Ariel didn't want to go down to breakfast the next day, and she didn't want to stay when she saw how Cora was glowing. Everything had changed. Cora had hardly touched her breakfast, claiming morning sickness, but her cheeks were flushed with pride as she leaned in to Eric, a hand on her cheek.

"Now of course I didn't want to say anything to you when I didn't know for sure." Cora continued. "Get you all excited for no reason."

"Well, you've got me now." Eric gave her a weak smile.

"That's what I was hoping."

"Mornin'" Ariel said softly, sitting down at the table.

Eric shot her a half-pleading look, trying to maintain a sense of moral composure.

"Babies, even just an idea, mean so much to me." Cora looked over at Ariel. "I'm sure you can understand my excitement."

"Yes, of course. Congratulations." Ariel smiled up at her, picking up a fork and poking at her breakfast.

It seemed as if all the magic and wonder of the worlds had been sucked out with this announcement, resigning Ariel to a fate of lapping against seashores, and after she had been so close, too. It was a moral knotting to break apart Eric and Cora's marriage, and that was when the situation would, at least in some way, benefit both parties, and, if nothing else, Cora may have, at least some day, understood. But taking a father from a baby, and a prince from his heir...Ariel didn't even have to ask Eric to know what he was thinking, and what he would do.

"We've wanted one for so long, you see." Cora continued, moving to eat some of her breakfast. "And upon the child's birth, they'll be my top priority, I assure you. Girl or boy. I've always considered myself maternal, and I can hardly contain my excitement!"

"I've never seen you this excited." Eric conceded.

"I'm sorry." Cora put a hand to cover her mouth, blocking her smile. "I know this must seem so out-of-character for me, and it is, but I feel like screaming my way through the castle. I've wanted this for so long." She turned back to her husband. "Look at us, Eric – a budding family!"

"I can see."

"I'll start nursery plans soon, probably. Once my nerves settle, so I don't do anything too ambitious." Cora paused to drink. "I want this child to be safe, so we'll put her away from the sea-facing side of the palace. You know, a seagull landed on my very windowsill just a few days ago. Large enough to eat a child!"

"That's fine." Eric nodded, poking at his food with the same excitement Ariel was.

Cora took another bite. "Not to mention the winds blowing in sand, or sudden storms. This child is going to be so blessed, she'll be loved more than any other baby ever was."

"You seem so sure it's a girl."

"Mothers know these things." Cora nodded, finishing her eggs. "I mean, not for sure, of course. I wouldn't be so arrogant. But right now I'm feeling like it's a girl. Who knows? Things change."

They certainly do. Ariel huffed, all but giving up on producing an appetite.

"Here, Eric, if you're full I can show you the room I was thinking of." Cora patted her lips with a napkin and rose from the table.

"Yeah, I'm not very hungry this morning." Eric stood up and his wife walked over to meet him, taking his left arm.

Ariel sighed. Well, it's not like he could refuse. It's not like she expected him to. As he passed by Eric dropped a small piece of paper in front of her, and it tumbled into her lap. Ariel sat perfectly still, waiting for them to leave. Eric peeked over his shoulder, and Ariel nodded, signaling that she got it.

She tapped her thumbs on the outside of the folded note, and then opened it.

Meet me in the library. I don't know what we can do, but I still love you.

Ariel couldn't finish her breakfast, but still poked at her food for another ten minutes, stewing in her own displeasure. There was nothing they could do, she could tell him that right now without having to meet anywhere. She wanted to, and had to be, his wife, and he didn't want her as anything else. But to leave Cora now, when she's not only with child, but with his child, his heir? Impossible! No matter how much they loved each other, they couldn't push this aside.

But no matter how much she knew that they couldn't be together, she wanted to be with him. So she went to the library. Eric met her there roughly two hours later, looking like he had ventured to hell and back, as opposed to planned a nursery with his wife. He plopped down on the couch next to Ariel.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"It's not your fault." Ariel looked up at him. "I mean, in terms of biology, it is, but it's not like we were really in each other's lives more than four days ago."

