Summary: a holiday in Monterey begins in happiness and ends in tragedy
Stories That Must Be Read Bedore Reading This One-Shot: chapter 21 of Hermes's Struggle
...
Terry's POV
"Agent T, you're finished already?" comes the surprised voice of my superior officer through the phone. "Well then...I guess you can stay there in Monterey until the mission is over. That's eight days from now, Agent T."
"Understood, sir."
I put down the phone and breathe deeply, taking in the salt air. I guess the first thing I want to do is to go back to my hotel and swim. After all, it's been a long mission.
So that's what I do.
I swim lengths. I can swim at high speeds (I am semi-aquatic, after all) but I like swimming slow breaststroke. It's relaxing.
I look up and see several dog children leap off the middle diving board. I turn over as they splash into the pool. I hear them daring each other to go on the high diving board but none of them do.
Then I look up and see a blue turtle on the high diving board. Squinting against the sun, I watch as she springs on the board, leaps off, and gracefully dives into the pool, barely making a splash. The dog kids are staring at her. Grinning, I swim over to her as she resurfaces.
"Hi, I just wanted to say that your dive was amazing. I've never seen anyone dive like that before."
"Oh, thank you!" says the turtle. Her accent is...Brazilian? "I am Lyndi."
"I'm Terry."
"You are Californian?"
"Oh, no, I'm from Danville. I'm here on vacation."
"Me too!" Lyndi beams at me. "I am leaving in eight days."
"Me too!" I gasp, unable to believe the coincidence. "So where are you from?"
"Oh, I am from Rio de Janeiro."
"Ah, Brazil. I'd love to go someday," I say honestly.
She smiles. "It is beautiful there. We swim and dive a lot."
"Wanna have a diving competition?" I ask playfully.
"Loser buys dinner tonight for both of us," grins Lyndi.
"You're on."
Needless to say, dinner is on me that night.
...
We spend a lot of time together over the next few days. In fact, apart from at night, I don't think there's a time we aren't together. We go to the beach and sunbathe, we swim and paddle in the sea, we eat all our meals together, and we go for walks in the beautiful and hot town of Monterey.
Two nights before I'm due to go back, she invites me to her hotel room. We sit and watch TV for a while, making fun of the ridiculous accents in some of the shows. Then she asks if I want to stay over.
We end up sleeping in the same bed.
The next morning, Lyndi feels unwell. This is unusual of turtles, so I volunteer to take her to an OWCA-run (though I don't tell her that) clinic, run by a friend of mine called Poppy Hall.
When we get there, Poppy sees us straight away. While she examines Lyndi, I hold my girlfriend's hand.
"Have you experienced anything like this before?" Poppy asks.
Lyndi shakes her head. "I have not," she replies.
"Well then, I can tell you that you are pregnant."
I gasp. Lyndi gasps and tightens her grip on my hand. Poppy picks up on the tension.
"Is there anything you want me to do to stop the pregnancy?" she asks gently .
I look at Lyndi, whose face suddenly breaks out into a smile. "No," she says. "Thank you. I was just feeling shocked and surprised. It is a good thing, really."
I phone Major Monogram later that day.
"How much vacation time do I have stored?" I ask.
There's a pause as he checks. "Roughly a month."
"If it's okay with you, sir, I'd like to spend that month here. Now."
"Yes, that's fine," says Monogram. "I'll just log that in and inform your pilot, and you'll be good to go. Any particular reason you want to spend another month in Monterey?"
I feel myself blushing and I'm glad that my superior can't see me. "No, sir."
...
"Terry, the egg is hatching!" Lyndi yells.
I rush out of my hotel room bathroom and into the main room. Lyndi is sitting on the double bed with the small grey egg in her hands. The egg is shaking and cracking.
I sit down on the bed next to Lyndi. "This is it!"
Just seconds later, Lyndi is holding a tiny baby turtle that has exactly the same fur colour as her.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" I whisper, utterly awed.
"It is a girl, I believe," Lyndi beams, a couple of tears of joy rolling down her cheeks. "She is beautiful. What do we name her?"
"How about Lydia?"
"Lydia?"
"She looks just like you, and the name Lydia is close to Lyndi. Plus, it's a beautiful name and it suits her."
"It really does," smiles Lyndi. "Lydia."
She passes our new daughter to me. As I cradle her in my arms, the baby slowly opens her eyes and focuses them on me. "Hello!" I whisper happily. "Hello, Lydia. I'm your father."
Lydia tilts her head back and looks upside-down at Lyndi. She gives a questioning babbling sound. "That's your mother," I chuckle, gently passing Lydia back to Lyndi.
"I never thought I would be a mother this early," says Lyndi, smiling. "But I am glad I have a child with you, Terry. I love you."
"Love you too," I smile.
...
We care for and play with Lydia mostly in the hotel, though we often go to the beach.
When Lydia is two weeks old, we go for a walk along the road. Lyndi is carrying Lydia with one arm and holding hands with me with the other. I decide to wait until we get to the restaurant that we're having lunch in before I propose. I love Lyndi so much and I'm planning to ask her to be my mate.
As we walk, I see two men dressed in black suits coming towards us. I want to cross the road to be safe, but before I can, one of them lunges and snatches baby Lydia from Lyndi.
"Hey!" yelps Lyndi. "Lydia!"
"Give her back!" I yell.
As both of us charge at the man who has Lydia, the other man swings his hand and knocks me aside. At the same time, he kicks out with his foot and kicks Lyndi square in the chest, sending her stumbling backwards into the road. Before I can move, I hear a horrible scream and it's all over.
"Lyndi!" I scream.
The men are escaping with my sobbing little girl. My heart absolutely breaks but I leave Lydia and rush out into the road and retrieve Lyndi's limp body. I drag her to the other side of the road and examine her hurriedly.
She's dead.
I look up at the sky in despair and catch sight of the men getting into a black car and leaving.
I clutch Lyndi's body in grief and begin to sob. Not only have I lost the person I love most in the world, I have lost my newborn daughter too. I have nobody anymore.
Five minutes ago, I had a family.
Now, I have nothing.