Phoenix Rising

Pete sat in his room and really thought about what his life was going to be like from here on out. He had been told by those that rescued him that his dreams were now within his grasp... that he could do whatever he wanted to do, as long as he was willing to work for it. Nothing was handed out, except what you needed to survive, but EVERYTHING was there for the taking; all you had to do was reach out and grab it.

At first he didn't believe any group could really be like that. But then he started talking to some of the military kids. Yeah, that was hard to accept. Here was a group of kids, some younger then him, some older, but not many that were much older, not playing the part of soldiers... they WERE soldiers.

Some of these kids weren't even teenagers yet, but they were giving orders to adults... and the most fucked-up part was that the adults were listening. It's not like the adults were slaves or anything, Pete knew a LOT about that. No, it really was the adults were LISTENING to the kids. Pete just couldn't get over that fact.

One line kept running over and over in his head. The only time he'd met Adam. The boy was like no one else he'd ever met. Not even his father or the people he hung out with had the kind of self confidence and 'don't fuck with me' attitude that he saw in this Adam. The same Adam that he'd heard talked about in awed whispers all day today. Everyone here was indebted to, and in awe of, this boy. The line that kept running though his mind was one of the last things Adam had said. "Pete... from now on, you'll never have to worry about that again. You're free now... to chase whatever dream you want." He knew what his dream was, he just had no clue how to follow it.

He looked over towards the computer terminal that was in his room, and thought back to what one of the young boys had said to him. "Anything you need to know is on the computer. If you can't figure out how to find it, simply ask Daileass; he's always listening."

Of course that begged the question, "Who's Daileass?"

When he asked that very question, the young blond boy giggled and told him about this amazing Artificial Intelligence that was running all the computers, and could talk to people. He could do anything according to this boy, but Pete was very skeptical. All he could think about was the computer voices that he'd heard in the movie, that always gave him the creeps.

'Fuck it!' Pete said to himself as he got up off the bed. 'I ain't gonna chase any dreams sitting here like this.' He walked over to the terminal and sat down in front of it. Taking a deep breath, he turned on the monitor and found a screen asking him to log on. Not knowing how to log on, Pete scrolled down and saw the register button. Clicking it brought him to another screen that asked for general information. Figuring he didn't have anything to lose, Pete started to fill it out.

Once that was all done, Pete hit the 'Next' button. Instead of more screens to fill out, like he was expecting, the screen went blank for a brief moment, then he saw a blond boy standing in a room very much like his own. "Hey there," the boy said, and Pete sat back in surprise.

"Ummmm... Hi."

The boy on the screen laughed a bit, then started to talk. "Don't worry, you're not really going insane. My name is Daileass. I figured showing up like this would be easier for you to accept then just a voice form the speakers." Suddenly on the screen was a couch that Daileass sat down in. "I've been waiting for you to register, so instead of all the boring typing, why don't we just talk, and I'll fill out everything I can for you. Sound good?"

"Okay, I guess," Pete said, as he sat forward in his chair and put his elbows on the edge of the desk. "What do you want to know?"

Daileass smiled warmly at the boy, but with a bit of sadness in his eyes. For a moment Pete was shocked. If he didn't know better he would have thought the AI was actually a real boy. "Well, I guess the first thing I need to know is if you have any idea what it is you want to do now?"

Sitting back as if he'd been struck, Pete didn't have any clue what to say. "Well... I... uhhh. Not really. I mean, I know I want to do something to help, but I don't have a clue what."

"Well, that's a start; how about I ask you a few more questions, and see what we can come up with, okay?"

Pete wasn't so sure about this; he really wasn't sure about the idea of talking to a computer like this. 'I must be an idiot...' he thought to himself. 'Here is this computer wanting to try and help him out, and he was having doubts. "Okay, I guess." Really, what did he have to lose?

"Great!" Daileass responded while he sat forward and put his elbows on his knees. "First question. Could you see yourself training up to be in the military side of the Clan?"

Pete thought about it for a few moments, but then started to shake his head. "No... not really. I mean, I don't see anything wrong with the military; I just don't really think it's something I would be good at."

"That's not a problem; not everyone is meant to be military," Daileass said in a reassuring tone. "How about dealing with kids who have been hurt? I'm not really talking about you doing the actual rescue, although you might be involved. What I really mean is trying to help the kids that are rescued."

"Well... sure, but.... I mean, isn't that like an adult's job?" Pete asked, not really sure what to make of this line of questioning.

