The PulseTeam, Book One: Origins

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Baby, Baby

Part One: John And Akura's Engagement And Tia's Big News

A few weeks after the Invection incident, as we finish our supper, John and Akura both stand up smiling and John says, "We have an announcement to make."

Akura flashes a black titanium ring with a vibrant emerald smack-dab in the middle of it. The other girls (my wife included) push John out of their way, squeal, and swarm around Akura like vultures, simultaneously inquiring about the ring and the proposal and planning a bachelorette party for her.

I shake my head, chuckle, get up, and sling my left arm around John's shoulder, and I say to him, "Come on, man, let's get you to your bachelor party."

But as we walk away, I suddenly hear something strange, almost like a heartbeat, but it's too faint and too erratic to be a heartbeat. Oh, well. I guess I'll just ask Tia if she heard it later.

After the party, which actually consisted of me, John, Gabriel, Ky, and Jay going to a club, drinking, dancing, and having a good time, we head home and everyone but me goes to bed. I scan our room, and Tia is still up. She's wearing the lingerie that she knows gets me going into overdrive.

I knock on the door of our bedroom, and she says, "Come in, babe."

I open the door and try as hard as I can not to literally burst through my pants. I walk in, close the door behind me, and ask her as calmly as I can, "So, what's the occasion, my dear?"

She wraps her arms around me and says, "I went to the doctor because strange things were happening to me, and she told me something that I didn't think I'd hear until we were in our early thirties."

"It's gotta be good news then," I say, "because I'm just about ready to burst out of my pants. What did she tell you?"

"Your daughter is already nine weeks in development," she replies, smiling as brightly as she can.

"I'm gonna be a father?" I ask her in unbelief.

Overtaken with shock and uffish, unspeakble joy, I pick her up, twirl around the room with her and cheer, "I'm gonna be a dad! I'm gonna be a dad!"

But I remember that embryos are still kind of fragile, so I immediately and gently set her down, she giggles and says, "Yes, baby, you're gonna be a daddy."

"Wow," I say, still kind of in unbelief that I'm going to be a father.

"So, the night is still young," she says in her most sultry voice, "and I don't know about you, but I really want to play. I think your little friend does, too. So, let's play."

Now, I could be going even crazier than I already am, but I could almost swear that I am smelling real watermelon. And the more I smell it, the more the... other guy wants to come out to "play". So we celebrate into the wee hours of the morning, and before we know it, it's time for me to get up to go to work.

But I don't go in. Instead, I stay in bed with my beautiful now-pregnant wife and just snuggle.

A little later, Tia turns to me and asks me, "Why didn't you go in today? Aren't you supposed to be running a big corporation or something?"

"I own it," I reply. "Or, better yet, we own it. We own it all. Our name is on the building. If I don't feel like going in, I'm not going in. And if I feel like spending an entire workday with my wife who, by the way, is carrying my baby daughter, well then, by jove, I'm going to spend the entire day with her. And nothing's going to prohibit me from doing so. At all. Understand?"

"Yes, daddy!" she replies.

Part Two: Tia's Pregnancy And Toxikka

I love my wife, and I'm sure that I'll love my daughter as well, but Tia's pregnancy is KILLING me! I'm about nine months into morning sickness, mood swings, and everything else that comes with a female's pregnancy. And you know what else? Tia isn't who I'm complaining about. She's actually the more patient of us both. It's me. I'm experiencing these damn procreation symptoms. I will love the end result, but I cannot experience these symptoms a second time. I simply refuse to. But I am and will be thanking Elohim right now and every day for this being the last month of this torture.