Children from a Lesser God
Chapter 10: Those Baby Blues
Dayton, Ohio
Friday 15th November
22:01
29 weeks gestation
over one week later...
Fox lies awake whilst Dana sleeps next to him. She slept so much now. Well, 'slept', probably wasn't the right word, uncomfortably rested; she slept when the baby let her.
Fox slowly removes his hands from her bump, fearing that any sudden movement would wake it. He kisses Dana's forehead, kisses her bump and then kisses her sleeping lips before getting up.
Fox is bored, a boredom that nothing within the walls of his accommodation would solve, not when he knew there was so much fun to be had outside.
Leaving a note for Dana on the bedside, he makes sure that his phone is still on 'loud', puts on the coat he purchased last week on their 'anniversary' day out and slips into the night. Although she is just over seven months, he doesn't think it's going to be that long until she gives birth as the baby's head appears to be already facing down and Dana's tops frequently dampened with her boobs getting ready for feeding it. She had been so embarrassed the first time it happened. He had tried to assure it was only natural despite being freaked out himself, but she was already out the room. Not that she will be feeding the baby, so it's all a waste. He wonders whether she will even give the baby a little bit of the food her body has made for it before abandoning him?
So he had been watching the online birth videos again and encouraged her too, just incase they got caught with a home birth.
Not that he didn't want a hospital birth. He vehemently did and had already sold his father's Rolex back in New York City, so that with the pre-existing cash, he had what he hoped would be enough money for what he hoped would be a 'normal' hospital birth. He had been having nightmares this past week, Dana covered with blood and screaming out his name as some kind of daemon baby tore his way out of her, killing her.
He hoped beyond hope it wouldn't be a too complicated birth.
She had never had sex and he didn't know how that worked with her giving birth. Would it hurt more? She winced a lot... was it her cervix opening more? Fox winced himself, he didn't want to think about it. The only consolation Fox had was if she did give birth to the baby soon, not only would it be over with but it would mean that everyone could be in their homes by Christmas. Now wouldn't that be a Christmas miracle?
The bar he is heading to is the same one he went to last Saturday night, and it was actually a very 'long and funny story' how he found it.
They are currently staying just outside downtown Dayton Ohio, near the hospital, the primary reason why Fox had picked their current accommodation. What he didn't realise was that it was also near the University of Dayton, which was probably why it was so cheap as it could be quite loud on the weekends.
But last week Friday night after Dana had fallen asleep, the same boredom brought him out not realising it was Friday Night. His intention was just some fresh air and maybe a walk around the nearby park to get rid of energy. But outside had been ablaze with the life and excitement of a Friday night and Fox felt himself get lured into it. His next intention was just to observe, not to get involved but a pretty girl who he guessed was around his age, with a pretty smile and lips and eyes that battered at him, asked him how old he was.
He'd said his real age in a momentary lapse of cognitiveness and she said that was a shame because she needed to buy alcohol and she'd forgotten her fake ID. Fox carried the Penn State ID with him everywhere and had memorised all the details, Robert Klein was twenty one years old.
After he had brought, Diamond, her alcohol, he offered to walk her back to her apartment block. He remembers that she invited him in and he shared the alcohol with her and her three housemates and their guests. After his second or third bathroom trip, Diamond had pulled him into what he assumed was her shared room and they ended up having sex on one of the beds. He then followed her to a frat party, and he remembers being pleased that red cups and beer pong were a real thing at college. The rest of the night were just flashes of memory but he remembers seeing Diamond making out with another guy.
He doesn't know how he ended up naked but that was how he'd been woken that morning with vomit over him, which he still hoped was his. After the initial shock of being woken, he immediately panicked when he found out he was naked, but not for the obvious reasons but the implications of having lost the only keys to their accommodation and the cell which had her number on it. But thankfully he was using them as a pillow. Melmo, one of the guys that woke him him up offered to drive him home, he guesses because he looked so panicked, which he was, because although it was not even four in the morning, Dana had obviously woken up and had called his cell eleven times. He didn't even say thank-you for the lift but did shove the flyer he gave him in his jean's pocket.
'Long and funny story', he doesn't know if that is exactly how he would describe the way he and Dana clung to each other crying, while he apologised repeatedly for scaring her like that. Never mind the guilt eating away at him over the drunken sex. He still doesn't know why he agreed to it, he hadn't been that drunk that he didn't know exactly what he was doing. But that was how he explained it to Melmo and his two bandmates, Ringo and Johnny - whose shared room Fox passed out in - when he met them in the bar the flyer advertised the next night.
Fox now arrives at the same bar, not actually knowing if his new friends would be there. They said they hung out here most nights as frat parties weren't there thing, Ringo and Johnny were first years and it was compulsory they stayed on campus. Melmo was their band mate, they played in the bar every Saturday night. They had actually returned from the bar, with Melmo, when they found him passed out in their room. But Fox decided even if they weren't there, he could still get a drink at the bar.
