“You look so serious. Don’t be. I told you before that I’m very willing to get you whatever you need for the medical center.”
“This isn’t about that.” She had to slow her pounding heart. “This is about a personal matter.”The smile slowly faded as his gaze narrowed. “Please tell me you aren’t resigning. We need you.” He lifted his head, removed his elbows from his desk to fall back against his chair, and looked suddenly tense. “I’d be more than happy to discuss money with you if this is a salary issue. We really want you to continue working with us. You are an excellent doctor and my people have grown to trust you. You have no idea how much we value that and you.”
She shook her head. “It’s not about money and I don’t want to lose my job or quit, though you might not want me to work for you after this meeting.” She took a deep breath, studying Justice. “I’m sorry. I’m scared to death right now.”
“Of me?” He looked surprised.
“Of the situation. I don’t even know where to begin. Something has happened and it’s pretty serious. If anyone realizes how severe this is, it’s me.”
“All right.” Justice took a deep breath. “Tell me what is wrong.”
“I’ve been given access to a lot of the medical files that contain some of the recovered research data from Mercile Industries. They tried to breed New Species men and women. I know you are very aware of this.”
His face tightened. “Yes. I was personally subjected to a lot of their breeding studies.” His voice had lowered to a growl.
“From what I’ve read, from the files I’ve been given, all their testing was between two New Species pairs and it always failed. They never attempted to breed New Species with pure humans.”
“No. We were considered too dangerous and they were afraid we’d kill any of the staff who attempted to lure us into having sex with them. You can’t blame us.”
“I don’t.” She hesitated.
“They severely abused us.”
“I know that. I— It’s happened,” she stated very softly.
“I don’t understand. You found a file where they held those studies on some of my people? Some of them agreed to have sex with humans while we were prisoners?”
She fought the urge to burst into tears. “No. I’m sorry. I’m not being very clear. A full human has conceived a child with a New Species.”
There. I said it. She watched the shock transform Justice’s face. His mouth opened and then closed. He finally found his voice.
“That…” He looked dazed. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. I ran the tests myself this morning and preformed an ultrasound. The fetus has a strong, well developed heartbeat and it looks perfect. I won’t lie. This pregnancy isn’t normal. The heartbeat is that of a much more advanced fetus and the measurements are off on the size. It appears the growth rate and fetal development are farther along than a typical pregnancy. It’s alarming, Justice. The baby is growing faster than it should be and the pregnancy symptoms are premature for the gestation period.” Her fingers dug into the chair she sat in. “For the first time, according to what I know, a New Species has been able to help conceive a baby. I know you believed all your males were sterile but at least one of them isn’t.”
Justice suddenly stood. He turned to the window and presented Trisha with his back. He remained silent. Trisha watched him with fear. She had no idea how he’d react. She had a television, watched interviews with hate groups, and knew that it would only bring New Species huge trouble when word spread that they could not only have children, at least one of them wasn’t sterile, but that the mother wasn’t New Species.
A lot of idiots believed cross breeding of that sort would be a grave offense. They’d compare it with an animal and a human breeding. Their prejudices disgusted Trisha but she couldn’t change their narrow minds. Justice finally turned with a huge grin.
“That’s wonderful!” He dropped into his chair. “And we’re sure it was definitely a human and New Species breeding?”
“One-hundred percent sure.”
He laughed. “I never thought I’d be able to have children. None of us did.” He stood again and almost leaped across his desk to grab a gasping Trisha. He yanked her out of the chair, into his arms and hugged her. “This is the best news ever, Trisha. You’re a genius! You did it!”
Trisha pushed gently away from Justice until he released her. She looked up into his grinning face with a horrible feeling. He obviously thought she’d done something as a doctor that resulted in the pregnancy. She knew she needed to set him straight immediately.
“This wasn’t something I did on purpose. There was no medical intervention. This just happened. It’s a completely unplanned and natural-occurring pregnancy.”
“That’s even better! You’ve made my day. Hell, my year.” Then his smile faded as he tensed. “We have to keep this under wraps. We’re going to have to shield the couple. There could be a firestorm of threats directed at us if the press finds out and reports it. Who knows?”
“Just you and me so far.”
“The couple doesn’t know?”
She realized he didn’t understand what she attempted to tell him. She opened her mouth. Justice backed up.
“About that—”
Justice cut her off. “The press will be all over it if they find out. We need to keep this classified. You are going to have to care for the pregnant female. No one, and I mean no one, can find out about this until after the baby is born. We’ll get the pair secluded to protect them and any paperwork you did on this needs to be destroyed. Can you imagine what those terrorist groups will do and how dangerous it will be when they learn we can breed with humans? It’s one of the things they’ve tried to use against us to drag more idiots into the fight for their cause. They believe it’s vile for Species to touch someone fully human and it’s going to really piss off the ones who are looking forward to our demise once our generation dies out.”
“Justice—”
“You and I will work together to protect them at all costs, Trisha. We have to keep this top secret. I’ll call for a helicopter transport immediately to fly them out of here within the hour. The Reservation isn’t fully operational but it’s very secure and it’s the safest place to stash them. You’ll have to go there too.” He stared at her. “I know your life is here but you need to be protected.” He grinned. “This is more important. I—”“Shut up!” Trisha finally yelled.
Justice frowned at her. “What—”
“Quiet,” she ordered him, lowering her voice. “I’ve been trying to tell you something and you keep cutting me off.”
He nodded. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”
She hesitated, staring into his beautiful, exotic eyes. “I’m the mother. It’s me, Justice. I’m the female carrying a New Species baby. There’s no paperwork since I ran all the tests when I was alone at the clinic. I realized I had missed my period but I had chalked it up to stress when I was late. Then I started feeling morning sickness and I took a test when I got out of bed this morning. It was positive. Right after that I went to the medical center and gave myself an ultrasound.” She blinked back tears. “There’s definitely a baby growing inside me and it’s growing at an accelerated rate. The only explanation for that abnormality is perhaps because the baby is half New Species and the pregnancy will be shorter due to the father’s altered DNA.” Her hand rested over her stomach. “I’m the mother,” she repeated.
Justice gaped at her, completely stunned. She collapsed back into her chair while she fought more tears. It was tough but she managed not to burst into sobs. She lifted her gaze and realized Justice mutely gaped at her. Seconds seemed to drag for an eternity before he found his voice.
“You’re sure the father is New Species? I know you were seeing someone and I believed him to be human.”
“The last time I had sex was about two years ago. I’ve had sex once since then and it was with one of your men. There is no doubt whatsoever that he’s the father.”
Justice sat on the edge of his desk. “All right. This is good news, Trisha. You look so miserable but don’t be. You have no idea what this means to my people.” He gave her a sad smile. “We can have children after all. If one of us is able, perhaps others can as well. I know you are probably scared but this is going to work out somehow. We’ll make it. Can you handle your own medical needs until we can secure someone we can trust to take over? You obviously can’t deliver your own child.”
She blinked back more tears. “I’m still in shock but I want the baby. I’m mostly scared. I never thought I’d be a mom and I know that my baby is in danger because of what this means. It’s going to be the first known mixed species baby between our races. I’m afraid of what kind of life he or she is going to be facing. I did the ultrasound and everything looks right but it’s so hard to tell at this stage. I’m worried about the size of the baby though because it measured bigger by far than what it should be. I have to run a ton of tests. Something could be wrong with the pregnancy. We just don’t know what to expect because this has never happened before. I’m terrified.”