A Surprise
Thirteen
By the time Ruki gets off the plane, Jen's already being briefed by their boss. Yamaki greets her with a smile and a nod as she approaches, wincing as she stretches her muscles. A sharp pain hits her, but it's probably just the baby kicking.
"Look who made it after all."
"You were hoping I'd go into labor before the plane left, weren't you?" Ruki accuses jokingly.
Yamaki shrugs. "I had my fingers crossed, but you - and that kid of yours - are obviously following no one's schedule but your own. Now," He turns to Jen. "I'll leave you guys to discuss this. You know where to find me when you've figured it out." And with that, he walks off.
"What's going on?" Ruki asks as Jen sets their bag down on the ground. Terriermon decides to sit down and lean against it.
"Yamaki wants me to go talk to James – that's the guy, no last name yet. He'll be with me but everyone else should be with Reika, in the control room."
"Let me guess," She says flatly. "Everyone else is me."
Jen sighs heavily. "Yeah, there's a battle lost before it's even fought."
The resignation in his voice, the way he doesn't even try to talk her out of it, stirs something within Ruki. She doesn't regret coming here, would make the same decision all over again even if it meant fighting Jen and Yamaki, but… now that's it's no longer one in the morning and she's had some time to sleep on it, Ruki wonders if maybe she's pushed things too far. There's nothing she can do about that now but she could give in, just this once.
"Maybe I…" She turns to Renamon, trailing off as she's reminded of her partner. Part of the reason why Ruki's here is because she doesn't want Renamon to be on her own.
"I will stay with you," The fox suggests, even though it pains her to back down from a possible battle. But her priority now is to make sure her Tamer is safe. If anything happens, she can always travel to Jen's side and leave Ruki stranded far away from the battle. "While Jen and Terriermon go with Yamaki."
There's a short period of silence while Ruki considers her options and weighs what she wants against what she should do, but it's enough for the slightest bit of hope to glimmer in Jen's eyes. That glimmer makes up her mind.
"No," She announces, feeling the burn of everyone's eyes on her. Jen hides his disappointment, Terriermon goes back to staring off into the distance and Renamon looks like she might try to contest the decision she thinks Ruki has made.
Ruki smiles, hoping that it looks more encouraging than it feels. "No, you go ahead with Jen and Terriermon. I'll just," She pauses when Jen lifts his eyes from the ground to look at her, "I'll just go work with Reika." To downplay this recent turn of events, to cover up the fact that it's a decision fueled by her guilt, she quickly adds: "I'm sure she could use my help."
Thankfully, Renamon is on the same page. "Yes," The fox says evenly as Jen continues to look at her with something akin to disbelief. "That would probably be for the best."
"Okay," Ruki nods, surveying their surroundings. She spots a cabin maybe twenty-five, thirty feet ahead. To the left of the cabin, but only fifteen or so feet away, stands a hastily set up collection of tents. That's probably where she'll find Reika. "So, I'll just go that way-"
"I'll walk you," Jen offers, picking up their bag. With no heavy luggage to lean against, a suddenly disorientated Terriermon falls to the ground before quickly jumping up to his feet, grumbling about the cold.
Renamon points out the cabin. "We will go ahead and join Yamaki," She says, picking Terriermon up. The smaller Digimon quickly wraps one ear around Renamon's arm, choosing to hitch a ride rather than walk on his own.
"Come on," Jen tells her, slipping his free hand into Ruki's. "Let's get you out of this cold."
"Jen," She speaks up when they're almost there, but finds she has no words to say when he turns to look at her. There's no point in apologizing if she doesn't regret anything, and he knows her well enough to know she'd make the same choice all over again. Anything else she says would probably just lead to a disagreement, which is the last thing she wants right now.
"What is it, Ruki?" They've reached the first tent, and up close it's easy to see that this is no ordinary camping tent. It almost looks bigger than Ruki's office. Jen stops by the entrance, waiting for her to say something.
"Just," Ruki says hesitantly. "Just be careful, okay?"
He smiles. "As long as you're safe here with Reika, I'll be a hundred percent focused on what's going on with this James guy, I promise."
Reika appears before she can think of something to say.
"I thought it might be you guys," The older woman smiles warmly. "Come on in, it's freezing outside."
"I'm just dropping Ruki off," Jen tells her. He moves forward and leans into the tent to stash their bag by the side of the entrance. "Yamaki's waiting for me."
"Oh, right." Reika nods. "Good luck figuring this guy out. He says he'll only speak to a Tamer and no one else."
"Let's hope he's not a fan," Jen jokes. He drops a kiss on Ruki's temple and turns around without another word, leaving the two women alone. Ruki's eyes track his movement as she fights the urge to go against her word and run after him. This man specifically set things up so that a Tamer would have to fly out and talk to him; why isn't anyone more concerned by this?
