Humans: Book IV

VI

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His room is full of light. It smells sweet and organic like dirt after rain. The smell comes in through the open window, blowing the curtains like flags, white flags of surrender. White flags of peace. Bo is propped up in his bed.

"__." His cough is rough and calloused. "What a beautiful surprise this morning. How are you doing?" Bo smiles at me and adjusts something on his special hearing aid. The black lens of his glasses glisten like a piano.

"I should be asking you that," I reply, dipping into the edge of his bed.

"Oh you know. Typical old people stuff. Things breaking down and falling apart." He ends the sentence with another cough. His complexion is pale.

"Sorry Peter couldn't make it. He really wanted to come but he was needed for a mission so..."

"So you ditched him and forced him to stay, huh?" I sheepishly grin.

"You know me too well, Bo."

He clears his throat and mindlessly rubs his cheek, "Well you'll have to tell him goodbye for me then, I guess." Everything comes to a stop. The curtains still. I can feel my pulse in the back of my throat.

"What...what do you mean goodbye?"

A long breath sucks into his mouth. He waits until the air has time to soak all the way in and blow back out. Then he tells me, "I wanted to tell you myself. And in person. Things aren't looking too good for me."

I shake my head and try to keep the tears in, "I don't understand. I thought...you get seizures all the time. You should be fine."

He brushes my hand, "But I'm not fine, Firefly. Time's coming to an end for me."

I stand up from the bed, beginning to pace the room. My teeth begin chewing on my bottom lip as I watch the floor, "I could do some energy transfers. I'll have to space them out but I could do it. I'll drive down here once a month and—"

"Woah. Slow down there." I stop pacing. "Do a couple of things for me right now. Come back here. Take a seat and a breath. And stop chewing that lip of yours up to shreds. I don't need eyesight to know you're probably bleeding already."

I can feel a metallic taste on my lip. I promptly release it from my bite and sit back down, letting a couple of tears roll out now.

"You listen to me, alright? You keep your energy where it belongs. Don't go wasting it on some bum who already went and lived his life. You gotta keep that for yourself now, you hear me?"

I somehow find the will to laugh and wipe a tear away, "Bo, you're not some bum."

"But my life is lived. And it was lovely. And I want to thank you for helping to make it that way." Just when I think the tears have slowed they come back in full force. I sniffle to try to get some oxygen in my lungs.

"Quit saying things like that. You're making me cry a river over here," I say. He laughs. A couple of tears escape the lens of his glasses too.

I feel a surge of energy swirl around in my stomach.

"Oh. Bo?" I scooch a bit closer to him, "There's something I need to tell you."

He lies back onto his pillow, contentment strung across his face in a light smile, "Mmhm. What's that?"

"I'm pregnant."

Bo lets out the deepest and most wholesome laugh I've ever heard. A laugh full of so much happiness. A lifetime of happiness. "Well congratulations, my dear. To you and Peter both."

"I'm not far along but...do you want to feel?"

"That would just be lovely now, wouldn't it?" I take his hand and guide it to my stomach. My whole entire abdomen glows in radiant response, like whoever's in there knows Bo well and is ecstatic to feel him. Bo can't see the  light but I know he feels the energy too. The energy of my child, the energy of love incarnate.

And that was the last moment I had with him. The last moment I had with Bo was introducing him to what we have created. Letting him feel the pure and untouched beginning of life before he met the weathered and restful end. But I suspect the two are not too far apart from each other.

And I cling to the last words Bo said to me. I cling to them like a promise I will keep for the rest of my life. He told me, with the most beautiful and knowing grin plastered across his face...

"That's going to be the happiest kid in the whole world."

Chapter Dedications:

Thank you to eilahatake27 for the amazing fan art 💕🌟

"I've always thought the superhero name Genesis was cool. My fascination with the metaphysical definitely inspired this concept, as the character can control/influence spirit energy..."
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