Unexpected

adjective- not expected or regarded as likely to happen.

Brilliant deduction dictionary (detect the sarcasm).

He's going to kill you.

No he won't. If it had been up to me, Xandrell wouldn't even be living with us.

He'll still kill you. His first born. They have a random guy living with them because of you.

I swallowed and did my best to drown out the voice in my head before walking out the back door and into the garden. My mother was the first to spot me. "Amy, when did you get in? Oh it doesn't matter. Look, Dad's home!"

My father turned to look at me, a grin plastered across his face. "My God, where has my little girl gone?" he pondered getting to his feet.

I rolled my eyes. "You've been gone about two months Dad."

"I know but still you look like you've aged at least a year." he said putting his hands on my shoulders and looking down at me. "When I left I swear to God you only looked about fourteen. Now you look at least seventeen."

I smiled, trying to fight down the little bubble of pride swelling in my chest. "I guess I've grown up a bit."

"Yeah. She's got a boyfriend now." giggled Jenny.

My father froze. Then very gently pushed me to one side and looked over me to where Xandrell was stood in the doorway. "Is that him, Amy?" he muttered.

I nodded. "Dad, Xandrell. Xandrell, Dad."

Xandrell grinned his annoyingly happy grin and held out a hand to my father. "Pleasure to meet you Mr Wren."

Dad narrowed his eyes at Xandrell before shaking his hand. "That's General Wren... and the pleasure's all mine." he said in a very severe voice which I'd heard him use only once before when he was dealing with people in his regiment whom he said were a burden on society. In other words, the voice which meant heavy disapproval.

Xandrell obviously sensed this in his voice, since the happiness suddenly dropped to major seriousness. Seriously, for Xandrell, it was like the impossible had happened.

"So..." said my father folding his arms. "You and my Amy?"

Xandrell blushed and looked at his feet. "Yes..." he said somewhat awkwardly.

"I see..." said my father slowly. Then he glanced over his shoulder at my mother. "Is he the one you said about?"

"The one who saved Amy after the accident, yes." she said with a smile.

I slipped my hand into Xandrell's and he gave me a weak smile.

"Amy, step away from him for a second." said my father moving forward. "Go on, get away." I quickly released Xandrell's hand and stepped away a little while my father glared down his nose at Xandrell. They were almost the same height, but it didn't seem that way now. Xandrell seemed small and weak when facing up against my father when angry. He seemed to suddenly change from my gentle loving father, into something massive, like one of those stone idols of a god. "Stand up straight boy." snapped my father. "I can't stand boys who slouch."

"Yes sir." said Xandrell, immediately obeying.

He stood to attention, his face straight, but I could see from the glimmer in his eyes that he was getting increasingly worried while my father speculated him beadily from behind his glasses. After a long moment my father reached out and flicked a lock of his dark hair. "Bit long isn't it?" he mused. "Girlish almost."

"It's the cool style now, Dad." I told him, moving back to Xandrell's side. "I like it."

I felt Xandrell's hand tap mine and I glanced up at him. He was looking down at me, with that adoring light in his eyes again. Oh God, here we go.

But when I glanced up at my father, I could see the harshness in his face slowly wavering, as though he were wilting. Finally he sighed. "Alright then, lovebirds. Have it your way. But you..." He pointed a finger at Xandrell who immediately seemed to tense. "I want no funny business, no cheating, no eyeing up other girls..."

"I wouldn't sir!" said Xandrell firmly.

My father nodded once. "Make sure you don't. Also, both of you, I want to hear no bedsprings in the night, understand?"

"DAD!" I cried, while Jenny collapsed into giggles. "That's just... no... just no!"

He chuckled lightly. "You say that now." he said with a relaxed smile to show he was joking. "Now run along you two."

I felt my heart hammering as I gripped Xandrell's hand and hurried back inside.

"What did he mean by that comment about bedsprings?" asked Xandrell as we ran up the stairs and into my room.

"Believe me, if you don't understand, you don't want to know." I told him, flopping down onto my bed. "I actually thought my Dad was going to freak out."

