Wide as the Galaxies
Title: Wide as the Galaxies
Author: Phelipa
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Prompt: Juliet/Ben, Pregnancy (Even though it's Ben/Juliet specific it's not such a happy pairing) for lost_squee
Disclaimer: I don't own Lost or the characters used in this story.
There’s an overwhelming smell of blood in the air; thick, sweet and metallic. It reeks of familiarity, of death, and panic tears through her chest. She sees blood pouring from dissected uteri and tiny, dead babies that come one after the other, sucking hope from everyone around them.
She struggles to move her arms but they’re heavy and her mind spins dizzily, spots flashing in the periphery. She tries to move again and restraints around her shoulders tighten, pinning her down to the chilly operating table. A nurse with kind eyes sits on a stool by her head and rests a cool hand on her forehead, soothingly brushing her damp hair out of her face and murmuring words she can’t seem to understand.
She struggles to speak but her throat is dry and pressure mounts in her abdomen, forcing all the air from her already aching lungs. She tries to move her hands again, to push away whoever or whatever’s working over her, and she manages to twitch a couple of her fingers, moving them against a scratchy hospital drape that blinds her.
The doctor standing over her turns to face her and she can see blood and tissue, the carnage of her abdomen, reflected in his face guard, when he smiles at her and assures her it’s almost over. Pressure and pain grip at her insides and she longs to arch off the table, longs to scream until her lungs rupture, but the drugs pumped through her veins keep her still and silent on the table while the doctor slides his hand into her incision.
In the flurry of activity that follows she lets her eyes dart nervously around the room, and her heart stops as she catches sight of a strangely still nurse. He’s standing by the door, watching to delivery room happenings passively, while the others dart around him to prepare the incubator or ligate the oozing vessels around her soon - to - be empty uterus.
A soft, cracked sound that’s meant to be a scream escapes her lips and draws his attention. He smiles behind his mask and her whole body begins to tremble despite the anaesthetic. She barely notices as the pressure subsides and a shrill cry pierces the silence of the OR, the doctor smiles and holds up the red, wrinkled baby boy to introduce him to his mother.
Instinct tells her to track the baby as he’s moved to the incubator but fear keeps her eyes trained on the man in the corner, making sure that he stays the hell away from her child. He approaches her and nods to the nurse by her head, Juliet wants to grab her by the wrist as she smiles and leaves. Every muscle in her body struggles against the chemical restraint, intent only on tearing the flesh from his face and screaming for him to leave them the hell alone, but all she can do is gasp uselessly and tremble.
He eases himself into the seat next to her head and gently touches her forehead, she wants to throw up. His hands are cool and clammy against her skin and he leans down, so that his lips are next to her ear, and whispers,
“I’ll be watching, Juliet. I’ll be watching the two of you.”
The threat hangs in the air, even as he pushes himself away from her side and returns to stand by the door, and she feels nausea building behind her ribs. The kindly nurse settles back by her head and grabs an emesis basin as she begins to gag, cradling the side of her face in her gentle hands as she settles it beneath her chin.
Pain tugs at the open incision in her belly as she vomits, head spinning with the sound of her child’s cries and his warning. When she finishes and the nurse wipes her mouth with a damp cloth, she turns to face to the door and panics when she sees that he’s gone. She rolls her eyes frantically around the room in search of her son, and she breathes a sigh of relief when she finds him lying in the clear bassinet across the room, not in Ben’s presence but with a brightly dressed pediatric nurse.
She knows that neither running nor hiding will do any good. He has the resources to find them, and when he does he’ll take the child away and return him to the island, present him to Richard as their first true “success”.
After all, she managed to carry the child on the island for the first eight months of her pregnancy and he’s never forgiven her for keeping the solution a secret. He’ll steal her child and test him within an inch of his life just to find out what she’s kept from him. She knows this is his intent and that he’ll use everything within his power to do fulfill it, but she also knows that she’s stronger than he is. He may be cunning and he may track them down, but she’s a mother now and a strength she’s never known accompanies this child’s entrance into the world.
He will find them, and he will try and take her son... but she won’t let him. She won’t run or hide, she’ll stay right where she belongs and when he comes knocking she’ll be standing by the door with a loaded revolver, waiting for him.