Intermission
Part Seven
When Cheetara awoke, Panthro was gone. She assumed he was on duty, that would make sense with how the rotations worked. There was really no need for him not to be, she thought. Some part of her was jealous. She felt he should have stayed with her, at least until she woke up.
Her legs were shakey as she stood up. The only coverings she had on her body were the bandages on her legs and the cast along her arm. She walked uneasily to the full length mirror and stared at herself. Slowly, she moved her hand across her stomach, trying to imagine what it would have felt like to have a cub growing inside of her. Panthro's cub. She closed her eyes, feeling as if she had let him down.
After about a minute, the pain seared across her back again, just as it had the day before. She winced in pain and sat back down on the bed, clutching her side. A moment later, it stopped, and, just as she had yesterday, she threw up.
"This is just fucking not my week." The sheets of her bed were splashed with chunky orange slime. She swallowed hard, realizing too late her mistake. The taste of the vomit traveling back to her stomach did nothing but bring up more of the vicious bile.
Rushing as quickly as she could to her bathroom, she washed out her mouth as best she could. She was afraid to get too close to the water with her injured arm.
After tossing the sheets into a pile in the tub, Cheetara found her robe in the closet and made her way to the infirmary. Not only were the pains in her back and vomitting causing her greif, but there was tremendous discomfort in her arm as well.
On her way there, she passed by Sumik, whose parents had come to visit him upon hearing of his injuries. Reintroductions were made, but in her present state, she quickly excused herself and continued down the hall.
In the infirmary, Wilykat was resetting the monitors used the day before. Cheetara made her way quickly to the nearest bed. "I've got back pain, side pain, pain in my arm, and I think I've thrown up everything I've eaten in the last few weeks."
Wilykat grabbed a stethoscope off the wall. "I can do prelim stuff, but Tygra should really make the determinations." Kat hit a switch that would locate Tygra and direct him to the med bay.
Within seconds, the tiger had sprinted there, and began running a series of tests. "Where's Pumyra?" Cheetara asked as Tygra performed various blood and reflex tests.
"She and Bengali got called to a brawl at some pub. They should be back soon." Tygra assured her, carefully calculating the strings of numbers on the readouts. "Hmm...this is really bizarre. Do you know where Panthro is?"
"I had expected he was on duty." she answered.
"I, well, I know where he is." stammered Kat.
"Where?" inquired Tygra.
"He's..." Kat glanced at Cheetara, then looked away. "...in the back of the lair, his sister's out there with him. He said he wanted to...to give the baby a proper burial."
Tygra was going to tell Wilykat there was nothing really to bury, but Cheetara's pressence kept his mouth shut. "Why don't you go get him?" Wilykat nodded and left the room.
"Is something wrong?" asked Cheetara.
"No, I don't really think so." replied Tygra. He made his way over to her bed. "I think I know the cause of your symptoms, but I'd like to try one more test, alright?" Cheetara nodded as Tygra retrieved what looked like a tube of ointment, a short range monitor of sorts, and a circular paddle that connected to the monitor.
"Okay, now what I'm going to do is rub this stuff," he said, holding up the tube, "on your stomach, and then use this," he indicated the paddle, "to project an image of what's in your stomach. Okay?"
The cheetah nodded again. She pushed away the sheets on the bed so that Tygra could begin. The jelly-like concoction he rubbed on her stomach was practically ice cold, chilling the rest of her as it was being applied, and caused the fur in the area to be clumped together and matted down.
All the while, Cheetara couldn't believe how selfish she had been. She should have known that Panthro wouldn't have left her room without a good reason, and even she hadn't really thought of having any sort of funeral for the unborn child.
Tygra flipped on the monitor as Panthro entered with Kat. As Tygra settled the paddle onto the cheetah's abdomen, a blue and black image appeared on the screen. Wilykat looked for a moment and grinned.
"What are you smiling about?" demanded Panthro.
"Oh, please, let me tell them." insisted Kat.
"Tell us what?" The panther asked, first a look of concern, then one of disbelief as he stared at the monitor.
Cheetara raised herself up on her elbows to look at the screen. And it seemed like something -- someone -- was looking back. "I'm still pregnant. I thought the baby..."
"It did." Tygra shifted the paddle to another part of her stomach. "Ah. That makes sense now."
"What does?" Kat walked closer to see what Tygra was pointing at.
"Two separate sections in the womb. It was twins, but they were both in their own separately functioning space, safe from an attack from the other's domain. The twin on the side that didn't get hurt is fine." Tygra shook his head. "It's very odd, though. I never heard of separate chambers like this. Pumyra probably has some knowledge of this. I'll ask her when she returns."
Panthro approached the monitor, eyes damp for the second time that week. "Wow." His gaze was locked on the the cloudy blue image of what would soon be his child.
Cheetara remained mesmerized as well. "It's so..."
"...beautiful." Panthro finished for her.
She giggled and shook her head. "...tiny." she replied.
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