"I tried to call you last night. Where were you?" Logan accused as we headed down the elevator. I was five months pregnant and we were headed to a doctor Logan knew to find out the sex of the baby. I had never looked forward to anything as much as I was looking forward to this day, leave it Logan to ruin it.
"Hanging out at Crash." I answered, trying not to sigh too heavily.
"With Alec?" He tried to keep his tone neutral but I could hear the jealousy deep in his voice.
"Logan." I groaned, "Can we leave Alec out of this? This is a big day." I rubbed my now protruding belly. I was definitely and unmistakably pregnant now. I was glad that now people couldn't mistake me for just fat.
"I'm sorry, I just can't help it. I hate it that he is arrogant about you." I hated that it bothered him so much. I knew though, that once this virus was taken care of, Logan wouldn't find Alec as much of a threat and they would probably get along better.
"We've been over this before Logan. Alec is just a friend." It was the complete truth. We stopped our little missions the day I promised Logan we would. Alec was simply a friend that I enjoyed hanging out with. Little did Logan know that after our appointment, we would be meeting up with a doctor that Alec had found. A few weeks ago, Alec ran into a guy he had done a job with at Manticore and the two got talking and apparently he knew this renowned geneticist that was willing to meet Logan and me. Then I could explain it all to Logan and he could stop looking at me like I was betraying him. Then we can figure out how to make a family in this screwed up world.
The doctors office was posh, the way I expect almost every office was before the Pulse. Now this was a rare sight. This is the place were all the rich went, the ones that could afford more than just basic hospital care. I was once again glad that Logan was our baby's father. I wanted to give our Little One the best life he can possibly have in this world.
I sat in one of the chairs as Logan filled out the information on the clipboard. This wasn't the first time we had been here so we had settled into a rhythm. I smiled as Logan hesitantly wrote Ms. Max Guevera. Before I was pregnant, the thought of getting married seemed like a foreign idea. It wasn't something a revved up human would do. But for whatever reason, the maternal instinct in me liked the idea of being his wife. No matter what we had been through in the last two years, I still loved him. And hopefully soon I will be able to touch him.
"Ms. Guevera?" The nurse called and I tried not to laugh as Logan sighed.
The nurse led us into the room with the ultrasound machine, instructing me to lie down. Logan sat in the corner with the chair turned so he could see the screen. He looked jittery. Excited and tortured at the same time. It was the same face Logan had been using for the last 3 months. I just wanted to grab him and shake him and tell him to be happy, that hopefully this would soon all be over.
"Max, Logan." Doctor Baker greeted us as she entered the room with her clipboard. "How are you guys feeling? Nervous, excited?"
I rubbed my stomach, "I think a little bit of both."
She nodded, "Sounds just about right. Well let's not keep you waiting."
I was once again thankful that she didn't ask too many questions. Most people would be curious as to why a couple expecting a child wouldn't come near each other. As she prepped the machines, I looked over at Logan only to see him looking me in the eyes as well.
I smiled at him, hoping to show him how much I loved him. I knew that this had to be killing him, it was killing me. We seemed to be doing this backwards; well I had kinda done my whole life backwards. This isn't the way things were supposed to go. We were supposed to wake up that next morning in each other's arms and he would have made me some over the top breakfast. We would spend the whole day staring at each other and talking about the future. Maybe we would have even gone on some dates. Then one day he would have proposed with a ridiculously big ring that I could never accept and we would have a good old fashioned fancy wedding with all his aristocrat family and Original Cindy and Sketchy would terrify them all at the reception. Then would get pregnant. Not now, not while everything is so screwed up.
"Alright this is going to be a little cold." Doctor Baker warned me as she squirted that goo onto my swollen stomach. "Do you have a preference either way?"
"Either way, it's a miracle." Logan said with a smile.
The Doctor nodded and swirled that machine around my stomach trying to figure out the best position to see the gender of the baby. Our baby. She let out a happy sigh and turned to us. "Congratulations, it's a beautiful baby girl."
The tears we instantly streamed down my cheeks as I looked over to Logan who was also crying. I could see his fingers twitching and I knew that he was fighting the urge to run to me. I desperately wanted his arms around me, but I reminded myself that soon enough he should be able to.
The rest of the appointment went by in a flash. I was in shock, the most blissful shock of my life. We left with several copies of the ultrasound pictures. Logan was beaming from ear to ear as we walked out the doors.
"Logan," I called to him, stopping him from getting in his car. "I have a surprise for you, but you have to follow me."
He looked confused, "Oh I thought you might want to come back to my place and we could talk… about our baby girl."
I beamed, "Later, this is really important."
