CHAPTER THREE

Astrid and Mark Karr walked in their habitation module around six o'clock. They were surprised to hear only silence. They figured ProtoZoa and Zenon were off running around the space station. They took Proto Zoa's bags and carried them down to the bottom of the spiral staircase. When they put it down in his room and had re-emerged from the room, Mark noticed a light, nearly insignificant noise coming from Zenon's room.

Mark, being the more curious of the pair, decided to investigate. He manually over-rid Zenon's door and peered inside. The shock that registered on his face was nothing compared to that on his wife's face. Inside the room was a rockstar, lying horozontally across the small twin bed, feet propped in chair and lightly snoring. Across his taut stomach was their teenage daughter, lying vertically skewed from him. A light smile graced Zenon's face, and the rock star sleeping peacefully. Mark wanted to wake them up, but Astrid wouldn't hear of it.

"Mark, you know that she hasn't slept in a long time, let it lie," Astrid insisted.

"Are you sure? I mean--" He was cut short by the doorbell ringing. Astrid led the way up the stairs and to the door. She pressed the button to open the door, and was surprised to see Orion and the Commander's Daughter on the other side.

"May we please speak to Zenon? Its urgent major," Margie explained.

"No, I am sorry, shes asleep and we will not wake her, good bye," Mark said, trying to avoid these unwanted guests away.

"Mmm Dad?" Zenons sleepy voice rang out. "Who is it?" Mark turned to see his sleepy offspring followed by an out of wack rock star. Zenon stumbled over her own feet when she was walking towards the door and began her unstoppable descent to the floor. Thankfully, ProtoZoa was right behind her, and he wrapped his arms around her trim waist and hoisted her back up. He was laughing, and after she was stable, she was laughing too. Margie and Orion pushed past Mr. Karr to see what was so funny, and what they saw was Zenon, wrapped in the arms of Proto Zoa, laughing so close to his face that the slightest bump could cause their lips to meet. Not that Proto Zoa would have minded it, of course.

Zenons smile quickly dropped, her laughing subsided completely and she tensed up in his arms as soon as she saw Margie and Orion.

"What's he doing here." Margie asked, gesturing to ProtoZoa.

"Better yes, what are you doing here," Proto Zoa fired back. His smile and laughter had more than ended when he felt Zenon tense up in his arms.

"Zenon, your fater and I are going to go pick some stuff up from your Aunt, the shuttle leaves in about 15 minutes, we should only be gone no mrore than four or five hours," Astrid said, glaring at the unwelcome visitors. "Behave yourself sweety," she said, giving her daughter a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. Mark and Astrid quickly slipped out the door, leaving the feuding teens and one particualarly mad rock star to settle this on their own.

"My name is Margie," Margie said, extending her hand. "It's a very high pleasure to meet you." ProtoZoa stared at her hand like it was the source of every disease contractable.

"I haven't met you and don't plan to," he said, keeping one arm protectivly wrapped around Zenon. Zenon looked up at him, giving him a 'thank you so much look,' which he returned with a 'Your welcome, Love,' and allowed a smile to cross his features a few minutes before he remember what was going on. He looked back up at the smug looking girl and with such spite gazed at her she wished she could curl up and die. Now it was Orions turn to speak up.

"What do you think you are doing you little tramp? Cheating on me with this guy?" Orion thought he was the kind of the galaxy but was quickly brought down, for within the blink of an eye, Proto Zoa had him a good foot off the floor holding him by the collar, threatening him.

"If you ever, ever, ever get near her again, talk to her, try to touch her I swear on all that is good to me mate, I will kill you with my bare hands," ProtoZoa promised.

"Hey, chill man," Orion tried to reason, "No reason to be defensive about it." By this time ProtoZoa had lowered him to the floor and Orion began cirling Zenon as a buzzard would its prey. A smirk rest across his ugly features and Zenon wanted nothing more than to knock it off of him completly.

"Not like it was a big deal, mate," he said, mimicking ProtoZoa. "I was only looking for a piece of," he took this opportunity to smack Zenons butt, "ass." he finished. The anger in Proto Zoa's eyes flashed like lightening, and he stalked slowly over to his prey. Proto Zoa wasn't a bad- tempered person, but push the right buttons and feel his wrath. Orion had done just that, pressed all the right buttons. Proto Zoa continued slowly moving up towards Orion, standing all the taller by the moment. When he reached Orion, Proto Zoa smiled at him, almost a forgiving looking smile. Unfortunatly, Orion had judged his smile wrong, and soon found himself clutched in a death grip above Proto Zoa's head. He took Orion by the collar and threw him out the front door, pushing Margie out with him.

