Chapter Ten - Little Girls Are Sweet
***
"Masaya, my best intern pediatrician in the history of Crystal Tokyo Hospital!"
Masaya groaned and turned towards Ami with wide eyes. "What do you want me to do for you, Aunt Ami-san?"
Ami grinned and poked him the chest. "You know me too well," she said. "I was going to ask a big big big favor of you."
"What?"
"Would you watch Izumi, Nanami, and Manami for me for a few nights? I know you're off--"
"All three of them?" The thought made Masaya a little weak. Occasionally, he baby-sat for Nanami and Manami, or Izumi separately. The thought of all three of the little energy balls bouncing off the walls here and there made Masaya a little sick. "For a few nights?"
"A weekend," Ami said. "Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Mitsuru--well, he got reservations at a hotel somewhere. Says he has something he wants to talk to me about, and he wants to tell me someplace nice...I couldn't have any teenager watch them for a few nights...but of course, you're not a teenager...you're all grown up..."
Masaya groaned again. "Let me check my schedule and think about it, Ami," he said.
Ami grinned. She knew he was going to end up doing it anyway.
***
Ami opened Aiyana's door very, very slowly, peering into the room. Aiyana was sleeping peacefully, and Ami felt bad for waking her, but they had her on a strict eating schedule, and Ami didn't want to tip off Aiyana's delicate stomach.
"Hey, girl," she whispered when she saw Aiyana start to become restless.
Aiyana woke up and looked up at Ami. She must have been sleeping really hard, Ami said, noting Aiyana's bleary eyes and badly tousled hair. "Dr. Amesuino-sensei," she said in a scratchy voice, and roused herself.
"Oi, I'm sorry to disturb your sleep...but it's breakfast-time, actually, and I didn't want to throw you off. It's crucial that you stick to your diet, especially at five months."
Aiyana smiled and sat up. Her stomach had really begun to swell, and it was rounded in the stereotype of a quite pregnant woman. She moaned a little as she realized the dull ache in her lower back. "I was trying to sleep off the headache I got last night..."
"Not feeling too well this afternoon, huh?"
Aiyana shook her head. No, her headache hadn't disappeared.
Ami smiled sympathetically and opened a small dresser drawer, taking out a canister of pregnancy-safe pain reliever. "Try these," she said. "Take them after you eat, with some water. Here, have some breakfast."
Aiyana definitely had developed a healthier appetite--she gobbled down the food in a manner reminiscent of Masaya, or, come to think of it, Ami's own daughter Izumi. Ami smiled broadly as the young woman fervently ate.
"That helping was for her," she said, pointing to the bulge at her stomach. "The next bowl's for me."
"Her?" said Ami, amused. "So you've decided you want a girl, now?"
Smiling faintly, Aiyana nodded.
"Little girls are sweet," Ami said, nodding and smiling. "I have three of my own...although they kind of left the sweet stage behind..." She rolled her eyes. "They inherited only their looks from me. They act just like their father--talkative, energetic, and rather annoying."
Aiyana laughed. "How old are they when they learn to talk?"
"Oh, it varies. About one and a half to two years old, I suppose."
Aiyana looked down. "My daughter--or son--will only learn Japanese," she said thoughtfully. "She or he won't really be surrounded by many Cassian-speaking people."
"Cassian?"
"My native language. Cassian."
"Why would it be called Cassian if your people are called Centurians and Proximians?"
"A queen of the empire, Cassiopeia, derived the alphabet to be used for the language we spoke. So they started calling it Cassian in her honor. That was before the Omegas came. They actually speak Psi. I can speak that, too."
"Trilingual." Ami let out a low whistle. "Very valuable for Earthian universities."
Aiyana smiled wryly. "I doubt that they would consider Cassian or Psi to be very useful languages."
"You never know."
Aiyana looked back to her food plate and ate the rest, considerably slower than she had eaten the first bowl. Then she set the bowl back on the night table. "Thank you, Dr. Amesuino-sensei."
"You're so welcome."
"Not just for the food, though...but for everything. For letting me stay here. For delaying whatever your constituents are trying to do." She sighed, turned her eyes towards the ceiling. "I know they want to execute me. I've made a mortal mistake, and my life's on the line..." She glanced down at the protrusion of her stomach. "I just hope I can save her from my mistakes."
"What do you mean?" Ami inquired softly.
"I don't want my daughter...or son...to die for something I did," she said, continuing to look down at her stomach. "And I don't know how willing they'd be to execute a pregnant woman...but considering I endanger the life of your monarchs..." Tears welled up in Aiyana's eyes, and she looked away so that Ami wouldn't see them. "I wonder what would happen if I did...if I were killed after I gave birth? Who would take care of my child? Where would she go?"
Ami stared at Aiyana for quite a while silently. "I...I suppose that...we would take good care of her here, until she could be adopted by a loving family."
Aiyana turned to Ami and stared at her for a few moments, eyes wet and red, and burst into bitter laughter. "Who would take my child?" she asked despairingly. "Who would take the offspring of the assassin who tried to kill the queen?"
Ami lowered her eyes. "You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?"
Sniffling, Aiyana nodded.
