Suns (LGBT - Sci-fi - Romance)

Prologue

Only when she knew for certain that she was dying, did she try to contact him. 

The gods knew she didn't want to, she had worked hard at putting him out of her mind and her life for the last six years but now she had no choice. If it had just been her own well being she would never have considered it, but it wasn't. She looked sideways at the dark brown curly head of the little boy, playing happily with his toy space ship on the floor beside her. Dominic was only five years old and there was no-one on her own side of the family who could take care of him properly.  

She ran through the short list again in her head for the hundredth time. Her mother, dead. Her father, in rehab, again. Her grandmother refused to even take her calls. She had disowned her daughter when she chose to run off with the wild boy from school instead of marrying the suitable older man she had chosen for her, and she had never forgiven her, had never even wanted to see her grand-daughter. And that was it, as far as she knew. No aunts or uncles or cousins ready and willing to take a small boy into their families.  

She winced as she remembered the look of sheer horror that had flashed over Freya's face as she lightly floated the idea past her best friend. "I was just wondering about Dominic, if anything should happen to me, whether you would-" She hadn't even finished the sentence. She couldn't really blame Freya, her career had always been the most important thing in her life, in fact their love of holovids had drawn them together in the first place, Freya as an actress, Amber as a writer.  

As a writer she had found it fairly easy to fit her work in around looking after her son, much of it able to be done after he was in bed for the night, but of course it would be different for an actress, frequently working sixteen hour days at a time during a job. Not to mention the travelling and entertaining she was expected to do as part of her contract. Freya had confided to her quite early in their friendship that she had already chosen to have the minor laser surgery which would prevent her ever becoming pregnant, even by accident, so really, she should have known Freya taking Dominic wasn't an option. 

So now she found herself attempting to contact Dominic's father. She had kept putting it off, telling herself that it was most likely that he would be in no better position to look after Dominic than her father or Freya, hoping against hope that she could keep managing the symptoms successfully. However, although motor neurone disease was now managed much better these days, with treatments that could minimise the more distressing symptoms, it was still fatal in most cases. Her doctor had solemnly given her the bad news only last week, there was nothing more modern treatment could do, she needed to prepare herself for rapid deterioration. 

"How long have I got?"  

Dr Cheltenham had looked at her with sympathy and cleared his throat. "Not long, a few weeks." 

She had stumbled out of the building, her chest tight with fear for Dominic. What would happen to him? She had wasted precious time, fooling herself the disease would stay under control, now she had to contact his father whether she wanted to or not, if only she hadn't left it too late. Given his occupation when she last saw him, the chances were likely he wasn't even on the planet.

Now she sat at her desk, the console unit in front of her, desperately searching for the man she had last seen six years ago. She smiled bitterly to herself as she remembered how aloof she'd been, waiting for the right man, determined not to make the same mistake her mother had made and fall for a wickedly handsome face with no substance behind it. She had been more like her mother than she thought. It had taken just one smile and she was lost. 

She remembered his name and his face as clearly as if it were yesterday, and if she hadn't, Dominic's features were a constant reminder. She had never tried to find him before, never kept an eye out to see what he was doing, what he had made of himself, it was hardly as if they'd ever been close.  

In fact, they had known each other for exactly one night. She wondered if he would even remember her. She wondered how he would feel when she told him he had a son. 

XXX 

He looked at the child through the one way glass. He'd wanted to get a look before they met, before he made up his mind what he was going to do about him. The boy came into the room holding the carer's hand, pressed against her side, his wide eyes looking around defiantly, wondering what was going to happen to him next. He was wearing red shorts and a blue teeshirt with a spaceship hologram on it. 

The man stared at the small face. There was no doubt whose son he was. Well truthfully, as soon as he had seen the DNA report on the console unit he had known with his head, but he had wanted to see for himself. Presumably he had his mother's hair, but the face ... 

"I'll take him," he told the woman at his side. "I'll take full responsibility for him. Make the necessary arrangements would you?"