Chương 141: 54 - FAMILY OVER EVERYTHING

By the next morning, Ellie was strung up to a clinic bed as the subject of as many tests as the doctors knew how. It was by her own decree that they needed to be absolutely sure before another word was said about her pregnancy. They nabbed whatever equipment and resources they needed from an overrun hospital and brought them back here. T'balt used the Wanderer to do so, unable to bear the thought of waiting. He sat next to Ellie in the bed. She was a ball of anxiety two seconds from exploding all over the room.

T'balt stayed quiet, petting her hand, which was the only thing keeping her relatively still. Then Dr. Sharon came into the room. He was a younger doctor, about mid-thirties, with neat brown hair, a stubby body, and a face for radio. He was one of the doctors that Ellie worked closely with over the last few weeks, helping him care for patients and assisting him as a nurse. His face was quizzical when he walked in as he looked down at a bunch of paperwork on a clipboard.

"Oh, God. Dr. Sharon, what's the news?" Ellie asked frantically. The man furrowed his brows.

"Our tests are coming back positive. Ellie, my dear, you're going to be having a child." Her face froze.

"It seems you're nearly a month into the pregnancy. By next week, I imagine you'll start attracting all the usual symptoms. Occasional nausea and morning sickness. All the rest. Luckily for you, our last scavenging mission brought back plenty of medication to keep you in tip-top shape. But I will recommend slowing down in your daily duties. Your body is quickly about to start changing, and to be honest…

we don't yet know how the loot might affect the child, so to be on the safe side I'd also avoid using any magic for the time being."

"But then I won't be able to heal any of our patients."

"Don't worry. We're not exactly struggling here. There are plenty of healers that will be glad to cover for you. You just focus on your family."

"Thanks, doctor," T'balt said. The doctor nodded.

"I'll fetch her a prescription, and then you all will be free to go," he said as he walked out of the room, leaving them alone. When T'balt looked at her, she was hiding her face in her hands.

"I'm so sorry, T'balt. I never meant for anything like this to happen."

"It's not like you did it by yourself," he said. Thinking back on it, they were always limited when it came to using protection. They had to scrounge up whatever they could find, and it wasn't like Ellie had steady access to birth control. It was probably just luck that it didn't happen before now.

"I know. But… I've gotta remind myself that I've only known you for weeks. Not years. Weeks. If my parents were around, they'd slap me in the back of the head for being so… so… But you just show up knowing the perfect things to say, and it feels like I've already known you for years. That doesn't mean I should be so careless as to—""Hey," he grabbed her by the wrist, pulling it from her face.

"Come back down." He'd never seen her this frantic about anything. Typically she was the calmest person in the room, holding herself together almost to a fault. It would've been worrying, but for some reason all he could think about was how cute she was when she was dying of embarrassment. It was a side of her he hadn't seen yet. She nodded at the words, slowly letting him take her hands in his.

"I'm gonna be a dad. That's something I honestly never thought I'd be able to say," he said.

"Is that even a good thing? I mean, what would the world even be like for a child now?"

"It's gonna be fine. Maybe you haven't known me long, but I've known you long enough to know that you're the love of my life. There's no one in the world I'd rather have a child with. As long as you're there with me, whatever this world throws at us, I'll know we can make it through. You're my guardian angel, right?" She nodded, wiping away the water welling up in her eyes.

"That makes me feel better."

"Good," he smiled.

"I'm gonna go tell everyone the news." She let him walk out the door, into the waiting room where Cannon and Acelin waited for him. They both stood from their chairs.

"What's the verdict?" Cannon asked, eyes wide like this was some celebrity court case.

"Tests are positive." Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! He and Acelin exchanged glances before he suddenly yelled out, "MY MAN!" and gave him a bone-shattering bear hug. He would've forgotten about his stack of strength loot if T'balt didn't remind him.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks," T'balt said once he was back on the ground.

"So it's true then…" Acelin said meekly, holding his baseball bat like it was a stuffed animal.

"There's gonna be another kid." T'balt knelt in front of him.

"That's right." He could tell the blonde kid was still processing exactly what that meant for him. So T'balt got an idea.

"Can I see that bat?" Acelin reluctantly gave it to him. T'balt rubbed the dirty metal with his hands.

"It's no sword, but it'll have to do."

"What are you talking about?"

"Kneel."

"What?"

"Kneel." Acelin dropped to one knee, staring up at him, confused. T'balt extended the bat to him. He tapped the tip on the boy's right shoulder and then his left. Then finally his head.

