The Immunity

Chapter Seven

I sat on the edge of my bed, nervously tapping my fingers on my thigh. I glanced from the door to the remote that sat beside me with the clock app on. I had been waiting here since Darren left at 4:05 pm, it was 4:15 pm now, only five minutes left till they would bring in the father of my baby. I waited impatiently, just staring at the steel door, trying hard not to look at the clock. Time seemed to go forever and I racked my brain for something I could think about to distract myself but I couldn't think of anything. I sighed and rubbed my stomach, thinking about the tiny human being that was growing inside of me.

Suddenly there was a click on the steel door before it groaned open, and in stepped President Thane. I stared at him, in his neat red suit and blue tie, and I realized just how much I hated this man. He was alone, apparently he thought a pregnant woman was no match for him. He smiled at me, "Hello Phoebe, how are you?"

"Fine," I told him as I stood up with a slight struggle.

He stared at the prominent baby bump, his gaze was so intense that I placed a firm hand over it. He was staring at it hungrily, like he was prepared to rip it out of me just to cure  his nation and be remembered forever. He slowly looked up to my face, forcing a smile, "It's been a few months since I've seen you, it looks like your baby is growing considerably well."

"Yeah," I didn't want to talk to him, he was the man that gave the doctors the go ahead to inseminate me without my consent. He ruined my life.

Marcus Thane stood there awkwardly for a minute then snapped his fingers and rolled up the sleeve of his suit jacket. Implanted into his wrist was a screen the size of a ring box, it was imbedded in his skin. He pressed a button and spoke into it, "Bring him in." I realized that this was how they communicated here, by these small devices imbedded in their wrists. I was about to sit back down when the door opened again, causing me to stop mid-motion and stand straight up again. A few guards stepped in, followed by...

"Shawn?" I asked in disbelief, maybe it wasn't him, maybe it was just my imagination.

But he looked up, his eyes wide and pushed passed the guards, coming straight to me. It seemed to take him years to finally wrap his arms around me and brush his lips firmly against mine. I held the kiss for as long as I could before I broke away, laying my forehead against his as my chest gasped for air. I didn't know what to say, I was at a loss for words. He spoke first, "I thought you were dead."

"I'm right here," I told him softly.

His eyes glanced down and he placed his hands on my stomach, "Oh my god Phoebe, this is all my fault," There was guilt in his eyes.

I placed my hands over his, "Shawn, hey, look at me," I waited till his beautiful electric blue eyes met mine before I continued, "This isn't your fault. It's there's."

He looked at me and his eyes hardened and he nodded, pausing before asking, "How is this possible? I mean, the two of us are immune?"

"Three Shawn. The three of us are immune."

I stared at him as he looked at my stomach with a smile, realizing how much I missed him. He smiled back up at me, "What about your parents? Were they immune too?"

I broke from his gaze, looking away, I shook my head, then looked at him with tears welling up in my eyes. He frowned and hugged me, I hugged him close. I realized we weren't alone when I looked over Shawn's shoulder at President Thane and the two guards. The President leaned over to the guard, whispered something in his ear. The guard nodded, turning and walking out the door without hesitation. I broke away from Shawn when the President cleared his throat, looking at the highly respected man with a slight scorn on my face. He looked from me to Shawn, "Well we didn't expect you two to know each other. This is certainly a surprise. I just sent one of my guards to go tell the doctors to review the blood work again to see if there possibly was a way one of you could have given the immunity to the other by saliva..." He hesitated, "Or other ways."

I bit my tongue to attempt to hide my blush, Shawn grabbed my hand softly and laced our fingers together before he spoke, "What are you going to do if that was how it was passed on?"

"Oh, we won't have you both kiss everyone in the country, we'll simply take both the parent's and child's saliva as well as some of the blood cells that fight RD15," he explained, looking us directly in the eyes.

I looked at the president, "President Thane? With all due respect and everything, I'm just going to tell you now so you know. I want you to know that if you ever separate Shawn and I again, I will personally make sure something terrible happens to your precious cure."

Both men stared at me, their eyes wide in surprise. Shawn cracked a small smile, clearly liking this side of me and looked at the President, who still looked shocked.

"I don't think-"

I cut him off by grabbing Shawn and pulling him into me, kissing him so passionately that to anyone else, it would look absolutely gross. The President winced, before angrily yelling, "Fine! The two of you can stay here together!"

I smiled and kissed Shawn's cheek, it was obvious I had caught my boyfriend off guard because he was still standing there frozen in place. I squeezed his hand and he thawed, smirking at me with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Boys were so easy to read and his expression said what his mind was screaming for, I simply shook my head and placed a hand on my stomach. His expression fell into disappointment but he nodded, understanding.

The door groaned open and the guard came back in with a doctor in tow, I stared at his old, wrinkled face as he spoke directly to the President, "Sir, we've reviewed the blood work and it seems that it was not passed on, they were both exposed to the same sickness at a young age and their cells mutated the immunity to withstand RD15."

The President looked at the two of us, "Well looks like we won't need to take your saliva, just your blood cells. I'm assuming you two grew up with each other?"

We nodded almost in sync.

"That explains it, they both got the same sickness and their bodies reacted the same to it since they had already passed germs back and forth," the president sighed, "Ah, evolution, it's a wonderful thing. Okay, well, we'll let you two catch up, won't we boys?"

The guards all nodded and followed after their leader till only the doctor was left, his wrinkled face frowned as he looked at my stomach. He shook his head sadly, and then exited the room, closing the steel door shut behind him.

I looked at Shawn, who looked down at my stomach, "You sure it's only five months? You look like you should be at least seven months."

"I know, that's what I've been saying since-" I cut myself off with a gasp, looking down.

Shawn panicked, "What? Phoebe! What is it?"

I looked up at him, my eyes shining with happiness, I placed his hand on my stomach where there was a slight tapping as the baby gently kicked me. His face broke into a smile, he laughed a bit too, getting down to his knees to press his lips to my round belly. I tied my fingers into his sandy hair, smiling down at him. It was at that moment that I realized how much I loved the little human growing inside of me - almost as much as I loved Shawn.