"If you're done staring at your husband's behind," Reika grins. "We should really get you inside now. I've got space heaters and hot chocolate."
She ignores her friend's teasing. "The Digimon army," Ruki turns to Reika once Jen is safely within the cabin. "Can they attack here?"
The older woman shakes her head and pulls Ruki in. "Jen's safe. This guy… I think he's terrified of his own creations. He built this entire force field and reinforced it to make sure none of them can get in."
"What do you mean?" Ruki lets herself be forced into a chair, observing the bank of monitors in front of her. Reika thrusts a warm mug into her hands before sitting down as well, tapping away at her keyboard until she's brought up an entirely different set of images. Four monitors show different angles of Jen, Yamaki, Terriermon and Renamon standing by a closed door. Eight more screens depict a living room, with the man Ruki assumes is their suspect handcuffed to a pillar near the fireplace. A chair has been dragged over for him to sit in.
"Look, think about it: we've been chasing this guy for how many months now?" Reika explains. "All of a sudden, we get a hit on him, we get his exact location and when we fly out, he's just sitting here, waiting to be taken into custody. He obviously meant for us to find him, and I think it's because he needs help."
They watch as Yamaki opens the door and Jen follows him in, leaving the Digimon to wait outside. Reika keys in a few commands so that eleven screens show the living room, and she sets up an audio connection. The twelfth screen remains focused on Renamon and Terriermon.
Ruki successfully fights against a shiver that threatens to travel down her spine. The idea of an army so terrifying, even their creator would turn against them and abandon his plans in favor of seeking help… it doesn't sit well with her. And if it turns out to be true, then it's up to them to clean up the mess.
"Reika," She speaks up quietly, trying to keep an ear trained on the questioning. Yamaki is just setting down some conditions though, questions that James will have to answer now that they've agreed to his demands. He speaks in a low voice, but Ruki strains her ears and picks up unfamiliar words. She understands them, but it's a second language to her. The suspect himself seems distracted, his eyes flitting between Yamaki and Jen. "Where is the army now?"
"I have no idea," Reika says, getting ready to launch into her theory. But she decides to keep quiet when Jen starts talking to their suspect. The entire conversation is going to be in English, it seems, and Ruki hopes hers isn't as rusty as she thinks it is. At least the past few years of meetings with various foreign organizations have allowed her and Jen to pick up the language with relative ease.
"Hello, James."
"It's you," The man – boy, actually; he looks just a bit younger than Jen – says in awe, watching as Jen takes a seat in an armchair opposite the fireplace. "It's really you. Where's Terriermon?"
"Nearby," Jen says vaguely, looking the slightest bit uncomfortable. Ruki's glad Yamaki is there, hidden away in a corner of the room. At least Jen isn't alone with this guy. "Look, James, I need to ask you some questions, okay?"
"Oh, right," James nods. "About the Digimon knock-offs I made."
Ruki scoffs; that sounds like a proper term for the opponents they've faced so far. Now that they know those weren't real Digimon, their slow reflexes and sluggish movements make more sense.
"Why would you call them that?"
"Well, they are." The boy sounds petulant. "I mean, I tried my best but you've seen them. They can't even speak, or think for themselves. It's like I built the most basic form of Digimon, but stripped them of the intelligence the originals had."
Jen treads carefully. "Why make them in the first place?"
"You're going to laugh." James mutters.
"I won't."
"Kid, you've built an army of hundreds," Ruki's words are lost on the suspect, who can't hear her anyway. "Trust me: no one's going to laugh at you."
"I wanted to have a Digimon partner, just like you guys." He grudgingly admits. "And I thought if I made more, then every kid could be a Tamer."
"Come on," Ruki says. "This kid's not even a villain; he's just a super fan with a dangerously smart brain."
"Hush," Reika tells her but even she looks relieved that they're not dealing with an army-wielding megalomaniac who dreams of taking over the world.
"Well, James," Jen says slowly, seemingly at a loss for words. "I'm sorry but that's not how it works. In fact, we don't know how it works or who picks the Tamers."
"I know that now," The boy sighs in disappointment. "Besides, it didn't exactly work out the way I planned."
Jen re-evaluates the situation based on this newly-gained information. "So I'm guessing you didn't send those Digimon to fight us?"
"I would never!" James insists. "I swear!"
"Calm down,"" Jen says, shooting the boy a wary look. Evil mastermind or not, this guy is still a suspect with control over a Digimon army. "I believe you."
"Good, because I need your help. I've lost all control of them."
On a long list of things Ruki was hoping not to hear, this is somewhere in the top five. Beside her, Reika sinks into her chair. "Oh, boy," She mutters.
"And guess who's going to have to round up the rogue soldiers?" Ruki shoots back.
Reika turns to her with an alarmed look. "Wait, you're not going to- Ruki, I don't care what this guy says, you can't possibly think of joining this fight."
