The First Lock - 17. Chapter 17

- XVII -

Two and a half months after Katrena became a special tactics instructor, she decided to take time off due to that monkey inside her who was growing by the minute, it seemed. During the past month, she felt beyond miserable. It seemed that she could only sleep on her back because the minute she tried rolling onto her side, it felt like every single inner organ of hers was about to be squished into oblivion. “I sleep like a dog,” she told Mandy once and glanced at Rusty who was sleeping on his back, all four legs up in the air. “Yup,” she nodded. “Just like that.”

Besides the sleeping position, there was also a fact that she felt like a beached whale every time she had to move. “Oh dear God, I am waddling!” she realized with horror one of those days. If that wasn’t enough, there was also a hell of a heartburn, need to pee every twenty minutes, and mood swings from hell. She also turned out to be one of those unlucky individuals who made friends with nausea for the entire term.

Tonight was just another miserable night of her eight and a half months torture, and she was sitting in the kitchen, chugging down mint tea that Mandy had to stack up on several months ago.

“I am going to stay pregnant forever,” she said gloomily, and Mandy sighed.

“I know how it feels... Well,” she shrugged after Katrena gave her a very dark look. “At least, there is only one body inside you and not two...”

Katrena shuddered at the very thought. She stared into her cup, thinking that she could kill for a bologna sandwich right now, but she knew better – the minute she even saw (let alone smelled) the meat, she'd end up hugging the toilet again. Therefore, she sighed, poured more tea into her cup, and fantasized about bologna in silence.

“You only have a couple of weeks left,” Mandy said in reassuring voice. “Also, remember how the doctor said there could be a miscalculation? That means you could be free sometimes next week!”

“Oh God, I hope so,” Katrena sighed, the image of a damn sandwich dancing in her mind. She didn’t care that much about bologna usually, but right now, it seemed it was the only thing she could think about.

Suddenly, Mandy made a small sound, which was a mix of frustration and surprise. Katrena looked up with a silent question. Mandy shrugged with apologetic smile.

“Sorry,” she said. “It’s weird, but all of a sudden, I am craving a bologna sandwich like no other! And we had dinner less than an hour ago! So bizarre...” she muttered, and Katrena forgot how to blink.

Okay, she thought. This was definitely not a coincidence. She almost forgot about that tea incident with Paul, but now she remembered it bright and clear. She projected this on Mandy, she thought with astonishment. Just like she projected that tea desire on Paul several months ago. But how was this even possible? Even with the Locking issue aside, she had never possessed the mind controlling power. Never in her entire life was she able to project on anyone. Yeah, she thought numbly. She didn’t have this ability, but Jett did. And since a part of Jett is inside her right now... She closed her eyes.

“Oh my God,” she thought. “The monkey is the one who is doing this... The kid is projecting from the inside... I was almost positive that if I Locked myself, it would affect both of us, but apparently, it didn’t... Because there is no other explanation...!” She thought harder for several minutes, trying to figure out if there were any other instances that she failed to notice, due to ‘it’s just a coincidence’ factor. There was that one time when Paul brought her a box of tangerines without her even asking for one, even though she craved them all day; another time when Danny brought her a bottle of water from the fridge when she was beyond thirsty but she never asked him to do anything; one time when Dawnie got up all of a sudden in the middle of her study session just so she could go into the kitchen and get a bowlful of ice-cream – the same exact ice-cream Katrena was fantasizing about at that particular moment...

“Oh, Mother of God...” she thought and blinked when she realized that she just used this particular expression in her head. The God she used to know before she came here had never had a mother; nor did it have an offspring. The God she used to know wasn’t male or female; it was it, and not he or she. “Well,” she thought philosophically. “I suppose I am becoming a true part of this world, slowly but surely... One expression at a time.”

She almost smiled at that, still shocked from the revelation she received several minutes ago (“What else can you do, kid?”) when suddenly, a bolt of pain shot through her body, making her spill her tea.

“Oh, son of a bitch!” she groaned. Mandy looked at her with alarm.

“You okay?” she asked, her forehead one tight frown.

“I don’t know...” Katrena panted. “I have no idea what the hell it was, but all of a sudden I... Oh, fucking hell!”

She tried not to use this kind of language around Mandy, but right now, she couldn't care less. The second bolt of pain that erupted in her body was by far worse than the first one.

“Oh, bloody hell!” she hissed. “Oh, fuck me ‘till I cry! Oh, goddammit!”

“I don’t think you’d like to be fucked right now, hun,” Mandy said with a panicked smile. “Come on! Come on!!”

She grabbed Katrena’s arm and swung it around her own neck. Then she half-dragged, half-pushed the obscenity-spitting new member of the police staff towards the front door of the house. She shoved her into the car without even bothering with the seat belt, and ran back inside the house.