"So, does this mean he's ok with me?" asked Xandrell sitting carefully down beside me.

I glanced up at him as he picked up my hand and started playing with my fingers. "No." I said quietly. "It means we have to be careful around him from now on though. Think you can handle that? Acting normal until he goes away next?"

"No problem." grinned Xandrell.

It was amazing though, how much of a problem it turned out to be. I woke the next morning, half expecting him to jump out from behind the end of the bed, but instead, when I emerged from my room, it was to see Jenny stood at the bathroom door, speaking to whoever was inside.

"Do you want me to go wake her up then?" she called, to which she got a retching sound in response.

"Who's in there?" I asked moving forward.

She looked up at me. "Oh, I was about to come and get you. It's Xandrell. He's been in there throwing up all morning, and has kept asking for you."

"Bloody hell." I muttered pushing past her and opening the door. If he was asking for me, why didn't she see sense and come and get me?

The stench of the bathroom nearly made me gag too, but I fought to keep the contents of my stomach down. Xandrell was slouched against the wall of the bathroom, shivering. I quickly shut the bathroom door and hoped Jenny would go away, before kneeling down beside him. He turned his grey face to look at me. "Why are you in here." he croaked. "Go away, I don't want you to see me like this!"

"This is new..." I mumbled, reaching out and gently peeling his wet hair away from his sweaty forehead. "You telling me to go away, and me not going."

He weakly caught my hand and sat clutching it. "I can't understand this." he mumbled. "I haven't eaten anything bad, I'm immune to Earth diseases... unless..."

He looked thoughtful for a second, and then he looked revolted and leaned over the toilet bowl to be violently sick again. I sat beside him for most of the morning, holding his clammy forehead carefully when he was sick and just sitting by him, so he wasn't alone. It wasn't fair if I left him on his own. He was a stranger on this planet.

By about lunchtime, he'd finally stopped being sick, and came downstairs. Here came the next part of the weirdness. After actually eating lunch, and holding it down, which was a marvel in itself, since he never ate except for leisure, he curled up on the sofa and fell asleep. I sat watching him as he slept, feeling seriously worried now. All of these things were things Xandrell wouldn't normally do. Sickness, eating, sleeping, this was just too weird. Apparently my mother thought so too, because she began questioning me about it, before flapping about, checking his temperature and such. As it turned out, he was burning up, and Mum began to insist on taking him to a doctor as soon as he woke up... but the thing was, he didn't wake up all day. I wasted the day sitting there with him, waiting for him to sit up, grin his stupid annoying grin, and tell me what was going on, but it seemed it just wasn't happening. At midnight, my father practically carried me up to bed while my mother tucked Xandrell up on the sofa. I couldn't sleep though, my mind on him, and eventually, I just went down and sat beside him again. I couldn't understand it, but for some reason, I suddenly almost felt what I assumed he did, the constant burn to be near the person I loved. For most of the night, he didn't stir, but towards the dawn, he began to groan a little and clutch his stomach. I went and got out a large plastic basin my mother usually used for the washing and put it beside him, just in case. By then, I'd begun to feel very tired. It was about five o'clock when I fell asleep, only to be woken rudely at ten o'clock by Xandrell sitting on my bed.

"Feeling better then?" I muttered rubbing my eyes. "And when did I end up here?"

"Your dad brought you up here earlier." said Xandrell. "You were so crashed you didn't even stir. And yes I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday thanks, but your mother's still given us both a day off school."

School?... oh, of course, it was Monday... I'd be receiving urgent texts all day asking where I was then.

We spent much of the day mooching around the house really. Mostly dozing on the sofa together, but there was something troubling me... was it just me, or was Xandrell putting on weight? As in, really fast.

Later that day I found him sitting reading a book of baby names Mum had bought when she'd gotten pregnant.

"Why are you reading that?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I found a name here I like almost as much as I love the name Amy."

"Yeah?" I asked, trying to disguise the disgusted look creeping onto my face when he said about my name. "What name is that then?"

