I don't own Fable 3 – Lionhead Studios and Microsoft does. Based on the 2010 game.
Rated M to be safe.
Special warning – foetal death, and the drinking of breast milk.
Major Jack Swift and his wife, Princess Lara, have been married for over a year and Lara blames herself for a certain "problem" in their marriage.
The Best Things Are Worth Waiting For
"Jack, do you love me? I mean, really, really, love me?" It was unusual for Lara to be so insecure, and Jack Swift found himself utterly baffled by his wife's question, not to mention her timid demeanour.
"Of course! Do you truly believe me to be false-hearted?" The retired Major pulled his beloved wife into an embrace. "Besides, didn't the Contract prove to you that I love you? If I didn't love you more than anything, Lara, it would have killed me."
His lovely copper-haired wife sighed into his neck and gently played with the soft hairs at his nape, causing him to shiver.
"You are right," she sighed. "It's just that...well..."
He pulled back and peered into the deep green eyes he adored. It distressed him to see Lara so troubled. He had patiently waited, hoping that she would confide in him, as she was not the type of woman who tolerated men attempting to worm information out of her, so he had been patient and waited. And waited. And waited some more.
At last he realised that she would tell him only when she was completely ready and not a moment sooner. In the meantime they went on with their lives at Hunter's Lodge and their time together had been wonderful beyond their dreams. Jack Swift had never been happier than he was with Lara at his side, and she shared that sentiment. In fact, the only thing that had marred their happiness for a time had been...
Gods, but he was stupid! Swift clapped a hand to his forehead and swore loudly, causing Lara to leap back from him, startled.
"Jack, what ever..."
"This is all because of...the reason you..." He stopped and drew in a deep breath to calm himself. He took her hands in his and began again. "Lara, are you still blaming yourself for the womb death of our babe?"
Her emerald eyes immediately misted with tears, telling him that he was correct. "Oh, Lara!" He drew her into his arms again and kissed her cheeks, the tip of her nose, each closed eyelid, and finally her tear-moistened lips. "It wasn't your fault! It was our first try, my love, and whenever you are ready we can try again. That is, if you wish to."
She hiccuped and then powerful sobs began to wrack her body. She blamed herself still. When her belly had just begun to round with child it had soon thereafter perished. Lara had taken to bed for days and was inconsolable. Jack found himself, for once, feeling that he was of true service to his wife and took loving care of and comforted her as best he could. Eventually she recovered; or so he had believed.
Of course he grieved with her over their loss, but at the same time he also experienced masculine and husbandly fulfilment because she had so desperately needed him. Lara was a strong and fiercely independent woman, and as much as Jack admired that about her, he sometimes found himself wishing that she would need him...well...more. During their time of grief it had pleased and fulfilled him to be of genuine comfort and use to her.
Now her fingers clutched at his back and her sobs shook her frame so violently that he pulled her with him to his reading chair and carefully sat down upon it with her crumpling into a small heap into his lap. He allowed her to cry; this strong and capable, but also utterly vulnerable woman. He stroked her back and hair and murmured tender endearments into her ear. At long last the cascade of tears began to subside.
"I've wet your shirt," she suddenly sniffled, pulling back and peering guiltily down at his work shirt.
"I don't care," he said, sliding his index finger under her chin to tilt her head up. "Lara, look at me and listen very carefully." Only when her puffy and reddened eyes fixed on his did he continue. "I know you feel that you are somehow to blame for our baby's death, but you aren't." When she parted her lips to respond he placed his finger over them to keep her silent.
"Lara, you aren't to blame, and neither am I. These things happen sometimes." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Sometimes sad things happen, my love, and all we can do is move on from them. Perhaps the gods decided it wasn't time for a Hero to be born yet. There could be any number of reasons, Lara; but you are not one of them. You are not to blame."
"But I see your family portraits, Jack, and each of your siblings have multiple children! We've been married over a year and we don't even have one." She swallowed hard. "That tells me that there may be something wrong with me. What if nobody, even Theresa, knew that I was...flawed?"
"I doubt that very much, love." He kissed a soft trail along her jawline and then slowly captured her lips again, tenderly laving his tongue over the salt of her tears. "It is common for a first time mother to experience this. There is no need to seek or place blame, Lara."
"There may be," she whispered, looking as if she desperately wanted to be convinced, yet still did not dare. "Do you remember, back when we first fell in love, that I told you I would be jealous of a babe?"
"Stop right there, wife!" Jack uncharacteristically snapped, now angry with his own short-sightedness. How could he have not remembered that she had once said such a thing? Of course she would feel that her jealousy could manifest itself into something harmful to their child. Why hadn't he realised that she had been bearing this burden for months?
"Lara, stop right now! You did not kill our babe with jealousy or anything else!" And then his mind began to puzzle together...something; something else. Something was not quite right about this conversation, and something was definitely not quite right with Lara.
