by Kirsten Tapp
Disclaimer: Dark Angel doesn't belong to the author, but to James Cameron, etc. The characters of Tek, Rebecka, Devon and Rein however do belong to the author. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: Max's pregnancy is getting off to a rocky start and with the threat of Lydecker constantly lurking around the corner, not everything is smooth sailing.
Timeframe: Follow up story to The Coming.
Rating: G
Category: Drama, Romance
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Logan stood beside Rebecka outside the closed and locked bathroom door. Max had been in there for quite a while and he was beginning to get worried. It wasn't as though Max had, had any seizures since Jondy had removed the implant, but he preferred her to leave the door unlocked just in case.
"Shouldn't we call someone?" Rebecka was concerned that Max was in her third month of pregnancy and didn't appear to be able to keep any food down. "Perhaps we could call Beverly or a locksmith."
Logan shook his head. "No need." He looked over his shoulder and saw his redheaded sister in law. "Thanks for coming."
Jondy had been splitting her time between Florida during the week and alternate weekends in Seattle, sometimes bringing her children with her. "No problem." She crouched down in front of the bathroom door and picked the lock. Picking up her Doctor's bag she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Rebecka was surprised that Logan hadn't charged into the bathroom as soon as Jondy got the door open. "How did you know Jondy was here? I never even heard her come in through the front door."
"I've had a couple of transgenic blood transfusions." Logan calmly explained. "Plus Jondy used to stay at the penthouse a lot when I first met her. I guess I just got used to the way she works."
Inside the bathroom, Jondy sat down on the tiled floor beside her sister. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, being pregnant is it."
"Not at the moment it's not." Max leaned back against the wall beside the toilet where she had just thrown up. "That trick with the crackers works for a little while until I try and actually eat a proper meal."
"Well, let's get some more crackers inside you and then we'll figure out what's going on." Jondy gently wiped her sister face with a damp washcloth before she went and opened the bathroom door. "Logan, why don't you put your wife to bed while I go and get her some milk and crackers."
Logan did as he was told, noting as he picked his tiny wife up that she seem to have lost weight. He found some relief when she lay her head on his shoulder as he carried her into the bedroom.
"You're mad at me for locking the door, aren't you?" Max felt so exhausted she was glad that she hadn't had to walk back to their bedroom on her own legs.
"I'm not mad." Logan gently reassured her as he tucked her into their bed. "It just scares me when you lock the door. If you have a seizure I can't get to you with the door locked or even get your medicine to you."
Max gently stocked Logan's cheek. "I haven't had any seizures since Jondy removed the implant. I don't think you have to worry about the seizures anymore."
"You telling me that I worry too much?" Logan smiled down at his pale wife. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when Jondy walked in with a box of crackers and a glass of milk.
Jondy chuckled. "Of course she isn't, but I will." She sat on the bed beside Max opposite Logan. "Did I ever tell you that in my first tri-mester I couldn't stand the smell of garlic or keep any food with garlic in it down?"
Max frowned at her sister as she sipped the milk Jondy handed her. "You think that's what's wrong?" She hoped it was that simple.
"It would explain why you can keep the crackers down, but not one of Logan's culinary miracles." Jondy grinned. "I know how much you two like some chicken with your garlic."
Logan realized that it was always lunch and dinner that Max ended up throwing up. "So why don't we try something simple like scrambled eggs on toast?"
"Maybe later." All Max wanted to do at the moment was sleep. "I'm sort of tired. Anyone mind if I get some sleep?"
"Of course not." Logan kissed Max on the forehead before taking the now empty plate and glass to the kitchen.
As Jondy went to follow him, Max grabbed her hand. "Am I going to lose my baby?" She didn't think she could go through that again. She was sure Logan couldn't either.
Jondy squeezed her hand. "Not if I can help it." She sat back down on the bed beside her sister. "Why don't you focus on getting some rest while I look through those tests Beverly did the other day." She had picked Max's file up on the way to the apartment. "We'll probably be laughing in a couple of hours because the problem was something stupid like you not liking sugar while you're pregnant."
