Ever After Chapter 6

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

Okay here goes the sixth longer chapter.Yes, actually longer! Thanks for the reviews, they are always nice to read! I put a lot in this chapter cos I'll be gone all tomorrow. I get to spend nine hours watching new episodes of Buffy, Angel and unfortunately Smallville! It is much better than waiting until they air them over here!

A second later....

"Harper, what do you mean heartbeat? My baby is an android, it can't have a heartbeat because it doesn't have a heart!"

Rommie was getting fairly upset over this. After all they'd been through and now this.

"Okay Rommie, I need you to do a partial shutdown of your systems so that I can perform a complete diagnostic and find out why the baby has a heartbeat."

Rommie tried to calm her emotions, Harper was obviously doing his best to try and help her.

"Could you let Dylan know that I won't be able to meet him as planned? But don't worry him, he seems to spend all his time worrying about me."

Harper smiled slightly. "Sure thing Rommie."

. . .

A few hours later.....

Harper had completed his diagnostic and was reinitialising all of Rommie systems. He wasn't sure how she was going to take all the information he was about to give her.

He thought it would be best to have someone else there while he told her. Beka maybe, or Trance. Just in case she got a bit too upset. Even Dylan but Harper didn't think Rommie would like that.

In the end he got Dylan anyway. Beka and Trance were on a supply run and had gotten delayed and Tyr... well he wouldn't be the best person in the current situation. So Dylan it was then.

When Rommie's systems came back online she opened her eyes and sat up. She was immediately aware that both Harper and Dylan were in the room.

"Hey Rommie, how are you feeling?"

Dylan smiled at her warmly but there was something in his eyes that betrayed his concern.

"What's wrong?"

Dylan looked at her and then exchanged a glance with Harper.

"Mr, Harper was just about to tell us."

Harper looked from one to the other and sighed. Now he knew how doctors who had to give out bad news felt.

"Well the scans confirm the baby does have a heartbeat...."

Dylan looked surprised, he hadn't heard this part of the conversation yet.

"... and therefore has a heart and a circulatory system."

Rommie was wondering exactly what this meant.

"So the baby is human"

Harper paused, than continued.

"No, not human, at least not exactly human. Kind of a human-android hybrid."

Dylan was almost reeling from the shock.

"How did this happen?"

Rommie was speechless. Her baby was part human. How could this be?

Harper was looking like he wished he was somewhere else, anywhere else.

"Well, you remember when the virus destroyed a lot of the babies programming and files. When the self-protection program activated it detected the losses and tried to compensate for them. It found something that it could use to re-create the files that were lost."

Dylan was now very confused.

"What did it use?"

Harper took a deep breath and tried to keep his voice steady as he replied.

"DNA, or more specifically, your DNA."

Dylan mind just couldn't handle the concept, his DNA, how did it even get his DNA? And then he remembered, he had just passed it off as nothing.

**Probably the one and only flashback to occur in this story**

From Chapter four:

As Harper was telling him this, Dylan, who was holding Rommie's hand suddenly yelled in pain. And pulled his hand from Rommie's.

"What the hell was that?" He was holding up his now bleeding palm. Trance left to grab a medkit.

"It's probably just a malfunction because of the virus program and the fact that the babies own protection program is, like everything else, untested."

**End of Flashback**

"But it wasn't a malfunction."

Dylan looked at Harper waiting to see what else he had to say.

"No, it wasn't a malfunction. It was the self-protection program and survival at its best. It needed something that could create sufficient programming so it mixed what remained of its programming with your DNA and replaced whatever was lost.

It's circulatory system is a mixture of DNA and the normal components that the baby didn't have enough of and couldn't synthesise. So it's kind of a 50-50 mix of android and human."

Harper paused to take a breath and then turned towards the door saying.

"Well that's all I have to tell you so, congratulations I guess, you're a dad!"

Rommie hadn't said anything. Well, what could she say? The person she loved was now the father of her baby. Her baby was half human. So what did that mean? And could her baby even survive?

Dylan hadn't said anything since Harper left. He was just standing with his head in his hands. Probably just as shocked as she was, or more shocked.

She knew she was going to be a mother. She had known for a while now. But he had just found out that he was going to be a father and it hadn't been his choice, none of it had.

She finally found her voice and spoke to him, startling him out of his reverie.

"Dylan, I'm sorry this has happened, I didn't know this could happen."

He looked up at her. She was fighting the urge to cry, but this wasn't the time for tears. They needed to sort things out.

"This wasn't your fault Rommie, you couldn't have known this would happen. And.. I just need some time to think this out...."

