Castaway Island

Chapter 18: Consequences

Day 101

It was six weeks later, and they were slowly making progress. They had spent that time cutting down trees to help make materials for their boat. They would use the fire axe or saws from the mechanical building to do this. Yang had been trying to come up with a decent build, she had tried several little testing versions and out of the ten she tried most came back to the island, two just sank but one was never found again. So, she hoped that was the design to try but it was becoming apparent they would need something to fight the currents.

They threw out many messages in a lot of bottles in that time, most of them they found back on the beach not long after. They hoped the few they didn't find made it to shore but they knew that they could be floating for years and not be found depending on the currents.

She and Jaune had talked it out and they would need some kind of motorized paddle or something along with a sail to fight the currents to get away from the island. So, they were going to try a few things. First, they got the hardest object to get, the old jeep that was left abandoned on the hill. The tires were all flat, but it just had to roll down hill anyway. They did end up fighting a few more Grimm but it was only a group of three, they must have gotten the larger group of them on the first time up.

It took them all day to get it unstuck by hand and then half roll it and half drive it down the hill, then they had to push it all the way to the mechanical shop. By the end of the day, they were both drained and took the next day as a rest day. They also got one of the stationary bikes from the gym and Yang took apart a couple of motors from the other golf carts that still had functioning motors in the motor pool.

So out of three possible engines, the jeep was too heavy so she might have to see about cutting a lot of weight off it or use parts to make a two cylinder engine of some kind, next the bike she was thinking of using it to peddle power something, then would be the golf cart engines, while much lighter than the jeep's engine they were nowhere near as powerful, she might have to use two of them together just to get enough power as they were the weakest of the engines.

There were plenty of logs lined up by the end of the second week for them to use as building material by that point. They also spent time hunting in the jungle as well now that they knew there was life in there. They caught a few lizards and while not something they wanted to try at first, they were left little choice but to try and cook them up. They also ran into something else on the island, a wild boar. It had surprised them but with two people with aura the creature didn't stand a chance.

Both were happy to have something to make ham, bacon and pork.

The boar's head went next to the jaguar's which this time at least looked a bit better as Yang learned from her mistakes with the jaguar. She joked that if they kept this up, she might go into taxidermy if she retired as a huntress. They also learned a bit more on how to properly take care of the pelt.

Jaune's garden finally was ready, and they had fresh fruits and vegetables for the first time that wasn't found from scavenging the island. They did have to replenish the generator a few times as they were gathering up anything that had the right kind of dust to refill it for later now that they had an idea of how long it could last for if they used it sparingly.

Jaune had started to grow out his facial hair by this point, he still had a bit of a baby face, but he had a small beard growing. Yang had to admit that it made him look a bit more mature and helped with the whole island survivalist thing they had going. Jaune had gotten a bit more confident in cutting hair so at least now they weren't looking like shaggy castaways, now they just looked like rugged castaways.

Of course, things weren't perfect, they would get into little arguments from time to time, all the stress got to them differently and the frustration of trying to build the boat was weighing on them. They did make up like all couples did. Most of the time they were too busy helping each other to really argue about most things.

There were times they just spent the day together doing couple things. Swimming at the beach, playing games like basketball or tennis, they found a way to hook up the tablet to the TV and would spend time just watching a film from the tablet and just curl up on the couch. They would also enjoy each other on a more intimate level. One night after sex on the beach they just lay there together looking up at the stars. Other times trying for a bit more adventurous, Yang having collected some very risqué underwear that fit over what was left behind to enjoy the way Jaune looked at her in them.

Everything was going smoothly, that is until the past few days.

Yang woke up early again, she had been feeling off the last few days, at first, she thought it was a bug which terrified her because there was no doctor on the island to get any kind of prescription. Three days ago, she had been feeling sick in the morning and put it off as something wasn't agreeing with her. Then the next day while working the smell of grease just set her off and she had to race somewhere to empty her stomach. The day after that while in the shower and Jaune was cooking she bent over and threw up suddenly while in the shower.

Once could be nothing, twice was making her think but after three times? She knew something was up and had a horrible realization of what it might be. She slipped out of bed not waking Jaune as she stretched out and made her way to relieve herself.

