I'm back! sorry it took me so long to update. Thank you for being so patient. Anyway, please reveiw b/c i do know how many hits this gets (i had to google how to see my hits but i know now) so if i dont get any reviews, i will be terribly sad. Anyway, the story, that's what you're here for.
Disclaimer: You know the drill. I dont own this stuff. It's NOT mine. Is everyone clear on that? good.
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Everyone stared. Most of her friends didn't even think of her as a woman. Sure, they knew that she was one, but she was one of the guys. Of course, Dom's head was processing completly different things. He was going to be a father. He would have shouted for joy if he hadn't glanced at his wife. Her head was in her hands. She was upset, he knew. She had only another two weeks before she could start using weapons again and only a month before she could go out to battle. Now she would have to stay here, at the palace, for at least nine months, most likely more. Despite the fact that his wife was unhappy, which made him, too, sad, he was bubbling with happiness. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Neal gave him a she's-your-wife-do-something-now look. He shot back a I'm-going-and-you're-her-best-friend-shouldn't-you-be-helping-too? look before going to sit beside Kel.
"Kel?" he asked nervously, putting a hand on her shoulder. She parted her fingers so she could see him through her hands. They were full of tears and red rimmed from crying. "Kel, are you okay?" He regretted the words as soon as they escaped his lips. Of course she wasn't okay, if she was, she wouldn't be crying right now. He wondered what had happened to her Yamani Mask. Usually, she had never shown her feelings. He supposed so much time away from the Yamani Isles changed her somewhat. She raised an eyebrow, a trick she had learned from Neal years ago.
"Perhaps you should use the deductive reasoning skills that Sargeants should posess and figure that out for yourself." She snapped, closing her fingers back together so that the world was invisible to her. It was a child's trick, really. If she couldn't see the world, then the world could not see her.
"Maybe we should discuss this somewhere else." He suggested, quietly. Everyone was straining to hear their whispers to see what was going on. She nodded and followed him somberly out of the door. Neal and Raoul followed, feeling somehow involved. He led them to a meeting room, shutting the door behind them.
"Nice going, Meathead." He muttered to his cousin.
"How is this my fault. As has already been said, this is your fault." Neal spat back, not bothering to keep his voice down so Kel wouldn't hear him.
"This is your fault. It is." Dom said, his voice at normal level, now, too.
"Now, Dom, I am not the one who-" Neal started but was cut off by Raoul.
"I don't know what you were going to say and I do not want to hear it." He said forcefully. Truth be told, he silently agreed that it was Dom's fault.
"But it is really both of your's faults." Kel said from her chair. They all looked to her. "It's Dom's fault because, well, he's the father and it's Neal's fault 'cause my pregnancy charm came off when we were sparring and you cut my neck, remember?" She wiped her running nose on a hankercheif. The men just stood there awkwardly. They didn't really know what to say. "I'm not really unhappy, you know, just a bit upset I can't go to war or probably pick up a weapon for a while."
"So you are happy?" Dom asked hopefully
Kel smiled and everyone relaxed, smiling was a good sign. "Of course I'm happy. We're going to have a baby!" She said excitedly.
"Right, now that we know you aren't going to kill us-"
"Oh, I will kill you, just when you least expect it, when you're asleep or something." Kel muttered loud enough for them all to hear.
"As I was saying," Neal said loudly to silence his best friend. "Now that we have that established, can I check to make sure you and the baby are okay now? It was hard when you were kicking my and screaming your head off." Kel's cheeks took on a rosy tinge.
"Everyone in the hall hear us, didn't they?" She asked Dom and Raoul.
"Well, yes," Raoul said, looking wary, "But to your credit, this is the third or fourth time you have created some type of dining entertainment, if you keep this up, their majesties may begin to pay you, keeping everyone excited when you walk through the dining hall's doors."
"They can pay me by not making me attend the god's damned balls we always have to go to. Especially now that, I assume, I am confined to staying at the palace, or Masbolle, or Mindelan, or something."
"Keep praying, Kel, I've been looking for excuses for years. They've yet to buy one." Her former knight-master laughed.
"With good reason. ' I have to meet George for a top-secret meeting'. If you're going to make up a story, make it something beleivable. "Though, I do agree with you, Lady Knight Keladry, I do think that we may have to pay you, you always add something entertaining to our day." The king said from the doorway, Alanna and Thayet beside him.
"Oh, and Kel, if you want to get out of a ball, say you have morning sickness." Alanna hinted, winking as she walked in.
"Yes, but balls are at night and morning sickness is in the morning, hence the name." Raoul said. "If I have to suffer, she does to."
"Morning sickness can sometimes extend into night and may occur at any time." Neal said as though he had read it straight out of a text. Everyone stared. He shrugged. "Alanna forced me to memorize the entire book on healing."
"And look what it's done for you. You can now diagnose a pregnant woman. That's not hard at all. It's not like any common hedgewitch or even a gift-less person with common sense can do that." Alanna said sarcastically.
"Do I sense sarcasm in my midst?" Neal asked challengingly.
"I've no notion what you mean, Nealan." Alanna replied, pulling up a chair next to the other lady knight.
"There it is again. I do wonder where it is coming from." Neal said, looking straight at Alanna. She glared him down. "No fair! You're eyes are purple!" He wailed.
"You'res are green. What is the difference?"
"Now that we have established that I can get out of balls, Raoul cannot, Alanna has purple eyes, Neal has green, and I need payment for embarrasing myself in front of court, may I go? I am tired and my throat hurts."
"You're throat hurts? Why?" Neal asked, alert, healer-mode on.
"The same reason you busted me in the first place." She said, storming off, Dom at her heels.
"How did you find out she was sick?" the queen asked.
"She threw up. And I heard her when I went to see if she wanted to come to breakfast and then I tried to heal her and she ran away and, well, you know the rest."
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Love you all for reading. Will love you more if you reveiw! - Emma
