Chapter 18 – She's Leaking
"Ireland." Haruka quickly entered a password into an identification screen and shook her head gently when the 'access denied' screen came on the monitor.
"Why in the world would Endymion have a child in Ireland?" Michiru asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Good and far. The last place anyone would think to look, since it is in the United Kingdom and they donate their own demographics. He'd disappear as just another statistic. And he gets asylum anywhere he goes, because he's the king." Haruka added a curse under her breath when she reached another 'access denied' screen.
"Here, let me." Michiru shooed Haruka from the computer console and carefully picked at the keyboard.
"Lots of civil strife going on there," she commented as she paused, deep in thought. "Wouldn't they be concerned that that would cause some heads to turn? I mean, with the king of the planet being there and all?"
"No. It would have the reverse reaction," said Haruka. "The people of the United Kingdom are resentful of the Neo Moon Kingdom taking their power. A visit from the king would be more or less ignored, since they don't hail him as their king but depend on the rulers of their own kingdom. If Endymion were especially prudent, he'd be able to get in and out of the country with absolutely no one noticing."
"Really," said Michiru, entering the password. The screen blipped green and she smiled complacently. "We're in the Irish database. Let's do this."
Ami stared, very gravely, at the results she had on the paper. She blinked hard, but no matter how hard she blinked, the paper still rendered the same information it had before. She turned to Aiyana, who looked quite upset.
She'd complained of a severe headache earlier and went to sleep, and later woke with a feeling of wetness. Ami rushed to her, afraid for the child - it was mid-July, and a pre-term birth now, two months before term, would be very dangerous for both mother and child - but Aiyana's water wasn't breaking. It wasn't the consistency and color they were looking for.
"What's wrong with her, Ami?" Masaya was standing by. He was the one who had discovered Aiyana's discomfort and informed Ami of it. Ami stared back at the paper.
"She's leaking amniotic fluid," Ami replied unhappily.
Masaya's eyes widened. Amniotic fluid was very important to a fetus - it provided protection from infection, and if Aiyana lost too much of it, her child could suffer from infection.
"Even better," Ami added bitterly, "there was a bit of mucous in the fluid. It seems that she's losing her mucous plug as well. Which could mean one of two things."
Now there was something Masaya knew nothing about. He cocked his head to the side. "What?"
"One, the examination dislodged it and any more examination would be a bit dangerous, because it might cause early labor. Or two, her body's already preparing to go into early labor. Let's hope it's the former, Masaya."
Masaya nodded and exited the small conference room located in the back of the large hospital room Aiyana was now staying in. He advanced towards Aiyana's hospital bed, prepared to tell her the news. She looked half asleep, but her heavy lids fluttered a bit when she realized that Masaya was kneeling by her bedside.
"What's going on?" she asked groggily.
"You...you're leaking some vital fluids," he told her, as bluntly as possible. As much as he wanted to keep it from her - keep all the problems that involved her from her, and take care of them all himself - he had to tell her. It was important that she cooperate so that her child would be safely born, and nothing would happen to her. "Amniotic fluid. It protects the child."
Aiyana's eyes narrowed, she stared at Masaya for a few moments, then burst into tears.
Masaya sighed helplessly. He hated to see her cry; this was only the third time, and he felt like such a heel. All three times it had been because of something he'd said. Reflecting on that, he felt like crying himself.
"Aiyana, Aiyana, stop crying." Ami's soothing voice floated from the back of the room, and in a moment she was there, rubbing the young woman's back and cooing soothing words to her. "Masaya perhaps didn't explain the effects enough." She shot a look at Masaya, slightly reproachful, and that only made him feel worse.
"What's going to happen to me, Ami?" Aiyana whispered, bright blue eyes full of fright and tears.
"When you're pregnant, there's this little sac called the amniotic sac that protects the child from infection," said Ami, rocking Aiyana gently. "When it leaks a little fluid, things can get a bit dangerous, but it's nothing that modern medicine can't handle with a little bit of care. Have you felt any change in the way you're carrying the child?"
"Um..." Aiyana swallowed. "Sometimes she seems to move less. Is that bad? Dr. Amesuino-sensei..." She choked on her next set of words. "Could she be dead inside me?" The thought made her burst into another round of sobs.
"Oh, Aiyana," Masaya sighed softly, and felt tears well in his own eyes. He turned away so Ami wouldn't see how much this was affecting him, but Ami was too perceptive to miss such a thing. "Are you sure?"
"I don't believe she's dead," said Ami, smiling gently. "I can feel her kicking you right now. Maybe because you've been sleeping more, you feel her less?"
Masaya had to agree that Aiyana had been sleeping an awful lot. She was fatigued all the time. He had to content himself with, instead of talking to her, holding her in his arms or sitting and watching her sleep. Both of which weren't horrible alternatives, but not nearly as enjoyable as conversing with her and feeling her eyes on him.
"Maybe so," Aiyana sniffled. The stress, the strain on her was just too great. She felt as if she could collapse right now, and the whole world wouldn't care. No world would care - her own, nor the one she was on right now. All of this discovering, investigating, looking and measuring...it was starting to take it's toll, and all she wanted to do now was sleep. Eternally.
