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It was an accident really. It wasn’t as if anyone really knew anything about Kryptonian biology as it was affected by the yellow sun. Because Kara knew this hadn’t happened on Krypton before or after the Codex was used. But here it was right in front of them. Kara’s hand drifted down to Lena’s and squeezed gently.
“From all the tests we’ve done it’s Kara’s,” Alex said looking at the screen with the shot of an ultrasound on it. “It’s half Kryptonian and growing at a much faster rate than a regular pregnancy. At this rate I’d say about…” she trailed off thinking for a long second, “you said you started feeling odd about two weeks ago?” Alex’s eyes darted down to Lena’s slightly distended stomach.
Lena nodded.
“Ok then, you’re obviously at least 5 months in now.”
“I just thought it was from the increased appetite…” Lena’s voice was soft and shocked. This hadn’t been what either of them had expected. Kara had figured that it was some alien disease that she’d carried home to Lena on accident. Not...not a baby. They were both women. Who in the world would expect that?
“So two weeks ago you were in early first trimester, now you’re mid second, which means that in probably another week and a half she’ll be here.”
Kara looked down at Lena, sure her eyes were comically wide. A week and a half and they would be parents? They had just gotten engaged a few months before. They had talked about kids. Lena had wanted to adopt, she hadn’t wanted biological children and Kara had been more than fine with that considering her own history. Well. This certainly threw a wrench in that.
Lena’s own expression had gone completely blank. Kara knew that expression. She’d shut down, unable to take the emotional rollercoaster. She was in survival mode, but when they got home Kara was sure any emotions Lena had about all this would come pouring out once they were safely ensconced in their bed or on the couch.
“How?” Kara finally managed to ask. Her and Lena had had sex more than enough through the three years they’d been together now. She couldn’t remember anything especially special that they’d done in the last month that could have triggered this as a one off. Her mind floated back to the night Lena had come home from a CatCo gala in a very daring backless dress and Kara had taken her straight to bed. That night had been their hottest sex in a few months, but they hadn’t tried anything new. Eating each other out, fingering, a bit of scissoring and dirty talk. Nothing odd.
“How has it not happened before?” Lena added as if following Kara’s thoughts.
“Not sure. I’ll have to do some tests on Kara to be sure, and I’ll ask the Alura-bot. Anyway you can get a message to your mother to ask anything about it?”
“I can get a message out, but I have no idea when we would get an answer back.” Probably long after the baby was born. It wasn’t like space was small. Nor was it exactly easy to find a city-planet constantly on the move.
“Well what we can do here will have to do until you get word back. Hopefully the tests will point us in the right direction.” Alex looked from Kara back to Lena. “While that’s going on I’m going to call Dr. Song to consult. You’ve met her before, yes?”
Lena nodded stiffly. She was the physician in charge of the DEO clinic. She was the best doctor they had by far. Considering the circumstances they would definitely need her.
“You’ll still assist?” Kara asked. Dr. Song was there best human doctor, but Alex was their best Kryptonian expert, save for maybe Eliza.
Kara’s heart stopped. Oh god Eliza. She was going to have to tell Eliza. She would be thrilled but Kara had the sneaking suspicion that there would be a lecture in there somewhere since this was all a complete accident. She didn’t need the sex talk again in her thirties. She really didn’t. Once was more than enough scarring for a lifetime.
“Of course I will. The kid is half Kryptonian after all.” Alex stepped forward and patted Kara’s arm. “Come on. You can go panic over where to put a nursery and pick out furniture in a haze in a couple of hours. You need time for the info to sink in anyway. There will be ice cream at the end of it.”
Both Kara and Lena perked up at the mention of ice cream. Anymore Lena was eating just as much as Kara. It was a good thing Lena was a multi-billionaire or else their grocery bills would literally be eating them out of house and home.
Alex snorted. “I’ll make sure Dr. Song knows to have a gallon of cookies and cream ready.” She pulled Kara from the room and down the hall to her lab space.
