Gwen had been in labour for thirteen hours. Well, thirteen hours and twenty-three minutes, to be exact. The doctor had been telling them that it was nearly over for the last half hour. Kevin focused on the veins on her forehead, which became so prominent when she pushed, instead of the goings on at the other end of the bed. One quick look during the early stages had put him off completely. He did not say an awful lot either, because he had made one slightly thoughtless comment already. Every medical professional in the room, as well as Gwen, had aimed a withering look in his direction, when he had asked if changing her position would 'help shake it loose'.

Although, Kevin had to admit, he had gotten off very lightly. Most guys, who were all too keen to share their experiences of being present in the delivery room, had told him that it would be hell. They had regaled him with stories of crushed hands and promises of never being allowed to touch their partners again. However, Gwen was nothing like that at all. Instead of angry, she was focused and brave. Although, every now and then she reached out to him and grabbed his forearm, and she had this look in her eye that pleaded for help. In those instances he did his best, or rather what he vaguely remembered from the few classes they had attended.

Now Gwen's hair was stuck to her brow and she braced the bed with her arm, her knuckles whitened as she gripped the frame tightly. Tears of pain and frustration had tracked down her cheeks and she had begun to holler in a way that he had never heard before. Even in all of her clammy, red-faced glory, she was impressive, and during her last few moments of labour he could not have been more proud. He kissed her damp forehead and ruffled her hair as he congratulated her, whilst the doctors and nurses created a hive of activity at the other end of the bed.

The sleepy half-smile on Gwen's face slowly faded as the couple waited to see their baby. They realised that their baby was of an unusual union that had probably never been seen before on Earth, so it was natural that the medical staff were curious and perhaps even a little overcautious. However, the doctors were taking far too long, and their faces were just a touch too grim. Before long Gwen demanded to see her baby, and when the staff tried to make excuses Kevin stood up and made his presence felt. An angry exchange followed, which culminated in a nervous nurse tiptoeing forward with a heavily swaddled baby. The nurse said nothing and simply swallowed nervously as she passed the bundle to Gwen.

Gwen's mouth gaped in shock, whilst Kevin felt as if he had been kicked hard in the stomach. Neither had been prepared for the sight that confronted them.

The baby was red and scaly, like it had been horrifically burnt. It had only one human-esque eye, and that was turned on its side. The iris was actually a wonderful blue shade, it was just a shame that the white that surrounded it was such a sickly yellow. As Gwen unwrapped the blanket, she revealed more of the mutation. Two chubby - yet quite human – legs, were marred by small claws instead of toes. The sections of skin that were not scaled were so thin that they were practically translucent, and they exposed the haphazard map of veins and arteries that lay below. Even through the thick blanket Gwen could feel another limb stirring at the child's behind, something she would later realise was a tail.

Their hearts broke in tandem. Every moment they had spent preparing for the baby now seemed like a horrible lie. It was not the daughter that Gwen longed to read to at bedtime, nor the son that Kevin wanted to take to his first sports game. All the secret dreams and fantasies that had been quietly cultivated in their heads were devastated in an instant. The child was all wrong.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind of visits to specialists and contacting acquaintances on other planets that might be able to help. Everyone sent cards, no one visited. Slowly but surely, every last avenue of possibility closed. The couple had to understand that there was no magical cure-all for their child. They even had to learn to accept that no one could make head or tail of the sex of the baby. It should have been a relatively easy thing to tell, but as the doctors explained, the very DNA itself was corrupted. The new parents were informed that every single time they tested the child, its DNA had warped once again. The child was in a constant state of flux and no professional could say if it would ever settle on one tangible form.

In that one fatal blow all of their dreams were dashed. Neither parent had thought their child would be completely 'normal'. They had expected a little uniqueness, something slightly out of the ordinary, but not that. The juxtaposition of Gwen's maternal instinct and her disappointment twisted in her chest, like a wayward knife. Since the birth, laughter lines had given way to the wrinkles in her furrowed brow.

