16th April, 2011

Piper lay on the bed in Room 112a of the Red Dragon Inn, and tried not to cry. She thought about the illness that had assailed her for the past three months or so, and tried not to cry. She remembered the confusing advice of her doctor to come here, and tried not to cry. But most of all, she thought back to one night not so long ago, a night filled with laughter and excitement and the thrill of taking a risk ....and slowly tears began to slide down her cheeks.

How could she possibly have known that the one and only time she ever took a risk with her body it would end up like this" She couldn't have a one-night-stand with someone normal either; oh, no, she had to go and screw a man who might not even be a man in the way she reckoned such things. He'd seemed dangerous and exciting and all those things she shouldn't touch ....well, now she knew why she shouldn't touch them.

He couldn't be right, could he" That nice man who said he was a Time Lord, who'd scanned her with his sonic screwdriver before awkwardly breaking the news that her 'illness', the sole reason she'd been sent here to this freakshow of a city, was actually not an STD at all. Apparently, she was pregnant.

But that couldn't be right, could it' Piper wasn't much of an expert, but she was fairly certain you were supposed to put on weight when you got pregnant. She'd been losing weight for the last three months, suffering with insomnia and constant nausea, unable to keep even the blandest morsel down for more than an hour at a time. And besides, how could getting pregnant have made her allergic to her homeworld?

Unless ....she rolled onto her back, laying her hands on her flat stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. Tamara, her OB, had been absolutely adamant that Piper's illness had everything to do with the fact that there were no magical residues on their world, their version of Earth, and Piper had to admit, she seemed to be right. For someone who was almost comatose when she'd been passed through what Tamara had called the Nexus portal, Piper certainly seemed far healthier after just a few hours here in this apparently magically enhanced environment.

She shook her head, wiping her cheeks dry. Whatever was going on here, she could find out tomorrow. Pregnant or not, ill or not, she wasn't going to lose much incentive by sleeping on it first. With any luck, this will all have been some dreadful dream, and when she woke up, she'd be back in university, before any of this was due to happen.

And pigs might fly.

20th April, 2011

"Well, then, Miss Davidson, what can I do for you?"

Piper shifted awkwardly on the uncomfortable seat in the doctor's office. After the startling revelation by Eregor, the apparent Time Lord she had met on her first night here, she had given over a lot of thought to whether she should investigate further, and finally had decided to get herself checked out. A second opinion never hurt.

"It's a little complicated," she confessed nervously, sitting on her hands. "My doctor back at home sent me to Rhy'Din because I was getting really, really ill, and she said it had something to do with magic, only on my first night here, a guy scanned me with a sonic screwdriver and he says I'm pregnant. He says the baby must be making me allergic to my world."

The doctor, whose name was Haleth D'Gorenaad, nodded at this explanation, his eyes wide with interest.

"I see," he said slowly. "Did your doctor give any full explanation for the move here?"

Piper nodded quickly, biting at her lip. "She said that I must have come into contact with some magical thing, and that whatever it was had passed something onto me. Only whatever it was that got passed on couldn't thrive in a world where magic isn't a part of the environment ....and if I'd stayed, I've have died. Does that make any sense?"

Doctor D'Gorenaad smiled in response, scribbling this down in his notes. "A great deal more sense than you might at first believe, Miss Davidson," he assured her. "Now, can you describe for me the onset of your symptoms, when it occurred and how they manifested themselves?"

This was painfully easy to do. "I first noticed I wasn't right around the 7th of December," Piper said haltingly. "I, uh, I wasn't sleeping more than about two hours a night, even if I took tranquilisers, and it was broken into snatches here and there; never one long sleep. The nausea came next; it was easy enough to deal with for a couple of weeks, until I started to vomit up everything I tried to eat or drink. And I mean everything - the only thing I could keep down was ginger tea. And when the doctors at the hospital tried to put me on an IV drip, I had a huge allergic reaction to it; they had to give me a massive dose of anti-hystamin just to stop me from going into toxic shock."

"I see. And do you believe there may be any credence to the claim that you might be pregnant?"

