disclaimer: I own nothing
Author's Note: Still working on this Mother's Day story over a week after Mother's Day. But I will finish it! Since no one chipped in on it, I'm going to just continue with this writing style. It would be weird to change in the middle. Unbeta'd.
Thanks to the people who reviewed and everyone who read!
Enjoy this chapter!
She had always been destined to be a mother. It was what all women on her planet were expected to do. They were to marry and produce more soldiers for their God. Sons to serve in his armies. Daughters to raise the children and defend the home planet.
It had suited her well. She had felt no anger or unfairness about her role in life. She could fight. She was a warrior in her own right. But she had always longed for a child. Or more. She knew that some of the women of her race were not as satisfied with their God's decree for their gender, but not all of them were. And she was well suited to her role.
She could defend her planet. She was beautiful. She was of high standing. Many wanted her hand when it was time for her to marry. She had the choice. She weighed her options carefully. She knew that she was supposed to choose someone who would give her strong sons. Who would help their offspring serve their God in the best way possible.
It was their God's First Prime that caught her eye. Not because of his standing, though many thought that was the reason. But he was different. He did was not commanding or ordering to her in his attempts at courting her. They could -and did- love each other. They made a fine match.
When their son was born, it was one of the happiest days of her life. He would want for nothing. He would serve their God well once he came of age. He had his father's bravery and her intelligence. He would be a fine warrior when the time came.
They tried for years to have more children, but it never happened. She felt disappointment in this. She loved her son, but she had always hoped to have more children. More sons and a few daughters. Daughters were not always highly valued, but she had hoped for a houseful of children.
They had to content themselves with their son and she had had no true problem with that. He was her world. The raising of children was left to the women until such time the sons were old enough to be trained by their father. The Prim'ta was the moment where she would lose her son to the ways of men and she had to prepare herself for that. She and her husband had raised him right. They were proud.
Then he betrayed them. Without one thought of his family, he stood against their God. Killed their own. Fled their world. She and their son were the ones that had to face the consequences of his actions. They were thrown out of their home, nearly killed. Rejected by their society and their God. They had no where to turn to. Her son's future lay in ruins at her feet and there was no way for her to put it back together.
They only survived because of the man that stood as her husband's father.
After that, they were outcasts. It was a shameful thing for them to show their faces among those they had known for years. They had to live in the camps, far from honor and even further from safety.
All she had ever wanted for her son was gone, including the most important thing. His safety.
She did the best that she could, trying to assure him that it was all right. That everything would be fine. She rocked him to sleep at night, marveling in the trust that he held for her. She held him when he cried, because she had no choice but to tell him that his father had died. Better for him to believe that his father was dead than know what he had done.
Every day since his birth, she had woken and worked to raise him into the man that she knew he would one day be. She taught him the ways of their people. Taught him of how he should be. He loved her. He adored his father. And that man -who she also loved very deeply- had betrayed them without a thought. Leaving her with no clue what to do for their child, who depended on her.
For a while, in the camps, she had believed that they may be all right. That she would be able to do something to ensure his safety. To make certain that he would one day be the man she had always known he would be.
Then he was denied his Prim'ta.
Then he fell ill.
She finally managed to convince a priest to perform the Prim'ta to save his life.
And then her husband returned. To take him away. To 'save' him, even though he had abandoned them months earlier without a thought. Their son was suddenly his son and he acted as if it were his sole decision. It angered her. Made her wish that he had died.
Then he had been more than willing to give his life to save their son's in a heartbeat. He had given her son back to her before he had had to leave again.
It made her hate him more and love him more.
They had remained outcasts. Scorned by their people. Her son shunned. Only one would train him and his future among their people looked bleak. She had always wanted so much for him and it had been taken away. She had been left with pieces she could not put back together on her own. She swore that she would do anything that she could to make his life better. No matter what it cost her.
She had eventually been forced to renounce her marriage, making her husband hurt and betrayed when he once again returned, but she had had no choice.
Did he not see that everything that she did was for their son?
Even when their son was controlled. Even when her second husband betrayed them. It had all been with the intention of keeping her son safe. Of keeping him alive and giving him a future.
Until the very end, everything she did was for her son.
A mother had been what she was meant for. It had been her duty. But it was so much more than that.
For Drey'auc, being a mother to her child was everything. And she never, not once, stopped fighting for him.
Author's Note: This one was hard to write! I hoped I did well. Also started wondering how a pregnant Jaffa would look/work with symbiote pouch + pregnant belly... Shouldn't go down that road.
Second chapter of 'Come Now, Little One...' is now up!
Please review!