Oops I Did It Again || Drabble
Hallie stared at the mirror in disbelief and apprehension. This couldn't be happening, not again, not with what happened last time. But she figured she had kind of been asking for it, given the fact that no protection hadn't been used. But really, it had been one time. Was it too much to ask for one enjoyable experience without some kind of twisted consequences? She sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. It would be better this time, she resolved. Everything would turn out okay. She had to believe that.
She had to believe that, or she knew she would fall apart all over again. Things had been good with Giles. Easy, tender, nice. He was a friend first, and she figured that made all of the difference when it came down to it. Her best friend, and she didn't know what she would do without him. So long as he was around, she could handle this. She took a deep breath, eyeing the traitorous results. The hard part would be telling him.
She deflated again at the thought. How would the news be taken? She was nervous, and frankly vaguely frightened as well. She couldn't imagine how Giles would feel about it. He had been the one to deal with the fallout after the first time, when everything had fallen apart so quickly. Could they believe, together, that it would work out this time? That the darkness seething beneath the surface of her mind wouldn't win.
Or lose. She wasn't really sure how the situation was working. Obviously it had been planned. Ahriman didn't make much of a habit of villainous narrations so much, and so she wasn't certain what he was up to. At the same time, he was carried in her mind, so she was allowed a certain view into his existence. Her subconscious had suspicions, and she dreaded to think that they were correct. But Ahriman was in HER mind. He couldn't lie, not to her. Just the same as she couldn't lie to him.
What would happen if the child survived, this time? Caleb's death hadn't worked out for anyone, and she knew it. Hallie felt an odd sort of confidence that she wouldn't have to go through losing another child, a feeling that Ahriman had planned things out just so. He would go through with his plan, and the child would survive.
Somehow the thought didn't make her feel any better. She had to live day after day with the villain, and she dreaded to think of the corruption he could weave into the mind of a child. She chewed her nail worriedly. Was there a good way for this to work out, any way at all? She had to wonder.
And how was she supposed to tell Giles, anyway. How would she tell ANYONE? Just casually drop by, or call up Gwen and say, "Hey I'm pregnant again isn't it great?" The news, she knew, wouldn't be greeted with the same joy that had been present the last time. There would be too much dread, and sorrow lacing it.
And so soon, too. There had to be some kind of rule, she figured, that women shouldn't be able to get pregnant twice in one year. Some kind of law of nature. Unfortunately for her it seemed that there wasn't. She wondered, given Ahriman's plotting, if everything would have been fine had he not existed within her. Caleb would be around, and there would be no second. Maybe she and Giles would have ended up at the same place, just maybe later. Emotions coursed through Hallie too quickly for her to keep up with.
She heard Giles moving around somewhere in the apartment. She had to tell him, and so she figured it might as well be sooner rather than later. She had a better handle on things, so the news wouldn't be as hard to deliver the second time around, or so she figured. She had at least outwardly returned to her old self, masking the layers of torn memories beneath a fiery personality, stuffing them deep into a hole, mixed in with enough happy to distract her from them, all swirling beneath the surface, ready to emerge at the slightest crack.
Without a second thought, Hallie grabbed the small stick that was laying on the bathroom counter, reading positive. She strode out of her room, walking with purpose, to where Giles was. Without much of a word, she handed it to her, allowing her face to betray her emotions.
It would have to be enough.
