by J. Naomi Ay
“I am so sorry, honey,” I said.
“I'm done being sorry,” Katie replied, glaring at me. “Anything else business related?”
“No,” I mumbled. “Not from me.”
“Not from me either,” Jerry said and we got up and left.
“My word!” I gasped, once the door was safely shut behind us. “How the heck did that happen?”
“I knew he was going to do it,” Jerry said smugly, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt.
“You did not,” I declared. “Do you think he was sleeping around on her, getting a little sugar on the side?”
“Yep,” Jerry replied, leading the way back down to sickbay. “While she was pregnant.”
“How incredibly sleazy,” I sighed. “Somehow I always thought that man was better than this.”
Katie seemed fine those next few months though. The baby grew and was healthy as far as we could tell and even though she was pretty crabby, occasionally she would smile and meet us in the pub for dinner, just like old times. The ship was in the dark most of that time so even if poor old Dr. Ron wanted to talk to her, he couldn’t. I was kind of hoping that he would come beg her forgiveness and take her back home. It just didn’t seem right that she was here about to give birth to his first born son and he was nowhere around.
About a week after we emerged from the dark and settled in at Spacebase 41 for supplies, Katie came down to sickbay accompanied by a couple of those Andorians gals who were always following her around.
Now, that was another mystery to me. Those gals and a couple of guys just wanted to spend their whole off-duty time waiting on Katie hand and foot. Jerry and I surmised it had something to do with Dr. Ron and all those Rehnorians that kept trying to kill him. We figured Dr. Ron had hired them to be Katie’s personal security force. Jerry had said he’d seen a whole army of SdK security people back at their offices on Rozari.
The thing was, if Dr. Ron and Katie were split, it didn’t make sense those Andorians were still following her around everywhere, unless they were there to protect the baby.
“Do you think he’s going to take the baby away from her after he’s born?” Lynne whispered to me.
“He didn’t want the baby to begin with,” I replied, watching the Andorians assist Katie into the bay. “That’s why she’s here and not there.”
“Will you get the hell away from me,” Katie snapped at those blue girls and then proceeded to collapse against the door.
“Andorus serves the MaKennah ka Rehnor, our Overlord,” one of them girls said.
“I don't give a shit who you serve,” Katie screamed. “Just leave me alone!”
Lynne and I raced over to her with a chair.
“How bad?” I asked.
“Bad,” Katie gasped. “And I'm all wet.”
I wheeled her into an OR and yelled at Lynne to ring Jerry.
Jerry was in his cabin taking a shower. By the time he got down to the bay, Katie was fully dilated, fully effaced and her BP was 180/110. Lynne was starting a drip. I was dealing with the fetal monitor, which was starting to show signs of distress, when Jerry calmly told us that Katie had gone pre-eclampsic and might even be having a stroke.
“We had better do a C-section,” he said, getting himself scrubbed.
“And how long has it been since you did that,” I asked, prepping Katie's belly while Lynne put her under, which was fine because she was out anyway.
“Med school,” Jerry replied. “But don't worry. It'll come back to me.” Jerry made the first cut and blood spurted all over him. “I hit a vein,” he growled. “Damn it. Hang on, Goldie.”
“That's alright,” a voice behind him said. “It'll bring her blood pressure down.” Damn, if it wasn’t Dr. Ron scrubbing himself up right in the nick of time.
“Well, look who’s here,” Jerry said snippily, but I bet he was plenty glad to hand over the scalpel and just assist.
“Did Katie know you were coming?” I asked as he cauterized the bleeder and then cut into the uterus.
“No,” he replied, making another cut and there was his little baby boy. He carefully lifted him out and handed him to me.
“What's his name?” I asked, taking the little sweetie and wiping him down. He hollered good and turned up pink right away.
“Shika,” Dr. Ron replied, birthing the placenta. Jerry clamped the cord and was about to cut it.
“Isn't that the daddy's job?” I stopped him.