"Not in the Clan," Daileass said seriously. "In the Clan the kids are the ones who are running things. See, we all came to a conclusion. If the adults aren't going to protect us, then we'll do it ourselves. The Unit is the military arm of the Clan. It became very clear that there are many times where force will be needed to do what needs being done. Thats where we come in. However, even though the Unit is a part of the Clan, things do work a bit differently here, because we are a military force.

So, first, in the Unit you have basically four kinds of kids. First, there are the kids that are under the protection of the Unit, or wards of the Unit. They are the ones who don't really know yet what it means to be a member. Now don't get me wrong, they can easily become part of the family, they just don't really understand what it all means yet. It takes a few days for things to settle down for them, and for us to make sure they understand what it would mean to become part of the Unit. Then you have the members. They have been told, or have figured out what the Unit is all about and have accepted brotherhood within the Unit. The members don't HAVE to do anything to be a part of the family. Simply by accepting membership into the Family, they are a part of it. Remember though, just because someone is a ward doesn't mean that they are any lesser protected or anything like that, they just haven't made the decision yet."

"So you mean that if I wanted to walk off this base, you guys wouldn't mind?" Pete asked in a measured voice.

"I never said that we wouldn't mind, but lets face it. You are old enough to be able to make an informed decision. If you did not want to stay here, no one would force you. We would try and talk you into going somewhere that is safe, and hopefully with people that would love and care for you, but ultimately, if you decided to stand up out of that chair, take what you could carry, and walk out the front gates, none of us would stop you. In the end, the choice is completely yours."

Pete sat there thinking for a few moments, before he nodded. "Okay, you've described two levels of Unit membership, what are the other two?"

Well, third, we have what I will refer to as the Unit Stewards. This is the largest part of the Unit for they have not only accepted membership in the Unit, but have also decided to actively help the Unit in the goal of helping abused kids. This is someone who takes it upon themselves to actively try and help out other abused kids, be it by joining the military side of the Unit, or simply being someone who will help comfort one of their brothers or sisters who is in pain... or anywhere in between. There is much more to the Unit then just being willing to pick up a gun, although every member of the Unit is required to have fire arms training as soon as feasibly possible after getting to one of the bases. But there are many things that someone who doesn't want to fight, but still wants to help can do."

"Like what?"

"Well, how about I do it this way. Right now, there are three doctors in the Unit, two veterinarians, six, fully certified chefs, nineteen auto mechanics, Thirty two computer technicians, and a whole bunch of others. You know what they all have in common?" Daileass asked, while Pete just shook his head negatively. "They're all under fourteen."

Pete sat there in shock for more then a few seconds. As soon as Daileass was sure that Pete was over his shock, he continued. "The last part are the leaders. For the most part, leaders create themselves. What I mean by that is, most of the Unit leaders were appointed because they had basically already been doing the job, or someone saw something in them that made the person sure they could handle the job, and do well with it." Seeing the somewhat confused look on Pete's face, Daileass knew he wasn't being very clear. So he decided to try and explain it a bit differently.

"Okay, let me try it this way. Most of the people who are in command positions now... well most of them started off as a rescued kid. They came to the Unit base as someone who was just as scared just as scarred, just as confused as you did. Then after a few days of watching, we started to see them emerge from their shell. They were interested in helping out, they were interested in doing what ever it was that they could do to make life better for others. A majority of them went towards the military side of things, but not all of them. But the important part is, they stepped up, they asked the questions, or did the deeds that made the leadership of the Unit take note. But in the end it all comes down to this. They made the choice the put themselves into a leadership role, not us."

Halfway through what Daileass was saying, Pete started to nod. "So in other words, if I wanted to get into a leadership position, I need to just put myself in that position and it will become official at some point?"

"Pretty much!" Daileass said with a grin.

Pete sat back in his chair, now deep in thought. 'Is this something I really would want to do? I mean, I really want to make sure that no one else has to go through what I did, but I don't know about throwing myself in the middle of everyone else's problems.'

Pete wrestled with those thoughts for a few more moments before Daileass spoke up again. "I am pretty sure I know what you're thinking, so let me say this. Two of the main leaders in the Clan, Adam, the commander of the UNIT forces, and Cory, that's the Clan's patriarch, are both learning very important lessons right now: the need to delegate. So if you're worried about getting overwhelmed, simply learn that lesson early on. Trust me, it will save you a bunch of problems in the future."

