When You Least Expect It

Isn't it funny, the way things never turn out as you expect them to?

I mean, Joe and I were looking forward to peacefully growing old together. My Grace had graduated college and was starting a family of her own, and our boys were growing up - Daniel had already gone off to college, and Milton was about to do the same. It looked like we'd have the house to ourselves for a while, and start thinking about being grandparents rather than parents, you know?

But of course, it didn't turn out that way at all.


Those aliens seem to be on a rampage lately. We'd heard about Connor O'Neill - he went to college with Grace - and Paul Johnson lives just across the street from us. Somehow, you just don't expect it to ever happen to your family. But Joe went out stargazing one night... and they took him. He was gone for three hours or so before they returned him, and it wasn't just him they returned - it was a little surprise for us, too. He was pregnant.


I tried my very best to be supportive about the whole thing - I mean, it's not as if he intended it to happen - but it was just hard to come to terms with, you know? Imagine that your husband is having a baby. An alien baby. You watch him grow bigger and bigger, and there's just something really weird about that. Men aren't supposed to be pregnant! But of course, it wasn't Joe's fault, and it must have been as strange to him as it was to me, so... I did what I could to make it easier for him. Maybe it would be easier to accept if we were a bit younger. But two elders raising a baby?


Yeah, I had a birthday, a small quiet affair - it just wasn't the time to throw a big bash. We had my sister Verity over, and that was it; the boys were so busy at university, we didn't want to take up their time. And, you know, Joe isn't much younger than me; I was actually surprised that he was able to get pregnant. If the aliens had taken him just a little bit later, I bet everything would've been different. But they didn't. And anyway, that would've meant we wouldn't have Aaliyah.


Yeah, that's what Joe named her. He says it means "to ascend" or something of the sort, which I guess is appropriate. Anyway, she's the most adorable little girl you could imagine. Looks just like Joe, except for the green skin and black eyes. The moment I laid eyes on her, it didn't seem to matter that she wasn't mine - I'm going to try to be as good a step-parent to her as Joe has been to Grace.

Hey, I hadn't thought about that. Now we have two sons together, and a daughter each. There's a symmetry to that, in a way.


Speaking of the boys, they came home for Joe's birthday, and to meet their new sister - two birds with one stone. Milton seemed okay about it, but Daniel wouldn't even look at her at first. Maybe it's different for him since he wasn't here when his dad was abducted; Milton knows first hand that Joe didn't choose it, but it's harder for Daniel. Of course, he did come around after a while, and once he held her, you could just see him fall in love with his baby sister.


So I guess we won't be quietly growing old, not with a baby in the house. But life is what is, not what you thought it would be. Maybe when the boys graduate, one - or both - of them will be willing to move back home, and help out a bit. Kids need to be surrounded by family.


Hope - reached top of first career and fulfilled LTW, General