“Here, Ron,” Jerry said all grumpy and stood there with the surgical scissors in his hand like a sword. “Are you going to be this kid's father or not?”
Ron didn’t answer. He just held out his hand, so Jerry had to lay the scissors in it. Ron cut the cord and then I wrapped baby Shika up good and snuggled him for a moment. He opened his little rosebud mouth and stuck his tiny fist in it.
Jerry sewed up all the incisions nice and neat while Ron got busy checking Katie's head and adjusting monitors.
“Did we stroke her?” Jerry mumbled while he stitched.
“Yes,” Ron replied. “Just a small one though. There is an insignificant bleeder under the temporal lobe which will clear up on its own. You can let her wake up,” he instructed Lynne and then headed over to the sinks to wash up. When Jerry had finished stitching, Lynne wheeled Katie into recovery.
“Can I give little Shika a bit of water until his mama wakes up?” I asked Dr. Ron.
“Sure,” he said, taking off his mask and gown.
He looked a mess. He had a nice beard growing there but his hair was long and looked like it hadn’t seen a brush in a week or two. He also looked like maybe he forgot where his closet with all the nice clothes was.
I gave Shika a bottle of water, which he sucked on like a real pro, and then I tried to hand him to his daddy. Dr. Ron was just standing there next to Katie’s bed, gazing down at her.
“Here you go, honey pie. Here’s your daddy.” Dr. Ron backed away.
“Come on now,” I said. “Don't you want to hold your baby son for a bit? My word, if he doesn't look just like you.”
“He's got beautiful blue eyes though,” Jerry said, gazing down at him with his own big puppy dog eyes. Jerry would take him in an instant if I let him.
“What a little doll,” Lynne said, joining us. “He does look just like you, Dr. Ron. He's going to be a heartbreaker too when he grows up.” Then she giggled when she realized what she had just said.
“Go clean up the OR,” Jerry ordered her.
“Come on now,” I said again and placed the little guy in Dr. Ron’s arms. I showed him how to prop the little head in the crook of his elbow and hold the little bottom with his hand so that he could hold the bottle with his other hand.
“Now you all come sit down over here.” I led him to a chair on the other side of Katie's bed. “And when Cap'n Mama wakes up, she'll be so happy to see her two boys together. Maybe she'll even stop being Cap'n Dragon Lady for a bit.”
“Are you insane, Caroline?” Jerry whispered loudly but Dr. Ron did as I said and he sat there holding the little one even after the bottle was drained and the baby fell asleep.
A while later, nobody had moved including Katie who was still in dreamland.
“Why don't I go change your little prince's nappy,” I said, taking the baby from Dr. Ron. He studied me curiously and I felt a warmth and a heaviness in my head for a moment. I must have been more tired than I realized. “I'm going to take a few minutes and do some measurements too,” I continued after my head had cleared again. “When we come back, maybe we can get Mama to wake up and feed this little man. Was she planning on breast feeding?”
“I don't know,” Dr. Ron replied morosely, looking about as sad as any man could look.
“Yeah well, that's what happens when you're off doing things you shouldn't be doing and leaving your pregnant wife home alone by herself,” I said. “Now, I sure hope this beautiful little boy whom your wonderful wife just delivered to you doesn't grow up and think he can just spit in the f
ace of his marriage vows like his daddy did. I don't care what you men do on whatever hell planet you're from, but on our planet, we expect our men to keep to their word, even if it means they have to live without any loving for eight or nine months. Ain't that right, Jerry?”
“Don't bring me into this.” Jerry backed away from the door. “I had nothing to do with any of this.” He scampered in to his office.
I shut the door to the recovery room and left Dr. Ron to think about that.
Chapter 16
Katie
Before I opened my eyes, I could hear Caroline going full bore, her Mississippian accent getting stronger, the longer she spoke. The door closed and I looked around. Senya was sitting in a chair next to me, burying his head in his arms on the corner of my bed.
“Where's the baby?” I demanded.
“Nurse is measuring him.” His voice was muffled.
“You're not taking him.”
