A Surprise

Twelve

Two things draw Ruki back into the real world after a mere three hours of sleep.

Some part of her slowly-waking mind dimly registers a shrill ringing, but most of her attention is focused on the sound of fabric brushing against fabric as Jen, still asleep, instinctively pulls a blanket up to cover both of them as the midnight air drops in temperature. Ruki considers turning over to curl into him but even on a cold November night, the idea of Jen's body heat isn't very tempting. Pregnancy has left her feeling feverish and sweaty even when logic tells her she should be shivering.

After a few seconds of trying to get back to sleep, Ruki's mind finally breaks through a heavy fog of sleepiness and reminds her of the phone call. She gathers up just enough energy to give herself a push, landing close enough to the nightstand to reach blindly for her phone. The phone must be face-down, because there's no glowing screen to guide her. It's a dark night, heavy clouds hiding even the slightest glimmer of moonlight, and it takes a few tries before her fingers wrap around the offending object.

"Is the world ending?" She yawns, forgetting to check the caller ID.

"How did you know?"

Her eyes snap wide open. "Yamaki?" Beside her, Jen stirs as she slowly pulls herself up to lean against the headboard. "What's wrong?"

"I'm actually calling for Jenrya," Yamaki says, avoiding her question. "He wasn't picking up. Could you get him on the phone, please?"

Ruki casts a look at her husband, who's somehow managed to fall back asleep. "Not until you tell me what's going on."

"I don't have the time for this," Her boss huffs in aggravation.

"So make it quick." Ruki persists. If something's going on, something bad enough to make Yamaki call them at one in the morning, there's no way she's letting him keep her in the dark just because she's officially off duty. "I'm pretty sure I can keep up."

"You are impossible." Yamaki mutters before giving in. "We found him, the man responsible for the Digimon invasions. He was hiding somewhere in Alaska, but I had Ryo's team track him down and they've got him… immobilized, for now. He's not making much sense though, so if your burning curiosity has been satisfied, I'd like to get Jen on the phone and talk him into coming over to play translator."

Alaska. They've found the man responsible for building an army and they want to fly Jen out to the middle of nowhere to talk to him while hundreds of Digimon roam free, doing who knows what. It could be a trap. It has to be a trap.

There's no way she's letting him go on his own.

"Send me the coordinates," Ruki orders, leaving no room for negotiation. "We'll be there as soon as possible."

"Are you out of your bloody mind?" Yamaki raises his voice. "There is no way I'm letting you tag along."

"And why is that?" She retorts calmly, knowing how this will play out.

"Why?" Her boss echoes with a voice that's slowly descending into hysteria. "Do you know how dangerous this could be? This man single-handedly built an entire Digimon army, an army we haven't dealt with. They could be waiting on his orders. This entire thing could be a trap, and you expect me to let you walk into it?"

"And you expect me to let my husband walk into it alone?"

Her lips curve up into a triumphant smirk as nothing but silence meets her ears. There's nothing left for Yamaki to say; his little rant just made Ruki's point for her, and all she had to do was drop a carefully-worded question.

"Ruki, you can't possibly-"

"Send me the coordinates," She demands again, in a firm voice. Jen turns on his side to face her; he looks like he might wake up any moment now. Ruki wraps things up before he can get involved; it'll be much easier to get her way if she doesn't give him the chance to side against her with Yamaki.

"Look, I'm going." Her voice drops into something softer, knowing that her boss is just looking out for her. "I can take care of myself, okay? Besides, if anything happens, Renamon can just poof me away."

"Oh, no," Yamaki speaks up, and she prepares herself for another round of debating. Thankfully, he's given up on talking her out of this and is merely hammering out the details. "If you're going, take the jet. Please."

"Come on," Ruki frowns. "That makes no sense. How many hours will it take to get there?"

"It'll be a direct flight, six hours or so. Look, it's the only safe way." Yamaki explains in a rush, trying to win this half of the argument. "This guy has a force field set up, some sort of signal jammer. There's no telling where you guys would land if Renamon tries to travel here."

"A force field?" She echoes dubiously. As far as she knows, there is no force field in this world or any other that can keep Renamon out. "If there's a signal jammer, how come you were able to call me?"

"It's…" He struggles to find a way to explain it to Ruki. "Think of the force field as a huge bubble, okay? And everything within that bubble is disrupted and jammed, which is how he was able to hide from us. But there's… well, let's just go with bubble. There's another bubble in the very center of this one, a smaller one. And everything inside this bubble works just fine, way better than it should in the Alaskan wilderness."

