Sci-Fi Big Bang - Children Through Time - Elizabeth's Book
Title: Children Through Time - The Book of Elizabeth
Chapter: 2
Rating: R
Warning: Violence against a pregnant woman in this chapter.
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 2
She was scared. Caron was scared and didn’t know what to do. It had been days and she had not seen her Mum or Da, Uncle Owie, Uncle Jack or Auntie Tosh. Looking around her among the other sick kids, she didn’t even see Kaida, Gayle, the new baby Emiko or even Akira. She wished Akira was there. If it was both of them they would have found their Mums and Dads by now.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” the red-headed nurse asked, tucking a blanket up around her.
Caron pouted. Only her Mummy called her sweetheart, Mummy and Rhys. And the nurse didn’t have her blanket, she wanted her blanket, the one Granny made for her.
“She’s doing so much better,” The Blonde Woman said, sitting in a chair by Caron’s hospital bed. “The fever broke somehow. The doctor’s are amazed she pulled through.” The Blonde Woman smiled at her, but Caron only felt cross.
“Well, isn’t that good,” the nurse stated. She smiled at Caron. “Pretty soon you get to go home with your Mom and Dad.”
“She’s not my Mummy!” Caron let out a screech and buried herself under the blanket.
“Now, sweetheart, that’s not a nice thing to say,” the nurse said, trying to pull down the blanket.
Caron growled and held tight to the blanket, fighting the nurse.
“It’s all right,” The Blonde Woman said. “She’s been a little off since the infection, but she’ll be fine.”
“Okay then,” the nurse said, letting go of the blanket. Caron sill held tight to it.
“Oh, and I wanted to say thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” The Blonde Woman stated.
“For what?” the nurse questioned.
“The dragon pendant. What does it mean? Is it some kind of protection?”
“The pendant? Oh that. I didn’t give that to her.”
“Oh. Perhaps one of the other nurses maybe?”
“Maybe.”
Caron let out a nasty growl, wanting to scream at the grown-ups. She wanted to tell them how Rhys had picked it out ‘specially for her for her last birthday. She also wanted to tell them that she was sorry for kicking Rhys the last time she saw him. It was an accident, at least that’s what he told Mum. But then Mum was cross because Rhys had a big bruise on his leg, and then she left the Hub. Caron never saw any of them again. Dropping her chin to her chest, Caron started crying.
The Blonde Woman pulled the blanket down and pulled Caron to her, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Shhhhh... It’s okay, it’s all okay. Mommy’s here. Mommy will keep you safe.”
Maybe she should let Mommy keep her safe until Mum and Da came back. Mommy seemed nice. Caron fingered the red dragon pendant around her neck and closed her eyes.
Elizabeth slowly came to, letting out heavy groans. Her mind seemed to be swimming. Her fingers along her neck, she reached out with her other hand and found a cold, damp wall. The air tasted moist and seemed to land on her tongue with a hint of sulfur. Elizabeth’s eyes snapped open. Unable to focus, all she saw around her was blurs of dark and light shapes.
“Oh God,” Elizabeth huffed out, trying to keep from puking. “Oh crap. Oh God. Oh crap. Oh God,” she said, taking deep breaths in between each sentence, trying to get her eyes to focus.
Suddenly, right next to her ear, Elizabeth heard, “Dg, Dg, og, gd, orp, ocup, puc, rap, god, crap.”
She jumped as goosebumps marched up her arm and neck. Grasping at the wall, she moved away, willing her eyes to focus. Taking deep, heavy breaths, Eizabeth grimaced at the taste of sourness in the air. She squeezed her eyes shut and then slowl opened them, shapes beginning to take form.
“Help. Help me,” she whispered to no one in particular.
“Help? Help? Help?” something said in front of her in a stilted American Midwestern accent. Something didn’t seem right about how the words sounded.
Leaning her head against the cool wall, she saw the ceiling slowly come into focus. Above Elizabeth was a smooth silver ceiling with what looked like dozens of tiny shower heads in the shape of pugsters, those five-point flowers. There were two levels of the flowers, the lower level was a clear substance, and the upper level was some kind of black metal.
Elizabeth brought her head back down towards her chest and stared at the creature that crouched in front of her. It had a bright blue skin and grey eyes which continued to stare into her. It looked very statuesque, but exactly what kind of statue Elizabeth had not yet decided. Even though it was down on one knee, Elizabeth guessed it to be no more than four feet tall.
“He- Hello,” Elizabeth said, nodding at the creature.
The creature nodded back. She smiled at it and it parted its lips, showing off some very big and very shiny teeth, filling up the entire mouth. It leaned in to her, skin came down over its eyeballs and then unearthed them again. Slowly, the creature extended its hand, one finger outstretched.