~xXx~
Saturday 16th November
"Good morning", Fox says waking up, to find Dana propped up by pillows next to him reading. 'The Fault in our Stars'. They did the same thing as they did in Buffalo and got a free library card. She was getting through them quickly, she was reading a different one just yesterday.
He wants to put a hand on her bump and kiss her.
"New book. Is it good?" He asks instead.
"So far", she smiles.
"Good", he says, looking at her top to find it dry, but she could have changed it. She must see him do this because she rests her book over her chest.
He wonders how long she has been awake? The light outside suggests its still early but she is already part way through her book.
"Did you have fun last night?"
He nods.
"Were those same boys there?"
He nods. Although he hadn't gone into the details of who - name and gender were not mentioned at all - he followed to the frat party or that he woke up naked, she had laughed greatly at dinner over his retelling.
"Good", she says.
He looks over at her and she is staring off distantly.
He stretches, "you ready?" he asks.
She nods.
"Let's go", he says, getting out of bed.
~xXx~
Great Miami River Recreational Trail
08:02
There is a river not far from their accommodation and they have been walking part of the trail every morning since they arrived. It get's them up and out of the house and it's something they both enjoy and they always pick up some sort of snack on the way. Dana religiously gets a smoothie from the smoothie shack but Fox has made it a mini quest to try at as many different places as possible.
The weather is cold but sunny and they'll warm up quickly. He's brought two towels with him this time because back in Buffalo, Dana had started doing some stretches in the morning she said was pregnancy yoga but she hadn't really continued it since the evening she told him she was giving up the baby.
She stopped doing a lot the last week in Buffalo.
The almost daily routine she had formulated disappeared. She was a lot quieter, she didn't eat much other than her prescribed vitamins, and she was just kind of lifeless. Fox didn't have to guess why, he had gotten lazy too, he just watched it happen, not having the energy or will to stop it. He could see her internally just counting down the days, instead of living the days. Not that much 'life' could be had when you were in partial lockdown and hiding. Although, they had been blurring the lines of 'hiding' and 'lockdown' a lot recently, but he had vowed when they left Buffalo, that he would pick up the slack for them both.
She had noticed the towels but he had been vague when she asked what they were for.
She'd eyed the river and declared that he would not convince her to go swimming, but the glee and excitement of the unknown in those baby blues were worth it. She'd even grabbed his hand in hers for the walk.
When they approach a suitable open grass area, Fox pulls on her hand and leads her to the centre. Unlinking his hand from hers, he lays out the towels opposite each other.
"I thought you could teach me that stretching you were doing back in Buffalo?" He says nonchalantly, but by the way her eyes look at him, she knows exactly what he's doing.
She grins, tucking her hair behind her ears and nods.
The stretches are harder than they look and Fox learns that whilst she is so flexible, he is inflexible. Still, she gets a laugh from it and she's done her stretches, so Fox doesn't really care that more than his pride is wounded.
After rolling away his towel, he turns to see that she is still lying on her back doing her breathing.
A little child bundled up in layers goes past him with his mother on a small push bike. It waves and Fox waves back.
Fox looks back to see if Dana is ready to get up, only to find her crying silently.
"Did you hurt yourself?" He asks, crouching, he wipes some of the hairs off her face.
She shakes her head.
"Did you think I left you because I was ju-"
"No it's not that", she says, wiping her eyes and pushing herself up, but she only starts crying more.
"Tell me where it hurts", he says, but she just pulls him into a hug and holds on to him like a lifeline.
"You're not hurt?" He asks again, because he has to make sure.
"No".
"You just want hug?"
She nods.
And so Fox sits down so that he is more comfortable and pets her hair whilst she cries, placing the odd kiss on her head.
What else can he do?
"Can we go home?" She asks after a few minutes of holding her.
They hadn't done much of the walk. "Let's finish the walk".
"I want to go home, Fox", she whispers.
"I know you do, and we will. You just have to finish the walk first", he says, pulling her up.
"I'm tired".
"The walk will wake you up. Come on, think of the smoothie", he says crouching to quickly roll his towel in hers.
"I don't want a smoothie. I want to go home and sleep", she says agitatedly.
"Finish the walk. For me please", he says, lacing his hand through hers and pulling her in the opposite direction of their accommodation. He wants to wrap his arms around her, but he doesn't know how he can do that without touching her bump, and he's scared that will throw her off completely.
~xXx~
Back at the accommodation after their walk, he starts breakfast while she is showering, switching when she finishes and they both eat their omelettes in friendly silence before heading back to bed.
He kisses her forehead, "thank-you for finishing the walk".
She smiles tightly at him but still snuggles into him and starts watching the episode from one of the box sets they rented from the library on the laptop.
