A/N- Sorry for the delay, Quinn's actions are explained in this chapter
I woke the next morning feeling disoriented. I scanned the room for Pam before I remembered that she was probably long dead in her coffin, hidden somewhere in the city I hoped.
I stretched and shivered against the satin, still not comfortable even after a night trying to sleep in between the sheets.
That didn't matter though when I had a sudden case of morning sickness.
I rushed to the bathroom, struggling frantically to slide open the hidden door and made it to the bowl just in time.
Nothing wakes you up faster than morning sickness.
Brushing my teeth twice, I washed my face and tried to figure out my movements for the day.
The great thing about being held by vampires is that they all have to sleep sometime- usually once the sun starts to come up. I remembered Bill's maker being up during the day but I had to assume she was a one off.
Or I could be really, really screwed.
A knock on the door interrupted my musings before they could start down a truly dark path. Both curious and cautious, I padded across the carpet to one of the few doors in the suite with a knob and cracked it open, outside stood a maid in black and scarlet livery. A quick scan of her mind showed no harmful thoughts, just a bit of interest, so I let her in.
The cart of hot breakfast wasn't a deciding factor in any way.
She wheeled it into the centre of the room, looking about curiously, she couldn't have been much older than me but that and our sex was the only similarity between the both of us. Her hair was bottle black and her eyebrows were virtually non-existent, she was shorter than me but was skinny enough to either be a model or a poster girl for anorexia.
"Your breakfast Miss Stackhouse" she lifted the cover off the tray with a flourish, revealing a wonderful bounty of eggs, bacon, orange juice, pancakes, anything I could possibly desire. I was pleasantly surprised remembering my stay in the Pyramid of Gizeh where human needs had been a stray after thought and the food really substandard. I thanked her kindly and went up a notch in her opinion; apparently she'd had some unpleasant encounters with fangbangers assuming they were better than everyone else, just because the vamps fed off and fucked them.
I could sympathise with her on that.
She handed me a clipboard with the bill attached,
"Mr Quinn asked that you be placed on his account" she explained politely,
"Just sign here"
My good mood upon seeing the breakfast evaporated, and I dug my nails into the board.
Damn that tiger must have worked quickly, I wondered if Eric had an account at the hotel I could switch to, or even pay my own way.
Thinking of Eric gave me an idea; I scrawled my name at the bottom and then added a little something extra.
She didn't bother checking my signature until she was in the elevator, but she was still close enough that I could read her mind and find out just how high her opinion of me had soared.
Giving a six hundred dollar tip will do that.
If Quinn was so determined to make himself the father of my child, perhaps putting a nice big hole in his pocket would make him reconsider.
I sat down to breakfast and cleared everything on the plate, eating slowly however to avoid another case of morning sickness and because I wasn't sure how I was going to spend the day. I had looked around my bedroom but I didn't find any evidence that Pam had left me Dr. Ludwig's number, nor did I know it off the top of my head.
Disheartened I got dressed and decided to do some exploring, either to see the gambling centre of America or at the very least, more of the hotel I was staying in.
Grabbing my cranberry red jacket and slipping my purse into my pocket, I hurried across the main room of the suite, terrified that a vampire might be lurking in the corner and yanked open the front door.
Catching Quinn just as he was about to knock.
I recover from the surprise first.
"No one's home" I sneer, ducking under his arm and heading for the elevator.
Unfortunately he follows me. Lumbering into the confined space just as the doors are about to close, and even though its childish I make sure to step as far away from him as possible, hitting the button for the reception area. He ignores this and holds up a coffee cup,
"Just the way you like it babe"
I raise an eyebrow and look at him askance, "Yeah and after I finish pregnancy and breastfeeding I might drink it again"
He lowers the cup and I feel a brief stab of guilt for being rude, then my stomach flutters and I place a hand over it, certain it's my baby.
"You're not going to make this easy for me…are you babe?"
I reluctantly focus on my conversation with Quinn, "No I'm not" I agree,
"And it serves you right for going along with Felipe and his goons, saying you're the father of my child when any supe idiot with a nose will know that the father is a fae"
His eyes widen at this information and I can tell he's running through his list of fairies, trying to figure out who he is.
"Claude" he decides finally, not even making it a question.
Oh I wish I'd had the chance to jump Claude, I would have climbed his body like a jungle gym. Plus with his looks and my manners, our kid would have been unstoppable.
"No," I tell him, "And frankly I don't see why I should tell you anything. I only hope Eric gets his hands on you at some point"
The elevator stops and I get off before my unchristian dig hits my conscience, I turn in the hallway uncertainly, put off by the symmetry and finally figure out which way to go. I walk quickly, but I hear Quinn behind me, catching up. He's clearly not finished with the argument.
"Do you honestly think that I would be doing this if de Castro hadn't forced me to?"
He grabs me by the arm and spins me around just as we reach the door to the lobby, it slides open but neither of us moves. He stares down at me with a fraction of the resentment I had been showing him, which is still a gracious plenty.
"My mother got out again" he tells me and I know immediately how the story is going to end.
"This time she found a local vamp club and attacked a vampire and his meal, she got herself killed for the trouble. My sister was trying to find her when Madden got there and he had her taken back here and locked up in the basement. I offered to go back to the pits to pay off whatever debt they hit me with this time…but de Castro would have none of it. He told me that news had reached him that you and Eric were fighting and he suspected you might be pregnant. He told me that if I claimed to be the father of your child- which could render the marriage contract between you and Eric null and void- he'd let Frannie and myself go"
Once more I feel a rush of pity for the man, forced to always risk everything to save his dependant family, never having the opportunity to live his own life.
"That doesn't give you an excuse to drag me into this though" I tell him,
"The night you and Bill fought, you as good as said you would be the only man who would love me, even though I don't feel the same I would never have done this to you"
He flinches and I see the hurt written on his face, I open my mind and search through his, finding that he'd cherished the hope that I would understand and perhaps forgive him for what he was doing, maybe even love him again one day.
"That's because you're lucky babe, your family would never ask you to"
I shrug, "It doesn't matter if they did or not…I would find another way. That's the difference between you and me Quinn; I will always try to find another way"
With that I turned my back on him and marched out into the lobby.