“What?” Elizabeth shrunk back against the wall. “What do you want?”
“Help. Help. Help,” it stated.
Elizabeth shifted her focus down to the fingertip which was nearly upon her. It was extremely long and had fingernails, and seemed to have no definite knuckles. On the tip of the finger were seven bits that looked like suction cups. Elizabeth’s heart beat fast in her chest. She shuddered as it pressed the finger to her temple.
“Oh God, please no,” she whimpered, suddenly unable to move. Elizabeth saw a brilliant flash behind her eyes and cried out, hoarse and guttural. So many thoughts passed before her, words forming on the tip of her tongue, gone before her throat could choke out enough air to even begin to say them. Elizabeth’s body froze in place.
Breathing heavily through both her nose and mouth, her breath in rapid gasps, Elizabeth felt light-headed. The grey skin came down over the creature’s eyes, and yet, through the thin skin she could see the eyes begin to glow. They glowed blue, and the light felt so inviting. Her chest felt warm as if she had opened her soul to this thing.
It retracted the finger, and she felt a coldness spread throughout her body as it pulled away. Elizabeth craved the touch of the creature. Folding her arms around the baby bump, Elizabeth began murmuring nonsense words to her daughter. One of the things Dr. Wilkerson had let slip that afternoon was that it was to be a girl, healthy in all respects up to that point.
“Child? Child, you are with... child?” The creature cocked its head to the side and fell back onto both knees.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, tucking her knees under her.
“No, no, no, not long,” it stated.
“No, not much longer. I am eight months along,” Elizabeth confirmed.
“No, no, no, they take it. It will not be here for long. They will take it, take it away forever.” It was then that Elizabeth noticed the skin no longer covered its eyes. It stared straight at her.
“They? Not you?”
“No, no, no. Not me. I am not one of them.”
“Who are you?”
“I come from,” the creature stared intently at Elizabeth, making her shudder. “You would call us Cessuxnep. That would be the name of our planet in your tongue, tongue, tongue.”
“How do you know this?”
“I have just taken, took, taken your language from you,” the creature said as it stood up, walking backwards from her. “Hurt! Hurt, the child will hurt.”
“What?” Elizabeth pushed herself up, struggling against sudden and numerous aches and pains blossoming through her body. “Why do you say they will hurt my child?” She held herself up on the wall, but the pain deep in her muscles was making her so weak. Elizabeth slumped down to the floor, pleading with her eyes, hoping the creature understood that.
A chill passed through Elizabeth despite the stagnant air around her. Her head started swimming inside her brain. “What did you do to me?” Elizabeth begged the creature.
“I did not. I did not,” it said. “I did not. They did. They know you do not have normal life, they have hunted you down. Like they came after me.”
“Why can’t I have a normal life?” Elizabeth questioned herself. She absently rubbed her belly, trying to fight the sudden sleepiness. “Why can’t I be a normal mommy?” A wave of tiredness came over her as Elizabeth’s eyes drooped and slowly closed, a tear cascading down her cheek.
Caron hummed one of the songs Da sang to her. Uncle Owie always said she had a voice just like her Mum’s. Caron smiled at that, but the smile was soon replaced by a coughing fit. Holding both hands up to her face, Caron’s body jerked back and forth with each cough. She was finally able to suck in enough air to breathe and put her head down on Uncle Jack’s desk.
Akira was in the big room they usually played in, but Caron had to stay away from him. The adults made her stay in Uncle Jack’s office until things got better. She reached out a pudgy finger and began playing with the propeller of one of the planes Uncle Jack kept on his desk.
Her head snapped up as one of the adults opened the door to Uncle Jack’s office. A big smile spread across Caron’s face. “MUMMY!”
“Hush, sweetheart,” Mummy said as she put a small case down on Uncle Jack’s desk. Mummy pulled one of the other chairs over next to Caron and sat down next to her. “How are you feeling, love?”
“I just coughed and it hurt right here,” Caron said, pointing at her chest.
“Well, I’ll have to fix that, won’t I?” Mummy said as she opened the small case and pulled out a syringe and small bottle of brown liquid.
“No. Want Uncle Owie,” Caron said, shrinking back into the chair.
“Now, sweetheart, I won’t hurt you, and you need this shot. You’re almost better,” Mummy said as she prepped the syringe, the colour of the liquid matching her hair.
“Uncle Owie!”
“Uncle Owen can’t give you the shot at all today, and probably tomorrow,” Mummy said. “And I need you to get better.” Mummy smiled at her, holding Caron’s arm steady. “When you are all better, you can see Rhys again, and he can tell you more bedtime stories.”
