[PILOT] New Life [Refresh: Emily, Alex]

Adam

Emily, It's well into the night one day in late December. Your life has experienced violent upheaval since Josine left, and that upheaval shows no signs of stopping any time soon. How long has it been since Josine left? Normally at this time you'd be out in the clubs, building a presence and making art; but tonight — and several nights before it — you have been reclusive. You were preparing for the birth of your child, and now you're sitting outside with Alex. The midwife is inside taking care of things. Nobody knows about this. Why did you summon Alex to your private residence tonight?

Alex, you've always been pretty self sufficient in terms of your skills, but you seem to be drawn to these people. You were in the middle of a high-profile job when you got the call — did you finish the job before coming, or did you drop it to be here? And perhaps more to the point: why did you come at all?

pandajelley

[Emily]

It's been seven months since Josine left. I didn't even sort out I was pregnant until after - too much going on to worry about menstrual cycles. Alex was visiting the same quick quack as I was the day I found out for sure. As I was collecting the clinic's recommended supply of prenatal vitamins and literature, stunned numb and nodding like an idiot to whatever the front desk clerk said, he came up behind me to say hello. I was too lost to lie, so I blurted out the truth. And, for whatever reason, he's kept the secret so far.

Which is good, because I'm not as strong as I thought I was and I don't want to give birth alone.

truthsayer

[Alex]
I've always been one to enjoy the challenge of a high stakes job. Since the incident on the Pacifica, I've lived for this. Even when Josine hired me on, I was in it for the money and the challenge. At least at first.

The truth was, it was lonely at the top. I was uncontested in my art, but that very success did nothing but push me into a very lonely world. Sure, I didn't hurt for friends if I chose. I didn't choose however.

Josine's crew got to me, enough that I was, on several occasions contemplating leaving their employ to cleanse myself of the attachment. Life was easier when I only worried about myself.

Sure, she said that she was pregnant. The bottle of prenatals was a good indication. I could see she wanted it quiet. All of a sudden, things became very real to me.

It changed when I got the call. Em's voice was different than I expected. Even more so when I saw her in the clinic. There was a hint of something REAL in her voice. It literally made me halt my job and rush over to her.

Perhaps I was ready to feel something real again.

Adam

OOC: Amazing responses guys. One last set of questions, and you'll be refreshed.

Alex, you were here for moral support, but it also sounds like you were looking for something. When all was said and done, Emily had the midwife's memory of the evening erased — but you got to keep yours. What did you take away from that evening that's still with you today?

Emily, childbirth isn't exactly a walk in the park, even for people who live for this moment. It would have been easier if things were uneventful, I'd imagine; but it wasn't — was it? What happened that night you couldn't prepare for, and where did your child end up?

pandajelley

[Emily]

I've lived through pain before. Fists, feet, bullets, blades, zappers, hard falls. But all of that pain felt a degree removed, I was Cynthia the bubbly heiress getting shot or Agatha the airline attendant getting knocked out or Jamma the shoe designer being kicked out a third story window. I hated breaking character even after discovery. Sometimes I might need to con the same person as two different characters, and breaking character could kill those chances, and you never know. So, I had to figure out in the moment how Cynthia or Agatha or Jamma would react.

That night, two people were born out of the ancient right where death dances with new life, and you don't know who has taken the lead until you're in the middle of the blood and the fear and the love and the desperation. My baby, and Emily.

Weeks ago, I had conned a nice family into thinking I was the husband's drug-addled half sister he never knew about. I didn't trust the fucking system, no need to go into why. They already had two young children, were trying for a third but she was having trouble conceiving - a bad reaction to her postpartum meds, although her doctor hadn't told her yet. She had already agreed to adopt my baby in her heart before I even finished my story.

But, handing her over hurt more than I thought could be possible. I thought it would be like finding a stray a good home, but saying goodbye to my daughter took some of my invulnerability away. Like I tucked it in with her swaddling blanket to try and keep her safe.

truthsayer

[Alex]
The memory of holding the baby. The midwife was tending to Em and helping with the afterbirth, and I held her.

She looked up at me with curiosity in her eyes. I might have been the first thing she saw in the world. The raw power of that moment shook me. There was this little person, all new. She had no stains or sins to confess. She was literally pure and innocent. Sure, time would eventually stain that which was clean, but in this time, there was nothing but sincerity.

There was something else as well. Absently, my omni-scanner whirled to life. It was still configured for the job that I bolted away from. The job was to break into a high security wing of a military base and liberate some rather unpleasant devices (or blow them up, either way.) I had set the omni-scanner to search for DNA samples in order to spoof the security routines.

Em never said who the father was. With that scan, I discovered it. It awed me.

I handed the baby back to the mother. In my strange reasoning, I thought that she might keep the baby. Perhaps I was just deluded, or hoping that this baby could have made a difference to the life that we both led.

Then I heard that she gave the baby away. It was little difficulty to find out who and where, but I did nothing. This was the reason I left, and the reason that I stayed away for so long. I couldn't live with knowing just how I failed this little girl by not standing tall with the truth.

So now I live with the lie and it colors everything.

Adam

Fantastic work guys! You are both refreshed. Please join Utseo back in the moment.