I'm on a roll with this story! Yay me!

"Come on, keep going. You can do it!" Jeremy coaxed.

"I'm giving birth, not playing football!" Blaise retorted, gritting her teeth.

"I can see the head!" a male nurse dressed in drag exclaimed. "Push! The baby's almost out!"

"Okay, why in the hell are you wearing drag?" Blaise snapped, biting her lip against a scream as she pushed as hard as she could.

"You did it! It's here!" Jeremy cheered.

The doctor gently handed a bundle to Blaise. She let out a scream. In her arms lay a litter of rabbits... with Kai's head.

"Your babies are healthy and lively!" the doctor congratulated.

"They're beautiful!" Jeremy cooed, tickling one of the Kai-rabbit creatures. Blaise stared at him in horror as the little animals bounced around madly.

"Are you crazy? Look at them!"

"Can you believe we created these wonderful little beings?"

"Uh... hell no! They're not even babies!" Blaise covered her face as one of the odd looking rabbits hopped over her head. But her defense proved no avail. Suddenly all of their coworkers were in the room, cooing over the rabbits.

"What's going on?!"

Blaise startled awake, breathing heavily. "What in the-" She glanced over at the clock on the side table. 2:35 AM. She blinked and shook her head in confusion.

"Blaise?" Jeremy murmured, half asleep in the bed beside her. It had been two days since she had told him of her pregnancy. Her first appointment was scheduled for later in the day.

"I just had the worst dream... I gave birth to rabbits with Kai's head."

Jeremy frowned. "That's... scary."

"You kept calling them beautiful... the nurse was dressed in drag..." Blaise shuddered.

"I'm sure that won't happen in real life," Jeremy assured. "Go back to sleep."

"It better not happen," she grumbled, relaxing back against the pillow and closing her eyes. Fortunately her dreams were devoid of Kai-rabbits.

CoD-CoD

Blaise insisted on keeping the pregnancy a secret from their coworkers until after her first doctor's appointment.

"How do you think Anders is gonna react to this?" Blaise pondered as they made their way towards a clinic.

"I don't know. You do know he's going to make you do desk work."

"Don't remind me. I'm not fat and crazy hormonal yet. I can still work in the field... unless I throw up all over the place... but I really don't want to sit on my ass for the next seven or eight months." She turned the knob on the car radio, absentmindedly skipping through the various radio stations.

"Hey, don't change my presets again," Jeremy whined. "You do that every time and it takes too long to change them back."

Blaise grinned in amusement. "I haven't gotten to do that in a week! I missed ruffling Birdy's feathers!" She settled on a classic rock station and leaned back against the seat.

They arrived at the clinic a few minutes later. Fortunately it wasn't overly crowded with the exception of a few other women who read magazines with their significant others as they waited.

Blaise messily scrawled her name on the clipboard. They took a seat near the doorway. "I need to check on my mom after this."

"Are you telling her the news?"

Blaise shrugged. "Dunno. It's not like she'd remember it..."

"How often do you visit her?" He knew that her mother was growing ill physically and mentally but he had yet to meet her.

"Every other day usually. Once a day when I can. Sometimes she knows who I am... other times she doesn't know her own name or where she is." Blaise hoped that her mother would be on one of her rare lucid days. She had grown used to being a stranger to the ailing lady but that never stopped the feeling of sadness whenever her mom looked at her with no sign of recognition in her eyes.

"Blaise Corso?" a nurse called.

"At least we didn't have to wait." The nurse led them into a small bland room. It looked like an ordinary exam room, with various machinery beside the exam bench and a beach scenery painting on the wall.

A petite woman in a white jacket arose from the desk seat she was sitting in. "Hello there. I'm Dr. Rachel Peters. Blaise Corso and Jeremy Redbird?"

"In the flesh," Blaise responded. "So, uh... what exactly do we do?"

"You sit on this exam bench while the two of you fill this out." She pushed over an extra stool for Jeremy and handed Blaise a notepad and pen.

"This isn't some kinda shrink meeting, is it?" Blaise asked as she settled on the bench.

"No. The form is just a paper. Fill out any illnesses that run in either side of the family as well as your own health."

Dr. Peters prepared some of the equipment while Blaise and Jeremy filled out the papers.

"Is it normal to have weird dreams when you're pregnant?" Blaise asked. "Because I had a really wackjob one last night."

