Alien Proliferation

Richard was Christopher’s father and Jeff’s uncle, and I added him onto the list of people who didn’t need to go through the tragedy of losing me.
    This was starting to sound totally self-centered. Didn’t care. Figured if there was ever a time to be self-centered, it was when I was hanging between life and death.
    A voice came through. I recognized it as Christopher’s. Come on, Kitty. Don’t give up. Jeff’ll never recover, and I can’t keep him going alone. Where the hell’s the fight in you when we need it? He’d said that to me once before, in a dream.
    I’m not letting her go. You take her, you take me, too. We’re supposed to be together, forever. Jeff’s voice. He sounded awful, ready and willing to die.
    Fight, Kitty. Reader’s voice. Not scared, urgent. Come on, I know you’re still there. Fight to come back. You can do it.
    Heard something else now. It was music. Not soft, not funereal, not religious in any way, so to speak. It was rock and roll. Rock and roll I happened to love. Point of fact, it was “Nine Lives” by Aerosmith.
    I started to laugh.

 
    CHAPTER 14
     
    “K ITTY! FOCUS, COME ON, babe, you’re still here, I can feel it. Come on, fight, dammit!” Reader wasn’t shouting but his voice was pretty strong.
    “Tim, really, stop blasting that music.” This was from Tito. “James, she can’t hear you. Jeff, you have to let go.” He said this gently. “We need to hurry to get the baby out.”
    “No.” I realized someone was holding me and rocking. Recognized the arms and the body as Jeff’s. “I’m not letting her go.” I could tell he was crying.
    “Tim, the music,” Tito snapped. “Turn it off.”
    “I like the music.” Dead silence, other than Screamin’ Steven Tyler singing. Loved Aerosmith. Nice to hear my boys in between bouts of agony. Felt a contraction. “Am I supposed to be pushing? Or something?”
    Bedlam. Always interesting, especially since the A-Cs only went for it when they were both really freaked and not thinking. Of course, from what I could tell, I had a huge crowd of humans in here. Most of whom were male.
    “Is every guy I work with staring at my crotch, or am I just imagining that?”
    “Out!” Tito sounded pissed again. “Leave the stupid music, fine, but get out of here, all of you, parents included.”
    “Hey Mom, Dad?” I called before they left the room. I hadn’t realized they were in the room, probably because the place was so crowded. My father was holding my mother, and they both looked like they’d been sobbing. “Can you get a bassinet? Like fast?”
    “Uh, sure, kitten,” Dad managed to say. My mother just started bawling.
    “Geez, Mom, they aren’t that expensive.” Heard more sobbing, realized Alfred and Lucinda were there. Martini’s parents were now holding my parents up as they left the room. “One request for a bassinet and everyone goes to pieces. Fine, she can sleep in a Poof bed until I can get to the baby store.”
    Jeff started to laugh. “Push, baby. We got a little delayed.”
    I pushed. “Why?”
    “Uh, you died on the table,” Reader said. I looked over at him. He had a funny look on his face.
    “No, I didn’t. I mean, I’m right here.”
    “Yeah.” Reader took a deep breath. “Good.” I looked right into his eyes and saw a lot of things, but they all flashed by too fast to remember. He was still holding my hand. “I’m glad you’re back, girlfriend.”
    Jeff was kissing my head. He was also close to hysterics, which I’d never seen him get remotely near to before. “Jeff? What’s wrong? Is the baby okay?”
    “I think so, yeah.” He clung to me. “Push again, baby. We need to get Jamie out.”
    I pushed.
    “You’re not pushing hard enough, Kitty,” Tito said. “You have to push, hard, or we go caesarean right now.”
    Pushed harder. Did not want the surgery, especially since it was a longer recovery before you could have sex. Jeff laughed again. “I love how you think.” He took my other hand. “Hold onto me and James and really push, baby, hard.”
    I did. “I can see her head,” Melanie called.
    Did the pushing and straining thing. It wasn’t great but I wasn’t very tired for some reason. “Did anyone give me that thing where the pain gets muted?”
    “Epidural, and no.” Tito’s voice was crisp. “Trust me, we don’t have time. Push . . . push . . . Kitty, really, push .”
    Did, hard. “By the way, Jeff, this hurts, and to keep the tradition,