Taken by impulse, Ami reached out and hugged Aiyana. "Don't cry, sweetheart...we'll find something to do with you and your child. You're only speculating...those are what ifs...let's see what we have here first, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there, okay?" The obstetrician felt a slight nod of the head of the patient sobbing into her shoulder.
"It'll be okay, I promise. It will turn out okay in the end."
***
"Aiyana? You awake?"
"Oh. Masaya." By now Aiyana had figured that Masaya and Ami were pretty much taking turns serving her meals, and it was Masaya's turn this time. She sat up. Earlier she had decided to rise out of bed, gently washed herself up with a little of Ami's help--she was still a little imbalanced with her weight--and dressed in some of the light, airy, pastel-colored maternity clothes to lighten her mood. She felt a little better, and Ami come back with some soothing aromatherapy candles later on to spruce up her room a little bit more. Now her room burned with the scent of vanilla candles, subtly blended with her own rosy scent to produce an uplifting, purely feminine spirit to the room.
"Can I come in?"
"Yes." She sat up--not without a struggle--and turned towards the door to watch Masaya coming in. He had her lunch. The days were getting more monotonous to Aiyana--breakfast, lunch, and dinner, always served by one of her two doctor friends. Of course, both of them were pleasant company, with Masaya's a bit more interesting than Ami's, but she still wished that she could add a bit more to her days. Although she had no desire to go back "home" to the Omega Star Empire, she would still have more to do--run drills, exercise, take various aptitude tests and such.
Although, she reminded herself--or rather, her child reminded her when she felt the faint fluttering of baby limbs inside her abdomen--I couldn't very well do the things I used to in the Omega Star Empire with child. I wonder what they would have done with me if I had stayed there?
"Good afternoon. Wow, it smells really good in here." Masaya's smile was cheerful. Aiyana could already tell that Ami had informed him she hadn't been in her best spirits this morning, and he was trying to make her feel better by being happy and cheerful. "I brought us some tuna sandwiches today. Ami suggested it. They're her favorite and she thought you might like them."
Aiyana smiled. In the five months she'd been here, she'd had a lot of sandwiches, everything from the Italian works (which she liked) to watercress (which she despised--and apparently, so did the little one inside her, who quickly caused her to purge the horrible sandwich.) The sandwiches Masaya had in his hand looked suspiciously like watercress, but upon closer inspection she discovered that it was really green lettuce.
She grabbed at the sandwich as soon as Masaya put it down on the table and he laughed. "Hungry?"
"Yes, most definitely."
While she ate her sandwiches--and part of Masaya's--the young doctor looked around the hospital room. "You know, Aiyana, with the exception of the exercise we do some mornings, you haven't left this hospital room since that day five months ago when you tried to escape."
"That was four months ago," Aiyana said. "I was already a month pregnant when I got here."
"Whatever," said Masaya. "It was still a long time ago. You've spent the better part of your pregnancy here. Isn't it kind of...well...boring at times?"
Aiyana looked up. "I could be much worse off, Masaya," she answered gravely.
"I know...but..." Suddenly, Masaya had an idea. "Would you like to get out if you could?"
"I...suppose so." Aiyana eyed Masaya warily, but he seemed to be off in his own world. Masaya could scheme like his mother when he wanted to.
"I mean, go somewhere? It'd probably be inside, too, but at least you'd be out of here..."
"Would your government here let me leave the hospital?"
Masaya waved his hand. "We go by a monarchy on Earth, and the queen has all but forgotten you're in here. She certainly didn't say that you couldn't leave the hospital. So, what do you say? I mean, the hospital room is rather plushy, but it isn't the best in modern accomodations."
Aiyana nodded. "I've slept in worse, you've forgotten," she replied.
"How would...well, look," Masaya said. "Ami asked me to watch her three kids for a weekend while she and her husband go on a little vacation. I haven't accepted yet, but I can give her a condition...and get you to come."
Aiyana widened her eyes. "You want me to come and help you watch some children? After what I did?"
"Ami trusts you, Aiyana," he said. "It's not like one of my other aunts asked me. She knows your situation and she trusts you."
"Yes...whatever...it's different around children. Mothers get so much more defensive around their children." Aiyana put her sandwich down and looked back at Masaya. "I should know. I mean...I'm going to be a mother myself soon..." She frowned. "I've never said those words out loud, but I am. I'm going to be a mother soon. And I already can't bear to think of losing my child. How much more so will Ami fear for the three children she's already had for years?"
Masaya raised an eyebrow. "Believe me, Ami will be more fearful for you than she will for her three children. I'll ask her!"
Before Aiyana could protest otherwise, he had jumped up and dashed from the hospital room. Aiyana stared after him for a moment.
"I hope I don't have any sons," she said to herself quietly.
***
"Dr. Amesuino Ami-sensei, my best mentor doctor in the world..."
"Masaya, you're sucking up."
"You're right," Masaya said, playfully indignant now. "And why should I suck up to you, when you asked such a big favor of me? You should be sucking up to me."
"True. What do you want."
"Well, you see..." Masaya smiled the same smile he used to smile when he was a little boy trying to get his way. The effects were doubled now that he was an older, handsome young man instead of a child. "See, I was thinking...Aiyana's so cooped up in her little hospital room, I don't know how healthy that is for her. And she said she'd love to help me take care of your kids."