Piper blushed, looking down at her jiggling knees. "There might be," she admitted cautiously, very reluctant to confess to her only one-night-stand to a health professional. "I met this guy at a masquerade ball on the 2nd of February. He was ....I don't know how to describe him; he was amazing. I never take risks like that. Ever. But it's like my common sense and all my inhibitions took the night off the minute I looked into his eyes. God, that sounds so strange. Anyway, I ....I assumed I'd caught an STD; I mean, I know there's a miniscule chance that he got me pregnant. Tiny, really."

"And why is that?"

"I'm on the Pill," she said bluntly. "And I made him wear a condom. I even checked it afterward, it didn't split. So pregnancy, and, and even the STD thing, it just makes no sense."

Doctor D'Gorenaad sighed softly, closing his notebook to meet her eyes with gentle understanding. "I realise that, coming from a world where magic is not even a myth, much less commonplace, you will have great difficulty believing me when I say this," he warned her carefully. "But magic ....magical beings, in particular ....are not ruled by the conventional systems put in place by mortals. It sounds to me as though you may have encountered one of the race known as the Fae. If it was his intention to impregnate you that night, then no barrier you put in his way bar magic itself will have stopped him."

"Well, that's why I'm here," Piper protested, glossing over the idea that she'd slept with a fairy and was reaping the consequences of that ill-judged action. "I need to know."

The doctor nodded gently. "Will you trust what the answer I give you if I use magic to ascertain your condition?" he asked her warily.

Piper looked into his eyes. "No," she said simply.

He chuckled softly. "I thought as much. Well, a urine sample will give us a fairly good indication, and the results are take only a minute or so to show themselves," he went on. "I'll take some blood from you as well, and send it to the lab at the General for processing. The results from that are fair more reliable, and will come back to us by the end of the week."

Nodding reflexively, Piper took this in, finding more to cling to in the standard procedures she was used to hearing about from home than any as yet unproved existence of magic. She rolled her sleeve up as the doctor set about preparing what he needed, barely flinching as the needle pricked her skin.

"I take it your symptoms have begun to die down since you came to Rhy'Din?" he asked, watching the dark spill of her blood fill the vacutainer. A ball of cotton wool was pressed over the needle mark, taped into place, before he turned to fill out the forms attached to the request of blood analysis.

"Yes," Piper admitted. "I'm still wary of eating anything that isn't bland, but I've slept the whole night through since I got here, and I haven't thrown up either. I still feel nauseated at times, though."

"It will take a while for all the symptoms to die away," he assured her with a smile, drawing a small plastic cup from beneath his desk. "Would you like to do the urine test, or would you rather wait for the blood results only?"

"Oh, no, I'll do both," she nodded quickly, taking the cup. "Where do I ...?"

"Through the door, turn right, second door along the opposite wall," he gave her accurate directions. "Bring it back here, we can wait for the results together."

27th April, 2011

"And you're absolutely certain you want to do this, Piper" You can't change your mind halfway through."

Piper swallowed, laying back against the bed. Truth be told, she wasn't certain, not at all. What she was about to do went against everything she believed in, everything she had been taught. But how could she do anything differently' She felt trapped, and that feeling was slowly suffocating her.

On the one hand, there was the stigma attached to being a single mother, and the disapproval she was bound to experience from her family and friends once it became known that she didn't have a clue who the father was. On the other hand, there was the deep self-loathing that would come when she realised fully what she had done, when the child inside her was no more. Which was the lesser of the two evils"

At least if she went through with the abortion, she could go home, and no one would know what had happened. No one but Tamara - but she was a doctor, she wasn't supposed to pass judgement on people. If she went through with the pregnancy, there was no guarantee that she could go back home at all. If the environment of her Earth had been so devastating to the baby so young in the womb, there was no way she would risk taking the child back to see its grandparents.

But could she really live with herself, knowing what she'd done for those seflish reasons" Could she really live with so enormous a secret weighing her down" A physical wound, she could explain away - how could she look her parents in the face and tell them everything was fine, knowing that she had killed their grandchild before they even knew it existed?

