(April 7, 2018, 07:58 AM Good Present Fertility Clinic, Brightside)
Erika and Alanna strolled up and down the sidewalk slowly, counting the minutes until the fertility clinic opened its doors. The couple hadnt been able to sleep at all the night before, so in a start motivated by large doses of coffee, Erika and Alanna decided to stand in the clinic to wait to be the first. (All this knowing that his visit did not enter by the other visitors of the clinic)
"Come on! A whole minute has passed!" Alanna shouted in a low voice, not wanting to wake up any neighbor who still had an hour of dreams ahead. "It's ... eight and two minutes! Now two full minutes have passed!"
"Luckily now with pregnancy we will be able to control your coffee consumption ..." Erika said to herself, stopping walking and sitting on the hood of her car. With the hasty decision they had made, neither of them was in an unpolluted state.
Erika's blonde hair was late for her daily shower, which added to the poorly made pigtail the Swedish sit a little shame. For her part, Alanna had managed to fix more or less her typical double braids tied like mane .... but all the time that her hair took away was time that led her to only be able to wear one of the oldest tracksuit of Erika.
A thin woman of 5 feet and 3 inches (1.59 meters) with only remarkable rear sheathed in a tracksuit of when her wife (That by that time already doubled in chest to her) was six feet and 3 inches (1.91 meters) wasnt the most attractive image of the world.
"I know I'll need to get rid of the caffeine!" Alanna shouted again in a low voice, demonstrating once again to her wife that it does not matter how little she talks, she would always listen to her for good and bad. "And that scares me so much! Facing the end of the school year without caffeine is going to be an almost impossible task! They are too many teenagers against me! 26 against 1! If they wanted to, they could throw me through the window like Captain Hook's!"
"In what Peter Pan movie does that happen if I can known?"
"I dont know, maybe none or maybe any! That does not matter now! All that matters ... is that we are going to be mothers, after so many months planning it ... the moment has finally arrived- The day after tomorrow the moment will come, I mean. Your created sperm will join with my extracted egg, and when they join creating the beginning of a life, they will insert it again ... I am so eager to be explained how the process works in depth"
Fearful of her wife's overenthusiastic mood swings, which was very likely to be pre-pregnant, Erika grabbed Alanna's arm as she passed by her side, pulling her into another close hug. "You're too nervous, Ala. I understand you perfectly, I also am and that's why I can only ask you to relax as much as I do! Today we are only going to extract a cell ... that I sincerely imagine that it will be something kind of scratching our skin or something-"
"No no, nothing like that." Alanna frowned, offended by her wife's words. "According to everything I've been reporting, Professor Cole is going to cut a small section of skin off your arm to look for the least damaged cell possible. It isnt the usual method that I understand, but if everything that has been achieved has been achieved by doing that, I will not be the one who gets involved in his work"
"Maybe I should have studied biology instead of nutrition-"
"Dont say that! It's because you chose nutrition and that you were the only student with good English in the gym that we met!"
"We have to tell our little girl the story of how we met, okay?" Erika hugged even more her wife, ignoring the few people who ventured out into the street in the early hours of the morning.
The minutes passed, making even the smallest of the marriage even more nervous. The first sign that the time had come was when the blind that covered one of the windows of the clinic rose, forcing Alanna to release the tight grip of her wife to run to the window.
"Can I know what you're doing, Miss Barlow?" Liam asked opening the front door, blinking at the sight of Alanna glued to the glass making a kind of binoculars with both hands.
"YOU ARRIVE ... you're 7 minutes late! I have class at 11 in the morning, you know? "Alanna recriminated the professor, being trapped by her wife before she could stand in front of the professor. "You're lucky that my huge and muscular Swedish wife only uses her strength in the gym, cooking and cleaning the house!"
Liam said nothing, looking at Erika. "You smell like coffee, a lot of coffee"
"We've been awake all night waiting for this ... I hope it's not a problem," Erika said rubbing the back of her neck feeling a bit guilty.