She truly was grieving for the loss of their child and terrified of losing another. She was afraid she may not be capable of producing an heir. But that wasn't the entirety of it. There was something else...
And then the disparate pieces of the puzzle slid into place. His memory flashed back to Mourningwood Fort to the day when Sir Walter Beck had confided in him that Lara was afraid of loving him and of him loving her. She had felt that she was unworthy of not only being the Hero, but that she was unworthy of him.
Lara was now convinced that her failure to give birth to a live and healthy babe was proof that she was not a worthy wife for him. She believed that she had, and was, failing him.
All her grief was not so much about the babe as it was about him; or rather, her perceived unworthiness of him. She likely did not consciously realise this, so focussed was she on their childlessness.
"Lara," he said softly and gently, "I don't mind if we never have a child. If we do, we'll be the most doting parents in Albion; but if we do not, we'll be the most loving and in love couple. Either way, you are my wife and have honoured me beyond my deserving. I couldn't be a happier man. You came into my life and forever changed me. If you were to ever leave me I could not survive." His voice faltered over the last several words. The very thought of being without her was unendurable. They had only been together for a little over a year, yet that was long enough for him to forget how he had ever lived without her.
She stared at him, baffled and wide-eyed, as he pressed on. "You have absolutely no idea how much I love and need you, do you? You truly do not know how much you have filled my heart and soul, of how crucial your well-being is to my own, and you are oblivious to how you are the absolute centre of my universe, aren't you, Lara?"
She lay her head onto his chest with a soft gratified sigh that told him she was deeply affected by his words. His wife pressed her ear over his heart and smiled at the sound of his heartbeat, and Jack hoped that it was soothing her now.
"I once thought that I would be content to live out the rest of my life as a soldier, but you changed all that. You brought out the man in me and showed me what I had been so sorely lacking. Not only have you given me my life Lara, you've made it, and me, complete."
He kissed her forehead as she continued to listen to the heartbeat that was as strong and steady as his love and devotion. "I'm quite spoiled now, my precious wife. I can no longer live without you, nor do I wish to." He threaded his strong fingers through her soft curly hair, causing her to sigh in pleasure and snuggle her face into his neck.
"Lara, if you and I live here together and secluded for the rest of our lives, I'll be a very happy man. In fact, that means I'll be as happy as I am now, which is very happy indeed."
Jack Swift, also known among his men as the Man of Words, now wondered if his words were adequate. When it came to reassuring his wife, he did not have the confidence he had always had when he spoke with his men, whether it be for encouragement, discipline, or life-risking orders. Lara constantly managed to scramble his learned and disciplined brain with no effort at all, and oft times he had felt as if he were a schoolboy before her. But he did not mind; he never had and never would.
Large gentle hands fondled Lara's swollen and sensitive breasts. She sighed and snuggled her rear into his belly, enjoying their spooning. One hand slid down to her rounded belly and cupped as much of it as he could. Jack fell far short of that goal, and Lara smiled. She outright giggled when he gasped at a firm kick to his palm.
"Well," he said, pretending to be affronted, "it seems that our daughter objects to my touching her mother!"
"Don't be silly, Jack!" Lara retorted, placing his hand firmly back onto her distended belly. "She, or he, is just impatient to come into the world!" They continually bantered about whether the child was a boy or a girl.
"Well, judging from your...ah...girth, that should be any day now." He kissed the back of Lara's neck. He was certain the babe was a girl. His Lara was so strong-willed that when she had conceived once again, he had no doubts whatsoever that the child would reflect its mother in every way possible, including gender.
Lara rolled onto her back and laughed. "You can say it, Jack! I'm as huge as Lieutenant Simmons was!" Then she groaned but quickly silenced herself. Her breasts was paining her again and she hated having to constantly leave her husband and empty them. But if she didn't, they would continue to swell and ache until she couldn't bear to have them touched.
Jack nuzzled his cheek against one of them and laved his tongue over the hardened nipple. He caught it between his lips and suckled.
"Jack!" Lara gasped, scandalised.
"Hush, Lara; you're in pain! Allow me to be of service to you." Jack had secretly been desiring to taste Lara's milk. The very thought aroused him almost unbearably, and besides, soon he would no longer have the chance. Their daughter would be born and he would have to share the breasts that he once considered his. Well, mainly his.
"I...well...I suppose you can try it," Lara said nervously, "but I fear you will find it not to your liking."
"My dear," he said, grazing his teeth over the turgid nipple, "I have yet to find anything about you not to my liking."
He slid his hands behind her back and held her upright as he suckled on her left breast. At first nothing happened and Lara groaned in both pleasure and frustration. Jack continued to suckle, however, and soon learned that he needed to take the entire nipple into his mouth, including the areola, and suck firmly but gently.
Lara gasped as her breast leaked its milk into her husband's mouth. She was embarrassed and afraid that he would find the taste disagreeable. In her opinion, when she had squeezed her own breasts to relieve the aching fullness, she had found the smell strange. Not off-putting, but somewhat like a warmed fruit, and she didn't know if the taste would match the scent.
