100 theme challenge 40. DUE DATE

40. DUE DATE.

"AAAAAUGH!"

Chell's body twisted as a flame of pain rushed through her body.
Tears came in her eyes but even when in pain she smiled.
The pain was terrible, but it would go away soon.
And it wasn't a bad pain, even though it hurt like nothing else.
She was pregnant.

She found out a few months after she left Aperture.
She was slowly starting to get used to life outside aperture, got an apartment and a job, even started to make friends.
All the freedom included the freedom to eat cake whenever she wanted so when she started to get fatter she blamed it on that.
After six months the swelling of her body was getting noticeable to the outside world and for some reason she didn't understand back then all the women in the office smiled at her as if they knew more than she did, which they actually did!

Chell tried dieting, didn't eat anything even resembling cake, but it didn't help.
Then she searched the internet to find out what was wrong with her.
It wasn't long before she realized what was happening.

The next thing she looked for was: how did she get pregnant.
All the information she found included a second party and something mysterious called "making love"
This baffled her.
She knew what love was, she loved cake, she loved Wheatley in some strange way and she had an eye on a handsome co-worker for a while who made her flutter every time he smiled or winked at her.
But this "making love" included some actions she never took.
The closest she ever been to a man was shaking a hand.
Then again, the times she 'discovered' alcohol did give her a black-out or two so who knows what happened then.

Of course Chell got in a state of panic when she found out exactly what was happening to her, but after a while she grew fond of the idea.
She was going to have a baby!
The Idea both scared and thrilled her.
What if she couldn't raise it properly?
What if it would suffer some defects from her time in Aperture?
What if it looked like the father, whoever THAT was, and was unbearably ugly?
What if…
Questions that she'll never have answered until the baby was born, but it kept her awake for night after night.

The doctor she went to told her everything was all right, it was a normal pregnancy in his eyes, except for the fact that he was real sceptical about she not remembering who the father was. He did approve of her drunk-at-a-party-pass-out story and, painful as it was, she had not much choice but to believe that was what happened.
But when the doctor started to talk about removing it she almost slapped him.
The nerve, proposing to touch her unborn child!
She was going to have this baby and it was going to be beautiful.

"AAAAAUGH!"
Another contraction; and a big one.
Chell cramped up and tried to remember how to breathe properly, like she learned.
It took her some time, getting quite dizzy at the process, but came out of it fine.
She did get worried now though, perhaps it was time she went to the doctor, of better, to the hospital.
Yes, the hospital was the best idea.
So in between labour pains Chell called the hospital.

"An ambulance will be sent to retrieve you immediately."
"An ambulance? Couldn't I just call a cab?"
"You want to chance delivering your child in a cab by some smelly cabdriver?"
Chell shuddered.
"No thank you, an ambulance sounds good."

Chell had two more contractions before the ambulance arrived, each one worse as the other.
When the two men entered her apartment with a stretcher she couldn't be more happy, even though she thought of it to be a little overdone.
With great care she was placed in the ambulance that sped off right away.

"You okay maäm?"
Chell wiped away a tear.
That last one was a heavy one, and they came more regular.
"I think the baby is coming soon, how far is the hospital?"
"Not far, would you like something against the pain?"
Chell was in doubt for a minute.
She didn't like medicine at all.
But the pain was terrible.
"Yes please."
The nurse nodded and stuck a needle in her arm faster than Chell ever seen.
Within seconds her head started to pound and everything started turning and spinning.
"Wait, what did you…?"
She slid into a deep sleep.

…

When Chell opened her eyes again the first thing she noticed was pain.
Again, it was the pain of labour so she somehow felt good with it.
She just never woke up to it before.
The next thing she noticed was the fact she was in some strange room, a hospital room as she presumed.
Then she noticed something completely different; her wrists and ankles were tied.

"What in the world is going on!" she hissed between her clenched teeth, trying to set her mind off the hurt.
A figure wearing a doctor's coat and a surgeon mask walked to her bed and patted her on the shoulder.
"It's all right Miss Chell; these straps are there to help you deliver the baby more easily."
Chell tugged on the restraints.
"I don't like this! I don't want this! And why did you people drug me? What if the baby is harmed by that? Untie me! NOW!"
Chell screamed that last word.
But the doctor just patted her shoulder again and shook his head.