"Nothing happens. Today we're just going to explain the process and extract the cells that will become your daughter" Opening the door for the ladies, Liam stepped out of his way just in time because Alanna didnt even wait for him to retire. Following the professor through one of the corridors, the group ended up coming to a door with a sign of forbidden passage. "This is where we'll do the magic, ladies." Liam tried to charm the whole thing by opening the door and turning on the lights. What used to be a room in the fertility clinic was now a sort of semi futuristic laboratory.
In one corner, a large capsule resembling an small sauna lay covered with plastic to be unpacked; while on one of the marbles a machine similar to a bread basket full of screens, switches and two small joystick attracted the attention of the couple. "Let's go fast step by step, ok?" Liam placed 3 stools near another marble where 3 computers rested, full of wires attached to the different machines added to the clinic.
"The first thing is to introduce yourself to the MM or Miraculous Manipulator as my colleague likes to call it. It has a much more complex name, but MM is how we usually abbreviate it. In here the magic will happen, going from a simple cell extracted from Erika's arm to a sperm ready to inseminate the Alanna ovum. That process will also happen here inside, by the way"
"And this must be the camera where you tricks the body into starting the pregnancy, right?" Alanna said as she watched her closely, checking the small stretcher inside it.
"Said in a very simplified way, it's. When we insert the inseminated ovum back into the uterus of the mother, this heat chamber here helps us create the right environment for the body to believe that it has given rise to natural fertilization. We achieve this with changes in humidity and temperature mainly; so when your body is ready I will go with you to-"
"Is it basically a glorified in vitro fertilization?" Erika asked sitting on her stool, because unlike both scientists, she did remember the rules of good behavior.
Liam nodded smiling, sitting down again and taking one of the computers without any connected cables. "Well, it's time to go grit about the matter. I have been reviewing your clinical records, thank you for sending them in advance by the way, and I have not found anything strange that makes us postpone fertilization. Just a small detail ..." Liam rubbed his mustache as he went to the next page, looking up only to find the disfigured and terrified face of both women. "No no! Calm! Let me explain myself first! This process brings an advantage and that is that we can avoid negative genes for the creature; as in this case the recessive gene that you drag, Alanna"
Alanna remained silent, quickly realizing what the professor was talking about. "Do you mean the risk of myopia?"
"Exactly." Liam put the laptop back on the marble, activating one of the printers scattered throughout the room. "Your grandfather wears glasses, and your mother, brother and nephew also wear them, right?" Alanna nodded, confirming everything. "Do you want us to deal with that gene in the process? There is no risk in this, I have proof of this if you wish to see it" Alanna and Erika looked at each other, until Erika took the step.
"I would not like to need glasses by like them, but every year I see it clear like a glass..."
"Good joke"
"Thank you. Going back to the subject-" Liam blinked in astonishment at the synchronicity to enjoy a bad and ungraceful joke that the marriage showed. "Yes you can make sure my daughter doesnt get to suffer from myopia has all my approval, Professor Cole"
Cole nodded at his Iphone, rising from the stool and picking up the printed pages. "Then it's time to get down to work. This is all the relevant legal documents, you can read them without haste-" Accustomed to helping her grandfather with these kinds of issues, Alanna completely devoured both documents, stopping at the only point that makes her flinch a little.
"Here it says that we authorize you to present the pregnancy and birth data of our daughter as proof of her achievement before the scientific community. I have no problem with it, I just want to make sure of one thing" Liam shrugged, giving Alanna a walk to ask. "Does this mean that you intend to control the birth"
"Not at all" Liam said, showing on his Iphone a series of documents of previous births, which Alanna recognized as the other couples who had followed his method of fertilization. "All I'll want is a copy of every document from your gynecologist to present it as my final report. The whole subject of the guidelines that you should follow during pregnancy and birth, where to do it and with what professionals is everything at the hands of your personal gynecologist, Alanna"
Alanna nodded at her wife, who took a blue pen from the pocket of his tracksuit jacket. With the signing of both in the documents, Liam smiled guarding them in his own portfolio. "With this it's time to work magic, ladies. Erika, this will hurt a bit but you'll have to put up with it. I will put some local anesthesia to minimize the sensation as much as possible. Now, if you do not mind, take off your jacket, shirt and raise your right arm, please"
Obeying without saying anything, Erika took her wife's hand while Liam sprayed a colorless spray on his forearm. Taking what appeared to be a punch with the hollow point and sharp edges and slightly shiny, Liam placed his stool next to Erika's. "I'm going to count to three, when I get to zero I'll puncture and this gadget will cut a circle of skin in about 5 seconds. When I finish I'll pull it out and I'll cure you with gauze and iodine, understood?"
