Second Chances (69 page)

“Here, let me take her,” Janet murmured, holding out a hand. Tina smiled and passed the baby to her mother, then elbowed Doc. She took the scissors when Doc looked up. “I'll do it,” she said sweetly, cutting between the two cords. They saved the umbilical and placenta for the rich source of stem cells then cauterized the umbilical.

When mother and daughter were settled Tina chased Doc back to bed. “We can take it from here, shoo,” she said, physically pushing her out the door.

“I'm only letting you get away...” Sandra yawned. “...with this because I want to get off the clown shoes I call feet,” she said. She yawned again.

“Sure, sure, Doc,” Tina snorted. “Now get. Go play with your hubby or something.”

“Right,” Doc said, stretching and then rubbing the small of her back. She got an idea and smiled. If she had to be up, so could he. And he could give her a rubdown while he was at it. She left the infirmary with a smile.

------*------

When they had decided to stay the mountain expedition radioed back their location and the good news. “It's perfect. It's got a nice flat spot for the airstrip nearby, plenty of rocks for gravel and stuff, cliffs on two sides to form a natural wall; we're good. We've got some shallow caves and a lot of rock nearby too,” April reported. “I think we can form a castle fortress here with enough equipment,” April reported excitedly. The reporter had decided to tag along with the second crew that had gone up the mountain. She'd hitched a ride with Sam, then caught up with the scouts on the mountain, surprising and scandalizing when they found out the impish red head had braved the climb on her own. She had attached herself to the new community as their local radio person and reporter. Apparently the gunny had signed off on it.

“That's good to hear,” Pete said, making a note. He was glad April was out of his hair. He liked her. He'd had a bit of a crush on her briefly, but she had been cold to him treating him like he was some kind of kid. That had destroyed his ego for a couple days before Jolie had dragged him out of his moping and self-pity. Now he just wanted the red head out of his eye sight so he wouldn't feel embarrassed every time she came into the room.

“There is some sulfur, big patches of yellow further up the mountain. This must be an extinct volcano,” April reported. “We've got plenty of timber, and I think we found deposits of copper sulfide and baking soda near the hot springs. Doctor Oshiwa is going to test samples later tonight.”

“Hot springs?” Jolie asked, looking up from her tablet. She grinned. “Too cool! Spa!”

“Well, maybe later,” April said with a snort. There was a bit of a self-satisfied grin in her voice. She liked the idea of being one up on the soft people in the base. “We're going to need it; we've got a lot of work to do Gunny said. He and the chief want a wood palisade up. We've got it all staked out; we're working on cutting trees for a fire break? No?” They could hear her talking with someone near her. “Oh, no, fire lanes, whatever,” she said crossly.

Pete nodded. He remembered the chief's lecture on clear fields of fire and staking out on the high ground to get a commanding presence on any potential battlefield. It was the most defensible position. With rocks and timber around they had plenty of material on hand to expand on their village's defenses.

“Sounds good,” he replied back, making a note. From what he understood of what she said, the plan was for that village to mine sulfur, cut trees and mine baking soda and copper from the nearby hot springs for trade with the other communities. They were also going to hunt and fish locally. The baking soda would be stockpiled by all communities to protect against the leviathan's acid slime he thought grimly. That was far more important than baking or any other thing the stuff could be used for. No wonder Mitch and the others were going along with the project.

------*------

Sandra filled out, swelling up to what she described as hippo size. Mitch worriedly hovered so much it got on Sandra's nerves. “Look, I'm not made of glass,” she said testily to him as he stood in the doorway to the infirmary. “I appreciate the help, honest I do honey, but go do something. You can't tell me the base doesn't need work!”

“Hang the base. This is more important.
You
are more important,” he said petulantly.

She caught his face and kissed him, then pushed him away. “Thanks for that. Now scoot,” she said firmly. He turned uncertainly. “Get!” She smacked him on the fanny, grinning devilishly at him. He dodged another smack and then sighed, shaking his head. He put his hands up and then walked out.

