Part V: Tomorrow
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."
–Ernest Hemmingway
Stardate 2260.307
Dagny crossed her arms and stood on the tips of her toes to catch a glimpse of the PADD in Voris' hands. "Is my immune system back to normal or isn't it?"
"Many of your leukocytes are still sub-functional and-"
"I want to go to the festival."
"Yes, you have made this quite clear."
"I'll wear a mask, I'll do whatever I have to do, I just don't want to be stuck in the clinic today. I want to see people, rather than waiting for people to come see me. I want to take part." There was a time when wide-open spaces had made her uncomfortable, but months of being trapped in a tiny clinic had done wonders for her mild agoraphobia.
Voris shot her a concerned glance but Dagny refused to give in. She had been off the immunosuppressant drugs for nearly two weeks and after a full round of vaccines, her immune system had been restored, or at least restored enough that a few wayward germs weren't going to be a death sentence. "Please, Voris. The exercise would be good for me."
"This morning you were complaining that you found it difficult to breathe and could barely leave the room without needing to urinate."
She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest. Voris cocked an eyebrow, signaling to her that he wasn't going to give in so easily.
"That's what happens when you're eight and a half months pregnant," she huffed. "Besides, you were the one who suggested we should go on a light walk. Sometimes I think you just enjoy arguing with me."
"By a light walk, I intended to imply we could walk through the tunnels where much of the air is filtered," he replied. "And on occasion I believe you prefer to be intransigent for the sake of intransigency."
Dagny rolled her eyes and then fixed them directly on Voris. "You can't keep me from going up to the surface."
"I am aware. I merely wish to keep you and the child healthy in the final weeks of your pregnancy."
"What about my mental health? Doesn't that count for something? Being stuck in this clinic has felt like being in prison at times."
"Your flair for the dramatic is impressive. I would again point out that-"
"Yes, you offered to let me walk around the main tunnel. I don't want to walk around the main tunnel. Come on, Voris. This spring festival apparently only comes once a year, the clinic is closed for the day, the weather bulletin says it's sunny and warm outside, and things have been very quiet on the colony. I don't think we're going to have many more days off before the baby comes."
A slight flick of his eyes told Dagny she'd won. More than two months of nightly mind melds had taught her to read him like a well-worn, beloved novel.
"I will accompany you," he said slowly.
"Of course!" Dagny said brightly, trying to keep the momentum of her persuasion skills going. "I wouldn't think of going without you."
He gave her a knowing stare, prompting her to return his look with a sheepish grin. Their nightly ritual of melding to assuage Dagny's chaotic pregnancy-related emotions had apparently given Voris enormous insight into Dagny's mental processes as well. She was manipulating him and he knew it, and she knew that he knew, and he knew that she knew that he knew.
"You will agree to return to the clinic if you grow fatigued-"
"The moment I feel tired, we'll come back."
They stared at each other for nearly ten seconds and Dagny peered carefully at him, wondering if he was only agreeing to do this because he knew she would get winded quickly. At least she wouldn't have to contend with climbing the stairs to the surface.
A month earlier, crews had finished work on a bank of turbolifts. Now that so few people were engaged in mining and spring was here, the majority of the colony spent their days on the surface farming the land, and a handful of short stair entrances in different tunnels hadn't been up to the task of so much increased traffic.
She thought about taking a jacket, but decided there was already a risk of her temperature monitor going off from the exercise of going up to the surface and walking around. As she waddled across their quarters toward the stairs, Voris followed, lengthening his stride to casually cut in front of her and be first down the stairs.
It wasn't out of rudeness, but an instinct to prevent Dagny from falling. She was large, ungainly, and forever off-balance these days. Prior to their nightly mind melds, she would have found it annoying, infantilizing, and probably even controlling, but because she had come to know his mind so well, she knew the habit came from Voris' deep need to protect not only the baby, but also the mother.
The mind melds had been a extraordinary blessing and she wondered how she'd ever gotten along before, not only earlier in her pregnancy, but her entire life. All of her fears that Voris would learn all her most embarrassing secrets had been completely unfounded—apparently, the melds he employed weren't designed to exchange concrete information like memories and thoughts, but instead the melds seemed to work their magic by allowing the transfer of feelings.
