Chapter Thirteen

Amy looked ill. "I need to lie down," she whispered.

Helen and Quinn stood up and eased her legs onto the couch. Amy pressed her head back against the arm. With shock and disbelief, DeMartino leaned over her and tried to touch her swollen middle - only to have Amy flinch violently.

"Get him away from me," Amy said through gritted teeth.

"But that's my -"

"No!" Amy jerked upward into a seated position and glared at him intensely. "This is not your kid. You are nothing. I have a boyfriend... whom I love, and I don't use that word lightly. You..." She trembled a little. "You are not going to mess things up for us."

DeMartino stared helplessly at each of the Morgendorffers, and met a look of utter hatred and contempt from Helen. She then turned to Amy and stroked her arm in a soothing manner. "But honey, in a matter of weeks you'll be due to deliver, and what will you tell Joel then? Suppose your baby has features... that aren't..." Helen gestured, and Amy understood. She leaned back again, closed her eyes, and turned her head towards the couch cushion. Tears seeped out from beneath her lids and slid down her cheeks. Daria and Quinn watched with shock: They had never seen their aunt cry before.

"Well GEEZ, if I'd known-" DeMartino tried to say, before being silenced by Jake.

"Gob, not now," he whispered, then nodded toward the kitchen. DeMartino followed.

Once inside, DeMartino picked up a mug of cold, untouched coffee - the mug Daria had offered Amy earlier. He sniffed it, took a sip, then guzzled the whole thing down.

"Is this why you didn't want to come here?" Jake asked.

DeMartino nodded, his bad eye bulging with despair. "I didn't KNOW she was your wife's sister. Hell, I could SEE her in the dark, but I couldn't see her, see her. All I could make out was a bunch of HAIR whipping around. I didn't REALIZE until I saw her face the next MORNING... she looks so much like one of your daughters. Then later, I heard her OUTSIDE with her boyfriend - she mentioned the problems you were having with your WIFE, and I knew for sure." He gazed down at the floor and laughed nervously. "I didn't want to tell you out of concern it might COMPLICATE things."

Jake let out a strained chuckle. "I'll say," he whispered. Silence hung in the air between them, as Jake leaned against the counter in thought. "So soon, you'll have a half-earthling child like I do."

"Yeah," DeMartino grumbled morosely. "If she'll even let me NEAR it."

"She'll have to," Jake pointed out. "I don't think she can terminate at this point, and she and her boyfriend can't raise a child with alien traits on their own. The child's gonna need guidance to come to terms with its alien half, and that's just if it looks human. If it looks like a baby from Xulfanex..." Jake gazed at DeMartino with meaning.

"This really DOES complicate things," DeMartino muttered. "Running's already gotten a lot harder, and hiding with a BABY will be next to impossible. But there's no other WAY."

"Yes there is," Jake said, standing up straighter with determination.

"NO!" DeMartino said, with a threatening gleam in his eye.

"Yes! I have to turn myself in!" Jake's composure wavered a bit. "Don't you see how it will solve everything? Amy won't need to join us on the run, and as long as you're here, there will be someone to teach my girls how to channel their powers! Please, when your kid is born, you'll understand why I need to do this."

DeMartino was about to protest, but one look at Jake, and he was forced into sullen retreat. Jake's mind was made up. The two men stood there, the weight of their lifelong friendship hanging between them. Jake's stubborn expression gave way to meek acceptance, as he absorbed the significance of his decision. In spite of himself, DeMartino reached forward and clapped a hand on his shoulder. Jake smiled grimly.

"Was she any good?"

"Huh?" DeMartino stared at him, startled.

"Sorry," Jake replied. "The dumbest things pop out of my mouth when I'm scared."

DeMartino frowned in thought. "I haven't had anything to compare it to, but -" A grudging smirk appeared on his lips. "man, did she ever take CONTROL! She was all OVER me, pressing herself on me, her TONGUE was in my mouth, her HIPS were moving around all over the place, her breasts were... WOAH. She was like this UNSTOPPABLE force!" He wiped sweat from his temple. "Is it ALWAYS like that?"

Jake's eyes were wide. "Um... sure."

Amy had moved from the couch to her bed, where she lay on her back on top of the covers, arms folded over her face. Quinn knew that she was crying, even though she hid it. She couldn't tell what upset her aunt more - the fact that she had unintentionally betrayed her boyfriend, or the fact that she was carrying a half-alien child.

From her position next to Daria at the edge of the bed, she watched her mother lean over her aunt, comforting her through the ordeal with the graven air of someone who had been there before.

"It will work out, honey, believe me," Helen said, straining to sound positive. "You're just having a baby a little sooner than planned."

Amy lifted her arms and gazed at her sister incredulously. "Is that all you can think to say?"

"What can I tell you?" Helen asked, taking on a weary tone. "What can I tell you that you'd want to hear?"

"How 'bout that I'm on one of those twisted reality shows," Amy muttered, "and if I can stay sane for twenty-four hours, you'll prove this whole thing was a sham and I'll get a million dollars."