He wakes up later having definitely slept but it doesn't look like she has. She's propped up on her pillows reading again.
"Get any sleep?"
She shakes her head.
"You should have woken me. You could have read to me".
She laughs at this, genuinely, "you would have still fallen asleep".
"Ready to make lunch?"
She nods.
"Let's go then".
They sit and eat their homemade pizza and salad together on the kitchen island. She made the dough herself the other day as a change up from homemade sandwiches and definitely got the quantities for an army battalion. Fox likes food, but he thinks they will be having pizza for lunch for the rest of the month! Not that he minds, he much prefers pizza and they're more fun to make.
After lunch they sometimes go for another shorter walk. They try to keep away from the public places that might have cameras. There is an ice rink that they had tried to go to and she had been so excited about but they wouldn't let her skate with her bump. Sometimes they just stay in. He tries to get her to play two player on the PS4 but she has no talent for it and says she is happy to watch him play, meaning either, getting her book and joining him on the sofa or falling asleep.
They start making dinner around six and head to bed around nine. Fox didn't know how boring staying inside was until it was obligatory for him to stay inside. He's already started to look for accommodation that has an indoor swimming pool, or a pool table, or something entertaining other than a TV. Not that he doesn't like this accommodation, it's small but it has everything they need; it was the type of accommodation he always planned them living in after the baby was born.
~xXx~
Sunday 17th November
"Happy Anniversary", she sings loudly when he wakes up.
He groans, his head hurting. He went out again last night after she fell asleep to see his friends' band play again. He felt awful, he imagined she knew this and why she was speaking so loudly.
"What time is it?" He asks, fearing he has slept their day away.
"Not long after ten", her voice much quieter.
He snuggles back down in the pillows, that wasn't that bad. After the bar he had gone back to theres but he set the alarm and got in not long after three in the morning. She had been awake but not worried because he had told her before they went to bed that he would probably go out after she'd fallen asleep, and he had left a note. She had been awake and had taken great amusement in his slightly inhebrieted state as he tried to get into the house, shower, eat something and sleep. It was nice to hear her laugh so much. It was nice that she let him snuggle up to her and stroked his hair until he slept.
"What do you want to do today?"
"What was that?" She asks, loudly, laughing.
He had been talking into the pillow.
"What is it you want to do today?" He repeats.
"That depends, can you move?"
He starts to roll to the opposite end of the bed she is not sitting on.
"No, no, no", she screams loudly again, stopping him from actually rolling off.
It didn't do anything for his headache, not to mention his stomach.
She lays a hand on his chest and he wonders if she can feel how hard his heart is beating for her. "How about you go back to sleep, I get us a smoothie and we can do dinner and a movie later?"
He opens his eyes to look at her. He didn't like the idea of her going out without him.
She looked pretty. She always looks pretty, but the way she did her hair, and the clothes she had on. She always made an effort on anniversary day.
"No, let me get up. I'm sure I'll feel better once I get up".
He didn't, but he did it for her. Like she had done for him yesterday when she wanted to go back home.
~xXx~
They ate a late breakfast out. Well, Fox watched Dana eat, he sipped orange juice whilst she teased food in front of him, trying to get him to take a bite. He couldn't but liked that she was getting amusement from it. If he was inclined to eat it wouldn't be from some fake tofu sausage. That would definitely bring the contents of his stomach back up.
After that, they walked to the Indian Village and he tried to listen to the guide and not to his stomach hurl. She put her hand in his and that made him feel a bit better.
Then they went to this outdoor flea market which had everything from food to shoes and they picked up a couple of board games.
When they sat down in the movie theatre, Fox was relieved that he could finally die in not quite peace but at least stillness. He rejected her offers of popcorn but drank his super size Pepsi and when he used the bathroom, he also hurled everything up and felt a lot better. He didn't know why he was reacting so bad when he had drunk more last week and managed to do their day unaffected. Maybe it was fear and guilt? Maybe it was because he had already thrown up? Regardless, he will definitely have to remember to drink less next week. The amount he drunk two nights ago was obviously his limit as he had woken up Saturday fine.
They were walking back after dinner and Fox was feeling great, back to normal. They were approaching the bar and there must have been something in his face that gave him away because she asked him if it was the bar that he went to.
"Can we go in?" She asks. "I want to meet your friends".
Fox frowns, not expecting her to ask him that at all. "You're pregnant and underage?"
"Not Laura", she grins. She carries her Penn State I.D. with her everywhere too. Laura Petrie is also annoyingly twenty one.
She walks towards the bar entrance.
"You're still pregnant. We are supposed to be keeping a low profile", he mutters, pulling her back.
"But you go".
"Us together".
"We've just been out for dinner and a movie together. We've spent the whole day together. We go on walks together every morning, the same route. We won't stay long, I just want to see where you spend most of your time and it's our anniversary, so you have to let me see".
