With Arms Wide Open

Chapter 15

Ryder woke to the fluorescent lighting of the Med Bay. Her head ached and the sour taste in her mouth didn't help the nausea that still boiled in her stomach. She shuffled uncomfortably on the cold slab of a bed, trying to push herself up, but she couldn't. With every attempt she made her muscles cramped painfully, causing her to quiver like a human-shaped jello mold.

"Stop moving, you're only going to make it worse."

She went still, hearing the familiar mother-like tone and peeked through her heavy lids. Lexi stood hunched over her arm. Her eyes laser focused as she pulled back on the end of a syringe, filling the vial with blood. And for a moment, she was relieved to be back in a familiar place and greeted with a familiar face. "Hey, I don't recall giving consent." She said, the corner of her lip curling upward into a small smile.

Lexi smirked, gently pulling the needle from her arm and setting it down on the tray beside her. "I'd say the excessive vomiting and blacking out was consent enough."

That's right. She was at the outpost, giving Addison a piece of her mind when she had a reaction to the radioactive chicken eggs or so she hoped. She lightly shook the thought from her mind and continued to watch Lexi work, appreciating the lack of pain her arm felt from the insidious intrusion. "So you CAN be gentle with those things." She chuckled.

"I'm not finished yet." She teased, picking up another syringe from the tray.

Normally, Ryder would have had some kind of witty comeback or even an urge to avoid being stuck once again, but her conscious effort to ignore the elephant in the room-or in her head rather-would no longer stay buried.

Ryder, you're pregnant.

Sams last words before her collapse swirled through her mind, chilling her to the bone. There's no way it could be true. She was on blockers, not to mention she was almost certain that biology was also naturally working against such a thing as interspecies reproduction. Right?

She was pulled from her train of thought when a tiny prick followed by a burning sensation seared into the side of her neck. Her eyes snapped toward Lexi, seeing her now bent down beside her as she continued to slowly push the injection. "Don't worry." She said softly. "It's only an ampule of vitamins to help you regain your strength. It won't harm the fetus."

And there it was. Validation, crashing into her with the force of a combusting star. Every ounce of hope, denial, or doubt she had was suddenly ripped away and replaced with a new harsh reality, filled with fear and uncertainty. The pressure of that reality weighed down on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. Her throat felt restricted, as though she were being held down by an iron grip around her neck, sucking the very air from her lungs like a blackhole.

She began to gasp desperately, clawing at the collar of her shirt for relief when Lexi's scanner started to alarm. "Ryder?" She called, picking up a small slender flashlight from the tray, shining it between her eyes.

But Ryder couldn't hear her. Her ears rang loudly as her mind became bombarded with questions. Questions she didn't know the answers to. Fetus? What? How is this possible? Why is this happening? Now? What are you going to do? Does Jaal know? What will he say?

Her body trembled sporadically in Lexi's arms when Sam came in over the com. "Dr. T'Perro, Ryder's heart rate is at one-hundred and twenty-three. Her carbon dioxide levels are decreasing. Diagnosis, severe panic attack."

"I'm well aware Sam." She said calmly, stabilizing Ryder on the table. "I thought you said you told her."

"I did. However, it was at that time she had become unconscious. It was unclear if she had heard my diagnosis." He replied.