"What's his/her name?"
"His name is Ka'Leen., but everyone calls him Kay"
"One Pride?"
"I thought about naming him Luke, just so you could have an easy dad joke when you got home, but I thought better of it."
Adam's knuckles were white, clutching the edge of the small bassinet like a man clinging to a cliff edge desperately hoping not to fall, "I.... Did you.... Did you know? The last time we...?" His voice was no more than a horse whisper.
Sunny was silent for a long moment, then he felt her arms wrap gently around his waist and chest, head resting atop his shoulder, "I....did."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because, I didn't want you to worry. You needed to be focused, and I wasn't about to distract you."
"But I.... But I-"
"But you what? You couldn't have not done what you did. Things would have ended the same, but you would have felt guilty about it."
Adam turned to look at her, catching her upper hands in his, "But I DO feel guilty anyway. . I left you alone for two years to... to take care of a baby all on your own I.... I haven't even held him yet and you did that all by yourself just waiting for me/"
Sunny's face was mostly unlit in the quiet room, but light cast by the projected stars that floated around them, glowed as pinpricks in her eyes, "You think I was alone? " She laughed, "Adam, the only time I have been alone in the past two years is when I have politely asked to be. Krill was hardly about to let Kay go without nearly hourly examinations. If I weas less aggressive, I would have to fight to hold my own baby. If he's not with me he's with Hijan or your mother or your father, or one of your brothers, or Makers forbid he's with Ramirez. Besides, "She rested a hand on his shoulder, "For him it's only been a little over a year. We weren't sure at the time how long the gestation period was going to be for humans it's nine months, for Drev it can be around eleven. Kay was born at ten, and he's" She paused to think for a moment. "he's about a year and two months now."
Adam opened his mouth and the closed it again unable to find the words, feeling his chest constrict. He reeled thinking about it. Despite what Sunny said he couldn't help but imagine what the past two years had been like for her.
"I wasn't there for....."
Her eyes grew only slightly sad, "You know Adam I'm honestly ok you missed me being pregnant, and I didn't allow anyone to be there when he was born either." She paused when she saw the wide eyed look on his face.
"You didn't-"
"Give birth to him on the edge of a volcano, no, no I did not. It was here with Krill in the other room in case there was a problem, but I am not about to go and do that the way you humans do it. she made a face. People just looking at our unmentionables for hours on end sounds like the last thing I want to involve myself in."
Adam opened and closed his mouth again , still struggling desperately to find words, turned back to look at the little shape cuddled up in the darkness. The baby had so much hair, and he was, big, not necessarily unusually big, but very, very solid. It was too dark to make out much more.
Adam stepped back.
He had to sit down.
He found the rocking chair from his childhood home and rested his head in his hands rubbing at his temples. IN the dark, Sunny knelt down on the floor in front of him . he wasn't sure what to do, or how to react or... or anything, instead wrapping his arms around sunny who rested her head against his leg eyes closed, "I'm glad you're home."
They sat like that in the darkness for a while, while Adam did his best to wrap his had around everything that had changed. There was so much he should have been thinking about, but all his thoughts were consumed by the one sleeping quietly at the far end of the room.
His
Son?
Not simply his genetics borrowed to make someone else, but a real actual intentional child. Not matter how hard he tried it was impossible to wrap his head around. His stomach churned at the thought of being a father.
Of how he could potentially mess up.
Of everything that could potentially go wrong.
And still he thought of Sunny alone without him during that entire time.
His thoughts were interrupted when a quiet whimper reached him. He lifted his head and looked over to see Jeffrey's silhouette rising into the air. The whimper morphed gently into sporadic breathing.
"Someone is waking up." Sunny muttered.
Adam froze.
Sunny stood and took his hand, "Come on, we wait any longer and you'll get to see the pair of lungs he has on him. Turns out he has hybrid human Drev vocal cords. Krill says he's going to have a deep voice when he hits puberty, but it also means he can scream like a banshee."
Adam walked with Sunny in a daze as the room's lights slowly began to adjust filling the little nursery with warm yellow light. Adam almost jumped as a soft whirring came from the side of the room, and a panel on the far wall slid up to reveal a massive floor to ceiling window looking out over busy midday Arcadia, with its thousand Sun lamps and millions of glowing jellyfish.