Most of his time? How is Friday and Saturday night most of his time. Most of his time is spent with her.
"My friends probably won't even be in there", he says instead. Which isn't a lie, he doesn't know if they will be in there. "And even if they are, how am I going to explain you to them?"
"How did you explain yourself?" She asks.
Fox pauses, not knowing if she is smart or just an annoying kid twisting his questions. Sometimes she acts and looks so much older than her age and then sometimes she could be an five year old.
"I said that I had finished my classes early and I'm here visiting my brother until term starts again".
"I could be your sister?"
"We look nothing alike".
"Step-sister? Adopted?"
"How am I going to explain you being pregnant", he says slowly, because really, that is what is going to be the question.
"I don't think I will have to explain to your adult friends how a girl gets pregnant".
And she easily escapes his grasp to the bar entrance. "Scully - Laura", he tries to stop her.
Apart from a look at her bump, the bouncer lets her in, so he has no choice but to follow.
"This isn't a good idea", he mutters to her when he's caught up with her.
His friends are there, unfortunately, they see him straight away and call him over.
Dana smiles at him satisfied.
"One drink and it's water", he says, walking them over.
"Is this your girlfriend?" Melmo asks after they had seated on the couch. He purposefully sat Dana next to him because Melmo could be a bit handsy.
"No", Fox replies too quickly. "She's...", and he looks at her to explain herself. She made this problem, she can explain it.
"I'm his brother's girlfriend", she says.
"I thought you said your brother was a big software developer?" Johnny. "I thought he would be older than you".
"He is", Fox says.
"I just look a bit young for my age", Dana inputs smiling and thank-god she doesn't show her fluorescent braces because that would have really given it away.
"So Uncle Rob?" Melmo hedges.
"Oh, it's not mine. I'm just a surrogate. College is expensive", she smiles, again, thankfully showing no teeth.
Fox looks over to Ringo and Johnny who have been quiet and maybe he is being paranoid but they both look skeptical. The three of them are a bit of conspiracy theorists, and they have a lot of them, most which Fox just tries not to laugh at. They are also quite anti-government, so if they knew who his father worked for... but then it was his father's colleagues that were after them, so what did he know? And their band name, the Lone Gunmen, is literally named after the lone gunmen who supposedly shot JFK, but don't bring up his assassination around them unless you want an hour long spiel. Listening to them debate last night, in his less than coherent state, he had almost mentioned Dana's file, but couldn't then articulate it, so he thankfully stayed quiet or else it wouldn't have been hard for them to put one and one together.
"That it is", Ringo laughs, "I would do the same if my body could be a sacred vessel like yours. I hear you can get a bomb for it. Don't worry, I'm not gonna ask you how much you're getting. I was just going to get another round of drinks...?" He looks at Dana and Fox.
"We should be-"
"-I'll just have water", she says.
"Me too", Fox. He was going to say they should be leaving.
"Come on, Robo!" That was Ringo's nickname for him.
"No, I'm still recovering from last night. Besides, can't stay too long, got to get her back to my brother", he says tapping her thigh. Which was probably too close for a boyfriend's brother and immediately put that hand under his armpit.
"He woke us up coming in last night. He's been suffering from a hangover most of the day", Dana laughs, and she did let the teeth show but luckily she was looking at him.
Fox quickly flashes his teeth and she promptly closes hers.
"Did he vomit all over himself as well?"
"Gross, no", she wrinkles her nose.
"While Rob helps Ringo with the drinks, I'll tell you all bout how we met your brother-in-law for the first time last week butt naked and with vomit all over himself", Johnny says animatedly.
"I don't think I want to know", Dana laughs.
Fox is relieved that Johnny and Ringo skepticism has gone but that doesn't mean he wants to leave her.
"Actually we didn't really come in for drink, she just wanted to see where I hung out".
"Just one drink, Robo", Ringo.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure Melmo doesn't bite her", Johnny.
Fox looks at Dana pleadingly.
Dana looks at him full of mischief. "Just one drink of water won't hurt, Rob", she says.
It's not busy so they get served quick.
"You're very protective of her", Ringo prods.
Fox felt like a deer in headlights before he laughs it off. "My brother's girlfriend, he would have my balls if I wasn't", picking up his and Dana's waters. Robo carries the other three.
"Where is your brother? We've yet to meet him".
"He's away working. That's why we're out. Just trying to be nice for my brother, to his girlfriend", and he feels like he might drop the drinks he's sweating over his lies so much.
"So, girlfriend of Robo's older brother, do you have an actual name?" Ringo asks when they've sat back down.
Fox shakily hands her water.
They make eye contact.
She flicks her gaze off him. "Laura", she answers smiling warmly at Ringo.
Fox doesn't know why he was so anxious about her answering that question. Did he ever give a name for his brother? He doesn't think he did, but what if he did and then they ask her and she gives them another name?
