11.

Ben and I had decided to walk around with some food because it would be too late to eat in the cafeteria. He asked me if I was okay with Deni joining since they had both been there for the meeting only an hour earlier.

"I guess now's a good time as ever to correctly meet her," I sighed. He took my hand and we met up with her outside a shop on the surface.

"Hey, Deni!" He yelled as he waved his hand. We greeted her and began to walk.

"So, I never properly introduced you two. Deni, this is Estella. 'Stell, this is Deni."

"Uhm, Hi. Sorry about before. Eh, Mere is started to take after me a little too much. I would've apologized before but, yah."

"Nah, it's cool. Glad I'm kinda in the loop now though," She gave me a warm smile, "Now, about our earlier discussion. Since you are now here Estella maybe you can decide this for us."

"Oh god," Ben groaned, "You don't want to get 'Stell involved. Trust me."

"Involved in what?" I looked between the two.

"We have been arguing about what's better, Manga or Comics."

"And I'm sure Ben said Manga. He's more obsessed with it than I am."

"He did actually!" She laughed along with me, "So, what side are you on?"

"I love both, believe me, but I like watching the anime better than reading it - I guess not anymore since we don't have the Internet but still, comics will always be better. Super heroes top Black Butler and Fullmetal any day. I'm sure he used those two as references, he loves them."

"Black Butler more than Fullmetal," Ben corrected me, "And if I remember correctly you loved Fullmetal."

"I love the anime," I nodded, "And Hawkeye and Venom top Ed easily. Heck, Shazam tops them, and he's D.C."

"Oh god Shazam always made me confused. I like him better than Superman though."

"I liked Superman, but he was so overused. When you mention D.C. everyone says Batman and Superman. Why don't the Lanterns get any credit? Or Shazam? I would say the Flash but I never liked him," I laughed again and she nodded in agreement.

"You are awesome already," She held her fist out and I hit my knuckles with hers, "You obviously have better taste than Ben."

"Does not! Comics have nothing compared to Manga. Nothing at all. Your movies are over rated and priced terribly and there's so few of them and-"

I cut him off, "No, there are thousands of movies for comics. There were t.v. shows! When it came to seeing them on screen comics and manga are pretty even."

"I hate that you're right about that," He groaned, "But I will never believe comics are better."

"Then like I said, you have terrible taste," She laughed.

As we made our way back to the center of upper Charleston as I called it, Deni said goodnight and we were greeted with Matt running up to us out of breath.

"Anne. Baby. Now," Was all he got out before he ran after him back to the hospital. He had already gotten to Hal and Maggie.

When we arrived they told us that the baby actually wasn't coming yet, her water had just broke. Tom told Matt to go get the monopoly board and we spent a few hours playing before it got too late and we all went to sleep. They had brought in an extra couch because of the amount of people in her room and Ben and I stretched out across it.

When I woke it was to Ben reaching over and shoving me off of him in the process.

"Sorry!" he whispered after Tom got up to follow someone that had knocked on the door, "Go back to sleep. I can tell you haven't in a while."

I nodded and rolled back over to lay my head on his shoulder while he flipped through a book.

"How can you read right now?" I mumbled.

"Sleep Estella," He laughed.

"What're you reading?"

"Go to sleep!"

"But.. I'm awake now," I curled into him more and yawned, "I can't get back to sleep."

"You've always said that."

"Cause it's true!" I whispered. So instead I drew circles in his shirt and read bits and pieces of the book he had in his hands while everyone else slept.

As the day went on we stayed in the room until she began to actually have the baby. "You can stay if you wish," Tom had told me while the boys left. I stayed in the room for a good twenty seconds then stumbled out almost sick.

"Never again," I groaned as my head hit a wall, "Never again. Ever ever again."

The others laughed at me and I gave them death glares before Hal opened his mouth.

"That'll be you one day you know."

"No. I will not go through that disgusting procedure to give birth to a child. I hope this war is over by that time so I don't have to. Ugh it's gross," I rambled and stood next to the trash can just in case.

"You've seen skitters blown into pieces, put your hand in one even, stabbed at them until you were covered in blood, but you can't watch someone give birth?" Ben rubbed my back to help calm me down.

"You don't know the horrifying grossness that that is. It's not just blood. It's.. it's.. Oh god I'm gonna be sick," I held my stomach. I did not like this. At all.

"It's a girl!" We heard Lourdes say and suddenly I was okay again. We waited for them to clean her off and hold her so we could next.