Max managed a weak smile. "I guess you're right." She felt her eyelids getting heavier. "Try and calm Logan down for me, will you. He's going to give himself a heart attack if he doesn't stop worrying."
Jondy waited until Max had fallen asleep before leaving her to go into the living room, where Logan and Rebecka were waiting anxiously. "First of all the both of you have to calm down. Max can see you're both worried and it's stressing her out. Logan, you look as though you haven't slept for a week. Go and cuddle up to your wife and get some sleep."
Logan knew that Jondy barely tolerated her mother, so he didn't really want to leave the two women alone. "Actually. I have a lot of work to do. Besides I don't want to disturb Max."
Rebecka saw that Jondy had already sat on the floor in front of the coffee table and had spread a file out in front of her. "Logan go and get some sleep. We'll be fine. Jondy needs to focus on whatever's in that file anyway."
Logan realized that Jondy had shut out the outside world and was focused on the pieces of paper in front of her. "She won't register you're here until she's found the answer she's looking for." Logan had seen Jondy in shut down mode while she was looking for a cure to the love bug virus. "Just make sure you put a cup of tea on the table for her every half an hour. She takes it white with no sugar." He kissed the top of his sister in laws head. "Don't work too hard."
The mumbled reply he got, told him that he had been heard. Wearily he made his way to the bedroom and cuddled up beside his wife. Were things ever going to be easy for them, he wondered as he drifted off to sleep.
Rebecka did as Logan had told her and made a cup of tea for Jondy every half an hour. The rest of the time she watched her daughter work. After a couple of hours Logan staggered back out of the bedroom looking slightly better than he had when he had gone in.
"She's barely moved since you went to get some sleep." Rebecka felt the need to speak after sitting in a room with Jondy in complete silence. "How's Max doing?"
Logan sat on the sofa behind Jondy, who was still sitting on the floor. "She's still sleeping, but she seems to have a bit more color in her face than before." He watched Jondy for a moment. "Jondy will get up and move about soon. She doesn't like staying still or being cooped up. Maybe we'll get some answers then." He stood up and went to make himself some coffee.
Rebecka marveled at how well Logan knew her redheaded daughter. Sure enough Jondy got up and stretched her tired limbs. She paused for a moment as though she had heard something and then walked into Max and Logan's bedroom. "Has she always been like this?" Rebecka asked Logan as he came back in the room with a cup of coffee and sat down.
Logan nodded. "As long as I've known her." He glanced at the papers strewn across the table. "I've never known a woman that could jam so much into her bag and still make it look as light as a feather though."
Jondy returned to the room with Max, who was leaning against her sister. Sitting her sister down beside Logan, who automatically put his arm around his wife, Jondy explained Max's condition. "Ok, now I'm pretty sure everything will fix itself if we can just find food that Max can keep down. You drastically need to put some weight on Max and you can't do that on crackers and milk."
"So what do you suggest?" Logan didn't think it was a good idea to keep trying different meals until Max stopped throwing up. That could take too long.
"For the moment, try sticking to the five basic food groups." Jondy remembered how hard the first few months of her pregnancy were. "Don't make any of your fancy dishes until Max puts on some more weight."
"That scrambled eggs on toast that you suggested before sounds good." Max was starting to feel hungry now that her stomach seemed to have settled down.
"Coming right up." Logan kissed her forehead and moved into the kitchen to cook his wife breakfast.
"That all sounds so simple. Why do I get the feeling it's not?" Rebecka sensed there was more to Max's illness than just getting her to put some weight on.
Jondy shot her sister a sympathic look. "You're going to have to stay in bed and take it easy until you've put on weight. I'll give Original Cindy a call and get her to drag Logan out of the apartment every couple of days."
The idea of being confined to bed didn't appeal to Max. At least her sister was organizing someone to force Logan to take a break. "Thanks. There's no sense in Logan making himself ill fussing over me."
"I could stay and help." Rebecka offered. She didn't want to miss out on being part of what would be an important part of her daughter's life, the way she had with Jondy.
