Eniola practically screeched in relief. May lived. The baby lived. And she was going to see them now. Tears started pooling in her eyes as she walked into the hallway of rooms. The android stopped in front of a room that was locked by a code. It crunched it in and the doors slid open revealing a small hospital room. Screens and vials filled up one side of the square room, and the bed took up the centre stage.

“Eniola!” Olu said, running up to give her a long hug she could feel his emotions pour out of. When they pulled away, Eniola saw how his eyes were puffy and rimmed in red.

“Thank you for being here,” Olu said. “It feels much easier, knowing you’re here.”

“Of course,” Eniola said, as Olu moved out of the way revealing a girl lying on a bed. May was in a hospital gown and they tied her afro into a hairnet. Her face was slick with a sheen layer of sweat and her eyes were barely open. Eniola slowly walked over to her.

“What happened?” Eniola asked.

“I was just worried for not a lot,” he casually explained, with a laugh. “The baby was born perfectly fine and the delivery just took longer because of May’s condition, but it was mostly safe. No one was at true risk.” Eniola sighed in relief at the news. So the nurses were just ominous.

“Why did it come so early?” Eniola asked curiously.

“The doctors are saying it’s because of that weird glitch,” Olu explained, and for a moment her face went blank. “The whole atmospheric change in the world somehow caused May to go into early labour. I don’t know how it worked.”

Eniola simply looked at him. For a moment, all blame came onto her. They were fighting Paradox which caused the glitch and caused May’s early delivery. But they wouldn’t need to fight if it weren’t for him. If it weren’t for Keone or Paradox or whoever he might be now in his broken state. It was technically his fault. Her shoulders slung.

“What’s wrong?” Olu asked, snapping Eniola out of her thoughts.

“Nothing,” she quickly said. “It’s just so surprising.” He nodded at her in agreement. Eniola quickly went for the bed May was on.

“May,” Eniola whispered. “Hey.”

Her eyes fluttered open. “Hey, Eni.”

“Hey,” Eniola said. “How do you feel?”

“Half-dead,” she jokes and Eniola snickered.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Eniola said. “I was worried sick.”

“Me too,” May said. “But I’m just tired right now. Pushing a human out of you does that. And I better savour it. With this baby, we’re gonna need all the sleep we can get.”

“Get rest,” she told her. Eniola didn’t know what else to say. May and she used to be close, gaming with each other and sharing some conversations while Olu was at home, but three years without talking to someone made you awkward.

“Eni,” Olu says to her. “Do you want to come and meet your niece?”

Niece. The word feels weird to Eniola. She had a niece. She was an auntie. The baby was a girl. That was like one step away from being a mother or something.

“I would love to,” Eniola said with a smile. She followed him out into the hall and another room with clear windows. There are rows and rows of new babies in clear white pods with holographic screens floating above them with their names and their weights and birth time, reacting to the new world they’re in. Olu stopped in front of one and Eniola stopped with him. There’s no name like the other babies, but the weight is there.

Eniola peered forward, and a small breath came out of her there. There’s a small dark-skinned baby, small eyes closed, with a little layer of black hair. She’s skinnier and taller than the other babies and not as taught, but her chest rises and falls with each precious breath. The diaper almost looks to be eating her up.

This was her niece. A new member of her family. Eniola looked at Olu, who had nothing but tears in his eyes as he gazed at his daughter.

“I can’t believe this tiny squishy human is mine,” Olu said, tears choking him up, and Eniola laughed at his analogy. She had always known him to be an amazing brother, someone who cared. Seeing him as a father would be interesting, but Eniola knew that he would be good at it.

A realization occurred to her. “What are you going to name her?”

“Adeola,” Olu said. “We chose that name a couple of months ago.”

“It’s beautiful,” Eniola said, before grabbing his hand as he began sobbing, tears streaming down his face.

“What if I’m not ready?” he suddenly said. “I’ve never raised a child before. Or what if my dad jokes aren’t funny?”

Eniola laughed at the last one before she moved to calm him. “Dad jokes are never meant to be funny, and I know you’ll do great. You care for other people, and I’m sure you’ll love her so much.”

