<USS Avalon> "First Kick"

"First Kick"
Ensign Vevay Davis and Sr. Lt. Melanie Redgrave

After ordering a sweet, hot, strong cup of tea from the replicator, Vevay set 
it in front of Melanie, her eyes haunted by worry. "Are you alright?" she 
asked. 

Melanie cupped the mug of tea in both her trembling hands, hoping that the 
warmth would settle them. She tried to relax, to breath and steady her nerves, 
but it was only mildly helping. She kept thinking about Oliver and the man 
who's threatened to hurt her and her baby. It took a few moments before she 
realized that Vevay was speaking to her, looking up she asked, "What?"

"Drink it, the sugar will calm your nerves and help with the shock," Vevay said 
softly. "I'm gonna try calling Sick Bay, you need a doctor to see to you."

Reaching out, Melanie took hold of Vevay's forearm. "Stay with me?"

Vevay nodded as she sat down next to her. "I can call from here, don't worry." 
Hitting her comm-badge, she said, "Ensign Davis to Sick Bay, I've got someone 
in shock here."


There was a short pause and then a huffing voice came over the comm link. "I'm 
happy for you, maybe you can stuff them and mount them because right now 
there's not a whole lot else we can do."


Vevay stared at Melanie in surprise, her cheeks reddening. "I, err, need at 
least a little advice."


"Hot, sweet tea," came the response before the link went dead.


"Hot, sweet tea: check," Vevay said, rolling her eyes. "Cheerful bunny, isn't 
she?" She turned worried eyes on Mel, knowing that that little exchange can't 
have made her feel any better. 

"Should have told her I was pregnant, that always gets their attention." 
Melanie tried to laugh but it sounded really weak. She finally took a sip of 
her tea, trying hard not to cry. "There's a tri-corder in my desk. I need to 
check my blood pressure."

Leaping up, Vevay fumbled with the drawer and grabbed the tricorder. She handed 
it to Melanie, feeling totally lost and useless.

Melanie took the tri-corder and opened it, she tried to key in the commands 
that would do a quick pre-nate scan but her hands were still shaking. "Bloody 
hell."

"Tell me what to do," Vevay said as she took the device back off of Mel. She 
held both of Melanie's hands, using her own strength to still the shaking. 
"Just explain in very simple, grunt-like terms of one syllable or less."

"It's a medical tri-corder. Key in a prenatal scan, the commands should be in 
the directory. I added them in case Elijah ever wanted to help with my pre-nate 
stuff." Melanie replied as she looked into Vevay's eyes. 

"Um..." Vevay fumbled a bit with the controls before looking up helplessly. 
"The directory?" Gulping, Vevay tried again, managing to find something that 
looked roughly right. "O-k-a-y, I think we have something." Muttering, she 
started the scan. "Fucking eureka moment." 

Melanie laughed lightly. "It's ok. I actually deleted whole parent directories 
on three separate tri-corders my first semester at the academy." Placing a hand 
over her belly, Melanie leaned back a little, the little twinge of something 
she'd been feeling in her back since she'd started showing was now a full 
fledged ache. 

"Um... I think it says that you're okay." She gave the hateful machine to Mel. 
"I'm incompetent, why d'you think I went into Security? I don't have the brains 
for anything else."

"Your far from being incompetent, V." Melanie replied as she looked over the 
scans. "Blood pressures a little high but your right, we're fine." Melanie 
sighed and closed her eyes in relief. 

"Still think I'll leave all the science type stuff to all you brainy boffins," 
Vevay said as she reached over and squeezed Mel's hand. "Is there anything else 
I can get you? You need to drink your tea."

Melanie laughed light again, a little more tension melting with the effort. "I 
think this may be the first time a Brits been ordered to finish their tea." She 
sipped a little more from the mug, making sure to take little sips to avoid the 
enviable heartburn.

Vevay shrugged. "Auntie Maggie would tell m to have made it stronger, you can 
normally stand a spoon up in her brews. Plus, having been a midwife, she'd be 
much better equipped to help you. I'm kinda useless I'm afraid. I miss her, 
you'll love the real lady, she's amazing. Whenever I go home, she downloads the 
program and they have a discussion. It's funny as hell to watch."

"I'd love to meet the real Auntie Maggie." Melanie replied as she moved over on 
the couch in her office so Vevay could sit with her. "I didn't know she was a 
midwife?"

"Yeah, she's smarter than I am, loads smarter." Vevay's smile was full of 
pride. "And she went back to university to get a degree in astrophysics when 
she was in her 60s." 

Melanie eye brow went up. "Astrophysics? I failed it the first time and barely 
made it out with a passing grade the second, and that was only the into course 
that's required for science majors." She smiled at her friend and wondered if 
the other woman knew that just sitting there talking together like this was 
helping her to calm down. 

"As I said, she's extremely clever. She reads Shakespeare and understands it, 
she's trying to get me to read Midsummer Night's Dream. I've tried... honest, 
but I just don't understand it. Not got the grey matter," Vevay said with a 
wink.

"My Mum tried to get me to read more Shakespeare but I was much happier reading 
anything else." Melanie admitted with a crooked smile. "She's actually sent me 
audio files of her reading the Tempest to play for the baby."

Vevay beamed. "Now that one I have a holo-program of. It's much easier to watch 
than read. Ariel's my favourite, he rocks, totally wicked character. You can 
borrow the program if you like."

