CH28
Johanna stepped up behind her husband who had his mind buried in his screens and kissed the back of his head and placed the already warmed up blood bag with a straw in it in front of his eyes.
"Thanks!" Jim took it and started drinking, feeling the blood smooth his throat that was on fire. His throat soon felt so much better.
Jim stopped drinking about half way done and relaxed back into his seat letting out a contented sigh, and then went back to drinking. Just a little more slowly this time so he could relish the taste and feeling.
"Anything yet?" Johanna asks her husband with her hands on his shoulders.
It got Jim to stop drinking. "No, I've got nothing. … For reasons that escape me our storm we are using to hide from the Hunters with is still traveling in the same direction they are.
I'm beginning to fear that these two aren't as good as we are hoping they are." Jim was getting worried. "How is our blood supply?" Jim asks his wife, not really wanting an answer.
"A little around a month, barely. We'll be gone before the end of two months." Johanna points out the obvious.
"I hope the girls are alright. I don't mind dying, it's stared me in the face since I was born. But knowing that we failed our daughter is going to haunt me." Jim's tears started.
Johanna placed the side of her face down against her husband's. "We haven't failed them yet babe." Johanna kissed the side of his head. Noticing that Jim was done with his blood bag. "Come on, into the scanner with you. We need to make what we have last as long as possible. We give up when we run out of blood and fuel." Johanna taps his shoulders to get him up out of his chair and into the scanner.
Jim was just finding out how long until his next blood bag when he could hear his screens beeping for him. It got Jim up and running with Johanna right behind him. "What is it?" Johanna asks getting Jim to hold up a finger for a moment while he worked.
"Our storm is changing course away from the Hunter ship." Jim tells her. "We either go with it or reveal ourselves to stay close to the Hunter ship." Jim tells her their options.
"Without the storm to cover us the Hunters will see us." Johanna doesn't see a choice, but maybe her husband has yet another plan.
"And when they do they'll walk right over here and blow us into pieces. Even a Command Carrier would have trouble taking on a Hunter ship." Jim agreed.
"So we go with the storm." Johanna doesn't see an alternative.
"Maybe we can pop out long enough to spot the Hunter ship in a couple of weeks, before retreating back to our storm." Jim offers. Johanna remained silent, they were making big decisions now. Life and death decisions.
It was two weeks later now (time stamp places this at the same time as Kate finding out she is pregnant):
Johanna was standing behind her husband. "We've got barely under 3 weeks of blood left." Johanna tells her husband. Three weeks later and they would be dead.
"And our fuel is only going to last another month." Jim adds. Both knowing their time was up.
"Do we leave our little storm to look for the Hunter ship?" Johanna asks him.
Jim sighed. As soon as they showed up on the Hunters scanner they would pounce on them. "Die now or die a month from now." Jim offers their choice.
"I want those weeks babe. I'm not giving up on the girls just yet. … Maybe the girls will find us." Johanna offers. Johanna was grasping for straws and she knew it, but she wasn't ready to die just yet. They had a month still. A painful month maybe, but still a month.
"Jim, … Babe?" What did her husband want to do?
Jim flexed his head. Dying of blood starvation was not how he wanted to die. Maybe they could ram the Hunter ship, overload their shielding and they die together. Maybe saving the lives of the girls, where ever they were. Not having Hunters breathing down their throats.
Jim was all set to argue his case when his scanner started beeping, getting his fingers to fly over the controls. "What is it? … The Hunters?"
Jim however was shaking his head. "It's a trash bundle. … Still mostly tightly packed." Jim answers her question.
"THE GIRLS!" Johanna squeezes his shoulders getting Jim to moan a little from the pain. Johanna yanked her hands away. "SORRY!" And kisses his head.
A few hours later Jim has their ship sitting right next to the trash bundle. "Anything?" Johanna was still standing right behind him, not wanting to leave his side.
"They are definitely blood bags, cut open and drained dry. About a month's worth for two people, maybe longer." Jim tells her. It got Johanna to sigh. They were close, she could feel it.
"Now where did they go from here?" Johanna asks. They were running out of time.
Jim had his head tilted heavily to one side. It was a look Johanna knew well, since she knew her husband. "What babe?"
Jim points to something on one of his main screens. "This area here, there is something about it." Jim tilts his head to the other side, trying to make sense of what he thinks he sees.
Kate steps out of the bathroom wearing literally nothing but one of Rick' dress shirts that only has one of the buttons buttoned. Kate could see it got Rick to stop breathing as he watched every move Kate made.
Kate was relishing that she could do this to him. Wondering if he knew that he could and had done the same to her?
