Mothership (37 page)

Cole kisses me on the forehead, and he, Ducky, and my dad follow along as the orderly pushes my wheelchair into the delivery room.

•  •  •

I’m not gonna pretend like labor is all cream and peaches. It’s disgusting and loud and painful, every second of it. But I’ve got Cole—who’s right at my side, squeezing my hand—and Ducky, and Dad, and one seriously pretty doctor to get me through it, so I guess things could be worse.

“All right, Miss Nara,” the doctor tells me, “it looks like the little guy’s just about ready to come out. Have you thought of a name for him yet?”

“Oliver,” I tell him, “after my mom.”

“Your mom’s name was Oliver?” Cole asks.

“Sweetie,” I say in between contractions. “You are very pretty. But you’re dumb as a brick.”

Cole gives my hand an extra tight squeeze and brings his face down close to my ear. “I love you, Miss Elvie Nara,” he whispers.

And maybe it’s just the rush of the moment, or the total incoherence of having a
living being trying to escape my body
, but I look at Cole, right in those enchanting eyes, and I tell him, “I love you, too.”

“You do?” he asks, all incredulous.

“Yeah. I mean, I think so. I mean, yeah. I do.”

And Cole laughs at that, and then gives me a kiss, right on the mouth. It is wet and warm and wonderful.

“Ewwww,”
Ducky exclaims from his post down by Dr. Handsome.

“What?” I cry, wrenching away from Cole and trying to hoist myself up on my elbows to see. “What’s going on? Is something wrong with the baby?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean ‘eww’ the baby,” Ducky says. Quite frankly, I never imagined my best friend would ever be that up-close-and-personal with my girl parts, but once you’ve nearly lost your life and your bowels in the span of fifteen minutes, privacy doesn’t seem to matter so much. “Everything on this end is perfectly
delightful
. I meant ‘eww’ stop kissing.”

“Thanks a lot, Duck.”

“Any time.”

“Does this mean . . .,” Cole asks, squeezing my hand a little harder. “Does this mean we can, you know, get back together again? I mean, since you’re having my baby and everything?”

“I’m having
my
baby,” I remind him. “And one step at a time, all right?”

He smiles. “All right.”

“Okay, Miss Nara. This is it,” the doctor announces. “I need you to push.
Push!
”

And I do.

It is in this moment—finally pushing the goddamn Goober out of his hiding place in my uterus—that I look at the faces in front of me. Cole. Ducky. My dad. All of them watching, waiting, to meet my new baby. And, even through the mind-searing, body-splitting pain, I smile. I am pretty lucky, I think.

“Push again, dearheart!” Dad cries.

Cole squeezes my hand so tightly that I momentarily can’t feel the pain in my groin.

And Ducky, he looks at me and says, “I just want you to know, Elvie, that this is, like, the
most
intense horror movie I have ever seen.”

Yeah. Pretty lucky.

Push.

Push.

“A little harder!” the doctor says. “I can just make out the head!”

And as I
push, push, push
, my three fellows lean in to look.

Push.

Push.

“Yes!” Cole pumps the air. “There’s the starkiss! He’s beautiful, Elvie. Such a gorgeous little face.” My dad is grinning from ear to ear. Ducky high-fives the doctor. I would join the party too, but you know, I’m a little busy, what with two thirds of a baby still inside me.

“Almost there, Miss Nara!”

Push.

Push.

PUSH.

And I flop back onto the bed in relief as I feel little Oliver leaving me completely. My bones have turned to jelly. It’s official. I’m a mom.

I look up, smiling, my entire body overcome with exhaustion. “Can I see him?” I ask the doctor, who is cradling my little bundle of joy in his arms.

That’s when I notice their faces. The doctor. Cole. Ducky.
Even my dad. They all look completely bewildered.

“What’s the matter?” I ask. Suddenly I’m afraid that Dr. Marsden was messing with my head when he told me that I hadn’t been processed. “It’s Jin’Kai, isn’t it?”

“No, Elvie. It’s not that.” Cole seems positively dumbstruck. “It’s . . .” His voice turns to a nervous whisper as the doctor hands me my baby.

“It’s a
girl
.”

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An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Lisa Graff and Martin Leicht

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Book design by Hilary Zarycky

The text for this book is set in Electra.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leicht, Martin.

Mothership / Martin Leicht and Isla Neal. — 1st ed.

p. cm. — (The ever-expanding universe; bk. 1)

Summary: In 2074, while attending the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers, set aboard an earth-orbiting spaceship, sixteen-year-old Elvie finds herself in the middle of an alien race war and makes a startling discovery about her pregnancy.

ISBN 978-1-4424-2960-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

[1. Human-alien encounters--Fiction. 2. Pregnancy—Fiction. 3. War—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.] I. Neal, Isla. II. Title.

PZ7.L53283Mo 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011026283

ISBN 978-1-4424-2962-8 (eBook)

MOTHERSHIP