Sandra went into labor while Mitch was out and about a few days later. She briefly thought about the perverse luck as the contractions hit her. “God, I forgot about this part,” she groaned as Cassie helped her walk.

Mitch got the news from Pete over the radio and raced home. He arrived just as the baby crowned. He washed up and then held Sandra's hand. “Cheater! You missed the hard part,” she said, panting as Tina instructed, in short breaths between bearing down.

“But I didn't miss the best part,” he murmured, watching her eyelids droop with exhaustion. He got her a drink of juice holding the straw so she could sip. Cassie took the honor of tying off and cutting the umbilical cord, then helping with the afterbirth. Tina grinned as she cleaned the baby's mouth and nose out, then cleaned him up. “Well! I finally got to deliver a kid. Thanks for that. It's a boy by the way,” she said, swaddling the boy then handing him off to Cassie gingerly. Dora looked up with a pout.

“You'll get your turn,” Tina said, shaking her head in amusement.

Cassie took the baby smiling down at her little brother as she passed him to his mother.

“A boy?” Mitch said, surprised. He looked at Sandra. She smiled, stroking the baby's face. A tiny hand wrapped around her finger. She nuzzled the child's lock of brown hair.

------*------

Mid-spring Sam's road crews finished the initial rough-cut dirt and gravel road from Copper Town to the base of the mountain where the new mountain village was going to be situated on. They took a day off at the base of the mountain to hunt and fish then worked their way up the mountain. When they got to the reasonably flat plateau the chief had picked out, they used the small dozer to level the surrounding area, cut a trench for the moat, then leveled and set up an airstrip. While they were doing that, the chief's crew cut down timber and set up the initial defensive palisade as well as for the lumber they would use later for the buildings.

Angie and Jamal staged the long range drone through Copper Town and then nervously landed it at the Mountain Village. From there they sent the drone out to search for any other communities in the area. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything in range of the drone other than the Swedish Mountain Village.

“I still can't get over that,” Brian said, after the base's department heads received Angie's disappointed report. “I'm not talking about coming up dry; I mean finding one community so close,” he said shaking his head.

“What, Copper?”

“No, the other one! The Sweds!” Brian said, sounding disgusted. “They are closer to us than Iron Village, and we didn't even know it! Right along where the Amazon Village was, the same...latitude? Longitude? I keep getting those mixed up.”

“Latitude,” Anne said. “Long for long,” she said indicating height. “Lat for...” she made a horizontal chopping motion with her hand.

Brian frowned but then nodded. “Okay, you say so,” he grumbled, clearly ready to move on in the conversation. “Phyllis is still on Sam's and my butt about working on a better road so we can trade with them. Pete's been talking to them over the radio; apparently they only talk at night when they are done working for the day. They've got some hot springs and other stuff in the area. Minerals and some stuff,” he said with a shrug.

“Good for them,” Mitch said. The Swedish and Fin community were probably the best suited for the climate, at least in the winter. Maybe the people from Iceland would handle it better, but he doubted it. He wasn't even sure if any from Iceland survived. He shook his head. “Moving on...”

“Um, yeah,” Anne said. “Chief Roberts and Gunny are both staying on at the Mountain Village. Tina's going to head over there after Doc has her baby.” Sandra grimaced but then nodded.

“Technically, I could fly in Nicole; she's willing,” Sandra said, “but Tina offered. I know the chief has had some accidents building the new village but fortunately nothing major. And they've got the airstrip functional now so Jamal can fly in and out if needed.”

“True,” Mitch said.

“I do have some...interesting news,” Anne said. “Jeana Chase has finally made up her mind; she wants to go. She says she's gotten over her problems with meat. I think she's chasing the gunny.”

Sandra snorted. “Good luck with that. What happened to chasing Jean?”

Anne shrugged. “They had a really bad spat and haven't been talking much.”

