Chapter 57

There was something about carrying a child that made Meggie feel like something had been renewed within her.

" I didn't feel anything with our last child, but this one, I know its in there waiting to meet me" whispered Meggie as she looked at herself in the mirror, her body bare, and not showing yet at all.

Now, there was just something about carrying another life that filled Meggie's heart with joy. It helped to replace the ache that Capricorn's absence had created, especially in the first days since Capricorn had been told. She found herself being much more careful about things then she had ever been before. More than ever, she wished her own mother were here to guide her. Each day as she continued to read riches out of book after book, she made sure not to do more than that. She wouldn't risk this child the way she had the first. She didn't go on anymore raids but spent her days in the throne room looking at herself for any sign of the child she carried.

Yet, she knew the act seemed to excite the child, for after she was done her stomach would flourish, and Meggie found she felt giddy.

"I wonder if my gift will be passed onto you as well" thought Meggie as she finished reading one day, taking a seat in her throne, and as her hand found her stomach as it began to round there was a part of her that wanted that more than anything especially when the day came for her to actually lay eyes on her child.

"You are in perfect health, my lady. Now, what I'm going to do is apply this jell to the skin of your abdomen, and this machine will show us your baby" explained Dr. Kepler, he did it all even as he was explaining it.

It all seemed to give her goosebumps. Not just the jell or the cold air that seemed to suddenly fill the air, but the very thought of what he spoke of. The thought of seeing her baby, the child she and Capricorn had created, and yet the only thing that could have made it better was if Capricorn had been there. She found herself thinking of him in those first moments. As the doctor looked at the screen trying to find the desired image, Meggie wondered what her husband would think of such technology, but then the doctor touched her hand. That was when she looked at him and when he pointed at the screen, that was when she saw it. A tiny, blurred image. It was their baby, a small white image breaking the halo of black that filled the screen. Meggie looked at the doctor again just to make sure she was seeing the right thing.

"Keep looking at the screen, my dear" whispered the doctor his words seeming to shock something inside her, for she hesitated, but a moment before doing as he told her.

"That's your baby" whispered the doctor as her eyes looked at the screen still tracing the image.

A small baby still growing inside her.

"Is it healthy…is that what it's supposed to look like, I mean, I'm only four months along? Will it get bigger or is that what we're supposed to be seeing?" exclaimed Meggie, the questions bursting forth out of nowhere.

She had never felt so uncertain as she looked between the image and the doctor himself. Yet, the doctor continued to smile at her, and when that never changed, Meggie felt her heart slow.

"No, my dear, your child seems to be just perfect. Nothing appears to be wrong and if you take care of yourself then you are essentially taking care of your child. Don't allow yourself to worry" said the doctor, he touched her hand again as if to reassure her, and it worked.

Meggie found herself thinking of the doctor she had had before, the one who resided in her dungeons now, and she felt far safer than she ever had before. This man wasn't some character read out of a book, this man was a human being who genuinely seemed to care for her, and Meggie was grateful to have someone there with her. Yet as her eyes found the image on the screen again. The one of their child, Meggie felt her heart begin to ache all over again, and looking at her hand, she wanted Capricorn to be there. He should have been holding her hand and seeing this too.

She knew when she burst into tears that the doctor didn't fully understand it. Neither did she. Because she kept thinking of her husband and wanting him there. She knew that if their first child had survived that they might have had this moment together and in any other situation that he would have been there. She felt his presence there, but when she looked, he wasn't there. It made something in her shake as she feared what else would happen that he wouldn't be there for. It wasn't until the doctor was pressing a handkerchief into the palm of her hand that Meggie made herself stop crying. She needed to be strong now. She knew that just as she knew that it was her job to protect not just their child, but the kingdom that Capricorn had left behind.

"I'm sorry…I just…I wish my husband were here" whispered Meggie drying her tears before with a short wheel of sound, the doctor was placing something else into her hand.

"You can show him this" whispered the doctor as Meggie brought a printout of the image that had been on the screen, so it was eye level.

That was when she felt their child move for the first time. As she was looking at that image, imagining the look on Capricorn's face when he saw this, and then she felt it. A small flutter from within her. She knew it was their baby almost immediately as her hand covered her stomach and her eyes ran over the image in her hand.

Her heart began to melt until it was only a puddle of candlewax as she returned to her place as queen with that photo held close to her. No one else saw it, but she knew it was there until night came. Meggie found herself in their bedroom lying on her bed with the photo balanced in her hands. Her journal was next to her, closed, but waiting to be opened.

"Your daddy will be so amazed to see you" whispered Meggie as she laid on her side tracing the image of their child with her finger before opening her journal, not sure how to describe the image in front of her until she realized she didn't need to.

"This is our baby, my love, the child we created, you and I" whispered Meggie, as she used a single piece of tape to put the photo on the next blank page of her journal, imagining as she did the look on Capricorn's face, and the image they would make as a family someday.

Of their family, Capricorn and her, and their baby. Meggie didn't plan on saying anything at all at first. Just putting the picture there and then waiting to see how he would respond, but the longer she looked at the image there alone among the pages, the more she wanted to tell him of the things running through her mind. So, picking up a pen, Meggie wrote to him of all the things that filled her mind since that image had entered her world.

My king,

The new doctor I acquired has been taking such good care of me. He used one of his machines to check that our child is growing just as he or she should be and then he showed me our child. He was even able to give me a copy of the image to include for you here. It is so amazing to see what we made right here in this image waiting to be born. It makes me so happy to think of the child I will give you and I can't wait for it to be born and for your return. When I first saw the image of our child, I kept thinking of you. I also couldn't stop thinking about the child we lost. I couldn't help wondering if it would have been this way if we had gotten the chance to know we were going to have a child. I'm determined that things will be different this time. No one will ever harm this child. I will protect it with my very life and if anyone tries to harm it, your mother, my father, anyone, I will kill them. I will end them and make sure everyone knows the consequences. Today, it was made more real that we are going to have a baby, and I won't lose this one. I will protect our child for the rest of my life, it's sacred to me now, just like our love. I know our future will be strong, we will be strong together, a family. This picture represents all of that. I hope you see that too.

I love you.

Always,

Meggie

After she was done, Meggie didn't close her journal, but she looked at the photo letting her fingers run across the child's face. She looked at it until her eyes became heavy, so much so that she couldn't keep her eyes open. Gently, she closed the journal again, laying with it beside her until her eyes closed altogether. That future she had seen played behind her eyes, a future where Capricorn had returned victorious, where they were king and queen, and a family with their little baby. Meggie didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, but that didn't seem to matter in this dream. This story, theirs, would have a happy ending, and she knew they both would assure that. Capricorn and her, no one would hurt them again, not Mortola, not her father, not anyone.