CHAPTER 010 - (JASON’S PERSPECTIVE)

 I threw another cloaking spell over us, and we snuck down the hallway to IC 4.  A peek inside showed me an operating room with 6 physicians, about the same number of nurses, and an anesthetist, plus a screaming Daphne. Okay, not as bad as I thought. There were a few people down the hallway, but they didn’t concern me. I made a note to separate the doctors and nurses, which would take some doing. I recited the major spell I was going to have to use. Halting the passage of time wasn’t an easy magic at the best of times, and this certainly wasn’t one of those. I could start the spell while we were invisible, but when it started working, I was going to have to drop the invisibility. Screw it, it wasn’t important. I spoke the long sentences in the language of magic, infusing them with every ounce of my will. I felt sluggish, as if I was moving through molasses. My little group became visible, and the people moving down the hallway stopped moving. I could feel the strain of what I was doing, which was basically redirecting the stream of time for a short span. I nodded when I felt the spell grab hold, and we burst into the room.

 Peter picked Daphne up, straining as he worked her legs out of the stirrups. I gestured, and Rebecca burst into motion, followed closely by Peter. They busted out the door, heading for the stairs. It was getting harder for me to maintain my concentration, but I persevered, knowing it would take them nearly two minutes to get upstairs. However, how was I going to get these doctors and nurses to do something else? I didn’t have enough concentration to move, much less cast more spells!

 “Pam, we’ve got a problem. I can’t hold this spell and think of how to deal with a disappearing woman at the same time.” I ground out this sentence past the screaming headache I was giving myself.
“Got any ideas?” Surely enough, she did.

 “Put another woman in Daphne’s place, and I’ll change all the records. People see what they want to see, lover.” she smiled wickedly. I gaped at her in such surprise that I felt the spell starting to unravel. Simple solution, and if I had to, I could alter the physician’s memories before we left. I squeezed her hand in thanks and told her to start switching records. She did so with some alacrity, yet I was still counting seconds to give Peter and  Becca time to get into the bathroom and across the Doorway. When I got to 120, I breathed a little easier. A timeless eternity later, Pam came back into the room, wheeling another woman in on a gurney. “It’s probably better that she be in here, Jay. She’s got gestational diabetes, and could use the attention.”

 “Where’d you find her?”

 “Down in the ER. She’d just come in, and was supposed to be moved up here when they got room.” She smiled brightly. “ I just saved them some time. Did everyone get across?” Shit, I forgot to exclude Suzie from the time spell! Fuck! I told Pam that I’d forgotten Suzanne, and she just shook her head.
“Men. You all get so focused on what’s right in front of you that you miss the little details.”

 “Hey, you wanna try this?” I gibed. “Until you do, give a poor old Wizard a break. We’ll grab her when time starts and scramble.” I hastily cobbled together a spell to wipe out any memory these people had for Daphne, and implant one that covered the woman currently in residence. There might be a slight hiccup or two, but I was under too much strain at the moment to worry about it. “We’ve got to get down to admitting and destroy all records of Daphne being here. They probably haven’t entered it into the computer yet, except for the room assignment.” Pam nodded, and came over to me and helped me walk back out past the ICU doors. I dropped the timestop spell, and things picked back up, and my headache vanished. I cast another cloak-spell, and we vanished from sight. We sprinted down to admitting, and I put a do-not-notice-us spell on the two of us. We got behind the desk, and we started scrambling through the paperwork. When we found Daphne’s paperwork, I incinerated them with a thought. A second’s work with a Gremlin-Spell took care of the computer’s records. Finally, we bolted back upstairs. We found Suzanne leaning against a wall facing the bathroom door, looking around. I dropped the spells, and she jumped.

 “Did you get her out?” she whispered. I nodded, and leaned against the wall, out of energy and breath. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to drop over dead.” She draped my free arm around her shoulders. I nodded, even though I felt like hammered shit. I was out of energy, and if I tried doing any more magic before I got some food down me, I could be in serious trouble. The time-stop spell had drained my reserves of strength, and all the illusion spells I’d been using didn’t help either. The pair of them managed to get me into the bathroom and across the threshold. Mercifully, noone noticed a man going into the women’s room, but my long hair and beardless face probably helped.

 At home, I slammed the Doorway shut and looked around. Peter had gotten Daphne into my working circle, although when I’d dropped the time spell, she’d come around. I lacked the energy for anything else, so I activated the defensive suspension spells and she stopped in place. Unfortunately, I’d left my bearers behind, and my knees chose that moment to give out. I hit the floor with a thump and a groan. Everyone bolted over to me, and I waved them back.

 “I need food, and lots of it, now!” Peter bolted from the room in search of victuals, and I motioned all of the ladies over. “Girls, I’m sorry to have to ask this, but I need something from you all. I need to borrow your energies, or I’ve had it. If I stop now, I’ll probably sleep for a few days, and the spell on Daph won’t hold that long.” I didn’t know if they completely understood, but they all agreed to help me. “Everyone, touch me. Bare skin.” Suzanne took my head into her lap and laid her hands on my face, while Pam and Rebecca took my hands. I chanted a short, blasphemous spell, and I felt energy roiling into me. All three women were weakened, but it was nothing a good meal and some sleep wouldn’t cure. I felt revitalized, but I knew I had to work fast. Borrowed energy will keep you alive and functioning, but it’s transitory. I had a very limited time to get this birth done, and when it was, I was probably going to sleep for a week, if not die.

