Dark as Daylight Ch. 03

The last thing he did before he left for the infirmary in the morning was to satisfy her passion. She was the same way when she was pregnant with both their girls.

The difference this time was he was helping Hannah teach six young women how to become nurses every day, 10 hours a day, five days a week.

While they were studying, he was browbeating Hannah about her work studying to be a doctor, 18 hours a day, six days a week.

While both of them were studying, he was studying to be a neurosurgeon. He promised to give the nurses a week off so he could give himself a rest as he collapsed on the bed next to Sandy after taking a shower.

He was in the middle of a perfect dream when his communicator went off.

"Paging Doctor Finch, paging Doctor Finch to maternity please."

"OH FUCK!"

Sandy laughed, "This is what happens when you fuck."

He picked up his communicator and told the message service to wake up all of his nursing students and get them to the infirmary. Let Hannah sleep."

He walked into the infirmary, and saw Mister and Mrs. Childers waiting for him, but not in the appropriate positions. She was seated with her legs wide apart, huffing and puffing. He was unconscious on the gurney.

"Susan, you are having the baby aren't you?"

"Yes Joe I am."

"What is he doing there, and you doing there?"

"He was getting ready to bring me here when my water broke. He thought it was the baby, fainted, and hit his head on the floor. He's been unconscious since."

After checking him out Joe said, "The bastard isn't unconscious, he's sleeping. Guys put him on the bench outside, and put a do not disturb sign on him."

His student nurses charged in en masse.

"Nice of you to join us ladies. Close the doors, turn on all the ventilators and the scrubbers. Help Susan get undressed and into a gown.

As they began working he said, "It does not take all six to undress her. Divide your work. What has to happen to the table?"

Abigail said, "It has to be triple draped."

"What sterilizing agents need to be available?"

One by one he went down the list of items they should know by now for a normal delivery. They had a perfunctory knowledge of what he would need if the delivery became more involved. The first thing they knew to do was to call Hannah."

"Okay ladies, you are all mothers, so you've done this before. Susan, this is your first time, and I want you to know you are in the hands of the best plastic surgeon on this spacecraft. After you deliver, if you need a tummy tuck, I'm your man. However, not only is this your first time in producing a baby, it is my first time delivering one. So in a sense we are both virgins."

"Joe you're supposed to be making me feel more confident in you, not making me nervous."

"Do you want a boob job too?"

"Will somebody smack him?"

"Your son's fetal heart beat is wonderful. How far apart are contractions?"

"Every 45 seconds Doctor."

"Susan, I'm going to give you a labor inducing drug called, 'Pitocin.' It will speed up your contractions, and wake up your husband. If it doesn't, I'll send one of my nurses outside and have her do it for you."

"Are you in a hurry Doctor, cause I'm not."

"Who are we here for Susan? That little guy in there cannot survive without the water protecting him. The placenta will collapse around him, and only bad things can happen after that. If you don't mind, I'd like my first delivery to be an easy one."

"Okay, but if I wind up with a pouch down there, I'm going to take you up on that tummy tuck."

"Thank you, it's something I trained for, and don't have to study up on."

An hour and 15 minutes later, Michael Childers knew exactly what tree his parents descended from, exactly what orifice he could shove this prick up, and the next time he could expect her to do anything for him, in this or the next five lifetimes.

All those thoughts disappeared, when she held a 6 lb. 1 oz. blonde headed blue-eyed baby boy, who looked exactly like his mother.

Susan looked up at her husband and asked, "Can we make another one like him?"

Who was Michael to say no at a time like this?

Susan and Michael returned to their room with a printout of do's and don'ts.

Young Mister 'unnamed' Childers, spent the night in an incubator being monitored by the computer, and overlooked by one of the student nurses. It was easy work, because they could study, while the infant slept, or they rocked him their arms to comfort him. The beat of a mother's heart is the one thing a baby remembers from the time it leaves the womb."

I met the good doctor at breakfast before he was headed back to bed to catch a few hours of sleep.

"How does it feel Joe; your first special delivery."