“Oh.”

“Jeana's been working with Hejira,” Anne said, indicating the botanist who was attending virtually from one of the greenhouses. The woman looked up when her name was mentioned. “She's supposed to oversee the greenhouses and farms there,” Anne amplified. Hejira nodded.

“I don't know how well they will do. I understand the chief and gunny are going to emphasize hunting and fishing there and rely on us for the rest of their food,” she said, “in trade.”

Mitch nodded. That made sense, although he'd like to see every community self-sufficient. “Who is going to be the domestic manager?”

“Regina Chastity finally got talked into the job after she gave up trying to get me to go,” Anne said with a grimace. Mitch snorted. Regina was a fire cracker, or so she thought. She'd tried to dislodge Anne from her position as domestic manager. Mitch figured out right off that she was playing up to him and generally tried to avoid her. Anne made it clear. She wasn't going anywhere, and Mitch's avoidance made it harder for the woman to show up the old guard and unseat her. Apparently the woman had given up the effort and decided to start fresh.

“Good for her,” Sandra said diplomatically. “More power to her and all that,” she said softly, breastfeeding her son.

“Good riddance you mean,” Janet said, smiling slightly. “We're doing okay for food, though I think we're going to need more meat soon. Cassie and the teens want to have a party, something about Sara and Angie's birthday. They want a bonfire. I don't see any harm with it as long as they play it safe...”

------*------

The next evening the teen birthday bash started timidly but then wound up as the night fell and the bugs came out. The teens had a bonfire going and dancing. Mitch shook his head, amused by the antics. His amusement ended when Sandra surprised him by dragging him out to the field to dance as well. She grinned at him and seemed to have a ball dancing. He just went with it, letting her work herself up until her daughter came over and pushed them away. “Mom, I love you but you are crimping our space. Go play someplace else,” she said, pushing them back the way they came.

Mitch chuckled as his wife leveled a dirty look on her daughter. “Mom!” Cassie said, stamping her foot. She put one fist on her hip and then imperiously pointed for them to go.

Sandra pouted but Mitch pulled her away, chuckling. “Spoil sport,” Sandra grumbled.

“Someone's in a mood,” he teased. “Where is Tucker?”

“Ester has him for a little while,” Sandra said. “I just wanted to get out. I needed to exercise,” she said, clearly still in the mood to pout.

“Well, if it's exercise that you wanted,” he teased, leering.

“Down boy. Doctor’s orders, no sex for six weeks,” Sandra mock growled.

“You say that now. But I happen to know the doctor. And I know she can be convinced to...change her mind,” he teased, gently kissing the side of her neck.

“Oh, don't you dare,” she said, voice dropping as her hands entangled in his shirt. “Don't get me started,” she sighed.

“I thought you were already started,” he teased, kissing her ear.

She smiled, turning to wrap his arms around her to fend off the chill in the night air. “Not hardly. I can go all night dancing and partying,” she said.

“Well, we can find...” he oofed as she elbowed him. He chuckled, rubbing his side.

“I said quit it. Don't make promises I can't keep,” she said, dimpling. “I'll deal with you...properly later,” she said.

He chuckled, nuzzling her hair with his forehead as his hands stroked her now flattened tummy. She grabbed the wandering hands and stopped him. “Later,” she growled. “Behave,” she ordered.

“Now who's being the spoil sport?” he teased. She snorted. She turned back to see the fire shooting off sparks from the green wood someone tossed onto the pile. It also threw up a lot of smoke. She shook her head as Mitch gently pulled her inside. “Let them have their moment in time honey. There will be other times, other parties. More chances for me to trod on your tootsies,” he teased.

“Gee, lucky me,” she said, hip bumping him as they entered the great room. “Just don't complain about the kids and the noise level,” she said as the door shut.

He smiled as the sound dropped to a muffled beat. “The good news is with this place and where our room is we don't have to worry about that,” he said.