CHAPTER 69 – OSCAR WILDE

"Can you believe we're doing this again? I mean, I knew I'd be going back to Coal Valley after my sabbatical, but I can't believe you are back here with me." Abigail smiled. She moved about the kitchen counting cans and making notes in her electronic pad.

"I was as surprised as you," Elizabeth replied. She was sitting on a stool at one of the room's large counters. A cup of warm tea was in front of her as the two women caught up with each other on what had been happening over the last few months.

"Tell me more about your family's reaction."

"Before or after they tried to bribe me into leaving Jack, and tried to bribe Jack into leaving me?"

"They didn't?!"

Elizabeth took a bite of a croissant and nodded. "They did."

Abigail chuckled. "I can't say I don't understand. I'm going to love having Aaron Daniel around to spoil."

"Jack doesn't want him spoiled. He said he needs to be tough and outdoorsy like him. Of course, he says that about two seconds before he jumps up when he hears the littlest whimper from the baby. Then he vaults across the room to cuddle him. So, our son is going to grow up to be a tough, outdoorsy manly-man who loves cuddles and being held and sung to every night to fall asleep."

"That's the best kind," Abigail replied with a smile. She pulled open a deep metal drawer and took out a box labeled Forks. 3 Tine. Quantity: 50, and then reached for another one. "How's married life? Earth's got to have been a lot different from space for you two. Your first time together in a normal world."

"It's wonderful," Elizabeth replied with her own smile.

Elizabeth hadn't told her best friend about forgetting to get the birth control device implanted. She knew she could trust Abigail to keep a secret but it was still a little too raw and personal to divulge.

"Jack's checking out the transporter now. Seeing what new things have been added to the fitness center, meeting other passengers. He took Aaron with him. He's a proud daddy. He'll start his official rounds tomorrow."

"Did you meet your suite mates yet?"

Elizabeth nodded. "The mother's a civil engineer; her name's Linda. The father's an agriculture something or other. Once again, everyone seems to be a scientist or math person except for me and Jack –"

"And me", Abigail interjected.

"Thank God for you," Elizabeth told her. She took a sip of her tea and then continued to tell Abigail about the people with whom she'd be sharing a bathroom. "Their twin girls are eight. Susie and Joyce. They're sweet. They came running through the bathroom all excited when they thought we had brought chipmunks and sea creatures with us."

Abigail stopped arranging trays on the counter and gave Elizabeth a puzzled look.

"Before lift-over." Elizabeth reminded her friend. "Acorn. The man with the allergies. Everyone discussing what they thought we had brought onboard. You must have heard about it."

Abigail chuckled. "I forgot how fast rumors spread on this transporter. By the time it got to me, I had heard that a couple had brought a suitcase full of nuts and an aquarium of shellfish. Someone mentioned a possible octopus."

"The girls were quite disappointed when I explained that we hadn't brought any animals with us. I told them to check with one of the scientists. Maybe there's something interesting in one of the labs."

"Are you going to teach on the flight?" Abigail asked as she lost count and then had to re-count the trays and utensils.

"I don't know," Elizabeth said with a shrug. "I'm not even sure how many children are aboard the flight. And there's a teacher in Coal Valley; my replacement is still there. I don't want to step on anyone's toes."

Abigail gave Elizabeth a knowing grin. "Hmm. You and Jack are without pressing duties. On a transporter in a private family room. Four months of no household chores. Two girls next door who I'm sure would love to babysit. I bet that you and Jack can find ways to entertain yourselves."

Elizabeth bit her lip and averted looking at Abigail before quickly changing the topic. "What's for dinner tonight?"

When the door slid open to the Thornton family quarters, Elizabeth looked up and smiled at the men in her life.

She had left the kitchen to allow Abigail time to get ready for the dinner hour and was now sitting on one of the lower bunks. Deciding to let Jack and Aaron finish their tour, Elizabeth had used the time to write in her journal until they returned. "How was your walk?"

"Excellent. Your son is the talk off the ship," Jack said proudly.

"Every mother's goal," she teased but nevertheless felt proud herself as she looked at her adorable son.

Jack set the boy down in his bunk and handed him his rattle to keep him occupied.

"The transporter's had some updates since we were on it. New automated doors which are voice-activated as well as motion-activated. New gym equipment. They added a trampoline to be used for exercise. The pool's the same but I was thinking it will be great to have to teach Acorn how to swim."

"We don't have a swimsuit for him," Elizabeth reminded her husband.

"He'll go naked."

Elizabeth chuckled. "He's not potty trained. He can't swim in a pool if he's going to add something to the water."

"I'll get one of the scientists to give us some kind of waterproof fabric, and the quartermasters can make him a swim suit from it to keep his diaper from getting soaked."

