Alright so I need to get this second half out while I still know what its doing. Then I can crank out the epilogue to Saving the Lost for all you wonderful people that are reading what I post.
Oh yeah and I forgot to mention at the end of the last Author's notes that America appears to be 15, which is why Russia(and myself) kept referring to him as a boy.
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America and Russia never did form the alliance they had talked about. Though both had talked to their bosses. Russia's boss did not think that an alliance with such a young nation would be beneficial to them and America's boss felt that they did not need any allies in Europe, thinking it better to stay as far from those politics as was possible.
About a month after the purchase of the Alaska Territory, America was making plans to go and explore it. They needed to map out the land they had just bought and America also wanted to look for the representation he was sure would be up there. Before the group that was to go with America was able to finish planning though the boy fell mysteriously ill. He would wake up each morning with nausea. He would also randomly feel the same nausea several times throughout the day, sometimes triggered by the smell of his favorite foods. It had his boss worried so he told the explorers that they were to continue on without their nation in tow. He did however urge them to keep their eyes open for anyone that seemed odd or different in case this was the representation that America wanted to be sure he found. This was at the boy's request since he knew nothing he said would make his boss let him go or delay the trip. It was with a heavy heart and a slightly sick to his stomach feeling that America waved his explorers off as they left.
Now he was sitting in his room and working on some paperwork while fighting down another rising bought of nausea. No one could figure out what was causing it. Things seemed to be going well with the restoration of the union and there hadn't been any sudden down turns in the economy. Really the only that had changed was something good and that was the acquisition of Alaska. Despite how others felt it was a foolish thing to buy the land it should not have been affecting him this way.
It was another two weeks before America began to figure out what might have happened when one of the presidential aides came in one day excited that his wife was with child. Everyone was happy for him and when America asked how they were sure he explained that his wife had been suffering from nausea lately and had eventually gone to see a doctor who gave her the good news.
Seeing his citizen so happy after the explanation Alfred felt suddenly more queasy than he had been a moment ago. Though this time it wasn't unexplained. The symptoms the man's pregnant wife was suffering and his own seemed to similar to his own. Backing away from the crowd surrounding the soon to be father Alfred hurries to his boss's office, barely knocking before throwing the door open. He shuts it behind him and hurries over to stand in front of the 17th president of the United States of America.
"What is it Alfred?" You look as though you've seen a ghost." It was true, the boy looked rather pale and a bit green. Andrew stood up and grabbed the waste bin by his desk before leading the sickly looking boy over to the sofa and having him sit down. "Now why don't you tell me what's wrong my boy."
"How are babies made?" He blurted out. He had wanted to maybe put it more delicately but it was too nervous, too scared, to do so. He glances up at his boss, who looks confused.
"I know you look like a child Alfred, but I also know you are older than me. How is it you don't know this yet?"
Alfred bites his lip and turns away, "Well, England never explained things to me before I broke away from him. I was still pretty young. Then he came back and I was older but he kept trying to treat me like I was still a little kid. And well after that I never thought to ask. I suppose most people I've met have assumed the same as you and thought I knew. Besides as a nation things are different. We aren't born like humans, we just appear."
Andrew looks thoughtful at the response, perhaps that's why the boy always seemed so innocent and youthful. He was still pure. "Well then, what brought up this question? It seems rather sudden."
Alfred fidgets some more in his seat, "Ashley's wife is pregnant and everyone is excited for him." It was weak but Alfred hoped he'd just answer, he needed to know.
"Hmm, well. Even so I know that other's have announced news like this before and you never came running in here like a demon was hot on your heels." Andrew studies the youth before settling an arm about his shoulders. "Never mind that. Where to start. I suppose when a man and a woman get married they," Andrew flusters a bit at having to explain this.
"They have sex. I know that. But what does that have to do with having a baby."
Andrew Johnson looks at his nation and suddenly realizes that he is not completely innocent. He supposed that being as old as the boy was he would have surely seen some disreputable women working the streets and learned what they did. Trying to push the thought aside for later he returns to the question at hand.
"It has everything to do with it actually. Doing that is the only for a man's essence to get to the woman's womb where the child will grow." Andrew continues to watch his nation curiously as he lays an arm over his stomach. The curious part about it was he didn't look sick.
"Uh, Mr. Johnson. Is, is it possible for the man to get," He swallows, "To get pregnant." It comes out as a squeak in the end and suddenly Andrew is starting to have questions he is not sure he will ever be prepared to answer.
"Alfred, I, you see," He sees the young nations eyes begging him for an answer and gives in, "Not that I am aware, not in humans anyway. However you are not human, you are a nation and there is no way to know for certain that it is impossible. Just as you said earlier, your kind aren't born, they just appear." He gestures to Alfred's belly. "I take it this mysterious illness you were suffering from is no longer so mysterious."
Alfred blushes darkly at the knowing look in his boss's eyes and nods. "I, with Russia..."