"You little liar," Ami said. "Aiyana never talks in extremes."
"Well...it was close to that."
"Let me guess--you asked for some help and she declined, saying she couldn't possibly. You insisted, and before she got a chance to get any more words out, you rushed out here to ask me."
Masaya smiled sheepishly. "Okay...so maybe it was a little more like that. But believe me, I can tell from the way she looked at me that she wanted to do it. I mean, it would be such a great experience for her. She would learn what it's like to be around children, and she could feel better about her pregnancy..."
"She seems pretty accepting of it now," said Ami. "As a matter of fact, she seems to be anticipating the birth."
"Oh, shut up," said Masaya. "Do you always have to be right?"
Smiling, Ami nodded. Masaya opened his mouth to speak again, but she held up a hand. "Let me clear it with my husband first. Personally, I think you're right--it would be great for Aiyana to get out of that little coop, but...by moral standards, I really should talk to Mitsuru first."
"Aunt Ami, do you think Uncle Mitsuru will go for that?"
Ami smiled devilishly. "You may be Minako's son, boy, but you learned your skills from me."
***
"Pack warm clothes," Amesuino Mitsuru said, grinning at his wife. "I promise it's a warm place."
"Koibito," said Ami, sitting on the bed and curling herself into a fetal position--a very convincing position-- "do you think that Masaya can handle Nanami, Manami, and Izumi for a whole weekend?"
"I trust Masaya's capabilities, koibito," Mitsuru said.
"I mean, it takes two of us to take care of them and we can barely do it, what with all their energy and everything. They're thirteen and three. They've all got those issues..."
Mitsuru shook his head and turned to his wife. "Ami-chan, where is this going?"
"Well..." Ami smiled and ducked her head, lowering her lashes across her cheeks. "Masaya, knowing the situation, asked if he could bring a...little help...along."
"A little help?"
"Yeah."
"And might this `little help' be another young adult?"
"Yes."
"Female, by any chance?"
"Anou...yes."
Mitsuru rolled his eyes. "Masaya didn't strike me as the type," he said, shaking his head again.
"Oh, it's nothing like that. As a matter of fact," Ami said, venturing ahead with her fingers crossed for luck, "she's pregnant."
Mitsuru's emerald green eyes widened now. "Pregnant?" He looked straight at Ami. "How helpful could she be?"
Ami shot daggers at Mitsuru, and he hung his head.
"Look, I trust Masaya and his decisions, as well as yours. If you both think this girl is not going to be a hindrance but rather an aid to this operation, fine. But only if you can trust her. You know her, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"Whatever...I just want to talk to her before I leave."
Ami gulped.
***
"Masaaaaaayaaaaaaaa!"
There is good reason Kami-sama gave me two legs, Masaya said, as Amesuino Nanami and Amesuino Manami each grasped one. Thank Kami-sama that Ami didn't have triplets!
"Hi Nami-chan, Mami-chan...I'm happy to see you too...let go of my ankles!" He pried the two little children off his legs and swung them both into large bear hugs, to which they giggled.
"Hi, Masaya-senpai."
Masaya looked up. In the entryway was Mitsuru and Ami's oldest daughter, Amesuino Izumi. She was the youngest of the teenage group, not counting Tenrei. While she was short in stature and had soft blue hair and blue eyes, her eyes were tempered with green and they were crafty, like Mitsuru's. Her features were sharp and yet delicate, another thing she shared with Mitsuru. She was definitely a pretty girl. She also had a rather healthy crush on Masaya, a fact the young man was oblivious to.
"Hi, Izumi-chan. Genki desu ka?" He hugged Izumi too, her small frame lifted into the air by his superior strength and weight.
"I'm great! It's nice you finally came back over here, Masaya-senpai. You've been gone too long!" She flashed him a wide smile and grabbed his arm, trying to lead him to the living room. "Come on."
"Wait..." He turned behind him. A lost-looking, scared Aiyana stood in the doorway, not sure what to do. She looked nervous as well, her eyes darting back and forth.
Manami, the more extroverted of the three-year-old twins, looked up at her with large, wide green eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
Aiyana jumped about three feet in the air and stared down at the little girl. "Oh," she said. "You startled me."
"Who are you?" she repeated.
"I'm Aiyana," she answered. "Your babysitter," she added with a smile towards Masaya's way.
Manami nodded, as if she understood and it made perfect sense, then toddled off in Masaya's direction, beckoning for Aiyana to follow.
***
"I think I hear them downstairs. Come on, we can leave." Mitsuru picked up his and Ami's suitcases. "You can get the carry-on, koibito."
"Mitsuru-chan--" Ami struggled to run after Mitsuru, but he was on a mission and out the door. She wanted to beat him downstairs to ward off any problems he might have with Aiyana.
Mitsuru ran down the stairs with ease--as if he weren't carrying two heavy suitcases--and walked into the living room, where Masaya, his children, and a fifth person were seated on the living room couch. Each babysitter held a twin in their lap, and Izumi was sitting in between them. The unfamiliar head was sitting on the side of the couch closest the staircase, and she looked up.
Mitsuru's eyes got as big as saucers, and he completely dropped the suitcases. One fell on his foot, but he didn't even notice. He was too busy gaping at the young woman sitting on the couch with his child playing in her lap.