"Gods, Lara," he suddenly said, his face lighting with pleasant surprise, "you taste like melon!" He licked his lips and pondered further. "Yet there is a hint of something reminiscent of cinnamon..."
Her tension completely dissipated as she dissolved into giggles. "You behave as if I am a bottle of wine!" She pressed his mouth back to her breast. "Well, my handsome connoisseur, please continue your analysis! I find it not only a physical relief, but a pleasurable one as well!"
She was not exaggerating. Lara felt that she should be embarrassed by her body's passionate response, but she was not. She and Jack had not made love for weeks and she missed him dreadfully. He was afraid of harming her or the baby, but he pleasured her all the same. His skilled hands and mouth kept her a very satisfied woman even though she missed their most intimate lovemaking.
"Jack, I really don't think you would harm me or the babe if you..."
"No, Lara! We cannot take the chance."
"Well then, let me pleasure you!" she said. "You haven't allowed me to and I don't know why!"
Jack sighed and paused to respond. "My dear, this is not my time, this is your time. Please allow me to be completely at your service. Besides, if my poor body suffers, you'll feel indebted to me and I can use that to my advantage after the babe is born and you forget I am even in the house."
Lara gasped and playfully punched his arm. "Jack, you are a scoundrel! I'd never forget you!" She then smiled and cupped her breasts, beginning to massage them seductively. Her palms became damp, but that only seemed to inflame her husband's passion. "I'll make you a bargain," she said coquettishly, "you allow me to use my mouth on you tonight, and I'll allow you to use yours to ease my aching breasts until our little Jacklyn, or Jackson, is born."
"I think that you'll need my aid even after she is," he replied with a grin. "After all, my dear, your...ah...assets are quite ample in size. I doubt that even if she is the size of two babes she can deplete your stores!"
She burst into merry laughter.
Five days later Lara and Jack Swift, along with Logan and his finest physician and a midwife, assisted in the birth of their baby.
Jack held Lara's hands and encouraged her as best he could during her labour, but after a time he broke out into a sweat equal to hers and suddenly left her side to lean against a wall.
"I now know why women bear children," he gasped, swiping a handkerchief as pale as his face over his forehead, "we men haven't the mettle, I'm afraid."
"Speak for yourself," Logan said gruffly. Wanting to show up the former Major, he moved down to view Lara's progress, and to his humiliation immediately turned white and strange gagging sough issued from his throat.
The doctor and midwife smiled at each other and then at Lara.
"It seems that your husband and brother don't even have the mettle to witness a birth!" the doctor said to Lara with a grin.
"I'm the one giving birth," Lara said petulantly, "and as bad as it is, even I'm not nauseous!" She shot a glare at Jack and Logan. "If you two can't make yourselves useful, you may as well wait outside!"
A particularly hard contraction seized her and the physician and midwife immediately coaxed her through it.
"Get ready, Sabrina, the shoulders will soon come!" the doctor told the midwife.
"Gods, it feels like I'm passing a cannon ball!" Lara cried out, ending on a shriek.
"Forgive me, Lara," Jack gasped, "but I..." He paused to collect himself. "I'll be fine," he said, voice shaking, but resolute. He summoned his reserves of courage and returned to his wife's side. He took her hands. "I'm here, Lara, as pitiful as I am, I'm here for you!"
"So am I," Logan wobbled, rallying himself and strode as regally as he could manage to Lara's other side.
"Well, being as you two are at least standing by me, I've no cause for complaint!" Lara said, managing to smile. Then she grimaced and screeched at the next contraction and push. "Heh...well, I've no cause for much complaint!"
The Princess managed to make it through her next stages of delivery with relative dignity and each man kissed her cheek and encouraged her. She was happy beyond measure, or so she thought; until little six pound four ounce Jacklyn Swift was born, that is. It was then that she knew the greatest happiness she had ever known. She had the most wonderful husband in the world, the best brother she could ever have hoped for, and the loveliest daughter imaginable.
"Life is wonderful," Jack whispered into Lara's ear as she cradled the swaddled little red-head to her chest.
Lara nodded and managed a weak smile. "It is, my love. Thank you for this treasure!"
"She is also my treasure," Logan added with a pleased twinkle in his eye. "I am now an uncle and expect the privileges that accompany the position!"
Jack and Lara exchanged a meaningful look.
"Yes," she said in response to their unspoken exchange, "Jacklyn will be the most spoiled child in Albion!"
"She certainly will not," Logan retorted, "she will be the most...ah...well-loved."
"Yes," Lara murmured, kissing her daughter's head, "well-loved!" She glanced up at her brother and then her husband. "As for the two of you, I couldn't love you any more than I do at this moment!"
She looked back down into her daughter's face.
Yes, life was very, very good.