"This one here." he said pointing at the book. "Molly. It's cute isn't it?"

I shrugged. I'd keep it in mind for whenever I had my first child.

The next day we were both back at school, and I began to notice still more changes in Xandrell. When James, Charlie and I were stood together at break, discussing our science lesson, Xandrell had gotten seriously moody and had punched Charlie before stalking off, and when I found him a few minutes later, he was sitting crying. And as the week wore on, I noticed he was eating more and putting on still more weight. As you can imagine, I was beginning to get extremely worried about him, concerned that this sudden decline in his health may be the effects of being on Earth for too long, certainly that seems to be the case even in many humans, but if it was, it would almost certainly mean having to send Xandrell back to his home world.

On Friday, I suggested to my friends that they come round on Sunday, as it was my turn to hold a get together for us, and of course, since Helen and Ceci were now hanging around with my friends more without Sadie, they were invited too. The day rolled around much too quickly, and before I realised where the time had gone, Sunday had arrived, and my concern over Xandrell was peaking. He had swollen up to almost twice his original size and almost seemed to be having trouble walking around, and as for the eating, he had gone from eating absolutely nothing, to absolutely everything, even going as far as to steal my sandwiches. However, I tried very hard not to let it bother me, and tried to just enjoy us being around our friends. They were halfway through a game of 'CyberSuperstar' when Xandrell suddenly groaned and clutched his stomach. Everyone immediately asked what was wrong, but he shrugged it off and began to struggle upstairs. As you've probably already guessed, I followed.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong yet?" I asked as he staggered into my room and collapsed onto my bed.

He looked up at me, his face shining with sweat. "Ok, fine." he groaned. "Tell me, what's the gestation period of humans?"

My mouth dropped open. "That seems a bit of an irrelevant question, but ok... it's about eight months I guess..."

"Yeah." grunted Xandrell, holding his stomach again. "For my species, it's eight days."

And suddenly I realised. The morning sickness, eating more, the putting on weight, the sleeping, the mood swings... holy crap!

"Ok, for one thing, what the hell, you're a boy!" I cried hurrying over to where he was sitting. "And for another what the hell, how in God's name could you be pregnant?!"

"My species breed through entering a completely blissful state with the one they love." groaned Xandrell as his stomach gave a particularly ominous growl. "Then when they touch, there is an exchange of atoms... it's rarely the female who gets pregnant where I'm from."

My jaw dropped another few centimetres. "So... you're honestly telling me... you're having a baby?"

Xandrell yelped in pain, clutching his stomach, before nodding. "Oh my God! This is so painful!" he moaned.

I stared at him helplessly, not knowing what to do. We couldn't go to anyone, they'd demand to know a, why a boy was pregnant, and b, why he was giving birth after eight days!

Suddenly, he yelled in agony and his hands moved up to his chest. "What's going on now?!" I cried, feeling my heart hammering in my ribs.

"It can't get out." he whimpered, his hands moving slowly further up his ribs. There was a sickening crunching sound and I saw him wince. "It's getting out the only way it can!"

Oh god... this was going to be messy...

"You are kidding?!" I cried, but in answer to my question, Xandrell retched. His chest and throat were swelling at an alarming rate, while at the same time, his stomach seemed to be deflating. "Oh hell..." I whispered as Xandrell bent over double, heaving and gasping for air.

Tears were running down his face now. "Stop! Please make it stop!" he sobbed. "Amy, help me!"

"I don't know how!" I cried, feeling tears in my own eyes. I felt a sense of helplessness taking over me. What was I meant to do? I'd only ever known it to be a woman in this position, and the women I knew hadn't been puking up their babies.

Xandrell screamed in pain, and when he tried to draw breath, it caught in his throat. He was choking. What the hell was I meant to do? The Heimlich manoeuvre or something? As I watched, Xandrell's lips started to turn blue... screw it, it didn't look like I had any other choice.

