“You know…” He glanced quickly at my protruding belly.
I continued to look at him innocently. “Know what?”
His swallowed. “Don’t make me say it.”
“Say what? Is it a secret?” I looked both ways down the hall, as if we could get caught at any moment.
“You know,” he said. “The Buddha belly.”
I laughed out loud. “Buddha belly?”
He rolled his eyes, finally catching on. He suddenly pressed his hands on my stomach and rubbed vigorously. “Buddha, Buddha, Buddha!”
I laughed even harder, slapping his hands away.
Someone cleared their throat.
We broke away, turning toward Micah, standing at the end of the hall. Alex cupped his hand over his mouth, speaking out of the corner of his mouth to me, “Uh-oh, he beckons.” Then a little louder, looking at Micah. “It’s too late, pal. I’ve already rubbed all the luck out of this thing.” He gestured to me, or rather my belly.
I punched Alex playfully in the arm and walked toward Micah. Micah took me by the hand and planted a kiss on my cheek before steering us down the hall. He half turned toward Alex as we moved, and shot back, “I don’t need any luck; I’ve got the woman.”
“Touché,” Alex said quietly, turning to go his own way.
Micah led me through a door and down two flights of stairs. I hadn’t been in the basement since my first couple days’ induction to the Chakra and this organization. We stopped outside one of the closed doors and he turned to me. “The doctor’s here. He’s going to do a complete exam. He’s delivered babies to women with powers like yours. He knows what he is doing.”
A tingle crept up my spine. “Is he going to do an ultrasound, so I can see the baby?”
“Yes, if his equipment is working correctly.”
We hesitated, neither daring to move to open the door. I spared us both the awkwardness. “I should do this alone.”
I turned to enter the room quickly, hopefully leaving Micah without a choice, but he stopped me just as quickly. He grabbed me by the hand and spun me around into him. Holding me tightly, he looked at me intently. “You aren’t alone anymore. I am with you always, whether you like it or not.”
I smiled, feeling more relieved than I thought I would hearing those words. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He smiled back and leaned in to kiss me, pausing just before our lips touched. He let me close the distance, forcing me to show him I wanted it just as badly as he did. Gentle at first, the kiss began to grow more intense. His tongue found mine and he didn’t let go. He sucked the very breath from me but then gave it back plus some. I would’ve been happy to stay there for the rest of time, exchanging each other’s air, locking lips and holding onto each other so tightly we were sure to have bruises the next day.
The sharp metal clang of instruments hitting the ground in the next room brought us back to reality. We reluctantly pulled apart, though we left our hands intertwined.
He spoke first, “Are you ready for this?”
I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Ready.”
He pushed open the door for me and the sting of white hit our eyes.
Promises
The doctor’s visit was rough. He quizzed me relentlessly. Mostly on dates. The date of my last cycle, dates of possible consummation, dates I used my powers, and on and on. My head began to swim. There was a two week window of when I could have conceived; too close to say who the father was either way. Examining me, the doctor favored an earlier date, which meant Micah, but he followed that with a warning that it was just too close to be sure. Micah squeezed my hand.
He’s with me either way,
I reminded myself.
They ran blood tests, urine analysis, checked the baby’s heartbeat, took measurements around my stomach, checked my pulse and blood pressure, and weighed me. Several test results wouldn’t be back for a week but the doctor assured me everything he could see looked normal. He pulled a large machine on wheels next to the stretcher I was on. He smiled broadly. “Ready to see your baby?”
“Sure,” I responded, not quite matching his enthusiasm. Micah’s hand still grasped mine firmly. The doctor rolled up my shirt and placed a fair amount of cold gel on my stomach. The machine whirred to life, making more noises in its old age than it probably should have. He placed a small, flat electrical device over the baby and a picture came to life on the screen facing us.
My jaw dropped. I’d expected something like a kidney bean, small and lifeless. Instead I saw a live, kicking little baby taking up the entire screen. You could count ten little fingers and toes, you saw the spine, and even the mouth opened and closed. It moved its head and all four limbs, and when it stretched out on the screen I actually felt a small push against the organs inside of me.
“You’ve got quite an active one, there,” the doctor commented.
“That’s the baby?” I said, louder than I had intended. “I thought that was just indigestion.” A few of the other medical personnel in the room stifled giggles.
“In another few weeks you’ll be able to feel it placing your hand over your stomach.” The doctor smiled down at me.
I felt a small, unexpected tear roll out of the corner of my eye. I tried convincing myself it was a reaction to the old screen, but I knew better. I wiped it away quickly, feeling a little silly at being so sentimental. I glanced at Micah to make sure he hadn’t seen, but he was too busy staring at the screen with the same shocked, blank face he had had in the forest.
I squeezed his hand to elicit some sort of response and he glanced at me, then back at the screen.
“Say something,” I urged, trying to keep my voice as low as possible.
