking at Sarah just happily stroking her young, barely aware of her own mother and Sean's mother watching intently.

"Oh my God..." was about the only sound heard for a few minutes, slowly rasping from Cathy's upturned muzzle.

Finally Sarah looked up, happy as ever as Sean walked in followed by his father and her father and walked passed the two females and kneeled down next to them, giving a perfect, little new family pose. At that point Cathy and Emily both finally approached, slowly, and sat down on either side of Sarah and just stared at the two infants.

"That's... that's Jennifer?" Cathy asked excitedly, looking the little vixen over.

Sarah nodded proudly and held her a little tighter.

"And that's Simon... my little grandson?" the vixen added, her excitement growing by the second.

Once again the rabbit nodded, just as proudly, and held him just as tightly as his sister.

That was all either of the two mothers could take, and they both said simultaneously, "Can I hold them?" then they looked at each other and again said simultaneously, "Can I hold one?"

Sarah smiled and for a split second thought nothing of it, but then her deepest, most basic, motherly instincts kicked in and she didn't want to. She felt it so strongly that in half a second after they said it, she almost replied "no" but controlled herself. Instead she looked over at Sean, her mental partner, and quite frankly at the moment, the only one she trusted to hold her babies.

Having identical feelings at the moment, and actually a little ashamed of it being that it was his own mother after all, Sean forced himself to nod, allowing the unthinkable of letting someone else, someone not them, hold even just one of the two offspring.

Not letting on to personal moment between her husband and herself, Sarah handed the closest infant to each of the two grandmothers: Jennifer to Emily and Simon to Cathy.

"He's adorable," Cathy said right away, and pat the infant, which reacted calmly and happily.

Emily was just as enamored with Jennifer, and in a high, emotional tone whispered, "Awww... you made beautiful babies you two."

Sean chuckled embarrassedly, his father walking up and patting his shoulders softly.

In a quite tone he kneeled down and whispered into the fox's ear, "I'm proud of you, boy."

"Thanks... dad," Sean whispered.

Holding Jennifer a little higher, Emily asked her daughter if it would be okay to let Sean hold the infant. Obviously the rabbit said it was fine and Mr. Atric got his first chance to hold one of the newborns.

The older fox looked proudly at the little vixen, petting her little chin and staring in amazement. He just couldn't believe something he had made, had made something itself, and something so precious as this little granddaughter he held.

"So you two happy?" Emily asked, looking closely at the little package her husband was holding.

Sarah reached out for Sean's paw and giggled, "Of course. I can't tell you how happy we are."

Unable to wait any longer Steve sat down by his wife and gestured to let him see the newborn. Unwillingly, Cathy handed off the little buck, looking on just as anxiously as her counterpart in Emily.

Biting her lip, Sarah said in a humorous tone, "Sooo... how do you all feel about being grandparents?"

Everyone looked up at that, even the ones holding newborns, and looked rather uncomfortable. Sean and Sarah laughed at the sight and winked at each other.

"We feel fine about it," Cathy spoke up, "Don't we guys?"

The other older furs weren't as enthusiastic about the thought. It made them feel old, or at least older. Their attention drifted away as the newborns squirmed.

Struggling with Jennifer, Sean whispered, "I think this one wants her mommy."

Sarah held out her paws and took the little package from her father.

Looking over her lap, Cathy tried hard to get a better look and whispered, "Oh she's sooooo cute.... Ohh leme see her."

Once her mother had calmed her down a little, Jennifer was handed off yet again and Cathy, again, melted at the sight. It was defiantly clear that of all the grandparents here, she was enjoying this the most, but then this was a family thing, and out of everyone here, the concept of family was taken the least for granted by Cathy, due to her own personal history.

Steve handed Simon off to Mr. Atric, letting him see the buck. Simon appeared to be a bit more calm then his sister. Moreover it appeared that the infant was enjoying the event.

All the while though Sean was thinking hard, really musing the situation, inside his mind. Seeing his father here, his mother, Sarah's parents, really was letting everything sink in. Sean looked anxiously at his son, his son. That was scary. How could he have a son? He was just a kid himself.

