BONUS CONTENT...

Are you ready to find out what happens next?

DAY 246

“I swear to god, if this baby doesn’t come soon, I’m going to…” Chloe broke off, unable to think of what exactly she would do. Truth be told, she was struggling to finish anything at the moment.

She felt enormous and cumbersome and tired. So very tired.

She couldn’t sleep on her side and she couldn’t sleep on her back and–obviously–she couldn’t sleep on her stomach. And so she mainly napped during the day on whatever sofa was nearest, and then kept Ash awake every night, complaining about how she couldn’t sleep.

“You’re going to what?” Ash raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Make me move more furniture?”

Chloe had the grace to look shamefaced. “I’m nesting.”

“Baby, we’ve only been back at Serenity for two days, and you’ve already had me re-arrange the suite three times.”

“To be fair, we need to fit in Archer’s bed, as well as a crib. It’s not like I’m asking you to move things for no reason.”

“Ah, my little wife. There’s no need to get defensive.” Ash laughed, sitting down beside her on the loveseat and pulling her into his arms. “I’d move the world for you, and you know it.”

A bone-deep contentment filled Chloe. The months they’d spent at the CDC facility in New York had been overwhelmingly boring for her, but she hadn’t voiced that. Not when she was safe and warm and fed. Not after the weeks and months that she and her friends had experienced when the world first fell to Sy-V.

Especially not when Ash being at the research lab meant Dr Bancroft was able to find a vaccine for the virus that had annihilated the world’s population.

Dr Bancroft, Lauren, was hopeful that using stem cells from their baby’s umbilical cord could bring her closer to finding a vaccine for the virus’s mutation, too.

So the months in New York had been worth it. But she’d missed her friends unbearably. Because they were more than friends. They were family.

The door to the bedroom suite burst open, and Archer ran through, giggling madly. Kat followed, a faux scowl on her face.

“He’s a menace!” she said, stopping with her hands on her hips. “Even Dex is exhausted. He’s making me regret this whole baby-making thing.”

“Bit late for that now, Kat.” Ash stood, eyeing Kat’s pregnant stomach. “It’s not really something you can return with a receipt, you know?” He held out his arms, and Archer flung himself into them, squealing when Ash placed him atop his shoulders.

“Look ‘ow tall I am!” the boy yelled, clutching fistfuls of Ash’s hair.

“I didn’t realize kids were… so much work,” Kat muttered, flopping onto the loveseat beside Chloe.

“You should have got an actual kitten. They’re much lower maintenance,” Chloe advised wryly.

“Oh, shut up.” Kat shoved her lightly. “This little kitty-cat is going to be perfect.” She rubbed a hand lovingly over her bump. “And if it’s not, I’ll just make Quinn be a stay-at-home dad.”

“You’re going to go out and hunt venison for us?” Ash’s eyes were twinkling, and Chloe knew he was just as happy to be back at Serenity.

“Sure. I’m actually a pretty good shot nowadays.”

That dimmed the twinkle, and Ash’s smile dropped. There was a lot they’d had to become good at in order to survive.

But Chloe refused to let their playful mood turn sombre.

They’d had too much tragedy, too much sadness. They had proved they could adapt–now it was time to look to the future, and live.

“Can you believe James made contact with that group of survivors in Australia?” she said, lumbering to her feet.

She didn’t know where or when James had sourced the ham radio, but it was amazing to witness the community it opened up to them, all over the world. They shared stories, and survival tips, news and ideas.

“Can you imagine eating kangaroos?” Kat shuddered.

“I’m pretty sure it’s much like us eating deer,” Chloe said. “And at least it’s not koalas, right?”

“I reckon if they got hungry enough, koalas wouldn’t be off the menu.” Ash lifted Archer off his shoulders, swinging him around onto his back. “You’d make a great koala, buddy.”

Chloe laughed at little Archer clinging to Ash’s broad back. It still amazed her how resilient the child was; while he still talked about his mom and dad and sister, he seemed to have accepted their deaths and knew that Ash and Chloe were his family now.

They all were. Everyone adored the two-year-old.

“Archer, how old are you?” she asked suddenly.

“Two!” The kid held up two chubby fingers.

