First time writing a fanfic since I was twelve so I'm sorry for any mistakes! Just wanted to expand some more on Sarah Kinney and X-23′s relationship.
In the darkness, her body glowed under the neon green lights of the machines. The beeping of the heart rate monitor had faded into background noise, Sarah barely noticed it now. It was astounding how quickly you could adjust to a situation, she had even grown used to the wires and her ever growing stomach.
She had yet to adjust to the kicking.
Sometimes, when sentiment crept in, she wondered if the foetus somehow knew what was being planned for its future. She wondered is X-23 already resented her, kicking her for the part Sarah played in her destiny. Then, cold logic would edge back in and she would remind herself that she was not growing a baby but carrying a weapon. This was science, not nature. The thing within her was no different than a gun.
A clock on the digital display let her know that it was two in the morning, not that she needed to be told. The ache in her back, the stinging in her eyes and the increasing tension in her temples had already informed her it was late. Sarah could not remember seeing any nocturnal genes when she synthesised the DNA, yet X-23 refused to rest.
Too tired, too sore and too frustrated, Sarah began to feel desperate. Desperate enough to do something foolish; she sang to the foetus.
"Blackbird singing in the dead of night…" her voice was cracked and pitchy but there was no one to hear or judge "…Take these broken wings and learn to fly"
She could remember playing that song on a cassette tape, riding her bike down long streets with her Walkman jumping around in her pocket. She would ride and ride until her feet hurt and her hands ached from gripping the handlebars. She would keep riding until she had no choice but to return to her home. Return to her hell.
"Take these broken wings and learn to fly…" How many hours had she spent dreaming of escape? She would hear her father's feet coming up the stairs and hide under the bed. Whispering prayers under her breath, prayers that were never answered. He still found her. "…All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free"
Her father had made her incapable of love. Broken her into so many fragments she no longer felt human. Any kind of trust was a delusion, any splinter of faith eradicated. She turned to science, with its cold facts and procedures. She had found freedom in science somehow.
"Blackbird fly…" Sarah Kinney went quiet, giving her stomach a sceptical look. The kicking had stopped; she hadn't truly expected the singing to work. She shrugged it off and turned over to sleep, but that was the first night she slept holding her stomach.