Chapter 13
Nothing in the world could have prepared me for what awaited me in the meeting room. The moment I walked in, I was greeted with a world of white. Mostly bedsheets, at a closer look. But still a shock to the eyes. They were tacked up onto the walls and brightened up the room no end. Dr Abbey and Shaun stood at the head of the room on opposite sides of a table. All the other tables had been pushed to the far wall and were stacked with food. The chairs had been set up in rows in the middle, every seat filled except two with 'Reserved' signs on them and the names Stacy Mason and Michael Mason. I guess that was to be expected. They wanted nothing to do with us. There was no way they'd come to a gathering we would be standing at the head of.
As soon as I walked in, everyone started applauding. I tried to hide my furious blush as I walked up the middle, ushered in no small part by Foxy. By the time I made it to Shaun's side, my cheeks had flushed so badly that I was actually dizzy. I looked around, trying to hide my disorientation as I looked straight at him and was once again annoyed that my visor hid the black-eyed stare that he was so immune to anyway.
"What the hell is this?" I asked him breathlessly as the shock of it all registered properly. What I wasn't expecting was for him to take me by the hands and look straight into my visor, his gaze somehow meeting my eyes through the heavily polarised material.
"Foxy told me what you said to Dr Abbey when you were ill." His shrug only served to infuriate me. "You told her that according to the adoption papers, I was your brother. By blood I was a total stranger and 'boyfriend' didn't seem like a strong enough word. I was just Shaun. Well, I feel the same way. We've been living out there in Canada for years telling the people who don't read our blogs that we're married. I just always felt there was something missing. Same as you said you did. I was wondering if you wanted to put it right today." Somehow, it still took me a second to register what he was saying. Once I did, I threw my arms around him. For some reason, the urge to burst into a sobbing fit almost overwhelmed me. Eventually, I regained my composure and we were standing hand-in-hand in front of Dr Abbey while everyone watched on. There were interns there I knew like Zelda and others I didn't even recognise. Dr Shoji was there too. He must have flown in especially for this and arrived either while we were running around in the Maze or while we were sleeping it off. No sign of Dr Kimberly, though. Then there was Ash and Audrey. They were sitting in the front row on two other seats I guessed were reserved. They were holding hands, so I guessed they'd agreed to at least pretend nothing was wrong for the event so as not to cause drama. I was grateful.
"Do you, Shaun Phillip Mason, take Georgia Carolyn Mason to be your wife? To care for her in sickness and in health? To tend to her personal needs every night she asks for it? To bring her back here once every eighteen months to make sure her organs aren't failing again and provide regular blood donations so I can try and crack the secret to that fucking immunity-"
"Hey!" Shaun snapped. "That last one has nothing to do with us! Did you add that in?"
"I told you you'd never get that past him!" Foxy called over from the corner as everyone else burst out laughing.
"Well?" I asked, turning back to him. "Do you promised to donate a shitload of blood in the hope that the world might one day share your inability to amplify?"
"You know I would if it means I get you all to myself every other day of our lives." He leaned in to kiss me, but I lifted a hand up and placed one finger across his lips.
"Hey, you have to wait for her to say you can do that!" I reminded him. That set off another round of laughter as Dr Abbey turned to me.
"Georgia Carolyn Mason, do you take Shaun Phillip Mason to be your husband? Do you promise to tend to his needs every night? To care for him in sickness and in health? To kick his ass if he ever calls me the Crazy Canadian again?" I noticed her expression harden dangerously. He'd made that comment one time when I was on a video call with her. I'd hoped the mic hadn't picked that up. Clearly it had.
"I do." I nodded.
"Then by the power that isn't really vested in me since this wedding business is really only ever as legal as the people getting involved make it, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Finally. Now kiss her, you fool!" Before I'd even registered it, Shaun had spun me around and pressed our mouths together. I instantly melted into it and angled my head so he had a better angle. Eventually, we broke apart. Everyone gave us a standing ovation as Dr Abbey announced that the buffet table was open. Everyone got up and made their way over to it and I instantly noticed Ash and Audrey splitting up and making their way over to opposite ends.