She handed Kara a few vials and hummed softly as she sorted through some others. Two more were placed in Kara’s hands before Alex turned to face her. She gestured at the first two. “I’m going to need some of your sexual fluids in those two, one aroused and one not.” Another gesture to the third container. “Urine sample.” She grabbed a heavy case and opened it.
Kara held back the urge to gag as the unmistakable feeling of Kryptonite hit her. Alex pulled out a needle and quickly attached it to a tube. She gestured for Kara to sit and then poked around for a vein. After the years of check-ups at the DEO it didn’t take long and Alex had two vials of blood full and waiting for analysis. She frowned at the other three vials in Kara’s hands and walked over to grab two more.
“These ones I want collected when you’re around Lena. Also as your sister I want that particular sample to be collected as far away from me as possible. Just keep the samples on ice until you can fly them to me, understood?”
Kara nodded.
Alex waved her off. “Now go collect the non-Lena samples. Bunk room C is always empty and has a lock.”
Kara looked at her sister suspiciously. “Do I want to know why you know that?”
“Nope.”
“Fair enough.” She sighed heavily.
Alex stopped her with an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll both be fine. God knows you’ll be the best mother on the planet and Lena will make sure they’ll be fed something other than donuts and potstickers. She’ll teach them how to solve calculus equations at 5 and you’ll teach them Kyrptonian. And if they fly you’ll both baby-proof the house within an inch of its life. You’ll love her, you’ll have a support system, and you’ll be so worried about messing up, and you will, but you won’t make the major mistakes. That’s what matters.”
Kara felt her eyes watering, but managed to blink them back. Alex drew her into a hug.
“Go on. I’m going to process your blood and desperately not think about what’s going on in room c.”
“You’re going to make a great aunt too.”
“Damn straight. I’ll sugar them up and send them right back to you. Like all good aunts should.”
Kara snorted and shook her head before walking out of the room.
--
A week and a half later the nursery was done, painted a nice light green with baby frog decals that Kara just couldn’t leave at the store. They had everything they could need and more. Lena and her Black AmEx had trolled every mommy site for the latest and best rated mommy do-hickie. There had been so many packages some days that Kara had to result to a bit of super strength to get them all inside without making ten thousand trips. Lena had an army of people to assemble everything and arrange it all to her very specific specifications while she had the latest baby book in her hands reading between orders.
Kara had watched it all in awe and a bit of apprehension. If setting up for having a kid was so complicated how were they going to actually take care of the little one? But they had done it. And Kara had called Eliza and let her know. Eliza was already arranging for time off so she could come help out. Kara had no idea how to feel about it, but she had a feeling after being up all night with the baby, she’d be thankful for someone there to actually make sure everything was still done. It was just Lena was so private she worried about them butting heads. But if worse really came to worse she knew Alex would appear to diffuse whatever situation arose.
All that really was left was waiting for the baby to come. Which had both Kara, Lena, and Alex all on edge. It was hard to know when everything was going to happen considering was a one of a kind pregnancy. Alex had said a week and a half, Lena’s very pregnant belly said the end was near too, but it could be another week or another hour. Rao, waiting was not her strong suit.
“Alex Danvers will be at the door in ten seconds, would you like to let her in?” The new AI interface asked.
“Yes please.” It may be just AI, but saying please was never remiss.
Kara perked up, looking at the door and waited for Alex to walk through it. She hadn’t said she was on her way over, but there must be something that had come back from the tests and she was too excited about the results to stop and send a text. It had happened many a time before.
“A robot opens the door now?” Alex asked as she walked into the living room where Kara had been pacing.
“It’s a custom AI Lena built. It also doubles as a security system and anything else Lena thought would be a good idea.” Kara shrugged. She liked it because it automatically ordered more chocolate chip ice cream the second Kara threw the package in the trash and it would be in the freezer the next day. It was certainly something she could get used to.
Alex held up a flashdrive. “We got a message back from your mother.”
Kara sat up. “That quick?” She had asked a few of her friends at the alien bar to send out the message when they could. She hadn’t figured that she’d get a reply for months.
Alex nodded. “They were in a sector with a clear shot to Earth to send back a signal. Took a day to come across, but we have it all now.”
