One of the consequences of dad’s worry about mom pregnancy is that I switched out of my planned rotation in plastic surgery and moved right into obstetrics. I spent the weeks before mom’s due date learning just how many things can go wrong with a pregnancy and being impressed by the array of solutions that had been created by the medical community over the years.

Despite mom’s pregnancy proceeding beautifully, I treated the matter as if that weren’t the case. I spent almost my entire time at the hospital going from delivery room to delivery room and learning how to deal with the myriad of complications that presented before, during and after the birth of a baby. I studied the doctors as they handled cesarean deliveries, twin and triplet deliveries, breach births, and post-partum hemorrhaging. Luckily the majority of the births I watched had few, in any, complications.

At the end of each delivery day, I made it a point to check on the babies that had been delivered that day, learning how to treat the various issues that sometimes came up, such as jaundice, dehydration and infection.

Because of mom’s interrupted pregnancy, her official due date was off by a month, so when she went into labor three weeks ‘early’, the hospital prepared for complications related to delivering a pre-mature baby. Those measures weren’t necessary, and my baby brother was born on November 7th, weighing eight pounds, four ounces.

Although I wasn’t allowed in the delivery room, I kept a close eye on things using my fields and checked for anything that could go wrong. Thankfully, nothing did, and dad came out of the delivery room to show my brother off to us a little while later. The little guy was swaddled snugly in a blanket, except for a foot that managed to escape. He had a mess of dark hair on his head and was super pudgy. It was instinctual to want to squeeze him. Most importantly though, I didn’t detect a field around him at all. I was so glad that all of my worrying had been for nothing.

There was quite a crowd waiting to see my brother and dad let me hold him while Paul, Maggie, Bubby Brandy and Zaidi Stevens all huddled in to see the new addition to our family. Dad’s parents were traveling, and they’d be here in a few days. Their plan had been to show up a few weeks before mom’s due date and stay in town. They hadn’t counted on an early birth and we couldn’t tell them that we knew it would early without having to tell them more that we wanted to.

I passed my brother over to Bubby Brandy before she exploded with excitement and went to check on mom. She was just being wheeled back to her room and I congratulated her on having made another beautiful child. She smiled tiredly and I told her about all the fuss being made over my brother. It was so strange to say those words, ‘my brother’. I’d been an only child all my life and now I wasn’t anymore.

“Did you and dad finally choose a name for him?”

“Yes, we did. His name is Benjamin.”

“I like it. It’s not as good as the name I chose though. Logan would have been way cooler.”

“I’m not naming your brother after Wolverine.”

I sighed, resigned to her decision. “I guess I can tell Eva and James that you named him after the Thing in the fantastic four. His name was Ben Grimm.”

Mom facepalmed. “No Abby, we named him after my grandfather on my father’s side.”

“Oh. I never knew his name. I thought you were naming him after my uncle.”

“Your uncle?”

“You know. The one who makes all that rice.”

“You try my patience girl. Have some pity for your poor mother that just went through eighteen hours of labor.”

“Uhm, you gave birth less than two hours after your water broke. I watched the birth. Ben practically slid out on your first push. I’ve literally watched over a hundred births in the past month and yours was in the top five for easiest ones.”

“That’s not how this works, Abby. As a mother, it is my job to tell my children about all the hardships that I had to endure during pregnancy and delivery and then use those stories to guilt you into behaving properly and respectfully for the rest of your lives. Sometimes, the story needs to grow a bit in the telling. Eighteen hours of pain and suffering seems about right.”

“Ahh. I see. Lying to get what you want. It’s a time-honored tradition.”

“I didn’t expect you to understand. You’re only five years old. Regardless, I expect you to be a good big sister to Ben and not present him with your flawed version of the events surrounding his birth.”

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Mom was saved from my blistering retort to her claim that I’m only five by dad’s entrance into the room with Ben in tow. Dad rolled the mobile stainless-steel bassinet next to mom and gently scooped Ben up and into mom’s arms. Mom looked down at him and gave a contented smile.

While mom and dad stared at their newest child, I shifted my R1 backpack to reality and fished a small rectangular box out. Since mom’s hands were full of baby, I handed it to dad.

“I made Ben a gift.”

Dad raised his eyebrows quizzically.

“Fine, it also for you guys. Go on. Open it.”

Dad did as instructed and took out the anklet that I’d had made. I could have done the work myself, given enough time, but it wouldn’t have been as nice and I’d have had to give up days of studying to do it. Dad held it up to the light and showed mom. When the gemstone caught the light, her breath caught.

“It’s beautiful, Abby. What kind of stone is that?” She asked.

“It’s a combination of diamond and ruby. I call it a diamuby. I fused the ruby into the diamond at the cellular level. This doesn’t normally exist in nature. I had a friend attach it to an a gold chain to make an anklet for Ben.”