She paused as she felt like her stomach was doing summersaults.

'Make that four times!' she thought as she rushed to the toilet and emptied her stomach. She hated throwing up, she hated everything about it. Worse was the dry heaves when you wanted to continue but there was literally nothing left. Thankfully her hair didn't get in the way.

'God, good thing Jaune is still asleep.' She thought as she flushed the evidence away. 'I have to know, I got to know for sure.'

She couldn't wait for breakfast to be over with as she left the house as quickly as possible, she saw Jaune's confused look, but she would explain later, after she got answers. She knew that the pharmacy might not sell what she needed, she hadn't seen it anywhere in all the times they looked but it wasn't like she was looking for that specific item.

So, she went to the small medical center building instead if any place would have what she was looking for it might be there.

Yang got in and went right to the doctor's room and looked through all the cabinets and cupboards. There had to be something here she could still use, even if it was out of date, she would take anything by this point.

"Damn it," she slammed closed a cabinet. "Where would I keep those if I was a doctor?"

She looked around in other rooms, there was a small nursing assistant office, but it only had a personal desk and filing cabinets with a small non-working computer. The janitor closet she bypassed and found the small storage room. It was more like a storage closet, apparently, they didn't stock up on a lot of items when the hotel was in use. She guessed this was only used for guests with food poisoning, allergies or small accidents.

Pulling open all the small drawers looking through the contents of mostly expired medication she finally found it. A small area with several of the small boxes reading 'maternity test' on them.

Yang paused, now this could all be in her head, this could all just be her mind thinking it was one thing and not something else. Once she took those the results would cement what was going on with her. She terrified by the results, at least in a positive result.

"Fuck it," she took two as she wanted to be sure. They were a little past their date, but it wasn't like she had anything else to work with. Drinking the whole bottle of water, she had with her she waited for her bladder to do the rest. She was sitting in the waiting room as it was less stuffy than the rest of the building as her leg was rapidly tapping the floor.

"What do we do if this is happening?" She muttered to herself. "How the hell did this even happen?! I thought we were careful!"

Granted she knew intellectually that condoms weren't 100% effective, and it wasn't like she had access to any other form of birth control. She hadn't even been on any birth control when they got here since she hadn't even been in a relationship until now.

"Damn it…I think I'm younger than Raven was when she had me," she thought darkly about that. Her birth mother had her shortly after she and her dad graduated, she had done the math once when she learned about Raven and how her, Summer, her dad and uncle Qrow had all be on the same team. She knew the year they graduated and her birthdate. She came around eleven months after they got out of Beacon.

She sighed looking up at the ceiling wondering how her dad would react to this?

Finally, she felt her bladder telling her it was time to empty itself, so she moved to the small bathroom and pulled out the two little sticks. She read the instructions and did what she was supposed to do and now she had to wait. It said fifteen minutes for a result, these were the longest fifteen minutes of her life.

Each minute seemed to drag out to an hour, her mind going through all kinds of scenarios based on the answer. If it wasn't positive, then there was something seriously wrong with her that they didn't know what it was and there was no way to treat it. The thought of being sick with some kind of rare tropical disease did not sit well with her.

If it was positive they would know what was going on but that lead to a whole list of other problems they would have to deal with.

She had grabbed the watch before she left, the one that they had found that used kinetic energy to keep it going. Finally, the time was up, she got up and checked both sticks. She checked the box again for the instructions and looked again.

Both of them had two red lines.

Positive.

She was pregnant.

"Fuck." She muttered.

-Later that day-

Jaune was finishing up gathering some coconuts and bananas from the trees around the resort. He checked the traps, but it looked like nothing was biting today which was fine. The odd thing was he didn't hear Yang working. Normally she would be at the mechanical shop working away on cutting the trees down to size. The kind of work she did you could hear for a mile in the quiet of the resort with just the two of them and the sounds of nature.

He arrived home to find Yang on the small island counter bent over it resting her chin on her hands as she looked at him. The look was a very serious look, and it made him pause, he hadn't seen her look like this in a long time.

"Yang?"

