Wonder

verb. 1. feel curious; desire to know. 2. feel doubt. 3. feel amazement and admiration.

Well, not exactly...

Oh crap... oh crap... oh crap...

These were the only words now passing through my mind. As the four of us froze.

Ceci's gaze drifted over me, leaning against the bed frame clutching a baby wrapped in a jumper, and the now topless Xandrell sitting with his hands on either side of my hip.

"Ok..." said Ceci slowly. "Amy, please tell me that's your baby doll from when you were about six... I will think it slightly odd... but..." But before she could say anymore, Molly raised a hand and giggled. Ceci backpedalled a few steps. "That's not a baby doll!" she whispered, looking shocked.

"Ceci, please, it's not what it looks like." I said getting to my feet.

"What the hell!" she screamed. "You've got a baby! A real live baby!"

She turned and sprinted away down the stairs. Xandrell leapt forward and ran after her. "Ceci, don't!" he yelled.

But it was already too late. "I just found Amy and Xandrell in her room!" cried Ceci at the bottom of the stairs just as Xandrell thundered down. "They have a baby! Seriously, a baby!"

"Ceci!" yelped Xandrell.

I held Molly tightly. "Don't say anything." I whispered to her. She looked up at me, her eyes full of understanding. Then amazingly, she nodded. I stared at her for a second, still trying to comprehend the little marvel in my arms. Then I smiled down at her. "Good girl." I whispered. Then I took a deep breath and made my way down the stairs.

I could feel their eyes on me, long before I actually saw any of them. I felt a blush rising in my cheeks. Slowly I reached the bottom of the stairs and moved forward. All of their eyes widened when they saw Ceci had not been lying. Tasha gave a gasp as I walked past her.

"God..." whispered Charlie. "You kept your pregnancy quiet Amy."

"James, punch him for me." I muttered sitting down on the sofa.

He didn't move, just stood staring at me. "Uh... Amy... where did that thing come from?"

I raised an eyebrow. "That thing?" I repeated. "Charming James. Molly, 'that thing' over there is Uncle James. Just in reference, he's going to rule the world some day, so keep on his good side, ok?"

Molly giggled happily and stretched a hand out towards James. Many of my friends made little cooing and aah-ing noises. James looked slightly taken aback but moved forward uncertainly. He frowned down at Molly for a moment, when she giggled again and he gave a tiny smile.

"She's quite sweet isn't she." said James holding out a hand towards her. She immediately reached out and gripped one of his fingers with her fist. He looked taken aback for a second, and then he seemed to wilt slightly, but in a good way. It was the way I imagined people to look the moment their hearts melted. "I think she likes me."

There were a few minutes of my friends clamouring around me, cooing over Molly. Charlie didn't seem totally sure about her, while Molly seemed desperate for him to pay attention to her like everyone else. After a while, he wandered away a little and just stood looking at his feet. It was only too easy to see something was bothering him. I handed Molly to Tasha who was closest to me, before making my way over to him.

"Charlie? Something wrong?"

He jumped and looked up at me. "What? No! No, no, nothing."

I sighed and pulled his shoulder around so he was facing me. "Charlie, I'm almost like your second mum, I can tell when something's bothering you."

He looked at me closely. It suddenly occurred to me how much older he'd started to look recently. His eyes were very big and blue, and had always been what made him seem so young in my opinion. His face seemed to be starting to square up a little and make him look broader, more like a man.

"It's just..." he began, then he paused and looked away. "... it's just nothing. Just me being weird."

"Why don't you like Molly?" I asked quietly.

"I never said I didn't." he said frowning.

"That's the impression I'm getting." I shrugged. "I just want to know."

Charlie looked at me sadly. "You're not going to be my second Mum anymore are you?" he said in a melancholy voice.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The baby?" he said nodding at Molly. "You're going to be her Mum now aren't you? No time for anyone or anything else."

I rolled my eyes. "Is that what you were fretting about, you big donut?"

He blushed and looked at his feet again. "I knew it was just me being stupid." he muttered.

"Yeah, it was just you being stupid!" I told him, with a little laugh. "Thinking I wouldn't have time for you with Molly around. How much have I been hanging around with you guys this week, in fact, for weeks now..."

He frowned. "What?"