Kate climbed into bed and rested the side of her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and breathing in his unique smell, thinking that she understood now why that was. Kate could feel that Rick was a little fidgety under her. Actually Kate felt the same, she hadn't been over here for a week now as usual, and she wanted to make love to Rick likely as badly as Rick wanted to make love to her.
"There is something we need to talk about babe." Kate moves so that she is laying on her side with her arms holding Rick close to her with her lips just a fraction away from hers. They could feel each other's breath on the other.
"I haven't heard from Meredith since that one day she showed up when I wasn't here. Meredith in black and white was only in the paper that one day." Rick however did know that pictures of Meredith all painted up in color were still out there.
Rick didn't know what those pictures had done to her supposed acting career, not that he cared. Even his mother had called to find out if he had seen the pictures. They were all still on his computer that he would look at from time to time when he thought he needed cheering up.
Kate had really done a good job on her. Meredith looked just like Harley Quinn from the Batman animated cartoon series. It had likely taken days to get all that paint off. Rick had laughed his ass off picturing Meredith sitting on a plane wearing who knows what, still all painted up.
As to how she got back to California, without money or her driver's license, or even found clothes to wear since she had no money on her. Kate had thrown all of that into one of the rivers. Rick had no idea. Still it was amusing to think that the egotistical, stuffy, pigheaded, full of herself Meredith had been reduced to who knows what to get back to California had been amusing.
For an alien from outer space vampire, Kate had one hell of a sense of humor. It did tell Rick to never get her mad at him, who knows what she would do to him.
"Talk about what?... Is Alexis alright? Did you see a Hunter ship?" Rick started dreaming up all kinds of ideas, most of them bad.
"Alexis is fine, and no I didn't see a Hunter ship." Kate takes those worries away from him.
"I put Alexis in the medical scanner to show her how it worked to explain how Lanie and I used it during out trip here. …. We used it to determine how long we could go between drinking blood bags. We needed for the blood we had to last as long as possible." Kate explains.
"You two haven't even emptied one of the refrigerators yet." Rick points out since he had been checking. He needed to know when to call his friend again to get another batch.
It got Kate to smile, Rick was always looking out for her, and by extension Lanie too. Kate was even finding new panties in the drawer Rick had cleared out for her to put some of her clothes in for when she was here.
Rick had been teasing Kate causing Kate to get wet and stain her panties and forced to throw some of them out. After the first three were ruined and tossed in the trash Rick had replaced them with 6 new pairs. And not the simple inexpensive Fruit-of-the-loom type Kate had bought either.
It had gotten Kate to smile wide at how thoughtful Rick truly was. He was just way too good for her.
"When Alexis was in the scanner she found something my mom had left us. Basically it is a computer controlled doctor. I downloaded it into the computer and he redid the scan on Alexis and kept saying interesting.
Then he had me get in the scanner, and kept saying interesting." Kate tells him.
Rick was suddenly scared. "Something is wrong with Alexis? Something is wrong with you? …. Come on, you're killing me here Kate." Rick started stroking Kate's hair, willing for Kate to talk.
"Rick, don't freak out. … Promise?" Kate stroked Rick's face and kissed the tip of his nose.
"I'm already freaking out, the best I can offer is to not freak out any further. … Now what?" Rick moved his hand to Kate's shoulder.
"The doctor found a small amount of vampire DNA in Alexis's system." Kate tells Rick scrunching up her face not sure how Rick was going to take that.
Rick however was silent. Too silent. "Rick, … say something." Rick had also stopped stroking her hair.
"Alexis has vampire DNA?" Rick doesn't believe it.
"A very small amount yes. Without doing a scan of her parents he suggested that she got it from only one of them. You being the most likely candidate." Kate explains.
"I have vampire DNA?" Rick's eyes were wide.
"An equally small amount yes. Not enough that either of you have noticed and likely never will." Kate tells him.
Rick was silent for a time. "You sure your computer doctor isn't broken or missing a few memory cells?" Rick questions.
It was true Kate had been too shocked to have the computer run a diagnostic of the EMH. "Pretty sure yeah."
"O-kay, for the sake of argument Alexis and I have vampire DNA, and I want to have a chat with this computer doctor of yours, just how did Alexis and I get this small amount of vampire DNA?" Rick was dying to hear this.
"I don't know, but I have a guess." Kate offers looking at Rick, thankful that he wasn't running.
Rick just stared at Kate willing her to tell him her guess. "You said once that you didn't know who your father was and that your mother had only met him that one time." Kate offers.
"So my mother got pregnant by a vampire?" Is that what Kate was telling him.
"In a manner of speaking, yes. It's just that a 100% vampire can't get a 100% human pregnant." Kate prays he didn't take this wrong.