When the problems with the DNA had been revealed Kevin had only just managed to keep himself from punching the wall. He thought it was all his fault, and so those weeks after the baby was born, he did nothing but self-reproach. Over and over again, he told himself that he should never have screwed around with his own DNA when he was younger. In his mind, Gwen blamed him too; even though she never told him so. He took Gwen's quiet determination as an admission of her feelings. So Kevin stewed. He dwelled upon the past until there was really no room for the future at all.

It had been a whole year. Kevin was rarely at home and Gwen was thin and gaunt. The baby's first birthday had passed with minimal fuss. A few gifts from close relatives and friends had been delivered, mainly money or gift cards. After all, what did you buy a child that could not play with toys? Most of the child's playthings were dog toys anyway, they were the only ones that would stand up to the rough play, even if Gwen was too proud to admit it and cut off all the tags. None of the few birthday visitors had stayed for the coffee and snacks that Gwen had bought 'just-in-case'. The small family had been cast adrift.

When Kevin arrived home and they had eaten dinner, Gwen lit a single candle in the centre of the cake. Only Gwen sang, because the baby couldn't and Kevin wouldn't. Kevin could only watch as Gwen's false smile slipped every now and then, and her voice veered dangerously close to cracking. When she blew out the candle on the child's behalf, let out a pretend cheer and slapped a couple of its limbs together to simulate clapping, Kevin excused himself from the table. He had already had his fill of the freak show.

Kevin frequently closeted himself in his garage, because that way he could avoid them both. Even when the two adults were alone, the strain was unbearable. The atmosphere between them was thick and confused. Some nights Gwen lay stiffly on the other side of the bed, and others she was all over him, as if she had something to prove. Maybe they were just going through the motions, but there was something in her eyes that he could not resist. There was some distant memory that he could not quite describe, something in her always-familiar eye. It was one of the few things that kept him from straying.

A young female plumber had joined Kevin's team recently. She was youthful, cocky and beautiful, she did not revere the 'old guard', and thumbed her nose at many of the rules. Kevin liked her, for she reminded him of his own misspent youth. The young girl more than liked Kevin, and made no secret of her intentions when they were alone. When she had pressed herself far closer to him than necessary, he taken in the aroma of her feminine perfume; whereas Gwen just smelt of their child's charred plastic toys and antiseptic. He had almost broken when her hand had tracked down his chest and he could not slow his breathing down. However, he had managed to resist, based purely on the promise that he had made Gwen years ago. Kevin kept his word, but it was hard, he was sorely tempted and he never requested the transfer that he could have easily obtained. He kept the girl close, but for no reason he could name.

"Kevin, I'll be less an hour!"

"I got stuff to do." Kevin muttered, not coming out from under the car.

Gwen marched around to the front of the car and physically dragged him out with a beam of energy. He sat up on the creeper and clutched at his wrist, for he had jarred it when Gwen pulled him out. She was just standing there clutching the kid against her hip with one arm, and pulling her pants up by the belt loops with the other. He hated that her jeans did not fit any more. When he looked into her eyes he saw a small glimmer of desperation, and he realised that it was a wonder she had not suffocated by now.

"All you have to do is sit and watch while the baby is in the playpen, that's it, I promise. Just make sure nothing bad happens, okay?" Gwen said, with her hand firmly placed on her hip.

Kevin nodded, wiped his hands on a rag and followed Gwen inside the house. The redhead returned from the family room without their offspring in tow and her purse slung over her shoulder.

"Oh, and change your clothes if you're going to sit on the couch." She said, and a small smile played on her lips as she gave him a small wave on her way out of the door.

Kevin frowned, she seemed as eager to leave the house as he usually was to go to work. If someone had told him ten years ago that he and Gwen would have been unhappy together he would never have believed them. With one quick peek around the doorframe, Kevin ascertained that the baby was fine and would continue to be fine whilst he went and changed his clothes, as per Gwen's request.

In the couple's shared room, Kevin had stripped himself of his shirt, having already exchanged his pants for a clean pair, when he heard the baby downstairs let out an almighty yell. Fearing the worst, Kevin bolted down the stairs, taking them several at a time. When he made it into the room, the baby was just sitting quietly in its playpen. His heart finally started beating in a regular rhythm again and he revelled in the fact that Gwen would not be disposing of his body that night.

