BioWare owns all but my character's and her dog's names. : )
Just to let you all know, it is back to work for me tomorrow, so no staying up really late to write unless it is the weekend. I have spoiled myself, and you all, by being home sick to write until the wee hours of the morning. So, there may a slightly more delay in the chapters than you are used to. But rest assured, I am as anxious for the next installment as you are, and I am the one with the story in my head! : )
And we have Morrigan back. I personally couldn't have kept her away, I like her too much. So on with the story.
Blessings!
Kai looked at Morrigan, so many emotions – love, happiness, anger, guilt, surprise – all collided and she couldn't hold onto any of them as another contraction bowed her in half.
Morrigan merely smiled a cold smile at Wynne and the rest of the group. "I never did comprehend what you saw in your idiot fellow Gray Warden, save that you told me he was good in bed, Kai. But really, you could have slept with him without letting him get you with his progeny as well. There are ways of preventing it." Morrigan leaned herself against the wall crossing her arms and her ankles, her face drawing up in a disdainful grin.
"Morrigan, where have you been? Why didn't you stay..." Kai began, but another spasm effectively cut her off as she focused on trying to push and breath.
"I didn't stay because I didn't want to, 'tis enough, to be sure. I owed that fool and you nothing. You turned down my perfectly reasonable offer as repayment for my mother. A child was all I required in return. It was up to you to take it. Why should I stay for the likes of you or that besotted cretin you chose to tie yourself to?" Morrigan continued to look on with cold golden eyes.
"You always were a cold one, Morrigan. Did you come just to insult Kai, the woman you called friend, the woman who helped you against your mother?" Wynne's voice was icy. "You always had a tongue as sharp as any blade, witch."
"Oh ho, we are going to discuss blades are we, old woman?" Morrigan gave the slightest nod toward the dagger in Wynne's hand. "How interesting since you are the one about to gut her." Fiona stayed silent, looking between Morrigan and Kai, her face neutral.
"You are so...so evil!" Leliana spit at the witch standing before them.
"Ah, so the tongue-tied bard finally puts her two coppers in? My, my I am so-o hurt, really, you are going to make me weep," Morrigan mocked the red head and wiped away an imaginary tear. "So, Kai once again makes the big decisions, the hard choices, unlike the fool Templar, a man with few brains and no balls at all. Although, he apparently had balls enough to get you fat with his idiot seed. Otherwise, he would not have left the saving of the world to an untrained junior Warden and then taken the coward's way out. He couldn't live without his precious Kai so he killed himself," Morrigan purred.
"Stop insulting Alistair!" Kai could feel the heat in her face as her anger rose. When the contraction hit, Kai bore down.
"Stop insulting him? I only speak the truth. The man was not worth the energy his parents put into making him. To be sure, the world is a better place without him in it." Morrigan's smile played on her lips as she looked at Kai.
"You cold-hearted bitch!" ,Kai yelled as yet another spasm hit her womb.
"'Cold-hearted bitch' am I? I am not the one who had the means to save the man she loved but was too arrogant and selfish to use it." Morrigan peeled herself away from the wall and slunk forward the way a hunting cat moves. "'Twas not I who let the man I supposedly loved with all of my heart and soul, my very being," she mocked, "die on top of a tower when I could have saved him, 'Tis you who are the 'cold-hearted bitch' Kai, not I." Morrigan put one hand to her chest delicately and smiled a slow smile with one corner of her mouth quirked up to go with her raised eyebrow.
"I am going to kill you, Morrigan. I am going to wrap my hands around that skinny throat of yours and squeeze until that viper's tongue pops out from between your teeth and then I am going to cut it out and wear it as a necklace!" Kai shouted at her through yet another contraction.
"Really, if you are going to do that, then you had best push that fool Templar's flotsam into the world, otherwise, I will take great pleasure in watching Wynne cut you open and take it from you. Perhaps it can be raised by Arl Eamon just like its idiot father." Morrigan smiled more widely and crossed her arms in front of her chest as she stood before Kai.
Kai bore down as hard as she could, a guttural scream leaving her lips, as her fury drove her. Kai felt the pressure increase then recede as her child slipped from her. Wynne took the tiny infant, cleaned out its mouth, and gently thumped the babe's tiny feet. The little face turned bright red as the mouth opened letting out a thunderous squall which reminded Kai of Alistair's war cry. Maybe it would be a shield warrior, too. Kai leaned back against Leli, relief and love swamping her. She thought she had already loved someone as much as she could with Alistair, but she apparently had so much more to give, it surprised her.
"It's a girl." Wynne just smiled at Kai while she put the wet and bloody babe on Kai's chest. Wynne took string and tied off the umbilical cord so she could cut it."Well, I was praying and hoping that would work," Wynne looked up at Morrigan and smiled.
"So you figured it out, did you?" Morrigan looked pointedly at Wynne.
"Well, you aren't a frog are you?" Wynne smiled at Morrigan.
Morrigan only laughed and waved a hand dismissively at Wynne.
"You did that on purpose?" Kai whispered as she continued to look at her tiny daughter who had stopped crying and whose eyes had opened to look at hers. The babe had dark down on her head and the blue eyes of a newborn. Kai wondered what color they would be later. She felt herself smiling through tears of joy. It all threatened to overwhelm her.
"Mi' gra, she is beautiful; I am so proud of you," Alistair's voice spoke into her ear, tinged with awe, and love.
"'Tis true, you always did have a temper, 'twas easy enough to put it to use." Morrigan walked forward and knelt down in front of Kai, actually reaching out to touch the baby lying on her chest.
"Aw, she is so cute!" Leliana exclaimed. "I can't wait until she is old enough to go shopping for shoes!" Morrigan snorted under her breath. Fiona just put a hand on the baby's head and stroked it.
"I think she looks like Alistair," Kai said looking at Fiona, who had tears running down her cheeks.
"More's the pity," Morrigan replied, but she smiled a genuine smile and shrugged when Kai looked at her. The baby just used her balled up fists to wipe at her face.
"I think someone needs her first bath." And Fiona picked up her granddaughter, walking to the table to fill the basin with water that had been warming over the fire.
Kai just sat grinning, and then she felt as if her body was being squeezed in half again. She grunted as her breath was cut off. Leliana grabbed her shoulders. "Wynne what is the matter with her?"
Wynne bent down in front of Kai next to Morrigan and looked at the witch.
"It looks like the fool Templar got her not with just one babe, but two." Morrigan's mouth twisted in a wry smile.
"I hope you have a Plan C to help her, I don't think getting her angry will work this time." Wynne and Morrigan looked at each other.