The first thing I did when I got out of the hospital was visit Dawn and the Galadrias at the island Damien had bought for them. There was some international outcry, but generally they were okay with it now that the threat was over. Humans were back in control.
The synthetic green stuff we were producing was working fine for the Galadrias to consume. We had also learned that seawater, with its high salt content, was akin to their birthing pools, and allowed them to have their babies safely. We had one birth in the three weeks they’d lived there. They were happy and healthy, and Damien promised to fly me out on his private jet often to visit them.
Just as he had today.
I looked down at the urn in my hands and my chest tightened.
Master Aki...
I missed him so much that it ached. Today we would put him to rest, after Ronnie did my daily, yes daily, medical checkup.
“So nausea but no dizziness?” Ronnie held a tiny torture light and flashed it into my eyes.
I nodded. “Yep, just feel blah lately. Probably the flu.”
Ronnie looked concerned. She’d mothered me like crazy ever since the seizure.
“Nausea but no headaches?” she questioned.
I laughed. “Nope. Just feel sick, mostly in the mornings—”
We both had the same realization at the exact same time. Our mouths collectively popped open.
“Kit, are you late?”
Fuck.
My mind scrambled to remember my last period. I had an app for that! Yes. I was late. Shit—a week late. My mouth was still open, but Ronnie grinned.
“That day, when I came to give you the antibiotics on sky home, did you and Damien…?”
Oh my God, embarrassing. I just nodded.
Her grin grew wider. “I thought so. You both looked flushed.”
“Okay, I don’t need details. Am I pregnant or not?”
Holy shit, this would be horrible, right? I mean Damien and I were new and fresh and NOT ready to have a freaking kid together.
Right?
Although just the thought of having a baby with Damien brought a traitorous smile to my lips.
No. I was way too young.
Right?
Ronnie returned from searching her medical bag and handed me a pregnancy test. “I carry about a dozen of these, for Maxine.”
That did cause me to smile.
Creeping into the bathroom, I sat down and nervously peed on the stick.
Could I really be pregnant? I mean, Ronnie had told me that antibiotics decreased birth control, but I’d been too busy saving the world to try to deal with it.
I pulled up my pants, chucked the test on the counter, and turned to face the wall.
“I can’t look!” I told my bestie as she came into the bathroom and hovered over the test that lay on the counter.
I had my back to her, facing the wall with my hands over my face. I just couldn’t be the one to look. This result could totally change my life.
“Holy shit!” she shrieked after a moment, and I broke all resolve. Spinning around, I glanced at the test in my bestie's hand.
It was positive.
“Holy shit!” I echoed.
Then we screamed. We both jumped up and down screaming and laughing. It’s like some weird joy monster had taken over my body and suddenly I felt unexplainably happy.
I wanted this baby.
The half open bathroom door burst open all the way and Brisk and Damien barged in with guns drawn.
“What’s wrong?” Brisk surveyed the scene, mistaking our screams for pain or something gone wrong.
When his eyes landed on his girlfriend’s hands wrapped around the positive pregnancy test, he grinned. “Oh my God, babe!”
Damien chuckled. “Congrats, you guys.”
Brisk went to hug Ronnie and she looked at me, wide-eyed.
As my bestie, she would totally fake a pregnancy if I wasn’t ready to tell Damien.
But I wouldn’t put her through that, so I cleared my throat. “Actually... it’s my… test.”
Reaching out, I pulled it from Ronnie’s hands.
“Oh.” Brisk looked a bit crestfallen. “Ohhh.” He side-eyed Damien, who was standing there in shock.
Ronnie tugged his arm and they exited the room quickly, leaving Damien and I to stare at each other.
“You’re pregnant—the time on Skyhome…”
“So… what do you think?”
If he didn’t want the baby, I’d be devastated, but I’d accept his wishes and not make him be involved. I could raise a child on my own. I was a badass female and I’d been through worse.
A slow grin pulled at his lips as he stepped towards me. “I think you just became my baby mama and I couldn’t be happier.”
Relief washed through me. He picked me up and spun me in the air. Pulling back, he took my mouth into a deep kiss. Heat traveled down my chest to my groin as he slipped his tongue into my mouth.
“I’m not changing diapers,” Jeremy said from the doorway and we both stilled.
Damien set me down and stared at his brother. “Buddy, how long have you been standing there?”
Jeremy shrugged. “Long enough. Congrats. You’re an old man now.” Then he walked away.
We both burst out laughing. Jeremy was so random sometimes.
“So… we’re having a baby?” I asked sheepishly. To be perfectly honest, if this had happened a month ago, I’d probably be asking Ronnie about my options, but the world had changed. This baby was going to be ushered into a new world, without the ghouls.
He rubbed my flat belly as if he could already feel something. “Hell yeah. I’ll have my lawyer draw up a trust fund tomorrow. The baby will take my last name, right? That way he or she could take over Striker industries and—” I put a finger to his lips.
“We have time to figure all that out.” Trust fund? Hell no. My kid was going to drive a shitty truck for their first car, just like I did.
Striker? I guess that would be okay… but Steele-Striker sounded better.
Damien grinned. “We have time. Today is about Master Aki.”
My face fell. I’d completely forgotten about laying my mentor to rest today. He’d be over the moon
