AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES

Chapter 17:  When the Bough Breaks

Pulling Jack slightly to one side, Himself said, "Sid has no...seed."  

Jack's eyes widened.  He looked at Maximus.  "You mean...?"  

Himself nodded silently.  "Oh...my...God!" Jack gasped.  

**************************************************************

"WHAT??" Ando bellowed. "You are actually telling me that I was forced to climb the blasted bridge and JACK didn't?"  

 

 

"It's true," Susan affirmed, nodding her head. "I heard something came up at the last minute and the

third group never climbed it."  

"Something...came up?" Ando frowned.  "Something came UP?"  Her facial shadings were changing into

deeper and deeper tones of red. "I was sent off like a lamb to the slaughter and the Captain didn't GO?"

                                  

 

"It...it...must've been something very...important," Susan offered.  

The cast was back in their quarters on Woolloomooloo, the first two groups resting and recovering from their ordeal whilst the third had gathered in Himself's apartment.

"Where do you suppose he took her?" Jack asked, meaning Sid's carrying off of Bunny.  

 

 

"I'm sure she's fine," Stephen replied. "He looked quite pleased, actually, didn't you think?"  

 

 

Jack's eyes locked on Himself's before turning toward the Doctor. "He did, indeed."  

 

 

Stephen continued, "I don't think it's at all like his taking Joimus off to the Olgas. I imagine he just wants

to talk with her about their baby."  

 

 

"Most likely," Jack said, looking back at the grim Himself.  

Maximus and Joimus were in their room. She had seen his eyes glow with happiness before, but never quite like they were doing at this moment. She sat on the edge of the bed with him kneeling in front of her, his hands on her knees, his face tipped up as he gazed into her face. His feelings went so deeply beyond verbal expression that he had said very little since her announcement at the bridge. He had kept his hands on her, though, every second, unable to bear any physical separation.

                                 

Truly she had no need of his words. She knew him so well that his body, his eyes, said absolutely everything. Finally he leaned his head down, resting his right cheek on her lap, curving his arms below her legs. She lay her palms flat on his back, feeling the rise and fall of him as he breathed. He remained like that for a long time, his eyes closed, then lifted his face to her once again, his lashes starred with tears.  

 

"I had...dreamed...you know...," he whispered,  "but it seemed too much to...hope."

 
 

She smiled, lips together, reaching out to touch his cheek. He was so beautiful right then that she wasn't

sure her heart could contain the sight of him and not burst open.  There was so much that could be said between them then, so very many words that were possible, but she looked into his eyes and said the only ones that truly mattered, the three that were the sum of all the others.  

"I love you." 

                     

               
 

They lay then together, side by side atop the covers, the strong brown fingers of his sword hand

spread wide over her stomach.

They had only been back at Woolloomooloo a matter of minutes before Steve was on the phone, making certain adjustment to the living arrangements.  He was moving out of his shared quarters with Arthur, Johnny, and Kim.  When it was done, when everything had been set in place, he smiled at Laura, who smiled back.  

 

"You are sure?" he asked.  

"I'm sure," she replied.  

"That went OK, don't you think?" Biebe asked Buggie as she sank tiredly onto a couch in the lounge area of the W.    

 

 

Buggie looked at her right palm. There was a dark red stripe still across it from where she had gripped

the umbilical for dear life.  She flexed her fingers painfully.  "I may never be able to weave another basket," she sighed.  

 

 

Sitting beside her, he took her hand into his, studying the mark, running the fingertips of his other hand lightly across it.  He lifted it then to his lips kissing it.  "It is your very own red badge of courage," he smiled.  "I'm very proud of you, you know."  

 
 

Just then Ute and Jeffrey came into the lounge, each carrying a shopping bag full of newly-purchased books. "How was the climb?" she asked Ando brightly.

              

The former Welshwoman, resisting her baser urges to inflict bodily damage, growled, "And how did YOU manage to escape being forced to climb the damned bridge?"  

Ute smiled.  "I e-mailed her and suggested it would be better if Jeffrey and I went to a book store instead."  

"You...e-mailed her?"  

"Yup," Ute nodded.  

"And...and...it worked?"  

"Sure did!" Ute affirmed.  "Give it a try sometime."  

But Ando just shook her head, heading off towards the Water Bar. "There's no mercy for the formerly Welsh," she sighed.  

 

Jeffrey looked at Ute. "She's probably right, you know," he commented.

 

 

 

"I expect so," she agreed.

Sid leaned against the trunk of a large, isolated tree in a a far corner of the Botanic Gardens. Sliding his back down it, he sat on the grass, Bunny still in his arms.  

"You are truly...with child?" he asked, studying her face.  

                                                                

"Truly," she nodded, delighted at the feel of his body against hers after so long a separation.  