"Who said anything about a fight?" Ruki huffs in irritation; great, now Reika's joined the let's all tell the pregnant lady what she can't do club.
"You can't seriously believe this will end in anything other than a fight."
"No, hear me out. You won't even have to fight!" James says, his pleading voice piping out of the speakers. Ruki and Reika had completely tuned out of the interrogation during their little conversation.
"Wait, what?" Reika questions, turning her focus back to the screen.
"All you need to do is get to the program, and delete it. I've even got a-" James fumbles around in his back pocket with his free hand and produces a flash drive. "A virus. I just need someone to get this to the main computer and plug it in, so that it'll corrupt my program and get rid of them all."
He holds the flash drive out to Jen, who hesitates for a short moment before he reaches out and takes it. "So why don't you just do it yourself?" Jen asks as Yamaki steps out of the shadows. He hands the drive to their boss. "Have someone check this out."
Ruki watches with a sinking feeling in her gut as Yamaki walks out of the room, leaving Jen alone with their suspect. Her only consolation is that Renamon and Terriermon are still standing guard by the door.
"See, that's the thing." James explains with a nervous laugh. "The program was never with me. I wrote a code so that it would Realize in the Digital World, and well, I can't exactly just take a plane there."
"Oh, crap." Reika sighs, turning to Ruki with a knowing look. "You're going, aren't you?"
"Shush," Ruki hisses, trying to focus on the conversation. She's avoiding the question as well.
After a few moments of muttering to himself, Jen starts drilling the boy. "So what's your plan? Where do I need to plug this in? And where's your army?"
"I wouldn't call them an army." James says, presumably trying to defend himself. Things will be so much worse if he's accused of building an army.
"Where," Jen says quietly, trying to maintain his composure, "are they?"
"In the Digital World," Ruki realizes out loud just seconds before James confirms her suspicion. Reika turns to her.
"How did you-"
"The program was never with him," Ruki repeats what James had said. "He sent the codes there, and that's where they Realized. It makes more sense; there's no way he would have been able to create Digimon in our world. Even we can't do that. Only Digimon who've grown strong in their world can survive the trip here."
"And that's why those Wild Ones kept showing up?" Reika asks, trying to match Ruki's theory to their past run-ins with James' creations. "Because they'd grown strong enough to cross over?"
"I mean, it makes sense." Ruki shrugs. "As far as Renamon can tell, that's why she Realized here. She needed a Tamer to partner with before she could cross over but the Wild Ones we fought in the past, they could appear on their own, sometimes without even making a conscious decision to Realize. As soon as they grew strong enough, their data broke through the barrier and they landed here."
Reika nods. "That does make sense. But what do we do now?"
Ruki points to the screen, indicating that they should turn their attention back to Jen and the boy, who's currently explaining his plan.
"As far as I can tell, my Digimon are mostly in the desert. The program is housed higher up, on a different level. I don't know where exactly but according to the data I translated, it's… some sort of house, I think. There were computers there even before I started sending my code; that's why the program chose that location."
"Shibumi's mansion," Jen mutters to himself, but it's loud enough for all of them to hear.
"That's quite likely." Yamaki says, causing both Ruki and Reika to jump.
"When did you get here?" Ruki asks with a glare, rubbing soothing circles over her stomach. The baby fell asleep a while ago and she'd rather things remain that way. Once again, something hits her out of nowhere, a pain that leaves her feeling winded. It's just that once though, and she writes it off as her daughter's reaction to her own panic. Thankfully, the baby seems to have developed a bit of Jen's personality recently and is now a heavy sleeper just like her father, so all is quiet once more after that sharp kick.
Yamaki has the grace to look sorry. "I just walked in. Did I wake the kid?"
"You're in luck," She tells Yamaki, shaking her head. When it becomes apparent that the baby has no intention of waking up, Ruki drops her hand back to her side. "I think it's so cramped in there that she's given up on doing anything, so now she's just sleeping to pass the time."
"Right," Yamaki nods distractedly, pulling a chair up to the monitors. He plugs the flash drive in and commandeers four screens for his own use, running various tests on them. Reika quickly re-adjusts the eight remaining screens so that six of them are focused on the living room while Renamon and Terriermon appear in the bottom two.
The women try to focus on Jen's conversation but thanks to the distraction provided by Yamaki's arrival, they've missed most of the plan and can only watch in confusion as Jen wraps things up. Two Hypnos agents appear in the same screens as Renamon and Terriermon, ready to take charge of James.
"Wait," James calls after Jen as he walks away. "Are there any other Tamers with you? I think I saw Ryo Akiyama earlier, but they say he's left."
"True," Yamaki comments. "He disappeared the second I told him his job here was done."
Jen considers his reply. He's always been a good judge of character, but sometimes he relies too heavily on that instinct and puts too much faith in people based on his first impressions of them. The boy seems harmless but Ruki would rather her presence remain a well-kept secret between the few of them.