"Awh, she's so cute," I smiled as I held her in my arms, "What're you going to name her?"

"Alexis," Anne breathed as she calmed herself down.

"Well hello Alexis," I grinned and rubbed my finger across her cheek, "You're so tiny!"

We passed her around again to whoever wanted to hold her and then gave Anne some time alone.

"I've gotta give a speech. I'll be back later," Tom kissed both his wife and their daughter's heads and took off after us.

"So? How'd it go?" Deni asked as she met us in the crowd outside.

"Stell about fainted and got sick from it. But it went smoothly," Ben laughed, Maggie joining in as we grouped together.

"Oh shut up," I hit him in the arm, "It's not my fault. They were just like 'you can stay if you'd like to watch it be born' and since I've put my hand in a skitter before I figured I could handle a baby being born but... no. No." I shuddered at the thought and took a deep breath to calm myself. Just then Tom began his speech.

After it ended and Ben and Deni went to the skitter camp to inform them of the recent death of the previous president I decided I'd visit Dr. Kadar. It'd been a while since I saw him last and I honestly missed his rambling. "Hey Dr. Kadar," I smiled to him as I entered the room, "I wanted to come hang out for a while."

"That's okay. Just make sure to not-"

"I know," I laughed to him, "You've told me a million times."

"Okay okay," He gave me a smile in return this time, "How are you? You look happier. Did you fix things with that boy?"

"Uh, yes. Kind of. I'm trying," I sighed defeated under the look he was giving me. Dr. Kadar knew everything. It was weird.

"Trying is better than doing nothing," He nodded in approval, "It's best to try and maybe fail than not do anything at all when you could succeed."

"You always have strange sayings for every situation," I noted as I spun in the chair I was sitting in, "It's like you're Yoda or something."

His smile grew when I said that, "I am not Yoda though I do appreciate the compliment."

"You're definitely Yoda."

"Whatever you say Estella."

After a while of silence and me spinning in the chair some more, and possibly almost falling out of it a few times, I questioned him.

"Why do I never see you leave this place? I was trying not to ask but I'm curious."

His hands stopped moving for a few seconds before they continued, "It's problematic."

"I'm going to take a guess then, is that okay?" My head tilted to the side.

"Sure."

"I think you don't want to leave it because you're a lot more like me than you let on. Maybe not as crazy in the way I am. But you're as afraid as I am. And this is your safe zone. You know everything here, it's all familiar, there's no surprises. So there's nothing to hurt you."

His eyes met mine then and he sighed, "You're also more intelligent than you let on my dear. Most people just think I'm crazy and I've been told to stay here. You jumped straight to 'you're the one not wanting to leave'. Which.. surprises me. People are quick to judge."

"You should know by now that I'm not quick to judge," He shorted and I groaned, "Okay maybe I am but not in that way. I'm quick to judge a specific situation, not a person."

"You know that sounds terribly inaccurate right?" He side glanced.

"It may sound inaccurate but it's true! Unless you give me a reason to judge you I will not. Like, an uber specific reason."

"Like the way you judged that girl?"

I stopped spinning and my features fell, "I had past experiences with Ben backing me up on that one. I've told you before."

"I know, I know," He patted my shoulder as he walked passed me, "I was just saying."

"Well if you must know I tried to get to know her and she's not as bad as I thought she was. I still don't like her crush on Ben though."

"Well I'm glad you gave her a chance. See, you're growing up after all."

"Don't remind me!" I fell back dramatically, "I don't want to be old."

"Hey now, I'm older than you. You're calling me old."

"But. But. You're still useful. I'm only useful with these spikes on my back and who knows how long it'll be until we're forced to remove them."

A moment of silence followed that before I spoke again. "Hey Dr. Kadar?"

"Yes?"

"Have you thought about what it'll do to our bodies if we keep them on for the rest of our lives? If we grow old with them in our backs?"

"I've not given it much thought no. Probably 98 percent of you get them taken out."

"I'm kinda worried about it, honestly."

"Why?"

"Because it's said our life expectancy is shortened. What if I only live a few more years. I don't want to die but I don't want to be useless again."

"Oh, Estella," He came over and kneeled in front of me, "You're brilliant. Even without the spikes in your spine you are far more useful than you believe."

I sighed, "Okay. Thank you. I just hope everyone else believes that when the time comes."

"If you speak, they'll believe."