"Which do you want?" I asked, looking into his eyes and telling at a glance that we had the same idea. "Audrey or Ash?"
"I'll take Ash." He flicked his gaze over, keeping track of her. "I worked with her before. She knows me... Sort of." I nodded and we split off from each other, moving to our respective targets. I spotted Audrey talking to a group of interns and was making my way over when I was intercepted by Dr Shoji who dived in from seemingly out of nowhere.
"Ah, George! Glad I caught you. Loving the visor by the way. Listen, we've made a breakthrough in the research you asked us to do and-"
"That's great!" I said loud enough for everyone to hear before dropping my voice. "Listen, not to be rude but I didn't actually know any of this was happening and it's all a bit impromptu for me. I just have one thing to take care of real quick and then I'll grab Shaun and you can talk to us both about it, cool?" I'd hoped not to offend him since I knew he'd been working his ass off for the news he was about to give me. Luckily, a knowing grin spread over his lips as he winked at me. If only he really did know.
"Ah, I get it." He nodded. "Go and get a feel for the room. Come find me when you're done. And while I wait, I'm on a quest to find whatever Shannon is substituting pigs in blankets with. At any pre-Rising party, those were always the first to go." With that, he was gone. He'd vanished into a sea of white lab coats and I was once again left to find Audrey. Luckily, she hadn't moved. I made my way over and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to practically jump a mile. She whirled to face me and even my fucked up eyes could easily see that she had tears in her eyes.
"George." She nodded, acknowledging me. "Congratulations."
"Thanks." I nodded back. "Listen, I was wondering if you were okay. You've been acting off lately."
"You don't know me." I could tell that reply was meant to be a hard shutdown of the situation. Fortunately, I'd run into it too many times to fall for it.
"Audrey, when someone is prepared to run into a room knowing they won't come out again once they go in rather than come up with another plan, that tells me there's something off." I asserted, keeping my voice low.
"George, Ash and I agreed not to talk about it here specifically not to start shit at your wedding." She dropped her voice to a growl that might have stopped me if not for all the shit we'd been through in the last two days. "Now I took a necessary-"
"Necessary means there's no other option." I told her. "That wasn't necessary and you know it. Now I don't know what happened but have you and Ash at least talked about it? Because that's the big problem I'm seeing here. You both love each other. That much is plain. But you don't talk. You don't seem to talk about anything. Now, Tara called you Dr Sung when you first met up with her. I bet you didn't tell Ash about that part of your life immediately."
"I couldn't." Audrey defended. "Legalities prevented that. It all went out the window when the terrorist attacks on the Kilburn campaign killed Mat and almost took out her and Ben. I had to blow my cover when the EIS got involved and there was no keeping it secret from her after that. But then I believe you of all people know about terrorism in presidential campaigns." It was a low shot. I did my best to ignore it.
"The point I'm making is that keeping secrets has been ingrained into you." I said, facing up to her and determined not to hold back. "Ash has trouble talking to people about personal stuff due to the stuff her parents put her through in Ireland. Ben told me everything when I helped him do the research that busted her out of that insane asylum. You keep secrets out of habit. She keeps secrets out of trauma. Maybe if you start breaking your habit, she'll learn to trust you more. And then you can move past whatever's going on between you." Audrey glared me down, her shoulders rigid. That was instantly a losing battle. I had Retinal KA and a visor. Her glare was reflected back at her and I knew she could see what she looked like. Sure enough, her shoulders dropped and her whole stance relaxed. I could tell she knew she was beaten.
"You're right." She nodded as she went to move past me, gripping me by the shoulder as she went. "You're so right. I don't know if there's any chance to un-fuck this situation at this point, but I'll do my best."
"That's all anyone can ask of you." I nodded to her. She walked off and I let my gaze follow her direction as I spotted Shaun and Ash. I started to make my way over too and realised as I got closer that she was nodding. Whatever he was saying, she seemed to be responding well to it. That was when Audrey reached her. Wordlessly, Ash grabbed her by the hand and basically hauled her from the room.