"Hey Daileass, what happened to the kids that never decide to do anything?" Pete asked not sure why he was afraid of asking the question.

"Nothing. It's not like we will tell someone that if they don't want to join us, that they have to leave. All we really care about is that they are safe, that they are loved, and that they have an opportunity to make something out of themselves. Honestly, we would never hold it against you, if you were to decide to never join up with the Unit. We're well aware of the fact that the Unit lifestyle is not for everyone. If you wanted to take some time to see how things run on a Clan base as opposed to on a Unit base, thats fine. For some people, they would like it better there. For some people, they would like it better there. The Clan is not as regimented, and not as big... although, really since the Unit IS part of the Clan they really are... you get what I mean. What I'm saying is that in some ways they are more lax on things then we Unit guys are; it all depends on what you want, and what you feel would be best for you. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah..." Pete fell silent for several moments, and Daileass just patiently waited. Finally Pete looked up at the screen and into the eyes of the boy there. "Is the Clan anything like what I've seen here with you Unit guys?"

Daileass smiled. "The same in a way. We're all Clan, all one large, big family that looks out for each other. We in the Unit... we're just the major ass kickers in the Clan. We're their military. We were a family before we joined our family with theirs and became Clan. But in all ways that matter? Yeah, they're like us. You join us, you join them. We are them. You join them, you can still ask and join us as well after... if you want the military life as well as the Clan one. It's all the same," he finished softly.

Another long pause. Then: "Daileass... How do I become a member of the Unit." His voice was tentative, but his eyes showed the determination that Daileass was hoping to see.

The boy's face in the computer screen let a huge smile slowly build on his face, till finally he spoke a few simply words.

"You just did, brother."

"Great. Then if I may make a suggestion, go out around the kids that are hanging out here, and find yourself a core group. People you can get along with, people you can trust, and most importantly, people who WANT to help. Organize them and start to take over some of the things that the UNIT troops are doing. Not only is that one of the biggest things needed right now, but it will be something that Adam will really appreciate happening. That will get you on the list of kids to keep an eye on. From there, just keep doing what you're doing, and I think you might be surprised at what happens."

Pete was out of his seat halfway through what Daileass was saying. "Thanks, man, that's a great idea!" He was halfway to the door when he stopped and turned back to the monitor. "You're not really JUST a computer, are you?"

Daileass just shook his head with a big grin. Pete smiled back at him and nodded before he rushed out of the room. After the door closed, Daileass half said to himself, "There you go, Adam... mission accomplished."

 

---

 

Zoie Duerr sat down and pulled the little four-year-old girl onto her lap as she looked at the rest of the little ones gathered round. Her life had been a hard one for all of her thirteen years. She was born to a poor mother who didn't even know who Zoie's father was. Her earliest memories were of living on the streets of Berlin, Germany. For as long as she can remember, men would look at her. Her pale smooth skin, jet black hair, and deep brown eyes, always made her very attractive. At first she wondered why all the men would look at her funny... it didn't take her long though to find out.

Now, though, she had a chance to change her life, and not end up like her mother. Running her slightly deformed right hand through her long hair, she picked up the book that one of the little boys had picked out and started to read. "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day...." She had never read 'The Cat in the Hat' before, and found herself just as entranced as the kids were.

She fumbled with the pages for a brief moment until the girl in her lap turned the pages for her with a huge grin. Zoie momentarily lamented her deformed right hand again. She was starting to get used to not having the full use of it, but it was still frustrating. It had been almost two years since the man broke almost every bone in her hand because he caught her stealing a piece of bread from his merchant cart.

Forcing those thoughts from her mind, Zoie focused on reading the book and making sure that the kids got as much out of this small distraction as they could. It really made her heart ache knowing that so many little kids here had gone through things like she had. Right then and there, she vowed that she would do whatever she could to give them the chance to regain as much of their innocence as they could.

She read them three more short stories from the Dr. Seuss book that she had been given, before several of them got pulled away so that the doctors could do their check-ups. As she stood up, the little girl, Maggie, that had been in her lap, grabbed her hand and spoke quickly. "Would you come see my room? I got my own bed and lots of clothes. Some nice man even gave me a stuffed doggie. I named him Boxer, cause the man said it looked like a Boxer doggie."

