Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

“Ok, baby. Don’t cry! Push!” Ian said hastily.

He caught the slippery infant in shaking hands, stared down at the cord leading from the baby back inside, and finally leaned forward to lay the squalling infant on her belly.

“Is he ok?” Anna asked worriedly, reaching down to grasp one of the baby’s flailing arms.

Ian tore his robe off hastily and bundled the baby in it. “She,” he said shakily.

“It’s a girl.”

Anna sat up. “A girl!”

Ian stared down at the baby’s face and chuckled. “She looks like Simon—minus the dick.”

Simon moved closer to look and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Anna gasped uneasily.

“We made it!” Caleb announced. “What now?”

“Take the tube,” Ian said. “We can’t dock with Anna and the baby on the floor.”

Caleb stared at him blankly and moved to where he and Simon were huddled together, staring at the baby. “Shit! That’s Simon all over!”

“You think?” Simon asked doubtfully.

“Is she alright?”

All three of them looked at her. “Her lungs are good,” Caleb announced.

“Good color, too,” Ian agreed.

“All the fingers and toes,” Simon said when he’d counted the tiny digits.

Anna reached for her.

Ian moved around to place the baby in her arms a little reluctantly. “She’s pretty even if she does look like Simon,” he offered when she smiled at the baby in delight.

Simon scowled at him. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

Ian shrugged. “It’s just hard to picture you as a girl.”

Anna uttered a snorting laugh. “She favors her daddy. She’s a beautiful little mermaid.”

Joshua had just joined everyone crowding around her when Caleb returned with a doctor. He shooed them back while he finished up. They had to help her back into a seat and strap her and the baby in to dock.

Eventually, she made it to a room. “I could’ve had her at home,” Anna said a little sulkily.

Simon, Caleb, Ian, and Joshua looked at her disapprovingly.

“You could’ve also waited until you got to the hospital. You almost scared the life out of all of us!” Joshua said indignantly.

Anna smiled at them a little apologetically, realizing it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell them she’d thought she could finish up in the lab before she told them she was in labor. “Next time,” she promised.

The day she left the hospital with their new baby, she received notification that she’d been awarded the Nobel Prize for peace for her development of food to feed the hungry.

The End