Cameron was sitting at his consol, the webcam was recording his every move and expression. He was methodically moving through the game, taking out one player after another. He could see the comments from his fans in the livestream below. He wasn’t feeling that great, but that was normal for the past several months. He hadn’t let his performance suffer yet, nor would he.  Although it was harder tonight. The pains in his stomach had gotten worse and he just wanted to rest. 

He was putting the finishing move on another player to cheers of his coworkers behind him and the fans watching, when he felt pain rip across his stomach like never before. Screaming and dropping his hands from the keyboard, Cameron practically fell out of his chair. Akira rushed forward, and caught him. He gently lowered Cameron onto the floor and held him, asking if everything was alright.

“Help me.” Cameron asked in a weak voice.

 

 

Ezza and Zas met at the front door. They were both done for the day, and glad to be home, it was still a few hours until Cameron would be home. Zas unlocked the door and let Ezza in a head of him. Passing by she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. 

“Oh, did you miss me Love? Do we need to ‘catch up’ with each other?” Zas asked reaching for her. Ezza laughed and stepped out of his reach.

“Uh uh.” She said waggling her finger at him. “I have to go to the washroom, and you have work to do before Cameron comes home and takes over the office.” 

Zas sighed as she disappeared down the hall. She was right, but he didn’t have to like it. Cameron was now on days, except the occasional night tournament, like had last night. Sighing, he headed into the office to write his article. He was typing away when he heard something snuffling. He paused for a few moments, then when he didn’t hear anything, he started typing again.

Ezza was just washing her hands when she heard a high pitched cry. Drying them on the towel, she walked out of the bathroom and met Zas in the hallway.

“Did you hear that?” He asked her. She nodded. It had stopped for the moment, they stood listening. It started up a little louder than last time, and went on longer. Ezza followed the sounds to Cameron’s bedroom. Opening the door the cries were deafening. Ezza entered the room to see a bassinet stuffed in the corner of Cameron’s room between the dresser and the wall.

Walking over she saw a small baby inside of it screaming. Peeking over her shoulder Zas’s eyes widened.

“Is that…?” Zas asked, wonder in his voice.

“A baby? Yeah, but what is it doing here?” Ezza wondered. She reached down and picked up the little one. Cuddling it to her chest, she felt all sorts of things, then she felt it’s mouth.

“Oh! I think it’s hungry.” She said with a giggle.

“How can you tell?” Zas asked her skeptically. 

“It’s trying to feed.” Ezza explained. Zas’s eyes grew wide. After lecturing the baby about using other people’s girlfriends, he went out to rustle up some milk for the babe. He brought it back in and Ezza fed the baby.

Once it was fed, it started to sleep. Zas reminded Ezza that it needed to go back in the bassinet after awhile.

Eventually she did reluctantly, now they just needed to talk to Cameron. After putting the baby back, they discussed how it should go.

 

 

 

“Hold it right there!” Cameron heard Ezza say to him. He was trying to sneak into his room. He had had a long day, and had gotten home later than anticipated. He needed to get to his room, he had something in there to take care of. Sighing he stopped and turned towards her.

“Look Pretty Baby, I’m pretty sure whatever it is can wait. I’m a little busy, I need to do something. I’ll be in my room.” He turned away towards the hall.

“If it’s feeding the baby, we’ve already done that. Zas is washing it right now. Who knows how that’s going.” Ezza said, she hoped he was alright. Cameron had frozen in place, and was staring at her when Zas came down the hall holding the baby in his arms and making cooing noises at the baby.

“Hey pal, wanna explain?” Zas asked nodding at the squirming bundle in his arms. Cameron sighed. He went at sat down at their dining room table.

“I’m not ‘cuddly’ anymore as you can see. Do you know why?” Cameron asked. He was still tired from the previous night and didn’t really want to do this, but he knew he wasn’t getting out of it. Zas and Ezza looked at him for the first time since the night before. He had really shed all the weight.