"So your name isn't Dana?" Ringo asks.
Dana chokes on a sip of water and Fox spills a quarter of his on his trousers.
"No. Why would you say that?" She recovers first.
"Because that was the name Rob was moaning when we found him in our room".
"I told you it was, Diamond", Fox's face feels incredibly hot as he keeps his gaze down and focusses on rubbing the wet deeper into his trousers. He doesn't know if he is more embarrassed that she knows he said her name or that she knows he got caught saying her real name.
"I definitely heard, Dana", Ringo.
"Me too", Johnny.
"Well, I've never heard of Dana in my life. He's never mentioned that name", she fumbles but it sounds convincing.
"Dana Plato, she was in that show, Different Strokes", Melmo.
Everyone looks at him blankly.
"Wait", Ringo, "isn't that the show where an old white widow adopts a black kid?"
"Two. Dana Plato played his daughter. She was so hot. You watched it too?"
"No, my dad did when he was a kid".
And they all laugh, Fox pretends to. He is still recovering from his heart attack over Ringo asking Dana if her name was Dana.
"So where are you from, Laura?" Johnny.
What was with all these third degree questions?!
Did they suspect something?
"You sound like you maybe have a West Coast accent? Californian?"
That was it. He had to pull the plug. Being too friendly with that guy back at the hotel in Pennsylvania is what got them found.
"Laura, didn't you say earlier you needed to use the bathroom? I'll show you where it is", he says, getting up and holding out his hand for her to take.
She does and while he's escorting her to the bathroom he whispers that they need to leave. She agrees but not before she actually uses the bathroom. They apologise and say their goodbyes and Fox feels that he only takes his first real breath since stepping in the bar when he steps out.
They continue the walk back to the accommodation mostly in silence through the flow of people still out on a Sunday night. Fox taking her hand when one too many people start to walk between them.
"Hey, Rob. Rob, right?" Fox only really comprehended that it was him being addressed because Dana squeezed his hand.
Fox stops to see who only to find it is Diamond.
The night could not get anymore awkward.
"Hi", he smiles, nervous. Dana must feel how much his hand is sweating despite the cold.
"Diamond", she laughs, "remember?"
Yes, he remembered. He feels Dana's grip loosen slightly and so he grips on harder.
"Of course I do", he laughs nervously. "How are you this evening?"
"I'm very well, thank-you very much", and the friends she is with all laugh like birds around her.
"Well, I have to go. See you around", pulling Dana to close the space between them and their accommodation, perhaps a bit too quickly for her but he just wants to get back.
When they got into the house, Fox locks the front door and breathes a sigh of relief.
"Hey", she says, her voice cutting like an angel's. "Thanks for introducing me to your friends. It was nice".
They were probably friends he would never see again. He had given away too much. They had given away too much. It was a shame, because he genuinely liked them.
"I'm going to have a shower", she says, untangling her hand from his.
"OK", and he watched her leave feeling like an asshole that he didn't just introduce her as his girlfriend.
But then again, she wasn't.
Sitting on their bed, he goes to have a shower as soon as she enters the room.
When he joins her in bed, she isn't facing away which he considers a good thing, so he lies down facing her too.
"Dana" he whispers. There are so many words on his lips.
Should he tell her about Diamond?
Should he apologise for not introducing her as his girlfriend?
"I'm glad you had fun this evening. Making sure you're happy is all I care about right now", he admits.
She takes his hand in hers and it is so soft and small and fragile. "I don't think there is anyone I would be happier with".
~xXx~
Tuesday 19th November
17:48
31 weeks gestation
over one week later...
Fox heard the laptop playing from outside the bedroom, they had skipped their walk after lunch because Dana said she was going to try and get some sleep; Fox had been playing on his PS4 since, but had come to wake her up for dinner. He opens the door quietly just incase she had fallen asleep watching something.
But she was wide awake watching something intently on the screen. At first he didn't know what it was, but as he got closer he thought it was a birth video, but then he realised it was sex scene.
She jolts violently having only just heard him come in. She slaps down the laptop screen, her face flushing red.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you".
She can't make eye contact with him and he finds it adorable.
Maybe he will just pretend he thought she was watching a birth video.
"Are you nervous".
"What?" She asks, her eyes looking up at him in horror, her face going impossibly more red.
"The birth video. How many weeks is it now?"
He knew exactly how many weeks she was.
Her eyes lower in visible relief. "Oh, 31 weeks now", touching her bump.
"Not long now".
"Don't remind me".
"I read somewhere that because you're younger, it will be easier".
"Where did you read that?" Unconvinced.
"Some website", he dismisses. "The baby might just fall right out of you".
"I don't think that's going to happen, Fox".
He sits on the bed next to her. "So many babies are born everyday. So many women have more than one baby, so it can't be that bad. Your mom had four".
