Page 29 of His to Mate

“I was. I didn’t want to do it, but it was part of our training for that class. I had to do it. I knew I should have waited to take that class, but oh no, I had to go and get it out of the way.” Skye shook her head ruefully, and Ann smiled brighter.

“You’re like me, you like to face your problems head on. But I bet, like me, you had to think about it for a little while before you did it.”

“That’s exactly how I am. I’ll make a quick decision if I have to, but I’d rather have time to think about it. Then, I normally face the problem and get it out of the way. It’s better than worrying about it for the rest of my life, right?”

“Right. Which is why we’re headed out to see Meg. I have to know, even if it is still early. I can’t keep worrying like this, it’s stopping me from getting anything done.”

“I understand. It’s that hospital there, the one down to the left there.” There were two hospitals close together and Skye pointed out the correct one to Ann.

Ann guided the transporter down onto the rubble-strewn road between the two hospitals and turned it off. She looked at the building, once sparkling white with a red cross, but now faded to gray and pink. In the past, it had bustled with life as staff worked to save lives, but now, it was silent.

Ann had tried to ignore it since she left the bunker, but she had to admit now that most of the world was eerie. It was far too quiet without that hum of life from thousands, millions of machines, footsteps, and human voices. Sometimes, she thought she might still be in a nightmare of some kind, trapped in a coma that she couldn’t get out of. But she knew this was reality now, even if it unnerved her at times.

“I’ll show you where the lab is.” Skye took the lead and walked through the open doors of the hospital. What had once been the emergency entrance was now desolate and oddly lacked furniture. Had someone taken the chairs and tables that normally waited here with all the people that used them?

Despite the passage of time and lack of buffing machines, the floors still squeaked under Ann’s hiking boots and the brown loafers that Skye had on. She did note that the usual chill found in hospitals was gone, and that a new sound took the place of the hum of machines the hospital used to care for their patients. Ann listened but couldn’t make out what the noise was.

“What is that sound?” she finally asked as Skye led the way.

“Pigeons. We think they flew here from somewhere in the south. Well, somewhere warm, anyway. They just showed up one day. I’m not sure there was anywhere warm left, before the aliens came, but there must have been. They’ve got nests in one of the exam rooms, the window was broken so they must have got in through there.”

Ann could only shake her head and walk on. The idea that somewhere might have been warm still, unfrozen, hadn’t crossed her mind, but it was possible. There might have even been people there that waited it out. Rager hadn’t said anything, but she hadn’t really seen him in the last three days.

Which was another issue with this maybe-baby. Would he be at work all the time? Would she be left on her own, the token wife, with the token baby? She’d heard the reports about some of the alien men that didn’t want her to be with Rager, how they detested the idea of her having his child. How would they react to the news if she was pregnant with his child?

It was all too much to think about, and for the moment she decided, she’d focus on one thing. Was she pregnant or not? That was the main problem to focus on at the moment. The rest was irrelevant. She lifted her chin a little as she followed behind Skye, determined to see this through.

“Hi there!” Meg called out as they walked through a door ten minutes later. It was deep within the hospital on a lower level that they’d accessed through stairs. Nobody trusted elevators that had been hanging in place for five years through an ice age. Power or not, the elevators were scary without the proper inspections.

“Hi, Meg. I’ve brought Ann along to be our first patient if you’ve got the lab working?” Skye walked in and stood beside Meg. Meg had on a lab coat and her hair was pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail.

“It just so happens that it is. I’ve just got everything running, and it’s all in order. What can we do for you, Ann?” She turned to Ann, curiosity in her eyes.

“I, uh, I need a pregnancy test. One that works.” Ann showed her the bag she’d filled with pregnancy tests and shrugged. “Skye said these weren’t reliable anymore.”

“Skye was right, honey. Come over here and sit down. Sorry about the arm of the chair.” It was one of those chairs that you’d find in a phlebotomist’s lab, with a section that stuck out to support the patient’s arm while blood was drawn. “The weather wasn’t kind to this poor thing and the covering disintegrated. I’ve wrapped a blanket around it, so it won’t be so hard or scratchy.”

“It’s fine,” Ann said offhand, distracted by her thoughts. Needle, blood, results. “How long will it take to get the results?”

She looked up at Meg, the kindness in the other woman’s eyes almost brought tears to her eyes for some reason. Ann tried to blink them away, but it only made the moisture drop from her eyes. “Sorry, I seem to be weepy today.”

“It’s fine, Ann. Everybody reacts differently to this kind of test. I’ll have your blood out before you know it, and the results should be ready in an hour or so.”

“Alright. Good. So, I’ll know today then?” She looked up to see Meg washing her hands before she doused them in something that looked like vodka. Meg brought the bottle over and dabbed some of the liquid onto some gauze. She swiped the inside of Ann’s arm, placed the tourniquet, and started to look for a vein.

“Yes, you’ll know today. And yes, that’s vodka. I haven’t found a bottle of alcohol in the supply rooms yet. Most of them have alcohol swabs, but those are all dried up. You might feel a pinch.”

Ann hadn’t noticed Meg had opened a kit, but when she looked down, she saw the needle in her arm, blood a rush of red through a clear tube that ran into a vial. Her head swam for a moment and she looked away. She’d never been good with blood, but she didn’t want these two to know that. She was the de facto queen of the area, after all. “You will keep this quiet, won’t you?”

“Ann, we’re both aware of the danger you’re in,” Meg said without looking up, her concentration on the vial that now filled with blood. After a few more seconds, she took the vial away. The IV was removed and fresh gauze placed over the wound the needle left. “Neither of us will tell whatever we find out today. I promise you that. The aliens might make the law now, but we still respect our patients and the laws that used to govern us about them. They were there for a reason.”

“Thank you, Meg. I appreciate all of this. I really do. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.” Now, to wait for the results.