Worlds Apart Pt. 02

"You can pick them up," Jamie suggested. "They're not fragile."

His dad reached down and rubbed Daz's head, petting her like a cat, the baby settling in his lap. The children were fascinated by the newcomers. They hadn't met any other people yet, save for the scientists who came to check up on them every week or two. Jamie could see that his mother was already completely won over. He couldn't remember ever seeing her this happy.

"You two have done such an amazing job," she said, waving a rattle for Hazel. The baby watched it intently with her brown eyes, her fuzzy, round ears tracking it. "I can't believe how small they are! To think that they'll grow up to be as big as Liz one day."

"They're really...part human?" his father asked as he stroked Daz. Jamie could sympathize. They looked a lot more like big cats than Liz did due to their fur, and seeing them before they were able to walk and talk, it might be hard to accept that they were his grandchildren.

"They were based on my genome," Liz replied, leaning over the fence to scoop up Toza. "The Jarilans added what human DNA they could to the mix. Check it out, Hazel has your hair and eye color. Toza has Jamie's eyes," she added, holding the kitten beneath the armpits as he wriggled around so that Jamie's father could get a look.

"Jarilans?" he asked. "What's that?"

"It's a long story," Jamie replied. "We'll talk about it over dinner."

***

"You're looking well," Jamie's mother said, pausing to take another bite of her roast pork. They were eating a rack of ribs with garlic stuffing, along with all the sides that one would expect. Roast potatoes and parsnips, a corn and tomato coleslaw with plenty of butter, and some cornbread. Liz had outdone herself, as usual. She had gotten a lot of practice on the Magellan.

"Thank you," Liz replied over her mountain of food. "The pregnancy wasn't too difficult, at least until I was in the delivery room."

"I can't imagine giving birth to five children," Jamie's mother chuckled, stirring her salad with her fork pensively. "One was enough for me. I had terrible morning sickness the whole time I was pregnant with Jamie. There was scarcely a day during those nine months when I didn't wake up and go straight to the bathroom. It was awful."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Liz said. "The worst part for me so far has been the biting."

"Oh lord, with those sharp teeth?" Jamie's mother replied. "I can imagine."

"Fortunately, they won't have come in completely until they're done breastfeeding," she added. "Then they can start chewing on solid foods instead of on me."

"I never imagined that someone from our family would ever go into space," Jamie's father mused as he prodded at his pork. The story about Jarilo and what they had seen there was a lot to take in, and he was still reeling from the flood of information. "Giant sentient insects, genetic engineering, card-playing alligators. And here we are, eating a roast dinner like everything's normal."

Jamie didn't really know how to respond. His father didn't disapprove of Jamie's relationship with Liz, but he was overwhelmed. It was all so new to him. He had spent his entire life on Earth, knowing that a Galaxy existed outside of it but never feeling its effects. The war against the Betelgeusians had never reached Sol, and there were so few aliens on Earth that Liz and her parents were the only ones he had ever met in person. Now, he had hybrid grandchildren who were the product of a science experiment. Perhaps the best way to reach him was to focus on things that he knew, to draw comparisons with the familiar.

"You remember how cute Liz was when she was a kid, dad?" Jamie asked. His father looked up from his plate, nodding his head. "The kittens are all going to look exactly like she did in a couple of years. They'll be walking and talking just like any other kid, they'll go to school, they'll have birthday parties. We had the opportunity to stay on Jarilo, and we also considered taking them to Borealis, but we decided to raise them on Earth. We both agreed that this is the best environment for them."

"I credit Earth for my not being completely feral," Liz replied, eliciting a chuckle from his mother.

"Liz, you were always such a studious girl," she said as she helped herself to another serving of cornbread. "So quiet and well-behaved. You work at an embassy, I can't imagine you misbehaving."

"Well, you haven't met my siblings," Liz joked. "I want the kids to have a lot of human cultural influence. We'll raise them here, Earth will be their foundation, then they can visit Borealis and explore their other side when they're ready."

"As your parents did with you?" Jamie's mother asked.

"Not quite as...jarring as that," Liz said. "But, I think I'm a more well-rounded person for knowing my roots, yes."