"Hey Jaune, so…we need to talk," She told him and saw the look on his face as she realized how that sounded. "Oh! No nothing like that, I mean this is serious but it's not what you think. I just found out something that will, well it's going to change everything."

"Okay, so what did you find out?" He set the food down as she sat next to her, she leaned into him as soon as he did as he wrapped his arm comforting around her shoulders. That's when he noticed the two little white sticks sitting there in front of her.

They were a different design, but he had seen enough of his mother's pregnancies to know what they were, at least what they looked like to him.

"Yang," he paused to look down at them. "Are those pregnancy tests?"

"Yep," she dragged out the word. "I've been feeling sick the last few days and so I had to test a theory. Turns out…not a theory."

"Oh god," Jaune realized what this meant. "How did, I mean when, how?"

"Well first you put your-"

"I know how, I mean, I thought we were careful." Jaune lamented.

"Not careful enough I guess," Yang sighed as just one little mistake was all it took sometimes. She heard stories of how some women had trouble conceiving and others could just get knocked up easily. Given how early Raven got pregnant and then Jaune's family size she had a feeling it was just a perfect storm ready to happen. "It still feels weird like it's not actually happening, but I know it is. Is this what shock feels like? Because if so, it sucks."

He was silent as he rubbed her side with his arm around her as he tried to process things. They were going to be parents; they were stuck on this island and now they would have a small life they would have to take care of and protect. This was something huge, something that would change their lives forever. Even if they got off his island this was not something they could just take away.

"So…" Jaune wasn't sure what to say to this. "I guess we're going to have to deal with this."

"Honestly I wish this was a mistake," Yang sighed.

"You don't want kids?" He asked thinking that she had changed her mind on that topic.

She shook her head. "Not that, I'm actually younger than Raven was when she had me."

"You'd think she would have shown up by now," Jaune stated.

"Honestly it's not like we're close, getting help from her just to reach you guys was like pulling teeth," Yang stated. She knew that if her mom actually did care she would have shown up with her portals long ago. Her mom most likely just didn't care because Yang had proved she was just 'too weak' as her mom had this survival of the fittest belief and if Yang wasn't strong enough to survive then so be it. Honestly it wasn't like she was even close to the woman she was more a stranger than family.

That woman hadn't been in her life and where was she when Beacon was under attack? Where was she when she had lost her damn arm? She had to force the issue to let Weiss and her use her portals to get to Qrow and that was the only 'favor' Yang was allowed from her.

'Then of course it's not like she would even know about this situation to being with.' Yang bitterly thought.

"I'm actually scared to turn out like her," Yang admitted to the biggest fear she had, that she would turn out just like Raven as a mother.

"Don't say that," Jaune told her hugging her close. "You are nothing like her, I've seen the way you care for Ruby and others. When people you care about are in trouble you throw yourself into it to help them, never think otherwise. I know you'll be a great mom you're going to love this child and be the best mom."

Yang felt tears in her eyes as she smiled and wiped them, it felt good to hear someone say those things to her, she needed to hear those words. She was scared about all of this but having him here with her, well it helped a lot. She was sure if she was doing this along it just might break her.

"Thanks, Jaune," she closed her eyes resting her head on his shoulder. "Pretty sure you're going to be a great dad."

"Well, I always wanted a family, just didn't think it would be this soon," He kissed her head as the two just held each other for a bit longer. They were quiet as they just needed to feel comfort and support from the other. Both of them were thinking about how this would change things.

Yang knew that as the further she got along the less active she would be, the boat project would have to pushed back since right now she was still trying to get everything put together and the wood shaped just right. Not to mention trying to figure out a system to get them some much needed power to break the currents of the island without weight becoming an issue.

She wasn't a ship builder so she was just doing trail and error but now with a baby, she couldn't afford to make mistakes. Her free arm slowly went to her stomach thinking of the little thing growing inside of her and how they couldn't stay here. They had to get off the island if only for the baby, there were no doctors and if the kid got sick or hurt then what? What if they got sick or hurt? She couldn't stand the thought of them leaving their child to grow up alone on this island if something happened to them.