"I charge you to protect the weak and the innocent. I charge you to be brave and when needed, to be bold. To stand in the face of tyranny to deliver justice to the wicked for the purpose of protecting the good. Now rise to accept the title of knight and honorary big brother. That is, if you want it." He extended the handle of the baseball bat to the kid. And the smile that erupted on his face was something T'balt couldn't forget for a million years.

Acelin proudly nodded, taking the bat and holding it like it was his broadsword.

"I'll be the greatest big brother that ever lived, you'll see. I'll protect them with my life." Cannon started clapping like he was watching a TV show.

"No fair. Not even I got a ceremony like that."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to feel left out," said T'balt.

"No worries. You know you have my sword, or more likely my biceps." They exchanged smiles.

"So does ummm… Ellie know?" Acelin asked.

"You should probably go tell her." T'balt pointed him to the room, sure that Acelin's excitement would pump her up just like it did him. Acelin ran through the door, Cannon not far behind him, looking to spread his congratulations.

"Is Tyene still here?" T'balt asked him.

"She's outside," Cannon said. She and Vienna were sitting down on the white stone walkway outside the building. The air smelled like burning ash. That was because Tyene had a lit cigarette in her mouth. As soon as it hit T'balt's nose, he cringed and exaggerated his coughing.

"You're choosing now to pick up smoking?"

"You're choosing now to have a kid?" Tyene spat.

"It wasn't exactly a choice," T'balt said. She took a drag, blowing the smoke away from him.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna smoke in the library or around your lady." She handed the half-used cigarette to Vienna, who stored it back in its carton for later. T'balt leaned up against the wall next to her.

"So no chance it's a dud, huh?"

"It's real."

"Your first one?" She had a flask in her coat pocket that she was drinking from now. She offered it to T'balt, who took a swig just to get his nerves out.

"Yeah. First one." He then offered it to Vienna, who took a drink for the sake of it before frowning at the taste and deciding not to take another. Instead, Tyene downed half of it gladly.

"I don't know how much you respect advice from me. But this'll be the only time I'll tell you… Don't go through with it."

"What?"

"It isn't worth it?" she said quietly.

"It never is."

"Are you saying I should—""Just hit the reset button… if you don't have the gall, then just let Corlander win. You'll be better off for it." He paused, doubting that she was serious. But one look at her face made him take another swig out of her flask.

"I'm guessing you're about to tell me something I don't wanna hear."

"Having a kid isn't something you can just repeat. People born after Zero Day don't come back like everyone else. But I'm sure you've already figured that much."

"Even if she gets pregnant again."

"It won't be the same child. You'll be looking for that one that you put all your heart and love into. The second one will be yours by blood, but it will still feel like someone else's. None of the features will be the same. None of their habits or their personality. Unless you can replicate the exact circumstances in which the kid was born… some other little squirmer is gonna win that race."

"Then I'll just replicate—""You can't. I've tried. As long as you're changing, the world is changing, and you can't stop yourself from changing. Those little bastards are the one thing in this world that we can still lose forever."

"All the more reason not to let a reset happen," T'balt said. Tyene shook her head.

"You're not getting it."

"I am…" T'balt said.

"Trust me, I am. But I'm not here to live in fear or to give up on being human. I've always wanted a family of my own. If I can experience that just once… then I want to fight like hell to do it."

"So you know if Corlander wins…"

"Then my child won't be born."

"And you've been sitting on your ass for weeks while he's getting stronger with every piece of loot that his hunters bring him."

"I know… Tyene, I need your help. I should've been taking him more seriously, but it's too late to go back now. At least for me. I don't think I can beat him on my own, but if all the Redeemers face him together, then there's no way we can lose." She blew through her lips, sparing a moment to think about it.

"You want my help… then we kill him. No ifs, ands, or buts. It's the only way to stop him. It's the only way to protect your family." After a moment, he nodded.

"Okay… if it's what we have to do… then it's what we have to do." She smiled dubiously.

"Alright then. Just remember that baby of yours only has one life. I warned you."

"I know."

"We've got one week to get our shit together. One week." That night, Monan Ryker was sitting on the beach under the moon. There was an empty fifth of rum buried in the sand next to him. He couldn't help but stare at the full moon as he opened a second. He thought back to all his lives, remembering all the people who had come and gone. Those that he would never get back, even though they were still alive. No one ever understood things for what they were.

They were so hairbrained that no matter how many times he explained it, they could never put the big picture together.

"None of it matters…" He felt himself dozing off into a drunken nap. But there was a dream, teetering at the edge of his subconscious. A dream that he didn't want to see. So much so that it sobered him enough to get up and walk away.

"This is a load of shit," he said, stumbling through the sand.