Mouse
Mouse ran to the bathroom and threw up into the toilet bowl. Dry heaves continued as her head hung down, thanking god her hair was short in the small portion of her brain that wasn't occupied with how ill she felt. Fafnir padded in after her and nudged the door closed.
Mouse? She kept trying to throw up her stomach, coughing on bitter bile. Fafnir waited for her spasms of retching to slow down, lookinh worried. Me and Bets have noticed something...
What? Mouse sat by the side of the toilet and shivered miserably as she wiped her mouth with some tiolet paper, not wanting to use her shirt.
You smell...different lately.
So? She got up and washed her mouth out, then dryretched for a few moments. That left her feeling even shakier. She clutched the edge of the sink desperately. Why hadn't she got her period yet? It was usually as regular as clockwork. She should have had it five days ago...
Bets thinks you're going to have puppies. She turned around slowly, suddenly feeling the bottom out of her universe and the world slowed down. Then it sped up again.
"I'm what?"
Pregnant.
"Oh god. That's what I thought you said." Her fear reached new heights and she broadcast unknowingly along her link with Taylor. She started to shake violently, eyes wide and staring.
Mouse? Fafnir moved forward cautiously, and then Mouse fell over in a dead faint, hitting her head on the corner of the sink as she crumpled to the ground. TAY! He licked at her face and the scent of blood hit his nostrils. TAY!
Taylor
Taylor was in the recreation room sitting at the grand piano when a dizzy spell suddenly caused him to fall from the stool.
He bounced back up in shock, staring straight ahead.
"Ok, what the heck was that?!"
Mya had fallen from his shoulder, so he quickly bent to retrieve the baby fuzzle.
Then he heard Fafnir's calls.
"Oh no..." he began, "not Mouse..."
He dashed from the room, upstairs, and to the bathroom where he found his girlfriend and the wolf.
"Jane?!" he cried, falling to his knees and pulling her into his lap.
He began to pet her face, trying to wake her up.
Mouse
Mouse shot up and latched both hands onto Fafnir's ruff, almost falling out of Taylor's lap. "Please, dear god, please tell me you're joking! Tell me that you're lying, please, oh, please!"
I'm sorry, Mouseling. Fafnir said sadly. I'm not. Bets is right, I can smell it as well. Now that she pointed it out. A whine of emphatic terror bubbled in Mouse's throat.
Taylor
Now that Mouse was awake, Taylor was starting to feel sick again... he should have known it was her.
"Mouse?" he frowned a little, taking her shoulder then running his hand down her face as his eyes searched hers.
"What's up? What happened?"
Mouse
Mouse shook hard, eyes wide and frightened as she curled in around her stomach, hands pressed flat against it. She started to cry. "Ohgodohgodohgodohgod..."
Mouse, please, calm down. Fafnir nudged his head into her side. Not that bad...
"NOT THAT BAD?!" She shrieked before lowering her voice. "I haven't even had *sex* and now I find out I'm pregnant?! To what? With what?! Who the hell knows what kind of *experiment* those sick bastards decided to run with my body as a living breathing incubator!"
Taylor
Taylor opened and closed his mouth for a moment like a fish, a wave of both fear and anger hitting him like a rock.
"Oh, oh my God," he began, before pulling her up into his arms again.
"Mouse? Mouse? Do you remember? Anything like that? Do you remember how it was done?"
Mouse
"I don't know!" Mouse pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, more or less cowering into him. "I just don't know! I, I was so out of it most of the time, and so *glad* to be out of it. Didn't want to hu-urt anymore. They put my hands in these boxes, and it was so cold my fingers iced over. They put heated to white metal to my arm and side and watched while it burnt and I screamed. Wri-iting on their papers..." She wept harder as she remembered. "I wasn't even a person! I was, was nothing! Nothing at all! One time I blacked out and came to in my cell. Could've been then. Don't know. Don't know."
Taylor
"Sh... sh..." he hushed, holding her face in his hand, the other holding her around the waist.
He kissed her forehead.
"It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter... It happened. We can deal."
He glanced at Fafnir, then reached out to pull him into a huddle.
"If it was an experimental thing, it might not even survive. Unless they were..."
He hesitated.
"Unless they fertilised you with human sperm. That's probably what they've done."
He leant her back a little so he could wipe her face.
Mouse
"It's wrong," Mouse said flatly. "Babies aren't meant to be made this way. They're *not*."
I want to go back and kill them. Can we kill them? We could take the cats. The cats would be overjoyed. I want to rip into their stomachs and eat them before they die screaming. Fafnir said in an icy rage. Dear god, how I want to kill them.
"This is obscene..." Mouse whispered tiredly. "That they could do this to someone. To a child. I feel like I've been raped. But it's not the baby's fault. And what the hell do you tell a child? That their father was a testube and their mother was a girl who got turned into a science experiment?"
Taylor
"I don't know," Taylor shook his head sadly.
He turned to Fafnir and spoke in wolf only, so that Mouse couldn't understand.
