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She winks. “What are friends for?” With that, she power walks out of the room, already on a mission to get my things and get back in time to be there when the baby comes.
Her exit also sucks all the air out of the room, leaving me alone with the beeps of the heart monitor and all the other equipment I’m hooked up to. I’ve never been good at being alone with my thoughts, and soon Isa’s peptalk fades from my mind and is replaced by terror.
I’m not ready. I’m not ready to be a mother. I’m not ready to say goodbye to my own mom. I’m not ready to do this on my own.
An Alzohn doctor knocks on the doorframe and pokes her head in. “Sophia?”
I nod, forcing a smile. “Yeah. Are you the anesthesiologist?”
“I am.” She steps inside, and a medical bot follows with a tray full of supplies. “I’m going to help you sit up. We’ll clean you up a little first and get you comfortable, then we can talk about your pain.
“Okay,” I reply, and she begins wiping me with a cool rag.
“So, do you have anyone to be here with you?” she asks as she works. The cleaning solution is cool and soothing on my skin.
Everyone has lost someone in the war, and she knows how painful a question that might be, so she asks it gently and a little too casually but without any sign of judgment or pity. She’s probably asking so that, if I have no one, the doctors and nurses can provide extra support. Well, as much as possible with their resources already stretched so thin anyway.
“My friend brought me here,” I reply. “Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have time to grab anything for the hospital stay. She’ll be back soon.”
She hums sympathetically. “Sounds like you have a good friend.”
I smile to myself as she pulls my hospital gown back into place and covers me with the blanket again. “The best.”
She helps me settle back in bed and takes a seat in the chair beside me. “So. If you’re familiar with human pregnancies, you’ll find that this is a little different. For a few reasons.”
She leans forward, ticking off a finger like she’s counting. “Kaledian babies can come early, with a wide range of what could be considered a perfectly healthy gestation pregnancy. If they sense their mother is stressed, they’ll absorb nutrients at record speed to advance their growth in order to be born sooner.”
“How thoughtful,” I remark, wondering just how my little one could manage to grow faster when I felt I hardly kept any food down at all. Still, I guess the nausea was a small payoff for cutting nearly twelve weeks off my pregnancy.
She puts up a second finger. “Labor tends to be quite short, relatively speaking. There’s a period of a few hours where you’ll contract as your body gets ready for pregnancy. That’s what you’re in now. In human pregnancies, this can last for hours, five, six, sometimes as long as eighteen.”
I flinch at the thought, and she laughs. “Well, lucky for you, Kaleidian babies don’t wait nearly as long. You’ll spend an hour or two in early labor. That’s why we recommend moms come in right away with contractions. That’s also why your water burst so quickly. Once things really get started in active labor, you’ll probably be holding your baby in twenty or thirty minutes.”
“Wow,” I repeat, wide-eyed. Obviously, I’ve never had a baby before, but I’ve heard the stories of women spending nearly an entire day gritting their way through labor. Hearing that I could deliver in the length of time it takes to watch a movie is shocking.
“Most women don’t need much pain medication, either. If any. I won’t say it’s entirely painless, but I think the speed helps make it tolerable. Most women find they can take the discomfort since it’s over soon. How do you feel so far?”
“Good,” I admit. “So far, at least, I guess that’s the word for it. Discomfort. I feel contractions, and they don’t feel good but they aren’t painful, either. Just sort of squeezing.”
She nods. “It sounds like everything is going well then. Do you have any questions for me?”
I pause and think, but I really can’t come up with anything. After a moment, I shake my head no.
“I’ll check in on you in a bit and make sure you’re still feeling okay. Have you picked a name for the baby?”
“If it’s a boy, I’m not sure yet,” I reply, and I swallow the lump in my throat. “But if it’s a girl, I’m naming her Bianca.”
22
DREX
Iwalk aimlessly, hoping I’ll see someone – anyone – who can tell me about Sophia. It’s not like I don’t have time to search. I have two days to kill before I rendezvous with Kyltic.
If I can’t find her, I might just miss my check-in and force them to take off without me. I’m not leaving without her, that’s all that I know. All that has driven me since I left was getting back here to Armstrong. I’ll stay here if I have to.
The fog has lifted by now, but the day is still a murky gray. It is as if the weather is reflecting my mood. The desolated city is sullen and brooding, as am I. The drab streets are slick and shiny after the mist.
I consider trying to find a café or diner where I can sit and collect my thoughts. I tried her house. Drago’s is no more. Where else should I look?
