Author's Note: Bit of an odd place to put them, I know, but spoilers for "The Pearls That Were His Eyes." This is, again, delayed, and I apologize. This is a long chapter, though, if that makes up for it. I'm trying to stick to actual medical practices for this, but I may get some stuff wrong. I apologize in advance.

As for the reason this story disappeared- I'm sorry. A combination of Microsoft, AOL, and my own lack of computer genius is at fault. I'm sorry for any confusion this may have caused. Since I had to fudge some corrections on some of the chapters, a few details may be off from what you remember. I've tried to keep it as close as possible.

jm, I read your review, and decided to address it, since I've been told by others that you did bring up a valid point and after stopping to think about it, I agree. I do try to explain some of this in this chapter, and I ask you to keep in mind that I have a basic plan for this story, but I develop it as I go along, so there may be errors in set-up. I'm trying to correct or explain as many of them as possible, but I appreciate it when you point out something confusing or contradicting. Thanks, to all of you, for the reviews.

Calling Rafe
By B.L.A. the Mouse
March 2002

They arrived in Medical quickly; Tyr had given up on letting her walk there, and instead carried her, with Rafe struggling to keep up. Tyr requisitioned a bed and put her on it, turning to meet a waiting doctor with a flexi. Rafe arrived seconds later, panting from the jog.

"Well," the short, bald physician said, "I'm Doctor Semper. I'll need your full name."

"Rebecca Valentine-Anasazi," Beka informed him curtly. "Aren't you supposed to be doing something other than identifying patients? Treating them, maybe? Ah!" She grabbed for Rafe's hand, as he was closer, and clenched it, ignoring the grimace that passed over his face.

For his part, the doctor ignored her second statement. "Valentine-Anasazi," he muttered, punching it onto the flexi. Looking at Rafe, he asked, "Are you Mister Anasazi? The father?"

"Hell no! I'm her brother!" Rafe was appalled by the thought, and winced again as Beka squeezed his hand. This time, it was out of irritation rather than pain.

"I'm Tyr Anasazi," Tyr told him. "Now that you know who we are and who the father is, you might treat Beka." He sounded lazily menacing, and Beka had to fight an ill-timed giggle at the doctor's look of sudden nervousness.

"You-you're Nietzschean?" he stammered, staring. "B-b-but she's human!"

"And you have inferior genes. Your point is?" He didn't wait for an answer, but increased the glower he was aiming at Semper. "My wife is in labor four months early. Treat her!"

The doctor held up his hands in self-defense. "I'm treating her!"

It must be said, when her treated her, he did so quickly and efficiently. His movements were quiet and neat; a swallowed sedative, to help her relax, an injected something to stop the contractions, another something in an IV- he didn't explain what that was for- monitoring both heart rates, checking blood pressure.

Semper continued in this vein for some time. Although he watched the doctor like a hawk, bridling whenever he approached with something, Tyr stood next to Beka's bed, giving her hand the intermittent gentle squeeze. Rafe got bored after fifteen minutes and took off in search of a bar, and hopefully information on why their seller had skipped out. Beka, for her part, was getting bored and drowsy, from the combined effects of the sedative and her earlier adrenaline rush. After a while, the contractions stopped, or at least lessened to the point where she couldn't feel them. She was starting to nod off when the doctor shocked her back to the real world, clearing his throat loudly to get her attention.

"Mr. Anasazi, Ms. Valentine," he began solemnly. Beka felt a tiny flutter of fear; he wouldn't be so serious if it were good news, would he?

Then Semper smiled. It was completely expected, but definitely a positive sign. He continued, "Your baby is perfectly healthy. In fact," he paused again, considering. "Do you know what sex it is yet?"

She said quickly, "No, we don't want to know until after it's born."

He nodded. "All right, then. It is one of the most healthy, advanced babies I've ever seen at this stage."

Beka smiled. "That's great!"

"There's a but coming, isn't there?" Tyr asked, staring fixedly at Semper.

He squirmed. "Yes. In order to insure that the baby is born as close to full term as possible, there are a few... guidelines... you should go by."

"Like?" Beka did not like the sound of that.

"No strenuous exercise. Minor bed rest. Some stitches. You shouldn't even be traveling! I'll make you a complete list for you. In the meantime, try to relax." He patted her knee absentmindedly, like he was petting a dog, and went back to what appeared to be an office.

"Relax," she grumbled, turning on her side to face Tyr. "Sure, he can tell me to relax-" She cut herself off, stiffening as she felt the muscles in her abdomen clench. It hurt, but it was not a contraction. For one thing, it was located too high. For another... "How does he expect me to relax on an empty stomach?"

"I'll see if I can get you something to eat," Tyr offered, sitting on the edge of the bed.

She shook her head. "No, I'll wait until Rafe gets here. Then we can drive him nuts running errands."