"It's nice seeing you two again," his mother added. "We don't visit as often as we should. Maybe...now that the kittens have been born, we can start seeing more of each other?"

Liz spared Jamie a glance across the dining table. She was deferring to him, this was his decision to make. His mother seemed eager to reconnect with him. She had grandchildren now, and she had more in common with Liz as a mother. His father, on the other hand, was still distant. He didn't understand what Jamie and Liz had been through to make all this possible, and he didn't want to, just like before...

Families rarely drifted apart by consensus. Few people ever expressly told their parents that they were no longer welcome in their home, but it was implied in all the invitations to Christmas gatherings that never came, alluded to in the lack of calls or well-wishes on important occasions. Communication slowly ceased, and although nobody had said it aloud, everyone knew where they stood. Letting them back in worked much the same way. There would be no declaration, only tacit permission, the extending of an olive branch.

His mother was willing to make that first step, but his father wasn't. Maybe a more direct approach was required.

"That could be nice," he replied, dodging the question for now. "Hey, Dad," he continued. His father looked up from his meal. "We haven't caught up in a while, have we? What say you and me go for a walk after dinner? Liz and Mom can watch the kittens."

"Oh," he grumbled, glancing at his wife. "Sure."

***

Night had fallen, and the cool air blew Jamie's hair as he made his way down the paved footpath, his father at his side. They were in the nearby park, the trees that surrounded them serving to block out some of the glow from the city, a little island of relative darkness in the metropolis. It was a cold night, and he had wrapped up in a coat and scarf just like his father.

Jamie led him to a small footbridge that crossed an artificial stream, leaning on the metal railing as he watched the murky water flow beneath them.

"I get that it's a lot to take in," Jamie began.

"That's an understatement," his father replied. "I never expected you and Liz to...I mean, I didn't think the option was there."

"Neither did we," Jamie chuckled. "Everyone we asked told us it wasn't possible, but there's stuff out there that I never imagined. You wouldn't believe the things I've seen. Did I tell you about the giant organic battlesuit that had been converted into a potato-planting machine?"

"You did," his father replied.

"You just...don't seem all that interested," Jamie said with a shrug.

"It's not very easy for me to picture," he added. "Your mother was always the one with the vibrant imagination."

"What did you think of the kids?" Jamie asked. The corner of his father's mouth twitched upward, finally giving him a positive reaction. Even his dad's stubbornness couldn't keep out the kittens. Their powers of cuteness were too powerful.

"They're adorable, of course. I will admit, it's a little jarring that they don't look like you."

"That's because of the way the gene-editing method works," Jamie explained. "Liz's genome is the blueprint, then they added as many of my genes as they reasonably could. It meant that she could carry them and deliver them without any complications, that they'd be able to have children of their own one day, that they wouldn't be freakish cat-people. You should have seen the Jarilan organ they used to sequence the genome. It looked like someone had cut open a cow and put its stomach on a-"

"I don't need the gory details, Jamie."

They stood in silence for a couple of minutes, watching the stream burble. Jamie could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. He knew what he wanted to say, and he suspected that his father sensed what was coming. He just needed to muster enough courage to get the ball rolling.

"Dad," he began. "When Liz left, it sent me to a really low place. I needed you and Mom, I needed your support, and you didn't give it to me. Rather than confront the problem, you just tried to shame me into not expressing my grief, like I was wrong to be depressed. You tried to make me sweep my emotions under the rug because it was more convenient for you than having me be sad. You tried to diminish what I had with Liz, convince me that it wasn't real. It was fucked up."

"Your mother and I have always supported you," his father replied, making no attempt to mask his outrage. "We put a roof over your head and food on your table, we never once laid a hand on you. How dare you suggest-"

"No, Dad," Jamie interrupted with a shake of his head. "That isn't supporting someone, and I'm tired of you holding that over my head like it's some grand act of charity and not something that only the most dysfunctional parents don't do for their kids. You didn't beat me with a belt, and you didn't send me to an orphanage either, but those things aren't support."

"Why don't you enlighten me?" his father demanded, crossing his arms defensively.

