Three Weeks Later:
Helen stood in the video conference room, looking at the screen. "Declan, I know it probably goes without saying, but now that the UK Sanctuary is ready for its reopening, I would like you to take James's place as the official head of the UK sanctuary."
"Thank you, Helen." He said, graciously.
"There's nothing for which to thank me." She assured with a small smile. "You received this post because of the good work you have done for the entire network in the last few months."
"It was no more than anyone else." He assured.
"You're too modest, Declan." She said with a chuckle. "I will arrange another video conference with the entire Sanctuary Global Network in one week or so, and we will discuss the rest of our efforts for reconstruction."
"I look forward to your call then." He said with a smile.
"Good-bye, Declan." She said as she prepared to go offline.
"Good-bye, Helen." He said with a slight wave.
She turned off the feed, fingering the ties that cinched the tan maternity cardigan as closed as it could be with her rounded stomach. A network of five sanctuaries had been reduced to three – almost four – in less than two days thanks to the Cabal. And they had used her oldest daughter to accomplish their fiendish desires.
She looked down at her stomach. "Your sister would have been so excited to see you." She whispered as she placed a warm and loving hand on it. "You should have seen her with the nubbins. It was the softest and most maternal as I've seen her. She would have taken such good care of you."
She swallowed as she remembered how much like her father Ashley had been. "Your father asked me once if I ever wanted to have another child. It was after Ashley had died, and about the time I thought you were coming along." She whispered, tears pooling in her eyes. "And I didn't know what to say until now." She managed a small smile. "I am so grateful that you're coming into my life. You're coming into a fairly humble life given recent events, but like your sister before you, you have given my life a richer and fuller meaning than I could ever have anticipated before I became a mother."
She inhaled deeply as she sat down and pressed her other hand against her stomach. "You are growing rather quickly, little one." She announced somewhat affectionately before she sobered. "Almost...too quickly..."
Fear tugged at her heart. She bit her lip as she stood. Perhaps, she would use the equipment in her lab to double-check on the health of her child.
She walked out of the video conference room, and down the corridor. There were so many memories trapped here. Ashley had taken her first steps in the study. She'd met John in that same study over a hundred years earlier.
"Doc!" Henry cried, shaking her from her reverie.
She paused and turned to look behind her. "Henry." She said with a sober smile as he caught up to her. "What do you need?"
"I thought maybe you'd look at something I made, and tell me if you'd be willing to let the teams go out with it."
"Henry, you always invent wonderful aids for our work." She assured. "I'm sure it will be wonderful."
"Yeah, but can you still come see it?" He asked, hopefully.
She inhaled before she nodded. "I was heading to the lab as we speak."
"Sweet!"
She smiled softly as they walked to the elevator. "What is this device called, Henry?" She asked as she leaned forward and pressed the right button.
"It's...The Annihilator." He announced with great finesse.
She raised an eyebrow, somewhat amused. "The Annihilator?"
"Yeah." He said with a grin. "For those abnormals that don't want to come with us."
"I see." She said, nodding.
"Okay, fine, we can change the name." He said as they reached their stop. "It's just so much cooler than something as numerical as...AK47 or something like that."
"I'll keep that in mind," she chuckled as she followed him to his lab.
-
It was nearly two hours before she could make it back to the infirmary. She felt somewhat foolish as she wheeled out the ultrasound equipment. It would be particularly strange if someone came to the infirmary and found her running her own ultrasound.
Perhaps she needed to find a medical assistant.
She grimaced. Maybe she just needed to become a normal human again.
She shook her head. The health of her unborn child came before anyone's perceptions of her actions. And, if nothing else, her peace of mind was vital to that end.
She gently rolled the ultrasound equipment to the reclining table in the corner. She situated herself on the table before gently pulling up the hem of her shirt, and pushing down the elastic of her maternity slacks. Her belly was fully revealed, and she reached for the gel which she squirted onto her bare stomach.
She tensed slightly at the coldness of the gel. Even when she was performing the ultrasound on herself, the gel was cold. She made a mental note to either purchase or invent some sort of warmer that would keep the gel from being too cold for her live patients.
She reached over and turned on the monitor before she laid her head back on the pillow as she quickly spread the gel with the ultrasound wand. A rapid whooshing sound met her ear as she heard the heart beat of her baby, and she listened to it with the training of a physician. Something was wrong, she could tell instantly. There was some sort of echo that shouldn't be there in a healthy fetus.
When she'd covered enough of her stomach in the gel, she looked back at the screen with a fearful eye. "Please be all right," she whispered as she looked for signs of congenital heart defects.
She would have given everything to have John sit beside her and tell her everything would be all right. She swallowed down emotion as she looked away from the screen. That was never going to happen. He was dead.
She sighed as she tried to release the emotion from her thoughts. Her baby was possibly in danger, and as a physician and as a mother, she had a responsibility to protect it while it was inside her.
She looked back at the screen and began to move the wand around her belly slowly. Blurry shapes passed the screen, and she studied it closely. A leg. Another leg.
Her eyes widened as she noticed yet another pair of legs.
Tears stained her cheeks as she realized the reason for the echo. She was carrying twins. A boy and a girl from the look of it.
"We're having twins, John." She whispered. "Wherever you are...if you can still hear me...we're going to have twins."
The silence was all too deafening, and she leaned back on the examination table and cried.