He reluctantly agreed and I lead him to what appeared to be an abandoned building. The doctor was on the third floor so I took the stairs.
"Max, why won't you tell me what is going on?"
"Just trust me, you'll like this." I reassured him.
I found the room the man had said he would be and walked in. It was just like I had expected, the room was full of high tech machines and gadgetry that any geneticist would need. I turned to look at Logan to see if he had put it all together, but he just looked confused.
A man in a white lab coat started to walk towards us, "You must be Cindy."
I looked pointed at Logan for him to go along with it, "That's me."
"Excellent," He smiled, eying my stomach, "Well let's see what we can do for you."
Logan looked at me, demanding an explanation. I smiled, "This is Doctor Amadeus, one of the leading geneticists out there right now who isn't completely corrupt."
Realization dawned on Logan's face, "I've heard of you. You've done some spectacular work."
"Well if I can figure out your little virus friend here, I would consider it my finest work. From what Cindy has told me, it's a sophisticated virus."
"You don't know that half of it." I groaned.
"How did you find him? Why didn't you tell me anything about this?" Logan asked.
"I wanted it to be a surprise, not hush." I scolded him with a wink.
"Wait," Amadeus looked between us, "Is this your child?" He asked Logan.
Logan beamed with fatherly pride, "Yes, that is my daughter in there."
Amadeus grunted, apparently deep in thought, and walked over to a piece of paper and began scribbling furiously, "How long after becoming pregnant were you made carrier of this virus?"
"It was injected into me a few days before we conceived." I answered, wondering where he was going with this.
"And the baby is in good health?" Amadeus asked, still writing.
"One of the healthiest babies our doctor has seen in a while, and she said that half an hour ago. She is a very prestigious doctor, so I take her word seriously." Logan answered.
"Interesting, very interesting." He mumbled.
"Would you mind keying us into what is so interesting?" I snapped.
He looked up at us as though he had forgotten that we were in the room, "Oh yes, yes. You see, when a woman is with child the process of creating that child changes parts of you. Higher hormones and many other things change during this period."
Logan and I looked at him confused; I had no idea how this had to do with anything.
The doctor groaned, "In all rights, your baby should never have been able to survive your womb. The virus should have attacked his half of the DNA that was forming your child. But it didn't. Something about combining your DNA on such a cellular level created a cure if you will."
I looked at him, "Are you sure? That seems a little fantastical."
"I'll have to do tests of course, but I just don't see how the child could survive it unless it had immunity to the virus or that somehow that baby being inside of you changed the virus, making it harmless."
I didn't know which one of his theories was more likely but at this point I didn't care. I wanted to be able to touch the man I loved. "Well whatever tests you need to do, let's do it."
"First things first, the money I was promised?" Amadeus said a little awkwardly, obviously this was his first time doing anything under the table.
I pulled an envelope out of my jacket and handed it to him. Logan muttered something about how I got that, but I ignored him for the moment, "Half now, half once you figure this out."
Amadeus nodded, "Fair enough. I'll need blood samples from both of you."
Once he had drawn a vial of each of our blood, we left the room to give him a few minutes to work it out. We had barely made it into the hall before Logan pounced with questions.
"How much money did you just give him?"
"Fifty grand." I said as non-chalanty as I could but when I saw his face, I knew I should explain, "It's the money Alec and I had raised that month, plus some money he owed me from a baseball incident. I know you said you wanted to pay for it all, but look at it this way, it's my money that I earned."
"I guess if it's your money, than that's fine. I just get so defensive about Alec." Logan admitted, "I was afraid that maybe you have changed your mind about me…"
I shook my head laughing, "I could only ever love you, Logan. The second we get this bitch figured out, I'm not letting you leave that bed for a week, pregnancy belly or not. You haven't seen what a Transgenic can really do in bed." I winked seductively at him as he let out a strangled breath. I grinned, knowing that my words had affected him.
It wasn't long before Amadeus called us back in. "Alright well, the virus is still active in your blood, but the good news is that it doesn't seem to be as fast acting as you told me it was in the beginning. That means that the baby is changing things, or that the strain is weakening as time continues. I would like to get a sample of the babies cord blood to do some more tests."
"Is that safe?" I clutched my stomach protectively.
"For a regular doctor no, but I have done it dozens of times." Amadeus said confidently.
"Whatever it takes." I said trying to match his confidence.
A/N: Will it work? Will Logan ever understand that Alec isn't a threat? What in the world are they going to name their beautiful baby girl? And most importantly, will I ever be able to sleep again without our lovebirds plaguing my mind? I'm guessing not… at least not anytime soon.