Ami arrived downstairs, took one look at her husband, and knew that she was too late.
***
"Ami, would you please like to tell me what is going on?"
Ami looked up at her husband with the biggest, wettest, bluest eyes she could muster. After she saw the incredulous look on Mitsuru's face, and the troubled look on Aiyana's face--she looked as if she were about to burst into tears--she had quickly steered her husband upstairs into their bedroom to rectify the situation.
"Why is she in my house, Ami? Why the hell is she in my house?!"
"Mitsuru, I asked you if Masaya could bring along a little female help."
"No, Ami. You did not specify. You did not ask if Masaya could bring a killer into my home, to watch my children, for two days and a night!"
"She's not a killer, Mitsuru. She hasn't killed anyone."
"YET! Do you want one of our children to be the first?! And how do you know she hasn't killed anyone before? She was obviously trained as an assassin."
"But obviously, she failed. Which is why she is the predicament she is now. A trained, experienced assassin would have completed her task. I doubt she could have killed many people, if even one--she's only seventeen."
"Ami, may I ask you another question?"
"Yes, Mitsuru?"
"Why is she pregnant?"
Ami smiled. "I think I know how she's pregnant, koibito. You have three children of your own."
Mitsuru gave Ami a look that told her he was not joking, and Ami clamped her mouth shut.
"I didn't ask how. I asked why."
"Well..." Ami looked up to the ceiling. "Because she didn't want an abortion, I suppose would be the best answer I could come up with."
"Why would an assassin have qualms about killing her own baby? Something that most don't even regard as a living creature yet?"
Ami turned her eyes back on Mitsuru as he said this. Mitsuru was the farthest thing from a doctor--he was the computer programmer for Crystal Tokyo's central computers--but he did have compassion for people, and he loved his children and his family very dearly. The discrepancy in Aiyana's reputation and the facts was bothering him. Finally he turned his eyes back on Ami's, green into blue.
"Ami," he said, "remember when we were at Rei-san's house? Do you remember what I said to MInako when she was talking about your supposed `disloyalties'?"
"Yes," Ami replied, meek, but brightening. "You told Minako that you'd learned to trust my judgment."
"Exactly," Mitsuru said. "Now, I've learned to trust that judgment, even when I was scared out of my mind and I thought I might die...you remember those times..."
Ami nodded.
"I hope that I can trust you on this too, Ami." He said it very gravely. "I hope I won't regret my choice, Ami...the consequences are very serious for a mistake on this one. I don't want to play guessing games with the lives of my family."
"I know that Aiyana wouldn't do anything to hurt any of the girls," Ami said. "She's about to be a mother herself. She's...she's changed from when she first arrived, and she wasn't all bad then, either. Mitsuru, I promise you won't regret it."
Mirsuru looked down at his hands. "I still want to talk to her before I leave here. You may be reassured, but I sure as hell am not."
Ami nodded. That was half the battle...Aiyana, you're going to have to fight the other half on your own.
***
"Konban wa. What is your name?"
Ami had been right; Aiyana had felt about ready to cry when Mitsuru had looked at her like that. But she had clutched the small amethyst pendant hanging around her neck for strength and held her tears in for another time. This was no time to break down.
"Aiyana, Amesuino-dono."
Mitsuru was surprised by the girl's use of the courtly honorific. She wasn't from Crystal Tokyo, and only residents called them by their courtly names, sometimes not even then. But he didn't show his surprise and continued to question her.
"Aiyana-san. I'm going to trust you here with my children. I just want to ask you two things. They may seem very personal questions, but I just have to know."
Aiyana nodded.
Mitsuru thought about his question before he asked it...it needed to be worded correctly. "Did you come here on your own or did someone send you?"
Aiyana stared solemnly back at Mitsuru. "I was sent," she said. She said no more, but the answer spoke volumes to Mitsuru. He nodded.
"My second...what made you decide to keep your baby?"
Aiyana looked down at her stomach and blushed. I suppose it's become quite obvious that I am with child...I never knew it was so perceptible to others, but..."I didn't believe taking its life was right. Taking its life...because of a wrong someone else did to me...even then, it didn't feel right." She realized that she had let out her mortal secret, but if it would allow her to stay here and watch Ami's children...away from the confines of the hospital room...she would tell anything else. "I've grown quite attached to my little one," she added with a smile. In response, the `little one' kicked Aiyana from the inside.
Mitsuru observed this little exchange, the last sentence half spoken to herself. Slowly, a smile began to spread across his face. She seemed almost oblivious to him and the rest of the room now as she experienced the presence of her child within her, positively glowing with pride and love for a child she hadn't even seen yet, only knew from within herself.
"That's all I needed to know, Aiyana-san," Mitsuru said quietly. "Thank you for volunteering to watch my children for me this weekend."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: This chapter is longer (about two pages longer) than my usual ones, but I cut out the last two pages right at the cliffhanger. Then I readded them because I didn't like that I just had two pages hanging. Ah, this is just me rambling...Comments and questions to be sent to [1]julymoonbunny@hotmail.com
References
1. mailto:julymoonbunny@hotmail.com
***
"Masaya, my best intern pediatrician in the history of Crystal Tokyo Hospital!"
