Cabin Fever I - Julia: Valentine's Day by Jayel

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Cabin Fever I
Julia: Valentine's Day, Part 6
by Jayel

By the time Alonzo had me lowered to the floor, Danziger and Devon were coming through the archway. "You guys all right?" Danz demanded, eyeing the Terrians with suspicion even as he lowered the muzzle of the magpro.

"We're fine," Alonzo repeated as Devon knelt beside us. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Uly said you were in trouble," she explained. "Something about the dream plane." She laid an unconsciously maternal palm against my cheek. "Julia, you look pale. Are you sure you're all right?"

"Other than being in labor," I admitted with a nervous laugh. "Oh dear," she sighed, laughing with me, obviously relieved. "So that's what--Danziger, do you think that's what he could have meant?"

"I guess so," Danziger allowed, sounding less than convinced. "Hell, none of it made any sense to me--a lot of Terrian gibberish."

"Ulysses was very upset," Devon elaborated. "And Danziger's right; most of what he said was a bit beyond us. But he was adamant that we come here--or at least that someone come . . . " She broke off, looking away.

"Come on, fly-boy," John said gruffly, shouldering the rifle by its strap and reaching for our packs. "You carry the little mama there, and we'll take care of this stuff. If we really push that 'rail, she can be back in camp by midnight."

"John, I'm not going anywhere," I said. "I can't." I closed my eyes and forced my muscles to relax as I rode out another contraction. It was strange--that morning, everything about giving birth had scared the hell out of me--the pain, the indignity, the thought of being completely responsible for another life. The only thing that had comforted or sustained me had been the thought that Alonzo would be right there with me every step of the way, that whatever happened would happen to both of us. But now that it was actually happening, everything I had imagined was turned upside down. My body seemed to know exactly what to do, whether I made good decisions or maintained any level of control at all, and the whole idea of dignity seemed a childish exercise with no bearing on my situation whatsoever. I felt completely self-contained, completely prepared . . . and Alonzo had never seemed so far away.

Devon, on the other hand, seemed to understand completely. "Good girl," she soothed, stroking the hair back from my face. "It'll pass in a minute, I promise. John, I think you'd better bring the cot from the transrover."

My eyes snapped open at this, and I saw Alonzo's eyes widen as well. If Danziger had agreed to bring the transrover this far at high enough speeds to get them here this quickly, they must have really been worried. And secondly . . . Devon hadn't called the mechanic by his first name in months. "Guys, where's Tara?" Alonzo asked without the slightest attempt at tact.

"Back at camp," Danziger promised. "She's fine." "She and I discussed it and decided that since I have in fact had a baby, I should be the one to come," Devon added neutrally. She glanced down at my face. "But John can certainly take me back and bring her--"

"Tara's with Yale," Danz interrupted, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Yale?" I demanded. The contraction had passed, leaving me shaken but otherwise perfectly well. But something in his tone scared me badly. "What's wrong with Yale?"

"He seems to be having some sort of cybernetic malfunction," Devon explained, obviously struggling to maintain her composure. "But Tara seems to have the problem well in hand." She smiled. "For the time being, I think the four of us should concentrate on you and little Valentine, okay?"

***

The contractions continued for hours with no significant increase in intensity or frequency- -not particularly unusual for a first baby, I knew, but frustrating nonetheless. Alonzo never moved from my side, squatting Terrian-style by the cot with my hand clasped in his. But his eyes kept closing for longer and longer periods of time, and I knew he was dreaming to the surrounding Terrians, a realization that filled me with both apprehension and a strange, oblique comfort. The disastrous results of our latest experiment had made me more certain than ever that the dream plane was not for me--I hadn't felt so out-of-place on or unwanted by G889 since destroying the VR tube that had connected me to Reilly.

But my child was very much a part of the metaphysical systems of this planet--my brief trip beyond the physical had taught me that if nothing else. That Terrian who had risen from the floor on the dream version of our transport ship hadn't come to save me from a mental breakdown or Alonzo from a broken heart. The planet had sent it for Valentine.

Devon got up from her faithful post at my other side. "I'm going outside to check in with camp," she said briskly. She had been a rock all night, but even in my current state of profound self-absorption, I could see how frightened she was for Yale. "Be right back," she promised, giving me an encouraging smile.

"You need me to come with you?" John asked, starting to get up. "No, it's okay," she said. "Unless you want to talk to--" She broke off, blushing. "Unless you want to say good night to True," she amended.

Danziger settled back to the floor. "You can do that," he said with a grin that seemed to hint at something more. "And if you should happen to talk to Donahoe, tell her Julia's okay."

"I will," she promised, smiling back before disappearing through the arch.