Before Maggie had gotten all the words out of her mouth, she had already dragged Zoie halfway across the open field towards the dorm building. The entire way there, Maggie talked non-stop. First it was her telling Zoie about the two other girls that were in her room, then she 'patiently explained' the fact that you could actually eat all you wanted to, and that they had more than just soup and bread, like the girl was used to.

By the time they reached the little girl's room, Zoie knew everything there was to know about the girl and her roommates. Not surprisingly though, Maggie never once spoke about anything related to the time before she got here just a few short hours ago.

After nearly ten minutes of Maggie showing Zoie all her new clothes, a knock came from the door. Instinctively Zoie pushed Maggie behind her a bit as the door opened. As soon as she saw it was a man, Zoie took a step forward. Although she was small for her age, Zoie wasn't about to let this man hurt this precious little girl the way that other men had hurt her.

The man must have known what was happening because he immediately stopped and did not enter the room. In a calm voice he softly spoke to both girls. "Doctor Janet asked me to come get Maggie so she can have her chec- up. Since it seems you've made friends with her, would you like to come along and help out? Doctor Janet never minds if someone wants to help out."

Maggie squeezed Zoie's hand, worried that her new friend might leave her. But Zoie had no intention of doing that. Growing up the way she had, Zoie had to learn quickly how to judge people quickly. After a few moments, Zoie concluded that while she'd probably never trust men, this one seemed to be okay. With a nod of her head, Zoie started to lead Maggie to the door.

Patrick, the lead med tech, backed off quickly, making sure that he was never too close to the two girls. He had to fight back tears when he thought about what these two girls must have gone through to be this mistrusting.

Maggie held Zoie's hand the entire time it took them to walk to the 'clinic' building. When they got there, the man led them to a small waiting room, and said, "Doctor Janet will be right out for you" before he disappeared through another door. Normally Zoie would have been worried about this, but there were at least five other kids in the room.

They didn't wait too long until the door to the back room opened up. Every one of the kids who were waiting looked up, and Maggie couldn't help but let a giggle escape as a small bear, maybe three foot tall, wearing a small lab coat, a small stethoscope hanging around its neck, and holding a clipboard, waddled out into the waiting room. "Dieter?" it called out, and one of the younger boys jumped to his feet.

"That's me!" the young blond boy said with excitement.

"Kewl! I'm Teddy, and I'm gonna start your physical today. Is that okay with you?" Teddy asked as it waddled over and stuck out its furry paw for the eight-year-old boy to shake.

"Sure... what's I need to do?" Dieter asked with a grin.

"Well..." Teddy started out with a smile. "I just need to get your height, weight, and a few other things. We can either do it out here, or in one of the play rooms in the back."

Dieter looked at Teddy, then back to a slightly older boy, before looking back to Teddy. "Umm... would it be okay if my brother came too?"

Teddy never lost his smile as he looked at the older boy, then back to Dieter. "Sure... what's his name?; we can do both at once."

"His name's Pieter." Dieter said as the older boy stood up and limped over towards them.

Teddy's smile faded as he saw the older boy limping. "Can you walk okay? Are you in any pain?" The small bear's face was lined with concern as he moved surprisingly quickly to the older boy's side.

"The pain's no worse than normal. I'm used to it." Teddy put his hand on the older boy's thigh and held it there for a moment. "Clean break... Didn't heal properly. Looks to be about three years old." Teddy then looked up at the boy. "How did you break it?"

"I fell when we were trying to escape the military men. They wanted to make us join them, but we were able to hide till they left. But I've never been able to walk right since then," Pieter said as his eyes fell towards the ground, and Zoie could see tears forming. Her heart just about broke in half right there, and she couldn't help pulling Maggie a bit closer to her.

Teddy stepped back, and the grin was back on his face. "Well, worry not, my young hero... I will bet every hair on my furry head that you'll be up and walking around like normal by tomorrow morning, and kicking a soccer ball around a few days after that!"

The boy's head snapped up with wide eyes. "How..." he stammered out.

The bear just grinned wider as he grabbed both boys' hands, and started to lead them to the back. "All I will say is Doctor Janet is just THAT good!"

Any other conversation was stopped as the door to the back room closed. For a moment Zoie couldn't help but look down at her deformed hand. 'Could this Doctor Janet fix my hand too?' She wanted to hope, but she didn't dare. Too many times she'd been hurt.

"Teddy was pretty nice." Maggie said, bringing Zoie out of her own thoughts.

"He sure was," she said out loud, then more quietly to herself she said, 'this almost seems to good to be true.'

