Brida Pact

by Leora Gonzales

  “Hey, Dathrow, what are you doing back?” she asked him.

  “Poppy, I received a message from Wheaton once I reached my quarters. I am sorry but he is unable to escape the Council for the noon meal.” He cringed as he broke the bad news to her.

  “But why didn’t he call here to leave me a message?” she asked.

  “I am assuming that he thought I was still escorting you back when he called. My band alerted me that I had a message waiting but I assumed it was regarding another matter so I did not check it until I was back in my own quarters,” he explained. With a sad smile, he gestured to the countertop where the lunch she’d made for Wheaton sat.

  “Do you mind if I join you or would you rather have some time alone?”

  “Well, sure, Dath. I could actually use the company now so I don’t dwell on my disappointment too much. Once I go down that rabbit hole nothing except for an obscene amount of ice cream can lure me back out.” She sighed. “I hope you like hamburgers.” She tried to smile even though she wanted to cry a bit. She’d never thought she was a crybaby and usually couldn’t stand whiners. But dammit, she had wanted to see Wheaton and talk about last night’s no-show, as well as the fact that Hellacious Hannah was able to go to the Council meetings.

  Lunch ending up being quite pleasant with Dathrow’s company and he had time to answer questions that Poppy had from the morning tour. Between bites, Dathrow was able to draw her up a legend of all the symbols on the doors she would need to remember when walking around on her own. He laughed and almost choked on his burger when she mentioned going around and placing sticky notes everywhere.

  Poppy picked up their plates. “Thank you for the cheat sheet. Hey, I don’t want to just wait around until Wheaton calls. Can you walk me back up to the medical unit? Tamin called and said he needed to go over my regen bed reading with me,” she explained.

  “Of course, I will walk you there but will not be able to stay. I have been called to a meeting this afternoon. If you take your cheat sheet with you, you can try finding your way back, but I am sure that Wheaton will assign another escort for your return trip. He has informed me that he wants an escort with you at all times unless it is unavoidable,” he said with a smile.

  That was one thing nice about Dathrow—he was always smiling at her. It had taken her a couple days to squeeze the first smile out of Wheaton but Dathrow had smiled the day they met. Knowing he was a great catch made her wonder when he would be assigned his bride. Hopefully the bridal snafu worked its way out sooner rather than later.

  She followed him out the door. Before leaving she called and left Wheaton a brief message. In case he was able to sneak out, it would be a good idea to let him know where to find her. Their walk to the med center took them past her old apartment. Pausing for only a moment to toss a sad look at the door, she decided she definitely needed something to distract her. The med center seemed a good place to start.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tamin and Rodin were extremely happy to see Poppy, judging by their huge smiles. Their reaction made her anxious for some reason. They had stopped looking at her with their normally friendly glances and now were studying her as if she were an experiment. Images of them using pegs to pin her down to a board and dissect her flitted through her overactive imagination. She kept an eye out for chloroform and scalpels, just in case. The men ushered Dathrow out quickly once Poppy was in the room with promises of keeping her safe and secure until he was able to send an escort to walk her back.

  Poppy turned to the guys with an expression she was sure would let them know she was getting antsy to have them staring at her as if she were a frog in a high school biology class.

  “Ummmm, guys…what is it we needed to talk about? You’re making me nervous the longer you stare at me.”

  Rodin turned to Tamin and they shared a secret smile. After a few seconds, Tamin nodded to the other doctor.

  “Spit it out, guys!” Poppy snapped, unable to hold back any longer.

  “Tamin would like for you to have another scan. We are unsure if we received a false reading today and need to run a new scan before we discuss the findings,” Rodin said, ushering her into the closest exam room.

  “Yes, Poppy, I do not want to cause alarm if the regen bed readings are incorrect.” Tamin opened the quietly humming bed while Poppy toed off her shoes to climb in.

  “Okay, guys, just an FYI for future reference though… You’re freaking me out and need to work on your bedside manner if you’ll be assisting brides. You’re eyeballing me like I’m going to sprout wings and take off,” she said grumpily as she lay back.

  As the door slid closed, Tamin quickly said, “We still need to discuss wings when you have a chance.”

  Oh Jesus Christ. They were back to the fucking pads again.

  The thirty seconds for the scan passed quickly, but once Poppy had climbed out, the following five minutes seemed to last forever. It didn’t help that both doctors were hovering over the screen at the end of the regen bed waiting for the results to pop up. Both of them were ignoring her completely, instead choosing to stare at the pod as if waiting for a pot of water to boil.

  Tapping her toes on the shiny white floor, she fiddled with her bracelet, wondering if it was working correctly since she hadn’t had a message from Wheaton all day. It was supposed to light up with an indicator when she had a message waiting in the system but nope, no blinking light and she was starting to get pissy the longer it stayed unlit. Banging it against the palm of her hand a couple of times, she stared at it harder. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Damn.

