Incoming Tablet Communication Tasha Wallace:That’s definitely an interesting idea. But I’m not sure I (or Jolene!) would be comfortable using little Autumn in a public campaign like that.
Incoming Tablet Communication G. Jaya:You’re right. But we could do baby animals instead. Have them pose with new calves, for example. I know Oaken always looks fine as hell when he’s holding Nali.
Incoming Tablet Communication Cherry Dawson:I like the way you think, Jaya.
Incoming Tablet Communication Tasha Wallace:This is certainly giving me some ideas. I’ll talk to Tenn, and see if he can organize something with Warden Hallum. As lovely as it would be to share images of your husbands looking their best with the animals, we should really focus on Rivven, Xennet, And Dorn. I’ll see what we can do. For now, I just want to saycongratulations to Jolene once again. And Zohro, too! The trial period of the marriage is almost up. Do you have any news to share on that front, Jolene?
Incoming Tablet Communication Cherry Dawson:You still there, JoJo?
Incoming Tablet Communication Magnolia Jones:I think she’s already gone.
Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois:I think so, too. Can’t expect her to hang around in here all day with us degenerates. Mama’s got her hands full with a newborn and a seven-foot-tall pink Zabrian cowboy with MAJESTIC DADDY VIBES!!!
Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois:Show of hands, who thinks I should rename this chat to “Majestic Daddy Vibes?”
Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois:No one?
Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois:Seriously?
Incoming Tablet Communication Darcy Dubois:Fine. Cock Tail Hour it shall remain. You’re welcome, bitches.
28
JOLENE
Three days after Autumn was born, two things happened. One, my milk came in, and I got to fully revel in the unique experience of my boobs turning into boulders. And two, Zohro suggested we move back into the house. We’d been staying in the Surgery Shed the entire time so far, with Zohro leaving in brief spurts to do necessary chores and bring food and fresh clothes back for me and cloth diapers for Autumn. He’d wanted to remain near all the medical equipment and drugs, but by day three, he was satisfied that both Autumn and I were in good enough condition to leave.
At the door to the Surgery Shed, I held Autumn and squinted towards the house.
It looked… Really, really far away.
“I don’t suppose you ever ended up fixing that wagon,” I said forlornly, already knowing he wouldn’t have had time on top of everything else.
“No. Why?” Zohro inhaled sharply beside me, then appeared to steel himself. “You wish to leave.”
“What?” I blinked at him. I could have kicked myself for my wording. Of course he’d interpret my question that way. I’dnever actually told him I planned to stay beyond the trial period. I opened my mouth to tell him that I wanted to stay with him, and for some stupid reason, I suddenly lost my nerve.Coward.
“No, I was just thinking that the house looks awfully far. I’m not sure I can walk there.”
I’d taken short walks over the past couple of days whenever Zohro put on his bossy doctor pants and told me it was good for me, but the house had to be at least a hundred metres away, if not more. And anytime I walked for too long, I suffered through the most unnerving sensation that I was going to poop out all my major internal organs.
I didn’t need Zohro seeing me poop out anything else, thank you very much. I might have been pathetically in love with a man who basically saw me as a sister, but I could retain some of my shredded dignity. At least, I could fucking try!
“Why in the great span of the empire would you need to walk there?”
“Uh, are we going to magically float?” He wasn’t going to make me ride a shuldu, was he? While my wounds had basically healed thanks to the nano-tech, the thought of sitting upright in a saddle left me woozy. I was fairly certain I didn’t have any abs left in the soft squish of my abdomen, or if I did, my mind-body connection to those poor, weak muscles was currently offline.
Core strength?
Didn’t know her.
Zohro gave me a flat, impatient look, like I’d just asked him a very stupid question. Which was fair, as he didn’t seem the sort to believe in things like magic. Nor to entertain nonsensical questions from his tired human wife.
He ended up showing me what he had in mind not with words, but by sliding his strong arms around me and hoisting me easily against his chest.
I yelped with surprise, clutching at Autumn as intrusive images of me dropping her on her head paraded through my sleep-deprived brain. But we were both perfectly stable. She didn’t even wake up, her eyes peacefully shut, her tiny, heart-shaped mouth half-open against my chest as she snoozed.
“You don’t have to do this!” I exclaimed. Even though he did have to do it. Because there was no way I could walk all the way to that house without something scary happening that involved ominous words like “prolapse.”