 

---

 

'Did you hear whats going on in Russia?' Jesse asked his brother as they were lying in bed together.

'Yeah... last thing I heard was that they rescued a whole bunch of people that were sold as slaves. It's so sad," James sighed as he snuggled his back into his brother's chest.

Silence reigned for several minutes, and James was almost asleep when he felt Jesse stir. "We should do something to help." The boy said as he got out of the bed.

James rolled over in bed and looked at his brother with a questioning look. "What can we do?"

Jesse turned around from getting dressed and looked down at his twin. "I don't know yet, but we need to do something. Daddy Dave and Daddy Jack gave us so much so far... don't you think we need to do something to pay them back?"

"Actually I don't think they would want us to do this just to pay them back," James said as he swung his legs off the bed and sat up. "I mean I'm all for helping out, but I really don't think they would like it if we were doing it just to pay them back."

Jesse stopped dressing and looked at his brother for a few moments. "I suppose you're right, but I really want to help out other kids. And one of the reasons is 'cause I want them to be proud of us."

James nodded to himself then looked up at his brother. "So what's your plan?"

"Well, I was figuring we could go to Russia and see how we can help out. I mean they got to have lots of kids there that need help. I don't mean the kind of help that our dads can give, but there's got to be stuff we can do to help."

James sat there pondering for a few moments before he raised his head towards the ceiling. "Daileass?"

"Yes, James?" Daileass said through the speakers.

"Do you think it would be okay for us to go to Russia? I mean, do you think there would actually be something there that we could do to help?"

"Well, that really depends on what you guys want to do. There's lots of things that you COULD do."

"Like what?" Jesse asked excitedly.

"Well to be honest, what they need the most right now is people to help the new kids find their way around, make sure they have clothing and food, and generally get them settled in," Daileass said.

"Oh, you mean like what Jory did for us?" James asked, thinking back to how Jory made sure that they had everything they needed.

"Exactly like that. Right now they have all the military people there they need, but honestly, we're getting our asses kicked in the after-rescue side of things."

James jumped off the bed and started to through some clothes on. "Well, count us in. As soon as we leave a message for the dads, we'll head out."

"Sounds good," Daileass replied, "just let me know when you're ready to go."

 

---

 

Kraig splashed water on his face and tried to make the dreams go away, but after five straight nights of nightmares, he knew he wouldn't be able to. He wrestled with his thoughts for a few moments before he lifted his head and spoke out to Daileass. "Hey man... I think it's time."

"Okay Kraig. You get a shower, and I will set things up for you." Daileass spoke, and the seventeen-year-old could actually hear the concern and sadness in the younger boy's voice.

He spent over thirty minutes just letting the warm water try and wash his demons away. When he got out and dried off, he saw a message blinking on his bedroom terminal. All it said was that "Turec would be waiting for him in the common room of his pod in one hour."

With a deep sigh, Kraig went out and started up a pot of coffee. He wasn't really surprised when he saw that it was only 0400, which means he got a bit less the four hours of sleep.

He had only been sipping his coffee for a few minutes when he felt someone walk up next to him, and then slide onto his lap. "What are you doing up, Frankie?" Kraig asked softly of his five-year-old adopted son.

"Did the bad men try and get you again?" the little boy asked innocently.

"Yeah, they did, little man," Kraig said as he squeezed the boy tighter to his chest. "But I got someone coming to try and help me beat the bad men like I did for you."

"Good... I don't want you sad anymore." Frankie said as he turned around and gave Kraig a huge hug, which almost made the older boy break down in tears.

It took him a few moments to be able to make his voice work through the lump in his throat. "Thanks, little man. Why don't you head back to bed? You got a big day tomorrow."

"Okay, daddy,." he said as he slipped off Kraig's lap, then headed back to his room, his bear, Gilbert, waddling after him. As soon as he heard the door shut to his boy's bedroom, Kraig let himself break down and cry. Never before in his seventeen years did he ever believe that he could cry like this. In his mind's eye he was seeing all the kids he'd helped rescue. He could remember every single one of their names. He knew what each one looked like, and where they were now.

Kraig was the commanding officer of the first 'teddy bear strike team'. He and his entire team had taken a lot of extra training so they could be the first ones called when there was a rescue. Every one of their team had one of Jory and Juan's teddy bears, whose job was to find the kids they were rescuing and protect and comfort them while Kraig and his crew did what they needed to.

