Page 57 of Mutt
Why am I envying her right now?It’s not like she was looking forward to giving birth, not after everything she’d seen her friend go through.
Reid waved a scanner over Kat’s stomach as another contraction hit her.
“The baby doesn’t want to come out,” he yelled at Rose.
“I don’t give a crap what the baby wants, push, dammit!”
Kat laughed and then her features wrenched. Clara squeezed her hand.
“You’re crowning, sweetheart, keep fighting her,” Rose pleaded and continued. “Don’t give up!”
The sweat poured off Kat and Clara wiped the girl’s brow. Their eyes met before another contraction hit. A screaming groan and a heavy breath later and progress was made.
“She’s like her daddy, likes the dark.”
Several minutes later and the baby girl was out, out, healthy, cleaned up and in Kat’s arms. Clara got her hand back, unsure if it was broken until she shook it. When the numbness went away, she was relieved
Reid and Rose had set to work cleaning up the bedding and the room, and after what seemed like days of labor, everything was over. Suddenly it was quiet where it had been loud for so long.
Marcy, Rose’s daughter, sat on the other side of Kat and cooed down at the baby. Besides Rose and Marcy, Katalina and Clara were the only women on Ghost. At first, it made her nervous, but then as time went by, she realized that just like on Earth, Ghost held up to its name. The Cyborg city was quiet and had few beings that lived on it, and the rest of its populace were Borgs that came and went as they pleased.
“Do you have a name for her?” Marcy asked, and was the first to break the silence.
“No,” Kat whispered, staring at her baby lovingly, as her baby stared back.
“Can’t decide?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. I want her to choose her own name. Cyborgs get to choose their name.”
“Hmm...”
Clara continued to watch Kat and her child, finding the interaction pleasant but chilling. The baby squirmed and sputtered. No one had any idea how the child was going to react, how it was going to be, and all their speculation was for naught since the little girl appeared and acted human.Acted.It was what made her wary.
“You’re next, Clara.”
She jerked when Reid’s voice sounded behind her. His hand covered her shoulder. Clara quickly said her goodbyes and wished Kat and the baby a good first night and left with him. The hallways of Ghost were empty as they made their way from medical.
“Where’s Dommik?”
“In quarantine.”
“Really? Even now?”
“Even now...” He stopped them and lifted a finger to trace her lips. “They need rest. And he needs to let his systems cool off.”
Clara humphed and glanced back from where they came. “Will you react the same way?”
His fingers left her face to thread through her hair and tugged. He was always touching her now and she’d grown used to it.
“No.”
“Good. Because you need to be there when it happens. After what I just saw...” she shivered, “I’m going to be scared out of my mind.”
“Guess you should’ve thought about that before you walked into my facility,” Reid teased her, his hand moving down her neck, squeezing it.
“I had more important things on my mind.”
She smiled and he leaned down to kiss her.
“Me too.”