"Come back again and I'll bust both your arses," he said with an infinate tone of seriousness.

He walked back into the room where Zenon was still standing, a bit stunned by the scene that had just played out before her.

"Zenon, Love, are you alright?" Proto Zoa asked, looking into her eyes, and getting no response, he gently shook her on the shoulders. She still wasn't answering him, and he became a bit worried. She had a far away look in her eyes, and when he shook her, she snapped back into this world, looking up to see his concerned face. When realization of what just happened hit, Zenon clutched onto him in a hug that made her world disappear. She was so thankful for him, her protector. He felt her begin to sob lightly into him again, and pulled her closer. "Shh... shh... its gonna be alright, Love." He tried to reassure her, not knowing how well it worked.

"Oh, Zoa, why? Why do they have to do that? Why?" She kept asking 'Why' knowing he didn't have an answer. She was still consoled by his presence alone. She knew he cared for her, why on Earth or off she had no idea, but knew it was for real.

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After Zenon recovered some composure, they went to the Mess Chamber to find some food. They laughed and talked over their dinner, and throughly enjoyed one anothers presence. They took some ice cream cubes back to the habitation module, and sat on the couch, watching the V-Chips, some of Microbes first few concerts, another called Way Back When, talking about when the Spay Stay was first launched. Then they watched a really old one, called Scooby Doo, about some dog who solved mysteries. They started Scooby right after Astrid called to say that she and Mark would be staying at Judy & Planks the night, this was around 11, and then they watched the VChip.

Soon after Scooby Doo started, Zenon curled up closer to him to get warm. ProtoZoa lent his arm to her as a blanket, and she curled up under it. Soon after she was comfortable, he heard her snoring lightly, and decided it was time to call it a night. He flipped the VChip off, and gently woke her.

"Zenon, bed time Love," He told her.

"Umm... five more minutes.." Zenon muttered in a confused response.

"Alright Love, if its gonna be that way," He said, securing one arm under her knees and one behind her back, firmly pressing her to him. She buried her head down into his chest, seeking warmth once again. Proto Zoa took her down the spiral staircase and to her room. He rested her on the bed, while one-handedly pulling down her covers. He tucked her sleeping form in and she nuzzled into the sheets, seeing the warmth his body heat had provided. He watched her for a moment, making sure she went back to sleep. Once he was sure she had dozed off, he bent down and gently kissed her head.

"Sweet dreams, Love," he wished.

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"No... No! No! Leave me alone! No! Stop! Help! Help... get off me! No.. get off me!" ProtoZoa was awakened sometime early that morning by those urgent words. Once reality hit him and where he was, there was only one thought on his mind, Zenon. He jumped out of his bed and ran through the open door to Zenon's room, where he found her tangled in the sheets, trapped in a nightmare. His heart hurt to see her like that, and he quickly shook her from her created prison.

"Zenon, wake up, Darling, wake up," He coaxed. Zenon awoke with a start, droplets of sweat coursing down her face.

"Huh? What, what happened? Where am I?" Zenon was confused and for good reason, fortunatly, she had him right next to her to explain.

"Zenon, Love, you were having a nightmare. Its ok, shh, its ok now, Zoa is here," He said, refering to her affectionate nickname for him.

"Oh Zoa, I was so scared. I was.... he was...." Zenon couldn't finish her sentence, she was trembling so. He couldn't stand seeing this, and he damned whomever was responsible for it, knowing quite well it was Orion.

"Shh, Zenon it's gonna be ok, I am here... shhhhhhh," he coaxed again and again. He sat on the edge of the bed with her, stroking her dampened hair until she fell asleep again. Once he felt sure of her condition, he started to get up to return to his room, but was stopped by her words.

"No, please don't go, stay with me? Please?" Her voice was so meek, so pathetic sounding, so... needing. He couldn't say no.

"Alright Love," He conceeded, sitting in the chair next to her bed, attempting to get comfortable.

"No, stay here, please, keep the dreams from coming back, please?" her little voice begged. She gestured lightly to the space next to her, already indented from the previous posistioning of his body.

"Ok," He said, moving to a somewhat comfortable posistion. He somewhat forced her head down onto his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist. When he looked down at her slumbering figure it was all he could do to keep that tear in his eye from falling.