“Better?” he asked, stroking my back, making me feel very good indeed.
“Yes, master,” I said, weakly but with a smile.
“What’s going on?’ he asked, hitting the flusher.
I had hoped to wait for a good time to tell him, but there really wasn’t going to be any such time. He could probably already guess, so I might as well tell him.
“I-I think I’m pregnant.”
It was the first time I had said it out loud, the full weight of the situation coming down on me all at once.
“I-I’m going to have our baby,” I said, between the oncoming sobs.
Damien held me and kissed me, drying my tears, which were absolutely tears of joy. He was crying too.
“I’m going to resign from the firm,” I said, when we had both calmed down a bit.
“Why would you do that?” he asked, seeming truly shocked.
“Well, I just figured it might be a bit awkward. The assistant you were in lockdown with, showing up pregnant. Tongues might wag.”
“Tongues are always wagging. I don’t care, and neither do they. I’ve already called the partners and told them about us. They were a bit grumpy, of course, but then I reminded them what an asset I am to the firm. They couldn’t help but agree and grudgingly give their blessing. We can both keep working at the office until you’re due. Then, I’ll switch to home-based, only leaving to go into court for the first few months.”
“Will they go for that?” I asked.
“They don’t really have a choice.”
We kissed passionately, and he took me into his warm embrace, making me feel safe and loved.
Epilogue
Damien
Time. One of humanity’s oddest and most enduring constructs. Sure, the space-time continuum would exist without human life, but it wouldn’t have nearly the same flavor or importance, particularly if there were no way to follow it. What would clocks be without clock-watchers?
There were many people watching their clocks, most with great anticipation. The shelter-in-place order that had come with the outbreak was the largest self-isolation in the western world since the Blitz, when the non-evacuated population of London took to the subways to wait out the Germans before going right back out and rebuilding the city exactly as it was. They didn’t know how long they would be there, either.
It started out a month, then two, then six, the rabble becoming even more roused with each addition of time. Humans could be very strange creatures, creatures of habit to the core, reacting with both fear and anger when those habits, those rituals, acquired over a lifetime, were disrupted, even for a life-saving good cause.
Emma and I were fine. We were safely away in our suite and out by the time the lockdown was lifted, when medical researchers finally found a vaccine that had proven to be effective. There were still limits as everybody got jabbed, since there was still a large section of the population that was potentially infectious. Social distancing was still a thing, but masks became optional.
Emma didn’t show very much in the early stages, keeping the potential office scandal to a minimum. Not that anyone was going to say much about it; everyone who might have been spreading rumors though the building had been firmly on my side for years. If anything, they would try and play it up as a good thing, given that the reputation of the firm, more valuable in their business than a transport truck full of solid gold, was at stake.
The quarantine order was lifted entirely a few months after that, just in time for our daughter to be born into a virus-free world.
“Did we ever choose a name?” I asked, looking down with wonder at the tiny new life.
“I don’t think we did. To be fair, we were somewhat busy,” Emma said.
“Too true,” I agreed.
“I’ve always liked Imogen,” Emma said.
“Imogen LeVay,” I said, trying out the sound. “Could work. Sounds like an impressionist painter, but neither of those are bad things.”
“It would also be hard to make fun of,” Emma said.
“Very true. If I had a dollar for every time some smartass put on a demon voice when saying my name, I would have been a billionaire in high school. I seriously doubt any of them had even seen The Omen. So, not only brats, but cultural ignoramuses as well.”
“What is the world coming to?” Emma asked, shaking her head sadly.
Just then, Imogen, as she would soon officially be named, started to move and fuss, as though to say, “I quite agree, Daddy.” It was nice to have consensus.
There were more than enough rooms at home to put in a nursery. It was a mansion, after all. We had to go straight there after we were given the all-clear to leave the hotel that had been home for so long. I drove up there myself.
Emma just about fainted when she saw it. I couldn’t remember if I had told her I lived in a mansion before we left, but her reaction strongly indicated that I had neglected to impart that particular piece of information.