"Support means making a home where people feel safe confiding in you," Jamie replied, leaning back against the railing as he turned to glare at him. "Support is not being ridiculed or berated when you seek comfort or advice from your parents. It's not being told to man up and get over it when something knocks you off the tracks. When someone stumbles, you help them up, you don't chastise them for losing their footing."

"Do you think I hate you?" his father asked, more stern than apologetic.

"Dad..."

"No, come on. If we're airing all our dirty laundry, tell me -- do you think I did those things because I secretly hated you? Let me tell you what I saw," he said, jabbing an accusing finger at Jamie. "I saw a son who I was proud of, who was successful and happy, throwing his life away over a girl. I watched your grades slip, I watched you mope around the apartment, wasting away over something that you had no control over."

Jamie began to speak, but his father cut him off.

"You're not the first person who has ever been in love, Jamie. Do you think that your mother was the first girl who ever returned my calls? We fall in love, we break up, we move on. But you weren't moving on. It was the most formative and crucial stage of your young life. You should have been getting out there, meeting new people, forming new relationships. Instead, you were firmly stuck in the past, fixated on a girl who you'd likely never see again."

"I did see her again," Jamie replied.

"You had no way of knowing that at the time!" his father scoffed. "When you got that temp job, I thought that maybe things were turning around, until I found out that you'd blown months of your wages on sending a message that might never even reach her! That's not a grand gesture of love, Jamie, that's foolishness. You had a bright future ahead of you, you could have become a professional athlete, but you settled for a job at a supermarket instead."

"So what?" Jamie snapped. "I'm happy. Why does anything else matter? I have Liz, I have a family now, who cares what kind of job I have? What fucking good would a gold medal or a diploma do me if I'm miserable?"

"I did what I thought was best for you at the time," his father replied, shrugging his shoulders in exasperation. "I don't have a crystal ball. What do you want from me?"

There were a few moments of awkward silence, then Jamie spoke up.

"Listen, Dad...I know that you and Mom love me. I appreciate all the things you've done for me, all the support you gave me, even with everything that happened. I like who I became, and you raised me. You helped make me who I am today. But, I have kids of my own now. Mom wants to be a part of their life, and I want them to know their grandparents. It's so important for them. It's their connection to their heritage, to Earth. If that's going to happen, you and me, we have to resolve our issues. One of two things is going to happen when we head back to the apartment. Either you're going to be a grandfather to my kids...or you're not."

"Is that an ultimatum?"

"I guess it is," Jamie muttered.

"Maybe we could have done some things differently," his father conceded as he slotted his hands into the pockets of his coat. "You were always such a happy kid, we weren't prepared to deal with you after Liz left. One thing you're going to realize about being a parent is that you don't have a game plan written down. There's no checklist to follow, no website where you can look up a solution. You just have to learn and adjust as you go, do your best, even if you don't really know what you're doing. For what it's worth, I'd change things if I could."

For the first time, his father was showing regret, humility. He had finally made a genuine effort to understand Jamie's perspective, and that was all he needed.

"You already have," Jamie replied. He reached out and pulled his father into a hug, patting his back through his heavy coat. "We can't change the past, but we can change the future, right?"

"Right," his father replied, returning the embrace.

***

"You two were gone a while," Liz said as Jamie and his father stepped into the apartment. He took off his coat, hanging it on the rack by the door. "Good talk?"

"Good talk," Jamie replied with a smile.

Liz and his mother were inside the pen, playing with the kittens. Two of them had fallen asleep in his mother's lap, and she couldn't take her eyes off them, grinning from ear to ear as they lay curled up together.

"It's getting late," Jamie continued. "Looks like the kittens are tuckered out. We should probably call it a night and put them to bed."

"I'm afraid to move," his mother chuckled. "I don't want to disturb them."

Liz carefully lifted them out of her lap, placing them on the foam padding, where they wriggled for a moment before settling again. She then took his mother's hand and helped her to her feet, the two of them making their way out of the pen.

"Thank you for a lovely dinner," his mother said as Jamie's father helped her with her coat. "Will we be seeing you again soon?"

That wasn't the real question. What she was really asking was whether Jamie and his father had made their peace, if they would be allowed to be grandparents.

"Very soon," Jamie replied, leaning in to give her a hug. "The kittens have your scent now, they'll miss you if you stay away for too long."