The occasional errant memory did slip through from time to time when Voris wasn't careful to focus his energy or when one of them was feeling a particularly strong emotion about a certain life event—she had gotten several glimpses of Voris as an ungainly teenager and of his late wife, T'Sala—but for the most part, they had been able to retain their mental privacy.
The mind melds had become so integral to her evening routine that she wondered what would happen after the baby was born. As much as she was beginning to loathe the constant discomforts of late pregnancy and as excited as she was to meet their little one, she dreaded giving birth because it also probably meant giving up their nightly melds.
"You are certain there is no chance I might convince you to enjoy some light exercise by walking the main tunnel?" Voris asked, turning to her once they reached the bottom of the stairs.
Dagny grinned. "No. Fresh air or nothing, and nothing isn't an option."
"For someone who grew up on a salvage ship, I would think your concept of 'fresh air' would be somewhat different than the standard definition."
"Maybe it's because I grew up on a salvage ship that I appreciate what it is to feel the warmth of a sun on my face."
Voris offered a withering nod and opened the clinic door. The moment they stepped into the main tunnel, Dagny felt an impulse to run in all directions, to skip, to do cartwheels, and twirl around until she made herself sick. It was a small thing to step outside the clinic, but it meant the world to her.
Voris closed the door and posted a message on the bulletin that they were both out of the clinic but that Voris could be reached via communicator the event of any emergencies, then they set off together down the tunnel toward the turbolifts. Neither of them spoke, but there was little that needed to be said between them these days.
They shared a profound understanding that required language only on rare occasions. To Dagny, this arrangement didn't seem like love or passion or romantic affection in any way, but rather, two spirits who had merged and preferred the mutual contentment of being together over being apart. She was glad for this because it meant her silly little crush was over and they could move onto the business of preparing to become parents.
Not that they'd done much in the way of making preparations. Dagny had collected a hodgepodge of baby supplies from Aisla and Ann, but they still had yet to discuss the logistics of actually caring for a baby—chiefly, what the division of labor was going to look like. Dagny had just sort of assumed it would fall to her but from the very beginning, Voris had said he'd wanted to be involved. She wish she knew exactly what that meant.
"Dagny! Good to see ye out and about!"
She wheeled around to see the burly, red-faced constable coming toward them. "Yeah, I wanted to have a little outing before the baby gets here. How are you, Constable Kilpatrick?"
"No need to be so formal, lass: Cillian's fine," he grinned. "Ye going up to the fair?"
"That was the plan, yes."
"Mind if I join you both?"
"Why should we mind?" Voris asked.
"Ye shouldn't," he bellowed with a pleased laugh. "I'm right good comp'ny, if I do say so meself."
They entered the turbolift together and as the doors closed behind them, Dagny asked, "Is this carnival something the colony does every year?"
"Oh, I suppose so. This is the third time we're having it, so I guess ye could call it a tradition by now. I guess it always has been for the Andorians. They're celebrating the feast of Fek-del-ahnn."
"I thought that was still several months away," Dagny mused, wondering if she was remembering the correct Andorian holiday.
"I think it is officially, but if you ask the Andorians, it's not the sort of holiday that has to have a fixed date on the calendar. Speaking of fixed dates, when's that little bundle of joy going to make an appearance?"
"Probably not for another few weeks," Dagny answered, instinctively rubbing her stomach.
"Ye must be gettin' excited."
Before she could answer, the turbolift jerked to a halt and the doors slid open to reveal a dazzling blue sky and a sea of people milling around on brilliant green grass. The overhead lighting in the tunnels below provided low levels of background radiation to mimic sunlight and prevent Vitamin D deficiency, but it was still a shock to experience this kind of light again. Dagny smiled and shielded her eyes, staggering out of the lift with Voris close on her heels.
"Isn't this amazing?" she beamed.
"Amazement implies a sensation of great shock or astonishment. I would hesitate to call it amazing."
"That's because you haven't been living in an underground clinic for the past four months," she said, lowering her hands from her eyes but still squinting against the vivid sun.
In the distance, fields of juvenile crops shrouded the landscape as far as the eye could see. Immediately in front of them, there were long rows of tables with people standing in front of different wares and there were other people who had set their items up on blankets. Food vendors were selling all manner of dishes, most of them deep fried, and children of all species bobbed and weaved through the patchy crowds.