It was his brainchild, and it was working so well, but now the strain of it was taking its toll. Kraig was one of the few 'originals' that had been here before even the UNIT showed up, and after the first time he saw the UNIT boys in action, mainly when Jory kicked his, Donnie's and Fred's asses, Kraig had wanted nothing more then to be one of them. But now, less then six months into things, Kraig was burnt out, and burnt out bad.

He really didn't think it could happen, yeah they had all taken the class where they were told it could happen... but it wouldn't happen to him, he was stronger then that. Or so he thought.

One hundred and nineteen rescue missions he'd gone on. Over half of them happened in the last month. The record for him was ten in one day, and still he was fine with it all. The Battle of Montana was horrible, but he and his team had made it through okay. The funeral was gut-wrenching, but together they held each other up. They had the required daily meetings with the 'rehab crew', a group of head shrinks that were there to help the strike teams deal with what they had to do, and what they saw.

But the biggest thing that was able to keep Kraig going was Frankie, the little five-year-old boy he had helped rescue over a month ago. The boy was making incredible progress after the hell that Kraig and his team had rescued him from. When Kraig had found the little boy, he was still holding onto the body of his older sister and crying. Kraig had to pry the little boy's hands off his sister's shirt, but then the boy had turned and clung to him.

For over an hour, Frankie had clung to Kraig's neck, even during a very brief firefight. By the time they made it out of there, Kraig had made a decision that would change his life forever: since this little boy didn't have a family anymore, Kraig would become his father. Neither one of them have looked back since.

A soft knock on the door brought Kraig back to the present. "Come in," he softly called out while wiping away the tears that were still falling. The door opened and in walked a tall, young-looking, black-skinned Vulcan. Kraig stood up and moved over towards the man. He fought the urge to hold out his hand for a shake, but instead, he raised his right hand in the traditional Vulcan greeting.

After the formalities were over, and Kraig had served the Vulcan some tea, Turec got right down to business. "I wish to explain first that I have had no briefing on your situation. I simply got a call from Daileass asking that I speak with you. I do wish to let you know that I have extensive training in the healing of the mind, and have been dispatched from Vulcan specifically to help the UNIT with matters of mental trauma. Will you allow me to help you?"

Kraig sighed deeply and nodded. "I really don't think I have much of a choice right now. I can't sleep much, and I keep seeing what happened in the warehouse, over and over again. If something doesn't happen, I am afraid... well, I'm afraid I'll go off the deep end... again."

"I see," Turec said, deep in thought. "I see two possible ways to deal with this. The first is to allow you and me to talk about what has happened, and then determine how to help you deal with it. The second option would be a mind meld, where we go back through everything again in your mind, and help you deal with it as it is happening. Either way I am confident that we will be able to help you deal with the problems that you have encoujntered."

Kraig thought about it for only a moment. He'd heard about the mind melds and what they could do. "Mind meld, please," Kraig softly answered, causing Turec to simply nod, move his chair over to a point where he was facing Kraig, and gently lay his fingertips on the sides of Kraig's head. Kraig really didn't want to relive what had happened, but as he felt himself floating in his own mind, he knew that he really needed to.

 

---

 

Zoie was sitting in the treatment room hugging little Maggie when Doctor Janet and Teddy walked back into the room. "Well, let's start with Maggie," Janet said as she sat down in a chair across from the two girls. "You seem to be just fine. I'd like you to have a milk shake with every meal, though. Just ask the person in line to get one of whatever flavor you want."

Maggie was actually bouncing in Zoie's lap. "You mean I get a milkshake with EVERY meal? Even breakfast?"

"Yup, you do. If you think you can handle it," Janet said with a grin.

"Did you hear that, Zoie?!?! I get a milkshake every time we eat!" Maggie was absolutely beside herself with happiness, and Zoie couldn't help but grin at her enthusiasm.

"Yup, and you better make sure you do as Doctor Janet says. One every meal."

"Oh yeah... I can't wait!" The little four-year-old girl turned back to look at Janet. "You think I could have one now?"

Janet grinned as she nodded. "Sure. If you want, Teddy here will take you over to the dinning hall, help you get one, then bring you back here."

Maggie spun around on Zoie's lap and looked up at her new big friend. "Can I?"

Zoie nodded, and before she knew it, the little girl had jumped out of her lap, ran over to Teddy, grabbed the bear's paw, and was trying to drag him out of the room faster than his little legs could carry him. "She's a precious little thing, isn't she?" Janet asked with a smile as she looked back at Zoie.