His mother laughed, unsure of whether he was joking or not, but he could see how overjoyed she was. They saw his parents off, then Jamie collapsed onto the couch, Liz hovering over the backrest.

"What happened?" she asked in disbelief. "When you and your dad went off alone, I half expected one of you to come back with a black eye."

"We just...talked it out," Jamie replied with a shrug. "I started talking, and once the floodgates were open, it kind of just all came rushing out. I said some things, he said some things, and we ended up coming to an understanding. He didn't exactly apologize, not in so many words, but tonight is the first time I ever felt like he really tried to understand me."

"That's...a lot of progress in one night," Liz marveled. "I honestly didn't know how tonight was going to end, but I'm glad you want your parents to be part of your life again."

"I feel a little foolish," he added with a chuckle, Liz cocking her head. "I could have talked to him at any point in the last few years, and maybe the outcome would have been the same. I don't know why I waited this long."

"It all worked out, so don't sweat it," she said as she reached down to pat his shoulder. "It isn't easy to bring up subjects like that, especially after being out of touch for so long."

"Now we just have to clean all that up," he added as he nodded to the piles of dirty dishes that were sitting on the dining table.

CHAPTER 12: SELECTIVE FEEDING

Jamie finished drying the last of the pots, wiping his brow. It had taken them a good hour to clear everything away, as many of the larger pans and serving dishes couldn't fit inside the dishwasher and had to be cleaned by hand. Jamie always offered to do any washing up or cleaning himself, as he knew that Liz hated getting foul-smelling leftovers or harsh soaps on her fur. She tended to favor housework, things like dusting and mopping that didn't require handling any caustic chemicals. He had offered to wash the pots, and she had taken on the task of watching the kittens. It was nice when household chores naturally fell into place.

As he struggled to slide off his elbow-length gloves, he felt her presence behind him, Jamie leaning back into the soft cushion of her bosom as she placed her hands on his shoulders.

"I'm finishing up," he said, tossing the gloves into the sink. "How are the kids?"

"Sleepy," she replied with a chuckle. "They had a big day today, new people to play with, lots of excitement."

"We should probably get them into the crib," Jamie continued, but Liz held him still as he tried to move away from the counter. She pushed her nose into his hair, taking in his scent, giving his shoulders a gentle squeeze.

"Don't be so hasty," she whispered. "They're all asleep in the playpen, they'll be quiet for a little while."

The implication wasn't lost on him. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that ever since they had gotten back home with the kittens, they hadn't had a moment to themselves. The babies needed their constant care and attention, they simply couldn't be left alone safely for more than a few minutes at a time. What's more, the lack of sleep -- coupled with the uncomfortable changes that Liz's body had been undergoing -- had meant that sex was off the table. When was the last time they had fooled around? He could scarcely remember. Probably the night before Liz's water had broken that day, nearly a month ago. He had expected to be constantly distracted by his libido, but that hadn't been the case. There just hadn't been any time to think about it, at least, until now...

"You think we have enough time?" he asked, lowering his voice as though afraid that even an errant word would wake the kittens.

"How long do we really need?" she whispered. "Fifteen minutes would be enough."

"And you're...feeling up to it? You're all healed up?"

"I dunno," she replied with a shrug that made her breasts bump against the back of his head. "Guess we'll find out. I haven't been in the mood for weeks, I was too sore, and the desire just evaporated. But now, I feel like my body's telling me I'm good to go again, like my hormones have returned to normal levels. I'm surprised you didn't pester me about it, actually," she added as she nuzzled his head. "I'd have given you a quick handie if you'd asked..."

"I can go a few weeks without getting off," he replied, feigning outrage. "I'm not an animal, you know."

"That's news to me," she cooed. "Come on, I want to see if you're backed up enough to fill a shot glass..."

She steered him towards the bedroom, Jamie's heartbeat starting to quicken. A minute ago, sex wasn't even on his mind, but the mere suggestion now had his blood rushing. He felt drunk, feverish, a fog of arousal falling over his brain as he glimpsed their bed through the open door. Liz seemed able to smell it on him, no doubt picking up on the pheromones that were now flooding from his pores.