He looked at me again and seemed to snap out of it. “It’s just, so real.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, realizing all he had promised me was finally dawning on him. My breath caught, and I was suddenly wondering if he was truly ready for this. I didn’t necessarily have a choice; he did.
The doctor interrupted my thoughts. “Do you want to know the gender?”
“Oh, um. I don’t know,” I said, unprepared. “I guess so. You can tell?”
“Let’s take a look here.” He took a few minutes to zoom in on the baby’s legs, trying different angles. Suddenly, he announced, “Here we go – you see a leg here, and a leg here, and nothing in between!” He waited for our response but all he got was blank stares in return. “It’s a girl.” He sounded disappointed for having to spell it out for us.
Micah let out a strangled sort of laugh. I didn’t say anything, letting it sink in. Suddenly, Shawn’s words buzzed in my head.
The ability to do what we do runs in our blood
. The world grew cold, almost grayed out.
There can never be two Gaias that practice our ways at once.
His words kept
echoing back and forth.
The ability to do what we do—
“Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn! Wake up!”
Micah’s voice broke through. I sat up, unfamiliar with the cold tiles touching my skin. “What happened?”
“You fainted and rolled off the cot.” He attempted to get in between two of the other nurses to help me up.
Too many hands were helping me; I felt claustrophobic.
“I have to get out of here.” I grabbed for clean rags to wipe off my belly and pulled down my shirt, jetting out of the room before anyone could think to stop me.
“Wait!” Micah called after me. I caught a glimpse of him as I rounded the corner. He was caught up in the pile of medical staff, wires and the overturned cot.
I ignored him and kept running, temporarily confused by the maze of basement hallways. Anxious to get out of there before Micah caught up, I stopped and closed my eyes. I felt for my new partner, the wind element, to figure out where the freshest air was. Following it up two flights of stairs, I found my way out of the building quicker than I would have using my sense of direction. Blindly, I made my way through the thickest part of the gardens; the part that was more like a forest.
Micah, much to my chagrin, managed to catch me, and wasn’t gentle in stopping me. “What is wrong with you!”
“Me?!” I jerked my shoulder away, rubbing it where his fingers had dug in. “What is wrong with
me
?”
“Yes!” he yelled back.
“I’m having a baby girl; that is what’s wrong with me!” I threw my hands up. “She is my responsibility, whether I like it or not.”
“So?”
“So, what if she is blessed with the same curse we are? What if she grows to be just as strong of a Gaia as me, or stronger?”
Comprehension slowly started to dawn across his features.
“What if she’s my replacement? Who will you choose to eliminate for your precious organization?” I gave him a second to think. “Well, who will it be? Mother or daughter?”
Micah was stunned into silence, searching for the right answer to my question. He didn’t realize there was no right answer.
“I don’t think that is something we have to worry about until we know for sure…” he finally stuttered out a response.
“Yes it is! The life of their child is something a parent should worry about from day one!” Of course he wasn’t ready for such an undertaking, completely unfit to follow through with his promises.
On a roll now, I questioned him about something that had been bothering me since Wyoming. “What were you planning with Shawn? What changed once you found out I was pregnant?”
Now Micah rubbed at the back of his neck.
“From now on, only truth between us. I want you to tell me everything.” I mimicked his hardened voice, cajoling him to come clean as I had.
He took a deep breath, “We knew Shawn wanted to recruit you. And we were going to let him.”
Words stuck in my throat, “I’m sorry, what?”
“I was there only to put a tracker on you, or him – whatever I could manage. We had each direction covered, we weren’t going to let you far from sight.” He was speaking quickly now. “It would have been only until we found his base of operations. A quick trip – then you would be out of there while we closed him down.”
“You were going to let me go back to him?” I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
“Even with Shawn gone, we had to be sure nobody would continue his work. And remember, this was the plan
before
I knew what he did to you. Knowing what I do now, I would never have agreed to it.”
“Agreed to it? Whose plan was it, then? Susan’s? Vayu’s?”
He shook his head, “We didn’t let Susan know the whole plan. We thought you two were too close and that she might divulge some of the information. We couldn’t risk Shawn finding out through you.”
Shock turned to anger. I conjured a net of wind, materializing only after it passed me, catching him and throwing him back into a particularly thorny bush. I tied off the streams of energy to make the net last as long as possible before it disintegrated, before he could right himself, I stormed off into the forest.
Before long, I came to an opening with a large pond. It was the same pond, almost the same exact spot, Cato had used for my saining ritual.
What a perfect coincidence
, I thought, heading for the tree Micah and Shawn had used with their rifle sights set on my forehead during the ritual.
Instead of skirting the pond, I swam through it, fully clothed, uncaring. As I emerged, shivering and soaked to the bone, I immediately regretted my decision. Micah sent a telepathic message to me. He felt the cold, and was trying to radiate warmth.
Wait
, the word came to me,
I’ll take
care of you. Make it all better.