 

He licked his lips thoughtfully.  "When?"  

 

"There was only the...one...time," she replied.

"I have lain with you often, my Wabbit," he corrected.

 

"Yes," she smiled, fond memories flooding through her. "But there is the slight, um, problem of...seed,"

she added.  

 

"PAH!" he barked.  "What is seed anyway?  I've never had need of it!" He looked at her questioningly.  

"Are my performances not proof enough of that?"  

 

"You, um, 'perform' remarkably well," she chuckled, then added seriously, "but without seed there are no

new human beings."  

 

He turned his eyes toward the clear blue of the sky.  He knew that. Of course he knew that. He had let himself get so caught up in the moment of it all that he hadn't let his mind register that, hadn't wanted to

go there, didn't want to go there.  

"It doesn't matter," he said huskily, "I am the one who seeded you."  

"You are," she agreed, "but you know it was not your seed."  

He pressed his lips tightly together.  "It came from me. It IS my seed!"  

Curving his arms around her torso possessively, he growled, "This is MY child!" 

                                     
 

She closed her eyes, remembering how he, in Maximus' stolen body, had pushed her back on the bed in the caravan in Bellingen, had loved her as though for the first time with human flesh that was not his own. She moaned softly at the memory of the best love-making of her life. That it would result in a child had never crossed her mind.  It was a thing she had never had to concern herself with when Sid was, well, Sid. Then

a long, ragged sigh took her as she also recalled that quite a number of the cast, including Himself himself, were well aware of what they had done that night, that first night that Sid walked the land wearing the General's form.  

"What is it?" he asked.  

"They know, you know."  

"They...who they?"

"Himself...Jack...others."  

"And what is it that they know," he asked stubbornly.  

"They know that the seed was Maximus'."  

"Does Maximus know?"  

"I don't believe so," she answered, "nor Joimus." She touched his cheek, turning his face toward hers.  

"You know they will tell him, don't you?"

He knew.  All his facial muscles worked.  "I have ever had only you," he said. "Maximus has all of them. They all adore their General."  He put his hand on her belly. "I want this.  I put this there. This belongs

to… me."  

He looked at the sky again.  "Not to him...never to...him."   

 

 

 

 

Watching him, suddenly Bunny felt very afraid of what might lie ahead for them...for them all. Sid had

just staked his claim to a child of Maximus' loins.

Without knocking, Sid opened the door of Himself's apartment and walked in, Bunny on his arm.  "Hello, folks," he said.  

Himself and Jack exchanged looks, the Captain remarking to Rose, "He's practically got his flag planted in

her belly button."  You could see it plainly writ on his face...defiance, pride, ownership...all mingling

together.  

"So," Sid continued, "where's the...other...proud Papa?"

"They're in their room," Himself said, his voice low, cautious.  "I don't want them disturbed."  

"You don't want...?" Sid chuckled.  Raising his voice he called out, "MAXIMUS!"  

Maximus had been feeling so peaceful, so...complete...that he'd almost fallen asleep.  He lifted his head a bit off the pillow.  "Sounds like Sid," he said.  He smiled.  "I'm glad he's come back.  We have much in common...now," he added, giving Joimus' belly a final, gentle pat.

                                

 

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" she agreed happily.  "Now our child will have a playmate."  They walked to the bedroom door together.  

As they entered the huge living area, Sid swept into a grandiose bow. "General, my Lady," he said.  "I thought the, um, gestational couples should be together."  

Jack's hand went to the hilt of his cutlass as every muscle in his body came to attention (no, not THAT one, Ando! For shame!).

 

 

Himself noted Bunny seemed a bit pale. This was not how she would have preferred to handle it. But Sid

was Sid and would have his way.

Sid inclined his head solicitously towards Joimus.  "And how is the... other... mother-to-be?"

Joimus found herself hoping that at least some of Sid's lost blue light had found its way back to him. She

still carried in her heart the memory of green.  So she smiled at him. "I'm quite fine, Sid."  

Maximus strode up to him, clapping his shoulder.  "Congratulations!" he said heartily.  

Jack whispered to Himself.  "He does not know, then, does he, of Sid's, um, 'use' of his body?"  

 

 

"No," Himself replied quietly, "nor of the fact that nanotech organisms don't come with seed, either, evidently."  

Jack sighed.
                                    

                 

                      

 

"There is no reason the General would ponder such a matter, is there?" Rose added practically.  

 

 

Jack cocked his eyebrow, realizing that he, also, had never pondered it. He looked at Himself. Of course Himself would know about it since he had BEEN Sid.  Then he looked at Stephen, still blissfully unaware of

it. The good Doctor could be excused, though, on the grounds that the medical texts of the early 1800's almost never dealt with the testicular structure of synthetic nanotech organisms.

