Jonah was at his work station but constantly looked over his shoulder toward Brenna's elevated office, on the look-out for Thera. He'd checked at least twenty times in the last five minutes but he couldn't stop from looking again. If anyone else noticed his distraction they made no mention and they certainly didn't challenge him on the matter; few in the caves would dare to cross Jonah. He commanded respect, and those few who weren't bright enough to respect him feared him... Jonah proved to have some inexplicably deadly fighting skills. Jonah had no idea where they came from, but when they served him and later when he discovered he could use them to safeguard Thera their origins didn't matter.
Jonah stared at the closed door to Brenna's office and thought to himself, 'what is taking so long?'. The last week had been an exercise in utter tension for both of them. Thera, his companion, his partner, his lover but somehow more than all of that, had confided over evening meal a week ago that she thought she might be pregnant.
Jonah remembered he'd felt odd at the news. He knew it was not a good thing, that it was disallowed in their working and living conditions, but still something deep inside him wanted him to be happy. It was confusing and Thera's expression said she was just as torn.
Without making any outspoken agreement they both took measures to hide the pregnancy. Jonah wasn't sure how long they thought they could keep it a secret. Even if they managed to keep it from the others the natural course of the pregnancy would mean, at some point, Thera would start showing and then they'd be busted and Thera would have to go for termination anyway and it would only be harder because the baby would be bigger and more mature, not to mention the fact he and she would be more attached to it and its loss would be that much more difficult for them both to cope with. There was no logic in even trying to preserve the pregnancy... but they did it anyway.
Then yesterday Thera got sick. It wasn't the first time, and one of them had conjured up the strange phrase 'morning sickness' from their addled brains, but it was the first time a supervisor was there to see it. Worker health was closely monitored and as soon as they'd seen Thera throwing up she was sent to the infirmary. Jonah remembered the dreadful sinking feeling when he'd been kneeling beside the toilet at Thera's side while she vomited and looking up into the face of an unscrupulous foreman. It had almost been enough to make him sick, and the look Thera cast him when she stopped hurling and noticed they'd been seen stuck with Jonah for the rest of the day.
Today Thera, without more than a meaningful, worried look at Jonah in passing, went to Brenna's office. And not a thing since.
Jonah glanced again toward the door just as it opened and finally Thera stepped out. Jonah fought to keep himself from dropping his work and hurrying to her to find out what Brenna said. It would be improper for him to leave his station and considering his and Thera's 'predicament' he didn't think it would be wise to do anything that might try the patience of the supervisors.
Thera reached the bottom of the stairs, looked toward Jonah, then with a promising nod turned and headed toward her own duty station. It would have to wait until later.
Jonah wasn't sure he could stand it, but he had a job to do and he was willing to serve.
The midday meal took forever to arrive but the moment the work shifts were relieved for lunch Jonah was on the hunt. Since his quarry was seeking him, too, it didn't take long to find her. Thera was waiting for him a distance away from the food lines.
Jonah strode up to her, stopping close enough to drop his voice to a private whisper. "So? What did Brenna say?"
"That you can't apply for breeding rights and the management board doesn't need natural replacement of workers..."
Jonah's stomach tightened and his appetite fled.
"... but she's going to talk to them."
Jonah blinked at her. Thera looked cautiously hopeful, her blue eyes upturned to study his face.
"You think that'll help?" Jonah asked carefully.
"I don't know. Brenna seemed to think we're both prime breeding stock so they might consent to offspring between us even if the timing's lousy."
"Really?" Jonah couldn't believe there could be wiggle-room with the rules.
Thera nodded, nervous and scared but a glitter of hope and glee in her eyes that made Jonah's hard edges melt. He even managed a small smile. His eyes, almost of their own volition, traveled down her body, down the rough and tattered orange jacket, to rest on her still-flat abdomen and he whispered, "So there's still a baby in there."
Thera restrained herself from protectively placing a hand on her stomach but she did look down at her own body. "Yeah... it's still there." A tone of wonder and stifled excitement strained at the highest octave of her voice.
Jonah found himself grinning. It was strange and silly but he grinned all the same. Thera looked up at him, a barely-contained grin on her face as well, and Jonah would let himself hope it could happen for the moment.
"We better get in line before all the good stuff is gone." He guided her to the mass of gathered workers with a hand on her shoulder and a disgruntled path opened for them. Kaegan, at the serving bench, glowered at the duo but knew better, from experience, than to start trouble with Jonah (or, by extension, Thera... not in Jonah's presence, anyway).
Jonah and Thera collected their bowls and bread and moved away to a tucked-aside corner where they sat shoulder to shoulder against the wall. Jonah immediately spooned a fourth of his food and deposited half of his bread into her bowl.
"You have to be careful," Thera warned, "if you get weak from hunger on the job they'll end this on principle."
Jonah grunted. "I'll be fine."
Thera looked down at the grisly food, sighed, and instead of immediately digging into her meal she leaned into Jonah and rested her head on his shoulder. Jonah allowed it and somehow it seemed to make him more 'dominant male' to have Thera pressed against him in plain view. He proceeded to eat, secure in his status as an alpha male, while Thera took a moment next to him to defuse.
The other workers were getting their portions and moving off into clusters and groups to eat. There were patterns and groups that were pretty static day to day. She could predict where some people would go, with whom they would sit. Thera watched them from her safe place at Jonah's side, significantly more at ease than that morning.
Jonah suddenly looked over at her. "Are you feeling sick again?"