"If they all go this well Even, when we get back, I will take up gynecology. I will tell you this though, 'The view of a pussy, when it's expelling a child, is not as enticing as when you're trying to put one in."

My coffee went all over the table, and I was gagging for air. He said it in such a matter of fact manner, I never saw it coming. I could've killed him.

"Joseph, what do you see when you look around?"

"People, friends, what you're looking for Even?"

"We are six months from launch date, and I see two things. A harmonious group of people that interact without cliques. Second, they are all thin. One thing has nothing to do with the other, for sure, but I do believe it makes it easier for everyone to move between groups, because they are all the same body type. You predicted it would take up to a year for everyone to get to their normal body type, with the change in diet and exercise. I believe you overstated that a little."

"The heaviest lose weight fastest, the thinnest lose it hardest. We are all on the same diet, and after this much time all the toxins we've had in us are now gone. Our bodies are temples, if we run into a bug, we will all die."

"Thrilling Joe, it's a wonderful time to tell me about that."

"I didn't want you to cancel my spot on the ship."

"How is your studying coming along?"

"I'll tell you when I'm ready Even. I want that boy of yours to live, but I want him to live like he was before he went into stasis, and not as part of the man he could've been."

"Joe, no member of my family is going to rush you. We want the same outcome you do. He is safe where he is, and we will leave him there until you are ready."

"How is the situation with your daughter?"

"She sees Newton and Teddy once a week. She does as much for Adam as she can, considering her size. She eats alone, and stays in her room. She talks to no one, and will not speak, unless someone asks her question."

"Even, I don't like it. I am not a psychiatrist, but I believe she is suicidal. She's just waiting for the twins to be born, then she will find a way to do it. Either that or she has already found a way to do it, and is just biding her time. She's missed her last two appointments with me, but I thought that was because of her work schedule. The girls' had her third strike, but the ball got by the catcher and she's running. It's up to Gray or you to stop this madness."

"Where the fuck is my sister when I need her?"

"I thought your sister was dead?"

"She is, but we have a weird family."

"So I've noticed."

***************

I picked up my communicator, called Gray, and told him to meet me in the ready room.

I walked out onto the bridge, kissed my wife on the head, and asked if she could join me in the ready room.

"Janet you have the bridge."

"Yes Captain."

"Callie, acting Captain Janet Dover has the bridge."

"Do you agree Captain Luck?"

"Yes I do, Callie."

"Are we going to have sex in the ready room Even?"

"As appealing as that might be, we have a problem to talk about the concerns all of us."

"Hello Gray."

"Hello mom, dad, what's up?"

"I was just talking with Joe Finch. He delivered his first baby this morning, a bouncing baby boy. We talked about Gordon at length, and he's not ready to operate yet. I told him we were not setting any time limit on him at all in reference to that operation. When he's ready he will tell us, and that's when it will happen. Then he asked me about Delicious. I told him how she's been acting the last several months, and after listening to me he told me he believes she is suicidal. He told me she is going to wait until after the babies are born, and either find a way then, or has already found a way to do it. The very calm matter-of-fact way she's going about her life right now leads him to the suspicion that is what she intends to do. He said she's had her third strike, and she's broken. I broke her, I broke my daughter. I broke my daughter, and I don't know what to do."

I broke down into tears.

*******************

"Jack, how do you keep space out there, when the nuclear engine goes outside the ship?"

"Like all magnificent engineers, I tell it that this is my space, and that is your space. You stay where you belong. We will stay where we belong."

"Do you want to try that again Jack?"

"You are looking through 8 inches of heat cured resin glass. It looks like nothing is there, but we are sealed up tighter than a drum."

"That explanation I will accept. Do all engineers try to make their achievements sound larger-than-life?"

"Look at the view, Hannah. Have you ever seen anything like it? Engineers did that. Dycke Schneider, Even Luck, two of the greatest engineers on planet Earth figured out how to make this thing work. Delicious Luck and Gordon Luck did the propulsion units. They are also engineers in a way, but we are all scientists. We delve into areas no one else has ever gone before, and come up with answers that stun the world. It's why we are here, and they are still there."