"Completely different situations".
It was.
"We're not five minutes walk from a really great hospital", he tries another angle. "They're going to take care of you", he takes her hand and pats it. "I'm going to make sure of it".
That was his promise to his father.
His father.
He frequently wondered about the location of his father.
Was he back home?
Although he had told Fox not to contact him unless it was an emergency, Fox was at a bit of a stalemate on whether he should try to get a message to him, so he knew where they were. He didn't dare turn on the cell his father gave him for fear those men would use it to find them, but his father could have been trying to call Fox and he none the wiser.
"Shall we make dinner?"
She nods.
~xXx~
Dana needed to learn that if she wanted to hide her internet browsing from Fox, she needed to clear the history. After she had gone to bed - for real this time - Fox left the bedroom and settled down to watch whatever she was watching on the couch.
It turned out not to be porn. Just some old chick flick that made his eyes hurt the cinematography was so old. Still, he watches it whilst grazing on a big bag of potato chips, interested in what interests her. It was about this boy and this girl that got stranded on a dessert island. They're friends but then when they become teenagers they're not but they're the only two on the island, they have sex and she has his baby. He can see why she likes it, particularly considering her situation. It's girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, girl gets married to boy and has boy's baby and they all live happily ever after. Just like those Disney cartoons his sister used to make him watch.
When the credits roll he closes the laptop, uses the bathroom and then gets into bed with her.
He stares at her in the dark. He's memorised how she sleeps. One hand will be resting on her stomach, her chest rhythmically rising and falling, her eyes completely still and her lips just twitching every now and then.
He bets she loved all those mushy love professions the two characters said to each other when the boy thought the girl was going to die. How she was the most important person in the world to him.
It had brought something loathsome in Fox as he replayed all the professions they used to whisper to each other, surprised to recall there wasn't that many and they were mostly one sided, from him.
What did that say?
Did she - does she - have any real feelings for him beyond friendship?
She hadn't discouraged him, but he thought that made it even worse.
Was she just following what she thought she must, to protect herself, so he wouldn't abandon her?
She had seemed genuine in their conversations on what they would be doing in months time, in a years time.
She had let him plan for the future but she had also been secretly planning none of it.
Was she just a really good liar?
He was amazed how she was able to hold her conversation at the bar with the guys even though they were older than her, Melmo was more than 10 years older than her. He knows age fourteen he wouldn't have been able to even string a sentence.
Who was Dana Katherine Scully?
Was she even real?
Or was she taken them all for a ride?
Dana took in a sharp, pained breath in her sleep and Fox immediately halts his thoughts. Her breathing gets more erratic, so he rests a hand on her bump too. The baby is kicking, although not too harshly that it will wake her.
Maybe he is just picking up on his new friends' paranoia.
When her breathing goes back to normal, Fox moves his head so it's next to her bump. "Keep it quiet in there, your mom is sleeping", he whispers, pressing the lightest of kisses on her stomach.
Maybe what he should take from that movie is to be nicer to her and appreciate the time they have left together.
~xXx~
Tuesday 26th November
31 weeks gestation
Fox knocks on the bedroom door because Dana went to have a shower and she might still be changing. They returned from their walk maybe fifteen minutes ago and she is usually out of her shower by now to finish off breakfast. Fox finished it instead.
Silence replies although Fox knows that she is in there because he heard her come out of the bathroom.
Opening the door, he finds her lying on her back like a star fish, the towling still wrapped around her. She's wide awake staring at the ceiling.
"You shouldn't sleep on your back, it will only give you a bad back later in life".
"I know", she says, turning on to her side. "I just like the way it feels sometimes".
He sits next to her on the bed.
Sometimes he feels like he is her mother. This is what his own mother used to do to him. Wake him up in the morning, make him breakfast, make sure he was doing his morning routine and hadn't gone back to sleep. And she would sit next to him, just like he was doing now, straightening his messy hair and talk to him about everything and nothing.
"I thought you had gone back to sleep, the food is getting cold".
"I'm not hungry, you can eat mine as well", she sighs, playing with the hem of her towel.
"You should eat something".
"I had my smoothie. I've eaten my vitamins".
Not this again.
He felt her head, she was quite warm.
"Do you feel ill?"
"My shower was really hot is all".
That was silly.
Her face looked really thin, much thinner than even a couple of weeks ago. Her stomach and boobies got bigger, but the opposite was happening to the rest of her.
"You should really try to eat", he pleads.
She starts crying in response.
He pets her hair. She falls asleep with her face in his neck.
~xXx~
She woke up late afternoon and she ate the omelette and her pizza and salad with fervour. It reminded him of her eating that pizza half in that hotel in Pennsylvania. When she finishes he opens up a bag of chips and he gets out one of their board games.