"Making use of resources and taking revenge simultaneously. Nice. Now what am I supposed to do?"

"Just stay here and keep me company." Beka propped herself up on her elbows, Tyr shifting behind her so that his back was against the headrest and legs dangled off to one side. She lay back down, resting her head on his thighs, and he took her hand in one of his and began brushing stray hairs off her face with the other. She took no notice of the gesture, but looked down at her stomach and let her hand drift down to rest on its swell, gently caressing it for a moment. "We nearly lost her," she said quietly.

He slid a finger down the side of her face, pressing under her chin, making her look up at him. "Nearly. We still haven't, and we won't. He's got good genes and determined parents- both of you will be fine."

"He?"

"What?"

"You said `he'."

"We're even, then. You said `her'."

"For a good reason. Trance slipped- I told you about that." Beka looked back down to her abdomen. "Hear that, kid? You better prove her right."

Tyr leaned over her to address her stomach. "Don't listen. Confuse everyone and make Trance wrong."

"You're questioning my authority now?" She started to laugh. After the stress of the last hour, it felt good to joke about something. "What next, you give her a later bedtime than I do?"

He laughed, as well. Neither of them noticed the doctor slip back into the room until he spoke.

"May I ask what's so funny?"

They abruptly stopped. There was something about sharing the joke with Semper that made it not so funny anymore. Beka just said, "Nothing. Have you finished the list?"

"Yes." He extended the flexi. She took it, sitting up, and Tyr read over her shoulder. She was halfway down the list when she exploded.

"Sixteen hours? I have to stay in bed for sixteen hours a day? That's ridiculous!"

"That's nothing. I could make it closer to twenty-four, with your possibility for preterm labor." The doctor wasn't kidding.

"I can't even repair the Maru?"

"No. You can only do nonactive things, lying down, sixteen hours a day. And the rest of the time you have to restrict your movement."

Beka was going to argue the point further, but Tyr leaned over and murmured, "I'm inclined to agree with him. Just drop it and keep reading." She pressed her lips together in sheer frustration, but took his advice- until she reached the bottom.

"Stitches?"

The doctor looked exasperated. "Yes, stitches. They're a precautionary measure, in for three months. I put them in now, they're removed at eight months. I need to set some things up, but I'll be able to do the procedure in an hour.'

"Cervical stitches?"

Semper did not deign to answer, but turned back into the office.

Beka leaned back into her earlier position, handing the flexi to Tyr. She closed her eyes and moved her hand back to her stomach- he was still holding her other hand. " I can't pilot, I can't leave bed, I have to get stitches, we can't make love, Dylan'll probably order me to Andromeda for the duration... we'd have to switch ships eventually, of course, I just didn't anticipate it so soon... and that isn't even all of it. Why don't you have to suffer any of this?"

"I have to suffer, to a degree."

"How?"

"The lack of sex affects me as well, I have to put up with your brother, and I'm living with you."

"Tyr...!" Insulted, she reached up to tug on a braid. "Careful what you say. I'm the first officer- I can get Dylan to demote you to deckhand."

Semper interrupted again just then. Beka winced in anticipation as he approached with the medical instruments.

*****

Rafe sauntered in after another hour. Beka didn't notice, being too busy complaining to Tyr. "He couldn't have been a bit more careful? That hurts! And he calls himself a doctor?"

Tyr groaned. "Beka, I realize that getting the stitches hurt. But you've gotten worse."

"And complained about it even more. This is just the stitches' fair share."

"Hey, Rocket."

Beka focused on him. "Ah, the cause of my pain has returned." Then she corrected herself. "Sorry, Tyr's the main cause. But it's still your fault that I have to go through this."

"How am I the main cause?" Tyr asked. He knew the answer, but asked anyway.

She knew that he knew, but answered in spite of it. "You're the one that got me pregnant."

"You didn't exactly stop me."

"It was all I could do to delay you a year."

Rafe interrupted, "Charming as this little spat is, I found out what happened to our seller."

"Your seller. He stopped being our seller the moment you told us the deal was shady." Still, he'd caught her attention, and she sat up and slid back onto Tyr's lap. The movement was accompanied by a shot of pain through her groin- those stitches had really hurt- but she ignored it. "So what happened to him?"

Rafe sat down in the visitor's chair and pulled it up to the bedside. "Like I thought, he ran into some trouble, only it wasn't legal. He got mugged. The thieves found the Flash and didn't realize it wasn't the normal stuff-"

"And they took it, lost their judgment that much quicker, and ended up killing themselves and your seller," Tyr finished. At the siblings' surprised look, he explained, "Behavioral patterns of Flash users are predictable."

"Another thing," Rafe got their attention again, "that meteorite strike wasn't a meteorite. The thieves were holed up in an access shaft when they killed each other, and one of their shots- when they were still firing Gauss guns and not trying to strangle each other- went wide and hit an open access panel. It disrupted normal operations all over the place, but the resident bureaucracy doesn't want to admit that some of their residents have problems."