Jaune was having similar thoughts, they would need to be more careful of the supplies, sure they had enough for now but with another mouth to feed, Yang would need larger and better portions. They had no way to check to make sure the pregnancy was even going well. What if something horrible happened? What if Yang suffered a miscarriage? His hold on her tightened a little of the thought of losing them both because they just didn't know what they were doing.

"We have to get off here," Jaune stated.

Yang nodded. "I know, I can still work but we'll have to make the boat in pieces and assemble it somewhere safe. It's just too large to drag it all the way to the beach."

Jaune thought a moment. "How about that old building we saw on the first day, you know where it looked like a sea plan was kept."

Yang thought about it, it had some areas where they could safely store the pieces and put them together. There was a slope into the water and some old chains that pulled the plane up for maintenance that might still be useful if they weren't fully rusted by now from all the sea water. Even if they were they could still push it down the slope even if they had to put all their muscle into it.

"Yeah, that might just work," Yang nodded as she looked down. "Not sure I'll be able to make it before I start to balloon up, it's kind of slow going."

"I'll help out anyway I can," he told her.

"I know," she sighed. "God, I don't know how I'm going to tell dad this or Ruby and the others."

Jaune groaned, "My family won't be much better."

"So…what happens after we get off?" Yang tentatively asked him. "I mean I know we're together, but do you really want to start a family with me? I know this isn't what we had in mind when we started, and I don't want you to feel like you have to do this."

This was another fear she had she knew that Jaune was a stand-up guy, but she wanted him to be with her not because of some kind of sense of obligation but because he wanted to be here. She heard all the stories of how a young couple would get pregnant and one of them would freak out and run off.

"I won't lie," Jaune started. "This is not how I pictured things, but this is my child too, and I won't abandon them. No matter what happens between us I want to be in their life as much as possible, and I'm not just going to abandon either of you. I do love you Yang, I want to at least try to make this work."

Yang wasn't sure if it were hormones that were acting up at this stage or just her genuinely glad that he was sticking with her, either way she felt a sense of comfort knowing that he would always be there for them. She hugged him back as she just wanted to calm herself with his warmth, closing her eyes and just taking it in.

"So, any idea what we're in for?" Yang asked him. "I was too young to remember much of Ruby being born."

"I only got a few younger sisters," Jaune remembered some of the stuff his parents went through as the rest of the kids were expected to help out to make it easier for his mother. "I remember my mom getting a lot of foot and back pain, not to mention her complaining about using the bathroom a lot later on."

"Great," Yang sighed she knew some of that already but there were other things they would have to do. "We're going to need a crib or something."

"Oh, that's right," Jaune thought about it and they would need other things too. "What are we going to do for diapers and clothing?"

Yang made a face, it wasn't like a vacation destination like this was geared for families with infants, normally when people came here with family it was with kids and not babies. "I didn't even think of that, guess I'm breast feeding since we got no other milk."

The thought was kind of weird for her but honestly, it's not like they could use regular milk anyway even if they had it. Any milk on his island spoiled ages ago and there were no domesticated animals, she actually started to miss things like milk and cheese. A good hamburger with cheese and bacon would really hit the spot right about now.

"I guess we'll have to make do with all the spare clothing that don't fit us," Yang thought about it some more. "We can cut them up and try to sew them together, do we even have a sewing kit?"

Jaune thought about it, they had grab pretty much anything that they could be put it into the Store House in their time here. He couldn't remember off hand that they picked up anything. "I honestly don't know, we'll have to look through what we got and if not try to find some."

Yang slumped a bit as they have been all over the habitable areas so either they overlooked it, or it just wasn't here. She couldn't see many guests bringing one with them, she knew she wouldn't. "Well just have to do the best that we can."

"Just like we have been," Jaune nodded as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "So…what now?"

"I guess back to work?" Yang asked him. "I mean we still got a boat to build, and we have to check out that sea plane building to make sure we can set up there. It's going t be such a pain to drag it all over there piece by piece."

"Can't we use the carts?"

Yang shook her head. "Too big and heavy, I mean I would have to cut down the pieces to the point that it would take so much more material to keep them all pound together it might weigh too much for the water. I'm not exactly an expert on how much surface area we need for this."

"Is there anyway to make it safer? I mean it's just not the two of us now." He asked.

