Tin Roof Rusted

Posted on Wed Nov 27th, 2019 @ 6:05pm by Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake

1,028 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: S1E4: The Hills Have Eyes
Location: Commandant's Quarters | Overwatch Station
Timeline: MD 1

One of the worst feelings in life was when your body awakened mere minutes before its regularly scheduled time. For Jaya, that feeling was mitigated by a surprising but not unwelcome feeling. She was not alone inside her body. It was one thing to bond with another through her empathy, and this feeling was not totally dissimilar. However, the budding feeling of life did not come from without, but from within.

Her body had awakened her to tell her she was pregnant.

The realization came with a rush of emotions. Surprise. Anxiety. Hope. Joy. It was a veritable yin-yang of diverse feelings that ebbed and flowed into each other. Clinically, Jaya knew she was experiencing the psychological metamorphosis that accompanies the gestational period--a requisite mental shift that would encompass the hormonal and biological changes that her body would face. Deep inside, though, it felt inhumane to process her own life through academic terms. One's own life was meant to be lived, not diagnosed from a false third-person perspective. She and Storr had discussed this, planned for it. And, on this normal, inauspicious morning, it was here.

Looking over to Storr, she saw her sleeping giant dead to the world, his strong limbs once wrapped around her now loose and flopped in a heap. She couldn't wait to tell him.

"Storrrrrr," she quietly catcalled into his ear. When he didn't stir, she traced her fingernail around his ear and down his neck. "Stoooorrrrr...."

The Afrikaner grunted something not too unlike "Fee Fi Fo Fum" as he playfully swatted away his wife's hand. "Woman, I was having a completely excellent dream until you up and ruined it," he said with a chuckle and cracking one eye. His Deltan bride veritably glowed and he instinctually reached out to take her into his arms. Kissing her bald head (which was something that he loved though wasn't sure he'd ever get completely used to), he opened the other eye and whimsically let out a breath. "So what deserves waking your man from his slumber, hmm?"

Jaya cocked her head, at least as best she could while gathered in his arms, and reveled in the question. There were so many ways to tell him. How could she choose?

"Guess," she said coyly. As always, she decided to make him work for it.

Garlake huffed and puffed as he rolled his eyes. "You little minx...alright, alright. Let's see..." He stroked his beard as he attempted to look as thoughtful as possible; she might as well get as good as she's giving. "Biltong & droewors in the observatory cafeteria this morning? Mullins drew another male anatomy member in the briefing room again? My mother called? No, wait...your mother called? You want to spot me at the gym this morning? You changed your makeup? Hmm..." he trailed off with a widening smile as he watched Jaya shake her head more and more as his guesses continued to amount to nothing.

"Do you really think I would wake you up to tell you any of that?" Her eyebrow arched clear to her forehead as her lip made a pout. "You're not even trying, are you? Fine. I'll give you a hint." Jaya placed a thoughtful finger on her chin and looked to the ceiling. "One and one together makes two, but you and me together make three." As she said the words, her mouth spread in a wide beaming grin.

"You..." Storr began, propping himself up on his elbow to fully take in the coy woman now in his shadow. "You're pregnant?! Jaya, that's incredible news!"

Garlake couldn't contain himself as he swept the Deltan into his arms and squeezed her mightily, kissing her with great aplomb. He released her (only barely) to take her back into his arms again for another mighty kiss. "Ha hah! I'm going to be a father!"

"And you, my Boervrou, are going to be the greatest mother this quadrant has ever seen."

Jaya squealed in delight at the treatment, but soon adopted a look of mock offense. "This quadrant? My love, I insist on being the Queen Mother of the Universe!" Her playful demeanor rose back up just a tick. "I am carrying your child, after all. Of course, the doctor still needs to confirm it, but..." She ran her hand across her womb. "A Deltan knows."

Storr guffawed and lifted Jaya's uniform shirt up to kiss her smooth, bare stomach. "I'll do what a man can and that it is all, my Love." His eyes suddenly lit as he stood, extracting himself from her fingers entangled in his hair. "My parents...YOUR parents..." He winked with a smile. "Hopefully heart attacks don't run in the family."

"This was a foregone conclusion in my family," Jaya said, bracing her womb with her hands and staring down in wonder. "It is, in part, why Ambassador Kontos resisted our union as well. He claimed Deltan responsibility for not ensnaring sexually inferior races with our wiles, never realizing the primitive bigotry that represented." She looked back to Storr and beamed at him. "Our child puts the lie to such prejudice because our love created life. It wasn't so long ago that I feared the reverse... and yet." Her eyes fluttered as her gaze picked up where her words trailed off. Language failed to frame such sentiments with mere words. At length, she said, "Here we are."

Storr reached out and lifted up Jaya's chin with his fingers, looking deeply in her eyes. "And there's no other place I'd rather be. With you." Their reverie was broken, however, by the always anxious voice of their Vulcan Field Leader. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, he continued.

"And with that, the two lovers were torn apart. Continue this later? That's assuming, of course, I don't get thrown out for being completely and uncharacteristically overjoyed."

Jaya chuckled at the thought. "I guess I'd better get over to Sickbay and have the doctor officially declare me pregnant. Wouldn't want you to get written up for a failure to keep a straight face for no reason!"

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