sweet and sour

It was amazing what two days could do to a person. Just forty eight hours ago, things had been completely different. The crew had been so excited about coming to port, the Capital, where everything was accessible and the crime ran free. Where there was crime, there was work, and even if it wasn't honest money, it was fast becoming honest work in their minds. Perception is only what you make of it, afterall.

The excitement was fluttering around Maeryn's stomach like tapdancers on crack and it was a feeling she wasn't much accustomed to. But it had nothing to do with the money that might be at hand, it had nothing to do with the city looming into view as they descended -- it only had to do with a dinner. A quiet, normal dinner with her husband. They hadn't had one in quite a while and though they were always special treats, this one was going to be different. She was going to wear a dress, for one.

The most important difference though was that there wouldn't be just two of them anymore. There would be no more pairing off, it was going to have to be a trio after whoever was growing inside of her stomach made his or her appearance. The joy Maeryn felt was almost nauseating and she had worked so hard to keep it to herself (for fear of losing the baby -- it had happened once before, unbeknownst to her husband) that now explosion was imminent. Feeling comfortable at how far along she was, it was the right time to tell James.

But then hell broke loose in the form of bounty hunters and the world came crashing down. Shot in the abdomen -- she had to be strong for the Captain, she had to be a trooper. It didn't hurt very much, it couldn't have been very bad, right? Maybe just a superficial wound, her armor was there afterall...
Besides, Theo and that new girl, that hitwoman Bella, they were much worse off than some silly flesh wound --

Then the world went woozy and she felt dizzy and everything around her went from technicolor to blackness in the matter of a second.

Two days later, her husband wasn't speaking to her. He'd had to operate. He'd had to find out for himself that she was pregnant, but only after it was too late. He'd made an irreversible incision and she made an irreversible decision not to tell him, not to get his hopes up, and now all was lost.

Her husband hadn't said anything to her that wasn't medically related in two days now. Unlike the other times she'd had to spend in the medbay, the times that he had lay on the uncomfortable folding "cot" right beside her, he now slept in their room... far away from Mae. Although, truth be told, she was fairly sure he didn't sleep at all seeing as he wandered around like a zombie most of the day, just doing his duties when asked. When she was finally able to get out of bed, he wasn't there to hold her arm and let her creep along the hallway with him back to their room, to heal. She crept along herself, refusing any help the captain or anyone had to offer. Even if it meant tearing stitches, even if it meant risking infection, she told them to get away.

If she didn't have James to lean on anymore, she was going to go it alone.

Not fully recovered, but not willing to lay still in a bed with her demons reminding her of... everything, Maeryn told the captain she was all right. He had no reason to doubt her and James hadn't examined her in days -- and the doctor clearly wasn't up to speaking to anyone -- so Davis nodded his consent and started outlining their newest proposition, which was going to be one hell of a battle to pull off.

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sweet and sour - maeryn