Music Lover's Alert: "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" by The Magnetic Fields and "Swords & Knives" by Tears for Fears. I realize that "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" is really a gay song, but I still love it!
Warning: Labor, brief um... If Grapes of Wrath bothered you... maybe not the chapter you want to be reading.
Chapter 36 The End of the Beginning
Jessica, Sean, Joan, Katie, Tam, and Kris stood around a giant circular object covered in a king-sized sheet in the middle of one of the rooms in the abandoned military facility that had been converted into Rakitan Industries. Joan was so pregnant that it was difficult for her to walk, and she held her stomach as she stood with her friends. Jessica held a corner of the sheet that covered the object as she declared proudly, "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the great meeting table."
Jessica pulled the sheet away to reveal a massive oak table that she had crafted herself. Evenly spaced around the table were twenty four small, recessed circles that indicated places for a person to sit. Five of the circles were filled with heavy enameled medallions while the others were left empty. One medallion featured a computer and a book with several lines of binary code in the background. Another medallion featured a paintbrush with a palette of colors and a blank canvas. The middle medallion was a lot simpler than the others. It depicted a sideways eight, the universal symbol for infinity. Another medallion showed a red-headed man and a blonde fencing. The last medallion showed several musical notes surrounding a microphone.
"What's with all the pretty pictures?" Tam asked.
Jessica smiled proudly. "Joan and I were talking about the organizational structure of our group, which still needs a name by the way, and we decided that we could work most efficiently by focusing on our talents." Jessica brushed her fingers over the medallion with the computer. "For example: this will be the symbol for our information team. Kris, since you have already proven your skills with information technology, we would like you to lead the information team. Adam has already volunteered to work with you, and you can recruit more team members at any time."
The young man with long, sandy hair nodded solemnly. "I am honored."
Jessica touched the medallion with the art supplies. "This is for our creativity team, which my brother Trevor and I will run." Jessica slid her fingers over the sideways eight and rested them on the fencing people. "This is for our action team, which will carry out tasks contrived my team and Kris's team. Sean and Tam, you get to run this team along with Salt and Pepper."
Sean and Tam gave each other a high five.
Jessica slid her fingers to the medallion with the microphone and musical notes. "Katie, this one is for you. After our missions are completed, we would like you to make some public statements in case anyone has any doubt about why we did what we did. Since you are the best singer and public speaker here, we would like you to do it for us."
The bottle blonde smirked. "Sounds fun. What about the one in the middle?"
"That is for-"
"-Ahh!" Joan screamed as pain jolted through her abdomen. She keeled over for a moment, then looked back up to see everyone staring at her.
"Was that what I think it was?" asked Kris.
"I'm not sure what else it could be," the auburnette replied.
"Does anyone here know a good midwife?" Sean asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
"I can find one online," Kris offered.
"Wait! Tímo said that I should go to the hospital when the baby arrives," Joan said.
"Why would you do a thing like that? Is there something wrong with the baby?" Kris asked, already playing with his smart phone.
Joan hesitated. "I don't think so, but Tímo said that since my mother died in childbirth, I should go to a hospital instead of getting a midwife."
Tam shuddered a little. "He has a point there."
Joan let out another scream as she experienced another contraction, and Sean scooped her up bridal-style. "I'm driving," he declared.
Sean carried Joan out to his car and gently set her in the front seat. Tam and Kris jumped in the back seat while Katie and Jessica wished them all good luck. Kris used his smart phone to find directions to the nearest hospital and navigated while Sean drove.
"Where are we going?" Joan asked between contractions.
"Just relax. We'll get you there," Tam assured her.
"I need to call Tímo. He-ahh!" Joan screamed as another wave of pain shot through her body.
"We're going to University of Tokyo Hospital. It is one of the best in Japan," Kris explained.
As soon as Joan recovered from her contraction, she speed-dialed Timothy Saunders. His phone was off and went straight to his voicemail, so Joan left a message: "Tímo! It's time! I'll be at University of Tokyo Hospital. Come as fast as you can. I love you!"
After Joan hung up the phone, Sean shook his head and sighed, but Joan pretended not to notice. Despite the fact that Timothy had been spending less and less time with her, Joan quickly excused his absence as a desire to perform well in his job as a night guard so that he could earn more money to support her and the baby. However, Sean saw something that she did not see.
When they arrived at the hospital, they went straight to the birthing ward. As she yelled and screamed, the nurses stuck needles in her, alternating between Pitocin and epidurals in an attempt to reach a balance that should have come naturally to her. A few hours later, she was still laboring in an attempt to push out the thing inside of her.
Timothy Saunders arrived at the hospital about half an hour after sunset. When he got there, he saw a blond girl he had never met standing with Sean and another guy who looked vaguely familiar by Joan's bedside. "Hi Sean. Let me guess… Mara Rakitan?" he asked the blond girl.
Tamara shot daggers at him with her amber eyes. How dare he assume that he can use a nickname for me? Nobody even calls me that! Joan might not be angry at him, but Tam was pissed enough for both of them. "Let me guess… Mr. Doesn't-Give-A-Crap Saunders."
Timothy whispered something to one of the nurses, and then stood in a corner of the room staring silently at the young woman in labor without blinking. Sean and Kris glared at him with the same unblinking gaze he used on Joan, but he did not seem to notice.
One of the nurses noticed a dark blue object emerging from the panting woman on the table. She ran to collect it. As she did, she shielded it from the other observers with her body. When at last it was free from Joan's body, the nurse yanked the lifeless object away from her. Joan looked up and saw a tiny blue-black object shaped like a baby with shriveled arms and legs. The nurse quickly covered the item that she was holding with a cloth and whisked it out of the room. She did not bother to close the door behind her, and Joan stared at the empty hallway for several moments.
Tam grabbed Joan's hand and squeezed it reassuringly, hoping to bring her back to reality. Joan looked at Timothy, who stood stiffly in the corner of the room. Her gold-flecked eyes met his pure ones for only an instant. Then, he turned away from her and walked out of the room without uttering a word.
"What was that about?" Sean said to himself.
"Tímo just needs some time to cope. He'll be back," Joan insisted.
Kris took off his glasses and pulled a stool up close to Joan's hospital bed. "I don't think so, Joan. There was always something wrong about him, and it has been getting worse rather than better."
Sean reached over and stroked Joan's matted dark auburn hair. "We know you're going to hold onto the hope of seeing him again as long as possible, but don't let that get in the way of the rest of your life. We're here for you now, and we have a job to do. The world needs you to hold it together. You've been through worse than this before."
Joan looked up at her three friends. Several different drugs still coursed through her veins, and their faces swam before her eyes. "New rule," she said.
Tam, Sean and Kris leaned in closer to hear what she had to say.
"If we're going to save the world, we can't have any more distractions. So, tell everyone at Rakitan Industries to dump their girlfriends and ditch their guys. Even the ones within the organization. It's not safe for us to keep romantic attachments of any sort. We're going to…" before Joan could finish her sentence, she drifted off to sleep.
Sean and Tam exchanged worried glances. They knew that the other members of their organization would not take a prohibition on all romantic relationships well. They were not even sure they could keep their hands off each other. However, if that was what they had to do to save the world, then they would just have to try their best.
Closing Note: Hospital births are for Westerners and/or rich people, so I decided to include that discussion in this chapter. If you are in the mood to watch a documentary on the subject, I recommend "The Business of Being Born."
And it was the best democracy money could buy