THINGS GONE AWRY IN THE UNIVERSE--PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE CHAPTER 5 - CONFUSION

The Doctor sat in his office, scanning the files of his new patients—all six of them. He had fitted both the Captain and Sara with a small device—a tiny implant he'd hidden in the skin behind their right ears. The implants kept track of the vitals of mothers and children, as the Captain—and he was certain Sara would be the same—was prone to conveniently "forgetting" appointments and physicals—their prenatal check-ups would be no different. He finished his review of the Captain's pregnancy, and moved on to study Sara's file. He had only been reading for a moment when something strange caught his eye. Something was wrong with this information—at his first scan, Sara had been eight days in gestation. The latest information, taken only four days later, showed her to be eighteen days into her pregnancy, when she should only have been at twelve days. He pulled up the scans of Sara and her twin fetuses, and found that they all had a strange additive to their blood and DNA, one that not only couldn't be scanned, but also seemed to be alive. What all this meant, though, he couldn't figure out. He had a feeling that it was directly connected to the odd readings he'd gotten on how far along she was.

Steeling himself, he tapped his combadge. "Doctor to Pezzini."

"What?" came her growled reply.

Clearing his throat, he said, "I, uh, I need to ask you a few questions."

He nearly deactivated himself when, just moments later, a head popped into his office.

"AAH!!! Oh, Miss Pezzini, you surprised me."

She raised an eyebrow and muttered, "I obviously did more than surprise you."

He shot her a dirty look, but immediately dropped the expression as she shot him a dirtier—and more terrifying—one.

Carefully averting his gaze from her face, said, "I have some…questions to ask you."

"Uh, yeah, you already said that. Now—what questions?"

He cleared his throat again. "The information from your scans does not correspond, and I'm quite certain that neither the computer or my equipment is malfunctioning. The first scan placed you at eight days in gestation—" Sara hid a giggle behind her hand as she once again remembered exactly when she'd gotten pregnant. "—and the latest scans place you at nearly three weeks."

"Your point?"

He scowled. "It's only been four days!!" She imitated his expression. "Well, you see, they don't match."

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but the Doctor whipped out his tricorder, pushed her back onto the nearest biobed, and began scanning her with a vengeance.

Ten minutes later, he gave up. "I just don't get it," he said.

Sara sighed and said, "If you would've let me talk earlier, I could've answered all of your questions before you and your little tricorder got so excited and confused yourselves with all of your little scans."

"And?" the Doctor demanded, forgetting who he was talking to.

Glaring at the hologram, Sara continued, "My pregnancy will progress slightly faster than the norm. In other words, I'll be a mother in six months instead of nine." She smiled. "Which also means that Kathryn and I are due at the same time."

"And this is because…"

"Because of this." She held up her right wrist to show him the Witchblade.

He raised an eyebrow. "A bracelet is causing this?"

She sighed. "Not just any bracelet—the Witchblade."

"Right." He sent her a suspicious look.

She stared at him.

He stared at her.

She stared at him.

He looked away, cowed. "Well, then. Do you…have any proof?"

"Proof?" she repeated. She grinned suddenly, an evil expression that sent holoshivers down his holospine. The Witchblade activated, molding itself into the knobbed mace head with the two-foot blade extended. He couldn't see where the blade ended, and followed it right to—or, rather, through—the middle of his chest.

He jumped back.

"Is this proof enough for you?" Sara asked, her voice filled with barely suppressed laughter.

Carefully, he pushed the blade so that it was no longer aimed directly at him. Grinning again, Sara retracted the blade slowly, taking her time so that she could show the Doctor just how much control she had over the powerful weapon, then turned and left sickbay. Once the doors had closed behind her, the Doctor ran into his office, not coming out for the rest of the day.

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