  Five minutes had passed at an agonizingly boring pace when Tamin gave an excited yip. He was hugging Rodin like they’d just won the World Series. Seeing they were happy was a huge load off her nerves. Hopefully that meant that she wasn’t dying or anything. Right? Whatever it was that had shown up earlier that had scared the men must have been a false reading,

  “So can I go now or do you need me?” she asked, completely dismissing the medical chart printing out.

  Rodin and Tamin both faced her with huge smiles, while clutching her printouts and gesturing to the paper.

  “Poppy, we want to be the first to congratulate you and Wheaton!” Rodin said as he put out his hand to shake.

  “For what?” she asked stupidly, automatically shaking the hand in the air.

  “Your match has resulted in the first human hybrid baby in a new line of warriors!” Rodin said in an excited rush. “We did not want to presume that you had started sexual relations, but from your scan we can tell you that they have been successful,” he said, while pumping her hand.

  The words seemed to echo in her head. Sexual relations. Successful. Successful sexual relations. Oh dear god, they thought she was pregnant. It took a minute or two but she realized that her hand was now hanging in his grip and he was staring at her with a face filled with panic.

  “Poppy, you have lost all your color and are swaying on your feet. Let’s sit you down.” Putting an arm around her shoulders, he led her to the chair next to a desk in the room.

  “Tamin, please call back Dathrow. She may need a friend’s counsel right now. I do not want her to go into shock,” he instructed the other man.

  “No…no…don’t call Dath. I just need to sit for a minute and wrap my head around this.” Rubbing her hand down her face, she took a few deep breaths and realized her mouth was dry.

  “Can I have a glass of water?” she said in a weak voice.

  “Of course, Poppy. Let me get that for you,” Tamin said as he quickly moved to get her a drink.

  Once he was back in the room and sitting down, she turned her chair slightly to face both of them. Feeling slightly better now that she wasn’t standing, she focused on breathing evenly.

  “First, how the hell can you tell I’m already pregnant? Our ‘relations’ didn’t happen until a couple days ago.” Now was not the time to start blushing so she willed her cheeks to cool while she eyeballed the two docs in front of her.<
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  “Well, the regen machine is extremely sensitive and can detect changes in the body almost immediately. New life is growing in your womb. It is in the beginning stages but can be detected,” Rodin explained.

  “Wow. Okay. Wow.” Poppy sat stunned. Realizing she was still holding a full glass of water, she took a couple gulps and felt a couple drops dribble down her chin. Wiping her face with her hand, she didn’t care if she came across as a hot mess.

  “Okay, fellas, let’s have a chat, okay?” When the men leaned forward as if she were going to share secrets, Poppy smiled at them both. These two were so excited about this pregnancy. She had a feeling she was going to be followed around every second of the day for the remainder of this pregnancy.

  “I don’t want to burst your bubble, but this pregnancy is so new it may not take. On Earth women are told not to share news of a pregnancy until they’re out of their first trimester. Miscarriages happen all the time and I have had many friends have them.”

  Poppy didn’t want to be a Debbie Downer but she had to be realistic. Right now, whatever was there was so new there was still a chance it might not develop. She remembered an unexpected pregnancy Pixie had had a couple years ago. At first, her sister had been in shock but quickly come around and embraced the idea of becoming a mother. When she had miscarried at nine weeks, it had been heartbreaking. Pixie had been devastated and Poppy had felt the pain right along with her. That was when she had learned the first trimester was always the trickiest, with the chance of miscarriage being the highest.

  Poor Pix had spent some time blaming herself for the miscarriage. It had taken an intervention from Poppy with the statistics for her to understand it was extremely common and she hadn’t done anything wrong. It had been hard for Pixie to move on emotionally from the miscarriage and Poppy was sure she still thought about it from time to time.

  “I’ll tell Wheaton about the baby but I don’t want anyone else to know as of right now, okay?” she said, noting the disappointment on the men’s faces.

  “But, Poppy, I am sure that the Council would be pleased to know that we have had a successful pairing,” Tamin sputtered out.

  “Right now, the Council can go fuck themselves,” she muttered softly but apparently loud enough for the men to hear her.

  “You do have some allies on the Council, Poppy and this may help your case with the undecided,” Rodin said.

  Poppy had to admit that Rodin had a point. She really wanted to keep this news just between them until she was further along, but if this would get Hannah the Horror out of Wheaton’s apartment then it might be a good idea to let them know about it sooner rather than later. Leaning back and closing her eyes, she took a moment to think. No. It would be better to wait no matter the chance of it giving her bonus points.

  “No, my decision is to wait. It’s still too early and, guys…” She paused, hoping that they understood where she was coming from. “What if something happens?” Poppy asked in a sad voice. “If I lose this baby, they may have more reasons to get rid of me than they do right now.”

  “That is a valid point,” agreed Tamin reluctantly, nodding at his friend.

  “We will wait,” Rodin added.

  Still leaning forward, she felt like they were in a huddle at a football game and were strategizing their next play.

  “Okay here’s the plan, guys. I’m going to start volunteering here and you can monitor what’s happening with Wheaton Jr. without anyone knowing I’m pregnant. Okay? That way you can see me every day and make sure everything’s doing what it needs to do. When we get to the point where it’s safe to share the news, we’ll go from there. I’ll tell Wheaton as soon as I see him next but I want this kept on the down-low.”

