BIG SCARE, LITTLE PACKAGE
By
Alex Queirolo
Timeline: After "The Boy Who Would Be Terrian King" (Day 104)
Author's E-Mail: CUVH94A@prodigy.com
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Alright, I wrote this today. Thanks Shel for the idea. Here ya go.
BIG SCARE, LITTLE PACKAGE
(Lia, feel free to rename it)It was damn cold. That was the first thing that Alonzo Solace realized when woke up. The second was that Dr.Julia Heller wasn't lying next to him. He turned over groggily and murmured, "Julia?" There was no response. That was okay, he hadn't really expected one. He sighed. He didn't really want to get out of bed but the truth was, it was not nearly as warm without Julia. He fell out of bed and reached for his boots, grumbling all the while. He dressed quickly in order to keep the chilling cold at bay. As he left the tent, he knocked a sedi-derm to the ground. He frowned at it and kept moving. He wished that she would put her medical stuff elsewhere. It wasn't the first time that he had stumbled over something. Ah well, not something worth getting totally flipped out about.
He pulled his jacket tight around his body and shivered. Forty-eight days here and he still wasn't used to this awful cold. His gnawing hunger wasn't making it any better. The fact that the colonists were hungry wasn't anyone's fault but people seemed to be taking it out on Devon Adair and Julia. That bothered him. Couldn't the rest of them see that these two women worked their butts off to keep everybody safe? Alonzo shook his head. He walked out towards the dome and stopped when he saw John Danziger, the resident mechanic, on guard duty.
"Hey, 'Lonz!" Danziger cried out cheerily. Alonzo frowned. Now that was certainly unlike John. He was grouchy most of the time so why was he so good-natured at three in the morning. It was true, everyone close to Alonzo was a complex puzzle. Julia, hell, he still hadn't completely figured her out. That was good though. The more to find out, the better.
"Hello, John!" Alonzo called back. He took two steps toward Danziger. The burly man was definately on-duty. A mag-pro was leaning against his left hip and a steaming cup of coffee was in his hand. Alonzo grinned. It was hillarious in a way. Ever since they had arrived on G889, a day hadn't passed without Alonzo seeing someone, including himself, holding a cup of the black brew. They were extremely low on food but they had a surplus of coffee beans. Each night, faithfully enough, someone would make six pots of coffee and they would last maybe a half an hour. It was an addiction, this caffeine. "How goes it?"
Danziger laughed, "Quiet. Thank God. You looking for Julia?" Alonzo nodded. "Yeah. You know where she is?" "Yeah. She's in the dome with Devon. I don't know, man, she seemed unnerved. Damned if I know why, though." Danziger said. He shifted and had to swiftly grab the mag-pro to keep it from falling.
"Hm. I wonder what's up." Alonzo said. It was more to himself than Danziger but Danziger shook his head just the same. "What are you working on?" Alonzo said suddenly, his eyes drawn to white metal on the table next to Danziger.
"What? Oh." Danziger frowned. "It's Julia's dia-glove. Figures it had to be the one thing I understand the least that goes on the fritz. Shoulda seen her. She was really pissed off about it."
Alonzo shook his head, "That shouldn't make her so mad. Hm. I'm gonna go talk to her."
"Alright,man. I get off in fifteen. If you're still up, we'll play a hand, maybe."
"Sure." Alonzo continued towards the dome, his mind whirling. The glove wouldn't make someone as strong as Julia go over the edge. Had to be something else. He ran his hand through his messy dark hair and then threw the door to the dome open.
True to his word, the women were sitting across from each other at a table. They were talking but they both became quiet when Alonzo entered. He frowned and then shook his head. He crossed over to Julia and sat beside her. He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the neck. "Alonzo." She said softly. "What are you doing up?"
"Could ask you the same thing. You okay? Danziger said you were upset." "I'm fine..I..you know..." She looked over at Devon and Alonzo saw a look pass between them. Julia licked her lips and looked at Alonzo. "Can we talk...I mean...there's something."
"Sure, what?"
"Al...alone." She stuttered. She took his arm and yanked him towards one of the rooms. He followed willingly. He never saw the look Devon gave them as they left the room.As soon as the door closed behind them, Alonzo pulled her into his arms and kissed her solidly. She gasped in suprise but he didn't even hear it.
"Alonzo..."
She felt the coldness of the room against her flesh as he unbuttoned her shirt. "Alonzo...I...please..." God, why did he have to make this so hard? He wasn't even paying attention to her words. That was probably because her body was responding. She bit her lip. "Alonzo, I think I might be pregnant." She blurted out."That's nice." He murmured. He put his face down and kissed her neck. Suddenly,he pushed away and looked up, shock on his handsome face. "What did you just say?"
She swallowed hard. She would have left alone. If he hadn't realized what she had said, she would have just left alone but now she had to come out with it. "I'm eight days late. I'm never this late."
"What do you mean 'might be'? You either are or you aren't!" He said harshly. He hadn't meant it that way and was instantly sorry for his tone.