The thirteen-year-old girl smiled and nodded. "Yeah, she is. I've only known her a couple of hours, but she seemed to know exactly how to worm her way into my heart."

"I think that says more about how big your heart is, more than anything else," Janet said, causing the teenager to blush slightly. Sensing her discomfort, Janet decided to push for the gold. "If you want, I can get the adoption paperwork set, and she could be your daughter in about five minutes."

Janet always found it funny to watch as someone heard about how fast an adoption can occur within the Clan... especially when it's someone who is younger, but obviously fit to be a parent. "How?"

For the next few minutes, Janet explained to Zoie exactly what she could do within the Clan, assuming of course that Maggie wanted it as well. When Janet broke the tight, tearful hug that Zoie had wrapped her up in, she sat the teen back on the exam bed. "Okay, now, let's get your medical stuff out of the way, okay?"

Zoie got a worried look on her face, but nodded. "Well, first off, I would like you to have a shake with every meal as well. They are specially formulated to help people who have been malnourished to gain body mass, and lessen the long term effects of the malnutrition."

Zoie nodded, then Janet went into the next bit, the part that would make Zoie happy, before she had to break the girl's heart. Janet motioned to her right hand, and Zoie lifted the deformed limb up. "That we can fix," Janet said simply, and the girl broke down in tears immediately.

"Really?!" she said in between tears.

"Yes. All it will require is for you to spend a night here, sleeping on one of the bio-beds. By the time you wake up in the morning, your hand will be as good as new. Now, understand, you'll have to spend a bit of time retraining your hand how to do what you want, and regaining the strength you had, but I figure in less than three weeks, your hand will be back to 100% functioning."

Once again, Janet was almost strangled by the tight hug, and drowned by tears, but she couldn't have thought of a better way to die. If she could have stopped here, she would have been happy, but she couldn't. All the happiness she had just seen was about to be destroyed, and it broke her heart to have to be the one to do it.

Once Zoie had sat back down, and wiped her tears away, she saw the sad smile on Janet's face, and the nagging bit of worry gripped her heart again. "What? What's wrong?"

"Well..." Janet started with a sigh. "You remember that I told you that we had to check to see if the men that had forced themselves on you had given you any diseases?"

Zoie only nodded as she was really scare now. "Well, most of the tests came back negative, and the ones that were positive are relatively easy to fix. So, long story short, none of the sexually transmitted diseases that you got are long-lasting, or will give you any problems. Okay?"

Zoie gave a hesitant nod and waited for Janet to give her the bad news. "The only other thing is not easy to say, so i'm just going to come right out and say it. Zoie, you're seven weeks pregnant."

Zoie sat there stunned for several moments, trying to make what Janet just said make sense. "What?" She finally squeaked out.

"I'm sorry, Zoie, I checked and rechecked the tests. You are pregnant," Janet said as gently as she could.

"No...." Zoie said softly, then she jumped off the table and stalked over to the corner. "No... I can't be!" Janet also got to her feet and tried to hug Zoie, but the girl just pushed her away. "NO!" she screamed. "Don't you understand?! I just got away from that bastard, and now you're telling me I'll have to be reminded of him for the rest of my life?!"

By this point, Janet was glad that she had told the other doctors not to bother them, no matter what, because Zoie was screaming at the top of her lungs. "I'm sorry, Zoie," Janet tried to say, but got cut off.

"Don't be sorry, just get this damned thing out of me!" Zoie was raging now. She was not going to deal with being pregnant. Not at her age, and NOT from that bastard.

Janet tried again to calm Zoie down, but knew it wasn't going to work. "Zoie. If it's too much for you, you can always put the child up for adoption...."

Janet never got to finish her statement. "NO! They told me when I got here that I could start a new life, NOW, not nine months from now, NOW!" Zoie seemed to deflate in front of Janet's eyes, and only her quick reaction time saved the girl from hitting the floor as she broke down. "I... I can't handle being pregnant again."

"Again?" Janet asked while holding the sobbing girl.

Zoie nodded and spoke in between her sobs. "It was about eight months ago. When he found out I was pregnant, he beat me real bad, then took me to a doctor and he gave me an abortion. He told me if it ever happened again, he would kill me."

"Oh God, child, I am so sorry," Janet said, trying hard to fight back her own tears.

Zoie looked up into Janet's eyes and pleaded with her. "Will... will you give me an abortion?"