Masaya groaned and turned towards Ami with wide eyes. "What do you want me to do for you, Aunt Ami-san?"
Ami grinned and poked him the chest. "You know me too well," she said. "I was going to ask a big big big favor of you."
"What?"
"Would you watch Izumi, Nanami, and Manami for me for a few nights? I know you're off--"
"All three of them?" The thought made Masaya a little weak. Occasionally, he baby-sat for Nanami and Manami, or Izumi separately. The thought of all three of the little energy balls bouncing off the walls here and there made Masaya a little sick. "For a few nights?"
"A weekend," Ami said. "Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. Mitsuru--well, he got reservations at a hotel somewhere. Says he has something he wants to talk to me about, and he wants to tell me someplace nice...I couldn't have any teenager watch them for a few nights...but of course, you're not a teenager...you're all grown up..."
Masaya groaned again. "Let me check my schedule and think about it, Ami," he said.
Ami grinned. She knew he was going to end up doing it anyway.
***
Ami opened Aiyana's door very, very slowly, peering into the room. Aiyana was sleeping peacefully, and Ami felt bad for waking her, but they had her on a strict eating schedule, and Ami didn't want to tip off Aiyana's delicate stomach.
"Hey, girl," she whispered when she saw Aiyana start to become restless.
Aiyana woke up and looked up at Ami. She must have been sleeping really hard, Ami said, noting Aiyana's bleary eyes and badly tousled hair. "Dr. Amesuino-sensei," she said in a scratchy voice, and roused herself.
"Oi, I'm sorry to disturb your sleep...but it's breakfast-time, actually, and I didn't want to throw you off. It's crucial that you stick to your diet, especially at five months."
Aiyana smiled and sat up. Her stomach had really begun to swell, and it was rounded in the stereotype of a quite pregnant woman. She moaned a little as she realized the dull ache in her lower back. "I was trying to sleep off the headache I got last night..."
"Not feeling too well this afternoon, huh?"
Aiyana shook her head. No, her headache hadn't disappeared.
Ami smiled sympathetically and opened a small dresser drawer, taking out a canister of pregnancy-safe pain reliever. "Try these," she said. "Take them after you eat, with some water. Here, have some breakfast."
Aiyana definitely had developed a healthier appetite--she gobbled down the food in a manner reminiscent of Masaya, or, come to think of it, Ami's own daughter Izumi. Ami smiled broadly as the young woman fervently ate.
"That helping was for her," she said, pointing to the bulge at her stomach. "The next bowl's for me."
"Her?" said Ami, amused. "So you've decided you want a girl, now?"
Smiling faintly, Aiyana nodded.
"Little girls are sweet," Ami said, nodding and smiling. "I have three of my own...although they kind of left the sweet stage behind..." She rolled her eyes. "They inherited only their looks from me. They act just like their father--talkative, energetic, and rather annoying."
Aiyana laughed. "How old are they when they learn to talk?"
"Oh, it varies. About one and a half to two years old, I suppose."
Aiyana looked down. "My daughter--or son--will only learn Japanese," she said thoughtfully. "She or he won't really be surrounded by many Cassian-speaking people."
"Cassian?"
"My native language. Cassian."
"Why would it be called Cassian if your people are called Centurians and Proximians?"
"A queen of the empire, Cassiopeia, derived the alphabet to be used for the language we spoke. So they started calling it Cassian in her honor. That was before the Omegas came. They actually speak Psi. I can speak that, too."
"Trilingual." Ami let out a low whistle. "Very valuable for Earthian universities."
Aiyana smiled wryly. "I doubt that they would consider Cassian or Psi to be very useful languages."
"You never know."
Aiyana looked back to her food plate and ate the rest, considerably slower than she had eaten the first bowl. Then she set the bowl back on the night table. "Thank you, Dr. Amesuino-sensei."
"You're so welcome."
"Not just for the food, though...but for everything. For letting me stay here. For delaying whatever your constituents are trying to do." She sighed, turned her eyes towards the ceiling. "I know they want to execute me. I've made a mortal mistake, and my life's on the line..." She glanced down at the protrusion of her stomach. "I just hope I can save her from my mistakes."
"What do you mean?" Ami inquired softly.
"I don't want my daughter...or son...to die for something I did," she said, continuing to look down at her stomach. "And I don't know how willing they'd be to execute a pregnant woman...but considering I endanger the life of your monarchs..." Tears welled up in Aiyana's eyes, and she looked away so that Ami wouldn't see them. "I wonder what would happen if I did...if I were killed after I gave birth? Who would take care of my child? Where would she go?"
Ami stared at Aiyana for quite a while silently. "I...I suppose that...we would take good care of her here, until she could be adopted by a loving family."
Aiyana turned to Ami and stared at her for a few moments, eyes wet and red, and burst into bitter laughter. "Who would take my child?" she asked despairingly. "Who would take the offspring of the assassin who tried to kill the queen?"
Ami lowered her eyes. "You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?"
Sniffling, Aiyana nodded.