“Of dragons?” Caron suddenly felt the needle jab her arm and her face screwed up in pain and her lower lip began to tremble. She started to cry.
“Of course, sweetheart,” Mummy said. “Dragons and anything else you want to hear about.”
Mummy pulled Caron in close and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Mummy always smelled nice. Well… not always. Sometimes she smelled, she smelled worse than Kaida's diapers! Caron wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. She could be just as brave as Mummy.
"Uncle Jack's sad," Caron said, looking at Mummy intently.
Mummy looked through the door of Uncle Jack's office into the main area. She then looked at Caron, a smile fixed on her face. Caron didn’t see her Mum smile in that way very often, but it was her brave smile so Caron thought she could be brave if Mummy could be. Caron wrapped her little fingers around her Mummy's hand. They were soft, but a little rough. Her Mum was tough and did tough work, big important work, every day. One day she would be as tough and as important as her Mum.
Caron hopped down out of Uncle Jack's chair and picked up a piece of paper from the desk that she had been "drawing" on. She pulled her Mum out of the office and into the big space where she worked. They stopped and looked at Uncle Jack, sprawled across the sofa in the one corner. He had his coat on, and little Kaida was wrapped up in it, just the tufts of her black hair sticking out from under it. He held the baban tight to him, despite how deep he was sleeping. He was sleeping so hard, he was snoring. Not as much as Rhys, but a lot.
"Uncle Jack was very sad. He said some bad words, and some words I didna know," Caron said, just watching Uncle Jack. "Why is Uncle Jack sad?"
Mum crouched down next to Caron, pulling her in close to her. "He was sad, because we almost lost Uncle Owen out in the field."
"But why so mad? He left and Kaida cried for forever!"
Mum let out a sigh. "Uncle Jack was probably mad because he felt responsible for Uncle Owen. If Uncle Jack had been with us, Uncle Owen…" Mum's voice caught in her throat. She looked away, clearing her throat and then turned back to Caron. "Uncle Owen is not well. Uncle Jack blames himself."
Caron held up the picture to her Mum, nearly shoving it in her face. Mum pulled back a bit. "I made Uncle Jack a picture! It will make him feel better."
Smiling assuredly, Gwen nodded her head. "All right, sweetheart."
Before Mum could stand up, Caron bolted across the big open area, nearly falling up the small steps, her Mum right behind her, saying words of warning. Her hands grabbed Uncle Jack's shoulder and shook it hard. Kaida whimpered as Jack’s whole body shook, but Uncle Jack did not wake up. Caron turned back to her Mum, pouting.
"Why won't he wake up?" Caron stamped her right foot and put her hands on her hips, crumpling the picture slightly.
"Uncle Jack is very tired," Mummy said, putting her hand on Caron's head. "The new baby is nearly here. Any day now," Mummy let out a sigh. "And Uncle Owen might not be here."
"It'll be okay," Caron said. "But I'm not sharing my stories!"
"Okay," Mum said. "Why don’t we get you down for a nap? You need it."
Caron stifled a yawn. "I'm not tired."
"Uh-huh," Mum said, stepping back by Auntie Tosh's computer and typing in a couple of things.
Caron stuffed the picture under Uncle Jack's head. She then walked around the sofa and tugged the coat down a bit, revealing his big belly. On his chest, Kaida squirmed and mewled as a blast of cold air hit her, showing her arse to Caron. Caron struggled to wrap her arms around Uncle Jack's pregnant stomach. She laid her cheek against his shirt and smelled him, smiling. She would always remember how Uncle Jack smelled.
All of a sudden, she felt a movement against her cheek. Her little heart leapt and she giggled against his tummy. "Mummy, I felt the baby," Caron said.
Before she could say anything else, Caron felt a sharp blow to the top of her head and stumbled back, clutching at her hair and cradling her forehead in both hands. She let out a monosyllabic wail and stumbled backwards as Mummy scooped her up into her arms. Caron cried as Mummy pushed her head onto her shoulder.
"Shhhhh… Hush now, sweetheart," Mummy cooed into Caron's ear.
Breathing heavily, her lower lip trembling as tears streamed down her face, Caron started hiccoughing. "Kai kicked me." She rubbed her runny nose on Mummy's top. "Kai kicked me!"
"I'm sure she didn’t mean to," Mummy said, starting to rock back and forth. "Why can't I just be a normal mommy," Mum whispered. "Let's check you out," Mum said.
On the sofa, Uncle Jack stirred. "What happened? What's going on?" Uncle Jack asked as he struggled to sit up without disturbing Kaida.
"It's okay Jack," Mum said. "Caron just got her head hit."
"No!" Caron's lower lip stuck out. In between sobs, she choked out, "Kaida kicked me. The baby moved and Kaida kicked me!"