"No," He says after a beat, quickly covering up his pause. "No, I'm on my own."
After that, Ruki tracks Jen's progress through the room until he disappears from the six screens and re-appears in the other two a moment after, joining Renamon and Terriermon as the Hypnos agents enter the living room. As soon as they leave the hall, Reika taps out a few commands so that the top six screens are once more filled with reports and tests on the force field while the other two jump from camera to camera, following James' journey out of the cabin all the way into what seems to be a helicopter.
"Where are they taking him?" She asks, turning to Reika. The older woman shrugs but Yamaki speaks up in her stead.
"Back to headquarters," Her boss says, still focused on the flash drive. "Once this is all over, we'll ask him more questions, get him to write down everything he did to cause this and then we'll see what local law enforcement says. We'll probably have to hand him back to one of our American partners, though. Hypnos doesn't have the jurisdiction to charge a man or keep him locked up."
"Just make sure he doesn't mess with the Digital World ever again," Ruki mutters as she considers stretching out her sore muscles. She's just about to get out of her chair when Jen appears in the doorway, flanked by their partners.
"The flash drive works," Yamaki informs him before Jen can say a word. "So now it's up to you to get to Shibumi's mansion and plug this thing in."
Jen acknowledges their boss with a nod before he turns to her, eyes wary. "There's no way I'm talking you out of this, is there?"
"Come on," Reika says quietly, getting out of her chair to loop an arm around Yamaki's and lead him away. "We're just going to check on everything else and see about taking the force field down." She tells the others, a poor excuse to give Jen and Ruki some privacy.
Renamon seems to be on the same page. "Terriermon and I will stand guard by the entrance." She offers, tugging the reluctant rabbit along as he whines about the cold.
"Digimon don't even feel the cold," Renamon points out, effectively shutting him up.
"What a drama queen," Ruki teases good-naturedly after they've left, to diffuse the tension between her and Jen. It doesn't work.
"Ruki," Jen chooses to occupy Reika's vacant seat, prompting Ruki to lower herself back into her chair. "You know you don't have to go."
"I didn't sit through a six-hour flight just to stay in this ice forest while you guys take out an army on your own," Ruki argues stubbornly, crossing her arms.
"You slept through a six-hour flight," Jen reminds her with a tired smile, trying to avoid an argument. "Look, we'll be fine. I'll focus better knowing that you're safe here. Besides," By the look on his face, Ruki can tell he thinks this is his trump card. "Who knows what traveling to the Digital World would do to the baby?"
"She'll be fine," Ruki waves off his concerns. "I had someone in your department look into it… just in case." She adds when Jen shoots her an unhappy look. "I thought it would be better to know, okay? And I was right." Maybe that was unnecessary but Ruki just couldn't resist throwing in that last sentence.
"Who?"
"Someone," She says vaguely, trying to keep Kent's name out of this. Jen isn't the kind to scream at someone or sabotage them, maybe go to the higher-ups and get a person into trouble. The worse Kent would suffer through for being her accomplice is probably a very long talk, but a disappointed lecture from your hero seems like the kind of thing the boy would get upset about. "Look," Ruki sighs. "Everything will be fine, okay? He even pulled some of your research on Renamon's shadow world and if the baby's been just fine traveling through that, then the Digital World should be a piece of cake. A walk in the park. A-"
It's a good thing Jen stops her then, because she's running out of clichéd things to use as reassurance. "Kent."
"As easy as- wait, what?"
Jen sighs; it's the perfect disappointed father sigh but she doesn't see the need to tell him that right now. "Kent asked about the shadow world a few days ago. He helped you, didn't he?"
Well, there's no denying it now. Besides, she tried to keep the boy's name out of it and that's what counts, right?
"Yes," Ruki confirms. "And I trust him."
"I trust him too," Jen admits almost grudgingly. He's watched Kent go from eager and enthusiastic intern to exceptionally talented researcher, and if his co-worker says it's safe for their baby to cross over to the Digital World, then Jen's run out of ammunition against Ruki.
"Last try," Jen smiles, falling back on humor to keep his mind from conjuring up worst-case scenarios. "If you stay here, you'll be my favorite person for ever and ever."
"Liar," Ruki scoffs with a teasing smile of her own. "The minute this baby comes out, she's bumping me down to the second-favorite spot."
"You're in entirely different categories. She's my favorite flesh-and-blood and you're my favorite-"
"If you say lover," Ruki warns him. "I will throw up all over your shoes."
He laughs. "I thought you got over the morning sickness six months ago."
"It feels like it was barely six weeks ago though, doesn't it?" She muses out loud, putting an end to their pointless banter.
"But at the same time, it also feels like it's been six years." Jen agrees, adding to the sentiment.
Ruki shudders at the thought. "Pregnant for six years," She mutters, horrified by the prospect. "I don't even want to imagine that."