I dashed forward and put my hands around his middle as they'd shown us to in a first aid course I'd done and began jerking my hands upwards into his shattered ribs, hard. He made a strange sound which I vaguely recognised as a groan, probably through his nose. He was gagging again but when I looked round at him, I realised that whatever was in his throat was coming up into his mouth. His eyes were wild and frantic, but at the same time, seemed faded and dull. Something bad was going to happen if I didn't do all I could. I put my hands on his midriff again and tried to force the thing upwards and out. He made a strangled sound and something fell out of his mouth and just hung there. Xandrell retched again before falling to his knees. The thing fell a little further, but he couldn't hold himself up. His arms gave way and he lay on his side, fierce tremors rocketing through him. He was still heaving hopefully and he began punching himself weakly in his now flat stomach. I carefully took hold of whatever was coming out of his mouth and began to pull very gently, trying desperately to help. His eyes were rolling now, I wondered if he was looking for me.

"Come on!" I whispered urgently. "You're almost there... stay with me here!"

His eyes slipped closed and his hands twitched weakly against his stomach. He retched again, but this time, after it he relaxed. His body stopped convulsing and almost seemed to sag. I pulled on the thing coming out of him and it came easily. I didn't look at it, my thoughts on Xandrell again. His breathing was so shallow and slow now. I wondered, if I could fix whatever damages that thing had done to him, he'd be ok. I wrenched his wristwatch off of him, and fiddled with the dials as I'd seen him do, before rolling him onto his back.

"I hope this works..." I muttered, before pressing the Vederic into his chest.

His body jumped like he'd been shocked by a defibrillator, like they do on the medical programmes. His eyes snapped open and his breathing suddenly became a lot faster and deeper as he stared up at me. "Bloody hell." he whispered. "Just shoot me through with five thousand volts Amy, I don't mind."

"Oh my God, I'm sorry!" I cried, staring at the Vederic. "I don't know how to work it!"

Xandrell sighed and grabbed it off me before altering it slightly and pressing it into one of his ribs. "Maybe next time, I'll get to show you how to use it before you kill me."

"I'm sorry!" I said again. "How did you manage to survive being shocked with that much though?"

"I'm an alien!" he shrugged. "It takes more than that to kill me."

I smiled a little before turning my attention to the little red and peach coloured thing lying on my bedroom floor. "Xandrell..." I murmured. "It hasn't cried..."

"They don't tend to." he said sitting up shakily. "Usually, they're barely out, they're wandering around making conversation. My species has a very advanced mindset."

"You don't say." I muttered weakly, still staring at the creature, my mind numb. "What is it anyway?"

Xandrell chuckled and took off his jumper before carefully wrapping up the creature in it. "She's a half human, half Maleof hybrid." he whispered, a strange kind of awe in his voice. "That explains why she isn't already at toddler stage."

I blinked. "She?" I squeaked.

Xandrell looked down into the face of the creature. Slowly a smile crept onto his face. The same sort of smile he'd used to smile at me. "Molly..." he whispered. Slowly he moved towards me and placed her in my arms. "Go to Mummy, Molly." he murmured.

I stared down at the tiny baby in my arms while she stared back... her head was covered in a jet black fuzz and her bright blue baby eyes had flecks of green in them... 'go to mummy'... oh my God... I could feel a bubble like something in my chest, inflating.

Suddenly she reached up with her tiny star shaped hand. "Mummy?" she said, clear as day.

I was so shocked, I nearly dropped her. I covered my mouth with one hand and stared at her. "What did you say?"

"Mummy." she repeated, gently touching the side of my face.

I suddenly felt as though the bubble in my chest would burst. I was sure my heart was overflowing with love for the baby girl in my arms. I carefully adjusted her so I was holding her securely before leaning back against the bed frame, smiling down at her.

"She... she's..." I struggled to find the right words.

"Perfect." whispered Xandrell in my ear and I turned to look at him. He grinned down at me before pressing his lips against mine a very sweet and innocent kiss.

Just at that moment, the door opened and we both whipped around to see who was there.

"I just came to make sure everything was alright... am I interrupting?" asked Ceci.