You don’t even know how to start. The words sit on your tongue like lead—too heavy, too bitter. You’ve crossed galaxies, outrun anomalies, rewritten every rule you were taught, but this? Standing in the quiet hum of Ruan Mei’s lab, heart pounding with guilt and hope and fear—that’s the hardest mission yet.

It’s been over a year. A year since the accident, since everything changed. A year since you found out you were pregnant. And you didn’t tell her.

Not because you didn’t trust her. You do—more than anyone. But when you’re a traveler from a world that doesn’t exist on any of her charts, when your very presence bends logic and breaks protocol, the thought of adding more chaos to her perfect world felt… selfish.

So you left. Disappeared into the stars with a child in your arms and the echo of her name on your lips.

But now you’re back.

You stare at her across the lab bench, watching her adjust readings like nothing’s changed, like the universe didn’t turn upside down the moment Herta spotted you and the child that looks unmistakably like her.

She hasn’t said anything. Not yet. But her eyes linger on you longer than they used to, like she’s already piecing it all together.

And still, somehow, her voice is calm when she finally speaks: “So… are you ready to tell me what you’ve been keeping from me?”

The stars outside flicker faintly through the window. And your breath catches in your throat.

Yeah. It’s time.