"Thanks, but that's not necessary." Max figured that she would probably be sleeping most of the time if today was anything to go by. "Logan will be watching me like a hawk. On the rare occasions that Original Cindy manages to get him out of the apartment, I'll be sleeping."
Logan placed a tray on Max's lap that had a plate of scrambled eggs on toast, a glass of milk and a bowl of fresh fruit salad. "Eat what you can sweetheart."
"When did you last eat Logan?" Jondy had caught the concerned look on Max's face when Logan had brought the tray in.
"I'll get something later." Logan hoped that Jondy would let him get away with that answer. A couple of seconds later he was being not too gently shoved back towards the kitchen by the redhead.
"Logan still seems worried." Rebecka murmured. "I thought he trusted your sister."
Max swallowed the mouthful of food she was munching on. "He does. I think it's just that after losing the last baby and then thinking that we couldn't have children naturally, he's scared that this baby might be a dream that won't come true as well."
"You don't think the same as Logan?" Rebecka could understand where Logan was coming from now.
Max shook her head, relieved that her breakfast seemed to be staying down. "No. Jondy would never get our hopes up if she thought that there was a possibility I couldn't carry this baby to term."
Jondy returned with Logan and some more food. "So I take it you spent most of the night talking over the porcelain telephone Max." She had headed straight to Seattle as soon as her shift at Florida Medical had finished.
Max nodded. "Yeah, we had dinner and five minutes later I was bringing it back up." She looked down at her plate surprised that she had eaten everything on the tray.
Jondy gave Max half the slice of toast that she was eating. "Well, I suggest you start the day the way we have today. A few dry crackers and a glass of milk to line your stomach. Then scrambled eggs on toast and some fruit. Stay away from anything with caffeine in and any spicy foods. Your meals will be a bit boring for a while, but once you've put some weight on you may find that you can stomach some of the spicier foods you're used to."
Max patted her stomach. "It'll be worth it when this little one finally joins us." She felt a lot better now that she had eaten and the food was staying down.
Logan listened intently to Jondy's instructions, committing them to memory. "Did you go through all of this when you were pregnant, J?" He had taken for granted that his sister in law's pregnancy had been smooth sailing. Every time he had seen her, she seemed to have this healthy glow about her.
"Some of it." Jondy admitted. "But you have to remember, I didn't have a culinary genius at my fingertips like Max has. The meals we have in my home are catered more for children, so they're simpler."
Max giggled. "I never heard anyone say Logan's cooking was bad for them before."
Logan grinned, relieved that his wife seemed a lot brighter. "Nobody's saying my cooking's bad for them. It's just the baby's not ready to appreciate my cooking just yet."
Jondy reached into her bag and pulled out a book. "I thought you two could use this." She handed Max a book of names and their meanings.
Max gave her sister a sheepish smile. "I haven't wanted to pick a name yet until I was sure that I wasn't going to lose the baby."
"That's understandable." Rebecka spoke. She was starting to feel a bit invisible.
"Now you have something to aim for." Jondy knew what her sister meant. "I'm going to go and see Original Cindy. Why don't you go and get some rest."
"Sounds good to me." Max couldn't remember when she last felt this tired for so long. "Say hi to O.C for me."
Jondy nodded as she walked out the door. She would stop in at Terminal City after she had seen Original Cindy. She knew better than anyone, the importance of keeping Max's pregnancy off of Lydecker's radar. Jondy could almost picture Lydecker's face if he thought he could get his hands on a pregnant X5.
Original Cindy hugged her best friend's sister as soon as she saw who was knocking on her door. "When did you get into town?"
"Early this morning." Jondy shrugged her jacket off. "Had to help Logan and Rebecka break into the bathroom. Max didn't want Logan to see her being sick, so of course Logan panicked."
Original Cindy chuckled. "Some things never change. Do you think Logan will ever stop being over protective towards Max? I mean, after all, the girl is a genetically engineered killing machine."
Jondy understood what Cindy meant but her friend's description made her wince. She and her siblings had been running from what they were created to be, all of their lives. "That's not what Logan sees when he looks at Max. He sees his wife who he loves more than life itself and who is expecting his child."
