28

Stella

Waking up felt like coming back in my body. It was strange because I didn't know where I had been, but I knew I had been gone.

I had these moments of clarity, where I could see Max's face and feel Ripley's fur on my skin, but then I would slip away again, like disappearing under water.

I couldn't tell for how long this went on, the limbo between awake and asleep, between human and zombie, but eventually, my fever broke. When I opened my eyes, the world made sense. The buzzing in the back of my head was gone, and I could hear my own thoughts again.

My room was bathed in pinks and purples of a setting sun, and the last thing I clearly remembered before that, it had been night, so I lost at least a day to the limbo. Max was on the floor, asleep with Ripley as his pillow, and Boden was sitting in the chair, absently flipping through one of my books.

He lifted his eyes and immediately broke out in a grin when he saw that I was awake. "Good evening, Stella."

"Hello," I said, and my voice cracked from being so dry. "Can I have some water?"

"Yeah, absolutely." He set down the book and grabbed a glass of water with ice chips from my bedside table. He helped me sit up to drink, because I was still weak, and my big belly made it difficult.

"Thank you," I said when I drank my fill.

"No problem." He sat down at the edge of the bed, and he brushed the hair from my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better. How is the baby doing?"

"Good, by all the metrics that Jovie can measure," he said, but I had known, because I could feel them moving around inside me. "Their heart sounds strong, just like yours."

"What happened?" I asked. "How come I'm not a zombie?"

"We don't really know yet," he admitted with a soft laugh. "But we're so damn happy."

"Stella?" Max asked, sounding both excited and groggy, and he hurried to get up to see me better. "You're awake, really awake."

"Yeah, I'm me again," I agreed happily.

Jovie was summoned by Max's exuberance, and she set about making sure that I was okay. She asked me a few questions, checking my cognition, and I aced that part. Then she did a few medical tests – shining lights in my eyes, checking reflexes, listening to my heart, and taking my blood pressure.

Once she finished her exam, everyone was crowded around my bed to see the miracle of my recovery. Max and Ripley never left, but Boden had stepped outside to wait with Remy and Serg in the other room until she called them back in afterwards.

"The lyssavirus seems to be inactive in you at this time," Jovie said once she finished. "But we still have to get your other pregnancy related conditions under control."

"That's excellent news, doc, and don't take this question as me complaining, but what the hell happened?" Boden asked, with Remy and Serg flanking him on either side .

"My formal education is actually in midwifery. I'm not a doctor or a scientist, and even if I was, I don't have the equipment or the support staff to properly research all that I'd need to," Jovie answered, sounding almost weary. She was sitting on the chair beside me, one leg crossed over the other, wearing a modest summer dress. "So you will have to take everything I say with a very large helping of salt, because frankly, we'll never fully understand what happened here."

"Does that mean you have some suspicions?" Serg asked.

Jovie nodded. "I do. There is a phenomenon called microchimerism that sometimes occurs in pregnancy. Fetal cells will cross the placenta, entering into the mother's body. When they do this, they bolster the mother's immune system, helping to repair damaged tissue and even fighting infections."

"You're saying that the baby fought off the virus?" Max asked.

"Not quite that literally, but sorta," Jovie said.

Max looked to his older sister. "It's because of our blood, isn't it?"

Remy's brow furrowed. She didn't like him talking about their immunity in front of strangers, but Jovie wasn't really a stranger anymore.

"A doctor that experimented on our blood once explained to me that our blood attacks the virus and basically causes it to freeze," Remy said.

"The virus is frozen?" I asked, alarmed. "Will it unthaw when the baby is born? Why aren't they dead?"

"Viruses can't die because they don't truly live," Jovie clarified. "They can't survive without a host, but they can be damaged enough to become inactive and essentially harmless."

"And that's what you think happened?" Max asked.

She nodded. "That is my best guess."

"So you think that I will be okay?" I asked.

"I don't think the lyssavirus will be an issue for you or your baby going forward," Jovie confirmed. "But need to eat to keep your strength up, and you're dehydrated. The recent stress hasn't been good for you, so you still need to rest and try to get your blood pressure down."

"I think I can do that," I said with a confident smile. Honestly, everything sounded so easy and possible after the turn around I had made.

The relief made me feel so light and untouchable, like I could handle anything. Nothing could ever hurt me again. Euphoric invincibility was the only way to describe it.

"Yeah, of course you can," Max agreed and squeezed my hand as he smiled at me with happy tears in his own eyes. "Together, we can do anything."