“No, I'm not taking him.” He turned his face up to me.
“Then what in the hell are you doing here?”
“I need to explain. It's not what you think.”
“What do I think?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, which was feeling very heavy and strange. My lower abdomen ached.
“You had a Cesarean section,” he said.
“I didn't ask you about that. I asked you what you were doing here because I certainly didn't invite you to come."
"I know that, Katie," he sighed. "Just listen to me for a moment."
"No," I replied. "I don't want to listen to you. It's too late. You had nine months to explain yourself and you didn't. You left me alone. Get out of here. Go back to wherever in the hell you came from."
"I didn't leave you alone," he protested lamely. "I sent you servants and Lady Korelesk to keep you company."
"Are you brain dead?" I screamed. "I didn't want a bunch of servants and Luci! I wanted you!" I burst into tears. "What were you afraid of that you couldn't call me once or send me a text just to ask how I was?"
"I wasn't afraid. I just could not do this."
“You were just so damn busy. I know. No time to eat or sleep. No time to do anything but work, work, work. That’s fine, Senya. Go back to work. Go back to your planet and your company and everything else that means so much more to you than me and your son. We don’t need you. We’re going to do just fine without you. In fact, we’re going to do better without you.” I swiped at my nose.
He turned away from me. “Nothing means more to me than you.”
“You certainly could have fooled me!” I cried. “You sure have a funny way of showing that! I’ll just yell at you and then ignore you for nine months and that will prove to you how much I love you.”
“Katie, please,” he begged, turning back to me, his eyes flashing brightly. “You don’t understand why I have to do the things I do. I don’t have a choice in any of this.”
“You don’t have a choice? You’re practically the King already. I know what’s going on there. I know you’re running the show. You can do whatever you want. You’re the only one whose got a choice.”
“You’re wrong,” he said and closing his eyes, he pressed his thumbs against his eyelids. “I am only here because of you.”
“Don’t do me any favors,” I replied.
“Katie,” he started to say again and then rubbed his temples.
"What’s the matter? You have a migraine?"
"Yes. All the time now."
"Well, turn around and come closer." I don’t know why I relented and began to massage his neck. "I'm lucky to find your head under all this hair." I jabbed my thumbs into the base of his skull, harder than I normally would have done. His muscles were knotted up tight. "Has this been going on for a long time?”
“Yes,” he mumbled.
“Maybe you should ask another doctor about it. Do you want to talk to Donak? Maybe even Jerry knows something.” I pressed hard into his shoulders and wondered why I was doing this. What did I care if he was exhausted and having pre-seizure migraines?
“No. I will figure it out myself when I get a moment to think about it.”
“Senya, if you can’t do it all, then you shouldn’t even try. You can’t be a doctor and run a company and be the king of the whole planet. Obviously, all this, plus going around fertilizing Rozari, is making you ill. Maybe what should happen is that Rehnor needs to join the Alliance and the Allied Council takes over the government. No planet needs a dictatorial King in this day and age. The Allied Council will bring in a whole new infrastructure and they’ll fix everything.”
“You are so naïve,” he sighed.
“Screw you!” I cried and pushed him away. “That’s the last time I give you any advice. Go to hell!”
“I’ve already been there and doubtlessly, I shall be returning a few more times.”
I stared at him. “I assume you are speaking metaphorically and if you aren’t, I assume you deserved to go there.”
He stood up and stretched his neck and then pressed his eyes again. “Are you coming home?”
“No,” I mumbled. “I don’t know what I am doing right now. Maybe I’ll just stay here.” Just then the door opened and Caroline came in with a squalling infant. "We'll continue this discussion later," I told him and held out my arms for my baby.
“And here's your mama and papa, little darling,” Caroline said. “Look who just woke up and is mighty hungry.” She handed him to me and I gazed down at his little red angry face for the first time. He was absolutely beautiful. I turned my back to Senya. Steven needed me now.