I was shocked. I didn't know what I was saying but the lies were flying out of my mouth like agitated bats from a cave. "Yeah, we've had Molly for ages. We've just not said anything."

"You've what?!" yelled Charlie, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone else.

"What's going on?" asked Helen frowning.

Charlie looked around at them. "They've had Molly for weeks and they've not said anything!"

Immediately, every eye was on me. "Is that true?" asked Lucy, looking shocked.

"Yes." I said as confidently as I could. Hell... what was I doing! "Biggest shock of our lives, wasn't it Xandrell?"

Xandrell's eyebrows had shot up as he looked at me. I raised an eyebrow back at him. I hoped he would get the hint. I was making this up as I went along. I needed his help.

"Yeah, let me tell you, when we saw that bundle lying..." I hesitated. Damn, where should I say it was? Street corner? Doorstep?

"...in the park." said Xandrell, finally cottoning on and moving to my side. Everyone was frowning at him now. "Yeah, strangest thing we've ever come across. We'd gone out there to uh..."

"... find the pieces of my bike, after the accident." I said quickly. "She was just lying there under the trees..."

"...in between some bushes." continued Xandrell. "Poor little thing, if we hadn't heard her crying, we'd never have found her."

My friends made some little sympathetic sounds. "So what are you going to do about your parents?" asked Sophie looking up at me. "How have you managed to hide her this far?"

"Well..." I stuttered, trying desperately to think of an excuse.

"She's an excellent baby." said Xandrell. "She never cries, doesn't keep us up at night or anything."

"And as for telling my parents..." I stammered, just as the door opened.

"We're home!" called my mother, as she, my father and Jenny entered the room.

OH CRAP!

"Hey..." chorused the group. I stood still as a statue, waiting for them to notice Molly.

"Oh, who's little sister?" asked my mother, noticing Tasha clutching my little girl.

Slowly everyone's faces turned to look at me and Xandrell. I swallowed and quickly took Molly off of Tasha's hands, then looked up at my parents. "Um... she's ours... sort of..."

They stared at us for all of a moment, as Xandrell moved forward and stood beside me. "...sorry?" whispered my mother, her face draining of any colour.

"She... she's ours..." I repeated.

"WHAT THE (insert swear word of your choice here)!" bellowed my father dropping the bags of shopping and storming forwards. My friends glanced at each other before grabbing their bags and sprinting from the house, not wanting to be involved with this. No-one did when my father got mad. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S YOURS?!"

"We... we..." I stammered. My father was advancing like a wild rhino. I felt my heart hammering against my ribs painfully. "She's... uh..."

"DON'T TELL ME SHE'S YOURS AGAIN!" yelled my father. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! YOU!" He pointed his bony finger at Xandrell who stiffened. "HOW LONG HAVE YOU TWO KNOWN EACH OTHER?!"

"About three months sir." whimpered Xandrell, cowering slightly behind me.

"LIAR!" bellowed my father grabbing Xandrell by the shoulder and wrenching him away from me. Xandrell seemed to bend slightly under my fathers grip. "IF THAT BABY'S YOURS, YOU MUST HAVE KNOWN AMY FOR AT LEAST NINE MONTHS! IF THAT BABY'S YOURS, I SWEAR I WILL GIVE YOU SUCH A HIDING! I'LL TEACH YOU TO DO THINGS LIKE THAT TO THE DAUGHTER OF AN AFGHANISTAN VETERAN!"

Xandrell cowered again, causing my father to bellow at him to stand up straight. Finally, as I looked at Xandrell's piteously terrified face, I found my voice. "She's not biologically ours." I said quietly. Molly's eyes widened, but I held a finger to my lips and her face crumpled as she gave a little whimper. "Dad, you're scaring her."

"I DON'T BLOODY CARE IF I'M SCARING HER OR NOT!" yelled my father, before taking a deep breath and speaking a little quieter, which if anything scared me more. "Alright... if she isn't your baby, who's baby is she?"

"We don't know." I whispered. "We found her out in the park practically half dead a few weeks ago and we've been taking care of her."

I thought that my father might relent a little here. How wrong can I be?