"Professor, I'm not a kid ... let's go there, for Anne" Erika clenched her teeth, feeling like during the second that the device touched everything turned white.
"Anne?" Liam asked trying to distract his patient, counting the seconds to extract the sample.
"We decided to call Anne Barlow Holm, in honor of Erika's mother," Alanna explained as she picked up the head of her wife, burying it in his neck while Liam left the sample inside the MM and was preparing to heal the open incision of Erika
"A very nice name, without a doubt. Your daughter is lucky" Liam let Alanna comfort her wife, studying the skin sample under a microscope even surprised by Erika's reaction. For someone so intimidating, Erika had not reacted very much to what a small child would do ... something that makes her certainly more cute than her external appearance transmits.
"Okay ..." Liam took the sample from the microscope, placing it inside the MM. "You have a very good skin Erika, I congratulate you for it"
"That means ..." Both wives asked at once."It means that I have enough cells to repeat the process, so now Alanna comes out and tells Carol that it is time to extract one of your eggs. And once that's finished, I just have to congratulate you, on the 10th we will start the pregnancy"
"Yes!" Again both wives shouted at once, hugging and jumping up and down on the stools. A reaction that Liam was more than accustomed to hearing but that still touched his heart.
Once dismissed from the proffesor to let him work quietly, Alanna and Erika went out into the clinic lobby, fearing the moment of their separation.
"You'll be fine alone?" Erika asked as Alanna pushed her to the door, removing the car keys in the process.
"Yes Yes! I'm just going to have an ovary removed! Go to work without fear, my love!" Alanna insisted as she pushed, noticing how there was no movement for a few seconds. Looking down, Alanna sighed, seeing her wife's feet firmly planted on the ground. "You know? Sometimes I hate your big, strong feet ... it seems ridiculous to me that only by stomping can you equalize all my effort pushing you!"
"I've told you a thousand times to come to the gym with me to gain some muscle mass"
"And I've told you a thousand times that I'm a biology teacher lower than most of the teenagers whom I teach! It would be weird to be short and muscular!" Alanna maintained her posture trying to push her, noting that Erika was still thinking about something. "Shoot now or you're going to be late, you know?"
"How are we going to do it? Will we continue working both? Will we leave the work? I dont want to be like my father all day without seeing my daughter!"
"Now you're the one who's getting ahead of himself, my love." Surrendering, Alanna stood back to back with her wife, letting herself fall on her. "You can change to part-time, and I can take 3 sabbaticals until Anne is old enough to go to school. We have luck and money is not an impediment, so once I can point it to the school next to my highschool we just have to make the effort to put schedules and ready to go!"
"You always know what to say...-"
"We are a marriage! It is part of our job to know what to say to us when we need it! And now you need to hurry up, because your turn starts at 9 and they are less than quarter! Put those endless legs to work and run like never before, Erika!" Alanna turned around, slapping her wife's ass. Although a little embarrassed, Erika turned around raising her wife and burying her in a Kiss-Embrace for 30 seconds, saying goodbye to her and marching towards the gym.
(Same day, 1:00 pm at noon, Park Boulevard, Brightside)
"Come on ..." Erika said to herself as she looked for the keys in her backpack, not wanting to leave the bags of food on the floor. "I know you're there, somewhere!"
While Alanna enjoyed carrying everything she needed in her well-organized purse, Alanna had always been a backpack woman ... one that doesnt handle the organization too well in small spaces. "AHA! I have you!" With the keys in hand, Erika opened the door of her apartment holding one of the bags with her mouth. Although Velio advised them to choose one of the luxury apartments in the upper area, Erika and Alanna were completely in love with the small one-bedroom apartment (not counting the bathroom) that Alanna's mother had used in her youth.