Unnoticed, Sean shook his head quickly, knocking the fear away. They'd be fine; his son would turn out fine. Sarah was there and she was a great mother already, she'd give him time to figure out his own way to be a father.

Interestingly enough, Sarah's mind wasn't so different at the moment, being surrounded by her parents and her husband's parents, and she was really realizing that she was a mother now, just like hers was.

More brave then Sean though, Sarah lowered her head to his and whispered, "What are we gona do now?"

Luckily for both of them, Sean misunderstood and thought she meant at the moment, so he replied, "We're gona move."

The answer was what she needed hear though, and the rabbit nodded and smiled, "Well lets set them down for the moment, we gota get out of this place by..." she thought for a moment, "noon or so, a little after."

The other furs and Steve nodded, and taking back a newborn each, Sean and Sarah replaced their offspring in their cribs while everyone helped move the boxes and other items to the car.

It took about an hour and a half, two trips, but soon everything was emptied from their first house except the two infants and their cribs, which were soon scooped up by an eager grandparent each and the cribs disassembled and brought over to the new house.

This new place was, needless to say, a real quarters for a family. Granted Sean was still a captain, although it was rumored that after he was ready for duty again he might be promoted, they had, up until this point, been in what could be a two fur house, or just a single officer's quarters. But they had a family now, and the Federal Army was coming through and moving them up to this nice new home. Two floors; three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dinning room, a den, and a living room, all inside a nice, white washed wooden exterior with a nice front and back lawn. There was a line of about six, on both sides of the road, of houses just like this, ranging in occupancy from other captain's to Colonel's. Essentially, a good house in good company. The only thing that Sean and Sarah had encountered that they weren't sure of was the bedrooms. They didn't know whether to put the twins together or in separate rooms. It didn't matter though, taking the lead Cathy and Emily had made the decision for the parents, who accepted it, and decided to put the newborns together in the same room, leaving the other empty as a guest room. In the future, when it was deemed inappropriate, it'd end up being Simon's or Jennifer's, but while they were still little, it'd be okay for them to share. In fact, it was probably better anyway. It'd give them a constant companion while they grew up.

Boxes all over the place, Sean sat on the new couch and gestured for Sarah to sit down next to him. Excited, the rabbit hopped over and jumped right onto his lap and kissed his muzzle happily.

Picturesque, the rest of the family sat down and watched the twins sit happily on Steve's and Emily's lap. As it appeared more and more clearly, Jennifer was the more "aware" of the two, although that was a poor description. Simon was clearly aware of everything around him, looking Steve and everyone else right in the eye inquisitively, and, at least in appearance, thinking about his surroundings. His sister had the same appearance, just that she seemed more active about it, inheriting her mother's early on active self. The little vixen poked and prodded Emily's lap, looking about and almost appearing to want to crawl around, although that was beyond her capabilities so far.

"So... how long till everything's back to normal?" Cathy asked, looking down at her grandson on Steve's lap.

Surprised by the question, Sarah raised an eyebrow and asked in return, "Does it ever go back to normal?"

"Good point," the vixen giggled, "Well sorta," she went on, looking over her still sleek shoulder at her daughter-in-law, "it won't ever be exactly like it used to, trust me you'll be happier, but things will go to a kinda normal. Like you'll both go to work... you'll get a new routine and such."

"Oh... oh I don't know," Sarah replied and looked at Sean and shrugged.

"Me neither."

"Well how longs both your time off?" Emily asked, breaking into the conversation and patting Jennifer softly.

Sean turned, "Well I'm still on forced leave for about another two months, and I think Sarah's maternity leave is... two months too?"

She nodded.

"Yeah so we actually both start at the same time," Sean concluded.

Looking carefully at her husband, Cathy asked, "What are you gona do when you both start?"

"With the babies?" Sarah clarified, the vixen nodded, "well... uhhh..." she bit her lip nervously, "I-I I uh... don't know."

Cathy coughed out a giggle, "That's something you'll learn soon, to think ahead."

Forcing herself to be humble, Sarah just nodded in reply. In reality she was thinking about this stuff. As soon as she thought about needing a serious conversation with Sean most of these topics came to mind, although no answers thereof.

