Harper panted and groaned, sweat slicking her head to foot. She pressed one hand to her bulging stomach and looked up at me every three or four breaths. She clenched my hand in hers and squeezed so tight I thought she might break every bone in my hand.
So be it. I could heal fast.
“Don’t leave me,” Harper said.
“I won’t,” I promised. “I’ll be here the entire time.”
She nodded and focused on her breathing.
A scientist edged into the room clutching a small device to his chest.
“I need to give her something for the pain,” he said, looking at me uncertainly.
“You’ll do no such thing until I see what you’re giving her,” Lily said as she rounded the figure and entered the padded cell.
She cast an eye over me and focused on Harper.
“How does it feel?” she said.
“Sore,” Harper said.
“The thing with inter-species births like this is that no one really knows how it will work out,” Lily said. “It could pass easily or it could be difficult. It really depends on the genetics and, well, no one has ever had a human-Miragi baby before. There’s no telling what might happen. I’ve seen one or two births in my time and I can promise you I’ll do what I can. You just need to trust me.”
Harper let out another breath and clenched her teeth.
Lily bent down to peer between Harper’s legs.
“Bring that painkiller over here,” she said.
She consulted with the doctor.
“She’s not a horse, man! Lower the dosage!” she said.
The doctor hastily made alterations to the device. No doubt he was used to administering medicine to much larger creatures than Harper. He did so and handed the device to Lily, who checked the reading before injecting it into Harper.
The moment she did, the intensity of the pain lowered by several orders of magnitude. Still there, but at least now it was manageable.
A crowd of scientists amassed outside the padded cell, watching, but made no effort to get involved.
“Now, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of movies about birth, right?” Lily said. “It will be a bit like that… but with more screaming and pain and pushing and… other things. When I say, push.”
Harper gripped my hand so tight and she almost crushed it.
The minutes dragged by as blood-soaked towels were removed and replaced and the pushing exercise went on and on, until I wondered if there would ever be an end.
“A little more!” Lily said. “Push!”
Then came the most glorious sound I’d ever heard.
The wailing cry of the baby as it was born, its skin red and wet. Lily cut the cord and immediately wrapped the baby in a small towel.
She smiled as she held the baby in her arms and made soft cooing noises. She checked the baby over to make sure everything was as it should be.
The doctor at her side quickly passed a device over it. The device beeped and a blue light flashed on the top.
“He’s healthy,” he said.
“Of course, he’s healthy!” Lily said. “You don’t need a fancy device with flashing lights to tell you that! Use your eyes, man!”
The doctor seemed taken aback, not least because he wasn’t a man at all but a slimy-skinned alien species called ghoptats.
Lily rounded the chair and handed him over to an exhausted Harper. She took the little baby in her arms.
“Hello there,” she said. “I’m your mommy. And this is your daddy. It’s nice to meet you.”
Her baby.
My baby.
It was the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. And right then, in this tiny cocoon of a cell, I felt the bond that held us together. A family, joined by some powerful but unknowable link spanning eons.
Was it love?
The sense of belonging that only came when you were joined together as a family?
I’d never had either of those things—a family or a home. I had a roaming existence but that wasn’t the same thing.
Exhausted as she was, Harper turned to look up at me. Her skin glowed, wet and blotchy, but she had never looked more lovely than she did right that moment.
We did this. We made this little baby. We fashioned this family. Not on purpose, of course, but it existed and was real in either case.
And it belonged to me.
“Show’s over, folks,” an austere voice said from behind the crowd of onlooking scientists.
They dispersed, revealing Annas, Rarr, and Tus standing shoulder to shoulder. Only Tus had the appearance of someone who didn’t want to be there. The others wore the blank expressions of those ordered to carry out their duty.
Annas’ eyes dropped to the baby clutched in Harper’s arms and all the warmth seeped out of me when I thought about what was going to come next, the fear of knowing what would happen if Harper got pregnant.
The inevitable nature of it didn’t shock me.
It was always leading to this moment.
“Trayem?” Harper said in a pathetically weak voice. “What’s going on?”
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. I could barely bring myself to believe it myself. I’d seen this exact same scene a thousand times, only I’d never found myself standing on this side of the stage before. I had always been with my fellow guards.
The side I should return to now if I had any sense.
But love trumped sense in such situations.
Which way would I go?
I leaned forward and kissed Harper’s brow, thinking about what I would do next. I gently took the baby from her arms. She looked up at me with a smile that was distant but hopeful.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice cracking.
I turned and carried the baby out of the padded cell.
“Trayem?” Harper said, her voice regaining some of its strength now. “Trayem? What are you doing?”
I couldn’t respond to her, couldn’t turn around to face her.
“Trayem?” Harper said, screaming now. “TRAYEM?”
There was a sharp slap sound as she attempted to climb from the chair. Still weak from giving birth, she fell to the floor.
“Trayem!” she shrieked. “My baby! Please! Our baby!
