12 - Bridges Will Be Burned

I finally finished cleaning the whole house! I was so excited about it looking so pretty that I didn't hear the door open until it slammed closed. I whipped around and saw Arson walking in.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked, walking into the kitchen where he was unloading something.
It had been about a week since he was shivering in bed. He was still cold most of the time but not as bad. I had taken my pillow fort down (if nothing else because it was a hassle to sleep on two pillows) and allowed Arson to snuggle up next to me. Henry said that body warm was better for him and I allowed only snuggling; nothing that would arouse anything between us. I still didn't trust him being in the bed with me but he was usually tired by the time we went to bed so I never really worried.
But he had been looking pretty haggard for the past weeks and tonight he looked like he was shivering a little worse and like he hadn't slept in a week.
"Just feeling a little drained, that's all." He said, sniffling and putting stuff in the fridge. "I got milk and butter."
"Oh… Honey, are you sure you're alright? You look like you might pass out."
"I just don't feel well. I think I might go lie down on the couch for a bit until dinner is ready… Hey, Jane?"
"Yes?"
"Do I look like I've gained weight to you?"
My eyes flickered to his stomach and then back to his face.
"Is this a trick question?" I asked.
He smiled a little but unbuttoned his shirt to show me.
"No… I really mean it. Do I look like I'm starting to gain some weight?"
I looked at his stomach and gulped a little.
"Not really…"
"Okay… I'm going to take a nap."
I nodded and made a face as I got the ingredients ready for dinner.
That night, Arson snuggled up to me but he wasn't doing it because he was cold. I felt his head and knew that he was running a fever; he was sick. I wrapped my arm around him and he stirred a little bit.
"Janey?" he mumbled.
"Yeah, it's me. Who did you expect?"
"Mmm…" was all he answered.
I guess he was a little surprised I had my arm around him. Even though he would snuggle up to me, I just sat by his side, but tonight I knew that he wasn't feeling well. Damn it I had a weakness for caring for him. But he was my husband so I guess it's only natural. I put my forehead to his and kissed it softly.
"Thank you…" he mumbled from his sleep and I smiled at him.
He was so in-tune with everything but not at the same time when he slept.

"Hey, Jane?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you could get me some new pants anytime soon?" he asked, looking into the bathroom as we got ready for work.
I looked at him in the mirror and he walked in, his pants unbuttoned.
"Why?" I asked, putting blush on my face.
"I can't button my pants anymore… This is some weird weight gain. I've hardly eaten anything and yet I can't even button my pants now."
"Maybe it's not the quantity but the quality. Fast food does pack on the pounds you know." I said, putting mascara on. "Besides, being sick for those two days and eating nothing but ice cream can do that you know."
"Well it was good and I got better, didn't I?" he growled as he tried to button his pants again. "Damn it! How am I supposed to go to work with no pants?"
"Can you zip them?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, just tuck your shirt in and wear a belt. I'll get you some pants if I have time today, alright?"
"Sure… Don't forget that Chandler and Haley are coming over tonight with Chase and Willow."
"Yeah I remember."
He walked out and I sighed, looking at my reflection in the mirror. The time will come… Then what? I thought.

About a month later, I was working in the kitchen when I heard Arson come home. He walked into the kitchen and set his keys on the bar.
"Hey, how was your day?" I asked.
"Good… You remember how I was wondering if this weird growth in my stomach was a tumor or not and you told me not to worry about it?"
"Yes…" I said, a little guarded.
"Well, I was worried so I got Liam to do a sonogram of it."
"Did you?" I said, acting aloof. "What did he find?"
"See for yourself."
He held out the sonogram picture and I knew right away what it was but I played dumb.
"I see black and white and a circle."
"Yeah… well, the black is the lining of my abdomen and that white blob there with the circle by it is a baby."
"A baby? What are you joking, Arson? Men can't get pregnant."
"THEN HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS?!" he yelled, lifting his shirt to reveal his very pregnant self. "What the hell is going on here, Jane? What the hell is happening to me?"
I gulped, never seeing Arson so upset and angry. I turned the stove off and breathed in deep.
"Before I begin, I told you when you decided to rape me that if anything happened, you could only blame yourself. That still stands."
"Okay…?"
"I'm not as human as you think I am. I'm an alien from a planet called Macrala. You asked that day I gave you that money how I could afford it all, remember?"
"Did you just say you were an alien?" he said, disbelief deep in his words.
"Just answer the question, Arson."
"Yes…"
"That's because on Macrala the currency in diamonds. To us it means nothing but on Earth it means more than millions. All I have to do is sell a pure, flawless diamond and be set for three years, even more. How did you think I got through college with no job to help me?"
"I figured you had a rich family… Alien?" he said again.
I scoffed. "Jeez, is that all you can focus on?"
"Well damn, Jane, if that is your real name, that's a bit of news that is pretty important!"
"Sure, Arson, that makes good impression. "Hi, my name is Jane Keppler. I'm studying law, live with my friend in a house, and I'm also an alien from another planet." Yeah, that would go really well for an introduction. I'd be deemed a freak and kicked into the crazy house. And I already told you my real name."
"Okay, okay," he said, trying to take everything in. "You're an alien… Do something alien."
"For god sakes, Arson, you're pregnant I think that's already been done!" I snarled, pointing at him. "Is that alien enough?!"
Arson looked down at his stomach and then at me.
"Then it was you who did it."
"No. It was you. I told you to wait. It was your fault for taking it upon yourself to have sex with me without my consent."
"Explain this to me." He said, pointing to his stomach. "How can this even happen?"
"On Maclara we are a reversed reproduction planet. The men carry the children but the women give birth."
"Now how the frack does that happen?!"
"You carry the baby to term and when the time is right, the baby is transferred to the mother to be birthed. It is what we're equipped to do."
"So now I'm a damn seahorse?!"
"Arson! Shut up! You want to know so I'm telling you. I can't help how the process is done."
"Just how is it alive in here?"
"That's a little more complicated. I didn't get into that in school… To be honest, I think you're the first non-Maclaren male to carry one."
Arson's jaw dropped and he gripped the bar in order to either not throttle me right then and there or to not faint.
"How is this my fault? If you had just told me the truth…" he said tightly.
"Because telling you I was an alien and if I had sex with you there was a possibility of you getting pregnant was a great way to start the marriage. I knew you wanted children and I knew you loved me. I loved you to and I wasn't going to deny you my love. The only thing I could deny you was children at the time."
"Then why not lie and say you were infertile?"
"Because there is a drug that is made that allows the women to carry the baby. It takes a long time to get something delivered from Maclara; it's clear into another galaxy. As soon as we married, I ordered it to be sent here as fast as possible. If you had waited just a week and a half, we would have been thrilling over the fact that I was carrying your child in my womb. You would have been so happy and not giving me that look of disgust that you're giving me now. I told you that whatever came was of your own doing."
Arson breathed in hard and then glared at me with those pools of black and I knew that I was at the point of no return.
"I can't kill this thing because life is sacred to me. It is made of you and I like I wanted but I can't look at you anymore… I can't trust you anymore."
"So says the man who rapes his wife." I quipped.
"This is a little different… Jane, I want a divorce."