"Oh if you come with me." Melanie replied with a chuckle. "Shakespeare is best 
appreciated when you can share the torture."

"True enough," Vevay said, giggling. "Maybe we could drag Ffej and Eli with us, 
assuming we can prise them away from their work. We could make a day of it, the 
program has so many intricacies that you could spend a week in it and still not 
see everything."

If she couldn't pry Elijah away from work long enough to come to her doctors 
appointments, Melanie doubted that she'd be able to get him to come to the 
holodeck for a double date. "I'd like that." She replied softly. With the 
thought of Elijah and his work now firmly in place, she couldn't help but 
wonder where he was, if he was ok, and if he had any idea what had just 
happened. 

"You'll like Ffej, he's a real sweetheart, a gentleman, you know? I just wish I 
saw more of him. I've gone back to staying with the screech owl, Lil. It just 
wasn't worth staying with Ffej, he was never there." Sighing, Vevay curled her 
legs up under her. "I miss him."

Melanie reached out and took Vevay's hand and gave it a soft squeeze. "I miss 
Elijah too." She said softly. "He's always working lately. He's missed a lot of 
this pregnancy because of it. I think.. I think he's working so much because of 
the pregnancy."

"What makes you say that?" Vevay rubbed her thumb over the back of Mel's hand. 
"I'm sure it's not true, why would he miss out on something as important as 
this?"

"It scares him." She answered simply.

"Oh." Vevay looked a little taken aback, her hand moving to hover over where 
the baby was growing. "What's there to be scared of? I mean, other than Maquis 
swinging in from all sides and the occasional attack by the Borg, what is all 
that scary about having a baby? People all over the galaxy have been doing it 
for billions of years in one form or another."

Melanie smiled as she took hold of Vevay's hand and placed it flat against her 
ever growing bump of a belly. "The thought of be someone's mother or father can 
be an even more freighting then the thought of being assimilated. I won't lie 
and say I'm not scared out of my mind, but I'm actually loving all of this, 
even the bloody heartburn."

Her eyes wide, Vevay could almost convince herself that she could feel the tiny 
life grow. One corner of her mouth twitched up into a crooked smile as she ran 
her hand over the bump. "You're so lucky. Eli is so lucky. And this little life 
is so lucky to have both of you." 

Melanie was just about to response when something else caught her attention. It 
was the slightest of feelings, kinda like a little thump right were Vevay's 
hand was. She blinked until it dawned on her what the thump was and then smiled 
brightly. "Did you feel that!"

Vevay nodded excitedly. "The baby kicked!" Giggling, Vevay pulled Mel into a 
hug.

It was an 'awe' kind of moment. Up until now there had been a shroud of 
surrealness about the whole thing. Sure she knew she was pregnant, saw and felt 
her body changing, heard the baby's heartbeat, but to actually feel it move for 
the first time just seemed to bring it all home for her. Melanie hugged Vevay 
tightly unsure wither to laugh or cry. "She must like you, V." Melanie finally 
said as they pulled apart. "She kicked her first 'Hey I'm in here notice me!' 
kick for you."

"Nah, I was just in the right place at the right time. She'd have kicked for 
Eli too, I'm sure." Kissing Mel lightly on her cheek, she moved her hand back 
to the little bump. An odd smile curled at her lips. "Hey there, little one," 
she cooed, not even realizing she was doing it. 

Melanie smiled brightly as she watched her friend coo to the baby. "Thank you, 
V."

"Huh? What for?" Vevay blushed, moving her hand away and sitting back. 

"For rescuing us form those wankers, and for sticking around for us." Melanie 
leaned in and kissed her fiend on the cheek. "For being here for us and being 
our friend."

"You're beginning to sound like the Borg yourself," Vevay teased. "But hey, 
that's what your friendly neighborhood security guard is for, right?"



Melanie laughed. "Na, I think the better analogy would be the Trill." She 
teased and then looked at her belly. "Not that I'm calling your a worm, 
Poppet." Then she looked up at Vevay again. "Your so much more then just my 
friendly neighborhood security guard." Melanie paused a moment, growing still 
and quiet as she looked at her friend. A idea passed through her mind and she 
needed a moment to toss it around. Finally after a long few minutes in which 
Vevay started to look worried, Melanie smiled. "I want to ask you something, V."

"Um... as long as it's not a science pop quiz or something, sure, go ahead."

Melanie laughed. "No there's no scientific knowledge needed for this." She 
paused again before asking, "I'd like you to be her godmother."

"Huh?" Vevay just looked at her, her expression completely uncomprehending.

"I know we haven't been friends for long, at least not in this reality, but you 
can't deny the closeness we have, Vevay." Melanie told her. "You don't have to 
answer me now, just think about it ok?"

"No," Vevay said quickly, her face flushing, "you don't understand. What's a 
'godmother'? I've never heard the term before."

Melanie blinked and then laughed lightly. "Oh. Well, a godmother is someone who 
promises at the baptism to help the parents look out for the child, to be apart 
of his or her life."

Vevay nodded to herself, her eyes losing focus for a moment. When she finally 
looked back at Mel, she was smiling. "You know, I think I'd like that an awful 
lot." 

Melanie hugged Vevay tightly before pulling back and putting the other's 
woman's hand back on her belly. "Did you hear that, Poppet? Aunt V's going to 
be your Godmummy. Your a very lucky little girl."

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