"I thought that went well." Shaun muttered as we watched them go. I could agree with that. It wasn't certain if they'd last, but at least we'd enabled them to give it more of a try than they would have normally. Now there was only one more promise to keep.
"Come on." I said, taking him by the hand. "I bumped into Dr Shoji. He wants to talk to us." He nodded as I led him over to where Dr Shoji was loading a plate with food. Clearly he'd found what he was looking for. At a glance at it, I couldn't tell what it was. Rather he took the plunge than me. If he amplified, he was in a room full of armed people. I felt safe.
"Ah, there they are!" Dr Shoji said as he turned to face us. He was in one of his famous Hawaiian shirts and wearing a satisfied smile that told me the food was definitely up to standard. "Congratulations on the big day, you two. Now, about the study you were having us do..."
"Yes." I nodded as I looked around. "Do you two want to head over to the table so we can talk privately?" They nodded and we walked over to the table that we'd been standing by getting married only a few minutes ago.
"Okay." Dr Shoji set his plate down and laced his fingers together across his almost nonexistent frame. "So as you know, you had us run a study as to whether a cloned body could possibly support a pregnancy full-term right through to delivery or whether you'd have to resort to other means of continuing the Mason legacy. Well, I can safely say that, under close supervision, it should be possible. I've spoken to Shannon and she says that from the moment you test pregnant she's happy to have you down here. You can stay for the full nine months and be constantly attended to until the birth. Just know that it does mean you won't be left alone for really any time at all and have literally no privacy since you being a clone makes this much more risky than it does for non-resurrected women."
"Okay." I nodded, turning to Shaun. "So how are we doing this? Are you going to do a quick run back to Canada to grab me some more clothes, my laptop and all the perishables or are we going to ask someone living near us to take care of anything that might perish?" That got his attention. With that, I reached into my jacket pocket, my fingers closing around something.
As with any wedding, the tradition for something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. For my something old, I had my .40. Of course. I was a journalist first. I was always armed. Even at my own wedding. Everywhere that wasn't home, I had a gun on me. Even at home, there was a gun in arm's reach at all times. For my something new, I had my visor. Obviously. For my something borrowed, I had the clothes that Foxy had lent me while mine were being decontaminated. And for my something blue...
I dropped the cheap pregnancy test from the box in the women's bathroom into Shaun's hand. Okay, so the test itself was white. But the blue line that signified a positive result was a whole different story. As I looked up at Shaun, briefly worried about what his reaction might be, I saw a smile that was lighting up his face in a way that made my heart melt. In that moment, I felt reassured that everything was going to be alright. We were together. Not even death had been enough to separate us. Nine months of basic incarceration would be child's play.
"To all the loyal readers of After The End Times,
Well, my resurrected life as a clone has taken many turns since I first woke up. But the latest has arrived: I'm pregnant! I'm also married. We got married today. The reception lasted long after Shaun and I retired for the night. Partly because I'm tired as hell and partly because he's got a trip back to Canada to grab our stuff to prepare for and is going to need his rest. Even now that I'm writing this, I can still hear them partying on. I say leave them to it.
The reason I'm writing this is mainly to alert you to what this is going to mean regarding mine and Shaun's blogs for the next nine months. A clone getting pregnant is a lot more risky than usual, so I'm going to be monitored 24/7 or near as dammit, so I'm not going to be able to update for quite a while. I will post updates when I can, though. Shaun will continue to post if he can find the time, but only if he's got the head space. He has to be able to focus and I have a feeling that most of his focus is going to be on me for a while.
It has been my privilege to provide you with news for as long as I have. Death brought with it a considerable barrier, but given time I even managed to find a way around that. I will return one day and continue business as usual, but until then I ask for your patience and understanding to make sure that this pregnancy doesn't mean I suddenly make dying into a habit. For that reason, I ask for your patience and understanding at this time. This isn't a goodbye. This is me telling you I'm going offline for a while and I'll be back soon.
When I say goodbye, it's usually forever."
From The Living Dead Girl, the blog of Georgia Mason II.
June 3 2046
