Reconciliation

Chapter 12

“Are You Ready for This, Ben?”

“I can’t believe I’m really going to do this,” Ben texted Gwen and Kevin, but I did promise to help him.”

“You never promised to do this with him,” an angry text from Kevin came back.

Tired of typing in everything he wanted to say, Ben hit the speed dial and called Kevin.

“Kev, I know how much you’re against this idea, but he is going to die if I don’t!”

“Let ‘im die then!” was the reply.

 Ben looked at his phone in near shock; he couldn’t believe the hate-filled tone in Kevin’s voice.

The call waiting beep was heard on the line, and Ben said “Hang on Kevin, Gwen’s calling, I’m going to conference her in.”

Before Ben could greet his cousin, Kevin said, “Gwen can you please help me convince him that this is a terrible idea!”

“Ben can be as stubborn as you are, Kevin, you know as well as I do that once he’s made up his mind nothing’s going to change it.”

“But, Ben,” she added, “you do understand what you’re going to have to do to make this happen.”

“Yes, Gwen, I know that Albedo and I are going to have to ‘get together,’ and even though I’m not completely O.K. with this, I’ve agreed to do it.

He heard whimpering from Albedo’s room and went to investigate; “Gwen, Kev, I’ll have to call you back”

“Ben wait,” Gwen managed to get out before Ben shut off his phone.

After he got off the phone, Ben walked into Albedo’s room where his counterpart was napping fitfully and gently shook him.

Groggily, Albedo came to, and for a moment panicked, he thrashed in his bed and gave Ben a right-cross.

“Good morning to you, too,” although it was actually about ten o’clock at night, Ben said rubbing the bruise forming on his left cheek.

“Sorry Ben, I was having a nightmare, I meant you no harm, at least not this time.”

Again, he said it with the same dry wit he had used earlier.

“Good to know, Albedo,” Ben said noticing that despite his humor, his counterpart was sweating and trembling.

Knowing he’d have to get over his squeamishness eventually, he moved to sit beside Albedo on the bed and put an arm around him.

With similar hesitation Albedo reached up and gently placed his hands on either side of Ben’s face and pulled him into a nervous kiss. It was just a light peck at first, gradually becoming deeper and more passionate as they each grew more confident.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Ben?”

“As ready I’ll ever be.”

With a slight smile, Albedo said dryly, “You could put a little more enthusiasm into it.”

Ben smiled back and pulled Albedo into another kiss as he began to undress. Albedo took a moment to really look at Ben; it seemed as if he were really only seeing him for the first time. He had light but firm and well-defined muscle not to mention a few scars, doubtless from battling aliens all these years. His skin was smooth and hairless, except for under his arms, a light dusting of soft brown hair on his legs, and a trail of darker brown hair leading from his navel to below his waistband. Albedo quickly followed suit and undressed as Ben reached over to switch off the bedside lamp

Five weeks later they were back at Plumbers headquarters pacing nervously while awaiting the results of blood tests.

Gwen, Kevin, Rook and Grandpa Max were waiting with them, but were not quite as anxious.

They looked up when the door opened and a Kinceleran (Xcel-R-ate) walked into the room with her long tail swishing behind her, she had a data pad in her hand.

“Well, Doc, what’s the verdict,” Kevin asked her.

Ben and Albedo each looked at Kevin with slightly annoyed expressions but secretly they were glad he had been the one to ask the question.

“It worked,” the alien physician told them “Congratulations Ben, you’re going to be a father, Albedo is pregnant.”

For the third time in as many weeks Ben fainted, but this time Albedo followed suit.

(A/N: I know many of you wanted and even expected it to be the other way around but this is the way I intended it from the beginning)