Gwen put the pizza in the oven and opened the bag of crisps. She started scarfing them down like there was no tomorrow. Up until every last crisp was gone. Once she realized she had eaten the entire bag, and so quickly, it shocked her. The longest it ever took her to eat a bag of crisps on her own was two weeks. Now she had just downed an entire bag and was still feeling hungry.
"So this is what one form of pregnancy feels like," Gwen groaned. "Except it doesn't usually happen this fast. I mean, it is an alien pregnancy, so i understand."
It was four seconds before she realized three things. One, She was by herself. Two, she sounded insane. Three, she WAS insane.
"Oh, my god," Gwen said as she put her hand to her forehead. "I am so stupid! How could i do this to myself? I let myself get knocked up by an alien who was dying, and now i'm carrying her four alien spawn. What the hell is wrong with me?!"
She was on the verge of crying when she remembered why she was doing this. It was the same reason why she had become a constable before working for Torchwood: she wanted to help people. Even if "people" extended out to dying aliens. In that moment, she was embarrassed with herself for getting so close to crying. She realized it was probably just her mood swings. Then she heard the oven ding, signalling her pizza was done, and forgot about everything but the pizza.
What she didn't know was, Jack had called Rhys over to the Torchwood base about "something important."
"Okay, i'm here," Rhys said after he entered Jack's office. "What do you need?"
"Okay, listen," Jack said, in a calming voice. "I'm about to say something, and i need you to promise me your not gonna hit me after i say it."
"Okay. I promise," Rhys laughed. "So what is it?"
Jack exhaled. "Your wife is gonna turn into a big, fat cow."
The smile disappeared from Rhys' face. Two seconds later, he punched Jack right in the face.
"Ah, damn!" Jack yelled. "What the hell? You promised you wouldn't!"
"That was before i knew what you were gonna say was gonna insult my wife!" Rhys snapped.
Jack got up, his hand on where Rhys punched him.
"I wasn't trying to insult her." Jack said, hand up in defense. "I looked a little more into what her surrogate is gonna do to her, and it said 'she's gonna turn into a big, fat cow.' You should be mad at the computer. I was only repeating what it told me."
"All right," Rhys said, more calm. "You got me to stop being mad at you. I'm sorry for breaking my promise and punching you in the face."
"Your forgiven. I'm sorry for not classifying that a computer told me that in the first place."
"Your forgiven. So why did the computer tell you that?"
Jack straitened. "I searched more on Zerrinax pregnancies. The cravings and near constant hunger have them gain stones by the month near the end."
"A stone is fourteen pounds." Rhys said.
"Exactly," Jack said. "The smallest litter of carrying Zerrinax is actually four. Gwen got lucky. The largest is like, twelve."
Rhys looked at Jack with surprise.
"Exactly. The babies grow differently, and effect her. You told me she started getting cravings two days after morning sickness went away, right?"
The shock Rhys was feeling went away as he was pulled back into the conversation.
"Yeah. She ate a whole pizza by herself. Usually she can only down two and a half slices."
"The weight gain for a Zerrinax pregnancy is completely different. While the weight gain maximum for women on Earth is thirty pounds, which every one ignores..." Rhys nodded in agreement. "... With a Zerrinax weight gain, there's a maximum, and a minimum."
Rhys nervously asked "What's the minimum?"
Jack looked nervous, too. "The minimum was for a woman who weighed only 110 pounds before surrogating six Zerrinax, she ballooned up to 270 pounds."
Rhys looked surprised. "But, Gwen's only carrying four, so, she should gain less, right?"
"It varies. The woman who held the minimum only ate vegetables. Those babies had a healthy Zerrinax mother. You see, when a Zerrinax has a human surrogate for them, they make humans pregnant through brainwaves. The traits they get from their Zerrinax mother effect what they end up making the surrogate mother crave. Another woman carried five, she weighed only 115 pounds. She ate her way up to 340 pounds."
Rhys took in this information. Then he started thinking about how this affected Gwen. He put two and two together in only three seconds. Jack looked him in the eye and saw that he had come to a conclusion."
"Reyax wasn't a health nut, was she?" Rhys asked.
"She weighed two hundred and ninety five pounds before she got sick." Jack answered.
Rhys looked at Jack.
"I can't tell Gwen about any of this, can i?" he asked.
"Unless you want to get stabbed in the back by the crazy, hormonal pregnant woman, no you can not." Jack said.
"Well, what do i do?" Rhys asked, hopeful. "Just sit around while my wife stuffs herself until she can't eat anymore? She'll find out eventually, and she'll be upset about it. And probably pissed at us for keeping it a secret from her."
"That's what i thought." Jack said. "So, i searched the Zerrinax pregnancies even further. It turns out, if a human is carrying all girls, then they girls rewrite the human's biochemistry, which alters some chemical balance with her body, and makes the human enjoy and welcome their weight gain and continued growth. If she'd having all girls, then she won't be pissed at us for knowing this stuff and not telling her because she'll be enjoying it and looking forward to it."
Rhys looked at Jack incredulously
"That just might work. All we have to do is hope Gwen's carrying all girls. What are the chances?"
Then Jack realized it.
"Twenty five percent."
They both looked at each other, both their mouths open, and the same conclusion coming to them.
"Well, we're fucked." They both said at the same time.
What they didn't know was, at that moment, Gwen was just finishing eating the pizza and drinking the two liter. She felt full and was considering rubbing her stomach, before she realized she still wouldn't be showing for a while. Then, she felt something in the back of her head. She was confused because it came out of nowhere. Then, she blinked and saw something. She figured out that she could only see it if her eyes were closed. So, she closed her eyes, and say it. Four shapes were showing in the back of her mind. She knew right away they were the surrogate babies she was carrying. She looked a little closed to them, and saw something that made her smile. Then, the shapes disappeared.
Gwen opened her eyes again, surprised because she forgot about the light. She tried looking in her head again, but it didn't work. She concluded she could only see them with her eyes closed when there was that feeling in the back of her head. But she couldn't stop smiling at what she saw. She was bringing four little baby Zerrinax girls onto the planet.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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