When she was gone, I expected Alonzo to ask John another blunt question or two, but my life partner was apparently far, far away at the moment. "John, what is going on?" I asked, struggling to sit up.

"Hey, stay where you are," he admonished, coming to me. "Unless you need to get up and walk again--"

"No," I answered, too tired to even consider such a thing, though I knew it would probably help. "What I need is to know what's happening back at camp."

He shook his head with a wry grin. "You can't stand letting other people take care of you, can you, doc?" he teased.

"Yeah, well, that's something we have in common," I pointed out. "Now come clean."

"Lord, deliver me from bossy women," he sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling for a moment. "It's just like Adair said," he continued. "Yale has had some kind of malfunction--"

"What kind of malfunction?" I demanded. "I don't know what kind of malfunction," he insisted. "He just . . . collapsed; shut down completely." He glanced over at Alonzo, still silent as the Terrians. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," I answered briefly. "Tell me more about Yale." "Tara seems to think it has something to do with whatever Elizabeth did to his programming to repair our uplink to EVE back when everybody was sick," he explained, still giving Alonzo a long, sharp look. "Her theory, which may well be based more on paranoia than anything else, is that Elizabeth planted a fail-safe virus into Yale's neural net, an upgraded version of the virus her husband originally programmed into EVE."

"Why would she do that?" I asked. Or at least, that was what I meant to ask. Before I could get it out, a much deeper version of the pain I'd been feeling for hours seemed to explode inside me, turning my question into a most unprofessional scream.

"That didn't sound good," John remarked, giving Alonzo a shove hard enough to knock him out of his reverie and onto the cave floor. "Hey fly-boy, I think it's showtime." He got up as Alonzo scrambled back to his knees and crawled over to me again. "I'll get Devon."

"I'm fine," I insisted shakily, grabbing Alonzo's arm in both hands and squeezing until the pain seemed to subside. "I want to hear more about Yale--" Another pain cut me off, making me sit straight up on the cot with another embarrassing scream I couldn't seem to suppress.

"Adair!" John yelled, running through the archway. "Danziger, wait!" I called as he disappeared into the dark. "What about Yale?"

"Come on, doc," Alonzo soothed, propping cushions behind me and helping me lean back again. "Let's let Tara worry about Yale for now, all right? As soon as we get our little detail worked out, we'll go back to camp and see what's going on for ourselves . . . " He re-arranged the sheet around me, sneaking a peek between my bent knees. "Oh wow . . . "

"What?" I asked, alarmed. But the look of awe-struck fascination on his face made me smile in spite of the fact that I was scared to death and being split neatly in two.

He continued to stare at the wrong end of me for a full minute before answering. "I can see her head," he informed me at last, looking up with eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Oh," I managed, not certain whether I wanted more to laugh or to cry. "That's . . . . . good, I guess--weird, definitely." I did laugh then, a nervous giggle that seemed to come from somebody else. "At least she's coming out the right way . . . "

"So I hear somebody's finally having a baby in here," Devon said, coming in and pushing the sheet back with matter-of-fact efficiency and her usual encouraging smile. "Right about now, I'd say . . . . ."

"It certainly feels that way," I answered, smiling back. She seemed so calm, as if this were the most normal thing in the world--if she'd been close enough, I would have kissed her. As it was, my whole body seemed to relax back into automatic pilot as she brushed the hair back from my face and helped me sit up a little straighter.

"We should have brought that birthing chair you and Bess fixed up," she said, a tiny frown appearing between her brows. "Alonzo--"

But Alonzo wasn't listening. Still holding my hand in one of his, he had reached out to one of the Terrians with the other. As Devon and I watched, dumbstruck and irritated respectively, the apparently sleeping Terrian came to life, reaching out and clasping Valentine's father's other hand, as if it belonged here as much as any of the rest of us, as if my scary miracle belonged to its tribe as well as ours. "Alonzo!" I said, squeezing his hand so hard my nails dug into the flesh. "The action is out here, remember?"

His eyes snapped open. "What?" he stammered. "I know, doc . . . . They're just curious-- they want to--"

"Alonzo Solace, *I don't care*!" I retorted, channeling the pain into unreasoning rage. "Either forget about the damned Terrians and help me, or get the hell out!"

To his eternal credit, he never hesitated for a second. "I'm here, doc," he promised, letting go of the Terrian to sit by me, wrapping both his arms around my shoulders. I could see Devon trying to suppress a smile, but I didn't care how I sounded any more than I cared what the Terrians thought. If ever I had been entitled to be a little hysterical . . . .

