Everything Changes

Beautiful

Back downstairs, the Sparticles were trying to figure out what to do about Aris.

"Aris is loyal to his 'mum', his mum being Kylie. She wiped his mind and convinced him we're the enemy and that she's his mum." Reese explained.

"But he's been part of our tribe! How could he betray us like that?" Sadiq exclaimed with hurt in his voice.

"I can't believe Aris defected just before we had the full set of sensitives." Ernesto spoke in disbelief.

Reese looked up to where he was standing at the bottom of the stairs, remembering what what Ernesto had told them on the radio earlier. "Where's the last sensitive?"

"Follow me."

He led the Sparticles outside to the garden, where they found the old man sitting, drawing in his sketch book.

"He's the sensitive?" Reese asked, unsure whether to believe it. The old man handed her some of the thyme, and she looked at him, confused. "What is this?"

"A special type of thyme that never dies." He explained.

Reese pulled out her map in excitement. "Time never dies, that's the riddle on the map!"

"Maybe it was spelt wrong? Thyme, the herb?" Ernesto suggested. "Reese, that is the circle of perpetual thyme!" He pointed to the circle of herbs. "We thought time mean time, as in hours of the day. But it must have meant thyme, thyme with a 'y', the herb thyme."

"Now you're talking my language." The old man commented, looking at his pocket watch. "Oh dear, time is running slow. Is it time yet?"

"Please, we have something urgent to do with our time rather than waste it talking riddles." Reese pleaded.

"If you knew time as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it." He said as he got up off his bench and walking to the circle.

"Can you just get him linked up? Because we are seriously running out of time. Time-time." Ernesto spoke in frustration.

"But we need seven sensitives! We're missing Aris and...the feeling I'm getting isn't like any I've experienced before." Reese trailed off.

"Maybe that's because he's super powerful, and we won't need Aris after all?" Frankie suggested.

"I hope you're right." Reese said with a sigh.

The sound of footsteps turned their attention to the stairs leading down from the lighthouse to the garden. It was Aris! Sadiq lunged at the boy, only held back by Serena.

"HOW COULD YOU!" He screamed in a rage, struggling in Serena's grasp.

Aris looked at them apologetically. "I want to say sorry."

"Yea, well it's too late for that." Sadiq spat out, shrugging Serena's arms off him.

"You were all right! Kylie isn't my mum, she's a wicked liar and I want to send her home!" Aris explained to them all, determination in his voice.

"Calm down Aris." Reese approached him, looking him in the eyes. "What happened?"

"Kylie is going to use the comet power to boost the neuroscrambler and wipe the minds of us sensitives when we're linked up."

"Say we did think you were telling the truth, and I don't, what can we do?" Frankie asked in anger.

"We link up whilst you get into the lighthouse and destroy the machine!" Aris explained his plan.

"Even if we can do that, getting on the SensitiveNet is a huge risk, Reese." Sadiq warned her.

Reese shook her head. "But we haven't got any choice. We need to know that we've got the seven sensitives online."

Ernesto nodded his head in agreement. "Sadiq, we have got to destroy that machine before the comet arrives. If we don't-"

"QUICK, QUICK!" He was interrupted by Kim's calls from the doorway of the cottage, frantically trying to get his attention.

"The baby's coming!" Ernesto exclaimed, scrambling up the slope to race after her, all thoughts of the comet and the mission gone from his mind.

He ran down the corridors and up the stairs with Kim, the sounds of Holly's moaning getting louder and louder. They entered the room to find Holly hunched over on the bed, sweat dripping down her forehead.

"My Chi Chi!" He exclaimed, running to her bedside and taking her hand in his.

"It's ok, Holly, just breath, big pushes now!" Kim instructed the girl from her sport between her legs.

Holly groaned out in pain, bearing down as she done as she was told.

"I can see the head!" Kim screamed in excitement, prompting Ernesto to take a look for himself. He quickly regretted his choice once he saw all the blood, choosing instead to focus on Holly's face.

"You've got this, darling." He reassured her, stroking sweaty strands of hair away from her forehead.

A scream erupted from her mouth at the same time Kim said "The head's out!"

"Nearly there, my Chi Chi." Ernesto continued, his face full of admiration at what she was going through to bring their child into the world.

She groaned some more, panting between each contraction. Her hand tightly gripped his as she moaned out in pain.

And then a brief moment of silence.

Screams filled the room, load and clear.

"You have a daughter." Kim smiled, placing the tiny baby onto Holly's chest.

Their eyes welled up as they took in the sight of their squirming baby, red and gunky but absolutely beautiful. Ernesto grabbed a towel as he began to wipe his baby clean, not once taking his eyes off her.

"Hello, baby girl." Holly managed to choke out, he fingers gently stroking her cheek.

"Told you it would be a girl." Ernesto spoke barely above a whisper, letting his finger rest in her palm and smiling when the small fingers wrapped around it.

"Would you like to cut the cord, Ern?" Kim asked, to which he hesitantly nodded.

Him and Kim had been reading books on how to deliver a baby, but he was still nervous over it. He took the scissors out of her hand, cutting between where it had been tied off with shoelaces.

"She's gorgeous." Kim smiled at them, eyes watery.

"Just like her mum." Ernesto choked out. "I'm so proud of you." He placed a kiss on Holly's forehead before doing the same to their daughter.