Daria still felt cold but it was a feeling she was slowly learning to ignore. She breathed in the scent of Mike's cologne and let herself drift off to sleep.

Mike smiled and relaxed next to Daria. He wasn't sleepy, so he stayed awake, just enjoying holding her.

Eventually, his stomach won his attention, and he gently extricated himself from the bed. Leaving a note for Daria to find him when she woke up, he headed off to the kitchen.

((where we've already seen what happens, and afterward. Resynch))

Daria awoke shivering slightly.

She sniffed the air before she opened her eyes and realized that Mike was no longer there.

She stretched and read his note. "Oh food is a valid excuse I suppose." Daria laughed and stood walking to the closet still wrapped in the blanket. She looked ofr a sweater. She had actually put her winter clothes away as june approached.

"Hey, beautiful. I felt you waking up, thought maybe you'd like this," Mike said as he walked in the door, carrying a glass of warm milk.

Daria's nose locked in on the scent of the milk before she looked at him. "Thank you, honey. You're so damn perfect." she pretended to be upset.

Tugging at a pile of sweaters on the top shelf of the closet she was trying to get her long hooded one. She tugged to hard and all the sweaters and winter clothes fell on top of her. Her tail wagged and stuck out from the clothes.


Well, I'm warm now. she joked.

Mike laughed, and the clothes lifted off of Daria, hanging in midair for her to sort through. "Yeah, I'm a big hit for now. Well, except for with Kaine, I suppose. Idiot took half a bottle of horse tranquilizers and ended up in the infirmary. I chewed him a new one after Tricity left."

Daria grinned and pointed at the sweater she was looking for which appeared on her body. She gritted her teeth at the throbbing in her back and then took the glass of milk.

"He tried to kill himself? Why?"

"Some bullshit about how he loved Tricity and couldn't stand not having her, and wanting to protect her from the green stone he's implanted with. A lot of bullshit, really. Dude tried kissing her in the Danger Room, then got all mopey when she stopped him, even though he knew full well that she's engaged."

Daria sipped the milk pressing both of her hands against the glass for warmth.

"Thats horrible." she said. "He has good taste though." she smiled. "Tricity is beautiful. But didn't he notice the child? Or was this before she started showing.

"He tried it before a few weeks ago when he got kidnapped... right before the Hummer showed up, remember? THEN he found out she was engaged. And he's one of those types, it seems, who thinks that things like that don't matter if the other party in the relationship isn't present for some reason. Even if, y'know, that reason is that they've been kidnapped by a psychotic general."

Daria laughed.

"Yeah." she thought about Jack and how he'd been eyeing her and wondered what she would've done had he tried anything. "well, I'm glad he was there. You're always playing the hero, Mike."

"Pfff... Hero? I told him he was an idiot and a coward. I'm still not sure how I'm going to tell Tricity why he did that shit, though."

"Why do you have to? Is it really going to help?" Daria asked.

"I mean I know its in his best interest for you to tell someone why he did it but how do you think Tricity is going to feel?" Daria thought about it. "Actually she might not fare that badly." Daria sat back down on the bed.

"That's the other thing I'm debating on. I found her in the kitchen, and she was a crying wreck. I don't know if I want to tell her what's going on." He shook his head. "Pregnancy and super-heroing must not mix well. She puts up a good front, but she's pretty shaken up right now."

"Poor Tricity." Daria said genuine concern in her voice. "Whitmore has to go down. At least for her sake. I mean, I know if i were in her shoes and Whitmore took you..." Daria blinked and took another sip of the milk.

"How do we know Orion is with him? Did she see him get captured or.."