Sleep Deprivation

An AU in which Gharis Rhade is leading the Andromeda (successfully, this time). Gaheris attempts sleep. Someone stops him. (GRhade/Beka)

Gaheris Rhade reached over to his bed side table and switched off the light. The room settled into comfortable darkness, and he closed his eyes. It had been a long day and he was tired.

Sure enough, sleep swiftly began to take a firm grasp on his subconscious, and within five minutes he was drifting slowly but surely away from the land of wakefullness.

He was just taking those last few tentative steps into blackness, when…

"Gaheris?"

Gaheris groaned and buried his head under his duvet. "What…?"

"Are baby Nieztchens born with bone blades?"

Gaheris sat up and looked at his pregnant wife. "What?"

"Are baby Nieztchens born with bone blades?" She repeated, earnestly, a worried expression creasing her features.

Perhaps it was his close proximity to sleep, or the near-comical expression on her face, or a combination of the two, but Gaheris took approximately two seconds to process what he was being asked, and promptly burst out laughing.

Beka glared at him, folding her arms. "What?!" She demanded, "this is not funny! I'm not giving birth to a child that has great big spikes sticking out of it's arms!"

Gaheris lay back down, still chuckling.

"Gaheris!" Beka punched his arm, hard. "I want an answer!"

Gaheris sat back up, put his arms around his wife and pulled her back down into bed with him. "Alright, alright, calm down. No, okay? Baby Nieztchens are not born with bone blades."

"They're not?"

"No," Gaheris buried his nose in the soft fiery-auburn strands of hair falling down the back of Beka's neck, "they are born with just little bumps under their skin, which grow, like teeth. They grow slowly until the child reaches puberty, then they grow much faster for about four years. The bone blades reach about full size at around fifteen or sixteen in girls, and seventeen or eighteen in boys, alright?"

"Thank God!" Beka sighed, closing her eyes.

"Now go to sleep, okay?"

"I will."

Gaheris resettled himself, holding Beka to him, keeping his arms protectively close around the bump over her abdomen. He would do anything to protect his wife and their unborn child, anything to make sure Beka was happy and safe, that his child would grow up loved and well cared for…

But right now all he wanted was sleep.

"Gaheris?"

Gaheris groaned and jerked out of his doze once more. "What?"

"What are we going to do, when this child is born?"

"Should I just give up on sleep right now and save myself the bother of trying?" Gaheris asked.

"Sorry." Beka shifted slightly, making herself more comfortable, "but… what are we going to do?"

Inwardly, Gaheris resigned himself to another long night. The baby hadn't even been born yet and he was already failing to get through an entire night. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" Beka sighed and tried to find the right words, "are we going to raise our child on the Andromeda? I mean, as idealistic as it sounds, can we really do that? We're under attack a lot… and… I don't mind… but I don't think it's fair to bring a tiny helpless person into that sort of predicament… what if we were attacked by magog, or there was a radiation leak…?"

As a matter of fact, Gaheris had already been contemplating that part of their problem for some time. He knew as well as Beka did that it simply wasn't practical to bring their child up on a war ship.

"Well, I kind of have a plan," he told her, gently.

"A plan, huh?" She asked, turned over to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Yes," he kissed her, "I was thinking that, when the baby is born, I'll either take a few years leave from the high guard, or, if they wont let me do that, I'll retire. And I was thinking that maybe we could move to Tarazed, settle there."

"Tarazed…" Beka seemed to be thinking the idea over, "Tarazed is good… I like that."

Gaheris nodded. He'd counted on Beka's need for a stable environment for their child to grow up in overriding her dislike of planets. "It's quiet, it's safe, it's secure… good schools, plenty of other kids, my… ancestors live there… there are Neiztchens as well as humans, so our child gets both worlds… and if you don't want to live planet-side they have their own drifts near by."

Beka smiled. "You really have thought of everything haven't you?"

"Oh, you know me," Gaheris shrugged, "constantly over-planning."

"There's nothing wrong with over-planning." She told him.

"Now," Gaheris yawned, "as much as I would love to lie here and plan every moment of our child's future down to the last ridiculous, miniscule detail… I really, really, have to sleep."

"Okay." Beka kissed him, and lay her head on his chest. "Goodnight, Gaheris."
Gently, Gaheris stroked her hair, "goodnight, Beka."

As sleep slowly over took him, Gaheris finally began to drift into blackness, and sweet release of nothingness began to drown his senses.

"Gaheris?"

"What?!" Gaheris snapped out of it yet again. "What now?!"

"I think the baby kicked." Beka blinked at him in the gloom, a proud grin on her features, visible even in the darkness.

"Really?" Gaheris's eyebrows went up.

"Yup." Beka nodded. "Definitely got a good pair of legs."

Gaheris laughed, suddenly over taken by a giddy joy. He was married to the most beautiful, funny, fantastic woman he had ever had the honour meeting, the commonwealth was stronger than ever, and their child was kicking. Life was good.

Sleep depriving, but good.