She hadn't been sure what to expect from an outdoor colony festival, but as starved as she was for non-work related social interaction, she probably would have been delighted with a festival made up of only two people wearing party hats and blowing into novelty horns.
"Hello, doctor!" a handsome Andorian man said, smiling and waving from several tables down.
"Who is that?" Dagny asked, taking a half step in his direction. The Andorians liked to keep to themselves and usually only frequented the clinic in extreme emergencies, so she didn't recognize him.
"His name is Shurnel," Voris replied quickly. "I treated him several months ago for…" Voris hesitated in a most uncharacteristic fashion and finished his thought by saying, "The reason for his treatment is irrelevant. He is better now."
"I don't remember him," Dagny insisted, wandering in the man's direction.
"I first met him in the Andorian village and I believe you were indisposed the day he returned for a follow-up appointment."
They were close enough to Shurnel's table now to greet each other properly. Dagny boldly stuck out her hand and said, "I don't think we've met. I'm Dagny."
"We have not met," the man agreed, accepting her handshake warmly. "But I remember seeing you the day you arrived. You were…" His eyes drifted from her face to her bulging stomach.
"I was smaller then," Dagny laughed.
"Yes. Felicitations on your many blessings." Shurnel smiled. His face was severely handsome and he had a natural sort of charm that drew her in. "What can I provide you with on this feast day of Fek-del-ahnn?"
"I… I don't really know," Dagny admitted, exchanging looks with Voris and surveying the table, which was covered with blue drinks and pies. "I didn't realize an important Andorian holiday was today and I don't really know much about it."
"Fek-del-ahnn will not be celebrated on Andoria for two more months, but the spirit of the holiday is more essential than the date. It marks the time of the year when the bitter parts of winter are over and we clean out our homes, share our remaining food surpluses with our neighbors, give thanks for surviving the cold, and prepare to start the year anew."
"That's really nice," Dagny replied.
"We have celebrated it since the colony's founding and many of the other races here have joined in on the joy of the season."
As if to prove his point, about twenty meters away, a Klingon man bellowed a laugh and raised a training bat'leth over his head in victory while a small crowd cheered him on. He then reached down and helped his muddy opponent, a young Klingon man who was probably only still a teenager, to his feet. It looked like some kind of tournament.
"Now, as I said before, what refreshment can we provide you with?" Shurnel asked.
"Oh, uh, we didn't bring anything to trade or exchange," Dagny replied, blushing. "I didn't exactly know what kind of festival this was."
"You may take whatever you like," Shurnel insisted. "I owe my livelihood to Dr. Voris' medical care."
"Oh, what do you do?" Dagny asked.
"I would like some of the pie," Voris interrupted.
"Ah, yes," Shurnel grinned.
Dagny looked back and forth between them. Voris was trying harder than usual to suppress some negative feeling. Embarrassment, perhaps?
She glanced back at the Andorian, who offered a broad smile and finally answered, "I work in the hospitality field."
They both helped themselves to a small piece of pie and left Shurnel to exchange several bottles of Andorian ale for other goods from other human customers. They browsed several of the tables and spoke to many former patients, all of whom seemed excited to see Dagny out and about.
Every time they stopped to talk to someone, Dagny was forced to deliver some version of the same speech, explaining that she felt well, her due date wasn't far away, and yes, she was still working in the clinic in the meantime. Several well-meaning people, most of them human women, rubbed her belly without invitation and though Dagny didn't mind all that much, it invoked strong, negative feelings in Voris.
She was explaining to Sarah Blakely that the baby wasn't kicking much anymore these days, probably because there wasn't a whole lot of room for it to move around, when Sarah clamped both of her palms onto the lower side of her stomach, as if to test Dagny's hypothesis. A tremendous emotion riveted from Voris and though he managed to suppress any outward indication of discomfort, Dagny knew right away something was wrong.
After they said goodbye to Mrs. Blakely and headed toward the back row of vendors, Dagny asked, "Why does it upset you when people touch me?"
"I am not upset; it is an instinctive response to casual and unsolicited contact."
"Yeah, but they're touching me, not you."
"They are also making secondary contact with the child."
"So?"