It sounds a bit far-fetched to her but if this is all Yamaki's asking for, she'll gladly sit on a plane for six hours to make sure she gets to go with Jen… who's just woken up.

"Okay, we'll fly." Ruki decides quickly, ending the conversation. "I'll see you soon."

"I'll have them get the jet ready; shouldn't take longer than two hours." Yamaki informs her. "Just get to the office as soon as possible."

The call ends just in time.

"What's going on?" Jen mumbles, finally opening his eyes. "And what time is it?"

"Hey," Ruki turns to him as she frees herself from a tangle of blankets and sets her feet on the ground. "We need to get up and pack; Hypnos is flying us out to Alaska in two hours."

She hurries into the bathroom then and locks the door behind her just as Jen realizes what's going on. "Ruki!" He pounds on the door as she rushes through the motions of brushing her teeth and washing her face. "Ruki, what's in Alaska?" She throws her hair up in a ponytail and flings the door open, quickly brushing past him and turning the lights on as she goes.

"They found the Digimon army guy," Ruki replies as she rummages through their closet and pulls out clothes to last them for a day. She tries to reach for the carry-on luggage stashed on the highest shelf, but Jen gets to it before her.

"What do you mean," He demands, ignoring Ruki's attempts to get the bag from him, "we need to pack?"

"Jen," Ruki sighs, finally snatching the luggage from him. She turns away and throws it onto their bed, zipping it open. "Can we please not do this? I've already spoken to Yamaki and he's given in, so-"

He grabs his phone as soon as Ruki brings up their boss and makes a call.

"What are you doing?" She cuts herself off mid-sentence.

"Calling Yamaki," Jen says, challenging her with his eyes. "I'm obviously not going to talk you out of this so I'm going to talk him out of it, and I'll get him to make you stay here."

Ruki grabs his arm when he passes her. "Jen, don't. I can't just let you go alo-"

Yamaki picks up then, and Jen pulls himself away from her and walks out of their room. "What in the world," She hears him demand as his voice fades away, his infamous composure slipping into anger, "possessed you to authorize my very, very pregnant wife for a mission?"

Sitting down on the bed, Ruki starts throwing unfolded articles of clothing into the bag with a bit more force than necessary. At the thought of how Jen had just brushed her off and turned to Yamaki as if their boss could stop her from doing something her own husband couldn't talk her out of, she balls up a top in her fist and flings it at the door. Renamon catches it automatically as she and Terriermon enter the room.

"Oh, so both of them are pissed." The rabbit seems to be talking to his companion, referring to Jen's temperament when they'd crossed paths with him just moments ago. Renamon ignores the smaller Digimon and focuses her attention on Ruki.

"I understand why he is behaving this way." The fox says simply, making it quite clear whose side she's on.

"Come on," Ruki mutters. "Of all the people, I thought you'd understand." Her partner says nothing, prompting her to go on. "I can't let him go alone, you know that. And let's not pretend you'd just sit here with me and stay out of this battle. So then it would be the three of you in Alaska while I sit here and worry myself sick. Do you really think that's a better alternative?"

Renamon comes to sit next to her Tamer. "I think that would be a safer alternative." She says carefully, trying to reason with Ruki.

"You know I don't play things safe," Ruki mumbles as Terriermon hops up, settling in on her right side so that she's sandwiched between two Digimon.

"But what if you have the baby while we're there?" The rabbit asks, innocent eyes wide open with curiosity and genuine concern.

"It doesn't work like that, Terriermon," Ruki explains, a fond smile tugging at her lips. It's easy to forget how childlike Terriermon can be sometimes. "I'd go into labor first, and then we'd have at least a few hours until I'm ready to have the baby. That's plenty of time for Renamon to get me to the hospital."

"That is not a concern," Renamon confirms. "But your safety, as well as the child's – that is what has us all worried."

Ruki grits her teeth. "I can take care of myself, okay? I've always-"

"Be reasonable, Ruki." Her partner cuts in sharply. "You are nearly nine months pregnant. The baby weighs you down, slows your reflexes. If anything should aim for you, there is no way for you to simply dive out of harm's way. If something were to just shove you to the ground, what would happen?"

