by Gini Koch
“I think I know why Jamie woke everyone up and wanted James here.”
“You were scared.”
“Yeah, but, um . . .”
“Um?” He sounded wide awake now.
I felt the funny again. “I think I’m going into labor.”
CHAPTER 12
“COM ON!” JEFF WASN’T BELLOWING, but he was close.
“Yes, Commanders?” I found myself wondering if and when Gladys ever slept.
“Need a gurney down here immediately, as well as Doctor Hernandez. And whoever else. And her parents. And my parents. And her grandparents.”
“No! Not my grandparents!” I didn’t need them betting on this.
“Yes, Commander Martini. Noted, no grandparents. Medical will be there immediately. I suggest you two be clothed.”
“Hilarious, Gladys.” Our sex life was somewhat legendary, due mostly to the fact I hadn’t found a way to be quiet when Jeff was making love to me and spent most of my time yowling like a happy cat in heat. He didn’t mind at all, but we’d made a lot of people happy when we’d chosen to sleep in the bowels of the earth, several levels away from the other living floors.
“Now isn’t the time for jokes.” Jeff was snarling. He was still holding me. Clutching, really. I got the impression he’d forgotten every chat we’d had with Tito.
“Now’s the best time. I’ll handle Jeff, Gladys. If you could . . . oww . . . please call my parents . . . ooowww . . . that would be great. . . . OW!”
“Yes, Commander. Deep breaths, relax, on a four count.”
“Gotcha.” I did the breathing. Jeff clutched me. “Baby, you need to get up.”
“What if I jostle you? What if I hurt you, or the baby?” He sounded panicked.
It was interesting. I’d figured I’d be freaked out of my mind when labor showed up, probably a total mess, only hold it together because Jeff would be a tower of strength. I mean, the man handled huge military operations against scary outer space beings trying to destroy the Earth all the time. I’d assumed he’d be in full on Commander-mode when the baby was coming. Turned out, I was cool, calm, and collected, and he was terrified.
I threaded my fingers with his. “Baby, it’s okay. This is the part where I scream in pain, and you tell me to push, and you hold my hand and tell me how brave I am, and I tell you I hate you because you did this to me, and you don’t let it hurt your feelings, and then we get the baby, and you tell me how amazing I am, and I tell you I couldn’t have made it through the ordeal without you, and we both say how much we love each other and how wonderful the baby is.”
“Deep breaths, Commander.”
“I am, Gladys.”
“I meant Commander Father-to-Be. You know, the one I can hear hyperventilating. Do I need to send two gurneys?”
“No!” Jeff sounded insulted and still freaked out. “I’m fine. She’s just in labor. Women can die in labor! Where the hell is the gurney?”
“Jeff? Can we not focus on the ‘die’ part?”
“You think you’re going to die?” He sounded horrified and terrified.
I started to laugh, in between contractions. “I wish I was recording this.”
“No worries, Commander. We like to have a good laugh in Security, too, you know.”
Tito arrived, along with a gurney, in medical scrubs. I got the impression he’d changed into them, as opposed to been sleeping in them. “Jeff, why are you still in bed?”
“She’s in labor!”
Tito and I looked at each other. “It’s sweet, endearing, and funny. But no one’s getting through to him.”
“Jeff, I need you out of bed. I have to get Kitty onto the gurney, and I was thinking you’d help me with that.”
“She can’t move!”
“I could if you’d let go.” I was still laughing in between contractions.
Reader, Gower, and Christopher all arrived. They were, to a man, in the nighttime fatigues. A-Cs lived for clothing conformity. Reader and I had no idea why; we’d just learned to accept it, sometimes unwillingly.
“Hi, guys. Someone want to explain to Jeff that I don’t want to have the baby on the bed, as charmingly old-fashioned as that might sound?”
“Jeff, get off the bed so we can get Kitty onto the gurney.” Christopher sounded tired. He looked tired, too. He was smaller than Jeff, wiry and muscled versus ripped, though he had the great abs, which I assumed ran in the family. His hair was light brown and straight, though right now it was pretty messy. Normally his eyes were green, but they were so bloodshot I’d have gone with red if I didn’t know him. I would have worried, but another contraction hit, and I had to focus on that as opposed to why Christopher looked so much more exhausted than Jeff.
