Tetrology Of The Sea - Book 1: From The Sea 🪼✔

Twenty

Travis watched as Shana quickly surveyed the inside of his house and then she turned to him angrily.
"Do you mind explaining why you thought it was a great idea to keep this from me?"
"Well, gee, Shana, 'Hey, Shana, I just thought I'd let you know that I'm pregnant' didn't seem like the greatest of opening lines to someone."
"Women do it all the time."
"Yes. Women do. Men don't. How is that hard to understand?"
"You could have told me."
"Shana-"
"Travis, I know what you are already."
Travis was a little confused at that one.
"What do you mean?"
"I know you're not human. I saw you one day when we were smaller and you were crawling from the ocean. I was just about to yell out to you when I saw your tail... I've known you weren't human for a long time now."
Travis' eyes narrowed from behind the glasses.
"And you didn't tell me that, why?"
"Like you would have let me know? Like you said 'Hey, Travis, by the way I saw you with this seahorse tail on the beach. You wouldn't happen to be a mermaid would you?' would go well."
"Fine."
"Travis, why didn't you tell me this was happening to you?"
"Because I didn't want you to think I was more of a freak than I already am. I'm a seahorse... or used to be or something. I'm not quite sure what I am anymore. All I know is that I turn into a mermaid thing in water, can talk to fish, and now I have the ability to get pregnant. I just wanted to live my life quietly."
"Well if you had answered your phone every once in a while I wouldn't have had to come up here and I would have never known that I'm a mother." Shana paced for a moment and finally put her face in her hands. "Were you ever going to tell me?"
"I thought about maybe telling you after I had the baby but then the thought always occurred that you would ask why I was making the claim. I thought I'd just let you live your life and I'd live mine with my child."
"Your child? It's our child, Travis. We both made that baby."
"I don't want you to have any part in its life."
"WHAT?!"
Travis leaned against the counter and looked at her.
"I have decided that she will not know you."
"Why? Travis, I would gladly help you raise it and love it just as if it were my own, which it is. Why are you doing this to me?"
"I don't want it to know what hypocrisy is until it has to."
"Hypocrisy? What do you-"
"Ask Aylin who beat me up. Then, look at yourself and you'll see hypocrisy in yourself. I have always been nothing but truthful and you have done nothing but hurt me. You threw me away so long ago... You even knew why I was being teased and taunted and yet you let them do it. You watched and did nothing. What mother are you?"
Shana felt the tears running down her face slowly and she sniffled, wiping away the tears.
"You don't have to be cruel, Travis."
"I'm telling you the truth. I honestly did start to go over to your house when I found out but I heard you talking to your friends about me. You said that your time with me -sacred and beautiful- was nothing new and was just like they had said 'quick and uneventful'. Well for me it was much more than that. I gave myself to you after you practically seduced me in my own living room because I trusted you. I knew what would happen if I had sex with a girl without protection but I felt that you would be safe and I wouldn't have to worry about things happening if things got... well, strange. But I was wrong. I was so wrong. If you don't even appreciate the event that created this miracle, then how will you appreciate the miracle?"
"I wasn't lying when I told you how I felt about that night. I lied to them because if I told them you were good, they would hound you and I knew you'd get beaten up more because then their boyfriends would have reason to hate you! Travis, I did it to protect you!" she practically screamed.
Travis was calm as he watched Shana break apart in front of him. He knew he was hurting her but it was things he'd kept on his chest for a long time and things he needed to voice. He didn't want her to be a part of his life, seeing as she always brought trouble wherever she was.
"No. You did it to make yourself look good. You're no better than your brother."
"Travis, please stop killing me! I LOVE YOU!" she yelled, putting her face in her hands again. "I have always loved you..."
Travis walked over to her and lifted her head from her hands and looked into her eyes tenderly, feeling sorry for her.
"Then why did you never say anything?" he said softly.
Shana began to bawl and Travis wanted to hold her but he knew it would be a pointless thing to do. He decided to walk to the door and opened it.
"Please leave while there is dignity."
He didn't have to ask her twice as she ran from the house and to her car in tears. Travis closed the door and leaned against it, rubbing his stomach as he swallowed the lump in his throat. Did he do the right thing?

After the fight with Shana, he didn't hear hide nor hair of her. He felt a little bad that he had to be so truthful, but she had to know how he felt. During the course of the weeks, his bundle of joy grew and grew within him, his stomach swelling largely and he feared it was more than one. He didn't know what he was going to have but decided that he had gone on this long without knowing, he could go the rest of the term without knowing.
As he walked around the house one day, he felt something flow down his leg and he stopped moving. He waited for a moment when he looked down at his hand. He was usually tanned from going to the beach all the time but his skin had turned almost white and he grabbed hold of the counter as a contraction hit him. It was like nothing he had ever experienced. Another came and he cried out, grabbing his cell phone from his pocket and calling Ruth.
"Hello?"
"Ma..."
"What is it Travis?" He didn't answer, just breathed into the phone. "Travis?" It sounded like he was trying to talk but was in pain. "I'll be there shortly."
She hung up and Travis slid to the floor jerking almost violently, the contractions overtaking his very body. He breathed in short breaths as he tried to gain his bearings, the contractions almost making him want to cut himself open and get the baby itself. Finally, a calm went through him as he leaned over, pulled his pants off, and felt the bottom of his stomach open up to evacuate the baby. He pushed a couple more times, crying out loudly with all his might and felt the baby sliding out. With a final cry he pushed and his baby slid into his hands followed by the umbilical cord and afterbirth. The baby in his hands was quiet and Travis made a sad noise at the stillness of the child.
He quickly and shakily got up from the floor, leaving the mess there, and went to the bathroom to rinse off his baby girl. He was crying, for she hadn't made a peep since she'd been born. He turned the water on and put her hand under the sink to wash her off and he pat her back a little forcefully to get her to breathe. She suddenly coughed and began to cry and Travis burst into tears, turning her over to look at her. She was squirming and ornery... everything a newborn should be. As he washed her off, he just laughed and laughed at the miracle he was holding.

Ruth finally made it into the house with Josh and they looked around. Josh spotted the afterbirth on the floor and they walked in to see where Travis was but couldn't find him.
"I think he had the baby. I'll check in the bathroom."
They walked toward it and found Travis laying in the floor with blood all around him as he breathed shallow. When he heard the door squeak, Travis looked up and smiled tiredly.
"B-baby..." he said, shaking.
Josh nodded at the clean and swathed newborn as it slept soundly in its father's arms.
"It's a g-girl..." he said with a smile.
"Let me take her." Josh said softly.
Travis allowed her to go with him and tried to move but he was too weak. Josh handed the girl off to Ruth as he returned his attention back on Travis.
"You're bleeding very badly. I can't help you up so you'll have to try and do this by yourself."
"Just do it here..."
"You've gotten everything soaked in blood."
"It won't stop." He said with slight fear in his voice.
Josh looked him dead in the face. "You won't die. Trust me."
He helped him up and put him in the bathtub. He turned the water on and waited as Travis' legs began to turn.
"This might help you out. Call me if you need anything... What's your baby's name?"
"Esper." He said.
Josh nodded and left the bathroom to tend to Esper.