When he went back to go and grab a shirt, the baby began to cry. The sound grated on Kevin's nerves, it was more of an animalistic growl than a baby's cry anyway. He drummed his fingers on the doorframe, unsure of the correct next move. In the end, he decided that picking the kid up, in an attempt to comfort it, was the best thing to do. He hoped that comfort would do and no feeding or changing would be required, because they were both equally disgusting tasks. Kevin's stomach turned when he thought back to dinner and remembered the way the mashed up meat and spaghetti leaked through the gaps between the sharp little teeth.

As he lifted the child from the playpen, he was thoughtful. It was not really fair, the child had hardly asked to be born, let alone be trapped in such a thoroughly mutated body. Kevin had never wanted to be the father he was turning out to be. He had internally vowed to be there for his child at every turn. However, the mutation and his own guilt had gotten in the way. He knew he had broken his vow not long after the baby was born and he was ashamed.

Kevin's hold seemed to settle the baby somewhat, although the snivelling did not stop entirely. So Kevin resigned himself to his fate, turned on a football game he was vaguely interested in and reclined on the couch. He settled the baby on his chest, where it remained happily as its three hands explored the new feeling of the smooth skin on the chest it lay on. The baby explored Kevin's chest a little while longer, before relaxing into a quiet doze. As Kevin was not really interested in the game on television, he quickly drifted into a light sleep too.

By the time Kevin was awoken by a happy squeal from the child, there was already a puddle of drool all over his bare chest. He uttered a few words of annoyance under his breath, yet counted his blessings that it was not all over the couch, because Gwen would have yelled about that. Kevin reached down to try and wipe away some of the saliva and the baby swatted at his hand and made more dribbly, gurgling noises. Before Kevin could do anything about it, he felt his hand being gently gnawed upon.

"Hey, cut it out." He complained, as he tried to pry his hand away from oddly sharp teeth that lined the child's maw.

Even after he had extracted his hand from the mouth, the baby still clung on to his fist with two of its three arms

Suddenly, pale pink skin travelled from one tiny hand all the way to the elbow.

In a state of panic, Kevin did not know what to do, he just sat with his mouth wide open watching the transformation take place.

The child screamed louder than he had ever heard it before, and he was quite taken aback. Then the baby's skin began to boil and blister. The fin on its back retreated, the skin seemingly sucking the appendage back in. All of his child's imperfections seemed to be disappearing before his very eyes. Kevin wondered if he was still asleep, if perhaps he was dreaming about the one thing he truly yearned for in his life, in their lives.

Almost as quickly as it had began, it was over. There, in Kevin's outstretched arms, was a naked little human boy. Completely dumfounded, Kevin had no idea what to do, he just looked on as the boy kicked his little legs in the air.

Startled by the sound of Gwen's key in the door, Kevin called out.

"Gwen, Gwen! You gotta see this!" Kevin shouted, fearing the child would change back before she got to see for herself.

Gwen looked faintly worried as she came to the door, still juggling her purse, her keys and a couple of bags of groceries. She gasped, dropped her groceries and shrugged off her purse. The vegetables for that night's dinner tumbled from their bag as she raised a trembling hand to her mouth. She gingerly stepped forward, her eyes full of disbelief as she took in the sight ahead of her.

"It's a boy, Gwen."

"…a boy." Gwen repeated

She stood over their son, taking in all of his newness. Her eyes shone with tears, but she did not cry.

"How about we call him Devlin? But if you don't like it…" Kevin offered, trailing off to allow for Gwen's possible objections.

"I like it." Gwen said quietly, her shock and relief overcoming her for the moment.

Kevin looked at Gwen, for what seemed like the first time in such a long while. Something about her looked a little different.

"Did you change your hair?" Kevin ventured.

"Yeah," Gwen sniffed and looked up at him cautiously, "yeah, I did."

The very next day, Kevin put in for that transfer. On the form, under the heading that said 'Reason', he wrote,

'To be with my family.'