Bonding

Sid and Kate

by Jo and Stacey

Sid had come home from the Aubrey wedding reception, slipping quietly into his house and making his way to the bedroom. Katherine was sleeping, SJ nestled in the crook of her arm, one tiny hand curved over a breast still bare from where she had untied the front of her gown and recently nursed the newborn.

He stared at them a long time. A family. His family. He...he...had a family. He felt this almost overpowering mixture of attachment, possessiveness, pride...and something else he had no real name for. Gently he lifted the sleeping babe and cradled him in his arms, very aware of the contrast between the little bundle of human flesh and the power that lay in his nanomuscles. This was...his. His. And now that he had SJ nothing, no one, would ever take him from him. No one could, neither by power or by law. He smiled and walked to the window so the light would shine on the baby's features, features so like his own...straight brows, cleft chin, bow-shaped mouth. As he was studying the tiny lips, SJ began to make little sucking movements in his sleep and Sid inserted the tip of his little finger, delighted beyond measure when the baby sucked contentedly on it.

Kate suddenly became aware that SJ was no longer in her arms. Horrified that she'd dozed off and dropped him, she flung open her eyes and sat bolt right up in bed.

"Oh, no! SJ!" she cried, as she frantically felt around in the dark for her newborn child, "Mummy's sorry! So, so sorry!"

Sid sat quickly on the edge of the bed. "Shhh! I've got him. I have our son right here in my arms."  He flipped the switch on the bedtable lamp.

Kate let out a sigh of relief as the realization set in that Sid had taken the baby from her arms. "Oh Sid, thank God you have him. When I didn't feel him in my arms, I panicked... I thought..." She wiped away at the tears that had begun rolling down her cheeks, attempting to compose herself.

"Just look at you two, though," Kate smiled, "You're a natural with him, Sid."

"He's my son," Sid beamed. "He's part of me. I...," he looked at Katherine, "I really didn't know it would be like this." Looking at her affectionately, he added, "Thank you for gestating him for me."

Kate tilted her head and smiled, "Thank you for helping to create him with me. Much more fun than the gestating part of it." She placed a hand lovingly on SJ's head, "He's quite perfect, isn't he then. Just like his dad."

SJ still sucked away at Sid's fingertip. He was utterly enthralled by it. "Yes, he is perfect." He lifted his head, looking up at the ceiling. "And I shall do everything possible to make him as much like me as he can be."

"He's lucky to have you," Kate said, leaning her head on Sid's shoulder as she watched SJ, "we both are."

Her expression changed a bit as she suddenly thought about what her life would have been like if Sid had never come into her life the way he did. What kind of life would SJ have had being brought up by Colin? The man was barely able to take care of himself, much less a wife or a baby! Kate shuddered at the thought of Colin's rough, grease covered hands holding SJ, and she held onto Sid even tighter.

The longer he was around SJ the more Sid kept realizing how much it meant to him to have the boy. And after what he'd done to alter the DNA, SJ actually did belong to him in a way. Colin's contribution was as nothing to his own. The man was a dullard, a bore, uncivilized and worthless. No, SJ could not
possibly have ended up with the likes of him, growing up thinking a grease can was a playtoy. SJ deserved the best and SJ had it. SJ had HIM!

SJ suddenly began to wiggle his little feet and hands and then let out a string of wails, startling both Kate and Sid from their thoughts.

Sid's eyes widened. "What's wrong with him?" He held him out toward Katherine.

Kate couldn't help but giggle, "No worries, darling, he's not broken or anything... just hungry by the sound of it." She sat back in the bed again and propped her pillow behind herself. "Here, hand him off to me," she told Sid, reaching out.

An intense look filled his eyes as he watched her undo her top, bringing one full, round, delicious breast into view. SJ latched onto it with his mouth, curving one tiny hand up over its fullness. Sid thought about that for a while. The breast was... his. Well, if this was how SJ got his required nourishment...for now... he'd permit it, but only for now. The other breast still lay tucked beneath lace. He sat down on the bed, placing a palm over that one.