What nerve Gunnar had, telling Vita that she couldn't be a part of the mission. She'd been working on the scavenging team before he bothered to show up. She wasn't a damned pregnant porcelain doll! Why did he have to treat her like one?

Since his arrival, Gunnar had shifted his attentions from Mischa to Vita. She assumed Quinton's presence had a lot to do with that. It was a bit strange that the two former friends, Mischa and Gunnar, hardly talked anymore. He'd been so quick to judge Vita and his friend Rob back when the storms struck, then turned testy when Mischa had disappeared.

With Vita, Gunnar had made no move to make the relations sexual as Rob had back before the world changed. Curiosity had let her draw Gunnar closer. She wanted that stoic facade and the instant respect that followed him wherever he went. What she didn't want was to be considered helpless and that was just how men looked at her around here.

"Vita?" came a soft mumbled voice. "Ya in there?"

The near-empty supply closet next to the kitchen wasn't the most inconspicuous choice. She waited, rationing her breath.

"Shit," he muttered. The door shifted as he pressed his weight against it and slid down to the ground. Couldn't he find another place to admit defeat?

Nails clicked away on the cement floor as four paws came bounding toward the door. "Aw, Hunter. Y'er a lucky boy. Ya can't say nothing to make ya look like an ass."

Vita sighed. It still didn't make his actions redeemable.

"She just don't see it out there like we did. All the assholes I had to fight off while Rob had 'er looking the other way. This time we won't be just going 'round town for these missions neither. The places sound so gawddamn organized. Ya slip up and they've gotcha. I can fight off a few guys, but not a whole security force, ya know? Be bad enough looking out me."

But Vita practiced her skills whenever she could. Gunnar had smiled down at her last time he took her shooting. "Nice shot," he'd whispered, unaware that his warm breath made her stomach flutter. Or maybe that was just the baby shifting. Cynthia had said it should happen soon.

However, his defensive techniques were far better than hers and if he doubted his own skills...

"I can't lose another person to this bullshit." His fist slammed against the door and Vita held in her yelp of surprise. "Aida, just listening to her voice, hearing the last words she says cut off by crap reception. I work so hard making sure she's eating and learning, better than I ever could because she got some brains that mum and me never got. World goes to shit and all I've got is my own stupid self for company." His breaths came out heavy.

The dog let out a grunt and Gunnar laughed deeply.

"And ya too. I didn't forget. Don'cha worry." He paused.

Vita fought the urge to open the door and to confess to eavesdropping. The back of her throat tightened and her eyes grew moist. She had just accepted her parent's deaths. If she'd heard it happen from a distance would it have been so easy? She shuddered.

"I coulda went looking for her. Shouldn't 'uv been much farther than home or In-N-Out but naw, I stuck with sick Rob and sicker Vita. Just to find Mischa who was safer than all three of us put together."

His weight pressed harder against the door. Vita swallowed, a lump forming in her throat. If they had known, would things have been different? Mischa had explained the situation to her and Vita knew there was nothing any of them could have done to prevent it.

"I couldn't stand her either, Vita."

Vita wanted to laugh. Wasn't that the truth back then?

"Thought she was just another diseased whore better at hiding it 'round school that the rest Rob usually saw."

Vita choked back a sudden sob. Was that why he didn't want her coming with the mission? How could he even talk to her if that were the case?

"But, she showed up in that store looking like she'd cut off my balls, and I knew she had something. This wasn't Rob's plaything, this was a woman who'd done whatever things she had to get done to stay alive. Even if that meant lying down for a slimy bastard day in day out."

His words caused her stomach to tighten. It had been so long ago she'd forgotten what it felt like to be that low. She could hardly associated the girl who performed those vile acts with herself. But the baby was constant reminder.

"That's a woman stronger than me, stronger than anyone I know. She's so damn strong, she wants to face the crazy people that caused this whole thing. But I got a lifetime of knowing that strong can't beat smart."

