Title: A Change is Gonna Come
Hal goes after Karen and gets her back alive.
Hal carries Karen in to the makeshift operating room and onto the bed that his brother had had this exact same procedure done only weeks before.
"Hal, I think you should wait outside," said his father.
"No, I'm not leaving her! " Hal said with determination.
Reading something in his son's eyes he had never seen before , Tom relented. "Ok, lets gets get the supplies we need. Anne!" Tom called for his friend and doctor who had already prepared the room for the procedure and was now carrying a blowtorch with Lourdes in tow to monitor Karen's vitals.
"Ok, Hal I need you to pull on the harness beginning with the top. As I sever each spike keep pulling up and away until the entire harness is removed, you got it?" Anne asked with a no nonsense voice only a doctor can possess.
"Yeah, I got it, " he replied looking half scared kid and half warlord man. The procedure began and the harness was removed and Hal looked at Anne with pleading eyes, "Is she ok?"
With a quick glance to Lourdes to check vitals, then a quick look to Tom communicating in a nonverbal way that only they understood Tom put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Yeah, she's ok, son." At that moment Hal turned to his father and hugged him close. Tom rubbed his son's back in a soothing motion and murmured words of encouragement, "You did great. Everything is going to be ok. She's safe now."
Hal turned to Karen lying on the bed with the exposed wound on her bare back. He brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead. "It's ok, babe. Everything is going to be ok." He sat in the chair that Tom had dragged over for him to sit in and sat by her bedside. Anne came to treat the wound on the girl's back and listen to her heart as she was rolled on to her side. She paused in the middle of the examination and put her stethoscope below her on her stomach. She didn't say anything when Hal looked at her inquisitively.
"Ill be right back," she told Hal and walked in to the hallway where Tom was sitting on the floor
staring at the lockers with a blank stare on his face.
"Hey," he said simply while smiling at her with his eyes. She sat down next to him shoulder to shoulder and took in the moment realizing how tired she was. Sensing something was bothering her, "You ok?"
"Um, yeah, I'm fine, but I'm pretty sure we are going to have a different situation concerning Karen, "automatically Tom turned towards her with worry in his eyes. "I'm going to have to do more tests to make sure, but I'm pretty sure Karen is pregnant."
Fear hit Tom in the gut. Had Karen been raped by one of these aliens and was she now carrying some kind of unearthly spawn? It made Tom sick to even think about such a thing. He looked at Anne with sad and pleading eyes, "She's only seventeen, Annie."
"I know."
"How am I going to tell my son?"
"We don't know for sure, but we will do it together if it comes to that."
Tom silently nodded and put his arm around her. They sat there together in companionable silence just finding comfort in being close.
Hours later
"hmmm", Karen mumbled coming out of her drug induced slumber.
Abruptly Hal woke up from dosing off with his head lying on her bedside while holding her hand. "Hey, Karen," he said in a soft voice with a smile across his lips.
"Hal…? Is that you?"
"Yes it's me, Babe. You're safe. How ya feeling?"
"Like I've had an alien harness on my back for the last few weeks," she said with a tired sarcastic voice, and he knew she was back. She wasn't acting like a different person like his brother sometimes did.
"Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm so tired."
"Just sleep. Sleep as long as you want."
She looked at him with pleading eyes, "Don't leave me, ok?"
"Never, I'm going to be right here."
"I have to tell you something, Hal. It's really important.."
"We will talk about whatever you want when you wake up again, I promise. Just go back to sleep. You don't have to be afraid anymore."
His voice was calming to her and she drifted off again. Hal laid his head down beside her and did the same.
Hal woke up with his head on the side of Karen's mattress, but she wasn't there. After a moment of temporary frantic searching of the room with his eyes he saw her sitting across the room eating some porridge with a loose fitting gown on her.
"Jesus, you scared me, why didn't you wake me up?"
"You looked so cute with the drool hanging out of your mouth; I couldn't bear to wake you." Self-consciously Hal brought his hand to the corner of his mouth and wiped away the congregating saliva there.
"How are you feeling?"
"Pretty sore and a little nauseous."
"Nauseous? Do you want me to get Anne?"
"No, I don't she has anything that can help me."
Hal looked at her with a befuddled look on his face.
"I have something to tell you. I was going to tell you right before I was taken."
"Tell me what?"
"I'm pregnant." She said it so simply that Hal thought he must have not heard her correctly.
"Your what?"
"Pregnant. You know bun in the oven, visit from the stork, knocked up, pregnant."
"I know what pregnant means, but …..shit..".
"I know, I couldn't believe it either. I mean I could believe it, its not like it's an immaculate conception or anything, but after I was taken I thought for sure that the skitters would know and they would try to do something horrible. But apparently they had no idea…" Hal was looking pretty pale and he wasn't talking. "Hal, are you ok?"
"Me? You were kidnapped by alien creatures for a month while pregnant and you want to know if I'm ok?"
"Are you mad about the baby?"
"The baby? No, I never thought I would be a teenage parent, but we are not in the same circumstances we were in a year ago," Hal couldn't believe she was carrying his child. He was going to be a father and in that instant he knew exactly what his dad had been talking about. He wanted so much more for his child then he had ever wanted for himself. He looked at Karen with a love in eyes that was fully realized in that moment. "I love you," He cupped his hands around her face and kissed her. He kissed her because he loved her, because she was his best friend, and he kissed her for being the mother of his child. He kept murmuring, "I love you, I love you," into her lips as he kissed her. "I want to have a family with you. I don't ever want to be away from you." She had tears in her eyes. She had no one left and all of a sudden she was being given this new family.