Chell did do a lot of research on pregnancy and labour.
She knew everything about mood swings and acting illogically during childbirth.
She just never thought she would be like that.

With blind fury Chell snapped at the hand of the doctor and bit it!
She felt sorry immediately, not because she felt remorse, but the hand of the doctor was hard as stone.
And he didn't even seem to notice what she did.
Confused she looked at the now torn latex cloves.
Underneath the latex shone metal.

"Who or what are you! Where am I!"
Chell started to hyperventilate.
"Take it easy Chell, think of your baby!"
"I want to know where I am! I demand that you tell me!"
The doctor stepped back and clearly didn't know what to do.
Then a loud sigh was heard, as if someone was using the intercom.

"I liked you better as a mute. Just so you know."
Chell's heart jumped.
If the voice wasn't such a dead giveaway, the sarcasm would have been.
Suddenly the walls around her bed slid away and Chell looked at an all too familiar sterile room.
She was back at Aperture.

The looming body of GLaDOS hovered over her and the piercing yellow eye was fixed on Chell's face.
"Well, it's good to see you have been taking… good care of you body. At least not starving yourselves to death right?"
Chell clenched her fists.
"It's called pregnancy you moron! Now: what do you want with me?!"
"Subtle as always I see. Very well, I'll tell you. As you without doubt noticed I prepared one last test for you when you left. And I just HAD to see the outcome of the test, like with every test, so I hacked into your phone and sent out for you as soon as time was right. And here you are."

Chell couldn't believe it.
It was GLaDOS!
She didn't got pregnant during a booze-coma, she left Aperture pregnant.
GLaDOS must have found some cold-storage with "samples" and used it on her when she was out cold after her short lunar trip.
She was gonna kill her for that.

But first she had to deliver this baby, and it seemed to be eager to get out because the contractions were following each other faster and faster.
GLaDOS pushed the metal robot that posed as a doctor aside and her claw zoomed in.
"Here, let me help you."
"Stay away from me! Don't you dare to touch me OR my baby!"
Chell struggled to escape from her bonds and her back curved and twisted in the force she used.

"Calm down! I am not going to harm you. The baby will need its parents so it would be a bad thing to kill you. Don't force me to reconsider."
GLaDOS had a wet tissue in her claw and laid it on Chell's forehead.
"There. Now, let's deliver this baby, shall we?"
With an amazing lack of grip she held Chell's hand and started to go through the routine Chell heard the doctor tell here would be necessary.
Bit by bit Chell calmed down and when it became clear the baby was due any minute she completely gave in to GLaDOS' care.

"PUSH! Come one, one more time PUSH! That's it, once more!"
Chell bend and curved her body as much as the restrains let her, crying out in pain, when all of a sudden she felt it happen.
It took three more contractions for the baby to be born, but finally it was over.

Chell looked down, sweating and panting.
She did it; she had put a life on the planet.
"It's a boy." said GLaDOS with a strange tremble in her voice.
With a surprising gentleness she tapped the baby on the little buttocks until it started to wail.
GLaDOS looked Chell straight into the eyes.
"Congratulations, you did very well."

Chell smiled and watched GLaDOS wrap a blanket around the little boy before giving it to her.
She cradled it and felt happier than ever.
The baby cried for a little bit, then found its thumb and started to suck it.
Tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Hi there little miracle. Mommy is so happy to see you. Look at you, you're so beautiful."
The baby opened one eye a little bit and Chell saw they were very light brown.
Almost yellow.

"One more thing to do, this might hurt a bit."
GLaDOS had taken the umbilical cord and held a small but sharp knife.
With a swift move she cut it and Chell stared at it in disbelieve and horror.
It wasn't the fact GLaDOS used the knife.
It wasn't the couple drops of blood that were spilled.

It was the fact that the umbilical cord sprayed electrical sparks.