Charlemagne sped all the way home in a cold sweat. It was too early, what if something went wrong? What if.., he tried to stifle the thought. Nothing was going to happen to their child. But he was hard put to keep the panic away when he thought of all the horribles. The worst of which was if the baby didn't survive, Meaghan would almost certainly go back to the Andromeda.
When he got home he ran through the palace as if there were a pack of hungry Magog on his heels. When he reached Meaghan's apartment, he stopped in the doorway. The doctor was in place to deliver the infant, and Elsbeth sat beside Meaghan, one hand clasped in both of Meaghan's, and the other blotting the sweat from her brow. As he watched, another contraction seized his paramour. Her back arched, sweat poured off her brow, but she refused to make a sound.
Elsbeth turned to see her husband in the doorway. "It's about time," she remarked calmly. "Come here and hold her hands, Charlemagne, she's nearly broken my fingers as it is."
He obediently followed his wife's orders, unwrapping Meaghan's hands from Elsbeth's, and holding them in his own. Elsbeth flexed her cramped fingers, then looked at her husband with a curious expression. "Have the two of you discussed what you are going to name him?"
"Whatever Meg wants." He raised her hands to his lips and kissed them. "As long as they're both all right, I don't care."
"Leander." Meaghan panted in sheer exhaustion. "I always liked.., oh!" She stopped abruptly as another contraction hit, and Charlemagne saw Elsbeth's point about broken fingers. He had no idea that Meaghan was so strong.
"Leander, then," he agreed.
"Leander Bolivar out of Meaghan by Charlemagne," Elsbeth said reflectively. "I've heard worse. Are you going to marry her, husband?"
Charlemagne blinked. How long had Elsbeth known, or at least guessed? And why did she have to wait till now to keep hitting him with surprises? "Elsbeth, with the current political situation..,"
"We're supposed to be forging bonds, not only with other Nietzscheans, but with the humans as well," his wife reminded him. "You yourself told me that all of us will have to stand together when the Magog world-ship arrives, or we'll be lost."
"But marriage..," he sputtered. "Elsbeth, think. We'll lose considerable support from our own people if I marry a human."
"I've already sent copies of her gene chart to quite a few sources," his wife confessed. "I doubt there will be as much of an outcry as you imagine."
Charlemagne opened his mouth to answer, but Meaghan gripped his hands again. The physician murmured, "This should be the one, push hard now."
Meaghan gasped with the effort, and Charlemagne could have sworn he heard the bones in his hand crack. Suddenly, she went limp. Then he heard the first lusty cries of his new son.
Elsbeth left the two of them to see to the baby.
"You did it, Meg," he said softly, brushing sweat-soaked hair away from her face. "Our child, a part of us, our immortality."
Meaghan smiled weakly. "You're pleased, then, Charlemagne?"
He returned the smile. "More than I can possibly say."
Elsbeth returned, carrying the baby. She approached her husband, and he stood as she neared him. "Do you accept this child as of your lineage, and as one of your heirs?"
"I do," he answered solemnly, and took the infant from her, sealing his acknowledgement of a blood bond. He sat back down on the edge of the bed. "Our son, Meg." He turned back the blankets to get a better look at the new life. "He's beautiful."
"He looks like his father, then?" Meaghan quipped tiredly.
"He does indeed," Elsbeth answered her. "But you should rest now, Meaghan."
"I want to hold my baby," Meaghan said, holding out her arms.
"Our baby," Charlemagne corrected her, placing the infant in her arms.
&&&&&&&&
One month later:
Dylan was bored. There had been nothing going on lately that really required the talents and capabilities of the Andromeda's crew.
"Incoming message, captain," the AI said.
"Something interesting, I hope," Hunt muttered. "Let's have it Andromeda."
"The command crew of the Commonwealth ship Andromeda is invited to a Nietschean naming ceremony for..,"
"For who?" Bekka and Harper entered the bridge. "Or is that whom?" added Bekka, "I can never remember."
"For Leander Bolivar out of Meaghan by Charlemagne," the AI finished.
"What?" Harper burst out, and Bekka recalled that he was the only one of the command crew who hadn't been entirely in the loop about Meaghan and Charlemagne. "Not our Meaghan?"
"The message doesn't specify," the hologram stated. "But, all things considered, I'd say that the answer is probably, yes. The baby must have come early."
"Nobody tells me anything," Harper muttered disgustedly.
"When is the ceremony, Andromeda?" asked Dylan.
"Two days from now, sir," the AI answered.
"Since we don't seem to have any more pressing business then," Hunt said, "let's go. Bekka, will you do the honors?"
Bekka stepped up to the navigation console. "My pleasure."
&&&&&&&&
As the senior staff of the Andromeda began disembarking from the Eureka Maru, a fiery-headed figure came running at them full tilt.
Dylan, being in the vanguard, took the full brunt of the force from the copper-topped guided missile, but, being ready for it, he merely caught Meaghan up in a big bear-hug.
"It's good to see you again, Meaghan." He smiled at her, then set her back on her feet so that everyone else could have a chance at her.
Charlemagne sauntered up while Meaghan was being passed from person to person, with hugs and greetings all around.
"Congratulations." Dylan offered his hand.
"Thank you," the Nietzschean said. "But Meaghan is the one that did all the work."
"Where's the baby, Meaghan?" Trance demanded. "When do we get to see him?"
"He was asleep when you arrived," the beaming new mother explained. "I expect that when we get back his majesty will be hungry, then, after he's eaten you can all see him. He's adorable."
"Not that you're proud of him or anything," Bekka teased, draping her arm around Meaghan's shoulders and giving her an affectionate squeeze.
"If you think I'm bad," Meaghan laughed. "The always correct Charlemagne Bolivar turns into a babbling idiot when confronted with his own offspring."
"I heard that," Charlemagne remarked.
"But can you deny it?"
&&&&&&&&&
The naming ceremony was overlong and boring, as such things usually are, but it was followed by an informal party which more than made up for it.
While the guest list had been rather extensive, one small, select group kept mostly to themselves.
"By the by, Charlemagne," Elsbeth said a little too casually, "I'm taking care of Leander tonight. You're staying with Meaghan."
All eyes turned to the Nietzschean woman. "Besides," she added, "I need to get back into practice in dealing with an infant."
Charlemagne's eyes lit up, and Meaghan hugged Elsbeth.
"Geez," said Harper. "How does the guy find time to get anything done?"
&&&&&&&&&&
It was their first night together since the long months ago on the Andromeda. Charlemagne was as eager as he had been the first time, but Meaghan seemed to be dawdling.
"What's keeping you, Meg?" he asked impatiently.
"Just something that Elsbeth told me to do," she said from behind him. He turned to face her with a puzzled look on his face. As he did so, she fastened the ornate bangle Charlemagne's wife had given her on his upper arm and said softly and lovingly, "Husband and father," in the traditional Nietzschean marriage formula.
And it all seemed right as Charlemagne swept his new wife into his embrace and murmured, "I love you, Meg."