“She’s…what?” was Ian’s only response, a long moment later, barely spoken though it was.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Kyle sighed as he looked away again.

Ian swallowed hard as he also looked down a moment, pondering the reality of the situation. “And she told you this, when?” were the only words he could come up with right then.

Kyle just shook his head again. “She didn’t tell me. I guess she only found out for sure yesterday. Jared’s the one who actually told me, last night.”

“Um, did he say how far along she is?” Ian managed.

“I’m guessing a month or less, since she obviously got her period at the beginning of October,” Kyle then shook his head as he looked back at where Ian took another shaky breath. “And that’s your only reaction?” Kyle had to add.

“Not quite sure what reaction I should be having right now,” Ian returned, all of his humorous quips seeming to have been completely forgotten at that point.

“Well, how about the one where you say, but gee I thought she couldn’t have kids. I know that was my first reaction,” Kyle stated pointedly.

Ian just shook his head with another ragged breath. “Well do we know for sure that she even had the IUD at all? I mean, you were the one who mentioned it back before we even came here. She never did.”

Kyle scoffed at Ian’s seeming calm, despite the shakiness of the older man’s breath. “All of the women on the ship had them, Ian. I believe I told you that.”

“Well yeah, but she was Miranda’s daughter, and not hardly promiscuous when we were up there, even at age twenty-five. So maybe she was, like exempt?” Ian shrugged, grasping for the right word through his own thoughts as well as his continuing pain.

“If you really believed that then why were you sleeping with her?” Kyle couldn’t help calling him on that theory.

“Well I was hoping that it was…safe…” he simply shrugged. “But thinking didn’t really play a big part by the time it finally became a possibility that I’d even have to worry about myself,” he admitted with another slight shrug.

Kyle shook his head once more. “Well according to Jared, she did have one but apparently she hasn’t now ‘for a while,’ whatever that means,” Kyle added more quietly.

Ian looked down again with another deep breath. “Well, have you talked to her, you know, since you found out?”

“About what?” Kyle scoffed. “It’s apparently already too late, right?”

“Well yeah but I mean, is she ok?” Ian added in an unusually soft tone for him.

“No: She’s pregnant. We covered this already,” Kyle returned with another scoff.

“Well yeah, but I mean…” Ian just shook his head, seeming to be having trouble finding words for once in his life. “Well, if Jared’s the one who told you, does Lili even know that you know? Not to mention that I know now, too?”

“I seriously doubt it. Unless Jared actually told her about telling me.”

Ian let out another sigh before he continued. “Well, I guess she’ll probably tell the two of us when she’s ready, right?” was Ian’s only pained response as he began moving back toward the fire, though whether his attempt at walking again was truly the cause of that pain in his voice, that wasn’t particularly clear.

When Ian finally made it back to the dwindling fire near the door of the shack, Kyle was following several paces behind in silence. Back at the cabin, Jared was also finally emerging from inside as he glanced over at where Ian winced a bit through those the last few steps before taking a seat near the fire.

With a slight sigh, Jared only cast the briefest dark look toward Kyle’s approach and then kneeled next to Ian. “Better let me have another look at that now that I can actually see what I’m doing,” he stated with a bit of exhaustion to his tone while still somehow managing to keep it gentle.

“I guess,” Ian returned, though his own voice barely escaped either as Kyle moved to make a selection for their breakfast in continued silence.

After another moment, Kyle had retrieved one of the larger fish and then moved down to the water’s edge to begin gutting it, still not offering any of his own words as Jared examined Ian’s injury and then reapplied the bandages.

“Want an aspirin or anything?” Jared offered with a slight shrug as he glanced over the supplies available in the medical kit he had brought outside with him upon seeing Ian’s absence from the shack when he had first awoken.

“Think that’s really gonna make a dent?” Ian scoffed as he glanced down at his own leg once more, if for no other reason than to avoid eye contact.

“Well, there’s much stronger stuff in here,” Jared continued. “But I’m thinking we might need to save that.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Ian couldn’t help returning with a bit of a leading tone to his words, though Jared’s only response was a slightly creased brow as he reached for the previously offered aspirins.

No more words were exchanged between them though, as Jared handed him the pills and a cup of water before Lili emerged from the shack, moving with more than a bit of a hurried pace. She made her way quickly down to the riverside, once more emptying what little was still in her stomach into the water yet again. Of course, all three sets of eyes moved to where she then attempted to regain her breath and wipe at her eyes, refusing to let herself look back at any of them right then.

“I’m guessing that would be your cue, doc?” Ian finally allowed as he glanced back at Jared.

“Don’t really have anything to help with that,” Jared stated with regret as he moved to glance sadly over at Lili once more before heading back inside to put the medical kit safely away again.

Lili continued to sit there next to the water, sniffling as she wiped at her eyes once more and easily feeling their eyes on her. But she was still not able to face any of their possible reactions right then. From his place about ten or fifteen feet down the bank from her, Kyle simply looked down and away, not sure what he could possibly say right then anyway, as he instead tried to force his attention back to preparing breakfast.

Ian finally took another deep breath of his own to gather the strength to push himself up to his feet with continued pain. He then added to his own discomfort by slowly making his way down to the water as well. “That good of a morning, huh?” he greeted Lili softly while wincing a bit as he sat next to where she continued to stare down at the surface of the water.

She sniffled again, finally allowing the briefest glance toward him as he took the seat, though she still refused to make any real eye contact. “You don’t seem to be doing particularly well, yourself,” she managed, despite the current rawness in her throat.