Dear Katie Anne,
Your mother and I loved those pictures of Baby Steven. I hope you are planning to come home to visit us very soon. We would certainly like to see that young man in person. Your mother thinks he takes after me. I don't know about that. If you asked me, he's the spitting image of your husband although with your coloring. It looks like he has your beautiful blue eyes which certainly has brought your mother a great deal of relief.
Regarding the little matter which you asked me to look into a few months ago, I am sorry to say that I will not be filing papers for your divorce. You are probably not aware but about a week ago, your husband came by my office and we were able to spend the better part of the afternoon chatting. He filled me in on a lot of information that both of you have neglected to tell me about in the past. He explained that his ‘job’ and ‘family responsibilities’ have kept him away from you in these last few months. He also indicated that it was for your own safety and for little Steven's future that it had to be this way.
Yes, I agree that he was foolish and callous, decidedly ignorant of your feelings. He could and should have tried to reach out to you in some way during this time but he was put in a very difficult position. Apparently, you were required to return to the ‘family estate’ to give birth to Steven so that Steven might someday inherit that same ‘estate.’
Ron is and was as adamant as you are that Steven does not follow in his footsteps. It was imperative then that you give birth to the boy in space. Had he said that to you, he would have violated the very laws that he is sworn to uphold. Therefore, he chose to say nothing to you, to make you so angry that you would choose to return to space on your own accord even if that meant you were so angry at him, he would end up exactly in the position he is in right now.
I can tell you, as surely you must be able to tell, that he is exhausted and frankly, looks to me like a man on the verge of a physical if not mental breakdown. What has happened since the death of his uncle has not been easy on him by any means. I think it would behoove the both of you to take the opportunity of Steven's birth to have a bit of parental leave and the three of you go home, or someplace else quiet and without interruption, to get to know each other all over again. As one who has on more than one occasion had to go to your mother to ask for forgiveness, I am asking on Ron's behalf that you do the same.
I know you love him, Katie Anne, and I know he loves you as much if
not more in return. You've been given a wonderful gift in that little boy who must truly be a miracle baby. Take the opportunity to forget and forgive. You've got a tremendous job ahead of you, and this is just going to be one of many stones in your path that you will have to learn to walk over.
You're a strong girl, Captain, and Ron and I both know that. We agree that while the challenge ahead of you will be formidable, this will be something you can do and do well.
I'm very proud of you. I'm proud of the both of you. I am truly honored to know Ron and I would dearly love to shout it to the world but I know I cannot. Maybe someday though, I can get your mother on one of your fancy spaceplanes and we can come see that magnificent 'family estate'. Even now after I've had a whole week to think about it, I still find myself shaking my head with amazement.
Love, Dad
P.S. I always wondered who gave you those chess pieces and why.
P.P.S. What I still don't understand though is how he knew to send them to you when you were only 10 years old.
I was extraordinarily tired and really would have preferred just to go to bed, but I didn’t. I let Siria and Tilia fight over who was going to change the baby and rock him until he fell asleep, and then I went down to the second floor to the offices.
It was just past 8pm but Kinar was still sitting at his desk typing. He saw me and immediately jumped up.
“Madame, you're home!”
“Hi Kinar,” I replied. “How are you?” My Mishnese was far from fluent but I could carry on a simple conversation and probably understood a bit more.
“Excellent, Madame. And how is the little prince?”
“Excellent too, Kinar. How is the big prince?”
Kinar rolled his eyes. Then he winked at me. I smiled a little. Kinar was okay.
“Is he in?” I indicated the shut office door.
“Yes, Madame, go ahead and go in.” He pressed a button inside his desk which unlocked the door to the inner office. It was pitch black in there except for the shadow of the vids suspended from the ceiling where three men appeared. They weren’t dressed in the Palace regalia but rather business casual. One of them looked slightly green like a Talasian while another had the cat-like eyes of a Cascadian. The third who could have been either Rehnorian or Human was speaking in Mishnese. Senya was pacing back and forth in front of the windows, the red tip of his cigarette and the light from his eyes defining his path.