"But that's the thing, we were! You came back for me on our anniversary every year, even though it hurt, and even though nothing might've come of it. I know I was still in your life." He reached for her hand. "And, I promise you, you were in mine. I spent months looking for you after you rescued me. I'd think of you all the time, the little bits I had of you anyway. I'd find myself playing your song, or thinking of your face or your hair." He ran his hand tenderly through her hair. "I spent three years wanting to do that, and I would've forgone anything in order to be able to." He sighed, and fell back. "But I was stupid, and I let myself get talked into visiting one princess during those three years, and talked into writing her, and talked into marrying her. If I was stronger, held out longer, this wouldn't be an issue."

Ariel let her face roll into his cupped hand, and one tear ran down her cheek onto his palm. "Don't." she said softly, painfully. She wouldn't break the curse. And not because Eric didn't love her. Because he was already obligated to a woman he didn't even love, and a baby he hadn't planned for.

"Ariel, I can't believe it. I mean, I can. It's plausible. I just, can't believe that this is happening now. There was no child for three years, we tried more at the beginning, you know. I had always wanted one, and so had she. This is a blessing, this is what I had wanted, but it's come at a cursed time."

Ariel's mind jumped to the Sea Witch, but she chose not to bring it up. She didn't have these kind of powers, did she? She leaned against Eric, but buried her sorrows against herself, resting her face to her knees.

"She's having my child. She's having my heir. I, of course, couldn't doubt her faithfulness, it is inarguably my child."

"Oh, Eric." Ariel lifted her head, looking back at him.

"I had made up my mind. I was going to do it as gently as possible, offer her anything else that I could, I would've taken anything she would've wanted to throw at me. Names, accusations, curses, or spite." He laughed and leaned back. "Granted, I wasn't even sure if she would." He wrapped his arms around Ariel and pulled her tighter. "But we were about to make it. We would've been together, broken our curses. But now-"

"You can't. We can't." Ariel finished. "I couldn't dream of asking you to."

The two leaned back on the couch and looked out the window at the ebbing tide. Ariel exhaled shakily as she saw how it pushed in sea foam. There was nothing left to do, but wait.

…

Cora longed for Will. To have her old friend, her old confidant back. She used to be able to tell him anything, and she had. Sometimes he would make annoying quips, but he'd always help her as best he could, even if he didn't always understand why she would take breakups so hard, or where exactly she focused her attention on.

But they hadn't spoken in so long, and even if she were to write him a letter, the response time would not be as immediate as she needed. So she sought out another source to dump her secrets into, and ended up down in the kitchens, where Carlotta was doing finishing touches on the cleanup, wiping down an already clean counter.

"Well if it isn't the glowing mother!" Carlotta beamed, walking over to Cora and hugging her.

"Hello, Carlotta." Cora said softly, hugging her back.

"Ooh, nerves got ya, honey? The first pregnancy is always the hardest, from beginning to birth. But you're a strong lady, you'll do just fine. You, like every other new mother, will worry too much, but you and the little baby will be fine."

"Yeah, my nerves got me something awful." Cora admitted. "And, I was wondering if you'd be willing to talk with me."

"Of course, honey!" Carlotta exclaimed, putting down the rag. "What do you want to know?"

"Do you promise you won't tell anyone?" Cora said, pausing between each word. "No matter what I ask, or what I tell you, you won't tell anyone?"

"Is something wrong?" Carlotta said softly. "Is the baby doing something strange? Is your body doing something strange?"

Cora snorted. "I guess if you want to think of it in that way."

"What do you mean?"

"If I were to be a pregnant woman, I certainly wouldn't be acting like it."

"What?"

"The baby hasn't moved, I haven't gotten morning sickness, my belly isn't sticking out-"

"Well, you could still be very early in the-"

"I haven't missed a single course." Cora said quickly. "Carlotta, I'm not pregnant. I want to be! I wish I was! But I'm not!"

"W-what?" Carlotta spluttered, reaching out for Cora.

"Oh, Carlotta, please don't say anything!" Cora pleaded. "I just feel awful, just awful! And I'll do my best to make sure a baby does come, even if it is a little later than we'd think."

"Why on earth would you tell such a lie?" Carlotta asked, in disbelief.

"Carlotta, I don't want to lose him!"