He nervously stepped up behind Sunny as he walked over to the bed, "Did someone have a good nap."
Adam hung back silently and watched as she reached down and pulled the baby from where he nestled with Jeffery.
Jeffery stretched, and rolled once before slithering out of the little bed to go curl up around waffles who now stood at Adam's heels, tongue lolling Happily.
The little boy wore nothing but a diaper and a single sock. Adam stared fixed to his spot as the child stretched and rubbed at his eyes, all four arms wiggling and waiving as he transitioned to being awake. He rubbed at his eyes and face pinched against the light.
When the lights came fully on Adam's mouth fell open.
"Holy sh- uh......." His voice trailed off, and Sunny turned to look at him, holding the boy in her right arm, but supporting him gently with her other hand. The boy continued to rub at his eyes, leaning forward to hide his face against the crook of her shoulder and neck.
"I... is that his.... Real color." Adam stammered.
Sunny snorted, "No, we spray painted him just for you."
Adam barely had the wherewithal to roll his eyes, "He looks..... like your father."
Sunny smiled, "I know."
And it was indeed the case, "The little boy had lanus's coloring, Gold, and not simply gold in the way that blonde is sometimes referred to ask gold, no. Ka'leen had hair the color of metallic yellow gold, the fingernails on his tiny hands were gold, what Adam could see of his tiny right foot, showed that his toenails were gold.
Even his skin seemed to shimmer ever so slightly as if lightly coated in gold dust.
For the most part he seemed human, the biggest difference was the second pair of arms, the lower which rested slightly down and behind the upper arms leaving his chest mostly normal, though giving him an extra set of back muscles barely visible under the soft pudgy exterior. When the boy lifted his chin, Adam could see two small holes at the base of his neck which flared gently as the boy breathed.
It was only then did Adam realize, while Kay's upper hands and feet had five digits each, his lower arms had only four fingers both missing the pinky.
Sunny smiled at Adam's open-mouthed wonder, "He's got his father's eyes though."
She walked over to stand next to Adam, just as the little boy raised his head, still blinking slowly.
Big Green eyes.
"Are you awake now?" Sunny asked.
The baby gave her a groggy smile.
"I have someone you'll want to meet." She said to him, turning so Adam was in the boy's line of sight. The baby blinked and tilted his head, staring at Adam unblinkingly with his wide green eyes. Adam felt frozen to the floor, unsure what to do.
"Kay..... do you know who this is."
Kay blinked.
"This is your dad."
Adam felt warm and cold and then warm again, hot all over as he stood staring, and the baby stared back.
"Will you let you dad hold you."
Mechanically, and without really understanding what his body was doing, Adam held out his hands, breath caught in his throat, waiting to see what the baby, what.... His son was going to do.
Kay looked at him for a moment then turned to look at Sunny big green eyes slightly wary, unsure.
Sunny hummed, "Its ok."
And as if kay understood her, his tiny mouth opened into a big smile, and he reached out all four of his arms to Adam, to a stranger, Adam felt in a daze as Sunny handed the baby over, feeling the weight settle into his arms, desperately did his best to balance Kay as the baby moved unexpectedly, much heavier than Adam would have thought.
He found himself face to face with the baby one examining the other with curiosity. Little hands grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, while another pair of hands reached up to examine his face. Adam shook his head as his eyes went blurry.
"Hi, ka'Leen." He managed to choke out
The baby made a sort of cooing noise at him. It wasn't an entirely human sound , but it was close, and then he reached up and grabbed Adam by the ear.
"Hey!"
Kay giggled
"Oh yeah, watch out, he likes ears, I think he doesn't really understand them yet. Also he's a bit of an attention Diva, so be prepared."
Adam found himself smiling from ear to ear as Kay grew more comfortable with him, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, touching his face, and eventually resting his head on Adam's shoulder, "Still a bit sleepy from his nap."
Adam hugged the boy gently, closer to his chest numb and happy at the same time.
Sunny looked at the two of them and puffed her chest out in pride.