“You’ve been two for a really long time. Do you know when your birthday is?”

“When’s I have a party!”

“Mmmm. March? April? May?” She threw some months out, hoping one of them would jog something in the boy’s memory.

“Party!”

Chloe looked at Ash and Kat. “What are the chances he’s actually already turned three?”

“Maybe Maggie would know?” Kat suggested. “Let’s head to the restaurant. Quinn and Stephen found more coffee beans when they were scavenging yesterday.”

Chloe’s lip curled. It was incomprehensible that while she still loved the smell of coffee, the taste now turned her stomach.

It had become a habit for everyone to gather in the restaurant mid-afternoon, to touch base on what was happening or needed doing. And to drink coffee. No one was taking caffeine for granted when they’d had to go without for so long.

“I can remember Caroline being pregnant in the winter, but I couldn’t tell you when she gave birth.” Maggie passed the long-life creamer to Mackenzie, and then stirred her own coffee thoughtfully. “But it seems to me Archer should probably already be three.”

“Free!” Archer yelled, spitting out pieces of the cracker he was eating.

“Sure, why not?” Chloe pulled the boy into her lap. “Want to have a birthday today, buddy?”

“Party?” he asked.

Chloe looked at Rachel, who had the best head for logistics and managed inventory for everything from toothpaste to toilet paper.

“Can we?” she asked.

“I think we can come up with something.” Rachel reached over to ruffle Archer’s hair.

“What’s the party for?” Denzel asked, coming into the restaurant. Lauren followed him with a sheepish expression, and Chloe surmised Denzel’s pursuit of her affections was going well.

Gray wasn’t so circumspect, and wolf-whistled at the pair.

Delighted, Archer slid from Chloe’s lap and ran to Gray, demanding he teach him how to whistle. Chloe shifted on the seat, her constant lower back discomfit notching up a level.

When a cramp bloomed in her lower abdomen, she stilled, waiting for it to pass.

That was new.

It kind of felt like a period cramp, but when nothing else happened, she shrugged. Everything she’d read said first babies generally took a long time to arrive, and she’d prepared herself for a long labor.

There was no point in alarming everyone when it could be another twelve hours before active labor began. And besides, she really wanted to celebrate Archer before he became a big brother, and had to share everyone’s attention with a newborn.

“Let’s color some craft paper to make party hats,” she said, accepting Jake’s help to get to her feet. “You going to help color, Jake?”

“I get the yellow marker.”

***

DAY 247

Ash awoke with a start, finding Chloe’s side of the bed empty and his wife pacing the length of their bedroom suite. In the light from the moon, he could see a gleam of sweat coating her face.

“Baby, why didn’t you wake me?” He threw back the bedcovers and was by her side in an instant, not bothering with clothing his nakedness.

“I… didn’t want… to bother you,” she panted.

“Of all the nights for you to get considerate?” His joke fell flat as she steadied herself on his arm and braced through a contraction that etched her face in pain.

When she loosened her grasp on him and straightened, he looped an arm around her waist to help support her weight, looking deep into her eyes. “This is really happening.”

She grunted in response, taking a step forward and pulling him along. “It helps if I keep moving.”

“Whatever you need, baby,” Ash said, glancing at Archer’s empty bed. “It was a good night for Archer to have a sleepover with Jake and Mac.”

“Looks like he and our baby are going to share a birthday.” A grimace quickly replaced Chloe’s soft smile as another contraction tore through her.

He waited while she breathed through the pain, terror and elation warring in his stomach. He felt like he might throw up.

“Help me get this off,” Chloe demanded, plucking at the over-sized shirt she was wearing. “I don’t want it on.”

“Should I get Rachel?” he asked as he drew the offending item over her head, leaving her gloriously naked.

“The contractions are still far enough apart that–Oh!” Chloe cried out, doubling over again.

“I’m getting Rach,” Ash said firmly, leading her to lean against the dresser and then stroking her hair from her face. “I won’t be long.”

He ran for the door, stopping when she called for him.

“Babe? You’re naked.”

“Fuck!” Cursing under his breath, he swiftly threw on his clothes from the day before, not bothering to button the shirt or buckle the belt.

