Wish upon the Stars chapter 1183 (Patreon)

The bickering went on for longer than expected. I think everyone was just excited to have something positive to focus on after the fear and danger. Granted, most of them hadn’t been in quite as MUCH danger, but still, it was obviously a stressful night for everyone.

One person more than anyone, though. I could feel a burning coal of unease through the bond, slowly growing as everyone spoke, and I frowned in concern at my wife as her nervousness built and built. Eventually, I just smiled and waved off the others, telling them to continue as I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her out into the hallway.

“Ok, what’s up?” I asked her with a worried attempt at a smile. “You’re freaking me out a little. Is everything alright?”

She flinched, obviously not aware she’d been letting on quite as much as she was. “I…yes,” she said slowly. “Everything is fine. It’s going to be fine. It’s fine. Now it’s fine. It’s just…I’m afraid if I tell you what I’m about to tell you, after the night we had, you’ll freak out. And I don’t want you to freak out, because I’m not freaked out. I’m happy. So I was going to wait. But you’re thinking about spending all those points and what if we could use them for…the thing I’m afraid to tell you about.”

I frowned, taking her hands in mine. “Hey, whoa. You never have to be afraid to tell me anything. I love you more than anything in the damned universe. You could tell me you were secretly a face eating zombie spider piloting a shrunk down giant robot and I wouldn’t care.”

“You aren’t allowed to watch horror movies with Benny anymore,” she said with a snort. “That was absurd.”

“That one I watched with Jessie,” I said proudly. “We’ve corrupted her. But you’re dissembling. Come on Cal, what’s this about. I’m not going to be upset about whatever you have to tell me just because we were in a little dang-”

“I’m pregnant,” she all but shouted, closing her eyes.

I froze. Almost literally. My blood chilled so hard it almost felt like my veins were turning to ice. “I…I…huh?”

“I figured it out before Dean Desmond picked me up, but I knew if I told you you wouldn’t let me come with you for the fight and I was so scared you would die and we’d be alone and the baby would never meet their daddy and it turned out to be a good idea because you ended up needing me but I’m scared you’ll hate me because I put us at risk but what if there’s something in the exchange that can make the baby safer so I can’t wait an-”

I put my hand over her mouth, laughing as I stopped her babbling by hand. “PLEASE stop talking,” I begged. “I’m honestly worried you might suffocate. Just…give me a second. I’m not upset. I’m just…confused.” She nodded mutely, eyes terrified, and I pulled her against me in a tight hug. “Hey, confused isn’t bad,” I told her immediately. “Just…I’m feeling a whole lot of things and trying to process. But they’re not bad things. They’re good things. I’m…holy shit Cal, we’re going to be PARENTS. I don’t even know what to do with that.”

Her laugh was a little ragged this time. “Trust me, I know. I’ve been freaking out for hours, and I was doing it while trying to make sure neither of us died. You’re not mad I was fighting?”

“I mean, you saved my ass,” I said wryly. “Not to mention if we’d failed we’d have all been screwed anyway. So you being there to fight was probably better in the long run. Sure, I’m retroactively terrified of you or the baby being hurt, but that’s no reason t-” Her lips crashed against mine as she kissed me senseless, and I was left blinking in confusion as she pulled back. “What was that for?”

“If you don't know,” she said wryly. “It would take too long to explain it. But thank you.”

Laughing, I shook my head. “I mean, I AM freaking out, just not about that. We’re in our early twenties. Should we be worried about having kids?

“It’s not like age makes you more qualified,” she said wryly. “Have you MET our dads?”

“You know, I really wish that wasn’t such a good point,” I said with a laugh. “Though speaking of parents, my mom is going to be THRILLED. She’s been making veiled and not so veiled comments about grandkids for a while now. Also holy shit, our kid is going to be SO cute! I bet they’ll inherit the four parts of my current phoenix bloodline and your archangel bloodline both. The wings are going to be adorable.”

She giggled, leaning her head against me. “Ok, yeah, that’s true. And they’re going to have so many aunts and uncles to spoil them rotten. And all our relatives.” Her eyes hardened. “If Black Sorrow tries to lay a hand on my baby-”

“She won’t,” I assured her. “I mean, she might visit. But Atlas would turn her into a pretzel if she tried anything, not to mention what my grandmother would do. I expect she’s selectively forgotten every bad thing she ever did to use and will expect grandmama visits. We can deal with that when it comes up. Do you know if it’ll be a boy or a girl?”

Her eyes rolled so hard I was worried they might dislodge. “Shane I JUST found out. I’m not even showing yet. How would I possibly know that?”

“Women’s intuition?” I said hopefully. “I mean, the baby is deeply conn-”

“BABY!?” shrieked an ear piercing, familiar, TERRIFYING voice from behind us. “You two are having a baby! Guys, come quick, Callie and Shane are having a baby! I can’t believe you’re pregnant, that’s so COOL! Can I be the godmother, am I allowed to be a godmother? Can vampires do that?” I’d seen Bethy enthusiastic, but I’d never seen her THIS excited.