An arm extended down from the ceiling. “If you would like Ms. Danver’s I can plug that in for your viewing,” the computer said in a voice that was almost smooth enough to be human, but not quite. Lena had left it like that to avoid the uncanny valley effect and Kara definitely agreed with that choice considering it would be even weirder to have a voice come from nowhere otherwise.
Kara shuffled over to the couch and sat down, Alex close behind her. The TV lowered from the ceiling and turned on quietly. A second later her mother’s face appeared and the video started to play.
“Congratulations my love on starting a family.” Her mother smiled much in the same way Kara herself did. “I’m sure you’ll send me updates and pictures whenever you can get them to me across the galaxy. I’m sure you have all the worries that first time mothers do, but I know you will be a wonderful mother. If everyone in your life hasn’t told you that I would be surprised, but I doubt one more time will hurt.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and shifted back slightly.
“As for your question about how they could happen, we aren’t entirely sure. As far back in history as we have record Kyptonians have reproduced much like humans, one person with sperm and the other with eggs. The closest thing we have record of is couples who were sexually active years before being betrothed suddenly becoming pregnant not long after their engagement. It wasn’t scientifically studied, that died down a good deal before our modern society, and most assuredly before the Codex. From the scholars here, their best guess is that it has something to do with the yellow sun causing a random mutation in your DNA that was beneficial enough for your increased healing to keep it around. Perhaps the old stories had some foundation and that paired with a mutation has lead to this.”
She frowned and sighed quietly. “I’m sorry I am not able to provide you with any clearer answers. If it helps, if the stories are true the first child wasn’t followed by a second for a few years and there never seemed to be a great abundance of children. I hope your sister is of more help with this, perhaps your other mother as well.”
Her face softened. “When I launched you into space, hoping against hope you would survive and thrive on Earth, this is all I wanted for you my darling, love, belonging and family. I’m so glad that you’ve found it. I’ll wait for updates eagerly and I expect them to know that their grandmother loves them very much. I wish you and Lena well.”
The recording stopped and Kara sighed. Well it had been nice to hear from her mother, but there were still so many questions. She turned to Alex and cocked an eye.
Alex shrugged. “If it’s like she says it’s going to take a while to figure out what gene or even set of genes mutated. It’s definitely a good idea though. The test results on everything came back and it seems that being around Lena and aroused are the only real triggers. Even then your loading of fertile cells is low. I bet if we tested again now they may not be there at all and if we had tested before all this they would have been sky high. I could be wrong, but at least we can test again soon enough to at least prove its tapering off.”
Kara nodded and sunk further into the couch. That would be helpful information at least.
“Kara!” Lena called out.
In a second Kara was by Lena’s side. Lena was standing in a small pool of what looked like water. Kara’s eyes widened. It was happening.
“Alex it’s happening!” And suddenly it occurred to Kara that they were having a baby and yet they’d forgotten to pick out a name. Oh Rao above how had they forgotten that? Well, that was definitely going to have to be straightened out later, right now they had to go .
Kara grabbed their go bag and then gently scooped up Lena into her arms. Lena winced a bit at the position she was in so Kara shifted her around until Lena relaxed into her arms. She was already levitating off the ground when Alex came in.
“Dr. Song is already there, a copper is coming for me. I’ll be twenty minutes behind you. Nothing should really happen in that time if her water just broke, but you never know with you Kryptonians. They’ve got everything set up and ready to go so there’s no need to worry.”
Kara nodded. “Open the balcony doors please.”
The doors swung open and Kara shot out into the sky, travelling just as fast as she could with Lena in her arms. She felt as a contraction raced through Lena. Her love tensed up and gasped in a breath.
“Breathe Lena, I know you know to breathe, but for me please?”
Lena let out a controlled breath and then took another in. “Kara Danvers so help me god if you knock me up again I’m going to take you into a Kryptonite room and knock you against a wall.”
Well. If Lena was already threatening her and they hadn’t really gotten to the worst of it yet, she probably didn’t want to know what creative insults were coming her way shortly.
“I really didn’t mean to,” Kara said, kissing the top of Lena’s head as Lena finally relaxed again. “If I had, I would have given us more than a week and a half to prepare.”