"It's completely normal." Dr. Peters opened a tub of gel. "Could you lay back and roll up your shirt?"

Blaise did as told and shuddered when the cold liquid was smeared across her abdomen. "That crap is really cold."

"You're feisty, aren't you?"

"Maybe."

"You have no idea," Jeremy remarked.

Dr. Peters took the ultrasound wand and rubbed it against Blaise's stomach. "See that?" She gestured to a shape on the monitor. "That's your baby. He or she is the size of a blueberry now."

"Wow... tiny," were the only words Blaise could find to say.

"Mm hmm, " the doctor agreed. "Judging by the size and your symptoms, you're eight and a half weeks along. Your expected due date is December 1st. Now, keep in mind that most babies are born shortly before or after this date."

She wrote something down on a slip of paper and handed it to them. "In a month or two you should be able to hear the baby's heart beat and at four or five months, we can tell the gender if you wish."

After arranging some future appointments, they made their way to Madeline Corso's home. Blaise fished a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

"Mom?" she called out. No response. "Mom? It's me."

"W-who's there?" a weak voice answered from the living room. Blaise found her mother sitting in a rocking chair.

"It's me, Mom... Blaise."

It took several long moments, but the old woman's eyes finally lit up somewhat. "Oh, Blaisey Bear, you gave me a fright."

"Blaisey Bear?" Jeremy mouthed silently to Blaise. She poked him in the ribs.

"How are you feeling, Mom? Do you need anything?"

"No, dear, I'm alright. Do sit down..." She took notice of Jeremy. "Who's this young man?"

"This is my, uh... my boyfriend. Jeremy." Her introduction took Jeremy by surprise.

"Oh... hello. Have you been dating long?"

"Well..." Jeremy and Blaise shared a look.

"Mom, there's something I wanted to tell you." Blaise waited for a response. Madeline's gaze had travelled to the window. "Mom?" Nothing. Blaise sighed.

Madeline stirred. "W-what? Kelly, is that you?" If there had been a look of recognition in her eyes before, it was gone.

"No, it's not Kelly... I heard she was coming to visit today."

"Oh, is she? I don't recall..." She furrowed her brow. "It's you, Blaisey! D-didn't you want to tell me something?"

Blaise bit her lip, contemplating. She knew that it was pointless to reveal her news. "Um, yeah... do you want me to fix you anything to eat? It's about dinner time."

"No, no. I'm not hungry."

Blaise took note of how frail and weak the elderly woman looked. "Mom, you should really eat something," she protested.

"Oh, I suppose I would like some soup."

Blaise stood up. "I'll get right on it. J, do you think you can come with me?"

Jeremy followed her into the kitchen. "You aren't telling her?" he whispered.

"What's the use?" she whispered back, opening the cupboard and rummaging through it until she found a can of soup. She turned on the stove and found a can opener and pot.

"She really is bad, huh?"

"Sometimes she's even worse than this. At least she knew who I was twice today. Yesterday, she didn't know anything. I know she can't help it, but... I kinda wish she would recognize her own daughter, you know?"

"It must be really hard," he said softly, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Yeah. It is." Blaise watched as the soup began to bubble in the pot. "Can you bring me a bowl and spoon? They're in the cabinet over there." After he handed them to her, she poured the soup into the bowl and turned off the stove.

"Here you go, Mom." Blaise say down in the chair next to Madeline and handed her the bowl and spoon.

Madeline's hand trembled violently as she attempted to raise the spoon to her lips. Blaise steadied her mother's thin and frail hand with her own.

After the soup was finished, Blaise took the bowl into the kitchen and washed it. "We're going to head on out now. You need anything else?"

"I'm fine."

"Okay... Kelly should be here soon." Blaise checked the door and window locks and put on her jacket. "Bye, Mom. I'll try to come by tomorrow."

Her mother bid farewell, but it was evident that she had no remembrance.

Blaise walked to the car in silence and sat quietly in the passenger seat.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy started the car.

"Yep. Just fine."

Later that night as they laid on the couch watching television, Blaise's cell phone rang and vibrated on the side table. "Hello? What?" She paled visibly. "No... I-I was just there... h-how? Alright." She shakily set the phone down.

"What's wrong?"

Blaise's voice trembled as she spoke. "That was my sister. My mom died."

Dun dun dun. So far I like the response I'm getting on this. Thanks for the reviews, and keep reviewing! If you haven't voted on my poll yet, go to my profile and do it!