Julia flinched involuntarily. "My dia-glove isn't working. We..have to do it the old-fashioned way." She took another deep breath. "There's another thing, you remember how I've been leaving about six in the morning for the last couple of days? Well, it might be morning sickness. Or..it might just be fatigue and malnutrition. I don't know. That could be why I'm late also. I don't know...I...." She said the last sentence without breathing and Alonzo feared that she was about to break down.
He reached out and brought her into his arms. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that. You just startled me. It's gonna be okay."
She pushed against his chest, wanting to feel the warmth. She said,"What are we going to do?"
He pushed her away, his hands still on her shoulders. He put his hand on her chin, "We'll deal with it, okay? Don't worry. How long before we know for certain?"
"An hour, maybe less..I don't know." "Okay. He took her in his arms and held her there.
John Danziger took the cup that Devon offered and he smiled. "Where are Julia and Alonzo? I never saw them leave here."
Devon sighed. "They're in there. Julia thinks she might be pregnant, John."
"Oh boy. I knew this was gonna happen. Well, I didn't know..but I suspected. Devon, we're already damn low on food as is...I don't know about..."
"John, she thinks. That's all. It's still unconfirmed." He nodded. "Is she alright?"
" A little shaken up. She thought that her genetic programming prevented pregnancy.""What could have happened?"
"Her best guess it that the planetary atmostphere changed that. She's scared. I hope Alonzo isn't freaking out.""I doubt he would. He's a hot-head but he's not stupid. He knows that Julia needs him right now."
"Yeah."
There was a knock at the door. Julia sat up and rubbed her eyes. She hadn't meant to fall asleep but she had. Hadn't meant to. What a joke. She hadn't meant to fall in love with Alonzo Solace but she had. She hadn't meant to break off her allegiance with the Council but she had. She was happy about those things but not so happy about her last roll of Fate's dice. She glanced down at Alonzo. His coat had been discarded when he had been kissing her but he was still dressed. As was she. She had to rebutton her shirt but that was all.
She opened the door. "Devon?"
"It's been an hour, Julia." Devon said quietly. Julia nodded slowly. Devon saw her bite down on her lip. "I'll be right out." Devon shut the door. Julia walked over to Alonzo and gently caressed his stubled cheek."Hey, 'Lonzo? Wake up, baby. Time to meet the jury."He blinked and gazed up at her tiredly. He looked so boyish then that Julia's hand trembled on his face. He was exhausted from the constant scouting trips and his face showed it. The stuble and the dark bags bothered her. Someone as handsome as he should never have to worry about thise things. She bit her lip again and tried to keep the well of emotions in. "Julia?"
"Yeah. Come on." She said. She took his arm and pulled him to his feet. He blinked again and smiled at her. He put his arm around her and then turned her to him.
"No matter what hapens, I'm with you, okay?" She nodded. He kissed her and they walked out of the room. Danziger and Devon were sitting at the table, each nursing cups of coffee. Danziger smiled warmly at her and she assumed that Devon had filled her in. The four of them crossed the room to the table where a large test tube was. Julia took a deep breath and then picked up the tube. She swirled it around and everyone involuntarily took a deep breath. They watched as the colors inside the tube changed from green to blue to pink and then to yellow. Julia let out her breath and fell against Alonzo who really had no idea what had happened. "Julia?"
"I'm not pregnant." She said, her voice shaking. He couldn't tell if she was upset or happy but it looked to him like she was crying. He wanted to say, "Well that's great." but he didn't dare. She looked up at him and brought his face to hers. She kissed him.
Danziger and Devon exchanged amused glances. Both of them had gone through pregnancy scares before. Danziger had sat with Alex and Les while they had waited and Devon had sat with her best friend. They understood the enormous relief that came when someone who wasn't ready tested negative. Alonzo had never had a pregnancy scare despite the fact that somewhere out there, there was probably a baby Solace. He didn't understand it at all and that was obvious from his confused face.
Julia looked up at them, "Thank you." She murmured. They nodded. It was all good.
The first sign of day arrived four hours later but Devon, Danziger, Julia and Alonzo all slept late and didn't make an appearence until ten. Alonzo had started to rise earlier but Julia had decided that he needed his sleep.
They were walking across camp towards the dune rail where Danziger was setting up for a scout. "Danziger fixed my glove about fifteen minutes ago. I retested myself. I'm definately negative."
He smiled. "I don't know if I'm ready to become a father yet." he said. "Surely, you already are."
He blushed and Julia found that very amusing. "You'd be a good father." She assured him. "I just don't think I'm ready."He nuzzled close to her, "Maybe New Pacifica..." She shook her head, "Come on, lover-boy."
END
-Alex Queirolo
April 18, 1995
3:51 P.M.As usual, all comments are welcome.
-Alex"Your shwartz is as big as mine."
This text file was ran through PERL script made by Andy. Original text file is available in Andy's Earth 2 Fan Fiction Archive.