The fox sets a hand on Ruki's shoulder. "I know," She says more gently, "that you have always been able to take care of yourself. And perhaps that remains the case. But you cannot protect yourself and your daughter, not in this situation."

She shrugs Renamon's hand off, even though it pains her to be so rude to her partner, who only wants the best for her. "I am getting on that plane," Ruki declares firmly, standing up. She starts pulling clothes out of the luggage and folds them neatly before returning them to the bag.

Renamon sighs; she has said all there is to be said.

"Um, Ruki?" Terriermon pipes up. "I don't know much about having a baby and all that but… I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to get on a plane when you're this close to having a kid."

"How do you even know that?"

He shrugs. "TV show."

Ruki waves his concerns off. "It's totally fine. The airline people just don't want you giving birth on board."

Terriermon isn't convinced. "I really don't think that's-"

"Look," Ruki huffs. "The baby will be fine, okay? Now can you please go and talk to Jen or something? We don't have time for him to throw a tantrum."

"O-" The rabbit stutters, taken aback by her sharp words. "Okay." He ambles out of the room, ears dragging behind him on the ground, lowered in dejection. Ruki can feel her partner's disapproval, but Renamon says nothing.

Dropping the last article of clothing into the half-full bag, she reaches for her phone and dials Kent's number. It's one-thirty in the morning, but this qualifies as an emergency… of sorts.

"I need the results."

"Wha- who is this?" The voice on the other line slurs, yawning at the end.

"It's Ruki. Do you have the results or not?"

Her name is seemingly enough to snap the boy awake. "Ruki!" Kent exclaims. "I, uh, yes. I was actually going to call you tomorrow."

"Well, it's technically tomorrow." Ruki snaps impatiently. So her little… disagreement with Jen has left her in a somewhat-bad mood; she'll just blame it on sleep deprivation.

"Yes, I suppose, technically." The former intern babbles nervously. "Okay, so I ran a ton of simulations based on all records of your visits to the Digital World, and they all turned out positive. I also pulled some of Jen's research into Renamon's shadow world, and I think there's enough in there to let me assure you that your… well, a child would be perfectly safe if the mother were to travel to the Digital World."

"What?" She asks, well aware of Renamon's focus on her conversation. "How is the shadow world related to this?" The fox tries to hide her reaction to the mention of her world but Ruki can see curiosity branded across her features.

"It's amazing, actually. When you really get down to it, both worlds are remarkably similar. And you've been traveling through that world throughout your pregnancy, right? With no side effects?"

Kent's dropped the pretense that it isn't Ruki and her child they're talking about, and she can't be bothered by it. "Yes. So what does that mean?"

"Just keep in mind that I can't say anything for sure, okay? But based on that, and the simulations I ran, there's a very high chance that your baby will be perfectly fine."

"Ninety-seven percent?" Ruki brings up the number he'd tossed out.

"Actually," Kent says, sounding quite pleased with himself. "Make that ninety-nine."

"And that one percent?" She asks warily.

"Only there because I don't want to sound like an over-confident ass."

Ruki laughs, hiding the bubble of relief that's swelling in her throat and threatens to choke her. "Thank you, Kent."

"Hey, no problem. Anytim-"

She hangs up then, ending the conversation before he can start babbling away. Kent's a nice boy but it's easy to see why he and chatty Terriermon get along so well.

"You think we will have to travel to the Digital World." Renamon's voice nearly makes her jump. Distracted by the relief Kent's findings had brought her, Ruki had completely forgotten that her partner is still in the room.

"It's better to know these things in advance – isn't that what you said?"

Renamon stares at her and for the first time in years, it actually unsettles her. She avoids her partner's eyes and focuses on the luggage instead, compiling a mental list of things they'll need.

"Indeed." Renamon finally says, and it's as close a tone to displeased as she's ever heard the fox use. She exits the room then, leaving her Tamer alone for several minutes until Jen returns. Ruki's tossed more things on the bed now – some toiletries, cables and wires, electronic gadgets. He comes to stand next to her and they pack in silence.

A few minutes later, Jen zips up the bag. She figures it's time to say something.

"So," Ruki says, avoiding his eyes. "How'd it go with Yamaki?"

Jen sighs and deliberately plants himself within her line of vision, waiting for her to look at him. He greets her with a wry smile, trying to hide the fatigue in his eyes. "Well, I found out that Yamaki's more scared of going against you than he is of going against me, just like everyone else. Should I be worried about that, by the way? That you're apparently the more terrifying one in this relationship?"

