rhubarb with sprinkles and butterscotch
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: Cordelia’s Baby
Rating: G
Challenge: Rhubarb ‘My Treat’ #11: if the shoe fits (someone who has Blackledge as a surname but isn’t one of the Blackledge Children)
Toppings/Extras: sprinkles, butterscotch
Wordcount: 705
Summary: Cordelia Blackledge receives a gift.
Notes: Thank you, Marina, I wouldn’t have come up with any of this without you. XD I quite like it! Marina’s ‘ My Treat’ strikes again and brings an entirely new subplot to the light.
It was a strange happening indeed that two of the leading geneticists in the world happened to be brother and sister. It led to comments that perhaps expertise in such a field was, itself, genetic. This was nothing more than a farce, of course: the two simply had the correct frames of mind-as well as the social and economic backgrounds-to smelt two hardy scientists, and both of them took an interest in genetics from a young age.
Of course, Cordelia Blackledge was never as talented as her younger brother Gideon, but they both did very well for themselves. They both worked on Cordelia’s greatest project, the Rebirthing Project. Thanks to her, thousands of species of animals that had died out over the centuries had been recreated and dragged from extinction. They had been relocated not only to Eden Island and various zoos and parks but also in her home: Arcadia Gardens, one of the largest buildings in Britannia City. It was a huge dome on top of one of the thickest skyscrapers in the world, and underneath this was where the labs were and where Cordelia Blackledge lived and worked.
Her younger brother smiled primly at her as he handed over the blanketed bundle in his arms, slipping them into hers. Cordelia had goggles plastered to her forehead and dark strands of hair fell about her eyes-the creases around her mouth pointed towards her ears as she smiled, instantly in love with the baby swaddled in her arms.
“Series A, Batch D,” Gideon said to her. “Number 1. For you.”
One thing Cordelia had never had time for was family-not that she lacked suitors: although by no means physically attractive, she had enough wealth and intelligence to make her fairly desirable to certain people. Nevertheless, her work was what mattered to her the most-as though to prove it, she had a baby pygmy sloth hanging from her neck right at that time, slung sleepily down her back like a cape.
Her eyes lit up as she clutched the baby close.
“He’s gorgeous,” she whispered, touching his feathery nose with one finger.
“Batch D were meant to have exceptional reflexes... our tests indicate that this has not altogether been successfully implanted, but we shall see as they grow,” Gideon said with a small smile, glasses on the end of his nose as he saw the clear delight on his sister’s face. Her home was large and lavish yet minimalist; something made it clear that it was a bachelor’s home.
A pair of dholes rested by a fake fireplace and two Lear’s macaws were perched on the mantelpiece, turquoise-blue feathers gleaming in the well-lit whiteness of the room. The baby boy didn’t fuss much, as the genetically engineered Blackledge Children tended not to, and he melted her heart in an instant.
“Thank you,” Cordelia finally said, looking back at her brother. She had not always approved of his experiments-so many children with such a grim future as soldiers for the state-but in the case of this one child it was different, the only child to escape the fates of the others.
“Well, I never would have perfected the birthing tubes without you,” Gideon reminded her, rocking on the balls of his feet as though pleased with himself.
“Doesn’t he have a name other than AD-1?” Cordelia asked, adjusting the baby so it nestled in the crock of her arm and then looking back towards her brother.
“It would be... impractical to name them all,” Gideon said. “But you can name yours, of course.”
“Of course,” Cordelia murmured in reply, looking back down at the baby in her arms as though awestruck by it. In a way she was. He was such a beautiful little boy, a true phenomenon, and now he was hers to mother and parent as she had never been able to do. “I quite like Edgar... don’t you?”
“Quite, yes.”
Cordelia placed the softest kiss that she could on Edgar’s head, his fine black hair brushing her face and his balmy baby scent filling up her world. This one, she knew, would have the happiest life that she could provide.
It was all that she could do.