Another asteroid flew past the window of the home as Lila walked down the corridor, a computer tucked under her arm. The security camera watching their home followed the click, click, click of her heels as she walked down the twisting corridors, past the kitchen, past her children's rooms and to the door of her husband's study.
Timothy sat hunched over his computer, a crumbled cup of coffee at his side. Lila knew her husband was overworked, but she hadn't been aware how bad it was.
Lila and Timothy were in charge of sending fetuses to different planets. It was much more effective than the human's method of producing offspring, but also much more stressful on the aliens in charge.
Lila wrapped her arms around her husband's shoulders and put her head in the crook of his neck as he worked. He put his hand to hers and squeezed her hands before returning to his work. In front of them was a list of rocks they had sent out that week; all of them with a green check to say they had been delivered, except for one, with a red x next to it instead.
"Tim," Lila said gently, to get her husband's attention.
"Hm?" Timothy replied.
"Where's that rock?" When Timothy just responded with a non-committal hum, Lila pointed to the red rock. "That one. Rock number 024678?" He clicked it and read through the history. "I sent it to Mrs. Wakerburg within the last hour."
Lila pulled up a chair and sat next to her husband as he read through the log. "Well?" she asked. "Where is it now?"
Timothy took the cup of coffee next to him and sipped it. He stopped scrolling after a minute and slowly put the mug down. "Oh," he said gently. "Oh god."
"What?" Lila asked. She looked quickly at the logs then back at her husband. "What is it?"
Timothy turned back to her, a frantic look in his eyes. "It got knocked off course," he answered. "It's in Seattle, Washington."
Meanwhile, Freddie was in bed when a loud crash woke him. He was out of bed in a flash and ran over to his window, pulled back the curtains to see what had happened. There was a giant rock in front of the Bushwell, huge and glowing pink. No one else seemed to notice it, and Freddie was about to call some sort of emergency service when he noticed someone walk out of the building.
It was his girlfriend, Sam, wearing only a t-shirt and sweats and without shoes in the harsh, October air. She was walking slowly towards the rock as if in a trance.
Freddie pulled a sweatshirt over his head and raced down the winding stairs with a sweater for his girlfriend. He broke through the doors frantically and called out, "Sam!"
Sam turned to Freddie and smiled gently at him. "Freddie," she said gently, beckoning him over. Freddie didn't move; he had never seen anything like this behavior from his girlfriend, who was usually loud and abrasive.
"What are you doing?" Freddie asked from the doorway. He held up the sweater, one arm in the warm of the Bushwell lobby, the rest of his body hanging out the door. "Get out of the cold, get away from that thing."
Sam turned from him and continued walking towards the rock, which was now pulsing with glowing energy. As if in slow motion, Sam reached her hand out for the rock. Freddie sprinted and grabbed her hand, but it was too late; Freddie felt a prick in his hand just as he watched the light spread through Sam's arm and gather in her abdomen before dissolving, the rock blinking out of existence as if it had never been there in the first place.
Sam collapsed into Freddie, who caught her and covered her shoulders with the blanket. "What?" Sam asked groggily as if raising from a sleep. "What happened? Why are we outside?" She pushed her boyfriend away with a soft, "get off of me," and stood.
"Sam," Freddie said gently. He slowly reached out to grab her arm. "Are you okay?"
Sam blinked slowly and shook her head. "No," she answered. "I-I feel-" She didn't finish her sentence before she took off running, Freddie hot on her heels. She knelt behind a bush and dry heaved, the sound harsh in her throat. Freddie walked up behind her and held her hair out of her face, rubbed her back gently.
He wasn't sure what had happened, but one thing was certain. Sam needed to see a doctor immediately.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
So I feel like I owe everyone (myself included) a bit of an explanation for this fic.
To be very clear, I don't partake in the iCarly fandom and I haven't since I was around 12 in 2012 (which I feel like explains a lot). This fic is a rewrite of one of my more notorious iCarly fanfics, called iRock Pregnancy. I wrote the original when I was just 11 years old and I thought it was revolutionary. Cut to today and it's a bit of a joke among my friend group. I rewrote the first chapter on a bet from one of my friends, attempting to give this very loose plot something resembling good writing.
Since then, rewriting this fic has actually been something I've done to calm myself done when I'm anxious, as I suffer from an anxiety disorder. I'm aware that it's dumb, but being able to bring life to a plot that I don't particularly care for is freeing - when I'm not attached to the plot, it's easy to just experiment with my writing.
I hope you enjoy this. Feel free to leave a review if you want (especially if you read the first iRock Pregnancy because holy shit) and I'll try to reply. Also, if you want to read my actual fanfiction, or you're just curious where I've been for five years, feel free to follow me on Tumblr.
Thank you!
-Seb
