Just Wanted You to Know

Betaread by StopTalkingAtMe


Chapter Seven

Yvonne shifted in her seat and moved Kristine and Arnold's attention to her. It had been a long day and they'd answered many questions about the Red Dwarf that were starting to be mighty repetitive.

"Are you alright Yvonne?" Arnold asked.

Yvonne and Kristine were both still getting used to this side of Arnold. Learning that he really did care about people other than himself. They'd just never seen it before since he didn't have anyone on the ship that he'd cared about before. In the past few months the two woman watching Arnold go into overdrive helping Yvonne prepare for the baby after the news had sunk in he was going to be a father and the past three weeks he'd been jumping at everything Yvonne did to help out, worried that it would cause her to go into labour. Arnold was driving everyone mad in a different way than normal. No one from the Red Dwarf would believe that the person in front of them was the same man from the ship.

"Like a whale, I just can't get comfortable." Yvonne shifted in her seat. "I want this baby out of me."

Kristine frowned noticing that Yvonne was more restless today then most days. She'd even been scolded in the court room for how restless she was. "You are past your due date, maybe we should head to the hospital and check your progress" she said, although she usually tried not to bring Yvonne's due date up since the last time she did Arnold had a panic attack.

John and his unit had been gone for weeks now leaving the three survivors in limbo. Arnold had moved into the same hotel room at the girls since the JMC refused to pay for another room and he wanted to be close to Yvonne to help with the baby.

The three of them had seen other crew members from recent years come in and give statements on the working conditions and the corruption on board the Red Dwarf as well as character statements about Arnold, Kristine and Yvonne. They were the only three that needed to stay for the whole enquiry, since they had the most questions to answer and were all current members of the crew.

"I don't need a hospital. I've had enough of doctors and nurses poking me. Only a few weeks before I left the ship, you could only just tell I was pregnant. Now look at me." Yvonne rubbed her stomach where the baby was currently moving. "I'd thought this baby would be out of me by now. Rimmer, do you know if your mother went past her due date with you?"

"I was born premature," Rimmer replied. "Father liked to mention how much it cost to keep me alive in my first few months of life."

"I was late so bub must get this from my side of the family," Yvonne told them. "Think I'll give birth during one of the interviews?"

Rimmer looked thoughtful before asking, "Are you sure you're not in labour? You've been more fidgety the past few days and I've seen you cleaning everything. That's called nesting; I read it in a few of the books."

"I think I'd know." Yvonne laughed it off. "I mean labour is meant to be really painful. I've had those fake contractions for months now. Those are annoying. I've had so many false alarms."

"Maybe you should go get them checked out again," Arnold suggested.

"Rimmer you're such a worrywart." Kristine rolled her eyes. "Yvonne will be fine. She will know when she is in labour and we will head to the hospital when it's time. The baby is going to be healthy and you are both going to be wonderful parents."

"You're the one who suggested the hospital first." Arnold reminded.

"It will probably spend the rest of its life with us while we keep getting questioned about the accident. I just want a fresh start, forget all about the Red Dwarf and do something else. It's hard to do that when we have to remain close by since they want to constantly talk to us. What happens if they do decide that I'm at fault?"

"I'm sure they are past that now considering they are investigating the corruption of the officers," Kristine said. "You don't have anything to worry about anymore. Yvonne and I are the ones that have to worry now since we are both officers."

- Red Dwarf -

It was the middle of the night when Yvonne finally went into labour. It didn't take long to wake Kristine and Arnold up, they'd both been prepared for exactly this happening for the last month.

Arnold started rambling about everything they needed to do. "We need a hospital, an ambulance! Hot water!"

"Just calm down, that is what you need to do," Kristine instructed. Once Arnold was calm and not on the verge of fainting or having an anxiety attack she gave him the next lot of instructions. "Go get dressed and then get her bag and let's go."

Arnold nodded, rushing into the bathroom to get changed and grabbing the bag which had been packed and ready for over a month. "What happens if we're called into an enquiry now or they won't let us leave?" Arnold asked, close to hyperventilating. He followed Kristine and helped Yvonne outside, making sure he had the bag with him.

"For starters it's the middle of the night. Tomorrow we tell them we can't go. It's as simple as that." Kristine had to reassure Rimmer, explaining why they couldn't press charges for failing to come in.

- Red Dwarf -

The baby didn't arrive right away. Yvonne had a long and slow and painful delivery. Arnold stayed by her side the whole time, while Kristine came and went as needed, usually spending a little bit of time trying to get Arnold to calm down whenever he got himself too worked up.

They did get called in for questions more than once, but only Kristine turned up to answer the enquiry's questions. Yvonne could not leave and Arnold was not going to miss the birth of his child for anything. Kristine didn't stay away long, wanting to support the two people who had become her closest friends over the past couple of months.