“You’re mother’s right. It is beautiful. How is it a gift for us as well?”

“It’s a gemstone and a tracking device. As long as he’s wearing it, I should be able to find him. Because I’m the only other person with diamubies, I can pulse-scan for it and his anklet will be the only thing that turns up. If he’s out of my range, it’ll take me longer, but eventually I’ll be able to find him.”

Mom eyes got all shiny as she took the anklet and fastened it to Ben. Dad brought me in for a hug and thanked me for the thoughtful gift.

“When he’s older and his bones are better formed, I can put the diamuby inside one of his bones if you want. That way it can’t be taken from him. It doesn’t need a power source, so it can stay safely inside the bone forever. I can also do the same thing for you guys, if you want. I promise to only pulse-scan for you guys if I think you’re in trouble.”

Dad was the first to answer, “I like the peace of mind that you’re offering Abby and your mom and I will discuss it.”

“You’re just worried about the whole loss of liberty thing? Big Abby is watching?”

“Not at all. If you were the government, yes, that would be my worry. I’m just not sure that it’s necessary.”

“It’s your choice, dad. I would never force it on anyone. I do want you to consider something though. The foundation and it’s work with the FBI and the police to combat human trafficking might end up angering some people. Right now they’re reeling from how the FBI is taking them down. Once the heat is off them though, they’ll start asking questions about how they were found out. If they ever get wind of Roger’s involvement, then they’ll try to get to him. When they can’t find him, I’m the next one they’ll come looking for. I haven’t managed to keep a low profile. They’ll try to use me as leverage to get to Roger and they may try to use you guys as leverage against me. This scenario is probably just me being paranoid, but it is a possibility and I’d rather be over-prepared than under.”

“Perhaps there is a need for these diamubies of yours. Let me think on it, Abby.”

I stayed with mom and dad for a few hours, as a constant stream of friends and relatives came by to visit with mom and Ben. Pierce and Mary stopped by, as did Shauna and a bunch of mom’s co-workers from Hannah’s Home. Dad took a few pictures of me holding Ben and I sent them off to Eva and James. Eva couldn’t wait for the Christmas break so she could come and squish his pudgy cheeks. When mom grew tired, I asked dad to text me when she woke up and I took the opportunity to continue my studies. I was already on the right floor and had only to shift to R1 to get ready. This was my best commute ever!

That evening Harry came by to see the new baby, along with Mark and Jake. Mark looked good holding a baby and I mentioned it.

“I had a lot of practice holding Rose. She was a very fussy baby, but she always calmed down when I held her. I was mom’s favorite person for a few years.”

“I might have to take up crying.” I mused.

Everyone except dad laughed. He did his best to be the stereotypical ‘Get your hands off my daughter’ dad, but we all knew that it was just an act. He enjoyed playing the part and Mark enjoyed playing the part of the terrified boyfriend, even managing an audible gulp when dad gave him a stern look.

When they were ready to leave, Mark invited me to join them for dinner and I kissed mom, dad and little Ben goodnight. In honor of my having a brother, Harry and Jake conceded to going to the Olive Garden for dinner. I’d heard that baby brothers could be a pain, but so far he was turning out to be a good thing.

Harry spent much of the meal admiring my never-ending bowls of ravioli as he picked at his salad with the dressing on the side. He didn’t like his new diet, but he was sticking to it admirably. Meanwhile, Mark had made sure to put Jake as a buffer between us, in case his mouth ran away from him again and I had to throw a bread stick at him or pour some chicken and gnocchi soup down the back of his shirt.

“Don’t think that I’ve forgotten or forgiven what you did to me at the award ceremony, Jake.” I reminded him.

“I only gave as good as I got, Abby. You kept things from me and I returned the favor.”

“It doesn’t work that way for Abby, Grandpa. She has that over-developed sense of vengeance. Why do you think I’m sitting so far away from her? You’d better watch out or you’ll be covered in chocolate pudding before the meal is done.”

Jake shook his head. “Won’t happen. I checked and they don’t serve that here.” He grinned at me and his eyes twinkled mischievously.

“Plenty of other things here that can be made to fly, tough guy. Also, for the record, I didn’t tell you about something good. You didn’t tell me about something bad. There’s a big difference.”

“Seems to me that getting a Superior Honor Award, is a pretty good thing. Especially since it’s rarely given to someone who doesn’t work for the state department.”

“You know damned well that I wouldn’t have gone to that award ceremony if I’d known about that award.”

“Well, it’s all in the past now. Besides, a lot of good came out of that night. Ethan and Rebeccah have patched things up and they both send their thanks again. Also, I’ve was able to make some inquiries about what we talked about and I think I have your first customer. You said that you wouldn’t be ready until the new year, unless it was an urgent matter. This is urgent and he didn’t even blink at the price.”