Chloe’s stoicism floored him; he’d never felt less calm in his life. He sprinted to Rachel and James’ room, pounding on their door loud enough that Cassie stuck her head out from further down the hallway.

“What’s wrong?” Cassie whisper-shouted. “Is everything okay?”

Stephen appeared by her side, his face losing all color when he saw Ash’s dishevelled state. “Is the baby coming?” He instinctively reached out to touch Cassie’s own pregnant belly, and Ash noted a tremor in his hand.

“It’s all feeling very real right now.” Ash understood exactly how terrified Stephen probably was right at this moment.

“What the hell–” Rachel bit off her comment as the door swung open in Ash’s face. “Oh. Shit. Shit-shit-shit! Is Chloe in labor?”

But she didn’t wait for Ash’s answer, already pushing past him and running toward the conference room where she’d set up all the medical supplies.

“Can you bring her to me?” she shouted over her shoulder, flicking on lights as she went.

Ash turned and ran back the way he’d come, puffing like he’d run a marathon. He found Chloe on all fours in the middle of the room, rocking and keening, and his heart stopped. This was all progressing much faster than he’d been led to believe, and he swallowed against the acrid helplessness that flooded him.

“Baby? Are you okay?” He dropped to the floor beside her, trying to hide his panic.

She didn’t answer, just shot him a glare filled with all the irate and sarcastic words she didn’t have the energy to say.

“I need to get you up. Rachel is getting everything ready.”

She bared her teeth at him when he tried to get her to stand. “I need to push,” she ground out through clenched teeth.

“Are you meant to do that?”

“Are you going to stop me?” she growled, and then she was bearing down and when Ash put a hand between her legs he could feel the slippery round head of their baby.

“It’s coming!” Awe for this incredible woman, and the life she was bringing forth, had his hands shaking. But she was pushing again, straining and heaving. Her raw screams gouged into his chest and then, suddenly, he was cradling the warm, wet body of his baby in his hands.

Tears streamed down Ash’s face as he held his baby, unsure what he should do but completely and overwhelmingly enthralled with the tiny human he had helped to create.

Chloe’s spent body relaxed, and she rolled onto her side, reaching for the baby that let out a plaintive protest at being thrust into the world. Ash carefully placed it on her chest, overcome when it immediately quieted.

“She’s perfect,” he breathed, running a finger over the downy hair on her head, unconcerned with the white vernix coating her delicate skin.

“She’s a girl?” Chloe’s eyes met his, and he’d never felt a deeper connection to this woman.

“She is.” Ash lay on his side facing Chloe, their bodies forming a cocoon around their baby girl.

“What are we going to call her?” Chloe asked, cradling the baby with a primeval instinct that took Ash’s breath away.

“I was thinking…” he paused. He wasn’t sure how Chloe would feel about what he was going to suggest. “If it had been a boy, I thought Jesse."

Chloe closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before she opened them again.

“And now that it’s a girl, what about Jessie?” Now it was Ash’s turn to hold his breath.

“I think that’s perfect.” Chloe’s smile was small but sweet. “Hello, little Jessie.”

Ash pressed a kiss to Jessie’s forehead, and then Chloe’s. “I love you so much, little wife.”

Neither of them pulled away as Rachel rushed through the bedroom door, halting when she took in the scene before her.

“Are you telling me I’ve been studying for the last four months for no reason?” she asked softly and with no recrimination, her hands pressed over her heart and a wide smile breaking over her face.

“Looks like it. Come over here and meet our daughter.” Ash got to his feet and found a sheet to place over Chloe and Jessie, who was nuzzling and making suckling sounds at Chloe’s breast.

“Are you okay if I get Lauren to cut the umbilical cord?” Rachel asked, sinking to the ground beside Chloe.

“In a moment.” Chloe looked over Rachel’s shoulder, smiling at Cassie, Mackenzie and Kat, who had appeared in the doorway. The four women surrounded his wife and daughter, joyous and tearful.

“Jessie, meet your family,” Chloe whispered.

THE END

I hope you loved this little excerpt as much as I loved writing it. It's so hard to say goodbye to Mackenzie, Rachel, Kat and Chloe 😢

If you're desperate for more post-apocalyptic romance, you can read the prequel novella to my next series, Ruined World… HERE