A wide and open kitchen, with a table for four people and separated by an island table of the large dining room with 3 differentiated sections: Next to the balcony the L-shaped sofa with the TV cabinet, and a coffee table in front; on the farthest wall, a bookstore with an outgoing double desk with each one's computers on each side (and Alanna's books and magazines scattered on both desks); and on the wall opposite the balcony two large closets.
The first for clothes, several purchases, shoes and boxes of utensils of the couple, and in the other the double bed of the same so that with the closed closet everything was hidden from the indiscreet eye. A small but cozy home, perfect for a couple who does not understand the meaning of fighting ... and that is the problem that Erika was seeing.
Perfect for a couple of two ... something they would not be soon.Leaving the food on the table, Erika sat on the sofa, studying her own apartment. "In the middle there is plenty of room for a play space ... we could buy a soft and warm carpet for Anne to play with her toys ... and we could buy one of those doors that close the babies' way and put it between the wall and the island from the kitchen, preventing Anne from going to the kitchen where everything dangerous is ..."
And between her own thoughts, Erika started to see where the problem was. She wasnt considering Anne's crib. Erika had spent many nights sleeping with her mother as a child, but even she knew that it is recommended that a baby sleep in his crib until it is old enough to roll and crawl.
Sighing, Erika got up leaving the balcony with her secret vice under her arm. Sitting on her lounger, Erika opened the bag of chips, letting the salty taste calm her fears.
For her, who professed to take care of the body, who gave courses on proper nutrition in schools and homes for the elderly, who spent 6 to 8 hours depending on the day in a gym exercising; the mere fact of eating a bag of chips was equivalent to a normal person smoking a pack of cigarettes. "We have to buy so many things ..." Erika said chewing another potato, quickly moving from nervousness to an illusion that consumed her completely. The final hour had arrived, they were going to be moms and the whole world would see it.
(Same day and time, Geremia Wing Secondary School)
"So the year you're coming will not be with us?" Principal Jacob asked as he read over the letter that Alanna had given him. "Of course I cant say anything more than congratulations, I know you have been undecided for a few months with this topic"
"It has been like a miracle to find such a perfect solution to the problem, one that I hope many people can benefit from as we do. I'm sorry to leave you hanging ... -"
"Dont worry!" Jacob, ironed the matter, keeping the letter under the keyboard. "I appreciate that you let me know so well in advance, so I can look for a replacement for your position ... although I doubt that is possible. You are one of the most popular teachers, replacing yourself would be impossible!" Alanna rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment, thinking about what she would say to the class she was guarding. She had always chosen the same group since they entered secondary school, tutoring them personally to motivate them to continue studying ... and now she was going to leave them hanging up a year after finishing high school.
"And tell me, do you plan to teach again? I dont want to pressure you in any way, I just ask you to make sure you always have a place here, Alanna"
"Well ... technically until the day after tomorrow I will not be pregnant ... but my initial idea is to take 3 sabbaticals until our daughter enters school, and point her to Freewind"
"The one next door? Good idea, without a doubt! And since you're not pregnant yet ..." Jacob got up from his chair, opening one of his filing cabinets, taking out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses of a false bottom. "We're in time to celebrate, right?"
"Someday you'll get the hiding place, you know?" Jacob denied while rummaging through the collar of his shirt, pulling out a small key. "Ohh ... smart bastard!"
"I've been re-elected as a director for 3 cycles. Without a drink from time to time, I would have hung up before finishing the first one!" Jacob stuffed both glasses up, passing one to Alanna. "For your daughter! May the future shine like a star for her "
"Salud!" Alanna drank the whiskey in one gulp, promising to remember the taste of alcohol until the day she could become a mother who drinks a glass of wine with food.
(Same moment, fertility clinic)
The alarm on Liam's phone began to whistle, causing him to lose all concentration. "It's already so late ...?" The professor said as he turned off the alarm, all the while watching the MM. "That Erika is amazing, I havent seen skin so carefully or healthy cells for centuries ..." Spinning his neck to dislodge, Liam heard how the door of his makeshift private clinic would have. The smell of lemonade mixed with coffee was all he needed to know who it was.