"Anything else you two thinking about?" Mr. Atric asked, and looked upon his daughter carefully.

It was an ironic point, being that Sarah was a doctor and Sean was a trained officer. One would think they'd have planed everything out but in reality they often became to focused with the present to think far ahead.

"Just... keeping things calm," she replied, "Avoiding problems."

"Ahhh," Sean sighed thoughtfully and looked at Emily then back at their daughter, "Get this clear honey, there is gona be times when things get hectic."

"I know."

"Let me finish," the older fox continued, "You know kids get sick, they get hurt. I mean when you were just a little bunny you'd come home with just random scrapes and cuts that your mother nearly had a heart attack sometimes."

Emily made an unhappy grin and gave her husband a soft shove.

"And you just gota remember, these things happen and they go on. The key is to not freak out," Sean added, "they never last forever and if you treat em like that, and remember that, it makes dealing with them when they happen easier, a lot easier."

He let that hang in the air for a few minutes before added silently, "The most important thing is to stick together, remember that, your in this together, and that each other's what you've really only got most of the time... and that's okay, cause that's really all you need."

To the side Emily giggled at her husband's convictions.

"Everything you need to be a good parent is already there, in both of you, I now it is, just don't be afraid of you own decisions," Sean concluded.

Sarah nodded again quietly. Her attitude was noted by all. She had almost no rough edges to speak of now. Either she was burning inside or was actually grown up. Cathy and Emily knew it though; they knew exactly what had come over her, what had elicited this change; having children. It had softened Emily's rough edges and caused Cathy to go from a bouncing young vixen to a relatively mature adult in less than a few months, it was just one those events that any female couldn't avoid. It was even amplified, as always, by the fact she loved both her new children deeply, and coupled with the fact Sean had come out of his incident relatively okay, it was all the necessary factors to calm her down, a process started about twenty six years ago.

Chatting for a few more hours, it became evident that the twins were becoming restless, even Simon was getting antsy, so the two sets of grandparents bid their farewell and left Sean and Sarah, brand new parents in a brand new home, to their own devices, and for the first time in this whole ordeal, it hit them what they had gotten into, the reality of the situation that they were really grown ups and parents.

Sarah clutched Sean's paw again and the scared feeling in each of them disappeared. Mr. Atric had been right, things would be okay so long as they stuck together.

"So..." Sean whispered, trying to force a conversation to break the tense mood.

"So..." Sarah replied, unable to think of anything to say.

Sure she had her big conversation in mind, but this wasn't the right moment. That was absolutely something she'd have to plan better, and wait for bed. It was definitely a right-before-bed talk.

Silence remained for a few more minutes before the fox commented, "They look hungry," and their gaze shifted to the twins, sitting on their laps.

Coming out of a trance, Sarah shook her head and at first said in a quiet voice, "Yeah..." then brought her voice up and replied, "Yeah... okay..." then waking up a bit more she added, "Lets do it in their room, so they can go right to bed."

"Okay."

Each took one of the infants and they walked upstairs, a new sensation for both, and walked into the twin's new room.

Pausing at the doorway Sarah looked back at stairwell and said, "We're getting a gate... like tomorrow."

"Gate?" Sean asked, confused.

"For the stairs."

"Ohhh," he said and nodded.

It took some careful balance, but Sarah managed to prop both the infants up and with Sean's help started feeding them. He took position across the room and watched calmly. After a few minutes he started smiling, enjoying the picturesque sight of his family.

Feeling his gaze, Sarah looked up and smiled back, then looked back down at patted each of the young's heads. Still very little, it didn't take long for them both to have their fill, and having had a long day for newborns, they soon both yawned and snuggled into Sarah's soft furry breasts, half coddling her and half coddling each other.

With Sean's help again they placed the two infants in their cribs and, leaving the door cracked open and the lights turned down, and they let them sleep while they inspected the new home on their own.

They'd seen it before, obviously having looked it over in the past few days to make sure it was adequate for their fledgling family, and while quickly seeing that it is, they hadn't had time to "fall" for the home, yet. Seeing it now though, and realizing that it was real, that they really had this whole, great big house all to their own, it was their home, put one more nail into the building of reality.