"WHY THE HELL DO YOU STILL HAVE HER THEN?!" he bellowed. "WHY HAVEN'T YOU HANDED HER IN TO A CHILDREN'S HOME OR SOMETHING? DID YOU THINK IT WAS CLEVER? OR FUNNY?"

He suddenly grabbed the phone. "What are you doing?" I asked, feeling dread twisting in my stomach.

"I'm phoning the police, and then the children's home!" he snapped. "I'm getting that thing out of your life Amy!"

Who the hell did he think he was? How would he have liked it if when I was born, I had been taken out of his life less than an hour after I was born? I didn't think he'd be able to cope! Well how could he do this to his daughter?

I hurried across the room and hit the disconnect button on the phone. He looked up at me, his expression furious.

"No you're not." I whispered, feeling my stomach squirm. I had never stood up to my father in my life. Maybe it was something about him being a general in the military, but the house had always had a fair amount of discipline about it.

He took a deep breath. I could see the vein in his temple pulsing like it was about to burst. "Amy..."

"You can't take her away from me Dad!" I whispered, feeling my heart rate rising. "She's mine!"

"She's not yours, and if I can have my way, she never will be!" yelled my father. "That thing will destroy your life Amy! What about college? What about university? A baby isn't like a pet! You can't just feed it and pet it when you feel like it!"

"I know!" I yelled back, feeling my temper rocketing. My face felt hot as I glared at my father. "Dad, Molly's mine! I'm not giving her up! I'll give up college and stuff if I have to, but I'm never giving up my baby!"

"Michael..." whispered my mother, staring at my father, but he held up a hand to silence her.

"Not now Julie." he said sharply.

"But Michael..."

"I said not now!"

"DAD!"

My father looked up as Jenny shouted at him. His eyes widened as he looked at my mother. She was clutching her stomach, a small puddle on the floor beneath her.

"Bloody hell!" I whispered as my father rushed forwards and supported my mother out to the car, yelling at Jenny to go and fetch my mother's already readied hospital bag.

She thundered off up the stairs and when she returned less than a minute later, she paused at the bottom of the stairs and threw me one of the worst looks Jenny had ever given me. There was utmost loathing in my sister's eyes. "You're not coming are you?" she asked, but before I could answer, she cut across me. "I think it's better if you don't."

Then she turned away and ran out to where our parents were waiting for her, slamming the front door in the process. I heard the engine start up and the car drive away.

I stood for a long moment, feeling myself trembling. It wasn't until Molly reached up and touched my wet face that I realised I was crying.

For the rest of the evening, we simply sat, the three of us. After a while, Xandrell vanished upstairs, returning a minute later holding one of the little jumpsuits my mother had bought for the new baby and dressed Molly. I, however remained totally unresponsive.

My mind was whirling with what had happened today. Last night, my only worries were about Xandrell's health... now, my father was furious, my mother was in labour, my sister was in evil mode, oh and did I mention I had a daughter?

Xandrell spent most of the remainder of the day sitting with Molly on his lap, reciting facts and figures to her. I frowned at him. "You do know that she's not going to remember any of that stuff, don't you?"

He chuckled lightly. "You'd be surprised Amy. My species has a very advanced mindset remember. Most of my information I learnt in the first few days of my life. I mean, we only get a few days of being a child on Maleof Stagri."

I frowned down at Molly who gave a massive yawn. "What about Molly?" I asked. "How do half human half alien babies age?"

Xandrell sighed and sat back putting an arm around me. "I think Amy, this sort of thing is not for us to think of here and now."

"It sort of is." I retorted. "In case you hadn't noticed, but the baby in question is sitting on your lap."

He shrugged. "Well, the short answer is, I don't know." he said after a moment. "There's never been anything like her, as far as I can tell. Believe me, we had lessons on hybrids. Many of them weren't pretty."

I frowned at my lap. "Right." I said quietly, before stifling a yawn. I quickly tried to disguise it, but Xandrell wasn't fooled.

"I think it's time for you two girls to get some sleep." he said cradling Molly against his chest and standing up. "You've both had a very long day."

I blinked. It had only just occurred to me. "Where's Molly going to sleep?"

"We'll put her in the new baby's cot for tonight." said Xandrell, gently pulling me to my feet. "I mean, it's not going to use it. Everything else we can sort out later."

