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Lillia stared at the doctor. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't, after all this time...it had finally happened. Her father's condition was stable and he was coming home. She threw her arms around Dr. Wiseman and hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much," she said wiping tears from her eyes.

He hugged her back, a warm smile in his brown eyes. He ran a hand through his thinning gray hair and nodded to her request to see Mr. Nickko. Then he chuckled as Lillia promptly let go of the doctor and ran into the room.

"Hi Dad."

Bradley Nickko opened blue eyes startlingly like his daughters and smiled at her. "Hello Lillia. How have you been?"

She pulled up a chair and sat beside him, grabbing his hand from the sheets. "Fine Dad. We've been so worried about you. You've been in ICU for a long time and the doctors weren't sure..." she stopped tears gleaming in her eyes. "I'm sorry..."

He shook his head and stroked her hand with his thumb. "For what sweetheart?"

Her blue eyes widened, he had called her 'sweetheart.' Not once had she heard that word leave her father's mouth in all her 23 years. Things had certainly chainged..."For going to space and making you have....a heart attack." She blinked back the tears knowing her father didn't want to see her cry. "I know you didn't want me to go but I wanted to so badly and I'm just really sorry."

Bradley's eyes narrowed, Jacklyn had told her that. Anger for his wife filled him, he had never approved of the way she had treated Lillia but he had always kept silent. Raising a child was none of his affair although he loved her very much. He had always left it to Jacklyn and now he was sorry he had. He had never shown his daughter the love and care she deserved and frankly he was surprised she was so upset about him now. He was certain his wife wasn't. Emotion swelled into a ball in his throat and he lifted his other hand and stroked her hair. "Your going to space didn't do this to me sweetheart. Don't you beleive that. I've been working too hard for too long and it's long past time for me to slow down. That's what did this to me. My own stubborness."

"Are you sure? Mother said..."

"I have a feeling she said a lot of things," he said more sharply than he intended. Gentling his voice he said, "Lillia, you are the smartest girl I know and whether I like it or not, you are an adult. Any decisions you make are your own and I must respect that. I didn't want to see your name go down with that Dr. Trevale if something happened. But if you want to, then do it." His brush with death had taught Bradley a lot and he knew his daughter wanted his blessing, more than anything she wanted her parents to accept what she was doing. She had always been such a sweet child, and he decided to give her what she wanted most. He was through being the cold and emotionless robot Jacklyn implored him to be around her. That had never been his way and it saddened him that Lillia had grown up that way. She deserved so much more. Regret once again filled him but he made a vow that he would change things and if Jacklyn didn't like it, she could go...kiss a moose for all he cared.

She caught her breath listening to him, barely believing her own ears. Her father sounded like he wanted her to go back to her job. She blinked and said softly, "Are you saying...?"

He smiled sadly, "I'm saying that if that's what you want to do I support you a hundred percent. And your mother does too."

A brilliant smile lit up her face and she hugged him tightly. "Thank you Daddy. Thank you so much. Oh that's just...wonderful." She spent a long time with her father that afternoon telling him everythign that had been happening in her life and for the first time she felt her father's love.

When a knock on the door came, he looked up to see his wife standing there a cold look on her face. He saw the disapproval and said gently, "Lillia why don't you give your mother and I a few minutes." As she quietly left the room he watched her go and sighed with the thought that he wouldn't see her for much longer. But inside his heart lifted at the time he had spent with her and promised himself he'd do so much more when he came home.

"Well Phase One depends on the cell division rate of the base species first off. Could be days, could be weeks, could be months. In this case I'd say a few weeks. Once we have an visible fetus as opposed to just a micro cell, then we got into Phase Two."

Take a breath and continue to babble. "Phase two is the stasis chambers. From there they are monitored and the monitoring tells us when they can come up from stasis and introduced into an environment. That's Phase Three but that's not important right now. Piece of cake."

You'll not take me alive! Iam innocnet! Innocent I say!

Tempest rolled about on the floor in his dazed sleep, his body twitching with a slightly more violent twtich than any normal slumber, his dreams were filled with images of festering in a tight corridor alone... His body wisted and mutated gradually gaining mass and apendages...

One perticularrly violent twitch had him knock his head on a poll. "Meew." He flustered at the chair that was not there when he went to sleep... Then he noticed the fur scattered across the floor... He smelt it and felt that it was familiar... It was the same shade as his fur... It had the same texture... But the problem was, Temperst fur was orange and red, this was multiple shades of grey... There must be another Tempest who is his colour polar opposite... The Negative Tempest...

"Mew..." He growled softly, searching for this other cat who left bits of his fur on the floor... Looking at his feet, he saw more of the fur. Damn that other cat, he was trying to kill Tempest in his sleep again... Oh, Tempest was onto him now... A plan formulated in his mind. He would spring a trap using his food dish as bait... Yes, Negaverse Tempest will not know what hit him until his head was clawed to pieces... Tempest turned his head, and saw what apperaed to be some monsterous tail behind him! The cat mewed rather loudly and dashed across the floor, leaping into a glide, and landing on a table of sorts, and turned to face the NegaTempt who stalked the shadows behind him... But, alas, there was no other cat...

Confused, Tempest began to wage his tail, and noticed that the weight seemed off... He looked back and saw that it was his tail that had the spines. He simply fainted on the desk.

Awaking moments later, Tempest serveyed the area. His kingdom, Kepiopolis. He looked about his minions, busy at work, not even daring to look upon the king, for his words would cause the ruination of any who dare oppose him. "mew mew mew." he chuckled as a madman might at the creation of new hidious life.

He waged his brillient tail, swaying it back and forth, sometimes allowing the spines to breath, others closing them to form a single strane of a tail.

Tempest ruled this... Labritory with an iron fist, everyone knew that... he looked at his paws and noticed that the claws were not completely retracted, so he attempted to retrach them... Which, they would not. He looked at his claws with shock, he had a Midus touch! He could no longer use his soft loving hands to caress his beloved people, for if he should dare, the would suffer needlessly... Oh, the humanity... Oh, the horror of not being able to show the peopel that he loved how truly much he cared for them.

Turning his head, he saw the maw of a feline. Sharpe and vicious teeth gleamed at him from behind that soft, fluffy exterior... "MEW!" He cried, as much a cry of pain as anything else he could manage to express!

Tempest turned and looked at Erik, the peasent who was only worthy of cleaning the litterbox. "Mew." He said in lament terms, "Meow mew." he reiterated his point, and then noded towards his cell, which needed to be cleaned, he waved his paw in a shooing like fasion.

Liking his paw afterwards, Tempest washed his face.