What did it really boil down to, she wondered. Lying here in the clinic, ready to make a decision that would have effects on her life way beyond this moment no matter what she decided to do, Piper found herself looking straight at the heart of the matter, and she did not like what she saw.

She was here because her superficial, shallow lifestyle wouldn't be able to handle having a baby along for the ride; because she was too selfish to make the sacrifices that would have to be made; worse, because she couldn't stand the thought of anyone, much less her family and friends, judging her for being a single mother. And each of those reasons was utterly despicable to her when weighed against the life of an innocent child.

"No," she said suddenly, sitting upright. "I can't. I won't do this."

Screw her parents and their idea of a perfect family; screw her own precious princess morality. Piper was having a baby.

27th April, 2011

The decision was made. Piper was going to have a baby. But unfortunately there were some things she just couldn't ignore. Like having a child out of wedlock - it was a surefire way to earn her parents' disapproval, and right now, she didn't think she could take much more of that. It had been bad enough when she'd folded in on herself after her abortive attempt at getting married.

Abortive ....bad word there. Laying her hand on her belly, Piper looked down, trying to imagine the baby growing beneath her palm. It was difficult to do, especially since she had really only just found out about it. According to Doctor D'Gorenaad, she was fourteen weeks along, already into her second trimester, and she could expect the bump to begin making itself known over the next few weeks. Right now, she couldn't see anything, but passing her hand over her belly, she could definitely feel the swell of her womb.

This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. She was supposed to get married, then have children. She was a good girl, a good Catholic girl. Surely things like this weren't supposed to happen to her.

"What am I saying?" she muttered aloud. "Things like this don't usually include getting inseminated by some fairy boy out to get his jollies on the mortal plane."

She wasn't sure she believed that, as such, but there were coincidences that couldn't be ignored. Getting pregnant through both the Pill and a condom, for example. Or the fact that instead of putting on weight, she'd lost it. The morning sickness, which apparently was supposed to last all day. The lack of sleep. The fact that almost the moment she stepped onto Rhy'Din, a place where magic abounded, she had begun to feel better.

After a week here, Piper was almost as good as new. She was sleeping through the night, she was able to keep down everything she ate - although some things were giving her the most horrendous heartburn. Everything was going so well, compared with how she had been only two weeks ago. Everything ....except the prospect of becoming a mother.

Well, she wasn't the drip her friends and family believed her to be. She was going to do something about this, she was going to be prepared to have this baby and to care for it the way it needed. So the first thing she needed was a name.

Not a given name, that could be taken care of after the birth. No, Piper was going to go out and get herself a husband, so that at least the child would bear a name that linked it to both herself and the man she would be informing it was its father. She didn't have to know him; hell, she didn't even have to like him. It would be a marriage of convenience, just the way marriages were centuries before now on her Earth. The Mother Church didn't have any laws against it, that she knew of. And besides, she wouldn't be getting married in a church.

A quickie wedding, and a guarantee that the guy would be around to sign the birth certificate was all she needed. She'd see to the rest herself.

30th April, 2011

Here it was. Decision day. Somehow Piper had to make a choice between four gentlemen, all of whom seemed eminently suitable for her needs. On the surface, that was. After a little digging - which hadn't involved much more than asking people at random and looking up names in the Library - there were a few other factors to consider.

Gustave Greigor. He was a tricky one. Smart, both in appearance and in mind, nonetheless he hadn't actually expressed any interest in the marriage part of her offered deal. In fact, all he had expressed interest in was the whys and wherefores, which Piper supposed was fair enough. Still, without a clear definition of his interest, be it academic or otherwise, she couldn't take the risk of crowbarring him into a situation he would someday regret.

Ollie Granger. Or rather, Oliver Hudson Granger, III. That had been a bit of a surprise. It had only take a little asking around to discover that Ollie was a member of the sprawling Granger family, who seemed to own around half the commercial aspect of everything to do with textiles in and around the city. He hadn't mentioned that at all. Did he think she was a very blunt gold-digger" But then, he had expressed real interest in marrying her and taking responsibility for her unborn child, regardless of its parentage, and in a manner that had seemed genuinely sincere. He seemed to be offering a true marriage, even if they only became friends, and Piper had to admit, that alone was an attractive proposition.