“Thanks,” he said, side hugging her. “It’s even better than she was born the day her auntie won the SCOPE championships. “We watched the stream. You guys won!”

Eniola smiled. She almost forgot while lingering in the hospital, “Yeah, we did.”

“Did the glitch affect the game?” he asked. “It was so weird. Suddenly the world exploded into all these colours and froze for 2 seconds.”

Eniola was about to say she caused the glitch but decided otherwise. “I didn’t notice. I thought it was a game.”

“Oh,” he agrees. “Well, that’s fun. At least you won, and they didn’t stop the championships.”

“Yeah,” Eniola faintly replied.

Suddenly a nurse-droid wheeled in. “Visiting hours end in 10 minutes.” It repeats until it went away.

“You should head out,” he said.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Eniola asked. “I can totally stay.”

“You need to celebrate with your friends,” Olu insisted. “Go.”

“Okay!” she exclaimed, looking once at the baby and then hugging Olu before she walked out. She faced forward before stopping in her tracks.

In the hallway are Eniola’s parents.

“Eniola!” her dad yelled. “Come back! You delayed our moving to New York. “We almost called the police until I realized you were back in Los Angeles again.”

“She’s staying with me,” Olu intervened, coming out from the hallway. “And how did you get here?”

“We were contacted automatically because we’re still registered as next of kin because of the risk,” her dad explained and focused on Eniola. “This is about my child. You will not break down this family anymore than you have.”

“I’m still your son, and I always wanted to be,” Olu admitted. “You just had a grandchild, and yet you’re still hung up on the fact that May had this condition. And look at Eniola, she just won 40,000 dollars doing what she loved. 40,000!”

“Eniola, you will come back!” her mom said, flat out ignoring Olu.

Eniola stayed silent. This was the true choice. She wanted to play SCOPE, but she couldn’t just say no to her parents like that. “What do you choose?”

Eniola stayed silent, looking back and forth between her parents and Olu. Why did she have to choose between her family? “I want to be happy and follow my dreams.”

“You have made your choice, Eniola,” her dad says. “You are no longer part of this family.”

“I want to be happy and I want to play SCOPE,” Eniola confirmed. “I want to follow my dreams.” She restated it again so that they’d know. For once, she was going to make this choice.

“We’ll be in New York when you change your mind,” her mom said, before they walked away, fuming with anger.

“Eniola,” Olu began before Eniola collapsed into his chest, tears falling from her eyes as her throat began narrowing. She sniffled erratically and swallowed as she cried into his chest and Olu held her. Why had they just left her? They were her parents. They were supposed to believe in her. And now they left. She didn’t feel bold, she just wanted to be still.

“It’ll be okay, Eniola,” he told her, as the tears continued in an ugly sob. Her sobs came out in choking, inconsistent sounds. “You can stay with me.”

“Okay,” she said, letting it all out before pulling away, still wiping her eyes frequently. There was now a huge water stain on his shirt. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Olu said. “I’ll always be there for you.”

Suddenly a figure came into the hallway. It was Jay. Eniola quickly wiped her eyes and wiped away her sniffles, and plastered on a smile.

“Go to your boyfriend,” Olu teased. Eniola turned back to him and smacked his arm playfully.

“Where is everyone?” Eniola asked.

“They’re in the cafeteria,” Jay said. “I wanted to talk to you alone.”

“Oh,” Olu said lingering and Eniola wished he didn’t, as she hung her head down. Jay couldn’t see her like this and Olu couldn’t see Jay seeing her like this.

“Jay,” Eniola said. “This is my brother. Olu.”

“Hey!” Jay said excitedly, but Olu didn’t say hi back. He stayed quiet and analyzed him coldly despite just gushing over being a father minutes ago. Eniola’s gaze moves over to Jay and his smile stays forced while a bead of sweat travels down his forehead. The height difference is staggering, but that doesn’t stop Jay from being scared.

“What’s up?” Olu says, breaking into the bright demeanour Eniola has always known. Olu smiles before hugging him.

“I’m great!” Jay said in a higher voice, hinting at his nervousness.

“That’s good,” Olu said, before looking at them and putting his hands on his shoulder. “I’m going to leave you, two kids, alone.”

Olu disappeared before giving her a wink. She covered her face in embarrassment as they sit down.