“She’s in labor!”
“Yes, we’ve picked that up. Gladys alerting us was also a tip-off.” Reader shook his head. “Let her go, man.”
“No, and I don’t want anyone talking about her dying in labor again!”
“Jeff, you’re the one who brought it up.” I shot a “help me” look to Gower. He was Jeff’s size, ebony skin, bald, and, just like every other A-C on Earth, gorgeous. He was also normally pretty calm, and usually a calming influence on Jeff.
Gower walked over, shook his head, moved Jeff’s arm off me, picked me up and put me on the gurney. “How’re you doing, Kitty?”
“So much better now. OW! Well, other than that contractions hurt.”
Tito had been looking at his watch. “If I use when you were shouting, your contractions aren’t regular yet. Let’s get her upstairs. Oh, and someone help Jeff, he looks like he’s going to pass out, and I need to pay attention to Kitty.”
Reader took one end of the gurney, Tito took the other, and they pushed me through the Lair and to the elevators. “I knew I should have taken over the baby prep planning like I did your wedding,” Reader said as we waited for the elevator.
“The baby wasn’t due for another couple of weeks.”
“They come when they want to,” Tito said, as he checked my pulse.
“Yeah, picking that up, oh Sage One.”
Reader sighed. “You don’t have a crib. You don’t have a stroller. You don’t have a room for the baby.”
“James, enough stress going on right now.”
“Bassinet for the first couple of months, anyway,” Tito said. “I want the baby right by her mother.” He closed his eyes. “I mean its mother.”
“We already figured it was a girl, Tito, no worries.”
“Oh, good. I thought that was some huge A-C thing.”
“It is,” Reader said as we all got into the elevator, Jeff being held up by Christopher and Gower. “But certain things have become obvious, including the baby’s sex.”
Tito looked at me. “That weird knocking was the baby?”
“Damn, you hire well, Kitty,” Gower said. “Seriously, I think you hire better than I do, without any dream or memory reading talent.”
“Flattered. I’d take your job if you’d take the labor pains.”
“Passing on that offer.”
“Baby, are you okay?” Jeff sounded freaked.
I put my hand out, and he grabbed it. “I’m okay. Just stay with me, do what Tito says, when he says it, and stop being so scared. Women have been having babies for a long time—that’s how we’re all here.”
“Jeff, can you handle the gurney?” Tito asked. I wondered if he’d lost his mind. Jeff didn’t look like he could handle a fork right now.
But the request helped. He took a deep breath, nodded. “Yeah.” His voice sounded normal again. Tito had been by my head, so Jeff moved there. “I have to let go of your hand, baby.”
“That’s okay. I can still see you.” Out of the elevator, off to a medical bay. There were three Dazzlers there. I took the gorgeous for granted on them, since they were in the full scrubs, hairnets and surgical masks. Tito started to consult with one while the other two moved me to the bed and hooked me up to a variety of things I didn’t wan
t to pay attention to.
The men weren’t leaving, and I got the impression they planned to stay. No sooner thought than Tim Crawford ran into the room. Tim was Airborne’s driver and the last member of Alpha Team not represented in the delivery bay. “Is Kitty okay?”
Nods all around. I heard more thundering feet. Three more guys showed up—Jerry Tucker, Matt Hughes, and Chip Walker, three of my five flyboys. We were missing the female members of Airborne and their mates, I assumed because the girls had the brains to keep their men in their damn beds.
My wellness was assured for the new arrivals, and now I had a stag party in the delivery room with me. None of them looked like they planned to leave. “Uh, guys? I love you all very much, and I’m really touched that you want to be in here to see the miracle of birth and all, but other than Jeff, if James wants to be here to give me someone else to scream at, that’s fine. But the rest of you? Clear the hell out before I go all Exorcist on you.”
They stared at me. “But . . . you might need help,” Tim said finally.
