Prompt Post No. 18
Welcome to Round 18 of the Inception Kink Meme.
Prompting System
Prompting System
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“What happens now?” asked Arthur, pulling his blankets up to his bottom ribs. He tried scraping the bitter taste off his tongue with his front teeth. It didn’t work.
Crystal continued to write as she spoke. “You’ll need have to have a minor operation under general anaesthetic so all the contents can be removed. A consultant will be along soon to discuss it further with you.” She looked up and pointed to wall behind him with her pen. “If you need anything, just press that red button.”
With an empty smile stamped on her face, she put his notes back in the slot and left, holding the door open for Eames, who took his place back in the chair. Arthur couldn’t help but think that Eames had aged by about ten years. He looked so removed, so untouchable, his face empty of all emotion.
It took Eames a few seconds to speak and when he did, he was slow and soft. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”
“I didn’t know that I was,” Arthur said simply.
“For three months?” Eames couldn’t quite keep the disbelief out of his voice.
Arthur snapped his head around and fixed Eames with firm glare. “Yes, Eames. For three months.”
Eames raised his hand in a conciliatory way. “Sorry. Just trying to wrap my head around it. Three months is a long to not know and...” Eames let out sigh. He pushed his fingers into his eyes, rubbing them as if he was trying to wake himself up. Arthur looked down at his blanket and began fiddling with it, picking at a loose thread like a scab, sore from Eames’ doubt.
“How are you feeling?” asked Eames, just as soft as he was before.
“Been better,” stated Arthur, pulling the thread out completely. “I need to have an operation to have it removed.”
“Yeah, I know. I was talking to a doctor earlier and, um,” Eames broke off, and Arthur heard him swallow. “I was wondering if you wanted any kind of blessing or if you wanted to do something with the remains.”
Arthur became very still.
“He said some people do that,” continued Eames. “They find it useful.”
“Do they?” he said flatly.
“He also thought you might want to talk to someone about it.”
Arthur shrugged and returned his focus back to the blanket.
“I have nothing to say,” he replied. He had no words to describe what had happened so he had nothing to say
There was a bout of quiet and then Eames gently said, “You shouldn’t underestimate the emotional impact of this.”
Arthur could feel Eames studying him, his eyes exploring, trying to read and unravel him. After everything he’d witnessed whilst in the military and seen some of things that even they considered vile in the world of dream-sharing, it seemed silly that Eames thought that this little incident would be somehow shatter him. It wasn’t as though anyone had died, Arthur reminded himself. A pregnancy had ended. That was it.
“I’m alright,” Arthur said firmly. “It was a shock but this is... It’s something that happens all the time. And given that I was still dreaming, it was probably for the best.”
He flicked up his eyes to see Eames folding his lips into his mouth, nodding, and for a second sorrow smudged itself into his face, into his crow’s feet, into the black pupils of steel-blue eyes. Guilt bit down viciously into Arthur and he really needed Eames to disappear.
He asked Eames to go home and get him some clean clothes and he wasn’t surprised by Eames being reluctant to leave him so he feigned a desire to sleep. After planting a gentle kiss on Arthur’s cheek, Eames left and Arthur spent the next half hour blaming the hospital disinfectant for making his nose run.
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Don't push him away Arthur! :(
This is truly truly wonderful, anon!
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Absolutely stunning work anon, I wait with bated breath for the next bit.
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Thankfully, I have never had to suffer a miscarriage, but I've certainly been on the receiving end of less than caring hospital staff, so I had to WTF at nurse Crystal's callous comments about Arthur's loss. In my country, an ultrasound technician would probably be fired for being so unprofessional -
“Bet that was a nasty surprise.” Crystal replaced the transducer in its holder and cleaned away the goop. “I suppose it makes you lucky in a way. Not being attached to it and all.”
Gah! I wanted to strangle her and I will attribute that to your talent as a writer. I ache so much for Arthur and Eames in this fic and the emotional upheavals I foresee that are in store for them. Hopefully their relationship will be strong enough to survive it. This is such an emotionally wrenching and brilliantly characterized story you're creating here and I can't wait for your next update!
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