Lena snorted. “I would hope so.”
Five minutes later they were at the DEO desert base, hidden away from everything seemed to be the best place to have a baby that no one really knew what was going to happen. If the kid started flying immediately it was better for them not to have a window to immediately fly out of, for sure. Another contraction wracked Lena as suddenly the sand was filled with DEO agents carrying a gurney. Lena was carefully whisked from Kara’s arms and carried inside and there was nothing Kara could really do but follow along like a lost puppy.
The medical suite they’d set up for them was nicer than any of the ones Kara had ever been relegated to, but then again she really hadn’t needed anything other than a sunbed and Alex to get over any injuries. Lena was transferred to a hospital bed and Dr. Song walked in wearing the standard green medical scrubs and smiling.
“Well, right where Alex predicted then, aren’t we.” Dr. Song walked up to Lena’s bed and the readouts of the monitors that the other agents were attaching to Lena one by one. “I understand from Alex that your water just broke less than ten minutes ago. Usually that means we have a while to go, but we’ll be monitoring you closely considering this whole pregnancy took a tenth of the time it normally does.”
Another contraction wracked Lena. And Kara didn’t know much about pregnancy and birth, but she’d just had one when they landed and it had only been five minutes or less, that seemed fast for this early on. Everyone who had taken Lena to the suite froze for a moment. And that’s when Kara knew that she was definitely right.
A man stopped by Dr. Song and murmured about the last contraction and Dr. Song nodded.
“Well, it does seem like we’re in for a ride, but we’re more than prepared for that.”
Kara reached out for Lena’s hand and squeezed it. Well then. They were going to be parents sooner rather than later. Cool, cool, cool. She could do it. They could do it. She now totally understood just how useless fathers were in situations like this because there was nothing she could really do except hold Lena’s hand through the contractions.
“This baby is like you!” Lena screamed through a contraction around ten minutes later.
Kara had no idea where this was going but she kept her mouth shut.
“Too in a hurry for their own good.”
Kara couldn’t really say anything to that. Once a year or so before she’d been in a hurry to get to an interview and ended up tripping over a rug in the penthouse and actually managed to crash through a wall in the aftermath. Oh lord, they were going to have a child who might be able to do that. The repair bills alone. She rubbed her thumb across the back of Lena’s hand. Maybe the AI could be trained to keep the little one out of danger? She certainly hoped so.
Alex finally walked in, already changed into scrubs. “I see you definitely got the party started without me.” She walked over to Dr. Song and exchanged a few words and nodded. After she walked to Kara’s side. “Well, based on their calculations another ten minutes like this and it will be time to push. You ready?”
“Yes! I want the child out please.” Lena flopped back on the bed, already sweaty and flushed.
Kara blew a light cold breeze over Lena and Lena sighed and closed her eyes.
“On the bright side at least it hasn’t been twenty hours,” Alex said. “Mom never has forgiven me for that.”
Lena opened her eyes again just to glare at Alex.
Alex shrugged and laughed. “I’m just saying, could be worse.”
Another few minutes, another few contractions and Dr. Song came up from inspecting Lena and looked at them both. “Next contraction we’ll push.”
Lena nodded and squeezed Kara’s hand so tightly even Kara felt a little twinge of pain. She looked down at her fiancee in wonder. How in the world had she just managed that? The power of motherhood and pain combined? Lena was going to be the fiercest mama bear out there, no doubt about it.
Another contraction and Lena pushed with a groan of effort until the contraction passed.
“She’s an eager one,” Dr. Song said. “You’re doing great Lena. I can see her head.”
“It has to be the largest baby head in the galaxy.” Lena sat back against the bed and let out a long breath.
Dr. Song laughed. “Nope, seems to be fairly normally sized.”
Lena groaned. “Of course it is.”
Another contraction. Another push. Kara just kept holding on to Lena for dear life. And another.
“Head is almost out. The hardest part is almost over,” Dr. Song patted Lena’s ankle.