“It’s a matter of degree,” he allowed with an attempt at a smile as he offered her what was left of the cup of water he still held in his hand.

“Thanks,” she whispered as she took the offered water, managing a slow sip through another sniffle. Another long, silent moment passed as Kyle cast them both furtive glances while Ian just sat there staring quietly out over the water as well and still not really saying much at all. “So you’re actually not gonna ask?” Lili finally forced more words.

“Ask what?” Ian returned, making an attempt at sounding innocent of the facts that she spoke of.

“I just rushed out here and spent a great deal of the last few minutes puking,” she shook her head. “That doesn’t strike you as odd?”

“Well, I’m no doctor,” he returned with a slight shrug.

“Ian,” she stated softly.

“Lili,” he offered a small smile.

She then just shook her head again. “You already know, don’t you?” she managed. Ian just sighed in concession, not really having to offer a further answer. “And you don’t have anything to say?” she added, which did cause Kyle to look back over at them, awaiting whatever Ian’s response might actually be when Lili was the one confronting him on that particular subject this time.

“I don’t know,” Ian offered the most honest answer he could. “I guess, maybe that this means that we might possibly be able to survive here, after all, right? Which, I guess, means that we did the job that we originally came here to do, didn’t we?”

It was then that both Lili and Kyle seemed beyond floored by that particular reaction, when every other reaction, on any of their parts, was a frightening contrast to the one given by the person they all had agreed was the least serious out of all of them.

“You…” Lili stammered. “You see this as a good thing?” she forced out the words, her voice shaking as she did.

“Well like we said earlier, were we just planning to live, or planning to survive? Isn’t this baby proof that maybe our race might actually be able to survive here, after all?” he returned softly.

“You really believe that?” Lili breathed, a different sort of tears welling up then.

“Well, don’t you?” he managed with a small smile as he looked into her eyes once more, seeming to sound sincerely hopeful, himself.

Several minutes later, Lili made her slow way back inside, where Jared was attempting to busy himself gathering up the clothing or bedding for the next pile of laundry to be washed out in the river that day. “Hey,” he greeted her hoarsely as she stepped inside.

“So, you told them, huh?”

“Well I told Kyle,” he answered, trying to hide the animosity that crept into his tone upon remembering Kyle’s initial reaction.

“Trust me, I’m pretty sure they both know.” Lili returned.

“Did Kyle say something to you? So help me…” he began with a shake of his head.

“Actually, Kyle didn’t say a word,” she answered with only a slight furrow of the brow.

“I take it that Ian had something or other to say as always, right?” Jared sighed quietly.

“Yeah he did,” she answered, sounding more thoughtful than upset right then.

“Like?” Jared asked warily.

“He definitely has a different take on this than I thought anyone would have,” she responded softly.

Jared narrowed his eyes at that vague statement before asking for more clarification. “Do I even wanna know?”

Lili just shook her head, though with a near smile despite her disbelief. “He seems to think that this baby could somehow be proof that we all actually could survive this place. Our race even, not just us.” she added softly.

“He said that?” Jared asked slowly, trying not only to fathom that the words were spoken at all, let alone who it was that offered them.

“Trust me, I’m as shocked as you,” Lili added.

Jared then took another deep breath, pondering the theory further. “Well I guess, in some way, he’s actually, kind of, right,” he managed, though barely getting out the final word.

“If me and the baby even survive, and then, if you all survive, and if if if…” she just shook her head again.

“Well, if you’re going to play the ‘what if’ game at all, you have to allow all the ‘ifs’ don’t you?” Jared told her gently. “Not just the bad ones, right?”

Lili sniffled again. “Yeah, but honestly…how much of a chance do you really think we have? There’s still the winter, and the whole idea of giving birth out here with what little medical supplies we even have…I mean, up on the ship, with a whole medical team and a lab full of supplies; some mothers still didn’t survive that. You should be more aware of that than any of us, right?” she dared to mention the fate of Jared’s own mother.

Jared swallowed a bit as he finally set aside the clothing he had gathered and moved to wrap his arms around her. “I know you’re scared, Lili. You’d be crazy not to be. But we have to at least assume that there is a possibility of getting through this. Can you at least let yourself believe, for just one moment of each day, that that possibility does still exist? Please?” he whispered as he kissed her hair.

Lili sniffled again as she held him tighter. “I think you really need to get another vision, and fast. Cause I don’t know how long I can try and believe in that without any more hope than what I have right now, honestly.”

“As long as you try at all, ok? Can you promise me that much?” he asked her gently.

“Only if you all can really help me to. Deal?” she whispered back.

Jared swallowed a bit as he thought about Kyle’s own reaction the previous night. But he didn’t really want to dwell on that right then, as the youngest of them did seem to be holding his tongue for the moment, at least in Lili’s presence, anyway. “You know you’ve got my support, and apparently Ian’s too,” he allowed a small smile, still surprised at that fact, himself.

“And what about Kyle?” she finally managed. “It could be his baby too, you know,” she admitted.

“Yeah well, we’ll make him come around, even if I have to let Ian break his legs,” Jared couldn’t help letting himself add.

“Yeah I’m sure that’ll be helpful,” she managed a slight smile.

“Well lately, I’ve started to become slightly amazed at the effect our great protector can have on other people, when he really wants to,” he confessed with a pointed squeeze before placing a kiss upon her forehead and allowing another slight smile down at her before once again returning to his previous task.