Lana found herself visiting the babies everyday, spending hours staring into their wombs and smiling at them when she managed to catch their eye. At night most of the doctors went home leaving only two technicians to work the graveyard shift. Since they left the room when she arrived, Lana was able to spend some time alone with the babies, talking to them and lightly tapping the glass when they pressed their feet against it.
The one she spent the most time with was 0377-51. Against all odds, the girl had managed to survive thus far, even gaining a little more weight finally. Her eyes were still fused shut, but like the others, she recognized Lana's voice and would stretch her tiny hands out towards the glass. She couldn't quite reach yet, but Lana tapped anyway, hoping that the vibrations would still let her know that she was there.
The little time that she spent at home was actually somewhat pleasant. She still hadn't decided on where her and Lex stood, but a strange calm had descended, and she felt content to coexist with him for the time being.
He in turn, couldn't be happier. Gone were the disappointed looks and scowls she used to receive, and were replaced by affectionate smiles, some of which actually managed to meet his eyes. Though still understandably tense, their relationship felt better than it had been in months.
The only thing that bothered her was the fact that he rarely talked about the babies. Dozens were about to be "born" and yet there were no preparations at all to bring them to the mansion. Where were they supposed to go? She decided to ask him about it over breakfast.
"Lana," sighed Lex as he set down his coffee and turned towards her. "I think you have to prepare yourself for the possibility that not all of the babies are going to make it. Their mortality rate has actually been quite high. I'll keep trying, but I can't guarantee that any of them right now will survive full term."
Lana shook her head. "But most of them are fine," she lightly insisted. "Even the girl is doing better, and the boys seem completely healthy."
Lex smiled a little. "I guess it is too late to ask that you not get too attached."
"To my children?" she asked, becoming angry. She pushed away from the table and stood up. "Yes, I suppose it is."
As she walked away, she wondered when she began thinking of them as belonging to her. It was not a conscious decision. Was she really so desperate that she'd cling to the test tube clone of a dead baby in an effort to find some happiness? Gloomily, she decided that she didn't want to know the answer to that.
When she was 8, Lana had brought home a stray cat that she'd found on the way from school. It was black and white with funny looking spots on his ears. From that he earned his name, "Freckles."
He was happy for a time, sleeping at the foot of Lana's bed at night and indulging her attempts to get him to play with string. By the time they realized that he might be sick, the vet gave them the news that it was too late, and that apparently "Freckles" was about 100 years old. Well, in cat years anyway.
The death of Freckles hit Lana hard, and she cried for weeks. Nell's response to her grief was a callous "you shouldn't have named him," and even though Lana resented her at the time, now she understood the lesson in it.
Naming something made it real and gave it an identity that had personality and more importantly, a soul. Without trying, Lana had inadvertently named the girl baby "Lena." When she and Lex had been picking names for their baby several months prior, they picked Lena as a joke. It was a combination of Lex and Lana, and they'd laughed at the silliness of it. Somehow though, the name managed to stick.
With so many boys, it was easier to leave their names for another day, but since there was only one girl, she stood out among the rest. Lana knew that with her being less healthy than the others, she was probably the worst possible baby to become attached to. A lost cause to be sure, but maybe that's why she cared so much.
On the way to their bedroom to finish getting ready to leave for the lab, Lana paused outside of the original baby's nursery. It was a place she hadn't entered since believing that Lex had faked the pregnancy. Not giving herself a chance to feel sad, Lana pushed open the door and stepped through the threshold.
A feeling of heaviness came over her as she looked around, almost as if there were no air at all in the room. The appearance was the same, but it felt different to her now. The blue walls seemed to say to her, "dead baby," and the sound echoed over the crib and toys they surrounded.
No, this wouldn't do at all.
Almost robotically, she moved around the room removing things from shelves and ripping decorations from the walls, placing them in the crib for easy disposal later. By the time she was halfway done with the removal process, the crib was already overstuffed with unwanted items.
Just as she finished tossing an evil clown statue into the bundle, Lex walked into the room with a perturbed look on his face. "Lana, what are you doing?" he asked in a tight voice.
"If any other babies are going to stay in this room, I think it needs to be re-done. Keeping all of the old stuff from . . . well, it's all just a little morbid isn't it? I think we should start over with all new stuff for the new babies. Maybe even paint the walls different. What do you think?"
A scowl briefly crossed Lex's face, but he covered it up and managed a weak smile. "Whatever you want," he said. Not giving him a chance to change his mind, she smiled and reached up to give him a peck on the cheek in dismissal before returning to her task. Lana sighed when she heard the door click behind her.