His to Mate

by Selina Coffey

  “She should be there now. I know a few of the women want confirmation, although it’s more than obvious that there are two or three that are pregnant already. She’s been working late to try to get it operational.”

  “I hope it’s all working then. I have a feeling I know the answer, otherwise I wouldn’t be here now. It’s just that I would have liked more time with him, to get to know him better, but I guess progress waits for nobody, right?” Ann made sure Skye was settled into her seat and started the transporter.

  “Nope, and we all know how babies are made, don’t we?” Skye laughed, but it wasn’t mean, it was just an amused sound. “Not that I’ll have that problem.”

  “Not for a while, at least,” Ann reminded her, then thought it might sound spiteful. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. How do you feel about having a baby?”

  “I’d love to have kids. I’m gay, not anti-kid or anything. I’m still a woman, you know?” Skye’s laugh was patient this time. “I know some women, straight and gay, that never wanted kids, and that was their choice. Probably the best one considering what happened.”

  “I try not to think about things like that too much. It’s a depressing pit of gloom.” Ann glanced at Skye and saw her nod her head in agreement. “I think you’ll have beautiful children. Especially if they look like you.”

  “Maybe so. I’d like to get the nursing school up and running though, and the medical clinic too. Then I’ll pay the aliens back for bringing me above ground again.”

  “How long would you have stayed down there?” Ann asked, just to change the subject.

  “Another month or so. I was rationing food, but would have run out eventually. Then I’d have discovered the new world above. And the aliens.”

  “Shocking, aren’t they?” Ann smiled at Skye, but soon glanced back at the world around her. “Maybe after I talk to Meg, I’ll find out more about the medical technology they brought with them.”

  “That sounds like a plan to me.”

  They both went quiet as Ann drove, but Ann’s mind wasn’t quiet at all. She kept swerving between anxiety about the whole process of being pregnant and producing a child with a man she barely knew, to feelings she’d never quite explored before. The idea of a baby, her baby, pleased her, made her smile in a way she never had before.

  She felt things she didn’t understand when she thought about a baby of her own. Maybe it was what made other mothers so happy, that love they talked about. She wasn’t sure. She did know her breasts were sore, which was sometimes a sign of her period, and she’d been tired the last couple of days.

  Not enough to say she was pregnant, but the missing period was. She turned her attention back to her driving and tried not to stress about it too much. She’d have to deal with whatever result she got, she knew that and for now, there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Don’t panic, Ann. We’ll get you through this. And hey, we’ll get some practice in before it’s your turn if you are pregnant.” Skye’s smile was bright and a little more confident. “Those other ladies should have their babies before you do, so we’ll be experts at it by the time we get to you.”

  “Oh, that’s funny.” Ann did laugh, despite her contradictory tone. “At least I won’t be your first.”

  “Always a good thing, when it comes to medical stuff.” Skye sat back in her seat and sighed. “I remember the first time I had to draw blood for my clinicals. There was blood every-fucking-where. I’m just glad it was another student and not a patient. I’d have died of shame.”

  “That bad, was it?” Ann relaxed a little and smiled. “I can just imagine how scared you were. I’d have been terrified.”

  “I was. I didn’t want to do it, but it was part of our training for that class. I had to do it. I knew I should have waited to take that class, but oh no, I had to go and get it out of the way.” Skye shook her head ruefully, and Ann smiled brighter.

  “You’re like me, you like to face your problems head on. But I bet, like me, you had to think about it for a little while before you did it.”

  “That’s exactly how I am. I’ll make a quick decision if I have to, but I’d rather have time to think about it. Then, I normally face the problem and get it out of the way. It’s better than worrying about it for the rest of my life, right?”

  “Right. Which is why we’re headed out to see Meg. I have to know, even if it is still early. I can’t keep worrying like this, it’s stopping me from getting anything done.”

  “I understand. It’s that hospital there, the one down to the left there.” There were two hospitals close together and Skye pointed out the correct one to Ann.

