Path of the Hunters [PART 3]

"I hope he is in a more intelligent mood later. They honeslty seemed convinced that the disruption bombs were unnecessary and actually made things worse!" He shook his head. "Alas, but you are right. Anyone would be high-strung after today. I'll let him be until after he's calmed down. Hopefully then he'll be easier to talk to and more accepting of facts.

He chuckled. "Good luck with that. Nova's a stubborn one. I'm more forgiving, once the reason's put in front of me, but Nova probably won't let it go, until he's beaten a 'sorry' out of you."

"I'll keep the anti-material snipers on stand-by." He stated with annoyance in his voice. "Please tell me at least you have enough sense to know why those things were necessary?"

"In case you missed it, I was the one that gave you the OK, to begin with. Shit happens, all right? I have nothing against you, or how things rolled out, and the others, sans Nova, feel the same way."

"Good, at least you understand the entire strategy behind the op..." he muttered. "I apologize, dealing with idiots is something one never learns how to properly adapt to. Even in the military..."

"Trust me, it's been no picnic for me, trying to adapt. Nova's the only one of us who isn't originally military, but a mere street thug."

"Go figure. Shadow Squad is made up of the dissatisfied and dishonored soldiers of two different military forces respectively. We have a few civies, but they take on the background work like doctors and financial stuff, you know what I mean."

"Well, he's good muscle, I'll give him that. And loyal, too. Street thug or not, he's just as much of a warrior as the rest of us. In the end, it doesn't matter where what our backgrounds are; we're all the same, so we work the same."

"Understandable. I just hope he's open to reason once all this BS quiets down. Mind if I keep an eye on the area? I didn't go through all that trouble to rescue them one day only to wake up the next with them and the newborns dead."

"Fair enough. You'll be paid for the extra work, of course."

He shook his head and chuckled, "Nah, man. This one's on the house. The flyboys got a kick out of that action-movie style rescue, and I consider that worth letting the UAV techs play 'I Spy' with their drones. You'd be surprised what those boys have found."

He smirked. "You can tell me all about it at debriefing, whenever this whole thing blows over. Now, go put your head on ice."

He laughed, "It's an interesting job, to say the least, now could you show me where the ice and the bags are? I admit to not being as hard-headed as Nova is."

"That's impossible, quite literally, actually. Anyway, it's this way." He beckoned Damien to follow him through the halls.

He nodded as he followed him, "I'm not the least bit surprised, my friend."

Back in the delivery room, Mani was dressing a number of welts on Sol's face. "Honestly," she chided. "When you two go at it, you sure do make a mess of each other."

The hedgecat chuckled. "Sorry, Mani, but I wasn't exactly going to back down from a challenge."

"Hey, you started it," Nova said, his face having similar patches on it, though easily less than Sol. "I warned you about all those snide little comments, didn't I?"

Amused, Aurélie reached out and took his hand. "Well, you kept me entertained through three."

He turned to the dog, grinned. "Of course I did. After all, Sol's expression when I noogied him was gold on its own."

Sol laughed. "Now, that's more like the Nova I know!"

"On the subject of the contractions," Mani said, turning to Aurélie. "They seem to be picking up in frequency. How's the pain when they occur, still feels like a sting or little above that?"

"A little above." She squeezed Nova's hand, but released it before she could hurt his already bruised knuckles. "A lot above."

"Hm. You're progressing along a little faster than expected. And their movement-is it still pretty active in there?"

"Only one of them. The other seems to have settled back some."

She nodded. "It might not be much longer before your first birthing. Given the rapidly increasing frequency and intensity of the contractions, I'd give it maybe another thirty minutes."

"Bonne," she murmured, eyes closing. She took Nova's hand again. "Sit be'ind me, mon coeur. I need to sit up."

Within the hour, both children were successfully born, a healthy boy and girl. Nova heaved a sigh of relief, cradling his newborn son in his arms. "It's finally over, and once again, we've come out on top."

Aurélie smiled down at her daughter, brushing her tuft of hair out of her eyes gently. "Oui," she murmured.