"Not again, not these two," Uncle Jack muttered.
"You try and rest Jack," Mummy said.
"Gwen, are you sure? Let me help-"
"It's okay Jack, we don't need you to go into labour before Owen is well again."
Uncle Jack started to say something, but then stood up and walked into his office, Kaida curled against his chest, hidden under the coat. Mum sat Caron down on Auntie Tosh's desk, holding her head straight so she could look at it.
"You need to tell me if this hurts," Mummy said, as she touched her fingers to Caron's forehead.
Caron winced in pain as ache spread through her skull. "Owie!"
Elizabeth slowly woke up, clutching her head as the worst migraine in the history of man raced around it at 90-miles-an-hour. Opening her eyes bit by bit, Elizabeth spotted the creature who had creeped her out earlier. It was crouched in the far corner, the skin over its eyes. Using the smooth wall as a support, she pulled herself up into a sitting position.
"They will not, will not, will not keep you," the creature spoke in its stilted manner.
"Oh thank God," Elizabeth muttered. "They're going to let me go."
"No, no, no," it stated. "They will not keep you." The creature then pointed up to the ceiling, its eyes still closed.
Elizabeth warily looked upwards. At first she didn’t see anything different. Then she noticed the clear tubes. They were halfway filled with a red liquid, almost blood red. Her eyes lost focus and Elizabeth took a deep breath, trying to concentrate. She opened her eyes wide and stared at the liquid, as it slowly moved down the tube.
"Oh God!" Elizabeth fumbled to her knees. "Oh God! What is that?"
"They use it."
"WHO ARE THEY?" Elizabeth cried out. Her voice echoed off the walls and she clutched at the sides of her head in the worst pain anyone could ever be put through.
"You would call them cleaners."
"Who are the cleaners?" Elizabeth started cry in frustration and fear.
"They destroy what was not meant to be. You are of no use to them, unlike me. Destroy, destroy, destroy."
"You cannot be serious." Elizabeth was huddled on the floor, on her hands and knees, afraid to even look up at the ceiling. There was no way this could get any worse.
She could hear the thing moving towards her, but she didn't move. She felt like she physically couldn't. It knelt next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. A wave of calm washed over Elizabeth a moment and then the headache was like a dull throb, pounding into her head like an oaf waving around a sledgehammer. She slowly lifted her head up, looking the creature in the eye.
"Why do they want to destroy me?" She fought to keep the tears down to a minimum, a streak staining her face every couple of seconds.
"The Galatans made you, the Galatans made me. We were never meant to be, never, never, never." She seemed transfixed on it's grey eyes. They reminded her of a coming storm. "The…" It cocked its head to the side as if it were thinking and then continued. "Cleaners, yes, cleaners. Cleaners is right, for you. They clean the messes the Galatans left behind. They were never to exist, so they will not exist."
"And if I am wrong and the Galatans made me…" A sickening thought popped into Elizabeth's head. A thought she didn’t want to admit to.
"You are wrong and your spawn is also wrong."
"No. They are not touching my children!" Elizabeth grabbed the creature by the shoulders and pulled herself up to her knees. Even if it killed her, they would not harm a hair on James’ head or her daughter's. She still had to tell David that it was to be a girl. She had to do that.
The creature pulled away and retreated back to its corner. "They already have done so."
"What?" Elizabeth went to push herself up and then fell hard, ramming her shoulder down into the steel floor. Her cry caught in her throat as it suddenly felt as if her stomach was being ripped open with a dull butter knife. Rolling onto her back, Elizabeth grabbed and grasped at her stomach. Searing pain stabbed into her as bile rose in her throat.
No. Not her daughter. Not like this. She had survived so many odd things, things she had never told David about. Her mind flashed to when she was fourteen and some "Greys" had abducted her, taking blood and skin samples. Her family doctor had told her she was just making up stories. Elizabeth would have given her soul for these to just be stories in her head.
Elizabeth's screams echoed through her and she swore she could hear the baby crying out, too. She screamed at the unfairness of it; she screamed her hatred of these so-called Cleaners. Her cries drowned out the thumping of her heart, which drummed loudly in her ears.
Looking up, Elizabeth saw the red liquid much closer to the end of the clear tubes, heading for the petals of these deadly flowers. Tears streamed down her face, wetting her hair as it stuck to her cheeks. She groaned and rolled onto her side, not able to breathe. She was wrong earlier, this was the worst pain in the entire world.
Her body shook, and Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut, clutching at the gnawing inside of her. Whatever it was, was taking her baby and her soul. It suddenly felt as if a pole had been shoved through her gut and out her back. It was then that Elizabeth wished she had not opened her eyes as she saw other red liquid between her legs, pooling around her.
