Chapter Text
“So…” Don said as he looked at nothing in particular. It was a common symptom of shock, Judy tried to remind herself. It was nothing personal against her. She knew that, even in the perfect circumstances, off the water planet where none of them could go outside without suits and none of them could drink without it passing through a million filters, being sat down and given a bombshell halfway through a shift could take a lot out of a person.
“Yep.”
“I mean, given the circumstances—and you need to understand where I’m getting at!—this might be a problem. This isn’t me saying you being… this, is bad. All I’m saying is, we will need to take off at some point. Any idea what that’s going to do to it? Her? Them?”
“In the first trimester, things are still developing. Placental abruptions from g force are much less common. If we get off this planet within the next month or so, then we should be fine.”
“If not?”
Judy froze for a moment. She herself was trying to process everything. She had known there was the possibility for over a week now, but she hadn’t actually fed her blood into the machine to get a definitive yes or no until that morning.
“Then I start bleeding. If I stop, then I’ll be down for the remaining amount of time as I keep myself under observation and prescribe myself hormones. If it doesn’t, then my odds of survival are still about 80%. Either way, if that happens, it's fifty-fifty for the fetus.”
“That it?” Don said wryly.
“There’s a million things that can go wrong no matter what we do. We just don’t have the facilities here for… anything.”
Don rubbed his face “God, I did this.”
“We did this, it was my idea.”
“And I—“ He cut himself off when he realized he was yelling then continued in a stage whisper “And I shouldn’t’ve thought with my dick!”
Don leaned forward into his hands. “Your parents don’t even know we’re together.”
“Hey,” she started to rub his back. “We were careful, accidents happen.”
“So when exactly was the accident?”
“Somewhere between four and six weeks ago.”
Don chuckled. “Guess what they say about the 3D printed ones is right.”
“I know it’s a lot to process—”
“This past year has been a lot to process.”
“—But we can figure it out. The plan is still the same; we’ll get to Alpha Centauri and start a new life and take it from there.”
“Assuming your dad doesn’t jettison me from the airlock before then.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Judy smiled. “Mom would kill him.”
“Then Will would be the man of the house.”
“And that would mean nothing,” Judy laughed. “‘Cause let’s face it, /Mom’s in charge/.“
“/Maureen’s in charge/.”
They laughed at their jinxed words.
“So what about us?” Don asked “I don’t want us saddled with each other just because—“
“We’ll just continue on as normal.” Judy forced a smile.
“Exactly! Let’s see if this turns into anything before—“
“You don’t have to explain it, Don,” Judy said as rose from her seat.
“I didn’t mean it like that!”
“Mom and Dad will be coming in in a minute, and Penny’s about to start her shift. This place will be grand central in a few minutes. We should make it look like we’re busy.”
“Judy, please.”
Judy crossed her arms and turned back to look at Don.
“I’m happy for you. I just… I just need a minute to process things, okay?”
Judy kept her face flat. She didn’t know what she was expecting, but this was about it. “Take all the time you need.”