"That's been going through my mind too, you ever see someone make a toy boat out of plastique bottles?" She asked him.

"Uh no, my village is in a land locked area."

"Oh right, well," Yang continued on. "Since Patch is an island a lot of kids would make little boats and stuff to sail out, I remember this one kid, I'm not sure I ever knew their name, but they glued a bunch of popsicle sticks onto a couple of empty water bottles. It worked pretty well too from what I remember."

"So, you want to put plastique bottles on the bottom?"

"I'm thinking bigger," she told him as she laid out her plan. "I'm thinking if we can find enough large plastique containers they might work. Something like barrels or even garbage containers if we have to, if we can't find enough, we can try to mix and match but it should help keep us afloat."

"Then I just got to figure out how to connect them to the base, I'm thinking maybe put gaps in the logs to place them and keep them stable while putting a floor over top of it."

"I think that's called a deck," Jaune said as she gave him a small glare of 'I really couldn't care less what it's called' as he cleared his throat and gestured to go on.

"Anyways the 'deck' will then be sealed, I'm trying to get it in one large piece, still trying to find something large enough for the job. I might have to cut a wooden wall down or something at this rate. The problem is it has to be large but thin as again, too much weight might sink it but too thin and it could break."

"It's also all has to be even," Jaune thought about it.

"That too, no point if we capsize because one side of the boat floats better than the other," she nodded. "Then we got to make sure the water doesn't get in, so the sides have to be a certain height above the water level. It could take us days to get to where we're going and all that cold sea water I don't want in the boat."

"Right and we got to make sure we don't go out with a storm coming," Jaune thought about the dangers of sea travel. "If we lose our way it could end up being lost at sea not knowing which direction we're going. I mean I learned how to travel by night but in the day? We usually had a map with us and landmarks and road signs to help."

"Maybe we can make a compass?" Yang racked her brain trying to remember. "Wasn't there like a way to make a needle into one?"

"I think so," Jaune tried to remember. "I think we need a magnet, or something don't we?"

"Well add that to the list," Yang got up and was pacing now. "I remember it was a kid's show or something, I remember because at the time I thought it was kind of cool. They put the needle on a bottle cap or something? Then it was just in a little pool of water…"

"I think I know what you're talking about, only I think it was in a science class in school my teacher did that," Although he wishes he had paid more attention at the time. He had kind of lost focus during the lesson and zoned out part of the way through.

Suddenly he let out a small grunt of laughter.

"What?" Yang asked him confused.

"How did we go from worried about kids to talking about boat construction so fast?"

Yang paused as she had to admit, their conversation got off topic. "Well, we're just trying to think of a safe way to get off this island, since it's just not us anymore."

"I take it this is our first job as parents then," Jaune let that sink in as did Yang. Their first job was to get off this island and make sure they all got home safely.

"Yeah, well let's see about getting some plastique containers," Yang thought out loud.

"What about the water plant?" Jaune offered. "I know we didn't really look much there or the garbage facility because we didn't understand how it works. Plus we need to check the water pressure there anyway."

The water facility while not running still held the main water source for the hotel and its facilities. So far using the water they had been, hadn't change the water pressure much. It was designed while working that is, to give water to hundreds of people. So, two people using it wasn't too much of a strain thankfully. The huge water tanks had been filled and sealed by the time the hotel had been abandoned.

Yang thought about those large blue styled barrels that held water, if they were on the island they could be there.

"Yeah, those just might work if we can find them, let's hope so because I do not want to search the garbage facility." Yang made a face as Jaune winced.

They only went there to dump their garbage after all the smell of the place was horrible given all the left trash that had been festering for years. If there were plastic containers that was another option but like Yang said, neither of them wanted to search there if they had to.

"Sounds like we're going to be busy," Jaune stated with not only the boat but preparing for a kid as well.

Yang rubbed her stomach a little, "I get the feeling we're going to be busy for years after this."

Both of the realized that even if they got off this island, they had a very important responsibility for the future now. They were going to have to be parents and deal with all the things that parents would have to deal with.

Getting off this island suddenly didn't seem like such a huge task for them compared to that.

TBC…