Chapter: 2
Rating: R
Warning: Violence against a pregnant woman in this chapter.
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 2
She was scared. Caron was scared and didn’t know what to do. It had been days and she had not seen her Mum or Da, Uncle Owie, Uncle Jack or Auntie Tosh. Looking around her among the other sick kids, she didn’t even see Kaida, Gayle, the new baby Emiko or even Akira. She wished Akira was there. If it was both of them they would have found their Mums and Dads by now.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” the red-headed nurse asked, tucking a blanket up around her.
Caron pouted. Only her Mummy called her sweetheart, Mummy and Rhys. And the nurse didn’t have her blanket, she wanted her blanket, the one Granny made for her.
“She’s doing so much better,” The Blonde Woman said, sitting in a chair by Caron’s hospital bed. “The fever broke somehow. The doctor’s are amazed she pulled through.” The Blonde Woman smiled at her, but Caron only felt cross.
“Well, isn’t that good,” the nurse stated. She smiled at Caron. “Pretty soon you get to go home with your Mom and Dad.”
“She’s not my Mummy!” Caron let out a screech and buried herself under the blanket.
“Now, sweetheart, that’s not a nice thing to say,” the nurse said, trying to pull down the blanket.
Caron growled and held tight to the blanket, fighting the nurse.
“It’s all right,” The Blonde Woman said. “She’s been a little off since the infection, but she’ll be fine.”
“Okay then,” the nurse said, letting go of the blanket. Caron sill held tight to it.
“Oh, and I wanted to say thank you, but you didn’t have to do that,” The Blonde Woman stated.
“For what?” the nurse questioned.
“The dragon pendant. What does it mean? Is it some kind of protection?”
“The pendant? Oh that. I didn’t give that to her.”
“Oh. Perhaps one of the other nurses maybe?”
“Maybe.”
Caron let out a nasty growl, wanting to scream at the grown-ups. She wanted to tell them how Rhys had picked it out ‘specially for her for her last birthday. She also wanted to tell them that she was sorry for kicking Rhys the last time she saw him. It was an accident, at least that’s what he told Mum. But then Mum was cross because Rhys had a big bruise on his leg, and then she left the Hub. Caron never saw any of them again. Dropping her chin to her chest, Caron started crying.
The Blonde Woman pulled the blanket down and pulled Caron to her, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “Shhhhh... It’s okay, it’s all okay. Mommy’s here. Mommy will keep you safe.”
Maybe she should let Mommy keep her safe until Mum and Da came back. Mommy seemed nice. Caron fingered the red dragon pendant around her neck and closed her eyes.
Elizabeth slowly came to, letting out heavy groans. Her mind seemed to be swimming. Her fingers along her neck, she reached out with her other hand and found a cold, damp wall. The air tasted moist and seemed to land on her tongue with a hint of sulfur. Elizabeth’s eyes snapped open. Unable to focus, all she saw around her was blurs of dark and light shapes.
“Oh God,” Elizabeth huffed out, trying to keep from puking. “Oh crap. Oh God. Oh crap. Oh God,” she said, taking deep breaths in between each sentence, trying to get her eyes to focus.
Suddenly, right next to her ear, Elizabeth heard, “Dg, Dg, og, gd, orp, ocup, puc, rap, god, crap.”
She jumped as goosebumps marched up her arm and neck. Grasping at the wall, she moved away, willing her eyes to focus. Taking deep, heavy breaths, Eizabeth grimaced at the taste of sourness in the air. She squeezed her eyes shut and then slowl opened them, shapes beginning to take form.
“Help. Help me,” she whispered to no one in particular.
“Help? Help? Help?” something said in front of her in a stilted American Midwestern accent. Something didn’t seem right about how the words sounded.
Leaning her head against the cool wall, she saw the ceiling slowly come into focus. Above Elizabeth was a smooth silver ceiling with what looked like dozens of tiny shower heads in the shape of pugsters, those five-point flowers. There were two levels of the flowers, the lower level was a clear substance, and the upper level was some kind of black metal.
Elizabeth brought her head back down towards her chest and stared at the creature that crouched in front of her. It had a bright blue skin and grey eyes which continued to stare into her. It looked very statuesque, but exactly what kind of statue Elizabeth had not yet decided. Even though it was down on one knee, Elizabeth guessed it to be no more than four feet tall.
“He- Hello,” Elizabeth said, nodding at the creature.
The creature nodded back. She smiled at it and it parted its lips, showing off some very big and very shiny teeth, filling up the entire mouth. It leaned in to her, skin came down over its eyeballs and then unearthed them again. Slowly, the creature extended its hand, one finger outstretched.
