I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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Act VII: Departure

The Advance of Time

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My doctor is a Perim-born Human. Jackson, I think his name is. Jackson, Johnson, Jayson, something that begins with the letter J and ends with "-son" in any case.

J-son is checking my eyes for the third time, as if he'll find something he'd missed the other times around. "I don't know what to tell you," he sighs, "I can't find anything out of the ordinary." He hooks his stethoscope to his ear again and places the other end on my back. "Breathe deep."

"Something is definitely wrong," Jupiter growls. "Completely losing consciousness doesn't just happen."

"Calm down, son," I say while J-son moves the stethoscope to the other side of my back.

J-son waits a moment, then takes the stethoscope out of his ear and tosses it onto the bed in frustration. "I'd have better luck literally taking a look inside your head," he mutters.

I remember that Manuel sometimes mourned the loss of various medical technologies, such as CAT scans, when everyone was shunted over to Perim. "It'd be easy if we found a way back to Earth," I joke.

"It's been, what, over a hundred solans since your generation came from there?" J-son starts washing his hands in the hot water tub he'd brought. "Earth's probably discovered a cure for everything in that time."

Jupiter grunts, "A lot of good it does over there. Jennison, can't you find a muge that can help?"

Jennison, right, I was a little off earlier.

"Isn't your sister a muge?" Jennison snapped. "Ask her how they're doing on the medical mugic front."

Jupiter stands up, his teeth bared. I throw my pillow at him. "Jupiter, stop it. Help your old dad get up."

Jupiter glares at Jennison before helping me to my feet. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," I admit. "For a walk."

Jennison turns around, his hands still scrubbing in the water. "Don't overexert yourself. We still don't know what made you lose consciousness."

"I'll walk slow," I say as I wave behind me.

"No lifting anything," Jennison continues, "No running, no jogging. And no sex, at least not before we figure out exactly what causing this!"

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I'm doing a fairly poor job of obeying my doctor tonight. Isis surprised me by wearing a red dress so thin and transparent that it might as well not be there, and I may have neglected to mention anything about Jennison's orders. I have no idea wear that dress is now. I don't really care, either.

I'm holding Isis's shoulder with one hand and the back of her head with the other, gritting my teeth and feeling my heart pound, muttering nonsense while she enthusiastically, er, takes care of me. It's not long before I'm gasping for breath, feeling heavy in the bed.

Isis crawls up the bed and lays down on top of me, tracing her thumbs around my ears. "Happy Birthday, Michael," she whispers into my ear before lightly biting it.

I trace my fingers around the horns on her head. I whisper "thanks" before resuming trying to catch my breath. The motion of the bed at my feet, behind Isis, distracts me for a moment, and I pull my legs up with my knees at Isis's sides. "Thank you for making it so happy," I finally manage to say.

I feel Isis's grin on my cheek, then feel it fall a little. "What did the doctor say? Did he find out what's wrong?"

A feel a little jolt in my chest. "No, he didn't. He, uh, told me not to overexert myself to be safe."

Isis pushes herself onto her hands and looks into my eyes. "What? And you didn't tell me?"

I stare very deliberately at her breasts. "Well, I have a couple really good reasons why I forgot," I say with a grin.

Isis lightly slaps the side of my head, and I chuckle a bit. "You should be ashamed of yourself," she scolds.

"Oh, don't tell me you're not enjoying yourself," I tease. I hold her shoulders and push her body back a bit, and her eyes half-close as she hisses and tenses up, shivering.

Isis shakes her head and then kisses me on the lips. "I'm not having you dying because you 'forgot' to mention something to me, okay?"

I kiss her back. "I promise to be better about it. Now, someone hasn't finished yet." I grin at Isis, then call out, "If she's not passed out euphoric by the time you're done, I'm having you... removed."

Isis squeezes her eyes shut and tries not to laugh. The motion at the foot of the bed pauses, and the seemingly-empty air asks, "Removed? You-you don't mean-?"

Isis slaps me lightly again. "Don't start teasing-oh!" She clings to me suddenly, panting and shaking, biting my shoulder rather hard as the bed starts shaking.

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Two months have passed since my birthday. It's very clear that Isis is carrying our third child now.

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Up next: The Name

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