"Okay you win."

"Do you want to get something to eat, or go back to bed?"

"I'm not going back to bed with you, until you shave off that muskrat underneath your nose. I'm all scratched up, and itchy."

"I'll make you a deal. I'll shave off my muskrat, if you shave off that beaver of yours. It's like fighting my way through bramble bushes."

"How do you know it's mine with that thing under your nose?"

"Your hair is finer than mine. I have to comb it out every morning."

Hannah laughed. "I haven't seen my pussy, since I was a teenager."

"I haven't seen my upper lip, since I was a Lieutenant. Do you need help;

engineers are very good with blades."

"I've found out lately, engineers are very good with several other things."

"So are future doctors."

"Okay, I'll make you a deal. You can take care of the beaver, if I can take care of the muskrat."

"Who goes first?"

"Who do you think Jack? Ladies always go first."

"Are you going to leave me my upper lip?"

"Jack, I am a future doctor, I would never harm my patient."

"Why don't I feel comforted by that remark. Can Doctor Finch be in attendance?"

"Do you want him in attendance while you shave me?"

"Hell no. Let's go to our room, and try not to 'Blood Let' each other."

"Do you want to back out old man?"

"You don't call me old man in bed old woman. Let's go. I'll find my samurai sword, and cut through that brush."

"I wonder if they brought a hedge clipper for the Arboretum. It would be a good start on that thing you call a mustache."

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?"

"I didn't know we were arguing; I thought we were discussing options."

"I lost a fortune in options. I'm not losing you. Let's go."

"What a nice thing to say."

******************

As I regained my composure Gray said, "Let me try to talk to her. I will see if she will listen to me. I won't promise you anything, but I will give it a try."

"You are the one she feels most terrible about Gray. She loves you to the core of her being, and never realized what she was doing to you. Whatever was blinding her to that realization is at the center of her problem. She disappointed you, and she can't live with it.

Do you remember the date you had at the restaurant, the same day we were there? Do you remember the way she looked at you? She still loves you that way. She hates herself for every insult she did to you over these past 16 years. When she realized she was her father, and not her mother, everything collapsed in on her. I believe she thinks this is her only way out."

"Let me see if I can give her another way out. As I said I can't promise you anything, but I will give it a try. I'm going to take my shift off, and let my trainee handle it, if it's okay with you?"

"Go ahead Gray, let us know what happens."

>>>>>>>>>>

Gray knocked on Delicious door, but as he expected she did not answer. He knocked, and knocked, until he began pounding on it. Finally, the door opened and she peered around the edge.

In a very humble voice she said, "Yes."

"I want to talk to you now."

"I'm tired, I don't want to talk."

"I'm sick and tired, and I want to talk. Open the fucking door."

She opened the door and backed away.

"I want something cold to drink."

"She walked into the small kitchen area, and got him a small glass of cold water."

"I want a large glass of cold water."

Without saying a word, she returned to the kitchen, and brought him back a large glass of water.

"Sit down." She did.

"I want you to know I took my shift off this morning, because I heard everyone is betting on you, except your family of course. The line right now is 12 to 1 that you will kill yourself within one week of delivering the babies. It's 8 to 5 within two weeks. It's even money after that?

How does it make you feel that out of all the people on this spacecraft, 37 of them are betting that you are going to be dead within two weeks of having the twins? Have you already told someone you're going to do it? Is someone going to help you do it? When am I going to become a widow? When should I tell Newton and Teddy their mother is going to kill herself so they can be prepared?"

"If I were you Gray, I would take the 12 to 1 odds."

"You haven't answered any of my questions."

"What do you want me to say Gray? I've become the one person in life I've hated more than life itself. If my mother was alive she would crucify me."

"No, that's where you are wrong. If your mother was alive, you would be one of the happiest persons on this planet. If your mother stayed home that fateful day, instead of going to the hospital with her parents, this world would be a totally different place for you. It would be a totally different world altogether.

I would not have met you, so there would be no Newton or Teddy.

Even would not have run away from you, and met Jennifer, which eliminates Gordon, Richard, and Holden.