“Danny!” she yelled at the top o her lungs. “Goddammit, Danny!”

The boy appeared on the top of the stairs, his forehead frowning with puzzlement and alarm.

“I didn’t do it!” he said immediately, and Mandy told herself to find out later what on earth he was talking about. Now, however, it was not the time for interrogation.

“I am taking Katrena to the hospital!” she said, and his forehead smoothed out with visible relief. Mandy reminded herself yet again to find out what he did. “Lock the door and call Paul!”

“Okay,” he nodded. “What’s his phone number?”

Mandy almost said what Katrena said several minutes ago.

“It should be on the Caller I.D.,” she said instead. “Use your brain, Danny! I gotta go!”

He started saying something else, but she just waved her hand at him and ran outside. She slid into the driver’s seat, shoved the key into ignition, and the second the car came to life, she threw it into gear and flew out of the driveway without even remembering to look around first.

The hospital wasn’t too far from her house, and the traffic was light. Mandy made it there in less than fifteen minutes. For the entire ride, Katrena hadn’t said a single non-obscene word. Mandy was impressed – there were quite a few expressions she had never even heard before. She made sure to remember those – you never know when stuff like this could come in handy.

She flew into the parking lot of the emergency room and brought the car to a screeching halt right in front of the sliding glass doors. She turned it off, pulled out the keys, and jumped outside. The security guard marched up to her, and without saying anything, she shoved her keys into his palm. Then, while he was staring at the set of keys in his hand with great puzzlement, she dragged Katrena (who was still hissing less intelligible profanities through her clenched teeth) out of the car, and kicked the door shut.

“Park this somewhere,” Mandy quickly said to the security guard. “Please!” she added a second later.

The security guard blinked and looked at her with a small frown. He looked like he was about to say something along the lines of ‘Lady, you are out of your goddamn mind if you think I am your freaking valet’ when he looked at Katrena and said, “Ummm...” instead. Mandy followed his gaze.

“Oh, fuck me ‘till I cry!” she moaned. “Kat, your water just broke, son of a bitch!”

Katrena’s reply made the security guard blink several times and clutch the keys in his hand.

“I’ll park it in the first row over there,” he said to Mandy and pointed towards the parking lot. “It’s for staff only, but I’ll make sure you don’t get a ticket.”

“Uh huh,” was all Mandy said, dragging Katrena inside.

When they got inside, the girl at the receptionist’s desk quickly picked up the phone and said something into the receiver.

“Okay,” she said after she hung up the phone. “They are on their way and I need you to fill out some paperwork!”

The second Katrena heard the word ‘paperwork,’ she burst into a string of very audible and brilliant obscenities that made the girl freeze in her spot.

“It’s okay,” Mandy said quickly, holding onto Katrena’s hand for dear life. “I’ll do it, it’s okay! I remember you social, it’s okay!”

“I’ll be right back...” the girl whispered and dove behind her desk, frantically looking for papers and pen.

Several seconds after that, the big doors in the depths of the emergency room lobby swung open, and a middle-aged nurse rushed out, pushing a wheelchair in front of her.

“Let’s get you in the chair, doll,” she crooned. “You are okay now, doll! Everything will be fine, let’s just get you...”

“Like fucking hell it will!” Katrena exploded again. “Give me the drugs, you goddamn hag! Give me the motherf...”

“It’s okay,” the receptionist quickly grabbed the papers out of Mandy’s hand. “It seems like you are the only person that woman listens to,” she jabbered when she saw Mandy’s confused expression. “You’ll fill these out later, it’s okay!”

“Oh,” Mandy said and rushed to Katrena, who looked like she was about to kill that nurse on the spot. Mandy involuntarily shuddered when she realized that it was actually possible.

“Kat,” she grabbed the raging girl’s hand. “Please, don’t yell, please...!”

“That bitch won’t give me the drugs!” Katrena hissed, but at least, she took it down a notch.

“I told her that it was too late...” the stunned nurse stuttered. “I mean, her water just broke... It’s too late for drugs, it’ll damage...”

“I don’t care!!” Katrena would make a banshee weep with jealousy right about now. “I don’t give a flying fuck! Give me...”

“Kat,” Mandy interrupted her and squeezed her hand gently. “She can’t, okay? It’s against the...” Mandy shut her mouth the minute she saw Katrena’s expression. “She can’t,” she nodded firmly. “Look, it seems like you are about to start the whole process... It won’t take long, okay? I know how bad it hurts, but please...”

“Did you do the same thing?” Katrena asked in a very low voice, her eyes beyond dark.

Mandy blinked.

“Of course,” she said slowly. “I have two proves at the house, you know...”

“I mean, did you do it without any drugs?” Katrena hissed and threw her head back when a particularly nasty wave of pain hit her without any warning.

