Late that night was when the meal was finished and whatever was left over was placed in the cooler to be stored for later use. Ian and Lili had both already headed into the shack to make an attempt at sleep, despite whatever pain they were each in, be it physically or psychologically. Jared and Kyle were at the river attempting to wash out the beast’s hide to make it usable for either a blanket, or shawl or whatever other use they could find for it if the temperatures did indeed plummet any further.

“So, I doubt that those two would actually be doing much in there tonight, huh?” Kyle’s voice finally broke their silent endeavor.

“All things considered, I really doubt it, too,” was Jared’s only response, quiet though it was.

“You mean cause of Ian’s leg, or Lili’s period, or uh, some other reason?” Kyle couldn’t help daring to attain further information from the one who seemed far more perceptive than all of them put together.

“Well if he did make any attempt he would definitely be in pain within about a minute,” Jared addressed the least complicated of the three questions.

Kyle sighed only slightly before moving on. “So, is she still having her…you know.”

Jared just shook his head, biting his lip with a deep breath. “And you’re asking me that, why?”

“Well for one thing, my leg feels fine,” Kyle joked, then added, “and secondly, you were with her last night, and all day today…alone. So I figured you might be privy to the information, yourself,” he added with a weak attempt at subtlety.

Jared just scoffed. “No, we didn’t spend the entire day having sex if that’s what you’re so subtly implying.”

“So, part of the day then?” Kyle teased with a raised brow.

“Jesus Christ, Kyle,” Jared shook his head. “Did she appear to be in a good mood at any time tonight? I mean, really?” he added with a bit of annoyance.

“So..” Kyle began, a little worried at Jared’s own mood which was in rare form tonight as well, “that mean she is still having it, or that you just miraculously found some way to piss her off yourself?”

Jared sighed heavily once more. “No, she’s not having her fucking period, Kyle. God,” he grumbled.

“So you actually did piss her off then?” Kyle asked for one further clarification, as Jared hadn’t seemed to be the one who pissed her off all that often.

Jared shook his head once more, seeming to be forcing back more sadness than anger, somehow. “You ever think that maybe she’s upset about something else? And that it actually wasn’t a case of me deliberately doing something to cause it?”

Kyle thought on the statement for a moment before responding. “So, what else is she upset about then?” he finally asked more gently. “I mean, she seemed upset even before she saw Ian’s leg,” he admitted.

Jared took his own deep breath before glancing back toward the shack, remembering Lili’s earlier request, and then steeled himself to fulfill it. “She’s upset because she’s late, ok?”

“Late?” Kyle narrowed his eyes. “For what?”

Jared just scoffed. “Late. Like, girl-late.” Jared returned pointedly.

“Girl-late?” Kyle asked, then finally got the meaning. “Oh, you mean, like late for that time of the month?”

“Pretty slow for a genius,” Jared mumbled.

“Hey!” Kyle returned with a scowl. “I mean, I already knew that she hadn’t gotten it on Tuesday, like she was supposed to. Didn’t think it was really a reason to be all that upset though,” he added with a slight shrug.

“Not a reason to be upset?” Jared returned with a scoff of disbelief. “She’s going on five days late, Kyle. How is that not gonna upset her, all things considered?” he told him pointedly.

Kyle allowed his own scoff. “But it’s not like she’s gonna actually be pregnant, right?” he added with an unconcerned shake of his head.

Jared just shook his head back at him. “What part of us having sex with her for the last three months has led you to the conclusion that she couldn’t possibly be pregnant?”

Kyle just chuckled. “Pretty slow for a doctor,” he returned mockingly.

“Excuse me?”

“Come on, she has an IUD, Jared. It’s not really a realistic worry,” he added plainly.

Jared was floored a moment by Kyle’s statement, as he just swallowed hard, trying to find a response to Kyle knowing about a factor that he himself hadn’t even known about until the day before their ill-fated journey.

“She couldn’t have told you about that,” was Jared’s eventual response.