You may have developed your engines, but what were you going to do with them. If Gordon hadn't been around your father to come up with the theories for the Nuclear Fusion Engine, you would probably have kept it a secret.

Doctor Even Luck would continue to be the worlds' foremost inventor, but nothing on this scale of this spacecraft.

Zoey would have continued to be one of the angriest people on the planet, because she would never have met your father, and been told about birth control pills.

Over 970 patents that are helping the world move forward, and making life better for the people on Earth, may or may never have been found, because of our research and development.

Teddy would not be around to tell William Zabo Junior that he was going to trip over a redheaded doctor, and have two redheaded girls and one white haired boy, like his father.

All these, and a list longer than a country mile happened, because of a terrible accident, and you became the most miserable person on the planet.

Why don't you give yourself some credit for all these accomplishments, instead of being so down on yourself, since you realized your mother's hard work backfired, and turned you into your father?"

Delicious sobbed. "All I care about is what I did to you Gray. I ruined your life, and I never saw it. I did to you what my father did to my mother, and I didn't feel one bit of remorse while I was doing it. No person can be that dense, and still be called a human being. Human beings are supposed to have empathy for one another. I had none for the man I love most in this world.

You gave me two of the most wonderful children God ever created, and I gave you nothing but misery in return. It was not a fair exchange Gray; you deserve someone so much better than me."

"You see that is where I run into my problem. I don't want anyone but you. I fell in love with you before I touched your hand on the dance floor. I knew you were the one, before I breathe in the scent from your hair. I could have had all the Junie Penock's I wanted at Penn. You were the only one I would have slept with for 11 months, and abstained from sex. Marriage was my intent, and I was in it for the rest of my life. What am I supposed to do now; I've never loved anyone but you."

"What do you want me to do Gray. I am a bitch, I'll never change."

"You've changed already. Look how you behaved for the last four months. No one has said an unkind word about you. They are trying to figure out ways to help you, without invading your privacy. Everyone on the ship cares about everyone else, and that includes you. Adam says you take instructions well, and do your job excellently. When people say hello to you, you respond nicely, instead of with a chip on your shoulder. When you have lunch or dinner, and you choose to sit in an area by yourself, they leave you alone. You are trying to change, and you are succeeding."

"What about the betting?"

"What betting?"

"The odds-on... You bastard; you lied to me."

"It served its purpose, didn't it?"

"Yes, I suppose it did."

"Do you want to try one of your famous contracts again?"

"Do you want it written in blood?"

"I don't think Joe Finch would like that too much. Blood poisoning, stitches, infection, and all that gross stuff. It might be good for his nurse trainees though. Either one of us can break this contract for cause. Point blank, I want you back. I will not take the abuse you gave me. How do you want me to handle my end? I will not hit you, or abuse you verbally in return. What do you want me to do?"

"I think my relationship with Sandy Finch will help me. We talked once, and I felt better for a little while. However, as I always do, I stopped seeing her. I didn't want to bother her with my problems. She said she would talk to me anytime I wanted, but just like my psychiatrist I refused to go. I can't escape her here. If you take me bodily to my appointment with her, will that be okay?"

"That will be fine. I can take the chains off the ceiling and chairs now. What do you want if we give this another shot?"

"Like I told you Gray, I thought we were happy, at least I was. I guess Attila the Hun was happy also."

"Okay, go clean up and make yourself presentable. I'm tired of seeing, and hearing Teddy cry."

"Oh, one more thing, I have heard from very reliable sources that our son is multiple dating."

"Newton is doing what?"

"As of last count, he was dating four girls."

"He's taking after his father already?"

"I thought you would go ballistic."

"Newton and I had the talk more than three years ago. If he is speed dating now, I suggest you give him a refresher course, and get him a supply of condoms from the infirmary. Heaven knows Stephano ordered enough of them."

"I must say you surprise me. From an absolute prude, to a progressive mother. Who would've thunk it?"

"I was never a prude. We did everything in bed, except have sex, before you put a ring on my finger. On several occasions, we nearly had sex.