Defending the Frontier

Chapter 4: But How?

I quickly kneeled by her side, as she had fallen to her knees. "S-Sarah! Are you ok?"

She shook her head and grabbed my hand. I then quickly picked her up, and Bish looked at me. "We should get her back to the infirmary."

I nodded. "Yeah. We should," I said.

We then rushed her to the infirmary.

===

I was waiting for what seemed like hours. Meg had eventually joined me as I was waiting.

She looked over at me. "Is Mom going to be ok?"

I shook my head, a few tears rolling down my cheeks, eventually falling to the ground. "I'm not sure Meg... I don't know what's wrong with her..."

Mwg then hugged me, obviously trying to comfort me. "Hey. I'm sure she's going to be fine, Dad," she said before kissing my cheek.

I smiled. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up Meg. It really means a lot to me."

She then sat next to me, and rested her head on my shoulder. "I don't want to lose her again, Dad. We just got her back."

I looked up, and kissed her head, and then stroked her hair. "I know Meg. I don't want to lose her either."

We then sat their in silence for a while, and I eventually drifted off.

===

Flames. That was all I saw. Every direction that I looked, all I could see was fire. Upon looking more closely, I realized where I was. I was back in Snowpoint, when Sarah had conducted her raid while under the control of the IMC.

I looked around, trying to find a way out, as I knew that this was a dream, but I couldn't.

I suddenly doubled over in pain, grabbing my head, and the flames closed in, and they started to lick my clothing. I heard a voice in my head.

M-Michael? Can you hear me?

I gasped. It was Sarah. S-Sarah! Yes! I can hear you. Are you ok?

It sounded like there was distress in her voice. Yeah. Or at least I think so. Right now the doctors have me in a medically induced coma, so I don't really know what's going on...

I then looked up, and the flames were still licking at me, but the fire in front of me had parted, and a figure started to approach me. I started to speak, but it barely came out as a whisper. "S-Sarah? Is that you?"

The figure continued to approach me, and I heard Sarah. Yeah. I think it's me... I think somehow we were able to link our dreams. This is what I was telling you about being surrounded by flames.

Next thing I knew, she was in front of me, helping me.up and taking me away from the flames, and into her arms. "S-Sarah... Do you remember anything else?"

She nodded and kissed me, and I kissed back. "I'm remembering a bit, but it's all coming back in random little spurts. I remember the day you proposed to me. I also remember the day I told you I was pregnant, and how you freaked out. Also that one time you and Meg had surprised me by getting me a new Smart Pistol MK5 for my birthday one year. The last thing I remember... Is the day the IMC took me captive, and that's the clearest memory of them all."

I smiled and held her close, cherishing this, even though I knew that this whole thing was a dream.

Suddenly the heat started to rise, and I noticed the flames were closing in on us, and there was no escape.

From the flames around us, a pillar of fire was behind Sarah, and it shot at her. I pushed her out of the way, and took the fiery attack, blacking out.

===

I awoke with a jolt, and it was obvious that Meg was awake. "Dad? Are you ok?" she asked me. "You seemed a bit restless while you were sleeping."

I nodded. "Y-yeah. I'll be fine. I just had... A really odd dream."

Before Meg could answer, Bish came out, accompanied by a female doctor. "Michael," Bish said. "We have good news, bad news, and a unbelievable news. You and Meg need to come back with me."

I nodded, and Meg helped me up, and we followed Bish to the room where Sarah was.

Once we walked in, I turned to Bish. "Tell me everything. In the order you told me."

Bish nodded."Alright. The good news is very simple. Sarah wjs fine, and we believe she will recover. However, the bad news is that the reason that she wasn't feeling well wasn't because of sickness or because of what she did, as we had originally thought."

I crossed my arms. "How is that bad news?"

"You see," Bish said, "It isn't something you can necessarily cure."

I choked back tears. "Alright then. What's the unbelievable news? Does she have radiation cancer or something?"

Bish shook his head. "No. Although, I do think you will be quite pleased to hear this Michael. What I'm saying Michael, is that Sarsh... Sarah is pregnant with another child. And it's a boy. We're not sure how he even survived the explosion, but there is something... Odd that wil happen, due to the nature of Psyclonyx powers. She will be pregnant for the normal amount of time, but that's where normal ends. After that, your child will age up to about eight within an hour or so. The reason is that Sarah pulled forth eight years worth of psychic powers, and because of that and other reasons not even I understand, your son will be aged quickly, but after that, he'll age normally. We've also determined she's about two and a half months in."

I was at a loss for words.  Sarah specifically told me that her results were negative. Had something happened that caused it to be reversed?

Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, crying. I wasn't sure if these were tears of joy, sorrow, anger, or a combination of all three.

And that's when I knew it. Our son would be Nicolas James Coriolan. We'd call him Nico. And his middle name is a tribute to James MacAllan.

(A/N: Wow! First chapter with 1,000+ words in quite a bit of time!)