“Turns out the Intelligence Program I got drafted for, was actually an Intelligence Breeding Program. They took the smartest minds they could find and started the next generation. They need tacticians and strategists, scientists to further their goals. I was part of it, didn’t get asked. That’s where the weight came from, that’s why I’ve been eating so much.” Cameron said. He was embarrassed; embarrassed he hadn’t seen through it, embarrassed that he’d fallen for it, embarrassed that at the moment he just didn’t care about any of it- just that little package that Zas was still holding.

“How?” Ezza asked. This was her wheel house and she’d never heard of anything like it.

“That also still doesn’t explain the most important part!” Zas said in a ferocious whisper.

“One of our allies people breed like that. The woman impregnate the men, the Council studied their biology and mimicked it. Those pills were what did it. It was part science to make our kind and the humans more susceptible to it, part of our breeding waters- you remember that pool? Also, it had parts of our chosen breeding partner, the part we’d need to actually get preggo.”

“A) Ew, and B) Still mad. I’m actually disgusted with you right now, and that’s after everything we’ve done to get here, and knowing what you did. Gross you ate part of someone.” Zas said cringing.

“I didn’t know! Why are you so upset anyways? It wasn’t you they did it to.” Cameron said defending himself.

“You left the baby all alone, in your room and left. Gone, not near by, nowhere to be found.” Zas said heat in his voice. “Babies need care, they need love! You can’t just leave it like a tablet somewhere!”

“I fed it and changed it before I left!” Cameron said in his defence.

“Oh Cameron.” Ezza said, pity evident in her voice.

“It could have died! It needs to be fed on a regular basis, changed, cuddled, talked to! It’s not a robot!” Zas had started yelling, the baby in his arms crying from the sudden loud noises.

“Give me my baby.” Cameron said reaching for it. Hearing it cry tore something inside of him and he just had to hold it.

“Oh now you want it. No, you haven’t earned the right to.” Zas said pulling away from Cameron’s reach.

“Zas! It’s Cameron’s Baby. Give it back.” Ezza admonished. She got up and went over to where the two of them were. Cameron leaned forward and plucked his baby out of Zas’s arms.

“Give me my son.” He said. He was furious. His cold voice startled everyone in the room, including himself and the baby who had gone silent. He stood up and went walking towards his room.

 

He had just finished feeding the baby and laid it in its bassinet (curtesy of the Council ‘for everything he had gone through’) and had just changed clothes, when he heard a knock at his door. Then it opened and Ezza peeked inside.

 

“Hey.” Was all she said before coming in, Zas behind her. She reached back and gave Zas a slap on the chest once they reached where Cameron was standing.

“Sorry, sort of.” Zas said, Ezza sighed and Zas continued. “Fine, I shouldn’t have yelled, but I was very mad. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I was wrong.”

Cameron smiled that was as close to an apology as he was going to get.

“It’s okay, I have no idea what I’m doing. I want to be the Father I never had, but I don’t know how. I was raised in an orphanage after my Mother died, I barely remember anything.” Cameron said quietly. It was true and he felt so lost.

“Well for starters don’t leave it alone anymore, and stop stuffing it in the corner. Also feed it, clothe it, bath it, by the Mates change it, and show some love.” Zas fired off his list. Cameron’s eyes widened at the huge list, this was more complicated than he had thought.

“Well, baby steps.” Ezza said noticing the look on Cameron’s face at Zas’s list. She wandered over and picked up up the baby while they talked “We could stop calling the baby an it and give it a name. Have you thought of one?”

Cameron smiled to himself as he watched her. Then gave her question some serious thought.

“I decided to name after the two most influential people in my life. The ones who helped shape who I am today.” Cameron said with a smile. Ezza smiled encouragingly at him. “Nigel, after my  Father. I am what I am today because I wanted to stop the Council from tearing apart families like mine, for destroying him. Su is the other name I chose. Short for Tetsu, the man I most admired and wanted to be like. Nigel Su, my son.” Cameron said as he gazed down at the baby, a prideful smile on his face.