Marc Franco. Oh lordy, how on earth was she supposed to know if he was even serious or not' After asking a couple of questions, she'd been loaded down with several back copies of the Gossip GangSTAR, and had learned approximately nothing from them at all, except that Mr Franco had a rapier wit and was unafraid to use it. If he was serious, could she really cope with being the wife of Rhy'Din's foremost gossip columnist, even just in name" Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad - from all she had heard, the elusive Marc Franco did not venture out into public all that often, and was fiercely loyal to those he liked. It would appear to be an offer of convenience, and that was, after all, what she had been looking for to begin with.

Mark McKinney. Another tricky customer. Evidently a man with a flair for the romantic, turning up with flowers and rings, and not at all put off by the all-singing, all-dancing gorilla in the hallway. But he'd proved almost as hard to get information on as Gustave. All Piper had managed to find out was that he was from some version of Earth, apparently from old money, and had recently been jilted at the altar. That stung with sympathy in her, for obvious reasons, but she wasn't sure she trusted his motivations. If the gossip was true, he was on the lookout for a wife to begat an heir, and Piper didn't think simply giving his name to a Fae baby would be enough. So this, too, was an offer of marriage beyond that of simply convenience.

Her head ached with turning the names over and over, trying to make a decision that wouldn't hurt anyone too much. Terence kept inserting himself into her mind, repeating the accusations he'd made during their first major fight - that she was too picky, that she expected perfection, that she would never be happy until she learned to lower her expectations.

She sat on the end of her bed, and reviewed the wall in front of her. All four men's names were tacked up there, together with the pros and cons of marrying them.

Gustave. Pros - Smart, interested, doesn't seem to have high expectations. Cons - Smart, didn't mention marriage, is apparently a phantom with no backstory or acquaintances in the city.

Well, she could responsibly say no there, without much fear of disappointing him too much.

Ollie. Pros - Independent, made an offer that included the baby, seems genuinely to want to be actively involved in what is proposed. Cons - Rich, has huge family who'll think I'm a gold-digger.

Piper wasn't sure. It was a very attractive offer, all wrapped up in one handsome, slightly neurotic painter. She was still on the fence there.

Marc Franco. Pros - Funny, confident, made the offer in a way that won't soon be forgotten. Cons - Possibly not serious, famous, has a tongue that can do more damage than a pick-up truck at full speed.

It didn't take much thinking now she had it in front of her to decide that a no was in order there, as well. Still, he'd made her laugh whenever she thought back to the poor unfortunate Charlie, so maybe he wouldn't mind being her friend instead"

Mark McKinney. Pros - Needs a wife and heir, is independent, seems to be romantic enough to expect a real marriage. Cons - Doesn't seem to have much of a history, few friends or acquaintances to talk to, didn't wait to hear all the details before proposing.

Again, she was on the fence there. Being impulsive was all very well, but when it came to a life decision' Really"

Still, at least she'd managed to break it down to two names now. Ollie Granger, or Mark McKinney. Someone she could research easily, or someone she would be taking a leap of faith with. Neither was wholly objectionable, and she couldn't see her mother or father having much to say against either, if the gossip about Mark was true.

And there was the crux of the matter. With Mark, there was no way to verify anything she had been told about him. She had no way of knowing if he was telling her the truth. And there was the matter of the rings. They were from his former attempt at getting married, or they had been made up that afternoon. Either way, it was a little creepy how eager he had been to chain her with jewellery.

She knew, could verify, everything Ollie had told her, and everything others had told her about him. He was a good man, quiet and honourable, and apparently good fun when he was relaxed. He didn't adhere to the family company except in name, and to offer advice when it was asked of him. He was a successful artist, making a name for himself slowly but surely, with a regular income (not that it really mattered, she could support both of them on her allowance from her parents if it came to it).

And as she turned all this over in her mind, Piper realised she'd made her decision. If Oliver Hudson Granger was still interested, then she would be truly honoured to be his wife, and to have him be the father of her child.

Now all she had to do was work out how to break the news to all four of them.