Spies of a Generation

three

Austin glares. "I fucking forgot, okay? But I need you and Sierra to hack their system and find anything suspicious."

"You're not letting her have babies there, right?" Eleanor asks, shaking her head. "That puts everyone at risk."

"I guess I can hire a professional to have the babies here?" Austin sighs. "I don't know. I can't think right now."

"Um, certified genius here," Sierra sings. "I've literally got the highest advanced medical degree on earth. I can deliver some babies."

Matt chuckles. "You are such a smartass."

Sierra glares in his direction to which he grins at. "Because I am."

"Enough flirting and more strategizing," Austin irks an eyebrow at the two. "When Ally is in labor, I need Matt on watch around the house and I need El to go up to the hospital and see if anyone was expecting us to be there. We'll call in to tell them we're on our way, but really, we'll be here. Tom, I need your eyes everywhere. At the hospital, in the house, outside the house; everywhere."

They all nod and Austin sighs. "Here's the part why I didn't want Ally in here," they all wait with anticipation and Austin sighs. "When we deliver the babies, I need whoever is here to play it off like they're all stillborn."

Sierra immediately denies his request. "Why the fuck would I do that to trick Ally? Fuck no."

"I'm with Sierra," Eleanor says, looking at him as if he's crazy. "Why the fuck would we trick Ally?"

"It's just for about five minutes," Austin sighs. He goes the huge computer in the room and begins type. "Tom can find if there's any suspicious microphones that would be listening in on the room. He could hack that station, hear Ally crying about the babies, and they take the bait. We can't tell Ally because she's not well with acting on instinct and it won't be convincing enough, even to hear."

"Babies cry when they're born, Austin," Matt speaks up, looking at him like he's crazy. "How the fuck are we gonna hide that?"

"Have Sierra panic about some shit, then she tells Ally they're dead a few minutes after cleaning and calming them."

"No." Sierra says, shaking her head. "Childbirth is supposed to be complete bliss for newcoming mothers. I will not do such unless you tell Ally about the situation."

"Yeah, dude," Tom agrees. "The whole reason we moved in was so we could protect them. Having Ally go through trauma, even if it's for five minutes, isn't worth it."

"Yeah, you sound fucking insane." Matt says, shaking his head.

Austin sighs and looks at his team in belief. "Are you guys serious right now? What happened to the risk-taking team we started? We built?"

"Oh, I'm sorry that we're more worried about your pregnant wife than you are," Matt splats, shaking his head. "We do that to her- you do that to her, she will never trust or forgive any of us. She is a civilian, someone we have to protect. When it comes to people like her, there is no risk-taking. We came here to protect her and the children. That's what we're gonna do, but not by this circumstance."

Matthew leaves the room and slams the door behind him. Sierra follows with a shake of her head. Tom goes after, murmuring a, "Sorry, dude."

El stays and watches him clench and unclench his fists.

"I put their lives at stake," Austin sighs, looking back at his best friend. "Like, some serious shit. I've gotta fix it."

"Some things you can't fix," Eleanor shrugs, going over and sitting on his dashboard in front of him. "But you can turn an accident into a purpose. We're hear to protect them when you can't, Austin. When they get older, we can all train them to be better than we ever will be. But you can't do something like this to Ally. She's had enough to deal with."

El kisses his forehead and makes her exit. Austin sighs and looks up at the ceiling, still debating on his plan.

//

"Austin," a voice speaks while he's in dreamland. "Austin? Austinnnnnnnnn."

He groans and peeks an eye open to look at his wide awake wife. He sighs and reaches over her to turn on the lamp. He sees her face happy with a grin so he raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"Can you run me some bath water?"

He groans and covers his eyes. "Why can't you do it yourself?"

"My back is stiff and my feet hurt," she says, pushing on him. "Pleaseeeee?"

He sighs and gets up. He claps the lights on before heading to their bathroom. "You want vanilla or strawberry bubbles?"

"Vanilla," she giggles, making a small smile form on his face as he shook his head. "Hurry."

Her bath water is ready ten minutes later. Austin helps her in and sits on the edge of the huge tub as he waits until she's ready to get out.

Three A.M. baths weren't unusual for her. She'd just get up in the middle of the night and run herself a hot bath. But she tripped trying to get in a month ago, so they're been more alert. He helps her in and makes her bath water for her, to not have to worry about her hurting herself.

"I'm ready to just have the babies," she says after sitting in peaceful silence without the except of the quiet music playing the background. "I want to dress them up and give them kisses and everything. It's gonna be great."

Austin looks at her and sees her smiling at him. A soft smile forms on his face. "We need names."

Her eyes widen. "Oh! Names! I totally forgot about names!"

"We should name them stress and ful. Because that's what they are."

Ally laughs and slaps his bare chest. It leaves a wet mark but he couldn't care less. "Shut up."

They talk for what it seemed like hours but was really twenty minutes. He grabs her a robe when she's ready to get out and helps her. She puts it on while he drains the water. She immediately gets into bed and cuddles under the covers before he could even enter the room again.

Austin comes behind her under the covers and hugs her stomach. His fingertips run over her rounded belly as he murmurs, "Satisfied?"

She nods and cuddles deeper into him. "Sorry for waking you so early."

"No you're not," he laughs, kissing the back of her slightly damp hair. "But I don't mind."

As she's drifting to sleep, Austin realizes he was seriously going to hurt her with his plan. His friends were right. He could never do something to her like that.