Author's Note: This part was fun to write. Hope you all like it, and thank you for the wonderful reviews, you guys are great.

Disclaimer: I do not lay claim to anything from the show, only my own work and creations. Mostly just Dr. Telares, Dr. Gering, Dr. Marks and the accolo-nexum. Oh, and the Oolues, and the Serpiente insecto, which don't actually exist, even in myth.

Survival of the Fittest

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Part Seven: Things Released

Two months passed. Though it was strange, their lives adapted to their new schedules with little need for conscious effort. After several close shaves where Magnus came close to actually passing out from lack of food, Dr. Telares managed to create a concoction that sustained the rapid growth of the accolo-nexum inside of his boss. Every hour, Magnus downed the green sludge with barely a distasteful twist of her lips. Will had smelled it and he found it terribly impressive she managed not to throw the thing back up. With Magnus able to return to the Sanctuary, things felt a little more natural. He couldn't help but murmur when she managed to clear the mass of paperwork that had built up over his tenure in just a few days. Then again, she didn't go with them on retrievals anymore, so she had a bit more time to spend on it than he had. At least, that was what he told himself.

Frankly, he was glad to be rid of the job for a time. He could deal without the massive headaches and pushy political officials that Magnus seemed to handle with ease. Between he and the Big Guy, her health was carefully looked after. At the end of the day, she returned to Dr. Telares' lab, sleeping in the habitat surrounded by the accolo-nexum and their gentle hum. Her patients at the Sanctuary were glad to have her back after so long, despite her reduced medical assistance. Many seemed captivated by her appearance, making her uncomfortable when they pressed various kinds of limbs to her abdomen. Will could tell by the set of her shoulders she was still as averse to attention as always.

He watched as her stomach grew. She regained weight, enough so that it no longer looked like she was going to snap if she was touched, for which he was grateful. He and the others looked after her collectively and saw to it that she never got so into her work that she forgot to eat. He'd received many glares for his trouble, but as she seemed more annoyed with their hovering than angry, he decided to ignore it. Her murmuring seemed just a testament to her annoyance as well, so he tried to ignore it too, despite the fact that it made him want to laugh when she grumbled something about her teeth itching.

Five months after she had been injured by the accolo-nexum, Magnus was having trouble walking anywhere because she had grown so large. Standing for any length of time tended to be painful for her, so it was with surprise that Will found her late one night standing beside a table, working. She was looking through a microscope and making notes on the paper beside it, glancing back and forth between the two. Even as he watched in shock for a few moments, she shifted off one of her feet and rolled it, obviously trying to dispel her discomfort.

He had just come back from an attempt to help Henry modify the stunners and was limping slightly as he walked over. "Magnus?"

She looked up, startled. "Will. What on earth are you doing up this late? I would have thought you had already gone to bed."

"Helping Henry. What are you doing here? It's late."

"Yes, and?" She answered, turning back to her slide.

"And usually you're back with the accolo-nexum for the night by now. What's up?"

Her eyes drifted back up to him and she frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, just the usual when Henry's working on something new."

"Blew you both to kingdom come, did he?" She said, tone serious as she circled the table and approached.

"You could say that." He chuckled, letting her take his bleeding arm. "That's why I came down here. I was hoping the Big Guy had some bandages and ice."

"He has already retired for the night." She answered. "Come, I'll patch you up."

Will hesitated. "Are you sure? You looked busy."

Magnus waved a dismissive hand. "Nothing that cannot wait." She led him to one of the cots near the wall and made him climb up. Then she squatted to get a better look at his knee. He tried not to yelp as she slowly rotated the injured joint. She stood with a bit of effort and a firm grip on the cot. "I'll get you some ice, you'll want to keep it levitated and take it easy for a few days but I don't think it was dislocated or torn. I'll also fetch some butterfly bandages." She turned away. "You are very lucky. No stitches necessary."

"I feel blessed." He said with only a little sarcasm.

"Knowing Henry, it could have been much worse." She chuckled, opening a cabinet. "He's so much like Nikola in that regard."

"The 'blowing things up' thing, you mean?" Will asked, bemused.