"Congratulations, you have a boy," the doctor told them when the screaming baby was finally delivered.

"He's healthy? Nothing wrong with him at all?" Arnold excitedly asked, looking at his newborn son, not believing that the infant was finally here, that this wasn't just a dream.

"Yes, Mr MrGruder, your son is healthy and so is your wife," the doctor said, handing over the baby. Arnold and Yvonne both didn't correct the man that he wasn't a McGruder or Yvonne's husband, fiancé or even boyfriend.

"We have a son." Arnold smiled sitting with Yvonne so they could both look at their baby. "I'm a father, I never thought that would happen. He's perfect, Yvonne. Look at those curls."

"He's our Michael." Yvonne smiled as she held her screaming son. She passed him to the nurse to cleaned him up. Arnold didn't care that his son was covered in gunk; he thought the baby was perfect.

- Red Dwarf -

"Arnie J, that kid of yours born yet?" John asked when he answered the video call. He'd been waiting for the call to confirm that he was an uncle for over two weeks now. So far every call had been about how the baby hadn't been born here yet and an update on the enquiry.

Arnold grinned on the other end, looking exhausted but pleased with himself. "A baby boy. Michael Raymond McGruder," his brother replied. The camera shifted to show the healthy baby boy in his mother's arms. John could understand why his brother had not given his son the Rimmer family name; he didn't want his own children to have the family name either if he could avoid it. Maybe if he ever got married he'd take his partner's last name too.

"Congratulations, Arnold, Yvonne. Michael's perfect. Glad that he's finally here. Now we just need this case behind you both so you can take him home."

"Thank you," Yvonne replied. She was tired but beaming

"They're not even giving Yvonne a chance to recover," his brother complained. "They want the three of us back there this afternoon. Said they'd given us plenty of time while Yvonne was in labour. They're all a bunch of smeg-headed twats."

John sighed. He knew what they were like. If the Space Corps and Jupiter Mining Corporation could have their way they'd have continued the enquiry in the labour ward. They didn't even really need the three of them any longer, they were just dragging things now.

"Try to get a bit of rest before they call you in. And enjoy that baby, they grow up fast. Before you know it they are thirty-two," John told them, looking at Arnold. He felt old thinking about his kid brother's age. He'd been a teenager when his parents had Arnold. Here his little brother was in his early thirties.

- Red Dwarf -

Being new parents and living out of a hotel room provided by the JMC was not ideal. They had to make do since the JMC would not pay for anything else and they weren't willing to rent a house or flat when they didn't know how long they'd be on the large moon.

The JMC had ordered a DNA test of the baby after he'd been born. They wanted proof that Arnold wasn't covering up for someone else on the ship. Their relationship wasn't one that needed approval since they worked with different streams and would not affect each other's promotion prospects with a relationship, but if Yvonne had been having a relationship with a junior or senior member of her own crew or steam that would have caused issues. Arnold had been so relieved when it came back that Michael was his. He didn't have any doubt that Michael was his son until the paternity test was ordered.

They had to answer questions about every relationship they'd had while working on the ship. Arnold's was easy: he'd has a one night stand with Yvonne and dated two other women who no longer worked for the JMC and never had sexual relations with the other woman. His relationships had all been documented in his personnel file. One thing the JMC liked about Arnold was the fact that he had recorded everything in his own personal diary as well as reporting everything that he thought was inappropriate or outside of the regulations. He'd even reported his one night stand with Yvonne. They did have a lot to go through with all the complaints that he'd made about Dave Lister over the most recent years and the previous members of Z crew. Some of the things he'd reported were ridiculous.

"Why have you reported even small infractions?" One of the lawyers asked him. Arnold had lost track of who everyone was and who was who. They'd changed so much over the past couple of months.

"Well, I started reporting only the bigger issues," Arnold sighed, they'd already covered this. "I found that they were not being taken seriously if I had not reported the smaller incidences that happened leading up to the bigger one. It just got to the point that I reported everything that was out of line, big or small because nothing was being taken seriously."

- Red Dwarf -

The trial was finally over. Everyone who'd been called in from the Red Dwarf had been found to not be the cause of the accident that had ended the lives of the crew. Kristine, Yvonne and Arnold had all received payouts from the Jupiter Mining Corporation as well as the families of the crew who'd been found innocent of having anything to do with the corruption.

"What are we going to do now?" Arnold asked the two woman.

"I've been offered a job with one of the science departments within the JMC," Kristine informed her friends. "I'm going to take it."

