12 Days of Fic-Mas
Title: Breathing’s Just a Rhythm
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters: Roy Harper/Jade Nguyen, Zatanna Zatara
Warning(s): Language. Mentions of abortion.
Prompt: Roy/Jade pregnancy scare, zombie AU
For: us_overlooked
Notes: Everyone just wants me to write about zombies all the time. I don’t get it.
Zatanna was starting to get on Jade’s last nerve.
“Would you fucking stop that?”
Zatanna pulled her hand, the edges of her nail now run ragged, out of her mouth and shot Jade a glare. “Well someone has to be nervous. And don’t complain, you’re the one who asked me if I would hold your hand, and now you’ve got to deal with it.”
Jade actually was nervous, even though it ran deeper than that. The terror that a pink plus sign would bring was worse than when she had almost lost her sister last month. Firstly, because Jade had no idea how to be a mother, and secondly because the world had ended and post apocalyptic movies didn‘t exactly cover this shit. But it’s not like she was going to tell Zee that.
So instead she just smiled, and said, “I just needed you to come with me on the run to get the pregnancy test, don’t get ahead of yourself here.”
Zatanna rolled her eyes before starting to bite her nails again. The girl brought a bottle of nail polish on the run after the zombie apocolypse, but here she was ruining all of that. “How long is this supposed to take, again?” Jade asked, partly because she wanted to stop listening to Zee chew her fingers off and partly because she was sick and tired of this shit.
“Two more minutes.” She paused. “Oh God, Jade, what the hell are you going to do if it’s positive? It’s not like there are Planned Parenthood’s open anymore.”
Jade had thought about that. She’d inspected that idea carefully, from every angle, and had decided that it was too dangerous to try to abort the baby on her own. It would involve crashing into things or falling from high places, ideas that Jade didn‘t even want to consider. It’d almost be like suicide, in a way, and she was no quitter. Making it this far proved that.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to tell Roy,” Jade contemplated aloud, ignoring the shake of the other girl’s head. Zatanna had been all for telling Roy, but Jade knew her red headed archer, and she’d also known how tight the knot in his panties would get if she told him this. It was part of the reason that Zee was here instead of Artemis-Artemis might end up telling Wally, who would tell Roy, and then they’d all be up shit creek without a paddle. “I can’t hide this shit forever. But it doesn‘t really matter what he says because I’m going to do whatever I want.”
“And that is…?”
“I don’t know.” For a moment her uncertainty showed through, but Jade shut that door as quickly as it had opened. “Keep it, I guess. And blow up some more zombies. This kid’s first words are going to be ‘petroleum bomb’ if I have anything to say about it. I’ll carry it on my back like a koala and then it’ll grow up fighting the good fight.”
Before Zatanna could respond the timer-old and rusted as it was-croaked out a ting, announcing that the stick was ready. “Let me look first,” Zee said, and grabbed the cup holding Jade’s pee before she could. Whatever was on the stick made Zatanna’s breath intake, and Jade steeled herself for the worst. She could handle anything.
The cup was handed over wordlessly, and Jade looked.
”I guess next raid that we go on I’ll need to get Roy balloons that say ‘Congratulations, you AREN‘T a father, you asshole’ aren‘t I?”
A gray minus sign. Thank God. Jade let out a breath she hadn‘t been aware that she’d been holding. “I think you should go tell him now,” Zatanna continued, and even though Jade knew that she was right, she still rolled her eyes.
“Fine. But when he dies of a heart attack it’s not my fault, got it?”
Roy was fletching his arrows, and he didn‘t even notice when she walked into the room. Before saying anything Jade just watched him. Damn they would have made some great looking kids. Mostly from her side of the family, of course, but Roy wasn‘t all bad. His hair was okay.
He looked up after she’d been standing there for a few minutes. “Come in.”
“So guess what? Congratulations are in order.”
“What?” Roy looked confused, and there were feathers in his hair.
“You aren‘t a father! I think that deserves a celebration. Maybe we’ll steal some of Dick’s coffee and take a risk or two or five.”
“Jade, what the hell are you talking about?”
“Well you see, I haven’t had my period for two months. And that’s scary stuff, seeing as how we’ve been fucking just about every night, so I had to double check. But don’t worry, the only thing in your future that you have to clean up now is a cup of my pee.”
There was a pause, and Jade knew that Roy was about to blow like Mount Vesuvius. She really needed to get him a crown with sparkly letters spelling DRAMA QUEEN.
“…You had a fucking pregnancy scare and didn‘t even bother to tell me? What the hell, Jade? I think I would have deserved to know! What were you planning to do, hibernate for nine months?”
“Well I was going to tell you when I knew for sure. I didn‘t want you to go all Teen Dad on me and split or something. And don’t think that this means that you can go all Victor Virgin on me tonight either,” she added once she saw the look that crossed his face.
“I just can’t believe you didn‘t tell anyone.”
“Well, Zatanna knew. She’s the one who was there when I pissed on the stick.”
”Zatanna knew before I did?” He was getting really riled up now, and there was a small part of Jade that was laughing now. “What the fuck?”
“See, I knew you were going to react like this. That’s why I didn‘t tell you.”
That left him floundering. “Well…next time you get almost pregnant I need to be the first to know.”
Jade snorted at his lameness, but let it go. “Sure thing…if you’re the father.”