"So am I to assume that this could be Alaska?"
Alfred nods.
"This should be rather interesting. I will call a doctor and explain the situation to him. Also I think it would be best if you stayed within the house until this is over. And I'm sure Eliza will be more than happy to help you out around the house should you need anything."
"Thank you sir." He gets up to leave, "And thank you for not getting mad at me."
"Its not a problem lad. It must have been rather terrifying to come to such a conclusion." He smiles kindly as the boy leaves before getting back to his work.
After Alfred left his boss's office he continued on to his room. He figured he should write to his states and let them know he was alright now. They had been worried when he had fallen ill, well maybe not Ret. He seemed downright giddy about it. Anyway he had decided he would write them and let them know what was going on.
Months went by. Alfred's nausea eventually let up, but he still showed signs that he truly was pregnant. It baffled the doctor that Andrew Johnson hired to check up on him. He never said anything though, it seemed that Andrew had drafted a specific document just for the occasion. It was a contract that one signed before being let in on the secret that is Alfred's existence. Alfred thought it was rather clever.
The states had not taken the news well. Alfred had woken up about a week after he had sent them the letter telling them the news to find all five of them in his room and surrounding him. Maria was holding the smug looking Ret and looking concerned for him. She was the closest in apparent age to him, looking 13. Ret was most definitely the youngest, looking only about 5. Belle was fusing about the bedside and asking questions left and right, 'Who's the father?', 'Is it really Alaska?', 'Will we be aunts and uncles or brothers and sisters.' Belle was about 12 in appearance, as was her brother Louis, who was just looking nervous. He was the only boy other than Ret and it had occurred to him that he was capable of suffering the same fate as his big brother. Leona was the last one that Alfred took in. She wasn't freaking out or looking haughtily at him, in fact she seemed to be rather blank, almost like she didn't care. Maybe the others had dragged her along.
It was while all of them had been there that Alfred came to the realization and conclusion that if the other nations were to ever find out about the states their would be questions. Questions that Alfred knew would be dangerous for little Alaska. So answering one of Belle's question he told them it would be their brother or sister. There was a bit of fussing about the decision until he explained why. How it was safer for all of them to do it this way. Reluctantly they agreed. Promptly Louis began hoping it was a boy and not another girl. 'All I have is the angry little bebe over there.' They all had to laugh at him for that comment, while Ret just glared at him.
It wasn't until Alfred felt about ready to pop that the question arose. How was he to give birth? He did not have the proper female bits for the birth to be natural. It was decided that when the time came the doctor would perform a caesarian section. So now it was simply a waiting game until the baby was ready to make its way into the world.
It came on a chilly March morning. Alfred began to feel painful cramps that woke him up. He suffered through them for a few minutes and when he realized what they were he began to carelessly reach for the servant call bell that Eliza had suggested he use if he needed anything. After blindly searching for it for a few moments in which the cramps seemed to get stronger, he began ringing it harshly. The servant that came in was calm at first and then noticed the boy's pain and quickly called for another servant to go and fetch the doctor while she helped to make the boy more comfortable. A third servant soon came and quickly left to fetch the instruments that the doctor had made sure they all knew would be needed, hot water, clean linens and several candles for sterilizing his knives.
When the doctor arrived things seemed to fly into a blur for Alfred. He barely noticed that two large black field workers had been called in to hold him down so he would not thrash about so much. They struggled to do their job as the doctor made the incision across the boy's belly. It was just over an hour before the doctor pulled the child from the womb, handing it to a midwife that began to clean the child and checking it over. She announced it was a girl as the doctor continued his task. He removed the placenta and then began to sew up the incision.
By the time it was all over everyone was exhausted. Alfred still insisted that he hold his child before he let his body rest. He also wanted to name her. As he holds his little girl, her pale blonde hair sticking to her head, he smiles down at her. He had made sure to send a letter to his explorer team in Alaska months ago asking for them to ask the native peoples for both boy and girl baby names. From the list he had received back he had chosen one of each, now he needed only one.
"Anyu." The baby looks up at him with his same clear blue eyes and lets out a childish giggle.
"I do believe she likes the name Alfred." Andrew smiles at the new parent. They really hadn't been able to settle on a term for Alfred. He was clearly a man so they couldn't call him a mother but father's don't give birth.
Alfred beams his trademark smile at the gathered crowd. "Of course she does, her dad's the one that picked it out."
Well that settled the mother or father debate.
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Aww, did anyone else get a toothache in there. Anyway, the states don't live in the White House with Alfred. They stay in his home in Philadelphia, this is the one he grew up in while he was still Arthur's colony.
The scene where Andrew Johnson is explaining the birds and the bees was really the hardest part of this. Really it is very hard to write non-fictional characters, that and I have no idea how they would have had that talk back then. As I understand it they were all rather proper and those sorts of things were not discussed publicly. I couldn't just look up a book or anything on that sort of thing either. Oh well I hope you all are now satisfied enough, please review.