"It is not appropriate for individuals outside a child's immediate family to handle it."
Dagny laughed. "That's about as far from the way I grew up as you could imagine. On the Albret, everyone looked after everyone's kids. That's just how it had to be for everyone to get their work done and have their kids taken care of."
"And you intend to allow the colony at large to assist in raising our child?"
"No, but I don't see the point of locking him or her away, either, or in getting some help if we need it because the clinic is busy."
Voris was quiet, but his pace was increasing. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"There is nothing wrong."
"I feel like we're having a fight and I don't know what it's about."
"It would be better to discuss this later, in private."
"But it's bothering me now," she replied, looking around to see if anyone was listening in on their conversation.
Voris didn't respond but instead, stared straight ahead. Dagny turned to see what had caught his interest and nearly did a double take. Near the end of the row sat Pearson Schoenbein and Vaksur, and it was expressly clear from their body language that they were romantically involved.
She had once found Pearson handsome and very charming, but she felt nothing now. It was almost alarming, not to feel jealousy or hurt when she was expecting it, but she felt nothing at all. He looked like he'd been through the ringer—he looked tired and had lost weight.
More surprising than her lack of sentiment about Pearson was her new perception of Vaksur. Dagny had never liked her, but like Pearson, all of her feelings toward this gorgeous Vulcan woman with the hair so shiny it looked like molten coal were entirely neutral. It was clear just how much she liked Voris, but that no longer bothered her, which was a stunning realization.
It was clear that Voris wasn't all that interested in Vaksur, but maybe Dagny's change in attitude also meant that she wasn't interested in Voris any longer. Not that she ever had been, not really. Things between them were forever doomed to be complicated, but maybe they had reached a point where they could care for each other and share mutual respect without misplaced feelings getting in the way.
She was still in the middle of trying to process this realization when she saw Vaksur turn in their direction. She flashed a bright smile, tossed her head, wove her left arm around Pearson's, and waved at them with her right. Both Voris and Dagny hesitated, opting to look at one another before proceeding in toward their table. Voris was impossible to read clearly but she sensed he didn't like the idea of Pearson and Vaksur as a couple.
"We should go talk to them," Dagny muttered under her breath. "At this point, it'll be more awkward if we don't."
Voris said nothing. Dagny put on her best fake smile and stepped forward, Voris trailing a half step behind her.
"Pearson, Vaksur, how are you?" Dagny asked, stopping in front of their table, which was covered in scarves and various carved rocks and other trinkets.
"We are doing well," Vaksur replied, her tone half an octave higher than it probably should have been.
"And it's good to see you, Pearson," Dagny added. "It's been a while."
"Yeah," he mumbled, pursing his lips and nodding, his eyes resting on her stomach.
"Well, it was good talking with you," Vaksur said, staring at Voris.
"May you live long and prosper," Voris replied, neither looking directly at her nor giving the Vulcan salute that typically accompanied the expression.
After they were out of earshot, Dagny half-turned her face toward Voris and whispered, "I feel like something just happened but I don't know what."
"We briefly spoke with Mr. Schoenbein and Vaksur. What else do you imagine transpired?"
"Something happened beyond words, I mean. I think there was a lot of subtext there that I didn't really understand."
"Their private lives are none of our concern."
"At least on that, we agree."
"But you remain curious."
Dagny shot him an exasperated look and grimaced. He was right, of course, but she wasn't keen to admit it. They spent another thirty minutes wandering around and talking with several other people, and Dagny did her best to soak up the sun and atmosphere while trying to avoid admitting how tired she was growing.
As they were walking away from Zernon's food cart with a bag of candied nuts, Voris canted his head toward her and said, "Perhaps we should return to the clinic. Your skin is beginning to flush."
She nodded. "Thanks for coming with me. This was really nice."
They made their way back to the turbolift and had to wait in line as other groups descended back into the tunnels, and when it was their turn to board, Dagny looked out over the rolling hills and the crowds of people and was struck by a feeling of excited apprehension. The next time she came up to the surface, she would probably be a mother.
He slowed his pace to match Dagny's. They would be late getting back to the clinic but she had been right about the exercise and fresh air. She was happier and more content than she had been in months without the assistance of a mind meld.
"You keep looking at your PADD. Is something wrong?" she asked.