“What?” Elizabeth shrunk back against the wall. “What do you want?”
“Help. Help. Help,” it stated.
Elizabeth shifted her focus down to the fingertip which was nearly upon her. It was extremely long and had fingernails, and seemed to have no definite knuckles. On the tip of the finger were seven bits that looked like suction cups. Elizabeth’s heart beat fast in her chest. She shuddered as it pressed the finger to her temple.
“Oh God, please no,” she whimpered, suddenly unable to move. Elizabeth saw a brilliant flash behind her eyes and cried out, hoarse and guttural. So many thoughts passed before her, words forming on the tip of her tongue, gone before her throat could choke out enough air to even begin to say them. Elizabeth’s body froze in place.
Breathing heavily through both her nose and mouth, her breath in rapid gasps, Elizabeth felt light-headed. The grey skin came down over the creature’s eyes, and yet, through the thin skin she could see the eyes begin to glow. They glowed blue, and the light felt so inviting. Her chest felt warm as if she had opened her soul to this thing.
It retracted the finger, and she felt a coldness spread throughout her body as it pulled away. Elizabeth craved the touch of the creature. Folding her arms around the baby bump, Elizabeth began murmuring nonsense words to her daughter. One of the things Dr. Wilkerson had let slip that afternoon was that it was to be a girl, healthy in all respects up to that point.
“Child? Child, you are with... child?” The creature cocked its head to the side and fell back onto both knees.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said, tucking her knees under her.
“No, no, no, not long,” it stated.
“No, not much longer. I am eight months along,” Elizabeth confirmed.
“No, no, no, they take it. It will not be here for long. They will take it, take it away forever.” It was then that Elizabeth noticed the skin no longer covered its eyes. It stared straight at her.
“They? Not you?”
“No, no, no. Not me. I am not one of them.”
“Who are you?”
“I come from,” the creature stared intently at Elizabeth, making her shudder. “You would call us Cessuxnep. That would be the name of our planet in your tongue, tongue, tongue.”
“How do you know this?”
“I have just taken, took, taken your language from you,” the creature said as it stood up, walking backwards from her. “Hurt! Hurt, the child will hurt.”
“What?” Elizabeth pushed herself up, struggling against sudden and numerous aches and pains blossoming through her body. “Why do you say they will hurt my child?” She held herself up on the wall, but the pain deep in her muscles was making her so weak. Elizabeth slumped down to the floor, pleading with her eyes, hoping the creature understood that.
A chill passed through Elizabeth despite the stagnant air around her. Her head started swimming inside her brain. “What did you do to me?” Elizabeth begged the creature.
“I did not. I did not,” it said. “I did not. They did. They know you do not have normal life, they have hunted you down. Like they came after me.”
“Why can’t I have a normal life?” Elizabeth questioned herself. She absently rubbed her belly, trying to fight the sudden sleepiness. “Why can’t I be a normal mommy?” A wave of tiredness came over her as Elizabeth’s eyes drooped and slowly closed, a tear cascading down her cheek.
Caron hummed one of the songs Da sang to her. Uncle Owie always said she had a voice just like her Mum’s. Caron smiled at that, but the smile was soon replaced by a coughing fit. Holding both hands up to her face, Caron’s body jerked back and forth with each cough. She was finally able to suck in enough air to breathe and put her head down on Uncle Jack’s desk.
Akira was in the big room they usually played in, but Caron had to stay away from him. The adults made her stay in Uncle Jack’s office until things got better. She reached out a pudgy finger and began playing with the propeller of one of the planes Uncle Jack kept on his desk.
Her head snapped up as one of the adults opened the door to Uncle Jack’s office. A big smile spread across Caron’s face. “MUMMY!”
“Hush, sweetheart,” Mummy said as she put a small case down on Uncle Jack’s desk. Mummy pulled one of the other chairs over next to Caron and sat down next to her. “How are you feeling, love?”
“I just coughed and it hurt right here,” Caron said, pointing at her chest.
“Well, I’ll have to fix that, won’t I?” Mummy said as she opened the small case and pulled out a syringe and small bottle of brown liquid.
“No. Want Uncle Owie,” Caron said, shrinking back into the chair.
“Now, sweetheart, I won’t hurt you, and you need this shot. You’re almost better,” Mummy said as she prepped the syringe, the colour of the liquid matching her hair.
“Uncle Owie!”
“Uncle Owen can’t give you the shot at all today, and probably tomorrow,” Mummy said. “And I need you to get better.” Mummy smiled at her, holding Caron’s arm steady. “When you are all better, you can see Rhys again, and he can tell you more bedtime stories.”
“Of dragons?” Caron suddenly felt the needle jab her arm and her face screwed up in pain and her lower lip began to tremble. She started to cry.