Before Jen can fling something witty back, Yamaki steps into the tent.
"Sorry to interrupt," He announces. "But if you're done here, we really must hurry. Reika's detecting increasing levels of activity. If you guys don't go to the army, they'll come to us."
Renamon and Terriermon join them, picking up on the urgency in Yamaki's voice. "We can leave now." The fox suggests. "Either we arrive in the desert, as usual-"
"Not the desert," Jen tells her. "The entire army is there."
"Or Shibumi's mansion," Renamon says, finishing her sentence. Jen shoots her an apologetic look for interrupting.
"I say we go straight to the mansion." Ruki speaks up.
"Oh, no." Jen shakes his head at her. "There's nothing I can do to keep you from coming along but I'm keeping you far away from the action. If these guys have the same survival instinct that guides Digimon, then it's likely that they'll have some soldiers stationed in the mansion to protect the program."
"Come on," Ruki rolls her eyes. "You've seen these guys. They can barely figure out which direction to walk in, or shoot a fireball at. Do you really think they could have figured out their survival depends on the program? Even if they did, I don't think they'd do anything about it, let alone take up the task of guarding the mansion."
"You never know," Jen shrugs, and it's then that she sees through his act. He knows what Ruki's just said is true, has known all along. This is all an act to keep her away from the mansion, and Ruki is actually impressed. It's almost tricky, compared to Jen's usual straightforward ways.
"What do you suggest, then?" She asks casually. It's not her giving in, definitely not. She's just impressed by Jen putting in an effort to trick her into staying somewhere safe, and she wants to see how far he'll go with this.
"Well," He beams, thinking he's won already. "If it's alright by Renamon, I'd like for us to arrive in the forest." Jen turns to the fox, who nods.
"It can be arranged."
"Good. So we'll all arrive in the forest," He walks Ruki through the plan. "Renamon will transport us to Shibumi's mansion, and then she'll go straight back to Ruki. You can check on us after fifteen minutes," Jen tells Renamon. "We should be done by then, so we'll all travel back to the forest, pick up Ruki and we'll go home from there."
It's a good plan, Ruki grudgingly admits to herself. Out loud, she shrugs. "I'm guessing I don't get a vote in this?"
"This matter is time-sensitive," Yamaki speaks up, apparently done with his quiet observation. "So no, I'm not going to let you stand around and argue over this for another half an hour. I'm pulling the I'm your big boss card," He smirks, quoting Ruki from a week ago. She ignores the childish urge to stick her tongue out at her boss. "And I'm saying this is the plan. Whenever you're ready." He says to Jen.
"Well," Jen sighs, getting up to his feet. He holds a hand out and turns to Yamaki while Ruki accepts his help. "The sooner we get there, the better."
"You're leaving now, then?"
"Looks like it," Ruki mutters as Renamon places a hand on her shoulder and Terriermon climbs up his Tamer's back. Jen's hand is still securely wrapped around her own, linking all four of them.
"Here you go," Yamaki pulls the flash drive out and hands it to Jen, who chooses to hold on to it. Things have a strange habit of disappearing once you stick them into your pockets.
"See you at home." Jen smiles and with that, they're ripped from the Real World.
It takes a moment to get their bearings but Jen quickly shakes off the disorientation that plagues them all. It's been a long time since they last travelled to the Digital World, and his body is definitely feeling the effects of it. Ruki isn't doing so well either, he presumes, because her eyes are wide and all signs of color have been drained from her face.
"Alright," He says, sounding way more positive about this whole thing than he is. "Let's get this going, then." There isn't any time to look around and survey the forest, which he knows is Ruki's favorite part of this world. Taking advantage of the hand enclosed within his, he tugs at Ruki until she leans in, allowing him to press a quick kiss to her lips.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," Jen promises, letting go of her hand.
"Don't get lost," Ruki says casually, biting back words like be careful and please hurry and please, please don't let anything bad happen.
"Yeah, you take care of yourself too." He smiles, picking up on the unvoiced sentiment hidden within her eyes.
Jen disappears right after that, taking their partners with him. Ruki finds a good, thick tree and slowly lowers herself to the ground, leaning against the ancient wood. She barely notices when Renamon returns.
"Your water broke." Renamon states evenly, though it almost sounds like an accusation.
The carpet of dew-kissed grass hides all evidence and there are no visible stains on Ruki's black pants, so Renamon must have figured it out some other way. What Jen wrote off as disorientation, her partner recognized as panic.
"It happened the moment we arrived here." The fox continues, trying to make a point.
"Just a change in atmosphere or something," Ruki says dismissively, clutching her stomach. She wonders if the baby's developed toenails, because her last few kicks have been way sharper than the usual. In fact, they don't really feel like kicks. Still, she soldiers on. "It's fine. All the books say your water breaks a day or two before you're actually in labor, and it takes even longer for first-time moms. We're okay."
