Chapter Two: Of Needles and Mini Tesla's
When Helen woke up her eyes met darkness and the flickering lights of the blood pressure, heart rate, and IV machines. Whatever James had given her it had surely knocked her out for more than a few hours. Leaning up in bed as much as she could she could partially make out the silhouette of her husband asleep with his hand leaning on his chin next to her bed.
"James darling let's go to our bed, we'll both be more comfortable there curled up next to each other than you in a chair and me in a bed with springs that feel as if they are made of nails."
"Helen, my dear, if you would have budgeted more in the beds than in the machinery and equipment for the infirmary it wouldn't feel like you're sleeping on a bed of rocks or nails. If you'd like I'll give you a massage."
"So is that your response to us going to our bed?"
"Yes, and you are not stealing the blankets from me like the past two months. The last time you did I found you lying on the floor with all the blankets in such a deep sleep that I doubt the Blitz would have woken you."
"I told you twenty years ago James that if you don't appreciate having blankets stolen away in the middle of the night you should acquire your own so we'd never have this problem again."
"Is it such a crime to want to cuddle and hold close my wife to my cold body?"
"No, but if you claim to want to cuddle me as much as you want to then you should have no problem living without your part of the blankets."
"This argument is getting us nowhere and especially not to our bed. I'll unhook you from all the machines and you can steal the blankets all you like."
"James I'm a 113 years old and you're a few years older. Aren't you scared to have a baby? We may have been married for fifteen years and lovers for twenty, but I'm so terrified James, of everything that could go wrong."
"I am as well, but mostly for you. I've always wanted to have a family with you Helen and truth be told I've wanted this to happen for the last five years or so. So I'm happy, excited and more frightened than I've ever been in my life. But then I think of all the things we've accomplished together and I say to myself 'Well Jimmy if you've lived with this woman through two great wars, a depression and many other things, a child should be a blessing, not a burden or a curse.'"
"James I do believe that's the longest speech I've ever heard other than the one you wrote for FDR and every other President before."
"See I haven't lost my touch. Now I know you hate needles darling, so close your eyes and it will all be over soon, I promise."
"Oh bloody hell, James could you be less gentle?" Helen grimaced as he pulled the needle out of her arm. At least she hadn't complained as much as when they took the Source Blood.
"There you go, all done. Now let us go to bed."
"James you have to promise me that we won't be having a mini Tesla, because if we do I am totally blaming you."
"I never leave you alone in the presence of Nikola Tesla. So technically and logically that would be impossible, if anything the child or children, I couldn't tell which or how many, would be mini a Sherlock Holmes."
"They had better. I want to go to bed listening to Rhapsody in Blue."
"And here I'd thought you'd want to go to sleep listening to the Beatles."
"Do you know James that we conceived this child while listening to the Beatles?"
"I don't particularly recall music playing as I made love to you; though I do remember rain hitting the roof in time with the rain hitting the windows."
"You are such a romantic James."
James wrapped her arm through his and continued to walk to their bedroom.