“You forget who you’re talking to?” Kyle smirked.

“What?” Jared asked with confusion.

“Remember, I was one of the three people on the ship with the highest security clearance, out of everyone. Only other people who knew the stuff I knew were her mom and Ian’s dad,” Kyle reminded.

Jared was a bit stunned into silence for a long moment. “Well,” he finally began after another long moment, “IUDs aren’t permanent, remember?” was the only response he could offer.

“Well, she still has hers, right?” Kyle returned, though Jared only looked down quickly. “Right?” he asked more forcefully.

“Not exactly,” Jared finally managed a response, though it barely made it out of his throat.

“Not exactly?” Kyle repeated more loudly. “What do you mean, not exactly?”

Jared sighed in resignation. “She doesn’t have it anymore, Kyle. She hasn’t for a while,” Jared returned, quickly discovering that telling him about the pregnancy had already been hard enough, and now that Kyle knew things that Jared hadn’t even realized that the younger man did originally know; that just made it a thousand times worse.

“And you knew about this?” Kyle returned as he stood once more, looking over at the only slightly older teen with plenty of his own shock right then.

“I am her doctor, remember?” was Jared’s only response, nearly whispered as it was.

Kyle just scoffed, glancing back toward the shack with a shake of his head. “So, you knew that she could’ve gotten knocked up at any second, and you kept sleeping with her too?”

Jared just shook his head as he also stood. “I was under the impression, that I was the only one who even knew about the IUD at all. And I tried to, like pull out, as often as I even could,” he swallowed before forcing himself onward. “But at the same time, Lili and I both knew that this was bound to happen sooner or later. We just hoped it would be later, as in, after we found some better way of surviving than…this,” he added more quietly with a weak gesture around their current surroundings.

Kyle just shook his head angrily. “Well, Ian and I had no clue that it was ‘bound to happen!’ So don’t ever expect either of us to be ok with being kept in the dark about this!” Kyle told him with a growl as he started away to hide whatever other emotions he was feeling right then as well.

Jared then let out his own angry breath as he moved after him. “Oh please, Kyle.”

“Excuse me?” Kyle asked, finally turning back.

“Ok, so you thought she couldn’t get pregnant, fine. If you knew that she could have though, would it have actually changed a damn thing?”

Kyle scoffed again. “What is that supposed to mean? It would have changed everything,” Kyle assured.

“Oh, so you would’ve decided to die here a virgin then? And Ian, he would’ve told her no after waiting ten years for her to say yes. Is that it? Really, now?” Jared retorted.

“Fuck you, Jared,” Kyle returned, though with little force to such a statement.

“No Kyle. Fuck you.”

“Excuse me?” Kyle repeated, his voice rising again.

“Fuck you if you think that any of this right now is about either you or Ian’s righteous indignation. You two, and even me, we’re the last people that get to be upset right now. This is about Lili, and trying somehow to get her and this baby through any of this. Cause right now, she’s a second from giving up completely and maybe even doing something horrible to herself as well as the child that could belong to any of us. And if any of us push her away at all…it could easily be the worst thing in the world we could do right now,” he finished, his own voice breaking throughout the statement as he moved off past Kyle to head back inside, leaving the younger man with only his own thoughts, as truly dark as they might be right then.

When Kyle awoke from a more than restless slumber the next morning to head outside to relieve himself, he startled a bit as Ian spoke up as he moved past him in the darkened shack.

“Going outside?” was Ian’s pained greeting to stop Kyle mid-step.

“Yeah, why?” Kyle returned a bit hoarsely.

“Those two still asleep?” Ian added, still not able to keep most of the pain out of his own hoarse tone.

“Beats me,” Kyle shrugged, as he glanced away with a short breath.

“Kay,” Ian just shook his head at Kyle’s seeming indifference. “Well, then you mind helping me out here?”

“With?” Kyle returned skeptically as he glanced back at the older man.

“I tried getting up on my own earlier. Didn’t go particularly well,” Ian forced himself to admit.