Tito looked around and seemed to notice the team in here for the first time. “What the hell are you all doing in here? Out! Now! Jeff stays. Period.”
Reader shook his head. “Me too.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Jeff stroked my hair. “But, everyone else, wait outside, handle the parents and family members.”
“I don’t want any of them in here, not even my mother,” I added quickly. “Christopher, you’ll be the only one who can keep her out.”
“Why don’t you want her?” He sounded confused.
“Because I don’t want anyone jollying me up, telling me to be a big girl, sharing how it’s not as bad as their labor, or anything else.” Another labor pain hit and I yelled. All the guys backed up a step.
“Out!” Jeff wasn’t bellowing, but his Commander voice was on full. The rest of the guys nodded and left.
One of the Dazzlers dragged Jeff and Reader off to get washed up and into the scrubs and masks while another closed all the curtains in the room so I was no longer in a fishbowl. Tito was watching a machine near my stomach. “Contractions are about three minutes apart. That’s really fast to go from zero to this in less than thirty minutes.” He and the last Dazzler moved me into the stirrups and Tito took a look. “Jeff, James! Hurry up!” He looked up at me, from between my legs, which was a surreal moment for me. “You’re dilated to nine already. The baby’s coming fast.”
“A-C babies do,” one of the Dazzlers said. I recognized her voice.
“Emily?”
“Yeah, Melanie’s getting the boys washed up.”
“What are you two doing here? You’re science side.”
She chuckled. “We’re doctors, too. We just like the science stuff more. But, under the circumstances, we wanted to be here with you.”
The Dazzler on drapes duty came over. “I’m Camilla. I don’t think we’ve met officially, Commander.”
I tried to say something polite back, but another labor pain hit, and I shrieked instead. Jeff and Reader were back and were installed at either side of me. I grabbed their hands and squeezed.
“It’s okay, baby.” Jeff kissed my forehead. “I love you.”
I usually did this same thing right before I slammed an adrenaline harpoon into his hearts, which I had to do often because when his empathic blocks were shot, or he was too past overexertion, he needed adrenaline or he’d die. It was horrible and agonizing for him. “I don’t need adrenaline, do I?”
“No,” the third Dazzler said, and I recognized Melanie’s voice. “Just relax as much as you can, Kitty.” She and Emily were both massaging my legs. “Our babies come fast, because of the hyperspeed. It can be very hard on a human woman.”
“Will it be hard on Lorraine and Claudia?” Melanie and Emily’s daughters, who were both due to deliver a few months from now.
“No, they’re A-C. It’ll feel like normal delivery to them. Serene, too.” Speaking of our last Airborne member, who was right behind Lorraine and Claudia in our own Baby Olympics.
Jeff’s hand tightened on mine. “How hard is it going to be on Kitty?”
There was a pregnant pause, which I tried to find funny but could only manage ironic. “Ericka Gower did just fine,” Melanie said finally.
“That you know of.” Jeff’s voice was crisp.
“She had four kids,” I gasped out. “Clearly, she survived it.”
“Contractions two minutes apart,” Tito said, sounding calm. “Dilated to nine and a half.”
“At least it won’t be long and drawn out.”
No one laughed. I got really nervous.
Jeff stroked my head. “Try not to worry, baby.” Of course, he looked and sounded beyond worried, so I had a little trouble with the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do mind-set.
Reader had my hand and was massaging my shoulder. Jeff followed suit. I had four people rubbing me, and yet I didn’t feel relaxed at all. I heard Camilla talking quietly into the com. She was requesting a variety of extras, blood foremost among them. I went from nervous to frightened, fast.
“One minute apart, dilated to ten.” Tito’s hand was on my stomach. “Baby’s still moving around.”
The way he said it made one of his lectures come to mind. “Is her head down?” Thudding silence. Okay, that meant no and that meant dangerous for her and for me. I closed my eyes and tried to send some sort of message to the baby to let her know she had to turn around again.
I felt someone else helping talk without speaking to Jamie, and she shifted. “Head’s down.” Tito sounded incredibly relieved.
