It's been two weeks, and I've stopped counting the times I've had to get up and feed the babies. It's harder in the middle of the night, because I'm more used to sleeping during that time. Everyone knows I'm not a morning person, let alone a wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-breastfeed-my-sons-and-daughter person.
But there's one thing that a girl can never look forward to, especially me.
That one time, coming up close for me, when Mother Nature says to me, 'You just had three babies. I'm going to show you that you just lost the chance to have another one!'. For the past seven or so months, I had not really missed Mother Nature.
But I have been lately. Because day after day, I wait for her arrival. But she hasn't come. Not even close.
I can't just shrug it off. Not even if I think to myself, 'Maybe she's just stuck in traffic'. So I'm going to my mother for help.
Sounds much less wimpy to want your mommy when your mommy not only helped deliver your three children but also knows everything there is to know about the body of every living thing that creeps and crawls upon this earth, huh?
I tell her of my situation, and her eyes get wide and worried.
"What?" I ask. She doesn't say anything, just asks me to pee in a cup. It doesn't take me long.
She takes the cup and puts it in a small steel box, which makes a series of beeps, then the sound of vibrations. She's analyzing my urine. Doesn't this day just sound swell?
When I look to my mother, she's crossing her fingers. For what, I don't know.
The little steel box buzzes, and my mother enters a code into a keypad, then looks at its screen, her eyes, if possible, even wider than they had been before. Before taking the cup of my urine and throwing it in the trash, she slams a fist down against the front of the steel box and lets her hands slide down the smooth surface until they fall down to her sides.
"What are you so freaked out about, Mom? What, do you think I'm drunk or something?" My mom simply shakes her head and turns off the little steel box, then walks over to me.
"I didn't think it possible, Max, but... you're pregnant.... again."
Mother Nature did come. But only to abandon me.
"How?! Fang sleeps, all. The. Time. We haven't even..." I'm interrupted when my mother shushes me.
"I know. That's why I want to check for something. Lay down and pull up your shirt." She gets out her supplies for an ultrasound and goes through the same process she'd gone through before. After a few minutes, we both find what she's looking for. A small mechanism at one side, almost like a black box with an arrow sticking out of it.
"Aha! There's the little devil. A fertilization device. It pretty much replaces Fang, scientifically speaking, and it's much faster, quicker, and better aimed. Had we not known about this, and you'd be spitting babies every which way for as long as your body would allow you."
"Can you take it out?" I ask, my voice almost inaudible.
"Sadly, no," my mother says, her voice shaking with anger. "Remember when I said it was faster?" She turns the volume knob up and instead of my own, muffled and sped-up singular bird kid heartbeat, I hear two.
"It's been eighteen days. This baby is now a developing person with a heart. It's too late for now." I bite my lip to keep from screaming. My mother wraps her arms around me and shushes me.
"We'll just have to take it out after," she says quietly. "But we need to focus on now."
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Maximum Ride: Picking Up the Pieces (A Maximum Ride Fanfic)
Hayran KurguThey took her away two and a half years ago. As far as the flock could tell, Max had disappeared. But now, Max has returned to the flock with A LOT on her hands - more than just trying to rejoin the flock and move on from her past. What happens now...