Rick's eyes opened wide. "Your suggesting that my mother is a vampire? …. That's not possible Kate, I grew up with her. She eats food and drinks alcohol. … Sometimes too much alcohol, but I would know if my mother was a vampire." Rick counters her theory.
"Not a true vampire like me or Lanie. For your mother to get pregnant by a vampire she would need to have a small amount of vampire DNA in her. Just like you and Alexis." Kate explains.
Rick started trying to work this out in his mind. His mother has a small amount of vampire DNA that was transferred to him when his mother got pregnant by a true vampire. He in turn transferred this small amount of vampire DNA to Alexis.
"Does that mean Meredith has or is a vampire?" Rick asks, thinking it might explain a few things about her.
"Likely not, no. For the most part you and Alexis are human, capable of having a human child. You simply transferred a small amount of your vampire DNA to Alexis." Kate counters his thinking.
It got Rick silent again for a while as he thought all this over some more.
His father was a true vampire who got his mother pregnant because she has a small amount of vampire DNA in her system, somehow.
Now he and Alexis have a small amount of vampire DNA and Kate is a true vampire.
SHIT! Was it possible? Was Kate capable of? Was she already? Her computer doctor had said "Interesting" while Kate was in this scanner of hers.
"KATE?" Rick searched her eyes. What he saw was tears and fear. SHE WAS! And she's afraid. Afraid of his reaction or afraid for the baby or both. A half human half vampire baby. Just what did that mean for their child?
Kate started nodding her head. "I'm pregnant. …. About 2 weeks." Kate tells him and starts praying.
Please don't run Rick, I can't do this without you! … PLEASE!? I love you! … There I admit it.
"You're pregnant?" Rick needed to hear it again or confirm it somehow, watching Kate nod her head, wiping away tears. However there was still fear in her eyes.
"We're having a baby." Rick started smiling. "A human baby, a vampire baby or both?" Rick questioned quickly. "Who cares, we're having a baby." Rick didn't let Kate say a word and was suddenly kissing her.
Kate woke up in the morning and found herself lying on top of Rick with his arms holding her in place, like he was afraid she was going to run away. It got Kate to smart smiling as she moved a hand to her mouth to feel her lips, they were still tingling after all this time. Rick hadn't sent her away or even panicked.
They had even made love to each other last night, several times actually as usual. Kate had long since stopped trying to count the number of orgasms she had, had last night. The things Rick had done to her Kate didn't know could even happen. He had even teased her about tying her to the bed so he could have his way with her.
Ignoring the fact that Kate had more than enough strength to break anything he used to tie her down with. It had however sounded interesting enough to let him try sometime.
Kate soon felt Rick's hand soothing up and down her back which told her Rick was awake. Kate turned her head to look up at him. "Hi."
"Hi pregnant lady." Rick responded back. It got Kate to turn her face into his chest to hide the blush that was starting to form. "Since all of this took place on your ship I presume that Alexis knows all about this?" Rick questions.
"Yeah, she knows everything. I got her to promise not to tell you until I had a chance to talk to you." Kate admits.
"So Alexis knows she has vampire DNA in her system as well as me." Rick isn't questioning.
"Yeah, she knows everything. … That leads to two more things we need to talk about." Kate turned her head back to face him, not taking it off his chest.
"There's more?" That was a bit of a surprise, what more could there be?
"Please don't get mad, …. Promise." Kate didn't want Rick to get mad about this.
"It's about Alexis, isn't it?" Rick could guess.
"Yeah, you remember when we went out to your house in the Hamptons?" Kate started off. "I took Alexis out for a run to show her how fast a vampire could be. It was one of her birthday presents."
Rick remembered, he actually saw Kate disappear into the distance in the blink of an eye. Granted it was dark out when she did, so they kinda disappeared into the dark.
"I actually gave her two presents that day. You asked me to give her something from my heart as a gift. So I did, I gave her my heart." Kate tells him.
Rick remained silent not sure what Kate meant by that comment. "I told her that day that I loved her. And I do love her, so very much." Kate reached out a hand to trace her fingertip along Rick's lower lip.
"I take it Alexis took it well." Rick had noticed his daughter come alive when Kate was over and moody during the weekdays when she wasn't.
"She asked if she could call me mom." Kate confesses. "I got her to promise not to call me mom in public or when you were around. I was afraid of what you would think if she did, and I'm only 19, which is far too young to be her mother.
However Alexis has been calling me mom more and more lately. It's only a matter of time before she does it when someone else is present." Kate confides, praying that Rick doesn't get mad.
"So what happened on your ship?" Kate was leading him to something.
"Alexis found out she had a tiny amount of vampire DNA and she asked if she could have more so she could be just like her mom, meaning me." Kate scrunches her face, not sure how Rick was going to take this.
