Hey, so as promised I have posted up to chapter 9. This is the last chapter I had prewritten before posting this story. I haven't really written anything else as I haven't really had the time or the motivation and there isn't much response to this story anymore anyway. I'm not calling it discontinued, as I have a tendency to pick up old stories at random times, but as of now I am not promising any more updates. Here's the next chapter:

Susan bolted away from her house as quickly a possible. She was ashamed of herself for her cowardice, but she had panicked. She was absolutely terrified that her husband wouldn't accept what had happened to her. But that was ridiculous wasn't it? He loved her and would just be thrilled to see that she was safe…right?

Susan didn't slow to a halt until she was back under the cover of trees in the park. She began searching for her friends in the darkness but paused when she took notice of a strange sound in the otherwise silent area

With alarm, she registered that her hands were still cupped around something. She gasped as she realized that something was actually her young daughter, whom Susan had never placed back in bed.

As Susan lifted her top hand she realized the small girl was crying hysterically and her heart nearly broke. Chloe looked up and obviously didn't recognize Susan's face in the darkness. The girl shrieked as she took in where she was and then yelled out, "Help!"

"Oh my-" Susan gasped, eyes wide, "Chloe!"

The small girl stopped her screaming and let out a strangled hiccup. Looking confused and terrified at the same time, she half-sobbed, "How do you know my n-name?"

Susan's eyes welled up a little as she looked at her daughter. "Chloe," she said gently, "Chloe shhhh, it's okay. It's mommy." To back this point up, she stepped out from under the trees into the light and lifted Chloe up a little higher.

Chloe scrambled backwards on Susan's palm. She still looked frightened but had fallen silent and was gazing up at Susan with eyes the size of saucers.

"Oh my goodness sweetheart it's so great to see you. I've missed you so much," Susan gushed.

The seven year old just stared up at her mother in complete disbelief. Apprehensively, she asked, "Mommy?" Susan made no response, but she smiled as widely as she could at her daughter. Realization seemed to dawn on Chloe that, somehow, this really was her mother. Unsure of what else to do, she threw her arms around Susan's thumb and shouted, "Mommy!"

Elated, Susan lifted Chloe up to her cheek, the closest thing to a hug she could manage. There was a moment of silent happiness at the reunion before Susan brought Chloe back to eye level.

Though she was now smiling, the girl still seemed very confused. In her blunt, seven-year-old way, she stated, "You're really, really big mommy."

Susan half-smiled at the comment, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. Holding her daughter in her palm was disquieting to say the least. After a moment's pause Susan asked, "Did Daddy tell you anything about what happened?"

Chloe shook her head. She still seemed rather scared but the relief that she was with her mother seemed to have overshadowed it a bit for the time being. "Daddy just said you had to go away for a while and he didn't know when you'd be back. I asked him about it lots of times but he wouldn't tell me anything. It was really scary," Chloe said sadly.

Susan found it odd that Derek hadn't explained anything to Chloe, but then she also supposed there were certain restrictions on how much confidential information could be divulged to a seven year old. And who knew what types of things General Monger had said to Derek after Susan had been captured. She really wished now that she'd stayed to talk to Derek. She needed to know how he was dealing with this whole situation.

Susan sniffled a bit before responding, "It's okay honey. I'm so sorry I scared you like this. I didn't mean to take you out of your bed."

Chloe only nodded and said, "That's okay mommy." Apparently unsure of what else to do, Chloe felt silent. After a moment she shifted to the edge of Susan's hand and glanced over the edge. Obviously frightened by the height, she yelped and threw herself back into the center of Susan's palm.

Feeling bad, Susan carefully sat down and then lowered her hand to the ground so that Chloe could step off. The little girl seemed grateful to be back on the ground and simply stared up at her mother in awe.

There were a few moments of awkward silence, which were abruptly interrupted by the rustling in a group of nearby bushes and the sound of aggravated voices. Obviously growing uneasy, Chloe backed up in an attempt to hide herself behind one of Susan's shoelaces. Susan knelt down next to her in response.

