With eyes wide open

This weekend brought a lot of things to the light. I happened upon Ayr one evening having a smoke behind the den. The man was scarred as always, some old, some new, but that's not what made me stop. It was rare enough for him to have his mask up, but most of all, a lot of the bindings he was usually covered in to hide his skin were missing.

I'd seen Ayr without his mask only once and the image of that single blue eye amidst several black cloths still bore deeply in my mind. However since a year or so after that had passed, it would seem Ayr's lightened his dark impression of himself somewhat. He even spoke with more of his normal Scottish accent when the mask was up. Compared to the more restrained tone he took with the mask fully on, it was an interesting talk.

You wanted to chuckle...

No.

Oh you so~ wanted to chuckle.

Hush. I could understand him just as Brekka could. We had a long talk, the three of us, about the leadership of the Pack. The two of them seemed worried that the trials had somehow pitted me and Brekka against each other, but I never saw it that way. In the end, it was determined that we'd be Betas together in the same way Angela and Ayr were Alphas, watching each other's backs and keeping the Pack together.

As comforting as this was, internally I felt isolated and scared. I was close to my due date. I could feel the baby slowing in activity, just like before. But I never said a word to anyone about my worries or at least not the full extent of it. I didn't know if my body would wait until the last minute to rob me of my baby or if God would smile on me just this once.That's when he called...



I don't know how Foster got my number but he asked me to meet him in the park. After everything Mitka told me, I went against better judgement to speak with him. He hadn't changed. Still full of himself and obsessed for God knows what reason over me. It was not out of affection or anything close to that; Foster had always been deeply into his work and the results that followed.

He explained how unhappy he was that I was pregnant because of the danger it posed to me. My body, like the other experiments, was supposed to be sterile because our immune systems were incomplete and could not handle reproduction. I'd proven him wrong in that respect, but he insisted that I had to drink a serum he'd created or risk death. I refused to hear anything he had to say and left. Next minute he's forcing the serum down my throat.

I couldn't think straight or tell what my surroundings were. When I did wake up, I was back at the den in terrible pain. Every nerve, every muscle within me was changing. Foster called them stabilizers, but I felt anything but stable laying on the bed. For two days, I remained curled in a ball clutching my tummy. I was so scared of losing my son and yet part of me prayed Dr. Foster was telling the truth. That he'd chased me down to give me the rest of the serums needed to regulate my body.

By the weekend, I started feeling cramps and false labor pains. I opted to head to the MCMC for a final checkup since I refused to deliver my son in the middle of a radioactive region. Adagio agreed. As comfortable as I felt in the den right now, it just was not the place for a newborn.

Fast forward to yesterday.
I went into labor. True labor.

That hurt.

That seriously hurt.

We are not fuckin' getting knocked up again.

No. Way.

Haha. I'd opted for a water birth since medicines were not going to work on me. We'd been hoping to have Dr. Svoboda fly over to help, but Donatien had plans of his own. Adagio and Arwen were stuck playing impromptu midwives and they did a beautiful job. I however now feel very tired.

Welcome to the world, Donatien Isaac Dubois.

Born July 25th 201X at about 5:30 P.M.

Mother, Father, I hope you are smiling on your new grandson. May he inherit your brilliant minds.