That had become something that they were both being hit with repeatedly over the last few weeks; reality. The days of the cute puppy, teenaged love were disappearing and being replaced by a real sense of family, and with each passing moment it became more and more real. Sarah, in her own mind, knew what it would take though to bring everything to the realist it could be, but that, again, was a conversation for another time.

Coming to the conclusion of their silent tour, which had finished at the master bedroom, Sarah smiled softly and kissed her husband.

"Hungry?" he asked, then slapped his forehead, "I didn't mean it lik-"

She took it well though and just giggled softly, rolling her eyes, "Yes... lets get some food first."

Sean felt parts of his body tickle and blood rush through his veins. Instead of just tackling her though, he followed his soft rabbit down the stairs and to the kitchen where they scrounged around in the refrigerator. They were still immature in that respect, as far as some of the aspects of homecare went; mainly because, up until this point, there hadn't been much time together or time spent at home alone to really warrant the education. They'd only been married about a year and a half, and during that time there had been so many interruptions and "mess-ups" that they hadn't had time to really spend time at home, but there was a month coming up and unbeknownst to both of them, they were both in for a crash course in home care.

After settling on some week old leftovers, both realizing it might not be the best choice, but the only choice at the moment, they ate happily, chatting about absolutely nothing important at all, and genuinely feeling happier now than they'd ever before in their whole lives.

With dinner finished, they went through their bedtime rituals, obviously the highlight being a soft shower they shared. There was just something about washing and being washed that they both had a thing for, the intimacy probably, and how personal it was. Sean got into his sweatpants while Sarah made sure her fur was dry before they laid down together in bed.

Not waiting a moment, they both snuggled together, smiling happily at each other and occasionally nuzzling each other's faces.

Sarah cooed as the fox wrapped his strong arms around her and drew her in close, laying her head down on his chest and cuddling her into a sleeping position. And for a few minutes, they laid quietly like that, each getting calmer and calmer until sleep was starting to take over each of them.

In his mind, Sean was musing on his family, how glad and lucky he was. Sarah's mind mirrored his, thinking of her son, her daughter, her husband, at the moment mainly of him, and how perfect everything was.

Then a chill ran threw every hair on the rabbit's body and she bit her lip.

"Sean..." she whispered, waiting to makes sure he was still awake.

"Yeah?" he whispered back quietly, although he didn't open his eyes.

She sighed and said in a fuller voice, "We need to talk..."

Chapter 4 Yak

Home of Sean and Sarah Reynolds, Fort Reynolds, Conakry, 2151 Military Time

"What about?" Sean replied, not really awake, not realizing how serious Sarah's tone was.

This was too soon. She knew it was too soon. There had been no planning, no ideas, just feelings that lead her here, and Sarah was just, in a rare move, going with the flow of things.

"About... us..."

Something about the way she said that scared the hell out of Sean and he woke up one hundred percent.

Peering at her through the darkness, the fox asked tensely, "What about us?"

"Well not just us," Sarah said, already sensing the abrupt tension in his voice, "you, me, Simon and Jennifer... everyone..."

Sean tried to sit up but Sarah held him down, clutching his chest.

"Really it's about you though," she continued, "but how I am with you... you know?"

Not liking this already, Sean replied, "No, I don't know."

"Just... be calm, Sean," she whispered right away and stroked his chest, "this is important."

The fox took a deep breath and whispered, unhappily, "Okay."

"Okay... well..." she paused, not sure how to start.

Nervous, she lowered one of her ears and toyed with it, trying to think of a good way to introduce this.

Thinking hard as well, Sean tried to figure out what was wrong. Everything was going perfectly. They had a nice new home, a nice new family and were closer now then they'd ever been before. Knowing that, sure of that, he couldn't think of a single reason for her tenseness.

Getting a rough idea on how to start, Sarah gave him a quick nuzzle, his whole face, and then whispered, "Okay, your happy with what you have now right?"

"Of course," Sean replied quickly, the question almost hurting his feelings.

"And you love your children deeply, right? The same way I do right?"

"That hurt, Sarah," he replied, bluntly, "How could you think I don't?"

Cooing, Sarah nuzzled him again, "Their rhetorical questions, Sean," she waited a few seconds to make sure he understood that, "but your happy, right?"