"Professor, I'm here to cover you during lunch" Meredith left her drink next to her bag, picking up Liam's jacket and pulling it closer.
"I know I can trust you, Meredith, but I still have the obligation to remind you: We are facing our most important fertilization, we cant leave anything to chance. Continue modifying the skin sample to get the iPS cell and then let it stand; tonight I'll go with her"
"Come on, professor, I know how important this is! I dont need you to tute me like a girl!" Meredith defended herself by giving the jacket to her boss, grabbing him by the shoulders and leading him to the door. "You go to the hotel, eat and enjoy a well-deserved nap. I can take care of everything" Appreciating the well-deserved rest, Liam nodded, putting on his hat and leaving, leaving Meredith alone in the clinic.
The assistant sighed, counting the steps until the professor was far enough away, taking off his own jacket and leaving it on the stretcher. "I'm 42 fucking years old, I dont need you to treat me like a girl after losing the best of my life by following you, you know?"
Frustrated, Meredith sighed as she sat in front of the MM, starting the command console while with the other hand she searched for the usb her father had sent her. Liam Cole could be a genius, but his theories had taken a long time to bear fruit; much more than Meredith was willing to wait for.
If he had taken the best that she could offer discarded along with his erroneous theories, the most just thing would be for her to take over the logical generational changeover. For that reason, Meredith had asked her father to find a way to optimize the modification process without telling Liam. Instead of taking the two days that Liam used to need, Meredith planned to do it all in 6 hours.
"Come on, sweety dream machine... it's time to do magic! This planet deserves to remember my name!" Meredith started her father's program, slightly frightened when the MM made a noise similar to a small sizzle ... although the scare did not last long, because the console showed the warning that the program his father had installed correctly.
"All right! Now let's see, was there any specific request?" Meredith asked no one in particular as he lit the copy of Liam's phone, looking at the notes that morning. "Eliminate the recessive gene of myopia in the ovum? Only that? Do they give them the ability to optimize their daughter's genes and just want me that?" Meredith remained silent thoughtfully, swinging the stool back and forth.
"Removing a recessive gene wouldnt help much to sell the event ..." The assistant was fingering the history record, seeing what the other couples had requested. "You see? This has logic! Hair color concretized ... concrete sex ... not only myopia! You have to have very little imagination to stay alone in this! I guess you could not expect more than a little girl and gym matona" Meredith remained thoughtful, swaying with her eyes closed. How ethical would be to choose the best genes of both? And how famous it could be presented all this as the system of definitive fertilization.
Unfortunately for Meredith, the worst of luck had been fixed on her.
In one of the backward swings, Meredith lost control of the stool. In an attempt to stabilize herself, she swung her feet trying to catch the edge of the marble to avoid seeing the ground up close ... hitting the MM in the process and also falling helplessly.
"Ohhhh...!" The assistant groaned in pain as she tried to compose herself, pulling the stool to one side to make herself sit up. "This didnt happen to me since high school ..." Feeling hurt and ridiculous, Meredith looked up at the sound of the MM ... the noise that used to sound when the modification program had begun.
"No, NO NO!" The maid stood up quickly like a cougar, watching the scene. In one of the kicks to the air, Meredith had managed to hit both the keyboard of the command console and the pendrive of her father, splitting with the entrance still inserted. This fact, together with the kick, had caused his father's shortcuts system to begin a conversion to iPS and then to an automated chosen cell, one of the biggest new functions. (Designed to make mass MM)
"Duration ... 5 hours? Only? I know that dad is smart but I didnt expect him to optimize the system so much" Meredith kept looking at the MM, noticing how only half of the machine was working. Clicking on the screen, Meredith ended up arriving at a new option that the MM did not have available:
<< System of modification and multiple acceptance >>
"Seriously, dad? Now you can do the entire conversion process of both cells ... and the impregnation one at the same time?" Meredith blinked a couple of times, coming to the conclusion that there was only one option.
Go forward.