And he turned and walked out the door.

"Dylan wait! Dylan please!" The door closed and he was gone. And then the tears came. They were getting to be very familiar. Once upon a time she hadn't known what it was like to cry, now it seemed the universe wasn't going to let her forget.

. . .

Beka and Trance arrived back to find things a lot different from when they had left. Harper met them on the way in and told them what had happened.

Trance looked at Beka. "Do you want Dylan or Rommie?"

Beka sighed. "I'll take Dylan, you might have better luck with Rommie than I would."

As they went their separate ways Harper decided that someone had better fill Tyr in, and that someone was going to be him.

. . .

Beka found Dylan in his quarters. He was just sitting staring into space when Beka walked in. He didn't seem very pleased to see her.

"Did you want something Beka?"

"What no 'how was your trip?' or 'did you get the supplies we wanted?'."

Dylan just looked at her and it wasn't a friendly look. But she wasn't about to be put off.

"So I hear you're going to be a dad. Tyr's going to be jealous. Do you want to talk about it?"

Dylan sighed and spoke.

"I'm sorry Beka, but no, I don't really want to talk about it. What is there to talk about? What can I say in this situation, yes I've always wanted to be a father. But not under these circumstances, not like this."

He got up and walked across the room, to where the picture of Sara was. Beka watched him.

"I always planned on a having kids. Two or three little ones running around the house. Sara and I used to talk about it. What we'd call them, whether they'd be boys or girls. This, this is just so complicated though. All of this is."

He put the picture of Sarah back down on the shelf.

"Do you love her? Do you love Rommie?"

He looked at her, startled by the directness of her question. He answered her truthfully.

"Yes, but..."

Beka didn't give him a chance to finish.

"Then it's really very simple, isn't it?"

. . .

Trance found Rommie in the hydroponics garden. She was sitting among the flowers crying. For all her cool, controlled android ways, she looked very human at that moment.

Trance sat down beside her and just waited for her to speak. Sometimes all you need to do is wait and they'll tell you what the problem is. You just need to be a good listener.

"He doesn't want the baby."

Rommie spoke through tears. Trance was surprised, it wasn't exactly what she had expected.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because he left, he wouldn't even talk to me. He doesn't want my children, he wants Sara's children."

Trance guessed that this was the point when you needed to be not just a good listener but a good talker too. A few sentences can change a persons whole perspective on something, or reinforce it completely.

"Dylan isn't that kind of person Rommie. Firstly, Sarah is gone and has been for a long time and Dylan knows this. Secondly Dylan is the kind of person who cherishes life, almost any kind of life and he would not reject something that is part of him.

And thirdly and most importantly is that you love him and he knows it, deep down inside he knows this."

Rommie's sobs had been getting quieter and quieter until they faded completely. She seemed to have taken in some of Trances words.

The door to hydroponics opened and Dylan walked in. Trance stood up.

"I'll leave you two alone."

As Trance left and the door closed Dylan walked over to where Rommie was sitting.

"I'm sorry that I left earlier. I, I needed to get some things straight in my head."

They sat in silence for about five minutes while Rommie thought over Dylan's words. Finally Dylan thought he had better say something.

"So, we're going to be parents. What do you think of Lara for a girl or Thomas for a boy?"

Rommie looked up at him.

"Do you really want this baby? Because this won't work unless you really want it."

Rommie knew that this was it, either Dylan would say he wanted the baby and they'd cope or he wouldn't and things would never be okay.

"Rommie.. this baby was a shock to me, and to you, but only one things matters really and that's love. And I love you Rommie and I will love our baby. I do want this baby and I know that we can make this work."

Dylan took her hand in his and waited for her reply.

"I love you too, Dylan." And she was crying again but this time they were tears of joy.

Dylan kissed her. He kissed her tears and hugged her. And gradually she stopped crying. They were both smiling, so happy that they finally had things sorted out.

It seemed like they'd spent so long avoiding each other but now this baby, like a miracle, had brought them together. They still had lots of things to get through but they'd make it together.

Just then the door opened and in came Beka, Harper, Trance and Tyr with glasses and Dylan guessed, champagne. He hadn't activated privacy mode so Andromeda had probably told them what was going on.

But it looked like the others were planning a celebration. And why not, they had lots to celebrate!

. . .

So by now I'm very convinced that this is going to be a Rommie/Dylan fic. So girl or boy? And how exactly is Rommie going to have this baby? All this, and more, will be successfully answered next chapter! Reviews are much appreciated!