"You slept like the dead. I had to keep checking your pulse to see if you were still alive", he jokes.
"It was such a nice sleep", her eyes look longingly at the memory of it. They're even bigger than normal and she still has sleep lines on her face. She looks alive and well rested. "It's the best I've had in weeks. I don't think I slept properly for more than a couple of hours last night".
After dinner, which Fox is happy to see she also ate with a passion, they settle in for a movie. Part way through the movie, just when it started getting interesting she shifts in his arms. It's a small two person couch and his feet are stretched out over the coffee table and she's lying on her side over him, her head resting on the arm of the couch. When her shifting gets annoying, he looks down at her with a frown, only to find her eyes locked on his and she starts kissing him. Devours him is more accurate.
But he stops her before it turns into something more than kissing.
She groans in disappointment when he pulls away, but then just gives him one final small peck before snuggling back down on his lap for the rest of the movie as if nothing had happened.
Not for Fox. Flashes of the kiss plays continuously in his mind and the way that she is lying on his junk... She must feel it but she doesn't move or let up she is any the wiser.
~xXx~
Thursday 28th November
Thanks Giving
On Thanks Giving night, he wakes up in the night to find her crying again. He's cuddled around her already and he just holds her tighter, rubbing her arms up and down.
She nestles back into him more.
They'd had what he thought was a nice Thanks Giving day and a nice homemade vegetarian Thanks Giving dinner. They'd watched a movie and then gone to bed.
"You know, you could always just keep it, if that's what you want", he whispers.
"I don't", she snaps back, but she can't be that angry at him because she still clings to him.
He places a light kiss on the back of head.
"It's just, everything is all wrong. I wish I had just listened to my mother and gotten rid of it".
He holds her tighter, she doesn't mean it.
"I know that makes me a horrible person but I hate what he's doing to my body".
Thanks Giving isn't supposed to be about hate.
Fox places a few more kisses on the back of her head, telling himself again, she doesn't mean it. "But it's not his fault", he reminds her, "and it's not his fault you decided to keep it".
She clings tighter.
~xXx~
Friday 29th November.
It was the fourth day in the row that he had found her crying, Fox was considering taking her to the hospital, worried that something was seriously wrong with her.
"Are you sure you're taking all your vitamins and the correct dosage?"
She stills in his arms, "yes, why?" And she sounds quite aggressive and defensive. "You think I would purposefully harm the baby and myself?"
She was the one who told him last night that she hated it. His heart goes cold, still not quite forgiving her for saying that.
She clings tighter on him. "I would never do that to him", and he feels her hand coming between him and her bump to rub it. "I'm just having a particularly bad week with the pregnancy", she whispers the last bit like she is ashamed of herself.
He places kisses on her forehead.
"I think he'll come soon".
"Try and keep him in there for at least another month, if you can. That way he can at least feed and eat without the assistance of machines".
He can feel her head move to look up at him.
He stares down at her baby blues. They go on for eternity. The thinest layers of blue, silver and white. So complex. When he looks at them this close, they always look different.
"You really care about him, don't you?" It's more of a statement.
Fox feels his face heating, "my father told me to protect you and the baby", he recites his mantra.
She nods into his shirt, lowering her head back down.
"You know what I find most annoying about all this? Is that I am going to give birth before having sex. I mean how is that fair?" She asks, moving her head to look up at him again.
Her eyes then move to his lips and her hand moves from her stomach to grip possessively on his chest.
"I can't help you with that", he says seriously.
She continues to stare up at him.
"I can't", his tone more absolute.
"I'm not asking you to", she says crossly, lowering her head again. "I'm just saying".
"When this is over, and you're fifteen, if you want to... you know, you know my number".
She looks back up at him and she's smiling but then she snorts pushing off of him and starts rolling on the bed laughing.
"I'm glad you find it so funny", chuckling himself at her display of pure hysterics.
When she starts coughing, he helps her up, placing the cushions behind her so she can sit up.
"To continue what I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted", he glares at her jokingly and she smirks. "It's not that I am not attracted to you", he spoke to the bedroom door. "I am, but you've said you don't want the baby, which", he looks back at her because he wants her to know he is genuine and also doesn't want to ruin this light mood she is in, "I truly understand and respect. But you will be going back to your life and I will be going back to mine and it's a big decision, deciding to give up your..."
She smirks at him again. "My what?" she teases.
"I just don't want you to make that decision because I'm all you currently have. I mean, who knows if you would even like me or if you would even speak to me if we met under normal circumstances".
"But it's something that we would always have, you will always have. It's something that couldn't be take away from me".
Unlike her baby.
Now the doors were opening.
She's right.
One way or another it was is going to happen.
Even before she had told him her plans to give up the baby. Did he really think they would still be raising it together when the baby was ready for school? College? Maybe her letting the baby go after his birth was a way of protecting herself?