Thera realized she'd been zoning out and avoiding her food for a good ten minutes. "No," she answered, and reluctantly sat up and started to eat. It was lukewarm but no temperature made the food particularly palatable so cold was just as good as fresh from the kettle.
"Mind if I join you?" Carlin, suddenly standing before them, asked.
Jonah looked up at the younger man. "Go ahead," he said in invitation.
Carlin sat down crossed-legged before the two and arranged his bowl on the floor in front of him. Thera continued to eat and as she did so she considered their relatively new companion.
Carlin had been like a ghost at the periphery of Thera's thoughts for what had seemed weeks. She could never remember talking to him or knowing him personally but still there had been something about him she couldn't shake. His face haunted her and at strange moments in the day she would inexplicably find herself looking for him. It made no sense and she couldn't begin to explain it. It was like she knew him and yet she knew she didn't.
Then one day Jonah and Carlin got into a fight. Jonah, too, had apparently noticed the skulking shadow he and Thera had gained and he was more challenged than curious regarding the younger man's constant presence. It eventually turned into a confrontation. Carlin, while younger and physically stronger, was no match for the things Jonah seemed to innately know how to do. Carlin was doomed... or he should have been. Just when things between the two men were getting ugly and right before Jonah inflicted any serious damage he just stopped. He'd pulled his punch and stared at Carlin like he was a perplexing mythical beast incarnate and freed him unharmed and from that day on Carlin had been their third. It had bled into a natural state of comradeship, and so very little was spoken on the matter.
Thera, more than once, had tried to get Jonah to tell her what had inexplicably changed his attitude about Carlin and what had gone through his head that day when he let Carlin go. Jonah had never given a more satisfactory answer than a scowl and the confusing reply 'I just couldn't hit him'.
Strange occurrences were par for the course in the caves and Thera had given up trying to understand the laws of the underground.
Thera could not deny a certain amount of peace to have Carlin around. She got the feeling she could trust him, in much the same way she trusted Jonah. Somehow it felt right.
Carlin was eating his lunch at a steady pace, not the rushed scarfing of many of the other workers nearby. Being aligned with Jonah allowed Carlin the luxury of eating at his own speed. What at first had started as something akin to Carlin being 'brought into Jonah's good graces' became something far more similar to a male coalition. Carlin earned Jonah's respect and trust and it made Carlin Jonah's 'right-hand man'.
Thera felt the strangest sense of 'correctness' in that arrangement, even if there still seemed to be something missing.
Thera suddenly realized that Carlin was casting repeated strange, speculative glances at her during his meal. He cut his blue eyes in her direction again and again and that pensive, concerned scowl would mar his otherwise handsome features.
"What?" she asked.
Carlin frowned at her but she knew he'd say what was on his mind because Carlin was just forthcoming like that. "Are you okay, Thera?"
Thera had to evoke very strict control over her actions not to look at Jonah. While they trusted Carlin to a fault they had not told him about the baby.
"I'm fine, why?"
Carlin made that face again. "Just... a rumor was going around that you were night sick."
"If she was night sick would she be out here with the rest of us?" Jonah asked curtly.
Carlin shook his head slowly as he mulled over the evidence. He was utterly unruffled by Jonah's tone of voice. Jonah had a way of rattling most people with his tone and forceful speech, but it did not phase Carlin. Half the time he almost seemed utterly oblivious to Jonah's ire.
"No..." Carlin answered Jonah, then directed his next words at Thera, "but you were absent from your shift yesterday and part of today."
Thera shrugged it off as though it was unworthy of mention. "I'm okay, Carlin. Jonah's right, they wouldn't let me come back to work if I wasn't fine." She watched an array of emotions transform Carlin's expressive face and she wanted to tell him, to bring him into the secret... but not yet. Not when Brenna could fail to win the administration over and it would all lead to nothing anyway. If she had to lose the baby she didn't want to live with sympathetic, sad looks from anyone more than Jonah, and with Jonah it would be shared pain instead of plain pity.
Carlin looked less than completely convinced but he didn't press the subject any further.
The trio continued to eat in silence until Thera lowered her bowl to the ground.
Jonah eyed it surreptitiously. "You didn't finish."
"I'm not that hungry; you should finish it."
Jonah cast a pointed look at her and frowned. "You should."
Carlin glanced up at them from his food at the exchange. "Don't you two find it a little ironic that we're down here on slave rations and you're trying to pawn food off on each other?"
Thera, ignoring Carlin's quip, spoke to Jonah. "I spent a lot of yesterday in the infirmary and this morning in Brenna's office; I didn't use as much energy as you did. You take it," Thera picked up the bowl and extended it to him. She tacitly ignored the displeased scowl on his face.
Jonah accepted her bowl, unhappily, and peered inside.
"You know," Jonah said dryly, "we're really fighting over close to nothing here."
Thera chuckled. "Because I ate the rest, so don't get up in arms."
Jonah glanced at her, face subtly gentle and mood mollified, and scraped the bottom of her bowl for the remnants of her meal. It amounted to two spoons-worth.
The horn sounded that marked the end of the lunch break and everyone began to rise and shuffle toward the crate where they were to deposit their dishes before returning to the machines that kept back the ice age that had engulfed the rest of their planet. Thera marched behind Jonah, Carlin following her, and it afforded her an odd sense of security and peace in such an inhospitable environment.
But strange was normal for the caves, if nothing else Thera was certain of that fact.