  When the men gave her quizzical faces, she added, “I want to keep this between us, on a need-to-know basis and nobody but us and Wheaton needs to know…got me?” She gave both guys a serious look, willing them to agree with her.

  “That sounds like a plan, Poppy,” Tamin said with a grin.

  “We already have your vitals on record, but I would like to scan you every day if you are able to be here. According to our research, you should have a similar pregnancy cycle that humans have on Earth but we want to guarantee that you have the best care possible and also check for any differences between human-to-human pregnancies and human-to-warrior ones,” Rodin explained.

  She nodded in agreement. Not wanting to take any chances with the possibility of a baby, she knew these guys would take care of her the best they could. “Wait, the scanning won’t cause my baby to grow any extra legs or anything right? It’s safe to do it every day?”

  “There will not be any extra appendages, we promise,” Tamin vowed, holding his hand over his heart.

  They all stood and Poppy leaned toward Tamin first and then Rodin for hugs. After somewhat hesitant embraces, mainly because the men did not understand why she was touching them, she leaned back with a sweet smile.

  “Thanks, docs. Now show me more of this place and let’s get crackin’. If I’m supposed to be working, then you might want to show me the supply room we never got to earlier.” Leading the way, she tossed back, “And y’all need to relax…I’m a hugger. Get used to it.” The men’s chuckles followed her from the exam room.

  The rest of the afternoon went by very quickly. Poppy checked her messages throughout the day but no messages from Wheaton so far and she was starting to get bitchy. Not trusting the bracelet’s indicator, she scanned the message center every hour but nada…zip…zilch.

  Tamin and Rodin took turns keeping her company during her inventory and exam room supply check while they worked on their tablet computer devices. Every once in a while they asked her if she needed anything and how she felt, which would cause her to make fun of them a little.

  They had become familiar with her sense of humor and had been joking around with her all afternoon. Both men seemed to be really nice guys and had mentioned their opinions on the bridal match program. Apparently neither of them had entered to be selected in the first group of warriors in the lottery. They were biding their time, absorbing as much information on human interaction as they were able to. The two warriors seemed like two halves of a whole, which made Poppy think there might be more to them than they let on.

  They actually did a great job of distracting Poppy from the fact Wheaton had not messaged her yet. Every time she went to see if she had a message, they would ask her questions about her childhood or her sister. Pixie ended up being discussed quite a bit, and her antics had both men laughing loudly when Poppy explained how they were similar but Pixie was a bit more “spicy”.

  They both had expressions of horror on their faces when she realized that they didn’t understand the word “spicy” wasn’t referring to cannibalism. That resulted in the next hour being spent going over phrases or words that would not translate correctly to their translation devices. Poppy smiled thinking about how she’d had to explain the word “fuck” to Wheaton, which of course made her check her bracelet for messages again.

  Damn that man, where the hell was he? Feeling a hand touch her shoulder lightly, she jumped before she realized that Rodin was standing behind her.

  “Are you all right, Poppy? I have been talking to you and yet you seemed so far away,” he asked with a concerned tone in his voice.

  “Sorry, Rodin. I kind of lost myself in my own head for a minute there,” she said, shaking her head to clear it. “What did I miss?”

  “We were considering reaching out to the brides still on the ship and asking to see if they would all have physicals. So far, we have been waiting for their warriors to bring them to the medical unit but we have only met you and one other when they received their translators,” he said with a grimace. “Tamin and I believe that the warriors are possessive of their females and have decided to keep them away from most unmated males as a precaution. Of course with the news of the matches being incorrect we are unsure who will be staying and who will be taken back to
Earth. Regardless, it is still a good idea to get them scanned just in case.”

  Rodin seemed to think for a moment before coming back to the present. “We were actually surprised that Wheaton gave you a tour of the ship after you first arrived. I realize he did not bring you to medical because we were unavailable but he did take you around.”

  Tamin entered the room as they were talking and passed Poppy a fresh glass of water.

  “We believe that the other bride who came by initially would not have visited again if she had not accidentally cut herself and needed medical attention, which in her case was what you would call a bandage,” Rodin added.

  “Her warrior was beside himself with worry. I believe that is one of the other pairs that has also decided to fight the Council’s decision of separation,” Tamin said with a smile, obviously recalling how amusing it must have been to see a normally cool and calm warrior lose his mind over a small cut.

  Poppy sat there for a minute, completely stunned that she’d forgotten for even one minute there were other women on the ship. Human women. Human women who were most likely in the same position she was in.

  “How soon can you contact them, doc?” Poppy asked, her excitement building the more she thought about it.

  Rodin smiled at her exuberance, studied his tablet for a moment and pressed some buttons.

  “I just sent messages to the warriors to approach their brides and request a medical screening. When they contact me to set up a time, I will indicate that we have acquired another bride to assist during the exams. It will help in making them more comfortable while here in the center,” said Rodin.