“What? A baby?” Chelsea squeaked as she pushed past her girlfriend. “That’s AMAZING, oh my gods mom is going to be so excited! I’m so excited! I’m going to be an aunt! But I’m so young. You’re so young. You guys must be terrified.”

I sighed tiredly. “Yes, we’re terrified,” I confirmed. “We were just talking that over, if you could leave us to do that.”

“I mean, the universe is so dangerous, things go wrong everywhere we go, how are you going to protect the baby?” she babbled worriedly, clearly not filtering her words AT ALL. I grimaced as she vomited up all the terrifying things I was trying not to think about.

To my absolute and utter shock, a hand clamped over her mouth like I’d done to Callie earlier. BETHY of all people shot me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, she’s excited. She didn’t mean that. She’s very happy for you.”

Chelsea, who had been struggling to get away, froze, shooting me an embarrassed wince. “Sorry Shane, I didn’t mean to freak you out. I’m so happy for you. And excited.”

I shook my head with a wry chuckle. “Yeah, I get it. I’m still dealing with it too. Though Callie and I were just talking about how cute the baby is going to be. I bet they’re going to inherit one or both of our wings. I wonder which.”

“I mean, given our respective family trees, you’ll probably have twins,” she said casually. Callie and I froze, remembering a joke that had been made about that years ago.

“Chelsea, maybe you should let the rest of us congratulate them,” Benny said with a grin as he shouldered past. “If your foot goes any deeper into your mouth you’ll leave bootprints on your lungs.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s fine, Benny. Like you’ll do any better.”

“Well I can’t exactly do much worse,” he joked, stepping up to hug me. “But seriously, I’m happy for you, man. You’ve grown up a lot these last few years. You’re gonna be a great dad.”

My throat tightened, eyes swimming a bit as that hit me right where I lived. Coming from Benny, who had grown up right next to me, that meant a lot. And it felt good for someone to say that, even if everyone else’s existential terror was probably more realistic. “Come back inside,” Chelsea said warmly. “We can talk about whatever you want. You were wondering about whether to use those points for the baby, right? Or babies, I guess, sorry to be the one to bring that up.” Her tone was sheepish, but supportive.

I turned to Elonwy, who had just come out of the room. “Well, you’re our key to the wonderful world of the exchange. Anything that would help with the baby’s future?”

I let my friends lead me back into the dorm, mentally berating myself for not bothering to use Murmur earlier.

As we stepped back inside, I glanced over at Elonwy. “Alright, so do we have options here? I’ve never done research on this kind of thing even back home.”

“A few,” she admitted. “Bloodline purification, prenatal stat boosts, soul enhancement, there are several possibilities. But personally, if it was me, I would probably want to go with a blessing from the Deans. Overgod sanctification can purify the spirit and increase talent. It involves cleansing the body with Overgod worldforce. You can have the process performed on yourself, but I heard pregnant mothers pass on a large amount of the benefits to their baby.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “And that’s…safe? Because it sounds like a lot.”

“Overgods have a powerful amount of fine control,” she confirmed. “Granted, with the mess after the fight, you won’t be getting all twelve, but nine is still a very solid number. Other than that, I would suggest buying a defensive token from one of the Deans for Callie. Having an extra life on hand for emergencies is never a bad thing.”

That was true, and I hadn’t considered it. The token I’d gotten from the Lady had saved my life and Callie’s both during the succession war. And that was just from a normal god. An Overgod defense would be a perfect last resort if the Void managed to get past everyone to take a shot at my wife. She kept going, filling us in on the other options, but the more she talked, the more my head hurt.

I was still in pain from the fight, and this wasn’t helping. I’d been expecting this to distract me and be fun, but the addition of finding I was going to be a dad was making me spiral. It was just so much pressure to deal with.

Admittedly, we were safe now as far as I knew. With the Void Child sealed, our last few weeks here at the academy should be peaceful, but that just substituted the immediate danger (which I was good at), with the creeping existential dread of fatherhood. I was trying not to think about it but I was terrified.

“I think that’s enough,” Callie said suddenly, reaching down to take my hand. “We’ve all been through a lot. Shane needs rest, and so do I. We can reconvene in the morning to spend the points, until then, we’ll have to say goodnight.”

Several people looked ready to argue, but when they saw her face they backed down. Callie arranged to borrow a dorm room, then led me inside and pulled me to the bed to lay down. I rested my chin on her head, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her close. As I closed my eyes, I let sleep take me, carrying me down into the dark where my dreams could help me make sense of all these changes. I was sure I’d be in better shape tomorrow, and then I could address all this big news head on.