"And maybe if we had met under different circumstances, maybe you wouldn't have looked me, maybe we wouldn't have looked at each other. But we have, and I do love you, Fox".
His breath catches in his throat and he turns to look at her to detect the lie, but he sees only truth.
"Whether it is real in the world outside of us or not", and she leans up to kiss his lips, deepening it quickly.
"Dana", he pulls away, taking both of her hands in his. He knows her intent and it's not going to happen. His mind is firm on that. He shakes his head no.
She pulls her hands out of his and shuffles away from him. "Just go, Fox".
"What?"
"Go, go and see your friends or Diamond or whoever", she goes to pick up her book.
"There is no, Diamond, only Dana".
She flares her nostrils at this.
"Do you want me to stay?" He had been continuing his Friday and Saturday nights out, but strictly just hanging out with the Lone Gunmen.
"I told you to go see your friends".
"I don't want to leave you like this".
"I'm fine, Fox, really", and she takes her eyes off the book, "there's no point us both being miserable".
He goes to open his mouth to say that he could never be miserable when he is with her.
"-Please", she kisses his lips lightly, "for both of us, please. You can tell me all about it tomorrow through your hangover and I will take great pleasure in the fact that you are suffering almost as much as me", and she smiles genuinely.
He goes, but plans not to stay out too long. He has to find somewhere else for them to live for the next month. He thinks it would be great for them to have a different scenery - but still close to the hospital. He's found somewhere, a bigger space with a resident cat, which he thinks will be good for her.
~xXx~
Monday 9th December
Dayton, Ohio
33 weeks gestation
over one week later...
"Do you know whats so special about him?" Fox asks.
Dana is sat on the floor playing with the cat, who loves rubbing himself against the bump. Her bump suddenly dropped, basically overnight over a week ago and it has been such a welcome respite to both Dana and Fox now that she is much more comfortable. All her organs squished up in her top half of her body, as well as growing a baby couldn't have been fun at all. She's more tired now, and she says she physically feels the heaviness of the baby more, but she's smiling and being more proactive, no more crying! She found this online website that has online material for their school years, so they've started incorporating that into their day, it wastes a few hours. They still do their walk and stretches but a different route closer to where they are staying as she moves so much slower now.
"The cat?" She asks, she's sharing some cheese with it.
Fox raises his eyes to her bump.
"I'm just wondering how we're going to let them know that the baby is born. I mean who do we call?"
She scrunches her nose. "I guess your dad?" She looks at him. "Or Dr Calderon".
His father then. He didn't care what she said about the doctor, he didn't like the guy. But it would be so nice to hear his father's voice.
"Did Dr Calderon say what was to happen to the baby after it was born?".
She shakes her head no. "My mom said I should give it up for adoption. We had already kinda found a family. Patricia and Cleveland Van de Kamp".
Something heavy lifts of Fox's heart.
"Maybe we should try and contact them?"
She nods, "sounds good".
It was the evening.
"We should start looking for them tomorrow perhaps. Maybe they can come over here for when the baby is born?"
She nods her head in agreement.
Or maybe he should call his father first...?
"I was also thinking maybe we should take you to the hospital, just to check everything is OK. We can register you as Laura Petrie, it might make it smoother for when you actually have to give birth", he pulls his lip in contemplation.
He didn't know.
She nods slowly.
"How about we give it a few days thought and then make a decision?"
"Yes! We can make a pro and con list", she smiles gleefully. She loved organising everything at the moment.
~xXx~
23:14
"You're too far along to be having pregnancy cravings", Fox grumbles as he tries to get warm in the car. It was freezing outside. And he had only just recovered from his fever a few days ago, he couldn't believe she was making him go out.
"I can taste the pastry in my mouth, Fox", she says chirpily beside him.
It was quite laughable that the day after her severe pregnancy symptoms stopped, he got sick, but she was the perfect nurse, and never left her side despite his protests they sleep in separate beds.
He turns on the radio to drown out her voice. He was asleep when she woke him up saying how she needed a chocolate croissant.
They tried to only use the car when they were travelling to different accommodation, so no association could be made, but he was not walking in the cold to get her a stupid chocolate croissant.
She was prattling on about what else she was going to buy, the need for a chocolate croissant suddenly expanding, when he heard their names being said over the radio.
Her prattling stopped instantaneous so she must have heard it too.
Fox immediately indicates and stops, turning up the volume.
'...if you have any information on their whereabouts, please get in contact with your local police'.
There eyes were wide as they looked at each other. It was definitely their names they had heard.
Edited:17.05.20
AN: Oh, oh, spaghettios. Are they on to them? This was an incredibly long chapter, I apologise, but I just wanted to get it out in one. It's no longer fun writing about people in lockdown when you yourself are in lockdown. I want to write a bit more action and excitement :) Also this is set in 2013 ... Until next update!