"I was offered work as well," Yvonne said. "I don't think I'm going to take the position. I'm going to go on the rest of my maternity leave and decide what I'm going to do from there, whether that is being a stay at home mother or going back to work elsewhere. Maybe I'll return to the JMC in another position."

"What are you going to do?" Kristine asked Arnold.

"I don't know. I wasn't offered a job for obvious reasons." Arnold sighed. "I've been told to get my mental health in order first. I just don't know that I'm good at anything else. Working on the Red Dwarf has been the only thing I know, I have nothing to fall back on. I didn't have a backup plan. I was horrible at my job so I'm not even going to be able to get work doing what I was already doing elsewhere."

"Well, for now, you can come back with me and help out with Michael," Yvonne offered. "It's not like we have to work, look at how much money we got from the payout. We're rich. Michael would miss you if you didn't come."

"Is that really considered rich?" Arnold asked. "On Io, that's pocket change. I have more than that in my savings from when I divorced my parents. I still receive monthly payments from them and don't touch that money."

"Are you serious?" Kristine asked. "My family is very well off and not even I have as much money as we have all received from the payout."

"I've always been very frugal with my money. My only large purchase has been my car. I like my cars, never got to enjoy them being in space. I do want to continue being involved in Michael's life, but are you sure I won't be imposing? I don't think your father likes me very much."

"Daddy sees you as weak, and he doesn't like weak men. Don't worry about him, we'll get our own house. Money is not an issue at the moment and if I do go back to work and you don't you can watch Michael for me. Come back to Earth with me. Kris, you can come as well. I don't think I can manage without you and Michael will miss his aunt Krissy," Yvonne requested.

"Sure, I need a holiday after everything we've been through. I already told the JMC that I needed to recover from the enquiry before I started working." Kristine agreed. "We owe you our life, Arnold, both of us. You gave me a legitimate excuse to leave the ship and if Yvonne wasn't pregnant with your child she would also be dead right now."

"Kristine, my father and Janine are the ones that we both need to thank. If Father hadn't died and if Janine hadn't called me to invite me to the funeral we wouldn't be here." Arnold reminded Kristine what started everything.

- Red Dwarf -

John was glad that Arnold's trial was finally over. He'd finally be able to discover who he really was and leave the past behind him. He didn't need to live in their parent's shadow or stay in a stagnant job because it was all he knew.

"When will Arnold be coming home?" His mother asked. "Isn't his trial over now?"

"Yes, it's over and has been for three weeks. Arnold won't be coming back to Io, he's moved to Earth."

"What is he going to do with himself?" Mother asked, assuming the worst from her youngest. "You know how hopeless he is. Maybe we'll be able to find a nice girl for him to marry. Someone who will take him despite all his problems and support him financially."

"He doesn't need financial support, Mother. He received a payout from the JMC. If he's sensible with his money he will be fine for the rest of his life whether he works or not and money is one thing Arnold has always been sensible with," John reminded his mother. Arnold and Frank were the only two that were sensible with money.

"Getting married is not as wonderful as everyone makes it out to be," Howard commented. His wife Karen had left him in the past few months, unable to get past the skeletons in the Rimmer family closet which had spilt out into the open the day Arnold had turned up for their father's funeral. He had limited access to his daughter as a result of the divorce. "If Arnold's smart he'll never have children."

"I hope that Arnold never does has children. There is something wrong with that boy and I don't want another generation having whatever problems he has," their mother complained.

"Mother, Arnold has a son named Michael," Frank informed their mother.

John looked at his brother surprised. "I didn't know you knew about Michael."

"I'm high enough up the ranks to hear what was going on with that enquiry. There was a betting pool for when the kid would be born and what the paternity results would be. Janine's been giving him parenting advice. We haven't seen the kid yet, but he looks just like Arnold from his photos," Frank said, just as surprised that John knew. "I didn't know that you knew."

"I was a first responder so I was in those very early trails when Yvonne's pregnancy was still new to Arnold. I've seen him a few times when I've been called back for further information. Going to be a bit harder with them on Earth to see them. Arnold called me when Michael was born, you should have seen how proud Arnold was. First time I've ever thought of him as an adult and not a kid."

Mother complained. "Why didn't he tell me? I'm his mother. I have a right to know that I have another grandchild. Please tell me he did the right thing and married the girl."

"They're not together as a couple, Mother," John told her, a smirk on his face because he knew his mother's interfering wouldn't change anything. "They're not going to get married to one another just because they have a son together. Maybe he didn't tell you because he knew you'd demand that he married her."

"Not to mention you haven't told him anything over the past few years. You didn't even tell him that Father was dead," Frank added.

"I did so," Mother insisted.

Howard suggested, "Maybe he sent you a letter to let you know that you're a grandmother."