Middle 6

"Adam, what's wrong?" She was at his side fussing as soon as she saw his tears. Adam thought of Emily and realised much these young people had become his family.

"It's nothing. I'm OK, Shalimar. Honest." He wiped the moisture away with the sleeve of his jumper and closed the file that was open on the screen.

"Hmm, this is nothing." She wiped her thumbs across his cheeks, smoothing away the marks that the trailing drops had left. "How much of the earth would 'something' destroy." She teased.

"You can talk, Little Miss 'I'm fine'." They laughed together for a while and Adam felt himself lift a little at Shalimar's smile, absent of late. His resolve strengthened. This was the right thing to do. "Can I" He paused and checked his watch, gasping at the early hour of the morning he found displayed there. "Tomorrow," He corrected. "At a more decent hour, can I talk to you and Emma. I have something important I want to show you." Shalimar frowned and nodded.

"Of course. What is it?"

"Tomorrow." Adam looked back up at Shalimar, realising it was her that had come to see him. "Why are you up so late early anyway?" He grinned.

"Oh, I had a dream. It wasn't anything, I just wanted I don't know. It doesn't matter. I'll see you tomorrow." He nodded and smiled as she left. Tomorrow it was then.

Emma woke early, surprised to find herself in her own bed and happy to find Shalimar, there at her side, where she belonged. She tried to slip silently out of bed, but a hand reached out and caught her wrist before she could before she could get far.

"Stay." A sleep-filled voice murmured from deep inside the covers. She laughed and shifted back under the quilt to rejoin the voice.

An hour later Shalimar and Emma emerged, showered and clean and ready for the new day. Hand in hand they wandered into the kitchen and grabbed their breakfast, sitting to enjoy the early morning light that somehow managed to seep into the room despite it being several meters underground.

"Adam wants to see us today, I almost forgot." Shalimar said, leaning back into the seat and closing her eyes.

"What for?"

"I'm not sure, he was being very mysterious about it, he wouldn't tell me."

"When was this?"

"Last night. I had a dream and went wandering. Found him crying, it was all very strange."

"You sure you didn't dream it, love?" Emma asked, teasingly. Shalimar opened her eyes and frowned.

"Fairly."

"Well let's go find out then." Emma said amiably.

Adam looked up as they walked into the lab and Shalimar laughed.

"Adam, you haven't moved or changed or slept since I saw you last night, have you?" Adam blinked at her owlishly, eyes objecting to so many hours in front of a computer screen.

"Um No." He replied. "Sit down, I'll be back in a moment." Emma and Shalimar shared a glance - it wasn't often they were told to sit while in Adam's lab. Adam reappeared moments later looking cleaner and more awake in a fresh set of clothes.

He sat in a chair facing the two of them.

"I have a proposition for you. Something that will not be easy, or safe, but is an option if you chose at take it. It was something I worked on a long time ago, while I was still with Genomex. A pair of friends approached me about finding a way to combine two woman's gametes to form a single xygote without fertilisation." He looked excited and they both looked at him blankly. He sighed. "I could give you a child that was truly yours, part of both of you." He explained. Shalimar and Emma exchanged a shocked glance. "There are problems with the process, huge problems, but I think they could be overcome. It has only been done once before and in that case it was unsuccessful, the birthing-mother died."

"Why do you think it will work this time?" Emma asked absently, frowning deeply and watching the emotions that were crossing Shalimar's face. Would Shalimar let her do this? Carry the child for her? Would simply having the child be enough for her, to release her from this curse?

"Because Shalimar isn't just a normal woman." Now Emma's attention was fixed on Adam.

"But I thought you said"

"This is not a normal pregnancy. It puts higher than normal strain on the mother and the birth is almost certainly going to be premature. But let me explain this to you. Most of the feral's problem with child-birth is that the DNA is asking for a very short gestation period and the foetus grows at a rate that requires the full nine months that is normal. A miscarriage occurs because the foetus isn't ready for what the body is asking for. In this case the foetus grows at a faster rate than normal, almost fast enough to match up with the feral gestation period. So they would be close enough to not cause the problems that we would normally see in the feral. There's some other hormonal confusions, but these I can tackle as they appear. I know what to expect now."

"But it's putting Shalimar at risk? I mean, your friend died." Emma emphasised.

"Yes, it is a risk. But Shalimar, your body is going to start to feel it if you have another miscarriage. It's getting dangerous, what you're doing to your self." Shalimar looked up from the ground that she had been finding so interesting.

"I would"

"We need to talk about it." Emma interrupted, knowing instinctually what Shalimar wanted to say. "This is a big thing." She held Shalimar's eyes for a moment and smiled softly, sadly.

"We'll talk about it."