Epilogue – Taran
Epilogue
Taran
I knew I was speeding, and I shouldn’t have, but all I could think about what my wife, and how much I wanted to hold her after I’d been away on a job for a week. We texted every day, and I called her once in the morning, and again before she went to sleep, but it was far from enough. The longing I felt was deep. Painful. The past two nights had been hard, especially. During the day, I was busy with my client, but at night, all I had to do was stand guard at his door and think about Thea.
The house came into view. The trepidation I felt was making me feel high. I activated the gate with the remote, pulled the car into the driveway and jumped out, turning my feet into roots so I could walk faster.
Since Thea and I had moved in together a month ago, after eloping, with Fiona and Thea’s brother as our witnesses, I’d gotten used to living in the city, driving a car, and looking more or less human the majority of the time. It was so I could fit in her world, and even if it was hard sometimes, it was worth it. At home, with her, I could be myself. The house I’d bought was spacious, with a tall ceiling, and a beautiful garden in the back, all surrounded by a tall fence. The centerpiece of the garden was, of course, a nest.
I rushed up the steps that led to the front door. It was unlocked, and I was going to lecture Thea about it. Again. Even though this was a quiet neighborhood and there was a gate with an intercom, she was too trusting. She also refused to hire a maid – someone to help her around the house and spend time with her when I was gone. She’d said she wanted to do everything herself for a change. Live a normal life. I just wanted her to be happy and safe.
“My flower, I’m home!”
We’d texted an hour ago, and she’d said she was going to cook herself dinner and wait for me, so she wouldn’t eat alone. So, I wasn’t surprised the house smelled of food, but it was a little strange, because I could also detect smoke. Thea wasn’t the greatest cook, as she’d said herself, but she usually didn’t burn things. I rushed into the kitchen, not expecting to find her there. She was probably somewhere else in the house, and she’d left something in the oven.
“This doesn’t smell right.” The leaves covering my body tried to shrink away from the smoke, but it was impossible. Whatever was in the air, I always absorbed.
I hurried to turn off the oven and take out whatever was inside. The pot burned the tips of my branches. I winced and dropped it on the stove.
“Taran?”
I turned and looked around, but she wasn’t there.
“Thea?”
“Over here. Ugh...”
Her voice was coming from the other side of the kitchen island. I went around it and froze when I saw my wife on the floor, curled into a tight ball. She’d been here all along, and I hadn’t seen her!
“What happened?” I was at her side in an instant, trying to see where she was hurt. “Did you slip and fall?”
“No. I... ugh... Oh my God, Taran, it hurts so bad.”
“What? What hurts?”
She was holding her stomach.
“I don’t know. Inside. I feel sick. Nauseated. I think I fainted.”
“How long have you been lying here?”
“I don’t know. Not long.”
“Did you hear me come inside?”
“N-no. I don’t think so. I think came back to it when you banged the pot on the stove.”
“I didn’t...” It was irrelevant. Even better if I banged the pot, if that was the sound that had brought her back to consciousness, so she could call for me. “Okay, we need to go to the hospital.”
“Okay, yes. I don’t like hospitals, but something is seriously wrong.”
“Here, let me help you up.”
I lifted her gently, and she held on to me with one arm while her other hand was busy applying pressure to her stomach. I didn’t know if that was a good idea, as I didn’t know what was wrong with her, but if her instinct said to apply pressure, I wasn’t going to stop her. Even in my arms, she curled into a tight ball.
“Hurry up,” she said. “It’s like something is trying to tear me apart from the inside.”
“Did you eat something bad?” I carried her out of the house and helped her into the car, then jumped in the driver’s seat.
“No.”
“Okay. We’ll figure it out. You know we always do.”
She groaned in response. She was in too much pain to talk.
The next hour was a blur. We got to the ER, had to wait for twenty minutes, which drove me absolutely insane, then finally a doctor was ready to see her.
The doctor was a middle-aged human woman. She wore her hair in a tight bun and looked severe at first sight, but when she introduced herself to Thea, she gave her the warmest smile.
“I’m Dr. Sheffield. I’m sorry you had to wait,” she said. “I’m the only human doctor on call this evening, and things are a bit hectic.”
It was a hospital for both humans and monsters. A nurse came in, and I noticed she had hooves instead of feet. She looked at Thea, who was in a wheelchair.
“I’ll bring someone to help you on the examining table,” she said.
“No need,” I hurried to stop her. I’d seen the two golems who were in charge of moving patients as needed. “I can do it.”
“Are you sure? You don’t have to.”
“Absolutely. She’s my wife.”
The nurse raised her hands and smiled. Seeing how she was a monster herself, I expected her to understand why I didn’t want anyone else touching my mate. Compared to humans, monsters were possessive.
“All right,” the doctor said. “Tell me everything, Thea.”
There wasn’t much to tell, though. Thea had had a normal day, then a few minutes before I came in, she felt a stabbing pain in her lower belly and fainted because of the pain. Hearing that, I was truly worried for her, because I knew how strong she was. What could’ve caused her such horrible pain that she’d fainted from it?
The doctor started examining her and asking more questions. After a few minutes, she suggested an ultrasound. For that, Thea needed to be moved into another examining room, and again I refused to let anyone else help her. Carrying her wherever she needed was my duty.
She was nervous. When the doctor squirted gel on her stomach, Thea looked away and reached for my hand. I squeezed her fingers and bent down to kiss her knuckles. I was in the most human shape I could achieve, so I wouldn’t occupy too much space.
