I should add that Jericho is the 4th story of the New Species fan fiction that I've been writing. While you don't have to read the other stories first, it may help to give you some background because those characters reoccur here, and they don't appear in LD's books. Thanks so much for reading! Please ready and review! ~ Ripely
May Nguyen's mother was dying. She sat next to her, holding her hand and watched the heart monitor register her mother's slowly beating heart.
Her hand felt light, like a sheet of paper, but it looked the same. May could close her eyes and she could picture her mother's hand; the shape of her nails, her knuckles, how it felt to hold her hand.
"May," her mother's voice was barely a whisper now.
"I'm here," she said, lowering her face so her mother could see her.
"May I did something," her mother said and May was horrified to see her mother start to cry. She hadn't even cried when she'd learned she was sick. Her mother never cried. She was tough, angry, ferocious: there was nothing soft about her mother.
"Mom?" May asked, a fear building in her chest.
"When I got to this country," her mother said in her accented voice, "I had nothing. I had no way to support you."
May knew this. She remembered the small apartment she and her mother shared with other new immigrants to America; their rooms separated by shower curtains.
"You did a good job, Mommy," May told her, trying to relieve her anxieties, "you took good care of me."
Her mother's eyes closed tightly, "May," she said, "You have to find her."
May was confused, "Find who, Mom?"
Her mother's eyes opened, her brown eyes blazing at her, "I had no choice. I was offered enough money to take care of you. To move away from the other refugees. To give you a life. So I took it. I took their drugs, and let them put the baby in me."
May's eyes opened wide. Oh my god, she thought.
"Mom," May asked, "Did you give a baby up for adoption?"
May's mother shook her head on the pillow, her hair rasping against the pillowcase, "No," her mother's voice was choked, "Worse. She was a beautiful baby. Dark hair, eyes like you. I had to hand her over to them. To the company, the one in the news, who had the animal babies."
May's hand went up to her mouth, "Mom?" she breathed, "Did you give a baby to Mercile?"
May knew about Mercile. She was a medical student and had been in undergraduate university when the Mercile facilities were raided and all of the world was abuzz with the terrible things that Mercile had done: human/animal hybrids used as test subjects for pharmaceuticals, genetic modifications, breeding experiments. Her professors had debated the ethics of testing on animals. Her university had actually ended all animal testing, and May moved to focus from laboratory sciences to patient treatment.
Her mother nodded her head, tears streaming down her face now, "I didn't have a choice. They came and they took her. She was so perfect, May," her mother's breathing was coming faster and the machines around them were starting to beep.
A nurse came into the room and checked her IV, "Are you feeling pain Ms. Nguyen?" she asked, and she hit the button to dispense morphine.
Her mother's eyes started to close, "You have to find her May, please. Find out if she's still alive. Tell her I'm sorry," her mother's eyes closed and the beeps slowed to a normal rated, "Tell her I loved her."