"Ruki," Her partner sighs, stumped by how stubborn and oblivious her Tamer can be sometimes. "You've been having contractions all day."
"What?"
"I have felt them through our telepathic connection, so there is no point in you trying to deny it. The pain matches the descriptions I've come across of contractions, and-"
"No, Renamon, you don't understand." Ruki tells her, the smallest tendril of panic curling around her heart. "I didn't know those were contractions!"
Renamon stares at her in disbelief. "Surely you-"
"They're like an hour apart so no, I didn't actually realize what was going on!" Hysteria seeps into her voice. Ruki tries to keep calm, to remember the books Jen made her read. A paragraph saying you have twenty-hour hours until labor after your water breaks doesn't hold much weight compared to the sudden realization that those kicks weren't kicks after all, and she's been having contractions since they boarded the flight to Alaska.
"Ruki," Her partner tries again, starting to pace up and down. It's the first time she's ever seen Renamon do such a thing. "What did you think those were?"
"I don't know!" She raises her voice even as she tries to recall those stupid breathing techniques or whatever the books had talked about. "I thought the baby grew toenails and was stabbing me from the inside!"
Now that Ruki's said it out loud, she can see why Renamon's looking at her as if she's suddenly grown three heads.
The fox keeps pacing as Ruki gives up on following the book and just settles for deep breaths. She doesn't need a special breathing technique to get through labor, she just needs something to keep her calm as she deals with the fact that she might be in labor.
"I am nervous." Renamon announces after a few moments of silence.
"Well said, Captain Obvious." Her Tamer glares up at her.
Renamon forcibly stops herself from repeating her own journey up and down the same path of grass. "I am going to get Jen now," She decides without consulting Ruki. "And we are going straight to your doctor."
"What? No!" Ruki cries in protest, trying to get up to her feet. She draws herself up, only to lean against the tree for support. "Just give them a few more minutes, Renamon. Jen's almost done, I'm sure."
"You should have told him the minute your water broke," Renamon's words drip with disapproval.
"So that we could rush back to our world and Jen could deal with the invading army while I'm giving birth to our kid? No way." A hand flies to her stomach, and Ruki finds it laughable that she ever mistook a contraction for a kick. Wait. It hasn't been an hour since the last one, has it?
"Look," She says to Renamon, ignoring the obvious concern written across the fox's features. The Digimon's noticed it too, then. Her contractions are getting closer. "You were there, you heard Yamaki. If we don't deal with these guys now, they'll cross over. And when that happens, Jen will be on the frontlines. I refuse to tell my daughter that her father missed her birth because he was busy fighting knock-off Digimon wannabes."
All is quiet for two minutes, and Ruki sighs in relief, thinking that Renamon has accepted her reasoning.
"It's been fifteen minutes," The fox says suddenly. "I will go and retrieve them now; stay here." With those words, she's gone.
Ruki slides back down to the ground. "Where else would the pregnant woman waddle off to?" She mutters, growing more worried with each passing second she spends alone. Renamon appears just as she's about to call for her, but Ruki has no time to express her concern.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Jen rages, rushing up to her.
"Can we please do this later?" She holds out both hands, letting him pull her up. "Preferably in a hospital room with lots of doctors and nurses who won't let anything bad happen."
"Oh, now she wants to go to the hospital." He mutters, wrapping an arm around Ruki's waist as Renamon prepares to transport them. She leans into Jen and lets him hold her up, keeping her eyes closed until her ears pick up on the usual chaos of an ER.
Everything is eerily silent for maybe two seconds as people notice that a human couple and two Digimon have just appeared out of thin air, but things quickly pick up as people choose to ignore that in favor of more pressing matters. It's a testament to how much people just don't give a crap when they've got patients bleeding out on a table.
"I can't believe you!" Jen says, setting Ruki down in a chair. He runs a hand through his hair, nearly pulling out a clump as he paces back and forth in front of her chair. "You've been in labor all day! All day, Ruki. When were you going to tell me?"
Ruki shoots a dirty look at Renamon, who quickly turns around and heads off to find a nurse or someone to help them. She turns back to Jen and one hand shoots out to grab his, bringing him to a stop. "I didn't even know, okay?" He shoots her a look that stinks of skepticism and disbelief. "I really didn't! The contractions were like, an hour apart. And I thought my water had to break first."
"And-" Here's the part she hasn't said out loud, hasn't allowed herself to dwell on. "She's a week early, Jen. What if... why? She shouldn't be here yet." What if something's wrong, she'd almost said but Ruki can't bring herself to ask. This is all her fault. The contractions started during the flight, a flight even Terriermon knew she shouldn't have been on.
Jen sighs and forces himself to sit down next to Ruki and reach for her hand. "Everything is going to be alright, Ruki." He assures her, hoping to draw some comfort from his own words. "It's normal for the first baby to be early."
