New life

[Jack_Henderson]

When Jack received the message, he could feel the rush of adrenaline in his body that made him drop everything that he had deemed important a second ago.

“I apologize, but I have to urgently leave this conference for private reasons. I’ll be a father soon, it seems…” he apologized to the gathering and rushes off without paying any attention to the reactions. They would figure out a way to deal with the topics that suddenly seemed very small and unimportant to him while he was rushing towards the elevators.

Fifteen minutes later he saw the shuttle on scanners that they would intercept for contraband allegations and escort it to Jakarta, Tau 39. Intercept vectors were updated by Falkland sensors when Jack ordered the course change. The pilots on this flight had been hand-picked to guarantee maximum security combined with discretion.

The interception was routine and luckily no Outcast vessels were close to decide to defend the smuggler or cause any incident that could have delayed or endangered his love and their baby. It took Jack all his will not to demand a direct line to the shuttle and request the status of Anna. From months of secrecy and covert communication, he knew that there had to be radio silence. For a few more minutes.

The wing crossed T23 fast and jumped into T39. Jack allowed himself to relax a little. A few hundred bad scenarios just had become a lot more unlikely.

“Set course to Jakarta. Jakarta, Dromedary has docking permission to MedBay 4. This is case Alpha-Bravo-Two-Two-Three, I repeat Alpha-Bravo-Two-Two-Three, we are just a little early.” he smiles when he remembers why he had chosen this codename to tell Medical on Jakarta about Anna’s arrival… “Alpha” for Anna. “Beta” for Blanca. “Two two tree” for “change two persons to three”.

Jakarta appeared on scanners, a minute later on visuals. Formation flight allowed him to keep an eye on the vessel that had the most important cargo on it that he ever escorted:

“Patrol Wing, return to your regular route. I am taking over this one. Good luck and thank you. I'll handle this one myself.” and the fighters turned off, leaving him and the ship alone next to each other: “You’ll be fine, Anna. Don’t worry.” and he felt another rush of excitement when he handled docking routines, messing up three Jakarta protocols from being so nervous, causing the docking operator to ask him whether everything was okay.

He missed Anna in the hangar even though he was running there, and also in the elevators and only caught up in the Medical Center when he arrived shortly after they had booked her in. A little breathlessly he arrives next to the floating bed on which Anna is being transported to the examination room. He could already see the room through the glass doors, prepared and ready to welcome its patient.

“Anna… I’m here. It’s going to be okay… love you.” he kisses her quickly, while he is keeping up with the moving bed…

"Ready to be a dad?" she replied with a small smile trying to hide her own worries. Her belly had become even bigger since they had met last time and she looks paler than normally.

"Trying hard to..." he admits with a smile, not completely hiding his anxiety about how things would go on: "... does it hurt bad?" he asks her while holding her hand and moving with the bed.

"I’ve been through worse" she replied rather vague, but Jack could read in her voice, her eyes, her whole appearance that it must be bad.

"They'll give you something against the pain... don't worry." he tries to calm her down, knowing that this was likely only the beginning. He tries to cheer her up: "We'll be a family soon..." and he massages her hand softly, while the door that would separate them is coming closer.

She squeezed his hand a little: "We got this far, don't worry." she replied, also encouraging herself.

"I know you can do it. Just... a little longer." he doesn't know what else to say. They had almost arrived at the door and the last thing he can say before their hands part: "I love you..."

"Love you too!" she said, calling after him when the doors slid open and then closed after the medical team and their patients passed.

Not knowing exactly what her status is, the medical team in charge of operation AB-223 did not take any risks. No one would be allowed past this point except those who needed to be there. A nurse told them that they would be informed about Anna’s status immediately after the initial examinations were completed and that they should relax and get themselves some coffee.

Jack felt in a fighting mood, but when the nurse told him that it would likely take many, many hours for a first birth and that he could be with her during that time and that she would need him much more then than now, he nodded. When the nurse was gone, he went to the coffee machine and got some for the whole party.

“Good to see you, Mrs. Blanca… thank you for your help. I… so much hope that everything goes well now…” he also nods to the security men that were following closely… “Thank you for keeping Anna safe. I owe you.” and feeling emotional, he hugs Annabel tightly, aware that it is Annabel’s daughter and also his own daughter that he would like to hold in his arms, but they were both in the examination room where the doctors were checking on the status of her and her baby’s health and how far the process had already progressed.

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