Ginger Gears

Epilogue: Biologos

The sound of a landing shuttle interrupted the quietness of his work-shop. He quickly turned off the holo with the newest blueprint and rushed to the door. The shuttle had already landed when he had opened it – it seemed the pilot had been in a hurry.

He crossed the field in front of the house, and arrived just in time to see the pilot step out of the shuttle.

Rose beamed when she saw him, letting her duffle bag fall to the ground. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a cocky grin. "Missed me?"

"You were only gone for a day."

"Yet you came here running the moment you heard the engine, didn't you?"

"Hm, I was worried you would crash on the house. It sounds like you tinkered with the fuel injectors again. Is it just me or is the jet propulsion revving too much?"

"I had to overclock the fuel injectors because of the old power couplings."

"You could try to bypass the secondary power coupling."

She gave him a cocky smile. "I already tried that."

He laughed and kissed her. "Of course you have."

She embraced him. "It gives me a little boost when I take off – and I get to come home quicker."

He brushed one of her loose hair strands behind her ear. "Have I mentioned that I love you?"

"Nope, never heard of it," she said with a wide grin.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

She took her duffle bag and they started walking towards the house. It was surrounded by tall Dantooian oaks, sunbeams shone through the light forest on the porch and a small picnic table.

"How is Paige?" he asked.

"She is still grumpy about the experimental shuttle she crashed last week. She thinks that the design is faulty – she even asked me to have a look at it."

"And?"

"The blueprints looked good – nothing interesting." She nudged him. "Imagine – they are still using carbon-based chips for the rudder control tab."

He laughed. "By the stars!"

They had arrived at the house and entered it. Rose threw her bag in a corner and went straight to the kitchen.

"Caf?" She asked as she activated the small Caf-making droid.

He took her duffle bag and put it on the small bench in the vestibule. Then he joined her in the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"No, thank you. I just had tea."

She waited for Caffie to power up and said: "A cup of caf with sugar and blue milk please."

Caffie beeped in acknowledge and extended its small legs and arms from its round, black body and started working. Rose let herself fall on the other chair in the kitchen.

He raised an eyebrow. "Milk? Since when do you take your caf with milk?"

"Yeah, I heard black caf isn't healthy." She wiped her face with her hands before she leaned forward and took his hands in hers. "So, there might be something else I have to tell you."

He shifted in his seat. "What is it?"

"Well, before I went to visit Paige I went to the med droid in town for a quick check-up," she blushed a little. "Turns out that I'm pregnant."

Armitage could feel how he blanched. He grabbed her hands and held them firmly in his. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn't say anything, thoughts and feelings rumbled through his mind. Fear, confusion, guilt.

"Rose- I- I'm sorry," he blurted out. "We should have been more careful the last month when-" He didn't know how to continue.

"It's scary, isn't it?" she said with a sad smile.

-o-

He looked terrified, somehow she had hoped that he could be the calm one. Telling her that everything was going to be alright... but the look of utter fear on his face told her that she was the one who had to keep her calm.

"I'm scared too, Armitage. I guess we got more and more reckless in the past years so perhaps ..." she didn't finish the sentence.

His eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"... perhaps we wanted to take our chances."

He pressed his lips to a thin line. She knew what he was thinking, how he was trying to analyse the situation... trying to control it, trying to control his own emotions. The little twitch in the corner of his mouth was a tell-tale sign of his inner turmoil.

She gave him the time he needed to think and caressed his hands with the tips of her fingers. That always calmed him down.

"I'm sorry if my reaction wasn't what you hoped for," he slowly said.

"I don't know what I expected, to be honest."

"I just never thought that I- that we-"

"- could have children?"

Caffie climbed onto the table and put a mug with caf in front of Rose before it deactivated itself and rolled up in a small black sphere.

He gulped. "I can't."

She cupped his cheek with her left hand. "Can't or don't want to?"

He pulled back and got up. He started pacing in the small kitchen. "You know what my father did to me... what I did to him." He clenched his hands to fists and unclenched them again.

"You are not him."

He stopped his pacing. "How do you know? How can you be sure?" There was a harrowed, pained look on his face.

She stood up and went over to him, she embraced him, pressing her ear against his chest. She could hear his rapid heartbeat.

He returned the hug and rested his chin on her head. "I love you, Rose." He gave her a kiss on the crown of her head. "I know that you want children ever since I saw the holo of you holding Connix' and Paige's baby. But please consider that there was a reason why I wasn't there... why we agreed that I wouldn't visit them."

She listened to his heartbeat, it was becoming calmer. "Paige and Kaydel needed time." She inhaled the scent of his shirt – a lovely smell of tarine tea, washing powder and a minty antiperspirant. "I invited them over for the next weekend. They agreed to come – took me only a little arm-twisting," she said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Rose ..."

"Sorry, I'm not good with this."

"You want to keep it, don't you?" he asked and kissed her again on the head.

There it was, the question she had anticipated and feared at the same time. She let go of him and ran her hand through his soft hair. Every time she looked at him she was stunned how handsome he was, warmth spread out in her chest and she smiled. Up until now, she hadn't been entirely sure, but seeing him like this ...

"Yes, I want to keep it."

He blinked a few times. There was a hesitant smile playing around his lips. "You do?" he asked in a brittle voice as if he couldn't believe what he had heard.

She wiped tears from her eyes and tried to shrug casually. "Building stuff is easy. Let's try something else... how about some biology?"

He laughed and sniffled. "Well, I do love our collaborations."

"And as always I'll do all the heavy lifting," she quipped.

He bent down and kissed her before he pulled her into a bear hug. "You're right, of course. As always."