All Chapters of ALPHA DOM AND HIS HUMAN SURROGATE: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I am thirty-two weeks pregnant.Dominic points this out within thirty seconds of reading the text exchange over my shoulder, which is the appropriate response and also the one I was already having with myself before he said it."I know," I say."Albuquerque is a two-hour flight," he says."I know," I say."Dr. Vega would need to clear it," he says."I know," I say again. He looks at me knowing that I won't change my mind."You're going," he says."Not immediately," I say. "But yes."He is quiet for a moment.Then he casually picks up his phone."I'll look at flights for next weekend," he says. "If Vega clears it."I look at him."You're coming," I say."Of course I'm coming," he says, with the specific expression of someone who finds the question slightly baffling as if that was a question I shouldn't I have. Maybe it is. I text Paz."Next weekend if I can get medical clearance. Is that workable?"Her response is immediate."I'll be here. I'm not moving from Albuquerque until you se

I send Pren the photographs that night.All of them. The declaration. The box. The photograph of the Mira Seca community in 1923. A brief explanatory note in plain language: what it is, where it was found, what it means legally.I don't editorialize. The document speaks for itself. A 1923 community declaration stating formal rights that predate any Conclave acknowledgment or denial by decades. Not a petition and not a request. A prior claim.Pren responds at six in the morning Edinburgh time.One line."This changes the session significantly. I'm convening the senior members today."I put my phone down and look at the ceiling of Elena's guest room.Dominic is asleep beside me. His breathing is even. I keep staring at his chest heaving. I could slightly see a bit of skin from the upper missed button of his nightie and a part of me was hoping more was exposed. I stare at how peaceful he looked while sleeping. He has the ability to sleep through significant situations that I have always

We fly back to Chicago on Sunday evening.The flight is quiet. I'm thirty-three weeks and the seat is less comfortable than the flight out. Dominic has reconfigured his bag under my feet again and is reading something and has his hand on the armrest where I can reach it if I want to, which I do, which I do without thinking about it now, which is how I know something has fully changed.I used to think about reaching for things, for him. Now I just reach.I lay back comfortably to adjust myself with the weight.We land at nine. The Chicago cold is different from New Mexico in the way that cold with humidity is different from cold without it. I feel it the moment we step outside and I think: home. My body recognizing it.The apartment is dark when we arrive. All lights off.We turn on the kitchen light first. Always the kitchen.I stand at the counter and drink water and look at the photograph on the refrigerator. Me and Petra and my mother at Navy Pier. The summer before she died. All

The drive to the hospital took about twelve minutes. Dominic drives with both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road and says nothing, which is exactly right. He has been preparing for this the way he prepares for everything that matters. Not anxiously. With the focused calm of someone who has run the scenario enough times in his head that the actual event has somewhere to land. I watch the city go past us. Chicago at eleven at night has this kind of serenity that I loved about it. The lights and the movement and the particular energy of a city that doesn't fully sleep. I've driven through this city at this hour for twelve years. It looks the same. Everything is completely different. The pressure is consistent and low and undeniable. Coming intermittently. Not what the books describe as painful yet. The books will be proven right eventually. For now it is the specific physical certainty of something that has made its decision and is proceeding accordingly. Lucia, who gathere

February twelfth arrives at four in the morning Chicago time.I am already awake.Lucia is well fed and settled in the small bassinet beside the bed. She sleeps with the complete commitment of someone who has decided that sleep is worth doing properly. Without no stress in the world. Her face in the dark is the most precious thing I have ever looked at.Dominic is awake beside me. With his gruffy hair, signs of beards and the sleepy eyes, I wonder how he still manage to look so handsome.We don't speak. We lie in the dark and we wait for the group chat to tell us the delegation is in the building.At four-oh-seven Margot texts."We're here. Outside the Conclave chamber. Ready."Then Adaeze: "Room energy is different from what I expected.""How?" I text."Expectant," she says. "Like it's waiting."I look at the ceiling.A room that has been waiting.Since 1847.At four-fifteen the five of them go in.I know this because the group chat goes quiet, which is its own kind of signal. Phone