Falling Skies Invasion Alone

Newborn Accusations

The Mason's were playing Monopoly. Well, they were before half of them fell asleep. Hal and Matt zonked out about eight hours after Anne's water broke, along with Maggie. Anne and I were snoozing before the contractions went into full swing. Tom was wavering, but Ben was going strong obviously.

Although Lourdes was going to be delivering, there was a long wait usually between waters breaking and birth, so she left to tend to other patients and I was stationed beside Anne, ordered not to leave. I had started failing a little about half an hour after Anne fell asleep, so I figured as long as Ben was still awake, I could nap a little before things really started happening.

My elbow was resting on the table that usually would have been over the bed, but Anne's expanded belly didn't allow for that. I had propped my head up on my hand, sleeping but just lightly, I could still hear Tom and Ben's soft conversations, at first just about history. When I had fallen asleep, Ben was reading a history book that Tom had gifted him. Ben didn't have any huge interest in history, but he read the books to have something to talk to his dad about, something to connect over.

"So how come you're not tired?" Tom's voice wobbled as he yawned half way through the sentence.

"I don't really get tired."

"But you sleep."

"Yeah, but I only really sleep when Cassie's with me." Ben stated. At the sound of my name, I focussed on what he was saying more, but I was still kind of fading in and out. "Like, I get tired to some extent, but I can power through it, because normally I would have nightmares. But with Cassie, I don't know."

"You don't get them?" Tom questioned puzzled. I waited for Ben to reply, but he was quiet for a moment, either thinking or he had rumbled that I was listening. He hadn't.

"I get a lot less of them." Another pause. "And when I do get them, they're easier to deal with. I might wake up during them...and she'll just be there with me, and it'll feel better. Or she'll wake me out of them, and when I fall back asleep, they'll be gone. And it works for her too. I think. She doesn't seem to be having as bad nightmares. Or I'll feel her moving about and she'll be having a bad dream and then when she wakes up, she's panicked and I can sit up with her for a little bit...and I realised you didn't actually ask me any of that stuff." I heard Ben laugh, chuckle slightly embarrassed.

My heart fluttered hearing him talk about me. I'm sure he heard me talk about him a lot because of his incredible hearing, but he wasn't as easy to sneak up on.

"No, kiddo. It's nice to hear you happy." Tom said softly. "I can see how grown up you are, how well suited you are with each other."

In my head, I guessed Ben was doing his slow nod, the one he did whenever he didn't know what to say. And the silence that followed made me assume Ben had gone back to his book and Tom had fallen asleep. I tried to nod off again, but I was definitely awake, so I conceded and blinked my eyes open, pulling my head up, straightening my stiff neck.

"Hey, sleepy head." Ben greeted me quietly. I just made a soft noise before stretching. I slumped back down and widened my eyes.

"Did I miss anything?" I pushed my chair back and stood up. Ben shook his head and watched me take Anne's pulse and put my hands on her bump without her even stirring.

Satisfied she was okay, I shuffled around the bed and went towards Ben, who had moved his book away from his lap and reached a hand out for mine. He pulled me onto his lap, letting me drape an arm around his neck.

"Why do you have a holey knee?" I pressed the tip of my finger through the hole in his jeans to his bare knee.

He shrugged. "Hazard of war."