Realizing that she had hit a nerve, Original Cindy quickly worked out where she had gone wrong. "I know, but Max can take care of herself." Then she remembered how often Jondy had visited Seattle lately. "Is Max alright?"
Jondy ran her hand over her face. She was exhausted from being a mother to fourteen children, being a Doctor, and being there for her twin sister. "Max needs to gain some weight which hasn't been possible because she's been throwing up just about everything she eats. I think I've found out what the problem is, but Max is going to have to stay in bed. Also, I need you to drag Logan out of the apartment every couple of days, so that he gets a break. Max is never going to put on any weight if she's worrying about Logan worrying about her."
"Damn." Original Cindy hadn't even begun to think there might be a problem with Max's pregnancy. "I thought Max was just having normal morning sickness. You know I'll help anyway I can."
"Thanks." Jondy knew she could count on Original Cindy. "I'm going to head off to Terminal City. I figure Lydecker's probably watching the place for any sign of Max."
"How badly would Lydecker want a X5 baby?" Just the thought of what Lydecker had done so far just to get his hands on Jondy made Original Cindy shudder.
Jondy shrugged. "I'm not sure. He'd prefer a pure breed child with both parents being X5s. It would serve his purpose better. I'll be damned if I'm going to let that monster experiment on any of our kids."
By all accounts, it sounded to Original Cindy as though Logan was being relatively calm about everything. "So Logan's dealing pretty well really."
"I think he's focusing more on getting both Max and the baby through this pregnancy at the moment." Jondy hadn't wanted to voice her concerns knowing how Logan would respond. "I don't think it's hit him just yet that the worst is yet to come."
Logan had finally been able to get Rebecka to go home. There was no point in her staying there when all Max was doing was sleeping. He had managed to get some work done in between watching Max sleep. Thinking back, he had been so overjoyed when he found out that Max was pregnant. Now he just wanted Max to make it through the pregnancy alive.
"Stop worrying.' Max had been watching Logan from the doorway. She knew how helpless he was feeling, but getting stressed out wasn't going to help her or the baby. "I've been thinking about baby names." She walked over to Logan and sat down on his lap. "What was your mother's name?"
"Sara. Why?" Logan wrapped his arms around his tiny wife.
"Well, I was thinking if we have a daughter then we could name her Sara Eva Cale." Max suggested. "Any idea what Sara means? Or shall I look it up in the book Jondy gave us?"
Logan was touched that Max wanted to name their daughter after his mother. "It means Princess. So have you worked out what we will name the baby if it's a boy?"
Max shrugged her shoulders. "I don't mind as long as it's not Logan Cale the third. Not that I don't like your name or anything. It's just I'd like our son to have his own identity."
Logan rested his chin on Max's shoulder. "I know what you mean. I always felt as though I had to live up to an impossible standard because of what my father had accomplished in his life. It wasn't until he died that I realized I didn't want to be like my father."
"Well, are there any boys names that you like." Max had wanted to name their son after Ben, but Jondy had already named her son Ben.
"What about Keegan? It means fiery one. It's sort of unusual. I guess that's why I like it." Logan felt it would be perfect considering their son had an unusual but perfect mother.
"Keegan Benjamin Cale." Max felt the name had a certain ring to it. "I like that. Well, we've picked names for our child. That's one job out of the way."
"Do you have any ideas what you want the nursery to look like?" They hadn't even begun to decorate the nursery Logan realized. It was just another job they hadn't wanted to start with Max being ill.
Max shook her head. "Not really. I don't want it pink or blue. Which reminds me, do you want to know if we're going to have a boy or a girl?"
This wasn't something Logan had thought about until now. "No. I think it would be great to have a surprise. Besides, I just want us to have a healthy baby. I don't mind if we have a boy or a girl. What about you?"
"I think the same." Max thought about what she'd like to see when she put their baby in the crib to sleep. Then she realized that this was their first real conversation about the upcoming addition to their family. They had both been so scared that they would lose the baby that they had avoided any discussions, so that it wouldn't hurt so much if that happened. "Damn Jondy."