"No, I was merely checking the time."
"The clinic's closed for the day. Does the time really matter?"
The time did matter, but if he understood the purpose of a surprise party correctly, it was essential to maintain the deception, and explaining to her that the planners of the party had asked that they return at 1500 hours and that it was already 1507 hours would "spoil the surprise," as Aisla would say.
When Ann Svendsen had first approached him with the idea of a surprise baby shower, he had been intrigued by the human custom, once she had explained it was a euphemism and not an actual event where infants were drenched with water. In Vulcan families, infant supplies were often exchanged from one generation to the next within the same family and the burden of purchasing new supplies fell on the child's parents.
Voris reached the clinic door two steps before Dagny. They both hesitated. She raised her eyebrows and nodded to the door's keypad. "Should I open the door or…?"
"I had thought you might open it," Voris said.
She gave him a strange look and rubbed the small of her back with both hands. "You got here first and normally you're the one who bothers with this but I guess it's not a big deal."
She entered the code and the outer door opened into the short hallway, and the moment the inner door slid open, a group of female voices collectively shouted, "Surprise!"
Dagny staggered backward into Voris and clasped her hands over her chest. "What?" she choked, looking around the clinic in shock. "What is this?"
"Uh, it's a baby shower," Aisla laughed, pointing to a small sign they'd hung up that read, "Welcome baby!"
"I can't believe- and- did you know?" Dagny asked, turning to face him.
"Yes. I was charged with removing you from the premises for approximately one hour while this event was assembled."
"Yeah, normally you would worry that the person responsible for getting you out of the way for a little while would spill the beans, but we figured our secret was safe with Dr. Voris," Ann said.
"Yeah, if a Vulcan can't keep a secret, who can?" Aisla added.
"I trust I fulfilled my duties to your satisfaction?" Voris asked.
"Judging by Dagny's face, I'd say so," Britta Svendsen chuckled.
"Now, we have food and fun and all kinds of things planned," Aisla said, grabbing Dagny's hand and pulling her into the group of women. "And we set out some snacks upstairs for Dr. Voris because he said he still had some work to do and we didn't want him to go hungry."
"I am grateful," Voris replied. He caught Dagny's eye and added, "Enjoy yourself."
She offered a genuine smile, which she quickly tried to repress. "Thank you all so much for this."
Voris headed upstairs and found a plate of sliced fruit and crackers waiting for him on the kitchen table. He sat down and attempted to read recent medical journals, but every so often his thoughts were interrupted by laughter from downstairs. Yet he did not mind the disruption because he sensed Dagny was happy, and this pleased him.
Several hours later, Aisla enlisted his help to carry infant items upstairs to their quarters. She had received a crib, bedding, more baby clothes of differing sizes, and some things that he had initially believed were oddly designed pillows but were apparently more appropriately referred to as "stuffed animals."
Once everyone had gone home for the evening, Dagny slumped into the chair at the kitchen table he'd been sitting in and stared straight ahead at the wall. Her mind was very active, but he could not determine her mood.
"Would you care for end meal?"
"No, I ate a lot of snacks at the shower," she mumbled, awkwardly rising to her feet. "And it looks like you've been snacking too."
He watched her open the cupboards and extract a general purpose cleaning solution and several rags and begin wiping down the kitchen surfaces.
"The kitchen was cleaned this morning," he reminded her. "You should rest."
"I know, but…"
She didn't finish her sentence, but neither did she stop cleaning.
"Did you enjoy yourself at your party this afternoon?"
"Yeah, I did," she answered, not bothering to look up.
"Then why are you anxious?"
"Why do you always announce how I feel? Like I don't know?" she retorted, wheeling around. "Ugh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you."
"You are anxious," Voris insisted.
She waved her hand around the room, seemingly gesturing to the baby items stacked in the corner. "It's finally starting to hit me that I'm about to be a mom."
"You did not understand the end result of pregnancy?"
She barked a laugh and leaned back against the counter's edge. "I've spent so much of this pregnancy waiting for something to go wrong and I don't think I ever fully accepted the idea that things might turn out ok in the end. But the closer it gets, the more I realize this is really going to happen. I'm going to be a mom. You're going to be a dad. It's exciting and scary and we still have so much to figure out."