Without any fear, the assistant took the ovary from the clinic's refrigerator, depositing it in the MM and starting the program. "The sleeping pills that I put between the pills will keep you asleep until nine o'clock at night ..." Meredith smiled to herself as she lay on the stretcher of the fertilization capsule, oblivious to what was really happening in the MM and the sounds emits this. Closing her eyes, Meredith began to take a nap, dreaming of her speech when she accepted the Nobel Prize for medicine.
"I'm going to record my name in the annals of the story, long before Professor Cole" Meredith said to herself while she managed to fall asleep despite the various sounds coming from the MM nothing usual.
Of course, Meredith didnt know that although her words would come true, they wouldnt be the way she expected ... but not by a long shot.
(Even same day, 9:30 p.m.)
Erika and Alanna dined while commenting on a humorous video when Alanna's phone rang. Apologizing to her wife, Alanna ran up to find her phone, taking advantage of the ring tone to locate it among all the dirty clothes of the day.
"I have it!" Alanna yelled out from between a bra and Erika's pants. While her wife answered the phone, Erika decided to remove the table to go to the couch together ... and just when she had the plate with the salad, Alanna's scream of emotion was so strong that the scare dish fell into the abyss, breaking on one side when falling on the ground.
"ERIKA! WHO ALREADY HAVE THE OVUM READY?! YOU AND ME!" Alanna's emotion made it difficult for Erika to understand the message directly, but after 3 seconds of reasoning, Erika could only run over the broken plate, lifting her wife up and hugging her like never before.
"As soon?! Really?!" Erika asked for patience with her hand, trying to put the speaker of her mobile ... only to discover that they had accidentally hung up. "Shit!" They shouted both at the same time while Erika left her wife on the floor.
"Nothing happens! Nothing's wrong!" Alanna took a deep breath before climbing onto the couch to be taller than Erika, as she used to be when giving important news. "Meredith, Professor Cole's assistant-"
"I know who she is, I dont need a flashback about her!"
"Perfect then! Meredith says that the new program designed by his father for MM allows, thanks to the fact that the piece of Freotin allows to maintain a much greater flow of energy, prepare both your sperm cell and my egg at the same time, inseminating in the process!" Erika blinked more confused than ever, because although she knew well the utility and importance of the freotin, an effect like this was not within what she thought possible. "Dont give it more laps! We have to go to the clinic running, the owner is going to do us the favor of inserting my ovum tonight!"
"I cant believe it ... tonight we're going to be 3 already in bed?"
"Well ... not exactly, what they're going to insert is an inseminated ovule, it's still a long way from being a fetus-"
"Alanna, my love, I know how this works! I tried to make the moment more magical if possible! You know what? Let's get rid of nonsense and go to the clinic running-" Alanna's expression of disgust at the word run was too much for Erika's heart. "Okay, by car, we're going by car"
"Yes!" Alanna raised her arms in victory, proud that her first whim as pregnant (In a few moments) had been fulfilled.
Even though it was April, the night was quite cold and wet, so taking the car was a good decision.
(Fertilization clinic)
Andif it were a wild colt, Alanna ran away as soon as Erika parked the car on the sidewalk. Swaying through the clinic, ignoring that all the lights were off, Alanna reached the door of Liam's room frantically beating.
"Proffesor Cole! Meredith! Let me in! LET ME IN!" The knocking on the door continued until the Meredith opened the door slowly.
"Come alone?"
"Eh? Yes, why?" Meredith said nothing, closing the door and reopening it with less fear. "Go fast, we dont have much time"
"But Erika is parking-"
"No matter! Now I open again!" Meredith grabbed Alanna by the shoulder, pulling her toward the clinic and closing the door behind her. "Let's not waste time, lie naked on the stretcher while we wait for your wife to come, okay?"
"Why such a hurry?"
"As soon as your wife arrive-" Two knocks on the door that were like a breath of fresh air for Meredith. Opening the door, the maid also tried to pull her ... only Meredith didnt weigh as little as Alanna. "Dont resist! We dont have much time!"
