"I can understand why you're concerned." Dr Craven's air was tinged with awkwardness; how does one respond to such an allegation? Ripped from her bed (all but physically) and still in her nightclothes; the nature of the emergency did not leave time for dressing. Not when it was the General's wife. "I just don't see how what you're suggesting is possi-"
"What, so now you think I was unfaithful too?!"Came the breathless snap from the bed; exhausted from crying and in such a dire state that her tone didn't concern her, her usual gentile demeanour abandoned. Nothing concerned her now, only the results of the test they waited on.
Dr Craven shifted uncomfortably; what else could she say? In her trained, medical opinion, there was only one way to create a child and that was insemination in some way, shape or form. Whether that was sexual intercourse or invitro fertilization, there had to be some consciousness or some contact; a fertilized egg did not just appear in the womb without some way of putting it there.
"I'm not saying that." Dr Craven responded carefully and chose her words, remembering the General's quiet warning when Lucilla was initially placed in her care: Do not upset her. "I'm just struggling to come up with an explanation as to how it may have been possible."
"Why are you asking me?!"The choked demand from the bed rang with despair under the outrage. "Ask that….! that…! BEAST!" That would not be happening. Addressing the notoriously volatile, aggressive and dangerous Kylo Ren? Absolutely not and certainly not on behalf of someone else. Though the answer would be one to behold, that was for sure.
"I'll inform you the moment the results come through." Nothing in response, only a despondent sniffle to which the doctor uneasily excused herself.
It was worth the physical torment, dragging herself the way she did. Removing the covers, forcing the muscles in her legs to work together to adjust herself then shuffling on her rear to sit at the edge of the bed; all the while being mindful of her stitches. The pain drummed consistently, even in something as simple as her feet finding her slippers over the edge of her recovery cot and fumbling to push them in.
Lucilla forced back a sob as the jagged pain in her midriff intensified and spread, antagonized by the pressure of sliding herself off the bed.
She told herself to take it slow, that she would get there eventually and to rush herself might cause further setbacks. With that in mind, she made herself slow down. The chair beside the incubator was a welcome solace.
"This changes nothing, sweetheart." Mother swore to child with her baby's tiny hand encased in hers; the dependable beeping of life-preserving machines had become white-noise. "You're mine. The rest doesn't matter. And as soon as we're both well enough, Grandpa is going to take us away." The strokes to the baby's forearm were feather-light and the smile was watery but comforting; comforting to either her or her daughter, she couldn't be sure but she hoped it would work.
"We're a package, you and I." Lucilla swallowed and the smile faltered but didn't disappear. "There won't be one without the other, my love, I promise." The next admission may have only been half true but that half was what her husband had made clear without uttering a single other half was a murdering lunatic who had splayed himself at her mercy, oblivious to the fact that she didn't want him and never would. "But we're not wanted here, darling; and that's alright too."
"Miss Lucilla?" She roused, hazily assuming she had dozed in the chair, holding her daughter's hand. Dr Craven had returned, looking upon her patient with curiosity but her features betrayed little else. Sitting slightly forward as she came round from her self-sedation, Lucilla blinked once, then twice but never relinquished the hand in the incubator. "The results, Miss Lucilla. Would you like to return to bed?"
Mildly disorientated by waking, the words took a few seconds to register.
"No…. No, I want to-" Her gaze redirected from her physician to the incubator; it seemed only fitting to be with her child when a potentially crushing blow was dealt. That said, regardless of who the father of her child turned out to be, the blue-eyed beauty would be alone. Orion didn't want a daughter so having one and not the other was out of the question. Ren had laid claim to her and the baby but belonging to that brute didn't bear thinking about. Then again, if she tried to leave and take the baby Ren had fathered, she would have been a fool to think he wouldn't hunt her down. Either way, unpleasantness would ensue.
Dr Craven nodded her understanding and produced her datapad, taking a moment to peruse through to find the file she needed. When she found it, her eyes flickered oh so swiftly upwards then down again as she adjusted the format into projection mode. Without the adequate training in how to read such a file, Dr Craven felt it only prudent to summarize.
"As we suspected…." The doctor drew a breath. "The General is the baby's father."
Relief. Unparalleled relief. A somewhat better outcome. At least now, she could leave in peace rather than having to hide from someone hell bent on finding her; Orion was a lot more docile than Kylo Ren.
"I did some digging." Craven continued cautiously, while Lucilla basked in reassurance; eyes closed, head tilted towards the ceiling and breath slightly ruffled in her chest. "And it seems what you told me is possible after all; rare but possible. They call it a Force pregnancy."
She wasn't surprised; trust that bastard to find a way of manipulating something so pure for a purpose so vile.
"The only thing I can think of, is that you were already pregnant, very early perhaps, when his attempt was made and so, he assumed his efforts were fruitful." It seemed a good an explanation as any. Lucilla's eyes opened and her mouth tweaked in thoughtful grimace; thinking of the damage Ren would do when he learned this, if he didn't already know.
"I would appreciate discretion on this matter." Lucilla was steady and firm with her request, scarcely managing to inject some authority into her voice but the other female's expression didn't fill her with confidence. "The General doesn't need to know about the test. It will only upset him."
Dr Craven's lips curled inwards with sympathy and the sigh packed foreboding.
"Everything has to be recorded." She explained with the dregs of regret in her tone and Lucilla's brazen exterior became dented as a result. "Every test and procedure we do has to be made a note of, no matter how small. I had to make a record of the test, it's on your file." Time to gamble andcompromise, for the sake of a fellow female in a dire situation. "I won't tell him but… There's always a chance that he won't see it on the file."
The half-hearted nod from the woman in the chair did pluck at Dr Reena Craven but bound by duty, there was little to be done, few concessions to be offered.
When Lucilla's full focus returned to the incubator and her musing of what to do in light of the information, anyone else would have taken that as a cue of dismissal. Not Dr Craven, not yet. Hovering just outside Lucilla's sapphire eyeline, she powered down the datapad and lingered.
"Have you named her yet?" The gentle question was not one of a professional nature; rather, as one woman to another, a feminine curiosity.
"I have a name." Lucilla replied, inexplicably touched by the doctor's inquiry but never deviated her vision from the incubator. "But I would like to give us both the dignity of holding her when I give it to her."
Understandable. Dr Craven thought, as she excused herself to return to bed. Very understandable.