Her admission reminded him of the festival earlier that day, when Dagny so willingly allowed people to touch her stomach without a thought for what it might be doing to the developing mind of the child inside her. Normal human social development relied heavily on contact with other humans, contact which was often satisfied by the care of the mother and other close relatives, but humans were far less selective when it came to who should be allowed to handle the child than Vulcans.
Because Vulcans were touch telepaths, contact with infants was restricted only to immediate relatives or professional caretakers as a means of protecting the child's developing mind and shielding them from inadvertent mental transference with strangers. For this reason, Vulcans would consider it a shocking breach of propriety to touch a child or a pregnant mother without an invitation. Yet he recognized his views on this matter were shaped by his Vulcan upbringing and understood that most species, humans included, did not consider allowing casual acquaintances to hold their child to be taboo.
This child would be Vulcan, but it would be human also. That was certainly something to reflect upon more during his evening meditations, but for now, Dagny had gone back to scrubbing the kitchen counters and seemed to be preparing to mop the floor. He approached her from behind and said, "I will clean. Please, rest."
"There's so much to do," she said, running her hands through her hair.
"Then let us do it together."
Voris took over her duties of cleaning the kitchen—even though the kitchen was already clean—while Dagny began sorting infant clothes to put through the laundry cycler. They worked late into the evening, barely speaking to one another except to ask questions about their immediate task of scouring their quarters.
As the evening faded into night, Dagny's emotions splintered and he could tell she was growing frustrated. When she hurled a tiny shirt at the wall because it refused to be properly folded, he decided it was probably time to retire for the night.
He didn't even need to speak to her to inform her of his thoughts. He sat down on the edge of the bed next to her and she leaned her body against his, allowing him easy access to her face so that they could meld with one another. She quickly fell asleep in his arms and even though they were still wearing their day clothes, he didn't dare disturb her.
When he was convinced she was entering a deep sleep, he gently rolled her onto her left side and slipped his arm out from underneath her. He stared at the ceiling, reflecting upon what she had said earlier. He had often given consideration to their child's upbringing but as she had confessed, it had always been in a very abstract way. It occurred to him that like Dagny, some part of him had always assumed the pregnancy would never reach full term.
The probability of her delivering a healthy baby had been very low. She had naturally conceived a hybrid child following severe radiation sickness, she had suffered a subchorionic hemorrhage and been on immunosuppressants for months, but despite everything, the child had managed to endure. They had nearly made it to the end and even if she were to go into labor now, the child would almost certainly survive with minor medical intervention.
Dagny twitched and jerked and he turned his head to watch her. She twitched again and clutched her belly and he was almost considering waking her when she yelped and opened her eyes.
"Are you well?"
She blinked several times and looked around, then looked down at her stomach. "Yeah, yeah, I uh- I think I just had a bad dream. Did I wake you up?"
"No, I was still awake."
"Oh."
They sat looking at each other for several seconds until Dagny rolled back over and muttered, "Good night, Voris."
"Yes, good night, Dagny."
Dagny's eyelids sprung open. She sighed. She had to pee again. Sleeping through the night wasn't a luxury she'd had in a long time thanks to a growing baby doing belly flops on her bladder. She held her breath and snuck a glance over her shoulder at Voris, who remained sound asleep.
It mildly surprised her because he was such a light sleeper, and so she took extra care to extract herself from the bed as quickly and quietly as possible. Once her feet hit the floor, she did her best to inch along the edge of the mattress and slide out of bed, but no movement she could make with such an enormous stomach was going to be swift and graceful.
The bedframe creaked and Voris uttered a low moan. Dagny held her breath as she waited to discover whether he was awake or not and after ten seconds, she decided he probably wasn't and stood up. Gravity had a cruel way of pulling everything downward and putting extra strain on her back and joints, but on this morning, her back was in a particularly miserable state. She flexed and tried to pop it, but decided the ache was in her muscles and no amount of cracking her vertebrae was going to fix it. She hated being pregnant.
She waddled to the bathroom and plopped down on the toilet, but the moment she looked down, she was shocked to see her feet were a lot more swollen than she'd been expecting. Her hands were too. She flushed the toilet and went to look in the mirror and was surprised to find a very bloated face staring back at her. She touched her cheek out of weird curiosity, but jumped when she heard Voris mumble, "What is the time?"