"I love you too, Hal."
Hall went down on his knees in front of her and pressed his forehead to her belly. "I love both of you, so much," he whispered. He looked up," so you are two months along, right?"
"Right," she said with a knowing smile remembering that afternoon.
Two months ago:
As his dad closed the door Hal turned to Karen. "So we have our own room, with a bed and we are not sleeping on the floor."
"I don't know what do with myself," she said myscheviously as she leaned in to kiss him. She knew he wanted to go after his brother and she wanted to comfort him. She lay down on the bed and pulled in him on top of her. It felt so good with him solid above her and the mattress soft below her. They made out and eventually began removing clothing. Hal pulled off his shirt and she stared at his raised form. The last months he had put on the muscles of a man. He was tall and lean and he put his hands in her hair when he kissed her with an intensity she loved. She kissed him back with the same emotions. Their breathing was heavy as he pulled her tank top over her head and he fell back on top of her. "I want you," she said breathlessly while looking into his eyes.
He had never pressured her, never gone any further than what she was comfortable with. It made her love him even more because even after all that had happened he was still protective of her virtue. He wanted it to be her decision so she would never regret it. A serious look was brought to his face, "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I need you."
He looked in to her eyes an nodded almost unperceptively before he began kissing her again. The tone of their physical exchange has turned to hunger and passion, but he was still so gentle with her she almost cried. They had managed to get under the covers and they were both naked. He raised himself above her, "Are you sure Karen? We can stop if you want to," he was so considerate and sweet.
She wrapped her legs around his waist, "I'm sure." He leaned down and kissed her.
They lay there together in an afterglow that only making love could generate. They put their clothes back on in case someone else decided that it would be a good time come in the through the door. When they lay back down on the bed Hal was behind her and he held her tightly as they went to sleep and rested for their nightly duty.
Coming back to the present and looking at her with silent communication Hal got up. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm going to get my dad. He is probably going to freak, but he needs to know," Hal was interrupted by Tom and Anne entering the room looking like a united front standing side by side.
"Hal, can I talk to you for a minute?" Tom asked with a look in his eyes Hal had never seen before.
"Actually I was coming to ask you the exact same thing," Hal said with confusion on his face.
Anne approached Karen and sat beside her in a friendly almost maternal motion. "I'm going to examine Karen again, why don't you wait outside with your dad, Hal?" Tom still looking like he had been punched in the stomach took his son by the elbow and ushered hi m into the hall.
"How are you feeling?" Asked Anne.
"You know, the usual deharnessed symptoms I guess," said Karen with a load of sarcasm in her voice.
"Karen, do you want to talk about what happened while you were gone? I'm your doctor and you can tell me anything and it will stay totally confidential."
"You mean like tell you I'm pregnant?" the younger girl responded with a dry wit of someone who was trying to break the tension, but not of someone who had experienced a violent experience like a rape.
"Are you pregnant?" asked Anne in that unbiased tone that held no judgment, but yet she was still cautious that her original suspicion was accurate.
A smile spread across Karen's face, "Yes I am. I am carrying Hal's post-apocalyptic spawn, if you can believe it."
A smile spread across the older woman's face and a heavy sigh of relief was expelled from her lungs. "The baby is Hal's?" a relieved giggle almost escaped the good doctor's lips.
"Who else's would it.." and then Karen understood. "Oh, God, no! I don't know how to explain it, but I was a week late before the skitters took me. I was going to tell Hal that night. I know we were stupid, but if there were ever a cease the day kind of moment…" she drifted off.
"Well, you should have been more careful, but this is so much better than what I had originally thought. Let me examine you, Ok?"
"Hal I think something horrible may have happened to Karen."
"Yeah, I can't believe I got her back."
"No I mean something other than being harnessed," Tom looked his son in the eye." She might have been… assaulted," Tom chose to use the euphemism because he couldn't even bare to voice the thought.
"Why would you say something like that?"
"She's pregnant, Hal," it was all Tom could do not to break down. He had to be strong for his son. His anguished face took on a new look of befuddlement when he noticed Hal was smiling. "Hal?"
"Don't get mad ok? The baby is mine."
Tom looked at his son with a shocked expression. "What do you mean the baby is yours?"
"Dad, you have three kids, do I really have to explain the birds and the bees?" Seeing that Tom was in no mood for humor, "She told me this morning. She was going to tell me the day she was taken." Looking at his father, "Dad, she wasn't abused, not like that."
Tom felt his knees give out and slumped down the wall he had been leaning against. After the first wave of relief he felt another equally strong wave of fury. His voice bellowed down the hallway, "Have I taught you nothing?"
Clinic
The entire second Mass must of heard Tom since he used that booming voice he only reserved for times when he felt necessary to use it.
The corners of Anne's mouth curved upwards while examining Karen," I guess Hall just told, Tom."
"Yeah, I guess so…Anne, is everything alright?"
Anne looked at the teenager, no something was definitely very wrong…."Let's get Hal in here and we can talk,"she had a reserved, but pleasant smile on her face as she turned to go into the hall. Something was wrong, pregnancy was well into the second trimester, not the first. Apparently the harness did have an affect on her, and the baby….