But when she saw Masaya's warm but shaky smile, she knew she wasn't alone in her feelings. He was as nervous and frightened as she, although he would hardly admit it. It made her feel better. Someone would care, at least. Ami would care.
And Masaya would care.
"Feeling better, my prince?"
"Never felt...better," replied Prince Tamashiiro, staring weirdly at the doctor. He'd stopped having the weird symptoms a few weeks ago, but his father wasn't taking any chances. Tamashiiro would have liked to believe it was all because he cared about him. It was true that the emperor did care for his adopted son, but it was also true that Tamashiiro was his only heir and he didn't want to lose him.
"Did you ever find out what was wrong with me?"
"Seemed to be some somatic symptoms," said the doctor, giving Tamashiiro a funny look. "Did you have an affair that produced a child?"
"What?" Tamashiiro wasn't sure that he was hearing the doctor right. "What are you trying to ask me?"
"You heard me perfectly well, Prince Tamashiiro-sama. Are you going to be a father any time soon?"
Tamashiiro thought hard. He had no idea...if that little twerp...were pregnant. Could she be? He backtracked, and realized that all the symptoms he'd had were the symptoms reminiscent of pregnancy. But he couldn't be pregnant, now could he? That, at least, was positive.
But it struck him he should be truthful with the doctor. That way, he might be able to get rid of some of these crazy feelings he had. Maybe the doctor might even be able to tell him whether that girl was pregnant or not. He'd go insane if she was.
"I sure hope not," he said truthfully.
The doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Look, sensei, if you utter so much as a word to this I'll have you on Tau level so fast that you won't see it coming," the prince said fiercely. The Tau caste was for high government rule violators, and were subject to long years in high-security prisons. The threat was frightening, and pretty solid coming from the second-highest ranking person on the doctor's planet - the doctor happened to be a Lambda, which was a high class society, the first civilian caste after the Military. The thought of being moved down so far was devastating.
"I promise to uphold an even higher level of secrecy that I am normally required to hold, your highness," the doctor said in a nervous voice. He ran his hand through the thinning hair on his scalp, eyes flickering a little.
"Good." Tamashiiro looked around, as if he expected someone to pop out of the walls. "There was this girl, okay? Night got a little cold. It was a one time thing."
"No protection?"
"No."
The doctor thought for a moment. "When was this?"
"The twenty-second of Jolene," he answered almost immediately. He'd never forget that date.
"Hmm," the doctor said. "The gestation period for...wait, was she Centurian, Proximian, or Andromedan?"
"She wasn't."
"What?"
"She wasn't from our system." Tamashiiro fell silent. "She was from Earth."
"Prince Tamashiiro-sama, you had sex with one of the tests?"
"You're getting loud, doc!"
"I'm sorry," said the doctor, lowering his voice. "But the test, Tamashiiro. What the hell is wrong with you?" The doctor sighed. "Which one?"
"The little lost one. The one they put under my watch."
"That's like having sex with a babysitting kid. Or worse, a lab rat."
Tamashiiro cringed at the likeness. "Like I said, it was a one-time thing. I'm sorry."
"Now, if she is pregnant, the child will be a half-breed. At least you're not Alphan. That'd be a really ugly mix."
Tamashiiro rolled his eyes and thought about the byproduct of a Centurian and an Earthian, what with the Centurians having the pointed ears, rolled- in eyes, and slightly webbed toes. They looked remotely Earthian, but there were too many differences for the baby to come out looking anything but horrendous. The Andromedans and the Earthians had many more likenesses, although Andromedans tended to be much taller and better built than the Earthians. However, Tamashiiro's home planet of Alpheratz was about the same distance from their sun as Earth was, so that had the Alpheratzians appearing about the same as the Earthians.
"I can't agree more." Tamashiiro stared at the doctor. "Is there still time to kill the child before it's born?"
"A partial-birth abortion could be done, yes, but we'd have to force her to give birth in order to kill the child. And in any event, we're still not completely sure she is, although it appears you're suffering from a disease we like to call ilytheiois."
"Huh?"
"Ilytheiois. Childbirth disease that relates to impending fatherhood. It's called couvade on Earth, and generally means that the father of a child gets the same symptoms as the mother, although they're related to somatic disturbances. Not quite sure how the father experiences the same thing as the mother...may come from anxiety about the birth. And I'd definitely say you're anxious about this birth."
"Damn right about that." Prince Tamashiiro looked a bit overwhelmed.
"Why would you want to kill it?"
"Why would I want it to live? I can't take care of a child."
"Who said you'd have to take care of it? She could take it herself. That test was particularly quiet. She wouldn't say anything even if she knew it was yours."
"What if it looks like me? My father would make me take care of it." Tamashiiro sighed. "He might even make me marry the girl."
The doctor chuckled, cocking his head at the prince. "Somehow, Prince Tamashiiro-sama, you don't seem as disturbed about that prospect as you should be."
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