"I fear, Fafnir, that simply killing these bastards is not what they deserve. To kill is to put out of misery. I think their's has just begun."
He wiped his own tears away, before kissing Mouse on the forehead again.
Mouse
"God, I'm so scared..." Mouse whispered. "I'm so very, very terrfied."
Fafnir licked her face comfortingly. We'll get through this. We always have. We always manage to survive.
"Good point."
Taylor
"There's nothing to be worried about," Taylor tried not to sound corny.
"Fafnir's right. We'll get through it. It'll just be like a normal pregnancy... it had to happen sometime," he chuckled sadly.
Mouse
"Yeah, but not like this..." Mouse wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "And we *don't* know that it's normal. We don't know anything about it. And because Vulpe destroyed the computers at the base, we don't have any way of finding out either."
Taylor
Taylor hesitated thoughtfully, his eyes searching the floor.
"Ok. I know it's going to worry you, so... We'll find out. I'm not sure how or when, but I will. I promise."
He kissed her again.
Mouse
Mouse turned white again and scurried to the toilet, dry heaves shaking her body. "Don't take that personally," she said weakly when she'd finished. "This just seemed to sneak up on me a few days ago."
Unpleasant, to say the least. Don't you wish you were a real wolf?
Shut the hell up. Mouse retched again. How do women go through this willingly? God, I feel so bad...
Taylor
"I understand," Taylor nodded, "I'm only the second out of seven, remember?"
He went over to her to help her sit down, then touched the back of his hand to her forehead.
"It's ok. It'll work out. The first time you look into that little baby's eyes you won't regret a thing," he smiled softly.
Mouse
"God, I hope so," Mouse said miserably. She placed a hand on her stomach. "This was so not planned at all. Goddamn those miserable xenophobic bastards to hell."
That's where they're going. Fafnir growled. I wish I could help them there.
Taylor
"I believe you can and will, Fafnir," Taylor said in wolf, a slight glare in his eyes not meant for Fafnir.
"Believe me. I've seen it. You'll love him or her with all your heart," he cupped her chin in his hand, "and you'll think it's worth it. If you don't, you're free to hit me."
Mouse
Mouse giggled slightly. "I don't think I could do that..."
You hit me all the time.
Yeah, but you deserve it. And it's different for wolves.
Puppies, Mousey, puppies. Fafnir pressed his nose against her bellyy and inhaled. Who cares how we got them? They're gonna be great.
"Ya think?"
They're coming from you, aren't they? They won;t have a choice.
Mouse smiled.
Taylor
"He's hit the nail on the head right there," Taylor grinned, "couldn't have said it better myself. Unless of course, I used French."
He wiggled his eyebrows slightly, glad that the mood was lightening.
"And hey, if you need help... apart from the obvious... most of us have been through this quite a few times. We'll be here for you, always."
He kissed her forehead again.
Mouse
"You dont know how long I've wanted someone to say that and mean it," Mouse said, eyes glimmering with tears. "I love you so much, Tay."
Oh, you are sappy. Mouse glared at the wolf and he grinned unrepentantly. Gotcha.
"You're evil."
But I'm yours.
"Only thing that saves you sometimes." Mouse looked at Taylor. "What do we tell your family?" She asked quietly. "More to the point, how do we tell them? Avery will be able to pick it out of my head, I know. My shields...they aren't what they used to be."
Taylor
"I think we should keep it between us for the time being. Avoid Avery for a while. I'll catch up her and mention it quietly just in case she blabs the moment she realizes."
He ran his fingers through her hair.
"We'll work it out. Meanwhile, I think we should think about getting our own place again."
MOuse
"Whatever you think is best." Mouse felt numb. This was all just too much. "I want to get our own place too. I just...it's..." She chewed her lip. "They look at me with pity. You don't. I don't like pity."
Taylor
"Why reminise on the past when all you're living for is the future?" Taylor began, "Pity is for the sole purpose of dwelling on the past. It's not going to get you through anything, more stop you in your tracks."
He ran his fingers through his hair.
"I have been looking for a place. I'm just trying to find the right location. You know... enough animals nearby that don't hunt too often," he chuckled.
Mouse
"I'm so tired of death...Vulpe...she didn't understand." Mouse shook her head. "She didn't know how it would hurt me. She couldn't. We barely had a chance to talk, really."
Taylor
"We should track her down again sometime. It was cool talking to someone in a different language who didn't have Tongue," Taylor chuckled, "as you can probably guess, Italian isn't really that common around here."
He sat back beside her, leaning on one arm, the other holding Mouse to him.
Mouse
"She went to New Orleans...her father arranged for her to train with Gambit's father," Mouse said distractedly. "I thionk I'm gonna go back to bed...and die quietly." She got to her feet with Taylor's help and walked slowly back down the hall to his bedroom and fell into bed. Bets and Fafnir soon gor aroun her and Mouse sighed, and fell asleep. Tired out emotionally, mentally and physically.