"Did you forget that the pool is a current pool? The poor thing will get pushed against the ends. He'll be swallowing water and floundering about. He'll probably think he's surrounded by amniotic fluid. He'll be like 'what they heck? How did I end up back in mommy's belly? With Daddy. How in the world did Daddy end up in Mommy's belly with me?!"

Jack gave her a look of disdain but Elizabeth kept talking. "And then he'll be like "Whoa, do I need to push out of here again?!""

"I'll ask them to turn off the current when we use it," an undeterred Jack replied.

"I'll have him swimming before we arrive at Coal Valley."

"He can't even walk yet! He just learned how to crawl," she good-naturedly protested. "How about we let him get used to moving on the ground before we make him aquatic?

"I learned how to swim early. Swimming is one of the most important skills a person can learn."

"More important than walking?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Could be. If he lives on an island."

Elizabeth scoffed. "He's not going to Hawaii. He's going to Coal Valley. I think we're safe from being surrounded by water and needing to swim to survive."

"It's still an important skill," a determined Jack announced. "He's going to be like me. I can tell already."

Elizabeth shook her head in amusement and wondered how Jack would be if they had a daughter instead of a son.

Or in ADDITION to a son.

A little girl with brown hair. He'd probably spoil her rotten. Just like he does with Aaron. And treat her like a princess. A princess that can be a law enforcement officer.

Stop! Don't go there, she reminded herself with a start when she realized that she was pleasantly imagining a scene of Jack with a daughter.

No more babies for now!

Three hours later, the family left the Cafeteria and casually strolled back to their quarters. Elizabeth carried their sleeping son against her chest. His tiny head resting on one of her shoulders.

"Is he drooling?" she asked Jack as she gently moved her head to the side and tried to see if her shirt had a spot of spit.

"Nope. You're clean," Jack replied as he took a half-step behind her. "He's too tired. Even his drool is too tired to run out of his mouth."

It had been a long day. It was hard to imagine that just twelve hours earlier, they had been in the Thatcher mansion in Hamilton celebrating a family birthday. Now, Earth was just a spot in the distance.

"I'm exhausted myself," Jack admitted when they entered their room. "Let's just leave him in his clothes to sleep. They're comfortable enough."

Elizabeth lay the baby in his berth and then paused to look at him. His dark hair was ruffled and one of his cheeks had a red splotch from resting against her shoulder. She smiled when, in his sleep, he moved a thumb into his mouth and began sucking on it.

She was still standing there looking at him when Jack came out of bathroom after brushing his teeth. "It's empty. Better get in there before the neighbors get in. There are four of them."

"Jack?" Elizabeth asked in surprise a few minutes later when she came back to the main room after brushing her teeth and saw that he had already changed into shorts and a tee-shirt and crawled into one of the top bunks. "Aren't you going to put the mattresses on the floor for us?"

"Nah. I figure we'll each just take a bunk. You probably want the bottom one since you'll get up to feed him when he wakes."

Elizabeth's nose crinkled and her mouth frowned. "Don't you want to sleep together?"

"I'm okay. I thought you'd be tired too. It's been a really long day."

"Yeah, you're right," she replied in false agreement.

She reached up to his bunk and gave him a simple kiss goodnight. "We'll sleep together tomorrow night."

"Or whenever," he replied casually. "I'm just going to work on my computer for a bit. You can turn out the light if you want. I'm good with my screen. G'night."

Elizabeth gave him a frown at his response but he didn't seem to notice. Or Whenever? Whenever? What the heck is that supposed to me?

She thought about asking Jack what he meant but then realized that he probably didn't mean anything by it. He was simply tired like the rest of the small family.

Jack finished looking at the manifest on his computer and made some notes as to whom he had already met. He closed the device, set it on the shelf above his berth, and crawled under his blanket. There was the faint hum of the transporter's machinery but the room was otherwise quiet.

He wondered if Elizabeth was asleep. He hoped so. He hoped it would be this easy to go to bed for the next five months.

Jack had spent the afternoon figuring out how to deal with the 'problem'. There would be four months of flight time and then one month until the next scheduled transporter arrived and hopefully it contained a package from Julie.

Until then, Jack planned to be alone with Elizabeth on a limited basis. He was determined to avoid another space pregnancy. Which meant he had to avoid temptation. And since another name for temptation was Elizabeth, he needed to avoid her.

He tried not to think of a quote which Oscar Wilde, one of Elizabeth's favorite author, had once written, but it kept coming back to haunt him: The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. I can resist everything but temptation.

No, no, no. Jack told himself. Resist. Resist! DON'T YIELD!

UP NEXT: CHAPTER 70