  Ann guided the transporter down onto the rubble-strewn road between the two hospitals and turned it off. She looked at the building, once sparkling white with a red cross, but now faded to gray and pink. In the past, it had bustled with life as staff worked to save lives, but now, it was silent.

  Ann had tried to ignore it since she left the bunker, but she had to admit now that most of the world was eerie. It was far too quiet without that hum of life from thousands, millions of machines, footsteps, and human voices. Sometimes, she thought she might still be in a nightmare of some kind, trapped in a coma that she couldn’t get out of. But she knew this was reality now, even if it unnerved her at times.

  “I’ll show you where the lab is.” Skye took the lead and walked through the open doors of the hospital. What had once been the emergency entrance was now desolate and oddly lacked furniture. Had someone taken the chairs and tables that normally waited here with all the people that used them?

  Despite the passage of time and lack of buffing machines, the floors still squeaked under Ann’s hiking boots and the brown loafers that Skye had on. She did note that the usual chill found in hospitals was gone, and that a new sound took the place of the hum of machines the hospital used to care for their patients. Ann listened but couldn’t make out what the noise was.

  “What is that sound?” she finally asked as Skye led the way.

  “Pigeons. We think they flew here from somewhere in the south. Well, somewhere warm, anyway. They just showed up one day. I’m not sure there was anywhere warm left, before the aliens came, but there must have been. They’ve got nests in one of the exam rooms, the window was broken so they must have got in through there.”

  Ann could only shake her head and walk on. The idea that somewhere might have been warm still, unfrozen, hadn’t crossed her mind, but it was possible. There might have even been people there that waited it out. Rager hadn’t said anything, but she hadn’t really seen him in the last three days.

  Which was another issue with this maybe-baby. Would he be at work all the time? Would she be left on her own, the token wife, with the token baby? She’d heard the reports about some of the alien men that didn’t want her to be with Rager, how they detested the idea of her having his child. How would they react to the news if she was pregnant with his child?

  It was all too much to think about, and for the moment she decided, she’d focus on one thing. Was she pregnant or not? That was the main problem to focus on at the moment. The rest was irrelevant. She lifted her chin a little as she followed behind Skye, determined to see this through.

  “Hi there!” Meg called out as they walked through a door ten minutes later. It was deep within the hospital on a lower level that they’d accessed through stairs. Nobody trusted elevators that had been hanging in place for five years through an ice age. Power or not, the elevators were scary without the proper inspections.

  “Hi, Meg. I’ve brought Ann along to be our first patient if you’ve got the lab working?” Skye walked in and stood beside Meg. Meg had on a lab coat and her hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail.

  “It just so happens that it is. I’ve just got everything running, and it’s all in order. What can we do for you, Ann?” She turned to Ann, curiosity in her eyes.

  “I, uh, I need a pregnancy test. One that works.” Ann showed her the
bag she’d filled with pregnancy tests and shrugged. “Skye said these weren’t reliable anymore.”

  “Skye was right, honey. Come over here and sit down. Sorry about the arm of the chair.” It was one of those chairs that you’d find in a phlebotomist’s lab, with a section that stuck out to support the patient’s arm while blood was drawn. “The weather wasn’t kind to this poor thing and the covering disintegrated. I’ve wrapped a blanket around it, so it won’t be so hard or scratchy.”

  “It’s fine,” Ann said offhand, distracted by her thoughts. Needle, blood, results. “How long will it take to get the results?”

  She looked up at Meg, the kindness in the other woman’s eyes almost brought tears to her eyes for some reason. Ann tried to blink them away, but it only made the moisture drop from her eyes. “Sorry, I seem to be weepy today.”

  “It’s fine, Ann. Everybody reacts differently to this kind of test. I’ll have your blood out before you know it, and the results should be ready in an hour or so.”

  “Alright. Good. So, I’ll know today then?” She looked up to see Meg washing her hands before she doused them in something that looked like vodka. Meg brought the bottle over and dabbed some of the liquid onto some gauze. She swiped the inside of Ann’s arm, placed the tourniquet, and started to look for a vein.

