Beth awoke to the sweet sensation of a headache, regretfully. Judging by the gentle light streaming through the window, it couldn't be that late in the morning, but she was already awake and not likely to get anymore sleep with her head pounding like it was.
She got up, and immediately noticed two more things. Her nausea had returned in full force, and her bladder was desperately full. It wasn't hard to decide which was the lesser of two evils, but by the time she'd relieved herself, the nausea had also faded.
Sufficiently convinced that she was on the mend from whatever sickness had befallen her, she shuffled back to bed and cuddled up against Liam once more. But she'd been a little too rough in her shifting around, or a little too loud on her trip to the bathroom, because she heard Liam groan quietly as he woke up.
"Beth?" she felt even worse to hear how groggy he sounded. He was working so hard and he needed all the sleep he could get, and here she was waking him up.
The guilt hit a little harder than it should have.
"Yeah, Liam?" she whispered, looking up to meet his sleep-blurry gaze.
"Why are you up so early? You should be resting." It was clear, even in his bleary eyes, that the worry from yesterday had never properly left him. Maybe she should go see a doctor to ease his worry, no matter how she felt.
"I'm fine. Go back to sleep." She smiled softly.
"Are you sure?" his eyes were already drifting closed.
Thinking of her pounding head and the faint, lingering traces of nausea, she was almost tempted to confess, but he was already worried enough. It was easier to just convince herself and everyone else that she was getting better. It was just some Viscordian stomach bug...
But just then, a bout of dizziness overwhelmed her, choking out her words and sending white stars spiraling across her vision. She inhaled and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling and dreading the acid-hot sensation that was slowly starting to creep up her throat.
Knowing full-well that it might just convince Liam once and for all that she was slowly dying or some other nonsense, she leapt to her feet and rushed to the bathroom to once again barf up everything in her stomach. The sour taste of bile did nothing to help.
Liam, of course, was close behind. Not even a single trace of the sleep was left behind in his eyes, and she could hear him insisting before he even started.
She offered a shaky smile, crouched there over the toilet.
"Beth..." he crouched beside her, his hand warm as it gently rubbed against her shoulder blades.
"I know." She swallowed the bitter taste and sat back on the floor.
"We need to get you checked out. Even if it's nothing." His words were gentle, but insistent. He would allow her to get out of it this time, no matter what lie she concocted to make him think she was feeling better.
"Okay." She knew she had to concede. She smiled softly.
Even if the worry might be a little stifling at some times, she had to be thankful that he cared at all. She should be thankful that she even had someone half as wonderful as him... tears sprang into her eyes, unbidden.
"I'll call in later and explain. Let's get you to a doctor." He slowly, ever-so-carefully, slipped one hand beneath her knees and the other around her back before he lifted her from the floor and carried her bridal-style back into the bedroom.
She snuggled into his warm chest, reveling in the soft, very subtle scent that only he had. She couldn't image she'd never realized how wonderful it was before now... there was that word again; wonderful. Everything about him, her Liam, was absolutely wonderful. The soft yet thorny tears returned to her eyes.
She rested against him as he walked, feeling the gentle jostling with each step he took, and before she knew it, she could smell the cool, sterile scent of a hospital. What was it about everything she'd been smelling today that seemed extra sharp and clear? She opened her eyes.
Liam set her down in a plushy chair.
"Wait here." He kissed her softly on the forehead and walked over to the desk to schedule his way into an appointment. It shouldn't be too hard for him to do, especially due to the rather infrequent need for doctors around the prospering colony.
A warm feeling spread through her as she watched him talking with the woman behind the desk. Liam. Of all the people in the world, he'd fallen in love with her.
The thought had periodically occurred to her, always bringing an almost bittersweet sunshine to her mind, but never this strong.
Beth took a deep breath and took note of the lack of nausea. One problem solved.
Liam returned, the worry still hidden not-very-skillfully within his eyes.
"You'll never guess who's available."
"Doctor Thurson?" she'd been admitted to his care after... encountering a new type of plant that just so happened to be covered in thorns that dislodged themselves and fired at anything that came within two feet of the thing... he was the only person she really knew in the hospital, despite knowing hundreds of people in all different fields.
"No. Ruth Bridger."
The name struck a strange chord. Ruth Bridger.
All of that had happened so long ago that it felt fake, now. She'd hardly encountered any reminders from that chunk of her past for so long...
She chuckled softly. She was acting as thought it had all happened years and years ago.
"Are you ready?" Liam asked, breaking her thoughts off.
She nodded and rose cautiously to her feet, looking around for a trash can in case there was a resurgence of sickness. But she was fine, if not a tad dizzy.
She insisted to walk, and Liam insisted against it until they were left with the solution: Beth would drape a precautionary arm around Liam's shoulders, just in case she fell or needed help, at which point Liam would carry her the rest of the way.
They made their way back into the little checkup office, where Ruth was waiting, a face straight out of the past.
She smiled, the wrinkles around her eyes deepening. "Beth. It's good to see you." Then a strange look passed over her face. "Though I would have liked it to be somewhere other than a hospital. Are you alright?"
