"Put me down, Pyte," Dimitris bit out tightly, not flinching beneath the Pyte's anger or backing down.

Caine's response was of course to tighten his grip around the man's neck and slam him again, leaving her with no choice but to try this floating thing to get him down. She slowly inhaled and focused on going to Caine. Just when she thought it wouldn't work she felt herself move and had to fight back an excited little giggle and focus on getting Caine to calm down before he really did something stupid.

"Put him down, Caine," she said softly, trying not to look down. As cool as this was it didn't change the fact that she was deathly afraid of heights.

"He disrespected you," Caine said, moving to slam the man again, but she moved in to intervene. She pulled Caine's hand away and probably should have grabbed the man with her free hand so that he wouldn't drop, but she had to calm her mate down before he went into bloodlust over this.

"Look, I'm working my ass off here to save you here and you're really screwing this up for me," she said, feeling herself start to weaken just as she started to fall. Caine had her in his arms before she could fall on her ass.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his neck, ignoring the Sentinels they floated over as she held on tightly to him. "Please don't leave me again, Caine. I love you."

"I love you too, Danni. That's why I'm doing this," he said as exhaustion crept up her spine and she knew that she'd overdone it today sparring with Chris and her little attack on the council member and her little floating attempt. Soon she wouldn't be able to do much to keep them from taking him away from her. She needed to fight and hang onto him. If she didn't she'd lose him forever.

"Please don't leave me," she said as her eyes fluttered shut.

"I have to," he said, tightening his hold around her.

"I need you, Caine," she said as she felt herself start to let go.

"I'm doing this for you, Danni. Always remember that, baby. I love you," she heard him say as darkness took over.

********

Five months later......

"Just tell me," Izzy said, sounding more impatient by the minute.

"Why?" Danni asked with a shrug as she slapped a sheathed knife against her ankle and attached it. "You already know."

"Tell me it's a mistake," Izzy demanded, gesturing absently to the raised circle just below her ear.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. It looks like Chris knocked you up again." She was actually surprised that it took him this long to do it. Once Izzy healed from her last surgery two months ago the two of them had been going at it every chance they got and she did mean every chance. She'd lost count of how many times she walked in on them when she wasn't paying attention, or how many times she woke up from Izzy screaming Chris' name.

Then again, Ephraim and Madison seemed to have the same problem, which was why three months ago she'd finally had enough and moved all her things to the West wing, the wing Kale claimed for himself. He wasn't too happy to find her living in his wing two months ago when he came for a visit, but he quickly got over it when Izzy told him to stop his whining or she wouldn't keep his room stocked with ice cold Coke and junk food. The man didn't like Pytes, that much was obvious, but when they patrolled together or went looking for Joshua he seemed not to care what she was.

"I was afraid of that," Izzy mumbled pathetically as she took a long swallow from her can of Coke, probably already knowing that it would be off limits the second Chris got back and discovered that she was pregnant.

"When's he getting back?" Danni asked as she laced up her boots.

"Tonight," she said with a sigh.

Chris and Ephraim left a few days ago to check out a tip Kale managed to get for them regarding Joshua's location, but last she heard it was a dead end. She didn't know the man and had no clue where he ended up, but she knew the second Chris found him that he was probably a dead man.

Thankfully Izzy and little CJ, Chris Junior, survived, but the man couldn't seem to get over the way he just abandoned Madison and Izzy like that, not to mention the damage he did to Izzy's leg. Thanks to Joshua she had a pretty nasty scar and had problems walking. Kale wanted to kill him as well and when he wasn't working, which wasn't very often, he was searching for Joshua. Ephraim of course still had hopes for Joshua and continued to search for his son, but she knew the way the man looked at his wife and sometimes watched Izzy struggle to walk that he was probably going to beat the hell out of his son before he dragged him back home.

Her game plan of course was to find Joshua, beat the shit out of him for hurting her friends and drag his ass back into custody. Granted, it was the only thing she had to focus on besides patrolling so she probably put in more hours than anyone else on this little project. It was the only thing that helped her get through the day and not miss Caine. Okay, so she missed him every second of the day, but it gave her a purpose and right now she needed that or she wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning.

"Someone's pregnant," Madison announced as she walked into the room.

"Shut up," Izzy said, pouting.

Madison didn't take any offense as she laughed. "Then I guess I shouldn't tell you that this time you can expect one of each," Madison said, laughing harder as she ducked away from the empty Coke can Izzy threw at her.

"Take it back!" Izzy demanded, looking truly frightened, and she really couldn't blame the poor woman. As a female Sentinel carrying twins she'd be huge in no time.

"Sorry. No can do," Madison said with a shrug as she shot her a curious look. "Going patrolling?"

"Yup." She went patrolling every night when she wasn't looking for Joshua and since there was no news about his whereabouts she was going patrolling.

It didn't matter that they lived on the edge of a small town that had ten Sentinels and hadn't seen a vampire, demon or shifter since they moved here, she still patrolled. It kept her busy and she really needed to stay busy.

"Have fun," Izzy said, picking up the baby monitor for the babies nursery and attached it to her belt as she carefully stood up. "I'm going to go find every last drop of caffeine and inhale it before Chris comes home and-"

"Izzy?" they heard Chris yell from somewhere down the hall.

"Damn it!" Izzy snapped, reaching up with one hand and yanking free her ponytail so that her hair covered the mark ratting her ass out as pregnant. She slapped a hand against the wall for support as she tried to quickly make her escape before Chris found her, but unfortunately for her she had a very serious limp and a mate desperate to see her.

Chris walked into the room, his expression turning murderous the way it did every time he saw Izzy walk before he managed to pull it back and plaster a carefree smile on his face. "Hey, Munchkin, did you miss me?"

Izzy smiled hugely as she threw them a look that clearly told them to keep their mouths shut. "Of course I did, baby, but do you think we could have this little reunion with a couple of Cokes?" she asked, sounding hopeful. "I'm really thirsty."

"Okay," Chris said, probably not giving it much thought since the woman was a junk food addict. He paused long enough to give Danni a loud smacking kiss on the top of her head that had her chuckling and rolling her eyes and did the same for Madison before he walked over to his mate and gave her a sweet kiss as his hand snaked between them and stole the baby monitor off her belt.