"Really?"
He has no idea, actually, but Jen knows that a baby is considered full term as soon as they hit thirty-seven weeks. Their daughter, if she's born today, will only be a week early. Surely everything will be just fine. Ruki leans her head on his shoulder while he keeps telling himself that everything will be okay.
"Can you please save the shouting for later?" Ruki sighs, her words barely a whisper. She sounds exhausted already and Jen has no idea how she's going to make it through the next few hours. Horror stories of thirty-six hour labors lurk in the back of his mind. "Because I'm about to push a baby out and I'm nowhere near ready for this, Jen, so I need you to be your usual self right now, not frustrated-slash-disappointed-slash-angry husband."
It hits him then that this is happening, their baby is on the way. And just like Ruki, he's completely unprepared. The only way for them to get through this is to stand together, for now. They can argue about her recklessness later. "Okay," Jen says, kissing her temple. "We'll fight later."
Ruki laughs just as a shadow falls upon them, and they look up to find Renamon, along with a nurse and a wheelchair.
"Come," Renamon says simply, and Jen helps her into the wheelchair.
"Hello, Mrs. Lee," The nurse says, and she sounds so chipper Ruki can already feel a headache coming on. "I've called your doctor and she'll be here any minute now. In the meantime, we'll wheel you up to your room and let you get some rest until it's time."
"Trust me," She smiles when Ruki huffs, unable to fathom the idea of getting any rest while she waits for her kid to come out. "You'll need all the rest you can get. After all, you're having a baby today!"
.
.
.
.
.
Just to prove the nurse wrong, Ruki has the baby thirteen minutes after midnight, on the eighth of November.
She's perfect, the doctors assure her, but they take her daughter away anyway and say they'll need to run some tests, standard procedure, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Ruki tells a conflicted Jen to follow their daughter while the nurses clean her up as much as they can, short of dunking her into a bathtub to wash off all of the previous day's dirt, sweat and ugh, blood. A bath actually sounds good right now, but not as good as the idea of some rest in a proper bed after seven hours of labor.
A nurse, thankfully not the bubbly one from earlier, guides Ruki back to her room and helps her settle in. Jen shows up just a few minutes later, with the baby in tow. He carefully picks her up from the little crib he'd wheeled her around in, with a nurse's supervision, and carries her to Ruki.
The last baby Ruki carried was Jen's seven-month-old nephew, and the little tyke had started screaming the second he'd landed in her arms and wouldn't shut up until she passed him to someone else.
As Jen slowly transfers the baby into her arms, she worries that her daughter might start screaming the second she leaves her father's arms. Ruki fears she might start crying as soon as her mother holds her, and maybe she won't stop. Maybe nine months of pregnancy and half of her DNA isn't enough, maybe the baby will hate her just like Jaarin's son and then what?
"She's perfectly healthy," Jen whispers into her ear as Ruki waits with baited breath to see how their daughter reacts. She squirms around a bit, opens her eyes for less than five seconds and promptly falls back to sleep.
Ruki laughs, relief so sudden and great that it bubbles up from her throat and stains her vision with tears. "She looks nothing like me," She says, unwilling to take her eyes off her daughter's sleeping form for even two seconds to turn to Jen. Carefully adjusting the baby so that she'll be balanced in one hand, Ruki lifts her free hand to run hesitant fingers through her daughter's surprisingly full head of fine hair.
"She looks nothing like me," Ruki laughs again, finally turning to Jen. "She's got your eyes and her hair… it's blonde." He looks just as amused as her and some silly part of her that actually thought this would matter to Jen is glad that he's not disappointed.
"Well, she's got your nose." Jen points out, one finger hovering above the baby's nose for the briefest of moments. "And a lot of redheads are born with blonde hair, I've just found out."
"Let me guess – Renamon Googled it?"
"Terriermon did, actually. But Renamon clicked on all the articles and it checks out. So expect some competition in the redhead department soon." He smiles teasingly, remembering at the very last second not to bump Ruki's shoulder with his own. The last thing he wants is to jostle their precious cargo and wake her up, but a nurse approaches and tells them it's exactly what they have to do. Apparently it's a good time to start breastfeeding, and the nurse needs a few attempts before she can teach Ruki how to do it just right because the new mother is laughing too hard at how awkward Jen seems to be.
After they go through the motions of burping the baby and checking her to see if she needs anything changed, the nurse consents to wheeling in her bed so that she can sleep in the same room as Ruki. It's almost four by then, and the baby technically sleeps through the night – she wakes at seven, along with the sun.
Her parents, on the other hand, find sleep to be elusive. Ruki should be exhausted and Jen hasn't slept in who knows how long, but after the nurse leaves, he climbs into bed with her and they just stare at their sleeping daughter.
"Holy crap," Ruki murmurs after an hour of silence. "How in the world did I push her out?"
