Cola, Cranberry, and Kiwi-Strawberry with Butterscotch
Author: Nikki
Challenge: Kiwi-Strawberry #3 (My Treat from Kat: tango - Sunset realizes she's pregnant.), Cola #15 (nothin' says lovin' like something from the oven), Cranberry #5 (The Empress - upright: development, mother/sister/wife)
Extras/Toppings: Butterscotch
Word Count: 1,077
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in September 2005. Includes mentions of abortion. The characters' views and opinions do not reflect the author's.
Story: The Haunting of Violet Walsh; the title of this is "One's on the Way."
Summary: Sunset finds out she's pregnant.
Sunset placed the positive - and she was sure it was positive, because it was the third one and she had checked the box multiple times - pregnancy test down on the bathroom counter, and took a tiny step back to press back against the wall. She slid down it a moment later to sit, her legs a bit numb, and she was thankful that it, for the most part, took the pregnancy test out of her view. She should have known, of course. The nausea she could wave away as stress, as well as the increasingly picky appetite, but other symptoms weren't so easily explained. Then, she had been a few days late, then a week late, then two.
And now this. Placing a hand on her still flat stomach, Sunset tried to think of what to do. She was pregnant. In nine months, she and Damian might have a baby, and she really did not know what to do with that thought.
"What are you doing on the floor?"
The question snapped her out of her thoughts, and Sunset looked up to see Zachary squinting down at her from the doorway. "I've been calling for you. Didn't you hear me?"
"No," she answered, glancing at the test on the bathroom counter. She wondered if she should find an excuse to make Zachary leave before he saw it, but Sunset should have known that was a useless idea. People called Zachary the smart one for a reason. For one, he was perspective.
"Oh, bloody - are you pregnant?"
"Yeah. A few weeks, maybe" she slowly answered, unsure of what else to say. Yay? She didn't hate the idea of a baby (she wondered if it would be a boy or girl before she shoved those thoughts away) but Damian... Realizing she would have to tell Damian that he was going to be a father only made her groan in anxiety and predicted frustration. That would not be fun. "How am I going to tell Damian?"
"Well. You could hand him that stick as soon as comes in the door. We'd have to replace the door because of the Damian-shaped hole that would be in afterwards, but it would get the job done."
The joke didn't exactly make her laugh. "I'm going to have a baby, and a man-child to take care of, aren't I?"
Zachary looked completely unimpressed, and she very blandly thought that it was a good thing that he wouldn't need a bedside manner to do autopsies. Then, she wished she could get close enough to hit him without standing. "Why are you acting like you have to keep it?" he asked after a moment. "Going by your assumption of 'a few weeks', there's nothing more than a parasitic clump of cells in your stomach. And they have surgery to fix that."
"Fix it. You have such a way with words, Zachary," Sunset muttered, using an initial response to waste time. She knew abortion was an option without Zachary pointing it out to her, thank him very much, but knowing and considering were two different things. "I'd have to talk to Damian about it..."
"Why? If you don't want it, don't have it. It's not a hard solution, and Damian never has to know."
"It's his baby too!" she snapped, glaring up at Zachary.
"Baby," Zachary scoffed. "It's a clump of cells that is most likely the size of a blueberry. You could kill them all by poking it with a knitting needle. And it's your body that's going to be put through nine months of something feeding off of you from the inside. Then you give birth to it, and it does the same thing out here for eighteen years."
"Jesus, Zachary. Do you want to go get a coat hanger and do it yourself?"
He didn't seem to appreciate the jab, but she wasn't very happy with him at the moment either. "I'm only trying to get you to think," he sharply answered. "You just started your first year of teaching, so you're going to be constantly sick even without a pregnancy. Damian is still acting like an idiot at a job that he could have been promoted from years ago, and if it comes out as stupid as he is, you're going to need to pad every sharp corner in this place. And make it flame-retardant."
Sunset could see his point, the jabs at her husband aside. This was an inopportune time to have a baby - or, if she wanted to think of it like Zachary, it was an inopportune time to have a parasitic clump of cells growing in her uterus. She and Damian would be able to afford doctor's visits and whatever it would take to keep the baby healthy, but only because Damian's parents would give it to them. Sunset was sure that there would be plenty of comments about how Damian just wasn't where they pictured he'd be at this point in his life with every dollar, with snide and supposedly subtle comments about her on the side. An abortion would be cheaper than nine months of pregnancy, and eighteen plus years of raising a child. And yet.
"I'll talk to Damian about it," she repeated after a long moment. "My body or not, the 'clump of cells' as you put it, is still there partially because of him. He at least has a say about it." She ignored the way he rolled his eyes, but at least he dropped the subject. "You won't tell him before I get a chance to talk to him, will you?"
"You offend me. While I'll admit that I'd love to see the look on his face when he finds out, it's not particularly a conversation I want to have with him." Zachary pressed a shoulder against the door frame and leaned against it when he reached down to offer her a hand up. Sunset was grateful for it, but grabbed onto the bathroom counter to pull herself up as well. Standing here talking to her couldn't have been pleasant for him, and annoyance with him or not, she wasn't about to actually cause him pain.
"Damian really is going to freak out, isn't he?" she asked, picking up the positive pregnancy test and staring down at it.