"-standing on my tail!" were the only intelligible words uttered before a rather agitated Link came stumbling toward them. Chloe let out a yelp at his appearance and pressed herself closer to Susan's shoe. Dr. Cockroach and Bob were soon to follow, though none seemed to have noticed the little girl's presence.

Seeing the frightened state that Chloe was in, Susan cleared her throat to stop her friends from bickering. Two and a half pairs of eyes swiveled in Susan's direction and the three monsters fell silent as they spotted Chloe.

"Guys, this is my daughter, Chloe," Susan said sheepishly, using one of her fingers to gently urge the little girl forward. "Chloe, these three are friends, they won't hurt you."

Susan was doing her best to be convincing, but all Chloe saw were fangs and antennae and she, quite frankly, found it terrifying. She clung to Susan's finger for dear life, looking pitiful in her pink feety pajamas.

The other three monsters were baffled, to say the least, and they stood staring with their mouths agape for a few moments. Bob, who had seen few humans and even fewer children in his lifetime, regained his composure first.

"Wow…are you like a little Susan?" he asked, sounding utterly bewildered.

When Chloe made no response but a soft whimper, Susan answered, "She's my daughter Bob. I've told you about her a million times."

"Oooooooh," he answered, though Susan's comment had appeared to do nothing to alleviate his obvious confusion.

Dr. Cockroach stepped forward next. Straightening up, he said, "Dr Cockroach PHD, pleased to make you acquaintance."

Yet Chloe only slunk away further. Susan, noticing this, said, "Chloe honey, what's the matter?"

Chloe peaked up at her mother and in a small voice said, "Bugs are yucky."

"Chloe!" Susan chided, embarrassed by her daughter's statement, "That's not-"

But Dr. Cockroach cut her off, "No, no quite alright. I've gotten used to this type of reaction by now." The doctor seemed composed and sincere, though his antennae did droop noticeably with the statement.

"The name's Link, kid," said Link, extending his hand in an effort to succeed where Doctor Cockroach had failed. Chloe still did not budge.

It was not until Bob oozed forward that Chloe made any sort of response at all.

"He looks like playdoh!" she remarked to Susan, her lips betraying the faintest hint of a smile.

"No, no my name's Bob!" he replied, "But who is this Play-doh? Is he a blob too? I've never met another one."

Chloe giggled a little bit. Perhaps it was because Bob's appearance was not nearly as intimidating as the others', but she seemed to be less frightened by his presence. Link and Doctor Cockroach both looked a bit miffed at being outshined by the blue blob.

While Chloe was distracted, Doctor Cockroach turned his attention to Susan, "Not to put a damper on your reunion Susan, but are you sure it was wise to drag a child into this?"

Susan's face fell at the doctor's words, "No it was a really stupid move on my part Doc. I hadn't meant to bring her here in the first place. I sort of panicked and forgot she was with me."

Doctor Cockroach nodded in understanding before continuing, "I'm just not so sure it's safe for her to be in our company right now. Chances are that Monger and most of the military have already mobilized and begun searching for us."

"I know what you mean Doc, but there's no way I can bring Chloe home right now. Derek has definitely noticed she's missing already and he'll have called the police." Susan replied, biting her lip.

"It seems this situation is a sticky one," Doctor Cockroach said, "At any rate we certainly can't stay here. If what you say is true there are going to be people combing this area shortly. We need to get out before any of the higher ups get word of this little incident."

Susan asked apprehensively, "But where can we go?"

"I'm not sure, but anywhere is better than here," Doctor Cockroach responded.

Susan fell silent for a few moments before an idea seemed to strike her. "I suppose there is somewhere we can go. At least just until the hype dies down here."

"Excellent," said Doctor Cockroach with some measure of relief. "Let's make haste then."

With that Susan scooped Chloe up gently in one hand and used her other arm to carry her three friends. The trees in the park rustled behind Susan as she once again disappeared into the night.

And there you have it. I do have the ideas about where this story will be going; it's just a matter of getting them written down. If you'd like to see more chapters then leave a review. Reviews are positively correlated to my motivation to write. I'll do my best to continue, as I would like to get this story finished at some point. Thanks for reading so far; hopefully I can get another chapter up soon.