"Alexis wants to be a vampire." Rick stated it smiling, remembering that he had once asked Kate if he could turn her into a vampire like her. "Is that even possible?" Rick asked getting Kate to lay there on top of him in shock.
"Apparently it is, to a point. The doctor can take my vampire DNA and bind it to hers. Then when she reached puberty she would begin to manifest vampire traits, whatever those would be." Kate confides, still in shock.
"So Alexis would be just like our baby most likely. Half human and half vampire. So if this is possible when do we add the DNA to her system?" Puberty could happen anytime, it seemed to be happening earlier and earlier lately.
"Now or after I have the baby. The doctor wants to do it early to allow Alexis's system time to bond with the vampire DNA." Kate explains.
"Did this doctor say what was going to happen to our baby? I mean what happens if he or she is half human and half vampire?
Have your speed, smell and hearing? Need to drink blood to survive or eat food? Or other vampire traits? …. Wait you told me once that your eyes can't take direct sunlight. It was early and I probably wasn't listening. How are you overcoming that?" Rick asks.
"Lanie and I wear full eye contacts. We've been cleaning and re-using the few we have." Kate explains.
"WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" Rick was instantly mad. "I thought we were past keeping secrets. You think I want you to have your eyes burn out because you run out of contacts?" Rick sighs and places his arm over his eyes. "What am I going to do with you?" Rick tries to calm down.
"I'm sorry Rick, I'm not used to having humans helping me. I've spent my life hiding what I am from humans, so they don't turn us in to the authorities who would call in the Hunters and kill us." Kate had spent her life on the run.
Rick instantly calmed down. "I'm sorry Kate, I forgot you've been on the run all your life. It's just that I love you and I forget that humans would fear your kind." Rick stroked her hair.
Kate sucked in a breath. "You love me?" Kate searched his eyes.
It got Rick to smile, it was not how he imagined telling her. Rick had some grand event forming in his mind to tell her. Something during Thanksgiving maybe. "Yes, I love you. So very much."
It got Kate to leap up and kiss him, stroking his bare chest with her hand. "I love you too Rick." Kate's tears started. "I love you and Alexis so very much. So much that it scares me. I'm a vampire and you're human. Someone I should be running from not falling in love with." Kate tells him smiling into his lips.
"Well apparently not ALL human." Rick teased arching his eyebrows a couple of times. It got Kate to start giggling. "If it will work for Alexis will it work for me?" Rick revived his wanting to be a vampire just like Kate, the woman he loved.
Kate started giggling again. "Sorry, you're already past puberty, unless there is something you need to tell me." Kate grinned wide.
"DAMN, just my luck." Rick is bummed. "Come on into the shower with us, we need to talk with Alexis about her desire to be more like her mother." Rick bent down to kiss Kate.
An hour later after sex in the shower Rick and Kate were in the kitchen. "You go get our girl while I make breakfast for us, we need to talk to her." Rick leaned in to kiss Kate.
Kate flew up the stairs happier than she ever expected to be.
A freshly washed and dressed for the day, Alexis came down with Kate to have breakfast. "Soooo, Kate is mom I hear." Rick places a plate of gooey pancake in front of Alexis.
It got Alexis to start smiling and start nodding her head, picking up her fork since she loved her gooey messy pancakes.
Kate sat there watching both of them eat breakfast, smiling. Her life was changing and she was liking the changes. Still not sure what to think about being pregnant. She was likely going to miss the beginning of school next year, since she would be very pregnant by then and just about ready to give birth.
Give birth! "We need to talk with Lanie. I can't have this baby in one of your hospitals. They'll lock all of us up if I do." Kate suddenly thought of new hurdles they needed to overcome.
That got Alexis to stop eating. "Dad knows?" Was Alexis let out of her promise?
It got Kate to smile at Alexis and kiss the side of her head. "Yes your father knows I'm pregnant. We talked last night." Kate tells her.
"It's cool dad!" Alexis was so happy.
"I hear you want to be a vampire too." Rick tells her.
That got Alexis to look up at her dad in surprise. "Please dad, I want to be just like mom. … Please?" Alexis put her fork down and didn't finish her precious pancake.
"You understand what you are asking for pumpkin? It may mean you have to switch to drinking blood. You can't be taken to the hospital or they will find out you are part vampire. You may not be able to have children when you grow up. You may get sick from something that only a vampire can catch." Rick was just getting started. They were all things that might pertain to their baby too.
"Please dad?" Alexis tried again. Then turned to look at Kate. "MOM?"
"The Hunters if they show up will want to kill you too." Rick points out, which got him to suddenly inhale his breath. If they showed up they would try to kill Kate and their baby. Rick started coming up with another plan to deal with them. It was in his nature to love and protect his family, and Kate and their baby were family.