"Eric? Why, you're already married-"

"Well, tell him that!" Cora screeched, bringing a hand to her mouth. "He's been running around with the foundling girl, Ariel, and I saw them kissing on the beach just two days ago! He loves her, he loves her, he loves her!" She brought her fists up to her head. "Carlotta, I didn't know what else to do! I thought she'd be here for a day or two and then go back to her family, but turns out she has no family, so she must just be taking mine!"

"Honey-"

"And I didn't mean to say it, honest! It wasn't something I planned, I just got this idea right up in my head and it stuck there. I watched as they came back from town yesterday. They were so close with each other, and he's never done that with me, and I'm his wife, of all things! He was carrying her around and her arms were around his neck and he loves her! I felt this burst of nerves in my stomach, because this whole thing is getting me twisted up in the worst way. And, oh, I feel like I'd do anything to just go back to normal, or even move forward! Some scenario without him loving someone else, even if he's not ready to love me yet. And that bit of nerves reminded me of another kind of abdomen pain, and I just thought, that if I'm not enough, then maybe a family would be. It might be easier to leave me, but his unborn child? I know Eric. More than he'd ever like to admit. He couldn't do that. I just wish it wasn't a lie."

"But it is, Cora." Carlotta said softly. "What Eric's doing isn't fair to you, at all, and I won't excuse him. But you can't trap him into loving you. If you box him into a corner, he won't respond with affection."

"I'm not laying a trap for him! I'm just trying to remind him that I am what he wants, and what he needs. He knows it too – he proposed to me! And I know how much he wants a child. When we were courting, he'd tell me about taking them sailing and doing all sorts of those ocean things he loves, and I know he wants one. Ariel doesn't have that! Whatever she does have, she hasn't given him a child."

Carlotta paused before speaking, but still said. "and neither have you. Eric is not a cow you're trying to place the highest bids for. This won't work Cora."

"I know that!" Cora's voice broke in a sob. "I know, but I still hope that it might. I feel so nervous, like I'm on the brink of hysteria all the time! I've never been like this before, but I'm just so scared." She swallowed a sob and continued. " 'Lotta, I think he planned to leave me. I think he was gonna say it, with Ariel standing right there. I had to stop him, and that's when I told him about the baby."

"I know you're scared, honey. I know, I know." Carlotta said soothingly, moving closer to the girl.

"Oh, I'm not this type of person!" Cora let out, leaning against the counter.

"No, honey, this does not define you. You're reacting the way many other wives would. You're scared. I understand."

"But I'm supposed to be better than this." Cora said weakly.

"You're still good. No matter what. You are pure goodness, Cora. I know that. I know you." Carlotta cupped her cheek, looking up at the girl.

"Thank you." Cora said softly, letting tears roll off her dark lashes. The girl could not fully compose herself, and continued. "Can I fight for him? Oh, she's stealing him from me!" Cora put her fists to her head and reeled.

"Honey pie," Carlotta reached out for the girl and brought her in, comforting. "You're young, so young, and you still think that lovers can be stolen. If they leave, it's of their own volition. That much I know to be true. And if they're bound to you, no price would be too high to pay, and nothing could keep them away from you."

"But." Cora spluttered, a tear running down her cheek. "What if he doesn't love me? What if he's not willing to pay a price? …Not willing to let go of Ariel."

Carlotta hugged the girl to her chest and let her weep out her fears and sorrows, not having the heart to let Cora know what would inevitably happen next.

…

Carlotta was always a woman careful to never make promises she couldn't keep. Which is why she was so careful in her conversations with Cora. She was bound first to her Lord, and second to her country, which was ruled over by a boy she had raised from essentially infancy. She didn't entirely like what Eric was doing, and, boy, would he get it when this had all blown over. But, right now, she had to tell him what she had learned.

She knocked on the door of his study, where he sat at his desk, face buried in his hands.

"Eric, darling?" she stepped him, walking over and resting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Eric sniffed and lifted his head, looking at her. Carlotta bent down and hugged the boy.

"What is it, Lotty?" Eric said, using a name he had claimed to outgrow when he was twelve.

"I've got some news to tell you." She said, leaning against the desk. "And I think it's something you're going to want to hear."

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