Himself leaned back against the wall, quietly observing Sid's bit of performance art. 

                   

 

"So," Sid was saying, "when's the little gladiator due, anyway?"  

Maximus looked at Joimus, who shrugged.  "I have no idea. Between the plot device, the train wreck,

almost dying in the eagle plunge, actually dying in the shed, falling off the tor and going blind,  I've

quite lost track of, um, things."  

Himself cleared his throat.  "I think," he said, "that given the extraordinary circumstances that just this

once we can allow actual medical intervention and get you a sonogram."  He nodded toward Stephen. "No, offense, Doctor," he smiled.  

"None taken," Stephen returned.  

"You may as well have one, too, Bunny," Himself added.  

"But...but...I know exactly...," she murmured, then realized what she was saying and bit her lip.  

 

 

Himself's eyes had gone all dark and even more hooded than usual as he fixed his gaze on Sid while Bunny spoke. He was well aware that Sid knew the seed was Maximus'.   What sort of game was the Chipster planning on playing?  

                  

 

 

"Yes," Sid plunged ahead, "it was back in the caravan park in Bellingen. It was our first night there. I remember it," he smiled at Himself, "quite well."  

He turned an innocent gaze on Joimus. "Perhaps you, my dear, were fertile that very night?"

"The first night...?" she repeated, blinking, feeling confused.  What was he talking about? She tried desperately to get her brain to focus.  The first night in Bellingen?  It had been that very afternoon that

Sid had done the switch, had come to her as...Maximus.  The color drained from her face as his meaning

hit her.  

"You know we never...," then she suddenly remembered their angry words, how she had slapped him and he had gone to....  Her eyes went wide as she stared at him, standing with his arm around Bunny.  

Maximus' eyes darted back and forth from her to Sid.  What was going on? He didn't understand.  He

saw her go completely white, then she gasped, "No," and he caught her as her knees buckled.  

Sid smiled, but Bunny looked horrified at what was happening and was nearly as white as Joimus.  

Himself strode forward. "That's ENOUGH, Sid!" he snapped.  "I think you'd best leave now."  

Sid bowed his head. "As you command, my liege."  Still smiling, he guided Bunny toward the door.  

"My God," Jack cried as the door closed.  "He practically threw a gauntlet on the floor!" He looked at Maximus, standing there with Joimus in his arms. "What are you going to do?"  

"Jack!" Himself said sharply.  "He doesn't KNOW!"  

"Ah...right," Jack grimaced.  "Sorry."  

Maximus lay Joimus on the couch, squatting beside her as Franki ran to get some cold cloths. He tipped his head up toward Himself.  His voice low, almost deadly, he said, "Tell me now what this thing is I do not know."  

 

                              

 

Himself inhaled deeply, running his hand back and forth over his chin and mouth. "Maximus," he said,

stopping to lick his lips in that way all the characters seemed to have gotten from him, "Sid is a synthetic nanotech organism. He has no seed.  He cannot reproduce."  

Maximus blinked.  "What are you saying?"  

"I'm saying," Himself sighed, "that it was not possible for Sid to impregnate Bunny."  

"But she IS pregnant, isn't she?" he asked, his brow furrowing.  

"She is," Himself continued, "but the seed was not Sid's."  

"Whose, then?" the General asked, not yet comprehending where Himself was going with all this.

Franki arrived with the cloths, laying one on Joimus' forehead, patting her cheeks and neck with another. Maximus moved out of her way, standing, facing Himself.  

"Whose?" he repeated.

 

 

 

"Yours, Maximus," Himself said softly, his eyes filling with compassion, "yours."  

"MINE?" he roared, taking a step back.  "I have never lain with Bunny!"

Himself licked his lips again.  "Maximus, where were you that first night in Bellingen?"  

"Why I was...I was...," he stopped, his jaw muscle starting to work. "I was chained in the shed...in Sid's body."

 

"Right," Himself nodded.  His lower eyelid twitched once violently, as he continued, "And Sid was...?"  

"Inside...mine."  

Himself nodded.  "He came back to the caravan park, had a fight with Joimus, and went...to Bunny."  

"He...went...to Bunny?"

"Yes, Maximus.  In your body, he went to Bunny."  

The General squeezed his eyes shut...hard, his breathing becoming labored, harsh.  Then, with a nearly indescribable expression of pain, he looked into Himself's face.  

"My seed?" he stammered.  "He...my seed...in Bunny?"  

                              

 

 

Himself nodded silently.  

 

Maximus turned, gazing down at Joimus just as she opened her eyes, looking up at him, lifting her

hand toward his.  His fingers had barely touched hers when Himself said, "The babies, Maximus.  

Both of them are...yours."

 

DIRECTLY CONTINUED AS:  SONS OF THE FATHERS