"Of course," he repeated, being as patient he could be.

"Well... well why would you wana risk these things then?" Sarah whispered and refused to look Sean in the eye.

Not sure, he asked her what she meant.

The rabbit sighed, "I mean.... Sean you almost died," Sarah said in a full voice, and gripped the fur on his chest, "and... I don't know what I woulda done if you died... I mean think- how could you keep doing this?"

Sean just stared at the rabbit, deep in thought.

"I mean I know, I really know how much you love me and how much you love our children, how could you do something that could hurt us?"

Grinding his teeth, Sean took a deep breath and replied with, "Sarah that was just one bad-"

"No Sean," Sarah interrupted, "no it wasn't just bad luck, or a one in a million chance. You're a soldier and soldiers die."

"My father- your father was a soldier and he lived," Sean pointed out.

Sarah shook her head, "My father and yours left the military right after we were born... they didn't want to keep risking their lives when they had much more important responsibilities."

A silence fell for a moment while they each thought hard for a moment. Effectively, Sarah was telling her husband to leave the military, not even a day after his services had rewarded them with a brand new, free home. It annoyed him a little, mainly because he knew how much he worked to make sure they were safe, and that they had this home.

"But Sarah..." Sean reasoned, rather tried to reason, "I belong in the Army. That's my job. And like you said, I almost died, I didn't though."

Sarah was a bit surprised by his response and in a tense, quiet tone she replied, "Sean... be serious, you can be killed... you can't guarantee it either way."

"It's my job Sarah," Sean forced a chuckle, trying anything to lighten and change the mood, "we all have jobs, we all have to do them."

"You don't need to do one that could get you killed," the rabbit pointed out.

"You could get killed driving to work any day, Sarah. I'd bet a lot more furs die a year from being in car accidents than soldiers on battlefields."

She didn't want to pull this card, but she was to deep to back out now, so in the softest, most serious tone she possessed, Sarah whispered, looking into his eyes, "Please, for me, leave the Army."

"No Sarah," Sean shook his head in disbelief, "Why would I do that? I mean we got our house from it... our food, our car... look at what you said, I almost died... the Army is the reason I'm still alive."

"You wouldn't have been almost killed if you weren't in it."

Under his breath, Sean whispered, "This is so stupid..." then louder he said, "Sarah I'm in the Army because I love you. Because I want to make it so we can be happy with each other."

Aggravated, Sarah, her older attitude rearing its ugly head, snipped back, "You want to make me happy?"

"Yeah," Sean snipped right back, also annoyed.

"Then leave the Army and get a different job, cause nothing would make me happier."

Again, under his breath, Sean whispered, "I can't believe this..." then he repeated it louder.

Sarah was still clutching his chest, although she was angry with him and didn't want to be hugging him. The only reason she didn't push herself away was thinking back, remembering the last time in their lives they had a fight and being terrified of that happening again. That couldn't happen again, it would be inappropriate to do that now, not with children in the picture. Still though, the rabbit was quite flustered and wanted little to do with Sean at the moment. She felt insulted, she only wanted to make sure he as safe and he was pushing her away.

"Sean, look at me," she whispered quietly into the darkness.

The fox didn't move.

Patting the sides of his face Sarah said in the calmest tone she could, "Sean, look at me."

That time he reluctantly turned to meet her gaze.

"Now calmly just listen to what I'm going to say. You can tell me whatever you want afterwards and I'll listen one hundred percent but just listen to what I'm going to say," Sarah took a deep breath, this was so hard to do, every iota of her personality was screaming to fight it out but she withheld herself; "You know me better than anyone else anywhere, right?"

Sean didn't nod or say anything but they both knew it to be true.

"Then understand how hard it is for me to admit this; I'm going to do stupid things. I'm going to make wrong decisions and I'm going to get myself and the babies into dangerous situations... I know it, and I need you here to stop me."

Sean went to say something but Sarah quickly silenced him with a paw to his lips.