Pain hit, bad, hard, and fast. I screamed, couldn’t stop myself. The room went nuts, with a lot of fast medical talking and a lot of movement. I felt myself detaching from it. I didn’t think this was a good thing.
I heard some scary beeping and saw Jeff’s face drain of color. “Kitty!” I could hear Reader calling to me. “Focus, Kitty. Stay with us. Come on, babe, stay with us.”
I looked at him, and I tried to stay, but something dragged me off.
The last thing I heard was Jeff, speaking softly. “No, please. Please don’t take her away from me. Please.”
CHAPTER 13
I WAS FLOATING, and I had perfect clarity. All of a sudden, I remembered that nine months ago Reader had told me he’d died, seen all sort of things, then been sent back. To take care of me.
I didn’t have a body, which I verified by looking around. All I could see was a thin golden line, like a string, attached to me and something else. I got a very possessive feeling about that string.
The nice part of this was that there was no pain at all. I kind of liked that. Sadly, it was quiet and somewhat dull, which meant my mind was wandering. Well, I was only my mind or soul or whatever, but it was bored and wanted some stimulation.
I saw what looked like an old-fashioned wheel for a slide projector, only the wheel was huger than I could really comprehend, and the slides were thinner than my string. They sat next to each other. I realized I was seeing the universes just like Reader had. It was pretty weird and awesome at the same time.
They flipped through, and I saw myself in a lot of them. Like Reader had told me, we were together in most of them, married in at least half. The ones where we weren’t married we were still each other’s best friend. We were never enemies or indifferent to each other. The universes were moving quickly past me, but I got full information from them as they went by. I understood what the term “soul mate” meant now, and why he and I had gotten so close so fast.
Saw a ton where I was married to Chuckie, almost as many as where I was married to Reader. They were interesting, too. I knew Reader in most of them, for a variety of reasons, but there were a few of the Chuckie-worlds where Reader and I didn’t cross. There were almost no worlds where I didn’t know Chuckie, however, and it was the same as with Reader—we were always best friends, married or not. So I had two soul mates, which was nice.
Seemed pretty happy with
Chuckie. Or Reader. Very happy, actually. Good marriages with both Reader and Chuckie. Interesting.
Of the few worlds where I wasn’t married to Reader or Chuckie, there were a variety where I was married to men I didn’t know and a few where I was married to girls I didn’t know. But even so, Reader and Chuckie were there in almost all of these as well.
There was another sampling where I wasn’t there at all—most of these seemed to have been those where antiSemitism had won the day so definitively that my father had never been born. Me not being in them aside, I found those worlds horrible—dark and cruel and joyless for far too many of the people in them. There were so many races missing from Earth in those, I had to figure genocide truly did equal misery for all, not just the races being wiped out.
There were some where dinosaurs still existed and some where the Earth was so odd I couldn’t comprehend what was going on. It was fascinating to see, but I found myself wondering how anyone, God or not, could keep all this stuff straight. Remembered that ACE had said God gave us free will for just this reason.
ACE was a superconsciousness I’d funneled into Paul Gower about a year and a half ago. ACE had told me a lot about God and other things, and I found myself wondering where it was and whether it was watching me. Maybe ACE was the string. I checked; the string was still there.
The universe wheel was still spinning. In fact, as far as I could tell, it was going around again. I realized something scary—there was only one universe where Earth had A-Cs on it, at least, only one where I knew they existed. I hadn’t seen Jeff, or any of the other A-Cs on Earth, in any other universe. So there was only one where I was with him.
I felt cheated. I knew if I died, I’d be with Reader and Chuckie and my parents, and so many others, in other universes. It would be hard for them in the one I was from, but I was there, elsewhere. But Jeff wouldn’t have that. He and I had one chance in what seemed like a zillion, and it was being taken away.
Surprises abounded. If someone had asked, I would have said a disembodied soul or mind couldn’t cry. Would have been wrong. I was sobbing. I wouldn’t see my baby, my husband would be alone, and I wouldn’t see them in any other world, either. This was it, and I was going to miss it all. I didn’t want to miss any of it, not even the pain, if it meant I would never hold my baby, never see Jeff’s smile again.