Erika narrowed her eyes, watching as her wife undressed. Although the clinic was closed except for them, Erika's sense of modesty made her enter by closing the door behind her to avoid prying eyes. "All right! You are both here! We dont have much time before the professor wakes up from his drunkenness" Meredith brought a stool for Erika as she leaned against the marble, breathing deeply before explaining the situation. "I'm sorry to have called you with such urgency, but the situation required it. Professor Cole plans, or planned, to blackmail your grandfather with the inseminated ovum, Alanna"
"What?!" Erika shouted raising her voice much more than she considered correct. "I knew it was too nice to do all this for free considering that the other couples had been charged $ 10,000 ..."
Meredith nodded as she urged her to get up and look at the MM still on. Erika obeyed, seeing through the control console her newly developed sperm." It's amazing, right? You can check it, it's your genetic material one hundred percent. You just have to press the green button and the MM will insert it into the ovule" Meredith explained while making a hole to Alanna, who also wanted to see it with her own eyes.
The marriage was so close, so close to finally fulfilling their dream ... that Erika couldnt help but distrust. "And you why are you helping us? Are you your assistant, right?"
"I can be Liam's assistant..." Meredith hit her chest with her fist, keeping a determined and honest look at Erika. "But that doesnt mean that I approve of things like collecting so much in a process that became profitable after the first pregnancy! How could I look in the mirror if I now let Liam plan to blackmail Mr. Barlow?!"
"You're covering your backs, right?"
Meredith remained silent, lowering her head. "I cant deny that I dont want to be involved in this..."
Alanna holds her wife's hand, telling her without words that they should trust Meredith. "Okay ... you're too good, Ala..." Erika kissed her wife, pressing the green button on the command console. (All this accompanied by the applause of Meredith)
"Great! Alanna, to the stretcher!" Meredith rushed the couple while activating another button on the keyboard, inserting the fertilization cannula to transfer the embryo. "I will explain what will happen next: Alanna, once you enter the camera I will inject progesterone, which together with the climate inside the camera will allow us to ensure 100% pregnancy" Alanna nodded, sitting stiffly on the stretcher. "Go ahead, doctor! Put my daughter inside!"
The process was slow, and judging by how much her wife and Meredith were sweating, quite uncomfortable. Fearing for her wife, Erika had to hold on to not try to open the door of the chamber.
And thanks to that contention, Meredith started the final step. "Ay!" Alanna sighed when the assistant inserted the cannula, counting up to three to activate the pressure pump. "Erika, tell me what is written in the MM!" The assistant asked, holding the cannula high.
"Process ... process completed!" Erika shouted too nervous to see the rest of the words. Meredith sighed, pulling the cannula from inside Alanna, helping him to get up to get out of the chamber. "My love! Are you okay?" Erika couldnt notice how sweaty Alanna was, much more than Erika could remember ever seeing her ... not even that time they shared an intimate moment in the gym sauna. (With erotic and highly dangerous health results)
"I look like a chicken ... and it's normal because I have an egg inside!" Alanna jumped into her wife's arms, completely ignoring things like being naked and sweaty. "We're going to be moms, we're going to be moms!" The two sang while Meredith sat on one of the stools, fanning herself with some folios.
"Meredith ... I was wrong with you ..." Erika said leaving her wife on the floor, offering her hand to the assistant to get up. "If there is anything we can do to help..."
"The truth? Yes there is ... " Meredith pointed to one of the boxes under the marbles with the hand that didnt hold the pages. "The MM, apart from being partially water resistant, works without the need for an electric current in case of a blackout, so it is only necessary to charge it and clean it after each use. If you are so kind to unplug everything and store it in the box ..."
No more words were needed, for while Alanna dressed and she and Meredith recovered, Erika kept the MM fast and efficient ... as Meredith expected.