"That doesn't mean I think you won't be there because you'll be off on some mission. I'm sure that you'd make every effort you could to be home but consider this: your father, my father, both quit the military shortly after we were born and got normal jobs. Did you ever wonder why? Well... well you know me and this is something I would never admit to but I don't know why they quit. I think I know, but to be honest I've never really been in the army so I can't be sure... why do you think they quit...and remember that's all I'm asking."

"That's not all you're asking though, we both know that..." Sean pointed out.

He sounded calmer, which meant she was getting somewhere, so Sarah would play along too; "Okay then just answer, why would they leave."

"I don't know."

"Yes you do... or okay if you don't know then guess... for me..."

"Well," Sean sighed, shook his head, sighed again and said, "well I guess to spend more time with their kids... but that doesn't mean they didn't work... both our fathers worked."

"Yes that's true," Sarah replied.

"Okay."

"Okay, but this isn't about work, this about what kind of work."

The fox huffed.

Sarah put her paws up to calm him and bit her lip.

Thinking for a moment she whispered, "Listen, what I said was wrong, for a lot of reasons. You shouldn't do this for me, that was wrong of me to ask you to do. You need to want to do this. If you just do it because I ask you to neither of us will ever be happy. I don't know how... or what you need to see to see what I do but... I don't know," the rabbit continued chewing on her lip.

A long quiet minute past. Sean thought hard about what his wife had just said. Regardless of what he felt, he knew that what had been said by Sarah was probably one of the hardest things she'd ever said. No matter how angry he was, that struck a serious cord with him.

"Hold on," Sarah got out of bed before Sean could say a word and a moment returned with Simon in her arms,

The bunny was still asleep and she set him down next to Sean and climbed in bed herself.

"Look at him," Sarah whispered, patting her newborn son, "Really look at him. Think back to how you were when you were his age, or even a little older, would you have wanted your father to go to war?"

"I would have wanted him to be happy what he was doing," Sean said quietly.

The older rabbet ticked, "Sean is that really how a six year old would have felt?"

"Yes... no..." Sean whispered, "No I would have wanted my dad to be safe and play with me," he pat his son under the chin.

Sarah smiled and shook her head, "That's right, but there's more to this... I think your... my father, they were done fighting, it was time to live in peace. Is that something you're scared of? I mean that honestly. You can tell me Sean."

He couldn't look away from Simon, the little bunny still sleeping quite soundly.

Seeing a chance Sarah moved in close to Sean, moving Simon carefully as well, so that all three were touching.

"I... I don't have anywhere else to go outside the military... and you."

"So stay with me and our family then."

"But what if..." Sean couldn't finish.

"What if what?"

"What if you leave me again?"

Sarah was confused now, "Why would I ever do that? You're my husband, the father of my children, I couldn't leave you if I wanted to."

Almost ignoring what she said Sean went on, "When you left me the military was the only place I had to go. If it wasn't for that... I'd probably have killed myself. I definitely would have. It saved my life."

That struck a cord with the rabbit, she'd known that their separation had hurt him but that the only thing that he'd fallen back on was the Army, and to what degree it supported him was not something she was aware of.

"I can't leave the military... it saved me."

Tears were already streaming down Sarah's furry cheeks, "Sean... Sean please forgive me for that..."

Now he was unbalanced.

"I... I can't ever undo what we did, what I did... I wish... I can't tell you how much I wish I could go back and slap myself for doing that to you... I must have hurt you in a way that you still can't heal from... I did... I'm pretty sure I healed... maybe it took this, becoming a mother, but I think you're still in pain over this and I truly wish you weren't."

"I don't think... I forgave you a long time ago for that Sarah."

Sarah gave a sad smile and pat his face, "I know that, I knew that then and I know that now but the hurt that you had is still there."

"Maybe..." Sean whispered.

"And..." the rabbit continued, "I think your holding onto it, I'm not smart enough in this kind of thing to know why, but I think your holding on the pain for some reason deep down... the only thing I can say," she held the sides of his face and stared at him as hard as she could, "I can only say that I will never leave you, ever. No matter what. I will always love you and I will always stay by your side. If your still hurt about what happened know that it will not ever happen again."