He shrugged as he turned in the direction of his room and walked off. "You're the one that called him a man-child."
Challenge: Kiwi-Strawberry #3 (My Treat from Kat: tango - Sunset realizes she's pregnant.), Cola #15 (nothin' says lovin' like something from the oven), Cranberry #5 (The Empress - upright: development, mother/sister/wife)
Extras/Toppings: Butterscotch
Word Count: 1,077
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Takes place in September 2005. Includes mentions of abortion. The characters' views and opinions do not reflect the author's.
Story: The Haunting of Violet Walsh; the title of this is "One's on the Way."
Summary: Sunset finds out she's pregnant.
Sunset placed the positive - and she was sure it was positive, because it was the third one and she had checked the box multiple times - pregnancy test down on the bathroom counter, and took a tiny step back to press back against the wall. She slid down it a moment later to sit, her legs a bit numb, and she was thankful that it, for the most part, took the pregnancy test out of her view. She should have known, of course. The nausea she could wave away as stress, as well as the increasingly picky appetite, but other symptoms weren't so easily explained. Then, she had been a few days late, then a week late, then two.
And now this. Placing a hand on her still flat stomach, Sunset tried to think of what to do. She was pregnant. In nine months, she and Damian might have a baby, and she really did not know what to do with that thought.
"What are you doing on the floor?"
The question snapped her out of her thoughts, and Sunset looked up to see Zachary squinting down at her from the doorway. "I've been calling for you. Didn't you hear me?"
"No," she answered, glancing at the test on the bathroom counter. She wondered if she should find an excuse to make Zachary leave before he saw it, but Sunset should have known that was a useless idea. People called Zachary the smart one for a reason. For one, he was perspective.
"Oh, bloody - are you pregnant?"
"Yeah. A few weeks, maybe" she slowly answered, unsure of what else to say. Yay? She didn't hate the idea of a baby (she wondered if it would be a boy or girl before she shoved those thoughts away) but Damian... Realizing she would have to tell Damian that he was going to be a father only made her groan in anxiety and predicted frustration. That would not be fun. "How am I going to tell Damian?"
"Well. You could hand him that stick as soon as comes in the door. We'd have to replace the door because of the Damian-shaped hole that would be in afterwards, but it would get the job done."
The joke didn't exactly make her laugh. "I'm going to have a baby, and a man-child to take care of, aren't I?"
Zachary looked completely unimpressed, and she very blandly thought that it was a good thing that he wouldn't need a bedside manner to do autopsies. Then, she wished she could get close enough to hit him without standing. "Why are you acting like you have to keep it?" he asked after a moment. "Going by your assumption of 'a few weeks', there's nothing more than a parasitic clump of cells in your stomach. And they have surgery to fix that."
"Fix it. You have such a way with words, Zachary," Sunset muttered, using an initial response to waste time. She knew abortion was an option without Zachary pointing it out to her, thank him very much, but knowing and considering were two different things. "I'd have to talk to Damian about it..."
"Why? If you don't want it, don't have it. It's not a hard solution, and Damian never has to know."
"It's his baby too!" she snapped, glaring up at Zachary.
"Baby," Zachary scoffed. "It's a clump of cells that is most likely the size of a blueberry. You could kill them all by poking it with a knitting needle. And it's your body that's going to be put through nine months of something feeding off of you from the inside. Then you give birth to it, and it does the same thing out here for eighteen years."
"Jesus, Zachary. Do you want to go get a coat hanger and do it yourself?"
He didn't seem to appreciate the jab, but she wasn't very happy with him at the moment either. "I'm only trying to get you to think," he sharply answered. "You just started your first year of teaching, so you're going to be constantly sick even without a pregnancy. Damian is still acting like an idiot at a job that he could have been promoted from years ago, and if it comes out as stupid as he is, you're going to need to pad every sharp corner in this place. And make it flame-retardant."
Sunset could see his point, the jabs at her husband aside. This was an inopportune time to have a baby - or, if she wanted to think of it like Zachary, it was an inopportune time to have a parasitic clump of cells growing in her uterus. She and Damian would be able to afford doctor's visits and whatever it would take to keep the baby healthy, but only because Damian's parents would give it to them. Sunset was sure that there would be plenty of comments about how Damian just wasn't where they pictured he'd be at this point in his life with every dollar, with snide and supposedly subtle comments about her on the side. An abortion would be cheaper than nine months of pregnancy, and eighteen plus years of raising a child. And yet.
"I'll talk to Damian about it," she repeated after a long moment. "My body or not, the 'clump of cells' as you put it, is still there partially because of him. He at least has a say about it." She ignored the way he rolled his eyes, but at least he dropped the subject. "You won't tell him before I get a chance to talk to him, will you?"
"You offend me. While I'll admit that I'd love to see the look on his face when he finds out, it's not particularly a conversation I want to have with him." Zachary pressed a shoulder against the door frame and leaned against it when he reached down to offer her a hand up. Sunset was grateful for it, but grabbed onto the bathroom counter to pull herself up as well. Standing here talking to her couldn't have been pleasant for him, and annoyance with him or not, she wasn't about to actually cause him pain.
"Damian really is going to freak out, isn't he?" she asked, picking up the positive pregnancy test and staring down at it.
He shrugged as he turned in the direction of his room and walked off. "You're the one that called him a man-child."