Zac and Julie
"Well, baby is fine," Lora said.
"Oh good," Julie answered
"There's just one more thing. I have a visitor for you."
"Oh?"
Lora opened a nearby door.
"Zac, you can come in now."
"Zac?"
Zac walked in and gave Julie a smile.
"Hey," he said. "Betcha didn't expect to see me here."
"You could say that."
"How's baby?"
"Healthy. What are you doing here?"
"Well, I have something important to tell you. And I had to tell you in person. And your parents don't like me so I couldn't just show up anywhere."
"I see. So... what is it?"
"What is what?"
"What is it you have to tell me?"
"You have to promise not to hate me first."
"No."
"What?" Zac looked panicked.
"Whatever it is, if you have to make me promise not to hate you, it must be pretty bad. So I think I'll reserve judgement."
Zac opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.
"Well, ahh, that's a matter of perspective..."
"Zac? Stop procrastinating."
Zac took a breath.
"Julie, you're having my baby."
Julie stared at him.
"Excuse me?"
"It's my fault you're pregnant."
"Whatever made you come to that conclusion?"
Julie was sure she had been careful. She hadn't told anyone! How could he know?
Zac took a deep breath.
"Well, see, this is the thing... please don't freak out. I'm an alien."
Julie eyed him for a moment. Then laughed.
"Oh very good Zac, you almost had me going there for a second."
"No, I mean it," Zac insisted. "My species is called Dathrian. We're all capable of atom manipulation and we all have a specialty power. Mine is temperature."
"Sure, sure," Julie smiled.
"You want proof? I'll give you proof," Zac said.
He pulled out an ice tray and a bottle of water. He then poured the water into the ice tray. Concentrating... the water turned into ice.
"Cute trick, Zac."
Zac then melted it. And then caused it to boil. Julie frowned - she could feel the heat of that.
"For this water to be boling, the tray should be melting," Zac said. "But I'm using my power to keep it cool so Mom doesn't kill me when I get home."
Julie gulped. Zac cooled the water to room temperature and looked her in the eyes.
"One of our... err... mutual friends is an alien too. She found out about the sonograms not working and remembered an article she read about this power called Stealth. Stealth means that they don't emit sounds unless they want to, and they can blend into their environment. Your - our - baby has this - that's why the sonograms wouldn't work. Our friend did some checking and well... I'm the only alien you've slept with. So baby must be mine," he took her hands in his. "I'm so sorry."
Julie just stared at him. Zac chewed his lip.
"Julie? Say something."
Julie looked around the room wildly. And she spotted Lora.
"You know?" she whispered.
"I'm Dathrian too," Lora replied. "I have Healing."
"Izzy referred you... oh man... is she? Is she?"
"She's Semirellian," Zac answered. "Umm, Semirellians and Dathrians are related, kinda like Vulcans and Romulans in Star Trek."
"I... I see..."
Julie pulled her hands out of Zac's and covered her face for a moment.
"So... so... so basically what you're telling me is that I'm having an alien baby."
"A Dathrian/Human hybrid. There's lots of them around. Heck, Ike is dating one," Zac frowned. "I think you moved before you could meet Miette. She lives in England."
Julie nodded slowly.
"Sometimes hybrids have powers, and sometimes they don't. Obviously ours does. Actually it's really good that we know what power baby has. It can be really insane trying to figure it out, especially when he or she is developing their power and stuff is happening that you don't know how to deal with. Oh dang, I'm scaring you, aren't I?" Zac fell back on the floor. "I'm so sorry, Julie. Really, I am."
There was silence for a time.
"Zac? I don't hate you," Julie said softly. "And I have my own confession to make. I... I knew you were the father."
Zac stared at her.
"What?"
"I knew you were the father."
"You did? And you didn't tell me?"
"You didn't tell me this! Would you have ever told me?"
"Probably not. But Julie! You would have denied me the chance to be a dad?"
"Zac, the last thing I wanted was for you to get all... doting."
"Doting!"
"Oh come on, I know what you're like. I suppose your next idea is to ask me to marry you?"
"No, no I wasn't going to say that."
"You were probably saving that for another occasion huh? Alien stuff first, then propose."
"Julie..."
"And besides, if this got out it would probably screw up your career -"
"I don't care about that -"
"We won't work out, Zac. We both know we're terrible for each other. If we got married, we'd end up in divorce, and you know it."
Zac stared at her for a moment.
"Julie... I know this. Believe me, I know. But even if that kind of relationship wouldn't work out, you're still my friend. And this is still my baby too. And if I'm going to be a father, then I want to be a dad too."
"You mean that?" Julie asked after a pause. "Because I refuse to be accused of trapping you or some stupid crap like that."
"Yes, I do."
"Good. Because alien hybrid or not, you're in or you're out. If you want to be a dad to this child, then you're in it for the long haul, understand? I don't want you just skipping out."
"I wouldn't dream of it. In fact I... I wanna start a trust fund for our baby."
"Pardon?" Julie asked in surprise.
"A trust fund. You can even take that as my guarentee that I wanna hang around," Zac said. "And I want to do everything I can to help too. I talked to Mom and Dad. We can rearrange the basement and you can live with us there. That is... if you want..."
Julie gaped. Her head was swimming.
"You... you would... you would do all that?"
"Yes."
"I, ahh, I will have to think about it. But umm, if I... if I do decide to move... it'll have to wait until I'm eighteen. I'll never get out of Mom and Dad's thumb otherwise."
"That's fine," Zac replied. "Whatever you decide, I want to look after you."
"No," she pointed a finger at him. "I don't want you to 'take care of me'. I can -"
"Fine," he interupted. "Okay, I won't take care of you then. But I will take care of our child."
And for the first time since Zac showed up, Julie smiled.
"I can deal with that."
"And in the meantime," Lora put in. "I will give you some instruction on looking after an alien baby. It'll be just like looking after a human child, only with a few extra quirks."
Lora patted her stomach.
"I even have some material on the subject - been reading up on it for my own benefit. My little baby due in July."
There was some more talking and then Julie had to leave before her mother started coughing up a fuss.