Taken by impulse, Ami reached out and hugged Aiyana. "Don't cry, sweetheart...we'll find something to do with you and your child. You're only speculating...those are what ifs...let's see what we have here first, and we'll cross that bridge when we get there, okay?" The obstetrician felt a slight nod of the head of the patient sobbing into her shoulder.
"It'll be okay, I promise. It will turn out okay in the end."
***
"Aiyana? You awake?"
"Oh. Masaya." By now Aiyana had figured that Masaya and Ami were pretty much taking turns serving her meals, and it was Masaya's turn this time. She sat up. Earlier she had decided to rise out of bed, gently washed herself up with a little of Ami's help--she was still a little imbalanced with her weight--and dressed in some of the light, airy, pastel-colored maternity clothes to lighten her mood. She felt a little better, and Ami come back with some soothing aromatherapy candles later on to spruce up her room a little bit more. Now her room burned with the scent of vanilla candles, subtly blended with her own rosy scent to produce an uplifting, purely feminine spirit to the room.
"Can I come in?"
"Yes." She sat up--not without a struggle--and turned towards the door to watch Masaya coming in. He had her lunch. The days were getting more monotonous to Aiyana--breakfast, lunch, and dinner, always served by one of her two doctor friends. Of course, both of them were pleasant company, with Masaya's a bit more interesting than Ami's, but she still wished that she could add a bit more to her days. Although she had no desire to go back "home" to the Omega Star Empire, she would still have more to do--run drills, exercise, take various aptitude tests and such.
Although, she reminded herself--or rather, her child reminded her when she felt the faint fluttering of baby limbs inside her abdomen--I couldn't very well do the things I used to in the Omega Star Empire with child. I wonder what they would have done with me if I had stayed there?
"Good afternoon. Wow, it smells really good in here." Masaya's smile was cheerful. Aiyana could already tell that Ami had informed him she hadn't been in her best spirits this morning, and he was trying to make her feel better by being happy and cheerful. "I brought us some tuna sandwiches today. Ami suggested it. They're her favorite and she thought you might like them."
Aiyana smiled. In the five months she'd been here, she'd had a lot of sandwiches, everything from the Italian works (which she liked) to watercress (which she despised--and apparently, so did the little one inside her, who quickly caused her to purge the horrible sandwich.) The sandwiches Masaya had in his hand looked suspiciously like watercress, but upon closer inspection she discovered that it was really green lettuce.
She grabbed at the sandwich as soon as Masaya put it down on the table and he laughed. "Hungry?"
"Yes, most definitely."
While she ate her sandwiches--and part of Masaya's--the young doctor looked around the hospital room. "You know, Aiyana, with the exception of the exercise we do some mornings, you haven't left this hospital room since that day five months ago when you tried to escape."
"That was four months ago," Aiyana said. "I was already a month pregnant when I got here."
"Whatever," said Masaya. "It was still a long time ago. You've spent the better part of your pregnancy here. Isn't it kind of...well...boring at times?"
Aiyana looked up. "I could be much worse off, Masaya," she answered gravely.
"I know...but..." Suddenly, Masaya had an idea. "Would you like to get out if you could?"
"I...suppose so." Aiyana eyed Masaya warily, but he seemed to be off in his own world. Masaya could scheme like his mother when he wanted to.
"I mean, go somewhere? It'd probably be inside, too, but at least you'd be out of here..."
"Would your government here let me leave the hospital?"
Masaya waved his hand. "We go by a monarchy on Earth, and the queen has all but forgotten you're in here. She certainly didn't say that you couldn't leave the hospital. So, what do you say? I mean, the hospital room is rather plushy, but it isn't the best in modern accomodations."
Aiyana nodded. "I've slept in worse, you've forgotten," she replied.
"How would...well, look," Masaya said. "Ami asked me to watch her three kids for a weekend while she and her husband go on a little vacation. I haven't accepted yet, but I can give her a condition...and get you to come."
Aiyana widened her eyes. "You want me to come and help you watch some children? After what I did?"
"Ami trusts you, Aiyana," he said. "It's not like one of my other aunts asked me. She knows your situation and she trusts you."
"Yes...whatever...it's different around children. Mothers get so much more defensive around their children." Aiyana put her sandwich down and looked back at Masaya. "I should know. I mean...I'm going to be a mother myself soon..." She frowned. "I've never said those words out loud, but I am. I'm going to be a mother soon. And I already can't bear to think of losing my child. How much more so will Ami fear for the three children she's already had for years?"
Masaya raised an eyebrow. "Believe me, Ami will be more fearful for you than she will for her three children. I'll ask her!"
Before Aiyana could protest otherwise, he had jumped up and dashed from the hospital room. Aiyana stared after him for a moment.
"I hope I don't have any sons," she said to herself quietly.
***
"Dr. Amesuino Ami-sensei, my best mentor doctor in the world..."
"Masaya, you're sucking up."
"You're right," Masaya said, playfully indignant now. "And why should I suck up to you, when you asked such a big favor of me? You should be sucking up to me."
"True. What do you want."
"Well, you see..." Masaya smiled the same smile he used to smile when he was a little boy trying to get his way. The effects were doubled now that he was an older, handsome young man instead of a child. "See, I was thinking...Aiyana's so cooped up in her little hospital room, I don't know how healthy that is for her. And she said she'd love to help me take care of your kids."
