Author's Note: Hullo all. Thanks for bearing with me. One semester down. Countless others to go. My uploading will be spotty but I will finish this story!
Not So Young
Meggie was crying when he found her, slumped on the upstairs bathroom floor. It was the one that was hardly used because the family, if they could be called that, spent most of their time downstairs. She was sitting on the edge of the tub, staring at the floor, desperately trying to quite her tears. Dustfinger stood awkwardly in the doorway until she finally realized the door was open and someone was looking at her.
"Dustfinger?" she sniffed. "When did you get back?"
"Farid and I came in last night."
"Short trip this time. Only three months, yeah?"
"I was walking by and heard..." Dustfinger stepped in and closed the door quietly. "Are you alright?"
Meggie shook her head and wiped her eyes.
"Are you sick?"
"I'm... pregnant."
Dustfinger leaned back against the door. In his own world, girls younger than Meggie would have had small families by now. This world, with its forward thinking ways, she was still young. He stared at her silently, trying to process what she'd just told him.
"Who..." Dustfinger took a breath to calm himself down. "Who's is it?"
"Don't be stupid. It's Farid's." she replied, running a hand through her hair nervously. "He doesn't even know yet."
"You're so young."
"I'm 20!" Meggie snapped.
"You're not married!"
"Oh and you were married?"
Dustfinger's face went dark. Meggie leaned back as if to recross the boundary she'd overstepped. She was smart enough to never bring up Roxane as the fire eater never did. It was the one part of his old world that Meggie could see still haunted him.
"Dustfinger..." Meggie's voice broke. "What am I going to do?"
Dustfinger moved to crouch before her, staring up at the young woman. Silvertongue's daughter a soon to be mother? Now this was going to prove to be very interesting. He looked her over surreptitiously. She was no child anymore. He'd noticed that over the past few years. Dustfinger sighed, knowing he was going to regret the next words.
"Don't worry. We'll sort things out."
Not long after, he and Meggie were sitting in a clinic somewhere in the country. It was homey building, the waiting room downstairs in what looked like an old parlor. Dustfinger was sitting in a chair by the fire and Meggie tried to calm her nervous energy by peering at the rows of books.
She glanced at him, fiddling idly with her car keys. He had changed a lot in the past few years. His clothes were more modern but he still favored dark jeans, safer for flames. Meggie gave him a new sweater every Christmas, as he would burn or wear out the one from the previous year. Right now he was wearing last year's and she could see a few burn marks on the sleeves. He looked up and she turned her attention back to a copy of A Christmas Carol.
"Margaret?"
Meggie and Dustfinger looked over at the nurse in the pink scrubs. She smiled at them and led them upstairs to a small examination room. She eyed Dustfinger suspiciously as he helped Meggie onto the table.
"Generally the boyfriend doesn't come to the procedure." she commented, opening a cabinet.
"Oh we're not together." Meggie said. "He's just a friend."
"Ah." The nurse smiled. "Well then I'll explain the procedure while I take some vitals."
Meggie nodded mutely. Dustfinger looked at how pale the silvertongue looked. He gave her a reassuring nod, although, if he had to admit it, nervousness wriggled like a snake in his belly. He watched like a statue as the nurse took Meggie's temperature.
"At your last appointment we placed the pregnancy at about 13 weeks. At this far along we use the aspiration method. First, we'll give you an injection to numb you." The nurse turned to pick something up off the counter. She handed Meggie a small length of tubing, then moved to take her blood pressure.
"Then this type of tubing is inserted and suction created by an aspirating machine is used to remove the pregnancy from the uterus. You will hardly feel a thing. The whole thing takes about five minutes."
"And it won't hurt her in any way?" Dustfinger asked slowly.
"Well she might be a little sore and, well, honestly the whole thing can be emotionally trying. But in a few days she'll be right as rain. If you would like, I can give you the address of a nearby bed and breakfast where you can spend a few days to recuperate. Lots of rest is recommended. However, this is an outpatient procedure and complications are rare." The nurse finished taking her blood pressure and stood. "Well I'll go enter these into the computer and I'll be with you in a few minutes."
Meggie didn't even recognize that she had left the room. She was staring at diagram of proper hand washing procedure. The words were out of her mouth before she'd even completed her thought.
"Don't you think it would look like Farid?" she asked. "I read somewhere that dark hair is a dominant trait so I guess it would have his hair. And his skin isn't that dark so it would be fair. It would probably turn out to be tall. We're both tall. It might have my eyes. I think it would be pretty to have dark hair and blue eyes. It might be a silvertongue, like Mo and I. And don't you think that it'd be sad for it to grow up not being able to read aloud? Don't you think it'd be sad that his grandmother couldn't speak to him? That its father is never around? That they aren't married? That no one will help its mother bring it up? Don't you think?"
Meggie hadn't even realized she was crying until Dustfinger pulled her tight against his chest. She fingers curled unto the material of his sweater as she sobbed. Dustfinger didn't speak, just held tight to the young woman.
"I'll help you."
