The Impact

Chapter 9

"Hey, you okay?" I wake up to Triss shaking my shoulder, gently. She's sitting on the edge of the bed, still dressed in her FBI polo and cargos. The setting sun is shining through the windows. I've been asleep since she left. There's a sick, hollow feeling in my stomach, as though the tortured memories of Ellory's birthday happened moments, not over a decade ago. This is distinctly not normal and---and I haven't woken up by myself. Not to use the bathroom, not from rest---every time I've been woken up, on the plane I was woken by the landing, would I wake without someone there? Something I'll need to test.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," I say, sitting up, "I needed the sleep, I guess."

"You feel okay?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lie nodding. I do feel all right, I just know I'm not all right.

"Um---I'm glad you came, I wanted to talk to you," she says, stroking my cheek a little bit as I sit up.

"What?" I ask, propping myself up against the wall. Suddenly I'm sore from all the walking/running/falling I've done over the past few days. I must be getting old.

"I'm pregnant," she says, looking away which makes it hard to read her lips but I make it out. 

"Is it mine?" I ask, unemotionally. She had been acting a bit off these past few weeks, more sentimental, less tolerant of me, little things like that. I hadn't been paying much attention to her.

"I don't think so---I mean I'm not positive " she says, rubbing her belly, "I just found out like, two days ago—I haven't been to a doctor, obviously, with all this."

"Last time we were together was a bit before Labor day, you're sixteen weeks?" I ask. I doubt if she's that far she isn't truly showing. But she is pudgy. So you never know.

"I don't know---I haven't been to the doctors, but I don't think I'm that far yet, more like just three months," she says. 

"Thank you for telling me," I say, hugging her. she starts crying. "Come here. it's all right. The world is a better place now that there are less people in it."

"-----you're crazy," she says, as I push her away so I can read her lips, "I just wanted to tell you in case---we'll do the DNA test once it's born."

"I'm not going to ask who else it might be but---if they don't care I don't," I say.

"What?" she asks.

"I mean don't do a DNA test for my sake, it's a little person, I'm happy to be around," I say, "As I am I'm fired from the FBI anyway. it's not like I've got much else to do but mind the little one while you're at work."

"Aside from being absolutely insane you're all right sometimes, Slade," she says, kissing me quickly, "I'm going to do the test, though. for me----I'm not telling the others who it might be---don't ask me why—"

"I wasn't going to I'm truly not that interested---"

"Hush---and I just want to know. For me," she says, hugging herself.

"You okay? With it I mean?" I ask.

"Yeah no, I mean it wasn't planned but---I'm happy, I like being a mom," she says, rubbing her stomach. She does look thicker than normal but I haven't slept with her particularly recently so I hadn't really noticed. Now that I look I suppose her cargos look tight.

"Good then, that's settled," I say, swinging my legs off the bed, "What's Sundance think?"

"I haven't told him," she says, wincing.

"Oh good," I say, sarcastically. Sundance is entering the sullen teen phase, not because of his name. His name is actually Butch. I know. For as long as I've known him and his mother, five years since I got with this branch of the FBI which made stalking Ellory easier, the poor boy's been called nothing but Sundance for whatever reason. And as I might have mentioned I'm not popular with him.

"I'm not off of work, they need us back for a few more hours---do you want to come?" she asks.

"Not particularly, I'll report in in the morning, I've got a few things to finish up first," I say, glancing at the door, "Sunny here now?"

"Yeah," she says.

"Okay, I'll mind him if you want," I say, "What with all this he doesn't need to be home alone."
"You can go he is fine---"

"I've seen these monsters, no let's not leave him, he can come with me I just need to go to the library before it closes," I say, looking at the time.

"Okay um—thanks, I'm gonna tell him tonight, when I get home," she says.

"Okay, I'll go home tonight I need to---get some things," I say.

"Yeah, of course," she says, "Why are you going to the library?"

"I don't know---that's why I'm going I need to research what might have caused these creatures," I say, "That and hearing loss due to gunshots."

"Okay," she says, nodding taking a deep breath.

"Are you okay-----wait am I the first person you've told then?" I ask, realizing if she hasn't told him she probably hasn't told anyone else.

"Yeah," she says, nodding and starting to cry.

"Come here, I'm sorry, I'm a rotten unfeeling sociopath aren't I?" I ask, wiping her tears away with my thumbs.

"Nah I'm used to it," she says, sniffing, "Better than most of the guys I go with who are narcissistic jerks."

"I'm not a jerk, an asshole maybe----not a jerk," I say, giving her a quick hug during which she probably talked to me.

"Thanks Slade, I'm glad you came, really glad," she says.

"Are you feeling okay?" I confirm, "Do you have vitamins?"

"No, no I haven't gotten those yet the stores are stripped bare and closed and everything, I'm eating, what I should though, I haven't felt sick really just like if I haven't eaten in a while---that and my breasts hurt."

"Aw shame I don't get to visit them, then," I say, bending my head to kiss her chest, gently. I'm sure she berates me but I don't hear it. This being deaf thing is working out. She pulls my head back up.

"No you don't--- they hurt really badly, so keep off, this deaf thing is working out well for you isn't it?" she asks, talking directly into my face so I see her lips.

"It is actually, but I can get hearing aids for when the baby's born or if I actually want to communicate with people," I say, "Or my ears will heal."

"I hope so," she says, rubbing my short hair, "Who set off a gun that close to your head?"

"Me," I say, "Let's go, you have to get back to work, right?"

"Yeah, why'd you set it off that near your ears?"

"To blow my eardrums out," I say, as we go into the kitchen. Sundance is predictably slumped at the counter.

"Hello Sundance, I can't hear so you have to look at me when you talk to me," I say, tapping my ears for emphasis.

"Hi," he says, I'm pretty sure he shouts.

"Um, Sunny I'm going to leave you with Slade for the evening, okay? I have to go back to work but you two will have some fun, all right?" she asks, kissing him. 

He hugs her back but asks me suspiciously, "What are we going to do?" he thinks I'm boring. If he only knew.

"We are going to the library to combat evil with our most powerful weapons, library cards."

"OH MY GOD MOM YOU CANNOT LEAVE ME WITH HIM."

"I can and I will."