He paused when Hunter let out a small yelp. "Okay, she's pretty smart too, maybe not create an earthquake smart, so I dunno. The only way I know she'll be safe is if she stays, 'cuz I don't think they're cooking up any more tornadoes. I wish I didn't care, Hunter. All the people I care about get cursed."

Vita's heart leaped and her anger evaporated. Could she stay behind? Would her pride allow it to happen? A sudden jolt in her stomach had her sitting up straight.

Whatever you do know, you're always thinking for two. That'll never change until another gets added or, God forbid, one is taken away.

Cynthia had thinking for two down as instinct, a downgrade from her thinking for three, she'd explained with the passing of her husband. Gunnar, elusive loner Gunnar, had managed thinking for two and he hadn't even been able to stand her for more than two weeks. She stood up slowly and massaged her numb thighs. Her feet hadn't been too fond of the position either. If she wanted to look out for this baby, she'd have to start making better choices.

"Gunnar," she said softly.

"Shit," he muttered and the scraping of rubber on concrete followed.

"Wait, can we talk?"

She opened the door to a tall thin man with his hands thrust deep in his pockets and shoe tapping repeatedly.

"I talked lots already, to a dog and a door, and you." He ran his hand through his hair. "Why didn't ya say you was there?"

Vita shrugged. "I didn't feel like talking to you."

"Changed yer mind?"

Vita swallowed her pride. She'd been gifted raw honesty and her gut told her to return the favor. "I was wrong about you now and before. I always thought you were dangerous, careless and lazy as hell. How else could you just keep failing out of school?"

His slouch deepened. "All you smart kids hogged the answers. Took two years of trying for me to get enough of 'em on paper."

"But you hardly showed up to class," Vita said.

He scowled. "It don't matter if I showed up."

"Yes it does, if you take notes and listen and do the assignments..." Why was she even fixating on this point with so many other issues to face?

Gunnar laughed. "I showed up for years and no one taught me nothing. I had more important things to be doing."

"Yeah?" she asked. Her life had never been complicated enough to divert her attention beyond friends, school, family and extra curricular activities. At least not until now.

He stood taller. "Yeah, earning enough money to keep my family in our apartment. If I was lucky, a few extra dollars for my kid sister, because she should still get a shot at normal kid stuff like dance, and toys and maybe one day she'd go off and do some real learning for the both of us."

Vita's chest felt as heavy as a Honda Civic. "She's the one you lost?"

He scowled. "I wanted to be there for her. I didn't..." He ran his hands through his blonde hair again. "How do you know that the storm's gonna be the real one?" His voice cracked and he turned away.

"Gunnar," she tried to interject.

He turned to his canine companion, Hunter, instead. "I tried to talk 'er into a safe place, but it got cut. I didn't lose 'er on purpose." Gunnar's chest rose and fell with intensity and his eyes were glossy.

"Gunnar, I meant to ask if she was the one that passed away." She placed her hand on his shoulder. He flinched but let her keep it there. "I never meant to imply that you abandoned her. There was nothing you could do."

"I coulda stay home 'stead of chasing stupid dreams that would have never happened. I'm no better than my mother, putting herself before anyone else," he said a tone above a whisper.

Her heart was breaking. "That's not true, you just put me first back in that meeting room. You hardly even know me."

"I know you know when something awful needs doing to stay alive. I respect that. Sorry fer thinking you was just one of those girls." He turned around and gave her a weak smile.

"Sorry for thinking you were a good for nothing gang member. Clearly, I was wrong."

Gunnar's eyes dropped. Voices from the dining area carried over. She really hoped the effect didn't go both ways.

"Not that wrong," he mumbled.

"Come again?"

"Me and Rob, we, well Rob, he got me introduced a few years back. That's how I'd make money, running jobs with those guys."

The blood drained from Vita's face. She was having a gang member's baby. He could have shot or cut or destroyed her in those weeks they spent together. Gunnar too.

"That's why you're so good with a knife," she muttered.

"Naw, the old man at the house I crashed at after the storms had a nice picture book about skinning rabbits. I never killed nobody," Gunnar said lightly.

Her hands trembled. "Or hurt them?"

