It was still there when she lay down. No matter what she did, Piper could no longer disguise the fact that a certain part of her anatomy was getting rounder. Even now, as she lay on her back, hugging the teddy bear the mysterious Marek K. had given her and staring at the ceiling, she could feel it, rising from where her slim figure would usually have been concave in such a position.

She was becoming a recluse because of it. Even though, logically, she knew no one would even notice the rounded curve of her belly yet, she was paranoid that this was all anyone saw of her. Increasingly worried that the more obvious her pregnancy became, the more likely it was that Ollie would realise he'd made a dreadful mistake and gently back out on her. She wouldn't blame him if he did ....well, not much.

Yesterday, she'd made the effort to go down into the common room, to broaden her horizons a bit. But there had been the awkwardness of ordering something non-alcoholic, and although the man behind the bar had been very friendly, she'd slowly turned inward, especially when another woman came to the bar. That woman had been everything Piper used to be - cool, confident, fully in control - and it had been like a slap in the face to realise she didn't have any of that anymore. In the end, she'd excused herself hurriedly, escaping to take a brief walk around the city before hurrying back to her room and hiding away again.

And being alone gave her too much time to think. Time to envy Ollie his family so near by, even if some were against the idea of their marrying, and others were too bloody nosey for their own good. Time to realise how lonely she was, in a city where she knew nobody all that well, and those she thought she might know were all related to one another. She doubted anything she had said during her ambush had not been shared with anyone who would listen.

She missed her parents desperately. Her sister, not so much; for Harper had been a nonentity in her life since her own marriage three years before. She'd been told that the telephone lines could connect her to those of her own world; she even had the instructions written down beside the telephone in her room. But if she did contact her parents, she would have to confess everything. They would be so disappointed in her.

On the other hand, she had just disappeared almost a full month ago. They'd be worrying themselves sick over her absence. Was their declining health and happiness really worth protecting her pride over"

Piper sighed to herself. No, it wasn't. She couldn't do that to her family, not when it would be so easy to let them know she was safe. With a low groan, she kicked the covers off herself and rolled to bring the 'phone over to herself. Reading the instructions carefully, she connected to the operator, and asked to be put through to her parents' number through the portal number she had also been given.

It took longer to connect than she had thought it might, two aching minutes of buzzing quiet next to her ear before she heard the click and the ringer on the other end. Taking a deep breath, Piper waited in tense silence, counting the rings and estimating how long it would take her mother to get to the telephone.

Eight rings later ...."Hello?"

Piper almost burst into tears right there on hearing her mother's voice. "Mum, it's me."

"Oh, Piper! Oh, my darling girl, where are you? What's happened?" Hannah Davidson sounded almost beside herself with relief on hearing her daughter's voice. "Your father and I have been so worried!" Her voice was muted for a moment. "Daniel!"

"I'm fine, Mum, I promise nothing terrible's happened," Piper tried to explain; but she was so relieved and so homesick, it came out in a burbling series of sobs.

On the other end of the phone, she could hear her father in the background. "Who is it' Is it Piper" Keep her on the 'phone, I'll get on the other line." This only made Piper sob harder; she hadn't realised until she heard their voices just how much she was missing her parents.

"Oh, darling, please calm down," Hannah was saying over the sound of her youngest daughter's sobs. "Everything's alright. Just tell us where you are, and we'll come and get you."

"You can't," Piper managed to say, forcing herself to calm down just as her mother had said. "I can't leave, not yet ....maybe not ever."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Daniel Davidson, it seemed, had managed to get himself onto another of the telephones in Somerville House. "Is someone keeping you there" You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, no, no, I'm not hurt," she hurried to reassure them, before both her parents could worry themselves still further over her distress. "It's just ....it's really complicated, and you're not going to believe me at all."

"Begin at the beginning, darling," Hannah told her, though it was clear she was fighting to keep her own distress from her voice as she spoke. "Just tell us what?s happened."

So Piper did. It was a long story for them to hear, full of things they could never even have imagined, for the Earth in which they dwelt knew nothing of magic or Fae, or anything that could have come from a fairytale or myth. But they listened to her explaining herself, keeping their initial reactions to themselves for fear of upsetting her to the point where she could no longer speak at all.

"....so it looks like I'm stuck here," she said finally, coming to the end of her woeful story. "Even if I could come back after the baby's born, it won't be able to survive at home. I'd be abandoning my baby, and I just ....I won't do that."

There was silence at the other end of the line, in which she could just imagine the chagrined looks on the faces of both parents as they tried to take it all in. It went on so long that Piper began to worry that they had simply hung up on her.

"I know," Piper found herself nodding along. She had always gotten along far better with her father than her mother, though both relationships were close. This calm acceptance of her choices was the main reason for it. "You'll have to come here; if I go home, I'll get sick again. Can you give me some time, though' There's still a lot I need to do, need to find out, and I don't want you to come along and see the worst of what?s happening. Everything will be fine, I promise you."

"Alright, sweetling, we can do that," her father agreed. "But you will keep in contact, won't you? None of this not talking to us for over a month again. You nearly worried your mother into hospital."

"That's enough, Daniel," Hannah said briskly. "Ignore him, darling, he's exaggerating. Just stay in touch."

"I will," Piper promised, feeling a weight lift from her with the comforting realisation that her parents were not about to come charging into Rhy'Din hell-bent on finding the man who had compromised their little girl's virtue. "I should go - I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and you guys have all your committees and stuff."

"Not stuff," Hannah corrected her, but she could hear the faint amusement in her mother's voice, bringing a relieved smile to her own face. "Where are you staying, Piper" We can find out how to call you from here."

"At the Red Dragon Inn," she told them. "Room 112a."

She could hear the scribbling as one of them wrote this down. "Very well, darling," her mother said confidently. "I will call you tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mum," Piper smiled up at the ceiling, absently stroking her fingertips over the little bump that jutted proudly out from her waistline. "I'll be here."

"Take care of yourself, darling," Hannah added. "I'm only a phonecall away if you need me - us, that is." There was a pause, and she added, "I love you, Piper."

"Love you too, Mum."

"I won't say I'm happy about all this, Piper," Daniel said after a click betrayed that his wife had put down the 'phone. "But I trust you, and I trust your judgement. If you say this is how it should be, then this is how it will be."

"Thank you, Daddy. It means a lot to know you're with me on this."

"And if that Granger boy hurts you in any way, he'll feel the back of my hand." This was spoken airily; they both knew Daniel couldn't raise his hand to anyone, even if he tried. "I love you, sweetling. Be safe."

"I will," Piper told him gently. "I love you too, Daddy. Speak to you soon."

As the line went dead, she rolled to lay the receiver back on the stand, before resuming her comfortable sprawl across the bed. Both hands lowered to lay over the evidence of the baby growing inside her, and to her shock, she realised that her nervous butterflies had not gone away. But she wasn't tense, or nervous, anymore. A slow, goofy smile spread over her face as she came to the conclusion that she was feeling the baby moving. What had the doctor called it' Quickening?

Maybe it was a good sign. She was calmer now than she had been for weeks; she'd spoken to her parents, reassured them and been reassured in return; she would be having a scan of some kind today, and would find out just how healthy the baby was. But still the best thing out of everything that had happened was her new affliation with Ollie Granger, and the gentle, if somewhat too enthusiastic, friendliness of his family. Maybe things here in Rhy'Din really would turn out for the best.