There's nothing he can do to stop her now, so Jen's trying to distract himself. Ruki plays along because it was never her intention to make him look so tired, sound so resigned to their imaginary doom. Why does everyone think this can only end badly; why are they so convinced that it will?

"The time to be worried about that was ten years ago," She says with a teasing smile and a forced lightness in her voice. "Besides, I'll make you a deal – you can be the more terrifying parent, in our daughter's eyes."

"You and I have made a lot of deals," Jen says quietly, all teasing set aside. "Are you actually going to honor this one?"

Ruki loses her smile then, and a heavy silence hangs between them. "Jen," She sighs, hating how helpless she sounds. There isn't anything she can say to make him feel better about this, to convince him that everything will be alright. Instead, she reaches out to hug him, even if it's a little difficult with the baby in the way and they end up with her side pressed against his front.

"You told me you would sit this one out."

"I said I'd stay back if we had to hunt this guy and smoke him out," Ruki amends, sticking to the exact words she'd used last week. "They've already got him. Yamaki said he's immobilized, and I'm pretty sure that's a lot worse for him than it sounds. All we have to do is figure out his failed plan and wrap things up."

She pulls away, just enough to reach up and frame the left side of his face with one palm. Jen has no choice but to look at her. "Everything will be okay, you'll see." Ruki says comfortingly, a shaky smile on her lips. "I know you don't believe that but we'll be fine, I promise."

"You promise." Jen echoes almost bitterly, and it's sharp enough to make her drop her hand and step away from him. "I have a promise to keep too, Ruki. It's the one you made me agree to."

"Jen, that's not what I-"

"No, this is what you meant. Because if I let you go and something happens, you know I'll never forgive myself. That's what you didn't want. I'm supposed to talk you out of these things," He reminds her in a softer voice, and Ruki hates how hopeless he looks when his hands encircle both of her wrists and hold them together. "I'm supposed to protect you and our daughter." It's one last shot at an argument Jen knows he's lost.

"And you will," Ruki assures him, a sincere sentiment on her part. She knows he'll be looking out for her, and she'll look out for him in return. "We'll all protect each other, like always."

He sighs in defeat. "Like always," Jen agrees; a white flag in their short-lived war.

She smiles, but there is no hint of smugness or triumph. This wasn't an argument to be won by her manipulations; it was simply a conversation that needed to happen. And now that it's over, they can move on with their tight schedule.

"Okay," Ruki says, freeing herself of his hold on her wrists. "I think we have enough packed for now, but you should go through your things and-"

Jen cuts her off mid-sentence, pulling her in for a fierce kiss. It's reminiscent of how they used to kiss when they fought, when he was convinced she'd walk out on their relationship. He kisses her now the way he did then, all those times he thought he was going to lose her.

"Please," He whispers, leaning in so close that his forehead is against hers and she can barely make out anything in his eyes. "Please, just promise me you'll be careful."

"I thought my promises mean nothing." Ruki says with no malice to her words, adopting the same hushed whisper he's speaking in.

"Only when you promise me things you shouldn't," Jen tells her. "But this one, I know you can keep this promise. Please, Ruki."

Her arms reach up to wrap around his neck, but they're reminded of the child they're so worried about when she stands in the way of their usual embrace. Ruki moves so that her head rests on his shoulder, her face hidden against his neck.

"I promise," She tells Jen, and he sighs in relief. An arm wraps around her middle, holding her in place for just a while longer. As soon as she steps away, time rushes by and everything is a blur of last-minute packing, driving to Hypnos, skipping as many pre-boarding procedures as they can.

Ruki sleeps throughout the six-hour flight but some part of her mind dimly registers two things. One, Jen held her hand the entire time. Two, he didn't get a wink of sleep.

No matter what promises he may have extracted from her, Jen is still bracing himself for the worst.

A short one, just to set things up for the finale. That'll be in three days, and we'll have the epilogue three days after that so stick around, lovelies! On another note, I'm still taking prompts for the series of outtakes I'm planning (because I barely got any) so be sure to write in and send me lots of suggestions. You can learn more about the outtakes in last chapter's note.

It's been one hell of a ride, but I'm saving my grateful babbling for the epilogue. In the meantime, just know that I'm really glad people are reading this, even if it's just a handful of you guys. Thank you!

E Salvatore,

November 2014.