"Here she comes," Devon said, grabbing a blanket and squatting in front of me. "Push, Julia . . . . push now, honey, you're almost there . . . "

"This hurts," I informed them tearfully, burying my face against Alonzo's throat as I bore down. "This hurts a really lot . . . "

"I know, baby, I know," Alonzo promised, kissing my hair. "You're almost done . . . "

"We have a head," Devon continued. "Oh God, she's beautiful . . . . one more push for the shoulders, Julia, and the hard part's over . . . "

Easy for her to say, I thought grouchily, trying to obey even so. I could hear the baby crying--obviously this whole process was no more fun for her than it was for me. "I'm trying, baby, I'm trying," I promised, blind with tears of my own.

"She knows," Alonzo said. "She's trying, too . . . . " And suddenly, my whole body seemed to focus into one immensely powerful channel that pushed our Valentine free.

"She's out!" Devon said triumphantly, laughing and crying at once as she lifted the slimy, squalling bundle into her arms. "Julia, look at her . . . . she's perfect . . . ."

As soon as I was done with the afterbirth and Devon was done wiping the baby clean and making sure her tiny mouth and nose were clear, I finally got to hold my precious daughter. I'd never felt anything so warm, so alive . . . . her little arms and legs felt so strong, working diligently back and forth as I cradled her against me. And her lungs were certainly in tiptop order- -she hadn't stopped screaming yet. "She seems to have inherited Danziger's voice," I laughed shakily, touching her all over, making certain she was real.

"Her mother's, I'd say," Alonzo retorted, laying a hand on her tiny stomach as his other arm squeezed me tight. "Hey, Valentine . . . it's okay. You made it."

The screams abruptly stopped, subsiding into an irritable grumble as she opened her eyes, their blue so dark they already looked brown. And even though as a doctor I knew she couldn't focus yet, that we were no more than indistinct blobs of light and dark to her newborn perceptions, I could have sworn she recognized us both. "Did she understand you?" I demanded, taking her perfect little fist between my thumb and index finger and coaxing it open.

"I don't think . . . . I don't know," he admitted with a laugh. "I'm going to go tell John you guys are okay," Devon said with a smile. "Devon, wait," Alonzo protested nervously. "Are you sure--I mean, what if something happens?"

"We'll be fine," I promised, kissing his cheek. "Call home and tell everyone we have a Valentine."

"I will," she said. She touched the baby's rose petal cheek with the tip of her finger. "Congratulations . . . both of you."

"I think she'd like to have another one of these," Alonzo remarked when she was gone, pressing a kiss to my temple.

"Hmmm?" I answered, counting Valentine's tiny fingers and toes just like any normal, red- blooded, genetically imperfect mom would do.

"Devon," he elaborated. "I think she likes babies." "Of course she does," I said, opening my shirt and guiding a nipple into our daughter's impatiently waiting little mouth. "This is so strange . . . . . "

"Yeah, I bet," he joked. "But you guys are beautiful . . . ." "No," I interrupted. "I mean, thank you . . . " I looked up at him and smiled, and he kissed me warmly. "But what I meant was this . . . . knowing," I explained. "I was so worried I wouldn't know what to do." I looked down at his hand, so big and strong and perfect against the frightening delicacy of the baby's skin. "I've always been so wrapped up in what I could do with my mind, I've never learned to trust my body."

"I've always trusted your body," he answered with a fly-boy grin, but I could see in his eyes that he knew what I meant . . . . how could I have ever been so blind? How could I have missed so much--he was everything, and I could so easily have missed it . . .

"I love you," I said simply, meeting his deep brown eyes for a long moment before looking back down at our beautiful and apparently ravenous offspring.

He shifted closer behind me, resting his chin on my shoulder as his arms encircled my waist. "I know, doc," he said softly, his touch more reassuring than any words he could have spoken. "Even if I could have doubted it before, I couldn't now." He pressed a kiss to my cheek. "I mean, just look what we made."

I laughed. "She is nice, isn't she?" I said with a happy sigh. "She's perfect," he promised, kissing me again. "Hey, looky what you guys got," Danziger said with a grin, coming through the archway with Devon close behind. "I was afraid you weren't going to make it there for a minute, the way you were screaming."

"Very funny," I retorted, blushing but not really upset. "Come look at our daughter and tell us how beautiful she is."

"Too beautiful to tell," he admitted after a long look. "Even if she does look like her dad."
Valentine rolled her little eyes toward him with what looked like a perfectly conscious frown. "Hey, she's smart, too."

"I'm sure she's just reacting to your voice," Devon said with a smile. "Come on, let's get the rest of those cots inside so we can all get some sleep."

"Devon, wait," I said. "Is everything all right back at camp?" She paused, biting her lip for a moment before giving me a fragile grin. "No," she admitted. "But looking at the three of you . . . . I have to believe it will be."

-The End-

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