CHAPTER ELEVEN

March 8, 2007 all day to evening

Dr. Colby or Cox had started to work on the patients at nine am, believing that there would just be a few routine checkups. It was now a few hours later and he still had not finished. The girls and women were crowding in. It seemed that nine months ago when the full moon asserted its power, everyone decided to make love, well almost everyone. It was like this in the twentieth first century, children having children, married women with their first, the former career woman with her miracle baby, and the older woman having her last, her eyes worried for fear the baby would not be right.

Then there were the discouragers, the ones who looked for the newly pregnant girl to take her to an abortion clinic and who looked at disdain at the women with three or more children in tow, sitting on the waiting chairs, or playing with the toys donated by the Ladies Society and Catholic Women's League. These whispered to their men friends, the latter with the too suave appearance whose hands would never hold a child, whose need was money and the adoration of others.

He did not like them, even though he was a good dresser, drilled since infancy to make a good appearance by a father who was ashamed of his working class background. One thing an obstetrician wants is as many women having as many babies as possible, so as soon as he was able, Cox, that is Colby decided to do something about it. He could no longer arrange adoptions for those children orphaned through his assassination of their parents on the Centre orders. Instead, he kept his weapon only in the defense of his family and called the Catholic Family Service if he could be of assistance in directing any girl who could not care for her child to their adoption service. As well as that, he placed an ad naming himself as a go between for a couple wanting a baby and a girl willing to release hers. For that he required a nominal fee to cover the cost of the girl's medical care and boarding care at the home of a retired nurse who had a soft spot for the unfortunates.

He gave one hundred thousand dollars plus four new cribs including mattresses to the Crisis Pregnancy Center, donated several gift certificates for baby clothes, accessories, and stuff needed to raise children, and volunteered his time as a Big Brother to help a fatherless boy. At least, he knew one thing, if the Dominants went after him they would have a hard time locating him. They would be looking for a selfish ass. However, once the discouraging women learned of his stance from the local Pro Life web site who wrote a list of doctors who were for or against abortion (his being in the latter), he started to get several threatening phone calls and dirty looks.

Once he returned from the hospital, discovering that someone had thrown an egg against the side of his house. He had Liza clean it off and then awoke a few hours later to the sound of a thump. Turning on the light, he found a rock with a note attached had broken one of the potted plants. The note said, "Anti Abortionists! Woman hater!"

He told the police about it, stating that as an obstetrician and a Big Brother, as well as a married man with a young wife and children, he would not stand for such annoyances. The police said they would patrol his house, but Cox knew they were more concerned if he had been on the opposite platform.

He decided to keep his gun with him, hidden in his inside jacket pocket and gave one to Liza. Right now, he was in his office at the hospital, talking to a Mexican American girl who nervously chewed a stick of gum while holding her three-week old son as her mother sat on another side with a look of disapproval not meant for the doctor but for her daughter. It appeared by the two girls hanging onto their grandmother's skirt, this was the third pregnancy. There was no sign of the father. According to the records, he was in jail, again.

"All right SeƱorita," he said to the stout girl with the dark shoulder length hair and the red shirt over pink pedal pushers, "let's see how little Jose's doing."

He picked up the infant and saw that the child was in the correct weight for his age. Colby nodded to the nurse who picked up one of the certificates from the desk and slipped it in the girl's purse.

Colby then gave the girl the address of the pediatrician who would take care of the boy when he was older as well as advice on baby care, where the Crisis Pregnancy Center was His job was done unless five years later, the girl went to Big Brothers and he got to show the boy how to play cricket. Yes he thought, we'll have the only American Cricket team in California in a few years.

The next patient was six months along, and this was her tenth, she having lost the others. So far, she had kept up with the bed rest, hiring a woman to help with the house, but she had started to have a little spotting. Colby gave her an examination and ordered her straight to the hospital for bed rest. After the delivery, he would see about surgery that would correct the problem so she would not have trouble with the next pregnancy.

So it continued until five o'clock, seeing one woman after another, one near her term, one just beginning, one poor, one rich, one Mexican, one Anglo Saxon, the whole society of future babies. He sure did not miss the Centre.

Liza told him of the Dominants in the area when he got home. "I saw six at least," she said as she put the food on the table. "What shall I do about this?"

"I doubt they know anything about the Centre," said Cox as he put down his paper. "And I'd like my white shirt for tomorrow. There's a business meeting after work."

"I'll get it ready. Is the tea strong enough?"

"Yes it is. Now about those Pretenders, I want you to find out if they had any connection with the ones in New England. Now you can sit down and eat."

"All right. Gino, my progenitor, came over here on his break and said that there is a Dominant called Marcus trying to bring a peace faction. No one agrees with him." She stirred her potatoes. "Do you know what they gave us before you changed our diet? They worked with the sapiens here to turn them into you, much like the Centre did. Now with the failure here and on the Centre side, they've got to change their methods. No one wants them to succeed."

"Then you better explain it to me." Cox could not understand his concubine's reluctance. Surely, she would want both species to cooperate. For one thing, life would be easier. Back in New England, there was always one of the Inner Sanctum 1.6rs to help with the work once Lambourni had released them from that hellhole. He would just say something like "Brad go fix Cox's garden" or "Linda do the laundry for Cox" and he would have Liza free to look after the children or sit besides him and watch BBC America. Here, however, it was different. Most cooperation was a Chameleon marrying a homo sapien for cover and eventually starting a family of Progenies. Few homo sapiens captured by the 1.6rs survived, most being killed by torture or quickly. The Dominants, who did run into debt or capture by rival factions were too busy, well, erecting pillars, driving someone around, or possibly, fighting to the death in cages. On second thought, the Dominants would probably make their human captives fight to the death and have their own enslaved kind train them. They would, of course, have to conquer the whole earth, first, which considering the recent events of last six years, that was not a possibility.

As it was, they were too busy to hoe the garden, peel the vegetables, or do the other mundane tasks so that Liza could sit besides him in the evening instead of having her scrub the pots and make sure the rose bush did not wilt in the heat.

At about eight, he heard a series of knocks and opened the door to see Gino standing there, his breathing a calm rush as he stood there, his right fist still clutched as if he were to start another series of raps. With his eyes blazing with anger, and his shirt half way buttoned up from the top, he said, "Ted told me that Lady M's on the way to California. What do you want done?"

Cox's face grew sour. He was too tired to think right now and the last person he wanted was that woman coming here and messing things up. He hoped the Marshall told him about it first. They would know what to do and if they did not, he would have Gino take care of her. His eyes glinted and became cold.

"If she comes here, she dies," he said, handing Gino some bills. "Make sure there is enough ammunition and go to the kennel. There's a particular Doberman Pinscher who almost tore the arm of a man who tried to kidnap a little girl. If that's not enough, call me back. I'm afraid Lady M is going to get a nasty surprise."