A SHORT TIME LATER, JACKIE’S PERSPECTIVE

 When I got the call from Suzanne, I was tying up some loose ends in the office, so I was able to bolt pretty quickly. Since Peter had driven me to work, I needed some other means of transport. A moment’s thought, and I had it. I stopped by the boss’ office and told him there was an emergency situation I had to take care of, and he let me go. I bolted outdoors, and went around the back of the building to the alleyway. A moment’s singing, and I was invisible, and an additional verse set me speeding through the air. I don’t like flying any more than Jay does, but I had no other choice. I outpaced the wind, but it still took me a good 15 minutes to get home. I sprinted upstairs, and damn near kicked the door down getting inside. Peter was at the door to the lab, trying to batter his way inside.

 “Goddamn it!” He pulled back for another punch, but I grabbed his fist. “Jackie! Thank god!” he filled me in on the situation, and could have beaten Jay into a pulp for his pig-headedness. “I can’t get in, the son of a bitch cast some spell around the room to keep my power from working.” Shit, this wasn’t good. It took me nearly five minutes of precious time to open the door, and I could imagine Jason on the other side of the door, talking to himself and chanting spells. I tried screaming through the door, but it didn’t work for me any more than it had for Peter. Finally the defense spells gave way, and we stormed in. The girls were lying in a heap outside of a blue force-shield Jay had erected.

 “Dammit, Jay, let me help!” He didn’t respond except to shake his head negatively. I dropped long enough to check on the girls. Pulses steady, they were just low on energy. He must have borrowed from them, the bastard. Why couldn’t he have waited five minutes for me to get there? I tested the barrier spell, and got a nasty burn for my efforts. “Ow! Damn you, Wizard!” I screamed. He just turned his drawn face to me and smiled, the one that turns my heart over in my chest. He pointed towards Daphne, and I saw how much strain she was under. She was screaming her soul out, even if Jay had muted it down. I looked closer, and I saw one of Jay’s personal energy crystals around Daph’s neck, and he had the match around his own. “No, you asshole! Don’t you do this to me!” I screamed. I tried to jump into the barrier, but Peter had my arms pinned. “Let me go, Peter! He’s going to give his life-force to Daphne to keep her alive! In the state he’s in, that’ll kill him!”

 “Dammit, I know! I won’t lose both of you at once! I can’t stop him, but I CAN stop you!” He threw me to the floor, and pinned me with his weight. “It’s his choice, Jacqueline, and we can’t stop him. We owe it to him to respect his wishes.” He turned his head long enough to salute our brother/lover. “We knew this was likely to happen sooner or later, Jackie! Remember what we planned?” he bellowed into my ear over the crackling of the barrier spell. “He’s not getting away from us that easily, baby!” The reincarnation spell! If he died from this idiocy, his soul would be captured while I grew him a new body in my womb! I let my tears flow, as I laughed from the supreme jest we were putting over on him. I managed to get Peter off of me and we managed to get the girls awake and moving.

 “What’s he doing, you guys?” Suzanne asked.  Noone said anything as we watched Jay cut into his chest with a dagger, smearing his crystal and Daphne’s with his blood, and painting some designs onto her stomach with the rest.

 “He’s saving Daphne’s life, Suzie. Problem is, he’s going to use his own life to do it.” I was kneeling on the floor with my arms wrapped around my knees. “He’s sacrificing himself to give Daphne the energy to bring her baby into the world. It’s the second- or third-greatest thing I’ve ever seen him do.” Pam was crying into Rebecca’s shirt. “Pam, please. We owe it to him to watch.” I tugged on her shirt and she sat down next to me, Becca taking the other. Inside the barrier, Jay was pressing on Daphne’s belly, helping her push. I saw the barrier flicker with the force of will he was driving behind his motions, but I wasn’t going to interfere. He stepped back, and the barrier stabilized. The crystals around their necks were glowing with a red light, the hue of the blood both of them were shedding. The girls squeezed me between them, but I didn’t mind. I felt Peter pulling Suzanne down, and he was holding her hand between both of his. Suddenly, the crackling sound of the barrier died down. Jay turned around and looked directly at the five of us, and spoke. “I love you best of all.” It was from one of his favorite stories as a child; a mother tells each of her children that just before she dies, and means it every time. I wailed in anguish, and I heard Peter choke back a sob.

 With a resolved look on his face, blood and sweat streaking down his face, he turned back around to Daphne, and kissed her, long and hard. We didn’t hear what he said, but we probably didn’t need to. He wrapped his fingers around both of their necklaces, raised his head to the heavens and shouted the words to the life-transfer spell. He shuddered with the force being drained from him, but he managed to get back down to between Daphne’s legs. With a final convulsion, I watched him press both of his hands down on her belly, and with a primal cry of birth, Daphne’s son was born. Jason’s rock-steady hands pulled little David Breenan free of his mother’s body, and he laid the newborn tenderly on his mother’s breast. He cut the umbilical cord and tied it off. There were white streaks racing back through his hair, and he was aging as we watched. With a chuck of his spindly, liver-spotted hands he lifted the baby’s face towards his, and dropped a kiss on his forehead. He gave one to Daphne as well, before he walked over to the far side of the barrier and sat down, an old man. He gestured, and Daphne was lowered back to the floor. The barrier flickered, and died. We snapped out of our collective daze, and sprinted across the floor. Suzanne and the girls checked on Daphne and little David while Peter and I raced for our beloved. I got there just ahead of Peter, but we were both too late. With the same quirky smile he’d used whenever he was being clever, Jay closed his eyes and died.

END CHAPTER 010