"Oh, uh, it's 0456. Sorry I woke you up so early."
"It's no matter. Are you well?"
"As well as I usually am," she groaned. "My back hurts, my feet are swollen, and it takes a conscious effort just to breathe, so, yes, I guess I'm ok."
She heard the sheets ruffle and Voris appeared behind her. He also stared at her reflection in the mirror and said, "I would like to check your blood pressure and take a urine sample."
"My blood pressure has always been low."
"I am aware, however, this degree of swelling you're experiencing may be-"
"A sign of preeclampsia, I know. I don't have any headaches or abdominal pain though."
"Nevertheless, I would prefer to be thorough. I would also like to contact Dr. Govorski-"
"Oh, don't bother her. We have our last conference with her next week. I think we can get along just fine until then."
They exchanged looks in the mirror and then stepped away to get dressed. Just as she was pulling a dark blue maternity dress over her head, a powerful cramp struck her low in the belly, nearly causing her to seize up and fall over. She took a slow breath, but the shock of the unexpected pain had taken most of the wind out of her.
Had she just experienced a contraction? She'd never had one so she didn't know exactly what they felt like. She doubted she would be going into labor now, because even for a typical human pregnancy, she was still at least two weeks away from her due date and Dr. Govorski had said hybrid pregnancies with human mothers tended to run a little longer.
The cramp started to fade away and she moaned a sigh of relief. It was probably just a random Braxton Hicks contraction and nothing more.
"Dagny?"
"What?"
"You were in pain just now."
She grunted. The mind melds had been great for helping get her emotions in check and giving her a sense of calmness, but sometimes she hated how attuned they were to each other and how Voris had developed a habit of announcing it.
"When am I not in pain? If it's not my knees, it's my back, if it's not my back, it's my ligaments!"
"You are becoming agitated."
"Oh, you noticed?" Dagny retorted. Immediate shame washed over her. This wasn't his fault. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just tired of being pregnant. I want this baby out of me."
"That is understandable. Your body is under substantial strain."
"I know you logically know what this must be like, that you can technically understand, but you still really have no idea. Everything aches and I feel like I never stop peeing and-"
Just as she said that, she felt a warm trickle wind its way down her thighs, causing her to stand upright and cross her legs. Had she just peed in her pants? There was no way to disguise her embarrassment from Voris, who was now giving her a very strange look.
"Uh, um, excuse me," she said, shuffling toward the bathroom. More liquid dripped out of her and she realized it was starting to trail down her legs.
She couldn't breathe. Instinct made her touch the wetness running down her thighs and she immediately recognized it wasn't urine. Just as it dawned on her what was happening, Voris announced it aloud. "I cannot be certain, but it appears your amniotic sac has ruptured."
"How can my water have broken now? I'm not supposed to have this baby for another couple of weeks!"
"You should know as well as anyone that due dates are an estimate and-"
"I'm having a baby," Dagny interrupted, trying to catch her breath.
"Yes, it would appear that event is imminent."
"I'm having a baby."
"You said that, yes."
"I'm having a baby," she blurted. "I can't have a baby today. We have appointments. We have appointments in the clinic. We have patients. We have to run the clinic."
"It does not seem your body has taken that into consideration."
"What are we going to do?"
"You are going to give birth and I-"
"I-I-I don't… I can't…"
Voris canted his head and searched her eyes. "You are frightened."
"Yes!" Dagny screeched, descending into violent shivering. "I can't do this. I don't know how to do this. I don't want to do this. This can't be happening. I can't have a baby today."
Voris took several cautious steps toward her. "I do not believe you have a choice."
Dagny choked and coughed and tried to suck in air through her nose, but her world started spinning. Voris caught her and wrapped his fingertips around her cheeks. His mind was suddenly inside hers in a way it had never been before and even though his lips did not move, she somehow heard him say, "You may have never done this before, but you do know how to do this. Please remain calm."
She leaned her cheek against his chest and nodded numbly. Mind melding with Voris often worked wonders for allowing her to shed all her more extreme emotions, but anxiety and excitement refused to be tamed this time and it slowly dawned on her that it might be because the emotions on that day weren't only hers, but also his.