Mandy almost decided against telling the truth. She thought of saying, “Oh, yes! I didn’t use any painkiller; it was an absolutely natural birth,” when her mouth blurted:

“No, I had an epidural...” and she closed her eyes.

“Then you have no way of knowing how much it bloody hurts, do you?!” Katrena screamed, her eyes darker than ever. “Oh, God... Kill me now...!”

“Kat...” Mandy pleaded, squeezing the girl’s fingers. “It’s too late for an epidural, okay? It won’t even take effect at this point...” She had no idea if that was the truth or not, but she didn’t care.

Katrena looked like she was about to burst into yet another ear-numbing string of profanity, but instead, her eyes squeezed shut, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.

“Move it!!” Mandy hissed at the nurse, who just stood there, blinking rapidly.

That did the trick, and the nurse shoved the wheelchair with writhing in pain Katrena in it, towards the same big doors she emerged from several minutes ago. Mandy stayed close to that chair; so close that she could feel Katrena’s fingers digging into her bone and almost snapping it.

“Katrena...” she breathed finally. “Kat... Let go of my hand, please...! It hurts...”

Katrena’s fingers reluctantly relaxed and grabbed onto the side of the wheelchair instead.

“I told Danny to call Paul,” Mandy said as quickly as before. “Do you want him in there with you? I mean, do you want him to be present for the baby’s birth...?”

“Are you out... Fuck!! Out of your... Oh, God...! Mind...?! If he shows up in there, I will... Sonofabitch!! I will kill him!! And you too...! Oh, goddamnmotherfuckingcocksucking....”

Mandy wisely decided against asking her anything else. She doesn’t want Paul to be there, it’s all good. She followed the wheelchair all the way to Katrena’s room, and came to a screeching halt before the nurse opened the door.

“I’ll stay here,” she nodded when she saw the nurse’s panicked and pleading look. “She’ll be fine,” Mandy nodded with reassurance she didn’t feel herself. “She’ll be just fine...”

The nurse gave her the look of someone who was drowning, and pushed the chair into the room. Mandy let out a shaky breath and leaned against the wall.

“Holy shit,” she thought. “That came out of nowhere! She wasn’t supposed to pop until two weeks from now...! Okay, miscalculation I can get... Nothing big, happens all the time... But how do you skip the whole labor thing and go straight to birth at once?!”

Mandy winced when she remembered her own labor; the labor that lasted for almost 24-hours-straight. It was painful to say the least. Yeah, she had an epidural, but not until further into the whole torturous thing... Mandy shook her head. “Well,” she thought. “I guess she is lucky that she doesn’t have to deal with extra twenty-four hours of pain...” The scream of rage and pain behind the door informed Mandy that Katrena didn’t feel very lucky right now.

“Mandy!” someone said, and she looked up.

“Hey, Paul...”

“What’s going on?” his frown was almost comical. “Danny called me; he said that you took off like bat out of hell because you had to take Katrena to the hospital. Is something wrong?”

“She is having a baby,” Mandy sighed, and Paul’s eyes became wide.

“She is not due for the next two weeks!” he said.

“The kid begged to differ,” Mandy shrugged, deciding not to mention the whole ‘out-of-the-blue’ labor-free birth.

“God...” he muttered. “Is this her room?” he nodded at the door, and another blood-curdling scream answered his question. “Holy shit! I am going to...” he moved towards the door, and Mandy grabbed his wrist.

“You do not want to do that,” she said quickly, and he blinked.

“Why?”

“Because she will kill you,” Mandy nodded firmly. “I asked her if she wanted you there, and she said that she would kill you... And me as well,” she added after Paul just stood there, frowning.

“Hey, Mandy!” A slim woman with dark hair all but ran to the door. “They just called me, I am so sorry I am late!”

“Hey, Jean,” Mandy smiled.

“Why didn’t you call me when she went into labor?” the woman frowned slightly.

“There was no labor,” Mandy said with another shrug. “It was just like BAM! And we had to rush to the hospital... A little longer, and her water would break in my car.”

“How is that even poss...” the woman started saying when another howl from behind the door interrupted her. “Oh, never mind!” She opened the door and rushed inside. “Hey, Katrena, sorry I am late... How are you?”

“I am fantastic!” Mandy heard Katrena yell. “How do you think I am, doc? Bloody marvelous...! Oh, goddammit!!”

The doctor shut the door thus providing Mandy and Paul with relative silence.

“It’s very unpleasant, huh?” Paul said after several minutes, and Mandy looked at him thoughtfully. Suddenly, she reached out and pinched his arm as hard as she could. “Ow!!” he jumped up. “Jesus! Mandy, what the... Ow!” he rubbed his arm. “That hurt!”

“That was very unpleasant,” Mandy nodded. “Now multiply that by a million.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it. He stared at his arm where the bruise was starting to shimmer on his skin, and winced.