He had seen Sunny happy
But not like this.
"He finally has his dad."
Adam swallowed hard, "And I'm not going anywhere, not again."
Sunny smiled and wrapped one of her arms around his waist, "Good, because you're getting up with him for the next year."
Adam choked out a laugh and allowed Sunny to walk them out into the living room, where he was surprised to find his family and friends had been waiting for him, patient and talking quietly with each other for the, hour or so he had been in that room.
The smiles in the room were wide and excited when they saw him, carrying his son into the room.
Kay seemed to recognize all of them, cooing gently as he saw them turning his head in every direction, likely unsure why these people were here but happy about it anyway. He gave a big smile to Ramirez when he appeared, resting a hand on Adams shoulder, "There's my little buddy, awake from his nap." Ramirez looked at Adam, "I have already claimed the tile of cool Uncle."
Thomas snorted, "You aren' blood related, so that goes to me."
"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb my dear friend."
"I will fight you for the title." Thomas said playfully pushing Ramirez back
David gave Adam a wry smile, "What they don't know is I am actually the best uncle, and I feel no need to fight for it."
Adam grinned taking a seat in the living room with them, loath to let Kay go but finally setting him down to wobble off towards his grandma, who picked him up and kissed him on the cheek to a squeal of delight.
"I think you will find all of your postulations to be incorrect."
The group of them turned to krill who was floating near where Jeremy sat, "I am the one who has kept his entire family alive, so therefore I get the tile of cool uncle, and the rest of you have to deal with it."
"That's big talk coming from someone I could pop like a balloon." Jeremy said, brandishing a pen in the doctor's general direction.
Krill gave him a look, "Take a good long look at yourself and ask..... is it really a good idea to threaten me?"
Jeremy tried to hold the doctor's gaze but quickly looked away.
"That's what I thought, cool uncle goes to me."
Adam smiled as he watched Kay crawl from his grandma's lap into his grandpa's lap. Jim helped the boy stand up on his knees, "Gonna be tall this one."
Adam scratched at his head, "Oh.... Yeah, how tall.... Can he get?" He looked over to Krill.
Krill paused and then shrugged, "We are still not entirely sure . The way Adaptid DNA changed him is..... just becoming clear. You will be happy to know your child isn't going to choke to death in the near future"
That WAS relaxing to learn actually.
"He has the extra esophageal breathing tubes seen in Drev. You see his coloring of course, that is a result of the DNA interpreting Keratin as Chitin , giving him the golden color in his hair nails, and even the upper layer of his skin. You'll find out pretty quickly he has the vocal capabilities of both a human and a Drev, which means the boy can scream, and he can o it rather loudly."
The humans grimaced.
Sunny shrugged.
"his eyes, we are pretty sure he can see color like a Drev but has night vision more similar to that of a human. I believe he will be able to eat meat and consume dairy, but I am not entirely sure about that yet. His lower arms only have four fingers, but that's because that set was blueprinted from Drev DNA primarily."
Kay had come full circle now, and reached his arms up for Sunny, who bent down to pick him up.
He rested quietly on her lap playing with her carapace.
He smiled, "Well, he's got my looks, so he should go far."
Sunny snorted.
"Poor kid has no chance."
Adam elbowed her gently as the rest of his family laughed. For the next hour or so Adam forced the rest of his family to fill him in on his son, his personality his likes and his dislikes, any stories that he could hear.
His primary motivations, Sleep, food and physical contact.
He was spoiled and enjoyed being rocked to sleep every night, his favorite snack was orb fruit, which he shared with waffles. Though he was a bit of a Diva, if he was not the center of attention, he had no problem screaming about it until someone picked him up. He could be combative like his mother and had a habit of touching everything like his father.
He loved to go chase jellies in the park .
Silently, Adam was sad his son had never seen an Earth Sunrise or an Anin sunset. He was a child of a Sunless dark planet powered by technology.
It was in this quiet , when the others were gone that he thought about this. Sunny rested against him, her head on his stomach , Kay curled up in his arms when he realized.
He had to put the universe ack together.
If only so his son could see Earth's sunrise and feel the grass between his toes