“Your leg?” Kyle returned with only a slight bit of concern to his tone.

“Ya think?” Ian retorted as he again attempted to sit up with another wince.

“You were walking fine, well mostly fine, last night,” Kyle stated with another sigh as he finally moved closer to Ian’s sleeping area.

“Amazing the things adrenaline, and promising to always come back, will make a guy do.”

“Promising to always come back?” Kyle asked with a raised brow as he reached Ian’s side.

“That was the deal I made with Lili,” he smirked. “I promise to always come back, and she promises to touch me in naughty ways when I do,” he returned with an attempt at playfulness.

“Whatever,” Kyle grumbled as he moved to help Ian to stand through another wince.

“I’m the injured one. What has your panties in a bunch?” Ian asked as they slowly started toward the door.

“You talk a lot for someone who’s in pain,” Kyle muttered as he continued leading him through the door.

“I been up most of the night waiting for one of your asses to get up and help. What else did I have to do but think up amusing stuff to say when you did?” Ian told him wryly.

“Yeah, you’re not the only one who hasn’t slept much,” Kyle returned quietly as he led Ian to a nearby tree.

“And I’m guessing you didn’t have a pleasant reason for being up all night?” he asked pointedly as he moved to lean upon the tree, facing only slightly away from Kyle as he began to relieve himself.

“Must we chat while holding our dicks?” Kyle grumbled, as he also turned away to heed nature’s call.

“You’re so repressed,” Ian teased.

“Yes, we’re aware that you don’t seem put off by the idea of another guy’s dick. We covered that last night,” Kyle grumbled in his still obviously sour mood.

Ian just smirked back toward the younger man once he finished. “Wow, you’ve only been having sex for three months total, and you already get way bitchy after a week without it. And I thought I was supposed to be the one who couldn’t go without it?” he taunted further as Kyle finished his task as well.

“Yeah, well I’m turning over a new leaf: Life without sex sounds really good right about now,” he grumbled further.

“Ouch. These grapes are sour,” Ian returned with a raised brow.

“You need help with anything else, or are we done here?” Kyle bit back.

Ian scoffed. “Yeah, I’ll just stand here all day. I don’t need to get back over to where, like, the food or anything is,” he answered with a still only slightly lessened playfulness to his tone.

“Well maybe if you really want my help you should stop being an ass,” Kyle retorted in the same annoyed tone.

“Me?” Ian asked with a forced laugh. “I’m in fucking pain…a lot of fucking pain…and you’re the one who’s apparently having the bitch fit here. Care to share, if it’s not just a lack of sex that’s causing your inner diva to show herself?”

“Trust me, you don’t wanna know,” Kyle grumbled back, his volume lowering from anger to a different kind of upset at last.

“I have yet to ‘not wanna know’ any time I’ve ever heard that phrase,” Ian answered with feigned thoughtfulness.

Kyle scoffed though still couldn’t hide the slight sniffle he attempted to mask as he kept his eyes turned away and simply shook his head rather than actually offering an answer just yet.

“Ok,” Ian swallowed a bit, finally forcing seriousness to his tone. “So, honestly now, what is it that you actually are upset about?”

“Like you even care,” Kyle mumbled, still not turning back.

“Well if I didn’t care, why would I waste my time asking, hmm?” Ian returned pointedly as he attempted to move a step closer, while still using the tree to avoid putting any weight on his injured leg.

“I don’t know. So you have something else to make your stupid little jokes about?” Kyle shrugged with another slight sniffle. “Though, how any one of us could ever make jokes about this is beyond me,” he added more quietly.

“Jokes about what?” Ian asked skeptically before forcing another pained step toward the younger man.

Kyle just sadly shook his head down at the ground once more before making any attempt at an answer. “She’s pregnant, Ian. Still feel like joking?” he asked in a broken whisper, finally allowing himself to look back at Ian’s own shocked reaction to a confession as serious as that one truly was.