Or the little smile that crawled onto her face after a particularly sarcastic (but funny) remark. I thought back at all the hours we had spent togethe... just as friends. Anna was a sweet, still innocent girl, and I would be lucky to have her in my life.But I knew right then that I shouldn't start a relationship with her.Right now, I was still just damaged goods. It wouldn't be fair to Anna. A semester of denial had not done enough to let me get over Courtney. And now the wound was still fresh in. Alice raised her gown to see what had been done. Her stomach was still flat like before but there was small tube protruding from her belly button. Alice wife continued her explanation, "the tube will be used to add the fluid to the bladder. It will be covered to give you an "outee" belly button much earlier in your "pregnancy" than others but it probably won't showthrough your clothing until you start to get "bigger". Don't think you are going to get to wear maternity clothing right. Stella really is hoping to catch them on the hop today!” Marie grinned back at him.Meanwhile, five floors above, Stella was looking through the little window in the fire door, studying the reception area of her own offices.Young Hazel, the pretty young gofer/girl Friday/receptionist, was sat behind her desk, while young Anthony was ... Yeah well, it was obvious that Hazel had an admirer. Possibly a budding office romance, Stella suspected.It struck Stella that very suddenly she was seeing. You skid left toward a house; ignoring the front door blocked by a thick root and instead slam against the tall fence door.Bang. Nothing. Locked. Shit.You scramble to your hip for your handgun and nearly lose your grip, but ha, its still in your hand. You aim at the handle and fire, once, twice, sending a fresh wave of excited cheers through the monkeys above.You slam your shoulder into the broken door and barrel through just as the creature leaps at you.You curse and scramble back on your ass,.