Logan chuckled. "You have to admit she's good. She made us face up to reality without us knowing it." He still had a little trouble believing they were going to be a family.
Max giggled. "She's always seemed to know what I needed before I did. She even knew that we needed the tiniest shove in the right direction."
"Well, it's about time." Jondy stood leaning against the doorway. "How big a hint do I have to give you guys to get the point straight away." She joked, happy to see her sister was obviously feeling much better and Logan was a lot calmer.
"Hey. Where have you been all this time?" Logan glanced at a nearby clock realizing Jondy had been gone for four hours.
"Giving you two some space." Jondy walked into the room and sat on the edge of Logan's computer desk and held out a carton. "Joshua and the children at Terminal City made these for the two of you."
Max peered into the box. "Wow. These look awesome." She stood and walked into the living room with the carton. Pulling the carton's contents out one by one, Max's face lit up at each new item. "I can't wait to put these up in the nursery."
"You're going to have to wait." Logan could see his tone annoyed Max, but he didn't want her climbing on chairs trying to hang things up. "Or you could supervise while I hang everything up." That seemed to appeal to Max.
Jondy rolled her eyes. She could understand how Alec would find Max and Logan so amusing. "Well, how about we have lunch first? It'll give you a bit of time to come up with ideas for the nursery.'
Max nodded her consent. Besides, she was starting to get hungry again. "You know, I liked what you did with the twins room. It didn't lean towards either sex and was eye catching as well."
Remembering their visits to San Francisco, Logan recalled the bright colors and Disney cartoons that had covered the walls. He wondered if Jondy had recreated the room when she had moved her family to Florida. "Maybe we could get Joshua to paint a Disney mural on the walls."
"I'm sure he'd love to do that." Max was touched that Logan was including Joshua. "We'd have to sneak him in at night though."
Logan headed for the kitchen to make his family lunch while the two women ooed and ahhed at the gifts that had been sent from Terminal City. "So what inspired the children to make gifts for the baby?" Logan knew he didn't have to speak up for the two women to hear him.
"Joshua is teaching an arts and crafts class at Terminal City. He thought this would be a good project for the children." Jondy held up a mobile with ABC's on it. Hanging off each letter of the alphabet was a figure that corresponded with it's letter.
"They've put a lot of thought into this." Max was delighted with the gift. "Everything's not only colorful but it's a teaching tool as well. I'll have to go and thank them."
"You'll have to take it easy." Jondy warned. "I know you don't want to be copped up in the apartment, but with any luck it won't be for too long. Besides, you need to keep off of Lydecker's radar. Tek and Mole spotted him hanging around outside Terminal City."
Max hadn't considered the danger Lydecker represented to her unborn child until that moment. "Logan's never gonna let me out of the apartment ever again if he knows Lydecker's still on the prowl. You'd think he would have learnt after being caged up while we stopped 'The Coming'."
"That man's too focused on playing God." Jondy kept her voice low so as to not upset Logan. "I'm guessing by now he's found out that Sandeman's dead. He's probably not 100% convinced that I'm dead, but until he actually sees me that's just going to be a doubt in his warped mind."
"Which means he'll be looking for another way to restart Manticore." Max had managed to avoid Lydecker before. She had to believe she would still be able to do it with a child. Her baby's life depended on it. "You've got a plan though, right?" Max knew her sister had been gone too long not to be up to something.
"I spoke to the guys in the Terminal City command center." Jondy began. "It's not just to protect my future niece or nephew. Lydecker could try to nab one of the babies from Terminal City given half a chance."
"A full breed transgenic would be exactly what he needs to answer all his unanswered questions." Max agreed. "He'd be well on his way to a new Manticore."
Jondy giggled. "Well, it appears that Tek tagged Lydecker and his merry men when they had them caged up during 'The Coming'. They have no idea their every movement is being tracked."
Logan carried a tray with some sandwiches, a couple of glasses of milk and a cup of coffee for himself on. He had caught the tail end of the conversation. "Well, I know I feel better knowing somebody's keeping tabs on Lydecker. How do you think he took the news that he missed 'The Coming'."