“Of course, sweetheart,” Mummy said. “Dragons and anything else you want to hear about.”
Mummy pulled Caron in close and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Mummy always smelled nice. Well… not always. Sometimes she smelled, she smelled worse than Kaida's diapers! Caron wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. She could be just as brave as Mummy.
"Uncle Jack's sad," Caron said, looking at Mummy intently.
Mummy looked through the door of Uncle Jack's office into the main area. She then looked at Caron, a smile fixed on her face. Caron didn’t see her Mum smile in that way very often, but it was her brave smile so Caron thought she could be brave if Mummy could be. Caron wrapped her little fingers around her Mummy's hand. They were soft, but a little rough. Her Mum was tough and did tough work, big important work, every day. One day she would be as tough and as important as her Mum.
Caron hopped down out of Uncle Jack's chair and picked up a piece of paper from the desk that she had been "drawing" on. She pulled her Mum out of the office and into the big space where she worked. They stopped and looked at Uncle Jack, sprawled across the sofa in the one corner. He had his coat on, and little Kaida was wrapped up in it, just the tufts of her black hair sticking out from under it. He held the baban tight to him, despite how deep he was sleeping. He was sleeping so hard, he was snoring. Not as much as Rhys, but a lot.
"Uncle Jack was very sad. He said some bad words, and some words I didna know," Caron said, just watching Uncle Jack. "Why is Uncle Jack sad?"
Mum crouched down next to Caron, pulling her in close to her. "He was sad, because we almost lost Uncle Owen out in the field."
"But why so mad? He left and Kaida cried for forever!"
Mum let out a sigh. "Uncle Jack was probably mad because he felt responsible for Uncle Owen. If Uncle Jack had been with us, Uncle Owen…" Mum's voice caught in her throat. She looked away, clearing her throat and then turned back to Caron. "Uncle Owen is not well. Uncle Jack blames himself."
Caron held up the picture to her Mum, nearly shoving it in her face. Mum pulled back a bit. "I made Uncle Jack a picture! It will make him feel better."
Smiling assuredly, Gwen nodded her head. "All right, sweetheart."
Before Mum could stand up, Caron bolted across the big open area, nearly falling up the small steps, her Mum right behind her, saying words of warning. Her hands grabbed Uncle Jack's shoulder and shook it hard. Kaida whimpered as Jack’s whole body shook, but Uncle Jack did not wake up. Caron turned back to her Mum, pouting.
"Why won't he wake up?" Caron stamped her right foot and put her hands on her hips, crumpling the picture slightly.
"Uncle Jack is very tired," Mummy said, putting her hand on Caron's head. "The new baby is nearly here. Any day now," Mummy let out a sigh. "And Uncle Owen might not be here."
"It'll be okay," Caron said. "But I'm not sharing my stories!"
"Okay," Mum said. "Why don’t we get you down for a nap? You need it."
Caron stifled a yawn. "I'm not tired."
"Uh-huh," Mum said, stepping back by Auntie Tosh's computer and typing in a couple of things.
Caron stuffed the picture under Uncle Jack's head. She then walked around the sofa and tugged the coat down a bit, revealing his big belly. On his chest, Kaida squirmed and mewled as a blast of cold air hit her, showing her arse to Caron. Caron struggled to wrap her arms around Uncle Jack's pregnant stomach. She laid her cheek against his shirt and smelled him, smiling. She would always remember how Uncle Jack smelled.
All of a sudden, she felt a movement against her cheek. Her little heart leapt and she giggled against his tummy. "Mummy, I felt the baby," Caron said.
Before she could say anything else, Caron felt a sharp blow to the top of her head and stumbled back, clutching at her hair and cradling her forehead in both hands. She let out a monosyllabic wail and stumbled backwards as Mummy scooped her up into her arms. Caron cried as Mummy pushed her head onto her shoulder.
"Shhhhh… Hush now, sweetheart," Mummy cooed into Caron's ear.
Breathing heavily, her lower lip trembling as tears streamed down her face, Caron started hiccoughing. "Kai kicked me." She rubbed her runny nose on Mummy's top. "Kai kicked me!"
"I'm sure she didn’t mean to," Mummy said, starting to rock back and forth. "Why can't I just be a normal mommy," Mum whispered. "Let's check you out," Mum said.
On the sofa, Uncle Jack stirred. "What happened? What's going on?" Uncle Jack asked as he struggled to sit up without disturbing Kaida.
"It's okay Jack," Mum said. "Caron just got her head hit."
"No!" Caron's lower lip stuck out. In between sobs, she choked out, "Kaida kicked me. The baby moved and Kaida kicked me!"