"You little liar," Ami said. "Aiyana never talks in extremes."
"Well...it was close to that."
"Let me guess--you asked for some help and she declined, saying she couldn't possibly. You insisted, and before she got a chance to get any more words out, you rushed out here to ask me."
Masaya smiled sheepishly. "Okay...so maybe it was a little more like that. But believe me, I can tell from the way she looked at me that she wanted to do it. I mean, it would be such a great experience for her. She would learn what it's like to be around children, and she could feel better about her pregnancy..."
"She seems pretty accepting of it now," said Ami. "As a matter of fact, she seems to be anticipating the birth."
"Oh, shut up," said Masaya. "Do you always have to be right?"
Smiling, Ami nodded. Masaya opened his mouth to speak again, but she held up a hand. "Let me clear it with my husband first. Personally, I think you're right--it would be great for Aiyana to get out of that little coop, but...by moral standards, I really should talk to Mitsuru first."
"Aunt Ami, do you think Uncle Mitsuru will go for that?"
Ami smiled devilishly. "You may be Minako's son, boy, but you learned your skills from me."
***
"Pack warm clothes," Amesuino Mitsuru said, grinning at his wife. "I promise it's a warm place."
"Koibito," said Ami, sitting on the bed and curling herself into a fetal position--a very convincing position-- "do you think that Masaya can handle Nanami, Manami, and Izumi for a whole weekend?"
"I trust Masaya's capabilities, koibito," Mitsuru said.
"I mean, it takes two of us to take care of them and we can barely do it, what with all their energy and everything. They're thirteen and three. They've all got those issues..."
Mitsuru shook his head and turned to his wife. "Ami-chan, where is this going?"
"Well..." Ami smiled and ducked her head, lowering her lashes across her cheeks. "Masaya, knowing the situation, asked if he could bring a...little help...along."
"A little help?"
"Yeah."
"And might this `little help' be another young adult?"
"Yes."
"Female, by any chance?"
"Anou...yes."
Mitsuru rolled his eyes. "Masaya didn't strike me as the type," he said, shaking his head again.
"Oh, it's nothing like that. As a matter of fact," Ami said, venturing ahead with her fingers crossed for luck, "she's pregnant."
Mitsuru's emerald green eyes widened now. "Pregnant?" He looked straight at Ami. "How helpful could she be?"
Ami shot daggers at Mitsuru, and he hung his head.
"Look, I trust Masaya and his decisions, as well as yours. If you both think this girl is not going to be a hindrance but rather an aid to this operation, fine. But only if you can trust her. You know her, right?"
"Yes, of course."
"Whatever...I just want to talk to her before I leave."
Ami gulped.
***
"Masaaaaaayaaaaaaaa!"
There is good reason Kami-sama gave me two legs, Masaya said, as Amesuino Nanami and Amesuino Manami each grasped one. Thank Kami-sama that Ami didn't have triplets!
"Hi Nami-chan, Mami-chan...I'm happy to see you too...let go of my ankles!" He pried the two little children off his legs and swung them both into large bear hugs, to which they giggled.
"Hi, Masaya-senpai."
Masaya looked up. In the entryway was Mitsuru and Ami's oldest daughter, Amesuino Izumi. She was the youngest of the teenage group, not counting Tenrei. While she was short in stature and had soft blue hair and blue eyes, her eyes were tempered with green and they were crafty, like Mitsuru's. Her features were sharp and yet delicate, another thing she shared with Mitsuru. She was definitely a pretty girl. She also had a rather healthy crush on Masaya, a fact the young man was oblivious to.
"Hi, Izumi-chan. Genki desu ka?" He hugged Izumi too, her small frame lifted into the air by his superior strength and weight.
"I'm great! It's nice you finally came back over here, Masaya-senpai. You've been gone too long!" She flashed him a wide smile and grabbed his arm, trying to lead him to the living room. "Come on."
"Wait..." He turned behind him. A lost-looking, scared Aiyana stood in the doorway, not sure what to do. She looked nervous as well, her eyes darting back and forth.
Manami, the more extroverted of the three-year-old twins, looked up at her with large, wide green eyes. "Who are you?" she asked.
Aiyana jumped about three feet in the air and stared down at the little girl. "Oh," she said. "You startled me."
"Who are you?" she repeated.
"I'm Aiyana," she answered. "Your babysitter," she added with a smile towards Masaya's way.
Manami nodded, as if she understood and it made perfect sense, then toddled off in Masaya's direction, beckoning for Aiyana to follow.
***
"I think I hear them downstairs. Come on, we can leave." Mitsuru picked up his and Ami's suitcases. "You can get the carry-on, koibito."
"Mitsuru-chan--" Ami struggled to run after Mitsuru, but he was on a mission and out the door. She wanted to beat him downstairs to ward off any problems he might have with Aiyana.
Mitsuru ran down the stairs with ease--as if he weren't carrying two heavy suitcases--and walked into the living room, where Masaya, his children, and a fifth person were seated on the living room couch. Each babysitter held a twin in their lap, and Izumi was sitting in between them. The unfamiliar head was sitting on the side of the couch closest the staircase, and she looked up.