"The 'experiments gone awry' thing." Magnus clarified. "Nikola was always blowing something to high heaven; it was a trying task sometimes to figure out exactly what. Usually it was some part of our lab. Once it was my fathers laboratory. I wasn't allowed near any of my friends for a month after that incident, not even James." Magnus waddled back over to him and started cleaning the wound on his arm. "He even experimented on John once. Never tried it again though. James was always up for a bit of mayhem in the name of science when it came to Nikola trying things on him, but with John..." She drifted off as she applied the bandages, then began again. "As much as Nikola and John had a sort of grudging respect for each other and enjoyed their games of verbal repartee, there was a line Nikola learned of at that time he was careful never to cross again. John was a bit of a 'spoil sport', so to speak. Trying to curb Nikola's experiments was usually a waste of energy though and we all knew it. Nigel could sometimes make him see reason, but more often than not, he was in cahoots with Nikola."

"And you?"

She glanced away from her task to grin at him. "I? Why, I was the balance, of course. Half the time I was experimenting with Nikola and Nigel, the other half trying to reign them in with James and John. I often had an unfair advantage though, which I tried to use only in emergencies."

"What was that?"

"I was a woman." She answered succinctly.

Will snorted.

"I mean it." She said with a smile, taping gauze over the wound and moving onto the knee. "I may have lived in a time when most women's rights were non-existent, but I was still the only female among a group of gentlemen who were my good friends. All of whom, I knew, respected me for both my intelligence and my determination. I also knew, if absolutely necessary, any one of them to do almost anything for me."

He gaped at Magnus in shock.

"As I said, rather unfair, but I made sure I used it only in emergencies. Mostly where my father was concerned. He had enough trouble, without our mischievousness causing him more. As for Nikola's experiments, well, he gave me as much trouble as most usually, but was also more cautious with the things he tried while I was near. He didn't want to see me actually come to any harm, and not just because the others would have rallied against him if he did." She laughed. "He once said that I was his one true friend, who accepted him for all that he was and was also intelligent enough to appreciate his genius. However, I think he was just feeling sore at the reprimand he'd received from James, John, and Nigel. It seemed I was simply the only one who couldn't stay angry with him."

"Seems to me he caused more trouble than Henry does on his worst day."

"On scale, I suppose they match very little. I shall always be amazed at their abilities to concoct so many similarly disastrous experiments though."

"Can't argue with that." Will answered. "All done?"

She nodded. "Remember to ice it to keep down the swelling and I don't want to hear of you running anywhere on it for the next few days. Even walking isn't a splendid idea."

He mock saluted and stepped down.

Magnus returned to the table and her microscope.

Will was about to say something about her heading off to sleep, when she grimaced and her face contorted in a fierce scowl. "Hey, what? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She buried her face in the microscope.

"Nah uh, not gonna fly." He put a hand on her shoulder. "What's going on?"

She glanced at him irritably, then closed her eyes as she grimaced again. Finally she sighed. "Give me your hand."

He did so immediately, confused but trusting.

Magnus flattened him fingers and then pressed them to her distended abdomen.

He frowned. "What.." He started to question. Then, under his fingers he felt the stretch of skin, the press of something within. In astonishment, he felt the accolo-nexum roll inside her. His eyes shot to hers, but met with a wall of pain he found suffocating. He looked back down and slowly removed his hand. "Movement."

She nodded briskly with a swallow and turned back to her microscope.

He looked at the back of her head, dark locks tied back in a ponytail at the nape of her neck. "Magnus."

She shook her head, blinking rapidly.

"Is this why you aren't asleep with the accolo-nexum right now?"

A huff of laughter mixed with a deep sadness left her lips in a rush. "They get so excited when there's movement. It's hard to sleep with all the noise they make."

"That's not the only thing keeping you up though, is it?" Will leaned against the table so he could duck down a little to spot the face she kept trying to hide from him.

Her eyes closed. "What do you propose to do about it if it's not?"

With a sigh, he reached over and turned off the light on the microscope she wasn't going to be using for the rest of the night if he had his say. "Talking might help."

Her chin scrunched up in the universal sign of trying to fight back tears. "It feels... wrong. Like A-Ashley is still inside me, and then I remember it isn't her, but a stranger." A sob escaped her and Will could feel the way it tore from her chest as though it was his own. "My daughter. It was only ever supposed to be Ashley that held this memory over me, not an abnormal I did not invite inside me." She shook her head again, as though such an action could keep her tears at bay. "It's not supposed to be like this."

His face a mask of sympathy, Will reached out and touched her arm. While the action was made to comfort her, it also made him aware of the slight tremble of her limbs. "A wise person once told me that life rarely turns out the way we expect or even desire."

She rolled her teared eyes toward him, obviously remembering having said those exact words to him.