Helen gazed back at Daria and Quinn with a forlorn expression that matched their own. Amy sniffled, her eyes red-rimmed and teary. "That I'm sick, or dreaming. That none of this is happening."

Helen took her hand and squeezed it gently, but firmly. "Honey, it won't be so bad," she murmured. "You'll get used to it."

"The way you got used to it?" Amy shot back. She yanked her hand away and rolled onto her side. "You never got used to it," she whispered.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Helen frowned.

"I know you, Helen," Amy said flatly. "So ambitious, with set dreams that you were hell-bent on achieving. You were going to become a successful trial lawyer or judge and raise the perfect family. And now here you are - on the run from some alien headhunter, abandoning your home in Lawndale and hiding out in my apartment. Does that sound like the life you wanted?"

"That isn't fair," Helen snapped, "most people's lives don't turn out exactly as planned. We all have to make little adjustments along the way, but things can still work out in the end! Sometimes even for the better."

Amy sat up and gave her a dull, disbelieving stare. "I chose my life with my eyes open," Helen continued in a quiet, firm tone. "When I reunited with Jake in 1979, I knew what he was, and I strongly suspected that our marriage would face many rough spots. But I was ready for whatever lay ahead. And now -" Helen looked back at her daughters with a tender expression. "-I've got two lovely girls, about whom I wouldn't change a thing, not even to make them fully human. No matter what, I'll always love them."

Quinn's face slowly brightened as she heard those words. Then, just as quickly, a shadow fell over her, as she recalled that her parents were newly separated because her mother had stopped being ready for the challenges ahead. Would she say such things without hesitation if she knew what Quinn had...

"Well I'm not ready," Amy responded in an emphatic tone, as close to shouting as she was capable. "I've just found out that some otherworldly freak stuck his dick inside me, and now I have to carry his spawn to birth. How in God's name do you think I could ever be ready for something like that?!"

"Why not?!" Quinn shrieked, not even aware she was going to speak until the words had left her lips. "What's so horrible about it?! So what if your baby will be part-alien?"

"You don't understand," said Amy, marginally calmer, but still angry. "It's different for me. Your mother was married and in love with your father - I don't even know that grouchy and odious-looking lout you call DeMartino! Your mother wanted to have both of you. I wanted to have Joel's -" The rest of her sentence was lost in a sob.

"So you're saying is," Daria said solemnly, "if Joel were the alien, you'd have no problem having a child with him."

"It sure as hell would have made this easier!" Amy leaned back against the headboard and cried into her arm.

Helen patted her other arm and gave her daughters a weary look. "Cut her some slack," she murmured. "It's a lot to get used to."

Daria and Quinn nodded, but the sight of their aunt's emotional distress was unnerving. Finally Daria stood up and walked out of the bedroom. Quinn went with her, shutting the door softly behind her. In a daze, they made their way into the guest room and collapsed onto the unmade bed. For a long while, neither of them spoke as they absorbed this latest shock and tried to come to terms with it. At last, Quinn broke the silence.

"Aunt Amy loves us, Daria."

"Sure she does," was Daria's stiff reply.

"No..." Quinn sat up and looked at her hard. "I mean she loves us, and still, when she found out that she's gonna have something like us, she-"

"She freaked," Daria finished.

"If she's afraid of us..." Quinn trembled.

"We don't know that," said Daria, her logic taking over. "Her thoughts are muddled. She doesn't know what to think."

Quinn took a deep breath.

"And like Mom said," Daria added, "it's a lot to get used to no matter how tolerant-minded you are. Besides - if you found out you'd slept with Mr. DeMartino, would you take it well?"

Quinn cringed, and her face puckered into an "Ewww!" expression. Then her shoulders relaxed as melancholy took hold once more. "Daria? Even if we manage to escape Mr. Phelps forever, what's going to happen to us?"

Daria was silent. "New Wave will come back in fashion?"

"Be serious! And don't scare me." Quinn regarded her with worry. "Do we keep our powers to ourselves, or do we tell people?"

"I don't know," Daria sighed. "I've managed to keep my powers hidden until now, but with these new super-deluxe powers that can shake the very earth, I'm afraid my fly under the radar tactics won't be quite as effective."

Quinn stared off into space. "What if we can't hide them? Then people will find out about us and they'll want to put us in a lab, or something, won't they?"

"No more X-Men movie for you," Daria said firmly. "Besides, if that ever happened, we could probably destroy everyone who tried to hurt us."

Quinn gasped and squeezed her eyes shut. "Quinn, that was a joke. You know, jokes?" Daria watched her with concern. "I promise to only use my powers for good. Truth, justice, and the corporate American way, or whatnot."

"Would you tell Jane?" asked Quinn in a low tone.

"Sure. And after her initial shock, she'd be cool with it. Of course she would." Now Daria's gaze trailed off into space. "Would you tell Stacy?"

Quinn just stared at the bedspread; a huge lump in her throat kept her from replying. Her thoughts were muddled and not her own. That's it, my dear Quinn. That's it. Lead me to you. I'm almost there...