Another and their baby slipped farther out. Another scream, another push, another second to being closer to a new life in the world. Kara was watching so intently. She didn’t want to miss the second where their daughter came into the world. Another.
“I’m guessing it will take one last push, Lena, can you do that.”
Lena nodded silently, too exhausted to do much else.
The last contraction and Lena came up off the bed and pushed hard enough to pop a vein out in her forehead that Kara had never seen before. And then there was a whoosh of fluid as their baby finally entered the world. The doctor suctioned her eyes and mouth and a second later she was crying out and Kara had never heard a more beautiful sound.
Dr. Song handed the baby off to an aide. “They’ll clean her right up and bring her back to you. Now Lena we need to deliver the placenta and then you can be done with me for a while.”
Kara kept ahold of Lena’s hand but she only had eyes for their daughter. She watched as she was wiped off and measured and weighed. A little hat, booties, and a diaper were put on her and then an aide walked over to Kara with her daughter held gently. Kara quickly shed her shirt. She’d read about the importance of skin to skin contact in one of the books Lena had bought.
“She’s nine pounds even and 23 inches long. She’s a big baby for as quickly as she baked.” The aide smiled and handed over the baby.
Kara took her in her arms gently. They had done it. They’d really had a baby. And here she was in Kara’s arms. Kara smiled down at their baby and felt her heart melt completely into a puddle and reform with this little being in the center of it.
“Kara.”
Lena’s voice caught Kara’s attention immediately. She looked up and saw that all the aides and doctors had left. It was just them in the room now, with Alex standing quietly in the doorway, looking on.
“Can I hold our daughter now?” Lena’s smile was soft and amused. “You’ve been hogging her for ten minutes.”
Kara hadn’t even felt the time pass. “Oh shoot! Of course!”
She handed the baby over to Lena with careful hands. Lena lowered the little girl to her chest and sighed, completely content. She closed her eyes and Kara’s heart melted again and reformed around this picture of Lena and their daughter together.
“What are we going to name her,” Kara said quietly. The moment just called for gentle voices.
“I looked through a dozen baby name lists, but nothing really stuck. Did you have anything in mind?”
Kara had been too young to really think about baby names when she was on Krypton. On her home planets names took months to pick, all ceremony and meaning had to be examined before picking out the right name. At twelve that had been way beyond her concerns at the time. And now here she was drawing a blank. Naming her daughter after her mother might have been something before Argo City had flown past, but now it seemed odd.
“What was the name of your favorite grandmother?”
“Tala,” Kara answered without thinking. Her father’s mother had been warm and had treated Kara like a little princess. Kara remembered their outings as if they were coated in a golden glow. She smiled. She would be beyond proud of the life Kara had managed to build from the ashes of Krypton, and she would have loved Lena to death.
“Tala El Danvers,” Lena said and nodded. “Yes, I think that fits, don’t you Tala?”
Kara hadn’t ever wanted to happy cry more than in that moment. “Yeah, that sounds wonderful.”
“Alright, enough of the mush, let me hold my niece before I go fuck off elsewhere to give you guys time to bond.”
Kara laughed and Lena rolled her eyes.
“You’re going to be a horrible influence on our daughter, aren’t you?”
“Not until she’s a little bit older. Now I just get to spoil her to death.” She took Tala from Lena’s outstretched hands. “Oh boy isn’t she beautiful. You’re going to be my little science experiment buddy, aren’t you? I’ll teach you how to ride a motorcycle when you’re old enough but only when your Mama is out of town so she doesn’t kill me. Does that sound great?”
“I will murder you and no one will find the body,” Lena said.
Alex laughed and handed back Tala. “I’ll be back later to see just how Kryptonian this little booger is. You can go back to being mushy now.”
Kara stepped forward and hugged her sister hard. Alex squeezed her. “You did good, Kar.”
Kara looked back at Lena and Tala. “I really did, didn’t I?”
Alex patted Kara on the shoulder and walked from the room, leaving Kara together with her new little family. The world could wait for now. If there was an emergency the relevant authorities could deal with them. For right now she had something important to do. She laid down on the bed beside Lena and smiled. Her little family was the most important thing in the world, for now, and forever.