"Ashley wouldn't be mad, however much you might feel this is a betrayal to her. She was as dedicated to this life, this work, as you. You are being true to your heart, your nature as a doctor, a mother, and a friend to all. To do anything less- To be anything less than yourself would be an insult to her memory."

Magnus' shoulders shook. A few tears had finally leaked out of her eyes and hung trapped on her lashes.

His grip hardened reassuringly as he continued. "You know you can't stay away without possibly killing yourself and the little abnormal." The reminder was gentle, but still hard to make while she was finally opening up a little toward him.

Her head nodded, eyes still closed. Her voice shook as she spoke. "I am aware. Just... not yet. I need a little more time- just a little."

Will released his grip and moved his hand to rub gentle circles on her back. "All right. It can wait a little while longer. Tell you what, I'll sit here with you and take you back when you're ready, okay? I promise to ice my leg and not to make any noise or ask annoying questions."

She gave him a watery smile. "If you insist. But I shall be holding you to your word."

He bowed. "Of course." After a few more hours spent watching Magnus while icing his knee, Will drove her to Dr. Telares' lab. The place was dark, with the two resident Doctors already asleep in the temporary quarters Dr. Telares used often. He watched with a little trepidation still in his heart from the observation room as Magnus approached the collective knot of accolo-nexum asleep near the edge of what he could see through the glass. Only one accolo-nexum stirred when she did.

Montague simply shifted over. After she laid down beside him, sandwiched between him and a larger accolo-nexum, he curled around her and laid his head on her hip. Then he turned his green, glowing eyes on Will.

Will held the gaze, marveling at the acceptance Magnus received. The entire group had even changed their natural sleeping habits to suit Magnus'. According to Dr. Telares, the accolo-nexum normally woke up around noon and were up until sunrise. Since Magnus slept at night rather than the morning though, now so did they. Meeting that gaze, for once Will didn't feel like he was being warned, but that there was a certain understanding between they two. That understanding was embodied purely in the woman already asleep beside Montague. He nodded to the accolo-nexum, then turned on his heel to leave.

Dr. Gering was standing in the doorway. "We were a little worried when she did not arrive before midnight." The man murmured softly.

"We were talking. I'm sorry, I probably should have called you."

Dr. Gering shuffled inside the room. The man was wearing pajamas with turtles on them, making Will try to hide his snort of laughter when he saw them. Thankfully, the man only smiled humorously. "My daughter got these for me for my last birthday."

"They're very colorful." Will commented happily.

"Yes, well, she's six. Colorful is in her nature."

"It must be hard to be here for so long, away from your family."

"A little. But I am where I need to be and though my daughter misses me, if I left now she would never forgive me."

"Oh?" Will turned so that he was facing the glass again in mimic of Gering's stance.

"Doctor Helen Magnus saved the lives of both my wife and daughter." This was said quietly, in a voice laced with pain.

Will looked at the man's face. There were lines that he had never noticed in the daylight casting shadows over Dr. Gering's eyes and cheeks.

"Their abnormality was feared. They were hated because no one understood them. If it weren't for Helen's intervention, they would both have died. Horribly so."

Will didn't speak.

"When you called and said that Helen was sick, I hoped that this might be my chance to repay her. My daughter heard where I was going and why. She said if I didn't leave immediately to save her Mags, she would just have to come herself. Said she knew I could do it. She believed in me."

Chuckling, Will looked back through the glass. "Mags, huh?"

Gering shrugged. "Six, remember?"

For a minute they stood in silence. Will hesitated to breech it, but found he couldn't resist. "The birth. It's going to be dangerous isn't it?"

Without looking, Dr. Gering spoke in quiet, rough voice. "Very. We can't know exactly what to expect, but I doubt it will be long now. I've been discussing the options with Helen. I had hoped she would discuss it with you."

"Me?" Will asked incredulously.

"Studies have shown that mortality rates for both newborns and mothers decreases when the mother has someone there to rely on. Someone to share and ease the stress. I hoped she would ask you."

It didn't take a lot of thought for Will to understand. "She has a hard time asking for help. But I'll be there." He thought for a moment. "Has she decided what she's doing for the birth?"

"Attempting a cesarean section could be as disastrous as letting things take their natural course. There's simply no certainty we can fall back on. Dr. Telares and I will be..."winging it", so to speak."

Will didn't even want to contemplate what it would mean if Magnus died. His heart constricted painfully. "Let's hope your daughter was right then."