“He seems nice,” Jay sighed with a wry laugh.

“He’s even better when you get to know him,” Eniola told him. “I’m living with him now.”

“What about your parents?” Jay asked.

“They disowned me,” Eniola says, and the sniffles threaten to come back. A tear drips down her cheek, but then a soft brush wipes it away. Her gaze goes up to Jay, who’s looking at her fondly.

“What happened?” he said. “ If you want to say.”

“We got into an argument and they told me I wasn’t their daughter anymore,” Eniola said. “I just wanted them to support my dreams, but they just left me. Now I live with my brother.”

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers. He doesn’t say more, and Eniola can guess why. He can’t relate. He left his father in Texas and his mother left him. He’s never had his parents disown him. But Eniola can feel his sympathy. He reached forward and placed his hand gently on her cheeks before he brushed them with the pads of his thumbs. Her heart began beating fast.

“It’s fine,” Eniola sniffled, letting him caress her cheeks and keep his gaze on her. “What about you?”

“It looks like I’m staying In San Francisco. Theos’ parents have welcomed me with open arms. Might as well stay since I still don’t know where I am with my Dad and Soyeon,” he said, pointing to his stomach. “Might just gain a few with how they might feed me.” She covered her mouth and laughed. It felt nice to laugh again after everything that took place.

“I live in a different city now,” Eniola said. “I don’t know how to split my time now.”

“Rogue will be here plenty and will be all over California,” Jay said. “We’re Rogue, we’ll get through it together.”

Eniola had never thought Jay would be truly together with Rogue, but so much changed in the last 10 days. Nothing would be the same again, and that was the best part.

Jay gave her a bright smile so wide that she thought he could explode from happiness. And then that’s when his gaze moved lower. He looked hesitant, like he wanted to do something but was being held back. Did he want to kiss her again?

Eniola thought of Keone again and the day at the arena. So many things had happened since then, and maybe things would change.

Eniola stared at his deep brown eyes before moving closer to him, so that she was sitting right under his chin. She suddenly grabbed his chin and pulled his head forward and kissed him, full of emotions. Jay froze in shock against her, before easing into the kiss. It was soft and chaste and only lasted for a couple of seconds before they both pulled away.

His eyes seemed to be studying and looking deep into her, instead of analysis. Jay then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in deeply for another kiss.

Eniola’s eyes were wide open at the sudden wanting but then sighed into him loudly as she ran hands through his jet black hair. The kiss was deeper and more longing like he was trying to tell her how much he liked her. His soft lips moved against hers in one fluid motion and his hands moved against her back softly. He grasped her tighter before she was suddenly swept up onto his lap. She sighed loudly again.

When they finally pulled away, Eniola rested her forehead onto his, as her mouth crept into a satisfied smile. They were both heavily breathing. Eniola started up into the brown eyes that had captivated her from the beginning, as he smiled too.

“Wow,” she said casually.

“Wow. We just made out in a maternity ward,” he said back, as they both broke into awkward laughter. Eniola looked around to see some curious gazes on them, including neutral tones from the nurse-droids. Her cheeks went sweltering with heat as she climbed off his lap.

“I like you, Eniola,” he confessed, as he both intertwined their fingers. “Not sure if you knew that or anything.”

Eniola laughed and then rolled her eyes at the joke. “And I like you too, Jay,” she confessed back.

“What does this mean?” Jay asked. “What are we now?”

“I don’t know,” Eniola said. “I think I might need some more time to figure this out. I like you a lot, but maybe we might be moving into this a bit fast.”

His smile dropped for a second. “Then I’d be happy to wait,” Jay said, squeezing her hand. “You know that.” His words said fine, but Eniola felt that he was more disappointed than it seemed.

“I do,” Eniola replied. “I like you a lot.”

“Me too,” he confirmed once again, before kissing her forehead softly. “Now let’s get back to everyone before they get too suspicious.”

That cut through the remaining tension, as Eniola slightly giggled. He got up to go back to the hospital cafeteria, and she followed next to him. He suddenly intertwined their fingers together again, despite the massive size difference Eniola now realized. But it didn’t matter.

Eniola could get used to this. She could get used to all the new changes in her life now.