Happy Birthday to You (Birthday Trilogy, Book 3) by Brian Rowe

we
got there.”
    “Got where?”
    Liesel slowly veered from the I-5 to the
CA-14 freeway.
    “Where are you going?” I asked. “We just
came from this way.”
    “We needed the weapons.”
    “We’re not going all the way back to
Reno, are we?”
    “No.”
    “Then where?”
    I looked at the determination on Liesel’s
face, and I realized just how helpless I was in the current situation. It
reminded me of when I was a child, both back when I was a real child years ago,
and back when I was an eighteen-year-old in a baby’s body last April. I was
able to make decisions for myself in both of my previous aging conditions, but this
time, I was a blind traveler in the midst of a never-ending forest. Without
Liesel, I wouldn’t have a clue how to accomplish anything—how to find
Hannah, how to kill Hannah, even that I needed to find and kill Hannah. I would’ve watched my little sister and parents
grow a year older every day, until they passed away, until everyone I knew lay
dead in front of me, and I’d be left with nothing. Liesel was the key to fixing
this unthinkable problem. I needed to just sit back, shut up, and let her do
the talking and decision-making. I knew she wasn’t God, but I knew she was my
best chance for ensuring the safety of my loved ones.
    It had been at least a minute since I’d
asked Liesel where we were going. She hadn’t answered me. I decided not to
press the matter any further. I knew that in a short amount of time I’d
discover the secret destination.  
    I tried to forget about all of our
problems for a moment, and I instead analyzed Liesel from head to toe.
Considering the enormous amount of pressure she’d been under in the last few
days, I was surprised to note just how pretty she looked, particularly with the
sun hitting her the way it was. Her red hair was messy and dangling below her
shoulders, the cute little freckles on her face were exposed for the whole world
to see, and a light shade of pink lipstick covered her thin, somewhat dry lips.
Her eyes finally made their way toward mine.
    “What are you looking at?” she asked.
    “Just you.”
    “Really?” she asked with a chuckle. “The
world’s about to end, and you’re thinking about sex ?”
    “ What ?”
I shouted with a smile, as Liesel picked up even more speed and started heading
toward Palmdale. “Just because I’m admiring you doesn’t mean I want to have sex with you!”
    “Of course it does.”
    “Sex entered my mind only, like, ten or twelve
times in the last few seconds.”
    “Ha. I rest my case.”
    “I’m allowed to want to have sex with
you. You’re my wife.”
    “I know.”
    “My pregnant wife.”
    It was funny. Throughout all this
madness, the fact that Liesel was pregnant seemed to be the furthest thing from
my mind. It had startled me on Friday night in Washington D.C. when Liesel
threw the factoid out there like it was a minor afterthought. But it occurred
to me that I hadn’t even thought about her pregnancy once all day. I looked
down at her belly to see it flat as ever. It didn’t look like she had a baby in
there.
    “Speaking of you being pregnant…” I
started.
    “This outta be good,” she said.
    “Umm… we haven’t really discussed…”
    “What?”
    “You know… you being a witch and all.
Does that alter the whole nine month process? Do you
give birth really fast? Or…”
    “I’m not a witch anymore,” she said.
“Remember? I have no powers.”
    “But you’re still you.”
    “The powers are gone, Cam. For all
intensive purposes, I’m now just like any other normal human being.”
    “So you won’t be giving birth for a
while.”
    “Not for many, many months to come. I’m
only six and a half weeks along.”
    “But say you did have your powers.”
    She turned to me and didn’t say a word.
    “Say you could somehow get your powers
back from Hannah,” I continued. “Would that affect the pregnancy?”
    She shook her head. “Cam, I’d love to
tell you this