I followed Xandrell up to my parents' room in silence. I sat down on their bed as he laid the already dozing Molly into my new little brother or sister's cradle. She was asleep within seconds. I watched as Xandrell stroked her hair and sang a melody barely more than a whisper. I frowned. It sounded familiar.

"What is that?" I asked quietly.

Xandrell smiled, finally moving over to the bed to sit beside me. "It's a lullaby my mother used to sing to me." he said with a shrug. "I don't really know the words in Earth language yet..."

"Oh." I said, trying to think what else there was to say to that. "Right."

He sat, just watching me for a moment. "Amy... I've been thinking about what your Dad said earlier."

"Oh, you too?" I muttered, drawing my knees up to my chest. "He wasn't happy."

"I know." he said looking at his lap. "And, you know, I think he's right."

I stared at him. "You what?"

"Well..." He glanced at the cradle. "It's just, a baby... it's going to be a lot of work."

"Yeah." I said, my voice rising slightly. "I have to say, Xandrell, I don't like where you're going with this."

"Me neither." he muttered, before taking a deep breath and looking up at me. "If you want me and her to go, just say the word and we will vanish. I thought it would be easy, being here with you, but if she's here too..."

"Shut up!" I snapped, and he immediately fell silent. "Xandrell, I don't want to hear this. I'm not giving her up!"

"That's what I suspected." he sighed. "Amy, just think about it. You have to go to college and stuff like that. What about money? Babies aren't exactly cheap here are they?"

"We can take it!" I told him sternly. "Do you know how often I've thought about how much I want a baby? And now I have one! And maybe tomorrow, there'll be two! Xandrell... she's one of those things that you realise how wonderful they are, and you live in fear that they could be taken away from you."

He gave me a slightly withering, and in a certain way pitying look, before it relaxed and he climbed over the bed to sit beside me. "I'm just saying, with Molly there, you won't be able to be a teenager anymore."

"I was never really a teenager in the first place." I shrugged. "You and her, it's all I need to be happy."

Xandrell smiled and put an arm around me, gently pulling me to him. "And your happiness is all I want."

He kissed my forehead before humming his lullaby under his breath. I leaned into his chest and promptly fell asleep, my father's words still swirling in my mind.

I had a dream about being in a futuristic city, all around were floating cars and such, but Xandrell, Molly and I were huddled down an alley, watching as my friends wandered past, looking disdainfully down at us, but incredibly, we were all laughing and smiling. I awoke, wondering if I'd dreamed about having happiness no matter where I was, as long as I had them, or being insane.

I glanced up at Xandrell who was resting his head on top of mine. "What time is it?" I asked softly.

"Half past four." he murmured, his hand immediately lifting up to my cheek to comfort me back to sleep. "Try to get a few more hours, Amy."

I frowned into his chest. "I had a strange dream." I murmured.

"I know." he said, caressing my face with his thumb. "You said mine and Molly's names, and then laughed."

I closed my eyes. "Yeah... it was really strange though." I mumbled as I drifted back to sleep.

I was suddenly being shaken awake by Xandrell. I sat up slowly and looked at him. "What is it? What's wrong?" I asked, hearing the early morning drag in my voice.

He looked somehow as good as ever, possibly better than he did before the whole ordeal yesterday. "Your father's downstairs having some coffee. I told him you'd go down." he said quietly. "I think he's made you some tea."

"Great." I mumbled, struggling upright. "What time is it?"

"Half past six." said Xandrell gently pushing me to my feet. "Go on, I'll stay here with Molly."

I frowned at him. "You're actually scared of my Dad aren't you?"

He bristled. "Of course not... well maybe a little, but that's not the point. If Molly wakes up, she won't be happy if there's no-one in with her. She's barely a day old."

I shrugged but I could see the sense in his words, so I turned around and made my way carefully down the stairs. My father looked up when he heard me. He looked thoroughly dishevelled, his clothes messy, a strange stubble appearing on his chin. He gave me a weak smile.

"Nathaniel." he croaked.

I frowned. "What?"

"Nathaniel... Michael... Wren..." he choked out.

It took me another minute to finally realise. We weren't the average two point four children family anymore.

I rubbed my cheek as I felt tears trickling down my face again, and took the seat opposite my father, imagining what my new little brother looked like.