"Vita, ya saw me hurt people, but when I'm defending me or you or Rob. Before that, I just needed the money and no one would hire a fifteen-year-old kid like me. We stole mostly. We had guys who liked that other kinda stuff in case things got messy."

She swallowed hard and dared to ask, "and Rob? Would... was he one of those?"

Gunnar shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Rob's too busy chasing anything with boobs to care."

She chewed on her lower lip. "What about the other members, the ones at the party?"

"Funny thing 'bout crazy people is they're not big on being 'round other living people in normal places," Gunnar said with a smile a few shades past reassuring.

"You think they all died in the storm?" her voice quivered.

Gunnar shrugged. "If we didn't see 'em before for weeks, doubt we'll see 'em now."

"And Rob?"

"You're the expert on that one. You watched that house burn?"

"Well, I ran as fast as I could then passed out."

Gunnar's lips went arrow straight and he readjusted his stance. "Did anyone here see a guy that looks like him?"

Vita shook her head.

"Then we think the same. Probably dead." The tapping of his foot on pavement recommenced.

"If he were alive and found out about this," Vita said, patting her stomach, "what would he do?"

"He burnt down a house when I left. Dunno what he'd do if he knew ya abandoned him and had his kid. Before all this he'da run far away, but the worlds a bit different. The bastard's unstable." His foot tapped faster.

Fear climbed from her belly all the way to her chest. It constricted and she closed her eyes tight. Gunnar was right. It was bad enough admitting she was having a baby soon, but the thought of Rob coming after her, after both of them.

Gunnar put his hand on her arm that she hadn't realized was trembling. He foot went still. "He's gone. Don't worry about it."

"What do I tell people when they find out?"

"Tell 'em to mind their damn business."

That brought a smile to her lips. She couldn't see herself able to tell Mischa or her father, Mr. Hues those thoughts. "I just wish my life wasn't this way."

"Plenty of people face down in the river that'd trade ya in a heartbeat."

"Yeah." She appreciated having someone to chat with who was straightforward and didn't make her feel like a stupid kid. Mischa's desire to keep him around before made more sense. "Thanks for not saying anything about the baby in the meeting."

He shrugged. "It's not my news to tell."

"Mr. M knows already, told him when we first got here without thinking much of the consequences. Cynthia too because we've been together since I left Rob."

"Ya stuck with him long after I went?" There seemed to be concern in his voice.

"A day or two. Why did you leave?"

Gunnar shrugged. "Rob's useless if he focused on getting action. I was sick of watching the two of you. Easier to take care of one person 'stead of three."

One question still plagued her. "Then why do you care now?"

He bent down to scratch the top of Hunter's head and stared off in the distance.

"Should I be worried you're a murder trying to keep me all to yourself?"

He let out a laugh and shook his head. He chewed on his bottom lip then stood back up. The moment he stopped she could have sworn he was about to say something.

She prodded him a little more. "Secret agent sent to protect me from my own stupid decisions."

That one brought out a smile. "No, but you could use one of those."

"Hey," Vita said and gave him a playful shove. He smiled back down at her. His blue eyes lit up for once and he looked like a different person. A happy one. He could have been the cute barista at the coffee shop that she and Mischa used to gossip about or a guy off the basketball team or maybe just the man who just stood up to intimidating Mr. M to make sure she stayed safe, even knowing it would piss her off.

A warm sensation crept from her chest to her warm cheeks. Did he like her? Did it even matter? Surely Mischa would have her head if anything happened between the two of them. Plus she was pregnant. What kind of person did she think she was, chasing after one guy while carrying someone else's baby? His friend's or best friend's even. She hardly knew enough about him either.

This was reckless. She should definitely not be thinking he's handsome in one of those cold stand-offish European male model kind of ways. And definitely not wonder what it would feel like for their bodies to be intertwined.

Gunnar sat up closer to her, and she took a deep breath. "Vita,"

"Forget I asked. It's not important anyway. Whatever it is, I appreciate it."

His shoulders relaxed and he turned his attention back to Hunter. She was probably imagining it, but she could have sworn she saw a bit of color on that pale face.