"I've just been feeling a little sick the past couple days. I'm sure it's nothing." She smiled gratefully up at Liam as he helped lower her onto the little examination table. Sitting helped to banish the last shreds of dizziness that lingered in her mind.
"Could you describe a few of your symptoms? The hospital has been working with the Viscoridans to explore different illnesses, and a few people have been coming in with symptoms that match a few of them."
Of course it was just a little bug. Like the Viscordian equivalent of a cold or flu. She would be in tip top shape in a couple days.
But seeing Ruth here, now, had awakened another memory, another possibility. That stuff they had injected her with, the very stuff now swirling around in her veins, had never been properly tested before.
She could only now be encountering the negative side effects of the ordeal. She'd forgotten about the fear completely in the months following the injections, but back then, it had been a very real threat to die due to the syrum.
She took a deep breath and launched into a brief, concise description of the sickness she'd been plagued with for the past week or so. The nausea, the dizziness, the headaches.
Ruth's face was thoughtful, her eyes distant as she nodded. "Anything else?" she asked, when Beth had finished.
"Well... I'm not sure. But don't any of them match with what's been going around?" she felt her heart clench up, then go into overdrive.
"No." The word felt like the final nail in the coffin. "But it could be something else. Are there any more symptoms you can name?" And these words removed that nail.
"Well..." She thought back, wracking her brain for anything she could scrape together as a possible symptom. Then it struck her. "I think I've been smelling things a little sharper than usual. And I've been... emotional, I guess is the right word."
Ruth's face spread into a wide smile. "I think I might know what's going on."
Beth's heart soared at the positive note in her voice. Maybe it was good news. Just a bug, like she'd thought at first.
"Have you considered that you might be pregnant?"
The words were a blow, directly to her heart, which she was sure stopped beating for a solid minute. She could hardly breathe. What kind of sick joke was this? Ruth would have had ample access to the medical report that Beth had had to fill out before joining the program, so wouldn't she know that Beth was unable to have children? How could she be so cruel?
Her eyes filled with tears before she could stop herself, and she felt them, hot and fast, as they traced down her cheeks.
"What's wrong, dear?" Ruth asked, suddenly storm clouds rather than sunshine.
Liam had moved closer and placed a hand gently against her shoulder. She couldn't bear to look at him, now. It had been one of her biggest insecurities when she had realized that Liam was serious about marrying her, because he seemed, undeniably, like the type of person who wanted kids. And she'd long since known that she could never provide that.
Why would Ruth say that? Why, why, why, why?
She dimly heard Liam explaining, not very eloquently, that she was infertile.
"You mean, you don't know?"
The words were a dart, piercing the thin veil of grief that had folded over her ears.
"Know what?" Liam demanded, becoming her voice now that her words were failingly her.
"About Beth's condition." She seemed as though what she was talking about was the most obvious thing in the world. Oh, haven't you heard?
"What condition?" She could hear the hurt in his voice, similar to what she felt, herself. She looked up at Ruth and wondered: why, why, why?
"Well, it's not exactly the most diagnosable thing, but through my research back when Beth was our... subject, I confirmed it." She was treading carefully, now. She knew she was dealing with old wounds. "It's a genetic anomaly, causing a number of extraordinary traits. It was once called Alexandria's Genesis, back when it was first discovered, but when the subject became—rather controversial, the whole thing was dropped and allowed to fall to the back burner, where it quickly lost public interest."
"What 'extraordinary traits?'" Beth asked in a small voice.
"It's nothing to worry about, dear." She smiled away the worry. "That's just one of the reasons it was so touchy to so many people, and such a big deal. There were never any adverse side effects discovered. In fact, it might have been the reason that you survived our rather inhumane experiment."
"You haven't answered my question." She sniffed away the tears, once and for all.
"Well... let's just see if I can remember them." She looked at the ceiling and thought. "Well, for starters, your unusual eye color. No menstrual cycle, despite continued fertility. No body hair." She trailed off. "I believe that's about it."
She was silent. Her mouth hung open, but no words offered themselves up to be said.
"I'm so sorry for anything I might have said." Ruth shook her head. "I always assumed you knew."
She thought back. She'd researched it for hours one night, her eyes sticky and glued to the screen as she read article after article about how doomed she was. Late bloomer among late bloomer soon became infertile as the years ticked by.
She always thought...
"Are you telling the truth?" the words were weak. Could this just be a continuation of the cruelest prank to ever be? How could someone be so evil?
"Of course I am. I would never lie about something like this. I hope you believe that." Her eyes were earnest, open. She'd changed from the bitter old scientist, that much was undeniable.
Beth let the words hang in the air, unable to come up with a response. If what Ruth was saying was true... not only could she have children, she might have one inside her right now. It was impossible—wasn't it?
"You can take a pregnancy test to make sure, but I think that it just might be what's happening." Ruth spoke again.
"You really think so?" Liam asked, eyes shining with tears that probably matched her own.
"I really do."