  “Yes, you’ll know today. And yes, that’s vodka. I haven’t found a bottle of alcohol in the supply rooms yet. Most of them have alcohol swabs, but those are all dried up. You might feel a pinch.”

  Ann hadn’t noticed Meg had opened a kit, but when she looked down, she saw the needle in her arm, blood a rush of red through a clear tube that ran into a vial. Her head swam for a moment and she looked away. She’d never been good with blood, but she didn’t want these two to know that. She was the de facto queen of the area, after all. “You will keep this quiet, won’t you?”

  “Ann, we’re both aware of the danger you’re in,” Meg said without looking up, her concentration on the vial that now filled with blood. After a few more seconds, she took the vial away. The IV was removed and fresh gauze placed over the wound the needle left. “Neither of us will tell whatever we find out today. I promise you that. The aliens might make the law now, but we still respect our patients and the laws that used to govern us about them. They were there for a reason.”

  “Thank you, Meg. I appreciate all of this. I really do. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.” Now, to wait for the results.

  14

  “I’m sorry, I must have missed a step somewhere. From your own calculations, we should have something more conclusive than this. Let me work on it for a few more days and see if I’ve missed something.” Meg looked crushed and Ann didn’t want to make her feel worse about the failure of the test.

  “So, do you think I am?” Ann had to ask, despite what Meg said.

  “From what you’ve said, I think it’s likely. I wouldn’t swear on it though, Ann. Not without proof.” Meg bent back down to the computer she was on and began to type into it again. “I just don’t know what I could have gotten wrong.”

  “Thanks, Meg. I’ll come back in a few days then.” She picked up her bag and glanced over at Skye. “Do you want to come back to the house with me?”

  Ann really wanted her friend to join her. She was crushed by the news that the test hadn’t worked. She’d wanted the answer so badly!

  “Yes, I’d like that. Come on, let’s get you home.”

  “Thanks. See you, Meg,” she called out as they left the lab.

  “Bye, ladies. Have a good day.”

  “She’ll be lost on that thing until she finds an answer,” Skye said and they loped out of the hospital together.

  By the time Ann set the transporter down in her driveway, she was boiling with curiosity. Skye followed along behind her, silent until Ann closed the door to the bathroom just off the bedroom. “I’ll wait here, shall I?”

  “Sorry, yes please.” Ann dropped the bag down and opened it. She saved two for the morning and opened the other five. She found a collection cup in each box and sat down to get what she needed. When the cup was filled, she cleaned up, and followed the instructions for the digital tests. One didn’t come on at all, the others all lit up.

  “Ann, I have to tell you, those can give you false negatives or false positives now. They’re out of date,” Skye called through the door and Ann grimaced.

  “I know, but I have to try.”

  “Stubborn ass,” Skye muttered with a laugh. “Just like me. Has to know.”

  “Want to come in and wait with me?” Ann opened the door and the other woman walked in. Ann sat down on the toilet and Skye on the rim of the bathtub.

  “How long have you got left?” Skye asked.

  “A few more minutes. Not long.” She sighed and crossed her arms over her breasts but that only made her wince, so she put her arms back down. They hurt so much and felt like two rocks on her chest. But, again, it was a common sign of her period.

  “The pregnancy books have all kinds of symptoms listed when you’re first pregnant, but those can be hard to go by. Especially if your body is just fucking with you.”

  “Right? I think I might be, but it’s hard to tell. Half of it might be stress, we’ve been through a lot in the last few months, and that might be causing all of my symptoms. Who knows?” Ann knew she was babbling but didn’t care. She just wanted the time to pass.

  “Will they beep or something?” Skye glanced at the tests on the counter where Ann placed them.

  “I think so. I didn’t read the rest, just the instructions on how to do the test part.” Ann picked up the box and looked at it. She felt like she’d been waiting for results for hours now, and it only made it worse to know that these tests would probably give her false results. But she had to see what happened. “Yeah, they’ll beep.”