Beka nodded. "That sounds about right."

All of them lapsed into silence for several minutes, until Rafe remembered an earlier comment. "How is this my fault?"

"What?"

"How is what happened to you my fault? If you knew the risks and came anyway..."

"Oh, that." She explained, "You told us that this was a simple, legal job on a decent drift. What you neglected to tell us was that it was a simple, barely legal job on a drift that's decent as long as you don't get into the whole subversive drug and crime aspect. That little difference in description was why we decided to risk it. What we were planning on was a quick, harmless way to make extra money before the baby comes, because I was fool enough to trust you about the job!" There were tears glistening in her eyes as she flung the last words at him; they prickled in the corners in which they sat, threatening to fall.

Rafe looked down at the floor, inspecting it carefully. "Rocket," he started cautiously, "all I can say-"

"Don't say you're sorry. Don't you dare say it. You aren't- you never are. You can't say it unless you mean it." Tyr wrapped his arms around her as a sob escaped at the end of her sentence.

"I've been thinking, while I was in the bar. I was going to ask if I could stay on Andromeda for a while. To see if I could make it up to you?"

"How can you possibly make it up to me after scaring the hell out of me?"

Rafe considered for a moment. "Well... I could help with stuff. Like baby-sit, maybe?"

Beka stared at him for a full second before it clicked. "Which one?"

"What?"

"Which crewmember are you after?"

"None!" He broke down after a minute as they stared at him. "Just one or two."

She laughed, slightly, even though she still had tears in her eyes. "Predictable. Dylan might let you stay if you don't get us into any more trouble."

"And you and Tyr?"

Tyr said, "Maybe. If you don't endanger us any further. I have permission to fire you out a missile tube if you do."

"Who gave you permission to do that? Captain Terrific?" Oh, yeah. Rafe had definitely been hanging out with Harper too much recently.

"I did," Beka told him.

"Oh, there's family loyalty for you," he muttered. "Sell me out to the Nietzschean."

"Yes. And it is family loyalty; it's just to Tyr and the baby- oof!" She put a hand on her stomach. Now that was new.

"What? What is it? Do you want me to get Semper?" Rafe shot to his feet, ready to go for the doctor. He hadn't acted that concerned earlier.

Tyr asked, "What's wrong? Isn't the medicine working?" He had straightened behind her, looking ready to go into hand to hand combat with Death himself, if need be. His bonespurs sprang out.

Beka shook her head. She was having trouble talking through the lump in her throat. The tears from earlier now escaped, trickling slowly down her cheeks, though for an entirely different reason as that odd sensation came again. She grabbed Tyr's hand and put it over her stomach, careful to avoid the extended bonespurs, saying, "Just wait a minute. You can feel it."

He only had to wait a moment before it happened again. He looked at her in surprise. "Is it...?"

She nodded.

By now Rafe was thoroughly confused and demanded, "Will someone please tell me what's going on? Do you need a doctor or not?"

"No, no, I don't need a doctor. The baby kicked, is all." She was grinning by now.

"So... the baby moved?"

"Yes!"

"That's what all this is about?"

"Yes!" Since he still looked perplexed, she clarified. "That means she's all right. I haven't felt her do this with quite that much force, and not at all since I got contractions. It means they didn't hurt her, she's all right!"

Even Tyr was beaming. He leaned over her shoulder to look at her stomach, almost in amazement. "She's moving!"

Rafe stared at her stomach. "Can I feel?"

"Sure." Beka shifted her hand to the side so Rafe could add his, right as the baby kicked again. She addressed it with "What are you, practicing hand-to-hand already?"

Rafe whispered, "That's the baby?"

"Yup. Your niece."

"Or nephew," Tyr put in. When Beka turned her head to glare at him, he just said, "I'm still hoping for a boy."

"Give it up, Tyr. You just said she."

Rafe was still gazing fixedly at her stomach. "Damn. I'm an uncle." He sat down again with a thud in the visitor's chair, pulling his hand from her belly to rest his chin on. "Damn," he repeated, amazed. "How am I supposed to be an uncle?"

"Just be better than Sid Barry and you'll be fine," Beka advised. "She's stopped."

Tyr reluctantly removed his hand as her brother asked, "What's wrong with Uncle Sid?"

"Last time I ran into him, he'd renamed himself Sam Profit, owned Quantum-TransGalactic Corporation, and he's turned into a homicidal maniac. He tried to kill me if I didn't give him a record of one of the operations he and Dad went on."

"Oh."

"Yeah, something like that."

"So where do I put my stuff for any longer, the Maru or the Andromeda? If I'm going to hang around with you guys for a while, I need to stay someplace."

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