Sarah wanted to cry. She was so sad over this, partially because it was her fault but mainly because she didn't like seeing him in the kind of pain this was. It wasn't fair. She loved him and to see him in pain and to feel powerless to do anything directly to alleviate it hurt her as a doctor, as his friend, as his lover, and as his wife.

On the other hand though Sean's mind was almost totally blank. It was almost too much to think of and at the moment the fox was basically trying his best to not to. Was he hurt? Sean wasn't really sure.

"Yeah, I am," he managed to think.

The infant shifted between, although it was barely noticed at the heated moment.

"What would have done if I died?" Sean whispered.

Sarah swallowed hard, "Now or then?"

"What's ‘then' and what's the difference?"

"Well then is before the babies and... well now, I'd be inconsolable and pretty much live for the babies only."

He caught on but whispered anyway, "And ‘then'?"

Bluntly, Sarah whispered, "I'd probably have killed myself."

A quiet moment past.

"Definitely... no point for me otherwise..."

"I wouldn't want you to do that," Sean whispered.

"At that point I don't think I'd believe that... you're really everything to me Sean... I wish there was a way I could let you know that."

But the fox did know it. He knew it because he felt the same way for her. And hearing her say that, he knew in the reverse situation, he'd probably do the same thing.

"Why do you need the military?" Sean asked himself, trying his best to think of this situation outside of himself.

Funny enough, he couldn't give an answer. He was an academy graduate, he could get a job anywhere, moreover he'd served long and hard enough to earn a decent retirement fund, as well as the fact they could chalk this up to medical issues give his recent fall. Yet despite that understanding something about leaving the Army just scared him.

"I don't know why I can't leave the Army, Sarah," he whispered, "I guess I'm scared, I don't know why, but I am."

"Cause you think I'll leave you again?"

"Maybe, I don't know."

Biting her lip Sarah whispered, "I think you need to just say something, hold on," and she got up, grabbing Simon and, Sean assumed, brought him back to his crib.

Sarah returned, turning the lights on in their room at a dim level and tightly shut the door behind her. She got onto the bed and kneeled down in front of him. Coaxing him onto his knees as well so that they were staring each other in the eye she grabbed his paws.

"Tell me you hate me," she whispered.

Sean let go of her paws, "What?!"

"Tell me you don't love me," she whispered.

"Sarah you know I don't feel like that."

"That's the point Sean but tell me you don't trust me."

"I do trust you."

"Then why are you scared of me."

Not sure where the words were coming from Sean whispered, "Because I don't know why you came... why you stayed."

"What do you mean?"

"Why you made sure to stay with me, despite how we felt," Sean looked away.

Sarah thought for a long while, or at least it felt like a long while.

Finally she said in a full, confident voice, "Hope. Because I hoped we would never let go of ‘us,' the idea that you and I are together," she thought again for a moment, "that's what you don't believe or understand?"

"I guess."

"Hmmp," the rabbit huffed, "Would you ever hit your children... or me?"

"Never," Sean said instantly, look up.

"And I know that, and that's also why I know I will never leave you. Because that's really the only thing that would stop me from being with you and I know you'd never do that. Come to think of it that's the main reason I decided to marry you, at least I remember thinking of it at the time. That no matter what you would never get so angry with me to hit me, and that no matter what you would always be patient with me. That no matter what you would love me. The same way I am with you..."

After letting that stew with him for awhile Sean whispered, "I'll never be able to not be afraid of that, of this, while I'm in the military," he went to pull Sarah in, she very willingly allowed him to, "So... then I guess I have to leave, so that I can really only be yours."

"Is that what you want?"

He thought for a long moment, finally snuggling into her shoulder her whispered, "Yes."

Sarah smiled into his shoulder and gently pulled him down. She cooed and snuggled as far into her husband as she could, pulling him closely trying her best to make sure he knew how much she loved him and how close she wanted to feel to him, without having to resort to words.

Whether or not she knew that he knew it, Sean did and he wrapped his paws around her body kissed the side of her face. For the first time in a long time he felt a strange calm in himself, as if for the first time in a long time he was sure of something, absolutely sure of something, that one way or another from this moment to the moment he died, Sarah, his best friend, his lover, the mother of his children, and his wife would be by his side. Thus was his life, and he could think of no other way to describe it but wonderful.