The Rain: The End, Marietta Standlee [year 7 reading list TXT] 📗

His eyes are warm and crinkle with his love for me. A tentative smile turns his lips upward. "Viv, this is good news." He says softly.

I swallow. "Is it?" I ask in a shaking voice. I look at Doctor Pheng. "How long? I mean, how far…."

She looks a little uncomfortable, and a feeling in my gut tells me there is more. A lot more. "Just spit it out." I encourage.

Colin has taken my hand again but holds something akin to a dreamlike stance on his expression that just doesn't seem to fit him.

"From your symptoms, tired, throwing up, you should be in your second trimester, but I also know that you took the depo shot."

I nod vigorously and interrupt, "Yes, Colin gave me another one a week before… Ka abducted me."

"That's why I had the lab do a cell count on your pregnancy hormones, which gives us a better idea of the length of your pregnancy." She hesitates again, and I let out an impatient sigh.

Her head swivels from Colin to me, "The results are a little confusing. I need to do another blood test, and I promise after that one, we'll have more information."

Colin shakes his head. "What are you looking for? What are you suspecting?"

I'm beginning to freak out. "When Ka gave me that shot, he couldn't have impregnated me, could he?"

"He injected you in the arm, you said?" She makes sure.

"Yes." My voice is low and apprehensive.

She shakes her head, "I don't know much about alien technology or anything, but that sounds highly unlikely."

I start to hyperventilate. "I don't want an alien baby."

Colin sits up in his bed, he's still in pain, but he pulls me towards his chest. "What are you suspecting, doc?"

"Without digging into your… private…. sex life—you need to understand that male sperm cells can stay alive inside the uterus for about five days. So, when Ka gave you the fertility shot, it could be that your body ejected several eggs. The depo shot could have built a uterine wall which was never meant to receive a fertilized egg." She rubs her forehead. "I think what happened to you was… the perfect storm, I don't have another word for it."

"So, she could have gotten pregnant from when we had sex before she was taken, or right after?" Colin confirms.

I hit Colin in the arm. I know exactly what he's thinking; he doesn't have to spell it out, which of course, he does. "Super-sperm," he mumbles, and I hit him again.

"What about the blood reading? What is off, doc?" Colin asks directly.

"We'll know more when I take another sample because the way the cells multiply within twenty-four hours gives us a better idea. For right now, though, I suspect we are dealing with multiple fetuses."

If possible, Colin's face turns even smugger. "Twins?"

She nods carefully. "Yes…. or more."

I get sick again and make another run towards the bathroom. My head swims. Pregnant? Multiples?

Colin is by my side in no time. "We got this, pukie, don't worry."

Even his stupid nickname can't make me smile. I feel devastated, and my mind is a regular kaleidoscope. Too many things run through it. I'm eighteen, and I'm pregnant with multiples.

All I want to do is go out and fight the aliens, not sit at home and mind babies. Please don't get me wrong, I love babies; I always saw myself having children one day. But that one day was also always very abstract.  I don't want it to be today.

"Viv, it'll be okay." Colin tries to reassure me.

I turn on him furiously, "That is easy for you to say, you're not going to be the one tied up at home, wherever that might be, watching kids." I take a deep breath, my anger far from over; I'm just getting started. "Oh no, you're going to be the one running around while I have to sit at home, not only worried about you but bored to death."

I end my tirade with a mighty harrumph for good measure. His eyes still sparkle with glee as he tries to fold me into his arms, but I sidestep his attempt. He looks amused, raising my ire even more.

"Is this what you're worried about? That you'll have to stay home?" He asks.

I give him my best duh look, and he sighs loudly. "Viv, I'll give you my word, I won't leave you behind."

He sees my dubious expression and continues. "Viv, I promise you that I'll be with you, by your side, no matter what. We'll find a way, I swear, we always do."

That's when I start to cry—big fat tears of devastation. But also, for love; and for Colin and me. This is not what we wanted, at least not at this point. This is something that was forced on us by the Gorongiath we hate. Tentatively I touch my still flat stomach. But… these are our babies, Colin's and mine. The timing might suck, but it happened. And we'll deal with it; Colin is right. We'll deal with it like we dealt with everything else the aliens have thrown at us. And we'll come out swinging and winning. I swallow and fall into Colin's arms. "I love you, Colin Thornton."

He inhales me deeply before answering. "I love you, Vivian, and those little critters inside of you."

Chapter 3

The next year passes in a dreamlike state, sometimes happy, sometimes nightmarishly boring.

Turned out I was pregnant with triplets. The perfect Storm, Doctor Pheng called it. The perfect Blessing, Colin calls it. Me? I'm not so sure. There are moments I cursed the little monsters inside of me, and then there are moments when I'm happy and content. One thing didn't change though, I started puking from day one, and I didn't stop until the babies were delivered one month too early.

Doctor Pheng put me on bedrest the same day we found out I was carrying triplets, something about the uterus lining that she didn't like. She said she was worried it hadn't grown plush