Moving Forward

Exactly as the title says, I'm moving on this week. I finally settled down and had another doctor check up on the baby. Dr. Svodoba was nice enough to do so. She's always been a great help to me and my family, and is one of the few people I think can be trustworthy. Despite her being a Judge, despite whatever hangups she has concerning Ashagi, she knows when to put that aside for the sake of caring for her patients. It's that kind of thought that I want to emulate and instill in Mitka and any other medic under my wing.

Sister D played a hand in calming me further when she gave a few words of wisdom. I explained my anxieties about the baby and possibly losing it. She suggested my fears are likely just an issue of trust. I don't trust my body's ability to carry a healthy child after losing the last child to it. Part of me even questioned my faith. Was it wrong for me to be happy for the miracles around me? For Adagio and this impossible little boy I'm carrying?

You still on about that?!

No. I should be happy. My parents would want me to be happy if they could see me now. I need to start believing that.

Damn right.

Finally, you're getting it.

Being happy ain't a freakin' sin.

With the UAC keeping everyone out during the cleanup, the Pack's more or less homeless. I move some supplies out during the evacuation, but nowhere near enough for all of us. 

I had a lovely beach home I could fly and relax at, but not so for my beloved family. 

Some tarp and various old cloth; a few small firearms and one box of ammo; some small crates of medicine and supplies; and a crate of useful worn tools were all I managed to hoard and hide in the beaches just under the bridge near Apoc.

Kayko did some scouting at my request and found an abandoned shack on a half sunken barge. I'm usually in the swamps a lot growing or harvesting medicinal plants, but I noticed the rundown shack and other rubbish out there. I'd never investigated them however as the need was not there.

Kayko, Jiea, and I carried the crates over once they were dug up to the new place. It was a mostly quiet transport until we found a couple there. Apparently tending to wounds after they were attacked. Kayko and the others seem poised to kill them, but given that we don't know who or what's out there, I didn't want to make enemies for now reason. Nish and Jia-Li were the names given, and I learned from Jia-Li that they had run into a large wolf and possibly Dregs that attacked them.

The Pack Shack

While the aspect of having to share the limited resources of the untainted swamps with the Dregs bothered me enough, there was more. Jia-Li and Nish had run into Adagio when they were attacked. From the sounds of it she was harmed as well, but told them to leave while she stayed behind. I have no idea what she was doing in the swamps nor why she would stay behind after being injured, but we found no sign of her. Just as I turn a leaf to relax and trust things a bit more, this happens and I question life all over again.

Please adjust your settings

There's been many changes, some expected, some not. I've found that in my long absence, the pack as grown quite a bit. New faces are to be found and new scents are to be learned. It's been no issue yet, but the medical supplies are gradually dwindling with the loss of my job at the medical center. In some ways it's a good thing; brings us back to our roots.

Shiro learned this in an interesting way.

He had just recently spooked me away from my research on the roof of the den and was in the middle of a lecture about being on our toes. Very relevant considering the recent mess with the Judges bothering us. The teacher soon became the student when Max, a new pup, startled Shiro off the roof and two storeys down to the rocks below.

Dude's a hardy man. Big deal.

I didn't know he had metal plating until that point; I was worried the Alpha might be dead!

He was a good sport about it though, and eventually walked off the damage. Adjusting to another Alpha while Ayr was away is new to me. Last time Shiro was in charge, it was something of a forced takeover while Ayr was missing. This time, Ayr had truly left his brother in charge. That was enough for me not to question it, but I'd be lying if I said I harbored no hangups about it at all. I'm ashamed to say I DO hold grunges, even after the problem's been dealt with; it's hard to bow to the same leader that once broke several of your ribs and left you almost dead.

Dead Leaves, New Roots

I was called away suddenly on business. I can't and won't detail the circumstances, but the adventure had me stuck away from home for more than two weeks. In that time, oh how so much can change.

All that's left of my wife is a frizzled hologram projected from her mind..

Somewhere in my absence, several Ashagi employees from our branch had been attacked, Adagio included. But she wasn't just attacked..oh no..whatever harmed her left no body. Just a head, left for dead to wither away. If not for the fact Adagio had done those tests on herself to alter her brain, I swear I'd be a pregnant widow. I feel like that now to be honest.

I felt like I'd lost her all over again, an immediate repeat of the first time Adagio died. We weren't even married yet when that happened, and it took a great deal of faith just to believe that her new clone was in fact the likeness of my dead lover.

That fear never left.

Now there's talk of a fully cybernetic body.

What now? Do I kiss a tin can every morning? I can't cook for her, work out with her - all of that's gone. God, can I even hug her again without being reminded that this is my wife's second resurrection?!

Arwen took this better than me, likely because she was the one that let slip Adagio's being injured in the first place. I am ashamed to say that I'm more upset with Adagio for this than anything else she'd done. Stupid of me yeah? Blaming my injured wife for being half dead. Lana, Temp, and the others had time to prepare also, seeing as this happened several days ago; witnessing their nearly dead coworker's projection was a little easier than seeing her wife's reaction.