Disclaimer: I own nothing.
AN: to settle any confusion in my last author's note I'M NOT PREGNANT! Thank you
To ALPAUST: this hasn't turned into a Soap Opera yet
Chapter 19
"What do mean by when she was Colonel Sparter?" Optimus asked the young Lieutenant, already knowing the answer.
"Colonel Eris Onishi's maiden name was Sparter. She was my older sister," Lieutenant Sparter answered.
Optimus looked shocked. He'd known Sparter for four years. He asked Sparter for advice regarding Koji's safety, upbringing, and stuff about Koji in general and Sparter hadn't ever even hinted that Koji was… 'Koji's his grandson!' Optimus thought. Several things flashed through his mind. Like why hadn't the General tried to have a more active role in his grandson's life? Actually he knew the answer to that. Koji had unknowingly answered that question years ago. Besides, Mom's family didn't approve of her marrying a foreigner.
"Koji mentioned having an aunt that was a lawyer," Optimus said. Koji had never mentioned having any relatives in the military other than his mother.
"Janet. She's the oldest. Got married right after law school and had seven kids," Lieutenant Sparter smiled.
"Koji said she had five kids."
"She had two more in the last three years. This family has a habit of turning out a lot of kids, especially when they start early."
Optimus inwardly groaned. 'Great, Koji's probably going to have twenty then'.
"I take it Koji doesn't know about you," Optimus looked between the two suspiciously.
"That would be Dad's fault," Lieutenant Sparter jerked her thumb in her father's direction.
"Excuse me-" Sparter sputtered.
"You were the one who disowned her," Lieutenant Sparter smiled sarcastically. Optimus knew then were Koji's sarcastic outlook on things came from.
"If she'd acted reasonable-"
"What's your definition of reasonably, General?" Optimus asked. Koji had spent his entire life cut off from his mother's family and it appeared that the family was divided on their opinion about the Colonel's choice of husband.
"Not running off and getting married just because she got pregnant," General Sparter spat out.
"Huh?" Optimus was dumbfounded at this revelation. 'What is with this family and out of wedlock pregnancy?'
"The only reason she married Onishi was because she was pregnant with his child," Sparter said looking upset.
"What was she suppose to do then?"
"Dad wanted her to abort it," Lieutenant Sparter announced simply.
"I only told her to consider her options before rushing into something she might regret," Sparter defended.
"The first words out of your mouth when she told you she was pregnant were 'Abort it,'" Lieutenant Sparter said casually.
"Excuse me but by abort do you mean killing the baby before it's fully formed?" Optimus asked barely controlling his rage. The "it" Sparter had told his daughter to "abort" was Koji. Sparter had wanted his daughter to kill Koji before the boy was even born. To Optimus that was about the same as what Scourge and Hao Saka had tried to do. He wouldn't tolerate anybody talking about HIS 'son' like that.
"She a career and a relationship to worry about," Sparter tried to reason.
"Relationship?" Optimus felt like a parrot. A parrot who was seriously contemplating crushing the man in front of him, but a parrot all the same.
"She was engaged!" Sparter yelled.
"No she wasn't," Lieutenant Sparter said.
"She was going to be engaged," Sparter conceded.
"No she wasn't," Lieutenant Sparter said again.
"Yes she was," Sparter said.
"No, you wanted her to be engaged to Randy because he was a military man and fit into your plan for us. She went out on one date with him to shut you up and then dumped him," Lieutenant Sparter explained.
"How would you know?"
"Because he and I sat on the couch making out for twenty minutes and all she said was get a room," Lt. Sparter smiled.
Sparter just glared at his daughter.
"Maybe we should move this argument to a quieter place," Optimus suggested. The warp room was getting crowded, too crowded for this kind of argument. 'Is Koji's whole family devoid of a sense of discretion?' Optimus wondered.
"Umm." T-Ai love chocolate ice cream. Especially when it was smothered in double fudge chocolate syrup. It wasn't the healthiest thing to have but at least it was better than the fries dipped in rocky road ice cream and cheese covered pickles she'd had yesterday.
She looked around the kitchen that she'd made into a total mess. It hadn't been to clean to begin with but now it looked like it had in the picture she'd seen of Koji and his father trying to cook in it. T-Ai figured she should try to tidy up a bit. Looking through the drawers for a washrag she found another picture. She'd seen an empty space on the wall and figured Koji had taken it down for some reason.
It didn't fit the mood of the other pictures. The other pictures were of happy times. This one obviously wasn't. It was of Koji and his mother holding on to each other crying.
'This must have been before she left for the final time' T-Ai thought. "Ow!" she felt a sharp kick to her left kidney. She smiled even though it had hurt. Her baby kicked for the first time. It was a special occasion. One she'd wanted to share with Koji. He was missing out on all this stuff because she hadn't had the guts to tell him she was pregnant.
T-Ai clutched the picture to her chest and finally broke down into sobs.
AN: Update will be slowing down soon since i might be doing a winter sport.