Scarlett hated the staff at the hospital. They all looked like they ate rocks for breakfast and picked their teeth with the bones of small animals. To make matters worse, they forbade Ihenri from visiting his wife, and Scarlett fumed silent whenever she had a moment to herself. Those moments didn't come often; the staff were on her almost 24/7, poking, prodding, running tests, asking her a million questions and refusing to believe her answers... it was an endless nightmare, and Scarlett soon learned to treasure the nights, because at least when she was in her own bed (in a secure wing of the hospital, warded with spells that made her teeth ache), no one could poke and prod at her, or interrogate her until she felt ready to scream from frustration.
The nurses, however, soon cottoned on to her, and before long, Scarlett found herself being woken up at odd times during the night. She could never tell when an irascible old bat would prod her awake and ask her a string of rapid-fire questions, and her sleep soon became broken and uneasy. Most nights she was terrified to go to sleep, lest she be woken what seemed only minutes later. The nurses seemed to take a perverse pleasure in their cruel tactics, and more than once Scarlett found herself wishing for her baby to be born so the nightmare would finally be over. She didn't hate her baby, of course - it wasn't the poor mite's fault for the predicament their mother was in - but she grew to hate the nurses, who seemed to return her hatred with interest. Still, she comforted herself with the knowledge that when her baby was born, she'd have a chance to catch her breath and relcaim some of the purpose for which she had been born almost seventeen years ago - despite her father's claims that her destiny had been taken from her that ill-fated day when she'd exploded on him almost two years in the past.
But as the days wore on, Scarlett began finding herself more and more uneasy. All the nurses were waiting for her to go into labour, and Scarlett had the nasty feeling something bad was going to go down. She knew, of course, that Arjun was still itching for a chance to take her child away from her, but for no reason under sky that she could name, she had a nasty feeling it was more to do with her child's unique blood. Like her, the baby had a unique antigen that would sow the seeds for the inevitable breeding of a race that would finally eradicate the disease that had plagued Pandora and Pandoran women and children from day one. But somehow, as her pregnancy neared its term, Scarlett couldn't shake horrible feeling that something more sinister was going on under the surface. Arjun's obsession with her child suggested more than a desperate need to save his people before they went extinct, and Scarlett resolved to get to the bottom of it, one way or another.
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Days before she was due to give birth, Arjun came to see her, papers in hand. "Sign these," he said curtly, thrusting them at his daughter. "I won't have any complaints - it's bad enough my grandchild is sullied by night elf blood, but I won't have your filthy ex-husband tainting our bloodline. We come from the noblest stock there is, and my grandchild will have all of his or her night-elf blood eradiacted before they can infect the next generation."
Scarlett already knew what the papers were, and her heart sank like a lead weight as she read the decree stating that the marriage between her and Ihenri was dissolved, by edict of the council, Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to take the pen and sign her half of the papers, wishing she could smack her father in his smug mouth. Something of this must have shown on her face; Arjun snatched the papers back with a glare fit to put an ice cap on the most virulent volcano known to Pandoran kind. "Stop that," he said shortly. "This is for your own good."
"Hardly," Scarlett said, managing to maintain a facade of civility as she met her father glare for glare. "And how do you suppose you'll get Ihenri to sign the papers? You know he'd rather cut off his own arm than be separated from me."
"He signed them," Arjun told her. "I told him it was best - you were only interested in having a child by him, and he accepted the news. He has returned to his own clan, and he is likely betrothed to a woman more to his liking, one who will love him for him, and not what he can do for her in the sheets. You, on the other hand, will be wedded to someone more suitable for you, though you do not deserve it. I've been keeping up with you through the staff here, and they are all very disappointed in your conduct. They all wish for your child to be born so they can be rid of you, and I can't say I blame them."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUpQUw2HEYb
Scarlett rolled her eyes. She refused to believe Ihenri would ditch her that easily, but that wasn't the issue here - once more her father was showing a disturbing disregard for her. "I'm this child's mother," she said firmly.
"Not if I have anything to say about it," Arjun reminded her. "You are disgraced, remember? The moment your child is born, it will be taken from you. I've already arranged for him or her to be adopted out, and once they've been cleansed, they will be raised far away from you, so they will never know such a faithless whore is their mother." He smirked. "I cannot wait for you to meet them when they are grown, and they repudiate you to your face."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp437WF5fDO
Once, Scarlett would have quailed. This time, she stood firm. "You can try all you want," she said, "but I will be in this child's life."
"I have ways and means to eradicate your ties to the child," Arjun warned. "Keep it up, and I'll have those means executed now."
"How? By altering their DNA?" Scarlett snorted in disbelief. "Not even the most powerful sun elf mage has that skill."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKnzQzf7FET
Arjun raised an eyebrow. "Test me," he suggested, his voice silky smooth.
"Get out," Scarlett said angrily. "You'll get your precious grandchild, but only after I've made sure just how much of a monster you are!"
At that moment, her water broke, and Scarlett almost screamed in frustration. Not now!
But nature could never be reasoned or argued with, and as the nurses came - taking their sweet time, Scarlett noted in disgust - she had the singular pleasure of Arjun being firmly whisked out of the room. That didn't stop her labour from being a pain - figuratively and literally - but at least, for the moment, her father wouldn't be hovering over her, ready to snatch her child away the moment they came into the world.
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