The Others

8

Reese is only stunned for a moment before he runs back to the cave and puts together his own pack. Then he leaves behind a still stunned Celia and looks for his wife. She knows how to walk without leaving a trace and can hide herself almost perfectly while in sight of others.

He finds it hard to follow her but eventually he catches up with her. 

"Why are you here, Reese? Your lover is back there," Betsy's voice is empty of all emotion and Reese feels sick hearing it.

"She isn't the one I want and she's not my lover," Reese defends hotly.

"As you wish," Betsy doesn't have the energy to fight with Reese about this.

Morning light is breaking and Reese doesn't like what he sees.

"Betsy, what's wrong?" Reese asks in alarm.

Betsy ignores him and runs over to some bushes and promptly loses everything she had in her stomach. Reese goes to her and tries to hold her but she shrugs him off and staggers to her feet.

She looks for the water she brought with her and rinses her mouth before spitting the fouled water back out. Only then does she look at Reese, "Why are you still here?"

"You are still my wife. Maybe you don't want me anymore, but I'm not leaving you. I told you, where you go, I go. I'm not going to let anyone kill you and I am going to do my damnedest to keep you alive." Reese doesn't know whether to be angry or in tears right then.

Betsy snorts in disbelief. "The world is yours now, there's no need to pretend you still want to be with me. I have to say, Reese, you fooled me and I didn't think that was even possible." She is careful to keep the bitterness down, but he can still feel it.

"I wasn't pretending, Betsy, I love you. Let me have another chance at proving trustworthy." Reese doesn't even care that he's begging at this point.

Betsy looks at him and sneers. "You want another chance, how's this, I'm pregnant." She picks up her pack and walks away leaving a stunned Reese behind once more.

It takes a few moments for Reese to come out of his stupor and chase after her once more. "You're pregnant, with my child?"

With that Betsy slaps him as hard as she can. "Don't you dare insinuate or say that I'm a whore, Reese McQuinlin."

Reese grabs her and pulls her in tight so that she won't slap him again. She has a strong arm and her slaps hurt. "I didn't mean anything of the kind, Betsy. You shocked me is all. You yourself told me before we married that HC sterilized you because they didn't want more humans to look like Others."

"Apparently I'm more like the Others than we previously thought. I have regenerated what was taken from me." Betsy says and forces Reese to let her go.

Before she can turn and walk away from him, Reese grabs her and kisses her in joy. He loves her and accepts her even knowing that she wouldn't be able to give him children. Now that she is able to he's beyond thrilled.

"You can't leave me now, Betsy." 

"Just watch me, you don't need me to hold you back. I doubt we'll live long enough for the child to be born anyway." Betsy turns her back to Reese and starts walking away once more.

"Now more than ever, I'm not leaving you, Betsy McQuinlin. I love you and won't let you go that easily." Reese declares and remains by her side.

"As you wish." Betsy replies but there is no emotion in her voice. She believes that he's only with her now because of the bond and child.

For his part, Reese checks and is reassured that the child is healthy. He's rather surprised at how far along the child is. She's at least three months. How did they miss this at Command?

"I have been hiding things from HC since I was a child. Hiding a pregnancy they didn't think was possible wasn't that hard for me. It was far harder hiding it from you, but you never checked because I was sterilized by HC years ago."

"Did you know that you regenerated what was taken?" Reese asks just wanting to end the silence between them.

"I guessed when I had my first period. But then after that I became pregnant and wasn't sure if maybe I was wrong."

"Betsy, how do you feel about becoming a mother?" Reese asks suddenly almost stopping at the thought.

"How should I feel? My own mother abandoned me after she made her escape. She left me where she could lie to herself that I would be safe. 

"She hated me and betrayed me.

"I know nothing on how to be a mother. I know nothing on how to nurture and help, I know death and destruction.

"How do I feel about becoming a mother? Terrified." Betsy refuses any and all attempts at talking after that.

Only when Betsy stumbles and falls does he realize that she has allowed the scars to cover her once smooth body. He picks her up and doesn't say a word. There is no better disguise or proof that she isn't Other. Other's would never harm one of their own like that. Betsy, by showing her scars is telling the world that she is human that unfortunately looks like an Other.

HC doesn't realize that she can do this. After she became scared visibly they stopped sending her on undercover missions. He was thankful for that, their last one still makes him sick. Some of the worse scarring comes from that mission as well.

"Betsy we need to leave now, the planes are on their way," Reese runs into the room but hadn't expected to find Quark Neeson there with his wife.

"So it is true, you are working for the humans. You're a damn traitor!" Quark takes the knife he had at Betsy's throat and slashes her face and arm.

Betsy merely smiles at him, "I'm no traitor. You should have killed me instead of mark me." With that Betsy attacks Quark and kills him. He'd been unprepared for her death blow.

"I don't know why HC thought you needed a body guard, you do quite well without one." Reese says grabbing some cloths to hold against the wounds in Betsy's face and arm.

Betsy takes them and hold them to her. Shortly she lets them drop and takes hold of the one on her arm. "Damn this one is deep and will scar badly."

"Can you stop the bleeding?" Reese asks agitatedly. 

"No, I'll need to sew it up." Reese searches for and finds a sewing kit. He watches impassively as Betsy sews her skin together, but inwardly he winces every time she inserts the needle.

"We better get going. How far out are the planes?" Betsy demands as she steps over the body of the Other that had wounded her.

"No more than ten minutes now. The other slaves have already left." 

"Good, then at least some of the humans will make it."

"Well, well, well what do we have here? A slave and his mistress?"