Jen laughs, and the force of it shakes the tiny hospital bed. She elbows him in the gut before he can wake the baby. "At times, Ruki," He says, lips brushing against the shell of her ear. It's comforting, the way they have to squeeze together to fit in this bed. It reminds Ruki of days spent hiding out in Jen's dorm room, only now they've got a baby right next to their bed. "I wonder how you even got through this entire pregnancy, let alone gave birth to her."
She sighs. "Are we going to fight about how reckless I was now?"
"I don't want to fight," Jen says quietly, one arm reaching around her. Out of habit, his hand comes to rest on her stomach. It's still bloated enough that she thinks a baby should be in there, that she panics every time she realizes she's alone in her own skin.
"Me neither."
"Just," He tries to get his message across. "Just never do stuff like that again, okay? Especially the bit where you didn't tell me your water broke. Promise me."
Ruki thinks about it for a moment. "I promise I'll never do anything that's obviously a bad idea from now on."
"And when you say a bad idea," Jen sighs, knowing just where this is going. "Do you mean a bad idea in general, or a bad idea to you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," She shrugs, and the movement nearly presses the edge of her shoulder against his neck.
"Oh, I know you and your Sidhe deals." He scoffs. "You're just like the Fae – you can't lie, so you make sure your promises are worded to suit you."
"It sounds like someone's been spending a bit too much time around Yamaki and his mythology books." Ruki teases, conveniently ignoring the point he was trying to make. She knows what Jen wants, and it's true that she's twisted the promise. But the fact is that she can't make him the promise he wants. Even now, knowing how things all ended up… if she had to repeat the last twenty-four hours all over again, she would. And she'd make the same choices, all of it leading up to her water breaking in the Digital World. The alternative, the idea of letting Jen walk into unknown dangers on his own – that's not something she's okay with.
Jen sighs heavily but says nothing else, and they continue to watch the rise and fall of their little daughter's chest. That's not the last of their discussion, Ruki knows, and there's probably never going to be an end to it. But that's a fight for another time and another place, not tonight in the presence of their newborn baby.
They remain that way until sunrise, when Jen climbs out of bed and sits in the armchair he pulled up to Ruki's side. The nurses aren't fooled but other than a few knowing looks, no one makes any references to the no sleep-overs rule. They get their first visitors right after morning rounds, when Renamon and Terriermon show up with a bag of necessities to last Ruki for the next day.
"I hope you've decided on a name," Renamon says, peering at the little bundle in her Tamer's arms. Terriermon, on the other hand, is literally standing on top of the mattress, stretching to get a close-up look at the baby.
Jen laughs. "It took us a while and we made a decision pretty last-minute, but yes, she has a name."
"Well?" Terriermon demands, turning to Jen. "Let's hear it, then. It's so weird to keep calling her little baby."
"Rika." Ruki announces softly, pushing stray corners of the blanket away from her daughter's face. "We were seriously considering Ramika, but three-word first names are uncommon in Chinese, so we went with Rika."
"You know we could always go with Ramika if you want," Jen says, an echo of words he's said no less than five times. "I mean, I barely ever use my Chinese name. I doubt it'll matter to her."
"It's alright, Jen," Ruki assures him, for the fifth time. "Besides, she already knows her name. Don't you, Rika?" She places her hand near the baby's and watches as Rika's little fist reaches up and curls around her finger in response.
"According to studies, babies are mentally incapable of recognizing words and their own names up until the age of-"
Terriermon clambers over to the side of the bed and quickly puts an end to that. "Maybe save your fun facts for later, Renamon."
"You are right," Renamon says after a brief pause. "That was unnecessary."
Standing at the foot of the bed, both Digimon watch as their Tamers bond with the baby. All is quiet now, but Renamon can picture this scene a few months from now, and she can hear the baby's laugh when her little hand reaches up to capture her mother's finger. A few months after that and the child will be crawling around. And then, she'll start walking. Years will pass, each of them bringing significant milestones. Renamon can see them all now, and she intends to see them in person, as well. Terriermon ambles over to the baby and curls one ear around her arm.
"Welcome to the family, Rika."
First of all – the name, I know. The thing is, Rika wasn't even on my list of possible names. Not only did it fail to make the list, it honestly never even occurred to me! I had two names picked out and was ready to just choose one, but neither of them sounded or felt right. To make myself laugh, I thought 'hey, what about Ruki's American-dub name?' And then I figured well, why not? This can be our little inside joke, yes?
I'm sorry this is a day late. I struggled with this last chapter and the sudden onset of a killer migraine really didn't help. Brilliant timing, headache.
Fear not, the long and rambling thank-you note is being saved for the epilogue, so you've been spared an essay disguised as an author's note. All that's left to say right now is HEY! Send in prompts for the outtakes if there's anything you want to see!
E Salvatore,
December 2014.