A/N: Please R & R. Thanks.
In the spring, Charlotte started feeling nauseous and began eating more when they could get it. Mayerling noticed it – and the strange, intoxicating aroma and glow about her – and not without concern. He watched her, feeling that he didn't know enough about humans to decipher what was wrong and that if something were truly wrong, she would let him know. However, when no relief came and the strong perfume had firmly worked its way into his every waking thought, he had to throw down his normal rules regarding female privacy and ask her about it.
"Charlotte, my love, are you alright?" he said after having watched her for an hour that evening. Maybe it was the wrong question, for she certainly looked fine: her skin was glowing, her cheeks rosy in spite of the hard hours they pushed. But what had made him ask was her perplexing, distracted half-smile.
She pressed her hand against her belly and pulled out of her distraction to reassure him with her smile. What she said, however, froze his bones: "Mayerling, I'm going to have your child."
The smile on her face discouraged immediate action, so he fell silent, considering the implications of her words. "Darling, the child will be a dhampir…" he informed her softly.
Sadness seemed to cross Charlotte's face temporarily, for she knew as well as he did what this would mean for the baby and what it could mean; however they would always be running for place to place, and the world that Mayerling had grown up in was gone. She knew she would love the child, regardless of what he was, just as she loved the child's father. Perhaps with enough love the child would not end up like the attractive yet doomed individual who had spared them a year before. "Love, I would like to keep it."
Mayerling nodded, knowing and respecting his darling's decision. "We will keep it." Then he smiled, too, realizing they were going to have a baby to show their love for each other and to spoil as rotten as they could. They celebrated into the small hours of the early morning, dancing round and round in their joy.