“What do we have here?” The doctor sounded surprised. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” She realized that was the wrong thing to say when both Thea and I were worried sick, and added quickly, “Of course, that’s because this is the first time I see a human and a leshy together.”
Thea turned to her. “What do you mean? What is it?”
“My dear, it appears you are pregnant.”
“No! I can’t be.”
“We have the proof right here.” The doctor turned the screen towards us.
We both saw it. Not it. Him or her. Our baby was a tiny little thing, curled up in a membrane inside Thea’s womb. I was in shock. That was my seed. It had grown and evolved into a new life.
“But you don’t understand,” Thea insisted. “I would’ve known. I had my period just last week.”
“Well, I think it’s safe to say this pregnancy is different. You’ll have to give me more details about how... um... well, about how it works between the two of you. I mean...”
“Sex?” I asked. “How the sex works between us? That’s personal.”
“Not when you made this woman pregnant, and we don’t know anything about it.”
She said it in a way that made me feel guilty. Like I shouldn’t have put my seed inside Thea when the consequences were completely unknown. She was right. As much as I hated telling her what happened in our marital bed, she had to know every detail, in case Thea was in danger. A human birthing a leshy seedling was unheard of. Frankly, I hadn’t thought it was possible. I wasn’t sure what I’d thought. Maybe I wasn’t thinking at all, too blinded by my own lust for my wife, by my crushing desire to possess her fully.
Thea’s sharp scream pulled me out of my guilt-induced trance. She curled up again, protecting her still flat belly.
“I know it hurts,” the doctor said, “But we need to see. Come on, be strong. Let’s see what happened just now.”
Thea nodded with tears in her eyes. The nurse shooed me away, since I was useless, and helped her relax and lie back down on the examining table.
The screen showed the seedling moving in its membrane. Apparently, it had just stabbed Thea with a little hand. Or twig.
“Fascinating,” the doctor said.
The nurse was stunned as well.
“The little one is moving, that’s all. Nothing to worry about. This is normal.”
“But it hurts so bad,” Thea said. “How can it be normal?”
“It hurts because I’m assuming your baby is not like a human baby, soft and squishy. If you know what I mean. Your baby’s limbs are hard. Like wood.” She looked up at me, and once again, I felt guilty. But then she gave me the warmest smile, and I dared to think she wasn’t actually mad at me, just concerned about her patient. “Congratulations! You’re going to be parents!”
Thea chuckled bitterly. She bit her lip and looked at me with apologetic eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m happy, but it hurts so bad.”
“Well, the little one will be doing a lot of moving in the next few weeks,” the doctor said as she started wiping Thea’s stomach with a paper napkin. “We’ll have to find a way to make this pregnancy manageable for you. Unfortunately, I don’t have a solution right now. My advice is to spend tonight in the hospital, and I will bring in a few experts in human-monster pregnancies, and together, I’m sure we’ll come up with something.”
“Do you think it’s possible to bring this baby to term?” Thea asked.
“Absolutely. Now the question is, what does ‘to term’ mean? We will have to do some research into leshy pregnancies and see how long gestation usually lasts. One thing’s for sure, we will have to monitor you closely, and when the baby is ready, we’ll have to perform a c-section. If the little one decides to grow little twigs, then I’m afraid there’s no way you can have a natural birth.” She once again shot me a look, and the branches on my head shortened a few inches. That made her laugh. “It’s going to be okay.”
We spent the night in the hospital, and I never left my wife’s side. A bunch of doctors and nurses came to see her, and all of them had questions. Some of them had suggestions. By morning, Thea was exhausted and hadn’t managed to get much sleep. The seedling moved a few more times, causing her extreme pain. At some point, she started singing to herself, like she’d done in the forest, when she’d thought she was alone.
“Hey,” she said after singing softly for the better part of an hour. “I think the singing calms it down.”
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t know. I’ll have to keep singing and see.”
Because of Thea’s delicate condition, we’d been given a private room. She sang all morning, and when Dr. Sheffield came to check on her, Thea insisted that her theory was correct. The seedling was soothed by her singing.
“Well, there you go! I’ve always said it: a mother knows. Now let me tell you what we found out.” She was talking about herself and the other doctors who’d worked all night on our case. “We brought in a leshy consultant, and with her help, we concluded that in about four to five weeks, it is safe to perform the c-section. Aren’t you happy? Two months instead of nine! I’d say that’s quite impressive.”
Thea squeezed my hand. She had tears in her eyes, but they were tears of happiness. We thanked the doctor, and she said it was safe for us to go home. We would keep in touch. She wanted to monitor Thea’s case personally and closely.
“A baby,” Thea whispered when we were back home. She was comfortably settled on the couch with a hot cup of tea I’d just made for her. “This is unbelievable.”
“A seedling,” I said.
She laughed. “Sure, that works too.”
I sat down and pulled her feet into my lap. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“For putting you in this situation. For being irresponsible.”
“Don’t say that. I’m not sorry.”
“I didn’t expect you to get pregnant. I thought... I don’t know, I thought your body would reject the seed. That it would absorb it or push it back out, or something. It was stupid.”
She smiled and nudged me with her foot. “I’m glad that didn’t happen. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to give you babies and look at us now. We’re going to be parents in five weeks!”
Five weeks. That wasn’t a lot of time to build a nursery. I was going to wait for Thea to fall asleep, then start on the project.
The most important project of my life.