Max munched happily away on her sandwich. "He didn't miss much. We were there remember." She grinned at her sister. "Thanks for catching me by the way. Hanging off of the Space Needle was far beyond the call of sisterly duty."
"Hey, I love hanging out with you." Jondy joked. Her hand still had a faint red mark where the line had cut into her hand, when she had leapt after Max. "Having said that, I'll stay until lunchtime tomorrow to make sure we have solved the mystery of what's making you ill."
"You don't have to rush off." Max didn't want her sister to feel as though she was in the way. Now she thought about it, she had barely seen Jondy.
"You're staying here tonight, right?" Logan had barely had any time alone with Max since they had found out she was pregnant. They practically had to kicked Rebecka out at night. Somehow with Jondy it was different. She knew when to give them time alone and when to stay close by, but not in the way. "I'll make the guest room up after lunch."
"Thanks." Jondy had been wondering where she was going to stay. Original Cindy had told her that she had a date tonight, so staying there had been out. "I just need to call the children and Julia. They all wanted to come with me, but I didn't think you'd be up to that many visitors."
"I wasn't, but maybe they could have kept Rebecka busy." Max felt awful saying the words, but Rebecka constantly hanging over her while she was trying to be sick was one of the reasons she had locked the bathroom door.
"I think she's just trying to make up for lost time." Logan tired to be understanding, but neither he nor Max were used to having a third party constantly in their lives. When' Max's siblings visited, they always made sure that they gave the couple some space. "Did Julia stalk your every move when you were pregnant J?"
"No, but it's different with Julia." Jondy could see the confusion on Max and Logan's faces. "With Julia, she'd been Devon's mother since he was born and mine for quite a bit of my life. She knew me well enough to know when to keep her distance and when to help. Rebecka only got to be a mother to us when we were grown up and she hasn't got a clue what to do. When she tries to be caring and supportive, it comes over as suffocating and annoying.'
"I don't want to shut Rebecka out, but I would like some time with my wife where I'm not tripping over my mother-in-law every five minutes." He didn't want to be cruel, but it had almost been a relief when Jondy had turned up. It meant that Logan could get Rebecka to focus on Jondy while he and Max got some sleep.
Max knew what they had to do. "We're going to have to limit Rebecka's time here. We'll organise a couple of days when she can come around. I don't want to cut her off completely, but that's what I'll end up doing if I can't get some breathing space from her."
Logan nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea. I think Rebecka needs a life of her own, instead of one that revolves around us." He grinned at his sister-in-law. "How'd you get to be such a good mother?"
"I had Julia as a role model." Jondy admitted. "It helps that all of my children came to me as babies or young kids. You make mistakes and you learn from them. The best thing you can do is remember that your every action is for them and not what it's going to get you."
That night Max and Logan lay cuddled up in their bed thinking about what Jondy had said. They had put the decorations from Terminal City up in the room which was going to be the nursery. Max had managed to keep everything that she had eaten today down. Things were looking up.
"Do you mind that we're having a baby so early in our marriage?" Max had been so surprised that she was pregnant that it was only now that she had considered how short a time they had been married.
"Of course I don't mind." Logan kissed his wife's forehead. "I just wish this pregnancy had been easier on you." He wasn't used to seeing his wife ill and it had scared the hell out of him.
"I have a feeling things are going to get better." Max felt as though she was a different person from the one she had been this morning. That's what being able to keep your meals down did for you. "Rein called Jondy earlier. He's going to sneak Joshua over here so that they can paint that mural on the nursery wall for us."
"Wow. Everything's coming together so fast." Logan gently pulled his wife closer. "In six months time I'm going to have to share my wife with another little person."
"You'd better make the most of your time with me alone." Max heard the apartment door close. "That and the fact that my sister has just gone out."
Jondy sat on top of the Space Needle. Seeing Max and Logan together eagerly anticipating the birth of their child, made her miss Devon. He hadn't been able to share the joys and burdens of her pregnancy. "Some things just weren't meant to be." She whispered into the darkness. Still she managed to be happy that Max was living the life she always wanted with a loving husband and a child on the way.