"Not again, not these two," Uncle Jack muttered.
"You try and rest Jack," Mummy said.
"Gwen, are you sure? Let me help-"
"It's okay Jack, we don't need you to go into labour before Owen is well again."
Uncle Jack started to say something, but then stood up and walked into his office, Kaida curled against his chest, hidden under the coat. Mum sat Caron down on Auntie Tosh's desk, holding her head straight so she could look at it.
"You need to tell me if this hurts," Mummy said, as she touched her fingers to Caron's forehead.
Caron winced in pain as ache spread through her skull. "Owie!"
Elizabeth slowly woke up, clutching her head as the worst migraine in the history of man raced around it at 90-miles-an-hour. Opening her eyes bit by bit, Elizabeth spotted the creature who had creeped her out earlier. It was crouched in the far corner, the skin over its eyes. Using the smooth wall as a support, she pulled herself up into a sitting position.
"They will not, will not, will not keep you," the creature spoke in its stilted manner.
"Oh thank God," Elizabeth muttered. "They're going to let me go."
"No, no, no," it stated. "They will not keep you." The creature then pointed up to the ceiling, its eyes still closed.
Elizabeth warily looked upwards. At first she didn’t see anything different. Then she noticed the clear tubes. They were halfway filled with a red liquid, almost blood red. Her eyes lost focus and Elizabeth took a deep breath, trying to concentrate. She opened her eyes wide and stared at the liquid, as it slowly moved down the tube.
"Oh God!" Elizabeth fumbled to her knees. "Oh God! What is that?"
"They use it."
"WHO ARE THEY?" Elizabeth cried out. Her voice echoed off the walls and she clutched at the sides of her head in the worst pain anyone could ever be put through.
"You would call them cleaners."
"Who are the cleaners?" Elizabeth started cry in frustration and fear.
"They destroy what was not meant to be. You are of no use to them, unlike me. Destroy, destroy, destroy."
"You cannot be serious." Elizabeth was huddled on the floor, on her hands and knees, afraid to even look up at the ceiling. There was no way this could get any worse.
She could hear the thing moving towards her, but she didn't move. She felt like she physically couldn't. It knelt next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. A wave of calm washed over Elizabeth a moment and then the headache was like a dull throb, pounding into her head like an oaf waving around a sledgehammer. She slowly lifted her head up, looking the creature in the eye.
"Why do they want to destroy me?" She fought to keep the tears down to a minimum, a streak staining her face every couple of seconds.
"The Galatans made you, the Galatans made me. We were never meant to be, never, never, never." She seemed transfixed on it's grey eyes. They reminded her of a coming storm. "The…" It cocked its head to the side as if it were thinking and then continued. "Cleaners, yes, cleaners. Cleaners is right, for you. They clean the messes the Galatans left behind. They were never to exist, so they will not exist."
"And if I am wrong and the Galatans made me…" A sickening thought popped into Elizabeth's head. A thought she didn’t want to admit to.
"You are wrong and your spawn is also wrong."
"No. They are not touching my children!" Elizabeth grabbed the creature by the shoulders and pulled herself up to her knees. Even if it killed her, they would not harm a hair on James’ head or her daughter's. She still had to tell David that it was to be a girl. She had to do that.
The creature pulled away and retreated back to its corner. "They already have done so."
"What?" Elizabeth went to push herself up and then fell hard, ramming her shoulder down into the steel floor. Her cry caught in her throat as it suddenly felt as if her stomach was being ripped open with a dull butter knife. Rolling onto her back, Elizabeth grabbed and grasped at her stomach. Searing pain stabbed into her as bile rose in her throat.
No. Not her daughter. Not like this. She had survived so many odd things, things she had never told David about. Her mind flashed to when she was fourteen and some "Greys" had abducted her, taking blood and skin samples. Her family doctor had told her she was just making up stories. Elizabeth would have given her soul for these to just be stories in her head.
Elizabeth's screams echoed through her and she swore she could hear the baby crying out, too. She screamed at the unfairness of it; she screamed her hatred of these so-called Cleaners. Her cries drowned out the thumping of her heart, which drummed loudly in her ears.
Looking up, Elizabeth saw the red liquid much closer to the end of the clear tubes, heading for the petals of these deadly flowers. Tears streamed down her face, wetting her hair as it stuck to her cheeks. She groaned and rolled onto her side, not able to breathe. She was wrong earlier, this was the worst pain in the entire world.
Her body shook, and Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut, clutching at the gnawing inside of her. Whatever it was, was taking her baby and her soul. It suddenly felt as if a pole had been shoved through her gut and out her back. It was then that Elizabeth wished she had not opened her eyes as she saw other red liquid between her legs, pooling around her.