Mitsuru's eyes got as big as saucers, and he completely dropped the suitcases. One fell on his foot, but he didn't even notice. He was too busy gaping at the young woman sitting on the couch with his child playing in her lap.
Ami arrived downstairs, took one look at her husband, and knew that she was too late.
***
"Ami, would you please like to tell me what is going on?"
Ami looked up at her husband with the biggest, wettest, bluest eyes she could muster. After she saw the incredulous look on Mitsuru's face, and the troubled look on Aiyana's face--she looked as if she were about to burst into tears--she had quickly steered her husband upstairs into their bedroom to rectify the situation.
"Why is she in my house, Ami? Why the hell is she in my house?!"
"Mitsuru, I asked you if Masaya could bring along a little female help."
"No, Ami. You did not specify. You did not ask if Masaya could bring a killer into my home, to watch my children, for two days and a night!"
"She's not a killer, Mitsuru. She hasn't killed anyone."
"YET! Do you want one of our children to be the first?! And how do you know she hasn't killed anyone before? She was obviously trained as an assassin."
"But obviously, she failed. Which is why she is the predicament she is now. A trained, experienced assassin would have completed her task. I doubt she could have killed many people, if even one--she's only seventeen."
"Ami, may I ask you another question?"
"Yes, Mitsuru?"
"Why is she pregnant?"
Ami smiled. "I think I know how she's pregnant, koibito. You have three children of your own."
Mitsuru gave Ami a look that told her he was not joking, and Ami clamped her mouth shut.
"I didn't ask how. I asked why."
"Well..." Ami looked up to the ceiling. "Because she didn't want an abortion, I suppose would be the best answer I could come up with."
"Why would an assassin have qualms about killing her own baby? Something that most don't even regard as a living creature yet?"
Ami turned her eyes back on Mitsuru as he said this. Mitsuru was the farthest thing from a doctor--he was the computer programmer for Crystal Tokyo's central computers--but he did have compassion for people, and he loved his children and his family very dearly. The discrepancy in Aiyana's reputation and the facts was bothering him. Finally he turned his eyes back on Ami's, green into blue.
"Ami," he said, "remember when we were at Rei-san's house? Do you remember what I said to MInako when she was talking about your supposed `disloyalties'?"
"Yes," Ami replied, meek, but brightening. "You told Minako that you'd learned to trust my judgment."
"Exactly," Mitsuru said. "Now, I've learned to trust that judgment, even when I was scared out of my mind and I thought I might die...you remember those times..."
Ami nodded.
"I hope that I can trust you on this too, Ami." He said it very gravely. "I hope I won't regret my choice, Ami...the consequences are very serious for a mistake on this one. I don't want to play guessing games with the lives of my family."
"I know that Aiyana wouldn't do anything to hurt any of the girls," Ami said. "She's about to be a mother herself. She's...she's changed from when she first arrived, and she wasn't all bad then, either. Mitsuru, I promise you won't regret it."
Mirsuru looked down at his hands. "I still want to talk to her before I leave here. You may be reassured, but I sure as hell am not."
Ami nodded. That was half the battle...Aiyana, you're going to have to fight the other half on your own.
***
"Konban wa. What is your name?"
Ami had been right; Aiyana had felt about ready to cry when Mitsuru had looked at her like that. But she had clutched the small amethyst pendant hanging around her neck for strength and held her tears in for another time. This was no time to break down.
"Aiyana, Amesuino-dono."
Mitsuru was surprised by the girl's use of the courtly honorific. She wasn't from Crystal Tokyo, and only residents called them by their courtly names, sometimes not even then. But he didn't show his surprise and continued to question her.
"Aiyana-san. I'm going to trust you here with my children. I just want to ask you two things. They may seem very personal questions, but I just have to know."
Aiyana nodded.
Mitsuru thought about his question before he asked it...it needed to be worded correctly. "Did you come here on your own or did someone send you?"
Aiyana stared solemnly back at Mitsuru. "I was sent," she said. She said no more, but the answer spoke volumes to Mitsuru. He nodded.
"My second...what made you decide to keep your baby?"
Aiyana looked down at her stomach and blushed. I suppose it's become quite obvious that I am with child...I never knew it was so perceptible to others, but..."I didn't believe taking its life was right. Taking its life...because of a wrong someone else did to me...even then, it didn't feel right." She realized that she had let out her mortal secret, but if it would allow her to stay here and watch Ami's children...away from the confines of the hospital room...she would tell anything else. "I've grown quite attached to my little one," she added with a smile. In response, the `little one' kicked Aiyana from the inside.
Mitsuru observed this little exchange, the last sentence half spoken to herself. Slowly, a smile began to spread across his face. She seemed almost oblivious to him and the rest of the room now as she experienced the presence of her child within her, positively glowing with pride and love for a child she hadn't even seen yet, only knew from within herself.
"That's all I needed to know, Aiyana-san," Mitsuru said quietly. "Thank you for volunteering to watch my children for me this weekend."
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AN: This chapter is longer (about two pages longer) than my usual ones, but I cut out the last two pages right at the cliffhanger. Then I readded them because I didn't like that I just had two pages hanging. Ah, this is just me rambling...Comments and questions to be sent to [1]julymoonbunny@hotmail.com
References
1. mailto:julymoonbunny@hotmail.com