Offering to take her to the maid's car, Erika held the box with both arms opening wide enough for Meredith and Alanna to cling to her. The trio left the fertilization clinic, Meredith closing the door behind her with the keys that the owner had lent her. "Sure you dont need us to take you?" Erika asked as she left Alanna sitting in her car. "It's sparkling, and it doesnt bother me to drive where you need to after everything you've done for us"
"Calm down!" Meredith said as she closed the trunk of her car, with the MM well secured inside. "My father's house is not far from here, north across the river. You take your wife home, normally all pregnant women leave here at the edge of sleep..." A snore from Erika's car helped the explanation. "There you have it! Next morning make sure you take her to the gynecologist for you to give you all the rest of the information, this is now a normal pregnancy" Erika nodded, taking a goodbye hug to the assistant, before leaving for home.
"It was too easy ... better for me" Meredith smiled as she climbed into her own car and headed towards the place where she planned to hide the MM with her pendrive still inside, and then return to the clinic and pretend a robbery to give explanations to the disappearance of the machine. A perfect plan without fissures, Meredith thought as she walked away from the street, oblivious to the two hooded figures approaching the fertility clinic.
"There is nobody, boss" The shorter of both announced while looking through the glass of the door, waiting for his partner to take the copy of the keys.
"Remember, we have to take everything that belongs to Professor Cole and nothing else, I know you and I know you have a very long hand with safes"
"Who do you think I am?! I just said that as we entered- "The shorter one activated a Jammer before entering, unaware that Meredith had not activated the security alarm.
(2 hours later, Highway north of BrightSide)
Meredith drove slower than she would like, both from the rain that had gone from sparking to heavy rain accompanied by storm clouds in a matter of half an hour as well as from her own exhaustion from being in the camera. The only thing that consoled her was seeing the old bridge that was still to be crossed in the distance, the last bridge before reaching the old rural house of her mother.
"What a night ... and I still need the return trip to place the other MM" Meredith turned up the volume to the radio, trying to distract herself until arriving.Unfortunately, the last of the night's odds was still to come.
Crossing the bridge, Meredith found that a family car was crossing it in the opposite direction. What had to be just a normal crossing between both cars, became a tragedy when lightning struck the bridge.
The driver of the other car swerved through the scare, changing lanes and hitting in the process the meredith car that had also moved away from the lane trying to flee from a second beam. The impact, coupled with the wet roadway and Meredith's meager reaction capacity, was enough for the maid's car to hit the outside wall of the bridge with enough force to break it and rush into the river.
Thanks to Meredith how was driving without a belt and the quick reaction of the other driver calling emergency, the assistant was saved from certain death. The impact against the wall had been enough for the boot lid to open, falling into the river with the trunk open.
Thanks to this, the MM separated from the car, burying itself by the flow of water in the earth and thus avoiding that when they removed the car from the bottom of the lake the operators found the device. The river continued to flow with the MM running and releasing the Liam mixes into the waters that would eventually reach the water treatment and purification plants that supply Brightside drinking water.
On April 7, 2018, heaven and earth agreed to cause the smallest possible probabilities to take place.
Thanks to the lie of Meredith, when Professor Cole called Alanna and Erika to inform them that they had stolen the MM with all their equipment and that the pregnancy had to be delayed a few months since he had to return to New York to be able to manufacture everything again, the marriage was fast telling the teacher that they no longer needed him since they had decided to opt for a much simpler and easier in vitro fertilization.
No word from Cole served to convince them to wait, so the professor sighed cursing who had stolen his things, making him lose equipment worth several tens of thousands of dollars ... thieves who never showed up.
Thanks to the real robbery that had taken place at the fertility clinic and the car accident, Meredith escaped suspicion. Both the police and the teacher believed the story that he was going to the old house of his mother to relive memories after checking that there was no stolen material in the house or in the car of this, so resigned Cole gave the MM for lost, asking his colleague to start making a new one.
Due to the injuries and while Meredith passed unconscious, memories of the April 7 remained clouded in her mind, helping to declare without a hint of lies in her.
Thanks to the storm that night and its small size, the MM was completely hidden under the earth that the river dragged protecting it from divers and operators alike. And this hiding place was ideal so that the mysterious malfunction of the MM will continue to pour its liquids directly into the river, infecting all those who drank tap water or public sources.
A series of coincidences, wonderful or disastrous as they appear, so perfectly orchestrated that they gave rise to the birth not only of Anne Barlow Holm, but also to that of her faithful army.