  At last, she heard five beeps, one after the other. Skye took her hand and they looked down at the tests. All five were positive. “What does that mean?”

  “Unfortunately, nothing. They could be right, or they could be wrong.” Skye sighed and hugged her close. “I’m sorry but that’s the truth of it. You’re no closer to knowing than when you started this morning.”

  “I hate not knowing!” Ann’s frustrated tears fell, and she pulled away from Skye to wipe them away.

  “And I hate it for you.” Skye opened the door and walked out to the bedroom. “I’m going to get you something to drink and maybe something to eat. What do you want?”

  “Just a sandwich or something,” she replied miserably. “I’m sorry I’m not very good company today.”

  “It’s fine, girl, don’t worry.” Skye made the call and went out to sit on the balcony. Ann followed her and sat down with her. “Look, I’ll bring you some of those pregnancy books I found in the clinic, just in case, and you can prepare yourself, just in case.”

  “Thanks, that would be good. I don’t know a lot about it, only what I had to learn in school and from other women I know.” Ann thought about her mom, and decided asking her about pregnancy right now wasn’t a good idea. Mary had her own troubles to deal with having Rex in her household. “I’m glad you’re here with me.”

  “I’m glad too. It’s nice having someone to talk to.” Skye settled back into her chair and looked out, but Ann knew she wasn’t really seeing the landscape. She had something on her mind. “Are you sure you want those tests lying around like that?”

  “Oh! You’re right. What can I do with them though? If I leave them in a bag here a servant might find them, or Rager.”

  “I’ll take them with me and dispose of them for you. Keep the two you’ve saved, and I’ll take the rest.”

  “Thanks, Skye. You saved me some trouble.”

  “No problem. I just don’t want you getting in a predicament if you don’t have to. I know up here, in your compound, you’re safe, but I hear things out there.” Skye waved at the ether, at the life outside of the walls that surrounded the house. “The men are getting mo
re pissed off, and the women are too. Everyone is, it seems. It’s so bad, I rarely go out in the evenings now.”

  The new people that Rager brought in weren’t settling in well. Two had already been taken off to the prison he’d alluded to, or so Skye had heard, and four were on the verge of it. All of them had been the leaders of the group, and had felt they should have some say in what happened in this new world because of it. Two had been senators before the cataclysm and seemed to think the US government still existed. Rager had swiftly shown them it didn’t, and that he wouldn’t bow to their demands.

  “What will make those people happy?” Ann wondered aloud without realizing it. She looked at Skye in surprise when she replied to the question.

  “Nothing. Being sent back to Illinois? I don’t know, but a lot of them are joining forces with the wolves. They didn’t have any wolves in their group, but they see them as allies. Unlike some of the people that are just terrified of them.”

  “That’s good in a way, I suppose.” Ann let her head fall back on the chair and felt the stiff soreness in her neck. “I don’t know why people waste so much energy on giving up their lives. What does it matter now if you’re from Illinois or Montana? We’re all human and right now, we don’t have the luxury of wasting all of this time arguing. It’s a shame, really.”

  “You’re right, Ann,” Skye agreed and turned to face Ann. “I don’t understand it either. I was training to put people back together from accidents, not wars. I couldn’t stand working on someone knowing they’d tried to kill another human being and had ended up with me instead. It’s senseless, really.”

  “Rager doesn’t want war, either. His people aren’t warmongers. He wants this place to be peaceful, like his own planet.” She looked at Skye, sadness in her eyes. “I don’t think our people will allow it. Wolf or not.”

  “It’s that ingrained in us, isn’t it?” Skye looked away and winced with annoyance. “The same old story, time after time.”

  “In a way, it is, yes. No matter what kind of ideology we follow, what kind of government we put in place, people in power always lead us to war.” Ann was disgusted, but at least it distracted her for a moment. “Why can’t we just see that we can’t continue like that? There aren’t enough of us anymore.”