[She can handle issues, gross things, and pain. Bodies are bodies, after all. The warmth of his hand on her shoulder is reassuring, when all of this seems so overwhelming. She takes a deep breath.]
I always wanted to be a wife and mother. I just...thought it would happen in that order. And I suppose it's all right that it didn't. At least I'm going to accomplish one of them.
[Maybe she only wanted to be a wife so that she could be a mother. She hasn't figured out whether that's true or false yet. This is all so very new to her. One or both of you, he said, and that plurality helps it sink in a little more. She's going to have a real family, like she wanted since she can remember. Her own family by blood, not borrowed from someone else's, not virtual strangers she only sees once every ten years. Cyril is the closest she has ever really had, but Cyril is just as close with Merrick as he is with Pel. She's having a family.
She feels like she's on a swing, one of the ropes that someone might tie to a sturdy tree-branch with a loop at the bottom to put your foot in. At first, her stomach was left behind as she reached the bottom of the drop, and now she has reached the full height of the arc, and she feels like she's on top of the world. In a minute, she will tilt backward and fall again, but for now, a grin is forming on her face, and she finally wraps her arms around Anders and laughs dazedly.]
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I always wanted to be a wife and mother. I just...thought it would happen in that order. And I suppose it's all right that it didn't. At least I'm going to accomplish one of them.
[Maybe she only wanted to be a wife so that she could be a mother. She hasn't figured out whether that's true or false yet. This is all so very new to her. One or both of you, he said, and that plurality helps it sink in a little more. She's going to have a real family, like she wanted since she can remember. Her own family by blood, not borrowed from someone else's, not virtual strangers she only sees once every ten years. Cyril is the closest she has ever really had, but Cyril is just as close with Merrick as he is with Pel. She's having a family.
She feels like she's on a swing, one of the ropes that someone might tie to a sturdy tree-branch with a loop at the bottom to put your foot in. At first, her stomach was left behind as she reached the bottom of the drop, and now she has reached the full height of the arc, and she feels like she's on top of the world. In a minute, she will tilt backward and fall again, but for now, a grin is forming on her face, and she finally wraps her arms around Anders and laughs dazedly.]
I'm having a baby.